DAY 28: Dictionary Time!

     The Catholic Church uses a lot of confusing words. Most are either Latin or Latin-based and, let's face it, how many people in this world still know Latin? Although Latin masses are still offered in the Church, the language isn't common  enough for little kids who grow up in the faith to know what the words mean. So what are the true meanings of these Latin words? Below are the definitions of some of those confusing words.

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Beatitude- Supreme blessedness or happiness.

Canticle- A song or chant, especially a non metrical hymn with words taken from a biblical text other than from the Book of Psalms.

Doxology- An expression of praise to God, especially a short hymn sung as part of a Christian worship service.

Ecumenism-the aim of unity among all Christian churches throughout the world.

Episcopal-  relating to a bishop.

Eucharist- A sacrament and the central act of worship in many Christian churches, which was instituted at the Last Supper and in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed in remembrance of Jesus' death; Communion.

Genuflection- To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship.

Habit- A distinctive dress or costume, especially of a religious order.

Laity- Laypeople considered as a group.

Liturgy-  A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship.

Magisterial- The authority to teach religious doctrine.

Nicene- of or relating to Nicaea, an ancient city in NW Asia Minor, or its inhabitants

Novena- A recitation of prayers and devotions for a special purpose during nine consecutive days.

Paraclete- another name for the Holy Spirit.

Paschal- Of or relating to Easter. ( paschal mystery = Christ's Resurrection)

Piety- A devout act, thought, or statement.

Presbyter- An elder of the congregation in the early Christian church.

Protestant- A person who believes in Christ and has been baptized, but who does not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety, but rather is a member of a Protestant church or ecclesial community whose roots are in the Reformation, begun in the sixteenth century.

Pulpit- An elevated platform, lectern, or stand used in preaching or conducting a religious service.

Requiem-  A mass for a deceased person.

Sacrament- A rite believed to be a means of or visible form of grace.

Sacristy- A room in a church housing the sacred vessels and vestments; a vestry.

Sanctifying Grace- The grace which heals our human nature wounded by sin by giving us a share in the divine life of the Trinity. It is a habitual, supernatural gift which continues the work of sanctifying us of making us "perfect," holy, and Christlike.

Sanctuary-  A  sacred place, such as a church, temple, or mosque.

Trituum- a  period of three days for prayer before a feast

Veneration- Profound respect or reverence

These definitions came from http://www.thesacredheart.com/dictnary.htm#P and http://www.thefreedictionary.com/.

DAY 27: Mortal vs Venial Sins

     "If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly." (1 John 5:16-17).

     "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

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     There are many ways in which a sin can be committed. At a Catholic mass, one of the prayers at the beginning of the service is the confiteor, a confession. Through it, I learned the ways you can sin. Sins aren't just things you have said or done, its the things you thought or didn't do. For example, breaking a promise is a sin. Below is the prayer:
  fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. "   (http://www.saintaquinas.com/prayers.html)
     I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own

  In the Bible, it implies that some sins are worse than others. These are called mortal sins. Mortal sins mean complete cut off from God. As the catechism puts it, "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him... Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." Such a sin must be confessed to a priest through confession... OR ELSE! Actually, that's true. If you commit a mortal sin and don't confess, not only will you probably go to jail for a long time (such as the case of murder) you will go to hell after you die. (Now that I think about it, that's probably why they have chapels in jails across the country....) The catechism also states that "grave matter" (not necessarily mortal sin) is specified by the 10 Commandments: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, honor your Mother and Father.... " The gravity of sin is more or less great: murder is graver than theft... violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger."
     As http://www.saintaquinas.com/mortal_sin.html says, "The Church also tells us that the sins of anger, blasphemy, envy, hatred, malice, murder, neglect of Sunday obligation, sins against faith (incredulity against God or heresy), sins against hope (obstinate despair in the hope for salvation and/or presumption that oneself can live without God or be saved by one’s own power) and sins against love (indifference towards charity, ingratitude, and/or hatred of God) also constitute grave matter." They also say that voluntary murder (Genesis 4:10), sin of impurity against nature –Sodomy and homosexual relations (Genesis 18:20), taking advantage of the poor (Exodus 2:23), defrauding the workingman of his wages (James 5:4) as well as pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth are mortal sins.
     That is twice now I've mentioned homosexuality So let me make it understood; the sin is not being gay. The sin is acting on the gayness- so sodomy.
     Venial sin are sins that do not meet the requirements of a mortal sin. "Venial sin allow charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it." the catechism states, "one commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in  a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent."
     There are also capital sins which I have put in with the mortal sins. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth. " They are called 'capital' because they engender other sins, other vices" So these sins lead to other sins. If you are envious or wrathful, for example, you may commit murder.

