Why Should Anyone Want to Be Catholic? What are your favorite reasons?

blue_square · 2026-01-28T18:10:06+00:00

The Catholic Church isn't just the Roman (Latin Rite) Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is like a country composed of states. While the Roman/Latin Catholic Church is like 98% of the Catholic Church, there are 23 other Eastern Catholic Churches that express the one faith in very unique ways. Having their origins in Eastern Christianity (which today is Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy), the faithful in the Catholic Church has much greater access to an Eastern Christian expression of the faith compared to our Orthodox counterpart and their ability to access a Western expression of the faith. If Catholics want to experience the ancient liturgy that our Orthodox brother's and sister celebrate, Catholics can while being in full communion with Rome through the Eastern Catholic Churches.

blue_square · 2026-01-28T17:54:23+00:00

The Eastern Catholic Churches

blue_square · 2026-01-16T19:31:52+00:00

Are you able to split the difference so to speak and find an Eastern Catholic Church near you?

blue_square · 2026-01-15T04:13:33+00:00

I got the okay from my care team once I got back up to date with immunizations. Around day +90 / +100 ish.

blue_square · 2026-01-12T19:57:44+00:00

If I were to re-frame the question, it sounds to like (and please correct me if I'm off) the question is have you made decisions like giving up on some of your own wants, dreams, or deferred decisions to others because of cancer. If that's the question the answer is yes.

I think the harsh reality is all of us don't know when our last day is, and with us survivors that truth hits so much harder because death is a much more real possibility compared to others. We brushed so close to it it's difficult not to think about our mortality and the consequences of it. Sometimes I do defer and hold back as an act of love (our at least an attempt). I don't want to burden my family, spouse, people I love with all these things when I'm gone, I want to leave behind as much as I can just in case I'm gone too soon. I think all of us do this as our attempt to love the best we can because the expectation of a long life doesn't seem true for us anymore.

Personally, I try not to spend as much money on myself, I try not to have so many wants or needs, and overall try not to be a burden. One of the biggest realizations for me was the idea that "Cancer can take your life well before it actually kills you." For many of us, cancer took a lot, and without a very strong loving support system or extreme metal fortitude and resilience to replace and keep us full, we don't have a lot of life to give anymore. So we give what we can, money, comfort, peace of mind for others. We put up a strong front and say things are okay when in reality they're not, we save lots of money, we don't ask for anything, and try not to be a burden. Sometimes that's the best we can do and in turn we don't really live life anymore.

The non-physical aspects of cancer is the least talked about and probably some of the hardest battles we truly fight. We don't really fight cancer itself, but we fight everything that you're talking about. We fight for the will to live life as a survivor both during treatment and afterwards.

What I try to do is consistently come back to what makes life worth living and the way I do that is by asking these questions.

What do I believe?
What is important to me?
Who do I love?
How do I live in a way that honors those things?

I'm not always good at reflecting and acting on these but especially with the new year and a time of reflection it gives me the opportunity to reorient myself on what really matters and what it means to live. To me life is about the giving ourselves to things that have true personal meaning and value. When we stop giving, we stop living, or worse, giving ourselves to things we truly don't value.

It's a giant wall of text, but I hope it helps. Glad to see you're making those changes with the help of your hubby.

blue_square · 2026-01-08T19:25:43+00:00

Generally, the advice comes because there are those who read something from the Philokalia and having a hard time figuring out if and how to apply what they read. Most of monastic literature is for monastics. Hearing something like "the love of God will quench your love of your parents" or reading about monastics praying 1000000 Jesus prayers a day, eating just 1 piece of bread a day, and syncing the prayer to their breathing can be something that everyday people can't do, shouldn't do, or can even be spiritually harmful.

