Does anybody else feel that tough times are truly ahead?

[atheistgirl]

Again, you know nothing on the size of this town. Also what happens when you have no resources? These aren’t excuses, this is the truth. Until You’ve seen my schedule and seen this town, then I don’t think you are qualified to judge. I am trying to do what I can according to My resources And capabilities

I don’t need to see your schedule or know your town to recognize excuses when I hear them.

You’ve already said there’s a nursing home where you go to school.

You’ve said there’s a soup kitchen at Christmas. I’m pretty sure if there’s needy people at Christmas, there’s needy people year round.

You don’t even need to leave your bedroom.

Write to a priest abroad on mission work to give them encouragement and support. Write to a prisoner.

***Do ***something positive, no matter how small, rather than joining in the chorus of negativity.

Never mind.

I do wish you well.

One more thing - I had to pick out your response from within my reply to you.

Please quote properly, because by inserting your response *into *my post, you make my post read like something I didn’t say.

Sarah x

 

[cheezey]

Sweetie, I have a 17 y/o daughter, in a similar predicament. All most of us can do and should do its pray fervently and offer up any personal sacrifices to God, in communion with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. You can do this even when you’re not in church. PRAYER moves mountains, all sorts of mountains. Just remain steadfast in Jesus.

MMM,
Jesus and His children at CAF praying for me and my dire situation DID MOVE A MOUNTAIN!!! I AM NOT HOMELESS as I was so close to being!!
I don’t even want to THINK of where I’d be without these prayers.
If you are really saying you want to do something more physically active in the Good Lord’s name, that’s different. And good!!! Get to know as many people as you can. You will learn of some people’s needs and then you act accordingly. It may be as small - to you- as carrying groceries up difficult stairs for seniors (for them this is HUGE!!) to starting a fund drive for someone who needs medical equipment or something of this nature that is not otherwise affordable.
Previously I worked for a doctor who made a middle six figure income. And that was just one job. What do I get for a Christmas gift for someone who has everything?? So I started a fund drive for his favorite charity. Had no idea how to do it, but people gave enough money to buy a special school a new floor one year, and most of a new roof another year.
Spend time with as many people as you can; you will learn how to be the caring priest you so obviously want to be, you will learn how to help people, really listen to them. It will teach you patience and humility because the needs of many are great. Once you are there, you will look back at this time of plenty and wish you had more time to help more people of your parish…
just my thoughts…
Blessings

 

[Slowride]

There does seem to be some kind of concensus. I don’t know - I hate to think that we are in store for sometype of spritual chastizement spoken of by many. I hate to think that because I don’t know if I am really prepared.

 

[Diana_Catherine]

**Again, You don’t see where I am coming from. Of course believe that there is still hope for this world and even salvation, otherwise I would have abadonded Catholicism a while ago. However, You wouldn’t think highly of our LORD then either because it was HIM who said “Broad is the way and wide is the gate that leads to destruction and there are MANY who Travel IT”. Our LORD came to save us from such a reality. ONE of the motivating reasons that I want to be a Priest is because I feel a duty to my Brothers and Sisters to save their souls from hell. That is the whole point of the Church, The Sacraments, and the Death of JESUS. HE came not just to work miracles and help the lesser (Although THIS ALSO is a fundamental part of the work of the Christian), but to ultimatley save souls from hell. I do believe society is headed in a very dark direction and I want to save as many as I can from that. When one drives GOD from society, it is hell. Literally. One of the defintions of hell is that it is a place without GOD. This society is becoming that. We accuse GOD of every evil that befalls us, yet we shove HIM under the rug as often as we can. What do we expect? When man stops seeking GOD and His ultimate and final destiny, that man will turn to depraved things to fill the vacancy. Blame me all you want, I think Your criticism is invalid. If we fail to address the ills that are facing society, then we become guilty of negligence. I have always wanted to do some sort of humanitarian work, and call me out on this all you want, I cannot. Lack of time and resources. All I hear from your posts is undue critisicm. You have not even expierenced my situation and yet you are judging. You have not seen the size of the town where my school is, nor where I live, nor my schedule, and yet You made unfair, and invalid judgements. I will listen to your critiscm when You have seen what I go through in a day, and in what town, until then, I will not take an ignorant answer for an answer. **

I just wanted to say I think it is great that you are listening to the call of God to reach out and help others. I totally agree the world is getting to be a place that has no room for God. I know that there is good in everyone but that does not mean everyone leads good lives or follows our Lord. Too many are turning away and turning to the culture and you can’t follow both.

I think that if we close our eyes to the problems of the world, it is selfish. We would only be thinking of seeing our own happiness, when so many people today are turning away from God.

I just read this this morning and it was horrible. Not just the article but the comments, so much being said against our Lord and his Church. So hateful.
religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/07/my-take-the-pope-is-irrelevant/?iref=allsearch

And you find this daily and the hate and comments get worse. What is in store for our faith?

We do not need to fear though because we have truth and God on our side. He promised he would never leave us.

It sounds like you are young and still finishing school. Continue to pray and God will lead you and show you how he wants you to serve him on a daily basis. Life can be very busy when you are in school and it is good you are focusing well on your studies and have a goal, I know God wants you to do well in your studies because that will be important for a priest.

 

[mymamamary]

I don’t need to see your schedule or know your town to recognize excuses when I hear them.

You’ve already said there’s a nursing home where you go to school.

You’ve said there’s a soup kitchen at Christmas. I’m pretty sure if there’s needy people at Christmas, there’s needy people year round.

You don’t even need to leave your bedroom.

Write to a priest abroad on mission work to give them encouragement and support. Write to a prisoner.

***Do ***something positive, no matter how small, rather than joining in the chorus of negativity.

Never mind.

I do wish you well.

One more thing - I had to pick out your response from within my reply to you.

Please quote properly, because by inserting your response *into *my post, you make my post read like something I didn’t say.

Sarah x

I will look into these, however, I am stating a truth. The world is getting worse. My Parish Priest agrees, The retired Priest in my town agrees etc.

Society is certainly not getting more and more fair. The movement of Tolerance is very intolerant of those who oppose its views. The pro homosexual and abortion group will seek to silence anyone with contrary views. At the time of this writing, North Korea is threatening with nuclear weapons as sanctions against them are tightening. Rome never architected genocidal slaughters such as hitler, stalin etc. Rome had Nero, but even Nero never stooped to the level that communist Russia sank to. Slaves in Ancient Rome were significantly better off than the Slaves that worked on plantations in America. Rome never slaughtered Her children via abortion. Greece might have been stupid with its selective process of boys, yet that never equalled what we have today.

 

[Charbel123]

The world is getting worse or better , doesn’t matter . We should always trust in GOD for He is our creator and knows what is the best for us far more than we do. Our wills must be united always with GOD’s will , even if all the world is against us . All we can do is pray and LOVE and do every action with Pure love fo the glory of God and salvation of mankind and always have a firm hope and Trust in God.God will never abandon His faithful servants .

 

[InJesusItrust]

I think that we should try to reach as many people as possible and explain why banking is a source of almost all evil in our current world. People do not understand how charging interest relates to poverty, bankruptcy, unlimited debt, consumerism, control of media and education, immoral wars, funding terrorism, promotion of eugenics, etc. Not many people wonder where money comes from or how it is created, and those who control money control everything else.

It is a simple mathematical fact that P < P + I, where P is the principle and I is the interest. Our system only creates enough money to pay the P; the I is supplied when someone or the other has to sell his possessions to pay it. This unbalanced state gives virtually unlimited power to money changers–especially since money is fiat. Whatever they promote becomes the agenda of the world through their hidden plutocracy, including the current assault on faith and reason.

 

[atheistgirl]

I will look into these, however, I am stating a truth.

No.

An opinion.

But I hope you do look into using all that energy todo something positive instead of squandering it on negative histrionics.

The world is getting worse. My Parish Priest agrees, The retired Priest in my town agrees etc.

The world is getting better every day. My Mom agrees and my Board agree.

At the time of this writing, North Korea is threatening with nuclear weapons as sanctions against them are tightening.

When have the DPRK not threatened something

It won’t happen, so you can stop worrying

Rome never architected genocidal slaughters such as hitler, stalin etc. Rome had Nero, but even Nero never stooped to the level that communist Russia sank to. Slaves in Ancient Rome were significantly better off than the Slaves that worked on plantations in America. Rome never slaughtered Her children via abortion. Greece might have been stupid with its selective process of boys, yet that never equalled what we have today.

Sorry, whatever point you were trying to make is lost in the histrionics again.

I look forward to hearing what you’re ***doing ***to make things better.

Sarah x

 

[cheezey]

The world is getting worse or better , doesn’t matter . We should always trust in GOD for He is our creator and knows what is the best for us far more than we do. Our wills must be united always with GOD’s will , even if all the world is against us . All we can do is pray and LOVE and do every action with Pure love fo the glory of God and salvation of mankind and always have a firm hope and Trust in God.God will never abandon His faithful servants .

