Best Appologetic ever - One great thing to love -J. R. R. Tolkein -

[Ignatius]

I put before you the one great thing to love on Earth, The Blessed Sacrament -
-J.R.R. Tolkein-

 

[TimothyH]

Apologetics is rationally defending the faith.

It is very nice and certainly true but I really don’t think that quote is an apologetic.

-Tim-

 

[Peter_J]

Apologetics is rationally defending the faith.

It is very nice and certainly true but I really don’t think that quote is an apologetic.

-Tim-

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

(Just once I thought I’d get that quote in before someone else does.)

 

[JohnR77]

Apologetics is rationally defending the faith.

It is very nice and certainly true but I really don’t think that quote is an apologetic.

-Tim-

Hi Timothy,

I believe that you are using an overly restrictive application as to what constitutes apologetics. Some argument are spelled out in detail. Whereas, others find an argument that is only implied more compelling since they don’t want to be “told” what to think. They like to put the pieces together themselves.

The Eucharist, or Blessed Sacrament, is a tremendously strong apologetic for accepting the Catholic Church. By far, most Protestants do not really believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. When they do really read and accept what Jesus said in John 6, that can be a strong factor for them to then come home to the Catholic Church.

It is not coincidental, in my opinion, that most Protestants who do not accept Apostolic Succession also do not accept the Real Presence. Think about it. They have their own little group saying some prayers, and trying to recreate or redo the Last Supper. It is really hard to believe that one’s own prayers, and one’s own faith, is going to change the bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. Even though Jesus could not have said it more clearly, they still feel compelled to reject or read away the obvious meaning of John 6. Why ? Because without Apostolic Succession it is really hard to believe that bread and wine really change, or were meant to change, when one recreates the Last Supper Liturgy.

Those with Apostolic Succession have a firm reason for believing that Christ’s authority does rest in the priest or bishop consecrating the bread and wine because all ordained priests are ‘Alter Christos,’ which means ‘Another Christ.’

So, in conclusion, when one really accepts the Blessed Sacrament, the actual words of John chapter 6, then that person has a strong apologetic reason for accepting the Catholic Church. Only with Apostolic Succession, and the authority that it conveys, is a person going to have a strong basis for accepting that the bread and the wine do change.

I understand this to be what Ignatius was implying about the statement by J.R.R. Tolkien.

.

 

[Contarini]

Apologetics is rationally defending the faith.

It is very nice and certainly true but I really don’t think that quote is an apologetic.

-Tim-

Well, I for one am more moved by it than by any amount of “rational apologetics.”

My most recent attempt at RCIA was triggered (as in, I read the passage and went straight to the phone to call the parish RCIA contact person) by a passage from the Silmarillion.

And now that I have once again chickened out without going through with it, one of the things that gives me most regret is the memory of praying the Rosary at Tolkien’s grave in November 2013 and promising him that I would blow the Horn of Rohan.

Maybe I can do that without becoming Catholic, but I suspect Tolkien wouldn’t think so

Edwin

 

[Church_Militant]

The complete quote reads as follows:

Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament…There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.
J.R.R. Tolkien