Tag Archives: Catholic

The Ark of the New Covenant

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I have often heard Mary spoken of as the ark of the New Covenant. Tonight at RCIA, I learned of a parallel between Mary and the original ark that I had not heard before.

"And David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, ‘How can the ark of the LORD come to me?’…And David danced before the LORD with all his might;" – 2 Samuel 6:9,14a

"And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. " – Luke 1:43-44

Interesting, ain’t it? Of course, the entire notion of the Immaculate Conception doesn’t (and couldn’t) hang on these verses, but I think they’re interesting nonetheless.

Meeting Mark Shea

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MARK.JPGTonight I got to listen to fellow St. Blog’s parishoner Mark Shea speak. Some of his speech material came from his essay "The Critics Rave". It was a fun and interesting talk about countering the Church’s detractor’s questions with another question, "Who do you say that the Church is?", a play off of a question Jesus posed to the apostles.

After the talk, I introduced myself and chatted for a bit. I’m not entirely certain he actually knew what blog I write, but he was polite enough to pretend he did. 😉 I bought a copy of "Making Sense Out of Scripture" and got him to autograph it. Then Donna Lewis and I talked his ear off for almost as long as he’d lectured. Poor fella.

Anyhow, check out his blog and see what the fuss is all about. 🙂

Violating Inviolability

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Last month, Daniel Nichols over at Caelum & Terra blogged an entry entitled An Open Wound, in which he shared the news of couple that he and his family knew and with whom had once been close having received an annulment. They had been married over twenty years and were blessed with nine children, whom they homeschooled. The couple had in all manner been devout, articulate, exemplary Catholics. After some amount of time, however, the wife left her husband and eventually applied for and obtained an annulment. An annulment is a finding from the Church that sacramental marriage, which Catholics hold to be unviolable, never happened. And Mr. Nichols’ reaction to this news, and any sane person’s reaction would have to be,

[I]f they can get an annulment, anyone can!

…

That the Church has come to this–providing excuses for sins against God and man–is a scandal, an open wound in the Body of Christ.

Lord have mercy.

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John Henry Newman on Faith (and Doubt)

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Today, Pontificator posts an 1848 letter of John Henry Cardinal Newman to one Mrs. Froude, which reflects deeply on conversion and faith. It resonated with me as one in the midst of a not altogether smooth conversion to a church that audaciously claims it is the One and Only Church founded by Christ from a church that, finding no virtue in audacity, believes no such Church exists.

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Sitne Salus Extra Ecclesiam?

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I can hear the fundies shrieking and hissing about this already…

"Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith, says Benedict XVI."

On a side note, can anyone verify that my title is correct Latin? Instead of "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus [est]", i.e., "Outside the Church there is no salvation", I wanted "Might there be salvation outside the Church?".