What Catholic teaching or doctrine do you find most challenging or difficult to understand and why?

Apologetics
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Interesting, thar there is both a Peter and a Peter1. I am also a Peter, so is my screen name composed. Perhaps I should change my screen name to something more creative.

On a general note, coming from evangelicalism, the Bible is my reference book for faith. I find it both relieving and frustrating that the catholic church has used its ruling right to make rulings. With some rulings I do not agree, but other rulings I wholeheartedly support.

Example forced marriage. There are not clear verses against forced marriage in the Bible, but the catholic church has made the ruling that such a marriage can be nullified.

I am befiddled why the catholic church do not promote Lordship salvation. Perhaps they want to be also church to the secular people, and that is why a holiness doctrine like Lordship has not been decreed.

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The Bible tells us that Christ gave the Apostles and their successors the authority and responsibility to “loose” and to “bind” (Matthew 18:18).

Are you referring to “arranged” Marriages? We had a couple in our Church (Catholic) from India and their Marriage was an arranged and they were very happily Married. However, I have a friend from the Middle East (she was raised Muslim, but is now Catholic) had a horrible arranged Marriage. Her Husband would beat her if she added too much salt to his food or not enough salt to his food. She tried fighting back once, but the beatings she received were twice as bad as when she just took it. It was not a happy Marriage. But, Christ rescued her and she is now one of the most joy-filled Christians I have ever met!

Can you explain in your own words what “Lordship salvation” is? I have never heard this term before.

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Peace to all,

To me, logically, “Lordship Salvation” is loosely defined from the logical Sacramental formulas through the Wondrous Mysteries in The Catholic Faith and to me and quite off the cuff is through two natures and is created from The Father, creator God and through two Gods and Lords, Mary and Jesus from Immaculate Flesh Immortality through Holy Spirit incorruption for Jesus becoming in all mankind through the Christ in all and “Lordship Salvation” in all generalization is the autonomy from the manifesting Power of The Holy Spirit Family One God in being becoming able to stand before the Holy Family self-righteous and justified before Him becoming from death of the flesh through Holy Spirit resurrection life in both natures becoming again in all One Holy Spirit Family One God in being, in all generalizations.

Loosing and binding are to me secular laws pertaining to the Authority of the Church as Loosed or Bound in Heaven from the Vicar of Christ on earth bound or loosed from the Moses Seat trusted as bound on earth and verified through the Eternal Priestly Authority of Jesus as it is in Heaven, I believe.

To me, Logically we cannot judge the secular belief in Salvation, and we render to God and We render to secular Caesar, and Secular Caesar makes the secular laws and also renders to God, logically, both God and Caesar render to the Same God, OMNILogically, I believe, uniting all as One in being through both natures becoming in One Body becoming again in all Divine Secular Flesh Body, One Holy Family One God in being, to me, as I jump in maybe out of turn, thanks again for your kindness.

Peace always,
Stephen

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Hm I guess there is a spectrum between forced and arranged. In a forced marriage, the element of free will is lacking. A priest told me, that the Catholic Church want to assert that it was your “full and free will” to get married. Example a shotgun marriage would probably not be considered a free will marriage.

Yes, Lordship salvation means that you make Jesus Lord and King in your life. You enter into a relation with him, but with the understanding that He is the master. I do actually think, that especially with people being child-baptized (and while I do believe that child baptism is effective for salvation), these people have never entered into a committed relationship with Jesus, and allowed him to come and rule in their life.

In practice you would most likely join a church where there is a high focus on Jesus being Lord and ruler. The idea of Lordship salvation is probably closely tied to the idea of adult (re)baptism, namely that you must make a formal public profession of faith in connection with your baptism. As a pentecostal christian, I used to have an undercurrent feeling, that I should always strive to see Jesus as my Lord, and not just as a buddy.

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We enter into a covenantal relationship with Christ, which is the deepest form of relationship.

