Lent Day Thirty Six - Creeping Darkness

Gospel	John 11:45-56 ©

Jesus was to die to gather together the scattered children of God

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘and what action are we taking? If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.’ One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, ‘You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.

  The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?’

We've crested the mountain and below us in a sweeping vista is the city of Jerusalem.  It is a site that fills me with awe, a site that fills me with wonder, and a trophy for this long, hot walk.  Uriah tells us that tomorrow, Sunday, we shall enter the great city. He has sent word ahead and we will be greeted as if we were conquering heroes!  The Master after admiring the view turned around and gathered us together.  His smile was warm as He faced us. He told us that after tomorrow He would no longer be with the group as he had urgent business in Jerusalem. He told us that each of us was beloved of God because we were true believers and had followed a hard road to get to this point.  He told us that our future was secure if we but believed in the Son and were His ambassadors and field hands.  We were to bring the Light of Christ to all we met who traveled the hot dusty roads through the valley of death.  He warned us to not depend on our own strength for if we did we would surely fail.  He bid us to talk to the Father and to cast all of our cares upon Him because He cares for us.  He told us that as we go through life day by day we should also pray for what we need and that what we need would always be provided.  He told us that in heaven we had many brothers and sisters who eagerly listen for our requests for help and they will always intercede for us with the Father if we but ask.  The saints live in the constant light of God and they behold Him as He is.  They see too,  the Son who watches the hands of the Father and is always ready to do the Father's will. And these same saints basque in the glow that the Father has for the Son and in in doing so they see the infinite love that is the Holy Spirit. He told us that upon our entry into Jerusalem we would look for Him but not find Him.  He will see them again on Thursday eve at a room that Uriah will show them.  With a single tear glistening in the sunlight as it flowed down His cheek.  He turned his back on us and looked forward, with apparent anguish, at the City of Jerusalem.  

When in Rome Do As The Romans Do

Today is the feast day of St. Ambrose who is a Doctor of the Church.  He is the author of that guiding principle "When in Rome do as the Romans do."  This is how we summarize his principle of following the local customs of the churches he visited. For example, if it was their custom to fast on Fridays, he would fast with them.  But to say Ambrose was a busy man would be damn him with faint praise.  

Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family but to my way of thinking, he was not baptized a Christian. He was known to be a wise man and he was what was called Nicene Christian which meant that he did not believe in the what the Arians believed.  The Arians believed that at one point in time that God the Father created God the Son and thus the concept of the Trinity was nullified. 

The bishop of Milan passed away and the Arians were poised to create an issue when the new bishop was appointed.  Ambrose came to the conclave and while he spoke eloquently to maintain the peace, a cry went out for him to be appointed the bishop of Milan.  He ran away and hid but within a couple of days, he was found, he was baptized, ordained, and consecrated the Bishop of Milan. 

The emperor was an arianist as was his mother. They demanded that Ambrose provide them with two churches where they could worship in accordance with their beliefs.  Ambrose refused.  He stated that he would present his body to the emperor to do what he liked with it but he would never betray the altar of the Church of Christ. His teaching on the liturgy was that it should be a tool for the people to use to worship God and slight variations from place to place were to be expected. Ambrose baptized Augustine, another Doctor of the Church. 

The Poor Souls in Purgatory need your help today.  Please say a rosary for them.  Remember as they are, one day you may be! 

We Are Being Called To Our Destiny

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
"Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?"

I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows."

He said to me,
"These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."

November first is the feast of All Saints.  The feast exists for two reasons.  First, the Church wants to recognize all of thousands upon thousands of people who were faithful to God and His Son Jesus and accepted the promptings of the Holy Spirit and lived a life that won them the greatest prize of all, heaven.  While it is true that the Church does declare that certain of her members are in heaven and are enjoying the Beatific Vision of God and the bliss of eternal life with God, she also wants to recognize these millions of others who also are in heaven.  The vast majority of us who lived worthy lives in private. She recognizes those of us who did the laundry, brought up the children, worked to earn the bread that they ate all while giving God the things that were God and following in the footsteps of Jesus. Secondly, the Church reminds us today. those of us still on the earth that we are called to be saints.  There is no other destiny worthy of souls than to be with God in heaven.  So today as you think of your favorite saint, no matter if it is Saint Francis, or St, Maximilian Kolbe, or Mother Teresa, remember too that this feast day is made for you.  After all, you are a Saint In Training! 

PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS TODAY

Today, please say this prayer devoutly at least once.  Jesus appeared to St. Gertrude the Great and said that every time a person recites this prayer devoutly one-thousand souls are released from purgatory.  Let's get together and empty Purgatory today! 

“Eternal Father,

I offer You the most precious blood

of thy Divine Son, Jesus,

in union with the Masses said

throughout the world today,

for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,

for sinners everywhere,

for sinners in the universal Church,

for those in my own home,

and in my family. Amen.”

Things Protestants Don't Understand About the Church - Praying to Statues and Praying For the Dead

Today, we have a two for one sale.  We will discuss both "praying to statues" and praying for the dead. 