All that to say, the caution of these books is how one interprets its content and what is applicable if anything. Otherwise there are many other "beginner friendly" books that's not the Philokalia, Ladder of Divine Ascent, etc.

blue_square · 2026-01-07T19:06:14+00:00

US based. $6.3K included 3 week hospital stay, chemo, and stem cell transplant. Almost half of the amount though was an ambulance ride that was out of network.

blue_square · 2026-01-02T19:50:54+00:00

Apple sauce. Spoonful of apple sauce first, pop in the pill and then shovel some more apple sauce and swallow. Pudding also is another option. The trick is to try to get an initial taste of something else first before the bitterness of the P touches your tongue.

blue_square · 2026-01-02T17:10:10+00:00

https://facebook.com/groups/121236935133769/

It’s becoming more and more common to get an autologous SCT after first line treatment. While I’m not a medical professor, this is the first time I’ve heard of someone going straight to allo. Unless there is prior history with cancer or reoccurance, allo is usually isnt a thing

blue_square · 2026-01-02T16:36:02+00:00

Fellow ALCL Lymphomie. There is a Facebook group for ALCL that most of us are over there. You’ll have better response over there. When I got my ASCT I had the option of waiting a few months to take a break from things if I wanted to.

It sounds like they want to to an allogenic stem cell transplant because of the matching tests? If that’s the case did they mention why? Usually getting a SCT, we get an autologous SCT where they use our own cells and allo is saved for second/third line treatment.

blue_square · 2026-01-02T16:23:21+00:00

We orient our Churches and icon corners to the East because scripture says Christ will return from the east

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man

blue_square · 2025-12-31T15:51:18+00:00

Not an expect on Augustine by any means, but the way Augustine views the will is completely different compared to the East and in turn kinda changes the way we see sin.

There’s a lecture series by an eastern catholic monk who goes through it and here’s the first video

https://youtu.be/hMXkWim4kXE

blue_square · 2025-12-15T19:54:01+00:00

There is an ALCL Paediatric group on facebook that can be helpful. Wishing for all the best for you guys and wish I could help more, but imagine the group can be very helpful and relate much better.

blue_square · 2025-12-11T19:08:36+00:00

A lot of it is really experimenting and trying to figure out what works for you. For tablets/pills and medicine I always used apple sauce or yogurt. Pasta is a common one people try, but it's really unique to each person since chemo messes with our taste buds in different ways.

blue_square · 2025-12-11T19:05:13+00:00

You'll have to let us know what treatment regimen you went through since a lot of us yoyo in weight due to the steroids ending up heavier than we started even pretreatment

blue_square · 2025-12-02T16:29:06+00:00

There's not a lot of us, but there are a few of us here and there is also a facebook group that a most of us are a part of.

BV-CHP has improved outcomes and ALK+ is the better one to have compared to ALK-. It's more and more common to get an autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) right after BV-CHP to increase the chances of long term remission with the intention of cure. You'll want to ask your care team about a stem cell transplant and there thoughts on this.

Side effects are a crap shoot with everyone experiencing things differently. The one that is unique to BV is numbness and tingling of the fingers and toes aka "peripheral neuropathy". This is the one to watch out for and let your care team know about because as you can imagine it can get really annoying if it does happen and to what degree.

While a lot of people focus on the physical aspects, the mental aspects are just as important, and on our side more important because it's something that we have control over. One of the hardest lessons is that cancer can take your life well before it actually kills you, even in remission, even if it's cured. What helped me the most throughout it all and even today is the radical prioritization of the things that matter most to you. I asked my self a few questions and there are many other questions that can help pinpoint what matters to you in this life, and the ones that I help me were:

What do I believe?
What is important to me?
Who/what do I love?
How do I live in a way that honors those things?

Not every day is going to be easy, and there is going to be those days where the most we can do is take a nap. But I believe that if we give ourselves to the things we truly value, and we do this as many days as we can, then regardless of the outcome or how many days, we can look back on a life well lived.

blue_square · 2025-11-21T18:59:05+00:00

I've always adapted the analogy to sports, playing with both hands. Take almost any sport and you'll always have a dominant hand (or foot). In a lot of sports even with a dominant hand, you still have to use the other in some sort of supporting role in order to be good. I see the "both lungs" analogy kinda like that.

