Creation!

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo


Oh, I’m so excited! This is great. A new blog and I wasn’t planning it, though I’d sometimes wondered about needing it, and it’s here. It came. All by itself (no, I know these things are Heaven-sent – thank you, God!). It was even easy – straight-forward – setting it up on Blogger (practice makes nearly-perfect folks!). So I’m thrilled. And, to use a much-used blogging cliché, it’s like having a new baby: I am pleased to announce the birth of…

Pure Catholic. So why the title? Well, in my other blogs – see sidebar), which I love dearly, I have to admit I’ve held back sometimes. On my Catholicism. Because I wanted to speak to everyone, be a witness and an evangelist but not a fanatic. I didn’t want to drive atheists, Protestants or anyone away by being too pedantic or dictatorial – though on occasion the way I felt was hardly hidden! I wanted to meet people on their own level, in their own walk of life. I still do and shall continue to try to do so.

Most of all though, I didn’t want to preach to the converted. Be cosseted by a cocoon of familiarity. And safety. I was a journalist and am used to causing controversy, ruffling a few feathers. I suppose I can enjoy a good argument.

However, with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) and it worsening gradually, constantly, I have to say, arguing isn’t quite the fun and the mental stimulation it used to be. One of the symptoms is chronic fatigue, it’s with you always and it isn’t conducive to any sort of heated debate.

No. I just want to be comfortable and at peace, that’s all. And to do what I can (e.g. prayer/herbal tips) to help others. I try each day to help someone, even if I don't actually talk to another human being - most are virtual now! (I’m so grateful, as yet, I can still type and have in the past year learnt to use the Web. [Thanks there, to my wonderful son, Tom, 28 – he just left home because this has got too much (live-in carer soon?). Without Tom I’d never have managed the computer stuff – nor very much really, in the past few years!])

Anyway, so all this (above) meant that I was trying to write blogs in a calm, charitable - Catholic but not obvious - way, on lots of different subjects.

But, let’s face it, to most people my most interesting claim to fame (?!) is that I have MS. There’s a huge community of MS bloggers out there and I’m very proud to be considered one of them, but that’s the thing: MS isn’t the most important part of my life. Being a Catholic is. My faith. Without it I couldn’t go on. Praise God for His graces, He has allowed me to use this time to get closer to Him

Yet I feel the need to tell about that, more than I do and so that’s why, first I joined 4marks, the Catholic social networking site with forums, and now I’ve come here.

And who do I think will read this blog? Me! It’ll be good for me to be free to write what I’m feeling and the prayers I’m praying and to thank Jesus and all our Holy Family in Heaven for their presence with me. Without worrying about who might be annoyed by it (some do not like hearing others’ “success stories”/recommendations, especially when they’re feeling bad - fair enough.). I want to be with them too.

Yes, it’s me who’ll be reading this blog, but who am I writing it for? Ah, primarily, predominantly and purely for Jesus.

Amen

P.S. That doesn’t mean, of course, I won’t be glad if anyone else does drop by!