Posted on 10/05/2013 5:29:52 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Family is the vocation that God wrote in the nature of man and woman, but there is another vocation, complementary to that of matrimony: the calling to celibacy and to virginity for the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the vocation that Jesus himself lived. How to recognize it? How to follow it?
I answer you with two essential elements on how to recognize this vocation to the priesthood or to consecrated life: praying and walking in the Church. These two things go together, they are intertwined. At the source of every vocation to the consecrated life there always is a strong experience of God, an experience that is not forgotten, that is remembered all through life! It is the one that Francis had. And we cannot estimate or program it. God always surprises us!
It is God who calls; but it is important to establish a daily relationship with Him, to listen to him in silence before the Tabernacle and in the intimacy of our own selves, to talk to him, to stay close to the Sacraments. Having this familiar relationship with the Lord is as it were to have open the window of our life, so that He may make his voice heard, what he wants from us.
I want to say one thing to you strongly, especially today: virginity for the Kingdom of God is not a "no", it is a "yes"! True, it includes renunciation to a marital bond and to one's own family, but at its foundation there is the "yes", as a response to the total "yes" of Christ for us, and this "yes" makes [us] fertile.
Franciscus Meeting with the young people of Umbria (Italian) October 4, 2013
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/10/pope-strongly-defends-priestly-celibacy.html
Since learning that we are not to “parse” his words too closely, that he’s just “shooting the breeze” with us, not sure I care much what he has to say. I don’t usually pay much attention to folks “shooting the breeze,” except to be sociable. Like when I was in a bowling league. We all shot the breeze. But most of our conversation was pretty forgettable, and most of it was forgotten before we got home.
So it will be with Pope Franky.
You may be too perfect to listen to “Pope Franky,” but the rest of us aren’t. He’s saying some good things. Maybe you should try listening. This wasn’t “shooting the breeze.”
Well said. And the Church certainly needs more vocations—more young men praying and walking in church.
Far from being “too perfect,” I need folks to be clear with me, as I'm actually kinda dense. Here is what, apparently, his press spokesman said, as quoted in First Things:
“A new genre, Lombardi suggested, needs a ‘new hermeneutic,’ one in which we don’t attach value so much to individual words as to the overall sense.”
I'm sorry, but if I don't have to attach value to the actual individual words, and may just divine on my own the “overall sense,” I'm pretty sure, dumb as I am, I can come up with any darned meaning with which I want to come up.
“Maybe you should try listening.”
I have listened. And what I've heard has ranged from “pretty nice,” to “mildly insightful,” to “plain old dumb,” to “incoherent,” to “factually wrong.”
But, now, of course, I understand! According to his press spokesman, “Francis is not so much aiming for precision as shooting the breeze.”
I've been doing it all wrong! I've been PAYING ATTENTION to the ACTUAL WORDS SPOKEN, rather than treating his words like others when folks are “just shooting the breeze,” which is to say, “Yeah, Franky, sounds good. Have another beer.” And then pick up my bowling ball and throw it down the lane.
This doesn't seem to me to be any way to run a railroad. But like I said, I'm just a dummy who prefers people to try to accurately communicate to me whatever it is they want to communicate. Unless they don't care whether I'm listening or not.
sitetest
This must have been an impostor! Everybody knows Pope Francis would tell those young people about gay marriage, and women priests, and his plans to abolish the College of Cardinals. Just ask Ann Barnhardt!
So when he preaches heresy, he is just "talking off the cuff" and we should just ignore it. But when he says something you agree with, then everyone should listen?
You sound like a cafeteria Catholic to me.
My two favorite nicknames I've heard from some Conservatives for Francis is "Chaos Frank" or "Fbomb"
I am getting Papal fatigue. The Fog of Words has taken over. I am drifting.
Correction: This was not said by the Vatican press spokesman, but rather a characterization offered in defense of Pope Francis by the author of the First Things piece:
“Francis is not so much aiming for precision as shooting the breeze.”
“walking in church.”
Walking in the Spirit is what everyone needs.
My apologies, sitetest. I didn’t mean this as a criticism of you, but I have simply gotten tired of people reading mysterious messages into Francis’ words, and that was I think what Lombardi was saying.
However, I think the person who needs to go is Lombardi. He is and always has been a terrible press person. Navrro Valls was much better. Lombardi may be confused, he may not be permitted to do what he should...I really don’t know. In any case, whatever he’s doing, he’s not doing well.
However, Lombardi was right on this one. I think if you just read what Francis says, bearing in mind that it is said in the context of a very orthodox person who is taking for granted the fact that other believers listening to him are coming from the same place, you will be happy with him.
In other words, the Pope is not “giving a message” to anybody, liberal or conservative, but is simply expressing his Christ-based view of the universe. BXVI had the same view, but he was much more complex in expressing it while Francis is really very, very simple.
He’s had a big impact on a lot of marginal Catholics and even unbelievers that I know, not because they think he’s watering anything down, but because he seems so confident and welcoming and happy in the Faith.
I’ve become a Pope Francis agnostic. I don’t know if he is a great saintly pope, or a very bad pope. Only time will tell.
Until that time comes, for some of us peace of mind and personal sanity demand we ignore this Jesuit and all the spin on all sides.
“You may be too perfect to listen to “Pope Franky,” but the rest of us aren’t.”
Speak for yourself but not other Catholics whom you don’t know.
I'm sorry, I don't really see it. Obviously, whenever I read anything written or spoken by a pope, I assume it is in within the context of Catholic doctrinal belief. Why think otherwise? The guy's a CATHOLIC.
And some of the stuff that folks criticize is explicable in that context. There, my criticism is that I understand that this pope is trying to reach out “beyond the choir,” and that is the audience that has the least understanding of the Catholic context that you or I take for granted, and thus, by not supplying that context, readily confuses and misleads his audience. Which strikes me as a bad thing.
But some of the stuff is dopey or even indecipherable. The idea that the two biggest problems in the world are youth unemployment and the loneliness off old people just strikes me as silly talk.
But if, as has been suggested, he's just shooting the breeze, then much is explained. He's just opening his mouth and letting out whatever comes out. Just like me and my buddies at the bowling alley. Generally speaking, there's no harm done by me or my buddies. We often solve the world's problems, lol, but we don't take ourselves or what we say seriously. And we don't have it simultaneously published in a dozen Jesuit periodicals around the world. We're just not that narcissistic. But then again, none of us are bishops. What we say is soon forgotten, and should soon be forgotten. It's not serious talk.
And that is the only context that adequately explains this pope's public meanderings. The difference is, I suppose, is that although we, my friends and I, are not bishops, this fellow is.
I will continue to skim through what ol’ Franky has to say, to see if he ever starts getting serious. But for now, I think the best strategy is to understand that most/all of what he has to say should generally be ignored. Just like the folks in my bowling league.
sitetest
rorate - “cause dew, drip, be moist”
caeli = “of heaven”
I was thinking maybe it should be orate = “pray” but this looks like a professional site....
rorate (from roro (1st conjugation)) is a rare word.
“Rorate caeli” are the opening words of Isaiah 45:8 in the Vulgate. The verse is “Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum.” (Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.) The text expresses the prophets’ longing for the coming of the Mwessiah, and is used very frequently in the Advent liturgy.
Ah yes, coeli (or caeli) can be masculine or neuter....
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