PLEASE NOTE: WE WILL NOT BE GATHERING FOR PUBLIC LITURGIES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Town Hall Discussions 2021
Why Are You Catholic?
We are Catholic because of:
· Jesus’s teachings, especially to love others as ourselves
· Our cultural upbringing, our birthright
· The “bells and smells:” we love the rituals that engage our senses and the sacredness of spaces
· Vatican II teachings, especially the emphasis on the full, active, and conscious participation in liturgy
· The emphasis on liberating theology, a way of being church that honors a plurality of experiences and understandings of God and scripture through different lenses, including but not limited to the experiences of women, LGBTQ population, and all marginalized people
· The emphasis social justice issues and on “walking on the walk,” being Christ for others
· The nourishment that we receive through faith, family, and friends who are on the same journey as we are
· The community of believers – “the people of God” – that help support us on our journey and invite us to continue to grow
· The community of saints, our cloud of holy witnesses
· The centrality of the Eucharist that we consider to be the True Presence of God
· We are unified in our belief in the importance of Jesus’s ministry, but we do not insist on the rigidity of uniformity in our understanding of how that unfolds in individual lives
What does Grace and Sacrament mean to you?
Community comments on the topics of grace and sacrament:
· Sustains us in times of hardship and sickness
· A divine working beyond understanding
· Thin places where you become more aware of God’s presence
· After loss of loved one in the feeling of continued presence
· The ability to do things that are above and beyond personal abilities (decorating a cake, performing surgery or taking care of elderly parents)
· A divinely orchestrated softening of the heart
· Helps us to overcome our doubts as rain waters seeds
· As foundational safety net even before baptism
· Community as a vehicle for grace
Difference between church-ordained seven sacraments and the idea of sacramentality (Christ in all things):
· Like birthday cake (celebratory and intensified) vs regular food
· Like focused light vs diffused light that we fail to notice sometimes
· Sacraments are a ritual that humans need to feel presence of God because we need to experience the tangible.
Are sacraments needed for salvation? Vatican II teaching recognizes rays of truth in other religions and that RCC subsists in one true church, among others. This teaching is a departure from regarding the RCC as the one true church. Not everyone understands or follows this teaching today, however.
· We don’t need sacraments to get to heaven just like we don’t need birthday cake to live. But they are a special celebration that intensifies our awareness of the presence of God.
· Discussed the difference between traditionalism (no changes or growth allowed) and the tradition being dynamic and living (meaning changing and growing).
A Reflection on Grace
The power of grace is not necessarily the ability to give assistance but rather the ability to accept assistance. For example, my dad’s willingness to accept care from his own son as a profound act of love on his part demonstrated a humility that to this day I’m not certain I could emulate should I find myself in a similar situation and was offered such assistance from one of my children.
I see the gift of grace from God to be similar. To allow the gift of grace to bear fruit requires a sense of humility on the part of the recipient -- a trait not overly abundant in human nature. In fact, as mentioned when discussing the book of Genesis during Bible study, the source of original sin in humanity in large part includes pride — the desire to achieve wisdom independent of God.
I see grace as enhancing the ability to accept assistance — and with regard to God, that entails overcoming human nature and having the humility to open your heart and accept God's love and mercy.