The Grand Punch of St. Nicholas

During the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325) there was a big argument

over the divinity of Christ. Arius — a heretic — was of the idea that Christ was not divine, but rather a mere creature. The Council gave him leave to speak, to defend his claims, and he did, yammering on — I have no doubt — in a relentless flood of sophistry.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas — oh yes, he was a bishop — wasn’t having any of it. He tried to listen patiently, he really did, but Arius’ speech was just so wrong, that he was compelled to get up in the midst of it and, yep, punch him in the face.

BOOM! YOU JUST GOT KRIS-KRINGLED SON!

I hold that this is the image of Santa Claus we need to reclaim. Because when you think about it, this was the original campaign to Put the Christ Back in Christmas. Arius would have made the nativity a non-event. He, majestically prefiguring the various sects of Happy-Holiday-ers, Winter Solstice-ers, and it’s-actually-a-pagan-holiday-ers (that’s the point, you muppets!) denied that Christmas need be a celebration of substance at all. So when the modern world promotes the consumerist image of Santa Claus over the image of Christ, it is not so much the wrath of Christ they should fear as it is the wrath of Santa Claus. He may very well climb down the chimney and wup you.

Christmas is about this singular, terrible reality: That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the spirit of St. Nick; accept no substitute.

Perhaps our Christmas carols need to be rewritten in light of the Grand Punch of St. Nicholas. It wouldn’t be too hard, we could sing: 

~~> Jolly Old St. Nicholas/Lend your fist this way . . . .

~~> I saw Dawkins rocked by Santa Claus/flying from the podium last niiighht . . . . .

and of course, 

~~> He sees when you’re dissenting/he knows when you’ve blasphemed/he knows your schismatic doctrines/and so he’s gonna punch your face/Oh, you better not doubt/You better not divide/You better not bring scandal to the Holy Roman Catholic Church/I’m telling you why/Saaaanta Claus is smacking you down . . . .

etc. etc. etc.

So thank you St. Nicholas, for your inspired punch. Oh, I almost forgot the end of the story. I’ll let Taylor Marshall, who writes over at Cantebury Tales tell it:

Now if that were the end of the story, we probably wouldn’t know about Saint Nicholas, and our children wouldn’t be asking him for presents. However, after Nicholas was deposed, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Nicholas who was being held in a prison cell for his fist-fight with the heretic. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ asked Saint Nicholas, “Why are you here?” Nicholas responded, “Because I love you, my Lord and my God.”
Christ then presented Nicholas with his copy of the Gospels. Next, the Blessed Virgin vested Nicholas with his episcopal pallium, thus restoring him to his rank as a bishop.

 When the Emperor Constantine heard of this miracle, he immediately ordered that Nicholas be reinstated as a bishop in good standing for the Council of Nicea. Today we recite the Nicene Creed every Sunday so we know how the controversy played out. The bishops at Nicea sided with Saint Nicholas and Saint Athanasius and they condemned Arius as a heretic.

To this very day, we still recite in the Creed that Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

Sources: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2011/12/on-the-st-nick-punch.html

http://taylormarshall.com/2009/12/st-nicholas-he-who-punches-heretics-in.html

The Grand Punch of St. Nicholas

During the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325) there was a big argument over the divinity of Christ. Arius — a heretic — was of the idea that Christ was not divine, but rather a mere creature. The Council gave him leave to speak, to defend his claims, and he did, yammering on — I have no doubt — in a relentless flood of sophistry.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas — oh yes, he was a bishop — wasn’t having any of it. He tried to listen patiently, he really did, but Arius’ speech was just so wrong, that he was compelled to get up in the midst of it and, yep, punch him in the face.

BOOM! YOU JUST GOT KRIS-KRINGLED SON!

I hold that this is the image of Santa Claus we need to reclaim. Because when you think about it, this was the original campaign to Put the Christ Back in Christmas. Arius would have made the nativity a non-event. He, majestically prefiguring the various sects of Happy-Holiday-ers, Winter Solstice-ers, and it’s-actually-a-pagan-holiday-ers (that’s the point, you muppets!) denied that Christmas need be a celebration of substance at all. So when the modern world promotes the consumerist image of Santa Claus over the image of Christ, it is not so much the wrath of Christ they should fear as it is the wrath of Santa Claus. He may very well climb down the chimney and wup you.

