Posted on 06/17/2009 9:48:34 AM PDT by NYer
.- He grew up an evangelical Protestant in Oregon, suspicious of Marian theology. Now he’s a Catholic priest and a physicist. Dominican Father Raphael Mary Salzillo was ordained last month in San Francisco and will take up an assignment at the University of Washington Newman Center and Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle.
Born Wesley Salzillo in 1976, he grew up in Florence, a small coastal town. The family converted to Catholicism in the early 1990s.
"My family raised me with a strong Christian faith and a very clear sense that Christ should be the most important thing in my life," Father Raphael Mary recalls, explaining that his faith after conversion remained "generic."
"I was not fully open to the truth that the Catholic faith has to offer," he says.
But when he was 16, a spiritual experience at Mass gave him the strong feeling he was being called to priesthood or religious life. He was not open to it at the time, so tried to convince himself it was just his imagination.
A top graduate from Siuslaw High, he went on to Caltech, earning a bachelor’s degree in applied physics. He attended graduate school and there he felt his vocation being clarified. At the same time, this scientist wrestled with turning over his will so completely.
"I wanted to choose my own religion rather than accepting the Catholic one as a coherent whole," he says, aware that many people today pick and choose within a body of faith. "In a way, choice had become a God for me, as it has to so many in our society."
Through study of church history and theology and deepening prayer life, he discerned that his own intellect and judgment alone could not fulfill his deepest yearnings. He decided to trust Jesus and the Church fully.
"It was through submission of my power of choice in matters of faith, that I came to know Jesus Christ in a much deeper way," he says.
The last part of his faith to fall into place was an acceptance of Mary. That spiritual movement allowed him to love Jesus more, he explains.
"It was Mary who brought me to finally accept my vocation, and it has been her who has sustained me in this life," he says.
He chose the Dominicans for their emphasis on doctrinal preaching and study, as well as their strong community life with "a streak of monasticism."
He studied philosophy and theology in Berkeley, Calif. and also served at the University of Arizona Newman Center.
That the Holy Scripture is inspired (all of it, not just your truncated version) and profitable for the clergy to teach and correct, so that the clergy may become fully equipped for every work -- is Catholic teaching.
Sola Scriptura, however, is a counterscriptural superstition that misinterprets that verse to say "... is alone sufficient".
To answer your other question, not only Mary but all the elect who lived to adulthood are both predestined by God and have exercised their free will to become so.
Since you’re so willing to voice your frank opinion, I’ll give you mine- the Protestant “Reformation” was actually the first phase of a demonic-inspired Revolution against all authority which has come from God.
No, we don't do that.
The problem for the Roman Church is the vast hemorrhaging
of RCs to Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism worldwide -
especially in the Americas (N&S).
It is good news for the RC church that a trickle find their
way back.
You may indeed be right about the bread being His body at the time of ingestion...believe it or not my Protestant minister kinda says the same thing.
But worshiping that same bread, praying towards it, bowing towards it, instead of praying towards God in Heaven,. becomes to me idolatry.
I made a typ when I said “praying “for” her, I meant praying “to” her. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus, Paul, James, Peter, anyone who wrote the Bible, says to pray to HUMAN BEINGS.
We are to pray to “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” NOT Mary, Joseph, Christopher or Karol.
Well, not being assumed into Heaven physically, good...’cause there’s no evidence THAT happened.
I guess we’ll just agree to disagree. I have many Catholic friends, as I am involved in Right to Life, and there’s numerous Catholics there...and they are all Christian children of God, even though we vehemently disagree with each other!
Ed
I just saw a picture of a bunch of nuns bowing towards, worshiping and praying at a box on a chair holding a piece of bread...if that’s not idolatry, what is???
Jesus said to His disciples 9paraphrasing, as I forgot the exact quote!) “In the last days, many will claim to be Me, saying, ‘Come, here I am’ don’t believe it.”
It’s obvious to me that those nuns were praying at a box, not towards God Himself...
Ed
The Jewish scriptures were substantially altered after the time of the LXX, mostly in a reaction to the rise of Christianity. King James's committee used the contemporary compilation of the Jewish scriptures in their translation. Hence the variation between the Catholic and Protestant OT.
Who do you think the "believers of the first century" were? Wait -- I know! -- they just hung around for a few hundred years without any leadership, until Constantine created the Catholic Church out of whole cloth!! What a concept!
