When parents are not supportive of priestly/ religious vocations

[edward_george]

I want get to married and have kids. I am looking to become a Catholic to aid me in this. If the church ever at any time poses any kind of road block or hindrance to these goals, I’m bailing. I was told that Jesus died so that I may live and I’m giving him a chance to prove he wasn’t lying. I am definitely not here to die so that Jesus may live.

So what do you make of this, from Luke 9:

The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again. [23] And he said to all:*** If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.*** [24]*** For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it.*** [25] For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself?

-ACEGC

 

[SwampThingDude]

So what do you make of this, from Luke 9:

-ACEGC

I don’t care. I’m not in this to loose. I don’t need a cause to die for. I need one to live for. I already have crosses to bear without Jesus. I’m turning to Jesus to relieve me of my burdens, not saddle me with more.

I may be willing to give in the future but right now, I have nothing to give.

I’m not married now and I don’t have kids now and I was born into this condition without Jesus and have managed in this condition without Jesus.

And so I don’t need Jesus to be single. If Jesus wants me, he needs to offer something I want or need. If Jesus wants to help me get married, I’m on. If he isn’t interested in helping, then there is nothing for us to talk about.

I care about my concerns right now, not his. If Jesus wants me to care about his concerns, mine first need to be addressed. If my concerns are of no concern, then neither are his.

There will be no compromising. The Jews will help me. If the Catholic church wants my membership, they’ll have to make at least as good as an offer.

 

[Lamentation]

…Largely because of very negative feelings that I have toward Protestants that I have associated with Jesus, I am less than impressed with him and try to not to focus on him.

I tolerate Jesus within Catholicism. I almost didn’t convert because of him. But he has kept a respectful and comfortable distance from me.

I figure that part of what makes it Catholic is that it has room for both me and Jesus.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[DexUK]

If SwampThingDude is being deadly serious, I have to say that I am horrified at his (?) attitude.

To hold such a view makes a complete mockery of the RCIA process. I would expect that it would be very difficult to keep such views a secret, given their apparent vehemence, so I would expect that the priest/people in charge of the RCIA process would take a very dim view of it and would be unlikely to allow such a candidate to proceed to being received into the Church, and quite rightly too, since if SwampThingDude maintains such views, s/he would definitely not be in communion with the church or assent to its teachings.

 

[SwampThingDude]

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14373047/images/1301180097230.jpg

I’m neither a troll or very stupid. I could accuse you of being the same.

To a lot of Catholics, I guess everything Catholic is about Jesus. I came to Catholicism through Judaism, not Jesus, and so to me, Catholicism is mostly Judaism with a little bit of Jesus thrown in. I guess I think of Jesus in mostly protestant terms and so associate different things with Jesus. Even though mass stands for Jesus to you people, I do not see anything I associate with Jesus at mass but instead associate my experiences at synagogue.

 

[DexUK]

If you think Protestantism is “Jesus-lite” then you’ve definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere.

The source and the summit of Catholic life is the Mass, and the summit of Mass itself is the Consecration of the Bread and Wine whereby they are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus couldn’t be any MORE central to Catholicism. Without Jesus, Catholicism wouldn’t be here.

If, as it seems from your other posts, you have little or no interest in Jesus, then you really haven’t got the point of Catholicism.

 

[SwampThingDude]

If SwampThingDude is being deadly serious, I have to say that I am horrified at his (?) attitude.

To hold such a view makes a complete mockery of the RCIA process. I would expect that it would be very difficult to keep such views a secret, given their apparent vehemence, so I would expect that the priest/people in charge of the RCIA process would take a very dim view of it and would be unlikely to allow such a candidate to proceed to being received into the Church, and quite rightly too, since if SwampThingDude maintains such views, s/he would definitely not be in communion with the church or assent to its teachings.

No one at mass has suggested becoming a Priest or me taking vow of celibacy or anything like that. If they had, I would have left and never gone back.

I haven’t talked to a Priest.

I kind of don’t understand your attitude.

I don’t need Jesus to be a nobody. I don’t need Jesus to be lonely and I don’t need Jesus to be hopeless. I have arrived at all these conditions without Jesus’ help.

I am looking for answers, not more burdens and not more obstacles to my life’s challenges.

 

[DexUK]

No one at mass has suggested becoming a Priest or me taking vow of celibacy or anything like that. If they had, I would have left and never gone back.

I haven’t talked to a Priest.

I kind of don’t understand your attitude.

I don’t need Jesus to be a nobody. I don’t need Jesus to be lonely and I don’t need Jesus to be hopeless. I have arrived at all these conditions without Jesus’ help.

I am looking for answers, not more burdens and not more obstacles to my life’s challenges.

You sound like you’re looking for a social club. The Church is a rather a lot more than that.

 

[SwampThingDude]

If you think Protestantism is “Jesus-lite” then you’ve definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere.

I’m guessing you meant Catholicism?

The source and the summit of Catholic life is the Mass, and the summit of Mass itself is the Consecration of the Bread and Wine whereby they are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus couldn’t be any MORE central to Catholicism. Without Jesus, Catholicism wouldn’t be here.

If, as it seems from your other posts, you have little or no interest in Jesus, then you really haven’t got the point of Catholicism.

Again, I think Catholics have different ideas about Jesus. Growing up, Jesus was the buddy you couldn’t get rid of, even if you desperately wanted to, he was your imaginary best friend so that no one else had to bother with you. Jesus was the guy that loved you so that no one else had to. Jesus was the guy that did it all, relieving everyone else of doing anything. Jesus was the guy that took and took and took and took and never gave anything back. Jesus is the guy who takes the credit for all we do good and whom we take the blame for all he does bad. To me, Jesus was the guy who sinned so that we may be crucified.

 

[DexUK]

To me, Jesus was the guy who sinned so that we may be crucified.

If you still think that, you’re going to have the change that belief because Jesus was, is and will remain wholly without sin in any way, shape or form.

Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity’s sins, despite being completely innocent.

Father Vincent Serpa, apologist for this site, posts this regularly. I hope he won’t mind me copying it. I recommend it to you. Read it.

Reflection on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ +

The agony in the garden was really the agony in His mind. He suffered the passion in His mind before He suffered it in His body—to the point of actually affecting the latter by sweating blood. From here on, the mental and physical suffering played off each other and caused Him greater pain.

At the base of all His suffering was the one thing that human beings dread the most: rejection. He was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and abandoned by all the rest of His Apostles; those He had hand-picked as His closest intimates. He was most rejected by those who put Him to death. They not only wanted Him dead, they wanted Him more than dead… They wanted Him to suffer. This significance was not lost on Him. He felt fully the rejection as each physical agony reminded Him.

So we thank Him for joining us on our human journey and actually choosing to experience what we fear the most. We thank Him for enduring the arrest and the cruelty of the guards and the Sanhedrin. We thank Him for enduring the cruelty of Pilate who allowed Him to be executed rather than risk his own political ruin—and for the cruelty of Herod who considered Him not worth his time. We thank Him for all the time He spent satisfying their preoccupation with themselves, just delaying His ultimate death. We thank Him for the anxiety of that night in a cell.

The next morning He was brutally scourged whips, then with whips with nobs at the end, and finally with whips with hooks that gouged out chunks of flesh. There was blood everywhere. The loss of so much blood not only severely weakened Him; it also caused a severe, throbbing headache that remained with Him for the duration.

We thank Him for this and for the mockery He received when they put a dirty purple cloth on His shoulders and open wounds, pushing a crown of thorns down into His head which intensified His headache. They blindfolded Him and struck Him, insisting that He ‘prophesy’ who had hit Him. Yet they were the ones who couldn’t see. They spat on Him and beat Him.

He stood at the praetorium in utter disgrace according to the attitude of the crowd—while in reality, He stood in utter glory: almighty God, being present to every person who has ever suffered rejection, joining them in their moment of pain. It was there that He was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Physically, He was utterly miserable. He revealed to St. Bernard that carrying the cross was His most painful agony. He was so weak, He could hardly walk. Nauseous and thirsty, He found the weight of the cross on His shoulder almost unbearable. It most likely dislocated His shoulder. It is not surprising that He fell down three times on the stone streets that were filthy with animal dung—with the cross on top of Him. And He got up each time.

It was only with the help of Simon of Cyrene that He made it to the top of Calvary. There they drove the nails into the carpal tunnels of His hands, causing pain throughout His upper body. The nail in His feet registered great pain through all the sensitive nerves there. When the cross was righted, His up-stretched arms squeezed His lungs and He began to pant for lack of oxygen. So He had to push down on His crucified feet to push His body up in order to fill His lungs with air. This took great effort because He was so weak. Yet He managed to maintain such effort for three hours of agony which increased gradually as He became weaker moment by moment. By the end of the third hour, His agony was at its peak

He had come to the point where His lack of strength simply was no match for what is known as Sepsis where the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria, and in this eternal moment He died, giving us His life. Transcending time, this moment of divine love is present to us on the altars and in the tabernacles of the world. Thank you, Lord. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. By your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

 

[Lamentation]

I’m neither a troll or very stupid. I could accuse you of being the same.

To a lot of Catholics, I guess everything Catholic is about Jesus. I came to Catholicism through Judaism, not Jesus, and so to me, Catholicism is mostly Judaism with a little bit of Jesus thrown in. I guess I think of Jesus in mostly protestant terms and so associate different things with Jesus. Even though mass stands for Jesus to you people, I do not see anything I associate with Jesus at mass but instead associate my experiences at synagogue.

Well, we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Thus "Christ"ianity.

I find it interesting that you came to Christianity through Judaism, and yet you don’t seem to accept Jesus. That’s a largely Judaic statement.

Your lack of acceptance of Jesus is, unfortunately, prohibitive of participating in the Catholic mass. As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist during communion. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that you don’t care much for Him, yet you’re looking to “receive” him in the course of the mass.

Also, I find it rather amusing that you’re searching for a religion based solely on which is best for you. I guess I don’t understand what school of logic that came out of, as there are certainly other religions (past and present) which were “easier” and ended in a “better” life.

 

[DexUK]

I guess I don’t understand what school of logic that came out of, as there are certainly other religions (past and present) which were “easier” and ended in a “better” life.

Other religions may sell themselves as leading to a ‘better’ (more ‘comfortable’) life… but they sure as eggs won’t lead to a better death.

 

[Lamentation]

Other religions may sell themselves as leading to a ‘better’ (more ‘comfortable’) life… but they sure as eggs won’t lead to a better death.

Well obviously, but I’m seriously having a hard time reading any of this business without laughing. This is the most ridiculous conversation I’ve read on the internet in awhile.

 

[SwampThingDude]

Well, we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Thus "Christ"ianity.

I find it interesting that you came to Christianity through Judaism, and yet you don’t seem to accept Jesus. That’s a largely Judaic statement.

Your lack of acceptance of Jesus is, unfortunately, prohibitive of participating in the Catholic mass. As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist during communion. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that you don’t care much for Him, yet you’re looking to “receive” him in the course of the mass.

At this point I don’t quite reject or accept Jesus. From my experiences with Judaism, I have come to the conclusion that it’s the religious practice itself that makes the difference. And so I agree with the rest of the catholic package and so I’m not particularly bothered if Jesus is a part of it.

Also, as I stated before my concept of Jesus mostly comes from the protestants at this point and the Protestant version of Jesus seems mostly absent from Catholicism. I have yet to form any emotional connection with the Catholic Jesus.

Also, I find it rather amusing that you’re searching for a religion based solely on which is best for you. I guess I don’t understand what school of logic that came out of, as there are certainly other religions (past and present) which were “easier” and ended in a “better” life.

Not solely. I think the Mormons got a better deal going on than the Catholics and I haven’t even considered them because I know its fake.

I would like to become a missionary. I have devoted a good part of my life to religious study and I have been looking for a religion that I can get behind. But it’s got to be a two way street. I am not going to sacrifice myself completely on the altar god and I sincerely believe that any god that asks that of me or anyone else has nothing to offer. I can’t go to anyone and say, “Become a Christian,” if I think that someone doing so could result in life long singleness be it as a priest or some other reason. People say that Jesus saves but then your priests are damned to a life a singleness.

What good was Jesus’ sacrifice if he couldn’t even save his most devouted followers from a life of singleness? What reward can I hope for from following Jesus if he can only promise a life of loneliness and despair?

I can have all that without Jesus. I would like to be a priest because I believe in a God of life but looking at the Catholic Priesthood, it looks like Jesus is a god of death.

 

[SwampThingDude]

Well obviously, but I’m seriously having a hard time reading any of this business without laughing. This is the most ridiculous conversation I’ve read on the internet in awhile.

I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all. I have had some pretty evil things done to me in the name of Jesus. I have some very, very bad memories of events involving Jesus. Maybe being an Irish Catholic, maybe you don’t have any idea what kind evil things protestants are fond of doing in Jesus’ name.

 

[ATeutonicKnight]

At this point I don’t quite reject or accept Jesus. From my experiences with Judaism, I have come to the conclusion that it’s the religious practice itself that makes the difference. And so I agree with the rest of the catholic package and so I’m not particularly bothered if Jesus is a part of it.

Also, as I stated before my concept of Jesus mostly comes from the protestants at this point and the Protestant version of Jesus seems mostly absent from Catholicism. I have yet to form any emotional connection with the Catholic Jesus.

Not solely. I think the Mormons got a better deal going on than the Catholics and I haven’t even considered them because I know its fake.

I would like to become a missionary. I have devoted a good part of my life to religious study and I have been looking for a religion that I can get behind. But it’s got to be a two way street. I am not going to sacrifice myself completely on the altar god and I sincerely believe that any god that asks that of me or anyone else has nothing to offer. I can’t go to anyone and say, “Become a Christian,” if I think that someone doing so could result in life long singleness be it as a priest or some other reason. People say that Jesus saves but then your priests are damned to a life a singleness.

What good was Jesus’ sacrifice if he couldn’t even save his most devouted followers from a life of singleness? What reward can I hope for from following Jesus if he can only promise a life of loneliness and despair?

