Mother Maria of Paris' actions, Corey Ten Boom's actions and the actions of Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were not mutually exclusive. I don't want to write biographies of these people, but I want you to Google and read about them, please read more than Wikipedia. I will share what the media will not share for some reason, the end of Mother Maria's life, as told me by the eye witness, Corey Ten Boom. In 1945, hours before the Ravensbruck concentration camp would be liberated, the allied guns heard only a few miles away, the NAZI guards were busy killing their pregnant consorts and the witnesses to their worst tortures and crimes. In the line for the gas chamber was a pregnant Jewish girl, a whore, NAZI collaborator and consort, hated by the rest. Saint Maria, prayed angels to surround and took her place in line, without guards seeing it. Corey reported praying angels to surround and make them invisible as they covertly moved about the camp, the penalty for which would have been getting shot. That day the count was made and it was right and Maria marched into the gas chamber, a sacrifice for the unworthy, something only a fool would do.
When I think about this act, when hope in that death camp had to be high for the first time, knowing it was just a short time they would be rescued, Maria did not let that hope blind her. Why did Mother Maria have to do what she did? Because the words she had written on page, were written upon her heart, and to be REAL she had no choice, she had to act upon foolish love.Mother Maria wrote while she was in Paris: "The Bodies of our fellow human beings must be treated with more care than our own. Christian love teaches us to give our brethren not only spiritual gifts, but material gifts as well. Even our last shirt, our last piece of bread must be given to them. Personal almsgiving and the most wide-ranging social work are equally justifiable and necessary.
"The way to God lies through love of other people, and there is no other way. At the Last Judgement, I shall not be asked if I was successful in my ascetic exercises or how many prostrations I made in the course of my prayers. I shall be asked, did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners: that is all I shall be asked."
Truth when he walked among us said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." People think this means acting pious and religious, in this thought people are fools.
Our salvation, our "healing" is IN this world, not removed from it, but rather not OF it; the energy of it flowing from the new creation, the which Jesus Christ IS the New Creation he is creating IN us. (creating his eternal home, IN us) This is the true healing and it is shared by every faithful human of ancient times. Ordinary people who kept the single commandment God had given, "Go, be fruitful and multiply." Besides the one commandment, there was Natural Law, it was written on their hearts, it did not require letters on stone, and it was universal among humans, who were not yet corrupted, merely compromised by Adam's sin, and made subject to death. The human race was not instantly depraved because of the sin of Adam as the fundamentalist, and Blessed Augustin teach.
Lao Tsu paints a wonderful picture of the progressive corruption of humans. It is comically TRUE. "A man of highest virtue acts without regard to virtue, and that is why he has virtue.
A man of lowest virtue never strays from virtue and that is why he is without virtue.
The former never acts yet leaves nothing undone. The latter acts but there are things left undone.
A man of the highest benevolence acts, but from no ulterior motive.
A man of the highest rectitude acts, but from ulterior motive.
A man most conversant in the rites, acts, but when no one responds he rolls up his sleeves and resorts to persuasion by force.
Hence when The Way was lost, there was virtue; when virtue was lost there was benevolence; when benevolence was lost there was rectitude; when rectitude was lost there were the rites.
The rites are the wearing thin of loyalty and good faith, and the beginning of disorder."
(So you won't think I am way out there, Saint Paul told a very similar and more gritty story of the progressive corruption of humankind - read the first chapter of the book of Romans.)
There is more truth in the words of this pre-Christian than most Christians today would want to admit. But it does give us a picture of those "trying to become saved," and the selfish motive of "trying to become a saint" this is antithetical to the True Way. Yet it may be the best we can do at first. I read last year the "autobiography" better the collection of Pope John XXIII's diary entries. It covered many decades and it was little wonder he spawned the heresies he did. It was decades of plodding, boring self-absorbed narcissism.
