Exposition Of The Apostles Creed From Practice Of Divine Love

Author : H. Rolfus
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781483907482
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (74 download)

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Download or read book Explanation of the Apostles' Creed written by H. Rolfus and published by . This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work begins with a consideration of Faith. Let us consider this excerpt: "Anyone of us may say, "Lord, I believe; Lord, I doubt nothing." But we must also make our faith a living one by doing good and avoiding evil, as the law prescribes. Good works infuse life into faith. " As the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead" Games ii. 26). Christian life is a tree whose vital roots are planted in faith. But if the tree bear no fruit it will be cut down, for it is of no use, let it be ever so fair. Now, the blossoms and fruits on the tree of Christian life are our works. It is, therefore, a soul-destroying error to deny the necessity of good works. "By their fruits you shall know them " (Matthew vii. 20)."And let us consider this on Jesus' descent into hell: "Theologians teach that there are three distinct places in which those souls that have not reached eternal happiness are detained after death. According to the Catechism of the Council of Trent the first place is an extremely dark and awful prison, in which the souls of the damned are punished in an everlasting and unquenchable fire together with the evil spirits, called the fire of hell, the abyss, and in a stricter sense hell. Secondly, there is a purgatory, in which the souls of the good are punished for a time and purified, that they may be made worthy to enter into the presence of God, where nothing defiled can enter.A third place of waiting is the one in which the souls of the just who died before Christ awaited without any positive punishment the hour when they would be freed by the coming of their Redeemer. It was to these souls that the soul of Our Saviour went when His body was placed in the sepulcher.This place is called Limbo, and many theologians hold the opinion that it is here that the souls of unbaptized infants are now detained.Father Rolfus recommends the following practice: "The descent of Christ into Limbo should have theeffect of stimulating us to descend in spirit often, while we are yet on this earth, into hell. Not indeed into Limbo, but into hell itself, where the damned souls are burning, groaning, and writhing - into the place of torture, the abyss of misery, where God punishes mortal sin for all eternity. Such a practise will be a salutary one, and will have the effect of keeping us out of hell when we die. "By fire," says a pious teacher, u the hungry lion is frightened away from his prey; so, by keeping hell-fire before our minds, we shall be frightened away from the commission of sin." " The fire of our passions," says Tertullian, "is often extinguished by thoughts on the fire of hell." On the same subject St. Chrysostom writes, "He who, while out of hell, goes down there sometimes in thought will surely not be sent there after death." And St. Bernard warns us to "descend voluntarily into hell often during life, that after our death we may not be compelled to go there."