Defend the Faith ConferenceSaturday, 05 January 2013

Saturday

8:45  am         Meet and greet.  Refreshments.  9:30  am         Recitation of the Rosary   10:00 am        Joseph Moloney (Frassati Australia), to impart an excerpt from Archbishop Coleridge’s message for the Year of  Grace and an excerpt from our Holy Father Benedict’s message for the Year of Faith  (Porta Fidei). 

10:15 am        Joseph Aparicio to give a witness to the power of the Rosary in driving Indonesia, the largest Islamic nation in the world, out of tiny impoverished East Timor.  Joseph will answer questions. 

11:00 am        Joe Moloney to speak on the life of Fr. David Edwards, a teacher extraordinaire and likened to the Cure of Ars by +Abp Bathersby during Fr. Edwards Requiem.   Joe will then deliver a teaching on The Blessed Trinity from a lecture given by Fr. Edwards in the 1970’s.  

12:00 noon     Angelus followed by lunch.  1:15   pm        Joe Maloney to refresh the teaching on the Blessed Trinity. 

2:00   pm        Vinh Nguyen to give a witness to God’s mercy when she took to the seas in a small boat to escape Communism in Viet Nam.  Vinh will answer questions. 

3:00   pm        Divine Mercy Chaplet followed by Sr. Gratia Kelly, Texan born Sister of Our Lady of Mercy in Cracow, speaking on the Divine Mercy revelations given to St. Faustina by Jesus in the 1930’s 

4:00   pm        Refreshments.  4:25   pm        Scott Hahn on the meaning of  the words spoken by Jesus from the Cross and at the institution of the Mass on Holy Thursday. 

5:30   pm        Vigil Mass of the Epiphany celebrated by Capuchin Friar Fr. Fernanto, parish priest of St. Mary’s, South Brisbane. 

Sunday

8:45  am          Meet and greet.  Refreshments.  9:30  am           Recitation of the Rosary.  10:00 am          Troy Hammond, convert to the Faith, to speak on the recent miracle at Lourdes. 

10:30 am          Stephanie McClarty to speak on The Forgotten Sacrament of Penance.  Stephanie will be incorporating Fr. David Edwards lecture on Contrition, Confession and Reconciliation with God into her talk.  Stephanie will answer questions. 

11:15 am         Fr. Steven Shire speaking with Mother Angelica on EWTN about his death in a car accident and the mercy of God in restoring him to life.  

12 noon           Angelus and lunch.  1:15   pm         Deacon James Grant, Capuchin brother, St. Mary’s, South Brisbane speaking on his ‘call’ to the priesthood.   ‘Fishers of Men’. 

2:30   pm         Simeon Kormon to give a witness to God’s mercy in his life during 12 years of civil war in him homeland Liberia and the absolute trust is God in the midst of abject misery. 

3:15   pm         Fr. Michael Grace, Assistant priest at St. Stephen’s Cathedral to speak on ‘Why the Church in the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow’. 

REFRESHMENT AND CHAT BEFORE RETURNING HOME. 

From +Abp Mark Coleridge

“We need to become a more missionary Church”

“This is a time to roll out the wagons out into new territory in ways we’ve never done

before”

Fr Edwards Fr. Edwards was a chemist before studying with the Jesuits in Melbourne. A cousin of Fr. Edwards, a QC in Melbourne at the time, told me that another cousin of theirs (a priest) who was a Professor at the Jesuit seminary said of Fr. Edwards during his seminary years that he considered Fr. Edwards to be a saint.

Every year since Fr. Edwards death on 04 Nov 1999 Fr. Jordan has offered Mass on his anniversary.

Photo taken on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his priesthood at St. Stephen's Cathedral

Porta FideiThe “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us

Belief is NOT a private act.

The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us.

The Church, 'like a stranger in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God', announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes

A Christian may never think of belief as a private act

Cooperate freely!

The "door of faith" (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace.

To the extent that he freely cooperates, man's thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never completely finished in this life. "Faith working through love" (Gal 5:6) becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's life

Conflict between Science & the Catholic Faith?

To a greater extent than in the past, faith is now being subjected to a series of questions arising from a changed mentality which, especially today, limits the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and technological discoveries.

Nevertheless, the Church has never been afraid of demonstrating that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine science, because both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth

Faith without works??

Saint James said: "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?

Faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt

The Holy TrinityJoseph W.

