Traditional Thomistic Catholic

Tag: traditional catholic

  • A Sermon On Lent Part II by St Augustine from Fathers of the Church Pamphlets

    A Sermon On Lent Part II by St Augustine from Fathers of the Church Pamphlets

    This is another sermon once given by St. Augustine Taken from the Fathers of the Church Pamphlets, formerly printed by Mary, Immaculate Queen of the Universe Center, first published around 1958.  Its I assume from another lent not just a continuation of the excerpt in last weeks blog.

        These holy days which we are devoting to the observance of Lent remind me to speak to you about fraternal agreement, so that whosever has a complaint against another may bring it to and end lest he himself come to an end.  Do not despise these words, my brethren.  For, by reason of the Fact that this mortal and frail life, which is passed amid so many earthly temptations and which prays that it may not be overwhelmed by them, cannot be lived even by a just person without some sins, we have a remedy by which we can live because our Teacher, God, taught us to say in His prayer: ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also for give our debtors.’ [Matt. 6:12] We have done what was stipulate and what was pleasing in the eyes of God, and we have signed the agreement for cancelling our debt. If we ourselves forgive, we can seek to be forgiven with the utmost confidence; but if we do not forgive, let us not think that our sind are forgiven; let us not deceive ourselves.  Let man not deceive himself; God deceives no man. It is human to get angry: would that we did not have this power! It is human to get angry; but your anger ought not, like a tender young twig, to be watered by suspicions and finally to grow into a tree of hatred. For anger is one thing; hatred, another.  Assuredly, a father often becomes angry at his son, but he does not hate him; he becomes angry in order to correct him.  If he is angry for the purpose of correction, he is angry while he continues to love. For that reason is has been said: ‘Thou dost see the speck in they brother’s eye, but dost not consider the beam in they own eye.” [Cf. M<att. 7:3]  You censure anger in another, and you nourish hatred in yourself.  In comparison with hatred anger is a mere twig; but , if you cultivate a twig, it will become a tree; if you uproot it and cast it our, it will amount to nothing.

        (2) If you were attentive when the Epistle of St. John was read, you should have been terrified by his words, for he says : “The darkness has passed and the true light is now shining.’  Then Continuing, he adds: ‘He who says that he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in the darkness still.’ [1 John 2:8,9]  But perhaps man may think that the darkness is like that suffered by those who are shut up in prisons.  Would that it were so! Nevertheless, no one wishes to be in such darkness.  Innocent people, however, can be confined in the darkness of prisons.  In fact, the martyrs were so imprisoned; darkness engulfed them on all sides but light shone in their hearts.in that gloom of the prison they saw God, not with the eyes of the body, but in the love of the brethren. Do you wish to know the nature of that darkness of which the Scriptures say: ‘He who hates his brother is in the darkness still’?  St. John also says in another place: ‘He who hates his brother is a murderer.’ [Cf. 1 John 3:15] He who hates his brother walks about, leaves and enters the house, goes on his way burdened with no fetters, shut up in no prison, yet bound by his guilt.  Do not consider that he is without confinement.  His heart is his prison. Lest by chance you should contemn such darkness when you hear: ‘He who hates his brother is in the darkness still,’ St. John says in addition: ‘He who hates his brother is a murderer.’ Go you hate your brother and walk about free from care? Are you unwilling to be reconciled, although Bod is giving you an opportunity for that purpose? Behold, you are a murderer and yet you live.  If you had an angry Master, you would be taken off suddenly in the midst of your hatred of your brother.  God is sparing you; spare yourself; make peace with your brother.  But , perhaps, though you with to do so, he is unwilling.  Let that suffice so far as you are concerned.  You now have cause for grievance, for you have done your part.  If you wish to be reconciled and he is unwilling, say in all security: ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’

      (3) Perhaps you have sinned against your bother; you wish make peace with him; you wish to say to him: ‘My brother, forgive me for having sinned against you.’ But he is unwilling to forgive; he does not wish to discharge your debt; he is reluctant to cancel what you owe him.  Let him take heed inasmuch as he, too, has to pray.  When he shall come, who has been unwilling to forgive you for having sinned against him, when he shall come to pray, what is he going to do?  Let him say: ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’ Let him speak thus and add: ‘Hallowed be thy name.’ In addition to this say: ‘Thy kingdom come.’ And continue with: ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’  Then proceed with: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ [Matt. 6:9-12] You have said this much; now see if, perchance, you wish to omit what follows and substitute something else. There is no way by which you can pass; you are held in this spot.  Speak, then, speak the truth, or if you have no cause for saying: ‘Forgive us our debts,’ do not say it. Yet, where is [your recollection of] that other statement which the same Apostle made: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’? [1 John 1:8] But id the consciousness of our frailty stings us, and indeed, in this world there is an abundance of iniquity, then say: ‘Forgive us our debts.’ But, consider what follows, for you have been unwilling to forgive your brother’s sin and you are about to say: ‘as we also forgive our debtors.’ Or are you not going to say it?  If you are not going to say the words, you will receive nothing; but if you are going to say them, you sill speak falsely. Therefore, speak and speak the truth.  How are you going to speak the truth, if you have been willing to forgive the sin of your brother?

       (4) I have admonished him: now I console you, whoever you are, if only you are one who has said to your brother: ‘Forgive me for having sinned against you.’ If you have spoken with your whole heart, with true humility and unfeigned charity, which God sees in the heart whence your words have come, and if your brother has continued to refuse to forgive you, do not be concerned.  You are both servants and you have the same Master; you are indebted to your fellow servant, but he is unwilling to forgive you; importune your Master.  What the Lord has pardoned let a servant exact, if he can.  Furthermore, I say this: I advised him who was unwilling to forgive his brother to do what he was reluctant to do when his brother sought to be forgiven, lest when he himself prays he may not obtain what he desires. I also advised hi who sought pardon for his sins from his brother and did not obtain it to be confident of obtaining from the Lord what he failed to get from his brother. There is another word of advice which I would give when your brother has sinned against you and has been unwilling to say to you: ‘Forgive me for having sinned against you.’ Such words are plentiful. [The text is quite vague at this point; there seems to be a lacuna or a faulty transmission.]  Would that God would root them out of His land, that is, out of your hearts!  How many there are who know that they have sinned against their brethren and yet are unwilling to say: ‘Forgive me.’  They were not ashamed to commit sin, but they are ashamed to beg pardon; they did not blush when there was question of iniquity, but they do blush where humility is concerned.

       (5) Above all, therefore, do I admonish those of you who are at variance with the brethren. You are summoning yourselves before your own tribunal; you are examining yourselves; you are bringing a just judgement against yourselves within your own hearts; and you are discovering that you ought not to have said what you have said.  Seek pardon, then, as brethren from brethren, Do for your brethren what the Apostle advises: ‘Generously forgiving one another, as also Bod in Christ has forgiven you. [Eph. 4:32] Do this and do not be ashamed to seek pardon.  In the same manner I speak to all, men and women, young and old, lay persons and clerics, and to myself, also.  Let us all hearken; let us all fear.  If we have sinned against out brethren, if up to this time we have been granted a truce for further living wer are not dying as a result of our sin.  In fact we are still living; we have not yet been condemned.  Then, while we are alive, let us do what is ordered by our Father who will be our Judge; let us seek pardon from our brethren whom we have offended and, perhaps, wounded by sinning against them.

        There are some persons who, thought they are lowly in the rating of this world, yet are lifted up in pride if one seeks pardon of them.  This is what I advise in such a case.  Sometimes a master sins against a servant. Even though he is the master and the other a servant, both are servants of another Master because both have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.  Yet it seems hard that I should order and command that, if a master sins against his servant by unjustly quarreling or by unjustly striking him, the master should say: ‘Forgive me; pardon me.’  This seems hard, not because he ought not to do it, but because [the master fears] that the servant may become unbearably haughty.  What then?  Before the eyes of God let the master repent; before the eyes of God let him punish himself; and if he cannot say: ‘Forgive me’ to a servant because it is not fitting, let him address that servant graciously, for to accost one graciously is to ask for pardon.

