Yes, most certainly the topics and tone have strayed much further from Our Lady's purpose. And I almost just deleted my account because of this. But the little voice that never fails me said "ignore" and I decided to see if that was possible as a feature of this forum. Voila, I did not know but you can click on a person's name and there's a little ignore button you can click and that person's posts disappear. I just did it to a few and what do you know, I read some threads through again and peace has returned to Our Lady's Living Room Now I suppose I'll still see some of it when people who still can see their posts get upset by them and ignorance is not bliss, but it's a better result than leaving because of the few trouble makers. The vast majority of you here are very holy people who have helped me tremendously on the journey and I did not want to miss the blessings I get from you good people. So just food for thought, we can weed out the bad apples ourselves with the little ignore feature. God always has a plan
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness. This is from the CCC. I'd suggest reading 2089 and 2090 also.
Claiming ignorance and being ignorant are 2 totally different things. So in your mind, every living person needs to become an expert on theology and faith or we are lazy and doubly wrong? We all do the best we can with the time we have. There just are not enough hours in the day: work a full time job, raise a family, spend some time with the scriptures, go to mass daily if you can, say the rosary or other devotionals, read the catechism, come to this forum, spend some time with your kids, then spouse, etc. If only life were so easy and we had more time but unfortunately life is busy and hard and we have try to do the best we can one day at a time. I bring a lot of my questions to priests for help and I trust in the advice they give me. Sometimes I bring up the same questions and battles with sin in my life to multiple priests because I don't have a schedule that permits me to go to the same confessor so I go to confession when I can regardless of the priest and still trust the advice they give me because after all they are much more learned as me. Some seem to suggest this is wrong because what they are telling me could be wrong? Boy it is hard and confusing to be a Catholic sometimes. My personal battles I have taken to several different priests and they have oddly enough all given me the same result in the confessional and absolution. Then I have looked in the catechism for guidance and further I looked for the answers on apologetics sites. The priests answers were the same, the catechism did not completely address the issue in a black or white manner and the apologetic sites had various responses. In this example I will take the advise and council of the 3 priests. Thank God He is merciful because talk about the personal confusion now. I also went to Catholic answers the other day to look into sparrow's situation and could not find her specific problem but some similar and the opinions and answers on some similar discussion around birth control and one partner being of the faith and the other not was not clear. The discussion and debate was all over the place. Some apologists said it was sin and others said it was not. Some priests also responded with different opinions. My point is, is that it is not always as clear as you think. I guess that is why we are human and we all must work on our salvation through fear and trembling.
Personally as I am a single person with no children and no experience of family life I am inclined with subjects like this come up or people (which they very,very occasionally do) ask my advice I admit my complete and happy total ignorance and invite them to go elsewhere for advice. The very most I could ever do is to give very ,very genral adive like being kind to one another , to love one another and so on. Of course I know the mind of the Chruch on a lot of these matters but I am very happy to leave it to those who have been Pastorally educated on these matters I would simpyl end up putting my foot in my (or someones else's mouth). In terms of looking for advise on such very sensitive matters I would advise however that the internet is not the best place to come. We got 3,000 hits yesterday and you would probably end up with 3,000 different answers ,2999 of them guaranteed wrong and at least a thousand of them isensitve and hurtful. Its better to take such matters to a priest in the confessional, a good holy, orthodox Catholic priest and take his advice. I am sorry Sparrows you got hurt over this, but if you have a Spiritual Director do what he tells you and be at peace. If he tells you to dump this forum dump it. Whatever. I would also try to find good Catholic books for education in this area as well, Good orthodox Catholic books.
I have found in my journey the truth in matters of faith and morals is out there. The problem is whether we want to hear the truth or whether we want to find away around it. Therein comes the confusion, trying to twist the unchanging truths of the faith to fit our desires or state in life. Been there, done that. I found that once I stop trying to fit Gods will into my will and listen to the theologians and priest who are themselves properly grounded in the unchanging truths of the faith, then the path forward is possible with Gods grace. We have to find the strength to do Gods Will, not ours. This is easier said then done. We need lots of prayer and keep trying and trying with the grace that is there for us to perservere in our quest to overcome our weaknesses. It will happen if we keep our heart focused on doing what we know is right in the mind of God. This I am convinced of. This is coming from a father of 11 children in a 20 year span. Yes it is hard in todays world, we all have struggled to do what we know the Church teaches, but God will reward faifullness.....that I know.
I think this is wise. We not only have to seek the Truth , we have to want to find it and to do this we have to stop lying to ourselves. No easy task.
Jeremiah 6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. As far the forum being a mite rowdy at the minute, I consider this to be healthy in terms of what is going on in the Church. In my opinion the problem is not that this forum is rowdy but that the rest of the Church is very far from rowdy enough. There should by uproar and riots instead of which there ares muted mutters and head scratching. Thank God for a few frank opinions from a few honest people. A breath of fresh air. The official Catholic media is worse than useless. Let us rant onwards an upwards, say I. Even Michael Voris is tippy toeing round the issues, scared as all heck. The very last thing he wants to do is call a spade a spade.
