Posted on 07/26/2013 7:56:13 PM PDT by marshmallow
Fatima, Harissa, Damascus, Samalut, Assiut, Zeitun and many other places where the Virgin appeared are the destination of incessant pilgrimages from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran. Pilgrims in search of physical but also spiritual healing; spontaneous and mystical prayer and not the schematic and formal verses of official Islam. The iconoclast Salafists destroy places of pilgrimage every year. But the devotion to Mary is growing, also fueled by the stories of the Koran. The spiritual dialogue between Christians and Muslims is much more promising than cultural, theological or political dialogue.
Beirut (AsiaNews) - Each year millions of Muslims come on pilgrimage to the Catholic Marian shrines. Not only to the major shrines such as Fatima in Portugal or Harissa in Lebanon, but also to Egypt, Syria, Iran. Muslims - especially Muslim women - go to give thanks to the Madonna or great Christian saints, like St. Charbel or St. George.
In the eyes of many Westerners these gestures seem ridiculous or false: they speak of apparitions, of prayers, but then there are massacres, killings, violence in the name of religion!
Like it or not, the religious phenomenon is alive in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia. When you see millions of Hindus go to bathe in the dirty water of the sacred river it may seem like a ridiculous thing. Yet for those who do it is an act of purification, of prayer. The West is tolerant and benevolent towards other religions, but its attitude towards Christians is increasingly hypercritical. The West is not post-Hindu, post-Islam. It is only post-Christian!
The point is that in the West, the supernatural is considered outdated, it is branded as mythology, illusion, instead the West is forever denouncing the difficulties that neither miracles nor pilgrimages can erase.
But in the rest of the world the spiritual.....
(Excerpt) Read more at asianews.it ...
Thanks JR.
Simply in the name of honesty I must admit that there are certain things with which I actually agree more with stfassisi than I do with most American conservatives. But this is your site, and if I want to preach my own ideology, I need to make a website of my own.
However, I'll never understand Catholics who defend the miracles of the new testament or who sound like Fr. Coughlin when it comes to the Masons while dismissing the Bible as didactic mythology. That whole contrast is simply way too jarring. I literally don't understand why they don't see it.
I wonder how many queens are Freemasons now that you mention it.
Then I suggest we simply avoid communicating in the future. It serves absolutely no purpose.
Likely most if not all.
Woe. I doubt that but I’m sure at least a few want that neat Fez with a gold writing on it. Some probably get off on the whole sword theme, too.
Please don’t make the thread about me.
Amazing. Asking you about Jesus Christ is punishment? How is asking you to explain yourself being part of the problem or some sort of punishment?
Yes. You are punishing me by absolutely refusing to respond to the points I have been making about Biblical liberalism in the highest circles in the Catholic Church. Your absolute refusal to make a simple acknowledgement of my points is a form of cruelty to a person who gave the Catholic Church his loyalty for six years but who had to make a decision: is a religion that accuses A-mighty G-d of lying "the true religion?" Of course not. But you choose to rub it in by happily reminding me that you refuse to deal with the issue. You pretend it doesn't exist. Or perhaps you're a higher critic yourself. I have no way of knowing and you'll never tell me, because you seem to be having so much fun teasing me. Are there any other old sores in my soul you would like to reopen for your enjoyment? Does doing so make you feel like you have won an argument? Does it make you feel the better man? It must be giving you jollies in one way or another.
You apparently insist on my stating plainly my position on the claims of J*sus even though it is unnecessary to do so. I've been here for fourteen years and for all that time have told everyone that I am a Noachide. So of course I reject the claims by or about J*sus. If this causes you even the fraction of pain that your co-religionists' attacks on the integrity of the Bible cause me, then I suppose I will have to be satisfied with that.
If what you are doing is demanding that I justify my religious beliefs, I assure you I am well able to do so. But all the while we are arguing your co-religionists will be smirking as they attack the integrity of the Bible, and all your anger will be aimed at me and absolutely none at them.
You obviously place all the odium for my "apostasy" on me, without having the slightest notion what it was like to witness constant attacks on the Bible in Catholic publications (and don't blame "liberals"--Benedict XVI was an evolutionist who denied original sin).
One of two things must have happened to you: either never had any experience with Biblical liberalism during your journey into the Catholic Church and your life there afterward or else you turned your heart into a flinty stone without the slightest bit of concern.
If you wish to feel "better than" me, knock yourself out. But to maintain a superior attitude when you aren't even capable of acknowledging the problem I've been posting about doesn't strike me as requiring a great deal of intellect or courage. It does, however, evince the greatest and most sadistic cruelty.
So, does your denial of Jesus Christ as God bring you all the joy you thought it would or do you find that in having a new basis for belittling others?