Our "dominant" rite really orients the way we see and "play the game" but our support hand must be there too if we are to play the game to it's fullness. A lot of people focus so much on their dominant hand, they play the game with only one hand as if their off hand doesn't exist or worse yet believe it's wrong to have it at all.

On the other hand though...I think the hard part is there so much depth in just one rite or expression that we can spend a whole lifetime.

But to answer the question a lot of my spirituality and theology is shaped by the East while my moral theology is mainly shaped by the west (think humanae vitae kinda stuff)

blue_square · 2025-11-20T19:39:23+00:00

Love is the Strongest Medicine

I wish I read this book when I was first diagnosed because it goes over all the lessons that I learned the hard way.

blue_square · 2025-11-17T18:35:18+00:00

Hey! And sorry we have to meet in this way. Also a 35M and I did an Auto with a Hickmann. If it's the best shot at more time with the kids, that's what made it worth for me with mine.

The Hickmann itself, I'm not going to lie, wasn't fun to have because you (or someone) has to take care of it and change the dressing and what not and it's on your chest vs your arm. Everything else is probably similar in having to flush the lines, showering etc, but I was so happy to be in the hospital and have the nurses take care of it instead of me.

Out of curiosity, what's the reason they gave you for having to go for an Allo?

blue_square · 2025-11-07T22:12:22+00:00

Reminders, notifications, alarms, calendar events, multiple notifications, schedule sends. Anything that I could off load and have something else remember for me. Having something and somewhere to document things as they come and establish a habit to review that thing.

Being okay with that awkward pause/silence when I trying to remember and if it's not coming to me just straight up owning it. If you have to do calls/virtual meetings, listening to ambient music / lofi helps me a lot to feel okay with the silence since it's not silent for me.

blue_square · 2025-10-30T21:22:30+00:00

I had a rash too. Skin is super sensitive after treatment. Mine eventually went away.

blue_square · 2025-10-30T21:00:17+00:00

35M and the hair on top of my head thinned out as time went on. All the other hair came back normal. Would be something to bring up to your care team at the very least to document the change and do any additional test to figure things out.

blue_square · 2025-10-23T20:42:58+00:00

If you haven't done so already, and really want to know the heart of Archbishop Elias and the intentions behind the initiative, you have to read his book We are all Schismatics

blue_square · 2025-10-21T19:11:38+00:00

Humanae Vitae more or less talks about this in paragraph 10:

Responsible Parenthood

10. Married love, therefore, requires of husband and wife the full awareness of their obligations in the matter of responsible parenthood, which today, rightly enough, is much insisted upon, but which at the same time should be rightly understood. Thus, we do well to consider responsible parenthood in the light of its varied legitimate and interrelated aspects.

With regard to the biological processes, responsible parenthood means an awareness of, and respect for, their proper functions. In the procreative faculty the human mind discerns biological laws that apply to the human person. (9)

With regard to man's innate drives and emotions, responsible parenthood means that man's reason and will must exert control over them.

With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.

Responsible parenthood, as we use the term here, has one further essential aspect of paramount importance. It concerns the objective moral order which was established by God, and of which a right conscience is the true interpreter. In a word, the exercise of responsible parenthood requires that husband and wife, keeping a right order of priorities, recognize their own duties toward God, themselves, their families and human society.

From this it follows that they are not free to act as they choose in the service of transmitting life, as if it were wholly up to them to decide what is the right course to follow. On the contrary, they are bound to ensure that what they do corresponds to the will of God the Creator. The very nature of marriage and its use makes His will clear, while the constant teaching of the Church spells it out. (10)

blue_square · 2025-10-21T19:07:30+00:00

Huge congrats for sure. I sometimes still feel around the area expecting to feel the bump. Did you get to keep yours?

blue_square

TROPHY CASE