CCC 1370: In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.

Sometimes, I just flip through the CCC, just mindless and without purpose, but this morning, I found this.  I have heard it before, I am sure but....this morning it hit me hard.  What would I feel like if I was to have been standing there on the that Good Friday, knowing that Jesus was dying for me.  Me, Marc Lackey, a BIG sinner, ( both physically and spiritually), how would my faith be different?  Would all traces of heretical questions be out of my mind?  As humans, I think the smells, sights, and sounds help us form our beliefs, what did it, sounds like on the that Good Friday, smell like, or feel like. I know that are senses make us feel different about events.
I am going to have surgery today, and how I long to be at the foot of the cross beforehand. 

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE ONLINE
By Jennifer Lipman, October 19, 2010

 

The Dead Sea scrolls

"The Dead Sea scrolls will soon be available to anyone with an internet connection. Search engine Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority have revealed plans for an online archive of the scrolls, which number around 900. The images will appear in high definition, with a special camera costing more than £157,000 used to photograph the scrolls. The organizers hope that the website will be live by the beginning of 2011. Users will also be challenged by "the ultimate puzzle game"; a chance to join up the thousands of pieces of scroll into one virtual document. The scrolls, unearthed in caves near the Dead Sea by Bedouin shepherds some 2,000 years after being buried, are the oldest known Hebrew record of the Old Testament.
They have only been photographed in their entirety once before, although eight of them are on display in Jerusalem. In June, Cambridge University announced plans to digitize a collection of rare books including important ancient Jewish texts and Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts rescued from a synagogue in Cairo."

I am extremely excited about Google, being able to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls into more and more homes. I hope that is we let more people see the text and enjoy them. For an excellent book concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would suggest Father Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J., The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins. Although, Father Fitzmyer, seems quite dry, by reading his twelve studies on the Dead Sea Scrolls when you finish, you will be rewarded. †
By the way, look into the used and cheaper new books than Amazon's list price. Be frugal, and reward yourself.

Why did Mark, Paul, and the Johannine writers never touch upon the Virginal Conception of Jesus?


Matthew and Luke alone are the only canonical books which even touch upon it. (cf. Matt 1:18-25 and Luke 1:31-35).


Was Mary the source of Luke’s account of the infancy? What do traditions say concerning this?


Why did the Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission abandon an official statement concerning the “literally historical” birth narratives, in the late 1960’s? Would this statement been too much of a complicated and nuanced for the commission?


Just thoughts bouncing around.
But .....I "believe that "the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation" (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 11)."

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT
:Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work.

I am far from a superstitious individual, never did put much stock into superstitious activity.  When on Sunday, the 17th of October, 2010, I decided to try to cut a tree off of the fence as my wife had ask me to do, if it wasn't for this:

 CCC 2111
 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

I may start considering superstition.  Sunday morning started off great, no Mass to go to, as our Mass is celebrated on Saturday evening.  Started my day with prayer, reading the Magnificat, surfing the web, talking on Ham Radio.  Next, I decided to cut the tree off the fence; this is where things went wrong, bad wrong.

I tripped and fell into a tree, that was next to the tree I was cutting.  I used my head to break my fall, and break my fall I did.  I actually broke my face, orbital fractures above and below the left eye. 

Now do I think that the Lord, was punishing me somehow for working on his sabbath day--- absolutely not.   Surely, God has more things to worry about than me,  cutting a tree for my wife off her ATV trail.  I even went ahead to finish the job after the accident.  This has lead me to think about keeping the sabbath day holy.

   CCC 2185
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health.

Was this a family need that legitimately excused me from not obeying this commandment?  No, it could have waited. I was just doing work, the work was for my wife, Lord knows, she had told me about it many times before.  I don't blame her, I don't blame anyone, but myself.  Nor do I think God punished me.  My Guardian Angel was there, I am sure, if not the chainsaw would have gotten me worse than it did.

But what really happens when we break the third commandment?  Just as when we break any commandment or sin, we separate ourselves from God's love.   For me separation for God's love and graces is a place I never want to return to.

Now what do I do to correct this:

• Ask God to forgive me.
• Make a prompt and good confession next Sunday.
• Try to not do this again.
• Use this as a teaching moment for my son, as he is quick to teach me.
• Have surgery to fix my face.
• Try with all earnestly to not do this again. (I will use any excuse not to have to work.)

Sure there is mitigating circumstances here that makes my sin less, than what it is, but it is still a sin.  I know that God's mercy is so great, and I look forward to his mercy in the confessional, a true sacrament of healing.   I just wonder if the broken face is my penance, or will Father have more for me?†

I am struggling with one of the dogma's of the church....it is not that I don't believe it is just that I am seriously-- seriously struggling.  This is the dogma of Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus,

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.[Emphasis mine]. 

 When I read the CCC #89:

Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith. [Emphasis mine]. 

When I perform a examination of conscience, other than foul language ( I am working on this too),  this is what I come up with.

I love the Blessed Virgin Mary, she is "my life, my sweetest and my hope", I just really stumbling here.  I don't know.    I have read, read and read, from the Blessed Scotus,  Karl Rahner, Fr. Raymond E. Brown, Fr Fitzmyer, Richard Bulzacchelli, Scott Hahn, and the defining dogmatic document itself, Ineffabilis Deus ...the list goes on and on.

While struggling with this issue I came across this quote of Fr. Rahner, and we can disagree with Rahner on many many points, but I believe here he is dead on:

The only answer seems to be that, whenever I obey such a law, I must keep looking directly at You, In this way I can pay homage to You, directly and exclusively, and not to the thing that is required of me, not even to the thing as the reflected splendor of Your Being. Precisely because there is in the thing itself nothing to which I can give my heart without reserve, obedience can be the expression of my seeking  You alone in it.

Those whom know me, know I am very very ground in my catholic faith, just I don't know why I am even struggling with this.  Alas, I am.

Pope St. Gregory the Great, while not the first Servant of the Servants of God, he coined this term, which is still used by Popes today. What humility--to so apply put this title to himself.
I wonder what St. Gregory, would say concerning the upcoming changes of the Roman missal that he receives much credit for even to this day....
Gregorian chant, we owe thanks to St. Gregory the Great for this also, would he recognize the Gregorian chant for today?
Here is a nice picture of St. Gregory's altar. 

St. Gregory, counsul of God, I pray, that you please ask St Michael not sheath his sword, for we need his help now.  For we are battling forces, within our holy church, for which we need your help and the help of all the angels and saints.  Amen †

"For We are convinced that the Rosary, if devoutly used, is bound to benefit not only the individual but society at large."(emphasis mine)
His Holiness Pope Leo XIII issued this truth in his Encyclical Laetitiae Sanctae Commending Devotion to the Rosary (September 8, 1893), the Rosary Pope's words ring more true everyday. 
Hail Mary, full of grace! †