David Ancell / Wednesday, March 30, 2022 / Comments(0)
We’ve passed Laetere Sunday with the priest wearing rose (not pink!) vestments, so maybe we are on a sort of home stretch. You might find that you are doing well at your chosen penance this time around. However, maybe you’ve slipped, maybe more than once, maybe way more than once . . .
The good news is that, unless the thing that you gave up was sinful in and of itself, it’s not a sin if you don’t follow your voluntary penance. Now, a complete refusal to do penance is a serious sin and another issue altogether, but simply indulging in a good or neutral thing that you gave up is not a reason to go to Confession. You took this penance on voluntarily, and you can modify it or even set it aside. In some cases, it could be the right thing to do. But for most of us, not so fast . . .
The fact that you are struggling with your penance may be a sign that you are trying to detach from something which you really need to detach from. Maybe you just need to be strengthened more against self-indulgence (I’m no one to judge you, trust me!). Either way, don’t be surprised that it’s a struggle for you. Please, don’t be discouraged! The struggle is worthwhile even if you aren’t following through perfectly. The important thing is to do what any good Christian must do many times in life – get up and try again! You are fighting the good fight.
So, you find out that you aren’t as strong as you thought you were. This is a great opportunity to grow in the virtue of humility. It’s also a time to remember that we must depend on God. Every day, even every hour if we must, is another opportunity to begin again. Trust in God’s love for you and try again!
Category: Catholic, Spirituality
David Ancell / Monday, March 07, 2022 / Comments(0)
I remember someone pointing to the tabernacle saying “what’s in that tabernacle is not the Eucharist. Eucharist is something that we do.” Of course, that statement is not true! I heard another statement years ago that was something to the effect of “when we all get together in love, that is Holy Communion.”
Funny it always seemed to me that our primary end was to worship God himself. I remember making some statements to that effect in some kind of parish meeting and being told by another participant that “God is in everybody.” At the time, I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond.
It’s true that God’s presence is in our brothers and sisters, but God is not something we manifest, much less something we conjure up, as a product of the community. There is actually a God who is distinct from us and who is our primary end, not a product of our gathering together as a community. In fact, God is really the prime mover and the initiator.
What does this have to do with the invalid Baptisms? Well, in my previous post, I mentioned how someone using the wrong formula for a Sacrament probably has some belief that is keeping them from using the correct one, which I mentioned in Part 1 would be easy to do. Using “We baptize . . .” instead of “I baptize . . .” stems from a similar problem as the above examples regarding the Eucharist.
When a priest is administering a Sacrament, he gives his heart and lips to Christ. It is Jesus Christ who actually baptizes. It is Jesus Christ who forgives sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is Jesus Christ whose body, blood, soul, and divinity we receive in the Eucharist. Jesus is Lord, and he’s the one with the power to give this grace. When a priest or deacon says “we” instead of “I” in attempting to baptize, he’s saying that the community is doing the Baptism rather than Christ. Such a Baptism would have no effect at all.
We live in a society that runs itself as though God does not exist. By making it seem that it’s really the community that acts, we run into serious danger of denying the actions of God himself. We would effectively run the Church as though God does not exist, which makes no sense. We can make it seem that our worship is really about us as a community and that some vague “kingdom” is being ushered in solely what we do together.
While we have an obligation to love our brothers and sisters, we owe the totality of our love to God alone. In John 15:16, Jesus, while giving his command to love others, mentions that it isn’t us who chose him but rather him who chose us. He is the one who first loved us. We did not gather around as a community around someone we thought was a swell guy. Rather, we were called together by the all powerful and ever living God himself, who lives and reigns forever.
Category: Catholic, Doctrine, Response