Posted on 05/28/2008 6:05:04 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
Hello fellow Freepers. I believe this is my first post on the Religion forum.
Over the past week or so, I put some thought into something I've been pondering for a while; my spiritual welfare. As it was, I had been part of the 'Sola Scriptua' school of thought (Evangelical Christian). By the Bible and only the Bible. Sounded good enough.
Well...what about before the Bible was put into word? It stuck in my head when reading an article earlier on FR concerning a deconstruction of Sola Scriptura and its inherent weaknesses as a foundation for one's faith.
This, combined with a genuine lack of churchgoing (as a family, we've been uncertain about going to various churches, given that top-down problems with Episcopal/Methodist/etc. churches and their increasing liberalization are a genuine problem for one's spiritual welfare), compelled me to make a decision.
I don't know if my family will follow me, persay, but I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge.
Next month, I'm going to the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle near my home, and I'm joining the Roman Catholic Church.
As is, I have a few volumes of the Magnificat pamphlet and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read.
Any other pointers from other Catholic Freepers?
You will be amazed at how many Bible verses will jump out at you - verses you had never seen before or that you didn’t understand. I’ve been Catholic for only 2 1/2 years, but I’m constantly being shocked at how Bible verses I’ve known since childhood suddenly have a richer and fuller meaning, some that I didn’t understand before are now crystal clear, and some that have been there all along I’m just now seeing. It’s truly awesome!
Welcome home, Ultra Sonic 007!
I’ll loan my tagline to you too. No charge.
Who said anything about rejecting other Christians? And who said anything about perfection?
We have to make some distinctions or we can't get anywhere. Right now it looks like you can say we're mistaken on certain points of doctrine and that's NOT rejection, but when we say you are that IS rejection. I'll guess that's not what you mean, but I don't get what you DO mean.
Well, I’ve already offered it to 2 others at no charge, but I’ll loan you my tagline too.
A Mac(cabees) version will be out later this year ; )
I'm not exactly sure where to go with this. Maybe you could tell us more about your thoughts on the matter and how you came to, uh, form them?
You expect "perfection on earth"??? I assume you claim to be from a "Bible-believing church". If so, then you somehow missed the part about "weeds being found among the grain" (i.e. the Church is not, can not, and never will be, perfect on this earth). Catholics understand this.
I’m the bookkeeper in my parish and I don’t even know who gives what unless it is a memorial gift in someone’s name.
That said, there is a woman who does record the envelopes, and those who use envelopes do so for a purpose and less than 30% of the people do. So if our priest looked at the envelopes and decided who could do what because of them, 70% of the parish members and their families would be out of luck.
That’s one of the ways we know the Bible is a Holy Book. I’ve had other books reveal something new when I returned to them, but I’ve never had the feeling that they were laying in wait for me. That I get only from the Bible.
Good Luck. Insure you and yours are saved by personal plea to Jesus Christ. Where you spend your Sundays (or Saturday nights) is immeasurably less important.
You’re right it’s not our usual MO to go around telling people to “repent”, however there are some Catholics both “liberal” and “conservative” (theologically) that sometimes will tell people “if you believe abortion is wrong in all circumstances you are being too judgmental” and “if you don’t go to the TLM whenever possible you aren’t being the best Catholic you can be”, (even if they won’t come right out and say the NO is illicit), respectively.
Just goes to show just being a Catholic doesn’t inherently make someone better than someone else.
“Introduction to the Devout Life” by St. Francis de Sales. This book began as a series of letters written to a laywoman instructing her on how she could live close to Jesus in the midst of her life of wealth and domestic obligations. Even though it was written in 1609, his advice, both practical and spiritual, still holds true today.
Here, at one level the sufferer is feeding on the response elicited from others. But the darker reality is that sufferer is being devoured.
That is so right on. I’ve seen it so many times! And you are right, prayer is the only answer and only God’s Grace can heal it.
TLM?
Like: I always go to the TLM whenever I can. You never know when you might get in an interminable interview or find yourself on a long journey. I’m about to go ride my motorcylce to Mass, but first I should go to the TLM?
Am I in trouble now?
Guess you've never run into any of those hellions, uh, kids whose parents belong to the "we'd never stifle his creativity!" school of child-rearing!
But surely you must have noticed that people's consciences vary widely. I do accept natural law, but, in general, people's untrained "consciences" are far more sensitive to offenses of others against their own perceived rights than they are to their own offenses against the claims of others.
This is going to be a tough argumentative nut to crack. DMOF can always say they didn’t listen to their conscience. I think dilemmas would be the knife which would divide bone from marrow, and even then it’s not certain.
On a purely human level, we chose to play together and you didn’t want to play our game. You were invited and if you want to play by our rules, you are welcome, if not, run home and leave us alone.
IOW, we are CATHOLIC, we believe what the CATHOLIC church teaches, if we thought that the Methodists, or the Presbyterians or the Lutherans had the whole of the truth we’d be them. We don’t believe they do and so we are CATHOLIC.
It isn’t about what you believe or want us to believe it is about our faith in Jesus within and through the CATHOLIC church.
I make no apologies, if anyone wants to play the victim that is their prerogative, but I will not cower in my conviction. I will not hide my lamp nor will most Catholics.
Well, heigh ho, off to Rosary and Mass. I’ll do penance for being an arrogant son of a Dawg and for a miracle which will help us all feed on the celestial food and not on one another.
LOL!
My parish runs from middle class to VERY wealthy and I would assume that the collections reflect that. And the truth is that a family with six kids and a household income of $40K is making a FAR GREATER sacrifice throwing a $5 bill in the basket than a multi-millionaire who writes a check for $250 (and generally the people who are writing checks and using envelopes are doing so for tax purposes NOT recognition).
Obviously nearly all churches, Catholic and Protestant alike, do and SHOULD take up other collections for non-parish causes. This is NOT some sort of extortion, it is simply ministering to those in need. In every community I’ve ever lived in, there have been groups of churches, both Catholic and Protestant, and synagogues which work together on food banks, homeless shelters, etc. This is the essense of Christian charity and this is what the Lord spoke about in the second part of Matthew 25.
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