 

[clem456]

Mankind has had a heart incliined toward sin since the beginning. These times are no more worse or better than any other. Murder, lust, disbelief, etc… have all been around in any age. The atrocities of the last century for instance did not happen just in that time frame. The evil has always been there, sometimes in is obvious from body counts, sometimes it is brewing beneath the surface. If you live in the US, it can seem like it we are worse off than ever before, especially if you are over 50 years old. Older US citizens grew up in a time of relative prosperity and peace. However simultaneously in other parts of the world people were persecuted and killing each other.

A healthy fear of the evil of sin is necessary, but as Christians we are called to be people of hope, so the message should not be how bad the world is become, but rather how good God is, always. If our message focuses on the evils of the world, we are attached to the world (of the world), rather than to the hope of the heaven.

 

[mymamamary]

No.

An opinion.

But I hope you do look into using all that energy todo something positive instead of squandering it on negative histrionics.

The world is getting better every day. My Mom agrees and my Board agree.

When have the DPRK not threatened something

It won’t happen, so you can stop worrying

Sorry, whatever point you were trying to make is lost in the histrionics again.

I look forward to hearing what you’re ***doing ***to make things better.

Sarah x

Its not histrionics, nor am I a histrionic. Some people just don’t want to look at the ugly modern truth. I only have to look back to see that only 60-80 years ago roughly 100 million people were slaughtered. In addition to that, we had the genocide in Rwanda, which gave us 800,000 murdered in the span of one month. The Rwanda genocide happened a year before I was born. What about terrorism? What about people in “civilized countries” turning on each other and gunning each other down? What about abortion? What about the record breaking number and force of natural disasters? What about poverty in third world countries? What about starvation here in our countries? There is no doubt that we are technologically more advanced, yet our hearts have grown colder. No, my opinion is the same. Rome may have been bad, but never this bad. This thread also pertains to whether or not I think the world is getting worse, not to my social work record.

 

[atheistgirl]

Its not histrionics, nor am I a histrionic.

I disagree.

And I feel sad there’s a young man out there with such negativity, despair and hopelessness in his heart for humanity.

I think we’re done talking here.

But before I say goodbye to this thread, let me leave you with this.

Did you make a difference today?

Did it matter that you were here?

Did some living being, human, plant or animal benefit from you being here?

If not, you’re not making the most of the tiny amount of time we have here.

Every second wasted in histrionics is a second that could have done something positive for somebody, that you’ll never get back.

Sarah x

 

[mymamamary]

I disagree.

And I feel sad there’s a young man out there with such negativity, despair and hopelessness in his heart for humanity.

I think we’re done talking here.

But before I say goodbye to this thread, let me leave you with this.

Did you make a difference today?

Did it matter that you were here?

Did some living being, human, plant or animal benefit from you being here?

If not, you’re not making the most of the tiny amount of time we have here.

Every second wasted in histrionics is a second that could have done something positive for somebody, that you’ll never get back.

Sarah x

**Again, I am not a histrionic. Another point is that this thread was put in so that we can discuss whether or not the world is getting worse. This thread was not put in place so that we can discuss my social work record. However, yes someone living did benefit from me being here today. My Dad. I went to help him in his work. I hate being portrayed as someone who has despaired. I haven’t despaired of the world, although I do feel as if the world is commiting suicide and won’t listen to the pleas of halting this mess. I am merely adressing the situation as it is. Secular mans heart, (And those practicing Religion mind you) has grown cold. My teachers in my public high school even think so. What else do you want to argue, when even my teachers aren’t seeing a bright outcome for my generation (Remember, this is a secular high school, and the teachers are the ones who form the next generation).

If only You could prove that humanity is in fact growing BETTER, with solid, tangible facts, when I see none. To be certain there are people who always have had kind hearts, yet that is not the majority. Every good person has a little bit of bad in them, and every bad person has a little bit of good in them. Not all hope is lost, however the scale begins to lean in an unfriendly direction as each day passes and mankinds heart grows colder and colder. You can disagree all you want, but until I can see facts that prove your point and show me otherwise, Its not a valid opinion. **

 

[atheistgirl]

To be certain there are people who always have had kind hearts, yet that is not the majority.

You’ve just demonstrated my point quite well.

You can disagree all you want, but until I can see facts that prove your point and show me otherwise,** Its not a valid opinion**.

My opinion isn’t valid

Never mind.

Good luck to you.

I hope the sun shines on you soon.

