#Ancient Catholics

[starinteractivepress]

What makes being Catholics different?

[philsbrownquiff]

Do you guys ever think about how we are a small culture and we have created holidays that we celebrate with each other and sometimes people take off work for them and we have traditions and gifts and crafts that we make for each other

[tomicscomics]

08/09/2024

Happy (almost) feast day of St. Lawrence, my patron saint!

___

JOKE-OGRAPHY:

St. Lawrence was a deacon of Rome in the mid-200s during a time of heavy persecution. When the prefect of Rome demanded all the treasures of the Church, Lawrence asked for a few days to gather it all together. In those few days, he gave all the material wealth of the Church to the poor. When it came time to face the prefect, Lawrence showed up, not with gold and jewels, but with a crowd of poor people, declaring, "Behold, these are the treasures of the Church." The prefect was so amused by this that he had Lawrence roasted alive on a gridiron. Just before he died, Lawrence gave one last quip: "Turn me over, I'm done on this side." Hence, he's the patron saint of cooks and comedians.

[aithusarosekiller]

The black cousins do have religious trauma to me

idk they just do

Like very strong, deeply imbedded, constant-self-doubt and fear

[rienafoutre]

[andiatas]

Photo by Cole Keister.

[nortism]

hear me out: robin has been around for thousands of years, including during the roman occupation of britain. julian went to fancy private school and cambridge. it is therefore entirely possible that they BOTH speak latin.

[bloodfin]

I personally think that Catholic-in-life Phantom Ghoul has the best curse alternatives. See below:

Stubs toe: "Lucifer's taint!"

Annoyed: "For the love of Satan's sack."

Angry or surprised: "Son of a six-winged-harlot!"

Disappointed: "You muppet."

Instead of the fuck word in pleasure, has been caught saying:

glorious

dazzling

sensational

Dew had to take 5 the first time Phantom called his cock splendiferous. Rain and Swiss wouldn't have believed him if they weren't in the room to hear it.

Will also unironically use movie/pop culture/vine references instead of expletives ie:

You hamster!

Eat my shorts -

Will never say christ, only Chrysler

You are ✨️StIlL A PiEcE oF gArBAgE✨️

You're killing me, Smalls. (Dew hates this in particular)

Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow.

Way to go, Paul. (Aether is so confused, no one in the entire ministry is named Paul)

[cosmicportal]

[howamidrivinginlimbo]

Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano in Rome, Italy

Under the basilica that stems from the 12th century, there are two more layers that you are able to visit: a basilica from the 4th century and a mithraeum from the 2th century.

In my opinion the most interesting church Rome has to offer.

[einarbaldvin]

A procession. Ink and brush on paper.

[mythologyolympics]

Mythology Olympics tournament round 1

Propaganda!

In the Catholic faith, Dymphna was the only child of a pagan king who is believed to have ruled a section of Ireland in the 7th century. When the queen died at a very young age, the king ended up propositing his daughter to marry him and become his new queen. Disgisted, she fled from home to avoid the danger of her refusal. She fled with a party that included her priest confessor and took a vow of chastity. When her father eventually located her, he ordered his men to kill her and the priest. They murdered the priest but were unwilling to touch Dymphna, who was only 15. Enraged, her father killed her himself. She is honored as a saint and her feast day is May 15.

Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Etruscan and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. Eventually, he was conflated with Dis Pater and Pluto. The Romans sometimes conflated Orcus with other underworld gods such as Pluto, Hades, and Dis Pater. The name "Orcus" seems to have referred specifically to the malicious and punishing side of the ruler of the underworld, as the god who tormented evildoers in their afterlife. In the charitable interpretation for such a place, it was believed to be an abode for purification of the souls of the deceased.

[momentsbeforemass]

Not fit to hate

People ask where I get the stuff that I write about.

I pray with the daily Mass readings. Then I read commentaries. Mostly InterVarsity’s “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.”

The series gives you a few sentences to a paragraph on each verse. That someone wrote during the first 500+ years of the Church.

Maybe from someone famous, or someone not so famous. Sometimes nobody knows who wrote it. But always the good stuff, stuff that’s stood the test of time.

Like this one, on today’s Gospel (where Jesus says to “love your enemies”). It’s an anonymous work* from the 5th century, that reads like it was written this morning.

“I think that Christ ordered these things [to love our enemies] not so much for our enemies as for us: not because our enemies are fit to be loved by others, but because we are not fit to hate anyone.

For hatred is the prodigy of dark places. Wherever it resides, it sullies the beauty of sound sense.

Therefore, not only does Christ order us to love our enemies for the sake of cherishing them, but also for the sake of driving away from ourselves what is bad for us.

If you hate [your enemy], you have hurt yourself more in spirit than you have hurt him in the flesh.

Perhaps you don’t harm him at all by hating him. But you surely tear yourself apart. If then you are benevolent to an enemy, you have spared yourself rather than him.”

(* Known as the Incomplete Work on Matthew, St. Thomas Aquinas was so fond of it that he once said that he would rather have the complete work than be mayor of Paris.)

Today’s Readings

[gregoriaofnyssa]

How Humourism (and Chinese Traditional Medicine?) Can Help You Overcome Spiritual Darkness and Sinfulness

It is no question that the material world and the spiritual world work together to create and continue the universe. This is no less true when it comes to the human person. The things we do help or hurt our physical bodies as well as our souls.