         (6) It remains now for me to address those against whom others have sinned and from whom the offenders have been unwilling to seek pardon. I have already spoken to those who were unwilling to forgive offenders who sought pardon.  Now, then, since I address you all and since these are holy days, do not let your enmities remain.  I suppose that some of you, who know that you have some differences with your brethren, have thought the matter over in your hearts and have found that, instead of your having sinned against them, they have sinned against you.  Even though you do not say this to me now, because in this place it is my privilege to speak and yours to listen in silence, still, perhaps while thinking, you speak to yourselves and say: ‘I wish to make peace, but he has injured me; he has sinned against me; and he does not wish to ask pardon.’ What then? Am I going to say: ‘Go to him and beg pardon of him’? Not at all.  I do not wish you to lie. I do not want you who know that you have not sinned against your brother to say: ‘Pardon me.’  For how does it profit you to be your own prosecutor? Why would you seek pardon from him whom you have not offended or against whom you have not sinned? That is of no use to you.  I do not wish you to do it. You understand; you have examined the matter well; you know that he sinned against you, not you against him. ‘I know, he says. [These words siim spurious.  The Mss. Differ concerning them, but do not offer any satisfactory solution.] Let your conscience rest in that definite knowledge.  Do not go to your brother who has sinned against you and voluntarily ask pardon of him.  There ought to be other peacemakers between you to exhort him earnestly to seek forgiveness from you; do you merely be ready to forgive him, ready to pardon him completely from your heart.  If you are ready to forgive, you have already forgiven. You still have something to pray for; pray for him, that he may seek pardon from you.  Because you realize that it is harmful for him if he does not seek forgiveness, pray for him that he may do so.  Say to the Lord in your prayer: ‘Lord, You know that I have not sinned against my brother and that he has sinned against me You know, too, that his having sinned against me is harmful for him if he does not seek pardon from me.  With a good intention, then, I beg You to pardon him.”    (7) Behold, I have told you that especially during these days of your fasts, of your pious practices, of your continency you ought to co-operate with me so as to make peace with your brethren. May I, who am saddened by your strife, rejoice in your peace, so that, forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another, we may in peace celebrate the Pasch and in peace observe the Passion of Him who, owing nothing to anyone, paid the price for those who were in debt.  I refer to our lord Jesus Christ, who sinned against no man and against whom almost the entire world sinned.  Yet He demanded no punishments but promised rewards. Therefore, we have Him as witness in our hearts that, if we have sinned against anyone, we are seeking pardon with sincere hearts and that, if anyone has sinned against us, we are prepared to give pardon and that we are praying for our enemies. Let us not expect to be avenged, my brethren.  What does vengeance mean except to be delighted by another’s misfortune? I know that each day men come, bend their knees, touch the earth with their foreheads, sometimes moisten their faces with tear5s, and in all this great humility and distress say: “Lord, avenge me. Kill my enemy.’  Certainly, pray that the Lord may kill your enemy, but also pray that He may spare your brother.  Let Bod destroy hostilities, but let Him save your brother’s life.  Pray that God may avenge you; let him who persecuted you perish; but let him remain wo is restored to you.

  • CHRISTIAN JOY – a Quote from my bulletin on the fourth Sunday in Lent

    CHRISTIAN JOY – a Quote from my bulletin on the fourth Sunday in Lent

    Rejoice, O Jerusalem! Exult with joy, you that have been in sorrow!

    Introit – Isaiah 66:10

     In the heart of Lent, the Church invites Her children to joy (the purple vestments give way to rose vestments). Even as they weep for their sins, even as the time of the Passion draws near, when we will see Jesus humiliated, mocked, despised, the Church has Christians sing on this Sunday: Rejoice, O Jerusalem! Exult with joy, you that have been in sorrow! The joy of today may seem out of place. Yet it is very legitimate, because it is an effect of the increase of charity in us. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, the supernatural virtue of charity has for interior fruit both peace and joy. By our Lenten efforts, we have weakened the old man in us and developed our union with God. That of itself is already a source of joy. We are happy to have pleased our Lord and to have consoled our Lady. Moreover, we can feel Easter approaching! Already we begin to glimpse from afar the resurrection of our Lord. It is not encore the full joy that we are going to experience at Easter, but it is the beginning of that joy. That joy stimulates our courage and strengthens us in our desire to remain faithful to our resolutions. Lord Jesus, for more than three weeks now I have been drawing nearer to You, with Your help. Today, I promise You to try to take greater care in my thanksgiving after Mass. Moreover, I want to do everything that depends on me to spend this day in peace and joy. Help me to pursue my efforts all the way to Easter and beyond, so that I might one day hear You say to me, “Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many; enter into the joy of thy Master” (Mt. 25:21).

    (Taken from Toward Easter by Fr. Patrick Troadec)

  • Easter Sunday

    Easter Sunday

    Easter Sunday is the Holiest day of the Liturgical year.  On this day our Lord rises, proving to all with good sense that he is God.  Thousands died as martyrs and will continue to die until the end of time based on what Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday showed and will show them. It is the basis of the Catholic Religion and the fact that Jesus Christ is God, the Creator, is why we listen to Him when we wish to be informed about the purpose of us and the whole universe. It gives us the hope of heaven!

  • Palm Sunday

            This is really the first day of Holy Week. The Jews acknowledge him but about a week later their religious leaders murder Him, supposedly for blasphemy, but really just for jealousy, with no consideration that they are going against almighty God, they that should have known.  

  • Passion Sunday

    Passion Sunday

        Passion Sunday kicks off the run up to the holiest day in the Catholic Calendar, Easter, when Jesus Christ rises from the dead and through it gives us hope in everlasting life. Easter shows us that Jesus Christ is all-powerful God in a way that is convincing enough to fuel almost 400 years of martyrs, to die for Christ despite little if any hope that their preaching of Jesus or their death would have little effect on the cruel Roman culture! But eventually, from the top down, starting with the emperor they converted Rome!

     The following is mostly a quote from The Roman Catholic Daily Missal – 1962, Angelus Press in the commentary for the day, the epistle and the Gospel:   

           “The Mass of Passion Sunday is full of the thought of the Passion of Jesus and of the infidelity of the Jews, whose place in the Kingdom of God was taken by those who were baptized, that is to say by Christians.

            From this day until Maundy Thursday, in Masses of the Season the Psalm Judica me is omitted on Sundays and ferias, as also the Gloria Patri at the Introit and as the Lavabo, but on feasts they are said as usual.”

            In the epistle Heb. 9:11-15 “St. Paul tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Pontiff and the Mediator of the New Testament.  As the High Priest once entered the Holy of Holies by the blood of victims, so, in a more excellent manner, Christ enters into heaven the true Holy of Holies, after having shed His own Blood which He offers to God His Father.”

           Finally in the Gospel Jn. 8: 46-59 “St John shows us the growing hatred of the Sanhedrin.  The jews who ought to have recognized in Jesus the Son of God, greater than Abraham and the prophets, because He is eternal, disregarded the meaning of His words. The insulted our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messias,  Whom they declared to be possessed by a devil, a blasphemer, Whom they would stone to death.”