Now returning to ancient times: Every one of these faithful to Natural Law, pre-Christian people met Jesus and he took them to himself, in the commonly called, "Harrowing of Hell" when his body lay in the tomb, the sacrifice of his flesh and blood complete, at this time having already conquered death by death, he took captivity, captive. Represented in that "captivity" were the faithful prophets, faithful patriarchs, faithful slaves, bondsmen and servants, and masters and Kings and priests, noble primitives, hunters, herdsmen. BEFORE Noah, and BEFORE Abraham, BEFORE Moses. All the faithful population of the earth looked forward to healing salvation, even if they could not name it, by simply keeping the Natural Law, that is not doing what is contrary to human nature. AS Saint Patrick might have said, simply responding moderately to their natural lusts, and rejecting in every instance the hostile lusts. We have no idea how many followed this noble primitive path, and how many sinned gravely and were corrupted in their flesh. We know by the time of Noah, all but a tiny handful, were totally corrupted.
The Jews (the Chosen People) were constrained in a new law for an example, in other words, as a means for God to progressively reveal himself in time, until he was born of the Virgin Mary and stood before us the man, Jesus of Nazareth. That revelation had to happen in time, so the Jews were chosen to be used for that purpose and that purpose ALONE, as an object lesson to create the context whereby man could have an inkling of what they were and are seeing, when they saw and see Jesus. Without that sequential revelation in time, and the TRADITION it created in time, which was also partly rendered in the sacred writings, we now call the Old Testament (and yes in other books that both Jesus and the apostles quoted), Jesus himself would have had no common, conceptual language whereby he could explain himself, in a way that would leave an INDELIBLE mark on human history and change the nature of every subsequent thing. From the very moment of God's Incarnation in the womb of Mary, all of human history since, every conversation, every act, has been in the context of building his reign upon earth, or resisting and/or actively trying to destroy it. There is no other context whereby men may experience life upon earth in the great battle of the tribulation, the great period of suffering. Whether they are a conscious warrior, wearing the full armor for the battle, actively attacking the strongholds of evil, pushing back the very real society of devils and demons, and witnessing with the blinding flashes of his sword, as Mother Maria, Corey Ten Boom and others have done, or a primitive in a jungle, living a subsistence, life, having never seen or heard of Christians, the Church or Jesus Christ, all are caught in the grand struggle. It is the passion of the EARTH itself, or Saint Paul was a liar. Paul said that the whole created order groans in travail, awaiting the Revelation of the Sons (plural) of God. (So the prayer of the heart is even our ecology.)
So Natural Law was the first rule towards salvation. The Law of Moses was the second rule towards salvation, but for the Jews only. There is, of course, a shadow of this more restrictive law in the Hammurabi Code, the Babylonian law, but none of these were salvation. The only healing/salvation whereby men may become imbued with eternal life is the Divine Human Nature of Jesus Christ. This is as true for Adam and Eve as it will be true for the last faithful Christians, whose death will signal the Return of Jesus Christ in Glory with all the faithful of all ages with him, both the saints and angels, ready to engage in the last battle that will destroy sin, evil and death upon earth, when everything will be regenerated, by those who have become Sons of God and were already regenerated, new christs, new creations.
The regeneration of this place, this earth is by the Revelation of the Sons of God.
I'm sorry to inform you folks, but all those images of heaven, humans being wispy souls existing in some "floaty place" called heaven, is pagan. For faithful Christians, one is ever a human being, with all the attributes of humanity, never a wispy disembodied anything; one is a human being, either part of the Church Triumphant, that exists in Glory, now at this moment, which is the powerful support of the Church Militant that is here upon earth, that is always and in every place Catholic (of the whole - both the Church Triumphant and Church Militant). The Church Militant is in a life and death battle, in this period of the great tribulation that has raged from the moment of Christ's Cross to this very day. In this great battle, the Saints and Angels of the Church Triumphant "have our backs" so to speak, in combat terms. From the moment of the death of the last faithful Christians on earth, all the faithful will be of the Church Triumphant, existing in God's unshielded and uncreated Glory, wearing flesh that can never fail, where we may view God face to face, each of us having become by nature what Jesus Christ already is; at our core we will be HIM.
Jesus Christ is the Begotten of the Father before all worlds, the Son of God, we are Sons of God, the created and re-born of God: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Jesus is both the Eternal Word of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds, and the FIRST re-born Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary. What he created in that divine human conception and birth is what we become in him, with him.
