Tag Archives: Heresy

Θεοτόκος

05 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Incarnation

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We beseech thee, O Lord, pour into our hearts the abundance of thy heavenly grace: That like as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin Mary was unto us thy servants the beginning of salvation, so the devout observance of the dedication of her Basilica may avail for the increasing of our peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Collect for the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major

 

The Council of Ephesus was held in the year of our Lord, 431. The purpose of the Council was to examine the doctrine of Nestorius, who was the Patriarch of Constantinople. Nestorius claimed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, could not be referred to as the Mother of God, but instead must be called the Mother of Christ. The Council condemned the teaching of Nestorius and formally proclaimed that Mary is indeed Θεοτόκος (Theotokos): the God-bearer. (It should be kept in mind that the Church did not simply come up with this idea in a.d. 431. Instead, this was always the understanding of the Church and in light of the heresy of Nestorius, had to be officially defined.)

Shortly after the Council of Ephesus, the Basilica of St. Mary Major was constructed in Rome in honor of the Mother of God. It is the oldest church named in honor of Mary in the West. But that church, and in fact all Catholic churches, are more than just buildings; instead, they are like a mother to us and also like a home.

Through the waters of the baptismal font we are born anew into the Body of Christ. In our baptisms we are made new creatures and incorporated into the one Body of Christ. And if we are part of Christ’s Body then in a very real way Mary is also our Mother. And as such she cares for us just as she cared for her Son. When we are reborn in Baptism she clothes us with the pure white garment worn by all the members of the house. Like all good mothers, she feeds us with the pure milk of Truth that comes to us from our Lord. And it is in the church that we receive the food of life everlasting – the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the church, like in our home, we are protected from that which could harm us. Not only does the church provide a physical structure to protect us from the elements but in it we also receive protection from the evil one. In it, the Faithful are joined together in Holy Matrimony, being the Sacrament that emulates the union of Christ with His Bride, the Church. And when we die we are brought one last time back to the church so that the prayers of the Church may be offered for us.

In all of this, Mary, the Mother of God and our own blessed Mother, watches over us and prays for us, just as she did for her Son. Let us give thanks to God for such an attentive Mother.

 

A Bishop Doing What He is Called to Do

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Excommunication, Sacraments

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This post is from CatholicVote.org and can be found here.

DEAR WOMAN PRIEST, YOU’RE EXCOMMUNICATED…LOVE, BISHOP PAPROCKI

And P.S. – You’re not a priest.

That pretty much sums up Bishop Paprocki’s response to a local Catholic woman’s recent attempt to get ordained.

The woman in question is Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield. Bishop Paprocki wrote to her last month asking her to reconsider her plan, but evidently she ignored him and tried to be ordained a priest at a Unitarian church on May 5.

Bishop Paprocki promptly issued a decree of excommunication (and if you’ve never seen one of those before, they look like this).

The bishop also issued this statement to his diocese:

Please be advised that Ms. Mary F. Keldermans of Springfield, Illinois, has attempted to be ordained a priest for “Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc.” in a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Springfield on May 5, 2014. As a result, she has incurred an automatic excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

That is what you call a bishop who’s not afraid to bishop.

At the same time, we should be careful not to tout this as some sort of righteous smack-down or triumphant display of authority. Bishop Paprocki is much too holy and charitable a bishop for that, and I have no doubt that his declaration of excommunication was issued with sorrow, not pleasure.

But he didn’t hold back from issuing the decree of excommunication either, or from publishing it prominently on the diocesan website.

This is one of the things I love about Bishop Paprocki. Whether it’s standing up forthe unborn, for marriage, or for Holy Orders, he doesn’t shy away from confronting those who threaten his flock, nor from explaining his position to themwith charity.

He prays intensely, he acts decisively, and he teaches clearly.

Lord, send us more bishops like this one!

Amen!

The Reason that Bad Hymns are Bad

10 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Liturgy, Truth, von Hildebrand

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Having come into the Catholic Church after being an Anglican priest I was accustomed to a certain style of music: reverent, dignified and beautiful. Upon entering the Catholic Church I encountered another style of music that did not fit the mold with which I was familiar (and which I did not enjoy.) I tried for many years to tell myself that it was just a difference in taste – that for lifelong Catholics who had grown up with such hymns it was just as good as for them as the music I enjoyed was for me. At the same time, though, there has always been something in the back of my mind telling me that it was more to it than just a matter of taste. But, I could never put that uneasy feeling into words. Not until now, that is.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, it is within the last year that I discovered the writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand. In the current book of his that I am reading, The Heart, I am nearing the end. And it is there, in Chapter One of Part Three, that I have just read something that gives an explanation to the discomfort I have always had with many modern hymns. Up to this point the author has not mentioned music, but mentions it here at the end of the book in order to make a point.

To help in conveying his message in the quote below, it needs to be understood that this book is about human and divine affectivity: Part One is titled The Human Heart and Part Two is titled The Heart of Jesus. I have not finished it yet but the Third Part is titled The Human Heart Transformed and, I would imagine, gives us an idea of what his conclusion will be – that man's heart needs to be transformed and made like unto that of our Savior. But all too often we instead try to bring God down to our level, which does not lead to our transformation but instead, stagnation.

Against the true glory of the Sacred Heart, ‘in which shine forth all treasures of knowledge and wisdom,’ the grave distortion of many hymns becomes obvious. Both in word and in melody these songs not only completely miss the divine, transfigured quality of the Sacred Heart ‘in which dwells all the fullness of divinity,’ but they even present the Sacred Heart in the likeness of a mediocre, sentimental human heart…(If you cannot tell, the author abhors sentimentality because it is not a true response of the heart.)

…It is necessary to grasp the Sacred Heart in its true glory if the nature and depth of the devotion and its classical liturgical character are to be realized, and if we are to unmask the distortion and ungenuineness in many popular conceptions of this devotion which find their expression in certain hymns and art forms, and even some prayers.

It is interesting here that he mentions not only bad word selection in hymns but also brings up the tune itself. Certainly, there are many hymn tunes that I cannot tolerate because just hearing them sounds like what I call false sincerity or what von Hildebrand refers to as sentimentality. Although these tunes do not feel genuine I am not sure how you translate that feeling into a determination that “This hymn tune is appropriate for worship and that one is not.” The words, on the other hand, can easily be compared with the teachings of the Church to see if they are genuine or not. Next, after just a few more paragraphs, he shows why this can be so devastating to us spiritually.

…If we are to understand the transformation in Christ to which our hearts are called, our eyes must see the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its transfigured quality, as the epiphany of God.

The transformation of our ethos depends upon our having a true image of Christ and of his Sacred Heart. As long as we project our own mediocrity and pettiness into the Sacred Heart and nourish ourselves with this image, we remain imprisoned in that medocrity, instead of being transformed and elevated beyond ourselves. Here as in many other instances we are faced with the great danger of adapting the revelation to our narrow outlook, and of distorting it to such an extent that the challenge to be transformed is lost. Instead of grasping the true face of Christ and the challenge of being transformed, instead of letting ourselves be drawn upward by the love of the authentic God-Man, we miss the confrontation with the epiphany of God.

Wow!!! Of course we can substitute Sacred Heart of Jesus with any other divine attribute or understanding of the Church which modern hymns get wrong or, in the least, don’t get completely right. It also doesn’t stop just with the hymns but with any false teaching of what the Church believes. These distortions – these heresies, which is what they truly are – lead us away from the Truth! And if we are led away from the Truth we are being led away from God Himself. I don't know why I didn’t see this before.

What do you, the reader, think?