It’s this interesting out flux an influx of Catholics. You do have Catholics who are coming into the faith passionately but then you do have this hemorrhaging of Catholics.
But the hemorrrhaging of Catholics are ones that defacto have left long time ago, particularly in the West (USA where I live, and Europe, Canada, etc). People talk about Germany for example. While I would rather them all return to the faith and embrace it, those that leave were already secularist now confirming officially what in practice they were. What will be left is what Pope Benedict predicted, in the West a smaller more faithful Church which then can be more authentic.
Giving out water the other day at a food fair this Protestant minister was inviting people to his church. I really wish the priests would leave the rectory more and just do things.
There are lapsed families which grew out of a pious family of the previous generation. In the old days family members gathered to pray the rosary every single day. But sadly these people of those days weren't well catechised. They had outward sanctity but within that shell nothing substantial was there. They didn't know what Jesus was trying to do, even less so about the Old testament promises. To them, Jesus and Mary were just deities who would bring them to paradise. They did all the pious practices but they never strived for other important aspects: namely the purity of intentions, the importance of being blameless, the importance of God's work over one's earthly endeavor. Hence these people of those days told our parents to go earn more money the better. And with better education and urbanisation our parents left our hometowns, go to alien cities, married non Catholics, being fed with scientists' constant attack on religions, losing their minds to successful modern satanic mass media entertainment. All these happened most probably because our parent generation didn't even read the bible. But it can be argued that piety was just a trend that would get defeated for a while at some points in history, especially when societies are getting better and people more secure. But as I look back on my journey towards being a serious Catholic, I found that I have no explanation for how I got myself "preached" by UA-cam channels. I had joined a bible class before, but UA-cam videos opened up for me a whole new dimension of the church treasure, most of it post biblical revelations, that I got attracted to learn more. It is as if some hidden powers pushed me into being an audience of the "preaching". Moral of the story: we just do whatever we do best. Preaching to ourselves. Because by preaching to ourselves we make each other better in knowledge. Then when we are elites of the faith we can answer whatever questions that our youngsters ask regarding our practices. We can live our no-hypocrite life to the amusement of our friends and colleagues, and some of them will be attracted to our faith. As scripture says: no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. Indirectly, by our good knowledge and enthusiasm, and by our mere existence, God will use us to do His Will. Preaching is much needed for our ranks. Many of us are working class who don't have the study time that a theologian has. There are always new members, hidden stories, and unheard knowledge. By having a playlist of good videos, any lucky victim could easily be drawn into a rabbit hole like I did. What's wonderful about the internet is that our videos can be stored forever to be discovered by future converts or reverts.
After watching the video, here's my issue with your take. You don't need to be doing daily mass, liturgy of the hours, saying "In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit" in Latin, listening to Catholic podcasts, to be a legit practicing Catholic, and we shouldn't see such things as pre-requisites to getting into heaven. The Church is pretty clear on what it means to be practicing vs. not, and beyond that, and the secondary details of how one organizes their spiritual life beyond that are situational.
Like the video and post a comment. I would love to hear from you.
Great insight as always, Gregory
Great points
It is like the parable of the sower. Where will the seed land?
Do not fall into despair. We must keep evangelizing through action and through our lifestyle.
It’s this interesting out flux an influx of Catholics. You do have Catholics who are coming into the faith passionately but then you do have this hemorrhaging of Catholics.
But the hemorrrhaging of Catholics are ones that defacto have left long time ago, particularly in the West (USA where I live, and Europe, Canada, etc). People talk about Germany for example. While I would rather them all return to the faith and embrace it, those that leave were already secularist now confirming officially what in practice they were. What will be left is what Pope Benedict predicted, in the West a smaller more faithful Church which then can be more authentic.
The church signed a document with the Lutheran about Sola fide
The echo chamber of trad caths. so true
You channel and Cameron Reicker are the best t
likeminded people hangout with each other, same in faith
Giving out water the other day at a food fair this Protestant minister was inviting people to his church. I really wish the priests would leave the rectory more and just do things.
In the germany that’s impossible because they are bound to the office chair, no interaction wanted
Frankly, our present predicament is largely a result of the Church doing a poor job of “saving the saved.”
There are lapsed families which grew out of a pious family of the previous generation. In the old days family members gathered to pray the rosary every single day. But sadly these people of those days weren't well catechised. They had outward sanctity but within that shell nothing substantial was there. They didn't know what Jesus was trying to do, even less so about the Old testament promises. To them, Jesus and Mary were just deities who would bring them to paradise. They did all the pious practices but they never strived for other important aspects: namely the purity of intentions, the importance of being blameless, the importance of God's work over one's earthly endeavor.
Hence these people of those days told our parents to go earn more money the better. And with better education and urbanisation our parents left our hometowns, go to alien cities, married non Catholics, being fed with scientists' constant attack on religions, losing their minds to successful modern satanic mass media entertainment. All these happened most probably because our parent generation didn't even read the bible.
But it can be argued that piety was just a trend that would get defeated for a while at some points in history, especially when societies are getting better and people more secure. But as I look back on my journey towards being a serious Catholic, I found that I have no explanation for how I got myself "preached" by UA-cam channels. I had joined a bible class before, but UA-cam videos opened up for me a whole new dimension of the church treasure, most of it post biblical revelations, that I got attracted to learn more. It is as if some hidden powers pushed me into being an audience of the "preaching".
Moral of the story: we just do whatever we do best. Preaching to ourselves. Because by preaching to ourselves we make each other better in knowledge. Then when we are elites of the faith we can answer whatever questions that our youngsters ask regarding our practices. We can live our no-hypocrite life to the amusement of our friends and colleagues, and some of them will be attracted to our faith. As scripture says: no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. Indirectly, by our good knowledge and enthusiasm, and by our mere existence, God will use us to do His Will.
Preaching is much needed for our ranks. Many of us are working class who don't have the study time that a theologian has. There are always new members, hidden stories, and unheard knowledge. By having a playlist of good videos, any lucky victim could easily be drawn into a rabbit hole like I did. What's wonderful about the internet is that our videos can be stored forever to be discovered by future converts or reverts.
After watching the video, here's my issue with your take. You don't need to be doing daily mass, liturgy of the hours, saying "In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit" in Latin, listening to Catholic podcasts, to be a legit practicing Catholic, and we shouldn't see such things as pre-requisites to getting into heaven. The Church is pretty clear on what it means to be practicing vs. not, and beyond that, and the secondary details of how one organizes their spiritual life beyond that are situational.