Posted on 03/14/2010 12:14:46 PM PDT by NYer
Romano Guardini wrote in his book on the Rosary, To linger in the domain of Mary is a divinely great thing. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.
Guardini was speaking of spending time with Mary in praying the Rosary, but David Mills, in his latest book, Discovering Mary, helps us linger in the domain of Mary by opening up to us the riches of divine revelation, both from tradition and Scripture. Mills, a convert from the Episcopal Church, former editor of the Christian journal Touchstone and editor of the 1998 book of essays commemorating the centennial of C.S. Lewis birth The Pilgrims Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness, as well as the author of Knowing the Real Jesus (2001), has written a rock-solid introduction to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and done so with intellectual rigor and an affable tone.
His book begins with an introduction in which he describes how he came to discover the riches of the Churchs teachings on Mary: I began to see how a sacred vessel is made holy by the sacred thing it carries, he writes. I began to feel this in a way I had not before. I found myself developing an experiential understanding of Mary and indeed a Marian devotion. Which surprised me. It surprised me a lot.
Unfortunately, he notes, he did not learn about Mary from contemporary Catholics, nor in homilies, even on Marian feast days. It seems he learned on his own by reading magisterial documents and going back to Scriptures in light of those documents.
This book shares the fruit of that study. Mills examines the life of Mary, Mary in the Bible, Mary in Catholic doctrine, Marian feast days and the names of Mary. He includes an appendix full of references to papal documents and books on Mary.
Most of the book is done in a question-and-answer format, which usually works well, although at times it feels awkward. Would someone really ask, for instance, What is happening in the liturgy on the Marian feast days?
But most of the questions are natural. What is the point of Marian devotion? Mills asks. It is to live the Catholic life as well as we can, he answers. This means going ever more deeply into the mystery of Christ, to become saintlier, more conformed to his image, by following Marys example and by turning to her for help and comfort.
Next question: Does devotion to Mary detract from our devotion to Christ?
Christians since the beginning of serious Marian devotion have been careful to emphasize Marys subordination to her son, Mills replies. In fact, they have said it so often that the reader begins to expect it. In the fifth century St. Ambrose put it nicely: Mary was the temple of God, not the god of the temple.
David Mills, with the same radical clarity he showed in Knowing the Real Jesus, has written what has to be one of the best, if not the very best, short introductions to Catholic teaching on Mary, the Mother of God. Discovering Mary is ideal for those wanting to know more about her, whether they be skeptics, Protestants, or Catholics who dont know the Mother of the Church well enough.
Franklin Freeman writes from Saco, Maine.
DISCOVERING MARY
Answers to Questions About the Mother of God
By David Mills
Servant Books, 2009
148 pages, $12.99
To order: servantbooks.org
Romans 8:29
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
I don’t think Calvin came up with predestination.
Ok, fair enough, then how would you claim which scripture is inspired and god-breathed?
Confessional Lutherans would say the same thing, Scripture is absolutely clear on that. Neither claim that predestination is the source of salvation. I'll go out on the limb speaking for the Calvinists here. It is a slam dunk.
If you were right about it that is one thing. Confessional Lutherans do have statements of faith with the doctrine from Scripture. All of them are at those LCMS links.
True, but Calvin came up with his own spin on it — one that was/is rejected by Anglicans, Lutherans and the Apostolic Church (catholics, orthodox, orientals, assyrians)
A very good book to read is called “The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood. Published by The Riehle Fonation in Milford Ohio
Truly we may be called to do different things in different places or with different people. The important part is to follow His leading and not do whatever seems right to us.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:1-9
Your kind reply is cool water in a dry hot desert.
Thanks much.
So what??? There are tons of biblical scholars who disagree with your scholars...There are Mormon biblical scholars who say you should be a Mormon...
Biblical scholars have become a dime a dozen...And the one thing most of them agree on is that 'they' are the final authority (even when so many disagree with each other) instead of the bible...So what???
Doesn't matter who you condemn...Your condemnation means nothing...What counts is God's condemnation...And His doctrine that he passed on to Jesus which is in the written scripture...
Change it all you want at your own peril...
