+Religion – Page 71

The Church Year: June 16, 2012

Today is Saturday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.

We celebrate the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary today.

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 16, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

There is no special fixed liturgical day in the Extraordinary Form.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

174. The Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the day after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The contiguity of both celebrations is in itself a liturgical sign of their close connection: the mysterium of the Heart of Jesus is projected onto and reverberates in the Heart of His Mother, who is also one of his followers and a disciple. As the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart celebrates the salvific mysteries of Christ in a synthetic manner by reducing them to their fount -the Heart of Jesus, so too the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a celebration of the complex visceral relationship of Mary with her Son’s work of salvation: from the Incarnation, to his death and resurrection, to the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Following the apparitions at Fatima in 1917, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary became very widespread. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the apparitions (1942) Pius XII consecrated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and extended the memorial to the entire Church.

In popular piety devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary resemble those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, while bearing in mind the distance between Jesus and his Mother: consecration of individuals and families, of religious communities and nations; reparation for sins through prayer, mortification and alms deeds; the practice of the First Five Saturdays.

With regard to receiving Holy Communion of the Five First Saturdays, the same as has been said in relation to the Nine First Fridays can be repeated: overestimation of temporal factors should be overcome in favour of re-contextualization the reception of Holy Communion within the framework of the Eucharist. This pious practice should be seen as an opportunity to live intensely the paschal Mystery celebrated in the Holy Eucharist, as inspired by the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Church Year: June 15, 2012

Today is Friday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.

We celebrate the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus today.

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 15, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, martyrs, who died in A.D. 303. It is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St.s Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

171. Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are numerous. Some have been explicitly approved and frequently recommended by the Apostolic See. Among these, mention should be made of the following:

personal consecration, described by Pius XI as “undoubtedly the principal devotional practice used in relation to the Sacred Heart”;
family consecration to the Sacred Heart, in which the family, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony already participating in the mystery of the unity and love of Christ for the Church, is dedicated to Christ so that he might reign in the hearts of all its members;
the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, approved for the whole Church in 1891, which is evidently biblical in character and to which many indulgences have been attached;
the act of reparation, a prayer with which the faithful, mindful of the infinite goodness of Christ, implore mercy for the offences committed in so many ways against his Sacred Heart;
the pious practice of the first Fridays of the month which derives from the “great promises” made by Jesus to St. Margaret Mary. At a time when sacramental communion was very rare among the faithful, the first Friday devotion contributed significantly to a renewed use of the Sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist. In our own times, the devotion to the first Fridays, even if practised correctly, may not always lead to the desired spiritual fruits. Hence, the faithful require constant instruction so that any reduction of the practice to mere credulity, is avoided and an active faith encouraged so that the faithful may undertake their commitment to the Gospel correctly in their lives. They should also be reminded of the absolute preeminence of Sunday, the “primordial feast”, which should be marked by the full participation of the faithful at the celebration of the Holy Mass.

172. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a wonderful historical expression of the Church’s piety for Christ, her Spouse and Lord: it calls for a fundamental attitude of conversion and reparation, of love and gratitude, apostolic commitment and dedication to Christ and his saving work. For these reasons, the devotion is recommended and its renewal encouraged by the Holy See and by the Bishops. Such renewal touches on the devotion’s linguistic and iconographic expressions; on consciousness of its biblical origins and its connection with the great mysteries of the faith; on affirming the primacy of the love of God and neighbour as the essential content of the devotion itself.

173. Popular piety tends to associate a devotion with its iconographic expression. This is a normal and positive phenomenon. Inconveniences can sometimes arise: iconographic expressions that no longer respond to the artistic taste of the people can sometimes lead to a diminished appreciation of the devotion’s object, independently of its theological basis and its historico-salvific content.

This can sometimes arise with devotion to the Sacred Heart: perhaps certain over sentimental images which are incapable of giving expression to the devotion’s robust theological content or which do not encourage the faithful to approach the mystery of the Sacred Heart of our Savior.

Recent time have seen the development of images representing the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the moment of crucifixion which is the highest expression of the love of Christ. The Sacred Heart is Christ crucified, his side pierced by the lance, with blood and water flowing from it (cf, John 19, 34).

Do We Leave Time When We Die?

Yesterday we noted that there is more than one way that the word “eternal” is used.

