{"id":1223,"date":"2010-05-23T20:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/05\/because-the-church-is-universal\/"},"modified":"2017-01-24T19:02:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T00:02:45","slug":"because-the-church-is-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/05\/because-the-church-is-universal.html","title":{"rendered":"Because the Church is Universal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Guest post by Meredith Cummings<\/i>
\u201cAnd they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.\u201d \u00a0 (<\/span><\/i>Acts of the Apostles 2: 4).<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/a>I grew up in\u00a0Southern Colorado\u00a0in a small town that was more or less half white and half Hispanic. Common white names were Smith, Jones or Anderson. Common Hispanic names included\u00a0Trujillo, Archuleta or Garcia. My parents taught me that there was no difference between us. We all attended school together, played together, hung out together, went to prom together. We all learned to speak Spanish in school, so again, no real differences. Except \u2026 although no one said anything, and I never thought to ask, it seemed to me, one big difference loomed over us.<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

White people worshiped at all the churches in town but one: the Catholic Church.\u00a0St. Joseph\u2019s was the Hispanic church. Our family knew a few white families who worshiped there, but I assumed they had to get a special letter from that pope guy or whoever he was to attend. (Our family attended St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church down the street. I had little idea who that pope guy was at the time.)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I knew whites were allowed to go to their friends\u2019 weddings and funerals at\u00a0St. Joseph\u2019s. But I had in the back of my head that there must have been an unspoken rule. The Hispanics got one church, and we got all the rest.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I asked my mom about the Catholic Church on occasion. What was different about it? She said the prayers were mostly the same, as were the beliefs. Really, the only differences she knew of were just the amount of attention paid to the Pope and Mary. \u201cOh,\u201d I replied. Her answer didn\u2019t really solve anything for me, but I moved on and didn\u2019t think much about it until years later.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Wouldn\u2019t you know, in time, I dated several Catholic guys in college and ended up marrying one before joining the church myself?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The big surprise I learned along the way is that the Church isn\u2019t just for Hispanics. It\u2019s for everyone, just as God planned. It isn\u2019t an elite church but one for all, and that\u2019s what I love about it. At our parish in Indiana, we\u2019ve met friends who came here from all over the world \u2026\u00a0Laos,\u00a0Kenya,\u00a0Mexico,\u00a0Vietnam,\u00a0Germany,\u00a0China, the\u00a0Philippines,\u00a0Haiti\u00a0and many other places.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This weekend of Pentecost, some of these parishioners lectored. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles was read in Lau (an African dialect), French, Tagalog (Filipino), Kreyol (Haitian) and Spanish. What a blessing to hear God\u2019s words in so many languages\u00a0\u00a0and to know that He speaks to us all wherever we are, whether it\u2019s Central Indiana, Southern Colorado or half way around the world.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In my first guest post, <\/a>I mentioned His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whom I recently saw speak in\u00a0Indianapolis. One of the Buddhist<\/a> monk\u2019s key messages is that we are all the same. We are all humans with the same needs, but it\u2019s our differences that make the world special. He told the audience to think of a cereal aisle.\u00a0\u00a0There are so many different kinds of cereals, especially here in the\u00a0United States. Can you imagine if we only had one cereal from which to choose? Breakfast would be pretty boring pretty fast.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I loved the Dalai Lama\u2019s cereal analogy, especially because a Venezuelan woman I once interviewed for a magazine article told me that when she moved to the\u00a0United States\u00a0and stepped for the first time into a big box grocery story, she was stunned by the cereal aisle. \u201cI had never seen so many different kinds of cereal in my life,\u201d she said. She sat down in the middle of the aisle and cried tears of happiness. She said she knew it was just cereal, but she realized then that\u00a0America\u00a0had so much to offer her in so many ways.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So, too, does the Catholic Church. People from all over the world bring their cultures, their ideals and their talents together to form one Church in the name of Jesus.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019d like to end this piece with The Lord\u2019s Prayer. Our school children pray it at Mass each week without batting an eye. It\u2019s part of who they are; part of being a universal church, and it\u2019s said, each week, in Spanish.<\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Padre nuestro,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i>
<\/i><\/i>\n
\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i>que est\u00e1s en el cielo,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>santificado sea tu Nombre;\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>venga a nosotros tu reino;<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i>h\u00e1gase tu voluntad\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i>
<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i>\n
\n
<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>en la tierra\u00a0<\/i>como<\/i>\u00a0en el cielo.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada d\u00eda;\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i>
<\/i><\/i>\n
\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i>perdona nuestras ofensas,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>como<\/i>\u00a0tambi\u00e9n nosotros perdonamos\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>a los que nos ofenden;\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>no nos dejes caer en la tentaci\u00f3n,<\/span><\/i><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i>y l\u00edbranos\u00a0<\/i>del<\/i>\u00a0mal.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/span><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Am\u00e9n<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Meredith Cummings\u201cAnd they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.\u201d \u00a0 (Acts of the Apostles 2: 4). I grew up in\u00a0Southern Colorado\u00a0in a small town that was more or less half white and half Hispanic. Common white names […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBecause the Church is Universal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guest post by Meredith Cummings\u201cAnd they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/05\/because-the-church-is-universal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Because 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