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
+++
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Bishop George Otieno Odhiambo, IOCC of Africa
+++
Father. Franz Devantier, IOCC 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. )
18th
Sunday after Pentecost – 22nd September 2013 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
Intent: Christ as
Truth
O Lord Christ, who art the way, the truth and the life,
grant that we may find strength to be true in thought, word and deed, that so
we may reach thee, the eternal truth, to whom be honour and glory for
evermore. Amen.
The liturgy today alludes to the ordinations of Ember
Saturday. Christ is our Saviour, and the
Priests of the Church are made rich in Him.
The Church is blessed abundantly in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Commemoration
of the Saints, for the coming week
Sunday September 22nd
St Thomas of Villanova, Bishop, Confessor.
St Thomas, born in Spain, religious of the Order of Hermits
of St Augustine, Archbishop of Valencia, died after having given away to the
poor all he possessed A.D. 1555.
Commemoration of St Maurice and his Companions, Martyrs.
These soldiers of the famous Theban legion were put to the
sword by order of Maximian at Agaune, now called St Maurice (Switzerland) A.D.
285.
Monday September 23rd
St Linus, Pope, Martyr.
The successor of St Peter in the Apostolic See ruled the
Church for about nine years. He was
martyred, and was buried next to the Prince of the Apostles, A.D. 78.
(Saint Peter is considered to be the Prince of the
Apostles).
Commeoration of St Thecla, Virgin, Martyr.
St Thecla was converted by St Paul. Under the emperor Nero vain attempts were
made to compass her death by fire, by serpents, by wild beasts. After a life of solitary retirement, she died
at the age of 90.
Tuesday September
24th
Commemoration of our Lady of Ransom.
The Blessed Virgin Mary by repeated visions inspired St
Peter Nolasco and St Raymond of Pennafort to found with the aid of King James
of Arragon the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the redemption of Christian
captives from the infidels. The Church
commemorates today this incomparable work of charity.
Thursday
September 26th
Commemoration of STS Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs.
Cyprian the magician, endeavoured in vain to deceive the
holy virgin Justina by his sorcery. He
was converted to the Faith, and both were beheaded at Nicomedia under Diocletan
A.D. 304.
Friday September
27th
STS Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs.
SS. Cosmas and Damian, two brothers, physicians, born at
Egaea (Arabia), were beheaded after many
cruel tortures in Cilicia, under Diocletan, by order of the prefect Lysias A.D.
283.
Saturday
September 28th
St Wenceslaus, Martyr.
St Wenceslaus, duke of Bohemia, was persecuted by his
unnatural mother Drahomira and his impious brother and successor, Boleslas, out
of hatred for the Faith. He was murdered
by the latter in a church where he was praying A.D. 938.
Announcements:
We are actively recruiting members for Saint Titus,
Ordinary members, members who need baptism and confirmation, and candidate
Priests. If you are interested, then
please contact Fr. Franz devantierf@gmail.com
Special Prayer Requests:
"We know
now that in the last 50 years somewhere between 1.5% and 5% of the Catholic
clergy has been involved in sexual abuse cases", adding that this figure
was comparable with that of other groups and denominations.
Quoted from:
We
can no longer accept the heavy toll that the clergy is exacting on our beloved
and innocent souls who attend organized church’s. The church was supposed to be a place of
safety, not a platform for paedophile’s to operate from, hiding behind their
religious office.
=>
I urge you to pray daily that the sex-offenders in the church will be exposed
and publicly named, shamed, and removed from office; before being handed over
to the authorities.
=>
I urge you to pray daily that if the sex-offenders cannot be routed out of
specific church’s, because the church leadership protects them; that the church
leaders and organizations themselves will be publicly exposed, and the church’s
dissolved. If you know that a church
harbours sex-offenders, then immediately cut all support for that church or
organization. If you were making
financial contributions to such an organization, then channel those finances
towards another religious or charity organization that has a zero tolerance
towards sex-offenders.
=>
I urge you to pray daily that new church’s or religious structures will be
established, in which sex-offenders will not be able to operate. Pray for the establishment of religious organizations
and structures, that will provide safe sanctuaries for our beloved and innocent
souls, the children of the world.
News:
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Sacred References:
Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 7 onwards
John, chapter 14, verse 1 onwards
Homily:
Christ as Truth.
Today’s homily is about truth. If you want to know the truth, then all you
need to do is to know Christ. I really
like the way that Christ Jesus makes things so easy for us to do. In the end all we have to do is get to know Christ
Jesus. And hey, you are right, just read
the bible, specifically the New Testament, and specifically the Four
Gospels. You get some bibles where the
words of Jesus are printed in red ink, and everything else is printed in black
ink. However if you just spend a bit of
time reading the passage of scripture, it is usually fairly obvious what the
words of Jesus are. For example you may
see the narration about what a certain soul asked Christ Jesus, and then it
will clearly say something like, and Jesus said …
So if you want to come into an understanding of truth, this
is what you need to do, read the New Testament over and over again, and
especially the words of Jesus. Actually
that is not completely correct, you should read the entire bible over and over
again, so that when you come to the words of Jesus, you will be able to
understand them in context. Now once you
start to understand the words of Jesus, you will start to understand Christ
Jesus, you will start to know the Christ.
You will start to know the truth, because Christ is truth. You will start to know God the Father,
because if you know God the Son, or Christ Jesus, then you know the
Father. Now spiritual truth is a very
difficult thing to understand, and almost impossible to define it on paper, you
will find that the Truth becomes elusive as soon as you try to define it. So the way to understand this spiritual truth
is to get to know Jesus in your heart, in your Soul, with your mind, and in
time you will start to know the Truth, because Christ Jesus is the Truth.
Now what is the easiest and the quickest way of getting to
know Christ Jesus? Anyone? Yes you invite Jesus Christ into your
heart. So you say the believer’s prayer
every day, until it becomes part of your Soul, part of who you are.
The Believers Prayer – short form
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for dying
on the cross for my sins.
Please forgive my sins and give me the
gift of eternal life.
I ask you into my life and heart to be
my Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
Now because you have invited Christ Jesus into your heart; because Christ Jesus is God, you will find
that the Father and the Holy Spirit are also within your heart. Now as you contemplate on Christ Jesus daily,
you start to know the Truth; you start to know the Father, you start to hear
the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. That
is how Christ Jesus asked us to get to know Himself.
Christ Jesus could quite easily have asked us to read the Old
Testament and study it very intensely.
He could have come up with all sorts of assignments and projects to make
sure that you understood it properly.
You see all the truth is in the Old Testament and the books of the Prophets. When Christ Jesus was doing his three years
of teaching, the New Testament had not been written yet. So all the teaching came from the Old Testament. Can you imagine the amount of work that you
would have had to put in, in order to understand the Truth. Christ Jesus has made it so easy for us, as
he has made the atonement for sin, so easy for us.
However having presented how Christ is Truth, it turns out,
that Christ Jesus actually expects us to go so much further than that. That is just the first step, understanding
that Christ is Truth. Then we need to
seriously take up the next challenge, because it is a real challenge.
Firstly we see how everybody is given grace, according to
the measure of the gift of Christ.
Christ or God has given each of us a different measure of grace. Now at first that may not seem very
fair. However the only way to observe
the results of the measure of the gift that Christ gives us is to clinically
analyse the entire lifetime of a specific individual. Once we can see the exact measure of grace
that this person came into the world with, what they did with this grace, how
they grew up with this grace. How this grace enabled them to grow
spiritually. Only then after they have
died, can we then theoretically determine the spiritual progress that they had
made. The only thing is that we don’t have
the tools to do this. However we can get
a rough idea of the spiritual progress of an individual, and we would probably
have to agree that the amount of grace given at the start of that life, was in
fact the exact dosage needed.
Our task is really to grow into the
fullness of Christ, or into the full stature of Christ. Once we know the truth, and the truth is
Christ; then we can start growing into the fullness of Christ, or grow into the
fullness of the Truth. Once we have come
to know the truth, then it is our duty to start growing into that truth, but
with a difference. You see the Epistle
reading does not describe us as all eventually becoming individual
Christ’s. It speaks about us all joining
together in Love, and forming the larger body of the Christ. You understand what I am saying here, we are
not going to become a Christ, but we are going to become part of the body of
Christ. In the same way that our body is
composed of trillions of individual living cells, the body of Christ will be
composed of potentially trillions of living cells or beings. Each of those living beings, composing the
many cells of the body of Christ will be one of us, provided that we atone for
our sins, at the very least. Now this
teaching of the Body of Christ gives us a very good idea of where we are going
as the Truth is continually revealed to the creation. The real mystery is trying to properly
visualize and define the Body of Christ, of which we are to be a part.
Now even in the human body, we see
that different cells perform different functions. Some cells may form the part of the brain
where decisions are made. Some cells may
form the scaly outside portion of the skin that helps to protect the body from
outside invasion. Remember there are
many mansions in heaven, so although all of the cells of the Body of Christ are
interdependent, and important; some cells are elevated more than others. As a newly converted Christian you are like a
stem-cell, a cell that can potentially form any part of the body of
Christ. As a more mature Christian you
may already have started to morph into a specific cell type, but it is not too
late to change into the type of cell in the body of Christ that is most
desirable to your Spirit.
In order to function properly and
efficiently as part of the Body of Christ, we need to be mature Christians, who
fully understand the Truth as taught by Christ Jesus. All of the beings comprising the Body of
Christ need to work together in love and harmony, in order for the Body of
Christ to function effectively. So
Christ came to this earth to teach us about love, and he taught us about the
Body of Christ in different ways. Does
the Truth that is the Christ, make more sense now?
Love Rev. Fr. Franz Devantier IOCC.
Church History – Article 13:
Restoration
Of the many protestant movements
that originated from the reform of Martin Luther, John Calvin and others, not
all of them were satisfied with the particular reform emphasis that was being
executed. Quite a large percentage
wanted to forget about the reformation that they had become a part of, as well
as to reject the Catholic church in which they had their roots, and to instead
go back to the original model of the New Testament. Even today you will hear Christians from time
to time talking about going back to the original New Testament roots.
The goal of these people who were
rebelling against the Reformation was Restitution. They wanted to restore the original or the
radical communities of primitive Christianity.
You see the original Christianity was radical and primitive, until
things were properly defined over time.
They wanted to go back to the “roots” of the Christian Faith. Generally this group of people came to be
referred to as the “Radical Reformation”.
So the restoration is really all about Radical Reformation.
The belief system of the Radical
Reformation was perhaps difficult to pinpoint, but we can take the best example
of the Radical Reformation from the sixteenth century, and look at what they
advocated. This example was the
“Anabaptists”.
The Anabaptists agreed with
Luther and Calvin as far as the stressing the authority of the bible was
concerned. Also they agreed to
Justification by faith in Christ as the way of salvation that was exposed in
the New Testament. Actually
Justification by Faith was not really a new concept, because it was really the
identical concept to Atonement for sin, which was nothing new.
However they rejected the concept
of a National Church, or a church that belonged to a certain territory or area. They argued that the Biblical concept of a
“Gathered fellowship”, should be composed of baptized believers only. The Anabaptists believed that the “true
church” included only heartfelt believers, who had or would openly and with
deliberate intent Confess Christ in the act of Baptism. As you can imagine this philosophy created
certain difficulties in administering a church which were not impossible to overcome of
course.
From these radical beginnings, we
find that many Christian Protestant movements around today, have borrowed
heavily from the Theology of the Anabaptists.
For example in the seventeenth century the “English Baptists” emerged. The English Baptists had come from the
“Separatists”, who were the most radical reform wing of the “Church of
England”. Also in the English Baptist
mix were those who had been influenced by the Theology of the Anabaptists, and the
theology of the “Radical Reformation”.
The English Baptists differed from
the continental Anabaptists, who believed that they should abstain from
Politics. The Anabaptists believed that
politics should be reserved only for the “Unconverted”. The English Baptists believed that you could
get involved in Politics as a Christian.
From these radical roots we find
that Baptists, have become the most numerous of the non-Catholic Christian
bodies in the world today. The English
Church or the Church of England which was established under the Rule of King
Henry the VIII, was affected by the Reformation under Martin Luther, as well as
the later Radical Reformation movement, and the Anabaptists, and then the English
Baptists. Next week we will look at how
the Church of England was affected by all of this, and how they adapted.
(Next week we look at “A middle
way”)
An Anglican Catechism
– Article 13:
Stewardship
=>
What is Christian Stewardship?
Christian
Stewardship is the way in which Christians exercise their duty to administer
what God has entrusted to them and to serve him gladly in his Church.
=>
What has God entrusted to human beings to administer?
God
has entrusted to human beings material possessions, time and talents and made
us stewards of his creation.
(Next
week we will look at Prayer and Worship)
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:
This meditation or prayer refers to the Kingdom of God,
establishing itself on Earth.
(In place of the word “Christ” below, you may be more
comfortable with the term “Lord Maitreya”, “the Imam Mahdi”, “the Bodhisattva”,
“the Messiah”, or 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 centre 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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