I think one of the reasons that the Catholic Church has pushed Confirmation back, rather than do Confirmation as infants like the Eastern Orthodox do, is so that the youth can choose this relationship with our Lord and that their faith might be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation. I personally think that Confirmation should be earlier (maybe around fourth grade), because by the time too many young people reach the age of current Confirmation, they have already chosen a relationship with the world or a sort of hybrid relationship (serving two masters or lukewarm Christianity).

You can usually tell who is cooperating with God’s grace and who isn’t bases on the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, chastity, modesty, and love.

Some of us need more of His grace in certain areas than others. For instance, some individuals are by nature may have low-impulse control (meaning they are easily tempted). Others may suffer from depression and therefore less joyful. I inherited my Mom’s RBF and people think I’m either depressed or angry when I’m not specifically smiling : )

When it comes to modesty, I like to bring up how well dressed the Mob was when they went to Church. Extremely dapper, but inside, they may have much in need of God’s grace (for they were in the Mafia after all). I believe their modesty stemmed from ego or appearances and less about a relationship with God. And there can be a young lady who has great love for God, but dresses immodestly, because she doesn’t know any better. But, as her Faith matures and her relationship with Christ grows, perhaps she will be more aware of how she is living her life. Same goes for the Mobster.

I think of St. Augustine and how his mother (St. Monica) Prayed for his conversion. He was not Baptized nor Confirmed as a baby. Augustine was baptized on Easter Vigil, April 24, 387, by Bishop Ambrose in Milan. He was Ordained a Priest in 391 AD, and then appointed coadjutor Bishop of Hippo in 395 AD. He later became the Bishop of Hippo after the death of Bishop Valerian. He had a son with a woman prior to his conversion and his son, Adeodatus, was also Baptized alongside Augustine around the age of 15 and died shortly there after (cause of death unconfirmed ; ) My point is, that even the worst of sinners can encounter Christ and enter into Covenant with Him.

And just as anyone who enters into a Marriage can be a bad Husband, so too can Christians who have been Baptized reject God who remains faithful. If someone wants to walk out on the relationship, they choose to suck.

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Right, so what is your experience of that relationship on a daily basis? Do you hear Gods voice, do you see God’s guiding hand, and so forth? What are the things that you must take care of in order to maintain that relationship?

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Cade_One,

Earlier you wrote that God does not send us to Hell. I asked you who you thought was casting the person into the lake of fire as mentioned in Revelation 20:15? I’d still like to know who you think is doing the casting.

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StephenAndrew,

"re: “Jesus was crucified Friday out of the Tomb of Jerusalem by Saturday 3 am, I believe.”

Two things about your post -

In your previous post, you said that the Messiah was in the Tomb on Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night.

Now you’re saying He was only in the tomb for one night. Which one is correct?" rstrats

Peace to all,

So true, rstrats, The Tomb is the City of Jerusalem.

Right, Jesus arrived in the Tomb of Jerusalem on a Donkey, in Jerusalem on Wednesday, I believe.

Peace always,
Stephen

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“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and [a]communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,” according to the New American Standard Bible (NASB) on Bible Gateway. This verse introduces the book of Revelation as a revelation from Jesus Christ, given to him by God, to show his servants what must soon happen. It also mentions that God sent this revelation to John through an angel.

To me, I believe John is the Disciple He loved the most from the cross, who took Mary home with Him, “Ecce mater tua, Behold Your Mother.”

Logically we have to know, we also were at The Cross before we were even born, He spoke to us by name, we are the Disciple he also loved the most because He only loves with the most love, from teh cross He calls us by Name, Disciple, He looks at us all from the cross points to His Mother and speaks to us all by name, “Disciple, Behold your Mother” and we take Her home as John. John was with Mary for perhaps 40 years and also wrote The Book of Revelation, written by His Servant perhaps with the help of Our Mother, Mary, the First Disciple and First Christ in through New Eve and Mother of God and perhaps the person with the “special protected” knowledge informing all of whom is casting, and I believe is only our own soul.

Peace always,
Stephen

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The idea or concept that Jesus had to suffer terribly in order to pay the price for our sins is very disturbing to my heart.

I have no doubt that Jesus has the power and authority to forgive us for our sins, on behalf of our Eternal Father. But I do not feel that he has to endure punishment on our behalf in order to accomplish this.

My conviction is that we are not these temporarily manifested material bodies which are made of transformations of mud and water. Rather, we are eternal spirit souls, just as God is eternal, with no beginning and no end. When we depart from the body, at the time of “death”, the material body no longer shows signs of life, and begins to decompose. But we are eternal spirit souls. We are not these material bodies.

One who understands, by direct perception, that I am not this material body, no longer identifies with the pains and pleasures of the flesh and blood. Therefore he becomes indifferent to material dualities, and becomes situated in the on-going pleasure of the spirit.

Yes, Jesus could endure crucifixion…….even up to the point of being more concerned about those who were crucifying him, and asking God to forgive them, at the same time as he was crucified. This degree of heartfelt compassion and love is because he is not afflicted as you or I would be afflicted if we were crucified.

Therefore my conviction is that to be told that Jesus had to suffer terrible agony because I am a sinner …….. this I cannot accept. I am a sinner. This I accept. And Jesus was crucified. This I accept. But that Jesus, who could perform all manner of miracles, such as walking on water, commanding the wind to stop blowing, healing the sick (even long-distance at times), feeding a great assembly of people with a few morsels of feed, seeing future events (like the crucifixion) with acceptance………such a personality who comes to us, from another world, the spiritual world……….such a personality does not suffer the dualities of the flesh as we would.

My conviction is that Jesus can cleanse us of the reactions of our sins. But he does not have to suffer in order to do this. And, the way in which he cleanses our hearts, is by sharing his love of the Father with us. When we imbibe the taste of love of God through the process of intimate association with Jesus, within our hearts, all attraction to our sinful activities are automatically vanquished, without separate endeavor.

I also believe that going to confession, and then engaging in the same sins repeatedly, is like using Jesus as a door mat. Jesus may forgive us for behaving in this way. But our Heavenly Father, who loves His son, will not. These are my convictions.

Jesus does not want us to feel guilt and shame. Jesus tells us: “Rejoice!” These are my convictions.

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Peace to all,

To me Logically, the living waters of The Baptism of Saint John the Baptist transforms flesh becoming sanctified immortalty from Lord Mary sanctifying from the Power of the Holy Spirit through the Immaculate Conception for the Immaculate Flesh becoming in all through the New Eve for all mankind becoming into the Catholic Church sanctified through both natures, Spirit and Life becoming in One Body through the New Eve, I believe.

Peace always,
Stephen

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One teaching that bothers me is the marital debt. I know this teaching has been misunderstood and abused.

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Wow Cade! I’m surprised to read your remarks. Does it say that in the Bible, that Jesus and the Holy Spirit (the Holy Ghost?) existed before the angels and the human beings? I didn’t know that. My little understanding is that eternal means eternal. “Eternal” means no beginning and no end. Everything on earth is temporal. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. But spirit is eternal. Never was there a time when we did not exist. The Father, the Son, and all of us. But what I find hard to understand is why we are here instead of in heaven as members of the heavenly host. God would not have us suffer, and make us earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, just because Adam and Eve fell into temptation. That makes no sense to me. What does make sense is that the Garden of Eden is not on planet earth, and that we are all fallen angels who succumbed to the temptation of entertaining a mood of independence. So God puts us here, and asks, “Are we having fun yet?” And He sends His Son to show us the way home. We are all prodigal sons, in rehab. That makes a lot more sense to me, than thinking we have to suffer because Adam and Eve fell into error. I think we fell into error. And that’s why we’re here. But God loves us so much that he sends His Son to gather us and take us home. Of course, some of us are hard core prisoners, and won’t accept the invitation. The material creation is for our rehabilitation. That makes more sense to me than the Adam and Eve narrative. I take that narrative as a metaphor that applies to all of us, who had the idea of being independent of God’s authority. And now we’re here. “Are we having fun yet?” Then Jesus comes, and offers us a second chance. That makes sense of me.

