Marc Collins

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@amywelborn2 @CatholicSmark To me, there's beauty in this. Showmanship is distinct from genuine personal uniqueness (which is a gift of God). I've been saddened when I've attended liturgies where the priest is "trying too hard" to not be a showman. It comes across as anti-incarnational.

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@CDamianWrites I was struck by your point that we all grow in a dynamic process that learns from making mistakes, failing, and yes, sinning. This is something the Church needs to reflect more on. A single-minded emphasis on avoiding sin can, in effect, give birth to a refusal to grow and learn.

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

"God himself lives and works according to the rule of superabundance, of that love which can give nothing less than itself." - Benedict XVI, Credo for Today

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@DavidHein9 @suzania @ModAgeJournal I would say lazy/bad use of AI interferes with learning and the thrill of the chase, but in my experience AI is a great tool for thinking through inchoate questions. Typing out my questions and discussing them with an LLM helps me engage with ideas in greater depth.

[Marissa Franks Burt @MBurtwrites]

A sermon on spiritual disciplines might flay conscience of a person w/scrupulous tendencies while appropriately convicting someone else.

W/out knowing recipients, we end up presuming everyone shares our personal tendencies, which results in pastorally incomplete approaches. 4/9

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@SteveSkojec I've also experienced similar things. I totally get the dangers when a technology takes such a personal and intimate role in a person's life, but there are also very good aspects! I am saddened by all the AI critics who can see nothing but danger and disintegration.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Teaching means forming people to listen to the heart, to inner freedom and the capacity for critical thinking. In this dynamic, faith and reason neither ignore nor oppose one another. They should both be traveling companions in the humble and sincere search for truth.

[Nick Freiling @NickFreiling]

A cutting reflection from Cardinal Ratzinger, Good Friday 2005:

"Pilate is not utterly evil. He knows that the condemned man is innocent, and he looks for a way to free him. But his heart is divided. And in the end he lets his own position, his own self-interest, prevail over what is right.

Nor are the men who are shouting and demanding the death of Jesus utterly evil. Many of them, on the day of Pentecost, will feel "cut to the heart," when Peter will say to them: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God... you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law."

But at that moment they are caught up in the crowd. They are shouting because everyone else is shouting, and they are shouting the same thing that everyone else is shouting. And in this way, justice is trampled underfoot by weakness, cowardice and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset. The quiet voice of conscience is drowned out by the cries of the crowd.

Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think."

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@hf_222222 I am not well-versed in this, but my understanding was that JP II did not condemn the broad concept of "fundamental option", but rather the specific claim that no single act could change a person's "fundamental option" (i.e. a denial of the reality of mortal sin).

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Each person finds joy in making the most of their relational abilities, realizing they contribute to the common good and finding recognition as a unique and dignified person, within a community of encounters that multiply and expand the spirit. Without joy there is no renewal; without interiority there is no liberation; without encounter there is no politics; without the other there is no justice. #ApostolicJourney #Angola

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee. Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. #Peace

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Faith does not impose itself by means of power and in extraordinary ways. Indeed, it is enough to have faith the size of a mustard seed in order to do unimaginable things (cf. Lk 17:6), because it carries within it the strength of God’s love that opens the way to salvation. #GospelOfTheDay

[Paul J. Pastor @pauljpastor]

If you want to understand contemporary culture, you must realize that the internal state of most people is defined by a baseline grief-shame for which they do not have adequate language, and a painful longing for a belonging for which they, likewise, have no serviceable words.

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@emollick 100% agree. The multimodal models render descriptions very literally. They're pretty good at adding text to images also. But Midjourney does a much better job with generating multiple aesthetic options. It does a horrible job with text, but it's MUCH better at style.

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@ServusDeiVivi @ron_selgrath @pjfahey If the fear of hell is more motivating than the power of Christ and His salvation, then implicitly, Christ's cross is not able to accomplish what death and hell can accomplish (i.e. leading us toward God).

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@ServusDeiVivi @ron_selgrath @pjfahey No, not really. If salvation is the perfection of a human person, and if perfection involves the proper use of freedom, there is no "easy" way. If everyone is saved in the end, that still means everyone must repent and accept Christ's free gift and be purified.

[Marc Collins @WxMarc]

@FrTotleben92742 @quinngerney I get the feeling that the Church's own language in the past has contributed to the juridical, command/obedience picture of assent. How should we understand this juridical language? For what it's worth, I agree that assent is recognition by intellect and cannot be commanded.

[Joseph Nolla, SJ @josephnollasj]

Pope Leo urging youth not to lean into the digital world at the exclusion of true inter-personal relationships.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Ephphatha.This simple and beautiful word contains Jesus' invitation to the man who had stopped listening and speaking. It is as if Jesus were saying to him: Be open to this world that frightens you! Be open to the relationships that have disappointed you! Be open to the life you have given up facing! Closing in on oneself is never a solution. #GeneralAudience

[Fr. Joseph Krupp @Joeinblack]

Struggle joyfully; push forward.
Resist obsessing about what you cannot control.
Prayerfully give your all to the moment you are in & the vocation you are given.
Do not give in to despair; find joy in fidelity.

#talkedtotheboss