5 replies to this topic

[Admin]

Photo: AFP

A vial containing blood drawn from Pope John Paul II shortly before he died will be installed as a relic in a Polish church soon after his beatification this year. Piotr Sionko, the spokesman for the John Paul II Centre, said the vial would be encased in crystal and built into the altar of a church in the southern city of Krakow that is opening in May.

The exact date of the opening is not yet known, but it should be shortly after John Paul's beatification at the Vatican on May 1. Mr Sionko said the idea came from Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Krakow and a long-time friend and secretary of the late pontiff.

Source

[Mystical]

Hmmm after reading this article I still wonder about the Catholic religion. First of all it's weird to display someones blood who is already deceased and also the part about taking his heart out and putting it on display.  Geesh..next thing you know the cannibalistic ways of the Catholic church will become reality.  Weird..just weird

[Loganinkosovo]

Mystical, on 24 January 2011 - 03:17 PM, said:

Hmmm after reading this article I still wonder about the Catholic religion. First of all it's weird to display someones blood who is already deceased and also the part about taking his heart out and putting it on display.  Geesh..next thing you know the cannibalistic ways of the Catholic church will become reality.  Weird..just weird

It's rather European and very Medieval but it's all part and parcel of "Sainthood". The relics themselves have supposed healing power. I find it at least as strange as "Holy Rolling" and a lot less bizarre than "Kissing Snakes", "Shakers" and many other disturbing things certain Protestant sects do now or have done in the past.

Think of it as a focus point for the faithful.

[Mystical]

I understand peoples belief in faith but what troubled me while growing up as a Roman Catholic was the whole Eucharist.  I have read article after article that Jesus more or less said that he was the bread of life and those who eat his flesh and drink his blood would be with him and his father in the kingdom of heaven.  To me it goes beyond a sense of faith.  I cannot go to a Catholic church and watch people "even if it is symbolic now" think that they are eating Christs body and drinking his blood.  Too cannibalistic for me.

[Loganinkosovo]

Mystical, on 24 January 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

I understand peoples belief in faith but what troubled me while growing up as a Roman Catholic was the whole Eucharist.  I have read article after article that Jesus more or less said that he was the bread of life and those who eat his flesh and drink his blood would be with him and his father in the kingdom of heaven.  To me it goes beyond a sense of faith.  I cannot go to a Catholic church and watch people "even if it is symbolic now" think that they are eating Christs body and drinking his blood.  Too cannibalistic for me.

You are taking it too literally. It's just a way of showing devotion to his ideals. And it has always been "Symbolic". How are you going to eat and drink if he's still walking around?

I found Westminster Abby to be incredibly creepy and disgusting. I hate walking on people's graves and there you have no choice as they are shoved into and stuffed under everywhere and everything. I'm sure some poor bastards are even crammed into the walls and floors of the restrooms.

[Mystical]

I'm sure they are too.  I find that creepy as well.  The fact that some people do take it literally is what creeps me out.  The last time I was in a Catholic church it was with my daughter, whose coach had died unexpected.  I sat through the whole mass and kept telling myself okay...this is just peoples beliefs..but the more I watched and listened the more bizarre it became for me.  I think a lot of people now a days just go through the motions of the whole mass without thinking of what it symbolizes.  I kind of sit back and watch and wonder what they are thinking.  The whole concept of the Eurcharist to me is bizarre.  Who would want to think "even if it is just symbolic" that they will be with the lord if they eat his body and drink his blood..Therefore they are with the lord and part of him.  Bizarre..just bizzare   at least for me.

In the same token if one believes a certain way that is for them to do so.  Those who have faith have faith.  I just don't fit the category.  Maybe it's because I tend to look outside the box.