You cannot learn it well without error. Even a little old lady who prays the rosary will have less errors about basic Church teaching than you. You may know more Church teaching, but you will also be misled by much more error.
Again, this is basic Church teaching. Sin blinds us to the truth. This is Church teaching. Since we need prayer to overcome sin, it is impossible to understand basic Church teachings without error without constant prayer.
Psalms 25:8
“Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in
the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is
right, and** teaches the humble his
way.”**
Only a proud Catholic who thinks he does not need God’s grace will refuse to pray the Rosary daily. I know, I was one. And God will not instruct the proud. We have to admit to God that we are dumb and stupid, and ask for His grace constantly. Then we will begin to learn.
So I show that I did live a life of devout prayer and study. So now you say that I obviously wasn’t praying well enough or for the right things because doubts crept in.
Code:
Doubts creep in even with the saints, who pray far more than you or I. But eventually God's grace will show us the truth, as long as we keep praying. . The problem comes when we quit praying.
Because the devil never quits
and our sinful drives toward
pride, lust, greed, envy, anger, gluttony and sloth NEVER QUIT,
our prayers must never quit.
Father Mitch Paqwa on EWTN once said that he has talked to many Catholic priests who left the priesthood. He said EVERY ONE said things started going downhill when they quit praying.
How am I to know that you are the one who has led the proper life of prayer? Perhaps it is the devil leading you astray by preventing the workings of the Holy Spirit in his Church? The argument cuts both ways.
Code:
I haven't led the proper life of prayer. I started out bad, and it was only through the prayers of others that God pushed me to start praying and going to mass. It was only when I started praying the Rosary that I began to understand Church teaching. And it is only through God's grace at daily mass that I can have a reasonable control over my sins, especially anger. If I miss 2 days, then anyone near me better watchout when my anger takes over.
Actually, I seem to recall reading that Jesus never said to follow what the Church (by which you mean the magisterum) teaches but rather to sell ones’ cloak and follow him.
He said both. He said to the leaders of His Church, “he who hears you, hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me.”
“if he will not listen to the Church, let him be as a pagan or tax collector.” He told the authorities He appointed to preach the Gospel to all nations. “he who does not believe will be condemned” Thus, if we don’t believe what the Church preaches, we will be condemned. He does not say, “if he does not believe Raymond Brown, we will be condmened.”
He also said, “if he will not listen to the Church, let him be as a pagan or tax collector” meaning that those who don’t listen to the Church should be considered as no longer Christian.
I was taught never to get into an argument with a fool because spectators might not be able to tell who was who. If you continue with your ad hominem attacks on me for supposedly not praying and on Catholic scholarship in general, I will simply refuse to respond. You are only securing my views that conservative Catholicism is anti-intellectual, reactionary, fundamentalist ignorance. You are doing a great disservice to the Church.
Adam
Code:
I am not attacking you, but your ideas in which you say the Church was superstitious, ignorant, full of error, etc.
And you know good and well you are not praying the Rosary daily. Poeple who pray the Rosary will never get misled by the errors of Raymond Brown, or by any others who promote heresy. It does no good to say you once prayed the Rosary and went to daily mass. We need to never give up. The Church recommends praying the Rosary unceasingly. The Pope does so, because he knows he needs God’s grace unceasingly, even though he is brilliant. The Church highly, highly recommends daily mass. This is because the devil never sleeps, and our fallen human nature has the constant drives of pride, lust, greed, envy, anger, sloth, and gluttony. Thus, as soon as we stop praying, pride comes and and blinds us to the truth, and others sins make us forget about God, and thus we become religously stupid.