My mother, her name was Violet, passed away many years ago.  I still carry her memory in my heart and I carry a picture of her when she was in the full bloom of her youth in my wallet.  I sometimes will look at that picture and think of all the times she showed her love to me.  I remember her feeding me ice chips when I had my tonsils out at age seven.  I remember how when I was having a problem in school and felt downtrodden and the least of the least, she told me to hold my head up high and be proud of who I am.  I remember during her last sickness, I sat beside her as she lay in the hospital bed, just holding her hand, not saying a word.  The warmth of our hands together sharing the love of a mother to a son and a son to a mother.  All of these memories come flooding back to me because of a little scrap of paper with an image of a person on it.  It is almost a miracle. I bet you thought this paragraph was going to address praying for the dead, but no, this paragraph deals directly with the use of statues in the Catholic Church.  A statue is no more or less than that picture of my mother.  As a Catholic, when I look at a statue, I know I am looking at a piece of carved wood, or molded plaster, or maybe even a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of my car. (You remember the old song, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, as long as I got my plastic Jesus, Sitting on the dashboard of my car.)  As a Catholic Christian, I know that the image has no power to save me because as the Psalms tell us; "They have ears but do not hear. They have mouths but do not talk." (Psalm 115)  
I look at the statue and it brings to mind the story of the saint that is represented.  (See my previous post regarding the communion of saints.) I then pray to the saint asking him or her to pray to Jesus for me just as I might ask you or my pastor or another friend to pray for me. Are there Catholics that actually pray TO statues? I would imagine that there are but these unfortunates are not stable and may be feeble minded. In their case, I am sure God takes that into consideration. A Catholic grounded in his or her faith does not pray to a statue but addresses all prayers to God, sometimes asking the help of a person already enjoying the Beatific Vision. 

It is a fact of life that someday we will inhale our last breath and when we exhale we will next breath the air of eternity.  Of course, I mean this figuratively because a soul does not need to breathe.  So when we die we Catholics believe that we will enter one of three places.  First, we may enter heaven, or purgatory or we may choose hell.  If after death we enter heaven or if we choose hell there is no need for prayer for us.  Heaven, of course, is our ultimate goal, the place that was created for us where we can continue our friendship with God in His august presence.  Hell, is the place we will go to if we have rejected the love of God, preferring our own way to His way and declaring us to be His enemy.  Enter the gates of hell and you are outside the presence of God for all eternity just as you wanted.  No amount of prayer will do you any good because you do not want it, you hate God, and as bad as the suffering is you prefer to be without God.  

The second place is where many of us will choose to go, that is to Purgatory.  Is purgatory in the Bible?  Not by name but it is there all the same. It is for these Poor Souls that we on earth pray for.  We pray for them because they are unable to help themselves.  They need the prayers of the faithful on earth to help them get out of Purgatory.  In 2 Maccabees we find that certain dead soldiers were found to be wearing an idol under their tunics.  The living among them turned to prayer to God and beseeched Him to forgive the sins of those who died.  

But where do we find any teaching about purgatory in the New Testament? As I said the word "Purgatory" is not found in scripture but the principle behind it is clearly mentioned by Paul.  But is a purgatory really necessary or is it an invention to make the Catholic clergy rich?  

You have a friend, his name is Mark.  You and Mark spent your whole life being friends until one day you found out that Mark had stolen your pencil in second grade.  It was a wonderful pencil with red lead on one side and blue on the other.  You loved that pencil.  Sixty years after the event you confront Mark about the pencil.  He confesses to you that he indeed did take the pencil from you when you were not looking.  He asks for your forgiveness and you tell him that you will never forgive him and you walk away.  A few years later Mark dies. You do not go to his funeral, you do not comfort his widow, as a matter of fact, you are happy that the sneak thief is out of your life forever.  Mark for his part, confessed his sinfulness and spent the rest of his life working for the Kingdom of God and following the counsels of Jesus in that he fed the hungry, visited the sick and imprisoned, clothed the naked, and he prayed for you every day.  When he died he was turned completely to God and was welcomed into heaven by the angels and saints and was ushered into the very presence of Jesus.  

You too lived a worthy life, you did all that Jesus commanded just as your friend Mark did but on the day you died, you carried the resentment of the stolen pencil to the grave with you. You began to approach heaven and as you got closer you realized that you were not ready to enter heaven.  What would happen if you met Mark in heaven while you were carrying the resentment about the pencil with you?  You could not greet him as a fellow saint because you had this burden on your soul.  As you got closer and closer to God in heaven, the pain became too great and you knew that the sin on your soul would have to be removed before you could get close to God.  You turned yourself around and chose to enter Purgatory.  There you would remain until the imperfection was cleared away. 

The above is a nice story but isn't that all that it is, a story?   To be honest with you, it is not a story, it is a parable based on Biblical truth.  First of all, in Revelation we read that we must be perfectly holy to enter heaven because; "Nothing unclean shall enter it."  That is found in Revelations Chapter 21 Verse 27.  Saint Paul, himself, tells us in 1st Corinthians that "Each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.  If any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through fire."

So, now for the reason we Catholics pray for the dead.  Those in Purgatory cannot help themselves.  The time to repent and to make up for the evil we do is while we are on earth.  Once we die, our fate is set in stone.  Those in purgatory depend on our prayers and sacrifices for them so that they can be raised from their state to the state of sainthood in heaven. 

But then, what is the difference between Purgatory and hell if they are both places of suffering?  The difference is huge.  Those in purgatory, although suffering, are happier than anyone on earth can imagine because they know that they will see God.  The pain of purgatory is the pain of the soul longing for God and not being able to see Him.  The pain is temporary and the Poor Souls know this.   The souls in hell, on the other hand, suffer torments that are unimaginable and their separation from God is permanent and they are without any hope.

