Welcome to The Surly Temple

This blog was inspired by a recent re-reading of “A Temple of the Holy Spirit” by Flannery O’Conner. 

The principal character in this story, “The Child”, is a twelve year old girl, who comes to the realization that she was meant to become a saint. That posed a slight problem.

“ She would have to become a saint because that was the occupation that contained everything you could know; and yet she knew she would never be a saint. She did not steal or murder but she was a born liar and slothful and she sassed her mother and was deliberately ugly to almost everybody. She was eaten up also with the sin of pride, the worst one. 

…. She could could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her real quick.” 

The Child’s moronic visiting cousins mock the nuns at their convent school for asserting that their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit. The Child however, knew this to be true and was overwhelmed at the prospect.

The child’s dilemma is our dilemma as well. How do you live the modern life of faith? How can I be called to sainthood? I am cranky, impatient, sarcastic and cynical. None of these were covered in the beatitudes, so I guess I have some things to figure out. I intend to use these pages to help me do that. If like me, you lean more to umbrage and outrage than to humility and contemplation, you may wish to tag along.

Hat Tip to Word on Fire for their recent review of Temple of the Holy Spirit