#and then celebrate when you return

[vampirepuppygirl]

You know, I grew up catholic and never experienced catholic guilt, and it still kind of confuses me

When I went to mass, the readings and the gospel were always just life lessons or stories to make you think, and what it wanted you to think about was usually humility and piety and loyalty and faith and stuff like that

Faith formation was mostly about learning the history of the church and important stories that you should remember, plus prayer memorization

I don't ever actually remember a time where they were specifically like "you must feel guilty about this" or "everyone by default deserves to go to hell and you must constantly prostrate before god to be deemed worthy"

It was "everyone sins and everyone drifts away from god and that's okay because he will never abandon you"

It was "Jesus died for your sins. To liberate you from them so you're no longer beholden to the old way, so you're no longer beholden to original sin, so you can have a clean slate without ceaseless penance"

The sin forgiveness cycle that Catholics kind of get pulled into was always described to me as a liberating cycle. It gives you the freedom to sin and the freedom to make mistakes as you bumble through the blind chaos of life without worrying about perfection or damnation

Even when I went to confession it wasn't just a blanket "don't do it again" it was "think about why that is a sin and let that experience teach you something."

If I know anything about catholics it's that they love rules and they love the pursuit of knowledge, I once had a very long conversation with a priest about why a certain rule was a rule and why a certain sin was a sin and it was a lot more complicated than just "god said so," even if I can't remember the specifics anymore

I don't know, maybe it was my specific diocese or I've just been around a lot of liberal priests or something, but I even had someone tell me basically word for word "As long as you follow the ten commandments and use the seven virtues as a framework to guide you, you're set. Use confession to scrub away the sins you can't avoid and that's it. Nobody is without sin so just do your best and that's all anyone can ask of you."

Primarily, what growing up catholic taught me was just the importance of love

Love your family, love your neighbor, love a stranger, love the Earth, love nature, and fundamentally love yourself. And forgive yourself. And be patient with yourself. Because I was taught that everyone sins and that's okay.

And that's okay.

I was taught that seeking absolution and forgiveness is meant to steer you in the right direction, yes for the ultimate goal of heaven, which was defined to me as Oneness with God. And hell was defined to me not as a multi-tiered demon filled demiplane of fire and brimstone and ice, but simply the state of separation from god.

But it wasn't just about salvation it was also about making the Earth we live in now a better place and they are rules specifically to facilitate good communication and good relationships with other people and yourself, and obviously God (but whatever.) It was always basically let God absolve you of your guilt but don't force yourself to feel guilty if you make a mistake.

I don't really consider myself catholic anymore, mostly because of other people, catholics and protestants who use their religion as a tool to spread hateful rhetoric and become their own personal left hand of God, instead of using their religion to spread love and patience and understanding and forgiveness and tolerance and all of the things that they actually fucking preach. Why y'all throwing stones huh? Y'all ain't without sin. Literally nobody is. That's the point.

But I like what I was taught. I use what I was taught a lot. Technically even if I don't consider myself catholic I still am. I have been confirmed, I could waltz right into a catholic church confess my sins and my doubts and have a long conversation with a priest and boom blank slate once more. There would be penance hoops I would have to jump through but that's literally what happens with every confession, so still

But that's always what confused me about Catholic guilt like

What were you taught?

[raccoonscity]

Make Me Choose: Best Remake → Resident Evil 4 Remake (asked by @hereticstations)

[bleaksqueak]

Please give maia some warm milk and a 12 hour nap please she needs to rest and relax and not interact with the horrors thank you

[mondaymelon]

ignore the fact i disappeared that was simple winter hibernation ( still sick and coughing out my lungs btw )

for a basically nonexistent context it’s currently 1:50 am my paper is literally just on my mattress hello hard surface who and this is the most abhorrent lighting and i COOKED (dubious) 🔥🔥🔥‼️🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🌶️🌶️✨🌶️😋😋🌶️😋😋🥺🥺💖💖✨✨

one of my ocs grgrggrjekslalksj I need to talk about them more on here nyways yeah uhm bye read the tags thanks

[itspileofgoodthings]

also it’s interesting because. my family is deeply unsentimental (in a very powerful way) and society is divided into the pretty heartless or the pretty sentimental (generally speaking) and I’m sort of this walking heart wound of emotion trying to straddle these lines (and having a hard time of it!) but one of the things that does guard me from being more sentimental than I am is the secret cruelty and unfairness that lurks at the bottom of all sentimentality.

[slushiebrain]

ah to be young and in love and not possessed by a time demon or mind controlled by the worlds most evil 15 year old

actually very proud of how the boys turned out today, think i finally settled on how i wanna draw gamzee

Pale Gamkar week 2023 - Day 4: Canon Divergence

@pale-gamkar-week

[unnerving-presence]

would it be wrong to say that darth vader is in fact sexier than anakin

[iwaasfairy]

lol i’ve gone thru ur incest tag so many times <////3 it feels like only u and like three other ppl r actively writing gross stuff cries

HeHHEHEHRHJF I mean I feel bad that you can’t find many other writers ofc buT (;̦̦̦̦̦̦̦̦ↂ⃝⃓⃙⃚⃘ vↂ⃝⃓⃙⃚⃘;̦̦̦̦̦̦̦̦)/ teeheEE tHANK YOUUSSS I love writing gross stuff I love it n !!! It makes me twirl my hair and kick my feetsies thNk you for reading lovely ♡♡ mWUAH mwuah

[bigothteddies]

referring to ur partner as a moot is so funnynsbsbxncn u guys need like moot friendship bracelets to solidify ur friendship<3 pals being pals !!

once a mutual always a mutual 🫶🏻💖✨

but seriously calling them a mutual sometimes carries the gravity and emotions of some things more than just referring to them as my partner. like if I say my partner it’s just kind of a “oh they miss their boyfriend” kinda deal but when it’s a mutual it carries that weight of a long distance online friendship-turned-more, that history of long-time admiration and obsession, the gravity of what it means for you to finally meet up and be able to exist near each other, even if only for a few days.

[meganechan05]

TUMBLR KEEPS DELETING MY LONG POSTS! TAKE THE PDF DAMMIT!

[great-its-mj]

I hope every single person on the chiefs gets frostbite and loses their pinky finger :)

[mechawolfie]

I've realized the mutual love between humans and dragons showing itself as mimicry of each other and I want to cry

[berternies]

thinking about how yasper fully climbed into aniq’s lap in the middle of chemistry class. why did he do that

[yumichikah]

"Oh, look. It's beauty sleep o'clock!"

[lindsaymendzs]

bootleg watchers have to be literally the most ungrateful people on the planet

[sntoot]

new outfits for the whole family! (thats batu n thancreds makeshift wedding outfits, n then i just thought i’d give ryne something that fit her personality better + a dataqi poncho because shes adopted into the family)