Monday, October 19, 2015

Two Thoughts for the Synod

Just a couple of thoughts for the Synod Fathers that seem to be forgotten
monstranz_g
Austrian priest with the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar
Doctrine and pastoral practice are both expressions of the Faith, by changing pastoral practice one can change the faith but retain the outward expression of the doctrine. We can sing the Hymns of Corpus Christi without believing a word of them, many do. Who would suggest the daughters of Ss Louis and Marie-Zelie Guerin Martin believed the same on their first Communion day as the South American child who broke the sacred Host in half to give to his twice married father, the story according the Vatican press office had the Synod Fathers in tears.

We can recite the Creed for example, when we as Catholics say we 'believe in one, holy catholic and apostolic Church', we believe something different from Anglicans or Lutherans, doctrine might remains the same but faith depends on living out that doctrine in the Liturgy, our spiritual lives and our pastoral practice.

by the hand of Sarkis Bidzag 14th cent.

We are saved or justified according to Trent "by faith fruitful in good works".

We are given faith in Jesus Christ, the Son,
as a free gift of the Father
and by the action of the Holy Spirit this faith bears fruit in 'good works' so that we might live out the Gospel.
We are not saved by faith, a personal relationship, alone, nor by 'good works' going good, being nice but 'by grace fruitful in good works'. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved but by the name of Jesus.
Have some of the Synod Father's forgotten this basic tenet of Catholicism? Grace gives us the strength to resist and overcome sin. Grace gives us the strength to live holy lives as Jesus taught. If we cannot live according to the Gospel, do we really have faith? Faith calls us from death to life.

It is loss of this of doctrine Grace and its replacement by the heresy of 'Gradualism' that has damaged Catholic theology most seriously.

https://twitter.com/raylblake

19 comments:

Православный физик said...

Amen Father, thank you for your thoughts

jstone said...

The Teuton with the barbecue tongs is Pfarrer Helmut Part.

Paul Hellyer said...

The Austrian priest holding the Body of Christ is trying to change doctrine by perverting the liturgy. The use of tongs to hold a huge piece of consecrated bread (there you go I'm already falling in the trap) tongs to hold the body of Christ is not showing due honour to God.

fzk5220 said...

Those Synod fathers would have done well to listen to my grandmother’s words when we grandkids complained she would say “you have it too good.” For me Grace is synonymous with big H Humility and you don’t get it when “you have it too good.” One can almost say that the success and supremacy of the West from empire to empire was the beginning of its own decay and to its present crumbling. It is hard if not impossible for those who never held a shovel in their hands or those who never experienced total helplessness when faced with a danger or those who justified their purpose in life to be a “community organizer”, because they will not come to that split second awareness of total helplessness and recognition of one’s own weakness, which instinctively leads one to raise one’s hands “skyward” in a plea for help simply because there is no one else. It is the moment of big G Grace and big H Humility and all else follows from there. God’s Grace is where everything starts and ends. It is where the “buck stops.”

My Blog said...

Edward Pentin ‏@EdwardPentin 5h hours ago

Some deeply uneasy about Pope's Sat speech. Vatican official fears "what is being undone is not just sixty years of magisterium but 1000."

Reporting from Rome for @ncregister. Author of 'The Rigging of a Vatican Synod?' published by @IgnatiusPress http://goo.gl/N2IbjG RTs not always endorsements.
Roma, Italy
edwardpentin.co.uk

https://twitter.com/EdwardPentin

Highland Cathedral said...

As the priest said in his homily at my local parish church recently, "Grace conquers all."

Robert said...

Father no one talks about the Council of Trent anymore accept us trads!.
"The Spirit of Vatican II™ is the gift that keeps on giving: (and according to many modernist Catholics has more authority than all previous councils)
By Archbishop and soon too be Cardinal Stupich!!
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/cupich-drops-synod-bomb-catholic/

A schism has already happen. Our Bishops just don't want to admit it.

JARay said...

I have just read the speech given to the Synod by a Romanian doctor...and a woman to boot. It is the finest speech given to that Synod.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Yes it is beautiful!

Sadie Vacantist said...

The core issue is WWII and how it is has been used to changed Europe in general and the Catholic Church in particular.

geoff kiernan said...

Father Blake...."....had the Synod Fathers in Tears..." Why were they in tears? was it misplaced sympathy for the Child and his Father or was it because they saw and recognised it for what it was... a gross abuse? It is sad to have to admit that one never knows these days

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

"Who would suggest the daughters of Ss Louis and Marie-Zelie Guerin Martin believed the same on their first Communion day as the South American child who broke the sacred Host in half to give to his twice married father, the story according the Vatican press office had the Synod Fathers in tears."
-
Brilliant question. May I suggest that no Catholic could believe that the Martin sisters, and the Vatican II/Novus Ordo twice married anyone with a breaking celebratory host by exploited children, could have anything to do with each other, other than Christ on the one hand, and belial, on the other.

