A Mother's Rule of Life- Chapter 2

A Rule of Life:

A Rule of Life should lead one to holiness through following our God given vocation, by responding to God's will for our lives. "To do God's will because He asks it of us, out of love for Him is to advance on the road to holiness, to seek perfection."

Bl. Mother Teresa's Mission of Charity followed a Rule of Life that was in line with their calling from God, to love God and love their neighbor. The basic schedule saw that those two important priorities were done each and everyday along with the necessities of life. Holly thought that she, and us, could follow their example by ordering our lives around our priorities.

Holly learned from a priest "...that every woman called to be a wife and mother has certain obligations that must be fulfilled; true duties in that they can't be ignored nor neglected."

Those priorities are:

• Prayer


• Person


• Partner


• Parent


• Provider

After determine her priorities Holly set up her basic daily schedule. She also set up a "maintenance mode" to be done on days when her regular schedule was not possible but cautions that the "bare bones" schedule should not become the norm.

After setting up this Rule, blessing started to show up. The house was in order, her life was becoming more balanced and she was no longer relying on her husband to help with the house work. She scheduled times for all her household needs plus things such as Perpetual Adoration and Confession. She also saw that her children were thriving by having scheduled high quality leisure activities.

There were also spiritual benefits of following the Rule. She was starting to understand the meaning of following God's will. She believes that there are three main things God wants from us:

1. to love and obey Him


2. to do our daily duties according to the state of life we've been called to


3. to be open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives

In following her daily Rule she knew that she was doing her best to live for God. "... a Mother's Rule is sanctifying, because by it we do what we ought to do. It's a great means of mortification."

Now is the time to start setting up our own Rule. Start by making a list of all your daily activities, the things that need to be done. Then write down a time slot in your day when each of these things should get done. For me it is:

4:00 am- wake, dress, bring down laundry & start dishwasher

4:30 am- Morning offering, Scripture reading

5:00 am- exercise

5:30 am- exercise

6:00 am- shower & dress

6:30 am- make breakfast

7:00 am- wake & dress children

7:15am- eat breakfast & prayer & Saint stories with children/breakfast cleanup

7:45am- make beds / swish & swish swipe

8:15am- walk DS to school

11:30am- make & eat lunch

12:00pm- lunch clean up

12:30pm- get DD settled in for nap

1:00pm- Rosary

2:45pm- get DS from school

3:00pm- snack & homework

4:00pm- Play Outside

4:45pm- come in & wash up/ set up children with activity while I make dinner

5:00pm- make dinner

6:00pm- eat dinner/dinner cleanup

6:30pm-family walk

7:00pm- tubbies, stories & tuck-ins

7:30pm- spend time with DH

8:15pm- Wash up for bed

8:30pm- evening prayer/read

9:00pm- LIGHTS OUT!!!

The above is my very basic schedule I don use a more detailed schedule and will post it later.

Hope this helps get everyone thinking!

Update on Book Discussion

I will be able to post chapter 2 of MROL this Friday, Which is really Saturday here in Japan. We have had a rough week or two here but things are calming down. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Living Catholicism: Catholic Carnival 147: Giving, not Receiving

Living Catholicism: Catholic Carnival 147: Giving, not Receiving

Signs & Symbols in Catholic Worship

Looks like there might be a new bit of Catholic Bashing next week. As a pre-emptive strike and also for information and education purposes I am posting these links on Catholic symbols.


Signs & Symbols in Catholic Worship

Catholic Symbols and gestures

Fish Eaters

Jesus Walk

A personal favorite - Mary's Garden.

Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture

Impressions of Mass

I wrote this on my other blog, and thought readers here might like to read it as well:

I have been following Barbara Curtis's trek across the Tiber and was particularly interested in her impressions of the mass. Earlier this year I read blogger Candy Brauer's offensive mischaracterization of the mass. Barb's remarks reminded me and I was inspired to do a comparison between Mrs. Brauer's impressions of mass and some other famous mass impressions.

