Sacred mysteries

Mystery traditions were popular in ancient Greece and during the height of the Roman Empire,[1] and parts of Early Christianity used secrecy in the same way.[5] In the Roman Catholic Church the First Vatican Council re-affirmed the existence of mysteries as a doctrine of Catholic faith as follows: "If any one say that in Divine Revelation there are contained no mysteries properly so called (vera et proprie dicta mysteria), but that through reason rightly developed (per rationem rite excultam) all the dogmas of faith can be understood and demonstrated from natural principles: let him be anathema" (Sess.This is not usually so in the West, although theologically many aspects of sacraments are recognized as mysteries in the main sense described above, especially (for those churches accepting it) the doctrine of transubstantiation in the Eucharist.Hence Pope Paul VI's papal encyclical of 3 September 1965 on the Eucharist was titled, from its opening words, Mysterium fidei.In the Roman Rite Catholic Mass within or immediately after the formula of consecration of the wine, the celebrant says "The mystery of faith".Christians believe that God is present everywhere and fills all things by his divine grace, and that all of creation is, in some sense, a "sacrament".
Wrisberg epitaph in Hildesheim Cathedral , showing distribution of the divine graces by means of the church and the sacraments, or mysteries. By Johannes Hopffe 1585.
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