Word of the Day: Natural Religion

NATURAL RELIGION. A composite of all those duties to God which human reason can discover by its own power and apart from supernatural revelation. Three principal truths and corresponding duties constitute natural religion: 1. God exists and is a Being of infinite excellence and worth; human beings therefore owe him special reverence; 2. God is the First Cause, as the author and provider of all that anyone is and does; everyone therefore owes him special service; 3. God is the Final Destiny and Highest Good in whom alone the human heart can find happiness; he therefore deserves special love.

Word of the Day: Jesus Christ the Conqueror

JESUS CHRIST THE CONQUEROR. Ancient title of Christ signifying his victory over sin, death, and the evil spirit. It appears in the familiar monogram IC XC NIKA, where I and C are the first and last letters of the Greek word Ihcuc (Jesus); X and C are the first and last letters of Xrictoc (Christ); and nika is the Greek word for "conquers."

✠✠✠J✠M✠J✠✠✠

And as the war-cry goes in Latin, Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!-Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ commands!

Word of the Day: Trivium

TRIVIUM

The three primary branches in medieval education: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic (logic). (Etym. Latin tres, three + viae, ways: trivium, crossroad.)

Still the basis of all true education, there is no better modern introduction than The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, by Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C., PhD.

Word of the Day: Dom

DOM. 

Traditional title of the men religious of the Benedictine and Cistercian orders. An abbreviation of Dominus (Lord), it originally applied to the Pope, bishops, and finally to monks. In Italy "Don" is used for all clerics except mendicant friars and clerks regular. The form "Dan" was used in medieval English, and "Monsieur" has been customary in France. (Etym. Latin dominus, master.)

Tho' its use has declined, the Traditional Benedictine Houses, Fontgombault (in French), Le Barroux, Benedictines of Norcia, Benedictines of Silverstream Priory, Benedictines of Clear Creek, and others still use it.

'Don' was also commonly used in Spain.

Word of the Day: HABIT, RELIGIOUS

HABIT, RELIGIOUS. 

The distinctive garb of a man or woman religious, its use dating back to the beginnings of monasticism. The habit was prescribed for religious by the Second Vatican Council: "The religious habit, an outward mark of consecration to God, should be simple and modest, poor and at the same time becoming. In addition, it must meet the requirements of health and be suited to the circumstances of time and place and to the needs of the ministry involved" (Perfectae Caritatis, 17).

Unfortunately, the description in Perfectae Caritatis which perfectly fit the habits existing at the time, was immediately taken to allow the destruction of the habit. I remember a time shortly after the Council. I was at a party with a Catholic friend whilst I was still an Anglican. I was a young man with an eye for an good looking woman. I saw an attractive young woman and prepared to walk over and chat her up. I turned to my friend and asked who she was. Her reply?

'Oh, that's Sister X. She teaches in our parish school!' Sister's 'habit' consisted of a lapel pin on an otherwise modish, attractive outfit!

I have been extremely pleased to see a return to traditional habits among many orders. Now, bring back the cassock and biretta for secular priests!

Also, as an aside, even Tertiaries wear a habit. As a Tertiary of Mount Carmel, the habit I wear (under my clothing) is a scapular approximately 15 cm x 20 cm. It can be plain brown cloth, but the one I have was made by a friend and it has a Jerusalem Cross on the front panel and the coat of arms of the Order of Carmel on the back.

Word of the Day: Thomism

THOMISM. 

The philosophy and theology taught by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) and by those who respect his ideas and follow his basic principles. The body of propositions contained in the Twenty-four Theses approved by Pope St. Pius X. This is the most concise and authoritative expression of Thomism as understood in the Roman Catholic Church. The term is also sometimes used to identify the Bañezian theory on the relation of grace and free will with its stress on physical predetermination to explain the efficacy of divine grace.

As Fr Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O. P. states in his book, Reality—A Synthesis Of Thomistic Thought,

By the Motu Proprio of June 29, 1914, Pius St X prescribed that all courses in philosophy should teach "the principles and the major doctrines of St. Thomas," and that in the centers of theological studies the Summa theologiae should be the textbook.

