HERE IS THE TRUTH -- Courtesy of Robert A. Sungenis of Catholic Apologetics International, a REAL Catholic Scholar, not some pissant with a blog (like most modern front-line Catholic Apologists, Sungenis is an ex-Presbyterian -- i.e., he's not stupid):
*As someone once said, "Maybe you've got some penance to do."
Next Sunday, consider Keeping Holy the Lord's Day by participating in the Eucharist Jesus established in the New Covenant Sacrifice and Meal as the Way to Worship God.
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
The Sunday Eucharist
2177 The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."
"Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of Saint Joseph, the feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints."
2178 This practice of the Christian assembly dates from the beginnings of the apostolic age.The Letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful "not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another."
Tradition preserves the memory of an ever-timely exhortation: Come to Church early, approach the Lord, and confess your sins, repent in prayer. . . . Be present at the sacred and divine liturgy, conclude its prayer and do not leave before the dismissal. . . . We have often said: "This day is given to you for prayer and rest. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."
2179 "A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop."
It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love:
You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.
I found some interesting material among Rome's religious art starting in the eleventh century.
Ecclesia, Synagoga, and the Fallen Crown
Ecclesia and Synagoga were the names given to the symbolic personification in medieval Christian art of Christianity's triumph over Judaism. This early type of anti-Jewish propaganda, which first appeared in the 11th century, was common decoration in the sculptures, paintings and stained-glass windows of churches and cathedrals, and in the decorations and bindings of Bibles and prayer books.
A pair of female statues decorated many Gothic cathedrals and churches (usually outside the building) in Europe, especially in France, England and Germany. Ecclesia, representing the victorious, triumphant Church, takes the form of a proud, erect maiden, crowned and holding the cross. Synagoga, symbolizing the defeated Synagogue, is blindfolded (symbolizing blindness to the truth of the New Testament) and dejected, and her characteristic appurtenances are a broken staff, [1] broken tablets of the Law (symbolizing the Old Testament), and a fallen crown.
The best known statues of this type are on the exterior of the cathedrals of Strasbourg and Bamberg. They are also found in Rheims, Paris and Bordeaux. In England, they figure (generally in mutilated condition) in churches in Rochester, Lincoln, Salisbury and Winchester.
Ecclesia
|
Synagoga
|
You'll find additional references to the same or similar sculptures at Freiberg, Magdeburg, and at Notre Dame in Paris. The statues shown above are the ones in Bordeaux.
Book review:
Confronting Supersessionism by Mary Boys
Given that Mary Boys is a Catholic woman (not a group of priests as some Prots might suspect) and writing for Catholics about Catholicism and Judaism, it seems she has written an entire book about Catholic supersessionism which you claim does not exist and has never existed. Strange, eh? Maybe you should write to her and tell her to withdraw her strange and anti-Catholic book from the market.
And you should travel to all those Catholic churches in Europe and destroy those statues that depict exactly that which you say Rome has never taught.
Nothing in your Post #233 is germane to the Posted Article, or for that matter provides any evidence whatsoever for your contention that Dr. Robert Sungenis is "shunned by respectable Christians due to his venomous antisemitism".
If you want to post something evidentiary from an authoritative Christian scholar (Roman Catholic or otherwise) -- either responding to my own posted evidence from Dr. Sungenis (that would be favorite), or at least buttressing your own ad hominem Argument by showing that authoritative Christian scholars direct "respectable Christians" to "shun" Dr. Sungenis as a "venomous Anti-Semite", then I'll read your evidence and respond thereto. Otherwise, I must remind you that I am citing Dr. Sungenis in his capacity as a Patristic scholar, in which area he is recognized as a competent authority (one among many, but no slouch):
"Robert Sungenis has systematically addressed the confusion and demonstrated what we have always known, namely the Sacred Scripture and the Catholic Deposit of Faith are in complete agreement about justification. I applaud this work, and recommend it for all..." etc., ~~ The Most Reverend Fabian W. Bruskewitz, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska
As far as Sungenis' geo-centrism, that I will grant you for the sake of argument (with the reservation that Sungenis' position on the subject is actually a bit more subtle and Einsteinian-Relativistic than you portray -- "Einstein told us there is no center, that any point in the universe can serve as the center" -- Sungenis, Newhouse News Service, 3/28/06... as I understand it, Sungenis chooses Earth as the center of relativistic observation, and develops his argument from there).
However, while I disagree with Sungenis' geo-centrism, I am only maginally more interested in his opinions on Astro-Physics than I am in his opinions on hair-care products.
I am citing Sungenis in his capacity as a Patristic scholar, an area in which he is recognized as a competent authority. You must either respond to his arguments in that area, or I must respectfully dismiss your Postings as irrelevant to the Article under discussion -- "And you should travel to all those Catholic churches in Europe and destroy those statues that depict exactly that which you say Rome has never taught." (GWB's excellent #238)
Best, OP