Posted on 07/26/2021 9:07:05 AM PDT by Cronos
Mgsr Charles Pope Ping
Please FReepmail me to get on/off the Msgr Charles Pope Ping List.
from Chesterton's 'Orthodoxy'
This is the thrilling romance of Orthodoxy. People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe.
There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad. It was the equilibrium of a man behind madly rushing horses, seeming to stoop this way and to sway that, yet in every attitude having the grace of statuary and the accuracy of arithmetic.
The Church in its early days went fierce and fast with any warhorse; yet it is utterly unhistoric to say that she merely went mad along one idea, like a vulgar fanaticism.
She swerved to left and right, so exactly as to avoid enormous obstacles. She left on one hand the huge bulk of Arianism, buttressed by all the worldly powers to make Christianity too worldly. The next instant she was swerving to avoid an orientalism, which would have made it too unworldly.
The orthodox Church never took the tame course or accepted the conventions; the orthodox Church was never respectable.
It would have been easier to have accepted the earthly power of the Arians. It would have been easy, in the Calvinistic seventeenth century, to fall into the bottomless pit of predestination.
It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one's own. It is always easy to be a modernist; as it is easy to be a snob. To have fallen into any of those open traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect set along the historic path of Christendom—that would indeed have been simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect.
This is a famous but timely quote: Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, Secretary of State of Pope Pius VII, said to Napoleon who threatened to destroy the Church: “You will not succeed, your majesty. Not even we [priests, bishops and cardinals] had been able to do that”.
The hope of Chinese to see Christians in reality now rests not on Catholics but on Orthodox and Protestants.
ROMANS 8:28, 8 - 10
[8] For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God;
[9] Not of works, that no man may glory.
[10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.
THE CHURCH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SALVATION.
“A Pharisee in the council named Gamali-el, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while. 35And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. 36For before these days Theudas arose, giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; 39but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" (Acts 5:34-39)
Please be born again which isn’t the Catholic Church but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Repent and ask for forgiveness and be washed white as snow by the blood of Jesus for your sins past present and future.
I didn’t say the Catholic church will be forever thrown into the crapper. I said the current leader of Catholics is far and away removed from standing up to Christian persecution. The original post is about being more Catholic to stand up to persecution. And I’m saying someone should tell that to Top Catholic.
I join in Msgr. Pope’s prayer.
My apologies; I did not read your post carefully.
John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
amen
All Catholics are “born again” when they are baptized.
If you are fortunate enough to be Baptized, had your First Communion and been Confirmed, all you need is Last Rights and you are into Heaven. At the least, that is what the Nuns told me, lol.
“If you are fortunate enough to be Baptized, had your First Communion and been Confirmed, all you need is Last Rights and you are into Heaven. At the least, that is what the Nuns told me, lol.”
Last rites, not last “rights.”
And no, that is not what the sisters told you. That may be what you heard, but that’s not what they said.
No Catholic Church = No Bible
To add to your comment, being “in the state of Grace” is roughly equivalent to being “born again”.
However, one must be in the state of Grace to enter heaven.
Says the Bible nowhere
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.