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. I was incardinated into the IOCC by
Archbishop-Primate Emeritus Maurice McCormick founder of the IOCC of
America. My background was that of a
liberal Catholic Priest, and a Traditional Catholic Priest in South Africa.
In
nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spiritus
Sancti. Amen (In the name of the father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. )
10th
Sunday after Pentecost – 28th July 2013 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
Intent: Devotion
Lord and Master, we thy servants continually do worship
thee with heartfelt praise and thanksgiving; may our fervent adoration rise
ever before thee like incense, until the light of our love becomes one with
thine infinite light, thou who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy
Ghost, one God throughout all ages of ages.
Amen.
The Church gives us today a true notion of Christian
humility. The Liturgy reminds us that
the humble soul is pleased to recognize its nothingness; only on this
condition, (and the soul knows it), will the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ
dwell in us.
Commemoration
of the Saints, for the coming week
Sunday July 28th
SS. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs
Nazarius and his disciple Celsus are two Milanese
martyrs. They were beheaded A.D. 67.
St Victor I, Pope, Martyr
St Victor successor of St Eleutherius, was martyred under
Septimus Severus A.D. 199.
St Innocent I, Pope, Confessor
Having like his comtemporaries St Jerome and St Ausgustine,
fought with his pen and his eloquence for the teaching of Christ, St Innocent,
the successor of St Anastasius, died A.D. 417.
Monday July 29th
St Martha, Virgin
Martha, sister of Mary Magdalen and Lazarus, lived at
Bethany a humble active life. She often
gave hospitality to our Lord. According
to one account they ended their days at Marseilles – St Lazarus as Bishop, St
Mary Magdalene as anchoress, St Martha as head of a small community of holy
woman.
Tuesday July 30th
Commemoration of SS.
Abdon and Sennen, Martyrs
Abdon and Sennen, natives of Persia, were arrested and
brought to Rome. They suffered martyrdom
under Decius A.D. 254.
Wednesday July 31st
St Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor
Ignatius, courtier and knight, was wounded at the siege of
Pamplona. During his long convalescence the
reading of the lives of the Saints revealed to him that the church militant
needed an army of glorious soldiers to fight the forces combined against
it: Pagans, Mohammedans, Protestants
etc. He founded the Society of Jesus and
as first General of this new spiritual chivalry he moved to the attack under
the motto: “Ad majorem Dei gloriam” which means “to the greater glory of God!”. He died with the Holy name of Jesus on his
lips A.D. 1556.
Thursday August 1st
Commemoration of the Holy Machabees, Martyrs.
These seven holy brothers suffered martyrdom under
Antiochus in the second century before Christ.
Friday August 2nd
St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of
the Church.
This Neopolitan nobleman renounced all earthy things. He established the Congregation of the Most
Holy Redeemer (Redemptonists) to preach the Gospel to the poor. Illustrious by his preaching and writings, he
was made to accept the bishopric of St Agatha in Southern Italy. He returned to his congregation and died A.D.
1787.
Announcements:
We are collecting members for Saint Titus, Ordinary
members, members who need baptism and confirmation, and candidate Priests, both
men and woman. We want to provide for
our members, all sorts of services that they may need, such as burial,
marriage, confession, and etc. We are
hoping to attract as many people as possible.
If you are interested, then please contact Fr. Franz devantierf@gmail.com
News:
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Sacred References:
Revelations, chapter 15, verse 2 onwards
John, chapter 4, verse 19 onwards
Homily:
In
the Gospel we are confronted with the woman of Samaria who have had an amazing
spiritual insight. Perhaps an insight
that was ahead of their time, and insight that may have earned them scorn from
society in general. They had recognized
Christ Jesus as a Prophet. Yes it is
easy for us, all these years later to point out that he was a prophet, and in
fact much more than that.
They
fell into a discussion with Christ Jesus about the best place to worship. Obviously there was a common and strong
opinion by society in general, that one should worship in the Mountain that was
in the area where they stayed. However
the opinion that one should worship rather in Jerusalem was becoming more and
more popular. They put this question to the
newly discovered prophet, Christ Jesus.
