Catholicism – Page 128 – Restless Pilgrim

The Zodiac and The Apostles

April 14, 2016 pilgrim 16 comments

One of my friends recently shared a video on Facebook which is an excerpt from the notorious movie Zeitgeist. The narrator in the opening frames rather nicely summarizes its main argument:

“Now, probably the most obvious of all the astrological symbolism around Jesus regards the 12 disciples. They are simply the 12 constellations of the Zodiac, which Jesus, being the Sun, travels about with. In fact, the number 12 is replete throughout the Bible:

12 Tribes of Israel
12 Brothers of Joseph
12 Judges of Israel
12 Great Patriarchs
12 Old Testament Prophets
12 Princes of Israel
Jesus in Temple at 12

This text (the Bible) has more to do with astrology than anything else”

Like most things in the Zeitgeist movie, the claims can initially appear convincing until you do a little bit of thinking and a smidgen of research.

Catholicism

One of my great discoveries upon engaging with the Catholic faith was that the Liturgy was saturated with Scripture. In my exploration of the eastern liturgies of the Church, I’ve found this to be no less true.

Below is a summary of the Scriptural allusions of the Liturgy which was compiled by V. Rev. John J. Matusiak from St. Joseph Russian Orthodox Church, OCA in Wheaton, IL.

Opening Doxology (“Blessed in the Kingdom…”)
Mark: 11:10; Luke: 22:29-30, Matthew: 28:19; Revelation: 7:12.

The Great Litany
Philippians: 4:6-7; Psalm 51:1 Luke: 18:13; John: 14:27; 1 Timothy: 2:1-2; Hebrews: 13:7; Psalm 109:26; Luke: 1:42.

The First Antiphon (“Bless the Lord, O my soul…”)
Selected verses from Psalm 103.

The Second Antiphon (“Praise the Lord, O my soul”)
Psalm 103.

The Hymn to Christ Incarnate (“Only-begotten Son…”)
John: 1:1, 3:16, 17:5, 19:18; Luke: 1:35; Hebrews: 2:14; Matthew: 8:25.

Catholicism

Sunday School

April 10, 2016 pilgrim Leave a comment

Let’s try again next week 🙂

Catholicism

Bad Atheism Arguments

April 9, 2016 pilgrim One comment

Another great article on Atheism from the Seton Magazine…

Catholicism

Eastern Icons and the Gospel of Thomas?

April 7, 2016 pilgrim Leave a comment

If you ever visit an Eastern Catholic or Eastern Orthodox parish, you’ll find them adorned with many icons and, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, these icons are dense with meaning.

At one point last year I brought a friend to my parish and we spent some time looking at the icons. He noticed that in the icons of the four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), each of them is holding a book, symbolic of the Gospel attributed him. He then noticed the icon of St. Thomas and asked a question which caught me off-guard:

“Is the scroll he’s holding a reference to the ‘Gospel of Thomas’?”

I had never considered that association before! You see, the “Gospel of Thomas” is a non-Canonical work from the mid 2nd Century and was rejected by the Catholic Church. Bishop Eusebius from 3rd Century described it as “the fictions of heretics”. Given all that, it’s rather unlikely that the scroll in Thomas’ hand in a Catholic Church is a reference to a heretical work of antiquity!

So…what does the scroll in the Apostle’s hand represent? In Eastern iconography, a scroll represents holy wisdom and indicates that the person preached and held the rank of apostle.