/lit/ - Literature

>>14846430
Bible
Pensées

>>14846430
Why Roman Catholicism, anon? From the perspective of an outsider, the Church of East seems to be the purer one, and the clear choice if one wishes to become a Christian.

Start a daily prayer rule, I would suggest praying the rosary daily as well as morning and night prayers. Faith is inherently mystical, and it's a grace given by God, you can't simply read your way into it.

>>14846444

God only has one church, schism is a sin led to the downfall of Constantinople. The East are our brethren, but we need to repent for tearing the body of Christ apart.

Read Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

>>14846478
Well, the fall of Constantinople is almost irrelevant, if one compares it to the subversion of the Faith that courses through the Roman Church since the Renaissance. You must not ignore, brother, that the Roman Church is the abode of the Antichrist to be.

>>14846478
But the easterners say the westerners are the ones in schism

>>14846444
>has never read a single news article on the current affairs of the Orthodox churches

>>14846462
the rosary for somebody that has never prayed in his life is sheer torture.

Pray 5 minutes a day. Pick up the Bible, or whatever you like. Not reading is a good option, too. Even when you don't feel like it, pray 5 minutes. After a couple weeks, make it 10. Then, repeat, adding 5 more minutes every time. When you feel comfrotable, take the rosary. Buy one you like. Enjoy shopping it, and get the nicest you can, although you should avoid expensive, pompous stuff.

Books on believing?
Augustine's confessions. Van Thuan's 5 breads and 2 fish. The Jerusalem Bible. St Josemaría's Way is a nice read, although not exactly what you are looking for. The last Cathecism. Also, sth by St John Paul II, Dostoyevski and Chékov if you have time.

>>14846444
>purer
>denies papacy
>arbitrarily accepts and rejects councils
shutup, schismatic
>>14846430
pray 15 decades every day and ignore the "luminous mysteries"

>>14846540
Would you share the articles on the current affairs of the Orthodox Churches, friend? Surely can't be worse than the state of the Satanic "New Church".

>>14846522

Who evangelized the world and has been a beacon of light for all of mankind? Anon, it's obvious that Rome is the universal Catholic church. The east has always been very insular, and overly nationalistic, while the west was bringing Christ to the barbarians. We haven't been perfect, but neither side is.

>>14846550
>Satanic "New Church".
wow. You putting it like that really makes me want to take the effort to share anything for you to read.

>>14846545
>ignore the "luminous mysteries"
?

>>14846430
Here is perhaps an argument to help you get along with this. This is one belief in God. Life itself is complex. Notions that it could have started without a creator are often silly, as life cannot be come from nothing. Something cannot come from nothing. The unmoved mover, being God, makes the most sense to me as a person. Research this a bit more before you decide on whether you should be Catholic or not. This is a major life decision.

>>14846565

He's a sedevacantist

>>14846582
While that is true, you don't have to be a Sede to pray the traditional rosary.

>>14846545

I feel like the Dimond's going out of there way to lead people into despair. 15 decades for a newcomer is too much, 5 decades is perfectly fine to start with. Prayer and spiritual growth is similar to working out, you don't need to and probably shouldn't start with the heaviest weights, it's why having a spiritual director is important

>>14846559
Pardon if I offend you, friend, but that seems to me to be an attainable opinion:

>“… We would say that, through some mysterious crack—no, it’s not mysterious; through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God. There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest, dissatisfaction, confrontation."

>>14846585

I don't pray the luminous mysterious, and I'm not a sede. They're optional, but there's nothing heretical or evil about them

>>14846585
why not pray while meditating the Cana wedding, the Annunciation of the Gospel, the Institution of the Eucharist, the Transfiguration or Jesus' baptism?

>>14846599
there is a long, long way of this to what you wrote.

>>14846616

You're not going to get any genuine answer other than Pope St John Paul II added them, and according to sedes he's the antichrist

>>14846637
the guy said he isn't a sede (>>14846607), so I am still asking

>>14846621
Perhaps. But, friend, by "Satanic" I just wished to state that, at its current state, the Roman Church is a subverted Church- not completely, but heading towards total subversion.