I will be contrasting comments from Barb and Mrs. Brauer along with those of two other well known impressions of the mass - those of Justin Martyr a 2nd century Christian, and Professor Scott Hahn, well known convert and professor of scripture at Franciscan University in Ohio.

Candy in black
Barb in blue
Justin in red
Professor Hahn from his book Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicismin green.





Question: Have you ever attended a Catholic mass? "Yes. It was so sad and gut wrenching that it almost brought me to tears."

"I find that the Mass puts me more in touch with God."


"After pronouncing the words of consecration, the priest held up the Host. I felt as if the last drop of doubt had drained from me. With all of my heart, I whispered "My Lord and My God. That's really you! And if that's you ,then I want full communion with you. I don't want to hold anything back."



*************

"I was the only one attending, that I could see, that brought a Bible, and even bothered looking up scriptures. The Bible ignorance in that crowd was astounding me as well. Most of them don't seem to read their Bible"

"We begin by confessing our sins. We hear Scripture straight from the source - Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament, and Gospel. I hear a humble homily of 10 minutes which encourages me to dwell on the scripture I've just heard."


And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.

I watched and listened as the readings, prayers and responses so steeped in Scripture made the Bible come alive. I almost wanted to stop the Mass and say, "Wait. That line is form Isiah; the song is from the Psalms. Whoa, you've got another prophet in that prayer." I found numerous elements from thw ancient Jewish liturgy that I had studied so intensely. All of a sudden I realized this is where the Bible belongs. This was the setting in which this precious family heirloom was meant to be read, proclaimed and expounded. Then we moved into the Liturgy of the Eucharist where all my covenant conclusions converged. I wanted to stop everything and shout, "Hey, can I explain what's happening from Scripture?



************************

"they just follow what 'the church' teaches them. Everyone there looked to me like they were wearing masks with no eyes.

We recite the Nicene Creed (which is an affirmation of what we believe) and the Our Father (which Christ taught us to pray). Then - as Christ taught us - we remember him by an ancient tradition of receiving the Eucharist - which people met to do long before they had Scripture to discuss


Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.

All of a sudden lots of ordinary people began coming in off of the streets - rank and file type of folks. They came in, genuflected, knelt and prayed. Their simple but sincere devotion was impressive.


***************************

" :-( I suspect that there might have been more true reverence (as opposed to ritual) in a black mass"(however they'd be worshiping the wrong guy, of course)."


And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.


Then a bell rang and a priest walked out toward the altar. I remained seated; I still wasn't sure if it was safe to kneel. As an evangelical Calvinist I had been taught that the Catholic Mass was the greatest sacrilege that a man could commit- to resacrifice Christ - so I wasn't sure what to do.

I watched and listened as the readings, prayers and responses so steeped in Scripture made the Bible come alive. I almost wanted to stop the Mass and say, "Wait. That line is form Isiah; the song is from the Psalms. Whoa, you've got another prophet in that prayer." I found numerous elements from teh ancient Jewish liturgy that I had studied so intensely. All of a sudden I realized this is where the Bible belongs. This was the setting in which this precious family heirloom was meant to be read, proclaimed and expounded. Then we moved into the Liturgy of the Eucharist where all my convenant conclusions converged. I wanted to stop everything and shout, "Hey, can I explain what's happening from Scripture? This is great!" Instead I just sat there famished with a supernatural hunger for the Bread of Life.

The Pope, On St. Jerome, On Scripture

A truly Catholic view of Holy Scripture:

What can we learn from St. Jerome? Above all I think it is this: to love the word of God in sacred Scripture. St. Jerome said, "To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ." That is why it is important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the word of God, given to us in sacred Scripture.

This dialogue should be of two dimensions. On one hand, it should be truly personal, because God speaks to each of us through sacred Scripture and has a message for each of us. We shouldn't read sacred Scripture as a word from the past, but rather as the word of God addressed even to us, and we must try to understand what the Lord is telling us.

