Enjoyed reading about the earliest Christian art making in depth. Thank you for the returning to the beginning. It will help me understand how iconography took shape in later centuries.
I’m so excited to be on this journey. I hope your work will be eventually published in a comprehensive text. It would make an Art History text that I would love to teach college students in the Catholic University setting. Our patrimony needs to be rediscovered.
Remarkable read. I have enjoyed spending my free moments with this post today, and I’m glad to be on board at the rebirth of the project. Looking forward to the journey.
"And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither be married, nor take wives." -- Luke 20:34-35
"And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me." -- Matthew 10:36-38
By the free gift of God. "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." He is the bridge builder who crosses the unbridgeable divide. The martyrs were sinners, and didn't earn or merit the grace of fortitude that made their actions possible. We look at them and think, I couldn't possibly be that courageous or love God that much, and that's correct. We can't and neither could they, until they were given the needed graces. The things you need will be given to you. But you can't generate that fortitude yourself through any act or emotional self-control or any other natural, human method. Everything that makes a saint a saint is given freely by God, not generated through their acts or decisions or will.
This is all basic catechism, but that doesn't get taught much now.
1. Grace
CCC 1996–2005:
1996: "Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life."
1999: Discusses sanctifying grace, which is a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul to live with God.
2000: Explains the distinction between sanctifying grace and actual grace and introduces the idea of habitual grace.
2003: Highlights the various forms of grace, including charisms and sacramental grace.
2. Merit and Eternal Reward
CCC 2006–2011:
2006: Describes merit as what is "owed" to a person according to divine justice, but always in the context of grace.
2007: States that no one can merit the initial grace of justification or salvation.
2008: "The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace." It also emphasizes that merit depends on God’s free initiative and human cooperation.
2009: Explains how merit is tied to acts done in charity and that God rewards these works because He freely wills it.
2010: Clarifies that the merit of eternal life is a grace itself and a promise from God.
2011: Summarizes the teaching with St. Augustine’s quote: "The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God."
I like your new lesson plan, Hilary. I can hardly keep up with you lately!
I keep wondering if it's too much. Should I hit the brakes?
Enjoyed reading about the earliest Christian art making in depth. Thank you for the returning to the beginning. It will help me understand how iconography took shape in later centuries.
I’m so excited to be on this journey. I hope your work will be eventually published in a comprehensive text. It would make an Art History text that I would love to teach college students in the Catholic University setting. Our patrimony needs to be rediscovered.
Remarkable read. I have enjoyed spending my free moments with this post today, and I’m glad to be on board at the rebirth of the project. Looking forward to the journey.
Nice post Sister,
This will take a ⏳while.....
....Christ is Born, Glorify Him! 🌍 ☦️ ⛪
That funeral stone ... hard-hitting reminder of where we really come from. For me, how many made the ultimate sacrifice for the faith. Are we worthy?
None of them were worthy either. No use thinking in those terms.
I don't understand. Not one person among them was worthy, almost 2,000 years ago?
Worthy of eternal bliss? No. not one on their own merits. We don't earn heaven.
"And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither be married, nor take wives." -- Luke 20:34-35
"And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me." -- Matthew 10:36-38
How then are we to enter heaven?
By the free gift of God. "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." He is the bridge builder who crosses the unbridgeable divide. The martyrs were sinners, and didn't earn or merit the grace of fortitude that made their actions possible. We look at them and think, I couldn't possibly be that courageous or love God that much, and that's correct. We can't and neither could they, until they were given the needed graces. The things you need will be given to you. But you can't generate that fortitude yourself through any act or emotional self-control or any other natural, human method. Everything that makes a saint a saint is given freely by God, not generated through their acts or decisions or will.
This is all basic catechism, but that doesn't get taught much now.
1. Grace
CCC 1996–2005:
1996: "Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life."
1999: Discusses sanctifying grace, which is a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul to live with God.
2000: Explains the distinction between sanctifying grace and actual grace and introduces the idea of habitual grace.
2003: Highlights the various forms of grace, including charisms and sacramental grace.
2. Merit and Eternal Reward
CCC 2006–2011:
2006: Describes merit as what is "owed" to a person according to divine justice, but always in the context of grace.
2007: States that no one can merit the initial grace of justification or salvation.
2008: "The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace." It also emphasizes that merit depends on God’s free initiative and human cooperation.
2009: Explains how merit is tied to acts done in charity and that God rewards these works because He freely wills it.
2010: Clarifies that the merit of eternal life is a grace itself and a promise from God.
2011: Summarizes the teaching with St. Augustine’s quote: "The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God."
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Z.HTM
Thanks for your reply. Wishing you all the best.