/lit/ - Literature

>>19416871
>We don't have "priests".

No priests? 'Priests' are just what were called in the NT 'Presbuteros'. The word 'priest' comes straight from 'presbyter' which comes from 'presbuteros'. You could look it up.

>>19395210
To judge whether something is correct or incorrect is an intrinsically vital part of human experience and one that is encouraged in Scripture — 'in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour'. You are judging Catholicism to be incorrect, for example, and using far more hostile language to do so.

Jesus Christ started the Catholic Church, and no other. And this isn't an association fallacy, because you aren't associated with Protestantism, you are Protestantism, which is many-pronged and backwards in every instance. Read the Bible, learn Christian history. Educate yourself.

>>17477349
>>17475886

There is no one path to adult conversion. Sometimes it happens very quickly, sometimes slowly. The Holy Spirit is endlessly inventive. Although there is no one, fixed path, reading conversion stories can open your mind and spirit to the operations of the Spirit in your life. (Indeed, OP, your initial post may be the result of what's called prevenient grace -- an initial, gentle movement of the Holy Spirit in your soul.)

I highly recommend a collection of short conversion stories called Spiritual Journeys, edited by Robert Baram. I am a fan of these sorts of books, of which there are many, and this is one of the very best. It includes all sorts of stories from people in all walks of life.

It's currently out of print, but here is a link to reasonably priced used copies:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003YIZDR0/

Do pray, anon, for it's all a matter of grace.

Ask God to enlighten your mind, and *keep* asking. Cf: "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Mt. 7:7 Note that the verb tense of "knock" is the present imperative; it could be fairly translated as *Keep knocking* and it will be opened unto you.

So keep knocking. And "if today you hear His voice, harden not your heart."

Here are a couple of good books:
- Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

- Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain

Finally, Scott Hahn's conversion story offers a great and inspiring testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bz4kRtCQI

>>16952976

>>16706572
By the way, your understanding of Christianity is fundameny flawed. God doesn't want "a good little lamb" who "sings lullabies", and the idea that heaven is somehow boring is if nothing else a success for Satan. We believe in the resurrection of the body, a new, perfected world, and the spirit of romance and adventure comes from God. If any realm of the afterlife is boring and repetitive I imagine it would be hell.

>>16499491
It also makes sense from a philosophical standpoint, by the way. Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation with Forms, and Augustine and Aquinas are both geniuses who have written extensively on the topic. But I'd be really interested to hear what you think after having a glance at the link below:

https://www.catholic.com/tract/purgatory

>>16478793
>Why not both?

God's will is known through the Church Christ founded. The Church only in special circumstances permits married men to be ordained as priests, and never (so far as I know) permits ordained priests to marry. Thus "both" is not God's will, in my understanding.

Relatedly, in a recent book Benedict explains how the OT requirements for priestly ministry are consistent with the development, in the NT, of priestly celibacy:

[1] In the Book of Deuteronomy this is read in the context of the preceding disposition, according to which priests do not receive any portion of land in the Holy Land - they live of God and for God. They did not attend to the usual work necessary to sustain daily life. Their profession was to "stand in the Lord's presence" - to look to him, to be there for him... In the Old Testament, the Levites give up owning land. In the New Testament, this privation is transformed and renewed: priests, since they are radically consecrated to God, renounce marriage and the family. [...] The true foundation of the priest's life, the salt of his existence, the land of his life is God himself.

[2] In the common conscience of Israel, priests were strictly required to respect sexual abstinence during the periods in which they exercised worship and were therefore in contact with the divine mystery. The relationship between sexual abstinence and divine worship was absolutely clear in Israel's common conscience. As an example, I would like to recall the episode of David who, fleeing from Saul, prayed to the priest Ahimelek to give him bread: “The priest replied to David: 'I have no common breads at hand, I have only sacred breads for your young men, if they have at least abstained from women. ' David replied to the priest: 'Of course! We have abstained from women for three days' ”(1 Sam 21:5f). Since the priests of the OT were not to devote themselves to worship except during certain periods, marriage and the priesthood were compatible.

>But because of the regular and often daily celebration of the Eucharist, the situation of the priests of the Church of Jesus Christ is found to be radically changed.
By now, their whole life is in contact with the divine mystery. This requires on their part exclusivity in regard to God. This excludes as a result other bonds which, like marriage, embrace the whole of life.
>From the daily celebration of the Eucharist, which implies a permanent state of service of God, the impossibility of a marriage bond spontaneously arose.

[3] The Church has always considered marriage as a gift bestowed by God beginning with the earthly paradise. However, the conjugal state involves man in his totality, but since the service of the Lord also demands equally the total gift of man, it does not seem possible to realize the two vocations simultaneously. Thus, the attitude of renouncing marriage to make oneself totally available to the Lord has become a criterion for priestly ministry.

>>16477294
However, Jesus' words have been translated from other languages. For example, the word today translated as "sexual immorality" in many Bibles comes from what used to be "fornication", which itself proceeds from the original Greek "porneia", which was a word specifically used to denote any sexual relations outside of marriage. To look to the original translations and original meanings of Jesus' words, we have one authority to rule on different interpretations, otherwise you have what you see with Protestantism- a mass of little-educated people, full of pride in thinking that their interpretation of Jesus' message is the "true" one.

Unfortunately, this usually leads to people picking the easy messages of Christ and ignoring the tough ones. "Do not judge, lest ye be judged" rather than "remove the plank from your eye, SO THAT YOU CAN MORE CLEARLY REMOVE THE SPECK FROM YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S" ; "I do not condemn you" rather than "go and SIN NO MORE", which also comes immediately afterwards.