I am a regular viewer of EWTN. Perhaps some of you are also viewers.Bishop Sheen's show is my favorite program. I could not help noticing, that when he speaks of Jesus, he never mentions that name. It is always, Our Lord, Our Blessed Lord, Our Divine Lord, etc. Then turning to the other shows, it's Jesus this, Jesus, that, etc.In one half hour the holy Name is mentioned 20 to 30 times. Has the Protestant vocabulary, worked it's way into the Church. It sure looks that way. What do you say? Anybody?

-- ed Richards (loztra@yahoo.com), December 06, 2002

Answers

Well, there's nothing wrong with addressing Our Lord by His proper name - in fact, one of the oldest prayers is simply saying the name of "Jesus" over and over, prayerfully and with the intention of making reparation for blasphemers.

However, I do understand your point, Ed - sometimes it does seem like the televangelists use the name of Jesus almost belligerently, perhaps trying to make the point that they know Him personally. Humility is always a good idea. :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (chris_tine_leh_man@hotmail.com), December 06, 2002.

Dear Ed, I think that Bishop Sheen's use of these terms was an indication of the depth of reverence he had for Jesus, and an acknowledgment of His divinity and his rightful headship over us. The name "Jesus" can also be used reverently of course, but other times it is trivialized, and some people seem to approach their faith in terms of "Me and Jesus, buddies" - hardly a proper image of the Lord, God, and creator of the universe - or even worse usage, such as the commonly heard expression "Jesus freaks". It is a lot harder to trivialize "Our Blessed Lord". Terms like "Our Lord" and "Our Blessed Savior" are hardly Protestant vocabulary however! The Holy Catholic Church used these terms for 1500 years before Protestants even existed, and it is from the Catholic Church that Protestants got such terminology. As far as concessions to Protestantism go, Bishop Sheen was just about as orthodox a Catholic leader as it is possible to imagine. Also, since the teachings of Bishop Sheen were taped about 40 years ago (he has been dead almost 25 years) nothing that he said during his homilies would be indicative of a change occuring in the Church today.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 06, 2002.

I know that there were a lot of sacreligious things in the movie "Dogma", but one thing they got right was the parody of the bishop (played by George Carlin) to promote a "newer, friendlier" version of Jesus, called the "Buddy Christ"! That was so much like what we have seen in our churches for the past 30+ years, it made me forgive 90% of the rest of the movie! ;-)

-- Christine L. :-) (chris_tine_leh_man@hotmail.com), December 06, 2002.

Funny enough, Ed, I was going to run a post similar a few days ago.

Like Christine said, using Our Lord's proper name can be prayerful, for instance, "Jesus, Mary I love you. Save souls." I do happen to think, however, that using Our Lord or Our Lady's proper name too often, invites the feeling of familiarity - as if they were nothing much more than a couple'a good folks from Church.

I watch EWTN sometimes, too. A few things catch my ear which I really don't understand. I honestly thought for a while that it was my hearing, until I came across some.....modern Catholic liturature.

First off, how come no one uses the word 'Saint' or the abbreviation St. when speaking of a saint? It's always "...when Paul said.." or "let's read what Luke says." Paul who? Luke who? Don't the saints deserve respect? I mean, we would address a person with a medical degree, for instance, as Dr. So and So, right? Don't the saints deserve the same respect, do they not deserve more? I just feel that when one speaks of a Saint (or Our Lord or Our Lady for that matter) in such a familiar way, one will, to some degree, see them as being less than what they are.

Secondly, what happend to the word 'holy'? It's always "...come celebrate Eucharist" or "First Communion" Doesn't the word Holy emphazise the importance and sacredness of the event and/or action? Sure it does, so why drop it?

Thirdly, articles. What happened to words, short simple words, such as the, a, etc.? Modern Catholic literature reads like this: "Call to be Deacon" or "We are Church" or "Celebrate Eucharist", "Celebrate Liturgy", "Call to be witness", "Experience Lector", and so on. This is just baffling. I mean, when we are hungry we don't say "I am hamburger." :-)

Lastly, "witness." Everything is about "witness" today. I've seen this word take such a beating in this literature. I've read such incomprehensible sentences such as "Come to Christ, the witness, and be witness in the community as the assembly as we gather as Eucharist."

Huh?

I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just trying to understand what it means. Looking forward to replies. Til then, I really am coffee. See ya! :-)

-- Regina (Regina712@lycos.com), December 06, 2002.

Dear Christine,

You said, "perhaps trying to make the point that they know Him personally."

It is possible, Christine, to know Jesus personally. We get to know Jesus by reading His words in the Bible. Once we develop a 'personal' relationship with Jesus, we come to know how He works in our lives, what He expects of us, we know when He is disciplining us, correcting us, guiding us, encouraging us.

