"I didn't pass through fire and time to bandy crooked words with a serving man till the lighting falls" Or something like that. Glad to see you are a Tolkien fan. Perhaps you should read the chapter the voice of saruman. I hear it ringing out all over this forum. And the pretence of love and understanding on this forum is beginning to turn my stomach enough already.
When people make public statements we can most certainly make judgements about there truth or falsity. It's called philosophy.
Oh KATHY K, Padraig has just climbed down from the tank, bless him. Hope he has had enough for today.
Click on the offending posters name and a box will pop up . . . in the middle of the box you will see what I posted below. Click on "ignore" and you won't see their posts again. I've ignored a few as these are serious times and the venom from some has increased and is simply unacceptable and the answer is either leave (not going to let a few misfits ruin it as there are many good fruits that come from the vast majority of good people here) or simply ignore the few trouble makers: Profile Page Start a Conversation Follow Ignore
And you are so bang on target. Last couple of trips to Holy Doors, were preceded with memories flooding my mind which were of trials, of course it is the ones that were so unfair. Well thanks be to Jesus and the 24 hours, I realised straight away and consciously pushed them away offering and uniting them to Jesus sufferings. The results had an amazing effect on the Holy Doors pilgrimage. Graces and Blessings abounding, praise be to God, and all the blessings to our Dear Lord. We are in a spiritual battle for sure.
Perhaps guys padraig will do us all a favour on this catholic forum that will make it unnecessary for you to hit the ignore button and show you people the door
Thank you. I do sometimes read without signing in. But can see the one that causes friction when signed out. It disappears once I sign in. Ah well. It helps. To the one I have tried to avoid. If the deliberate friction is avoided, then there is no need to switch anyone off.
That was me and honestly I had to search because I did not know the truth on the matter or rather was confused. I thought sterilization was an option if the person was in danger and it is but it came down to the how's and what's around sterilization. What confused me was the matter of direct vs indirect. That article really made a lot of sense and thus I wanted to share it. Our faith can be so confusing and I wish people would understand around here that the tone and delivery of what we say can and does severely hurt or help people. I am all for being direct on issues but we need to do so charitably. So much of communication is lost on internet forums. Without taking into account body language, eye contact and tone we lose 90% of effective communication. Please remember that all. These are dangerous times and when people poor out their hearts we must be delicate in our direct approach. Don't assume people know what you know and don't assume they are the worst of the worst because they may be just as confused on things as I know I can be at times. I am but a baby still on my spiritual path and hope I become a toddler soon. I don't have anywhere near the wealth of knowledge as many of you do but I am trying.
No Catholic forum worthy of the name would permit forum members to freely post dissent and encourage others to commit grave sin. At some point those who permit this behavior to persist will also be culpable for it, so unfortunately they have a responsibility to act.
I agree with much of what you say here. I would add that people should not comment or proffer advice if they are ignorant of church teaching and then have the temerity to pass their uninformed nonsense of as official Teaching. It's a disgrace and a real danger for the honest truth seeking catholic.
Dear Charlie, if you don't mind and whenever you have time as some told me that you are quite busy, would you accept some questions from me, thank you.
