Wouldn't you want to be blessed by Jesus Himself?

[CatholicConvert]

I was reading this morning's passage from the liturgical calendar. It is from Luke 24: 36 - 53. We celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord. Pascha is officially over.

In reading, I this verse jumped out at me this AM:

Lu 24:51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

While He blessed them.

Which made me wonder. Did He place His hands on each one and bless them, or did He pronounce a general blessing with hands outstretch towards them as a group? Really no proof for either way, but the thing that I found myself thinking was "How wonderful, to have the Lord of God bless you."

Surely that blessing carries a tremendous amount of power for the one being blessed.

Wouldn't we all like to have been there? Wouldn't we all like to feel the hands of Jesus upon our heads, blessing us in the Father's name?

We Catholics and Orthodox have this. This is why the confering of authority upon the bishops in the first century, and the apostolic succession thereafter is so important. When I go into the confessional and the priest, after my "good confession" places the epichtralion (a liturgical sash which shows the position and authority by which he acts) over my head, then places his hands upon me and pronounces the blessing of forgiveness, I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's.

Now I ask you this: if you believe that our Lord can hear the prayers of MILLIONS of Christians simultaneously, why can He not be in multiple places simultaneously, hearing our confessions or just blessing us in response to the request "Bless me Father." (In the East, upon meeting any priest, it is proper to perform a "metany" [a deep reverent bow] before the priest, and, cupping one's hands before him, request a blessing. The priest then blesses in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, making the sign of the Cross over one's outstretched hands. One then concludes by making the sign of the Cross).

If Christ used a physical human body, that of Jesus, human son of the Theotokos, to enter the world and bless us by the defeating of sin, why can He not now use the human body of a priest to be present among His people? He is God. Is anything impossible for Him? Tell me why He couldn't do such in His glorified state.

It's nice having Jesus among us in this way. And with a good and godly priest, it becomes a foretaste of the heavenly glory when we will ever be with Him and enjoying His love.

Cordially in Christ,

Brother Ed

 

[GraceSaves]

So well written, Brother Ed. God bless you this morning! And pray that I make it through this nasty schedule of classes and work that is eating all my free time over the next ten weeks. Eek!

Grant

 

[Singer]

We Catholics and Orthodox have this.


Now I ask you this: if you believe that our Lord can hear the prayers of MILLIONS of
Christians simultaneously, why can He not..................................

Why can He not bless Protestants, you mean ?

It's nice having Jesus among us in this way.

Amen Brother Ed; how could Protestants ever be excluded......for we pray thus:


Luke 11:13 " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask him?"

Although...........Jesus said " Whosoever believes in me shall never die"

"Gimme a Break, Ed.

Singer

*** mean spirited sarcasm remved***

[ May 29, 2003, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: C.S. Murphy ]

 

[Ps104_33]

How can you know for sure that the priest blessing you is not an imposter?
How many people were blessed by some priest that later on was convicted of pedophilia.

 

[thessalonian]

Originally posted by Ps104_33:
How can you know for sure that the priest blessing you is not an imposter?
How many people were blessed by some priest that later on was convicted of pedophilia.

Yes and perhaps some of them had abandoned our Lord at the Cross or denied him three times.

Deuteronomy 21:5
"Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them.


Now perhaps even these priests doing the blessings in the OT were fornicators such as Hophni and Phineas who apparently were levitical priests and who had sex with young women in the doorway of the tent of the meeting. Does that invalidate all of the blessings they performed or could the Lord still bless the people in spite of the man? And how many people "got saved" by the preaching of a pastor who later turned out to be a pervert or who secretly has been cheating on his wife. This happened in a big mega Church here a few months back. A very prominent protestant pastor. Are those people not saved who he brought in to the "Church" or do they have to get resaved? How about all those altar calls he participated in, are they invalid? The door swings both ways gents.

How about the evil apostle Paul:

Romans 7:19
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.


Throw those scriptures he wrote right out.

Gee Psalm, you never know. You may have had a fornicator pray over you. How do you know you didn't.


Oh, I know, you will say it is different in the Catholic Church. Ya ya.


God is the judge guys.

 

[Yelsew]

The difference is that no one in protestant land is an ICON of Jesus as is the case in Catholic land. We protestants know and understand that Jesus is not among us except in spirit. We do not need that symbology to remind us of our place in the hirearchy of true religion. Those of us who have true faith in God and Jesus are a kingdom of Priests, and we serve our Lord Jesus Christ who is at the Father's right hand to the best of our ability in the manner that Jesus Served the Father when he was among us.

 

[mozier]

I have already been blessed by Jesus. I was blessed by him the day He brought me to salvation by trusting on Him, and Him alone.

What more do I need? I do not need any priests or a piece of bread to stand in for him.


mozier

 

[Rakka Rage]

I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's.

what leads you to belive that?

