barber,

Attack the article and not me personally, for me posting the article.

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist . . . History and Evidence . . . In-depth analysis . . . Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D



This is a 9,585 word 18 page article in what Catholics believe in and have practice for 1,987 years and to the present day.


So now we are going to the ("he-said-she-said") argument mentality, Oh Please. . . .


balmer and rose42, get off your Protestant arguing and high horse thinking.

Why are you not responding to the article post ?

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist . . . History and Evidence . . . In-depth analysis . . . Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D


This is unbelievable, you have no religious rational, understanding, or context to this article post.


"I Guess" Pennylynn's OPP religious notification's went through one ear and went out the other ear, for the both of you, sadly to say . . .


Facts are facts and are not attacks.

It's only you're misconceived personal anti-Catholic beliefs and opinion's that is in question here in your comments and replies.


To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.


Doc110

Rose42,

1. All I did was to post this beautiful Catholic article on the real presence of the Eucharist.

2. I did not complain about anything, all I did was post the OPP religious post article.

3. It seems as you read the post article comment’s. It is yourose42 that are only doing the complaining here on this post article thread.

It is only you rose42 who has digressed into other disingenuous personal subjects and other aforementioned evading questions to you. You are the only person denegrating the Catholic Church and is dishonest here on this article post thread.

And these are the facts . . .

4. You’re replies should have been about Eucharist sacramental and complaint discourse, on the article post is what you should have done.


5. But you couldn’t rose42 . . . Or was unable to form a reasonable reply as to your faith disbelief, your Berean Christadelphians beliefs are contrary to the Christian Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ found in the Eucharist sacrament.

6. The only person arguing is you, so why don’t you give it a rest, your the one who is the religious Berean Christadelphians confrontational on this subject of the Holy Eucharist.

You are entitled to your confused Berean Christadelphians opinions.

7. The only dishonesty and undermining of the Catholic Church Teaching on the Holy Eucharist, is you.

8. You rose42 oppose the Eucharist sacramental, and will not, acknowledge my Christian Catholic theology pratices and teaching of the the RealPresence of the body, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ in the sacramental Eucharist.

End of subject and you’re in total denial of John 6:51-59.
Rose you have no life within you, and you have no life in Jesus.

9. Rose your silliness and continued verbal anti-Catholic belligerents is quite apparent in everything you say and do on the OPP forum. As to your opposition to the Catholic Church Christ centered teachings of Jesus Christ.

To be deep in history, is to cease being Protestant.

If the shoe fits then wear it in your, Eucharist sacramental disbelief.

Doc110

Father Spritzer has a Phd in Catholic Theology, I think he does know a thing or two about the historical and Catholic Church understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Conveniently you have chose to ignore the 9,585 word 18 page document and take the low road of avoidance of the posted article

What is the problem here rose42, “NO” Berean Thinking-Cap on today, about this important Christian Eucharist sacramentals,

Which you are a member of the Berean Christadelphians, you deny the real presence, the soul, body and the divinity of Jesus Christ’s in the Eucharist.

So I know exactly what I’m talking about here rose42.

You Protestants e.g. your small little Berean’s Christadelphians sects or fellowships, deny’s Jesus Christ’s teaching on the Eucharist.
John 6:51-59.

Rose42, you have no life within you and no life within Jesus Christ, that’s because you deny the “Real Presence” Jesus Christ found in the sacramental Eucharist.

Re-Read the article for a better understanding of what the Catholic Christ centered Church teaches and instructs and the historical 1,987 year sacramental background.

To re-affirm this statement.

A. I ask if you’re form of the Berean Christadelphians faith believes in, the real presence found in the sacramental Eucharist.

B. Or is the Berean Christadelphians faith understanding that the bread, wine-grape juice is just a symbolic sacramental jester ?

1. You can explain this question and or evade the question. It’s your choice.

2. You could try and come up with a question about the post article thread also. It’s your choice. “The real presence of Jesus Christ is found in the Eucharist.”

3. It’s very interesting that for some reason, you are completely confused in your replies and always take my words out of context. Now why is that ?

I hope this is not desxexia ?

a. Or are you this insecure about your Berean Christadelphians faith and your undermining pratices, which is to always take this low road in any comment reply to me.

b. When I talk about your “Berean Christadelphian faith. That’s why I say your confused in your comment reply on the Eucharist sacraments.

c. Tell me Something ? Are you not the only Berean Christadelphians person on the OPP religious website, you stated this.

Rose42, I’m not confused on how many 33,000 Protestant denominations there are.

d. As I said you are completely confused woman, making things up out of thin air.

You are manipulating and taking my words out of context once again.

e. Why do hide about which sect of Berean Christadelphians faith you belong to or fellowship.

It’s Top secret I guess ? Play the hide & seek mystery games. That’s how you operate in stealth and in secrecy.

Rose42, That’s your very nature and demeanor.

In the meantime go back to the two post threads, and re-Read the history about the Berean Christadelphians Church, that were posted.

Tell me how right or wrong the two posts thread are, remember this is all historical so you can’t lie about the factual information.

You would be amazed at the sectarian schismatic and ever present divisions the Berean Christadelphians are having. That’s because there is no Christ centered unity, and only Man-Made Religious disunity.

f. But rose42 that’s how you operate as a self proclaimed Berean Christadelphians . . . Catholic Church hater.

4. That’s how history prove’s that Protestantism is false man-Made religion.

To cease to be deep into history and Church history documents is to cease to be Protestant.

a. That’s why Protestants never want to discus history, especially 1,987 years of Catholic Church history and Church documents and of the Catholic Early Church Fathers.

b. The AD 90 “Dedache” 10 page manuscript found in in AD 1887 Constantinople Turkey, is a perfect example of the same Mass practices in liturgical and Sacramental practices as we Catholics practice today in The Mass.

Thats what I call The Orthodox Catholic Church and the Christ centered, and complet spiritual continuity . . .


In your last statement in your comment reply, are you calling me a sinner ?

I go to confession-reconciliation regularly and try my best not to sin, which I have no vices.

I don’t have any children, I adopted two children and they are practicing Catholics nor do they abuse alcohol or drugs.

The only thief on this OPP religious forum rose42 is you because you hate the Catholic Church.

That why you continually attack Catholicism because we practice a 1,987 year old Christ centered Christianity faith differently from yours.

Your Berean faith or fellowship, barely has a 100 year old theology doctrine, it was developed by a man Frank Thomas and not by Jesus Christ.

It’s a man-Made theology, and is not in accordance with Jesus Christ instructions and teachings in the Bible.

History proves that the Berean Christadelphians are a man-Made Protestant faith, as all Protestant faiths are a Man—Made religion.

So the quotation by Cardinal John Henry Newman, is correct in justifing that it re-affirmed his origional quotation statement.

“To be Deep into History, is to cease to be Protestant. . .

Doc110

You should have been sensored and band from the opp website in my opinion.

10/26/2018 Praying the Rosary. The Five Glorious Mysteries (Part 2)

1. Resurrection
2. The Ascension
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
4. The Assumption
5. The Coronation of Mary


Ascension Media
https://www.magiscenter.com/praying-the-rosary-in-october-the-glorious-mysteries/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/ascension-media/


The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The story of Pentecost is familiar and it should be.

We need to know the story. Pentecost changes everything. In a moment the entire order of humanity changes.

Beloved creatures become not just creatures, but instead children of the loving Father.

It is through the Spirit that we cry “Abba!”
(Romans 8:15).

In that moment God, the living God, comes to inhabit human creatures.

Marvel at that!

It is not the idea of God, or a sliver of God, but the real presence of the Living God.

