J
Jerry_Parker
Guest
Rinnie,
**We wrote: *Jerry: * If there are such purely lay-led groups, it would be good for a priest to check up on them regularly to avoid the growth of error. (Of course, some clergy themselves these days are sunk deeply into the mire of error and even outright heresy, and in such cases, the faithful should rally without them to counteract bad modernist influence among local clergy without lettting themselves be bullied into submitting to false teaching; but that is a lay remedy for genuinely serious situations.) Lay-led groups that meet for structured prayers, e.g. the Rosary and novenas, are less apt to dig themselves into a doctrinal ditch.
**Rinnie: **You are so right. Jerry. and, ironically, I did ask that of Father. I said “Father. how would one do this?” Father said there are instructions which to go by to lead us. He said that he is going to check into getting the material so that we can introduce this into the church.
So it would probally not be that hard. I think that I possibly even, actually, could handle it, Jerry, because I would have the answers before the questions are asked.
But I think that the Church is really comming a long way in addressing alot of the problems we do have wih the Church, which one is the Priest not having enough time to do everything.
of your role as a lay leader of a study group, which should not develop into one of those divisive C.G.M. “cell groups” which I had mentioned.
Using guided study materials (while not letting their use be too stiflingly boring and, in the wrong way, too predictable) such as you describe is a good way to avoid too much of the unwanted kind of “originality of insight” that I was describing, and you certainly are willing to defer to your priest, who, from the way that you describe him, is one of the wholesomely orthodox ones which are again becoming more numerous again as the old "SITS (“stuck in the sixties”, i.e. 1960s) would-be “hip” generation of clergy and laity fades from prominence on the scene (thank God, at last!). There was a time, and there still can be, when priests, not wayward laity, were (and sometimes still are) the ones who used “cell” groups to promote and fob off on their parishes their cherished but aberrent pseudo-Vat. 2 theological and exegetical views, as some theologically, pastorally, and liturgically dubious-minded bishops even have wrought some harm until the Vatican at times has intervened.
Pax, Jerry Parker
**We wrote: *Jerry: * If there are such purely lay-led groups, it would be good for a priest to check up on them regularly to avoid the growth of error. (Of course, some clergy themselves these days are sunk deeply into the mire of error and even outright heresy, and in such cases, the faithful should rally without them to counteract bad modernist influence among local clergy without lettting themselves be bullied into submitting to false teaching; but that is a lay remedy for genuinely serious situations.) Lay-led groups that meet for structured prayers, e.g. the Rosary and novenas, are less apt to dig themselves into a doctrinal ditch.
**Rinnie: **You are so right. Jerry. and, ironically, I did ask that of Father. I said “Father. how would one do this?” Father said there are instructions which to go by to lead us. He said that he is going to check into getting the material so that we can introduce this into the church.
So it would probally not be that hard. I think that I possibly even, actually, could handle it, Jerry, because I would have the answers before the questions are asked.
But I think that the Church is really comming a long way in addressing alot of the problems we do have wih the Church, which one is the Priest not having enough time to do everything.
We have to learn to dig deep into ourself and to ask what it is that the Holy Spirit is asking of us, and how are we going to do what is asked. **
Rinnie, you have the right spirit and concept of your role as a lay leader of a study group, which should not develop into one of those divisive C.G.M. “cell groups” which I had mentioned.Using guided study materials (while not letting their use be too stiflingly boring and, in the wrong way, too predictable) such as you describe is a good way to avoid too much of the unwanted kind of “originality of insight” that I was describing, and you certainly are willing to defer to your priest, who, from the way that you describe him, is one of the wholesomely orthodox ones which are again becoming more numerous again as the old "SITS (“stuck in the sixties”, i.e. 1960s) would-be “hip” generation of clergy and laity fades from prominence on the scene (thank God, at last!). There was a time, and there still can be, when priests, not wayward laity, were (and sometimes still are) the ones who used “cell” groups to promote and fob off on their parishes their cherished but aberrent pseudo-Vat. 2 theological and exegetical views, as some theologically, pastorally, and liturgically dubious-minded bishops even have wrought some harm until the Vatican at times has intervened.
Pax, Jerry Parker
(Baptists, Pentecostals, et alia), but there hasn’t been, I don’t think, a clear and consistent pattern about all of this, other than disgust with what the Church and its worship, especially in the chaos that prevailed so long, had become, not to mention the awful clergy sex scandals of recent decades. I personally have not had much confidence in the clergy (and I try to steer clear of personal contact with them) since all of that began to occur.
again! I hope that good developments really are afoot—.