I DO understand that you believe the Eucharist is a never ending sacrifice, that is my criticism! :) The Bible says that Christ died ONCE! Christ SAID "It is finished". Nevertheless, men, in order to glorify themselves, continuously trot out the sacrifice over and over again to keep your faithful in line.
Why do you suppose that ALL of the Christians involved in New Testament canon believed the Eucharist to be Christ literally?
I don't know if that is true or not, but there were many cases of mass error in the OT so it was not unprecedented at all.
When you deny their 100% consistent belief of Eucharistic theology you have a New Testament decided by heretics and a Bible canon decided people influenced by the devil. Therefore the NT canon had satanic influence by protestant beliefs.
No. :) I don't think those men were satanic or anything like that. They were just flawed men who believed in some error, the same as the rest of us to one degree or another. That's why we do not believe they decided anything when it came to the Canon. God did because they were His words. God wouldn't go to all the trouble of breathing the scriptures only to "hope" that flawed men put it all together correctly.
The reformers were not worthy or humble enough to be the dirt beneath the feet of the early Christians who had the faith of the real presence.
Well, that certainly does show the humility I have come to expect from Catholics. :) I can only assume that the Fathers would have thought the same thing.
I would rather be in hell than deny Christ's true presence in the Blessed Sacrament. I sincerely mean this!
Then your extra-Scriptural tradition must be very important to you.
Why do you suppose Scripture puts focus on Bread and Wine?
They are used symbolically to compare the physical with the spiritual.
What about this.... Jesus said “Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and died...I am the living BREAD that came down from heaven...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man you will not have life within you.”
Jesus was making a comparison. He meant that taking in bread physically will support a life temporarily. However, taking in Christ spiritually results in life everlasting.
How many non-Catholic ecclesial communities offer daily sacrifice, a clean oblation, as is clearly commanded for us to do by Holy Scripture? How many do not even offer sacrifice?
Many non-Catholics understand that Jesus made the sacrifice ONCE, and they honor the power of that sacrifice. We understand that it does not need to be improved upon. Every time that sacrifice is re-made or re-presented it is a testament to the belief that what Christ did was insufficient.
Can a mere “symbol” sustain the spiritual soul to eternal life?
No, and that's why partaking of the Supper has no salvific properties. The Holy Spirit is who sustains us spiritually. I suppose some men have in essence "fired" the Holy Spirit from those duties since they believe they can do them better.
Thanks for your pings and good work.
ROTFLOL!
The Bible says that Christ died ONCE! Christ SAID "It is finished". Nevertheless, men, in order to glorify themselves, continuously trot out the sacrifice over and over again to keep your faithful in line.
AMEN!
Doesn't it ever occur to Catholics that the magisterium seeks an unnatural power over other men by supposedly keeping hold of the means of salvation to distribute or withdraw as it alone sees fit, thereby attempting to usurp the targeted, specific, personal, successful and accomplished work of the Holy Spirit, which no man can deny?
Snap out of it!
You can assume that the reformers were similar to the pagans that persecuted and tortured the Early Church fathers.
FK-”” I DO understand that you believe the Eucharist is a never ending sacrifice, that is my criticism! :) The Bible says that Christ died ONCE!””
The Bible DOES NOT limit Christ to time,FK. You do!
The Catholic Church also believes that Christ died only once,the difference is that you limit Christ to time.
We, are in time, and to us it would seem that this one sacrifice was consummated 2000 years ago. GOD, however is outside of time and space.
Everything is now in GOD’s eyes, and so we are taken back to that one sacrifice as if it were happening now at each and every Mass.
The Catholic Church teaches that the sacrifice on the Cross was a complete and perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of GOD, offered once.
St. Paul bears witness that the sacrificial rite which Christ instituted at the Last Supper is to be perpetuated, and that it is not only important for man's sanctification, but is the principal factor in man's final redemption.
In 1Cor 11:23-26, St. Paul told how, at the Last Supper, Our Lord said: “For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.”
