Expounding on 1 Timothy 3:6-- advice to new converts

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6)

My husband wrote this in a different context the other day, but it was so good I had to share:

There is a perilous trap for neophytes in the Church: Obsession with Apologetics. When the neophyte does not possess sufficient self knowledge, he may deceive himself and say," Ah! I love the truth!" But in his heart he merely wants to be like those whom he reveres, because he doesn't know what it means to really love. He has yet to discover that, to discover how he is loved.
But just like a child doesn't know how to be a man, or a son a father, neither does the novice know the way. He loves winning, he loves pontificating, arguing, agreeing with the right people, pointing his finger, and saying true things (though he doesn't know their full meaning). He says what he has heard, and marvels at the continuity, and imagines that if he says these things to others he will be just like those who said it to him. He is exactly what a novice is... immature. And if anyone grants him an apostolate because he is zealous, not discerning his immaturity, they make a grievous error, imperiling his soul.
In the natural course of time, his false pride will wilt and whither, if no one feeds it with honors of which he is not worthy. When his pride is frustrated to death, he will despair, and learn humility. Then, he is no more a novice. Then, he will see that the love he had for the truth before was like the love of a boy for a girl, because he will know then that his love now is like the love of a man for his wife and his children. Then, he will understand.
You can see his arrogance, not because he speaks the truth boldly. But because he doesn't say it with decency. He doesn't understand, he even resents the maxim of the philosopher," Maxims are unbecoming in the mouths of youths." Pontificating what he has not allowed to change him. And you will see his immaturity in other plain ways: impunctuality, imprudence, course jesting and foolishness. He always has a river of words coming out of his mouth. These if they are given a ministry become vain and puffed up, imagining themselves to be something when in truth they are nothing but neophytes.
And many a Christian ought to recognize themselves in this presently, and others looking back. It is a constant peril. Humility, humility, humility! How important it is to wait upon the Lord, until such a time as when you have what you have in the mind in the heart. If a man is honest with himself, he know this will take years of constant prayer, reading the scripture, frequenting the sacraments, oft resorting to the Church to seek the face of God before the sacrament. In time such a man will be approved of God, having in him a new thing... in the quietude of his soul, he will know it. And this is why in the Early Church, it was established that no one could be a theologian unless they had experienced God.
So, put your face to the ground before the sacrament, pray for God's will, learn by doing righteousness, and hold your peace. There are enough pests in the Church, trouble making busy bodies. The Church already has its fill of babblers, learn holiness through fearless and quite servitude, holding the mystery of the Gospel in a good conscience. Don't go in pretending or wanting to be somebody. As Christ said,"When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” And this is how you should be in the Churches.

If you liked this, check out his blog

Of Seders and Sancto

I had promised myself that I wouldn't rant on here--- well, at least not rant when furious-- about things that pass through my facebook feed anymore, but this little gem was too good to let go. Also it's Thursday, so it must be time for theology Thursdays. So, here goes...

Years ago, frustrated by the lack of solid preaching to be found readily available in the Catholic-sphere, I was told to check out a website called audiosancto.
It consists of anonymous homilies posted regularly on different topics.

You see, as a protestant, I had become quite accustomed to being preached to.... In fact, I had become used to doing most things with a sermon going in the background. I was mystified by this percieved lack of preaching in the Catholic Church. (I figured out later that I had access to history's BEST preaching 24/7 as a Catholic, and also that there was something to be said for reading instead of getting emotionally manipulated or hollered at. But... that's another story.)

So anyways, in search of some hard core down-home  pa-REACHin' I gave audiosancto a whirl.
It was OK! There was some good stuff! It wasn't like--- edge of my seat, blow-my-mind, hug-my-Bible good, but it was good.
It wasn't great, though, and after a while I lost interest, and moved on.

Until today, when a friend I deeply love sent me a seasonally-relevant homily to check out, knowing that it would touch a nerve, and possibly that it would keep me from holding a passover seder this year, which I'm pretty sure would make his day.

You see, the homily was called: "Seder Meals Violate the 1st Commandment."
Yep, you heard me right.

Now, my friend sent this to me in the same way that somebody shoves an elbow in their good friend's ribcage.... because he knows I'm a lover of all things Jew-y, and it drives him a little bit nuts.

He knows that every Friday night in my house there is Shabbat goodness to be had and that every year my kids build some Sukkahs and that apples and honey pass through their lips with wishes for a good new start. Yes, it's true, we start and end each day with the Shema and my kids probably know the dreidel song better than the words to the Stabat Mater. All true! But that doesn't make this family any less Catholic, and it certainly doesn't--- as the priest who posted this little piece of work claims--- put us in a state of mortal sin. Now let me tell you why.

Unlike in a lot of Christian homes where random Jewishness abounds--- there is no theological weirdness here. We don't think we "need" to do these things, Hebrew or not,  and we acknowledge that we just want to. We want to because we love the Jews, because we are grateful for what they have brought to the table, because if we do not, their identity-- the things which make them Jewish-- will vanish from the earth. And with it the deepest of our roots, for our Bible says that Salvation is from the Jews.(John 4:22)

Most importantly, we understand full well that the Sacrifice of the Mass is for us what the passover was created to prepare us for. Because we know, believe, and understand that Jesus is The Christ, the Messiah, the promised One.

The Jews don't believe that. They don't understand it. And many of them have studied the question themselves and reject it with all their might. This difference is fundamental-- it's what makes the wide divide between us.

Now before I go any further, I encourage you to listen to the homily. Because there is a chance-- and it's a big one--- that you might be the kind of person he is talking to. In fact, in a sense, I'm glad he said what he did because I meet these people every day:

"OH, you're holding a Seder??! That is SO COOL! I've been wanting to do this to learn all about the Jewish roots of our faith!"

I hear that all the time. And I want to tell people right away: If you want to learn about the Jewish roots of our faith, you don't START with the Seder. You go to mass. That's where you begin to wrap your idea around the fact that our faith lives and breathes its Judaic roots. More importantly, it isn't until you are completely immersed in your Christian faith and in divine liturgy that you can go to a Jewish service and have any kind of a revelatory experience about the identity of Jesus Christ. If you go for the Judaism without first grounding yourself in your Catholicism, you've not only missed the mark but you're far more likely to go off the deep end and into the crazy place.

You know the place--- Where people who aren't Jewish are carrying themselves around on makeshift thrones holding weird, garishly decorated Torah scrolls and dancing allegedly Davidic dances brandishing tambourines, gyrating in frantic circles while a large screen flashes pictures of lions interspersed with poorly translated Hebrew "worship songs."

May you be spared the experience! Which, incidentally, would horrify any self-respecting Jew.

For that reason, this priest is right on-- in every single sense.
Except for one.... that he completely omits the group of people my family falls into: those who understand everthing he is saying, and still do it. And why?

For what reason could he possibly omit the category of people my family falls into other than to make some sort of all-encompassing statement about the Jews and those who pay special attention to their rites and spirituality? After all, there is a long running current of anti-Jewish sentiment flowing through most rad-trad circles.  Now, I'm not going to go so far as to call this guy an anti-semite, but I think my husband says it best:

It's full of great stuff. BUT... it's a strawman. It would not be a strawman IF he had not seemingly intentionally failed to address the real, actual reason why we are told to participate in Seders by the bishops. I just want to restate that virtually everything he said is right. It's not so much error in what was said; it's error by omission. And here is the fine point of it: There is absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating a Seder, not even ecumenically so with Jews in a synagogue, IF we do so as a commemoration of God's plan of salvation for us (acknowledging Jesus Christ) and NOT as an actual practice of the law requiring all the implicit and explicit affirmations he spoke of (in which case everything he warned about would be the case.)

 You see, the US Bishops have addressed this issue very clearly.

Precisely because there are all sorts of crazinesses going on out there around Passover, this issue needs to be addressed. But not the way he has done it, because he has-- in my view-- done a great disservice to his Catholic faith by condemning the practice outright.

You see, the Seder has the potential to be one of those unifying, Holy Spirit things that really blows minds open and fills them up with Truth with a capital T. That's one of the reasons I hold one each year and also try to help anyone around me with a little bit of interest do the same in their own homes. It is a mind boggling experience. But precisely because of this potential, Satan has been hard at work over the years turning this issue into a nice, big, chaotic mess.

I first got a taste of this question a few years ago, when a friend of mine was telling me -- a recent revert-- about how she observed the triduum each year. She told me that her family held a seder meal every Holy Thursday, but they purposely avoided many of the rituals inherent in the actual Passover Seder, precisely because they were concerned that they were imitating the mass in their homes.
Their seder meal was more like a regular Sunday dinner with a really long prayer in the beginning.

Over the years, I've also interacted with many Messianics and Protestants and even Catholics who, conversely, fully embrace the ritual as it is written for the Jews, enthusiastically seder-ing away regardless of its' connections to the liturgy of the Eucharist, with one pretty big twist: They acknowledge Jesus Christ by name as Messiah and Lord in additional prayers they've made up to incorporate into the Seder.

I've tried it both ways, and I'm here to tell you that neither method ever left me as fulfilled as simply participating in a Seder with friends and family as it is celebrated by Jews (not "Messianic" Jews) throughout the world.

In accordance with the statement put out by the US Bishops which you have heard me quote many times before, "baptizing" the Passover Seder by adding in little Christianisms throughout completely misses the point of this exercise.

