The Death Of Reason

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I've noticed that this site gets a fair share of it's traffic from France.

HERE is one of my posts that references the church in France.

What The Early Church Fathers Taught On The Real Presence

The apostles did not teach that the bread and wine of communion changed substance and became the actual body and blood of Jesus. That idea developed much later.

If you go to a Catholic apologetic's web site you will find quotes from some of the early church fathers that seem to indicate that they taught the real presence of Christ in the elements. The problem with those quotes is that they are taken out of context. Teaching based either on sacred scripture of the early church fathers taken out of context will lead to incorrect doctrine.

The idea of the real presence of Christ in communion is important to Catholic theology because that then requires an apostolic priesthood to administer the sacrament. This leads us to think of the Church not as a living organism comprised of all who have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior but rather as an institution headed by popes and bishops who direct and administer the distribution of graces to the flock.

Check here for an excellent and easy to understand article about the writings of many of the early church fathers in their context about the Lord's supper. I had always wondered about this and was glad to come across it.

Jesus and Peter

I wrote this after Pope Francis visited South America, Cuba and the United States.

Who Do You Say That I Am?

It is helpful to understand the context of sayings in scripture so that they don't just become proof texts.

The Context For Holy Communion

The Catholic Church believes that during mass when the priest prays over the elements of bread and wine those elements actually become the body and blood of Jesus. The doctrine behind this is known as transubstantiation.

The thought is that Jesus instituted this sacrament at the last supper with the intent of a priesthood, descended from the apostles, having the power to bring the presence of Christ through those elements to those gathered to partake of that sacred meal.

This was not the way that The Lord's Supper was originally celebrated in the early Church but no matter. It fits the idea that grace is distributed through a priesthood to the common people.

There are different ideas on what communion is in the universal Church comprised of all that believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. My father-in-law believed that the elements became the real body and blood, not through the actions of the priest but through the faith of the one receiving those elements. Although he was Catholic that is much closer to a Lutheran belief.

Many others only see communion as a religious act, the form and frequency being only what their denomination suggests. And then of course you have everything in between.

After our family left the Catholic Church and then after a couple of years left a little Assembly of God church we had home church for 7 years with another family plus a few others. During that time every so often either Mike or I would take the responsibility to pray over bread and juice and distribute them to the families. For me this was tremendously meaningful and sacred. I believe we were remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made for us very much the way the early church did.

Here are two posts from my 2 Timothy 2:2 blog that give some background to understanding the accounts of communion in scripture.

The first is  Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

and the second is The Last Supper

May the Lord constantly be with you.

Praying To The Saints And Mary

If the patron saint of professional baseball players is St. Atistics then the patron saint of professional football players would be St. Adium. Weight lifters have their St. Rong, scholars St.Udy and violinist St. Radivarius

There was a lady at our business years ago who was having a tough time selling her house and someone advised her to bury a statue of St. Joseph upside down in her yard. It worked great and they had a firm offer within the next 2 weeks. You would almost think faith could be reduced to preforming the correct ritual or saying the right words.

But one of the main reasons life is as it is, with all the struggles and bumps in the road, is so that we would reach out to God, be able to draw close to Him and by doing that get to know Him better. Growing in faith is growing in a relationship, which only comes by spending time with the One who loves us. Anything else is just St.Upid.

Read more in my post;

Saint Tifying Grace

Eight Ball, Side Pocket

If I had one wish for every believer it would be for them to know the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. This freedom does not come from religious acts although there may be nothing wrong with certain of those acts. It comes from having a relationship with the Lord where we know and experience that we are loved.

Here is one of my recent posts that expresses that thought.

http://youdonesaywhat.blogspot.com/2015/07/eight-ball-side-pocket.html