For example, sometimes it is used to mean everlasting (being inside time but having no end, beginning, or both), and sometimes it is used to mean atemporal (beyond or outside time).

We saw that God is eternal in the second sense. He is completely beyond time.

But what about us?

Specifically: What about us when we die? Do we journey beyond time to be with God in the eternal now outside of time?

You often hear the idea that we do.

This idea seems to be based on reasoning something like this:

God is outside of time.
God is in heaven.
When we die, we go into heaven.
Therefore, when we die, we go outside of time.

But we need to be careful here. That’s not a formally valid argument. Consider this parallel:

Bob is outside of Scranton.
Bob is in ecstasy.
When I think about God’s love, I go into ecstasy.
Therefore, when I think about God’s love, I go outside of Scranton.

That doesn’t follow at all. I might think about God’s love and go into ecstasy even though I am located in Scranton. (Note: People in Scranton might disagree. I’ll leave that up to them.)

This is also important because the Church does not understand heaven as a physical place up in the clouds where God literally has a throne but as a state of spiritual communion with God and the saints.

Thus John Paul II taught:

In the context of revelation, we know that the “heaven” or “happiness” in which we will find ourselves is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds, but a living, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity [General Audience of July 21, 1999].

And the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

1025 To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ,” but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.

For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.

1026 By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has “opened” heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.

So the Church understands heaven in terms of a relationship with the Holy Trinity and the community of the blessed incorporated into Christ rather than a physical place.

But if I can be the state of heaven by virtue of being definitively happy due to communion with God and his saints, without it implying that I am in a particular physical place then I could similarly be in that state without implying that I am inside time or outside of time.

In other words: Whether you are “in heaven” tells you about your spiritual state (definitively happy, in communion with God and the saints) but does not tell you about where or if you are located in space and time.

The argument above, thus, does not work–despite its superficial plausibility–just as being “in ecstasy” does not tell you anything about whether you are also “in Scranton.”

If this argument does not work, does Catholic theology have anything to say about whether we leave time upon our death?

It does.

Tune in tomorrow.

The Church Year: June 14, 2012

Today is Thursday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is white.

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 14, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Basil the Great, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 379. It is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Basil, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

Tomorrow is the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

169. Devotion to the Sacred Heart was particularly strong during the middle ages. Many renowned for the learning and holiness developed and encouraged the devotion, among them St. Bernard (+1153), St. Bonaventure (+ 1274), the mystic St. Lutgarda (+1246), St Mathilda of Marburg (+ 1282), the sainted sisters Mathilda (+ 1299) and Gertrude (+ 1302) of the monastery of Helfta, and Ludolf of Saxony (+1380). These perceived in the Sacred Heart a “refuge” in which to recover, the seat of mercy, the encounter with him who is the source of the Lord’s infinite love, the fount from which flows the Holy Spirit, the promised land, and true paradise.

170. In the modern period devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus underwent new developments. At a time when Jansenism proclaimed the rigors of divine justice, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus served as a useful antidote and aroused in the faithful a love for Our Lord and a trust in his infinite mercy symbolized by his Heart. St. Francis de Sales (+ 1622) adopted humility, gentleness (cf. Mt 11, 29) and tender loving mercy, all aspects of the Sacred Heart, as a model for his life and apostolate. The Lord frequently manifested the abundant mercy of his Heart to St. Margaret Mary (+ 1690); St. John Eudes (+ 1680) promoted the liturgical devotion of the Sacred Heart, while St. Claude de la Colombi+¿re (+ 1682) and St. John Bosco (+ 1888) and other saints were avid promoters of devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Is God Outside of Time?

We often here that God is eternal, but the word “eternal” can mean more than one thing.

On the one hand, it can mean everlasting–that is, something that endures through successive moments of time with either no beginning, no end, or both.

On the other hand, it can also mean atemporal–beyond or outside of time.

Catholic teaching holds that God is eternal in the second sense, but where could you go to show that?

You could quote from Aquinas on this point, but while Aquinas is very respected, including by the Magisterium, he is not himself an agent of the Magisterium.

But here is a passage which, because it is from one of John Paul II’s general audiences, is an exercise of the Church’s Magisterium:

These facts of revelation also express the rational conviction to which one comes when one considers that God is the subsisting Being, and therefore necessary, and therefore eternal.

