The beauty of the Catholic faith is visible in the love and charity shown by the faithful. It is in our openness to all that seek and share our path that we grow into one body and spirit.

I refuse to buy into the rhetoric that there are good, bad, or nominal Catholics. We are all one, and we are all flawed, yet we seek God and strive to understand our path.  As we enter the final months of the election season, there is one Catholic on the ticket and yet by my count two. One can choose to worship elsewhere, but does that mean the person’s Baptism into the faith is invalid, or his confirmation is null? Our searches for faith, spiritual partners with whom to share our path, and meaning in life should be encouraged and embraced with love.

I left the Baptist faith I embraced as a teenager to become Catholic and in the process grew stronger in faith and love. I sit at a Zen center and as a result am more aware, focused, and able to hear. Life is a spiritual journey. I embrace the joy of the journey and embrace those that are on the path even when they don’t seeing the same things.

One would think that we would celebrate when we share something in common with those that are willing to stand up and lead. However, there are vocal groups that started hate filled attacks on the faith of not only Tim Kane or Mike Pence, but also Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  It is unfortunate when in our musing we even take a moment to consider the validity of the faith of people we do not personally know or worship with, but it is a tragedy when we speak those thoughts and malign the faith of another.

The richness of our faith allows for the exercise of conscience. We need to trust that in the search for God and meaning that people are being led by the Holy Spirit. Your path is not mine, and mine not yours, but we share the path just as we share 99.9% of our DNA. As Pope Francis said, it is boring walking alone. For me, it is the most natural thing in the world to be able to lift up in prayer anyone that seeks to find meaning in faith, spiritual wholeness in God, and enlightenment through understanding. I am happier by looking for the joy in their path and trusting that it is their path inspired for their needs. Our paths are like our DNA. They are 99.9% the same as every other human being and 0.1% different. Let us accept the blur that exists and embrace the reality that at any given moment the path that is clear to us may appear blurred to others.