Adventures in RCIA: My First Lenten Season

Well, I think we're about half-way through Lent.
Yesterday was Friday and I ate meat. I forgot until it was too late.
I think last week I did not, but I can't remember. I have been able to abstain from chocolate and sweets.
I have a Valentine's heart full of chocolates and an organic fair trade dark chocolate bar sitting on a stand near my bed, and I have not touched them.

There are certain things I really wanted to stop doing through this season of repentance, and at first I was doing ok, but lately I have not been doing as well. I have "Gotten back up" to some extent, but not to the degree I would like. I have not yet been to confession.

What I have succeeded in dong is praying more and worshiping more. I have been working my way through the Book of Sirach, whereas for a while I had not been doing much scripture reading. I think this increase in scripture reading is going to give me the wherewithal to get the victory I am really hoping for in certain areas of my life.

Adventures in RCIA - More on the Eucharist

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, this is one of the biggest pulls for me, to the Catholic church.
Eucharist is a Greek word that means, "thanksgiving." It refers to Holy Communion.

There are a few description that Catholics use to explain the Eucharist that work very well for insiders, but will make little sense to someone who is not already Catholic.
"The Real Presence of Christ" for example. This refers to "trans-substantiation," the belief that the second person of the Trinity is present in the bread and wine. When the bread is blessed, we believe that Jesus'presence comes into the bread and wine, sort of like a vessel carrying his spiritual presence. We do not think that a chemical test would start showing human flesh and blood rather than grains and fermented fruit, though.
God is everywhere, of course, but yet if you have had any kind of encounter with God at all, you understand how God can seem to be more in some places than others at times. We believe that, spiritually Jesus is present with us in the Eucharist in a special way.
We believe this is referred to in John -6:24-69. If Jesus had been speaking metaphorically, wouldn't he have said so, for the sake of the disciples who he so loved who were offended and walked away? In RCIA last week, it was explained that this has always been a hard teaching for people, and this scripture was given to demonstrate both how upsetting it was for Jesus' first followers and how important it is to him. He came to die by torture for those people. He had just fed them all with a miracle because he cared about them (v. 5-24), if he was speaking metaphorically, don't you think he would have explained himself to those who he cared about? Having people walk away from you because they do not like what you are saying is one thing, but letting them go like that to damnation (it says they "walked no more with him") over a misunderstanding is something else.
I note that in this text, it says they told him he was crazy when he said that he was God and was before Abraham and that some in the crowd intended to kill him.
I do not find actual scriptural support for the notion that communion is supposed to be just a symbol. He said on two occasions that "This is my body, this is  my blood." Paul taught that we should examine ourselves before communion, and that it is life-threateningly dangerous to take communion when not right with God (1 Corinthians 11:27-32), because when we do that we become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
I think this is because the early church was before the Catholic/Protestant division, before Constantine and long before Luther. They did not have any offense at any group within the body that they sought very hard to distance themselves from, and did not have anyone telling them it was only a symbol. They were in agreement about what they were doing, so it would have been that powerful.
If you visit a Catholic church, either do not go down for communion, or go down with your arms crossed over your chest, sort of like the traditional coffin laying position. The communion servers will give you a blessing instead of communion, because you are out of agreement in what is going an and since everyone is in such agreement about the actual habitation of the spirit of Christ resting on that host (the bread and wine); it is not safe for you to eat it. "According to your faith be it done to you." If you commune in a Protestant church, you are not in danger of dying. Nobody invited Jesus to use that bread and wine that way, it is only a symbol. go ahead and eat it, if you agree to revere what it symbolizes.
I would probably take communion in a Protestant church again, I can receive it as a symbol to recollect things by. However, I was told in RCIA that "memorial" in Judaism,like the Passover, is not just sitting around recalling something. It is reliving. It is almost like repeating but not exactly. Its not just thinking about something, it goes much farther.
The RCIA lady who taught the class last week said Eucharist was what drew her to this Church as well, and when she finished RCIA and took communion the first time, she was full on just that.
You are supposed to fast an hour before receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic church,so she was ravenous when she went up, but she was full for hours after taking it. It is only one bite worth, maybe less, of unleavened bread, but she was full the rest of the day and felt the presence of God very strongly.  I believe this happened for her because her belief was so strong. She said she actually snatched it out of the priest's hand, which was not proper decorum at all, because she was so excited about it. He forgave her and overlooked it, though.
I hope I don't do anything drastic like that...
Communion is supposed to mimic the Passover. Like the Passover Feast, it is not a mere recalling but a reliving, an actual experience of it, sort of like. The sacrifice is Jesus, present in the Eucharist and consumed just like the lamb was. The Passover also foreshadowed the coming of Jesus and his Sacrifice for us all. In the Eucharist, we relive the sacrifice of Jesus. We have our Passover Feast - every single week, and almost every day if we so choose. There are daily Masses as well as Sunday Masses.

