Raining on the soul

It has rained every working day in Dublin since mid-June. If you are a cyclist you are bound to be angry and frustrated at this stage. Last evening coming home from work it was raining and this morning as I left for work it was raining.
People who don't experience what it's like really don't understand how bad it is. They don't get wet, they simply cannot appreciate the awfulness of it.
And that very point struck me cycling down Rathgar Road this morning in the rain. It made me think about the word 'preaching', preaching the Gospel. Over the years I have heard so many ministers of religion 'preach' to people, telling them how to behave. But how can someone who has never sat in another person's skin enter into any sort of significant conversation with them?
And that forced me on to think about analogy and how well Philip Gleeson spoke on the subject.
Any sort of glib comment about moral behaviour has to be counterproductive. Any simple pious words about God surely are blasphemous.
I cringe when I read some catholic publications, which seem to serve up all the 'answers' to their readers. We should call them the Catholic Red Tops. I'm against all forms of censorship so I can't advise people not to read them!
I also find it odd how the church does not continually go that extra kilometre when it comes to supporting the poor and the marginalised, the people who are suffering.
What sense or good does it make if we tell people 'we know' and then add, 'we are right'.
For me, the church uses and lives on the vocabulary of powerful and wealthy institutions, every now and then, offering lip service to the poor and marginalised.
What real care and compassion is shown by superiors to those who are marginalised?
If I had my way, I'd make cycling, cycling in the rain, an obligatory requirement when studying theology.
Anyone know next week's weather forecast?