Science + Creation

[Aiza]

Is ToEbNS consistent with prior patterns, because your church (to their credit) recently decided that they were okay with that.

What? No, really, what?

In actuality the church has a long history of changing it's mind, of deviating from established patterns and traditions.

No it doesn't.

(Hey, for bonus points, riddle me this- if we aren't referencing "the right track" then who gives a shit what imaginary track any church is on? What is the track even for what service does it provide, how is it useful or relevant in any way? Is it possible for a catholic to reference a track without the implication that said track is the right track whilst simultaneously avoiding heretical beliefs?)

You sure are hung up on the word "track"! If you re-read the context in which the word "track" appears you can see why its important.

I love that your evidence for the establishment of the papacy is a citation from the catholic encyclopedia edited to wikipedia.

No, the Catholic Encyclopedia was only cited in some of the notes on numbering, and its a pretty good resource to boot. You can click on individual Popes to get more about them and what they wrote and who referenced them. Its not hidden.

Also Saints are not demigods, the Classical-era Popes certainly not, most of them don't even have any patronages or feast days.

we do know when the papacy was officially declared (and even though it is often assumed that this was merely the vindication of pre-existing tradition we have quite a few rumblings as to an upper limit for how far back any given "Pope" was likely to have been a "Pope" in his own lifetime as opposed to the title being granted long after he was dead ala the continuity narrative I mentioned above.

Just like those "rumblings" about Matthew 16:19, eh??

Anyway, the bishop of Rome are the successors to St. Peter, there's no doubt they were given primacy, though the Eastern Churches try to say he was a "first among equals". Your link doesn't even deny this: unless by all the scare quotes around "Pope" you mean the literal word "Pope" in which case, sure? The word "Pope" was not around back then. You still have a successor to St. Peter in Rome who we still recognize today, soo...?

Speaking of Popes and Saints, let me just say that the papacy has gone decidely downhill since it's origins in myth. The earliest popes were powerful wizards, and all that the See can manage to field now is the Popenfuhrer?

What? No really, what?

Just realized this is the second time in this post I've needed to just ask you "what?" I promise I am not picking on you....just...huh? I greatly respect our early Popes, but wizards they were not.

Btw, you didn't clarify whether you are or are not female. Perhaps you're a balding twenty-something.

I said I wasn't balding. And yes, if you read my intro post I am "female" (or a woman, rather) though I find it creepy that you seem so interested in knowing that you need "clarification".

And it wasn't an attempt at ad hominem, just an expression of distrust. The real ad hominem was referring to you as Azrael in the first place. D'oh!

Reaalllly? lol, wow.

Also you don't know how Sainthood works. Or anything about St. Teresa of the Andes. For shame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization

You don't need to live a flashy life to be a Saint. You should read her letters some time, they are absolutely beautiful, and the fact that her life was cut off at 19 should never be held against her. The fact that she was so holy in spite of having a life so fraught with illness is, if anything, her strength.

6 Reasons to become a Carmelite Sister, by St. Teresa of the Andes (at age 15)

---

1. Because the life of prayer and union with God is what I love most of all; because I find it the most perfect; because it is a life of heaven, in a certain way, since a Carmelite is concerned only with being united to God and contemplating Him always and singing His praises. That thirst for prayer continually grows in me; my recollection is always continuous now, because whatever I do , I do with my Jesus and offer it to Him with love. When, for any reason whatever I am unable to make my prayer, I suffer at not being able to be with my God.

2. The solitude of Carmel helps recollection. That isolation from creatures helps Carmelites exchange with God alone and, as a result, to attain greater union with Him, because this is the heart of perfection. I believe that solitude won't tire me, as I'm always searching for it. I often become troubled when dealing with creature, because I'm with God when I'm alone.

3. The poverty of a Carmelite is very great. She can possess nothing, which means that her whole capacity for possessing things is filled by God alone. By being poor, she is made even more like to her Divine Spouse who had nowhere to lay His head. A Cermelite must possess God alone.

4. The penance to which she submits herself and the austerity of her life are a greater means of having her body made submissive to the soul in order to become more like her Divine Spouse who became a vicitm for our sins. She does penance for her own sins and for those of the world. And in this way she shows her love for God who has filled her with so many favors.

5. Her sacrifice is perpetual, without mitigation, from the time her religious life begins until she dies as a victim according to the example of Jesus Christ. And she does all this in silence with no one aware of it. Yet how many are there who think of this life as useless. Nevertheless, she's like the Lamb of God. She removes the sins from the world. She sacrifices herself to bring back to the sheepfold those sheep who have gone astray. But just as Christ did not know the world, neither does she know it. This abnegation enchants me completely. There is no room for self-love. She doesn't even see the fruit of her prayer. In heaven alone with she know this.

6. The goal she proposes to herself is very great: to pray and sanctify herself for sinner and priests. To sanctify herself so that the divine sap may be communicated through the union that exists between the faithful and all the members of the Church. She immolates herself on the cross, and her blood falls on sinners, pleading for mercy and repentance, for on the cross she is intimately united to Jesus Christ. Her blood, then, is mixed with His Divine Blood.

All these consideration that I make, Father, are the ones that induce me to prefer Carmel, since I believe that in that life, I will attain holiness. I have chosen the Carmelite life because I see that, in choosing it, I will find the cross; and I would travel, I believe, through the whole world with God's grace in search of it and to possess it, because on the cross is Jesus Christ.

---

A picture of her cell in the convent.

I see the catholics have reintroduced the indulgences scam.
They must be short of money.

The Church banned the sale of indulgences. Indulgences themselves are fine, and always have been, no "reintroduction" needed and the Church gains no income from them.