Posted on 07/24/2015 7:31:26 AM PDT by don-o
A Catholic priest once told me something an older priest said to him at a party for his archdiocese’s seminarians headed off to study at the North American College in Rome: “Those poor boys. They leave here in love with Jesus, and come home in love with the Church.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
Right?
Catholic ping!
So may I infer that you never wondered why the Great Commission did not say: “Go into all the world and hand out Bibles”?
————————————————————————————That’s right, so wonder why God had billions of bibles printed?
Could it be because Jesus said many shall come in my name and deceive many?
Maybe if people are reading their bibles it won`t be so easy to deceive them.
“If you’re a moral type, he’ll try to get you addicted to high-proof moral indignation (hotter than hard liquor, I can tell you).”
He’s a distorter, right? I find a positive example of the distortion in Psalm 119:
“Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law” (vs. 53)
Even if coming from a right spirit, that will never sell in the marketplace. But most believers can relate. This God-loving indignation is often yet another casualty of the “don’t JUUUUUUUDDDDGGGGGGE” obsession. No one is righteous, not even one BUT...WE side with God against ourselves and say, “Let God be true and every man a liar”. It’s more of a standing up for the righteousness of God than “ain’t I goooood?”
Bless you.
“One thing that struck me about Dreher’s piece is that he accuses no one but himself of anything. This is powerful.”
I’m reading Pascal lately and he wrote a couple of scathing “thoughts” about Montaigne. Then he said, basically, “What I see in Montaigne I saw in myself first”.
Thank you, Kolokotronis. That was beautiful.
I think that's a psychological truism of broad applicability.
The opposite is also a truism: “What I saw first in Montaigne, I saw in myself.”
But these things can get distorted. Desire get distorted into self-centered out-of-control lust, piety into smug self-satisfied "churchiness," good moral indignation into kind of titillated "Oh, that's so outrageous. I wanna smite those guys. Tell me more, tell me more!"
Satan is totally un-creative. He can't create a "damn" thing. All he can do is glom onto something good that God made, and pervert it.
The priest is not necessary to come to know Christ.
The Holy Spirit guides us.
It is also the Holy Spirit who seals us when we are saved according to Ephesians 1:13-14. The Greek behind these verses is really, really powerful.
Further, membership in a church is not required for salvation....it is faith in Christ that is required.
Yes,that is what it means, but savior is not his name; God Saves in Hebrew is his name.
You mention the Holy Spirit.
Christ breathed on them — the apostles — and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
Yep. Same Holy Spirit given to all believers.
All believers can hear Confessions? Is that what you are saying?
I don’t think so. This is talking about the priesthood.
Christ gave this grace to the Apostles, the first Bishops, and it has been passed down by the Bishops by the laying on of hands at ordinations.
“Satan is totally un-creative. He can’t create a “damn” thing. All he can do is glom onto something good that God made, and pervert it.”
Truth.
When a person believes in Christ their sins have been forgiven.
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross". Colossians 2:13-14
Further, the security of the believer in Christ can be found in Ephesians 1:13-14. Believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritence. In the Greek the word pledge has the meaning of earesnt money.....a down payment guaranteeing the remainder will be paid.
Paul and Peter both view "inheritance" as what awaits the believer in Heaven.
I can not find any place in the NT where the Word ever says we are unsealed by God or that we can unseal ourselves.
Yes! We need to be like the Bereans....constantly searching the Word.
Some don't advocate doing that as it would expose false teachings.
We recently began a discussion group at parish, and I did a presentation on Grace. One of the things I mentioned was how Mother mentioned that she would fortify herself every day with the Eucharist before she went into the streets to do her ministry.
One of the other participants also mentioned St. Francis.
The "letters" were written in the 50's, James Peter and Paul were martyred in the mid 60's. Most scholars agree that Mark, the first Gospel was written some time around the year 70. Matthew and Luke were written independently of each other sometime either in the 80's or early 90's.
My guess would be that the Gospel (which literally means "Good News") was spread orally. Which if you think about it is still the way that most people hear it even today.
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