The flock aren't going to take it any more. π
I actually laughed out loud at this. π
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
Quote: "Mark Kennedy grew up a Catholic, and a Harry Potter fanatic. Only one stuck.Born again from a Harry Potter podcast? Harry Potter as "spiritual sustenance"? Sustaining what exactly? Not the soul! Clearly the "new evangelization" the Church continually promotes is a complete failure if this is the result!
“I considered myself a non-spiritual person,” he said. He thought he was done with religion. And then he stumbled on the podcast “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.”
The podcast told him that the Harry Potter series — the books that he always turned to for solace when he was angry or stressed or in need of an escape — could be a source of spiritual sustenance.
“I feel like I’m born again,” he said."
Quote: Zoltan and ter Kuile are complicated evangelists forI am as appalled at their definition of what a church sanctuary is as I am at their promoting Harry Potter as some sort of new religion that of course, won't use the word "religion" to describe it's self because "religion" is a bad word now.
their own cause. Even as their following grows, they are still pondering some big questions: Can non-traditional types of meaning-making build community? Can texts that are deeply moving to readers truly hold them to account in the way Scripture has among the God-fearing? Neither one of them puts much faith in Humanism, though Zoltan tried working as a chaplain at the lively, cutting-edge secularism center at Harvard called the Humanist Hub, where there is a Sunday school for kids based on ethics. People who don’t want to join an organized religion aren’t looking to label themselves part of a religion for atheists either, ter Kuile said.
“That’s all being unbundled. You might get your ecstatic experience at Soul Cycle, and your community in your book group, and your [spiritual] formation in Harry Potter or ‘On Being,'” he said.
The podcasters said they worry that these disparate experiences leave people much lonelier than experiences that are all tied up within one faith community.
“I’m scared what we’re going to do without the buildings. Some of the best things in the world happen in church basements,” Zoltan said. “That’s where you have sex ed classes, and that’s where you have kids on their church trip to build houses, and that’s where you house the new immigrant, and that’s where you register to vote…. I’m terrified if there aren’t these designated spaces. They’re called sanctuaries for a reason.”
Quote: "They said that their podcast doesn’t aim to offer all the benefits of a religious community, but does strive to provide the moral insights that seekers gain from study of Scripture. In their podcast, they use the rigorous methods they learned in divinity school, like the Benedictine monks’ practice of lectio divina and the medieval florilegium, to parse the lines of Harry Potter, which they typically refer to as “the text.”
Quote: Following a Jewish study method called Pardes, they analyzed the sole sentence on four levels, leading from the actual events of the story — a professor, looking at a moving map to see if it reveals that his students are in trouble — to an eventual sermonic conclusion. “I think what I would preach is that everybody needs to be taken care of in different ways. You should take care of the person in the form they need to be taken care of, not in the way that works for you. We have to teach each other how to take care of each other,” Zoltan said.What's wrong with actual sacred text and the Good Samaritan story in the Bible?
She said in an interview that she hopes this sort of close reading teaches moral values.
“To me, the goal of treating the text as sacred is that we can learn to treat each other as sacred. If you can learn to love these characters, to love Draco Malfoy, then you can learn to love the cousin you haven’t spoken to for 30 years, then the refugee down the street,” Zoltan said."
Quote: What happens when a Mormon, a Catholic and a Seventh-day Adventist walk into an apartment complex?Full article: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jul/20/working-across-faiths-three-churches-shift-200-bed/#/0
On Thursday, the answer was: Something good.
Members of the three churches did some heavy lifting Thursday evening, moving 200 bed frames and mattresses into a new 50-unit apartment building for homeless families in Spokane Valley.
Teenagers, retirees and plenty in between marched lines of boxes and rolled-up mattresses into apartments as coordinators with clipboards managed the chaos and tracked the flow of furniture.
The project started when Cheloye Penwell, community service director for the Spokane Valley Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Catholic Charities in early June asking how they could help with that group’s latest effort to build houses for homeless people.
The project, Pope Francis Haven, finished construction earlier in the summer and Catholic Charities was readying units for families to move in.
“I said, here’s what we don’t have. We don’t have mattresses and we don’t have bed frames,” said Monique Kolonko, Catholic Charities’ executive vice president of stabilization and housing.
Penwell decided she’d take care of it. The local stake applied for $50,200 through the church’s humanitarian fund in Salt Lake City. She got word the request had been approved one week ago, and found out the following day that the truck would be delivering the goods July 20.[clipped]
Our Mission"As a Eucharist-centered movement within the Roman Catholic Church, Life Teen leads teenagers and their families into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. With the Blessed Virgin Mary as our intercessor and guide, Life Teen seeks to unleash the fullness of the Sacramental power present within the young Church."
"When the Eucharist is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine victim immolated on the altar." ~ St. John ChrysostomFrom watching the video, this screenshot (below) seems to be a Mass (I hope it's not,and if anyone knows for sure please share). But if it is...
"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 47)
"Even the Poop - Have you ever felt as though you can’t relate to Mary because she is so perfect?
Being a mom has taught me that Mary actually doesn’t mind all of our “poop.” Before my daughter was born, I probably changed a total of three diapers, and each time I gagged a whole lot. I was a little bit surprised upon spending the first few days with my little girl that I didn’t care one bit about her poop. It was still poop, it was still gross, but it was somehow different – she was my daughter. Mary looks at all the “poop” in our lives – those dumb situations we often weasel ourselves into – and she
doesn’t bat an eye. It doesn’t bother her, but (the best part is) she doesn’t leave us in our filth. She sees the messiness in our lives, and with her assistance, she offers us a change of heart and practice.
For Real -Do you ever feel undeserving of Mary’s attention and love?
Me too. But the good news is this: By simply being her child (despite any insecurity or impurity), Mary loves us. My daughter hasn’t done much of anything to win my love. She poops, she sleeps, she does smile, but she also has a terrifying scream. There has been no conversation, no plea in which she’s vied for my attention or poetically tried to win me over. She is my daughter regardless of what she has, says, or does. And, I love her intensely. Mary’s love for us is even deeper than this, and thank goodness for that! Because, my insecurities and impurities are overwhelming sometimes and a life in which we need to constantly prove ourselves is exhausting. We don’t need to prove anything to Mary. Her love is unconditional."
'There are many who arrive at the faith, but few that are led into the heavenly kingdom.' -Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor and Father of the ChurchAll this "unconditional love" talk can be misleading. No one should confuse "unconditional love" with a free pass to sin -which is a mistake most Protestant groups make. Does Mary love us? Sure! Doesn't Jesus? Sure Jesus loves us and we are sinners, but he didn't come so we could stay in our sin and end up damned. That's the link that is missing in all this "poop" talk. Sin leads to Hell. I sincerely hope no Catholic of any age, actually believes that Mary "doesn't bat an eye" at people in sin.
'They pierce his side when they have the intention of persevering in sin.
I tell you truly, and you can tell this to my friends, that in the sight of my Son such people are more unjust than those who sentenced him, worse enemies than those who crucified him, more shameless than those who sold him. A greater punishment is due to them than to the others. . .
Pilate sentenced him due to fear, in accordance with the petition and intention of others. These people sentence him for their own advantage and without any fear, by dishonoring him through sin that they could abstain from, if they wanted. But they neither abstain from sin nor are they ashamed of their already committed sins, for they do not take into consideration their unworthiness of the kindness of the one whom they do not serve.' -Our Lady, 'The Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden'
'Meditate on the horrors of Hell which will last for eternity because of one easily-committed mortal sin. Try hard to be among the few who are chosen. Think of the eternal flames of Hell, and how few there are that are saved.' - St. Benedict Joseph LabreThe confused author goes on to say:
"There is nothing we can do to lose her favor as her children. Even when we don’t deserve it. I think of my own mom who always stood right by me in the mess I made but then pointed me to something greater. I want to be just like that – always there by my daughter’s side guiding the way; always there with her while she chases her dreams, even running right by her side if necessary. This is Mary, Our Lady. She has hope for our future and is always leading us back to the One — the only One — who has the power to fulfill our every hope and desire."That my friends is NOT the Gospel message. Jesus is NOT there to "fulfill our every hope and desire." Sure, He's got the power, but the author is being misleading here. Jesus came as our SACRIFICE, our SAVIOR. He is not our genie in a lamp to grant us wishes so all our hopes and desires are *poof* magically given to us.
The road to salvation is not easy and along the way Jesus is NOT giving us "our every hope and desire", that is pure Protestantism and no one should be teaching our Catholic youth this heresy! What Jesus gives us in this life is the GRACE we need to get to eternity with Him. What we do with that grace is up to us.'Woe to you who command others! If so many are damned by your fault, what will happen to you? If few out of those who are first in the Church of God are saved, what will happen to you? Take all states, both sexes, every condition: husbands, wives, widows, young women, young men, soldiers, merchants, craftsmen, rich and poor, noble and plebian. What are we to say about all these people who are living so badly? The following narrative from Saint Vincent Ferrer will show you what you may think about it. He relates that an archdeacon in Lyons gave up his charge and retreated into a desert place to do penance, and that he died the same day and hour as Saint Bernard. After his death, he appeared to his bishop and said to him, "Know, Monsignor, that at the very hour I passed away, thirty-three thousand people also died. Out of this number, Bernard and myself went up to heaven without delay, three went to purgatory, and all the others fell into Hell."' -St. Leonard of Port Maurice
'I truly am supreme charity itself; for all things that I have done from eternity, I have done out of charity; and, in the same way, all things that I do and shall do in the future proceed entirely from my charity. For charity is as incomprehensible and intense in me now as it was at the time of my passion when, through my death and out of exceeding charity, I freed from hell all the elect who were worthy of this redemption and liberation. For if it were still possible that I might die as many times as there are souls in hell so that for each of them I might again endure such a death as I then endured for all, my body would still be ready to undergo all these things with a glad will and most perfect charity. But, in fact, it is now impossible that my body could once more die or suffer any pain or tribulation. And it is also just as impossible that any soul that after my death has been or will be condemned to hell would ever again be freed from there, or would enjoy the heavenly gladness that my saints and chosen ones enjoy at the glorious sight of my body.
No, the damned will feel the pains of hell in an everlasting death because they did not will to enjoy the benefit of my death and passion and did not will to follow my will while they lived in the world.' - Christ, to St. Bridget of Sweden, 'The Revelations'
Quote: "It appeared, then, that Deacon Nick Donnelly was just a bit too Catholic for the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. For as long as Pope Benedict XVI sat upon St Peter’s Throne issuing the occasional motu proprio favouring the old paths (Jer 6:16), Deacon Nick’s commitment to immutable truths and infallible moral law were tolerated, not least because they chimed with the Vatican under Benedict, if not quite with the CBEW. But under Francis, the traditionalists appear to be on the retreat: they are sidelined or censored while those progressive Roman Catholics who advocate a more tolerant approach to priestly celibacy, same-sex unions, abortion or divorce and re-marriage are not merely tolerated but actively promoted.Back to Fr. Rosica on Twitter...
Benedict XVI was a Catholic Herald kind of pope; Francis inclines toward The Tablet. Or at least that’s how it appears. Certainly, the Diocese of Lancaster isn’t averse to promoting the latter on its website, giving high profile coverage to liberal bishops who are calling for a “radical re-examination of human sexuality”, while downplaying (/ignoring) the traditional teaching.
For Deacon Nick, such a radical re-examination is unnecessary, unholy and un-Catholic. Indeed, for him it amounts to apostasy: such teachings do not ‘develop’ through synodical debate and legislative resolution, for that would incline toward the more heterodox Anglican view. No, if the Magisterium is infallible, its teaching must be protected and the Deposit of Faith defended. Dissenting bishops and cardinals must be called out, corrected and rebuked using Scripture and referencing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Those who do not repent ought to be excommunicated."[clipped]
ChurchPop quote: “It is extremely heartbreaking,” Kenneth Alimba explained. “It’s too horrible.”
Alimba, a Catholic who lives in Nigeria, was the owner of the Facebook page titled “Catholic and Proud.” It had over 6 million Likes when it was removed by Facebook today without explanation. He had another page titled “Holy Mary Mother of God,” which had around 200,000 Likes and was also removed.
His pages are just two of possibly dozens of Catholic Facebook pages simultaneously removed around the world in the last day or so, including the “Father Rocky” page (3.3 million Likes) and a popular Portuguese-language Pope Francis page called “Papa Francisco Brasil” (3.8 million Likes).
“I’ve worked on the page for over five years,” he told ChurchPOP, “and have put in all I am into it.”
Godwin Delali Adadzie, the owner of another removed Catholic Facebook page “Jesus and Mary,” with 1.7 million Likes, also shared his story with ChurchPOP.
“This page is the joy of my apologetics ministry online. It is like the digital heartbeat of my ministry.”
CM quote: Facebook is continuing to censor Conservative websites critical of Islam.
Steve Amundson, founder of Counter Jihad Coalition, told Church Militant that Facebook has been locking him out of his page, Counter Jihad Coalition, since July 11.
Amundson uses his Facebook page and website CounterJihadcoalition.org to "educate people on political Islam, the threat of sharia and the violence that's in political Islam."
CM quote: Shortly after, Facebook implemented its "Initiative for Civil Courage Online" to delete what it deemed "racist" or "xenophobic" comments. But Douglas Murray at the Gatestone Institute warned it was a tool for further censorship of legitimate conservative voices.
"The sinister thing about what Facebook is doing is that it is now removing speech that presumably almost everybody might consider racist," said Murray, "along with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is 'racist.'"