The Eucharist
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The Eucharist | |
the following is an excerpt taken from The Beggar King. Please visit their website for more on this subject and other equally well-presented topics.
Did the early Christians believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist?
When Jesus took up bread and wine, in fulfillment of the Passover, the night before he died, did he make a symbolic gesture? Or was the consecration and sharing of the bread and wine substantial? Was it the true fulfillment of Christ's words: "For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him. (John 6:55-56)?" For the early Christians there seemed to be no doubt nor confusion; the bread and wine we consecrate at the altar is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
"Let a man examine himself, and when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks a judgment on himself." (1st Letter to the Corinthians, 11:28-29)
"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible." (Epistle to the Romans, 7:3)
"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God....
"They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, 6:2; 7:1)
"We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined.
"For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus." (First Apology, 66:1-20)
The Life of Saint Columba | |
Saint Columba, also referred to as Saint Columcille (which in Irish means "dove of the church"), lived from 521 to 597. He was an Irish missionary to Scotland. Called the Apostle of Caledonia, he was a prince of the O'Donnells of Donegal and was educated at Moville and Clonard.
In Ireland he founded the monastery schools of Derry (545), Durrow (553), and Kells (c. 554). In 563, Columba and several companions sailed to Iona, in Scotland, where they established a monastery and went about the Highlands and North Lowlands preaching. Before Columba's death Northern Scotland was almost entirely Christianized.
St. Columba, St. Patrick and St. Bridget are the three patron saints of the Irish; according to tradition he is buried with them at Downpatrick. His Feast Day is June 9th. H. De Blacam, The Saints of Ireland (1942); C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism (1984).
A story recalls how Columba's heart would be touched when he saw a sad child. From time to time he would leave Iona to preach to the Picts of Scotland. "Once he visited a Pictish ruler who was also a druid, or pagan priest. When he was there he noticed a thin little girl with a face like a ghost. He asked who she was and was told that she was just a slave from Ireland. The way it was said seemed to mean: 'Why do you ask such silly questions? Who cares who she is, as long as she brushes and scrubs and does what she is told?' "Columcille was troubled; he could see plainly that the little girl was miserable. So he asked the druid to give her freedom and he would get her home to Ireland. The druid refused. Columcille went away with a picture of an unhappy little girl in his mind.
"Shortly afterward, the important druid became ill; there was nobody near to tell him what to do to get well so he sent for the Abbot of Iona, who had a great reputation for curing people. Columcille did not leave Iona but sent a message back that he would cure the druid if he let the little girl free. "The druid was angry and again refused. 'What on earth is he troubling himself for about that little bit of a good-for-nothing?' grumbled the druid as he tossed about in bed. But the messenger had hardly left for Iona with the refusal when the druid got worse; he had much pain and he thought he would die. So he sent off another message to Columcille: 'Yes, you can have the slave-girl, only come and do something for me. I am very bad and will die if you don't come soon.'" Columcille, however, did not trust the priest, so he sent two of his monks to bring the girl back. When the girl was safe, Columcille set out for the druid's house and cured him of his sickness (Curtayne).
For more on the life of Saint Columba, see Saints of June 9 or The Saint Columba Homepage which features the 9th-century edition: Life of Saint Columba, Founder of Hy. Written by Adamnan, Ninth Abbot of that Monastery, ed. William Reeves. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1874. available in both English and Latin for those who are able to get through stuff like that!
About the Immaculate Conception | |
The following is an excerpt from the The Miraculous Medal Association. The Bible shows Mary as one uniquely privileged by God, but it does not explicitly teach that she was kept free of original or personal sin. However, the very fact that she was the Mother of Jesus Christ caused believers to consider that it was inappropriate for Mary to be stained by sin. The angel's words to Mary, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28) and Elizabeth's description of her as blessed among women (Luke 1:42) encouraged Christians to view Mary as uniquely graced by God.
