Gloria Olivae
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This blog by Gloria Olivae promotes the messages of Pope Benedict XVI and seeks to draw upon small monastic Benedictine communities.
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The Liturgy.
The Liturgy had been teaching how man must progress from being a slave of original sin and, recently, teaching how one must be perfect to deserve everlasting life in heaven.
God made man, Adam and Eve, almost perfect. And they could have remained perfect if they passed their test in the garden of Eden. But they failed by disobeying God. This disobedience had been called original sin which all man inherited. This state is the lowest sinful state man can be.
The Liturgy had been describing how man ca ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The image of Christ.
Since Ash Wednesday last year, through Ash Wednesday this year and proceeding towards Wednesday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time, the Liturgy of the Mass, for a second time around, had been describing the totality of the true Church of Christ by describing a typical school of the Lord's service as having the following; a good curriculum, consisting in the Plan of Salvation. A good teacher in Jesus Christ, the apostles and the Fathers and doctors of the Church. A good classroom in the Church and a good pupil in humble souls.
  ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The Liturgy.
After teaching the life of repentance, Faith and Charity, from Ash Wednesday up to Ascension, the Ordinary Sundays begun to teach the three steps of evangelization, i.e. on how apostles are supposed to save souls referred to as the Apostolic Commission by Christ. The steps are, first, to go and teach all nations. Secondly, to baptise them. Thirdly, to teach them all the commands of Christ and how to observe them.
These three steps may be described in a more specific way as to teach all nations how to reason well in the natura ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The Apostolic Commission.
In today's Gospel, Christ instructed His apostles how to save souls through an Act of mature Faith. Christ's instruction was in three parts and St. Thomas of Aquinas noted that these three parts must be explained well and be followed in the right order.
First, 'to go and teach all nations.'
Second, 'to baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. '
Third, 'to teach them all My commands and how to observe them.'
2. For the ap ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The Liturgy
The Liturgy of Ascension had been describing the Catholic Church that Christ had just established; what was the plan of salvation it would be accomplishing, who would be its teachers, where would its classroom be and what kind of pupils it will have. The Sunday and weekdays had been describing who would be its teachers, Jesus Christ first and foremost and the apostles as His successors.
The Liturgy today emphasised its teacher again, Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest. As High Priest of the Catholic Church, Chris ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The Church.
During the Ascension, Jesus had completed the image of the Catholic Church that He had just established. That was the job He was sent by the Father to do. The Liturgy described how that Church looks like, its teachings, its teachers, its classrooms, its pupils.
Tuesday and Wednesday shows with the commemoration of St. Gregory VII, St. Bede and St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi how the Church look like years after its establishment.
St. Gregory VII, the Pope, shows how a Pope shou ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. St. Thomas described pure human love as the love of concupiscence, i.e when one loves another person for the pleasure or benefit he can get from the other. This is the worldly kind of love one hears in love songs and see in movies. It is the only kind of love the human race seems to know.
This worldly kind of love is actually hate of God in which case a man really hates everybody and the whole world, St. Augustine wrote. Christ, Himself, prophesied that a day will come when there will be a decay of Faith and the waxing cold of Charity, that there will ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. Ascension. Christ's work is done.
Before He ascended to His Father, Jesus saw to it that his work on earth is done. His work was to establish His Church on earth for the salvation of mankind. Thus the Liturgy is now showing how that Church looks like.
The true Church of Christ can be recognised in many ways; through the 4 visible signs found in the Nicene Creed. Through the 15 Marks of the true Church by St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, which is an expanded version of the four visible marks from the Creed.  ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. The image of the Catholic Faith in the Catholic Church.
The conclusion of the Gospel, just before the Ascension when Christ would now return to the Father having established the Church here on earth. The Gospel gives an image of the Catholic Church.
Christ mission of establishing the Church is over. He will now return to His Father in heaven. And whatever else He wants to give the Church will be given by the Holy Spirit in union with Christ and the Father.
The Blessed Trinity will now be in the Church with C ..read more
Gloria Olivae
3y ago
1. God had been testing mankind
So that man can find out if he has Faith. God knows. Man does not know. So the Liturgy informs man what is Faith and what are the signs that he has it or he doesn't have it.
God's tests are always a test of Faith. God tested the angels, Adam and Eve, all the human race up to Pope Francis and the last man on earth and it always shows that man continuously have no Faith. He keeps on failing the test of Faith and as a result, is continuously committing more sins.
2. Christ even showed how these days ..read more