Anonymous said...

Father Ray, please delete this comment if it doesn't make sense to you or if it is off topic as you mention doctrine and pastoral practice, and I comment about doctrine and good works.

It is my understanding that doctrine protects revelation, which is why doctrine is so important. Regarding good works, (I recall reading some years ago in one of the books written by Dom Marmion, -at least, I think it was Dom Marmion ), something to the effect that our good works mean nothing if these works are not joined to our faith in Our Lord Jesus.

When I read that about good works, I was taken aback. I had never thought about good works being meaningless unless they are coupled with faith in Our Lord. [Note: I may be wrong in how I interpreted it, but this is what I understood]. And yet, didn't Our Lord say, "I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5).


I also read elsewhere, (my paraphrase follows) when we have faith in Our Lord Jesus, [and are part of his Mystical Body?], then when we approach the God the Father, all He sees is His Son, whom He ofcourse, loves very much.

And so, this combination of faith and good works made simple sense to me: Our good works, in tandem with our faith in Our Lord Jesus, makes us and our works visible and pleasing to God the Father.

Furthermore, grave sin (Divorce and remarriage, cohabitation, homosexual sins), would cut us(branches)off from the vine (Jesus), so any good works done while in grave sin would be meaningless- and not visible and acceptable to God the Father.

Not complicated.

Sadie Vacantist said...

I suspect that the secular World is on the point of changing. The Catholic Church has the unerring ability to lag secular thinking. These paradigm shifts are occurring everywhere but a Trump presidency (or even just nomination) might be a kicker. Add to this scenario, a Putin triumph in Syria or a UK pull out of the EU then the synod will rapidly become yesterday’s news. What will be the position of the UK Catholic Church during the in/out referendum? It could find itself part of a decentralised ecclesiological model in a host country that is debating the shortcomings of isolation. An isolation which the majority of secular elites propose that we should reject. This has the potential to become very confusing. Especially if the populace then reject the elites and vote to get out. The entire post-Vatican II Catholic model is dependent on our elites or “hierarchy” brown nosing secular elites on our behalf as per Murray's Dignitatis Humanae. Any rejection of elites on this scale will leave the bishops in a quandary. Which model do they endorse especially if unpleasant consequences arise as a result of the decision to isolate?

The one constant in all of this is that UK bishops are generally wrong about absolutely everything. This fact remains a reassuring reality.

Sue Sims said...

Tears came to my eyes as well when I read about the first communicant splitting the Host to give to his parents. I doubt, however, that they sprang from precisely the same emotion as those of the Synod Fathers.

Unknown said...

What will become of us?

Jacobi said...

Father what niggles me when I see images such as you have shown, is the degree to which Relativism or Gradualism, or outright Sacrilege, call it what you will, has seeped into the Church quite unremarked upon and apparently accepted by the hierarchy.

And yet a groups like the SSPX, soundly and solidly Catholic, for some crass technical reason, are considered schismatic.

Now be clear, I am not a member of SSPX, having only ever spoken to one lay member, have never been inside any of their church's, but have obviously read about them.

What in Heavens name is going on?

Jeremiah Methuselah said...

Reverend Father,

You are wise to quote the story of “ … the South American child who broke the sacred Host in half to give to his twice married father, the story according the Vatican press office had the Synod Fathers in tears”. Quite so.

The reason for those tears, the Catholic ones, not the faux waterworks is the deep sorrow that the True Catholic Fathers there feel for the blatant manipulation of everything that is holy during this farcical meeting in Rome (run by ex-Catholics). That is why I believe the nonsense must cease right now and leave HH PF high and dry, surrounded by his Gradualist buddies. I know your opinion is different, but it is horrifying to have to watch, impuissant, disgusted, shattered while vile attempts to destroy the Church take place right in the centre of Rome, lead by UnoHoo. Surely it must be stopped ?

PF is alleged to want the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic Church, founded for everyone, for all time, for ever, by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, spilt asunder, into thousands and thousands of individual “Romes". Madness – or something else ? We need to know.

Now, at last, we begin to understand what is happening, to understand the difference between what is required of us as Catholics and what is wanted of us, for us, by some of our bishops, archbishops and cardinals.

That picture of “Austrian priest Gerhard Maria Wagner” says it all. While it’s a travesty of our Catholic Church and it’s an insult of the gravest kind, I am consoled by the realisation that almost certainly, that is actually not Our Dear Lord who is being subjected to such awful indignities.

But He has been there already, on Golgotha, so the miserable efforts of the said “Father” Wagner must be seen for exactly what they are : puny, lamentable and repugnant. May the Lord God pardon him, should he want to be pardoned of course (condition of Reconciliation).

Basta ! (Enough)

Unknown said...

Father, I may be wrong but I would bet my life that the photo of the priest carrying the "Blessed Sacrament"(?) is not Gerhard Maria Wagner.

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