Indeed, it is both an insult to the Jews, whose rites these are, and to the Catholic Church, who has her own rites, to make things up that add to the Seder in order to bring Jesus into it more fully.

Instead, the Bishops recommend, and I agree, that you attend or hold a seder meal AS IS, written for the Jews, by the Jews, and TO the Jews. In fact, that you do so with the Jews, whenever possible.
They discourage parishes from holding seder meals and in that same vein discourage individuals from doing so outside of the context which I've just provided. And rightly so.....for all the reasons expressed in this audiosancto homily.

But just to be clear, don't let this priest, or anyone, discourage you from participating in a Seder meal this Pesach. Do it for the right reasons, and do it respectfully--- with respect for Salvation History as it was written and preserved by the Church and by the witness of the Jewish presence in the world, with respect for the Church who taught it to you, but most importantly, with respect for the Jews, to whom belongs this divine right and responsibility of being a sign in the world that God is one, blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.

Also, for those of us involved in the movement. under the mentorship of the Holy Spirit and mediated by Archbishop Raymond Burke, to fight for the cause of the Jews within the Church who desire to maintain their identity as the means by which they preserve their most sacred of cultures, it is doubly important that the work of the Association of Hebrew Catholics to discuss these very topics continue on with the full support of the whole Church, to include the priests who speak on audiosancto. For that reason above all others, I have to condemn this homily and publicly speak out against it.

Those priests who desire to speak on this subject, especially now as the Holy Spirit is beginning to gather Jews, Christians of all denominations, Messianics, etc under the banner of the Church and with the election of our new and most humble and holy of Popes, need to maintain a far more docile and sensitive stance on this issue than this homily exhibits. Do not forget what my beloved Pope Benedict XVI said: "Whenever you encounter Jesus Christ, you encounter Judaism"

When he said that, he  meant Judaism-- not quasi-protestant charismatic Jewish-flavored evangelicalism.

Do not be confused-- Jesus Christ was a Jew -- a Jew who we believe was the Son of God-- who established a Church, and whose Church still stands today, endowed with all the rights and authority and responsibilities He Himself gave to it. That Church has it's own rites because it has a new covenant, but to remember the old covenant is a wise and beautiful thing, especially when we can, in doing so, acknowledge and celebrate with the people who God Himself has chosen to be a sign and a wonder and a warning to the entire world.

To encounter Judaism, one must place oneself in the midst of these people, the Jews, and to see who they are in their own words, and to hear their cries for justice and a future and a hope in their own words, and to hear them remember, in their own words, God's great gifts to their people. No where is this better expressed than through Jewish rites and rituals and prayers. There is no sin in standing alongside these Jews in sacred remembrance, allowing them their own words and their own feelings.

The sin involved in participating in a Seder, for a Catholic, is simple... and the types of Seders our Bishops and this sermon seek to warn us against are filled to the brim with temptations to sin in the following ways.

1. Do not commit idolatry. Whether you are a Jew or a Catholic, this rule is simple--- God is One, and He alone is God. When people begin to make idols out of rites, rituals, or the Jewish people themselves, they sin.

2. Do not cause another to sin. Whether you are a Jew or a Catholic, this rule is also simple. We are called to be instruments of healing and reconciliation in this world. Do not cause undue offense to the people present at your Seder, and avoid every semblance of offense to those who do not understand why you are commemorating the passover. If you are a Catholic, do not offend the Jews by changing or altering their rite. Do not offend other Catholics by forcing them to understand or participate. 

3. Remain faithful to the deposit of faith. If you are Jew, your conscience dictates that this deposit ended with the Old Testament and we Catholics respect your freedom of religious conscience. If you are a Catholic, you have been given the established Church as guide through the Holy Spirit. Examine clearly your reasons for participation, the method you choose to participate, and take care that your participation does not supercede the Rites of Divine Liturgy established by your Church so that your participation in the new covenant is the highest form of your worship and the focal point of your spirituality.

Outside of those three things, my greatest hope is that you will indeed take the time to at least learn about the Passover and not fear it, as this talk would have you do, and not feel haughty and prideful about your need not to celebrate it, as this talk would have you do.
Instead, my greatest hope is that you would remember it...
For you were once slaves, and now you are free.

So, chag Pesach sameach, my dear Catholics and my dear Jews, and l'chaim!
May the end of lent bring you peace in the hope of the resurrection!

Theology Thursdays-- Called to pray

The Presentation in the Temple


In the wonderful Ignatius Press book Salvation is from the Jews: The role of Judaism in salvation history from Abraham to the second coming, Roy H. Schoeman identifies a list of core roles entrusted to the Jews:

1. Exhibiting a faithfulness and devotion to God that would support a unique intimacy and covenant with Him, through which the Messiah would eventually come.

2. In this loyalty and covenant being the primary channel of grace for all mankind.

3. Prophetically, typologically foreshadowing salvation history in their own history.

4. Providing a people of sufficient spiritual purity, virtue, and morality to be able to be the people among whom God became man.

5. Making God’s laws known to mankind.

6. Preparing the Mother of the Redeemer.

7. Praying for the coming of the Messiah.

8. Adoring and worshiping the Messiah before He came.

9. Providing a temporal home for the Messiah and announcing the good news when He came.

Shortly afterwards, he asks the question: “How well did they do at the job they were given?”

Demonstrating how on the surface, from a Christian worldview, it would appear that they completely failed, still a faithful remnant always remained to respond with love and faith when all others had failed, and the tremendous blessing which flowed from their obedience has always healed the world. Connecting biblical personalities with later accepted private revelations of the saints, he argues for the idea that in the story of Israel, that faithful remnant has always and will always perfectly fulfill the roles they were given.

He then goes on to intertwine those roles and the historical experience of the Jews as they relate to the Church. It’s a fascinating topic, one close to my heart—and one whose theological and practical insights seem inexhaustible.

Above all, the question remains: In our days and in the times of the end, will we be that faithful remnant? Or will we will be like the faithless masses?

Of the list above, number seven stands out to me as the solitary task which reveals our heart to answer that question, as well as our intentions and mindset. It is a crucible through which only the strong may pass, those whose faith in God allows them to overcome the greatest of difficulties.

As Schoeman point out, the prayers of the saints and private revelations are later proof of God working through us—sometimes just one of us—to effect change on the planet. Countless are the stories of personal victories gained through prayer, but less well-known are the stories of wars stopped and atrocities or judgements prevented due to the faithful prayers of few.

These examples should do wonders to build our faith. As protestant pastor and eceumenical leader Jack Hayford points out: “Prayer is invading the impossible.”

It is an act of faith, the spiritual equivalent of lighting a match in a dark, cold night…. A match which may ignite a fire which may engulf your home, your city, your nation—the world.

“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mk 11:24)

But is it that easy?

No. Breakthrough comes by the sweat of our brow and through our willingness to suffer and seek. Breakthrough comes through our own detachment from things which hold no real spiritual value but which appear to us down here to be indications of our own success. It bursts forth through our willingness to let God’s Spirit lead us though we have not seen nor understood why He does what He does.

It is precisely for this reason that the parental task of teaching obedience is so crucial—it is the fundamental task of the human being to trust and obey God when it does not make sense.

This isn’t to say that a study of God’s laws do not ultimately demonstrate a very reasonable “cause” and “effect” in which we realize that His ways work and His reasons are right. Rather, it means that the fundamental focus of our religious life is FAITH… a faith which is the assurance of things hoped for, evidence in things yet unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Like children, we learn that we must do these things not because He said so, although that should be reason enough. Rather, we obey because He loves us, and what He asks is good.

If God reserved a people for Himself to fulfill the role of interceding for the world, how important is it for us individually to respond to that call within? Indeed, by the Cross He has called ALL people to himself, chosen us, and set us apart, gentile and Jew alike!

Those of us who have not seen God move in power have not seen it because we have not been willing to say to Him: “here I am, Lord! Send me!” (Isaiah 5:8)

Those who have:

-the woman who quietly suffers painful fibromyalgia with joy, offering up every bodily pain for the local public school to be flooded with God’s peace and truth.

-the man who endures his wife’s adultery with patience, love and tenderness, offering up his sufferings for her personal salvation.

-the police officer who prays the rosary in his vehicle, as he stakes out a suspected drug dealer’s house, asking God to give him success not only temporally but in the spiritual, impacting the dealer’s life.

-the exhausted mother who joyfully fulfills her menial tasks, offering herself for the eternal well-being of her family and her local priest’s faithfulness to his vocation.

-the parish priest, who daily offers to God the one-time sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of the people.

-the group of families who get together once a week to offer praises to God and seek Him for their community.

These are just some of the ways we are asked to participate in our intercessory calling--- a role which was for through the history of the Jewish people and to which every member of the Church is called to respond today.

How does it work?

In the book: “Intercessory Prayer,” Dutch Sheets gives some insight as to how we can begin to pray.

He says: “Our challenge is not so much to liberate as to believe in the Liberator; to heal as to believe in the Healer.”

The Catholic Church teaches that Prayer need be both communal and individual, the work of the mouth, the mind, the body, and also the heart. The Catechism of the Church is clear:

2720 The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.
2721 The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart.
2722 Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ's example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples.
2723 Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life.
2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.

Sheets reminds us that intercession creates a meeting: when we meet with Heaven, heaven meets with the forces of darkness, and meets with the person or place we are meeting about. The “collision” between Light and Darkness creates a physical reality we experience here on earth.