I don't get the reasons why any faith that acknowledges the Bible as Holy Scripture would even want to deny its truths. I would venture that perhaps because of pressure from the world and fear of being ridiculed, some may feel they have no choice and compromise their trust in the Bible. Some, no doubt, NEED to discredit the Bible so that they can assert their religion's hierarchy as superior to God's word and presume that ONLY they can credibly "interpret" what is the truth it relays. The funny thing is that some of the records contained in Scripture are FIRSTHAND accounts and not a word is mentioned of any symbolic or figurative meaning. Jonas REALLY was swallowed by a great fish and was barfed out after three days and nights to live to tell about it. Moses REALLY did cross the Red Sea on dry land with over a million Jews following him and they saw the immense walls of water on their right and left being held back miraculously. They REALLY saw Pharaoh's army drowned when the walls of water crashed down on them once the last Israelite stepped onto the shore. There are many other kinds of accounts such as this that so-called experts have tried to rationalize away as impossible. Well aren't miracles BY DEFINITION things that seem impossible? But with God ALL things are possible. When literal things happened, we are told clearly in Scripture. When God is speaking allegorically or figuratively, he makes it clear as well.
This is why I do not join those who minimize Scripture or insist their "church" is the authority over it. The Seat of Moses was every bit in subjection to Scripture or should have been. Any religious leaders who pervert the Bible and twist God's commandments so that they can lord it over people, have and will meet their judgment. God is not mocked. Don't be discouraged. Your defense of Scripture is appreciated.
Naw...you don't see. What makes you think I was "upset". Are you trying to read my mind now? Is EVERY response that disagrees with you an expression of someone being upset? How about you seemed to be impugning Free Republic members as "liberal Fascist liars" whose only reason for posting here is as shills for their Liberal Fascist backers who connive to attack the Catholic Church through them? That was my purpose in that initial response. By extension, you seem to be saying Jim Robinson knowingly allows such people to join and does nothing to monitor or prevent them. You also seemed to tie every Freeper who disagrees with or criticizes the Catholic Church as being one of those sleeper posters. It sounded to me like some kind of conspiracy theory and a persecution paranoia that ASKED, no DARED, for someone to answer back.
I don't know your motive, I can only read what you posted and draw a conclusion from it. I concluded that if you really had evidence that this was going on, it would behoove you to let JR know about it and help him weed out these "plants" who present themselves as something they’re not. Did you do that? IS that really why you said what you did? 'Cause to me, it looked like it was only a springboard to getting personal with the one who dared to call you on it (me). So, you can imagine that I am one of "those" people if you want. It was more amusing that upsetting. Don't worry your pretty little head about it.
What an ego trip.
It may shock you to hear this, but everything doesn't revolve around you.
While we're "behooving", I feel sure JR is aware that such folks come around and he or others watch for them to tip their hand. If I ever think it "behooves" me to make mention of anything or anyone on FR I'll contact him by email.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you never crossed my mind in that context or any other for that matter.
Late at night and I have not fully developed the following thought. Still, I will run this up the flagpole.
Creed of Chalcedon summarized the biblical teaching on the Incarnation.
1. Jesus has two natures — He is God and man.
2. Each nature is full and complete — He is fully God and fully man.
3. Each nature remains distinct.
4. Christ is only one Person.
5. Things that are true of only one nature are nonetheless true of the Person of Christ.
Jesus wept. Human emotion.
What other human emotion would Jesus display? I assume that all of us have had a mother in our lives. Let us say that 50% of us had a loving and nurturing mother. A mother who bathed us, changed our diapers, and feed us from her breast.
When we think about our loving and nurturing mother, the first thing that springs into our mind, is that our mother is just an incubator and I have no attachment to my mother. I do not want to feel the caress of my mother’s hand across my face, whether I am 5 years old or 30 years old, because my mother is just an incubator. As my death approaches and I see my mother weep as she gazes upon my torn body, I only think of my mother as an incubator. No bonding with my mother, because my mother is just an incubator.
You know what? I can see how it is easy for some to think about the Mother of God as just an incubator, when a person does not really see Jesus as fully God and fully man.
Riiight... I can read as can anyone else who follows the trail you left. YOU made it about me. Take your twisted pretend gotchas elsewhere.
A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.
It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.
All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.
Fascinating. I thought that God provided two stone tablets, and their backup when the first ones got smashed. Which book did God provide? And who did He give it to?
What about the Martial Arts? I believe that the majority of them have a beginning in Buddhism or Confucisism. Does the same apply for them?
For the record I was not "Defining" it, I was explaining that some are not "Capable" of committing sin.
You do not need any religious crap to learn a martial art. Most Yoga still includes the crap.
Besides Jesus.. nobody is incapable of committing sin. We have sin natures. Without civilization - and faith in God -, humans are barbaric (see "Wilding").
I agree with that, and said nothing in opposition to it. I simply said that there are some that are not capable of committing sin.
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