#progressive catholic

[thagastian]

God, please fill me with reassurance that my friend is resting easy in you.

God, please tell me that we are not lost within or without this world. To go on until the end of our days with your light shining from our eyes.

God, please give me strength and mercy to forgive myself, that I see your forgiveness echo in the darkened chambers of my soul. And please, let me not be restless in my sleep tonight.

Jesus, I wish I could hug you right now. And I can feel you hugging me right now. Give me the courage to acknowledge that you are truly here with me.

[michaeldoesreligion]

Here's to you, oh havers of doubts.

To you, the forgetful devout.

To you, clumsy in prayer.

To you, who cries at the feet of our Lord.

To you, yes, you my sibling in Christ. For if you had no doubt, or never forgot, or were forever graceful, or did not offer up your pains, your suffering, your dismay to Him, where is there to grow? Where is there to spread your wings?

[transingtheeucharist]

any tips on getting started in the catholic faith? i feel as if im being called to the church but being a trans man in such a space worries me (omo")

hi anon! i'm going to level with you and admit that i feel severely under-qualified to answer this question as a cradle catholic. i never really "got started," i've just Been Here. however! i will try my best to give some helpful advice.

simply showing up to Mass is the best first step i can think of if you already feel a pull towards the faith. you can sit in the back, you don't even have to walk up during communion if you don't want to (though if you feel brave enough, i encourage you to walk up and receive the blessing). experiencing the faith irl in person will always be more meaningful than online imo.

on a similar note, if a parish near you holds adoration i highly encourage you to go. Christ's arms are wide open for you, spend some time with Him if you are discerning your faith!

at the end of the day, i understand that Catholicism can feel daunting as a queer/trans person. that's real and valid and i understand you! and it is more than okay to have doubts even if you feel a strong calling to the church. the Catholic faith doesn't exist without doubt, faith and doubt are lovers, you're allowed to be unsure. i think more than anything, i would tell you that faith can be a scary thing to explore. finding a church can be daunting and uncomfortable. but if it's something you feel a calling to i think it's worth following that path.

and again, as a cradle catholic i think i'm actually the worst person to talk to, so i would really recommend you chat with folks who have done OCIA! @bellad0nn4 offered to chat about OCIA if that's something you want<3

best of luck on your faith journey, peace be with you!

[autumnsgambit]

As much as I like the idea of online Christian communities I lowkey don’t trust any of them. Whether it’s on here, the layer of hell known as Discord, or anywhere else on the internet, I don’t trust any Christian community because they all have super vague rules that don’t seem to explicitly forbid anything short of outright telling people to go fuck themselves.

Like, when trying to figure out the vibe of a given Christian online space, I always check the rules and they’re very open to interpretation. “We value scripture” okay? Doesn’t everyone? “No twisting God’s word” is innocuous on the surface but can quickly become a red flag as soon as anyone mentions the “clobber verses” (see: the Bible’s controversial history of mistranslations).

And especially if a space doesn’t have an explicit rule against hate speech, or homophobia, or even has a rule against homophobia but not transphobia, I immediately assume it’s a bigoted space. Because even with rules against homophobia, they get to decide what they mean by “homophobia.” Which pretty much means anything short of “gay people deserve to die” could fly in some of those spaces as long as you pretend to “love the sinner and hate the sin.”

And, I reiterate, trans Christians are even more uncomfortable in these spaces than cis gay Christians. And that’s saying something because cis gay Christians are already treated with basically no respect at all.

I kid you not, I was briefly in a Christian discord server with a rule against homophobia (but not transphobia) that was way more strict about people posting gym selfies (in the gym chat) than people blatantly breaking the hate speech rule. The meme chat in that server was full of racism and antisemitism. The general chat would shout down anyone daring to be openly queer (even queer Catholics who practice the church’s rule about gay chastity, i.e. lifelong celibacy). But sure, tempting each other to “lust” by showing gym progress is way more of an issue (this deeply weird and unhealthy view of sex and the human body among young Christians deserves its own post).

Idk. Anyway. Is this a common sentiment or am I crazy for wanting a Christian space that doesn’t obviously see me as less of a Christian for being queer. Lmk

[allgoodgifts]

i've officially started making strawpage shrines to my fave saints!! started today with mother mary, of course!!

[sweetpea67]

Shocking how the Catholic Church’s teaching that being martyred is the only way to completely bypass purgatory without having confessed all your sins to a priest and done your penance made me passively suicidal and way too into fantasies where I bravely sacrificed myself for someone else huh.

[sweetpea67]

I’m starting to notice that a lot of queer Catholic dissenters (not gonna name any names, just a trend I’ve seen) seem very susceptible to hidden varieties of reactionary movements regarding sex, I think because we’re already in such a precarious position in faith circles so it’s VERY common to use anything we can to try and get TradCaths to like us. Which can lead to respectability politics a lot of the time. And a lot of other bad stuff.

[sweetpea67]

Nothing to set off my religious trauma than one of my TradCath relatives speaking disparagingly of “Lady Gaga and other fake Catholics”.