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.)
All
Saints – 3rd November 2013 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
Almighty God, who hast knit together thy servants in one
communion and fellowship in the mystical body of thy Son, Christ our Lord; may
we so follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may
come to the unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Daily Scripture Readings – 3 to 9
November (Read the bible in a
Year)
Date
|
Morning
|
Evening
|
3
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 30, 31
|
Philemon
|
4
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 32, 33
|
Hebrews,
chapter 1
|
5
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 34, 35, 36
|
Hebrews,
chapter 2
|
6
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 37, 38, 39
|
Hebrews,
chapter 3
|
7
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 40, 41, 42
|
Hebrews,
chapter 4
|
8
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 43, 44, 45
|
Hebrews,
chapter 5
|
9
|
Jeremiah,
chapters 46, 47
|
Hebrews,
chapter 6
|
Commemoration
of the Saints, for the coming week
Monday November 4th
St Charles Borromeo, Bishop, Confessor.
St Charles, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, was one of the
greatest and holiest prelates of the years when the great Council of Trent was
being completed and its enactments put into execution. He reformed the clergy and renewed the spirit
of the monasteries in his diocese. He
died A.D. 1584.
Friday November 8th
Commemoration of the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs.
Four brothers: Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and
Victorinus were cruelly put to death at Rome under Diocletian A.D. 304.
Saturday November
9th
The Dedication of the ArchBasilica of our Saviour.
The Mother and Mistress of all Churches throughout the
world, the Church of Saint John Lateran, or the ArchBasilica of the Most Holy
Saviour, was the first publicly consecrated.
It was built by Constantine, the first Christian Emperor and consecrated
by Pope St Sylvester on November 9, A.D. 324.
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:
Revelation, chapter 7, verse 9 onwards.
Matthew, chapter 25, verse 34 onwards.
Homily:
Today’s sermon is about all the Saints
who have lived before us, and some with us today. It is about the unspeakable joys which God
has prepared for the Saints. It is about
encouraging us to follow in the footsteps of the Saints, so that we too can
achieve these unspeakable joys in the presence of God.
In the Gospel we find Jesus explaining
the Kingdom of heaven, and in a way explaining how to become a Saint.
Jesus explains the Kingdom of Heaven
like this:
The King looks upon all the peoples of
the world, and starts to divide them into two groups, one on his right hand
side, and one on his left hand side. As
you can imagine there are uncountable people on either side of him. On the Kings right hand side are the sheep,
and on the Kings left hand side are the goats.
When this great process has eventually finished, the King turns to the
sheep on his right hand side and addresses them.
“Come and inherit the Kingdom of
God”. When I was hungry you fed me, when
I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was a stranger you took me in, when I
was naked you clothed me, when I was sick you looked after me, when I was in
prison you visited me. The King went on
to explain that when the sheep or people on his right hand side, had done these
things for the least of the King’s brothers and sisters, they had in effect
done them for him.
You see we are brothers and sisters of
Jesus Christ, because we are Sons and Daughters of God. So when we had done these things for any
child of God, we have done these things for God.
Now you will notice the subtle
distinction or emphasis here; “Where you have done these things for a child of
God.” You are not asked to do these things
for those who are not children of God, because they have chosen to turn their
back on God, and do not form part of this condition. For example those who are not children of God
could use these passages in the bible to exploit and wrongly use those who are
children of God. We are called upon to
give these things to children of God. We
are not called upon to give these things to those who are evil, and would take
advantage and use us for evil gain. So
if you don’t give food and drink to an evil person who has turned their back on
God, when they are hungry and thirsty, God will not hold this against you. This does not mean that you are not allowed
to help evil people, it just means that God will not judge you if you don’t
help evil people, in the same way that you help children of God. God will judge you if you don’t help the
brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
Let’s define a practical way to
address this situation. Obviously you
can’t help every person in need in the world, but you can choose a point and
start there, and decide to provide a certain amount of assistance on a regular
basis. Now the best place to start would
be in a community, or group of people, that you know to be sons and daughters
of God. For example at your local Church
or Parish, or a group that you belong to.
Now you need to identify an area in this community where there is a need
and supply that need. In a local parish,
they will for example take a collection on a Sunday morning that is over and
above your tithe, and the money collected will be donated to a specific
charity. Sometimes they will tell you
before the time that the collection for this Sunday will go to a specified
charity.
