Excuse me, Veritatis. There is a reason I don't get on think tanks like Catholic Gentlemen. I have the germ of an idea here which I think will facilitate healing, because no matter how you slice it, we have all been wounded by the splits in our Church. I think my priest gave me a great gift when he said that there are Catholics in their heart even though they have been fooled. Lord knows we have all suffered from that fooling, so it makes less than no sense to go on carping at one another, picking more wounds.
In my humble opinion some of us have been ripped off, and I am disposed to commisserate with them and wish them the full, generous measure of Catholicism. Face it, the saints were saints because they gave generously. I believe Fr. Oswalt hit the nail on the head in his "Observation" in the Four Marks this month. I will reproduce it here and hope no one is offended at my plagiarism.
"Coming out of my first Traditional Lenten Season, I have noticed some very glaring differences and deficiecies of the Novus Ordo. The practice of fasting and abstinence has a whole different tone in the New Church compared to the Catholic Church. In the New Church one is obligated to fast 2 times a year, on Ash Wed. and Good Friday. One is only required to abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent...."
"Easter morning for me this year was a great joy, not only spiritually, but physically as the toll of fasting the whole of Lent enabled me to take that physical deprivation and 'feed' that into my spiritual life. How deprived I have een and so many in the New Church are by the near abandonment of mortification and penance..."
These are excerpts and only one area of things stolen from our brethren. Poor things! I am thinking....what can I do to restore to them what was stolen. Can I tell them of the saints who got rich by giving, for God is never outdone in generosity. Surely I can get rich by giving myself. Can I help them see that natural goodness is a deficit?
One thing I can and will do is a Rosary Walk, taking Our Lady of Fatima with me. It should be something, since I am in a wheel chair and I hope to start at St Peter's down the street. It is time Our Lady went out to greet her children---she will know hers and they will know her.
Theologically
, yes, but mothers and children speak heart to heart, don't they. Well a day. I shall enjoy it.
Oh, yes, by the way, someone needs to define what a Catholic is.