 

[Singer]

(quote)

"I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's"

IF I were a priest, I wouldn't want any part of my body close to a Catholic
worshipper. Thinking as they do, they might just decide to have me for lunch.

*Just being rational.

 

[Ps104_33]

Yes and perhaps some of them had abandoned our Lord at the Cross or denied him three times

Yes but I am not one who would not adhere to some superstitious belief that I would recieve some majical blessing just because Peter put his hands on me. I agree with mozier who said:

have already been blessed by Jesus. I was blessed by him the day He brought me to salvation by trusting on Him, and Him alone.

 

[CatholicConvert]

What you fellows are missing is the blessing of HUMAN TOUCH. I remember, as a very young Christian, hearing of John the Beloved resting his head on the breast of Jesus, as Scripture says, and being moved to near tears of the thought of such intimate and loving contact.

Human closeness, human warmpth and love, expressed in touching, is a faint picture of the blessed union we will have with our Lord forever. I have spoken of this before. The union of two who are married in the marital bed, the pleasure and joy of such intimacy, is a picture and type of the wonderful intimate union of love we will have with God forever. That is why we are called the Bride of Christ.

Non sexual human contact between friends is a lesser degree of intimacy, but still a warm and loving expressed of deep friendship and closeness which speaks of the love between friends. Our Lord has made us to be this way. Surely you know of the diabolic experiment done in Europe where babies were isolated from birth without human touch.

They died.

We must have touch. We need human contact.

In our Eastern Church, it is the custom to exchange what the Bible calls "a holy kiss". Usually this is done men to men or women to women to avoid problems, and it usually takes place on a great holiday, such as Easter or Christmas. It is similar to the kiss of friendship that men greet men with in the Arab countries. To recieve such a greeting makes on feel valued as a brother in the Lord.

It is a shame that those who took this conversation into the gutter missed the whole point of what I was trying to express. As I asked in the beginning, wouldn't you like to have Jesus touch you in such a manner of warmpth and friendship? Suppose He did so with gloves on. Would that take away from the fact that He was touching you in friendship and love? Suppose the gloves were dirty, would that take away from the friendship of the moment.

The priest is just the "gloves" of the Lord. It is He Who forgives us, He Who loves us, He Who desires to be with us. And while He desires to use clean vessels, can it be said of any man on earth that he is 100% without sin at any given moment? Yes, some sins are greater than others, but all sin is sin, and yet God uses sinners to accomplish His divine will on earth.

You guys are so taken with desire to trash and insult the Catholic Faith that you miss the whole message I was trying to convey regarding the love of God for us and how nice it is to have a concrete form of that love here on earth - the priest.

I find it all really sad and pathetic on your part.

 

[WPutnam]

CathlicConvert said:

You guys are so taken with desire to trash and insult the Catholic Faith that you miss the whole message I was trying to convey regarding the love of God for us and how nice it is to have a concrete form of that love here on earth - the priest.

I find it all really sad and pathetic on your part.

I certainly agree!

And a reason I have pulled-back on posting much here lately...too much "mean-spiritedness."

Good work, CatholicConvert!

God bless,

PAX

Bill+†+


Lord, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things that I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that you will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

 

[GraceSaves]

Originally posted by Ps104_33:
How can you know for sure that the priest blessing you is not an imposter?
How many people were blessed by some priest that later on was convicted of pedophilia.

Did you ever ready about the Patriarchs in the Old Testament? The one who got God's blessing? How about Jacob, often considered to be a scoundral, who came out of his mother's womb grabbing at his brother's heel because he wanted to be the first one out to get the birthright?

You should learn the important lesson that our sinfulness does not invalidate the blessing that is FROM GOD. The blessing from a priest indeed is passed to us through a sinner's hands. That doesn't invalidate it's origin.

God bless,

Grant

 

[GraceSaves]

Originally posted by Rakka Rage:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's.

what leads you to belive that? </font>[/QUOTE]A good reading of the book of Genesis would serve you well, as well. God often uses human people to relay his blessings to others. Your doubt of that is not rational, if you believe in the inspired Word of God.

It is amazing how God can use us unworthy humans (including His priests) to do His holy work. You keep doubting; I'll keep believing.

God bless,

Grant

 

[GraceSaves]

Originally posted by mozier:
I have already been blessed by Jesus. I was blessed by him the day He brought me to salvation by trusting on Him, and Him alone.

What more do I need? I do not need any priests or a piece of bread to stand in for him.


mozier

So are you not waiting in eager anticipation for Christ's return? Or why do you bother praying? Reading the Word of God? Apparently all of these things are meaningless, since you are have no more room for extra blessing.

Jesus came to us in tangible form for a reason. He promised us The Advocate (The Holy Spirit), which we believers indeed have, but He also promised that "HE" would never leave us. It is not unreasonable to believe that Jesus still presents Himself to us in physical, tangible ways.

