Topics: Feast Day: St. Irenaeus...Instruction: On The Holy Sacrament of Penance...The Catholic Answer Magazine: Stephanie Mann Article
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
To post a comment, ask a question, or submit an article contact me, Mark, at bumpy187@gmail.com.
..and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of only two churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Feast Day: St. Irenaeus
June 3rd
Martyr, 3rd Class, Red
Catholic Online
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=291
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
• EWTN Live interview with Father Mitch Pacwa, January 27, 2010 on EWTN Global Cable Network and EWTN Global Radio
June 3rd
Martyr, 3rd Class, Red
Catholic Online
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=291
He was probably born about the year 125, in one of those maritime provinces of Asia Minor where the memory of the apostles was still cherished and where Christians were numerous. He was most influenced by St. Polycarp who had known the apostles or their immediate disciples
Many Asian priests and missionaries brought the gospel to the pagan Gauls and founded a local church. To this church of Lyon, Irenaeus came to serve as a priest under its first bishop, St. Pothinus, an oriental like himself. In the year 177, Irenaeus was sent to Rome. This mission explains how it was that he was not called upon to share in the martyrdom of St Pothinus during the terrible persecution in Lyons. When he returned to Lyons it was to occupy the vacant bishopric. By this time, the persecution was over. It was the spread of gnosticism in Gaul, and the ravages it was making among the Christians of his diocese, that inspired him to undertake the task of exposing its errors. He produced a treatise in five books in which he sets forth fully the inner doctrines of the various sects, and afterwards contrasts them with the teaching of the Apostles and the text of the Holy Scripture. His work, written in Greek but quickly translated to Latin, was widely circulated and succeeded in dealing a death-blow to gnosticism. At any rate, from that time onwards, it ceased to offer a serious menace to the Catholic faith.
The date of death of St. Irenaeus is not known, but it is believed to be in the year 202. The bodily remains of St. Irenaeus were buried in a crypt under the altar of what was then called the church of St. John, but was later known by the name of St. Irenaeus himself. This tomb or shrine was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, and all trace of his relics seems to have perished.
Instruction On The Holy Sacrament of Penance
(Fr. Leonard Goffine’s The
Church’s Year)
FSSP-Tulsa
“Preaching the baptism of
penance for the remission of sins” (Lk. 3:3).
What is penance, and how
many kinds are there?
Penance, says the Roman
Catechism (Cat. Rom. de Poenit. 54), consists in the turning of our whole soul
to God; hating and detesting the crimes we have committed; firmly resolving to
amend our lives, its evil habits and corrupt ways; hoping through the mercy of
God to obtain pardon. This is interior penance, or the virtue of penance. The
sincere acknowledgment of our sins to a priest and the absolution he accords,
is exterior penance, or the holy Sacrament of Penance, which Christ instituted
(Jn. 20:22-23), through which the sins committed after baptism are remitted.
Which of these penances is
necessary for the forgiveness of sins?
Both are necessary, for
unless the conversion of the heart to God, a true consciousness of, and sorrow
for sin, the firm purpose of amendment and confidence in God's mercy, precede
the confession, declaring all our sins to a priest cannot obtain forgiveness of
mortal sin committed after baptism. At the same time a really contrite turning
to God will not, without confession to a priest, obtain forgiveness, except
when by circumstances a person is prevented from approaching the tribunal of
penance. Such a person must, however, have the ardent desire to confess as soon
as possible.
Can any one who has
committed mortal sin be saved without penance?
No, for penance is as
necessary to such a one as baptism, if he wishes not to perish: Unless you do
penance, says Christ, you shall all likewise perish (Lk. 13:3, 5).
Is this penance performed at
once?
This penance is necessary
every day of our lives: that is, we must from day to day endeavor to be
heartily sorry for our sins, to despise them, to eradicate the roots of sin, that
is, our passions and evil inclinations, and become more pleasing to God by
penance and good works.
Why do so many die
impenitent?
Because they do not accept
and use the many graces God offers them and put off their repentance. If such
sinners, like the godless King Antiochus (II Mac. 9) intend to repent on their
deathbed for fear of punishment, they usually find that God in His justice will
no longer give them the grace of repentance, for he who when he can repent,
will not, cannot when he will. "Who will not listen at the time of
grace," says St. Gregory, "will not be listened to in the time of
anxiety." And it is to be feared that he who postpones penance until old
age will not find justice where he looked for mercy.
Can all sinners do penance?
With the grace of God, all
can, even the greatest sinners; as a real father, God calls them when He says:
As I live ...I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn
from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will ye die,
O house of Israel? And the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him, in what
day soever he shall turn from his wickedness (Ezech. 33:11-12).
Do all who go to confession
perform true penance?
Unfortunately, they do not;
for all is not accomplished with confession. If there is no sincere detestation
of sin, no true sorrow for having offended God; if the evil inclinations and
bad habits are not overcome, ill-gotten goods restored, and calumny repaired,
the occasions of sin avoided; if a sincere amendment of life, or, at least, its
earnest purpose does not follow, then, indeed, there cannot be the least shadow
of true repentance, not even though such persons confess weekly. But alas! we
see many such. And why? Because many think repentance consists simply in
confession, and not in the amendment of their lives.
Only those obtain pardon who
are truly penitent and perform all that is enjoined upon them in confession. It
is well, therefore, to read and carefully act according to the following
instructions.
I. ON THE EXAMINATION OF
CONSCIENCE
The foundation of true
repentance, interior and exterior (see the preceding pages), is the vivid
knowledge of our sins. There are many who are unconscious of the most grievous
sins in which they are buried; blinded by self-love they do not even regard
them as sins, do not confess them, perform no penance for them, and are
consequently eternally lost. To prevent this great evil, the Council of Trent
(Sess. XIV c.5) ordered a careful examination of conscience before confession,
and afterwards to confess the sins which are discovered by that examination.
Why should we examine our
conscience?
Because, as St. Ignatius
says, no one can become fully aware of his own faults unless God reveals them
by a special light; we should, therefore, first of all, daily ask the Holy
Ghost to enlighten us; and should then examine our thoughts, desires, words,
actions, and omissions since our last valid confession and how often we have
sinned in these respects. To know this, we should let our conscience, that is,
the inner voice which tells us what is good and what is evil, speak freely,
without flattering ourselves, or passing it by negligently.
St. Charles Borromeo says we
should place before our eyes the Ten Commandments of God and carefully compare
our life and our morals with them; it is well also to examine ourselves on the
seven deadly sins, and remember the places and persons with whom we have been
in contact, the duties of our state of life, the vices to which we are most
inclined, the consequences that were, or might have been produced upon
ourselves or others.
At the same time, we should
imagine ourselves standing before the judgment seat of God, and whatever
would cause us fear there,
whatever we could not answer for there, we should look upon as sins, be sorry
for, and confess.
Is it a sin not to examine
ourselves long and carefully?
Certainly it is a sin for
those to examine their consciences carelessly, who live unfaithfully and in
mortal sin, and who seldom confess, because they expose themselves frivolously
to the danger of leaving out great sins, and consequently they make a
sacrilegious confession, committing thereby a new and grievous sin.
Those who daily ask God for
enlightenment and examine their conscience at least every evening before going
to bed will prepare themselves properly before approaching the tribunal of
penance. "Behold, you have a book in which you write your daily
expenses," says St. Chrysostom, "make a book of your conscience,
also, and write there your daily sins. Before you go to bed, before sleep
comes, take your book, that is, your conscience, and recall your sins, whether
of thought, word, or deed. Say then to your soul: Again, O my soul, a day is
spent, what have we done of evil or of good? If you have accomplished some
good, be grateful to God; if
evil, resolve to avoid it for the future. Shed tears in remembrance of your
sins; ask forgiveness of God, and then let your body sleep."
