tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post171811574049747490..comments2024-01-29T06:25:17.244-05:00Comments on philorthodox: On the Latin Cultus of the Sacred HeartThe Most Reverend Chandler Holder Jones, SSChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06597996290993316169noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-83939950004265825732009-06-19T20:07:00.841-04:002009-06-19T20:07:00.841-04:00O God, who in the Heart of thy Son, wounded by our...O God, who in the Heart of thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost mercifully vouchsafe to bestow upon us the boundless treasure of thy love; Grant, we beseech thee, that we who now render Him the service of our devotion and piety, may likewise fulfil the duty of worthy satisfaction; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.<br /><br />Collect for the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. Dignified with a First Evensong and the lifting of the regular Friday Abstinence - Red Letter status.Br. Dominic-Michaelhttp://www.xanga.com/ContemplataTraderenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-8984850894752061262009-06-19T08:11:00.256-04:002009-06-19T08:11:00.256-04:00Today, Friday 19 June, is the Solemnity of the Sac...Today, Friday 19 June, is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the beginning of the "Year for Priests" decreed by Pope Benedict XVI for the renewal of the interior lives of priests in the service of the Church's mission of preaching the Gospel. It seems a fitting way to observe today's feast by praying the Preface for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus from the Roman Missal. Please note the Scriptural and sacramental dimensions of this Preface:<br /><br />Lifted high on the Cross, Christ gave his life for us, so much did He love us. From His wounded side flowed blood and water, the fountain of sacramental life in the Church. To His open heart the Savior invites all men, to draw water in joy from the springs of salvation.Jay Scott Newmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983835520470686424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-7007208977945378482009-06-18T17:30:43.237-04:002009-06-18T17:30:43.237-04:00Thank you all for the excellent comments and the c...Thank you all for the excellent comments and the charitable and energetic way in which all have expressed themselves. Please know that by offering particular Eastern perspectives here I am condemning neither the Christology of the Roman Catholic Church nor devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord - for from it! I have merely given another point of view, a critique orientated towards the patristic mind and the conciliar tradition of the Ecumenical Councils. Personally I can accept devotion to the Sacred Heart as a beneficial and helpful form of prayer for those so inclined to use it, but an adiaphoron not binding dogmatically or liturgically. <br /><br />The average faithful Catholic Christian who uses this devotion is certainly not guilty of Nestorianism or dividing the Person of Our Lord. However, I believe it is salutary and needful to examine more modern devotions in the light of the universal scriptural and liturgical paradosis, and so I have attempted to do here. There is the continual need to re-examine our devotional practices through the lens of the Great Tradition.<br /><br />I do in fact wholeheartedly love and approve the Corpus Christi devotion as a legitimate expression and development of the faith of the Undivided Church in the Real Objective Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, a development whose origins are to be found in the Eucharistic liturgy and piety of the Western Church long before the thirteenth century. Indeed, devotion to the Eucharistic Lord should be adoration, latria, divine worship given to the total Person of Jesus Christ, God and Man, the Incarnate Lord, Who is fully and completely present under the sacred species. <br /><br />Thank you again and God bless you!The Most Reverend Chandler Holder Jones, SSChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06597996290993316169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-43725449652150584372009-06-18T00:29:19.938-04:002009-06-18T00:29:19.938-04:00I guess I agree with the comments. I add that I t...I guess I agree with the comments. I add that I think there is some ambiguity on the word "devotion". We offer devotion to God alone, and in this way the positive statements of the article are correct: we worship the whole Jesus, not a "part" of him. But "devotion" has another meaning. Catholics can use it to mean practical ways people develop their devotion to and love of God. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is more similar to Orthodox molebens or akathists. And the Protestants can use the word in yet another sense:"particular prayers" like perhaps reading the Bible as a family after supper, without denying the teachings of Ephesus. <br /><br />ps the maligned Jesuits promoted the Devotion to the Sacred Heart as a way of promoting love of God in a time of increasing anti-Christian rationalism. Their primary devotion is that of St Ignatius, to find God in all things. In neither case did they promote any division in Christ.Joenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-56229302520022096262009-06-17T17:34:33.440-04:002009-06-17T17:34:33.440-04:00The charge of Nestorianism against the Roman Churc...The charge of Nestorianism against the Roman Church on the part of these authors is laughable. As an Orthodox Christian I must point out that these voices are not representative of the Orthodox tradition as a whole. Look, for instance, at the writings of St Nicholas Cabasilas on the Heart of Jesus (surely he's an author of far more authority and significance in the Byzantine tradition than these late, polemical voices!).<br /><br />I find it strange that the Orthodox – of all Christians – would have such a huge problem with the Sacred Heart, when the notion of the heart has such a pivotal significance in Orthodox spirituality. The heart in this spirituality is so much more than a mere body part – it's the spiritual center of the human being, or, using more technical language, the place where the "nous" resides.