He states: “All of our praying intercession will involve one or both of these facets: reconciliation or breaking; uniting or disuniting.” This is the binding and loosing we are called to.

In Hebrew, the word paga is used to connotate a violent meeting, and is the word we often translate as “intercession.”

“The prayers of an understanding intercessor WILL create a meeting (paga). And when the meeting comes to a close, something will have changed.”

Another great insight gained through Sheet’s book is that many of our earthly difficulties and trials come through our own failure to secure our own spiritual boundaries—our “forgetting” to war in the spiritual realm on behalf our family and friends and for our good.

Most of us will reflect back over sufferings and difficulties and recognize that personal growth occurred that certainly created “holiness” within us that was not present before. On the other hand, many of our own challenges are self-made. We are cursed because we remain under the curse of sin. We are struggling because our sin-nature causes us to make stupid decisions and take stupid actions. Then we shake our fist at God and say: “why??”

If we pray before we make decisions, we will be sure to listen for God’s wisdom about each situation we encounter and avoid (or at least try to) making poor, and quick, decisions. If we remember to pray consistently to protect and shield our family and city from harm, we certainly do only good to those we love, and often our watchman-role can keep us from unnecessary trials and also give us insight which helps us to love God and love our neighbor more. But prayer is not a magic formula—saying the right words or “feeling the right feelings” when we pray do not make us more “effective.” What matters is only love… the Love we have for God and for each other, often gained through prayer.

Many protestants mistakenly believe (and often innocently, for they do not realize the grave theological implications) that their “effective”prayer will move heaven to give them material blessings, and that the measure of material blessing, health, or “good” they receive demonstrates the power in their own faith. The Catholic Church takes a more balanced approach… while we understand the great benefit – and indeed, or deep responsibility—to set up our own spiritual success (spiritual, not physical…. Although we do pray for our physical needs, of course, and often have them answered) by “covering our bases” in the spiritual realm, we also recognize the great necessity of uniting our sufferings to Christ’s and believe in redemptive suffering, which is the idea that there is both meaning and a meeting (paga) that happens when we suffer.

Our ultimate goal, as Catholic prayer warriors, is not to cease suffering, but to suffer well, offering ourselves to God for the healing of the world in imitation of and union with our Messiah, the Savior of the World. Like the Jews, we have been promised the Kingdom, now we must walk in faith, through the desert, believing and acting in accordance with that belief, until we inherit it.

God is indeed good, all the time, and yet bad things happen—both to good people, and are allowed by our good God. How can we explain this unless we take the Catholic view… the pain and suffering go hand in hand with joy and laughter.

The famous poet Khalil Gibran said:
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”

Prayer is like this--- a continual acceptance and lifting of the soul to God who knows when we need hollowing out and when we need filling.

When Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Teresa of Avila the first woman Doctor of the Church, he selected one of her many titles as the basis for conferring that honor on her: Teacher of Prayer.

Her teachings involve the personal journey into prayer, but an effective personal journey affects the lives of all those who we encounter, so her teachings are well worth heeding.

The most basic level of prayer, according to Saint Teresa of Avila, is a simple vocal prayer in which we make the physical effort to acknowledge God and His purposes and His will in our lives. The deepest level is union with God—a state in which the soul wants what God wants and trusts and loves God completely, often accompanied by mystical graces which are fascinating to study.

In her teachings on prayer, hailed as the foundational teachings on Catholic prayer, we learn that the soul grows from simply verbalizing what we “should” (reading prayers aloud) to desiring and understanding what God wills for us. She describes many “stops” along the path, giving us insight and detail into the mystical journey. She says:
First of all, I will say something (though not much, as I have dealt with it elsewhere) about another kind of prayer, which almost invariably begins before this one. It is a form of recollection which also seems to me supernatural. . . . Do not think that the soul can attain to him merely by trying to think of him as present within the soul. This is a good habit and an excellent kind of meditation, for it is founded on a truth, namely, that God is within us. But it is not the kind of prayer that I have in mind. . . . What I am describing is quite different.
As I understand it, the soul whom the Lord has been pleased to lead into this mansion will do best to act as I have said… Let it try, without forcing itself or causing any turmoil, to put a stop to all discursive reasoning, yet not to suspend the intellect nor to cease from all thought, although it is good for it to remember that it is in God's presence and who this God is. If this experience should lead to a state of absorption, well and good, but it should not try to understand what this state is, because it is a gift bestowed on the will. Therefore, the will should be allowed to enjoy it and should not be active except to utter a few loving words (Fourth Mansions, chap. 3).

She calls this the prayer of infused recollection, and it is the beginning stages of the journey. In this prayer, the soul begins to experience the peace and sweetness of God, and often falls into a “sleep of the faculties,” noting though that people might fall into a false “sleep” due to hypersensitivity, poor health, or other conditions.

From there, she goes on to describe other spiritual “states” that result from the cultivation of a regular prayer life. A study of her teachings on prayer will surely lead the interested soul to a union with God, as it has many of our well-known, and little-known, saints.

If we are going to draw our “call” to intercede out of Israel’s example, we must also look at Jewish prayer.

The Hebrew word for prayer is Tefilah, derived from the root Pre-Lamed Lamed and the word l’hitpalel, which means “to judge oneself.” This insight should help to understand that the purpose of Jewish prayer, regardless of its “type” is to unite the soul to God in purpose and to look introspectively at the soul’s progress.

Like Catholic prayer, Jewish prayer is not something that happens only in a Synagogue but rather throughout the day, helping the Jew to remember God at all moments of his life. Like Catholics, Jews pray at varying intervals and in all situations…. Upon arising, before beginning the day, upon accomplishing, or before accomplishing good works throughout the day, before and after eating, at bedtime, and ultimately at all moments. Catholics and Jews both also pray communally using words like “us” and “our” to remember that their prayers are effected on behalf of ALL believers and ultimately, the world. We are a universal communion of persons, not alone on the journey of life.

A wise Rabbi was once asked: “Rabbi, what should I do when I don’t believe in G-d anymore?”

He answered: “You should continue to pray and act as a good Jew. Faith will return to you.”

Indeed, this is the true teaching of all the saints: continue to pray, even in periods of darkness and great dryness, and you will experience God and faith will return. But how does a “good Jew” pray?

The “mindset” of Jewish prayer is called Kavanah. (Catholics call this intention.)

It means “an intent, a focus or a concentration.” At the very least, a Jew must realize that he is talking to God and that he is fulfilling an obligation toHim in order to have his action count as “prayer” and not just reading.

Jews use liturgical melodies, as well as movement (the swaying you see traditional jews making when they pray), to keep the mind free of other distractions and focused on God.

One other interesting point is that Jews pray in Hebrew. While the Talmud, or record of Oral Law, states that one may pray in any language they understand, traditional Judaism gives priority to Hebrew.

As the Church uses Latin as her formal language, Judaism uses Hebrew. Among other reasons, the Church uses Latin because it is a "dead language," therefore no changes in meaning can be ascribed to the words. It is a unifying language, a language which peoples of all nations can use, thus emphasizing the universality of the Church. The chief component of Christian worship is the offering of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass each day. The official language of this liturgy is Latin, which the priest uses when speaking to God. Homilies and other addresses to the people are made in the common language. The use of Latin also ensures the purity of the offering of the mass—there are no “gray areas” in which the priest can ad-lib. The words also remain sacred, old as the ages, and unchanged, just as the sacrifice being offered is unchanged. Catholics who do not speak Latin can use missals to understand what is being said which contain the text in the common language and in the Latin language so that they may follow along.

Similarly, Judaism uses Hebrew, a language which has certain religious and cultural connotations that directly relate to the Jews and which are sadly lost when the common language is used. One example often used is that the English word “commandment” implies a stern law or judgement, whereas the Hebrew word, mitzvah-- often translated “commandment” carries a certain form of honor and respect in it, emphasizing the privilege of keeping the law.




There are many prescribed blessings and prayers throughout the day in both Catholic and Jewish tradtion.

These blessings and prayers, which many protestant theologians deem “religious” and therefore “stifling” to the effects and purposes of the Holy Spirit, are set moments at which specific words and actions are taken based on biblical words and actions which resulted in faith and blessing.

At best, protestants deem these unnecessary and superfluous, and yet their very function provides a very necessary opportunity at every moment throughout the day to remember God and fulfill His commandment to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Knowing these things helps us to pray as we ought—for through understanding Jewish prayer we can see God bestows great honor on those whom He calls to obey his commandments, to heal the world through our own willingness to obey, to respond as the faithful remnant even among all those who externally appear to be doing the right things but whose hearts are not right with God.

Our personal prayer should be a warm conversation with a friend, as Teresa of Avila taught, and our liturgical prayer should hold fast to the sacred traditions which have been handed down to us as a people, in the balance of both lies the fate of each soul and of the world.

As Jewish faithfulness resulted in perfect preparation for the coming of the Jewish Messiah, so then must Catholic prayer reflect our sacred calling to heal the world and prepare for the second coming of the Jewish Messiah.

Theology Thursdays- Deeper Sabbaths

With the celebration of Sukkot occuring this week, I posted this pic of our makeshift  ghetto-style semi-sukkah on FB and caused a mini ruckus when people (Jews, Messianics, Catholics, and protestants alike) were scandalized, yet again, at our observation of a Jewish holiday. 

Last week, a friend and I were doing a bible study and we came across the subject of observing the Sabbath and making holy the day. We talked about special ways we can mark the time on the weekends, teaching our kids to sanctify each day, and Sunday in a special way.
Then we talked about the "Saturday" Sabbath of the Old Covenant, and how much value we found in remembering it and meditating on it.