God bless,

Grant

 

[GraceSaves]

Originally posted by Singer:
[qb] (quote)

"I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's"

IF I were a priest, I wouldn't want any part of my body close to a Catholic
worshipper. Thinking as they do, they might just decide to have me for lunch.

*Just being rational.

*** meanspirited sarcasm removed****
God bless our faithful and compassionate priests who serve the Lord on a daily basis. May many more accept their call to serve the Lord in this capacity!

Grant

[ May 29, 2003, 10:41 PM: Message edited by: C.S. Murphy ]

 

[GraceSaves]

Originally posted by CatholicConvert:
Did He place His hands on each one and bless them, or did He pronounce a general blessing with hands outstretch towards them as a group?

Wouldn't we all like to have been there?

Wouldn't we all like to feel the hands of Jesus upon our heads, blessing us in the Father's name?

if you believe that our Lord can hear the prayers of MILLIONS of Christians simultaneously, why can He not be in multiple places simultaneously, hearing our confessions or just blessing us in response to the request "Bless me Father."

If Christ used a physical human body, that of Jesus, human son of the Theotokos, to enter the world and bless us by the defeating of sin, why can He not now use the human body of a priest to be present among His people? He is God.

Is anything impossible for Him? Tell me why He couldn't do such in His glorified state.

The above are the original questions that were asked. The rest was personal reflection on what the blessings meant for him. So far, none of these questions have been answered, but instead, random (in the truest sense of randomness, since none of them addressed the meat of the post) attacks on the ministerial priesthood and Catholicism have ensued. Attacks are fine, as long as they are in the context of the thread, which should be directed to the questions offered. If those questions cannot be answered in a contrary-to-Catholic view, then there is no argument.

I'm simply stating fact. This thread was a personal sharing, and asking how you would justify this as NOT the truth, in light of the questions posed.

God bless,

Grant

 

[Rakka Rage]

A good reading of the book of Genesis would serve you well, as well. God often uses human people to relay his blessings to others. Your doubt of that is not rational, if you believe in the inspired Word of God.

what leads you to believe i doubt God often uses human people to relay his blessings to others? stop making assumptions and go read Genesis

You keep doubting; I'll keep believing.

fyi the question was: why do you believe the priests hands are Jesus hands? did the priest tell you that?

 

[CatholicConvert]

fyi the question was: why do you believe the priests hands are Jesus hands? did the priest tell you that?

Well, yes, I did hear that in my catechism classes, but it also did make a lot of sense to me for this reason:

can a mere man forgive another mere man? CAn a mere man confect the bread and wine into the true Body and Blood of our Lord? Can a mere man make another to be born again by the application of some water?

If these things were true, then the charge of "superstition" labeled against the Catholic Faith would have merit. But since we know that a man alone and by himself cannot do these things, then the power to do them must come from the Lord Himself.

But more than that, we as Christians are called "The Body of Christ" are we not? Therefore, it is not without some reason that we could expect Christ to manifest Himself in the lives of those who have been given divine power by the laying on of hands.

We are also called to become little Christs. Our deification is the object of the Creation, that God might bring many sons to glory. As such, we do have that divine nature in us by grace. Is it such a far stretch then to imagine that there is a special class of men, to whom power and authority is given by the laying on of hands, who have Jesus Himself working His deeds in them?

Perhaps someone will give a better and more cogent answer for you...those are just some of my thoughts on this.

Cordially in Christ,

Brother Ed

 

[BobRyan]

Now I ask you this: if you believe that our Lord can hear the prayers of MILLIONS of Christians simultaneously, why can He not be in multiple places simultaneously, hearing our confessions or just blessing us in response to the request "Bless me Father." (In the East, upon meeting any priest, it is proper to perform a "metany" [a deep reverent bow] before the priest, and, cupping one's hands before him, request a blessing. The priest then blesses in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, making the sign of the Cross over one's outstretched hands. One then concludes by making the sign of the Cross).

If Christ used a physical human body, that of Jesus, human son of the Theotokos, to enter the world and bless us by the defeating of sin, why can He not now use the human body of a priest to be present among His people? He is God. Is anything impossible for Him? Tell me why He couldn't do such in His glorified state.

In Hebrews 8 we find these words "Now if Christ were on earth today He would NOT be a priest at all".

But the question you appear to ask "If Christ could come in the form of a carpenter's son - why not today in the form of a Catholic Priest" - is an interesting one.

But Hebrews 9 (end of the chapter) tells us that Christ will not come again in that form. So now - we go directly to God "We come boldly before the throne of Grace" as Hebrews tells us - "entering within the veil" into the very presence of God - we are "seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father" (Ephesians 2) and from there we may make our petitions known as God's Word instructs.

No reason to settle for second best - we can go directly to God through Christ, no need to consult a catholic priest.

In Christ,

Bob