AveMariaPurissima Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Amen, Catherine Therese and Marigold!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pax17 Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Iggy, thanks for giving me something to smile about today. I wonder how many people of a certain age learned about Catholicism and religious life by watching "The Trouble with Angels" or reading Jane Trahey's book. (I did both many years ago!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaatee Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 It pays to read the whole thread. Good pointers other than that, though. True, as often with your posts, Marigold. BTW, are you re-discerning? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaatee Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 I just want to take a moment and say phatmass VS is probably the nicest place on the internet. I am extremely fond of you all. This comment reflects your own kindness, veritas. VS has not always been so kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggyie Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 I think precisely because there is a lot of anger/hurt here, and we obviously none of us have any idea what things have transpired in the OP's life to prompt such a response, that rolling eyes, pointing fingers and highlighting bad behaviour doesn't do a whole lot to serve the person on the other end of the network connection. You say "Behold a troll". I say "Ecce homo... behold the man" - behold Christ in someone who is suffering! Isn't this what we're taught? Do we believe it? Yesterday we heard the "love your enemies" Gospel at Mass. If we're trying to witness collectively to JessieL here in this thread she started, will she encounter people who will walk the "2nd mile" with her? Will she encounter authentically Christian community? Just something to think about as a community, anyway. That's what I think you don't understand, from her posting it's highly unlikely that the OP is authentic. People do weird things on the Internet... If you know phatmass history you know about the sometimes very elaborate weirdness (again it seems to come up a lot with regard to religious life/VS). If you go back and read her posts from the beginning you can feel how off it is. Do you really think a real person feels FURIOUS after reading the ND website? Really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarysLittleFlower Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 That's what I think you don't understand, from her posting it's highly unlikely that the OP is authentic. People do weird things on the Internet... If you know phatmass history you know about the sometimes very elaborate weirdness (again it seems to come up a lot with regard to religious life/VS). If you go back and read her posts from the beginning you can feel how off it is. Do you really think a real person feels FURIOUS after reading the ND website? Really. Even if this is the case (I don't know maybe not), even IF the OP is not authentic, she is still a real person who for some reason chose to post this. In this case I believe Catherine Therese's words would still apply I think, because it would still be a person somehow suffering. Really no matter who they are or why they are posting... Still is someone God created and our sister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benedictus Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 God can make a good situation out of something less than desirable. I don't know what's going on with the OP but they did own up to lying and being a troll. They didn't need to do that, so I guess that was a sort of confession and apology. I just pray God uses this experience to show them something positive to go forward with in their life. They come here afterall, and I doubt it was random. Some of the posts have been kind, props to you guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Therese Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 That's what I think you don't understand, from her posting it's highly unlikely that the OP is authentic. People do weird things on the Internet... If you know phatmass history you know about the sometimes very elaborate weirdness (again it seems to come up a lot with regard to religious life/VS). If you go back and read her posts from the beginning you can feel how off it is. Do you really think a real person feels FURIOUS after reading the ND website? Really. The challenge of the Gospel is to love our enemies. Inauthenticity on the part of another person does not absolve us of our call as Christians to love. It is while we were sinners that He died for us. All too often I have received the gift of His sacrifice with inauthenticity if my own. If the judgement you seem to want us to pass on JessieL's disposition IS accurate, then all the more insistent is the Gospel that we respond in authentic charity. Romans 12:21 "Do not let evil defeat you; instead conquer evil with good." The challenge of the Gospel is to love the JessieL's of this world. (I don't really think she's an enemy, btw. I'm just saying it doesn't matter how black you paint her actions or motives, it doesn't redefine how a Christian is called to respond.) The challenge of the beatitudes is to show mercy to the JessieL's of this world. "Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy" - heck, I sure need mercy! I'd be ill advised, then, to withhold it from others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarysLittleFlower Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 (edited) The challenge of the Gospel is to love our enemies. Inauthenticity on the part of another person does not absolve us of our call as Christians to love. It is while we were sinners that He died for us. All too often I have received the gift of His sacrifice with inauthenticity if my own. If the judgement you seem to want us to pass on JessieL's disposition IS accurate, then all the more insistent is the Gospel that we respond in authentic charity. Romans 12:21 "Do not let evil defeat you; instead conquer evil with good." The challenge of the Gospel is to love the JessieL's of this world. (I don't really think she's an enemy, btw. I'm just saying it doesn't matter how black you paint her actions or motives, it doesn't redefine how a Christian is called to respond.) The challenge of the beatitudes is to show mercy to the JessieL's of this world. "Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy" - heck, I sure need mercy! I'd be ill advised, then, to withhold it from others. Yes if we are called to love our enemies and show them kindness then I don't think its wrong to show kindness to everyone as if they are a friend - like JessieL who is not an enemy. St Francis was even kind to robbers if its good to show such people kindness then definitely its ok for a hurting person on internet - regardless of whether or not they are authentic. I also think we should assume the best about someone. That's what my priest said - to always assume the best so we don't commit sin of rash judgement. I've done this sin in the past. Yet if i posted online and people were wondering if I'm a "troll" personally I'd feel hurt. I understand the perspective of Maggyie and wishing to protect our phorum especially as people spend so much time replying. But I don't think the effort is wasted either way and even an inauthentic person is a soul that God made Edited June 17, 2015 by MarysLittleFlower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veritasluxmea Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 God can make a good situation out of something less than desirable. I don't know what's going on with the OP but they did own up to lying and being a troll. They didn't need to do that, so I guess that was a sort of confession and apology. I just pray God uses this experience to show them something positive to go forward with in their life. They come here afterall, and I doubt it was random. Some of the posts have been kind, props to you guys Yes, my thoughts exactly. What does it matter if the OP feels upset after checking out the ND or not? What does it matter if there can be some weirdness on phatmass regarding religious life? I think responding gently and kindly- and with all kinds of helpful information about religious life- is the best way to handle it, and I've yet to see another place on the net that does! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatitude Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 The challenge of the Gospel is to love our enemies. Inauthenticity on the part of another person does not absolve us of our call as Christians to love. It is while we were sinners that He died for us. All too often I have received the gift of His sacrifice with inauthenticity if my own. If the judgement you seem to want us to pass on JessieL's disposition IS accurate, then all the more insistent is the Gospel that we respond in authentic charity. I don't think anyone would disagree with this. The issue is how to show authentic charity when dealing with inauthentic questions. Recently we had a bogus user whose primary aim seemed to be to cause arguments between more traditionalist Catholics and those who are more 'middle of the road', who told far-fetched stories about being ostracised in his/her parish under two usernames, and who asked increasingly bizarre questions about religious life and priesthood. I don't think the charitable response to that was to provide detailed answers to all the bizarre questions, because it fed into this person's apparent desire to see arguments sprout up. Also, whatever their authentic needs and difficulties may have been, those questions didn't reveal them. I think the same is true here. I'm not saying JessieL is the same person (the writing style seems to be different) but it's obviously not logical that someone would dream all their life of being a nun and then be catapulted into fury by the website of the Nashville Dominicans, and as this is extremely unlikely to be her real issue, providing reassurances about religious life just takes up people's time to no purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marigold Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 True, as often with your posts, Marigold. BTW, are you re-discerning? Thanks! Yes - or still discerning the same path Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaatee Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Thanks! Yes - or still discerning the same path Good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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