The Spirit is God, like the Father is God, like the Son is God. On Pentecost the Spirit invades creation in a new way.

The Almighty comes to inhabit our human flesh! He does not do it secretly or gradually. He overwhelms.



Place yourself in the story.

It might be helpful to open your Bible to Acts 2:1-4.

It is a dramatic scene.

The Apostles are gathered together in one place and suddenly from heaven there is a sound “like the rush of a mighty wind.”

It does not start as a whisper, or as a gentle breeze.

It is not gradual. Scripture says “Suddenly.”

The Hebrew word for spirit, ruah, translates to wind or breath.

In Pentecost the ruah of God exploded into reality, filling the room with the sound of a hurricane.

It is possible the Apostles, upon hearing the wind, immediately associated this with the Spirit, but—ready or not—there must have been a certain amount of terror.

As if the wind was not enough there then appears “tongues as of fire.”

Note, Scripture does not relate to us “flames as those on a candle.”

A tongue of fire cannot be found on a candle.

The flame is too small.

A tongue of fire describes how flames leap out of a bonfire and lick the air.

Watch a large fire and you will see that it has a certain wild, unruly danger to it.

These tongues of fire do not safely appear in the midst of them, but instead are found “distributed and resting on each one of them.”

The Holy Spirit is not distant.

His fire is not to warm us from the outside but comes directly to us.

Awe, or fear of the Lord, is one of the gifts we associate with the sacrament of confirmation.

It is not an abstract thing.

It is not an intellectual concept.

Awe is the natural state when a person encounters the living God.

In that moment it was definitely anything but abstract to the apostles.

Even if they understood immediately that this was the presence of God I do not think that would take away the incredible awe.

In this moment the Lord reveals that his Holy Spirit is not a tame force.

It is wild and unpredictable.

It is also clear that this is not a little portion of the Holy Spirit that is being poured out, but that instead it is an overwhelming release of the Holy Spirit.

The story of Pentecost is there for a reason.

God wants us to know that he is with us, and that his presence in our lives is not a small portion.

It is his fullness, his awe-inspiring, world-shattering fullness.

Considering what we learn of the Holy Spirit through the story of Pentecost, the challenge for the modern Christian is this:

Do I believe this same, terrifying, powerful Holy Spirit still resides in the Church?

Do I believe the Holy Spirit resides in me?

Will I allow the Holy Spirit lordship in my life so that I can encounter and experience awe?

Will I invite God to be dangerous and uncontrollable in my life?

The Holy Spirit is God.

He can not pretend to be anything else.

Unless we will give the Lord permission to be who he is, Lord of our lives, Pentecost will be just a wonderful story.

When we give him permission, it becomes our reality.



The Assumption

This great mystery in the Catholic Faith that showcases the deep love of God toward his creation—Mary being taken to heaven body and soul—is a foretaste of what God also has in store for us.

There are places that traditionally mark Mary’s assumption both in Jerusalem and in Ephesus.

From the Scriptures we do not learn about the end of Mary’s life or that of many of Christ’s apostles, but we do know through what has been passed on to us through tradition about the martyrdoms of many of them.

Had Mary been a martyr, there would be a tomb and shrine associated with that location as there are for other apostles, but in the case of Mary, there is no tomb to be found.

(There is a place in Jerusalem called the Tomb of Mary, but this spot commemorates her falling asleep and does not contain any bodily remains.)

The end of Mary’s life was different than all others and gives the faithful hope of good things to come.

Interestingly, there are other instances in the Bible of people passing from this earthly life to the next in an atypical fashion.

Besides Jesus, there are at least nine instances in the Bible of people being raised from the dead including Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, Widow of Zeraphath’s son, the Widow of Nain’s son and Tabitha.

All of these people went through physical death.

However, there are two other unusual instances in the Old Testament, Enoch and Elijah, in which they were taken to heaven without dying first. ]\\\

In the first instance of Enoch, when he was 365 years old, the Bible tells us in Genesis 5:24 that “he was not, for God took him.”

And then in the instance of Elijah the Prophet, at the end of his ministry, he was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot witnessed by the Prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 2:11. I

n both of these instances and also in the case of the assumption of Mary, the person was faithful to God.

Mary was more faithful to following God than any other created person, so is it any wonder that the end of her earthly life was rewarded by her assumption to heaven body and soul?

She goes before us in Faith and also as a first fruit of the Resurrection, of which all the faithful will experience at the end of time.
(1 Corinthians 15:20-21)

The assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a sign for us as to what is in store for those who stay faithful to her Son Jesus Christ.

I hopefully look forward to that wonderful moment when I am able to experience the joy of the Resurrection and see firsthand the beautiful world where Mary, my Mother dwells, who has faithfully interceded for me and all her children since she entered the eternal kingdom, crowned Queen of Heaven.



The Coronation of Mary

Revelation 12:1-6 gives us great insight into the honor Christ has given his mother.

A sign appears in the heavens!

A woman crowned with twelve stars and adorned with the sun.

She stands on the moon, about to give birth to a male child.

A son “who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.”



In all of human history no woman has ever been granted so much honor as Mary.

It is fitting to see her adorned with a crown.

God chose her alone to be his mother.

This is not merely a biological relationship.

Christ was subject to Mary as a son is subject to his mother.

The Lord of all creation made himself subject to the authority of Mary.

She truly is Jesus’ mom.



Jesus is the heir to the throne of David.

In the Davidic kingdom, the king’s mother held a special place of honor. She was the Gebirah, or Queen Mother.

She held great esteem, honored not only by her son, but by the entire kingdom.

In her turn, the queen mother acted as an advocate for the people, bringing petition to her son, but never usurping his authority.

We can see an example of this through Bathsheba in the court of her son Solomon.
(1 Kings 2:19-23).

Solomon, the king, honors his mother.

He bows to her and has her seated at his right.

She makes her request, but ultimately it is the king’s authority that rules. Jesus is the heir to the throne that Solomon sat on.

As Bathsheba was Queen Mother to Solomon, in Revelation 12 we see Mary revealed as Queen Mother to Christ.

By better understanding the honor Christ gives his mother we better understand the honor we should give her.

Mary is not just another holy woman.

She is Gebirah. She is Queen Mother.

It is an honor Jesus gives her. It is also a gift he gives us.

Mary, as Queen Mother, is an advocate for us. It is a role Christ has given her.

Do not be afraid to go to her.

Do not be afraid to honor her as Queen Mother.

In doing so you glorify Christ by imitating him and accepting the gift he has given us in Mary.


(End Part 2)

10/26/2018 Praying the Rosary. The Five Glorious Mysteries (Part 1)

1. Resurrection
2. The Ascension
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
4. The Assumption
5. The Coronation of Mary


Ascension Media
https://www.magiscenter.com/praying-the-rosary-in-october-the-glorious-mysteries/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/ascension-media/

Church Teaching,
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/church-teaching/

Latest,
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/latest/

Prayer,
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/prayer/

Virtue & Freedom
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/virtue-freedom/



Celebrate the month dedicated to the Rosary by praying with this reflection on the Glorious Mysteries.

As the end of October draws near and we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, we reflect upon the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary that remind us of what God has in store for us beyond this life and this world.

We hope you can join us for this final part in our series, Praying the Rosary in October, as we explore in depth the beauty of each Glorious Mystery.


The Resurrection

The world is coming to a place like the world into which Our Lord was born. Politicians were not “for the people” then, they were capricious and dangerous.

Babies were killed en masse when a child said to be king was born.

The main roads into town were lined with hanging corpses.

A man ruled innocent was killed anyway, tortured, because the mob wanted him dead.

