
Catholic Carnival 108: Season of Lent
Pax Christi,
phatcatholic
What was the form or shape of Jesus before He came to earth. Scripture references how Jesus claimed a body was prepared for Him. Did he have a heavenly "body" before he came to earth?No. Before the Word took on flesh, He existed as the second Person of the Trinity, which is Spirit. "God is Spirit" (Jn 4:24), He has no flesh or bones (cf. Lk 24:39). It is He "whom no man has ever seen or can see" (1 Tim 6:16). He is "the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God" (1 Tim 1:17). The Word did not have flesh until he was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary.
Also, since Christ means Messiah or The Annointed One and scripture refers to the Holy Spirit as the anointing (1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you), does this denote that only the body was anointed because the Spirit that put on flesh was The Anointing.No. He is anointed who God chooses to represent Him or to lead His people. According to the Old Law, priests (cf. Exo 28:41; Num 3:2-3; 35:25), kings (cf. 1 Sam 10:1; 16:12-13; 2 Sam 19:10; 1 Ki 1:39), and sometimes even prophets (cf. 1 Ki 19:16; 1 Chron 16:21-22; Isa 61:1) were anointed for their respective offices. Similarly, when we say that Jesus is the Christ (which means "anointed"), we mean that He is The Chosen One, the Messiah that the Jews were anticipating, the person in whom all of these anointed offices are present.
How in the world do you tell someone who is so strong in their faith that she is wrong (or better yet, "in error") and, has, in essence, been duped by the "Reformers"?Very carefully ;)
I really find this particularly frustrating and somewhat discouraging. I don’t want to say something that I’m going to regret, nor to I wish to state something, however innocent, incorrectly.I understand. It's tough when you know the Truth but someone you dearly love does not, and no matter what you do, you can't convince them otherwise. AND, every time you try, you have to make sure that you don't insult the person you love and that you state everything correctly. Yes, all of this is very frustrating indeed! However, with prayer, patience, persistence, and the grace of God, it can be done. The more educated you become in your faith, and the more experience you obtain in talking with non-Catholic Christians, the easier this will become.
Have you ever walked up to a Protestant and told them that they are in error? I guess I’m looking for a point of reference from where I can begin.Well, I've certainly never started a conversation that way. If you do, you'll just turn the person off at the onset and there won't be much hope for a frutiful exchange. I think the best thing to do is to LISTEN. Don't collect rejoinders in your mind as you watch the person's mouth move. It is important to actually listen to what he (or she) is saying. You have to get to the very heart of what he believes before you can effectively respond to him, and this only happens by listening closely to him.
I think the problem really gets messy in my case, for two reasons: 1. I like this girl a lot (intelligent, charming, loves God, virtuous, beautiful, I mean, everything I would ever dream to have in a wife…with the exception that she’s not Catholic); and 2. My comfort level with the Bible…is…well…OK, but it still leaves something to be desired.Yes, I understand what you are going through. One of my ex-girlfriends was Pentecostal. I basically would have said everything about her that you just said about your girlfriend. But, eventually our religious differences became too great.
I mean, my impression, is, and I think Keating talked about it, that, in order to talk to a Bible Christian, and help them to realize their error, you have to make your points using the Bible alone, in spite of the fact that we know that Sola Scriptura is completely wrong, and, in and of itself, completely contradictory to Scripture, for various reasons (as you obviously know).Yes, this is correct. Scripture is his only authority. Thus, if you wish to persuade him on religious matters, you must use his authoritative source. Eventually, you may be able to persuade him that the early Church fathers and the authoritative statements of the Magisterium are important too. But, until then, you have to use the Bible.
Dear Student, Studying is not considered a servile, manual labor and so the Church law against work is not applicable here. Most students take advantage of Sunday for make-up reading and other scholarly work. So you must not think as you do. College work is very expensive both in time and finances; you must work very hard to succeed. Surely never use religion and Faith as motive to avoid hard intellectual labor.He is right that doing homework is not servile, manual labor, but I don't think he has taken into account the various extenuating circumstances that can make doing homework an unacceptable practice on Sunday.
