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Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
From Erin
at her Random Ramblings
Do you hear the Catholics sing?
Singing a song of holy men
It is the music of a Church whowill have a new Pope againBenedict 16 was greatAnd we will miss him very muchBut even in his retirement, he’ll pray for us
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Quote of the Now
. . . the silence of St. Joseph does not demonstrate an empty interior, but rather the fullness of faith that he carries in his heart, and that guides each of his thoughts and actions. A silence through which Joseph, together with Mary, guard the Word of God, known through sacred Scripture, comparing it continually to the events of the life of Jesus; a silence interwoven with constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of adoration of his holy will and of boundless confidence in his providence.
– Pope Benedict XVI
Address before midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square, December 18, 2005
Quoted at stjosephaltar.blogspot.com.au/
Quoted at stjosephaltar.blogspot.com.au/
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Coping with Suicide: To Life, To Life, L’chiam!
God would like us to be joyful, even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.
I thank Him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord.
Not long after I posted the other day, I quickly ran out of energy. My major accomplishment that day was hanging out my washing. I got very tired from moving my backpack from the dining room to my room and summarily sat at the kitchen table for a few hours. It was strange to me because it happened so quickly. Well, I read a couple of poems, fell asleep for a few hours and was beyond lethargic for the remainder of the day.
Yesterday, although nothing greatly physical was accomplished don my part, I did actually get a lot more done. The, talking with Eliza was all I could manage for hours: I even found reading exhausting. Yesterday, however, I arranged some music that I’m hoping my ensemble will play this year - maybe even for Catholic Performing Arts - as well as reading a couple of chapters of G K Chesterton’s St Francis of Assisi, not only eating but preparing food, showering, writing up some stuff for 40 Days for Life and a few smaller tasks.
What does this have to do with the title and above quotes? I’m not sure; I’m getting to that.
In my first Coping with Suicide post, I finished with a quote from Fr Rolheiser which I will requote here:
Knowing all what? That God loves me, my family, my friends and my dad. That, as the Catechism says, “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.” (2283) Knowing all that doesn’t remove the pain and anger and confusion and irritability; it doesn’t help me sleep; it doesn’t help me have the energy to do things, nor to eat. Knowing all that doesn’t help me feel less fragile; doesn’t help me not to crumble under the weight of this cross, so to speak.
However, the Faith does help me get back up again.
You see, the image of an emotional rollercoaster wasn’t particularly helpful when it was first suggested to me a few weeks ago by a well meaning lecturer at the university I used to attend. To be honest, it’s still on a helpful image. My emotions haven’t been roller-coasting: my reactions to them have. Oh, sure, I go through various bouts of being more irritable or angry - yes, they are different - but I have had more or less the same emotions since the 4th or 5th of December last year. My reactions, however, vary just like a rollercoaster. It is not just up and down; there is a much broader depth and deeper breadth to them than that. This is because my emotions are deeper and broader.
Oh, holy Faith!
I can not imagine how it would be possible to cope without the Holy Faith of the Apostles! How, without such great examples of patient suffering, could one manage to bear their own cross of whatever size‽
How, without the sublime help of the One Whose Heart was pierce by a Sword, could I hope to bear patiently this wound inflicted by the death of a family member as She was? She watched His suffering and was helpless to prevent His Death. So, too, did She watch the Death of St Joseph. Ah, how, without the comfort of knowing my God watched His earthly father die could I face my own father’s death? How could I, without the loving support of the Holy Family, reconcile myself to the brokenness of my family; broken before and now, in some way, shattered?
The Jewish people have historically been good at many things. The Scriptures tell us that their ability to mourn far out strips the ability of a post-modern Westerner to do so. Where we would hear a piece of bad news and, typically, react somewhere between stoicism and silently weeping - or, at the most extreme, briefly crying out - (my reaction to the news about dad’s death was closer to that of the Stoic), the Jews of the Scriptures with tear their clothes, wail and weep over all types of ill news. It is easy, then, to understand why, when compared to the Jewish culture, we have an impoverished vocabulary with which to speak about suffering, mourning and grief.
When our hearts lie panting on the floor.
Here is a reaction to long suffering or to grief. One’s heart, ripped from the body by extreme emotion, is cast on the floor where it has room and space to beat, although at the risk of it being trampled underfoot by our post-modern carelessness. Having no room in the chest because it is so swollen with emotion, the heart bursts forth; the struggle of keeping inside and, most simply, of the grief causes the heart to feel worn out. Just as a dog after a long chase will lay down and pant, so too does the heart. Exhausted, worn thin, vulnerable for it’s own protection, the heart - like the dog - can do nothing other than lie on the ground, gasping for breath and trying to return to normality. However, unlike the dog, our hearts don’t quickly recover from the need to be laying, panting on the floor. In a sense, the dog is merely exhausted; the heart, however, is out of it’s natural environment and experiencing extreme pain, and does not recover quickly from this. That is why all the Very Helpful Information says that grief can last weeks, months or years.
Yet, through all this, God would like us to be joyful! Now, if ‘joy’ and ‘happiness’ are synonymous, it is clear that it is impossible to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor. However, they are not the same thing. Joy, St Paul tells us, is a fruit of the Spirit: happiness does not make the list.
It is times like these that Minties just don’t cut it, and that people often lose their faith in Christ. I argue, with G K Chesterton, that this is because they don’t have a sufficiently wide enough point of view. In St Francis of Assisi he writes: Men will believe because they will not broaden their minds. As a matter of individual belief, I should of course express it by saying they are not sufficiently catholic to the Catholic. I am not saying that in the face of a truly catholic - and, therefore, Catholic - perspective, all suffering and pain melts away into nothing but just the opposite. It is only with that Catholic world view that suffering makes sense. It is only with the Cross that our crosses have meaning; it is only because of His unjust trials that our trails (of whatever justice) make sense; it is only within the Communion of Saints that our Communion with our suffering God can be realised.
During a 2009 General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI said that, “The saints are true interpreters of Sacred Scripture. In the experience of their lives the saints have verified the truth of the Gospel; thus they introduce us into a knowledge and understanding of the Gospel.” This is the very same Gospel that tells us to take up out cross on follow Christ our Lord and God. It is our Faith in His Redemptive Paschal Mystery that gives us “hope, vision and support” and it is these that give us joy. Therefore, St Paul writes to the Corinthians, “we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” The Saints, the Apostles and Martyrs, the entire Church, works together for our joy.
It is easy to let our trials overcome us and our burdens overwhelm us. It is easy when everything seems to be collapsing around us or when we seem to be collapsing, to give up and to lose our peace and joy. Yet it is important that you “do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset [because] true progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice,” as St Francis de Sales says. In fact, as he also says,
I thank Him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank Him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord.
Not long after I posted the other day, I quickly ran out of energy. My major accomplishment that day was hanging out my washing. I got very tired from moving my backpack from the dining room to my room and summarily sat at the kitchen table for a few hours. It was strange to me because it happened so quickly. Well, I read a couple of poems, fell asleep for a few hours and was beyond lethargic for the remainder of the day.
Yesterday, although nothing greatly physical was accomplished don my part, I did actually get a lot more done. The, talking with Eliza was all I could manage for hours: I even found reading exhausting. Yesterday, however, I arranged some music that I’m hoping my ensemble will play this year - maybe even for Catholic Performing Arts - as well as reading a couple of chapters of G K Chesterton’s St Francis of Assisi, not only eating but preparing food, showering, writing up some stuff for 40 Days for Life and a few smaller tasks.
What does this have to do with the title and above quotes? I’m not sure; I’m getting to that.
In my first Coping with Suicide post, I finished with a quote from Fr Rolheiser which I will requote here:
Knowing all of this however, doesn't necessarily take away our pain (and anger) at losing someone to suicide. Faith and understanding aren't meant to take our pain away but to give us hope, vision, and support as we walk within it.
Knowing all what? That God loves me, my family, my friends and my dad. That, as the Catechism says, “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.” (2283) Knowing all that doesn’t remove the pain and anger and confusion and irritability; it doesn’t help me sleep; it doesn’t help me have the energy to do things, nor to eat. Knowing all that doesn’t help me feel less fragile; doesn’t help me not to crumble under the weight of this cross, so to speak.
However, the Faith does help me get back up again.
You see, the image of an emotional rollercoaster wasn’t particularly helpful when it was first suggested to me a few weeks ago by a well meaning lecturer at the university I used to attend. To be honest, it’s still on a helpful image. My emotions haven’t been roller-coasting: my reactions to them have. Oh, sure, I go through various bouts of being more irritable or angry - yes, they are different - but I have had more or less the same emotions since the 4th or 5th of December last year. My reactions, however, vary just like a rollercoaster. It is not just up and down; there is a much broader depth and deeper breadth to them than that. This is because my emotions are deeper and broader.
Oh, holy Faith!
I can not imagine how it would be possible to cope without the Holy Faith of the Apostles! How, without such great examples of patient suffering, could one manage to bear their own cross of whatever size‽
How, without the sublime help of the One Whose Heart was pierce by a Sword, could I hope to bear patiently this wound inflicted by the death of a family member as She was? She watched His suffering and was helpless to prevent His Death. So, too, did She watch the Death of St Joseph. Ah, how, without the comfort of knowing my God watched His earthly father die could I face my own father’s death? How could I, without the loving support of the Holy Family, reconcile myself to the brokenness of my family; broken before and now, in some way, shattered?
The Jewish people have historically been good at many things. The Scriptures tell us that their ability to mourn far out strips the ability of a post-modern Westerner to do so. Where we would hear a piece of bad news and, typically, react somewhere between stoicism and silently weeping - or, at the most extreme, briefly crying out - (my reaction to the news about dad’s death was closer to that of the Stoic), the Jews of the Scriptures with tear their clothes, wail and weep over all types of ill news. It is easy, then, to understand why, when compared to the Jewish culture, we have an impoverished vocabulary with which to speak about suffering, mourning and grief.
When our hearts lie panting on the floor.
Here is a reaction to long suffering or to grief. One’s heart, ripped from the body by extreme emotion, is cast on the floor where it has room and space to beat, although at the risk of it being trampled underfoot by our post-modern carelessness. Having no room in the chest because it is so swollen with emotion, the heart bursts forth; the struggle of keeping inside and, most simply, of the grief causes the heart to feel worn out. Just as a dog after a long chase will lay down and pant, so too does the heart. Exhausted, worn thin, vulnerable for it’s own protection, the heart - like the dog - can do nothing other than lie on the ground, gasping for breath and trying to return to normality. However, unlike the dog, our hearts don’t quickly recover from the need to be laying, panting on the floor. In a sense, the dog is merely exhausted; the heart, however, is out of it’s natural environment and experiencing extreme pain, and does not recover quickly from this. That is why all the Very Helpful Information says that grief can last weeks, months or years.
Yet, through all this, God would like us to be joyful! Now, if ‘joy’ and ‘happiness’ are synonymous, it is clear that it is impossible to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor. However, they are not the same thing. Joy, St Paul tells us, is a fruit of the Spirit: happiness does not make the list.
It is times like these that Minties just don’t cut it, and that people often lose their faith in Christ. I argue, with G K Chesterton, that this is because they don’t have a sufficiently wide enough point of view. In St Francis of Assisi he writes: Men will believe because they will not broaden their minds. As a matter of individual belief, I should of course express it by saying they are not sufficiently catholic to the Catholic. I am not saying that in the face of a truly catholic - and, therefore, Catholic - perspective, all suffering and pain melts away into nothing but just the opposite. It is only with that Catholic world view that suffering makes sense. It is only with the Cross that our crosses have meaning; it is only because of His unjust trials that our trails (of whatever justice) make sense; it is only within the Communion of Saints that our Communion with our suffering God can be realised.
During a 2009 General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI said that, “The saints are true interpreters of Sacred Scripture. In the experience of their lives the saints have verified the truth of the Gospel; thus they introduce us into a knowledge and understanding of the Gospel.” This is the very same Gospel that tells us to take up out cross on follow Christ our Lord and God. It is our Faith in His Redemptive Paschal Mystery that gives us “hope, vision and support” and it is these that give us joy. Therefore, St Paul writes to the Corinthians, “we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” The Saints, the Apostles and Martyrs, the entire Church, works together for our joy.
