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?
Of course, silly. It's THEM. They're always right even when they do the same thing they condemn in others.
When they do it, it's divinely sanctioned and Spirit led.
When everyone else does the exact same thing, it's demonic.
It all depends on which side of the Catholic fence you're on.
Are you saved? Whatever the post number you reply with go with it as your answer.
Saying *Mother of God* is not the same as saying *Mother of Jesus*.
The Holy Spirit called Mary the mother of Jesus in the Bible. He did not inspire the writers of the NT to call her the mother of God.
You can go with whatever spirit is trying to tell you God has a mother. I’ll go with the Holy Spirit and say that Mary is the mother of Jesus.
Yes, I’m saved as I’m trusting Christ to save me and nothing else.
His death was enough to pay for my sin so it’s a done deal.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t believe that if something contradicts your personal interpretation that you are bound by it.
“Saying *Mother of God* is not the same as saying *Mother of Jesus*.”
So Jesus is not God?
You don’t say! So it’s the head dog who “with the guidance of the Holy Spirit makes the pronouncement and “speaks on the issue” ey? Well lets just take that passage you sighted and see who actually must have been the “pope” of the Apostles.
Acts 15:13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, 16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: 17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. 19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Well, well what have we here? All the apostles discussed the matter but it was James, James mind you NOT Peter who was the “head dog”, the pope as Catholics are want to say. “As it always has” ey? You guys are just too funny.
You are completely wrong on this, but I do pray for you often.
Peace and blessings.
Oh? It WASN’T James who made the decision as Scripture records?
Getting a might weak there. What difference does it make. It was the “scriptures” up to that point. He didn’t tell them to refer to tradition did he. He told them to check with WHAT WAS WRITTEN to even see if what he taught was truth. Catholics on the other hand will take most any myth handed down by the higher ups in the cult.
I’m certainly not bound by something that comes from a group that incorporates paganism in it’s organization.
John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
The phrase *mother of God* does not show up in Scripture anywhere.
If it does somewhere that I missed, you are free to post that as well when you finally get around to posting the Scripture that states that sin entered the world through Eve.
Um, that was scripture that said James made the pronouncement if you didn’t recognize it.
There ya go again. Quoting scripture that doesn’t really mean what it says cuz the RCC says it doesn’t.
That’s evidently what the RCC does in making its decisions.
I will give you partial credit for admitting that the early Church indeed had a pope. However, the Pope was St. Peter. Your answers also reveal a complete misunderstanding of the office of the Pope. The Pope is not the king of the Church, he is another Bishop, the Bishop of Rome and the first among equals.
Look first to the the way in which St. Peter's speech at the Council of Jerusalem begins and ends. By standing up to speak after the debate had subsided, Peter affirmed his authority and centrality. The silence after wards affirmed the finality of what Peter had just said; no one disputed his speech or his authority to make it. As frosting on the cake the witness of Paul and Barnabas, along with James’s speech, only reinforced what Peter said.
Not too many Protestants want to discuss Acts 15 in any great depth and are not too familiar with it, but in St. Peter's speech he first reminded the assembly that God spoke through him AND that he was the was the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the Gospel (Acts 15:7).
Lastly, when St. James spoke he first pointed to the words of St. Peter and then to the Prophets. He then definitively spoke of how to implement St. Peter's proclamation.
Peace be with you
Jesus was also fully human. If you don’t believe that you are not a Christian.
It's been stated as such. We've been told that's exactly how the RCC runs itself.
That was a reference to a democratically arrived at truth in the absence of a teaching authority. It must be pointed out that when Jesus asked the disciples; Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?" (Matthew 16:3) and the right answer was not arrived at democratically or by the average man. It was only answered when St. Peter stepped forward, without consulting the other Apostles and expressed what only God could have told him.
Peace be with you
Need I remind you that St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) bitch slapped Nestorius at Nicea. Talk about getting on the naughty list.
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