THE FIRST COMMANDMENT (CONT.) THE VIRTUE OF RELIGION -- Lesson 11 – From The Catholic Moral. Editorial Luis Vives, 1954.
-- 119.- PRECEPT OF THE VIRTUE OF RELIGION.- The virtue of religion obliges us to tribute to God the honor and the supreme cult that we owe Him as the sovereign Lord and beginning of all things, that is, to give cult of adoration to Him. This includes the fulfillment of all religious duties. --
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It is not enough for us to believe in God, we must also recognize Him as our Father and sovereign Lord. --
The virtue of religion is moral virtue and not theological one, because it does not refer directly to God, but to the cult that we must tribute to Him. --
Religion is not content to expose the truths related to God, His existence [in fact: God IS.], the benefits He has made to mankind: creation, conservation, redemption. Theoretical knowledge, which is of course mandatory for man, requires the practice of explicit duties, both in private and public life, both in childhood and in youth and mature age.
-- 120.- DIVINE CULT.- Cult means manifestation, with words, acts or gestures, of the concept we have of the excellence or dignity of a person or thing. Divine cult is the homage or utmost veneration, that man, as an intelligent being, renders to God. This veneration is called adoration, and it constitutes the essence of the virtue of religion.
-- 121.- ADORATION.- It is the manifestation of the utmost respect, of complete submission and of the deep reverence that we owe to God for His attributes, His infinite excellence, because He is the Lord of all that exists and we depend on Him for everything. --
The Prophet King counsels us with the following words: "Come, let us adore, let us prostrate ourselves in the presence of the Lord, who made us, because He is our Lord, and we are His people" (Ps. 94, 6 and 7). --
Adoration is an act of cult given to God alone. It is owed, therefore, to each of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, and to Jesus Christ also in the Sacramental Species. [Note: obvious, since in the Consecration, the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into Jesus Christ, in each of the two species there are His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.]
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[Once I have translated that we must: “WORSHIP Him or give Him the supreme worship”, now, following these 2 previous definitions, I would like you to change those words by “ADORE Him or give Him supreme cult”. Nowadays the words adoration, worship, cult, have twisted/mixed meanings, so the idea in our brains is confused, better that we use the definition that Church gave them in the past, so I will only use “cult” and “adoration”. Do notice that semiology says that thoughts and words go together as the 2 faces of a coin. So, the clearer the definition is, the clearer we will understand and think. For example, worship in English has many different meanings: adoration, worship, to idolize (which is a terrible sin) and a title given to certain persons; it is because Satan wants to confound people to put man to be idolized and also himself to be idolized. Please examine carefully the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers; those are true prophecies, www.tldm.org publishes the Messages but those people have erased and changed lots of words, hurry up to copy and paste the messages and directives to have a better version than what you will have in the future.]
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For two reasons we owe cult of adoration to God:
-- 1st. By natural right, because He is the Creator, Lord and Keeper of all things. 2nd By positive divine right, for this is stated in several passages of the Sacred Scripture. "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve." Jesus Christ replied to the tempter (Matt., IV, 10).
-- [Note: other translations say: "You will give cult only to Him", it is understood that you can serve human bosses, or you can manifest with words or gestures the excellence of the concept we have of someone or something, that is to give cult. But when we serve people, we obey first the Law of God, so we work for a boss, for example, but being humble to please God, being punctual to please God, being honest to please God, never betraying the Law of God, and we can never obey an order from anybody that is contrary to the Law of God. Remember Saint Thomas More, for example. And regarding cult… it is explained next in this lesson. Therefore "pagan cult" is idolatry and apostasy (what happened in the Vatican gardens in 2019). We must not (because it is stupid and is against the Law of God) manifest with words or gestures the "excellence of the concept" of an idol. --
The next point talks about the cult to Saints, Angels and images. Having religious images is not against God. On the Ark of the Covenant there were two figures of Angels, and thus God had commanded. In the most Holy room of the Temple, in the Old Testament, there were two immense figures of Angels with extended wings of 2 meters long, the chandelier of the 7 arms had figures of flowers, and remember that Aaron had small pomegranates along with bells in the ring of his robe. That is, included in the adoration and divine cult, God commanded Moses to make certain images, and in the Temple (designed by King David and built by King Salomon), those images were not to be adored, but they were part of the divine cult offered to God.
