" PAST " SERVING WITH THE ANGELS CATHOLIC AGAIN

 

                                                            Martin Luther Death Mask

Serving with the Angels


CATHOLIC  AGAIN!      Acolyte was recently reflecting on his Family Tree. On the Paternal side Irish Catholic.

On the Maternal side German ( Lutheran)and English (Protestant Church of England...sort of). My Mother’s conversion to Catholicism brought back to the Faith branches of the Family Tree which had strayed for over 450 years.

“The evil that men do lives after them….”Shakespeare has Mark Antony say, it is so very true! In the cases of Martin Luther – the drunken, blasphemous, sacrilegious and bitterly anti-Semitic beginner of Protestantism and King Henry VIII the hypocritical, sex-obsessed plunderer and persecutor of the Church, it is clear that at some stage in the late 1500’s they both set in motion forces that compelled or induced my German and English ancestors to abandon the Faith into which they were born and which had sustained their , and my, earlier ancestors for at least 1,000 years since their conversion from paganism.

The outrageous nature of such an act comes sharply into focus when we consider Our Lord’s description of our relationship in the Church to Him: “I am the Vine; you are the branches…..”These two sinning, arrogant, lustful men literally tore the branches away from the Vine.”And not just once, but on and on for generation after generation.

KING HENRY VIII

That was not the limit of this atrocity. Like every person in serious error, these successive generations sought to justify their false position by greater and greater error. So we see a multiplying of the number of Protestant sects and at a constantly increasing rate-Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Mormons, Latter Day (!!) Saints and on and on , at such a rate that in the U.S.A. alone the number of Protestant sects has gone from 20,000 to 40,000 in about 60 years. And Henry’s Church of England in its decrepitation, has long since gone beyond parody.

Scientists have very recently reported the discovery that Cancer cells are very much more sophisticated than they had believed. Not only do they multiply at an alarming rate, but they actively disable the defences of healthy cells adjoining them. The cancerous growth of Protestantism has sought to invade the Church since before Vatican II through the back door with false ecumenism. “Niceness” has become prized by some in place of Truth, “Shared Values” in place of Principles and Sacred Tradition which come to us from the Apostles they would put aside, to accommodate the inclinations of our “separated brethren”.

Thank God for our truly Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, who gently but firmly cuts through humbug and falsity and vigorously pursues authentic ecumenism which leads those in error back to unity in the Catholic Church.

The errant behavior of Luther and Henry VIII are for God Himself to judge. The sad results for hundreds of millions since their time are difficult to address and have required a long term view. The broken branches have withered where they fell and fertilized myriad coarse weeds. We need to pray for the Holy Father’s success to increase more and more, adding luster to his well earned title of the Pope of Christian Unity.

Catholic Again indeed! Thanks be to God.

Acolyte
Copyright This article first appeared in the May,2010 issue of FOUNDATION.

WE PROFESS YOUR RESURRECTION

ALL THE BISHOPS OF THE WORLD
were assembled for the Second Vatican Council

Now the Holy Father invites all of the Bishops of the world to join with him during the Year of Faith in recalling God's generous and precious gift of Faith. He calls for the year to be celebrated in "a worthy and fruitful manner". He desires all the faithful to intensify their reflection on the Faith, so that all believers may more consciously and vigorously adhere to the Gospel. He emphasizes the importance of this especially in these times of radical change we are all experiencing. The Holy Father sees the public profession of our Faith, in our families and homes, our schools, churches and Cathedrals right around the world, as giving us strength through God's grace, so that we may know our Faith better, and better transmit it to future generations. He requires all religious communities new and old, to find ways to make a public profession of the Credo.

The Holy Father goes on to emphasize that he desires every believer to profess their Faith in its fullness with renewed conviction and with confidence and hope. Inevitably of course, this leads him to the subject of the celebration of the Faith through the Sacred Liturgy. (One is reminded of Father John Zuhlsdorf's theme on WDTPRS? Blog - Save the Liturgy - Save the World.)The Holy Father quotes the Council's document" Sacrosanctum Consilium ": that the Eucharist is "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed......and the source from which all its power flows." At the same time, he prays that the witness of Faith affecting the lives of believers may grow in credibility - especially in the Year of Faith.

THE SOURCE ..AND SUMMIT
PUBLIC PROFESSION OF OUR FAITH
Chaplain Mike Dalton celebrates Holy Mass in the field during WWII .

These times as a whole, are therefore seen to be as demanding as the separate occasions Saint Thomas Aquinas envisaged, when he wrote :" It is not necessary for salvation to confess one's Faith at all times and in all places, but in certain places and at certain times, when, namely, by omitting to do so, we would deprive God of due honor, or our neighbor of a service that we ought to render to him : for instance, if a man on being asked about his Faith, were to remain silent, so as to make people believe either that he is without Faith, or that the Faith is false, or so as to turn others away from the Faith; for in such cases as these, confession of Faith is necessary for Salvation." ( Summa Theologica , 2-2,3,2. 13th Cent.)

The exceptional witness of early Catholics in those very first centuries after the Resurrection, the Holy Father recalls especially their reverence for and familiarity with the Creed. So great was that reverence and familiarity, that they could and did, recite the Creed from memory. It had been learned by heart. Upon being received into the Church they recited it as a group and then individually, one by one, before the copy of it was formally presented to them.

So we see that the object of the Year of Faith is that every believer should make his own, the task of re-discovering the content of the Faith, professing it, celebrating it , living it and praying it - in sum, being totally renewed as a true follower of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008 OPENING MASS'
"We Proclaim your Death O Lord, and profess Your Resurrection"