[Mad Dawg]

YEah. On the flip side “master” often means “Teacher” and that’s how I thought of it in this context. We called the teachers “masters” at my horrible prep school.

[unspun]

YEah. On the flip side “master” often means “Teacher” and that’s how I thought of it in this context. We called the teachers “masters” at my horrible prep school.

Such terms as the above, as with "father," "vicar," and "primate," are very, very odd, in a church which would recognize the total primacy of Jesus Christ (THE image of the Invisible God) as the other current thread asserts.

I don't choose to beat up anyone for his religious particulars (and am not a fan some of the Reformers doctrines that also draw outside the lines) but I do choose to accept the truth from God's perspective, no one "getting in His/my light," whether it pleases any mere man, or not.

[saradippity]

I learned in my ninth grade,public school,Latin class that the word magistra was a female teacher. I believe a male teacher was magister. Miss Palmer never gave us any other definition. Had it been a private school,she might have mentioned head mistress and head master but she limited it to what we were familiar with;that was,teacher.

At the time,I was attending my Confirmation classes at the parochial school attached to my parish. We were learning that we were to go into the world and present Jesus to the world and defend the Faith.

We were taught that on the Feast of Ascension,Jesus Christ told the "Eleven",they were to go into the world,baptizing all nations and teaching them what He had commanded.

We were told that in the last chapter of John,Jesus had a talk with Peter charging him with tending and feeding the lambs and the sheep. The last verses tell Peter,he was to follow Christ and not worry about how long John was going to be alive,Peter was told again to follow Christ and so ends the final chapter of the Gospels.

It made perfect sense that from that time forward,the Apostles and their successors went about the world baptizing and teaching and that this body of bishops,led by the Pope was known as the "Magisterium". In addition to teaching,the Magisterium is charged with keeping the deposit of faith free from error until Christ comes again.

In a nutshell,Peter follows Christ,the Apostles follow Peter,the priests assist them in bringing Christ to the world and we follow them and in that manner,working together as the Body of Christ,in union with one another we are to bring as many as choose Him,home to the Father.