Christian: First Eucharist (Jesus, grace, blood, choice, America)

[angellous_evangellous]

For my Catholic and EO friends, I will share reflections on my first Eucharist, which I celebrated with Catholic brothers and sisters last night for the first time.

I come out of Baptist heritage and with the help of No*s and others I have been reading the Church fathers and have been refining my Greek and interpretive skills, and in short, have been working toward a more orthodox theology. I have no interest in either Protestant nor Catholic (or Orthodox) scholacticism (e.g., having theological conclusions before approaching the text)- my theology will come from scholarly study. I will be starting a doctoral program in NT interpretation in the fall, and I have been praying for the strength and intellectual integrity to produce an othrodox theology and orthopraxy from the study of the NT. From previous and current study, I have hungered for the true body and blood of Jesus that only the Catholics and EO (and possibly some other churches that are able to claim apostolic authority, but this will take some tedious proofs) are able by the grace of Jesus to provide. Although I lean more towards EO theologically, I was invited to Catholic mass and gladly accepted the offer to worship with the Body of Christ.

Some reflections:

1) Although I am not Catholic, I can make the Catholic confession known commonly as the Creed of St. Athanasius or Quicunque Vult and the Nichene Creed

2) I now understand how powerful the connection of the community is among the heirarchy of the RC. This understanding applies to the recent legal battles that Terri Schiavo's parents waged to keep their daughter alive. I feel that I can related to their religious desires to keep their daughter alive... it was a part of their faith, and they were unified with the entire Body of Christ in their mission. Sometimes love calls us to be wreckless... but they had the entire Church from the Pope to the common preist behind them. That unity is powerful.

3) On a similar note, I can more closely relate to the Catholic pro-life stand. Politically, I have been pro-choice because Americans should have liberty, and the pro-lifers so far do not have a convincing enough argument for the limits that they suggest on liberty in this case. If the pro-lifers can demonstrate harm (or somehow that it actually is murder), then limits can be enforced. We already see this happening with the limits on partial-birth abortion. As technology improves, the pro-life argument becomes more convincing. However, as a Christian, I personally respect life and encourage Christians to respect it as well, even at the earliest stages of fetal development. After my worship experience, I can relate more closely to the fight for life that the pro-lifers are politically committed to - something that I still cannot do because of my love for liberty.

4) It is my hope that by the grace of Christ that His body can give me the strength that I need to complete my mission.

Christian: Please pray that I can remain completely devoted to Christ and His church as I continue studying the NT.

Blessings,
Angellous

[No*s]

Moved to the Christian forum

[No*s]

It sounds like you had quite the experience Nate .

[angellous_evangellous]

It was pretty cool. Thanks for moving the thread. I don't know where my stuff should go sometimes. Baptists are having identity issues these days as you well know

[jimbob]

Im glad to hear about your experiances. way to go!!

[No*s]

Originally Posted by angellous_evangellous

It was pretty cool. Thanks for moving the thread. I don't know where my stuff should go sometimes. Baptists are having identity issues these days as you well know

It can be difficult to know lol.