Friends!
yes,i have been quiet for a long time. i have been fretting and worrying about the state of my soul. this was spurred by a discussion with another blogger who questioned if my whole blog might be an exercise in detraction.
he may be right. :-( i dont currently know the answer to that question. i need good counsel! i need prayers!
i invite anyone who is familiar with this blog to comment, especially if your a priest!
on another note: His Excellency,Bishop Mulvey, has certainly surpised me with his zeal!
with his:
1. beautiful Corpus Christi celebration
2. brave promotion of the Cristiada film
3. brave opposition to obamacare's coercive hhs mandate
i just want to get that in. i might be taking this blog down!
yes,i have been quiet for a long time. i have been fretting and worrying about the state of my soul. this was spurred by a discussion with another blogger who questioned if my whole blog might be an exercise in detraction.
he may be right. :-( i dont currently know the answer to that question. i need good counsel! i need prayers!
i invite anyone who is familiar with this blog to comment, especially if your a priest!
on another note: His Excellency,Bishop Mulvey, has certainly surpised me with his zeal!
with his:
1. beautiful Corpus Christi celebration
2. brave promotion of the Cristiada film
3. brave opposition to obamacare's coercive hhs mandate
i just want to get that in. i might be taking this blog down!
Will do.
ReplyDeleteI had/have the same struggle.
What I do is 1) try not to call anyone fools or idiots (very hard, very, very hard!)
I confess my blog transgressions when I've treated someone badly.
I try to give the benefit of the doubt in posts when criticising (not sure how well this one is going).
And the latest thing that I've done is dedicate my blogging to the Lord.
I think it's very important to have Catholic voices online, and so, try to maintain a presence.
I hope that helps!
Bless you, Lucia Maria! my motive for this blog is obvious, ntl perhaps there is another motive. i.e. if i dont say these things in a blog,i'll explode!
ReplyDeleteSaturday, I received the following advice from a confessor in Corpus Christi diocese.... "you should consider continuing to blog. You must guard against personally attacking your opponents. The Church very much needs to hear the laity voice. Our Church has many shepherds who mislead with their words and their actions-- particularly when they disregard rubrics which call for reverence and adoration......
ReplyDeleteNow it's "keep on blogging", Lucia Maria and Father ? = 2
"shut down this blog!" = 0
Let's hear from my naysayers!!
Please continue to blog. Regarding the state of your soul, try, do the best that you can, enjoy regular confession, and then trust in our dear infinitely merciful God. But please continue to blog. You made a big difference to me. Let me explain.
ReplyDeleteI am Catholic since 14 months; I converted while living in Europe, in Amsterdam, where you can get communion kneeling or standing, in the mouth or in the hand, whatever, in any Catholic church. You can find chapels where nearly everybody kneels. You can also find chapels where nobody (but me) kneels, but where everybody lovingly supports my right to kneel! The Amsterdamers simply are not busy with what others do. In fact, one friend always kneels through almost the whole mass, and no one cares. There is true freedom there.
A few months after becoming Catholic, I returned to the States. I was tremendously dismayed by the huge pressure I got to stand, not kneel, for communion in the USA! Really awful, since through the totally undeserved Grace of God I happen to know for certain that the Real Presence is, well, Real. Culturally, I feel the overwhelming urge to kneel, not stand, in the presence of God. Others may prefer standing in that situation, sure, I can imagine that cultural difference, okay. But why pressure me to stand for communion??? I am literally driven to my knees by the miracle of Holy Mass each time, and I want to kneel before God! Surely this honest, humble and overwhelming need to kneel supercedes all of the silly arguments for forcing everyone to stand together.
I was very upset by this pressure to stand for communion, when I arrived. Your blog made me feel that I was not alone, not a delinquent, not a bad trouble maker, not strange, not sinful. You gave me support when I needed it, when I was really quite at a loss. Thank you so much.
It is a few months later, and I have moved out of the USA to a Catholic country. But you and your blog saw me through some hard months at "home" in the USA, almost always kneeling, in spite of pressure. What would I have done without you? Would I have gone against my conscience? Please keep on bloggin'.
Just to let you know further, I did stand for communion a couple of times, when visiting in a parish where the priest was stressed if I knelt. The priest had actually taken an hour one day (by appointment) to argue with me about it. He did not convince me that day to stand for communion -- his debating was skillful but he was misinformed. The thing that got me to stand for communion when I was (rarely) in his parish was that I simply did not want to make his life more difficult that necessary: it's hard enough to be a priest, and he is a good one. The poor priest has instructions from the US Bishop's Council to "correct" anyone who kneels; meanwhile, the Vatican has made it clear that priests should not in the slightest pressure kneelers to stand, because kneeling is the preferred method. So, this poor priest's vow of obedience put him into an impossible bind. If I knelt, he would have to disobey either the US Bishop's Council or the Vatican, as he could not obey both -- if I knelt. If I stood, he would have no such double bind situation, no problem. So, in his parish only, I chose to stand. (You should have seen his smile of surprise and relief when I stood....) And I chose to almost never go there again. Shame on the US Council of Bishops for ignoring the Vatican's guidelines.
ReplyDeleteTo my dear kneeling Catholic blogger, here is yet more from me.
ReplyDeleteI think that your blog is not a sin. I looked up "detraction" in Wikipedia:
Wikipedia English - The Free Encycl...
Detraction
Detraction is defined, primarily in Roman Catholic theology, as the sin of revealing previously unknown faults or sins of another person to a third person. This differs from the sin of calumny, which is lying about faults or sins that a person doesn't really have. While defamation is illegal in many modern systems of law, detraction is not. A society that operated totally under Catholic principles, for example, would not have nearly the same content in news reporting as is shown in most modern societies. The exception to this rule is when telling someone about the previously unknown faults of another can prevent greater harm, such as when a person is about to be chosen for a leadership position." End of Wikipedia quote.
I think that your blog falls into this last category: telling is preventing a greater harm. Thank you, and please continue.
Also, I think that abusers (bullies, etc.) often claim that they are being abused (or bullied) by their victim, when the victim objects to the abuse. Bullies do actually feel victimized by uncooperative victims.
So yes, it can be a sin to point out the sin of others (that they try to prevent kneeling,) but it's not a sin but a DUTY to point it out when they are repeatedly doing this and are planning to continue, thereby threatening everyone's right to kneel. You do have the right to stand up for your right to kneel. You have the duty to point it out when your right to kneel is being compromised.
Dear Zonnige,
Deleteyou are very kind and thoughtful!
Thanks for posting!
k.c.
Well, your blog really did help me. Thanks.
Delete