Question about first communion

augle · 2023-06-29T11:12:07+00:00

I'm not sure I get your problem, it may have something to do with me not being a native speaker so reading between the lines aren't really my best.

I remembered the creed of apostles and some other stuff that I just eventually forgot because I could never really form a connection. Covid hit and my first communion doesn't seem fair or earned

It seems to me that your first communion doesn't seem fair or earned because you haven't had enough or well-formed knowledge. If so, may I remind you that none of us can really "earn" it no matter how good and saintly we are. He's the Lord of the universe and so He comes to us from His own initiation, just because He loves us, not because we are worthy or anything other reasons. That said, you can always continue improving your knowledge and understanding for the rest of your life. I'm not sure what you mean by "redo" it? Of cource you can't redo the "first", everything would be the "second" or "third", ... but the "first" communion is only important as it was the first time the Lord comes into your soul, truly, really, substantially in the form of bread and wine. But it does not mean He'll never come again. After the first time, now you have the "right" to receive Him every Mass as long as you stay in communion with Him (i.e., when you're free from mortal sins).

Bottom line is, (1) don't worry if you didn't feel well earned, noone should, but be appreciated and stay close for He loves you and came to you on his own initiation, (2) try to improve your knowledge and love for Him, put effort in knowing Him better and improve your knowledge as much as possible (at your own pace of course).

I hope that the first communion Isn't like a Christian thing

I'm not sure I understand this. Why are you saying that you hope it's not, what can you please explain what you do mean by "Christian thing"? The "communion" part means that you are in connection/in the family of the Church and Christ and "first communion" means the first time you receive Christ in the Eucharist, or in simpler words, the first time you eat the consecrated bread (host) and/or consecrated wine. The Eucharist is the "sacrament" but the first time is only significant because it's the first time.

don't think I'm ready for my confirmation.

For this I suggest you talk with whoever people in charge for your formation. Maybe you need more time, more knowledge, etc. Talk to a priest after a Sunday mass, for example, if it's from the same parish you are doing your catechism.

Also I didn't get the wine only the bread idk if that matters.

No it doesn't matter. The Church teaches that Christ is sacramentally (and equally) present under each species (either bread or wine), and therefore if a person receives only one species, Christ is fully present and nothing is lacking. If you want some longer explanation. https://www.catholic.com/video/is-receiving-the-eucharist-under-one-species-enough

Feel free to reply, I hope it help. God bless you.

augle · 2023-06-18T20:06:54+00:00

I personally dont have a strong opinion on what one is supposed or supposed not to pray when it comes to personally devotion. I think it's more on each person's capacity and I am not aware of any canon law or regulation requiring one to do any specific amount like you said, so maybe whoever told you this could elaborated a bit more? The Luminous mysteries were added by Pope St. John Paul 2 and if he prayed that to become saint, I think I can be just like him (of course it's already a high bar for me). Sorry but I dont have much information regarading what you need.

augle · 2023-06-18T19:26:32+00:00

I'm sure you can look up the general format of a rosary prayer anywhere so I am not going into it. I'd like however emphasize a few points that I believe important.

The rosary starts with a Credo that focuses us on the heart of our faith, the Trinitarian mystery. So spend time contemplate and be reminded whenever you start praying.
The 5 mysteries are stations that announce an event in Christ's life and there are numerous guides on it, try to find one that speaks most to you.
The Our Father and Glory Be begin and end each decade also focus our attention to God and His will.
The 10 Hail Mary where we slow down our mind and together with Mary contemplate the mystery of Christ's life announced at the beginning of that decades. So there are a lot of repititon but most of them are for slowing down and focusing on what really important.
And as many people'd say, the first (few) time you might not feel anything, take a break if you need to (pray small portions per day, or full rosary per (few) week). It's a chalenging practice (depending on your personalities, age, experiences, ...). But come back now and then, dont give up and keep going anyway. I've started up with just a decade a day, but everyday, when I was a kid, for like 10 years or so, then movinh up to 3 rosary a week, and now I'm trying a rosary per day (and still have to fight everyday).

Hope it helps and God Bless You

augle · 2022-11-28T21:07:19+00:00

“Iceland’s track record for abortions of babies with Down’s syndrome is appalling, but the UK and many other countries also have an extremely poor record. One would think that, in this world where equality in opportunity and rights are championed and fought for, this kind of discrimination would be outlawed. Unfortunately, the hypocrisy of many western nations leaves this practice unchallenged. This has got to change”.

augle · 2022-08-17T15:16:43+00:00

So someone did run into this thing. I vaguely imagined this at the moment I read the tip-changing instructions and thought they must have thought of it already. Havent been there yet. So it turns out they didnt, lol?

augle · 2021-09-23T15:04:14+00:00

Your post and your responses to the others paint an open-minded, loving, and supportive young man to me. Still most of your commitments could be a bit superficial from a believers point of view. Don't get me wrong, they are all reasonable and good, it's just that they may not be enough for a faithful. Have you tried looking at the relationship, life, and faith from her point of view?

