Catholics
Comments
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I need to listen to the Catechism in a Year after I get done with the Bible in a Year. I really like how Father Mike explains things too. I have just started dabbling in the Hallow app.
Mary - It sounds like you have definitely a full plate this Lent!
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A priest that has definitely made an impression on me from the time that I was a child was Monseigneur Todd O'Leary. Father O'leary was sent as a freshly ordained priest along with Deacon Harry (later Father Harry) to our new parish in Tucson, Arizona before our church was actually built. We were considered a mission and they were both from Ireland. I just wanted to share with you Father Todd's Laminated List.
Msgr. Todd O'Leary's Laminated List
- Before you say anything to anyone, ask yourself three things:
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Is it necessary?- Make promises sparingly and keep them faithfully.
- Never miss the opportunity to compliment or to say something encouraging to or about someone.
- Refuse to talk negatively about others: don't gossip and don't listen to gossip.
- Have a forgiving view of people.
- Believe that most people are doing the best they can. (It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.)
- Forget about counting to 10. Count to 1,000 before doing or saying anything that could make matters worse.
- Let your virtues speak for themselves.
- If someone criticizes you, see if there is any truth to what they are saying. If so, make changes. If there is no truth to the criticism, ignore it and live so that no one will believe the negative remarks.
- Cultivate your sense of humor; laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
- Do not seek so much to be consoled, as to console; do not seek so much to be understood as to understand; do not seek so much to be loved, as to love.
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Thanks for sharing the list, Cowgal! I love it!
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cowgal,
Yes, thank you for sharing! I'll also be laminating Msgr. O'Leary's list.
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An Old Irish Blessing for St. Patrick's Day
May your days be many and your troubles be few.
May all God's blessings descend upon you.
May peace be within you, may your heart be strong.
May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.
May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us.
May thy Salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and for evermore.
Amen.
Written by St. Patrick
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Oh, I love that, Cowgal! Thanks for sharing. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all here!
I am leaving soon to get a pelvic MRI done. Trying so hard to not be afraid. My husband and I went to Mass this morning and we have some wonderful people praying for me, but I know as I lie in the machine shortly, my heart will be racing. I will just keep repeating "Jesus, Mary, Joseph" throughout the procedure. God is good always. I am ready to accept all that might be. I won't find out the results until the 23rd. Sometimes it seems as though the waiting is the hardest part!
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I'm in your pocket for you for your MRI and have said a prayer for you. I hope you get good results.
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Thanks, Cowgal - at home again and other than the tech telling me that I needed to control my breathing because it was causing too much movement in my pelvic area, all was good!
I was nervous, and had to wear a mask in the machine, so I know I was breathing more deeply than normal. And now comes the waiting game. Thank you so much for the prayers, I am grateful!0 -
cowgal....Lovely prayer by St Patrick. Thank you for posting.
tld2017 - I like to hold a plastic, child length rosary (or have one in my pocket) during my scans and other procedures. I'm a convert, and don't know what I would do without my faith and the richness of Catholic traditions. Prayers as you wait and for good results.
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Weninwi, what a good idea to hold a plastic rosary - never thought of that since mine are all metal but I could easily get one of the children's plastic ones from the Catholic shop. Thanks for the idea and especially for your prayers!
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"Catholic - ish" here. I'm from a "mixed-marriage". My father was raised a Catholic (Irish Catholic heritage), was an alter boy, etc., but said that the horrors of war he witnessed first hand during WW2 and the Korean War caused him to take some serious pause. He never went to church during my lifetime unless it was a funeral or something. My mother was raised an Episcopalian (old Maryland English/Scottish heritage) and took us to the Episcopal church when we were young. We were never baptized anything. She was an off and on church goer, and stopped around the time I was in jr. high, then never went again until she was in her 60's. Then she got real regular again until she died. When I was married my husband (who was raised an Episcopalian) and I took our kids to the Episcopal church for a while, basically with the idea that they should be "exposed" with the idea that they could then make up their own minds in due time. We also let them go to any church with any of their friends when invited, again with the idea of "exposure" so they could decide for themselves.
Anyway, the point of my post here has to do with the metal/plastic rosary thing. I had never thought about this sort of thing, until my recent bone scan and the tech asked me to take anything metal out of my pockets, etc. Well, I told him I did have a couple of "good luck charms" in my pocket that were metal, and that I hated to have to put them in my purse. Interesting and coincidentally, he had been born in Belfast and was of Irish descent also. I told him that one of my charms was a shamrock (the other is a "non-denominational" guardian angel). He said it was all something his mother had been into also, but that he didn't put much credence in it all, and that he thought I would be totally fine. Well it really wasn't all that big a deal to me, but I had never thought about how those scans would all go for someone who wanted to have a rosary with them. I can see where that would be a real issue, and what a wonderful idea to use a child's plastic one. Maybe I'll find myself a plastic shamrock and/or guardian angel that I can keep in my pockets while I get scanned (smile).
