Daily Catholic Thread

[Anonymous No.15546608]

Today is the solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the greatest mystery of our religion. Let's all take a moment to meditate on it. It is a stumbling block to unbelievers but to those moved to truth by the Holy Spirit it is an essential revelation of the nature of divinity. "Eternal God, eternal Trinity, you have made the blood of Christ so precious through his sharing in your divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find the more I search for you. But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light. I desire above all to see you, the true light, as you really are." - Catherine of Siena

Daily reminder that the only way to keep your will free of sinful motions to anger, lust, pride, etc, is to pray without ceasing. For most people that means formal vocal prayer at least 2-3x a day, frequent mental prayer to God, frequent reading of scripture especially the Gospels, and meditation on heavenly things. If you practice this your mind will never be far from God and when you're tempted to some interior wickedness you'll quickly have recourse to prayer and not give in to the temptation, at least not totally, and so you'll preserve your soul from mortal sin.

Give something up today! Mortification of the flesh is one of the surest ways to become closer to God and bring about real interior conversion. Christianity is not a religion of self-indulgence. Sacrifice some licit pleasure today for some period of time, something you really enjoy.

Reminder not to judge non-believers, protestants, etc. God is with them too and we should treat all men as brothers. This is not some modernist heresy of "toleration" and "acceptance", it reflects the truth of the Gospel. We all sin and only God can judge the heart of a human being. Every time you fail to love your fellow man you sin against Christ. Reminder that racism is a grievous sin and an Ethiopian eunuch (Simeon Bachos) was one of the first converts while your ancestors were chucking people into bogs.

[Anonymous No.15546638]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw8_zspuCJY

Time for mass!

[Anonymous No.15546687]

I honestly don't get racist Christians, they're living in a state of cognitive dissonance. A large overlap of racists intersect with traditional forms of Christianity, but it's also problematic for themselves. There's countless evidence against racism in the gospels and history of the church, even apparitions of Mary in Mexico where she changes colors. I'm not a Christian I just think the racialist Christians are mind boggling

[Anonymous No.15546726]

>>15546687
1. Thessalonians 2:15

[Anonymous No.15546750]

>>15546687

They become racist because they're completely alienated from modern society and racism is a totally contrarian belief. The same sort of psychology influences their attraction to traditional forms of Christianity. You can only hope that it's some sort of transition and that they'll come to embrace the full Gospel of charity and love and reject their racism.

>>15546638

A seminarian started at my parish today so we got to hear his introductory speech after communion. There are all of these articles about how the Church is dying in the US but I see packed pews with large families and I have like 60 cousins. And we hear about a vocations crisis but we just have more priests from other countries and there are still a lot of young people who become priests.

I remember adults getting baptized/confirmed at my church, they were all young people in their twenties. To not even have been baptized you have to have grown up in a pretty secular household. It made me really happy to see.

[Anonymous No.15546760]

>>15546750
Mass isn't illegal in your country? Where the hell do you live? Here in America, the only mass gatherings allowed are protests against the police, which is sort of ironic.

[Anonymous No.15546816]

What advice would you guys give to someone that cannot figure out whether the Catholics or the Orthodox have it right?

[Anonymous No.15546844]

>>15546816

I went Catholic because all my ancestors came from the west and all my family is Catholic but I never actually got interested in the arguments between the two. Which Pope said the orthodox and catholics are like the "two lungs" of the body of Christ?

[Anonymous No.15546854]

>>15546816
I prefer Catholicism because it continues in the tradition of the classic west more than Orthodox which is more oriental.

[Anonymous No.15546871]

>>15546844
John Paul II

[Anonymous No.15546899]

>>15546687
It’s funny because racist Catholics don’t even realize that one of their most important figures, St. Augustine of Hippo, had African lineage. There’s a half Black light skin literally codifying their philosophy

[Anonymous No.15546913]

>>15546871
>John Paul II
Mohammadan cringe.

[Anonymous No.15546936]

>>15546899

We'll never even know if he was partly "black" or all berber or what because the ancient world didn't think about race in the way that modern racists do. Nor does the ancient apostolic Church.