Whenever I get on the topic of anything remotely Hebrew Catholic in origin, people get offended. As they did yesterday when I explained to my kids the virtues of knowing about and celebrating Sukkot. Meditation on this topic always brings me back to principle question we discussed last week in bible study... how to observe the Sunday Lord's Day,  and how to remember the Jews in our religious observance, for example, on Saturdays, and not leave them behind. If we Christians truly believe that they were both chosen and veiled from Truth, we do well to both draw near and remember and teach the lessons which were unveiled to us... as well as be thankful and merciful, for it is by God's grace alone that we heard and recognized the saving gospel as Truth.

The "scandalization" that occurs whenever I post about jewish stuff/ do jewish stuff usually comes in about three forms and from well meaning people, but I'll address them here before I move on to the real topic because by the time I'm done you might be asking the same questions:

1. WHY are you teaching your kids jewish stuff??? We are not jews, we are Catholic, and so jews are wrong and so are you for teaching your kids jewish things.
I can think of about ten or twelve different reasons why it's important to our family (or at least to ME, not as much to my husband) to include jewish traditions in teaching my children about life. I'll spare you the long version, and just say that the number one reason to do it is because of catechesis. At some point, some day, my kids will encounter Judaism. And I want them to understand why we chose Catholicism over Judaism, but I also want them to understand why Judaism MATTERS, something which escapes many, many Christians.

2. WHY are you teaching your kids jewish stuff?? We are jewish, you are not, you are CATHOLIC, and so you are wrong for stealing our traditions and calling them yours.
Among the many responses I could give, I think the most important one here would be: why? Does it harm Judaism for us to observe a Jewish holiday and say it is good and important to know and understand? In following the guidelines set forth by our wise Catholic Bishops, we make no attempt to "Christianize" the traditions and rituals, rather giving them to the children and our guests as "correctly" as we can forseeably put them out there. If, for example, we are unable to do it exactly, we explain the "proper" Jewish way to do it (for example here with our "tent" sukkah vs the branches which are called for as a roof.) If we had local families nearby who were interested in Jewish things, we solemnly attest to the fact that we would gladly participate in these things with "real" (eyeroll... it gets so complex as an issue)  Jews and not using the hundreds of altered "Messianic" versions out there. We want our kids to understand that these things ARE Jewish, are not Christian, and that they POINT to the hope and God-given task of the Jewish People... a hope which we believe is fulfilled in our messiah, Yeshua.

3. WHY are you teaching your kids jewish stuff?? You are too weird/religious/zealous etc. 
Yep. Yep, we are.  Not gonna argue with that one. :)

OK, so with that out of the way, let's talk about our Sabbaths. I've already dissected the entire Sabbath issue here and here. Read those first for the background (and plan on it taking a while, haha)

So now, assuming that we understand that the LORD'S DAY (Sunday) is the Christian "Sabbath" requirement, as ordained by the Catholic Church, because of the resurrection of Our Lord, and assuming we understand that SATURDAY SABBATH KEEPING is a SIGN of the Jewish presence in the world and therefore important, whether Jews or Protestants or Catholics are doing it, because it reminds the world that God is here and has a plan for us... then we understand that for some people, SANCTIFYING the weekend within the context of our secular lives (and not just Saturday or Sunday) is important. Like us people-- the people in this house.

No matter what these people are doing to mark the time.... a special "something" on a Saturday that lifts the heart to God is a sign of the love of God for His Jewish people as well as a sign of obedience to the Church, in which we give honor to God's Chosen... Mary... a jewish girl who said YES to God. (there are so many interesting things about that-- like the fact that Jewish tradition calls the Sabbath "she" and says it's like an extra soul comes to visit that day.)

Like everything else, our wise Bishops have pointed out that while it is good for us to participate in this Jewish life to some degree, we are not to "Christianize" it on purpose, because we must remember that there IS an official prayer of the Church and that  Judaism is the ROOT of that prayer and not the FRUIT. Therefore any "Jewish" observance by Catholics must be (a) for the purpose of preserving the Hebrew Culture in the world and in the Church and (b) for the purpose of participating as much as we can in the spiritual and communal life of the Jew, as a sign to the world of our solidarity with him. We must make every attempt not to scandalize the Jew nor the Catholic, knowing of course that both will be ... perplexed, at best. However, we who have been called must make every effort to persevere to preach the Gospel of life and salvation as a whole and complete message, beginning at Creation and moving through the story of the Hebrews and into the era of the Church, which is the New Israel. Despite that status, there is a special PLACE for the Jews in God's plan, and we do well to know it and understand it.

There are Hebrew Catholics all over the place who have various reasons for calling themselves so. Some are converts, some are descendants of jews, some are simply observing hebrew traditions in a Catholic context. The most important thing to remember is that the majority of Hebrew Catholics are Catholics living in Israel who, just as the Catholics living in Israel at the time of Christ and later, during the early church, are immersed in a Hebrew culture and life which is all around them, and who desire to maintain those things as expressions of their family traditions and values.
Just as we wouldn't ask a Southern French Catholic to cease dressing up in traditional costumes and baking olive oil breads, or a japanese Catholic to stop eating sushi and bowing to say hello, we wouldn't ask a Hebrew Catholic to stop baking Challah and start working on Saturdays. Aside from being a religious concept, it's just part of the culture.

Here in Fayetteville, I attend a Maronite parish where we serve Lebanese foods, hold lebanese-style parties, and play lebanese music. Many of us dress lebanese-style and speak Arabic and French. Our liturgy is in syriac-aramaic and lots of people who accidentally walk in wonder if we are some kind of muslim church.

 My traditional Catholic friends and acquaintances do not take issue with the Maronite Rite and in fact, find it marvelous. I am not sure why those same traditional catholics, then, take issue with those of us who seek to maintain an authentically JEWISH culture/liturgy etc for those who have perfectly valid reasons for doing so.


All I know is.... it's kinda silly. Especially since, of all the cultures in the entire world, only the Jews can claim to have a literal life of tradition and family rooted in the worship of OUR God, and not the Pagan gods or secular ideas, at every turn. For theologians, Judaism is a signpost. It is a wonder. It is a delight. It is a gift, and a blessing! All other cultures and traditions have been sanctified by the Catholic Church but only the Jewish traditions have, from the beginning, been about God's business, twice sanctified when God came to earth as a Jewish child through a Jewish mother in a Jewish, observant home.

So, for those of us (and we are many!) who feel tugged in the direction of celebrating God's gift to us in the Jewish presence in the world (a gift which, like all his gifts, is completely free but not without responsibility!)
WHAT can we do to make sense out of our weekends? Some people light the Sabbath Lights on Saturday night, finding meaning in lighting their lights as their Jewish friends and family are finishing up Havdallah, the rite of closing (called the Rite of SEPARATION-- notice anything profound there??-- of the Jewish Sabbath.)
This is what my husband prefers I do.

Others find meaning in lighting their sabbath lights on Friday night, along with all the Jews in the world, and simply Sabbath keeping all weekend long. There is no "right" way to do it and the only danger is that you lose sight of the fact that SUNDAY is THE primary day on which you are required to attend mass, feast, and refrain from unnecessary servile work and money spending.

At first, my husband couldn't understand why I get all misty-eyed about silly little candle lighting ceremony. But think about it!! Catholics, you know how wonderful and amazing it is to light the advent candles.... the sabbath lights for Jews are like advent candles all year long, shining brightly with the hope that as they trust in God and repent, He will send His Messiah. It's powerful. Even more so when you know for a fact that that Messiah WAS and IS and IS TO COME.

Me? In obedience to my husband, I light the Sabbath lights with my kids on Saturdays. Maybe one day he will let me light them on Fridays, but I'm not holding my breath. :D
In solidarity with all Israel, though,  I stop at every Friday sundown, gathering my children for a brief prayer before a lit candle in front of our statue of the Blessed Virgin.

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us, humbly prostrate before Your altar. We are Yours and Yours we wish to be;but to be more surely united with You, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Your most Sacred Heart. Many, indeed, have never known You; many too, despising Your precepts, have rejected You. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Your Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord,not only of the faithful who have never forsaken You,but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned You; grant that they may quickly return to Your Father's house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions,or whom discord keeps aloof,and call them back to the harbour of truth and unity of faith,so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Be You King also of all those who sit in the ancient superstition of the Gentiles, and refuse not to deliver them out of darkness into the light and kingdom of God. Grant, O Lord, to Your Church,assurance of freedom and immunity from harm;give peace and order to all nations,and make the Earth resound from pole to pole with one cry:Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation;to it be glory and honour forever. Amen. (for those Catholics in the know, we use the older Pre-Vat II version of this prayer ;))

On Friday nights as the Sabbath begins, Jews CELEBRATE, as they are commanded to do. We Christians, however, fast and remember the death of Our Lord on the Cross. I find it profound that we who have so much in common and yet have such opposite commandments on this night, and it makes me solemn and prayerful.

Abstaining from meat and having a simple meal when your jewish friends and family are celebrating and eating a roast is a great way to remember that there IS a separation between Jews and Christians, and also a great way to remember the needs of the world... that we are called to be a healing balm, but that for us, that healing begins with the Cross, which is sorrow but also victory through our suffering. We offer up our Friday night sacrifice and lights for God's care of the Jewish people, and all those who haven't yet come to the Light of Christ.

On Saturdays, Jews attend Sabbath services and remain at home, celebrating and resting and soaking in the Sabbath. Some Catholic things to do on a Saturday might be confession, attending mass, and praying the rosary in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary who we celebrate on Saturdays. In the Secular world, Saturday is a family day-- a day to go to Lowe's, or take a walk, or grill outside. 

Our Family combines a prayerful, restful, family day with anything we might "HAVE" to do in order to rightly observe the Lord's Day the next day. We tend to take it easy and avoid things like errand running or mindless stuff, choosing instead the things which bond us as a family and require little or no work. (without getting legalistic about it.... sometimes Saturday is the only day you get to mow the lawn.) 

We go to confession, attend mass, reminded that at sunset as we are lighting the two candles at the altar, our Jewish friends are finishing up Havdalah. Because we did as much prep work as humanly possible on Friday, our weekends are free of chores and errands altogether, but we do have to work a little... giving the kids a bath to prepare them for Sunday, studying a lesson we missed in Catechism that week, or baking the next day's breads. Saturdays pass quickly in this peacefully busy calm and enjoyable prep day in which we simply all enjoying BEING with no real agenda and only the ordinary work of living to do. We usually find we have time to invite friends for dinner (and note that for Catholics, the Lord's Day starts the Saturday evening... just in time to celebrate!)  

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings are reserved for "special" breakfasts and both Saturday and Sunday lunches are effortless, at home, and enjoyable. Both Saturday and Sunday evenings are celebratory and enjoyable, requiring a minimum of effort for a maximum "homey" impact. I bake Challah on Fridays and French bread on Saturdays. We reserve Sundays for our family as much as possible, denying people the hospitality we try to give as much as we can during the week. Sundays we re-charge, enjoy each other alone, and take some much-needed time to be together doing ... nothing. Like taking a family nap, a favorite Sunday activity. We aren't allowed to buy and sell, so we don't go out to eat if we can avoid it and we certainly don't run errands. Sundays are family days, plain and simple. 

... and in this way, our whole weekend passes like a soothing balm for our souls. From sunset Friday to Sunrise Monday, our house is peace (as much as possible) and in a special way, we are always reminded that we are not alone walking this earth.
We share it with others and it is our responsibility to do our part to cooperate with God and bring healing to this world through our work and actions.
Co-incidentally, that is a highly Jewish concept. And it is good. :)

Shabbat Shalom.

For more information about other people who live like we do, please visit the website of the association of hebrew catholics.

Theology Thursdays: The Communion of Saints

In a critique of one of my favorite Charlotte Mason educator's books, one woman disapproved of the author's use of the familiar "Charlotte said...." instead of using the formal "Mason believed that..."

The author's response was interesting:

"(...)We tend to view Charlotte Mason as a wise friend, so we refer to her like we would our other friends. We certainly mean no disrespect; we just feel that we have formed a relation to her over the years and see her as a person rather than a distant source."

Another woman said:

"Charlotte Mason was an educator primarily and wrote to benefit others. She loved on her children and would love on us, too, if she were here with us. In our homeschool group which is based on Charlotte Mason, we refer to her as Charlotte Mason, Miss Mason, Charlotte, and sometimes mom. “Mother Mason, tell me what to do with these children!” And if you read her writings, you can hear her speaking to us through her work because she wrote to leave a legacy to those who would teach children. I find the thought of cringing at the familiar term strange as I cringe at the thought of calling her “Mason.” Although I’m sure in some circles the more formal term would be appropriate in speaking of her literary works, I believe it would be quite customary that her students, once having been raised to take a new seat next to her as educators, call her by her first name."

There-- right there-- are two protestant women, acknowledging the communion of the saints in action.... and I am quite sure they have never realized it.
It occurs to me often to say a little prayer and ask Charlotte for help in my regular homeschool day. I'm not sure if she's in heaven or in purgatory, but she loved Jesus and did her best to serve Him and serve others. No, she wasn't a Catholic. Did she outright reject God's church? Doubt it, as she was a practicing Anglican all her life, and as we noticed, most of them love Catholicism (My friends and I call Anglicans Catholic- Lite.)
I am certain she hears my prayers, and I know she helps me in little ways, just like I know my grandfather hears me when I struggle to raise my kids, and from time to time I feel his presence lingering.
I know many a protestant who will consider that blasphemous, demonic and evil. To them I say: God is not the God of the dead-- but of the living, for they are all alive to Him! (Luke 20:38)

We say that we believe in eternal life. But those who find the communion of saints offensive don't really believe in it. They separate the Body of Christ from the Body of Christ. It makes no sense.
 How much MORE amazing when we can say with certainty that a person's life was so remarkably holy, so unrelentingly excellent and pure, that we can with certainly call them SAINTS in heaven? I am so blessed to have an army of amazing people who served the Lord in life and serve Him still in death.

Pray for the holy souls, but pray also TO the holy souls-- they will guide you to Heaven, to the Throne of the Lamb.

EVIDENCE FOR SAINTS AND INTERCESSORY PRAYER

FROM SCRIPTURE

I. We are One Family in Christ in Heaven and on Earth

Eph. 3:14-15- we are all one family ("Catholic") in heaven and on earth, united together, as children of the Father, through Jesus Christ. Our brothers and sisters who have gone to heaven before us are not a different family. We are one and the same family. This is why, in the Apostles Creed, we profess a belief in the "communion of saints." There cannot be a "communion" if there is no union. Loving beings, whether on earth or in heaven, are concerned for other beings, and this concern is reflected spiritually through prayers for one another.

Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23-32; Col. 1:18,24 - this family is in Jesus Christ, the head of the body, which is the Church.

1 Cor. 12:12,27; Rom. 12:5; Col. 3:15; Eph. 4:4 - we are the members of the one body of Christ, supernaturally linked together by our partaking of the Eucharist.

Rom. 8:35-39 - therefore, death does not separate the family of God and the love of Christ. We are still united with each other, even beyond death.

Matt. 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30 - Jesus converses with "deceased" Moses and Elijah. They are more alive than the saints on earth.

Matt. 22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38 - God is the God of the living not the dead. The living on earth and in heaven are one family.

Luke 15:7,10 – if the angels and saints experience joy in heaven over our repentance, then they are still connected to us and are aware of our behavior.

John 15:1-6 - Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The good branches are not cut off at death. They are alive in heaven.

1 Cor. 4:9 – because we can become a spectacle not only to men, but to angels as well, this indicates that angels are aware of our earthly activity. Those in heaven are connected to those on earth.

1 Cor. 12:26 - when one member suffers, all suffer. When one is honored, all rejoice. We are in this together as one family.

1 Cor 13:12; 1 John 3:2 - now we see in a mirror dimly, but in heaven we see face to face. The saints are more alive than we are!

Heb. 12:1: we are surrounded by a great glory cloud (shekinah) of witnesses. The “cloud of witnesses” refers to the saints who are not only watching us from above but cheering us on in our race to heaven.

1 Peter 2:9; Rev. 20:6 - we are a royal family of priests by virtue of baptism. We as priests intercede on behalf of each other.

2 Peter 1:4 - since God is the eternal family and we are His children, we are partakers of His divine nature as a united family.

1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 1:7 - we are called to be saints. Saints refer to both those on earth and in heaven who are in Christ. Proof:

Acts 9:13,32,41; 26:10; 1 Cor. 6:1-2; 14:33; 2 Cor. 1:1; 8:4; 9:1-2; 13:13; Rom. 8:27; 12:23; 15:25,26, 31; 16:2,15; Eph. 1:1,15,18; 3:8; 5:3; 6:18; Phil. 1:1; 4:22; Col 1:2,4,26; 1 Tm 5:10; Philemon 1:5,7; Heb. 6:10; 13:24; Jude 1:3; Rev. 11:18; 13:7; 14:12; 16:6; 17:6;18:20,24; Rev 19:8; 20:9 - in these verses, we see that Christians still living on earth are called "saints."

Matt. 27:52; Eph. 2:19; 3:18; Col. 1:12; 2 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4; 11:18; 13:10 - in these verses, we also see that "saints" also refer to those in heaven who united with us.

Dan. 4:13,23; 8:23 – we also see that the angels in heaven are also called “saints.” The same Hebrew word “qaddiysh” (holy one) is applied to both humans and angels in heaven. Hence, there are angel saints in heaven and human saints in heaven and on earth. Loving beings (whether angels or saints) are concerned for other beings, and prayer is the spiritual way of expressing that love.




II. God Desires and Responds to Our Subordinate Mediation / Intercessory Prayer

1 Tim 2:1-2 - because Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5), many Protestants deny the Catholic belief that the saints on earth and in heaven can mediate on our behalf. But before Paul's teaching about Jesus as the "one mediator," Paul urges supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. Paul is thus appealing for mediation from others besides Christ, the one mediator. Why?

1 Tim 2:3 - because this subordinate mediation is good and acceptable to God our Savior. Because God is our Father and we are His children, God invites us to participate in Christ's role as mediator.

1 Tim. 2:5 - therefore, although Jesus Christ is the sole mediator between God and man, there are many intercessors (subordinate mediators).

1 Cor. 3:9 - God invites us to participate in Christ's work because we are God's "fellow workers" and one family in the body of Christ. God wants His children to participate. The phrase used to describe "fellow workers" is "sunergoi," which literally means synergists, or cooperators with God in salvific matters. Does God need fellow workers? Of course not, but this shows how much He, as Father, loves His children. God wants us to work with Him.

