Posted on 07/23/2008 2:47:21 PM PDT by Pyro7480
Interesting that you should mention “forced pasivity and stillness”
I have had occasions, on this forum, to perceive strains of quietism.
I wonder if I am mistaken or if my perception is close to truth.
Another one of your most wonderful prose pieces, MD.
Love it. Will save it to my RC Word file.
And, believe it, or not, I can own the vast vast majority of it as quite accurate to my own seDiments, too.
My main quibble not already articulated endlessly would be that I don’t think your good intentions are weak etc. but quite admirable and above average.
There was another self-deprecating slam that I didn’t think was near fitting either but I can’t quickly find it and my mind is a muddle from playing umpteen games of Chinese chess for about 6 hours today.
I appreciate much your spiritual trek and growth evidenced in this piece.
Thanks.
LUB
I think I need a refresher on quietism because I think my thoughts, if not my life, tend in the direction of that error. The question of how we hand our wills over to God (or of our side of the transaction, since I don’t see how it can be done if He does not enable it) while still “working out our own salvation in yatta yatta” (Dawg translation) is hard for me. I suspect it is hard for others as well.
My will, etc. may have or appear to have some strength when compared to that of some others.
But I beg that I may never forget that if I have any good thing, characteristic, blah blah, it is a gift and not at all mine. This is not pious claptrap, it's reporting: When I claim stuff, it goes bad in my hands. When I "give God the glory" I have arms full of roses. So, hey. Give God the glory, sez me.
You have an RC WORD file? Uh oh! I think you should have two. One for combat and forensics and the other for, you know, nice stuff.
(I had a charismatic file, but I couldn't find an interpreter .... heh heh heh.)
INDEED! INDEED! INDEED TO THE MAX!
For me, it is the delicate balance of “Abandonment to Divine Providence”.
Um, excuse me, of course, I mean to say
Alleluia!
Thanks again. I needed a nice little predicate to get a handle on a thesis that potentially can lead one in many directions. It would be nice to be able to stay on point.
Maybe this is it:
demonstrating the RELATIVE PRIORITIES of those individuals
or this? :
PRIORITIES—OUR PRIORITIES MATTER TO GOD—ALL THE MORE SO WHEN HE GETS THE BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE.
I feel kind of silly having to explain this, but God is not getting the bottom of the totem pole when a church or parish or anything is identified by using the name of a saint. The naming is a subsidiary of already having elevated God to top priority by having built a Church to worship Him, or having gathered a family of believers to commune in His name. The having to choose a name already points to THE PRIORITY.
The logic that you employ is flawed. Boy Scout Troop 452 or IBEW Local 61 doesn't imply an obsession with numbers. Nor does the naming of a hospital, theatre, or library after a philanthropist demonstrate a priority for wealth. Guessing what a name may or may not represent can be an error-prone game.
Naming a Catholic Church/ parish after a saint is a very old, ancient practice. It reflects the Catholic belief in eternal life. Those recognized as having lived holy, exemplary lives in Christ remain alive in the Catholic heart. I think it a wonderful, loving belief, but also has a utilitarian purpose. By and large, names in general, are ignored. Their meaning and origin are completely overlooked. But sometimes, it happens that a churchgoer might, after several years, be graced with a dose of curiousity. Having attended St. Therese of Lisieux for so long, a light might turn on, who is St. Therese? and go home and google and learn that she was a doctor of the Church that died at age 23, and wonder how a veritable child could be placed among the ranks of Aquinas and Augustine, and learn that she wrote a book, " The Story of A Soul", and order it from Amazon and read about an incredibly devout and humble family that devoted their lives to serving the Savior. The Church preaches with its ornamentation, and statues, and even its names. St. Corrie Ten Boom of Haarlem would be a great name for a reformed church.
I think that is what is at the core of this issue, your disdain for the veneration of the saints. Or rather your inaccurate perception that there is too much emphasis on Mary or other saints. In the big picture, the saints are exceedingly peripheral to the centrality of Christ. Yet they are an extension of Christ's manner of spreading His great news. Christianity is ultimately a person to person movement. Christ set the precedent for having His creatures introduce Him to one another. The building named for a saint perfectly parallels Christ's commission. Open the doors to St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church and you will find Christ waiting for you there.
My sociological, psychological and spiritual analysis and interpretation of the naming of the Los Angeles area Vatican churches stands.
The glaring priorities of many, many, many individual and collective decisions is a shocking demotion of the priority of--the supreme--utterly supreme priority of CHRIST ALONE.
There are reasons for that BRAZEN demotion of CHRIST ALONE. He is NOT HIGH AND LIFTED UP--HIS TRAIN FILLING THE TEMPLE
--WHEN--
HE HAS TO TRIP OVER THE MARY CARICATURE TO STAND HIGH AND LIFTED UP.
There are institutional reasons and carnal human reasons. None of those reasons are Biblical, admirable nor redemptive--far from it.
Rationalizations will be no shelter from the consequences in individual lives and in collective groups . . .
WHEN CHRIST ALONE appears on the scene . . . whether uniquely and briefly in specialized manifestations or at the dramatic conclusion of all things . . . sucking on one's thumb or plastic fondling talisman will offer no comfort whatsoever.
Nor will protestations "But the magicsterical said . . . "
Nor will protestations "But !!!!TRADITION!!!! said . . . "
Nor will protestations "But the church fathers said . . . "
Nor will protestations "But encyclical umptyump said . . . "
Nor will protestations "But the chief pontificator pontificated . . . "
Forgot to ping you. Sorry.
I know that means much more to Catholics than us...
But looking over the PCA website I couldn't help but notice how many Churches are named Christ, Grace, Redeemer, Trinity, Providence, Hope etc. The remainder seem to be named after a geographic landmark.
Seems to me that like with peoples names, a church name matters.
Fascinating. Interesting.
Evidently there’s been some . . . residual . . . beneficial effect of
SOLA SCRIPTURA which lifts up
CHRIST ALONE!
CHRIST ALONE!
CHRIST ALONE!
And when I emphasize CHRIST ALONE! I am emphasizing GOD ALONE IN THE MANNER AND FORM WHICH THE FATHER HAS CHOSEN TO EMPHASIZE BY PUTTING ALL THINGS UNDER CHRIST.
AS CHRIST is in The Father; Holy Spirit is in The Father and all are in each other . . . CHRIST ALONE! stands for The Trinity in the manifestation THE FATHER has chosen to reign supreme over this . . . multi-verse and all that is.
Naming a Catholic Church/ parish after a saint is a very old, ancient practice.
= = =
Lots of . . . missing the mark . . . missing the bull’s eye . . . sins . . .
are very old and ancient practices.
When did ‘very old and ancient’ become a vetting criteria of righteousness?
Oh, when righteousness became subordinate to
political power-mongering committees of vain-glorious bureaucrats intent on increasingly controlling the serfs and on increasingly milking them for every farthing the latest ‘theological’ concoction could facilitate relieving them of.
Matthew 7:6, my brother. Mat 7:6
Indeed.
When the Son blazes bright on some churches . . . the entire wood, hay, stubble affairs will become ashes.
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