Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ 7 .

I have been listening to this video today.


The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ 7


Another sermon for you – on modesty and the TLM

Another sermon for you – on modesty and the TLM
by  tantamergo

A different priest this time, I think.



 
This sermon has a bit of a personal angle. This Lent, my wife and another local woman decided that they would cover their heads - wear a veil, of sorts - for the entirety of Lent. Well, pretty much, except when sleeping, showering, etc. But definitely when in public. My girls have, for the most part, joined in. This is also in conjunction with the Marymyway effort, where my wife has responded to requests for veils from women she knows. She is designing and making more and more veils, and the site is taking off. My wife is coming to believe that there may be many women out there at least contemplating veiling more than when at Mass.

Along they way, my wife has learned a great deal about this practice, it's history, and the reasons why Catholic women for a very, very long time - many centuries - almost always covered their heads in public. Especially in traditionally Catholic countries. I won't go into that now, except to say that there is a depth of theology there that really surprised me, and it is all tied in with the Mass, Sacrifice, the Fall......it really ties into a huge segment of Catholic belief. I am very, very proud of my wife for doing this, and no, I had nothing to do with it, I was quite surprised when she told me what she planned for Lent. But, then again, she has always been the one dragging me to sanctity, not the other way around. My wife is, if I may say so, an amazing woman.

If you're looking for a chapel veil or a veil for daily wear, please do consider marymyway. If you don't, I'll stop blogging!

The denial of this doctrine of the necessity of belonging to the Church for salvation that is the cause of all the other evils in the Church

It is the denial of this doctrine of the necessity of belonging to the Church for salvation that is the cause of all the other evils in the Church and, consequently, the world today...- Sr.Marie Therese M.I.C.M., Prioress

Convent Corner Triage
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/130369740/Mancipia-March-April-2013







Pro Abortion Biden and Pelosi Receive Holy Communion At Pope Francis' Inaugural Mass


03/20/2013

Say It Ain't So: Biden and Pelosi Receive Holy Communion At Pope Francis' Inaugural Mass

http://www.catholicurrent.com/6/post/2013/03/politicians-and-holy-communion.html

Interesting post from another Protestant convert on the Church Fathers



Interesting post from another protestant convert on the Church Fathers


by tantamergo

I cannot agree more with what this former baptist is saying. I have studied the Church Fathers, and there is absolutely no question that the Catholic Church is the continuation of what the very earliest Christians - who called themselves Catholics, by the way! - believed. The faith of the Apostles, given them by Jesus Christ, was handed on to the Fathers, and that Faith is present only in the Catholic Church, with the Orthodox retaining all of it as well, but refusing to submit to the Supremacy of the See of Peter (emphasis in original):When I first read the works of the Church Fathers as a Protestant, it felt very odd. I didn’t know who any of them were, what they had done, or the context and times in which they had lived, but I did know that many of the things they taught bore little resemblance to my Protestant beliefs.
On doctrine after doctrine, their teachings aligned with the Catholic (and Orthodox) Churches rather than with Protestantism’s tenets. I knew that either something had gone horribly awry right from the beginning of Christianity or–gasp!–what the Fathers taught was what the Apostles had passed down from Christ.

I was reminded of this experience by reading Bryan Cross’ latest blog post at Called to Communion where he quotes St. Cyprian (3rd century) on the unity of the Church. For every one statement made by a Church Father than could possibly be construed as supportive of Protestant doctrines, fifty others incontrovertibly support Catholic teachings. So I am always amazed, even after ten years as a Catholic, when I read some Protestant apologist’s attempt to put the Fathers in their corner. There is just no way to do it without ignoring the fifty statements that flatly contradict some Protestant doctrine and focusing on the one that could be construed as possibly supporting Protestantism’s ideas..........

........As a Baptist, I knew the center couldn’t hold. Either Catholicism/Orthodoxy was true or the Church went into heresy right from the beginning. No way around it, much to my dismay (at the time). I would have liked nothing better than to remain a Baptist with strong Christian friends, vibrant churches, great music, strong preaching off [their understanding of] the Bible, and so on. Instead, I became Catholic and endured tepid preaching, lukewarm Christians, banal music, lackluster liturgy, widespread ignorance of the Faith, and horrendous architecture. “Welcome home!” I might have thought, but truly it was home, for Christ was there in the fullness of the truth and with the fullness of the means of salvation. The Eucharist alone is enough to become Catholic, even if everything else is in shambles.

This writer makes a very important point that is so frequently overlooked. Many of us converts to the Faith from protestantism are gravely disturbed by what we find when we enter the Church - as he mentions, horrid liturgies, worse architecture, and so many Catholics that treat their faith like a little trinket they take out on Sundays, wear for a bit, and then put away until the next week. If they even do that much. Many of us frankly experienced a big step down from the liturgies, church architecture, music, etc., when we joined the Church. I remember very distinctly thinking, when I would accompany my wife to Mass before I converted, that the Mass was exactly like what the Episcopals offered - I mean, down to the very word! - so, why could I not remain Episcopal? But nobody talks about this, the fact that the very dumbed down liturgies we have today, which in so many respects ape protestant practice, may, contrary to their intended practice of being welcoming to protestants, may actually work to DETER conversion. That's what I felt, anyway. That was a sticking point for quite a while.

Once I began to figure out what the Church really believed, I was increasingly dismayed by what I found in parish after parish. I was growing in the Faith, reading and studying and praying and really trying to live the life Christ has told us we should live in His Church, but I felt stymied to a degree by the environment I was stuck in. Then, a friend recommended to me first a very reverent Novus Ordo Latin Mass, and that was the first positive step. I began to see that the Mass could be beautiful, that it could have transcendent elements, that it could really speak to me and go beyond the mundane, pseudo-protestant liturgies I had hitherto experienced. Then, I decided to make the leap to the Traditional Latin Mass, the Mass of all Ages, the Mass virtually every Catholic experienced from at least AD 300 (with much of it, like the Canon, going back likely well before that) until 1970. Wow! I was blown away, and still am! Instead of feeling like I am in a Liturgy that is indistinguishable from the liturgies of my former Episcopal church (and, frankly, was in many ways a step down from some of the episcopal liturgies, especially in terms of music), I feel I am exposed to a treasure not made with human hands, something divine, totally beyond me, wherein I continue to find new and more glorious treasures as I experience it more and more, like a fabulous Faberge egg, but nested like a Russian doll, each succeeding discovery more amazing than the last! I can't tell you the difference such experience has made in my life. But, exposure to a TLM (Traditonal Latin Mass ) community - and I stress how important a community focused solely on the TLM is - has also been critical. For there is so very much of the Faith that has been lost in the last 50 years - not just the Liturgy, but huge swaths of theology and practice, and not just that, but an entire Catholic culture, carefully cultivated and developed over centuries, was cast aside in favor for an embrace of this fallen world. Even in TLM communities like the FSSP, I know we are only getting portions of what used to be commonplace. It's like we're trying to dig through the past and piece together those fragmetns that were scattered all over the floor of a very, very big room when the gorgeous statue of Faith was purposefully dropped from a great height. We find pieces - or, our priests help us to see them - we look at them, glory in their beauty, marvel that they could have ever been cast aside, cherish them, and then try to find still more. I'm sorry to turn this into more tub-thumping for the TLM, but I can't help it. I cannot describe both how beautiful it is, or how much it has affected me.

Lord, I pray, I pray I pray I pray that this slow, painstaking reconstitution, or, really, restoration, of Your Church may continue! I pray Your Will may be that my children will know a great Church and culture that is so very pleasing to you!

Lord, I pray for the conversion of my family. Please, find a way to touch their hearts......