This subject is a complicated one and I would direct anyone who has questions to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is available online for free and the specific cure for ignorance about the Catholic Church.  It is well written and Biblically based. 

How To Become A Canonized Saint

Sainthood - is it for me?

What is it that God wants of us? What is closest to His heart? What dream does he dream for us?  

God's fondest wish for us is to be with Him in heaven forever. He wants to share the perfect happiness that we mortals cannot even begin to understand how very wonderful it is!  That is why we are on earth.  Okay, then the question becomes if God is so gungho for us to be with Him in heaven then why did He place us on earth?  Well, go back to the very beginning. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Paradise, which I've always thought of as kind of an earthly type of heaven where everything was perfect. He put us there because he wanted to see if we would want to be in relationship with Him by our own free will.  Well, we know how that turned out.  Using our free will we turned away from Him and he immediately planned and began to implement our return to relationship through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. 

The people who have died in God's friendship and live with Him in heaven are called saints. The media latches on to the Church's formal recognition of certain people as having lived heroic Christian lives through canonization. The last one you may have heard of was the canonization of Father Junipero Serra, the missionary that helped bring Christianity to California. There are literally thousands of canonized saints that have been enrolled by the Church.  But does that mean that only those that the Church recognizes and has canonized are in heaven? Certainly not!  Besides the thousands of canonized saints there are untold millions of people, men and women just like you and I that have lived holy lives and are with God in heaven. The point here is that there is nothing more glorious than a soul entering heaven to be with God forever and nothing so sad and forlorn as a soul that through a life wasted on rejecting the Father's friendship ending up in a place without God.   I believe that we will be welcomed with great joy into heaven by Jesus and the Saints, all of them!  

Okay, let's say you are the type of person that only wants the best/ None of this anonymous sainthood for you. You want the full treatment and full recognition of the Church that you lived a life worthy of being emulated by the faithful.  How do you go about it? Well, I could spend some time discussing canon law but I won't. Here in layman's terms is a rather whimsical view of how get your life recognized as being saintly.

The Canonization Process – Very Simplified

So, you want to be a canonized saint.  Make 

sure you put this document with your will so that your heirs will know what to do.  The most important thing is that you be dead, so take care of that first.  Then make sure your heirs do the following:

1.       WAIT FIVE YEARS.  Candidate has to have been dead for five years.  This is to allow time for “cooler heads to prevail. It allows more objectivity. 

.       GET YOUR FRIENDS TOGETHER. The cause is started in the diocese where the candidate lived.  A promoter group, for example the parish, religious congregation, or pious association asks the bishop to open an investigation. The bishop asks Rome who sends a letter of “nulla osta” or “no impediment” and a tribunal is formed.

.      PRESENT THE FACTS and WRITE ‘EM UP and GET ‘EM TO ROME. The tribunal calls witnesses to recount the facts of the candidates life and how the candidate exercised Christian virtue especially; prudence, justice, temperance, faith, hope and charity. Documents are gathered and sent to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.  If the Candidate has made it this far, he (she) is entitled to the title “Servant of God.”

       WIN THE ELECTION. The documents and evidence are examined in Rome by nine theologians. If the Servant of God gets at least five votes the congregation presents the results of the Pope who will give his approval (or not) and authorizes a public decree which is publicly read and distributed.

.       PERFORM A MIRACLE. For beatification a miracle, verified after his (her) death is necessary. This miracle is investigated and if it is shown to be a miracle, a decree is read. The candidate is now called “Blessed.”

   PERFORM AN ENCORE. For final canonization another miracle occurring AFTER his beatification.  It is investigated as was the virtues and first miracle were and the matter is sent to the Pope who can make the final decision if the Blessed candidate is to acquire the title of Saint.  

There you have it!  It is a simple and straight forward process and you will really get to  know who your friends are if they stick it out.  Oh, I almost forgot - you should make some provision to pay the expenses involved in the process.  Here is what you should allow for:  

For decoration of the Basilica, lights, architectural designs, labor, and superintendence — 

Lire 152,840.58 

Procession, Pontifical Mass, preparation of altars in Basilica —  Lire 8,114.58 

Cost of gifts presented to Holy Father —  

Lire 1,438.87 

Hangings, Sacred Vestments, etc.

Lire 12,990.60 

Recompense for services and money loaned — 

Lire  3,525.07 

To the Vatican Chapter as perquisites for decorations and candles Lire 18,000.00 

Propine and Competenza    (unforeseen expenses)                            Lire 16,936.00      

Other incidental and unforeseen expenses —  

Lire   4,468,40 

Total Lire 221,601.05

Total US 1913 Dollars        $42,816.87

Lawyers and Documents     $20,000.00

Total US$                            $62,816.87                                                                                               

Grand total in 1913 US$    $62,816.87   which is approximately 

$209,601.05 in 2010 dollars.

Let's remember, too, that prices may have gone up since 1913!

This whole process can and in some cases has literally taken hundreds of years.  The church is very careful who she canonizes as a saint.  There are a lot of rules that are not mentioned here, for example a "devil's advocate is appointed who brings out the less savory incidents of your life, if he can find any. 

