The DeepSouth Anglican Catholic

New Beginnings!

2010-08-01T19:05:00.012-05:00

New Beginnings!

I've been away for awhile, not far away; just far enough to make certain I'm on the right path. And I believe I am! By God's Grace.

Over the past several years I've attended many different church communities, of various denominations. I've learned quite a bit but admittedly never enough. Through some I've been amused; with others I've been amazed, often disappointed. Even others have been if not outright heretical, certainly theologically confused.

The whole of Christianity is sifting. Much has happened in post-reformation Catholicism with a particular emphasis on the ramifications of Vatican II and of even greater concern is the turmoil and resultant splintering of the Anglican Church as is caused by the certain cultural/theological modernizations and liturgical innovations since the 60's. The so-called Age of Camelot.

My aim with this blog and to a broader extent, that of the Anglican Catholic Church is to "evangelize", to educate a whole community of believers; particularly of you here within the PineBelt.

This blog is not about opinions or personalities, but is about right (orthodox) beliefs; the Dogma and Doctrine as handed down from the teachings of the God-Man, our Savior Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our beliefs are those same beliefs that were taught by Christ Jesus to His first Apostles and then their disciples and close followers and for some 1800 years since, through Apostlolic Succession to the certain Church Fathers and Bishops of His Church.

The Anglican Catholic Church holds to these beliefs; And as St. Vincent of Lerins so eloquently spoke:"what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all").

What We Believe

2010-08-01T18:59:00.005-05:00

What We Believe

This short statement of our beliefs was written by the Most Reverend M. Dean Stephens, late-Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church, in February 1998.

Let me review briefly with you what the Anglican Catholic Church believes.

We believe in the One, Holy, Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, and that most holy name is Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. We believe that only through Him is the full revelation of God given to man and that we have the awesome responsibility to preach the Good News of salvation to all nations and tongues.

We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the authentic record of God's revelation to man, a revelation that is valid for all men and all time. In the Bible we have God's revelation of Himself, His saving activity, and His moral demands. We believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16).

We believe the Catholic Faith as set forth in the three recognized Creeds of Christendom: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and that known as the Creed of St. Athanasius. We receive and believe them in the sense they have had always in the Catholic Church.

We believe in the holy Tradition of the Church as set forth by the ancient catholic bishops and doctors, and especially as defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church.

We hold dear the seven Sacraments of Grace, namely, the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, Penance, and Unction of the Sick. We believe them to be objective signs of Christ's continued presence and saving activity among us. We believe in the holy sacrifice of the Mass and that the body and blood of Christ is truly and really present in the Holy Eucharist.

We believe in God's gift of the apostolic ministry to His Church, asserting the necessity of a bishop in apostolic succession (or a priest ordained by such) as the celebrant of the Eucharist.

Furthermore, we hold that the Holy Orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons consist exclusively of men in accordance with Christ's will and institution.

We believe in the sanctity of human life; that life begins at the moment of conception; and that the willful taking of that life in the womb by abortion to be a grave sin (Title XV, Canon I, 1.01 of the Canons of the Anglican Catholic Church).

We believe in the family, in the God-given sacramental bond in marriage between one man and one woman. We profess that sexual activity is to be practiced only within the bonds of Holy Matrimony.

We believe that man is very far gone from original righteousness, is in rebellion against God's authority, and is liable to His righteous judgment. We believe that all people, individually and collectively, are responsible to their Creator for their acts, motives, thoughts, and words, since we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

We believe it is the duty of the Church and her members to bear witness to Christian morality, to follow it in their lives, and to reject the false standards of the world.

Lastly, the Anglican Catholic Church acknowledges that rule of faith laid down by St. Vincent of Lerins: Let us hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all, for that is truly and properly Catholic.

The Bishops of this Church are committed to seeing that the Faith of Christ is kept entire as it was given to this Church. Any assertion to the contrary has no basis in fact. We call upon all the communicants of this church to believe without reservation that deposit of Faith that has been given to the Anglican Catholic Church and to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Introduction

In 1977 an international congress of over 1,600 Anglican bishops, clergy, and lay people met in St. Louis, Missouri. They came together to determine the actions necessary to establish an orthodox jurisdiction in which traditional Anglicanism would be maintained, by returning to the fullness of the Faith of the undivided Catholic Church. Acting according to the principles determined by the seven great Ecumenical Councils of the ancient Church and adopting initially the name "Anglican Church of North America," they placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the retired bishop of Springfield, Illinois, the Right Reverend Albert Chambers.

In January 1978 Bishop Chambers expanded that jurisdiction and devolved it upon others, by taking order for the consecration of four more bishops. From these four bishops have come two jurisdictions, the Anglican Catholic Church and the Anglican Province of Christ the King, which now maintain orthodox Anglicanism in North America and beyond.

Bishop Chambers died in 1993. His steadfast faith and courage earned him a notable place in the history of world Anglicanism.

The Affirmation of St. Louis was adopted by those meeting in St. Louis as a statement of principles to guide them and others in the establishment of the new Anglican jurisdiction.

The Affirmation of St. Louis

The Continuation of Anglicanism

We affirm that the Church of our fathers, sustained by the most Holy Trinity, lives yet, and that we, being moved by the Holy Spirit to walk only in that way, are determined to continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the traditional Anglican Church, doing all things necessary for the continuance of the same. We are upheld and strengthened in this determination by the knowledge that many provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion have continued steadfast in the same Faith, Order, Worship and Witness, and that they continue to confine ordination to the priesthood and the episcopate to males. We rejoice in these facts and we affirm our solidarity with these provinces and dioceses.

The Dissolution of Anglican and Episcopal Church Structure

We affirm that the Anglican Church of Canada and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by their unlawful attempts to alter Faith, Order and Morality (especially in their General Synod of 1975 and General Convention of 1976), have departed from Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The Need to Continue Order in the Church

We affirm that all former ecclesiastical governments, being fundamentally impaired by the schismatic acts of lawless Councils, are of no effect among us, and that we must now reorder such godly discipline as we strengthen us in the continuation of our common life and witness.

The Invalidity of Schismatic Authority

We affirm that the claim of any such schismatic person or body to act against any Church member, clerical or lay, for his witness to the whole Faith is with no authority of Christ's true Church, and any such inhibition, deposition or discipline is without effect and is absolutely null and void.

The Need for Principles and a Constitution

We affirm that fundamental principles (doctrinal, moral, and constitutional) are necessary for the present, and that a Constitution (redressing the defects and abuses of our former governments) should be adopted, whereby the Church may be soundly continued.

The Continuation of Communion with Canterbury

We affirm our continued relations of communion with the See of Canterbury and all faithful parts of the Anglican Communion. [Note: Because of the action of General Synod of the Church of England, Parliament, and the Royal Assent, the College of Bishops of the Anglican Catholic Church is obliged no longer to count the See of Canterbury as a faithful part of the Anglican Communion.]

WHEREFORE, with a firm trust in Divine Providence, and before Almighty God and all the company of heaven, we solemnly affirm, covenant and declare that we, lawful and faithful members of the Anglican and Episcopal Churches, shall now and hereafter continue and be the unified continuing Anglican Church in North America, in true and valid succession thereto.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

In order to carry out these declarations, we set forth these fundamental Principles for our continued life and witness.

PREFACE:

In the firm conviction that "we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," and that "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved," and acknowledging our duty to proclaim Christ's saving Truth to all peoples, nations and tongues, we declare our intention to hold fast the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith of God.

We acknowledge that rule of faith laid down by St. Vincent of Lerins: "Let us hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all, for that is truly and properly Catholic."

I. PRINCIPLES OF DOCTRINE

1. The Nature of the Church.

We gather as people called by God to be faithful and obedient to Him. As the Royal Priestly People of God, the Church is called to be, in fact, the manifestation of Christ in and to the world. True religion is revealed to man by God. We cannot decide what is truth, but rather (in obedience) ought to receive, accept, cherish, defend and teach what God has given us. The Church is created by God, and is beyond the ultimate control of man.

The Church is the Body of Christ at work in the world. She is the society of the baptized called out from the world: In it, but not of it. As Christ's faithful Bride, she is different from the world and must not be influenced by it.

2. The Essentials of Truth and Order

We repudiate all deviation of departure from the Faith, in whole or in part, and bear witness to these essential principles of evangelical Truth and apostolic Order:

Holy Scriptures

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the authentic record of God's revelation of Himself, His saving activity, and moral demands--a revelation valid for all men and all time.

The Creeds

The Nicene Creed as the authoritative summary of the chief articles of the Christian Faith, together with the "Apostles' Creed, and that known as the Creed of St. Athanasius to be "thoroughly received and believed" in the sense they have had always in the Catholic Church.

Tradition

The received Tradition of the Church and its teachings as set forth by "the ancient catholic bishops and doctors," and especially as defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church, to the exclusion of all errors, ancient and modern.

Sacraments

The Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, Penance and Unction of the Sick, as objective and effective signs of the continued presence and saving activity of Christ our Lord among His people and as His covenanted means for conveying His grace. In particular, we affirm the necessity of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist (where they may be had) -- Baptism as incorporating us into Christ (with its completion in Confirmation as the "seal of the Holy Spirit"), and the Eucharist as the sacrifice which unites us to the all-sufficient Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and the Sacrament in which He feeds us with His Body and Blood.

Holy Orders

The Holy Orders of bishops, priests and deacons as the perpetuation of Christ's gift of apostolic ministry to His Church, asserting the necessity of a bishop of apostolic succession (or priest ordained by such) as the celebrant of the Eucharist -- these Orders consisting exclusively of men in accordance with Christ's Will and institution (as evidenced by the Scriptures), and the universal practice of the Catholic Church.

Deaconesses

The ancient office and ministry of Deaconesses as a lay vocation for women, affirming the need for proper encouragement of that office.

Duty of Bishops

Bishops as Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers, as well as their duty (together with other clergy and the laity) to guard and defend the purity and integrity of the Church's Faith and Moral Teaching.

The Use of Other Formulae

In affirming these principles, we recognize that all Anglican statements of faith and liturgical formulae must be interpreted in accordance with them.

Incompetence of Church Bodies to Alter Truth

We disclaim any right or competence to suppress, alter or amend any of the ancient Ecumenical Creeds and definitions of Faith, to set aside or depart from Holy Scripture, or to alter or deviate from the essential pre-requisites of any Sacrament.

Unity with Other Believers

We declare our firm intention to seek and achieve full sacramental communion and visible unity with other Christians who "worship the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity," and who hold the Catholic and Apostolic Faith in accordance with the foregoing principles.

II. PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY

The conscience, as the inherent knowledge of right and wrong, cannot stand alone as a sovereign arbiter of morals. Every Christian is obligated to form his conscience by the Divine Moral Law and the Mind of Christ as revealed in Holy Scriptures, and by the teaching and Tradition of the Church. We hold that when the Christian conscience is thus properly informed and ruled, it must affirm the following moral principles:

Individual Responsibility

All people, individually and collectively, are responsible to their Creator for their acts, motives, thoughts and words, since "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . ."

Sanctity of Human Life

Every human being, from the time of his conception, is a creature and child of God, made in His image and likeness, an infinitely precious soul; and that the unjustifiable or inexcusable taking of life is always sinful.

Man's Duty to God

All people are bound by the dictates of the Natural Law and by the revealed Will of God, insofar as they can discern them.

Family Life

The God-given sacramental bond in marriage between one man and one woman is God's loving provision for procreation and family life, and sexual activity is to be practiced only within the bonds of Holy Matrimony.

Man as Sinner

We recognize that man, as inheritor of original sin, is "very far gone from original righteousness," and as a rebel against God's authority is liable to His righteous judgment.

Man and God's Grace

We recognize, too, that God loves His children and particularly has shown it forth in the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that man cannot be saved by any effort of his own, but by the Grace of God, through repentance and acceptance of God's forgiveness.

Christian's Duty to be Moral

We believe, therefore, it is the duty of the Church and her members to bear witness to Christian Morality, to follow it in their lives, and to reject the false standards of the world.

III. CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES

In the constitutional revision which must be undertaken, we recommend, for the consideration of continuing Anglicans, the following:

Retain the Best of Both Provinces

That the traditional and tested features of the Canadian and American ecclesiastical systems be retained and used in the administration of the continuing Church.

Selection of Bishops

That a non-political means for selection of bishops be devised.

Tripartite Synod

That the Church be generally governed by a Holy Synod of three branches (episcopal, clerical and lay), under the presidency of the Primate of the Church.

Scriptural Standards for the Ministry

That the apostolic and scriptural standards for the sacred Ministry be used for all orders of Ministers.

Concurrence of all Orders for Decisions

That the Constitution acknowledge the necessity of the concurrence of all branches of the Synod for decisions in all matters, and that extraordinary majorities be required for the favorable consideration of all matters of importance.

Re-establishment of Discipline

That the Church re-establish an effective permanent system of ecclesiastical courts for the defense of the Faith and the maintenance of discipline over all her members.

Constitutional Assembly to be Called

That our bishops shall call a Constitutional Assembly of lay and clerical representatives of dioceses and parishes to convene at the earliest appropriate time to draft a Constitution and Canons by which we may be unified and governed, with special reference to this Affirmation, and with due consideration to ancient Custom and the General Canon Law, and to the former law of our provinces.

Interim Action

In the meantime, trusting in the everlasting strength of God to carry us through all our trials, we commend all questions for decision to the proper authorities in each case: Episcopal, diocesan, and parochial, encouraging all the faithful to support our witness as subscribers to this Affirmation, and inviting all so doing to share our fellowship and the work of the Church.

IV. PRINCIPLES OF WORSHIP

Prayer Book--The Standard of Worship

In the continuing Anglican Church, the Book of Common Prayer is (and remains) one work in two editions: The Canadian Book of 1962 and the American Book of 1928. Each is fully and equally authoritative. No other standard for worship exists.

Certain Variances Permitted

For liturgical use, only the Book of Common Prayer and service books conforming to and incorporating it shall be used.

V. PRINCIPLES OF ACTION

Inter-Communion with other Apostolic Churches

The continuing Anglicans remain in full communion with the See of Canterbury and with all other faithful parts of the Anglican Communion, and should actively seek similar relations with all other Apostolic and Catholic Churches, provided that agreement in the essentials of Faith and Order first be reached.

Non-Involvement with Non-Apostolic Groups

We recognize that the World Council of Churches, and many national and other Councils adhering to the World Council, are non-Apostolic, humanist and secular in purpose and practice, and that under such circumstances, we cannot be members of any of them. We also recognize that the Consultation of Church Union (COCU) and all other such schemes, being non-Apostolic and non-Catholic in their present concept and form, are unacceptable to us, and that we cannot be associated with any of them.

