Things that I enjoy.

-Eating a pear; core and all.
-Really breathing, feeling the air fill my lungs as if I had never breathed before.
-The feeling of a cool, smooth stone.
-Catching a reference to an old movie.
-Telling a person that they are Good.
-Asking someone what they are thinking about, and getting a real response.
-Being asked what I am thinking of, and being listened to as I respond.
-Sitting down in a hot shower.
-Untangling wild flowers that have gotten tangled.
-Watching ladybugs.
-Petting cats.
-Smelling the air conditioning when it turns on for the first time in Spring.
-Humming The Lord of the Rings’ Hobbit theme.
-Smiling at a stranger, and seeing their eyes light up.
-Helping another person love something they made, or are good at.
-Looking at the sun through stained glass.
-The first few minutes of sitting in a car that has been in the sun, before I begin to sweat.
-Peeling the bark off a twig with my hands.
-Noticing an unconscious habit someone has.
-The first week of school or summer, when no one has gotten busy yet.

What makes you happy?

Sometimes I want to join a religious order so I can do this

letmebecatholic:

True story.

sonofmonks: Accepting a particular interpretation

Accepting a particular interpretation

There is a claim that Christians do not use reason, do not think for themselves or look at evidence, I’ll try here to respond.

Whenever we are children, we trust our parents to tell us the truth because they are the ones who take care of us and look after us. When we are adults, we look at the evidence of what they say, and check it against the other ideas we are presented with, and determine the truth of their statements. Since almost all the statements of science or revelation, even philosophical ideas, are based on what we are told by authorities of the past or present, then most of our knowledge is based on a previous interpreter of events and facts of the past and present. Another way to say this; we cannot know if the interpretation of facts we are given by others is accurate or not.

The good and rational thing to do is to check for ourselves, to look at sources, check records, see whether a thing is true or not for ourselves, and when we are able we should do this. However, this is not always possible. If I am told that the center of the earth is lava, that Hitler led the Nazis, or that Christ was God, I can check the sources, see the documents and evidence, and get testimonies, but without being there, or checking a fact for myself, i cannot necessarily know if any of it is accurate or fabricated. Even without an intentional lie, someone could simply have recorded something wrongly. The sources I use for truth are based on the interpretation or work of an individual or group.

So then, unless I want to live without ever accepting the testimony of another, something practically impossible, I must have a means to determine not What is true primarily, but rather Who is trustworthy in their interpretation. This is done unconsciously by every human being, whether it be scientific truth or religious.

The person who accepts only material explanations does so because he is suspicious of any kind of spiritual existence, or has a reason to doubt those who tell him of it, or it seems contrary to his experience. The same is true of the religious person. While the bible and Church may have God’s authority, they also may not. Now follow this to its conclusion.

The basis of our beliefs and ideas with which we are presented must come from our trust in the interpreter. Whoever wrote this down, or passed it on, we must trust for some reason, or else we should not accept their testimony; no one believes the testimony of a habitual liar or a fool.

The great materialists of the 19th century attested that they would not accept any kind of non-physical explanations, because of their belief that the ‘miraculous’ (non-physical) simply does not happen. Fair enough. But, this is a presupposition that is grounded in an interpretation or belief.

Christians claim that the scriptures are God’s word, and the Church (however they interpret what that means) receives these truths to pass down.

Whatever our claim, we trust our interpreters.

Why then trust the Church? Because they are good people? In some cases, yes. Because they have been around for a long time? That gives some credence. But truly, the reason to accept that their testimony is true is because of our own experience of the power of God. Paul, the apostle, tells the Thessalonians that they accepted his testimony because of the ‘way he was among them’, and because of the power they experienced when they heard the gospel, I.e. The Holy Spirit moved them.

In order to trust the scriptures and the Church, I may first trust that those who gave it to me are good, also that it seems logical or true to experience, or that those who follow it seem the happiest and most alive… But ultimately, I must have this experience of Jesus to truly believe all that I am given. It goes like this:
1. I hear the Truths of the Faith, or the gospel, and this moves my heart or mind.
2. I come to know Jesus through the affects in my life and my own experience of Him.
3. I come to believe that He would not allow his message to be corrupted.
4. Therefore, the scriptures, or the Church, must be giving me the truth, and I trust their interpretation because it is Jesus, who I know, who’s own authority is behind it.

