Can Christians Follow Their Heart?

Lots of Evangelicals will say, "no" and will cite:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremias 17:9, KJV

That was King James. Here is Douay Rheims:

The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it
[Jeremias (Jeremiah) 17:9]

No, it's not a modern translation trying to pander to New Age or Progressive Christianity, the Old and New Testaments of the Vulgate (ready since St. Jerome) were translated to English in the Spanish Netherlands, in Douay, and in France, in Rheims.* Why not in England? Because England, at the time, persecuted Catholics. Not exactly your hippies getting old or starting to read the Bible at 60 scenario.**

Doesn't say "deceitful" but "perverse" and doesn't say "wicked" but "unsearchable" ... there is a difference between a tempter tricking you, and a clumsy person tripping himself up, there is also a difference between the darkness of evil and the darkness of mystery.

Already, these are two very different views on the human heart, both in old translations, in English translations that are so old, they are not shown in their original spelling in most printed or online copies. The Douay Rheims was actually complete a few years before the King James, I think the latter of the two instalments was 1609 and King James was 1611.

But even a perverse thing is not totally trustworthy, is it? And if it's unsearchable, maybe you can't find the problem and fix it very easily?*** So, why follow it?

Well, one thing is, you may be better off following it after praying Psalm 50.

Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels
[Psalms 50:12]

But David was pretty well of following it most of the time, or even all of the time up to that thing with Bathseeba that he was here repenting of.

If you don't follow your heart, what do you follow? God? Excellent idea, but how do you know Him? The Bible? Yes, but how do you know what part of it is applicable unless your heart tells you so? Your priest? Yes, but how do you interpret his admonition from one week ago or one month ago or one year ago or more, unless your heart tells you what principle is at stake in the present moment?

Now, some would have you follow your family or Christian friends or employer or school teacher. To some degrees this can be right, but there are times when their hearts are not better off than yours. They should not be an excuse to never listen to your heart. You should not ask yourself "what would NN say?" instead of "what do I want to do?" or "what do I feel I ought to do?" (once, of course it is all within Christian doctrine, of course).

You see, if you are in a state of grace, your heart belongs to God, not the Devil. And the heart sometimes speaks out even against your flesh, but also even more often, unless you silence it, against the world.

Remember, the three enemies of your soul are not your heart, your curiosity and your free will, but the Devil, the World and the Own Flesh.

And before a certain heart in the news° told a man "I'm a woman" I bet lots in his surroundings (i e the World) told him so too, one way or another. So, no, I won't give transsexuals the credit even of following their heart.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Dionysius the Areopagite
9.X.2025

Lutetiae Parisiorum natalis sanctorum Martyrum Dionysii Areopagitae Episcopi, Rustici Presbyteri, et Eleutherii Diaconi. Ex his Dionysius, ab Apostolo Paulo baptizatus, primus Atheniensium Episcopus ordinatus est; deinde Romam venit, atque inde a beato Clemente, Romano Pontifice, in Gallias praedicandi gratia directus est, et ad praefatam urbem devenit; ibique, cum per aliquot annos commissum sibi opus fideliter prosecutus esset, tandem, a Praefecto Fescennino, post gravissima tormentorum genera, una cum Sociis, gladio animadversus, martyrium complevit.

PS, while the first feast of today is actually John Leonardi, I'm following my heart on a blog, which is my own and not the Church's in honouring the first bishop of the diocese I'm in. I've defended the thesis that Denis of Paris and Denis the Areopagite are one elsewhere: ACER Paris et Diocèse (plus tard Archidiocèse) de Paris./HGL

* Now Douai and Reims are both in France, Lewis XIV conquered some since back then. And spelling has been reformed, but not in the name of the Bible version. ** Obviously, hippies do get old, and it's better to start reading the Bible at 60 than never. *** It seems some professionals have tried to make a living of saying "we search the unsearchable and make it no longer perverse" ... if they aren't Jesus Christ, I wouldn't trust them with a good chance of success. ° More than one of those these days, no need for namedropping.

