Posts tagged Agnostic
“Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”
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Interesting quote from Youth Group: “An atheist is closer to heaven than an agnostic, because the atheist takes seriously the question of the existence of God.”
Any Thoughts?
Please excuse the language…but I’ve posted about this before: http://heartallonfire.tumblr.com/post/7808872664/ok-this-is-wrong-1-the-pope-does-not-own
However, I will say it again.
The Catholic Church is the LARGEST CHARITY IN THE WORLD. We do more for the poor, the desolate, the homeless, the infirm, the orphan, the AIDs victim and the war victim than any other organization or country in the world.
Judas also rebukes the woman who used expensive oil to annoint Christ’s feet. When Judas says it would have been better to sell the oil and give the money to the poor, Christ says “the poor will be with you always”. The Church knows this and so yes, we could sell all the artwork and historical artifacts we have and give all the money to the poor, but once it runs out…there will still be the poor and now no money. Revenue is created because people come to see these artifacts, which allows the Catholic Church to keep taking care of the poor.ignorance these days.
“ Harvard has 691 acres in three campuses. The Vatican has 110 acres. So Harvard is 6 times larger than the Vatican. The Vatican employs about 3,500 people, Harvard has about 21,000 students and about 11,000 employees… And now here’s the kicker: the Vatican, at least in 2007, had a surplus of $10 million dollars. ($10,000,000) Harvard has an endowment of $27.4 Billion ($27,400,000,000) so in a certain sense, Harvard is 2,740 times richer than the pope. Next time someone says to you why doesn’t the pope do more to help the poor, just say, ‘Maybe Harvard could kick in a little.’ ”-Rev. Richard T. Simon
Wow, thanks, Sarah Silverman. You sure showed them!
The idea that anyone would listen to anyone in the entertainment industry talk about religious organizations having excess wealth is farcical. The vast majority of the Catholic Church’s “wealth” is dollar signs slapped on the invaluable — the Western world’s immense patrimony of architecture and real estate (read: churches), art and other artifacts, universities and schools, monasteries and convents, hospitals and charity organizations. In most countries of the world (not the US), most parish priests do not even get paid a regular salary by their diocese; they live off what is given to them. But that doesn’t make Sarah Silverman feel as good about herself, so we’ll let it go.
Damn talk about getting your ass chewed out lol
Reblogged for the glorious commentary.
(Source: alittlebitbrown)
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It's you that I give thanks for when I pray.: On prayer.
I was talking to two of my good friends (Joe [thingsthatmatterthingsthatdont] and Niko [nikosnature]) the other day about being Catholic and believing in the power of prayer.
We have a friend who is, for lack of a better term, an agnostic. He’s not an atheist but he doesn’t believe in religion and only kind of believes in God. He mentioned to one of my friends that he doesn’t believe in prayer at all because he would rather go out and do something than pray about it.
I think this is a big misconception about prayer and Christians in general. I, personally, don’t sit around praying things will happen and not doing anything to get there. I would never sit and pray to get an A on a test and not study at all.
In fact, I don’t pray that concrete things happen at all. Or, I try not to, at least.
Part of giving myself completely to Christ is completely trusting His plan for my life. If I were to pray that I get an A on that test, how do I know I’m praying for what’s in his plan for me?
I use prayer as a way to keep communication open with Christ. The most important part of being a Christian is having a personal relationship with Christ and this is only possible through frequent (if now constant) communication.
So how do I pray? I’m going to stick with this test motif for now because it works, but this can be applied to anything in life. If I have a test coming up, rather than praying that God gives me that A, I pray that he guides my studying, that he keeps me motivated to be the best that I can be, and he helps me accept the grade that I do get as a part of His plan for me. I guess a grade on a test is rather banal but I’ll give you another example.
I was up for an RA position at the end of this summer that I never thought I was going to get until they called me for an interview. After my interview, I can’t tell you how many rosaries I prayed, the whole time asking that God guides me down that correct path and that whatever His plan is for me, to help me accept it.
I don’t like to pray that God make things happen because I don’t want to presume that I know what’s best is my life. Because I don’t. I truly and deeply believe that every single thing that happens to us molds us into better people, if we allow it to. That’s why I pray.
God, guide my thoughts that I may accept whatever your plan for me may be. Even if I don’t agree with it right away.
It applies to absolutely everything in life.
My friend Joe said something incredibly profound during our conversation. His father has battled cancer and had an especially hard time over the summer. Joe said that he would pray, “God, I pray that you make my father well but if that is not Your plan, I pray that his death be painless.”
I got goosebumps.
Isn’t that an awesome prayer?
I pray that all of you gain a deeper relationship with God and the ability to trust Him more completely. And I hope you pray for that, too.
An example a seminarian gave of how prayer might work would be that when you pray for someone ‘not to die’ God might instead grant you the serenity and wisdom to accept death as a natural part of life. Prayer works internally, not necessarily externally.
That’s how I think of it. God won’t give me a Maserati when I pray for one, instead he will give me an appreciation for the NYC subway system.
