Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Comments

If anyone has any comments or disagreements with my postings, please leave a comment. If you are having troulbe leaving a comment, let me know. Thanks   My email is bjherrmann@earthlink.net.

With these blogs, I am trying to heed St. Peter's exhortation: "Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence" (1 Pet. 3:15).

God's blessings to you!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Scripture and Sacred Tradition

As Catholics, we believe that Scripture and Sacred Tradition make up our "rule of faiath". We believe that Sacred Tradition is the oral teaching of Jesus Christ handed down to his apostles, who in turn handed it down to the disciples, ( the early Church fathers ), and then down generation to generation to us. For almost 400 years there was no written New Testament to read. All of the apostles and disciples taught orally for the first 400 years. What was written down in epistles and gospels was not widely available and it wasn't part of the Bible until 397 AD. The Church determined the very books of the Bible and therefore Sacred Tradition and authority were necessary for us to even have a Bible today.

Sacred Tradition does not refer to practices and customs, such as the language of the Mass, kneeling or standing for Holy Communion, eating or not eating meat on Friday, ect. It is the oral teaching of Jesus taught by the apostles.

Sacred Scripture does condemn in many places the traditions of man (such as Jewish not healing on the Sabbath, hoarding money, not helping Samaritans, ect.), but those have nothing to do with the traditions Paul was speaking of the the following verses:

             "I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.".(1 Cor. 11:2)
             "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter."(2 Thessalonians 2:15)
             "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us." ( 2 Thessalonians 3:6)

It is a mistake to limit "Christ's word" to the written word only or to suggest that all his teachings were reduced to writing. The Bible nowhere supports either notion. The idea of sola scriptura (The Bible alone) is nowhere to be found in the Bible.

In Matthew 15:6-9 Jesus was not condemning all traditions. He condemned only erroneous traditons, whether doctrines or practices, that undermined Christian truths. The rest of the traditions, as the apostles taught, were to be obeyed.



            
        

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Worship of statues?

Catholics believe that the Bible forbids making or using images for the purpose of worshipping them "you shall not bow down to them or serve them". (Ex. 20:5). This commandment is absolute. God forbids the worship of any idol, including statues, power, sex, money, and oneself. However, when Catholics kneel before a crucifix or a statue, this kneeling is a sign of reverence to God, not the image.!

The Catholic Church forbids the worship of idols or anything created. This is the sin of idolatry. Only God is to be worshipped!! The Church's teaching on this can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). The catechism # 2113 states that "idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons(for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money,ect. Jesus says, "you cannot serve God and mammon"(Matthew 6:24). Many martyers died for not adoring "the Beast" (Rev. 13-14) refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God." (Gal 5:20; Eph. 5:5).

The use of statues and icons for liturgical purposes ( as opposed to idols) happened in the Old Testament. God commanded Moses, on several occasions, to make a brazen serpent in Numbers 21, and cherubim of gold in Exodus 25 nad 37. The brazen serpent shows the use of a statue (looking to it) in order to receive a blessing from God (healing from snakebite). When the people started to worship this statue, king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs 18:4). This shows us the difference between the proper religious use of statues and idolatry.

If we can memorialize mere political heroes with statues, and that of war heroes with monuments, then there should be no objection to remembering saints and righteous men and women. These statues are simply a visual reminder of great saints and heroes of the faith.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

"Should there be contact with the dead?"

Some faiths feel that there should be no contact with the dead. In Deuteronomy 18:10-11, 14-15, God has forbidden the practice of conjuriing up spirits.We are not to conjure the dead for purpose of gaining information; one is to look to God's prophets instead. There is a big difference in someone holding a seance and a son praying at his father's grave saying, "Hey Dad, I am having a difficult day and am asking you to pray to Jesus for me." The seance is an occult practice which God does not approve and the second example is just a humble asking for a loved one to pray to God on his behalf. God even gave us contact with the dead when He had Moses and Elijah appear with Christ to the disciples at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:3) The disciple Paul appears to be praying for a dead person, Onesiphorus, in 2 Timothy 1:16-18.

Another question I have heard is "Why not just pray directly to Jesus?  The Catholic answer is of course one should pray directly to Jesus!! But that does not mean it is not also a good thing to ask others to pray for us. The "directly to Jesus" point can fly back in the face of the one who makes it: Why should we ask any Christian, in heaven or earth, to pray for us when we can go to Jesus? If the fact that we can go straight to Jesus proved that we should ask no Christian in heaven to pray for us, then it would also prove that we wouldn't need any Christian on earth to pray for us.