Take again — as a sort of combination of being soaked in dogma and soaked in New Testament — the famous objection of the street corner heckler to the infallibility of the Pope, that "Christ called Peter Satan." In our early years on the platform, we gave a thoroughly unsatisfactory answer to the question, an answer we had got out of the books. Our answer was this: Christ did say to St. Peter: "Get thee behind me, Satan"; but, we said, the context explains it. Our Lord had told the Apostles that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter, out of his love for our Lord, begged Him not to do so, and our Lord then said to Peter: "Get thee behind me, Satan"; and we explained that the word Satan means tempter and that Peter, out of love of our Lord, was tempting Him not to go through His suffering. And all this was very much to Peter's credit. That was our explanation and it never satisfied the crowd. Why? Because we had explained the words, but we had not explained the violence of the words. Satan does mean a tempter, but Satan means Satan: our Lord knew it, and Peter knew it, and it was a scarifying thing for our Lord to have said to Peter. Why the vehemence, if that was all? Go forward to the Agony in the Garden and you see more profoundly. Our Lord asks His Father the very thing that Peter had suggested to Him. "Don't make Me go through with this suffering." And our Lord feels the anguish of it, so that the sweat runs off like blood. Now, that sweat as of blood is the measure of the temptation that Peter is exposing our Lord to, when he begged Him not to suffer and die. And once you see the sweat as of blood, then you understand the vehemence of "Get thee behind me, Satan."What Sheed is telling us with this and other examples is that it is not enough to simply know what we believe about something. We have to be able to get to the heart of the teaching, and to the heart of the problem that the objector sees in the teaching. As apologists, we can't just downplay the alarm that people have over Jesus' response to Peter. We have to give that alarm the respect it deserves as a valid response and then respond honestly to it.
Prot. N. 569/00/LYou can also read this correspondance here. Thank you for the correction, Father!
March 14, 2000
Dear Father:
This Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical law to remove the Holy Water from the fonts for the duration of the season of Lent.
This Dicastery is able to respond that the removing of Holy Water from the fonts during the season of Lent is not permitted, in particular, for two reasons:Hoping that this resolves the question and with every good wish and kind regard, I am,
- The liturgical legislation in force does not foresee this innovation, which in addition to being praeter legem is contrary to a balanced understanding of the season of Lent, which though truly being a season of penance, is also a season rich in the symbolism of water and baptism, constantly evoked in liturgical texts.
- The encouragement of the Church that the faithful avail themselves frequently of the [sic] of her sacraments and sacramentals is to be understood to apply also to the season of Lent. The "fast" and "abstinence" which the faithful embrace in this season does not extend to abstaining from the sacraments or sacramentals of the Church. The practice of the Church has been to empty the Holy Water fonts on the days of the Sacred Triduum in preparation of the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil, and it corresponds to those days on which the Eucharist is not celebrated (i.e., Good Friday and Holy Saturday).
Sincerely yours in Christ,
[signed]
Mons. Mario Marini
Undersecretary
I know this sounds like a silly question but I was wondering why i don't really hear prayers or songs directed toward worshiping the Holy Spirit. I mean i know we ask Him for wisdom, and guidance, and direction but you never hear anyone just worshiping Him. Is this just because that is His role of helper in the GodHead or does He also recieve worship when we worship The Father and The Son? I know that all three persons of the Trinity are co-equal, co-existing, and co-eternal, and I know we worship them collectively as God. But it seems like we worship The Father and Jesus seperately as well. So why not the Holy Spirit? Or do we?It is certainly well and good to worship the Holy Spirit and to pray to Him. After all, He is a Divine Person, equal in divinity to the Father and the Son. However, it does seem as though the Spirit is the most neglected of the Persons of the Trinity. I think we can only speculate as to why that is. Personally, I wonder if it might have something to do with the fact that historically, the Church spent so much time hammering out her Christological beliefs that there was little time or reason to devote much energy on the Spirit. The heresies concerning the Spirit are very few, but the Christological heresies are many.