This may be irreverent but I think of canonized saints as those that made the All Star team, and are people we should imitate and respect.  Remember too, that for every canonized saint there are thousands of millions of saints that for whatever reason did not go through this process.  The total number of saints in heaven is known to God alone.  I hope you will be the first human to count them all when you get to heaven.

Your Big Chance - Convert The Catholic to Your Denomination - All apologists welcome!

Okay, here is your big chance - I am inviting Protestants the world over to make their case why this Cradle Catholic should forsake the Church and join your denomination.   Here are the rules: 
Rule One - there are no rules.  

I do ask you to be kind and professional.  Please refrain from using profanity of any sort. Profanity will be cause for your ejection from the game.  If you use a Bible verse, please be good enough to give me chapter and verse.  I will give thoughtful, prayerful, consideration to what you tell me and my responses will be made in the same way. 

My Protestant brothers and sisters, this is your big chance to win a Catholic soul for your denomination - let the games begin. 

MERCY

Mercy and Justice has a name and that name is Jesus.  Jesus is first of all merciful.  He  calls all of us to come to Him and accept His mercy.  He loves each one of us so much that He became one of us and accepted even death, death on the Cross. 

At some time in the future Jesus will return to put all things under His feet so that every person who ever lived will acknowledge Him as Lord.  He will come and bring justice with Him.  What we have done, the sins we have committed were all committed against God. If we do not accept the mercy of Jesus when it is being offered today, on that latter day we will have to accept His justice. 

The fountain of the Lord's mercy is unstoppable and unquenchable. You only have to ask for it and He will give it to you no matter how sinful, no matter how far away you have wandered from Him. 

Seek the Lord while He may be found...the Bible tells us.  There are those among us that say we are in the end times, that the return of Jesus is imminent. I say perhaps, but I know that my time grows closer and closer every day.  I seek the Mercy of Jesus for all of the many sins I have committed, knowingly and with little regard for Him or His Father.   I have been a bad adopted son, an ambassador that has committed treason against His kingdom but I have also, through the Church, confessed my treachery and I have received mercy from the Merciful one.  My desire today is to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. 

My friend, the time is now for you to seek mercy.  Offer your heart and soul to the One who loves you. Accept the mercy from the King of Mercy.  He is there today, this moment, waiting for your return.  It matters not what sins you have committed or how long you have been away.  Jesus is in love with you and calls your name softly and hopes with his Sacred Heart that you accept His love and His mercy.  

If you are a Catholic, examine your conscience, acknowledge your guilt privately to Jesus and tell Him how sorry you are and that you will with His help try to avoid sinning again.  Made a good act of contrition (see below) and the next time the opportunity presents itself take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to receive the forgiveness your soul desires. 

Act of Contrition

Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, 

and I detest all of my sins because of thy just punishments. 

But most of all because they offend thee my God 

who art worthy of all my love. 

I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace 

to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.  

2nd Week of Advent / Getting Ready

Today, Sunday, December 9, 2012 is the 2nd Sunday of Advent which is the period that the Church asks us to prepare for the upcoming Christmas Feast Day.  We human beings are always getting ready for something.  For example we are getting ready for work, for school, for the big meeting, for the big test and so on.  The Church asks us to ready ourselves to greet Jesus when He comes.  Some of us prepare for the Christmas feast by shopping, sometimes to excess as we find out in January.  We prepare by decorating our homes with light up Santa Claus figures, reindeer figures, blinking lights and so forth. All of this is good and proper and fun, and we should do these things, except we might want to watch what we spend for gifts.  We should do more too.

The season of Advent should impel us to ready our hearts to receive the King of Glory.  Along with all of the other decorating, we should take time to decorate our souls.  We should spend a little bit of time each day in prayer, we should spend a few minutes reading the Bible, we should think about our lives and how we can improve them.  Then we should decorate our souls with ornaments of charity, garlands of prayer, and the bright lights of contemplation.  If we do this Christmas will arrive and we will feel the joy the shepherds felt that glorious night when God came to Earth to experience the very life he gave us.

Saturday was the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, who is the Patron Saint of America.  It celebrates the special favor that was granted to Mary by God.  God, who is not limited by time or space, applied the grace of the Cross of Jesus to Mary and preserved her from the very moment of her conception from original sin.  God rescued us when we fell into the pit of original sin because of the disobedience of Adam and drew us out.  For Mary, she saved her by not allowing her to fall into the pit in the first place.  This was His will and His pleasure and a special gift to the young girl who would become the Mother of God.

May God be with you this week and may he be seen through the kindness you grant to those around you.

The Beatitudes

I found this video on You Tube and for many of us the message that is delivered in this video will seem too simplistic. Quite honestly, it is too simple for theologians, Bible scholars, clergy, and any other person who spends time in apologetics.  I myself have written a paper on the Beatitudes and I have to confess that this video puts all my learned thought to shame.

I bid you dear reader to watch, no scratch that, take in this video. The truth it exposes will send shivers up your spine and perhaps give you some food for thought.

Leave a comment if you like. .  God bless! 

I am the vine and you are the branches

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3  You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. 10  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12    "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13  Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14  You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,  for the servant  does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to love one another.

In Matthew 15: 1-17 we read the story of the vine and the branches. The obvious message of course is that we need to be connected to Jesus to bear fruit. But it also tells us what will happen if we are not connected. We will wither and be thrown into the fire and burned.  It also tells us that we will bear much fruit when we are connected to Jesus.  But what does it mean to wither?