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We do not pray to images but to those they represent. The Virgin, the Angels and Saints intercede before God for us. Read Revelation 8, 3-4.
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And well that the angels helped when Heliodorus wanted to plunder the Temple, and well that the archangel Saint Raphael helped Tobias and his father. If you can ask someone in this world for help and people ask other human beings (even not consecrated or ordinated) to pray for them, how can you not ask for help to someone in Heaven? We do not adore images, we give cult to the beings they represent, we acknowledge the dignity they have before God. When we knee before an image of God, we know that it is an image, we want to knee before God so we knee before the image that, as all images, must be blessed by a priest.
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We only adore God, but we knee before images of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saints and Angels; because they intercede before God for us. Images help us to pray. A moment came in this recent history that all our prayers reach Jesus only by the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. We knee before them through images (Most Holy Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Angels and Saints) because they have a dignity given by God, as in the past sons used to knee before their parents to receive their blessing, they have a dignity given by God; and people used to knee before their kings because it was understood that their authority came by God. So they knelt before the authority that is commanded by God. As we have to love God above all things we can never betray Him even if our mother, father, king, bishop, etc. orders us to make a sin. Their authority comes thanks to God’s Law, so if they betray Him, they must not be obeyed because they are working for Satan.
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Regarding parents, grandparents, teachers, etc. we continue respecting them but we cannot obey them in case they order us to do a sin. In case of rulers, I translate 2 verses from my Bible because they are very changed in internet. Regarding Bishops, Popes, etc., Church has her rules.
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Job 34, 19-20 : He that has no preference for princes, neither prefers the rich to the poor, because work of His hands are all of them. They die in an instant and in the middle of the night a people rebels against them and they disappear, thus eliminating the oppressor without effort.
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The Ark of the Covenant was a thing, and yet people prostrated themselves in front of it, knowing, as we know about images, that they are not God. But the Ark received cult (they played trumpets when they received it, they carried it in procession, they dedicated cheers to it). The Temple that the Hebrews had it was not God, but when Heliodorus entered to rob it, the people prostrated themselves in the direction of the Temple in the streets and terraces… praying to God. And God performed the miracle of sending 2 Angels to hit the intruder. God made a lot of miracles through catholic images. --
It is remarkable how neither Jews, nor Muslims, nor Protestants and their derivations (more Sionists than anything else) understand NOTHING of the Old Testament, Jews adore gold more than God, so they betray the 10 Commandments and everything in their search for power, just to discover they became slaves of Satan. Muslims just changed the Old Testament saying, for example, that Ismael was the heir of Abraham, it is because of their love to lies and blind fanaticism. Protestants adore their heresy to the extreme that they do not believe in the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist (even when there are Eucharistic Miracles studied by science) and their arrogance make them despise Our Lady, who is The Full of Grace, chosen to be the Mother of God. In fact, all those groups have betrayed the most important of the Commandments: the First one. And, curiously, all of them hate images… At the time of the Roman Empire, Christians, of course, only offered sacrifices to God, and were persecuted and martyred, I have no record of serious persecution or martyrdom against Jews because of that reason.
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With regard to images, I think it happens as with the tree of Life and the tree of Knowledge of good and evil. God is good, I do not think He put those trees in the centre of the Paradise for us to covet them. He is our Father and Teacher, so I think those trees were there for us to learn to obey and, one day, being prepared, He would give the fruits to us (read Revelation 2,7). With the images, the learning and prize process is evident: 1st. the snake on the pole, when they were in the desert, they had to learn that it was to rise their sights to Heaven, and many other meanings. Then sculptures of Angels are put on the Ark, no other kind of images apart from vegetables were allowed because they would be confused with pagan idols, they would begin to worship them. But in the fullness of time, the Son of God was made man in the womb of the Most Holy Virgin Mary by work and grace of the Holy Spirit and we can have images because He was seen by the human eyes of the people in that time. --
God made many miracles through blessed images. --
And with regard to the tree of Life, we already know who will be prepared to eat of it, Jesus Christ tells us in Revelation 2:7] --
122.- SPECIES OF CULT.- God communicates part of His excellence to some creatures, for example to Angels and Saints, and, as such, they are worthy of our cult. Theologians call this veneration *dulia, but in it they distinguish *protodulía and *hiperdulía, in honor of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, respectively. --
[when I put a * it means I could not find the translation. There is another word in this lesson that I could not translate: “latría” that has to do with –latry.]
-- The cult we tribute to God can be internal and external [notice they do not say: “or” external], public or private, individual or social, absolute or relative. --
The internal cult consists of the homage that the soul tributes to God with acts which do not leave the internal jurisdiction. Such as: adoration, love, faith, hope. --
External cult consists of manifesting to God the inner affections and feelings through external acts such as prostration, genuflection, sacrifices, the sign of the cross, etc.
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Practically our adoration should consist in:
-- 1º TO BELIEVE all the truths of our Holy Religion and study with love and affection the Christian doctrine;
2º TO ATTEND THE HOLY MASS DEVOUTLY AND RECEIVE with the due provisions [that is, fulfilling what Church commands to receive them] the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.
3º TO BE FAITHFUL in praying every day the prayers of the Christians.
4º TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS and do always the WILL OF GOD, ACCEPTING WITH SUBMISSION everything that He rules over us.
5º TO RESPECT the sacred people, places and objects.
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Public cult is the external cult we tribute God in the name of the Church, by persons legitimately constituted for it. It is also called social cult, because, in its acts, the Catholic society intervenes lead by its authorities or represented by some person. Such are: prayers, processions, the Holy Mass, although in a Mass there could be no faithful, since the priest offers it as a minister of the Church and on behalf of the Christian people, faithful are represented by the acolyte. --
Private cult is that which is offered by a person or a collectivity, by their particular will and in their own name, as when someone prays the Rosary or the Via Crucis. This cult is individual or private, even if it is practiced in common, because it consists of acts not commanded by the Church [not specifically ordered in her Laws] or done in her name.
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Absolute cult is that which is directly given to someone (God, Angel, Saint) because of his own excellence. Relative cult is given to a thing (cross, statue, image), because of the excellence of the being to which it refers or represents. --
123.- ACTS OF DIVINE CULT.- The virtue of religion demands men the practice of divine cult. Its main acts are: cult, oblation, sacrifice or immolation, rites, which are external; the invocation of the Name of God and prayer, which are internal. --
Included in the prayer are: thanksgiving for the benefits received, and atonement/reparation for the offenses committed.
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Adoration is an inner act and we manifest it outwardly, e.g. with genuflection.
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[But it doesn’t mean that we adore all beings that we knee in front of them. We tribute cult to Saints, Angels and images, that includes kneeling before them because it is stablished by the Church and we understand what we are doing; we venerate the authority God gave to them (Holy Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the angels and Saints); or the power, the authority of God that sth. represents (e.g. the ring of a Bishop). And we can never deny our faith, we can never express adoration to anybody but God. We can hide ourselves when our life is in risk, but we can never deny Jesus Christ.]
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Oblation is the total and complete surrender of oneself to God; an offering of one's complete being, life and actions, for the greater glory of God.
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Sacrifice is an act of religion that consists in offering to God, through the legitimate minister, something sensitive that is destroyed or transformed in His honor, in order to recognize the supreme dominion He has over creatures. Sacrifice, as adoration, is an act of *latría, and therefore can only be offered to God.
