"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
As I mentioned in my previous post, over the next few days I’m going to be responding to some comments left on my Biblical Mary: The Ark of the New Covenant post by a lady named Monica.
In today’s post I’m going to begin examining some of the assertions she made about the Blessed Virgin.
I’ve written a few Praise and Worship (P&W) songs in the past. I never knew it was actually so easy!
Something has been bugging me for some time now. The vast majority of Masses I’ve attended in the States have ended with applause. Back in England I encountered this fairly often among non-Catholic congregations, but quite rarely in Catholic parishes.
Here in San Diego I play the guitar in at a LifeTeen Mass and there is applause every week as we finish the final song. Now, there was a time when I wasn’t fussed about the clapping, but now it really rather bothers me…
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.
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”?
A little bit of stand-up…
heheheheh…