As Christians we are called to a life of service to those around us.  This life of service is called ministry.  All to often ministers of the Gospel, both ordained and lay people start off to win the world for Christ.  But they do not actually connect with Christ, they try to pull the whole load themselves.  They tire, they get disappointed, they lose their taste for their work in Christ's vineyard and either do the minimum amount that they possibly could do, and do it without any passion or enthusiasm or even worse they leave the ministry all together.  This is what it means to whither.  We must connect with Jesus and then our ministry will eventually bring about what God intends it to bring.  There will still be long hours of labor and even doubts about what we are doing.  But we always must remember that if we are connected with Christ our ministry will flower and we have to remember that while we sow the seeds, God is in charge of making them grow and he will be in charge of the harvest.  
If we are faithful at the end of our life when we stand before our Lord we will hear those most precious words; 

"Well done good and faithful servant."

The Saints and the Mary

We are Brothers, Sisters and we have a Mother in Faith.

Today I am going to discuss Mary and the Saints. To understand Mary and our view of her place in salvation history, you need to first have a handle on the saints, what a saint is, who is a saint and how many of them there are.  You need to have to understand a little bit of how we see ourselves as a Church family.   So the title of this session really should be The Saints and Mary. 

There is no such thing as a former Catholic only Catholics that have run away from home.  Once you are a Catholic you are one forever.  The Church sees herself and the Bible shows her as a continuing family of believers consisting of the Church on earth, the Church militant, the Church in heaven, the Church Triumphant and the Church in Purgatory, the Church Penitent.  So your membership in the Church does not end when your earthly life ends, it continues afterwards.  This is completely consistent with the church’s view of eternity which we can see in 1^st Corinthians Chapter 15 verses 51-55

Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. 54*  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55* “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"

 So for Christians, the grave is not an end, it is but a portal, a door into the state of being that God has intended for his friends from the beginning.  We leave one existence and immediately take up another. If we leave this existence in God’s friendship, if our heart is totally turned to Him and He is our sole desire, we will immediately enter heaven to be with Him forever.  If we left earth without turning our hearts completely to God and we have minor sins on our conscience we will choose to go to Purgatory, a place where we can resolve these issues and turn our soul and heart over to God.  I believe that we ourselves  will make this choice because our soul, our real true selves, know the absolute goodness of God and knows that it could not bear to be in His presence before it is ready.  Finally, at the last moment, if we hated God, did not repent, did not use the graces He sent us and continued to sin, He will grant our request to be outside of his presence forever and we will choose to go to the place we call hell, a Catholic in hell has to be the saddest thing in the universe because of all the advantages he or she threw away.   Of the last group, we have to say that there is no hope.  Every person in hell has committed only one sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, and a complete rejection of God and there is no hope for these souls.  The souls in purgatory are suffering, and this too is consistent with the Bible in 1st Corinthians 3: 12-15.

12 If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work. 14 If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage.15 but if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved,  but only as through fire. 

The souls in Purgatory, therefore, are absolutely assured of their place in Heaven. So, we now see the three distinct families if you will of the Church.  The Church consists of those of us on earth, those in purgatory and those in heaven.  Our membership in the Catholic Church stretches through time and our membership lasts forever.  The Church therefore consists of a large family of members from the beginning of time of those who are already in heaven and those who on earth and those in purgatory that will sometime in the future will be in heaven.  It is this extended family that we call the Communion of Saints and you as a Catholic Christian are part of that family.  One of the things we do routinely here on earth almost without grasping the significance of it is to pray for one another. For example, Dave asks Gertrude to pray that the medical tests come back negative. Janice asks Father John to pray for her for a private reason, Jack asks Arden to pray for him for such and such.  These are normal things and we do them without thinking anything about them.  Our Protestant brothers and sisters do the same. They pray for one another and this is considered a good thing, and it is because the Bible tells us to pray for one another.  In 1^st Thessalonians Chapter 5 verse 25 Paul asks his readers to pray for him, and there are a lot of other examples where we are told to pray for one another. But is it possible to ask someone who has died to pray for us?  Because the church is a family not ultimately bound by time or space and our family members are in heaven, we can ask them to pray for us.  But doesn’t the Bible say that there is one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus?  Yes it does say that there is one mediator between God and Man. 1^st Timothy Chapter 2: 5-6 is used to put Catholics in their place.

 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to which was borne at the proper time.

 Who can disagree with this Biblical principle? I certainly cannot disagree with it.  

Christ IS our mediator and that is a fact.  

