The Other Brother

AMDG I, a fool in love, graced to hear God in scripture, word, and prayer, to you, the kind soul who will listen to and walk with me. Recently, over a period of only a few days, I witnessed the stories from scripture of many unclean people. At the same time, I have been wrestling with my own role in bringing myself and other transgender Catholics into full, consummate communion with the church. I started writing in the middle of it, and here is how God brought it together. Unclean Figures The first person I encountered was the Hemorrhaging Woman. Following a special reading from Mark 5 , the preacher dug into the woman’s suffering, pointing out that she had probably not been able to come to church for 12 years due to her condition. After her healing, when Jesus asked who touched him, she had to overcome both “tears and fears:” it was a scandal for her to be out and worse that she had touched the Teacher, making him unclean. She had to confront her shame and embarrassment as wel...

16 October 2022 AMDG I, an ambitious servant of the Lord, wounded in the world and yet hopeful in God’s providence, to you, the Reader, pilgrim of the internet. In my slow journey through the Bible, I recently started into Paul’s letters. I was struck by the following: “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. … Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12, 16-17) ...