In the previous post I explained Catholic doctrine that all of the faithful comprise the “baptismal” or “common priesthood.” Now I will start to explain the “ministerial priesthood” of the Catholic Church.
The first thing that one must understand is that “priest” is not a fancy or exclusive word for “preacher.” When someone outside of the Catholic Church (or churches that retain the shared understanding of the priesthood) is conducting a praise and worship service, they are not “priests” by a different name. A priest is a person who is consecrated to God and who conducts sacrifice to God. Thus the second thing that you must understand is that the Catholic priests is a result of the merged faith understanding of that function from first of all the ancient priests of Israel and second the initiation of the Christian priesthood by Jesus Christ himself, first priest. Rather than explain this more, I will use the rest of this post to just cite explanatory passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The priesthood of the Old Covenant
1539 The chosen people was constituted by God as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” But within the people of Israel, God chose one of the twelve tribes, that of Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service; God himself is its inheritance. A special rite consecrated the beginnings of the priesthood of the Old Covenant. The priests are “appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
1540 Instituted to proclaim the Word of God and to restore communion with God by sacrifices and prayer, this priesthood nevertheless remains powerless to bring about salvation, needing to repeat its sacrifices ceaselessly and being unable to achieve a definitive sanctification, which only the sacrifice of Christ would accomplish.
1541 The liturgy of the Church, however, sees in the priesthood of Aaron and the service of the Levites, as in the institution of the seventy elders, a prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant…
1544 Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the “one mediator between God and men.” The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, “priest of God Most High,” as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique “high priest after the order of Melchizedek”; “holy, blameless, unstained,” “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified,” that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.
[If you want to find the Biblical reference of Melchizedek read Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek was “the priest of the Most High God” who blessed Abraham, when he was still named Abram. After that blessing it is then that God appears to Abram to encourage and direct him, and to promise him the multiplying of his seed like stars (fathering the divine faiths). Further, in Psalm 110:4 King David recalls Melchizedek by name as the role model of all priests. Thus, St. Paul in his Letter to the Hebrews 7:1-13 like King David cites Melchizedek as the role model of the office of the priesthood and links Jesus Christ as priest to Melchizedek Hebrews 7:14-28 and also in Hebrews 5:1-10.]
1545 The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The same is true of the one priesthood of Christ; it is made present through the ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ’s priesthood: “Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers.”
[The Sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist is, as I’ve explained in the first post in this series, the invitation to be at the table of Jesus Christ as in the Last Supper in his physical presence. It is not, as some extremists falsely accuse, denying that Jesus Christ is the only priest and further that he was sacrificed once for all. Catholics are not “redoing” Christ’s sacrifice over and over; Catholics offer the daily ability to attend the first, only and for all sacrifice in the form of attending Jesus Christ at his table.]
1548 In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis…
1551 This priesthood is ministerial. “That office … which the Lord committed to the pastors of his people, is in the strict sense of the term a service.” It is entirely related to Christ and to men. It depends entirely on Christ and on his unique priesthood; it has been instituted for the good of men and the communion of the Church. The sacrament of Holy Orders communicates a “sacred power” which is none other than that of Christ. The exercise of this authority must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by love made himself the least and the servant of all. “The Lord said clearly that concern for his flock was proof of love for him.”
1552 The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing Christ-Head of the Church-before the assembly of the faithful, but also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice.”
1555 “Among those various offices which have been exercised in the Church from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of tradition, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of the apostolic line.”
1556 To fulfill their exalted mission, “the apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the imposition of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the gift of the Spirit, which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration.”
[To explain the latter quite simply: All bishops can trace their consecration, the “laying on of the hands” both symbolically and literally to the Apostles of Jesus Christ. Yes, you read correctly. There has been an unbroken chain of the “laying on of hands” from the Apostles to today’s bishops. You can view that with names provided to as early as can be documented (names exist back to the one Cardinal, Scipione Cardinal Rebiba (1541-1577), written records before that were not kept) on the web site of the Catholic hierarchy. Here are links for several bishops, cardinals and Popes and if you look at the left hand column, you see that “laying on of hands” Apostolic lineage. For example, in the apostolic lineage of Pope John Paul II, you can count twenty one “laying of hands consecrations” in his lineage back to Cardinal Rebiba.
