St. Basil the Great

If you missed it, his feast day was January 2nd.

St. Basil the Great was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330. He was one of ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. Several of his brothers and sisters are honored among the saints. He attended school in Caesarea, as well as Constantinople and Athens, where he became acquainted with St. Gregory Nazianzen in 352. A little later, he opened a school of oratory in Caesarea and practiced law. Eventually he decided to become a monk and found a monastery in Pontus which he directed for five years. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has proved the most lasting of those in the East. After founding several other monasteries, he was ordained and, in 370, made Bishop of Caesaria. In this post until his death in 379, he continued to be a man of vast learning and constant activity, genuine eloquence and immense charity. This earned for him the title of "Great" during his life and Doctor of the Church after his death. Basil was one of the giants of the early Church. He was responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over Arianism in the Byzantine East, and the denunciation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381-82 was in large measure due to his efforts. Basil fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was learned, accomplished in statesmanship, a man of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity.

Copied from "Saints" section of catholic.org

Belief

Thus belief embraces, as essential parts of itself, the profession of faith, the word and the unity which it effects; it embraces entry into the community's worship of God and so finally the fellowship which we call Church. Christian belief is not an idea but life; it is not mind existing for itself, but incarnation, mind in the body of history and its "We". It is not the mysticism of the self-identification of the mind with God, but obedience and service; the outstripping of oneself, liberation of the self precisely through its being taken into service by something not made or thought out by myself, the liberation of being taken into service of the whole.

This is by Professor Joseph Ratzinger [ now Pope Benedict XVI] in Introduction to Christianity 1968.

The Challange

I left this comment on a very nice man's blog, it will be fun to see if he responds. Regardless, I offer it to you LORD.

I just want to commend you for allowing the discussion to take place on your blog and most of all for your comments. You demonstrated a genuine desire to listen and learn.

Since I want to make this brief, I hope to say at least one thing to catch your interest. I had the luxury of passionately pursuing, in the quiet of my study, the answers to many of the questions posted without the many various personal opinions of others getting me off track. I just started working my way back through church history asking questions that would lead me into truth.

I don't have a concise biography to send you but I am willing to share transparently with you my journey from devout, pro-life, committed Christian of a Baptist heritage to a devout, pro-life, committed Christian of the Catholic heritage. I'm 40 years old.

My challenge to you is to ask the right questions. Distill the 1000 questions down to a few of the most essential that make or break the vast majority of the other questions. If anyone is genuinely willing to seek the truth, it will be found. I went to the source documents myself, scripture, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Encyclicals by Popes, and the earliest writings of arguments against the Catholic Church. I was able to weigh the evidence in meditation, reading, and discussion with my wife and oldest children.

I would have never considered or read anything Catholic simply because it never crossed my path until I became convinced by the Holy Spirit that contraception was part of the culture of death. Every branch of Christianity opposed all form of contraception until the Church of England broke in the 1930s. My own heritage of Fundamentalism mostly opposed it until the 1960s on a purely scriptural basis. The contraceptive pill was the step that landed in abortion. This is fact I will back up with all the logic, statistics, and reasons you require. It is true. One Church stood alone in opposition to this intrinsic evil and recognized it for what it was and is. Amazingly, its leadership (nearly one man, Pope Paul VI) stood in opposition to internal acceptance. He clearly stated what was wrong with contraception and what would happen with accepting its use in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. When I read it , integrity and a genuine desire to walk in the truth would not let me rest until I had confronted every obstacle in my path to Catholicism. It was either the greatest fluke of all time or the real deposit of faith.

My brother in Christ, I am not trying to convert you. I am merely proclaiming what I believe to be the truth and I am willing to back every claim. My 15 year old could answer each and every claim herself. Put her to the test. The sad reality is so many people refuse to test what they say they believe. You can attack every claim by the Catholic Church with my 15 year old and she will answer every one them because she is grounded in the truth.

I guess in some way I am throwing down the gauntlet. If you are curious link to the "young apologist" from my blog or engage me. She is much more generous and gentle than me, but I don't waste any time in asking the real tough questions.

May the peace of Christ be with you.
David Ulmer

Expecting number 8

Psalms 127

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (KJV)

I'm amazed that after so many years of reading these truths they sound so fresh and alive. When I am tired, I am often laboring in vain. It must be the LORD that builds the house. I must focus on the Fear of the LORD. Everything I desire comes to those who fear the LORD. Just read the next chapter.

Blessed is every one that fears the LORD; that walks in his ways.

For thou shalt eat the labor of your hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that fears the LORD.

I guess these verses convinced me that I needed to learn the Fear of the LORD and apply it. Now more than ever I need to live Proverbs 2:1-5 and may I see my children's children walking with Christ.

Autobasileia is Salvation

Autobasileia is as Origen describes, the "Kingdom in person". It is Jesus.

Pope Benedict says in his book Jesus of Nazareth (p. 49),

Jesus himself is the Kingdom; the Kingdom is not a thing, it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kingdoms. It is a person; it is he. On this interpretation, the term "Kingdom of God" is itself a veiled Christology. By the way in which he speaks of the Kingdom of God, Jesus leads men to realize the overwhelming fact that in him God himself is present among them, that he is God's presence.

This sense of Christ as the embodiment of infinite realities is crucial in truly understanding reality itself, for Christ is the reality (Col. 2:17). When one attempts to define the Kingdom of God as something less than Christ himself, it will always fall short.

This is true in regards to salvation. Salvation is a mystery and a reality that begs definition. Real spiritual mysteries are infinitely knowable, so we have the study of salvation in Christ known as soteriology. Yet, so many gifted, godly, and great theologians fail to recognize the simplest, yet most profound truth, that salvation is a person. That person is Jesus Christ.

In language as in our thoughts, a noun must be either a person, place, or thing. But the truth of Salvation goes beyond man's attempts to narrow and define. Salvation is a person, place, and thing. That person is Jesus, the place is Jesus, and the event is Jesus. He is the Gospel. Jesus is the Good News.

When my sadly mistaken, Protestant brothers in Christ say the Roman Catholic Church preaches a different Gospel, they are actually revealing the fact that they either don't know what the Catholic Church professes or they have narrowly defined their Gospel to fit their doctrine rather than reality. Many have tried to narrow the definition of Salvation to an event, yet even their understanding of the "event" of Salvation has fallen short. They even go so far as to narrow their definition of salvation to a moment in time.

Even then they sadly make the focus of their truncated view of salvation to be some event in their life not the moment Christ said "it is finished", the moment he shed his blood, the moment he died, the moment he arose, the moment he ascended into heaven, or the moment he returns. The great irony is they accuse the Catholic of salvation by works and then define salvation as some moment THEY do something.

The true Evangelical, Pope Benedict XVI, demonstrates a clear understanding of this in discussing the disciple's mission on p. 173 of his book Jesus of Nazareth:

The first task is preaching: to give people the light of the word, the message of Jesus. The Apostles are first and foremost Evangelists - like Jesus, they preach the Kingdom of God and thereby gather people into God's new family. But the preaching of God's Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event. God's Word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him.

The emphasis added was mine, because protestant Evangelicals preach a Gospel that says you must get saved, and that moment is the main event. The true Gospel preserved in the Roman Catholic Church says that you must get the Savior. They say that the moment you get saved you get Jesus. We say that every moment is an opportunity to get Jesus, to be more like Him or to draw nearer to Him. He must increase and we must decrease. Salvation can only be understood as a process. As a person, Salvation is a growing relationship with Jesus. As a place, Salvation is drawing closer to Jesus. As an event, Salvation transcends all of time from its beginning to infinity, AND BEYOND!.

When someone describes something it can easily be true even if it falls short of complete. However, if that person then claims to have a complete description or narrow it by saying what it is not then they have raised the bar on whether their claim is true or not. This is my point of contention with those who claim things like "faith alone", "salvation is not a process", or the Catholic Church teaches a "different Gospel" than found in the scripture. Claiming that salvation is a process does not exclude moments, but the "moment only" message excludes the process. I can see moments of salvation described and experienced in scripture but scripture absolutely teaches nowhere "moment only" or "faith alone". It clearly states just the opposite in Paul's command to work out your salvation and in Jame's statement that we are not justified by faith alone.

This pattern of error, which is to truncate the truth, can be clearly seen in regard to the canon of scripture and in regard to Ecclesiastic authority as well. Their Bible is not complete and the concept of "sola scriptura" is incomplete. They fail to recognize the full canon. They also refuse to admit that perfect truth in the scripture must have an interpretation without error to be true. The interpretation can be true even though it may be incomplete, but it must be infallible to be true. The Scripture does little good without accurate preservation, translation, and interpretation.

Open letter to engaged couples

Dear young couple,

When we were engaged we sought direction from married couples and the current popular Christian books on the subject of contraception in marriage. We desired with all our hearts to worship and honor God in our sexual union. From many books and leaders of Evangelical Christianity, we got the same message that the Bible did not speak specifically about this issue. Therefore, it was a “personal” decision to be made with your doctor’s advice.

We muddled along but kept searching for the truth. How could the most significant physical/spiritual act in creation, “procreation” be something in which only my physician could give me direction? It is obvious to us now how the secular world with its “culture of death” is winning the battle against Life, when Christians only see the sexual union as something physical to be under the direction of a physician. Sadly, to many Christians, fertility is just something to be manipulated like a runny nose. But in reality, it is a precious gift and privilege from God.

Primarily, Natural Family Planning is about inviting the Holy Spirit into the marriage bed. Practically, NFP is about “fertility awareness” and responsible parenthood. Practicing NFP, especially in our overly sexualized culture, gives couples a powerful tool in unselfishly honoring one another in physical intimacy. Statistically, even for purely health conscious reasons, couples that practice this method have less than a 5% chance of divorce. It is even less when couples have a genuine desire to be in harmony with the way God designed us to live out the marriage covenant in self-giving love.

Our prayer is that you, as a couple, will be generous in the service of life and be a witness to the world of what a godly marriage should be!

Choose Life!

The Mass "Il est là!" He is there!

The Mass is the best place in the world for me. Yet, I struggle with resentment and anger toward those that profane the mass, especially with a lack of respect for Christ's presence. May God humble me and help me to teach others what this dear saint knew and expressed in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Jean–Marie Vianney, "All good works put together are not equivalent to the Sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men and the Holy Mass is the work of God." It is in the Mass that the sacrifice of Calvary is made present for the Redemption of the world. Clearly, the priest must unite the daily gift of himself to the offering of the Mass: "How well a priest does, therefore, to offer himself to God in sacrifice every morning!"

Read this article here. "The Holy Mass is the Work of God"