It is easy to let our trials overcome us and our burdens overwhelm us. It is easy when everything seems to be collapsing around us or when we seem to be collapsing, to give up and to lose our peace and joy. Yet it is important that you “do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset [because] true progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice,” as St Francis de Sales says. In fact, as he also says,
The devil takes advantage of sadness to tempt the good, striving to make them sorrowful in their virtue as he strives to make the wicked rejoice in their sins, and as he can only tempt us to evil by making it appear attractive, so he can only tempt us away from what is good by making it appear unattractive. He delights to see us sad and despondent because he is such himself for all eternity and wishes everyone to be as he is.
It is so easy to despair while grieving, but our Faith teaches us that there is no reason to lose hope, neither for our selves nor for those who have died, even if by suicide.
I thank Him who has given me strength for this, Christ Jesus our Lord.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
This is our Faith
This is the Faith of the Church.
We are proud to profess it through Christ, our Lord.
"To the glory of God most holy and of our Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in the aid of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, for the profit and edification of the Church, in the name of all the pastors and all the faithful, we now pronounce this profession of faith, in full spiritual communion with you all, beloved brothers and sons.
We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels,3 and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.
We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses,4 and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us:5 so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, "dwelling in light inaccessible"6 is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure.7 We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the most holy Trinity.
We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son, in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaequales,8 the life and beatitude of God perfectly one super-abound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated being, and always "there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity."9
We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri,10 and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity;11 and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.12
He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered—the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits—those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.
And His Kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord, and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His resurrection and His ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and guides the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus: Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).
We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ,13 and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner,14 preserved from all stain of original sin15 and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.16
Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption,17 the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory18 and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church,19 continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.20
We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents—established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin, is transmitted with human nature, "not by imitation, but by propagation" and that it is thus "proper to everyone."21
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the apostle, "where sin abounded grace did more abound."22
We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ Jesus.23
We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory.24 In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude.25 By these she makes her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement.26 She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium.27 We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful,28 and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.29
We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her unity, make it more manifest.30
Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity,31 and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity,32 we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.
We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church.33 But the divine design of salvation embraces all men, and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.34
We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.35
Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine,36 as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.37
The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.
We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.
We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ—whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief—are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.
We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal beatitude they see God as He is,38 and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.39
We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask and you will receive.40
Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen."
3 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3002.
4 Cf Ep.3:14.
5 Cf 1 Jn. 4:8.
6 Cf 1 Tim. 6:16.
7 Cf Dz.-Sch. 804.
8 Cf Dz.-Sch. 75.
9 Cf. ibid.
10 Cf Dz.-Sch. 150.
11 Cf Dz.-Sch.76.
12 Cf Ibid.
13 Cf Dz.-Sch. 251-252.
14 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53.
15 Cf Dz.-Sch. 2803.
16 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53.
17 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53, 58, 61.
18 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3903.
19 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53, 58, 61, 63; Cf Paul VI, Alloc. for the Closing of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council: AAS LVI [1964] 1016; Cf. Exhort. Apost. Signum Magnum, Introd.
20 Cf Lumen Gentium, 62; cf Paul VI, Exhort. Apost. Signum Magnum, p 1, n. 1.
21 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1513.
22 Cf Rom. 5:20.
23 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1514.
24 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 8, 5.
25 Cf Lumen Gentium, 7, 11.
26 Cf Sacrosanctum Concilium, 5, 6; cf Lumen Gentium, 7, 12, 50.
27 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3011.
28 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3074.
29 Cf Lumen Gentium, 25.
30 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 23; cf Orientalium Ecclesiarum 2, 3, 5, 6.
31 Cf Lumen Gentium, 8.
32 Cf Lumen Gentium, 15.
33 Cf Lumen Gentium, 14.
34 Cf Lumen Gentium, 16.
35 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1651.
36 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1642,1651-1654; Paul VI, Enc. Mysterium Fidei.
