Following The Truth: So, You Just Received Jesus…Now What? (Catholic or Open)

Following the Truth.com ^ | Oct 15th, 2011 | Gary Zimak

[Salvation]

So, You Just Received Jesus…Now What?

Oct 15th, 2011

by Gary Zimak.

I’m sad to admit that, over the course of my life as a cradle Catholic, I have received Our Lord in Holy Communion many times and didn’t have too much to say to Him.  It’s understandable, isn’t it?  There are lots of important things to do after receiving Communion: we have to look around the church and see how many people we know, we have to plan what we’re going to do after Mass and let’s not forget that we have to read the parish bulletin to see if we’re having coffee and donuts after Mass.  With all of these distractions, it’s easy to forget that we received the Lord and Savior of the Universe into our very bodies in a foretaste of the Heavenly banquet! 

While I’m obviously using sarcasm to make a point, it really can be difficult to keep our focus after receiving Holy Communion.  Since the Church teaches that there are infinite graces available after we receive Jesus, however, this isn’t the best time to become distracted.  But what can we do?  In reality, there is a simple acronym that help you to better focus on speaking to Our Lord after receiving Him in Holy Communion.  The acronym?

A.C.T.S.

Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication.  Generally accepted as the four types of prayer, this acronym is hardly a secret.  What is not well known, however, is the effectiveness of  using this method immediately after receiving Holy Communion.  My wife, Eileen, has used it for years and finds it very helpful for collecting her thoughts after receiving the Eucharist.  After trying it myself, I can see why she likes it …it works!  Here’s an example of just how simple this method of prayer can be:

Adoration – Lord Jesus, I bow down before You and give you glory.  I adore and love You and acknowledge Your power over all areas of my life.  I ask my Blessed Mother, Mary, to supplement my feeble prayers and give You the proper adoration and praise of which You are so deserving.

Contrition – I am sorry that MY sins caused You to die a painful death on the cross.  Please forgive me, Jesus, for the times that I’ve failed to “do the right thing”.  Have mercy on me, a poor sinner.

Thanksgiving – Lord, I give You thanks for the many blessings in my life: my family, my job, my house, my friends.  I thank You for the gift of the Catholic Church and her clear and infallible teachings.  I thank You for the Sacraments which give me the grace that I need to lead a good and holy life, especially for the gift of Your Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.

Supplication- Please help me, Lord.  I am a sinner who is struggling to be good.  I know that I can’t do it alone and I ask for your help.  Allow me to receive all of the graces possible from this reception of the Eucharist.  Help me to love You more and grant me an increase in faith, hope and charity.  I ask You to pour out Your blessing on my family and friends and those who have asked for my prayers.

Why not try it for yourself and see what happens?  The next time you receive Jesus in Holy Communion, close your eyes (the first step in avoiding distractions) and think of “A.C.T.S”.  Go through the letters, one by one, and speak from your heart.  I predict that you’ll find yourself getting closer to Jesus than you ever thought possible!

[Uri’el-2012]

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/the_eucharist.html

Nothing new. Still more Sophistry.

The human priesthood was done away with in 70CE,
when YHvH destroyed the earthly temple .

Today we have Yah'shua as our High Priest.

His sacrifice as the Lamb of G-d covers us for ever.

Membership in a man-made corporation will not save.

Psalm 118:8 It is better to take refuge in YHvH
Than to trust in man.

Psalm 118:9 It is better to take refuge in YHvH
Than to trust in princes.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[johngrace]

The title is about a Catholic perspective. So you give a repeat performance.

[D-fendr]

The title is about a Catholic perspective.

We don't even share an orthodox Christian perspective of Christ.

[Uri’el-2012]

Thanks for your reply.

It’s not just the ‘Roman Church’ but Protestant and Catholic alike that share in the belief of the Most Holy Trinity.

So, in your teaching, Jesus was full human but not fully divine, correct? He was a vessel or temple for the glory of God the Father.

Besides being off the mark for orthodox Christians, this would explain why the Real Presence is not part of your teaching.

While I’m curious about your Unitarian theology, it’s so far apart that it’s rejected by Christians who believe in the Real Presence and those who do not.

