Ever Just Get Tired Of Debating Topics Here?

[Oneofthewomen]

VERY well said.

Thank you!

Thanks.

Your are welcome!
If you can’t tell firefighters have a very special place in my heart.
My grandfather was “on the job” for over 30 years, retired for nearly 25 when he died, and the out-pouring of love and brotherhood from the department is something that I will never forget. It is actually one of the things that helped me come “home”.:getholy:

OK, I’ve think I’ve derailed this thread enough!
Sorry!

 

[Oneofthewomen]

When I come to CAF I like to think of people like Francis de Sales, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Augustine, and Clare of Assisi. You see, these people were great letter writers. They helped many people along their journey through their letters. So . . . when I post, I like to imagine what they would say and how they would say it.

Being here has helped me think about those beautiful letters written by these wonderful people. There was no hint of anger, resentment or even condemnation in their letters. They were clear, sensitive, kind and always seeking to help the other person understand.

I sometimes think that someone like Francis de Sales and John Newman who wrote hundreds of letters would have loved computers and the internet.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

And you do a wonderful job!!
I always learn so much from you!

Peace!

 

[At_Trent]

Watcha wanna talk about?

Not sure, but I’m enjoying seeing posts by members who seldom post in TC. And the regulars not arguing lol

 

[santodomingo]

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I think religion is right up there. You can’t sustain thinking about these things 24/7. Even those of us who live the conventual life play sports, table games, read novels, go for walks or have hobbies.

What I do believe gets an overkill on the TC Forum are several subjects:

EF vs OF, CITH vs COTT, EMHC and SSPX. You can only answer so many questions about these topics before you feel like you’re on cable TV watching reruns.

I also feel badly because we had several priests, deacons, sisters and brothers who used to post regularly on CAF. They became frustrated, because some posters are nasty to clergy and religious. I find this sad that those who claim to defend the faith cannot separate the person from his or her state in life. Someone on CAF, I can’t remember who, once said that you don’t speak to your peers and your parents the same way, even if they are both acting the fool. A good son or daughter exercises a certain amount of restraint in speaking to his or her parents.

This made me think. We do this all the time. The cop stops us and says that we’re speeding. We know we were not. We don’t jump on his case. We say “Yes Sir” or “No M’am” and we try to find the most polite way of responding. The debating with the deacons, priests and religious gets old. That’s not just in TC forum. It’s worse in other forums.

My point is that it’s sad that these men and women have walked away, because they have a lot of insight, experience and they know the Church from the inside. I know some of them and if those posters who are ugly to them ever met them, they would be very surprised at how kind and devout these men and women are. It’s one thing when a priest or religious discusses theology as an academic exercise (such as CAF) and another when you see him or her in action when serving God’s people.

I’d like to see the deacons, priests, sisters and brothers come back in the large numbers as they were when I joined. I was introduced to CAF by a deacon. My superior was against it. I had to ask three times for permission to join CAF. I miss those guys and gals. It was nice talking to them even if it was via PM. It gets lonely being one of the few religious here, at least openly here.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Brother, I´m very glad you are on the Forum, even though I almost never agree with you. Understandably there are some paths you cannot pursue due to obedience. I particularly remember one thread about capital punishment. You were defending JPII´s stance in Humanae Vitae, and others (myself included) were trying to show that there is a contradiction between HV and the previous doctrine on CP.

I get frustrated trying to explain traditional catholicism on the forum to people who are absolutely adamant that no Pope could ever make the tiniest error of judgement. BTW, that doesn´t include Brother JR.

Perhaps there is a bit too much on SSPX. If you´re interested in the views of a particular catholic group, the best thing is to look on their web site, rather than argue on CAF! Many I find argue for argument´s sake.

However, I am grateful for CAF. It was on this site that I had a memorable debate with a seminarian who helped to completely change the way I saw the traditionalist movement.

I agree that we should all try to show respect towards clergy and religious. They are the heart and soul of the Church Militant.