II. ON CONTRITION
"O man," cries St.
Augustine, "why dost thou weep over the body whence the soul has departed,
and not over the soul from which God has withdrawn?" The idolatrous Michas
(Judg. 18:23-24) complained bitterly because his idols were taken from him;
Esau grieved greatly over the loss of his birthright and his father's blessing
(Gen. 27:34). Should we not, therefore, be filled with sorrow when, by our sins
we have lost God and Heaven?
What is contrition, and how
many kinds are there?
"Contrition is a hearty
sorrow and detestation of our sins with a firm purpose of sinning no more"
(Conc. Trid., Sess. XIV, can. 4). If this grief and detestation comes from a
temporal injury, shame or punishment, it is a natural sorrow; but if we are
sorry for our sins because by them we have offended God and transgressed His
holy law, it is a supernatural sorrow; this, again, is imperfect when fear of
God's punishment is the motive; it is perfect if we are sorry for our sins
because we have offended God, the supreme Lord and best of Fathers.
Is natural sorrow sufficient
for a good confession?
It is not, because it proceeds not from a
supernatural motive, but from the love or fear of the world. A mere natural
sorrow for our sins worketh death (II Cor. 7:10). If one confess his sins
having only a natural sorrow for them, he commits a sacrilege, because the most
necessary part of the Sacrament of Penance is wanting.
What other qualities are
necessary for a true contrition?
Contrition should be
interior, proceeding from the heart and not merely from the lips; it must be
universal, that is, it must extend to all the mortal sins which the sinner has
committed; it must be sovereign, that is, he must be more sorry for having
offended God than for any temporal evil; it must be supernatural, that is,
produced in the heart by supernatural motives; namely, because we have offended
God, lost His grace, deserved hell, etc.
What kind of sorrow must we
have in order to obtain forgiveness of our sins?
That sorrow which proceeds
from a perfect love of God, not from fear of temporal or eternal punishment.
This perfect contrition would suffice for the forgiveness of sins when in case
of danger of death there should be a great desire but no opportunity to confess
to a priest. But the Holy Catholic Church has declared (Conc. Trid., Sess. XIV,
can. 4) the imperfect contrition which proceeds from the fear of eternal
punishment to be sufficient for the valid reception of the holy Sacrament of
Penance.
Who are those who have
reason to fear they have aroused only a natural sorrow for their sins?
Those who care little about
knowing what true sorrow is; those who often commit grievous sins and do not
amend their lives; for if true sorrow for sin had been excited in their hearts,
with the firm purpose of amendment, the grace of God in this Sacrament would
have strengthened the resolution and enabled them to avoid sin, at least for a
time. On account of their immediate relapse we justly doubt whether they have
validly received the sacrament of penance and its sanctifying grace.
How can the sinner attain
true sorrow?
The sinner can attain true
sorrow by the grace of God and his own co-operation. That both are necessary is
shown by the prophet Jeremias (Jer. 31:18-19), who prays: Convert me, O Lord,
and I shall be converted: for Thou art the Lord, my God. For after Thou didst convert
me, I did penance; and after Thou didst skew unto me, I struck my thigh (with
sorrow). To which God replies: If thou wilt be converted, I will convert thee
(Jer. 15:19).
We see, therefore, that the
first and most essential means for producing this sorrow is the grace of God.
It must begin and complete the work of conversion, but it will do this only
when the sinner earnestly and faithfully co-operates. When God in whatever way
has admonished the sinner that he should be converted, let him ardently implore
God for the grace of a true conversion, invoke the intercession of the Mother
of the Savior, his guardian angel, and like the holy penitents, David, Peter,
and Magdalen, let him meditate upon the truth that God is a just judge who
hates sin and will punish it in the eternal torments of hell.