           This was the one time that he said clearly – for any true Jew, by using Gods proper name, the concept of the Non-Contingent Being, that He was God. Specifically: “before Abraham was made, I AM.” [emphasis mine]

  • The Stuggle against the Devil of Impurity – another Quote from my bulletin from the Third Sunday in Lent

    The Stuggle against the Devil of Impurity – another Quote from my bulletin from the Third Sunday in Lent

    Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God!
    St. Matthew 5:8

    According to St. Gregory the Great, there are several types of devils. The one presented today in the Gospel is the devil of impurity. This unclean spirit seeks to taint souls sanctified by our Lord, and tries to turn them from spiritual into carnal, and even bestial. He tries to plunge them into a state of abjection that makes them worse than animals. And our Lord wants us to have a particular revulsion for this devil of impurity, among all the devils, for, according to St. Gregory the Great, that devil is the most common cause of man’s damnation.
    To fight against this devil, there are means of prevention and others of cure. One of these is the use of the sacrament of penance. It is important to know that the devil tries at the time of confession to arouse in man that shame which he took from him at the time of the sin. We should be ashamed of the sin, but not of admitting the sin! So let us take care never to make a sacrilegious confession by false shame. Moreover, let us not forget that, in the accusation of a serious sin, we should always specify the number or the frequency as well as any circumstances that change the nature of the sin.
    Next, let us love to approach the Holy Eucharist often. A heart to heart with our Lord is the best antidote to disordered attachments. And to the supernatural means, let us unite the practice of natural means. Let us fly everything that opens the door to these sins: internet, violent and desensitizing electronic games, bad films, gatherings that are too worldly, indecent dress, bad companions… Let us also fly idleness, which is the mother of all vices. Mostly let us love God above all things as well as His holy Mother, Queen of purity.
    Lord Jesus, give me the courage never to let myself be caught in the trap of cowardly human respect by giving in to the pressures of fashion, and make it so that I never offend You by immodest dress, incompatible with my dignity as a child of God.
    (Taken from Toward Easter by Fr. Patrick Troadec)

  • The Traditional Way of Raising Male Children

      This blog is a look at the biblically informed way of raising male children.  We will take a significant Bible verse, with regard to children and expand upon its meaning and its implications.

    Hebrews 12:5

    And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him.

         In my opinion, since this is in the New Testament, this speaks of the confessional and a priest telling you that what you did was very wrong and what to do to repair it.  But this also applies to children. Just as we call the priest father in his place of standing for our heavenly father, because of his vocation, we stand in our heavenly father’s place in our homes.  Fathers should always anticipate things that might hurt their children and warn them.  They should also anticipate moral transgressions like lying and stealing and warn them against them.  In my opinion, children should be warned several times before physical consequences (i.e. the rod) are incurred. In the case of some families, when children are small they are slapped on the calf with a chopstick or a wooden rice scooping spoon.

    Ephesians 6:4

    (Douey-Rheims Catholic Translation) And you, fathers, provoke not your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord.

    (Smith’s Literal Translation) And, fathers, be not angry with your children: but bring them up in the instruction and reminding of the Lord.

        In my opinion, you should avoid being angry at a child when you punish them. Now if a child has hurt his or her brother or sister, this is sometimes hard to do, but moderate the application of the displine and do not let the anger drive the intensity of the punishment.   

    Proverbs 13:24

    He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes.

         Now physical displine is most effective once the child reaches and age of understanding but before they reach the full age of reason (2-8) where he or she can equate pain with not doing a certain thing (trying to stick a paperclip in a electrical socket, trying to cross the street without looking, touching a hot stove, playing with sharp objects, generally things which can result in their death or serious injury).  If you tell them what could happen and why they shouldn’t do it and when they try to do it 2 or 3 times and discipline them if they do, eventually they will do something like touch a hot oven and they learn that the warnings and the pain inflicted prior to them getting hurt are correlated and will begin to respect your wisdom.  This is burned into their “software” and will respond more favorably to other parental warnings including eventually couching with regard to moral issues. Hopefully, this will serve to save not only their mortal lives but also their immortal souls.

    Proverbs 13:1

    A wise son heareth the doctrine of his father: but he that is a scorner, beareth not when he is reproved.

          This is a warning to fathers in my opinion, to not punish for every infraction or over react because eventually a child will not listen to you.  They will disregard your warnings both for the secular world and with regard to avoiding moral transgressions.  If a child losses heaven, at least with regard to that child, you have failed as a parent.

    Deuteronomy 8:5

    That thou mayst consider in thy heart, that as a man traineth up his son, so the Lord thy God hath trained thee up

         This speaks to teaching your children the lessons you have learned in life and if you have obtained a deeper understanding of scriptural and moral teachings pass it on to your children.

    2 Timothy 3:16

    All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice,

          Go to mass and discuss what you have heard at the sermon or homily. If possible, send your children to Catholic school, or home school them or at least send them to Sunday catechism. To reinforce how important, “keeping holy the lord’s day,” make it a point to never miss Sunday mass.  If vacationing, always try to find the nearest catholic church before going and attend while on vacation.  My father, though in the army, always used to call ahead to find a catholic school close to his next assignment for me to attend.  If possible, it is my opinion that you should try to find a school for your children to attend in a traditional Catholic parish or equivalently teaches traditional catholic traditions, values, morals, dogmas and doctrines,  In other words teaches strictly orthodox Catholic catechism without equivocating on any point of tradition, doctrine or dogma.

    Revelation 3:19

    Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance.         

           Teach your children to learn from life. Things that happen to them are not random but sent from God to train them.  If they make mistakes encourage them to learn from their mistakes and to improve themselves with regard to those mistakes so as not to repeat them either by training or by practicing endurance.

    Proverbs 16:27

    (Douey-Rheims translation) The wicked man diggeth evil, and in his lips is a burning fire.

    (literal standard version translation) A worthless man is preparing evil, And on his lips [is] as a burning fire.
    Worthless is a synonym for Idle according to the Cambridge dictionary (GOOD-FOR-NOTHING – 255 Synonyms and Antonyms – Cambridge English)

    BLUF (bottom line up front): If you want decent well-adjusted children who will not be prone to return home, be immoral or not “launch,” keep them occupied with worthwhile pursuits which build their minds, confidence and body but help them avoid moral turpitude!

    This is basically where we get the adage: “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” Keep you children busy, not just with busy work, but at soccer, flag football, tee-ball, violin lessons, orchestra, Tae Quan Do, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD or Sunday School if not attending a Catholic Parochial school)  etc. That is sports or useful life skills which can promote their self-confidence. The family spoken about in this blog almost always had their children doing one of the things in the previous 2 sentences and the result was an ability to juggle a job, marriage, hobbies and children even in our present day super hectic world.

    Proverbs 27:17

    Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend

           This iron sharpens iron also applies to raising children.  I know a man who trained one of his children to play chess. He played him time and time again and beat him.  The child’s mother  suggested the father to allow the child to win once in awhile but the father refused. The child read books on chess and eventually by the time he was in 5th grade he was able to beat his father outright – using a classic opening in about 5 moves.

         The family discussed above, had 3 male children, eventually graduated a engineering management major that works for the government with a high security clearance, a cybersecurity engineer and a Ph.d level material sciences laser engineer.  Unfortunately, though one is a practicing catholic, one became a protestant and one, possible due to attending a highly secularize university’s Ph.D program (though he was formerly an altar boy), became an atheist.  One must stay close to the faith always or risk losing it.  It is my opinion that if the family had attended traditional Catholic parish, there may have been more success, but I know that the father keeps in touch with all his children prays for them and does what he can to continue to catechize the fallen away children.

          As an aside, I have notice that children that speak more than one language seem to have more pride in themselves, their family’s country of origin and their parents, especially if their parents had to learn an new language to live in the country they are in. they also appear to be more intellectually pliable and tolerant.  I think, this ability to speak another language, helps them feel more confident in any environment.

          If the family has more than one child, the parents should strive not to have favorites, in which case, in the experience I have seen with children, the children will grow up well.  My father was a sergeant major and the 3 lessons I learned or he taught me were, 1. always be fair and 2. mean what you say, 3. Be consistent, never let an infraction go without oral correction or if several instances of oral correction have already been given, physical discipline.

  • The Mystical Body of Christ, Sanctifying Grace, and the Function and need for Sacraments Explained – book review “Of Sacraments and Sacrifice” by Clifford Howell, S.J. including the quoted explanation referred to above

           This a book review on “Of Sacraments and Sacrifice” by Clifford Howell, S.J., published by The Liturgical Press, St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, copyright 1952. With:

    NIHIL OBSTAT

    Iaonnes Eidenschink, O.S.B., J.C.D.

    Censor Deputatus

    IMPRIMI POTEST

    Daniel H. Conway, S.J.

    Provincialis

    Missourii Provinciae

    +Balduinus Dworschak, O.S.B.

    Abbas

    Sancti Ioannis Baptissae

    IMPRIMATUR

    +Petrus W. Bartholome, D.D.

    Coadiutor Episcopus

    Sancti Clodaldi

    Die 29a octobris, 1952

    The following is a large quote from Chapter Two which is entitled The Good Tidings, which, in my opinion, clearly puts all of salvation history, the reasons for what happened, and what sanctifying grace is, in clear focus, at high level. (square brackets indicate lines and bible verse cites not in the original) :

    [Cradle Catholics, i.e. Catholics from birth not converts] . . . learned our religion when we were children.  We took it in gradually, absorbing it from our environment of home and school and church. Very early we were taught elementary truths about God, our Lord, our Lady, guardian angels and some saints; we learned some prayers by heart. We were told that God would be pleased if we did certain things, and that He would not be pleased if we did other things.  If we pleased God we were on our way to heaven, and if we offended God we might end up I hell.  At school we had formal and more explicit teaching which developed all these foundation-truths in further detail, and showed us the relationship between these truths and our duties and our prayers.

            Gradually there was formed in us a certain attitude towards God; we learned to regard God primarily as our Creator, and as the Rewarder of good and evil.  We saw our place in the scheme of things – as creatures temporarily in this world for the purpose of making our way to heaven.  We learned that Christ, by His death on calvary, had opened the gates of heaven to us; that He founded an infallible Church to guide us, to tell us what is right and what is wrong, and to provide us with marvelous helps, called sacrament, whereby we are aided to do good and avoid evil. And the Church has an official act of worship – the Mass – in which the fruits of Calvary are applied to our souls.

       Through the infallible Church, then, we can know with certainty what to believe (our creed); from the Church we have reliable guidance as to what to do (our code); in the Church we have opportunity for adequate worship (our cult).  Creed, code and cult – that is religion.  This (with a lot of details filled in) more or less summarizes what we learned when young.

        And, of course, it is all perfectly true. But we must ever remember that what we learned when young could be absorbed by us only in an immature way; our minds were so limited in their capacity that nothing deeper could be grasped. We must not imagine that our school-Catholicism is and adequate equipment for life.  Just as we grew up in other respects, so we need also grow up in our religion – to have a mature outlook and grasp of all its implications.  The pity of it is that the religious mentality or outlook or attitude (it is difficult to hit on precisely the right word) of enormous numbers of Catholics remains the same (fundamentally) as that which was formed in their youth.  They remain permanently immature in their religion.

         To make the point clearer, think of a schoolboy who is beginning to learn chemistry.  All he will learn will be that within the mental capacity he then has – the mere rudiments of the science.  He will learn the main properties of solids, liquids and gases; change of state; mixtures and compounds; preparation of a few elements and compounds, and a bitt about acids, bases and salts.  That is about all he can manage for a long time.  Doubtless he takes a boyish delight in the colors of solutions and precipitates in the stinks and bangs produced in experiments – and he thinks he is getting along splendidly with his chemistry.

         Yet he has no conception of the fascinations that await him later, when he matures.  In the course, when intellectually capable of absorbing them, he learns such matters as the atomic theory, the periodic table, electrolytic disassociation, stereo-isomerism, atomic structure, isotopes . . . he finds that in chemistry there are delights of the mind which exceed beyond description and delights which he previously derived from the colors and smells of his early experiments.  His whole outlook on the science of chemistry has completely out grown his child like views.  There, of course, do not become false: it remains true that A plus B makes a color and C plus D makes a smell and E plus F makes a bang.  But it is now clear to him that chemistry amounts to a great deal more than that sort of thing!
         Just so, when we were boys and girls learning our religion, we absorbed certain information and formed a certain point of view of outlook on our creed, our code, and our cult.  And we thought we were getting a good grip on our religion.  So we were – but only as far as our then immature minds could grasp it.  And just as the small boy busy with smells and colors and explosions has no idea of the wonder of “adult chemistry,” so we, in our youth, could have no idea of the wonders of what we might call “adult Catholicism.”

         By which I do not just mean Catholicism as it is actually grasped by millions of people over the age of twenty-one. This alas, is so often of the same kind as that which they grasped in their youth. While maturing physically (and perhaps even intellectually in many ways) they have failed to mature religiously. What I do mean by “adult Catholicism” is that which involves a grasp of matters corresponding to the atomic theory, periodic table, tautomerism and so on of my chemical analogy.

         And what matters are these? Chiefly the meaning of supernatural life, the “Mystical Body” doctrine, the relationship of Christians to Christ and to each other in terms of these; the “corporateness” of justification through Christ, of worship with Christ and of salvation in Christ; Catholic life of Mass, sacraments, liturgical year and so forth as seen from this angle.

         All these contain wonders and delights for the mind, heart, soul and even body far surpassing whatever elements of our religion we managed to grasp in our youth. Not that we learned then becomes in any way false – of course not.  It certainly is true and remains true that we must keep the commandments, obey the Church, frequent the sacraments, and go to Mass. But from what is called the “liturgical outlook” (which embodies that adult Catholicism I have tried to describe), it becomes clear that Catholicism amounts to infinitely more than this! 

         Of all the things that have to be explained I am inclined to think that the most fundamental – that which comes logically first – is the idea of supernatural life, or sanctifying grace (to give it its other name). If this is understood, then “Mystical Body” doctrine becomes intelligible. And once that is grasped, all the rest of the “liturgical outlook” can be built up upon it and expressed in terms of it.  Hence I shall tackle first of all this subject of “supernatural life.”

         And the obvious point from which to begin is natural life. We are familiar with three forms of it – plant life, animal life, human life.  Precisely what life is we do not know; that is a question which biologists have never solved and probably never will solve.  But that does not prevent us from knowing a lot about life. We know that each form of life is limited to its capabilities.  Plants cannot do animal things, and animals cannot do human things.

        On a beautiful spring morning a thrush may experience such a feeling of well-being that he opens his beak and expresses himself in exquisite song.  The daffodils at the foot of his tree may be equally thriving in their own way – but they cannot sing about it.  Yet a man who likewise feels that life is particularly good that morning might very well sing – through his song would have words to it because speech is within the power of human nature. Suppose, however, that a thrush which had strayed into Missouri burst forth into a nostalgic ditty about his “Old Kentucky Home,” then he would not be acting according to his nature.  He would be acting according to human nature, which is above his own. Now the Latin word for “above” is super. Hence this imaginary thrush would be acting supernaturally – doing something supernatural.

         Another example.  The different forms of life act differently with regard to their food.  Plants wait for it to come to them (in the form of soluble salts from the earth). Animals go and get it (whether it be grass in a field or deer in a forest).  Man not only procures his food but, when he wants to, he also cooks it.  Now if a barren fig tree started wandering round in search of a nice succulent dung-hill or if a wolf were discovered rigging up a spit on which to cook a newly killed deer, each would be acting supernaturally.  The tree would be acting according to animal nature; and the wolf according to human nature.