I can have all that without Jesus. I would like to be a priest because I believe in a God of life but looking at the Catholic Priesthood, it looks like Jesus is a god of death.

Priests, Nuns, Monks, Friars, Sisters, etc. They all live a life of singleness and they are happy. They love their life of singleness, because it’s NOT a life of singleness. They live in a Community of Brothers or Sisters, or, in the case of Priests, they live within a Parish, where they are the Father to each and every one of them, with Jesus as their spouse. They wouldn’t trade their life for marriage in a million years. Jesus chose them for the job because he knew they would be happy. It is a two-way street. You can either deny Jesus’ calling to you and be miserable and married, or you can accept it and be eternally happy. The choice, for me, is obvious. I want to be a Priest, because to me, there’s no greater life. At first, I struggled with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to have sexual pleasure. But now, I realize just how truly vain that was, and I now realize that I can live without it. You don’t need sexual pleasure or marriage to be happy. You just need Jesus.

 

[SwampThingDude]

Priests, Nuns, Monks, Friars, Sisters, etc. They all live a life of singleness and they are happy. They love their life of singleness, because it’s NOT a life of singleness. They live in a Community of Brothers or Sisters, or, in the case of Priests, they live within a Parish, where they are the Father to each and every one of them, with Jesus as their spouse. They wouldn’t trade their life for marriage in a million years. Jesus chose them for the job because he knew they would be happy. It is a two-way street. You can either deny Jesus’ calling to you and be miserable and married, or you can accept it and be eternally happy. The choice, for me, is obvious. I want to be a Priest, because to me, there’s no greater life. At first, I struggled with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to have sexual pleasure. But now, I realize just how truly vain that was, and I now realize that I can live without it. You don’t need sexual pleasure or marriage to be happy. You just need Jesus.

You couldn’t have chosen worse words to say to me if you were actively making an effort to get me to hate Jesus from the very bottom of my soul. When you say to me, “you don’t need marriage, you just need Jesus,” what you are effectively communicating to me is, “You don’t need Jesus. What you need is to get away from Jesus and people that are trying to confuse you with Jesus.” Is this what you intended to say, or would you like to try again?

 

[SwampThingDude]

Priests, Nuns, Monks, Friars, Sisters, etc. They all live a life of singleness and they are happy. They love their life of singleness, because it’s NOT a life of singleness. They live in a Community of Brothers or Sisters, or, in the case of Priests, they live within a Parish, where they are the Father to each and every one of them, with Jesus as their spouse. They wouldn’t trade their life for marriage in a million years. Jesus chose them for the job because he knew they would be happy. It is a two-way street. You can either deny Jesus’ calling to you and be miserable and married, or you can accept it and be eternally happy. The choice, for me, is obvious. I want to be a Priest, because to me, there’s no greater life. At first, I struggled with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to have sexual pleasure. But now, I realize just how truly vain that was, and I now realize that I can live without it. You don’t need sexual pleasure or marriage to be happy. You just need Jesus.

For what it is worth to you, I could convert to Judaism and then live out a single life if that is what God wanted of me. Just the idea of being single for the glory of Jesus just sickens me to no end.

 

[Trishie]

I am sorry that some Protestant action has alienated you regarding Jesus, but the Church exists because of Jesus.

If some Protestants by their handling of the gospel message have alienated you from Jesus, I hope you will be able to find a way to make a clear distinction between theatrical and sentimental views of Jesus, to an authentic understanding of Jesus as a genuine man and as divine Son.

We don’t speak of Jesus in a theatrical manner as perhaps some non-Catholic TV evangelists may, but without Jesus there would be no Catholic Church. He is central to the Catholic faith.

 

[SwampThingDude]

I am sorry that some Protestant action has alienated you regarding Jesus, but the Church exists because of Jesus.

If some Protestants by their handling of the gospel message have alienated you from Jesus, I hope you will be able to find a way to make a clear distinction between theatrical and sentimental views of Jesus, to an authentic understanding of Jesus as a genuine man and as divine Son.

We don’t speak of Jesus in a theatrical manner as perhaps some non-Catholic TV evangelists may, but without Jesus there would be no Catholic Church. He is central to the Catholic faith.

Alienated is a good word. I am about as alienated from Jesus as a person could get.

What’s worse that people offer him as a solution for my problems.

Understand this, I don’t know who you think Jesus is. I do know who I think that Jesus is and the Jesus I know is not the answer to any of my problems. Never was and never will be.

Jesus doesn’t care about me at all and Jesus is nothing but an excuse for you not to care about me either. And so if you wish to reach me, you are going to have to do it without Jesus. And then you’ll have to show that me you actually care about me. Not Jesus but me.

As long you are all about Jesus, I am NOT at all about you.