From the desk of Father Paul, August 15, 2010

Sunday, August 15, 2010

From the desk of Father Paul, August 15, 2010

Today (August 15th) is the feast of the Assumption of Mary. This is a particularly Catholic Doctrine based on what the Scriptures tell us about Mary. It simply states that when Mary died, she was taken, body and soul, into heaven. In other words, her body never faced decay like ours will. The Christian doctrine about resurrection of the body is that our bodies will rejoin our souls at the end of time. Mary, just as she was preserved from original sin at her conception (Immaculate Conception) in her mother’s womb, so too was her body preserved from corruption at her death.
The main Scriptural verse that the doctrine of the Assumption is based on is the same verse the Church uses for the Immaculate Conception: “Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you! (Lk. 1:28). More modern translations replace the word “grace” with “O highly favored one”. Unfortunately this phrase does not have the same impact as the word “grace”. The original Greeks use the word “kecharitomene” (translated as “grace”) which means so much more than “O highly favored one”. It implies and conveys permanency; hence Mary was full of grace, or complete in grace at any given time throughout her life. In declaring the Assumption as a doctrine, the Church applies kecharitomene to her entire life – from conception to natural death. No sin ever touched her and therefore she was assumed into heaven, body and soul, at her death. Happy feast day! Mary, pray for us!

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The Catholic Church traces its foundation to Jesus and the twelve Apostles. It sees the bishops of the Church as the successors of the apostles and the pope (the bishop of Rome), in particular, as the successor of Peter, the leader of the apostles.

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Through apostolic succession, the Church believes itself to be the continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus in his consecration of Saint Peter, a view shared by some historians. It has defined its doctrines through various ecumenical councils, following the example set by the first Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem. On the basis of promises made by Jesus to his apostles, described in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected from falling into doctrinal error.

Catholic beliefs are based on the Bible and on Traditions handed down from the time of the Apostles, which are interpreted by a teaching authority. Those beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed and formally detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Formal Catholic worship, termed the liturgy, is regulated by Church authority. The Eucharist, one of seven Church sacraments and the key part of every Catholic Mass or Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy, is the center of Catholic worship.

With a history spanning almost two thousand years, the Church is one of the world's oldest institutions and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. In the 11th century, a major split (the Great Schism) occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity, largely as a result of disagreements over papal primacy. The Eastern Orthodox churches became a separate entity from the Catholic Church in the resulting schism. Eastern Churches who remained in or later re-established communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, form the Eastern Catholic churches. In the 16th century, partly in response to the Protestant schism, the Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation.

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Welcome to Resurrection of the Lord - E Komo Mai

Sunday, August 15, 2010