So all you have to do in such a
situation is to contribute some money into the collection, and you have
fulfilled your obligation. At other
times things may be a bit more involved.
For example you can make a difference in somebodies life, by putting in
a good word for them at the right time, which can result in a positive outcome. You can give money to beggars, but then you
never know if they are a child of God, or an evil person. You will notice how many beggars, use the words
“God Bless You”, frequently because they know from experience, that phrase will
bring them more donations. However just
because they say the words “God Bless”, does not mean that they are a child of
God. With many charities, only 7% of the
contributed money ends up at the targeted needy people. So you can optionally find other ways to help
the children of God who are in need. I
know some people who have just put money in an envelope and slipped it under
the needy persons door. Other people
will wait for a season of giving like Christmas for example, to give generous
gifts to other children of God. For
example more and more shops have gift cards these days, so you can load an
amount of money onto a gift card, and give it to the needy person. Also if you donate something physical like
tins of food, blankets or toys, then you know that there will not be shrinkage
as there is with money, before it reaches the targeted needy people.
Then we see the King of Heaven looking
to his left hand side, the side where the goats are. The goats are those people that did not feed
the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take a stranger in, clothe the naked, visit
those in prison, and so had not indirectly provided for Jesus Christ.
You see when you decide to follow
Jesus and you invite Jesus Christ into your heart, then he is with you from
then on to the end of time, unless you consciously and actively turn your back
on Jesus Christ. So when you are hungry,
and somebody feeds you, or in need and somebody provides for that need, they
are actually doing this for Jesus Christ.
The King of Heaven rebukes the goats
on his left hand side. “Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” So I think this is a pretty graphic
illustration, and highlights the importance and necessity of charity, as well
as giving us an idea of the splendours of Heaven. Also this story is a good illustration of the
power of Atonement for sin, and the mechanism of loving your neighbour as
yourself. If you had loved your
neighbour as yourself, then you would have easily passed this test, and been
grouped amongst the sheep. If you have
not loved your neighbour as yourself, according to the new commandment from
Jesus Christ, then you would surely have tripped up somewhere, and found
yourself counted amongst the goats.
In the Epistle taken from the book of
revelation, we see a similar scenario, but this time we are just looking at
those saints and others who are in the Kingdom of heaven. We have been given the privilege of a preview
of what it is like to be in heaven, one aspect of it anyway. The author Saint John the Divine had a
vision, and in that vision he saw through the fabric of physical reality and
time, and had a glimpse into heaven, not necessarily in the same time as he was
living in.
Saint John the Divine sees a great
multitude of nations, peoples of different languages, races, and backgrounds;
all standing before the great throne of God, before the lamb of God, Jesus
Christ. They were all clothed in white
robes and were holding palms in their hands.
With a loud voice they were saying “Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the lamb.”
As he looked closer at the throne, he
saw that all the angels stood around the throne, together with the elders and
the four beasts. Everyone fell before
the throne of God on their faces and worshipped God, with these words: “Amen, Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and
ever. Amen.”
As we start trying to understand what
is going on here, Saint John the Divine starts to explain things to us. All those who are wearing white robes are
those that came out of a great tribulation, and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the lamb.
If you think about it, this is in many respects the description of a
saint. You see we have this grand
example of the saints before us, whose example we can choose to follow. The robes are symbolic of the physical body
that the soul has taken on in its journey through life. So it symbolizes that we have washed
ourselves in the blood of Jesus Christ.
This is exactly what happens when you atone for your sins and ask Jesus
Christ into your life. This is something
that everybody on earth can do, we can all pray the prayer of redemption, and
be included amongst this multitude of Saints before the great throne of
God. I will include the prayer of
redemption for you at the end of this homily, in case you need to use it.
This remarkable uncountable multitude
of people, were all in front of the throne of God, and were in a position to
serve God day and night in this great temple of God. God who sat on the throne lived amongst the
saints who were worshipping him. You see
they were there voluntary before the throne of God, worshipping God; not
because they had to, but because when they moved to this position there was
absolutely nothing else to do that made as much sense as to remain in front of
the great throne of God and worship God.
This is what they wanted to do and God was helping them to do it as
well.
God did not let these people in heaven
go hungry or thirsty. The lamb of God
Jesus Christ was feeding them, and giving them living fountains of water, so
that if they wanted to stay they could, and of course everybody wanted to stay,
nobody wanted to miss a moment of the absolute joy of being with God in heaven.
