Luman Fidei encyclical letter

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Paduard’s excellent comments on the most profound of subjects:​

"Further to my post above, and after reflecting upon the ever-present life of Christ in the Sacrifice of the Mass and the dual “realities” involved, combined with the connection of ‘hope’ with the distortion of ‘time-into-space’ etc., we could perhaps rightly examine the spiritual elements of our personal time-frame whilst we are prayerfully reflecting on the life/times/actions of our loved ones who have gone before us; and even on those who are already with us. Raising mention of a ‘personal time-frame’ would presumably involve a radical shift in our perception and understanding of the seemingly paradox of ‘time & space’ as raised in the encyclical. - And from that starting point - our prayer life in particular.

Thus, in my opinion the document is not only instructing us, but also asking that we take its words forward."
My response to Paduard—

First I need to present excerpts from another article (CNA April 2012) about the ongoing Bloodless Sacrifice outside of Time:

**The Eternal Sacrifice: Christ Whole and Entire
By Joe Tremblay **

*The work of our human hands, that is, ordinary bread and wine, through the consecration at the altar, becomes Christ whole and entire. His Eucharistic Sacrifice and Sacramental presence not only embodies the Last Supper and the Crucifixion; it also embodies his Incarnation, his Nativity, his Private Life at home, his Public Life, his Death, his Resurrection, his Ascension, his Second Coming and as he existed throughout all eternity. The Church tells that the totality of Christ is presented to the Father. And it is through this communion with Christ we become clothed with him and hidden in him, as St. Paul would put it. We do not stand alone nor are we “naked,” as it were. Rather, the Father, looking down from heaven, sees us in Christ. And if we are faithful to the Gift we receive and offer before the altar, we will begin to see ourselves as we really are in Christ.
And finally, if we are not yet conformed to Christ’s image as we ought, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and its fruit, the Holy Eucharist, will help to bring this conformity about. As ***Pope Leo XIII said, “For there is this difference between the food of the body and that of the soul, that whereas the former is changed into our substance, the latter changes us into its own; so that St. Augustine makes Christ Himself say: ‘You shall not change Me into yourself as you do the food of your body, but you shall be changed into Me.’” **

The Eternal Sacrifice of Altar, therefore, is at the very heart of who we are in time and who are to become in eternity. It is Christ whole and entire; he who is the pioneer and goal of our salvation. This is why St. Padre Pio said that it is better than the sun cease shining than for this world to be without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

(St Augustine’s quote bolded by me…Due to the length of the rest of my response about Time, Space, and Prayer, I will post again soon)

Prayerfully,
Norwich12
 
Thank you Paduard,

I’m glad you brought up the important subjects of prayer and family.

For 3 decades I have tried to say a small part of the Rosary each night – sometimes asking Mother Mary to intercede for specific serious requests: recovery from disease that afflicted a relative, friend, or my patients;
avoidance of a hurricane, world peace…

But usually the rhythmical prayer recitation is to establish a communication link to thank God or to think about my long-deceased parents.

Over those same decades I have been aware of *‘fortunate coincidences’ —of needing to speak to a specific person for advice and happening to see and talk with that person shortly after the need;
or a terrible occurrence avoided by taking a turn on the road or selecting another action; or simply finding something that I had lost.

That situation happened in our den last evening as it was getting dark.

My wife was sitting on the sofa across the room from me. She suddenly saw a small bug on the coffee table. I went over and hurriedly swatted at the bug but it fell to the floor.

I got down on my hands and knees to look and didn’t see it. Then I looked under the end of the long sofa and pulled out a small object.

View attachment 20554

It was an old wooden crucifix from an old broken Rosary. I had lost the tiny crucifix 2 weeks ago in a restaurant or car and had been looking for it.

It was as if the bug had led me to it!

