Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival #15

Sunday Snippets for the weeks of Sunday March 6 to Saturday April 23.


I have been inactive on the internet for a while, so I haven't blogged too much, but I have been getting into some other activities, notably reading and drawing!

• I drew my own version of The Divine Mercy and Christux Rex (Christ the King).
• My little ramblings on the apocalypse.
• In these two pieces I talk about being Catholic and why I'm Catholic.
• A little thinking on Sola Fide - by faith alone.
• As Easter draws closer I talk on Confession.
• Finally, a prayer for World Youth Day 2011, Madrid!

I hope you all have a Happy and Holy Easter this 2011!

Friend and Lord Jesus Christ

This is a prayer for World Youth Day Madrid, Spain, held in August 2011. Though I will not be able to go as I barely have enough money to survive on let alone save to go overseas, I went to the last World Youth Day in 2008, Sydney. I loved it, it was great and I got quite a lot out of it, including friendships (which are mostly simply gone as I had a period of inactivity, many people I haven't managed to find again due to moving away etc;).

This is a nice prayer anyways, applicable for anytime, particularly for young people such as myself! Have a read and meditate on it, you should enjoy you as I did I trust :-)

Source: WYD 2011 Madrid

Friend and Lord Jesus Christ, How great You are! With Your words and Works You have revealed to us Who God is, Your Father and our Father, and Who You are: our Savior. You call us to be with You.

We wish to follow You wherever You go. We thank You for Your Incarnation. You are the Eternal Son of God, but You humbled Yourself and became man. We thank You for Your Death and Resurrection. You obeyed the Father's will to the extreme

and for this reason You are the Lord of all persons and things. We thank You for having remained amongst us in the Eucharist. Your Presence, Your Sacrifice, Your Banquet

Invite us to remain always united to You. You Call us to work with You. We wish to go wherever You send us: to announce Your name, to heal in Your Name, to bring all of our brothers to You.

Grant us Your Holy Spirit, to enlighten and strengthen us. The Virgin Mary, the Mother You gave us on the cross, always encourages us to do what You say. You are our Life. May our thoughts,

our love and our actions always be rooted in You! You are our Rock. May our faith in You always be the solid foundation of our life!

We pray for Pope Benedict XVI, for the Bishops and for all those who are preparing the next World Youth Dayin Madrid. We pray for our family and friends and especially for all the young people who will get to know you in this encounter, thanks to the firm and joyful testimony of the faith.

Confession

As with every Holy Week, I get more involved in the Church, trying to revitalise my faith. Confession is on tonight, then not much until Holy Thursday, then two things on Good Friday - Ecumenical Station of The Cross, then later in the day, Good Friday Mass. Saturday is of course the Easter Vigils, and Sunday is Easter Sunday Mass. Back to Confession...

I'm not sure what type of Confession it is, which Rite - One, Two or Three. One of them is one-on-one in the Confessional Booth, another is personal but in the Church with several priests, people just lining up, and the other is a general absolution, not actually confessing to anyone but God - I think they are in that order, One, Two, Three, I'm not sure though! Let me know LOL.

So I am a little nervous, I haven't gone in a while, and I have done some bad things to myself and to others... perhaps that is why I didn't get too involved in Adoration when I FINALLY got to it, after planning to go for two or three weeks but never getting off my butt to go!!! Hmm... a good thing they stress Confession during Lent, especially Holy Week, by Good Friday!

Sola Fide: By Faith Alone

This is another reason why I am Catholic...

Sola Fide - By Faith Alone - a teaching the Protestant Churches adhere to, meaning that they receive guaranteed salvation by faith alone, not through good works as well, such as the Catholic Church teach. I believe that you must do good works as well as have a good spiritual life in order to get salvation.

Think of it this way... you may have strong faith in Christ, yet a strong animalistic instinct to murder or torture or rape - anything that is morally wrong - yet because of "Sola Fide" and your strong faith, you still have salvation, even though you do nasty things, and don't do anything such as Confession and Penance!

That's my two-cents worth!!!

Christus Rex

A picture I drew a few weeks ago, "Christus Rex", or "Christ the King".

Catholic: Here to stay!

There are a many things about the Catholic Faith that I still do not understand fully, some not at all, so I have decided I need to learn more about MY faith before I look at other faiths - which is out of mere boredom and curiosity... to start with!!!

I plan on buying the Divine Mercy Diary of St. Faustina on Wednesday week, give me time to start reading it before Divine Mercy Sunday!

This being Holy Week will be pretty full on. I'm going to Thursday Mass in town then have coffee, then I'm going to the Lords Supper at 7pm across the road. I'm thinking of doing the Eccumenical Way of The Cross - between Anglican, Uniting, Salvo's and Catholic Church - on Friday, then a Catholic Mass at 3pm. Then there's the Vigil on Saturday. Oh I think there is a Rite of Confession tomorrow which I might go to. Not sure which Rite, I hope it is the one which is either general absolution communally, or a number of priests... I still don't feel 100% comfortable confessing to priests I know well, like Fr. Flanagan! So, a busy week, as Holy Week usually is. Hopefully this revitalises my passion for the Lord!

Catholic... but why?

Since my "spiritual awakening" of 2005, I have dibbled and dabbled with a few other religious-denominations... it never lasted though. After going to the Catholic Church which I was comfortable with, I started going to different places, starting with the Pentecostal Church in Wodonga, Faith City. I met nice people there, who were very happy to meet me I may add, odd I thought, but anyway. I didn't go there many times, I found the people TOO eager and happy, besides I guess I didn't know too much about the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, such as the views on Saints, the Virgin Mary etc;.

I since learnt, but before long I was caught up with the Jehovah's Witnesses. At first it was to look at certain Bible passages and how the Bible predicted things etc;. I was looking at it from my own New Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic one, so sometimes it was right, such as the world being round (I cannot remember the scriptural reference here, someone comment it if they can help!). After a while though, I started using their "New World Translation" and went to one of their meetings. Still, not for me.

Finally, Mormon Missionaries came around. I ordered a "Book of Mormon" several years back, but didn't have much to do with them - I was constantly intoxicated and always smokings, two things that are banned in their Church, smoking and drinking. Anywho, this time I met them on a number of occasions and attended their Church a number of times. I suppose they appealed to me because they were so happy all the time, yet not too eager to know you either! I eventually worked them out to be a lie... still I am somewhat drawn to them. Anyways...

The Mormon Angel Moroni which adorns most LDS Temples.

So the Catholic Church have many things that I don't agree with, however, as a lay-person, does it matter when there are priests out there who engage in this behaviour anyway, it is just "hush hush" or when there are Cardinals out there who are more on the Liberal-left in Catholic politics?

Besides, on a whole, there are many reasons I like to remain Catholic.

Number one, ("And I say to thee; That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church" - Matt 16:18).
Number two, we are the only church who believe in Mary as the Mother of God.
And three, there was always going to be uprise against His True Church, which is happening now more than ever! Many Fundamentalist, and mainstream-Protestants, liken His Church to "The Whore of Babylon!"