Tag Archives: books

Signs and Ceremonies: The Virgin Mary

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The following is from Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher (1882, New York: Russel Brothers).

"St. Ephanius, born in the year 310, says: ‘What shall I say, or what shall I preach of that beautiful and Holy Virgin? God alone excepted, she excels all others. In her nature more beautiful than the Cherubims and Seraphims and all the angelic host, no earthly tongue can sing her heavenly praises, not even the tongues of angels. O, Holy Virgin, pure dove and celestial spouse. Mary thou art heaven, the temple and the throne of divinity; thou hast Christ transcendent in heaven, as thy son on earth thou a bright cloud in heaven, brought Christ to illuminate the world. Thou gate of heaven, whom the prophet plainly and openly speaks in course of his prayer. ‘My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.’ That Virgin is an immaculate lilly, who brought forth the more perfect rose, Christ. O holy Mother of God. O, Immaculate Dove! In thee the Word became incarnate. O, most holy Virgin, whose sanctity stupefies the angels! Wonderful is the miracle in heaven! a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet; wonderful is the miracle in heaven! the bosom of a virgin holds the Son of God. Wonderful is the miracle in heaven! the God of the angels becomes the Child of the Virgin. The angels condemn Eve; now they cover Mary with glory, for she raised up fallen Eve and she sends Adam, fallen from Paradise, into heaven. The grace of the holy Virgin is immense. Hence Gabriel first salutes the Virgin saying ‘Hail full of grace, Hail most holy Mother Immaculate who brought forth Christ, who was before thee.’" (Ch. 7, p. 112-113)

"Mary was mother of the entire Being born of her; but the Being born of her was the Son of God, and therefore she is the mother of God, and being the mother of God, she is higher, nobler, grander in dignity than any other creature that was mdae, but not by nature, for the angels and all the celestial spirits made by God in heaven are superior to us in the rank of creation and in knowledge; but no angel, no spirit in heaven is the mother of God – only Mary was created for that dignity. She is, therefore, not by nature, but by dignity, far above all the creatures that God made, and that dignity is founded upon her Maternity, because she is mother of God; but she is nothing, compared with God, and no one can adore her, none can worship her, for she is a creature, and to adore a creature is idolatry, and idolatry is the giving to a creature the worship that belongs to God alone. Therefore, idolatry is the greatest sin. Therefore, to adore Mary would be a great sin against God. Adoration, then, belongs only to the Divinity. Therefore we can adore only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." (Ch. 7, p. 115)

"All her gifts, all her dignity, all her excellences come from her Son; and if she is full of grace, in the words of the Archangel, that grace comes from Christ, for he is the source from whence come forth all graces and blessings that enlightened angels and men. He is the mediator between God and man. No one can go to heaven but through him; but as when we want to get some favor from a great person, we do not go directly to him but to some one of influence who is well known to him, and whom he respects, whom he cannot refuse, and we ask that one to intercede for us. Thus, sometimes, when we want something from God, and we consider ourselves so little and imperfect, and we know the tenderness and the sympathy of a woman’s heart, and we know the influence of a mother over her son, and we go to Mary and ask her to use her influence with her Son as she has already done, when she told Him they had no wine at Cana, and He changed the water into wine at her request. As Moses prayed for the sins of Israel in the desert, and God at the prayer of the just and holy Moses did not destroy the people, as the prophets prayed for the kings of Israel and God heard their prayers, ao God hears Mary’s requests and grants her what she asks. She is now dead; but those who are dead do not rest so as not to hear us, as many people suppose, for the very nature of a spirit is to be active and in motion. Thus our souls are never at rest, but ever exercise the power they have of movement and of action. Thus souls separate in heaven are always in action and in motion. Thus souls in heaven see God face to face; and as everything that takes place here on earth is seen by God, and as those spirits see him they see in God what takes place here on earth; they see in God then our prayers, our sufferings, our needs, and thus we know that Mary sees us when we pray, and hears us, and ask God to grant the favors that we ask of her.

We are not obliged to go to her; we can go directly to God, and thus many of us do. Thus it is with Mary and the saints. We pray to them only as the servants of God, or we see in their holiness God’s greatness in them; and if they are great, it is the greatness of god within them, for God made them what they are. We see, therefore, within them God himself, for God lived in them and moved in them, for they were the temples of the Holy Ghost." (Ch. 7, p.115-117)

Signs and Ceremonies: The Incarnation

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The following is from Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher (1882, New York: Russel Brothers).

"Let us understand well and clearly the mystery of the Incarnation. If you say that he united himself to man in such as way that his Divinity took the place and fulfilled the duties of the soul in the body, you have only a shell inhabited by the Lord and you have not perfect man, but only a body without a soul. That would be an error of many modern writers.

If you say that the spirit of God dwelt within the body born of Mary, you would have a great prophet of God, and a creature not different from the prophets of old; but he would not be God, he would only come in the spirit of God, and that was the error of the Cerinthians of the first century [and the Arians in the fourth century, if I understand properly – Funky].

If you say that he had no body born of Mary, but that his body was formed of thin atmosphere like a vision, you fall into the erros of the Phantasiasts and Docetists of the early ages.

If you say that he was only a man born of Mary and of Joseph, you fall into the errors of the Ebionites and the Protenites.

If you say that his two natures, the nature of God and the nature of man, were combined in him so as to make two persons, different from one another, you are wrong, you are following the false teachings of the Nestorians.

If you say that his whole human will was absorbed into the Godhead, you fall into the error of the Monothelites.

If you say that he had only one nature, you fall into the errors of the Eutychians.

Now the true doctrine is this: That there was a human nature void without a human person, but, in place of his human person, there was placed the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and there was God and man united in the Person, and there was in him two natures, the one of God and the other of man, but there was in him only one person, the Person of the Holy Trinity. And, as all the action of a man and all things that he does are referred to him, uniting both the body and soul, so all the works on God and everything that he did were referred to his Person. And the one who is responsible for all these things is is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; and, therefore, the acts of his soul, and the actions of his body, and the actions of his mind, and his sufferings, and his privations, and all the things that he did, are the actions, and the works, and the operations, not of a human being, but the Second Person of the Trinity. Therefore, these are the actions of God." (Ch. 7, pp. 108-109)

Signs and Ceremonies: The Real Presence

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The following is from Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher (1882, New York: Russel Brothers).

“In the Greek text [the expression of carnal nature of the Eucharist] is stronger
than in our English Bible. Those who do not wish to believe use all kinds of ways
in order to get out of believing the truth of Christ’s presence. But these words
are so clear, the universal belief of all antiquity, the writings of the fathers
of the Church, who give the belief of all ages up to the time of Christ, all these
are so strong on that even Luther himself says, ‘These words are so clear that no
angel from heaven, no man on earth could speak clearer.” (Ch. 5, p. 81)

“St. Ignatius, made Bishop of Antioch in the year 69, writing against the Gnostics
says: ‘They abstain from prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist
is the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ St. Justin, the Martyr, born in the
year 105, explaining the Mass to the Roman Emporer Antoninus, says: ‘He who is the
chief among the brethren, taking the bread and the vessel of wine and water, giving
glory to the Father of all, in the name of the Son and Holy Spirit, continues the
Eucharist…Then all the people say Amen…But we do not take this as communion
bread or drink, but as for our salvation, by the Word of God, Jesus Christ was made
flesh, thus by these prayers we receive the flesh and blood of the same incarnate
Jesus Christ.'” (Ch. 5, p. 84)

“St. Ambrose, born in the year 340, says: ‘Of the bread the flesh of Christ
is made…But how can that which is bread become the Body of Christ? By consecration.
By whose words and by whose language does the consecration take place? Those of
our Lord Jesus Christ. For it was not the Body of Christ before the consecration,
but I say to thee, that after consecration it is now the Body of Christ. He said
and it was done, he commanded and it was made.'” (Ch.5, p. 85)

Signs and Ceremonies

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I just finished reading Teaching Truths by Signs and Ceremonies or The
Church, Its Rites and Services Explained for the People by Rev. Jas. L. Meagher
(1882, New York: Russel Brothers). I acquired a second edition copy from my grandfather’s
estate in 1998. He was one of the very few Catholics in my family. It’s too bad
I didn’t convert until two years after his death. I’d love to have a family member
to fully share my faith with.

This book is full of nuggets of wisdom and I’ll be posting some of them for the
next few days. Some of them are eternal Truths, others are sad reminders of the
damage done by “progress”.

“In this Ritual [of the Mass], every sign recalls a doctrine, every movement has its meaning,
and every action breathes of mystery.” (Preface)

“Thus all in the Church, the plan, the foundation, the music, the ornaments,
the style, all point to the altar, telling of the unchanging faith, the belief of
past ages in the Real Presence, of God in the Sacrament of the altar.” (Ch.
1, p. 9)

“[S]how me a religion without rites and ceremonies, and I will show you a people
drifting rapidly toward infidelity and the denial of all religion.” (Ch. 1,
p.14)

“Sometimes you will see the Church as a great building on a rock in the sea.
That is the true Church built by Christ on the rock, that is on the Papacy, in the
sea, in the midst of the changing governments and institutions and peoples of this
world, who are ever fluctuating like the waves of the sea, but the Church is on
an impregnable rock, for the Church never changes. You see the waves dashing against
the rock-bound shores, but beaten back. Thus the Church built on Peter and his successors
stands alone in the world; it never changes; it remains the same; it is attacked
on all sides by the waves of error, the storms of persecution, the roar of the elements
of passion, of governments, of politics around it; it is attacked by these, but
they are driven back; they go down. Governments may change, nations may rise and
fall, people may change their forms of laws, their idea, their manners, but the
Church alone, as an institution founded by Jesus Christ, stands to-day and ever
will, a thing that can never be destroyed. “And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” (Ch. 3, p. 51, quote from Matthew
16:18)