Summary: We start from trust of our parents or guides, check their evidence against experience, and then choose to accept their interpretation or not. With Faith, which is a gift, we gain reason to believe in the supernatural, and the revelation handed down to us. This is not necessarily ‘Enlightenment’ thinking, but every human being does this for almost every proposition they hold to be true.

My experience of Jesus, trust of my parents and guides, and my own experience of the truth of the moral teachings and statements of the Church, have led me to believe the interpretation of the Catholic Church is true, and will not be corrupted when following the voice of Christ. I base all this belief on experience of Christ. This is why I believe.

The Problem of Pain (very condensed)

1. Assumed: An all-good all-powerful being/person would prevent all evil.
2. Given: There is evil
3. Therefore: This being (God) is either not all-good, not all-powerful, or both.

This argument is internally consistent, but not true. Christians take issue with the first premise.
If this all-good being is like a parent, as we assume when we call God “our Father”, then there are cases where God would allow for evil to bring about a greater good. The crux of the matter is ‘what is the greatest good that God is defending by allowing evil’, by working around evil rather than eradicating it entirely.
Human beings are free creatures. Regardless of our tendency to sin, and our predispositions, we do have freedom, and to whatever degree we are capable in a certain situation, we always exercise some degree of freedom (aside from knee-jerk reactions.) When we sin/do evil, we are acting against what we were made for, and so the consequences that follow are harmful to us. In the case of murder or rape, etc., the person hurts not only themselves, but also other persons. We are rightfully shocked by how much evil human-kind is capable of.
However, from revelation, specifically the death and resurrection of Jesus, we see that God, regardless of evil, brings about good in us when we turn our free will to God’s will (what is best for us according to our nature).
Like a parent, God allows us to suffer the consequences of our bad choices, even to harm others by our bad choices, and even allows for sufferings that seem meaningless to us (like the death of an innocent child). God’s intention is to make us into mature daughters and sons, not by removing the consequences of our sin, and the free choices of women and men, but by teaching us how to overcome them, to be purified and learn how to follow Him.

There is much more that could be said, but the heart of the matter is this: God thinks that all the suffering of the world, including the death of the innocent Son of God, is worth preserving the free-will that we have been given, that we would push through and fight evil where we see it; to be like God.
This does not, by definition, make God less than all-good or all-powerful, because of the greatest good that will come about by evil being conquered rather than eradicated (Christ acting IN us, us acting like God).

The heart, again, is: do you agree, or will you consent? This is the deepest part of faith. Like trusting our parents when we get flu vaccines as children, it is very difficult to see love through the pain, but the child must trust their parents to know what is good. This isn’t foolishness, but comes from knowing and trying to trust our Father.

If you disagree, and the scandal of evil is too much, then yell at God, or tell him of your pain, rather than to run away or try to survive alone. The cross alone, Christ’s acceptance of suffering in the midst of darkness, shows us the way to life, resurrection, and understanding. Better to tell God you think He is wrong than to not acknowledge your inner struggle.

This Problem of Evil must be the forge in which our love is purified, and we begin to see with God’s eyes.
Live in the struggle, don’t deny that there is evil, but try so hard to see. My uncle told me of when his daughter died in infancy. After many years of hating God, he finally prayed this, ‘I have no idea why you did this to her. I have sinned, and should suffer, but not her. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and follow you, taking whatever weight you lay on my back… But you better have a damn good explanation for me when I see you face to face.’

This is where it starts.

When I’m about to lector for Mass

letmebecatholic:

I’m now an instituted lector, this is great. Our professor, Fr. Kunkel, jokingly calls me Lector Mister Andrew Williams.

When my friends leave for a discernment retreat

letmebecatholic:

Haha! So many friends at college left to become nuns or priests, and then I did too! Very funny.