Lately, it's been so overwhelming with all of these reports about the pope doing x, and the pope doing y, it seems to me a perfect time to zip both sides up.
The pope is certainly not God, we love him, we respect him, but not necessarily every word that comes from his mouth is Gospel, or is necessarily a good idea.
It seems to me there's an extremist point of view with the pope:
a. 100% of what he says is orthodox
b. 0% of what he says is orthodox
Where the truth is that there's no set percentage in between...the charism of infalibility only applies when the pope either via ordinary means or extra-ordinary means, re-states what the Church has already taught. (cf. Vatican I). Basically, the pope has zero power to invent dogma (has to already be taught through the centuries, via the Liturgy, Scripture, Tradition)...or in short, yes, a pope can indeed be quite heretical.
Sure, a pope can lose his office, if he does in his official capacity as pope attempt to require us faithful to believe a heresy, but it is NOT up to us as private lay people to be the judge, jury and executioner of this action. (Hence as tiring as it is sometimes to hear this pope is from time to time, no we have zero authority to depose him)
Yes, we can (and should) point out errors when they do occur, but it is our job to inform, not convict anyone. Hence why we can say something such as that is heretical, but we can't say if a person is a heretic (formally) for we are lower than the clergy...At most we can say a person is a material heretic, we can't assume there is knowledge on the end of a person.
Quite frankly, we need to keep our eyes focused towards heaven, and stop stressing over everything that comes out from Rome. Doesn't mean we need to be ignorant of what is happening, but before we go transforming the world, we need to start on the interior.
14 January 2016
Some thoughts on sin/confession
In the Divine Liturgy, we pray the following:
"O Lord, I also believe and profess that this, which I am about to receive, is truly your most precious body and your life-giving blood, which I pray, make me worthy to receive for the remission of all my sins and for life everlasting. Amen
O God, be merciful to me a sinner
O God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me
O Lord, forgive me for I have sinned without number."
Something I find a bit fascinating is that we pray for the remission of all of our sins...this may seem rather strange for those on the outside looking in, or those that are not familiar at all...typically more people are familiar with the western terminology and mindset towards sin, which goes a little something like this:
A person must be in the "state of grace" to receive Holy Communion, and one can determine this via:
Mortal sin: sin that leads directly to the cutting off of our relationship with God...(must go directly to confession, or make a perfect act of contrition with the resolve of going to confession asap)
Venial sin: sin of a lesser degree, wounds, but not completely cuts off our relationship with God. (forgiven during the penitential act, and by receiving Communion)
Then for a sin to be mortal there are 3 conditions
a. Grave matter
b. full knowledge
c. the intention to sin to do it.
All wonderful and good mind you, absolutely nothing against what has been presented...however, for those that tend towards scrupulosity, and those that tend to be a bit OCD about their sinful lives, perhaps this approach wouldn't necessarily be quite helpful...and perhaps might make one go crazy over things when perhaps they should not do so...
As the old saying goes, life in the Church is not meant to drive one insane (it really isn't, I know it might be hard to believe at times...especially in these times)
In the Eastern world, confession is more or less seen as move on and strive to do better. Cooperate with the graces given and strive to "sin no more", rather than atonement for what we've done in the past...and perhaps one of these days I'll write a more detailed write up on the Eastern thoughts on sin...but today's not that day.
In the Eastern world, sin is more or less seen as falling short, or not cooperating with those graces that are received. No need to define exactly which is which, simply falling short, and we need to ry and do better.
At least in my own experience for me it's been much easier and freeing to live the Eastern spirituality towards confession and sin. I find it much easier when I do need to go to confession, to say what needs to be said. Perhaps it's because my world is so defined being a mathematician and a physicist, that spiritually, so to speak, a break from what is the normal course of thought should be done.
So yes, sometimes it is better to do an examination once a month, rather than a hurried confession before Divine Liturgy....this is not to say not to go to confession, of course one should. But one should not be scrupulous, or going mad stressing over every little thing either.
"O Lord, I also believe and profess that this, which I am about to receive, is truly your most precious body and your life-giving blood, which I pray, make me worthy to receive for the remission of all my sins and for life everlasting. Amen
O God, be merciful to me a sinner
O God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me
O Lord, forgive me for I have sinned without number."
Something I find a bit fascinating is that we pray for the remission of all of our sins...this may seem rather strange for those on the outside looking in, or those that are not familiar at all...typically more people are familiar with the western terminology and mindset towards sin, which goes a little something like this:
A person must be in the "state of grace" to receive Holy Communion, and one can determine this via:
Mortal sin: sin that leads directly to the cutting off of our relationship with God...(must go directly to confession, or make a perfect act of contrition with the resolve of going to confession asap)
Venial sin: sin of a lesser degree, wounds, but not completely cuts off our relationship with God. (forgiven during the penitential act, and by receiving Communion)
Then for a sin to be mortal there are 3 conditions
a. Grave matter
b. full knowledge
c. the intention to sin to do it.
