Who is the Rock?

Scripture says:

Deuteronomy 32:4
King James Version (KJV)
⁴ He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

And also:

1 Corinthians 10:4
King James Version (KJV)
⁴ And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Now consider, God is our Rock and Jesus is the Rock, correct?

Body and Blood of Christ, a test of faith

I answer that, The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, which rests upon Divine authority. Hence, on Luke 22:19: "This is My body which shall be delivered up for you," Cyril says: "Doubt not whether this be true; but take rather the Saviour's words with faith; for since He is the Truth, He lieth not."(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 3rd Part, Q75, Article 1)

Before the Protestant Revolution, faithful Catholics such as St. Thomas Aquinas did not shy away from using the term "faith alone".  But that term meant so much more than that to which Protestants have reduced it.

It is in the Sacraments that faith alone comes into play.  The discerning of the Body and Blood of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist is an excellent example of what St. Thomas and St. Paul and all the Saints in between and thereafter meant when they spoke of "faith" without deeds.

This faith is illustrated over and over in the Gospels.  The Canaanite woman:

Matthew 15
King James Version (KJV)
²² And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.²³ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.²⁴ But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.²⁵ Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.²⁶ But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.²⁷ And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.²⁸ Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

The Centurion:

Matthew 8
⁵ And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,⁶ And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.⁷ And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.⁸ The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.⁹ For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.¹⁰ When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.¹¹ And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.¹² But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.¹³ And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

The woman with a hemorrhage:

Mark 5:
King James Version (KJV)
24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

These and many more, presented themselves to Christ with faith alone.  No works to their credit.  And by their faith alone, Christ healed them.

And that is what we, Catholics, do today when we present ourselves to Christ in the Sacraments.  And this is illustrated most clearly in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Lord.  Because, it is as St. Thomas Aquinas so clearly spoke. 

The presence of Christ's true body and blood in this sacrament cannot be detected by sense, nor understanding, but by faith alone, ....

Sincerely,

De Maria

Socrates vs Sola Scriptura

One of the greatest arguments against Sola Scriptura was articulated by a pagan philosopher many centuries before the Protestant Revolution came along:

SocratesHe who thinks, then, that he has left behind him any art in writing, and he who receives it in the belief that anything in writing will be clear and certain, would be an utterly simple person, and in truth ignorant of the prophecy of Ammon, if he thinks written words are of any use except to remind him who knows the matter about which they are written.

One Mediator

Hebrews 12:24
King James Version (KJV)
²⁴ And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Christ is the "mediator of the New Covenant". 


Frequently, Protestants insist that there is only one mediator and therefore deny the intercessory power of the Heavenly Court. 

However, Christ is called the mediator of the New Covenant because God established it through Him. Just as Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant. 

Deuteronomy 29:1
King James Version (KJV)
1 These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

There is only one Mediator of the New Covenant in the sense that Christ is He through whom the New Covenant was established. But we are all co-mediators in the sense that we all are called to bring others into Covenant relationship with God.

1 Timothy 4:16
King James Version (KJV)
¹⁶ Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

James 5:20
King James Version (KJV)
²⁰ Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Sincerely,

De Maria

Is Mary the Mother of God?

Here's what I say:

Jesus is God.

Did God die on the Cross?

Here's what I say:

Just musing....

I was musing about Mary and the birth of Jesus when these thoughts came to me...

Did you realize that when a man and woman come together and conceive a child, the father puts in 50% of the dna and the mother puts in 50% of the dna which means the flesh, but God puts in 100% of the Spirit.

The Hail Mary and Scripture

I think most people know that the Hail Mary is directly from Scripture.  But it is worth repeating.

Explanation of the Holy Trinity

Ha ha!  This post is funny because I just got through telling someone that understanding the nature of the Holy Trinity and therefore explaining it, is impossible.  Here and here.  But on another forum, I find myself in the unenviable position of having to explain the Holy Trinity to someone who objects to the doctrine.  God has a sense of humor.  Here is the exchange, which is going on at this forum.  His words in red.

Fides et Veritas wrote:
Sorry it took me six whole years to think up a response!!

Wow! I didn't notice the date. Thanks for reviving an interesting question.

Quote:
But you are one hundred percent correct.

I disagree as I've already noted.