         The only possible explanation for such behavior would be that somehow the tree had become endowed with a share in animal nature, and the wolf with a share in human nature. For each would be doing something for which it does not, by its own nature, possess the requisite powers.  It must, therefore, be sharing in that type of life which belongs to a nature above (super) its own – that is supernatural life.

         Of course there are not, in fact any thrushes, fig trees or wolves capable of these astonishing supernatural actions!  We can only imagine them, and are powerless to make these creatures of our imagination exist in reality.  But that does not apply to Bod.  He can not only imagine anything imaginable, but, if He wants to , He can create it as a reality.  So far as we can make our He has not desired to make any plants or animals share in the type of life higher than their own natural life (unless, perhaps Balaam’s loquacious ass was an instance [Numbers 22:21-38]).

          But he has done it in the case of man! For He has invited man to share in divine happiness. And that is not natural to man at all.  The happiness natural to man is human happiness; divine happiness is what is natural to God.  To enjoy it is therefore a divine activity, above human nature.  If man is to do that, them he has to act supernaturally; for that he needs supernatural life of the type corresponding to the activity.   For divine activity he would have to have a share in divine life.

           And that, best beloved, is precisely what God has given him!  Beside his natural life he is given “a created participation in the divine nature” (as theologians call it), and this makes him capable of certain activities which belong properly to God alone and exceed the powers of human nature. In particular, man thereby becomes capable of enjoying God’s perfections – that is, of being happy in the way that God is happy (not in a merely human way). This is called the “beatific vision.” And because man has not right whatever to this created participation in the divine nature, and has it only through God’s goodness or graciousness, it goes also by the name of grace.

         Beyond doubt many Catholics do not see this point with any vividness.  They do not think of grace as sharing in God’s own life and powers.  Their notions are a bit hazy and inadequate.  They regard grace, for instance, as a beautiful garment of the soul which makes it pleasing in God’s sight; or else as a kind of ticket of admission into heaven.  Which is rather like regarding the health (say) of a young man as the good color of his cheeks or as the doctor’s certificate whereby the qualifies for some job.

         These notions have, indeed, a measure of truth, but they are two superficial, and grace, when viewed this way, does not seem to be anything very exciting.  Fut if it is thought of and understood as a life – as a sharing in that sort of life which belongs by nature to God alone – then it is prized as something unspeakably wonderful, resulting in utterly astounding consequences which entrance the mind and warm the heart.

         The first consequence id that when we are given grace we cease to be merely ordinary men and women and become, as it were supermen. We are lifted above the natural plane on which all other creatures exist, and are brought into the closest intimacy with God Himself. For, without ceasing to be God’s creatures, we become also God’s sons.  We are His sons and daughters in a very real and true sense. Not in the same sense that Christ our Lord is the Son of God – for He is begotten by the Father in the seme divine nature as the Father’s own.  Our sonship is not by nature, but by adoption.

         But this means far more than human adoption.  If a man adopts a son he may treat the boy in every was as if he were his own son; yet the fact remains that the life of the boy was not imparted to him by the man whom he has learned to call “Father.” Adoption in the human plane is but a fiction.  But adoption by God involves a fact – we become truly God’s sons because God does actually impart to us His own type of life (natural and uncreated in Him, supernatural and created in us).  And since we have life from God we really are His sons – not by way of convention, but in fact.  When we call God “Our Father” we name Him truly.

          And a second consequence is that, being sons of God, we are heirs to heaven. We are not, indeed, enjoying God’s kind of happiness yet – our bodies have to die before that happens. But we are definitely qualified for or equipped for enjoying that kind of happiness. We have already got those powers with – when we come into the appropriate circumstances – will enable us to see and enjoy God in the beatific vision.  Men without the supernatural life of grace are like men born blind and living in a dark cellar.  Even supposing they were to be led out int the light they could still see mothing.  But we, who have grace, are like people with the power of sight.  At present we see nothing, or almost nothing, of God because we are still in the darkness of this earthly life.  We only see God by faith “as through a glass, darkly.” [as part of this Biblical quote – 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, we have the phrase “when that which is perfect has come” which of course refers to God and heaven”]

         But we know that we have the power to see him – we are not blind.  We can look forward to being delivered from our dark cellar, passing through h the door of death.  Then we shall emerge into the light of God’s glory and shall be able to “see Him face to face.” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That is what grace does for us!

         Those of us who have this life of grace are enormously privileged.  For nobody has any right to it whatever.  And not everybody has it – though, but for a fearful tragedy at the very beginning of human history, everybody might have had it.

          When God first created Adam and Eve He gave to them not only their natural human lives, but also this life of grace we have been discussing here.  And besides that He gave sundry lesser privileges – one of which was that though Adam and Eve were mortal (that is, capable of dying) they were in fact going to be spared death.  After some time spent in a knowledge of God, imperfect yet sufficient to guide them in living according to God’s will, they were to be granted the full and perfect knowledge of God (with attendant perfect happiness) in the beatific vision.  They would come to this without having to die first.  So would all their descendants.  That was God’s original loving and generous plan.

         But unfortunately Adam did not do God’s will – he preferred his own will.  Instead of pleasing God he chose to please his wife.  By thus insulting and disobeying God he committed the first, or “original” sin.  Now we must always remember that God is not only infinitely good, but He infinitely just.  It would not have been consistent with His justice to go on giving privileges to rebels!  So the privileges were discontinued, and Adam was given his rights – and only his rights.

         Nothing really due to him in virtue of his human nature was taken away from him – only the “extras.”  So he was now no longer exempt from death.  Worse still, he now had only his natural human life – which, as we have seen, is not sufficient for enjoying the beatific vision.

         The consequences of this were appalling!  For Adam could not pass on to his children what he didn’t have.  His children were born as Adam himself had become – destined to die and possessing no kind of life except natural life.   No supernatural life. No capacity for enjoying God. No share in the divine nature.  No filial relationship with God.  The same with the next generation – and the next – and the next – and so on for all time, right down to us and beyond us.

         Unless God had done something about it, this meant that all generations of the human race were ruined – rendered incapable of enjoying God in heaven.  Even if, by some strange supposition, they could get to heaven they would not know they were there; for they could no more enjoy God than a blind man could enjoy a lovely view.  Lacking any share of in the divine life, they could not act according to divine nature in enjoying divine happiness.

         This is the condition in which all of us came into existence.  It is a condition which would never have been were it not for the original sin committed by Adam.  That is why it is called the “state of original sin.”  It is not that we (or any other newborn babes) had actually done anything wrong or offended God in any way.  Not at all.  But the point is that we had nothing except that to which we were entitled by our status as human beings.  Everything which was our due we were given: God did us no wrong in creating us like this.  Nevertheless the fact remains that even with the fullest and most perfectly developed of human powers we still could not get to heaven.  That can only be done by a privilege – the privilege of sharing in God’s kind of life by possessing grace.

        How, then, was grace given to us?  The answer t o those questions s the most astonishing and beautiful story in the world. It is the most moving revelation of God’s infinite wisdom, of His inexhaustible power and – above all – of his boundless love. 

          “By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His Only-begotten son into the world, that we may live by Him,” [1 John 4:9] says St. John.  There came, as a member of the ruined human race, the very Son of God!  He was the Son of God the Father, not by adoption, but by nature.  Divine life was natural to Him.  Yet, when He was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, human life was also natural to Him.  And as he shared our human life, He brought it about that we could share His divine life.  “I am come,” He said, “that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” [John 10:10]

         The disobedience of Adam under the tree of Paradise was wiped out by the obedience of Christ on the tree of the Cross.  All of us entered this world subject to the death sentence, and equipped with merely natural powers, because the life which we had was only natural life derived for Adam.  But now we look beyond temporal death to ternal life, which we can enter with supernatural powers provided that we have super natural life derived from Christ.  Our natural life came to us by a process of natural generation from Adam. And the marvelous thing which Christ had done is to arrange that supernatural life may come to us by a process of supernatural generation from Himself.  He has brought it about that we may be related to Him in the supernatural order in a way which parallels our relationship to Adam in the natural order.