The Apostolic lineage of Pope Benedict XVI:
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bratz.html
The Apostolic lineage of Pope John Paul II:
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bwojtyla.html
The Apostolic lineage of Cardinal Egan (New York):
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/began.html
The Apostolic lineage of Bishop Besungu (Congo):
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbesu.html
So this is what you need to understand. When the average ordinary Catholic receives the sacrament of Confirmation, which is the laying on of hands by the Bishop, he or she is receiving the sanctifying laying on of hands that has been passed on in unbroken succession from the laying on of hands of the Apostles themselves. So when I as a thirteen year old received the sacrament of Confirmation, which I've written about before on this blog, my local Bishop in the laying of hands with consecrated oil is allowing the participation of the confirmed in the unbroken Apostolic succession of the laying on of hands.
Holy Orders-the priesthood-is the receiving of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that was given to the Apostles at Pentecost, and has been in unbroken chain passed down for nearly two thousand years to the present time through spiritual gift transmitted by the laying on of hands by the bishops to ordain bishops, priests and deacons.]
1594 The bishop receives the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders, which integrates him into the episcopal college and makes him the visible head of the particular Church entrusted to him. As successors of the apostles and members of the college, the bishops share in the apostolic responsibility and mission of the whole Church, under the authority of the Pope, successor of St. Peter.
1597 The sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by the laying on of hands followed by a solemn prayer of consecration asking God to grant the ordinand the graces of the Holy Spirit required for his ministry. Ordination imprints an indelible sacramental character.
1600 It is bishops who confer the sacrament of Holy Orders in the three degrees.
[The three degrees are bishops, priests and deacons.]
I hope that you have found this helpful and interesting!
Showing posts with label Confirmation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Confirmation. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Understanding faith in God via Catholic topics (2)
This next topic is so vast and important that I’m going to present it in easy to understand sections that build upon each other. The topic is the Catholic priesthood, and understanding what it is to be a priest.
First I must make the point that I am, as I explained in my introduction, using Catholic doctrine as the basis for this tutorial. This does not imply that only the Catholic Church contains the practices I describe throughout this series, as different Christian denominations maintain, or not, differing components from the mother Church. However, with the exception of the Orthodox Church, the “eastern tradition,” all Christians up until the Reformation had the common doctrine and furnishings of worship as I describe here in this series.
What is the priesthood, and what does it mean to be a Catholic priest, and where does the current structure of the priesthood come from? First, let me address a modern misconception that the priesthood is an “elite” position with a “job description.” That concept has never been true, and is wrong for two reasons. One is that under Catholic doctrine all the faithful are considered priests, called the “baptismal priesthood.” The second reason this is wrong is that the “ministerial priesthood” is not a job description to which one attains, but has its roots in the priesthood of the Old Covenant, which has the purpose of offering sacrifice.
So that you don’t have to believe me, but read the actual words of the Catholic Church, here are readings from the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” The correctness of the Catechism is, by the way, a responsibility of the Pope, one of his “job responsibilities!” This means that the Pope “signs off” on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all updates and clarifications. This is not a work of the Pope’s “infallibility” per se; it is, rather, one of his responsibilities as Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Jesus Christ to ensure accuracy and “quality control.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church is, to quote Pope John Paul II in his introduction, “a compendium of all catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals… a point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums that are prepared in various regions.” This means that the Catechism is a statement of doctrine that the Church has always maintained and guarded, but assembled into one reference book so that local churches can have the complete set of doctrine from which to draw upon as a resource locally. Pope John Paul II even calls it a “reference text.”
Thus, here is the Catholic doctrine regarding the priesthood of all the faithful.
Two participations in the one priesthood of Christ
1546 Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church, “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.” The whole community of believers is, as such, priestly. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation the faithful are “consecrated to be…a holy priesthood.”
Let me explain. Far from demeaning parishioners, the lay people, and “reserving priesthood for the elite hierarchy,” Catholic doctrine has always maintained that all the faithful are members of the priesthood. This is called the “baptismal priesthood,” and each member carries out their participation in the priesthood of Christ according to their vocation. I cannot tell you how annoyed I have been with non-Catholic Christians who blatantly lie, willfully or out of ignorance, that the Catholic priesthood is somehow elitist and separating of the people from Jesus Christ, when the opposite is true. In fairness in the crisis of faith that affects all Christians in this society, Catholics themselves of the past two generations have lost track of the realization that they, through Baptism and Confirmation, have been initiated into the very real priesthood of Jesus Christ. They are then speechless when non-Catholics criticize them, quoting from scriptures the very basis that yes, indeed, Catholic doctrine agrees, which is the priesthood of the faithful. I sigh in extreme exasperation and get headaches of annoyance, and my blood pressure rises, I won’t hide those facts from you.