Is it any wonder, that Orthodox Catholics venerate Jesus' mother, Mary, as both the Mother of God, and our mother as well. She is our true mother, who gave her flesh to, with the Holy Spirit, create the Divine Human Flesh and Blood, and Divine Human Nature we share in a mystery of new creation which outpaces our conceptual ability to fully speak.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear then shall ye also appear with him IN GLORY."
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, (religion and superstition is a childish thing) I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (meaning as God knows us, we will know him) And now abideth faith, hope, charity (active love) these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (active love.)"
I did not myself know, as I wrote prayerfully why I had to invoke the memory of Saint Mother Maria of Paris, my lovely Sweet Friend and Saint, Corey Ten Boom, who contended harshly with a bitter, bitter young boy and teen; andRev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I could add to the list Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and a host of others in contemporary times and those saints and martyrs, filling the history of the Church Militant to the Cross of Christ. It is because each of these people proved that the Natural Law, understood by the most primitive people on earth, the simple rule of love, is still the true Gospel, where then it functioned upon the hope of salvation in the future, today it is an active work and function OF healing/salvation, played out in the living Liturgy of our lives; where our living becomes most natural looking to the person without spiritual eyes; we are ordinary, we are acting and responding to family, friends, co-workers, strangers, and to events in history, as these aforementioned people valiantly did, yet with extreme repentance, the humility to do what love demands, we become better and better at it, hoping that in every way that could hinder our walk of The Way, we disappear, cease to exist, in every way that is "contra" to his will. And in this disappearing is our TRUE humanity, our TRUE personality, our TRUE personhood, our TRUE creativity etc., etc. It is loss of only what Saint Paul calls "caca," that is excrement.
When we give "ourselves" up, as Jesus, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers and all the saints of every age have said we have to do, saying we have to do this to be "HEALED", we don't give up our True self, but our false self, built upon all that is false, all that is not real, all that is not eternal, all that is not good, all that is not beautiful, all that is not lovable, and lovely, all that is not brave, all that is not baptized in LOVE. We KEEP everything TRUE. You see, even Martha who I described in the previous lesson, clung to everything that was false for 70 plus years, trying to give it reality, until she disappeared upon her death bed all resistance gone and instantly took upon herself the Glory that had been struggling with her, IN HER since her Baptism.
"If we suffered with Him
We will reign with Him
If we have died with Him
We will live with Him
If we deny Him, He will deny us
If we are faithless, He remains faithful
Because he cannot deny himself."
Being taught the simple Gospel, Jesus Christ and him crucified for our sins, accepting Baptism FOR THE REMISSION OF OUR SINS, is not a mere symbol, but the promise that we will "die in him." And the seal of the Holy Spirit, is not a mere symbol, but the promise that we will become imbued with him. The Eucharist, physically taking to ourselves Christ's Divine Human Body and Blood is not a mere symbol of the thing, but the ACTUAL thing, as Jesus, the Apostles and the Saints and Holy Fathers of ALL ages have taught and testified to. This is not a symbol and promise of New Creation, this is participation in that New Creation.
Don't accept some gnosticized, protestantized truncation of this very real LIFE, some theory of it, some mental images of it! Rather, wash in its Sacred Waters, bathe in the oil, the anointing of it, eat the Body and Blood of it, accept the true FULLNESS of the Gospel. "Is not THIS cup (not any cup) of blessing we bless, the Blood of Jesus Christ?" Who asked that question, indicating it most certainly is? "Is not THIS bread we break, the flesh of Jesus Christ?" Who said that?
Homework: read about Saint Maria of Paris, Blessed Corey Ten Boom, and Rev.Dietrich Bonhoeffer martyr for Christ. Also find what I referenced in the paragraph above and realize for yourself, who said this, who made this claim, this radical claim that the Bread and Wine of the Altar are ACTUALLY Jesus Christ's Body and Blood, in a mystery, we cannot articulate nor define, because it outpaces our conceptual language. We do know that it is an experience of anamnesis, which is more than commemorating, or remembering, but stepping into the eternal moment, where Jesus Christ is both spiritually and physically present. One of the Holy Fathers (saints) speaking of the "symbol" of the Eucharist, the "symbol" of Jesus' presence, the fact that the "symbol" represents Jesus, "the bread and wine do no represent Jesus' Body and Blood, they re-present Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. THIS is the meaning of anamnesis."
