A
agnostic
Guest
I’m starting to get my head around this. In a way at least that I can understand. You’ll appreciate that for someone comming here from a position of non commital ( I have the fence post marks in my underwear to prove it 
) reading some of these threads is mind boggling 
So, thinking about whether I just need the Bible alone, and reading up on some of the reformers (thanks to those that sent me links) and compariing it to the Catholic Churchs history of taking account of the Bible and oral tradition, I thought about my Grandma.
She’s been at peace now for a long time. She wasn’t my biological grandma, but the mother of the father of the family that adopted me.
She loved baking, and so do I.
She never weighed butter, sugar, flour or anything else. Everything was a ‘‘lump’’ of this, a ‘dollop’ of that, a pinch of the other.
I followed receipe books; she followed tradition handed down to her from her mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from her mother.
My cakes never tasted as good as hers.
I watched her and learned a lot.
My book would say whip for 2 minutes, she would whip till it ‘‘looked right’’.
My book would say NOW add this or that, she would have already done it.
My book would say 3 oz of sugar, she would take a palmfull.
My book would say add 6 oz of butter, she would add a ‘‘dollop’’… just like her mother had taught her.
The bags of flour and packets of yeast in her house never saw a weighing-scales
I followed the receipe book to the letter … she followed what she had been told and what she had refined with experience.
They were the same cakes. 'Cept hers were always so much richer and fuller and just plain nicer
So thinking about it in my own incredibly simplistic way, because I don’t yet have the vocabulary to get into mind warping theological argumenets with anyone, I reckon tradition IS important.
And it being the case, as I understand it, that oral tradition and teaching played a central role in passing on the faith of the early Christians, and it being the claim of the Catholic Church that it has an unbroken link with that Tradition and Teaching - then I’m very much swayed to looking into the Catholic Church a lot deeper.
Reading the boards, if Catholics, with their belief in sacred tradition, can get so many people’s panties in a knot, then they must be doing something right
(sorry, my inappropriate sense of humour again 
)
) reading some of these threads is mind boggling So, thinking about whether I just need the Bible alone, and reading up on some of the reformers (thanks to those that sent me links) and compariing it to the Catholic Churchs history of taking account of the Bible and oral tradition, I thought about my Grandma.
She’s been at peace now for a long time. She wasn’t my biological grandma, but the mother of the father of the family that adopted me.
She loved baking, and so do I.
She never weighed butter, sugar, flour or anything else. Everything was a ‘‘lump’’ of this, a ‘dollop’ of that, a pinch of the other.
I followed receipe books; she followed tradition handed down to her from her mother, who got it from her mother, who got it from her mother.
My cakes never tasted as good as hers.
I watched her and learned a lot.
My book would say whip for 2 minutes, she would whip till it ‘‘looked right’’.
My book would say NOW add this or that, she would have already done it.
My book would say 3 oz of sugar, she would take a palmfull.
My book would say add 6 oz of butter, she would add a ‘‘dollop’’… just like her mother had taught her.
The bags of flour and packets of yeast in her house never saw a weighing-scales
I followed the receipe book to the letter … she followed what she had been told and what she had refined with experience.
They were the same cakes. 'Cept hers were always so much richer and fuller and just plain nicer
So thinking about it in my own incredibly simplistic way, because I don’t yet have the vocabulary to get into mind warping theological argumenets with anyone, I reckon tradition IS important.
And it being the case, as I understand it, that oral tradition and teaching played a central role in passing on the faith of the early Christians, and it being the claim of the Catholic Church that it has an unbroken link with that Tradition and Teaching - then I’m very much swayed to looking into the Catholic Church a lot deeper.
Reading the boards, if Catholics, with their belief in sacred tradition, can get so many people’s panties in a knot, then they must be doing something right
(sorry, my inappropriate sense of humour again )
Love is Patient