After my last post, I went to see if Julie Whedbee had received a current message. Whether you feel she is receiving these messages from God or not, you can't dismiss the beauty of the message. This one, as it has happened to me before in reading her latest message, addressed the topic at hand. It nails it to me in the trials of our moment. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2016 IT IS IN THE BROKENNESS OF THIS LIFE THAT I AM MOST POWERFUL[/paste:font] Persevere My little ones, persevere, that the trials that test you may strengthen your faith. These are permitted, not to wear you down, but rather to propel you towards a deeper level of faith, a stronger and stronger dependency on Me, the Author and Creator of all. Remember, I have begun a work in you that I am faithful to complete. I do not wish for you to fall into complacency nor despair at the fiery trials ever present. Embrace the stretching I permit, for in doing so, I will further mold and fashion you more and more into My image. Your journey in Me is to make you fluid and pliable, vulnerable to My every spiritual nuance, ever ready to receive the continual increase and anointing I have reserved for Mine own. Please My loves, I counsel you not to resist My training. So very soon, you will have the understanding that you so desperately pray for. You must trust Me in My perfect design. Could a Father not provide only the best for His children? It is in the brokenness of this life that I am most powerful. Darkness is defeated. Do not keep this world's perspective. What I must do in judgment, I do out of the greatest love and mercy for My creation. I take each one of you and place you intimately on your specific path, knowing that in your full surrender, you walk in the completeness of all that has been purposed for you from before time was. Do you see that I in you and you in Me is perfect harmony? It is in this place that My greatest work is done. Go deeply within children, deeply into the recesses of My heart and you will have My peace. This is My promise. I do not delay My coming. Your race is nearly complete! YAHUSHUA
What a great, refreshing post, thanks for the chuckle Padraig. Worthy of a new signature line, see below. ;-)
Excerpt St Francis de Sales Devout Life, Chapter 3 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged," said the Saviour of our souls; "condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:" and the Apostle Saint Paul, "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." Of a truth, hasty judgments are most displeasing to God, and men's judgments are hasty, because we are not judges one of another, and by judging we usurp our Lord's own office. Man's judgment is hasty, because the chief malice of sin lies in the intention and counsel of the heart, which is shrouded in darkness to us. Moreover, man's judgments are hasty, because each one has enough to do in judging himself, without undertaking to judge his neighbour. If we would not be judged, it behoves us alike not to judge others, and to judge ourselves. Our Lord forbids the one, His Apostle enjoins the other, saying, "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." But alas! for the most part we precisely reverse these precepts, judging our neighbour, which is forbidden on all sides, while rarely judging ourselves, as we are told to do. What remedy can we apply? . . . So far from seeking out that which is evil, Love dreads meeting with it, and when such meeting is unavoidable, she shuts her eyes at the first symptom, and then in her holy simplicity she questions whether it were not merely a fantastic shadow which crossed her path rather than sin itself. Again, our Crucified Saviour, while He could not wholly ignore the sin of those who Crucified Him, yet made what excuse He might for them, pleading their ignorance. And so when we cannot find any excuse for sin, let us at least claim what compassion we may for it, and impute it to the least damaging motives we can find, as ignorance or infirmity.
Well padraig I'm not sure what to make of your advice above. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your intent but your statement seemed pretty close to the ambiguous, confusing, and flowery advice given by a few heads on this forum who make a pretence of catholicity. You said something along the lunes of if you have a spiritual director or whatever seek their advice and be at peace. Really, I find this bemusing to be quite honest. Is not the problem that the advice she had been given by a son of the Church has led her into objectively grave error?
I got the impression that Padraig was indicating that too few people are worried about error and that if defending the Faith against current errors means this becomes a Wild West saloon, so be it. I didn't get the impression you did but maybe I was reading into it.
Perhaps. But what he said was Sparrows I'm sorry you got hurt over this but if you have a spiritual director do what he tells you and be at peace. This is in fact the problem no?
Judge not means that we should not judge a person's soul. We can, and should, judge actions as right or wrong. No one here has judged Sparrow's soul.
I think Padraig has a history in a religious order, and holy obedience to a spiritual director is paramount there. I don't know if Sparrow mentioned specifically having a spiritual director (as opposed to just seeking counsel with a priest or in a confessional), but there's a certain safety in what he recommended. In this day it may not be as safe as in days past however.
Thanks so much for this post - you really got to the heart of the matter. And this is an excellent suggestion: Maybe next time someone comes on here and spills their guts, one should reach out to them privately and try to carefully assist them with their particular situation. That "one" should let the rest of the forum know that they are helping and everyone else should lend support to both of them.(Charity in Truth) I think this is a merciful response. Next time, let's circle the wagons - tell the poster that we'll address it by private message, then PM each other to find the most appropriate person to address personal issues.
But in this case, their first three posts were attacked the teaching of the Church and those defending it. So maybe next time they should just spill their guts and not try to attack Catholics and their beliefs first.
I agree with this post 100%. The forum has changed a lot since I first joined. And I must say I miss the spiritual, prayerful, and soul nourishing threads that used to dominate this forum. I was in spiritual turmoil when I joined here...really on the ropes with God. It was this forum members' prayers and excellent counsel that lifted me up and got me on the path to full conversion. I think if I was in the same situation now and read this forum today, I probably would not have joined, since it can be pretty hostile, very uncharitable posts at times, and the topics that dominate the threads are the pope and politics. It is important to talk about those subjects, but it does not seem like those topics can be discussed charitably. And how we discuss it is very important. It is okay to correct someone, but your delivery in doing so counts. I think some people here are not even able to recognize how uncharitable their posts are and how they can be received. I think I do agree on the timing of when this forum really started to change. All the threads on the pope I believe is what has done it. It seems people feel they can post whatever they want and just say they are defending the faith and that makes it okay. and again, it is important to discuss what the pope has been saying and doing, as it is confusing and frustrating...but it is a fine line between defending the faith and unfairly targeting the pope and I do believe that line has been crossed a few times here. So I do wonder...will this forum be able to achieve what we believe our lady desires us to achieve after the warning? That is to be a beacon of light for the lost and confused...build the lost souls up...gently correct and inform them...really give people hope and guidance? Or will they be chased away by uncharitable posts after they spill their guts to us?