Need for Sound Theological Training

Re-establishment of spiritual, orthodox and scholarly theological education under episcopal supervision is imperative, and should be encouraged and promoted by all in authority; and learned and godly bishops, other clergy and lay people should undertake and carry on that work without delay.

Financial Affairs

The right of congregations to control of their temporalities should be firmly and constitutionally recognized and protected.

Administrative Matters

Administration should, we believe, be limited to the most simple and necessary acts, so that emphasis may be centered on worship, pastoral care, spiritual and moral soundness, personal good works, and missionary outreach, in response to God's love for us.

The Church as Witness to Truth

We recognize also that, as keepers of God's will and truth for man, we can and ought to witness to that will and truth against all manifest evils, remembering that we are as servants in the world, but God's servants first.

Pensions and Insurance

We recognize our immediate responsibility to provide for the establishment of sound pension and insurance programs for the protection of the stipendiary clergy and other Church Workers.

Legal Defense

We recognize the immediate need to coordinate legal resources, financial and professional, for the defense of congregations imperiled by their stand for the Faith, and commend this need most earnestly to the diocesan and parochial authorities.

Continuation, Not Innovation

In this gathering witness of Anglicans and Episcopalians, we continue to be what we are. We do nothing new. We form no new body, but continue as Anglicans and Episcopalians.

NOW, THEREFORE, deeply aware of our duty to all who love and believe the Faith of our Fathers, of our duty to God, who alone shall judge what we do, we make this Affirmation. Before God, we claim our Anglican/Episcopal inheritance, and proclaim the same to the whole Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

St. Bartholomew the Apostle

2007-08-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

Feast Day August 24

Bartholomew the Apostle was a Galilean, and went to the nearer regions of India which had fallen to him by lot for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There he preached to those peoples the coming of the Lord Christ according to the Gospel of St. Matthew. But, since he had converted many in that region to Jesus Christ, he had to endure many trials and persecutions; and he went into Greater Armenia.

Here he brought Polymius the king and his wife and twelve cities to the Christian faith. This aroused against him the hatred of the priests of that people. They inflamed Astyages, the brother of King Polymius, against the Apostle so that he commanded that Bartholomew be flayed alive in a most cruel way and beheaded; and in this martyrdom the Apostle gave up his soul to God.

His body was buried at Albanopolis, the city of Greater Armenia where he suffered. It was later taken to he island of Lipari and afterwards was transferred to Benevento. Finally it was taken to Rome by Emperor Otto III and placed in a church on the island in the Tiber dedicated to God under the title of St. Bartholomew’s.

St. Mary the Virgin

2007-08-14T23:51:00.000-05:00

The Feast of the Assumption (Dormition) of Blessed Virgin Mary

Each August 15th we celebrate the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. The Dogma of the Assumption (the declaration that after her death Mary was taken up to heaven body and soul) was solemnly declared by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950. Although it is not an “official” dogma for the Anglican Church, it is held as a universal truth by most faithful Anglican

The belief in the Assumption dates back to the early centuries of the Church. Christians always believed that Mary’s death was a falling asleep in the Lord or dormition. Dormition is from the Latin word for sleep, from which we get the word dormitory. At her dormition, or final sleeping, Mary was immediately taken up to God. Actually the Dormition of Mary or, to use our terminology, the Assumption of Mary was one of the most popular themes in religious art of the medieval times.

To the ancient and medieval Christians, the Assumption of Mary showed the fulfillment of God’s promise to his faithful Christian. Mary’s life was difficult. She suffered the scorn of the neighborhood busybodies because she was pregnant before marriage. She had to quietly endure this waiting for the day that God's plan would someday become evident. In the small tight knit community of Nazareth, everyone knew that Mary's pregnancy shocked and upset her betrothed husband, Joseph. He was a man who, even though he was as gentle as possible, had resolved to send her away. Later in the infancy narratives, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, would be presented. Elizabeth’s son would be born in a home with numerous people attending. Mary’s child was not born in a home, but in a stable. This would be a hardship and suffering for any mother. The Gospel of Matthew says that Mary and Joseph also suffered exile in Egypt to flee Herod. Mary, a young girl with a baby, would not receive any help from her own mother, Anne. Later on Mary would suffer the indignities of people telling her that her son had lost his mind. She would have her heart torn out as her son died on the cross. Then, even after the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, Mary would have to put up with the petty squabbling of the apostles.

Mary’s life was difficult. But she had total faith in God's will for her and for his people. Therefore the Feast of the Assumption celebrates her faith being justified.

The 11th chapter of the Book of Revelations presents a woman who is clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars. The scene is not easy. The woman wails in childbirth. At the moment of the birth an awful beast appears ready to devour the child. The child was snatched up to God and his throne and the woman was protected in a special place prepared for her.

Biblical scholarship views this woman as symbolizing the Church, given the glory of God yet suffering as she tries to make him present to the world. The work of the Church is in fact the very Son of God. The Son is united to the Father. The woman, the Church, is protected by God.

Tradition views this passage in a different way. The woman is Mary, with her whole life seen in one glimpse. She is the one chosen to be the mother of the Son of God. Therefore, she is clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and wearing a crown of twelve stars. But she also suffers. She wails in pain. Her Son is attacked by the devil, but ultimately He is united to the Father. Mary is also protected in a special place set aside for her.

The solemnity of the Assumption considers Mary receiving the reward for her labor of love. She is taken to that special place that we call heaven.

She trusted in God and God justified her trust. Her life ended in her sleeping in the hand of the Lord, her dormition. She would live forever, body and soul, in heaven. She would be the one who all generations will call blessed. She will be the one who receive the total benefit of the sacrifice of Jesus. At her death, her final sleeping, Mary’s body would be raised up and united with God.

All of us have difficult situations and periods in our lives. All of us are tempted to give up our lives, to go a different way. How many of us know people who have just left, left their spouse and children, left the priesthood, left their lives. We are all tempted to walk away. But we can’t give in. We are called to sacrifice. We are called to be followers of Christ, who died on a cross.

And we trust God to pull us through. He's sees the sacrifices we make to be his followers. And we benefit. We benefit here on earth because we are happy living lives that our Christocentric, centered on Christ and his sacrificial love, rather than lives that are egocentric, selfish.

Mary had free will. She was not a plastic statue; she was a real person who could have said “no” to the angel or “no” to God’s plan at any time during her life. She could have complained. She could have doubted. She could have walked away. But she didn’t. She accepted all. She rejoiced in the new way to love she found with this special child. She sacrificed everything for him who was love.

We remember Mary and her life in the Anglican rosary. It is a wonderful background for prayer and mediation. It is an opportunity to slow ourselves down. And I recommend the rosary to you and in particular for the family who are blessed with children in the home.

When we pray to Mary, we should remember that Mary was a real person very much like us. She had difficult choices. She chose love, but this love entailed sacrifice and suffering. It also brought eternal happiness.

Mary’s Assumption is a reminder to us that God has a plan for each of us, a purpose for each of our lives. If we allow him to complete his plan in us, we also will be taken to that special place prepared for us, the place of inexpressible joy that we call heaven.

Homily for the Feast Day of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

2007-08-06T23:03:00.000-05:00

“I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” —Philippians 3:12

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name—of Jesus Christ—whose name in regard to character and authority is so firmly bound to the person himself, that we as disciples of Christ are exhorted to baptize, exorcise, heal the sick, and raise the dead by and through the sacred and salvific power of its very invocation. Indeed, today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name—of Jesus Christ—whose name in regard to character and authority in Hebrew and Aramaic is strikingly similar to the phrase “he will save,” and whose name reminds us that God is with us—even to the end of the age. Yes, today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom every knee shall bow, and under whom all creation (as we speak) is being re-ordered and in and by whom all meaning is being re-inscribed in the actualization of God’s Holy Covenant.

The faith that we demonstrate and enjoy in proclaiming Jesus Christ Lord is the sustaining and propulsive power that continually drives us to insist on proclaiming to the world the message of Christ’s forgiveness of sin, comfort in times of weakness, loneliness, and desolation, and revolutionary subversion of violent force into works of love in any situation—come what may, fear or no fear, anxiety notwithstanding.

Yet the question our Savior asked his disciples in antiquity is the same one that he asks each one of us today: Who do you say that I am?

Some of Jesus’ disciples said that he was John the Baptist, and others that he was Elijah. St. Peter even confessed Jesus as the Christ—the Messiah—anointed one of God... Yet St. Peter’s confession wasn’t so strange considering that at the time, there were many who were claiming this title, and performing miracles by the score. What was perhaps more interesting about St. Peter’s confession was the confession he himself received from Jesus in return: `'You are Peter (or “rock” in quotes!) and on this rock will I build my church.” Needless to say, there is a pun regarding the names Peter and Jesus, probably owing to the Aramaic and Hebraic property to allow proper names and place names to be descriptive of the very being of things and persons.

So perhaps it may be similar for us—although my name `'George” meaning farmer might only apply if we are considering parables about vineyards.

The point is, that in confessing who Jesus is to us—individually and corporately, Jesus confesses us as faithful witnesses and disciples, and in this we are given an identity—we find out who we are in relation to God. As we appreciate here at St. Ignatius Church and according to Acts 11:26, “in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians,” so in confessing Christ as Lord, we in turn take on his name and are called Christians—not as a surname, but as a change of name similar to that experienced by Abraham the father of our faith: we too make a testimony of loyalty to God: to follow Jesus, Lord and Savior of all, and to bring his teaching to the world as the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

Now this name “Christian” that we have been given and in which we rejoice is not to be taken lightly or for granted as though it were merely a given as opposed to a gift. As our philosopher friends Kierkegaard and Bonhoffer knew, taking on the name of Christ lightly and not in earnest—even with plenty of theological, liturgical, biblical, and pious window dressing—is at best to make a mockery of God, a mess of our lives, and to try and buy discipleship at a fixed cut rate.

For to do so in this wise is to take the name of the Lord in vain, and to squander the opportunity to walk in the way of our teacher and savior Christ, and to grow into the stature that he lovingly wills for us.

Judge for yourself: this is not an easy road—for to choose to follow Christ and take on his Holy Name is to choose to follow the one who had no place to lay his head... and in terms of the world, to choose this is to choose certain downfall. Yet as Christians, we already know that we are not merely bound by the world—how boring and easy that would be; would that that were the case! Our greater responsibility has to do with eternity, and to realize that eternity begins on this side of the grave.

We have already been born again by water and the Holy Spirit by virtue of our baptism. We affirm this birth whenever we partake of the Holy Sacraments in the community of the Body of Christ known as the Church.

The decisions we make now have eternal repercussions... And the commitment we have now as brothers and sisters in and of Christ exacts not merely the whole of our terrestrial lives from us, but an eternal responsibility to living up to our birthright. The choice is all yours.

by The Rev’d Fr. George M. Rogers III, given at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, NY, NY, Assistant Rector, Christ the Redeemer, Pelham, NY

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ

2007-08-05T10:31:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrate the occasion on which Christ, as He was beginning to teach His disciples that He must die and rise again, revealed Himself in shining splendor to Peter, James, and John. Moses and Elijah were present, and are taken to signify that the Law and the Prophets testify that Jesus is the promised Messiah. God the Father also proclaimed him as such, saying, "This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him." For a moment the veil is drawn aside, and men still on earth are permitted a glimpse of the heavenly reality, the glory of the Eternal Triune God.

Our Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His Passion, Cross, and Death, but also concerning the coming persecutions and afflictions that they themselves would endure. Since all these evils were near at hand, but the enjoyment of good things which they hoped to receive in their stead was yet to come, our Savior desired to give them full assurance, evidently and openly, concerning that glory which is prepared for those who endure to the end. Therefore, fulfilling that which He had promised shortly before, that "there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom" (Matt. 16:28), He took His three foremost disciples and ascended Mount Tabor, where He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly, together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His saving Passion which was about to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, whither he had been taken up while yet alive. After a little while a radiant cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud they heard that same voice which had been heard at the Jordan at the Baptism of Christ, testifying to the Divinity of Jesus and saying: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased; hear ye Him" (Matt. 17: 5).

Such are the marvels, truly worthy of God, celebrated in this present feast, which is an image and prefiguring of the future state of the righteous, whose splendor the Lord spoke of, saying: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" (Matt. 13:43).

In the East, the Festival of the Transfiguration has been celebrated since the late fourth century, and is one of the twelve great festivals of the East Orthodox calendar. In the West it was observed after the ninth century by some monastic orders, and in 1457 Pope Callistus III ordered its general observance.

The following is an excerpt from a Sermon by Pope St. Leo the Great (Sermo de Transfigurat., ante medium)

THE Lord took chosen witnesses, and in their presence revealed his glory. That is to say, the form of body which he had in common with other men, he so transfigured with light, that his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became exceeding white, even as snow. Now the chief purpose of this Transfiguration was to remove from the hearts of the disciples their fear of the Cross. So, before their eyes, was unveiled the splendour of his hidden majesty, that the lowliness of his freely-chosen suffering might not confound their faith. But nonetheless there was also thys set forth, by the providence of God, a sure and certain hope for holy Church, whereby the whole Body of Christ should know with what great a change it is yet to be honoured. For the members of that Body whose Head hath already been transfigured in light may promise themselves a share in his glory.

ALSO, that the Apostles might be strengthened, and brought forward into all knowledge, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias (that is, the Law and the Prophets), talking with them. This glorification of Christ took place before five witnesses, as though to fulfil that which is written : At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. What can be more certain, or better attested, than this matter which is proclaimed by the trumpets of both the Old and the New Testament, and concerning which the witness of ancient testimony uniteth with the teaching of the Gospel? The pages of either Covenant strengthen one another, and the brightness of open glory maketh manifest and distinct him whom the former prophecies had promised under the veil of mysteries.

THE unveiling of such mysteries roused the mind of the Apostle Peter to an outburst of longing for the things eternal, which despised and disdained things worldly and earthly. Overflowing with gladness at the vision, he yearned to dwell with Jesus there, where the revelation of his glory had rejoiced him. And so he said : "Master, it is good for us to be here ; if thou wilt, let us make here tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." To this proposal the Lord answered nothing, thus signifying that what Peter wished was not wrong, but out of place, since the world could not be saved but by the death of Christ. And the Lord's example was to call the faith of believers to this, that although we should have no doubts concerning the promise of eternal blessedness, yet we are to understand that, amid the trials of this life, we are to seek for power to endure rather than for glory.

From the Anglican Breviary

At the time of the Reformation, it was still felt in some countries to be a "recent innovation," and so was not immediately taken over into most Reformation calendars, but is now found on most calendars that have been revised in the twentieth century.

