On using the name of the Lord Jesus and the true cause for the apostles to rejoice:

Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. - Luke 9:1-2 - Matt. 10:1 - Mark 6:7 -

John spoke up. 'Master', he said 'we saw a man casting out devils in your name, and because he is not with us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said to him, 'You must not stop him: anyone who is not against you is for you.' - Luke 9:49-50 -

The Lord Jesus Christ appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers  are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. - Luke 10:1-2 -

The seventy-two came back rejoicing, 'Lord', they said 'even the devils submit to us when we use your name.' He said to them, 'I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.' - Luke 10:17-20 - John 12:31-32 - Rev. 20:12 -

Reverend Father Martin Luther ( 1472 to 1553 ) had never intended to break away from the Catholic Church, he had hoped to reform it from within, but events spiraled out of his control. It was on the date of 'All Souls Day' in 1517, that Rev. Fr. Martin Luther inadvertently began the Reformation (religious upheaval) of the sixteenth century. Then, came the others as well as the English Reformation. As the Reformation and Protestantism spread over Europe, a parallel 'Counter-Reformation' was established within Catholicism. Both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation had common roots in a shared desire to end the evil of corruption and abuses of power of the late medieval Church; thus, those who broke away from the Church became known as the 'Reformation' whilst those that remained are known as 'Counter-Reformation.'

When Paul III, who became Pope in 1534. He make his two teenage nephews cardinals which of course, did not bore well for reform, but most of the other cardinals, the Pope Paul III appointed were reformers. On the whole the Pope was keen to reform the Church and the papacy. A commission was set up to investigate abuses in the Church and make recommendations for reform: known as the Concilium, was widely published and was quite damning. A lot of abuse had been detected throughout the Church, and the commission advised that the Pope, the Cardinals should think spiritually and act about spiritual matters, practices 'Holiness' and spend less time worrying about their position and benefits in the world.

Finally, in 1545, Pope Paul III succeeded in overcoming the anti-reform party in the Church and calling a council at Trent to address the whole problem of ecclesiastical abuses and Protestantism. As far as the doctrine is concern, the 'Council of Trent' refused to fully budge in the direction of the Protestants. But the 'Council of Trent' agreed with the Protestants that faith is necessary to salvation, but it disagreed with them that it is sufficient. Similarly, the 'Council of Trent' rejected the Protestants' contention that the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible is the sole source of doctrine and that it is more authoritative than the Church.

Instead, the 'Council of Trent' retain the traditional view that the Church and the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible form a whole, undivided body of teaching. This means that Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible is indeed authoritative, only it is interpreted by the Church. Thus, the 'Council of Trent' reaffirmed the seven Sacraments, the doctrine of Purgatory, the use of Relics, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Clerical celibacy and other elements that the Protestants denounced as not scriptural. The doctrine of transubstantiation [the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist] was reaffirmed and it was made explicit.

Pope Pius IV promulgated the decisions of Trent in 1564. After that, Trent acted rather as the 'Council of Nicaea' it provided a universal of doctrine and discipline within the Catholic. Many Catholics became more concerned of their faith that the Protestants disagreed or rejected, such as the seven Sacraments and the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in this period that the 'Ave Maria' or 'Hail Mary' prayer had come into universal use in the eleventh centuries till today.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with you,
Blessed are you among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now, and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

As the Catholic Church is progressing, a new force is appearing, that is, the 'Society of Jesus' also known as 'the Jesuits.' The Society of Jesus or 'the Jesuits' were founded by a Spanish soldier named Ignatius of Loyola, under the service of the king of Spain, who prided himself in his military prowess, and he was a nobleman. One day, in a battle between two rival cities, a canon ball fell upon his legs and exploded. One of his legs was shattered, and he was carried home by his enemies, no less, because they respected his bravery in battle. His recovery was very slow and very painful. After some months of convalescence, he asked for some books to read to while away his time. He requested for some romantic novels, but there were only two books available, a book on the Life of Christ and a book on the Lives of the Saints.

