Posted on 08/08/2010 5:18:01 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
1. This person was a nun who made a vow to God to serve him in that capacity. Yet the failings of frail humans around her caused her to throw away that vocation and break her vow to God.
2) She appears to be a soul searching for something to fill a hole within her. All her “paths” indicate emotional difficulties.
3) It seems unlikely that she, an educated nun, would suddenly forget all her training and teaching when confronted with a born again brother.
I’d say she was suffering from a severe case of cognitive dissonance over her abandonment of her vocation and, now trapped in a marriage, she grasped desperately at anything that would ease her guilt: the assurance that she can do nothing that displeases God because she is already “saved.”
It would be so easy if that was true! Hitler accepted Jesus as his savior at one time in his life— I’m sure he liked to think he was “saved” also. Are backsliders, even those who murder and do great evil, still “saved?”
In my opinion, this poor woman tried to kill her pain with drugs, and, when that didn’t work, she turned to a different type of feel-good medication: her own personal interpretation of the Bible. She’s her own god.
LOL!
“...was not enough to fill the longing in my spirit.”
After renouncing her Catholicism, she spent years trying to fill that hole in every possible evil way... she also married a divorced man... and finally ended up “born again.”
There will be more to this story because I doubt very much she has found anything to permanently fill the longing of her spirit... she’s rejected the Eucharist. She won’t be truly happy until she becomes a practicing Catholic again.
Because she could not be true to her vow to God, she has gone from one evil act to another. The latest in the series is misrepresenting what Catholics believe and calling our Mass pagan.
This woman, if she were REALLY so happy and fulfilled, wouldn’t need to do that. She’d be moving forward. She’d be able to recognize at least some beautiful things about Catholics— but she can’t because she’s just too messed up. She can’t even be fair. She has to pretend to herself that Catholics are completely wrong about everything. She is pushing this pitiful fantasy up a very steep hill. I doubt she’ll be able to keep it up much longer. She sounds ill.
How very analytical of you..
Perhaps, just maybe, she was suffering from the realization that she was lost. And all the good works in the world could not make it right with God. Perhaps she desired peace with God. And began searching the scriptures in an effort to find that peace that passes all understanding. Maybe she understood, for the first time in her life what, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8,9). And maybe she wanted reconciliation with God. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind with wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." (Col. 1:21).
Of course, all of this is conjecture. She once was lost, but now she's saved. Amazing Grace.
Please do not peg me as do more severe super conservative Catholics may peg you. Which most are not as you think I believe.If someone was Catholic and they for whatever reason misunderstand the faith then go find more knowledge to become a true Christian. May Jesus bless them always!
If it really is true as stated(The Story or article). Now as to this story something does not ring true. Do I believe you are being malicious. I doubt it. I do not believe that. I think its the semantics some outsiders of the Rc church tend to believe. There is certain key words that show classic misunderstandings of the RC Church. Certain bible verses do not mean the same as some write as their view against the catholic church's view.
As to your last statement I live in him and with him which is the Good News(Gos=Good, spel =News)
I also believe you can and do. Even when we misunderstand or disagree.
I was just reading something about that, people might find it interesting, I'll try to keep the excerpt short.
... Evangelists designate Jesus' preaching with the Greek term evangelion - but what does that actually mean?
The term has recently been translated as "good news." That sounds attractive, but it falls far short of the order of magnitude of what is actually meant by the word evangelion. This term figures in the vocabulary of the Roman emperors, who understood themselves as lords, saviors and redeemers of the world. The messages issued by the emperor were called in Latin evangelium, regardless of whether or not their content was particularly cheerful and pleasant. The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, but a change of the world for the better.
When the Evangelists adopt this word, and it thereby becomes the generic name for their writings, what they mean to tell us is this: What the emperors, who pretend to be gods, illegitimately claim, really occurs here - a message endowed with plenary authority, a message that is not just talk, but reality. In the vocabulary of contemporary linguistic theory, we would say that the evangelium, the Gospel, is not just informative speech, but performative speech - not just the imparting of information, but action, efficacious power that enters into the world to save and transform. Mark speaks of the "Gospel of God," the point being that it is not the emperors who can save the world, but God. And it is here that God's word, which is at once word and deed, appears; it is here that what the emperors merely assert, but cannot actually perform, truly takes place. For here it is the real Lord of the world - the living God - who goes into action.
Now I think that's great stuff. Who wrote it? A man named Joseph Ratzinger who we call Benedict XVI, in his book "Jesus of Nazareth". I'm about 60 pages into it, the excerpt is from pages 46-47. Every page so far has demonstrated that the author knows his subject as a living Person, far more so than do I. The great tragedy here is that most people won't read the excerpt and those who do will stop reading when they see who the author is and tomorrow we'll have another 700 post thread about how Catholics wouldn't and couldn't know Jesus if they pay attention to what the Church teaches them.
I have the book its in one of the moving boxes. When I get to other location. I will check it out. Thank you very much.
Your statement re people "resigning themselves to the status quo" I find particularly challenging. Have I come to do that? It is difficult to perservere in the face of such persistent decline.
The position of the Church re the Nation-State is a tricky one. On the one hand, the Church has to exist within the nation and relate to its citizens, or it would not be able to understand, uphold and witness to them. On the other, it has to challenge and change the Nation-State, or it would not be holding true to its calling from God.
Mark 10:11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
Sooo, she's living in adultery and thinks she's now right with God? Mmhmm.
Given her track record of running from reality and her own spiritual responsibilities to every worsening sin and vice, I’d question any of her perceptions.
However, anything is possible with God so all is not lost. In my opinion, she will come full circle back to the Catholic Church— as long as she keeps investigating the Word and learning and growing spiritually. The search for real Truth leads, ultimately, to Rome; as many, many thinking souls who love God very much have found out to their chagrin.
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