Dr. Timothy O'Donnell on The Catholic Vision of History at IHM Conference
History should be the armor of every Catholic—it helps provide the rational basis and evidence for much of what we believe. Dr. O’Donnell, history professor and president of Christendom College, will explain how an authentic understanding of history can strengthen our Faith.
Live notetaking during the talk, meant to give you a gist of why you'd want the MP3. (See link below)
Dr. O'Donnell said that history is the study of God's Providence.
Greece, Rome and Judaism all united in redemptive act of Our Lord.
"King of the Jews" written above Our Crucified Lord proclaimed in
Hebrew, Latin and Greek is crucial rockbed of Western civilization.
God Himself came into time by taking human nature...Incarnation.
This Year of Faith reminds all of us that Faith is either true or
not. We need to affirm that in a public way, not relegated to Church halls.
The Holy Land is grounded in history.
John
19:35 Affirms
reality - "And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony
is true. And he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe." Not fables,
"But avoid foolish and old wives' fables: and
exercise thyself unto godliness." - 1 Timothy 4:7
2 Peter 1:16 "For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness."
1 John 1:1 "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life."
Ours is a Church faithful to the Apostles.
Grace constantly channeled from Church into time. Christ promised He
would be with us all days. The Church is the extension of the Incarnation in
time.
The early Church Fathers were devoted to
writing Church history (His favorite was Pope Saint Damasus.)
St. Augustine wrote a systemically Christian
Philosophy of history, The City of God. The manuscript of it is 2nd only to the bible in
printing. Charlemagne used to have it read to him at night after supper.
There are 2 cities, the city of men and the
City of God, depicting our two loves.
Man's = a self love, a contempt of God and about pride, ambition
and greed. A tower of Babel.
God's = a contempt of self, humility and self-sacrifice,
adherence to God's will exalting the absolute eternal.
There's a struggle for dominance in our
society, culture and human heart. What love will dominate my life? Think Gethsemane, "Thy Will be done."
History/Virtue/Wisdom - our eternal destiny
makes it worth study.
Pagans give history no meaning. Pagan thought
sees it as circular....like Homer's Odyssey, the goal to go home. ( Buddhism is
circular) In contrast, in Revelation, Abraham goes forward in a straight line. Christianity is LINEAR...a
beginning moving to a conclusion. The
2nd coming.
Why is Rome so important? Our children
need to learn their identity as Catholics. Men who are unjust and dangerous,
not lovers of Truth are mutilating historical events and present the Church as
an enemy of human race. History is Catholic, our patrimony and as Blessed John Paul II said,
" A people that does not know it's past doesn't have a future."
You can order this talk on MP3 and ALL the conference talks at http://www.lilix.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1822
Dr. Timothy O’Donnell was the first layman to receive both his licentiate and doctoral degrees in Ascetical and Mystical Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. He has taught at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He is a Knight Grand Cross in the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and he is a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family. Additionally, he is the author of Heart of the Redeemer and Swords Around the Cross: The Nine Years War. He has filmed many programs for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) including Glory of the Papacy and Luke: Meek Scribe of Christ.
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