Everyone can know Jesus personally. In fact Jesus tells us to say His name over and over again. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with anyone using the name Jesus (with reverence of course).

"..I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you." (Proverbs 1:23)

God Bless MaryLu

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), December 06, 2002.

Thanks all for the response. Regina, has not only seen the problem, but she has added a lot moe that needs to be said. My opinion as to the Why, is at least, at EWTN, ae the programs they have assigned to Protestant converts. Most are ex ministers, and they are good people who love the Lord, but neverthless, bring their vocabulary with them. That and the extremes in Ecumanism, which brings a response from Protestants, that "We will take everything you give us, and give nothing in return". What haave they given us in the past 30 years? We change our language to please them, but still are despised by most of the denominations, not al, but most. Listen the their radio programs, and you will see what I mean. Some are very nice to us. I am not against saying the name of Jesus over and over, {as in the rosary, or ejaculations etc,} but not in back and forth language.God bless

-- ed Richards (loztra@yahoo.com), December 06, 2002.

Ed Richards,

Did you ever think that it doesn't matter what you are for or against, what matters is what Jesus is for and against? Jesus tells us to say his name over and over and He will be there at our side...Jesus loves for us to say His name over and over and over again.

As to 'witnessing,' I will give you an example of witnessing. A dear friend of my recently had a full mastectomy for breast cancer. After the surgery she experienced only one day of pain and that was it...she never had to take anything other than tylenol, does not need chemo, and is doing fine.

The doctors and nurses could not believe that this women did not and still does not experience any pain and is doing so well.

She attributes it to the power of prayer - a miracle from God and told the doctors so. Her doctors said they never saw anything like it. Her telling the doctors that it is due to the power of prayer is witnessing the power of God to others...

I have many more stories than this one where people "witnessed" to the medical field, men of science, how healings took place due to the power of God, the power of prayer...

God wants us to witness to others how He works in our lives, How he saves, heals, protects, etc., etc., He wants us to tell others of the power of the Eucharist - that is witnessing and God wants us to be His messengers.

MaryLu

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.com), December 06, 2002.

Our older Catholic generation was taught to bow the head when speaking the holy name of Jesus. Likely that's a reason why Bishop Sheen didn't say it on TV. His head would've bobbed constantly.

If a certain laxness has crept into our spiritual vocabulary, it could be on account of the emphasis nowadays on diversity and tolerance. A result of academic convention; all men are created equal? Needless to say, this always was a protestant ethic, and very laudable.

New practices have their own value. --For instance, the EWTN converts programs discussing their conversions to Catholicism are a tremendous advance over the past. In the past, they were a silent few; nobody heard their stories. Now, what a thrill it is to hear an ex-protestant minister praise the Blessed Virgin Mary. To learn the marvellous way he escaped the ignorance surrounding protestants about Mary, and the immense love he came to feel for Our Blessed Mother. Don't knock a good protestant if his heart's in the right place. When he comes back home to the Church, love for God is very powerfully expressed. Recall then; it was he/she who had staked everything on letting Christ become ''My personal Saviour''.

--In the Church of the holy apostles those Christians finally arrive at the fulfillment and reality.

O Most glorious and Sacred Heart of Jesus! We adore Thee and we praise Thee, All as one united Love! Amen.

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), December 06, 2002.

0Well spoken Mary L,u ahd I am happy for your friend. You are correct on the witnessing, or evangelizing. The Protestants put us to shame, when it comes to that. However, the Catholic church, seems to have dropped"witnessing" cold , in the past 30 years. Some Bishops in high places, say "Oh we don't do that anymore." What gives?

-- ed Richards (loztra@yahoo.com), December 06, 2002.

Eugene; I admire those protestants, Particularly Grodi, but Eugene, they had to find their own way into the church. Rare is the one who was brought in by a Catholic. These EWTN converts are highly intellectual people, who had to reason their own way in, and ironically, they are working far harder, than our bishops, to bring others in.

-- ed Richards (loztra@yahoo.com), December 06, 2002.

Dear Ed-- I wish I could agree with you. You are off on another tangent. The Whipping Boy perspective.

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), December 06, 2002.

MaryLu, I probably didn't make my point clear - certainly we can and must have a personal relationship with Jesus! I just meant, some of the televangelists try to make it sound like they have a SPECIAL relationship with Jesus that the rest of us can't possibly have - unless we send them a certain amount of $$$ !! :-)

(Have a nice weekend! :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (chris_tine_leh_man@hotmail.com), December 06, 2002.

Eddie,

Now I read you correct EWTN now too? You should be thanking God that you have EWTN to watch and enjoy some of there Holy Masses that are on for us.

Is that all you do is complain like a older grouchy grump richards?

Get a life EDDIE!

-- - (.@....), January 01, 2003.