Jesus and the Schismatics: don't heresies matter?

[Mystophilus]

E.E.N.S.:

I don’t expect you to go and get all of these books all at once or anything, but I would ask that you get one or two of them and read them out of love for our Lord. God bless and happy reading!

Thanks for the list.

Foolish, foolish child that I am, I have now (including these) extended my list of “books to read” to such a length that I will probably never reach the middle of it unless some serious work is done on radically lengthening the human life-span.

Imitation of Christ and The Confessions are available free via those wonderful, wonderful people at the Gutenberg Project, whom I would canonise if only I had the power (mind you, the fact that I would also canonise the inventor of peanut satay sauce is probably just one of the reasons why they do not let me do it).

 

[BlestOne]

Mystophilus:

I think that, should you go back and read my post again, you will see that “Catholics” represent a sub-category of ‘those who do not read the Bible because they have others to do it for them’. On the one hand, I have met more Protestants than Catholics who do this, but I have met far more Protestants than Catholics. Of those whom I have met, a higher proportion of the Catholics than of the Protestants do it, which is probably because most Protestant churches have a culture which more actively promotes personal study of the text.

Mysto,
Not all of us are like this. I attend a Catholic bible study at my church…you bet I read my bible. As for personal study…yes, but personal interpretation…no, too easy to get thigs wrong or out of context.

 

[Todd_Easton]

Jesus wants us to always follow our conscience; “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17) That said, Jesus prefers that our conscience be properly formed and grounded in the truth and that’s why he gave us a hierarchical Church (the Catholic Church), the pillar and bulwark of truth (1 Timothy 3:14), to teach us sound doctrine:

11And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. (Ephesians 4:11-14)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the primacy of conscience and issues of Church unity in paragraphs 811-856 (“The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic”), especially in paragraphs 846-848 (“Outside the Church there is no salvation.”)

 

[E.E.N.S]

Mystophilus:

Thanks for the list.

Foolish, foolish child that I am, I have now (including these) extended my list of “books to read” to such a length that I will probably never reach the middle of it unless some serious work is done on radically lengthening the human life-span.

Imitation of Christ and The Confessions are available free via those wonderful, wonderful people at the Gutenberg Project, whom I would canonise if only I had the power (mind you, the fact that I would also canonise the inventor of peanut satay sauce is probably just one of the reasons why they do not let me do it).

I like that sauce too!