A booklet ‘33 Days to Morning Glory’, by Fr ME Gaitley, shows how True Devotion to Mary, as developed by St L. de Montfort, St Theresa of Calcutta and St John Paul II, is the surest, easiest, shortest and most perfect means of saintliness.
St Maximilian Kolbe pondered over the title Our Lady gave for herself to St Bernadette, at Lourdes – “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She was using the same ‘I am’ description God gave of Self, to Moses saying: “I am who am” (Ex. 3.14). Jesus also thus described Himself several times in the Gospels. Since the ‘I am’ means ever-present in the eternal now, the title is appropriate for divinity. But as Kolbe says, Our Lady is entirely human so why did she not say “I was”, as she was conceived in St Anne’s womb in historical time. Jesus was also conceived in Mary’s womb in space time. So was He speaking of His divinity, and not about His humanity, which is united to divinity in one person?
I contend that Original Sin happened in the transcendental realm, or ‘eternal now of God’ – and not at an historical point in space time, as implied by the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidding fruit (Genesis). This is a radical departure from the statement in the Catechism (CCC: 390). Pope Benedict himself, in the Ratzinger Report 1985, stated that “understanding Original Sin is one of the most difficult problems facing the Church”. So novel thinking is required.
Adam and Eve as personal, but also universal humanity, committed Original Sin. So the whole universe, created to be their totally alive, immortal body, perfectly shared by all living forms is involved. This can be seen by thinking that creation, beginning as one great, totally alive and transcendental idea, was given the freedom to accept, or reject, the divine will for its actualisation as true being. This great idea consisted of many ideas, but all as one.
Note at the Last Supper, Jesus prayed to His Father. “May they all be one” (Jn 17. 20).
The original temptation by Satan was that this unity, knowledge of good only, should also bring knowledge of evil into itself. It rejected the Divine will and so is actualised as the creation we know, fallen into space time, with mortal life, with a mixture of natural good and evil, from the Big Bang beginning – but also with moral evil, when humanity emerged as the top species, by evolution over billions of years. The original unity was thus shattered.
Christ’s prayer for unity with God is also guaranteed in the sacramental life of His church.
PROF JOHN ROONEY
Belfast BT9
DUP has relinquished the institutions for 15 minutes of fame
Now that they have achieved their objective of lumbering the north in absolute lethargy the DUP – who never endorsed the Good Friday Agreement and the idea of sharing power on the basis of equality – have relinquished the institutions and all the pageantry for 15 minutes of fame and have arrogantly and foolishly ignored the nuanced cliché ‘nothing lasts forever’.
As public services appear set to be afflicted by a form of paralysis the bleating calls from the DUP MPs at Westminster is nauseating – lining up one-by-one, demands in hand, imploring the British prime minister to reintroduce direct rule, dragging us back to the stone age to cover their lack of productivity.
The response from Theresa May was frank as she appeared to ignore these ramblings instead explicitly stating to these gloomy naysayers that it would be far more constructive to all if they were to get back to the job they were elected to do. Also detected in her tone was a hint of anger and frustration. It is slowly starting to emerge that the arranged partnership with the DUP is an unholy alliance she could do without.
The Brexit fiasco where the DUP, representing a mere 0.4 per cent of the British population, held Britain and the continent of Europe to ransom over a translation failure.
After witnessing the insatiable appetite for concession upon concession, including a demand for a ministerial post along with the £1.6bn sweetener she has come to realise that perhaps these crocodiles will never be fulfilled and will continually come back for more offering nothing but mayhem and chaos in return.
The public humiliation she endured over a week in December and her dismissal of the DUP’s unfounded concerns displayed quite tellingly the relationship is on shaky ground.
Combine this with their atavistic fears and charred vision of the future, one can imagine the relationship is thawing – their relevancy less important.
KEVIN McCANN
Belfast BT1
Abortion claims are absurd
In the letters section of any newspaper you will always get a variety of opinions, some good, some bad, some ignorant and indeed shameful. For a letter to qualify as ignorant and shameful takes some doing, but Clare Bailey (January 11) managed to do just that. She started by claiming that the Church’s anti-abortion stance is just 149 years old, as if somehow that validates her dreadful attack on the unborn. What absurdity. She then resorts to a finger pointing exercise against the Catholic Church, citing previous scandals.
Politicians have hardly been a shining example for society in recent years have they?
Many will be disgusted by her sickening statement that women going to England to abort their own baby are receiving childcare. What sort of person would make such a comparison?
She makes two other outrageous claims.
To say that women don’t want abortions is a blatant denial of the facts. One hundred thousand lives destroyed in Britain alone last year, says this is nonsense. Just where is the evidence that many Catholic women favour abortion?
Is it any wonder most politicians are looked on with distain.
J DIAMOND
Coleraine, Co Derry
Assembly toothless when dealing with finances
I am dumbfounded that people think an assembly could make a difference to hospital waiting times and the under funding of public services.
Decisions about funding are made at Westminster. If they don’t give the correct investment there is little at local assembly that could be done to ameliorate that.
One only has to look at the last 10 years of the last assembly. Minister McGimpsey mentioned the need for more funds and the DUP denied him.
When the DUP had that ministry they didn’t do anything to reduce waiting lists, they being wedded to austerity.
I remember well the local media being scathing of SF/SDLP opposing austerity measures imposed by Westminster. There was no reduction of the problems, NHS and education funding. The local administration is toothless when dealing with issues caused by finance cuts from Westminster.
PJ DORRIAN
Belfast BT15
