Comments on: Quo Vadis? http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/ CatholicIreland.net Blog Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:26:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 By: daniel http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-95 daniel Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:37:58 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-95 year ago i took an interest in the turin shroud and had a personal understanding that if it was genuine beyond all reasonable doubt i would endeavour to reimbrace catholism. at that point it was declared a clever fake and i lost interest. years later and after a traumatic spiritual paranormal experience i was watching clouds race across a wintery sky. a cluster of cloud caught my eye different in colour and they formed a crude face i then became transfixed and a great calm came over me the cloud cluster then turned into the look alike turin negative and then into a real face of a bearded man with closed eyes. it then reverted back into clouds. year ago i took an interest in the turin shroud and had a personal understanding that if it was genuine beyond all reasonable doubt i would endeavour to reimbrace catholism. at that point it was declared a clever fake and i lost interest. years later and after a traumatic spiritual paranormal experience i was watching clouds race across a wintery sky. a cluster of cloud caught my eye different in colour and they formed a crude face i then became transfixed and a great calm came over me the cloud cluster then turned into the look alike turin negative and then into a real face of a bearded man with closed eyes. it then reverted back into clouds.

]]> By: daniel http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-92 daniel Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:20:09 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-92 is christian faith a pre requisite to wanting to tend to the poor and destitute? no, mother teresa may well have done the same as a humanitarian, a quaker, a buddhist or a muslim. when a dark cloud descends as a temporary low or a depression the sun eventually shines through. people had lows before the advent of christianity. however, absolutism that might be associated with devote christian belief in itself may trigger dispair because as humans we are endowed with a logic and rational and part of that function is to continually question, re-evaulate and reframe our situation. that component part of our psychi has allowed us to survive as a species, as god helps those who help themselves. it may follow through that 'goodness' will eventually be a dominent trait in all men as a matter of evolution. is christian faith a pre requisite to wanting to tend to the poor and destitute? no, mother teresa may well have done the same as a humanitarian, a quaker, a buddhist or a muslim. when a dark cloud descends as a temporary low or a depression the sun eventually shines through. people had lows before the advent of christianity. however, absolutism that might be associated with devote christian belief in itself may trigger dispair because as humans we are endowed with a logic and rational and part of that function is to continually question, re-evaulate and reframe our situation. that component part of our psychi has allowed us to survive as a species, as god helps those who help themselves. it may follow through that ‘goodness’ will eventually be a dominent trait
in all men as a matter of evolution.

]]> By: Martin Tierney http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-89 Martin Tierney Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:27:23 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-89 i was interested to read that mother teresa of calcutta suffered doubts against faith for a major part of her life. yet she didn't let that stop her tending the poor and destitute. i think for all of us our journey is a pilgrimage through light and darkness. i remember st therese of lisieu, who also suffered doubts against the faith recording that all she could say was, 'beyond the dark cloud my sun is still shining.' perhaps too many of us stop the journey when darkness descends? martin i was interested to read that mother teresa of calcutta suffered doubts against faith for a major part of her life. yet she didn’t let that stop her tending the poor and destitute. i think for all of us our journey is a pilgrimage through light and darkness. i remember st therese of lisieu, who also suffered doubts against the faith recording that all she could say was, ‘beyond the dark cloud my sun is still shining.’ perhaps too many of us stop the journey when darkness descends?
martin

]]> By: Ann http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-74 Ann Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:05:36 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-74 Amen. Amen.

]]> By: daniel http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-72 daniel Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:56:29 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-72 god bless our pope god bless our pope

]]> By: daniel http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-65 daniel Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:23:03 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-65 is faith desperation clinging onto every angle or percievement so as to 'hang in there' hoping that god will not see it as grovelling but as a sincere gesture of true faith. so god is love, thats ok. its many faces are tedious to fathom, so much so that droves of people can't handle it, hence the emptying churches. i dont know if JC had a mortgage or had to worry about the different aspects of being a self employed carpentor but from what parts of his life is recorded vino and food played a part. where did the money come from to pay for it all ? thinking about that i dont recall any priests dying of hunger during the irish famine. is faith desperation clinging onto every angle or percievement so as to ‘hang in there’ hoping that god will not see it as grovelling but as a sincere gesture of true faith. so god is love, thats ok. its many faces are tedious to fathom, so much so that droves of people can’t handle it, hence the emptying churches. i dont know if JC had a mortgage or had to worry about the different aspects of being a self employed carpentor but
from what parts of his life is recorded vino and food played a part. where did the money come from to pay for it all ? thinking about that i dont recall any priests dying of hunger during the irish famine.