And, after that Motu Proprio, Doctoris Angelici, a number of philosophy professors met, drew up a list of the principles and major tenets of St. Thomas, and submitted the list to the Sacred Congregation of Studies. On July 27, 1914, this Congregation declared that in their judgment this list contained the principles and major tenets of St. Thomas' philosophy, especially in metaphysics.

The Congregation itself, in 1916, declared that these were safe, directive norms. Though the list often does not give the exact wording of St. Thomas, it is sure that the ideas are St. Thomas'. Hence, if St. Thomas is the safe, approved teacher of philosophy for Catholics, his ideas must be safe and approved norms. A philosopher who intellectually accepts all of these theses is named a Thomist; and this meaning of the term Thomist is about the only definite meaning that can be assigned to it. The theses are given here for convenient reference.

"We admonish professors to bear well in mind that they cannot set aside St. Thomas, especially in metaphysical questions, without grave disadvantage". --Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907

These 24 propositions are a concise guide of the whole philosophy and can be divided as follows:

 Ontology (Th. 1 – 7) ; Cosmology (Th. 8 – 12) ; Psychology (Th. 13 – 21) ; Theodicy (Th. 22 – 24)

ONTOLOGY

1 .  Potency and Act divide being in such a way that whatever is, is either pure act, or of necessity it is composed of potency and act as primary and intrinsic principles.[1]

2. Since act is perfection, it is not limited except through a potency which itself is a capacity for perfection. Hence in any order in which an act is pure act, it will only exist, in that order, as a unique and unlimited act. But whenever it is finite and manifold, it has entered into a true composition with potency.[2]

3. Consequently, the one God, unique and simple, alone subsists in absolute being. All other things that participate in being have a nature whereby their being is restricted; they are constituted of essence and being, as really distinct principles.[3]

4. A thing is called a being because of being ("esse"). God and creature are not called beings univocally, nor wholly equivocally, but analogically, by an analogy both of attribution and of proportionality.[4]

5. In every creature there is also a real composition of the subsisting subject and of added secondary forms, i.e. accidental forms. Such composition cannot be understood unless being is really received in an essence distinct from it.[5]

6. Besides the absolute accidents there is also the relative accident, relation. Although by reason of its own character relation does not signify anything inhering in another, it nevertheless often has a cause in things, and hence a real entity distinct from the subject.[6]

7. A spiritual creature is wholly simple in its essence. Yet there is still a twofold composition in the spiritual creature, namely, that of the essence with being, and that of the substance with accidents.[7]

8. However, the corporeal creature is composed of act and potency even in its very essence. These act and potency in the order of essence are designated by the names form and matter respectively.[8]

COSMOLOGY

9.  Neither the matter nor the form have being of themselves, nor are they produced or corrupted of themselves, nor are they included in any category otherwise than reductively, as substantial principles.[9]

10. Although extension in quantitative parts follows upon a corporeal nature, nevertheless it is not the same for a body to be a substance and for it to be quantified. For of itself substance is indivisible, not indeed as a point is indivisible, but as that which falls outside the order of dimensions is indivisible. But quantity, which gives the substance extension, really differs from the substance and is truly an accident.[10]

11. The principle of individuation, i.e., of numerical distinction of one individual from another with the same specific nature, is matter designated by quantity. Thus in pure spirits there cannot be more than individual in the same specific nature.[11]

12. By virtue of a body's quantity itself, the body is circumscriptively in a place, and in one place alone circumscriptively, no matter what power might be brought to bear.[12]

13.  Bodies are divided into two groups; for some are living and others are devoid of life. In the case of the living things, in order that there be in the same subject an essentially moving part and an essentially moved part, the substantial form, which is designated by the name soul, requires an organic disposition, i.e. heterogeneous parts.[13]

PSYCHOLOGY

14. Souls in the vegetative and sensitive orders cannot subsist of themselves, nor are they produced of themselves. Rather, they are no more than principles whereby the living thing exists and lives; and since they are wholly dependent upon matter, they are incidentally corrupted through the corruption of the composite.[14]