That is a small example of a “coincidence” perhaps originating through intercessory prayer – but a sufficient reminder to me that events in life are not random.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen
 
Before approaching the subjects that Paduard brought up a week ago --Time and Space –
I need to list three extremely important events that involve physics in
terms of the extreme luminous energy in each:
  1. The Star of Bethlehem
  2. The Transfiguration
  3. The Resurrection
More to follow this weekend…
 
The Cosmology of the Magi

View attachment 20581

What was the Christmas Star? Was it a comet, a novae, a supernovae or a grouping of planets?
Astronomer, Fr Christopher Corbally, from the Vatican Observatory in Arizona, explores several theories.
So what grouping of planets in what constellation would have sufficient meaning to propel them onto their camels and start a long journey across the desert? (Note that the Magi could have set out before actually seeing the ‘conjunction’ of planets, as it is called, since they had sufficient expertise to predict that it would happen.) Here is where each modern astronomer, back to the time of Johannes Kepler, more or less agrees. It would have been a triple conjunction, involving the meeting three times of two planets (or a planet and a bright star) in a short period of time. There was a particularly strong show in 3 BC that started on 12 June with Venus very close to Saturn, followed by a spectacular pairing of Venus and Jupiter on 12 August in the constellation of Leo, which was associated with the Jews, and completed between September 3 BC and June 2 BC by Jupiter, the kingly planet, passing the bright star Regulus (yes, the king star) in Leo three times.
++++++++++
I hope that by now you have your own preferred theory. This is what I have found serious researchers into the Christmas Star to do, first carefully to select and then tenaciously to hold their pet theory. There is something about the Christmas Star that evokes passion in one. Presumably this passion was first felt by the Magi, and it sustained them through their long journey – and back home by a circuitous route. One’s preferred theory does not prove that astrology works or that the birth of Jesus was accompanied by astronomical phenomena. It does, I trust, help one realize that God uses our science and reasoning to draw us to himself. As we try to evoke the experience of those who first found the Babe of Bethlehem, may we too find the One who is the Light of the Universe, who comes to ‘shepherd my people’ into all Truth.

(Published in Faith Today Articles in 2007. Two paragraphs were selected. Italics are mine)

View attachment 20582
 
Pope Francis: “A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God.” Descartes argument for the existence of God? “Faith is born of an encounter with the living God” Oh, from the heart, not the head. I see…
 
Norwich12 said:
Before approaching the subjects that Paduard brought up a week ago --Time and Space –
I need to list three extremely important events that involve physics in
terms of the extreme luminous energy in each:
  1. The Star of Bethlehem
  2. The Transfiguration
  3. The Resurrection
More to follow this weekend…
Click to expand...
One minor point [obvious of course] - regarding Star of Bethlehem - and that is the Magi had “free will” whereas the planets do not.

Paduard.
 
Thank you Paduard.

GOD IS LIGHT

1 John 1:5
(Douay-Rheims Bible)

***And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness. ***

View attachment 20609
 
**TRANSFIGURATION – LIGHT **

(Excerpts from the New Advent Catholic Encylopedia)

*The Transfiguration of Christ is the culminating point of His public life, as His Baptism is its starting point, and His Ascension its end. Moreover, this glorious event has been related in detail by St. Matthew (17:1-6), St. Mark (9:1-8), and St. Luke (9:28-36), while St. Peter (2 Peter 1:16-18) and St. John (1:14), two of the privileged witnesses, make allusion to it.

About a week after His sojourn in Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them to a high mountain apart, where He was transfigured before their ravished eyes. St. Matthew and St. Mark express this phenomenon by the word metemorphothe, which the Vulgate renders transfiguratus est. The Synoptics explain the true meaning of the word by adding “his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow,” according to the Vulgate, or “as light,” according to the Greek text.

