Who is the Blessed Virgin Mary? Why is she significant for all people? How is she at work alongside her Divine Son, Jesus Christ, in redeeming and bringing us into union with the Blessed Trinity in this life and the next? De Maria Numquam Satis considers these and other questions through a collection of essays that explain the primary truths of the Catholic Faith regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary in a way that is at the same time 'ever ancient and ever new.'
This first volume of Collected Essays presents Peter Damian Fehlner’s later reflections on the unique role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the place of God’s eternal design for creation. These essays explore personhood, the divine missions, and ecclesiology. Framed within a Trinitarian vision and flowing out of fifty years of prayerful study of Scripture and the Tradition, Fehlner deepens and extends the wisdom of his Franciscan theological forebears, St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus, and St. Maximilian Kolbe, along with John Henry Newman, in Trinitarian theology, Christology, Mariology, and ecclesiology. This vision is particularly relevant in today’s theological and philosophical contexts, shedding light on the joint work of the Son and Holy Spirit as they constitute and build up the body of Christ through salvation history. The intimate relationship between Jesus and Mary in the Holy Spirit is clarified in these essays, unveiling the true face of the church as mother, teacher, and bride. Mary is exemplar and active associate with her Son as a member of his body. Within this volume, we discover our true nature and calling in Christ. Fehlner shows us how salvation history and metaphysical theology meet in the church, our mother, a true Marian Metaphysics.
Drawing from the inaugural Newman-Scotus Symposium, this edited volume presents principles that converge with striking similarities in the thought patterns of Bl. John Duns Scotus and Bl. John Henry Newman. With contributions from prominent philosophers and theologians, this book argues in detail that Newman was overall sympathetic to many of the major themes characteristic of Scotus’ metaphysics, and furthermore would be cautious about simply substituting historical dimensions and new hermeneutics for a sound metaphysical approach. The more metaphysical approach of Scotus uncovers the implicit notional foundations of Newman’s thought, while the more phenomenological style of Newman assists the reader in grasping the realism and profound spirituality lying behind the more abstract presentation of Scotus. Topics range from the Franciscan-Scotistic motive of the Incarnation, the Scotistic position of sacramental theology, to intuition and certitude, scientific form and real assent, uncoupling Scotus from Kant, the will as the power to self-determine as the essential characteristic of the will, with love as its object, and its relationship to the intellect as moved by its object, the truth, and more. Features of this edited work include: A unique text that offers connections and contexts between Newman and Scotus, including a genuine unity of approach and substantially identical convictions concerning the nature of theology and how to conduct it Contributions from prominent philosophers and theologians such as John T. Ford, Timothy P. Noone, Cyril O’Regan, Peter D. Fehlner, Olivier Boulnois, Edward J. Ondrako, Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, Mary Beth Ingham, Patricia Hutchison, and Robert C. Christie, and includes the first hand account from Deacon Jack Sullivan of the miracle that led to Newman’s beatification End of chapter study questions This book is intended for upper level undergraduate and graduate students, professors, and interested persons intuiting modern sensitivity to freedom in its relationship to the will and intellect. Scotus and Newman provide an indispensable basis for grasping the profound insights of the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes).
This book is a collection of essays that explain the primary truths of the Catholic Faith regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary in a way that is at the same time 'ever ancient and ever new.' This book discusses questions as to the Blessed Virgin Mary's significance.
These conferences, presented by Thomas Merton to the novices at the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1963-1964, focus mainly on the life and writings of his great Cistercian predecessor, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). Guiding his students through Bernard's Marian sermons, his treatise On the Love of God, his controversy with Peter Abelard, and above all his great series of sermons on the Song of Songs, Merton reveals why Bernard was the major religious and cultural figure in Europe during the first half of the twelfth century and why he has remained one of the most influential spiritual theologians of Western Christianity from his own day until the present. As James Finley writes in his preface to this volume, "Merton is teaching us in these notes how to be grateful and amazed that the ancient wisdom that shimmers and shines in the eloquent and beautiful things that mystics say is now flowing in our sincere desire to learn from God how to find our way to God."
One naturally assumes that when they listen to their Pastor, Reverend, or Priest, that they speak the truth, and takes for granted that when the Pope speaks, he also speaks the truth. Yet few Christians are conscious, much less concerned to hear about the truth, or of how they have been deceived for centuries, and betrayed again by their sacrosanct religious institutions bent upon enriching themselves by their ignorance of the faith's history and gullibility. This book deals with the truth, the truth, which many Christian sects do not wish to convey to their followers. For almost two thousand years Christians have maintained that Jesus was God incarnate, a sinless man, a man born of a virgin mother, a man who was the embodiment of perfection on earth, which is unflinchingly stated in their Christian Bibles, the New Testament, " Jesus] Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." I Peter 2:22, King James Authorized Version. Cf. Luke 2:48, Joseph is Jesus' father (?). "We are dying today from the fact of not having anyone who knows how to lay down his life for the Truth." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., quoted in The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church by Malachi Martin, author of Vatican and The Final Conclave, pg. 286, 1987.
Available for the first time in English, the private reflections of the modern pope recently elevated to sainthood—deeply personal writings that reveal a spiritual leader who agonized over his service to God, continually questioning whether he was doing enough. As the head of the Roman Catholic Church for twenty-five years, from the final decades of the twentieth century to the first years of the new millennium, Pope John Paul II significantly impacted our world. As famous as a rock star, this powerful leader who conferred with numerous heads of state was the ultimate model of wisdom and religious commitment for numerous Catholics around the globe. Throughout much of his adult life, from 1962 until two years before his death in 2003, John Paul II kept a series of private diaries in which he disclosed his innermost thoughts, impressions, and concerns. Written in his native Polish and never before available in English until now, these journals provide intimate and deeply moving insight into a man, a priest, and a saint’s spirituality and a life devoted completely to God. In God’s Hands lays bare the soul of this powerful, influential statesman, revealing a devout man untouched by his celebrity status; a selfless servant of God who spent decades questioning whether he was worthy of the role he was called to carry out. Over forty years, from his bishopric in Krakow to his election to the papacy to his final years, one question guided him: "Am I serving God?" Entrusted to his personal secretary—who defied John Paul II’s instructions to burn them after his death—these notebooks provide us with a privileged glimpse into the life of a humble man who never took for granted his mission or his exalted role in the church and in the world.
