Saints: How Would They Live In Today's World?

[catharina]

Ok, you guys are going to get tired of me and St. Elizabeth Ann, , but today’s Mass at Yankee Stadium reminded me of a reading from St. Elizabeth’s personal writings.

I was so transported by the beauty of this Mass in particular; the massive choir, so many people focused on the Holy Sacrifice, it reminded me of what heaven must look like, more souls than can be counted, all joining the Angelic host in praise of the Lamb who took away man’s sins.

“The Angels of God accompanied the Faithful when the light of His truth only dawned in the world. And now that the day sprung from on high has visited and exalted our nature to a union with the Divinity, will these Beneficent Beings be less associated or delighted to dwell with the Soul that is panting for heavenly joys and longing to join in their eternal alleluyas. Oh, no, I will imagine them surrounding me and in every moment will sing with them ‘Holy Holy Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and Earth are filled with your Glory’.”

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Reflections on Rebecca, Her Soul’s Sister, at the Point of Death

Simply beautiful, Jeanette.

(… and I was hoping it would be another reflection about dear Mother Seton!)

 

[Jeanette_L]

Simply beautiful, Jeanette.

(… and I was hoping it would be another reflection about dear Mother Seton!)

You are very generous Catharina!

 

[JReducation]

Ok, you guys are going to get tired of me and St. Elizabeth Ann, , but today’s Mass at Yankee Stadium reminded me of a reading from St. Elizabeth’s personal writings.

I was so transported by the beauty of this Mass in particular; the massive choir, so many people focused on the Holy Sacrifice, it reminded me of what heaven must look like, more souls than can be counted, all joining the Angelic host in praise of the Lamb who took away man’s sins.

“The Angels of God accompanied the Faithful when the light of His truth only dawned in the world. And now that the day sprung from on high has visited and exalted our nature to a union with the Divinity, will these Beneficent Beings be less associated or delighted to dwell with the Soul that is panting for heavenly joys and longing to join in their eternal alleluyas. Oh, no, I will imagine them surrounding me and in every moment will sing with them ‘Holy Holy Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and Earth are filled with your Glory’.”

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Reflections on Rebecca, Her Soul’s Sister, at the Point of Death

The liturgy today and this passage from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton both reflect the importance of contemplative prayer. First, observe that the liturgy was celebrated in the Ordinary Form and yet there was great reverence and a sense of the Divine.

Second, those who would reject the Ordinary Form as incapable of lifting up the soul to the level of spirituality of Elizabeth Ann Seton are wrong.

Third, true appreciation and full participation in the liturgy comes from a life lived like Elizabeth Ann Seton, contemplating the presence of the Divine all around us and anticipating the Divine in Eternity.

Those souls who like Elizabeth, take the time to understand the relationship between Heaven and Earth, to pray that God will help them see him in their world and in their experience of liturgy, work, prayer and family life will be able to enter into the mystery of the Liturgy with the great reverence that we have seen today and throughout this week in the liturgical celebrations.

JR

 

[Jeanette_L]

I’m going to throw you for a loop and post a quote from someone other than our dear St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (and no, I’m not finished with my books on her just yet ).

I was surprised to come across this quote in some wholly other kind of reading and thought it was so appropriate for what I and others have been bumping up against lately, especially since our Holy Father’s visit last week (which I’m still feeling a bit high over ).

“Should I misunderstand or be mistaken on some point, whether I deduce it from Scripture or not, I will not be intending to deviate from the true meaning of Sacred Scripture or from the doctrine of our Holy Mother Church. Should there be some mistake, I submit entirely to the Church, or even to anyone who judges more competently about the matter than I.”

St. John of the Cross
Taken from the book* Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic* , by David B. Currie

 

[catharina]

I’m going to throw you for a loop and post a quote from someone other than our dear St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (and no, I’m not finished with my books on her just yet ).

I was surprised to come across this quote in some wholly other kind of reading and thought it was so appropriate for what I and others have been bumping up against lately, especially since our Holy Father’s visit last week (which I’m still feeling a bit high over ).

“Should I misunderstand or be mistaken on some point, whether I deduce it from Scripture or not, I will not be intending to deviate from the true meaning of Sacred Scripture or from the doctrine of our Holy Mother Church. Should there be some mistake, I submit entirely to the Church, or even to anyone who judges more competently about the matter than I.”