While leaving discussion of infant Baptism and the sacrament of Confirmation to later tutorials, let me make this pertinent point. I’ve explained it before in posts under the tag of Baptism, but now you probably understand it more easily. Baptism of infants is a continuation of the washing and swaddling that Israelite infants received after their birth to bring them to the Temple and be initiated into their faith. John the Baptist did not “invent” baptism and he didn’t “mean for it to be for adults.” John the Baptist recognized that a new baptism will be needed when the Messiah comes; that no longer the washing of the infant, the putting of the infant in new swaddling clothes, and taking the infant to the Temple with the appropriate sacrifice made one a member of the faithful that the Messiah will call. John the Baptist, called by Jesus the greatest born of human woman, understood that a new Baptism is needed, of water and Spirit. This Baptism was given, obviously, to adults as the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant took place, with the coming of Jesus Christ. But the Catholic Church always understood that infants are to be consecrated to God at their birth, just as had been true of the Israelite infants. This is the Baptismal origin of both the practice of baptizing infants and the Catholic doctrine that upon their baptism they are part of the “baptismal priesthood.”
Recognizing that infants cannot have a vocation other than to be infants, the active period of the “baptismal priesthood” of children commences at their thirteenth birthday when they receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Again, without preempting what I want to explain about this sacrament in future tutorials, I will make some simple points. At thirteen in the Israelite tradition of the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, children are viewed as being adults regarding their responsibility to God and their faith. Confirmation is a continuation of that understanding and, again, it is where the Old Covenant meets the New Covenant. This is why the Catechism section that I have just quoted calls the priesthood of the Christian community, the laity, a “baptismal priesthood” but one where the faithful are fully “consecrated” “through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.”
Yes, you Catholic parents who are reading this and who have either not baptized your child or had them receive Confirmation; this is why there is a problem. It is not the Catholic Church being “mean” but rather, these are the steps one takes to be consecrated, to be made a sacred member of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, exactly as when in the Jewish faith, the Bar Mitzvah boy must actually study and do his Bar Mitzvah to be the Bar Mitzvah boy; just thinking good thoughts and going to synagogue is not the same.
So this directly addresses the dignity of the laity. The Catholic laity is not only dignified, it is priestly and each and every person, male or female, married, single or divorced, straight or gay, rich or poor are a member of the “baptismal priesthood” and are “consecrated” “in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king” if they have received Baptism and Confirmation, period. From the point of those sacraments onward, throughout one’s life, it is “each according to his own vocation” that the baptismal priest exercises their priesthood. Here is further explanation.
1547 The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, “each in its won proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ.” While being “ordered one to another,” they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace-a life of faith, hope, and charity, a life according to the Spirit-, the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is directed at the unfolding of baptismal grace of all Christians. The ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church. For this reason it is transmitted by its won sacrament, the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Notice that rather than being an upward hierarchy, “the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood.” Thus the “ministerial priesthood” serves the baptismal priesthood, the common priesthood. To summarize:
1591 The whole Church is a priestly people. Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the “common priesthood of the faithful.” Based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the Head in the midst of the community.
1592 The ministerial priesthood differs in essence from the common priesthood of the faithful because it confers a sacred power for the service of the faithful. The ordained ministers exercise their service for the People of God by teaching (munus docendi), divine worship (munus liturgeicum), and pastoral governance (munus regendi).
1121 The three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders confer, in addition to grace, a sacramental character or “seal” by which the Christian shares in Christ’s priesthood and is made a member of the Church according to different states and functions. This configuration to Christ and to the Church, brought about by the Spirit, is indelible; it remains for ever in the Christian as a positive disposition for grace, a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. Therefore these sacraments can never be repeated.
I’m going to wrap up this segment of discussion here, even though I know it raises even more questions! But I want to keep this a “one topic at a time” approach as much as possible. Therefore my summary point of this section is that Christians should understand that Catholics, through Baptism and Confirmation, are considered of the priesthood of Christ and that while this differs from the ministerial priesthood, there is a dignity of vocation that if anything is under-recognized and under utilized among Catholics themselves. Rather than agitating an erroneous belief that the Catholic “hierarch” somehow “keeps down the dignity” of the laity, everyone needs to understand that Catholic doctrine most clearly states as it has from Apostolic times that the opposite is true. When I write later about the apostolic basis for the understanding of the sacrament of Confirmation, you will see that even more clearly. I honestly have been disappointed with many Catholics at their lack of understanding of the dignity and the calling of the baptismal priesthood.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
First I must make the point that I am, as I explained in my introduction, using Catholic doctrine as the basis for this tutorial. This does not imply that only the Catholic Church contains the practices I describe throughout this series, as different Christian denominations maintain, or not, differing components from the mother Church. However, with the exception of the Orthodox Church, the “eastern tradition,” all Christians up until the Reformation had the common doctrine and furnishings of worship as I describe here in this series.
What is the priesthood, and what does it mean to be a Catholic priest, and where does the current structure of the priesthood come from? First, let me address a modern misconception that the priesthood is an “elite” position with a “job description.” That concept has never been true, and is wrong for two reasons. One is that under Catholic doctrine all the faithful are considered priests, called the “baptismal priesthood.” The second reason this is wrong is that the “ministerial priesthood” is not a job description to which one attains, but has its roots in the priesthood of the Old Covenant, which has the purpose of offering sacrifice.
So that you don’t have to believe me, but read the actual words of the Catholic Church, here are readings from the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” The correctness of the Catechism is, by the way, a responsibility of the Pope, one of his “job responsibilities!” This means that the Pope “signs off” on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and all updates and clarifications. This is not a work of the Pope’s “infallibility” per se; it is, rather, one of his responsibilities as Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Jesus Christ to ensure accuracy and “quality control.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church is, to quote Pope John Paul II in his introduction, “a compendium of all catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals… a point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums that are prepared in various regions.” This means that the Catechism is a statement of doctrine that the Church has always maintained and guarded, but assembled into one reference book so that local churches can have the complete set of doctrine from which to draw upon as a resource locally. Pope John Paul II even calls it a “reference text.”
Thus, here is the Catholic doctrine regarding the priesthood of all the faithful.
Two participations in the one priesthood of Christ
1546 Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church, “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.” The whole community of believers is, as such, priestly. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation the faithful are “consecrated to be…a holy priesthood.”
Let me explain. Far from demeaning parishioners, the lay people, and “reserving priesthood for the elite hierarchy,” Catholic doctrine has always maintained that all the faithful are members of the priesthood. This is called the “baptismal priesthood,” and each member carries out their participation in the priesthood of Christ according to their vocation. I cannot tell you how annoyed I have been with non-Catholic Christians who blatantly lie, willfully or out of ignorance, that the Catholic priesthood is somehow elitist and separating of the people from Jesus Christ, when the opposite is true. In fairness in the crisis of faith that affects all Christians in this society, Catholics themselves of the past two generations have lost track of the realization that they, through Baptism and Confirmation, have been initiated into the very real priesthood of Jesus Christ. They are then speechless when non-Catholics criticize them, quoting from scriptures the very basis that yes, indeed, Catholic doctrine agrees, which is the priesthood of the faithful. I sigh in extreme exasperation and get headaches of annoyance, and my blood pressure rises, I won’t hide those facts from you.
While leaving discussion of infant Baptism and the sacrament of Confirmation to later tutorials, let me make this pertinent point. I’ve explained it before in posts under the tag of Baptism, but now you probably understand it more easily. Baptism of infants is a continuation of the washing and swaddling that Israelite infants received after their birth to bring them to the Temple and be initiated into their faith. John the Baptist did not “invent” baptism and he didn’t “mean for it to be for adults.” John the Baptist recognized that a new baptism will be needed when the Messiah comes; that no longer the washing of the infant, the putting of the infant in new swaddling clothes, and taking the infant to the Temple with the appropriate sacrifice made one a member of the faithful that the Messiah will call. John the Baptist, called by Jesus the greatest born of human woman, understood that a new Baptism is needed, of water and Spirit. This Baptism was given, obviously, to adults as the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant took place, with the coming of Jesus Christ. But the Catholic Church always understood that infants are to be consecrated to God at their birth, just as had been true of the Israelite infants. This is the Baptismal origin of both the practice of baptizing infants and the Catholic doctrine that upon their baptism they are part of the “baptismal priesthood.”
Recognizing that infants cannot have a vocation other than to be infants, the active period of the “baptismal priesthood” of children commences at their thirteenth birthday when they receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Again, without preempting what I want to explain about this sacrament in future tutorials, I will make some simple points. At thirteen in the Israelite tradition of the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, children are viewed as being adults regarding their responsibility to God and their faith. Confirmation is a continuation of that understanding and, again, it is where the Old Covenant meets the New Covenant. This is why the Catechism section that I have just quoted calls the priesthood of the Christian community, the laity, a “baptismal priesthood” but one where the faithful are fully “consecrated” “through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.”
Yes, you Catholic parents who are reading this and who have either not baptized your child or had them receive Confirmation; this is why there is a problem. It is not the Catholic Church being “mean” but rather, these are the steps one takes to be consecrated, to be made a sacred member of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, exactly as when in the Jewish faith, the Bar Mitzvah boy must actually study and do his Bar Mitzvah to be the Bar Mitzvah boy; just thinking good thoughts and going to synagogue is not the same.
So this directly addresses the dignity of the laity. The Catholic laity is not only dignified, it is priestly and each and every person, male or female, married, single or divorced, straight or gay, rich or poor are a member of the “baptismal priesthood” and are “consecrated” “in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king” if they have received Baptism and Confirmation, period. From the point of those sacraments onward, throughout one’s life, it is “each according to his own vocation” that the baptismal priest exercises their priesthood. Here is further explanation.
1547 The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, “each in its won proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ.” While being “ordered one to another,” they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace-a life of faith, hope, and charity, a life according to the Spirit-, the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is directed at the unfolding of baptismal grace of all Christians. The ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church. For this reason it is transmitted by its won sacrament, the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Notice that rather than being an upward hierarchy, “the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood.” Thus the “ministerial priesthood” serves the baptismal priesthood, the common priesthood. To summarize:
1591 The whole Church is a priestly people. Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the “common priesthood of the faithful.” Based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the Head in the midst of the community.
1592 The ministerial priesthood differs in essence from the common priesthood of the faithful because it confers a sacred power for the service of the faithful. The ordained ministers exercise their service for the People of God by teaching (munus docendi), divine worship (munus liturgeicum), and pastoral governance (munus regendi).
1121 The three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders confer, in addition to grace, a sacramental character or “seal” by which the Christian shares in Christ’s priesthood and is made a member of the Church according to different states and functions. This configuration to Christ and to the Church, brought about by the Spirit, is indelible; it remains for ever in the Christian as a positive disposition for grace, a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. Therefore these sacraments can never be repeated.
I’m going to wrap up this segment of discussion here, even though I know it raises even more questions! But I want to keep this a “one topic at a time” approach as much as possible. Therefore my summary point of this section is that Christians should understand that Catholics, through Baptism and Confirmation, are considered of the priesthood of Christ and that while this differs from the ministerial priesthood, there is a dignity of vocation that if anything is under-recognized and under utilized among Catholics themselves. Rather than agitating an erroneous belief that the Catholic “hierarch” somehow “keeps down the dignity” of the laity, everyone needs to understand that Catholic doctrine most clearly states as it has from Apostolic times that the opposite is true. When I write later about the apostolic basis for the understanding of the sacrament of Confirmation, you will see that even more clearly. I honestly have been disappointed with many Catholics at their lack of understanding of the dignity and the calling of the baptismal priesthood.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
What I was like receiving the sacraments
Trying to be nice here and share some pleasant memories, and also think of questions and distortions that many might have about my point of view and experiences.
It is not at all difficult to be the "someone" (I've explained that before but basically when I say the "someone" I mean how I was born with total knowledge and context as witness to the reality of the one God, the content of the events in the Bible, and also the Qur'an) and still be a child and young adult.
For example, when I first had to start going to Confession (the sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation), unlike other children, I had nothing to confess. But I also am a born diplomat and was not ready to get into it with the nuns over a period of years how unlike other children, I didn't even have the little boo boo sins to confess. So I confessed things like lying, when what I meant was I'd say to someone "It's hot today," while one could argue that it was warm and not hot. So I'd think of a few instances where opinion could be held in speech but where I was not lying, but I could honestly "give that to the priest to work with" (they didn't ask too many questions about context or I'd have had a dilemma). So I managed to find things to "confess" that sounded "typical kid," but so I'd not be lying in the confessional either. So that's what Confession was like for me. I liked praying the prayers given as penance, but I could also appreciate wanting to get a priest who was one who gave out "light and easy" penances! :-)
My First Holy Communion was great. My father was still alive and he wore a wonderful suit and I had the whole communion dress, veil, gloves, white missal and purse, and I loved them. There are photos of me and my dad taken by my brother, and they are treasured because like I said, my dad did not live throughout my childhood and my Communion was one of our last big family events before he died. So I could enjoy all the aspects of Holy Communion because not only of my faith but my assurity of knowledge. Yet, I could still have the angst of a child, especially because I can witness to the sanctity of the sacrament itself. For example, in those days you could not touch the host with your hand, so the nuns spent plenty of time warning us that it would stick to the tops of our mouths and not to panic! But we could not touch inside our mouths to loosen the host. So the nuns got all of us pretty anxious! And sure enough, the first time I received, it stuck to the top of my mouth, and also my friend who was next to me. We panicked and got all weepy! The nun in front of us in the pew told us, just keep rubbing with our tongue and not to panic and that it would dissolve, and it did. So this is another example of how I could be "the someone" and also have a very human reaction in not wanting to mess up the rules! Gosh when I think how irreverential so many are today, I wonder how far adrift and negative everyone has become. It is sad. But anyway, it was a fine day even though I got teased for the crying. It was a very sunny and beautiful spring day in upstate New York, back when we had long and snowy winters.
