Friday 25 January 2013

For the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul: "The claim of Catholicism is that it shows to men the whole meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus."

"...In these and in similar ways the Pauline doctrine is returning...  But the full recovery  of the doctrine of the Church is bound up with the return of of the Gospel of God. Catholicism, created by the Gospel, finds its power in terms of the Gospel alone. Neither the massive polity of the Church, nor its devotional life , nor its traditions in order and worship can in themselves ever serve to define Catholicism; for all these things have their meaning in the Gospel, wherein the true definition of Catholicism is found.
Its order has its deepest significance not in terms of legal validity but in terms of the Body and the Cross; its Eucharist proclaims God redeemer and creator; its confessional is the place where men see that in wounding Christ sin wounds His Body, and where by learning of the Body they learn of Christ; its reverence for the saints is a part of its worship of the risen Lord. The claim of Catholicism is that it shows to men the whole meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus..."   
Michael Ramsey: The Gospel and the Catholic Church (1936) 

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