More On Sacramentalism
A blogger made a comment about my post "We Don't Need Stinking Sacramentals" and has a very nice post on his blog about the same concept. Throughout the three years of blogging, I continue to come back to the this same concept of God using the things of earth to draw us to Him.
It is one of the main distinctions between Catholicism and Protestantism. It is actually the key to understanding Catholicism and the failure to grasp this often becomes the source of the rancor towards and maligning of our Catholic faith. From a personal perspective, the power and grace through the sacraments and the added assistance in our spiritual walk gained from sacramentals has filled a void that I had for over 30 years as a Protestant. I just didn't know what I was missing, but had a sense that there was more to this thing called Christianity than what I was experiencing. I heard it said that Catholicism has the fullness of faith and I believe that comes from a head-on embracing of the sacramental life available to us. The saints lived this out. We can too.
Please check out this post by kkolwitz, Let's Get Physical.
"Let's remember, a non-physical God made Adam from dirt, Eve from a rib. Yet the relationship of God & Man in the Garden was in some sense physical. God the Father has no body, yet Adam & Eve related to him through their physical natures as well as spiritual (e.g, Gen 3:8). This access was broken by the Fall, but the desire for humans to know God through both their natures remained. "
(kkolwitz)
(kkolwitz)
It is one of the main distinctions between Catholicism and Protestantism. It is actually the key to understanding Catholicism and the failure to grasp this often becomes the source of the rancor towards and maligning of our Catholic faith. From a personal perspective, the power and grace through the sacraments and the added assistance in our spiritual walk gained from sacramentals has filled a void that I had for over 30 years as a Protestant. I just didn't know what I was missing, but had a sense that there was more to this thing called Christianity than what I was experiencing. I heard it said that Catholicism has the fullness of faith and I believe that comes from a head-on embracing of the sacramental life available to us. The saints lived this out. We can too.
Please check out this post by kkolwitz, Let's Get Physical.
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 8:16 AM
5 Comments:
i really like your writings. i gain some hope from reading it. it is stuff like this makes me want to be a better Christian. My wife is a anything but a Catholic Christian. I guess I learned our Faith so late that I am not a good enough example for her to be interested in even learning about the Church. It is sad. Our 4 kids know more about the Faith than I did when I was 27. So keep up the good postings. It helps with the understanding of the path and the challenges facing the people who are looking at the Church.
LM, if it's any comfort to you, I teach the Catholic Faith to 6th graders with the specific intent that they will want to learn more about the Faith; that they'll know it better than their parents; that they will be able to evangelize & explain it to others.
We've had 40 or more years of indifferent catechesis, but it's changing.
I'm optimistic.
Bravo! keep up the work of God!
Nice site, and welcome home. St Augustine once said: Whoever is separated from this Catholic Church, by this single sin of being separated from the unity of Christ, no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living, shall not have life, but the wrath of God rests upon him."
ANdrew
thanks Andrew!
it's good to be home.
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