On-Line RCIA: The Sixteenth Lecture
We are skipping ahead in honor of friend-of-this-blog C. (who has a big event imminent), with thanks to other-friend-of-blog A., who posted a section of the Sixteenth Lecture at the novena entry below.
Notice that St. Cyril has some harsh things to say about the Gnostics, who have been so fashionable lately. Because St. Cyril just can't stand how the Gnostics object to the Church's systematic oppression of women, or their attempts to liberate St. Mary Magdalene from the derogations, defamation, and insult cast upon her by the Evil Institutional Church. Oh wait, no he's upset because half of them are ugly anti-Semites who think the Old Testament God (and Holy Spirit by extension, and the Jewish people by futher extension) is evil and want to jettison the Hebrew Scriptures, and the other half are wingnuts who think they themselves are the Holy Spirit.
From the Sixteenth Lecture, regarding the Holy Spirit:
We are skipping ahead in honor of friend-of-this-blog C. (who has a big event imminent), with thanks to other-friend-of-blog A., who posted a section of the Sixteenth Lecture at the novena entry below.
Notice that St. Cyril has some harsh things to say about the Gnostics, who have been so fashionable lately. Because St. Cyril just can't stand how the Gnostics object to the Church's systematic oppression of women, or their attempts to liberate St. Mary Magdalene from the derogations, defamation, and insult cast upon her by the Evil Institutional Church. Oh wait, no he's upset because half of them are ugly anti-Semites who think the Old Testament God (and Holy Spirit by extension, and the Jewish people by futher extension) is evil and want to jettison the Hebrew Scriptures, and the other half are wingnuts who think they themselves are the Holy Spirit.
From the Sixteenth Lecture, regarding the Holy Spirit:
His coming is gentle; the perception of Him is fragrant; His burden most light; beams of light and knowledge gleam forth before His coming. He comes with the bowels of a true guardian: for He comes to save, and to heal, to teach, to admonish, to strengthen, to exhort, to enlighten the mind, first of him who receives Him, and afterwards of others also, through him. And as a man, who being previously in darkness then suddenly beholds the sun, is enlightened in his bodily sight, and sees plainly things which he saw not, so likewise he to whom the Holy Ghost is vouchsafed, is enlightened in his soul, and sees things beyond man's sight, which he knew not; his body is on earth, yet his soul mirrors forth the heavens. He sees, like Esaias, the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up; he sees, like Ezekiel; Him who is above the Cherubim; he sees like Daniel, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; and the man, who is so little, beholds the beginning of the world, and knows the end of the world, and the times intervening, and the successions of kings, things which he never learned: for the True Enlightener is present with him.
posted by The Opinionated Homeschooler at 6:48 AM
2 Comments:
"C" says "Hooray for St. Cyril!" Yes, I actually read my assigned text (thank you very much!) and enjoyed it thoroughly.
"C" and her special sponsor friend "A" wonders if The Opinionated Homeschooler has put on her boogie shoes yet, in light of tomorrow's big event....
Is it appropriate for those attending a c-Mass to do the wave? Did Vatican II address such an issue?
Good reading! I particualrly liked,
"Let the Cataphrygians also be thy abhorrence, and Montanus, their ringleader in evil, and his two so-called prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla. For this Montanus, who was out of his mind and really mad (for he would not have said such things, had he not been mad), dared to say that he was himself the Holy Ghost,--he, miserable man, and filled with all uncleanness and lasciviousness; for it suffices but to hint at this, out of respect for the women who are present, " and
"he was seconded, as was said before, by that most impious Manes also, who combined what was bad in every heresy; who being the very lowest pit of destruction, collected the doctrines of all the heretics, and wrought out and taught a yet more novel error."
I have never heard such colorful excoritations from the pulpit of my church!
I love reading the Church Fathers because it helps me appreciate the miracle of our faith and the work of the Holy Spirit who kept the church through persecutions and protected her from the teachings of "ugly anti-Semites and wingnuts."
It makes me sad that in an age where there is so much fundamental agreement on interpretation of scripture, we find ourselves in world with a million denominations.
My Christ continue to give "some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all ewach unity in the faith."
Happy Pentecost!
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