I’ll be heading down to blackpool on Friday to attend a gaming expo, as it’s not came to Scotland for a while.
I’ve already found out where the nearest Church & its Mass times, but my Mum says that we’re on Holiday, and I can go to Mass when we return from our holiday.
Should I still attend Mass while on holiday, or do do when I’m back home,
What kind of gaming expo? Our family is big into Tabletop Gaming! We go to Origins Game Fair every year (one of the largest board gaming conventions in the United States).
You absolutely should go to Mass while on vacation. Let me rephrase that, you get to go to Mass while on vacation : )
No matter where we go on vacation, we try to find the nearest Cathedral. It is neat to see and compare them.
When we visited Cozumel, we go to attend a Church where the first Mass was celebrated in Mexico! How cool is that?!
Other times we have visited Basilicas and that has been an experience too.
Going to Mass should always be a part of your Holiday. The very word Holiday comes from the phrase Holy Day. God has blessed us with this life and it is right and just to remember Him while we are on leisure/island time (when possible).
I say, make it fun. Make it an adventure. Don’t see it as something you are obliged to do, but something you want to do.
I love your Mom, but she is wrong on this one : )
She tries her best, I’ll giver her that, and Play expo fetures indie gaming, anime, arcade cabs, console gaming, both retro and modern, and there’s always lots of different tournaments & competitions throughout the day
If you want a real answer, ask yourself if Jesus would attend a gaming expo, or if the pope would attend a gaming expo. This just shows how far Catholics have strayed from what Jesus was trying to share with us. Jesus says that man cannot have two masters. Are we serving God, or are we serving the demands of our minds and senses? Jesus says we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our strength. Is the activity of attending a gaming expo one of the ways in which we demonstrate loving God with all of our heart? All of such expositions are distractions from the real purpose of life, which is to cultivate love for God. Did Jesus die on the cross so that we could attend gaming expos? Religion is not a way of to make our material lives enjoyable. People pray to God for fulfilling material desires. Did Jesus teach that we should relate to God as if God is Amazon.com for responding to our orders? Or did he teach and show by example that our every thought, word and deed should be for the pleasure of the Lord? Does one attend a gaming expo for giving pleasure to God? In some countries when a local man sells milk, he adds water. In that way he can sell the same amount of milk to more customers by diluting the milk. This is called watering it down. As this watering down process continues, gradually we no longer have milk, but only water. Catholics today participate in watered-down the teachings of Jesus, to the extent that they are not following Jesus at all. Gaming expo, football games, baseball games, night club dancing, drinking alcohol……all of this is exactly what Jesus was talking about when he said that we have to choose between serving God and serving Mammon. Is this is the standard of Catholic life???……….There is only one sin. And that is to seek our pleasure aside from seeking the pleasure of God with every thought, word and deed. All sinful activity expands from that materialitic orientation.
Jesus might. Pope Leo (and Francis) would instead attend a Climate Change Expo.
No. He didn’t die on the cross so that we could be online either, but yet, here we are.
No it wasn’t. This Gaming Expo did not exist back then. Football and Baseball had not been invented yet. Night Clubs did, but if you read the text, it is clearly not talking about Night Clubs. A disordered love for these things can relate to Matthew 6:24, in that, these things can become forms of idol-worship.
There is a valid point to what you are saying. If we go to a Gaming Expo in place of Church, then we are indeed saying by our actions that we are putting this activity above our desire to worship God.
When I was a kid, my Parents were in a bar band and they would get home in the middle of the night before Church. They would sleep in and my Brothers would try to be as quiet as possible, so that we wouldn’t have to go to Church. I would hop on my bicycle and ride twenty miles into town to go to Church myself. I’m not saying this to pride myself, but to illustrate that our Parents do not always do or say what is right & just, but we can do what is.
