Posted on 05/31/2013 2:44:05 PM PDT by NYer
Do our Catholic children and most adults know what these images teach?
All of us know one of the elephants in the room of the Catholic Church. Our religious education programs are not handing on the essence of our Catholic Faith, our parents are befuddled about their role in handing on the faith and the materials we use are vapid or if good do not make an impression on young minds. We are afraid of asking for memorization and thus most don't remember anything they've learned about God and Church other than some niceties and feel good emotions.
I teach each class of our grades 1-6 (we don't have 7th or 8th) each Thursday, rotating classes from week to week. For the last two years I have used Baltimore Catechism #1 as my text book. It is wonderful to use with children and it is so simple yet has so much content. If Catholics, all Catholics, simply studied Baltimore Catechism #1, we would have very knowledgeable Catholics.
These past two years I've used Baltimore Catechism #2 with our adult religious program which we call Coffee and Conversation following our 9:30 AM Sunday Mass, which coincides with our CCD program which we call PREP (Parish Religious Education Program).
This #2 book has more content and is for middle school, but upper elementary school children must have been more capable of more serious content back when this book was formulated and used through the mid 1960's because it is a great book to use with adults and not childish at all. We all use this same book as a supplemental book for the RCIA because it is so clear, nobly simple and chocked full of content!
Yes, there are some adjustments that need to be made to some chapters, but not that many, in light of Vatican II and the new emphasis we have on certain aspects of Church that are not present in the Baltimore Catechism. But these are really minor.
What is more important though is that when the Baltimore Catechism was used through the mid 1960's it was basically the only book that was used for children in elementary and junior high school. It was used across the board in the USA thus uniting all Catholics in learning the same content. There was not, in other words, a cottage industry of competing publishing houses selling new books and different content each year.
The same thing has occurred with liturgical music, a cottage industry of big bucks has developed around the sale of new hymnals, missalettes and new music put on the open market for parishes to purchase. It is a money making scheme.
Why do our bishop allow this to happen in both liturgical music and parish catechesis? The business of selling stuff to parishes and making mega bucks off of it is a scandal that has not be addressed.
In the meantime, our liturgies suffer and become fragmented because every parish uses a different resource for liturgical music and the same is true of religious formation, everyone uses something different of differing quality or no quality at all.
Isn't it time to wake up and move forward with tried and true practices that were tossed out in favor of a consumerist's approach to our faith that has weakened our liturgies, our parishes and our individual Catholics?
I feel left out.
Absolutely. We also teach that the Apostles were granted this authority by Christ.
“If it has to do with Christianity, it can be found in the scriptures by comparing scripture with scripture...”
That’s not what scripture actually says.
Matthew 18:15-7
“If your brother or sister[b] sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ “If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church;” and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
The Church decides and sorts out the issue if the issue cannot be resolved between the brothers. Christ affirms that the end authority is in fact the Church.
What were these six errors in De sex erroribus, that Hus posted on the door of Bethlehem Chapel, and are they errors still? That was heresy and lies?
And Sola Scriptura preceded Martin Luther by a hundred years, in the fourteenth century?
Seriously?
"your guys". Which guys is that?
Documentation please. From a real source.
Baloney. I've sat through masses for years and they do NOT go through the whole Bible.
That's been discussed and documented in the past. I don't recall who did it, but pinging some others who may have.
No you don't.
Tell me how much time passed between verse one and verse two.
Even with a literal reading of the English, there's no way of telling without assuming.
Documentation please. From a real source.
How many Protestant churches support Gay marriages?
None that I've ever been in.
No she was not. You have elevated her to a god status. She was/is a human being just like you and me. She sinned. She needed a Savior. Just because she was picked out for a special duty (like Moses or John the Baptist or others) does not give her any quality to be worshiped. You use words to confuse your actions but Catholics worship Mary. You have convinced yourselves you do not but in reality you do. By substituting another word for worship does not deny the reality of the situation.
I am part of the body of Christ through faith in Him. I AM the church, I don’t *belong* to one.
I don’t belong to a church because it doesn’t make any difference. It’s irrelevant where I worship as long as the local assembly preaches the gospel.
I’m a Christian, a follower of Christ. My identity is in Him, not a denomination. Denominations are just labels. They don’t define who I am in Christ.
You have guts enough to tell us what that heresy was???
"It was brutality and don't quote any Catholic writings saying he was well cared for." "Those are Galileo's writings that I quoted and he felt his treatment was so brutal that he wrote to others about how well he was treated."
Every thing he wrote was carefully examined before leaving his house prison. His writings were under duress. The Power to burn people at the stake is a heavy incentive to not displease ruling regime.
You are confused. It wasn’t by her own power that she was preserved from original sin. (You know what we mean by “original sin”, right?). Are you saying God doesn’t have the power to preserve anyone from original sin? She receives honor higher than the other saints, but lower than the Trinity, as well she should.
Ok, I presume you participate in congregational worship on sundays. Is it a house church that you attend?
“By substituting another word for worship does not deny the reality of the situation.”
Do you believe that when you are commanded to honor your mother and father, you are commanded to worship your mother and father?
NO, I do not. I honor them (and their name) by being honorable.
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