Praying  for each other is simply part of what Christians do. St. Paul strongly encouraged Christians to intercede for many things in 1 Timothy 2:1-4.Of course we should pray to Jesus for every important need we have ( John 14:13-14). The prayers of the Catholic Mass, the central part of Catholic worship, are directed to God and Jesus, not the saints.

I am not sure of the exact words that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City used, but it went something like this: When I pray to Jesus, sometimes I bring my friends along with me. This is how he was explaining to others what it means to have the saints pray with you to Jesus.





Monday, April 15, 2013

The saints

I thought I would continue my thoughts from my last post. This concerns praying to or asking the saints to intercede for us. This practice started back in the earliest days of Christianity. It is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, other Eastern Christians, and some Anglicans. If you put this group together, it is more than three-quarters of all Christians.

In Revelations 5:8 John sees the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." We believe these saints,who are interceding on our behalf, are offering our prayers to God. We are asking the saints to pray for us. The word "to pray" means "to ask".

In Revelations 8:3-4, it says "Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel."

To me, these two verses in the Bible show the twenty-four elders, who symbolize faithful, obedient believers, and also angels offering to God the prayers of us on earth. This suggests they are interceding with God by presenting to Him our prayer needs.

Please remember, Catholics believe there is only one mediator of redemption who is Jesus Christ. But if you can ask someone on earth to pray for you to God, why not be able to ask someone in heaven who has already had their santification completed, for "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects."(James 5:16).

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The Hail Mary prayer

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

Since the Hail Mary prayer is a prayer to Mary, many assume that it is unbiblical. Quite the opposite, this prayer has many biblical verses contained in it.

The beginning of this prayer is, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." This is the greeting that the angel Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1:28. The next sentence of the prayer reads, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." This is what Elizabeth said to Mary in Luke 1:42. The first part of the prayer is totally biblical.

The second part of the Hail Mary is not taken straight from Scripture, but it is truely within Bible teaching. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Saying Mary is holy is like saying she was leading a Christian life and the bible describes Christians in general as holy. Sometimes they are called saints, which means "holy ones."( Eph. 1:1, Phil. 1:1, Col. 1:2). As the mother of Christ, Mary was certainly a very holy woman.

Some will say, "Mary is dead and can't hear our prayers". But that is unbiblical. In Luke 20:38, Jesus says that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for All live in Him". Also in Luke 15:7, "Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentence". These Christians who have died must be alive to know what is going on down here if they are rejoicing over us turning away from sin.

I am certain that my dead husband, Gary, is alive with God now and can hear prayers from us just like Mary!!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary, when I was a young adult, was someone who was a mystery to me. As I have grown in my faith, I have found myself being drawn closer to her. As Catholics, we do not worship Mary!!! We honor her. We honor her because she was the mother of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Honoring Mary is completely different than the adoration given to God. Like any other human being, Mary had to be saved by the mercy of God. She herself said, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior."(Luke 1:47). When God took on flesh and became man (John 1:1,14), shows us that God wished to involve human beings in His plan of salvation. Mary had a key role for this purpose, so Catholics honor her highly for the role she accepted so willingly! I feel I am blessed to have both a mother on earth and a spiritual mother in heaven!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Catholics are Christians

I am a life long Catholic. When my husband and I got engaged, his pastor gave him a book written in the 1950's that explained why not to marry a Catholic. My husband had been told that Catholics are not Christians. That left such an impression on me. Of course Catholics are Christians!!!! In Acts 11: 26, it says that the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians in the community of Antioch. That was soon after Jesus's resurrection. These disciples were commissioned by baptism and became Christians who are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Roman's 6:11).  Catholics believe that our savoir, Jesus Christ, is our only mediator of redemption. "For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved", than that of Jesus. (Acts 4:12).

My husband did accept the truths of the Catholic Church and entered the Church five years later.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Year of Faith

This year is called to be a Year of Faith by Pope Emeritus Benedict. Catholics are asked to deepen and learn more about their faith by such things as prayers, Bible studies, and evangelizing  We have been asked to rediscover our faith and to experience a conversion by turning back to Jesus. I have been involved in three different Bible studies this year and I asked myself what else can I do. I decided I could explain my Catholic faith to others who might not know a lot about it.That is what I will try to do with this blog.