Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

My Plea “I’m a Divorced and Remarried Mother. Please, Don’t Change Church Practice.”
First Things ^ | November 3, 2014 | Luma Simms

Posted on 11/04/2014 10:45:38 AM PST by sitetest

The day my soul became Catholic was the day I found out that as a divorced and remarried woman I could not receive Communion. Tears of sorrow and joy flowed. Sorrow because I had by then grasped the truth of transubstantiation, only to find I couldn’t consume, and joy because at last we found the ground of real authority—his Church, the one he founded, the one tasked to keep all he taught her Apostles.

I came to Catholicism from Calvinism. That’s a tough row to hoe if there ever was one. It was that prescient and beautiful encyclical Humanae Vitae which softened my heart to the Catholic Church. After that, I couldn’t get enough. I wanted to hear what the Church believed in her own words. And so I kept reading—Theology of the Body, Familiaris Consortio, Mulieris Dignitatem, and Church documents significant to those of us coming from the Reformed tradition.

Because I had been divorced, and because another family member recently left his marriage after forty-three years, our children had many doubts and questions about marriage. One day around the dinner table one of the kids voiced their anxiety, stating in our presence that “you never know” if both mom and dad will be there for you as you grow up.

(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: divorce; doctrine; marriage; remarriage
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-145 next last
To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

I like your answer.

We, in this life, like to bend God’s rule to our advantage.

We think of Jesus as that kind and forgiving Person who ate with people, forgave people, healed people, raised them from the dead and who never had an unkind word for anyone.

But, He was the toughest Hombre ever. He knew beforehand what kind of death He would suffer and, although He could have easily avoided it, He underwent His fate because He was well aware that it was for the salvation of mankind.

If we are to be like Him, we have to become as tough as He was, as all the martyrs understood throughout the ages and still do today. Christianity is not for the weak of heart.

My greatest fear has always been that I would not measure up to His expectations in time of persecution. I can only pray that I will not fail.


101 posted on 11/04/2014 2:30:50 PM PST by 353FMG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: sitetest
I thought that you were making the argument that a couple of others have made in this thread that there is a problem that she isn't living continently at the present time.

Well, there could be a problem with that, depending on the circumstances (that we don't know, and aren't any of our business). But there's no problem with her abstaining from Communion for now.

102 posted on 11/04/2014 2:44:01 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: 353FMG
--- We, in this life, like to bend God’s rule to our advantage. ---

Yes. We can fool ourselves fairly easily. We're blessed to have a living Magisterium to help us follow the narrow road.

And yes, Jesus was tough. And loving. Even when he drove the money-changers out of the Temple.

103 posted on 11/04/2014 2:47:46 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: metmom
Jesus is not found in a church or wafer. Nobody has to go somewhere to encounter Him>

sure He is...and of course you don't have to go anywhere to encounter Him spiritually, but to receive Him physically, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine, you do, indeed, need to go to Mass at your local Catholic church and you were taught that....

104 posted on 11/04/2014 3:07:21 PM PST by terycarl (common sense prevails over all)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: goodwithagun
I’m in RCIA now, and it’s good to be coming home.

Christians refer to heaven as home and we long for the time that we get there. Catholics refer to the Catholic Church as home.
105 posted on 11/04/2014 4:11:51 PM PST by Old Yeller (D.A.M.N. - Deport All Muslims Now! Starting in the White House.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
WOW, protestants have it easy...I have to get my butt out of bed and actually drive a few miles to church to attend Mass

How many Heavenly points do you figure you score each time you do it? And you seem bitter about it. Is it an obligation and not a desire for you?
106 posted on 11/04/2014 4:16:30 PM PST by Old Yeller (D.A.M.N. - Deport All Muslims Now! Starting in the White House.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: sitetest

Thanks for the ping.


107 posted on 11/04/2014 4:25:12 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: C. Edmund Wright

When one takes a wedding vow to “... love and honor ... for better or worse ... until death do us part”, is that an actual vow or is it just a set of lines one reads, like the elementary-school Thanksgiving Pageant, for ornamental purposes only?


108 posted on 11/04/2014 4:32:11 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

You’re welcome.


109 posted on 11/04/2014 4:44:25 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog
Correct. So the way to be allowed to partake again is to hire a hitman to kill your ex, and then go to Confession and receive absolution for the murder.

That's pretty logical...As long as you repent you are allowed to partake in the Eucharist...

110 posted on 11/04/2014 6:17:10 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: sitetest

If the article makes a simple statement of historical fact that raises no issue the non members would have an interest in disputing, then the caucus label may be used.


111 posted on 11/04/2014 6:18:18 PM PST by Religion Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: sitetest
Conversely, the remarried divorce[e] is not repentant (save in the case where the two have agreed to live without marital relations). Let's be clear: it is not the divorce that was necessarily the sin. It was the attempted remarriage that was the sin, and the sin is renewed each time the remarried person has sex with his or her new “spouse.” It is adultery.

I can not disagree with your Church's doctrine...Hey, it's your church...But Jesus gave no such command to His church...Why does your religion make a liar out of God???

Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

If a divorce is the result of fornication, the one who did not commit the fornication is allowed to re-marry and have a healthy sex life...

And these people are under the law...Sabbath worshiping, pork abstaining Jews under the law...

112 posted on 11/04/2014 6:28:29 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: sitetest
Why is this person not legitimately your spouse? Because you already have a spouse, the person you divorced.

That is not biblical so it is ignorance in action...

113 posted on 11/04/2014 6:33:58 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: Iscool
If a divorce is the result of fornication, the one who did not commit the fornication is allowed to re-marry ...

What if the stated reason for the divorce is just the standard "irreconcilable differences"?

114 posted on 11/04/2014 6:39:47 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: Salvation
Balthasar wants to impress upon the reader the objective reality of spiritual communion. It is not the absence of something but the presence of him.

Spiritual communion without the Eucharist...Now that's a new one...Being in the real presence without the Eucharist...Without the Mass...That ought to wake up a few Catholics...

115 posted on 11/04/2014 6:44:03 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: Old Yeller
Christians refer to heaven as home and we long for the time that we get there. Catholics refer to the Catholic Church as home.

And that as close to 'home' as most of them will ever get...

116 posted on 11/04/2014 6:46:49 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring
What if the stated reason for the divorce is just the standard "irreconcilable differences"?

I'll take that as an honest acknowledgment that your religion is in error...But to answer your question, you go to Paul's epistles which are the books given to Paul by Jesus to present to His church...

1Co 7:27 Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

Are you divorced, seek not a new wife...

1Co 7:28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

If you marry a new wife, you have not sinned...

117 posted on 11/04/2014 6:56:33 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: Iscool
I'll take that as an honest acknowledgment that your religion is in error...

Not hardly.

118 posted on 11/04/2014 7:18:53 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: DuncanWaring
I'll take that as an honest acknowledgment that your religion is in error...

Not hardly.

Well it should...Your religious doctrine contradicts the bible on marriage and divorce...

119 posted on 11/04/2014 7:30:15 PM PST by Iscool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]

To: goodwithagun
I'm in RCIA now, and it’s good to be coming home.

Should we be surprised?

120 posted on 11/04/2014 8:41:20 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-145 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson