1) Who are the artists of the various pieces of art you feature in this post? Can you credit them?
2) I'm Jewish, so most of what I know about Catholic and Protestant theology is from reading history, so first, I'm not that knowledgable about it, and second, it may be different now. So that's the context for the following question: To my (uneducated) ears, a lot of your language sounds theologically protestant to me. Take this sentence: "And so, but by the grace of God, right around the time I was going down to Florida to visit my family for Christmas, once again, by the grace of God, I got a conviction of my heart and received the wonderful grace of true contrition for my sins." The notion that contrition itself requires grace, rather than being a free act of the sinner—is that not a protestant (maybe even Calvinist) notion? I would have thought that Catholic theology would stress more strongly the free will of the individual and that it's their *choice* to repent or not, whereas the protestants emphasize that it's basically God's choice to grant you the grace to be able to repent or not. I am guessing you think I am wrong. Can you say why and more about that?
3) Regarding this sentence: "Jesus honored his mother better than anyone. It is impossible to honor Holy Mary more than Jesus did." You honestly think it is *impossible* to do better than "Woman, why do you involve me?” (John 2:4) Even if you think that in context that isn't that disrespectful, it hardly seems like an *impossible* standard. (But see above re: my limited knowledge of Catholic theology and biblical interpretation.)
Three questions.
1) Who are the artists of the various pieces of art you feature in this post? Can you credit them?
2) I'm Jewish, so most of what I know about Catholic and Protestant theology is from reading history, so first, I'm not that knowledgable about it, and second, it may be different now. So that's the context for the following question: To my (uneducated) ears, a lot of your language sounds theologically protestant to me. Take this sentence: "And so, but by the grace of God, right around the time I was going down to Florida to visit my family for Christmas, once again, by the grace of God, I got a conviction of my heart and received the wonderful grace of true contrition for my sins." The notion that contrition itself requires grace, rather than being a free act of the sinner—is that not a protestant (maybe even Calvinist) notion? I would have thought that Catholic theology would stress more strongly the free will of the individual and that it's their *choice* to repent or not, whereas the protestants emphasize that it's basically God's choice to grant you the grace to be able to repent or not. I am guessing you think I am wrong. Can you say why and more about that?
3) Regarding this sentence: "Jesus honored his mother better than anyone. It is impossible to honor Holy Mary more than Jesus did." You honestly think it is *impossible* to do better than "Woman, why do you involve me?” (John 2:4) Even if you think that in context that isn't that disrespectful, it hardly seems like an *impossible* standard. (But see above re: my limited knowledge of Catholic theology and biblical interpretation.)
My emphasis on the necessity of grace for contrition comes straight from a Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine.