Maybe so.
Complete acceptance of God’s invitation today, as presented by the needs of those around me.
The only problem with your statement is that one heck of a lot of Catholics, as poorly catechized as they have been about Truth being absolute, do believe that Pope Francis has already changed Catholic doctrine, and will change it again, and much more. And they have shown themselves not very open to correction on that, because “the Pope said it.” (Whatever they interpret “it” to be.) Sola Papa, instead of Sola Scriptura.
The main problem I have with what you said still, and I will open a new thread on this matter, is that you pit Spiritual charity against Temporal Charity and the idea of standing up for the truth against charity.
I have known many people that think they know theology yet they completely lack spirituality. When this happens a person cannot truly get the Truth because they are focus on knowing instead of faith.
I think you described it very well! There is a tendency to just look at Catholicism or even religion in general as just a mere pragmatic ethical system.I agree with you 100%. I used the Syria example, because it’s fresh in people’s minds. But the truth is that the pope is really saying what Bl. John Paul said in Evangelium Vitae. It’s very interesting. If you ask anyone about Evangelium Vitae, they’ll tell you that it’s about abortion. The truth is that abortion does not come up until the middle of the encyclical. Evangelium Vitae is about the Gospel of Life. It’s not a one issue encyclical. I believe that this is where Pope Francis may even feel annoyed with the press. Everyone wants to know his position on abortion, homosexuality and contraception as if these were the only questions in the Catholic catechism. The more I think about the use of the word, “obsess” the more I wonder if that term could be equally applied to the media, not just to some very passionate pro-life workers.
You know what, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the Holy Father was not describing just Catholics, but today’s culture. We’re obsessed with these three issues, so much so that we take them out of context. We want to begin every conversation on Truth with these three topics and forget that Truth begins with Christ. An understanding of Christ and a relationship with Christ is necessary for a proper understanding of these issues. Otherwise, the discussion quickly degenerates into politics. I guess that’s why he said that he does not do politics. Hmmmm . . .
I support what you have said, from my personal experience. I was a student in Rome. I learned to speak Italian fluently. However, fluently means that I speak like an American. Many of my examples, idiomatic expressions, and even colloquialisms are translations from my American English head. To speak a language like a native, one has to be immersed in it for a number of years. By my third year in Italy, I was using some of their more colorful expressions (not vulgar), but things like “nutjob” which to am American is crystal clear to an Italian is rather vague, “lavoro dado.” Just like he said “go make a mess”. That’s a very literal translation. In Argentina, when you tell someone to make a mess you’re encouraging them to shake things up. If we were speaking the other way around, from English to Spanish and said, “go shake things up”. There would be a rather vague idea of what is meant, but there would be as many interpretations as there are ears. This happens with the Italian.Second, his holiness converses well in Italian, but to a native speaker it is clear that it is not a language with which he is fully at ease. The level of his vocabulary, his sentence structure, and his syntax do not flow easily. I think that’s why, sometimes when he speaks extemporaneously, what he says is a bit “cloudy”.
All that being said if the church was able to survive the pontificate of Alexander VI, it can survive anything.For those who find it is not possible to fully agree with Pope Francis, there is nothing in the Catechism which impels you to do so. There’s an interesting article on catholic news service which clearly explains this point.
In interviews, Pope Francis crafts a new genre of papal language
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1304164.htm
Francis de Sales was my teacher when it came to doing spiritual direction by correspondence. I majored in Spiritual Theology. I’ve done a lot of spiritual direction by email. I think that I learned the art of it by reading his letters. They’re absolutely awesome in style and organization.St Francis De Sales wrote letters of Spiritual direction to various people.
I began reading his letters about 4 years ago and could not connect with them. I thought they were too simple.
Picking them up again recently, they speak to our current situation very well.
I find that I crave this simplicity, this ability to let go of things beyond my horizon. I wish I knew how to cultivate it.
Very true. I think without Christ being given, a person will always feel like morals (and even other doctrine and dogma) are a burden. It is Christ and our love for him that usually helps us through when to resist temptation and the devil feels very difficult. Even in the Old Testament, it was the love for God that drove people to carry out even the most arduous tasks.
Number One, how would you have private knowledge (not an assumption on your part, but knowledge) of who “completely lacks spirituality?” Number Two, knowing and believing are not opposing realities.in Catholicism, but are complementary. It’s not “instead of.”
A very good point. Probably one of the most popular misconceptions.
And in case anyone thinks I’m exaggerating, see this, just posted:
I never even implied that spirituality and knowledge were opposing realities; of course there are not. But I do believe there are some who lack one or the other. I myself do not know every single thing the Church teaches on every single matter.
So would it be fair to say that you and I should be very careful in how we word these things given that there is a major problem today with people who are trying to have a spirituality separate from knowledge?
Someone once said: You can’t argue someone out of something that they didn’t argue themselves into in the first place.
Cute.And you also do not know the supposed “spirituality” of every single person, or even any single person. Just as I do not.
That is the point in my post that you conveniently did not address.I suppose so; however, everyone has different degrees of both. From what you have said it would seem you are far more knowledge about the Church’s teachings than I am, and possibly far more spirituality.
Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute,
So sorry Elizabeth, I will try to do better.And you also do not know the supposed “spirituality” of every single person, or even any single person. Just as I do not.
Neither you nor I needs to speculate on anyone else’s spirituality. The only spirituality that is our business to address is our own.
You have nothing to apologize for, Shelby. What you said is very true, that many are filled with knowledge but devoid of spirituality. What did St. Paul say?
I admit that when I first started looking at Threads (such as the above) on Pope Francis, I was taken aback and started to feel confused. This led to much research to find out what was actually said, by whom and in what context (it was actually fun). The threads generally overlooked in the excited discussions (but maybe not to observers) led to authoritative explanations or translations which clarified matters.
