Posted on 06/26/2015 10:18:59 AM PDT by Morgana
My grandmother celebrates 100 years of being a Catholic. She will most likely be a Catholic till her last breath as all my other grandparents were. Me? I’m a mere forty-year cradle Catholic. I own that it hasn’t been easy to remain a faithful daughter of the Church, particularly during my turbulent twenties. There was a period I disagreed with, questioned, and criticized Holy Mother Church. There were times I watched people I love abandon their baptismal promises. Still, I remained true to my heritage.
Why? Why am I still Catholic? It’s for the same reasons why people disagree, question, criticize and leave the Church:
1. The Eucharist. A mystery or a symbol to some, but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord in the host is clear as the Catechism 1376 puts it, “because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread.” I am more than happy to remain in the Church where Jesus is really and truly present, and where I can be united to Him in receiving Communion.
2. Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church exalts the Mother of God as the perfect apostle and bestows dignity to womanhood. Since Mary was “preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Catechism 966), she is the role model for every Christian. The scripture on the wedding feast at Cana illustrates that she is a powerful intercessor to our prayers and that devotion to her is the fastest, surest way to unity with Christ as she encourages us: “do whatever [Jesus] tells you.” Our Lady is, to me, all that and a mother who cares about my everyday concerns, with the end goal of the sanctifying my soul. “Don’t be afraid of loving Mary too much,” St. Maximilian Kolbe said. “You can’t possibly love her more than Jesus does.”
3. The saints. By the rigorous process of canonization, the Catholic Church venerates the saints as humans who blazed the path on how to live the Christian life and who “provide us with examples on holiness.” The saints also obtain favors for us as they “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as the proffer the merits which they acquired on earth.” (Catechism 956). Just like any good friend, saints inspire and pray for me. The journey of my spiritual life is easier with their assistance.
4. Penance and Reconciliation. Undoubtedly, the Church houses both saints and sinners. Knowing our fallen nature, which tempts us to sin and often characterizes us as Pharisees, Christ established the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means for contrite sinners to obtain absolution for our sins. Jesus told St. Faustina “When you approach the confessional…I myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden in the priest.” Never have I heard more powerful words than the merciful ones voiced at the Sacrament of Reconcilation: “I absolve you from your sins, may God give you pardon and peace.”
5. Purgatory. Purgatory is the place where all who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified undergo purification after death so as the achieve holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. (Catechism 1030). Purgatory as a manifestation of God’s mercy gives me hope that even if I can’t overcome my faults during my life on earth, I still have an opportunity to be sanctified by God’s justice so that I can one day enjoy the beatific vision.
6. Suffering. Suffering is inevitable in our lives because of man’s free will. The Catholic Church makes sense of suffering when it teaches that suffering can be untied with Christ’s passion in atonement for sins. According to St. John Paul II, suffering also increases our capacity for selfless love and hones the virtue of humility. Since scripture says that carrying my cross is necessary to share in Christ’s redemption, the Church not only explains suffering’s purpose but also offers me graces from the Sacraments to endure sacrifice.
7. Magisterium. Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church as the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” to sift through the muddled moral issues that confounds our modern age (and every age) so that she can provide clear guidelines on right versus wrong. “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles.” (Catechism 2032) In every moral issue it has addressed, the Church has illustrated wisdom that only comes from the Holy Spirit. I rely on this wisdom to guard my soul from evil and to direct me on the path to eternal life as much as I rely on the promise of Jesus that “the gates of hell shall never prevail against [the Church].”
I could go on and on. The truth in the Catechism and experience of millions of Catholics over two thousand years are inexhaustible. I don't know how far back my Catholic roots go. But I hope I am not the branch that withers and rots off a steadfast family tree and I pray that I leave Catholicism as a fruitful legacy to my children, and generations after them.
Catechism 2030: “It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized that the Christian fulfills his vocation.”
You’re making pea soup out of God’s word.
He will not redeem but a few.
He paid for all.
Redemption will be at the Last Trump, just as Paul explained.
“LOL..still no answer to my question?? ..”
LOL..still not showing a distinction between redemption and salvation??
“Catholics have my pity , they have a weak jesus that is unable save those the Father gives to Him...”
Anti-Catholics have my pity, they have a weak understanding of Jesus and are too ignorant to know the difference redemption and salvation.
“Purgatory is the place where all who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified/” Um, if you die in God’s Grace you have been born from above and have no need of cultish fantasies like purgatory. Is it true that running the rosary regularly cuts down on time in catholic purgatory?
“He will not redeem but a few. He paid for all.”
To pay for all means to redeem all.
“Redemption will be at the Last Trump, just as Paul explained.”
Redemption was the first step. Salvation is the last. Both can be talked about in a more colloquial fashion. Our salvation can be talked about as encompassing our redemption. Our redemption can in a sense be talked about as finishing with our true salvation - entering into the glory of Heaven. But the Redemption, more precisely, is of everyone and was accomplished on the cross. Salvation, more precisely, will not be obtained by everyone and is finally fully accomplished when we enter into the Final Beatitude and behold the Beatific Vision.
“There are going to be some very sad folks on judgement day.” Sad doesn’t even come close to it! And before that, about seven years before that, there are gonna be some gob smacked catholics wondering what happened to the Christian Protestants they knew minutes before around them.
Violating the commands of God found in the OT is hardly a ‘reasonably disputed point’. Have you ever read the Catholic catechism on the Mass Wafer trick/Magic?
That's because the Christian Protestants will be hiding, wondering why the Independent Baptists just up and disappeared!!!! :)
Heresy is the hallmark of catholicism.
No one has yet been redeemed.
Luke 21:
[1] And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
[2] And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
[3] And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
[4] For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
[5] And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,
[6] As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
[7] And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
[8] And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
[9] But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
[10] Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
[11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
[12] But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
[13] And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
[14] Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
[15] For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
[16] And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
[17] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
[18] But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
[19] In your patience possess ye your souls.
[20] And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
[21] Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
[22] For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
[23] But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
[24] And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
[25] And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
[26] Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
[27] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
[28] And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
LOL
So I guess we should pray the Rapture doesn’t happen while we’re in a liquor store?
“Heresy is the hallmark of catholicism.”
That’s a logical impossibility since “catholicism” means the “universal” faith. Thus, only it cannot have heresy. It is the sects which must have heresy and always do.
It’s a shame public schools no longer teach people the meaning of words, how to use them, or any basic logic. If public schools did teach such things there would be fewer morons, and by extension, since the two groups over lap, fewer anti-Catholics.
Showing more and more the spirit that is within ... what’s that saying about flak and being over the target? Keep spitting flak, vald.
Glad you took it in good humor. But I'll still be praying for you...
“As I suspected long ago, it seems you have simply no understanding of God’s word.”
In fcat I apparently understand it better than you do. Other Protestants agree that there is a difference of course even if they define it in different terms:
Example: http://www.christianity.com/theology/redemption-and-salvation-11541696.html
Now, I have no reason to believe you know the Bible better than I do or the hundreds and hundreds of millions of Protestants over the last 4.5 centuries who believed there was a difference between redemption and salvation. When I see you addressing all of those Protestants who you must conclude are wrong and don’t know the Bible as well as you do, I might take you more seriously.
“No one has yet been redeemed.”
Actually, everyone has been redeemed. Everyone. Not everyone will be saved, however.
“Showing more and more the spirit that is within ...”
If I point out the ignorance of anti-Catholics - which is epic - you’ll just have to deal with it.
“what’s that saying about flak and being over the target?”
It doesn’t matter. No saying changes the fact that anti-Catholics are ignorant.
No, I am not required to deal with your haughty attitude and snarky, condescending posts. I will move on along and leave you to His Spirit.
“No, I am not required to deal with your haughty attitude and snarky, condescending posts. I will move on along and leave you to His Spirit.”
Do what is expected of you.
With you, I already have.
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