Greetings at the beginning of this soulful season. One of the online daily prayer sites I subscribed to for Lent began with a discussion of “Original Sin”. This is very Catholic. Which I am, but a highly progressive one. I don’t buy into a lot of what the male dominated institutional Church has developed over the centuries. Atonement is another concept I believe has no basis in reality. We’ll save that one for another time.
Anyway I felt like I was reading a doctrinal thesis on original sin in today’s reflection. It did not speak to my heart at all. My own feeling is that there is no such thing as OS. It’s just a method of binding people to the institutional church as in: 
“If you’re full of sin, you need the Church to give you forgiveness, over and over”. We don’t need the Church’s teachings when all they serve to do is to keep us coming back, with, of course, our donation envelope. Christ did not create the Church. We need Christ’s Word, Christ’s teaching, not humankind’s “Church”.
Jesus said the Spirit is within us. To me that means we were made not broken, but whole. We have everything we need right within us. Our purpose, in our lives, is to connect with that Spirit within, to be present to it. Because to do so necessarily leads to us being the best human beings we were created to be. That’s what’s hard – staying present to the Spirit within in this messed up world. Not dealing with some made-up notion of “original sin”.
So let’s practice being present to the Spirit, even if it’s only for a few minutes here and there throughout the day. Let’s talk to Jesus, or Mary, or Elizabeth, or whomever brings you closer to God. This is what a Lent is for… reflection, connection with the Spirit in us, and each other.
Peace….
Peter