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Divine Parables Explained
CODE: DPara*
PRICE: $14.95
ORDER HERE - ORDER INFORMATION
This book will ship on May 15th - Orders including this book will be held until then unless you request immediate shipment and a backorder on this titleDivine Parables Explained: or The Church of the Parables
Father Joseph Prachensky, S.J. - 282 Pages Softcover
Never have you heard the parables of Our Lord explained like this learned American Jesuit did in 1890 when this work was first published. Here, in his own words from the introduction, is the author’s reason for publishing this magnificent work:
The bible tells us it was given to the Apostles to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven either in parables or plain words. If that was so (and who will doubt it?), who has it now? And to whom is it given, if not to their legitimate successors, who were to continue the work which the Apostles had begun, even to the consummation of ages?
If, then, the kind reader of these pages finds in them a more accurate, faithful, and thorough explanation of our Lord’s parables than he ever received from any sectarian preacher, let him bear in mind that the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church are the legitimate and only true successors of those to whom the Savior said: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”
I have selected for exposition only those of the parables that relate to Catholic dogmas controverted by the sects, and I pass over those which contain only lessons of morality never impugned or denied by any one bearing the name of Christian, at least in theory.
Introduction
A hundred years of uninterrupted social progress have elapsed since the declaration of our national independence, and today we behold, with sentiments of pride and admiration, the wonderful works of that century. The many noble institutions, political, commercial, and literary, which cover the wide-spread face of our glorious republic, the active spirit which animates every department of human science, attest fully to all nations the energy and enterprise of our people. Like the soil of our country, our minds are fresh, vigorous, powerful, our hopes bright and lofty, our confidence in our capacities and destiny unbounded, our strides in the career of natural progress and every species of material well-being unparalleled. Life, vigorous life, flows through the veins of the millions who dwell between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. On all sides is heard the hum of lucrative industry; every city and hamlet presents to us signs of wealth and improvement; each foot of land sheltered beneath the wings of the American eagle is a scene of busy life, every man wide awake to personal interest and pursuing with avidity the object of his ambition. Is not our lot most fortunate and enviable? And who would not be proud to claim such a country as his own, and thank divine providence for having cast his lot in such a land and such an age as ours?—a land and an age so favored by nature and by Heaven, and destined to hold forever an illustrious place in the annals of history. Surrounded as we are with all the necessaries of life, and all the arts and appliances of industry and refinement; basking in the sunshine of peace and prosperity; guarded and protected in the enjoyment of all our rights by a wise and paternal government; ease, affluence, and security at home, respect and glory abroad; a past so full of stirring, proud recollections, a future beaming with the brightest hopes—what is there wanting to complete the happiness and renown of our nation? Every wish we could conceive in this respect seems anticipated. Ah! if man were a being of time, not of eternity; if his destiny and happiness were to be found in this world, we might answer: Nothing, nothing is wanted; we have all that a people could desire for their comfort and prosperity. Let us have peace, and with the aid of steam and electricity, and a wise, liberal government, we will make America the happiest country in the world. But no; man is not destined to attain perfect happiness in this life. If it were so, every man would attain it; no one would have griefs or meet with disappointments; those restless desires which constantly agitate the human heart would cease to disturb him, since, being formed for terrestrial happiness and enjoyment, he would rest content in the material objects which surround him. We repeat, man’s lasting home is not here, and so it is that, although fortune has poured out her golden treasures on this fair land, there are hundreds, yea, thousands, who never taste her sweets, and whose lives form one continual series of human misery. We may go still farther and enquire of those whom the world deems fortunate—the great, the rich, the renowned—if they are happy in their possessions? If candid, they will answer without exception, No! As the most beautiful rose has its thorns, so earthly felicity bears to the heart of its possessor only stings and regrets. Yes, even in fair America men are not happy, and its prosperity can afford them no permanent home, neither will its riches satisfy them, for “man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”; and here, more than anywhere else, it seems necessary to remind him that his dwelling-place is beyond this transitory life, and that it will avail him nothing to “gain the whole world and lose his own soul.” Experience also teaches that temporal advantages and prosperity often prove more injurious than beneficial to man’s salvation; for whilst few are made better by riches, many are ruined and lost forever, since the mind, being wholly occupied in the pursuit of the perishable goods of this short life, finds it difficult to relish or pursue those which are unseen and eternal. The Holy Spirit Himself testifies to the truth of this assertion when He praises the rich man who is found without blemish. “Who is he,” He asks, “and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life.” And as wonderful things are rare, so also are rich men without blemish.
But you may ask me, Is there not an abundance of the spiritual bread of the word of God scattered all over the country? There is hardly a city or village throughout the land which does not open, every Sunday, three, four, or five different churches at the least to accommodate its inhabitants; and are there not hundreds of different religions to suit the most fastidious worshippers? Have we not bible and tract societies, supported chiefly by the rich, which circulate annually millions of copies of the written word of God and religious instruction all over the States of this glorious Union? Ah! if these church edifices were to contain, not altar against altar and teacher against teacher, but one and the same altar of which the Apostle speaks when he says, “We have an altar of which those have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle”; and were our numerous teachers preaching the same doctrine of the one true faith originally handed down to the saints, speaking all the self-same thing, like the primitive Christians, who, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, had all the same faith and the same baptism—not a different faith and a different or no baptism; were they all one, as Christ and the Father are one—not different churches, but all belonging to the one only true Church, established by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, one flock under one shepherd; had no one revolted but all remained firm in the faith of Christ were there no divisions, no schisms, no human opinion advanced as the substitute for truth; were the American people all living members of the one body of Jesus Christ, which is His visible Church, His visible Spouse, with a supreme visible head of her own, animated and guided by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth; if these numerous churches were not so many mutilated bodies without a head, so many scattered limbs without a trunk or soul; were they all united in offering to the eternal and undivided Trinity that “clean oblation” spoken of by the prophet Malachi—then would the sight of those edifices fill our hearts with holy joy and exultation; then would we hail them as seats of light and not of darkness, as sources of heavenly truth and not of pernicious errors, as tabernacles of God with men, and not as strongholds of the spirit of darkness, who falsifies the word of God and suggests his own inventions in its stead.
