I am a practicing Catholic and I have a deep respect for the Blessed Mother. However, I don’t have a particularly strong devotion to her as many of my brothers and sisters in the faith do. As I explained it recently, when I was a child if I needed something from my father I didn’t ask my mother for it. I’m now old enough that I do not expect the Church to admit women to the ordained ministry positions in my remaining lifetime. Still, I pray that it will happen.
Which vows did you have in mind? Priests do not take vows of poverty. That would be some orders of monks and of nuns. That is why you never see a Franciscan in a fancy habit – always the same plain serviceable brown as all the other brothers.
I am old enough to remember when Mass was in Latin and I rejoiced when it was changed to the local languages. I never learned to think in Latin so I never managed to pray in Latin. Even now, when my parish uses the Latin for some prayers during Lent, I can’t follow the prayers. I’m still trying to translate the first line while the leader is several phrases along. Very frustrating. Some Dioceses including Scranton, PA, used to allow some Latin masses in parishes that requested the option but even there it could not be the norm. I appreciate that the Latin has a beauty to it but so does the English if we consider what it really means and don’t just recite it without putting out heart into the prayer. Note: Wojtyla was cannonized as Saint John Paul II. It was Pope John XXIII who started the Councils in the 1960s.
It is somewhat ironic that he pointed to observation of the world as the source of knowledge but then didn’t do any experiments to verify his observations.
Allowing that popes have always been chosen from among human beings, each brings some strengths and some weaknesses. John XXIII (23rd) was the one who started opening the Catholic Church with the Vatican Council. Alas, he died before completing the task but he opened the windows. His successors were more conservative. John Paul II had been a bishop in Poland and much of his attention was on liberating communist countries. Francis reminds me of John 23rd in many ways. I pray that he survives long enough that his pastoral approach will prosper among his successors.
Medical studies indicate that DST is harmful to our bodies. Also, in the winter, we are asking our children to wait for the bus and travel to school in the dark. Both of those increase the risk of accidents. Then there are all the studies about teens and sleep. All in all DST has been a bad idea from the get-go.
I am a practicing Catholic and I have a deep respect for the Blessed Mother. However, I don’t have a particularly strong devotion to her as many of my brothers and sisters in the faith do. As I explained it recently, when I was a child if I needed something from my father I didn’t ask my mother for it. I’m now old enough that I do not expect the Church to admit women to the ordained ministry positions in my remaining lifetime. Still, I pray that it will happen.