Should We Imitate the Catholic, Orthodox Saints and Protestant “Esteemed” Christians?

[XavierJesusLovesIndia]

Make that the Least Evil Religion in the World, the Most Ancient and Largest Christian Denomination, Catholic Christianity.

Catholic Christianity's contribution to Health Care/Hospitals: "The Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of health care in the world. It is estimated that 26% of healthcare facilities around the world are Catholic. Catholic healthcare has been largely inspired by scriptural instruction to "heal the sick" and the Christian call to charity."

Taken from: https://catholic-geo-hub-cgisc.hub.arcgis.com/pages/catholic-healthcare

Catholic Christianity's contribution to Charities. Article from: https://usa.inquirer.net/15692/catholic-church-worlds-biggest-charitable-organization

"Catholic Church: World’s biggest charitable organization

... the Church runs 5,500 hospitals, 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, with 65 percent of them located in underdeveloped and developing countries.

Consider Caritas, the confederation of Catholic aid agencies that spent billions of dollars for poor humanity. Then sum up all the small-scale charitable projects of more than 200,000 Catholic parishes around the world and those of individual religious orders such as the Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Opus Dei, Vincentians, and others.

Christians are only following the footsteps of Christ. The historical Jesus had a social mission, in addition to His mission of evangelization. The total liberation of the human person was foremost in the life and death of Him crucified, who was indeed never indifferent to the sufferings of others ...
To fast forward a bit, during the Middle Ages (500 AD to 1500 AD), monasteries, bishops’ houses, and convents became the key medical centers of Europe. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, founded in 1696, are dedicated to nursing, visiting the poor, and taking care of the old and infirm, orphans, and the mentally ill. Today, with operations worldwide, they have about 121 Sisters in the Philippines working in 13 hospitals.

Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, who cared for the British troops during the Crimean War (1853-1856), once said: “What training is there to compare with that of a Catholic nun.”

Around 4,500 Missionary Sisters of Charity (founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa) care for hundreds of thousands of poor refugees, mentally ill, the aged and convalescent, sick and abandoned children, lepers, and people with AIDS – in addition to running schools to educate street children and managing soup kitchens around the world."

Please meditate on these words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Resident Alien. Anti-Catholics ignore all the Good Fruits that Catholics who actually follow the Teaching of the Lord Jesus (in e.g. Mat 25, love for the Poor, is love for Him) clearly bear.

"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." (Matthew 7:18).

God Bless.

 

[ebdesroches]

Are you a saint? Do you sin? Are you evil in any way?

I am a sinner saved by grace, constantly in need of His grace, ever thankful of His grace. As time goes by i am finding I have hidden sin, that my conscience is not sensitive.

There is a reason i identify with Mary Magdalene

 

[Eli1]

Are you a saint? Do you sin? Are you evil in any way?

I am a sinner saved by grace, constantly in need of His grace, ever thankful of His grace. As time goes by i am finding I have hidden sin, that my conscience is not sensitive.

There is a reason i identify with Mary Magdalene

Existence is not easy.
But existence with God is a Joy because we know that we will be re-United.
While here, try to treat others like Jesus did …. With patience, peace and compassion, because they are created in the image of God too.

All the saints in history starting with disciples, have suffered tremendously physically … yet internally they had a radiating peace and joy which shocked even their executors.

 

[ebdesroches]

Make that the Least Evil Religion in the World, the Most Ancient and Largest Christian Denomination, Catholic Christianity.

Catholic Christianity's contribution to Health Care/Hospitals: "The Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of health care in the world. It is estimated that 26% of healthcare facilities around the world are Catholic. Catholic healthcare has been largely inspired by scriptural instruction to "heal the sick" and the Christian call to charity."

Taken from: https://catholic-geo-hub-cgisc.hub.arcgis.com/pages/catholic-healthcare

Let us individually be not evil, love God, and serve Him.

Jesus is the the head of the Church and will have His bride holy and undefined…He will make her so.

Catholic Christianity's contribution to Charities. Article from: https://usa.inquirer.net/15692/catholic-church-worlds-biggest-charitable-organization

"Catholic Church: World’s biggest charitable organization

... the Church runs 5,500 hospitals, 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, with 65 percent of them located in underdeveloped and developing countries.