Having placed these truths
vividly before his eyes, the sinner will reflect further whether by his sins he
has not himself deserved this punishment, and if by the enlightenment of God he
finds he has, he will also see the danger in which he stands: that if God
should permit him to die impenitent, he would have to suffer forever in hell.
This fear of eternal punishment urges the sinner to hope in God's mercy; for He
wishes not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live; again, our Redeemer says: I came to call the sinner to repentance, and,
there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who does penance than over
ninety-nine just. He considers the patience of God towards him, the graces bestowed
upon him during his sinful
life; namely, his creation, redemption, sanctification in baptism, and many
others.
He will now contemplate the
beauty and perfection of God: "Who art Thou, O my God," he cries,
"who art Thou who bast loved me with such an unspeakable love, and lovest
me still, ungrateful, abominable sinner, that I am! What is all the beauty of
this world of the angels and of the blessed spirits compared to Thine! Thou
fountain of all beauty, of all goodness, of all that is amiable, Thou supreme
majesty, Thou infinite abyss of love and mercy! I, for one vain thought, a
short, momentary pleasure, a small, mean gain, could forget, offend and despise
Thee! Could I sell, could I forfeit heaven, and eternal joy with Thee! O, could
I repair those crimes! Could I but wash them out with my tears, even with my
blood?"
Through such meditations,
the sinner, by the grace of God, will be easily moved to sorrow. Without such
or similar reflections the formulas of sorrow as read from prayer books or recited
by heart, are by no means acts of contrition.
Should we make an act of
contrition before confession only?
We should make an act of
contrition before confession, and not only then, but every evening after the
examination of conscience; we should make one immediately after any fault
committed; above all, when in danger of death: for we know not when God will
call us to judgment or whether we shall then have the grace to receive the
sacrament of Penance with proper preparation.
III. ON THE PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT
The purpose of amending our
life is as necessary for the remission of sin as contrition; for how could he
obtain forgiveness from God who has not the determination to sin no more? The
will to sin cannot exist with the hatred of sin.
What is necessary for a firm
purpose?
A firm purpose of amendment
requires: the determination to avoid sin; to flee from all occasions that might
bring the danger of sinning, all persons, places, societies in which we usually
sin; bravely to fight against our evil inclinations and bad habits; to make use
of all means prescribed by our confessor or made known to us by God Himself; to
repair the injustice we have done; to restore the good name of our neighbor;
and to remove the scandal and enmity we have caused.
Who, then, have no true
purpose of amendment?
Those who do not truly
intend to leave the frivolous persons with whom they have associated and
committed sin; to remove the occasions of cursing, swearing, drunkenness, and
secret sins, etc.; who have the intention to borrow or to contract debts which
they know they cannot pay, or do not even care to pay; to squander the property
of their wives and children, letting them suffer want; to frequent barrooms or
saloons; fight, gamble, indulge in vile, filthy conversations and detraction;
murmur against spiritual and temporal superiors; throw away precious time; and
bring, even compel, others to do the same. The saloon-keepers who, for the sake
of money, allure such wretched people, keep them there, and what is still
worse, help to intoxicate them, participate in their sins.
IV. ON CONFESSION
Confession is a contrite
acknowledgment of our sins to a priest who is duly authorized, in order to
obtain forgiveness. This acknowledgment of our sins is an important and necessary
part of the holy Sacrament of Penance.
Even in the Old Law, a
certain kind of confession was prescribed and connected with a sacrifice,
called the sacrifice of Atonement; but the forgiveness of sins was effected
only through faith in the coming Redeemer, towards whom this sacrifice pointed
(Lev. 5:5-6; Num. 5:7; compare Mt. 3:6). In the new Law, Christ gave to the
apostles and their successors power to forgive and to retain sins (Jn.
20:21-23), and in doing so made them judges. Without confession on the part of
the sinner, they cannot act as judges and do justice in regard to giving
punishment and remedies (Conc. Trid., Sess. XIV can. 6), and as the sinner is
but seldom able to make an act of perfect contrition, which obtains the
forgiveness of sin
without confession, it was
necessary that the most merciful Lord, as the Roman Catechism says (de poen. 5.
36), through the means of confession to the priest, should provide in an easier
manner for the common salvation of man.
Confession, at the same time,
is the best means of bringing man to a knowledge of his sins and of their
malice. Therefore, even Adam was obliged to acknowledge his sins, and in the
same way Cain was asked by God concerning his brother's murder, although God,
the Omniscient, knew the sins of both. The desire to ease the troubled
conscience seems born in man. Thus, David says of his crime: Because I was
silent, my bones grew old, whilst I cried out all the day long (Ps. 31:3); and
in the book of Proverbs it is said: He that hideth his sins shall not prosper;
but he that shall confess and forsake them shall obtain mercy (Prov. 28:13).
Constant experience in life verifies these words, and heretics could not
entirely abolish private confession, though they rejected the Sacrament of Penance.
Is confession a human law,
or a human invention?
Confession was instituted by
Christ Himself; for after His resurrection He appeared to His apostles and
disciples, and said to them: Peace be with you! As the Father hath sent me, I
also send you; that is, the same power to remit sin which the Father has given
me, I give to you. When He had said this, He breathed on them and He said to
them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are
forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained (Jn.20:21-23;
compare Mt. 18:18).
In these words Christ
evidently gave to the apostles and their successors the power to forgive and
retain sins. This they can do only when the sins are confessed to them; and,
therefore, Christ, when instituting the forgiveness of sins, instituted and
connected with it the acknowledgment, that is, the confession of sins. This
regulation of Christ was complied with by the first Christians in humility of
heart, as is proved in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read: And many of
them (referring to the Christians at Ephesus) that believed came confessing and
declaring their deeds (Acts 19:18). And the apostle James exhorts his
own: Confess therefore your
sins one to another and pray one for another, that you may be saved (Jas.
5:16). The work founded by Christ must stand as long as the world; and as the
apostles and disciples of our Lord died, their successors necessarily continued
the work and received the same power from Christ.
This is verified by the whole
history of His Church. In the very beginning of Christianity, the faithful with
great sorrow confessed to the priest all their transgressions, even the
smallest and most secret, after which, they received absolution. "Let us
be sincerely sorry as long as we live," says St. Clement of Rome, a
disciple of St. Paul (Ep. 1. ad Cor.), "for all evil which we have
committed in the flesh, for having once left the world there will no longer be
any confession and penance for us." Tertullian (217 A.D.) writes of those
who hid their sins, being ashamed to confess them: "Can we also hide from
the knowledge of God that which we conceal from a fellow creature" (Lib.
de qoen. 5. 36). Origen (†254), after speaking of baptism, says: "There is
still a severer and more tedious way of obtaining remission of sin: when the
sinner moistens his pillow with tears, and is not ashamed to confess his sins
to the priest of the Lord" (Hom. 3 in Lev.). St. Cyprian (†258) writes of
those Christians who, during the persecutions of his time, had not sinned by
openly denying the faith: "Yet because they had but thought of doing so,
they make a sorrowful and simple confession to God's priests" (Sib. de
laps.). Basil (†379) writes: "Necessarily the sins must be made plain to
those to whom the power of the mysteries is confided, that is, to the
priests" (In reg. brev. 288).
Many more testimonies could
be brought from the earliest centuries of Christianity which make it clear that
Christ Himself instituted confession and that the faithful always availed
themselves of it as a means of remission of sin. It would not have been
possible for a human being, though he were the mightiest prince, to have
imposed upon Catholic Christianity so hard an obligation as confession without
the special command of Christ the Son of God; nor could any one have invented
it without the faithful at once revolting. It is also well known that in the
Oriental Churches, which separated from the true Church in the earliest ages,
private confession to a priest is yet valued as a divine institution.
