Tfw the only way to live authentically is to imitate Christ via the Roman Catholic priesthood

>Raping little boys is following Jesus

There is a third option. Throught history the trinity was of equal standing, but the last member is nearly forgotten nowdays. Hermits are still allowed, but I believe one needs to go to a bishop to for proper acknowledgement.

>mfw goys unironically believe this

There's always the classics of Catholic theology (I assume you're Catholic given the pictures and parenthetical desire to join the priesthood), like the Summa Theologiae by Aquinas and The City of God by Augustine; however, these works are extremely dense and not particularly helpful in discerning one's own individual path. Personally, I found Blaise Pascal's Pensees to be extremely profound yet discomforting. Works of Literature by Christian authors typically have underlying Christian themes, like Dostoevsky and C.S. Lewis.

I don't like the cross dangled to my forehead, I rather take it when noone is looking, so I never liked overly open authors. Dostoevsky is marginal, Lewis I can't stomach. Give me Tolkien and Huysmans instead.

Hey OP, if you feel called to be a priest then God will give you the graces you need to be up to the task. I will pray for you tonight.

As for your question, Frank Sheed's works are pretty good introductions to theology. Theology for Beginners and Theology and Sanity.

Metatheology? Or just nice theological books?

This might be what you're looking for.

>priests
>imitating christ

Become a monk in solitude or in a monastery, otherwise just drop the idea.

Mediocre. I'm not a big fan of Barron, lately because he buys into a lot of modernist heresies that get camouflaged in his otherwise standard theology. I don't blame the man himself, it's just the state of the Church now.

...

Yup, because we all know Christ was a recluse who never interacted with other people.

Come on Veeky Forums, aren't you smarter than this? I love monks and the monastic life, but the priesthood is clearly the closer imitation of Christ.

Most monks are priests these days and I don't know of many completely secluded monestaries that don't celebrate mass/do stuff with the faithful.

Pascal is interesting, but you have to be a little bit careful. He was an outspoken Jansenist.

Not exactly. He never endorsed that heresy and when asked to distance himself from it, he did it promptly. He liked them as a group because they were uncompromising and rejected the mundane.
t. Fredrick Copleston.

>Tolkien and Huysmans
That's an intetesting pair. A few weeks back a thread here sought vaguely plotted novels near 100-percent description. Wish I had considered Huysmans' The Cathedral then, because that's what it is-- the novel that doubles as among the best guides to Chartres. The trilogy it concludes (beginning with La Bas) is nontheless excellent.

Anyone here tackled St. Beuve's Port-Royal?

Huh, interesting. I'm more familiar with his mathematical writings than his theological ones. I had just heard somewhere that he wrote Jansenist polemics. Apparently he spent a lot of time attacking casuistry and probabilism, which is definitely great.

>Lewis I can't stomach
Out out out

>modernist heresies
We need to have a thread about this

What are some modern heresies?
What do you think is behind said heresy?
What are the implications on theology or in the Curch's saecula Christi?

>tfw the only way to live authentically is to imitate Christ via the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Except is isn't, think mor.

Where are Mormons?
Their basis is kinda meme-ish, but Mormons take being a mormon a whole fucking lot more seriously than most catholics take being catholic.

It doesn't matter how seriously Mormons take their religion. The question is, is it true? The answer is no.

It's mostly true.
Like 80% true.

In Barron there were two very public ones- that one can believe that Hell will be empty and that it is not necessary to speak out against evils such as gay marriage because the battle is already lost.

Mormons are not even Christians, they don't believe in God.

Indeed, he was close to them, but he never went into, what was then a formal heresy. His fideism would, if he wrote now, be borderline heretical as the existence of God knowable by the natural light of reason is dogmatic.

he said faggot priest not faggot member of the swiss guard

>Read New Testament
>Observe Roman Catholic Clergy
>Consider user's post

user, I have something to tell you...

Why is latae sententiae excommunication a positive aspect of the Roman Catholic Church in this meme? It's one of the weirdest parts of Canon Law, and most laypeople are totally unaware it exists.

>It's one of the weirdest parts of Canon Law, and most laypeople are totally unaware it exists.

I don't believe that. I see it brought up all the time when Catholics talk about abortion.

It makes people aware that they cannot recieve communion and need to mend their ways VERY explicitly. It's not very obscure at all, in fact I'd say it's the most well known part of canon law.
But of course, it's absolutely true that most Catholics have had a terrible religious education. Here I went through 10 years of it in school and leaned... nothing.
This is what the spirit of V2 did to almost everything. At least it's dying real fast.