Quote:
Let me copy paste what I just posted this morning on another thread about the Trinity. It doesn't cover all but yet covers some of the issues concerning this controversial (among some) doctrine.

I'll post my own response for comparison.

How does Trinity work?

I don't know. It is a mystery revealed by God. Tell me, how does Omniscience or omnipotence work? God is mystery folks and there are somethings about God which our little minds will never comprehend.

Quote:
How does Trinity work? It doesn't nor can it ever. Paganism has no place with the Bible

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not Paganism. Although we don't know how it works, we do know what was revealed. God is a Trinity of Persons. God is not three human persons. God is three Divine Persons. That is a very big difference.

We can't understand that idea because we are human and are constrained by time and space. But God is not. God is not constrained by time and space. So, lets compare God to man.

1. A human person is constrained to one place and one time. That is our nature. Therefore, you Fides and I are in two different places at the same time. But can't occupy the same space at the same time. Because we of our human nature. Therefore there are millions of us occupying our little space in time. But we don't overlap each other.

2. However, God is not constrained by time or space. God has a DIVINE nature which is not constrained by creation. Therefore, God is He in whom we live, move and are. God is HE WHO IS. Yahweh. All things exist in God.

That means that there can only be one God. One Divine Nature. There is no room for a second.

3. However, God has revealed that there are three persons who are God. Now, there may be three PERSONS in God. But they can't be three different Gods. They must share the same Divine nature. Therefore, three Divine Persons, One Divine Nature, One God.

Quote:
How many God's are there? There is one God Family, currently composed of two God beings

There are three Divine Persons. And yes, God is a family of persons. God the Father, God the Son and God the Love which binds the Father and the Son.

Quote:
Is Jesus God? Yes. He is the second member of the Family, formerly known as the Logos (is that where Prince got that?).

The reference goes over my head. But God is the second Divine Person, that is true.

Quote:Is Jesus human? When the Word (Logos) became flesh he divested himself of divinity. He was human.

God became man but did not divest Himself of His Divinity. He simply concealed it in His humanity.

Quote:Can a human be God? No

Everything is possible with God.

Quote:
Can God be a human?.He can divest himself of divinity and become human. At such time He would cease to be God

Jesus did not cease to be God when He became man. He simply concealed His Divinity.

Quote:Is Jesus the son of God? Yes

Agreed.

Quote:
Is Jesus the son of Jesus? No

No, Jesus is the Divine Son of the Father. Jesus was generated in eternity. As was the Holy  Spirit. Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father. The Holy Spirit also proceeds from Jesus.

Quote:
When Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”, was he talking to himself? No. He was speaking to the remaining member of the God Family, the Father.

He was talking to the First Person of the Holy Trinity, God the Father.

Quote:
Did Jesus raise himself from the dead? No. God the Father did.

Jesus raised Himself from the dead:
John 10:17-19
King James Version (KJV)
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.

Quote:
Did God die? No. What took place was an extreme risk. As a human Christ risked everything. If he failed he would have forfeited not only his life but all of ours as the Death Penalty required for sin could not be paid. When he died it was a human that passed away, but due to his divine birthright it made him worth the sum total of all humans, past, present and future.

I'm afraid yours is a misunderstanding of what occurs in death.

Death is not the same thing as annihilation. Death is the time when the physical body ceases to function. Even in humans, only the physical body ceases to function. But the human spirit continues to exist and to live. Christ said this of the righteous:
John 11:26
King James Version (KJV)
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Therefore, on the Cross, Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, died. His human body ceased to function, but His Divine Spirit continued to exist. Then His Divine Spirit exited the human body and death occurred. Then His Divine Spirit took over His human body again and transformed it into a Spiritual Body and Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Of His own power.

Quote:
Was God sacrificed to God? No. Christ was human.

Yes. The Jews, although they did not know what they were doing, actually sacrificed Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God Himself, to God the Father. It is a mystery of God's which is beyond our understanding. But St. Paul treats of it slightly here:
Hebrews 9:16
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

God is the Testator. And in order for the righteous to receive the promises of the Old Testament, God had to die. And He did. On the Cross.

Quote:
Who is the Holy Spirit? Who? Nothing. What? The power wielded by the God Family to effect change and influence matter and spirit.

He is the Power of God, the other Comforter whom God has sent to us through the intercession of Christ our Lord.

