DOCSLIB.ORG

“Shining the Light of Christ with Mary and the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“Shining the Light of Christ with Mary and the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary” “Shining the Light of Christ with Mary and the Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary” October 27, 2018 St. Thomas Catholic Church The Holy Rosary • One tradition tells us that the Rosary came from Saint Dominic Guzman around the year 1221. Saint Dominic had been to southern France to preach against the Albigensian heresy, which denied the goodness of creation and held that the spirit is good but that matter (including the body) is evil. A common saying in Albigensianism was “the body is a tomb,” suggesting that true freedom is realized only when one is freed from the flesh. This heresy held that there are two supreme beings: a good god who created the spirit world, and an evil god who created the material world. Since matter was evil to the Albigensians, marriage and procreation were evil. Jesus was not thought to be human, nor was Mary considered the mother of God. Albigensianism denied the humanity of Christ. The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus were only illusions, and the whole concept of the cross in the Christian life was rejected. Cavins, J. (2004). The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life. In S. Hahn & L. J. Suprenant Jr. (Eds.), Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God (Second Edition, p. 188). Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing. The Holy Rosary • Albigensianism, like many newer religious fads, discounted the fact that divinity intersected with humanity in Christ. In contrast to this dualism, the prayers of the Rosary continually focus on the reality of the Incarnation. So, for example, the Hail Mary says in part, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” These words express our belief that God the Son truly became one like us. So Saint Dominic would go into the villages and would preach to them the mysteries of salvation and then pray the Hail Marys. The Hail Marys constitute “the warp on which is woven the contemplation of the mysteries.” It is on those Hail Marys that we weave in the life of Christ and meditate on Jesus, the God-man. The Rosary then developed over the years until, in 1569, Pope St. Pius V officially approved the current form. Cavins, J. (2004). The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life. In S. Hahn & L. J. Suprenant Jr. (Eds.), Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God (Second Edition, pp. 188–189). Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing. Repetition • Some Christians will object that, according to Scripture, Jesus was against repetitious prayer. However, Jesus warned against meaningless repetition, not meaningful repetition. Meaningless repetition is indeed not God’s will. Merely rattling off prayers like a parrot will not move the hand of God. But not all repetition is meaningless. When people tell me it is, I sometimes suggest they pinch their nose shut and clamp their lips tightly together. Within seconds, they begin to notice the life-giving value of repetition. Cavins, J. (2004). The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life. In S. Hahn & L. J. Suprenant Jr. (Eds.), Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God (Second Edition, p. 192). Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing. The Rhythm of Life • Isn’t every day a matter of getting up, going to work, eating lunch, coming home, eating dinner, kids doing this, kids doing that? Are not our lives repetitious? Understandably then, the God of life, all throughout the Old Testament, said, “Establish this feast in this month and every year when you come to this month, do this. And every year at that month, do that” (cf. Lev. 23). Every day, the Jews would pray three times the Sh’ma: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). Cavins, J. (2004). The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life. In S. Hahn & L. J. Suprenant Jr. (Eds.), Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God (Second Edition, p. 193). Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing. The Rhythm of Life • God thus enters our daily routine with His power. The divine intersects the mundane! That is why I love the Catholic Church’s liturgical year and its cycle of readings. Every three years we get selections from the whole Bible! Every year, we go through the entire life of Christ in our readings at weekday Masses. We need this. It is breathing in and breathing out. • So if I find the Rosary boring, it is probably because I’m not entering into the Rosary. I am just repeating words instead of entering into it and meditating on the life of Christ through the eyes of Mary. That is why I like to think of each bead as the heartbeat of Jesus, and my goal is that my heart would beat in unison with His. Cavins, J. (2004). The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life. In S. Hahn & L. J. Suprenant Jr. (Eds.), Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God (Second Edition, p. 193). Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing. St. John Paul II • The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.