I should just mind my own business. I’m not a Catholic, and don’t belong here on this site. The path that I follow teaches that the purpose of life is to qualify ourselves for entering the spiritual realm, or what some religions call “heaven”. We are taught that if, when we leave our body behind (assuming we are eternal spirit souls), if our hearts have any tinge of affection for the things of this world, we are disqualified. We are not ready to enter the Kingdom of God. (Perhaps I should google “mammon” , and see what is the accepted understanding.). I have not studied the Bible in depth, but my impression when reading the New Testament was that Jesus was very strict in what he expected of those who wanted to say they were his followers. If I remember correctly, Jesus taught that we should not look for our fulfillment in the things of this world. We need some food to live, some clothes to cover the body, a place to sleep. But anything in excess, and desiring anything in excess of the essentials, makes it more difficult to enter God’s kingdom than to pass a camel through the eye of a needle. I think that includes wanting to go to a gaming expo. But to tell you the truth , I don’t know what a gaming expo is. I live in the forest by a little stream. I haven’t had a TV or a radio for the last 30 years. Ido my spiritual practices (prayers, hymns, and scripture study) from 4:00 a.m. until breakfast every morning and read scripture for an hour or so before taking rest at night. I really didn’t get the impression that Jesus was saying that we should accept him as our savior and at the same time go about endeavoring to enjoy the material realm as much as we can. My impression is that he was extremely serious and told us that we had to make a choice, not that we could have our cake and eat it. But as I say, I have no right to be making comments on this site. I just thought you guys were serious about spiritual life. From my point of view, every supper is the last supper in which we present our bread first to Jesus, before partaking, and that mass is every day, 365 days a year. Of course this might cut into someone’s time watching a football game with a six pack, or watching nonsense videos……but I think Jesus said that our job was to love God with all of our heart, with all of our strength…….I don’t think he included time off for A, B, C, D, etc. In other words, every day is a holiday (holy day). But I guess I should take the beam out of my own eye, before wanting to take the splinter out of someone else’s eye.
Peace to all,
So true Peter1, The Mind of God wants a Body becoming again in all creation for both natures, Spirit and life through The Christ becoming for all mankind becoming again in all creation, One Family One God in being, OMNILogically, I believe.
The Tree creates love to choose to love or not becoming again undefiled loving only and loving with only the most love becoming again in all creation through both natures unfailing from the power of the spirit through the life in One Holy Family, I believe.
For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. In God be the glory forever! Amen.
Baptism transforms through the New Eve from Sacrifice through Penance in the New Adam becoming through The Christ in all forgiven for all becoming again glorified and transfigured in all re-imaged becoming again One Holy Family, I believe.
Peace always,
Stephen
Ha-ha! 
Although I do find it odd that the number of active non-Catholic members may be more than the number of active Catholic members here, you are welcome here. You are very respectful (maybe even more than I am at times) and I appreciate that.
Yes, Peter1, you are welcome. I have some friends who love Jesus and go to other churches. I discuss the Bible and faith and even Catholicism with them.
We are to seek God first and His kingship over us. Worship, charity, family, and much else need to come ahead of personal pleasure, but I don’t think we’re obligated to avoid fun (although some people choose to). I do have fun—I play some games, enjoy some outside activities, spend time with friends, watch occasional videos or movies (though we don’t have a TV)—but if there’s a conflict, or if the fun things would subtract from time or attention I owe to God and family, God comes first.
I am floored by your kind response. I am just attracted to associate with people who feel that a relationship with God is the most important thing in our lives. I am so happy to meet a person who who is serious about cultivating a living relationship with ,God, be he Hindu, Christian, Muslim or Jew…….as opposed to the non-believers. Thank you Cade. And I do believe that Jesus came to this planet, as God’s confidential intimate associate, to give us a sense of a real sense direction, although I do not think of him as God Himself. But because Jesus is empowered by God to do this missionary work, he is to be respected as we would respect God Himself. I respectfully bow, with my head on the ground, before his beautiful feet. My understanding is that, as the son of God, it is only through an intimate relationship with Jesus, that one can come to understand the meaning of love of God. If we become very close to Jesus, he will share his love of God with us. As Jesus says, “Accept the yoke that I wear.” This can only mean the yoke of love. And he is asking us to accept that same yoke. But before we can try it on for size, we have to know Jesus very intimately. This is my faith.
Thank you Literalman, for your kind and accepting words. Your gentleness is always an inspiration to me, reminding me not to be so defensive or aggressive. One thing has always puzzled me is your title: “Literalman”. I say this because I have read online that Catholics don’t take everything in the Bible literally. For example AI online says that Catholics don’t believe that God sits on a throne or wears a crown. Whereas I believe that we have these human forms because we were made in the image of God. I read that Catholics believe that the Bible is only using figurative language and that we should not take these words literally. I like to think that the heavenly host sits around God as he sits graciously on His throne, singing His glories. Surely He is the epitome of beauty, the most handsome, has the most kindly loving eyes. I like to meditate in that way. But I have read that neither Christians, nor Muslims, nor Jews believe that God has a form. But if God can take the form of all-pervasiveness as the Holy Ghost and can enter into everyone’s heart in that way, and if He can appear in the form of His Son, why can’t He have a form as our Eternal Father in heaven? Why should we limit Him in that way? After all God must be everything we can imagine, and everything we cannot imagine. But we do know that He is a person, and that His love for all of us is unlimited, and that he wants us to know the joy that expands in our hearts as we realize love for Him. And this is what Jesus has come to share with us. Not simply that we be “good” people who keep all the rules, but that we love Him with all of our hearts. I believe that it is this quality of love for the Lord that makes one sinless without separate endeavor. I think that if a video has a positive message, that can be helpful to us. And that games are a way of sharing love with others. Nature’s beauty can serve to remind us God’s love of beauty. And the flowers of nature can be picked and placed as an offering of love before the Lord. When we go to church, we can bring God some of the flowers with which he has covered the earth. Thank you LM for sharing your nice thoughts with me.
