I signed up a sponsor, and have decided on “Thomas” as my confirmation name, so it’s all taking concrete form.
A couple of people have asked me why I’m converting. I’ve told them it’s because Christianity is the Incarnation, and the Incarnation makes no sense unless it’s very important for God to have a particular concrete presence among us that can be recognized and relied on. But if that’s so, it’s hard to see why the necessity would vanish with the Ascension. It seems then that the divine presence must continue with us in some concretely knowable and authoritative way, but I don’t see how that can be unless the Catholic Church is what it says it is. I don’t see any other good candidates.
If there is no one with ultimate teaching authority, Christianity eventually becomes—like Protestant Christianity—a sort of combination of philosophy and poetry. If that’s enough for us, it’s not clear why Plato and Confucius weren’t enough or why we needed Christ instead. Becoming a Catholic is really, I think, the only way to be coherently Christian
I continue to read the catechism for my tutorials in the faith, and just finished the section on confession. Since I’ve never done it, it seems like my confession before getting received and confirmed will take a while. Will I have to say 100,000 Hail Marys, or is there a quantity discount? No doubt all will be made clear.
Hello Jim.
Since you
Hello Jim.
Since you evicted me from your other blog, I hope your penance includes a very prickly hairshirt.
Just kidding (maybe).
My first penance for 30 years of mischief was to say a rosary every day for a month. In addition to penance, I think Father wanted me to acquire a habit of prayer.
Best wishes.
You’d be surprised as how
You’d be surprised as how light some penances can be. I let go with a rip-roaring twenty-year confession and got one Rosary. I was first tempted to say “Heck, give me more than THAT” but thankfully I shut up, and realized after that I tended to sin against obedience.
That Rosary was an amazingly profound one, I think I cried most of the way through it. You just never know…..
Now I take my couple-of-Hail-Mary penances in stride. I still would like more penance but the Holy Spirit keeps not listening to me!