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The Body of Christ
The readings today give us an opportunity to think about the Church: to think about what it is, how it works, and what it does. The Church is the mystical body of Christ, as St. Paul explains to the community in Corinth. From the Creed we profess as Mass, we know the Church is the Continue reading
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An Ordinary Holy Family
God comes into the world as one of us on Christmas day, which we just celebrated. Technically, we are still celebrating Christmas Day, as we are in the Octave of Christmas, in which we celebrate for eight days the major feast day. In the modern Church calendar, only the Octave of Easter ranks higher. This Continue reading
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The O Antiphons
December 17 – O Sapientia O Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of the most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily, and sweetly ordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Continue reading
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Advent: Two Comings
What’s Coming and Why Advent is for Christians the beginning of a new year, and for us here in Georgia and everywhere in the northern hemisphere, Advent arrives as the days are getting shorter and shorter down to the point that when we’re right at the end of Advent, we have the shortest day of Continue reading
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Christ Our King
The feast of Christ the King was added to the church calendar in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. The Pope explained that while everyone agrees that Christ is King and he reigns in the hearts of men, he also reigns in reality and has the title and the power of King as a man because Continue reading
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Modern Heresies
Deism God is an impersonal force of origin, and he does not intervene in history. Rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge. Contemporary religions are corruptions of a single pure, natural, simple, and rational religion. (Very connected to Freemasonry; many American Founders were Deists.) Enlightenment Rationality A human-centered philosophy and moral system in which Continue reading
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Early Christian and Mediaeval Heresies
Jesus Not Really Man Docetism: The humanity of Jesus is an illusion. He only “seems” like a human but is actually God (divine). Modalism: The three persons of the Trinity are not separate and distinct divine persons but simply three modes or manifestations of one and the same divine being. Apollinarianism: Jesus had a human Continue reading
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Non-Christian Heresies
Animism – all things have spirit & will This is pantheistic system in which all things participate in divinity. All things, even plants and rocks and words, are animated and have their own power to act and a will to choose a course. Atheism – there is no God This is the belief that God Continue reading
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Heresies – Protestants and Moderns
Protestants Here in the 21st century we do not generally refer to Protestants as heretics. We are more likely to refer to them as our Protestant brothers and sisters. But it is included as a heresy by all three of our primary sources. So why is that? Our friend Hilaire Belloc thinks it deserves to Continue reading
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Heresies — Three of the Big Five
Our three authors take different approaches to the topic of heretics, but they generally agree on a top five. Bishop Schneider tries to be comprehensive, so he starts with pre-Christian religions that might not be technically Christian heretics but are useful to understand as we Christians interact with a post-Christian culture. Bishop Schneider also likes Continue reading