#I'm not in it for Paul I'm in it for Thecla

[arctic-hands]

The real reason I hate the Church is because I can never find a damn copy of the Acts Of Paul And Thecla in english

[busy-with-little-things]

All Saints' Day Novena: Day 4

Time for my patron saint, Mar Taqla, aka St. Thecla!

Here's an image I painted of her! Do me a favor and don't look at the lion. What did I just say

There isn't very much writing attributed to St. Thecla. She was a friend of St. Paul, and she is called "Equal-to-the-Apostles." The book The Acts of Paul and Thecla is an apocryphal book because it promotes essentially female priesthood, and normally an apocryphal book is an apocryphal book to me, but, like. That's it? Idk I think it's something I'll check out in the future. It's linked below if you are curious.

I relate to St. Thecla in that she is delivered from many trials that would otherwise end in death. I feel like while I am not being persecuted, I get anxiety about my suffering before it even happens. But I've been trying to surrender to God's will before I undergo something, and most of the time, the thing I'm dreading doesn't happen. Not to say that they never will, but rather that I am warmed by the fire without having to step on hot coals. And that must have been something she experienced a lot. Mar Taqla, pray for me not only to be ready to give up comfort but to live in discomfort when I need to.

St. Thecla, pray for us!

[commoner64]

Nuclear take: We should take some stuff out of biblical canon and put some better stuff in

[fuckyeahasexual]

me, on my personal blog, nothing tagged: i'm afraid to come out to my extremely catholic parents as ace. aphobes, literally popped up out of no where: omg no hates you for your tmi sexuality; your religion will actually commend you for it. when i told my parents: oh honey you're wrong you just haven't found the right person yet even though you're 17. let's take you to counciling at the church they'll fix this.

Search makes it too easy for assholes to find you. Not a TMI sexuality. Catholic churches like chastity before marriage, not asexuality. Parents are awful like this. I don’t think they mean harm, but yeah, parents do harmful things all the time. I’d firmly tell them you don’t need counseling if they push. While Christianity as a structure isn’t nice to aces, you can find specific people in the bible that are ace like. Paul for example. I think Paul was kind-of a jerk, but Catholics like him. So he’d be easy to quote a verse as a subtle biblical stfu.

I personally like Thecla. Because in some versions of the story she was like who needs sex! And Paul and others were like wow Thecla, you are really into this chastity thing, join us! But then other women wanted to get divorces because of her teachings and views on chastity. And Paul started to be wait, noo… And then she wanted to be baptized but Paul was like no lady, behave first. So she apparently jumped into a pit of like sharks was like a fuck you, I baptized myself and then became a saint for it because God protected her from harm.

Hell, if they push I’d just be like “I’m going to WWJD it and focus on goodness first and foremost until I find the right person.” Simply because I think it would be the simplest sure whatever leave me alone now fix. Doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or not. I had a true love waits ring before I knew what asexuality was and all of my very religious family was like I can respect that. 

My point is. As a minor you can only control so much. Ignore the online bigots, and with your parents if you care about your faith at all you can easily pretend you mean it like they do until you are old enough to be like lol jk not like that. There’s actually a lot of more supportive Catholic people you can find and quote too. I mean recently the pope was like we need say sorry to gay people. Personally, I’d lie and not tell them things. Your safely needs to come first in situations like this.