Next time in RCIA, we will be having a walk through the Mass. I am greatly looking forward to it. I understand there is a connection between the Mass and the Catholic interpretation of Revelation. Soon I will be going through some extra things that are part of actually joining the Church, so I can also fill you in on those details when I get them.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Catholic Church Calender: Easter Time

In the Catholic Church, there is Easter Sunday and then there is Easter Time. It lasts for 50 days after Easter Sunday. It ends with Pentecost.

There are a great deal of flowers, like on Easter Sunday and the pulling-out-all-stops decor of Easter Sunday stay until Pentecost. There is a special dismissal chant for Easter and Pentecost.

The scripture readings in the Mass, (which are also at least some of the texts for the homilies Acts of the apostles, Revelation, and the Gospel accounts of Jesus time on earth after the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost.

The book of Revelation is interpreted very differently in the Catholic church than in Protestant churches. They do not teach that it foretells the end of the world. There is nothing frightening in it for them, for the Catholic church, Revelation is a book full of hope and there is nothing fearful in it. I have more study to do on it. I very much look forward to learning more about that, and then sharing what I learn.

Solemnities of the Octave of Easter - Every day for 8 days after Easter.

Special days in Easter Time include include:
Divine Mercy Sunday - The 2nd Sunday after Easter. It was Pope John Paul II's "special task," as he put it. St Faustina had some revelations during the time of Hitler's reign in Germany. It gave tremendous hope to the Polish Catholics who suffered in the concentration camps, one of whom later became a bishop and began the process that led to St. Faustina being made a Saint. The revelations of Divine Mercy are summed up in the statement that "Good triumphs over evil, life is stronger than death and God's love is more powerful than sin." This is revealed in Christ's cross, but St. Faustina''s very timely spiritual experience explained this in a way that made it very accessible to the understanding at a time when it was so urgently needed. It is also a message of the need for us all to forgive. During the Cold War, when John Paul II instituted this Special Day, and now when we hear of wars and rumors of wars everywhere, the Catholic church believes it is very important that those who follow Christ remember these revelations and ponder them. I agree. I really look forward eagerly to celebrating my first Divine Mercy Sunday and hearing/reading more teaching about it. I expect that it might need its own post!
The Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. - April 25th
Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord - 40 days after Easter
Solemnity of the Feast of St. Matthais the Apostle - May 14th
Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday - 50 Days after Easter.

I see I will need to do more study of the book of Revelation, Divine Mercy Sunday, and the Octave of Easter. Those look like some pretty special and important subjects. Having been raised Pentecostal, and knowing that my pastor was raised Pentecostal, I wonder what kind of sermon I will hear on Pentecost.

If any of you see a special day or some other topic you would like me to investigate or inquire about, leave it in the comments below and I will see what I can do.

Take care and God bless.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Church Calender: The Triduum

The Triduum is the three days leading up to Easter. These are the holies days of the year on the Catholic church calender. I am really looking forward to celebrating these!

Holy Thursday:
Celebrates the Last Supper, and the gift of the Eucharist. It begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper and ends as Good Friday Dawns.
The "Gloria" returns to the music in the Mass here, and they begin to use instruments more. there is still no "Alleluia" though.
The color for Holy Thursday is white, and the priest will wear white vestments.

The very special chant, called Pange Lingua is incorporated. It was written by Thomas Aquinas. In, English, it goes like this:

Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.
Down in adoration falling,
This great Sacrament we hail,
O'er ancient forms of worship
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith will tell us Christ is present,
When our human senses fail.
To the Everlasting Father,
And the Son who made us free
And the Spirit, God proceeding
From them Each eternally,
Be salvation, honour, blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen. Alleluia."

If you would like to hear someone singing it, albeit in Latin, click here.

Flowers are brought back for the decor, but it has to be a simple kind of elegance. Nothing extravagant. There is a Mass commemorating the Lord's Supper, and Eucharistic adoration
later on. If people cannot make it to Adoration, then they are encouraged to light some candles and say some special prayers when they get back from Mass, and again before bedtime.

Good Friday:

The Friday before Easter. 

Alter is bare, no flowers or other decorations. Holy Water fonts are even emptied. There is only one large cross for veneration. The color for this day is Red, for the blood of Christ's sacrifice that day.

There are reflective silences during service. It is not a mass.

Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant, the book of Hebrews: Jesus the great high priest. John's account of the Lord's passion.

There is still no "Alleluia", but the "Gloria" is still sung. Both are usually a regular part of the Mass.

The Gloria:

"Glory to God in the highest, 

and on earth peace to people of good will.