St. John of the Cross
Taken from the book* Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic* , by David B. Currie

A mystic. Of course.
Holding a firm faith
and ready to be humbly surprised.
Typical!

 

[Jeanette_L]

A mystic. Of course.
Holding a firm faith
and ready to be humbly surprised.
Typical!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my own faith journey so far, having come from Fundamentalism, you can never be sure of your own mind and it’s interpretations of just about anything. We all need to be humble and let experience and those who are led by the Holy Spirit in places of authority guide us.

We are always on dangerous ground when we try to be Lone Rangers riding in to save the day, even if we have Tonto for what seems like good company!

 

[JReducation]

“Should I misunderstand or be mistaken on some point, whether I deduce it from Scripture or not, I will not be intending to deviate from the true meaning of Sacred Scripture or from the doctrine of our Holy Mother Church. Should there be some mistake, I submit entirely to the Church, or even to anyone who judges more competently about the matter than I.”

St. John of the Cross
Taken from the book* Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic* , by David B. Currie

If John of the Cross were alive today, this would be his great argument with the legalistic traditionalism.

Examine John’s theology very carefully. He teaches us that even if there is a misunderstanding or a mistake, this does not mean that the person intends to deviate from the Scripture or the Church. This is where true Traditionalism and legalistic traditionalism part company.

True Traditionalism is about love and appreciation for the Church tradition. This includes the Tridentine mass and other pius devotions that we have dropped or do less of. That being said, the true traditionalist is looking for sanctity. Sanctity is not looking to condemn anyone.

A person does not become a saint because he embraces a law or a tradition at the expense of the Church. When a person condemns Church declarations, publically states that popes are in error without having the authority to do so, publically state that others are going to hell because they are not Catholics, or publically takes on the role of the bishops to lead the faithful, that person is deviating from the Church.

Let’s examine this from the other side. When popes and bishops make mistakes, it does not mean that they are deviating from the Church. They are trying to understand the faith in light of tradition, scripture and previous teachings of the magisterium. If they make errors of judgement, these are not with the intention of undermining the Church.

What John is addressing here is “intention.” A true saint judges intention over action. We are seeing among us a group of very conservative Catholics who judge actions rather than intentions. They tend to see sin and heresy everywhere. But when we read John of the Cross, who happens to be a Doctor of the Church, we see how a saint looks at things. He judges the intention. The action can be a serious mistake, but the intention is more important. In the end, it is fidelity to Christ and to the Church that must be preserved. When the person makes a choice believing that the choice is according to the mind of Christ and the Church, his intentions are holy, even though the action may be wrong.

John of the Cross is trying to show us that not every action is easy to judge. Sometimes we can’t see our own mistakes. Unless you’re talking about murder, not everything is so black and white that you can see clearly the rightness or wrongness of an action. There are some people who believe this is possible for every situation in our life of faith and our journey toward sanctity; but it’s not. Somethings are ambiguous or at best very greay.

This is where John believes that we must submit to the teaching of the Church and those who know more than we do. Another word for this is humility. We cannot all be experts in everything, especially in everything regarding the soul and God. We have to leave some things for God to decide.

Finally, John of the Cross is very humble. He accepts that he can be wrong and that others can judge him more objectively than he can judge himself. However, his humility is not without wisdom. He chooses to submit himself to those whom he is sure know more than he does.

JR

 

[catharina]

If John of the Cross were alive today, this would be his great argument with the legalistic traditionalism.

Examine John’s theology very carefully. He teaches us that even if there is a misunderstanding or a mistake, this does not mean that the person intends to deviate from the Scripture or the Church. This is where true Traditionalism and legalistic traditionalism part company.

True Traditionalism is about love and appreciation for the Church tradition. This includes the Tridentine mass and other pius devotions that we have dropped or do less of. That being said, the true traditionalist is looking for sanctity. Sanctity is not looking to condemn anyone.

A person does not become a saint because he embraces a law or a tradition at the expense of the Church. When a person condemns Church declarations, publically states that popes are in error without having the authority to do so, publically state that others are going to hell because they are not Catholics, or publically takes on the role of the bishops to lead the faithful, that person is deviating from the Church.

Let’s examine this from the other side. When popes and bishops make mistakes, it does not mean that they are deviating from the Church. They are trying to understand the faith in light of tradition, scripture and previous teachings of the magisterium. If they make errors of judgement, these are not with the intention of undermining the Church.

