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
Invocatio:
P.
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. )
Confiteor:
A. O Lord, Thou hast created man to be immortal and made
him to be an image of Thine own eternity; yet often we forget the glory of our
heritage and wander from the path which leads to righteousness. But Thou, O Lord, hast made us for Thyself
and our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in Thee. Look with the eyes of Thy love upon our
manifold imperfections and pardon all our shortcomings, that we may be filled
with the brightness of the everlasting light and become the unspotted mirror of
Thy power and the image of Thy goodness;
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Absolutio:
P.
Deus Pater, Deus + Filius, Deus
Spiritus Sanctus, vos benedicat, custodiat atque sanctificet; Dominus in
clementia sua respiciat supra vos et misereatur vestri; Dominus vos + absolvet ab omnibus peccatis vestris,
vobisque gratiam det Spiritus Sancti et confirmationem. Amen. (God the
Father, God the + Son, God the Holy
Ghost, bless, preserve and sanctify you; the Lord in His loving kindness look
down upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord + absolve you from all your sins and grant you the grace and
comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.)
25th
Sunday after Pentecost – 10th November 2013 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
Intent: Endurance.
Almighty Father, we pray that we may bear within ourselves
a calm and steadfast mind, that we may meet the blows of life with courage and
with cheerfulness and ever lift glad hearts to thee, who art the fullness of
our joy; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jesus our Lord commands the uncontrolled forces in nature;
the fury of the sea and the violence of the winds, and thus manifests His
Divinity.
Daily Scripture Readings – 10 to 16
November (Read the bible in a
Year)
Date
|
Morning
|
Evening
|
10
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 48, 49
|
Hebrews,
chapter 7
|
11
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 50
|
Hebrews,
chapter 8
|
12
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 51, 52
|
Hebrews,
chapter 9
|
13
|
Lamentations,
chapters 1, 2
|
Hebrews,
chapter 10, verses 1-18
|
14
|
Lamentations,
chapters 3, 4, 5
|
Hebrews,
chapter 10, verses 19-39
|
15
|
Ezekiel,
chapters 1, 2
|
Hebrews,
chapter 11, verses 1-19
|
16
|
Ezekiel,
chapters 3, 4
|
Hebrews,
chapter 11, verses 20-40
|
Commemoration
of the Saints, for the coming week
Sunday November 10th
St Andrew Avellino, Confessor.
The holy priest Andrew was first a member of the
ecclesiastical court of Naples. He
entered the congregation of Clerks Regular, called the Theatine Order. He died at the foot of the altar, while
saying “Introibo ad altare Dei - I will go in to the altar of God.” A.D. 1608.
Introibo ad altare Dei, is part of the very beautiful
prayers, that form part of the preparation for Holy Communion at the foot of
the altar. After these prayers the
priest will move up the three spiritually symbolic steps(Sub-deacons step,
Deacons step, Priests step) and kiss the altar, before continuing with the
Mass, “OREMUS”, which means, “let us
pray”.
Monday November 11th
St Martin, Bishop, Confessor.
St Martin, Bishop of Tours in France, was at first a
soldier, then a monk under the direction of St Hilary. Famous through his boundless charity to the
poor he died A.D. 397 (This was 2 years after the Christian Church became the
official religion of the Roman Empire.)
Tuesday November 12th
St Martin, Pope, Martyr.
St Martin I suffered much persecution in his defence of the
Catholic Faith against the Monothelite emperors of Constantinople. He was exiled and died in A.D. 655.
Wednesday
November 13th
St Didacus, Confessor.
St Didacus, a Franciscan lay brother, died in Spain in the
odour of sanctity A.D. 1463.
Thursday November
14th
St Josaphat, Bishop, Martyr.
St Josaphat, a monk of the Order of St Basil and afterwards
Archbishop of Polotsk, laboured for the reunion of the Greek Church with the
Church of Rome. He was murdered by his
enemies in A.D. 1623.
Friday November 15th
St Albert the Great, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the
Church.
St Albert was a famous member of the Order of Preachers,
noted for hi universal learning, and apostolic zeal and devotion. He had for his pupil the celebrated St Thomas
Aquinas of the same Order, and left numerous writings. He became Bishop of Ratisbon, and died A.D.
1280, being canonised and declared Doctor of the Church in 1931.
Saturday November
16th
St Gertrude, Virgin.
St Gertrude, born in 1256 in Germany, was a Benedictine
abbess celebrated for her revelations concerning the Sacred Heart. Her writings are very important for mystical
theology. She died A.D. 1334.
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:
=>
Let’s pray that our Church’s will be havens of love, harmony, peace, and
safety.
=>
Let’s pray for the continued safety and wellbeing of all of God’s creatures
whom we love so much.
=>
Let’s pray for the Salvation of all the souls on earth, and the return of Jesus
Christ.
News:
Join
the Saint Titus
Newsletter
Sacred References:
I Peter, chapter 1, verse 2 onwards.
John, chapter 16, verse 20 onwards.
Homily:
This sermon is about Salvation and
Endurance.
God the Father has regained the hope
of eternal life for our souls, by the actions of God the Son Jesus Christ. You can say that in the moment of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, the way of Salvation for us was revealed. Suddenly all the teachings of Jesus Christ became
clear, and the disciples started to understand the full meaning of everything.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, controls
the forces of nature in our world. There
is the example of when Jesus was travelling in a boat in the Mediterranean, and
when he awoke the boat was in the middle of a storm, and the sailors feared
that they were to be lost at sea. Jesus
Christ spoke the words “Peace be still”, and the storm immediately ended, and
everything was calm again. This is just one
of the ways that Jesus Christ manifested his Divinity, when he walked the earth
in a physical body.
The inheritance that God has secured
for us through God the Son Jesus Christ is an incorruptible inheritance. Our physical bodies are not much more incorruptible
than the grass of the fields, or even silver and gold are corruptible by
comparison to the incorruptible inheritance that God has secured for us. Eternal life for our souls.
This eternal life for our souls is
preserved by the power of God the Father, through our faith in Jesus Christ,
and our Salvation that we have accepted.
The redemption for our sins and the eternal salvation of our souls is
given to us as a gift from God. It is
not because of anything that we have done.
Billions of people before us have tried to get to heaven by purely
following the teachings and the laws of the old testament, and little more than
a handful of success stories became evident.
Amongst these success stories we look at amongst others, John the
Baptist and Jesus Christ. So this gift
of eternal salvation from God is really the only hope we have of getting into
heaven to be with God.
The eternal salvation is achieved for
us, by the blood of the lamb Jesus Christ; that was sacrificed for us. Jesus Christ allowed his physical body to be sacrificed,
so that we might receive the gift of eternal life from God.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our
sins. His died for the sins that we had
committed and those sins that we had not yet committed, he died for all the
sins of the world, past present and future.
So whatever sin you commit, Jesus Christ has already died on the cross
for that sin. You will however need to
bring these sins to the foot of the cross, to Jesus Christ in a prayer of penitence,
so that he can redeem you from your sins.
You are then justified by faith in Jesus Christ, or God has Atoned you
of all your sin. You can walk away from
confession with a clean slate, as though you had never sinned, you have become
spotless and blameless in the eyes of God.
This is why Jesus Christ died on the cross, so that you can live a
spotless life for God. However although
your soul has been spiritually purified, you still have to seek to make right
with the people whom you have wronged on earth.
In the same way that Jesus Christ
arose from the dead after three days and ascended into heaven after a period of
time; we too will be raised from the dead, and taken up to heaven to be with
God. This is something that has become
possible, only because of the supreme sacrifice of God the Son, Jesus Christ. We are cleansed by the blood of the lamb,
Jesus Christ, and so are able to accept the Gift of Eternal life from God.
Now you might say, where does the
endurance come in. Well if you have
accepted the gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ, then you also need to comply
with the commands of Jesus Christ. You
need to love your neighbour as yourself.
You need to be baptised in water.
You need to take the great commission seriously, to go into all the
world, and bring the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the peoples
of the earth.
The endurance comes from living your
life as a child of God, and making sure that you don’t turn against God, and
lose your eternal life. You see you can
be fairly neutral, and not really do much about the gift that you have received
from God, and the gift will remain valid, and you will go to heaven. However if you actively turn your back on
God, and start working against God, then by the same token you relinquish your
gift of eternal life. So the endurance
is to remain true to God for the rest of your life, perhaps doing very little
but preferably actively working towards bringing other souls with you to
heaven. You see the more you do while we
are on this earth plane, the greater the treasures that you will be building
for yourself up in heaven. So that one
day when we get to heaven you may have a mansion to move into, instead of a hut
to move into. So you have to endure to
the end.
The word of God lasts forever, and remains
the same for ever, and equally valid for ever.
By contrast our physical bodies last only for a relatively few years.
The endurance comes in, because in this
world you may experience many problems and setbacks, and you may have good
reason for sorrow. Eventually your
sorrow will be turned into joy, and you will have reason to rejoice, as Gods
plan is revealed to us. Like a woman in
labour experiences pain and discomfort as she gives birth, but once the baby is
in her arms, she experiences joy. She
must endure through the pain of giving birth, because the joy waits on the
other side. In the same way we must
endure through the pain and sorrow of this life, because when we get to heaven
joy and rejoicing awaits us.
