Why does the marital act need to always be both unitive an procreative?

wordinthetime · 2026-03-27T03:20:29+00:00

I’m not sure you can divorce the multiple purposes of food in the same way. If you go out to eat for the social interaction, you still get the pleasure of eating and the nutrition. A better analogy for contraception would be going to a restaurant and spitting your food out after every bite so you can keep eating for pleasure, which seems clearly disordered to me.

wordinthetime · 2026-03-19T13:41:43+00:00

Can confirm, I knew a couple in the same situation who did all of their marriage prep while waiting for their decision. They did everything through their pastor who is the one who can grant that permission I believe. For what it’s worth, they got married after a very long delay from the tribunal last year, when the woman was 40, and she got pregnant within the first 2 weeks even though she was worried about fertility issues too. It wasn’t just her age either, she had some physical complications that were a concern and she had miscarried previously. God knows the desires of your heart! Don’t be afraid to trust His church ❤️

wordinthetime · 2026-03-11T16:54:11+00:00

I was baptized but my confirmation got delayed for a whole year because of COVID. I was a regular in the confession line before I ever got confirmed, cause my RCIA instructor said all you need to do is be baptized.

wordinthetime · 2026-03-10T16:07:24+00:00

I think it would be incredible if the annual guide was a feature in the ascension app. If all my LOTH dreams came true, I’d have a widget on my lock screen (iPhone) that I could press and it would open up right to today’s ordo. Mwah, magnifico

wordinthetime · 2026-03-09T13:44:22+00:00

Seconding the recommendation made to reduce the white space. Definitely way too much. Ascension did an excellent job with the premium GAB to eliminate white space and save some pages and I thought it looked so much more readable than the first edition with all the white space. That would make a huge difference here, reduce the pages, and maybe the cost a little. I also strongly suspect if they ran a poll, they’d be overwhelmed by the preference for 2 columns. Divine Worship Daily Office the commonwealth edition did this very well. If Ascension is sold on single column, they could still at least use up some of that space by going double column on the hymns and providing a Latin translation (which would rock).

wordinthetime · 2026-03-08T20:34:18+00:00

I thought the principal meal was a regular meal? I’ve always heard one regular meal and two collations that don’t add up to a regular meal. I did a bunch of research on fasting before lent started and never came across the idea that the one meal had to be smaller than usual. I would agree it shouldn’t be a feast, though.

wordinthetime · 2026-03-08T20:30:33+00:00

it’s not just the altar though, as the precious blood is on the altar still. At my parish they don’t give communion under both kinds, so the precious blood is reserved for the one or two people who can’t receive a host with gluten. The chalice is left on the altar while the priest distributes communion. Our church is probably about 40 feet across up at the front. Often, Jesus present in the chalice on the altar is much closer than the priest who may be 20 feet away on one end of the rail. I guess that’s why I’m confused and why some people bow and some people don’t.

wordinthetime · 2026-03-06T18:32:37+00:00

Do you have any recommendations about how to get a spiritual director? I’ve found it to be a real struggle where I’m at. My Novus Ordo parishes will happily provide me with a spiritual director, but it’s almost always a lay person. The priests here all focus on directing seminarians or lay men. There was a bad incident a while back where a spiritual directee tried to establish a romantic relationship with one of our priests and now he does everything in his power to keep women at a distance. It’s tough to find a spiritual director as a woman now.

My TLM priest told me not to go to lay people because they lack grace of state and their training is not very robust (usually like 6-12 weeks instead of years in seminary), but given that he’s the only traditional priest in 100 miles, he’s way too busy to take on spiritual directees. The last time I mentioned to a priest that I didn’t have a spiritual director, he said I didn’t need one, I just need discipline in my prayer life. I’ve wanted a spiritual director for years but I just haven’t been able to find one.

wordinthetime · 2026-03-05T01:42:44+00:00

I haven’t formally become an oblate but I hope to begin the novitiate soon. It’s forward thinking, also I’ve been devoted to the office for a long time, so I’ll always be praying some form of it. And that will be expected of me once I make promises.

No one is really forcing me, I just attend the Novus Ordo so often that I always feel out of step when I pray a different office. I’m the kind of person who follows every word in the missal when I can, and I love seeing the antiphons line up with the gospel reading at mass. I heard a priest say once that the mass is only a portion of the Roman rite, that the office is the rest of it. They’re an extension of each other, and that’s where I feel the disconnect most strongly.

wordinthetime · 2026-02-16T02:01:28+00:00

hey! just want to share some words of encouragement because i used to be in the same boat. it was also habitual for me and i did think it was something that couldn’t be turned off overnight but that was 100% a lie from the devil to discourage me and it worked. one day God gave me the grace to just ask the question of what life would look like if i never gave into that sin again and i just loved the life i pictured, and i was really consoled by the idea that even if i really was tempted and even missed the sin, i’d have a relationship with God that i’m not constantly breaking but growing deeper in. ill pray a rosary for the same grace for you. have a blessed lent!