It is very clear that you are ignorant of YHvH's Holy WORD,
SEE: Gen. 49:18; Exod. 14:13; 15:2; 1 Sam. 2:1; 2 Sam. 22:47; 1 Chr. 16:23; 2 Chr. 6:41; 20:17; Ps. 3:8; 14:7; 18:2, 46; 21:1; 24:5; 27:1; 35:9; 37:39; 38:22; 40:16; 68:19; 85:7; 88:1; 95:1; 96:2; 98:2; 106:4; 116:13; 118:14f; 119:41, 166, 174; 140:7; 149:4; Isa. 12:2; 25:9; 33:2, 6; 45:8, 17; 49:8; 52:10; 56:1; 61:10; 62:11; Jer. 3:23; Lam. 3:26; Jon. 2:9; Mic. 7:7; Hab. 3:8, 18

But fully catechized.

Yah'shua said the is only ONE YHvH (Mark 12:29 by Peter)

Yah'shua is the shekinah of YHvH in human flesh.
Yah'shua was incarnated on the very day that the
tabernacle in the wilderness was completed: Chanukah

Seek YHvH in His Holy WORD.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[Uri’el-2012]

The title is about a Catholic perspective. So you give a repeat performance.

I read that the thread was OPEN !

Perhaps I misread the title.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[johngrace]

But he is still on a mission from God to help us cannibals. I have a rib. What part do you have? The stereo types are just amazing.

[D-fendr]

Yah'shua is the shekinah of YHvH in human flesh.

A made up Christology, bearing no resemblance to Catholic or Protestant teaching of Christ, the Apostles, the early Church and the last two thousand years. It was created by a smaller sect of a sect of a syncretic movement begun about 50 years ago.

Perhaps you could post an article that describes your beliefs in fuller detail; I'd be happy to debate it in that context.

But to continue such a far off topic discussion here would be thread hijacking, like debating the beliefs of JW or SDA.

Thanks for your reply.

[johngrace]

Nobody said that but look at the original article. We know your views. Whats your point?

[Cronos]

The thief died before the new Covenant began — he died under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant ended as Jesus won over death and took the righteous in Sheol to the gates of heaven.

[Uri’el-2012]

Nobody said that but look at the original article. We know your views. Whats your point?

Oh I'm confused.

The article was not about the title of the article ?

So, You Just Received Jesus…Now What?

I suggested that one: Seek YHvH in His WORD.

We celebrate The Light( Shekinah) of the world entering
the tabernacle this evening as it did 2000 years ago.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[Uri’el-2012]

Uriel>Yah'shua is the shekinah of YHvH in human flesh.

A made up Christology, bearing no resemblance to Catholic or Protestant teaching of Christ, the Apostles, the early Church and the last two thousand years. It was created by a smaller sect of a sect of a syncretic movement begun about 50 years ago.

Perhaps you could post an article that describes your beliefs in fuller detail; I'd be happy to debate it in that context.

But to continue such a far off topic discussion here would be thread hijacking, like debating the beliefs of JW or SDA.

Thanks for your reply.

What some see as Catholic or Protestant teaching of Christ
was hijacked 1686 years ago by the introduction syncretic
beliefs introduced by the Roman Pontiff at his council at Nicea.

I was merely responding to the title of the thread.

So, You Just Received Jesus…Now What?

I responded "Seek YHvH in His WORD".

Have wonderful journey on the wide road of the catechism.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[D-fendr]

Yes, but discussing this topic with someone of your beliefs is like discussing whether a camel has one or two humps when one side of the debate doesn’t believe camels exist.

Whatever the response, it is hopelessly off topic.

[mdmathis6]

My understanding of the the use of the term “trinity”( the term is not in the Bible) is that it is an attempt to get a handle on the total divine attributes of the Godhead...Son, Spirit and Father yet I believe the term to be weak and only a very general one.

Christ said that “I and the Father are one” and John chapter 1 clearly defines God the Father as being the “word” and defines Christ as “the Word made flesh”. We also find that the Spirit of God, “blows where it wills”and “doesn’t refer to himself but rather searches out the deep things of God” and brings them to consciousness in a believer, (yet will never contradict anything in scripture”).

The Father will say, says, and has said..”I will Raise Him UP, I Raise him UP, I have already raised him up”( Denoting the transtemporal omnipresence of God the most High)

The Son says simply “I am risen...I am Alpha and Omega, the first and last!” (denoting his present reality as our advocate with the Father, and the fount from which the Father’s grace flows to those who have humbled themselves)

As for the Spirit, he says simply “He IS risen indeed” and is that empowering manfestation of God’s spirit and power in the life of the Believer... he is our comforter, as promised by “God AS and In Flesh” before he ascended into heaven.

