For our 25th wedding anniversary, Gary and I went on a pilgrimage to Italy. At first Gary was not real excited about the trip, but after he got there I think he enjoyed it as much or more than me!! Seeing the beautiful old cathedrals and basilicas was amazing to his engineering eyes. He was amazed at how difficult it must have been building these structures.
When we visited St. Peter's Basilica we both just loved looking at the Pieta made by Michelangelo. This is a statue of Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus after the crucifixion. It is just an amazing site!.
At Gary's funeral, the family picked the picture of the Pieta to be on his funeral card.
A few weeks after Gary's death I was just beside myself. So I took a walk around the neighborhood. I found myself crying and starting to say the Hail Mary prayer over and over again and it gave me some comfort. After a few minutes of this, I had a thought in my mind that overcame me. I saw Mary holding Gary in her arms just like she was holding Jesus, except that Gary was in her left arm unlike her holding Jesus in her right as in the Pieta. Gary was dressed in his hospital gown and still had tubes coming out of his body. At that moment I knew Mary was taking care of Gary just like a mother who had taken care of her son, Jesus!! It was amazing. It has taken me a long time to realize the blessing of that day!
Another mystery involving the Pieta was when I went to a gift shop in the Westerville Catholic Church. I was just looking around when I spotted some prayer cards. One card was a prayer for widows and widowers. I read the prayer and bought the card. After I had purchased the card, I looked on the back and there was the Pieta!!
God does work in His mysterious ways and we must always be alert to signs in our life that He gives to us. He sends us His graces at our times of need. To know that Gary is being taken care of in heaven left me with such peace. Although I would love to have him back so desperately, I know for sure that he is in such a holy place that how could I ask him to leave that!! I thank God for giving me these special happenings and I also thank Mary the Mother of us all that she is involved in my life here on earth and that she is helping with the care of Gary in heaven. I believe that if we give Mary a chance, she can become a wonderful help in our spiritual life. She helps lead us to Jesus, her son. Wouldn't that be something that any mother would do especially a mother who knew her son was the Savior of the world.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
The mystery of the rosary
The purpose of the rosary is to help keep in memory certain events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them. The rosary is a scripture based prayer. It begins with the Apostle's Creed, which summarizes the great mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Our Father, which introduces each mystery is from the Gospels. The Hail Mary is said ten times at each mystery after the Our Father. The mysteries of the rosary center on the events of Christ's life. There are four sets of mysteries.
The Joyful Mysteries are : the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), the Visitation (Luke 1:40-55), the Nativity (Luke 2:6-20), the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:21-39), and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51).
The Sorrowful Mysteries are : the Agony in the Garden (Mt. 26:36-46), the Scourging (Mt 27:26), the Crowing with Thorns (Mt 27:29), the Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23:26-32), and the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-46).
The Glorious Mysteries are : The Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12), the Ascension (Luke 24:50-51), the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), the Assumption of Mary into heaven and her Coronation.
The Luminous Mysteries which have to do with the earthly ministry of Jesus are : The Baptism of Jesus (Matt 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22 ), the Wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), the Proclaiming of the Kingdom (Matt 10:7-8), the Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-10, Luke 9:28-36), and the Institution of the Eucharist (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-20).
With the exception of the last two glorious mysteries, each mystery is explicitly scriptural.
As we say each 10 Hail Mary's we must meditate on the mystery associated with it and keep Jesus's life close to our heart. Christ forbid meaningless repetition (Matt 6:7) but the Bible itself has some prayers that involve repetition. You can see this in Psalm 136. Also in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44), Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in a row. We must always pray these prayers with sincerity and not mindlessly.
The Joyful Mysteries are : the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), the Visitation (Luke 1:40-55), the Nativity (Luke 2:6-20), the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:21-39), and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51).
The Sorrowful Mysteries are : the Agony in the Garden (Mt. 26:36-46), the Scourging (Mt 27:26), the Crowing with Thorns (Mt 27:29), the Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23:26-32), and the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-46).
The Glorious Mysteries are : The Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12), the Ascension (Luke 24:50-51), the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), the Assumption of Mary into heaven and her Coronation.