(1) Rosarium Virginis Mariae #1 Mary, Model of Contemplation • The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7). Rosarium Virginis Mariae #10 Mary, Model of Contemplation • Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). Rosarium Virginis Mariae #10 Sacred Remembrance • Mary's contemplation is above all a remembering. We need to understand this word in the biblical sense of remembrance (zakar) as a making present of the works brought about by God in the history of salvation. The Bible is an account of saving events culminating in Christ himself. These events not only belong to “yesterday”; they are also part of the “today” of salvation. This making present comes about above all in the Liturgy: what God accomplished centuries ago did not only affect the direct witnesses of those events; it continues to affect people in every age with its gift of grace. To some extent this is also true of every other devout approach to those events: to “remember” them in a spirit of faith and love is to be open to the grace which Christ won for us by the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection. Rosarium Virginis Mariae #13 Proclaiming Christ With Mary • The Rosary is also a path of proclamation and increasing knowledge, in which the mystery of Christ is presented again and again at different levels of the Christian experience. Its form is that of a prayerful and contemplative presentation, capable of forming Christians according to the heart of Christ. When the recitation of the Rosary combines all the elements needed for an effective meditation, especially in its communal celebration in parishes and shrines, it can present a significant catechetical opportunity which pastors should use to advantage. In this way too Our Lady of the Rosary continues her work of proclaiming Christ.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Archdiocese of Los Angeles Catholic Directory 2020-2021
    ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES CATHOLIC DIRECTORY 2020-2021 Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, Ventura See inside front cover 01-FRONT_COVER.indd 1 9/16/2020 3:47:17 PM Los Angeles Archdiocesan Catholic Directory Archdiocese of Los Angeles 3424 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241 2020-21 Order your copies of the new 2020-2021 Archdiocese of Los Angeles Catholic Directory. The print edition of the award-winning Directory celebrates Mission San Buenaventura named by Pope Francis as the first basilica in the Archdiocese. This spiral-bound, 272-page Directory includes Sept. 1, 2020 assignments – along with photos of the new priests and deacons serving the largest Archdiocese in the United States! The price of the 2020-21 edition is $30.00 (shipping included). Please return your order with payment to assure processing. (As always, advertisers receive one complimentary copy, so consider advertising in next year’s edition.) Directories are scheduled to begin being mailed in October. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Please return this portion with your payment REG Archdiocese of Los Angeles 2020-2021 LOS ANGELES CATHOLIC DIRECTORY ORDER FORM YES, send the print version of the 2020-21 ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES CATHOLIC DIRECTORY at the flat rate of $30.00 each. Please return your order with payment to assure processing.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church
    The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church A History Joseph F. Kelly A Michael Glazier Book LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press Cover design by David Manahan, OSB. Painting in Kiev, Sofia. Photo by Sasha Martynchuk. © Sasha Martynchuk and iStockphoto. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC, and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. © 2009 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previ- ous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Col- legeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelly, Joseph F. (Joseph Francis), 1945– The ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church : a history / Joseph F. Kelly. p. cm. “A Michael Glazier book”—T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-8146-5376-0 (pbk.) 1. Councils
    [Show full text]
  • FEAST of OUR LADY of the ROSARY - OCTOBER 7TH Excerpts from America Needs Fatima and Encyclopedia Britannica
    FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY - OCTOBER 7TH excerpts from America Needs Fatima and encyclopedia Britannica Brief History of the Rosary The Blessed Virgin Mary first gave the Rosary to St. Dominic of Guzman in a vision in 1208, as he earnestly begged God for a solution to the Albigensian heresy. This particular heresy maintained that all material creation was evil, and only the spiritual was good, and was aggressively infecting the south of France. After St. Dominic began to preach the reciting of the Rosary, as instructed by the Blessed Virgin, the days of the Albigensian error were numbered. Our Lady of the Rosary The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted by Pope St. Pius V in honor and thanksgiving for the great naval victory of the greatly outnumber allied Christian force called the “Holy League,” against a much larger but less disciplined, Muslim fleet at Lepanto located in the waters off southwestern Greece in 1571. The "League" was formed in response to the attack against Cyprus by the Muslim Ottoman Empire, which had all the intentions of a continued invasion of Western Europe. This battle was also historically remarkable, in that it was the last and greatest engagement with oar-propelled vessels and the first great victory over a Turkish fleet. During the battle, while the fate of Christian Europe hung in the balance on October 7, 1571, the Sovereign Pontiff called for a Rosary procession in Rome. It was during that procession that the victory was decided for the Christian fleet while engage in the “Battle of Lepanto”.