Mark 16:20 - this is another example of how the Lord "worked with them" ("sunergountos"). God cooperates with us. Out of His eternal love, He invites our participation.

Rom. 8:28 - God "works for good with" (the Greek is "sunergei eis agathon") those who love Him. We work as subordinate mediators.

2 Cor. 6:1 - "working together" (the Greek is "sunergountes") with him, don't accept His grace in vain. God allows us to participate in His work, not because He needs our help, but because He loves us and wants to exalt us in His Son. It is like the father who lets his child join him in carrying the groceries in the house. The father does not need help, but he invites the child to assist to raise up the child in dignity and love.

Heb. 12:1 - the “cloud of witnesses” (nephos marturon) that we are surrounded by is a great amphitheatre of witnesses to the earthly race, and they actively participate and cheer us (the runners) on, in our race to salvation.

1 Peter 2:5 - we are a holy priesthood, instructed to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. We are therefore subordinate priests to the Head Priest, but we are still priests who participate in Christ's work of redemption.

Rev. 1:6, 5:10 - Jesus made us a kingdom of priests for God. Priests intercede through Christ on behalf of God's people.

James 5:16; Proverbs 15:8, 29 - the prayers of the righteous (the saints) have powerful effects. This is why we ask for their prayers. How much more powerful are the saints’ prayers in heaven, in whom righteousness has been perfected.

1 Tim 2:5-6 - therefore, it is because Jesus Christ is the one mediator before God that we can be subordinate mediators. Jesus is the reason. The Catholic position thus gives Jesus the most glory. He does it all but loves us so much He desires our participation.



III. Specific Instructions to Mediate and Examples of Subordinate Mediation

New Testament

Matt. 5:44-45 - Jesus tells us to pray for (to mediate on behalf of) those who persecute us. God instructs us to mediate.

Matt. 17:1-3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30-31 – deceased Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration to converse with Jesus in the presence of Peter, James and John (these may be the two “witnesses” John refers to in Rev. 11:3). Nothing in Scripture ever suggests that God abhors or cuts off communication between the living in heaven and the living on earth. To the contrary, God encourages communication within the communion of saints. Moses and Elijah’s appearance on earth also teach us that the saints in heaven have capabilities that far surpass our limitations on earth.

Matt. 26:53 – Jesus says He can call upon the assistance of twelve legions of angels. If Jesus said He could ask for the assistance of angel saints, then so can we, who are called to imitate Jesus in word and in deed. And, in Matt. 22:30, Jesus says we will be “like angels in heaven.” This means human saints (like the angel saints) can be called upon to assist people on earth. God allows and encourages this interaction between his family members.

Matt. 27:47,49; Mark 15:35-36 – the people believe that Jesus calls on Elijah for his intercession, and waits to see if Elijah would come to save Jesus on the cross.

Matt. 27:52-53 - at Jesus' passion, many saints were raised and went into the city to appear and presumably interact with the people, just as Jesus did after His resurrection.

Mark 11:24 - Jesus says that whatever we ask in prayer, we will receive it. It is Jesus, and also we through Jesus, who mediate.

John 2:3 - Jesus knew the wine was gone, but invites and responds to Mary's intercession. God desires our lesser mediation and responds to it because He is a living and loving God.

John 2:5 - Mary intercedes on behalf of those at the wedding feast and tells them to do whatever Jesus tells them. Because Mary is our perfect model of faith, we too intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters.

John 2:11 - in fact, it was Mary's intercession that started Jesus' ministry. His hour had not yet come, yet Jesus responds to Mary's intercession. Even though He could do it all by Himself, God wants to work with His children.

Acts 12:7 – an angel strikes Peter on the side and wakes him up, freeing him from prison. The angel responds to Peter’s prayers.

Rom. 15:30 - Paul commands the family of God to pray for him. If we are united together in the one body of Christ, we can help each other.

2 Cor. 1:11 - Paul even suggests that the more prayers and the more people who pray, the merrier! Prayer is even more effective when united with other's prayers.

2 Cor. 9:14 - Paul says that the earthly saints pray for the Corinthians. They are subordinate mediators in Christ.

2 Cor. 13:7,9 - Paul says the elders pray that the Corinthians may do right and improve. They participate in Christ's mediation.

Gal. 6:2,10 - Paul charges us to bear one another's burdens, and to do good to all, especially those in the household of faith.

Eph. 6:18 - Paul commands the family of God to pray for each other.

Eph. 6:19 - Paul commands that the Ephesians pray for him. If there is only one mediator, why would Paul ask for their prayers?

Phil. 1:19 - Paul acknowledges power of Philippians' earthly intercession. He will be delivered by their prayers and the Holy Spirit.

Col. 1:3 - Paul says that he and the elders pray for the Colossians. They are subordinate mediators in the body of Christ.

Col. 1:9 - Paul says that he and the elders have not ceased to pray for the Colossians, and that, by interceding, they may gain wisdom.

Col. 4:4 - Paul commands the Colossians to pray for the elders of the Church so that God may open a door for the word. Why doesn't Paul just leave it up to God? Because subordinate mediation is acceptable and pleasing to God, and brings about change in the world. This is as mysterious as the Incarnation, but it is true.

1 Thess. 5:11 - Paul charges us to encourage one another and build one another up, in the body of Christ. We do this as mediators in Christ.

1 Thess. 5:17 - Paul says "pray constantly." If Jesus' role as mediator does not apply subordinately to us, why pray at all?

1 Thess. 5:25 - Paul commands the family of God to pray for the elders of the Church. He desires our subordinate mediation.

2 Thess. 1:11 - Paul tells the family of God that he prays for us. We participate in Christ's mediation because Christ desires this.

2 Thess. 3:1 - Paul asks the Thessalonians to pray for Him, Silvanus and Timothy so that they may be delivered.

1 Tim. 2:1-3 - Paul commands us to pray for all. Paul also states that these prayers are acceptable in the sight of God.

2 Tim. 1:3 – Paul says “I remember you constantly in my prayers.”

Philemon 22 - Paul is hoping through Philemon's intercession that he may be able to be with Philemon.

Heb. 1:14 – the author writes, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?”

Hebrews 13:18-19 - the author strongly urges the Hebrews to pray for the elders so that they act desirably in all things.

James 5:14-15- James says the prayer of the priests over the sick man will save the sick man and forgive his sins. This is a powerful example of men forgiving sins and bringing a person to salvation with the sacrament of the sick.

James 5:16 - James instructs us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed.

James 5:17-18 - James refers to God's response to Elijah's fervent prayer for no rain. He is teaching us about the effectiveness of our earthly mediation.

1 John 5:14-15 - John is confident that God will grant us anything we ask of God according to His will.

1 John 5:16-17 - our prayers for others even calls God to give life to them and keep them from sinning. Our God is a personal and living God who responds to our prayers.

3 John 2 - John prays for Gaius' health and thus acts as a subordinate mediator.

Rev. 1:4 – this verse shows that angels (here, the seven spirits) give grace and peace. Because grace and peace only come from God, the angels are acting as mediators for God.

Rev. 5:8 - the prayers of the saints (on heaven and earth) are presented to God by the angels and saints in heaven. This shows that the saints intercede on our behalf before God, and it also demonstrates that our prayers on earth are united with their prayers in heaven. (The “24 elders” are said to refer to the people of God – perhaps the 12 tribes and 12 apostles - and the “four living creatures” are said to refer to the angels.)

Rev. 6:9-11 – the martyred saints in heaven cry out in a loud voice to God to avenge their blood “on those who dwell upon the earth.” These are “imprecatory prayers,” which are pleas for God’s judgment (see similar prayers in Psalm 35:1; 59:1-17; 139:19; Jer. 11:20; 15:15; 18:19; Zech.1:12-13). This means that the saints in heaven are praying for those on earth, and God answers their prayers (Rev. 8:1-5). We, therefore, ask for their intercession and protection.

Rev. 8:3-4 – in heaven an angel mingles incense with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne of God, and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. These prayers “rise up” before God and elicit various kinds of earthly activity. God responds to his children’s requests, whether made by his children on earth or in heaven.

Old Testament

Gen. 20:17 - God responds to Abraham's intercession and heals Abimelech, and also his wife and slaves.

Gen. 27:29; Num. 24:9 - blessed be everyone who blesses you. If we bless others in prayer, we are also blessed.

Exodus 32:11-14, 30-34; 34:9; Num. 14:17-20; 21:7-9 - these are many examples of God's response to Moses' saintly intercession.

1 Sam. 12:23 - Samuel says that he would be sinning against God if he didn't continue to intercede for the people of Israel.

1 Sam. 28:7-20 – the deceased prophet Samuel appears and converses with Saul, which is confirmed by Sirach 46:13,20).

1 Sam. 28:7; 1 Chron. 10:13-14 - Saul practiced necromancy. He used a medium, not God, to seek the dead and was therefore condemned. Saul's practice is entirely at odds with the Catholic understanding of saintly mediation, where God is the source and channel of all communication, and who permits His children to participate in this power.

2 Chron. 30:27 - the prayers of the priests and Levites came before God's holy habitation in heaven and were answered.

Tobit 12:12,15 - angels place Tobit and Sarah's prayers before the Holy One. This teaches us that the angels are also our subordinate mediators. We pray to the angels to take up our prayers to God.

Job 42:7-9 - Job prayed for three friends in sin and God listened to Job as a result of these prayers.

Psalm 34:7 – the angel of the Lord delivers those who fear him.

Psalm 91:11 – God will give His angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.

Psalm 103:20-21; 148:1-2 – we praise the angels and ask for their assistance in doing God’s will.

Psalm 141:2 - David asks that his prayer be counted as incense before God. The prayers of the saints have powerful effects.

Isaiah 6:6-7 - an angel touches Isaiah's lips and declares that his sin is forgiven. The angel is a subordinate mediator of God who effects the forgiveness of sins on God’s behalf.

Jer. 7:16 - God acknowledges the people's ability to intercede, but refuses to answer due to the hardness of heart.

Jer. 15:1 – the Lord acknowledges the intercessory power of Moses and Samuel.

Jer. 37:3 - king Zedekiah sends messengers to ask Jeremiah to intercede for the people, that he might pray to God for them.

Jer. 42:1-6 - all the people of Israel went before Jeremiah asking for his intercession, that he would pray to the Lord for them.

Baruch 3:4 - Baruch asks the Lord to hear the prayers of the dead of Israel. They can intercede on behalf of the people of God.

Dan. 9:20-23 - Daniel intercedes on behalf of the people of Israel confessing both his sins and the sins of the people before God.

Zech. 1:12-13 - an angel intercedes for those in Judea and God responds favorably.

2 Macc. 15:12-16 – the high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah were deceased for centuries, and yet interact with the living Judas Maccabeas and pray for the holy people on earth.


IV. Veneration / Honor of the Saints

Matt. 18:10 - the angels in heaven always behold the face of God. We venerate them for their great dignity and union with God.

Matt. 15:4; Luke 18:20; Eph. 6:2-3 Exodus 20:12; Lev. 19:3; Deut. 5:16 - we are instructed to honor our father and mother.

Luke 1:28 - the angel Gabriel venerates Mary by declaring to her "Hail, full of grace." The heavenly angel honors the human Mary, for her perfection of grace exceeds that of the angels.

Romans 13:7 - we are to give honor where honor is due. When we honor God's children, we honor God Himself, for He is the source of all honor.

1 Cor. 4:16 - the most important form of veneration of the saints is "imitating" the saints, as Paul commands us to do.

1 Cor. 11:1 - again, Paul says, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." The ultimate objective of veneration is imitation.

Phil. 2:25-29 - Paul teaches us to honor Epaprhoditus who almost died for the faith. How much more honor is owed to the saints that did die for the faith!

Phil. 3:17 - Paul says to imitate him and others, which is the goal of veneration. Veneration is not worship.

1 Thess. 1:6 – Paul says to the Thessalonians, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord.” This is the goal of veneration.

2 Thess. 3:7 - Paul says that the Thessalonians should imitate him and the other bishops.

Hebrews 3:3 - Jesus is worthy of "more" glory and honor than Moses. This does not mean that the saints are worthy of no glory and honor. Instead, it proves that saintly people are worthy of glory and honor out of God's goodness.

Heb. 6:12 – the author teaches us to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Heb. 13:7 - we must imitate the faith of our faithful leaders. We ask for their intercession and venerate them for their holiness.

James 5:10-11 – James teaches us to take heart in the examples of the prophets and Job, who endured suffering.

1 Peter 2:17 - Peter teaches us to honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Don't those living with Christ in heaven deserve honor? Catholics believe they do, and honor them with special feast days, just as we honor those living by celebrating their birthdays.

Gen. 19:1 - Lot venerates the two angels in Sodom, bowing himself with his face to the ground.

Gen. 42:6 - Joseph's brothers bow before Joseph with the face to the ground. This is veneration, not worship.

Exodus 28:2 - it is especially important to honor religious leaders. Sacred garments for Aaron give him dignity and honor.

Lev. 19:32- we should also honor "the face of an old man." When the elderly die in Christ, we should continue honoring them, because death does not separate them from us or the love of Christ.

1 Sam. 28:14 - Saul bows down before Samuel with his face to the ground in veneration.

2 Chron. 32:33 - Hezekiah was honored at his death. We honor our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Sir. 44:1-2 - we should praise and give honor to those who the Lord apportioned great glory. It is our family in Christ.


V. Posture in Prayer, Veneration and Worship

Deut. 5:9 - God's command, "you shall not bow down to them" means "do not worship them." But not all bowing is worship. Here God's command is connected to false worship.

Rev. 3:9 - Jesus said people would bow down before the faithful members of the church of Philadelphia. This bowing before the faithful is not worship, just as kissing a picture of a family member is not worship.

Gen. 19:1 - Lot bowed down to the ground in veneration before two angels in Sodom.

Gen. 24:52 - Abraham's servant bowed himself to the earth before the Lord.

Gen. 42:6 - Joseph's brothers bow before Joseph with the face to the ground.

Jos. 5:14 - Joshua fell to the ground prostrate in veneration before an angel.

1 Sam. 28:14 - Saul bows down before Samuel with his face to the ground in honor and veneration.

1 Kings 1:23 - the prophet Nathan bows down before King David.

2 Kings 2:15 - the sons of the prophets bow down to Elisha at Jericho.

1 Chron. 21:21 - Ornan the Jebusite did obeisance to king David with his face to the ground.

1 Chron. 29:20 - Israelites bowed down to worship God and give honor to the king.

2 Chron. 29:29-30 - King Hezekiah and the assembly venerate the altar by bowing down in worship before the sin offerings.

Tobit 12:16 - Tobiah and Tobit fell down to the ground in veneration before the angel Raphael.

Judith 14:7 - Achior the Ammonite kneels before Judith venerating her and praising God.

Psalm 138:2 - David bows down before God's Holy Temple.

Dan. 2:46 - the king fell down on his face paying homage to Daniel and commands that an offering be made to him.

Dan. 8:17 - Daniel fell down prostrate in veneration before the angel Gabriel.

1 Macc. 4:40,55 - Judas and the faithful fell face down to the ground to praise heaven and worship God.

2 Macc. 10:4,26; 13:12 - Maccabeus and his followers fall down prostrate praying to God.

TRADITION/ CHURCH FATHERS

I. Intercessory Power and Veneration of the Saints

"[T]hat it is neither possible for us ever to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of such as shall be saved throughout the whole world (the blameless one for sinners), nor to worship any other. For Him indeed, as being the Son of God, we adore; but the martyrs, as disciples and followers of the Lord, we worthily love on account of their extraordinary affection towards their own King and Master, of whom may we also be made companions and fellow disciples! The centurion then, seeing the strife excited by the Jews, placed the body in the midst of the fire, and consumed it. Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps."Martyrdom of Polycarp 17,18 (A.D. 157).




"[Appealing to the three companions of Daniel] Think of me, I beseech you, so that I may achieve with you the same fate of martyrdom." Hippolytus of Rome, On Daniel, 11:30 (A.D. 204).

"As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as birthday honours." Tertullian, The Crown, 3 (A.D. 211).




"Nor is that kind of title to glories in the case of Celerinus, our beloved, an unfamiliar and novel thing. He is advancing in the footsteps of his kindred; he rivals his parents and relations in equal honours of divine condescension. His grandmother, Celerina, was some time since crowned with martyrdom. Moreover, his paternal and maternal uncles, Laurentius and Egnatius, who themselves also were once warring in the camps of the world, but were true and spiritual soldiers of God, casting down the devil by the confession of Christ, merited palms and crowns from the Lord by their illustrious passion. We always offer sacrifices for them, as you remember, as often as we celebrate the passions and days of the martyrs in the annual commemoration. Nor could he, therefore, be degenerate and inferior whom this family dignity and a generous nobility provoked, by domestic examples of virtue and faith. But if in a worldly family it is a matter of heraldry and of praise to be a patrician, of bow much greater praise and honour is it to become of noble rank in the celestial heraldry! I cannot tell whom I should call more blessed,--whether those ancestors, for a posterity so illustrious, or him, for an origin so glorious. So equally between them does the divine condescension flow, and pass to and fro, that, just as the dignity of their offspring brightens their crown, so the sublimity of his ancestry illuminates his glory." Cyprian, To Clergy and People, Epistle 33(39):3 (A.D. 250).




"I am also of opinion that there were many persons of the same name with John the apostle, who by their love for him, and their admiration and emulation of him, and their desire to be loved by the Lord as he was loved, were induced to embrace also the same designation, just as we find many of the children of the faithful called by the names of Paul and Peter." Dionysius of Alexandria, Books of Promises, 5 (A.D. 257).




"Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition. Then on behalf also of the Holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is set forth." Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 23:9 (A.D. 350).




"Thus might you console us; but what of the flock? Would you first promise the oversight and leadership of yourself, a man under whose wings we all would gladly repose, and for whose words we thirst more eagerly than men suffering from thirst for the purest fountain? Secondly, persuade us that the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep has not even now left us; but is present, and tends and guides, and knows his own, and is known of his own, and, though bodily invisible, is spiritually recognized, and defends his flock against the wolves, and allows no one to climb over into the fold as a robber and traitor; to pervert and steal away, by the voice of strangers, souls under the fair guidance of the truth. Aye, I am well assured that his intercession is of more avail now than was his instruction in former days, since he is closer to God, now that he has shaken off his bodily fetters, and freed his mind from the clay which obscured it, and holds intercourse naked with the nakedness of the prime and purest Mind; being promoted, if it be not rash to say so, to the rank and confidence of an angel." John Chrysostom, On the Death of his Father, Oration 18:4 (A.D. 374).