37 Cf S.Th.,111,73,3.
38 Cf 1 Jn. 3:2; Dz.-Sch. 1000.
39 Cf Lumen Gentium, 49.
40 Cf Lk. 10:9-10; Jn. 16:24.
We are proud to profess it through Christ, our Lord.
"To the glory of God most holy and of our Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in the aid of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, for the profit and edification of the Church, in the name of all the pastors and all the faithful, we now pronounce this profession of faith, in full spiritual communion with you all, beloved brothers and sons.
We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels,3 and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.
We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses,4 and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us:5 so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, "dwelling in light inaccessible"6 is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure.7 We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the most holy Trinity.
We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son, in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaequales,8 the life and beatitude of God perfectly one super-abound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated being, and always "there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity."9
We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri,10 and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity;11 and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.12
He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered—the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits—those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.
And His Kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord, and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His resurrection and His ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and guides the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus: Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).
We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ,13 and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner,14 preserved from all stain of original sin15 and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.16
Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption,17 the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory18 and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church,19 continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.20
We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents—established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin, is transmitted with human nature, "not by imitation, but by propagation" and that it is thus "proper to everyone."21
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the apostle, "where sin abounded grace did more abound."22
We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ Jesus.23
We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory.24 In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude.25 By these she makes her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement.26 She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium.27 We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful,28 and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.29
We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her unity, make it more manifest.30
Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity,31 and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity,32 we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.
We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church.33 But the divine design of salvation embraces all men, and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.34
We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.35
Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine,36 as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.37
The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.
We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.
We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ—whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief—are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.
We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal beatitude they see God as He is,38 and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.39
We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask and you will receive.40
Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen."
Pope Paul VI
June 30, 1968
***
The Creedo of the People of God was proclaimed at the close of the Year of Faith, celebrated for the 19th Centenary of the martyrdom of Sts Peter and Paul.
***
4 Cf Ep.3:14.
5 Cf 1 Jn. 4:8.
6 Cf 1 Tim. 6:16.
7 Cf Dz.-Sch. 804.
8 Cf Dz.-Sch. 75.
9 Cf. ibid.
10 Cf Dz.-Sch. 150.
11 Cf Dz.-Sch.76.
12 Cf Ibid.
13 Cf Dz.-Sch. 251-252.
14 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53.
15 Cf Dz.-Sch. 2803.
16 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53.
17 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53, 58, 61.
18 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3903.
19 Cf Lumen Gentium, 53, 58, 61, 63; Cf Paul VI, Alloc. for the Closing of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council: AAS LVI [1964] 1016; Cf. Exhort. Apost. Signum Magnum, Introd.
20 Cf Lumen Gentium, 62; cf Paul VI, Exhort. Apost. Signum Magnum, p 1, n. 1.
21 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1513.
22 Cf Rom. 5:20.
23 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1514.
24 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 8, 5.
25 Cf Lumen Gentium, 7, 11.
26 Cf Sacrosanctum Concilium, 5, 6; cf Lumen Gentium, 7, 12, 50.
27 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3011.
28 Cf Dz.-Sch. 3074.
29 Cf Lumen Gentium, 25.
30 Cf. Lumen Gentium, 23; cf Orientalium Ecclesiarum 2, 3, 5, 6.
31 Cf Lumen Gentium, 8.
32 Cf Lumen Gentium, 15.
33 Cf Lumen Gentium, 14.
34 Cf Lumen Gentium, 16.
35 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1651.
36 Cf Dz.-Sch. 1642,1651-1654; Paul VI, Enc. Mysterium Fidei.
37 Cf S.Th.,111,73,3.
38 Cf 1 Jn. 3:2; Dz.-Sch. 1000.
39 Cf Lumen Gentium, 49.
40 Cf Lk. 10:9-10; Jn. 16:24.
Friday, October 12, 2012
PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH
From http://www.annusfidei.va
Vatican City, (VIS) - According to a decree made public today and signed by Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro and Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel, respectively penitentiary major and regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Benedict XVI will grant faithful Plenary Indulgence for the occasion of the Year of Faith. The indulgence will be valid from the opening of the Year on 11 October 2012 until its end on 24 November 2013.So, MAKE USE OF THIS GIFT OF GOD'S MERCY.