According to tradition, the Lord's Transfiguration came to pass forty days before His Crucifixion; this is why the Transfiguration is celebrated forty days before the Exaltation of the Cross.

A recent tendency though, in the West is to commemorate the Transfiguration on the Sunday just before Lent, in accordance with the pattern found in the Synoptics, where Jesus is represented as beginning to speak of his forthcoming death just about the time of the Transfiguration, so that it forms a fitting transition between the Epiphany season, in which Christ makes himself known, and the Lenten season, in which he prepares the disciples for what lies ahead. Whether observing the Transfiguration then will affect the observation of it on 6 August remains to be seen. It might be that we are called to observe the Transfiguration on both days.

Compiled text from various internet and written sources. A.A.B.

Saint Dominic

2007-08-03T07:50:00.000-05:00

The Albigensians and their Heresies

The founder of the Friars Preachers was born of a Castilian family, and his early years were uneventful. When he was about twenty-six he became one of the canons regular who formed the cathedral chapter at Osma; in 1206 the turning-point of his life came, when his bishop, Diego, became unofficial leader of a papal mission to the heretical Albigenses, who were firmly established in Languedoc. The bishop chose Dominic as his companion; they lived simply and in poverty, and undertook discussions with their opponents for which they prepared very carefully. These methods contrasted with the formality and display of the official missioners, and a house of nuns founded at Prouille became the center of the new preachers. The death of Bishop Diego at the end of 1207 coincided with the murder of the papal legate Peter de Castelnau by the Albigenses, and Pope Innocent III ordered a military campaign against their leader, Count Raymund of Toulouse. There followed five years of bloody civil war, massacre, and savagery, during which Dominic and his few followers persevered in their mission of converting the Albigenses by persuasion addressed to the heart and mind.

The Early Preaching

In 1215 Dominic was able to establish his headquarters in Toulouse, and the idea of an order of preachers began to take shape: a body of highly trained priests on a monastic basis, bound by vows with emphasis on poverty, but devoted to the active work of preaching and teaching anywhere and everywhere. The enterprise was formally approved at Rome in 1216, and in the following year the founder sent eleven of this brothers, over half the then total, to the University of Paris and to Spain. He himself established friaries at Bologna and elsewhere in Italy, and travelled tirelessly to superintend the nascent order, preaching as he went. St. Dominic always gave importance to the help of women in his work; one of his last undertakings was to install nuns at San Sisto in Rome; another was to send thirteen of his friars to Oxford.

The Saint

All the evidence goes to show that St. Dominic was a man of remarkable attractiveness of character and broadness of vision; he had the deepest compassion for every sort of human suffering; he saw the need to use all the resources of human learning in the service of Christ; his constant reading was St. Matthew's gospel, St. Paul's letters and the Conferences of St. John Cassian. The order that he founded was a formative factor in the religious and intellectual life of later medieval Europe; its diffusion is now world-wide.

St. James the Greater - Apostle

2007-07-25T00:44:00.000-05:00

For James there was no indication that this was the day that his life would change. The dawn for him was not the bright beginning of a new day, but the end of long fruitless night of fishing. As James sat mending his nets in the boat with his brother John and his father Zebedee, he must have watched in wonder as his partner Simon brought in nets loaded with fish he had caught at the command of Jesus. Was he shocked when he saw Simon and his brother Andrew walk away from this incredible catch at a word from this same Jesus?

As he watched Jesus walk toward him followed by Simon and Andrew, did he feel curiosity, fear, hope, envy? Jesus didn't pass him by but, stopping by their boat, called James and his brother John to do just what Simon and Andrew had done. Without argument or discussion, James and John left their boat and even their father behind, and followed Jesus.

The first thing James saw after he followed Jesus was his teaching with authority in the synagogue and the cure of Simon's mother-in-law.

We all know that Jesus was the focus of James' life from then on, but it is also evident that James held a special place in Jesus' life.

He was chosen by Jesus to be one of the twelve apostles, given the mission to proclaim the good news, and authority to heal and cast out demons. To be named one of the twelve James must have had faith and commitment.

But even among the apostles he held a special place. When Jesus raised Jairus' daughter when all thought her dead, he only allowed James, John, and Peter to come with him. Even more important when he went up to the mountain to pray, he wanted James, John, and Peter to go with him. And it was there on the mountain they were privileged to witness what no one else had seen -- Jesus transfigured in his glory, speaking to Moses and Elijah, as the voice of God spoke from a cloud.

And with Simon Peter, James and John were the only ones of the apostles that Jesus gave a special name: Sons of Thunder.

To be singled out in these ways, James must have been a close and respected friend of Jesus.

It's no wonder then that James, along with John, felt that he had the right to go to Jesus and ask him to give them whatever they asked. As a mark of his love, Jesus didn't rebuke them but asked them what they wanted. They showed their lack of understanding of his mission when the asked that he let one of them sit on his right and the other on his left when he came into his glory. He replied that they didn't know what they were asking. They didn't see the cross in his future, but an earthly throne. Could they drink of the cup he would drink of? They replied that they could. He assured them they would indeed drink of that cup.

(Matthew has their mother asking for this favor for her sons. Despite the bad reputation their mother got for this, it should be remembered that she too had followed Jesus in his travels, providing for him, and was one of the women who stayed with Jesus as he was crucified when the apostles, including her son James, had fled.)

The other apostles were furious at this request. But Jesus used this opportunity to teach all of them that in order to be great one must be a servant.

James and John did show further lack of understanding of their friend and Lord when he was turned away by Samaritans. They wanted to use their newfound authority as apostles not to heal but to bring fire down on the town. (Perhaps Jesus gave them their Sons of Thunder nickname because of their passion, their own fire, or their temper.) Jesus did reprimand them for their unforgiving, vengeful view of their power.

But despite all these misunderstandings, it was still James, Peter, and John that Jesus chose to join him in prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane for his final prayer before his arrest. It must have hurt Jesus that the three of them fell asleep on this agonizing evening.

James did drink of the cup Jesus drank of, all too shortly after the Resurrection. Acts 12:1 tells us that James was one of the first martyrs of the Church. King Herod Agrippa I killed him with a sword in an early persecution of the Church. There is a story that the man who arrested James became a convert after hearing James speak at his trial and was executed with him.

James is called James the Greater because another younger apostle was named James. He should not be accused with this James, or the James who is a relative of Jesus, or the James who was an elder of the Church in Jerusalem and heard Peter's defense of baptizing Gentiles. James, son of Thunder, was dead by then.

On Women's Ordination

2007-06-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

A letter written by Orthodox Priest Fr. Alexander Schmemann

Dear Friend:

When you asked me to outline the Orthodox reaction to the idea of women's ordination to the priesthood, I thought at first that to do so would not be too difficult. It is not difficult, indeed, simply to state that the Orthodox Church is against women's priesthood and to enumerate as fully as possible the dogmatical, canonical, and spiritual reasons for that opposition.

On second thought, however, I became convinced that such an answer would be not only useless, but even harmful. Useless, because all such "formal reasons" - scriptural, traditional, canonical - are well known to the advocates of women's ordination, as is also well known our general ecclesiological stand which, depending on their mood and current priorities, our Western Brothers either hail as Orthodoxy's "main" ecumenical contribution or dismiss as archaic, narrow-minded, and irrelevant. Harmful, because true formally, this answer would still vitiate the real Orthodox position by reducing it to a theological context and perspective, alien to the Orthodox mind. For the Orthodox Church has never faced this question, it is for us totally extrinsic, a casus irrealis for which we find no basis, no terms of reference in our Tradition, in the very experience of the Church, and for the discussion of which we are therefore simply not prepared.

Such is then my difficulty. I cannot discuss the problem itself because to do so would necessitate the elucidation of our approach - not to women and to priesthood only - but, above all to God in his Triune Life, to Creation, Fall and Redemption, to the Church and the mystery of her life, to the deification of man and the consummation of all things in Christ. Short of all this it would remain incomprehensible, I am sure, why the ordination of women to priesthood is tantamount for us to a radical and irreparable mutilation of the entire faith, the rejection of the whole Scripture, and, needless to say, the end of all "dialogues." Short of all this my answer will sound like another "conservative" and "traditional" defense of the status quo, of precisely that which many Christians today, having heard it too many times, reject as hypocrisy, lack of openness to God's will, blindness to the world, etc. Obviously enough those who reject Tradition would not listen once more to an argument ex traditione....

But to what will they listen? Our amazement - and the Orthodox reaction is above all that of amazement - is precisely about the change and, to us, incomprehensible hastiness with which the question of women's ordination was, first, accepted as an issue, then quickly reduced to the level of a disciplinary "matter" and finally identified as an issue of policy to be dealt with by a vote! In this strange situation all I can do is to try to convey to you this amazement by briefly enumerating its main "components" as I see and understand them.

The first dimension of our amazement can be termed "ecumenical." The debate on women's ordination reveals something which we have suspected for a long time but which now is confirmed beyond any doubt: the total truly built-in indifference of the Christian West to anything beyond the sphere of its own problematics, of its own experience. I can only repeat here what I have said before: even the so-called "ecumenical movement," notwithstanding its claims to the contrary, has always been, and still is, a purely Western phenomenon, based on Western presuppositions and determined by a specifically Western agenda. This is not "pride" or "arrogance." On the contrary, the Christian West is almost obsessed with a guilt complex and enjoys nothing better than self-criticism and self condemnation. It is rather a total inability to transcend itself, to accept the simple idea that its own experience, problems, thought forms and priorities may not be universal, that they themselves may need to be evaluated and judged in the light of a truly universal, truly "Catholic" experience. Western Christians would almost enthusiastically judge and condemn themselves, but on their own terms, within their own hopelessly "Western" perspective. Thus when they decide -- on the basis of their own possibly limited and fragmented, specifically Western, "cultural situation" -- that they must "repair" injustices made to women, they plan to do it immediately without even asking what the "others" may think about it, and are sincerely amazed and even saddened by lack, on the part of these "others" of ecumenical spirit, sympathy and comprehension.

Personally, I have often enough criticized the historical limitations of the Orthodox mentality not to have the right to say in all sincerity that to me the debate on women's ordination seems to be provincial, deeply marked, and even determined by Western self-centeredness and self-sufficiency, by a naive, almost childish, conviction that every "trend" in the Western culture justifies a radical rethinking of the entire Christian tradition. How many such "trends" we have witnessed during the last decades of our troubled century! How many corresponding "theologies"! The difference this time, however, is that one deals in this particular debate not with a passing intellectual and academic "fad" like "death of God," "secular city," "celebration of life," etc.-- which, after it has produced a couple of ephemeral best-sellers, simply disappears, but with the threat of an irreversible and irreparable act which, if it becomes reality, will produce a new, and this time, I am convinced, final division among Christians, and will signify, at least for the Orthodox, the end of all dialogues.

It is well known that the advocates of women's ordination explain the Scriptural and the traditional exclusion of women from ministry by "cultural conditioning." If Christ did not include women into the Twelve, if the Church for centuries did not include them into priesthood, it is because of "culture" which would have made it impossible and unthinkable then. It is not my purpose to discuss here the theological and exegetical implications of this view as well as its purely historical basis, which incidentally seems to me extremely weak and shaky; what is truly amazing is that while absolutely convinced that they understand past "cultures," the advocates of women's ordination seem to be totally unaware of their own cultural "conditioning" of their own surrender to culture.

How else can one explain their readiness to accept what may prove to be a passing phenomenon and what, at any rate, is a phenomenon barely at its beginning (not to speak of the women's liberation movement, which at present is nothing but search and experimentation) as a sufficient justification for a radical change in the very structure of the Church?

How else, furthermore, are we to explain that this movement is accepted on its own terms, within the perspective of "rights", "justice," "equality," Etc. -- all categories whose ability adequately to express the Christian faith and to be applied as such within the Church is, to say the least, questionable?

The sad truth is that the very idea of women's ordination, as it is presented and discussed today, is the result of too many confusions and reductions. If its root is surrender to "culture", its pattern of development is shaped by a surrender to "clericalism." It is indeed almost entirely dominated by the old "clerical" view of the Church and the double "reduction" interest in it. The reduction on the one hand, of the Church to a "power structure," the reduction on the other hand, of that power structure to clergy. To the alleged "inferiority" of women within the secular power structure, corresponds their "inferiority," i.e., their exclusion from clergy, within the ecclesiastical power structure. To their "liberation" in the secular society must therefore correspond their "liberation," i.e., ordination, in the Church.

But the Church simply cannot be reduced to these categories. As long as we try to measure the ineffable mystery of her life by concepts and ideas a priori alien to her very essence, we entirely mutilate her, and her real power, her glory and beauty, and her transcendent truth simply escape us.

That is why in conclusion of this letter I can only confess, without explaining and justifying this confession by my "proofs." I can confess that the non-ordination of women to priesthood has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with whatever "inferiority" we can invent or imagine. In the essential reality which alone constitutes the content of our faith and shapes the entire life of the Church, in the reality of the Kingdom of God which is perfect communion, perfect knowledge, perfect love, and ultimately the "deification" of man, there is truly "neither male nor female." More than that, in this reality, of which we are made partakers here and now, we all, men and women, without any distinction, are "Kings and priests," for it is the essential priesthood of the human nature and vocation that Christ has restored to us.

It is of this priestly life, it is of this ultimate reality, that the Church is both gift and acceptance. And that she may be this, that she may always and everywhere be the gift of the Spirit without any measure or limitations, the Son of God offered himself in a unique sacrifice, and made this unique sacrifice and this unique priesthood the very foundation, indeed the very "form" of the Church.

This priesthood is Christ's, not ours. None of us, man or woman, has any "right" to it; it is emphatically not one of human vocations, analogous, even if superior, to all others. The priest in the Church is not "another" priest, and the sacrifice he offers is not "another" sacrifice. It is forever and only Christ's priesthood and Christ's sacrifice -- for, in the words of our Prayers of Offertory, it is "Thou who offerest and Thou who art offered, it is Thou who receivest and Thou who distributest...." And thus the "institutional" priest in the Church has no "ontology" of his own. It exists only to make Christ himself present, to make this unique Priesthood and this unique Sacrifice the source of the Church's life and the "acquisition" by men of the Holy Spirit. And if the bearer, the icon and the fulfiller of that unique priesthood, is man and not woman, it is because Christ is man and not woman...

Why? This of course is the only important, the only relevant question. The one precisely that no "culture," no "sociology," no "history," and even no "exegesis" can answer. For it can be answered only by theology in the primordial and essential meaning of that word in the Church; as the contemplation and vision of the Truth itself, as communion with the uncreated Divine Light. It is only here, in this purified and restored vision that we might begin to understand why the ineffable mystery of the relationship between God and His Creation, between God and His chosen people, between God and His Church, are "essentially" revealed to us as a nuptial mystery, as fulfillment of a mystical marriage. Why in other terms, Creation itself, the Church herself, man and the world themselves, when contemplated in their ultimate truth and destiny, are revealed to us as Bride, as Woman clothed in sun; why in the very depth of her love and knowledge, of her joy and communion, the Church identifies herself with one Woman, whom she exalts as "more honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim."

