This is only tangentially related to your 3rd discussion question. I've been really wrestling with the tension between "there is a correct way to do Faith" and "there is no wrong way to do faith". I had a conversation recently with some folks about TLM (I know, I know) and the point I was trying to get across was that there's nothing wrong with the LITURGY it's the attitude that "this is the only correct path" that I don't like. There's lots of good things about the TLM. And acknowledging those good things doesn't invalidate the parish that is closest to me that doesn't offer a TLM. I have been bristling lately at certain hot spiritual takes or the way people talk about catholicism, and then I realized that I am doing the same thing: "my way is the only correct way" and that's NOT TRUE.
I listened to a Manly Saints Project podcast on St. Brendan and got a lot out of it. St. Brendan was heralded from before even his birth as a gift to the Irish Church. And yet, on his 7 year voyage he learned humility. That's what brought it all home for me. I think, especially for anyone--actually, no, let me just speak for myself. I think, especially for me as someone trying to hold myself out as a kind of teacher (teaching a "peasant style" approach to Catholicism), there is a real danger in pride. I'm not saying I'm St. Brendan, but LIKE St. Brendan I need to remember I am an eternal student. My reaction to listening to people talk about faith shouldn't be "this is the wrong way", it should be "what can I learn from this". I need to double down on the quiet parts of my faith, and worry a little less about what people do with the advice I give them. The Church will never ever be perfectly homogenous, except for in the most important ways. Everything else is details, which I would do well to observe and ponder more than I diagnose and prescribe.
I guess that's where it ties in to #3. Things are interiorly messy right now as I sort through all this. Not in danger of slipping away, but--trying to put on the correct attitude about public faith.
This is only tangentially related to your 3rd discussion question. I've been really wrestling with the tension between "there is a correct way to do Faith" and "there is no wrong way to do faith". I had a conversation recently with some folks about TLM (I know, I know) and the point I was trying to get across was that there's nothing wrong with the LITURGY it's the attitude that "this is the only correct path" that I don't like. There's lots of good things about the TLM. And acknowledging those good things doesn't invalidate the parish that is closest to me that doesn't offer a TLM. I have been bristling lately at certain hot spiritual takes or the way people talk about catholicism, and then I realized that I am doing the same thing: "my way is the only correct way" and that's NOT TRUE.
I listened to a Manly Saints Project podcast on St. Brendan and got a lot out of it. St. Brendan was heralded from before even his birth as a gift to the Irish Church. And yet, on his 7 year voyage he learned humility. That's what brought it all home for me. I think, especially for anyone--actually, no, let me just speak for myself. I think, especially for me as someone trying to hold myself out as a kind of teacher (teaching a "peasant style" approach to Catholicism), there is a real danger in pride. I'm not saying I'm St. Brendan, but LIKE St. Brendan I need to remember I am an eternal student. My reaction to listening to people talk about faith shouldn't be "this is the wrong way", it should be "what can I learn from this". I need to double down on the quiet parts of my faith, and worry a little less about what people do with the advice I give them. The Church will never ever be perfectly homogenous, except for in the most important ways. Everything else is details, which I would do well to observe and ponder more than I diagnose and prescribe.
I guess that's where it ties in to #3. Things are interiorly messy right now as I sort through all this. Not in danger of slipping away, but--trying to put on the correct attitude about public faith.