Monday, October 18, 2010
The Catholic Church is not an "it"
In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical and above all a Eucharistic assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.
752 Catechism of the Catholic Church I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church
The comparison of the Church with the body casts light on the intimate bond between Christ and his Church. Not only is she gathered around him; she is united in him, in his body. Three aspects of the Church as the Body of Christ are to be more specifically noted: the unity of all her members with each other as a result of their union with Christ; Christ as head of the Body; and the Church as bride of Christ.
789 Catechism of the Catholic Church The Church: The Body of Christ
The proper pronoun to use when speaking of the Catholic Church is "she". She is Holy Mother Church. She is the Bride of Christ. Why is it then, that more Catholics now refer to the Church as "it"?
For example, during the reading of the Prayers for the Faithful intentions at this past Sunday Mass, the following was read..."for the Catholic Church, that "it" continue..."
That same day that the above referred to intention was read at Mass, the meditation for the day in the Magnifcat, happened to be one of St. Catherine of Siena's writing on patience and perseverance.
She wrote: "For you know well, most holy Father, that when you accepted Holy Church as your bride you agreed to work hard for her. You expected all these contrary winds of pain and difficulty to confront you in battle over her... So we see that the Church's being persecuted, and every difficulty virtuous souls experience will end in peace, won through true patience and perseverance..." - October 2010 Issue
On a similar note, God should never be referred to as "she". He is Abba Father; God the Father. God should never be referred to with feminine pronouns as some will now lead Catholics to believe; their arguments being that God is a spirit, neither male or female. 370 Catechism of the Catholic Church: Equality and Difference Willed By God
Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last,1 the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works.198 Catechism of the Catholic Church I Believe in God the Father.
Jesus taught as to pray as follows:
"This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." Matthew Chapter 6:9-16.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary - A Red Rose - For Sinners
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| Our Lady of the Holy Rosary by Guido Reni |
POOR MEN AND WOMEN who are sinners, I, a greater sinner than you, wish to give to you this rose----a crimson one, because the Precious Blood of Our Lord has fallen upon it. Please God that it will bring true fragrance into your lives----but above all may it save you from the danger that you are in. Every day unbelievers and unrepentant sinners cry: "Let us crown ourselves with roses." [1] But our cry should be: "Let us crown ourselves with roses of the Most Holy Rosary."
How different are theirs from ours! Their roses are pleasures of the flesh, worldly honors and passing riches which wilt and decay in no time, but ours, which are the Our Father and Hail Mary which we have said devoutly over and over again and to which we have added good penitential acts, will never wilt or die and they will be just as exquisite thousands of years from now as they are today.
On the contrary, sinners' roses only look like roses, while in point of fact they are cruel thorns which prick them during life by giving them pangs of conscience, at their death they pierce them with bitter regret and, still worse, in eternity, they turn to burning shafts of anger and despair. But if our roses have thorns, they are the thorns of Jesus Christ Who changes them into roses. If our roses prick us, it is only for a short time----and only in order to cure the illness of sin and to save our souls.
So by all means we should eagerly crown ourselves with these roses from Heaven, and recite the entire Rosary every day, that is to say three Rosaries each of five decades which are like three little wreaths or crowns of flowers: and there are two reasons for doing this: First of all to honor the three crowns of Jesus and Mary----Jesus' crown of grace at the time of His incarnation, His crown of thorns during His passion and His crown of glory in Heaven, and of course the three-fold crown which the Most Blessed Trinity gave Mary in Heaven.
Secondly, we should do this so that we ourselves may receive three crowns from Jesus and Mary. The first is a crown of merit during our lifetime, the second, a crown of peace at our death, and the third, a crown of glory in Heaven.
If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins "you shall receive a never fading crown of glory." [2] Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if----and mark well what I say----if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.
In this book there are several stories of great sinners who were converted through the power of the Holy Rosary. Please read and meditate upon them.