"He voluntarily undertook all the toil of the journey; he moderated the energy of the faithful on the spot; he persuaded opponents by his arguments; in the presence of priests and deacons, and of many others who fear the Lord, he took up the relics with all becoming reverence, and has aided the brethren in their preservation. These relics do you receive with a joy equivalent to the distress with which their custodians have parted with them and sent them to you. Let none dispute; let none doubt. Here you have that unconquered athlete. These bones, which shared in the conflict with the blessed soul, are known to the Lord. These bones He will crown, together with that soul, in the righteous day of His requital, as it is written, 'we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may give an account of the deeds he has done in the body.' One coffin held that honoured corpse. None other lay by his side. The burial was a noble one; the honours of a martyr were paid him. Christians who had welcomed him as a guest and then with their own hands laid him in the grave, have now disinterred him. They have wept as men bereaved of a father and a champion. But they have sent him to you, for they put your joy before their own consolation. Pious were the hands that gave; scrupulously careful were the hands that received. There has been no room for deceit; no room for guile. I bear witness to this. Let the untainted truth be accepted by you." Basil, To Ambrose bishop of Milan, Epistle 197 (A.D. 375).




"Furthermore, as to mentioning the names of the dead, how is there anything very useful in that? What is more timely or more excellent than that those who are still here should believe that the departed do live, and that they have not retreated into nothingness, but that they exist and are alive with the Master...Useful too is the prayer fashioned on their behalf...For we make commemoration of the just and of sinners: of sinners, begging God's mercy for them; of the just and the Fathers and Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists and martyrs and confessors, and of bishops and solitaries, and of the whole list of them..." Epiphanius, Panarion, 75:8 (A.D. 377).




"Only may that power come upon us which strengthens weakness, through the prayers of him[i.e. St. Paul] who made his own strength perfect in bodily weakness." Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 1:1(A.D. 380).




"But God forbid that any in this fair assembly should appear there suffering such things! but by the prayers of the holy fathers, correcting all our offences, and having shown forth the abundant fruit of virtue, may we depart hence with much confidence." John Chrysostom, On Statues, Homily 6:19 (A.D. 387).




"As to our paying honor to the memory of the martyrs, and the accusation of Faustus, that we worship them instead of idols, I should not care to answer such a charge, were it not for the sake of showing how Faustus, in his desire to cast reproach on us, has overstepped the Manichaean inventions, and has fallen heedlessly into a popular notion found in Pagan poetry, although he is so anxious to be distinguished from the Pagans. For in saying that we have turned the idols into martyrs, be speaks of our worshipping them with similar rites, and appeasing the shades of the departed with wine and food…It is true that Christians pay religious honor to the memory of the martyrs, both to excite us to imitate them and to obtain a share in their merits, and the assistance of their prayers. But we build altars not to any martyr, but to the God of martyrs, although it is to the memory of the martyrs. No one officiating at the altar in the saints' burying-place ever says, We bring an offering to thee, O Peter! or O Paul! or O Cyprian! The offering is made to God, who gave the crown of martyrdom, while it is in memory of those thus crowned. The emotion is increased by the associations of the place, and. love is excited both towards those who are our examples, and towards Him by whose help we may follow such examples. We regard the martyrs with the same affectionate intimacy that we feel towards holy men of God in this life, when we know that their hearts are prepared to endure the same suffering for the truth of the gospel. There is more devotion in our feeling towards the martyrs, because we know that their conflict is over; and we can speak with greater confidence in praise of those already victors in heaven, than of those still combating here.” Augustine, Against Faustus, 20:21 (A.D. 400).




"We, it is true, refuse to worship or adore, I say not the relics of the martyrs, but even the sun and moon, the angels and archangels, the Cherubim and Seraphim and 'every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come.' For we may not "serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Still we honour the relics of the martyrs, that we may adore Him whose martyrs they are. We honour the servants that their honour may be reflected upon their Lord who Himself says:--'he that receiveth you receiveth me.' I ask Vigilantius, Are the relics of Peter and of Paul unclean? Was the body of Moses unclean, of which we are told (according to the correct Hebrew text) that it was buried by the Lord Himself? And do we, every time that we enter the basilicas of apostles and prophets and martyrs, pay homage to the shrines of idols? Are the tapers which burn before their tombs only the tokens of idolatry? I will go farther still and ask a question which will make this theory recoil upon the head of its inventor and which will either kill or cure that frenzied brain of his, so that simple souls shall be no more subverted by his sacrilegious reasonings. Let him answer me this, Was the Lord's body unclean when it was placed in the sepulchre? And did the angels clothed in white raiment merely watch over a corpse dead and defiled, that ages afterwards this sleepy fellow might indulge in dreams and vomit forth his filthy surfeit, so as, like the persecutor Julian, either to destroy the basilicas of the saints or to convert them into heathen temples?" Jerome, To Riparius, Epistle 109:1 (A.D. 404).




"For you say that the souls of Apostles and martyrs have their abode either in the bosom of Abraham, or in the place of refreshment, or under the altar of God, and that they cannot leave their own tombs, and be present there they will…And while the devil and the demons wander through the whole world, and with only too great speed present themselves everywhere; are martyrs, after the shedding of their blood, to be kept out of sight shut up in a coffin, from whence they cannot escape? You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they cry for the avenging of their blood, have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns, overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, oft wins pardon from God for six hundred thousand armed men; and Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr, entreats pardon for his persecutors; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ, shall they have less power than before? The Apostle Paul says that two hundred and seventy-six souls were given to him in the ship; and when, after his dissolution, he has begun to be with Christ, must he shut his mouth, and be unable to say a word for those who throughout the whole world have believed in his Gospel? Shall Vigilantius the live dog be better than Paul the dead lion? I should be right in saying so after Ecclesiastes, if I admitted that Paul is dead in spirit. The truth is that the saints are not called dead, but are said to be asleep. Wherefore Lazarus, who was about to rise again, is said to have slept. And the Apostle forbids the Thessalonians to be sorry for those who were asleep.” Jerome, Against Vigilantius, 6 (A.D. 406).




"Even if we make images of pious men it is not that we may adore them as gods but that when we see them we might be prompted to imitate them."Cyril of Alexandria, On Psalms 113 (115) (ante A.D. 444).




"The noble souls of the triumphant are sauntering around heaven, dancing in the choruses of the bodiless; and not one tomb for each conceals their bodies, but cities and villages divide them up and call them healers and preservers of souls and bodies, and venerate them a guardians and protectors of cities; and when they intervene as ambassadors before the Master of the universe the divine gifts are obtained through them; and though the body has been divided, its grace has continued undivided. And that little particle and smallest relic has the same power as the absolutely and utterly undivided martyr." Theodoret of Cyrus, The Cure of Pagan Maladies, 8:54 (A.D. 449).




" Thou gainest nothing, thou prevailest nothing, O savage cruelty. His mortal frame is released from thy devices, and, when Laurentius departs to heaven, thou art vanquished. The flame of Christ's love could not be overcome by thy flames, and the fire which burnt outside was less keen than that which blazed within. Thou didst but serve the martyr in thy rage, O persecutor: thou didst but swell the reward in adding to the pain. For what did thy cunning devise, which did not redound to the conqueror's glory, when even the instruments of torture were counted as part of the triumph? Let us rejoice, then, dearly-beloved, with spiritual joy, and make our boast over the happy end of this illustrious man in the Lord, Who is 'wonderful in His saints,' in whom He has given us a support and an example, and has so spread abroad his glory throughout the world, that, from the rising of the sun to its going down, the brightness of his deacon's light doth shine, and Rome is become as famous in Laurentius as Jerusalem was ennobled by Stephen. By his prayer and intercession we trust at all times to be assisted; that, because all, as the Apostle says, 'who wish to live holily in Christ, suffer persecutions,' we may be strengthened with the spirit of love, and be fortified to overcome all temptations by the perseverance of steadfast faith. Through our LORD Jesus Christ." Pope Leo the Great [regn. A.D. 440-461], On the Feast of Laurence the Martyr, Sermon 85:4 (ante A.D. 461).




"To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs of God: in the words of John the theologian and evangelist, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to became sons of God. So that they are no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, also heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ: and the Lord in the holy Gospels says to His apostles, Ye are My friends. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. And further, if the Creator and Lord of all things is called also King of Kings and Lord of Lords and God of Gods, surely also the saints are gods and lords and kings. For of these God is and is called God and Lord and King. For I am the God of Abraham, He said to Moses, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And God made Moses a god to Pharaoh. Now I mean gods and kings and lords not in nature, but as rulers and masters of their passions, and as preserving a truthful likeness to the divine image according to which they were made (for the image of a king is also called king), and as being united to God of their own free-will and receiving Him as an indweller and becoming by grace through participation with Him what He is Himself by nature. Surely, then, the worshippers and friends and sons of God are to be held in honour? For the honour shown to the most thoughtful of fellow-servants is a proof of good feeling towards the common Master." John of Damascene, Orthodox Faith, 4:15 (A.D. 743).




"We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence, not indeed that true worship of faith (latria) which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented. For thus the teaching of our holy Fathers, that is the tradition of the Catholic Church, which from one end of the earth to the other hath received the Gospel, is strengthened." Ecumenical Council of Nicea II, Action VII (A.D. 787).

(thank you, John Salza and Scripture Catholic)