Quote for the Day

[Therese]

I imagine that the bottom straight part of the shepherds staff is the rod used for striking and breaking the lambs legs, while the top part of the staff which is curved is used for catching the lamb and redirecting it.

[Shin]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way.

[Shin]

'Again in Psalm 23 "the rod" is said to signify God's judgment and "the staff" His providence. So he who has received spiritual knowledge of these things is able to say, "Thy rod and Thy staff have comforted me."'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Therese]

'Again in Psalm 23 "the rod" is said to signify God's judgment and "the staff" His providence. So he who has received spiritual knowledge of these things is able to say, "Thy rod and Thy staff have comforted me."'

St. Maximos the Confessor

The Good Shepherd uses His rod and staff to guide me to Heaven, thus, they are a great comfort to me.

[Shin]

Here is a challenging question for folks, what meanings do a staff and a rod have?

What are the deeper meanings behind each portion of Psalm 22?

Psalm 22

OUR Lord ruleth me, and nothing shall be wanting to me: in place of pasture there he hath placed me.
Upon the water of refection he hath brought me up: he hath converted my soul.
He hath conducted me upon the paths of justice, for his name.
For, although I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils: because thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff: they have comforted me.
Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that trouble me.
Thou hast fatted my head with oil: and my chalice inebriating how goodly is it!
And thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And that I may dwell in the house of our Lord, in longitude of days.

So we could say, the Lord's His Judgement and Providence are a great comfort.

Anyone want to keep filling it out further?

Here's some more:

'In Psalm 23, "green pasture" represents the practice of the virtues; "water of refreshment", spiritual knowledge of created things.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Therese]

Here is a challenging question for folks, what meanings do a staff and a rod have?

What are the deeper meanings behind each portion of Psalm 22?

Psalm 22

OUR Lord ruleth me, and nothing shall be wanting to me: in place of pasture there he hath placed me.
Upon the water of refection he hath brought me up: he hath converted my soul.
He hath conducted me upon the paths of justice, for his name.
For, although I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils: because thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff: they have comforted me.
Thou hast prepared in my sight a table, against them; that trouble me.
Thou hast fatted my head with oil: and my chalice inebriating how goodly is it!
And thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And that I may dwell in the house of our Lord, in longitude of days.

So we could say, the Lord's His Judgement and Providence are a great comfort.

Anyone want to keep filling it out further?

Here's some more:

'In Psalm 23, "green pasture" represents the practice of the virtues; "water of refreshment", spiritual knowledge of created things.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

Yes, we can certainly say that, for His Judgment is most just/fair and always directs us toward Heaven, and His Providence is most mercifully loving and always directs us towards Heaven.  We can always count on the both of them to help us get to Heaven, thus, we can find comfort in them.  The most comforting books I have ever read are those written about our Lord's Divine Providence and those written about our merciful Mother who is our Advocate and Queen.  

[Therese]

Q. If a person lived a decent, noble and moral life as judged by Catholic Faith beliefs and standards, yet was not a Christian or a Catholic and may, for the sake of discussion, be a non-believer, would this person be denied Heaven? A. To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in fact as a member of the Church, but it is required that he belong to it at least in desire and longing [in voto]. It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens. When a man is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a man wants his will to be conformed to God's will.

--Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, August 8, 1949

[Therese]

Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor [Pope St. Pius X] rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fullness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances: "It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring" (Job 31:12). Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savors of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."

--Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922), Encyclical Letter "Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum," November 1, 1914

[Therese]

The Holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of Antichrist, and the prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know -- and they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin Church --, all of them unanimously say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of the Antichrist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar will cease.... Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it were in the beginning, invisible, hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were, from the face of the earth. Such is the unanimous testimony of the Fathers of the early centuries.

--Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (1808-1892), The Present Crisis of the Holy See (1861)

[Shin]

'A silent wife is a gift from the Lord; nothing is worth more than her self-discipline.'

Sirach 26:14

[odhiambo]

“You learn to speak by speaking,
to study by studying,
to run by running,
to work by working ;
and just so you learn to love God and man by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”
Saint Francis de Sales

[Therese]

“You learn to speak by speaking,
to study by studying,
to run by running,
to work by working ;
and just so you learn to love God and man by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”
Saint Francis de Sales

Beautiful quote, and so true!

[Therese]

Say your Pater, Ave, and Credo in Latin ... so as to join in the universal language of the Church.

- St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

[Therese]

The Church must steadily and firmly heed that although the language of the people may change, the language of liturgy should not be altered. Thus, the Mass must be said in the language in which it was said from the beginning, even if such a language be already, antiquated and strange to the people, for it is wholly enough, if the learned men understand it.

- Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), De Missae Sacrificio, 2, II

[Therese]

It's a dumb dog that doesn't bark when the wolf is among the sheep!

- Pope St. Gregory the Great, In Ez. Hom. 7

[Therese]

The first requirement of salvation is to keep the standard of the True Faith.

- Pope Saint Adrian II (867-872)