Posted on 06/17/2009 9:48:34 AM PDT by NYer
.- He grew up an evangelical Protestant in Oregon, suspicious of Marian theology. Now hes a Catholic priest and a physicist. Dominican Father Raphael Mary Salzillo was ordained last month in San Francisco and will take up an assignment at the University of Washington Newman Center and Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle.
Born Wesley Salzillo in 1976, he grew up in Florence, a small coastal town. The family converted to Catholicism in the early 1990s.
"My family raised me with a strong Christian faith and a very clear sense that Christ should be the most important thing in my life," Father Raphael Mary recalls, explaining that his faith after conversion remained "generic."
"I was not fully open to the truth that the Catholic faith has to offer," he says.
But when he was 16, a spiritual experience at Mass gave him the strong feeling he was being called to priesthood or religious life. He was not open to it at the time, so tried to convince himself it was just his imagination.
A top graduate from Siuslaw High, he went on to Caltech, earning a bachelors degree in applied physics. He attended graduate school and there he felt his vocation being clarified. At the same time, this scientist wrestled with turning over his will so completely.
"I wanted to choose my own religion rather than accepting the Catholic one as a coherent whole," he says, aware that many people today pick and choose within a body of faith. "In a way, choice had become a God for me, as it has to so many in our society."
Through study of church history and theology and deepening prayer life, he discerned that his own intellect and judgment alone could not fulfill his deepest yearnings. He decided to trust Jesus and the Church fully.
"It was through submission of my power of choice in matters of faith, that I came to know Jesus Christ in a much deeper way," he says.
The last part of his faith to fall into place was an acceptance of Mary. That spiritual movement allowed him to love Jesus more, he explains.
"It was Mary who brought me to finally accept my vocation, and it has been her who has sustained me in this life," he says.
He chose the Dominicans for their emphasis on doctrinal preaching and study, as well as their strong community life with "a streak of monasticism."
He studied philosophy and theology in Berkeley, Calif. and also served at the University of Arizona Newman Center.
“Salvation by grace alone, through faith in Christ” is Catholic teaching, Eph 2:8.
The “universal, invisible Church of Christ” is extracriptural fantasy that the Evangelicals invented, deserves trashing.
The God of Israel is building His Church with the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus. Rome, as it reveres its own significance, is outside wailing and gnashing, strutting and pounding chests. The believers in Christ shun such Pharisaism.
Luke 20:46, “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the market places and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. who devour widows houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
Are you saying that the Gospel of Matthew is not part of Scripture?
Matthew 27:51-53 -- At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
I think many of them are spiritual children and react they way children react when challenged - nuh - uh!
I think this is also why it's so difficult for them to have a conversation with someone with whom they disagree. Many just don't have the tools that come with spiritual maturity.
I think it's less a source of pleasure for them as it is a childish need to attack in order to maintain their arrested development.
There is no need to trash sola fide. It is a false tradition of men whether it is criticized or not.
It is not made false by criticism, it is in itself inherently false.
The force of that statement is that Catholics are not believers in Christ, for Catholics do not shun His Church (which you label 'Pharisaism').
Are Catholics "believers in Christ"...I mean, in your view?
An excellent and valuable warning.
It has nothing to do with the Catholic Church, but it is a fine warning nonetheless.
“My theology is straight from the Book. The RCs have mixed the traditions of men (such as revering Mary and praying to her, like this guy did) and claiming all of this is somehow Christianity. Piffle (I love that word).”
“Mary has been idolized so much by the Catholics that, rather than favored, she now conducts operations on the earth, works in mens hearts, and performs spiritual duties like the Spirit of God. Sounds blasphemous.”
Holy Mary has not just been honored by Catholics - you should read your early reformers had to say about her.
So, we have mixed up traditions? I suggest you read your early church leaders...Luther, Zwingli, Wesley, nor Bullinger et al, changed the “traditions” of the Blessed Mother of God. So who did?
Martin Luther, the founder of the reform said this:
“St. Paul says ‘God sent his Son born of a woman, These words which I hold for true, really sustain quite firmly that Mary is the Mother of God.” (Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s Works, vol 7, pg 592)
This doesn’t mean that Mary’s title “Mother of God” infers that she existed before God. Jesus is present from the beginning of time. “In the Beginning was the Word” (Jn 1.1). In the Old Testament, Jesus was the “rock in the dessert” (Exo 17:6, 1 Cor 10:4).
Sola scriptura is a snake eating its own tail.
Looks like somebody needs to spend more time reading the Scripture, and less time reading the catechism.
Ah, Marian theology. It's great if you want to syncretistically fold Isis worshippers into your evolving religion, but not so great if you want to be true to the Bible.
"Theotokos" is extremely bad theology. Mary was "Christotokos", to be sure, but the idea that she was "theotokos" indicates either Sabellianism, Apollonarianism, or ignorance on the part of the one holding to it.
Very true. I believe Mary was a saved woman, a sinner who needed the same grace for salvation through her son, just as anyone else does, and is therefore enjoying her eternal rest in heaven as we write.
She is not, however, an intercessor between God and man as some of the more irrational Marianists seem to think.
Not only is that bad theology, it's bad history.
ALL of the saints are intercessors.
You’ll have to take it up with the early Church Fathers.
"Never apologize for the Blessed Virgin Mary!"
~~Mother Angelica
**But when he was 16, a spiritual experience at Mass gave him the strong feeling he was being called to priesthood or religious life. He was not open to it at the time, so tried to convince himself it was just his imagination.**
Obviously, it was not his imagination. What a wonderful story.
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Don't ever ask anyone else to pray for you either.
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