MY MOVEMENT FOR LOVE

I went to St. Peters Basilica today...I watched His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI speak on the large screens outside in the square, and then went in to look at the Basilica itself. It's beautiful, it really is. There is one sculpture in the Basilica that represents me, I think, and it's one step to the left of the Pieta. It's a woman holding two children, and makes me think of myself and how I've defended myself and my family these past nineteen months. She's very human, very beautiful, and my son Zachary and my daughter Isabel will know, once I bring them to Rome (next time), that I love that particular sculpture. How fitting, on the right side, that Justice sits. Truly lovely.

I also went to confession, although there's not much to confess, considering last November. Most of my faults are minor...I am honesty and love, and the small things I just keep working on. However, I had a negative experience with this priest. I came back to True God last November, and True God is part of me, and always will be. But I left the Catholic Faith when I was 13. This priest not only questioned my absence from church during that time, but also questioned that I was not married by a Catholic Priest. He wasn't pleasant about it, either, and told me I need to "practice" my Catholic Faith. I told him that all faiths were based in love, but he didn't seem to hear me. I left feeling a distaste, and realized why I had left the Catholic Faith in the first place. No tolerance, no understanding. I would love to see a Church that recognizes that all people and all faiths are equal. That when someone walks into a confessional, they are making their hearts more beautiful by recognizing and acknowledging their faults. We are not perfect, but we try. Priests have a responsibility, first and foremost, to bring love to others. And this is what I have to say to the Catholic Apostolic Faith, because I do love and care about it...I was baptized in the Catholic Faith...LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF. I said that to myself as I walked out, and I looked up and asked Jesus whether he was proud of his faith, whether they really and truly stood by that statement. Because to stand by it means recognizing that True God represents all faiths, all beliefs. True God represents love and loving, charity, justice, truth, beauty...all that makes living beautiful. I am a critical person, this is true. I see things and I want them fixed, and I try to look at myself and fix as much as possible. I have my faults, and to be truthful, the small ones are what make us human. But I would like to see Faiths with more tolerance. I would like to see faiths join together to find the common bond, the common language between us, love. True God finds us whether we are in a church or not, and the beauty of us, that we recognize the church in us is the beauty we find in loving each other. Our cultures define us and make us beautiful...and it would be a more beautiful world if we really recognized on a global level and reflected that. A church of Life. A Church of Love. Anywhere God stands, is usually in loving someone face to face. For all that they are. Thank you to Rome for being so beautiful...I threw a coin in the Fontana di Trevi, so I'll be back again. And to the Catholic Church, you are beloved...please know it. It just hurt today, and I'm hoping for a day when sacrifice is frowned upon, and tolerance and love for all faiths is a prominent thought. In all faiths. Much love...I am off to catch my plane back home, to California. I miss my beautiful children, and as soon as I get home, I'll put together a true plan for my Movement for Love, and a site to band together all those who fight evil. And by the way, I created a beautiful new rosary (and copyrighted it, right from the Vatican's post office!) using a mother-of-pearl rosary bought here...A Dove of Peace joining the rosary, and a glass heart at the bottom, where the cross once was. I will engrave the sign for Jesus (the Tav of Life)on the back of the Dove of Peace. Somehow, love will find a way...Rebecca Tacosa Gray