Longing for a simpler faith

[Carlan]

Jesus instituted the Sacraments for us. And there is nothing more simple than these. Without the commitment of the Sacraments, he will be forever searching for something to replace it. He will become one of the ‘spiritually homeless’, going from spiritual soup kitchen to spiritual soup kitchen longing for His food. When all the while, He has spread a gourmet meal in palace waiting for us.
So, in actual fact, he is replacing the* simple *for the simplistic.

yesI have often wondered how the Protestant deals with sin in their life.
a Christian will say he intends to do good, but will rationalize and then turns around and does wrong .Sin involves self deception, and when one has been kidding oneself, by what means does he arrive at the conclusion that self deception has stopped ?.Protestism does not seem to offer any helpful way to cope with guilt and reform.

Well in this I thank God for the Universal Church, for His Love and sanctifying grace. We have hislove especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist. How blessed we are!. Carlan

 

[Middleman]

I’ve been following the thread which seemed to have taken on a life of its own. I’m not going to respond to every post, especially the preachier sounding ones, of which there have been quite a few. Thanks for all of your concern.

 

[Church_Militant]

I’ve been following the thread which seemed to have taken on a life of its own. I’m not going to respond to every post, especially the preachier sounding ones, of which there have been quite a few. Thanks for all of your concern.

Hey, I wasn’t preaching…just pointing out some very important and relevant aspects and errors in your process thus far.

Those are some of the more important issues that you need to resolve and I don’t think the community church will meet those needs.

BTW, from long personal experience, if you think we’ve been preachy…you ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

God is simple, life is complicated.

All the teachings of the Church point to a union with God. What in life that separates us from this union is that which complicates us and not the faith. The faith is there to get us back to this union. Grace and sin are the simple basics but we make it complicated by our actions. We cannot simplify it by reducing it in our minds but by simplifying our lives. Contemplation, simplicity, prayer, meditation, are fruits of loving God above all else.

Trying to “fit God in” is where it gets complicated. The Church is the only place that offers the totality of Grace to accomplish what God wants for you. Figuring this out may require a journey away from the Church, this is certainly not up to anyone else to decide this for you but it would seem that loving God above all else leads many to the Catholic Church and doing it “my way” is what leads many to protest this Church. Your decision.

 

[Monte1945]

the Eucharist. I don’t have to be entertained, I want to be challenged. I want to hear the truth, not some watered down PC stuff. I don’t care to have a priest that is to afraid to say it like it is.happens to happen, in which case, more power to it.

I don’t know what gender you are… That name Teneas isn’t one I have ever heard of
before…

But if you are a man… it seems to me that you could consider becoming a deacon
in the Church… as they are allowed to do the homilies during Mass… and you
could give the message you are feeling you would like to hear/need.

And if you are a women… you could always write emails to the priests of your parish
or church and suggest to them what you might like to hear… I am sure the priests
would appreciate some feed back from people… They certainly have to stay within the
subject of the readings… but I am sure they could fit in what you might suggest to them of your need.

I have had some wonderful responses from Priests whom I have told, that I wanted to
pray for them just before they went into church to serve Mass…

You might see if your parish has a Prayer group… they can be very lively and personal.
I believe they are called a Charismatic Prayer Group…

The old style of Mass was more self operated than what you all are seeking and saying here. We were guided in our school years towards the gifts of the spirit form the virtues
which St. Paul wrote about… and of course the beatitudes… we were to go to the church some time prior to Mass and do what was called a “self examination”… we measured
ourselves against these virtues and we were to focus on where we fell short of that mark. and then the Sacraments of the Mass were used in order to work on, or develop those virtues which were not up to par… Sort of “working out our salvation”.

As it is quite obvious that a Catholic Mass is quite different than a protestant service as they seem to fill up their services with more events and noises than a Mass… but then
the Mass is to provide us with the Graces of God so that we can receive them in the way we need them… We need to focus on our short comings… No priest can look out at a room full of people and know what type of sermon each person needs… as there can be a great different amount of different needs in the number of people there.

The Angel came to Mary and asked… " will you give the Lord your body so he can
come through you and do His work?"

Each of us, has the spirit of God coming to us, and asking us the same question
“will you give our Lord your human body so that he can do some work through your
abilities?” Our call is to accept that Spirit into us… through the Graces the Church provides so that Our Lord can love and touch the people in our lives through our bodies.
To speak, to visit, to feed, to clothe, and visit the sick and the imprisoned…

We need to just look around our lives, to those people in our families, friends, neighbors and enemies… and allow the Lord to come to them… in his ways of love…

This is the call… this is what I think we should attend Mass for… to give us the Graces
to be Him to those we encounter…

How ever you need to do that… then that is what you need to do… If you need a Fr. John
Corapi sermon… or some lively music… then that is where you need to go…
I think that we need to have our motivations pointed toward the right direction…

I like the quiet simple sermons and I get as much out of going into the chapel
a half hour prior to the Mass… so I can self examine myself… and when Mass
begins I apply the Graces of that Mass for where I am lacking in my witness for
our lord… But I know that there are other people who need something different than me.
and that is good too…

 

[JustaServant]

I’ve been following the thread which seemed to have taken on a life of its own. I’m not going to respond to every post, especially the preachier sounding ones, of which there have been quite a few. Thanks for all of your concern.

“Simple” question for you.
Do you beleive the Eucharist is the Body of Christ?