As early as the fourth century, theologians began to teach that Mary had been kept free of all sin by God because she was to be the Mother of Jesus Christ. By the seventh century, there was a liturgical observance proclaiming Mary's freedom from sin. However, there was much debate among theologians about how Mary could be free of original sin since the Bible teaches that salvation comes from Christ. In the thirteenth century, the Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus taught that Mary was preserved from all sin by the foreseen merits of Christ. God is not limited by time, and so Mary could be preserved from original sin by Christ just as those who lived and died in Old Testament times were, in the final analysis, redeemed by him.
This teaching gradually prevailed. When Pope Pius IX questioned the bishops of the world in the mid nineteenth century, he was assured that belief in Mary's Immaculate Conception was universal among Catholics. In 1854, he proclaimed the Immaculate Conception to be a dogma of the Church:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin (Ineffabilis Deus 1854, cited in C 491).
See the rest of the article and other articles at The Miraculous Medal Association website
Apostolic Succession | |
When we pray the Nicene Creed, we proclaim our belief in the true Church - the Bride of Christ that is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. What do we mean by apostolic?
The first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which claimant, among the many contending for the title, was the true Church, and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants.
In its concrete form, apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles.
All over the world, all Catholic bishops can have their lineage of predecessors traced back to the time of the apostles.
The Resurrection of the Body | |
The Bible tells us that when Jesus returns to earth, he will physically raise all those who have died, giving them back the bodies they lost at death.
These will be the same bodies people had in earthly life-but our resurrection bodies will not die and, for the righteous, they will be transformed into a glorified state, freed from suffering and pain, and enabled to do many of the amazing things Jesus could do with his glorified body (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35-44, 1 John 3:2).
The resurrection of the body is an essential Christian doctrine, as the apostle Paul declares: "[I]f the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Cor. 15:13-18).
Because, as Paul tells us, the Christian faith cannot exist without this doctrine, it has been infallibly defined by the Church. It is included in the three infallible professions of faith-the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed-and has been solemnly, infallibly taught by ecumenical councils.
The Fourth Lateran Council (1215), infallibly defined that at the second coming Jesus "will judge the living and the dead, to render to every person according to his works, both to the reprobate and to the elect. All of them will rise with their own bodies, which they now wear, so as to receive according to their deserts, whether these be good or bad [Rom. 2:6-11]" (constitution 1).
Most recently, the Catechism of the Catholic Church reiterated this long-defined teaching, stating, "‘We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess’ (Council of Lyons II). We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a ‘spiritual body’ (cf. 1 Cor 15:42-44)" (CCC 1017).
As the following quotes from the Church Fathers show, this has been the historic teaching of the Christian faith on the matter since the very beginning.
"Let us consider, beloved, how the Master is continually proving to us that there will be a future resurrection, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the firstling, by raising him from the dead. Let us look, beloved, at the resurrection which is taking place seasonally. Day and night make known the resurrection to us. The night sleeps, the day arises. Consider the plants that grow. How and in what manner does the sowing take place? The sower went forth and cast each of the seeds onto the ground; and they fall to the ground, parched and bare, where they decay. Then from their decay the greatness of the master’s providence raises them up, and from the one grain more grow and bring forth fruit" (Letter to the Corinthians 24:1-6 [A.D. 80]).
"I believe in . . . the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh. Amen" (Old Roman Symbol [A.D. 125]).
"[W]hoever perverts the sayings of the Lord for his own desires, and says that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, such a one is the firstborn of Satan. Let us, therefore, leave the foolishness and the false-teaching of the crowd and turn back to the word which was delivered to us in the beginning" (Letter to the Philippians 7:1-2 [A.D. 135]).
"[Christians] have the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ himself impressed upon their hearts, and they observe them, awaiting the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come" (Apology 15 [A.D. 140]).
"Let none of you say that this flesh is not judged and does not rise again. Just think: In what state were you saved, and in what state did you recover your [spiritual] sight, if not in the flesh? In the same manner, as you were called in the flesh, so you shall come in the flesh. If Christ, the Lord who saved us, though he was originally spirit, became flesh and in this state called us, so also shall we receive our reward in the flesh. Let us, therefore, love one another, so that we may all come into the kingdom of God" (Second Clement 9:1-6 [A.D. 150]).
