Sunday Lectionary: Living Bread From Heaven

These notes have been taking up too much of my time again. I’m really going to try and concentrate on keeping them brief…

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 12th, 2012

Our Readings this week continue building on the themes of the past few weeks. In our First Reading we hear about how God provided bread and water for Elijah in the desert and in our Gospel Jesus continues with His the “Bread of life Discourse”. In our Second Reading Paul continues His moral exhortation to the Ephesians.

last supper

O sacrament of mercy, O sign of unity, O bond of love! Whoso wishes to live, let him draw nigh, believe, be incorporated, that he may be quickened. – St. Augustine

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He-Man: Servant of Satan…apparently

Last April Fools’ Day I wrote a post entitled He-Man, Christian Allegory & Transubstantiation. It turns out my tongue-in-cheek analysis of He-Man was all wrong. 🙁

I was fortunate enough to be corrected by a programme called “Turmoil in Toybox” which I stumbled across the other day on YouTube. It turns out that, rather than being Christian allegory, He-Man was all about getting kids into the occult and into worshiping Satan!

Oh, there are not enough deep sighs in the world…

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TOT: Discernment with Fr Matt Spahr

Fr. Matt SpharIt’s “Theology On Tap” time again here in San Diego!

For the next four weeks at Phil’s BBQ here in San Diego the Young Adult Catholic community will be hearing talks from a number of different speakers:

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 Kellet

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

This week we heard from Fr. Matt Spahr, the pastor at the Immaculata parish here in San Diego speak on the subject of discernment (I’ve written quite a bit on the subject of my on discernment here: “Discerning Thoughts”“Discernment Frustrations”“That Special Something”“Three Images of Discernment”).

Here is Fr. Sphar’s short biography:

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:

Theology On Tap

                                         
Fr. Matt – Main Talk                        Fr. Matt – Q & A

(The intro/outro music is Public Domain and available here)

Leading a Bible study Feedback: Part 3

Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at the comments I received in response to my Leading A Bible Study series. So far I have considered the feedback concerning the meeting location and the feedback concerning the discussion portion of the evening.

Today I would like to finish by looking at some of the suggestions I received regarding the conclusion of the meeting.

Homework Frustration

Assigning “homework” or a challenge each week can really help bridge the gap between life inside and outside the Bible study… but, if you’re not careful, it can end up feeling like a burden…

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