We praise you, 

we bless you, 

we adore you, 

we glorify you, 

we give you thanks for your great glory, 

Lord God, heavenly King, 

O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, 

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, 

you take away the sins of the world, 

    have mercy on us; 

you take away the sins of the world, 

    receive our prayer; 

you are seated at the right hand of the Father, 

    have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One, 

    you alone are the Lord, 

    you alone are the Most High, 

Jesus Christ, 

with the Holy Spirit, 

in the glory of God the Father.

Amen." 

It's not so easy to find a recording of this, because people sing it every week and if they attend daily Mass, they sing it almost every day. I have noticed, living in different places, that the "Gloria" and the"Alleluia" have somewhat different musical arrangements,but similar ones, in different parishes. 

Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday

This begins with Vigil Mass after nightfall on Holy Saturday. It ends Easter Sunday Evening.

Instrumental music returns, and the Alleluia returns. The songs are very joyful. 

There is a lot of decoration; tons of flowers, full, beautiful decorations. It is the biggest day of the year, time to pull out all the stops. The Exsultet is chanted, which is lengthy enough I will save it for another day.

There are up to seven Old Testament scripture readings, which can make for a LOOONG Mass. Some perishes, including ours, shorten this. The Old Testament readings are accounts of salvation history. The covenant with Abraham and etc.

The second reading is from the Epistles, about how if we died with Christ we will live with him.

The Gospel readings are, of course, about the Resurrection.

I am  very much looking forward to experiencing this time in the Calender first and for the first time.I expect there will be a lot more to write about, then. I hope the Lord will give me grace to convey this  in a clear and interesting way.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Church Calender: Lent

Not everybody has Lent. Non-denominational churches often don't. Pentecostals don't. I don't think Baptists do.
In fact, the only days on their church calenders are Easter (some churches call it Resurrection Sunday, and using the term Easter is frowned upon) and Christmas. However, I guess some Protestant churches have the Church calender too. No feasts of Saints and there may be other differences, but these terms and concepts are familiar to, and even observed by, some Protestants.
So, for those that don't know, Lent is a time of fasting and repentance.
It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at the start of Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.

In the worship service, there is no "Gloria" in the Mass and no "Alleluia" no instrumental music except as needed to support singing. The theme color is mostly violet, but on the 4th Sunday, AKA Laetare Sunday, the color is rose. The Priest's vestments are always the special colors.
The environment is stark simplicity during this time. There are no flowers in the decor.
The scripture readings come from the Old testament stories of Adam and Eve, and Moses and Abraham, and David, Jesus in the desert, and the Transfiguration.

The Solemnity of St Joesph, Jesus' stepdad, is on March 19th.
The Solemnity of the Annunciation, which is when the angel told Mary she was going to have a baby, it's also where the first part of the Hail Mary Prayer mostly comes from.

In our parish, we also have a Solemnity for the Dedication of St. Patrick's Church on March 17th.
That is a local solemnity, when we thank God for our church building that we have to meet and to hold his meetings in.

The Scrutinies: There is something going on at this time called scrutinies. They are very special rites for those preparing for Baptism, and they occur on the middle three Sundays of Lent. The people preparing for baptism are called the Elect. I have already been baptized in a Baptist church, and that baptism counts as my baptism in to the Catholic church too, because both are Christian in the eyes of the Catholic church. I have no idea if I will be doing the scrutinies or not, but I might be. either way, I will have to write more on this later.
The scrutiny gospels are: the woman at the Well, the man born blind that Jesus healed, and Lazarus being raised from the dead. I thing the Elect have rites that are reminiscent of these events, and must meditate on the lessons in these stories.

Palm Sunday Scriptures are about the triumphal entry, and Jesus passion at Gethsemane

Adventures in RCIA - The Catholic Church Calender: Ordinary Time

"Ordinary" means "ordinal," here. It does not mean "boring."

Ordinary time comes in two parts. The first part comes between The Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord and ends the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
The second part begins the day after Pentecost, and ends the day before Advent begins.

Solemnities celebrated during ordinary time include:
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, - the Sunday after Pentecost.
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), - the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity.
Solemnity of St. John the Baptist, - June 24th.
Solemnity of Saint Peter (called the first Pope) and Saint Paul (author of many epistles) - June 29th
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Mary the Mother of Jesus) - August 15
Solemnity of All Saints - November 1. Note that the Eve of All Saints, aka All Hallows, is Halloween.

Some Solemnities are particular to groups or regions. For exmple, the Parish I am in Celebrates the Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of St. James Church,which is one of the churches in our Parish. St Patrick's Day is a Solemnity in Ireland, but a Feast everywhere else. You get the idea, I think.

The decor is supposed to be plants and flowers. The readings come mainly from the Old Testament prophets, Paul's Epistles, and the Gospels where there is teaching on a variety of topics.
The color for this season ( I forgot to tell you the Colors for Christmas) is Green, whereas Christmas is White. The Priest's vestments are green in ordinary time and White during Christmas, and have other colors for the other times in the religious calender.

