Dear Readers,
My name is Fr. Franz Devantier of Saint Titus, Independent Old Catholic Church (IOCC) of Africa, operating in South Africa, and also creator of this blog. My background was that of a liberal Catholic Priest, and a Traditional Catholic Priest in South Africa, and then an independent Priest in the Catholic tradition. I was incardinated into the IOCC by Archbishop-Primate Emeritus Maurice McCormick founder of the IOCC of America.
Primate Archbishop George Le Mesurier, IOCC of America
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Bishop George Otieno Odhiambo, IOCC of Africa
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
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Bishop George Otieno Odhiambo, IOCC of Africa
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Father. Franz Devantier, IOCC South Africa
In
nomine Patris, et Filii, + et
Spititus Sancti. Amen (In the name of the father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. )
Forth Sunday in Lent - 10th March 2013 (Colour of
Celebration – Rose or Violet)
Traditional
Catholics:
Rejoice. This Sunday
offers us a break in the midst of Lenten observance. We are soon to rise again with Jesus through
confession and Easter Communion.
Liberal
Catholics: (Refreshment Sunday)
Intent for this Sunday: Spiritual Refreshment.
Roman Catholics:
(Ninth Sunday of the Year)
O
look at me and be merciful, for I am wretched and alone. See my hardship and my poverty, and pardon
all my sins.
Commemoration of the Saints
March 10th: The Forty Holy Martyrs: Under Licinius, forty soldiers of the
garrison of Sebaste (Armenia) were exposed on a frozen pond for refusing to
sacrifice to idols. All persevered but
one, whose courage failed him, and perished in a bath of tepid water prepared
for him. But their guard, inspired by
grace, took his place and died with them, so there were forty martyrs still. They suffered A.D. 320.
March 12th: St. Gregory I (Pope, Confessor, and Doctor of
the Church).
Announcements:
·
We are still
collecting names for submission as Marriage officers, under Saint Titus. If you would like to become a marriage officer
under Saint Titus, then please contact Fr. Franz devantierf@gmail.com
News:
Pope Benedict XVI
·
Normally, the College of Cardinals is not allowed to
select a new pontiff until 15 to 20 days after the office becomes vacant.
However, Benedict amended the 500-year-old policy to get a successor into place
more rapidly. The cardinals may be able
to do so before March 15. If this does
happen, the new pontiff will have more than a week to prepare for the March 24
Palm Sunday celebrations
Sacred References:
Galations, chapter 4 verses 22 to 31
John, chapter 6 verses 1 to 15.
Philippians, chapter 4 from 11th
verse.
Kings, chapter 8 verses 41 to 43.
Galations, chapter 1 verses 1 to 2
and verses 6 to 10.
Luke, chapter 7 verses 1 to 10.
Homily:
We
think of the one subject that many people on a spiritual path are concerned
with. By spiritual path we refer not
only to Christians, but to all the available disciplines that offer spiritual
paths. Perhaps an example of a very well
known spiritual path is the book “Pilgrims Progress”. The character “Pilgrim” gets onto the path
and undergoes all manner of adventures, some pleasant and others not so
pleasant. Each adventure along the path
teaches the pilgrim additional lessons, until we see the Pilgrim at the pearly
gates of heaven, and ready to pass through the gates.
This
is really refreshment Sunday. Many
people on the spiritual path have told me that it is a requirement to live in
poverty, in order to move through the gates of heaven. The one quote that is often thrown as a
reason is: “It is harder for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of heaven, then it is for a camel to move through the eye
of a needle”.
This
being the age of reason, the age of Aquarius we find ourselves questioning
everything. So a little research on Google
or similar methods is in order. It turns
out that the “eye of the needle”, is a gate in the wall of Jerusalem on the
back wall of the city. Merchants
sometimes entered the city through this gate, instead of travelling around to
the front of the city to the main gate.
The thing with this gate is that it is rather low. So in order for a Camel to enter through “The
eye of the needle” it had to get onto its knees. The Camel could walk through the gate on its
knees. So the lesson seems to be, that
in order for a rich man (or any other human being for that matter), to enter
the kingdom of heaven, he needs to enter on his knees. So we need to enter heaven on our knees,
which is a form of worship and adoration for Jesus the Christ, the Father and
the Holy Ghost.
The
lesson was never meant to be that Rich people could not enter the kingdom of
heaven, but that we all need to enter heaven in a certain frame of mind,
regardless of our earthly abundance or lack thereof. In fact some of the richest people ever to
grace this earth with their presence were keen followers of the Almighty. For example Job, who was described as the
richest man on the earth. King Solomon
who was not only exceptionally rich, but also the wisest man on the earth. When you read the stories you find that these
people indulged in a ritual on a regular basis.
The ritual consisted of prayers, contemplation, meditation and the study
of the nature of God. So across the
sands of time, ritual has probably been more important, than a persons worldly
possessions or lack thereof. Here is a
thought: If you are entrusted with a
certain amount of talents on this earthly plain, and demonstrate your ability
to the Christ, to the Father to the Holy Ghost, that you can not only look
after them, but nurture them, and cause
them to multiply.
When
you pass through the gates of heaven, and the records of your life are opened
to judge your worthiness to pass into heaven; do you think activities on this
earthly plain according to your abilities is taken into account? As we know there are many mansions in
heaven. Do you think that your status,
your function, and your purpose in heaven will be determined to some extent, by
what happened on this physical plain?
So
it seems that the various stages of poverty, of abundance, of middle class, of
lower class, of upper class; are all just various stages along the spiritual
path that we are all supposed to walk along.
The actual physical reality not being as important as the actual lessons
learnt. So for example one who earns
enough to look after himself and his immediate family, may have learnt the
lessons of the richest of the rich. The
lesson’s being of more importance than the physical reality. However because we are stuck in physical
reality, there are many times when we base or restrict our spiritual progress
upon the reality of what is around us.
So
when we are experiencing poverty and want, although we should be working to
overcome it; at the same time we should embrace the experience with all our
heart and learn the lessons that we need to learn. Once we have learnt the lessons, then we are
ready to move on to other lessons, which may or may not, involve being a middle
class type of person for example.
There
are times when we are happy, and times when we are sad. There are times when we don’t know how we
will get through the day. There are
times when we literally continue living one breath at a time. There are times when everything is going our
way and we feel on top of the world. All
of these experiences should be embraced, so that the lessons can be
learned. You know what they say, if you
don’t learn the lesson, then the lesson is presented to you again, and again,
but in a different way each time. Each
time you are presented with the same lessons, they tend to be of a more severe
nature.
The
Holy Trinity can and probably does use our physical needs and experiences in a
symphony of different ways to try to impart inner spiritual knowledge to
us. Many of us resist the process, and
the shortness of our lifespan catches up with as far too soon. Very sad would you not agree?
Let
us look at one such spiritual lesson that was presented to a group of five
thousand men about two thousand years ago.
Although if you think about it, it may have been more specifically
targeted at a mere twelve disciple’s; who had already learnt many other
lessons.
Jesus
is on a high mountain with his disciples, and a large group of people approach,
to hear what he has to say. All keen to
learn from the wisdom of his words. The
Christ gave them what they came for that day, but also used the limitations of
physical reality to teach some far more profound lessons to all present that
day. Lessons that could not have been
expressed in words, with the general understanding of the Universe amongst the
average man there that day.
After
some hours of teaching it turned out that the crowd of 5,000 were hungry. Nobody had brought any food with them that
day, except one young boy. This young boy’s
mother had packed lunch in for him. His
mother had packed in five small barley loaves, and two small fishes. Enough for one small boys lunch. This young boy demonstrated an advanced level
of spiritual development and understanding, when he offered to share his lunch
with the crowd of 5,000.
