RP, Part II
"In regard to the Lord's Supper, I confess that it is an evidence of our union with Christ, since he not only died once and rose again for us, but also truly feeds and nourishes as by his own flesh and blood, so that we are one with him, and his life is common to us. For though he is in heaven for a short while till he come to judge the world, I believe that he, through the secret and incomprehensible agency of his Spirit, gives life to our souls by the substance of his body and blood."
John Calvin, from Brief Form of a Confession of Faith
"In regard to the Lord's Supper, I confess that it is an evidence of our union with Christ, since he not only died once and rose again for us, but also truly feeds and nourishes as by his own flesh and blood, so that we are one with him, and his life is common to us. For though he is in heaven for a short while till he come to judge the world, I believe that he, through the secret and incomprehensible agency of his Spirit, gives life to our souls by the substance of his body and blood."
John Calvin, from Brief Form of a Confession of Faith
posted by trawlerman at 8:23 AM
1 Comments:
I enjoy the high view of Holy Communion in your post and of the quote below:
"I confess that our weakness requires that sacraments be added to the preaching of the word, as seals by which the promises of God are sealed on our hearts,"
Of course I dissent from the following:
"The five sacraments imagined by the Papists, and first coined in their own brain, I repudiate."
"I detest as intolerable sacrilege the execrable abomination of the Mass, useful for no one purpose but to overturn whatever Christ has left us, both in that it is said to be a sacrifice for the living and the dead, and also in all the other things which are diametrically opposed to the purity of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper."
I thought you would enjoy the famous excerpt from a Flannery O'Conner letter regarding the Real Presence, relating her experience at the house of some acquaintances:
"Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it.
That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."
Of course I love O'Conners classic line, but also thought Mrs. Broadwater's understanding of the Eucharist as "the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity" was pretty funny and related in a tangential way.
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