However
the Christ’s answers were perhaps difficult even for these relatively
enlightened woman to grasp. They were
told that perhaps they were missing the point when it came to where the best
place was to worship, because of their understanding of the nature of God. Because of the times in which they lived, and
because Christ Jesus had not yet died on the cross, it was not really possible
to explain it to them in a properly understandable way, that they could really
understand.
So
Christ Jesus had to explain that the hour will come, which really means that
the time will come, a time of much deeper understanding of spiritual things,
which unfortunately was not at that point in time. When that time came, then they would start to
understand that God is Spirit, and not flesh and bones like us, and therefore
not limited to a specific location. They
would need to worship God in spirit, and as such that worship could take place
at any location, because there are no physical limitations with spirit. The woman listened carefully, but obviously
the significance and wonder of this teaching had gone over their heads. You see they were not ready for it, the time
had not yet come, as it has for us by contrast.
So
the woman of Samaria, still trying to understand these truths that the “Prophet”
was speaking of, went on to talk about the scriptures with reference to the coming
of the Messias or Messiah. These woman
insisted that when the Messiah came, he who would be the Christ, he would
explain all these things to them. Jesus
explained to them, that he was in fact the Christ, the Messias. It seems that was the end of the discussion. Of course we now all know that he was and is
the Christ. These poor Samarian woman,
although spiritually advanced for their time, the information was just too
profound for them to properly grasp.
Let’s
look at ourselves for a moment, we who have all the benefit of hindsight, and
two thousand years of history to explain the significance of what was happening
in those times. Do we perform any better
these days? Recently I read reports that
there were two separate people in Africa and others in other parts of the world,
who claimed that they were the Christ.
If I asked you to tell me if this could be possible or not, what would
you say?
Would
you emphatically deny the possibility? Would
you consider that they may in fact just be prophets of God? Would you consider them to be confused brothers
and sisters, who perhaps needed the assistance of Psychological counselling, or
even psychiatric treatment? Would you feel
comfortable if they received shock treatment or chemotherapy for their
condition, in an attempt to get them back on track? Would you feel comfortable, if the leading
specialists of our time, executed certain medical procedures on them, to put a stop
to the delusions?
Yet
we know that Christ will return one day.
The Bible even speaks of reports of Christ’s from different parts of the
world in the last days. You see the
truth is we don’t know how the Christ will return to this earth. Let me ask you this, did he ever leave the
Earth? What exactly is the meaning of
Christ? Is Christ limited to Christ Jesus,
or is Christ bigger than that? The truth
is we don’t really know in what form the Christ will return. The Christ may return relatively slowly,
although it could feel sudden, in the form of multiple Christ’s all over the
world, all of them equally valid. Maybe
the Christ returns as one single personality, but will he return as a
politician, a church leader, mathematician, accountant, or as part of the
self-help industry? Of all the nations
on Earth, do you really think he would choose one specific nation, when he
symbolizes or is meant for everybody on earth?
He may return as a formula 1 racing car driver, or as a computer nerd,
do you really know; because the time as for those Samarian woman has not yet
arrived?
I
will leave you with these profound questions, for which there are not really
answers in the bible. Let’s just make it
clear though, there are well documented answers to these questions in writings
that are freely available, but may be controversial, and would require you to
stick your neck out big time, in order to just read them. Have you heard the saying, “when the student is
ready, the teacher will appear”?
Now
that was just some thoughts on the Gospel reading, then we get to the reading
from the book of revelations, which is potentially the most controversial book
in the Bible. You see in this book, we
are dealing with the writings of a highly developed spiritual man, a man who
had profound visions. Visions like dream’s,
need to be interpreted. The symbolism in
the vision needs to be matched to the meanings against the backdrop of the
specific society and period in history.
Then
to make the interpretation even more difficult, for anybody who has ever
interpreted dreams or visions for people.
Sometimes the generally accepted symbolism and its meanings do hold
true, but not consistently enough to cling too strongly too. You see you really need to be with the person
who had the dream or the vision, and to ask them what a specific symbol really
meant to them. Only then can you begin
to really understand the hidden meanings.
Now we don’t have that luxury, because of about two thousand years of
history which separate us.
So
let’s just jump straight in regardless.
We have the image of a sea of glass mingled with fire. What does a sea of glass mingled with fire
mean to you? Is it a peaceful warm environment,
or a hostile environment?