The Luminous Mysteries which have to do with the earthly ministry of Jesus are : The Baptism of Jesus (Matt 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22 ), the Wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), the Proclaiming of the Kingdom (Matt 10:7-8), the Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-10, Luke 9:28-36), and the Institution of the Eucharist (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-20).
With the exception of the last two glorious mysteries, each mystery is explicitly scriptural.
As we say each 10 Hail Mary's we must meditate on the mystery associated with it and keep Jesus's life close to our heart. Christ forbid meaningless repetition (Matt 6:7) but the Bible itself has some prayers that involve repetition. You can see this in Psalm 136. Also in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44), Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in a row. We must always pray these prayers with sincerity and not mindlessly.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
The Real Presence
The Catholic Church teaching that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus, not bread and wine, is clearly taught in the Bible and throughout the 2,000 year tradition of the Church. The teaching of Jesus in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel is very clear: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John 6:53-56 ).
The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Even though many disciples would not accept this teaching, Jesus made no attempt to soften what he said. Jesus made no attempt to correct "misunderstandings". This is the only record we have of any of Christ's followers leaving him for purely doctrinal reasons. Maybe both the Jews and some of his disciples would have remained with him had he said he was speaking on symbolically.
The early Church took this teaching seriously. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul says, "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord...for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgement on himself." (1 Corinthians 11: 27, 29). Paul's words make sense only if the bread and wine have become the real body and blood of Christ.
The early Church Fathers also understood the Real Presence. St.Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of John, who was eaten by the beasts in Rome around 107 AD, wrote: "The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.". St. Justin the martyr wrote: "We have been taught that the food is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." He wrote this around 145 AD. The Council of Trent in 1551 defined that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, body and blood, soul and divinity.
"As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me" (John 6:57). The Greek word used for "eats" (trogon) is very blunt and is like "chewing" or "gnawing." This does not sound like the language of metaphor.
In a fifth-century homily, Bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia seemed to be speaking to today's Evangelicals and Fundamentalists: "When (Christ) gave the bread he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my body,' but, 'This is my body.' In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my blood,' but 'This is my blood,' for he wanted us to look upon the (eucharistic elements), after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord" (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).
Receiving the Eucharist to me is such a holy gift that I am unworthy to receive it unless I am first healed.
The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Even though many disciples would not accept this teaching, Jesus made no attempt to soften what he said. Jesus made no attempt to correct "misunderstandings". This is the only record we have of any of Christ's followers leaving him for purely doctrinal reasons. Maybe both the Jews and some of his disciples would have remained with him had he said he was speaking on symbolically.
The early Church took this teaching seriously. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul says, "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord...for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgement on himself." (1 Corinthians 11: 27, 29). Paul's words make sense only if the bread and wine have become the real body and blood of Christ.
The early Church Fathers also understood the Real Presence. St.Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of John, who was eaten by the beasts in Rome around 107 AD, wrote: "The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.". St. Justin the martyr wrote: "We have been taught that the food is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." He wrote this around 145 AD. The Council of Trent in 1551 defined that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, body and blood, soul and divinity.
"As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me" (John 6:57). The Greek word used for "eats" (trogon) is very blunt and is like "chewing" or "gnawing." This does not sound like the language of metaphor.
In a fifth-century homily, Bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia seemed to be speaking to today's Evangelicals and Fundamentalists: "When (Christ) gave the bread he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my body,' but, 'This is my body.' In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, 'This is the symbol of my blood,' but 'This is my blood,' for he wanted us to look upon the (eucharistic elements), after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord" (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).
Receiving the Eucharist to me is such a holy gift that I am unworthy to receive it unless I am first healed.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
To make a comment
If you want to make a comment, click on the "no comment" at the bottom of the page on the post that you want to comment on. Then write your comment in the box.
Then at the bottom of the box it says Comment as: Then click on the down arrow that gives you choices. Select the Name/URL choice. Type in your name. You do not have to enter anything in the URL space. Then hit Publish.
Like I said before, you can always comment at bjherrmann@earthlink.net.
