I'm thinking of going over to the Episcopalians...

[Blackrook]

Nope, if I don't marry I'm not supposed to have sex either.

Proven easy to find a priest who'll swap forgiveness for sex.

Sure I can live a life doing whatever the hell I want and then repent it all at the end with a good confession.

But what if circumstances of my death don't allow me to make that final confession. What if I die in a car crash or a sudden heart attack and a priest never comes before I die?

It's like a high-stakes poker game.

 

[HenryBHough]

Nope, if I don't marry I'm not supposed to have sex either.

Proven easy to find a priest who'll swap forgiveness for sex.

Sure I can live a life doing whatever the hell I want and then repent it all at the end with a good confession.

But what if circumstances of my death don't allow me to make that final confession. What if I die in a car crash or a sudden heart attack and a priest never comes before I die?

It's like a high-stakes poker game.

When angels clap is it divine applause?

 

[ding]

Nope, if I don't marry I'm not supposed to have sex either.

Proven easy to find a priest who'll swap forgiveness for sex.

Sure I can live a life doing whatever the hell I want and then repent it all at the end with a good confession.

But what if circumstances of my death don't allow me to make that final confession. What if I die in a car crash or a sudden heart attack and a priest never comes before I die?

It's like a high-stakes poker game.

That’s a pretty messed up belief.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Catholic Lite™....All the fun, half the guilt.

With a healthy dose of liberal wackadoodle thrown in on the side.

 

[Marion Morrison]

I would never consider going over to the evangelicals and learning that all the time I was a Catholic I was an idolator and that all Catholics are going to hell.

That sounds like running from the truth you already know deep down.

 

[Grace Is Stoked]

The one consolation, I guess, is knowing that the Episcopalian Eucharist is only symbolic, so I won't be breaking St. Paul's teaching if I accept it.

You wouldn’t be. They are wrong to deny the Eucharist to anyone who seeks to devour God.

The Catholic Church denies the Eucharist to anyone who isn't a Catholic in a state of grace. Most people can't receive it.

I don't mean to jump in the middle and so I apologize if I make this awkward, but have you considered simply just having a personal relationship with God without the formalities, creeds, rituals, barriers, or intermediaries? If He is in your heart and you love and follow His teachings then the structures and interpretations of others who are not God should have no influence on you in my personal opinion. Ultimately it's your choice and what's in your heart will guide you, but I was mainly just curious if you've considered following Jesus in a more direct and personal way?

I've gone many months without attending Mass but while that is happening I forget to pray and I rarely think about God at all. The "personal way to God" isn't for me. I lack the necessary discipline.

I don’t know a lot about Catholicism but it seems that based on your description it takes more discipline to stay in line with its structures and rules than it would be to have a more direct relationship with a Jesus and his teachings in my personal opinion.

 

[HenryBHough]

It would seem that the discipline required to be a "good" Cathollic is akin to that required to be a "good" Democrat.

That is to say, BLIND FAITH!

 

[Blackrook]

It would seem that the discipline required to be a "good" Cathollic is akin to that required to be a "good" Democrat.

That is to say, BLIND FAITH!

My faith isn't blind. During my third year of law school I did a lot of research to determine if I wanted to remain a Catholic. My research indicated that the Catholic Church is the only authentic Christian church, founded by Jesus Christ himself. All other Christian churches were founded by mortal men and women.

 

[badger2]

#108 has still to explain to us the contradiction between a mortal man and his dad whom no one has ever seen, a dad whose infinite presence is impossible due to the coming of time.

 

[TNHarley]

Catholic Lite™....All the fun, half the guilt.

Yes, I've heard that.

And I know some Catholics divorce and remarry, and still take the Eucharist, but I'm not going to do that.

In my opinion, it's more honorable to leave a Church that doesn't want you then to stay in it and sneak around the rules.

You should worry about what CHRIST says, not a church organization.

Neither of those organizations are GOD'S church.

