G
Guest
Guest
Peace and blessings to all;
This is my first post here, so I'd like to introduce myself and share a bit about me and what brought me here. I'm not big on revealing personal information on-line, as I have two teen-agers and have always cautioned them on the dangers of speaking to strangers in chat rooms, where I believe many people mis-represent themselves. Admittedly the risk of this happening in this ecumenical religious format should be less, but there are no guarantees. Somethings I do feel comfortable enough to share here are; I am a happily married (23yrs) 44 yr old father of two "mixed blessings".
Of course, by that I mean one of each gender. I've lived all my life in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. was raised bi-lingual in a french community very Catholic. Needless to say, infant baptized along with my 5 siblings, of which 3 are now agnostic (although they all still make the sign of the cross and say grace @ Christmas dinner), 1 is practicing in the United Church, and 1 would be best discribed I think as lapsed Catholic. Which leaves myself, of course being one of the middle, and therefore more rebelious children, I wanted nothing to do with the "religion crammed down my throat" that my parents actually blessed me with.
So I left home early and the church with it. With the coming of children a decade or so later, realizing the importance of instituting good morals in them, I renewed my faith by returning to the church I was baptized and married in, but especially sacramentally, my faith was "luke warm". It was'nt until about 5 yrs. ago, after the "Have you ever read the whole thing?" challenge from a Jehovah's Witness, that I acted upon what I am certain had been previously ignored promptings of the Holy Spirit, that I did in fact read it "cover to cover" and experience spiritual rebirth in it's pages. The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways, as it was the challenge of this proclaimer of a false gospel that finally triggered me to seek out the true one by setting out to buy and read what turns out to be a protestant N.R.S.V. study bible (at the time I did'nt even know to look for the exclusion of the apochrypha as a first sign.).
This of course turned out to be the most profound of blessings as it challenged many things I had been taught, but forgotten, or ignored out of convenience. All the while I had taken on the responsability of actively teaching the Catholic faith, involving myself in religious education (Catechesis) of children at my church. Which incedently requires people choosing this ministry to uphold the magisterium's teachings while teaching lessons regardless of subjective acceptance or denial of same. This in itself was also a blessing as I struggled with doctrinal differences from my belovedly well thumbed Bible and the teaching of tradition. But here is the kicker' not "most of the time" but every single time I challenged a doctrine as to whether or not it was "infallable when teaching on faith and morals" it was.
The faith part of this became easier as my searches brought me to study the development of canons and dogmas, to realize that before we have a canon we have a creed, and a universal, apostolic church that produced them both. To discover on my journey back that without the communion of saints, living and dead, handing down the faith of the apostles, primarily orally through out history, there would be no "formed" in reformed._______ A couple of years ago I happened upon my first online theology discussion board. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time praying between posts as I try to now, but I have learned that although we continue to disagree theologically, the individuals have become quite dear to me, and I miss the dialougue when I fast from it as I am now. I was combing this site to find a better response to the "free will vs. election" debate when I return to post there and have been reading many of the posts in the RC / Orthodox sub group.
It is amazing to me how similar the individuals seem. I would also compliment the handling of threads by administrators / monitors, the site I frequent has no such blessing and threads get off track easily and often. I'm not sure I'm totally supportive of the Catholics "being sent to their room" as it were, but it looks like a better option than having topic threads break down because something from the Catechism or a church father is submitted. I come with a word of warning for all to be extra vigilant in prayer and thought before posting anything, as what brought me here was that I happened upon some qoutes posted here that had been copied and (in my opinion rightfully) ridiculed on a clearly atheistic site called FSTDT "Fundies say the darndest things".
