The reminder I can agree with. If it’s necessary to do so in order to constantly be reminded of your Baptism, Salvation, etc then I have no qualms. That however would not make the actual dipping of fingers necessary because we can be reminded without doing so.
No…they were not wrong, and Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ never said so. What he said was that they washed the outside and left the inside corrupt with sin. They remained unconverted. That’s what He meant.
It’s a devotion and an acknowledgement of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, so what’s wrong with that?
The most basic Christian gesture in prayer is and always will be the sign of the cross. It is a way of confessing Christ crucified with one's very body ... To seal oneself with the sign of the cross is a visible and public Yes to him who suffered for us; to him who in the body has made God's love visible, even to the utmost; to the God who reigns not by destruction but by the humility of suffering and love, which is stronger than all the power of the world and wiser than all the calculating intelligence of men. The sign of the cross is a confession of faith: I believe in him who suffered for me and rose again; in him who has transformed the sign of shame into a sign of hope and of the love of God that is present with us. The confession of faith is a confession of hope: I believe in him who in his weakness is the Almighty; in him who can and will save me even in apparent absence and impotence. By signing ourselves with the cross, we place ourselves under the protection of the cross, hold it in front of us like a shield that will guard us in all the distress of daily life and give us the courage to go on. We accept it as a signpost that we follow ... The cross shows us the road of life — the imitation of Christ. . .Whenever we make the sign of the cross, we accept our Baptism anew; Christ from the cross draws us, so to speak, to himself. . .We make the sign of the cross on ourselves and thus enter the power of the blessing of Jesus Christ. We make the sign over people to whom we wish a blessing ... Through the cross, we can become sources of blessing for one another.
- **Pope Benedict XVI**Remember how Jesus healed the man born blind:
While not about Holy Water specifically, I think it’s helpful to understand various sacramentals and how they all work together. As it says in the first link:
Christ did not complain about the ritual washing - especially those parts that were encoded in the Mosaic law. What He condemned the Pharisees for was that their hearts remained full of corruption, even after the ceremonial washing. As well, please remember that Christ condemned only the man-made Pharisaic “traditions of men” which ran counter to the Mosaic law - traditions which made the word of God void.
The baptismal water is blessed before baptisms take place. That cannot be a waste of time, can it? As has been said, we recall our baptism, and our sinful nature when we bless ourselves - for it is through water and the Spirit that we are reborn. It is via that rebirth in water and the Spirit that we entered the Church, and so we do this upon entering the Sanctuary each time. As well, we are coming into the presence of Greatness - Jesus Christ in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. There is nothing greater on this earth than that. Finally, this gesture is a public sign of our faith.
I think we are gaining a blessing, yes, that we might not get otherwise. Correct.
I don’t do it, and I also enjoy questioning what I don’t understand. And yes, we Evangelicals scratch our heads sometimes over these things.No…they were not wrong, and Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ never said so. What he said was that they washed the outside and left the inside corrupt with sin. They remained unconverted. That’s what He meant.It’s a devotion and an acknowledgement of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, so what’s wrong with that?
To be fair I don’t think this is true, nor do I believe most Catholics do in the way you say the Pharisees were right in their washing. The Disciples were not taking part in such rituals and that’s what upset the Pharisees. Although Jesus made a point that it’s what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man, He also made a point that they’re wasting their time on such rituals.
Church Militant;11535147:
Thanks Modern Revert…you formed the words that I was trying to form.
So aside from the confusion about the Holy Water did you enjoy the Mass? Sometimes it is exciting to see things done in a different way or in a different setting.
Haha, it’s hard to say. I’ll reply to everyone when I get the chance because I’m having Christmas dinner. (yes we do it on boxing day)So aside from the confusion about the Holy Water did you enjoy the Mass? Sometimes it is exciting to see things done in a different way or in a different setting.
I beg to differ, since he never condemned their rituals, just that the men themselves had not been converted and lived their faith. You can’t supply a single passage that supports your thinking on that, while mine is self evident from reading the context.
No…again, Our Blessed Lord never said that they were wasting their time, but that they never had the metanoia that comes with a conversion of heart. You can read those passages all day and see that this is the case, but you won’t find your assertions there.
Then you need to pay careful attention to what we explain and stop reading the Bible through the lenses of your evangelicalism and fundamentalism. Neither of which is correct interpretation of the things you have asserted.
So true–all of it–but especially wrt the ‘altar’ part–they often have a table up front which they refer to as an altar, yet the thing that makes a table an altar, is what it is used for–sacrifice. With no sacrifice offered on it, a table is just a table, no matter where it is located, or what it is called.
400-something years ago, Luther and Calvin split permanently over an intractable dispute concerning whether the Eucharist was Christ’s true presence, or if it was a sacrifice. Luther fell on the side of Christ’s presence - denying the sacrifice, while Calvin denied Christ’s presence but affirmed that it was a sacrifice. Yet, lacking in either aspect, it is not the Eucharist at all. J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son, summarized the 16th century rebellion as essentially an assault on the Eucharist. In retrospect, we see that to be true.