 

[gatewood1988]

I am still fairly new here too, but I am finding that almost everytime (after I do a search to see how well a topic has been covered or if it hasn’t) when I post something or start a new thread that, not to mention names, the same people jump down my throat and come at me with very hurtful comments. Unfortunately I have been working on my temper lately, but I find myself getting all irked at things some people say and then I end up in confession because I dwell on the anger. My husband keeps telling me to just quit posting because it affects him too (when I am in a bad mood) , but I really don’t want to stop, I will admit I learn alot here. However, it does seem that it is always the same arguments and because of it, I find myself getting turned off to the faith and that is not good. That’s my personal opinion. Sorry to vent

 

[JReducation]

I am still fairly new here too, but I am finding that almost everytime (after I do a search to see how well a topic has been covered or if it hasn’t) when I post something or start a new thread that, not to mention names, the same people jump down my throat and come at me with very hurtful comments. Unfortunately I have been working on my temper lately, but I find myself getting all irked at things some people say and then I end up in confession because I dwell on the anger. My husband keeps telling me to just quit posting because it affects him too (when I am in a bad mood) , but I really don’t want to stop, I will admit I learn alot here. However, it does seem that it is always the same arguments and because of it, I find myself getting turned off to the faith and that is not good. That’s my personal opinion. Sorry to vent

If it’s affecting your husband, you may want to find another source for learning the faith. It’s not good for him, especially if he’s not involved on CAF. He may not even understand why it upsets you so much, poor guy. He is the most important person in your life. Think about it for a while. It may be in your (both of you) best interest to take a break. I hope it all works out for you so that husband is not affected or uspet that you’re on CAF.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[JReducation]

Brother, I´m very glad you are on the Forum, even though I almost never agree with you. Understandably there are some paths you cannot pursue due to obedience. I particularly remember one thread about capital punishment. You were defending JPII´s stance in Humanae Vitae, and others (myself included) were trying to show that there is a contradiction between HV and the previous doctrine on CP.

I get frustrated trying to explain traditional catholicism on the forum to people who are absolutely adamant that no Pope could ever make the tiniest error of judgement. BTW, that doesn´t include Brother JR.

Perhaps there is a bit too much on SSPX. If you´re interested in the views of a particular catholic group, the best thing is to look on their web site, rather than argue on CAF! Many I find argue for argument´s sake.

However, I am grateful for CAF. It was on this site that I had a memorable debate with a seminarian who helped to completely change the way I saw the traditionalist movement.

I agree that we should all try to show respect towards clergy and religious. They are the heart and soul of the Church Militant.

It sounds like all of us are saying the same thing. We’re getting tired. The problem in explaining Traditional Catholicism is that the name or label is rather unfortunate. Because it does cause some people to raise their eyebrows, especially religious. I’m a Franciscan. We have an 800-year tradition. Br. David is an O’Carm, they have a 2000 year tradition. When I came on board there was an OCD, they have a 500-year tradition, rooted in the older Carmelite tradition. When someone tells you that you’re not faithful to tradition, because you celebrate mass in the vernacular or have CITH or don’t use use Gregorian chant, you have to explain over and over again why your religious tradition allows for this.

I lost track of how often I explained the CITH is not new to Franciscans. Some of our provinces have been doing it for from the time of St. Francis, because it was a way to decrees the number of differences between the ordained and the non ordained friars, the fact that Greogorian chant was never part of our Divine Office, because Francis insisted on reading it. Gregorian chant was an innovation for Franciscans. It was introduced later. Then there are the number of times that I have had to explain that we never had mass facing the priest’s back as the lay people did. The way that our chapels were built, the seating was on two sides of the altar. You were facing the priest from the side. The list goes on. Each of the other religious have explained the same things about their traditions and how the laity in their parishes have lived with those traditions since they started serving in parishes.

After a while, you feel like you’re on cable TV doing reruns. I just smile now. But it is sad that these are not included when people use the term Traditional Catholicism.