Because he cannot not be, he cannot have beginning or end nor a succession of moments in the only and infinite act of his existence.

Right reason and revelation wonderfully converge on this point.

Being God, absolute fullness of being, (ipsum Esse subsistens), his eternity “inscribed in the terminology of being” must be understood as the “indivisible, perfect, and simultaneous possession of an unending life,” and therefore as the attribute of being absolutely “beyond time” [General Audience of Sept. 4, 1985].

So: “his eternity . . . must be understood as . . . being absolutely ‘beyond time.'”

Also note that the definition of eternity offered here the “indivisible, perfect, and simultaneous possession of an unending life,” is the classical definition proposed by the Christian philosopher Boethius in The Consolation of Philosophy, around the year A.D. 524:

It is the common judgement, then, of all creatures that live by reason that God is eternal. So let us consider the nature of eternity, for this will make clear to us both the nature of God and his manner of knowing. Eternity, then, is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life; this will be clear from a comparison with creatures that exist in time.

…for it is one thing to progress like the world in Plato’s theory through everlasting life, and another thing to have embraced the whole of everlasting life in one simultaneous present. (Boethius Consolation, V.VI.) [MORE.]

SECRET CLUB ALERT

This is an alert for all members of the Secret Information Club that the John Paul II “interview” on hell is now complete and will be delivered to your email inboxes the morning of Saturday, June 16th (U.S. time).

Like some other secret club communiques, I pose questions in the interview and the answers are taken from the writings of John Paul II.

Very few churchmen are willing to speak about the doctrine of hell, but John Paul II was one of them, and the interview presents his wisdom on the doctrine of hell, its biblical basis, how we should understand it, and what it means for our lives.

If you are already a member of the Secret Information Club, you will get this interview automatically.

If you are not yet a member of the Secret Information Club and would like to receive it, you should sign up for the Secret Information Club by Friday, June 15th. Signing up is FREE!

You should sign up using this form:

(If you have any trouble, just email me at Jimmy@SecretInfoClub.com.)

You can also go to www.SecretInfoClub.com for more information.

Incidentally, before he hopped on a plane for Israel recently, the globe-trotting author, blogger, and apologist Steve Ray sent me an email (and permission to use it) in which he said:

“Bravo, Jimmy! I look forward to your secret messages as a member of your Secret Information Club.

Actually, I like it that you do a lot of research I wish I had time to do.

Don’t tell anyone–this is a secret–but I copy each one and save it in my Logos Bible Software program for future reference.

Very valuable, fun, and great content. Keep up the good work.”

Steve Ray
www.CatholicConvert.com

The Church Year: June 13, 2012

Today is Wednesday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 13, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Anthony of Padua, OFM, confessor, priest, and doctor of the Church who died in A.D. 1231. In the Ordinary Form, it is a memorial, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Anthony of Padua, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

This Friday is the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

167. The Roman Pontiffs have frequently averted to the scriptural basis of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Jesus, who is one with the Father (cf. John 10, 30), invites his disciples to live in close communion with him, to model their lives on him and on his teaching. He, in turn, reveals himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11, 29). It can be said that, in a certain sense, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a [ritual] form of the prophetic and evangelic gaze of all Christians on him who was pierced (cf. John 19, 37; Zac 12, 10), the gaze of all Christians on the side of Christ, transfixed by a lance, and from which flowed blood and water (cf. John 19, 34), symbols of the “wondrous sacrament of the Church.”

The Gospel of St. John recounts the showing of the Lord’s hands and his side to the disciples (cf. John 20,20), and of his invitation to Thomas to put his hand into his side (cf. John 20, 27). This event has also had a notable influence on the origin and development of the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart.

168. These and other texts present Christ as the paschal Lamb, victorious and slain (cf. Apoc 5,6). They were objects of much reflection by the Fathers who unveiled their doctrinal richness. They invited the faithful to penetrate the mysteries of Christ by contemplating the wound opened in his side. Augustine writes: “Access is possible: Christ is the door. It was opened for you when his side was opened by the lance. Remember what flowed out from his side: thus, choose where you want to enter Christ. From the side of Christ as he hung dying upon the Cross there flowed out blood and water, when it was pierced by a lance. Your purification is in that water, your redemption is in that blood.”

Are All Believers Priests?