It was into a world like ours that Jesus was born.

It was a world like ours, with all its sin and fears and horror, that he took on his shoulders so it could be nailed to a cross.

And it was a world like ours that woke up on the third day to the startling, amazing news that none of the horror of the preceding days had any permanent power at all.

St. Paul gives us these words:

Brothers and sisters: If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. 
(Colossians 3:1-4).



Meditate on that today. Plant it in your heart, allow its truth to soak into your soul:

You were raised with Christ — Already.

Through baptism into his death, “you have died” already. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” 

Nothing any man can do to you or yours can change that fact.


Seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God —

The right hand of God is his throne.

He is ruling now, he is bringing all things under his feet.

He became like us and died so he could “deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” 
(Hebrews 2:15).

If that describes you, afraid of death, afraid of sorrow and pain to the point of bondage: you have been freed!

Think of what is above, not of what is on earth —

Don’t obsess over bad news, over a world that seems to be spinning out of control.

Instead, rejoice! The Lord is near.

He’s not a dead first century prophet we revere in memory; he is a living source of hope.

Take your mind off the things of this world and set it on the One who is a still point above the chaos.

Allow him to reset your perspective, to help you see the reality behind the circumstances.

Tyrants will always be with us.

They will rage against the good and good people will be caught up in their terror.  

But God, in Christ, has turned even the worst they can do, into the door to eternal life and glory.

St. Peter wrote to “exiles in the dispersion”—Christians dispersed throughout the Roman world who were subject to ongoing persecution—of the “living hope” we have because of the Resurrection:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:3-7).



The Ascension

…He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

When we recite this line in the Creed at Mass, it may simply seem like a tidy but not especially important bookend to the more important doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, and Resurrection.

We may be tempted to think the Ascension is a “second-tier” event.  

If so, we are out of step with the New Testament writers and some of the Church’s greatest theologians.

St. Luke thought the Ascension was so important that the event served not only as the fitting climax to Jesus’ victory over sin and death in his Gospel, but is retold again at the beginning of the Church’s story in.
Acts (Luke 24; Acts 1).

In an ancient homily, St. Augustine pointedly said “unless the Savior had ascended into heaven, his Nativity would have come to nothing … and his Passion would have borne no fruit for us, and his most holy Resurrection would have been useless.”


 Let’s look at four reasons why the Ascension is so important to us:

The Ascension gives us access to our Heavenly Father’s house and our eternal happiness. “Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.” us,(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 661; John 14:2)

As it did for his first disciples, the Ascension is intended to produce joy and worshipful obedience in the lives of Christ’s disciples. Since Christ is reigning at the right hand of his Father over his kingdom, we joyfully work to spread that reign within us and around us (CCC, 669, Luke 24:52-53).

The Ascension means that Christ and his Father could now send the Holy Spirit to fully reveal the Trinity, to guide the Church into all truth, and to unite us to Christ’s mission, “if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”(John 16:7, 13; CCC, 690, 737).

Finally, the Ascension is a source of daily hope because it reminds us that Jesus is coming back again, the same way he departed, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11b). His return will mean the final triumph of good over evil, a new heaven and a new earth. “That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him: Marana tha! “Our Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:17, 20).

(End Part 1)

10/27/2107 The Relationship Between Spiritual and Moral Conversion

dbarrusaowh09
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-relationship-between-spiritual-and-moral-conversion/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/dbarrusaowh09/

God’s Presence to Our Consciousness, Happiness, Happiness & Suffering, Latest, Prayer, Virtue & Freedom

The Relationship Between Spiritual and Moral Conversion

What is the relationship between spirituality and morality?

And how does a spiritual conversion affect a moral conversion, or vice versa?

To answer these questions, we’ll have to dig deeply into the meaning of spiritual and moral conversions.



Spiritual Conversion

Spiritual conversion connects us with the heart of Christ – and this trusting and loving connection opens the way to all the other gifts of the “inner church”.



The gifts of the “inner church” are as listed below.

a. Peace beyond all understanding
b. Guidance from the Holy Spirit
c. Transformation in the heart of Christ
d. Sensus Fidei
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20140610_sensus-fidei_en.html
e. Sensus fidelium
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/06/23/dont-confuse-sensus-fidelium-with-majority-opinion-of-the-faithful-say-vatican-theologians/
f. The sense of spiritual community (Koinōnia)

Spiritual conversion occurs through regular participation in four major services of the “outer church”, which are as listed below.

a. Reception of the Holy Eucharist in Holy Mass
b. Listening to the Word of God
c. Contemplative prayer
d. Participation in other forms of complementary inspiration

All of these gifts and perfection of the inner and outer church – given through the Holy Spirit – free us and help us toward moral conversion.



The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this as follows:

It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance.

Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues.

Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil.
(CCC 1811)



Our close connection with the heart of Christ, which catalyzes the spiritual gifts of the inner church, gradually transforms us — conforming us ever more closely to the heart of Christ.

St. Paul speaks of this transformation as moving from the fleshly man to the spiritual man (Rom. 8:5-11) – or moving from the old nature/man to the new nature/man.
(Eph. 4:17-24):


Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer Live as the Gentiles [ethnē – unbelievers] do, in the futility of their minds;

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.

You did not so learn Christ! — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.

Put off your old nature [man — anthrōpon] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature [man – anthrōpon], created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.


This quotation gives us the key to resisting temptation through Christian faith because we need only replace “thinking with our lower self” (our “fleshly self” or “the old man”) with “thinking through our higher self” (our “spiritual self” or “the new man”).


Christians are not consigned to resisting temptation by using a stoic act of the will – a “no” to temptation; we can much more effectively fight temptation by simply moving our thought process from our lower to our higher self.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/06/23/dont-confuse-sensus-fidelium-with-majority-opinion-of-the-faithful-say-vatican-theologians/



Moral Conversion

Moral conversion – detachment from egocentricity and sensual pleasure — presents a significant challenge.

St. Paul tells us that it is likely to be a struggle even for those dedicated to holiness (like himself) until the end of our lives.

This does not mean that moral conversion will not become simpler and habitual over the course of time – for it certainly will.

It means only that we must be vigilant until our dying day – ready to ask for forgiveness from the Lord of love when we fail and encounter setbacks.

In the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul proclaims in exasperation:

I do not understand my own actions.

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.

I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 7:15-25).

Saint Paul wrote this passage when he was a mature Christian in 58 A.D. – 23 years after his conversion in 35 A.D. and 9 years before his martyrdom in 67 A.D.
https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090204.html

Even after 23 years, he was tempted by various deadly sins – though it is difficult to identify which ones they were beyond his self-disclosed sin of pride.
(see 2 Cor. 12: 7).



Nevertheless, as the Pauline author implies in the Letter to the Ephesians cited above (Eph. 4: 23-24) – we should continually try to replace the “old man” – our inclination toward the deadly sins — with the “new man” – our identification with Jesus and the virtues he espoused:

Put off your old nature [man] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature [man], created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.



What is the relationship between spiritual and moral conversion?

Spiritual conversion frequently precedes moral conversion because the closer we are to Jesus in relationship and prayer (spiritual conversion) the more we will want to imitate him in thought, word, virtue, and action (moral conversion).

Yet the relationship between spiritual and moral conversion is not that simple.

As we become more proficient at resisting temptation and living the Christian virtues (moral conversion), we open the way to an even deeper relationship with the Lord through prayer and sacraments (deeper spiritual conversion) which in its term, opens the way to the final stages of moral conversion – complete self-offering to the Lord in evangelization and charitable service.