Now
on this sea of glass mingled with fire, we find a special group of people. We find a group of people who had gotten the
victory over the Beast, over his image, over the mark of the beast, over the
number of his name. Do you think that
this sea of glass mingled with fire, could be a battlefield, or the sweet
reward for winning the battle? Also
remember those that are not mentioned in this vision, those that had not
currently gotten the victory over the beast.
Where are they in this story, what is happening to them?
We
see them standing on a sea of Glass, with the harps of God, singing the song of
Moses the sevent of God. Now you see the
sea of Glass is portrayed as something that could be in front of the great
white throne of God. Did we interpret
the Sea of Glass mingled with fire correctly?
The harps of God probably refer to highly evolved or developed musical
instruments, and the song of Moses is a song that was written by a very
spiritual entity or being. Notice that
there is no sign of the beast in this illustration, it is as though the victory
of these people over the beast has excluded the Beast from this specific party.
And
we begin the song of Moses: “Great and Marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty”. This tells us who we are dealing with. But before we go on, can you really explain
to us in terms that leave no room for doubt in any way, exactly what “Lord God
Almighty” means? And the song goes on “Just
and true are thy ways, king of Saints”.
The words it seems are trying to explain to us something of the nature
of God; they must hold some sort of deep symbolism. The words go on “Thou only art Holy”, now
there is something special about that, it seems to refer to the fact that
although there are so many different religions on the earth there is only one “Thou
only art Holy”. Does this mean that all
the religions of the world are in fact worshipping the “Lord God Almighty”? Every religion says that there is only One
God, and claims to be the only right one, so which one is the right one? The answer comes in the mind blowing and
profound, and probably most misinterpreted words that follow.
“All
the nations shall come and worship before thee”. Now as you know different nations have
traditionally had different religions.
For example in India, the Hindu religion is very typical. In China you could expect to find Buddhists,
In the west you could expect to find Christians, in the middle east you could
expect to find Muslims, almost all over the world you could expect to find
Pagans. Now if all the nations are
worshipping the one God, then all the members of all the different religions
are worshipping the one God.
In
other words St John, may be speaking of the New one world religion. At first you could say, “wow I am sure the
church fathers did not see that one coming, when they closed the canon of the
bible”. However if you think about it a
bit more seriously, then you start realizing that perhaps that was exactly what
they saw, when they created the Catholic Church.
The
word Catholic really means Universal.
The Universal church is for everybody, regardless of what nation or
religion you come from. The catholic
religion was meant to be the one true religion for everyone. To be more correct, Christianity was to be
the one religion for everybody. To be
even more correct Christ, or whatever name you know him by came for everybody
on Earth, because there is only one God, and Christ came because of that one
God.
So
maybe now is the time to start redefining Christianity to be what it was
supposed to be. Redefine Christianity as
the one world religion, the religion for everybody. Eventually when the time is right, which may
be coming closer, as it was close for those Samarian woman who recognized that
Christ Jesus was a Prophet. When the
time is right, there will be those who step forward and redefine Christianity
as the Catholic / Universal / One world religion, that it was meant to be all
along. Will you be one of those who step
forward to take on this task?
I
could go on to describe how the words “Blessing and glory and wisdom and
thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be unto our God for ever and ever”,
really in a thinly veiled sort of way; describe the coming of the kingdom of
Heaven to Earth. Think about this; God
is very powerful, and when the power of God comes down to Earth, this power
will firstly destroy everything that is not in conformity, and then rebuild
things again, rebuild the Kingdom of heaven on earth. That word Power with reference to God is the
key, some people have called it Shamballa.
We have Shamballa reiki, which is very powerful, and starts to encourage
the power of God to descend on Earth. Shamballa
actively calls the power of God down to earth, as do all our prayers. Once this power comes down it is so powerful,
that it will either completely destroy the earth, or rebuild it, depending on
how ready we are spiritually for it. Are
you personally ready for the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth? Do you think that as a society,
as a global society, we are ready for the Kingdom of God to establish itself on
Earth? Will your soul be burnt up for
the time being as part of the dross that has to be purified, or will your soul
survive the fires of purification, and give you entrance to the Kingdom of
heaven on Earth? Is this what St John
was talking about, when he spoke about the Sea of Glass mingled with fire?