All wonderful and good mind you, absolutely nothing against what has been presented...however, for those that tend towards scrupulosity, and those that tend to be a bit OCD about their sinful lives, perhaps this approach wouldn't necessarily be quite helpful...and perhaps might make one go crazy over things when perhaps they should not do so...
As the old saying goes, life in the Church is not meant to drive one insane (it really isn't, I know it might be hard to believe at times...especially in these times)
In the Eastern world, confession is more or less seen as move on and strive to do better. Cooperate with the graces given and strive to "sin no more", rather than atonement for what we've done in the past...and perhaps one of these days I'll write a more detailed write up on the Eastern thoughts on sin...but today's not that day.
In the Eastern world, sin is more or less seen as falling short, or not cooperating with those graces that are received. No need to define exactly which is which, simply falling short, and we need to ry and do better.
At least in my own experience for me it's been much easier and freeing to live the Eastern spirituality towards confession and sin. I find it much easier when I do need to go to confession, to say what needs to be said. Perhaps it's because my world is so defined being a mathematician and a physicist, that spiritually, so to speak, a break from what is the normal course of thought should be done.
So yes, sometimes it is better to do an examination once a month, rather than a hurried confession before Divine Liturgy....this is not to say not to go to confession, of course one should. But one should not be scrupulous, or going mad stressing over every little thing either.
10 January 2016
Thought of the day
Yes, it is important to occasionally reach outside of oneself, but it's also true that doing so should not be an exercise in Chinese torture methods either.
07 January 2016
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and every thing else I forgot to say within the realm of this thing called life :p
Hello dear readers, unfortunately it's been quite a while since I have been here. Much has been going on that I haven't really had the time to seriously sit and write here all that much....a few orders of business...we'll get to the serious things first..
a. Prayers for my uncle. He's been in the hospital for the past few weeks, and while things are not necessarily dire, they are quite serious, and he's gone back into serious condition. Do pray for him.
b. Do pray for myself, as there are many responsibilities that I have now taken on, and it's quite hard for one person to do them all, so that would be very appreciative.
Now that the prayer requests are out of the way, we can get onto the more fun topics in this post.
1. Old Year reflections:
a. Prayers for my uncle. He's been in the hospital for the past few weeks, and while things are not necessarily dire, they are quite serious, and he's gone back into serious condition. Do pray for him.
b. Do pray for myself, as there are many responsibilities that I have now taken on, and it's quite hard for one person to do them all, so that would be very appreciative.
Now that the prayer requests are out of the way, we can get onto the more fun topics in this post.
1. Old Year reflections:
- 2015 at least ended well. Love found its way in apparently, and it's going rather well. (Do pray for the lady, yes, things are serious :))
- I admit, I've paid absolutely zero attention to the circus in Rome right now. But I'm glad that Mother Teresa is being canonized. She was not perfect, but since when was canonization a process for the perfect?
- There's been much time for spiritual growth and learning, this has definitely been a good thing.
- Though a particular event happened this year that will forever haunt this particular person, I suppose the appropriate response wouldn't be go Russian physicist on this event :p.
2. New Year's "Resolutions"
- To keep this blog much more up to date...unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of updating. :)
- To continue to not pay attention to circ de Roma...the principle of subsidiarity is really helping here. Our Faith should not be dependent on the occupant in the chair of Peter....things are a little rough right now, but let our hearts not be troubled. (This of course does not mean we should not be praying for our Holy Father, we definitely should be)
- To be more "social" on social media outlets...but rest assured, I'll still be me...No, I won't be putting up the latest trends, or giving you updates on the world of the talentless, but good things (with my usual commentary)
I'll keep this short, but I hope that all of you have had a joyous (and continuously joyful) Christmas season. Until tomorrow
Pax Vobis
02 December 2015
Thought of the day
Allow yourself be loved...allow yourself to give love...One can't receive what one is not open to.
17 November 2015
Some thoughts on Islam, refugee status, and stuff.
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us
Certainly there are different schools of Islamic thought (Shite, Sunni, Salafi, Wahabi, Sufi, etc), and most certainly not all Muslims are terrorists, and people should not act stupidly as to start accusing all individuals who practise Islam of being terrorists or supporting these kinds of activities...A discussion does need to happen on this subject...