To read more on this topic, view Fr. Spitzer’s article, Moral Conversion and Resisting Temptation.
https://www.magiscenter.com/moral-conversion-and-resisting-temptation/

04/17/2017 The 2nd Pole: Fascination, Desire, Love, & Bliss in Our Experience of the Numen – Part II (I.C: God’s Presence to Our Consciousness)

Magis Center
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-in-our-experience-of-the-numen-part-ii-i-c-gods-presence-to-our-consciousness/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/magiscenter/

God’s Presence to Our Consciousness, Latest, Virtue & Freedom
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/gods-presence-consciousness/

The 2nd Pole: Fascination, Desire, Love, & Bliss in Our Experience of the Numen – Part II (I.C: God’s Presence to Our Consciousness)


In our last post, we began expounding on the Second Pole of the Numen. For James and Otto, many individuals from virtually every major religion and culture have “heightened experiences of the numen,” another term for what many people, including C. S. Lewis, call “experiencing joy.”
https://www.magiscenter.com/2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-experience-numen-gods-presence-consciousness/

Embedded in that experience is an awareness that our propulsion toward it (being swept into it) is not caused by ourselves, but induced by the Divine “wholly Other” present to us.

As we are swept into it, we become aware at once of its supremeness and goodness (including elements of both the first and second poles), and when this happens we are transformed – we no longer think that we are merely physical or material, but that we are transcendent, having a soul which can only be satisfied by supreme goodness itself.

This puts all material things into perspective – as merely partial, temporary satisfactions of our sensuous and psychical nature.



Statue of Good Angel

Though these heightened experiences are important, it should not be thought that incisive encounters with the numen are limited only to people who have experienced them.
https://www.magiscenter.com/gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/

The “average person” can be experiencing joy through sparks of divine love-goodness-beauty-joy, but it might occur so gently, subtly, and quickly that they fail to recognize what is happening to them until they encounter a book or a conversation which describes the numinous experience.

After hearing these descriptions, they might say, “Well, I’ve never had a heightened experience of the numen, but I think I have had an experience of connecting with God that has His distinctive signature in it – some sense of supremeness, specialness, holiness, and goodness which is different from other interior experiences.”

Sometimes the average person can be praying an ordinary prayer like the “Our Father” or a well-known Psalm, and sometimes a few of the words will, as it were, leap off the page – leaving in its wake a feeling of supremeness-holiness-goodness-peace.

Sometimes the average person can look at the simplest religious object – a little picture or statue – and it will incite the same special interior experience.

Sometimes these same stimuli can cause us to recall a hazy experience of something that happened to us as children or young adults.

Frequently young people do not reflect on the specialness of their experience, and therefore have no rational memory of them.

Nevertheless, they have a pre-rational memory of them, and when the numen presents itself in a gentle way (say, looking at a picture), it brings to mind the feeling embedded in their pre-rational memory, causing them to say, “That was really strange – I feel like I remembered something profound and good from my past.”



Golden Crucifix

We should not underestimate our proclivity to put pre-rational memories into the recesses of our mind.

When we don’t reflect on the specialness of an experience, we don’t remember it as special.

It simply gets remembered as a set of intense feelings that can be reawakened when it happens to us again.

When C.S. Lewis was a child, he had heightened experiences of the numen, but because he did not reflect on them as special, he simply put this peculiar set of feelings into the recesses of his mind, which he only remembered after having religious conversations and subtler experiences of the same feelings as an adult.

Experiencing joy in these strange and subtle ways should not be discounted, for even though the experience can be gentle, subtle, and brief, it will retain traces of the distinctive signature of the numen (supremeness, mystery, and holiness combined with some sense of goodness, love, and/or joy).
https://www.magiscenter.com/gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/


The most subtle of these experiences communicates a sense of our true home in the supreme and holy goodness which elicits a sense of peace (absence of alienation) and unity with everything in which time stands still.

Though it seems like a contradiction to suggest that the numinous experience can be subtle or gentle, the numen can relieve alienation gently, can reveal its superior power and incomprehensibility softly, and can overwhelm us with deep beauty and goodness like Elijah’s “gentle breeze:”

[The Lord said to Elijah] ‘Go out and stand on the mountain, I want you to see me when I pass by.’

All at once, a strong wind shook the mountain and shattered the rocks.

But the LORD was not in the wind.

Next, there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

Then there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

Finally, there was a gentle breeze, and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat.
(1Kings 19:11-13).



As noted above, when the numen presents itself in a gentle or subtle way, and we do not reflect upon the specialness of the experience, we put the experience in the recesses of our mind.

We might say that it becomes subconscious or unconscious.

Sometimes we will have stronger experiences of the numen later in our lives and then we frequently bring our subconscious or recessed memory to our conscious mind, enabling us to see a pattern of interaction with the Divine One throughout life.

However, if we don’t have a strong experience later in life, does that mean that the gentle presence of the numen is completely ineffective in our lives?

Absolutely not.



As will be seen with respect to Mircea Eliade’s analysis of sacred symbols and the transconscious.
https://www.magiscenter.com/mircea-eliade-the-intuition-of-the-sacred/

Multiple, subtle, unreflective experiences of the numen create a strong unconscious impression which becomes part of our general frame of mind, causing us to desire, seek, and value sacred and religious symbols, community, worship, and revelation.

The numen’s subtle and persistent appearance causes us to be naturally spiritual and religious, inciting us to find outward communal expressions of what we interiorly sense and desire.

This may explain why the vast majority of people throughout history have had a sense of the spiritual and transcendent, have sought religious communities, were moved by sacred symbols, liturgy, and music, and found their highest sense of fulfillment through these outward expressions and connections to the transcendent and spiritual domain.

Next: The Unity and Opposition of Both Poles in Our Experience of the Numen
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-unity-and-opposition-of-both-poles-in-our-experience-of-the-numen-i-d-gods-presence-to-our-consciousness/

04/13/2017 The 2nd Pole: Fascination, Desire, Love, and Bliss in Our Experience of the Numen –

Part I (I.C: God’s Presence to Our Consciousness)
https://www.magiscenter.com/category/gods-presence-consciousness/

Magis Center
https://www.magiscenter.com/2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-experience-numen-gods-presence-consciousness/


God’s Presence to Our Consciousness, Latest, Virtue & Freedom

The 2nd Pole: Fascination, Desire, Love, and Bliss in Our Experience of the Numen –

Part I (I.C: God’s Presence to Our Consciousness)


In our last post, we touched on the first pole of the numen.
https://www.magiscenter.com/gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/

Just as the first pole is marked by feeling-contents of dauntingness, overwhelmingness, mysteriousness, and energy-vitality, so the second pole elicits another set of feelings –
we find the numen attractive, alluring, charming, fascinating, and enchanting.

This is what Rudolf Otto calls the mysterium fascinans.



Otto phrases it as follows:

The mystery is for [the person experiencing the numen] not merely something to be wondered at but something that entrances him; and beside that in it which bewilders and confounds, he feels a something that captivates and transports him with a strange ravishment, rising often enough to the pitch of dizzy intoxication…

So what is so fascinating, alluring, enchanting, and even intoxicating in the numen?



Why is there a mysterium fascinans?

It resembles what is fascinating and enchanting in the natural world – love, goodness, beauty, home, and the joy that arises out of them.

These qualities are attributed to God in all major religions, and they are attributed to the experience of God in all major mystical traditions.



Mysterium Fascinans

When they are experienced in the numen, they have a purer and more integrated reality than when they are experienced in the natural world. Otto states it as follows:

The ideas and concepts which are the parallels or ‘schemata’ on the rational side of this non-rational element of ‘fascination’ are love, mercy, pity, comfort; these are all ‘natural’ elements of the common psychical life, only they are here thought as absolute and in completeness.