Jesus
the Christ welcomed the boy, took his five loaves and two fishes and started
giving thanks for the food and sharing it amongst the five thousand. To the amazement of everyone there that day,
they all ate their full. One small meal
which was just enough for a small boy, was also enough for five thousand people;
when passed through the hands of the Christ.
This act was a lesson in poverty, abundance, physical reality, and
pointed towards the different stages of the spiritual path. You would think that this would have been
enough, the lesson to embrace and give thanks for what you have.
The
Christ wanted to teach some far deeper concepts that day, by no co-incidence,
the specific type of food, and the number of pieces of that food told a far
deeper story. From the scraps collected after
everyone had eaten there full, there were twelve baskets full. There were twelve baskets of bread, symbolic
or representing the twelve disciples.
You see the disciples are symbolic of the bread of life, they were to
provide the bread of spiritual life to us, if and when the Christ was no longer
physically available to do it. The
Disciples were all trained personally by the Christ, and so were representatives
of the Christ when they brought the teachings to the people, and ultimately to the
rest of the world. The twelve disciples
are and always will be the twelve baskets of bread, symbolized in the disciplic
succession by the bishops who carry the disciplic succession. The Bishops are the only ones who can confer
the disciplic succession to others.
Everybody else is able to receive the disciplic succession from the
Bishops. Two thousand years later the
Bishops are the ones who are bringing us our share of spiritual bread, directly
from the Christ.
The
significance of there being two fish, is that the sign of Pisces is represented
by two fish. However this has nothing to
do with the sun sign, it was symbolic of the age. The two fish in the little boys lunch
represented the “Age of Pisces”. The
various ages are represented by the 24 thousand year wobble that the earth
undergoes. The poles describe a circle
around the band of sky known as the zodiac.
Again there are twelve disciples, and so there are twelve signs of the
zodiac, which again is no co-incidence.
Each age lasts for two thousand years, and takes on the properties of
the specific set of galaxies associated with the age. For example the age of Pisces which was just
starting, was a legalistic age in which you did what you were told to do,
mainly without question. Now we are at
the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, which is the age of reason, the age of
knowledge, the age of questioning, the age of personnel freedom. Just look around you; can you see any
evidence in the world today of this?
From a spiritual perspective, the most important thing in the Age of Aquarius
is ritual.
So
the Christ was speaking to us in symbols those two thousand years ago, about
how the limited number of Clergy members would be able to provide the entire
world with spiritual bread. The Christ was
symbolically telling us that the ages would change, in this case from the Age
of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius; but the bread of heaven, the bread of
spiritual knowledge would not change. In
other words, the Ages would change, but the Christ would not change.
In
my specific linage I am connected through my bishops, all the way back to Saint
Peter, and to the Christ himself. Many
of the protestant churches have lost the disciplic succession. It is my earnest desire that a sympathetic bishop
will one day restore the disciplic succession to the protestant churches.
So
the lesson for us is to look to the spiritual level, the higher level, the
level of the divine, the level of the Almighty, to grant us refreshment today. Refreshment is not specifically coming from
the physical side, although it might do.
A refreshment that typically has nothing to do with the physical reality
of what is actually around us. A
refreshment that can be both spiritual and physically refreshing.
Earlier
on I mentioned the importance of ritual in this Age of Aquarius. What is the
one ritual that most of us can do on a regular basis, despite the limitations
on this temporary physical plain? Well,
we can say a prayer, even the one prayer that was taught to us by the Christ
himself, and carries volumes of spiritual lessons hidden in its apparently simple
words. “The Pater Noster”.
Instructed
by the sacred words of scripture and following the tradition of holy church
from old, we now say:
Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name: Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil.
[Protestants
can optionally add: For Thine is the
kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.]
Amen.
Benediction:
The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, Christ our
Lord; and the Blessing of God almighty, the Father, + the Son and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you
always. Amen.
Love,
Rev. Fr. Franz Devantier of Saint Titus, IOCC, South Africa,
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