Church pews emptying because

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TPJCatholic:
Just yesterday, I went to a general meeting with my son at our parish Church for his First Communion. The female sacrament coordinator spent 50 minutes speaking about obscure matters of the Mass (Priest vestments, etc,), and zero minutes talking about the wonder, glory and mystery of the Real Presence (which my son will receive in May). At the end of the meeting the sacrament coordinator stated that the most important part of the Mass comes at the end, during the final blessing when we are sent out to the world to live our faith and evangelize.

How can we make progresss when we have people who diminish the value of the Blessed Sacrament like that?

When we see more Catholics who truly love the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and when more Catholics love going to confession–that is when we will see incredible renewal of the faith.
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“Sacrament coordinator”??? When in the Bible did Peter coordinate Jesus’ activities?
 
Nowich,

We are Catholics, we shall agree that doing loving and charitable works is a requirement, not a nicety. However, the first “step” is faith, is having a deep and abiding love for God. Abraham would never have sacrificed his son Isaac if he did not first love and believe in God!

As Catholics, we realize that we need faith and works…yet faith always procede works, with works coming as the fruit of our faith and love for God. One cannot truly love, unless one first loves God.
 
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TPJCatholic:
Nowich,

We are Catholics, we shall agree that doing loving and charitable works is a requirement, not a nicety. However, the first “step” is faith, is having a deep and abiding love for God. Abraham would never have sacrificed his son Isaac if he did not first love and believe in God!

As Catholics, we realize that we need faith and works…yet faith always procede works, with works coming as the fruit of our faith and love for God. One cannot truly love, unless one first loves God.
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Right. There is a tendency among the liberals to downplay the Eucharist and Eucharistic adoration.
 
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Norwich:
What is Mother Teresa remembered for? What is her true legacy? Yes, praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament was important to HER it was important to HER life but, it was her work with the poor, it was her living the christian life, it was her acknowledgement and help to all of Gods children that demonstrated to the world the power of prayer, charity, care and christianity.

So my argument still stands, reverence and love of the Blessed Sacrament is a personal internal love between me and God. Charity and demonstrating a love for all humanity, carrying out of charitable works, living the life Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us to live and demonstrating his love for all on earth, that is the outward sign of our love for God and the one that has the greatest effect on those who do not, or cannot, accept Our Lord. Evangelisation is not telling, it’s LIVING.

This still leaves my original question, who is best placed to teach children of the importance of both the Blessed Sacrament and the need to live a Christian life, not just talk about it?
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The parents should teach this but so should the priest or his “coordinator”. Jesus said that if you did not eat Him then you would have no life inside of you. If you have no life, you cannot fully and truly perform charity in love out of pure motivation for Him - in other words a purely other-focused helping of another with no self-focus at all.
 
fix,

I agree…that is why 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. I strongly feel that if 70% of Catholics believed in the Real Presence, and if they attended confession regularly (at least once a month) our culture would change quite rapidly.
 
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TPJCatholic:
with works coming as the fruit of our faith and love for God.
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That’s a protestant concept!! John Ankerberg would agree with you entirely. The Catholic Church, however, teaches that works are not merely the fruit of our faith, but part of the process whereby an individual grows in justification by his faith and good works.
 
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TPJCatholic:
fix,

I agree…that is why 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. I strongly feel that if 70% of Catholics believed in the Real Presence, and if they attended confession regularly (at least once a month) our culture would change quite rapidly.
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This thread illustrate much about our current culture. Everyone knows we should help poor people, visit the lonely, help the afflicted, etc. Our culture knows that much. If we only know those things without any acceptance of Christ why bother with a Church, or priests, or confession, or grace, or anything else?
 
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Norwich:
Therein lies the difference, you put the Blessed Sacrament above all else, you grade life and spirituality, Blessed Sacrament first, charity and good works second. I do not. They are one and the same, my love of the Blessed Sacrament is my love for God and Gods love for me, my need to evengelise by what I do, or how I behave, is my love for God and his love for all.

Try:
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If God almighty appeared in the flesh standing next to you (and you knew it was Him) and there was also a poor man that needed a coat next to you, and God said - I want you to first eat this bread and then give this man a coat, what would you do?

I’d eat the bread first.
 
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Norwich:
Sorry folks but you see GOD IS CHARITY not seperate from, not different too, not step A or B or C through Z.
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Correct. God is love. And we are not God but His obedient servants. We do not know how to love as God loves unless we know Him truly and completely. This requires complete obedience.

Your viewpoint is (whether known or not) is a demonstration of whty the pews are emptying. All the things you say are equal to the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord, you can do anywhere. You don’t provide any imperative reason to go to church. Jesus did. He said we must eat His flesh.
 
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Brad:
Correct. God is love. And we are not God but His obedient servants. We do not know how to love as God loves unless we know Him truly and completely. This requires complete obedience.

Your viewpoint is (whether known or not) is a demonstration of whty the pews are emptying. All the things you say are equal to the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord, you can do anywhere. You don’t provide any imperative reason to go to church. Jesus did. He said we must eat His flesh.
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Bingo. The Gospel of modernity.
 
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Richardols:
Yes. Among other things also necessary for our salvation.
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So, you agree. It is faith, obeying the moral law and good works. Why do the liberals only want to mention good works and minimize the rest?
 
richardols,

You do not understand Protestant theology. Protestants do NOT believe that works are required at all, they merely believe that if one loves God, they will do good works. My statement, if you go back and read the entire messages, basically says we MUST have both. We cannot be justified by faith alone, nor can we be justified by works alone–it takes both. However, without faith it is impossible to please God, without faith Abraham would not have obeyed and brought Isaac to be sacrificed.

We are saved by Grace (which is a free gift), and our response to Grace is faith that works.
 
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fix:
Why do the liberals only want to mention good works and minimize the rest?
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The liberals? Since when has this become a political discussion?

I thought that there was only orthodoxy and heterodoxy in matters of our faith.
 
Fix,

I agree…and I will add that if the Eucharist is NOT particularly important, than why should Catholics bothering attending Mass? Why do people go to daily Mass if the Eucharist is so seemingly meaningless? Why did Christ command us to do it in memory of Him if it is not important.
 
richardols,

There are liberal Catholics who seem to not want to hold onto the very things given to us by Christ. It has nothing to do with politics. It is a liberal Catholic theology that says the faith must bend with culture.
 
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Richardols:
Yes. Among other things also necessary for our salvation.
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That point has been made perfectly clear on this thread and is not being debated by anyone. My comment was addressing Norwich’s implication that doing a good work (feeding the poor) is equivalent, and therfore could be done instead of, eating His Body.
 
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TPJCatholic:
You do not understand Protestant theology.
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Thanks for the blanket denial of my understanding of non-Catholics. I’ve carried out apologetics on several non-Catholic boards and I believe have a pretty good notion of their various theologies.

The notion that works is merely a fruit of faith is a non-Catholic one. Catholics do not so believe. Whether you give any credence to his apologia or not, Robert Sungenis explains this in his book, “Not By Faith Alone.”
 
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TPJCatholic:
There are liberal Catholics who seem to not want to hold onto the very things given to us by Christ. It has nothing to do with politics. It is a liberal Catholic theology that says the faith must bend with culture.
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If it has nothing to do with politics, then why do you use the term liberal? I am a liberal Catholic, wholly orthodox in my faith, liberal in my politics. I don’t use the term conservative Catholics to mean SPPXers or sedevacantists or other such. Or should I?
 
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