Corpus Christi. The Immortal Soul, Metaphysics, God, Sacramental Theology: Christian Anthropology and Eucharistic Adoration

Corporeality
"...[T]hings are not merely things, material for human labor, so man is not merely a functionary who manipulates things things; rather, only by examining the world with respect to its eternal first cause does man learn who he himself is: someone called by God and to God. Only the call of the eternal constitutes man as man. One could actually define him as the being capable of God: what theology tries to designate with the term 'soul' is of course nothing other than the fact that man is known and loved by God in another way than all the other beings below him--known in order to know in return, loved in order to love in return. This sort of staying in God's memory is what makes man live forever--for God's memory never ends; it is what makes a human being man and distinguishes him from animals; if this is ruled out, then, instead of man, only a more highly developed animal is left. But in this way it has become a bit clearer in what sense we may speak about the sacramental foundation of human existence: If being called by God not only brings about man's humanity but constitutes it, then the transparency of the world toward the eternal, which is the basis of the sacramental principle, belongs to the foundation of his existence. Then sacramental communication with the eternal establishes man himself..." 162

Historicity
"...[T]he Christian sacraments mean not only insertion into the God-permeated cosmos...they mean at the same time insertion into the history that originates in Christ... [T]his addition of the historical dimension represents the distinctively Christian transformation of the sacramental idea, which for the first time give to natural symbolism its binding force and its concrete claim, cleanses it of all ambiguity and makes it into a more certain guarantee for the nearness of the one true God, who is not just...the mysterious abyss of the cosmos, but, rather, its Lord and Creator..." 162

Fraternity
"...[T]here is no such thing as the autonomy of the human spirit,...it is not a spiritual atom without relations to others but, rather, can live as a man only corporeally, with his fellow men and historically... [Man's] relationship to God, if it is to be a human relationship to God, bust be just as man is: corporeal, fraternal, and historical..." 166

Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament
"Eucharistic adoration is in truth related to the Lord, who through his historical life and suffering has become "Bread" for us; in other words, through his Incarnation and self-abandonment to death he has become the One who is open for us. Such prayer is therefore related to the historical mystery of Jesus Christ, to God's history with men that moves toward us in the sacrament. And it is related to the mystery of the Church: since it is related to the history of God with men, it is related to the whole 'Body of Christ', to the community of believers, in which and through which God comes to us. In this way praying in church and before the Blessed Sacrament is the 'classification' of our relation to God under the mystery of the Church as the specific locality where God meets us.... [T]his is the purpose of our going to church at all: so that I in an orderly fashion may take my place in God's history with men--the only setting in which I as a man have my true human existence and which alone therefore also opens up for me the true space of my encounter with God's eternal love..." 167-168

Joseph Ratzinger, Essay "The Sacramental Foundation of Christian Existence," Salzburg, 1965 in Collected Works 11, Theology of the Liturgy, San Francisco: Ignatius, 2014.

Militia Immaculata

A new film, released in Poland last October.

Released in Spanish dubbed version this week in Spain!

Español

Metaphysics is Superior to Physics, Though Less Obvious to Us

Of substances constituted by nature some are ungenerated, imperishable, and eternal, while others are subject to generation and decay. The former are excellent and divine, but less accessible to knowledge. The evidence that might throw light on them, and on the problems which we long to solve respecting the, is furnished but scantily by sensation; whereas respecting perishable plants and animals we have abundant information, living as we do in their midst, and ample data may be collected concerning all their various kinds, if only we are willing to take sufficient pains. Both departments, however, have their special charm. The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of celestial things give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all our knowledge of the world in which we live; just as a half glimpse of persons that we love is more delightful than an accurate view of other things, whatever their number and dimensions. On the other hand, in certitude and completeness our knowledge of terrestrial things has the advantage. Moreover, their greater nearness and affinity to us balances somewhat the loftier interest of the heavenly things that are the objects of the higher philosophy.

Aristotle, Parts of Animals, Book 1, Part 5 (644b21-645a4).


Saint Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, distinguishes three types of speculative knowledge therefore: physica, mathematica and metaphysica, depending on how much the objects of each of these sciences is dependent on matter and change.

Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius, q. 5, art. 1, resp.

"When love is the way...we treat each other like we are actually family." A Royal Sermon and Song

Original Version "Stand by me Father"

Originally, Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor

In 1348, King Edward III founded two new religious colleges: St Stephen's at Westminster and St George's at Windsor. The new college at Windsor was attached to the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor which had been constructed by Henry III in the early thirteenth century. The chapel was then rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Edward the Confessor and St George the Martyr. Edward III also built the Aerary Porch in 1353–54. It was used as the entrance to the new college.

St George's Chapel became the Mother Church of the Order of the Garter, and a special service is still held in the chapel every June and is attended by the members of the order. Their heraldic banners hang above the upper stalls of the choir where they have a seat for life.

The period 1475–1528 saw a radical redevelopment of St George's Chapel under the designs of King Henry VII's most prized counsellor Sir Reginald Bray (later Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), set in motion by Edward IV and continued by Henry VII and Henry VIII. The thirteenth-century Chapel of St Edward the Confessor was expanded into a huge new Cathedral-like chapel under the supervision of Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Salisbury, and the direction of the master mason Henry Janyns. The Horseshoe Cloister was constructed for the new community of 45 junior members: 16 vicars, a deacon gospeller, 13 lay clerks, 2 clerks epistoler and 13 choristers. The choristers of St George's Chapel are still in existence to this day, although the total number is not fixed and is nearer to 20. The choristers are educated at St George's School, Windsor Castle. They are full boarders at the school. In term time they attend practice in the castle every morning and sing Matins and Eucharist on Sundays and sing Evensong throughout the entire week, with the exception of Wednesdays.

St George's Chapel was a popular destination for pilgrims during the late medieval period. The chapel was purported to contain several important relics: the bodies of John Schorne and Henry VI of England and a fragment of the True Cross held in a reliquary called the Cross of Gneth. These relics all appear to have been displayed at the east end of the south choir aisle.

The Chapel suffered a great deal of destruction during the English Civil War. Parliamentary forces broke into and plundered the chapel and treasury on 23 October 1642. Further pillaging occurred in 1643 when the fifteenth-century chapter house was destroyed, lead was stripped off the chapel roofs, and elements of Henry VIII's unfinished funeral monument were stolen. Following his execution in 1649, Charles I was buried in a small vault in the centre of the choir at St George's Chapel which also contained the coffins of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. A programme of repair was undertaken at St George's Chapel following the Restoration of the monarchy.

The reign of Queen Victoria saw further changes made to the architecture of the chapel. The east end of the choir was reworked in devotion to Prince Albert; the Lady Chapel, which had been abandoned by Henry VII, was completed; a royal mausoleum was completed underneath the Lady Chapel; and a set of steps were built at the west end of the chapel to create a ceremonial entrance to the building. In the 21st century, St George's accommodates approximately 800 persons for services and events.[1]

Via Sacra Alpina! The "Austrian Father (Now Bishop) Baron"

Father Johannes Maria Schwarz is amazing!

Check out his 3-minute Catechism here.

Review of Joseph Ratzinger, The God of Faith and the God of the Philosophers

Below is the Plinthos translation of an Italian article indicating the salient elements of Joseph Ratzinger's important and renowned June 24, 1959 inaugural lecture upon assuming the Chair of Fundamental Theology at the University of Bonn.

K. Lindner, "Augustinianum," April 1961, 164-165, review of Ratzinger, Joseph, Der Gott des Glaubens und der Gott der Philosophen. Verlag Schnell und Steiner, München, 1960, 35 pages.

