The Argumentative Catholic

@MrAndyNgo @BrokenTruthTV Again...

You wrote: "How we respond to the Mass is everything..." Perhaps you could expand upon that? "Everything" - meaning what? There are saints who argue that how you respond to Mass is first and foremost dependent upon the spiritual relationship you have with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, and with our Father in Heaven. Meaning, upon the openness of your soul to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Meaning, upon the willingness to submit your will to His. Meaning, upon your prayer life. I was an atheist before my conversion. The grace of God led me to Him long before I even knew the word Mass. I didn't merit my faith. It was a free gift from God. It preceded any attendance I had at any Mass. So when you say "how we respond to the Mass is everything" - exactly what do you mean by that? The source of my salvation is and was God, not one form of the Mass over another, and certainly not the direction the priest is facing. How I responded to His initial and now His ongoing grace is in fact "everything." My deepest growth and understanding of Who God is and who I am did not come from the posture of the priest at the Masses I attended. The deepest growth came upon my early consecration to Jesus through Mary using the St. Montfort method. Mary led me into the deepest communion and understanding I have experienced and continues to do so, right along with her spouse, Whose gifts are not limited to those He confers at Mass. The posture of the priest at the Masses I attend, and I attend both forms of the Mass, has had very little to do with that.

@ArguCatholic @TD_Barrett @EricRSammons I appreciate that response. But remember that everything God set up for us is a concession to our realities. How we respond to the Mass is everything and the posture of the priest is essential to us understanding it. We must receive the message of God's supreme holiness via Mass.

As soon as you turn the priest around to face the people, you've sent a huge signal to everyone that you believe the Mass is man-centered, rather than God-centered.

And just to clarify further... I don't recall which author, of the many wonderful books on the liturgy I've read over the years, it was who highlighted the humility with which we should approach Mass, remembering that the glorification which is being given to God our Father (to Whom we are offering up the sacrifice of the Mass) is that which is coming first and foremost from Christ Himself, the Father's Son, His Sacrifice, His Holy Sacrifice, which the priest is re-presenting to the Father. The author pointed out that we could add all the sacrifices that all men have added to all the Masses that have ever been offered, throughout the history of the Church by all priests combined... and they would not equal even so much as the tiniest drop of the blood shed by Christ. Nor would it match the glory given to God through the sanctification of man that the He, God, effects through the sacrament of the Mass. The priests at my parish offer the Mass under both forms. And as they have pointed out, the glorification that is being given to God is the same glorification whether they are offering the TLM or the NO Mass. Same Mass. Same offering. Same glorification. Same sanctification. Be it offered by a priest on a battlefield or a pope at the Vatican. Same sacrament. If the quality of your faith is dependent upon the form of the Mass being offered, or if your understanding of Who God is and what He asks of us, is dependent upon the form of the Mass you attend - then it's your prayer life and your spiritual readings that you need to shift your focus to. Not the direction the priest is facing.

My post wasn't addressing what the priest is doing at Mass. My post was about Eric's presentation, entitled "The Purpose of Mass", and how the entire presentation was about what we do at Mass. He used the standard ACTS approach: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication. Those are indeed things we do at Mass. My point was that those things, that we do, are not however the "purpose" of Mass. We're not Protestants who go to Mass "just" to worship God. We are Catholics. Mass is a sacrament. The purpose of Mass is twofold: the Glorification of God (which occurs first and foremost through Christ's sacrifice, the one being re-presented by the priest and effected by the power of the Holy Spirit) and the Sanctification of Man (which also glorifies God). My point was also to highlight how Trads tend to focus first and foremost on what we - we humans - are doing at Mass. All the things he mentioned plus: the form we use; the way we dress; the way we receive; the use of altar rails, the wearing or not wearing of veils by women; the direction the priest is facing, etc etc. Those things may matter but not one of them constitutes the "purpose" of Mass. And once one sees that, and understands the true purpose of the Mass, not what we but what God Himself is doing at each and every validly said Mass, then all that vitriol about which form of the Mass one attends is seen for what it is: just so much unnecessary, divisive, and utterly distracting - vitriol.

