August 2017 – Page 4 – Restless Pilgrim

Restless Heart: 4 – “Is there life before marriage?” (Part I)

August 10, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

This past week, I gave at talk to the Goretti Group entitled “Is there life before marriage?” In today’s episode, Nessa and talk about some of the issues I raised in that talk. Do some people derive their self-worth from their Facebook “Relationship Status”? What are some common misunderstandings concerning marriage? We then look at the subject friendships, the first area which I suggest deserves careful investment during your single years.

Episode 4: Is there life before marriage? (Download)

— Show Notes —

* If you would like to listen to my original talk I gave to the Goretti Group, it is available here.

* The Bible passage I quote at the end of the episode is this section from Sirach:

Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.
…
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.
A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.
A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds;
For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

– Sirach 6:6-17

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Podcast

Wise Words On Wedesday: Catholics are Romantic

August 9, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

romantic

We believe that two people can fall in love and stay in love.

We believe that the biggest jerk can become the holiest person in our lives.

We believe that the lowly are the ones who will be raised, the downtrodden, the blessed, and the ones who are taken advantage of, justified.

We believe that joy changes lives.

That a piece of bread and a cup of wine transforms into the Body and Blood of Christ and consuming that Body and Blood will transform us.

We believe that we can step into a confessional a repentant sinner and walk out a forgiven son or daughter.

We are romantic

– Fr Ryan Mann

Quotation

Mere Christianity – Book II (Summary)

August 8, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

You can look at my more detailed notes, but this is an overview of the content of Book II of “Mere Christianity”…

Chapter 1 – “Rival Conceptions of God”

Quotations

Truth in other religions

If you are Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth…[However,] as in arithmetic – there is only one right answer to a sum…but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others

Pantheism

…these people think that long before you got anywhere near the divine point of view the distinction [between good and evil] would have disappeared altogether…

Pantheists usually believe that God, so to speak, animates the universe as you animate your body: that the universe almost is God, so that if it did not exist He would not exist either, and anything you find in the universe is a part of God…

If you do not take the distinction between good an bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God

Non-Pantheists

…[these people believe in] a God who takes sides, who loves love and hates hatred, who wants us to behave in one way and not in another…

…God invented and made the universe – like a man making a picture or composing a tune. A painter is not a picture, and he does not die if his picture is destroyed

…if you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will…a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on putting them right again

Evil and God

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line…I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that then my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies

Questions

1. Why does Jack say that when he became a Christian he adopted the more “liberal” view?

2. Is it possible to affirm the truth of other religions while still holding to the absolute truth claims of Christianity?

3. Can you think of any religion completely devoid of ALL truth?

4. Into what two central conceptions of God does Jack say people hold? Do you think we could divide it up in a different way?

5. In what way do these conceptions of God and our attitudes towards the Moral Law and the Universe relate to each other?

6. Why does the very question of asking about evil in the world presuppose the existence of God?

Catholicism

Music Monday: Your love defends me

August 7, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

Here’s the most recent song, “Your love defends me” from the generally-accepted king of Catholic Contemporary Music, Matt Maher:

[Verse 1]
You are my joy, You are my song
You are the well, the One I’m drawing from
You are my refuge, my whole life long
Where else would I go?

[Chorus]
Surely my God is the strength of my soul
Your love defends me, Your love defends me
And when I feel like I’m all alone
Your love defends me, Your love defends me

[Verse 2]
Day after day, night after night
I will remember, You’re with me in this fight
Although the battle, it rages on
The war is already won
I know the war is already won

[Chorus]
Surely my God is the strength of my soul
Your love defends me, Your love defends me
And when I feel like I’m all alone
Your love defends me, Your love defends me

[Bridge]
We sing Hallelujah
You’re my portion
My salvation
Hallelujah
You’re my portion
My salvation
Hallelujah

Music

Restless Heart: 3 – “Confession”

August 6, 2017 pilgrim One comment

In the past few episodes we have indirectly at two of the Sacraments, the Eucharist and Matrimony. In today’s episode we’ll be looking directly at the Sacrament of Confession, what it is, where it comes from and a few pieces of advice to bear in mind when you go.

Episode 3: Confession (Download)