EXCERPT: What do we believe about the Trinity? I cannot do better than to quote great Creeds. You know the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed from Mass. Taste now the so-called Athanasian Creed (or Symbolum Quicumque), which probably came from 5th century Latin Gaul and was attributed to the Greek speaking St. Athanasius of Alexandria (+373). Read this aloud and savor the lack of ambiguity!
Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the Catholic faith. Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the Catholic faith:… Read More →
EXCERPT:
In this Collect there is a reference to those moments in Scripture when God granted a manifestation, an epiphany of the Trinity and of the glory of God. At Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove descending and the voice of the Father was heard (cf. Luke 3). Before going to His death in Jerusalem Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, John and James (cf. Matthew 17) and God again revealed the wondrous mystery (admirabile mysterium) that He is Three in One, a Trinity of divine Persons. In our confession of true faith (vera fides) in the Creed we recognize (agnoscere) God to be Three and One. The Triune God is God the Father, God the Word of Truth, God the Spirit of sanctification, One God in three eternal divine Persons. In the articles about prayers used during the Conclave we learned the difference between cognosco and agnosco. The L&S says for agnosco, “as if to know a person or thing well, as having known it before, to recognize: agnoscere always denotes a subjective knowledge or recognition; while cognoscere designates an objective perception.” Man can reason toward this on his own, as did the pagan Neoplatonic theologians, but only by the gift of faith, of grace, and of divine revelation enable us to profess (confiteor) the Trinitarian mystery fully, in an authentic way. Read More →
EXCERPT:
In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing every characteristic of the Speaker: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was not so. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each embracing the other in a perfect gift of self-giving. And since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct by sharing one divine nature, is a perfect self-gift perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. Thus, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons yet having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit. This is the foundational saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God. Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS| Comments Off on Trinity Sunday: POST COMMUNION
EXCERPT:
In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing every characteristic of the Speaker: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was not so. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each embracing the other in a perfect gift of self-giving. And since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct by sharing one divine nature, is a perfect self-gift perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. Thus, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons yet having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit. This is the foundational saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God. Read More →
EXCERPT:
For some time I have been of the opinion, that we need an ever greater emphasis on beauty in all we do in our public worship. It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that with the rise of post-modernist tendencies together with the decline in excellence in the system of education in the last decades, people today are less and less inclined to rational argument. As a matter of fact, it happens that you can lead a person through a series of propositions until you finally arrive at a conclusion with which they will agree. Then you will stunned to hear him say, “That might be true for you, but not for me.” The Church has for centuries taught doctrine and catechism in a very rational and linear fashion. But that is not how many people think today. It is getting harder to draw people to the truth with that kind of presentation. People are much more inclined to their “feelings” about things. That is why we must reclaim beauty. Beauty is a reflection of the Truth. People can be lead to Truth through their apprehension of the beauty of a thing. We must do all we can to enhance and make beautiful every aspect of our public worship so that we have that much more opportunity to shape, form, and give hope to God’s people. Liturgiam authenticam is very much about inculturation. This is why the issues of beauty and dignity, together with doctrinal precision, are so often emphasised in the document. We must do all we can to enhance and make beautiful every aspect of our public worship so that we have that much more opportunity to shape, form, and give hope to God’s people together with an open door to the true beauty of the Beatific Vision of the Most Blessed Trinity. Read More →
Posted inSESSIUNCULA, WDTPRS| Comments Off on Trinity Sunday: COLLECT (1)
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
ThePapalCount on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “Fr Z I agree with MaternalView above. The world situation is shaky and a trip to Poland… next to Ukraine…”
adriennep on Faith practice declining far and wide…. except…: “Lori announced massive parish closings, along with the suppression of the Latin Mass in diocese. Sure suicide by cutting off…”
Kathleen10 on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “I think people have lost confidence in all manner of things, airplane manufacturers, airlines, FAA, government agencies who are supposed…”
maternalView on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “Perhaps world events are making some nervous international travelers. Personally, I would have loved to go to Poland on a…”
voxborealis on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “The bit about Claudius thinking that a return to the republic was likely or even possible may take its inspiration…”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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