Home Essays Articles by Michael Whelan SM, PhD Page 2

Articles by Michael Whelan SM, PhD

 

 

Spiritual Practices and Attitudes 10 – Eucharist: Bread of Life

JColo River Sally June 2015 Square

Notes by Michael Whelan SM

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002) goes to the heart of the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist:

The sacrificial nature of the Mass, solemnly asserted by the Council of Trent in accordance with the Church’s universal tradition, [Ecumenical Council of Trent, Session 22, Doctrina de ss. Missae sacrificio, 17 September 1562 : Enchiridion Symbolorum, H. Denzinger and A. Schönmetzer, editors (editio XXXIII, Freiburg: Herder, 1965; hereafter, Denz-Schön), 1738-1759.] was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council, which offered these significant words about the Mass: ‘At the Last Supper our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood, by which he would perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, thus entrusting to the Church, his beloved Bride, the memorial of his death and resurrection.’

Read More

The Number One Enemy of Christmas

JJesus Incarnate

The Number One Enemy of Christmas
Michael Whelan SM PhD

One of the indispensable tasks of any …. formulation [of Christology] will surely have to be a convincing vindication of the thoroughgoing humanness of Jesus, a humanness which the classical Christology formally and officially defended, but practically and effectively undermined. [Donald P. Gray, “The Incarnation: God’s Giving and Man’s Receiving,” Horizons, 1 (1974), 1]

Read More

Constantinianism

JConstantinian

How we are affected by what happened in the 4th century.
Michael Whelan SM PhD

The change which affected the priesthood at that time (ie in the 5th century) was itself a consequence of an even deeper change: one which affected ecclesiology as a whole. Mentalities passed from a conception of the ‘Church, community of Christians’ to one which accepted the ‘distance between the lay people and the Church of the clerics’. In the first state there was ‘an organic union between pastors and faithful’ in matters touching liturgical celebrations, councils and other activities of church life. In the second state the idea that predominates is that ‘the whole Christian life and the religious state depend upon the priests, their fidelity, the purity of their life, and their learning’.

Read More

The self-emptying of Divine Presence

JKenosis

The self-emptying of Divine Presence
Notes by Michael Whelan SM

•“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

Read More

Problem-solving has Little to Offer in the Face of Evil

Jabuse And Cover Up Bookcover

A Book Review
Michael Whelan SM

Gerald A Arbuckle SM, Abuse and Cover-Up: Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma, Orbis Books, 2019, footnotes, index, 226 pages, pb.

Two preliminary comments

The first comment arises from my own experience of appearing as a witness, together with Fr David Ranson, at the Royal Commission on the afternoon of Monday 6 February 2017.

Read More