Zone1 My spirituality has undergone some significant changes..

[rightnow909]

There is some weird disconnect that some have that you HAVE to go to Church. Sure, it would be great to be with others wanting to be close to God and sharing your experiences good and bad... but, unfortunately, many modern Churches are not about that. Your relationship with God is what matters most.

well, this is not something anyone can argue with

However, I do think we need to look at going to Mass as an obligation. Once I learned that it is (on Sunday at least), I began going every Sunday and I began to change for the better accordingly. How are you going to do that if you don't go to be with God in a tangible way at least once a week? Yeh, you could read the Bible instead but what I've learned about human nature is that if you don't have to do something, a lot of the time, you just don't do it (whether Bible reading or Mass attendance) and pretty soon... as happened in my own life... you find yourself in this bad place of wishing to God you had done.. whatever it was you didn't want to do. The Word says Forsake not the assembling of youselves together..

 

[Leo123]

I'm not sure forgiveness is the hardest thing of what Jesus said

doing good to evil people is at the top of my list..

I pray for them, but I don't believe Jesus wants us to be in their company at all... (depending on the evil in question but the Word says Be not unequally yoked w/ unbelievers... don't live with them or hang out with them is the way i see it.. They can really bring u down.. )

Forgiving removes a burden from the forgiver, it does not absolve the perpetrator from personal guilt. Agca says he is haunted every day even though the Pope actually befriended him and became like a brother and he (Agca) renounced his violent past.

 

[rightnow909]

Forgiving removes a burden from the forgiver, it does not absolve the perpetrator from personal guilt. Agca says he is haunted every day even though the Pope actually befriended him and became like a brother and he (Agca) renounced his violent past.

well, that was one good thing jp ii did but it was the bad things he did that bother me

he was buddies with communists... and i don't know if you read my post where I relayed the info obtained through reading Lefebvre but jp ii before he was pope.. was able to come and go in Poland without interference from the gummit.. while most clergy were not.. So what gives there? seems obvious to me..

he kissed the Koran... offered some "sacrifice" to the animist "god"... He focused on man and what any given man believes... he did not try to convert people to Christ

and that is VERY bad..

maybe he changed toward the end of his life.. i don't know.. I hope so.. but Jesus said that No one comes to the Father except through HIM

He said

I (not Buddha, not Joseph smith, not Mohommed...) am the Way, the Truth and the Life...

so there's that..

 

[Woodznutz]

well, whatever... looks like you have one of those man made Bibles bc I don't recall anything remotely like it in my more reliable (way) Douay Rheims.. but of course protestants will say that I am wrong, not them and it just goes on like thatforever... (I"m right, you're wrong bc Catholics are crazy or what have u... so tiresome..)

Didn't the KJV heavily influence later editions of the Douay Rheims bible?

 

[Meriweather]

Yeh, you could read the Bible instead but what I've learned about human nature is that if you don't have to do something, a lot of the time, you just don't do it (whether Bible reading or Mass attendance) and pretty soon...

I'll add that when it is just the individual and the Bible, there is no input from others. Additional input from homilies--and even the choir--brings additional life to each reading or lesson.

 

[rightnow909]

Didn't the KJV heavily influence later editions of the Douay Rheims bible?

no

=

 

[rightnow909]

I'll add that when it is just the individual and the Bible, there is no input from others. Additional input from homilies--and even the choir--brings additional life to each reading or lesson.

plus, and most important, the Real Presence of Christ is in the Catholic Church

When you want tofully understand someone, there's nothing like being in his presence

 

[flan327]

I believe everyone who posts here is going to go directly to Hell with no stops

Hell does not exist

 

[Bonzi]

well, this is not something anyone can argue with

However, I do think we need to look at going to Mass as an obligation. Once I learned that it is (on Sunday at least), I began going every Sunday and I began to change for the better accordingly. How are you going to do that if you don't go to be with God in a tangible way at least once a week? Yeh, you could read the Bible instead but what I've learned about human nature is that if you don't have to do something, a lot of the time, you just don't do it (whether Bible reading or Mass attendance) and pretty soon... as happened in my own life... you find yourself in this bad place of wishing to God you had done.. whatever it was you didn't want to do. The Word says Forsake not the assembling of youselves together..

Yep, I know the scripture. I think it helps keep you in line with God's will... as long as you are being spiritually fed. I'm not again going to Church by any means. I'm just saying it's not a requirement for salvation.

 

[Leo123]

Hell does not exist

How do you know, have you died?

 

[rightnow909]

Yep, I know the scripture. I think it helps keep you in line with God's will... as long as you are being spiritually fed. I'm not again going to Church by any means. I'm just saying it's not a requirement for salvation.

while it is true that everyone has his own free will and also is created in God's image, therefore can be trusted to some extent to.. have the means of being saved.

it is also true that man is deeply sinful, lies to himself, believes those lies.. lives what he believes, which means he lives a lie.. and therefore since all liars end up in Hell...

so yeh, Jesus knew all this, surprisingly... and built His Church accordingly. He knew human nature (knows it) better than anyone...

Lean not on your own understanding, the Word tells us

 

[rightnow909]

How do you know, have you died?

That guy can say Hell does not exist... after looking at what's going on in DC??!!

delusional

 

[Woodznutz]

well, whatever... looks like you have one of those man made Bibles bc I don't recall anything remotely like it in my more reliable (way) Douay Rheims.. but of course protestants will say that I am wrong, not them and it just goes on like thatforever... (I"m right, you're wrong bc Catholics are crazy or what have u... so tiresome..)

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition​

Revelation 20:5​

"The rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years were finished."​

 

[Woodznutz]

no

=

Seems like the two versions have a long history with each other.

Douay–Rheims Bible - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bonzi]

while it is true that everyone has his own free will and also is created in God's image, therefore can be trusted to some extent to.. have the means of being saved.

it is also true that man is deeply sinful, lies to himself, believes those lies.. lives what he believes, which means he lives a lie.. and therefore since all liars end up in Hell...

so yeh, Jesus knew all this, surprisingly... and built His Church accordingly. He knew human nature (knows it) better than anyone...

Lean not on your own understanding, the Word tells us

The BIG problem I have with Church is that I have found the churches I have attended tested my faith more than built it up. The women in the churches (I have attended many) were not very supportive and mostly were there for social reasons. The only time I had women approach me were for "product" parties where they were selling things. There was one church I went to where they asked people for prayer and I asked for prayer as my father had passed and not one person approached me after service with condolences. I feel much more close to and at peace with God on my own. But I am most likely the exception and not the rule. I will say, I felt very uplifted during the services however at all the churches I have attended.

 

[frigidweirdo]

I was raised Catholic.. although... what does that mean, really? All we did was go to Mass on Sunday... We forgot about Jesus the rest of the week... sigh (I found Him in a big way when young, though..)

Well, you can't help who your family is.. But somewhere along the line, my life fell apart, as it always does when you drift away from Jesus. One thing leads to another and the old domino effect takes over and .. you can come to a very bad place.

But God appears to have intervened in my miserable life.. While some things actually got more miserable after I discovered the rosary... spiritually, I began to get better.. Then I started going not just to Sunday Mass but daily Mass... and my spirit seemed to be off and running.. so to say..

Then I discovered some really rotten stuff in the Church.. and .. sorry to disappoint certain anti-Catholics, but it had nothing to do with pedophilia... amazing how that is not the problem for most Cahtolics. But that is not to say my own problems were not serious (though obviously there is hardly anything more serious than molesting a child..).

Well, long-story-short, I then began studying the Church after Vatican II... not impressed to say the least.. and in fact... suffice it to say that many undesirables were "consulted" at the Council, even Communists and other nefarious types.. whereas the OLD Church (the true Church, Society of St Pius X, the Church up until 1958) had always condemned communism. Some have called JP II a commie-lover or something to that effect.. and I believe it. Again, when he lived in Poland, most Catholic clergy were being persecuted, not able to come and go as they wanted, but somehow, JP II (not then pope) was allowed to do so.. and I could go on and on but this is about me more than JP II.

So then I saw things in the TRUE Church that bothered me also (long story). But suffice it to say that..

I can understand people not wanting to go to ANY Church... you see things there... un-Christian stuff.


+

I think, for me, the church is a very HUMAN institution. It's made by humans, for humans. And humans are the power source behind it.

People want to believe there's some God behind it, but is there? Probably not.

 

[jehanne1431]

If it ain’t in the Bible, it ain’t nothing to do with God.

Who told you that?

 

[Weatherman2020]

Who told you that?

God.

 

[jehanne1431]

God.

So you choose to be bold, but cannot defend it?

 

[Weatherman2020]

So you choose to be bold, but cannot defend it?

You asked, I answered.