Why Does Everything the Pope Says

[thiscatholickid]

Sounds so freaking smart.

I swear, I’m in awe of this man.

youtube.com/watch?v=gLIri2Jgvnc

Okay, fine, its not new news to Catholics.
But I remember when I was younger and in doubt with all sorts of Protestant publications yapping at my ears, I really wished I couldve found a simply straightforward message from a Catholic authority explaining EXACTLY what “Scripture and Tradition” meant.

How much scripture, how much tradition, how they mix etc.

Catechisms can be so ambiguous sometimes, especially when everything feels new to you.

In other words, we need more short easy to understand affirmations of Catholic doctrine from the Pope’s own mouth. With video images of gleaming white cassocks for support.

 

[PJM]

=thiscatholickid;5128493]Sounds so freaking smart.

I swear, I’m in awe of this man.

youtube.com/watch?v=gLIri2Jgvnc

Okay, fine, its not new news to Catholics.
But I remember when I was younger and in doubt with all sorts of Protestant publications yapping at my ears, I really wished I couldve found a simply straightforward message from a Catholic authority explaining EXACTLY what “Scripture and Tradition” meant.

How much scripture, how much tradition, how they mix etc.

Catechisms can be so ambiguous sometimes, especially when everything feels new to you.

In other words, we need more short easy to understand affirmations of Catholic doctrine from the Pope’s own mouth. With video images of gleaming white cassocks for support.

It is good that you respect the Holy Father. But I think he would be more impressed [as would God] if we simply Obeyed him and followed his personal example of how we are to live and practice our Faith.

 

[Mark77]

Papa Benedictus XVI is a truly great and humble servant of servants!

i am reading “Jesus of Nazareth” and it is breathtakingly profound!

For example on page 37;

"We are dealing here with the vast question as to how we can and cannot know God, how we are related to god and how we can lose him. The arrogance that would make God an object and impose our laboratory conditions upon him is incapable of finding him.** For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening; by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp.** To think like that is to make oneself God. And to do that is to abase not only God, but the world and oneself, too. "

Think about that, take it to prayer.

As my friend says, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

Mark

 

[PrayHarder]

Sounds so freaking smart.

I swear, I’m in awe of this man.

If you think what he says is impressive, you would be blown away by what he writes. His encyclicals are so dense that you could contemplate just one of the sentences in them for hours. The pope is indeed a great leader and a great thinker. There are so few with that combination in our world today.

 

[Holly3278]

If you think what he says is impressive, you would be blown away by what he writes. His encyclicals are so dense that you could contemplate just one of the sentences in them for hours. The pope is indeed a great leader and a great thinker. There are so few with that combination in our world today.

Yeah really! I read his encyclical, Spe Salvi once a month or so ago and it was very dense!

 

[Nita]

If you think what he says is impressive, you would be blown away by what he writes. His encyclicals are so dense that you could contemplate just one of the sentences in them for hours. The pope is indeed a great leader and a great thinker. There are so few with that combination in our world today.

It’s a little pricey, but I wouldn’t be without my subscription to the weekly edition of L’Osservatore.

Have thought it would be nice if there was a specific “Pope Benedict” forum on CAF where we could share favorite statements made by the Pope, or sentence or two from his writings, that we really found interesting and helpful.

 

[tuviskazinai]

He is amazing!! As a graduate student who is considering an academic career, I admire him so much – he is truly one of the great geniuses of our time. It’s too bad that so many people don’t realize it. If he weren’t Pope, if he weren’t Catholic, he could perhaps be known by the world as one of the great European philosophers of the century, up there with Habermas (whom he’s had discussions with), Adorno, et al. But of course he is Pope…which means that many of those who are secular and can’t accept that a man of faith can be a world-class genius have no idea what a gift he is to the world. But it also means that those who “have ears to hear” can listen and learn from him how to apply one’s capacity for reason towards the good and the true. His every sentence is resonant with love and holiness…and humility! (Like in that wonderful passage you quoted, Mark77.)

Here is my personal favorite quotation…it is from his La Sapienza speech on the role of the university and the nature of the right pursuit of knowledge…Nita, I am all for a Pope Benedict forum.

“A further step is necessary. Man wants to know, he wants truth. Truth is in the first place a matter of seeing, of understanding, of theory, as the Greek tradition calls it. But the truth is never solely theoretical. In making a comparison between the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Isaiah 11, Augustine asserted a reciprocity between “scientia” and “tristitia”: simply knowing, he says, makes us sad. And in fact, those who see and learn only what happens in the world end up sad. But truth means more than just knowing: the knowledge of the truth has as its aim the understanding of the good. This is also the meaning of Socratic questioning: What is the good that makes us true?”

Beautiful.

Peace,
+AMDG+

 

[Cinette]

Sounds so freaking smart.

I swear, I’m in awe of this man.

youtube.com/watch?v=gLIri2Jgvnc

Okay, fine, its not new news to Catholics.
But I remember when I was younger and in doubt with all sorts of Protestant publications yapping at my ears, I really wished I couldve found a simply straightforward message from a Catholic authority explaining EXACTLY what “Scripture and Tradition” meant.

How much scripture, how much tradition, how they mix etc.

Catechisms can be so ambiguous sometimes, especially when everything feels new to you.

In other words, we need more short easy to understand affirmations of Catholic doctrine from the Pope’s own mouth. With video images of gleaming white cassocks for support.

We live in an age when very little reading takes place. Our vocabulary is limited. Have you noticed how we use the word nice? Have a nice day. He is a nice guy. That is a nice chocolate cake. He bought a nice car.

When my sister married her husband he used to find her $1 each time she use the word nice. As a result today she has a most rich and colourful language.

We need to read more and watch less TV then perhaps we will be more inclined to read the scriptures intelligently instead of being “bottle/breast fed” all the time!

 

[BRZ]

Throughout the history of the church there has been a wealth of geniuses beyond what most people realize or are willing to accept. Many people see the Church as outdated and archaic but I believe the Church has always been at the forefront of modern thought and reasoning. We have so much knowledge at our fingertips because of the history of the Church and the uncountable geniuses that have inhabited it.

 

[Light_Seeker]

Papa Benedictus XVI is a truly great and humble servant of servants!

i am reading “Jesus of Nazareth” and it is breathtakingly profound!

I’m in the process of re-reading it, which I admit that with the exception of the Bible, I’ve never re-read any book.

Every page, every paragraph, has to be read slow, and chewed on for a while. Studied. Reference his references. Learn from his teaching.

And then you can only be in awe of his brilliance.