One thing that made me and two other children very sad was that we could not receive our first Holy Communion, and also our Confirmation, which I am about to reminisce about, with the rest of the Catholics in our school class and age group. Three of us had to be "a year behind" because of arbitrary decision that December 1 birthdays were the cutoff point. So those of us with birthdays right before December were made to wait a year with the "little kids." We all found that to be terribly mortifying that we were held back from our class just because we had October and November birthdays. So I was not with my classmates when I had religious instruction for my first Holy Communion or Confirmation. In a small town and with kids you grew up with and attended class together with year after year, that was really shattering and the first real pain that I received that was unjust and unfair. I still remember sitting in religious instruction classes with kids I didn't know at all because they were a year behind me, and me and the two others just suffered through it.
By the way, in fairness, it was not the Church that caused the problem, it was the school system that let kids into kindergarten and then assigned subsequent grades based on the December 1 date. So I was in a grade where my best friend was just about a year older than me. The Church does its sacraments by age of eligibility. So one must be seven years old to receive one's first Holy Communion and go to Confession. That is because seven is the age where children are deemed in the church to be old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Thus children become "responsible for any sins that they commit" at the age of seven. That is why the Church assembles classes according to age, and not by school grade. And that makes perfect sense in doctrine even though it hurt to go through. So I have little tolerance for people today who rail against doctrine because of "hurt feelings" and it not being "fair." It IS fair and it IS correct; that is why it is Church doctrine. So suck it up and be obedient to the Church doctrine, as I was as a child, even when it hurt me a LOT.
In classes for Confirmation you get to choose your "saint name," called your "confirmation name." It becomes one of your middle names. Well, for boys that was great. But back in the early 1960's in a poor town girls had no access to books and so forth giving them choices of names. You basically got to choose between Mary and Catherine. I'm not exaggerating. Even Anne was not discussed as a possibility. So the girls basically chose one or the other and I went with Catherine. Cultists like to get all in a tizzy about that, looking for "a reason" that I "chose Catherine" (you know, past lives and all that). Well, bumble f's, in my class I still remember sitting in my usual seat (far right row about five seats back) and hearing, "Which will it be? Mary or Catherine?" LOL! There was no leafing through the missal being "inspired" by one saint or the other, or by other women. If a girl had said, "How about Anastasia" the nun would have undoubtedly beat her senseless! It is NOT how things were done back then. So there was absolutely no significance to my choosing Catherine.
I didn't mind, though, because I was honoring a saint by that name that I knew of very well. That was Catherine Laboure, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared and gave to her the Miraculous Medal. The Miraculous Medal had been revealed given to St. Catherine in 1830, and so by the 1960's I had already seen many miracles that resulted from this virtue. The Miraculous Medal was carried by many soldiers (including my dad) in World War II, and it also helped many conversions of dire sinners. So she was the Catherine that I had in mind.
Years later, of course, in a cynical and strange world, people got obsessed with Catherine of the wheel (since the method of torture is more interesting to humans nowadays than the context of the faith). And so some people I know "wanted me to have chosen Catherine of the wheel" so they could glom onto her torture and work that into my story, in their delusion. Others love Catherine of Sienna because she was a "mystic" and had these long rapturous "conversations" with Jesus, and so that camp "wanted me to have chosen Catherine of Sienna" so that they could, well, you get my drift. It shows how little anyone knows me. The saint I chose was the one that was a virgin who lived a quiet and holy life, only a century before, living to the age of 70 or so, but with one distinction. That is, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and gave her one of the greatest gifts for modern believers, one that had demonstrated its virtue for nearly a hundred years by the time I had to "choose" my Confirmation name. And that's as simple as that. She was a great lady by the way. I wish people would follow her example more than look for gory deaths or rapturous visions. She had to go against some strong personalities to get people in the Church to believe her, and then to get the medal worked and given to the world. She was beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1947 by the way, just about twenty years before my Confirmation. So she was very much of my real world and my priorities are always the here and now.
