A metric ton of issues! 'Elp!

[cyberwolf001]

Okay I discussed one issue over in the Moral Theology section (Masturbation).

I was disscussion some topics with a friend today. One of them being the feminization of the church. She sent me an article from a Catholic she’s friends with.

I stated the article (I’ll send if when I find it) spent way to much time on definitions and not enough answering them. In fact the article basicly came down to just argueing definitions…

She countered showing how words just can’t always be taken at face value. She’s graduating college in May with a degree in English and she is very orthodox so I trust what she said…

But right now I am totally confused.

What if I read alot of books or even the bible with the wrong definitions in mind… Or even church History…

I admit I’m going crazy wondering if I made some huge mistake, misread somthing or what…

If you need clarification I’ll try to help… But basicly I’m wondering if I really understood everything I read on the Catholic faith, or if I was just working with the wrong set of definitions…

sigh This is the first time in my life, my not having a college education has made me feel like an inferior person…

 

[puzzleannie]

I don’t know what your friend or the article meant by arguing definitions, but if this topic is causing you anxiety, drop back and punt. Spend the time you have been in reading, arguing and study in prayer instead for a while. When you read scripture, just read it and listen to what it actually says, and forgo the notes, studies and commentaries for a while. When your interior life becomes more peaceful and devoted will be plenty of time to worry about faith as an academic pursuit. Worry about love for a while, and humility, and growth in the virtues, and leave off much study and argumentation until you are ready for it.

 

[cyberwolf001]

Well here was the article in question.

notnoteworthy.blogspot.com/2006/11/note-on-feminization.html

I commented it seemed that the author was spending alot of time trying to play around with the definition and skip over alot of the issues around it. (These issues I’ll gladly talk about in another thread.)

I was then told it was important for ANY philosophical or theological paper to spend well over 50% of the text defining how the words are used in that text.

I asked why did it have to be done everytime when one could read some basic texts or a dictionary to get a grounding on the words and terminology.

She then told me that this was never enougth. Because when people talk they use there own diffinitions of a word. In fact any given word could mean somthing different to everyone on Earth…

This made me realize. What if everything I’d read that convinced me the Church was real, I’d misread because I had used the wrong definitions…

How can I even figure out if the Bible is saying one thing and I’m reading it a different way. Because I’ll be honest I NEVER when God is talking to me or it’s my own imagnation…

An to the “you’ll know crowd” I guess God has never said so much as a word to me… EVER…

Hope that clears things up…

To be honest, I’m praying I didn’t make a huge mistake at the Easter Vigil… This is the first time I ever stopped and wondered. “Is this true or all made up…”

 

[blessedstar]

‘I know My sheep and My sheep know Me’

Define that (joke)! It is straight forward, no need to play with words and think about it. Jesus knows His people and His people know Him, not because they are introduced by a third party but it is talking about faith and recognising the Truth, it is a knowing without explanation, that is faith. His people recognise Him just as sheep recognise their shepherd, perfectly natural. Note Jesus doesn’t state the sex of His sheep!!! You can take that to mean He meant men and women.

You know the Truth because you have the light of faith. Your friend is not you and you are not your friend. God reaches you in a way that is natural to you ( He may even use your imagination)and God will reach your friend in a way that is natural to her. One day she may read something and God knows all about her love of words and playing with words and one day a word will strike her or should I say the Word will strike her heart.

As for you God knows that you love Him and you know that He loves you and He has called you to His Church, the Catholic Church ( a pearl of great prize that the world will try to steal away). Your friend has no right to mess in that and equally you have no right to force faith on your friend.

Respectfully ask her to stop these conversations and talk about something else. She sounds intelligent and so do you, so talk about something you will both enjoy.

You have to bear in mind that there is an awful lot of dross out there and equally an awful lot of opinion, that doesn’t mean that it is good or right. The Truth is always attacked, played with, disreputed, torn inside out, misconstrued, misunderstood and ultimately people will try to destroy it because only the Truth holds eternal life and the Truth is Jesus and the Church upholds His Truth in the world…‘I am the Way, the Life and the Truth’ (that’s fairly clearly worded too!), not ‘a way, a life or a truth,’ but’ The Way, the Life and **the **Truth.’

You continue to pray to God and enjoy all people and things in your life and your faith, thanking God for all things especially for your friend and say this prayer mentally everytime you see or think of her ‘Lord Bless her’.

Pray and stop worrying. You know a heart like yours striving to be a saint will make less room for worry and more room for joy. I always think a worrying saint is a sad sight.

In my prayer of life.

 

[DrewC]

Sometimes God sends people or things into our lifes to question our faith, and it isnt because he wants us to lose our faith, it happens because it will strengthen our faith if you keep searching for it. Thats part of our journey, always strengthening our relationship and growing in more and more love.

Believe me when I tell you, the Catholic Church is the true Church, The Church with all the truths and the only Church where Christ is Physically present with us in the Eucharist. It is The Chruch.

Peace and God bless you!

 

[cyberwolf001]

Well folks I’ve recovered no more doubting for now and alot of my own theological and philsophical training (given that I can’t afford college it’s self taught…) has come pouring back into my head.

I wont bore people hear with what I shoulda said unless they wanna hear it lol

 

[Unexpected_Dawn]

Sounds like your friend is the product of a typical modernist education, which is based on sowing doubt and making people into “clean slates” rather than the use of our God-given reason and common sense to acquire and assimilate knowledge.

I’m as much an academic as anyone, but the most valuable things I’ve learned are things I’ve learned from God and the Church:

1. God is reasonable and so are we, because we are made in His image. Each one of us is built on that common foundation, a foundation which helps us to communicate and cooperate with God, to know Him and to be known by Him.
2. God does not deceive us, nor fill us with doubt. If you feel you hear His voice, but you’re not sure, take it to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Or take it to a priest or spiritual director. We don’t just have to rely on our own devices and agonize over things alone.
3. Truth is not some object that changes depending on how people define it, or that people can mold to suit their tastes. Rather, Truth is a Divine Person–the Lord Jesus, the Word of God–and He is eternal, constant, and completely accessible to all who seek Him.

I don’t care how educated, smart, intellectual, clever, and talented someone may be. If they don’t work within the framework of those three things, they are stumbling in the dark, and they will very likely never know anything.

So… don’t get discouraged or be bothered too much by the intellectual hang-ups of others. I don’t mean any disrespect to your friend, by the way. Nearly all educated people are victim to the same pitfalls. I know I was–and having been educated at a Catholic university, no less! When at last I started studying within the light of pure faith and good common sense, my mind was completely liberated, and my true learning began!