Wanted to Share: Finally Learning to LOVE my Home!

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Antonius_Lupus

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Dear brothers and sisters, đź‘‹

I am very excited as I feel as though Our Lord spoke to me last night about a very important issue for me. I wanted to share what I believe the Lord wanted me to hear.

My journey home was not an easy one. While I was baptized into the Catholic Church as an infant (PTL!) I never was taught my faith. Instead I was raised in the Evangelical heresy, and further was radicalized by anti-Catholic viewpoints, getting to point where I firmly believed that the Catholic Church was an apostate church that had forsaken the Gospel.

When the Lord, in His mercy and grace, opened my eyes to see His Bride in all Her splendor; I was overjoyed. There was no concept of “rites” or “particular churches”. The Church was the Church, and I was not a “Roman Catholic” I was a Catholic.

As I grew, I became aware that the Church is not monolithic. There are 23 self-governing Churches that make up the Catholic communion. This intriguiged me and I quickly became enthralled by the Byzantine Catholic Church. I loved (and still do love) their traditions and ways of expressing the one true faith.

However, unfortunately, I became so infatuated with Constantinople and Antioch that I forgot the beauty of my own home: Rome. I fell into disillusion with regard to the Novus Ordo and I became conviced by the schismatic arguments of “traditionalist” Catholics. I felt as though the Roman rite had lost her beauty and prestige. She had lost the experience, it all its liturgical beauty, of God in the Mass.

I struggled with this alot. I simply could not bring myself to love my own rite. The Catholic Church taught at the Holy and Sacred Ecumenical Council of Vatican II that all Catholics must cherish and love their own respective rites. My own Deacon told me that Rome was my home, and I knew in my heart that God made me a Latin Catholic for a reason. If it was His will, He could have made me a Byzantine, but He put me where I am. It was in the Roman rite that I was Baptized, Confirmed, and received my First Holy Communion. It was in the Roman rite where I first encountered the Lord Jesus in the sacrament of confession. It was home, in more ways than one.

So I continued to struggle with it…until God spoke to me last night.

In the months up to last night, God allowed me to see through the false arguments of schismatics like SSPX and others concerning the Novus Ordo. A out-of-town priest offered up the Novus Ordo Missae for our Pentecost Vigil. I was SHOCKED. :eek: I had never seen the Novus Ordo offered up with such beauty, reverence, and devotion to the Lord Jesus. The Novus Ordo that day rivaled the Divine Liturgy of Byzantium. :highprayer:

I began to realize that the Novus Ordo was never meant to destroy or strip away the beauty of the Mass. It, like all liturgical revisions, sought to make the Mass expressible to the faithful without compromising the sense of the sacred.

I now testify to all, that when the Novus Ordo is done with, as we say in the East, fear of God and love; the Mass becomes what it is meant to be: Heaven on Earth. :heaven:

I also read a book by a Greek Orthodox convert to Catholicism that throughouly refuted the arguments of the SSPX and others. It showed that not only was the Novus Ordo valid, it (as I said) when done with reverence, mirrored to original liturgies of the EarlyChurch. Roman liturgies are intrinsically simple. The extravagance of the Tridentine Mass was not indigenously Roman, but rather due to Eastern influences (i.e. Gallican rite).

So now, it became clear, that not only was the Novus Ordo beautiful and glorious; it was also lovable.

TO BE CONTINUED…
 
More immediate to God’s reaching out to me last night involved something that happened on CARM. While I was debating the use of the term “Papist” or “Romanist”, a Catholic there (Prep Girl) asked me why I was not proud of the terms. I couldn’t think of a substantial answer.

I had always hated the term “Roman Catholicism” or “Roman Catholic.” I hated it because I felt that it left out the catholicity of the Church, but now I see there is great wisdom in the terms (and why Jesus’ Church was often called the Roman Church). I learned, by God’s Grace, why one should be proud of being a Roman Catholic.

On a historical level, one should proud to be a Roman Catholic because of Holy Orthodoxy. What sparked this historical discovery was a quote from one of the great Eastern saints: Maximus the Confessor, who called himself a Greek in language but a Roman in faith.

Why would an Eastern Christian called himself Roman in faith? Because in the Early Church, time and again, history shows us that Rome was the touchstone of Orthodoxy. As Jesus promised, Rome NEVER officially taught heresy. St. Maximus knew that the founders of the Eastern heresies all had intellect, logic, mystical intuition, and biblical scholarship to back up their erroneous teaching. All appealed to tradition. Only an authoritative interpretation of the faith could finally overrule them. The Eastern churches lacked that authoritative final word. In every case, Eastern bishops appealed to the pope to supply that word, and, exercising his universal jurisdiction, he did, exactly as Christ had intended. (See Matt. 16:13-19, Lk. 22:31–32, Jn. 21:15–17.)

In Patristic writings, Rome is PRAISED and honored. This honor is also not mere lip-service, but it is respected as a real and substantial authority. Rome presided in love over all the Churches, and these same appealed to Her for an authentic teaching of the True Faith, which Rome always supplied.

Thus, from a historical viewpoint, being a Roman Catholic is not something to be ashamed of. Rather it is an affirmation of Orthodoxy. When you call yourself a Catholic Christian of the Patriarchate of Rome you are saying that you are Orthodox, because all knew that Rome was orthodox.

Time and again, the Church Fathers particularly those fighting heresies, always noted that to be in communion with Rome was the safe-guard of Orthodoxy.

Don’t get me wrong. There is MUCH to praised and cherished about the Eastern Churches of the Catholic Communion. But Rome has a special place because She is in the Primacy as Kepha was in the primacy. Thus one can be, as St. Maximus was, Greek (or Syriac, Armenian, Indian, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc.) in language and practice, but ROMAN in faith, i.e. an orthodox Christian.

Based on the historical evidence, I am now proud to call myself a “Roman” Catholic. Because I know how the Fathers understood this, and how the EarlyChurch interpreted this.

My rite, my home, is the Patriarchate of Rome. No rite is “better” than another, as all are Catholic and faithful to the teachings of Christ and His Apostles. However I, personally, can take pride in what makes MY rite special, just as a Byzantine can take pride in what makes his rite special.

My rite is the See of St. Peter. My rite was and is the touchstone of Orthodoxy. My rite has a beautiful Novus Ordo Missae and proud lay traditions and practices passed down through the centuries. My rite has a deep theological system encompassing all methodologies of speculation and dogmatic definition……….But above all, if one is in communion with my rite, than one can be SURE that one is in full communion with the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church that Jesus founded.

As a teenager, much of my life right now revolves around finding out “who I am.”

So, who am I?

I am a Catholic Christian, born-again in Christ Jesus. I am a son of the Eternal Father and I am forever sealed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I give my assent of faith to the teaching of the 21 Ecumenical Councils of Jesus’ Church, and to the bishops who are in communion with the See that “presides in charity.” I choose because of my heritage and my past to express the ONE Catholic Faith according to the Roman tradition. HOWEVER, the Faith I believe and profess and the sacraments that I partake in transcend “Roman”, “Byzantine”, or “Syriac” traditions.

It is the Faith and the sacraments of God’s Divine Revelation to man, and of His Holy Bride who He is coming to take home someday.

Thanks be to God. He has opened my eyes and my heart to truly LOVE my home and my rite. And while I will always cherish and love and honor the other rites of Jesus’ Church, I know now that there is truly no place like home. Amen. :signofcross:

I could say much more about this, but that’s is all I have time for in the OP, LOL.

Peace be with us all!

-Antonius Ioannes
 
Antonius,
all I can say is, PRAISE GOD and Welcome home!

:clapping:

In Christ
Jim
 
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