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Thomistic Common Sense - The Philosophy of Being and the Development of Doctrine (2021)
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

Adoration of the Eucharist
Council of Trent

Christ present in the Most Blessed Sacrament must necessarily be worshiped with the cult of latria, that is, adoration, and not only internally but also with external signs.

This is a dogma of the Catholic faith defined at the Council of Trent. Christ is also present in the particles separated from the consecrated host (visible fragments), which the Council of Trent also dogmatically confirms, and therefore these particles too must be surrounded with the highest reverence.

Whoever rejects these truths of faith and sins mortally by voluntarily and consciously becoming indifferent toward the obligation to worship the Most Blessed Sacrament is excluded from the Church and separated from the faith of Christ. Most devastating of all is that it is no longer only lay Catholics who disregard Christ present in the Eucharist, but even the clergy, who in particular should take care to show due reverence to our Savior.

Elementary care for due reverence toward the Most Blessed Sacrament is no obsession or disorder, but an expression of true and consistent Catholic faith.

Dogmas of the Council of Trent: “Canon 3. If anyone denies that in the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist the whole Christ is contained under each form and in every separated part—let him be anathema.” “Canon 6. If anyone says that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ together with his soul and divinity are not to be adored, with the worship of latria, even externally...—let him be anathema.”

#eucharist

States of Christian Life and Vocation – According to the Doctors and Theologians of the Church (2022)
Ven. Jean-Baptiste Berthier, M.S.

Summary: A theological exploration of Christian life states and vocations, including marriage, celibacy, and religious orders, based on Church Doctors' teachings.

On the Dogmas of Faith

What is a Dogma of Faith?

A dogma in the Catholic sense is a truth revealed by God and, as such, proposed by the Church for belief. The proposal of a dogma for belief can take place either through a solemn definition of the Church or through its ordinary, everyday teaching.

Dogmas - Objective Truth

What dogmas express is an objective truth. Dogmas are not symbols of some undefined religious feelings, nor metaphors about God. Nor are they guidelines for virtuous conduct in life, but rather truths expressing an objective reality in God, though they do not exhaust everything that is in God.

Immutability of Dogmas

After the death of the Apostles, there have been and will be no further new, public revelations. Those truths that the Catholic Church transmits as revealed cannot undergo any essential change in content or meaning. By excluding heretics from its community, the Church testifies that it believes in the immutability of dogmas. The Church considers all definitions from past times to be inviolable and allows no one to change anything in them under pain of anathema (exclusion from the Church).

Faith - Acceptance of Dogmas

Dogmas are therefore immutable because they are an infallible transmission of the truth revealed by God. Faith, on the other hand, is the acceptance of all truths revealed by God. Therefore, all dogmas must be accepted with absolute certainty as truth, that is, they must be professed with theological faith (a divine virtue).

Heresy - Lack of Faith

Denying dogmas proposed by the Church for belief is called heresy. Since accepting all dogmas is the essence of faith, the conscious denial of dogmas is a sign of lack of faith, for one who denies God even in a single thing cannot have faith. Formal heresy is also a self-exclusion from the Church, which is why dogmas are so often defined in the form of the formula "let him be anathema."

Examples of Dogmas

From what has been said above, it follows that every article from the confessions of faith approved by the Church is a dogma. For the symbols of faith are the fundamental way in which the Church expresses the truths of faith that must be believed. Dogmas of faith also include all solemn papal definitions—so-called ex cathedra, such as the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary proclaimed by Pope Pius IX. Dogmas also include conciliar definitions of truths of faith, including so-called anathemas, that is, assertions given in a negative way—through the condemnation of the opposing heresy. An example of such a dogma is the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass defined at the Council of Trent. Furthermore, all truths that are not solemnly defined but are constantly transmitted for belief through the ordinary, universal teaching are also dogmas. An example of such a truth is the assertion that Mary was established by Christ as the Mother of all people.

Literature: 1. Fr. M. Sieniatycki, Outline of Catholic Dogmatics 2. I. Solano SJ, J.A. de Aldama SJ, Sacrae Theologiae Summa

#dogma

Natural Traces (Clues) of the Holy Trinity in the Created World.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery of faith, and thus reason is unable to prove the existence of the Trinity in a natural way, without Divine Revelation. One can only prove the existence of God and some of His attributes. However, there are certain clues in creation that can direct the mind toward the Trinity, and after Revelation, serve as confirmation that just as God left an image of His rationality and freedom in man and the angels, so too did He leave in creation a certain image of His trinity.

The matter of the trace of the Trinity is explained by the Common Doctor. Saint Thomas states that rational creatures represent an image of the Trinity by their nature. He recalls that the origins of the Divine Persons are based in acts of reason and will: the Son is begotten of the Father as an act of reason (knowledge), and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as an act of will (love). Thus, spiritual creatures, which possess reason and will, represent their Creator—the Holy Trinity—in an imagelike manner.