>>14846430
leave Churches and be a Christian without any sect, denomination or anything

Really, the Churches strayed from the right path, just grab the Bible and read theologian discussions, then make up your mind. Belief is not something you should force on yourself, God gave us freewill so we can choose our paths. Read, then decide if there are any Chruch which is the closest to your own belief. If there isn't, then just be a Christian on your own, maybe visit some Churches too. From my experience Seventh-Day Adventist Church is the friendliest one and they are still close to the roots because it's a relatively new Church, but they... also have some, say, interesting believes and theories. Catholic communities are not the same and don't have as many strong believers as they used to, same could be said about Calvinists, Lutherans or the East.
Copts are also cool although they have some fanatics, so...it's really just better if you stay away from the communities, except if you are a lucky one and you can find a community which has strong faith but don't let it turn into fanatism. Good luck on your journey and may you find your answer

>>14846430

Ed Feser is an excellent place to get started with God. Look up his Last Superstition, Beginner's Guide to Aquinas and 5 Proofs of the existence of God to start. Also read David Bentley Hart's 'the experience of God' to get a fuller idea of what the classical-theist God means spiritually, which goes a long way toward consolidating belief in God.

Once you feel you've got the idea, dive into primary texts, I'm most familiar with Aquinas: Summa Contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologiae. Read Aristotle's metaphysics Lambda and Plato's Laws (book 10), just for further context and to understand that the Christians are picking up a thread even pagans could detect.

On the Catholic Church being the one true church, I can't help much, as a Protestant.

>>14846637
Please do not call him a Saint.

>>14846875

Peter denied Christ as well, he was still entrusted the keys of the kingdom. Pope John Paul II was devout, and even proclaimed the dogma that the church is necessary for salvation. His intentions were to bring peace among Christians and Muslims, but it's true that he didn't go about it in the right way.

>>14846430
5 proofs of God edward fesser
Bible
why we're catholic trent horn

I wonder which fad will replace this one in 5-10 years. At least this is better than the fedora wearing atheists you used to be.

>>14846983
>5 proofs of God edward fesser
God is still a brute fact whether you like it or not

>>14846430
I personally decided to become muslim because catholics are all sex criminals, protestants have their gay "spirt of capitalism", and orthodoxs are fucking >slavic. your trying to convert because your brain is susceptible to memes hahahaha

>>14847377
Orthodoxy is not only the "slavic" churches. As a matter of fact, the purer Orthodox Churches are the Greek ones. Have a look at Mount Athos.

>>14847377

You think Muslims aren't sexually perverse? Mohammed married a little girl, and pedophilia in general is acceptable in Islam. We might have bad priests in the mix, but we don't condone it.

>>14847385

I've noticed a lot of ethnic snobbery among Orthodox, especially Greeks. Many Greek churches tell people not to convert others, because they see their church as some ethnic country club.

>>14846462
I think this guy is correct, you’re not going to convert by reading books, else it will be either a superficial conversion or a fad. You need to practice the religion and if you don’t believe you need to suspend that disbelief and fake it until you make it, as it were.

>>14847499
That seems to be a type of discourse present only among Roman Catholics to divert people from the True Church. Have a look at Kallistos Ware- one of the greatest and most respected members of the church alive, and a british convert to Orthodox.

>>14847561

I'm not trying to hate on the Eastern Orthodox, but I would simply ask if they are the true church, why have they been pretty much stagnant historically as far as the great commission is concerned? You could bring up persecution, holding them back, however even as far back as the eastern Roman empire they've mostly kept to themselves, and very often viewed themselves and superior and more prestigious than the Latins. All of this while the Latin west was converting the barbarians and evangelizing the world. I'm aware that there are well read converts who come into the EO church on their own, but the EO never seek out to evangelize and this has been the case historically unfortunately. When someone takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture, it's hard to genuinely see the EO as the one holy catholic and apostolic church, guided by the holy ghost, but rather various ethnic churches that are loosely in communion depending on the circumstances.

>>14847499
>ethnic country club
There’s nothing wrong with that.

>>14847636

It's not the church though, Jesus Christ never established the sacerdotal Greek country club that the gates of hell will not prevail over.

>>14846595
Well, it's not impossible. You don't have to pray 15 decades all at once, you could do 5 in the morning, 5 in the afternoon and 5 in the evening.

>>14847693

It's not, but for someone who isn't used to prayer it's better to start out slowly. The Dimond's tend to take on a severe and almost pharisaica lview on Catholic practices, the faith isn't an rpg video game it requires love

>>14846430
Imagine being in a zombie space jew cult in 2020. You should probably just shoot yourself desu

>>14847708
I know they are very brutal with what they say, but in some ways, so was our Lord. For examples see Matthew 19:21 or Luke 13:24. This doesn't mean I agree with their approach but I can understand where they come from.

>>14847763

No I understand as well, but there's a name for this and it's called Jansenism which was declared heretical by the church. Prayer is a tool that when practiced with love, softens the heart, opens us up to grace, and brings us closer to Christ. The problem with these groups that cut themselves off from the greater church, is that they inevitably set themselves up as infallible teachers of sacred tradition and end up misleading people into spiritual harm, this is why the Church is important.

>>14846430
Read the gospel. That is the simplest advice there is.

>>14846430

>>14846430
Go to mass.

>>14847914
This, also. But confess before you go.

>>14847898
No Chesterton? Yikes!

>>14847916
Shouldn’t you be baptized and confirmed before you confess? And even so, you have to go to mass whether you are in mortal sin or not. You cannot take the Eucharist if you are in mortal sin, attending mass is a must regardless.
You should confess either way, though.

>started getting drawn into Christianity through psychedelics and certain media (Mere Christianity & Spacemen 3 mostly)
>feel a strong love for Mary
>bought a miraculous medal
Not gonna lie, it can bring me to tears sometimes thinking about the fact that at the end of the day, God loves me, and that even though my biological mother is gone, I have a heavenly mother watching over me.

>>14848224
That the peace of the Logos may be upon you, friend. That you may meet her in heaven.

>>14846430
>catholics recommending literally anything but the bible

the eternal papist

>>14847628
If the greeks were ‘stagnant’, how did the slavs come to be orthodox?

>>14847377
>catholics are all sex criminals
1% of priest are child molesters, but 10% of men are (in developed countries, much higher in developing countries). And muslim countries have much higher rates of child sex abuse than christian ones.

>>14847377
>some priests are pedophiles
>so i joined a pedophile desert cult
you literally cannot make this shit up

>>14849053
>pedophile desert cult
Christianity?

>I don’t believe in God
You start by fucking off

>>14846430
Are you by any chance a pedophile?

>>14846430
Is integral Catholicism any different from differential Catholicism?

How do you actually pray?

>>14847170
This image describes 99% of catholics I've talked to online

>>14849482
No, he's talking about Islam.

There's a janny going around deleting shit.

>>14849506
The simplest way is, when sitting, working, eating, or doing anything at all, to say within your heart, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!" Do not say the words like a magic spell that is effective just because it is said, but cry out with your mind, heart, and whole being for mercy.

>>14849640
Thank you

>>14846430
Go to your local Catholic parish and talk to a priest

>>14849523
and this one describes 99% of anti-Catholics I've talked to online.

>>14849888
>communist cunt is sent by jews portrayed
>atheist portrayed
>meanwhile pope inviting islam
>meanwhile catholics accepting ape ancestor evolution

>>14846430
>I want to LARP
Uh, ok. Kys my dude.

>>14846430
>I want to become a Catholic Christian, where do I start? I don't even believe in God.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA what a fucking joke you are

>>14847870
The only correct answer within the entire thread. All else, those hankering after 'proofs' are cheating themselves out of genuine religious faith.

>>14850150
lol you're literally the boomer in his pic

I'm someone that needs to be explained something a bunch of times to get it. I also need a lot of examples. Libido Dominandi is by far one of the best books I've ever read that made me be a better Catholic. Its Philosophy is based off of St. Augustine.