Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. Excommunication means: (a) separation from the familyof the faithful; (b) loss of the right to share in the prayers andgeneral good works of the Church; (c) loss of the right to receivethe sacraments.
2. The Church imposes this stern penalty ofexcommunication only when the reasons demanding it are most grave.And the Church always hopes that her stern action will humble thepride of the person excommunicated, and so bring him to repentanceand amendment, and thus win him back to his place among herchildren. The Church hopes also, by imposing the censure ofexcommunication, to prevent or lessen the bad effect exercised onothers by the excommunicated person's evil example.
3. The reason for excommunication is always a grave sin,in which the sinner is obstinate. Sometimes even temporal thingscan enter into grave and stubbornly persistent sin; bodilyintegrity, for instance, or liberty, or valuable property. And soit is possible that a person may incur excommunication forinflicting even temporal harm.
4. Excommunication is effective; that is, it produces thesad effects mentioned in the first paragraph above. However, it isnot actually effective if it should be imposed by mistake orerror.
"The supreme perfection of man in this life is to be so united to God that all his soul with all its faculties and powers are so gathered into the Lord God that he becomes one spirit with him, and remembers nothing except God, is aware of and recognises nothing but God, but with all his desires unified by the joy of love, he rests contentedly in the enjoyment of his Maker alone."
St Albert the Great
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"A tree that is cultivated and guarded through the care of its owner produces its fruit at the expected time.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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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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