Darwell Stone
When I was in graduate school at the University
of Durham my supervisor, Fr. George Dragas, a Greek Orthodox priest,
recommended to me a book written by Darwell Stone and published in 1900, Outlines of Christian Dogma. Fr. Dragas did so because his supervisor, the
Presbyterian theologian and professor at New College, Edinburgh, Thomas
Torrance, had always kept this book on his desk as a quick reference. This was
an impressive ecumenical consensus which would have surprised Dr. Stone.
Perhaps the most important Anglo-Catholic theologian of the early 20th
century, Dr. Stone’s Outlines of
Christian Dogma have not become dated because his teaching was based always
on Scripture, the Church Fathers, the Medieval Theologians, the Anglican
Divines, the authorities of the Roman and Orthodox Churches.
All Saints and All Souls bring us face to face
with theological questions, which are still much disputed among Christians,
namely the Invocation of the Saints
(asking the saints to pray for us) and prayer for the dead.
The real difficulty is that there is nothing in
Holy Scripture which clearly commends, forbids or demands these practices. How
you decide these matters depends entirely on how you interpret the Bible. What Darwell
Stone gives is a pretty good idea of what the consensus of the Church has been
throughout its history, which is in fact the way he approaches all theological
questions. The Outlines of Christian dogma is now on the internet(archive.org/details/outlineschristi00stongoog)
but if you ever run across a copy, buy it!- Fr. Allen
Darwell Stone on the Invocation of the Saints
The Invocation
of Saints, that is, the practice of directly
addressing the saints to ask them for the help of their prayers to God. There
is nothing either for or against this practice in Holy Scripture or in
Christian writings outside Holy Scripture in the first and second
centuries. The third century
supplies little more evidence than the
first two. In the fourth century there is a good deal of evidence. The
practice of Invocation is either used or
referred to with approval by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine in the West, and St.
Ephraim the Syrian, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa,
and St. Chrysostom in the East. There is no writer of the fourth century whose
works have come down to us who says anything in disapproval of the practice.
Consequently, it is reasonable to infer that the writers mentioned are
representative of the general Christian feeling on this subject in the
fourth century.
Inscriptions in the catacombs contain addresses to the departed, which include some
requests for prayers. There are no Invocations in the Liturgies. This would be
the case under any circumstances because of the rule that the Eucharistic
prayers were to be addressed only to God the Father.
From the fourth century on, the Invocation of
Saints was an ordinary form of Christian devotion throughout the East and West.
During the middle ages, Invocations of Saints were very largely used, in many
cases with greatly exaggerated and distorted ideas. This was one of
the questions which had to be faced in the West in the sixteenth century.
There is a good deal on the subject in the
English official publications. In The Ten
Articles of 1536 it was carefully explained that the gifts of grace were
bestowed by God alone, through the mediation of our Saviour Christ ; that
superstitions, as that the saints are more merciful than God, were to be put aside;
and that the prayers addressed to the saints were that they might join with us
in prayer to God.
In
The Institution of a Christian Man,
of 1537, commonly known as the Bishops Book, the same position
was taken up, and it was taught that no one was to think that gifts came from
any but God ; and that the prayers addressed to the saints were for the help of
their prayers with God. The same teaching was given in The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, of 1543, commonly
known as the King s Book. In the Forty-two Articles of 1552, the doctrine of
school authors concerning Invocation of Saints was condemned. In the Articles
of 1563, the phrase doctrine of school authors was altered to Romish doctrine
( Doctrina Romanensium ).
The history of the English documents, as well as
the Latin phrase thus used, gives a high probability that what is condemned in
this Article is what is condemned in the Ten
Articles, the Bishops Book, and the
King s Book ; and that Invocation
of Saints in the sense in which it is approved in those three documents is left
an open question by the present Article.
At the Council of Trent a very guarded position
was taken up. In the decree of the Council it was simply stated that it is good
and useful to invoke the saints ; that all benefits come from God through the
mediation of Jesus Christ; and that all superstition was to be put down. The
Catechism of the Council declared that no more might be rightly addressed to a saint than
Pray for us ; and that such a form as Have mercy on us addressed to a saint
could only be justified if used in the sense of Have mercy by praying for us. Thus
the position taken up by the Council of Trent on this point is the same as that
in the English Ten Articles, the Bishops Book, and the King s Book with which the
present Thirty-nine Articles probably correspond.