     If you have committed any sins, especially any mortal or capital sins, you should go to confession. (I need to go too- I'm not perfect.) Find a local Catholic church and see when they offer confession and then go. Remember, it will bring you closer to God. If you cry in the confessional (which I have been known to do) don't feel bad it adds honesty and sincerity to confession. If you don't cry, don't worry about it, it probably means that you haven't done something seriously wrong or you just don't feel horribly guilty. It's not a big deal either way. Well, I hope everyone has fun at confession. :)

DAY 26: Holy Water

     Water has always been an important part of the church. It has symbolized baptism, rebirth, and cleansing throughout the Bible. In Exodus, the Red Sea, sets the Isrealites free. Before entering their temples, " the Jews underwent a purification process by immersion in a mikvah (it looks like a mini swimming pool...) These ritual purifications by water were the bases of Christian Baptism, which we (Catholics) recall when we bless ourselves (cross ourselves) using holy water upon entering our churches. Devoutly blessing one's self with Holy Water forgives minor sins. " (http://www.fisheaters.com/water.html) When you enter a Catholic Church or Cathedral, you may see water fonts on either side of the door or standing free.
     Other than this traditional weekly reminder of the baptism, there are certain masses at which a Priest sprinkles water on the congregation such as on Easter Sunday. On this day he walks through the church with an aspersory and an aspergill. (the first is the bucket of water, the second the stick? that the priest uses to sprinkle the water onto the people.)
     This sprinkling, called asperges, can sometimes be found prior to the beginning of the weekly masses. I'm not 100% sure of anything about this practice, because I have never seen it implemtented in any of the Catholic Churches I've been to, but perhaps I may encounter it at World Youth Day in August...? (WYD is an international gathering of young Catholics in one city every three years. This year it's in Madrid, Spain.) According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: “The ceremony [of the Asperges me and the Vidi Aquam] has been in use at least from the tenth century, growing out of the custom of early antiquity of blessing water for the faithful on Sundays.”


A little Latin lesson: asperges means thou shalt sprinkle... bet you didn't guess that one!  : )

DAY 25: What are annulments?

     Annulments are not divorces. They invalidate a marriage by stating it was never valid. If you were never actually married, how can you get a divorce? Although that sounds like circular reasoning, it makes more sense when you get into it. Remember, marriage is one of the 7 sacraments. Marriage is of God, from God, and for God. It is meant to be holy and full of grace. If it is not, the Church can then argue that the marriage was invalid because it did not meet God's guidelines for matrimony. The Church believes God's guidelines for marriage are consent (to leave your family and start a new one),  permanence (commitment to a lifelong union), and fidelity (the action of starting a family.) We take this belief from Genesis: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."  
   This idea of invalidating such a marriage is not new. Even in the Bible there are stories of times when God set aside invalid marriages. In Genesis 21:14, for example, God calls Abraham to cast out Hagar, the slave woman through whom he (Abraham) had a son. Another example is found in Ezra Chapter 10, when the men who had taken foreign wives send them and their children away in order to do God's will. In Deuteronomy, God had told them not to do this deed- thus, the marriages were unholy.
     There can be a fee for the annulment proccess ($200-$1000) and civil divorce is sometimes a preresequeite-but not always. There are many reasons that would invalidate a marriage including: insuffeicient age(too young, age difference...)  forced weddings, blood relations closer than 2nd cousin, unwillingnes to bear children, murder of one spouse in order to marry another, a previous "valid" marriage, and drug use- among other things.
    

     I hope someone is reading my blog..... HELLLLOOOOO??? IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?
 

DAY 24: Church Heirarchy

     Some non- Catholics claim that since the Catholic faith has a heirarchy, it is a monarchy.Since a monarchy is supreme power held by a single person,  I suppose that, in some sense, it is, because we rely on the power of one God. ( Yes, I said God, not the Pope. Remember, the Pope is acting under God's commandments.) Would you call our God- the God all Christians share, the God of Jacob, Abraham and our Lord Jesus Christ- a Monarch? or would you call Him a loving, caring, and living God? But now that I've exhausted that tangent, I should get back to what I was saying. Church Heirarchy. It is very patriarchal- that is constant with its foundations in the Jewish faith. Below is a pyramid displaying the order of power in the church. (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922582.html)

Any questions or suggestions? Please comment, and God Bless! I also have a prayer request for a family friend who has cancer. If you could all pray.... Thanks.

DAY 23: tradition vs Tradition

This was Adriana's idea about a week or so ago....

tradition- the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice. (dictionary.com)

Tradition (Sacred Tradition)- a specific body of unchanging divine revelation. (Al Kresta)

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Sacred Tradition is not "doing it as we've always done it, but rather it is the Word of God. As the Catechism says is "comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teachings and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit." Consequently, " The first generation of Christians did not have a written New Testament" This Tradition is not perfect, however. with the letters of Paul to the Ephesians, we see that he was there proclaiming the word for three years (Acts 20:27) yet in the book of Ephesians that there are only 6 chapters.

Even with the differences in Catholic and Protestant Bibles, it is still the only form of Sacred tradition we (Christians) share. It is through Tradition that the Holy Spirit makes God present among us.

So I guess that's it tonight. Short. Sweet. And simple. Any Questions?  Comment!