Do you have habits which have been part of you for years? Do you have personal traditions which you’ve been following for so long that you forget that they’re not universally shared by the rest of the world?
Well, last month I was chatting with a friend online and he highlighted for me one of my personal eccentricities. Our discussion prompted me to write this post so as to share my weirdness with the world, and in the faint hope of discovering others out there who have similar quirks…
It is often asserted that the Catholic Church was founded by the Constantine, who was Emperor of the Roman Empire from AD 306-337. A couple of weeks ago, a lady named Monica made such an assertion and in earlier post I pointed out some of the problems with such a theory.
However, today I would like to do something a little different… In this post I would like to set forth the positive historical case for the existence of the Catholic Faith in the generations prior to Constantine. I will show how twenty-one different Catholic doctrines were taught long before Constantine rose to power:
The Church is Catholic
The Church has a three-fold structure of leadership
There is unity through episcopal authority and schism is evil
Sacred Tradition is authoritative
Worship is liturgical
There is Apostolic Succession
Peter has Primacy
The Eucharist is a Sacrifice
Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist
The Eucharist is taken to the sick
Infants are to be baptized
Baptism actually washes away sin
Priests forgive sins
Works are involved in salvation
Prayers are said for the dead
There is purgation after death
Relics are venerated and Saints are celebrated
Mary is the New Eve
Mary was a perpetual virgin
Mary is the Mother of God
Prayers are made and songs are sung to Mary
I will demonstrate these early Christian belief by looking at primary sources alone and restricting myself to writings produced prior to AD 300.
Those of you who know me will know that I’m someone who is not a very “Christmas-y” sort of person…
Why?
Well, it’s probably partly because all my childhood recollections of school between September to January are dominated by memories of interminable carol rehearsals! I hate shopping at all times of the year, but especially during the Christmas rush. I hate picking up pine needles and I think fake trees are, well, fake. I don’t like the dark or cold which I usually associate with Christmas. I always look forward to the extraordinary liturgy of the Church at Easter, but at Christmas it is largely unchanged. And finally, nothing annoys me more than the saccharin-coated cheeriness which seems to be induced in people every December.
Sometimes I forget I’m a bit weird…
Those of you who know me will know that I’m someone who is not a very “Christmas-y” sort of person…