This dazzling brightness which emanated from His whole Body was produced by an interior shining of His Divinity. False Judaism had rejected the Messias, and now true Judaism, represented by Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets, recognized and adored Him, while for the second time God the Father proclaimed Him His only-begotten and well-loved Son. By this glorious manifestation the Divine Master, who had just foretold His Passion to the Apostles (Matthew 16:21), and who spoke with Moses and Elias of the trials which awaited Him at Jerusalem, strengthened the faith of his three friends and prepared them for the terrible struggle of which they were to be witnesses in Gethsemani, by giving them a foretaste of the glory and heavenly delights to which we attain by suffering.
*

View attachment 20612
 
The 3rd example of Jesus and Light-- IMO the most important uniting event of all branches of Christianity – The Resurrection.
Resurrection in Summa Theologica—St. Thomas Aquinas

I answer that, Christ manifested His Resurrection in two ways: namely, by testimony; and by proof or sign: and each manifestation was sufficient in its own class. For in order to manifest His Resurrection He made use of a double testimony, neither of which can be rebutted. The first of these was the angels’ testimony, who announced the Resurrection to the women, as is seen in all the Evangelists: the other was the testimony of the Scriptures, which He set before them to show the truth of the Resurrection, as is narrated in the last chapter of Luke.
Again, the proofs were sufficient for showing that the Resurrection was both true and glorious. That it was a true Resurrection He shows first on the part of the body; and this He shows in three respects; first of all, that it was a true and solid body, and not phantastic or rarefied, like the air. And He establishes this by offering His body to be handled; hence He says in the last chapter of Luke (39): “Handle and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me to have.” Secondly, He shows that it was a human body, by presenting His true features for them to behold. Thirdly, He shows that it was identically the same body which He had before, by showing them the scars of the wounds; hence, as we read in the last chapter of Luke (39) he said to them: “See My hands and feet, that it is I Myself.”
Secondly, He showed them the truth of His Resurrection on the part of His soul reunited with His body: and He showed this by the works of the threefold life. First of all, in the operations of the nutritive life, by eating and drinking with His disciples, as we read in the last chapter of Luke. Secondly, in the works of the sensitive life, by replying to His disciples’ questions, and by greeting them when they were in His presence, showing thereby that He both saw and heard; thirdly, in the works of the intellective life by their conversing with Him, and discoursing on the Scriptures. And, in order that nothing might be wanting to make the manifestation complete, He also showed that He had the Divine Nature, by working the miracle of the draught of fishes, and further by ascending into heaven while they were beholding Him: because, according to Jn. 3:13: “No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
He also showed His disciples the glory of His Resurrection by entering in among them when the doors were closed: as Gregory says (Hom. xxvi in Evang.): “Our Lord allowed them to handle His flesh which He had brought through closed doors, to show that His body was of the same nature but of different glory.” It likewise was part of the property of glory that “He vanished suddenly from their eyes,” as related in the last chapter of Luke; because thereby it was shown that it lay in His power to be seen or not seen; and this belongs to a glorified body, as stated above (Question [54], Article [1], ad 2, Article [2], ad 1).

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I find your extracts from the encyclopaedia and St.Thomas to be very informative Norwich 12. Congratulations for your diligence in hunting them out and posting them onto this thread. A fine exercise dwelling on and pointing to the spiritual aspects of this topic!

From an astronomical viewpoint [my thoughts only] Jesus had obviously entered into the heavenly domain and is Lord severally of both outside and inside the known physical universe. Compare the cosmos to an inflated balloon where what is inside cannot escape outside its membrane (speed of light) – irrespective of whether or not it grows larger or contracts smaller etc.

I hope to post further thoughts on this – i.e. to follow when time permits.

Regards,
Paduard
 
Thank you Paduard – a very interesting concept of a balloon surrounding the Universe, perhaps a boundary that separates us from a Spiritual Universe?

But different from the idea of Teilhard de Chardin about the noosphere:

*The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the Earth. As humanity organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. Teilhard argued the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point (or the Cosmic Christ, the second person of the Trinity). *

(from teilhard.com – Part I of the Noosphere).

Please proceed with your balloon image of a separation from below to above speed of light.
 
Norwich12 said:
Thank you Paduard – a very interesting concept of a balloon surrounding the Universe, perhaps a boundary that separates us from a Spiritual Universe?

But different from the idea of Teilhard de Chardin about the noosphere:

*The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the Earth. As humanity organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. Teilhard argued the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point (or the Cosmic Christ, the second person of the Trinity). *

(from teilhard.com – Part I of the Noosphere).

Please proceed with your balloon image of a separation from below to above speed of light.
Click to expand...
I read your quote Norwich 12 as pertaining or referencing ultimately to the Second Coming.

As for the balloon and speed of light; essentially whilst we are here below so to speak, we are trapped within it i.e. until we all proceed to the hereafter. Some say [indirectly or by inference that hell might be a place destined to be permanently entrapped - but that is another conjecture.]

Paduard
 
"The Resurrection of Jesus Christ" – the historical proof is described in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

Here is the last paragraph:

Briefly, therefore, the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by more than 500 eyewitnesses, whose experience, simplicity, and uprightness of life rendered them incapable of inventing such a fable, who lived at a time when any attempt to deceive could have been easily discovered, who had nothing in this life to gain, but everything to lose by their testimony, whose moral courage exhibited in their apostolic life can be explained only by their intimate conviction of the objective truth of their message. Again the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by the eloquent silence of the Synagogue which had done everything to prevent deception, which could have easily discovered deception, if there had been any, which opposed only sleeping witnesses to the testimony of the Apostles, which did not punish the alleged carelessness of the official guard, and which could not answer the testimony of the Apostles except by threatening them “that they speak no more in this name to any man” (Acts 4:17). Finally the thousands and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, who believed the testimony of the Apostles in spite of all the disadvantages following from such a belief, in short the origin of the Church, requires for its explanation the reality of Christ’s Resurrection, for the rise of the Church without the Resurrection would have been a greater miracle than the Resurrection itself.

The Resurrection is the holy and glorious and physically impossible event that unites all branches of Christianity.

View attachment 20729

the Light of the Resurrection
 
Norwich12 said:
"The Resurrection of Jesus Christ" – the historical proof is described in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

Here is the last paragraph:

Briefly, therefore, the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by more than 500 eyewitnesses, whose experience, simplicity, and uprightness of life rendered them incapable of inventing such a fable, who lived at a time when any attempt to deceive could have been easily discovered, who had nothing in this life to gain, but everything to lose by their testimony, whose moral courage exhibited in their apostolic life can be explained only by their intimate conviction of the objective truth of their message. Again the fact of Christ’s Resurrection is attested by the eloquent silence of the Synagogue which had done everything to prevent deception, which could have easily discovered deception, if there had been any, which opposed only sleeping witnesses to the testimony of the Apostles, which did not punish the alleged carelessness of the official guard, and which could not answer the testimony of the Apostles except by threatening them “that they speak no more in this name to any man” (Acts 4:17). Finally the thousands and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, who believed the testimony of the Apostles in spite of all the disadvantages following from such a belief, in short the origin of the Church, requires for its explanation the reality of Christ’s Resurrection, for the rise of the Church without the Resurrection would have been a greater miracle than the Resurrection itself.

The Resurrection is the holy and glorious and physically impossible event that unites all branches of Christianity.

View attachment 20729

the Light of the Resurrection
Click to expand...
Norwich 12.

In response to your last contribution (for which we must thank you) - and in line with my science route - there are other examples of the Light of Christ.

The most obvious being His Ascension into Heaven which clearly demonstrates that He was the Lord of Gravity.

Another being the Transfiguration showing clearly that He was the Lord of Time.

We have obviously many other examples in the Life of Christ on earth – walking on water – ordering the elements to be calm whilst in a storm accompanied by the apostles - His control over ‘matter’ at the feeding of the 5000. And so one could go on……

God Bless
Paduard
 
Thank you Paduard. Jesus is definitely the Lord of Medical Science. Not only His many miracles of healing, but also the objective evidence of Himself that resulted from the extremely bright light of the Resurrection. The Shroud of Turin is like a photograph (front and back of His body) plus the first example in the world of an X-ray.

