Comments on: Catholic spirituality

By: nancy dibeten

nancy dibeten — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:26:10 +0000

what happened to good old fashion religion? all these labels are taking us away from our core belief in God. Thanks Father!

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:27:56 +0000

Thank you Fr. Bosco. Both for your coverage of these contributions to the discourse and your own very helpful and affirming insight that goes a long way to giving voice to a notion of catholicity that seems and feels correct.

By: TheraP

TheraP — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:07:34 +0000

I wonder if ultimately it will be Christians claiming “catholic communion” who are the future of the one, holy, apostolic, and catholic church. Because I affirm so much of what was said in the post and these comments. I too am a “loyal dissenter” and appreciate the faith of my childhood. But nonetheless am so distressed by the lack of mercy, compassion, and justice at the vatican (and by those it harbors who have perpetrated predation) that I would like to cry a river of tears – for a long time – in reparation for what has been done and is being done. The abuse of children, of men, of women. The conferring of leper status on certain groups. But the Holy Spirit continues to call – within each of these catholic communities. That, to me, is a hopeful sign.

May we all be one. May the unity of the Holy Spirit and the Bond of Peace unite us in Christ as we try, each in our own way, to assist in bringing all things into ONE – to the Father.

Amen.

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:14:22 +0000

This is very interesting.

There are various things I always thought of as “Catholic” with a big C that I didn’t like–the elevation of the Pope, the requirement of one-on-one confession before a priest, the idea of purgatory, the old “babies in limbo” thing….

But when I read your description of catholicism with a small c, I see myself. I feel Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. I feel the sacredness of all of creation, in a sacramental universe. And I joyfully affirm the Nicene creed every Sunday and believe it.

I love the daily office. I love “high church” ritual (although I am progressive theologically–I too am a fan of Marcus Borg, and I am also a Rocco Errico fan.)

And then there is that side of me that wants direct experience of the divine, who has done the Michael Harner workshops and loves to put on a drumming mp3 and meditate/”journey” to interact with Jesus and angels, and animals….and gain direct spiritual insights interacting with them.

And then there are the Pentecostal friend and her mom who introduced me to speaking in tongues when I was in 6th grade, so periodically when I can’t think of the words to say something weighing on my heart, I just pray in tongues…

So I guess that makes me a charismatic shamanic catholic-or perhaps Episcopentacostapagan… But what are labels anyway?

Christian is a perfectly good word. I’ll claim it!

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:30:29 +0000

I would readily accept the label orthodox-evangelical-catholic for myself as well. I still need some help from the Holy Spirit before I take on that charismatic label

Because of your post on the etymology of “priest” I was expecting something similar here for the term catholic. Kata + Holos; According to the whole, or from the whole.

The Christian Church is catholic because if its diversity and universality – that it is for and made up of all peoples throughout the world. So to say you are an Anglican Catholic is not an oxymoron. In fact quite often I find the Anglican Communion to more successfully be catholic than the Roman Catholic Church.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:47:26 +0000

Oh yeah, and if labels count for much, I consider myself a (post-)Liberal Progressive low (in several senses) anglo-catholic.

Been reading McLaren followed by Borg, can you tell?

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:46:15 +0000

Wikipedia has a fair bit to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Catholicism#Practices_and_beliefs

and I like the sound of Affirming Catholicism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_Catholicism

It is, after all, entirely OK to have knowledgeable folks in funny dress showing some reverence for the sacrament of the eucharist (whatever one’s personal doctrine concerning real presence) whilst celebrating it; we just don’t need no pope, thank you very much.

By: davanna

davanna — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:01:34 +0000

I wonder at all these delineations within Christianity. Seems a bit absurd when you give it a moment’s thought. Which category would JC himself fit into? None of them, I suspect! For the record I am a cradle Catholic who recently took up my childhood faith again. I treasure it. But I think that if Catholics really believe that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, that we should be handing it out freely, not jealously guarding it!

By: John Sobert Sylvest

John Sobert Sylvest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:20:07 +0000

The criticisms that Father Peter Williams has inventoried match my own critique of Rome, as a loyal dissenter. I suspect that the root cause of Rome’s problems is that it has not yet overcome its rationalistic metaphysics.

Don’t get me wrong. I affirm both metaphysical and moral realisms. I just think that our deontology has to be at least as tentative as our ontology is speculative. And finding a good root metaphor for our highly speculative metaphysics has been extremely problematical (substance vs process vs experience vs semiotic). Bottomline, we need to be more fallibilistic and not persist and even advance into a creeping, even creepy, infallibilism. This epistemically indefensible apodictic certainty pervades our church disciplines (e.g. gender roles, celibacy, women’s ordination), moral doctrines (e.g. human sexuality & procreation) and sacramental theology (e.g. a robustly ontological transubstantiation rather than a more vague semiotic tranSIGNification). There must be some type of invincible ignorance in play (as I eschew a rash judgment of arrogance … sigh)?

But all of the above issues are accidentals, nonessentials. What is essential is our radically incarnational outlook and pervasively sacramental economy fueled by our vivid pneumatological (Holy Spirit) and analogical imaginations. In other words, what Fr. Bosco Peters said, CATHOLIC.

Therefore be it resolved, I am already in full communion with both Rome and Canterbury, at least New Zealand, on essentials, and consider Anglican Catholic – not an oxymoron, but – a redundancy! And it is good to be one with you my dear brothers and sisters! Very good!

Deep peace,
Johnboy
New Orleans