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Lost_Sheep
Guest
That all depends on your definition of “fun”.
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Bill_Martin
Guest
I think what you are seeing in those answers is either extreme ignorance about what sin is, or an attempt to inflate one’s sense of self by condemning things other people do and enjoy as sinful.
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LilyM
Guest
Darn where is that picture of Benedict XVI when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a delicious-looking stein of beer when you need it? 
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Bill_Martin
Guest
Maybe he resigned because word got out that he had fun once.Darn where is that picture of Benedict XVI when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a delicious-looking stein of beer when you need it?
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Skye_Ariel
Guest
Amen!ok, now I understand
well, I definitely don’t see God as my enemy
I have heard that everything that causes disquiet, un-peace… is not from God.
I have been told that God wants me to be happy.
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LilyM
Guest
Nope. People who get a lot of gas sometimes take charcoal tablets for it - which is burnt wood, similar to ash.Eewww! Won’t that make them sick??I would rather just fast and eat nothing!
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Brendan_64
Guest
I once asked one of our priests about this. So long as your intent is good (drinking to enjoy good company and friendship etc.) and you know when to draw the line.
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Seeker1961
Guest
I think some of it comes from that same place it did as kids. When Mom or Dad caught us doing something wrong, we quickly tried to find something someone else was doing that was worse-sibling, neighbor kid…anybody to show how we weren’t that bad. People are doing the same thing as adults. “See God, look what THAT person does! I’m not anywhere near as bad as them!!”
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Brendan_64
Guest
It can get a bit extreme on here at times with regard to what people claim to be sins (mortal and venial). Reading some things on CAF, you might start to worry about whether or not unintentionally breaking wind in church was a sinful act. It really wouldn’t surprise me if some people on CAF claimed that it was.
If in doubt, speak to your priest in confession. I’ve always found that ordained priests at confession are often a lot more tolerant (and less puritanical) about what actions are and are not sins, than a lot of the lay-people who post on CAF.
If in doubt, speak to your priest in confession. I’ve always found that ordained priests at confession are often a lot more tolerant (and less puritanical) about what actions are and are not sins, than a lot of the lay-people who post on CAF.
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Debora123
Guest
yup
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Debora123
Guest
absolutely, 100% true.
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Lost_Sheep
Guest
CAF members seem to be extreme in both directions; scrupulosity to the point that breathing is somehow a sin, to the other end where lives the hardliners who think they have a lock on all the answers and tell people they are all going to Hell (themselves excepted, of course).
It’s hard to find any Catholic Average Joes and Average Janes here.
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fix
Guest
Like wearing a hair shirt they did it as a penance.
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fhansen
Guest
It becomes sin when balance or self-control is lost because then we’ve begun to idolize the act that seems fun-and it ends up having control over us. The result is the opposite of the intent; happiness is actually diminished. Humans are meant for something higher- something “more fun” yet-but we’re born without it, born lacking the full happiness we were designed for and can’t help but want- and so we go looking for it in all the wrong places- and sometimes get caught up or addicted to whatever the attraction is. All things are good in an of themselves; they just aren’t capable of delivering what some of us want and on this forum you’ll often encounter people who are struggling in this area.
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Debora123
Guest
Every time I come across someone here who seems to fit that description, I always send them a friend request.CAF members seem to be extreme in both directions; scrupulosity to the point that breathing is somehow a sin, to the other end where lives the hardliners who think they have a lock on all the answers and tell people they are all going to Hell (themselves excepted, of course).
It’s hard to find any Catholic Average Joes and Average Janes here.
You are correct. There aren’t very many.
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jimmy
Guest
Haha, you could probably count the average catholics on two hands here. The rest fall into one of your categories.CAF members seem to be extreme in both directions; scrupulosity to the point that breathing is somehow a sin, to the other end where lives the hardliners who think they have a lock on all the answers and tell people they are all going to Hell (themselves excepted, of course).
It’s hard to find any Catholic Average Joes and Average Janes here.
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PolarGuy
Guest
One thumb for me, please!
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Portrait
Guest
Dear Sarcelle,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
Certainly, dear friend, innocent and wholesome merriment is not forbidden by our Church, but that does not give us license to embrace a hand in hand with world type of religion that makes little or no demand upon us in terms of personal sanctity and separation from the world.
Unfortunately, dear friend, many modern Catholic’s have an image of Puritanism that has much disfiguring dirt upon it which needs to be scraped off. Many informed men now freely acknowledge that your typical Puritan was not some fierce religious fanatic and social extremist, but rather a sober and self-denying cultured citizen. He was, moreover, a man of principle, devoted, determined, disciplined and excelling in the domestic virtues, with no obvious shortcoming’s, save a propensity to run to words when saying anything of importance, either to God or man. However, the erroneous belief that the Puritans were comic and pathetic in equal degree, being naive and supertistious, overscrupulous, majoring on minors and unhealthly world-denying, dies jolly hard. True, they were Protestants and thus separated from Holy Mother Church theologicallly, but they were, notwithstanding, devout and earnest men who were concerned with persevering unto the end, zealous to confirm their call and election (cf. II Pet. 1: 10,11). They, like the Catholic Saints, realized that the whole course of this mortal life is a state of probation and that our chief preoccupation here is not to “have fun”, but to pursue holiness, so as to prepare ourselves for Heaven and the beatific vision of God in Christ. The fact is that the Puritans did exemplify holy living and in this respect are worthy of emulation, especially given the ease and luxury with which Catholics living in the West are now surrounded.
Whilst our religion was never intended to make us melancholic, dear friend, it was designed to focus our minds upon the more nobler things of life (cf. Phillip. 4: 8). Indeed, St. Paul exhorts us: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with God in Christ” (Col. 3: 1-3). We should not dote upon worldly pleasures and pursuits, but rather growth in holiness, depth in prayer and cultivating a more intimate communion with Christ, should be the aims which fill our horizon. Heaven and the godless world are diametrically opposed to each other and so a supreme regard to both is inconsistent with the earnest pursuit of holiness. Moreover, it admits of no doubt that the prevalence of our affection to one will proportionally weaken and abate our affection to the other - “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (S. Matt. 6: 24). After all, we Catholics claim to desire “a better country, that is, a heavenly” (Heb. 11: 14) and supposedly concur that “the friendship of the world is enmity with God” and that “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (cf. Jam. 4: 4). Stern passages all of these and if such words were uttered today then, I suspect, that those who uttered them would probably be charged with being ‘Puritanical’ or overscrupulous.
If only, dear friend, the Puritan passion for holiness would “rub off” on more contemporary Catholics living in the godless Western world with its debased culture. There has been far too much nonesense spoken about being world-affirming rather than world-denying and of not behaving in such a way as to make our religion unattractive, harsh or ‘narrow’. However, does there not need to be a more zealous pursuit of holiness, coupled with a firm repudiation of the materialistic values that now dominate Western society? Too many modern Catholics (even those who identify as ‘conservative’ in faith and morals) our contenting themselves with a sort of earthbound ‘Catholicism Lite’ that refuses to manfully face up to the call to holiness and self-denial (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paras. 2013-2015). There can be “no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” and this, along with necessity of “ascesis and mortification”, is something that we need to hear a great deal more of in church homilies. Alas, so many professing Catholics want to cling on to as large a chunk of the world as possible, and yet still remain in good standing with the Church, which is a monumental tragedy of the first rank. It is high time that we Catholics provided a vibrant Christian counter-culture that dares to be different. Let us remember, the Church has always achieved more in the world when it has been most unlike the world, refusing to compromise with the godless spirit of the age.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
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