The trial of life eventually reduces down to this reality: every joy, prayer, work, and suffering is brought to the altar. Everything becomes a question of faith, or the lack of it.
Everything pertaining to worship that isn't the Mass imitates it. It is both intriguing and tragic to know that so many people believe other things, and quite doggedly at that. God in Christ either answers sorrow and sin with grace, or he does not. I find myself with little patience to debate the theological particulars of the holy Mass with those not yet reconciled to holy mother Church, if only because there is little time to reconcile that which remains unredeemed in my life, and in my sphere of influence. If ecumenism does not include the possibility of return to the Catholic Church, it is a waste of time.
It still remains true that I am gentler on those outside the Catholic Church than I am on those within. It may be in part a function of my own pride and forgetfulness, in the sense that I did not know once that which I know now. I have become a native now, for better and worse.
This life will be beat you down, and just when you think that you can't take anymore, this life will demand more. Without faith--without the reality of the supernatural--there is no comfort in religion. May we be spared this nonsense of religion as a comfort despite not being true. I would laugh at such patronizing foolishness, except for the fact that so many people think it is a true account of what is going on. Christianity is either maximally true, a totalizing reality, or it is useless. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. But there's probably someone out there who hasn't taken religion seriously enough to consider it. Perhaps someone even reading this blog.
There is almost a cottage industry of those who set up a false dichotomy between piety, and an ability to deal with reality. Such people almost use "pious" as a slur, or a backhanded compliment. To be pious, however, is to accept what God reveals to be the truth; indeed, the total truth, and to order one's life in accordance with that reality. We are quite aware that life here offers us many opportunities for distraction, and even to be convinced of some other reality, but in the end, we either believe that God has spoken, or we believe that he has not.
Everything pertaining to worship that isn't the Mass imitates it. It is both intriguing and tragic to know that so many people believe other things, and quite doggedly at that. God in Christ either answers sorrow and sin with grace, or he does not. I find myself with little patience to debate the theological particulars of the holy Mass with those not yet reconciled to holy mother Church, if only because there is little time to reconcile that which remains unredeemed in my life, and in my sphere of influence. If ecumenism does not include the possibility of return to the Catholic Church, it is a waste of time.
It still remains true that I am gentler on those outside the Catholic Church than I am on those within. It may be in part a function of my own pride and forgetfulness, in the sense that I did not know once that which I know now. I have become a native now, for better and worse.
This life will be beat you down, and just when you think that you can't take anymore, this life will demand more. Without faith--without the reality of the supernatural--there is no comfort in religion. May we be spared this nonsense of religion as a comfort despite not being true. I would laugh at such patronizing foolishness, except for the fact that so many people think it is a true account of what is going on. Christianity is either maximally true, a totalizing reality, or it is useless. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. But there's probably someone out there who hasn't taken religion seriously enough to consider it. Perhaps someone even reading this blog.
There is almost a cottage industry of those who set up a false dichotomy between piety, and an ability to deal with reality. Such people almost use "pious" as a slur, or a backhanded compliment. To be pious, however, is to accept what God reveals to be the truth; indeed, the total truth, and to order one's life in accordance with that reality. We are quite aware that life here offers us many opportunities for distraction, and even to be convinced of some other reality, but in the end, we either believe that God has spoken, or we believe that he has not.
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