God Doesn't Need.

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: No, I Won't Be Muslim · New blog on the kid: God Doesn't Need.

In His own nature, as distinct from the human nature God the Son made also His own, God does not need.

Jacques Arnould stated "God doesn't need proofs" in his recent book, the French title of which translated this phrase. Or rather, he put "proofs" in scare quotes, as we call them in English.

A certain Pasolini is succeeding Cantalamessa as Predicatore della Casa Pontificia.

The second video I see involving him, just in the feed, states (obviously to someone gay or lesbian), "God doesn't need to change you" ...

God doesn't need, period.

WE need proofs for God, so that those turning away from Him should be without excuse.

For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable
[Romans 1:20]

Is it nobler to walk in faith than to wait and postpone all assent till one has examined these proofs, as Jacques Arnould stated in his book? Certainly. But God does not want to save only the souls like St. Mary Magdalene or St. John the Beloved (or St. John of Zebedee, they are probably different persons), or St. Peter who came first to the Empty Tomb. And even St. John the Beloved saw the Sindone, the Shroud, as well as the Sudarium.

And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead
[John 20:7-9]

The point is not that God needs proofs, the point is that we need them.

Similarily, a person who practises sexual acts with persons of his own sex, it's not so much God who needs him to change, it's he who needs it.

Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God
[1 Corinthians 6:9-11]

If someone steals great sums of money from a person, God doesn't need him to pay back, as best he can, it's he who needs it. And the same is also true of those who commit sexual sins with persons, with whom they cannot amend the situation by marrying them. They need to stop having that sex, with that person. It's up to them whether they prefer marrying (someone who knows their emotional problem, not someone they are hiding it from) or whether they prefer celibacy, I know one gay man who stays chaste, and is by the way sometimes not well seen by the gay community for that. How they cease is up to them. But if they are not to lose the glory they were created for (yes, every man is created for glory, even if not all attain it), they need to stop one way or the other.

The change is not something God needs for Himself, it's something He wants for His glory, He's providing what graces they need. In some cases it may involve a marriage (between a man and a woman), even while some sexual temptations other than desires for the licit marital act still hanker to persons of the own sex. I know at least one man who previously did so, for long enough to have four daughters (and perhaps could have continued, if he hadn't been a marriage counsellor) and one woman who currently lives like that. In some cases, the preference changes first, and please note, spontaneously. I'm no believer in conversion therapy as the word is usually understood, as I'm no believer in therapy anyway. In some cases, a person succeeds in being celibate. And as for Oscar Wilde, I hope that he succeeded in truly repenting the last moments of his life or of when he was last conscious, before the priest came to give him extreme unction.

Meanwhile, God doesn't need, and didn't need to create to be perfectly happy. He is already One God in Three Persons, totally loving each other, and totally happy in that love, which does not need even sex to express itself. Therefore, when you see someone saying "God doesn't need X" about sth which was universally taken for granted as meritorious, that someone is bamboozling. The point was never that God needed it. The point is that we need it. However, one proviso. God doesn't need us, as God. However, taking on human nature, God took on the ability to need, for instance, during His earthly life, a glass of water, or for instance, even now, in Heaven, our love.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Nicolas of Myra, after first Vespers
5—6.XII.2024

Myrae, quae est metropolis Lyciae, natalis sancti Nicolai, Episcopi et Confessoris, de quo, inter plura miraculorum insignia, illud memorabile fertur, quod Imperatorem Constantinum ab interitu quorumdam se invocantium, longe constitutus, ad misericordiam per visum monitis deflexit et minis.

News : Pregnancy, Pro-Life, Cancer, some kind of Healing

Life-News : Pregnant Mom Diagnosed With Cancer Rejects Abortion, After Birth Now She’s Cancer-Free
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https://www.lifenews.com/2022/09/06/pregnant-mom-diagnosed-with-cancer-rejects-abortion-after-birth-now-shes-cancer-free-2/