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[So, idolatry (idolatría, in Spanish), is a terrible sin against the 1rst. Commandment.]
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Rites are ceremonies or liturgical uses that regulate the acts and details of external cult.
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Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God, to adore Him, praise Him, implore forgiveness of sins, to thank Him, and to ask Him graces. It must be led, first of all and above all to what is concerned to salvation, to enter into the Kingdom of God.
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124.- OBLIGATION OF DIVINE CULT.- Man is indebted to God not only of his soul, but also of his body; it is not enough for him to pay tribute to God adoring Him in the innermost part of his heart, or only in private; it is essential that he also pays external and public cult to God. But keep in mind that the external cult would not be sincere or of any value if it were not accompanied by the internal one: it would be pure hypocrisy. God is Spirit, says Jesus Christ, and those who adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth (John, IV, 24). The external cult must be prudent. For the same reason, any act that is not mandatory must be postponed to the obligations or duties of state. It must also be serious, holy, simple, natural, without exaggeration or ridiculousness.
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125.- OBLIGATION OF PUBLIC AND SOCIAL CULT.- Society, as also the individual, must recognize that in God they have their origin, dependence, conservation and government. Indeed, man is a sociable being by nature; he is not made to live in isolation, he cannot attend to all his bodily and spiritual needs for by himself; that is why the Creator instilled in him a certain impulse to associate himself with his fellows. Therefore, society, like any being, owes its existence to the Creator, who preserves it with precepts of justice, obedience and charity that He has engraved in its heart, fills it with benefits and makes it develop wealthy and vigorously with the institution of the Church. Nothing more just, then, that also the civil society renders social and public cult to its Author. Blessed are the people who understand and practice it.
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It is true that God has no need of our cult. We are the ones who need it to reciprocate Him something, because, by demanding us to tribute cult to Him, He does nothing more than to act according to His holiness and wisdom. Jesus Christ gave us an example of this during His lifetime.
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Perhaps some would say: Why so much spending on cult? That is what Judas Iscariot said, referring to the action of the Magdalene, at the supper in Bethany, and his conduct deserved revulsion from the divine Master. Giving for the cult is precisely a means of fostering the spirit of charity towards the poor. It is a constant fact that, to the greater the generosity towards the works of cult there corresponds the greater generosity towards the poor; and stinginessin the line of cult is attached to ruin in the works of charity.
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126.- CULT TO THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN.- We venerate the Most Hoy Virgin with the special cult of hyper *dulía, or of very great veneration, for the supernatural excellence that God communicated to Her in super eminent degree.
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This over excellence consists of Her special dignity as Mother of God and other privileges with which She was enriched by the Holy Trinity, such as having preserved Her from original sin, having resurrected Her and taken Her body and soul to Heaven and having crowned Her as Queen and Lady of all the creation.
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We owe special cult to Her, moreover, for being our Mother and having more interest and request than all the Saints in our salvation; and, also, for Her intercession before God, which is more powerful than of all the Saints’ together, since Her divine motherhood makes Her – in a way – omnipotent. [Because Jesus does not deny anything to Her.]
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127.- CULT TO THE ANGELS AND THE SAINTS.- To the Angels and the Saints we tribute the cult of *dulia, because of the supernatural excellence they have been given by God.
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This cult is just and legitimate for several reasons:
1º Because God Himself honors them, working miracles through their intercession; whereof the promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled: “If any man ministers to Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall My minister be. If any man ministers to Me, him will my Father honour". (John XII, 26).
2º Because it is very pleasant to God; for He is honored and glorified in his Saints.
3º Because God wants and advises it, and, in a way, orders it. God said to the Hebrew people: Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared. Be circumspect, and hear his voice, and do not be rebellious against him because he will not forgive your infidelity, and My Name is in him.” (Ex., XXIII, 20-21). [I had to translate the verse from my printed Bible adding upper cases.]