God bless,
Barb
Then at the bottom of the box it says Comment as: Then click on the down arrow that gives you choices. Select the Name/URL choice. Type in your name. You do not have to enter anything in the URL space. Then hit Publish.
Like I said before, you can always comment at bjherrmann@earthlink.net.
God bless,
Barb
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Catholic and Protestant Bibles
The Protestant Old Testament omits several books and parts of two other books. To explain how this happened, we need to go back to the ancient Jewish Scriptures. The Hebrew Bible contained only the Old Testament and from it, it excluded seven entire books-Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First and Second Machabees, and parts of Esther and Daniel. Catholics refer to these 7 books taken out of the Bible as the deutercanonical books.
These books missing in the Jewish Bible came to the Catholic Church with the Septuagint, a pre-Christian Greek translation of the Old Testament.The additional books in the Septuagint were in opposition to the Jews because some of these books were written in Greek ( the language of paganism). Also they were in opposition because the early Christians used the Septuagint in their arguments with the Jews.
The Protestants of the sixteenth century objected to the additional books because of the doctrinal teachings of these books. The Second Book of Machabees, for example, contains the doctrine of purgatory, of prayers and sacrifices for the dead (12:39-46). The book of Tobias teaches the importance of good works. The Protestants could not reject some without excluding all of the books. So they went back to the first collection of Biblical books of the Palestinian Jews. They removed the additional books, which had been in the Bible up till 1517 and placed them at the end of the Bible in a special appendix.They labled them the "aprocryphal" ( uninspired) which seemed to make them less important to Prostestant readers.
The current canon of Scripture for the early Church was affirmed at the Council of Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus which included all and only the 73 books that Catholics honor today. This canon was repeated at Hippo in 393 and at Carthage in 397.
One of the reasons Martin Luther rejected the canonicity of the deutercanonical books was that some groups of Jews had rejected the Septuagint ( with its deutercanonical books) at the council of Jamnia. This council was a council of a non-Christian religion. Do they have the authority to define the Christian faith? In the fourth cintury, three Church councils ruled on the matter. In opposition, one Jewish council ruled on the matter.
The Catholic Church has consistently declared the deutercanonicals to be divinely inspired from her earliest councils. These books have been part of the Bible for 2,000 years. At the time of the Reformation, the Protestant groups rejected these portions of scripture that for 1,500 years had been part of the Christian Bible.
These books missing in the Jewish Bible came to the Catholic Church with the Septuagint, a pre-Christian Greek translation of the Old Testament.The additional books in the Septuagint were in opposition to the Jews because some of these books were written in Greek ( the language of paganism). Also they were in opposition because the early Christians used the Septuagint in their arguments with the Jews.
The Protestants of the sixteenth century objected to the additional books because of the doctrinal teachings of these books. The Second Book of Machabees, for example, contains the doctrine of purgatory, of prayers and sacrifices for the dead (12:39-46). The book of Tobias teaches the importance of good works. The Protestants could not reject some without excluding all of the books. So they went back to the first collection of Biblical books of the Palestinian Jews. They removed the additional books, which had been in the Bible up till 1517 and placed them at the end of the Bible in a special appendix.They labled them the "aprocryphal" ( uninspired) which seemed to make them less important to Prostestant readers.
The current canon of Scripture for the early Church was affirmed at the Council of Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus which included all and only the 73 books that Catholics honor today. This canon was repeated at Hippo in 393 and at Carthage in 397.
One of the reasons Martin Luther rejected the canonicity of the deutercanonical books was that some groups of Jews had rejected the Septuagint ( with its deutercanonical books) at the council of Jamnia. This council was a council of a non-Christian religion. Do they have the authority to define the Christian faith? In the fourth cintury, three Church councils ruled on the matter. In opposition, one Jewish council ruled on the matter.
The Catholic Church has consistently declared the deutercanonicals to be divinely inspired from her earliest councils. These books have been part of the Bible for 2,000 years. At the time of the Reformation, the Protestant groups rejected these portions of scripture that for 1,500 years had been part of the Christian Bible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)