Posted on 10/09/2011 1:19:05 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
I have probably said this before.
The reason i stopped watching 60 minutes is that I tended to be overwhelmed with righteous anger when I did.
And one day I realized that I’m not righteous enough to have this much righteous anger.
And you as well, netmilsmom!
Well put.
I don’t watch stuff related to OThuga similarly.
:) +
“I would love if it worked out that we could go waste money at Starbucks together.”
I’ve been to Bodo’s Bagels a few times...But yeah that would rule.
Freegards
Separate from... Part church... Insulate against?
God bless you.
In other countries they wait months to see a priest or walk miles to go to Mass.
This is a spiritual problem.
Pray, tithe, volunteer.
It was written that this would happen.
Maybe similar things should be done with churches that have essentially lost their congregations.
Other people live in other places and different times. If all that is needed is in effect, an administrative solution, so that the elderly and infirm, many of whom cannot travel great distances, can still find spiritual solace and absolution, why deny it to them?
The church can and should be flexible when it does not infringe on its doctrines, beliefs or sacred practices.
In these places there are not enough congregants to maintain full churches, but this does not require abandonment.
What does your comment have to do with the posters’ re: education and the faith?
As far as meeting in houses, you will be... and it will not be in the best of conditions. Try looking around the globe where our brothers and sisters are getting raped, mutilated, killed, exiled and in some places, put into slavery. Get on your knees and thank God you can worship in freedom.
Yeah let’s meet in homes, set up homeschooling, adoption agencies, hospitals, soup kitchens there. When a kids thinking of abortion, shooting someone or slapped their mother, maybe they’ll see your house on the way and want to sit and spend time with the Lord.
How the Lord must be frustrated with us. Look at all who were and are still martyred.
As for here and worldwide, all those hospitals, orphanages, missions, soup kitchens/pantries and senior centers/meals on wheels, etc. don't pay for themselves either... bad economy, more needy.
Where did you get that US Vatican number and do you know what's done with it? Please send me both links.
So are you Korah, Dathan, or Abiram?
He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Not in a Mercedes.
How about you read post 25, then get back to me. Or not.
Lay Dominicans, wonderful. I will pray for you.
It reminded me of a post on a Dominican blog:
This morning an Air Force pilot pointed out that flying close to the deck in Afganistan and Iraq, you can always tell what kind of animals you are coming up on. A flock of goats scatters in every direction in response to the noise of the aircraft, whereas the sheep all run to the shepherd; so before you are even close, you know what kind of animals the flock is made of.
That said, this seems like one occasion to make a shameless plug. The scripture doesn’t make mention of the assistant that the shepherd has, the dog. Now the dogs’ job is not just to herd the sheep, but to bark when the wolf comes, and to defend the sheep and the shepherd, even at the cost of their own lives. It is worth noting in this context that the dog has always been associated with St. Dominic, appearing in art at his side, and the word “Dominicans” being derived from Domini canus - God’s dogs.
I took classes at St. Vincent Ferrer in NYC some years back. It’s an amazing Dominican church.
Look see:
http://www.csvf.org/Architecture-A.html
You can go back and see the great Rood suspended over the altar.
Pray for me. I love the spirituality of the Dominicans, yet still feel drawn to the Carmelites as third order.
BTW, I posted to you and as I read through the thread saw your apology.
Obviously, you’re not the only one who doesn[t think before you post. LOL
God bless you and pray for me.
Regards,
smvoice
Obviously, I need to read the whole thing. I only came across excerpts (which is never good). I have to find out online, will post when I do.
I ran sheep for more than a decade and had two guardian dogs, Agnes and Raquel, Great Pyrenees, the best dogs I have ever known. If I had half the nobility of Agnes I would be emperor already.
I also had a few goats,whom I dearly loved. Dairy animals can be special. But docile they ain’t.
I spent several days at the priory at St. Vincent’s two Aprils ago. That is some gorgeous church! But what touched me the most was that when we came into the friars’ chapel for matins and lauds there were always a few people, almost invisible in the church on the other side of the screen, who prayed the morning offices with us — the unsung saints and pilgrims who praise the Lord anonymously and alone and carry His grace secretly into the world.
Blessed Juana of Asa is said to have had a dream during her pregnancy that (in the most elaborate version) a black and white dog carried a torch in his mouth and set the world on fire. But Dominic was named after another saint who assured Juana that she would become pregnant and bear a great child. I think the “Lord’s Dogs” was just a perceived pun more than a derivation, and the English friars have a website called, I think, “Godz Dogs” — which, barring the phonetic ‘z’, is “Domini-canes”.
As long as I am permitted to wag my tail, I will be happy to bark for the Lord. Thanks for your prayers.If I am preserved from disgracing the order, I will be content.
In the middle ages they built cathedrals. Now we have (or did until recently) a space program.
(Gold doesn't need polishing. Silver needs polishing. I need scrubbing -- Brillo!)
Man's delight. Hmm. I wouldn't scorn that too readily. It's the whole "hospital for sinners" v."society of the elect" conflict. And there are echoes of the problem in the first part of Plato's Republic.
IF we were a society of deeply pious people, constantly aware of the presence of God in our lives, we probably still would need large buildings so that we could respond to needs of our brethren when there were calamities. Hangars and warehouses and garages so that we could drive to Katrina, Biafra, Bangla Desh, or Port au Prince and bring food and clothing and medicine -- and Bibles. Would it be so wrong for them to be beautiful buildings?
Is there no room for art? It seems one important thing about man is that he makes as well as perceives beauty, and it matters that among the earliest artifacts are objects of no utility (except possibly as idols) but of beauty only.
And IF we are creatures made to manifest beauty, is it intrinsically wrong to do so in order to assist in the praise of God? When David sings, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness," does he mean ONLY an unearthly, uncreated beauty? Shall we, must we not have lovely songs, textiles to die for (of the things I have woven I am most grateful for an altar cloth I gave to a church), beautiful windows and paintings? If man will make buildings of breathtaking beauty (and it seems he will), may he not make them in the praise and abodah (service) of God?
SURE, once made, all these things can be tempting and distracting. But I think even in store-front churches people are tempted and distracted by something, while I know that God spoke to me early through beauty more than through sermons and discourses and coloring and other Sunday School activities.
I cannot remember when my heart was not restless, but it was the delight and beauty in my 'growing-up' church that not only stirred the restlessness up but prompted hope that there might be a place (or a Person) where my heart would find rest.
And, I suggest, there is as much a temptation to spiritual pride in conscious austerity as in an abundance of beautiful things. Our enemy is wily and can use the stained indoor/outdoor carpeting of a humble chapel as well as the luxurious tapestries of a cathedral to induce and ensnare us into thinking more of our piety than of God's grace.
And let's also think of the craftsmen and artists? They will do their craft and make their art whether there are churches or not. But is it bad for them to sew or compose or carve or erect to the greater glory of God (as well as their commission)? Must we reduce someone who could write a beautiful Gloria to the composition of advertising jingles for fear that beauty would distract him or us?
Donne's love poems are beautiful and witty. His sacred poems(and he was not a Catholic)are astonishing, as are those of George Herbert. And space does not permit to give Dante the praise he is due.
There is good in the store-front chapel, or in the aching austerity of a Trappist monastery chapel. And there is good in the lush beauty of, say, St. Vincent Ferrer's church in Manhattan, to which AliVeritas has posted a link. I'm glad that that architect found a worthy task for his art.
I agree with Plato that man will have his beautiful things. And if that is so, then let him have them in the service and praise of God.
/rant off.
If real estate agents, homeowners and landlords could legally advertise that their buildings for rent / sale are near churches, I bet you'd get a bit of an uptick in regulars, especially within walking distance. Maybe even enough to matter.
If we could loosen those laws up, or maybe file a well-argued lawsuit, realtors would help get people into pews. A few more people in each parish would naturally move closer to church or the parish school, even within walking distance. The church and school would be less likely to close, and more likely to thrive.
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