Only one problem, since Islam does not have a central authority that can speak for it, there's no real way to get these different schools of thought together to hash out certain issues...(And even if there was a central authority for Islam, it's not like they'd actually get any media play on the TV, because it doesn't fit the agenda...Several Muslim leaders have come out and condemned these actions, certainly a good thing, but there needs to be more)
Islam has roughly 1 billion practising members, even if only 2-10% are the terrorists, that's roughly 20 000 000 - 100 000 000 people, which is by no means a small number at all. (Just under 1/3rd of the US Population at it's maximum)
The leaders amongst the 98% need to get together, mobilize, condemn, and get their message of condemnation out in the public...Normally, I'm not exactly a social person, but for this particular means, it should be done. They need to humiliate these terrorists and make it abundantly clear that this kind of thing will not be tolerated within the circle of Islam....And if these things are done, immediate consequences will take place....
Otherwise, silence will be interpreted as an indirect participation in the actions of the terrorist thug no lifes..
This is a dialogue Islam must have with itself to figure out...at some point, this needs to be addressed, and I certainly hope it's before WWIII, or whatever's supposed to happen.
Likewise, when it comes to refugees, there are certainly those who are true refugees fleeing from ISIS, but there are also those with alternate intentions to say the least. I certainly can't blame the so far 28 states that have refused the refugees to this point. It is sometimes better to side on caution, rather than to give any opportunity to a possible attack. (Granted, they'll probably get in through the open states, so there's not much of a point, but whatever)....
Yes, we should help our fellow man, but that does not mean we let our reason escape the door. If anyone poses a threat, we do what we can to protect ourselves or our families from that threat at play. We don't generally welcome people within our own circles without some idea of getting to know them, even if on an initial level. Why do we not do the same here? Make sure these people that are coming are truly who they say they are, and if they're not, kick them out.
Of course, since we all know that the government is much too lazy to actually do the background checks, I wouldn't dare trust them with the open boarders.
You'd think after watching these countries in Europe go through these attacks, we'd learn our lesson, and be more cautious....but of course not, since chances are we're probably involved in some indirect way anyway.
Let us pray for conversion...for everyone, ourselves mostly, because we can't give what we do not have.
Certainly there are different schools of Islamic thought (Shite, Sunni, Salafi, Wahabi, Sufi, etc), and most certainly not all Muslims are terrorists, and people should not act stupidly as to start accusing all individuals who practise Islam of being terrorists or supporting these kinds of activities...A discussion does need to happen on this subject...
Only one problem, since Islam does not have a central authority that can speak for it, there's no real way to get these different schools of thought together to hash out certain issues...(And even if there was a central authority for Islam, it's not like they'd actually get any media play on the TV, because it doesn't fit the agenda...Several Muslim leaders have come out and condemned these actions, certainly a good thing, but there needs to be more)
Islam has roughly 1 billion practising members, even if only 2-10% are the terrorists, that's roughly 20 000 000 - 100 000 000 people, which is by no means a small number at all. (Just under 1/3rd of the US Population at it's maximum)
The leaders amongst the 98% need to get together, mobilize, condemn, and get their message of condemnation out in the public...Normally, I'm not exactly a social person, but for this particular means, it should be done. They need to humiliate these terrorists and make it abundantly clear that this kind of thing will not be tolerated within the circle of Islam....And if these things are done, immediate consequences will take place....
Otherwise, silence will be interpreted as an indirect participation in the actions of the terrorist thug no lifes..
This is a dialogue Islam must have with itself to figure out...at some point, this needs to be addressed, and I certainly hope it's before WWIII, or whatever's supposed to happen.
Likewise, when it comes to refugees, there are certainly those who are true refugees fleeing from ISIS, but there are also those with alternate intentions to say the least. I certainly can't blame the so far 28 states that have refused the refugees to this point. It is sometimes better to side on caution, rather than to give any opportunity to a possible attack. (Granted, they'll probably get in through the open states, so there's not much of a point, but whatever)....
Yes, we should help our fellow man, but that does not mean we let our reason escape the door. If anyone poses a threat, we do what we can to protect ourselves or our families from that threat at play. We don't generally welcome people within our own circles without some idea of getting to know them, even if on an initial level. Why do we not do the same here? Make sure these people that are coming are truly who they say they are, and if they're not, kick them out.
Of course, since we all know that the government is much too lazy to actually do the background checks, I wouldn't dare trust them with the open boarders.
You'd think after watching these countries in Europe go through these attacks, we'd learn our lesson, and be more cautious....but of course not, since chances are we're probably involved in some indirect way anyway.
Let us pray for conversion...for everyone, ourselves mostly, because we can't give what we do not have.
09 November 2015
Thought of the day
Welcome to America, where a non-Christian company, decides to not print something on their cups, people get outraged over the cups, when they should be outraged at the overpriced, horrible excuse of coffee they're paying for....Yep, sounds legit
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