Category: The Mystical Body

The Mystical Body of Christ – How does one become part of the Church?

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The Mystical Body of Christ – the Church

A lot of questions, contentions and assertions, often contradictory, have arisen lately about the matter of who is, or is not, part of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Some have been correct. However, by far, the larger part of the contentions and assertions have all been either just partially correct or flat-out wrong. Some have been fueled by inadequate knowledge; others have been fueled by partisan denominational agendas. Misunderstandings and misrepresentations abound. Let us look, therefore, at who and what constitutes the Church.

The Church is made up of three parts: the (1) Church Triumphant, which consists of all those persons who are now in Heaven, enjoying the Divine Family in a direct manner. The (2) Church Suffering, which consists of all those souls who are still being purified in Purgatory, but who have now attained the assurance of reaching Heaven once their purification has ended. And (3) the Church Militant, the visible Church that consists of all those people on earth who are part of the Body of Christ.

How does one become part of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church?

Entrance into the Body of Christ is through baptism of which there are three kinds: (1) the baptism of water, (2) the baptism of blood, and (3) the baptism of desire. Any person who receives any one of the above kinds of baptism is Christian, hence part of the Mystical Body of Christ (Paul VI, 1964. Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church). This is the official teaching of the universal Church, the fullness of which resides in the Catholic Church.  Continue reading “The Mystical Body of Christ – How does one become part of the Church?” →

For the people and the Church – 2

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“I have seen all this with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and understood. Whatever you know, I know too; I am no way inferior to you. But my words are intended for Shaddai; I mean to remonstrate with God. As for you, you are only charlatans, physicians in your own estimation. I wish someone would teach you to be quiet – the only wisdom that becomes you! Kindly listen to my accusation, pay attention to the pleading of my lips.

“Will you plead God’s defence with prevarication, his case in terms that ring false? Will you be partial in his favour, and act as his advocates? For you to meet his scrutiny, would this be well? Can he be duped as men are duped? Harsh rebuke you would receive from him for your covert partiality. Does his majesty not affright you, dread of him not fall on you? Your old maxims are proverbs of ash, your retorts, retorts of clay” (Job 13:1-12).

 

For the people – 2

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“Denounce your mother, denounce her, for she is not my wife nor am I her husband. Let her rid her face of her whoring, and her breasts of her adultery, or else I will strip her naked, expose her as on the day she was born; I will make a wilderness of her, turn her into an arid land, and leave her to die of thirst. I will not love her children, since they are the children of whoring.  Continue reading “For the people – 2” →

For the Church – 2 – The rebuilding

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“No more, for the House of Israel, shall any of the hostile nations surrounding her be a thorn that wounds or a briar that tears; and so men will learn that I am the Lord Yahweh.

“The Lord Yahweh says this: ‘When I gather the House of Israel from the peoples among whom it is dispersed, this is how I am going to display My holiness in the sight of the nations. They shall live on the soil that I gave to my servant Jacob. They shall live there in confidence, build houses, plant vineyards; they shall live in confidence. When I inflict punishments on all the hostile surrounding nations, then men will learn that I am Yahweh their God'” (Ez 28:24-26).

For the Church

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“Take courage, my people, constant reminder of Israel. You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies, since you had angered your creator by offering sacrifices to demons, not to God. You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you, for when Continue reading “For the Church” →

In the desert – For the universal Church

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“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her, a thousand two hundred sixty days” (Rv 12:6).

In the desert, just like the Children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt, we are stripped of everything that attaches us to our present world. But, in the desert, there is joy, love and happiness for there is God. 

After the Great Chastisement – 4

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“In that day shall the growth of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written unto life in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged th Continue reading “After the Great Chastisement – 4” →

The signs of the times – 23 – What is coming – 1

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“As soon as the devil found himself thrown down to the earth, he sprang in pursuit of the woman, the mother of the male child, but she was given a huge pair of eagle’s wings to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a year, and twice a year and half a year. So the serpent vomited water from his mouth, like a river, after the woman, to sweep her away Continue reading “The signs of the times – 23 – What is coming – 1” →