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Memory, Women's Identity and the Church
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2014 Collective Memory, Women's Identity and the Church Jo Ana Elise Brown Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/20 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] COLLECTIVE MEMORY, WOMEN’S IDENTITY AND THE CHURCH by JO ANA ELISE BROWN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2014 i 2014 JO ANA ELISE BROWN ©All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Cynthia Fuchs Epstein January 27, 2014 Chair of Examining Committee Dr. John Torpey January 27, 2014 Executive Officer Dr. William Kornblum Dr. Bryan Turner Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract COLLECTIVE MEMORY, WOMEN’S IDENTITY AND THE CHURCH by Jo Ana Elise Brown Advisor: Professor Cynthia Epstein Christianity, Judaism and Islam share a deliberative subjugation of women through ideologies, hierarchical structures and performative practices that effectively relegate women to an inferior position. The Christian tradition has one of the longest- standing and most consistent iconographies with regard to the characterization and status of women in society.
    [Show full text]
  • Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the Magisterium
    2 SACRED SCRIPTURE, SACRED TRADITION AND THE CHURCH (C 101-141, USC Ch. 3) Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition form one Seven extra books in the Catholic Bible sacred deposit of the Word of God which is The Catholic Old Testament Canon contains seven committed to the Church… The task of authentically books not found in Protestant Bibles. These books are interpreting the Word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the Judith, Tobit, Baruch, Wisdom, Sirach and 1 & 2 living teaching office of the Church, whose Maccabees. In addition, the Catholic Bible has longer authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. versions of the books of Esther and Daniel. Catholics This teaching office is not above the Word of God sometimes call these books deuterocanonical (meaning but serves it, teaching only what has been handed “second” canon). Protestants call them apocryphal on…. with the help of the Holy Spirit: it draws from (meaning “counterfeit” or “hidden”). Why the extra this one deposit of faith everything which it presents books? Space only allows for a brief explanation. The for belief as divinely revealed. (Divine Revelation 10) Old Testament books were written in both Hebrew and Greek, the latter having the seven abovenamed books. In article one on Divine Revelation, we saw that As the gospel spread to Greek-speaking Jews and divinely revealed truth, also called the “deposit of faith” Gentiles, the Church generally used the Greek edition, is transmitted from one generation to another through also called the Septuagint. When Martin Luther, the Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • A Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal
    A Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal A Commentary on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal Developed under the Auspices of the Catholic Academy of Liturgy and Cosponsored by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions Edited by Edward Foley Nathan D. Mitchell Joanne M. Pierce Foreword by the Most Reverend Donald W. Trautman, S.T.D., S.S.L. Chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy 1993–1996, 2004–2007 A PUEBLO BOOK Liturgical Press Collegeville, Minnesota A Pueblo Book published by Liturgical Press Excerpts from the English translation of Dedication of a Church and an Altar © 1978, 1989, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. (ICEL); excerpts from the English translation of Documents on the Liturgy, 1963–1979: Conciliar, Papal, and Curial Texts © 1982, ICEL; excerpts from the English translation of Order of Christian Funerals © 1985, ICEL; excerpts from the English translation of The General Instruction of the Roman Missal © 2002, ICEL. All rights reserved. Libreria Editrice Vaticana omnia sibi vindicat iura. Sine ejusdem licentia scripto data nemini licet hunc Lectionarum from the Roman Missal in an editio iuxta typicam alteram, denuo imprimere aut aliam linguam vertere. Lectionarum from the Roman Missal in an editio iuxta typicam alteram—edition iuxta typica, Copyright 1981, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano. Excerpts from documents of the Second Vatican Council are from Vatican Council II: The Basic Sixteen Documents, edited by Austin Flannery, © 1996 Costello Publishing Company, Inc. Used with permission. Cover design by David Manahan, OSB. Illustration by Frank Kacmarcik, OblSB. © 2007 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.