15. On the other hand, the human soul subsists of itself. When it can be infused into a sufficiently disposed subject, it is created by God. By its very nature, it is incorruptible and immortal.[15]

16. This rational soul is united to the body in such a manner that it is the only substantial form of the body.  By virtue of his soul a man is a man, an animal, a living thing, a body, a substance and a being. Therefore the soul gives man every essential degree of perfection; moreover, it gives the body a share in the act of being whereby it itself exists.[16]

17. From the human soul there naturally issue forth powers pertaining to two orders, the organic and the non-organic. The organic powers, among which are the senses, have the composite as their subject. The non-organic powers have the soul alone as their subject. Hence, the intellect is a power intrinsically independent of any bodily organ.[17]

18. Intellectuality necessarily follows upon immateriality, and furthermore, in such manner that the father the distance from matter, the higher the degree of intellectuality. Any being is the adequate object of understanding in general. But in the present state of union of soul and body, quiddities abstracted from the material conditions of individuality are the proper object of the human intellect.[18]

19. Therefore, we receive knowledge from sensible things. But since sensible things are not actually intelligible, in addition to the intellect, which formally understands, an active power must be acknowledged in the soul, which power abstracts intelligible likeness or species from sense images in the imagination.[19]

20. Through these intelligible likenesses or species we directly know universals, i.e. the natures of things. We attain to singulars by our senses, and also by our intellect, when it beholds the sense images. But we ascend to knowledge of spiritual things by analogy.[20]

21. The will does not precede the intellect but follows upon it. The will necessarily desires that which is presented to it as a good in every respect satisfying the appetite. But it freely chooses among the many goods that are presented to it as desirable according to a changeable judgment or evaluation. Consequently, the choice follows the final practical judgment. But the will is the cause of it being the final one.[21]

THEODICY

22. We do not perceive by an immediate intuition that God exists, nor do we prove it a priori. But we do prove it a posteriori, i.e., from the things that have been created, following an argument from the effects to the cause: namely, from things which are moved and cannot be the adequate source of their motion, to a first unmoved mover; from the production of the things in this world by causes subordinated to one another, to a first uncaused cause; from corruptible things which equally might be or not be, to an absolutely necessary being; from things which more or less are, live, and understand, according to degrees of being, living and understanding, to that which is maximally understanding, maximally living and maximally a being; finally, from the order of all things, to a separated intellect which has ordered and organized things, and directs them to their end.[22]

23. The metaphysical motion of the Divine Essence is correctly expressed by saying that it is identified with the exercised actuality of its won being, or that it is subsistent being itself. And this is the reason for its infinite and unlimited perfection.[23]

24. By reason of the very purity of His being, God is distinguished from all finite beings. Hence it follows, in the first place, that the world could only have come from God by creation; secondly, that not even by way of a miracle can any finite nature be given creative power, which of itself directly attains the very being of any being; and finally, that no created agent can in any way influence the being of any effect unless it has itself been moved by the first Cause.[24]

In 1917, publishing the Canon Law, Pope Benedict XV ordered the method, doctrines and principles of St Thomas to be followed (Code, can. 1366, § 2) and gave as reference the decree of the Sacred Congregation approving the 24 Thesis.   

Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Vl (1914), 383­86, is the source of the list of theses. It evaluates them as a good statement of the principles and major views of St. Thomas' philosophy. The same Acta, VII (1916), 157­58, refers to them as safe, directive norms.

[1] St Th. I^a. Q.77, a.1 ; Metaph. VII, 1 and  IX, 1 and 9

[2] St Th. I^a. Q.7, a.1-2 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.43 ; I Sent. Dist.43, Q.2

[3] St Th. I^a. Q.50, a.2, ad 3 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.38,52,53,54 ; I Sent. Dist.19, Q.2, a.2 ; De Ent. et Ess. c.5 ; De Spir. Creat. a.1 ; De Verit. Q.27, a.1, ad 8

[4] St Th. I^a. Q.13, a.5 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.32,33,34 ; De Pot. Q.7, a.7

[5] St Th. I^a. Q.3, a.6 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.23 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.52 ; De Ent. et Ess. c.5

