Monday 9 June 2008

He is who He is!

I was musing along Fr Tim's blog yesterday when I found his post on the Credo of the People of God. Never having read the document I thought I'd have a look - it's awesome! It talks about the faith and it's probably one of the most succinct documents from the Church on what we believe, and with an explanation to that. The part I enjoyed most was on God himself and the essence of God,

He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses; and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us: so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, "dwelling in light inaccessible," is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. on the Mass and the Sacrifice of Calvary:


But equally as good really with the explanation of the Mass.

We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence



Notice no mention of 'we gather at EUCHARIST' or 'It's just a MEAL', no it is the sacrifice of calvary 'rendered sacramentally present on our altars' not tables.

There is also some interesting stuff on the Kingdom, back in seminary I had to attend an ingatian spirituality course which might as well have been called a trad torture evening. Despite the failings of the course I did get to share views with a lot of protestants who attended. They seemed to have this idea that we build the kingdom and we can view the kingdom by looking at society. That never sat well with me as it seems to short circuit God in the whole process i.e. measuring our achievemements and not God's. I'm not a theologian, so correct me if I'm wrong.

You can read the full thing Here:

We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

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