Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. When the Old Law was given to men, it made obligatorysome ceremonies that were already practiced by good men ofprophetic gifts. Other ceremonies were newly set up by the Law.
2. The cleansing ceremonies of the Old Law were to removeirregularities of a material nature which unfitted a man forceremonial worship. But they could not take away sin from the soul.They expressed faith in the Redeemer to come, and signified thepurifying of the soul to be achieved through the merits of Christ.But they could not confer grace.
3. The ceremonial law ceased with the coming of Christ.For, as we have seen, the ceremonies prescribed by the Old Law werealso prophecies. And when a prophecy has been fulfilled, it ceasesto exist; it has reached its term; it no longer has meaning. Evensuch Old Law ceremonies as prefigured heaven gave way to the moreperfect prophecies and prefigurings of the New Law.
4. It would be seriously sinful to observe the ceremoniesof the Old Law as though they still had significance and bindingforce. This would be a practical denial that the propheciesexpressed in the ceremonies had been fulfilled. It would be apractical denial of Christ, and of the necessity and sufficiency ofthe Christian order.
"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri
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"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis
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