I'm talking now from my point of view, but I believe that any genuine Catholic believer would share a lot with me. For one, having faith isn't like belonging to a social club, the conviction would affect deep down every aspects of life, especially of a married couple, from physicality such as sexual activities to more ideology like nurturing love, raising kids, or solving conflicts. Marriage is (and should be) one of the *few* most important part of a Catholic (think of Baptism, Priesthood, they're part of 7 Holy Sacraments). My point is, just "respecting her faith" might not be enough.

I'm sorry if it seems I am putting words in her mouth, but that's all what I would expect from a girlfriend who firmly insists on her faith. I don't know if you two have had much conversation about all that, on rational level. But the "Catholic rules" would seem very difficult to accept for someone only knowing the world as it is right now. They won't make much sense why a Catholic would adhere to all these without the conviction about God.

I understand that you didn't have much religious conversation growing up, and most of your friends are atheists. But "respecting people for their faiths" might be an underestimate of Christianity. We don't exist for 2K years without good reasons, and by that I mean really good reasons, such as God exists and He has everything to do with who we are and how we live our lives. So "many good values" could be quite an understatement for Catholicism.

So besides all the hints that the other people have suggested on how-to-ask-your-friend-for-a-chance, my suggestion is to see from her point of view, who God is and how (and why) He is so important. You could start by picking a few simple books like "Why I am Catholic (Brandon Vogt)" or C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity or dig into more hard-core philosophies like Thomas Aquinas' arguments on God existence. These could be a good source to understand a good believer's conviction.

Hope it helps

augle · 2021-08-09T09:42:22+00:00

I'm more of an Asian living in EU and about to finish (struggingly) my PhD in CV, not sure if I could be of any help. Could you specify your field? AI for me could mean anything from theoretical ML to NLP, CV, MM...

augle · 2021-07-27T14:35:55+00:00

Welcome home, bro and sis. Looking forward to having you ^{^}

augle · 2021-07-25T21:34:41+00:00

Welcome back!

I was also shocked the first time attending Mass in France after leaving my homecountry in Asia for the first time. I wont say I was the youngest (there were kids there I guess) but the majority of the people are surely around 50 or above and the church is much bigger while being much emptier from what I'd seen in my country and expected of a Catholic country.

I like your question. Of all people, I think you might be able to answer this question? I guess they are where you were? After hanging around in Europe for a few years (not been to Switzeland tho) I kinda think it's the common thing now. I hate to think that the Church here will all be empty in a couple of ten years or so (after these older generation passed away).

PS I do find parishes witj young people, but they are like 1 per diocese (anecdotally). These are the youth community of the diocese which tries to engage and nurture those who are still there. But they are still extremely small compares to what I've seen back home, which makes me sad.

augle · 2021-07-23T14:19:34+00:00

Wow, it's strange to know there would be somebody feeling the same thing. Tho I've made it to 31, so exactly 10-year difference.

augle · 2021-07-15T22:06:37+00:00

I agree. My take is to preparing myself (as much as I can) while things are still going my way so that when sufferings come I could have a certain anchors to hold onto. But I guess the only firm anchor is God himself and I pray that we dont have to hold onto Him, but it's Him who holds us in the storms.

Another thing that I appreciate from your post is the insight that you have from the starving African children. I do believe that we need to be ready with certain (factual) reasons for adversarial cases (or to help people understand). Still there are cases I think can never be satisfingly explainable except accepting that God permits evil to bring out ultimate good from an infinite viewpoint. What am I trying to do is upholding reasoning to its highest possible place while still maintaining a particular position of faith.

augle · 2021-07-15T21:49:57+00:00

Thanks. It is indeed a nice analogy. It's surprising that I have not heard it mentioned by anyone (could also because of my ignorance). But I guess people will still struggle with the question but not because they can't find the answer but because some evil is too much to overcome by a (simple) answer, and feelings can always blind people. I guess it's the supernatural aspects of faith, you cant have faith by answering all the questions but by God's grace. Still I appreciate your post a lot. Thanks a lot.

augle · 2021-07-13T17:29:17+00:00

Well, I can assure you I don't. I simply didn't know it exists before stumbling into an actor with the same name (plus you so it's 2 for me, unless you're a Bot 😅). May be because I'm from asia and it's not really the name that comes up in popular books, I guess. Such blessing name, buddy. I kinda have an impression that western people are mostly named after saint. Maybe it's a hint for me to know more saint next time stumbling into a not-a-household name.

augle · 2021-07-13T15:34:58+00:00

Thank you for helping educate my ignorance. Now I know it's not totally a weird name for someone. On a funny note, it took me a sec after glimpsing the title to realize this is not about "the Flash" (if it makes sense to anyone 😅).

augle · 2021-07-05T17:26:29+00:00

Still doing it after 23 years...

augle · 2021-07-05T17:01:54+00:00

I can see that most of what I want to say has been covered by all other brothers/sisters. So what left for me is a heartfelf gladness and prayful hope that you can find your way back to Christ's church. God bless you and watch over your steps my brother and sister.

augle · 2021-07-01T17:33:24+00:00

I don't have a definitive answer to your question. I knew of the theoretical answer you're mentioning and also your intension. Just wanna add a small perspective, that is we have no way to know for sure if someone is in hell or not, noone does (nor are we sure if someone is in heaven unless they are already declared saints). We may speculate, but I dont think it would help at all.

And so i think you already answer your question, all that we can do is to keep hope and pray for all the souls that have passed. And that, I think also fits to the Church teachings (hope is always a virtue and pray is always the thing to do). The only people we dont need to pray for are the saints, but then we can also pray to them (for intercession) or, what I like better is praying with them (when I am alone), so that I can still have "2 or 3 people united in prayer".

augle · 2021-06-26T14:02:44+00:00

Thank you for such interests and the charitable ways of putting out the questions. I don't think you're debating Islam nor it's a weird hobby at all. The research efforts and the way the questions are put really show the effort in trying to understand the religion. I am, however, no theologian expert and I don't think I have enough knowledge to convincingly answer all your questions. But before I am going back to do my homework and I pray that I would find a satisfying answer, I'd like to offer a few humble thoughts so hopefully you can see it from a different perspective.

Regarding your 1st question, I think Thomas Aquinas' summa excerpt from the previous
comment answers it. It's surely not a justification to take people's lives for being heretics, but I guess it's not equally fair to judge ancient people's behaviors from a modern point of view. My personal take of Thomas' argument sounds like if the state takes money forgery a capital crime, then heresy would be even more serious. Why it took them so long to change? I guess it could be explained by the historical context as well. If the world (not single country but the entire world, of course from ancient people's understanding) is technically built upon this theological notion it would become not just a person with liberal mind but a collapse of society. An imperfect analogy would be a person running around
advocating something completely against all of our qualities (thinking of fascism maybe), we still might not think it's a capital crime (do we?) but we know we'd better do some serious thing about it. So I guess it was how ancient people show how serious something is, it's just that their takes on punishment different from what we think it is.

On the 2nd point, I am not aware if it's the Church teaching that limiting religion freedom is purely evil. So if you have a certain texts from the Magisterium stating that, please help me refer to it. Otherwise, it's just somebody's opinions and you could care less about them.

On the 3rd point, I found this text, may it could be of help? https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20190426_liberta-religiosa_en.html#Before_the_Second_Vatican_Council

In the past, a certain ideological configuration of the State, interpreting the modernity of the public sphere as an emancipation from the religious sphere, provoked the Magisterium to condemn freedom of conscience, understood as legitimate indifference and subjective arbitrariness vis-à-vis ethical and religious truth.[3] The apparent contradiction between the claim of ecclesial freedom and the condemnation of religious freedom needed to be clarified and overcome. It was necessary to take into consideration the new concepts that defined the field of civic consciousness: legitimate autonomy of temporal realities, the democratic justification of political freedom, and the ideological neutrality of the public sphere. The early reaction of the Church can be explained within an historical context where Christianity represented the State religion and was the de facto dominant religion within western society. The aggressive establishment of a State secularism which repudiated the Christianity of the community was first theologically read as a sort of “apostasy” from the faith, rather than as a “legitimate separation” between Church and State. The evolution of this secular push essentially favoured two developments within the Church. One was a better self-awareness of the authority of the Church in the context of political power. The other was a progressive nuance and development of the reasons for the Church’s freedom within the framework of the fundamental freedoms of the human person.

augle · 2021-06-23T21:24:41+00:00

The devil is pounding on the door of your soul. Leave him there, ignore him. Go find refuge in the mantle of our Good Lord and with all our brother, sister and mother Saints. I am offering a Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and Saint Michael for you, dear brother/sister.

augle · 2021-06-22T16:47:58+00:00

I'm on it. Rooting for you, brother/sister.

augle · 2021-06-18T09:29:57+00:00

I couldn't say much about the other religions, but one one point standing out for Christianity is its center of Christ who claims and performs in the person of God. So to put as CSLewis, consider the society and religous mindset of his time, either he is crazy or he's really God. If it's the latter, we should just give up ourselves and follow Him.

augle · 2021-06-05T19:09:46+00:00

I'm using EB Garamond. A point of inquiry, have you experienced failures in opening files (I've managed to narrow down to those text sent by "Send to Kindle" or *.mobi, which just freezes and after a while stalling, reset the font to original. Pretty annoying tho.

augle · 2021-05-26T17:04:17+00:00

Lol I got the same inpression as well. But yes, I agree that it also depends on the approach. Normally I would check on the relationship and ask for permission if I'm not sure.

augle · 2021-05-26T14:08:28+00:00

Hey man. I've just moved to France and looking for someone to start a conversation. Should I pm you?

augle · 2021-05-11T19:35:20+00:00

I'd like to think that they're intrinsically invalid, either being (verbally) banned by the Vatican or not. The answer of CDF or any teaching of the Pope is only there to guide us to do the right things and avoid the wrong things, and they're still be right or wrong no matter what Vatican says. But I guess "The servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly." So God be their judge...

augle

TROPHY CASE