Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC)

I am a real Catholic Priest (@FrMatthewLC) who's autistic. I post about the intersection of autism & spirituality. #ActuallyAutistic #AutisticPrayer

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

🧵My book, God Love the Autistic Mind is coming out tomorrow with @PBMPublishing.

I hope it helps a lot of autistics and those who love us.

Here's how to order it (print or digital).

This will be a thread of reviews or comments for anyone interested. 1/
https://t.co/5wZOVNBB2J

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

"No one can be so ugly, no one so tragic, no one so miserable as not to be beloved by God." - Catherine Doherty

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Too often, we relegate religion to some small corner of our inner world & keep it from having its proper full effect.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Indispensable: A Catholic Guide to Welcoming Persons with Disabilities, a book I wrote a chapter on sensory-friendly liturgies for, won the award for the best "Resource for Ministry" at the Association of Catholic Publishers awards. https://t.co/N4ZpK0EiLd

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

If we want others to know Jesus, we need to both preach & live the Gospel.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

No matter what we are doing, our hearts should be constantly moving towards Jesus.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Baptism is a one-time event of our personal salvation, but it is also something we continually grow into as we grow in holiness.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Love is the greatest force to undermine our egoism.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

We can read the Bible on our own, but it is also meant to be read in community, and the community is meant to help us interpret it.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

RIP to Dr. Lamar Hardwick, one of the first pastors to be open about an autism diagnosis.

[Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC @FrMatthewLC]

I'll be on retreat this coming week. Reply with intentions you want me to pray for.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

"Mary [like Jesus] answered in silent obedience. Little by little she extended her 'yes' to the point of embracing everything it involved, even the cross." -Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

We do some things so we can do other things & we do some things just for themselves.

As we grow in the spiritual life, prayer often moves from something we do to live a Christian life & get to heaven to something we do for itself: we live to pray, not just pray to live.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

"To try to discover the meaning of the commandments through study & reading without actually living in accordance with them is like mistaking the shadow of something for its reality." -Gregory of Sinai

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Self-awareness is both the fruit of prayer & needed for deeper prayer.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

The joy of holiness is beyond the passing happiness of this world.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

"Don't put too much emphasis on your longing for God. Think of God longing for you. Because God's desires for us are so much more than our desire for him." -Fr. Bob Wild

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Our truest joy comes from faith, which is illuminated by hope & love. Jesus gives us a joy beyond what we can imagine in this world.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

@brentsasacerdos Canon 1041.1 refers to types of mental illness where one can't think rationally. This is like uncontrolled DID, Schizophrenia, delusional disorder, etc. It would not exclude autistics.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Autistic young men can become priests.

[Autistic Priest✝️ (FrMatthewLC) @AutisticPriest]

Christian art should lead us to look towards heaven. We should judge religious art more based on this than on aesthetics.