PearTreeTheft @PearTreeTheft

Opponents of a Marian reading of Revelation 12 insist that the Woman of the Apocalypse is the Church, not Mary, but never seem to seriously consider that she could be a polysemous figure.

Hey everyone.

I feel like it's possible to both be a faithful Catholic and not be a total weirdo. Right?

J.R.R. TOLKIEN ON THE DEAD END OF PROTESTANTISM I read this letter in the years leading up to my conversion. As I discovered, not only was Tolkien right about the mistaken search for “primitive” purity in the Church (read Scripture—it never existed), but the primitive church—to the extent we have artifacts of it in documents, archaeology, etc.—was very Catholic in its beliefs and practices. What I had been told my whole life were “medieval accretions” were widespread in the ancient Church, and defended from both Scripture, and the constant practice of the Church since the Apostolic age. The protestant claim to have restored the ancient Faith was, I discovered, completely false. To this day, I have not yet found anything uniquely protestant in the ancient Catholic Church, except (I am sad to say) the heresies. All of them—no matter how different their doctrines from one another (and virtually none of them resembled protestantism)—ultimately relied on a novel/erroneous interpretation of Scripture (including subtracting or adding to its canon), coupled with a rejection of the authority of the Church. In this, each of them resembled protestantism. It was very sobering to realize that the Church Fathers’ descriptions of how heresy and heretics operated was disturbingly similar to how my native protestantism had operated since the 16th century. TOLKIEN’S LETTER "The 'protestant' search backwards for 'simplicity' and directness—which, of course, though it contains some good or at least intelligible motives, is mistaken and indeed vain. Because 'primitive Christianity' is now and in spite of all 'research' will ever remain largely unknown; because 'primitiveness' is no guarantee of value, and is, and was in great a reflection of ignorance. Grave abuses were as much an element in Christian liturgical behavior from the beginning as now. (St Paul's strictures on Eucharistic behaviour are sufficient to show this!) Still more because 'my church' was not intended by Our Lord to be static or remain in perpetual childhood; but to be a living organism (likened to a plant), which develops and changes in externals by the interaction of its bequeathed divine life and history—the particular circumstances of the world into which it is set. There is no resemblance between the 'mustard-seed' and the full-grown tree. For those living in the days of its branching growth, the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is part of its life, and the history of a divine thing is sacred. The wise may know that it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree…But they will certainly do harm if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils.” J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter to his son Michael (August 25, 1967)

The Blessed Mother promised that all who wear the Miraculous Medal would "receive great graces, especially those who wear it around the neck." And, indeed, I received the grace to have a Saturday afternoon off to go to Confession and the grace of receiving Our Eucharistic Lord.

@CatholicAnswers @Trent_Horn

Was Aquinas simply wrong, or is there some way to understand his views on predestination in light of what the Catechism teaches?

“God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end” (CCC 1037).

....And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed." - Isaiah 6:5-7

"And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts....

Excellent recent episode of Pints With Aquinas featuring Fr. Gregory Pine. I didn't realize Fr. Pine is bald now - I thought he was tonsured at first.

.... who is not an inanimate object who had no say in our salvation, but is precisely through her 'yes' and in bearing and bringing forth the God-Man that I'm saved. I can say that of her." - Matt Fradd

"'If it were not for Mary, I would be damned', or 'I've been saved by Mary'. If I can say 'I've been saved by the cross' or 'if not for the cross, I would be damned', & you know what I mean by that, then how much more would I be able to say that about the Blessed Virgin Mary....

I feel very spiritually adrift from the lack of support, coupled with the fact that Confession is only offered once a week in my parish and I live in a mostly Protestant area and can't confess elsewhere without driving miles

I suppose some might say that's what RCIA was for, but RCIA only covered the basics - mostly stuff I already knew from my own research.

Do any other new Catholic converts feel like they've, so to speak, been "dripped and dropped"? Baptized and then pretty much left to fend for themselves? No advice on spiritual formation, how to find or choose a spiritual director, what books to read, and so on?