There have been many African martyrs including in modern times. There are parts of the US with lots of black Catholics. The Church is really strong in some parts of Africa. If you're a Catholic there's a good chance you'll have an African priest at some point in your life. There's no place for racism in Catholicism at all.

[Anonymous No.15546950]

>>15546899
I guess you don't have any North Africans in your area. They are some of the whitest people you've ever seen, especially Amazighs. Definitely more "white" than Italians. Ha.

[Anonymous No.15547070]

>>15546899
Black as fuck bro. Why do you retards think north africans are black?

[Anonymous No.15547096]

Orthodoxy is cooler.
Change my mind.

[Anonymous No.15547099]

>>15546638
That was pleasant. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous No.15547196]

>>15546608
How exactly Jesus Christ is the Memra / Word of God? How can this be the same as the Greek Logos? Reading the thoughts of Jewish and Muslim theorists on the subject, how is the deification of Jesus of Nazareth not idolatry?

[Anonymous No.15547224]

>>15546687
Perhaps Maria's "apparitions" are false, created by superstitious Indians and an unscrupulous Clergy? Tell me, how many appearances took place during the time of the Protestant Reformation or in the Masonic Revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries?

[Anonymous No.15547255]

>>15546608
>Reminder that racism is a grievous sin
way to go, you derailed the thread before it even started. you just had to make it about race, you couldn't just let it be about God.
for fuck's sake.

[Anonymous No.15547290]

The hardest thing for any chantard Christian must be realizing how good the worldly sinful people are and how far you must be from them. Most of those people who drink and use drugs and commit degeneracy are basically kindhearted, they'd help you out of a jam, they're not quick to judge because they have high self esteem, they at least love people close to them. You have to be much better than them and you have to realize that a lot of them are pretty decent by worldly standards and better than you in many ways. Only prayer and fasting can accomplish this sort of conversion of the spirit.

[Anonymous No.15547419]

>>15547290
are you retarded? normalfags are pieces of shit who are only kind on the surface. i've literally driven around a meth head hitchhiker in the middle of the night for 3 hours trying to find him a hotel and he even tried to smoke meth in my car. no fucking normalfag would do this for a meth head, or even just any hitchhiker. nrmalfags literally get mad at me when i tell them i pick up hitchhikers. one time i almost crashed my car on the highway doing 85 when a little wiener dog ran out in front of me. slammed the brakes then my back wheels lost traction and i had to drift back and forth to slow down, but somehow i stayed in my lane. anyway, the point is that when i regained control, me and my friend hopped out to try and find the dog, then this other dude showed up who had also pulled over to try and catch them. both of the dogs (there were two) ended up roadkill, but the guy said to us something like "hey can you report this to the police, i don't know if these dogs belong to anyone or not but someone should know in case someone's looking for them, i can't do it because i can't be talking to cops right now." but the thing was, neither could we. the only three people who actually gave a shit were basically criminals. where the hell do you get off trying to shit on us for being weirdos? oh yeah, you must be so holy, so much better than us "chantards." go back to re*dit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAW2I0pTlsw

[Anonymous No.15547465]

>>15547196
>How can this be the same as the Greek Logos?
It's not the same, the Greek Logos is impersonal and Christ is first and foremost a person.
>deification of Jesus of Nazareth
There is no "deification" of a human person called "Jesus of Nazareth". Jesus Christ is only a divine person, the Logos, who is eternal and divine. Taking on human flesh and joining it to Himself without blending the humanity with the divinity does not make Him into a creation. There is no point in time in which the only subject in Christ (the Logos) started to exist.
>Jewish and Muslim theorists
lol

[Anonymous No.15547485]

>>15547290
>are basically kindhearted
>pretty decent by worldly standards
Kindheartedness without Christ has never saved a person from their sins and from hell. This is basically like the talmudists trying to earn their way into heaven by scoring mitzvot points.

[Anonymous No.15547494]

>>15546687
>apparitions of Mary in Mexico
>where she changes colors
prelest.

[Anonymous No.15547704]

>>15546608
discord . gg/mVNUytg

[Anonymous No.15547723]

>>15547096
I'm sorry, he's just too right bros

[Anonymous No.15547752]

>>15547723

You've been refreshing this thread for an hour and a half waiting for someone to respond to your weak troll and finally gave in and responded to it yourself, and now you'll refresh the thread for another hour and a half hoping someone responds to your response to your own post. "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."