What John is addressing here is “intention.” A true saint judges intention over action. We are seeing among us a group of very conservative Catholics who judge actions rather than intentions. They tend to see sin and heresy everywhere. But when we read John of the Cross, who happens to be a Doctor of the Church, we see how a saint looks at things. He judges the intention. The action can be a serious mistake, but the intention is more important. In the end, it is fidelity to Christ and to the Church that must be preserved. When the person makes a choice believing that the choice is according to the mind of Christ and the Church, his intentions are holy, even though the action may be wrong.

John of the Cross is trying to show us that not every action is easy to judge. Sometimes we can’t see our own mistakes. Unless you’re talking about murder, not everything is so black and white that you can see clearly the rightness or wrongness of an action. There are some people who believe this is possible for every situation in our life of faith and our journey toward sanctity; but it’s not. Somethings are ambiguous or at best very greay.

This is where John believes that we must submit to the teaching of the Church and those who know more than we do. Another word for this is humility. We cannot all be experts in everything, especially in everything regarding the soul and God. We have to leave some things for God to decide.

Finally, John of the Cross is very humble. He accepts that he can be wrong and that others can judge him more objectively than he can judge himself. However, his humility is not without wisdom. He chooses to submit himself to those whom he is sure know more than he does.

JR

Great post, JR. (You too, Jeannete.)

Both of you might have heard this from me in the past but it still rings true. Any time I hear anyone ranting off the deep end from either outpost (wildly liberal, wildly conservative), my attempt at “understanding” often visits the explanatory conclusion: “That person is crazy” - meaning, IMO, legitimately and seriously mentally ill. At times, that seems to be the only reasonable explanation available to me and it’s a charitable explanation based in my education and experience. I cannot fathom that anyone would wwillingly and knowingly choose to speak evil of the Church and her practices.

Opinions, please?

 

[Jeanette_L]

Great post, JR. (You too, Jeannete.)

Both of you might have heard this from me in the past but it still rings true. Any time I hear anyone ranting off the deep end from either outpost (wildly liberal, wildly conservative), my attempt at “understanding” often visits the explanatory conclusion: “That person is crazy” - meaning, IMO, legitimately and seriously mentally ill. At times, that seems to be the only reasonable explanation available to me and it’s a charitable explanation based in my education and experience. I cannot fathom that anyone would wwillingly and knowingly choose to speak evil of the Church and her practices.

Opinions, please?

I think that people are sometimes influenced by others who cater to a certain passion within them, confirming something they already have at least a nugget of within themselves. When they start to feed this passion, it can become all consuming and they lose all sense of reasonableness, in other words, they cannot anymore be open to communication that doesn’t line up with what they have invested themselves in.

When you have become so invested in a certain ideology, it becomes your identity. You lose that ideology, you lose your identity. That is frightening if someone doesn’t understand it is in fact a false identity. Our true identity comes from Christ and Him alone. If we replace this with ideology, we become lost in our own passions.

JMHO.

 

[catharina]

I think that people are sometimes influenced by others who cater to a certain passion within them, confirming something they already have at least a nugget of within themselves. When they start to feed this passion, it can become all consuming and they lose all sense of reasonableness, in other words, they cannot anymore be open to communication that doesn’t line up with what they have invested themselves in.

When you have become so invested in a certain ideology, it becomes your identity. You lose that ideology, you lose your identity. That is frightening if someone doesn’t understand it is in fact a false identity. Our true identity comes from Christ and Him alone. If we replace this with ideology, we become lost in our own passions.

JMHO.

Very interesting, Jeanette, and it sounds true to me. Well-said.

Our grounding has to be in Christ Himself, whatever our work or interest or need. Choosing a non-loving response when weighing our own behaviors or even others’ opinions can never be an option for any of us as we encounter each other.

 

[Jeanette_L]

I do want to clarify a bit. My identity is Catholic, in Christ. Because being Catholic is where Christ is, in His fullness. This is all the ideology I need.

But I am Catholic, not this kind of Catholic or that kind of Catholic. I am Catholic and am in Christ. This is my identity, and it is all I need. If I keep my eyes on him and not become distracted by all the hullabaloo that goes on around me, I will become more like Him, which is the goal.

When I take my eyes off Him and try to take on this cause or that offense, it distracts me from becoming like Him, such a waste of precious time!

