AMEN !
Aren’t you done yet? I’m so sick of the constant barrage. I’ve quit posting to your threads because of the sickening and unchristian vitriol toward the Church. Don’t bother replying to me... my abstention from your obnoxious threads will continue after this post.
Good day and may God bless you.
I am a Catholic and I practice my faith and attend Mass every week. You are quite correct in some of your observations. For example, no where is it written that you must confess your sins to a priest. They should be confessed through prayer directly to God. I’ve noticed over the years that more and more Catholics seem to agree and fewer and fewer go to confession on a regular basis anymore. While some people may be comfortable confessing their sins to a priest-—and that’s fine with me, in actual practice, fewer and fewer people actually do these days.
There are number of Catholic practices that have little or no basis in the Bible or the Gospels. A classic example is the practice of compulsory clerical celibacy. Many would be surprised to learn that this practice was institutionalized much later in Church history than is commonly believed. For the first ten centuries of Church history most priests and bishops and good number of the early popes were in fact married men. Compulsory clerical celibacy was established in the Middle Ages primarily to confront corruption within the clergy, specifically simony and nepotism. The current Pope has correctly observed that the policy of compulsory clerical celibacy was introduced many centuries after the founding of the Church, and he is also stated (correctly) that the policy is a discipline, not a doctrine or a dogma of the Church and that the policy is subject to change.
Other Catholic ideas and doctrines came about much later. Take the idea that Mary herself was born of an immaculate conception, an idea which has no scriptural basis. This theory was institutionalized in the late 19th Century by Pope Pius IX, the same Pontiff, who btw instituted another questionable doctrine, the idea of papal infallibility, an idea which is perfectly authoritarian and absurd.
I love my Church and practice my faith. But I have long ago accepted the fact that the Church is far from perfect and is sometimes subject to error, certainly not free of sin and horrible misjudgment over the centuries. Then again this can be said of just about any human created institution. The Catholic Church remains an inviting target perhaps because it is the world’s oldest Christian institution and has therefore had more time to make more mistakes. And of course the Church was very powerful for many centuries and was the glue that held Europe together for many centuries.
As for me, although I will be accused of sola scriptura by some of my fellow Catholics, I believe the basis, the way, and the Truth, rests primarily with the word of God as it is presented in the Bible and the Gospels. I try to stay as close to that as possible without being diverted in a thousand different directions and getting bogged down in the minutia of rituals, rules, and regulations.
That's correct - at the Mass we are present at THE sacrifice of the Lamb. Not a repeat. Not an echo.
These 'journey pieces' are all of a kind. They weave a tale that artfully touches on every conceivable Protestant hangup and misconception in an effort at polemic.
But this is true about Christ's sacrifice: it is once and for all.
Let's expound on this, and try to rescue something from this formulaic attack-post.
At the Mass we are at Calvary. We are at the Last Supper. We are in the Garden of the Resurrection. We are not present at a recreation, but at the actual event: once and for all.
God is not bound by Time and Space, and neither are His sacraments. At the Mass we are really and truly at the Last Supper. We are present at His Passion - not an echo, not a repeat performance, but at The Passion.
He bids us eat His Body and drink His Blood. His life, His death and resurrection - the most important events that every were or ever could be - are waiting for us at Mass. Indeed, He is waiting for us, truly present in His Body in every Catholic Church!
This week, step into a Church and pray before the Blessed Sacrament. He is waiting for you - for us! - with such love, such unfathomable mercy.
There are some things that ring hollow in this post:
“I fasted and meditated but never knew pardon for sin. I wanted to know forgiveness, but how?” How did this person not hear of forgiveness of sins? He says that he went to mass and monthly confession but there was not teaching on the forgiveness of sins.That is not credible because confession is all about the forgiveness of sins.
“During my two years at seminary, I learned about religion and philosophy but there were no biblical studies.” This again is not credible. Calvin and Luther went to Catholic seminaries and they learned about the Bible; they just disagreed with the Church on certain matters.
“As I read it, I asked the priests serious questions about the religious rituals in the Roman Catholic faith, but they couldn’t show me any scriptural basis whatsoever for so much of their superstition and their many traditions.” So not one priest could explain these “superstitions?” Come on, this is so trite and typical of the “Why I left the Catholic Church” stories. I cannot believe that Catholic seminaries are full of idiot priests who have no idea what is in the Bible.
“I was conscious of my sin and longed to have assurance of salvation. I asked the priests but I was told that we could never be sure of salvation until we died. I was instructed to attend the priest for confession, but I did not find that in Scripture either. The Bible instructs us to confess our sins to God, not to human priests.” Aye here’s the rub. This poster wants absolute assurance right now that he is saved forever. Luther also had a deep need for such assurance. But the psychological need of the poster is not a good reason to reject Catholicism.
In the letter of James it states “Therefore confess your sins to one another.” 5:16 In the early church it was the practice to require confession before the whole congregation and this certainly has a Biblical basis.
This post follows a familiar script for those who have no knowledge of the Church today.
this is an almost identical story to several posted earlier.
Either it is plagerism, or there is a rigid “how I found Jesus and learned to hate the catholic church” meme that has to be followed when writing this type of story, i.e. it is propaganda.
Real people have more complicated stories.
and just because one person didn’t find Jesus in the Catholic church doesn’t mean NO one finds Jesus in the Catholic church.
Everyone talks about what these words mean - words they quote outside of their original language - and then also have to admit that many of these words are meant to be symbolic as well. And so everyone admits it’s a complex subject.
But everyone also wants those who disagree with them not merely to die - no, that’s not enough. But to go to hell and suffer for all eternity.
Sometimes I imagine Jesus is on an alien spaceship, on His way back to Earth after spending time on other planets that needed Him. As the Earth comes into view, the alien Commander looks at Jesus and asks, “Now, you’re sure they won’t be hostile?” And Jesus replies, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I stripped my teachings down to the bare bone and told them that my greatest commandment was to love one another as I love them, and to love each other as they love themselves. I’m telling you, I left them no wiggle room to screw it up. Everything will be fine.”
In 1847 he would have been called a soup taker
Great witness. Irish to boot.