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Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:22 am
by temporal1
MaxPC wrote:
PositiveSeeker wrote:In addition, he should consider correcting Catholic Online.
Catholic Online is not run by the Catholic Church. It's a private website. Much is in error there. My previous advice and appraisal still stands re the Vatican's stance on Internet misinformation.

If you're really interested in authentic Catholic info only go to the authentic Vatican website. Avoid anything else if you want to know what is actually taught by the Catholic Church.
one of the first "inconvenient truths" i learned on MD was .. there is a wide range of beliefs that fall under the Mennonite/Anabaptist umbrella label .. and, that this is the case for all faith groups today, including Catholics.

we WANT the convenience of unity, it's not reality. boo-hoo. there is work involved. :-|

i'm glad to have Max's insights on this. there are LOTS of online voices claiming to be Catholic, i am no expert! i'm overwhelmed trying to sort out one from another - of all faith groups.

i pray this period will be known in history as one in which many tests were endured, leading to more Light and more Truth. (i believe) this period we're experiencing is a result of decades of ambivalence of many, there was bound to be a price to be paid.

in all times, there is never a down-side to seeking Truth.

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:27 pm
by PositiveSeeker
Well, now these Catholics that used to debate with me need informed that Catholic Online is inaccurate so that they can stop quoting it. :laugh

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:24 pm
by MaxPC
temporal1 wrote:
i'm glad to have Max's insights on this. there are LOTS of online voices claiming to be Catholic, i am no expert! i'm overwhelmed trying to sort out one from another - of all faith groups.
Yep. We have a choice:
1. Spend 24/7 trying to police incorrect information in millions of websites.

2. Or in the case of Catholics, we point people to the one source of authentic information (official Vatican website) and spend the rest of our day working to spread the good news of Christ and helping others for the sake of God's Kingdom.

The first choice will only broaden your seat and produce frustration. The second choice will broaden God's Kingdom and lead to the hope of eternal life.

I'm choosing the second. :mrgreen:

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:49 pm
by appleman2006
Back to Valentines Day.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

I was heartened to see the different ways, some very creative, that people celebrated Feb. 14th. Mike's way was a real reflection of where he is at with his family. I thought what Dan's wife did for him (observed on a different site :) ) was really romantic. I think we need to be careful that we do not have knee jerk reactions to things like this and write them off simply because the world also celebrates it. IMO doing special things for your spouse or other people that we love is something we should do much more of and sometimes having a special day to remind us of it is not a bad thing. Just because the world does something does not always make it bad. Having said that, if the only reason we do something is to fit in with the world then we probably do have some issues. But I do not see observing this day in the ways mention as being bad.

As far as for me personally I am thinking that this is perhaps the first of 29 valentine days since we were married where we actually went out on the 14th. Usually it is very hard to find a good place to eat out at on that night around here without making reservations for weeks in advance and almost always it is a fixed menu that evening which a person may or may nor appreciate and so often we pick another night of the same week. Quite often our pastors wife has put on a special dinner for all the married couples at church and we celebrated it that way. That is harder to do however now that our church has grown. I also very seldom buy roses around this time as they are twice as expensive as normal. But I have occasionally and they are always very much appreciated.

I realize too that different people's situations are different. The restaurant we went out to this evening is owned by a chef that is a very good customer of ours. While I spent quite a bit more on this meal than what I would normally do, it still amounted to less than 2 % of what he will spend in produce from me over the next year. Would it not be kind of cheap of me to not occasionally support him out of appreciation for his business? I am simply sharing this to give an example of why we have to be careful to not make one size fit all situations, especially in things like whether we celebrate Valentine's day.

Sorry about the full length essay. :oops:

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:14 pm
by mike
appleman2006 wrote:Back to Valentines Day.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

I was heartened to see
I see what you did there.

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 11:03 pm
by ohio jones
MaxPC wrote:Yep. We have a choice:
1. Spend 24/7 trying to police incorrect information in millions of websites.

2. Or in the case of Catholics, we point people to the one source of authentic information (official Vatican website) and spend the rest of our day working to spread the good news of Christ and helping others for the sake of God's Kingdom.
Herrings are red,
Fallacious bifurcations are blue ...
:)

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 5:17 am
by temporal1
PositiveSeeker wrote:Well, now these Catholics that used to debate with me need informed that Catholic Online is inaccurate so that they can stop quoting it.
:laugh
remember, in this 21st Century Age of Relativism, we-all can claim to be whatever we might imagine on earth, our right to do this is protected+enforced by government mandate.

God will sort it all out later. :-|

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 6:28 am
by Josh
MaxPC wrote:
temporal1 wrote:
i'm glad to have Max's insights on this. there are LOTS of online voices claiming to be Catholic, i am no expert! i'm overwhelmed trying to sort out one from another - of all faith groups.
Yep. We have a choice:
1. Spend 24/7 trying to police incorrect information in millions of websites.

2. Or in the case of Catholics, we point people to the one source of authentic information (official Vatican website) and spend the rest of our day working to spread the good news of Christ and helping others for the sake of God's Kingdom.

The first choice will only broaden your seat and produce frustration. The second choice will broaden God's Kingdom and lead to the hope of eternal life.

I'm choosing the second. :mrgreen:
Perhaps the Vatican should clean its own house first. When I used to spend time with folks in the RSCJ nearly all supported gay marriage, and almost all the lay sisters had short cropped hair. I've never experienced Catholic life as MaxPC portrays it here, and I worked at a Catholic university for years. I live with someone who is both Catholic and also a universalist. He's completely accepted at his parish.

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 6:31 am
by Josh
I wonder what folks' thoughts are on how single or divorced people should feel on Valentine's Day/what they should do? I know for some people it's quite difficult.

I was thankfully out of the country and distracted with other things last week and the place I was didn't seem to observe "Val" at all.

Re: St. Valentine's Day

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:13 am
by temporal1
Josh wrote: Perhaps the Vatican should clean its own house first.
Jesus' quintessential message to His followers. all of us. :)
Josh wrote:I wonder what folks' thoughts are on how single or divorced people should feel on Valentine's Day/what they should do? I know for some people it's quite difficult.

I was thankfully out of the country and distracted with other things last week and the place I was didn't seem to observe "Val" at all.
it can be a hard and lonely day/time. as can Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Mother's and Father's Days, and so on.

thankfully, scriptures promise pain on earth.
if not, temporal life would be even more unbearable.

this year, i actually had an address for my bachelor son. i sent him a card. first in years.
he doesn't check his mail everyday. got it yesterday. "thanks, mom." he was ignoring the day.
i told him similar, Valentine's Day can be fun, it can be painful.

there have been times i sent myself flowers. and, i considered doing so this year. :)
white roses. or pink. or peach. i did without. :)