 

[JReducation]

Great post, JR. (You too, Jeannete.)

Both of you might have heard this from me in the past but it still rings true. Any time I hear anyone ranting off the deep end from either outpost (wildly liberal, wildly conservative), my attempt at “understanding” often visits the explanatory conclusion: “That person is crazy” - meaning, IMO, legitimately and seriously mentally ill. At times, that seems to be the only reasonable explanation available to me and it’s a charitable explanation based in my education and experience. I cannot fathom that anyone would wwillingly and knowingly choose to speak evil of the Church and her practices.

Opinions, please?

I believe that people can willingly attack the Church, either from the conservative or the liberal side and not be mentally ill. However, I also see the difference between a complaint against the Church and an ax to grind or an obsession with something on those sides of the aisle.

This is how you can tell a saint part from the crows. Saints do not have an axe to grind. When they correct the Christian community they point to errors and more importantly, they always conclude by pointing to Christ.

Saints work out of a Christology, not their personal preferences. They have an understanding of Christ and they operate out of that understanding.

Look at Mother Teresa. She saw Christ as the Brother of all humanity. She saw him as the one who thirsts for love while on the cross. She sees him as her beginning, middle and end. She sees Christ as the object of her work.

All of her work, the rules for her congregation are all designed to reach Christ and allow Christ to reach her sould. It is not about what she feels or what she believes, except what she believes about Jesus Christ.

The same can be said about St. John of the Cross, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Francis of Assisi, Dominic and the other saints.

The other issue is that Saints embrace wisdom. They are smart enough to know how to maneuver within the Church when the Church is going through a rough time or giving them a rough time. They don’t take the Church on in a direct confrontation as many liberals and tradtionalists do.

Look at St. Francis. He saw how the Church of his time needed to be lifted up. Christ ordered him to repair the Church. Francis began his mission by walking into the Pope’s presence to ask for permission to live a life of prayer, penance, obedience, and poverty.

He did not walk in and attack the Pope and the Church for their excesses and their political concerns instead of being concerned about people in the parishes. He knew that if his order got off the ground, with the Church’s blessiong, the needed reformation would come, because Jesus had promised this to him.

Saints also know how to commnunicate well. Look at someone like Elizabeth Ann Seton. Most of her relatives and friends were Protestants. She did not break with them, even though many cast her aside. She communicated with them was Christ was doing in her life and she proved it by the way that she lived. Not once did she tell them that they were wrong and she was right. She communicated the message without confrontation, antagonism or condescention. Eventually, many of her friends and relatives did convert.

She should be the patron saint of Ecumenism.

That’s another thing. Saints are not against anyone. They are for Christ.

The difference betweeen a saint and a nut job lies in their Christology, their wisdom, their ability to communicate without conflict, their ability to manage the Church without offending and always showing humility and their healthy state of mind no matter what the issues are.

JR

 

[catharina]

I do want to clarify a bit. My identity is Catholic, in Christ. Because being Catholic is where Christ is, in His fullness. This is all the ideology I need.

But I am Catholic, not this kind of Catholic or that kind of Catholic. I am Catholic and am in Christ. This is my identity, and it is all I need. If I keep my eyes on him and not become distracted by all the hullabaloo that goes on around me, I will become more like Him, which is the goal.

When I take my eyes off Him and try to take on this cause or that offense, it distracts me from becoming like Him, such a waste of precious time!

Yes, the focus, as Paul said:
To live is Christ, to die is gain. LOVE IT.

Until I came to CA, I always called myself Roman Catholic. Then some here said that kind of leaves out the rest of the Catholic Church. My intent had been to avoid using the worst of worst terms (per publicity) “American Catholic” … so here I am: Catholic and simply fine about it.

 

[JReducation]

Yes, the focus, as Paul said:
To live is Christ, to die is gain. LOVE IT.

Until I came to CA, I always called myself Roman Catholic. Then some here said that kind of leaves out the rest of the Catholic Church. My intent had been to avoid using the worst of worst terms (per publicity) “American Catholic” … so here I am: Catholic and simply fine about it.

Actually, American Catholic is not a Church. It is a cultural identity, which is legitimate. The scriptures speak of the Church of Rome, the Church of Corinth, the Church of Ephasus, the Church of Philadelphia and so forth.

