tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post8868508290020996711..comments2024-02-14T03:56:12.027-08:00Comments on La Salette Journey: La Salette Attleboro: The Fallout Spreads...Paul Anthony Melansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08455719838570381999noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-67541136371179815082009-04-19T15:26:00.000-07:002009-04-19T15:26:00.000-07:00The Worcester Diocesan Commission for Women, at th...The Worcester Diocesan Commission for Women, at their official website, have a link to Joyce Rupp's website which promotes her New Age ideas and books. I have long suspected the Commission for Women of being influenced by New Age spirituality.ShrewsburyCatholicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-26228678176721082492009-04-19T13:40:00.000-07:002009-04-19T13:40:00.000-07:00Thank you all for your comments on this Divine Mer...Thank you all for your comments on this Divine Mercy Sunday. Mrs. Kreitzer, I have emailed you via the CMC website. I am most interested in your work. Ellen, chaff indeed. This represents a real prayer need.Paul Anthony Melansonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08455719838570381999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-43145200848235327882009-04-19T13:23:00.000-07:002009-04-19T13:23:00.000-07:00She was a keynote speaker at the November 2007 Wom...She was a keynote speaker at the November 2007 Women's Conference at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, sponsored by the Worcester Diocesan Commission for Women. She spoke on "Seeing With the Inner Eye," and Bishop McManus of Worcester offered Mass at the conference.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-83752403213716083982009-04-19T13:06:00.000-07:002009-04-19T13:06:00.000-07:00New Advent Encyclopedia has an interesting entry f...New Advent Encyclopedia has an interesting entry for the Sophia Myth:<br /><br />Sophia myth<br /><br />In the greater number of Gnostic systems an important role is played by the Æon Wisdom -- Sophia or Achamoth. In some sense she seems to represent the supreme female principle, as for instance in the Ptolemaic system, in which the mother of the seven heavens is called Achamoth, in the Valentinian system, in which he ano Sophia, the Wisdom above, is distinguished from he kato Sophia, or Achamoth, the former being the female principle of the noumenal world, and in the Archotian system, where we find a "Lightsome Mother" (he meter he photeine), and in which beyond the heavens of the Archons is he meter ton panton and likewise in the Barbelognosis, where the female Barbelos is but the counterpart of the Unknown Father, which also occurs amongst the Ophites described by Irenaeus (Against Heresies III.7.4). <br /><br />Moreover, the Eucharistic prayer in the Acts of Thomas (chapter 1) seems addressed to this supreme female principle. W. Bousset's suggestion, that the Gnostic Sophia is nothing else than a disguise for the Dea Syra, the great goddess Istar, or Astarte, seems worthy of consideration. On the other hand, the Æon Sophia usually plays another role; she is he Prouneikos or "the Lustful One", once a virginal goddess, who by her fall from original purity is the cause of this sinful material world. <br /><br />One of the earliest forms of this myth is found in Simonian Gnosis, in which Simon, the Great Power, finds Helena, who during ten years had been a prostitute in Tyre, but who is Simon's ennoia, or understanding, and whom his followers worshipped under the form of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. <br /><br />According to Valentinus's system, as described by Hippolytus (Book VI, 25-26), Sophia is the youngest of the twenty-eight æons. Observing the multitude of æons and the power of begetting them, she hurries back into the depth of the Father, and seeks to emulate him by producing offspring without conjugal intercourse, but only projects an abortion, a formless substance. Upon this she is cast out of Pleroma. According to the Valentinian system as described by Irenaeus (Against Heresies I) and Tertullian (Against the Valentinians 9), Sophia conceives a passion for the First Father himself, or rather, under pretext of love she seeks to know him, the Unknowable, and to comprehend his greatness. She should have suffered the consequence of her audacity by ultimate dissolution into the immensity of the Father, but for the Boundary Spirit. According to the Pistis Sophia (ch. xxix) Sophia, daughter of Barbelos, originally dwelt in the highest, or thirteenth heaven, but she is seduced by the demon Authades by means of a ray of light, which she mistook as an emanation from the First Father. Authades thus enticed her into Chaos below the twelve Æons, where she was imprisoned by evil powers. <br /><br />According to these ideas, matter is the fruit of the sin of Sophia; this, however, was but a Valentinian development; in the older speculations the existence of matter is tacitly presupposed as eternal with the Pleroma, and through her sin Sophia falls from the realm of light into Chaos or realm of darkness. <br /><br />This original dualism, however, was overcome by the predominant spirit of Gnosticism, pantheistic emanationism. The Sophia myth is completely absent from the Basilidian and kindred systems. It is suggested, with great verisimilitude, that the Egyptian myth of Isis was the original source of the Gnostic "lower wisdom". In many systems this Kato Sophia is sharply distinguished from the Higher Wisdom mentioned above; as, for instance, in the magic formula for the dead mentioned by Irenaeus (I.21.5), in which the departed has to address the hostile archons thus: "I am a vessel more precious than the female who made you. If your mother ignores the source whence she is, I know myself, and I known whence I am and invoke the incorruptible Sophia, whois in the Father, the mother of your mother, who has neither father nor husband. A man-woman, born from a woman, has made you, not knowing her mother, but thinking herself alone. But I invoke her mother." This agrees with the system minutely described by Irenaeus (I.4-5), where Sophia Achamoth, or Lower Wisdom, the daughter of Higher Wisdom, becomes the mother of the Demiurge; she being the Ogdoad, her son the Hebdomad, they form a counterpart of the heavenly Ogdoad in the Pleromata. This is evidently a clumsy attempt to fuse into one two systems radically different, the Basilidian and the Valentinian; the ignorance of the Great Archon, which is the central idea of Basilides, is here transferred to Sophia, and the hybrid system ends in bewildering confusion. <br /><br />Let's all pray that the La Salette Missionaries will return to fidelity and leave New Age Gnosticism behind them. Attleboro is such a beautiful shrine. What a real tragedy.Bettynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-67812275942464739302009-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:002009-04-19T11:03:00.000-07:00Steichen writes (in Ungodly Rage, p. 162), "Gnosti...Steichen writes (in Ungodly Rage, p. 162), "Gnosticism, too, venerated Wisdom as Sophia, the feminine principle of androgynous Divinity, or its daughter, trapped in creation by disobedience. She was the fallen creator of earth, air, fire and water and mother of the evil demiurge who was the God of Israel."<br /><br />Instead of traditional Catholic spirituality and veneration of the Saints, the La Salette Shrine is offering this sort of claptrap. The faithful are hungry and the La Salette Missionaries are offering chaff instead of wheat. <br /><br />Have mercy on us dear Jesus on this, the Feast of your Mercy.Ellen Wironkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15037753678014941848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9695096.post-22469091995759514192009-04-19T10:28:00.000-07:002009-04-19T10:28:00.000-07:00The more I learn about Sister Joyce Rupp and her N...The more I learn about Sister Joyce Rupp and her New Age occultism, the more disturbing I find it that the La Salette Missionaries would offer discussions of her work at their shrine.<br /><br />Good for you Mr. Melanson! Keep up the great work here. God bless you for your tireless defense of the Catholic Faith!Michellenoreply@blogger.com