During the Breaking of the Bread, we say twice, “Lamb of GOD, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us,” and a third time, “Lamb of GOD, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.”Thus at every Mass the faithful have a new opportunity to worship God with this one perfect sacrifice and to absorb more of Christ's saving and sanctifying grace of Calvary. This grace is infinite, and the faithful should continuously grow in it. The Mass is offered again and again, because of our imperfect capacity to receive.
The holy sacrifice of the Mass fulfills the Old Testament prophecy...
‘For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts’. (Mal 1:11).
The Sacrifice of the Mass is offered every day throughout the world, and in every Mass the only truly clean oblation is offered, that is, Christ Himself; thus the Mass is the perfect fulfillment of this prophecy.
FK-””Then your extra-Scriptural tradition must be very important to you””
Yes ,FK, Christ is everything to me,being that the Eucharist IS Christ and without Him I can do nothing.
It's only “extra scriptural” interpretations of scripture that lead someone to deny that Christ cannot be literally present in the Eucharist.
Not much has changed in over 2000 years later. There are still those who attack the Church that Christ gave us,weather by persecution in places like China or by the ignorant who twist the scriptures to create division.
No matter how hard they try the Catholic Church still stands and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the faithful produces such loving people like Mother Teresa,Saint Benedicta the cross(Martyred at Auschwitz)http://www.ewtn.com/faith/edith_stein.htm and a whole host of others throughout history
I encourage you to read about the life of Edith Stein (Saint Benedicta) I believe it will help you to understand the Catholic Faith better,Dear Brother.
Here is a her novena to the Holy Spirit.
It is so beautiful!
Novena to the Holy Spirit
by St. Edith Stein
1. Who are you, sweet light, that fills me
And illumines the darkness of my heart?
You lead me like a mother's hand,
And should you let go of me,
I would not know how to take another step.
You are the space
That embraces my being and buries it in yourself.
Away from you it sinks into the abyss
Of nothingness, from which you raised it to the light.
You, nearer to me than I to myself
And more interior than my most interior
And still impalpable and intangible
And beyond any name:
Holy Spirit eternal love!
2. Are you not the sweet manna
That from the Son's heart
Overflows into my heart,
The food of angels and the blessed?
He who raised himself from death to life,
He has also awakened me to new life
From the sleep of death.
And he gives me new life from day to day,
And at some time his fullness is to stream through me,
Life of your life indeed, you yourself:
Holy Spirit eternal life!
3. Are you the ray
That flashes down from the eternal Judge's throne
And breaks into the night of the soul
That had never known itself?
Mercifully relentlessly
It penetrates hidden folds.
Alarmed at seeing itself,
The self makes space for holy fear,
The beginning of that wisdom
That comes from on high
And anchors us firmly in the heights,
Your action,
That creates us anew:
Holy Spirit ray that penetrates everything!
4. Are you the spirit's fullness and the power
By which the Lamb releases the seal
Of God's eternal decree?
Driven by you
The messengers of judgement ride through the world
And separate with a sharp sword
The kingdom of light from the kingdom of night.
Then heaven becomes new and new the earth,
And all finds its proper place
Through your breath:
Holy Spirit victorious power!
5. Are you the master who builds the eternal
cathedral,
Which towers from the earth through the heavens?
Animated by you, the columns are raised high
And stand immovably firm.
Marked with the eternal name of God,
They stretch up to the light,
Bearing the dome,
Which crowns the holy cathedral,
Your work that encircles the world:
Holy Spirit God's molding hand!
6. Are you the one who created
the unclouded mirror
Next to the Almighty's throne,
Like a crystal sea,
In which Divinity lovingly looks at itself?
You bend over the fairest work of your creation,
And radiantly your own gaze
Is illumined in return.
And of all creatures the pure beauty
Is joined in one in the dear form
Of the Virgin, your immaculate bride:
Holy Spirit Creator of all!
7. Are you the sweet song of love
And of holy awe
That eternally resounds around the triune throne,
That weds in itself the clear chimes
of each and every being?
The harmony,
That joins together the members to the Head,
In which each one
Finds the mysterious meaning of his being blessed
And joyously surges forth,
Freely dissolved in your surging:
Holy Spirit eternal jubilation