This is by way of anecdote. This did not happen on CAF, but in real time. We have many branches of the Franciscans that do not ordain the friars. The reason is to preserve the purity of the Franciscan tradition. It was founded as a fraternity of men whose objective was to live the Gospel in total obedience to Christ, Church and founder in a family of brothers to each other. It did not include the laity at all. The friars’ work among the laity was really part of how they lived. They lived among the laity instead of living in monasteries. There was no ministry assigned to us. Each one did what he did best. Some were preachers and some were farmers. There was never a distinct animal called a Franciscan priest or Franciscan Father. They were the Order of Lesser Brothers (Fratres Minores in Latin).

Anyway, this lady was very upset because her parish had been taken over by a group of friars, that have no priests. There are two diocesan priests who come on weekends for confessions and mass. As I understand it, the parish is out in the country and the priest has to cover a large area. So it’s nice to have the friars there to do spiritual direction, marriage counseling, sacramental preparation, take communion to the sick on a daily basis, manage the fiannces, run religioius ed, and oversee the other ministries of the parish.

She wanted to know why they would not ordain. She kept insisting on the shortage of priets. I kept explaining the Franciscan tradition of non-clericalization and how we have too many priests and we’re trying to downsize by starting branches without priests or ordaining only small numbers in those branches that do have priests. Also, the whole familoy is not taking on too many new parishes anyway. Most parishes don’t need Franciscans. They are middle class parishes. This lady was crushed. She felt that the Franciscans had abandoned the Church and tradition. There was no way of making the poor soul understand that this is part of Catholic tradition and has been so for 800 years. The super abundance of friar priests was really something that happend hundred of years after Francis, because many priests asked to join the order and become brothers. They came in handy when the Ameican missions opened up. There were no diocesan priests yet. So you sent the friars.

I felt badly for her, because she had a very narrow view of Traditional Catholicism and did not understand Franciscan tradition at all. Those kinds of things happen on CAF too. You don’t want to explain over and over again that the term “Traditional” needs to be a little broader. You feel like a broken record.

The same goes for SSPX, CITH, COTT, EF and OF, etc. It’s like teaching division. There are only so many ways to explain these things

This kind of thread is nice. It’s a whole other area of life that we have never discussed. I like it.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[valentino]

I have some advice.remember who replied to your posts that you didnt like and when you post the next time just skip over it.best of luck!

 

[CatholicFireman]

I tend to unsubscribe to threads to avoid getting into it with confrontational posters (you know, the ones that have aaaaall the answers ). Then I may resubscribe later on when there is another page of posts. Keeps my blood pressure down.

Pax†

 

[StTommyMore]

I have some advice.remember who replied to your posts that you didnt like and when you post the next time just skip over it.best of luck!

The ignore feature is a wonderful thing.

 

[CatholicFireman]

The ignore feature is a wonderful thing.

There’s an ignore feature?

 

[StTommyMore]

There’s an ignore feature?

Under “Profile” go to “Control Panel” and select “Edit Ignore List”

 

[CatholicFireman]

Under “Profile” go to “Control Panel” and select “Edit Ignore List”

Oh you are so my new favorite person.

In fact, I just used it.

 

[JReducation]

Oh you are so my new favorite person.

In fact, I just used it.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[CatholicFireman]

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Hehe. Too bad it does ignore their posts. Now THAT would be the answer!

 

[StTommyMore]

Oh you are so my new favorite person.

In fact, I just used it.

Happy to help.

 

[JReducation]

Or you can click my profile. You will see an anchor that says User List. Click and check off ignore. Bingo. You’ll never see me again. Voila.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[CatholicFireman]

Or you can click my name. You will see an anchor that says User List. Click and check off ignore. Bingo. You’ll never see me again. Voila.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Ha! Like I said last night…silly Brother.

 

[JReducation]

Ha! Like I said last night…silly Brother.

Hey, sometimes I put myself on ignore.

 

[CatholicFireman]

Hey, sometimes I put myself on ignore.

I think my wife does that to me.