Prophecy

Prophecy: Prophecy refers primarily to the knowledge of future events, although it can also refer to any knowledge given by God to an individual that would otherwise be hidden.

Revelation

Revelation: Revelation is the transmission by God to man of truth about God and about His intention for mankind. The culmination of all of Revelation is the very person of Jesus Christ.

The life and times of Peter Abelard

Prior to this semester, I had never heard of the guy. But his story is, well, memorable, to say the least.

Peter Abelard was an 11th century philosopher in Paris, was a proponent of a Conceptualist philosophy, and wrote his most famous work Sic et Non (Yes & No).

While he's known for the above, what he is most famous for is his legendary love affair with his student Heloise...

The following snippet from Wikipedia tells you all you need to know:

Becoming tutor to the girl, he used his power for the purpose of seduction, and she returned his devotion. Their relations interfered with his public work, and were not kept a secret by Abélard himself. Soon everyone knew except the trusting Fulbert [Heloise's uncle]. Once her uncle found out, the lovers were separated, only to meet in secret. Héloïse became pregnant, and was carried off by Abélard to Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. To appease her furious uncle, Abélard proposed a secret marriage, in order not to mar his prospects of advancement in the church; but Héloïse opposed the idea. She appealed to him not to sacrifice for her the independence of his life, but reluctantly gave in to pressure. The secret of the marriage was not kept by Fulbert; and when Héloïse boldly denied it, life was made so difficult for her that she sought refuge in the convent of Argenteuil at Abélard's bidding. Immediately Fulbert, believing that her husband, who had helped her run away, wanted to be rid of her, plotted revenge. He and some others broke into Abélard's chamber by night, and castrated him. The priesthood and ecclesiastical office were, thereby, canonically closed to him. Héloïse, not yet twenty, consummated her work of self-sacrifice at Abélard's jealous bidding that she never again share romantic love with a man, and became a nun.

High drama in the 11th century!!!

Sensus Fidei

Sensus Fidei: Sensus Fidei is a Latin term meaning “the sense of the faith,” which refers to the universal consent of the members of the entire Church on the understanding of matters of faith, even on doctrines which may not have been formally defined by the Church.

Soteriology

Soteriology: Soteriology is the study of the doctrine of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wouldn't be right to let the day go by without some mention of the great saint.

While you're enjoying a nice pint of Guinness in celebration, why don't you go check out this nice article about him...

Or, spend a moment in prayer, with the words attributed to him:

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today
God's Power to guide me,
God's Might to uphold me,
God's Wisdom to teach me,
God's Eye to watch over me,
God's Ear to hear me,
God's Word to give me speech,
God's Hand to guide me,
God's Way to lie before me,
God's Shield to shelter me,
God's Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the poop [deck],
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

Scavi

I've been to Rome twice now, and although I've heard of the legendary "Scavi Tour" I've never had the opportunity to go on it. For those who've never heard of it, the Scavi Tour is a tour of the excavations that were done in the 1930's underneath St. Peter's Basilica. St. Peter's was built upon the same spot as the previous basilica, which had been built by the emperor Constantine on the location of a Christian burial grounds right over the spot where pilgrims had been venerating what was believed to be the very grave of St. Peter himself, who tradition tells us was martyred by way of an upside-down crucifixion. Hence the archaeological significance of the place, and the desire to excavate and see what was really under there.

Amy Welborn has a nice synopsis of the tour, which she recently experienced.

From her recollection comes this little tidbit which illustrates the very reason why the next time I travel to Rome I will not miss out on this opportunity again...!

And at the end of the tour, you can see, at a safe distance, and from a certain angle - the edge of the trophy, the corner of Constantine's altar and other structure, and then, turning a corner, some clear plastic boxes which contain human remains - the bones that were found - every part of a human being except the feet, giving credence to the legend that Peter's body was removed from his cross in haste, only by cutting off the feet, and in turn lending credence to the strong possibility that this was, indeed Peter.

Update: Amy posted a clarification on St. Peter's bones. It doesn't change the fact that I still want to go...!

Tradition

Tradition: Tradition refers to both the content of the faith as handed down throughout history via the Magisterium as well as the mode in which that transmission has taken place. It furthermore is often used in a specific sense to indicate the portion of Church teaching which is not directly derived from Sacred Scripture.

Type

Type: A type, in Scripture, is an item, event, or person that, due to its similarity to something at a later point and time in the Biblical narrative, provides a hint at the truth which is revealed more fully at that later time.

Transcendence

Transcendence: Transcendence refers generically to the nature of something surpassing the nature of another thing, and more specifically to the unlimited perfection of God’s nature, which surpasses that of all created things.

Glossary

We received a rather interesting assignment for our Fundamental Theology class. Since we're learning a whole new vocabulary, and since many of us will be working in and for the Church, it would be helpful to have a good definition of many of the terms that might be unfamiliar to the average person in the pew. In particular it would be helpful to have a handy definition that doesn't involve terminology that is too technical. We want to help bring people closer to Christ, not confuse them.

So, our assignment was to, as we were doing all of our class reading, note any terms that were either unfamiliar to us or were familiar, but seemed to have a specific meaning when used in a theological setting. Once we had accumulated at least 30 words, we were to assemble a little glossary. I picked out 35. Many of them were familiar to me, but in many cases I didn't have a good definition on the tip of my tongue so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get one.

Now that I've completed my glossary, I'd like to share some of them with you over the next few days. (Keep in mind I haven't gotten a grade on this assignment yet, so I may have them all wrong.) Perhaps you're really smart and already know all the words. But, perhaps you'll learn something new...!

Here's the first word:
Canon:


No, not that kind of cannon... Let's try this again:

Canon: A canon is an approved list which is established to provide authentic guidance. It is used most frequently to identify the collection of books designated by the Church to legitimately constitute the Old and New Testaments.

39 days....

Since I last posted to this blog.

Oh dear.

Let's just say that I've got a lot going on at the moment (don't worry, I'm still getting all my homework done), and it happens to be a time when God is sending some trials into my life. For now, I'm at peace with that. But of course I'll take any and all prayers I can get!!!