Over the past several weeks, Carrie Prejean Boller has complained that she was removed from the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty because of her Catholic beliefs, and she has called out myself and other Catholic members of the commission for not defending her. This is absurd. Mrs. Prejean Boller was not dismissed for her religious convictions but rather for her behavior at a gathering of the Commission last month: browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes. The Catholic position on matters of “Zionism,” to which I fully subscribe, is as follows: all forms of antisemitism are to be unequivocally condemned; the state of Israel has a right to exist; but the modern nation of Israel does not represent the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies and hence does not stand beyond criticism. If Mrs. Prejean Boller were dismissed for holding these beliefs, it is difficult to understand why I am still a member of the Commission. To paint herself as a victim of anti-Catholic prejudice or to claim that her religious liberty has been denied is simply preposterous.

Like a great artist, the Holy Spirit, in the course of twenty-five years, has drawn together a variety of strands, colors, and textures to produce something beautiful in Word on Fire. Today, join us in celebrating our ministry’s twenty-fifth anniversary!

“The more you trust God, the more He will help you.” Saint Padre Pio

“My friend, love Jesus when He bestows blessings and good things upon you. But love Him no less when He takes these blessings and consolations away.” —Thomas à Kempis

This is the baddest ass move I’ve ever witnessed! The dude is brilliant!

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"The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes." - St. Teresa of Avila

"God will cleanse your sins if you yourself are dissatisfied with yourself and will keep on changing until you are perfect." St. Augustine (+430) Sermons on I John, I.7

It Satan can’t make you bad, he will make you busy: No time for the Church No time for Holy Mass No time for devotions No time to pray No time for God… But time for all other things. It’s time to return to the Lord, your God.

“A man of prayer is capable of everything.” — St. Vincent de Paul

“God will either give us what we ask, or what He knows to be better.” - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Christopher Hitchens: ”In 1786, when the United States was barely a country, it was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Tripoli, shores of Tripoli. Ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate 1.5 million European and American slaves taken between 1750 and 1815. Jefferson and Adams went to their ambassador in London and said, why do you do this to us? The United States has never had a quarrel with the Muslim world of any kind. We weren't in the crusades. We weren't at war with Spain. Why do you do this to our people and our ships? Why do you plunder and enslave our people? The ambassador said very plainly, Mr. Abdul Rahman said, because the Quran gives us permission to do so, because you are infidels, and that's our answer. Jefferson said, well, in that case, I will send a navy which will crush your state, which he did. Islamic fundamentalism is not created by American democracy. It's a lie to say so. It's a masochistic lie, and it excuses those who are the real criminals, and blames us for the attacks made upon us.”

Pope Leo is clear that only God can be worshipped.

𝗩𝗗𝗛: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡. Victor Davis Hanson has spent fifty years studying how wars end. When he says the tide is turning, it's worth listening to why. His argument isn't based on what the Pentagon is saying. It's based on how everyone else is behaving. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀. VDH's rule: Europeans never agree to go anywhere near a conflict unless they think the winning side has already been determined. They didn't help in the early days. Now they're starting to move. That movement is not idealism. It's a calculation. They've looked at the battlefield and decided which way this ends. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗹𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼-𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. The Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris — these governments have survived for generations by reading the regional climate with precision. When they expel Iranian military attachés, when they intercept Iranian missiles over their own capitals and say nothing about American strikes, when the UAE reaffirms its $1.4 trillion investment commitment to the United States mid-war — they are not making ideological statements. They are placing bets. And they are betting on the United States. 𝗔𝗹 𝗝𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗮. This is the one that should stop you cold. Al Jazeera — the Qatari state media network, historically critical of American military action, the network Tucker Carlson and the anti-war right love to cite against Israel — is now calling the U.S. bombing campaign brilliant and effective, and saying it has been underestimated. When the media outlet of a nation that hosts both the largest American air base in the Middle East and a Hamas political office starts praising American military effectiveness, the message is unmistakable: 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹. A-10 Warthogs and Apache helicopter gunships are now flying strike missions in Iranian airspace at will. VDH's point: you only deploy those aircraft when there is effectively no air defense left to threaten them. They are slow, low-flying, close-support platforms. Their presence confirms what the Pentagon has been claiming — Iran has no meaningful air defense remaining. Iran's strategy now is rope-a-dope. Run out the clock. Wait for American public opinion to shift. Hope the midterms create political pressure on Trump to stop. It is the only play they have left. VDH's conclusion: if Trump sees it through — and he believes he will — the regime falls. Not in years. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝘆. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮.

True