Christmas is about this singular, terrible reality: That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the spirit of St. Nick; accept no substitute.

Perhaps our Christmas carols need to be rewritten in light of the Grand Punch of St. Nicholas. It wouldn’t be too hard, we could sing: 

~~> Jolly Old St. Nicholas/Lend your fist this way . . . .

~~> I saw Dawkins rocked by Santa Claus/flying from the podium last niiighht . . . . .

and of course, 

~~> He sees when you’re dissenting/he knows when you’ve blasphemed/he knows your schismatic doctrines/and so he’s gonna punch your face/Oh, you better not doubt/You better not divide/You better not bring scandal to the Holy Roman Catholic Church/I’m telling you why/Saaaanta Claus is smacking you down . . . .

etc. etc. etc.

So thank you St. Nicholas, for your inspired punch. Oh, I almost forgot the end of the story. I’ll let Taylor Marshall, who writes over at Cantebury Tales tell it:

Now if that were the end of the story, we probably wouldn’t know about Saint Nicholas, and our children wouldn’t be asking him for presents. However, after Nicholas was deposed, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Nicholas who was being held in a prison cell for his fist-fight with the heretic. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ asked Saint Nicholas, “Why are you here?” Nicholas responded, “Because I love you, my Lord and my God.”
Christ then presented Nicholas with his copy of the Gospels. Next, the Blessed Virgin vested Nicholas with his episcopal pallium, thus restoring him to his rank as a bishop.

When the Emperor Constantine heard of this miracle, he immediately ordered that Nicholas be reinstated as a bishop in good standing for the Council of Nicea. Today we recite the Nicene Creed every Sunday so we know how the controversy played out. The bishops at Nicea sided with Saint Nicholas and Saint Athanasius and they condemned Arius as a heretic.

To this very day, we still recite in the Creed that Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

Sources: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2011/12/on-the-st-nick-punch.html

http://taylormarshall.com/2009/12/st-nicholas-he-who-punches-heretics-in.html

12 Books to Read This Year!

I am a member of the New Saint Thomas Institute and one of the perks is frequent emails from the founder, Dr Taylor Marshall!   Here is an excerpt from today's correspondence with Dr. Taylor Marshall.

Readers are the leaders of the world. You must cultivate the habit of reading. My challenge for you this year is to read 12 books – 1 per month.

Here are the books that I think you should read (in no particular order). They have changed my life and outlook.

• If you have the money, you should just get all of them, stack them next to your bed, and get to reading.
• Most of the books are about $10 or less.
• I chose books that are relatively short and easy to get through.
• Most of them are in the 100 to 175 page range

And here they are:

1. Orthodoxy
   by GK Chesterton 
2. The Great Heresies
   by Hillaire Belloc
3. Saint Thomas Aquinas: “The Dumb Ox”
   by GK Chesterton
4. Confessions (Oxford World’s Classics)
   by Saint Augustine
5. 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration
   by Fr Michael Gaitley
6. The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society
   by Brad Gregory
7. All Generations Shall call me Blessed: Biblical Mariology
   by Fr Stephano Manelli
8. Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart (this book has changed my life)
   by Fr Jacque Phillipe
9. Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought
   by Fr Garrigou-Lagrange
10. The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life
    by Fr Garrigou-Lagrange
11. Thomas Aquinas on the Theology of Baptism
    Here it is free from his Summa theologicae:
    BAPTISM ITSELF: The sacrament itself (66). The minister (67), recipients (68) and effect (69) of this sacrament.
    PREPARATION: Circumcision (70), which preceded Baptism. Catechism and Exorcism (71), which accompany Baptism.
12. The Way, Furrow, The Forge (daily proverbs to keep you moving)
    by Saint Josemaria Escriva

Much About Paul

• #1 Rabbi Saul Becomes Apostle Paul

• #2 Will the Real Paul Stand Up?

• #3 Did Paul Believe in the Catholic Church

• #4 Justified by Faith or Faith Alone?

• #5 Paul on Baptism and Being Born Again

• #6 Paul on Mortal Sin and Confession

• #7 Paul on Purgatory

• #8 Paul on the Eucharist as Sacrifice

• #9 Was Paul a Catholic Priest?