In heightened experiences of the numen (such as mystical experiences), the characteristics of the second pole have an absolute or perfect quality which elicits ecstatic joy.

Interestingly, these characteristics are attributed to the transcendent or Divine Being by Platonists and other rational monotheists.

Plato not only attempts to prove the absolute and perfect one true good love, and beautiful, but implies that he and others can experience it through the contemplation of love and the beautiful in its highest form:



He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes towards the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty…

A nature which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying…

But beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things.

Though Plato does not attribute this experience specifically to the numen (the presence of the divine within him), he associates perfect love, beauty, and goodness with the one God, and implies (in the above passage) that he and others have experienced it.

One of Plato’s most ardent followers, Plotinus (204-270 a.d.) sees the mystical experience of the numen flowing directly out of contemplation of the One which is good, loving, and beautiful.

His disciple Porphyry indicated that Plotinus had reached “ecstatic union with the One” on four separate occasions.



Mysterium Fascinans

Evidently, Plotinus and other neo-Platonic philosophers went far beyond the domain of rational philosophy into their inward experience of the One.

This led to an experience of the One’s absolute goodness, love, and beauty, which they identify as “ecstatic union with it.”

Inasmuch as this Supreme Being has the qualities of absolute love and goodness, it must in some sense be inter-relational, and this implies personal qualities.

Just as numinous energy and vitality (first pole) suggests personal attributes such as will and passion in the numen, so also the alluring, enchanting, and fascinating elements of the numen (second pole) suggests positive personal attributes of openness, love, and goodness.



The first pole elicits a relationship of humility, submission, and reverence while the second pole, the mysterium fascinans, elicits a relationship of closeness, familiarity, and friendship.

Both James and Otto pay close attention to the heightened or mystical dimension of the numinous experience.

James describes several cases in which ordinary people (not monks or sisters in a monastery) experienced the numen in a heightened state. One case study described it as follows:

For the moment nothing but an ineffable joy and exaltation remained.

It is impossible fully to describe the experience. It was like the effect of some great orchestra, when all the separate notes have melted into one swelling harmony, that leaves the listener conscious of nothing save that his soul is being wafted upwards and almost bursting with its own emotion.


One can see in James’ case study, the contrary elements of both calm and transport – a sense of peace and propulsion.

Otto notes that this peace-propulsion can be induced by the presence of the numen through many “gateways.”

It can come from reading a passage of scripture, reflecting on a supreme truth (e.g. perfect goodness or perfect love), taking a walk in a natural setting, hearing a bird’s song, looking at religious art or architecture, hearing a religious hymn or glorious symphony, or simply sitting at one’s dinner table or desk.

In my case, it once occurred while giving a physics lecture. When the feeling of peace-propulsion occurs, it is generally accompanied by a profound sense of unity with everything which takes away alienation, and feels like we are perfectly at home with the totality.

This sense of being “perfectly at home with the totality” is frequently connected with spiritual joy.


Otto puts it this way:

….in all these forms, outwardly diverse but inwardly akin, it appears as a strange and mighty propulsion towards an ideal good known only to religion and in its nature fundamentally non-rational, which the mind knows of in yearning and presentiment, recognizing it for what it is behind the obscure and inadequate symbols which are its only expression.

And this shows that above and beyond our rational being lies hidden the ultimate and highest part of our nature, which can find no satisfaction in the mere allaying of the needs of our sensuous, psychical, or intellectual impulses and cravings. The mystics called it the basis or ground of the soul.



Mysterium Fascinans

In this remarkable passage, Otto describes three key characteristics constituting a heightened experience of the numen:

The numen causes a sense of propulsion into itself.

In this propulsion, we sense the numen as perfect goodness and a Supreme Being (known only to religion).

Our temporary connection or unity with this Supreme perfect goodness reveals to us our highest transcendent nature –

Our soul which can only be satisfied by the Supreme goodness.

In Part II, we will discuss further the heightened numen experiences of many individuals from virtually every major religion and culture.
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-in-our-experience-of-the-numen-part-ii-i-c-gods-presence-to-our-consciousness/

04/10/2017 The 1st Pole — Mysterium Tremendum in the Numen

Magis Center
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-1st-pole-mysterium-tremendum-in-the-numen-i-b-gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/magiscenter/

These are often designated with a Latin phrase: mysterium tremendum et fascinans.

As mysterium, the numinous is "wholly other"-- entirely different from anything we experience in ordinary life.

It evokes a reaction of silence.

But the numinous is also a mysterium tremendum.


God’s Presence to Our Consciousness, Latest, Virtue & Freedom

The 1st Pole — Mysterium Tremendum in the Numen
https://www.magiscenter.com/gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/

The elements of dread, awe, dauntingness, and creatureliness are the most evident dimensions of the numen in the early stages of the development of individual and cultural religious consciousness.

Rudolf Otto calls this the mysterium tremendum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Otto

Since this pole of feeling-content is manifest earlier in history than the elements of the second pole, it makes sense to address it first (as Rudolf Otto does).

However, by putting the mysterium tremendum in a primary position, we do not mean to imply that it is more important or powerful than the elements of the second (more positive) pole in a mature person or culture.
https://www.magiscenter.com/2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-experience-numen-gods-presence-consciousness/


Mysterium Tremendum

Otto is in fundamental agreement with William James about the most basic appearance of the numen (though he thinks that James’ analysis is insufficiently nuanced), and so he quotes James as follows:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James

It is as if there were in the human consciousness a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of what we may call “something there”, more deep and more general than any of the special and particular “senses” by which the current psychology supposes existent realities to be originally revealed.

Otto concurs with James that the numen appears as an objective presence – and that it is distinguishable from every other object we experience because it is more deep and more general (all-encompassing) than all other objects.

However, Otto goes further than James, noting that this deep and all-encompassing objective reality appears to be very powerful and spiritual, causing us in our experience of the mysterium tremendum to be respectful, humble, and submissive before its presence.

Otto calls this reaction “creature consciousness,” and distinguishes himself from Friedrich Schleiermacher who implies that the self-conscious act of being a creature is primary.



Otto contends that the presence of the powerful and overwhelming numen is primary, and this causes us to react to it with a sense of reverence, humility, and creatureliness.

There are two special characteristics of the mysterium tremendum, this first pole of experience — overwhelming power and spiritual presence.

Notice that these two characteristics are categories of thought; Otto insists that such categories are not primary to the experiencing subject, but rather are derived from more primary feeling-contents.

So what are the feeling-contents that give rise to these categories of overwhelming power and spiritual presence?

For Otto, the first response we have when the numen as mysterium tremendum becomes present to our consciousness is fear – but not the fear we might have toward a natural object.



Rather, it is the fear we have toward spiritual presence – such as ghosts.

The fear of natural objects (that can threaten survival or safety) tends to produce a hyperactive state (induced by adrenaline) raising blood pressure, inciting panic, making us feel warm, and causing the face to flush.

The fear we feel when confronted by a ghost or spirit (or hearing a ghost story) is quite different – it makes us feel cold, causes our blood pressure to drop, the blood to drain from our face, and our flesh to creep or crawl.

Otto terms this special kind of fear toward a spiritual presence “daemonic dread.”

“Daemon” here does not mean “demon” in the sense of a malignant or evil spirit, but only “spirit” in a general sense which can refer to a benign or good spirit.http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/gothic/numinous.html

When we feel the presence of a benign or good spirit, it evokes a sense of uncanniness, of being beyond our control or power.