“This inaugural address claims to explain the difficulty of the fundamental questions in theology regarding the relationship between religion and philosophy, faith and science, religious life and human thought insofar as the said relationships depend upon the possible existence of a dogmatic religion.

“After presenting Saint Thomas’ idea on the question—according to which Christian divine science and philosophical science come together in a harmonious unity—and the teaching of E. Brunner—which rejects any harmonious relationship—the author holds that the existing harmony may be demonstrated; on the one hand, on the part of the teaching of the Greeks with the disagreement between the pagan-religious divine science and philosophical science, and on the other hand, on the part of the harmony between biblical divine science and philosophical science.

“Since the philosophical divine science of the Greeks is monotheistic in its most perfect forms (just as in the last analysis every religious polytheism is reduced more or less to a certain monotheism) and since certain personal qualities of the one true God are not denied, even if the philosophical god is not for them an object of religious worship because this god does not have contact with men; he is outside the world; in a word because he not taken to be ‘invocable.’ For this reason it has recourse, regarding religious worship, to limited considerations regarding the absolute: so that ‘the gods’ which are taken to be ‘invocable’ are not considered real gods even by the greeks. So a curious situation arises: a religious worship (culto) without God and a philosophical divine science without religion. In such a way with the Greeks there is a total separation (even if not entirely fundamental) between religious divine science and philosophical divine science.

“While the Hellenic culture did not succeed in achieving the synthesis between religious divine science and philosophical science, the Fathers of the Church have indicated (although not always with critical judgment) the existence of a close relationship between biblical divine science and Hellenic-philosophical science. They actually made use of Hellenic philosophy to clearly explain the biblical divine science. The God of the Bible is the God who has custody (cura) of the world and of man. He is God the Creator, not the Absolute in the abstract, but in the concrete, which presents himself to men as ‘invocable’ after he first called them and placed himself in the world. The God of the Bible, by numerous attributes, is identified with the god of the Greeks: he is the Eternal One, omnipotent, one, true, good and holy; and even if the biblical expressions do not totally coincide with the teaching of Greek philosophy, still there is something in common: all of the powers of the world point to a unique fundamental and transcendent power: God.

“The possibility of the synthetic vision between Christian divine science and philosophical science is therefor found in the Bible itself. To this synthesis between the religious divine science and philosophical divine science the Hellenic culture could not arrive.

“This booklet undoubtedly gives us an interesting vision of a problem which has been at the center of theological concern already for so many centuries and will keep such and interest even in the future, especially upon the arising of new philosophical and theological systems. Just one observation only. It seems to us that the presentation of the teaching of Saint Thomas on the relation between Christian faith and philosophical divine science is too simplistic. When the author says: ‘...the Christian faith is to philosophical divine science like the beatific vision is to the faith. It is three levels comprising one united, altogether way’...we do not think that Saint Thomas would have been happy with such a formulation of his teaching.”

Merely "The End of the Beginning..."

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas | Commencement Address | Christendom College

But where are their hats?

Why is it that graduates only wear the academic hats on their graduation day? The hat is actually a powerful sign of that ended beginning, and the new and exalted responsibility and duty.

Would that the priests and the justice had their birettas/proper hats with the form and colors according to their academic rank and discipline. It would be more elegant than the bald academic heads.

For example, an MA in theology would merit a three horned black roman biretta with red piping and tuft.

A couple of justices don what appears to be the traditional judge's cap at the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.

Cardinal Ratzinger on the Important Contribution of Vatican II

Cardinal Ratzinger indicates five fundamental aspects of importance in the Vatican II heritage.

1. The importance given to the Bible and the the Church Fathers.
2. The new personalist image of man.
3. The affirmation regarding the essence of the Church.
4. The ecumenical emphasis.
5. The liturgical renewal.

Regarding the last point the Cardinal observes that the liturgical renewal "...has not always proved helpful for the faithful."