Consider Caritas, the confederation of Catholic aid agencies that spent billions of dollars for poor humanity. Then sum up all the small-scale charitable projects of more than 200,000 Catholic parishes around the world and those of individual religious orders such as the Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Opus Dei, Vincentians, and others.

Christians are only following the footsteps of Christ. The historical Jesus had a social mission, in addition to His mission of evangelization. The total liberation of the human person was foremost in the life and death of Him crucified, who was indeed never indifferent to the sufferings of others ...
To fast forward a bit, during the Middle Ages (500 AD to 1500 AD), monasteries, bishops’ houses, and convents became the key medical centers of Europe. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, founded in 1696, are dedicated to nursing, visiting the poor, and taking care of the old and infirm, orphans, and the mentally ill. Today, with operations worldwide, they have about 121 Sisters in the Philippines working in 13 hospitals.

Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, who cared for the British troops during the Crimean War (1853-1856), once said: “What training is there to compare with that of a Catholic nun.”

Around 4,500 Missionary Sisters of Charity (founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa) care for hundreds of thousands of poor refugees, mentally ill, the aged and convalescent, sick and abandoned children, lepers, and people with AIDS – in addition to running schools to educate street children and managing soup kitchens around the world."

Please meditate on these words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Resident Alien. Anti-Catholics ignore all the Good Fruits that Catholics who actually follow the Teaching of the Lord Jesus (in e.g. Mat 25, love for the Poor, is love for Him) clearly bear.

"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." (Matthew 7:18).

God Bless.

 

[ebdesroches]

Aweee you give me honor and praise. I thank you for it. Believe when when I say, though, I stumble and struggle with myself plenty. I need Him constantly to keep me and the dredful ego from running a muck. He is so gracious as He keeps me in chk and encourages me to lay down my cross of self, every moment, of every day.

I hope to follow Him more and more, with His tender-mercies there is hope. I am not real savy of the saints like some of you are, but I do learn much from the diciples, because they followed Him so willingly, right off the bat. I am often inspired by them. However, it is Christ that is my One and only guiding light. Well, wait now. I seek to be this way. Like I said, um my ego rears her ugly head still, from time to time.

Thanks for always being so kind to me. I really appreciate it. I love you brother.

Yes charlirenee is very special and 🥰 by many of us

 

[ebdesroches]

The nerd part of me is now curious how one would calculate the time necessary to spend in purgatory, and the mechanics of reducing it. What are the metrics used in calculating it? How does one affect them? How would you check whether what you do to affect it is actually having an effect?

Actually I thought indulgences was where you know you are going to sin, so you pay off the church in advance so you can sin without feeling bad about it. I thought paying down purgatory time was something different. Maybe I got something backward?

Whatever it is called where you can pay off sin you know you are going to do, how do I get in on that part?

As far as i know the Orthodox Church never promulgated indulgences….also several other things that would agree with the protestant mentality

 

[Lynx]

As far as i know the Orthodox Church never promulgated indulgences….also several other things that would agree with the protestant mentality

I dunno... I just googled it and it seems to be a definitely Catholic thing.

But you DID say "As far as I know." Maybe you just didn't know about it? But for sure, it is very much a Catholic thing.

 

[ebdesroches]

I did a search online. Orthodox does not believe in indulgences….neither doi

 

[ebdesroches]

Are you a saint? Do you sin? Are you evil in any way?

I am a sinner saved by grace, constantly in need of His grace, ever thankful of His grace. As time goes by i am finding I have hidden sin, that my conscience is not sensitive.

There is a reason i identify with Mary Magdalene

For a long time I said to myself "My conscience doesnt condemn me...I must be OK". At the same time inside I felt that as my poem says "I am a Shanty Dwelling" I am not even close to being a fit place for King Jesus, royalty, to dwell, although he does. He does dispite my flaws and my unworthiness. I know for certain He loves me more than I can stand. Its because of His lovingkindness, mercy and love, He even lets me exist, let alone live in me.

This was sent to me by a sweet lady (you know who you are and everyone else does too) ... "May I suggest you use what they have taught you, .... "

So here it is:

…..Let us therefore now also draw near unto Him; let us entreat Him that He would brace our paralyzed soul, and leaving all things that pertain to this life, let us take account of the things spiritual only. Or if you cleave unto these also, yet think of them after the other.