Its other-worldly character makes it unpredictable and daunting.

Though the numen as mysterium tremendum does not present itself as evil, it does present itself as “beyond us” and capable of overpowering us.

We sense its’ overwhelming or superior power, even if it is manifest in a “gentle tide, pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship.”



Mysterium Tremendum

In his book the Varieties of Religious Experience, William James recounts a case study in which the superior power of the numen manifested itself gently and sublimely:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/621

The perfect stillness of the night was thrilled by a more solemn silence. The darkness held a presence that was all the more felt because it was not seen. I could not any more have doubted that He was there than that I was. Indeed, I felt myself to be, if possible, the less real of the two.

This higher power carries with it a profound sense of mystery and incomprehensibility. Otto describes our experience of this incomprehensible mystery as “stupor” which he distinguishes from “tremor:”

Stupor is plainly a different thing from tremor; it signifies blank wonder, an astonishment that strikes us dumb, amazement absolute.

We are tacitly aware that we cannot comprehend this higher power, this mysterium tremendum, and so we view it as wholly Other.

In its overwhelming presence, we sense our creatureliness – what Otto and Schleiermacher term “creature consciousness.”
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schleiermacher/


There is one additional element in the feeling-content of the mysterium tremendum – Otto describes it as “energy or urgency” which betokens passion or will within the numen.

The felt presence of the numen not only indicates spiritual presence, overwhelming power, and incomprehensible mystery, but also something personal and passionate in its energy. Otto states:

…and it everywhere clothes itself in symbolical expressions – vitality, passion, emotional temper, will, force, movement, excitement, activity, impetus.

Terms like “vitality,” “passion,” “emotional temper,” and “will” are concepts — what Otto terms “symbolical expressions” – representing our experience of the more fundamental feeling-contents within the numen.

So how does the numen appear to us through the feeling-contents of spiritual fear, dauntingness, overpoweringness, mysteriousness, and vitality-energy?



As mysterium tremendum, the numen appears as

a wholly Other, superior, incomprehensible, and mysterious power with passion, emotion, and will which elicits from us a sense of creatureliness, humility, submission, respect, reverence, and worship.

From Otto’s descriptions, we can infer four layers in our encounter with the numen:

1. a fundamental layer of feeling-contents – spiritual fear, tremor, dauntingness, overwhelmingness, stupor, mysteriousness, and energy-vitality
2. a layer of intuited appearance of the numen – as a wholly Other, spiritual, superior, incomprehensible power with passion and will
3. a layer of reaction to the presence of this mysterious higher power — a sense of diminution, humility, respect, and creatureliness
4. a layer of action following our reaction – reverence and worship.


This constitutes our initial or primary response to the numen.



Mysterium Tremendum

Some people, religions, and cultures do not move beyond this initial encounter with the numen (which Otto terms “the first pole”), but most major religions do move beyond it to the second more positive pole of feeling-contents.

This is borne out by the fact that most contemporary religions today share seven common characteristics, four of which are derived from the second pole.

Let’s continue this discussion in part 2: The 2nd Pole: Fascination, Desire, Love, and Bliss in Our Experience of the Numen
https://www.magiscenter.com/2nd-pole-fascination-desire-love-bliss-experience-numen-gods-presence-consciousness/

What are the Effects of Original Sin ?

Magis Center
https://www.magiscenter.com/exterior-consequences-original-sin/
https://www.magiscenter.com/author/magiscenter/


The Exterior Consequences of Original Sin (II.B)


Many of the exterior consequences of original sin follow from the interior ones.
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-interior-consequences-of-original-sin-ii-a/

Thus we might expect that concupiscence, our weakened nature and the influence of the evil spirit, would create antipathy between us and God, us and one another, and even us and nature.

As Rudolf Otto noted (see the Third Topic), the first pole of the numinous – emphasizing the fearful and overpowering nature of the “Wholly Other” was dominant for centuries.
https://www.magiscenter.com/the-1st-pole-mysterium-tremendum-in-the-numen-i-b-gods-presence-to-our-consciousness-the-numinous-experience-intuition-of-the-sacred-and-conscience/

Furthermore, the enmity between human beings gave rise to a culture of slavery and callous disrespect for human life (as noted immediately above).

Finally, our relationship to nature was filled with superstition and a pervasive sense that the material world was evil.



Cross that saved us from Original Sin



Enmity vs Evangelization

God’s gradual revelation of himself to Israel – and His complete revelation of Himself through the words and actions of His Son – redeemed these corrupted external relationships.

Only a few decades after the resurrection of Jesus, the Christian Church would initiate public welfare, public education, and public healthcare on an ever growing scale.

As a result, larger numbers of slaves – educated by Christians – began to have influence within the Roman bureaucracy – as Christianity swept over the Roman Empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Rome


By the time Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan (in 313) –
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edict-of-Milan

Stopping the persecution of Christians, giving them legal status, and in some sense preferential status – many of the Christian Church’s practices with respect to education, healthcare, and public welfare had softened the cruelties of Roman culture and weakened the institution of slavery.

Jesus had not only given humanity the means to contend with the interior effects of original sin but also its exterior effects as well.

To the extent that Christian evangelization is successful, and that the Christian Church remains faithful to the teaching of Jesus and His call to holiness, the interior and exterior effects of original sin will never rise to its former prominence.

So it is incumbent upon us to use the gifts of our baptism, to deepen our faith, and to share that faith with as many as possible.

For as the mystical body of Christ increases, the influence of our weakened nature and the evil spirit (who works through it) will decrease.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi.html


Cross of Salvation

The Exemption from Death

There is one more external effect of original sin that must be considered – the loss of our exemption from death.

God created the first human beings by infusing in them a unique transphysical soul which was meant to be eternal by its very nature.

Our bodies – which evolved over a long period of time – were significantly influenced by the presence of this transphysical soul – developing an ever more refined cerebral cortex to mediate the soul’s 12 capacities to our material embodiment.

When God infused a soul into the first human being, the body took its lead from the soul – not vice versa – and so human beings were exempt from death.

However, the first man and woman gave credence to the suggestions of the evil spirit, and so committed the first sin by wishing to be separated from God – so as to do things on his own as a “little god.”

When this occurred the first man and woman lost their natural exemption from death – and their souls no longer exerted incorruptibility over their bodies.

Their souls remained incorruptible, but their bodies would die – being corrupted by the same sin that ushered in concupiscence and the increased influence of the evil spirit.

Jesus’ redemptive self-sacrifice did not overcome the necessity for the body to die – but it did much more.

If we remain faithful to Him, He will glorify our bodies – divinizing, transforming, and spiritualizing them so that they resemble His own risen body.

Once again, the effects of original sin would be overcome by the redemptive act of Jesus and our faithful following of his teaching and way.



Cross Symbolizes Redemption

It is important to note that Jesus’ redemptive act is not reserved only for professed Christians – its effects for negating original sin and bestowing the resurrection extend to all human beings who “seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

In its Pastoral Constitution of the Church – the Second Vatican Council describes how the actions of Jesus help us contend with the lasting effects of original sin – and how his saving work extends to all people who seek God with good will:

The Christian is certainly bound both by need and by duty to struggle with evil through many afflictions and to suffer death;

But, as one who has been made a partner in the paschal mystery, and as one who has been configured to the death of Christ, he will go forward, strengthened by hope, to the resurrection.

All this holds true not for the Christian only but also for all men of good will in whose hearts grace is active invisibly.

For since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery.