Quote:
This by no means a full explanation but it is yet a start. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
This is one of my most favorite topics.

It is a great topic indeed.

Quote:
Thanks!!

You're welcome.

Sincerely,

De Maria

Let me try another way....

... to explain justification.

Objection: So then, what are the kinds of works that are the "effect" rather than the "Cause" of one's salvation?

In my opinion, works are neither the effect nor the cause of one's salvation.

Quote:What does only a Christian do that is a work that an Atheist wouldn't ?

I don't understand the question.  In whom does an Atheist show faith?

Quote:
How do we determine a Christian who is showing the "effect" versus one who is not? Do such specifics matter to this view? If an Atheist or Buddhist is capable of doing these "works" which one may claim is the "effect" of being saved, does that render their argument void?

Oh! I think the reason I don't understand the question is because I don't subscribe to that teaching.

Quote:
Such snags are not any problem at all to the face-value reading of James in that works are the cause rather than the effect.

St. James is speaking shorthand. In other words, is the same as when we say, "Scripture is inspired." Scripture isn't and never was inspired. Holy men were inspired to write Scripture.

Or another example, "the Sun is rising". The Sun doesn't rise, the earth rotates so that the Sun appears to rise. But its easier to say, "justified by works" and "Scripture is inspired" and "the Sun is rising" than to give the detailed explanation.

Quote:
So what are these "works" specifically that only Christians can do and no one else.

I don't know to what you refer.

Quote:
I see this argument about the works being the effect rather than the cause so often all over the place, and 9/10 when asked what these works are specifically, the conversation ends or dodges and dives commence.

Perhaps that is a reference to the works of God, the Sacraments, before which we present ourselves in an attitude of faith. But I'm simply guessing.

Anyway, I believe justification is by "faith and works" which is the Catholic Teaching. That is, as I said, so to speak. Because the Church also teaches that neither faith nor works merit the grace of justification (Trent VI, CHAPTER VIII).

I know that is confusing because the statements seem to contradict each other. Let me give you an example which I hope will clarify the matter.

Say for instance, that Bill Gates is in an emergency. He can't find a chauffer and has jumped in his vehicle and started driving because he has a deal to make which will make him the richest man ever in the world. He is driving through your neighborhood and has a blow out. You are standing there when this happens. He jumps out of the car and says, "hey, can you change a tire?" You say, "sure". He says, "I'll pay you a million dollars to change that tire. I'd do it myself but I have to make three phone calls right now!"

Obviously, you're a good samaritan, you would have done it for nothing. But Bill Gates has set the value. Your work is now worth $1,000,000.

So, in this example, Bill Gates is God. And changing the tire is "faith and good works". And the $1,000,000 is the gift of justification.

Changing a tire is worth nothing in dollars and cents. Therefore, the one million dollars amounts to a gift. Changing the tire did not "merit" or "earn" the gift. The gift was given "voluntarily" by Gates. He could pay $10 and be equally righteous. He need pay nothing at all, actually. Nor do you have to change the tire.

Our faith and good works amount to nothing in comparison to the gift of God's sanctifying grace washing us of our sins. God doesn't have to give us anything at all for doing that which makes sense for us to do anyway. Ask any atheist. The 10 Commandments are common sense practices which everyone should follow. But God gives us the bonus of washing our sins and a participation in eternal, if we continue to the end.

So, faith and good works are necessary, without those, we won't get the gift. Its not a matter of earning, nor of causing. If we were causing or earning, we would get nothing but a pat on the back.

Ok, so, those are the metaphors. Now, lets turn to Scripture. The Old Testament says:
Exodus 20:6
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

God shows mercy upon those who keep His Commandments. We don't save ourselves by keeping the Commandments. God saves us.

Again, that's like the folks who are on a shipwreck and put themselves in a positiion to be rescued. The rescuers will rescue them. But they must put themselves in a position to be rescued.

Romans 2:13
King James Version (KJV)
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Only those who first keep the Law of God, the Commandments, will be rescued. Not those who don't:
Revelation 22:13-15
King James Version (KJV)
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Finally, there are the Sacraments. The difference between Christians and Jews and others is that they must await the Judgement before they will enter heaven. However, Christians walk with the Saints while they are in this life:
Hebrews 12:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

And they do so by the Sacraments:
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Sincerely,

De Maria

Mother of My Lord

One of the things which always astounded me.  Astounds me to this day, really, is the fact that a Protestant and a Catholic can look at the same verse and come up with two radically different understandings of that verse.

The difference, in my opinion, stems back to how we read the Bible.  Protestants DISCOVER the meaning of a Bible verse every time they read it.  They, in good faith, endeavor to read the Bible without any presuppositions cluttering their mind.  At least, that's what many of them have told me.  They suggest that I do the same.  That I shed the Catholic presuppositions and approach the Bible as though I had never seen it before.

That, however, would be precisely against Catholic Teaching.  The Catholic Church instructs us to read the Bible according to the Traditions of the Church.

113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church"⁸¹).

I have thought about why, the Catholic Church and the Protestants approach Scripture reading with such disparate methods.  And I have come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church is the only Church which can legitimately approach Scripture with presuppositions.

You see, God did not drop a Bible down to earth and say, "You guys read that and figure it out."  No.  God inspired holy men to preach and then to write the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21).  Remember the day of Pentecost?  We just celebrated it and are still within the Octave.

What I mean is this:
1.  Christ taught the Apostles and commanded them to preach (Matt 28:20).
2.  The Apostles obeyed and went into the world preaching and baptizing (Acts 2:38).
3.  The Church then began to write the New Testament Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21).

Therefore, the New Testament is based upon the Traditions of Jesus Christ.  The Traditions are the presuppositions with which the Church approaches the Scriptures.  And that is why Catholics and Protestants can look at the same verse and see totally different things.

I was reminded of this reading the words of St. Elizabeth to Our Lady:
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

There we see an explicit declaration of the title, Mother of God, being used in Scripture.  But Protestants won't admit it.

The Gospel reading today is this:

Lk 1:39-56

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever."

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.


Sincerely,


De Maria

Refuting Protestant false assumptions

Anonmymous John has asked me how I would respond to Dr. Mizzi's objection to the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary.

Hi John,

Thanks for your interest.  Before I begin, I'd like to isolate some of the false "assumptions (i.e. presuppositions)" by which lead Protestants to erroneous conclusions of the meaning of the Scriptures.  These are some of the reasons that, in my opinion, a Protestant and Catholic can look at precisely the same Bible verse or Church doctrine and come up with completely different understandings.


What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Refuting Mizzi's assumptions about the Assumption of Mary

Anonmymous John has asked me how I would respond to Dr. Mizzi's objection to the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary.

Here goes.  Dr. Mizzi's words are in red.  Mine in black.

Enoch and Mary and the Assumption

The Bible seems explicit to me concerning the assumption of Enoch. The Bible also seems explicit in explaining why Enoch was assumed into heaven:

Hebrews 11:5 ....for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Now it seems to me that this sort of gives us a guideline or Biblical principle. Apparently, God will translate to Himself those who please Him. We know that we all await our translation to heaven body and soul, eventually, in the Resurrection. But apparently, God will translate some to Himself who please Him extraordinarily. Such as, Elijah and Moses ( 4 Kings 2:11;   Jude 1:9).

Now, if He did this in the past, why would God not do it in the future. After all, God is absolute and does not change. And isn't Scripture clear that Mary pleased God:

Luke 1:28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women....42 And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.

Additional texts which support the translation of Mary to heaven body and soul are these:

Rev 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail.

 Rev 12:1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars:

John 17:24 Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world.
Psalms 132:8 Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place: thou and the ark, which thou hast sanctified.

I guess your next question is "what does the ark have to do with Mary?"

I'll let Scott Hahn answer that:

The most prominent scriptural theme in the liturgical text of the Church when it comes to the feast of the Assumption, which we are celebrating happily today. You can see, if you had a missalette that the reading for the Vigil of the Assumption has some text that at first might seem to be rather odd and out of place. For instance, we had a reading from 1st Chronicles 15. It doesn't mention Mary. All it talks about is how David assembled all Israel and Jerusalem to bring the Ark of the Lord to the place which he had prepared for it. .... And you're thinking, "Why choose this text? There are literally thousands of texts to choose from, why a text about a box? And all of these guys jumping and singing and dancing around a box, and putting it in a tent and then singing and dancing and offering sacrifices and blessing people in the text?" 

Kind of unusual. But then for the Responsorial Song in the Vigil Mass from Psalm 132, the responsorial is , "Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the Ark of you holiness." Now, this isn't Noah's ark, this is the Ark of the Covenant. We'll get a little bit more into the background in just a minute, but why the Ark of the Covenant, and this is an ancient liturgical tradition. These are texts that have been included in the liturgy of the Assumption as far back as we can trace it, and this is like 7th Century, 6th Century. We can't trace it back much farther than that, but all this historical evidence points to the fact that this has been celebrated from ancient times. So you can't just say, "Well it popped out of nowhere in the 6th and 7th Century," because back then Churches were liturgically hyper- conservative. I mean you didn't just innovate and then say, "Well, we've got a new feast." Then all of a sudden have it catch on in the Church all around the world.

I hope the helps,

Sincerely,

De Maria

The Spirit blows where it will.

IN MY OPINION, there is one thing which Catholics need to learn from Protestants.   It is the confidence in their individual prayers being heard by God.

There are Catholics who tell me that there is a book which says that all blessing must be done by a ministerial Priest.   I say, ministerial, because we are all baptized, priests, prophets and kings.  But ministerial Priests have the further consecration of service for the people of God and to God.

Who is more faithful, women or men?

People frequently confuse me for a woman because I call myself after Our Lady, Mary (i.e. Maria).  But  I'm a man.  Anyway,  one thing that has been proven to me in my life is that women are more faithful to God than men.  Every Church I've ever been to, women outnumber men two to one.  From the time I was young, I remember the men dropping the women off on Sunday, they would sit on the stoop or go to the bar and come back to the pick up their wives, moms and sisters when Mass was over.

The faith of Christ

For many years, I had a wrong understanding of faith. I thought it meant believing in God's existence. But Jesus did not have that kind of faith. He was "certain" of God's existence, He is God. But Scripture says that faith is:

How do I prove the Assumption from Scripture?

A few years ago, I was asked,

Is there a way to prove the Assumption of Mary other than saying "the Church says so" to a Protestant?

Lets try this:

Marcus Grodi's Journey Home program on Youtube

Maybe you guys already knew about it, but I didn't.  I recently discovered that my favourite program, Journey Home, is on Youtube.

I don't have cable or satellite.  So, I used to have to wait to see the program when I was out of town (I travel a lot) if I was in a Catholic area and the hotel carried EWTN.  I could sometimes get it on my computer, if I could figure out how to hook in through EWTN's website.  But I'm afraid that either takes more computer expertise than I possess or I've got the wrong kind of computer (a Macbook).

I don't know if they have all the titles on Youtube.  But they have a bunch.  This week, I watched the episodes with Brian Robbins, Debbie Herbeck, Marie Joseph and Peggy Bowes.

Everyone of the programs was great.  But I especially enjoyed how Mr. Robbins connected the dots between the Old and New Testament as it pertained to the Liturgical Calendar.

Anyway, I'll be taking advantage of this new found gem very often.

Sincerely,

De Maria

He is talking about the Mass

The Church teaches us to understand the Scriptures through the lens of Church Tradition.

113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church"⁸¹).

This has been very helpful to me in understanding the Word of God.  But more recently, I've learned to look at the New Testament through the lens of the Sacraments.  There are so many verses which we can't understand completely unless we recognize the Sacraments.  I was reminded because today at Mass, the first reading said:

1 Pt 1:10-16
Beloved:Concerning the salvation of your soulsthe prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yourssearched and investigated itinvestigating the time and circumstancesthat the Spirit of Christ within them indicatedwhen it testified in advanceto the sufferings destined for Christand the glories to follow them.It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but youwith regard to the things that have now been announced to youby those who preached the Good News to youthrough the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,things into which angels longed to look.
Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly,and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to youat the revelation of Jesus Christ.Like obedient children,do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorancebut, as he who called you is holy,be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,for it is written, Be holy because I am holy.

Do you recognize the Mass in this reading?  It's in these words.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Unlike the Protestants, we are not simply awaiting Jesus Christ at the Second Coming.  We, who understand our faith, are yearning for Christ revealed to us on the Altar, in the Mass, in the Holy Eucharist.

Sincerely,

De Maria