With Joe Biden and Nancey Pelosi misquoting and twisting patristic texts to support abortion, and groups like "Catholics" for a Free Choice saying that abortion in the past was allowed up until the quickening of the child, (the moment when movement was detectable by the mother) I thought I'd look some things up in the fathers. Here's what I found:
The Didache, (ca. 80-140 AD):
1a--...You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a new-born child.
Clear enough!
Philosophoumia, St. Hippolytus, (post AD 222):
396a--[Callistus] even permitted women, if they were unmarried and burning up at an unsuitable time of life, or if they did not wish to lose their own dignity by a lawful marriage, to take a man of their choosing as bedfellow, whether slave or free, and to regard such a one as a husband, though not lawfully married. For this reason women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excessive wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!
I find it interesting that this passage also points out the impressibility of contraception, and links sexual immorality and birth control/abortion to avarice--the notes about excessive wealth, and to a sort of social climbing and human disrespect--the note about "insignificant" persons. As in, "He's cute, and good in bed, but I shouldn't want to marry him--he's lower status, ya know?"
Letter to Amphilochius, St. Basil the Great, (AD 374):
919a--A woman who has deliberately destroyed a fetus must pay the penalty for murder.
This quote not only forbids abortion, but points out an error that many, even who oppose abortion, try to maintain. To wit: that abortion is not murder.
919f--Those who give drugs causing abortions are murderers themselves, as well as those who receive the poison which kill the fetus.
Again, the equation of abortion with murder. This is something that we need to remember, and that we need to speak of openly. Quite simply, if it hurts someones feelings, or makes them feel guilty, it's to the good, because there is no salvation without repentance, and one cannot repent of something one doesn't see as wrongful. and one can act wrongfully thinking that the act in question is OK.
And this was just a cursory search!
NB--The items in bold are my way of setting off my personal comments from he quotations from the fathers. The numbers are the numbers assigned to different passages in the Patristic Texts in the generally accepted scheme.
TRIUMPHALIST--YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
The Holy Rosary
I've been thinking about the Rosary a bit, and I thought perhaps I would write a little about it.
The Rosary is perhaps the most useful devotion in the whole of Christendom. It was conceived, I think as both a way to enable the people to participate in the Liturgy of Hours, and as a tool of catechises and evangelization. The 150 Aves of the classical Rosary enabled the people to pray with the 150 psalms of the ancient liturgy of hours. The 15 mysteries were a way to communicate the life of Christ to the people, and to allow them to reflect upon it. The addition of the Luminous Mysteries by John Paul II does obscure it's link with the liturgy of hours, but that is a function that has long since been outgrown. (In the most literate of areas, literacy in the Roman Empire stood at about 10%, if one requires more than signature literacy, and literacy rates declined in the Middle Ages. Even with the ars memoria, memorizing the book of Psalms was a lot to ask! People can read it now.) But the didactic function may just be more import than it's been since the time of Dominic Guzman.
It's an easy thing, to learn to recite the Rosary. In it's basic form, one need only memorize 5 prayers and the Mysteries. But to learn to pray the Rosary, is rather more difficult. The temptation is always there to just rattle off the prayers and let ones mind wander. That's a pretty weak way to pray the Rosary. (I have to say at this point that I agree with Fr. Corapi--there is no such thing as a bad Rosary. But it's better I think, to pray it well.) Better is to use the Rosary as it's intended, as an aid to Christian meditation.
It's been said that the Rosary, well prayed, consist of the vocal prayers, an intention, and a picture. This is a good way to pray.
The method I've found best--and I still find myself rattling off Aves and Paters and Glorias with an undisciplined mind far to often--is to play a movie in my head, of the mystery being celebrated. That presupposes a familiarity with the mystery as recounted in Scripture and Tradition. If you don't know the story behind the Mystery, you can't really enter into it. So this method requires you to know something about scripture and tradition.
Fortunately, many of the aids available to help you with the Rosary will have the Scriptural citations ready to hand, so you can look them up and familiarize yourself with the details.
This requires both effort and discipline. And, practice. Something that helped me was to split up my Aves. I would put an exclamation, if that's the word, into the middle of it, to keep my mind on the narrative of the Mystery: "Hail Mary, Full of Grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb, Jesus--whose hands were pierced by nails on the cross--Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death". I would do this with each Ave, keeping my mind on the details of the event recounted in the mystery. I still do this when my mind is wandering.
If you pray the Rosary often, you find yourself being immersed in the events of Our Lords life, and in salvation history. It's a lot better than rattling them off as fast as you can, and really does teach you things about Our Lord, His Mother, Salvation, the Church, and yourself.
The Rosary is perhaps the most useful devotion in the whole of Christendom. It was conceived, I think as both a way to enable the people to participate in the Liturgy of Hours, and as a tool of catechises and evangelization. The 150 Aves of the classical Rosary enabled the people to pray with the 150 psalms of the ancient liturgy of hours. The 15 mysteries were a way to communicate the life of Christ to the people, and to allow them to reflect upon it. The addition of the Luminous Mysteries by John Paul II does obscure it's link with the liturgy of hours, but that is a function that has long since been outgrown. (In the most literate of areas, literacy in the Roman Empire stood at about 10%, if one requires more than signature literacy, and literacy rates declined in the Middle Ages. Even with the ars memoria, memorizing the book of Psalms was a lot to ask! People can read it now.) But the didactic function may just be more import than it's been since the time of Dominic Guzman.
It's an easy thing, to learn to recite the Rosary. In it's basic form, one need only memorize 5 prayers and the Mysteries. But to learn to pray the Rosary, is rather more difficult. The temptation is always there to just rattle off the prayers and let ones mind wander. That's a pretty weak way to pray the Rosary. (I have to say at this point that I agree with Fr. Corapi--there is no such thing as a bad Rosary. But it's better I think, to pray it well.) Better is to use the Rosary as it's intended, as an aid to Christian meditation.
It's been said that the Rosary, well prayed, consist of the vocal prayers, an intention, and a picture. This is a good way to pray.
The method I've found best--and I still find myself rattling off Aves and Paters and Glorias with an undisciplined mind far to often--is to play a movie in my head, of the mystery being celebrated. That presupposes a familiarity with the mystery as recounted in Scripture and Tradition. If you don't know the story behind the Mystery, you can't really enter into it. So this method requires you to know something about scripture and tradition.
Fortunately, many of the aids available to help you with the Rosary will have the Scriptural citations ready to hand, so you can look them up and familiarize yourself with the details.
This requires both effort and discipline. And, practice. Something that helped me was to split up my Aves. I would put an exclamation, if that's the word, into the middle of it, to keep my mind on the narrative of the Mystery: "Hail Mary, Full of Grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy Womb, Jesus--whose hands were pierced by nails on the cross--Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death". I would do this with each Ave, keeping my mind on the details of the event recounted in the mystery. I still do this when my mind is wandering.
If you pray the Rosary often, you find yourself being immersed in the events of Our Lords life, and in salvation history. It's a lot better than rattling them off as fast as you can, and really does teach you things about Our Lord, His Mother, Salvation, the Church, and yourself.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Quotes
"So far we have understood that ecclesial communion is inspired and sustained by the Holy Spirit and preserved and promoted by the apostolic ministry. And this communion which we call "Church", does not only extend to all believers in a specific historical period, but also embraces all the epochs and all the generations. Thus, we have a twofold universality: a synchronic universality--we are united with believers in every part of the world--and also (sic) a so-called diachronic universality, that is: all the epochs belong to us, and all the believers of the past and future for with us a single great communion."
Benedict XVI, Jesus, the apostles, and the Early Church, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2007, pg24
"Concluding and summing up, we can therefore say that Tradition is not the transmission of things or words, a collection of dead things. Tradition is the living river that links us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are ever present, the great river that leads us to the gates of eternity. And since this is so, in this living river the words of the Lord that we heard on the reader's lips to start with are ceaselessly brought about: 'I am with you always, to the close of the age' (Mt 28:30)
op. cit. pg 28
Benedict XVI, Jesus, the apostles, and the Early Church, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2007, pg24
"Concluding and summing up, we can therefore say that Tradition is not the transmission of things or words, a collection of dead things. Tradition is the living river that links us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are ever present, the great river that leads us to the gates of eternity. And since this is so, in this living river the words of the Lord that we heard on the reader's lips to start with are ceaselessly brought about: 'I am with you always, to the close of the age' (Mt 28:30)
op. cit. pg 28
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