(And I Believe) in one Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all worlds. Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made:
*Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
* And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
*And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
*And ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;
*And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
*And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. Who spoke by the prophets:
*And I believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
*I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
*I look for the resurrection of the dead,
*And the life of the world to come. Amen.
+++
You put on the purple garment of your flesh, made scarlet with blood by Divine Grace, glorious, wise Martyr Father Jacques Hamel, and having bound your head with the crown of incorruption and life, holding in your right hand the trophy of the Cross like a sceptre, you reign with Christ rejoicing for ever; and in the radiance of His glory, implore Christ our True God to grant us His mercy. - Amen.
Truth when he walked among us said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." People think this means acting pious and religious, in this thought people are fools.
Our salvation, our "healing" is IN this world, not removed from it, but rather not OF it; the energy of it flowing from the new creation, the which Jesus Christ IS the New Creation he is creating IN us. (creating his eternal home, IN us) This is the true healing and it is shared by every faithful human of ancient times. Ordinary people who kept the single commandment God had given, "Go, be fruitful and multiply." Besides the one commandment, there was Natural Law, it was written on their hearts, it did not require letters on stone, and it was universal among humans, who were not yet corrupted, merely compromised by Adam's sin, and made subject to death. The human race was not instantly depraved because of the sin of Adam as the fundamentalist, and Blessed Augustin teach.
Lao Tsu paints a wonderful picture of the progressive corruption of humans. It is comically TRUE. "A man of highest virtue acts without regard to virtue, and that is why he has virtue.
A man of lowest virtue never strays from virtue and that is why he is without virtue.
The former never acts yet leaves nothing undone. The latter acts but there are things left undone.
A man of the highest benevolence acts, but from no ulterior motive.
A man of the highest rectitude acts, but from ulterior motive.
A man most conversant in the rites, acts, but when no one responds he rolls up his sleeves and resorts to persuasion by force.
Hence when The Way was lost, there was virtue; when virtue was lost there was benevolence; when benevolence was lost there was rectitude; when rectitude was lost there were the rites.
The rites are the wearing thin of loyalty and good faith, and the beginning of disorder."
(So you won't think I am way out there, Saint Paul told a very similar and more gritty story of the progressive corruption of humankind - read the first chapter of the book of Romans.)
There is more truth in the words of this pre-Christian than most Christians today would want to admit. But it does give us a picture of those "trying to become saved," and the selfish motive of "trying to become a saint" this is antithetical to the True Way. Yet it may be the best we can do at first. I read last year the "autobiography" better the collection of Pope John XXIII's diary entries. It covered many decades and it was little wonder he spawned the heresies he did. It was decades of plodding, boring self-absorbed narcissism.
Now returning to ancient times: Every one of these faithful to Natural Law, pre-Christian people met Jesus and he took them to himself, in the commonly called, "Harrowing of Hell" when his body lay in the tomb, the sacrifice of his flesh and blood complete, at this time having already conquered death by death, he took captivity, captive. Represented in that "captivity" were the faithful prophets, faithful patriarchs, faithful slaves, bondsmen and servants, and masters and Kings and priests, noble primitives, hunters, herdsmen. BEFORE Noah, and BEFORE Abraham, BEFORE Moses. All the faithful population of the earth looked forward to healing salvation, even if they could not name it, by simply keeping the Natural Law, that is not doing what is contrary to human nature. AS Saint Patrick might have said, simply responding moderately to their natural lusts, and rejecting in every instance the hostile lusts. We have no idea how many followed this noble primitive path, and how many sinned gravely and were corrupted in their flesh. We know by the time of Noah, all but a tiny handful, were totally corrupted.