You can read the entire commentary on St. Jerome here.

Mother's Rule of Life Update

There has been a terrible natural disaster in Bangladesh which the US military is responding to. My husband was recalled into work yesterday to start helping. He usually watches the children while I write my articles for the blog. I do not know when I will be able to finish chapter two since the trouble in Bangladesh seems to be getting worse.

Please pray for all of the people involved.

A Mother's Mother's Rule of Life- Chapter 2

Something has come up and I will not be able to post the next chapter right now. SORRY!!!! :(
I will post Chapter 2 as soon as I can.
Erika

A Mother's Rule of Life - Chapter 1

There is the story of the preacher in the flood. The water was up to the top of the church steps when a National Guard truck came by. "Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose and flooded the church. The preacher climbed up on the roof. Two boys came by in a John boat."Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose higher, and the preacher climbed up on the steeple. A helicopter came by and dropped a sling."Grab the sling, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose even higher, and the preacher drowned. In heaven, he said, "Lord, I had such trust in you. Why did you let me drown."And the Lord said, "Dummy! I sent you a deuce-and-a-half, a john boat and a helicopter!!"

I Reached the Breaking Point

With the arrival of a new baby and after four years of homeschooling Holly Pierlot was trying to find a way to balance and order her life. First she looked to the "world" .... "Maybe if I just went back to work" she thought. She demanded to her husband that they send their children to public school. Thankfully her husband asked her to pray and think about it for one week. As she prayed and read scripture she came across Matt. 14: 14-21 "14When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" 17They said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." 18And He said, "Bring them here to Me." 19Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, 20and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. 21There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children" She felt like a light bulb had gone off, she had found her answer, "Jesus was telling me to give him my five loaves and two fish, my insignificant efforts, and he would bless them, and the needs of my family would be met." but she still was struggling with her efforts.

After attending a home school conference where she was to speak, she learned about the Managers of Their Homes, MOTH, system of home management, (this is actually the same system, with Fly Lady stuff added in, that I try to follow but I wanted to make it more Catholic.) Holly felt that schedules were very limiting but she did like the idea of scheduling each person for individually. Again she resisted the idea.

Once again she was faced with chaos in her home and she reasoned that God is a God of order so she would try a schedule "schedules might be limiting.....but disorder is more limiting". She assessed what needed to be done for her home and children and implemented a beginning schedule. It was a success on the first day. At prayer that evening she came to realize that Jesus ".....had to have efforts to bless. I had to do all in my power to fulfill my obligations. I had to give a full five loaves and two fish- not three loaves, not two loaves. I had to apply all of me to the task and mission I was called to be and do, not haphazardly, but fully, methodically, completely. Jesus was asking for the dedication of my entire self to my vocation."

She felt that God was calling her to analyze her whole life, her vocation. Jesus was calling her to set up a Rule of Life, "...nothing short of a complete and proper ordering of every aspect of my life."

In the next chapters we will see where this ordering of her life lead her and how it can help us with our lives.

"Work as though everything depends on you, Pray as though everything depends on God."

St. Ignatius of Loyola

40 Questions

The 40 Questions Most Frequently Asked About The Catholic Church By Non-Catholics

Was it not Luther who discovered the Bible, and was he not the first to translate it into the language of the people?

Of course, this is a falsehood. Luther, himself, in his Table Talks said, "When I was young I acquainted myself with the Bible -- read the same often, so that I knew where any reference was contained and could be found when anyone spoke about it." Luther's translation of the New Testament was not published until 1522, and his version of the Old Testament was not published until 1534.

Catholics, between the years 1466 and 1522, had already published fourteen complete editions of the Bible in high German and five in low German. During this same period of time, that is, from 1450 to 1520, Catholics had also published 156 Latin, 6 Hebrew editions of the Bible, besides 11 complete editions in Italian, 10 in French, 2 in Bohemian 1 in Flemish, and 1 in Russian.

Free Catholic Bible Studies Online

This was a good find from Amy Welborn's blog.