Christ is nothing. A fake messiah
You Christians gave him the false impression of messiah hood.
It's funny how Christians tell jews they got their own prophecies wrong.

 

[TNHarley]

It would seem that the discipline required to be a "good" Cathollic is akin to that required to be a "good" Democrat.

That is to say, BLIND FAITH!

My faith isn't blind. During my third year of law school I did a lot of research to determine if I wanted to remain a Catholic. My research indicated that the Catholic Church is the only authentic Christian church, founded by Jesus Christ himself. All other Christian churches were founded by mortal men and women.

The Jewish messiah is supposed to be man. How stupid

 

[presonorek]

Catholic Lite™....All the fun, half the guilt.

Yes, I've heard that.

And I know some Catholics divorce and remarry, and still take the Eucharist, but I'm not going to do that.

In my opinion, it's more honorable to leave a Church that doesn't want you then to stay in it and sneak around the rules.

No Eucharist? That sounds terrible.

 

[sparky]

~S~

 

[xband]

Episcopalians are similar to the Anglicans and both are similar to the Methodists. Get confirmed in the Methodist Church

 

[Votto]

I am a divorced man and am starting a new relationship with a woman who meets all my criteria of what I'm looking for.

So, I want to be free to marry if the relationship goes in that direction.

As a Catholic, if I remarry, I cannot remarry in the Catholic Church, and after I remarry I will be in a state of mortal sin and ineligible to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist.

Today, I went into an Episcopalian diocesan office and picked up some literature. Then I called the rector of an Episcopalian parish church.

The reason I would go over to the Episcopalians is that it is the branch of Protestantism which kept most of the Catholic rituals and most resembles the Catholic Church in its teachings.

The rector and I agreed that I will attend the 10:00 a.m. Mass this Sunday, and afterward attend the coffee social to meet with him and others.

He was very welcoming and when I explained why I'm thinking of leaving the Catholic Church he was very understanding.

I told the rector that my father would be very upset by my decision, and he said, don't worry about converting just attend the Mass and see where that goes. In other words, I don't have to go from A to Z, only from A to B.

I'm looking forward to Mass this Sunday and a chance to meet the rector and maybe even make new Episcopalian friends. It is hard to make friends in the Catholic Church because most people just attend Mass and then rush to their cars to leave.

If you are a follower of Christ I would be less concerned about what any one church says or what I want than I would what Christ taught on the subject.

So if Christ is your Lord, what does your Lord want for you?

What do you then make of Mark 10?

1He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5 But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, "God made them male and female.' 7 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." 10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

 

[xband]

I am a divorced man and am starting a new relationship with a woman who meets all my criteria of what I'm looking for.

So, I want to be free to marry if the relationship goes in that direction.

As a Catholic, if I remarry, I cannot remarry in the Catholic Church, and after I remarry I will be in a state of mortal sin and ineligible to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist.

Today, I went into an Episcopalian diocesan office and picked up some literature. Then I called the rector of an Episcopalian parish church.

The reason I would go over to the Episcopalians is that it is the branch of Protestantism which kept most of the Catholic rituals and most resembles the Catholic Church in its teachings.

The rector and I agreed that I will attend the 10:00 a.m. Mass this Sunday, and afterward attend the coffee social to meet with him and others.

He was very welcoming and when I explained why I'm thinking of leaving the Catholic Church he was very understanding.

I told the rector that my father would be very upset by my decision, and he said, don't worry about converting just attend the Mass and see where that goes. In other words, I don't have to go from A to Z, only from A to B.

I'm looking forward to Mass this Sunday and a chance to meet the rector and maybe even make new Episcopalian friends. It is hard to make friends in the Catholic Church because most people just attend Mass and then rush to their cars to leave.

If you are a follower of Christ I would be less concerned about what any one church says or what I want than I would what Christ taught on the subject.

So if Christ is your Lord, what does your Lord want for you?

What do you then make of Mark 10?

1He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5 But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, "God made them male and female.' 7 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." 10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

John 3:16, everlasting life is a horror.