A Savory Quiche

@JennyWakefiel12 Ex Opere Operato is a statement that Grace flows from the sacraments no matter the merits of the individual or holiness of the priests. I.e. Grace is not earned from the sacraments, it is freely given. That canon has nothing to do with obedience. It’s about public declaration.

This is the crux of the issue: Rome requires obedience to their sacraments as the only means to get to heaven. They use fear to keep people enslaved to their system for their own political power and gain. -Cuthbert Dzingirai “Far From Rome; Near To God”

@BibleInContext1 It’s wild to what lengths you’ll go to prove every literal greek passage is somehow figurative. As if the people abandoned Jesus after he spoke this didn’t take him literally. Early Christians were persecuted because people thought they were cannibals by the way.

Catholic priest lies about what Jesus wants…. Jesus never used the Eucharist to describe the communion meal. The Catholic Eucharist is idolatry, and the mass is blasphemy!

@chi_urbanist I hate it. But I want it to be done so the sidewalk will be clear again. Maybe someone will finally tear down that old Salvation Army mess Out front.

The Looming Casino

@NathanBozeman2 The question you have to ask is whether the text And contextual evidence affirm your interpretation (it doesn’t). And whether - lacking clear affirmation of “Metaphor” - you are comfortable being utterly wrong about something so deeply believed for so long.

When I see memes like this, I immediately think: Me: "God has wings!" JMT: "Where is that written?" Me: "Psalm 91! We are under the shadows of His wings!" JMT (rightfully so): "iT's JuSt A mEtApHoR" 🥴 ???? People swear it's different, but it really isn't.

@jessezorr Union would have an aneurysm over requiring trains to accurately line up with station doors.

CTA Blue Line when??

@catholicpat Geography. The parish Distribution is not the same as the converts or the availability of priests. Rural getting hit hardest

Parishes are closing across the US But last month, Hallow released a study that showed 80% of American dioceses saw an increase in converts. So how do we reconcile these two competing claims?

@SlowpokeCon @Father_LoCoco 1) A crisis is a crisis 2) Not true, the ratios are worse than ever 3) It’s not a panacea, it’s a tool like everything else. And the data shows it attracts vocations. What are you going to do about states that aren’t traditionally Catholic that don’t have large families?

…? These are such unconnected points 1.) There has never been a time when the Church wasn’t in crisis 2.) America has had priest shortages for the majority of its history 3.) You’re a fool if you think TLM is a panacea to everything Archdiocese of Milwaukee is expanding our seminary. Because large faithful Catholic families that attend the NO (like Fr. LoCoco’s) are sending their sons their and their obvious holiness is drawing more men in. Fr. LoCoco was director of vocations for the archdiocese and brought many men in.

Fewer vocations means fewer Masses. Longer drives. Harder schedules. That part is obvious. The harder part is this. The Church doesn't just need priests to celebrate Mass. She needs shepherds who know their flock. Jesus didn't just feed the crowds. He called us by name. That kind of love takes a ministry of presence grown over time. Pray for vocations! Not just so the schedule gets easier. So that we as shepherds can know our sheep.

@Degenwillape Correct. But “Need Not Deny” is not the same as “Affirm.” The church is not granted perfect clarity on extraordinary graces God provides to those outside the Church. He is not bound by his sacraments and can do has he pleases. But we will not presume.

"Even a theology oriented to the concept of succession, such as that which holds in the Catholic and in the Orthodox church, need not in any way deny the salvation-granting presence (heilschaffende Gegenwart) of the Lord in a Lutheran Lord's Supper." — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Briefwechsel von Landesbischof Johannes Hanselmann und Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger über das Amt (1993); also cited in the USCCB document The Church as Koinonia of Salvation, paragraph 107.

@WesleyLHuff Don’t worry. We’re praying for you too.

My mood scrolling through X today.

@sttheresestan Yes

i’m curious, in your parish do people make the sign of the cross when the crucifix is being carried in and out at the beginning and end of mass? in my parish everyone does, but i’ve been to parishes where people don’t

@realmikolson except for a specific problem that a Jew would never have brought up blood as metaphor. This would deliberately scandalize people and drive them away. So your position makes Jesus either a Liar, or at worst a cruel trickster hiding the truth from followers who “don’t get it.”

Alright, so… Jesus uses this same physical symbolic language in John 6 (same as at the Last Supper) to point to a spiritual reality. He does this all the time. “I am the door,” “I am the vine,” and so on. He’s not literally a door or vine or bread or blood. Nothing in the passage forces you to suddenly switch to a literal reading. In fact, He even clarifies that He’s speaking spiritually, linking coming to him and be believing in faith to drinking and eating in that very passage. So when Jesus later reused this exact symbol during the Lord’s Supper, they would’ve known exactly what he’s talking about (belief, and faith, not ritualistic cannibalism of his body). Turns out, context matters, to which you Roman Catholics often flat-out ignore. Speaking of, look at the context of the Lord’s Supper. It happens during Passover, which is a symbolic meal built around remembrance. The bread and the cup already had symbolic, not literal, meaning tied to God’s deliverance. Jesus is simply taking those elements and pointing them to Himself, their true representation. There’s no reason, textually or historically, to think He’s turning them into literal flesh and blood. And this is where the Jewish context really matters. Jews were strictly forbidden from consuming blood. That’s not a minor rule, it’s a major one in the Law, and one that did not change. Cannibalism wasn’t just frowned upon, it was completely unthinkable. So the idea that Jesus is commanding His followers to literally eat His body and drink His blood doesn’t fit the world they lived in at all. It would have sounded offensive and unlawful, not like faithful obedience. I mean, think about Peter‘s reaction when he has the vision of eating unclean animals in Acts chapter 10. Why would they all of a sudden be okay with drinking human blood? So when you put it all together, the symbolic reading actually fits. It matches how Jesus speaks, it fits the Passover setting, and it aligns with what His audience would have understood. The literal view doesn’t have that same support whatsoever.