Church History – Article 5:
Resurrection Faith
The growth of the early Christian
Church was fuelled by the stimulation of the resurrection of Christ. Without the firm belief by the early disciples
in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, there may not have been Christianity as we
know it today, in fact it may have sizzled out.
The early disciples firmly believed that their master had conquered
death, and had appeared to many of them in person.
This resurrection faith explains
how a small group of demoralized disciples, after Christ Jesus had left this
earth, somehow developed the enthusiasm to sweep all obstacles before them, in
their bold world-wide mission, especially after Christ Jesus had ascended into
heaven . Imagine this, a few
disheartened followers of Christ Jesus were transformed into the most dynamic
movement in the history of mankind. They
were driven and inspired by their firm belief in the risen Christ.
After Christianity had made it
through the first hundred years, it started to attract more and more able
individuals. These new converts gave the
young faith the intellectual leaders it needed to stabilize it, as it spread to
all parts of the known world. As time
went on more and more people from all walks of life were attracted to Christianity.
As Christianity expanded, the
possibilities for deviation from the faith also expanded. The early church was faced with Gnosticism,
Marcionism and Montanism. The church
leaders of the second and third centuries attempted to set down exactly what it
was that Jesus and the Apostles taught.
One approach to achieving this was to trace a direct line back to the
Apostles. They researched a line of succession through a
line of Pastors, Bishops, Elders, and teachers, and back to the Apostles. This Apostolic succession was then seen as a guarantee
of the handling of genuine Apostolic teaching.
These leaders in Apostolic
succession, were then also referred to as the “Church Fathers”, and were also
tasked with deciding which of the writings in circulation amongst Christians were
genuinely Apostolic. Once these Apostolic
documents were identified, they were collected together as an authority. In this way the Canon of the New Testament
was formulated and generally accepted in the Christian world.
The Early church also had to
struggle against heresy and deviation from the teachings. The Church was greatly aided in its struggle
by the composition and use of the “Apostles Creed”. This was also part of trying to identify what
the original teaching of the Apostles was, and was also used to instil these
teachings into new converts. The creed
had grown over time from a formula which was originally used at baptism. This formula had given the basic statements
of the essence of Christian doctrines.
An element that greatly
contributed to the growth of early Christianity was persecution and martyrdom. To start with persecution was sporadic and
local. After the burning of Rome during
the reign of Emperor Nero in AD 64, the Christians were made the scapegoats for
the disaster. Christians were then
savagely tortured and burned, especially in and around Rome. Empire-wide persecutions were sporadic in the
third and early forth centuries. Large
numbers of Christians died heroically for their faith, the numbers were so
large, that exact estimates were not possible.
Very few of these Christians recanted their faith. It was so impressive for the onlookers to
watch the Christians who gladly died for Christ, that their places were more
than replaced by fresh converts.
Tertullian, a Christian writer wrote: “The Blood of the martyrs is seed”.
An Anglican Catechism
– Article 5:
Sin and Redemption
=>
What is sin?
Sin
is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our
relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.
=>
How does sin have power over us?
Sin
has power over us because we lose our liberty when our relationship with God is
distorted.
=>
What is redemption?
Redemption
is the act of God which sets us free from the power of evil, sin, and death.
=>
How did God prepare us for redemption?
God
sent the prophets to call us back to himself, to show us our need for
redemption, and to announce the coming of the Messiah.
=>
What is meant by the Messiah?
The
Messiah is one sent by God to free us from the power of sin, so that with the
help of God we may live in harmony with God, within ourselves, with our
neighbours, and with all creation.
=>
Who do we believe is the Messiah?
The
Messiah, or Christ, is Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son of God.
Prayer:
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.
A Meditation for all Humanity, The Great Invocation:
(In
place of the word “Christ” below, you may be more comfortable with the term “Lord
Maitreya”, “the Imam Mahdi”, “the Bodhisattva”, “the Messiah”, and etc.)
From
the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let
Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let
Light descend on Earth.
From
the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let
Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May
Christ return to Earth.
From
the where the Will of God is known
Let
purpose guide the little wills of men –
The
purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From
the centre which we call the race of men
Let
the Plan of Love and Light work out
And
may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
By using the Invocation and encouraging others to use it,
no particular group or organisation is sponsored. It belongs to all humanity.
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,
devantierf@gmail.com
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