In Confirmation a Catholic is viewed as being an adult (age 13). It is one's Catholic bar mitzvah or bar mitzpah in a way. Again, it is another example of how the Catholic Church is the true church running straight and true from its roots in the Old Covenant to modern times. A Catholic child of 13 is viewed as being "an adult in the faith" and also a "soldier of Christ." That means there is knowledge that one can speak one's own mind about the faith, is responsible for one's own sin and also must be prepared to suffer or die for the faith. The highlight of it is the ceremony presided over by the Bishop, where each new "soldier of Christ" steps before the Bishop to get the symbolic slap on the face. Wow, were we excited about that! The slap symbolizes that each child is now a defender of the faith, and thus might face persecution and suffering. Of course the Bishop doesn't haul off and clout each kid, ha! But being kids, it gave us something to worry about. No one wanted to look like a wimp. Boys worried about that and girls worried about it hurting. So I worried about it hurting. So we lined up and approached him and just as the nuns promised, it was barely more than an open handed touch to the cheek, no slap at all really! But it was great performance anxiety for all of us young soldiers of Christ!
I hope you enjoyed my musings and reminiscing.
It is not at all difficult to be the "someone" (I've explained that before but basically when I say the "someone" I mean how I was born with total knowledge and context as witness to the reality of the one God, the content of the events in the Bible, and also the Qur'an) and still be a child and young adult.
For example, when I first had to start going to Confession (the sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation), unlike other children, I had nothing to confess. But I also am a born diplomat and was not ready to get into it with the nuns over a period of years how unlike other children, I didn't even have the little boo boo sins to confess. So I confessed things like lying, when what I meant was I'd say to someone "It's hot today," while one could argue that it was warm and not hot. So I'd think of a few instances where opinion could be held in speech but where I was not lying, but I could honestly "give that to the priest to work with" (they didn't ask too many questions about context or I'd have had a dilemma). So I managed to find things to "confess" that sounded "typical kid," but so I'd not be lying in the confessional either. So that's what Confession was like for me. I liked praying the prayers given as penance, but I could also appreciate wanting to get a priest who was one who gave out "light and easy" penances! :-)
My First Holy Communion was great. My father was still alive and he wore a wonderful suit and I had the whole communion dress, veil, gloves, white missal and purse, and I loved them. There are photos of me and my dad taken by my brother, and they are treasured because like I said, my dad did not live throughout my childhood and my Communion was one of our last big family events before he died. So I could enjoy all the aspects of Holy Communion because not only of my faith but my assurity of knowledge. Yet, I could still have the angst of a child, especially because I can witness to the sanctity of the sacrament itself. For example, in those days you could not touch the host with your hand, so the nuns spent plenty of time warning us that it would stick to the tops of our mouths and not to panic! But we could not touch inside our mouths to loosen the host. So the nuns got all of us pretty anxious! And sure enough, the first time I received, it stuck to the top of my mouth, and also my friend who was next to me. We panicked and got all weepy! The nun in front of us in the pew told us, just keep rubbing with our tongue and not to panic and that it would dissolve, and it did. So this is another example of how I could be "the someone" and also have a very human reaction in not wanting to mess up the rules! Gosh when I think how irreverential so many are today, I wonder how far adrift and negative everyone has become. It is sad. But anyway, it was a fine day even though I got teased for the crying. It was a very sunny and beautiful spring day in upstate New York, back when we had long and snowy winters.
One thing that made me and two other children very sad was that we could not receive our first Holy Communion, and also our Confirmation, which I am about to reminisce about, with the rest of the Catholics in our school class and age group. Three of us had to be "a year behind" because of arbitrary decision that December 1 birthdays were the cutoff point. So those of us with birthdays right before December were made to wait a year with the "little kids." We all found that to be terribly mortifying that we were held back from our class just because we had October and November birthdays. So I was not with my classmates when I had religious instruction for my first Holy Communion or Confirmation. In a small town and with kids you grew up with and attended class together with year after year, that was really shattering and the first real pain that I received that was unjust and unfair. I still remember sitting in religious instruction classes with kids I didn't know at all because they were a year behind me, and me and the two others just suffered through it.