And as long as you're quoting St. Paul, don't forget his admonition in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." The Greek is eite dia logou eite di epistolhV hmwn - logos is 'word of mouth' as contrasted with written communication.
It is the first phase of complete loss of faith: practical Atheism.
By replacing the Church as a communion of saints in historical continuinty from Christ and Mary to a baby baptized today, — replacing that with individual relationship with Jesus that is sustained (hopefully) by reading and interpreting the Bible, the downward spiral begins. Note that an Atheist interprets the Bible too: as a fable and a morality tale; his is likewise a view on the Scripture among many.
The so-called reformation is on a trajectory to infinite splinter and weakening of faith.
Did you ask them what they were doing?
It was a picture..they were static, unmoving, so I couldn’t talk to them!
Ed
"This is my body which is given up for you."
Sadly, the majority of Catholics are ignorant of their faith. OTOH, the problem Evangelicals are now encountering is the large number of folks who are leaving their churches and heading towards the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Many of these mega churches have interpreted praise and worship as multimedia displays that change from one week to the next. As more Bible christians imbue these displays, some Evangelicals are even forming monastic communities. Trad-anglican gave a good summation on an earlier post. These christians most closely resemble the early communities who eventually grew in spirituality to the point of understanding true worship of God.
Go find one and ask her! She’ll be happy to explain.
Mary was not a sinner. The archangel called her “full of grace” and told her she was blessed among all women. God could not physically join Himself to something imperfect; that means Mary was not tainted with sin. She was a pure vessel to carry Christ. More than that: she gave her genetic code to Christ. His humanity is based on hers.
She IS an intercessor according to Scripture: at the wedding feast at Cana, she interceded for the humiliated bridal couple to Christ. She asked Him to help them and He did. She is His mother and He values her wishes... and her wishes are that everyone love her Son as much as she does.
Well, to get past that: Catholics do adore the Eucharistic bread, but they do so because the Eucharistic Bread is Jesus, — precisely because it is not longer bread.
Our rector preached an excellent homily last Sunday (the Feast of the Body and Blood, a/k/a Corpus Christi) on how we need to be more careful with our terminology -- once the words of consecration are pronounced, a miracle occurs and we behold the Body and Blood of our Saviour.
They shouldn't be referred to thereafter as bread and wine . . . because They aren't.
Great homily. He quoted Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Without notes. I gotta say, every once in awhile I like a homily that makes my head ache. It's good for me.
Mary agreed to be Christ’s mother through free will. She was not a sinner. Christ took on her human traits and God cannot be joined to sin. Mary was created without original sin. The archangel sent by God to ask her to play this important role in the redemption process said she was “full of grace” and that God was with her. Sinners do not receive visits from angels full of praise for them.
Why would God pick a sinner to nurture, love and protect the Son He loves so much? This argument is not logical.
So...let me ask you a question.
When the bread is taken away, do you lose contact with Jesus?
In other words, when praying to that Eucharistic bread, do you feel closer than when praying by yourself, at home?
Why? Does Jesus vanish when the Eucharistic bread is removed? If He does vanish, then what does that do to His statement, “Lo, I am with you always”?
He said “Always” not just when the Eucharistic bread is in place in front of you.
That’s why it seems so silly to me to see people praying towards a piece of bread, Jesus is everywhere, “Neither death, nor life, nor dark...can keep [Jesus] from us.”
NOTHING keeps Jesus from us, so...if He is everywhere, sees us at all times, hears us at all times, why would His presence be so much more powerful when there’s a piece of bread in front of you than when there is no piece of bread in front of you?
Ed
To refer to the consecrated Eucharist as bread is time-honored practice. For one thing, Jesus himself did. St. Thomas Aquinas composed Panis Angelicus.
We have to excuse our Protestant critics when they report on what they see; the problem is, we don’t worship what we see, but rather Whom we know.
Ed, Catholics don’t worship bread instead of God; we worship God who is in the form of bread. Jesus told us to do that at the Last Supper and when He told His disciples to “gnaw” on His flesh for eternal life.
Catholics pray to Mary for help. We honor her for her role in God’s plan.
The information you have about Catholics is flawed. Whoever taught it to you was wrong. I invite you to do some objective research on your own. If you do, you will find much of what you thought about Catholics is false.
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