         Thus He is the “Second Adam.” “Adam,” as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “was the type of Him who was to come . . . If one man’s fault brought death on a whole multitude, all the more lavish is God’s grace, shown to a whole multitude – that free gift He has made us in the race brought by One Man – Jesus Christ!” [Romans 5:14,17] Or, as he reminded the Corinthians, “just as all have died with Adam, so with Christ all may be brought to life.” [1 Corinthians 15:22]

        This life which Christ won for us, and which He imparts to us, is the very kernel of the Christian message; that He has raised us up above our natural plane unto sonship of God the Father and brotherhood of Himself is the essence of the “Gospel” (which means ‘good tidings”). An understanding of the why and the how of all this is the key to our creed; a vivid consciousness of it is the motive of our code; and a joyously intelligent reaction to it is the inspiration of our cult.  The doctrine of sanctifying grace, in fact, illuminates, informs and enlivens our whole religion and leads us on to comprehend “in all its breadth and length and height and depth the love of Christ – to know what passes knowledge!”[Ephesians 3:18-19]

         How jejune, by contrast, is that view which sees in our religion little more than a collection of “do’s and don’ts” coupled with a set of aids for the avoidance of sin and the collection of merits all aimed at the ultimate welfare of the individual. Yet how many there are who seem to get but little further than this . . .

         The above quote is the most surface look at what sanctifying grace is, from chapter two of the book, just enough to show you how incredibly important sanctifying grace is and why any human should care a great deal about it.  The table of contents below gives you an outline of what the rest of the book will be covering.

    Contents:

    Part One  Of Sacraments

    Why Worship?                                                       3

    The Good Tidings                                                 12

    Sharing Divine Life                                               23

    Of Things Visible and Invisible                           34 

    The Making of a Christian                                   45

    Increase of the Body                                            56

    The Health of the Mystical Body                       68

    Part Two  Of Sacrifice

    The Meaning of Sacrifice                                   81

    Man’s Yearning                                                    93

    What Happens at Mass                                    103

    Completing the Sacrifice                                  114       

    The Mass is a Liturgy                                         124

    Problems of Participation                                135

    Liturgical Piety                                                    153

    DISCUSSION QUESTIONS                                  164

    This is a book every Catholic needs to read, so take time to check it out of your local library, get an inter library loan if you have to or buy it if you can.

  • Septuagesima Sunday (Next Sunday )notes on the liturgy and Its Significance as part of a Book Review of Light of the World Volume II

    Septuagesima Sunday (Next Sunday )notes on the liturgy and Its Significance as part of a Book Review of Light of the World Volume II

         Light of the World is a three volume series offering meditations on masses throughout the liturgical year, this book review being on the second volume. It is written the same vein as the concise “The Church’s Year” by Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine and Dom Prosper Gueranger’s 15 volume “The Liturgical Year” and should be added to the books listed for their coverage of the liturgical year covered in an earlier blog.  The Imprimi postest and Imprimatur is a follows:

    Imprimi postest: + Stephen Schappler, O.S.B.

                                      Coadjutor Abbot

    Imprimatur:         + Joseph E Ritter, S.T.D.

                                      Archbishop of St. Louis

                                      Second Printing, 1965

    This is a translation of Volume II of Werde Licht by Rt. Rev. Benedict Baur, O.S.B. (ninth revised edition, 1955), Published by Herder & Co, Freiburg, Germany.

    Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 58-13571

    Copyright 1952, 1959 by Herder Book Co.  

         The following is a quote showing a sample or the type of meditation it offers. After some sections there are prayers to help one focus on the meditation offered in the text. This the quote about Septuagesima Sunday in its entirety. The immediately following meditation is on Septuagesima Monday.

    The Liturgy of Septuagesima Sunday        

    1. Septuagesima Sunday ushers in the Easter Cycle, and our thoughts dwell on the blessed mystery of Easter. The Easter cycle includes Christ’s passion, resurrection and glorification.  The devout Christian soul will accompany the Church as she contemplates Christ in His passion, death, resurrection, and eternal glorification. Through struggle to victory is the universal law.  Through suffering, tribulation, and death the soul achieves self-mastery, resurrection, and life. This struggle valiantly waged in this life will bring the soul to the resurrection and eternal life in heaven.
    2. On Septuagesima Sunday in the ancient Church, the candidates who were to receive baptism at Easter were selected from those who had presented themselves for instruction. This practice should remind us also that we once were presented for baptism, and as members of Christ’s mystical body we should renew our resolution to accompany Him on His sorrowful journey.  We shall accompany Christ through His struggles to victory.  Having resolved to acquit ourselves manfully in the struggle for the glory of God, and having concentrated all of our energies for that task, we shall eventually achieve a glorious victory and a blessed Easter.  Our model of mortification during this season is the martyr St. Lawrence.  We gather around him in his church at the beginning of Lent to prepare for the struggle.  Dimly in the background we catch a glimpse of the greatest of all martyrs, Jesus Christ, clothed in garments crimsoned with His own blood. With Him and His holy Church we press forward for the struggle. “The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple” (Introit).  Reeling the burden of our sinfulness we cry out: “Graciously hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the prayers of Thy people, that we who are justly afflicted for our sins, may mercifully be freed for the glory of Thy name” (collect).

         Having made our humble plea for mercy, we arise to gird ourselves for the struggle that lies ahead of us.  The goal which we respect to reach is the eternal resurrection. But to attain our goal we must chastise our bodies and bring them into subjection (Epistle). The strength to persevere in this life of Self-denial we must seek from God, who will not deny His help to those who seek Him (Gradual).  With the catechumens let us present ourselves again as laborers in the vine yard of the Lord.  In this vineyard we shall work out our own salvation and that of our neighbor, and shall contribute to the success of the Church on earth. We have been called into the vineyard at the eleventh hour, that is, in the era of Christ, in the era of the new dispensation. God has given us a sublime calling. Since he also gives us strength and directs our labors, we can hardly refuse to labor zealously.

    • When we make our offering in the Mass today, we do so in the spirit of the willing laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.  As the paten is raised by the priest, we offer with the spotless wafer our determination to struggle against the weakness of the flesh, the allurements of the world, and sin.  We unite to this offering all the trials and sufferings that the days may being us, and beg the grace of sustaining them in the spirit of St. Lawrence and in union with the suffering of our Redeemer.

         Thus we begin Mass by renewing our belief that this sacrifice is truly a renewal of the offering on Calvary, and we declare ourselves ready to follow Him to death. The consummation of this sacrifice will not be death, but life; we look forward, not to Good Friday, but to Easter Sunday; not to the darkness of the grave, but to the brilliance of the resurrection; we are interested, not in the struggle, but in the victory.  Christ now offers Himself, not as the suffering Redeemer, but as the living, glorified conqueror of death and sin.  Through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, he makes us partakers of this resurrection and glorification.  We share also in His love for the Father, His sanctity, His perfect prayer, His union with God: and thus we become most pleasing to His heavenly Father.  Although His is now risen and glorified, He descends to give Himself to us in Holy Communion, and shares His glorified life with us. We are now enlightened by the glory that is His, and we begin to share His glorified life.  A soul thus favored is , in a sense, already adorned with the crown of victory, and has placed in its hands already in this world the penny that is the reward for faithful service in the vineyard of the Master.  The favors enjoyed by such a soul are an earnest of the crown of victory that is to be its reward in heaven.  Through its sufferings it will conquer.