The Jews (the Chosen People) were constrained in a new law for an example, in other words, as a means for God to progressively reveal himself in time, until he was born of the Virgin Mary and stood before us the man, Jesus of Nazareth. That revelation had to happen in time, so the Jews were chosen to be used for that purpose and that purpose ALONE, as an object lesson to create the context whereby man could have an inkling of what they were and are seeing, when they saw and see Jesus. Without that sequential revelation in time, and the TRADITION it created in time, which was also partly rendered in the sacred writings, we now call the Old Testament (and yes in other books that both Jesus and the apostles quoted), Jesus himself would have had no common, conceptual language whereby he could explain himself, in a way that would leave an INDELIBLE mark on human history and change the nature of every subsequent thing. From the very moment of God's Incarnation in the womb of Mary, all of human history since, every conversation, every act, has been in the context of building his reign upon earth, or resisting and/or actively trying to destroy it. There is no other context whereby men may experience life upon earth in the great battle of the tribulation, the great period of suffering. Whether they are a conscious warrior, wearing the full armor for the battle, actively attacking the strongholds of evil, pushing back the very real society of devils and demons, and witnessing with the blinding flashes of his sword, as Mother Maria, Corey Ten Boom and others have done, or a primitive in a jungle, living a subsistence, life, having never seen or heard of Christians, the Church or Jesus Christ, all are caught in the grand struggle. It is the passion of the EARTH itself, or Saint Paul was a liar. Paul said that the whole created order groans in travail, awaiting the Revelation of the Sons (plural) of God. (So the prayer of the heart is even our ecology.)
So Natural Law was the first rule towards salvation. The Law of Moses was the second rule towards salvation, but for the Jews only. There is, of course, a shadow of this more restrictive law in the Hammurabi Code, the Babylonian law, but none of these were salvation. The only healing/salvation whereby men may become imbued with eternal life is the Divine Human Nature of Jesus Christ. This is as true for Adam and Eve as it will be true for the last faithful Christians, whose death will signal the Return of Jesus Christ in Glory with all the faithful of all ages with him, both the saints and angels, ready to engage in the last battle that will destroy sin, evil and death upon earth, when everything will be regenerated, by those who have become Sons of God and were already regenerated, new christs, new creations.
The regeneration of this place, this earth is by the Revelation of the Sons of God.
I'm sorry to inform you folks, but all those images of heaven, humans being wispy souls existing in some "floaty place" called heaven, is pagan. For faithful Christians, one is ever a human being, with all the attributes of humanity, never a wispy disembodied anything; one is a human being, either part of the Church Triumphant, that exists in Glory, now at this moment, which is the powerful support of the Church Militant that is here upon earth, that is always and in every place Catholic (of the whole - both the Church Triumphant and Church Militant). The Church Militant is in a life and death battle, in this period of the great tribulation that has raged from the moment of Christ's Cross to this very day. In this great battle, the Saints and Angels of the Church Triumphant "have our backs" so to speak, in combat terms. From the moment of the death of the last faithful Christians on earth, all the faithful will be of the Church Triumphant, existing in God's unshielded and uncreated Glory, wearing flesh that can never fail, where we may view God face to face, each of us having become by nature what Jesus Christ already is; at our core we will be HIM.
Jesus Christ is the Begotten of the Father before all worlds, the Son of God, we are Sons of God, the created and re-born of God: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Jesus is both the Eternal Word of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds, and the FIRST re-born Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary. What he created in that divine human conception and birth is what we become in him, with him.
Is it any wonder, that Orthodox Catholics venerate Jesus' mother, Mary, as both the Mother of God, and our mother as well. She is our true mother, who gave her flesh to, with the Holy Spirit, create the Divine Human Flesh and Blood, and Divine Human Nature we share in a mystery of new creation which outpaces our conceptual ability to fully speak.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear then shall ye also appear with him IN GLORY."
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, (religion and superstition is a childish thing) I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (meaning as God knows us, we will know him) And now abideth faith, hope, charity (active love) these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (active love.)"
