On October 16th, as part of our recent Theology on Tap series, Kimberly Barber spoke to us on the topic of “Mary, Saints, Angels and more: Getting to know the heroes of our faith in a new way”.
Here are the MP3 audio files available for download:
Kimberly is a Master Catechist for the Diocese. She grew up in Southern California and attended the Franciscan University of Steubenville for her undergraduate degree and then went to Fuller Theological Seminary for her postgraduate study. She now lives in San Diego with her three children and her husband Dr. Michael Barber, Professor of Theology at John Paul The Great Catholic University who himself has spoken at Theology on Tap in the past.
Yesterday at midday I got a text from Carrie, the Young Adult Coordinator for the Diocese. The speaker for that night’s “Faith On Fire” was ill and she needed a replacement speaker. This is how I came to find myself a few hours later standing in front of forty or so 18-25 year olds giving the talk “Social Media and Faith-“How to use it without being used by it”…
Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one speaking that night. After speaking for about half an hour, Timmerie Millington got up and shared with us how Social Media has played an important part in her Pro-Life work.
Throughout the night I rather shamelessly plugged my blog, so if you’re visiting here for the first time because of that, welcome! While you’re here, you should also go check out Timmerie’s Blog:
Actually, Jackie wasn’t the only one who spoke that night, being supported by her boyfriend Bobby Angel:
Jackie Francois is a full-time, travelling worship leader and speaker from Orange County. Bobby Angel, her boyfriend, is the assistance campus minister at the Servite High School in Anaheim.
Both of them have studied at the Theology Of The Body institute. They enjoy lengthy books, long walks on the beach, quoting The Office* and preparing together for the imminent robot invasion…
Below is the recording of the talk they gave entitled “Love, dating and relationships: Calling all people wanting to love and be loved according to God’s holy desire”:
Jackie also recently released a follow-up to her debut album “Your Kingdom Is Glorious”. The new album is called “Divine Comedy”. It includes a cover of one my favourite Hughes songs, “Beautiful One”, as well as Jackie’s own material, “Everything You” and “New Creation” being among my favourites.
Yesterday we had another “Theology On Tap” session at Phil’s BBQ. In previous weeks we’ve heard from Fr. Matt Spahr and Cy Kellett and this week our speaker was Dr. Karen Saroki:
Aug 7:“What is your purpose? What is your call?” Learning to listen to God’s voice and follow it. -Fr. Matt Spahr
Aug 14:“Citizens and Disciples” Voting your conscience! What does that look like?- Cy Kellett
Aug 21:“How to live the single life AND meet Mr/Mrs Right” Living the single life according to God’s will.- Karen Saroki
Aug 28th:“Love, dating and relationships” Calling all people wanting to love and be loved according to God’s holy desire.” – Jackie Francois
Here’s Karen’s biography:
Dr. Karen Saroki received her medical training at University of Michigan Medical School in 2005 and she is now a family doctor at Culture of Life Family Services. She is one of six children and is the sister of Fr. Anthony Saroki, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and also has another brother in seminary. She is an avid hiker.
“Theology On Tap” continues apace. Last week we heard from Fr. Matt Spahr, the pastor at the Immaculata parish, speaking about discernment. This week we heard from Cy Kellett:
Aug 7:“What is your purpose? What is your call?” Learning to listen to God’s voice and follow it. -Fr. Matt Spahr
Aug 14:“Citizens and Disciples” Voting your conscience! What does that look like?- Cy Kellett
Aug 21:“How to live the single life AND meet Mr/Mrs Right” Living the single life according to God’s will.- Karen Saroki
Aug 28th:“Love, dating and relationships” Calling all people wanting to love and be loved according to God’s holy desire.” – Jackie Francois
Here’s Cy’s biography:
Cyril Jones-Kellett is the Community Relations Officer for AM 1000 KCEO, San Diego – an Immaculate Heart Radio Station.
He served for a decade as editor-in-chief of San Diego’s Southern Cross. Before his writing career, he spent years working on the streets of Boston with the homeless mentally ill. Part of that time was spent living in an urban Catholic Worker house dedicated to serving homeless men. He also spent four years supervising a home for severely traumatized children.
For fun he likes to spend time with his three teens tying to impress them with his knowledge of pop culture.
Aside from the digs at my homeland, it was a great talk. Here’s the audio:
Father Matthew Spahr, a priest of the Diocese of San Diego, was born and raised in San Diego. He attended local Catholic schools including the University of San Diego and North American College in Rome. He was ordained in 1992 and is currently director of the Office for Priestly Formation for the Diocese, and the pastor of The Immaculata Parish on the campus of USD.
I was really pleased that we finally managed to get Fr. Matt to speak at Theology on Tap. I will unabashedly say that he is my favourite homilist here in San Diego. Every time Carrie, the Young Adult Coordinator for our Diocese, asked me who we should have to speak at the next Theology on Tap, I would always ask her to try again to secure Fr. Matt. Here is the audio:
Last week we had the final session of our Theology On Tap series here in San Diego. I had not encountered Theology on Tap (ToT) until I came to America so, in case you have not been exposed to it, it’s an outreach and catechesis initiative embraced by many Catholic dioceses as part of their Young Adult ministry.
Typically what happens at ToT is that the Catholic Young Adults from a diocese take over a bar or restaurant. They eat some food, drink a beer and then listen to a talk given by a speaker. The idea behind ToT is to give young Catholics an opportunity to hang out together (or if you want to be super-spiritual about it, “fellowship”) and learn about the faith in a relaxed, informal setting.
The talk was entitled: “The Reality Behind the Fantasy of Porn : An interview with an ex-porn star who shares her story”. The chap conducting the interview was Matt Fradd, a recent addition to the Catholic Answers team. He’s been involved in the area of chastity for some time and, in particular, helping men and women recover from pornography. Recently I went to the recording of his new DVD, The Man Talk.
During this final session of ToT, Matt interviewed his friend April, who was in the porn industry for some time, but who now works to help those who wish to get out of that life.
The porn industry is massive and, as the title of the talk suggests, the purpose of the interview is to show the reality of porn, rather than the fantasy which is so often sold to us. As Matt says in his talk Taking Down Goliath, the problem with porn is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little, reducing a woman to a collection of body parts to be lusted after, rather than a person to be loved.
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