So Ignatius of Loyola had no choice but to read these two books and became interested in spirituality. After leaving the hospital, he spent times in prayer and meditation in monastery, and came out of this deeply wrought experience with a deep rooted desire to 'help souls.' For him this meant essentially to help people discover their pathway to God. After a while of so doing, he was warned by the Church authorities not to carry on unless he had qualified himself with a Church degree. This is what turned his mind towards studying theology and to the priesthood, and eventually brought him to the University of Paris, where he found himself rooming with Francis Xavier and Peter Favre.

In 1540, Pope Paul III approved the new 'Society of Jesus.' The principal virtue for its Jesuits - who were all priests - was obedience, to the general of the order and the Pope. The Society of Jesus as a whole was to the service of the Pope in whatever capacity he saw fit. The Jesuits did not have a specified rule to follow, but they did have the Spiritual Exercises that Ignatius of Loyola wrote. And eventually the Spiritual Exercises was use as a tool, an instrument and as a way or method for helping people to discover themselves, their desires, their personal experiences and their way to God.

It seem that Saint Ignatius of Loyola had in mind to preach to the Muslims, and in fact, some of the first missions that he sent the early Jesuits on were to Muslims.

 However, the Church recognized the value of the Jesuits in opposing Protestantism and put them to work in this major mission. Jesuit scholars began to study the arguments and the beliefs of the leading Protestants and wrote answers to them. The Jesuits went through theological debate with them as well. A renowned Italian Jesuit named Robert Bellarmine, a theologian with impeccable reputation for preaching that Protestants as well as Catholics came to hear his sermons. Saint Robert Bellarmine was a deeply charitable person who was known to clothe the poor and needy with his tapestries and he was a very honest man. Appointed to the post of professor of controversies at the Jesuit college in Rome by Pope Gregory XIII, Saint Robert Bellarmine studied the works of the Reformers and wrote fair-minded responses to the Protestants. He was not simply a reactionary who denied that the Protestants had said anything worthwhile: on the contrary, he aimed to defend an understanding of Christianity which was rooted in the Church fathers, especially Saint Augustine of Hippo.

To engage in such scholarship, Jesuits had to be well educated, and from an early stage Saint Ignatius of Loyola was determined that education would play a key role. It was, after all, supposed to be a Society of elite priests, dedicated to spreading the Christian message, and this required extensive spiritual training and spiritual education. Spiritual schools and training centers were therefore opened. By the time Saint Ignatius of Loyola died in 1556, there were 35 Jesuits schools throughout Europe. He believed that spiritual education should be available to everyone, and it were extremely popular, and this did a great deal to stem the advance of Protestantism.

Saint Peter Canisius play a major role in the German Counter-Reformation, he was the eighth person to join the Society of Jesus. Saint Peter Canisius spent many years preaching throughout Germany and he had opened Jesuit schools there. Saint Peter Canisius was present at the Council of Trent and wrote a number of books explaining Catholic doctrine: the short Catechisms he composed, with small explanations of each belief, were extremely popular and still used in the nineteenth century. And this stem the advance of Protestantism. Catholics remember Peter Canisius as the 'second apostle of Germany' after Boniface.

In order to successfully quashed Protestantism, the Jesuits continue to opened spiritual schools. The Jesuits translated anti-Protestant and devotional works into their own native language, popularized the Catholic liturgy, and official Catholicism was still struggling for dominance with Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Finally, the Jesuits penetrated Ukraine and helped to bolster Catholicism, an effort formalized in 1596 with the Union of Brest. This declaration created a brand new church, the Ukraine Catholic Church, which was in communion with the Roman Catholic Church but used Orthodox rites.

The latter half of the sixteenth and seventeenth century saw a large number of extraordinarily brilliant men emerge from the ranks of the Jesuits. Some, such as Saint Matteo Ricci, made a splash on the world stage; others, such as the scientist Athanasius Kircher SJ, were content to explore volcanoes or study the causes of disease. Many Jesuits studied science. That made Jesuits great explorers, too - of the 8 major rivers in the world, 5 were first charted by Jesuits.

The Jesuits successfully quashed Protestantism, and that the most famous missionaries of the era were all Jesuits. In fact, half of Europe have apostatized, but the Renaissance explorers had revealed whole new worlds which might be amenable to Catholicism.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -