World Youth Day in Poland

Quote: AZDuffman

I remember when he was made a saint, we studied it. He volunteered to be starved to save another guy in what was a hopeless camp anyways. IIRC it was 10 of them in that cell, so engrossed in their prayer that they usually didn't notice when the Nazis came in the room to check on them. Expected to be 10 days with no food or water and going at it I forget how many days later and finally the guards got tired of waiting and shot them all.

Paschal Candle? Please elaborate.

Yes they all lasted so much longer than the Nazis thought possible. Especially Saint Maximillian, they ended up deciding that he was not going to die of starvation and instead of shooting him them injected him with some type of acid to kill him.

The Paschal Candle is a very large candle lit every year at the end of Lent at the beginning of the Easter Season. On Holy Saturday the Church gathers in darkness in the evening and when this candle is lit there is an ancient song called the Exultet. Then the light is spread from this one candle to everyone in the Church and their candles and the darkness is defeated. The word Paschal comes from Passion and it refers to the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the rest of the year that large Paschal Candle is a reminder of Christ's victory over death and it is lit at all funerals and baptisms.

Quote: TheCesspit

I don't want someone who could end the suffering to suffer along with me.

I hear what you are saying, but that is not true. Think in your life of your dearest friends the ones you know love you and you couldn't go without. The common thread in these amazing people in your life is that they do suffer along with you and you with them. You share your sufferings together and you love each other through them, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.

Now if superman came down and clapped his hands every time you got sick or something wrong happened in life you would really appreciate him, but you wouldn't love him. You especially wouldn't love him for who he was. He would become your clapper the thing you use to get out of trouble or sorrow. What if one day he came down and said, "I've lost the ability to help you, can we still be friends?" You might respond that I don't even know you superman, how could we be friends?

It is your image of God is the problem. You might be so entranced by the idea of Deism that you view God only as some omnipotent force that created the universe. What about viewing Him as a Heavenly Father who sent His only Son to be with us, share in our suffering, give us a model of how to live, die for our sins, and show us that in the end death and sin will always be defeated. This is a God who is still omnipotent and all that jazz, but does not want to be worshiped, but truly loved. A God who wants to understand us and know what it is like to suffer, to be helpless, abandoned, tortured, mistreated, but also what it is like to celebrate, have friends, and be truly loved.

This is what makes Christianity so different and unique from all those previous myths that hinted at this dream but never came close to expressing it, much less making it a historical fact in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Quote: FrGamble

Yes they all lasted so much longer than the Nazis thought possible. Especially Saint Maximillian, they ended up deciding that he was not going to die of starvation and instead of shooting him them injected him with some type of acid to kill him.

Bad memory on my part, thought he was just shot. Faith won't keep you alive indefinitely, but the guy shows how it can work. I have no idea if they touch on this at the camp, but you have to know the camp commandant would be getting upset each day he woke up and the sergeant of the guard reported he was not dead yet. Even in the worst death camp that word spreads and makes the captors look a little bit weaker.

Quote:

The Paschal Candle is a very large candle lit every year at the end of Lent at the beginning of the Easter Season.

Maybe that is the proper name for the Easter Candle? Ours was put out at end of Mass for fire safety probably. Though it did burn a lot because it started at three feet or so long and once at the end of the season the Pastor told me to see if the last years was a little longer as that one was burning short and I suppose people would notice a very small candle being replaced but gaining a few inches few would.

Yep it is the fancy name for the Easter Candle, I should have just said that. You are right it is really only meant to be lit at Masses during the Easter season and at every funeral and baptism.

Quote: FrGamble

Yep it is the fancy name for the Easter Candle, I should have just said that. You are right it is really only meant to be lit at Masses during the Easter season and at every funeral and baptism.

Hey, no worries. I'm one of those screwed up guys who get infatuated with small details no normal person cares about. Hope the trip went well, seems like it did. You stateside now?

Yep, back home and tired of traveling for awhile. It was the best World Youth Day I have ever been part of.

Quote: FrGamble

A God who wants to understand us and know what it is like to suffer, to be helpless, abandoned, tortured, mistreated, but also what it is like to celebrate, have friends, and be truly loved.

You're describing the manmade cyborg in
a scifi movie who just wants more than
anything to be human, you aren't describing
the god of the OT or NT. That god knows
all, see's all, is all. He created everything,
knows the future, has a plan for everybody.
The god you describe is some weak ninny
who can't decide what socks to wear, the
polar opposite of the Bible god. Does your
bishop know you have these weird ideas?

You REALLY need to read the Bible again.

Quote: FrGamble

You REALLY need to read the Bible again.

Wow, what a non answer. If that's
the god you get from your Bible,
no wonder he did nothing for the
people in the death camps. He's
not capable of getting out of his
own way, let alone helping anybody.
And you pray to him? Explains a lot.
Do yourself a favor, look for another
god, seriously.

Quote: FrGamble

A God who wants to understand us and know what it is like to suffer , to be helpless, abandoned, tortured, mistreated, but also what it is like to celebrate, have friends, and be truly loved.

Like Bob sorta said - are you saying that God did not understand these things, or was incapable of understanding these things, before supposedly coming to us in the form of Jesus?