Thursday, October 19, 2023

The Return of me and my Reddit Home


The first thing I need to say is that I do not know why there are two lines on the posting area that I'm typing between. Blogger changed in ten years, I suppose. 

For anyone who would ever find this blog, I have a subreddit I call Pure Christianity. I tried having a Wordpress blog called "Christianity for Christians" and hate Wordpress so so much I just deleted it after they literally stole money from me.

Reddit was recommended but once I had the forum and it asked to write what it was about I ended up writing this:

Having eyes that see and ears that hear is painful these days.  I thought people who can hear Him, I thought would like a place to hang.  But I don't think I'm good at making things happen.  Everyday I think I should delete. Every day I don't. I don't know what we should say to each other. 

I still don't. 

Monday, March 2, 2015

WHAT I BELIEVE

As you can see, I haven't posted here in quite a while.  The comments section of the previous very simple template didn't allow for replying to individual posts and made exchange of ideas quite difficult. I felt like I needed to update things a bit, so here is the new, simplified version of the blog. I hope everyone finds it easier to comment and connect.

I am a proponent of Truth. I'm not sure I always know what that is, when written with a capital "T."  I am also, however,  proponent of facts and freedom.

The Corporate Roman Catholic Church, that is, the physical hierarchical set of persons that take it upon themselves to make rules for the rest of humanity is corrupt. Power corrupts. That's inevitable. Some Popes have been great villains, committed heinous, despicable acts. True for all ranks of persons in the cRCC.  Bishops, having so much power, are especially vulnerable. Which is not to deny the presence of great spiritual warriors in the cRCC. There has also always been Light.

This is no attack on the Church.  It's just a statement of fact.  What is also factual, IMO, is that each of us is responsible for our own salvation. If you are not following Christ, not feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, refraining from judgement and praying in a closet and taking the last seat at the table, you cannot expect to be excused by God because some corporate body, a Bishop, a self-appointed expert on Christianity, said it was okay.

It's not okay. Not because I say it's not okay, but because Christ did. Our Savior didn't tell us to go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation. He didn't tell us to confess or not masturbate or say a Rosary.

He told us to love one another.  Serve one another. Feed, clothe, visit the imprisoned. Pray. Pray. Pray. He gave us the Eucharist.  He didn't say it was the exclusive province of anyone. He didn't say who should and shouldn't receive.

It seems quite simple and anyone or anything that represses the simple message of Christ is just another in that nest of vipers blocking access to the fullness of life in God forever.


This is what I believe. I wanted to make it perfectly clear. 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Our History-Making Pope





CNN PAGE ON THE POPE'S RESIGNATION

It occurred to me a while ago that the Pope is a very old man isolated amongst a savage pride of lions: powerful, ambitious and corrupt men.

Telling no one, he planned a public announcement: he will resign.
As of Feb. 11, 2013, 67 of the 118 cardinal electors were appointed by Benedict. The rest were appointed by John Paul II. 

From: "Papal Transition" America Magazine  The vast majority of these Cardinals are under 80 years of age.   Because we are weeks from the date of resignation, all Cardinals have time to make their way to Rome by the resignation date so that the Conclave can begin at once.   All, we assume, will call upon the Pope before he retires.  All, I hope, will know the preference of the Pope for his successor.  Today, Vatican news announced the Pope will have a "farewell gathering" with the Cardinals on February 28th.

This Pope wants someone in place before Easter, and the Cardinals are already going to be winging their way to Vatican City.  What was most interesting in the story, was this:

Also during the course of the question and answer session following the briefing proper, Fr. Lombardi reaffirmed that Pope Benedict will be returning to live a life of prayer and reflection in the Vatican... 
I'll bet. It's like a clockwork, a well-thought plan to shepherd us through the coming tribulations, executed at speed and under the time demands of the Lenten season to get a Pope in place long before Easter.  .

In a recent address (which I'm having trouble finding a link to) Pope Benedict XVI said that the Church had plenty of structure, what the Church lacks is enough spirituality.  With his comments on the importance of the novissimi as he interpreted the 3rd secret of Fatima, I'm wondering when someone will trust us enough to let us in on the actual Secret and finally, over 50 years later, tell us what Mary wanted us to know.

It's going to be an interesting 8 weeks.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The "Smaller Church" Takes Shape



Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), from his book Faith and the Future

Then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote this in 1971.  Today (Oct 18th, 2012) over 40 years later, this article appeared: Vienna archdiocese to cut parishes by 75 per cent  which was referenced in a CAF thread of the same name.  Notice this is happening in Vienna, in the country of the Pope's birth and greatest influence.  Here's an excerpt:
The archdiocese’s 660 parishes will be merged over the next decade into around 150 larger parishes, each served by three to five priests and offering regular Masses.

Mr PrĂ¼ller told the American Catholic News Service that falling numbers of clergy and laity had made the changes necessary. He said smaller affiliated communities within the parishes will be run by lay volunteers authorised to conduct the Liturgy of the Word. 
PrĂ¼ller said archdiocesan bishops would draft the new parish boundaries and steps for implementing the reorganisation by January 1.

“The Church’s mission of apostolate and evangelisation isn’t just the responsibility of parish priests, but of the whole community of baptised and confirmed. If this reorganisation creates more vibrant Christian communities, praying, celebrating Mass, conducting mission and helping the needy together, then it could offer a model for Church reforms throughout Europe.”

“This is about a new cooperation between priests and laity from their common Christian vocation,” the cardinal told the news conference, which was reported by Austria’s Kathpress news agency. 
“We have to free ourselves of the traditional image that the Church is present only where there’s a priest and stress the common priesthood of all baptised,” he said.
The operative word is "if." Sounds good. Sounds like something I'd like.  But people who want to run things are usually the last people you want to run things and the lay people who show up are going to not necessarily be anyone we'd want leading us. The average parishioner will just be glad those Communion services are so short and still won't know any theology. 

Who's really going to end up in charge?

Threat Assessment


"In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. ... akita 


 ...it should be sufficient for all Christians to know this: if there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish... Pope John Paul II on why the 3rd Secret of Fatima has not been revealed






Then-Cardinal Ratzinger in a 1984 interview in Jesus magazine, about the 3rd Secret of Fatima:


"Cardinal Ratzinger, have you read what is called the Third Secret of Fatima: i.e., the one that Sister Lucia had sent to Pope John XXIII and which the latter did not wish to make known and consigned to the Vatican archives?" 




"Yes, I have read it." 



"Why has it not been revealed?" 



"Because, according to the judgement of the Popes, it adds nothing new to what a Christian must know concerning what derives from Revelation: i.e., a radical call for conversion; the absolute importance of history; the dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian, and therefore of the world. And then the importance of the novissimi.  If it is not made public - at least for the time being - it is in order to prevent religious prophecy from being mistaken for a quest for the sensationalism. But the things contained in this Third Secret correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions, first of all that of Fatima in what is already known of what its message contains: conversion and penitence are the essential conditions for salvation."

So, here's the threat assessment:

Something big and bad is coming.  John Paul II characterized it correctly: millions will die very suddenly. So, I have a question: HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FOR YOU OR I THAN WHAT WILL HAPPEN, ANYWAY?

If we are not among the dead, times will indeed be very hard and we may envy the dead very much.  But the fact is, your death or mine can come at any moment.  So all this sudden death is really not the point,  JPII is correct:
 "Here is the remedy against this evil.  Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more.  Leave everything else to the Mother of God." 
Or, yanno, her Son: 
198 On one occasion the Lord said to me, 
My daughter, your confidence and love restrain My justice, 
and I cannot inflict punishment because you hinder Me from doing so. 
Oh, how great is the power of a soul filled with confidence!  
-the Diary of Saint Faustina

Do you only pray when there is a problem?  Aren't we called to prayer in all cases, all days and times? If no one knows the day or hour, the world can end before I finish typing this line.