Moloney

Foundation and

mystery

The doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation are the foundation of Christian life and worship.

CCC 232

"Christians are baptized 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' [Mt 28:19.] Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: 'I do.' 'The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.' (St. Caesarius of Arles)

Eternity

First, God is eternal, His realities occur in eternity, and so His nature, therefore, is eternal.

God is not bound by space and time

He is immaterial (Spirit) and not bound by continuity or progression, that is, one thing following another.

This is why, in our Creed, we say Jesus was begotten of the Father, because He was not created.

Origin

Even though the Three Persons are One God, yet they are distinct: for the Father has no origin, He came from no one. But the Son is begotten, He comes from the Father alone. The Holy Spirit comes or proceeds from both the Father and the Son.

These different relations of origin tell us there are three distinct Persons, who have one and the same divine nature.

The Holy Trinity

The whole Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and;

the whole Holy Spirit, too, is in the Father and in the Son.

None of these is outside any of the others;

none of them precedes any other of them in eternity; or

exceeds any other in greatness; or is superior to any other in power

The Holy Trinity

Unity & Trinity

the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus

Everything in them is one… there is no opposition of relationship

Indeed 'everything (in them) is one where there is no opposition

of relationship.‘

'Because of that unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father

and wholly in the Son.'

[Council of Florence (1442)

The divine Unity is Triune

Why???

The whole Trinity is “Our Father” and, through the redemption won for us in Christ Jesus, we participate in his Divine Filiation AS sons IN the Son.

The Holy Trinity and us

The whole Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any way separating them.

Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.

Cf. Jn 6:44; Rom 8:14.

Defence of the Holy Trinity'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’

The word “trinity”

In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together.

The word trias (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. He speaks of "the Trinity of God [the Father], His Word and His Wisdom. The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian.

In the next century the word is in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen.

Arian Heresy

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius (ca. AD 250–336) concerning the relationship of the persons of the and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father. Deemed a heretic by the Ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325.

The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by—and is therefore distinct from—God the Father.

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." (John 14:28).

Arius was willing to grant our Lord every kind of honour and majesty short of the full nature of the Godhead.

In Arianism, Christ was instead not consubstantial with God the Father since both the Father and the Son under Arius were made of "like" essence or being but not of the same essence or being.

Modern Arianism

Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are Arian.

Semi-Arianism includes those who profess that Jesus was neither un-created nor created in the sense other beings are created.

In connection with this Jehovah's Witnesses also believe the Holy Spirit is not an actual person but rather is only God’s divine breath, God's power in action.

In the Jehovah's bible (Book of Mormon) the passage was changed to "Word was a god“. This is not only an embarrassing attempt to deny the obvious divinity of Christ, but it also violates the first commandment and Isaiah 43:10 because it acknowledges that there is more than one God.

Modalism

Modalism is a heresy that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as distinct persons (see Modalism).  Rather, God at some times and places is the Father, at some times the Son, and other times the Holy Spirit.

If this is the case, then Jesus’ divine self has not been truly incarnated.  The incarnation is not a true incarnation if God is sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and then sometimes the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus was incarnated on the earth, He was fully divine the entire time.  His divine self did not leave His human nature to go govern the universe, etc.

I AM Exodus 3:14 - God says "I AM who I AM"

John 8:58 - Jesus says "Before Abraham was, I AM" in reference to Himself.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

The Son of God is called "the Word," because He is the medium by which God promulgates His will and issues His commandments.

This phrase fully proves, in the mouth of an inspired writer, that Jesus Christ was not part of the creation, as he existed when no part of that existed; and that consequently he is not a creature, as all created nature was formed by Him: for without him was nothing made that is made.

therefore Jesus, who was before all things and who made all things, must be the Eternal God.

With evident allusion to the first word of Genesis. But this beginning had NO beginning.

And killed the Prince of life, whom God has raised from the dead; of which we are witnesses.

Acts 3:15

Peter said the men of Israel "killed the Author of Life."

This can only be God who made all things. Thus, equating the crucifixion of Jesus with killing God Himself.

Come, let US go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech

Genesis 11:17

God speaks as though he took counsel with his own wisdom and power: that is, with the Son and Holy Spirit.

This was not spoken to the angels, as if God needed either their advice or their assistance, but God speaks it to himself, or the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost.

It is well above the power of the angels or any creatures to work upon the mind, and on the faculty of speech. Angels cannot not make man forget a language and create and plant new ones. Thus it MUST have been God.