If we take the first Timothy verse as written then we create a grave issue that extends not only in the Catholic Church but in the denominations as well.  When Dave asked Gertrude to pray for him, he was asking Gertrude to mediate between him and God.  When we ask for someone to pray for us or we pray for another is the role we are taking on the role of Jesus?   Do our prayers constitute a sinful act? To pray for another is not a sinful act of course.  Our praying for them is not in any way sinful even though we are acting as a mediator.  Our prayers for them are directed to God.  We are actually praying to God for them, because remember Jesus is God and God is Jesus and the love of God the Father for God the Son is God the Holy Spirit so no matter which person of the Trinity we direct our prayer to, it is heard by all three in their unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Is the principle of the Trinity hard to understand?  The concept of the Trinity can never be fully explained or understood, at least here on earthly level.  Will we fully understand the Trinity in heaven? I seriously doubt it but who knows, maybe that is part of the marvel of heaven, the special gift of understanding the ultimate goodness and unity of God in the Trinity.  The point here is that when we pray for another it is not a sin.  When we direct our prayer to a saint in heaven, it is the same as asking someone on earth to pray for us, there is no sin, and it does not diminish the role of Christ as the one mediator in the slightest. Our family, the Communion of Saints, reaches through time and space. The problem as I see it with Protestant understanding of prayer to the saints is that they do not understand the concept of our Church family. They limit themselves to what they can see, hear, taste and touch.  This becomes evident when a Protestant asks with a smug smile on their face asks how a popular saint, let’s say for example Saint Anthony, is deluged with prayers in a never ending stream from thousands or even millions of believers in a hundred or two hundred different tongues all at the same time, how could he pay attention and take care of all of these requests?  Wow, good question indeed, quite well framed and certainly deserving of an answer.  The answer is that the saints in heaven have received gifts well beyond our understanding in the glory of heaven that they enjoy.  They, like God in whose presence they dwell, are not limited by the constraints of time or space and while we can hardly take care of one thing at a time here on earth, they have the abilities of a glorified soul, which we cannot really understand now, but we will when we too claim our reward.  How many saints are in heaven and is there a complete list available?  The answer is yes, kind of and no.  There are many books that offer lists of saints.  One of the most exhaustive is “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” which in its last edition published in 1956 listed 2,565 named saints. Another edition is being prepared and I am sure that the number of names will exceed three thousand. But this number is absolutely meaningless.  Everyone in heaven is a saint. You, yourself are a saint, if a provisional one, because you believe and are a member of the Church. In your present condition you still can cast off the title by rejecting God, but you are in fact a saint right here and right now even if you are a work in progress. So in heaven, there are thousands of millions of saints, your brothers and sisters in the Household of God, the vast majority of them unknown and uncelebrated but just as happy in the presence of God as those officially recognized in the Canon of the Church.  I am not going to touch on how a saint is canonized, I will be passing out a handout after the talk that will give you all of the technical details of how the Church decides who to elevate to sainthood.  But remember, for every saint in the canon of the Church, there are thousands upon thousands of ordinary people who also practiced extraordinary virtue on earth that we don’t know.  For the majority of the members of the Household of God, our Feast day is November 1, the Feast of All Saints.   With a basic understanding of what and who a saint is, let us now speak to about one of the greatest stumbling blocks our Protestant brothers and sisters have with the Catholic Church and that is how we honor the Mother of All Saints, the Mother of God, Mary Most Holy.

Mary, the Mother of God, the New Eve

Mary was the first Christian and is certainly the greatest Saint.

What do we know about Mary? What makes her so special to the Christian Community? What is the Immaculate Conception? Is Mary worthy of and do Catholics worship Mary? What is the Assumption of Mary?  Did Mary really appear in Guadalupe, Fatima, in Lourdes – do we have to believe in these appearances?  Can we pray to Mary?

All of these questions are worthy of attention and in the time we have left  we will take each one in turn and hopefully by the time we are done, Mary will be more of a friend and less of a mystery to you.  I can only scratch the surface on these subjects and would urge you to take advantage of the written and online resources are available to the searcher of truth.

What Makes Mary So Special To the Christian Community?

 Mary is the Mother of God.  That title does not make sense at all does it?  How can Mary, a creature, be the mother of the God who made her?  Actually if we add the word earthly into the mix, it becomes a bit less confusing.  The point is Mary is the mother of Jesus, who is God.  In Genesis we are promised a redeemer to come from not Adam the man but Eve the woman as we see in Genesis 3:15.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head,   while you strike at his heel."

So when the time was right, Mary becomes the new Eve, chosen by God to be the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God.

The Immaculate Conception

The Origin of Mary

Mary was born in the furnace of human passion in the normal way. Her mother was Anne and her father was Joachim. It is said by some scholars that Mary was conceived while her parents were older, “late in life.”  Joachim was of the royal family of David and it is thought that Anne was of the priestly family of Aaron. So Mary comes from both a priestly and a royal family. Her offspring would share this and therefore Jesus sprang from both a royal and priestly family.  Mary lived her life in Nazareth and as was the custom of the time, her eventual marriage was arranged by her family to a man named Joseph.

