Nov 1 Fri - Can the doctrine of the Church of Christ develop?

 

Nov 1 Fri
Can the doctrine of the Church of Christ develop?
Certainly, there has to be progress, even exceedingly great progress.
Will we be so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it?
But it must truly be the development of the faith, not the alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands and continues being itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed into another.

The understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of individuals, as well as of the whole Church, should increase with the passing of the ages and the centuries. Still, only along its line of development, that is, keeping the same doctrine, the same meaning, and the same importance.

The growth of religion in the soul should be like the growth of the body. Though bodies grow and expand their parts with the passing of the years, they remain what they were. Much happens between the prime of childhood and the maturity of old age. But the old men of today who were the adolescents of yesterday are the very same people. Though the condition and appearance of an individual may change, he remains the same person.

The tiny members of children and the grown ones of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age is already present in embryo; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people, the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator created beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into a different animal, or even if something were added to the number of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become a monstrosity, or be in some way disabled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming consolidated in years, developed in the sequence of time, and more glorious as it advances in age.

In ancient times, our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, over time, those first sowings yield an increase, it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

It is right that those ancient dogmas of heavenly wisdom should over time be thoroughly cared for, filed, and polished; but it is sinful to change them, sinful to behead them or mutilate them.

They may take on more evidence, clarity, and distinctness, but they must retain their completeness, their integrity, and their characteristic properties.
By St Vincent of Lérins, a monk of the early Fifth century

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Nov 1 - Entering the Heart of Jesus.

 

Nov 1
Entering the Heart of Jesus.
On October 24, the Pope published his encyclical dedicated to the Heart of Jesus. Here are six points to understand this devotion.
1. Remove "prejudices" about what the Heart of Jesus means. In the face of "reticence" regarding "devotion", "expression" or "spirituality" pointed out as "sentimentalist", "outdated", "painful"...  "Jesus’ open Heart precedes us and waits for us unconditionally, without demanding a prerequisite for being able to love us and to propose his friendship to us: 'He first loved us' (1 Jn 4:10).

2. From the mystery of the human heart, as the unifying center of the human being, this devotion leads us to the Heart of Christ, whose tenderness, closeness to us, and compassion are revealed to us in the Gospel. "We need to recover the importance of the Heart.

3. It introduces us to the Heart of Christ as a key to understanding the divine and human mystery of the Incarnation, signified in the image of the Heart of Jesus. This Heart expresses the threefold human, filial, and divine love of the Incarnate Word. We venerate that image that represents him, but adoration is directed only to the living Christ, in his divinity and humanity. There we can find the whole Gospel, a summary of the truth we believe, there is all that we adore and seek in faith, there is what we need most.

4. This devotion invites us to turn to Scripture, to the writings of the saints, to the magisterium of the Popes, and to the "sensus fidei" the faith of the People of God, to learn to drink from this fountain of living water that satisfies the heart of every man. It is not a love that is simply declared, but its open side is a source of life for the beloved, it is that fountain that quenches the thirst of its people.

5. The devotion to the Heart of Jesus makes us understand the value of our prayers and sacrifices. Union with his Heart communicates the ability to console and repair evil and sin, making us instruments to renew life in the Church and the world. The consolation this devotion brings us is not outside history or abstract, it becomes flesh and blood on the path of the Church.

6. This devotion encourages an authentic apostolic commitment, starting from the experience of falling in love with Christ, uniting interior life with apostolic action, and uniting compassion for those who suffer with dedication to the merciful love of Christ. A human heart that makes room for Christ's love with total trust, and allows it to expand in its own life with its fire, becomes capable of loving others like Christ, making itself small and close to all.

The Pope indicates with his encyclical the remedy to restore the whole Church and humanity: the discovery of the human and divine love of the Heart of Christ.

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Oct 31 Thu - How can Jesus' sacrifice be my sacrifice?

 

Oct 31 Thu
How can Jesus' sacrifice be my sacrifice?
In every Mass, as in the Last Supper, the mystery of transubstantiation takes place. This occurs when the priest pronounces the words of the Consecration.

In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Mass is set in sharp opposition to pagan sacrifices. The real presence is declared, and the comparison of the two worships highlights the sacrificial character of the Mass. For St Paul, the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Lord’s body and blood, and is the sacrifice of Christians.

St Paul starts by insisting on the Christians in Corinth to abstain from any manifestation of idolatry (1 Cor 10:14‑21), specifically from the banquet that usually followed the pagan sacrifice. He states the reason: A sacrifice and the banquet that follows it are closely related. To share in the banquet is, in effect, to participate in the sacrifice. St Paul offers two examples to bring this point home:

(1) He reminds them of the sacrifices of Israel. In these, the people shared in the victim offered by eating a part of it.

(2) He makes clear what happens in the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist: “The blessing‑chalice that we bless is a Communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a Communion with the body of Christ.” This affirmation, in this context, implies that by taking Communion we also participate in the sacrifice of Christ.

The principal Victim of the sacrifice, then, is Jesus Christ, but the faithful, to exercise their ‘baptismal priesthood’ fully, should unite their sacrifice to his, and thus offer themselves also to God the Father.

The Mass requires all Christians to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he offered himself in sacrifice: sentiments of humility, adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine Majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self‑denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and atoning for their sins. It requires all of us, in a word, to die mystically with Jesus Christ on the cross, so that we may say with the same apostle, “With Christ, I hang upon the cross.”

The unity of believers, centered on the Eucharist, is one clear precept of Christ. The disciples of Jesus faithfully executed this command, persevering in prayer and assembling to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice, together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, all having but one heart and one soul.

Mary’s participation in Christ’s sacrifice is unique. Standing at the foot of the cross, she actively cooperated with the redemption accomplished by her Son. She stood “suffering deeply with her only‑begotten Son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the Victim to whom she had given birth; in this way, Mary faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the cross.” She was associated with Christ in the sacrifice of the cross and the same sacrifice is made sacramentally present in every Mass. Thus, Mary is present in a mystical manner in every Mass.

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Oct 30 Wed - We must always forgive.

 

Oct 30 Wed
We must always forgive.
It was in Capharnaum. At one point Peter asked: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

The strict interpretation given by the doctors of the Law was that one had to forgive just three times. Peter, suggested a higher figure. Jesus looked at him and gently opened up to him unsuspected horizons: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."

The Master's teaching is clear: Forgiving the offenses of others has to be a characteristic of all those who wish to model their lives on the Gospel. We should forgive right away, and from the bottom of our hearts, anyone who has tried to do us harm.

We must always forgive, in small things and in great, without bitterness or resentment, knowing that this is how He will forgive our offenses, just as we pray many times a day in the Our Father. On all occasions, this has to be our spirit. A person who harbors grudges, can't achieve anything in life. Every day we must be able to say, not in word or speech but in deeds and in truth: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Yet forgiveness doesn't mean turning a blind eye to manifestly unjust situations, above all when this form of tolerance could become an abuse by condoning something that could be a danger to other children of God.

As well as with his words, St. Josemaría also taught us by his example to be generous in forgiving: “At Mass, I remember to pray, not only for my children, for my parents, and for my children's parents, but also for those people still living who wish us harm, as well as those who slandered us in the past and who have since gone to render their account to God. I say: ‘Lord, I forgive them so that You too will forgive them, and will forgive us our sins. I offer the same prayers to You for the repose of their souls, as I offer for all. The very same!’"

“Our Lord is very pleased with this, and it makes me very happy too. I recommend you to do the same: don't ever wish anybody evil. Holding grudges against people only leads to unhappiness. And why on earth should we choose to be unhappy if we are children of God? We have to learn to forgive."

“Then, if someone tells you that that is heroic, you can laugh. It's something wonderful. Doesn't our Lord forgive us when we offend him? So why shouldn't we forgive too? And afterward, if it is appropriate, you can still call things by their names: a lie is a lie, and libel is still libel, and defamation is still defamation, and envy is still envy. But always forgive, from the very start. If you do so, you will be happy."

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Oct 29 Tue - Will my pride obstruct the Spirit?

Oct 29 Tue

Will my pride obstruct the Spirit?

"If you become the riverbed, I will become the stream of water," God whispered to St. Catherine of Siena in her ear. First, the spring gushes forth, the stream carves a riverbed on the flat terrain, and then the riverbed carries the stream. 

 

To build a house, the scaffolding is set to reach the floors above. Yet the ultimate purpose of this deployment of railings, and planks is only to finish the house properly so that, one day, it can be inhabited.

To make a cake, a mold will always be needed. When the oven takes effect, the mold will be removed.

How does one become a riverbed, a conduit for God’s grace?

 

In the Easter Vigil, we are told to reject Satan and his envy and hatred, tepidity and cowardice; the priest says aloud: "Do you renounce all his works, all his empty show, the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you, and live in the freedom of the children of God? The people answer in unison, "Yes, I renounce!"... to be the central character, and allow the Spirit of God to shape me and become a riverbed that carries water.

 

Yet the most important thing is not the riverbed, but that water which, if you drink, you will never be thirsty again. The ultimate goal that should move us is the salvation of souls, and not our personal prestige, position of honor, or any temporal scaffolding, all consequence of our pride.

 

"The madman of God", St. Francis of Assisi, was told to "rebuild my Church", not the one made of stone but the spiritual one. Thus, Father Damien, on his island of the lepers of Molokai, Mother Teresa, walking bent over a slum in Calcutta, St. Josemaría, and so many saints did not hesitate to renounce their fame, to put aside their pride, to become an instrument, a riverbed of God’s grace. Thus, God provided water to the riverbed, and they kept it clean of branches. The river provided irrigation for the fields, and this produced abundant harvest. Should we not prefer that He becomes the stream... and we stop enslaving the river?

 

We should not try to re-direct the Holy Spirit to our own preconceive ideas or plans. Let Him decide.

 

The logic of a Christian should never be the logic of the world, where everything is based on offering a round, hollow speech that looks nice, and where, even worse, everything depends on how others consider us. Because, honestly, don't we already know that there is no worse "reputational crisis" than dying on a cross like a real criminal? We have been called “to hide and disappear”, as St. Josemaría said, so that “He who is" may be in us. Only thus, can we come to be instruments of His grace. What a pity if we remain barren, spending the day polishing the scaffolding, clogging the riverbed... and one day, when the Bridegroom arrives... passes us by!

Oct 28 Mon - Why should a Christian be open to having the children God wants?

 

 

 

Oct 28 Mon
Why should a Christian be open to having the children God wants?
Based on Christian faith, doctrine, and values, here are the seven reasons ChatGPT gave as a response:

1. Faithfulness to God's will
 - Argument: Christians are called to live according to God's will in all aspects of their lives, including procreation. Having the children God wants is an expression of faithfulness and obedience to His divine plan, recognizing that He is the author of life.
- Biblical basis: In Jeremiah 29:11, God says, "For I know the plans I have for you," reminding us that His plan is always good, and trusting in Him means accepting His blessings, including those that come through children.

2. Participation in God's creation
- Argument: By accepting all the children God bestows, Christians participate directly in God's creative work. The act of procreation is not only biological, but has a spiritual dimension in which spouses cooperate with God in bringing new life into the world.
- Theological foundation: In Genesis 1:28, God says, "Be fruitful and multiply," emphasizing the importance of procreation as part of God's original plan for humanity.

3. Sacred value of life
- Argument: Christians believe that human life is sacred from conception to natural death. Each child is a precious gift from God, and to reject that gift could be seen as a rejection of divine blessing.
- Moral foundation: The Catholic Church, in encyclicals such as Humanae Vitae, teaches that life is a sacred gift and that spouses should be open to receive life in their marriages, respecting the procreative nature of the conjugal act.

4. Trust in God's Providence
- Argument: Christians believe that God provides what is necessary for those who trust in Him. Accepting as many children as God wants does not mean worrying about resources or circumstances, but trusting that God will provide the graces and means necessary to raise and care for them.
- Biblical basis: In Matthew 6:31-33, Jesus says, "Do not worry about tomorrow," calling for trust in divine Providence in all aspects of life, including the family.

5. Sanctification through sacrifice
- Argument: Raising children involves sacrifices and renunciations, but for Christians these sacrifices are a form of sanctification. Parents can experience the sacrificial love that Jesus teaches, putting their children's needs above their own.
- Spiritual foundation: In John 15:13, Jesus says, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends," and Christian parents reflect this love in their daily giving to their children.

6. Transmission of Christian faith and values
- Argument: Children are the most direct means of transmitting Christian faith and values from generation to generation. By having more children, Christian parents have the opportunity to form more disciples of Christ, contributing to the growth of the Kingdom of God.
- Doctrinal foundation: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2221) stresses that parents are primarily responsible for the education of their children in the faith. Having children is a way of extending the evangelizing mission of the Church in one's own family.

7. Witness to faith and generosity
- Argument: In a culture that values control over family life and often rejects openness to life, accepting as many children as God wants is a counter-cultural witness to faith and generosity. This witness of trust in God may inspire others to reconsider their own family decisions.
- Moral Argument: Pope Francis has spoken of the "throwaway culture," where children are seen as a choice rather than a blessing. By having an open attitude to life, Christians show an example of generosity and surrender to God that challenges contemporary values.

Conclusion
For a Christian, having the children God wants is not only a personal matter, but an act of obedience, trust, and love. It is a response to the divine call to live in communion with God's will, to contribute to the creation and growth of the Kingdom of God, and to witness to the faith through a life open to life and sacrifice.

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Oct 27 Sun - Leave me in peace! I want to remain a plain laywoman.

 

Oct 27 Sun
Leave me in peace! I want to remain a plain laywoman.
By Paloma López Campos

Let me be a laywoman. Just like that. Neither priestess, nor deaconess, nor member with the right to vote in a Synod... Plain laywoman. Like the women at the foot of the Cross, who had their eyes fixed on Christ, not on the keys of the Kingdom that jingled as St. Peter ran away.

Let me be a laywoman in peace. Not because I lack ambition, not because I think that men are better equipped for the tasks of governing the Church, or because I think that women have to shut themselves away.

I do not want to be anything other than a laywoman because that is what God has asked of me. And if He says so, why should anyone have the audacity to demand that I claim another place?

I see many people in church pointing to a black spot on the white tablecloth.  I am surprised to find that they are the ones with dirty fingers. They create the problem and then blame the tablecloth for the dirt.

Is a woman inferior because she cannot receive priestly orders? Absolutely not! Who said that? Didn't Christ appear to women in the first place after his Resurrection? Yes, the apostles have the power to cast out demons and forgive sins (I will not be the one to say that this is not cool) but the women were witnesses of the Resurrection.

The problem is that people are constantly trying to “grade” vocations. This is like the fights between little brothers and sisters because mom gave Mike a piece of cake that was a millimeter bigger. Mommy doesn't hate you, Joe, take a breath.

Those who demand rights and follow certain currents have convinced us that the life of the Church can also be measured. They want to convince me that the Church deceives me, that she locks me in my role as a laywoman because she does not want me to be more, the best for me. They are wrong. ‘You are lucky if you can climb the ladder a little and consecrate yourself as a religious, but being a laywoman... That's bad luck,’ they claim.

And how do I explain to you that I love being a laywoman?  I know I haven't been locked up. I know that my vocation is not imposed on me by the Church. My vocation is a gift from God. If you want to measure it, go ahead. I can't and I won't.

A Catholic's only measure is the Cross. I don't need to explore whether, as a woman, I can be ordained as a priest.  I need to know how I can best serve Christ within His Church in my role as a laywoman.

I don't need to fight for that extra millimeter of cake. I must recognize that the Church is Mother and knows better. I am talking about the Church as a whole, not just a single Pope, a college of cardinals, or an era.

There are tasks to be done, roles to be recognized, and teachings to be deepened. It would be absurd to think that we already understand all the richness of the Church instituted by Christ. There are undoubtedly areas in which to improve. That is not the point.

I am a laywoman and I want to be left in peace. I refuse to allow an inferiority complex to make me think that my vocation is less valuable. I refuse to allow myself to develop a superiority complex that makes me think I know more than the wisdom of the Magisterium of the Church. I am a laywoman. If you want to measure different vocations, compare them only with the Cross. We will realize on Calvary that our problem is not the lack of rights but the lack of love.

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Oct 27 Sun - How can I get rid of my petty selfishness?

 

Oct 27 Sun
How can I get rid of my petty selfishness?
Jesus left Jericho followed by his disciples, and a sizable crowd. At the city gate, Bartimaeus stood. Perhaps because he was blind, Bartimaeus had learned to depend on his voice to get alms. Maybe he had learned to make his voice cut through the tumult of any crowd. At any rate, people told him to shut up.

“Many told him to be silent, as they told you to be silent when you sensed Jesus passing by, when you heard the noble, clear sound of those following our Lord in this army. Your heart started to pound, and you began to cry out; you felt a deep restlessness. And your friends, your comfort, and your surroundings all shouted out: Keep quiet, don't cry out! Why bother calling Jesus? Leave him alone. Bartimaeus did not pay attention, and cried out even louder: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

He threw aside his cloak. Why would a blind man cast his cloak aside? It is out of character. A blind man would have learned early on how easy it would be to lose something. Did he know that his cloak would slow him down if he got tangled up in it? Throwing his cloak aside reinforces that he began his encounter with Jesus with faith because he wanted to get to Our Lord as quickly as he could. Whatever Jesus could do for him will be worth much more than his cloak.

In this way, he is like the man in the parable who finds a treasure buried in a field or in the parable of the jeweler who found a pearl of great price. Both put all their resources toward gaining their respective treasures.

After Jesus gave Bartimaeus his sight, the Lord said “Go on your way.” Bartimaeus did go on his way. He “followed him on the way.” Jesus’ Way became Bartimaeus’ way. Christ is our way too.

Faith is always a gift of God. Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God, and believe all that He has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief because He is Truth itself.

First, God offers us the gift of faith, and then, with his help, we assent to what he proposes us to believe.

We can do so in the confidence that God can neither deceive nor be deceived.

But faith is not just mental assent. By faith man freely commits his entire self to God. For this reason, the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.

The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it . . .
God does not call us just once. My friend, remember that our Lord calls us many other times. "Get up," He tells us. Rise up from your wretchedness, your comfort, your petty selfishness, your trifling problems. Detach yourself from the earth, where everything is flat and shapeless. Acquire agility, weight, solidity, supernatural outlook. Give yourself. Get up, he is calling you.

Video:

Oct 26 Sat - How can I love God more?

 

Oct 26 Sat
How can I love God more?
Contemplating Christ's sacred Humanity is the best way to love God.
St. Josemaría told us: “Whenever I pray... I like to look this way at the life of Christ our Lord: his birth in a stable, his growing up like all other children, his thirty years of hidden life, his Death on a Cross for all mankind. I contemplate him like this because I want to learn from him; and to learn from him, the best I can do is to get to know his life. I want to reproduce Christ's life in you, God's children, by helping you read the Gospel and meditate on it. Thanks to prayer, we have Jesus' entire life in our head, like a beautiful full-color film that we can run whenever we want."

Christ's love for us requires our generous response: love is repaid with love. And to love him, we need to get to know him, contemplate his sacred Humanity, becoming very familiar with every detail of his life on earth. St. Josemaría said: “Talk with him in the word, in prayer, in a constant dialogue filled with words of affection and love: reading his life, following closely in his footsteps, being another character in the Gospel scenes. He became man to make it easier for us to talk with him. Don't you like sharing confidences with old friends? I certainly do. Well, that is what Christ does with us. Do you see now why I want you to love our Lord's sacred Humanity? So that you can go to him more trustingly. Often, I close my eyes because - let me repeat - I like to contemplate Christ's sacred Humanity as in a film, for I love him with all my soul."

We can respond to Christ's love by often praying about his sacred Humanity. We can bring to our prayer a gesture of his that moves our heart, his dedication to the Apostles, his continual self-giving. We enlist our imagination and memory, our mind and will, to live alongside Jesus,” seeing ourselves as one more participant in the scenes. The whole secret of holiness is to become like him, our model."

Among the many scenes from Christ's life, St. Josemaría taught us to meditate especially on the Passion, since it so clearly manifests the depth of God's love for us. “Do you want to accompany Jesus closely, very closely?... Open the holy Gospel and read the Passion of our Lord. But don't just read it: live it. There's a big difference. To read is to recall something that happened in the past; to live is to find oneself present at an event that is happening here and now, to be someone taking part in those scenes. Then, allow your heart to open wide; let it place itself next to our Lord. And when you notice it trying to slip away - when you see that you are a coward, like the others - ask forgiveness for your cowardice and mine."

Oct 25 Fri - How can Jesus be both priest and victim?

 

Oct 25 Fri
How can Jesus be both priest and victim?
Jesus Christ is always the principal and sovereign Priest. From Him, the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood receive the power to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice in His name and on behalf of the entire Church. Therefore, following Christ’s command, the priest offers the Mass as the representative of Christ. That is why he does not say, “This is the body and blood of Christ,” but rather, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.” The priest is the chosen instrument of Christ in the same way that a brush is the painter’s tool.

In the Mass, Christ is no longer alone on the cross. Like any other sacrament, the Mass is an action of both Christ and the Church. The Church does not offer a sacrifice different from that of Christ. At the moment of the offertory, the entire Church, hierarchically structured, presents herself for sacrifice alongside Christ. Christ is the only Priest and Victim, and the entire Church participates in this dual role.

Thus, the sacrifice of the Mass is an act of the whole Christ—Head and members. On the part of Jesus, the surrender of self is real and perfect. It is also real for those who are in a state of grace and are united with Christ by charity. For the individual Christian, the surrender of self is genuine to the extent that he shares the dispositions of heart—absolute submission to the will of God—that are found in Jesus’ heart. Sin and attachment to sin are obstacles to sanctity. At Mass, we should profess our desire to struggle to overcome these obstacles.

When the faithful are said to offer the Mass together with the priest, this does not mean that all members of the Church celebrate the Mass in the same way as the priest. Only the celebrant, who alone possesses the ministerial priesthood, performs this role. He has been divinely appointed for this purpose through the sacrament of Holy Orders.

However, “the priest cannot consider himself a ‘proprietor’ who can make free use of the liturgical text and of the sacred rite as if it were his property, stamping it with his own arbitrary personal style. At times, this approach might seem more effective and may better correspond to subjective piety; nevertheless, objectively, it is always a betrayal of the union that should find its proper expression in the sacrament of unity.

“Every priest who offers the holy sacrifice should recall that during this sacrifice, it is not only he and his community that are praying but the whole Church, which expresses her spiritual unity in this sacrament, among other ways, by using the correct liturgical text.”

The faithful are said to offer the Mass with the priest when they unite their praise, petition, expiation, and thanksgiving with the prayer of the priest—indeed, with the prayer of Christ Himself. In doing so, the faithful exercise the element of Christ’s priesthood that is imparted to them at baptism. This participation in Christ’s priesthood is called the 'common priesthood.' All these intentions are presented to God the Father through the priest’s external rite.

Oct 23 Wed - St John Paul II at the beatification of St Lorenzo Ruiz and the martyrs of Nagasaki.

 Oct 23 Wed
St John Paul II at the beatification of St Lorenzo Ruiz and the martyrs of Nagasaki.

In shedding their blood, they offered God a great act of worship and love
According to his Gospel promise, Christ is truly acknowledging, in the presence of his Father in heaven, those faithful martyrs who acknowledged him before men.

The hymn of glory to God which has just been sung by numberless voices is an echo of the Te Deum sung in the Church of Santo Domingo on the evening of December 27, 1637, when the news arrived of the martyrdom at Nagasaki of a group of six Christians. Among them were the head of the mission, Father Antonio González, a Spanish Dominican from León, and Lorenzo Ruiz, a married man with a family, born in Manila extra muros, in the district of Binondo. These witnesses had also, in their turn, sung psalms to the Lord of mercy and power, both while they were in prison and during their execution by the gallows and the pit, which lasted three days.

Faith conquers the world. The preaching of this faith enlightens like the sun all who wish to attain the knowledge of truth. Indeed, although there are different languages in the world, the power of the Christian tradition is the same.

The Lord Jesus, by his blood, truly redeemed his servants, gathered from every race, tongue, people, and nation, to make them a royal priesthood for our God.

The sixteen blessed martyrs, by the exercise of their priesthood – that of baptism or Holy Orders – performed the greatest act of worship and love of God by the sacrifice of their blood united with Christ’s own Sacrifice of the Cross. In this way, they imitated Christ, the priest and victim, in the most perfect way possible for human creatures. It was simultaneously an act of the greatest possible love for their brethren, for whose sake we are all called to sacrifice ourselves, following the example of the Son of God who sacrificed himself for us.

This is what Lorenzo Ruiz did. Guided by the Holy Spirit to an unexpected goal after an adventurous journey, he told the court that he was a Christian, and must die for God: “Had I many thousands of lives, I would offer them all for him. Never shall I apostatize. You may kill me if that is what you want. To die for God – such is my will”.

Here, we have him summed up; here, we describe his faith and the reason for his death. It was at this moment that this young father of a family professed and brought to completion the Christian catechesis that he had received in the Dominican Friars’ school in Binondo; a catechesis that cannot be other than Christ-centered, by reason both of the mystery it contains and the fact that it is Christ who teaches through the lips of his messenger.

The example of Lorenzo Ruiz, the son of a Chinese father and a Tagala mother, reminds us that everyone’s life and the whole of one’s life must be at Christ’s disposal.

Christianity means daily giving, in response to the gift of Christ who came into the world so that all might have life and have it to the full.

Oct 22 Tue - Should a Catholic have an ethic of conflict or an ethic of justice?

 Oct 22 Tue
*Should a Catholic have an ethic of conflict or an ethic of justice?*
There are specifically Catholic ways of thinking – and acting – in the public realm that are always relevant, and important to be a responsible citizen. But it’s even more urgent – and perennially so – that we go to the deeper sources of the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the human person, and much more that our times desperately need.

In ‘Ethics Primer,’ St John Paul II brought Catholic ethics to bear on moral questions under debate in his day.  He explained the Catholic worldview over and against the ideological presuppositions about human persons that Marxism was trying to impose on Poland.  Those were not just policies: they were a worldview that a “proper citizen” should self-evidently hold.

What Wojtyła did in the ‘Ethics Primer’ remains relevant today because we again are confronted by social movements that push not just policies but comprehensive, ideological Weltanschauungen for the “proper” citizen in a “democratic” society.  There, he answers questions critical to tackling today’s controversies from Catholic premises.

One such area is “class conflict,” the soul of Marxist ethics, the engine that moved its history towards its self-proclaimed inevitability.  A version of it is being pedaled, one that infers that the wealthy must have somehow gained their money unethically and, therefore, should be forced to pay their “fair share” for the “common good.”

Wojtyła rightly notes that you can have an ethic of conflict or an ethic of justice.  Against the Marxist default to conflict, he insists that Christians must build social ethics on justice, which can involve conflict with entrenched and self-protecting special interests.

But first, we must see the other as truly a neighbor.  “Who is my neighbor?” is a basic ethical question whose answer does not include income tests.  Is the other seen truly as a neighbor in a common social enterprise or really as a shirker who has to be held to account?  And how do we verify that our leaders’ perspective is honestly one of seeking justice and not simply stoking envy while paying for the goodies they want to hand out?

Second, is my perspective of “fairness” driven by a right moral order?  As Wojtyła notes, material goods diminish by division: “They cannot in any measure be simultaneously possessed and used by a great number of people, or by many societies or groups.”  
That’s not true of spiritual goods.  They, paradoxically, increase by sharing.  Six people don’t get as much pizza as four, but six people sharing love are richer than four.  Without diminishing the importance of the material – we are physico-spiritual beings – the spiritual has primacy. Do we ever hear politicians talking about shared spiritual goods in the community?  

Catholic justice demands a recognition that, socially, “we are all in this together” not just as individuals randomly stuck together but as a natural political community.  That should at least temper the heat with which class conflict is played upon in political discourse.  Justice is necessary too, but does not replace love of neighbor.

Pic: Black Madonna of Częstochowa. Excerpts from John M. Grondelski

Oct 24 Thu - The Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ and of the Church

 

Oct 24 Thu
The Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ and of the Church

History comprises two periods: first, the period when the sacrifice of the cross was awaited; and second, the period when the sacrifice was made and offered by Christ and his Church.
In this second period, Christ founded the Church in the community of those Twelve who, at the Last Supper, became partakers of the body and blood of the Lord. To the Church, his beloved Spouse, Christ entrusted the Eucharist: a memorial of his death and resurrection, a sacrament of love, a sign of unity.

In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul explains what the Eucharist is and its origin. He says that he had not invented it, but that he had just “received” it. It all began with Christ’s action “on the same night he was betrayed” (1 Cor 11:23). From Christ came the command to “do this in memory of me,” and in obedience to that command, we continue “thanking God,” “breaking the bread,” distributing his body, and presenting the chalice of his blood as that of “the New and Everlasting Covenant.”

Christ bequeathed his sacrifice to the whole Church, not just to each believer. Rather, he wants to bring men together as one people. That bond is established when the Church celebrates the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, when she proclaims “the Lord’s death until he comes,” and later, when the faithful approach the sacrament of the altar.

Therefore, each Mass presupposes union among the faithful and of the faithful with their bishop, with the pope, and with the universal Church. That solid union is made stronger with the celebration of the Eucharist and is a consequence of it. “In the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought about.”

The Eucharist is a common possession of the Church as the sacrament of her unity. Thus, the Church has the strict duty to specify everything that concerns participation in this sacrament and its celebration.

“It is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms.

The Eucharist is the creative force and source of communion among the members of the Church; it unites each one of them with Christ himself: “Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another. ‘Because the bread is one, we, though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread’ (1 Cor 10:17).”

By giving us his body, the Lord transforms us into one body: the Church. Hence St Paul’s expression the Church is the body of Christ means that the Church expresses herself principally in the Eucharist. While present everywhere, the Church is yet one, just as Christ is one.

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Oct 21 Mon - Is reincarnation compatible with Christianity?

 

Oct 21 Mon
*Is reincarnation compatible with Christianity?*

Some people believe that one can accept reincarnation and still be a Christian.
Reincarnation is the belief that the human soul, which has not achieved total purification after death, returns to inhabit another human or non-human body multiple times until it is sufficiently cleansed to unite with the divine.

In other words, when the soul dies, it does not go to heaven, hell, or purgatory, but instead passes into another being to be purified repeatedly. This concept is entirely foreign to the Christian faith and Catholic theology.

What do the *Bible and the Tradition* of the Church say about this?

The Bible contains numerous arguments against reincarnation. Here are three key texts:

"... so, a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more, he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep" (Job 14:12).

In the New Testament, Jesus himself teaches us that there is no “second chance” for life on earth, as seen in the story of poor Lazarus, who was continually ignored by a rich man, during his life. When they both died, Lazarus went to heaven while the rich man went to hell. Later, the rich man begged Lazarus for water but was denied.

"Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received good things, and Lazarus bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides, between you and us, there is a great chasm, that no one may pass from here to you, and none may cross from there to us’." (Lk 16: 25-26).

“And it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27).

Reincarnation implies multiple lives and multiple deaths. If the soul is reincarnated after death until it completes its purification, then there is no particular judgment.

Furthermore, *the Holy Fathers* also speak against this doctrine:

St Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, 4,7): “So, the [damned] souls neither see God, nor migrate into other bodies. For they would know that they are being punished in this way, and would be afraid to commit even the slightest sin afterward.”

St Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heretics, Book 2, 33,1): What their pretended, transmigration of souls is false; we will prove this by the fact that none of their souls remembers their previous lives. For, if they were sent (to this world) to experience all kinds of activities, they would have to remember what happened in the past, in order to complete what is missing without having to work.

Finally, the *Magisterium of the Church* is clear in this regard:
Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life" is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: "It is appointed for men to die once" (Heb 9:27). There is no "reincarnation" after death. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1013)

Excerpts from Jesús Urones.

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Oct 20 Sun - Prudence is a necessary virtue.

 

Oct 20 Sun
Prudence is a necessary virtue.
“In St Matthew's Gospel, we read: The Pharisees went and took counsel that they might trap him in his talk. Don't forget that this hypocritical approach is a common tactic even in our times. I suspect that the tares of the Pharisees will never be wiped out in this world; they have always managed to grow at such an amazing rate. Perhaps our Lord tolerates this growth to make us, his sons, more prudent, for prudence is essential for anyone whose job is to judge, strengthen, correct, fire with enthusiasm, or encourage. And that is exactly what a Christian has to do, by taking advantage, as an apostle, of the situations of his ordinary work to help the people around him."

“At this point, I raise my heart to God, and I ask him through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin –who is in the Church and yet above the Church, who is between Christ and the Church, protecting us and reigning over us, the Mother of all mankind, as she is of our Lord– through her, I beg that He may grant the gift of prudence to every one of us, and especially to those who, immersed in the bloodstream of society, wish to work for God; because it will stand us in very good stead to learn to be prudent."

“The scene from the Gospel continues to unfold: the Pharisees sent their disciples with some of those who were of Herod's party, and said: Master... Note how craftily they call him ‘Master.’ They pretend to be his admirers and friends, treating him as they would a person from whom they expect to receive instruction."

“We know that you are truthful... What infamous guile! Have you ever come across such double-dealing? Take care then how you pass through this world. Don't be overcautious or distrustful. But you should feel on your shoulders –remembering the image of the Good Shepherd depicted in the catacombs– the weight of the lost sheep, which represents not just a single soul, but the entire Church, the entire humanity."

“If you accept this responsibility with good grace and zest, you will become both daring and prudent in defending and proclaiming God's rights. And then, because of the integrity of your life, many people will come to regard you as teachers and call you so, even though you have no such ambition, for we have no interest in earthly glory. But, at the same time, don't be surprised if, among the many who approach you, some creep up to you with no other purpose than to flatter you. I would like you to register deep in your souls those words that you have so often heard from me: we must never let anything, neither slander, nor backbiting, neither human respect, nor the fear of what others may say, and much less the praise of the hypocrites, stand in the way of the fulfillment of our duty."

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Oct 20 Sun - ‘We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’

 

Oct 20 Sun
‘We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’
This is a nakedly honest and bad prayer. Of course, I want what I want, because what I want seems good to me, but what I want, whatever I ask, may actually be bad for me or for others.

A perfect prayer would be to echo Our Lord in Gethsemane: ‘Lord, I want you to do this for me, but even more I want you to do for me whatever you want to do for me.’

You do not know what you are asking. This is so often the case for us. We ask for something like James and John did, but we don’t know the cost. When the cost is pointed out to us, we may say we will pay it —as the brothers do— or go away sad —as the rich young man did— but we don’t know the actual cost until we experience it.

On the one hand, to drink the cup and to undergo the baptism was much harder than the brothers could know. On the other hand, to leave everything behind to follow Jesus could have been much easier than the rich young man imagined. The bottom line is, God knows better than we do, so we pray wisely, Thy will be done.

The brothers are right to understand that Our Lord chose them along with the other ten apostles to be rulers, but they did not understand the kind of rulers they were to become.

Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
This kind of authority is currently called servant leadership. It is love applied to ruling. Love is desires the true good of the other, even if this requires sacrifice —in Our Lord’s case, his passion and death, a sacrifice Jesus declared James and John would participate in.

Over time, the two brothers received a marvelous formation, because they went from foolish self-seeking to profound self-giving.

In the narrative of the young rich man, the Gospels present us two programs of life, two perspectives:
- The young man proposal; he was rich and wanted to somehow “add” Jesus to his life and reach eternal life.
- Jesus’ proposal; the youth would live fully as a son of God and an apostle of Jesus who happen to be rich.

What is my choice?

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Oct 19 Sat - How should I read the Gospel?

 

Oct 19 Sat
How should I read the Gospel?
Love stems from knowledge, from a personal, trusting relationship. Thus, we need to be familiar with Jesus' life. By meditating on the Gospel, we learn to fall in love with him; we see that Jesus is human and has a heart like ours. When reading the Gospel, we need to listen closely to Jesus' every word, dwell on each gesture, and allow it to move our hearts. “I would like you to close your earthly eyes and contemplate Christ's life as in a film, and take part in his life with the Apostles and the holy women, even closer to Jesus than St John. If not, it's not good enough."

Our zeal to know Christ better each day should spring from our love for him.
Christian life consists of falling in love with Christ and becoming identified with him. Jesus has lived among us and does so still. We contemplate each step of his earthly life: his birth in Bethlehem, his hidden life, his preaching throughout Palestine, his healing of the sick in body and soul, his proof of love on the Cross, his Resurrection, and glorious Ascension into heaven. We see him with the Apostles, how he chooses them and instructs them in the mysteries of God's kingdom.

We need to enter deeply into the Gospel. The Lord's words are few, but full of meaning; their worth is measured not by their number but by their depth; nor are they to be taken lightly, but pondered on thoroughly. How often we gain fresh insight while contemplating a Gospel passage we have already considered many times! Our reading of the Gospel should be marked by an eagerness to learn and to improve, and so influence our whole day. Sometimes a single word or gesture of our Lord helps us to have a greater presence of God.

Thus, knowing Jesus better makes it easier to love him.
To meditate on the Gospel means to look attentively at Jesus in eagerness to imitate him. We seek to conform our life to his, to make his words and feelings our own, with the help of grace. “I advised you to read the New Testament and to enter into each scene and take part in it, as one more of the characters. The minutes you spend in this way each day enable you to ‘incarnate’ the Gospel, reflect it in your life, and help others to reflect it."

We are led to become other Christs, ipse Christus - Christ himself. But we need to use all our faculties in the struggle to attain this identification. As St John Chrysostom says, “Christ has given you the power to be like him according to your strength. Don't be frightened to hear this. What should frighten you is not to be like him."
We must love what Christ loves and reject what he rejects, reproducing his life in our own.

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Oct 18 Fri - Should I correct wrongs?

 

Oct 18 Fri
Should I correct wrongs?
Fraternal correction is based on charity and justice. We are all sheep, but also shepherds of our brothers and sisters, and must be ready to give our lives for them.

“Well then, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord!” What must you shepherds hear? “Thus says the Lord God: behold, I am above the shepherds and I will call them to account for the sheep in their hands."

Listen, sheep of God, listen and learn: God will call the bad shepherds to account for his sheep and their deaths. As he says elsewhere in Ezekiel: “Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them in my name. If I say to a wicked man, ‘Wicked wretch, you are to die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin but I will hold you responsible for his death. If you warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin but you will have saved your life."

You see, brethren? Do you see how dangerous it is to keep quiet? If you remain silent, you die; and rightly. You die for your impiety and sin – it is your negligence that kills you. He who has said, As I live, says the Lord might have found a living shepherd – but since the shepherd was negligent, not warning those he had been given authority over, those whose sentry he was, he will die justly and the sentry will be justly condemned.

But if – the Lord continues – you say “you are to die” to one I have threatened with the sword, and he does not avoid the sword and it comes and kills him, he will die in his sin but you will have set your soul free. That is why we must not keep silent – and you, even if we did stay silent, must listen to the words of the true Shepherd in holy Scripture.

Since I raised the question, let us see if he takes the sheep from the dead shepherds and gives them to good ones. I certainly see him taking the sheep from the bad shepherds: “I am above the shepherds, and I shall take my flock back from them and I shall not allow them to feed my flock. In this way, the shepherds will stop feeding themselves." For when I say to them, “Feed my sheep,” they feed themselves and not my sheep. “I shall not allow them to feed my flock."

How does He stop them from looking after his sheep? “Do whatever they say, but do not do what they do." It is as if he were saying, “Their words are my words but their actions are their own.” When you avoid what the bad shepherds do, they are not in charge of you anymore: when you follow what they say, it is my words you are following and it is I who am tending you.
St Augustine's sermon On Pastors

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Oct 17 Thu - “Do this…” What did He mean?

 

Oct 17 Thu
“Do this…” What did He mean?
In the Last Supper, Christ gave his apostles this command, “Do this in memory of me,” making them priests of the New Testament. With these words, Jesus meant: Do not just make a remembrance or memorial, a theatrical representation of what I have done. Rather ‘do this,’ what I have done and as I have done it. Offer exactly what I have offered, and drink the chalice that I have drunk. In short, in the Last Supper, Christ was looking forward to the sacrifice of the Cross, anticipating it, and establishing the manner of perpetuating it.

The Church continues offering the same sacrifice but in an unbloody manner, sacramentally. The historical event that took place on Calvary does not repeat itself; neither is it continued in each Mass. The sacrifice of Christ is perfect and therefore does not need to be repeated. Glorious in heaven, Christ does not die again. The ‘presence’ of the singular sacrifice of the cross is multiplied, overcoming time and space. Therefore, the Mass is not a new sacrifice, but rather the real, sacramental renewal of the one supreme sacrifice of Calvary.

On the Cross, he would die by the separation of his blood from his body. In the Last Supper, as happens in every Mass, Jesus Christ did not consecrate the bread and the wine together, but separately, to show forth the manner of his death by the separation of body and blood.

The double Consecration is necessary to represent the real separation of the body and blood of Christ, which took place in the sacrifice of the Cross.

In the Mass, there is no new offering, but only another kind of presence of the same offering of Calvary through the ministry of the priest.
In the Last Supper, our Lord was ‘about to suffer;’ on Calvary he was ‘suffering;’ in every Mass he is present, ‘having suffered,’ glorious, as he is heaven. Thus, we have the possibility of participating actively in Christ’s sacrifice. Calvary is among us.

In the Cenacle, as in Calvary, the essential elements of the sacrifice are there: the slaying of the victim and the offering: ‘immolation’ and ‘self offering’ to God the Father. In the old Jewish ritual, the offering ought to be done by the priests, it was not necessary for the slaying to be done by them. It often was the work of the Temple servants. For it was not the slaying that made the victim sacred, but the offering. The essential thing was that the priest offered a living thing slain right there and then.

In the sacrifice of Calvary, the priest was perfect, for Christ was the priest. The victim was perfect, for He was the victim, too. He offered himself, slain. But not slain by himself. He was slain by others, slain indeed by his enemies, by our sins. Christ is the unspotted Lamb. He set all men free from the slavery of sin and established the eternal alliance between creature and Creator, the New Covenant.

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Oct 16 Wed - Why am I distressed?

 

Oct 16 Wed
Why am I distressed?
With constant blows of the healing chisel and careful stripping away, the divine Stone-Cutter prepares stones to build an eternal dwelling—as our mother, the holy Catholic Church, full of tenderness, sings in the hymn for the dedication of a church. And that is true.

Every soul is destined for eternal glory and can be considered a stone for building an eternal edifice. Any builder who seeks to erect a house in the best way should first polish the stones to be used in the construction. He does this with blows of hammer and chisel. In the same way, our heavenly Father works on chosen souls who, from all eternity, by His supreme wisdom and providence, have been destined to build the eternal dwelling.

If you want to reign with Christ in eternal glory, you must be polished with the hammer and chisel strokes that the divine Artisan uses to prepare the stones, that is, the chosen souls. What are these hammer and chisel strokes? Darkness, my friend, fears, temptations, sadness of spirit, spiritual anxieties that reek like a sickness, and also bodily discomfort.

Give thanks to the infinite Love of your Father God who, in this way, leads your soul to salvation. Why don’t you accept these generous conditions from the best of all fathers? Open your heart to the celestial doctor of souls and, full of confidence, surrender yourself into His most holy arms: as a chosen one, He leads you to follow Jesus closely on Mount Calvary.
Now, with joy and emotion in my soul, I ponder how grace is working in you.

Do not forget that the Lord has arranged everything you now experience. Do not fear the possibility of causing God harm or injury. It’s enough that you know you have tried throughout your life not to offend the Lord, but rather to honor Him more and more.

If you think that God hides from you, He does so, not because He wants to take revenge on your wickedness, but because He tests your fidelity and determination and, besides, heals you of some carnal diseases—those diseases and faults to which no one is immune. Indeed, Scripture says in the book of Proverbs: “Seven times a righteous man falls.”

Believe me, if I did not see you somehow concerned, I would not be as happy, because I would think that the Lord would give you fewer gifts. Get rid of the doubts that attack you; there are temptations. Also, reject the doubts regarding the purpose of your life; to entertain such thoughts would be to ignore divine directives and resist the sweet invitations of your Father God. All these thoughts do not come from a good spirit but from a bad one. These are diabolical ploys that try to separate you from the right path or, at least, impede your journey. Do not lose heart!

Whenever Jesus shows Himself, give Him thanks. If He hides, give Him thanks; all are touches of His love. I wish for you to give up your spirit with Jesus on the Cross when He says: “It is accomplished.”
Excerpts from St Pius of Pietrelcina

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Oct 15 Tue - What is religion?

 

Oct 15 Tue
What is religion?
Our word “religion” derives from the Latin religio, which means an obligation or a bond, a noun derived from the verb religare (“to bind”).

While a natural form of religion may lead someone to recognize a Divine Revelation when it occurs, often people rationalize and convert their own selfish desires into either made-up religions or the denial of God altogether. The history of the world teaches us that it has generally been easier for people to make formal or informal religions out of their own selfish desires than to discipline their minds and wills in the service of Divine perfection.

Though Vatican II noted, in its Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate), that “The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and good in these religions,” the Council did not say that all religions were of equal salvific value.

It is a lesson of history, in fact, that the normal condition of mankind is to be dramatically wrong about God and about what God has or has not revealed to us concerning Who He is and how He wants us to live and worship. If we traverse the religions of the world, we can enumerate the following types and examples:

    Those which, like Buddhism and Confucianism, are mostly human philosophies;
    Those that derive from tribal traditions which may be either purely natural or diabolically inspired—now morphing into contemporary popular commitments to witchcraft, or direct and deliberate devil worship (e.g., the St. Death of the drug cartels);
    Those which, like Hinduism, are strange combinations of human philosophies with mythologies;
    Judaism, which remains in a class by itself, being uniquely predicated on God’s self-revelation but ceasing to accept that on-going Revelation with the coming of Jesus Christ;
    Odd religious amalgamations, like Islam and Mormonism, which are combinations of other religions, and which claim (without any evidence) a specific revelation all their own;
    Those sects which, like all the Protestant forms, began with an appreciation for a miraculously-attested Divine Revelation but rejected the revealed authority principle that was intended to guarantee it against human tampering;
    Those such as the Orthodox churches which originally participated in the fullness of Catholicism and indeed still preserve its sacramental character, but which were led primarily by politics to abandon key aspects of the Church’s Divine constitution—chiefly, again, the Petrine principle of authority;
    And finally, Catholicism, which is not only based on a miraculously-attested Divine Revelation but possesses the God-given principle of authority necessary to protect that Revelation from spiraling into a fallacious nothingness through misdirected human interpretations—an absolutely essential feature which no other religion in the world even claims.

It ought to be obvious that for all religious claims we must consider the source, and in doing so we may find that the source is not God. Moreover, we must consider the institutional character of the religion itself to see if it bears anything of Divine origin within it, including any protection against its dissolution into a mere collection of human ideas and interpretations.

Even for those who claim a Revelation, while they may lead sincere followers to some understanding of and relationship with God, they may also proclaim an ever-increasing series of distortions of what God has revealed. This is so true that, even within the Catholic Church herself, we must thoroughly understand the nature and limits of her Divine protection against error.
Pic, Our Lady of Walsingham. By Dr. Jeff Mirus

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Oct 14 Mon - What is the Liturgy?

 

Oct 14 Mon
What is the Liturgy?
The liturgy, the true prayer of the Church, is the fruit of lips that acknowledge God’s Name.
Through the liturgical prayer, we participate in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit; it is a school of communion that frees the heart from indifference, shortens the distance between brothers and sisters, and conforms to the sentiments of Jesus; it is the high road that transforms us, educating us.

The liturgy is the prayed faith, the truth relived in prayer. It must be celebrated with fervor so that grace reaches each one. This attitude helps supersede individuality and open up to the “we” of the Church in prayer.

The gathering together, the posture of the body, remaining silent, the expressions of the voice, and the involvement of the senses, are the ways to participate in the celebration. Everybody is making the same gesture, everyone speaking together in one voice — this transmits to each individual the energy of the entire assembly, in the awareness of being one body.

These are some concrete priorities for the liturgy as the “true” prayer of the Church.

The first priority is to rediscover the choral nature of liturgical prayer, through which, uniting ourselves to the mother tongue of the Church, we become one choir, one body, and one voice. Saint Augustine reminded us of the profound relationship of our prayer with Christ: “When we pray, we speak to God, it is Jesus himself who prays for us, prays in us, and is prayed to by us. [...] Let us therefore recognize Him in our words, and His words in us.”

The second priority is its relationship with sacred hymns. Music in the liturgy is not an ornamental element, but an integral and necessary part. “If the faithful sing, they are in the Church; if they are in the Church, they preserve the faith and Christian life.”

The third priority refers to silence, as shown by the constant reminders in the Eucharistic celebration of the act of keeping silent. We must counteract the frenzy, noise, and chatter that undermine us in our daily lives by valuing sacred silence, an eloquent gesture, a favorable time and fruitful space to remain in the love of the Lord, cultivate a contemplative gaze, give depth to the prayer of the heart, and let oneself be transformed by the Spirit.

The fourth and final dimension refers to the ministries, that must be at the service of the liturgy. In them, the diversity of the gifts that the Holy Spirit inspires in the Christian community is manifested.

We need a constant commitment to formation so that personalism and delusions of protagonism may be avoided and a true service to communion can be achieved.
Excerpts from Pope Francis