[quote]kaaleppi wrote:
[quote]CRisCO wrote:
[quote]kaaleppi wrote:
I have accepted him several times, not a bleep, I must be doing something wrong. But that was not the point. Breivik has faith, maybe it withers some day and he kills himself, hopefully so but you have to choose the right faith, don’t you, Hare Krishna for example wont do.[/quote]
I don’t understand what you mean here btw? Are you saying you tried to accept him and he didn’t answer you?[/quote]
Very perceptive of you. That’s how it has always been. No answers, not anything. I still talk to him occasionally though he never answers.[/quote]
The old Protestant myth alive today, I see. Though a few in history have heard the voice of God, too many Christians walking around today thinking they should be hearing the voice of God.
Well, I tell you it ain’t going to happen unless your his prophet.
The truth, you need discernment. Or, better to understand how discernment works. I haven’t heard the voice of God once in my life (maybe when I was a wee lad), when I pray it’s like I’m talking into a black closet. Nothing to be heard.
That’s okay, we’re not made to hear the voice of God, we’re to know the will and mind of God. And, that is where discernment comes in for this kind of thing. Here’s an article to explain further*: Discernment by Peter Kreeft
Second, I never understood the personal relationship with Jesus, or the more down to earth phrase, personal friendship with Jesus. As Catholics we ain’t looking for just no friendship, we’re looking for a marriage. That’s what we be, the Bride of Christ. And, our Mother, the Holy Catholic Church, can teach us everything we need to know for our marriage.
Ye needs just faith to start, for baptism of course, for justification, righteousness and salvation. Then one needs to strengthen that faith (our faith can be viewed in our Creeds) and now that one is in the grace of the Lord (through baptism) one most merit through works to continue to be sanctified and justified so that one may die with their salvation.
- Here is a wee excerpt of the article explaining how to discernment works:
[quote]Five general principles of discernment of God’s will that apply to all questions about it, and therefore to our question too, are the following:
Always begin with data, with what we know for sure. Judge the unknown by the known, the uncertain by the certain. Adam and Eve neglected that principle in Eden and ignored God’s clear command and warning for the devil’s promised pig in a poke.
Let your heart educate your mind. Let your love of God educate your reason in discerning his will. Jesus teaches this principle in John 7:17 to the Pharisees. (Would that certain Scripture scholars today would heed it!) They were asking how they could interpret his words, and he gave them the first principle of hermeneutics (the science of interpretation): “If your will were to do the will of my Father, you would understand my teaching.” The saints understand the Bible better than the theologians, because they understand its primary author, God, by loving him with their whole heart and their whole mind.
Have a soft heart but a hard head. We should be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” sharp as a fox in thought but loyal as a dog in will and deed. Soft-heartedness does not excuse soft-headedness, and hard-headedness does not excuse hard-heartedness. In our hearts we should be “bleeding-heart liberals” and in our heads “stuck-in-the-mud conservatives.”
All God’s signs should line up, by a kind of trigonometry. There are at least seven such signs: (1) Scripture, (2) church teaching, (3) human reason (which God created), (4) the appropriate situation, or circumstances (which he controls by his providence), (5) conscience, our innate sense of right and wrong, (6) our individual personal bent or desire or instincts, and (7) prayer. Test your choice by holding it up before God’s face. If one of these seven voices says no, don’t do it. If none say no, do it.
Look for the fruits of the spirit, especially the first three: love, joy, and peace. If we are angry and anxious and worried, loveless and joyless and peaceless, we have no right to say we are sure of being securely in God’s will. Discernment itself should not be a stiff, brittle, anxious thing, butâ??since it too is part of God’s will for our livesâ??loving and joyful and peace-filled, more like a game than a war, more like writing love letters than taking final exams.[/quote]
It is a good article, even if you don’t care to follow it, it is a good article to understand how Catholics (and all Christians) are supposed to discern. 
- I do what I want (you’ll get it if you read the article)
Chris IV