Be aware that any part of your posts can be edited out and used effectively as a tool against conversion regardless of your denomination. But to Catholics in particular I beg you to consider this quote from my favorite author the "prince of paradox" G.K. Chesterton;_______"The Catholic is scarcely ever frightened of the Protestant picture of Catholicism; but he is sometimes frightened of the Catholic picture of Catholicism; which may be a good reason for not disproportionately stressing the difficult or puzzling parts of the scheme. For the convert's sake, it should also be remembered that one foolish word from inside does more harm than a hundred thousand foolish words from outside. The latter he has already
learned to expect, like a blind hail or rain beating upon the Ark; but the voices from within, even the most casual and accidental, he is already prepared to regard as holy or more than human; and though this is unfair to people who only profess to be human beings, it is a fact that Catholics ought to remember. There is many a convert who has reached a stage at which no word from any Protestant or pagan could any longer hold him back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him from Catholicism."_______
A few closing thoughts; I deeply respect all human beings regardless of their beliefs and pledge to never degrade or demoralize anyone. I hope I never post a comment that turns anyone away from the Catholic Church or that could be edited to benefit the evil one, and although I'm fully aware that some of my Christian brothers and sisters think I'm crazy to remain Catholic, I can assure you that it is not as a result of taking 1 too many pucks to the head. (see pic) ps.please pay no attention to that round black object in the net behind me. p.s.s; I will probably never make "pro" or "veteran" status here, I already stuggle with the amount of time I spend at the other site but for the next few days anyway I hope to interact with some of you on the topic I listed above from "the catholic room" please join me if you are passionate about it one way or the other. __________also one final thing I am not a big fan of using "Smileys" or emoticons when I dialougue, I think sometimes people get away with degrading or demoralizing anothers opinion buy the use of these tools. You know, after a well thought out and prayed upon post, someone in disagreement posts the "blank stare guy", the "one eyebrow up guy" or the "tongue hanging out guy" all meant in my judgement to devalue the posted opinion of the other. Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with a smiley face 8-) or a wink ;-) presented in fun, only when mis-used do I see these tools as detrimental to effective dialogue. What do you think?______Peace; Deardogma______
btw; I was'nt able to download my pic for my avatar so I opted for this monty python image of God instead____"OF COURSE IT"S A GOOD IDEA !!!!"
This is my first post here, so I'd like to introduce myself and share a bit about me and what brought me here. I'm not big on revealing personal information on-line, as I have two teen-agers and have always cautioned them on the dangers of speaking to strangers in chat rooms, where I believe many people mis-represent themselves. Admittedly the risk of this happening in this ecumenical religious format should be less, but there are no guarantees. Somethings I do feel comfortable enough to share here are; I am a happily married (23yrs) 44 yr old father of two "mixed blessings".
Of course, by that I mean one of each gender. I've lived all my life in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. was raised bi-lingual in a french community very Catholic. Needless to say, infant baptized along with my 5 siblings, of which 3 are now agnostic (although they all still make the sign of the cross and say grace @ Christmas dinner), 1 is practicing in the United Church, and 1 would be best discribed I think as lapsed Catholic. Which leaves myself, of course being one of the middle, and therefore more rebelious children, I wanted nothing to do with the "religion crammed down my throat" that my parents actually blessed me with.
So I left home early and the church with it. With the coming of children a decade or so later, realizing the importance of instituting good morals in them, I renewed my faith by returning to the church I was baptized and married in, but especially sacramentally, my faith was "luke warm". It was'nt until about 5 yrs. ago, after the "Have you ever read the whole thing?" challenge from a Jehovah's Witness, that I acted upon what I am certain had been previously ignored promptings of the Holy Spirit, that I did in fact read it "cover to cover" and experience spiritual rebirth in it's pages. The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways, as it was the challenge of this proclaimer of a false gospel that finally triggered me to seek out the true one by setting out to buy and read what turns out to be a protestant N.R.S.V. study bible (at the time I did'nt even know to look for the exclusion of the apochrypha as a first sign.).