• #10 Paul's Celibacy and Fatherhood

• #11 Paul on Matrimony and Marital Roles

Taylor Marshall's book
Catholic Perspectives on Paul by Taylor Marshall
Paul Articles Archives by Taylor Marshall

Martin Luther's Belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary

Here are some surprising words. It seems that Martin Luther, that once Augustinian priest turned Revolutionary, upheld belief in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception Think of that for a moment -- this was even before it was declared a dogmatic doctrine in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception holds that Mary was preserved from original sin at her conception and from all sin during her life - that she was conceived, lived, and died without any taint of sin.

The eminent Lutheran scholar Arthur Carl Piepkorn (1907-73) has also confirmed that Luther believed in the Immaculate Conception even as a Protestant. Here is Martin Luther in his own words:

"It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin" 

- Martin Luther's Sermon "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God," 1527.

"She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin—something exceedingly great. For God’s grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. 

- Martin Luther's Little Prayer Book, 1522.

Both quotations derive from Luther's writings after his break from Rome.

Far be it from me to approve of Luther.
I only list these quotes to show how far Protestantism has come from it's quasi-Catholic origin. If only Lutherans would return to this single doctrine of their founder; how quickly our Lady would turn them into true Catholics!

Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us!


SOURCE:
Canterbury Tales
This post was written by Taylor Marshall of Canterbury Tales. 
Please visit Canterbury Tales  -- it is an amazing website!

No copyright infringement intended. All posts are fully cited for source and author. I have provided links back to the original source whenever possible. This information is for my personal, Faith Formation, Confirmation class, OCIC and homeschool referencing.
I am so very grateful to the authors, website and blog owners for sharing this information, commentary, and knowledge.

12 Tips for Praying the Family Rosary daily (Attention Catholic Dads)

SOURCE: Canterbury Tales 

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

See also: Save your Family; Pray the Rosary

The Family Rosary is one of those bedrock devotions for the family recommended by the saints and spiritual masters. The Blessed Virgin Mary herself asked all Christians to pray the "one third {i.e. 5 decades} of the Holy Rosary daily" in her message at Fatima.

The Popes have also attached a "plenary indulgence"  to those who pray 5 decades of the Rosary "as a family" (when the other usual conditions are met*). This plenary indulgence cannot be obtained by private recitation - only in the context of a "family" recitation. This stipulation demonstrates that the Catholic Church privileges praying the Rosary as a family. The reason for this is that the Rosary is the "rose garden" of sanctify for children. As the Holy Spirit teaches us: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Saint Louis de Montfort gives us another eight more reasons for praying the Rosary daily:

1. It gradually gives us a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ.
2. It purifies our souls, washing away sin.
3. It gives us victory over all our enemies
4. It makes it easy for us to practice virtue
5. It sets us on fire with love of Our Blessed Lord
6. It enriches us with graces and merits
7. It supplies us with what is needed to pay all our debts to God and to our fellow men, and finally, it obtains all kinds of graces for us from Almighty God
8. It gives us the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the science of salvation through our meditations on His life, death, Passion and glory.

Okay, are you convinced? The family Rosary is the most powerful tool you have for edifying your family in grace.

So how do you get a bunch of children under the age of reason (or above the age of reason) to pray 5 decades of the Rosary every day? How can they sit still for 15 minutes? Is it possible?

Here are some tips on how to maintain the daily family Rosary. My wife and I have five children ages 8, 6, 6 (twins), 4, and 2. We pray five decades every night - though there are exceptions. We're not perfect, but we try.