I'm actually all over the map religion wise and can go from being an outright atheist one hour, to an agnostic, to a believer at the switch of a button depending on what I'm thinking, reading, or experiencing at any given time. Sometimes I think I might be a bit of a pantheist. What I really am drawn to are the commonalities that are in the bare bones and nuts and bolts of almost all religions, e.g. "do unto others". Even "secular humanists" and bona fide atheists seem to agree with the rudimentary basics.
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tld,
I hope the scans provide the necessary information even though you jiggled a bit. It's hard to consciously will yourself to stay still! I had the same problem when I recently had MRIs of my feet (thought I might have hairline fractures but it turned out to be just arthritis.)
I'm praying that your scans are clear!
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ElaineTherese, thanks for your prayers, so grateful for that! Yes, it seemed the harder I tried to breathe calmly, the more nervous I got and literally had to specifically pray for help controlling it! And yet here I am at this moment perfectly capable of breathing normally, but not so much in that MRI machine yesterday!
I got through it...eventually! 0 -
threetree,
I can somewhat relate to your early religious background as I too was raised protestant (United Church of Christ), attended Sunday School regularly, sang in the choir, confirmed. First years away from home I drifted from my faith and eventually became completely lost in self-harming behavior. I eventually found my way back, joined the Episcopal church, known then as the "thinking man's" Christian denomination. I loved the rituals (kneeling, weekly communion, attended my first Tenebrae service) that are somewhat similar to the Catholic faith. But gradually, with more living and a growing burden of guilt, I realized I need something more and I was ready to "come home" to the Catholic Church. I went through the RCIA process and love the richness of the many Catholic traditions and rituals. I don't relate to all of them, but I pick and choose. For example, I sang for awhile in a chant choir. Since my MBC diagnosis, I don't know what I would do without the support I receive from my local faith community and the wider Catholic faith community (ex: Relevant Radio). I also like The Coming Home Network International. It 's for and by converts.
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Hi Wendy - Yes, the Episcopal Church, "Catholic Lite", and/or as you heard it, "the thinking man's denomination". I am so glad to hear that you found what works for you, and that the Catholic Church gives you so much of what you need. I work in social services and I can't believe how many clients and others I've run into over the years who were engaged in self-harming behaviors, but then found themselves with church. Especially people with alcohol problems. I knew one gentleman who'd been in that situation and he told me, "All you need is AA and the Bible!". I've heard many others echo that sentiment too; including an extended family member who is a very devout conservative Catholic (always from a very devout and conservative Catholic family; not a convert). I totally agree with you about the ritual. I love the ritual and both the Episcopal and Catholic Churches have a lot that is wonderful. When my husband and I were going to church and taking our kids for their "exposure", we went to the local Episcopal Cathedral that had a fairly "high church" service. Holidays had fabulous organ, brass, and choir with lots of incense and everything else that goes along with that. I just loved it. During those same years, I loved watching the Christmas Eve service from the Vatican on TV every year. We would put our kids to bed and then get out all their Christmas stuff and put it under the tree for the next morning, then my husband would go off to bed, and I would just sit out in our living room by myself with the tree lights on, a little glass of port, and that Christmas Eve service from the Vatican on TV. I'd just be in my own private little heaven there at those times.
All that said, and for all my love of the music, ritual, tradition, art, etc., I cannot just accept things on "blind faith"; "faith alone". I am a natural skeptic and have never been able to "give myself" fully to any church or religious belief, although I find religion fascinating in an academic sense. I also enjoy reading the "Atheist" thread on this site too, and as with this one, I can totally understand where the people who post are coming from. I can totally understand and appreciate how so many find religion so very helpful, especially at a time like this with cancer, and on the other hand, I can totally understand the people who say they are flat out atheists and cannot see how there could be such a thing as a loving God, if all this suffering is going on with people. I can personally fluctuate between these two extremes at any given hour of any given day, depending on what I'm thinking, reading, and hearing out there in the world. There are times when I really wish I was a bona fide "true believer" and could have the faith that some do, because like you, so many who are unquestioning believers do seem to get so much comfort and have like you said, the support of all your church friends and associates. I would love to have that too, but I just can't get to that sort of place with myself and don't think I ever will. My old childhood "bestie" who lives in another state now is dealing with stage 4 lung cancer, and she told me that she now considers herself an absolute "believer". Like me, she grew up without really going to church very much, and didn't on her own as an adult. Her family background was actually Pentecostal (very different from mine), and her mother's father was a Pentecostal minister. He and his wife had been missionaries somewhere in Asia if I remember, but churchgoing never really stuck with their children and grandchildren, although they always maintained a respect. Now with her cancer, my friend is back in "church mode" and I think she said that she was going to an Episcopal Church these days.
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I have been exploring St. Francis DeSales and St. Ignatius, and have discovered that the basic principles of AA are very much founded on the process which they outlined. AA is at its core very Catholic. It is so sad that Catholics in so many areas have to form their own support communities to supplement or replace traditional AA, because of influences from other belief systems.
I was raised in a Mormon-influenced area of the country, and it is amazing how much that influenced my original Catholic faith (our religious education was also deficient, and there were few and expensive possibilities for Catholic education). By the time I got to a Catholic college, it was too late.
I later returned to faith, and gradually migrated back to the Church of my childhood. It has been in very recent years that I have learned more about Catholicism and can actually proudly claim it.
I think the largest transformation in my journey has been to set aside the "If I am good, then God will be good to me." mentality, and take up the "Looking forward to the Heavenly reward." mentality. Earthly rewards are nothing compared to what God has planned for us in the afterlife. Another reflection: God judges us according to what He gives us.
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Great discussion here! I'm a convert who sought truth and found it in the Catholic Church. Not all Christian "flavors" and religions - or even non-religions - can all be simultaneously true. They can all contain elements of truth, but can't all be true at their core. When I understood the meaning and significance of Christ giving Peter the Keys to the Kingdom, based on Old Testament scripture, that was it for me. I think of all the martyrs who died for their faith ... I want that kind of enduring faith. Not a convenient one. Not an "it suits me" one. But one that serves as an anchor during all of life's journey, because it's true and worth dying for.
God bless everyone here!
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redemtivesufferer,
Just bought your book....thanks for posting.
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MCBaker - I found your comments very interesting. Years ago I became very fascinated with St. Ignatius and the Jesuits. At that time, I actually related a lot of St. Ignatius' meditations to what I was reading about Buddhism. It was one of those "universal commonality" sort of areas that I find fascinating about religion.
Also, your comment about being raised Catholic, but in a traditionally Mormon area. I read a book many years ago called, "Four British Folkways in America" by David Hackett Fischer. I'm a bit of a genealogy nut and it was on a list of recommended books I came across in my genealogy research. He had a basic theory that there were 4 main religious groups that came here from England and settled in various parts of the country: Puritans from East Anglia to New England, Quakers from north central England to the Delaware Valley, Anglicans to old Maryland and Virginia, and now I can't remember the 4th. His claim was that all of those related cultural and religious traditions basically remained in, and colored, the respective regions for centuries. An example is my father's Irish Catholic family from Northeast Pennsylvania (originally settled by Quakers). That family was part of an Irish immigrant community and everything was "heavily Catholic" by their standards. Well, my father relayed a story to me once about a time when he was about 6 and he and his father went to visit cousins in Philadelphia. They stopped in Wannamaker's (old dept store) to get a gift for the young girl cousin they would be visiting. My father said that as a boy, he only thought of getting things like trucks for other children, but his father said, no this was for a girl and that girls liked things like dolls, so they went to the "dolls of the world" display at the store, where there were many dolls all dressed up in different costume. My father saw one that looked like a nun, and told his father, "We are Catholics, so we should get her the nun doll." He said his father then said, "Oh, no, no no. We just 'think' we're Catholics, but we are really Quakers, because they originally settled here and what we see, do, and believe is heavily influenced by that." I think my father said they got her the Quaker doll. My father's version of Catholicism was always very "played down", "plain" and he never went for all the high ritual, expensive church trappings type stuff, and he was always dismayed and disgruntled by Catholics who were "showy", etc. I really wonder if that wasn't because Catholicism in Northeastern PA was strongly influenced by the original Quaker culture and values. (To top it off, his mother's family were from a long line of New England Puritans with similar values, so I think his upbringing was very much influenced by all that.)
I live in the Puget Sound area and Seattle was originally ("officially") founded by the Denny family from Boston. They were of old Puritan stock and came here with a party of others who were also descended from Massachusetts Puritans. Decades (over a century) later, I grew up in this area with all sorts of "Sunday Blue Laws", "banned in Boston" type laws on the records, and only during my lifetime did some of those laws begin to change. Again, the prevailing culture and values for a very long time, was that of the original Puritan founders.
Since Mormons originally settled your area, it is no surprise to me at all that the Catholicism in that region also reflected some of those cultural values. I would imagine it's something like that in Catholic communities all over the world. It would be hard to pinpoint just what a "real" Catholic community might be like, because they are all so influenced by every other group around them.
Sorry this was so long, and maybe rambling, but your post really got me to thinking about a lot of things. Did getting cancer have anything to do with your shift from, "If I'm good, God will be good to me", to the focus on a heavenly reward? Just curious as to what moved you in the different direction. Thanks!
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No, some of my ancestors settled in that area before the Mormons. They kicked the Mormons out because of their misbehavior. Unfortunately, Joseph Smith was killed, and someone worse took his place. But, in general, Mormons never got over it. Many are anti-Catholic and devoted to bringing it back to that area. Positive LDS values, however, like "If you can make it, don't buy it," dressing modestly, spending conservatively, and distrust of big government were a big part of our lives, and ones to which I still subscribe. I even have pickles and jams on a shelf in a closet. Cultural drift does happen, and it can be good or bad.
What sent me into the "Heavenly Reward" camp was a series of unfortunate events from people who subscribe to metaphysical materialism, which is distinctly not Catholic. The doctor who originally diagnosed the BC was amazed at my serenity at the time of diagnosis.
Please do not ask me any more questions on the subject. It is sensitive, both to myself and others. Otherwise, I will gladly delete these posts.
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MC Baker - I am so very sorry - don't worry, no more questions; no need to delete anything. I had no intention of stirring anything up. I was unaware of the sensitive nature of this for you. Please accept my apologies.
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A dear priest at my church sent me an email several weeks ago, suggesting that I say the Prayer of Abandonment by Saint Charles de Foucauld daily. I know many of you are familiar with this prayer but I thought I'd add it here just in case some are not. It is quite beautiful! Wishing each of you a wonderful afternoon! Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place all our trust in You!
Father, I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.Amen.
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Beautiful prayer, tld.
I accept your apology, threetrees.
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threetree,
I also read "Four British Folkways in America" by David Hackett Fischer. A big book (many pages), but I found it fascinating, in part because one branch of my ancestry, on my mother's side, goes back to the puritans from East Anglia, who settled in Massachusetts. My mother's other ancestry is Welsh, and I thought I might have Catholic ancestors in that branch, but no. On my father's side, which is Swiss, my ancestors were from the Zwingli protestant tradition. I've decided I have to go back more than 400 years to find any direct-line ancestors who were Catholic. Makes me feel like a modern day trail blazer. Genealogy is my hobby and I could on and on about the enjoyment and fulfillment it has provided.
tld,
Thank you for sharing the Abandonment prayer.
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Wendy - That's amazing that you also read that book. I have never known anyone before who had ever heard of it, much less who read it and found it interesting. I thought it was all pretty fascinating and he didn't just include religion, but architecture, cooking styles (New England baking, southern frying, etc.), and if I remember, he even went on to talk about continuing migrations of those same people across the country and how even things like voting patterns today, can reflect some of the characteristics of those original groups who settled on the East Coast. Having Swiss ancestry would be interesting - not nearly as common here as some.
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Thank you, weninwi! However, please know that the stories come from women of various Christian backgrounds - or flavors, as I mentioned earlier. 😀 Most were from the breast cancer support group I was in. Very dear women, indeed.
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Remember that Maryland was settled by English Catholics eager to get away from the religious persecution in England. The Carroll family (one of whom was bishop in Maryland) was significantly involved in the American Revolution, although in the northernmost areas, sentiment against the English acceptance of the traditions of the French Catholic population of Quebec and Ontario was a trigger for the Revolution.
I have New Amsterdam Dutch lineages. They appear to have intermarried for almost 200 years.
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Six weeks ago, by chance while looking for disc degeneration in my back, the radiologist found a 20+ millimeter "tumor" in my sacrum. My oncologist's words were very dire at that time. I got the Anointing of the Sick shortly thereafter. I won't go into all the details again but it was very scary and was looking not good at all. Shortly after this, I had a whole body bone MRI with and w/o contrast, and a CT scan of the area, which could not find the tumor. The oncologist was not convinced it was not there, since it was so lit up on the MRI scans just weeks prior. I had a pelvic MRI done last week. Today we found out that the "tumor" is gone! The oncologist is not sure what it was but it is not there anymore!! Praise be to God!
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Rejoice!!0 -
Absolutely, Mary!
We went to church directly from the oncology office and said the rosary at Adoration! 0