The Mind of God
wants a body,
becoming again,
in all creation,
for both natures,
Spirit and life,
through The Christ becoming
for all mankind,
becoming again,
in all creation,
One Family, One God in being,
OMNILogically,
I believe.
The Tree creates love, to choose to love,
or, not becoming again undefiled,
loving only,
and loving with only,
the most love,
becoming again,
in all creation,
through both natures,
unfailing,
from the power of the spirit,
through the life,
in One Holy Family,
I believe
I also believe, Stephen. Thank you for your beautiful thoughts coming from your beautiful heart.
It’s a nickname given me my a coworker because I like to joke around by taking things literally. If someone said, “Can you come over my house later?” I might answer, “No, I can’t fly.” Or I like to say, “It’s over 200 degrees outside!” If someone disagrees, I will say, “I was boiling, so it must be 212 Fahrenheit or more! That’s science!” Being Literalman doesn’t mean I take everything literally. It’s just a game. But I got the nickname at least 30 years ago, so I’d rather explain it when necessary than give it up.
Whether God has a physical throne, I have no idea. The important thing, I think, is that He is the king of everything. The pope could speak “from the chair of Peter” even if he’s standing up. It indicates authority. If Peter’s chair exists, sitting in it wouldn’t give someone else papal authority. It’s a symbol, even if it’s a real chair.
I am the same way. I am diagnosed as being a high functioning autistic person, on the Aspergers spectrum. I take what people say literally, and answer them according to word meanings. I am fascinated with words, and always looking them up online for the meaning.
“Whether God has a physical throne,”: I do agree with your thought, that God is the King of Kings. The ancient spiritual books that I study, written in the Sanskrit language, do describe God’s appearance as so beautiful. One verse says that if we desire to enjoy the relationships that we have in this world, we should not see God, because if we do, we will become so overwhelmingly attracted that we won’t be able to think of anything else but His beauty.
Also, I read that Jesus tells his disciples that there is so much more that he could say to them, but that they are not yet ready to hear of such things.
I do not find it difficult to have faith that although God’s authority and power pervades the universe, He can simultaneously be seated on the most beautiful throne. As a crude example, the president of a country sits in his office…….but his dictates are manifested throughout the nation.
Speaking of “the Pope”, is it to be understood according to Catholic teachings that the Pope is endowed with the wisdom of Jesus, and that he can be worshipped as we would worship Jesus? Or are we to accept him as the representative of Jesus who helps us to better understand how to live in ways that will be pleasing to Jesus?
No, we are not to worship anyone except God. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide his followers into all truth, and the pope is the number-one leader of the church. Only if he states something formally as the successor of St. Peter are we obligated to accept it, though we should give serious consideration to other things he says.
One of the reasons I ask is that sometimes we see on the news videos that Pope Leo, or one of his predecessors is giving a public appearance, on a raised balcony, and thousands are gathered in the open space beneath, as if to receive his blessings, as if he has the power to bestow spiritual blessings upon us. It was partially with this vision in mind that I have asked this question as to whether we should accept His Grace as empowered with the authority of Jesus. And I hear you, as you are explaining that in our present day and age he is to be accepted as the leader of the church, and to be respected as our guide in understanding and applying the teachings of Jesus in our lives today. Thank you LM, Peter
We can bless anybody for whom we have responsibility—at least that’s what I was taught. We can bless our families. As a volunteer hospital chaplain (not ordained) I could bless patients, staff and families for whom I had some temporary responsibility while on duty. The pope is responsible for the whole church and in a similar sense for the whole world, so he can bless everybody. One pastor I had said he had a map of the parish on his office wall and would pray for everybody in the parish boundaries, Catholic or not.