Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

A little education about canon lawyers...thanks to Ed Peters for this:  Edward Peters, "What canon lawyers are and aren't", This Rock (November 1991) 19-22.                 Most people think of canon lawyers as bespectacled, gray-haired monsignors who sit in dark-paneled rooms and quote Latin verses from authors dead for a hundred years. It may have been like that once, but today canon lawyers cut rather a different figure. Here I want to explain what canon lawyers are and aren't, what canon law is, and how to use (or not to use) a canon lawyer.           Canon law is the legal system of the Catholic Church. It is the oldest functioning legal system in the Western world. The word canon comes from the Greek kanon, meaning a rule or measure. In the early centuries of Christianity, canon law consisted mostly of rules developed in synods and councils. Like other legal systems, canon law developed over the centuries, adopting new techniques while disca

A new year stands on my doorstep ready to enter my life's journey. Something in me welcomes this visitor: the hope of bountiful blessings the joy of a new beginning the freshness of unclaimed surprises Something in me rebuffs this visitor: the swiftness of the coming the boldness of the entrance the challenge of a year's good-bye. Something in me fears this visitor: the unnamed events of future days the wisdom needed to walk love well the demands of giving away and growing. A new year stands on my doorstep. with fragile caution I move to open the door for its entrance, my heart leaps with surprise, joy jumps in my eyes, for there beside this brand new year stands my God with outstretched hand! God smiles and gently asks of me: "Can we walk this year together?" And I, so overwhelmed with goodness, can barely whisper my reply, "Welcome in!"