4º Because the Church recommends it, because of the faith she has in the intercession of the Saints.
5º Because it is extremely useful and advantageous, because the examples of the Saints stimulate us to practice virtue, and their devotion assures us powerful intercessors in Heaven.
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128.- CULT TO THE SACRED RELICS.- They are called relics of the Saints their bodies, bones, ashes and what was in contact with them (instruments of penance or martyrdom, garments, books and other objects). At all times God has authorized and authorizes by means of miracles, the veneration to the sacred relics of the Saints. The Council of Trent declared that the bodies of the Martyrs and the other Saints should be honored, because they were living members of Jesus Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit and they are to be resurrected a glorious day for eternal life. In order for relics to receive cult, they must be authenticated by ecclesiastical documents.
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129.- CULT OF IMAGES.- Images are pictorial (prints, paintings), plastic or sculptural (statues, medals) representations of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin, in any of their mysteries, and of the Saints.
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"They should be tributed veneration and relative cult corresponding to the person to whom they refer." (Canonical Code, 1255, 2)
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It is relative cult because the veneration we give them does not refer to the images themselves, nor to the matter of which they are formed, but to Jesus Christ, to the Virgin, or to the Saint or Angel they represent.
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Their relative cult is, therefore, legitimate and, in addition, very useful for the spiritual advantages that the sacred images bring to the faithful. Even ignorant persons can read in them. The cult to sacred images was challenged with ungodly fury in the VIII century by heretics, called iconoclasts or image destroyers. In the XVI century protestants renewed the sacrilegious excesses of the unconscious; but they were all anathematized by the Church, whose holy Doctors victoriously defended the cult to images.
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This is not idolatry, as Protestants claim, because our pleas are not directed at the image of the Saint, but at the Saint himself, represented by it.
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130. Difference between the cult of *latría and the others.- Between the cult of *latría or of adoration, and those of *dulía, *protodulía and *hiperdulía, there is a very essential difference.
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Cult of *latría is a natural precept and a positive divine commandment, and, therefore, obligatory for all rational beings, because we all must recognize the utmost excellence of God and our absolute dependence on Him.
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[When we say “positive” it means that God ordered it saying we must do it. Do not confound yourselves with “positivism” which is a heretic way of thinking that pretends that nothing exists if that is not demonstrated by science, as if science could demonstrate everything…]
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On the other hand, the cult to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph, Angels and Saints, is only cult of veneration more or less great, very pious and highly recommended, but it does not at all consist that it is strictly mandatory by positive Law. [They also say that it is not mandatory to believe in the apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, but She is the Mother and Queen of the Church, so we must obey Her, and because the Popes Pio XI and Pio XII did not obey Our Lady of Fatima, the 2nd world war came, that consecration must be done urgently according to the instructions to Our Lady of Fatima.]
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We honor God because of Himself, because of His Own Excellence; and we honor the Saints because of God, because of the excellence He communicates to them. The word adoration applied to the Holy Virgin and the Saints it means only reverence or veneration.
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[It is good that the Church defined this. But the word adoration can only be applied to God, it is a tremendous sin to say for example: "my grandchildren adore me", "an adorable kitten" etc., and no one should excuse himself, applying it to the Blessed Virgin or to the Saints, saying he is only meaning "reverence". I have already heard the vipers infiltrated into the church read that Jacob "adored" his son Joseph. They are changing the Holy Bible as much as they can and the writings that the Church has.]
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Only to Saints canonized or beatified by the Church can public cult be tributed: to the former in all forms of the cult of *dulía and in all places; the Blessed ones can only be honored in the place and manner determined by the Pope.
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The servants of God, dead in smell of holiness, but not beatified, can only be honored and invoked privately.
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EXAMINE THE MESSAGES OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSES, those are true apparitions that were prohibited by a bishop that did not follow the rules of Church, so, that prohibition is invalid. You will have a good idea of the messages in www.tldm.org though that page is changing, erasing many words.