One of Chirbes’s friends was an atheist, married to a deeply religious Catholic woman. Their whole lives together, the husband pretended to be as religious as his wife. He didn’t want to hurt her, wanted to make her happy, so every day he would get on his knees and they would pray together. 50 years of daily shared prayers, of weekly mass, all out of love for his wife. The husband sacrificed his need to be right to the comfort of another person.
What can possibly be more deeply Christian than what this husband did?
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s called the religion of love for a reason, except that people don’t know what love is.
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“What can possibly be more deeply Christian than what this husband did?“
Repenting of his pride, narcissism, and dishonesty, and receiving Christ’s forgiveness, and allowing the Spirit of love to grant him grace and humilty, so that he could share his wife’s deepest love.
That poor woman.
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“That poor woman”
Kind of my feeling…. I can imagine pretending to have faith when you don’t might be appropriate or kind in some circumstances but 50 years? That’s pushing it and verging on mockery…
I dont’ know all the circumstances in that particular case and am incapable of religious faith but I absolutely would not want a person close to me thinking that lying in my face was kind…. (unless it’s about my unbounded and keen perceptions and intellecutal stature in which case…. fib away!).
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The point is that he is, in fact, deeply Christian. He’s not extremely self-aware but that’s everybody.
I highly recommend the novel St Manuel Bueno, Martyr by Miguel de Unamuno. It’s a novelistic treatment of this exact issue. What is faith? Is it repeating like a parrot that you have faith? Or is it a lifetime of willingly chosen sacrifice made out of kindness towards others?
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It is not unusual for couples to be “unevenly yoked” — especially in today’s feminized churches.
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