    [Show full text]
  • Grade 8 Focus: Church History
    Religion Grade 8 Focus: Church History Topic: Prayer Grade 8 Learning Outcomes Teaching/Learning Strategies Prayer The students will be able to: • Recite by heart the prayers listed in the DFR Religion Curriculum Prayer List. • Explain how the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed summarize our Catholic beliefs. (see Doctrine below.) • Recognize that different types of images can be aids for prayer. (i.e., icons, statues, stained glass, art & architecture) • Recognize the diversity of prayer forms within the Eastern and Western Rites of the Church. • Compose prayers of praise/adoration, thanksgiving, petition/supplication and contrition/sorrow. • Describe why prayer, the study of the Word of God and the Church’s teachings are essential in our faith lives and the life of our Church. • Recognize that liturgical prayer is the official prayer of the Church. • Explain that liturgical prayer is the Mass, as well as the celebration of the sacraments and the Liturgy of the Hours. Values/Attitudes Resources Assessment Religion Grade 8 Focus: Church History Prayer Grade 8 Learning Outcomes Teaching/Learning Strategies • Explain that the Liturgy of the Hours is prayed by all priests and many religious and laypersons throughout the world. • Explain the role and benefits of private devotion. • Discuss the history of the Rosary. • Explain how the Rosary helps the Church to “contemplate the face of Christ at the school of Mary” • Become familiar with a variety of devotional practices, especially as listed in the DFR Supplementary Prayer List • Personally engage themselves in prayer and devotions, chosen from the richness of our Catholic Tradition. Values/Attitudes Resources Assessment Religion Grade 8 Focus: Church History Topic: Sacraments Grade 8 Learning Outcomes Teaching/Learning Strategies Sacraments The students will be able to: • Describe how the sacraments of Service build the community of the Church.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosarium Virginis Mariae Outline
    ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter On The Most Holy Rosary Promulgated 16 October 2002 I. Introduction A. The Rosary took form in the 2nd millennium under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. B. Loved by saints C. Encouraged by the magisterium D. With the rosary we sit at the feet of Christ in the school of Mary. Mary is our teacher. E. From the rosary, the faithful receive abundant graces. II. The Popes and the Rosary A. Leo XIII- Supremi Apostolatus Officio- Proposed rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting society. B. Blessed John XXIII- Prayed all 15 decades daily once he became pope. C. John Paul II says rosary has had an important part in his spiritual life III. OCTOBER 2002- OCTOBER 2003: THE YEAR OF THE ROSARY A. To recite the Rosary is contemplation of the face of Christ in the school of Mary. B. The Rosary provides spiritual and educational opportunities for: 1. personal contemplation 2. formation of People of God 3. the New Evangelization IV. Objections to the Rosary A. One objection is that the Rosary detracts from the centrality of the Sacred Liturgy. 1. Pope Paul VI said not only does Rosary not conflict w/ the Liturgy, it sustains it. a. Helps us fully and interiorly participate in the Liturgy. b. Helps us reap the fruit of the Liturgy in our daily lives. B. Another objection is that the Rosary is not ecumenical b/c of Marian character of it. 1. Answer to this is that Rosary is Christ-centered.
    [Show full text]
  • And Post-Vatican Ii (1943-1986 American Mariology)
    FACULTAS THEOLOGICA "MARIANUM" MARIAN LffiRARY INSTITUTE (UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON) TITLE: THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BIBLICAL MARIOLOGY PRE- AND POST-VATICAN II (1943-1986 AMERICAN MARIOLOGY) A thesis submitted to The Theological Faculty "Marianwn" In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Licentiate of Sacred Theology By: James J. Tibbetts, SFO Director: Reverend Bertrand A. Buby, SM Thesis at: Marian Library Institute Dayton, Ohio, USA 1995 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 The Question of Development I. Introduction - Status Questionis 1 II. The Question of Historical Development 2 III. The Question of Biblical Theological Development 7 Footnotes 12 Chapter 2 Historical Development of Mariology I. Historical Perspective Pre- to Post Vatican Emphasis A. Mariological Movement - Vatican I to Vatican II 14 B. Pre-Vatican Emphasis on Scripture Scholarship 16 II. Development and Decline in Mariology 19 III. Development and Controversy: Mary as Church vs. Mediatrix A. The Mary-Church Relationship at Vatican II 31 B. Mary as Mediatrix at Vatican II 37 c. Interpretations of an Undeveloped Christology 41 Footnotes 44 Chapter 3 Development of a Biblical Mariology I. Biblical Mariology A. Development towards a Biblical Theology of Mary 57 B. Developmental Shift in Mariology 63 c. Problems of a Biblical Mariology 67 D. The Place of Mariology in the Bible 75 II. Symbolism, Scripture and Marian Theology A. The Meaning of Symbol 82 B. Marian Symbolism 86 c. Structuralism and Semeiotics 94 D. The Development of Two Schools of Thought 109 Footnotes 113 Chapter 4 Comparative Development in Mariology I. Comparative Studies - Scriptural Theology 127 A. Richard Kugelman's Commentary on the Annunciation 133 B.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magisterium He Who Hears You Hears Me, and He Who Rejects You Rejects Me, and He Who Rejects Me Rejects Him Who Sent Me