Myspace.com Blogs - Free Catholic Bible Studies Online - Jason Hull MySpace Blog

A good comment

One of the commenters on Barbara's site left this message and I thought it was very appropriate for this blog so I'm copying it here:

Aside from everyone else is recommending, I would highly recommend reading some of Pope Benedict XVI's writings. Not the big theological tomes, but simply keep up with the homilies he preaches on special occasions and his General Audience talks, which are given every Wednesday. The Pope is one of the greatest theologians of the latter part of the 20th century, and has a profound pastoral sense. A couple of links to some recent winners:This, for example, is a homily preached a couple of months ago at, as it happens, a Marian shrine. A portion:

The Gospel passage we have just heard broadens our view. It presents the history of Israel from Abraham onwards as a pilgrimage, which, with its ups and downs, its paths and detours, leads us finally to Christ. The genealogy with its light and dark figures, its successes and failures, shows us that God can write straight even on the crooked lines of our history. God allows us our freedom, and yet in our failures he can always find new paths for his love. God does not fail. Hence this genealogy is a guarantee of God’s faithfulness; a guarantee that God does not allow us to fall, and an invitation to direct our lives ever anew towards him, to walk ever anew towards Jesus Christ.

Making a pilgrimage means setting out in a particular direction, traveling towards a destination. This gives a beauty of its own even to the journey and to the effort involved. Among the pilgrims of Jesus’s genealogy there were many who forgot the goal and wanted to make themselves the goal. Again and again, though, the Lord called forth people whose longing for the goal drove them forward, people who directed their whole lives towards it. The awakening of the Christian faith, the dawning of the Church of Jesus Christ was made possible, because there were people in Israel whose hearts were searching – people who did not rest content with custom, but who looked further ahead, in search of something greater: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Mary and Joseph, the Twelve and many others. Because their hearts were expectant, they were able to recognize in Jesus the one whom God had sent, and thus they could become the beginning of his worldwide family. The Church of the Gentiles was made possible, because both in the Mediterranean area and in those parts of Asia to which the messengers of Jesus traveled, there were expectant people who were not satisfied by what everyone around them was doing and thinking, but who were seeking the star which could show them the way towards Truth itself, towards the living God.

We too need an open and restless heart like theirs. This is what pilgrimage is all about. Today as in the past, it is not enough to be more or less like everyone else and to think like everyone else. Our lives have a deeper purpose. We need God, the God who has shown us his face and opened his heart to us: Jesus Christ.

Then an Easter Homily:

This is the joy of the Easter Vigil: we are free. In the resurrection of Jesus, love has been shown to be stronger than death, stronger than evil. Love made Christ descend, and love is also the power by which he ascends. The power by which he brings us with him. In union with his love, borne aloft on the wings of love, as persons of love, let us descend with him into the world’s darkness, knowing that in this way we will also rise up with him. On this night, then, let us pray: Lord, show us that love is stronger than hatred, that love is stronger than death. Descend into the darkness and the abyss of our modern age, and take by the hand those who await you. Bring them to the light! In my own dark nights, be with me to bring me forth! Help me, help all of us, to descend with you into the darkness of all those people who are still waiting for you, who out of the depths cry unto you! Help us to bring them your light! Help us to say the “yes” of love, the love that makes us descend with you and, in so doing, also to rise with you. Amen!

No, Catholicism isn't Christ-centered. Not at all.

Look - what a religion is in its essence and core can easily be skewed. Let me give you an example. When I look at modern American Protestantism, this is what I see on the evangelical end (what I see on the mainstream/liberal end is a completely different story...):

*I see a landscape which is dominated by personalities - from Osteen to Joyce Meyer to Rick Warren and the scores and scores of with it/cool/up and coming megachurch and emergent pastors teaming below them. I see it everywhere - and what it says to me is...mediators. Between me and Christ. Personalities interpreting Scripture for me, Personalities giving me a reason to come to church, Personalities dominating the landscape, their faces smiling out at me from everywhere in the Christian world...but not the face of Christ.

