tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post3175094710009700829..comments2024-02-24T18:30:26.749-07:00Comments on prairiemary: HOW TO BECOME A MINISTERUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11838465.post-36389845524139034332011-06-05T05:59:13.470-06:002011-06-05T05:59:13.470-06:00One of my closest friends is one of these minister...One of my closest friends is one of these ministers you describe here. He's the one who keeps the digging stick, till someone in heart-need comes to his hearthside and needs to talk through their problems. Mostly he just listens, but you really feel HEARD, unlike most of the time.<br /><br />My met through the Radical Faeries, which I have to say among gay subcultures AND in contrast to mainstream non-gay culture contains a much higher percentage than average of the sort of non-ordained (and ordained) ministers of the type you're talking about here.<br /><br />This is the best description I've ever read of what it means to really be a minister. You really nail it. You also get into the territory of soul-healing, as opposed to medical curing. I remember the great Lakota shaman Frank Fools Crow, a man who I have seen at times as a personal mentor even though we never met, once said when someone came to him with cancer: "I can heal you, but I may not be able to cure you." Meaning the life could be healed, the soul could be ministered to, but the cancer might not be taken away. That important distinction between "healing" and "curing" has stayed with me every since.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.com