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For me, Noah’s Ark, but I’ve gotten to know that story much much better.

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On September 6th, 1943, in a transcript dictated to Maria Valtorta by Jesus, He explained the need for the Incarnation, which you can read in The Notebooks: 1943.

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On December 30th, 1946, in a transcript dictated to Maria Valtorta by Jesus, He elaborated on what led up to the universal deluge, which you can read in The Notebooks: 1945-1950.

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On July 1st, 1943, in a transcript dictated to Maria Valtorta by Jesus, He compared the Trinity to Light, which you can read in The Notebooks: 1943.

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Jesus Says:

"Write at once, while I am still in you with my Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. You thus have the fullness of Wisdom in you.

"Mary lived Eucharistically almost all her life.

"The Mother is not different from the Son-in either human nature or the superhuman mission of Redemption.

"The Son, to touch the apex of pain, had to experience separation from the Father: in Gethsemane, on the Cross. Jt was pain carried to infinite heights and harshness. The Mother, to touch the apex of pain, had to experience separation from the Son: in the three days of my burial.

"Then Mary was alone. She was left with only Faith, Hope, and Charity. But I was absent. It was the sword not driven in, but piercing and ransacking her Heart. She did not die from it by God’s will alone. For to remain deprived of union with her Son and God was such an agony for the Woman Full of Grace that without a special grace She would have died of it.

"There are many secret pages that you do not know concerning the life of the Most Pure CoRedeemer. I previously told you, ‘The secrets of Mary are too pure and divine for a human mind to know them’. I shall point out just one of them for you, just enough to increase veneration in you for the Holiest One in Heaven, after God.

"That most painful hour, in the sea of sorrows which was the life of my Mother, consecrated for supreme sorrow and supreme joy by her conception, was needed to complete what was lacking to my Passion.

"Mary is the Co-Redeemer. Since everything in Her is, then, inferior to God alone, her pain also had to be such that the pain of no other human creature would ever equal it.

Co-Redemptin is through Lord God Mary, The First Christ of all Creation, God of Mercy through the Immaculate Conception becoming Immortality for all becomimg in the New Eve, I believe.

To live Eucharistically means to be transformed by the Eucharist and to live accordingly. And in the Eucharist, Jesus is present. Being present means being in a certain place, being there. But not just physically there. Being present connotes being psychologically or spiritually there,

Mary is God of Immortal Transformation becoming immortality for all mankind through the New Eve, I believe.

Peace Always,

Steohen

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On August 27th, 1944, in a transcript dictated to Maria Valtorta by Jesus, He explained why man was created, which you can read in The Poem of the Man-God: Vol. 1 (pp. 16-18).

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To have Mary that loved Him! Oh! It was well worth while creating Man and allowing him to exist and decreeing to forgive him, to have the Beautiful Virgin, the Holy Virgin, the Immaculate Virgin, the Loving Virgin, the Beloved Daughter, the Most Pure Mother, the Loving Spouse! God has given you so much and would have given you even more to possess the Creature of His delight, the Sun of His sun, the Flower of His garden. And He continues to give you so much on account of Her, at Her request, for Her joy, because Her joy flows into the joy of God and increases it with flashes that fill the light, the great light of Paradise with brilliant sparkles and every sparkle is a grace to the universe, to mankind, to the blessed souls who reply with a jubilant cry of alleluia to each generation of divine miracle, created by the desire of the Blessed Trinity to see the sparkling smile of joy of the Virgin.

The Supreme Mind, that knows everything, before man existed, knew that man would be a thief and self murderer. And as the Eternal Goodness has no limits in being good, before Guilt existed, He thought of the means to obliterate Guilt.

