Posted on 05/24/2011 7:31:01 AM PDT by Lazamataz
Thanks for your kind words.
DOODNESS!
What a treasure of a bunch of encouragement.
PRAISE GOD.
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!
Thanks for all your heart-felt and perceptive observations.
May God continue to conform all of us to His image.
THX TONS.
What is it in Ephesians about "those who are far out and those who are near?". We're pretty far out.
;-)
It’s OK.
Just as long as we’re
‘NEAR TO THE HEART OF GOD!’
Amen. In Christ,may we ever be near and nearer to the heart of God.
(Sometime we ought to talk about what “the sacred heart of IHS means to us feelthy papists.)
LUB. stay well.
You too, Bro.
. . . a tolerable subject . . .
the figures with the heart sometimes give me the willies.
Well, we are in a society where the parasites outnumber the producers - and they have the vote.
I don’t agree with what your solution is, but I agree we are in a world of hurt.
So I guess you’d hit that.?
I wish I were as certain of knowing God’s plan as you are.
Oh, don’t get me started on popular Catholic art! “Sick-making” is only a mild term for it.
BUT once I “got” the idea that God loves us with a human heart, my attitude softened. It’s still icky qua art, but I see, I think, what they’re trying to say.
I think i sort of get the idea . . .
still . . .
The best place to get gas and the best place to get snacks on the run ... :-)
You said ... “The only possible solution is the complete extermination of the entire human race.”
And what do you know ... that’s God’s intention. He said He’s going to wipe out the race of Adam. He’s working on it now ... and when He’s done, there won’t be anyone left here from the race of Adam ... :-)
Of course, He’s also working on a replacement race, the one that comes from the Second Adam. But, that’s another story.
At any rate ... yes ... God is wiping out mankind.
So it kind of comes down to a devotion to IHS as the incarnate, human vehicle and revelation of God's love.
(Any Catholics who think I need correction, please jump in and straighten me out.)
But to follow that line: The burning heart, crowned with thorns, despite the garishness of many portrayals, is a fine way, I think to present the Incarnation in a human of the love of God. Many of us tend to "spiritualize" Divine Love into something a little removed from real life, and to de-emotionalize IHS. I know my habits of thought need to be reined in and guided away from that gnostic tendency.
So the thought held out to us is like this: What is it like when YOU love intensely? Your body is involved. Your breathing, your heartbeat, your sensoria, sometimes your digestion all seem to take part in your love. An INTEGRATED human love will not be a phenomenon experienced only as "cold" will and intellect -- because we, when we are fully human are soul AND body.
So we may imagine IHS burning, panting, with love, feeling the surges of emotion that we feel; we can see Him driven, almost, to the Cross NOT by cold determination, but by the union of passion and will that might lead a mother to sacrifice herself for her child.
In us, that kind of Eros is often contaminated by a desire to possess, to consume. Blessed and clear-eyed parents know the yearning which includes a yearning to set free, to cease anything like possession.
To the extent that any love is purely benign, it seems it must include suffering because it must renounce the possession for which it also longs. Sure, at the end, possession is destructive, as we can see in a 40 year old "mama's boy". So acceptance of pain now forestalls the kind of dull throb of pain secondary to the spiritual sepsis of clinging to what must be set free.
So we have a kind of fresh pain, a still bleeding pain, a vital pain, rather than a morbid.
I freely, eagerly admit to a kind of gory garishness in catholic imagery. But all that in a way contributes to keeping the babes from eating meat until they have had enough milk. If all one does is look at the pictures, one is repulsed. At the very kindest, they are maudlin in the extreme.
But when one thinks that "the love which moves the Sun and other stars" was incarnate and became a human being in all humanity's organic vitality, then you -- well, then I -- forgive the painting because one sees through it to the idea it represents.
Since IHS is now ascended it is fair to say that God, in the Son, in IHS, loves you with a human, albeit risen, heart.
I don't think that's such a bad thing to think.
Thanks for beautifully enlightening my understanding.
Interesting.
Much truth in your writing.
That is a VERY gratifying response. Thanks.
I've copied you to one, "presently no screen name" and there's also others.
Now, I believe that we must first know our common ground before really discussing otherwise we talk in the wind.
The very fact that you and I share a belief in the Christian God as outlined in the Nicene Creed means we have a ground on which we can discuss. Even if we disagree on some fine point and can't come to a resolution, we can at least shake hands and say "at least we both believe in Jesus Christ, Lord, God and Savior"
I'm sorry but that is NOT the stated belief of The Church
The Catechism states that
"The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter."322 Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."Whoever tells you that a non-C is going to hell is misquoting Church teaching. We of course believe that you have some wrong beliefs (as I'm sure you do likewise), but no you are definitely NOT going to hell just for not being in the CC.
You were baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you repent, believe and confess and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, God and Savior. I don't know your actions in life, but you are living God's word in this, you are Christian in belief, so we would be fools to make any statement about your eternal faith based on membership rather than your core beliefs
That being said, I do believe that a belief in the Christian faith as outlined in the Nicene Creed is the important thing that really defines a Christian
I don't deny that there must be Catholic freepers who use the same words back, but as I showed above, this is not Church position and I personally will rebuke them if they say this (saying you're wrong is different from commenting on your eternal fate), but we also incessantly hear the above statements from the freepers here
Because that is what has kept us and the Orthodox true to the Faith. We cannot have a democratic vote to allow gays like what happened in the PCUSA or ELCA. We cannot have an official change in doctrine saying baby murder is ok. Any Catholic who does or believes this is just against Church beliefs.
They can call themselves Catholic by culture, but no, they are not Catholic in belief.
YOU’re worth it.
Most of the time.
And loved all the time.
LOL.
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