Send CathInfo's owner Matthew a gift from his Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

Author Topic: Baptism: Man's Contract With God by St John Eudes  (Read 337 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Clemens Maria

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2246
  • Reputation: +1484/-605
  • Gender: Male
Baptism: Man's Contract With God by St John Eudes
« on: May 16, 2021, 07:32:15 PM »
  • Thanks!1
  • No Thanks!0
  • In another thread, which I don't want to resurrect, trad123 wrote:

    Saint John Eudes

    Man's Contract with God in Baptism, pages 49 - 52

    https://archive.org/details/MansContractWithGodInBaptism/page/n45

    Quote
    That you may have a true faith in those things which God has revealed, it is necessary that you should believe in the Catholic Church, in which alone you can learn with certainty what God has revealed. For this reason, after you have been asked if you believe in God, you are also asked if you believe in the Catholic Church.

    Certainly those who do not believe in the Catholic Church cannot have divine faith in the mysteries which they believe, but only natural and human faith; a faith of their own fancy, founded on the light of their own judgment, subject to error, and not on the promises of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church alone possesses these promises, and on her testimony alone rests the foundation of Christian faith. As she possesses the divine promises for all days, even to the end of ages, there can be no reason to doubt whatever she proposes to our belief.

    Thank God for having given you the precious gift of faith, and having made you a child of the holy Catholic Church, which is the faithful repository of the truths of salvation, and which all Christians are obliged to acknowledge as the true Church. In saying, “I believe in the holy Catholic Church’ you united yourself inseparably to this holy mother; you believe, without hesitation, all that she proposes, as proposed to you by Jesus Christ himself, who is ever with her in her instructions. Reject, then, with horror, everything at variance with her teachings, and regard it as an error calculated to endanger your faith.

    However ignorant you may be, you have the true faith if you believe, without exception, all the holy Catholic Church believes and teaches; on the other hand, however learned you may be, you lose the gift and the virtue of faith if you reject any doctrine which she teaches; for her faith is your rule. “As there is but one faith,” says St. Paul, “to wish to divide it, is to destroy it.” Heretics not only differ from the Church in faith, but they also differ amongst themselves, a proof that they have not the true faith, which is one. The holy Catholic Church never has suffered, and never will suffer, a difference of faith in regard to any article. Her faith is the same in all times, in all places, and in all her true children. Thus her faith is one and the only true faith. You should be most desirous to preserve the faith in all its purity, since without it, it is impossible to do anything which merits Heaven. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Those who do not possess it may practice all the moral virtues, justice, sobriety, chastity, alms-deeds, prayers, mortification; and not only is this the case with heretics, but it is a truth which should be borne in mind, that these good actions, unless they have faith for their principle, will never merit Heaven for them. The law of Moses, all holy as it was, could save only those who observed it through faith.

    When, therefore, you observe that those who believe not in the Church, practice some good works, offer many prayers, and lead an austere life, do not believe that they are on this account in the way of salvation, unless they have true faith; you commit an ENORMOUS SIN if you believe that they can be saved outside of the Church; that they can have faith without believing in her, or that they can be saved without faith.

    That's a great quote!  Loreto Publications has published a reprint of that book: https://loretopubs.org/baptism-mans-contract-with-god.html

    There are other highly relevant quotes in that work as well.  Consider that St John Eudes was writing AFTER Trent (b 1601, d 1680).  About the same time that some people on this forum believe the Jesuits were dying in North America in order to convert savages whom they believed could be saved by invincible ignorance.  No one, but no one would risk their lives to convert people whom they believed were going to be saved by invincible ignorance.  That's why there are no martyrs anymore.  There are only missionaries who are murdered.  But certainly not because they were defending the faith.  Far from it.  The Novus Ordo is defending unitarian universalism.  Anything goes!  Nevertheless they are still murdered sometimes.  Satan always turns on his own.

    Here is another quote from that work which I think is a terrifying indictment of the Novus Ordo JP Deuce religion:

    Quote
    But remark, that divine hope which urges you to seek the possession of God and to desire it above all other things, requires you always to act according to these two principal rules. The first is to found your expectations on the goodness of God and the merits of Jesus Christ, and not on yourself, or any thing which you may possess. The reason of this is, that it is of faith that eternal life is not due to the dignity of our nature; that having lost by sin the right to enjoy it, we can only recover it through the merits of Jesus Christ; and in fine, that, without the assistance of grace we can do nothing to bring us to the possession of God. To pretend to merit it by nature alone, is the highest excess of presumption and pride.

    And one other quote which should disabuse all of us of any notion that St John Eudes is being misinterpreted or misunderstood:

    Quote
    By this ceremony [Sacrament of Baptism] you are likewise taught that, in order to be united to Jesus Christ, and to have eternal life, it is necessary to be a member of the Church, and to persevere therein to the end, believing all she teaches, obeying all she commands.

    So St John Eudes was a so-called "Feeneyite" long before Fr Feeney was even born.  Amazing!  He wrote that a century after the Council of Trent!!!  He didn't say it is necessary to be INSIDE the Church (which many folks who call themselves Catholic would deny anyway) but he specifically said it is necessary to be a MEMBER!!!  And although he didn't say it in that quote, everyone knows that the only way to be a member of the Church is to receive the Sacrament of Baptism (water).  St Alphonsus admits that BOD does NOT make one a member of the Church.  But if St Alphonsus visited the earth today, he too would be accused of Feeneyism because he didn't believe that anyone could be saved by invincible ignorance.  Neither did St. Thomas.  So pretty much all the saints and doctors of the Church are Feeneyites.

    And what can we say about the popes?  Pope Boniface VIII?  Feeneyite!
    Pope Eugene IV?  Feeneyite!

    They dared to literally contradict the dogma that outside the Church there is salvation!  Heretics!

    But even if you are one of those rare people who strongly affirm that there is no salvation outside the Church, but also believe in BOD, what do you make of St John Eudes who contradicts that position so specifically that there is no wiggle room to try to cook up an interpretation of him to support your position?  He very explicitly denies your position.  He is a saint.  His book has an imprimatur.  His works were examined prior to his canonization. Are you still going to claim that Fr Feeney was a heretic?  If so, do you also claim St John Eudes, writing AFTER Trent, is also a heretic?  A canonized saint is a heretic?  Really?

    Oh, and he was FRENCH!  So much for the SSPX claim that Feeneyism is only an American problem.  Apparently, the French invented Feeneyism before Fr Feeney was born but the French SSPX didn't know it.  C'est la vie!


    Offline Incredulous

    • Hero Member
    • *****
    • Posts: 8901
    • Reputation: +8675/-849
    • Gender: Male
    Re: Baptism: Man's Contract With God by St John Eudes
    « Reply #1 on: May 16, 2021, 10:45:54 PM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0



  • Does anyone have references for St. Alphonsus Liguori's belief and writings on BOD ?
    "Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it underfoot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Our Lord Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor but a destroyer."  St. Francis of Assisi