*In Protestant Church services, I see...human beings as the center. The service dying or rising on the skills of the preachers and musicians. Church "marketing" becoming a huge element in Protestantism, a "marketing" that usually means advertising how edgy/cool/relevant the human beings who form the leadership of our church are.

The point?

Much of what Protestants decry in Catholicism actually exists in their very own bodies. There is massive kowtowing to the culture, there is a fascination with other human beings as ideal embodiments of Christianity, etc. Not to speak of the very intense human-centered discussions between devotees of Calvin, of Wesley, of Luther...all of whom formulate their theologies around a human being's particular interpretation of Scripture.

And just two other points, offered in love.

The accusation is made that Catholicism is not "Biblical." It would be great if we could compare what the Bible says about say, Baptism (as regenerative) and Eucharist (as, you know, the Body and Blood of Christ) and then really think hard as to what current expressions of Christianity are closest to what the Bible actually teaches about these things.

And then read John 6...particularly v. 66. Food for thought.

Organ-ic Chemist: Catholic Carnival 144

Organ-ic Chemist: Catholic Carnival 144

A heads up.

Barbara Curtis, a pro-life mother of 12 has announced that she is converting to Catholicism.

Mommy Life: What does it mean to be pro-life?

Most of the comments so far have been very supportive, but she has had one so far that is not:

I appreciate the Catholics' consistent pro-life position, and I think they should be commended for it.

I scratch my head, though, at how you can wrap your head around some of the other doctrines, for example, the Mary business. She was not immaculately conceived, she did not live a sinless life, and she does not have extra grace to dispense to us. Nor, for that matter, do the other fellow believers that have been declared "saints" whose excess virtue we can supposedly receive for our salvation. We should not be praying to them. They are sinners, like us, saved by Christ's merit, and no one else's.

It seems to me we can be 100% pro-life and yet avoid these doctrines which completely contradict the gospel. How do you reconcile these fundamental RC beliefs with Christianity?

This is probably just the tip of the iceberg that is probably heading Barb's way. I intend to just keep an eye on it, and give prayerful support. If any of her commenters have the guts to leave an e-mail or a blog site I will invite them here for further information. I don't want to turn Barb's site into a battlefield.

Please keep them in your prayers.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Interesting article by the Catholic League about anti-Catholicism on the web- featuring two sites heavily featured by Candy Brauer at her "Keeping the Home" blog.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights: "n mind-numbing detail are a host of traditional anti-Catholic cites. From rural churches and personal websites, to sites for fundamentalist publishing houses, the traditional anti-Catholicism that was said to have died with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 thrives on the Internet. A major website is for the Jack Chick Company.16 Jack Chick was one of the first to realize in the post-Kennedy years that old-fashioned anti-Catholicism could still make a buck. He released a series of traditional anti-Catholic 'comic books' in the 1970s, the most popular being Alberto. Alberto is the story of a man who claims to have been a Jesuit priest who worked under assignment from the Vatican. Murder and assassination – as well as the usual priestly licentiousness -- are common tools for the Holy See, according to the Chick comic book. Chick followed this up with a few other comics, though none as successful as the original Alberto. Chick, who publishes today out of California, also produces a range of small black-and-white tracts that viciously attack Catholic practices and beliefs. Perhaps the most tasteless among the tasteless is the 'Death Cookie,' that portrays the Eucharist as a Satanic-inspired ritual rooted in pagan beliefs. Chick also has reproduced classic anti-Catholic works such as 'Father' Chiniquy’s 'Fifty Years in the Church of Rome"

Chick’s website is primarily a tool for selling his materials. As his advertising is routinely rejected as offensive in mainstream Christian periodicals, he has limited vehicles in which to reach an audience. He proclaims – as do most of the church-based anti-Catholic Internet sites – that his only goal is the conversion of Catholics to "bible-based" beliefs. But Chick does not bother to engage in honest dialogue, or honest argument, over Catholic beliefs. Rather, the Chick website, like so many others, peddles bombastic charges against the Church as knowingly teaching false doctrine and purposely sending souls to hell. This is ugly stuff.