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From The Secret of the Rosary by St. Luis De Montfort, Montfort Publications
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
"When Christ appeared to Margaret Mary and revealed His infinite charity to her, He also let her perceive a kind of sadness in Him in His complaints against the countless and grievous insults He suffered by reason of men's ingratitude. May the words He then spoke become firmly engraved in the souls of the faithful and never be erased!" - Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor
"This sovereign Spirit that operated and acted in me independently of me, had seized such absolute control over my whole spiritual and even bodily being that it was no longer in my power to command any feeling of joy or sadness except at His good pleasure; nor could I focus my mind on anything except what He presented to it." - St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
"Truthfully, my dear Mother, I don't know what to say to those I love, unless I speak to them of the cross of Jesus Christ, and when I am asked what graces our Lord grants me, an unworthy sinner, I can only speak of the happiness there is in suffering with Jesus Christ, for I see nothing more precious in this life, for those who love Him, than to suffer for love of Him." - From the Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
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"O my dear Mother, if its true value were known, everyone would not flee from it and reject it so freely; but on the contrary, it would be so greatly cherished and loved that everyone could find happiness only in the cross, and rest only on the cross, and would have no other wish than to die in His arms, scorned and abandoned by all." - From the Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
"All my prayers and everything I can do seem to be directed toward this goal alone, to establish reign of the Sacred Heart; and now to obtain the approbation of the request you have made to Rome on this matter. I am not failing to ask the most sacred Virgin and our blessed Father La Colombiere to take an interest in it, and I hope he will be of very great help to us. For, just as you are taking his place on earth, I think he also is taking yours in heaven to love and glorify this divine heart." - St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
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"Finally my dear Mother, it is consoling to hear the successful progress of this beautiful devotion. (Note from me: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) We are informed from Lyons that it is like a Miracle to see how everyone is embracing it with fervor and eagerness. Three or four cities have been mentioned to us where these books are going to be printed, including Marseilles. And a thousand have been taken for that one place. And of twenty-seven religious houses in that city, there is not one that has not accepted this devotion, and they have been so eager that some of them have erected altars, others are dedicating chapels to it; and as soon as the people of Marseilles heard about it, they urged their preachers to give them exhortations to thoroughly explain this devotion to them, which, in less than two weeks, spread so rapidly that an unbelievable number of devout persons receive Holy Communion every first Friday. And it has been said that it is going to be established in all the houses of the reverend Jesuit Fathers, who even have the young fathers who do not say Mass receive Communion every first Friday..." St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
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| Stained Glass Window -Sacred Heart Church, Honolulu |
Excerpts from Saint Margaret Mary by Msgr. Leon Cristani, St. Paul Editions
Friday, October 15, 2010
Santa Teresa de Jesús
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| St. Teresa of Avila Writing by Antonio Acisclo Palomino |
"I know of a person to whom Our Lord wished to show what a soul was like when it committed mortal sin. That person says that, if people could understand this, she thinks they would find it impossible to sin at all, and , rather than meet occasions of sin, would put themselves to the greatest trouble imaginable..." -excerpt from First Mansions Chapter Two
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"Humility must always be doing its work like a bee, making its honey in the hive: without humility all will be lost." - excerpt from First Mansions Chapter Two
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On God calling us: "...His appeals come through the conversations of good people, or from sermons, or through the reading of good books; and there are many other ways, of which you have heard, in which God calls us. Or they come through sicknesses and trials, or by means of truth that God teaches us at times when we are engaged in prayer; however feeble such prayers may be God values them highly..." excerpt Second Mansions Chapter One
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"Oh, humility, humility! I do not know why I have this temptation, but whenever I hear people making so much of their times of aridity, I cannot help thinking that they are somewhat lacking in it..." - excerpt from Third Mansions, Chapter Three
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"...If we have not progressed as far as this, then, as I have said, let us practice humility, which is the ointment for our wounds; if we are truly humble, God, the Physician, will come in due course, even though He tarry, to heal us." - excerpt from Third Mansions, Chapter Two
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..."Perhaps we do not know what love is: it would not surprise me a great deal to learn this, for love consists not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything and to endeavor, in allpossible ways, not to offend Him, and to pray Him ever to advance the honor and glory of His Son and the growth of the Catholic Church..." excerpt from Fourth Mansions, Chapter One
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..."The really essential thing, sisters, is that you should speak to your confessor very plainly and candidly- I do not mean here in confessing your sins, for of course you will do so then, but in describing your experiences in prayer. For unless you do this, I cannot assure you that you are proceeding as you should or that it is God Who is teacing you. God is very anxious for us to speak
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| St. Teresa protecting the 21 Carmelite Nuns by Juan Pedro López |
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Source: Interior Castles by Teresa de Ávila
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Giving Thanks to God
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| "The picture of miner Johny Barrios put on an image of Our Lady of Fatima at La Esperanza encampment, beside the San Jose mine, near Copiapo, 800 km north of Santiago." |
You can see two other photos at Helen's blog CatholicSeeking.
If it weren't for the Catholic news coverage, we would not be aware that Faith played a vital part in this miracle.
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