"The day of the fiftieth anniversary of the solemn opening of Vatican Council II", the text reads, "the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI has decreed the beginning of a Year especially dedicated to the profession of the true faith and its correct interpretation, through the reading of - or better still the pious meditation upon - the Acts of the Council and the articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church".
"Since the primary objective is to develop sanctity of life to the highest degree possible on this earth, and thus to attain the most sublime level of pureness of soul, immense benefit may be derived from the great gift of Indulgences which, by virtue of the power conferred upon her by Christ, the Church offers to everyone who, following the due norms, undertakes the special prescripts to obtain them".
"During the Year of Faith, which will last from 11 October 2012 to 24 November 2013, Plenary Indulgence for the temporal punishment of sins, imparted by the mercy of God and applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful, may be obtained by all faithful who, truly penitent, take Sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and pray in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
"(A) Each time they attend at least three sermons during the Holy Missions, or at least three lessons on the Acts of the Council or the articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in church or any other suitable location.
"(B) Each time they visit, in the course of a pilgrimage, a papal basilica, a Christian catacomb, a cathedral church or a holy site designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith (for example, minor basilicas and shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Apostles or patron saints), and there participate in a sacred celebration, or at least remain for a congruous period of time in prayer and pious meditation, concluding with the recitation of the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, depending on the circumstances, to the Holy Apostles and patron saints.
"(C) Each time that, on the days designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith, ... in any sacred place, they participate in a solemn celebration of the Eucharist or the Liturgy of the Hours, adding thereto the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form.
"(D) On any day they chose, during the Year of Faith, if they make a pious visit to the baptistery, or other place in which they received the Sacrament of Baptism, and there renew their baptismal promises in any legitimate form.
"Diocesan or eparchal bishops, and those who enjoy the same status in law, on the most appropriate day during that period or on the occasion of the main celebrations, ... may impart the papal blessing with the Plenary Indulgence".
The document concludes by recalling how faithful who, due to illness or other legitimate cause, are unable to leave their place of adobe, may still obtain Plenary Indulgence "if, united in spirit and thought with other faithful, and especially at the times when the words of the Supreme Pontiff and diocesan bishops are transmitted by television or radio, they recite ... the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and other prayers that concord with the objectives of the Year of Faith, offering up the suffering and discomfort of their lives".
Monday, September 26, 2011
Quote of the Now.
Do we recognise that the innate dignity of- Pope Benedict XVI, Welcoming Celebration by the Young People, 17 July 2008
every individual rests on his or her
deepest identity – as image of the Creator
– and therefore that human rights are
universal? … And so we are led to reflect
on what place the poor and elderly,
immigrants and the voiceless, have in our
societies. How can it be that domestic
violence torments so many mothers and
children? How can it be that the most
wondrous and sacred human space – the
womb – has become a place of unutterable
violence?
Saturday, September 3, 2011
We Are
Up loaded onto youtube by DefendUsInBattle.
I think this is the same as who comments regularly on blogs I read,
namely 'Joe@DefendUsInBattle'.
We Are Catholic.
It isn't something we 'do', it is who WE ARE.
We are something positive, wonderful, and special.
We are loyal to the Church, to the Pope, our tradition, and our God.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Prayer Requests, 5th Sunday of Lent
I'm starting a new section in my blog called Prayer for the Week.
This is where I'll some of list my intenetions for the coming week, especially those I'd like you to join in my prayers for.
This week I'm praying for:
This is where I'll some of list my intenetions for the coming week, especially those I'd like you to join in my prayers for.
This week I'm praying for:
- The intentions of our Holy Father
- The staff & students of Santa Maria Colloege
- Aaron C.
- Jan
- Ministry of FIRE
- The staff and students at Notre Dame, Fremantle
- The Emmanuel Community
- Victims of violence
- Catherine, Matthew, Bridget; Rebecca, Sharni; Linda & her parents
- Bronwyn
- CYM
- 40 Days for Life
- Stacee
