Posted on 02/01/2016 4:05:40 PM PST by NYer
6) Plan a mini pilgrimage to a local shrine; make an effort along the way to live the corporal work of mercy of "welcoming the stranger" as Christ.
Growing up Catholic in San Diego, in the shadow of the first of 21 missions founded by St. Junipero Serra, clearly influenced my life as a nomadic Catholic, seeking out sacred sites that raise my mind and heart to God. As I moved around the country and the world, I learned that no matter where I am, a Catholic church is always home.
While I have been blessed to make a few of the "big" pilgrimages -- to the Holy Land, Rome, Fatima -- I still find a great deal of comfort knowing that there are no fewer than five small shrines all less than a 30-minute drive away from my little neighborhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I remember when we first moved here, I was amazed at how few of the Catholics I met knew that we were so blessed. It made me wonder, how many more Catholic shrines and places of pilgrimage do we have in the United States? How many people know about them?
My desire to find out and share that knowledge led my husband and I to produce The Faithful Traveler, a television series that explores those very sites. We devoted our entire first series to local shrines, visiting some of the most astonishing shrines and cathedrals in Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Shrines and places of pilgrimage take on many forms. There's the little shrine, made up of a statue in a corner of a church, or the big shrine, like the National Shrines of Our Lady of Guadalupe or of St. John Nepomucene Neumann. I am also a fan of visiting cathedrals, because they are often stunning and historic and provide a plethora of little shrines or chapels to pray to many saints.
To live out this suggestion for the Year of Mercy, the first thing you have to do is find out if there is a shrine near you. Here are some ways to do that:
Once you've found your spot, plan to bring a book of spiritual reading. Or don't. I'll bet they have some good ones at the gift shop.
Bring your rosary and your list of prayer intentions.
If you have kids, bring them along! Visiting shrines is a great way to teach them about our faith.
Spend the day at the shrine, learning about the saint to whom or the devotion to which the shrine is dedicated.
And while you're there, it's a great time to move on to the second part of this challenge.
Welcome the stranger as Christ
The world can be a mean and unwelcoming place. But while I can't control how others behave toward me, I can control how I behave toward them. A simple smile and saying hello does wonders. Mother Teresa was a great proponent of the smile:
"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love."
"Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."
"Peace begins with a smile …"
Visiting shrines brings us face to face with strangers, and strangers provide us with the opportunity to grow in virtue, be it the virtue of patience, charity, or humility.
And of course, once we're nestled into our own pew, we can perform some of the spiritual works of mercy by forgiving offenses and praying for the dead.
There are so many blessings to be had from making a local pilgrimage, I could go on forever. Instead, I'll leave you with these words, spoken by the Virgin Mary to a young St. Catherine Labouré:
"Come to the foot of the altar, for there you will receive great graces."
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Diana von Glahn is the co-creator of The Faithful Traveler, a travel series for television that broadcasts on EWTN. The Faithful Traveler website provides access to her blog and photos from her travels. DVDs of her first two series can be purchased there, as well. Her upcoming special on Pope Francis' pilgrimage to the Holy Land, A Papal Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, will be broadcast soon.
Making the thread about another poster started in post #9 where you accused another poster of being drunk.
But that is her MO when called on her use of bias against those not part of her belief system.
Yes I know you were clever and posted it as a question.
But when a slur like yours is posted, others will go outside the guidelines with you and the thread enters into the chaotic zone.
Salvation of course didn't go to the root of the problem, but instead falsely accused another poster of making the thread about a member.
I brought this to her attention, but received no answer or explanation as to why she wasn't accurate in her research before slamming the wrong poster with a false accusation
She rarely ever answers a reply that calls her out on her biased posts.
You also doubled down on your "are you a drunk" question. I guess saying it once wasn't enough.
You have been successful in diverting the thread to you instead of the actual issues of the thread.
It appears you did not have debate ammo to use to answer a completely legitimate post, therefore the poster must be "drunk?"
Congrats on not having debate on the issue of Catholics worshiping the false god of Islam as proclaimed by the highest authority of the Catholic Church at this time.
Mission accomplished, now lets see if the thread is pulled and if any more Christians are banned for calling you out for your use of diversionary tactic instead of honest reasoned debate.
Proverbs 1:22-26Elsie, thanks for the tagline!
"How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?
I put a message for you at the bottom of my last post on this thread.
Highlight the area below my text to see it.
Everyone else, Don’t look!
I have other things to do. Don’t always get back to threads.
If you are posting on a thread you should not post something that is not accurate.
It is you responsibility to make it right isn’t it?
That is a basic Christian principle.
Thanks for the reply.
Earlier today you posted:
“I’m not going to play your game, vladi.”
Stop posting to me.
Earlier today you posted:
“I’m not going to play your game, vladi.”
Stop posting to me. It isn’t hard. Just stop posting to me.
“Making the thread about another poster started in post #9 where you accused another poster of being drunk.”
Now explain why to me how it is not hypocrisy for others to do the same thing while complaining I did it earlier. Can you do that?
“Mission accomplished, now lets see if the thread is pulled and if any more Christians are banned for calling you out for your use of diversionary tactic instead of honest reasoned debate.”
There was no chance of “honest reasoned debate” precisely because of the content of the comment I responded to. That’s why I responded exactly as I did.
I explained that in my last post to you.
Read it slower.
The comment was:
According to Francis, Catholics and Muslims worship the same God.Did you miss that when it was proclaimed?
The other two statements were metaphorical taken from the sentence quoted.
Surely you could find some words to respond to the post.
Or do you wish to hide the facts about Muslims and Catholics worshiping the same "God?"
So it was attributed to Francis, big deal.
I believe he may have commented on it, I don't know.
But here it is from Catholic history;
The Church's relationship with Muslims. The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 841, quoting Lumen Gentium 16, November 21, 1964).
“The comment was:”
Nope.
The comment had THREE SENTENCES. You posted one. Disagree all you want, but be honest. Try.
“I explained that in my last post to you.”
No you did not.
“Read it slower.”
Write it better.
Bingo.
That's the meat of the issue which was being deceitfully avoided.
Instead, the flaws were said to be in some critic here --- accused of drunkenness.
Different day, same shoot-the-messenger game playing. Right in the middle of that sick game, another one of them has the nerve to lecture about making false accusations.
These people are truly, spiritually ill. A den of vipers. It's like I'm being bitten by serpents each time I encounter their words...
No thanks.
You don't want a response, then , and follow your own advice, shut up, and stop posting to me.
But you want a response, don't you? You keep coming back for more, just can't leave it alone...
You've burned the privileged of being treated decently, and with respect, for having so long taken pains to deny affording that to others.
Understand? And that's why my own comments were not otherwise deleted, even though they bent and broke the rules (in responding to your own serial/habitual bending and breaking of the forum rules).
I'm not the only one who has had their fill of "it" from you.
You need to read the whole post not just the part you wish to comment upon.
Your deceptiveness and apparent inability to converse in a mature manner is duly noted.
The continuity and clarity of my post to you should not be that difficult for a clear mind to understand
“Be honest”
The irony is that it is I that has been honest
The Pee Wee Herman tactic doesn’t work on me
The thread took a nasty turn early on with an accusation of a personal nature
Yes that is ignored and the poster is defended by his belief mates
Same ol’ same ol’
Very pretty!
This has been dealt with before...
Acts 2:13-15
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!
To hear it told; there ARE no Anti-Prot threads on FR.
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