O America! how much thou dost resemble in this respect pagan Rome, which thought, as St. Leo tells us, “it had adopted the greatest religion because it rejected no sort of falsehood.”
We come, therefore, not to ask favors for the Catholic Church, but as an humble servant whom the “Great King” sends to invite you to His kingdom. Ah! yes; and we come also as a friend who has your happiness at heart, and who loves each dear soul as the fond mother loves her cherished first-born. Many of you who read my feeble words will never meet me till the last great day, when you will recognize me as the lowly instrument which your heavenly Father employed to direct your sincere and yearning hearts to the infallible “Barque of Peter,” where peace and salvation awaited you. Go to work, then, in God’s name, for the dismal night of death approaches, in which no man can work; make good use of the precious time which yet remains; examine attentively the teachings of the Catholic Church. We ask no more than a fair, impartial trial and judgment, such as no honorable American would deny the greatest criminal.
It is not my purpose in the present little treatise to vindicate the claims of the Catholic Church on historical grounds, as there are numerous and excellent works of that description to be found in every Catholic bookstore; nor do I see any necessity for appealing to human testimony in order to justify the truth and divine character of holy Church. Americans, thank God! love the bible; they respect and revere it, and I am happy to be able to show in the following pages that no other but the holy Roman Catholic Church, as it was and as it is, can claim to be the Church of the bible. The impartial reader will, therefore, be amazed to see how clearly the constant tradition of the Church illustrates the texts I have undertaken to explain, and how many things beautifully represented in scripture as belonging to this Church are rejected by the so-called reformers, though drawn and ordained by the master hand of our divine redeemer Himself. Like a wise architect, He planned His Church before He built it. He gave us sketches representing it from different points of view. He depicted her exterior and interior appearance, sometimes giving even the most minute details, so that we have only to compare these drawings of our divine master in order to distinguish the true Church from her counterfeits. This He did particularly in His parables, which are nothing but plain, simple stories, easily remembered by plain, simple people, even without learning or talent. In these He clothed His divine doctrines, and adapted them to the capacities of His humblest auditors, taking His illustrations from those common and obvious objects with which they were most familiar, screening the divine mysteries at the same time from the ill-disposed and bigoted who listened to the parables but would not understand their meaning. Hence when the Apostles came and said to Him, “Why speakest thou to them in parables? “He answered them, “Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” They were to know them not merely for their own benefit, but for that of those also whom they were hereafter to teach and instruct. But to them—viz., the Scribes and Pharisees, and bigoted Jews, who listened not as persons anxious to be instructed, but that they might mock and criticize the sacred words that fell from the lips of Jesus—“to them it is not given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath. Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Hence we find in the Gospel that whenever the Apostles seemed not to understand, or to misunderstand, the real meaning of His words, He never failed to explain the subject to them, though He did not do so before the multitude, because of the evil-minded persons amongst them. This is why some of the parables are explained, whilst others are not; for when the Apostles were sufficiently instructed concerning the mysteries of which He spoke in the parables, they needed no explanation, but at once understood their real meaning: “For to them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” It was therefore enough for our divine Lord to relate those parables to the common people without giving an explanation; they could learn that afterwards, when the divinely-appointed teachers—viz., the Apostles and their successors—commenced to exercise their ministry, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them.”
The bible tells us it was given to the Apostles to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven either in parables or plain words. If that was so (and who will doubt it?), who has it now? And to whom is it given, if not to their legitimate successors, who were to continue the work which the Apostles had begun, even to the consummation of ages?
If, then, the kind reader of these pages finds in them a more accurate, faithful, and thorough explanation of our Lord’s parables than he ever received from any sectarian preacher, let him bear in mind that the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church are the legitimate and only true successors of those to whom the Savior said: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”
I have selected for exposition only those of the parables that relate to Catholic dogmas controverted by the sects, and I pass over those which contain only lessons of morality never impugned or denied by any one bearing the name of Christian, at least in theory.
Roman Catholic Books
Twenty Ecumenical Councils, The
End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, The
The Papal Plan for Restoration: Restoring the Catholic Priesthood
Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy
Sister Lucia: Apostle of Mary's Immaculate Heart
The Second Vatican Council - an unwritten story
The War in LaVendée and the Little Chouannerie
BIBLES
Text of The Third Secret of Fatima - Complete Report and Message
Books and Videos on Padre Pio
Videos and Books on Sr. Faustina and Divine Mercy plus Diary of Sr. Faustina
CATHOLIC BIBLES (Family Bibles, Spanish Bibles, Church, School and Study Bible Edidions)
Bishop Fulton Sheen - Audio CDss, Videos and Books
THE DOUAY-RHEIMS BIBLE
New Video on
Canonization of Padre Pio
THE REIGN OF ANTICHRIST
Shocking speech of Fr. John O'Connor - DVD
Free MP3 Samples of Contemporary Christian Music
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