The means: I , the Word. The instrument to render the means an efficient instrument: Mary . And the Virgin was created in the sublime mind of God.

But I was to be Flesh as well as Spirit. Flesh to save the flesh. Flesh to sublime the flesh, taking it to Heaven many centuries before its time. Because the flesh inhabited by the spirit is God’s masterpiece and Heaven had already been made for it. In order to become flesh I needed a Mother. To be God it was necessary that the Father was God.

But I was to be Flesh as well as Spirit. Flesh to save the flesh. Flesh to sublime the flesh, taking it to Heaven many centuries before its time. Because the flesh inhabited by the spirit is God’s masterpiece and Heaven had already been made for it. In order to become flesh I needed a Mother. To be God it was necessary that the Father was God.

Then God created His Spouse and said to Her: “Come with Me. At My side see what I am doing for our Son. Look and rejoice, eternal Virgin, eternal Maiden and may Your smile fill this Empyrean and give the angels their starting note and teach Paradise celestial harmony. I am looking at You. And I see You as You will be, Immaculate Woman, Who are now only a spirit: the spirit in which I rejoice. I am looking at You and I give the sea and the firmament the blue of Your eyes, the holy corn the colour of Your hair, whiteness to the lily and a rosy colour to the rose, like Your silky skin. I copy the pearls from Your minute teeth, I make the sweet strawberries watching Your mouth and I give the nightingale Your notes and the turtle-doves Your weeping. And reading Your future thoughts and listening to the throbs of Your heart, I have the motive of guidance in creating. Come, My joy, have the worlds as a plaything as long as You will be the dancing light of My thought; have the worlds for Your smile, have wreaths and necklaces of stars; place the moon under Your gentle feet; make Galatea Your stellar scarf. The stars and planets are for You. Come and enjoy looking at the flowers that will be a childish joy for Your Baby and a pillow for the Son of Your womb. Come and see sheep and lambs, eagles and doves being created. Stay beside Me when I make the hollows of the seas and grooves of the rivers and I raise the mountains and I adorn them with snow and forests. Stay here while I sow fudders and trees and vines, and I make the olivetree for You, My Peaceful One, and the vine for You, My Vine branch who will bear the Eucharistic Bunch of grapes. Run, fly, rejoice, My Beauty. And may the universe which is created hour by hour learn from You to love Me, My Love, and may it become more beautiful owing to Your smile, Mother of My Son, Queen of My Paradise, Love of Your God.” And again, seeing the Fault and admiring the Faultless One: “Come to Me, You Who wipe out the bitterness of human disobedience, of human fornication with Satan and of human ingratitude. I will take with You My revenge over Satan.”

Peace to all,

Pope Leo XIV emphasized that God not only frees humanity from sin but also opens hearts, enabling us — like Mary — to say “yes” to His calling. Through baptism, all are made children of God. Quoting St. Augustine, the Pope said: “God created us without us, but He will not save us without us.” He called on believers to take an active role in God’s plan of salvation with fidelity, trust, and gratitude.

He concluded by inviting the faithful to pray the Magnificat with Mary. “In doing so” he said, “let us reflect on how Mary, the true Daughter of Zion, rejoiced in God, her Savior, because she saw the graces bestowed on her and how God has always been faithful to Abraham and his descendants.” Pope Leo XIV

to me the first logical, Christ is Mary from the power of the Holy Spirit through her soul for her immaculate flesh in the immaculate conception, becoming the new eve for all baptized be coming into the Catholic Church.

Mary’s logical Co-Redemtion Powers become immortality for all through the flesh nature from death becoming immortality through the Faith of the God from the Faith of Abraham, I believe.

The New Eve transformes all sanctified immaculately and incorruptibly from the Power of the Holy Spirit through the Soul of Mary from The Annunciation for all becoming through all Baptized becoming into the Catholic Church through Mary, The Mother of God fro all becoming sisters and brothers becoming Sons and Daughters of God through the New Eve , I believe.

Peace always,

Stephen