Posted on 03/14/2010 12:14:46 PM PDT by NYer
I appreciate your wisdom and charity.
However, in terms of devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart . . . I must differ.
There are far too many examples of that sort of exhortation in a plethera of the literature of the Vatican organization and it’s subunits.
I have NEVER read the qualification you kindly insert.
I have no doubt that some will rush to affirm such a qualification to make the above palatable.
However, the stark truth is, such an exhortation is propagated and published far and wide and has been so for a very long time—and that unqualified—unsoftened, unconformed to Biblical priorities.
To be fair, I don’t believe that the exhortation is trying to say that folks will not be saved if they are not devoted to Mary’s Immaculate Heart—at least not in the Fatima incident—though I’d have to reread it all to be confident of that.
And, to be still fair, there are a list of exhortations in the TEN MEDITATIONS . . . ON THE ROSARY which DO SAY EXACTLY THAT—that only through Mary is Salvation to be obtained. There are different wordings but the meaning is quite plainly that.
I find the exhortation to be devoted to the Immaculate heart of Mary a horrific extra Biblical diversion from putting God first and foremost first, middle, last and always.
There’s no hint of such in all of Scripture. None.
Yet, relentlessly there’s an abundance of such exhortations in a long list of Roman Catholic et al literature—without qualification either totally or in large part.
One would think that in such a massive amount of publishing that the “true meaning” you are so ready to kindly insert for them—would have been along side such exhortations at least every other time the exhortation was published. Or even 25% of the time. Or even 10% of the time. Not so.
The exhortation reigns in all it’s starkness on page after page in document after document. The faithful are deluded into thinking this is a kosher and fitting if not obligatory Christian thing to do.
What a deception from the pit! What a seductive, warm fuzzy FEELING deception.
Now, children, let us focus more intently on Mommy’s Immaculate Heart.
Let the adorations commence . . . . Ohhhhmmmmmmmmm. Mommy’s Immaculate Heart . . . . warm fuzzys abounding like sugar plums and whiskers on kittens, brown paper packages tied up with string and a spoon full of sugar to help the heresy go down!
God have mercy.
Thank you for your encouragement, dear brother in Christ!
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
Is there any better way, Dear A-G that I, we, any of us . . . could better help prepare folks to
MAKE SUCH CHALLENGES, ASK SUCH QUESTIONS
of such personages, forces, critters?
I remain concerned off and on . . . that the Pied Pipers will appear on the scene and for various reasons even authentic Believers will be vulnerable to going catatonic sort of and following down the yellow brick road without thinking, much less challenging about Christ’s deity and coming in the flesh.
Alas, I know God knows His own and will be with all who put Him first.
I just grieve for the luke warm etc.
Yet, I know God loves all far more than I do or can. And if God can’t get the willfully deaf to hear, who am I!
Sigh.
But as to the above point, that is the one thing I would change about the Catholic Church - that it be plainly spoken so that footnotes are not necessary.
The Catechism has many footnotes and can be diligently studied. But as you point out, most of the ordinary literature does not. To an educated Catholic, the meaning may be clear. But to someone just picking it up to read it casually, it is not clear.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect. - Matthew 24:24
Maranatha, Jesus!!!
Thanks for your kind reply.
You make a plausible point.
However, sadly, I must still quibble.
We are talking about . . . essentially different worlds.
Different realities.
In some respects, as I’ve posted somewhere hereon . . .
we have a U.S. CONSTITUTION. Yet, the reality currently and for decades has been that the globalists have been shredding the Constitution as fast and as thoroughly as they can get away with it.
Even all the globalist traitors can still point to the CONSTITUTION. It’s still there in print. The Supreme Court still goes through the charade of referring to it.
Yet on many levels that touch the every day lives of virtually all Americans, it’s been shredded a long time and is daily becoming more so.
I think that’s a very apt analogy vis a vis the Roman CAtholic et al Catechism. It’s a nice, convenient, all thoroughly explicated document that provices LOTS of shelter in any theological storm. How could it not with such an abundance of words.
HOwever, the average parishioner in the pew faces an entirely different reality. The plethera of Marian stuff alone—such as the many documents quoted in Ferraro’s book—the vast quantity alone—regardless of how much or how little they are in kosher concert with the Catechism—those documents flood the average parishioner’s mind and life with a fairly constant barrage of—evidently—wholesale heretical stuff which is not strictly “what the Catechism says.”
Yet the materials are published in approved, sanctioned publishing houses without censure—in fact, with the opposite of censure—with IMPRIMATURS AND nihil obstat’s.
IF the Vatican wanted to clean up such heretical publishing—it could have done so hundreds of years ago. Instead, it appears to get worse and worse. The creshendo grows to declare Mary Co-Mediatrix formally. The mythologies are embellished and gilded to the wide acclaim of tens of millions in the pews and the Pope himself continues with utterances encouraging such.
So I have no respect for the distinctions that may be different in the Catechism. It’s a convenient fallback when the heat gets too hot over the rampant, raging heresies in the pews and the average Roman Catholic pontifications in countless publications, sermons and proclamations.
Running and hiding under a formal, dusty, footnote full umbrella and pretending that’s the sum total of Roman Catholic et al life WHEN THE OPPOSITE IS THE AVERAGE TRUTH . . . is silly . . . more than a little disingenuous and at some point starkly dishonest.
True. True.
I just ache for those so vulnerable to so much deception.
God have mercy on us all.
God protect me from deception!
And you'll have no need to be concerned about the end times deceptions of the spirit of anti-Christ.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. – John 5:24
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. – Colossians 3:3
AMEN! AMEN!
Have a blessed rest of the night.
Heading to bed.
Thanks for your kind replies.
I think you understand what I’ve tried to say on the things you have yet to respond to.
LUB
I'd say you are corrrect on the first part but no on the second...
Most Catholics I'm familiar with appear to want to be associated with a religion...I can not tell the difference between the Catholics I know and the heathen...
I go to work and watch the guys tell the dirty jokes, make sexual remarks about the women and they God damn this and Jesus Christ that and when the topic of religion comes up, many of them proudly say, 'oh ya, I'm a Catholic...
Just this morning on the radio I listened to a news program that stated 59,000 Catholic nuns have joined together to give their support to Obama's healthcare bill, abortion and all...They justified themselves by claiming that the new health care bill provides better for pregnant women...
Now I'd be hard pressed to believe that any one of those 'holy' nuns is filled with the Holy Spirit or that they are in Jesus Christ...
Now that's not to say that I don't believe that some Catholics are actually saved...As Alamo Girl states, you appear to have the fruits of the Spirit...
The big question is, what is a person counting on to get to Heaven...The only answer is 'the shed blood of Jesus Christ'...He did it all...There's nothing we can do...
And like the fella asks, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved'??? And the answer is; Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...
Fortunately you can be saved even if your religion doesn't teach you that...And your religion doesn't teach you that...
AMEN! AMEN!
Much and I don't doubt that one bit, not all, much of what the Catholic Church says is based on its tradition. When Catholics claim inerrancy for something that isn't the inspired Word of God and then base doctrine on it, it remains error.
The question is where does one turn for the unvarnished Word of God? The proper course is to use Scripture to check what you are being taught, ala Bereans.
One is a made up idea to cover odd circumstances, the other is claiming as a human work a blessing of God.
He was not as deep a theologian when made bishop -- true, but his epistles date fromAFTER that, when he made the effort to learn and to teach what he had learnt. And this was effective -- St. Augustine heard this and converted!
The important part, he was saved, and provided instruction that others could be as well. Hallelujah.
The blessing is of God, yes, but we can choose to accept or reject it — the theif chose to accept it
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