"The prophets have proclaimed his [Christ’s] two comings. One, indeed, which has already taken place, was that of a dishonored and suffering man. The second will take place when, in accord with prophecy, he shall come from the heavens in glory with his angelic host, when he shall raise the bodies of all the men who ever lived. Then he will clothe the worthy in immortality, but the wicked, clothed in eternal sensibility, he will commit to the eternal fire along with the evil demons" (First Apology 52 [A.D. 151]).
"Indeed, God calls even the body to resurrection and promises it everlasting life. When he promises to save the man, he thereby makes his promise to the flesh. What is man but a rational living being composed of soul and body? Is the soul by itself a man? No, it is but the soul of a man. Can the body be called a man? No, it can but be called the body of a man. If, then, neither of these is by itself a man, but that which is composed of the two together is called a man, and if God has called man to life and resurrection, he has called not a part, but the whole, which is the soul and the body" (The Resurrection 8 [A.D. 153]).
"We believe that there will be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things" (Address to the Greeks 155 [A.D. 170]).
"God will raise up your flesh immortal with your soul; and then, having become immortal, you shall see the immortal, if you will believe in him now; and then you will realize that you have spoken against him unjustly. But you do not believe that the dead will be raised. When it happens, then you will believe, whether you want to or not; but unless you believe now, your faith then will be reckoned as unbelief" (To Autolycus 1:7-8 [A.D. 181]).
"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in . . . the raising up again of all flesh of all humanity, in order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and King, in accord with the approval of the invisible Father, every knee shall bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess him, and that he may make just judgment of them all" (Against Heresies 1:10:1-4 [A.D. 189]).
"After the present age is ended he will judge his worshipers. . . . All who have died since the beginning of time will be raised up again and shaped again and remanded to whichever destiny they deserve" (Apology 18:3 [A.D. 197]).
"Therefore, the flesh shall rise again: certainly of every man, certainly the same flesh, and certainly in its entirety. Wherever it is, in the safekeeping with God through that most faithful agent between God and man, Jesus Christ, who shall reconcile both God to man and man to God, [and] the spirit to the flesh and the flesh to the spirit" (The Resurrection of the Dead 63:1 [A.D. 210]). This article is brought to you care of
at Catholic Answers. Please visit their website.About Purgatory | |
The following is a reflection by Terry Modica from Good News Ministries. Visit her GNM.org ministry home page.
What Is Purgatory?
Read these scriptures used for the Feast of All Souls, November 2nd:
Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 23:1-6
1 Corinthians 15:51-57
John 11:17-27
Reflection:
All Souls Day, November 2, is a special day the Church gives us to pray for those who have died in the arms of Jesus but perhaps have not yet reached the full glory of Heaven. If they're in Purgatory, our prayers will greatly benefit them. However, there is much confusion and misunderstanding about this doctrine, so I've provided a brief explanation.
From earliest times, the Church has recognized that it's impossible for every Christian, upon death, to immediately enter into the fullness of Heaven's perfection. "Purgatory" comes from the Latin word for "cleansing fire". When we die, we come into full contact with the infinite love of God (the Beatific Vision), and suddenly we realize how unlike this love we really are. Now completely aware of the unloving affects our persistent sinful habits have had in our lives and the lives of others, we long to be purified so we can be full of love. Purgatory is a gift from God because we want it.
The fiery, purifying pain of Purgatory is our deep regret over how poorly we have loved, fueled by our yearning to be united with total, holy love.
Wisdom 3:1-9 tells us that when we are chastised, we are greatly blessed. God purifies us the way gold is purified in the furnace. We become "sacrificial offerings" that God takes to Himself.
1 Cor. 15:51-57 points out that "that which is corruptible (our flesh-nature)must clothe itself with incorruptibility." Purgatory is a process of purging ourselves from what was worldly so that we can fully enter into what is eternal.
As Pope John Paul II has pointed out repeatedly, Purgatory is a place of joy. Let's not forget that! Your faithful departed loved ones are rejoicing in the Beatific Vision to the extent they can be united to it. They are experiencing deep happiness because they are free from evil and are totally with God, even if they're not totally in His glory yet. As the first reading says, "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them."
Can we help those who are in Purgatory? Definitely!
Pope Leo XIII wrote in his encyclical on the Eucharist, Mirae caritatis, on May 28, 1902:
"The communion of saints is nothing else but a mutual sharing of help, satisfaction, prayer and other good works, a mutual communication among all the faithful, whether those who have reached Heaven, or who are in the cleansing fire, or who are still pilgrims on the way in this world."
Through Jesus and our love for them, we can do good on their behalf to help increase the loving deeds they lacked while on earth: prayers, alms, fasting, sacrifices, good works and other acts of piety. A side benefit of this is that we're also purified, here instead of later after death, because such deeds made on behalf of others will strengthen our own holiness.
And by offering up Masses for the souls in Purgatory, publicly and privately, we give them more of our love and we commend them more fully to Jesus' love.The celebration of All Souls Day and the whole month of November is given overto this important ministry of the Church.
This is ALL done through Jesus, because as He told Martha in John 11:17-27, "I am the resurrection and the life; those who believe in me will never die!"
NOTE: A fuller explanation of Purgatory can be found on our WordBytes website:http://wordbytes.org/doctrine/purgatory.htm
*Keep your eyes on Jesus*Can Dogma Develop? | |
The opening verse of the book of Hebrews tells us that "[i]n many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets." This was done fragmentarily, under various figures and symbols. Man was not given religious truth as though from a Scholastic theologian, nicely laid out and fully indexed. Doctrines had to be thought out, lived out in the liturgical life of the Church, even pieced together by the Fathers and ecumenical councils. In this way, the Church has gained an ever-deepening understanding of the deposit of faith that had been "once for all delivered" to it by Christ and the apostles (cf. Jude 3).
Protestants- especially Fundamentalists and Evangelicals admit that much. They recognize there was a real development in doctrine: There was an initial message, much clouded at the Fall, and then a progressively fuller explanation of God’s teachings as Israel was prepared for the Messiah, until the apostles were instructed by the Messiah himself. Jesus told the apostles that in the Old Testament "many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matt. 13:17).
Christians have always understood that at the close of the apostolic age with the death of the last surviving apostle, John, perhaps around A.D.- 100 public revelation ceased (Catechism of the Catholic Church 66-67, 73). Christ fulfilled the Old Testament law (Matt. 5:17) and is the ultimate teacher of humanity: "You have one teacher, the Messiah" (Matt. 23:10). The apostles recognized that their task was to pass on, intact, the faith given to them by the Master: "[A]nd what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2); "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it" (2 Tim. 3:14).
However, this closure to public revelation doesn’t mean there isn’t progress in the understanding of what has been entrusted to the Church. Anyone interested in Christianity will ask, "What does this doctrine imply? How does it relate to that doctrine?"
In answering these questions, the Church facilitates the development or maturing of doctrines. The Blessed Virgin Mary models this process of coming to an ever deeper understanding of God’s revelation: "But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). It’s important to understand that the Church does not, indeed cannot, change the doctrines God has given it, nor can it "invent" new ones and add them to the deposit of faith that has been "once for all delivered to the saints." New beliefs are not invented, but obscurities and misunderstandings regarding the deposit of faith are cleared up.
Vatican II explained, "The tradition which comes from the apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts, through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For, as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her" (Dei Verbum 8). Article care of http://www.catholic.com/library/Can_Dogma_Develop.asp at Catholic Answers. Please visit their website.
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The Gregorian Calendar | |
The purpose of a calendar is to reckon time in advance, to show how many days have to elapse until a certain event takes place in the future, such as the harvest or the next release of MicroSoft Windows.
The earliest calendars, naturally, were crude and tended to be based upon the seasons or the lunar cycle.
The calendar of the Assyrians, for example, was based upon the phases of the moon. They knew that a lunation (the time from one full moon to the next) was 29 1/2 days long, so their lunar year had a duration of 354 days. This fell short of the solar year by about 11 days. (The exact time for the solar year is approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.)
