Help me understand!

[jmjtina]

[quote name='Fides_et_Ratio' date='Oct 29 2005, 09:01 PM']I'll have to check out the encyclical... thanks for the reference.
NOTE: to everyone else. As mentioned in my disclaimer.... I DO fully believe and submit myself to the authority of the Church. I am simply trying to gain a better understanding for my own clarification an edification. My "extreme" views to the other side are a reflection of my putting this topic in the debate table.

Otherwise, dUSt would have to remove the "Church Faithful" tag from my name.
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[/quote]

No one's debating your Church faithful tag, but your convo with your friend showed exactly where you stood in your opinion. I only put more of what the Church teaches to show you how much the Church encourages the prayer and sacrificial life and holds it in high esteem, a view you deem "useless" and "sentimental". (your words, not mine) I do understand where you are coming from though. Not understanding or grasping what everyone else seems to get is pretty frustrating. I've been there. (I haven't met anyone who hasn't been there!) So don't take it as if we are attacking your faithfulness to the Church. This is a debate table. We would have told you already if you were.

God Bless.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

[quote]As I said while discussing with my friend (which, perhaps that conversation wasn't the best to post as some things were said in jest in reference to previous "inside jokes"... so don't take some of the more offensive statements seriously): [/quote]

[cmotherofpirl]

There is nothing sentimental about consecrating your life to God in any form. Its hard work, subject to lonliness, frustration and paradoxically great joy.
Do you think picking maggots off leprosy -infected bodies a sentimental activity? Do you think getting up in the cold in the middle of the night and going to a chapel and kneeling for hours praying for strangers fun? Do you not see the value of spiritual parenting?