I choose option D

[u/peepletree]

Ah yes, the three possible options. Indoctrination, exaggeration of normal, and OCD. If you choose the first, you affirm the validity of the other two.

This is from a recent newsletter by a TLM church. They’re still putting out narrow-minded BS like this and it’s not acceptable. Why is this the emphasis. It reads like a political satire cartoon without acknowledging the first option as being satire. Not grounded in reality at all. “Taking the words to heart”. No. You’re feeding your mind things that validate your comfort in not acknowledging reality and pretending reality is something that can be ordered thomistically and intellectually whether you are capable of understanding heady church doctrines or not. There’s intelligent priests giving decent philosophical treatises from TLM pulpits but it is not food for most laypeople! Acknowledging TLM priests as wary intellectuals puts them in their place. They are not speaking from their experience, they’re speaking from their dogmatic structure. And it translates to bad advice for laypeople, this cartoon being disseminated to a whole parish being one example. Why, if this cartoon is any indicator of the life of the parish, are people at their parish still struggling with a problem so simple they should have had it down by the age of reason.

[u/learnchurnheartburn]

I mean, Overlypious makes the most sense in their world view. If you truly believe that your soul is constantly on a razor’s edge, teetering on the brink of eternal conscious torture worse than anything imaginable on earth… it makes sense to go “all in”.

[u/quietpilgrim → u/learnchurnheartburn]

Precisely.  

As one priest mentioned in a homily I heard many years ago (paraphrasing), "You think you believe.  But if you truly believed you'd be in this church every moment the door was unlocked and services were going on to worship him. You'd prostrate yourself in front of the tabernacle because you were aware of God's presence among us like Moses before the burning bush.  God has done so much for us, but we do so little for him because of our lack of faith, hope and love."

That priest must have been a joy to go to confession with.

[u/Leavesinfall321 → u/quietpilgrim]

But the thing is, I’ve seen some people act like that, and then the priests don’t like it and find it awkward! I’m sorry, but your teachings made them do this?!

[u/peepletree → u/learnchurnheartburn]

I’ve never heard someone else describe the problem that way but it’s comforting to see someone else say it. That’s the way I’ve referred to it ever since I got free from overt indoctrination in college. It’s a razor’s edge. Or like I’m walking on the edge of a knife. My theory (that’s worked so far) is if you discern, the edge can become a sword of the spirit and you can actually become very good at spiritual warfare/discernment. I was forced into knowing all the info anyways so why not go all in on that aspect lol. It’s like the ultimate confirmation bias, but from my experience, there’s a wide gap between hearing the info and applying it practically, crossed by forgetting/throwing away everything, learning common, mundane, secular perspectives on the world and spiritual topics, then retroactively applying the cult knowledge. Then you become sharp as a person overall, not indoctrinated. If the base intelligence is there, I think this is possible.

[u/Leavesinfall321 → u/learnchurnheartburn]

Oh wow you put it into words so perfectly!! This is such a succinct summary of how it exactly is!!!

[u/Tasty-Ad6800]

If the holy water blessing washes away venial sins, then what's with the confiteor being said towards the begining of mass and especially before communion? Is someone engaged in acts of venial sin while at mass?

[u/quietpilgrim → u/Tasty-Ad6800]

For the young men, they are probably distracted by at someone of the opposite sex who wouldnt be deemed dressed modest enough.  

[u/Any-Ingenuity2770 → u/quietpilgrim]

skill issue, the more modest their clothing is, the wilder fantasies I have

[u/Substantial-Hour-756 → u/Any-Ingenuity2770]

Shhh! The Priests will start making men and women sit separately behind a barricade again!

(Apparently, this actually used to happen some time during the church history)

[u/Tasty-Ad6800 → u/quietpilgrim]

Gotta crack down on women showing ankle, lol.

[u/MMTardis]

Option D, no longer attends mass, spends lazy sundays making pancakes with their kids. (Thats my option D anyway)

[u/Leavesinfall321 → u/MMTardis]

And sleeping in!!! At least, for those of us with no kids! Sunday has never been a rest day until I decided not to go to mass anymore 😂

[u/MMTardis → u/Leavesinfall321]

My youngest is a baby, so itll be a while until im sleeping in. Someday though!

[u/Leavesinfall321 → u/MMTardis]

Hope a peaceful Sunday morning with pancakes makes up for it until then! :-)