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This is a post for cradle Catholics - those of us who were baptized Catholic as babies - to introduce ourselves to each other and talk about the miracles we have experienced and our conversations and interactions with God during our lives.
So, why is this HERE, in Controversial Christian Theology?
For several reasons:
(1) First, foremost, Catholicism is, without a doubt, the single most controversial form of Christianity on this website. Wherever there is a discussion of Catholicism, other than in the closed Catholic threads (and even there), lots of folks show up to tell us and everybody else why we're wrong, deluded, deceived by demons, etc. Our religion REALLY BOTHERS a whole lot of other Christians just by its existence. So, by its very nature, Catholicism is controversial theology on this website.
Second, since they're going to attack us anyway (they always do), there's no reason to hide. Cradle Catholics became Catholic by baptism, years before any of us could read the Bible even if we had wanted to - we were illiterate babies. None of us came to our Catholic religion by learning, or the Bible, or any of that. We were all sealed by baptism and our angels looked directly at God when we were in the cradle. We were protected by that seal of baptism from demonic possession and influences, and guardian angels kept us safe from spiritual harm during those long years of childhood when spiritual book-learning was impossible.
Because of our presence before God as babies, we have a different relationship with God than those who came later to the party, and this shows up in the miracles and the conversations we had with God before our minds became rational and mature and we became more serious and forgot how to play with our Daddy in Heaven.
Still, at least some of us remember that time, those early years, and like Tolkien's Elves we can say something similar to them when they said "We still remember, we who dwell in this far land beneath the trees, Thy starlight on the Western seas."
If we try, we can remember more and more of it, and if Cradle Catholics talk more and more of it out loud to each other, we will realize that we are not simply imaginative and crazy, but unique BECAUSE OF that wonderful gift our wise parents gave us through infant baptism.
Others had to learn their faith from men and books. We learned ours directly from our Daddy in Heaven, and we know it.
If we think about it, we know it.
That is an INCREDIBLY offensive and controversial assertion, is it not? But if you are a cradle Catholic, you will click "Agree", BECAUSE IT'S TRUE! Isn't it? Or am I just speaking for me and demonstrating that I am a lunatic?
Come on, cradle Catholics!, you know what I am talking about! "They" don't, but you DO. I've just put words on it, haven't I?
And those words ring true, don't they?
So click Agree.
(2) Second: not doing this in some private Catholic forum, because there's no reason for us to hide. First Century Christians told their faith right out in the open, before believers and non-believers and enemies. We're Catholics - they're GOING to attack - so we may as well come at it in the purity of our faith from its first knowledge, from the cradle, rather than stumble around in books and passages and quotes from this guy or that. We're not Catholics because of books, we're Catholics because we played with God from the cradle onward, and have a particularly close relationship with him on account of that. We didn't wander for long years in sin and doubt. We've crawled and rolled around in the Light, and then we toddled in the Light, sucked our thumb in the Light, learned to walk in the Light. Finally, many, many years later, we learned to read in the Light, and then to reason in the Light. We're not in the Light because of reason or reading, but because we were put there when we were in diapers - and thank God and our fathers and mothers for that! By doing it here, in public, since they're going to attack anything Catholic, we defend easily and handily on our own turf - we GREW UP in our Father's house! We never left it.
(3) Third: the Catholics by Conversion will, of course, also show up and post their stories too - and that will be good, because they are usually much better at battling chapter and verse than we are. We didn't have to battle with the Devil in the same ways others did, because we had angels guarding us at the crib. We generally got wobbly at puberty, and embarrassed, and hid our faces from God a bit, because we encountered a drive that we knew was evil the moment we touched it, but we could no longer master, at least for a few decades. So that's OUR guilt, mostly. Sure, some of us fell into alcohol, drugs, etc., but our early experiences with God made a difference in our path and what we knew, and what we missed. The Catholic Converts come aboard because they discover, at some point in life, something that is far better than they ever dared believe existed. Cradle Catholics, by contrast, started out there, and then fell, in a sense like Adam and Eve, and have struggled to get back into that pure Light.
Because converts came from rational religion, they're usually much better at doing that sort of battle than we are, so having them come here, not be able to resist telling their stories, doing so, and then doing battle with the folks who come to bait us and taunt us for being Catholics...well, that won't be such a bad thing.
They'll be FORMALLY ignoring the title and stated purpose, but nobody is going to complain about them coming aboard because we really want to hear their stories too, and we really want their "big brother" muscle when the attackers come.
(4) And the attackers WILL come. An open invitation to Catholics to talk to Catholics, about personal Catholic stuff, on THIS forum? The Catholic bashers will not be able to resist. They'll be all over us like white on chalk. But because of the premise of this thread - that our infant baptism has made us especially blessed due to our years of close direct relationship with God as babies and little kids - we will be much better prepared and have greater solidarity than we ever do anywhere else.
Essentially, I'm asking Catholics to come to an open Jamboree so we can enjoy being Catholic, in public, vaunt our special relationship with God, especially the miracles and conversations with God and angels, and be as joyously CATHOLIC as we want to be - out in the open, where the bookish can come and vent, and we can laugh and enjoy each other's company.
So, you Cradle Catholics, come to the Jamboree, you're all invited!
And you too, you Catholic Converts - you're not going to be able to restrain giving your adult testimonies anyway, and why should you?
And then the rest of you, who have to come and try to rain on our parade: try as hard as you like, you can't do it. You can't win!
"Wherever the Catholic Sun doth shine,
There's laughter there, and good red wine.
Or I have always found it so,
Benedicamos Domino!" - Hillaire Belloc
Jean Calvin came from that part of France that has no red wine.
So, why is this HERE, in Controversial Christian Theology?
For several reasons:
(1) First, foremost, Catholicism is, without a doubt, the single most controversial form of Christianity on this website. Wherever there is a discussion of Catholicism, other than in the closed Catholic threads (and even there), lots of folks show up to tell us and everybody else why we're wrong, deluded, deceived by demons, etc. Our religion REALLY BOTHERS a whole lot of other Christians just by its existence. So, by its very nature, Catholicism is controversial theology on this website.
Second, since they're going to attack us anyway (they always do), there's no reason to hide. Cradle Catholics became Catholic by baptism, years before any of us could read the Bible even if we had wanted to - we were illiterate babies. None of us came to our Catholic religion by learning, or the Bible, or any of that. We were all sealed by baptism and our angels looked directly at God when we were in the cradle. We were protected by that seal of baptism from demonic possession and influences, and guardian angels kept us safe from spiritual harm during those long years of childhood when spiritual book-learning was impossible.
Because of our presence before God as babies, we have a different relationship with God than those who came later to the party, and this shows up in the miracles and the conversations we had with God before our minds became rational and mature and we became more serious and forgot how to play with our Daddy in Heaven.
Still, at least some of us remember that time, those early years, and like Tolkien's Elves we can say something similar to them when they said "We still remember, we who dwell in this far land beneath the trees, Thy starlight on the Western seas."
If we try, we can remember more and more of it, and if Cradle Catholics talk more and more of it out loud to each other, we will realize that we are not simply imaginative and crazy, but unique BECAUSE OF that wonderful gift our wise parents gave us through infant baptism.
Others had to learn their faith from men and books. We learned ours directly from our Daddy in Heaven, and we know it.
If we think about it, we know it.
That is an INCREDIBLY offensive and controversial assertion, is it not? But if you are a cradle Catholic, you will click "Agree", BECAUSE IT'S TRUE! Isn't it? Or am I just speaking for me and demonstrating that I am a lunatic?
Come on, cradle Catholics!, you know what I am talking about! "They" don't, but you DO. I've just put words on it, haven't I?
And those words ring true, don't they?
So click Agree.
(2) Second: not doing this in some private Catholic forum, because there's no reason for us to hide. First Century Christians told their faith right out in the open, before believers and non-believers and enemies. We're Catholics - they're GOING to attack - so we may as well come at it in the purity of our faith from its first knowledge, from the cradle, rather than stumble around in books and passages and quotes from this guy or that. We're not Catholics because of books, we're Catholics because we played with God from the cradle onward, and have a particularly close relationship with him on account of that. We didn't wander for long years in sin and doubt. We've crawled and rolled around in the Light, and then we toddled in the Light, sucked our thumb in the Light, learned to walk in the Light. Finally, many, many years later, we learned to read in the Light, and then to reason in the Light. We're not in the Light because of reason or reading, but because we were put there when we were in diapers - and thank God and our fathers and mothers for that! By doing it here, in public, since they're going to attack anything Catholic, we defend easily and handily on our own turf - we GREW UP in our Father's house! We never left it.
(3) Third: the Catholics by Conversion will, of course, also show up and post their stories too - and that will be good, because they are usually much better at battling chapter and verse than we are. We didn't have to battle with the Devil in the same ways others did, because we had angels guarding us at the crib. We generally got wobbly at puberty, and embarrassed, and hid our faces from God a bit, because we encountered a drive that we knew was evil the moment we touched it, but we could no longer master, at least for a few decades. So that's OUR guilt, mostly. Sure, some of us fell into alcohol, drugs, etc., but our early experiences with God made a difference in our path and what we knew, and what we missed. The Catholic Converts come aboard because they discover, at some point in life, something that is far better than they ever dared believe existed. Cradle Catholics, by contrast, started out there, and then fell, in a sense like Adam and Eve, and have struggled to get back into that pure Light.
Because converts came from rational religion, they're usually much better at doing that sort of battle than we are, so having them come here, not be able to resist telling their stories, doing so, and then doing battle with the folks who come to bait us and taunt us for being Catholics...well, that won't be such a bad thing.
They'll be FORMALLY ignoring the title and stated purpose, but nobody is going to complain about them coming aboard because we really want to hear their stories too, and we really want their "big brother" muscle when the attackers come.
(4) And the attackers WILL come. An open invitation to Catholics to talk to Catholics, about personal Catholic stuff, on THIS forum? The Catholic bashers will not be able to resist. They'll be all over us like white on chalk. But because of the premise of this thread - that our infant baptism has made us especially blessed due to our years of close direct relationship with God as babies and little kids - we will be much better prepared and have greater solidarity than we ever do anywhere else.
Essentially, I'm asking Catholics to come to an open Jamboree so we can enjoy being Catholic, in public, vaunt our special relationship with God, especially the miracles and conversations with God and angels, and be as joyously CATHOLIC as we want to be - out in the open, where the bookish can come and vent, and we can laugh and enjoy each other's company.
So, you Cradle Catholics, come to the Jamboree, you're all invited!
And you too, you Catholic Converts - you're not going to be able to restrain giving your adult testimonies anyway, and why should you?
And then the rest of you, who have to come and try to rain on our parade: try as hard as you like, you can't do it. You can't win!
"Wherever the Catholic Sun doth shine,
There's laughter there, and good red wine.
Or I have always found it so,
Benedicamos Domino!" - Hillaire Belloc
Jean Calvin came from that part of France that has no red wine.
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