Is it this mystery that has to be "understood" by means of our broken and fallen world, which knows and experiences itself only in its brokenness and fragmentation, its tensions and dichotomies and which, as such, is incapable of the ultimate vision? Or is it this vision and this unique experience that must again become to us the "means" of our understanding of the world, the starting point and the very possibility of a truly Divine victory over all that in this world is but human, historical and cultural?

St. Basil the Great

2007-06-14T00:05:00.000-05:00

St. Basil the Great was born in Caesarea in Cappadocia in 330 AD. He came from a very holy family. He was one of ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. His paternal grandmother was St. Macrina the Elder, several of his brothers and sisters are honored among the saints. His elder sister was St. Macrina the Younger, and St. Gregory of Nyssa was his brother.

He attended school in Caesarea, as well as Constantinople and Athens, where he became acquainted with St. Gregory Nazianzen in 352. A little later, he opened a school of oratory in Caesarea and practiced law. Eventually he decided to become a monk and found a monastery in Pontus which he directed for five years. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has proved the most lasting of those in the East. After founding several other monasteries, he was ordained and, in 370, made bishop of Caesaria. In this post until his death in 379, he continued to be a man of vast learning and constant activity, genuine eloquence and immense charity. This earned for him the title of "Great" during his life and Doctor of the Church after his death.

Basil was one of the giants of the early Church. He was responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over Arianism in the Byzantine East, and the denunciation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381-82 was in large measure due to his efforts. Basil fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia.

He was learned, accomplished in statesmanship, a man of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity.

Corpus Christi – Triumph Over Heresy

2007-06-07T23:53:00.000-05:00

An Augustinian prioress, a hermitess and an archdeacon, all living at Liege in the thirteenth century, are the people mainly responsible for the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi.

Although the institution of the Holy Eucharist has been commemorated on Maundy Thursday since Apostolic times, the Church is concerned at this period with the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ which overshadows remembrance of the events of the Last Supper.

The First Petition

Some of the faithful felt that a further day to honour the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar should be established. Notable among these was the prioress of a nunnery in Liege, Blessed Julienne de Retrinnes. She believed she had seen a vision encouraging her to petition the ecclesiastical authorities for such a feast. In 1230 she consulted a number of persons of influence concerning this, among them Jacques Pantalon of Troyes, who was the Archdeacon of Liege, and the Dominican cardinal and Papal Legate, Hugues de Saint Cher.

An office for the feast was composed and Robert, Bishop of Liege, ordered that the feast of Corpus Christi be celebrated throughout his diocese. Fourteen years later on 29 August 1261, Archdeacon Jacques Pantalon was elected Pope, taking the name Urban IV.

Because of the political situation at the time, Urban was never able to establish himself at Rome and lived first at Viterbo and then at Orvieto. It was not a period when the papacy excelled itself.

The Feast Extended

Following the death of Blessed Julienne, a holy recluse named Eve, one of her confidantes, persuaded the then Bishop of Liege, Henri, to petition the Holy See for the feast to be extended to the Universal Church.

Urban IV is said at first to have been uncertain whether to institute the feast, but eventually he agreed. He may have been influenced by the reputed miracle of Bolsena. While his court was at Orvieto in 1264, it was reported that a priest in the nearby city of Bolsena had spilt a drop of the Precious Blood while he was saying Mass. He tried to hide the accident by covering the spot where the Precious Blood had fallen with the corporal.

Suddenly, it is said, the corporal, which is still preserved at Bolsena, was covered with red spots in the shape of a host. Some versions of the story suggest the priest had had doubts about the Real Presence.

Although there is no certainty that this was the reason for the institution of the feast, some say that hearing of this incident, the Pope delayed no longer. The Bull of erection, however, makes no mention of it.

Something else which may have influenced Urban was a desire to counteract the teachings of Berengarius, a writer from about a century earlier who, as Archdeacon of Angers, had attacked the teaching on the Eucharist; he denied transubstantiation and held that Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament was only spiritually conceived.

On 8 September 1264 Urban published a Bull commanding the celebration of the feast on the Thursday after the First Sunday of Pentecost. Thursday has always been consecrated to remembrance of the Holy Eucharist because that was the day of the week on which it was instituted.

St Thomas Aquinas

Urban asked both the Dominican, St Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan, St Bonadventure to write an office for the new feast. Both did so, but when Bonadventure read Aquinas’s composition, he withdrew his own as being not comparable with that of the Dominican.

Although the Papal court celebrated the feast, there is some doubt as to whether the Bull was actually executed elsewhere. Soon after the institution of the feast, the Pope died on 2 October in the same year.

At the Council of Vienne which opened on 16 October 1311, Clement V, the Pope who established the Papal court at Avignon, confirmed Urban’s Bull and made the feast of obligation throughout the Church. His successor John XXII, who became Pope in 1316, promoted the feast as did two later Popes, Martin V and Eugenius IV, who both granted indulgences for it.

Although the feast had an octave from the beginning, it was not celebrated with a vigil; vigils in their original sense having already passed into desuetude. The Papal decree which produced the 1962 Missal abolished the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi along with most other octaves.

The Feast in England

It seems to have taken some time for the feast to be adopted generally, but Corpus Christi was finally observed in England from 1318. The feast quickly became popular here and numerous guilds were established to honour the Blessed Sacrament as it was carried in procession. The custom of carrying the Most Holy Sacrament in procession had been recognised as a part of the ceremonies of the feast from the beginning.

It was the Corpus Christi guilds rather than the clergy which arranged the processions and the miracle play cycles which, in many places, also became a part of the celebration of the feast. The Corpus Christi procession became a major civic event in many medieval towns. Houses along the processional route were decorated with hangings, flowers and lights. Such decoration is still prescribed by the Caeremoniale Episcoporum.

The Council of Trent praised the feast as a triumph over heresy.

Father Adrian Fortescue in his directory of ceremonial, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, explains that the outdoor procession on this feast should be a general one for the whole town, that is to say that every church, whether of seculars or regulars, in each town should join together for the procession.

He has a footnote to the effect that the Caeremoniale Episcoporum has most elaborate directions to prevent quarrelling among the clergy as to precedence in the procession. ‘The Bishop is to settle it, and if anyone is not satisfied he shall be excommunicated.’ Not much doubt about that! Merati (an Italian writer on the liturgy), Fortescue says, ‘writes columns on the same subject. Martinucci (another liturgist) also is very much concerned about this matter.’ The note ends by saying, ‘Fortunately, such foolishness is unlikely to occur in England’!

[Taken from the Latin Mass Society of England & Wales, February 2004 Newsletter.]

The Mystery of The Holy Trinity

2007-06-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

The Holy Trinity is one of the great mysteries of the Orthodox Faith. With our finite and limited minds, we are unable to comprehend the Holy Trinity at all, and yet with our hearts, we can believe in the truth of the this mystery. We confess our belief each time we say the Creed , "I believe in One God, the Father almighty,...and in one Lord Jesus Christ...and in the Holy Spirit..." And so, even though it is incomprehensible, the mystery of the Holy Trinity is intertwined throughout the most basic confession of our faith.

The worship of the Trinity is the key element of the Orthodox Faith. If you were to ask a group of people, "What is the essence of true religious belief?" you would get a number of different answers, depending on who you asked. If you were to narrow your questioning down to only those who confessed Christianity, it is most likely that you would get an answer which expressed in some way "to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ". But if you were to ask an Orthodox Christian who was familiar with the services of the Church, "What is the truefaith?" he could immediately answer with the words of the Church. At the end of the Divine Liturgy when we sing "We have found the true faith..." we describe what this "true faith" is "...worshipping the undivided Trinity." Orthodox Christians have known even from the very beginning that in order to truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary to believe in the Holy Trinity and that in order to worship God "in spirit and in truth," we must worship the Holy Trinity.

What is it that makes this mystery of the Holy Trinity so vital to our Christian belief? In order to answer this question, we must first understand a little about the Holy Trinity. The mystery of the Trinity is that there is One God in three Persons and that each of these Persons is distinct and separate from the others while at the same time all three Persons are indivisibly united. How can something be three separate and distinct things and yet at the same time be only one? This is the mystery of the Trinity.

But the nature of the Trinity is not just an abstract idea, a belief that has no impact on us as Orthodox Christians. St Athanasius said about the incarnation, "God became man so that man might become god." And indeed this is true - when we "put on Christ" at Holy Baptism and as we begin to work out our salvation, we become like God, that is we take on His nature. We give up our own fallen human nature, and in exchange we receive the nature of the God-man Jesus Christ. In order to be saved we must exhibit the mystery of the Holy Trinity in our own lives.

How is such a thing possible? How can we, who are created beings, who are limited, mortal and finite, become like the Holy Trinity - three persons in one essence? Again the Holy Fathers teach us what we must know. We know that there is no salvation outside the Church. In order to be transformed and enter into the life of Christ, we must do so within His Church. The Church is the ark of salvation and we are all gathered into that ark. But there is more to this than just membership in an earthly organization. The Church is much more than that. The Church is the union of all Orthodox Christians into the one mystical Body of Christ. It is in the Church that our true nature as Christians is made manifest. We, who are many, are united into one body (and yet we remain many persons, distinct from one another). This unity of diversity that we find in the mystery of the Church is exactly the same mystery of the unity in diversity of the Holy Trinity. By being members of the Holy Church, we are transformed so that our nature becomes like that of the Holy Trinity.

In the Holy Church, our true nature as a corporate body, a single entity made up of many persons, is made manifest. When we gather together to worship in the public services of the Church, we express this godlike nature. In this we can begin to see the importance of participating in the services of the Church. These services are not just a social gathering, a ritual that we share with those of like mind and belief. The services of the Church are the necessary expression of our godlike nature. By participating in the public worship of the Church we act like God, we confess our belief in the Holy Trinity and we confess our likeness to the Holy Trinity. If we shun the services of the Church, if we do not participate, then we are in effect turning our back on Christ, turning away from the salvation that He provides, denying that we are like Him. It is in the public services of the Church that God does the work of making our nature to be like His. It is only in the Church and in her public and corporate worship that we become like the Holy Trinity.

by Fr. David Moser

The Golden Legend - Ember Days

2007-05-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

Tracts for the Times

THE EMBER DAYS.

[Number 14]

IN reading the Epistles of St. Paul we cannot but observe how earnestly he presses upon those to whom he was writing, the duty of praying for a blessing on himself and his ministry. We not only find his request contained in general terms (1 Thess. v. 25.), "Brethren, pray for us;" but when he feels he stands in need of any particular support, he mentions it as an especial subject of prayer for the Churches. For instance, in writing to the Romans, at a time when he was looking forward to trouble from Jewish unbelievers, he says to them, (c. xv. 30.) "Strive together with me in your prayers to GOD for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea;" and in Phil. i. l9. he expresses a confidence that the very opposition he was meeting with would, through the intercession of the Saints, be turned into a good to himself. "I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer." It is the same when he has any object at heart, which he desires to see accomplished. He longs much for the spread of the Gospel, and therefore, in 2 Thess. iii. 1. he says, "Finally, Brethren, pray for us, that the word of GOD may have free course and be glorified." And feeling his own weakness to discharge the sacred trust committed to him, he asks the Ephesians (c. vi. 15. 19.) to make supplication in his behalf, "that utterance might be given unto him, that he might open his mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel." I shall mention but one passage more, that in 2 Cor. i. 11.; for here not only the duty of praying for their Apostle is pressed upon the people, but they are bidden to do so for the express purpose that they might also join in expressing thanks that their prayer had been graciously heard. "Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that, for the gift bestowed on us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf" (Compare Col. ii. 4. Heb. xiii. 19. Philem. 22.)

These texts show clearly, that it is the Christian’s duty to pray at all times for the Ministers of the Gospel. There are other texts which teach that supplication ought particularly to be made for them at the time of their Ordination. We find, that, when our LORD was about to send forth His twelve Apostles to preach His kingdom, "He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to GOD." (Luke vi. 12.) And when one of those Apostles had by transgression fallen from his Ministry, the whole Church united in supplication to GOD, that He would shew whom He had chosen to succeed him. (Acts i. 24, 25.) The same is observable in the Ordination of the first Deacons, where it is said, (Acts vi. 6.) the multitude set them before the Apostles, and "when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." Again, when Paul and Barnabas are sent forth on their special mission, "the Church fasted and prayed" for them. (Acts xiii. 3.) And St. Paul in turn observed the same practice, when he ordained Elders in the Churches where he had preached. "They prayed with fasting, and commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." Acts xiv. 23.

In conformity to this Apostolical custom, the Church of England views with peculiar solemnity the times at which her Ministers are ordained; and invites all her members to join, at these sacred seasons, in prayer and fasting in their behalf. It is the object of these pages to bring this subject especially before the reader’s notice; for the observance of this ordinance of the Church has fallen so generally into disuse, that few comparatively feel the value of it; and some perhaps are not even aware of its existence. To those who may be in this case, I would say briefly that the Ordination Sundays occur four times a year, and that the days of fasting, or Ember Days, (as they are called,) are in the week immediately before those respective Sundays. These days are as follows; the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent; after the Feast of Pentecost; after Sept. 14; after Dec. 13; as may be seen by referring to the Prayer-Book. And particular prayers are ordered during the whole of the weeks, in which these days occur; that the Bishops may make a wise and faithful choice, and that those who are to be called to the Ministry, may especially be blessed with GOD’S grace and heavenly benediction.

That such a practice is good and right in itself, and could not fail to produce a large benefit, cannot be doubted by those, who believe that prayer is the appointed channel whereby GOD is pleased to send mercies on mankind. He that feels the truth of "Ask, and it shall be given you," cannot deny, that he is losing a great privilege, whenever he neglects this duty. And if there is any Order of men who more especially need the help of others’ supplications, it is that of those, who are called to the high office of ministering the Word of Life to their fellow-creatures, and of being labourers together with their Divine Master in bringing men to salvation. I would go further than this, and say, that if there is any time when the Ministers of the Gospel more particularly call for the prayers of the Church, it is at these seasons of Ordination. Whether we consider the solemn office which the Bishops are performing, or the solemn vows which the Priests and Deacons are taking on themselves, we must allow that it is an occasion of the greatest importance. Here are a number of men going forth for the great work of winning back to CHRIST souls which have gone astray from the right path, and of fighting in the first ranks against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and in most cases going forth young and inexperienced in their work, not knowing (for who can know till he has tried?) the dangers and difficulties which beset them. Surely it is the duty of every Christian to give them what help he can, and send them forth strengthened for the labours of their journey.

I doubt not that there are many in this kingdom, who are in the habit of making supplication to GOD for their Ministers; many who join heartily in the several prayers of the Church services, where mention is made of them, as well as remember them in their private devotions. And some of these may ask, of what advantage it is to appoint particular days for such intercession. They may say, "we pray daily for the Clergy, and not unfrequently for those who are just entering their Ministerial life, Why should one day be fixed upon as better than another for this purpose? Let each do as he finds opportunity." I would answer, first, that as it was the custom of the Apostles to set apart the times of Ordination for especial prayer, as well as the regulation of our own Church, it is no longer a matter of indifference to us whether we adopt this method or not. The example of the one, and the injunction of the other, mark plainly for us what we ought to do. But, secondly, there will be advantages to ourselves in taking the course so recommended; I would mention one or two which appear to be of importance.

1. When men have been at all careless and indifferent about any duty, (and how few are there who can say that they have not been careless in this matter?) it is very useful to have some settled way for beginning it aright. What has long been put off from time to time is seldom properly attended to, if we leave the performance of it to any chance opportunity that may be offered. The convenient season will seldom come, or at least will not come to us in so profitable a way. For setting apart a particular occasion for solemn prayer, brings with it more seriousness and attention, and makes us think far more of the value of the blessing for which we ask.
2. And, secondly, I would remind all those who value the promises of the Bible, that there is an especial blessing promised to united prayer. Our LORD says, (Matt. viii. 19.) "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing they shall ask, it shall be done for them of MY FATHER which is in Heaven." And when a good is sought for all, all ought to be seeking for it, and "striving together," that it may be obtained. Now this could not be done, except days were appointed, which all may know of as a standing Ordinance; and to be able to join together in spirit, however far apart they are in body. We might thus not only in all parts of this kingdom, but in distant lands, wherever our brethren are residing, unite in sending up supplications, which our common FATHER would not fail to hear and answer abundantly. And when engaged in prayer we should have the great comfort and support of knowing that we are not
single, but that others are perhaps mentioning what we are leaving out; and that others have more earnestness and devotion than we feel in ourselves.

Should this paper fall into the hands of any who have never before heard or thought seriously of this Institution, it may be useful to offer a few hints for its better observance. Let each consecrate the days as much as possible to prayer and holy meditation, adding to them religious Fasting, if health permit. The true end of fasting is beautifully expressed in the Collect for the first Sunday in Lent; "using such abstinence, that our Flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey our LORD’S godly motions in righteousness and true holiness." It is to give the mind liberty and ability to consider and reflect while it is actually engaged in Divine service, or preparing for some solemn part of it; to humble ourselves before GOD under a sense of our sins, and the misery to which they expose us; to deprecate his anger, and to supplicate His mercy and favour. [1] We must use it in the same spirit in which Daniel did, when he set himself to pray for pardon for his own and his brethren’s sins, and sought "the LORD GOD with prayer and supplication, and fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." Dan. ix. 3.

The subjects for Prayer on the Ember days will be the Church of GOD of which we are members; especially those who are called to bear office in the same; and of these, more particularly those who are either ordaining or being ordained. But our Petitions need not stop with these. These are seasons, in which every Minister should be remembered before the throne of grace, in which every Bishop, Priest, and Deacon, claims the prayers of the People. We may ask for them, that their doctrine may be sound and pure, and may come to the hearts of their hearers; that they may diligently labour in their several spheres of action, for the glory of GOD and the good of mankind; above all, that they may themselves lead holy lives, such as are consistent with their high profession. And, because we are so much more earnest in prayer when we are asking for particular things, and those which we feel to need ourselves, we may make especial mention of our own Clergyman, and our own Bishop, praying that the light, which shines on them, may be reflected on our own neighbourhood. For the same reason, if we happen to know of any trouble or trial, to which the Sacred Ministry near us is exposed, we may mention this also. Additional subjects of meditation will arise according to the particular Ember days which we are celebrating. In those in Lent we shall have more particularly before us our LORD’S example of prayer and fasting, and ask for His Ministers, that they may be like Him, in retiring from the world, and overcoming worldly snares and temptations. In those in Whitsun-week, we shall remember our SAVIOUR’S words, that His disciples would fast when He was taken from them, think much of the HOLY SP1RIT, which is vouchsafed to them to supply His absence, and implore GOD that on us in our day this precious Blessing may be given abundantly. And again in those in Advent, we shall reflect on the near approach of the anniversary of our LORD’S birth, reflect on His forerunner, the self-denying Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Ghost from His mother’s womb, and pray that the "ministers and stewards of His mysteries may like him prepare the way for CHRIST’S second coming.

The times in which we live will furnish additional ground for supplication. We cannot but see, that there is a great struggle going on between good and evil; and that, while we trust true Religion is increasing, it cannot be denied that Infidelity and Opposition to lawful authority, whether of GOD or man, is in creasing likewise. And, especially, as regards our own Church, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that she has many and powerful enemies, both visible and invisible, and that wicked spirits and wicked men are seeking to undermine and overthrow her. The thought of these evils on all sides will naturally lead us to Him, who alone can protect us from them.

These remarks are written, in the hope that those who read will ask themselves honestly, whether they have not been guilty of neglecting the proper observance of the Ember days; and whether the revival of the primitive custom of keeping them might not be attended with a great national blessing; whether it might not be a means under God of averting the dangers which surround us. Many are now lamenting that we have in some respects lost sight of that "godly discipline," which the Church orders for the good of her members. But ought we not to seek a restoration of what is lost, as well as lament for it; and seriously set ourselves to the most effectual way of gaining what we need? And again, many are crying out against the faults of the Church; but have any a right to do so, till they themselves have tried every means in their power of amending what they feel to be an evil? And can we say, that we have tried every means, as long as an Institution like that of which I have been speaking, so edifying, and so likely to gain a blessing, is so generally neglected?

FOOTNOTE

[l] Nelson’s Festivals and Fasts, p. 358.

The Difference the Holy Spirit Makes

2007-05-27T00:34:00.000-05:00

by Fr. Roger J. Landry

Fifty-three days ago, the apostles were all gathered together in the Upper Room. Jesus washed their feet and instructed them about true service. He gave them his body and blood for the first time. He ordained them priests so that through them, He could give us that same body and blood. He prayed for them to His Father, prayed that they might be one, that the Father would protect them from the Evil one, that they might be consecrated in the truth, and that all those who would hear the Gospel through their lips might be one, too. But what happened when they left the room? They all went out and abandoned the Lord — right after Mass, right after receiving the Lord Jesus within, right after their priestly ordination! Judas sold Jesus, valuing him less than thirty pieces of silver. All eleven apostles ran away from the garden terrified. Peter, for whom the Lord had prayed personally, denied even knowing Jesus. All but St. John were still hiding the next day as Love personified was being tortured and killed upon a Cross. Jesus had prepared them for three years about what would happen to Him and what they were called to do, but none of that preparation, none of Jesus' prayers, not even the sacrament of the Eucharist, sufficed to keep them faithful. Something was missing.

Today we see the Apostles return to the same Upper Room. Jesus has ascended to heaven, and so the apostles huddle around his mother for nine days to learn from her about Jesus, to learn from her how to pray, to learn from her how to say yes to God. This time they leave the Upper Room and begin to preach the Gospel fearlessly. Three thousand people were converted that first day. The same apostles who had scattered like frightened children in the Garden were now gathering God's children together for Christ. The same Peter who denied even knowing Jesus in order to keep himself warm by the courtyard fire, was now on fire confessing that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of the Living God. The disciples who were too ashamed to appear at the foot of the Cross now boldly and proudly proclaimed God's love seen by Christ's death on that Cross. What was different? Surely Mary's example had helped them. Doubtless the resurrection of Jesus from the dead had filled them with joy and given them a certain confidence. But what could have made these people turn from chickens to shepherds, from cowards to willing martyrs, so soon? The answer is what and whom we celebrate today: the Holy Spirit.

On Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit worked a miracle in each of the apostles, and through them, in the whole Church. As the apostles were huddled together around Mary in the Upper Room fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead, suddenly from heaven there was the sound like the rush of a driving wind that filled the entire upper room. Tongues of fire came down and rested upon each of them and all were filled with the Holy Spirit. THIS was the difference. They received the Holy Spirit's help boldly to proclaim Jesus. The Holy Spirit came down upon them as tongues of fire — tongues because they were to speak, fire because they were to speak with the passion of burning love. And they responded. Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit he would send would teach them all things, lead them to all truth, remind them of everything he had taught them, and prove the world wrong about sin, holiness and judgment. Then, moved by the Holy Spirit, they began to fulfill this mission. The Acts of the Apostles had begun.

Well, the Acts of the Apostles continues down to our own day. God wants to write new chapters, with each of us — and that includes you — playing an important role. The wind is still blowing. The fire of the Holy Spirit still burns. Each of us, however, needs to let the Holy Spirit in to do his work. Each of us has to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about a similar miracle in us. Too often we are more like the Apostles on Holy Thursday than on Pentecost Sunday. We come to Mass, Jesus prays for us, he feeds us with his flesh and blood, but when we leave the upper room, we basically leave Him behind, giving in to various denials, perhaps for comfort like Peter, perhaps out of fear like all the rest. We know what our mission is — to give witness to the whole world that Jesus is the Savior, that he is the truth worth living for and worth dying for — but how many times have we failed in that mission, and how many times have we failed even to TRY to fulfill it? Proclaiming the Gospel today is surely not easy; so many reject Christ and his teachings and the Church he founded. But when we look back to what the first disciples encountered — when first the Jewish leaders and eventually the Roman authorities were trying to kill them for proclaiming the Gospel, and when the culture was even more imbued by practices contrary to the Gospel than it is now — we find great reason for hope. For if the Holy Spirit could work such wonders with those coarse fishermen and tax collectors, then surely he can do similarly great things through us if we allow him. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we, too, can turn from cowards to heroes, from apostates to apostles, from sinners to saints. The key is allowing the Holy Spirit to act.

To do so, we first have to get to know know the Holy Spirit. There's an episode in the life of St. Paul when he was at Ephesus and met some people who said they were disciples. Paul asked them: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They, who had only received John's baptism of repentance, replied, "No, we have NOT EVEN HEARD THAT THERE IS a Holy Spirit" (Acts 19:2). Many Catholics today might well say the same statement. In the mind and hearts of many disciples, the Holy Spirit is the GREAT UNKNOWN. That has to change if we're going to change and if our Church and world are going to change. What do we know about the Holy Spirit? We know much more than we think we do:

a) He overshadowed Mary at the Annunciation and helped her to conceive virginally within her the Eternal Son of God (Mt 1:18-20).
b) He filled St. Elizabeth and helped her and the embryonic John the Baptist recognize Christ in Mary's womb (Lk 1:41).
c) He filled Zechariah and helped him to prophecy about mission of John the Baptist, his Son (Lk 1:67).
d) He came down upon Jesus like a dove at Jesus' baptism (Lk 3:22) and then led him into the desert (Lk 4:1).
e) Throughout his public ministry, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit (Lk 10:21).
f) Jesus promised that the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Lk 11:13).
g) Jesus said it was in fact advantageous for him to leave them and go to the Father, because then, and only then, would he and the Father send the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:7, 15:26, 14:26). How great a gift must the Holy Spirit be if Jesus (who cannot deceive us) told us it was better for him to go!
h) Jesus also described very clearly what the Holy Spirit would do: He would teach us all things (Jn 14:26), would help us in a moment of trial to know what we ought to say (Lk 12:12), would remind us of everything he had commanded us (Jn 14:26), would convict the world concerning sin, judgment and holiness (Jn 16:8).
i) The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of Sacred Scripture and is the principle author of every book of the Bible.

But the Holy Spirit is not just someone we should KNOW ABOUT, but someone we should know intimately and personally, as we know a friend. We encounter him first in prayer. We cannot pray without his help. St. Paul tells us that we cannot even say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). Because we are children of God, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we might cry out, "Abba, Father!" in prayer (Rom 8:15). St. Paul tells us that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words" (Rom 8:26).

But we encounter and get to know the Holy Spirit most intimately in each of the Sacraments, although sometimes we don't give him all the credit he deserves. In each of these, we receive his help as he tries to conform us ever more so that we might be other Christ's in the midst of the world.

a) John the Baptist had said that Jesus would one day baptize not just with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Mt 3:11). That's what happens in the sacrament of baptism. We beg the Father to send the Holy Spirit into the water of the font to make it holy so that it may make others holy. Baptism makes us temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19) and the Holy Spirit, through baptism, makes us children of God.
b) In Confirmation, the bishop anoints us with oil and says, "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit," in which we're changed for life by the Holy Spirit and given the graces we need to be real witnesses of Christ. We receive in Confirmation what the apostles on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit's help so that we might proclaim Christ's Gospel. That proclamation is a joint effort with the Holy Spirit. As St. Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles: "We are witnesses to these things, together with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 5:32)
c) In the sacrament of penance, the Holy Spirit, which Jesus gave to his first priests on Easter Sunday evening to forgive (cf. Jn 20:31) fulfills His mission in the absolution, which the priest begins, "God, the Father of Heaven, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins." The Holy Spirit is sent so that we might once again become an immaculate temple of God and a fully restored son and daughter of the eternal Father.
d) In the Eucharist, we pray to the Father, "Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ." Later, we ask him to send the Holy Spirit to make us one, "Grant that we, who are nourished by his body and blood, may be filled with His Holy Spirit, and become one body, one spirit in Christ."
e) In the sacrament of anointing, when the sick person is anointed with oil, the priest says, "Through this holy anointing, may the Lord in his mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit."
f) In Holy Matrimony, the Holy Spirit is the one who unites spouses in love, just as the Holy Spirit is the unity between the Father and the Son.
g) Finally, in Holy Orders, the Holy Spirit is called down to sanctify the priests in the prayer of consecration, to make them in reality what Christ calls them to be.
h) The point of all the sacraments is to make us holy, to make us radiate with God's
own life, and to bring us to heaven. That is the the great mission of the Holy Spirit.

"We never even knew that there was a Holy Spirit." To the extent that any of us feels still unfulfilled in the Christian life, it is because we have not yet allowed the Holy Spirit full reign in our lives by responding to the Gift of Holy Spirit with the same 100% docility as Mary did at the Annunciation, as the Apostles did on Pentecost Sunday. This Pentecost is the chance for us to thank the Father and the Son for the gift of the Holy Spirit, to pray like the first apostles did surrounded by Mary, and to respond docilely to all his promptings. When we remain in the state of grace, we are temples of the Holy Spirit, which is a reality that should astound us: God the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. The Holy Spirit blows within us. The Holy Spirit burns within us. But we have to let that flame grow into a bonfire.

The same Holy Spirit who filled the apostles on Pentecost is about to come down here in this Church. We are in the midst of the Upper Room, where Jesus himself gives us his body and blood, where the Holy Spirit himself comes down. If we wish to leave this Upper Room and carry out our mission as the Apostles of our own day, let us beg the Holy Spirit to fill us with tongues of fire, so that with passion, love and great courage, we might bring the Gospel out to our world which so desperately needs to embrace it.

Come, Holy Spirit, Fill the Hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love!

A Pentecost Story - excepted from The Church's Year of Grace, by Fr. Pius Parsch

2007-05-27T00:16:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Fr. Pius Parsch.

"And when the days of Pentecost were drawing to a close, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign tongues, even as the Holy Spirit prompted them to speak" (Acts 2, 1-4).

Pentecost (Whitsunday), with Christmas and Easter, ranks among the great feasts of Christianity. It commemorates not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Disciples, but also the fruits and effects of that event: the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations.

After Jesus had ascended to heaven from Mt. Olivet, the apostles and disciples returned to the Holy City. They remained together in the Upper Room or Cenacle, the place where Jesus had appeared to them and which may well be called the first Christian church. About a hundred and twenty persons were assembled there. They chose Matthias as an apostle in place of the unhappy Judas; they prayed and waited for the Paraclete.

Ten days had passed, it was Sunday, the seventh Sunday after the resurrection. At about nine o'clock in the morning, as they were together praying fervently, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. Note how all the great theophanies in Christ's life occurred during the course of prayer. After His baptism, for instance, when Jesus was praying the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove; likewise, it was during prayer at night that the transfiguration took place on Tabor. Surely too it was while Mary was praying that Gabriel delivered his message, and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Pentecost followed precedent. The small community of Christians had prepared themselves through prayer for the coming of the Paraclete. The same is true at Mass today, every day; through prayer we ready our souls for the advent of the Spirit.

The descent upon the apostles was internal and invisible in nature although accompanied by certain visible phenomena. There came a mighty roar, like the onrush of a violent wind. It came suddenly, from heaven; but unlike storms that strike a structure from without, this one penetrated and filled the room where the disciples were gathered. Therefore it was not a natural wind, it was a miracle peculiar to the occasion. A second visible sign consisted in tongues of fire that descended upon each one present. These fiery tongues gave visible evidence that the Holy Spirit had descended upon them.

Today at Mass, particularly at holy Communion, the power of the Holy Spirit will come down upon us; fiery tongues will not be seen, but invisible tongues of fire will not be absent. There was still another external manifestation of the Holy Spirit; the apostles and disciples were enabled to speak various languages.

After the roar of the wind many of Jerusalem's pilgrims hurried to the Cenacle. Pentecost was one of the three festivals which obliged all Jews to be present in Jerusalem. Jews from distant lands, and Jewish converts from paganism too, attended these feasts. As a result, a colorful crowd speaking a variety of languages surrounded the house. Now the apostles, who so shortly before had hid in fear behind locked doors, came forth and courageously walked among the multitude speaking to each in his native tongue. It was indeed amazing! Galileans, and multilingual?

But the malicious too were present; they had the answer. Nothing marvelous at all! Those Galileans were simply drunk, and their drunken babble sounded like a foreign language! Peter showed no hesitation in answering the charge. None of their number, he said, were intoxicated; it was but nine o'clock in the morning, and at that hour men usually are sober. What the multitude saw was, in fact, the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy: In those days (of the Messiah), God will pour forth His Spirit upon men and they will prophesy. . . . Then the apostle pointed his words more directly against the accusers: they had killed Jesus, had nailed Him to the Cross; but God had awakened Him and after His departure to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit.
The pilgrims who had heard Peter give this first pentecostal sermon "were pierced to the heart and said: Brethren, what shall we do? But Peter said to them: Repent and be baptized; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Three thousand responded.

One final question: why the miracle of tongues? In answer, recall the story regarding the tower of Babel. Puffed up by pride, men attempted to build a tower that would touch the heavens. To punish their sin, God confused their speech. Sin causes confusion and division. Now Christ came to gather all men into His Church and thereby to unite them to Himself. This should result in creating but one family of nations again. To this blessed state the miracle of tongues points.
Yes, even we as individuals have a gift of tongues which all men can understand. It is the gift of love infused into us by the Holy Spirit. Love unites, love is a common language, by means of love we can speak to all nations.

Pentecost—Festival of the Arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete

2007-05-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

http://pbs1928.blogspot.com/2007/05/pentecostfestival-of-arrival-of-holy.html

A devotion starter, from Dr. Peter Toon.

From where do we get this word "Pentecost"?

It is in the Jewish Calendar the fiftieth day (Greek, pentekostos) after the presentation of the first harvested sheaf of the barley harvest—that is, the fiftieth day from the first Sunday after Passover (cf. Leviticus 23:15ff.) Amongst Jewish people it was known as the "feast of weeks" (cf. Exodus 34:22a; Deuteronomy 16:10), and also as "the day of the first-fruits" (Numbers 28:26; Exodus 23:16a) because it was the day when "the first-fruits of the wheat harvest" (Exodus 34:22a) were presented to God. In later Judaism it also was reckoned to be the anniversary of the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai (a deduction from the chronological note in Exodus 19:1).

Coming out of Jewish roots, the early Christian Church gladly incorporated the fact of the season of Pentecost into its own Calendar because it was, significantly, at the festival-- fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day--that the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete of Jesus (see John 14-16) descended upon the assembled disciples and the mission of the Church in and to the world truly began. For details of the events concerning Jesus in the fifty days from the Resurrection to the Day of Pentecost, Christians turn to the final chapters of all the Four Gospel, to 1 Corinthians 15 and to Acts 1. Here they read about various appearances of the resurrected Lord to his disciples, leading up to his final appearance on the fortieth day, which became his Ascension; then they learn that during the final ten days the disciples met together to choose a replacement for Judas Iscariot, to engage in sustained, unified prayer and to wait for the promise of Jesus that he would send the Holy Spirit to them. It is in Acts 2 that what occurred on the Day of Pentecost, the arrival of the Holy Spiirt, is described in vivid but restrained terms.

So within the Christian Calendar there is, after the all-important Festival Day of Easter Sunday, what has been called "the great Fifty Days" which climaxes on the Day of Pentecost (later called "Whitsuntide" in the western Church because of the use of white baptismal robes).However, there is within these special fifty days a most important, indeed a unique Day, the Day of the Ascension of the resurrected Lord Jesus. So the Jewish fifty becomes--because of Jesus the Jewish Messiah--the Christian forty plus ten, making fifty. And the fortieth day is a most important focal point, for the regular and remarable visits or/appearances of Jesus to his disciples ceased on that very day, and, it is, as such, the last of the great festivals of the Lord Jesus, for his appearance became his Ascension into heaven (thus Birth, Epiphany, Baptism, Transfiguration, Resurrection and Ascension).

The descent of the Holy Spirit, sent by God the Father in the Name and at the Request of the Exalted Lord Jesus, was a unique moment in human history and of God's saving activity in the world, and, therefore, it is not surprising that various extraordinary phenomena proclaimed that Arrival. The three supernatural signs were: a sound, a sight and strange speech. The sound was like the blowing of a violent wind; the sight was of what seemed to be tongues of fire, which separated and rested upon each one present; and the speech was the speaking in languages that were recognized by the visitors from all parts of the Roman Empire, present in Jerusalem for the feast. The experience was more than real and it was so because the new era of the presence with the disciples of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete of Jesus had begun—the Spirit of power (wind), of purity (fire) and of universality (many languages) was indwelling and resting upon chosen human beings.

And the immediate effect of the Spirit's presence in and upon the disciples was to cause them to engage enthusiastically and heartily in evangelism and mission to the many Jewish pilgrims in the city of Jerusalem at that time. The Gospel of the Father concerning his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was proclaimed in many languages at various points by the disciples and then it was proclaimed to all in one place (probably the Temple precincts) very publicly in the language all understood by Peter, the leader of the apostles. Converts were made and they were baptized in water for the remission of their sins. The Christian Church was now truly up and running, with a mission to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And the nature of the kingdom (saving reign) of God known in the Church is declared to be—in the best senses—multi-racial, multi-national, and multi-lingual. Further, the curse of Babel was reversed. At Babel (see Genesis 11:1-9) languages were confused and peoples scattered. In Jerusalem the language barrier is supernaturally overcome as a sign that in Christ all the nations and people will be gathered together in Christ, when finally the ingathered, new people of God is "from every nation, tribe, people and language" (Rev 7:9).

For people entering the Church in repentance, faith and by Baptism after this first amazing Day of Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit from the exalted Lord Jesus was (and is) very much present, available and ready to be given in fullness, not only to bring everlasting life and virtuous, graceful living ,but also for empowerment in worship, witness and service. We recall that there are fruit and gifts of the Spirit and both are available from the Head of the Body!

By the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the emerging Church came to know truly that the LORD our God is truly the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Three Persons and One, a Trinity in Unity and a Unity in Trinity. Thus Trinity Sunday immediately follows Pentecost or Whitsunday.

Conclusion: An excellent poem/hymn by John Keble contrasts the descent of God to Moses at Mt Sinai and his descent upon the waiting disciples in Jerusalem—"When God of old came down from heaven…" And for praying about the Holy Spirit as the author of renewal in the Church, and in the baptized believer, Charles Wesley's " O Thou whom camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart…" is wonderful.

St. Vincent of Lerins

2007-05-23T21:11:00.000-05:00

(click link above ↑ to view Homily by Fr. James Thornton, From Made Perfect in Faith )(Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2006), pp. 146-151. This superb book of homilies is highly recommended! Posted on 29 Sep, 2006 (n.s.).

A leading theologian of the Church of Gaul in the 5th century, St. Vincent settled in the island monastery of Lerins off the southern coast of France in order that "avoiding the concourse and crowds of cities... I can follow without distraction the Psalmist's admonition, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Here he wrote his celebrated Commonitorium, a "Reminder," where he wrote down "those things which I have truthfully received from the holy Fathers ," which they "have handed down to us and committed to our keeping." Among these things is the celebrated definition of orthodoxy as quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus: that which has been believed in the Church "everywhere, always, by everyone." St. Vincent lived in an age of great historical uncertainty; barbarian tribes were a constant menace and although four hundred years of Christian tradition had already passed, the foundations of the faith had been only recently clarified by decisions made in the Ecumenical Councils--the Council of Nicea (325), the Council of Constantinople (381) and the Council of Ephesus (431). It is, therefore, not surprising that St. Vincent was so concerned to preserve the authority of Christian tradition. This is not to say that he was opposed to progress or doctrinal development; each age must face its won particular problems and develop a Christian response in answer to them. "But it must be progress in the proper sense of the word, and not a change in faith. Progress means that each thing grows within itself, whereas change implies that one thing is transformed into another .... The growth of religion in the soul should be like the growth of the body, which in the course of year develops and unfolds, yet remains the same as it was."

"In ancient times, our forefathers sowed the seeds of the wheat of faith in that field which is the Church. It would be quite unjust and improper if we, their descendents, gathered, instead of the genuine truth of wheat, the false tares of error. On the contrary, it is logically correct that the beginning and the end be in agreement, that we reap from the planting of the wheat of doctrine the harvest of the wheat of dogma. In this way, none of the Characteristics of the seed is changed, although something evolved in the course of time from those first seeds and has now expanded under careful cultivation. What may be added is merely appearance, beauty, and distinction, but the proper nature of each kind remains."

His defense of the traditions of the Fathers and his condemnation of innovation and novelty in the Church are as appropriate today as they were in his time:

"The Church of Christ, zealous and cautious guardian of the dogmas deposited with it, never changes any phase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither trims what seems necessary, nor grafts things superfluous; it neither gives up its own nor usurps what does not belong to it. But it devotes all its diligence to one aim: to treat tradition faithfully and wisely; to nurse and polish what from old times may have remained unshaped and unfinished; to consolidate and to strengthen what already was clear · and plain; and to guard what already was confirmed and defined. After all, what have the councils brought forth in their decrees but that what' before was believed plainly and simply might from now on be believed more diligently; that what before was preached rather unconcernedly might be preached from now on more eagerly."

FEAST OF THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

2007-05-17T07:03:00.000-05:00

The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated each year on the fortieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter). Since the date of Pascha changes each year, the date of the Feast of the Ascension changes. The Feast is always celebrated on a Thursday.

The Feast itself commemorates when, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, Jesus led His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and after blessing them and asking them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, He ascended into heaven.

Biblical StoryThe story of the Ascension of our Lord, celebrated as one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church, is found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles 1:3-11. It is also mentioned in the Gospels of Mark (16:19) and Luke (24:50-53). The moment of the Ascension is told in one sentence: "He was lifted up before their eyes in a cloud which took Him from their sight" (Acts 1:9).

Christ made His last appearance on earth, forty days after His Resurrection from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles states that the disciples were in Jerusalem. Jesus appeared before them and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the "Promise of the Father". He stated, "You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5).

After Jesus gave these instructions, He led the disciples to the Mount of Olives. Here, He commissioned them to be His witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). It is also at this time that the disciples were directed by Christ to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Jesus also told them that He would be with them always, "even to the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).

As the disciples watched, Jesus lifted up His hands, blessed them, and then was taken up out of their sight (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Two angels appeared to them and asked them why they were gazing into heaven. Then one of the angels said, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

Rogation and Ascension

2007-05-14T00:16:00.001-05:00

The week of the Sixth Sunday of Easter is busy with processions and outdoor activities. The week begins with prayers and celebrations that focus on stewardship of creation and culminates in the great (but lately much-neglected) Feast of the Ascension of our Lord into heaven on the fortieth day of the Paschal Feast.

Rogation Days

The Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, originated in Vienne, France (not Vienna, Austria), in 470 after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering among the people. Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special litanies and prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking God's protection and blessing on the crops that were just beginning to sprout. The Latin word rogare means "to ask", thus these were "rogation" processions. In an agricultural society, closely connected with the soil and highly vulnerable to the uncertainties of nature, this was an idea that took root quickly, and the custom spread around Europe and over to Britain. The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or "Rogantide") and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel formerly appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples to ask, and ye shall receive.

While technically they were days of fasting, for which they were also known as "Grass Days," for the meatless meals that were enjoined, the Rogation Days developed into a popular festival, celebrating the arrival of spring and serving other purposes, as well. Other names for these days include "Gang Days," from the Anglo-Saxon gangen, "to go," and "Cross Days," both titles signifying the processions with crosses and banners around the countryside. In some parishes, the procession took more than one day and the whole business became an occasion for several days of picnics and revels of all sorts, particularly among those who trooped along at the fringes of the religious aspects of the procession.

The route of the walk was around the boundaries of the parish, which was a civil as well as a religious unit. Thus, the processions were useful in teaching people, particularly the young, their parish boundaries. Known as "beating the bounds," the processions customarily stopped at boundary marks and other significant landmarks of the parish, such as a venerable tree, or a great rock, or perhaps a pond. The priest would read the Gospel and perhaps affix a cross to the landmark. Then the boys of the parish would suffer some indignity intended to help them remember the spot. Boys were bumped about against rocks and trees, thrown into the water, held upside-down over fences, thrown into bramble patches, or beaten with willow wands--and then given a treat in compensation. In later times, the marchers beat the boundary marker with the willow wands, beating the bounds, rather than the boys.

The reminder of boundaries had another important impact on communal life. In a poem by the 20th century American Robert Frost, the poet's neighbor asserts that "good fences make good neighbors." Boundaries are often very important in relationships. As members of parishes beat the bounds, they would often encounter obstructions and violations of boundaries. The annual beating of the bounds provided an opportunity to resolve boundary issues. It also led to the tradition of seeking reconciliation in personal relationships during Rogationtide. The sharing of a specially brewed ale, called Ganging Beer, and a mysterious pastry, called Rammalation Biscuits, at the end of the walk was a good way of sealing the reconciliation.

George Herbert gave the following good reasons to beat the bounds: 1) a blessing of God for the fruits of the field; 2) Justice in the preservation of the bounds; 3) Charitie, in living, walking and neighbourliy accompanying one another, with reconciling of differences at that time, if they be any; 4) Mercie, in relieving the poor by a liberal distribution of largess which at that time is or oght be made.

The custom of placing crosses on boundary markers and in the fields seems to derive from the fact that the Rogation Days fall near the old feast day of the Invention (or Finding) of the Cross. Crouchmas ("Cross-mass") was on May 3rd and it was the custom on that day to place crosses in fields and gardens as a way of blessing them and praying for them to be fruitful. While full Rogation processions are rare today, the blessing of crosses to be planted in the fields of the faithful is one of the ways the older customs survive.

Keeping the Rogation Days Today

Much of modern society has lost its direct connection with the soil, but this psychological distance does not lessen the actual dependence of all people on the gifts of nature. Furthermore, responsible stewardship of all of these gifts is increasingly being recognized as the concern of all people. Days of thanksgiving, harvest festivals, and the like are observed in many churches at the end of the growing season. The Rogation Days at the time of planting have become little more than a liturgical footnote in the American Prayer Book, but in these times of growing ecological concern the Church would do well to revive them.

Practically speaking, the revival of Rogation observances is likely to involve more people if they are part of a Sunday service. It should be added that, while the Sixth Sunday of Easter is the traditional day, some adaptation to the local season and climate would be appropriate. After all, there is little point in blessing fields and seeds for planting at the time when crops are being harvested in the southern hemisphere. Similarly, there will be many places where farms and rural countryside will not be the locale of processions and blessings. But even in urban churches there should be an awareness of our dependence upon the fruits and resources of the earth, of the ways in which resources are wasted, of the dangers of pollution, and of our responsibility for honest labor and industry.

A Rogation observance in church, then, can be the opportunity for a homily on the Christian stewardship of natural resources. Various symbols can be introduced into the liturgy to reinforce this theme. A procession around the whole parish might not be a possibility, but a procession around the church grounds, a local park, or a parishioner's farm would be appropriate. Parishioners can bring their own garden seeds to be blessed and crosses can be blessed for parishioners to take home and plant in their fields or gardens. Making the crosses would be a good project for the children of the church school or individual families. If the children made Easter gardens, the plants in them can be transplanted to either the parish garden or their family gardens at home, adapting some of the prayers below. Even though the Sunday readings no longer keep the Rogation theme, the hymns can. Hymns and canticles that fit the Rogation theme include, "O Jesus crowned with all renown", "Fairest Lord Jesus", "We plow the fields and scatter", "Now the green blade rises", "O worship the King", Benedicite, omnia opera, and Psalm 65.

"What does the Father see on the altar stone on which the holy sacrifice is offered"

2007-04-17T22:34:00.000-05:00

This piece which is posted on Pontifications and is to vauluble to pass up, especially on Holy Thursday, the day we are to commemorate Christ Jesus institution of The Last Supper. We owe must gratitude to its original author the Blessed Columba Marmion.

"The Eucharistic sacrifice is the sacramental continuation of the sacrifice of the Cross. Every time we celebrate the divine mysteries, we announce the death of the Lord: Mortem Domini annuntiabitis (1 Cor 11:26). The Council brings out the full sense of the words of St. Paul: “It is the same Christ Who offers Himself now through the ministry of His priests and Who then offered Himself through His own ministry on the Cross”: Idem nunc offerens sacerdotum ministerior qui seipsum tunc in cruce obtulit.
If we can grasp the full significance of these words the propitiatory character of the Mass will be clearly manifest to us.
For God there is no past and no future. He possesses in an unchangeable present the whole infinity of His life of knowledge, and of love, and of beatitude. St. Thomas has adopted the illuminating definition of the divine eternity given us by Boethius: Interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio. This means that God in a Nunc Stans, that is to say, in a Now which is above all limits and all succession, possesses perfectly, totally and always “in act” (tota simul) the plenitude of a life which knows no beginning and no end. For us there is always a succession of time; existence is meted out to us instant by instant. That is why it is measured by time. But God, in His eternity, embraces in one glance the succession of events which constitute for man the past, the present and the future.
We must realize that, at the consecration, the whole drama of Calvary, and with all the consequence of sufferings and humiliations which it involved for Jesus, is present before God. It may be said in all truth that we are displaying before the eyes of the Eternal One all this divine past; that is why the Apostle says so aptly that at every Mass “we announce to the Father the death of His Son.”
You remember the story of the brothers of Joseph (Gen 37:31-32). After having plotted his destruction and sold him to strangers, he soaked his cloak in blood and sent it to Jacob, so that it might be a sign to him of the death of his son.
Every time that a priest celebrates Mass, he is not displaying to the Father the garment of Jesus as a proof of His Passion, but presenting the Son Himself under the sacred species making, for love, a true immolation, though in sacramental form.
Let us dwell a little on this thought. What does the Father see on the altar stone on which the holy sacrifice is offered? He sees the body and blood of the Son of His love: Filius dilectionis suae (Col 1:13). And what is it that the Son is doing on the altar? Annuntiat mortem: He is placing before the eyes of the Father His love, His obedience, His suffering, the oblation of His life. And the Father casts on us a look of mercy."

"Reaching To Heaven"

2007-04-13T01:26:00.000-05:00

There is absolutely no way I can pass on posting this photo...she turned 3 on Good Friday! At this moment words escape me...though I'm sure I'll find some after a few hours sleep...

DANIEL LANOIS - The Maker

2007-04-12T00:09:00.001-05:00

I know this song will never make the Oremus Hymnal 1940. But this is one of the most spiritual of the 'contemporary gospel' songs around. Has been one of my favorites for more than 20 years

The Maker - lyrics

2007-04-11T23:40:00.000-05:00

Oh, Oh Deep water

Black, and cold like the night

I stand with arms wide open

I've run a twisted mile

I'm a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

I could not see for fog in my eyes

I could not feel for the fear in my life

From across the great divide

In the distance I saw a light

Jean Baptiste

walking to me with the Maker

My body is bent and broken

by long and dangerous leaps

I can't work the fields of Abraham

and turn my head away

I'm not a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

Brother John

Have you seen the homeless daughters

standing there with broken wings

I have seen the flaming swords

there over east of eden

burning in the eyes of the Maker

oh river rise from your sleep

The Apostles St. Philip & St. James

2007-04-10T07:06:00.000-05:00

St. Philip the Apostle

The Gospels of Sts. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us nothing of Philip except our Lord's choice of him as an Apostle. St. John, however, in youth his fellow townsman at Bethsaida, and in old age his neighbor in Asia Minor, tells us more of him. It was he of whom Jesus asked how sufficient bread could be provided to feed the five thousand, and who replied that 'two hundred silver pieces could not buy enough.' The Greeks who wished to see Jesus approached Philip, and, at the Last Supper, it was he who asked to be shown the Father.

St. James the Less

The only direct information which the New Testament provides about the second apostle who bore the name James is that he was the 'son of Alphaeus' (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). In these circumstances, it is not surprising that attempts have been made to identify him with one, or more, of the several people so named elsewhere in the New Testament. The most outstanding of these is James, 'the brother of the Lord,' who is thus described by St. Paul (Galatians 1:19; cf. also 2:9 and 12). He is probably to be identified with the recipient of a vision of the Risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:7), and is, doubtless, the same James who is depicted as the leading Christian of the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18). Finally, it seems natural to identify him with the Lord's brother of that name mentioned in the Gospels (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). It was the opinion of St. Jerome--an opinion for a long time generally accepted--that James, son of Alphaeus, and James, the Lord's brother, are the same person; but the tendency among biblical scholars nowadays is to distinguish between the two, and to be content with regard to this apostle, as we have to be content in the case of others of the Twelve, with the bare mention of his name.

The term 'brethren of the Lord' is used by New Testament writers to designate a group of persons distinct from the Twelve (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:5; Acts 1:13 and 14). In their few appearances in the Gospels, they are shown as incredulous with regard to Christ's preaching, even positively opposed to him; and this at a time when the Apostolic College was already constituted (e.g. John 7:3-5; Mark 3:21 and 31-36). While no completely convincing argument can be found, it would appear more probable that neither James nor any other of the brethren was a member of the Twelve.

Similarly, if one keeps in mind the pre-eminent position occupied by James, the Lord's brother, among the Jewish converts at Jerusalem, he would appear the most likely author of the Epistle of James, a letter addressed primarily to the convert Jews of the Dispersion.

Early Christian tradition agrees with Josephus in stating that James, the Lord's brother, was put to death by the Jewish authorities (probably in the year 62). Hegesippus, writing in the second century, describes James as an ascetic--'wine and strong drink he drank not, nor did he meat; he neither shaved his head, nor anointed himself with oil ... and the skin of his knees was hardened like a camel's through his much praying.' He was held in high repute for his sanctity, but gradually incurred the envy and enmity of the scribes and pharisees because of his sway over the people, and this culminated in their stoning him to death within the temple precincts, while he was addressing the crowd.

The very large and involved question of the relationship between Christ and 'his brethren' can only be touched on here. In the first place there can be no doubt that the Greek word in the original texts means 'brother; at the same time one should remember that, as used in the New Testament, viz to designate a well-defined group of people (e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:5), the term must have taken its rise among the Aramaic-speaking first Christians; that, therefore, our Greek term is merely a translation of the current Aramaic word. Consequently, it is permissible to argue that, as in several verifiable instances in the Old Testament, so here, 'brother' does not necessarily mean full-brother, nor even half-brother, but may be used to designate remoter degrees of kinship, including cousins, since neither Hebrew nor Aramaic had a word for 'cousin.' If, then, Christ did have cousins, the only suitable word in Aramaic to describe them would have been 'brethren.' Catholic belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary, while resting largely on the basis of a firm tradition, still finds some support in the nuances of Scripture: Mary's implied vow of virginity (Luke 1:34); the family life of Mary and Joseph, as told by Luke, makes no mention of other children; Christ alone is 'son of Mary'; the otherwise hardly comprehensible action of Christ in confiding his mother to St. John's care. The theory which would make the 'brethren' sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, likewise, has no Scriptural foundation. Conversely, the view which holds them to be Christ's cousins by being the children either of a sister of his mother, or of a brother of St. Joseph, has only conjectural value.

St. Athanasius - Patriarch of Alexandria

2007-04-02T01:05:00.000-05:00

St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and one of the most illustrious defenders of the Christian faith, was born at Alexandria about the year 297. Of his family, circumstances, or early education nothing can be said to be known, although a legendary story has been preserved by Rufinus of Aquileia as to the manner in which he came, while yet a boy, under the notice of his predecessor, Alexander. It seems certain that Alexander became his patron, took him as a youth into his house, and employed him as his secretary. This was probably about 313, and from this time Athanasius may be said to have been devoted to the Christian ministry. He was, no doubt, a student in the "Didascaleion," or famous "catechetical school " of Alexandria, which included amongst its already illustrious teachers the names of Clement and Origen. In the museum, the ancient seat of the Alexandrian university, he may have learned grammar, logic, and rhetoric. His mind was certainly well disciplined, and accustomed to discuss from an early period the chief questions both in philosophy and religion. The persecution under which the Alexandrian Church suffered at this time, and his intimacy with the great hermit Antony of which he himself has told us, had all their effect upon his character, and served to nurture in him that undaunted fortitude and high spirit of faith by which he became distinguished.

Before the outbreak of the Arian controversy, which began in 319, Athanasius had made himself known as the author of two essays addressed to a convert from heathenism, one of them entitled Against the Gentiles, and the other On the Incarnation of the Word. Both are of the nature of apologetical treatises, arguing such questions as monotheism, and the necessity of divine interposition for the salvation of the world; and already in the second may be traced that tone of thought respecting the essential divinity of Christ as the "God-man" for which he afterwards became conspicuous. There is no distinct evidence of the connection of Athanasius with the first contentions of Arius and his bishop, which ended in the exile of the former, and his entrance into Palestine under the protection of Eusebius the historian, who was bishop of Caesarea and subsequently of his namesake the bishop of Nicomedia. It can hardly be doubted, however, that Athanasius would be a cordial assistant of his friend and patron Alexander, and that the latter was strengthened in his theological position by the young enthusiastic student who had already expounded the nature of the divine Incarnation, and who seems about this time to have become archdeacon of Alexandria. At the Council of Nicaea, in the year 325, he appears prominently in connection with the dispute. He attended the council, not as one of its members (who were properly only bishops or delegates of bishops), but merely as the attendant of Alexander. In this capacity, however, he was apparently allowed to take part in its discussions, for Theodoret (i. 26) states that "he contended earnestly for the apostolic doctrines, and was applauded by their champions, while he earned the hostility of their opponents". Within five months after the return of Alexander to the scene of his episcopal labours he expired, and his friend and archdeacon was chosen to succeed him. He was elected in the sight and amidst the acclamations of the people. He was now about 30 years of age, and is spoken of as remarkable both for his physical and mental characteristics. He was small in stature, but his face was radiant with intelligence, as the face of an angel. This is the expression of Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat., xxii. 9), who has written an elaborate panegyric upon his friend, describing him as fit "to keep on a level with common-place views yet also to soar high above the more aspiring, as accessible to all, slow to anger, quick in sympathy, pleasant in conversation, and still more pleasant in temper, effective alike in discourse and in action, assiduous in devotions, helpful to Christians of every class and age, a theologian with the speculative, a comforter of the afflicted, a staff to the aged, a guide of the young."

The first few years of the episcopate of Athanasius were tranquil; but the storms in which the remainder of his life was passed soon began to gather around him. The Council of Nicaea had settled the creed of Christendom, but had by no means composed the divisions in the church which the Arian controversy had provoked. Arius himself still lived, and his friend Eusebius of Nicomedia rapidly regained influence over the Emperor Constantine. The result of this was a demand made by the emperor that Arius should be re-admitted to communion. Athanasius stood firm, and refused to have any communion with the advocates of a "heresy that was fighting against Christ." Constantine was baffled for the moment; but many accusers soon rose up against one who was known to be under the frown of imperial displeasure. The archbishop of Alexandria was charged with cruelty, even with sorcery and murder. It was reported that a Meletian bishop in the Thebaid, of the name of Arsenius, had been unlawfully put to death by him. He was easily able to clear himself of such charges, but the hatred of his enemies was not relaxed, and in the summer of 335 he was peremptorily ordered to appear at Tyre, where a council had been summoned to sit in judgment upon his conduct. He did not venture to disobey the imperial order, and a commission was appointed to inquire into an alleged instance of cruelty urged against him, notwithstanding the explanations which he had made. There appeared plainly a predetermination to condemn him, and he fled from Tyre to Constantinople to appeal to the emperor himself. "He resolved," says Gibbon, "to make a bold and dangerous experiment, whether the throne was inaccessible to the voice of truth." He presented himself suddenly with five of his suffragans before the emperor, while riding into his new capital. Refused at first a hearing, his perseverance was at length rewarded by the emperor's consent to his reasonable request--that his accusers should be brought face to face with him in the imperial presence. The leaders of the Tyrian council, amongst the most conspicuous of whom were the two Eusebii, were accordingly summoned to Constantinople just after they had celebrated, at a great dedication festival at Jerusalem, the condemnation of Athanasius and the restoration of Arius to church communion. In confronting the former before Constantine they did not attempt to repeat the charge of cruelty, but found a more ready and effective weapon to their hands in a new charge of a political kind--that Athanasius had threatened to stop the Alexandrian corn-ships bound for Constantinople. Here, as in other matters, it is very difficult to understand how far there was any truth in the persistent accusations made against the prince-bishop of Alexandria. Probably there was in the very greatness of his character and the extent of his popular influence a certain species of dominance which lent a colour of truth to some of the things said against him. On the present occasion his accusers succeeded in at once arousing the imperial jealousy; and the consequence was, that, notwithstanding his earnest denial of the act attributed to him, he was banished to Trier, or Treves, the capital of Gaul.

This was the first banishment of Athanasius, which lasted about two years and a half. It was only brought to a close by the death of Constantine, and the accession of Constantine II. as emperor of the West. It is recorded by himself (Apol. 7) that, on his return to Alexandria, "the people ran in crowds to see his face; the churches were full of rejoicing; thanksgivings were offered up everywhere; the ministers and clergy thought the day the happiest in their lives." But this period of happiness was destined to be short-lived. His position as patriarch of Alexandria placed him, not under his friend Constantine II., but under Constantius, another son of the elder Constantine, who had succeeded to the throne of the East. He in his turn fell, as his father had done, more and more under the influence of the Nicomedian Eusebius, now transferred to the see of Constantinople. A second expulsion of Athanasius was accordingly resolved upon. The old charges against him were revived, with the addition of his having set at naught the decision of a council. It was further resolved on this occasion to put another bishop in his place. Accordingly, in the beginning of the year 340, a Cappadocian named Gregory, said to be an Arian, was installed by military force on the throne of the great defender of the faith, who, to save his followers from outrage, withdrew to a place of concealment. As soon as it was possible he repaired to Rome, to "lay his case before the church." He was declared innocent at a council held there in 342, and in another held at Sardica some years later. Julius, the bishop of Rome, warmly espoused his cause, and, generally, it may be said that the Western Church was Athanasian in its sympathies and its creed, while the majority of the Eastern bishops sided with the Eusebian party. This severance was clearly shown at the Council of Sardica, where the Orientals refused to meet with the representation of the Western Church, because the latter insisted on recognising the right of Athanasius and his friends to attend the council as regular bishops. The commonly received date of this council is 347, but the rediscovered Festal Letters of Athanasius have had the effect of throwing back this date for some years. It has been placed by some as early as the end of 343, by Mansi and others in the end of 344. The decision of the Council of Sardica, however, had no immediate effect in favour of Athanasius. Constantius continued for some time implacable, and the bold action of the Western bishops only incited the Arian party in Alexandria to fresh severities. Gradually, however, the excesses of the Arian party brought their own revenge, while the death of the intruded bishop Gregory, in the beginning of 345, opened up the way for a reconciliation betwixt the Eastern emporor and the banished prelate. The result was the restoration of Athanasius for the second time, amidst the enthusiastic demonstrations of the Alexandrian populace, which is represented by his panegyrist, Gregory Nazianzen, as streaming forth " like another Nile " to meet him in the distance as he approached the city. His restoration is supposed to have taken place, according to the more accurate chronology based upon the Festal Letters, in October 346.

For ten years at this time Athanasius held his ground in Alexandria. But the intrigues of the Arian or court party were soon renewed against him, and the feeble emperor, who had protested that he would never again listen to their accusations, was gradually stimulated to new hostilities. A large council was held at Milan in the spring of the year 356, and here, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of a few faithful men amongst the Western bishops, a renewed condemnation of Athanasius was procured. This was followed up by the banishment of the faithful prelates, even of Hosius of Cordova, whose conciliatory character and intimate connection with the imperial family had not prevented him from addressing to Constantius a pathetic remonstrance against the tyranny of the Arian party. When his friends were thus scattered in exile, their great leader could not long escape; and on the night of the 8th of February 356, while he was engaged in service in the church of St Thomas, a band of armed men burst into the sacred building. He has himself described the scene (Apol. de fuga, 24). Here for a time he maintained his composure, and desired the deacon to read the psalm, and the people to respond--" For His mercy endureth for ever; " and how, as the soldiers rushed forward with fierce shouts towards the altar, he at length made his escape in the crowd, and sought once more a place of safe retirement. The solitudes of Upper Egypt, where numerous monasteries and hermitages had been planted, appear to have been his chief shelter at this time. Here, protected from pursuit, he spent his time in literary labours in behalf of his cause; and to this period, accordingly, belong some of his most important writings, above all the great Orations or Discourses against the Arians, which furnish the best exposition of his theological position and principles.

For six years at this time Athanasius continued in exile, till the death of Constantius in November 361 opened once more the way for his return to his episcopate. Julian, the successor to the imperial throne, professed indifference to the contentions of the church, and granted permission to the bishops exiled in the late reign to return home. Amongst others, Athanasius took advantage of this permission, and seated himself once more upon his throne, amidst the jubilations of the people. He had begun his episcopal labours with renewed ardour, and summoned a council to Alexandria to decide various important questions, when an imperial mandate yet again drove him from his place of power. The faithful gathered around him weeping. " Be of good heart," he said, " it is but a cloud it will soon pass." His forecast proved true; for within a few months Julian had closed his brief career of Pagan revival, and Athanasius "returned by night to Alexandria." He received a letter from the new emperor, Jovian, praising his Christian fidelity, and encouraging him to resume his work. With the emperor he continued to maintain friendly relations, and even drew out for him a synodal letter embodying the Nicene Creed, which was graciously received. During the brief reign of this bluff soldier-prince, comparative quiet prevailed in the church. But the repose was of short duration. In the spring of 365, after the accession of Valens, troubles reappeared. An order was issued for the expulsion of all bishops who had been expelled by Constantius, and Athanasius was once more forced to take refuge in concealment from his persecutors. His concealment, however, only lasted for four months, when an order came for his return; and from this time (Feb. 366) he was left undisturbed to pursue his episcopal labours. Those labours were unceasing in refuting heretics, in building churches, in rebuking rapacious governors, in comforting faithful bishops, and in strengthening the orthodox everywhere, till at length, in the spring of 373, "in a good old age," he ceased from all his work. Having consecrated one of his presbyters his successor, he died quietly in his own house. His "many struggles," according to his panegyrists, won him "many a crown." He was gathered to his fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, who had contended for the truth. Even those who fail to sympathize with the cause which Athanasius steadfastly maintained, cannot refuse their tribute of admiration to his magnanimous and heroic character. The cynic eloquence of Gibbon grows warm in recounting his adventurous career, and the language of Hooker breaks into stately fervour in celebrating his faith and fortitude. " The whole world against Athanasius, and Athanasius against it; half a hundred of years spent in doubtful trial which of the two in the end should prevail --the side which had all, or else the part which had no friends but God and death--the one a defender of his innocency, the other a finisher of all his troubles." If imperious in temper and inflexible in dogmatic determination, Athanasius had yet a great heart and intellect, enthusiastic in their devotion to Christ, and in work for the good of the church and of mankind.

His chief distinction as a theologian was his zealous advocacy of the essential divinity of Christ as co-equal in substance with the Father. This was the doctrine of the Homoousion, proclaimed by the Nicene Creed, and elaborately defended by his life and writings. Whether or not Athanasius first suggested the use of this expression, he was its greatest defender; and the catholic doctrine of the Trinity has ever since been more identified with his "immortal" name than with any other in the history of the church and of Christian theology.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Ninth Edition, Vol. II Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1878

The Gospel according to St. Luke

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The Gospel

St. Luke 1: 57.

ELISABETH'S full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

St. John the Baptist

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We are given the story of the ministry of John the Baptist, called the Precursor or Forerunner of the Lord, with some variation of detail, in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the Book of John. Luke tells us of the birth of John the Baptist in a town of Judaea, about six months before the birth of our Saviour. The New Testament tells us nothing of John's early years, but we know that his pious, virtuous parents must have reared the boy with care, conscious always of the important work to which he was appointed, and imbuing him with a sense of his destiny.

When John began final preparations for his mission, he was probably in his thirty-second year. He withdrew into the harsh, rocky desert beyond the Jordan to fast and pray, as was the ancient custom of holy men. We are told that he kept himself alive by eating locusts and wild honey and wore a rough garment of camel's hair, tied with a leathern girdle. When he came back to start preaching in the villages of Judaea, he was haggard and uncouth, but his eyes burned with zeal and his voice carried deep conviction. The Jews were accustomed to preachers and prophets who gave no thought to outward appearances, and they accepted John at once; the times were troubled, and the people yearned for reassurance and comfort. So transcendant was the power emanating from the holy man that after hearing him many believed he was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. John quickly put them right, saying he had come only to prepare the way, and that he was not worthy to unloose the Master's sandals. Although his preaching and baptizing continued for some months during the Saviour's own ministry, John always made plain that he was merely the Forerunner. His humility remained incorruptible even when his fame spread to Jerusalem and members of the higher priesthood came to make inquiries and to hear him. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,"-this was John's oft-repeated theme. For the evils of the times his remedy was individual purification. "Every tree," he said, "that is not bringing forth good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire." The reformation of each person's life must be complete—the wheat must be separated from the chaff and the chaff burned "with unquenchable fire."

The rite of baptism, a symbolic act signifying sincere repentance as well as a desire to be spiritually cleansed in order to receive the Christ, was so strongly emphasized by John that people began to call him "the baptizer." The Scriptures tell us of the day when Jesus joined the group of those who wished to receive baptism at John's hands. John knew Jesus for the Messiah they had so long expected, and at first excused himself as unworthy. Then, in obedience to Jesus, he acquiesced and baptized Him. Although sinless, Jesus chose to be baptized in order to identify Himself with the human lot. And when He arose from the waters of the Jordan, where the rite was performed, "the heavens opened and the Spirit as a dove descended. And there came a voice from the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased" (Mark i, 11).

John's life now rushes on towards its tragic end. In the fifteenth year of the reign of the Roman emperor, Tiberias Caesar, Herod Antipas was the provincial governor or tetrarch of a subdivision of Palestine which included Galilee and Peraea, a district lying east of the Jordan. In the course of John's preaching, he had denounced in unmeasured terms the immorality of Herod's petty court, and had even boldly upbraided Herod to his face for his defiance of old Jewish law, especially in having taken to himself the wife of his half-brother, Philip. This woman, the dissolute Herodias, was also Herod's niece. Herod feared and reverenced John, knowing him to be a holy man, and he followed his advice in many matters; but he could not endure having his private life castigated. Herodias stimulated his anger by lies and artifices. His resentment at length got the better of his judgment and he had John cast into the fortress of Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. When Jesus heard of this, and knew that some of His disciples had gone to see John, He spoke thus of him: "What went you to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say to you, amongst those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist" (Matthew xi, 10-12).

Herodias never ceased plotting against the life of John, who was not silenced even by prison walls. His followers now became even more turbulent. To Herodias soon came the opportunity she had long sought to put an end to the trouble-maker. On Herod's birthday he gave a feast for the chief men of that region. In Matthew xiv, Mark vi, and Luke ix, we are given parallel accounts of this infamous occasion which was to culminate in John's death. At the feast, Salome, fourteen-year-old daughter of Herodias by her lawful husband, pleased Herod and his guests so much by her dancing that Herod promised on oath to give her anything that it was in his power to give, even though it should amount to half his kingdom. Salome, acting under the direction and influence of her wicked mother, answered that she wished to have the head of John the Baptist, presented to her on a platter. Such a horrible request shocked and unnerved Herod. Still, he had given his word and was afraid to break it. So, with no legal formalities whatever, he despatched a soldier to the prison with orders to behead the prisoner and return with it immediately. This was quickly done, and the cruel girl did not hesitate to accept the dish with its dreadful offering and give it to her mother. John's brief ministry was thus terminated by a monstrous crime. There was great sadness among the people who had hearkened to him, and when the disciples of Jesus heard the news of John's death, they came and took the body and laid it reverently in a tomb. Jesus, with some of his disciples, retired "to a desert place apart," to mourn.

The Jewish historian Josephus, giving further testimony of John's holiness, writes: "He was indeed a man endued with all virtue, who exhorted the Jews to the practice of justice towards men and piety towards God; and also to baptism, preaching that they would become acceptable to God if they renounced their sins, and to the cleanness of their bodies added purity of soul." Thus Jews and Christians unite in reverence and love for this prophet-saint whose life is an incomparable example of both humility and courage.

Saint John the Baptist, The Precursor. Scriptural Saint. Taken from "Lives of Saints", Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.