>mfw so many people are freaking out about Francis, and his buttbuddies Kasper and Marx
>mfw in reality they are just the last gasp of the Vatican 2 generation trying to force their changes through before they all die off
>mfw all the younger priests and bishops, as well as most of those from the developing world, are conservatives who love Saint John Paul the Great and Benedict XVI
>mfw younger Catholics are conservative as fuck
>mfw it's always darkest just before the dawn

>mfw so many people are freaking out about Francis, and his buttbuddies Kasper and Marx
desecraton of the body of Christ is a big deal and so is the damnation of many souls who they will lead to the wrong path
>mfw in reality they are just the last gasp of the Vatican 2 generation trying to force their changes through before they all die off
yup, it's only a matter of time
>mfw all the younger priests and bishops, as well as most of those from the developing world, are conservatives who love Saint John Paul the Great and Benedict XVI
I recently came back from a "Catholic Youth Meeting", about 30k people (the liturgy was a disgrace sadly), and I can't say that's true. Some are, but most are scared to be openly friendly to tradition or blinded by the Jesuit idea that man is centre.
>mfw younger Catholics are conservative as fuck
In my experience there's almost a material schism. Liberalism has shaped how many view the faith and the centers of education are still too Jesuit to be any good. It's incredible that priests can be ordained when they never read Augustine of Aquinas. So, young Catholics are, especially if they are interested in the faith, very conservative, but more still aren't.
>mfw it's always darkest just before the dawn
ON THE THIRD DAY LOOK TO THE EAST

In 40 years the Catholic population will be half of what it is now, but 10 times more faithful.

You don't need to quote and respond to individual lines. What you do is you make a mental note of the different points you wish to respond to and while you're writing you let sentences run into each other to form things called paragraphs. This makes your replies easier read and respond to. Think about how you would talk to a person face to face. When somebody says something to you wouldn't respond to individual lines, you would respond to everything the person said in its entirety.

This is easier when you are tired

Oh if you're educated about your faith, you definitely know about it. But, as you mentioned, the state of catechesis in most places is pretty terrible, especially in places like where I am from, where cafeteria Catholicism is rampant. The end result of latae sententiae excommunication in this environment is that nobody actually knows the penalty exists in canon law. If you ask me, bishops should just go full bell, book, and candle more often, although pragmatically I understand why they don't.

Kreeft also discusses this in "Christianity for Modern Pagans" which is also a good read.

>What are some modern heresies?
The biggest one is probably the false idol of equality. I'm not necessarily against the idea but the fact that it's treated as the founding moral good (beyond love) is greatly heretical and propagated by the modernist.

I've read his book on Plato, History of Ethics and Aquinas. I'd say he's good ONLY if you are looking for apologetics for people who aren't looking to go into hard theology and philosophy.

Thinking about leaving Catholicism for episcopalianism tb.h.

Honest question.
Are you fucking retarded?

non-denominational protestant here
am i sinner for following the direct commands of christ and not following the very structured system that is orthodox christianity or catholicism?
i do my best every day to love god and to love people and to share the gospel with those around me.
should i even be asking you guys this or should i talk to my pastors about it?

Honest answer.
No, and not everyone who disagrees with you is retarded.

The issue with this is that when non-denominational Protestants speak of the "direct commandments of Christ," they usually mean stuff like credobaptism, salvation by faith alone, and other theological innovations that didn't originate with Christ. Protestantism has an authority problem that doesn't exist in Orthodoxy and Catholicism, since our ecclesial structures were literally founded and invested with authority from Christ himself.

>am I a sinner
Clear you're asking in bad faith but Protestants need to be brought to heel

Is it not in the book? Fuck it
Is it in the book? You are doing alright

the end.

read the fucking book and you wont have these problems or questions

>that one can believe that Hell will be empty

How is that a heresy?

found the redditor

We're all unworthy, user. It's exactly that humble attitude that makes you a worthy priest.

"Direct commandment" is when it comes to Protestants more relative than moral norms are for Planned Parenthood because it all comes down to arbitrary private judgement with no check outside of it.
John Henry Newman abhorred it for a very good reason, it's impossible to form a consistent religion with it.

It's contradictory to Scripture and Tradition, as confirmed by Fathers, Doctors, Saints and numerous apparitions. It's not a formal heresy because councils respond to accepted heresies as they pop up and, judging from history, this will be anathema in the next.
You know it's a at best borderline heretical when it originated with Rahner