Posted on 06/20/2014 6:23:47 AM PDT by Weiss White
Not only that but He also cleanses us from all unrighteousness. No pope can ever hope to do that.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It would be impossible to love Mary more than Christ did, but we Catholics try. Read about Fatima, Lourdes and Guadalupe too. Beautiful miracles from Jesus to us through His mother.
We're not called to love Mary.
Why do Catholics try to break the first commandment?
Deuteronomy 6:1-5 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Matthew 22:34-40 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Mark 12:28-30 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
If only Catholics put half the effort into following Jesus that they put into following Mary and spend half the time praying to the Father and paying attention to Him that they spend on Mary. It would revolutionize their spiritual lives in a way that is beyond their comprehension.
I've read that to confess is to "name it as He names it". In other words, it is an acknowledgement of the truth of our act before God, who sees all and knows all. When we confess our sins, as I John 1:9 says, "God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". When our sin is committed against another person, part of that confessing is going to the person we harmed and admitting our act, asking them for their forgiveness. In some cases, restitution is part of it to restore to the person we sinned against what we took from them. The act of confessing our sins "one to another" is when our action has brought harm to the faith community and our confessing and asking forgiveness is a way God uses to restore fellowship and establish accountability one to another.
I believe this is how the early believers operated in their local assemblies according to what the epistles say. The practice of "auricular" (to the ear) confession to a priest was not around until the seventh century. From http://www.justforcatholics.org/a23.htm:
There was no auricular confession to a priest in the early church either. Augustine gives us a snapshot of the church in the 4th and 5th century. In his Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed, Augustine writes:
How did Christians deal with sin at that time? They dealt severely with those who committed grievous sins, casting them out of the church. A period of "penance" was required before the repentant sinner was re-admitted. But what about the daily sins that all Christians commit? Did they confess them to a priest? No, they confessed directly to God in prayer, asking the Father for forgiveness. Prayer was considered sufficient for daily cleaning.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church admits that private confession first came on the scene in the seventh century:
“Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this ‘order of penitents’ (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once in a lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the ‘private’ practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the Church has practiced down to our day” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1447).
We Catholics find ourselves with a new "custom", that of confessing "face to face" with a priest, I've always held that if I can look another man in the eyes and tell him my sins I'm not repenting I'm bragging.
Your source material is spot on about how serious sin was dealt with in the early days. As with all things however, once the size of the Christian assemblies grew larger than a modern day support group the process had to be streamlined. It's just not practical in a congregation of 2 or 3 thousand to have everyone confessing their grievous sins during Mass... and it was seen as more merciful to make confession a private matter between a priest who could speak for the whole community and the penitent.
I stole a quarter from my Mom's purse when I was in second grade. It bothered me so much I gave it to her and said I found it on the playground at school. I "confessed" that sin to a priest four or five times and never really felt or was sure I was forgiven.
We're not called to love Mary.The very best husbands, priests, and sons, on this earth, are men who love and respect their mothers. Those who marry a man who does not, are oftentimes treated with the same disrespect. Christ loved His mother with perfection because He is Lord. As a Catholic we try to imitate Christ the best we can, so we love Mary too. Why would one not love the mother of Christ? What possible benefit could it bring?
Try bucking it or dissing it.
Oh?
BB (and the rest of you non-Catholics); you ain't worth my time.
But I'll post something; anyway...
He DID?
What a POWERFUL dude!
No WONDER so many around the world bow down to an icon of him!
HMMMmmm...
THAT idea is sure NOT found in Sola Scri...
1 John 1:9
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
1 John 3:21-24
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Oh??
1 John 3:24
The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
TODAY you will be with me in Paradise...
Behold: CATHOLIC abusers!
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
Who you gonna believe?
Someone on FR; or your lyin' eyes???
Why?
Do you REALLY believe you'll get brownie points for doing so?
Is this concept found in the Bible?
His mother; or an 'angel' from Heaven CLAIMING to be mom?
What's the TEST??
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