Catholic Discussion
- Thread starter sanctus
- Start date
Like all things, it is a transition one goes through. A choice, a decision that is made and accepted. My wife and I seperated and I have been celibate now for over 4 years. It was her decision to follow a single path. we are not legally seperated or divorced, we have made a new accomodation.
Celibacy has become for me a great relief, and it is odd how used to it I am. Does it mean that from time to time I do not get sexually aroused? Of course not! I am a man. The difference is now I have to foucs on other things instead of sexual stimulation.
It does not make one better, but the freedom from sexual pressures enables me to focus more on constructive activities.
Hmm... Yes, I think I understand that. At least, I understand it as much as a non-celibate man could understand it. Celibacy is not a choice I'd ever make for myself, but I've been married twice and there was a three year interval between the end of one and the beginning of the next, and I was celibate for most of those three years. Actually it was surprisingly easy. I was so angry and hurt after the first failure that I didn't want anything to do with women, I blamed them all for my first wife's failings. The fallacy of composition... Two years into the marriage she suddenly announced that we were never going to have children, and that's one of those moments burned into my memory with photographic clarity. I remember thinking at the time, "If that's true, we're not going to make it." And she was Roman Catholic for crysake out loud, how could a committed RC make a choice like that? We signed documents before we were married--because I wasn't Roman Catholic and it was required before her priest would marry us--in which we agreed that "marriage was ordained for the purpose of having children."
I had wonderful parents, five siblings, and a fabulous childhood, I couldn't imagine never being anybody's dad and never being able to pass any of that on to the next generation. Three years after that horrible unilateral policy announcement, I finally gave up trying to convince her that it was a bad decision, and decided I had no option but to cut my losses and flee, start over again. So I did. And in October of 1980 I married the splendid lady who still warms my bed and my heart. She also was raised Roman Catholic, and she knew I'd been married before in a Catholic church and didn't have an annulment, and she didn't care. She loved me, and that was good enough for her. She gave up the faith she was raised in, for me. The church told her she was out of communion, living in sin, and our children were bastards, and she told them to piss off. For me.
How could you not love a woman like that?
To deny the sexual nature of being human is to deny part of being human. Same with appetite, thirst, quest for knowledge, etc. It makes one sub-human.
I focus "everyday" on just" how much" and "what" I eat, to maintain the body I want, it works, it makes
me happy. At times I weaken a little, but divert my attention to others things, and I'm right back on
track. I am very organized and disciplined, so I can do this, some can't.
Any comparison?
Waitaminit. I'm confused again. So the verse from the bible "John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. " should actually read "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life as long as they are Catholic"? roflmao Should that be taken literally or figuratively?
Geeeeeeeeeeeeez. Whatta gloomy thread.
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Ahahahahaha, jokes on you guys cuz you thought I was grumbling.
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Ahahahahaha, jokes on you guys cuz you thought I was grumbling.
You could be right (except for the god doing the writing thing), but either way, religions are getting closer to science, not vice versa.
No, NO no, Mary, you just said quote: "I think the Church, being made of people” end quote!
People is correct! Or perhaps you didn’t mean what you said?
Peace>>>AJ:love9:
Not really there bro, for I have kept you busy trying to decipher what I've said.
Peace>>>AJ:love9:
Interestingly, everyone who is not Christian becomes one at the gates of heaven if he qualifies for entry. Neat hey?
AndyF[/quote]
AndyF[/quote]
Catholicism's claim to be true is not proclaimed in a kind of vacuum. It is a concrete faith. Catholicism's intellectual side has manifested a serious attempt, according to time and place, no less so today than ten or fifteen centuries ago, to meet the arguments that reject, on whatever basis, its truth. The new Catechism is in part a record of these controversies and of the way the Church has responded to arguments against its own claim to truth. Any alternate version of either Christianity, religion, philosophy, or science that would claim to undermine Catholicism's own self-understanding as essentially true has been and is to be examined and responded to in terms intelligible to the matter at controversy.
In part, this intellectual effort to account for the possibility of differing versions of truth is due to the faith itself in its very content. We are told that we are to know the truth and that this same truth, nothing more, nothing less, will make us free. This is the claim we make about ourselves, so if we are logical and honest we must affirm this truth. This is not arrogance, nor any lack of respect for the views of others. Rather it is taking seriously what others claim to be their positions and the reasons for them.
Yes, of course. Everything we do in life requires a choice, a decision we make. Sometimes it is a concious choice to NOT give in to a lust. Celibacy is much like that, it is a vow and a choice to abstain from sexual release.
Not at all. This thought comes from the idea that sex is one of the most important things in a life. Many people are able and comfortable with not having sex at all. Does this really make them less than human? I think not.