“He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me” (Lk 10:16). The Apostles are ambassadors of Christ just as Christ is the ambassador of the Father. The bishops are successors of the Apostles. Christ commands that the teaching of the Apostles should be religiously accepted and kept as if it were His very own. Vatican II, in its document Presbyterorum ordinis, states that “The function of the bishop’s ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ.”
One key part of this mission is to continue to encourage Penance for the forgiveness of sins. The Church has always understood that Jesus Christ Himself conferred upon the Apostles authority to forgive sins. This power is exercised is the sacrament of Penance.
The sacrament of Penance is the most sublime expression of God’s love and mercy towards men. Christ waits for us and invites us to repentance. The Popes have always encouraged regular use of the sacrament of Penance. It is a means to grow in knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility. Through confession we root out our vices and maintain spiritual fervor. Let us implore the mercy of God on ourselves and upon all mankind.
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
Prayers at the Foot of the Altar
Showing posts with label infallible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infallible. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Easter Sunday
The Catholic Church has designated Sunday as the day especially consecrated to the Lord. It is meant to be a day of rest on which we are commanded to attend Holy Mass. “Dies Domini” means the Lord’s Day. Jesus Christ was crucified, but now we rejoice in His glorious victory of the resurrection! The resurrection is the central mystery of our faith. Saint Paul says “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1Cor 15:14). The Resurrection means that Jesus Christ has overcome death, sin, pain and the power of hell.
St. Pius X writes the following: “…just as Jesus Christ through His resurrection began a new immortal and heavenly life, so we must begin a new life according to the Spirit, once and for all renouncing sin and everything that leads to sin, loving God and everything that leads to God.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
St. Pius X writes the following: “…just as Jesus Christ through His resurrection began a new immortal and heavenly life, so we must begin a new life according to the Spirit, once and for all renouncing sin and everything that leads to sin, loving God and everything that leads to God.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Saint Paul reminds us that if we want to please God our Father, we must learn from His Son Jesus Christ. We must learn the details of His life. We must adopt his attitudes. We must contemplate His life. If we truly love Jesus Christ we will sincerely want to know all about His life and character so that we can become more like Him.
There is absolutely no quicker way to conform ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ than by meditating upon the mysteries of His life. We do this when we pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort writes that: “All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now Mary, being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His Holy Mother; that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus Christ.”
There are guidelines for a sound theology and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul VI laid down a number of guidelines that govern authentic Marian devotion. First he states that Marian piety must have a Trinitarian, Christological, pneumatological, and ecclesial aspect:
…It is extremely fitting that exercises of piety directed towards the Virgin Mary should clearly express the Trinitarian and Christological note that is intrinsic and essential to them.
(Trinitarian Aspect) Marian devotion, like all authentic Christian worship, keeps its focus on the Blessed Trinity. It sees Mary in relation to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and leads to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost…
(Christological Aspect) In the Virgin Mary, everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon Him. It was with a view to Christ that God the Father from all eternity chose her to be the all holy Mother and adorned her with gifts of the Spirit granted to no one else…In the expressions of devotion to the Virgin the Christological aspect should have particular prominence…
Pneumatological Aspect) Marian piety should give prominence to…the Person and work of the Holy Ghost with regard to Mary’s place in the mystery of redemption…
(Ecclesial Aspect) It…should also clearly show the place that Mary occupies in the Church, “the highest place and the closest to us after Christ.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
There is absolutely no quicker way to conform ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ than by meditating upon the mysteries of His life. We do this when we pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Louis Marie de Montfort writes that: “All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which the most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now Mary, being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His Holy Mother; that the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus Christ.”
There are guidelines for a sound theology and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul VI laid down a number of guidelines that govern authentic Marian devotion. First he states that Marian piety must have a Trinitarian, Christological, pneumatological, and ecclesial aspect:
…It is extremely fitting that exercises of piety directed towards the Virgin Mary should clearly express the Trinitarian and Christological note that is intrinsic and essential to them.
(Trinitarian Aspect) Marian devotion, like all authentic Christian worship, keeps its focus on the Blessed Trinity. It sees Mary in relation to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and leads to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost…
(Christological Aspect) In the Virgin Mary, everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon Him. It was with a view to Christ that God the Father from all eternity chose her to be the all holy Mother and adorned her with gifts of the Spirit granted to no one else…In the expressions of devotion to the Virgin the Christological aspect should have particular prominence…
Pneumatological Aspect) Marian piety should give prominence to…the Person and work of the Holy Ghost with regard to Mary’s place in the mystery of redemption…
(Ecclesial Aspect) It…should also clearly show the place that Mary occupies in the Church, “the highest place and the closest to us after Christ.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Infallible Teaching Authority of the Pope
In the first three chapters of Pastor Aeternus, the Council showed that Christ conferred the primacy of jurisdiction on Peter and his successors. Infallibility, in the proper sense, is a supernatural charism which antecedently preserves one from error. This is not to be confused with divine inspiration. The gift of infallibility requires that there be a cause which is an "a priori" way unfailingly preserving the person from error. With God it is omniscience. If human beings are ever infallible, it must be because of special divine assistance. When we say that the whole body of the Church is infallible in its profession of faith, we mean that, because of the guidance of the Holy Ghost which Christ has promised the entire body of the faithful cannot err in what they, with moral unanimity, firmly profess to be the Catholic faith.
The vast majority of Christians agree that the Scriptures are infallibly true with regard to the essential religious message they proclaim. Furthermore, most Christians agree that the Church as a whole, despite mistakes, is indefectible. Although the Church may fail in many ways, nevertheless, because of Christ's promise to be with her and to send the Holy Ghost to enlighten her, the Church universal will not fall away completely and irrevocably from the truth of the gospel.
Roman Catholics believe that the pope, as head of the Church, possesses that infallibility with which God has endowed the Church. The basic reason for saying this is that if the pope could err in his solemnly defined teachings he could lead the Church into error. If that were to happen, the Church would no longer be the "pillar of truth" (1 Tim 3.15) that the Scriptures proclaim to be, and the Holy Ghost would have failed in His promised task of leading the Church into all truth (Jn 16.13).
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
The vast majority of Christians agree that the Scriptures are infallibly true with regard to the essential religious message they proclaim. Furthermore, most Christians agree that the Church as a whole, despite mistakes, is indefectible. Although the Church may fail in many ways, nevertheless, because of Christ's promise to be with her and to send the Holy Ghost to enlighten her, the Church universal will not fall away completely and irrevocably from the truth of the gospel.
Roman Catholics believe that the pope, as head of the Church, possesses that infallibility with which God has endowed the Church. The basic reason for saying this is that if the pope could err in his solemnly defined teachings he could lead the Church into error. If that were to happen, the Church would no longer be the "pillar of truth" (1 Tim 3.15) that the Scriptures proclaim to be, and the Holy Ghost would have failed in His promised task of leading the Church into all truth (Jn 16.13).
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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