The Mary Michael Machabee Institute Newsletter January 26th, 2024 We have another new video to present to you all today! And there's more to come in the weeks to follow, so be sure to tune in at YouTube and/or SpiritusTV next Friday as well to catch new content. Scroll to the bottom of this email to view. Want to learn about a saint who was one of five siblings to be canonized by the Catholic Church? Our monthly video covers such a saint, who, like all the Fathers of the Church, took God at His word. Enjoy some lines from his famous Hexameron, the last of which, shows man’s special place as the apple of His eye among creation. |
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“Let the earth, the Creator adds, bring forth the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. At this command every copse was thickly planted; all the trees, fir, cedar, cypress, pine, rose to their greatest height, the shrubs were straightway clothed with thick foliage. The plants called crown-plants, roses, myrtles, laurels, did not exist; in one moment they came into being, each one with its distinctive peculiarities. Most marked differences separated them from other plants, and each one was distinguished by a character of its own.” |
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“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and divide the day from the night. Heaven and earth were the first; after them was created light; the day had been distinguished from the night, then had appeared the firmament and the dry element. The water had been gathered into the reservoir assigned to it, the earth displayed its productions, it had caused many kinds of herbs to germinate and it was adorned with all kinds of plants. However, the sun and the moon did not yet exist, in order that those who live in ignorance of God may not consider the sun as the origin and the father of light, or as the maker of all that grows out of the earth. That is why there was a fourth day and then God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.” |
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“There are inquirers into nature who with a great display of words give reasons for the immobility of the earth. Placed, they say, in the middle of the universe and not being able to incline more to one side than the other because its centre is everywhere the same distance from the surface, it necessarily rests upon itself; since a weight which is everywhere equal cannot lean to either side. It is not, they go on, without reason or by |
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chance that the earth occupies the centre of the universe. It is its natural and necessary position. As the celestial body occupies the higher extremity of space all heavy bodies, they argue, that we may suppose to have fallen from these high regions, will be carried from all directions to the centre, and the point towards which the parts are tending will evidently be the one to which the whole mass will be thrust together. If stones, wood, all terrestrial bodies, fall from above downwards, this must be the proper and natural place of the whole earth. If, on the contrary, a light body is separated from the centre, it is evident that it will ascend towards the higher regions. Thus heavy bodies move from the top to the bottom, and following this reasoning, the bottom is none other than the centre of the world. Do not then be surprised that the world never falls: it occupies the centre of the universe, its natural place. By necessity it is obliged to remain in its place, unless a movement contrary to nature should displace it. If there is anything in this system which might appear probable to you, keep your admiration for the source of such perfect order, for the wisdom of God. Grand phenomena do not strike us the less when we have discovered something of their wonderful mechanism. Is it otherwise here? At all events let us prefer the simplicity of faith to the demonstrations of reason.” |
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New Release The Liturgical Year St. Basil the Great Part 1 |
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A Very Blessed Feast of St. Polycarp of Smyrna to All! |
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