As of this writing, next Sunday will be the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord and after it, the Christmas decorations will come down. parishioner have been asked to stay a few minutes and help. I am greatly looking forward to serving in my new church for the first time.
Our Parish is a amalgamation of two parishes, St. James and St Patrick. They have the same pastor but hold special events at one place or another, and hold regular masses at different times, usually an hour or two apart. I am hoping to make it to both services so I can help take down decor at both churches. I have no idea how short handed they are or are not likely to be. I will find out how much the parishioners here like to help out,and whether or not the 80/20 rule applies here, when I get there.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA: What Pope Francis' Recent Message Said

Today, in our church bulletin, there was a message from Pope Francis. It is mostly a prayer, and one which I fully agree with. It made me realize what a job it is to be the pope of Rome.

There are Catholic churches and members of religious orders working in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. all over Africa, China, and even in North and South Korea, as well as in more affluent nations. Feedback from all these places funnels up the various chains of command to the Vatican. Senior pastors have so much crap come across their desks, but imagine if your desk was just full of wars, plagues, trafficking, international controversies, and gross sin, with all its consequences, on a large scale? The job is harder than being president of the U. S. Nobody asks to be Pope either; they can only accept or decline the task. If someone seems to want the job, it rules them as a candidate; there's no campaigning to be Pope.
 While surfing youtube fairly recently, I have seen footage from the same events, shared by various anti-Catholics, claiming that Pope Francis was bad because he supposedly said at these events that he favors abortion (he doesn't) AND that he was bad because he was saying, at the same events,  that he is against abortion. Some of the same images alleged to be pics of him saying to kill gay people or some such (he doesn't say that) AND that he was pro-gay (he's not). 
Today I did a search in youtube for "pope francis." Scrolling the results, it mostly read like a list of headlines from Weekly World News, (that's a defunct, faux newspaper with headlines like "Bat-Child Found in Cave," "World to End in Two Weeks," "Aliens Steal Family Dog, Leave Life-Changing Messages," "80-Foot Tall Two Year Old Wreaks Havoc in India." One of those actually was a Weekly World News front-page headline when I was kid!), I can't believe the stuff people come up with - and believe! So, before any of this gets distorted beyond recognition by whoever and by whatever means, here is a synopsis of the "Urbi et Orbi, Message of Pope Francis", that I got today in my church bulletin. Exact quotes will be in "" marks:

"Thursday, December 25th, 2014
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!
Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the World, is born for us, born in Bethlehem of a Virgin, fulfilling ancient prophecies. The Virgin's name was Mary, the wife of Joseph." (That is both the first, of the only two, brief mentions of Mary in the whole thing) 
"Humble people, full of hope in the goodness of God, are those who welcome Jesus and recognize Him." The Holy Spirit enlightened the shepherds of Bethlehem, and they rushed to adore Him. The Spirit led Simeon and Anna to Jerusalem, and they recognized Him as Messiah. "'My eyes have seen your salvation,' Simeon Exclaimed, 'the salvation prepared by God in the sight of all peoples' (Luke 2:30)."
"Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus is the salvation for every person and for every people!"
Today, I ask Jesus to help our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long have suffered brutal persecution, along with other ethnic and religious groups. May Christmas bring to them, and the other refugees and displaced persons of all ages from this region, hope. "May indifference be changed closeness and rejection into hospitality, so that all who are now suffering may receive the necessary humanitarian help to overcome the rigours of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity. May the Lord open hearts to trust" and may he bring his peace to the whole middle east, beginning in the place of his birth.
"May Jesus, the Saviour of the world, protect all who suffer in Ukraine," and help them overcome tensions and violence and begin a healing journey of reconciliation.
"May Christ the Saviour bring peace to Nigeria, where even in these hours more blood is being shed and too many people are being unjustly deprived of their possessions, held as hostages, or killed." I contend for peace in other parts of Africa. "I beseech all who have political responsibility to commit themselves through dialogue to overcoming differences and to build a lasting, fraternal coexistence."
May Jesus save all the trafficked and enslaved children. "Children, so many abused children. May he give comfort to the families of the children killed in Pakistan last week." May he be with all who are ill, especially victims of Ebola (This makes sense, as many of those people are on their deathbed now, sadly). I thank all those dedicated to helping the sick, and their family members, and I make another urgent appeal that the necessary help be provided.
"The Child Jesus. My thoughts turn to all those children today who are killed and ill-treated, be they infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a culture that does not love life; be they children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence. I think of those infants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born. Even today, their impotent silence cries out under the sword of so many Herods. In their blood stands the shadow of contemporary Herods. Truly there are so many tears this Christmas, together with the tears of the infant Jesus."
May the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts now, to recognize in the Infant Jesus the salvation God has given to each of us, and to all the peoples of the earth. May the power of Christ, which brings freedom and service, be felt in so many hearts afflicted by atrocity. "May this divine power, by its meekness, take away the hardness of heart of so many men and women immersed in worldliness and indifference, the globalization of indifference." May his grace transform weapons to ploughshares, destruction to creativity, and hatred to love, that we may cry out with joy, "'Our eyes have seen your salvation"

I wish you a Happy Christmas!

"Francis"

Now, I agree that wars, plagues, and abounding evil are signs of the times, but they are still the work of the Christians' sole enemy. We are to resist those things passionately, with prayer and other means when possible. We are soldiers of peace and light, don't forget it. 
I see nothing unscriptural, dangerous, or unglodly in this prayer. I see a believer whose heart is broken for the heaps of reports about hideous atrocity, and equally atrocious selfishness and indifference, accumulating in his office daily. I see someone sending out his prayer for us all to read and to agree with. I for one will say "Amen!"

By the way, "Urbi et Orbi"means "City and World" in Latin, according to google translate. I had to put it in one word at a time to get it to translate it, but that is what those words mean.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Catholic Church Calender: Christmas Time

I will start with the time we are in now, which is still Christmas. If you are one of those people who wishes Christmas lasted longer than it does, you would appreciate the Catholic way of celebrating.
Christmas time in the Catholic Church lasts for several weeks.

Here is a brief list of the times and seasons on the Catholic religious calender.
Christmas time
Lent
The Triduum
Easter
Ordinary Time (from the word "ordinal" since it is ordered by numbers, not "boring" or "blase" time!)
Advent

A Solemnity is the highest ranking of all the special days on the Calender. A Holy Day of Obligation means that it is required to go to Mass that day. Holy Days of Obligation are always Solemnities, but Solemnities need not be Holy Days of Obligation.
A Feast Day is a Holy Day that commemorates an event, a mystery, a person. There are Feast days for every saint in the canon, and not enough days in the year to assign every single day to only one saint.

A shot of the handout from RCIA class, the page on Christmas Time, obviously.

That being said, today we are talking about Christmas Time.
Christmas Time starts with the Vigil of Nativity, held on December 24th, the day before the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, which is Christmas Day.
December 26th is the Feast of Saint Stephen,who was the first Christian Martyr ("Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen..." Now you know what that refers to!).
December 27th is the Feast,of Saint John, the Apostle, evangelist and author of the Gospel of John,one of Jesus' twelve disciples.

December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the babies who got killed in and around Bethlehem, age two years old and younger, when Herod was after Jesus. They are ranked with martyrs and remembered during this special time each year. They were sainted collectively, as only God knows their names now, and are the Patron Saints of babies. I thought that was interesting. We should probably ask them to pray for us to succeed in the fight against infanticide/abortion. It can't hurt anything...

The Sunday after Christmas is the Feast of the Holy Family - Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.
January 1, New Year's Day, is the Solemnity of Mary, It is meant to coincide with Jesus' circumcision.
The Sunday after January first is the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord, which means Christ Jesus being revealed to humankind - our epiphany of knowing Him and who He is.
Christmas Time ends with the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, which is the Sunday right after Epiphany.

All the Church's decorations - Christmas trees, poinsettia's, and Nativity figures - stay up until after the Feast of Jesus Baptism. Christmas Carols are sung all the way through the season, The scripture readings, which are the texts for the homilies, cover the accounts of Jesus' birth, the visit of the magi, and finally, Jesus' Baptism.

Enjoy the rest of the Christmas Season!

Godspeed.

~ Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - Catholics DO NOT worship the "Queen of Heaven"

Regardless of how this goes, whether I do get confirmed or not, I do want to clarify one more thing about Mary before I forget again.
"Queen of Heaven" does NOT mean to put St. Mary above, or on par with, God.
They say that in the Bible, the Isreali king's wife had to ask permission to come in, and bow, and do everything else the same way that others in the kingdom had to. The kind's mom on the other hand was the Queen Mother. She could walk right in and ask for something on somebody's behalf and pretty much expect it to get done. She definitely could not make decisions like the king, but held an awful lot of sway in his court.

Addressing Mary as Queen of Heaven is a reference to the ancient Isreali "Queen Mother" type of situation (though the term is not often used in the Bible) combined with the same beliefs behind "prayers" to saints. Look at 1 Kings 1:14-16, compared with 1 Kings 2:18-20. Bathsheba as King's wife versus Bathsheba as King's mom. That is where they get these notions about Mary. The term "Queen Mother" is not used but the idea they call "Queen Mother" is illustrated here, When they say that Mary sits at Jesus' right hand, it's because Bathsheba sat at Solomon's right hand. Therefore they infer that Jewish King's moms sat at their right hand and held a lot of influence. They think Mary has a position in Heaven kind of like Bathsheba had in Solomon's court, and is so very highly favored, throughout eternity.
 "Queen of Heaven" is not intended to revere Mary as a God(dess). I was really thrown by that "Queen of Heaven" reference a lot too, until it was explained. They also point to the story of turning Water into wine and say that Mary's intercession altered Jesus' decision about whether to do something about the wine shortage to demonstrate that she has the same degree of favor and her prayers have same impact as Bathsheba seems to have had in Solomon's court. They infer therefore that Prophet Priest and "King of the Jews" Jesus has the same setup in Heaven's court. That does not make her an actual ruler of Heaven, nor on par with God in Roman Catholic theology, though.