[6] St Th. I^a. Q.28, mainly a.1

[7] St Th. I^a. Q.50 and ff ; De Spirit. Creat. a.1

[8] St Th. De Spirit. Creat. a.1

[9] St Th. I^a. Q.45, a.4 ; De Pot. Q.3, a.5, ad 3 ;

[10] St Th. Cont. Gent. IV, c.65 ; I Sent. Dist. 37, Q.2, a.1, ad 3 ; II Sent. Dist. 30, Q.2, a.1

[11] St Th. Cont. Gent. II, c.92-93 ; I^a. Q.50, a.4 ; De Ent. et Ess. c.2

[12] St Th. III^a. Q.75 ; IV Sent. Dist. 10, a.3

[13]  St Th. I^a. Q.18, a.1-2 and Q.75, a.1 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.97 ; De Anima everywhere

[14]  St Th. I^a. Q.75, a.3 and Q.90, a.2 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.80 and 82

[15] St Th. I^a. Q.75, a.2 and Q.90 and 118 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.83 and ff. ; De Pot. Q.3, a.2 ; De Anim. a.14

[16] St Th. I^a. Q.76 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.56, 68-71 ; De Anim. a.1 ; De Spirit. Creat. a.3

[17] St Th. I^a. Q.77-79 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.72 ; De Anim. a.12 and ff. ; De Spirit. Creat. a.11

[18] St Th. I^a. Q.14, a.1 and Q.74, a.7 and Q.89, a.1-2 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.59 and 72, and IV, c.2

[19]   St Th. I^a. Q.79, a.3-4 and Q.85, a.6-7  ; Cont. Gent. II, c.76 and ff. ; De Spirit. Creat. a.10

[20] St Th. I^a. Q.85-88

[21] St Th. I^a. Q.82-83 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.72 and ff. ; De Verit. Q.22, a.5 ; De Malo Q.11

[22] St Th. I^a. Q.2 ; Cont. Gent. I, c.12 and 31 and III c.10-11 ; De Verit. Q.1 and 10 ; De Pot. Q.4 and 7

[23] St Th. I^a. Q.4 , a.2 and Q.13, a.11 ; I Sent. Dist. 8, Q.1

[24] St Th. I^a. Q.44-45 and 105 ; Cont. Gent. II, c.6-15 and III c.66-69 and IV c.44 ; De Pot. mainly Q.3, a.7

Word of the Day: Jasna Gora

JASNA GORA. 

Polish national shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which contains the famous icon of Mary holding the Child Jesus. Jasna Gora, the "Hill of Light," was the principal place of pilgrimage visited by Pope John Paul II in June 1979. There are numerous references to the shrine in the speeches and writings of the Polish Pope, referring to "Our Mother of God of Jasna Gora." The location of the image on the hill Czestochowa, in south-central Poland, was occasioned by the erection of a priory of Paulite monks there since 1382.

The Icon of the Blessed Mother was crowned as Queen and Protectress of Poland on 1 April 1656 by King John II Casimir Vasa.

Word of the Day: Philosophy

I'm starting a new daily post which I hope my readers may find interesting. For want of a better title, I'm going to call it 'Word of the Day'. It will consist of a daily posting of a word or a term from theology, Canon Law, history, philosophy or related subjects.

I'll give a definition, and then some thoughts of my own on its meaning, history, and use.

The word for today is: PHILOSOPHY. 

Literally the love of wisdom. It is the science in which natural reason, apart from divine revelation, seeks to understand all things by a knowledge of their first causes. (Etym. Greek philein, to love + sophia, wisdom: philosophus.)

For the Traditional Catholic, this means, of course, the philosophy of the Angelic Doctor, the Scholastic philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas known as 'Thomism'. This was enjoined on the Church by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical, Æterni Patris, On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy in Catholic Schools in the Spirit of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas.

More honoured in the breach than the observance since the Second Vatican Council, it is a major aim of the Traditional movement and those who are fighting to preserve Græco-Roman Catholic Civilisation and Culture to restore Scholastic philosophy to its preeminent place in higher education.