Tag Archives: theology

Conversations on the Catechism: “I Believe” – “We Believe”

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"There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church, which is, of course, quite a different thing." – Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

A recent post by Jollyblogger got me thinking. He’s trying to start a League of Reformed Bloggers with an eventual Carnival of the Reformed. I’ve seen a few "merely" Christian and Protestant carnivals. I haven’t seen any Catholic carnivals. Does anyone know of one? Maybe someone within St. Blog’s could organize one (I wouldn’t have a clue where to start.).

Anyhow, I’d like get people to discuss the broader issues of Catholicism (as opposed to gluten-free wafers). In particular, I’d like to invite my Protestant readers to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. To those ends, I’m going to write posts that highlight sections of the Catechism. This will be the first.

I invite all of my Christian readers to read Part One, Section One: "I Believe" – "We Believe" (paragraphs 26 through 184). What statements do you agree with? What parts would you disagree with? Why?

The Efficacy of Prayer

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Prayer is a weird thing. If you try to turn prayer into a way of asking God to do things, before long you’ll find yourself in a morass of conflicting theological precepts (e.g., God does whatever God wants versus God answers prayer). So a lot of Christians I have spoken with define prayer as little more than "communication with God." Apparently just initiating the link at all is enough to make prayer worthwhile. But doesn’t God know all my thoughts already? Oh, but God likes when you share voluntarily. Okay, sure, whatever.

Theomorph has posted some interesting ruminations about prayer. Anybody care to respond?

One Foundation

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I found a verse to Samuel Wesley’s “The Church’s One Foundation” that
I’d never heard before. It was in my grandmother’s old Lutheran hymnal (Before the
green book, before the red book, there was the black book.). I like it a lot.

Though, with a scornful wonder,
Men see her sore oppressed
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed;
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

Signs and Ceremonies: The Redemption

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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).

“[T]he Redemption was really and truly of infinite value, an infinite price,
not like the Pelagians and Socinians said, for these taught that Christ redeemed
us, not by paying the debt of our sins, but by resisting the temptations of the
evil one in the desert, or by being obedient to his Father; but the Catholic truth
teaches that Christ redeemed us from sin by wiping it completely out, pleasing God
in our place, and restoring us to heaven lost in Adam” (Ch. 7, pp. 117-118)

“He gave an equal return for the honor and respect and reverence due to God,
for sin is infinite because it is an injury done to an infinite God. But the reparation,
the satisfaction returned to God for that sin was infinite, for it was the prayers,
offerings, and the suffering and death of an infinite Person, Jesus Christ, the
Second Person of the Trinity; therefore his satisfaction was equal to the sin and
injury done to God.” (Ch. 7, p. 119)

“But he did not deliver us from the evils of temptation, of death, of sickness,
of suffering, or return to us the perfect and easy control which Adam and Eve had
before their fall, over the lower powers of our soul, or deliver us from all the
evils which fell on the human race from the sin of Adam, but only sanctifying grace,
which gives the right to enter heaven.” (Ch. 7, p. 120)

“And to say that Christ died for us all and that nothing more is required,
is to put the saint and the murderer, the good and the bad all on the same level,
all going to heaven, no matter what they do in this world. Our salvation then depends
on our own actions, the loss or the salvation of each one depends on their sins
or their good works; by these good works gaining the merits and graces of Christ
ready to be showered down upon us when we merit them. By His death he gained all
these, and these are to be given us when we show ourselves worthy by our good lives.”
(Ch. 7, pp. 120-121)

“Such then is the Mass; it is the applying of these merits of Christ to our
souls – the showering down of these graces into our hearts and the continuation
of the sacrifice of Calvary. A sacrifice is the great act of man offered to the
Divinity; here in the Mass we have the Victim only worthy of the Deity, the sacrifice
of the Son of God, there immolated to the God-head, the Offering only worthy of
the Deity of the Second Person of the Trinity is present there, and as the sublime
tragedy of Calvary is continued, there continued in remembrance of Him, the Victim
and the Sacrificer, as all is offered to the God-head, the face of the celebrant
is turned from the people toward God. The people are bowed down in prayer; it is
not necessary that they understand the words, for they are said not for them to
hear but for the ear of God. All may be in silence, still it is a sacrifice offered
to the Lord; not one besides the celebrant may understand these rites and ceremonies,
still they are for the eye of God and not of man, and God accepts them from
the hands of the priest, for how can he reject the offering of His only begotten
Son?” (Ch. 7, pp. 121-122)

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)