Personally, I am not sure I think the throne room in heaven works like the Isreali king's court did, just I know it resembles the temple/tabernacle Moses was ordered to set up and which foreshadowed Jesus' sacrifice and etc. The temple and the palace weren't the same thing. However, I understand the thinking, how they could think that way and say that. They are trying to keep with Jewish roots, and it may or may not have gone awry here, but at least no one need freak about idolatry. Not when it comes to an informed/educated Catholic anyway. Some people pay no better attention in catechism than some folks do in school, which is not much, and they walk out with weird ideas, I am told.


 


There are individuals who pray always to Mary and ask her to take everything to Jesus for them, but that is not required. There is a question of "Minimalism and Maximalism" concerning Mariology in the Catholic Church. The over-emphasis on Mary has been warned against by influential Catholics for centuries, but the opposite extreme is also warned against, and that is acting like she is no big deal at all or being too timid in presentation of her... well, basically what Protestants do.
So I hope I cleared that up for some people.
There are some prayers or songs I am not comfortable singing because I am uncomfortable saying the words in them to anyone but God. I rather doubt that Mary is offended by that, honestly, and these prayers are not required, as far as I know.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - To be Confirmed, or Not Be Confirmed

Well, my current struggle concerns whether or not to be confirmed. I began RCIA absolutely sure I wanted to be confirmed, however, if I am required to accept all the dogmas about Mary to do so, then I cannot. It's simply not an option.
I find denominationalism a sad thing, and I think it will be important for the Catholic attitude about this subject to loosen up if they and the orthodox church are ever to reunite.
I did a web search about being or remaining Catholic without receiving all of the 4 dogmas about Mary. I found a lot of haughty-taughty talking-down to people answers when others posed this question. Some people seemed to think you could actually go to hell for not believing it. If that is the case, then I will not be confirmed.
I find it funny though, that there are Catholics mad at Pope Francis, there are Catholics who regard most of the revisions of Vatican II to be ungodly, and call this a time of chastisement for the Catholic church, and etc. Yet, according to the doctrine of Papal infallibility, they can't do that and still be Catholic.
The mayor of NYC was promoting abortion like crazy, even though Catholic doctrine says he is to be excommunicated if he participates in abortion in any way. There are supposedly Catholic organizations that are openly gay and support "Gay theology." They have not been excommunicated.
There is at least one nun going around promoting abortion. I do not believe in any of this stuff, but are these people still catholic?
If they can be part of the church and not agree on those doctrines,some of which promise excommunication for disobedience, then what about me?
These are questions I hope I can answer after the next RCIA class.
I hope to be able to update this issue within the next couple of weeks.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

My questions about Mary make confirmation a question, not a certainty.

I pray for clarification on where to go with this issue and what to do.

Adventures in RCIA - Mary the Mother of Jesus Pt 2

Continuing on this sticky (for me) subject...

Dogmas of the Catholic church about Mary:
Virgin Birth: Jesus was born of a virgin.
Immaculate Conception: Mary was born without original sin, essentially born saved, so that she could give birth to Jesus without giving him original sin.
Perpetual Virginity: She stayed a virgin all her life, and Joseph agreed to support this calling on her life by abstaining along with her so she could be faithful to God's call as Jesus' mom.
Ascension into Heaven: Mary ascended like Jesus did, she did not die.

I covered the first two before. Now lets finish out the second half of the list.

Perpetual Virginity
This Catholic Dogma presents Joseph as sort of submitting, like a Western man might think of it, to give up the Western "masculine sex-right" to honor Mary's alleged call form God.
Joseph was Jewish, as Mary was.
Jewish view of sexuality:
Sex between a husband and wife is a mitzvah, which is a lot like our word sacrament. It is a commandment, and a meritorious or charitable act.
Jewish people link sexuality in marriage with holiness, so this dogma states that they served God by violating His rules for their lives as married people. From the Jewish Virtual Library:
"Sex is the woman's right, not the man's. A man has a duty to give his wife sex regularly and to ensure that sex is pleasurable for her. He is also obligated to watch for signs that his wife wants sex, and to offer it to her without her asking for it. The woman's right to sexual intercourse is referred to as onah, and is one of a wife's three basic rights (the others are food and clothing), which a husband may not reduce. The Talmud specifies both the quantity and quality of sex that a man must give his wife. It specifies the frequency of sexual obligation based on the husband's occupation, although this obligation can be modified in the ketubah (marriage contract). A man may not take a vow to abstain from sex for an extended period of time, and may not take a journey for an extended period of time, because that would deprive his wife of sexual relations. In addition, a husband's consistent refusal to engage in sexual relations is grounds for compelling a man to divorce his wife, even if the couple has already fulfilled the halakhic obligation to procreate.
Although sex is the woman's right, she does not have absolute discretion to withhold it from her husband. A woman may not withhold sex from her husband as a form of punishment, and if she does, the husband may divorce her without paying the substantial divorce settlement provided for in the ketubah."
To us Westerner's that might sound gross, or perverse, but it is the Jewish way going far, far back to ancient times. The mitzvah of procreation is a separate one, the pleasure and bonding aspect is also sacred in Judaism, not just procreation.
If you told our very beloved, Jewish, Mother of God the dogma that she responded to God's call by staying a virgin after she was married, this would have been, to her ears, bordering on blasphemy/sacrilege. It would mean that God called her and Joseph to sin, basically. To be married and abstain the whole time is, for them, about as bad as doing stuff when you are not married. It's on par with adultery, as we know it, and grounds for divorce.
A marriage counselor, Earl Henslin, who has worked with many Jewish couples wrote in Chapter 2 of This is Your Brain on Love that no matter how bad things are in their marriages, it does not get into their bedroom. Why? "I am not going to have sex with my spouse" is like saying "I am not going to pray." He writes, "It is unthinkable," because they link marital sexuality with holiness.

Mary was Jewish. Mary was married. Therefore, Mary had three basic rights Joseph was supposed to provide: food, shelter and sex. I don't think it will kill anyone to live without it, but still, they were Jewish, and that was and is Jewish teaching.
Matthew 1:24-25. "...he took her [Mary] as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had born a son; and he named him Jesus."
That word "until" is two Greek words:
heos Strong's #2193 Definitions: of uncertain affinity; a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place): - even (until, unto), (as) far (as), how long, (un-) til (-l), (hither-, un-, up) to, while (-s).
hou Strong's #3757 Definitions: generic of (3739) as adverb; at which place, i.e. where: - where (-in), whither ([-soever]).
It seems to indicate a span of time terminating at a given point. The point given in this case is the birth of Jesus. The necessity of abstinence was over then, Jesus did not need her to abstain anymore. Since she was a godly, Jewish, married woman, she had a different requirement for holy living than she did as the single or merely betrothed woman that she was when He was conceived. Nothing happened between them until after he was born, no doubt. After he was born, they clearly carried on with the mitzvah ordained by God for married people, since that is what they were. If they did not, they would have been less holy, not more. This mitzvah is not inextricably tied to procreation in Judaism either, so not having any (surviving?) children at Jesus' death does not really mean anything either.
The dogma of Perpetual virginity does not make any sense, given that Mary was Jewish, as Joseph also was.
Do I believe that Early Christians believed this? Absolutely. Many of them came from pagan cultures that had practices that could put extreme ideas about virginity in their heads. Old ideas sometimes die really hard, or don't die at all. However, that does not mean God would actually have called two Jewish people to live like that. These are very definitely pagan ideas, not sanctioned or created by YHVH.

Finally, Mary is an example to us. If she remained a virgin until married, and waited even longer because of carrying Jesus, but carried out God's intent for married women after he was born, then she is a great example. An ideal.
If she went through life pretending to be a good wife before the world while not living or relating in that important relationship like she was supposed to, refraining from a commanded and meritous behavior (mitzvah means a command, and a charitable or meritous act), then she is a bad example to follow, and so not much of a saint. Right? I believe the Catholic Church has attempted to be very true to the beginings, but this is a point where the pagan ways were not left behind, and Mary would likely be very upset by this story.

Assumption into Heaven
I would need more information. I think it is possible, kind of like Enoch and Elijah. I have no certainty at this point though, since I already see evidence of the early church projecting things onto Mary that seemed great to them but could not be true (e.g. Perpetual Virginity). Therefore, I really don't know. It sounds good, but that isn't enough for me...

This song has always been really cool to me. Now that I am studying and thinking about Mary more, it means even more than it ever did, with or without Immaculate conception or Perpetual Virginity. So Hail, Mary, full of grace.

Godspeed.
~ M. S.

Adventures in RCIA - The Saints: Our Assignment from Pastor John

Pastor John has asked us RCIA participants to write a report on a saint, who ever would like to be our Confirmation name.
I chose to write about Teresa of Avila, a.k.a. Teresa of Jesus. Here's my paper.

 Saint Teresa of Avilla is symbolized by a heart, an arrow and a book. She is the patron Saint of headache sufferers and Spanish Catholic writers. Teresa of Jesus was Born 1515 and died in 1582.

Beatified by Paul V in 1614 and canonized by Gregory XV in 1622, she was voted patroness of Spain, but the vote was not confirmed¹.

Teresa of Avilla had many trials. Her parents were too strict¹. She got confused sometimes, and continuously feared she would do something wrong. I can relate. She had experiences with God she had questions about, and I often find myself there too. She got a got boy crazy when she was young, as did I. She struggled to keep her mind on prayer, as I do off and on, yet her prayer life became deep when she stayed committed to it. She felt that people often thought better of her than they should. She suffered with poor spiritual council sometimes², and was several times disappointed with places that were supposed to help her become closer to God². I can understand all that. She saw an unhealthy and unhappy marriage and was scared to get married¹. I can understand that well. In her order, she lived in poverty, had many challenges¹, and spent a tremendous amount of time alone². I am not in an order, but that draws me to her especially. She started many convents, almost like an apostle of convents.

Teresa of Jesus knew her place in relation to devils, and how to fight them². When she decided to join an order, she was so determined that hell itself couldn't have stopped her, even though she was kind of torn up about it in some ways. She did not exercise her gifts for writing with confidence, it was submission to God or her leaders that made her go through with it². I am very glad that she did so!

I read “The Interior Castle” in 2006, and it helped me tremendously. It is one of the things that drew me to the Catholic church. I infer from her writing, in both her autobiography that I am reading now and The Interior Castle, that she had very low self-esteem. God seemed to meet her needs where she was weakened and likely to sin by showing her how much He loved her and how valuable she was to him. That seems to be how God handles me sometimes too. Oddly, I feel a bit less alone when I read her words, and it stirs up a flame in my heart for God. I have a blog and do a lot of serious writing; I hope my words may help at least a few people half as well as hers have done, for me and many others.

Bowing in presence of God felt strongly during music at Christan Festival. Song where God is our spouse, like The Interior Castle talked about. Song was, "Come to Me." by Dark Valentine.

References

1. Catholic.org. “Saints and Angels – Teresa of Avilla.” Retrieved from

        http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208

2. E. Allison Peer. The Autobiography of Teresa of Avilla. Image Books, Garden City, NY. 1960. 

Adventures in RCIA - Purgatory, Hell, and the Afterlife

I walked into RCIA tonight not believing in purgatory.
I thought that purgatory was a place where SAVED people burned like hellfire until all their sins got burned away.
THAT is a blasphemous idea.
What I was taught tonight about it does not resemble what Protestants taught me that it was - big surprise huh? I guess not really...

I went in thinking that it was only based on a passage from Maccabees. It's not. They have a different interpretation of 1 Corinthians 3:15.

I need to ask Fr. John about it, as several interpretations of what purgatory was were offered. One of them is that is takes only a split second. That when you die, you see the truth and God and all the things in your self and your choices that were not right, and it it painful but it tears that old fleshly part away in a split second, and that split second is purgatory. The nun who teaches theology I think, is the one who put that forth.
The general idea I was taught tonight was that it is a cleansing of anything in your life or person that you did not fully give to God, that you kept back and did not allow God into. There are variations and debated questions about how exactly it works. Is it really some kind of fire, or is that a metaphor?
Does it hurt, like Protestants teach that Hell hurts?

Speaking of which, they discussed Hell tonight too, and it is not that they do not believe in it, but their beliefs are a bit different. They believe that Jesus was saying that it is definitely NOT something you want, and it pertains to being destroyed, and it is something terrible and shameful and rotten and undesirable. They are not sure that it is an endless burning, like burning to death but never passing out or dying for all eternity like I was taught. One guy said he read something about hell being in the same place as heaven,but you do not see where you are or know it or perceive it, you are separated and cut off from it in sensing something completely different. I can see how one could be horrified by that and call it hell, but I don't think I buy into that. He had no support form it other than somebody just dreaming it up and thinking it sucked really bad.
I asked my friend who was raised Catholic for part of his life and is currently becoming Orthodox what the Orthodox church says about Purgatory. They do not have that.
He said it was determined that purgatory was a papal invention to get money out of the grieving.
I told him it does not cost anything.
He said when he was a teenager, his grandma died. She was extremely saintly lady and loved God with all she was, but the priest came over to his dad's house and asked how much money they thought they could raise to get her soul out of purgatory.
I told him what I learned tonight, and he said "If that's what the doctrine is now, they've come along way. That must be a Vatican II amendment." He was pleased.

I hereby apologize to anybody who was extorted from in the manner of the old way of doing things that I heard about from my friend, and is offended about it.
I pray that God will continue to purify the Church of every evil practice and everything that is not pleasing to Him.