It's time to reevaluate your life, anon.

[Anonymous No.15547810]

>>15547752
>"St" Francis of Assisi
Textbook case of prelest. Stigmata is a post-schism innovation.

[Anonymous No.15547852]

Daily reminder it has been empirically proven religiosity stifles scientific innovation.

https://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/papers/Religion%20December%201g_snd.pdf
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21052.pdf

Daily reminder the overwhelming majority of leading scientists are atheists

https://www.nature.com/articles/28478
https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1936-6434-6-33

Daily reminder most philosophers are atheists

https://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl

Daily reminder religious people are less intelligent according to dozens of studies.

http://diyhpl.us/~nmz787/pdf/The_Relation_Between_Intelligence_and_Religiosity__A_Meta-Analysis_and_Some_Proposed_Explanations.pdf

Daily reminder religious people are less educated

https://www.economist.com/news/international/21623712-how-education-makes-people-less-religiousand-less-superstitious-too-falling-away

Religious people are literally a lesser breed of human

[Anonymous No.15547870]

>>15547852
>stifles scientific innovation
>less intelligent
>less educated
>lesser breed of human
wtf I love religion now

[Anonymous No.15547921]

What nature does the second person of the Godhead the Logos have when it is not temporarly instantiated and how does this compare to when it is instantiated and how does this nature interact with the human nature during its instantiation?

[Anonymous No.15547928]

This thread belongs on /his/.

[Anonymous No.15547938]

>>15547928
No, it belongs on /trash/
Looks like some cripplechan refugees still can't accept this place isn't /christian/

[Anonymous No.15547943]

>>15547419
Poor doggies, glad you're safe anon.

[Anonymous No.15548137]

>>15547852

What kind of person makes decisions about how to live and think about reality based on IQ studies?

[Anonymous No.15548192]

For someone just starting to get into this stuff. I read the Bible, and I'm reading some other things, and thinking about it a lot. What are some prayer that I should be using to start?

[Anonymous No.15548269]

>>15547852
>Daily reminder most philosophers are atheists
wow theism must be pretty based

[Anonymous No.15548310]

>>15547852
>Daily reminder religious people are less educated
>Daily reminder religious people are less intelligent according to dozens of studies.
Hmm

[Anonymous No.15548315]

>>15548192
The Jesus prayer.

[Anonymous No.15548371]

>>15548192

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, also just talking to God and asking him to help you grow in faith and holiness, or whatever you want to say. If you ask God to help you he will, it's something promised in the gospels. He absolutely wants you to talk to him.

[Anonymous No.15548386]

>>15548192
Jesus tells you directly.
Matthew 6:9-13
Pray then like this:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Traditional Catholic prayers.
http://ccc.usccb.org/flipbooks/uscca/files/assets/basic-html/page-560.html#

[Anonymous No.15548425]

>>15548386
>>15548371
>>15548315
Thank you gentlemen

[Anonymous No.15548454]

Of course religious people are less educated and have lower IQs. The smarter and better educated you are the more proud you become and the more likely you are to love yourself and your ideas to the point of rejecting God. Most of the apostles were simple illiterate common people who couldn't even understand simple parables without help. I doubt that all of them would score highly on an IQ test and it doesn't matter at all. The poor are a lot more religious than the rich for the same reason. What do the intelligent have? Maybe happiness in this world, often not even that. God does not care how smart, rich, or beautiful you are, he's always loved the humble and lowly most of all, and people who are high because of their gifts or good fortune have to go out of their way to make themselves lower.

[Anonymous No.15548482]

>>15547852
>haha religious people are retards with low IQ's XDDDD!!!!
>NOOOOO BLACK PEOPLE ONLY HAVE LOW IQ'S BECAUSE OF POVERTY AND THE EVIL WHITE MAN KEEPING THEM DOWN, IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT NOOOOO!!!!

[Anonymous No.15548613]

@15547852
>philosophers
>atheists
Oxymoron. Go read a book and learn what is philosophy.

