One of the things that has been bothering me for some time is that devotion in the Church has been sliding since before I became Catholic. Gum chewing at Mass, wearing tank tops and shorts (I am guilty of jeans and I admit I am not the best dresser but shorts???). Additionally I have seen men wearing ball caps at Mass. That is the highest sort of disrespect. There are barely any women wearing head coverings.
Some of the lack of devotion seems to be coming from the American bishops which is especially distressing. Despite the pope saying that we should kneel and receive communion on the tongue (right here!!! http://www.tldm.org/News12/PopePrefersCommunionOnTongueSaysVaticanLiturgist.htm) yet the American bishops have forbidden people to kneel while receiving communion (http://www.tldm.org/news5/kneeling.htm). Some priests even refuse to give communion to people who prefer to receive on the tongue. http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=365483.
So who to follow the local bishops or the Pope in this regard?
Friday, March 18, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Musings on The Nature of Truth
Truth is something that everyone values. Almost everyone wants to know and believe the truth. The real disagreement comes in when people begin arguing about what the truth is. For me it is an absolute property, but when it comes to various people truth tends to be in the eyes of the beholder.
One example would be the Catholic Faith itself. All who positively believe in the church believes in it because they believe that it is true. G.K. Chesterton said "The trouble with giving a reason for why one believes in the Catholic Faith is that there are 10,000 reasons, all of the amounting to the same thing...because it is true." (more of a paraphrase I didn't look it up) But when you look at fundamentalists or atheists they tend to hold to what they believe out of the same motivation.
But how can we know what the truth is? Science can lead us into some truth, but it can also lead us into error. Also science leads us into truths about material reality. The most important things to us are hardly material at all. What would we do without love, ambition, imagination, and especially faith? None of these things are material but it can be argued that they are that which makes truth important to begin with.
One example would be the Catholic Faith itself. All who positively believe in the church believes in it because they believe that it is true. G.K. Chesterton said "The trouble with giving a reason for why one believes in the Catholic Faith is that there are 10,000 reasons, all of the amounting to the same thing...because it is true." (more of a paraphrase I didn't look it up) But when you look at fundamentalists or atheists they tend to hold to what they believe out of the same motivation.
But how can we know what the truth is? Science can lead us into some truth, but it can also lead us into error. Also science leads us into truths about material reality. The most important things to us are hardly material at all. What would we do without love, ambition, imagination, and especially faith? None of these things are material but it can be argued that they are that which makes truth important to begin with.
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