HopperUK posted:

There aren't any saints with my name despite it being all Irish and stuff. My middle name is Roman and there aren't any there either. I can corner this market if I can quick figure out how to be super holy.

HEY GAL posted:

like, literally Roman? that's Romanus, patron saint of music

Thirteen Orphans posted:

There is no (recognized) Saint of my name.

my dad posted:

Translated, it would sound like a bad fanfic OC.

Thirteen Orphans posted:

There is no (recognized) Saint of my name.

Worthleast posted:

System Metternich posted:

e: in a comment section discussing this I was also referred to some remnants of the female diaconate that possibly, maybe have survived in the Carthusian order?

quote:

The website of the Carthusians posted:
After her solemn profession or perpetual donation, the nun can, if she wishes, receive the Consecration of Virgins. This is a special rite where the Bishop gives the nun not only the veil and ring, external signs of an indissoluble union with the divine Spouse, but also the stole. This confers on the recipient certain liturgical privileges the most significant of them being the proclaiming of the Gospel on certain occasions.

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

My full name means "Who is like God? The leader of the people, from the countryside."

I was supposed to grow up to be a dictator, I think.

e: A hick dictator. A hicktator, if you will.

HEY GAL posted:

stop posting things that lead to your real names in this thread people, tias i am looking at you

HEY GAL posted:

goon project: everyone itt do something cool, but keep it secret

Tias posted:

This. Cooldoing is cool, bragging about rarely is.

HEY GAL posted:

if you worship jesus as well as your gods, keep in mind that this is exactly what he wants you to do: help others and don't brag about it.

Tias posted:

This. Cooldoing is cool, bragging about rarely is.

The Phlegmatist posted:

COOL HOMELESS SUPPORT PROJECT

The Phlegmatist posted:

I dunno. I think it's okay to talk about what you're doing so that people know opportunities are out there. Like at my last church we had an ecumenical ministry program (there were a bunch of local Protestant churches participating in it and collecting offerings for it) that created transitional housing for homeless people in the community. We even got a couple grants from the city after we could demonstrate that transitional housing, getting homeless people back to work and getting them on Medicaid, providing rehab expensive or trips to AA/NA meetings if they needed it to get them sober etc. actually saved money for the community as a whole in the long run due to the decreased need to law enforcement involvement (jail-time and court time) and write-offs from the local hospitals due to ER visits from indigent homeless patients.

I mean it's not really bragging but it was a cool thing that we were doing for the community and I enjoyed talking about it, and talking about it at various churches is how we actually got donations to do what we were doing anyway.

The Phlegmatist posted:

it was a cool thing that we were doing for the community and I enjoyed talking about it

quote:

In my religious education as a kid one question kept coming up: Doing good selflessly is good. But what if you do good while mainly thinking of your own benefit?

After all, a good deed also has many advantages for its agent: Let’s say he gives to the poor — he can feel good, advance his self-esteem, he may be appreciated or even thanked by others and can share the joy of those he helps. But if that is his motivation, can you still call him good? Or is his action just as selfish as keeping his gift to himself?

I used to find this question depressing, now I find it pointless. The giver has the goal of helping suffering beings with his gift. If one of the beings he helps is he himself, all the better!

You can imagine a giver who sees his gift as a pure transaction: He gives a certain amount of his time or belongings, and in return he receives the corresponding amount of pleasure, much as if he was buying a stick of soap. But even this giver has the seed of good within him: He has chosen the joy of giving as his method of self-pleasure, rather than investing his efforts in new bath salts or a cocktail course. So even as he suffers from a wrong view, he continues to plant further seeds of good in himself. And after all, the effect of his gift is independent of what he was thinking. So the use to others is fully present.

After all, even the Bible says „love your neighbor as yourself“. To be able to fulfill this command, first you need to love yourself. And even when you do good it does not hurt: If I help someone and do not feel joy, one person has been helped. If I help him and feel joy, two people have been helped.

