Posted on 01/03/2002 6:26:46 AM PST by cathway
Well, if that ever happens I'll keep a seat open next to me at my church for you. ;^)
-ksen
Thanks, but unless your church plans on switching from Independant Baptist to Russian Orthodox, I think that seat will be vacant for a very, very long time. :-)
AB
That won't happen. But if it did, it would be very, very nasty.Last time those kinds of papal shenanigans went on with any force was during the Babylonian Capitivity of the Church. The good news is that God raises saints in times of distress -- like Catherine of Siena, who talked the pope in Avignon into returning to the papal seat in Rome. It just seems like, the worse things look for the Church, the more grace abounds.
I am a very doctrinally orthodox Catholic, and I stopped subscribing to The Wanderer.
(http://www.geocities.com/romcath1/genholydays.html)
....In that crib, the Church attests, was one far "greater than" Abraham, Moses, Solomon, or Jonas (Lk 11:31, 32; Jn 1:17;8:58; Phil 2:8-10;Col 2:8,9). In that lowly crib lay the very Logos of God, the Word, Who, "in the beginning", was "with" the Father and, indeed, was "one" with Him and the Holy Ghost from all eternity (Jn 1:1; 10:31; 17:24; Mt. 28:19). No longer was God so utterly other that one could not, without sin, speak His name or paint His image. Rather, the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us", in time and space. Truly the unthinkable has occured, and God Himself, out of His own unfathomable grace and mercy, has cut His own image in time, in history, the exact "figure of His substance", saying to the Father, "a body thou hast fitted to me" (Heb 1:3; 10:5); so that the Apostle John, almost swooning in praise and adoration of this "Good News", extolled Him " [Whom] we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, of the Word of Life" (1Jn 1:1).
This is why anointed artists could henceforth lawfully paint His image and speak His holy name---Jesus--- which was given to Him in obedience to the heavenly messenger by the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. This is why the iconoclasts in every age, since that Holy Night, have been wrong, woefully blind to the reality of God’s becoming man "to save His people from their sins". For God Himself has circumscribed an image for us in Christ Jesus, Who now belongs forever not only to eternity but also, through the incarnation, to history, even in His glorified body in heaven: He is forever, as the Creed declares, true God and true man.
St. John of Damascus, writing in the eighth century against the Iconoclasts, said:
"When you contemplate God becoming man, then you may depict Him clothed in human form. When the invisible One becomes visible to to flesh you may then draw His likeness. When He Who is bodiless and without form, immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing in the form of God, empties Himself and takes the form of a servant in substance and in stature and is found in a body of flesh then you may draw His image and show it to anyone willing to gaze upon it...his birth from a Virgin, His baptism in the Jordan, His Transfiguration on Tabor, His sufferings which freed us from passion, His death, His miracles which are signs of His divine nature...His savings cross, the resurrection, the ascension..."
If the practical effect is that priests and bishops are free to ignore church teaching, precisely what is being "preserved"?
Perfect love drives out fear.
How do you know that?
More correctly: "The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation."
The fruit of private interpretation of scripture and sola scriptura, which has come to fruition this past century, is march darker, friend.
Duck, and listen for trumpets...
Are you suggesting God was not bright enough when He made the command not to make graven images of any sort not expressly commanded by Him? "Has God really said ..." Trying to out think God is what gets most folks in trouble.
But I'm also writing for other Catholic periodicals.
I think the Wanderer has its faults but tackles some controversial issues that other orthodox periodicals won't touch.
Any reason for your criticism, besides the usual too harsh/too judgemental charge (which is not always unfounded)?
I find the National Catholic Register a treat to read although I can't figure out their distribution process. It's supposed to be a weekly but I will often receive several issues on the same day.
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