I ended up finding my way here by coming across a video talk with Padraig that was posted by Robert Nugent. I believed Padraig right away when he said on the video he seen Our Lady, and she taught him to pray the Rosary. I knew right away he had seen her. "Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile" which is an Irish saying that translates into "One beetle recognises another". (although Padraig is clearly light years ahead of me in the faith). I'm currently finding his advice and reminder on the importance of praying the Rosary slowly and deeply very helpful. So glad I found this forum. I've read through a good selection of few threads, and I've been looking for a balanced and well moderated Catholic spiritual one like this for such a long time. I've lots of thoughts and questions to share, and it's so difficult to find anyone to share them with, as everyone can be at very different levels and stages of faith. I hope I don't end up boring you all to death with my thoughts. I've been slowly working over the years to make progress in the faith. I've been to Medjugorje several times which has also been a great help. Our Lady is so good to us. God Bless.
Welcome! A number here (including myself) have a solid relationship with Therese. "Quis ut Deus" is one who similarly was blessed via an encounter with her relics! Merry Christmas to you! Long live the Christmas Octave!
Welcome! I see your avatar is Matt Talbot. Matt’s story is beautiful and always worth sharing. You may be interested to know that we had a little thread on his inspiring life story a while back. You can check it out here. http://motheofgod.com/threads/dublin-mystic-matt-talbot.12330/
Yes our journeys back to God may differ, some are fast, others seem to take years, but we know we can usually realize that it was grandmother or a wonderful Saint begging God for His intercession. Welcome
'The only failure in life is not to have been a Saint'. My Spiritual Director used to tell me it's all about running in a Marathon , not a sprint. That was when I was 15 and determined to be a saint for 16. 54 years ago. Its one slow footstep in front of another for me. Some people did become saints very quickly it is true. But really its all about trudging up the mountains one step at a time. About not stopping or giving up. Looking back on it it was never about me walking but more about Jesus carrying me in His poor back. I love thinking about this poem at this time of the year. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2013/12/10/the-gate-of-the-year-minnie-louise-haskins-1875-1957/ And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
Welcome to our Heavenly Mother Mary's forum. I believe you will find support and faith filled conversation here.
Thank you so much everyone for the very warm welcome. I wasn't keen on introducing myself, but I know it's important for a bit of trust/context when posting in a community forum. This forum is a breath of fresh air compared to many other Catholic forums that spend a lot of their time bickering about politics in the world and the church, and very little on sharing and supporting our Catholic faith and spirituality. Personally, with all the madness going on the world and the Church, I prefer focusing on discussing, learning and sharing with others’ ideas and concepts that deepen each others faith, prayer, and relationship with Christ, and hopefully leading to helping others along the way. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine.
So true. Been there. Done that here. What stopped me doing this was the simple question..what good would it do? certainly we could rant and rave... but then what? Who cares? We are only simple laypeople.. who cares what we think? About just about anything? Better to return to the Spiritual.
Exactly so, we operate in God’s hierarchy. Believe me, I've done my fair share of complaining about the Church and others. These days apart from the odd short relapse, and involuntary gag reflex and expletive now and then, I'm hopefully done with it, please God. As usual, prayer and working on ourselves instead, and helping others where we can, remedies all these things.
I will however fire a few occasional shotgun bursts at Papa Frankie and his fellow Sodomite Cardinals in the Vatican just for the sake of it. I would not waste much time over this kind of snakesome people. I have much, much better things to do with my time. Just to draw some kinda line. No good. Non Scriptural Non Catholic.
One really would need the patience of a Saint these days with what's going on (perhaps that's what the good Lord has in mind and sends us these "helpers" to remind us) ... I'm trying to work on it
Don't be the least bit nice about these awful people. Go back to your Old Testament and grow be brave, call these despicable folks out for who they are!
Thank you for that film, I'll definitely watch, I'm trying to get a better handle on all the old testament prophets.
Cover to cover. Every page, every line, every word. Catechism of the Catholic Church To Catechism home page III. THE HOLY SPIRIT, INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE 109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words. 75 110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression." 76 111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. "Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written." 77 The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who inspired it. 78 112 1. Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture." Different as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover. 79 The phrase "heart of Christ" can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known his heart, dosed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure. But the Scripture has been opened since the Passion; since those who from then on have understood it, consider and discern in what way the prophecies must be interpreted. 80 113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church." According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church" 81). 114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith. 82 By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation. The senses of Scripture 115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church. 116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal." 83 117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs. (1) The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism. 84 (2) The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction". 85 (3) The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem. 86 118 A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses: The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny. 87 119 "It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God." 88 But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me. 89