The early Christians identified themselves members of a national group and as the Church. The idea was to proclaim the Good News that the Church embraces all people.

The problem with the term Roman Catholic is that it was originally used to identify those Catholics in communion with the Bishop of Rome vs those who were in communion with the Orthodox bishops. It made it sound as if Catholicism was only for those who were in communion with Rome.

This use of language reflect a mindset, as does all uses of language. It reflected the idea that a particular group of Catholics belonged to the Church of Rome rather than to the truly Orthodox Church, which is how the Eastern Orthodox got the name.

Roman Catholic was orginally used to identify the Church with the Roman empire as well, because it was the official Church of the Roman empire due to Constantine.

As time passed it came to represent the Latin Rite Church, to which we belong. Most people don’t know or remember why we were first called “Roman.”

JR

 

[catharina]

Actually, American Catholic is not a Church. It is a cultural identity, which is legitimate. The scriptures speak of the Church of Rome, the Church of Corinth, the Church of Ephasus, the Church of Philadelphia and so forth.

The early Christians identified themselves members of a national group and as the Church. The idea was to proclaim the Good News that the Church embraces all people.

The problem with the term Roman Catholic is that it was originally used to identify those Catholics in communion with the Bishop of Rome vs those who were in communion with the Orthodox bishops. It made it sound as if Catholicism was only for those who were in communion with Rome.

This use of language reflect a mindset, as does all uses of language. It reflected the idea that a particular group of Catholics belonged to the Church of Rome rather than to the truly Orthodox Church, which is how the Eastern Orthodox got the name.

Roman Catholic was orginally used to identify the Church with the Roman empire as well, because it was the official Church of the Roman empire due to Constantine.

As time passed it came to represent the Latin Rite Church, to which we belong. Most people don’t know or remember why we were first called “Roman.”

JR

Thanks, JR and well put. It helped.

As someone of my “advanced years,” my quibble has been with the notion of Americanism and isolationism and its occasional avoidance of social justice issues. (Sort of what you might expect from someone who worked serving the poor for close to forty years - especially, the very young and the elderly poor. It can make one a teeeeeeny bit overly sensitive on some issues.)

 

[catharina]

OK, morning has arrived and perhaps a good night’s sleep has cleared my head and improved my disposition. (I hope so.) Going on with the train of thought as to what led me to step away from the notion of “the American Church” and its complaints, I’ll add this.

For quite awhile I was exposed to the liberal fringe of the Church (while always in opposition to such extremism) and the media’s delight with such things as calls for female ordination, etc., made me choose to take a more sensitive view of the larger needs of the universal Church, especially where her sufferings seem to be so long-term. The Church in China, Vietnam, Cuba, the obstacles still in the road in much of Eastern Europe, speak to me much more clearly than any notion of (for example) women’s rights on the left, the Pops is not faithful on the right. (Speaking of extremes here.) As a result, even the term “American church” presented to me as a red flag. Yes, JR, I appreciate your words of wisdom!

 

[Jeanette_L]

OK, morning has arrived and perhaps a good night’s sleep has cleared my head and improved my disposition. (I hope so.) Going on with the train of thought as to what led me to step away from the notion of “the American Church” and its complaints, I’ll add this.

For quite awhile I was exposed to the liberal fringe of the Church (while always in opposition to such extremism) and the media’s delight with such things as calls for female ordination, etc., made me choose to take a more sensitive view of the larger needs of the universal Church, especially where her sufferings seem to be so long-term. The Church in China, Vietnam, Cuba, the obstacles still in the road in much of Eastern Europe, speak to me much more clearly than any notion of (for example) women’s rights on the left, the Pops is not faithful on the right. (Speaking of extremes here.) As a result, even the term “American church” presented to me as a red flag. Yes, JR, I appreciate your words of wisdom!

You know Catherina, I believe part of the problem here is that America is always viewed by it’s extremes, no matter what the subject. The media, whether tv, news, novels, movies…always present to us, it seems, the most extreme sides and we tend to think this is how the majority of Americans live, eat, think and breathe! We tend to forget that most Americans, and American Catholics and Christians included here, are just your average, good, hardworking, faithful people who go on quietly about their lives, not fussing, not protesting, not living in extremes, and we are forgotten as the majority.

We can still say we are proud to be Americans, and that we are proud to be American Catholics. We should stand up and be counted as what is really the norm!

JMHO!