"Neither must you think lightly of it, because you have no pain in sinning; rather on this very account most of all do thou lament, that you feel not anguish of your offenses. For not because sin bites not, does this come to pass, but because the offending soul is insensible. Regard with this view them that have a feeling of their own sins, how they wail more bitterly than such as are being cut, or burned; how many things they do how many suffer, how greatly they mourn and lament, in order to be delivered from their evil conscience. They would not do any such thing, unless they were exceedingly pained in soul." (by St. John Chrysostom, 14th homily....no dont worry...you are a saint too!)


What this says is that I was right to worry about how insensitive my conscience is. So its something I have to pray for, ask that it might be sensitive in order not to offend the One I love at all, in the smallest ways, anytime (goal!!).

 

[ebdesroches]

It's not "against the law" to post Catholic ideas here. But the official policy of this forum is Catholicism is heresy. I think what Subhumanoid was getting at is that criticism of Catholicism is permitted and you will get pushback from other members.

See this: https://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/catholic-heresy-for-the-record.41911/

I assume by: "It [the church] had existed for 1500 years before then" you mean the Catholic church. I don't recognize the Catholic church as a true Christian church, so anything you have to say pretty much ends right there for me.

If someone belongs to a heretical sect they might be true part of the time but still false the rest of the time. If I quote them, or encourage others to listen to them, I'm leading them down a crooked road.

I wonder where you get your heritage as a Christian historicaly? Did it start with Luther? Some of the councils? If not the Catholic Church, what about the Orthodox Church. At what time did the vast number of councils of the combined church go wrong? At what point were the members of the councils that made theological decisions go wrong? What year did that happen?

Thanks for giving me the link. I never knew there were such conditions placed on the site. As far as I know I comply. I am referring to individuals and what individual Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants have written that happen to be useful for me to grow.
I have cited one of these today being careful to say what it was that was good for me. There was nothing heretical in the post....what I am saying is that there are many things written by Catholics and Orthodox that are good for us Protestants. BTW there is some difference between Orthodox Christian views and Catholics that would agree more with the Protestant viewpoint...for example that Mary inherited original sin (Luke 1:46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior).

I supose the debate that IS ok on this site is that any member of the 33,000+ denominations of Protestant Christians can speak up, of course if it agrees with the moderator's heresy beliefs (is there a doctrinal statement of belief so we know)?

 

[CharliRenee]

I think when we focus more of our time and energy on any particular denomination, or doctrine, or theology, or even other believers, past or present, more than on
Him, on His atonement, His grace, His Love, His justice, His fellowship, His work..we are losing site of what really matters..Him, not religion.

Everything starts and ends with the great Alpha and Omega.

My biggest arguement against Catholicism is it seems to place more focus on a certain way of believing, certain traditions, certain theologies, certain style and ways of thinking but to me..He is the ONLY way; it is all about Him, not about a way of believing. I just don't get it.

Are we wanting to convince ppl to accept or to be a catholic, or a calvinist or a baptist, or a lutheran, or a protestant, evangelical, or a methodist...on and on? I'll admit that I honestly dont understand the differences nor do I desire to know.

OR

Are we trying to encourage others to be followers of Christ alone?

Sincerely, I mean no shade or shame.

I just don't get it.

 

[Eli1]

I think when we focus more of our time and energy on any particular denomination, or doctrine, or theology, or even other believers, past or present, more than on
Him, on His atonement, His grace, His Love, His justice, His fellowship, His work..we are losing site of what really matters..Him, not religion.

Everything starts and ends with the great Alpha and Omega.

My biggest arguement against Catholicism is it seems to place more focus on a certain way of believing, certain traditions, certain theologies, certain style and ways of thinking but to me..He is the ONLY way; it is all about Him, not about a way of believing. I just don't get it.

Are we wanting to convince ppl to accept or to be a catholic, or a calvinist or a baptist, or a lutheran, or a protestant, evangelical, or a methodist...on and on? I'll admit that I honestly dont understand the differences nor do I desire to know.

OR

Are we trying to encourage others to be followers of Christ alone?

Sincerely, I mean no shade or shame.

I just don't get it.

100% agree with you. In your heart you are in the right place.
The focus of any church should be God and for most Churches It is. But for some churches they get lost in dogma, hierarchy or traditions and lose sight of God.
This doesn’t make them all bad. There are many good people like you in my Church, in fact the Priest is a lot like you. Just like any group, including this virtual forum, you have to take the good with the bad.
There are a few things I don’t like about my church too but I’m not going to hate all because of a few. This is also contrary to what Christ teaches.
I go to the church to meet people like yourself so we can say “Christ is in our midst” and just be joyful and grateful with God and each other.

