Portsmouth Roman Catholic

 Heretical groups, that is a Church where the people decided not to follow original teaching but introduced errors, were frequent in the early Church.    They would still call themselves Christian however, and those who remained faithful to the  teaching of the apostles, if they visited a town and asked for the Christian Church, they were often directed to these groups.  Heresies were usually confined to a particular area in the early days, and the faithful Christians could well have been unaware of these local groups.    So they decided to look for the 'Catholic' Church, those who were still in teaching and liturgy faithful to the main body of the universal Church under the leadership of Rome.    The heresies were condemned by the bishops still in communion with Rome at Councils of the Church.   Without this structure it would have been difficult indeed for the truths taught by Christ to survive, or even the Christian Church to sur...

 The Vyne, an estate in Basingstoke which Henry VIII used to visit, has just changed one of its Stained Glass Windows in the Chapel.     Henry VIII is not longer kneeling to an unknows saint but to Our Lady of Basingstoke.   It was very confusing when this saint was there for it was well known that Henry would have been kneeling to the Virgin Mary in pre-reformation days. But it is not just a statue he is kneeling before, the stained glass window is the picture of a Shrine.   Underneath an arch there is an altar, and on the altar is a pillar, and at the top of the pillar is Our Lady sitting on a Saxon throne.    I need no longer search for Virgo Immaculata, for they are one and the same. The Vyne is in Basingstoke and there can be no doubt that the Stained Glass Window is a representation of the Shrine that once stood in Basingstoke. The pictures on my PC are fuzzy, and I cannot see details very well.   But the picture is there...

 It is very difficult sometimes to keep faithful to the Teachings of Jesus.     Especially when the Church is under attack as it is this moment in Poland,  where EU sanctions are to be put in place if the country does not adopt a gay agenda.    If I agree with Poland I am labelled a fascist bigot, and perhaps like many Catholics in Poland I would rather that the Government just allowed the gays their marches and their pride.    And of course within the Catholic Church there are those who feel more comfortable in this role and would prefer His teachings on adultery and marriage to disappear.   The trouble is that if you disagree with the gay life style it means you hate gays, and this will be the only argument thrown at you.   So perhaps you should say nothing.  I would certainly be happy just to answer "Sex according to Jesus Christ, whom I follow, is against the law of God Whom I follow.    Jesus taught tha...

 Having abandoned temporarily the project I had been involved in concerning the Mother of God, which I will not name  for fear of Google picking it up, I was surprised when I went into my search engine and found a headline telling me why I was the only one digging.    The firm were happy that they had taken the stained glass windows and done a wonderful job of cleaning and restoring them and there was no stain glassed window of the kind I had mentioned, and as they asked 'Why was I the only one who was digging?    Now I knew very well that they never worked on that stained glass window.    It is certainly true that the windows were thrown into the river well after the Reformation, but I also knew that the stained glass window I referred to, was not one of them. It was all about the Reformation period, it was at this time that the image of Our Lady was removed from the Chapel and that of St Bidolph put in its place.   Lord Sandys had comm...

 I have just read about 'A Thousand Voices', a Survey which took place in the Diocese at the beginning of 2021.   I wonder how many people like myself never heard about it at the time, and this could well have been why there was a very small response.   But credit to the Bishop for trying to get to know his people and what they thought.   The answers were what is called 'all over the place', and you could not detect whether answers were objective or just 'self opinion', that is someone just giving a reason from the top of their head for not attending Church.     In the light of the coming parish participations in the Synod this greatly worries me.   We have already had one diocese jumping the gun and well known people standing up to state their views on the Church, but how did the Bishop quantify how many opinions of the speakers are shared by his Catholic people, or indeed how man actually oppose the speakers and their views?...

 At the Protestant Reformation took the writings that the Catholic Church had put forward at the Council of Carthage in 419AD as the Word of God and declared they were the only guide to the Christian Faith (Sola Scriptura).   The Catholic Church argued that this was not enough, and that we needed the witness of the Christians over the centuries to ensure that the Truth had been passed down to us today.   This was called Tradition. I have in my blog over the past year written on Tradition.   I have written and quoted the Early Fathers on what they believed about the celebrating the Mass and how they described the consecrated host as the Flesh of Jesus, and condemned those who would not receive communion because they did not believe the consecrated host was changed.    I have quoted Justin Martyr, not only on this, but on how the early Christians did not divorce after marriage but followed the teaching of Christ and that those who did not marry...

Before Vatican II we used to celebrate the Latin Mass on a Sunday.   Before Holy Communion the altar cloth would be put over the rails to give the impression that we were kneeing at a table.  From this kneeling position we would receive the Flesh of Jesus Christ.   Now since the Flesh of Jesus Christ is God made Man coming to me, a mere creature with Love and Mercy, I did as a Young Man kneel when we were told to stand, for how I greet my God is my decision and with my love for Jesus I could do no other.   There were mumblings about coming forward as a Community and nothing really happening when you receive Jesus, which is complete and utter nonsense.   His flesh is joined to mine and I greet him as the God who loves me.     It was, we were told, when we returned to our seats and became part of the Community that something happened, though just what happened was never quite explained.   But again we were ridding ourse...

 Irenaeus goes on to attack the Gnostic teaching on the corruptible body.     "For as the bread which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God is no longer common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly, so also our bodies when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible having the hope of the resurrection to eternity"    Remember Irenaeus is speaking in the 2nd century, 100 plus, and he is telling us of the consecration of the bread into the Body of Christ by someone using the words of God, that is of Christ.         But Irenaeus goes further to talk about the teaching of St Paul on Re-capitulation or a re-heading up  of the human race - Christ was the New Adam restoring a new humanity to the human race which could free itself from sin.    He tells us Jesus had an accomplice in his rebellion.   In his renewal and recapitulation of all thi...

 So I quoted the Bible in my last post.   I put Malachi, John 6, and the Last Supper together to show how an impossible prophecy became a reality, but then I was guided by the Holy Spirit.    Yet were this blog to be published and read by everyone, I am sure that many, also claiming to be guided by the Holy Spirit, would be ready to agree with me.   There would certainly be 25,000 Protestant Sects ready to dismiss my findings, but I have no quarrel with my Protestant neighbours, they were not brought up in my faith and have never had the Catholic Faith taught to them.   I have met many good Protestant people and I am sure I will meet them again in Heaven.   I was brought up by teachers in my Catholic School who were very much under the influence of the Catechism of St Pius X, who taught that people who lived good lives and sought the truth were gifted by the Baptism of Desire whether they were Catholic or not and would find Heaven. ...