Posted on 06/26/2015 10:18:59 AM PDT by Morgana
My grandmother celebrates 100 years of being a Catholic. She will most likely be a Catholic till her last breath as all my other grandparents were. Me? I’m a mere forty-year cradle Catholic. I own that it hasn’t been easy to remain a faithful daughter of the Church, particularly during my turbulent twenties. There was a period I disagreed with, questioned, and criticized Holy Mother Church. There were times I watched people I love abandon their baptismal promises. Still, I remained true to my heritage.
Why? Why am I still Catholic? It’s for the same reasons why people disagree, question, criticize and leave the Church:
1. The Eucharist. A mystery or a symbol to some, but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord in the host is clear as the Catechism 1376 puts it, “because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread.” I am more than happy to remain in the Church where Jesus is really and truly present, and where I can be united to Him in receiving Communion.
2. Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church exalts the Mother of God as the perfect apostle and bestows dignity to womanhood. Since Mary was “preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Catechism 966), she is the role model for every Christian. The scripture on the wedding feast at Cana illustrates that she is a powerful intercessor to our prayers and that devotion to her is the fastest, surest way to unity with Christ as she encourages us: “do whatever [Jesus] tells you.” Our Lady is, to me, all that and a mother who cares about my everyday concerns, with the end goal of the sanctifying my soul. “Don’t be afraid of loving Mary too much,” St. Maximilian Kolbe said. “You can’t possibly love her more than Jesus does.”
3. The saints. By the rigorous process of canonization, the Catholic Church venerates the saints as humans who blazed the path on how to live the Christian life and who “provide us with examples on holiness.” The saints also obtain favors for us as they “do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as the proffer the merits which they acquired on earth.” (Catechism 956). Just like any good friend, saints inspire and pray for me. The journey of my spiritual life is easier with their assistance.
4. Penance and Reconciliation. Undoubtedly, the Church houses both saints and sinners. Knowing our fallen nature, which tempts us to sin and often characterizes us as Pharisees, Christ established the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a means for contrite sinners to obtain absolution for our sins. Jesus told St. Faustina “When you approach the confessional…I myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden in the priest.” Never have I heard more powerful words than the merciful ones voiced at the Sacrament of Reconcilation: “I absolve you from your sins, may God give you pardon and peace.”
5. Purgatory. Purgatory is the place where all who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified undergo purification after death so as the achieve holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. (Catechism 1030). Purgatory as a manifestation of God’s mercy gives me hope that even if I can’t overcome my faults during my life on earth, I still have an opportunity to be sanctified by God’s justice so that I can one day enjoy the beatific vision.
6. Suffering. Suffering is inevitable in our lives because of man’s free will. The Catholic Church makes sense of suffering when it teaches that suffering can be untied with Christ’s passion in atonement for sins. According to St. John Paul II, suffering also increases our capacity for selfless love and hones the virtue of humility. Since scripture says that carrying my cross is necessary to share in Christ’s redemption, the Church not only explains suffering’s purpose but also offers me graces from the Sacraments to endure sacrifice.
7. Magisterium. Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church as the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” to sift through the muddled moral issues that confounds our modern age (and every age) so that she can provide clear guidelines on right versus wrong. “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles.” (Catechism 2032) In every moral issue it has addressed, the Church has illustrated wisdom that only comes from the Holy Spirit. I rely on this wisdom to guard my soul from evil and to direct me on the path to eternal life as much as I rely on the promise of Jesus that “the gates of hell shall never prevail against [the Church].”
I could go on and on. The truth in the Catechism and experience of millions of Catholics over two thousand years are inexhaustible. I don't know how far back my Catholic roots go. But I hope I am not the branch that withers and rots off a steadfast family tree and I pray that I leave Catholicism as a fruitful legacy to my children, and generations after them.
Catechism 2030: “It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized that the Christian fulfills his vocation.”
ut-oh Houston, we have a problem.
No what has been said is a changing of the meaning of the words.. but the intent of Trent is what it is.
. They chose the words VERY CAREFULLY.. they used , not a latin word.. but a Greek word dripping with Pauls condemnation
Douay-Rheims Bible....
Gal1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.
Ummm seems like an appropriate scripture for what they meant huh???
Lets look at the greek meaning
anathema: that which is laid up, i.e. a votive offering
Original Word: ἀνάθεμα, ατος, τό
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: anathema
Phonetic Spelling: (an-ath'-em-ah)
Short Definition: a curse, a cursed thing
Definition: a votive offering, a thing devoted to God; a curse, the thing cursed.
331 anáthema (from 303 /aná, "up" concluding a process, which intensifies 5087 /títhēmi, "to place") – properly, place up, referring to something pledged (given up) to destruction; a divine curse/ban ("accursed"); an "oath-curse."
[331 (anáthema) is the root of the English word, "anathema."]
“I always enjoy watching Catholics going into parrot mode.”
I always enjoy watching anti-Catholics going into dodo mode.
And what of Protestant churches that diverge from your own sect? Or of the Jews? I surmise that your stock of condemnatory terms would be greatly taxed by any such accounting — with little concern as to how Christ would view such expressions.
(Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34)
You caught us. The Pope and his Catholic followers are just pretending, even in the reconciliation with the Lutherans and the many other ecumennical gestures, meetings, and pronouncements of recent decades. We are secretly training and building up our caches of swords, shields, crossbows, and chain mail, our casks of holy water and holy oil, and refurbishing our cherished torture instruments. Soon, soon, when the Vatican’s armies begin to march and put Protestants to the sword and rack in obedience to the Council of Trent, you will be able to claim vindication.
Yep I did ... When Rome denies Trent we can talk about it...BTW there is no acceptance of Rome by US Lutherans..
Anathema ... cursed to hell ...that is what Rome wants for Protestants and the kooks Francis affirmed it..as has every pope since trent
LOL..LOL... coming from a Roman Catholic that is hysterical ...brainwashed sad people that have no Savior.. and look to Rome to be saved.. sad ....no need for Christ....just open the "do it yourself" package offered by Rome ..cross your fingers that those flames nipping at ones heels are just temporary
Bravo!! You found it except for the “A Christian Sunday liturgy with a ritual re-enactment” and the “The practice of the Apostles thus illuminates the bare words of the New Testament” part. Which was sort of my point.
You are mistaken as to what anathema means. It is a form of excommunication based on adherence to false doctrines.
You seem averse to Catholics being, well, Catholic in going beyond scripture to shape their faith and practice. I get that sola scriptura is a foundational principle for contemporary Protestant fundamentalism, but I fail to see why you should regard it as binding on Catholics.
Protestants follow the Bible the Catholic Church thoughtfully created for them, while disavowing everything else that the Church created. So you get "Reverends" like Jackson, Sharpton, Jimmy Swaggert, Tammy Baker and her husband ... and the snake handling sects, and the Mormons..
The topic of this thread is Why I'm Still Catholic (And Why Other People Aren't). There are plenty of warnings throughout the Bible about "if any man brings gospel other than what we have preached" and "don't add to or take away" type of stuff and I get the feeling they were put in there for a reason. Man wants to tinker with what Gods plans are. It happened in the Garden of Eden and it happened in the SCOTUS today. My postings are in the spirit of what this thread is titled. Don't worry about what I think is binding on Catholics, worry about what God considers binding.
There doesn't appear to be much credit given to God for us having Gods Word being as how Catholics are sopping up all the glory. I coulda' swore the Hebrews had something to do with first parts, though.
Catholics do not add to or subtract from scripture, but they do recognize sources of authority in addition to scripture.
You see? I, personally, view that as adding to (what Scripture has decreed). But again, don't pay me any mind, it's what God considers adding to, when you consider something other than what He put down in writing. I can't think of any "sources of authority" that would equal His, but then I'm not Catholic (praise God again).
So, Scripture alone matters, and the early Church Fathers and their writings are to be disregarded, as well as reason and the accumulated wisdom and experience of the Church. Yet isn’t it “adding to Scripture” to contrive such a foundational doctrine and claim that it is drawn from Scripture? Indeed, the passage at issue seems better interpreted to mean not to vary Scripture than as a command that Scripture alone may be consulted. Thus sola Scriptura is not really Scriptural but more a doctrinal contrivance that expresses Protestant anticlericalism.
1. I am more than happy to remain in the Church where Jesus is really and truly present, and where I can be united to Him in receiving Communion.
If you truely had Jesus living inside you as Scripture indicates then you wouldn’t need to visit a building or eat a cracker to know him.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
2. Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church exalts the Mother of God as the perfect apostle and bestows dignity to womanhood. Since Mary was “preserved free from all stain of original sin”
By saying that she is the mother of God you are denying the true deity of Jesus Christ. God has no beginning or end thus cannot be created. Believing in only God will send you to Hell, but to believe in Jesus Christ you have both him and the Father.
The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7”If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.
And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
She wouldn’t need a Savior if she was sinless.
3. The saints. By the rigorous process of canonization, the Catholic Church venerates the saints as humans
Just vein no more no less.
He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.
4.Penance and Reconciliation
Jesus paid the price you are not good enough to do anything good or right.
but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,
IT IS FINISHED!!!
5. Purgatory
Satin’s doubt about God’s perfect Salvation.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
6. from the Sacraments to endure sacrifice
If it’s from the sacraments then it’s not a gift from God, but earned and deserved thus not Grace from God.
7. Magisterium. Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church
So God’s chosen church with it chosen pope believes in the worship of the earth god gaia with his atheist science adviser? Or who am I to judge that homosexual behavior is sinful? Or transfer child molesters instead of removing them? Or kissed the koran and said that you, him, and muslims worship the same god which by the way is Satan? Or believes that capitalism is evil and socialism is so much better? That’s enough for now.
You are happy because you are serving your flesh and not the Spirit of God. Repent and start serving God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit instead of praying to your goddess and kneeling to your graven image of heavenly things.
To which you replied:
So you get "Reverends" like Jackson, Sharpton, Jimmy Swaggert, Tammy Baker and her husband ... and the snake handling sects, and the Mormons..
You seem to just be saying that you don't really understand the meaning of what Christian is, as the scriptures teach.
I see the problem. The pro-Catholic bias causes you to unconsciously add to writings to change their meaning enough to disregard them. Since you do it with Scripture then it's no biggie to it with my words as well. This bias allows one to accept whatever the RCC spoons you from whatever source and you can be sure the passages will be carefully selected for their agenda.
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