<br /><br />According to Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou) (in the spiritual lineage of St Silouan of Athos), "The heart is the true ‘temple’ of man’s meeting with the Lord. Man’s search ’seeketh knowledge’ both intellectual and divine, and knows no rest until the Lord of glory comes and abides therein. On His part God, Who is ‘jealous God’, will not settle for a mere portion of the heart. In the Old Testament we hear His voice crying out, ‘My son, give Me thy heart’, and in the New Testament He commands: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.’ He is the one who has fashioned the heart of every man in a unique and unrepeatable way, though no heart can contain Him fully because ‘God is greater than our heart’. Nevertheless, when man succeeds in turning his whole heart to God, then God begets it by the incorruptible seed of His word, seals it with His wondrous Name and makes it shine with His perpetual and charismatic presence. He makes it a temple of His Divinity, a temple not made by hands, able to reflect His ’shape’ and to hearken unto His ‘voice’ and ‘bear’ His Name. In a word, man then fulfils the purpose of his life, the reason for his coming into the transient existence of this world."<br /><br />Is it so strange to think that the Heart of the God-man himself may have something to do with the hearts of deified Christian men and women? "Quod non assumpsit, non sanavit."<br /><br />One might also point out that many of the same Orthodox critics of the Sacred Heart (Guettee, for instance) oppose the feast of Corpus Christi with the same strange accusation of Latin Nestorianism. I wonder if this blog (which I admire and follow enthusiastically) would oppose that feast as well?D. Benedict Andersen OSBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14666112025416568912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-63819592482138397152009-06-17T17:19:16.421-04:002009-06-17T17:19:16.421-04:00... also the orthodox(mis)information website has ...... also the orthodox(mis)information website has always been on the fringes of canonical Orthodoxy and is certainly not mainstream. Neither is Fr. Michael Pomazansky. These authors are fanatically anti-ecumenical and it is precisely that which makes them operate on the fringes ... <br /><br />I myself - being an Orthodox priest - have no problem whatsoever with the "Sacred Heart" tradition.<br /><br />Fr. GregoryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-82489290520609104592009-06-17T05:54:10.487-04:002009-06-17T05:54:10.487-04:00Mr. Preslar is correct, and we can take it a step ...Mr. Preslar is correct, and we can take it a step further:<br /><br />Dedicating a church to the mystery of Christ's Incarnation does not dispute or abandon believe in the mystery of His Resurrection, and vice versa. The Church of the Epiphany and the Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament can be in the same city without introducing division in the Body of Christ. In the same way, having a devotion to the Sacred Heart does not imply, let alone require, neglecting the whole Christ.Jay Scott Newmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983835520470686424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-2695262850092757332009-06-16T21:01:04.653-04:002009-06-16T21:01:04.653-04:00Referring to Russian Orthodox commentators on Cath...Referring to Russian Orthodox commentators on Catholic traditions is a bit like asking a Steelers fan to evaluate the customs of Cleveland.... Such is not the path towards understanding.<br /><br />In any case, the analysis here is entirely prosaic, and misses, dare I say, the heart of the matter, which is mystical and emotive.<br /><br />As for the attempts to pin some kind of heresy on the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ:<br /><br /><em>The apologists argued they worshipped the Heart for the sake of its union with the Godhead. What they forgot is that Nestorius himself, when cornered at the Council of Ephesus, also claimed he 'adored what was visible for the sake of that which was hidden.'</em><br /><br />This criticism involves an equivocation. For the Catholic apologists refer to "union with the Godhead" which does not mean the same thing as "for the sake of that which was hidden."<br /><br /><em>The historian Father Rene Francois Guettee remarks that by singling out for worship not only Christ's human body as opposed to His whole Person, but the heart as opposed to the rest of His body, an error even worse than that of Nestorius has been devised.</em><br /><br />This criticism involves a false dichotomy. We do not worship the Sacred Heart "as opposed to the rest of His body." Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is not opposed to devotion to the whole Jesus--it flows from such devotion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22424136.post-77598685998204598872009-06-16T14:14:37.291-04:002009-06-16T14:14:37.291-04:00Thanks for this thoughtful post. I am entirely sym...Thanks for this thoughtful post. I am entirely sympathetic to the project of being a “ressourcement and patristically-minded” Christian, and I believe that the Second Vatican Council clearly and firmly steered the whole Western Church in that direction. In that spirit, some random thoughts:<br /><br />1. After the Council of Trent, Catholicism on the ground became more and more catechetical and devotional, rather than Scriptural and liturgical. This happened for many reasons (the treatment of which is beyond my purpose here), but it is worth noting that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus arose in this period of catechetical and devotional Catholicism.<br /><br />2. Devotion to Our Lady under various titles was present in the Church even in the first millennium. So “Our Lady of Walsingham” was the same Mother of God revered in Rome as “Salus Populi Romani” at Santa Maria Maggiore. This custom of invoking the same person under different titles surely, and almost inevitably, led to the same custom about Our Lord.<br /><br />3. One of the most popular devotion of post-Tridentine Catholicism was the “Immaculate Heart of Mary.” When that devotion is seen in the light of the point above, a similar devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ can be seen more easily as the product of popular religion. And notwithstanding the criticisms offered by our Eastern brethren, devotion of the Heart of Christ as the human symbol of the Love Who is God is surely no more a threat to correct doctrine than is the bizarre distinctions in the Godhead introduced by the concept of the energies of God....another concept not found in the first millennium.Jay Scott Newmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983835520470686424noreply@blogger.com