Sarah x

 

[ephesians4]

You’ve just demonstrated my point quite well.
My opinion isn’t valid

…but… the whole point of your last few posts on this thread has been to say a particular user has not got a valid opinion unless they meet some existentialist checklist you have drawn up for them.

You do see that, right?

 

[atheistgirl]

…but… the whole point of your last few posts on this thread has been to say a particular user has not got a valid opinion unless they meet some existentialist checklist you have drawn up for them.

You do see that, right?

Lol

When he said he was expressing the truth, I said no, he was expressing an opinion. I never said his opinion is wrong, I said I disagree with it. See here.

I feel sad there are young people out there with such negative views of humanity.

His opinion is as valid as mine, but I disagree with his opinion and assessment of humanity, and I don’t agree humanity or society is going to hell as he claimed.

I said so.

I encouraged using the time being negative and hopeless to do something positive instead.

He on the other hand has said my opinion isn’t valid lol.

Sarah x

 

[cheezey]

Again, I am not a histrionic. Another point is that this thread was put in so that we can discuss whether or not the world is getting worse. This thread was not put in place so that we can discuss my social work record. However, yes someone living did benefit from me being here today. … I haven’t despaired of the world, …

I am glad you have not despaired of the world. Truly. Your posts make that a bit challenging to believe, and still I believe you. Remember that the typed word can be misconstrued of its “tone.” Bolding seems like shouting to me, though I do not know for a fact whether or not that was your intention; that is my opinion.

If onlyYou could prove that humanity is in fact growing BETTER, with solid, tangible facts, when I see none. To be certain there are people who always have had kind hearts, yet that is not the majority. Every good person has a little bit of bad in them, and every bad person has a little bit of good in them. Not all hope is lost, however the scale begins to lean in an unfriendly direction as each day passes and mankinds heart grows colder and colder. You can disagree all you want, but until I can see facts that prove your point and show me otherwise, Its not a valid opinion.

There are so many aspects of life that need faith over facts. Everyone’s opinion is valid in that everyone will have one, everyone is entitled to one, and even if it’s based on misinformation; we should value others’ politely and respectfully. That, too, is my opinion. But my momma taught me well, also…

If you think that kindhearted people are in the minority, and I will not state my opinion on that; how about joining the minority? We need to have faith that in doing so, one at a time, we are working towards making the kindhearted the majority.
Again, just my opinion.
This is the year of Faith, is it not?
(Really, every year is the year of Faith.)

I am glad that there is someone like you with us, who can make a positive difference with that which concerns you. If it concerns you, and you are able, make that difference. Small differences, collectively, make a big one.

God Bless

 

[Oneofthewomen]

Mymamamary,

I was reading today’s press release about Pope Francis’ meeting with the College of Cardinals. As I was reading it, I thought about you and your posts in this thread.
He started his remarks with this

“Courage, dear brothers! Probably half of us are in our old age. Old age, they say, is the seat of wisdom. The old ones have the wisdom that they have earned from walking through life. Like old Simeon and Anna at the temple whose wisdom allowed them to recognize Jesus. Let us give with wisdom to the youth: like good wine that improves with age, let us give the youth the wisdom of our lives.”

Take the man’s advice and listen to someone who has the benefit of that ***wisdom ***our Holy Father is talking about.

Read and pray with these words, which our Holy Father ended his remarks with.

“Let us never give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil offers us every day. Do not give in to pessimism and discouragement. We have the firm certainty that the Holy Spirit gives the Church with His mighty breath, the courage to persevere and also to seek new methods of evangelization, to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

 

[Silver_Thread]

I think people in every time have always had a sense that things are getting worse.

Some things are getting worse, but some things are also getting better. Every time period is a mixed bag.

Some time ago, I was serving as an usher in a certain church. I was looking for the collection baskets. I looked in the pastors confessional. Honestly, I thought I was looking in the broom closet. It was in total disarray, papers on the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been used in quite some time. My humble opinion? Things will get better when the lines outside of the confessional get longer!

 

[Diana_Catherine]

Some time ago, I was serving as an usher in a certain church. I was looking for the collection baskets. I looked in the pastors confessional. Honestly, I thought I was looking in the broom closet. It was in total disarray, papers on the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been used in quite some time. My humble opinion? Things will get better when the lines outside of the confessional get longer!

I agree about the lines of the confessional. Our pastor’s confessional has a lot of papers in there also but that is because he is working on his paper work while he waits in between hearing peoples confessions, so I guess because the confession line is short he has a lot of time to get things done. The line is short even though I hear priests begging people to come to confession.