This of course turned out to be the most profound of blessings as it challenged many things I had been taught, but forgotten, or ignored out of convenience. All the while I had taken on the responsability of actively teaching the Catholic faith, involving myself in religious education (Catechesis) of children at my church. Which incedently requires people choosing this ministry to uphold the magisterium's teachings while teaching lessons regardless of subjective acceptance or denial of same. This in itself was also a blessing as I struggled with doctrinal differences from my belovedly well thumbed Bible and the teaching of tradition. But here is the kicker' not "most of the time" but every single time I challenged a doctrine as to whether or not it was "infallable when teaching on faith and morals" it was.
The faith part of this became easier as my searches brought me to study the development of canons and dogmas, to realize that before we have a canon we have a creed, and a universal, apostolic church that produced them both. To discover on my journey back that without the communion of saints, living and dead, handing down the faith of the apostles, primarily orally through out history, there would be no "formed" in reformed._______ A couple of years ago I happened upon my first online theology discussion board. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time praying between posts as I try to now, but I have learned that although we continue to disagree theologically, the individuals have become quite dear to me, and I miss the dialougue when I fast from it as I am now. I was combing this site to find a better response to the "free will vs. election" debate when I return to post there and have been reading many of the posts in the RC / Orthodox sub group.
It is amazing to me how similar the individuals seem. I would also compliment the handling of threads by administrators / monitors, the site I frequent has no such blessing and threads get off track easily and often. I'm not sure I'm totally supportive of the Catholics "being sent to their room" as it were, but it looks like a better option than having topic threads break down because something from the Catechism or a church father is submitted. I come with a word of warning for all to be extra vigilant in prayer and thought before posting anything, as what brought me here was that I happened upon some qoutes posted here that had been copied and (in my opinion rightfully) ridiculed on a clearly atheistic site called FSTDT "Fundies say the darndest things".
Be aware that any part of your posts can be edited out and used effectively as a tool against conversion regardless of your denomination. But to Catholics in particular I beg you to consider this quote from my favorite author the "prince of paradox" G.K. Chesterton;_______"The Catholic is scarcely ever frightened of the Protestant picture of Catholicism; but he is sometimes frightened of the Catholic picture of Catholicism; which may be a good reason for not disproportionately stressing the difficult or puzzling parts of the scheme. For the convert's sake, it should also be remembered that one foolish word from inside does more harm than a hundred thousand foolish words from outside. The latter he has already
learned to expect, like a blind hail or rain beating upon the Ark; but the voices from within, even the most casual and accidental, he is already prepared to regard as holy or more than human; and though this is unfair to people who only profess to be human beings, it is a fact that Catholics ought to remember. There is many a convert who has reached a stage at which no word from any Protestant or pagan could any longer hold him back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him from Catholicism."_______
A few closing thoughts; I deeply respect all human beings regardless of their beliefs and pledge to never degrade or demoralize anyone. I hope I never post a comment that turns anyone away from the Catholic Church or that could be edited to benefit the evil one, and although I'm fully aware that some of my Christian brothers and sisters think I'm crazy to remain Catholic, I can assure you that it is not as a result of taking 1 too many pucks to the head. (see pic) ps.please pay no attention to that round black object in the net behind me. p.s.s; I will probably never make "pro" or "veteran" status here, I already stuggle with the amount of time I spend at the other site but for the next few days anyway I hope to interact with some of you on the topic I listed above from "the catholic room" please join me if you are passionate about it one way or the other. __________also one final thing I am not a big fan of using "Smileys" or emoticons when I dialougue, I think sometimes people get away with degrading or demoralizing anothers opinion buy the use of these tools. You know, after a well thought out and prayed upon post, someone in disagreement posts the "blank stare guy", the "one eyebrow up guy" or the "tongue hanging out guy" all meant in my judgement to devalue the posted opinion of the other. Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with a smiley face 8-) or a wink ;-) presented in fun, only when mis-used do I see these tools as detrimental to effective dialogue. What do you think?______Peace; Deardogma______
btw; I was'nt able to download my pic for my avatar so I opted for this monty python image of God instead____"OF COURSE IT"S A GOOD IDEA !!!!"
