Posted on 03/01/2008 5:51:31 AM PST by NYer
A most excellent post.
In Matthew, did not Christ himself tell the cured leper to show himself to the priest and present the offering Moses commanded, if he didn’t consider it right for legal observance in a holy place?
You could say the need to be pronounced clean by a priest is because the person couldn’t re-enter society without it;
The law must be obeyed (again, only a priest can declare this);
To provide a witness.
You could also say that Our Lord was showing he followed the law;
So that the priests would not persist in their unbelief;
Or just making it possible the former leper could enter society.
In any case, there are specific offerings in Leviticus to be offered, we assume it was the temple... and not the backyard.
Luke 4:15-20 may need some explaining as well.
By word or letter Iscool.
When have you been to a Catholic Church? To attend Mass?
From my experience it is the Independant Baptist Churches that have the most problems with Catholics. They seem to have competition in who can be the most vehement and uptight!
Bless em all
Mel
I'm not surprised - but - how many of them are former priests and religious? Each year, there are hundreds of former Protestant ministers that convert; some even bring in their parishioners.
Yes, I attended a Catholic Mass...
Why not? Knowledge is timeless. You quote scripture that dates back much farther.
Twinkie, if a young woman is under extreme pressure to fulfill her mama and papa's dream of becoming a bride, and this becomes known, she would not be permitted to receive Matrimony until it was determined that she (and her husband-to-be) were truly getting married of their own free will. The same is true of Holy Orders: you simply are not permitted to receive this sacrament if you are under coercion from anybody else.
Moreover, most candidates for the priesthood complete 4 years of seminary (6 years, if they didn't have any pre-seminary advanced education, e.g. at a university) before they are ordained a Deacon, and then sometimes 6-12 months before becoming a priest. During this whole process there are plenty of opportunities to talk things out, and if it comes out that this is mama and papa's choice rather than yours --- or if you're not sure you're called to celibacy --- you don't get ordained.
Moreover, at present there are 22 Churches that comprise the Catholic Church, and 21 of the 22 ordain, as a norm, married men.
So, what were you saying about "priests are DISALLOWED to marry"? Please.
The New York Times (believe me, no friend of the Catholic Church) did an independent analysis of all the records involving priestly abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church. The NYT study found that 1.8% of the priests had been accused of abuse over the past 50 years.
I'd like to make two points about this figure:
The Catholic Bible begins with the Book of Genesis and ends with the Book of Revelation.
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!
There is but one throne in heaven on which sits Jesus Christ. He created the universe and spoke to Abraham. He is the one who directed how worship was to be offered. We are a Trinitarian Church - 3 persons in one God.
Okay, maybe a lack of manners but mostly conceit IMHO, it is like they are saying “Come read my post, it is soooooooo good!” They need to call attention to their posts.
I’m late to the party here...
My former parish hosted Mr Cumbie a couple years ago for a seminar. I didn’t really care for it anyways, but by the end it was all about turning the whole group into pentacostals. All they cared about was speaking in tongues, including polluting the Mass with it. Went over well in the SF Bay area, but this diocese wasn’t exactly the most adherent to tradition (or the liturgy in general) anyways.
Now perhaps I should read the rest of this thread.
Jesus was preaching to the JEWS, UNDER THE LAW as the coming Messiah...
The adopted Gentile church (of which many of us are members of) was still in the future...And had the Jews accepted their Messiah, the Gentile church would never have happened...
Point is, we are not under the law...We do not need to show ourselves to the priest...There are no priests...The veil to the holy place has been ripped wide open...We have access to God without a priest...And it's not a building...It's not an organization...
Luke 4:15-20 may need some explaining as well.
Jesus was an Orthodox, observant, law abiding Jew...He was revealing Himself as the Messiah...He was ready to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 61...
Did you read Isaiah 61??? There is no church as we know it...
What you read in Luke 4:15-20 has exactly zero to do with the Gentile church...
And so does the Protestant bible...At least we have one thing in common...But it's one thing to own a bible, and it's quite another to read it...
And to understand it, you have to divide it...
Up to the the time of Moses, were the people bound by the 10 commandments??? How about after Jesus died on the cross and the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles???
I love that! Funny, but so right on. You remind me of a few other ladies I know, also Catholics in happy, good marriages with large families. These people are a joy to be around, some have handicapped kids, but that doesn’t hardly come into the picture, they are all loving and giving and alive. There is wisdom in what you say about large families.
I’m more like Flannery, ill, alone and almost housebound, too literary and read too much - one must be careful that knowledge or even ‘torment’ does not become a sort of vanity. However, even with such a different perspective, I still feel as you do, that the Church does make me happy.
I’m sorry you’re not well. I know I’m extremely fortunate to have outrageous good health, and a large batch of healthy children. Even in my grandparents’ day (1930’s), I could have expected two or three to have died, already.
Literature is a great gift, but it can get us caught up in ourselves. I often feel that, whatever else might be going wrong with my left, it all fades when I walk into the church. Not only am I right there with the Lord, but if I seem less chirpy than usual, someone will say, “You look tired. Can I help?” or “You seem sad. Let me pray for you.”
My parish really is home - and that’s been true of all the parishes we’ve attended, no matter where we lived. The Church puts everything into perspective.
I looked at your family photos...delightful!
Thank you! We didn’t have a current digital picture of Vlad, my little sweetheart, but that’s what the rest of us look like.
Anoreth’s magenta hair has faded :-). It was a Hallowe’en costume that got out of hand.
The t-shirt that James has in your family photo, should be owned by every boy. My middle great-nephew Daymon has one and it fits him so well!
And you look great!!!!
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