Both sets of documents affirm the lawfulness of
asking the saints for the help of their prayers ; both condemn seeking from the
saints what can be given by God alone.
Prayer for the Dead
It is possible to sum up certain conclusions as to prayer for the dead and the Invocation of
Saints based upon the consideration of the present state of the departed.
While there have been differences of teaching in the Church as to many details about the state
of the departed, it came to be the general sense of Christendom that some of
those who will eventually be among the saved are in a higher state, others in a
lower state, and that at any rate those in the lower state are capable of
development and progress which may be assisted by the prayers of Christians
upon earth.
On the supposition that the great saints have attained to the Vision of God, there is a
reasonable ground for the belief that in the Vision of God they behold all
things which He wills to make known to them and that they are thus cognizant of
the requests for their prayers made by Christians on earth.
On the contrary supposition that even the great saints
are still in a waiting state without the Vision of God, there is no reasonable
ground for denying that God may reveal to them the requests for their prayers made
by Christians upon earth. Similarly, such requests may also be revealed by God
to the faithful
departed generally.
On the constant tradition of the Catholic Church
; the sources of which may be seen even in the Church of the Old Testament.
Judas Maccabaeus offered sacrifice for his men that had fallen. 2 Mace. Xii.
43. Prayer for the departed has ever formed a fixed part of the Divine Liturgy
from the first Liturgy of the Apostle James. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says “Very
great will be the benefit to those souls for which prayer is offered at the
moment when the holy and tremendous sacrifice is lying in view.” Led. Myst. V.
9. St. Basil the Great in his prayers for Pentecost says that the Lord
vouchsafes to receive from us propitiatory prayers and sacrifices for those who
are kept in hades, and allows us the hope of obtaining for them peace, relief, and
freedom.
There is a consensus of Catholic theology that
at any rate many of the departed may be benefited by the prayers of the living.
There are those, indeed, who, being eternally lost, cannot be helped by prayer.
It is only a very few exceptional writers here and there, not weighty as they
stand by themselves separated from the mainstream of the Christian tradition, who
use language inconsistent with this fact. There may be those who have already
attained so fully to perfection and glory that prayers offered on earth no
longer help them. For at least all who are between these two groups, it is
right and useful to pray. This simple truth is not affected by differences of
belief or statement at different times and in different places. On the supposition
of the state of waiting spoken of by St. Irenaeus, or the purgatory of the
mediaeval West or the modern Church of Rome, prayer for the departed is both a
lawful practice and a useful duty.
Ronald Knox on Hope
“Hope is something that is demanded of us; it is
not, then, a mere reasoned calculation of our chances. Nor is it merely the
bubbling up of a sanguine temperament; if it is demanded of us, it lies not in
the temperament but in the will... Hoping for what? For delivereance from
persecution, for immunity from plague, pestilence, and famine...? No, for the
grace of persevering in his Christian profession, and for the consequent
achievement of a happy immortality. Strictly speaking, then, the highest
exercise of hope, supernaturally speaking, is to hope for perseverance and for
Heaven when it looks, when it feels, as if you were going to lose both one and
the other.”
Calendar
The
pace picks up this time of year:
Nov.
1 All Saints Masses Noon & 6:30pm
Nov.
2 All Souls Masses 6:45 & Noon
Nov.
6 Election Day Vote!
Nov.
22 Thanksgiving Mass 10:00am
Nov.
25 Sunday Christ the King Masses as
usual
followed by Parish Annual Meeting
Dec.
2 The First Sunday of Advent
Dec.
24 Christmas Eve Masses 6:30 pm and 10:30 pm
Dec.
25 Christmas Day Mass 10:00am
Dec 28
Holy Innocents: 6:00 p.m. Evening Prayer and Holy Rosary, followed by Low
Mass (Anglican) at St. Francis Church, 3838 Walnut Hill Ln., Dallas (between
Marsh & Midway). Blessing of the Gifts & Christmas Celebration
will be held in the Parish Hall at 7:15 p.m. In honor of the Christ Child
and in remembrance of the Holy Innocents, we are requesting diapers, wipes,
toiletries, and new layette items. Donations benefit the White Rose
Women’s Center, Birth Choice, and Project Gabriel mothers who made courageous
decisions for life in 2011.
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