At jesus-is-lord website18 vicious anti-Catholicism flourishes. Convents are referred to as "torture chambers" and 19th-century anti-Catholic polemics are excerpted. "Ex-priest" William Hogan, who claims to have been ordained in Ireland, writes of an abortion and the murder of the young nun-mother by "lascivious, beastly priests of the Whore." Alleged ex-priests like Hogan made a good living after the Civil War in the United States. They were usually tent preachers who came to town under the sponsorship of a local Protestant congregation. A few, like Chiniquy, might have actually been priests, usually with a bumpy past with Church authorities, rather than the sincere converts they claimed to be. It was a good way to make a living, as these "revivals" would draw good-sized crowds and the "free will offerings" where usually generous. Like pornographic websites today that use Catholic imagery (sacramentals, or women dressed as nuns or in Catholic school girl uniforms), the promise to the crowd was usually a touch of scandal and sex as they promised to reveal what goes on in the confessional or behind the doors of convents. Even as late as the first quarter of the 20th Century, revivals by "ex-priests" were common in the Midwest and the South.19

Jesus-is-lord reproduces "The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional" by Chiniquy as well as "Thirty Years in Hell" by ex-priest Bernard Fresenberg (1904 date of publication) "who today stands at the Vatican’s door, with the torch of Protestant wisdom, and denounces Popery with a tongue livid with the power of a living God." Jesus-is-lord provides the "Anti-Christ Slideshow" that stars "the popes of Rome and the great whore of revelation XVII the Roman Catholic Religion." The slideshow promises "blasphemy, torture, licentiousness, damnation, whoredom" and "the power of the devil." Also included on the website is a Washington Post wire story on the debunked Kansas City Star story of an alleged epidemic of AIDS in the priesthood proving, according to the website, that the Catholic priesthood is the "repository of perverts." The Kansas City Star should be happy that someone has treated their stories seriously. The counter for hits on Jesus-is-lord for about a two-year period shows that 1,172,583 visitors have logged onto the website.20

As most parents understand, virtually any child can access pornographic images with two or three clicks of a mouse on the Internet. It is just as simple to access anti-Catholic pages. Internet Websites such as Jack Chick’s rarely have a positive presentation of their own faith. Primarily, these sites castigate other believers, particularly Catholics. At Harbor Lighthouse21 produced by the Ankerberg Theological Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, a wealth of anti-Catholic material is readily available. In a posted article entitled "The Spiritual Battle for Truth" – which can be downloaded for $2 – Michael Grendon, who claims to be a former Catholic, writes: "Satan has been profoundly successful in deceiving multitudes in the name of Christ because his servants appear as ministers of righteousness. They wear high priestly garments and religious collars and carry boastful titles such as ‘most reverend,’ ‘right reverend,’ ‘his excellency’ and ‘Holy Father.’"

This was nice to read

This came in an e-mail from one of Candy's Protestant Readers:

I will be totally honest, and you can publish this if you want. I felt like by her explanation of you, you were some nasty troll using foul language and the like, but when one of your comments went through I was really suprised that your tone was better than civil, it was kind.

Catholic Idolatry

Candy writes:

Notice in the first commandment, that God commands that we are not to have any other gods, but Him. However, the Catholic first commandment doesn't say that; it says just not to have any "strange Gods." Hence, they can now justify praying to Mary, even though the Bible teaches that we are ONLY to pray to God. Mary is elevated to God status, as only God can hear all prayers all of the time and know everything.

Furthermore, "strange Gods" doesn't say that Catholics can't worship more than one God.

God's second commandment says that we are not to bow down to idols.

So, she feels that Catholics are not prohibited from worshiping more than one God. Has the Catholic Church really re-written the Ten Commandments just to get around the idolatry prohibition? Let's look up idolatry in the Catholic Catechism . . .

