Posted on 09/16/2017 1:21:07 PM PDT by ebb tide
The group "Spezzare il pane" ("Breaking the Bread") in the archdiocese of Turin, Italy, has officially started with the celebration of "ecumenical masses" where Holy Communion is distributed to Catholics and non-Catholics.
The group is headed by Father Fredo Oliviero, an apologist for illegal immigration, who has the support of his archbishop, Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia. The practice of the group to distribute Holy Communion to non-Catholics, is openly promoted in the newspaper of Turin Archdiocese "La Voce e il Tempo".
Among the members of the group are "Catholics", Anglicans, Baptists, Waldensians and Lutherans. They gather once a month in one of their churches, where they celebrate a "Eucharist" according to the respective denomination, distributing "Communion" to everybody.
According to Fra Cristoforo, writing on maurizioblondet.it, these abuses are recommended by Pope Francis. Archbishop Nosiglia is informed about them but does not intervene. The future goal is to spread such gatherings to other Italian cities.
Distributing Holy Communion to people who do not share the Catholic Faith and have not previously confessed their sins, profanes the Holy Species, leads the participants to condemnation, and promotes superstition.
Or at least be ready when you GO!
Splitting self-satisfying hairs and promulgating confusion.
Rome says the host is REALLY Christ's flesh.
However; in the favorite book of Catholics; Christ Himself said:
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you-they are full of the Spirit and life.John 6:63
Ya constipated?
Eat some fern leaves.
After all, “With fronds like these; who needs enemas?”
 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.' |
But communion is for people who all believe the same thing. You can’t create more believers by giving them communion ahead of time. “Superstition” was the right word. It’s not magic. It doesn’t work in reverse like that. That’s what its detractors said about it: Hocus pocus. Because they didn’t understand it doesn’t work in reverse.
Most FR Mormons won't admit that 85% or so of their fellow believers are going to spent eternity with the like of us Prots and Catholics.
This?
This WHAT??
IIRC, they were eating a special; once a year; meal.
Yes, unless you believe everything the Church teaches. Same with other denominations: don’t partake if you don’t talk the talk and walk the walk.
HMMMmmm...
Call no man father.
53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54 Whoever eats[s] my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
Now, am I saying that the Eucharist is a necessary prerequisite for Heaven in every man’s case? No. But Jesus clearly believes it is connected with “eternal life”. The connection is grace.
So why is John 6:53 literally not an absolute requirement for one to obtain spiritual life as much as other "verily, verily" statements for accountable souls?
Allowing that believers may have spiritual and eternal life without receiving the Cath. Eucharist is contrary to the dire warning Caths typically invoke this as meaning, yet in order to even make this a normative requirement then you must substantiate that your understanding of John is what the NT church preached. Thus the question where in the preaching of the NT church (Acts onward, which reveals how the NT church believed the gospels) is taking part in the Lord's supper said to be the means of obtaining spiritual life in oneself, rather than believing the gospel as seen in Acts, resulting in regeneration, with God purifying their hearts by faith? (Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-11)
While we are at it, where in the inspired record of the NT church do we see Catholic priests conducting the Lord's supper as their (or a) primary active function, and offering the elements as a sacrifice for sins and dispensing them to the people as spiritual food by which they obtain spiritual life (and being charged with doing so)?
Versus preaching the word being their primary active function, (2Tim. 4:2) and charged with feeding the flock thereby, (Acts 20:28) with the word being called "milk" and "meat," "milk" (1Pt. 1:22; Heb. 5:12,14) by which one is born again, (Ja. 1:8) and nourished (1Tim. 4:6) and built up (Acts 20:32)
For "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing [as food]: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63) Which is the only understanding that conflates with Scripture oversall. .
None of which is contrary to salvation by grace thru faith, which, contrary to Cath propaganda does not mean one is simply whitewashed, but that while one is accounted righteous and made accepted in the Beloved, and seated together with Him in Heaven, one His account, not because we have attained heavenly perfection of character, yet belief in the Lord Jesus also means that one is made spiritually alive, with an interior change of heart resulting in a changed life.
Luther even said such things as,
faith is a living and an essential thing, which makes a new creature of man, changes his spirit and wholly and completely converts him. It goes to the foundation and there accomplishes a renewal of the entire man; so, if I have previously seen a sinner, I now see in his changed conduct, manner and life, that he believes. So high and great a thing is faith.”[Sermons of Martin Luther 2.2:341]
The kind of faith which overall will effect holiness and obedience is what appropriates the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, and thus the effects of faith are necessary if faith is to be considered salvific, and in fact the effects of faith justify one as being a believer. However, God justifieth the ungodly by faith which is counted for righteousness, (Romans 4:5)
And thus believers are warned against having an evil heart of unbelief, thus drawing back to perdition, which unbelief, as with faith, is evidence what what it effects. Thus faith and works go together.
Well; since you hardly are EVER wrong here...
I did the same at a Lutheran church, above the protests that I should just do it. Wasn’t sure what the requirements were.