Theres probably a simple answer to this, so please inform me.
Which Catholic belief is the most difficult for you to defend?You'll find it in the sidebar. As for the results on the previous poll, 9 people liked my Q&A's the best, followed Debates (5) and Miscellaneous (4). Leave a comment and let me know why you liked each one, particularly if you voted for "Miscellaneous." I was surprised that anyone voted for that category.
Here's one for ya.First of all, I want to say that I completely understand why you feel such a lack of trust in the Church. Some of her more wretched members have certainly treated your poorly, and I think it would be difficult for any of us to say with certainty what we would do if we were in the same situation as you. It's just tough.........extremely tough.
I left the Catholic Church about 25 years ago. I was sick of the hierarchical, misogynistic mess. And knowing I couldn't change a 2000 year old church, I left. Besides, my brother was raped by a priest as a kid. I just couldn't go there anymore.
Fast-forward 20 years. I'm now hooked up with a priest through volunteer work. He invites me to his parish. He offers to tutor me so I can come back to the Church. After 2 years of arguing with the guy, I decided to try it.
3 months later, he cuts off my studies, does NOT explain anything directly to me, and tells my best friend he has fallen in love with me. He then sends me a letter ordering ME to find another parish.
His reward? An eventual (2 years later) transfer and a promotion, to "Very Reverend". The Bernard Law School of Career Advancement strikes again.
I'm happily an agnostic now, and will NEVER trust "Holy Mother Church" again. NEVER.
Am I going to Hell? If so, at least I should have some company.
this is where I will disagree with you, because you are misapplying those scriptures as well as isolating them. Rom 10:14-15 is clear on how people will be save. What you gave me is the actual roman catholic response which saddens me because according to your view the idol worshipping pagan who offends God by breaking the first commanment is going to your heaven. If we go by your view then we do better by not preaching the gospel to the good pagan.Do I need to even justify this with a response? I thought this was supposed to be a "debate", ya know, where people provide point-by-point rebuttals?!?! I love it when I spend a lot of time giving a thorough and Scriptural defense of what I believe and all I get in return is 5 minutes worth of thought and a wave of the hand, as if that's supposed to refute everything I have written. How can I "debate" with someone if they aren't going to directly engage anything I say or try to actually prove that I'm wrong?
and can you please make your responses shorter. thanks
When does disobeying parents become grave matter?Whenever they ask you to do something that is for your own good and you do not do it, you sin. And, since "Honor your father and mother" is the first of the Commandments that concern love of neighbor, this sin is also quite grave. From the Catechism:
2217 As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents in all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family. "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord" (Col 3:20; Cf. Eph 6:1). Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be morally wrong to obey a particular order, he must not do so.Any sin that directly breaks one of the Ten Commandments is typically considered grave matter (cf. CCC, 1858), and this is one of them.
As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions. Obedience toward parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
So if a budhist who never hears the gospel of Jesus dies, what happens to them? and please give me biblical proof.I offered the following response:
Which category of posts on my blog do you like the most?Let me know.
In Question 7, I supposse I didn't interpret in Genesis, that God made all the angels when he made the heavens.Yup, that's what happened. Here are the verses in question:
So, my question is how did God choose the personalities of the angels?By His divine Providence.
Are the angels listed somewhere and how many are there?Well, we know that their are 9 offices, or orders, of angels, and these are all listed in the Bible:
How did God choose the personalities of the saints?Again, by His divine Providence.
In God's plan, do you think that everything is planned out-miracles and events-or does He make things happen as we go along?Everything is most certainly planned out!! If he just made things happen as we go along, then that would mean that he was a temporal being. But, he is outside of time. All things appear to him in an instant. He does not grow in knowledge or experience. He does not change. He is immutable and omniscient.