    Septuagesima Sunday

    Through struggle to victory

    1. Easter, the day of victory. The day of resurrection and redemption is already beginning. We gather at the stational church of the martyr St. Lawrence, who was tortured on the gridiron, We feel that we are united to him, and this union gives us strength for the struggle. Victory may be gained only though strife.  At Easter we shall renew that spirit of our baptism and rise to a new life. Fur the road to Easter leads over Golgotha.
    2. The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard” (Gospel). He begins his search fo laborers early in the day and visits the market place again at the third, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh hour.  At each visit he finds unemployed laborers idling in the market place, unconcerned about the work in the vineyard of souls.  So, too, the Lord approaches us with the question, “Why stand you here all the day idle? . . . Go you also into My vineyard.” We have as yet done very little for the salvation of our own souls or for those of others. We must now take up the task earnestly and zealously.  The Lord has given us the call: “Go you also int My vineyard,” work for the salvation of souls. Today at this very hour the invitation is given to us. For us it is not yet too late; it is never too late for any soul that is willing to turn from its evil ways and make an earnest effort.  It is too late only for those who abandon the struggle.  “Why stand you here all the day idle?”  God calls us today to bear patiently the heat and the burden of the day in His vineyard; He invites us to strive in the arena of the world for the incorruptible crown of eternal life.  We must struggle valiantly for the crown of victory.

            The liturgy places St. Lawrence before us as a model for our conduct during Lent.     While suffering on his bed of fire at the time of his martyrdom, he cried out: “The sorrows of death surround me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple” (Introit).  A second model is given to us in the Epistle in the person of St. Paul, the valiant champion of the Church: “Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every on that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway” (Epistle).

           The chosen people, the Israelites, provide a third example of the preparation we should make for Easter.  The thought of our baptism and of the Holy Eucharist dominates the Easter cycle, which we are now beginning.  Fut the liturgy warns us to remember that the chosen people, too, had a baptism and a Eucharist.  They “were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ).  But with most of them God was not well pleased” (Epistle).  Only a small remnant of the chosen people reached the Holy Land.  The majority of them were unfaithful to God in spite of their baptism and the heavenly manna.  We be to us if we should prove unworthy of our baptism and of the Holy Eucharist.  Even the most holy things can be misused.

    •  “Every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things.” That should also be our program at the beginning of Lent.  Why must we give up everything? That Christ the conqueror may conquer again in us and have the honor that is His due.  We must reject everything and purify ourselves, so that nothing may hamper Christ’s work in us. We die, and yet we live.  We must die to all sin and to all willful imperfections.  We must abandon all desires and thoughts that are not in conformity with Bod’s holy will.  We must die to our own will in order that the will and the spirit of Christ may dominate us completely.  This is what the holy season of Lent wishes to accomplish in us.  Are we prepared to sacrifice everything?  “Know you not thar hey that run in the race, all rum indeed, but on receiveth the prize?” (Epistle.)

            Only ”one recieveth the prize.” This one is Christ, the conqueror of sin and death. We shall win only in so far as we are united to Him as members of His mystical body.  Living in union with Him, making use of this strength, w, too, shall conquer.  That He may triumph in His members He must live in us and we in Him.  In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass today we shall enter more fully into His life an he into ours. In Him we shall receive the prize, the possession of eternal life.

                                                                 PRAYER

       Graciously hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the prayers of Thy people, that we who are justly afflicted for our sins, may mercifully be freed for the glory of thy name. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect)

    The table of contents covers every mass for 1) The Prelenten Season, 2) The Season of Lent, 3) Passiontide, 4) The Easter Season, 5) Pentecost.  It starts with Septuagesima Sunday and ends with Ember Saturday in Pentecost week: Redeemed! On page 381.    

  • Understand-ing the 10 Command-ments: Catholic and Protestant Views

                      

          At first glance the differences on how Catholics and Protestants number the commandments seem insignificant or possibly nonsensical especially between non-Catholic Christian sects.  The case is similar for atheists and non-believers for different reasons   This is a chart comparing Catholic and Protestant numbering of the Commandments is from the Word of Mercy website specifically the URL at Catholic vs Protestant Ten Commandments: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters – Word of Mercy.  If you are a catechist and want a copy for your classroom, click here for a downloadable PDF.

    A chart comparing the Catholic and Protestant numbering of the Ten Commandments, highlighting differences in how they are grouped and interpreted.

          Some of the differences are covered in the aforementioned website. But let us start with the first commandment.  The fact is that the protestants in the fifteen-hundreds had an agenda. Before that, since Roman Catholics and Greek/Russian Orthodox were the only recognized Christian sects, their numbering of the commandments were the same.  One of the first things, if not actually the first sold thing, to be printed on the newly invented Gutenberg printing press was the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible. The content of the Old Testament section of this Bible was almost identical to the Greek Septuagint.  It was Martin Luther, based on the canon most recently approved, in the fifteen hundreds by the Jewish rabbis of Jerusalem. These were the Jews, whom it is recorded that Martin Luther disliked, and whom (the rabbis that is) literature relates had tried to down play any scripture relating to Jesus Christ to the point of not discussing Isaia Chapter 53. This being the case why would they include anything they thought might point to Jesus being the Messiah or his message that would lead to the salvation of the most souls if they could use any justification to eliminate them.

          A clearer explanation of why the Rabbis would try to downplay or downright refuse to talk about the most world changing prophecy of the Bible, Isaia 53? Well, the following is a quote from the Google AI Overview:

    AI Overview

    Isaiah 53 is called the “forbidden chapter” because it describes a suffering servant, which Christians identify as Jesus, but which many Jewish people do not. The chapter was once read in synagogues but was later removed from the weekly readings because its interpretation led to significant theological arguments and confusion, as it was used by early Christians to argue that Jesus was the Messiah. Many modern Jews believe the passage refers to the nation of Israel, Isaiah, or another Jewish figure, rather than an individual Messiah. 

    Reasons for the “forbidden” status

    • Christian interpretation: 

    Christians believe the chapter is a clear prophecy of Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection, as it describes someone being “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities”. 

    • Jewish interpretation: 

    Many modern Jewish interpreters believe the “suffering servant” refers to the Jewish people as a whole, or a righteous figure like Isaiah or Moses, and that a suffering Messiah is not a Jewish belief. 

    • Historical context: 

    Ancient Jewish sages once agreed the chapter was a prophecy about the Messiah. However, after the rise of Christianity, the chapter became a source of controversy because of its perceived connection to Jesus. 

    • Change in synagogue readings: 

    To avoid the resulting arguments and confusion, rabbis decided to remove Isaiah 53 from the weekly Haftarah (prophetic readings) in some synagogues, leading to its reputation as a “forbidden chapter”. 

        But surely like most prophesies (think Nostradamus) its pretty vague. I don’t know, it seems pretty clear to me, a traditional practicing Roman Catholic that it must be referring to Jesus Christ, but you decide (taken from the Douay-Rheims Catholic version of the Bible the following is Chapter 53 of Isaias in its in its entirety):

    1.Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?  2 And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:  3 Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.  4 Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.  5 But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

     6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.  8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.  9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.  10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

     11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.  12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.

        Lets take the Catholic numbering of the commandments one by one comparing them to how they were combined or split up by the protestants after 1500 (a millennia and a half after the catholic church came into existence with its originator, Jesus Christ). Once again lets start with a look at the actual scripture taken from the Douey-Rheims Bible.

    [1] And the Lord spoke all these words: [2] I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. [3] Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. [4] Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. [5] Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:

    [6] And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. [7] Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain. [8] Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. [9] Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. [10] But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.

    [11] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. [12] Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. [13] Thou shalt not kill. [14] Thou shalt not commit adultery. [15] Thou shalt not steal.

    [16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. [17] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. [18] And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking: and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off, [19] Saying to Moses: Speak thou to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die. [20] And Moses said to the people: Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin.