By the way, in fairness, it was not the Church that caused the problem, it was the school system that let kids into kindergarten and then assigned subsequent grades based on the December 1 date. So I was in a grade where my best friend was just about a year older than me. The Church does its sacraments by age of eligibility. So one must be seven years old to receive one's first Holy Communion and go to Confession. That is because seven is the age where children are deemed in the church to be old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Thus children become "responsible for any sins that they commit" at the age of seven. That is why the Church assembles classes according to age, and not by school grade. And that makes perfect sense in doctrine even though it hurt to go through. So I have little tolerance for people today who rail against doctrine because of "hurt feelings" and it not being "fair." It IS fair and it IS correct; that is why it is Church doctrine. So suck it up and be obedient to the Church doctrine, as I was as a child, even when it hurt me a LOT.
In classes for Confirmation you get to choose your "saint name," called your "confirmation name." It becomes one of your middle names. Well, for boys that was great. But back in the early 1960's in a poor town girls had no access to books and so forth giving them choices of names. You basically got to choose between Mary and Catherine. I'm not exaggerating. Even Anne was not discussed as a possibility. So the girls basically chose one or the other and I went with Catherine. Cultists like to get all in a tizzy about that, looking for "a reason" that I "chose Catherine" (you know, past lives and all that). Well, bumble f's, in my class I still remember sitting in my usual seat (far right row about five seats back) and hearing, "Which will it be? Mary or Catherine?" LOL! There was no leafing through the missal being "inspired" by one saint or the other, or by other women. If a girl had said, "How about Anastasia" the nun would have undoubtedly beat her senseless! It is NOT how things were done back then. So there was absolutely no significance to my choosing Catherine.
I didn't mind, though, because I was honoring a saint by that name that I knew of very well. That was Catherine Laboure, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared and gave to her the Miraculous Medal. The Miraculous Medal had been revealed given to St. Catherine in 1830, and so by the 1960's I had already seen many miracles that resulted from this virtue. The Miraculous Medal was carried by many soldiers (including my dad) in World War II, and it also helped many conversions of dire sinners. So she was the Catherine that I had in mind.
Years later, of course, in a cynical and strange world, people got obsessed with Catherine of the wheel (since the method of torture is more interesting to humans nowadays than the context of the faith). And so some people I know "wanted me to have chosen Catherine of the wheel" so they could glom onto her torture and work that into my story, in their delusion. Others love Catherine of Sienna because she was a "mystic" and had these long rapturous "conversations" with Jesus, and so that camp "wanted me to have chosen Catherine of Sienna" so that they could, well, you get my drift. It shows how little anyone knows me. The saint I chose was the one that was a virgin who lived a quiet and holy life, only a century before, living to the age of 70 or so, but with one distinction. That is, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and gave her one of the greatest gifts for modern believers, one that had demonstrated its virtue for nearly a hundred years by the time I had to "choose" my Confirmation name. And that's as simple as that. She was a great lady by the way. I wish people would follow her example more than look for gory deaths or rapturous visions. She had to go against some strong personalities to get people in the Church to believe her, and then to get the medal worked and given to the world. She was beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1947 by the way, just about twenty years before my Confirmation. So she was very much of my real world and my priorities are always the here and now.
In Confirmation a Catholic is viewed as being an adult (age 13). It is one's Catholic bar mitzvah or bar mitzpah in a way. Again, it is another example of how the Catholic Church is the true church running straight and true from its roots in the Old Covenant to modern times. A Catholic child of 13 is viewed as being "an adult in the faith" and also a "soldier of Christ." That means there is knowledge that one can speak one's own mind about the faith, is responsible for one's own sin and also must be prepared to suffer or die for the faith. The highlight of it is the ceremony presided over by the Bishop, where each new "soldier of Christ" steps before the Bishop to get the symbolic slap on the face. Wow, were we excited about that! The slap symbolizes that each child is now a defender of the faith, and thus might face persecution and suffering. Of course the Bishop doesn't haul off and clout each kid, ha! But being kids, it gave us something to worry about. No one wanted to look like a wimp. Boys worried about that and girls worried about it hurting. So I worried about it hurting. So we lined up and approached him and just as the nuns promised, it was barely more than an open handed touch to the cheek, no slap at all really! But it was great performance anxiety for all of us young soldiers of Christ!
I hope you enjoyed my musings and reminiscing.
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