After 3 years, such a lunar calendar would be off by a whole month, so the Assyrians added an extra month from time to time to keep their calendar in synchronization with the seasons.
The best approximation that was possible in antiquity was a 19-year period, with 7 of these 19 years having 13 months (leap months). This scheme was adopted as the basis for the religious calendar used by the Jews. (The Arabs also used this calendar until Mohammed forbade shifting from 12 months to 13 months.)
When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which had 28 days. Every second year, the Roman calendar included an extra month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days to keep up with the solar year.
Even this algorithm was very poor, so that in 45 BC, Caesar, advised by the astronomer Sosigenes, ordered a sweeping reform. By imperial decree, one year was made 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons.
The new calendar, similar to the one we now use was called the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar). It's months were 30 or 31 days in length and every fourth year was made a leap year (having 366 days). Caesar also decreed that the year would start with the first of January, not the vernal equinox in late March. Caesar's year was 11 1/2 minutes short of the calculations recommended by Sosigenes and eventually the date of the vernal equinox began to drift.
Roger Bacon became alarmed and sent a note to Pope Clement IV, who apparently was not impressed.
Pope Sixtus IV later became convinced that another reform was needed and called the German astronomer, Regiomontanus, to Rome to advise him. Unfortunately, Regiomontanus died of the plague shortly thereafter and the plans died as well.
In 1545, the Council of Trent authorized Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar once more. Most of the mathematical work was done by Father Christopher Clavius, S.J. The immediate correction that was adopted was that Thursday, October 4, 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, with the date of October 15.
For long range accuracy, a formula suggested by the Vatican librarian Aloysius Giglio was adopted. It said that every fourth year is a leap year except for century years that are not divisible by 400. This rule eliminates 3 leap years every 4 centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for most ordinary purposes.
This calendar is known as the Gregorian calendar and is the one that we now use today. (It is interesting to note that in 1582, all the Protestant princes ignored the papal decree and so many countries continued to use the Julian calendar until either 1698 or 1752. In Russia, it needed the revolution to introduce the Gregorian calendar in 1918.)
Despite the great accuracy of the Gregorian calendar, it still falls behind very slightly every few years. If you are very concerned about this problem, we suggest that you tune in short wave radio station WWV, which broadcasts official time signals for use in the United States. About once every 3 years, they declare a leap second at which time you should be careful to adjust your system clock.
source: http://ion.le.ac.uk/year_2000/leap_year.html
Bible Translations | |
What difference does it make which version of the Bible you read? Why are there so many English translations? What are some of the differences between the readings in various English Bible translations? See the excerpt below from
The Bible:How Many Translations Came About to help you find out.
Choosing a Bible can be a challenge for Catholics. The selection at a bookstore will include at least a half dozen different English translations. Participants in Bible study groups may find one member reading a passage from the New American Bible, another from the New Revised Standard Version, while someone else scans the Jerusalem Bible.
This variety of English translations can help readers discover the richness of the sacred Scriptures, but it also can be confusing. If three different versions translate the same biblical passage in three different ways, readers may wonder if anyone really knows what the passage means. In this Update we will look at how the various translations came about and how they differ from each other.
Christians have read translations of the Bible almost from the beginning of the Christian movement. The earliest translation was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) called the Septuagint. It was produced by Jewish scholars during the third century before Christ. Christians began to translate the Aramaic sayings of Jesus and other early Christian materials into Greek, which were incorporated into the writings of the New Testament.
The earliest translations of the Bible into a language other than Greek were the result of the Church's missionary activity. Although Greek was the common language of most of the Mediterranean world, the Christian message traveled to places where other languages were read and spoken.
By the end of the second century, the Gospel had reached Edessa (Syria). Since the common language there was Syriac, it became necessary to translate the Greek New Testament into that language.
If you are interested in a historical background, we recommend another in-depth article on how and why translations differ. Read
To Tell You The Whole Truth about the Church and the Holy Bible