Posted on 06/01/2005 8:34:47 AM PDT by NYer
"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).
Sixteenth century Calvinism and seventeenth Jansenism preached a distorted Christianity that substituted for God's love and sacrifice of His Son for all men the fearful idea that a whole section of humanity was inexorably damned.
The Church always countered this view with the infinite love of our Savior who died on the cross for all men. The institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart was soon to contribute to the creation among the faithful of a powerful current of devotion which since then has grown steadily stronger. The first Office and Mass of the Sacred Heart were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the feast was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. The celebration of the feast was extended to the general calendar of the Church by Pius IX in 1856.
In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart; in the nineteenth century, Pius VII and Pius IX allowed several churches to celebrate a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pius XII instituted today's feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession "peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue" (Decree of May 4, 1944).
Today is also the feast of St. Romuald, who was born in Ravenna (Italy) of a noble family. Founder of the Camaldolese monks, he was a hermit and a reformer of the monastic customs of his time. He died after a life of prayer and rigorous penance. Before the reform of the Calendar in 1969 his feast was celebrated on February 7, the anniversary of the translation of his relics in 1481. His feast is now June 19, the day he died in 1027. In the Calendar reform the Church has tried to move the feasts of the saints to their "birthday" — referring to the day on which the saint died and celebrated his/her birth into heaven.
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***Sixteenth century Calvinism and seventeenth Jansenism preached a distorted Christianity that substituted for God's love and sacrifice of His Son for all men the fearful idea that a whole section of humanity was inexorably damned.***
Are YOU saying that ALL will be saved? Muslims will be saved through their belief in Allah? Jehovah's Witnesses will be saved through their belief in their works for the church? Mormons will be saved by their belief in their church? Is this what you are saying? Because the Calvinist willingly come out and say that not all will be saved, this gives you the excuse to jump all over them?
All Night Vigil
Troy, NY
Friday, June 3, 2005 to Saturday, June 4, 2005
YOU ARE INVITED to the 26th Annual All-Night Vigil observance of the Feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, at St. Joseph’s Church, South Troy.
Friday June 3rd to Saturday, June 4th.
6:15 p.m. outdoor Rosary procession;
7 p.m. Concelebrated Mass of the Sacred Heart;
8 p.m. Holy Hour for Priests;
Devotions, Homilies, Sacrament of Reconciliation throughout the night.
The Vigil will conclude with 3 a.m. Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - Maronite Divine Liturgy. Fr. Elie Kairouz, celebrant.
Please join us for all or any part of this 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION and give Glory to God in this Year of the Eucharist!
For further details, call (518) 674-2916 or (518) 273-8831.
Of course not.
Are Muslims damned? Are Jehovah's Witnesses damned? Are those who believe in a savior other than Jesus damned?
Unless they all repent, and accept Jesus Christ as Lord, and accept what He taught, they will not be saved.
That is the Calvinist position, NOT ALL WILL BE SAVED. And they castigate us for believing it.
Not exactly. Didn't Calvin believe in predestination, that even some who were faithful Christians were damned?
No, Calvin believed that all who were predestined would be saved. If you were a faithful believer, then you were predestined to that salvation. It was God's choice, not man's works that saved him.
Then Calvin denies free will I guess?
Most assuredly. That is, if you are talking about the ability of man, on his own, deciding to follow Jesus. The Bible is full of scripture that says that man cannot come to God on his own volition. It is God who calls, it is God who predestines, it is God who saves.
However, what you have written so far is quite similar to what I just read in a book titled "Spiritual Combat Revisited." To quote, "The [Catholic] Church understands this [James 1: 17] to mean that left to ourselves, we cannot please God and inherit eternal life." Also, "There is a tendency we all have to claim our good actions as our own and the bad things we do as not pertaining to ourselves in the same way. The truth is the reverse: The good things we do are the result of God's grace and mercy, and the evil things we do are the sign of what we really are."
I like to put it this way...
If you were to pay one cent for an object that cost $1000, you still purchased it. It is something that is owed you. If the object were given to you, it would be a gift, you did not earn it, it was freely given.
God's grace is a free gift, given to those he loves. If my effort payed for even one second of that grace, then it wouldn't be free, it would be something earned. I do good works because I am given God's grace to do so. Not so that I can buy my way into heaven. It is free, it is a gift, it is all God's work and effort. It is he who decides who he gives it to.
Since we are all created in His Image, doesn't that mean, at least at the point of our creation, that He loves us all?
Not really. He said "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated". At creation, he pronounced it all good, but then sin entered into the world by way of Adam, and it hasn't been good since.
What, Jesus' Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, didn't change things?
Yes, to those God chose. There is no universal attonement, otherwise, why even worry about death. Only those whom God chose to adopt into his family will be saved (and no, I don't believe it is only Protestants, either. All who believe in Jesus will be saved.)
Take Exit 73 off I-95, and turn right onto US-421. Proceed less than one and a half miles, then turn right onto South McKay Ave. You will see the church and adjacent parking lot.
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