My father showed me some stuff which links the muslim faith, catholicism, and the masonic brotherhood; I found this to be extremely disconcerting, especially considering im planning on beginning with RCIA in the immediate future. Here’s the link in question:
babylonmysteryreligion.com/The%20Islam%20Connection.htm
What really bothered me was the symbolism in the monstrance; somebody please set me straight.
I had a quick look at it (as a former Protestant myself). It’s a load of rubbish. The centre of the Catholic Church is Christ, and no other. I remember one protestant friend of mine who, when I told him I’d gone Catholic, blurted, “How you gonna feel when you have to bow down before a statue, huh?” Well, I can inform him with 100% accuracy I haven’t bowed down before a statue yet.
I have no idea of where the sun and moon symbols came from, but if you look at Revelation 12 for example (which is in the
Bible), there is a description of a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet. I think many Catholics would accept this refers to Mary, especially since she’s been appearing with disconcerting regularity in heavenly apparitions, particularly over the last couple of centuries, and in 1917 at Fatima the two miracles there
both involved the sun.
If you take a good look at the window in the New Orleans church, it seems to me the image above the moon and sun is that of a stylised woman. And in the end, all it is is ART, not idolatory. Who cares what’s in the window? It’s just part of the decor.
The Moslem dress for women is merely traditional Arab desert dress given religious overtones, and turned into a religious icon. The head to foot covering kept out the sun and the sand, and the vortex effect of their black clothing actually induced air to circulate around their bodies, thus cooling them.
But the reason nuns wear overall covering dress is to reduce temptation, not reveal their bodies, and signify they belong to Christ, not the world. As far as that goes, religious orders even in Buddhism tend to wear long, flowing robes. And they cover their head in line with Paul’s injunction about a woman covering her head.
The wafer the Pope is using is simply a bigger version of the small wafer that we all take as part of communion, The wafers are used for the simple reason they’re convenient. If you’ve got a Cathedral of 1000 people to give bread too, long lasting wafers of
unleavened bread are a far more convenient method that the usual protestant method of cutting up
leavened bread.
And he dips the wafer into a cup, not a half moon, just as Christ did.
As for the “all seeing eye”, it’s a symbol that’s been around for donkey’s years, and it’s simply a result of anthropromorhism. So what if the Freemasons or Moslems lifted it from other sources? It probably predates both of them, and is symbol meant to mean God’s omniscience ie. He sees everything. In the ART in the church, it simply means we are in God’s presence and nothing is hidden.
For an article on anthropromorphism, read the following -
newadvent.org/cathen/01558c.htm
The thing that really annoys me about these sorts of stupid concoctions is how they create such misrepresentation on such false bases.
Since becoming Catholic, I’ve come to realise just how stupid and downright ignorant many Protestants are about the Catholic Church. A lot of them tell a lot of lies about it, frankly. And lying is a sin. It gets on my goat.
Oh dear! Silly! I don’t know if those were real nuns, but, did you notice how they were smiling?