My sympathies

Hold on tight, this is a long one.

I suppose it's time I confess something. I hesitate to say it for the alarms that it may raise about my salvation. But I feel I need to say it, to get it off my chest.
I'm Cathlicostal. Well, maybe Anglicostal.

"Your what?"

"Cathlicostal."

"What's that?"

"I'm glad you asked."

For over a year my Catholic sympathies have been increasing. Out of reading St. Augustine and reading about him, St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, and various other writings such as Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" their has grown a real love for the beauty in the Catholic tradition. I love the ancient faith and heritage it represents. I love the symbolism and art it contains. Albeit, it certainly has it stains (all traditions do,) I still find myself drawn to its finer attributes.

There is a part of me that wants to attach myself to the original church. Growing up pentecostal it had slipped by me what a protestant was, "a protest-ant." I was in protest, in rebellion against Rome and the original church. This didn't sit well with me. I remembered the Bible had some strong words against rebellion. So I attempted to examine and reflect upon the Reformation (in an untrained, layman way.) I attempted to find if God's hand was really in it or if he chose to work in spite of this Rebellion, there were things that needed to be addressed in the Church at that time but I wasn't sure that breaking away was the answer.

I've come to believe he is at work in protestant movements as well as the Catholic tradition, that he uses them, but I don't think this was the original plan. A terrible side effect of this Reformational split being the ease in which other consequential splits have come to pass. Consequentially, the world doesn't believe us because we lack unity. Why should they believe us when we don't believe each other? At this point in time my hope is that the prayer of Jesus "that they all be one" would come to pass in the acknowledgement, the agreement, that different christian traditions can account for the different parts of the body of Christ. That is, if we can't truly be under one universal name.

Now , questions you may be asking and some of which I'm still asking myself:

Do Catholics worship Mary?

No, at least their not supposed to. I believe Catholics can put to much of a focus on Mary but I also believe that we protestants, particularly we evangelicals don't show her enough respect. We seem to act as if anybody could have been the Blessed Mother.

Do they worship the Pope?

Nope. He is not considered a deity.

What about the infallibility of the Pope?

As I understand it, Their belief is that the Holy Spirit keeps him from speaking erroneously about church doctrine and whom am I to say how the Holy Spirit can work.

What the deal with the saints?

To me, the saints are Godly examples to draw inspiration from. I say this with great trepidation but as far as praying for the prayers of the saints and the Blessed Mother so that they may in turn pray on our behalf, (I'm going to get excommunicated for this,) I really don't have a problem with it. I want as many people as possible praying for me, living or dead. Now do I think their should be a good deal of moderation in our veneration and prayer to the saints? Absolutely, anything that doesn't ultimately point to Christ has no business in our spiritual lives.

Now their are certainly more questions that should and need to be asked but this blog is growing longer and longer so I must move on. I know they're could be a lot of comments, questions, and concerns which you are welcomed to direct at me, I'll try to answer them the best I can. I'm no expert.

To the "costal" side, I must say I still believe in speaking messages in other languages through the power of the Holy Spirit and the essential interpretation of those messages given by the same beautiful Paraclete but their are some things in the pentecostal realm that concern me. Issues ranging from doctrine to methodology that will have to wait for another blog.

There is so much more I want to write about. Such as my love of the liturgical side of Christianity and the value in it but that will have to wait for another day. I hope this is a good start.

dig it.