{"id":3656,"date":"2020-10-19T08:38:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2020-10-19T08:38:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:38:49","slug":"oct-19-maria-ibarra-being-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/10\/19\/oct-19-maria-ibarra-being-catholic\/","title":{"rendered":"Oct 19  &#8211;  Maria Ibarra  &#8220;Being Catholic&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut how can they believe me?<br \/>\nWhen sometimes I don\u2019t even believe myself.<br \/>\nMaybe it\u2019s time to be loud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No strong poem is ordinary; \u00a0Maria\u2019s surely is not ordinary either. \u00a0I am proud that the \u201cWork Day in Hard Times\u201d list has made a home for her voice among our poets and readers. \u00a0 \u00a0Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n<p>Have a blest day,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>john sj<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today\u2019s Post \u2013 \u00a0\u201cBeing Catholic\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wear my faith quietly,<br \/>\nlike a pebble in your pocket<br \/>\nSmooth and cold,<br \/>\nComforting when you hold it tight in your hand.<br \/>\nBut to be more honest,<br \/>\nI wear my faith secretly, cautious of who<br \/>\nto tell the truth because<br \/>\nI\u2019m not sure how my circle<br \/>\nof liberal, leftists, almost<br \/>\nsocialists would take it.<br \/>\nHow could I, a feminist who uses reason,<br \/>\nlogic, and kindness, follow a church<br \/>\nthat doesn\u2019t let women be leaders?<br \/>\nFollow a God<br \/>\nwho believes LGBTQ loved ones will rot in hell?<br \/>\nfollow an institution<br \/>\nthat rapes children?<br \/>\nStop.<br \/>\nI want to tell them that<br \/>\nthat isn\u2019t my church, isn\u2019t my God.<br \/>\nMy God lives in jails and detention centers,<br \/>\nin water bottles left in the desert,<br \/>\nand school teachers who work too much for too little.<br \/>\nMy God is in parents who love their gay<br \/>\nand trans kids as reflections<br \/>\nof God\u2019s own image.<br \/>\nMy faith is the holiness of women, the life<br \/>\nin service for others.<\/p>\n<p>My God is liberation.<br \/>\nShe is the power of the storm<br \/>\nand the stillness of it when it\u2019s over.<br \/>\nShe is Brown laborers<br \/>\nrebuilding a city,<br \/>\nand the sweat of their foreheads<br \/>\nfeeding their families.<br \/>\nBut how can they believe me? When<br \/>\nsometimes I don\u2019t even believe myself.<br \/>\nMaybe it\u2019s time to be loud.<br \/>\nAs loud as the annoying (and wrong) fetus<br \/>\nfanatics who are pro-life without<br \/>\nreally being pro-living.<br \/>\nMaybe it\u2019s time to let my faith breathe. Take<br \/>\nmy pebble and let throw it<br \/>\nin the water.<br \/>\nLet it make ripples.<br \/>\nNo.<br \/>\nLet it make a fucking tsunami.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2020\/04\/Maria-Ibarra-Frayre.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3435\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2020\/04\/Maria-Ibarra-Frayre.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2020\/04\/Maria-Ibarra-Frayre.jpg 160w, https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2020\/04\/Maria-Ibarra-Frayre-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maria Ibarra-Frayre<br \/>\nWriter, feminist, unapologetically undocumented<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut how can they believe me? When sometimes I don\u2019t even believe myself. Maybe it\u2019s time to be loud.\u201d No strong poem is ordinary; \u00a0Maria\u2019s surely is not ordinary either. \u00a0I am proud that the \u201cWork Day in Hard Times\u201d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/10\/19\/oct-19-maria-ibarra-being-catholic\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3658,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}