In our next post we’ll tackle the next “Reconciling Contemporary Science and the Doctrine of Original Sin” in our continuation of the topic Free Will and Original Sin.
https://www.magiscenter.com/who-are-our-first-parents-iii-a-reconciling-contemporary-science-and-the-doctrine-of-original-sin/

12/16/2018 When Padre Pio celebrated Christmas the baby Jesus would miraculously appear

Witnesses attest to seeing a vision of the Baby Jesus in the arms of Padre Pio.

Philip Kosloski
https://aleteia.org/2018/12/16/when-padre-pio-celebrated-christmas-the-baby-jesus-would-miraculously-appear/?
https://aleteia.org/author/philip-kosloski/


St. Padre Pio loved Christmas. He held a special devotion to the Baby Jesus ever since he was a child.

According to Capuchin priest Fr. Joseph Mary Elder, “At his home in Pietrelcina, he prepared the crib himself.
https://capuchins.org/2015/12/22/padre-pio-and-christmas/

He would often begin working on it as early as October.

While pasturing the family’s sheep with friends, he would search for clay to use to fashion the small statues of shepherds, sheep, and the magi.

He took particular care in crafting the infant Jesus, making and re-making it continually until he felt he had it just right.”

This devotion remained with him during his entire life.

In a letter to spiritual daughter, he wrote, “When the Holy Novena begins in honor of the Baby Jesus, it felt as though my spirit were being born again to a new life.

I felt as though my heart were too small to embrace all our heavenly blessings.”


Midnight Mass in particular was a joyous celebration for Padre Pio, who celebrated it every year, taking many hours to carefully celebrate the Holy Mass.

His soul was lifted up to God with great joy, a joy that others could easy see.

Additionally, witnesses have recounted how they would see Padre Pio holding the Baby Jesus.

This was not a porcelain statue, but the Baby Jesus himself in a miraculous vision.

Renzo Allegri recounts the following story.
http://www.messengersaintanthony.com/content/padre-pios-christmas


We were reciting the rosary while waiting for the Mass. Padre Pio was praying with us.

All of a sudden, in an aura of light, I saw the Baby Jesus appear in his arms.

Padre Pio was transfigured, his eyes gazing upon the glowing child in his arms, his face transformed by an astonished smile.

When the vision disappeared, Padre Pio realized from the way I was looking at him that I had seen everything.

But he drew close to me and told me not to mention it to anyone.

A similar story is told by Fr. Raffaele da Sant’Elia, who lived next to Padre Pio for many years.
http://www.messengersaintanthony.com/content/padre-pios-christmas


I had got up to go to the church for the Midnight Mass of 1924.

The corridor was huge and dark, and the only illumination was the flame of a small oil lamp.

Through the shadows I could see that Padre Pio, too, was making his way to the church.

He had left his room and was making his way slowly along the corridor.

I realized he was swathed in a band of light. I took a better look and saw that he had the Baby Jesus in his arms.

I just stood there, transfixed, in the doorway of my room, and fell to my knees. Padre Pio passed by, all aglow. He didn’t even notice I was there.



These supernatural events highlight the deep and abiding love of Padre Pio for God.

His love was further marked by simplicity and humility, with a heart wide open to receive whatever heavenly graced God had planned for him.

May we too open our hearts to receive the Baby Jesus on Christmas day and let God’s unfathomable love overcome us with Christian joy.

12/12/2018 Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, written by St. John Paul II One of the first prayers he penned as a pope.

Philip Kosloski
https://aleteia.org/2018/12/12/prayer-to-our-lady-of-guadalupe-written-by-st-john-paul-ii/?

Shortly after St. John Paul II was installed as pope on October 22, 1978, he made plans for his first apostolic trip.

It was to be in Mexico at the end of January, only a few short months into his pontificate.

There he made many appearances and speeches, including a short pilgrimage to the shrine that holds the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe north of Mexico City.

There he paused for a few moments to recite a lengthy prayer to the Virgin Mary.

O Immaculate Virgin,
Mother of the True God
and Mother of the Church!
You, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity
to all those who ask for your protection;
hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust,
and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of mercy,
Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice,
to you, who come to meet us sinners,
we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love.
We also dedicate to you our life, our work,
our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows.
Grant peace, justice, and prosperity to our people;
for we entrust to your care
all that we have and all that we are,
Our Lady and Mother.
We wish to be entirely yours
and to walk with you
along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church:
hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe,
Mother of the Americas,
we pray to you for all the bishops,
that they may lead the faithful
along paths of intense Christian life,
of love and humble service of God and souls.


Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord
that he may instill a hunger for holiness
in the whole People of God,
and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious,
strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.
Grant to our homes
the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings,
with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God.
Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Fair Love,
protect our families,
so that they may always be united,
and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion,
teach us to go continually to Jesus
and, if we fall,
help us to rise again,
to return to him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins
in the Sacrament of Penance,
which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us
a great love for all the holy Sacraments,
which are, as it were,
the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, most holy Mother,
with the peace of God in our conscience,
with our hearts free from evil and hatred,
we will be able to bring to all
true joy and true peace,
which come to us from your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

The China-Vatican Accord Is Secret Only in its Actual Words. Here’s How It Works

http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/12/16/the-china-vatican-accord-is-secret-only-in-its-actual-words-here%E2%80%99s-how-it-works/


All the articles of Settimo Cielo in English
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/01/02/all-of-the-articles-from-2018/


About the accord signed on September 22 between the Vatican and China, it has been said only that it concerns the appointment of bishops.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/09/22/submission-the-phantom-accord-between-the-holy-see-and-china/

Its contents have been kept secret.

But from then until now so many things have happened that it has become all too clear how it works.

Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun (in the photo), 88, made a special trip from Hong Kong to Rome to personally deliver to Pope Francis an impassioned seven-page letter of appeal on the dramatic situation into which the “underground,” or clandestine, Church in China has been plunged after the accord.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/zen-presents-letter-to-pope-warning-him-on-china/83839

While for the other part of the Chinese Church, the official side recognized by the authorities of Beijing, everything seems to be going the regime’s way.

The last seven bishops imposed by force against the will of Rome have also been recognized by the pope, who has set them free from the excommunication activated at the moment of their illegitimate ordination, in spite of the absence of any public request for forgiveness by them and the fact that two of them have lovers and children.

Pope Francis has even stooped to lifting the excommunication from an eighth bishop appointed by the government alone, who passed away in January of 2017 but whom Beijing wanted to see rehabilitated at all costs.

Moreover, the pope has had to swallow the sending to Rome of none other than one of the seven formerly excommunicated bishops, Guo Jincai, as a delegate of the Chinese Church at the worldwide synod held in October.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/09/30/in-the-match-with-the-vatican-china-calls-the-shots/

The announcement that he would be sent was made first by the Chinese authorities, and only afterward did the pope include him on his guest list.

Guo Jincai has been for years a perfect man of the regime.

He is a member of the People’s Assembly, the Chinese parliament, promoted to this role by the central department of the Communist party, and is secretary general and vice-president of the Council of Chinese Bishops,

The pseudo episcopal conference, until recently never recognized by Rome, made up only of bishops officially recognized by the government, which now according to the agreement will be responsible for providing the pope with the name of every future bishop,

Selected beforehand in a “democratic” vote by representatives of the respective dioceses, all of them in turn designated and trained by officials of the Communist party.

Pressed by journalists after the news of the accord with China, Francis said that in any case it will still be the pope who has the last word.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/september/documents/papa-francesco_20180925_voloritorno-estonia.html


But from what has happened so far, it turns out that the ones to “speak” have been always and only the Chinese authorities, with the pope limiting himself to saying “yes” every time.