]]> By: Conchubhar http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-64 Conchubhar Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:16:32 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-64 Many years ago, I experienced great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady in the Anglican church, and in Ireland as well. What we were told in school about other Christian traditions was lacking in reality and was more in common with recent pronouncements about the lack of authenticity about other Christian Churches that the Vatican has spent so much time recently on. No wonder that for most Irish people who are disillusioned with the institution of the Catholic Church in Ireland apostasy is the easy option. We have been obsessed with ourselves as having "the one, true Church" with all other Christians cast aside as heretics that we have lost the ability to see Grace in our friends and neighbours who we "believe" are not "Catholic" but who themselves believe that they are part of the One, Holy and Apostolic Church. Is religious belief among Irish Catholics on the same level as Glasgow Celtic versus Glasgow Rangers? If that is so, should Christians be surprised that the Institution is failing many of us? I feel absolutely no connection with my local Church. I am not a parent, do not agree with the right wing EWTN articles reprinted in the local Parish newsletter, despair of genuine ecumenism locally, and have no way of making my voice heard, except in a very small way here. We are not all sheep to be driven to the slaughter. Why were we given brains and education if in a significant part of our lives, perhaps the most important part of them, we are not allowed to use them? Many years ago, I experienced great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady in the Anglican church, and in Ireland as well. What we were told in school about other Christian traditions was lacking in reality and was more in common with recent pronouncements about the lack of authenticity about other Christian Churches that the Vatican has spent so much time recently on.

No wonder that for most Irish people who are disillusioned with the institution of the Catholic Church in Ireland apostasy is the easy option.

We have been obsessed with ourselves as having “the one, true Church” with all other Christians cast aside as heretics that we have lost the ability to see Grace in our friends and neighbours who we “believe” are not “Catholic” but who themselves believe that they are part of the One, Holy and Apostolic Church. Is religious belief among Irish Catholics on the same level as Glasgow Celtic versus Glasgow Rangers? If that is so, should Christians be surprised that the Institution is failing many of us?

I feel absolutely no connection with my local Church. I am not a parent, do not agree with the right wing EWTN articles reprinted in the local Parish newsletter, despair of genuine ecumenism locally, and have no way of making my voice heard, except in a very small way here. We are not all sheep to be driven to the slaughter. Why were we given brains and education if in a significant part of our lives, perhaps the most important part of them, we are not allowed to use them?

]]> By: Ronan http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-62 Ronan Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:14:11 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-62 If I could add something to this discussion I would just suggest that love is not a tangible concept which can be easily described....and so I won't begin to try. Where God's love is concerned if you're interested you could read Pope Benedict's encyclical: 'Deus Caritas Est'. If nothing else this helped me to understand the different forms of love as one concept. "God is Love" and we believe in the Trinity. So it is with love: there are many faces, realities, that are 'love'. If I could add something to this discussion I would just suggest that love is not a tangible concept which can be easily described….and so I won’t begin to try.
Where God’s love is concerned if you’re interested you could read Pope Benedict’s encyclical: ‘Deus Caritas Est’. If nothing else this helped me to understand the different forms of love as one concept.
“God is Love” and we believe in the Trinity. So it is with love: there are many faces, realities, that are ‘love’.

]]> By: daniel http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-61 daniel Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:49:51 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-61 i shall ponder your response. but i suppose i would define love as caring for someone else more than you do for oneself, unconditionally. its a chemistry that comes into play on meeting with someone. i would guess it would be rather more difficult to do that or should i say for that to happen on the contents of a book namely the bible or via evangelisation. but then was it not said by JC that one could go direct to god i take that as by passing institutions. i shall ponder your response. but i suppose i would define love as caring for someone else more than you do for oneself, unconditionally. its a chemistry
that comes into play on meeting with someone.
i would guess it would be rather more difficult to do that or should i say for that to happen on the contents of a book namely the bible or via
evangelisation. but then was it not said by JC that
one could go direct to god i take that as by passing institutions.

]]> By: Ann http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Ann Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:01:22 +0000 http://blog.catholicireland.net/2007/08/19/quo-vadis/#comment-59 Oh, Daniel, Trust me to get landed with a tricky question. Seiously though, I don't think it's a case of conjuring up anything. It's more a question of opening up, of recognising our need to be loved while believing at the same time we are truly loveable. Sometimes that's the greatest stumbling block of all, when someone convinces themselves that they are not worthy of love, anybody's love, and especially not God's. As for its definition, I'm not sure if I would be capable of finding the right words But I would describe it as a capacity, a goodness within us that has the potential to draw us out of ourselves towards others and towards the source of all goodness. Sadly there are many who through no fault of their own have had few if any encounters with goodness and that's why I said earlier the onus is on us to bring God's love and light to others in any way we can. We are here in His name. I hope this all makes sense and I would like you to know that I , too, was a lapsed Catholic and coming back to God was the most fulfilling experience of my life. Oh, Daniel, Trust me to get landed with a tricky question. Seiously though, I don’t think it’s a case of conjuring up anything. It’s more a question of opening up, of recognising our need to be loved while believing at the same time we are truly loveable. Sometimes that’s the greatest stumbling block of all, when someone convinces themselves that they are not worthy of love, anybody’s love, and especially not God’s. As for its definition, I’m not sure if I would be capable of finding the right words But I would describe it as a capacity, a goodness within us that has the potential to draw us out of ourselves towards others and towards the source of all goodness. Sadly there are many who through no fault of their own have had few if any encounters with goodness and that’s why I said earlier the onus is on us to bring God’s love and light to others in any way we can. We are here in His name. I hope this all makes sense and I would like you to know that I , too, was a lapsed Catholic and coming back to God was the most fulfilling experience of my life.

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