    The Magisterium He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me. ~ Luke 10:16 Five Greek Fathers of the Church from the 4th and 5th centuries: St. Athanasius, St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Cyril of Alexandria EFORE CHRIST LEFT THIS EARTH, he prepared en, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heav- his apostles with everything they would en” (Mt 16:19). In short, Christ entrusted to them need to carry out their ministry. He gave all the power they would need to teach, sanctify, and Bthem special insights into the Gospel that govern in his name. He also ensured that their min- he did not give to the crowds (see Mt 11:1; Mk 4:34) istry would not die with them through his gift to the and gave them the power to forgive sins (see Jn Church of Holy Orders which could be conferred 20:22-23). When he commanded, “Do this in remem- on the apostles’ successors and their successors af- brance of me” (Lk 22:19), he gave them the power to ter them and so forth forming one unbroken chain re-enact the Last Supper and turn bread and wine of succession up to our present pope and bishops. into his Body and Blood. He gave them the pow- An example of this is found in St. Paul’s granting of er to govern when he said, his own authority to his dis- speaking to Peter directly “This power to teach ciples Sts.
    [Show full text]
  • Theology and the Magisterium
    THEOLOGY AND THE MAGISTERIUM To state it at once, the theme of what our program dignifies by the title, "Presidential Address," is this: Sacred Theology and the Sacred Magisterium. Whereas my distinguished predecessors at this rostrum have advanced our understanding and deepened our appreciation of the science and wisdom of theology, I have chosen, for various reasons which should emerge in the course of these remarks, to go back to fundamentals. With your kind indulgence, I propose to dwell on the vital, intrinsic dependence of the Catholic theologian and of his science on the Ecclesia docens. In other words, we are to focus our attention on the primordial truth that sacred theology lives and moves and has it being in the sacred magisterium. Primordial though that truth be, how easily and how often it is forgotten, like the primordial truth that in God "we live and move and have our being"! One case in point would be th* renowned European theologian who complained, ten years ago, that with the growth of papal authority, "the authority of the universities and of the theologians has declined in the Church." Indeed, it was the widespread forgetfulness, not to say ignorance, of theology's essential dependence on the Ecclesia docens which evoked the momentous Encyclical Humani generis. What is more, throughout the nearly seven years which have elapsed since August 12, 19S0, Pope Pius XII has repeatedly found it necessary to re- emphasize and amplify the basic lesson of that Encyclical, the lesson that God entrusted the deposit of faith and its authentic interpreta- tion not to theologians but to the divinely constituted and divinely assisted magisterium vivum; that theologians, no less than non- theologians, owe to that magisterium full reverence, and due submis- sion to all its authentic, its authoritatively imposed teachings, whether these be proposed infallibly or not; that throughout their scientific labors theologians must take that magisterium as their norm and guide.1 1 Cf.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holy See
    The Holy See JOHN PAUL II Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio AD TUENDAM FIDEM, by which certain norms are inserted into the Code of Canon Law and into the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches TO PROTECT THE FAITH of the Catholic Church against errors arising from certain members of the Christian faithful, especially from among those dedicated to the various disciplines of sacred theology, we, whose principal duty is to confirm the brethren in the faith (Lk 22:32), consider it absolutely necessary to add to the existing texts of the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, new norms which expressly impose the obligation of upholding truths proposed in a definitive way by the Magisterium of the Church, and which also establish related canonical sanctions. 1.From the first centuries to the present day, the Church has professed the truths of her faith in Christ and the mystery of his redemption. These truths were subsequently gathered into the Symbols of the faith, today known and proclaimed in common by the faithful in the solemn and festive celebration of Mass as the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This same Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is contained in the Profession of faith developed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,(1) which must be made by specific members of the faithful when they receive an office, that is directly or indirectly related to deeper investigation into the truths of faith and morals, or is united to a particular power in the governance of the Church.(2) 2.
    [Show full text]