Orenda

“ Surely the Order of the Redeemer—that awful, solemn badge, setting apart its wearer from the sordid crowd of earth—could only be vouchsafed to some hard Christian service—could only reward some triumphant wrestling of the suffering soul—some wondrous victory in the forlorn hope of this dark struggling life. ”

“ All I ask of you before I go, is a solemn promise to defend yourselves to the last like brave men and Christian cavaliers, and never to renounce your faith, or throw yourselves on the mercy of the renegado Magued, or the traitor Julian.’ They all pledged their words, and took a solemn oath to the same effect before the altar. ”

“ Knowing your father, as you know him too, I would have from you a pledge—a promise, here, solemnly uttered in the eye of Heaven, and in the holy stillness of this place, which has witnessed other of our vows no less sacred and solemn, that, should he sanction the prayer of another who seeks your love, and command your obedience, that you will not obey—that you will not go quietly a victim to the altar—that you will not pledge to another the same vow which has been long since pledged to me. ”

“ Ordination is not improperly or unfitly called a sacrament, because it is the solemnizing of a mutual covenant between God and man, for our dedication to his special service, and his reception of us and blessing on us, though imposition of hands be not so solemn a ceremony by mere institution, as baptism and the Lord's supper. ”

“ What is duty? what is the meaning of oath or pledge? Wouldst know why I came to-night? ... I came because I knew that danger doth await thee outside this sacred temple.... I came because I knew that thou dost love me ... and I trusted that that love would make thee forget the dawn, thy duty, thy pledged word, forget all, in order to remain beside Neit-akrit. ”

“ The Order.—Order in the topics has many advantages. It concentrates attention on one subject at a time, thus increasing the interest of both minister and people. It aids the memory, thus avoiding the omission of necessary subjects, and leaving the mind unconfused in recalling them. An unarranged, confused prayer, in which the [p. 40] mind utters at haphazard whatever may first enter it, must always fail of the true ends of public worship. A natural and common order is this: invocation, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. ”

“ How we must admire the appropriate fitness of each consecration to the peculiar object to be devoted to the service of Almighty God, from the walls of the temple and altar of sacrifice to those heralds of solemnity, the bells, whose brazen notes can animate a whole population with one intention and one prayer! ”

“ I beg your Holiness to come and give a religious character of the highest degree to the ceremony of the consecration and coronation of the first Emperor of the French. That ceremony will acquire a new lustre if done by your Holiness. It will bring upon us and our peoples the blessing of God, whose decrees govern according to His will the lot of empires and of families. ”

“ We have chosen thee, our prayers have consecrated thee, for all the wishes of the people went with thee. Thou art to stand as mountain unremoved, for thy throne is planted secure on the hearts of thy people. ”

“ Holy Church has surrounded the recitation of her public prayer with a minute code of rules and ceremonies, all inspired by the spirit of reverence. In reciting the Office we should endeavor to make use of the ceremonial she has ordained, as being eminently calculated to help our soul to retain or regain the thought of God’s presence. ”

“ Examples of authorized rites in the Christian Church are the laying on of hands in ordination, and the giving of the right hand of fellowship. 3. An ordinance is a symbolic rite which sets forth the central truths of the Christian faith, and which is of universal and perpetual obligation. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are rites which have become ordinances by the specific command of Christ and by their inner relation to the essential truths of his kingdom. No ordinance is a sacrament in the Romanist sense of conferring grace ”

“ W. P. The obligation you are about to take is a solemn pledge which you must give to this Chapter, before you can participate in the privileges of our Order. By it you bind yourself to the most solemn secrecy respecting the work of the Order and to the performance of those acts of kindness and forbearance, which are essential to our welfare and prosperity. ”

“ Remember, Juliette, that you are of the house of Marny, that you are a Catholic, and that God hears you now. For you shall swear an oath before Him and me, an oath from which only death can relieve you. ”

“ At parting, leave your heart as a pledge at the foot of the Cross, unite it to the heart of the God of love, who resides on the altar as on the throne of his mercies, to receive our tribute of adoration, and to distribute his grace. ”

“ Let every Order, or every member of them by himself, labour, that by his means our Lord would so bless his own Order that it may serve Him in the present grave necessities of His Church. Blessed are they whose lives are so spent. ”

“ Do Thou ordain for them, O Lord my God, both before and after their death, what becometh the loftiness of Thy bounty and the excellence of Thy loving-kindness.
Grant, O my Lord, that they who have ascended unto Thee may repair unto Him Who is the most exalted Companion, and abide beneath the shadow of the Tabernacle of Thy majesty and the Sanctuary of Thy glory. Sprinkle, O my Lord, upon them from the ocean of Thy forgiveness what will make them worthy to abide, so long as Thine own sovereignty endureth, within Thy most exalted kingdom and Thine all-highest dominion. ”

“ In the meantime, we admonish you to bear in mind your oath to defend the church and the clergy of God, to keep peace and order, and to protect the widows and the fatherless, and all your people, that those who obey you and trust in you may rejoice, and that you may win glory with men and eternal life with the king of kings. ”

“ Much swearing and profanation of God's name, by loose and vain oaths in common discourse: yea, swearing by the creatures—as, soul, faith, conscience, and the like, thereby sacrilegiously attributing to them divine honour; as also, by imposing upon all persons in any public trust the unlimited and unlawful oath of allegiance, together with the bond of assurance, and the oath of abjuration, contrary to the oath of the covenant, thereby debauching people's consciences, and involving them in the guilt of perjury. ”

“ The second foundation is the divine oath. In order that no room might be left to doubts and scruples in this grand article, God has confirmed the universal promise of grace with an oath. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his way and live: none of the sins that he hath committed, shall be mentioned unto him.” ”

