Pray if you Want to, but Credit Won't Go where Credit's Not Due!

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I attended church this morning ... I know I talk a lot about how some of the church's "beliefs" are illogical or proven-wrong or whatever, but I attend church (and watch church-services, Bible-study & Gospel-music on TV) ... sort of the same way Adam Conover know you don't need to bathe more than 3-times-a-week, but says he does everyday anyway (because he feels "gross" otherwise). Anyway, I'm attending church this morning and it kinda 'dawns on me'---Catholics know that most of this stuff is just "a cover-story" (kinda the way people are convinced that The President runs the country; even though--although he 'plays a crucial part' (suggesting possible laws, negotiating international peace, etc'--ALL THE WORK in America is done by American citizens! People credit The President for THE WHOLE ECONOMY while he's President! Even if the current economy is still 'the result of actions under a former President' That leads me to another way I might respond to people who ask Facebook-friends to "Pray for them"; I'll say, 'Maybe, but start by Giving Credit where Credit is Due.' And if they reply that they're "thanking God for everything," then I'll explain that '"thanking God for things" is like "thanking Walmart for presents your grandparents buy you"---I mean, you'd obviously rather thank the people who bought- & brought you the gift than the one who imagined, constructed, & mass-produced it, right? So (especially today, Mother's Day) I don't 'thank God' for my life or -my mother's life or -my siblings' lives; God-or-whatever has the power to take them if he wants (and I'm glad he doesn't), but he didn't bring them to me! ... sorry; President Trump (even only the topic of him!) has a knack for steering discussion off-course. I was talking about The Catholic Church's paradox: When I was growing up, the 'Nicene Creed' (the confession of faith, that the congregation would recite once every service) was The "We Believe." It's not anymore! Now, it's The "I Believe!" Maybe that's because some high-officer-of-The-Church decided "the original Latin" was an I-form of the verb ... maybe they thought the we-form was too much like "The Borg." But the beliefs we recite in unison are still the same (except we're "believing them individually" instead of "knowing what everybody says everybody believes") And the sermon today---our parish reads 3 sections of Scripture (and the pastor uses them as inspiration for the sermon he delivers), but the passage that stuck out for me was a reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, talking about http://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-11.htm how Christ gave the apostles different positions in the church (to be profits or evangelists or pastors or teachers). When our pastor mentioned it, I thought of the old familiar 'gifts of the spirit'-Scripture (one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, another the word of knowledge; faith, gifts of healing, the effecting of miracles, prophecy, the distinguishing of spirits, various kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues). He also mentioned that--with Christ giving The Church those powers--the church could then serve as The Body without its Head. And the phrase "like a chicken with its head cut off" came to mind.