"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
On October 23rd, Dr Delgado and Roger Lopez spoke here in San Diego for Theology on Tap. The title of their talk was “Healing the Culture: “Bringing reason back into medicine and sexuality”.
Main Talk – Part 1 (Download)
Main Talk – Part 2 (Download)
Q&A (Download)
A while ago I uploaded a document to the Patristics section of this blog which was a short extract from the writings of St. Justin, apologist and martyr of the Early Church. The extract came from his First Apology where he wrote about the liturgy of the Church in Rome during the Second Century. I’ve recently been doing some blog maintenance and I’ve now recorded that document onto MP3:
First Apology (Extract) from St. Justin Martyr
More recordings will be coming over the next couple of weeks: Apostolic Tradition and the Liturgy of St. James.
I would suggest that a large number of Christians naturally assume that the Early Church worshiped in the same way as their own congregation in 21st Century America:
(Thanks to Patrick Vanderpool for the artwork)
Thankfully, we are not left in ignorance as to how the Early Church worshiped, since Church Fathers such as St. Justin left us written descriptions. These documents show us that the Early Church had a structured liturgy which had, at its centre, the Eucharist.
A while ago I promised a friend that I would do an in-depth treatment of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Communion of Saints. I’m still planning on doing that more detailed examination at some point in the future, but today I’d like to do another brief post following on from yesterday’s posts about All Saints Day.
I’ve mentioned Jay before, a Protestant with whom I dialogued for several months. During our discussions he brought up the subject of the Saints. It wasn’t really pertinent to the subject at hand so I didn’t dwell on it for long, but here was what I wrote to him:
“The Saints” was another issue you raised, but again, in an effort to stay on-topic, I’ll try to be brief.
We don’t worship Saints – we honour them. Worship is for God alone. If you catch any Catholic worshiping a Saint, let me know and I’ll make sure that both their Priest and Bishop find out. I will ensure that they are kept behind after Mass for extra catechism classes while the other parishioners enjoy coffee and donuts 😉
I can pretty much guarantee that all of your disagreements stem from how you view the Church. The Catholic view is that the Body Of Christ is simply one, composed of:
1. …those here on earth (“Church Militant”)
2. …those in purgatory (“Church Expectant”)
3. …and those in heaven (“Church Triumphant”).
Although we may be physically separated by the barrier of death, we nonetheless remain united to each other.
I’m sure you’ve asked people to pray for you before – it’s a very natural thing to do and I’m guessing you would find no conflict here with 1 Timothy 2:5 (to which you allude). Moses, Abraham and Job were all mediators and intercessors. In fact, as you rightly point out, interceding for others is a living out of our universal priestly calling.
I would also suggest that the people you ask to pray for you are often those whose faith is the strongest, as you hope in the power of their intercession (James 5:17). The Catholic response to this is a hearty “Amen!” But how much more powerful will the prayer be of one who has been completely sanctified and is standing before the throne of God?
There’s loads more I could say about this, but I’ll simply say that this is why we ask Saints for their intercession and why the Vatican teaches “filial reverence” – it’s simply because these are people who are part of the Church – it’s just that this part that is in heaven.
I went to Mass at lunch today and was thinking about the common concern among Protestants that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox worship the Saints.
Let me just say up front that we don’t worship the Saints, we honour them. Now, that’s a fine and dandy thing to say, but really, is there a difference between “worship” and “honour”?
Yesterday, I posted a quotation from Pope John Paul XXIII for this week’s “Wise Words on Wednesday”. When I published it, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Jay about the Papacy.
I have mentioned Jay on this blog before. He was a Protestant with whom I dialogued for a few months several years ago. When speaking about the Pope, here’s what he had to say:
“…[the Pope] has the names of God such as Holy, Father, …Vicar of the Son of God (which means in place of God)” – Jay
So, Jay asserted that Catholics give the Pope “the names of God”.
When I replied to him I responded by working through each those names in turn: “Holy”, “Father” and “Vicar”…
The authors behind my favourite apologetics website, Shameless Popery, have just posted the first part of the recording of their seminar “The Art and Craft of Catholic Apologetics”:
Today, another cartoon from Sword of Peter:
