Did Mary Have Labor Pains

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Fr. Z posted a review of the new Nativity Movie on his blog, and some people posted comments complaining about the movie and the fact that it depicts the Theotokos experiencing labor pains during birth. Now, I had never really given this much thought before but I got thinking about it. In response to the comments, Fr. Z posted a follow up with a quote from the Council of Trent:

“To Eve it was said: In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. Mary was exempt from this law, for preserving her virginal integrity inviolate she brought forth Jesus the Son of God without experiencing, as we have already said, any sense of pain” (Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests, Trans., John A. McHugh, O.P., Charles J. Callan, O.P., South Bend, Ind., Marian Publications, 1972, p. 4).

Okay, so I looked furthur. In the Protoevangelion of James there is this line:

“And the midwife went along with him and stood in the cave. Then a bright cloud overshadowed the cave, and the midwife said, This day my soul is magnified, for my eyes have seen surprising things, and salvation is brought forth to Israel. But suddenly the cloud became a great light in the cave, so that their eyes could not bear it. But the light gradually decreased, until the infant appeared, and nursed at the breast of his mother Mary. Then the midwife cried out and said, How glorious a day in this, wherein my eyes have seen this extraordinary sight! And the midwife went out from the cave, and Salome met her. And the midwife said to her, Salome, Salome, I will tell you a most surprising thing which I saw, A virgin has brought forth, which is a thing contrary to nature.”

So there is no mention of labor pains here either. In fact the verse is quite explicet with the light and then a child appears. So it would seem that this would be true?
Why all the hub bub about all of this. I find questions like this very interesting and like to write about them. Will it change the faith at all, I don’t think so but it is interesting none the less. Be kind if you comment.

Nativity

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Fr. Z has posted a review of the movie. He saw the Vatican premier. It opens around here on December 1st. I hope to see it soon. I will post my review after.
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Benedict and Bartholomew

Posted on by Fr. Peter
On Tuesday, Pope Benedict will travel to Turkey to visit with Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople. My good friend Huw has a prayer on his blog for the visit. I think we all should adopt this prayer for this week as the visit continues.

Here is a link to the prayer.

30th Sunday After Pentecost

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Colossians 3:12-16
Luke 18:18-27

In today’s gospel passage we see Jesus once again taking a swipe at rich people. The rich young man comes and asks Jesus what he has to do to get into Heaven. First Jesus rebukes him for calling him good. “No one is good but One, that is, God.” is Jesus reply to this question. Next he asks what he needs to do. Jesus lists off the commandments that he must obey. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. Okay seems simple so far. Most of us would be able to do all of these things without any question. Then the whammy comes. Go sell all you have, give to the poor, come and follow me. Oh man not that! I can only imagine what this man must have thought. Ask me anything else and I will do it, but not that. I have too much stuff.
Okay, last week we were faced with the same thing. Does Jesus not like rich people? Maybe, but more important that that he is speaking in terms of sacrifice. Sacrifice is something that we need to do as Christians. How many of us sacrifice to be Christians? This week Pope Benedict will travel to Turkey to make an official visit to the Turkish government but also to Patriarch Bartholomew. Christians in Turkey are a minority and suffer each day for their faith. The patriarch himself is a captive in his own residence and can only move about with official permission. I would say that he suffers for his faith. Now I am not saying that we all need to move to Turkey and suffer along with our brothers and sisters there, no but we should sacrifice a little for our faith.
This time of advent is a time of preparation and time of sacrifice. In the Orthodox Church we fast during this time of the year as we do during great lent. Give something up these days as an offering to God. It does not matter what it is just do it.
In his writings about this verse, St. John Chrysostom teaches the following, Jesus loved the man, He named these conditions for his particular need. That is the key phrase here, his particular need. Jesus is not saying that we all need to sell all we have and give to the poor, but for this man that is what he needed to do. Pray that God will reveal what you must do to have eternal life. It will be different for all of us.
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Thanksgiving

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Today in the US is Thanksgiving Day. Let us pause this day to say thanks for all that we have and let us not forget those that will go without today.
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Liturgical Words

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Over on Fr. Z’s blog there has been an interesting conversation going on about two little Latin words that are used in the Liturgy of the Roman Church during the consecration. I first have to give a shout out to Fr. Z for having such a wonderful Blog. I have learned many things from his blog and he has a wonderful section on the Patristic sense of the Rosary prayers that it is just great.
The two words are “pro multis” and this has gone all the way to Rome to be fixed. It seems in the present form of the English version of the Roman Liturgy the words have been translated to mean “for all” The argument is this. With the present words “for all” it not only distorts the original Latin meaning of the phrase but there is also the theological implication that all men are saved regardless of the relationship that they have with Christ. Fr. Z makes the point, and I agree that the words “for many” more clearly state theologically what is going on. Fr. Z makes his point this way: “The more natural translation, ‘for many,’ more accurately suggests that while Christ’s redemptive suffering makes salvation available to all, it does not follow that all men are saved.” Okay sowhat’ss the big deal. Well I remember one professor I had in seminary that told us that the language of theology is veryprecisee and if we use the wrong words we can easily slip into heresy. Man I don’t want to that.
So this got me thinking about what words do we Orthodox use in the Divine Liturgy. You would think I would have these words memorized, but I wanted to check all the same. Now the words we arereferringg too hereoccure during the consecration of the cup and we say the following: “Drink this all of you! This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins!” So it would appear that we use the proper words. I have checked several English translations and they all say the same thing.
Now not being a language scholar I called upon Fr. Greg and asked him what it says in Greek. his response was the following. The literal translation from the Greek, the original language of the Liturgy, is “for the many” and in English we have dropped the article “the” and just use the words “for many”.
So why is all of this important. Like I said, we need to use veryprecisee language in theology other wise we can lead people down the wrong road. I mean if your giving direction and tell some one that you just turn down the street, and there are two ways to go, the person could and would get lost. Perhaps they would guess correctly and take the right turn, but why leave that to chance. The same is true with theology.
The Vatican has decried that all new translation of the Liturgy into English must make this change. So over the next few years these words will find themselves working their way back into the Liturgy. I am sure no one will notice, but I think we will be better off for it in the long run.
Just my two cents worth.
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Entrance of the Mother of God in the Temple

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Hebrews 9:1-7
Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28

Today we celebrate the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God in the Temple although not a biblical event it is one of the 12 major feast days of the Church. What are we celebrating in this feast? Fr. Thomas Hopko states in his book the Winter Pascha:

“Its purpose is not so much to commemorate an historical happening as to celebrate a dogmatic mystery of the Christian faith, namely, that every human being is made to be a living temple of God.” (p 16)

In the entrance into the temple she becomes the new spiritual temple of the indwelling of God that through her we all become in her Son and the Holy Spirit. It is through this that we all become the church. This is the beginning of all that is to come for us as Christians.

26th Sunday After Pentecost

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Ephesians 5:8-19
Luke 12:16-21

I believe that this is one of the most misunderstood gospel passages and I get to preach on it today. It speaks of storing up treasures and I think it is a gospel about faith, faith in God and not in your stuff. I also think that what Jesus is getting at here is not that stuff is bad but rather we should not love those things in life that will not last over the stuff that will like the love of God. Simple, yes, but difficult at the same time.
We all love our stuff. Last week people stood out in line for hours to get the new PS3 game thing, that I will admit I know nothing about. I still like the old pong game from my youth. However, here are these people with nothing better to do staying out in all weather just to buy a game. And the worst part of that is that at a Wal-Mart near the village a person was shot waiting in line. The other part of this is that these were not kids standing in line but adults! I would say that these folks love their stuff more and they love God.
An interesting question is do you love your stuff so much that you would be willing to give it all up? Several times in the Gospel Jesus tells us to go sell all we have and give it to the poor. Have we done that? I am sure most of us have not. I know I have not. There is something very comfortable about my stuff, the laptop I am using right now for example. But we must be willing to give it all up.
Another question would be, do we trust God for what we need? How many of us are willing to just say God will provide? I am not saying that we should just lie about and say God will provide, not it won’t work trust me I have tried. God gave us talent and we must use that talent, but He will provide. Faith is the theme here of today’s Gospel. Faith in God and not in man is what we are getting at.

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