Twelve Tips for Praying the Family Rosary Daily

1. Prayer using alternation (The father/leader prays first half of Our Father and everyone else prays second half - same goes for Hail Mary and Glory be).
2. Pray the Rosary after dinner but right before bed - this means homework needs to be finished before dinner. Homework kills the Rosary if you don't stay on top of it. You'll also need to say goodbye to watching prime time television - since this is the ideal window of praying together as a family.
3. Pray the Holy Rosary always at the same place at the exact same time. Devotions become strong - even invincible - by constant custom and habit.
4. Pray the Rosary in a special room and set up a little altar with a Bible on it, candles, a statue or image, holy water, or a relic.
5. Dim the lights and the candles when you begin. If you let the little ones light the candles - they will love it. Kids love fire. Make this a "special time" different from other times. We even burn incense on our domestic altar on feast days. (You can do this easily by placing a little metal screen over a votive candle and then by placing a few grains of incense on the screen. It's fast and easy. This way you don't have use charcoal.)
6. Maybe begin with a hymn or Bible reading to slow things down and set the tone.
7. The father sets the example. I recommend that the father kneel for the whole Rosary. This communicates importance and solemnity to the Rosary. Children attach importance to what dad does, e.g. mowing lawn, going to work, driving the "dad car," etc.
8. Make it a rule that which ever child prays all the responses and volunteers to lead a mystery (10 beads) gets to stay up 10 minutes more than everyone that night - at our house this means you get to watch baseball or have a book read to you. This may be the most important tip. Kids under 7 or 8 need this sort of incentive. If you tell a 6 year old, pray the Rosary so that you receive grace and sanctity - they don't get it. If you say, pray the Rosary so that you can stay up and read a book with me - they'll hit their knees and become like angels.
9. The one who gets to stay up also gets to blow out the candle at the end. This gives another incentive to pray the prayers - especially for the younger ones. For some reason, blowing out the candle is a really big deal to younger children. You'd be amazed how a four year old will try to stay still if he can only place a grain of incense on a flame or blow out a candle. Again, kids love fire.
10. End with invoking everyone's patron saint (your children's names, confirmation names, and other patrons). E.g. "Saint Thomas: pray for us. Saint Jude: pray for us. Saint Anne: pray for us." Always finish with St Joseph and then Holy Mary Mother of God. Then say "Sacred Heart of Jesus: have mercy on us," three times. If you're shooting for the plenary indulgence, make sure to pray an Our Father and Hail Mary for the Pope.
11. If family Rosary is new, start with one decade for a week. Then go to three for a week. Then go to five decades on the third week.

If you do this, then you'll be producing saints for the future. If you're an older reader and your children are grown up - please pray for all the younger parents so that they can persevere in this. It's not easy at first - and we newer parents need all the help we can get!

ad Jesum per Mariam,
Taylor

* The other usual conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence (full remission of temporal punishment - the kind remitted in purgatory) is to receive Holy Communion on that day, receive the sacrament of Penance within "about 20 days," prayer for the Pope, and full detachment from all sins.

The Bible against Contraception

I recently watched a comment discussion unfold on my FaceBook page about abortion. I posted a video about Margaret Sanger and, well, things took off from there.
I read back over the comments and I think that maybe one of the pro-choice writers may have had an abortion. She was "all over the place" in her comments. They were barely coherent. Her husband's were also very erratic and without logic.
I get the feeling that they understand that an abortion takes the life of another human being. It seems to me that they are still trying to rationalize it.
Please pray for these two people and all who are so misguided and under Satan's strong influence.

The whole incident has me delving into Scripture and trying to organize resources . . . . I found this wonderful reference list over @ Crucified Rabbi.


Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them!
He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:4-5)

Human fertility is a blessing

Gen 1:27-28 – be fruitful and multiply
Ex 23:25-26; Deut 7:13-14 – fertility declared a covenantal blessing
Ps 127:3-5 – children are a gift from God…blessed is a quiver full
Hos 9:10-17 – Israel punished with childlessness
1 Tim 2:11-15 – women saved through childbearing
Lev 21:20 – crushed testicles called defect/blemish
Deut 23:1 – castrated men banned from OT worship

Withholding self and seed is unnatural and sinful

Gen 38:9-10 – Onan killed by God for spilling his semen on the ground
Acts 5:1-11 – Ananias/Saphira slain for withholding part of their gift

The OT punishes sterile sex with death

Lev 20:13 – death sentence for man with man (sterile sex)
Lev 20:15 – death sentence for man with animal (sterile sex)
Lev 20:16 – death sentence for woman with animals (sterile sex)

Artificial means of contraception condemned

Gal 5:20; Rev 9:2; Rev 21:8
These three passages condemn “sorcery”. However, the Greek word used is pharmakeia, a word denoting pharmaceutical contraceptives and abortificants.

Inventor of Birth Controll Pill Condemns It

Sourced below . . . Please note that bolding is my emphasis.
Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe." 

In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tonnes of hormones" that had impaired male fertility, The Taiwan Times says.
The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction." He said: "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete."

He described families who had decided against reproduction as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it.

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse, but given less attention, than obesity. Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an "intelligent immigration policy." 


The head of Austria's Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the west.

"Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi ... is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we're far away from that," he said.
Schonborn told Austrian TV that when he first read Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a "cold shower." But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved "prophetic."