I can agree with that Malachi but sometimes people don't know they are ignorant on an issue. Sometimes people just respond based on what they think is truth and then when they find out it is not they can either admit they were wrong or not. Pride is a "you know what" and sometimes it is very hard to admit that we are wrong. I am about 50/50 in that department but want to get better at it myself. If the Catholic faith was easy to understand on all issues there would not be libraries full of books on topics and theology nor countless apologetic programs on the radio and on the internet. Sometimes we lose something in one detail. Julia was wrong to suggest sterilization but was not wrong in the concept of thinking that it is ok because it is ok in an indirect sense. Yes that little detail is huge but I am sure Julia thought she was speaking truth and then what occurred.....attack attack attack. As stated I thought it was ok too so in the midst of this heated debate I sought out the truth and now I know and now others know as well. Is that not what we are to do? Educate and help in confusion. How can anyone listen to one's advise or education on a topic when we come at them like a pitbull biting down on our leg. Really hard to listen to one's truth when their leg is in pain. You say it is a disgrace and uninformed nonsense so educate....and enlighten them to the truth in a charitable loving manner not as a pitbull. No one will listen to you if they feel attacked and you know your stuff so that is a shame that what you have to say is probably lost to many. I am sorry but you come off as a pitbull and how could anyone want to listen to what you have to say when you are on the constant attack. Defend the faith please...I learn much from what you have to say once I get past the manner in which you educate but it is not an easy task. Maybe you don't want it to be that way, I don't know, only you know. I can't help but think of the lord with the adulterer. How did he educate? With so much love and mercy. He forgave and did not stone her and no one else did for that matter because they could not. She broke the law and deserved to be stoned and yet she lived. We don't even know if he educated her on the situation but I guess he did by telling her to sin no more. Had Jesus not been there in that attempt to trap him with the law, that poor sinner would be dead. Many may not like the flowery love and mercy but this is from the Lord. He educated with so much love and mercy. So much so that many wanted to stone him and throw him off cliffs because they could not hear the message, could not except his gospel and mission of love. All they heard was the law and they were going to defend the law with stones and death. I wonder how many other times defenders of the law wanted to kill Jesus for his teachings. I am sure it was way more often than we think. I am tired of getting angry at posts and tired of trying to ignore what people say and tired of throwing more fuel on the fire in this debates so I am choosing a different path now. I am not going to fight anymore, I am going to try to listen and learn and comment and educate and research and share and love. Most importantly I am going to love now. I hope others will join me and take the wild west saloon of what the MOG forum has become out of Our Mother's house. I find it so insulting that Charlie would compare a web site dedicated to the Mother of Love to that of a wild west saloon. I am not angered at Charlie at all because he is exactly right just angered that that is our comparison to the onlookers of the world. It saddens me to no end to act like this in our Mother's house. I have thought many many times to just move on but then again, where else is there to go? This is a place of truth and beauty but it is getting awful muddled by the lack of respect for each other.
Again much of what you say I agree with however when members informed on these matters offered their sensitive and charitable responses in a spirit of fellowship we were insulted and rebuked as pharisees. Moreover, the people in question showed themselves impervious to correction and doubled down on their error believing themselves justified by some appeal to the holy fathers new pastoral outlook. The whole thing is absurd and whilst I do enjoy the sharp elbow here and there I can genuinely say there is no malice or vain self righteousness in my posts.
I have prayed the Rosary for Sparrow & I will continue to pray for her. One has a duty of love to pray for those in need of help and I pray she be given the grace of God guide her. Prayer is an act of love for one's neighbour and also enables the power of God to intervene and I have no doubt the prayers of this forum are being heard in heaven. I am sure I am not the only member praying for sparrow.
The early Christians had notions of love and witness that differ immensely from some of the modern, often effete efforts we see lately. http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=1002-mills New Oxford Review UNCHARITABLE? DIVISIVE? STRIDENT? Recovering the Art of Christian Polemics October 2002 By David Mills David Mills is a Senior Editor of Touchstone: A Magazine of Mere Christianity. Most well-read Christians know the two most famous stories of the early Church's approach to dialogue. St. Polycarp tells us that the apostle John once went to the public bath in Ephesus and found inside a Gnostic teacher named Cerinthus. John ran out crying, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within." Polycarp himself once met the heretic Marcion walking down the street. Marcion hated the creator-God of the Hebrews, and to get rid of Him had tossed out the Old Testament and much of the New and rewrote the bits he kept. Marcion asked Polycarp, "Do you know me?" and Polycarp answered, "I do know you. You are the firstborn of Satan." Read the rest here.
A case in point , Saint Peter doing the firing , a married couple doing the dying. the dead husband and wife were called Ananias and Saphira, dead as door nails, dropped on the spot, right between the eyes; bang, bang you're dead: Acts 5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira 5 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
..and of course there are many, many cases in the Old Testament of, 'Friendly Fire' taking out, on a permanent basis, folks who had turned not so friendly to God's Laws. Here is just one that springs at once to mind: God as Scripture tells us, is not mocked Numbers 16:32 The Earth Swallows Up Korah 31As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; 32and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. 33So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.…