Betrothal in this time conveyed all the rights of marriage on the couple.  Betrothal generally lasted about a year and during that time the husband would prepare a home for the bride.  Even though the couple had rights, the custom of the time was not to use them but to wait for marriage.  Mary one day was visited by the Angel Gabriel who brought her word from God. She was to be the mother of the messiah, the one the Jewish world had been waiting so long for. She said yes to the angel, “Let it be done unto me according to thy word.”  Thus she became pregnant and right after this she went to visit Elizabeth and stayed with her for three months. When she returned home she was three months pregnant. This was a bit of a problem for her because she did not have relations with Joseph; she went away for three months and came back three months pregnant. Joseph could have denounced her to the authorities and then the only recourse for the authorities would be a quick trial and a sentence of death to the adulterer by stoning.  Joseph had decided to “put her away quietly.”  He would have paid to send her somewhere to have her child and he would be done with her.  But, Joseph heard from God in a dream what had happened. He heard and he believed and he took her into his house. Some time passed and the emperor decided his treasure was looking a bit thin, so he ordered a census of all the people, to check the tax rolls and to make sure every penny in taxes would make it to his treasury.  So since Joseph was an ancestor of David, they traveled to Bethlehem, a name which means House of Bread to register. Mary had her child there and they eventually returned to Nazareth.  King Herod a thoroughly evil man decided that he did not want the competition and dispatched murderers to the region to kill the babies. Joseph was warned in a dream and he immediately fled with the Jesus and Mary into Egypt.  Once Herod died, they came back and Jesus grew to manhood and Joseph died. The rest of the story is in the Bible and I suggest you take time to read it.  I want to go back in time now to the birth of Mary, the Mother of God. Mary’s birth brings us to the first bone of contention that Protestants have with Catholics and our reverence for her.  Mary was born without the taint of original sin. This was done by God as a favor to her at the moment of her natural conception in anticipation of the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus.  Remember, God does not live in, nor is he limited by the dimensions of time and space. God is All in All.   Scriptural evidence can be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary when she was asked to be the Mother of God: “Hail Mary, Full of Grace…” was the greeting the angel used.    How could she be full of grace, as Christ had not yet suffered, died and rose?  Again, nothing in Scripture is there without purpose. The angel called her full of grace simply because she was full of grace. He was not delivering the grace to her. She had within her God’s sanctifying grace from the very start of her existence when her father’s sperm met her mother’s egg and she began life.  (What a testimony as to when life begins, God would not have bestowed this favor on a non living soul.) This favor of God is called the Immaculate Conception.  The angel was not delivering the gift of grace to Mary because she had had the gift since her conception in the womb. 

But what about Romans 3:23

“…all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God… “

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says (emphasis added):

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

The "splendor of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son". The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love".  The soul of Mary from the very instant of her creation was preserved from original sin. She therefore was in a state of grace and although she had free will, her will was turned toward God at all times.  Her “yes” to the angel could just as easily been a “no.”  Mary occupies a most special place in the history of salvation.  She was the one who said “yes” to nullify the “no” of Adam and Eve.  She was preserved from original sin and the effects of it. 

So, what Protestant thought about Mary is that she was a sinner. Their thought processes places limits on what God can and cannot do. The Catholic position makes so much more sense and follows the Biblical pattern precisely.   The early reformers did not have a problem with the Immaculate Conception; Luther himself believed in it and had a reverence for Mary himself.  But Catholics are accused of worshiping Mary. Catholics do NOT worship Mary. We simply have the reverence for the Mother of Christ.   But is this reverence for Mary a recent invention?  Actually the first person known to have reverence for Mary was a man named Jesus who in accordance with the Commandments of God honored his Mother and Father.  Catholics therefore are simply continuing the tradition begun by Christ.  We honor Mary as our spiritual mother and the mother of the Church.  That Christ loved his mother can be seen in scripture. At the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus was not quite ready to begin His public ministry. Yet he started it at her request by changing water into the finest wine.  Mary ALWAYS points to Jesus and never to herself. In the Cana example she says some of the wisest words ever recorded in Scripture (John 2:5)

His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."

The Virgin Birth is another feature of Mary. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and the child she bore was very special indeed. Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus as she was before. Mary had no relations with Joseph or any other man.  In the scriptures where the “brothers of Jesus” are mentioned these people are not brothers in the sense that they were sons of Mary and Joseph.  The word brother in Aramaic could mean blood brother but it was also used for cousins and other male relatives.  We can look to Scripture for other examples:

In Genesis 14:13 Lot is called Abrahams brother even though he was the son of Haran, Abraham’s brother. He would actually be Abraham’s nephew.  Jacob was called the brother of Laban in Genesis 29:15.  The reason for this is that there is no real word in Aramaic for the word cousin except for a very clumsy word which translated would read “son of my uncle.”  So the word brother would be substituted.

But besides these word games there is strong New Testament Scriptural evidence available to us as well that Mary had no children other then Jesus. Remember that in the time of Christ there were no social service programs or social security.  A woman alone and on her own with no family was in desperate straits indeed.  When the end was near Jesus made provision for his mother from the Cross.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." 27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

If Mary had any children to take care of her after he was gone, Jesus would not have made the effort to place her in the care of the Apostle John. There would have been no point to it. It required supreme effort to speak from the cross and Jesus was near the end of his all too human energy.  So he took the time to place his mother into the care of his trusted friend. But what Jesus is saying from the Cross is much more than just a request for John to take care of His mother.  Jesus was also giving His mother to us as well. Remember that we are the adopted children of God, members of His household.  This makes Mary our mother too.  She is the Queen of All Saints and premier member or the Communion of Saints so it is proper and just that we ask her to pray to Jesus for us.  Her intersession takes nothing away from the role of Christ as mediator.

 What Christ did from the Cross was to continue to honor His mother by making sure that she was going to be taken care of.  We are called to follow Christ and so we are called to continue what he started, we are to honor His mother for again in a very real way she is our mother too.  

Mary was declared the Immaculate Conception in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. This leads some Protestants to believe that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was of recent origin.  However, it was the belief of the early church from the most ancient of times that Mary was conceived without original sin.  The Council only formalized what was already believed by the Church and her faithful sons and daughters.

The Assumption of Mary into heaven

The assumption of Mary is a promise of things to come.

As a result of her Immaculate Conception, Mary received another benefit that all of the faithful will eventually receive.  After her earthly life was over she was assumed body and soul into heaven.  It is important to remember that unlike Christ, she did not rise into heaven, but rather was brought to heaven through the power of God.  This mystery is not found in the Bible. But there is very strong circumstantial evidence for it nonetheless. 

