Posted on 07/23/2007 3:36:15 PM PDT by annalex
Cool it on the puppy thing until the Michael Vick thing blows over.
There is a sale this week on doves at Pet Smart. I recommend those for the uninitiated. Jackals are getting harder to get. My contact in Morocco told me the price went up by 300%.
F
I’ll go for the doves!
IXNAY youay uysgay!!! Don’t talk Arymay orshipway shop-talk in front of these (spit)pure Christians(spit)!! Use our secret forum, “Ivatepray Eplyray”.
Reegardsfay
The only reason I jumped in was to attempt to present something that was not irrational; clearly I failed. Please let me disengage gracefully.
Tá brón orainn. Níl Spáinnis againn anseo!
Well if it was me, I'd try to clarify just what it was we were arguing about before I started with the arguing. So yeah, working to reach some kind of understanding of terms would be good.
But the purpose of many here is not understanding or dialog. It is condemnation. I was told by one of our separated brethren that he already KNOWS what we believe. Alrighty then! He went on to say that he didn't seek dialog. The purpose of his interactions was to show his brethren how right he is and how wrong we are. Something like that anyway.
So that would explain why there is no interest in engaging in the kind of ground clearing normal before a serious discussion among adults.
Come on, you know as well as I that anyone who says what these people say we think of the Eucharist is not interested in knowing what we really thing. Half an hour with Aquinas would put an end to some of the more bizarre charges. But, as I say, giving up bizarre charges in favor of the truth, even the simple truth of the mistake we do make rather than some other mistake we don't make, that's not part of the plan.
You have a very low threshhold for proof when the matter under question is whether Catholics are fools or not.
But the point is good. How could Saul be "dead" and his summoning by the witch of Endor be a bad thing while Jesus says "... all live to Him."
What do you think? I mean, I know you think WE'RE wrong. Do you think Jesus was wrong? And as has been pointed out, when Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration is that kind of a pantomime, a shadow play, or is it real? If it's a pantomime, then shouldn't the Bible say there appeared with him IMAGES or Visions or "Something a lot like" Moses and Elijah. But it says they appeared with Him.
We don't want to say it's necromancy; we don't want to say God is fooling: We don't want to say the Bible is wrong: we don't want to say Jesus is wrong. How do we find our way through this? I like the question a lot.
But if it's a prayer then by your argument I really needn't notice it, desire it, ask for it or be grateful for it, because Christ is my Advocate, the only one I need, so your good will or prayers add nothing.
But I disagree with you about that consequence or conclusion. Even though the work of Christ is "all-sufficient", I am comforted by your good wishes and, I believe, somehow benefitted by your prayers.. I don't understand it but I think it's good for us to pray for one another and reasonable to ask for one another's prayers.
May God bring us all closer to one another in His love as He brings us closer to Him and may He ever teach us to pray better and better until there is no space between the Spirit's sighs and our prayers.
Sorry, my Immaculate Medal microchip is not working and my scapular back-up decoder is not missing.
Please send the message again on Rosary decade 4.
Well Vatican II redefined it and the recent letter from the Pope straightened it all out.
Phew!
Ooops,
not=now
I would say you don't know that two elephants are still both elephants even if one is big and the other little. All who do the will of His Father are mother and brother and sister, yep. But certainly this is not true in all respects, since not all were greeted by Gabriel or embraced By Elisabeth, not all gave Him birth and suckled Him. Not all were in the upper room on Pentecost. Many can be saints. Not all can be the pre-eminent saint.
The Basis of my thought is that God is the REAL Father. I am a father, but only a very poor version of REAL fatherhood, because I have a child, and really most of what's splendid about her is either unrelated to me or in spite of me. But everything that's splendid about creation is all from God. It happened just as He intended.
If I as a poor, smudged simulacrum of Fatherhood want my child to have everything I have and more, can I not think that the God whose Son called us "Friends" before He died for us and turned the universe upside down to save us -- can I not imagine that He wants to share everything with us? And among the things to be shared is the ministry of reconciliation. Different ones may undertake different aspects. Some plant, some water, God gives the increase, if increase there be. But we ALL share in the work of Christ.
Or try another tack: Our Lord said that he who would be greatest among us must be servant. Then He showed us what real servanthood is all about. He called us to be like Him, and died and rose to share the core of Who and What He is with us.
So, it seems to me, one way to view all this, and especially Heaven as we -- I dare to hope -- come closer to it, is like a grand country dance, a Virginia Reel say. We all dance, we all move to the head of the line, and dance down before our friends as they clap and laugh and joke and love us. And then we move down to the bottom of the line where it is our joy to clap and laugh and joke and love all those who dance down before us.
The point is it is our joy to dance down the middle and be loved and supported by our fellows, AND it is, if anything, our greater joy to hold up our fellows when they dance down the middle.
And you know if you've ever done such a dance (and if you haven't then Unam Sanctam applies in all its rigor, and you are in very deep spiritual trouble) that some beautiful and talented couple will dance down the middle, and you love and wonder at their beauty and gracefulness. And then some of your friends, maybe not the most graceful, maybe a little thick around the middle, maybe sporting a few more chins than absolutely necessary, then they dance down the middle, and you love them because they are your friends and because they love each other, and because they are who they are -- and tonight, because the punch is good, that is more than enough reason to love them.
And because you were lost in the fun of seeing your friends dance, you didn't notice that it was YOUR turn to dance down the middle. So hastily, awkwardly, you bow or curtsy, and are bowed or curtsyed to, then you grasp your beloved. And down the middle you go - amidst music and laughter and wine punch and love as thick in the air as cigar smoke at a convention.
This is a poor image, as my fatherhood is a poor image of the True Father, of how we mediate and are mediated for, how we serve and are served and how it is our very real joy to minister and to be ministered to. This is how we all mediate for one another: Some better, some worse, some one way, some another. Yes, priests have a special mediatory responsibility. But I have a special responsibility to plead to God for them as well as for others -- as only I can, however poor that may be. I dance down the middle the way it has been given to me to dance, and they dance down the middle the way it has been given to them to dance. I clap as I can, and they clap as they can.
As for the rest: HECK no! I talk to God. I talk to the Father. I talk to His Son. I talk to the Spirit. I talk to just about anybody who will hold still. I'd like to see some priest try to stop me from talking to God.
You, Mad Dawg, are a Catholic.
What a wonderful analogy of life in the spirit you have painted with your Virginia Reel!
God bless you!
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