I did not myself know, as I wrote prayerfully why I had to invoke the memory of Saint Mother Maria of Paris, my lovely Sweet Friend and Saint, Corey Ten Boom, who contended harshly with a bitter, bitter young boy and teen; andRev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I could add to the list Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and a host of others in contemporary times and those saints and martyrs, filling the history of the Church Militant to the Cross of Christ. It is because each of these people proved that the Natural Law, understood by the most primitive people on earth, the simple rule of love, is still the true Gospel, where then it functioned upon the hope of salvation in the future, today it is an active work and function OF healing/salvation, played out in the living Liturgy of our lives; where our living becomes most natural looking to the person without spiritual eyes; we are ordinary, we are acting and responding to family, friends, co-workers, strangers, and to events in history, as these aforementioned people valiantly did, yet with extreme repentance, the humility to do what love demands, we become better and better at it, hoping that in every way that could hinder our walk of The Way, we disappear, cease to exist, in every way that is "contra" to his will. And in this disappearing is our TRUE humanity, our TRUE personality, our TRUE personhood, our TRUE creativity etc., etc. It is loss of only what Saint Paul calls "caca," that is excrement.
When we give "ourselves" up, as Jesus, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers and all the saints of every age have said we have to do, saying we have to do this to be "HEALED", we don't give up our True self, but our false self, built upon all that is false, all that is not real, all that is not eternal, all that is not good, all that is not beautiful, all that is not lovable, and lovely, all that is not brave, all that is not baptized in LOVE. We KEEP everything TRUE. You see, even Martha who I described in the previous lesson, clung to everything that was false for 70 plus years, trying to give it reality, until she disappeared upon her death bed all resistance gone and instantly took upon herself the Glory that had been struggling with her, IN HER since her Baptism.
"If we suffered with Him
We will reign with Him
If we have died with Him
We will live with Him
If we deny Him, He will deny us
If we are faithless, He remains faithful
Because he cannot deny himself."
Being taught the simple Gospel, Jesus Christ and him crucified for our sins, accepting Baptism FOR THE REMISSION OF OUR SINS, is not a mere symbol, but the promise that we will "die in him." And the seal of the Holy Spirit, is not a mere symbol, but the promise that we will become imbued with him. The Eucharist, physically taking to ourselves Christ's Divine Human Body and Blood is not a mere symbol of the thing, but the ACTUAL thing, as Jesus, the Apostles and the Saints and Holy Fathers of ALL ages have taught and testified to. This is not a symbol and promise of New Creation, this is participation in that New Creation.
Don't accept some gnosticized, protestantized truncation of this very real LIFE, some theory of it, some mental images of it! Rather, wash in its Sacred Waters, bathe in the oil, the anointing of it, eat the Body and Blood of it, accept the true FULLNESS of the Gospel. "Is not THIS cup (not any cup) of blessing we bless, the Blood of Jesus Christ?" Who asked that question, indicating it most certainly is? "Is not THIS bread we break, the flesh of Jesus Christ?" Who said that?
Homework: read about Saint Maria of Paris, Blessed Corey Ten Boom, and Rev.Dietrich Bonhoeffer martyr for Christ. Also find what I referenced in the paragraph above and realize for yourself, who said this, who made this claim, this radical claim that the Bread and Wine of the Altar are ACTUALLY Jesus Christ's Body and Blood, in a mystery, we cannot articulate nor define, because it outpaces our conceptual language. We do know that it is an experience of anamnesis, which is more than commemorating, or remembering, but stepping into the eternal moment, where Jesus Christ is both spiritually and physically present. One of the Holy Fathers (saints) speaking of the "symbol" of the Eucharist, the "symbol" of Jesus' presence, the fact that the "symbol" represents Jesus, "the bread and wine do no represent Jesus' Body and Blood, they re-present Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. THIS is the meaning of anamnesis."
(And I Believe) in one Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all worlds. Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made:
*Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
* And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
*And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
*And ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;
*And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
*And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. Who spoke by the prophets:
*And I believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
*I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
*I look for the resurrection of the dead,
*And the life of the world to come. Amen.
+++
You put on the purple garment of your flesh, made scarlet with blood by Divine Grace, glorious, wise Martyr Father Jacques Hamel, and having bound your head with the crown of incorruption and life, holding in your right hand the trophy of the Cross like a sceptre, you reign with Christ rejoicing for ever; and in the radiance of His glory, implore Christ our True God to grant us His mercy. - Amen.
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