In the early Church much reverence was given to the deceased among the faithful.  Churches revered the bones of martyrs for example and preserved them as relics for the benefit of the faithful. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was said in the catacombs where the martyrs were buried. You might argue mass was held there as a matter of self preservation as the Roman soldiers were not allowed to molest people visiting the underground burial sites. This rule applied not only to the Christians, but to other citizens of Rome as well. For example the followers of Bacchus, a religion dedicated to debauchery met in the underground caves. But even in times where Christians were left alone Mass was celebrated in the presence of the bones of the martyrs.    If the body of an “ordinary martyr” was honored by the Church, how much more would have the body of Mary been honored?  The fact no one ever claimed that they had the body of Mary or her tomb is quite telling.  As the mother of Jesus, her tomb would have been a place that would have been preserved forever for the faithful because of her position in salvation history.  The place where her bones would be interred does not exist because she was assumed into heaven.   This is only fitting and right because since she was conceived without original sin she would not suffer corruption of the body which is a consequence of sin. Do you find this an odd belief?  Well, you have to understand that Mary has received what we will receive. Her assumption into heaven anticipates what will happen to us.  At the end of time we will rise from the dead and be assumed body and soul into heaven.  It only makes sense that the first believer in Christ, the first tabernacle that held the precious body, blood soul and divinity of Christ would receive this honor as all of us will someday. 

Appearances of Mary

Has Mary appeared in various places at various times?

It is said that Mary has appeared on earth at various times and at various places. Why would she do that? Did she actually appear? What should I believe?  These are valid questions and worthy of a thoughtful response.  The Church through the local bishop investigates so called appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Far more appearances are not approved then are approved.  There are some very famous, approved appearances.

1830- Guadalupe Mexico, Mary appeared to Juan Diego – she appeared four times to him and her image was placed into his mantle. Scientists were given an opportunity to look at the mantle and microscopic examination of the eyes of the virgin reveal an image of Juan Diego in them.

1858-Lourdes France, Mary appeared to young Bernadette Soubirous under the title of the Immaculate Conception. She called for prayer and the conversion of sinners.

1917- Fatima, Portugal, Mary appeared to three children telling them that we should pray the rosary for the conversion of sinners and that Russia should be dedicated to her immaculate heart.

There are a lot more that have been approved.  Of late, starting 1981 Mary is said to be appearing at a small town in Yugoslavia called Medjugorje, where it is said she gives a message on the 25^th of every month.  She says that this will be the last time she appears on Earth and that she brings important messages. This appearance has not been approved by the Church yet, but the messages she brings do ring true, and point to Jesus, for example the message for September 25, 2009;

 “Dear children, with joy, persistently work on your conversion. Offer all your joys and sorrows to my Immaculate Heart that I may lead you all to my most beloved Son, so that you may find joy in His Heart. I am with you to instruct you and to lead you towards eternity. Thank you for having responded to my call."

I believe that Mary appears to her children on earth. I believe that she comes at times where she sees we need help to find our way to Jesus. That being said, the appearances of Mary, both approved by the church and not approved, fall under the category of private revelation. The approved appearances do not have a place in the depository of faith, so you are free to believe or disbelieve even the approved appearances. They are not matters of faith, they are private revelations. 

We have to be very careful that we are not led away from the truth of the Church. A true appearance of Mary will not point to herself, but rather to her Son, Jesus.  When dealing with Mary you will have no problem keeping your eyes on Jesus. If the image of Jesus begins to fade, then you are dealing with an aberration and you should backtrack and see where you went wrong. If this happens you should seek the guidance of a priest or deacon, trained professionals who will be able to help you see where you went wrong and get you back on to the right path. It is a case of trusting the Church and humbling yourself.

Do Catholics Worship Mary

Mary is our mother and Jesus is our Brother.

Catholics do not worship Mary. As the Mother of Jesus she occupies a very special place in every Catholic’s heart.  As the Mother of Jesus, she has a special place in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We ask her to intercede for us with Jesus her Son.  But Catholics do not worship Mary. Catholics realize that she is but a created creature just like us.  She was redeemed in a special way; she was spared the stain of original sin by anticipation of the sacrificial death of Jesus her Son on the Cross.  She was there at the foot of the Cross and watched her only Son die for the sins of all. She is worthy of our deepest love, our deepest respect but never our worship. We can pray to her as we can pray to any saint.  Does she have more “power” if we can use this word?  Her Son was moved to action at Cana when many scholars say that he wasn’t really ready to begin his public ministry.  I think that says it all.  If you let Mary take you by the hand, she will inevitably place your hand into the hand of Jesus.  She, like a good mother, wants what is best for you.  She does not want worship from you.

The Catholic Church honors Mary because Christ does. We pray for her intersession because she is the First among the Saints in heaven. She was the first Christian and was during the nine months she carried Jesus a living tabernacle, a living Arc of the New Covenant.  She is worthy of honor as the Mother of God.  Praying to her (or any of the saints) in no way lessens the glory of God or Christ’s status as mediator between God and man for we ask for their help and they direct their prayers and ours to Jesus.  Those of us still on our pilgrimage on earth can call on Mary and the saints and be sure that our prayers are heard:

3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne.  (Rev 8:3)