Also: the vast majority of ancient scientists were deeply religious. They were not even separated fields actually., only in application. Today’s scientists ignore the very foundations of science, see the point we reached where gender studies are science. It is normal that current “scientists” reject God.

[Anonymous No.15548693]

>>15548613
>at-ing people
You must be new here

[Anonymous No.15548713]

>>15548613
science is fundamentally predicated upon the concept of intelligent design. you can't divorce science from that unless you are deeply retarded and don't care about truth; and at that point, are you even a scientist at all?

[Anonymous No.15548811]

>>15548693
just didn't want to feed low quality posts with (you)

>>15548713
>intelligent design
yes, which modern ''science'' classifies as ''pseudoscience''. what even is your point

[Anonymous No.15549257]

Nobody ever posts about the Little Flower in these sorts of threads.

"True Charity consists in bearing with all the defects of our neighbor, in not being surprised at his failings, and in being edified by his least virtues; Charity must not remain shut up in the depths of the heart, for no man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. (Cf. Matthew 5:15). It seems to me that this candle represents the Charity which ought to enlighten and make joyful, not only those who are dearest to me, but all who are in the house."

"There is no artist who does not like his work praised, and the Divine Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but penetrating even to the inmost sanctuary which He has chosen for His dwelling, we admire its beauty."

"On each fresh occasion of combat, when the enemy desires to challenge me, I conduct myself valiantly: knowing that to fight a duel is an unworthy act, I turn my back upon the adversary without ever looking him in the face; then I run to my Jesus and tell Him I am ready to shed every drop of blood in testimony of my belief that there is a Heaven, I tell Him I am glad to be unable to contemplate, while on earth, with the eyes of the soul, the beautiful Heaven that awaits me so He will deign to open it for eternity to poor unbelievers."

"How sweet is the way of Love! True, one may fall, one may not be always faithful, but Love, knowing how to draw profit from all, very quickly consumes whatsoever may displease Jesus, leaving naught but humble and profound peace in the innermost soul."

"Just as a torrent sweeps along with it unto the depths of the sea whatsoever it encounters on its course, even so, my Jesus, does the soul which plunges into the boundless ocean of Thy Love draw after her all her treasures. Lord, Thou knowest that for me these treasures are the souls it has pleased Thee to unite to mine."

[Anonymous No.15549776]

Do you ever think about creating great Catholic art, something that would glorify God and draw souls to Christ through its power?

I'm a writer and a poet, and it's my dream to create a great work of literature that does this. I think of Dante, and how the Divine Comedy is one great glorification of God, and how it elucidates the beauty and the justice and the loveliness of the Divine. My dream is to create a work of art that is as great as the Comedy, and that glorifies God as much as the Comedy does.

[Anonymous No.15549818]

>>15548482
Who are you quoting?

[Anonymous No.15549827]

Daily reminder that you cannot reject Mary without rejecting Christ.

"God the Father gave his only Son to the world only through Mary. Whatever desires the patriarchs may have cherished, whatever entreaties the prophets and saints of the Old Law may have had for 4,000 years to obtain that treasure, it was Mary alone who merited it and found grace before God by the power of her prayers and the perfection of her virtues. "The world being unworthy," said Saint Augustine, "to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her." The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in
Mary and through Mary. God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in Mary but only after having asked her consent through one of the chief
ministers of his court.

The plan adopted by the three persons of the Blessed Trinity in the Incarnation, the first coming of Jesus Christ, is adhered to each day in an invisible manner throughout the Church and they will pursue it to the end of time until the last coming of Jesus Christ.

God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas (maria). He gathered all his graces together and called them Mary (Maria). The great God has a treasury or storehouse full of riches in which he has enclosed all that is beautiful, resplendent, rare, and precious, even his own Son. This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the saints call the "treasury of the Lord". From her
fullness all men are made rich.

God the Son imparted to his mother all that he gained by his life and death, namely, his infinite merits and his eminent virtues. He made her the treasurer of all his Father had given him as heritage. Through her he applies his merits to his members and through her he transmits his virtues and distributes his graces. She is his mystical channel, his aqueduct, through which he causes his mercies to flow gently and abundantly.

God the Holy Spirit entrusted his wondrous gifts to Mary, his faithful spouse, and chose her as the dispenser of all he possesses, so that she distributes all his gifts and graces to whom she wills, as much as she wills, how she wills and when she wills. No heavenly gift is given to men which does not pass through her virginal hands. Such indeed is the will of God, who has decreed that we should have all things through Mary, so that, making herself poor and lowly, and hiding herself in the depths of nothingness during her whole life, she might be enriched, exalted and honoured by almighty God. Such are the views of the Church and the early Fathers." - Louis de Montfort

[Anonymous No.15549838]

>>15548811
(You)s aren't upvotes you fucking redditor

[Anonymous No.15549843]

>>15549776
based.

[Anonymous No.15549855]

>priest makes us recite the pledge of allegiance during his homily
>old lady behind me whispers "i didn't like that"

[Anonymous No.15549896]

>>15549855
lol wtf

[Anonymous No.15549956]

>>15549855

That's annoying. Part of why my parents left the Church was that they felt pressure to vote Republican. Seems really inappropriate to me. This guy from my parish wanted me to join the Knights of Columbus but I couldn't join a group like that that supports the party of war. Neither party is really Christian, a Christian would probably be left of the Dems on economics and more pacifist than either. What do I know though? I know there's a lot of leeway to use your own reason and conscience. I know my great-grandfather said it was a mortal sin for an Irish person to vote for the Republicans which I always thought sounded pretty based.

[Anonymous No.15549966]

>>15549956
Catholics shouldn't even believe in democracy, the proper government is monarchy and aristocracy. Mass democracy is un-Christian. It was a mass democracy that voted to crucify Christ.

[Anonymous No.15549979]

The evils which lust brings in its train are no less numerous than the sins it occasions. It robs man of his reputation-his most important possession, for there is no vice more degrading or more shameful. It rapidly undermines the strength, exhausts the energy, and withers the beauty of its victim, bringing upon him the most foul and loathsome diseases. It robs youth of its freshness, and hurries it into a premature and dishonorable old age. It penetrates even to the sanctuary of the soul, darkening the understanding, obscuring the memory, and weakening the will.

[Anonymous No.15550082]

>>15549855
based granny
>>15549966
amen.

[Anonymous No.15550097]

>>15549838
i know you absolute dense retard, it is a manner of forestalling worthless posts to gather attention. people shouldnt even reply to that

[Anonymous No.15550106]

do any of you know why duns scotus isn't a doctor.

[Anonymous No.15550182]

POOR MEN AND WOMEN who are sinners, I, a greater sinner than you, wish to give to you this rose—a crimson one, because the Precious Blood of Our Lord has fallen upon it. Please God that it will bring true fragrance into your lives—but above all may it save you from the danger that you are in. Every day unbelievers and unrepentant sinners cry: “Let us crown ourselves with roses.” But our cry should be: “Let us crown ourselves with roses of the Most Holy Rosary.”

How different are theirs from ours! Their roses are pleasures of the flesh, worldly honors and passing riches which wilt and decay in no time, but ours, which are the Our Father and Hail Mary which we have said devoutly over and over again and to which we have added good penitential acts, will never wilt or die and they will be just as exquisite thousands of years from now as they are today.

On the contrary, sinners’ roses only look like roses, while in point of fact they are cruel thorns which prick them during life by giving them pangs of conscience, at their death they pierce them with bitter regret and, still worse, in eternity, they turn to burning shafts of anger and despair. But if our roses have thorns, they are the thorns of Jesus Christ Who changes them into roses. If our roses prick us, it is only for a short time—and only in order to cure the illness of sin and to save our souls.

So by all means we should eagerly crown ourselves with these roses from Heaven, and recite the entire Rosary every day, that is to say three Rosaries each of five decades which are like three little wreaths or crowns of flowers: and there are two reasons for doing this: First of all to honor the three crowns of Jesus and Mary—Jesus’ crown of grace at the time of His incarnation, His crown of thorns during His passion and His crown of glory in Heaven, and of course the three-fold crown which the Most Blessed Trinity gave Mary in Heaven.

Secondly, we should do this so that we ourselves may receive three crowns from Jesus and Mary. The first is a crown of merit during our lifetime, the second, a crown of peace at our death, and the third, a crown of glory in Heaven.

If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins “you shall receive a never fading crown of glory.”6 Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.

[Anonymous No.15550191]

>>15550106
I thought he was. I know he's only Blessed, rather than being a full saint, but I was pretty sure he was a Doctor of the Church.

[Anonymous No.15550228]

>>15550182
st louis de montfort?

[Anonymous No.15550253]

>tfw meditation is trendy among the wealthy and educated now when poor Christians have been meditating using the rosary for hundreds of years but to cultivate virtue and not for vain and stupid self-fulfillment

It was in the year 1214 that Holy Mother Church received the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use today. It was given to the Church by Saint Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a powerful means of converting the Albigensians and other sinners.

I will tell you the story of how he received it, which is found in the very well-known book De Dignitate Psalterii by Blessed Alan de la Roche.7 Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people’s sins was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma.

At this point Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three Angels, and she said:

“Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?”

“Oh, my Lady,” answered Saint Dominic, “you know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation.”

Then Our Lady replied: “I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.”

So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district he made straight for the Cathedral. At once unseen Angels rang the bells to gather the people together and Saint Dominic began to preach.

At the very beginning of his sermon an appalling storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady exposed in a prominent place they saw her raise her arms to Heaven three times to call down God’s vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God.

God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and to make it more widely known.

At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching. So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Holy Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs. In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.

[Anonymous No.15550359]

“Blessed Alan said Our Lady revealed to him that after she had appeared to Saint Dominic, her Blessed Son appeared to him and said:

‘Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying upon your own wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men, you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls.

‘But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is given bitter medicine he needs to be prepared by being put in the right frame of mind to really benefit by it.

“This is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God, in His mercy, could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So I want you to preach my Rosary.’”

>not just a pious legend but really honest advice. Every saint has given abundant testimony to the power of prayer. The scripture tells us to pray all the time. Prayer has to be the foundation of everything else that you do. Even if you can't do anything else you should pray and God will lead you.

[Anonymous No.15550427]

I read the Douay Rheims. I read Chesterton, Belloc, O'Connor, Waugh, and Greene. Not sure who to read next. I have yet to read a book by or about a saint I really enjoy.

[Anonymous No.15550496]

>>15550427

Read Augustine's Confessions. I think most young educated modern people would be able to relate to him and his struggles. He was earnest but also by his own admission weak and foolish and felt unable to be chaste for a long time. He came from a "privileged background". I don't even think he got baptized until his early 30s.

[Anonymous No.15550517]

>>15550496
This. The Confessions is a classic for a reason. It's very relatable. And you'll get some cool philosophy and theology at the end, too.

[Anonymous No.15550559]

>>15549776
Remember, anon, to add a path to your future story. A path of redemption, a way to go, someone to follow. I'm not saying it should be a silly story with a happy ending, I'm saying it should have at least something for the readers to understand as being 'good'. The Comeddia had a Hell (total despair), the Purgatory (redemption) and ended in Heaven (Victory, triumph, comfort)

Modern works of literature often feature no good characters, no good paths, no good morals and no salvation at all. These are the fruits of a godless time.

[Anonymous No.15550612]

>>15550253

Cool kids are now going nofap, while the Church has been teaching chastity for millenia

They also talk about meditation, while the Church recommends the rosary for hundreds of years

There's also the guys who sleep on the floor, take cold showers, don't eat sugar and so on, who claim that not having too much comfort is good for you, not knowing anything about the concept of mortification

All these new trends are just proving a point: the Catholic Church is an extremely wise institution and we owe so much to it. I'm not even talking about actual religion here, I'm treating it as a institution of morals and customs. It is seriously good in what it does.

[Anonymous No.15550647]

>>15550496
>>15550517
I dunno, guys, do you think the third time will be a charm? My first impressions rarely change.

[Anonymous No.15550665]

I've often heard people speak badly about Paul. "The Gospel is great and then Paul ruined it all". I never understood where it came from, everything Paul teaches is clearly inherent in the gospel. He was mainly arguing against people who wanted to force gentiles to follow the laws of Moses. Is that what anyone today would want?

I figure the main reason people don't like him is that he talks about the submission of women to men, slaves to masters, citizens to governments, and he mentions sexual sins more often than Jesus does. But Jesus was a Jewish teacher. If he doesn't talk about fornication much it's because it's so inherent to his tradition and known to the people he was talking to that he didn't need to emphasize it as much as Paul had to dealing with gentiles. Slavery and feminism is too big of a topic to get into.

Paul was a mystic who could see that the reality of God was more than can be conveyed by a set of verbal precepts. "The foolishness of God is wisdom unto men, the weakness of God is strength unto men." "I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire."

[Anonymous No.15550690]

>>15550665
>I never understood where it came from
Demons. They essentially deny the divinity of Christ when they say such things, since they assume Christ cannot protect His teachings from being immediately corrupted.

[Anonymous No.15550695]

>>15550612

Nowadays the Church is a voice for self-control. 300-400 years ago people said it was a sensual religion of indulgence because the dominant trend was puritanical. It seems extreme to moderns but it's really standing in the middle. It's our godless culture that is extreme and God protect us from the ruin it will create.

[Anonymous No.15550752]

Lately I've been reading a lot of Merton. I know it isn't Christian but Chuang Tzu has been very inspiring to me. I've also been reading John Wu, a Chinese writer who converted to Catholicism. The Tao Chuang Tzu is talking about is God. I used to stupidly understand Chuang Tzu as almost an amoral naturalist when he only talks the way he does because his times were so hypocritical and legalistic. He was 99% of the way there, at least the way Merton translates him.

Fishes are born in water
Man is born in Tao.
If fishes, born in water,
Seek the deep shadow
Of pond and pool,
All their needs
Are satisfied.
If man, born in Tao,
Sinks into the deep shadow
Of non-action
To forget aggression and concern,
He lacks nothing
His life is secure.

Moral: "All the fish needs
Is to get lost in water.
All the man needs is to get lost
in Tao."

[Anonymous No.15550797]

>>15550690
I feel like a lot of people who call themselves Catholic these days lack that kind of faith. Including a lot of so-called Trads. They love the old ways, but they lack the really simple, strong faith that God will always protect the Church and that, in the end, things will turn out all right for Catholicism. So you see them delving into conspiracy theories and worrying about the internal affairs of the Church, which usually aren't their business. It's right to be worried about corruption and wickedness in the Church, but it shouldn't be a cause for giving in to despair and assuming that God has abandoned us. If you're really that worried, start a reform movement. There's a long tradition of that. Some of the people who started them even became great saints.

[Anonymous No.15550853]

>>15550797

>trads

Spiritual pride is a serious sin and a lot of trads have it. That's what I was trying to get at in the OP. If you're walking around mentally calling every girl in yoga pants a stupid slut then you're doing something seriously wrong. If you're sitting at mass judging the person in the pew ahead of you for what they're wearing then you're doing something seriously wrong.

Those are just internet trads though. The only trads I've known in real life were really nice people.

[Anonymous No.15550885]

>>15550853

Which isn't to say yoga pants aren't really wrong or that you shouldn't dress up reasonably well for mass, it's just bad for your soul to walk around judging people, especially when almost nobody you meet will be living the way you'd want them to. You should want to convert people but you'll never convert the average person by preaching to them, only by living a good life. Two people influenced my reversion to Catholicism and neither of them ever talked about religion, but they are both really selfless and I knew their Christianity was a big part of how they acted that way.

[Anonymous No.15551165]

>>15550853
>>15550885
used to see whale tails all the time. not so much anymore in the last two years. judging wasnt the problem. problem was the image of the pleasures hidden in the cleft holding the thong.

[Anonymous No.15551657]

>>15546687
Racism has secularist origins. In the 19th century, social Darwinism was considered the pinnacle of science.

[Anonymous No.15551682]

>>15547852
> the overwhelming majority of scientists are atheists

But the most prominent and successful are distinctively not. Both today and in the past.

90% of those who are considered scientists today are just bureaucratic cogs in the wheels of Academia.

[Anonymous No.15551788]

Is there any good Catholic response to Nietzschean philosophy as a whole, and not just the moral aspect of his work? (Will to power, eternal return, etc.)
I know plenty of Catholic writers have written against liberalism, modernity, nihilism, etc. but I have yet to read anything specifically about Nietzsche. I read Seraphim Rose's book on nihilism, even though he isn't a Catholic, but was left feeling like the book was rather surface level. Not bad necessarily just not what I was looking for.

Heidegger wrote in his essay about Nietzsche that Nietzsche is against Christendom rather than Christ himself, and that made me wonder what Catholics have thought about such interpretations. Also, if the resurrection truly happened, then is there even a point debating whether Christianity is good or not? I would be interested to see a response to that sort of thinking as well, as it seems that a lot of anti-Christians operate upon the premise that Christianity is false to begin with.

[Anonymous No.15551888]

>>15551788
Your two paragraphs directly answer each other.

The proper answer to Nietzsche is the Resurrection. Nietzsche is such a powerful and formidable thinker, and so directly attacks the very root of Christianity, that the only real answer to him is Christ Himself, and His Resurrection. The reason Nietzsche is so strong is that he is very correct in a lot of ways, and accurately diagnoses much of what is wrong with the world today, and accurately analyzes the state of much of modernity. The fact that his own writings came to shape modernity for so many only furthers his accuracy.

Nietzsche is so powerful precisely because he is the most accurate and most correct of all the atheists. Nietzsche accurately diagnoses what the world would be like if Christianity is a fraud and God didn't exist, and everyone had just been pretending for 2000 years. Lots of other atheists are not like that. Bertrand Russell is not like that. You can dismiss Bertrand Russell easily. Christopher Hitchens can be dismissed easily as well. But Nietzsche is a better seer and a clearer thinker than either of them, and his declarations make perfect sense if Christianity is false. If Christianity is false, we live in Nietzsche's world, and, paradoxically, Nietzsche IS our Christ. Nietzsche is the messiah and prophet of a godless world.

But if Jesus is truly raised from the dead, Nietzsche loses all his power. What use are all of Nietzsche's diagnoses, in the face of a God who truly lives, a God who came down to be among us so that we might be among Him, a God who lived, then died, then lived again? Christ Crucified and Christ Risen is the defeat of Nietzsche, nothing else will suffice. Nietzsche is too powerful to be defeated by anything less. But it is a defeat, a final, triumphant defeat, and thank God for that.

Nietzsche is so powerful these days precisely because the modern world has forgotten that Jesus really did rise from the dead. This is a thing we must remind people of now more than ever.

[Anonymous No.15551959]

This is unrelated to literature, this thread is only a bunch of idiots wanking over religion.

Fuck off.

[Anonymous No.15551982]

>>15551788
check out solovyov maybe, particularly his book against the positivists and then understand his later philosophy as a response to this exact problem even though he saw it in other thinkers as well

berdyaev also might interest you but solovyov was arguably asking this same question

[Anonymous No.15551998]

Thanks for the recc. I am going to try out reading The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Postivists,

[Anonymous No.15552043]

didn't go to mass today
my faith is being challenged and I fear failure

[Anonymous No.15552133]

>>15546687
I'm rather convinced that 'racist Christians' haven't actually read the Bible or are illiterate altogether.

[Anonymous No.15552154]

>>15546816
As long as you put your faith in Christ, you're saved in my book. Praying to Mary does nothing. Fight me.

[Anonymous No.15552164]

>>15550797
the main thing i don't like about trads is that they're all about getting wife and breeding and thats about it. they complain and complain about how the church and the world are fucked and yet they sit on their ass enjoying sex with their wife and the love of a family. its not following the example Jesus set, which was giving up all his privileges, living a life of poverty, and suffering for us, and instead is more like catholic-reskinned american dream idolatry. then they sit in their thrown in their comfy houses with their comfy families and preach down to us from youtube and twitter telling us we need to go out and change things. then they shut the camera off and go lay down in their comfy bed with their wife, meanwhile all us zoomers are out here getting FCUKED IN THE ASS by FUCKING EVERYONE.

[Anonymous No.15552187]

>>15552043
Even if we fail, which we inevitably will on this jourrney, remember that we have the sacrament of forgiveness, where we are granted pardon and peace. In the mean time, pray the act of contrition and try your best to make it to the confessional. You'll be in my prayers, God bless