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29250. Jenerator - 10/16/2008 2:32:25 AM I seriously do not understand the rationale behind blessing your medallions (or socks). Do you believe that the Pope imbues those inanimate objects with mystical power? 29251. jexster - 10/16/2008 2:43:15 AM Consecrates to God
Just like when you named your daughter Faith
(I prefer Charity)
And the Pope doesn't imbue with anything. God does. We get blessings and give them all the time! When Catholics enter/leave a church, we bless ourselves with Holy Water. Protestants, even evangelicals, are called to and give blessings - fishing fleets, very common.
In the liturgy dozens of times. The reason is essentially Incarnational and the understanding that salvation is a corporate act, that the Church is not a collection of individuals nor is it the Pope or other bishops and their priests.
We are Church..not "I"..not "him"
Catholic blessings
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ. ...
We're just responding to our Call 29252. jexster - 10/16/2008 2:59:08 AM The second aspect of the quality of the life of the beloved is that we are blessed. It is so important that you and I experience that we are blessed. The word benediction means blessing. Literally, bene means good and diction means saying. To bless someone means to say good things about them. "You are good." We need to know that good things are being said of us. We really have to trust that, otherwise we cannot bless other people. So many people don't feel blessed.
"The Life of the Beloved"
Henri Nouwen
There's no "magic" about it...just magical
Nothing "mysterious"....just Mystery 29253. Jenerator - 10/16/2008 1:16:20 PM Here's what I don't understand Jexster. What is the purpose of consecrating a cross? Isn't it *already* dedicated to a sacred purpose? Does the act of consecrating/papal blessing make it more 'real' or is it a symbolic gesture? 29254. Jenerator - 10/16/2008 1:17:46 PM For example, I would not feel the need to consecrate a Bible. I would not consecrate my shirt, etc. 29255. anomie - 10/16/2008 6:49:40 PM What's the "rationale" for blessing anything or anybody? I don't think of "rational" when considering religious or superstitious rituals. 29256. jexster - 10/16/2008 7:32:47 PM I thought I'd explained this Jen. No a cross isn't blessed just because it is a cross. A church building isn't consecrated just because it is built
It is consecrated because the Church, the Body of Christ, acts to "set it apart" 29257. jexster - 10/16/2008 7:43:12 PM Anomie has a good point as well
I remember going to my first Buddhist temple, the Asakusa Kannon Temple. The Temple, the oldest in Tokyo is dedicated interestingly enough to a Buddhist goddess of mercy who miraculously saved some fishermen in the 7th Century. Like Mary Star of the Sea
Anyway, out front of Buddhist temples or at least the non-Zen ones you'll find water for blessing/purification
I was very comfortable approaching this ritual washing just as I would a holy water stoop at a Church narthex...
It's, as I've said, incarnational Jen. An outward and visible expression of our response to the Incarnation.
My Rosary has been blessed. My cat. Me. My crucifix. My Icon of the Crucifixion. When I was 10 and went to a General Audience with Pope John XXIII, I remember holding up about 30 medals and crucifixes for the Papal blessing to give to my Roman Catholic relatives...they knew what they were getting and even then I knew what I was giving, not in a rational way, in a faith way.
Not quite sure why this is such a difficult concept at least to understand if not to believe in. 29258. anomie - 10/16/2008 8:09:34 PM I understand. I was just curious about Jen's idea of "rationale" since she seems to imply some rationality to the blessing of some things but not others. 29259. anomie - 10/16/2008 8:16:09 PM Some protestant sects bless whole houses and other structures, so I wonder if it follows that all the shoes and objects inside are included. Is that the rationale Jen is following? But then people inside the structure would be excepted since they require a separate blessing of their very own, in which case it would seem rationale to me that their clothes and wristwatches and wallets would be included. Food? What if the blessed persona hadn't said grace over his meals that day? Is it rational to assume the food is blessed along with building? Or does it need a separate one. If you are eating in church, do you have to bless the food since you already blessed the whole building?
I just thought Jen could sort out all the rationale so we know what does and not benefit from being blessed. 29260. jexster - 10/17/2008 1:47:49 AM A fundamental criticism of fundamentalist, evangelical protestantism which I have leveled repeatedly.
The Wobbly Poltical Theology of Sarah Palin
For the mainstream Protestant, Palin is engaging in what Reinhold Niebuhr calls “the idolatry of America.” As Niebuhr would have it, an American Christian may be patriotic and love his country, but he must also remember that his true home rests outside of these bounds fixed by geography and time and in an eternal community with Jesus Christ. ... The perspective of Religious Right figures like Palin that elevates America—as their political blinders conceive her—to some sort of sacred object is therefore little short of an act of idolatry. Jesus Christ, as Charles Marsh reminds us, “comes to us from a country far from our own” and requires that believers lay their “values, traditions, and habits at the foot of the cross.” Or, as John Calvin says, “the heart is a factory of idols,” and a primitive noncritical form of patriotism can be a particularly troubling and entrenched idol.
29261. Jenerator - 10/18/2008 3:38:39 PM Anomie (and Jex),
To me, 'blessing' somthing or asking for something to be blessed, means that the action or person or whatever will be used toward meeting God's will. And that blessing is done repeatedly as a reminder that we must constantly seek God's will. I do not ask for blessing one time and assume I am covered for all time. Also, I do not think that inanimate objects retain some sort of power.
To me, blessing a crucifix seems redundant. And I do not see how a medallion blessed by the Pope is different than the same medallion not blessed by the Pope. 29262. judithathome - 10/18/2008 6:47:00 PM It will go for more on eBay! 29263. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/18/2008 8:06:30 PM
29264. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/20/2008 10:05:49 PM Here is a sensational example of a so-called Christian who openly (and unconsciously) exhibits her hatred and intolerance for all to see--and yet thinks she is being true to Jesus Christ.
It's jaw-dropping and I know there are millions of this kind of ignorant, pretend Christian throughout America. They have't the slightest awareness of the evil in their own hearts as they project it on to others.
29265. Jenerator - 10/20/2008 10:12:13 PM Why don't you find someone mainstream? 29266. jexster - 10/20/2008 10:15:00 PM Jen is a CINO
Christian in name only
29267. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/20/2008 11:00:58 PM Mainstream??? What's that mean?
Jen, look at the anger and spite in this woman who claims to have "faith."
Save us all from the millions of fools and zealots who are led by the Christian right demagogues who believe they're the demigods of Christ and the Bible. 29268. anomie - 10/21/2008 12:12:21 AM I'm puzzled why she thinks McCain is the better Christian. Sounds like she's voting purely on the VP slot. But yeah, the ignorance is appalling. 29269. Jenerator - 10/21/2008 1:11:07 AM A few things...
That video is hardly 'jaw-dropping'. It's one woman, who is pretty one-sided and extreme, sharing her opinion. She's allowed to vote for whomever she chooses for whatever reason, whether or not you agree with it. That she has serious problems with Obama because of his background and beliefs isn't revolutionary. A big 'so what' I say. I have heard and seen much worse, Wizard. Go and read the American Politics thread in this forum! Look at your own pictures making a monkey out of our President's face. Read Jexster calling Obama a 'nigger'. That is the kind of hatred and bigotry that I find appalling.
I suggested you post something mainstream. Yes, mainstream, Wizard. Do you even know what that means anymore? I ask that in all seriousness. If you do not know what an average Christian is like, then you are not around enough average Christians. I attend a large church and have attended many churches over the years and I haven't known any of the women like you posted above. Quit picking people that will fit your stereotype; instead, find someone who is not extreme!
Lastly, who are all of these "Christian right demagogues who believe they're the demigods of Christ and the Bible"? and who create millions upon millions of zombies? If you say the Pope is one of them, I agree.
You need to start practicing that 'tolerance' that you preach.
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