/lit/ - Literature

>>19394834
God creates us outside of time and puts us into a temporal universe, using the body as a means of operating within that universe and exercising our will. Will is a function of time - where time doesn't exist, an act of the will is irrevocable (see: the angels, and why they cannot change their act of rebellion).

Imagine you film someone walking up to someone else and punching them. Then you plug the footage into your computer, and all the frames are visible, there, on screen, simultaneously. Well, at the same time you can see the frames where the individual hasn't punched the other guy yet, you can see him punching the other guy, and you can see him after having punched the other guy, all in the same moment. The fact that you can see the past, present, and future of that action doesn't change the fact that it was committed in full consent of the will. Likewise, God creates us with free will, and His observance (I prefer the term observance to that of knowledge, since, as I mentioned, God exists outside of time) of how we exercise that will in no way undermines it.

>>19394855
The Catholic Church was the only Church on Earth for the vast majority of Christian history. The Orthodox were there, too, for a long time, but shared (and share) the vast majority of Catholic teachings and retain valid sacraments. 'Catholic philosophy' is by and large Christian theology, whatever the denomination. You are sorely misinformed on matters not only of Church history but also Scripture and the most basic theological concepts, and I urge you to conduct further research before continuing to embarrass yourself.

Here's one to keep you busy, since the most rabid anti-Catholics tend also to be Sola Scriptura (though how you work that around Christ's explicit mention of Abraham's Bosom, in a parable where he explicitly also mentions hell as a place of suffering, is beyond me): are Catholics going to hell?

Is John 3:16 is correct, and Catholics truly believe in Christ, then we are saved regardless.

If Catholics are not saved, however, because something else is required, then that would mean John 3:16 is incorrect, and we are not saved by faith alone, but also by works (which is itself a Catholic position).

So are Catholics who believe in Christ saved? If so, what matter? If not, then the Bible is incorrect, and you have to look for another source of Christian authority. (thankfully, we have one - sacred tradition).

>>18826290
In ipso vita erat,
et vita erat lux hominum:
et lux in tenebris lucet,
et tenebræ eam non comprehenderunt.

>>17156566
Catholics have Shakespeare, Dante, Mozart, and Michaelangelo.

>>16943423
>implying worship is the same as obedience

In Acts the apostles and their successors literally call for others to submit to their authority. You're taking things out of context. This is why the individualism of the United States is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. The American spirit is "non serviam", same as the prideful Lucifer. No wonder Protestantism, with its focus on individual interpretation of scripture, appeals so much to Americans. The Gutenberg Bible was a mistake. Thank goodness for papal infallibility, else we'd be just as much of a fractured mess.

It's amazing how much my work seems to proceed purely as a matter of faith. This big work, which I have enjoyed writing very much, and which has fulfilled me, and which is only the beginning of so much I plan to write. I'm absolutely a pantser, someone who lets a story come to him. So, when I need to move forward, I pause, and I wait, and I pray. I actually pray for God's intervention in what I am writing. And, inevitably, it comes. It always comes. I always figure it out, in the end. Like the bright, clear dawning of the sunshine, I always find out, in the end, what I need. My writing process on this big work has been very mystical, very strange, and I am not sure I have been so mystical on past writings. But I am here, and it has paid off.

People still read the Iliad and Odyssey 2000+ years after the fact. Poetry has survived for far longer than the novel and the novel will survive as well. We still find beauty in Ovid, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare. Sure, the pool who will truly connect with these works is meagre, but then so too is the pool of people who even think or care about objective aesthetics and the immortality of the soul. The majority of the world today are bugmen materialist philistines who seek only social capital and momentary pleasures of the flesh. I would rather write a great novel and have it well received by people of high emotional and mental intelligence than populist tripe like 50 shades which would guarantee wealth.

Be that as it may, I truly believe the world will end within the next 50 years regardless, so the issue is merely a theoretical one. The prophecy of the Popes is correct and Rome will be destroyed after tensions between the East and West erupt in a final world war.

>>15360696
The Pope's personal wealth is fairly low. Although the Catholic Church gets a fair bit of money in, it's also the largest charity in the world. A great deal of the Church's wealth is tied up in valuable artwork that was explicitly created for or left to the Church. To compensate the Church allows the public to view these artworks, in many cases for free.

Don't be like Judas- who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. He said angrily that the expensive perfume that was poured excessively over Jesus feet, the scent of which will have been quickly lost, would be better sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus Himself rebuked him. Why not give the best and finest things we have to God, decorate our Churches in imitation of the splendour and majesty of heaven?

>>15296798
I actively read encyclicals and exhortations, which are addressed to the a wide audience. They're not very long at all, and published infrequently(http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals.index.html and http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations.index.html ). I read some of Benedicts as they came out, and frequently go back to earlier popes for reference. I also read his other things when interested, but not as much(as example, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/urbi-et-orbi-pope-coronavirus-prayer-blessing.html is a very good one). Reading the letters of bishops is a good practice, including those in the Bible, and those of your local episcopacy.

Ressourcement and second naïveté

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.