Our Protestant brethren are sometimes critical of the Catholic priesthood, pointing to passages in the New Testament that describe Christians in general as a “royal priesthood” or “a kingdom of priests.”

This leads to the concept frequently referred to in Protestant circles as “the priesthood of all believers.”

What is often unrecognized is that the relevant New Testament passages are quotations from Old Testament passages that refer to the Israelites in just the same way.

So if in the Old Testament there was a “priesthood of all Israelites” alongside a ministerial priesthood possessed by only some Israelites then in the New Testament there can be a “common priesthood” (to use a Catholic term for it) that exists alongside the ministerial priesthood exercised by Christ’s ordained ministers.

For it’s part, the Catholic Church acknowledges the universal priesthood of all Christians.

For example, in one of his general audiences, Pope John Paul II commented on one of the universal priesthood passages in the book of Revelation and remarked:

As [the Lamb] has been “slain”, he is able to “ransom” (ibid.) men and women coming from the most varied origins.

The Greek word used does not explicitly refer us to the history of the Exodus, where “ransoming” the Israelites is never spoken of; however, the continuation of the phrase makes a clear reference to the well-known promise made by God to the Israelites of Sinai: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19: 6).

This promise has now become a reality: the Lamb has truly established for God “a kingdom and priests… who shall reign on earth” (cf. Rv 5: 10).

The door of this kingdom is open to all humanity, called to form the community of the children of God, as St Peter reminds us: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God”s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (I Pt 2: 9).

The Second Vatican Council explicitly refers to these texts of the First Letter of Peter and of the Book of Revelation when, referring to the “common priesthood” that belongs to all the faithful, it points out the components to enable them to carry it out.

“The faithful indeed, by virtue of their royal priesthood, participate in the offering of the Eucharist. They exercise that priesthood, too, by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, abnegation and active charity (Lumen Gentium, n. 10) [General Audience of Nov. 3, 2004].

So it isn’t a question of whether there is a common priesthood shared by all Christians.

There is.

The question is whether the existence of this priesthood excludes another, ministerial priesthood.

As shown by the parallel Old Testament priesthoods, it doesn’t.

The Church Year: June 12, 2012

Today is Tuesday of the 10th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is white.

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 12, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. John of San Facundo, Augustinian, confessor, who died in A.D. 1470. It is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St.s Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius, martyrs, who died in A.D. 305. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. John of San Facundo, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St.s Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor, and Nazarius, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

This Friday is the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

166. The Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost. In addition to the liturgical celebration, many devotional exercises are connected with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Of all devotions, devotion to the Sacred Heart was, and remains, one of the most widespread and popular in the Church.

Understood in the light of the Scriptures, the term “Sacred Heart of Jesus” denotes the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of his being, and his person considered in its most intimate essential: Son of God, uncreated wisdom; infinite charity, principal of the salvation and sanctification of mankind. The “Sacred Heart” is Christ, the Word Incarnate, Savior, intrinsically containing, in the Spirit, an infinite divine-human love for the Father and for his brothers.

Are Living Christians Saints?

One of the things that many Protestant Christians have been perplexed by is the fact that Catholics often use the term “saint” in a way that refers to those saints who are in heaven–particularly those that have been canonized.

Although the Bible does apply the term “saints” to those in heaven, this use of the term isn’t dominant. Instead, the Bible refers to people here on earth as saints also, including (in the Old Testament) the Israelities (God’s original holy people) and (in the New Testament) the Christians (a new holy people).

Catholics can also acknowledge this–a fact I was reminded of recently when I was reading one of John Paul II’s last general audiences, from just a few months before he died.

In it, commenting on a canticle sung by the twenty-four elders in heaven in the book of Revelation, he said:

Now, the almighty and eternal Lord God “has taken [his] great power and begun to reign” (11: 17).

His entry into history does not only aim to curb the violent reactions of rebels (cf. Ps 2: 1, 5), but above all to exalt and reward the just.

These are defined with a series of words used to describe the spiritual features of Christians.

They are “servants” who comply faithfully with the divine law; they are “prophets”, endowed with the revealed word that interprets and judges history; they are “saints”, consecrated to God, who revere his name, that is, they are ready to adore him and to do his will [General Audience of Jan. 12, 2005].

So, while language is always changing, and while words like “saint” can take on new meanings, including the one commonly used in Catholic circles today, we can still acknowledge other uses of the term, including and especially those in the Bible.