What is 'Catholic enough'?

[Stella]

https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/what-i ... ic-enough/

It's not a long article but it raises this interesting question. The author juxtaposes a number of seemingly conflicting positions and and what can make them prideful.

It is entirely possible to become prideful as a Pharisee, preening as we follow all the rules while also overworking the supernaturalism — and yes, the urge and action toward prayer is supernatural, as in the inspiration to serve.



I knew someone who prayed a full Rosary every day, reciting not just the Fatima prayer but also the prayer to St. Michael at the end of each decade and calling it “necessary.” It made me wonder how often we proclaim our faith while not trusting that prayer can be both simple and “enough.”

Did pride cause my acquaintance to deem a powerful prayer as inadequate to the world’s needs? God knows. But if we offer prayer yet don’t trust God enough to believe that prayer is both efficacious and plenty, then what are we really offering?

Is prayer without trust part of our pride?

On the other hand, I know people so committed to the world-service side of faith that they’ve become detached from the supernaturalism of prayer. I was sneered at once by an ardent “social justice” Catholic who called Eucharistic adoration “a medieval relic, too passive in the face of so much human need.”



“Yet it supports the work you do,” I argued.



Were we both prideful? Again, God knows?

Of all the sins it seems to me that pride is the most sneaky: being capable of infiltrating every single endeavour of faith indiscriminately, affecting our opinion of our own and others quality of Catholic faith.

[VeryTas]

After years of comparing myself to other Catholics, in person or in their writings, I came to a certain acceptance of myself as Catholic enough. It means that Christ knows me as one he has called particularly, with peculiar weaknesses and prides, to be as much a member of his body as others. And the Church is not the Church by itself, without me.

[Stella]

After years of comparing myself to other Catholics, in person or in their writings, I came to a certain acceptance of myself as Catholic enough. It means that Christ knows me as one he has called particularly, with peculiar weaknesses and prides, to be as much a member of his body as others. And the Church is not the Church by itself, without me.

I rejoice when I see someone fall into acceptance of their place in the grand scheme. We might not be a Saint but who knows, we might be the parent or grandparent or friend or acquaintance of an eventual Saint who 'got' something from our little witness along the way.

Hopefully it's ok to have that attitude.