 

[Eli1]

I also go to a lot of churches including catholic, Protestant non denominational etc. it’s the same atmosphere in all of them. You gotta take the good with the bad. It’s the heart that matters and that’s what I look for.

 

[Eli1]

I went to a Baptist church once where the priest said “if you’re not baptized in water don’t call yourself a Christian”. I just shook my head and immediately felt bad for the people listening to that guy.
But guess what? There were wonderful people in that church too! One of them told me afterwards ”our priest can be like that but he’s a good man and we love him”. That made my day.

 

[Eli1]

I also remember once where my neighbor invited me to a non denominational church.
It was fairly long for about 3 hours, 2 hours of which were spent by some sort of theatrical play and an hour of music. I wondered if I was at a theater or a church , but guess what? My neighbor is wonderful!
He cuts my grass and I make bread for him. He and his family are wonderful and we also care and do little things for each other.

 

[Eli1]

There’s also a Catholic Church I go to every 3 months where they do a service called “Adoration under the stars” which is simply wonderful.
Its basically a service which they do at night around 9pm, where everyone has to go outside of the church [in the parking lot] and they do a wonderful Christ centered worship service and pray for healing and peace.
Its simply wonderful.

 

[ebdesroches]

I also remember once where my neighbor invited me to a non denominational church.
It was fairly long for about 3 hours, 2 hours of which were spent by some sort of theatrical play and an hour of music. I wondered if I was at a theater or a church , but guess what? My neighbor is wonderful!
He cuts my grass and I make bread for him. He and his family are wonderful and we also care and do little things for each other.

I am pretty sure you love each other. Thats the Spirit of God.

 

[ebdesroches]

From what you say "All roads lead to Jesus, being His disciple, following Him" Bravo!

 

[Lynx]

From what you say "All roads lead to Jesus, being His disciple, following Him" Bravo!

I dunno... That didn't work out so well for Cain. He got a little butthurt over that one.

Ask Uzzah about it too. He paid the price for David's good intentions with wrong implementation.

 

[CharliRenee]

100% agree with you. In your heart you are in the right place.
The focus of any church should be God and for most Churches It is. But for some churches they get lost in dogma, hierarchy or traditions and lose sight of God.
This doesn’t make them all bad. There are many good people like you in my Church, in fact the Priest is a lot like you. Just like any group, including this virtual forum, you have to take the good with the bad.
There are a few things I don’t like about my church too but I’m not going to hate all because of a few. This is also contrary to what Christ teaches.
I go to the church to meet people like yourself so we can say “Christ is in our midst” and just be joyful and grateful with God and each other.

You know, I never understood someone sizing up a person like that in church or anywhere, is he or she good, are the ppl here bad or good. Gosh, how could one know that? Now if I see someone being hurtful to another in church or anywhere, I would def draw conclusions, but I should just pray for them and if the situation allows me to help, well try.

I agree with you, 100% it is not our place to determine the goodness of others, the condition of their faith and heart. We are called to love and mercy.

I do, though, believe we should use discernment in what we choose to follow. We do have to be wise in our dealings with ppl, especially strangers.

I use to go to a baptist church and loved it and the ppl there too. Omy goodness, such a sweet place of fellowship. I don't believe we have to be baptized to get to heaven but believe we should. Jesus did, that is good enough for me.

I agree with you Eli, a doctrine, denomination or a way of believing doesnt mean we should broadly brush stroke our notions on anything or anyone, determining folks goodness or badness...shame.

If I went to place where their beliefs lined up with mine, they were bible based, focused on following and serving Jesus, but were not kind and welcoming, then I'd know that was not the place for me. Just as I'd choose if they were warm and welcoming but not bible based or seemed to focus on politics or focus on the kind of church it was, or prayed to Mary, or just stuff that I couldn't reconcile with because it was in direct conflict with the scripture.

I don't know Eli, it is fascinating how many different ways we interpret the scripture. I am so thankful for His guidance and His mercy to help get us where we need to be...with Him.

Thank you for this... we can say “Christ is in our midst” and just be joyful and
and grateful with God and each other.

Yes Yes Yes, on this we should all agree!!!!