“ The priests chant texts, and the people wait upon the worship. And we see faces-in-the-fire of the time to be, when the eyes of the poet shall rest upon the sacrifice, and shall fashion therefrom this mighty vision of God and nature, the soul and life. ”

“ By all means; and therefore the Church wishes that we should not merely assist at the Ceremonies, but also understand their meaning, and accompany them with prayer and pious sentiments.
6. Has, then, every Religious Ceremony a meaning?
Yes; all things which the Church makes use of for celebrating the Divine Service have a mystical signification, and are intended to excite our souls to lively sentiments of devotion. ”

“ Encouraged by such hopes as these, Venerable Brethren, We, as a presage of the divine liberahty and as a pledge of Our own charity, most lovingly bestow on each of you, and on the clergy and flock committed to the care of each. ”

“ So, too, before the throne of God on earth we swing our censers, multitudes from all nations prostrate themselves in adoration, the sweet incense of their praise and prayer ascends to the throne of grace, their minds are enlightened by God's word, while their hearts are raised to God by the grandeur of our ceremonies. ”

“ Yea, we find this very thing in the utmost accomplishment of it, to have been the oath of the greatest angel that ever was, who setting his feet upon two of God's kingdoms, the one upon the sea, the other upon the earth, lifting up his hand to heaven, as you are to do this day, and so swearing. The effect of that oath you shall find to be this, "That the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever." ”

“ I brought away the ornaments and sacred vessels, and returned them to their owners, after having displayed them in a procession which was made as a thank-offering to the most holy sacrament—from which, as I firmly believe, your Majesty received this favor [of the victory] , on account of the fiestas which had been celebrated a few months before, in accordance with your royal decree. I send an official statement of this, in order that your Majesty may know in what manner your commands were obeyed. ”

“ Ordain, O Lord, through Thy most exalted Pen, that which will immortalize our souls in the Realm of glory, will perpetuate our names in Thy Kingdom, and safeguard our lives in the treasuries of Thy protection and our bodies in the stronghold of Thy inviolable fastness. Powerful art Thou over all things, be they of the past or of the future. No God is there but Thee, the omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting. ”

“ The noise ceasing, the archbishop rose and said,
Be strong and of good courage: observe the commandments of God, and walk in his holy ways: fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life; that in this [Pg 233] world you may be crowned with success and honour, and when you have finished your course, you may receive a crown of righteousness, which God the righteous Judge shall give you in that day. Amen.
Then the choir sung this short anthem. ”

“ You swear that you will not possess yourselves of the treasures of the City of the Heart, nor, without the consent of this high Brotherhood, attempt to leave its gates or to bring any stranger within its walls. These things you swear with your hands upon the altar, setting in pledge your souls and bodies for the fulfilment of the oath. ”

“ They find their nobility in their baptism, their glory in the sign of the cross and their Catholic profession, their treasure in the blessed sacrament, their palace with its picture gallery and service of gold and silver in the church, their royal audiences at the ever open court of the King and Queen of heaven, their gala-days and spectacles in the festivals and processions and ceremonies of the ecclesiastical year, their ideal vision of coming happiness in heaven. ”

“ Within the veil,—thin curtain between the earthly and the heavenly house,—the mercy seat covering the ark, and the tables of the covenant law enclosed therein, represented the throne of God’s grace resting upon the firm foundation of his eternal law, thus showing that mercy to man is conditioned upon satisfaction to that law by the blood of atonement sprinkled there. ”

“ As a pledge of heavenly gifts and of Our benevolence, We lovingly grant in the Lord, to you, venerable brethren, and to the clergy and all the people committed to your watchful care, Our apostolic benediction. ”

“ The prayer which the English service book appointeth bishops to use after the confirming of children by the imposition of hands, avoucheth that ceremony of confirmation for a sign whereby those children are certified of God's favour and good-will towards them. In the general, our opposites defend789 [pg 1-223] that the church hath power to ordain such ceremonies, as by admonishing men of their duty, and by expressing such spiritual and heavenly affections, dispositions, motions, or desires, as should be in men, do thereby stir them up to greater fervour and devotion. ”

“ And in this tabernacling of the unendurable sun with men, through the shadows of the firmament, God would seem to set forth the stooping of His own majesty to men, upon the throne of the firmament. As the Creator of all the worlds, and the Inhabiter of eternity, we cannot behold Him ”

“ Rule 14.—To obey the convent bell as the voice of an angel calling us.
Penance if late for matins.—To recite the whole of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, kneeling.
Rule 15.—Never to be late at meals, choir, dormitory, or work.
Penance.—If late at meals, to eat off the floor; if late for choir, to kneel at the door during the office; as to the rest, any penance the Superior likes to impose.
Rule 16.—Never to speak about home or our earthly relations, except to God in prayer: “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; SO shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty.” ”

“ If these things, I say, we call to mind, it will be more manifest that the ceremonies are given out for sacred signs of the very same nature that sacraments are of. For the sacraments are called by divines commemorative, representative and exhibitive signs; and such signs are also the ceremonies we have spoken of, in the opinion of Formalists.
Sect. 3. Mystical and significant ceremonies (to proceed to a second reason) , ordained by men, can be no other than mere delusions, and serve only to feed men's minds with vain conceits. ”

“ But how unknown to man are the purposes and decrees of Divine wisdom, until those, purposes and decrees unfold themselves to the world, in the progress of time, and on the page of history. When the Subject of this day’s celebration was initiated into the Order of Masonry, who, of all those, then present, entertained a thought of his future career of greatness? ”