Category Archives: All Things Catholic

Saint Vincent of Lerins on The development of doctrine

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From the first instruction by Saint Vincent of Lerins, priest The development of doctrine via divineoffice.org

“Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.’

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

Love for the Loud at Mass | Catholic Lane

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……….In Mass, we’re at the foot of the cross. Lumen Gentium says: “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on, and, in the sacrament of the eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ is both expressed and brought about”.

So, all of us who participate in Mass are part of one Body of Christ, the Church, which includes loud children. We come together to partake of the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which is offered to us in an unbloody manner in the Eucharist. Therefore, crying babies can be heard as echoes of the crying women of Jerusalem who wept on the way to Calvary.

Furthermore, children have just as much right to be at Mass as we do. In fact, small children are the only sinless saints in that church!

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Finally, remember this – a church without crying babies is a church with no future

via Love for the Loud at Mass | Catholic Lane.

Pentecost in Our Day

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A friend just handed me this very appropriate prayer for our time, please join your prayer to mine:

Come, O Holy Spirit.
Come, and change the face of the earth.
Come quickly.
Come,in these last times.
Come, now that the great trial has arrived.
Come, and bring us Your Second Pentecost, so that our eyes
May see your greatest miracle, that of the New heavens and new earth.

Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com

A Blessing for New Life

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All Holy, Almighty, Jesus, Purest Heart,
Look upon the sweet beings, God’s good creations,
Nestled in the sanctity of human wombs.
Encircle the world through these little ones,
With Triune Love.

Bless Mother Eve with the “Fiat” grace of Mother Mary,
To bring forth a generation wed to Your Holy Will,
Peacemakers, pious through obedience,
Loving by Your Spirit,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

May these, as Children of the Light, recognize You,
From their coming forth into a new day,
Giving witness, and preparing Your Way,
As John (blessed in his mother’s womb).

Give dominion to these,
As You did the First Adam,
To reclaim and grace Your Good Earth.

Pope’s concern for Christians in Middle East emerges at family synod :: EWTN News

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“In an unexpected move, Pope Francis added to the schedule of the upcoming consistory for the causes of saints a discussion on the situation of Christians in the Middle East, the Holy See spokesman announced Tuesday.

The consistory is to be held at the Vatican on Oct. 20, the day after the conclusion of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, which began Oct. 5.”

http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=10901

Joann Nelander
lionessblog.com

http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=10901

Joann Nelanderlionessblog.com