Moreover, some trace of the Trinity is also found in all other creatures, though it is less perfect, which is why we do not call this clue an image of the Trinity, but merely a trace. This trace consists in the fact that every creature is some independent substance possessing a form that defines its species (forms its concept), and can always be related to something else.

By virtue of being an independent substance, a creature represents a cause or principle—in this way it shows forth the person of the Father (Principium).

By virtue of having a form, it represents the concept (word) of the creator—in this way it shows forth the person of the Son (Word).

By virtue of being related to something else, it represents love, since a relation to something is always the effect of some act of will, and the highest act of will is love—in this way it shows forth the person of the Holy Spirit (Love).

Source: St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Volume I, Question 45, Article 7

#trinity

It can essentially be regarded as a continuation of Arian thought with regard to the person of the Holy Spirit, which is why the followers of Macedonianism were also called pneumatomachi (spirit-fighters). Macedonians, based on their erroneous doctrine, taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, but a creature. As a spiritual creature, He would be similar to angels but far more perfect than they. Thus, He possessed authority over them and had a leading role in God's mission. His special mission was to begin after Christ's Ascension. The doctrine of Macedonianism was first condemned at the Synod of Alexandria (362), presided over by St. Athanasius, then by Pope Damasus, and finally at the First Council of Constantinople (381).

Bibliography: 1. M. Sieniatycki, Outline of Catholic Dogmatics 2. L. Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma

Heresies Opposed to Doctrine of the Holy Trinity

The Mystery of the Holy Trinity surpasses human reason, meaning that its full and perfect understanding is impossible in this world. We must therefore rely on imperfect analogies, which exposes the Trinitarian dogma to numerous distortions. Despite the difficulties, however, we are able to express a proper, albeit limited, understanding of the Trinitarian dogma.

It is very important to avoid explanations that would distort our faith. We will therefore examine the most well-known heresies in this area.

Monarchianism

Monarchianism is a collection of various doctrines based on the heretical assumption that there is only one person in God. Modalism teaches that there is only one divine person. This person is called the Father at one time, and at another may be called the Son or the Holy Spirit, with the proviso, however, that God is called the Son only from the moment of the Incarnation. Thus, according to modalists, it was God the Father who was born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. He then suffered His passion for us, endured the death of the cross, and rose again on the third day. For this reason, modalists were called patripassians (patripassiani), and modalism is also referred to as patripassianism. Sabellianism is a later continuation of modalism. It accepts a certain difference between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, it does not recognize them as three different persons, but as one who has revealed Himself to humanity in three different ways. God revealing Himself as Creator is the Father, as Redeemer is the Son, and as Sanctifier is the Holy Spirit. According to Sabellianism, in these different actions, one and the same person is revealed—the God the Father. Monarchianist views were combated in the Church from the very beginning as unorthodox, and Sabellianism was condemned by Pope Callistus.

Adoptionism

An extension of Monarchianism is Adoptionism, also called dynamic Monarchianism. Adoptionists held that there is only one person in God. They differed from Monarchianists in the belief that Jesus Christ was merely a man endowed with divine power, and not the incarnate God. To fulfill His mission, He was adopted by God as the Son of God, which was to take place during His baptism in the Jordan. According to Adoptionism, the Lord Jesus was therefore not God, but as a pure creature was subject to God. The Word (Logos) that dwelt in Christ was not a divine person, but the wisdom of God—a divine attribute granted to Jesus. Adoptionism was quickly rejected by the Synod of Antioch (269) and then by Pope Victor.

Arianism

Arian doctrine caused considerable confusion in ancient Christianity. It is an error belonging to the category of Subordinationism, which differs from Monarchianist views in that it recognizes the existence of three different divine persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), but does not accept their consubstantiality, and thus teaches that there is subordination between them—subordination. According to Arians, only the Father is God in the strict sense, because only He is uncreated. According to this theory, the Son of God (Logos) does not exist eternally but was created by the Father as the highest creature, made before the creation of the world. In this way, the Son of God is a being intermediate between God and the rest of creation. The Father is the most perfect being, God in Himself, God by nature. Whereas the Word (Logos) is a created being and God by grace, subject to God the Father. Arians were divided into two branches. Eunomians (extreme Arians) held that the Son is entirely different from the person of the Father, while Semi-Arians accepted a certain similarity between the Father and the Son, with the proviso, however, that they are not consubstantial. Arianism was first condemned at the Synod of Alexandria (319) and then at the Council of Nicaea (325), where the famous Nicene Creed was proclaimed.

🔗Macedonianism

#trinity