But if I skip the helping and keep everything I have for myself, no-one is helped. The one in need has his need unfilled, I develop the wrong view that I’m separate from the others, and sooner or later I’ll lose my gifts either way. That’s the mistake we should avoid, not the possibility of having a wrong goal in mind while walking on the right path.

HEY GAL posted:

i think there's a difference between being happy about doing something, or happy at being good at it, and bragging. As I see it, the fault is trying to pretend you're more moral than you are, or like the pharisee say "it's a good thing I'm not less good, like those other people".

content:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/pope-francis-decries-epidemic-of-animosity-toward-minorities

Scionix posted:

fully admitting I didn't read the thread so maybe this has been asked before but is there a TL;DR on how the hell you reconcile the old testament cranky god with new testament hippy jesus or is it all ~a metaphor~ or what have you

Mo Tzu posted:

just fyi implying that the new testament is happy and nice and the old testament is angry and mean is antisemitic! the old testament god is a god of liberation, of hospitality, of justice. jews do not worship an angry and mean god. and that's really the bridge between testaments; the bible is full of examples where those who are the underclass, those who are oppressed, are exalted by god. whether it's the eunuch who helped rebuild the temple (i think, as a former catholic i have to admit i never read the bible much so i could be getting that detail wrong) or jesus talking about the least of these, god seeks justice and compassion in all things. what we see as "mean" and "angry" is simply a showing of god's sense of justice

though the whole genocide thing and a lot of stories in the bible are also culturally there to help promote national cohesion and colonialism so it kinda complicates things like exodus but i would still say that justice is important in the old testament. tikkun olam didn't come from nowhere, after all

Ceciltron posted:

I don't think implying that the old testament is angry and mean is antisemitic. I mean there is the entire fact the thing is a kind of racial-supremacy narrative that, *thank God*, is swept away by the decision to bind the Gentiles to the Jews like the branch of a wild olive tree is joined to a cultivated one. Then again, if looking at the (biblical) actions of Jews regarding non-Jews in the places they're in charge of leaves me with a sour taste, then maybe I'm antisemitic!

I'd also say that there's a big disconnect between Justice and Law in the old testament. The old Testament is a book concerned with laws. These laws aren't terribly just, in and of themselves, and seem (forgive me my audacity here) arbitrary. I'd argue that the New testament, with the Golden Rule, fosters far more Justice than the previous legalistic approach.

Deteriorata posted:

God didn't change, the culture did. The perception of God and how he's described is what is different between the two testaments.

quote:

Pope Francis has declared that abortion, which remains a "grave sin" in the eyes of the Catholic Church, can be forgiven by ordinary priests for the foreseeable future — instead of requiring the intervention of a bishop.

The change was implemented on a temporary basis, for one year only, as part of the Catholic Church's "Year of Mercy," which began last December and ended on Sunday.

In a letter released on Monday, the pope announced that the change was being extended indefinitely.

"I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life," the pope wrote in the letter. "In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation."

"Because the Roman Catholic Church holds abortion to be such a serious sin, it had long put the matter of granting forgiveness for it in the hands of a bishop, who could either hear the woman's confession himself or delegate that to a priest who was expert in such situations," The Associated Press explains.

In the U.S., Catholic News Service reports, most bishops have routinely granted the faculty to their priests, but the Year of Mercy made the permission universal.

In the letter released Monday, the pope indicated he was extending the ability to absolve abortions "lest any obstacle arise between the request for reconciliation and God's forgiveness."

Blurred posted:

As I understand it, it's not possible to discuss the morality of abortion in this thread, but what do you make of the pope's comments today? What effect do you think it will have in practice?

pidan posted:

Eh, makes sense. Priests can independently forgive most sins including murder, so why not this one?
And as the article notes, in the US and many other countries most bishops had already delegated this power to their priests, so in practice it doesn't make a difference to most people in this thread.

Blurred posted:

As I understand it, it's not possible to discuss the morality of abortion in this thread, but what do you make of the pope's comments today? What effect do you think it will have in practice?


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/21/502852325/pope-francis-grants-all-priests-the-ability-to-forgive-abortions