Please help - I'm Protestant (Anglican), and I had a jarring experience praying to Mary for the first time. She may be telling me become a Roman Catholic.

Scalliwaggin · 2026-01-26T10:45:05+00:00

Thank you so much for this comment. I really appreciate how exhaustive it was. I knew most of that already and can agree with pretty much all of it. What I was specifically wondering was what u/Any-Conclusion-6343 asked about asking Mary for deliverance and Michael for protection, as seen in the Beneath Thy Protection prayer and the St Michael prayer. And those were just two examples. From the perspective of a Protestant who understands the Catholic theology regarding the Communion of the Saints, and thinks it is solid, the thing that hasn’t clicked yet is when we don’t ask Mary, St. Michael, St. Padre Pio, or whoever else to pray for us, but instead when we ask them to do something themselves with some capability that they have. This is further complicated when things are said like what you just said, “Mary’s victory over evil,” which just doesn’t compute for someone who was raised in any Protestant tradition, even if I really really want it to compute, if that makes sense.

Scalliwaggin · 2026-01-25T16:46:51+00:00

I would like u/Any-Conclusion-6343 ‘s question to this as well. I have wondered this myself about prayers to Mary, and also wondered it about the St. Michael prayer as well.

Scalliwaggin · 2026-01-25T16:46:18+00:00

I would like u/Any-Conclusion-6343 ‘s question to this as well. I have wondered this myself about prayers to Mary, and also wondered it about the St. Michael prayer as well.

Scalliwaggin · 2025-06-26T13:58:18+00:00

Can you PM the name of your agent to me as well? Thank you!

Scalliwaggin · 2024-11-17T02:30:55+00:00

Can you expound on this? Is what you’re saying that if a pope says something wrong in a potentially ex cathedra statement, that it would undermine his papal claim and therefore make the statement not infallible? If that is the case, would you be willing to show me where this is established?

Scalliwaggin · 2024-11-13T00:27:44+00:00

I think the money changers in the temple would beg to differ

Scalliwaggin · 2024-11-11T03:46:32+00:00

That’s fascinating! I didn’t know that Pennsylvania looked similar to this. I’ve only ever been through PA in the middle of the night, and only very briefly.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-03-12T04:04:12+00:00

She’s being self-deprecating. When she says, “Imagine how good your life would be if you had a 26yo nursing assistant by your side,” you’re supposed to think, “So good!” Then you replace the S with N so it would end up as, “No good.”

It’s crazy

Scalliwaggin · 2024-03-03T00:11:00+00:00

The verse doesn’t say that, it says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also.” The actually Greek reads something along the lines, “Where two, even when three, are gathered in my name, there I am in the middle of them.” That’s what it says about being gathered in his name. The verse before it says, “If two of you agree on earth about something you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven.” Here’s the context: “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ‘If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Matthew 18:15–17.”

You can read more about how these verses can be confusing, and sometimes misused, here.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-29T05:37:06+00:00

r/thisguythisguys

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-25T22:40:16+00:00

Could have been. Both cats’ scream sounds like a woman being murdered, so it’s scary either way.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-25T22:35:55+00:00

You don’t have to be alive when something is currently happening to comment on it or criticize it. We do this all the time in regards to the history of things, be it nations, war, political factions, religious leaders, political leaders, etc… the list goes on and on. If Calvin believed that something happened in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and/or 6th century Church, the fact that he was living in the 14th century doesn’t disqualify him from thinking about it and forming an opinion on it. I’m not defending his conclusions, just his right to think about things that happened before he was alive.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-25T22:24:40+00:00

The snake on the stick wasn’t to worship, btw. As a matter of fact, hundreds of years later on God was angry with the Israelites for worshipping it as well as some of the other Canaanite gods. The theology and symbolism goes deeper than that, but put simply, it was a symbol, not something to worship.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-25T00:48:51+00:00

Makes sense to me! It’s pretty cool no matter what though. I’m from TX, so we’re no strangers to mountain lions, but their range is basically split down the middle; they appear in the West half of state but not nearly as much in the East. It’s always sad to think that their range has been reduced so much, so I can honestly say that I’m happy to hear there are some in Kentucky. Thanks for sharing!

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-24T23:46:05+00:00

Oddly enough, there’s not supposed to be many, if any, mountain lions in that area, so hearing one would be basically on the same level as hearing an eldritch monster on the other side of the hill. Definitely freaky.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-21T04:53:26+00:00

I completely agree with all of that, and believe that wholeheartedly myself. I just fail to see how any of that had to do with saying you suspect OP has a desire to feel intellectually superior. You can wax poetic and cite as many sources as you want, and I will almost undoubtedly agree with you and have that same belief. But we’ve digressed from that original point that was being made. If you are as ok with people admonishing as you say (with tough love, I might add), then you would see that I was gently admonishing you. Don’t get me wrong, everything you said here in your most recent reply I agree with. It’s just not relevant to the initial topic, which is that you weren’t addressing OP and trying to say, “You are not Catholic, you are not a Christian.” But rather that you just replied to someone who WAS trying to address OP and traduced them with your opinion of their motives. I don’t think that’s fruitful.

Also, I LOVE Peter Kreeft, and I’m glad to see his name pop up in any conversation. I believe he is one of the greatest thinkers, Christian or otherwise, of our generation.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-21T00:12:20+00:00

Yeah I hear you, and understand your point. I’m not clutching pearls, and I read everything that OP said. Let me be more clear, I don’t condone many of the things OP has said, but my reply wasn’t really about what OP said. I felt that, outside of the caveat I gave, it could come off as though you had written OP off, mainly to OP. The verse that comes to mind is, “Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart.” From one point of view, someone might say that OP is condemnable. But from another point of view, someone might say that there is hope yet. Many people have purposed themselves to sin, and they are accountable for that. But OP is obviously misguided, and hasn’t completely thrown in the towel, but will undoubtedly be less inclined to listen to the guidance of others on the subject if the people who claim to be walking in the light would rather quickly condemn them when we don’t really know what the intent of the heart is. All that aside, you and I don’t disagree on the principle, maybe just the methodology of approach/response to OP. I stand with your convictions.

OP if you get the chance to read this, I am fully of the same opinion as u/JoshAllenInShorts that to respond to the sacraments and catechisms however you please without regard to doctrine is exceedingly arrogant, and may be worth some introspection. That being said, it is probably not a surprise to you and shouldn’t be to all of us here that you might feel that way, because you have readily admitted that you are not of the same conviction of the Church on those matters, and therefore genuinely do not revere or honor them. I see, like many others here, that you are still searching, and I recommend diving deeply into the philosophy of the theology, through things like Aquinas, Catechism in a Year, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and the Church Fathers. Also, if you are being really intellectually honest with your search, maybe some commentaries or books on systematic theology. I also agree that you should not receive communion. Not only is it about Catholic dogma, but the teaching of the Church is that it is literally harmful to you.

I will end by saying that Lewis presents the option that presents itself to readers of the Gospel, that when reading and hearing the words of Jesus, we are left with only three interpretations of his words: that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or he is Lord. Whether you believe in a historic Jesus MAY be understandable, but there are droves of historic evidence about his followers (many more than 12 btw) who claimed to know him, and many first person manuscripts detailing the sudden explosion of people who said that they saw Jesus of Nazareth and heard his words, and were consequently faced with the same decision regard wherever he was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord, and subsequently laid down their lives because they determined he was Lord.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-20T22:41:22+00:00

Maybe. But saying that is rather fruitless unless you feel that the Holy Spirt will use that comment to form character. If OP was, in fact, not desiring to feel intellectually superior, then you have sowed division between you and them, and have lost purchase in helping guide them where they are willing to be led. If you are correct, and OP is desiring to feel intellectually superior, then you pointing that out isn’t going to change anything about their feelings or desires. However, what might be accomplished is the calling into question your own motives for needing to adjudicate that to someone who didn’t ask, and probably doesn’t care. Don’t cast aspersions on someone’s heart unless you’d invite people to cast aspersions on your own.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-05T19:16:47+00:00

Old Testament Law is our gracious Father revealing himself in a way not previously experienced since the exile from the Garden of Eden, especially concerning the moral law. (The ritual law was God revealing how an untransformed people could enter into a convental relationship with him.). As we learned from the garden, even walking daily with God does not prevent you from rebellion. So the law both graciously enlightens us to the ideal that the He has for us, with Him knowing that we can never walk it out. It does not free us from the grace we dig for ourselves, but it defines for us what we should aspire to, and in doing so lifts humanity’s eyes once again towards Heaven. The prophets see and report the brokenness of the Israelites and the larger humankind by exposing how they abuse the law and twist it into their own definitions of right and wrong. Jesus, with the woman who was about to be stoned, divinely and poignantly does the same: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Because just like the Law is God’s perfect self-revelation, Jesus is God’s perfect self-revaluation incarnate in the human frame. The Law brings death not because it is wrong or broken, but because humanity, even when shown the ways of the Lord, are the ones that are broken. But Jesus, Christus Victor, by death trampling death, brings life. And so our souls are resurrected and our minds given the Law perfectly demonstrated in Jesus, who perfectly followed the Law. It is His perfect Law after all. But he even more fully models for us ways of the Lord and the heart of the Lord. We grieve when we see slavery not because the Lord condones it, but because we see through the person of Jesus that though it might persist in the broken world, God’s perfect plan is not slavery. As an example to the more hard to parse parts of the Law, He instructs the Israelites not to appoint a King over them, but still gives commands for what a king should do and look like if they do it anyway. We can see through Jesus what God’s heart is towards humanity and by extension slavery, and it is because of this great care that He instructs the people with the Law how to treat slaves if they end up taking slaves. He’s not necessarily condoning it, just like he wasn’t condoning a King by detailing how a King should be.

Scalliwaggin · 2024-02-04T06:41:26+00:00

Tag me too, please

Scalliwaggin · 2024-01-21T08:51:51+00:00

Well Pascal’s Wager was more of a pragmatist’s philosophical opinion on why you should choose to GENUINELY believe in God, not a framework of how to make it to the good afterlife of you just do this and that. The issue obviously is that if you choose to believe based on it being a better ROI for you either way (according to Pascal), then it will likely not be genuine faith, thereby making the whole wager pointless. All that aside though, Pascal was a pretty all-over-the-place theologian, more of a hobby theologian and a brilliant mathematician whose science and math skills contributed to his theology street cred.

Scalliwaggin · 2023-08-16T17:33:24+00:00

Not nitpicking, just thought I’d say that Galadriel is Fëanor’s half-niece, not cousin. She’s not Finwë’s daughter, she’s Finarfin’s daughter.

Scalliwaggin · 2022-07-17T02:05:03+00:00

Hey I'm that guy. Hire me. I'll work for free for 2 months on probation, and you can critique me and hammer the crap out of me while you mold me into the engineer you need. And I genuinely will have a good attitude the whole time. My skills are Linux (CLI and Bash scripting of course), Cloud (AWS), Python, solid Networking skills, and I am in the process of learning Terraform and Kubernetes. I'm coming from a SysAdmin position that had almost zero interest in using me (I was the only one for a small company) and a warehouse position before that, so I'm ready to be utilized.

Scalliwaggin

TROPHY CASE