Deconstructing Linus: Portrait of a True Believing Pumpkinist as a Young Man
"Each year on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere and flies through the air with his pack of toys for all the good little children in the world."
No. This is about sincerity, a subjective standard by any definition.
I wonder if Linus blames himself every year for not picking the most sincere pumpkin patch for his vigil?
I wonder if other Great Pumpkinists castigate Linus by asserting if he were more in tune with the Spirit of the Great Pumpkin, if he were more prayerful, if he read the Holy Writ of the Great Pumpkin with a greater sincerity, that he could indeed rise to the challenge and, via the Spirit, be lead to choose the most sincere pumpkin patch?
I wonder how many years Linus will feel guilty for this failure and blame himself for receiving no answer no matter how sincere he believes himself to be?
I wonder if Linus ever gets frustrated because there is no objective way to measure sincerity?
And if he realizes there is no objective standard for such a thing, I wonder if it ever creeps into his mind that his annual mission is nothing more than mindless busywork?
I wonder... does Linus ever have doubts?
For the time being, however, Linus will put aside his doubts and, perhaps as a means of proving his sincerity, begins to proselyte among his friends for converts. Most shrug him off. But Sally, who has a crush on him, believes Linus and agrees to spend Halloween in Linus' Pumpkin Patch.
Linus then explains that by using positive language and positive thinking, they may be able to attract the Great Pumpkin to their Patch. He also cautions Sally that negative language and negative thinking will cause the Great Pumpkin to pass them by.
There is no room for doubt when one is a Great Pumpkinist. One should never say if the Great Pumpkin comes but always when the Great Pumpkin comes. "One little slip like that, can cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by!" It's hard to imagine a benevolent icon such as the Great Pumpkin punishing TBPs (True Believing Pumpkinists) for such a minor infraction, but there you have it.
Sally: The Birth of an Ex-Pumpkinist
Because Sally loves her "sweet baboo" Linus, she sets aside her own Halloween plans of trick-or-treating and a Halloween party in order to spend the evening in the Pumpkin Patch. She converts to Great Pumpkinism because she loves Linus. She respects his opinion. And she wants to make him happy and be supportive. And besides, if it's really true, WOW! Wouldn't that be fantastic?
But in the end, the only Being that shows up in the Pumpkin Patch is Snoopy. Linus, believing Snoopy to be the Great Pumpkin, swoons into an ecstatic faint, happy in the knowledge that he has finally deciphered the Great Pumpkin's standard for sincerity. But, alas, it is a misplaced hope, and when Linus regains consciousness, there is not only no Great Pumpkin there to reward him, there is one upset little girl.
"I was robbed! I spent the whole night waiting for the Great Pumpkin when I could have been out for tricks or treats! Halloween is over and I missed it! You blockhead! You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin and all that came was a beagle!"
"I didn't get a chance to go out for tricks or treats! And it was all your fault! I'll sue! What a fool I was. And I could have had candy apples and gum! And cookies and money and all sorts of things! But no, I had to listen to you! You blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or treats come only once a year. And I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead. You owe me restitution!"
Luckily for Sally, she only missed one Halloween. And though she is demanding restitution, because her participation was voluntary, she will never receive said restitution. She'll simply have to accept the experience as one of life's absurdities and move on.
However, one can hope that this experience has made Sally a more skeptical person, so that the next time she is presented with such fantastic claims, she'll perhaps be inclined to do her research before committing any time, money or emotion.
After all, fantastic claims should be supported by fantastic evidence, right?
The question now becomes, has this experience made Linus a skeptic? After yet again not having his Pumpkin Patch recognized as sincere and after having endangered his friendship with Sally, will he continue to believe?
In spite of a complete and utter lack of evidence pointing to the existence of the Great Pumpkin, and a complete and utter lack of the Great Pumpkin's Promise ever having been fulfilled, Linus is a True Believing Pumpkinist to the core. To even admit the possibility that he may be wrong would be to negate all those years of hard work and sincere belief. Linus simply cannot turn his back on his belief.
So if Linus doesn't become an ex-Pumpkinist, what is his strategy? Well, he's going to keep on trying, isn't he?
"What do you mean, 'stupid'? Just wait until next year. I'll find a pumpkin patch, and I'll sit in that pumpkin patch and it'll be a sincere pumpkin patch, and the Great Pumpkin will come! Just you wait and see! I'll sit in that pumpkin patch, and I'll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait until next year!"
Wedgie?
That story has a lot of errors in it.
People who didn’t watch Trump rallies were surprised when he won. People who haven’t studied up on September 23rd should not be writing about it.
It often is announced.
At Protestant churches too, especially at holidays, when many people may be just visiting.
I did the same at a Lutheran church, above the protests that I should just do it. Wasn’t sure what the requirements were.
***
That was probably a good idea. I’m Lutheran myself and I don’t commune with non-Lutherans.
Not that I believe that they’re any less Christian, but rather that Communion is a celebration of the Christian church unified in truth, and so it’s something that we shouldn’t take a step out of line with, because it’s a very important part of the Christian life.
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