Readings:
Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
II Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

In their popular college text Christian Foundations, husband and wife team Kathleen Fischer and Thomas Hart set aside lots of space for the Trinity.

They begin by going back to Karl Rahner's difficulty with the English word "person." The late theologian was convinced it originally didn't describe "an independent center of consciousness and freedom." "Rahner suggested 'a way of being' as a better translation . . . . The one God has three ways of being."

By: Andy Humm

Gay City News

Pope Benedict XVI, author of the Roman Catholic Church's hard line against homosexuality, will be met by some gay dissent during his trips to Washington, DC, April 15-17, and New York, April 18-20, but nowhere near the direct razzing he received in 1988 as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger. At that time, his visit to St. Peter's Church at Citicorp's Midtown headquarters building was so disrupted by gay and AIDS activists that his planned speech was cancelled.

By David Crary

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI may not see them or hear them, but aggrieved Roman Catholic activists hope his U.S. visit this week will help them draw attention to issues ranging from the ordination of women and gay rights to sex abuse by priests and the Vatican ban on contraception.

The following is a talk written by Joseph Gentilini, given at the retreat on October 13, 2007.

Two Main Points:

• When I speak of gay sexuality, please also hear "straight, bisexual, or transgendered sexuality, however you identify.
• I have taken many of the points discussed from two books below, both in quotes and paraphrasing:
  1. McNeill, John. Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life for Gays, Lesbians, and Everybody Else. Published by Beacon Press. 1995.
  2. Martin, James. Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the true self from Thomas Merton and other Saints. Published by Hidden Spring, an imprint of Paulist Press, 2006

When we sang a refrain from Psalm 139 and then read it a few minutes ago, did we see how clear it is that God knows us intimately - through and through - because God created us in love. I would like to suggest this morning that God invites us to know ourselves intimately, to accept and love ourselves AS WE ARE, and then to take the risk to share who we are with others and also with God.

Commentary by Chuck Colbert on the new "DignityUSA Letter on the Pastoral
Care of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People 2007" can
be found at http://www.dignityusa.org/pastoral/colbert.html.

"Sowing Division in a Divided World," A Statement from Catholic Church Reform Groups,
can be viewed at http://www.dignityusa.org/news/2007/070720cor.html

The photo gallery of Dignity at the Pride Parade is available here.

There are probably as many versions of "gay spirituality" as there are gay and lesbian persons. Some are fairly traditional and some are new age and beyond. All are on a journey to God, however this person or phenomenon is believed or visualized. I believe it is a journey to wholeness that we live. We are Radical Faeries, drag queens, dykes, fems, leathermen and women, Christians, Jews, Moslems, non-religious, and others. Ideally, we do not judge one another but instead give support in our journeys. My gay spirituality involves participation with my Dignity family and Defenders, and is rooted in Catholic Christianity and the Paschal Mystery -- the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.