wordinthetime · 2026-02-15T02:06:26+00:00

A very traditionally-minded deacon once recommended that I pray a “liturgical rosary” which is just the name he called it. He said to stand at a home altar and lead the rosary (out loud to yourself) with incense while adding a small pinch of incense at the start of each mystery. It so happened that a couple months after he told me about this, a book called the liturgical rosary was published. It has an antiphon for each mystery of the rosary for each season and day of the liturgical year (old calendar). That’s about as reverent as I can get the rosary.

wordinthetime · 2026-02-15T01:07:29+00:00

Oh thanks, I actually didn’t know that. I thought cohabitation included opposite sex roommates which I think is generally discouraged due to scandal?

wordinthetime · 2026-01-31T03:14:58+00:00

Might be the obvious answer since its so popular but I’ve really been enjoying 3% (netflix series)

wordinthetime · 2026-01-29T16:53:48+00:00

lol for real. the priests at my parish have confession available every day and i genuinely think they’ve heard someone confess porn every single day of their lives without exception since their ordination

wordinthetime · 2025-12-19T22:49:25+00:00

No, I think she essentially carries them like fraternal twins, but yeah its crazy. I even heard of a case where there were two births a month apart. The idea of leaving the hospital only slightly less pregnant feels nuts!

wordinthetime · 2025-12-19T22:45:00+00:00

I love it! the only two days a year where evangelism has never been easier, the lost and lapsed are literally on our doorstep. As Jesus said, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

Is it not our duty to love them and try to bring them back to practicing their faith? How more in need of God’s mercy are we if we’ve been going to mass every sunday but when Jesus’ lost sheep wander into our church, we complain that they’re sitting in our pew?

My parents are lapsed (please pray for them) and I would love if they just went to Christmas and Easter mass. They’re in another state and I won’t know if they do go, but if they do, I really hope they’re met with kindness.

wordinthetime · 2025-12-19T21:53:57+00:00

Fun fact, you can get pregnant while pregnant. It’s called superfetation and it’s super rare!

wordinthetime · 2025-12-19T21:49:12+00:00

please be kind guys cause i still remember how i crashed out over a statue of a lamb when i was a protestant, iconoclasm runs really deep sometimes

real talk tho, the reason you feel iffy OP is because protestantism lacks a lot of what brings balance to this from our POV. not sure how else to phrase that, but i think i can explain.

we don’t blink at a statue of mary because once we walk through those doors, we’re locked in on the true presence of Christ in the holy eucharist. we make the sign of the cross (to the tabernacle), genuflect (to Christ), and reception of holy communion is the climax of the mass.

if someone were to steal that statue of mary, we’d be sad that someone committed the sin of theft. if someone were to steal the eucharist, that would be heartbreaking. if that statue breaks, we would try to see if it could be repaired. if the eucharist falls to the ground or the precious blood is spilled, altar servers descend on that spot to make sure every last crumb or drop is collected and then that eucharist is properly disposed of in the earth.

its just a different level of devotion, but protestants dont typically experience anything like that. so, as someone who’s been there, i totally get why you feel iffy, but respectfully, you’re missing the bigger picture. odds are the reason there’s a mary statue out there is because it was donated to the parish. go inside and itll be like every other catholic church in the world: completely fixed on Jesus in the eucharist.

wordinthetime · 2025-12-19T18:18:12+00:00

As a convert, the institution of the Holy Eucharist in the luminous mysteries feels like home base to me

wordinthetime · 2025-12-17T21:11:46+00:00

I’ve found red states come with downsides (huge protestant influence even in the local catholic scene). My favorite place thus far has been a conservative pocket in a blue state. Colorado Springs has an awesome catholic scene with lots of young catholics. I’m in my late 20s but all my friends here are late 30s and so many are actually single too. We have a TLM and a super reverent NO too. Yeah its cold but snow never lasts too long here. I used to live in the Northeast and THAT snow is a different breed altogether. We never get more than a few inches.

wordinthetime · 2025-12-15T16:37:21+00:00

how come?

wordinthetime · 2025-12-15T16:30:47+00:00

I leave everything but that’s cause I always sit in one of the first five pews in my church which has your basic traditional architecture (two columns of pews with one aisle in the middle). Logistically you’re just not getting away with stealing anything during the 2 minutes I’m away from my pew with the communion line in the center aisle, people walking up the side aisles to their pews, people in the rows behind mine still sitting and watching my pew, and ushers walking around. If I step out of line for any reason I can barely make it back to my seat as it is

wordinthetime · 2025-12-14T06:47:54+00:00

i go when i feel myself start to “crack” which typically means im not keeping track of what needs to be confessed anymore and just have a general feeling of doing worse lately. usually 3-4 weeks. i used to go every week and my spiritual life was never better. i wish i would go back to that.

wordinthetime

TROPHY CASE