To the extent that the Godhood could ever have fully died, it did so on that cross at Calvary. The term “trinity” could never explain that fullness of unity between Spirit,God in Flesh, and God the most High....what human understanding could ever comprehend the desperate grace poured out for us....YHvH as you call him has loved this world with a desperate kind of love so much so that his own “elect one” in obedience to that love came and died for us. I think it is better to believe and accept the wholeness of the relationship between Christ, Spirit, and Father than to get into tizzies about the various “Parts”. The Bible has called Christ God; he says “I and the Father are one, who ever has seen me has seen the Father”. I think that is all we need to know and understand.

God the Father when pouring out his wrath on the Son on the cross, was pouring it out on himself as well...there was never disunity. When Christ cried out in the throes of death, “Why have you abandoned me”, it was his physical flesh reacting to impending total shock and vascular collapse...I’ve seen such physical emotional reactions in my patients as they neared death. These patients, looking fearful, often reach out looking for a hand, a friendly voice, a comforting hug. Thus our Christ, also, suffered in such a way. Yet he was never alone; the Father and Son were one even in Death hence the earth quaked and the skies grew dark, many of the dead saints of old came out of their graves, and the temple veil was rent...the very powers of creation and Heaven were shaken, and the keys of death and hell were wrested from the EVIL ONE and the power of sin to chain men was destroyed for those who believe!

Then on the third day...Raised alive, his body seeing no corruption as the Father had promised thru prophets of old and thus remains risen to this day.....INDEED!

There’s your Trinity; the term can scarcely begin to describe the reality of God and no human mind in our present darkened state could ever grasp HIS nature. The fact that he has had any regard for man at all speaks to his Glory and Love!

[johngrace]

Recieved Jesus in communion.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[D-fendr]

the term can scarcely begin to describe the reality of God and no human mind in our present darkened state could ever grasp…

I would agree if you said "fully grasp."

The Church in response to heresy about who Christ is mostly focused on what the Apostolic Church knew He is not. That is the most reasonable approach in light of your statement above. What was described, most fully at Chalcedon, is the Most Holy Trinity; not Unitarianism, certainly not some 1960s-speak such as " shekinah of YHvH in human flesh."

I agree that it is impossible to fully define God in words, but we use words to transmit the orthodox faith and preserve it for 2,000 years and counting. The safest ground here is to stick closely to the Chalcedon Definition. It was not arrived at casually or lately.

Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply.

[mdmathis6]

Okay “fully grasp” then. After all, what only can be known of God by a man is that which God reveals to him. We can know something of the glories of God and his reality as they are revealed in his creation. Yet to “know God” as in have a personal relationship with him, that is something only God can do for a person. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Psalm 32:1.

As for the thoughts of early church fathers concerning the “Trinity”, I have no doubts that the doctrine wasn’t arrived at lightly especially in light of the heresies of those times. That’s why I don’t disparage it; one had to be able to discern between the truth and heresy.
There is no falseness in describing the nature of God as being triune in nature and function yet all in one...none that my Bible indicates anyway! Christ was and is God in flesh and divine from the beginning existing with the Father even at creation, even taking active part as the Bible says, yet still unique in his own person and character. The heresies of those early days tried to undermine that truth and a means was necessary to dispell the evil allure of those heresies. I’ll bet though those early fathers when setting these doctrines to parchment while being assured in themselves by the Spirit that they had done well, knew that what ever they wrote or tried to express, could never fully reveal the burning truth that ached in their hearts to be expressed...for they had no such words to express it...only the briefest of faint outlines of God’s glory were they allowed to put to parchment and proclaim to Christendom! Yet they were enough to define the good from the evil so that men could avoid error or correct themselves (with God’s help) from error.

[D-fendr]

I think we are agreeing. In addition to the problem of describing the indescribable in words is the problem of agreement on even what those words mean. "Nature" mean one thing in the East, another in the West.

Then there is the problem of context, culture in understanding what the agreed upon words mean.

But words do mean things, to coin a phrase. And as you have noted, they serve a valuable service in separating orthodox from heterodox.

So I think we're agreeing: the words are valuable, they always fall short.

Even the Chalcedon Definition requires background and knowledge to approach it properly. How much more so the Godhead?

Might be the proper place to post Chalcedon, in English anyway. :)

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin;
begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood;
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;
the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God (μονογενῆ Θεὸν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ;
as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

Thanks again for your replies.

[Salvation]

Are you a Bible believer? That’s what it says in the Bible.

[Salvation]

**That means Jesus lied to the thief on the cross.**

Jesus did not lie.

Have you ever heard of “spiritual Communion?”

[Salvation]

As Pyro says == a “Baptism of Desire”