From the great tribulations that they
had come, and passed through into heaven, God would wipe their tears away. God would not just wipe their physical tears
away, because these saints were no longer in physical reality, but in
heaven. God would wipe their tears away
in a way that we could probably describe as complete psychological healing,
such as is rarely possible by the best qualified professionals in our current
physical reality.
So if you have been inspired by the
example of the saints on this day of remembrance of all the saints, then you
can say the prayer of redemption and join them in heaven before the great
throne of God, when you inevitably pass over into spiritual realms at the end
of your physical life.
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 19:
Revolutionary Responses
While missionaries were being
sent out to all over the world, as a result of the Modern Missionary Movement
which reached its height in the nineteenth century; we find the beginnings of
revolutionary responses.
At the same time Europe was being
convulsed with waves of revolutionary violence.
Most of the nations of Europe were shaken with revolutions in 1830 and
again in 1848. Those revolutions that
succeeded did so without the aid of the established Christian Church. In a few cases the revolutions failed, and
could point to lack of support from the State Church as the reason. Some of those few revolutions that failed,
was as a result of opposition from Church.
On the whole the revolutions had succeeded without the Aid of the Churches,
and so the usefulness of the State Churches had been questioned.
Within the established Church
during the nineteenth century, there were many opponents to the
revolutionaries. However we can
illustrate the opposition of the Church to the Revolution by the most famous and
notorious opponent, Pope Pius IX (1846 - 1879).
In the year 1848, Pope Pius IX was a moderate Liberal in his
outlook. However as the revolution took
place, and the events that he witnessed, were enough to turn him into a
reactionary against the revolution.
Pope Pius IX, became very
vigorous in his opposition to anything that smacked of Modernism,
Republicanism, Liberalism, Socialism, or Nationalism. His Papacy was marked or exemplified by two
celebrated acts.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX brought out
the Syllabus of Errors. In the Syllabus
of Errors, Pope Pius IX condemned nearly all modern movements in religion,
politics, society, as well as the intellectual world.
In 1869 Pope Pius IX called the
ecumenical council, also known as Vatican I.
From 1869 to 1970 Pope Pius IX presided over the ecumenical
council. During this time he promulgated
the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of Faith and
Doctrine. As a direct result of Vatican
I, and the Dogma of the infallibility of the pope, we find a large group of
Catholics breaking away from the Catholic Church, especially in the
Netherlands. This group of breakaway
Catholics became known as the Old Catholics.
They held to the belief system of before Vatican I under Pope Pius
IX. The Liberal Catholic Church grew out
of the Old Catholics amongst other denominations such as the Anglicans, as well
as other influences such as the Theosophical society etc; in the early
twentieth century. The Independent Old
Catholics also owe their heritage to the Old Catholics.
While Vatican I was in progress
under Pope Pius IX, we find that a popular Catholic revival was sweeping
through the faithful in much of Europe.
From the Protestant side we find Christians working in America and Britain
to bring about peaceful changes, such as Abolishing slavery. You can say that the protestants became part
of the solution in Britain and America, whereas in Europe the Catholics became
part of the problem.
(Next week we look at “Evangelical
Crusaders”)
An Anglican Catechism
– Article 19:
Angels
=>
What is an Angel?
An
Angel is a spiritual creature and part of God’s great unseen world. The word angel means messenger.
=>
Why are angels important to us?
Beyond
being messengers of God they are guardians to human beings against danger and
temptations, and they watch over children.
They remind us that we are part of a great spiritual world that is bound
up with our material world.
=>
Is belief in angels scriptural?
Yes,
Mention of angels is found frequently in both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible refers to Cherubim, seraphim,
archangels, and guardian angels. Angels
played a significant role in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
=>
Are all angels good?
All
angels were created good by God but some rebelled against him and became his
enemies. These are called demons and
their leader is Satan or the devil.
=>
Have demons power to harm Christians?
The
power of God is always stronger than the power of demons. Those who trust in God and call on Jesus as
Lord and Saviour have the victory.
=>
What is the Church called to do for people who are afflicted or possessed by
evil spirits?
In
the power of Jesus the Church can put to flight all forces that enslave people,
so that peace and health can be fully established in people and places. The individual Christian is called to trust
at all times in the protection of the blood of Jesus.
(Next
week we will look at “The Christian Hope”)
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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