I have a theory that understanding your Humours (and potentially Chinese medicine) is a great insight into why you struggle with the sins you do and how to lessen their pull upon you.

These are the Four Humours:

🍃 Blood 🩸Blood gives life to the body. It is associated with the Sanguine Type, which is enthusiastic, active, and social. Blood is made in the bones and cleaned in the liver. They have a warm and damp disposition. Its element is Air.

🔥 Yellow bile 🫖 Yellow Bile is produced in the gallbladder and found in or adjacent to solid bodily excretions. It is associated with the Choleric type, which is ambitious, decisive, aggressive, and short-tempered. Their disposition is hot and dry. Its element is Fire.

🗻 Black bile ⚫ Black Bile is associated is made in the liver and spleen as the result of blood cleaning. Its associated type is the melancholic, who are sorrowful, doubtful, thoughtful, steady, and creative. Their disposition is cold and dry. Its element is Earth.

💧 Phlegm 👃 Phlegm is considered any white or colorless fluid produced by the body, such as pus, mucus, saliva, sweat, or semen. It is produced by mucus membranes. Phlegmatic types are reserved, conscientious, and nervous. Their dispositions are cold and damp. Its element is Water.

Men and women are predisposed to different Humoruous conditions and dispositions. Women are more likely to have the cold dispositions and men are more likely to have the hot dispositions. The four humours are predisposed to struggle with certain sins. Men tend to struggle with anger and arrogance, while women tend to deal with despair and sloth, for example. This is not to say there are no women who deal with anger or no men who deal with sloth, but there are humps on the bell curve. It is not helpful to exclude a disposition because you think, "I'm a woman, I cannot be Choleric," or "I don't struggle with sloth, therefore I cannot be Phlegmatic."

This is a system that varies between people, time, and current situation. Your disposition can change though your life, especially at puberty, menopause, and major life changes or trauma (the death of a spouse, the birth of a child, or a far move).

Sanguine Type: The Sanguine virtues are joy and love, bringing people into the life of the Church, and being a life-giving force to those they encounter. They can be great speakers and charismatic preachers. This is generally considered the best disposition to have! But the sins the Sanguine types can fall into are a result of their sociability. They can be flitty, flaky, manipulative, and gossipy. They can calm the heat within them by eating cooling foods-- See Chinese medicine, and surrounding themselves with cool-headed and stable influences, such as Phlegmatic Types. Choleric Types can bring out the best and worst in them.

Choleric Type: The Choleric Type virtues are ambition, decisiveness, quick thinking, wittiness, and confidence. These types make good preachers and theologians. The sins these types can fall into are obvious-- anger, aggression, and pride out the wazoo. These types also benefit from eating cooling foods, drinking lots of water, and taking cold showers or baths. They should be around cooling, stable influences, such as Melancholic types. Choleric types should be careful around Phlegmatics, as they are prone to be pushy, and can pressure a Phlegmatic into sin, or for their own purposes.

Melancholic Type: The Melancholic virtues are stability, steadiness, and thoughtfulness. They make great contemplative theologians and should even be considered highly for the Monastic life. However, they can fall into depression, despair, doubt, faithlessness, and laziness. Melancholic people should eat hydrating, hot foods, should take regular cardiovascular exercise, and hot showers or baths. They should hang around lively, hot-natured people, such as Sanguines or Cholerics.

Phlegmatic Type: The Phlegmatic type virtues are conscientiousness, kindness, and simplicity. They are good people. Their sins tend to be anxiety, people-pleasing, insecurity, and they can fall into habits of trying to please the world. They should take hot and dry foods, heat therapies, caffeine, and avoid baths. Try dry-brushing and avoid thick lotion or heavy oils. Phlegmatic types may want to avoid dairy or gluten. These types want to keep the company of confident people who lift them up, and steady individuals who will stand up for them. They get along well with Cholerics, but they must be careful that they don't let this type walk all over them or push them into something they're not comfortable with.

Things like Humourism and Chinese medicine are often looked upon with suspicion in many Christian circles. People think it's pagan, sorcery, augury, or some other such pharmakeia, but Humourism is no more pagan than mathematics. The Church Fathers supported its use, as did those Orthodox who came after them. Chinese medicine does, unfortunately, have some of the baggage of spiritualism (especially Gnosticism), but there are ways that some practitioners understand it where it is compatible with Orthodoxy. Just as some Hunourists thought your liver was hunted if you were Melancholic, there are some CTM practitioners who think something similar.

If you correct imbalanced Humours, you can correct the sinfulness that comes from them, and prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will become easier.

I find CTM useful because it offers simple solutions to change our underlying habits with dietary changes mostly. I should make more of a post about this later.

[catholic-academia-aesthetic]

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 30 January – St Martina (Died c228) Virgin Martyr. Patronages –of Rome, Italy, of nursing mothers. The Roman Martyrology reads today: “In Rome, commemoration of Saint Martina, holy virgin and Martyr.”

(via Saint of the Day – 30 January – St Martina (Died c228) Virgin Martyr, Patron of Rome – AnaStpaul)