I visited Dr, and Mrs. Alan Whanger in their home in Durham three decades ago. He showed me is his polarized light photography that revealed the ancient coins on the shut eyes of Jesus as shown on the Shroud.

Here are two paragraphs from a publication at Duke University about the Whangers and their unique research:

"Several findings of the Whangers show the origin of the Shroud images to be from Israel in the spring of AD 30. Evidence for this includes the images of large numbers of flowers banked around the body. The Whangers have identified 28 species, 20 of which grow in Jerusalem and the other 8 within 12 miles of Jerusalem, with a common blooming time of March and April. The pollens of 25 of these have been independently identified by Dr. Max Frei, a Swiss criminalist and botanist, as being present on the Shroud from sticky tape samples that he took in 1973 and 1978. Visible over each eye are detailed images of two different lepton coins (widows mites) of Pontius Pilate, each dated AD 29. Some statues in the Middle East are based on the Shroud face image, the earliest dated AD 31.

Examination of a three dimensional enhancement of the face reveals the underlying skeletal structures, including the eye sockets, nasal bones, sinuses, and about 20 teeth, showing that the Shroud image is in part an autoradiograph."

View attachment 20780
 
Thank you Paduard.

In the Duke article about Dr. Whanger and his research on the Shroud, I did not see a face picture. The one posted above by me was from a Shroud website and is not 3-D. But it is a black and white negative.
Even so, you and see shadows on both cheeks corresponding to the maxillary sinuses underneath.

If you search on YouTube using the keywords “whanger 3D shroud”
a very informative short video will come up that explains his correlations.
 
Norwich12 said:
Thank you Paduard.

In the Duke article about Dr. Whanger and his research on the Shroud, I did not see a face picture. The one posted above by me was from a Shroud website and is not 3-D. But it is a black and white negative.
Even so, you and see shadows on both cheeks corresponding to the maxillary sinuses underneath.

If you search on YouTube using the keywords “whanger 3D shroud”
a very informative short video will come up that explains his correlations.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that link Norwich 12. Regret haven’t had time to look into it yet.

In the meantime am trying to imagine how the science of inner space may help to provide some meaning to the retention and release of energy relating to such images over long periods of time.

God Bless
Paduard
 
Thank you Paduard – Why the Shroud has lasted almost 2000 years and how the images were imprinted are explained in part by Mark Antonacci in his book RESURRECTION OF THE SHROUD published in 2000. I read it about a dozen years ago.

IMO it is the best book on the complex subject of the science of the Turin Shroud. I found an article about Antonacci’s theories. I have copied a couple paragraphs from the article:

Shroud a ‘radiation photo’ of resurrection?

by Jerome R. Corsi in WorldNetDaily published September 9, 2010

Scientists are building the case that the image of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin was created by radiation that emanated from the body itself, a theory remarkably supportive of the traditional resurrection account that is central to Christian theology.
A scientific paper co-authored by attorney and historian Mark Antonacci and physicist Arthur Lind argues that the image of the crucified man in Shroud of Turin might constitute what amounts to a photograph taken at the instant Jesus’ body transformed as he rose from the dead.
Among the 29 features are the following:

*Lack of fading of the image;
Uniform coloring around each fiber of linen;
All fibers collectively colored with the same intensity;
Oxidation and dehydration of fibers;
Stability of the body image to water and heating;
Insolubility of the body image to acids, redox and solvents;
Equal intensity of the body image for frontal and dorsal views;
Negative images of the body with left/right and light/dark reversals that develop into highly resolved, photographic quality images;
Three-dimensionality encoded through the space between the body and the cloth.

“All of these features can be accounted for by radiation, and only radiation will account for them all,” the authors conclude*
 
***“All of these features can be accounted for by radiation, and only radiation will account for them all,” the authors conclude ***

This last sentance you provided above Norwich 12, seems to provide an adequate conclusion using science as a tool so to speak. Getting closer to fundamentals methinks.

Paduard
 
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