If that was not enough, Jesus Christ
told the disciples that whatever they asked of God the Father in his name, God
the Father would give to them. Now why
would this be, and the answer is really so straight forward. God the Father loves you, because you love
Jesus Christ. So if you truly love Jesus
Christ, then you can ask God the Father for anything, and he will give it to
you. Of course before you arrive at this
position of truly loving Jesus Christ, you would have probably asked God to redeem
you from your sins, and accepted the gift of eternal life, and been baptized in
the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now here’s a thought, if you have not
prayed the prayer of redemption, and invited Jesus Christ into your life, why
don’t you go ahead and do it right now?
Maybe you would just like to pray the prayer as a sort of recap. Maybe you know somebody who is seeking for
the truth, and you are inspired to share the prayer of redemption with them.
The Prayer of Redemption
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.
I undertake to be baptized as called
for in the scriptures, Mark 16, verse 16.
I undertake to regularly partake of
Holy Communion, as in Mathew 26, verses 26-28.
Amen.
Mark, chapter 16, verse 16
Whoever believes and is baptized will
be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mathew 26:26-28
And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
Take, eat; this is my body. And he took
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it the them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For
this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins.
Love Rev. Fr. Franz Devantier IOCC.
Church History – Article 20:
Evangelical Crusaders
Still in the nineteenth century
against the backdrop of the Revolutions in Europe, and the Missionary
outreaches of the Protestant churches, and Vatican I that was called under the
rule of Pope Pius IX, as the Catholic contribution to the century, and the
on-going Catholic revival that was sweeping Europe, and the Protestant that
were working for peaceful change in Britain and America.
We find that in Britain that the
Evangelical zeal for reform was expressed in a number of ways. We find the Clapham sect working fervourishly
to abolish slavery in the British Empire.
We find Lord Shaftesbury’s parliamentary factory legislation, as well as
his mining reforms. Then we find W.E.
Gladstone’s political reforms which get passed through parliament in the period
1868 – 1894.
In America, we find the struggle
to abolish slavery and for human rights was supported by many evangelicals, as
well as the Evangelist Charles G. Finney.
Then we find the bloody American Civil War taking place from 1861 to
1865. This civil war divided American
Christians with regards to the slavery issue, as well as creating a bitterness
between the different sides, which alienated American Christians from each
other for many years to come.
However if you look past the
Civil war in America for the moment, you will see the steady growth of
Evangelical Christianity, democracy, and political and social reform taking
place during the nineteenth century.
Almost all of the revolutions in
the nineteenth century were involved with the struggles of various peoples to
achieve national and liberal ideals.
Christianity in America at the time was opten identified with national
purpose and the advance of democracy. In
Britain on the other hand, pride of Empire and liberal politics seemed to go
hand in hand with Evangelical Christian values.
These feelings were so strong that many British and American Christians
supported the imperialist policies of their countries, because these policies
created more opportunities for missionaries to operate in.
Finally towards the end of the
nineteenth century, the Catholic Church got a new Pope, Pope Leo XIII (1878 -
1903). As a result the papacy began to
come to terms with the modern world which was not possible under Pope Pius IX,
because of his reactionary approach to anything modern.
(Next week we look at “Into the
twentieth Century”)
An Anglican Catechism
– Article 20:
The Christian Hope
=>
What is the Christian hope?
The
Christian hope is to love with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and
to swait the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for
the world.
=>
What do we mean by the coming of Christ in glory?
By
the coming of Christ in glory, we mean that Christ will come, not in weakness
but in power, and will make all things new.
=>
What do we mean by heaven and hell?
By
heaven, we mean eternal life in our enjoyment of God; by hell, we mean eternal
death in our rejection of God.
=>
Why do we remember the dead in prayer?
We
remember them, because we still hold them in our love and because we trust that
in God’s presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his love,
until they see him as he is.
=>
What do we mean by the last judgement?
We
believe that Christ will come in glory and judge the living and the dead.
=>
What do we mean by the resurrection of the body?
We
mean that God will raise us from death in the fullness of our being, that we
may live with Christ in the communion of the saints.
=>
What is the communion of saints?
The
communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those
whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament,
prayer and praise.
=>
What do we mean by everlasting life?
By
everlasting life, we mean a new existence, in which we are united with all the
people of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God and each other.
=>
What, then, is our assurance as Christians?
Our
assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
(That
is the end of the Anglican Catechism, next week we will start with article 1,
of Catechism for the Catholic Church.
This is not in the form of question and answer, and takes a fair amount
of research to present the Catechism.)
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.
Benedictio:
P.
Pax Dei, quae exsuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra et intelligentias
vestras in scientia et amore Dei, et Filii ejus Jesu Christi Domini nostri; Et
benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris, + et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, descendat
super vos, et maneat semper vobiscum.
Amen. (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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