Clear sign that you should join the community of believers started by JEsus Christ and his apostles, continued for 2000 years.
I did and there was no pope there and still isn't...And there is no changing doctrine that follows your popes of apostolic succession...
You should join the community of believers started by JEsus Christ and his apostles, continued for 2000 years — The Church, the ONE Catholic and Apostolic Church (Orthodox, Catholic, Oriental, Assyrian) — give up your pastor and follow Christ
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.Firstly, 2:Tim 3:16-17 says that all inspired writing is "profitable", but to say that does not mean that only writing need be followed is a non sequitor.
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.when you read 16-17 in the context of the surrounding passages, one discovers that Paul's reference to Scripture is only part of his telling Timothy to take as his guide Tradition and Scripture. 14-15 says
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus"Paul tells Timothy to continue in what he has learned -- from Paul (Apostolic Tradition) and from Scripture
10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferingswhat kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of themThis is a direct appeal to apostolic Tradition, the oral teaching Paul gave to Timothy.
1You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach othersviz. that much Christian teaching is to be found in Tradition which is handed down by word of mouth. He instructs us to
15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings[a] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.2 Thess 2:15
16"He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."Refer to Rom 10:17
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.To limit Christ's word to the written only or to suggest that all his teachings were reduced to writing is to use the terms of the publishing age to refer to acts of the oral age. The Bible nowhere supports that Christ's word is limited to the written only or that all his teachings were reduced to writing
25but the word of the Lord stands forever."[a] And this is the word that was preached to you.Note that the word has been "preached", orally. This will be supplemented by the Bible but not supplanted.
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.Tradition overlaps with what is contained in Scripture, but the mode of their transmission is different.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of themyet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believedAnd in 1 Cor 11:2
2I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings,[a] just as I passed them on to you.And Acts
35In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "which is an oral tradition handed down to Paul.
What was Calvin’s spin on predestination?
37. But as earnestly as we maintain that there is an election of grace, or a predestination to salvation, so decidedly do we teach, on the other hand, that there is no election of wrath, or predestination to damnation. Scripture plainly reveals the truth that the love of God for the world of lost sinners is universal, that is, that it embraces all men without exception, that Christ has fully reconciled all men unto God, and that God earnestly desires to bring all men to faith, to preserve them therein, and thus to save them, as Scripture testifies, 1 Tim. 2:4: "God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." No man is lost because God has predestined him to eternal damnation. -- Eternal election is a cause why the elect are brought to faith in time, Acts 13:48; but election is not a cause why men remain unbelievers when they hear the Word of God. The reason assigned by Scripture for this sad fact is that these men judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, putting the Word of God from them and obstinately resisting the Holy Ghost, whose earnest will it is to bring also them to repentance and faith by means of the Word, Act 13:46; 7:51; Matt. 23:37.
:-) I've got it and have read it thoroughly.
the Catholic dogma of predestination keeps the golden mean, because it regards eternal happiness primarily as the work of God and His grace, but secondarily as the fruit and reward of the meritorious actions of the predestined. The process of predestination consists of the following five steps: (a) the first grace of vocation, especially faith as the beginning, foundation, and root of justification; (b) a number of additional, actual graces for the successful accomplishment of justification; (c) justification itself as the beginning of the state of grace and love; (d) final perseverance or at least the grace of a happy death; (e) lastly, the admission to eternal bliss. If it is a truth of Revelation that there are many who, following this path, seek and find their eternal salvation with infallible certainty, then the existence of Divine predestination is proved (cf. Matthew 25:34; Revelation 20:15). St. Paul says quite explicitly (Romans 8:28 sq.): "we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints. For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son; that he might be the first born amongst many brethren. And whom he predestinated, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Cf. Ephesians 1:4-11) Besides the eternal "foreknowledge" and foreordaining, the Apostle here mentions the various steps of predestination: "vocation", "justification", and "glorification". This belief has been faithfully preserved by Tradition through all the centuries, especially since the time of Augustine.And the rest of it requires a lot more deeper reading by me -- but interestingly enough, it holds true. The Calvinist position does not
...[cf. Apocalypse 3:5: "and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" (cf. Exodus 32:33)].
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.