Writing for the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Jose Maria Simon, said research from his association also showed the pill "worked in many cases with a genuinely ... abortive effect."

Angelo Bonelli, of the Italian Green party, said it was the first he had heard of a link between the pill and environmental pollution. The worst of poisons were to be found in the water supply.
"It strikes me as idiosyncratic to be worried about this," he said.

Catholic News Agency details the claims by the president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Dr Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, who outlined a series of scientific arguments said to confirm the prophetic nature of Pope Paul VI's encyclical on artificial contraception.
In an article published by the L'Osservatore Romano, the Spanish doctor pointed to the Federation's recent document commemorating the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, which "irrefutably shows that the most widely used anti-ovulatory pill in the industrialised world, the one made with low doses of estrogen and progesterone, in many cases works with an anti-implantation effect; that is, abortifacient [effect], because it expels a small human embryo."

Castellvi also pointed out that "this anti-implantation effect is acknowledged in scientific literature, which shamelessly speaks of an embryo loss rate. Curiously, however, this information does not reach the public at large."

He also pointed to the "devastating ecological effects of the tons of hormones discarded into the environment each year. We have sufficient data to state that one of the causes of masculine infertility in the West is the environmental contamination caused by the products of the 'pill'." Castellvi noted as well that the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported in 2005 that the pill has carcinogenic effects. 

After explaining that the "natural methods of regulating fertility are the ones that are effective and that respect the nature of the person," Castellvi stated that "in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man we can say that the contraceptive methods violate at least five important rights: the right to life, the right to health, the right to education, the right to information (its dissemination occurs to the detriment of information about natural methods) and the right of equality between the sexes (responsibility for contraceptive use almost always falls to the woman)."

SOURCES 
Catholic News   January 2009 
Catholic Church renews its attack on contraceptive pill (Taipei Times)
Medical Association points out prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae (Catholic News Agency)
Taylor Marshall - Canterbury Tales

Did the Twelve Apostles Keep Lent?

A wonderful post by Taylor Marshall over @ Canterbury Tales.

Pope Saint Leo the Great (d. 461) maintained that the forty days of Lent were instituted by the Apostles:

"ut apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur."
(Patrologia Latina 54, 633)

"That the Apostolic institution of forty days might be fulfilled by fasting."

St. Jerome (d. 420) and the church historian Socrates (d. 433) also assumed the apostolic institution of the forty days of fasting before the celebration of Christ's resurrection.
However, the apostolic institution of "forty days" is difficult to maintain when we examine Eusebius' Church History (5, 24) in which he preserves an epistle of St. Irenaeus to Pope St. Victor (reigned from A.D. 189 to 199) in connection with the Paschal (Easter) controversy of the second century. Not only was there confusion about the date of the Christian Pascha (either Nisan 14 or Sunday thereafter), but Christians also debated as to whether the preceding fast should be for one day, two days, or forty hours. It seems that neither the Roman Christians nor the Eastern Christians knew of a "forty day" fast before Pascha.

Nevertheless, by the fourth century, the "forty days" of fasting prior to Pascha seem to be universally observed. St. Athanasius' Paschal letter for A.D. 331 reports that all the Christian of Alexandria, Egypt keep a "forty day" fast prior to Pascha/Easter. In his Paschal letter for A.D. 339, he mentions how the "forty day" fast prior to Pascha/Easter is universally kept by all the Churches: "to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing-stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days."

The fifth canon of the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 also confirms that "forty days" are kept as days of penance prior to Pascha.

My Conclusion:
My opinion is this. The Apostle instituted a strict fast to be kept for "the day on which the bridegroom was taken away" (Lk 5:35) - the day that we call Good Friday. The "forty hour" tradition mentioned by Irenaeus likely refers to the estimated time that Christ was in the tomb (3pm Friday till sometime before light on Sunday). Consequently, the apostolic fast began on what we call Good Friday and ended on Easter.

Hence, second century Christians believed that there was a special fast immediately before the commemoration of Christ's Resurrection, but the forty day tradition probably developed later. However, I think it is safe to say that a pre-Easter fast is of "apostolic institution," since it is already universally assumed by the 180s.

 ππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ

Note: In a previous post, Marshall looked at the biblical significance of Lent as it relates to the number "forty" as a penitential sign of fasting and prayer (see: Lent: Why Forty Days?).