In that regard, Ratzinger says that in general Christians should be a critical force. "...[T]he world needs, more than our acceptance, self-criticism, critical objections, and solidarity should be critical. The critical capacity which the Christian has in the face of certain evolutions should reach its full effect."
The reform needs reform!

A 1988 interview by "30giorni" in Joseph Ratzinger, Ser cristiano en la era neopagana, Madrid: Encuentro, 1995, 118-119.

P.S. The purpose of the Francis papacy is to give us time to study and digest the Wojtyla/Ratzinger magisterium.

P.S.S. It is interesting to compare this 1988 Ratzinger list of the Council heritage with a similar Council objectives list of his from 1966. The only significant difference between the two assessments is the 1988 note critical of the liturgical reform and pointing out the world's need for Christians to be critical of what they are being fed in and outside the Church!

“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination:" What Met Gala Gets Right

Having never before so much as heard of the Met Ball and not much caring about the world of fiction which is the Hollywood land of make-believe, this year's theme of that day explicitly addresses me, a Catholic priest.

My spontaneous reaction is that, on the surface, one may interpret that affair as a positive thing. Women dress up to show-case some popular impressions of Catholicism. That cultural event did indicate various obvious facts.

1. Women dress up, men do not. And there is a difference between the two. Notice that even the notorious homosexuals stuck to that modern protocol. I saw no "drag-queen" displays. Thank God!

Moral: dressing up is for girls.

2. Catholicism is important.
Entirely oblivious to that world of cultural elites, the biggest surprise to me was this, that such a powerful industry, built entirely upon fantasy, willfulness, pride and lust, should even show up to acknowledge the existence of the Catholic Church, which is a direct reference to Jesus Christ Her Lord.

Moral: Jesus Christ is not dead, He lives in His Holy Church! Even the devils confess the name of Jesus. Cf. Matthew 8:29.

3. Gender/Sex and True Religion are Analogous.
The feminine genius has a natural sense of mystery in its need to dress up and to make-up itself. There is something supernatural in woman's wastefulness in styles and accepted fashions, dresses, obsession with skin and hair and every superficial aspect of her person; because the body points beyond the body to the superior grandeur of the entire person. The person includes the flesh but is much more. The person is both body and soul. What is more, the body/soul reality of the person indicates God, in Whose image God created them. Imago Dei. So we do well in the English language, for example, to capitalize the "I." But we should, with more reason yet, capitalize also the "You." We actually do that, fittingly, with the name of the true God, and all His pronouns. Cf. Genenis 1:27.
Catholicism's priesthood and Her entire sacramental system is up to the same thing as women dressing up to manifest the persona, but at the superlative level, because it indicates and serves the Lord of all. A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Material things are thereby transformed by God, in His ministers, to give us God. Emmanuel: God is with us. So we dress up to indicate that fact. Just as the body points beyond the body and the human person points beyond himself to God His Creator, in Whose image he is made, so the splendor of the Catholic ritual and her consecrated ministers advertise the truth of the Person and the reality of God Himself, in the flesh, Jesus Christ. The Most Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist, is Jesus Christ Himself, bodily and trans-historically and really present on the earth. "This is My body,...My blood,...for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of Me." The Catholic priest is the royal minister of Christ. The priest also stands in persona Christi. We dress up our rituals, our selves and our churches to show it!

Moral: "Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis et vidimus gloriam eius gloriam quasi unigeniti a Patre plenum gratiae et veritatis." John 1:14

Sex and Salvation

The Latest Scientific Research on Gender Ideology

"'Gay' Marriage": A Symptom of The Will to Power (Reality as man-made)

Homosexuality is Bad For Your Health: Mortal Sin Means Mortal Danger

Christian Civilization Urgently Needs to Revive and Redevelop the Doctrines of Creation, Metaphysics and Eschatology

The Saint of the Blessed Sacrament, Saint Paschal Baylon (1540-1592)

"[May 17th is the Traditional Feast Day of] Saint Paschal Baylon,...Franciscan Brother, Patron of Eucharistic Confraternities and Congresses.

"This humble Spanish friar is known as the Saint of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Paschal was a shepherd from the time he was seven until the age of 24. He taught himself to read so that he could recite the Little Office of Our Lady.

"When he was about 18, he asked to join the Friars Minor at Loreto. These barefooted Franciscans, who followed the austere reforms of Saint Peter of Alcantara, at first rejected Paschal; but when they finally accepted him years later, Paschal's virtues stood out even among these fervent friars.

"An unlearned man who worked mainly as a porter or doorkeeper, Paschal acquired an understanding of theological matters through his many hours on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. Even after praying through the night, he eagerly served consecutive Masses beginning after dawn.

"Saint Paschal was sometimes sent on journeys through France at a time when persecution from the Huguenots made travelling dangerous for anyone in a habit, and he was stoned on more than one occasion.

"Many miraculous cures of the sick and poor were attributed to Saint paschal even during his lifetime."

2018 Saints Calendar & Month Planner, Charlotte, North Carolina: TAN, 2017, 126.

Ave Maria, Virgo Serena (1484)

1. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Virgo serena. 1. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, serene Virgin. 2. Ave cujus conceptio, Solemni plena gaudio, Coelestia, terrestria Nova replet laetitia. 2. Hail thou whose conception, full of solemn joy, fills heaven and earth with new happiness. 3. Ave cujus nativitas, Nostra fuit solemnitas, Ut Lucifer lux oriens, Verum solem praeveniens. 3. Hail thou whose birth was our solemn celebration, like Lucifer the Eastern (star or light) foretelling the rising of the true Sun. 4. Ave pia humilitas, Sine viro foecunditas, Cujus annuntiatio Nostra fuit salvatio. 4. Hail blessed humility, fruitful without man (meaning with original sin), thou whose annunciation has been our salvation. 5. Ave vera virginitas, Immaculata castitas, Cujus purificatio Nostra fuit purgatio. 5. Hail true virginity, immaculate chastity, whose purification has been our cleansing. 6. Ave praeclara omnibus Angelicis virtutibus, Cujus fuit assumptio, Nostra glorificatio. 6. Hail thou most glorious among all angelic virtues, she whose assumption has been our glorification. 7. O Mater Dei, Memento Mei. Amen. 7. O Mother of God, remember me. Amen.

The Zither: The Bavaria & Tirol National Instrument

Solemn Pontifical Mass in Thanksgiving for Summorum Pontificum, Saturday, May 28, 2018,

Cultus divinus!

"Thank you Holy Father [Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI] for your wisdom, foresight, and pastoral generosity, in allowing the Usus Antiquior to once again flourish in the universal Church... 

"You....young people present here...are a great sign of encouragement and hope for the Church, tossed about these days on the troubled waters of secularism and relativism... You understand your place in the Church to help rebuild a culture of life in society and a renewal of Catholic culture within the Church Herself... So many young people are attracted to this venerable form of the Roman Rite[!]...

"This is the Mass of my mother,...the Mass that drew my father to the Church and fueled his conversion...

"'There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place...' [July 7, 2007 "Letter to Bishops on occasion of Summorum Pontificum"]

"[Pope Benedict XVI told me that] 'He issued the motu proprio in order to reconcile the Church with her past.'

"One should be able to recognize the older Roman Rite in the newer."

--Archbishop Sample

Plinthos: The irony of this celebratory Mass is that it is made possible by the Priestly Society of Saint Peter and the Institute of Christ the King, neither of which needed the motu proprio. A decade into Summorum Pontificum the Cathedrals of the world and the priests of the world are still quite closed to the Latin Mass. This Mass should have been celebrated in all of the Cathedrals and Shrines of the world by the local diocesan clergy!

A Taste of the Forgotten Spanish Renaissance: Diego Ortiz

Alma Redemptoris Mater