Perhaps even anticipating the wishes of the other side, as happened with the Holy See’s erection of the new diocese of Chengde, announced on the same day as the signing of the accord, without any explanation for it being given.

The reason became clear shortly afterward, with the assignment of this new diocese to none other than Guo Jincai, the regime’s emissary to the synod.
http://www.synod2018.va/content/synod2018/it/fede-discernimento-vocazione/elenco-dei-partecipanti-della-xv-assemblea-generale-ordinaria-de.html

The boundaries of this and 96 other new dioceses were drawn, years ago, by the Chinese authorities, on their own unilateral initiative, retracing the boundaries of the provinces and feeding to the shredder the 137 dioceses of the Vatican map.

The Holy See had never accepted this.

But now Pope Francis has taken the first step.

And that will result, given the reduction in the number of dioceses, in the gradual exclusion of the roughly thirty clandestine bishops.



Upon whom the pressure of the regime became, after the signing of the accord, even heavier.

Some of them have already given in, like the bishop of Lanzhou, Han Zhihai,
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/10/22/the-china-vatican-agreement-secret-as-for-the-words-but-already-visible-in-deeds/

Whose act of submission coincided with his promotion as president of the local Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the historical instrument for the regime’s control over the Church, which until just recently the Holy See always judged as “irreconcilable” with Catholic doctrine, but in which all the official bishops are required to enroll.

While others remain defiant, like the bishop of Wenzhou, Shao Zhumin, who was detained by police in mid-November for yet another useless round of indoctrination in an undisclosed location.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Wenzhous-bishop-Shao-Zhumin-taken-by-police-45439.html

It is the fifth time in the last two years that the Chinese authorities have arrested him, to the point that in June of 2017 even the German embassy in Beijing protested publicly in his defense.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/06/22/china-why-the-agreement-with-rome-is-slow-in-coming/

It is to this Church of resistance that Cardinal Zen has given voice, in his appeal to Francis, so that it may not feel abandoned by Rome.

—————

This commentary was published in "L'Espresso" no. 51 of 2018 on newsstands December 16, on the opinion page entitled "Settimo Cielo" entrusted to Sandro Magister.

Here is the index of all the previous commentaries:

> "L'Espresso" in seventh heaven
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/03/31/lespresso-in-seventh-heaven/

—————


Commentary had already been printed in l’Espresso when further news came that confirms it in full.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Mindong:-Msgr.-Guo-Xijin,-underground-bishop,-gives-way-to-formerly-excommunicated-Msgr.-Zhan-Silu-45738.html

At the Diaoyutai hotel in Beijing that the Chinese state reserves for its own guests, Vatican envoy Claudio Maria Celli confirmed the transfer of mandate, as head of the diocese of Mindong, from “underground” bishop Vincent Guo Xijin to the “official” one, Vincent Zhan Silu, one of the seven whom Pope Francis exonerated from excommunication on the day of the signing of the accord.



From now on, Guo Xijin will figure only as an auxiliary for the new ordinary of the diocese.

At the same time, in the other diocese of Shantou, the elderly “underground” bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian retired and installed in his place was the “official” bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang, another of the seven who were formerly excommunicated.

Both Zhan Silu and Huang Bingzhang are also vice-presidents of the pseudo episcopal conference set up by the Chinese authorities.

Already one year ago Archbishop Celli had gone to Beijing to obtain this twofold replacement, in spite of the fact that the two bishops now promoted were still excommunicated at the time.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2018/01/29/danger-of-schism-in-china-cardinal-zen-the-pope-told-me…/

But he had met with strong resistance, which Cardinal Zen had taken pains even then to make known to Pope Francis.

In seeking to convince the two “underground” bishops, Celli had said that the pope himself was asking for this step backward, “because otherwise the accord between China and the Vatican cannot be signed.”

Now the accord is in place and the operation has made its landing.

Everything holds together.

12/17/2018 The Drama of Mt. Sinai Is Reenacted in the Annunciation

Stephen Beale
https://catholicexchange.com/drama-mt-sinai-is-reenacted-annunciation?mc_cid=c541f8d3dd&mc_eid=67495c3389

One detail from the account of the Annunciation reveals the deep drama that took place in the conception of Jesus.

This is contained in the angel Gabriel’s promise to Mary in.
Luke 1:35,

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

The promise is astonishing in its description of how Mary will encounter God.

Little is said about how this happens — ultimately the virginal conception of Jesus remains a mystery.

But we are granted one glimpse of the impending union of heaven and earth in the statement that the ‘power of the Most High will overshadow’ Mary.

In the Greek, the word is episkiazō, which, in the New Testament refers to a ‘vaporous cloud that casts a shadow’ according to Strong’s Concordance.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=g1982


What cloud might this be? In Jesus of Nazareth:

The Infancy Narratives, Pope Benedict XVI explains,

In terms of the language used, it belongs to the theology of the Temple and of God’s presence in the sanctuary.

The sacred cloud — the shekinah — is the visible sign of God’s presence.

It conceals the fact that God is dwelling in the house, yet at the same time points to it (Jesus of Nazareth, 29).



But the first descent of the divine cloud comes earlier.

Exodus 19:16-19 records the event,

On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud blast of the shofar, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.

Now Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had come down upon it in fire.

The smoke rose from it as though from a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.

The blast of the shofar grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God was answering him with thunder.



The story continues in Exodus 24,

So Moses set out with Joshua, his assistant, and went up to the mountain of God.

He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you.

Aaron and Hur are with you.

Anyone with a complaint should approach them.”

Moses went up the mountain.

Then the cloud covered the mountain.



The glory of the LORD settled upon Mount Sinai.

The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

To the Israelites the glory of the LORD was seen as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.

But Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain. He was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights (vv. 13-18).



So what was the cloud that overshadowed Mary?

It was nothing less than the same cloud of fire and thunder that consumed the top of Mt. Sinai.

What was received by an entire mountain in the Old Testament was, in the New Testament, absorbed into the person of Mary.

In the Old Testament, Moses has to ascend the mountain to meet God. In the Annunciation, the cloud of fire descends to Mary — such was the power of her faith, the fullness of her grace, and her humble acceptance of what God has planned for her.


As Psalm 24:3-5 says,

Who may go up the mountain of the LORD?
Who can stand in his holy place?
“The clean of hand and pure of heart,
who has not given his soul to useless things,
what is vain.
He will receive blessings from the LORD,
and justice from his saving God.”



On Mt. Sinai, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on stone tablets.

In Mary, God inscribed the fulfillment of the law—Jesus.

As Jeremiah 31:33 declares,

But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.



The law was written so deeply on the heart of Mary that it itself became flesh.

She perceived the heart of the law as the Sacred Heart of Jesus resting within her.

Through Mary, the law assumed life as a human being and spoke to us as the Word of God Incarnate.

In Mary there is thus an extraordinary fulfillment of Moses’ own yearning to see the face of God:
Mary not only sees the face of God, she forms it in her own womb.

God had to hide Moses as He passed by (see Exodus 33).
http://www.usccb.org/bible/exodus/33

Now, it is God Himself who is hidden within the person of Mary.



Seeing the Annunciation as another Sinai has implications for our daily walks of faith.

Do you want to encounter the divine fire? Mary will show you how.

Do you find yourself lost in the darkness? Mary will guide you through the cloud.

Looking for the way up the mountain to heaven? Mary will show you the way.

Want to see the face of God? Ask Mary to show Him to you.

To go up Mt. Sinai would indeed have been terrifying.

Yet, in Mary, the ascent becomes one of sweetness, hope, and comfort.

May we always journey in her as we seek out the fire of divine love.