Richard Chonak – Page 17

Vassula aids Christian unity, but not in the way she expected

The Patriarch of Constantinople issued a statement yesterday warning the clergy and faithful about phony mystic Vassula Ryden, a member of the Greek Orthodox Church — at least until he repudiated her. With her channeled messages, delivered through the occult method of “automatic writing”, she has attracted a following of Catholics and Orthodox who like saccharine spiritual talk.
Here’s a translation of the Patriarch’s statement:

In this spirit, and for the beneficial protection of our pious Orthodox plenitude from dangerous spiritual confusion, who do not know well matters underlying the risk of delusion, rejects from the Mother Church Vasiliki Paraskevis Pentaki – Ryden, widely known as “Vassula”, and her organization founded under the title “True Life In God” which rashly and frivolously proposes teachings based on the supposed “direct dialogue between her and the Founder of the Church Jesus Christ our Lord”, and those conquered by her and the supporters of “True Life In God”, which deviate arbitrarily from the God-given teaching of the Church, but also scandalize the Orthodox phronema of pious believers.

I know, you’re all asking “what’s a phronema?” It sounds like the Orthodox version of sensus fidei, more or less.
And here’s the 1995 statement from the CDF:

Among other things, ambiguous language is used in speaking of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, to the point of confusing the specific names and functions of the Divine Persons. These alleged revelations predict an imminent period when the Antichrist will prevail in the Church. In millenarian style, it is prophesied that God is going to make a final glorious intervention which will initiate on earth, even before Christ’s definitive coming, an era of peace and universal prosperity. Furthermore, the proximate arrival is foretold of a Church which would be a kind of pan-Christian community, contrary to Catholic doctrine.

So it’s good to see that Mrs. Ryden has fostered Christian unity: she has brought the Holy See and the Patriarch of Constantinople together to condemn her heresies!
(HT: Diane K. at Te Deum Laudamus; Rorate Caeli blog)

Akita remains a disputed case

There’s been some talk about the alleged apparition at Akita, Japan, in the wake of the sad earthquake and related disasters in that country. Donal Foley has written a short article to point out that Akita remains a case of a controverted apparition: while the bishop approved it, the bishops conference examined it at his request and refused approval.

Beautiful video of Eastern church life

This video by the Slovak group “Peter Milenky Band” features the Jesus Prayer and scenes from the Byzantine-rite Church:

What I heard in church Sunday

Our music director gave the choir a week off, so I went to another church this week.
It didn’t get off to a good start, ’cause when I arrived, their choir was practicing a song in which they were congratulating us all about our “diversity” and wanting to “sing a new church into being.” So from diversitie, they went on to heresie.
To my relief, I saw on the hymn board that they were going to sing it as a recessional ditty, and that would solve the problem. I wouldn’t have to be under the same roof with them while they were singing it; I could just leave quickly after the dismissal, in case God were to drop the Big One on them.
Anyway, I like the pastor there: he preached well, and he talked about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Mass was not completely as usual, because he performed a baptism for an infant, and the steps in that rite were interpolated into the Mass at various points.
At one point, he spoke about the duties of the parents and godparents: that little Sean Joseph needed to “learn the difference between good and evil and how to choose evil and avoid good, and someone is going to have to teach him to choose evil and avoid good.”
Huh? So maybe they were singing a new church into being after all? Nah.
I don’t know if anybody else noticed his verbal flub. I couldn’t help chuckling and making a “swap those two things” gesture. For whatever reason, he paused, and then went on with his explanations, and didn’t have any more glitches.
A friend who used to direct music at that church told me later: don’t worry, they’ll probably never sing that song again: the pastor detests it.
Like I said, I think he’s a good guy.

A light unto the nations: Pope Benedict’s homily for the Presentation

This evening I translated the Holy Father’s homily for the Feast of the Presentation after Fr. Mark posted the original Italian text over at Vultus Christi. Here it is:
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
Vatican Basilica
Tuesday, February 2, 2011
Dear brothers and sisters!
The meeting of the two Testaments
In today’s Feast we contemplate the Lord Jesus, whom Mary and Joseph present at the temple “to offer him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22). In this gospel scene the mystery of the Virgin’s Son, consecrated by the Father, having come into the world to faithfully accomplish His will (cf. Heb. 10:5-7), is revealed. Simeon points him out as a “light to enlighten the nations” (Lk 2:32) and announces with a prophetic word his supreme offering to God and his final victory (cf. Lk 2:32-35). It is the meeting of the two Testaments, Old and New. Jesus enters into the old Temple, He who is the new Temple of God: he comes to visit his people, bringing obedience to the Law to fulfillment and inaugurating the last days of salvation.

The light that comes to enlighten the world
It is interesting to observe closely this entrance of the Child Jesus into the solemnity of the temple, into a great hustle and bustle of so many people occupied by their duties: the priests and Levites with their turns at service, the many faithful and pilgrims desiring to meet the holy God of Israel. But none of them realizes a thing. Jesus is a child like every other, the first-born son of two very simple parents. Even the priests prove unable of grasping the signs of the new and particular presence of the Messiah and Savior. Only two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, discover the great news. Led by the Holy Spirit, they find in
this child the fulfillment of their long waiting and watching. Both contemplate the light of God, who comes to enlighten the world, and their prophetic gaze opens into the future, as an announcement of the Messiah: Lumen ad revelationem gentium! (Lk 2:32). In the prophetic attitude of the two venerable elders, the entire Old Covenant expresses the joy of meeting the Redeemer. In the face of the Child, Simeon and Anna grasp intuitively that He is the long-awaited One.
(Continue reading at Vultus Christi.)