Also, do you think that humans will ever achieve world peace through Christ?We can make peace more prevalent in our world, but ultimate, perfect world peace will not be established until Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, comes again in glory.
In which case, I often wonder, is it possible for life to exist without evil?Yes. Life exists in heaven without evil. Life in the Garden of Eden before the fall was life without evil (unless you count the presence of the serpent as an "evil"). When Jesus comes again and eradicates all evil, life will continue. So, it is possible. But, we live in the span between the beginning and the end where there is evil, and it will always exist until the Second Coming. This is not entirely unfortunate, thanks to the wonderful grace of God.
Actually, it is still required for seminarians to receive the instituted ministries of acolyte and lector prior to their ordination to the transitional diaconate (see Canons 1035 and 1050).
Since an altar server and commissioned extraordinary minister of holy communion can fulfill many of the roles of an acolyte, it's optional for lay men (as it is reserved to men alone) to receive this formal institution prior to serving in these roles. And, in fact, since the Vatican II reforms limited the reception of this ministry to men alone, most dioceses do not make use of this ministry other than that their seminarians are instituted into it.
All this means, is that in practice, in most places, acolyte remains a "step" to the priesthood as it would have been considered before Vatican II as a minor order. This, by the way, is largely the reason why these two ministries are conferred on seminarians in their seminary rather than in their home diocese--so as to not confuse the lay faithful (all of whom are commissioned lectors and commissioned extraordinary ministers of holy communion). Of course, there some notable exceptions in the US: some dioceses do use this formal ministry outside of their seminarians.
Some months ago, the Cardinal Arinze, acting on orders from the Pope himself, refused the extension of an indult the US Church had been operating on for a number of years which allowed commissioned extraordinary ministers of holy communion to purify the vessels. Since the indult is no longer in effect, commissioned extraordinary ministers of holy communion should no longer be purifying the sacred vessels.
However, the law itself permits the instituted acolyte to assist in purifying the vessels (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 279). So I personally wonder if we will see more lay men receiving this formal ministry at the request of local bishops in order to assist their priests in purifying the vessels.
Can. 1035 §1 Before anyone may be promoted to the diaconate, whether permanent or transitory, he must have received the ministries of lector and acolyte, and have exercised them for an appropriate time.
§2 Between the conferring of the ministry of acolyte and the diaconate there is to be an interval of at least six months.
Can. 1050 For a person to be promoted to sacred orders, the following documents are required:
1° a certificate of studies duly completed in accordance with can. 1032;
2" for those to be ordained to the priesthood, a certificate of the reception of the diaconate
3° for those to be promoted to the diaconate, certificates of the reception of baptism, of confirmation and of the ministries mentioned in can. 1035, and a certificate that the declaration mentioned in can. 1036 has been made, if an ordinand to be promoted to the permanent diaconate is married, a certificate of his marriage and testimony of his wife's consent.
Question #1: Do angels sometimes inhabit a body for the purposes of being seen or are they seen as silhouettes?Angels do not inhabit bodies because, by their nature, they are not made for that sort of thing. Angels are a type of spirit that does not reside in a body. I'm not even sure that one could even if he wanted to. So, if an angel wants to be seen by man, he simply takes on the image of a man. He appears like a man, even though he is not.
Q #2: In which case, what would be the differences in the functions of angels and saints?Well, their functions are the same in the sense that they both live in perpetual worship of the Lord. Their functions are different in that angels have the distinct mission of "messenger." The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos which means "messenger." So, angels often have the task of delivering messages from God to His people. Human spirits were not made for this purpose.
Q #3: What are the differences in their miracles?There is no difference. Also, note that no angel or saint causes a miracle to occur by his own power. Angels and saints aren't gods. Instead, whenever He wills it, God gives them a special grace or power that allows them to perform the miracle.
Q #4: Angel Gabriel, for example, provided a message. Could he have taken a human body or was he seen in silhhouette?I'm not sure what you mean by "silhhouette" but no, he didn't take on a human body.
Q #5: What is the difference between an angel spirit and a saint spirit?An angel spirit is was made to be pure spirit, a complete and formless being. A saint spirit is formless too, but it was made to be with a body, to give that body life, to be its animating principle. It is in a sense incomplete until it is reunited with its body again.
Q #6: Is it correct that to be a saint; one has to know their calling, create 3 miracles, and be canonized?To be a saint, you just have to live a life of grace. You have to be holy. That's why Paul calls some of the members of his churches "saints" even though they haven't died yet.
Q # 7: What does one have to do be an angel, in spirit?I don't understand this question.
Q #8: How are angels chosen and/or created?The Lord created the angels out of nothing, like He created all things. Every one of the angels that exist in heaven were created all at once, the day the Lord created the heavens and the earth.
Q #9: Are angels spirits that were not ever born as people?That is correct.
Q #10: So, when saintly people die and become saints, are their spirits angelic?No, because the spirits of human beings are different from angelic spirits. They are a different type of spirit.
Q #11: So, would angels and saints have similar spirits in heaven? If so, what are those similarities and differences?Well, they are similar, but they aren't exactly the same. See my answers to Q #2 and #5.
I am often confused between the differences of angels and saints. I know that angels are immortal and that saints create miracles. However, can the services that angels provide be considered miracles? I wonder if saints can also be angels and vice versa. Please let me know what you think and help me to understand the differences.Since St. Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of this blog, I am particular fond of this question! I hope that I can do justice to all the heavenly creatures that God created.
Until the Second Vatican Council, the acolyte was the highest of the minor orders, having as duties the lighting of the altar-candles, carrying the candles in procession, assisting the subdeacon and deacon, and the ministering of water and wine to the priest at Mass. Acolytes wore either the alb or the surplice. While acolytes did not receive the sacrament of Holy Orders, they were considered part of the clergy, and were a required step on the way to Holy Orders.In most cases, being instituted an acolyte is still something that takes place in the seminarian's training to be a priest, it's just not required anymore. Despite this, I think that the seminarian is still right in feeling that he has taken a good step in the direction of making his life one of ministering to God's people.
After the reforms of the minor orders in 1972, the acolyte survived but became one of two lay ministries (along with lector) instead of an order, with its conferring rite renamed from ordination to institution to emphasize this. It was still confined to men alone but was de jure now open to all men, even those not going into seminary. However, since altar servers can do just about anything an acolyte can do, very few men outside of seminary are formally instituted.However, there are a few designations that set the acolyte apart, and I think they are worthwhile in preparing the seminarian for when God will "consecrate" him, or set him apart for the work of shepherding souls (cf. Exo 28:41). More from our current article:
An instituted acolyte, though, does have some special faculties: he is a permanent extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and can also be entrusted with celebrating Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. He is the only lay minister who can do the purifications of the vessels at Mass. He is given a priority to lead blessing ceremonies: "An acolyte or reader who by formal institution has this special office in the Church is rightly preferred over another layperson as the minister designated a the discretion of the local Ordinary to impart certain blessings." (Book of Blessings, Introduction, n. 18). He has priority to lead Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest, if a deacon is absent: "Those to be chosen first by the pastor are readers and acolytes who have been duly instituted for the service of the altar and the word of God. If there are no such instituted ministers available, other laypersons, men and women, may be appointed;" (Directions for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest, 1988, n. 30).I for one am really proud of him, and I'm glad that my dad got to make the trip to Baltimore to support him. I hope that you all will support him as well as he makes the journey towards celibacy for the sake of the kingdom (cf. Mt 19:12). Please Lord, "let him receive it."
Indult Catholic societies such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter are permitted to ordain seminarians to minor orders, including the acolytate.