The Catholic institution of
confession, with which, in the earliest centuries, there was even connected a
public confession before the whole congregation for notorious sinners, is as
old as the Church itself, as Pope Leo the Great (†461) proves (Ep. 136):
"The secret, auricular confession was introduced into the Church as early
as the times of the apostles or their immediate successors." It was
instituted by Christ, the God-Man, and instituted for the purpose of enabling
the apostles and the priests, their successors, to remit in the confessional
the sins committed after baptism, if the sinner heartily regrets them,
sincerely
confesses, and renders
satisfaction for them; or to retain them, if he be unworthy of absolution.
From this it is seen that
the enemies of the Catholic Church oppose, in rejecting confession, the plain
expression of the holy Scriptures and of entire Christian antiquity, and that
it is a detestable calumny to assert that confession is simply a human invention.
The divine institution of confession always was and is a fountain of sweetest
consolation for sinful man, and thousands have experienced that which is said
by the Council of Trent (Sess. XIV can. 3, depart.): "The effect of this
Sacrament is reconciliation with God, followed by peace, cheerfulness and
consolation of the heart in those who worthily receive this Sacrament."
What will aid us to make
confession easy?
The consideration of the
manifold benefits arising from it: first, forgiveness of all, even the most
grievous sins, remission of the guilt and eternal punishment; secondly, the
certainty of having again been made a child of God; thirdly, the sweet
consolation and desired peace of conscience; fourthly, the necessary remedies
which a pious and prudent confessor will prescribe for the cure of the diseases
of the soul; finally, the prayer and exhortation of the priest which will also
add to the complete conversion of the sinner.
What should be done to
participate in these benefits?
Besides that which has
already been said of the examination of conscience, and especially of sorrow
for sin, the confession must be sincere and open-hearted; that is, a correct
and exact confession not only of all mortal sins, their kind, circumstances and
number, without excuses, or veiling or lessening them, but also a faithful
revelation of all other spiritual affairs, fears, doubts, and other wounds of
the soul; for a wound which is not shown to the physician cannot be healed. We
should not seek those confessors who are only "mute dogs" (Is. 56:10)
and give absolution without hesitation, but we should trust the direction
of our souls to learned,
pious, and zealous priests; and remain under their guidance, as in physical
sickness we remain under the care of an experienced physician, and accept their
words as if Christ Himself had spoken.
How should the false shame
which prevents confession be overcome?
It should be remembered that
the priest in the confessional is the representative of Christ, and that
whoever lies to the confessor seeks to deceive God Himself, who abominates a
lie, and at the Last Day will publicly put such a liar to shame. The confessor
takes the place of Christ, and after His example must be merciful to the sinner
if, a sinful man himself, he hopes to receive mercy and grace from God.
At the same time, no
confessor is allowed to reveal the slightest thing heard in confession, even
should it cost him his life.
It may be considered further
that he who conceals a sin in confession, and thus obtains absolution by false
pretences, receives no remission; but, on the contrary, commits a new sin,
"When man uncovers his sins, God covers them; when man conceals his sins,
God reveals them," says St. Augustine. Man can be deceived, but not God, the
Omniscient; and who is ashamed to show his wounds to the physician? Why should
it be a cause of shame to throw out the poison of sin by a sincere confession?
To sin only is shameful, to confess sin is not shameful. But if by all these
reflections we are still unable to overcome ourselves so as to confess our sins
to a certain confessor, we may seek another in whom we have confidence.
V. ON SATISFACTION AFTER
CONFESSION
Satisfaction is the diligent
performance of all the works of penance imposed upon us by the confessor. With
this, however, a true penitent will not be satisfied; for in our times, on
account of the weakness and little zeal of Christians, a light penance is
imposed that they may not be deterred from the reception of the holy
Sacraments. To avoid relapsing into sin, one must do penance and bring forth
worthy fruits (Lk. 13:3), for God will only then give the grace to persevere.