 

[catharina]

You know Catherina, I believe part of the problem here is that America is always viewed by it’s extremes, no matter what the subject. The media, whether tv, news, novels, movies…always present to us, it seems, the most extreme sides and we tend to think this is how the majority of Americans live, eat, think and breathe! We tend to forget that most Americans, and American Catholics and Christians included here, are just your average, good, hardworking, faithful people who go on quietly about their lives, not fussing, not protesting, not living in extremes, and we are forgotten as the majority.

We can still say we are proud to be Americans, and that we are proud to be American Catholics. We should stand up and be counted as what is really the norm!

JMHO!

Very good point, Jeanette and thank you (and Good morning).

Also, only last evening before I went to bed, I read a brief article in the diocesan paper about how pleased the Holy Father was regarding his visit to the States. It gave me a lift!

 

[JReducation]

One of the reasons that I began this thread is to focus on what really matters. Unfortunately, CAF is excessively focussed on rules and liturgical forms. But it is missing the most important part of the Christian life, sanctity.

Thomas Merton said that every Christian is obliged by his baptismal promises to renounce sin and to give himself completely without compromise to Christ, in order that he may fulfil his vocation, save his soul, enter into the mystery of God, and there find himself perfectly “in the light of Christ.”

St. Paul reminds us (1Cory:19) we are “not our own.” We belong entirely to Christ. Every action, every desire, every thought, every prayer, every act of penance, everything that we do must be more his than ours. When they become our thoughts and wishes, they stay from the past of sanctity. Those who would condemn this or that action of the Church based on their own judgement, rather than on the judgement of Christ, stray from that path.

This is why we see that the saints exercised great prudence in bringing reform to the Church. They did not condemn or criticize the Church. They understood that the Church was the bride of Christ and must be loved, even if they disagreed with her in some cases. But each time they found something that raised their eyebrows about the Church, they always prayed for guidance to make sure that it was Christ’s thinking that they were espousing and not their own human opinions. It is always interesting that they always went to the Church to ask for confirmation of their thoughts about the Church. When they thought that the bishops or the pope were wrong on something, they went back to the bishops or the popes and presented what they were thinking or what they believed Christ revealed to them and asked the hierarchy to confirm it for them. They never trusted in their own judgement. They only trusted the judgement of Christ and they knew that one thing was sure; Christ’s judgement was to be found in the Church.

Secular saints (lay people and diocesan priests) always took their cue from religious. They understood that God have given the Church the religious life as a gift to teach all of us how to be saints. Secular saints knew that religious made sanctity their career. They do nothing else in this life, but to work toward being saints.

St. John Chrysostom points out that the mere fact that the life of the religious is more austere, more difficult and has greater dignity in the church than the life of the lay person or the diocesan priest does not mean that Christian holiness is principally a matter of difficulty or of rank in the Church. This would lead to the false conclusion that salvation seems less arduous for the layman or that the layman is not called to be a saint.

St. John Chrysostom says that God has not called us (lay people and diocesan priests) to such a severe life as that of religious, but has left us all free to choose how we are to live the evangelical counsels in our own state of life: married, single, widowed, etc. The layperson and the diocesan priest is not a religious and thus is not obliged to make sanctity their daily job as it would be for friars, monks, sisters, nuns and religious brothers. However, chastity, poverty and obedience are from the Gospel, not from religious life. Religious take it from the Gospel. They are the Evangelical counsels.

All of us are called to live according to those counsels, some to a very austere degree, such as religious and others in other degrees, such as laypeople and diocesan priests. Everyone must be chaste, everyone must practice evangelical poverty and be detached from materialism, and everyone must obey God, the Church, legitimate civil authority, authority within the family and authority in our place of work. No one is exempt from the path to sanctity.

I’ll close as I started. I notice that CAF posters seem to promote observance of laws and decrees, but forget that every law and every decree must lead us to Christ. In the end, what we have to defend is what leads us to Christ. To sit on these threads and condemn the decisions of this pope or that bishop is not leading us to Christ. We are led to Christ through faith, hope and love and the greatest of this is love.

I hope that you will encourage your friends to join us on this thread and explore the route of sanctity and break away a little from the route of legalism.

JR

 

[catharina]

Thank you for the preceding post, JR.
I feel quite refreshed having read it.

(Calling others into this thread? I’ll give it thought and then action.)