    Now to be fair it can be seen how they might logically say that: “Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me.” And “Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.” But that being the case why is “Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them.” This is logical but Catholics (the only recognized Christians before Martin Luther, others were labeled heretics by the Catholic Church including protestant sects after Martin Luther), as others before Martin Luther all the way back to the 3rd century for Christians, referred to them as the 10 commandments (in fact they are popularly referred to as the Decalogue) and in the original Hebrew culture referred to as the “Ten Words.” To have added Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them would have made them the 11 commandments and that of course would not have played well with cradle Catholics Martin Luther was trying to convert to his new religion. The Google AI overview is quoted as follows:

    These are results for When Did the commandments first come to be identified as “the 10 commandments.”
    Search instead for When Did the commandments first come to be identified as “the 10 comandments.”

    AI Overview

    The name “the Ten Commandments” originated with the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which occurred 

    between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The original Hebrew texts refer to them as “the ten words,” which was later translated into the Greek deka logoi, or Decalogue. 

    Development of the name

    • Original Hebrew: “Ten Words”: In the Hebrew texts of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the laws are called ʿĂśéreṯ had-Dibbərôṯ, which translates to “the ten words” or “the ten sayings”. This phrasing was repeated in the books of Exodus (34:28), Deuteronomy (4:13), and Deuteronomy (10:4).
    • Greek translation: Dekálogos: The Septuagint, the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, translated “ten words” into dekálogos. This is the origin of the term “Decalogue” used in theological and academic settings.
    • Early English translations: In the 16th century, early English biblical translations, such as the Tyndale and Coverdale versions, used the phrase “ten verses”.
    • Widespread use of “Ten Commandments”: The title “Ten Commandments” gained widespread recognition through later English translations, including the Geneva Bible and the King James Version (Authorized Version). 

    Clarifying the term

    It is important to note that the biblical texts themselves refer to the commandments as “ten words,” not “ten commandments.” This linguistic detail highlights that the popular title is an interpretive development over time. The exact numbering and division of these commandments differ slightly among Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions, demonstrating that there is not a single, universal version.

          But why split it up this way, Martin Luther must have been aware of how the Catholic Church had always divide up the 10 commandments.  But he was trying to drive a wedge between the common people and the Catholic church and propagated the lie that Catholics worshiped the statues of saints, the chief of whom had been the Virgin Mary – mother of God (Jesus Christ), that were in almost all Catholic churches at the time.  The point is that Catholics never worshiped those statues, but merely saw them as people who had lived exceptionally holy lives, and “prayers” used in this context was the term used to ask these dead saints to appeal to almighty God, since they were thought to have lived lives holy enough (and previously confirmed by 3 miracles and a devil’s advocate to insure no “cheating” as to determining their holiness) to have good assurance of being in God’s presence, in heaven, and able to add their prayers for the petitions of the one “praying” (not worshipping the saint, since God Almighty – the Holy Trinity, alone is worthy of worship). The Apostles Creed (according to google AI Overview), was created about the second century AD, some 12 centuries before the protestant reformation, speaks of the communion of saints.  The communion of saints assumes 3 groups of Catholics: the church militant (those on earth that have not yet died), the church suffering (those in purgatory undergoing purification to become perfect as required in Matthew 5:48) and the Church triumphant (those humans who are already acquired heaven). Those who are assumed in heaven are those who we ask to pray for us (that asking is what Catholics sometimes referred to as “praying” to the saints).

          This is my argument for why protestants split this commandment into two. But what is my argument for them staying together as Catholics propose? Once again according to an AI overview searching on the phrase “what is a graven thing as described in exodus in the bible,” and alternate translation of Exodus 20:4-5 is “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” Using this translation you have the word idol. Some irreverent people feel that this being the first commandment shows pride or conceit on God’s part making his worship more important than not murdering your fellow man which should be first.  But the minor argument is as Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, saying he was God is not blasphemy because He is God, God the Father, the First Person of the Blessed Trinity requiring worship is not conceit because He created everything including the one with this opinion.  The fact is, that the admonition to worship God with your whole being and not idolize anything else, necessarily needs to be first. Why?  If God is the most important thing in your life, and you “idolize” God, you will make sure to follow His commandments.  That why the admonitions to worship God and have no Gods or idols beside Him should be together.  Hitler idolized power instead of God and it led to violating the 5th commandment, “Thou shall not kill,” causing the deaths of millions (to include his own suicide). Bill Gates Idolizes wealth/money which led to violating the 8th commandment “thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor” (saying potentially harmful vaccines or medicines had no harmful effects, despite knowing the fact that myocarditis might be a side effect of some widely touted vaccines, and should be used by everyone to hopefully make him money) conceivably causing the illness of millions. Bernie Madoff idolizing greed, leading to breaking the 7th commandment, “thou shall not steal.” Finally, Jeffrey Epstien idolizing lust, which led to violating the 6th commandment, “thou shall not commit adultery (Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, was secretly married to tech CEO Scott Borgerson in 2016, Epstein died by suicide in 2019).

          The fact is when you idolize someone or something other than God you face unhappiness in this world and the next. Hitler and Epstein committed suicide, Madoff is in jail and Bill Gates is ostracized and divorced. All the commandments are really summarized in Luke 10:27: “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  If you love God you respect him and keep his commandments. It makes logical sense that the first 3 should be for God and that His worship goes with those commandments which apply to only Him. One, love God with your whole being, two, respect his name out of reverence to him (I think He also made this number 2 as a concession to the souls that are damned to have the almost non-existent satisfaction of cursing His name as against his second commandment for all eternity, though their skin be on fire and worms consume them constantly).  This is an easily recognizable quality showing your mindfulness and love of God.  Commandment number 3 is the transition from love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself.  If you attend Sunday mass as honoring the new lord’s day (established since in Matthew 28:18 Jesus said: All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth and his church started this custom shortly upon his resurrection), which occurred on Easter Sunday), you learn what the lord requires of you in the Epistle and the Gospel and the sermon or homily.

         Commandment number 4, “honor thy father and thy mother” is the segway from the commandments purely about God in that God is the ultimate father and emphasizes that authority is given by God to all legitimate governments (John 19:11).  The last two commandments were real tripping point, supposedly, for Martin Luther.  In reading about him He asks what man does not covet and that no man can do that so God could not have meant us to actually do it, and that our sins can only be covered, that we cannot actually avoid sin and purify ourselves.  But as great saints have agreed with him, alone we cannot, but with prayer and the power of God supplying the help we need we can, as all the great saints have shown and have been able to purify themselves.  For in John 15:5 Jesus Himself tells us: “I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.” [emphasis mine] We must pray always and work with our Lord Jesus Christ to be successful in purifying and perfecting ourselves. In Matthew 5:48 Christ tells us that we must “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This is how we know we can achieve this but if we can get close, there is purgatory, where the bad is burned away, to bring us the rest of the way (1 Corinthians 3:10-16) so that we may be saved.

            Thanks to Martin Luther, protestants run the last two commandments on covetousness together into one commandment. But coveting another’s goods (commandment 10) is, in my opinion, is at the heart of the scourge of communism/socialism and that is why these 2 government systems have failed 20 out of the last 20 times they were tried, Germany, Russia and Venezuela being some of the most recent failures. But the story of Helen of Troy shows us how coveting another’s wife, commandment 9, is a totally different situation from commandment 10, which can, in its own way, separate from property, cause the death of thousands. So in my opinion commandment 10 and commandment 9 should be separate in that each can cause great damage by its own “merits.”

        Hopefully, I have made my point that commandments one and two in the protestant enumeration of the 10 commandments should be combined to make the first commandment strong enough to command its first priority in the list of commandments and that their combination as the first catholic commandment makes sense. Additionally, I also hope to have shown how the last 2 commandments should be seperate, since one focuses on jealosy and greed and the other focuses on jealosy and lust.