(CNA).- Vitorrio Messori, the most popular Italian Catholic writer has slammed so-called “adult” Catholics who want to minimize the role of the Virgin Mary, just days before the presentation of his new book “Hypothesis About Mary” in Spain....Interesting article, especially considering that the May of May is for honoring the Blessing Virgin.
According to Messori, the fact that certain Catholics “are ashamed” of Mary is due “above all to a Protestant influence on Catholicism. Reformation theology has always been convinced that what is given to the Mother of God is taken away from the Son. In reality, the truth is the opposite: wherever Mary is eclipsed, Jesus disappears as well, either before or after. As almost five centuries of experience shows, the faith has been preserved much better between Catholics and Orthodox, who give Mary the role that is hers. The fact is that this Woman is the guarantor of the truth of the Incarnation: it is her flesh, it is her uterus that guarantees that God has truly been made man....”
"all those things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written or orally transmitted word of God, and which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal magisterium, proposes for belief as having been divinely revealed." (Vatican Council.)Can you recognize truths which are divine and Catholic faith?
a) all salutary acts;2. Actual grace is a transient supernatural gift of God that
b) all naturally good works;
c) final perseverance?
a) can be seen or felt by the recipient;3. Without grace an adult can
b) can be received and used without being recognized as actual grace;
c) may be expected in times of need, retreat, missions, etc.
a) know God's existence;4. Man's natural powers alone enable him to
b) avoid all mortal sins for a long time;
c) perform some naturally good works.
a) impetrate grace;5. God gives actual grace
b) merit it congruously;
c) merit it condignly.
a) only to Christians;6. Actual grace was given
b) to all infidels and sinners;
c) to infants.
a) before the time of Christ,7. Does God give to all adults sufficient grace
b) and only to adult Jews,
c) and to all adults.
a) to overcome grave temptations;8. Is it of divine and Catholic faith that
b) to acquire sanctifying grace;
c) to gain eternal.life?
a) grace is necessary to merit eternal life;9. Actual graces come from
b) efficacious grace does not take away man's freedom;
c) man cannot rise from mortal sin without grace?
a) God;10. A man's refusal to use an actual grace given to him
b) Christ;
c) Our Lady;
d) the sacraments.
a) is always a sin;_________________________
b) always means the loss of his soul;
c) always means the loss of all further graces;
d) may mean the loss of special graces which God would otherwise have given him.
Pope John Paul II has diedSometimes, it does us good to slow down from the hustle of daily life and recall certain events of our lives on this earth...
Rome, Apr. 2, 2005 (CWNews.com) - Pope John Paul II (bio - news) died late on Saturday night, April 2, ending one of the longest and most influential pontificates in the history of the Catholic Church.
The Holy Father remained "extraordinarily serene" during his final illness, according to his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He had suffered heart failure the previous evening while being treated for an infection of his urinary tract. As his condition deteriorated rapidly during the day on Friday and then Saturday, with his body wracked by septic shock and kidney failure, the Pope remained in prayer with his closest aides, losing consciousness only late in the evening before his death....
Two important feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary take place during the Season of Advent: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (a holy day of obligation) on Dec. 8 and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, on Dec. 12. Closely related to both feasts is the Memorial of St. Juan Diego, the messenger of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Dec. 9, which will not be celebrated liturgically this year because it falls on the Second Sunday of Advent.Continued here.The celebration of these feast days of our Blessed Mother and of St. Juan Diego help us to enter more fully into the observance of the Season of Advent.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is our model in preparing for the celebration of Christmas by disposing our hearts to welcome our Lord more fully, both as He comes to us now in the Church and as He will come to us in glory on the Last Day. She is also our intercessor who asks our Lord to give us the special graces of Advent, by which our hearts are purified of whatever hinders both our Lord’s coming to us now and our preparation to meet Him when He will come in glory. A reflection on her feasts will help us to see how the Blessed Mother is both the model of our Advent observance and our intercessor for the strong graces of the Season of Advent in our lives...
1. Divine Grace is necessary.Introduction. - The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a miracle of Divine Grace. To us also God gives His grace in various though different ways. This grace is the supernatural life of the human soul.
2. It is efficient and powerful.
3. It may be resisted.
(a) We all are burdened with original sin. "We are by nature children of wrath" (Ephes. ii, 33. God has graciously preserved Mary from original sin, and removed it in our case by Baptism. "God, Who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity, wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ, by Whose grace you are saved" (Ephes. ii, 4, 5);2. Divine Grace is efficient and powerful. "I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me" (Phil. iv, 13).
(b) We all have soiled our souls with actual sins, and from these we may free ourselves only through grace. Divine grace must move us to repentance and reform. Absolution in the Sacrament of penance is by Divine Grace.
(c) Without Divine Grace we cannot resist the temptation to do evil: "Lead us not into temptation."
(d) Without Divine Grace we cannot accomplish any good. "For it is God Who works in you both to will and to accomplish" (Phil. ii, 13). In the good that men do without Divine assistance is lacking the motive that gives it merit; it is done for the sake of reputation or for other worldly purposes.
(e) Without Divine Grace we cannot persevere in virtue. "Wherefore he that thinks himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x, 12).
(a) Divine Grace leads to repentance and reform. St. Peter,3. Divine Grace is not irresistible. It may be resisted. Man is free. Divine Grace does not compel him. We cannot resist the Almighty Power of God, but we can resist Divine Grace. "God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. Before man is life and death, good and evil. That which he shall choose shall be given him" (Eccl. xv, 14-18).
St. Paul, St. Augustine, and many others.
(b) Divine Grace assists in conquering sin. "But by the Grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. xv, 10).
(c) Divine Grace makes victory easy. "For my yoke is sweet and my burden light" (Matt. xi, 30).
(d) Divine Grace sweetens adversity; for instance, it made virtue bearable to the martyrs.
(e) Divine Grace causes its own increase. "For he that hath, to him shall be given" (Matt. xiii, 12).
(a) God is willing to enlighten you and to show the way. You, however, are at liberty to close your eyes, and to prefer darkness to the light.__________________
(b) God's Grace moves you to do good. You may refuse to listen.
(c) God may arouse your conscience and induce you to penance. It is for you to yield or to refuse.
(d) God's Grace may exhort you to renounce worldliness. You are free to choose.
(e) God's Grace puts before your mind, both eternal punishment and eternal reward. You may choose either.
