![\"Insipid](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Holy-fatima-kids.jpg\")
<\/a>Insipid ethereal gnostics, full of prayers and ideas and only seeking God?<\/p><\/div>\n
Zenit News Reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n During his daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, Pope Francis called on Christians to contemplate what exactly is our Christian identity, and warned against ways it can be weakened, reported Vatican Radio.<\/p>\n It is true that we are sinners, Francis acknowledged. Yet, he added, when\u00a0we fall down, God\u2019s strength enables us to\u00a0get up again and continue our journey.<\/p>\n While sin is part of our identity,\u00a0the Holy Father said, we are sinners with faith in God \u201cwho has anointed us, put his seal upon us\u201d and given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge in our hearts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How many times is Pope Francis going to remind us that we are all sinners?\u00a0 Some may find that encouraging.\u00a0 I find it de-motivating.<\/p>\n So I’m a sinner but I’m anointed.\u00a0 I’m a sinner but the Holy Spirit is a pledge in my heart.\u00a0 It was just yesterday that the Holy Eucharist was also a pledge!\u00a0 How can God be a pledge?<\/p>\n Christians, the Pope said, are\u00a0those who remain faithful to this God-given identity as the anointed ones who let the Spirit into their hearts, rather than those\u00a0who follow a particular philosophy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So although I’m a sinner, I’m a Christian so long as I remain faithful to my ‘identity’ and let the Spirit into my heart.\u00a0 Well that’s easy.\u00a0 Spirit c’mon in!\u00a0 I don’t have to follow a particular philosophy.\u00a0 Well that’s good too.\u00a0 What about a particular theology?\u00a0 No mention.<\/p>\n The Argentine Pontiff went on to\u00a0warn\u00a0of three\u00a0ways in which this witness can be weakened.<\/p>\n The first applies to those who move for a concrete\u00a0faith in Christ to “a kind of insipid religion of just prayers and ideas,” \u00a0a type which could be compared to the\u00a0Gnostics in the ancient world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A Gnostic was a particularly proud sort of heretic.\u00a0 “Insipid” is an insulting word for people who pray and think, as if prayers and ideas were dull, dead or boring.\u00a0 This is the Pope’s continual straw man.<\/p>\n Who are these terrible people that only pray but never love, who only have ideas but never act upon them?\u00a0 Hint: None of them are liberals and none of them are dissenters.<\/p>\n These \u201cmodern Gnostics,\u201d Francis said, are tempted to avoid the scandal of the Cross. Through their \u201crather ethereal Christian spirituality,” they are content to seek God, Francis said.<\/p>\n Second, there are those who\u00a0always are searching for some \u201cnovelty\u201d in their Christian identity since they\u00a0have forgotten they have been anointed and given the guarantee of the Spirit. Francis joked that they say:\u00a0\u201cWhere are the visionaries who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4\u00a0o\u2019clock this afternoon?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why has Medjugorje been allowed to persist?\u00a0 It has always been what it is.\u00a0 There must be a great deal of money involved.<\/p>\n The Pope is right to speak against it, but why now?\u00a0 Might it perhaps have something to do with the fact that most of its followers are faithful Catholics?\u00a0 Doesn’t it perhaps put devotional Catholics in a bad light, and make those who are attentive to Marian visions look bad?\u00a0 It certainly does, as it always has, but is the Pope saying that all visionaries<\/em> have that sort of ‘ethereal spirituality’ that ‘only seeks God?’\u00a0 I hope not but it sounds like it.<\/p>\n It’s clear that Pope Francis is willing to use Church scandals against faithful Catholics.\u00a0 Look at Kansas City Bishop Finn, Bishop Livieres in Paraguay, and now Cardinal Pell.\u00a0 All three of these situations came from overhyped scandals.\u00a0 Medjugorje is just another opportunity to exploit weaknesses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zenit News Reports: During his daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, Pope Francis called on Christians to contemplate what exactly is our Christian identity, and warned against ways it can be weakened, reported Vatican Radio. It is true that we are sinners, Francis acknowledged. Yet, he added, when\u00a0we fall down, God\u2019s strength …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[450,449,19,451],"class_list":["post-3123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethereal-spirituality","tag-medjugorje","tag-pope-francis","tag-visionaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3160,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions\/3160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}