2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.

2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.

2114 Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God.

So, the Catholic Church prohibits idolatry, and clearly cannot have officially "elevated Mary to god status" when it says in the Catechism that Catholics can't divinize anyone but God.

But how does the Catholic Church excuse making graven images? Let us read further.

2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. . . . "It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works." He is "the author of beauty."

2130 Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.

The Catholic Church, then, differentiates between "worship" and "veneration."

All Souls Day

I have an article and some resources about All Souls Day up on my other blog.

Clarifying a few things

I wanted just for the record to clarify a few things about this blog.

First of all, some have wondered why we have a boycott of a home management binder and childbirth e-book as neither have anything to do about Catholicism. The answer is quite simple:

Boycott:A boycott is the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest.

A few years ago I remember some folks were boycotting Disneyland because of that company's stand on gay marriage. They weren't boycotting Mickey Mouse or the Magic Kingdom, but rather the policy of Disney. It was a peaceful protest.

This boycott is simply a protest of Candy's Keeping the Home continued Catholic Bashing. It's as simple as that.

I also want to clarify that although the primary focus of the blog is Catholicism, it was originally a place for me to put my comments since Candy was not allowing them to be published. One time in particular I commented on something that had nothing to do with Catholicism, but it was still a comment that I wanted to leave and so I posted it here. So for that reason I do not consider that post to be off topic at all.


Lastly, although there are a lot of Friends of Candy who are still fuming about the comments that they feel were personal attacks on Candy. I think we have done a good job of toning it down and I hope it continues. To one protester in particular (you know who you are!) there are no posts here that were purposely intended to criticize Candy's clothing, her issues with CPS, background or other personal or family issues. I reviewed the archives twice and there just are no blog posts with those topics.

When Candy writes one of these screeds against Catholicism, she provokes a lot of anger and resentment.
That certainly is NOT biblical.

Proverbs 15:1 gentle answer turns away wrath,But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:18 (A)hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute.

Proverbs 29:8 But wise men turn away anger.

There are more examples, but I think the point is made that if Candy's posts generate this type of anger, perhaps she isn't being as effective as she might otherwise be. I think she has to own some of the bad feelings that she has created against herself.

We here however will try harder to keep the topics hard on the issues, and soft on people.

The Catholic View of Scripture

Since Candy has removed comments to her last Catholic post, I couldn't sort through them anymore. However, I remember that one commenter said that the Catholic Church didn't view the Bible as inspired and inerrant. I thought I would post a few selections from the Catholic Catechism on Sacred Scriptures.

#103-107

For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.

In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."

II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED SCRIPTURE

God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."

"For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself."

God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more."

The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures."

and #131-133

"And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life." Hence "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."

"Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."

The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

To summarize, the Catholic Church considers Sacred Scripture inspired by God, inerrant, and forcefully exhorts all the Christian faithful to read it frequently.

Sounds as if we agree with Bible-Believing Christians on all points to me!

A Mother's Morning Prayer

My Jesus, I offer this day to you-all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings-and through you , I make this offering to our Father in Heaven.
Be with me through this whole day in all its particulars, and assist me that it may become a worthy offering in every way. Be close to me in all I think and say and do. Direct your Spirit to speak to me and guide me-and help me to listen attentively when He does speak....
So that in my response your thoughts may become more surely my thoughts, and your ways may become my ways; so that my judgments may accord with your judgments , and the sentiments of my heart may be most like your very own; so that my conversation with others may be conversation I may ask you to share with us, and that my works may be works I may ask you to approve.
Help me to have the practical wisdom to look to your Mother from time to time, as I go about the duties of my day, in an effort to find the grace of a better way in my motherhood.
May I know the continued grace to work with you in all that I do, and not merely for you, so that my day may become a perfect offering- lived with you and in you and through you- to be presented to our Father in joy and love.
Amen

From Mother's Manual by Francis Coomes