We satisfy God by fasting, prayer, almsdeeds, avoidance of the snares of the
world, diffidence in ourselves, and especially by patient endurance of the
afflictions and sufferings which He imposes upon us. Those who have committed
sin must do penance in
this life or submit to
everlasting penance in the next.
Is the heretic right in
asserting that man does not need to render satisfaction since Christ has
rendered it complete on the cross?
He is entirely wrong. Christ
on the cross did indeed render satisfaction for all the sins of the whole
world, and man is not
capable to atone for one single sin; but it does not follow from this that man
is not required to do something. To render satisfaction means to perform a duty
which has been neglected. Instead of obeying God, the sinner, by his sins,
disobeys Him. Satisfaction for disobedience requires perfect obedience from the
sinner: but this, because of his weakness and corruption, no man is able to
render; therefore, Christ rendered it for us by His perfect obedience even unto
the death of the cross.
But because Christ has been
thus obedient for us, must we not be somewhat obedient also? Or which is the same, because Christ for love
of us has atoned for our sins by perfect obedience to His Heavenly Father, are
we to do no penance for ourselves? It is precisely by this atonement made by
Christ that we receive the power of rendering satisfaction. But for this we
must, first of all, ask the grace, i.e., pray, to restrain our earthly desires,
i.e., fast, and by means of active love (charity) make ourselves susceptible to
this grace.
St. Paul the Apostle, who
calls himself the greatest of sinners, writes of himself: I now rejoice in my
sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings
of Christ, in my flesh for His body, which is the Church (Col. 1:24); and to
the Corinthians he writes: But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection;
lest perhaps when I have preached to others (meaning penance and conversion), I
myself should become cast away (I Cor. 9:27).
Christ Himself did not
censure the Ninivites for their fasting and their penance in sackcloth and
ashes, but gave them as an example (Mt. 12:41). In the Old Testament we find
that even after remitting the sin, God imposed a punishment for it. Thus, He let
the child of King David die as punishment for his adultery, even though He had
forgiven the sin (II Kings 12:13, 14); thus Moses and Aaron, because they once
distrusted God, were not permitted to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:24;
Deut. 34:4).
According to this doctrine
of the Bible, the Catholic Church teaches that there remains a temporal
punishment which the sinner must expiate either in this world or in the next,
though on account of the infinite merits of Christ the guilt and eternal
punishment of sin are taken away by absolution. In the earliest
times of the Church certain
works of penance were imposed which were then very severe, and in the
course of time, owing to the
indolence of the faithful, were much moderated.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The Catholic Answer Magazine: Stephanie Mann Article
Congratulations to St. Anthony's own Stephanie Mann whose article Two Kinds of Saints? Understanding the Example of Martyrs and Confessors is in the current edition of The Catholic Answer magazine.
Ms. Mann is author of Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation (link in right hand column) which is just one of a list of many media successes. Her other work includes:
• “There’s Something about Bloody Mary,” First Things: On the Square on-line edition, November 16, 2009
• “In the Shadow of Tyburn Tree: Who Were the Martyrs of England and Wales?” The Catholic Answer Magazine, January/February 2010
• “Preparing the Church for Converts” Homiletic & Pastoral Review, August/September 2010
• “Henry VIII’s ‘Achievement’ What was the Dissolution of the Monasteries?” The Catholic Answer Magazine, November/December 2011
Regular interviews on The Son Rise Morning Show, broadcast on EWTN Radio Since April 2009
• EWTN Live interview with Father Mitch Pacwa, January 27, 2010 on EWTN Global Cable Network and EWTN Global Radio
• Ave Maria Radio Interviews with Al Kresta on “Kresta in the Afternoon,” July 1, 2010, February 28, August 4, November 15, 2011, and May 7, 2012
• EWTN Bookmark interview with Doug Keck, Sunday, September 19, 2010 on EWTN Global Cable Network and EWTN Global Radio
• The Good Fight interview/live call-in show with Barbara McGuigan, October 2 & November 6, 2010; August 27, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment