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Eastern Mariology

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Earlier this week it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a member of the Eastern Catholic parish I often visit. I mentioned the fact that I always feel more comfortable with Mary when I’m praying in the Eastern Rite, but I wasn’t sure why…

He then made the observation that in Eastern Christianity, when Mary is mentioned, Christ is almost always mentioned explicitly in the next breath, whereas in the West He is more often implied. I realised he was right! That’s exactly why I found it so much easier when praying in the Eastern liturgy! For example, this is the Eastern form of the Hail Mary:

“Theotokos (God-Bearer) and Virgin, rejoice, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls“

I have often thought that if we (Western) Catholics allowed our Christology to be seen more clearly in our Mariology, fewer non-Catholics to get upset by the honour we give to Mary. Just a thought.

Honour the art and you honour The Artist

Manvotional: Winston Churchill

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I’m a regular reader of the website The Art of Manliness. I love their content, but wish that more of it was made available in audio format, in particular the “manvotionals”. At the moment I’m trying to get hold of the guys who run the site to make this request and also to offer my services as part of the team who’ll provide the audio version of their posts.

As part of my pitch, I’ve recorded a recent “manvotional” posted on their website from the autobiography of a man who is consistently voted as being the greatest Briton of all time, Sir Winston Churchill.

Screen Shot 2015-09-21 at 11.25.08 AM

Manvotional (Download)

“The Descent” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.

Sunday Lectionary: Holy Trinity Sunday

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Fairly terse notes today, I’m afraid…

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: June 3, 2012

Last week we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost and this week we have another great celebration: Trinity Sunday. The Holy Trinity is one of the central truths of the Christian faith, declaring that there is only one God and in that Godhead there are three persons: Father, Son and Spirit.

The truth of the Trinity was something which was revealed by Christ, although there are hints found in the Old Testament. For example, the use of the first person, plural pronouns found in the Creation account:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:26–27

Some Fathers also saw a hint of the Trinity in the call of the angels before God’s throne:

 I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robefilled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” – Isaiah 6:3

Although revealed in the New Testament, the word “Trinity” is not found in Sacred Scripture. However, the word “Trinity” does describe the truth which is found in Scripture. The word is first used to describe God in the third century by Tertullian (although the word first makes its appearance in Christian theology in 170 AD through the writings of Theophilus of Antioch).

At every Mass we confess the truth of the Trinity in the Nicene Creed when we confess that Christ is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father”.

This Trinity is one God from Whom, through Whom, and in Whom all things exist – St. Augustine 

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Way of the Warrior

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I’ve been working my way through my Blog’s “Drafts” folder in an effort to try and finish some of the many half-completed entries I have there. At the time of writing I still have 226 left… :-/

In looking through these drafts I came upon two entries, both concerning movies for which I was fortunate enough to see advanced screenings. The first movie was Warrior and the second was The Way. I’ll write about at The Way later this week, but today I’d like to look at Warrior.

The Warriors

The story of Warrior concerns Paddy and his two sons. The film begins with Paddy leaving church after Mass. We soon find out that Paddy used to be a horrible husband and father as well as an abusive drunk, but now, many years later, has found God and is 1,000 days sober.

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” –  Proverbs 17:17

Paddy’s two sons, Brendan and Tommy are both talented athletes who are soon set on a collision course towards the same Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) tournament.

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Our Traditional Family Meal

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On Thursday I wrote a little bit about John 6 and the Eucharist in response to a conversation I had with Gerry, a non-Catholic. Today I would to take a very brief tour of the belief in the Eucharist in Early Church.

Fathers

The problem with saying that Jesus is only symbolically present in the Eucharist is that apparently nobody told this to the Early Church. Below are a collection of quotations from Christian documents of the 1st and 2nd Century. These demonstrate without a doubt that Christians have, from the earliest times, understood the Eucharist to be a sacrifice performed by priests in which Jesus Christ is truly present:

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The Pascal Homily

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I went to Vigil Mass last night and we were up late afterwards celebrating with the new members of the Church.

Wade

As a result, I didn’t get to Byzantine Liturgy this morning, which meant that I missed out on hearing St. John Chrysostom’s Pascal Homily. For those of you that don’t know, in the Byzantine Church, this Fourth Century homily is read by the priest at the Liturgy every Easter Day.

Since I didn’t get to hear it today, I decided to read it myself and put it up here for you all to enjoy. Christos anesti! Alithos anesti!

Pascal Homily (Download)

St John Full

Clinging to anger

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I was talking with someone recently about forgiveness and how, when we hold a grudge, we do damage to ourselves. I had a Scripture verse at the back of my head but I couldn’t remember where it was in the Bible. Today I found it:

“Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?

Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults” – Sirach 27:30-28:7

We cling to anger and hold it tight. We nourish it so that it can grow even greater. What are we thinking?!

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you” – L. Smede

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