@ion_eyes The eastern Church went straight from the Greek and still came to similar conclusions about Mary. All you’ve done is prove the weakness of Sola Scriptura. The NIV has textual variants that intentionally distort the meaning of traditions to denigrate Catholicism. Are Those ok?

Does he, as a Catholic, prefer the Douay-Rheims Bible because it blatantly mistranslates Genesis 3:15 to imply Mary is the one who was prophesied to crush the head of the serpent?

Teachers unions are why we can’t have nice things… Seriously, when will enough people in Chicago and the broader state of Illinois get fed up enough with teachers unions to blunt their political power? Their influence probably costs the city and state 1 GDP point annually.

@OpStCyprian The lack of distinction is far more worrisome as it collapses everything into binaries from which no higher goods can be determined. This why you can hear so many Catholics say they don’t worship Mary but y’all refuse to believe them - as If they’re acting In bad faith.

I’m pretty sure we’re saying prayer is a form of worship, not necessarily the highest form of worship. This tells us more about someone used to making endless distinctions to avoid the demands of God’s Law.

When the Son of God became man, He performed striking miracles in order to reveal the will of the Father. He made light shine in the darkness by giving sight to the blind. He gave a voice to the oppressed by loosening the tongues of the mute. He slaked our thirst for justice by multiplying bread for the poor and weak. Anyone who hears about these works sets out in search of Jesus.

@ryanburge Using red for up and blue for down is aggressive

The states in dark below had at least a 10% increase in the number of congregations identified in 2020 vs 2010. That's places like Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, and Nevada. The blue counties are places with fewer congregations. Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota lead here.

@FatherChrisVor1 We’re looking at an offshoot of freemasonry.

Most people, when they hear the name Joseph Smith, already have a reaction. The plates. The visions. The Book of Mormon. Some call him a prophet. Others see a con man. And yes, people remember the many wives. That part makes people uncomfortable, and it should. But here’s the part almost nobody talks about. He didn’t stop with the Book of Mormon. He went back… and rewrote Genesis. Not a study. Not a commentary. A rewrite. What is now called the Book of Moses, preserved in the Pearl of Great Price, is presented as a restored version of the opening chapters of Scripture. And to this day, the LDS Church treats it as sacred text. Not optional. Not speculative. Scripture. And this is where things take a turn most people never see coming. Because the story of Cain and Abel doesn’t stay simple. It doesn’t stay human. It becomes something far more elaborate. In this version, Cain enters into a direct covenant with Satan. He makes an oath. He binds himself. He is promised power, gain, and protection in exchange for what he is about to do. And what follows is not just a murder, but the beginning of something darker: secret combinations, hidden works, things done in the shadows that spread among men. Now stop and think about that. This isn’t just jealousy anymore. This is initiation. This is secrecy. This is a system. And it doesn’t stop there. In this rewritten Genesis, suddenly: Adam and Eve are given extended visions that the biblical text never records Enoch becomes a central prophetic figure, preaching, seeing heaven open, and watching an entire city taken up The world is filled out with layers of backstory, hidden knowledge, and cosmic conflict It’s dramatic. It’s vivid. It fills in everything the original text leaves unsaid. But here’s the question that starts to press in. All of this is happening in the early 1800s, in upstate New York, in a culture alive with talk of secret societies, oaths, hidden brotherhoods, and guarded knowledge. These weren’t obscure ideas. They were in the air people breathed. And before any later developments in Joseph Smith’s life, those same themes are already appearing in his “restored” Genesis. So what are we looking at? Is this truly a recovery of ancient revelation that had been lost for thousands of years? Or are we watching a man take the stories of Scripture and expand them in ways that mirror the world around him? Because once you see it, the shift is hard to ignore. Genesis becomes something else. Cain becomes something else. The beginning of the Bible becomes something else entirely. And what you’re left with is not just a new book. It’s a completely different story about how everything began.

@FrMatthewLC I think we should start seriously talking about whether there is a duty of the laity to consolidate around parishes. We can’t keep stretching the geographical footprint.

These are tough situations we need to pray about. It leads to 2 thoughts: 1. We need more vocations. 2. We need to think about how to consolidate parishes where there have been population declines (a lot of rural places have less population than 50-100 years ago). Here is the map to get Sunday Masses for Sunday at St. Patrick's (easier drive), assuming father lives in Macon (given it is listed first).

@sola_chad Not inspired. but Jude references it so we can Assume it’s at minimum beneficial.

There’s a reason the book of Enoch is not considered to be inspired Scripture.