Author: pilgrim

Rest

One comment

The term “Desert Father” is generally used to refer to the Christian monks, hermits and ascetics who began to appear in about the Third Century. They were often located in the Scetes desert of Egypt, but their lifestyle was subsequently imitated throughout the world. A visitor to Egypt in the 4th Century wrote:

“One can see them in the desert waiting for Christ as loyal sons watching for their father… There is only the expectation of the coming of Christ in the singing of hymns… There is no town or village in Egypt and the Thebaid which is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls”
– The Lives of the Desert Fathers, Norman Russel

The most famous of these Desert Father was probably St. Anthony The Great whose biography, written by St. Athanasius, inspired many to follow his example to renounce wealth, enter the desert and live a simple life of prayer.

St. Anthony of Egypt

One of the books which I’m reading this year is Sayings of the Desert Fathers, so you can expect to see quite a few quotations from these early Christian witnesses over the course of next year. I’d like to begin with a story of St. Anthony which I hope to set the tone for my 2013…

A hunter happened to come by and saw Anthony talking in a relaxed way with the brothers, and he was shocked. The hermit wanted to show him how we should sometimes be less austere for the sake of the brothers, and said to him, “Put an arrow in your bow, and draw it.” He did so, and Anthony said, “Draw it further” and he drew it further. He said again, “Draw it yet further,” and he drew it some more. Then the hunter said to him, “If I draw it too far, the bow will snap.” Anthony answered, “so it is with God’s work. If we always go to excess, the brothers quickly become exhausted. It is sometimes best not to be rigid”
– Sayings, Anthony, 13

TOT: Year of Faith

Leave a comment

Year of FaithThe purpose of Theology On Tap is to help Young Adults grow together in their faith in a relaxed, informal environment. A few days ago I posted the audio from Dr. Michael Barber’s Theology On Tap talk at John Paul “The Great” University on the subject of “Spiritual lessons about politics from the book of Revelation”.

Today I’m posting the audio from another talk in that series, this time by Fr. Andy Younan. Earlier this year Pope Benedict called for a “Year of Faith”. Fr. Andy’s talk addresses this subject as well as another subject you may have heard a lot about, the “New Evangelization”…

The talk is entitled “The Year of Faith & the New Evangelization” and is available for download by clicking on the link below:

Main Talk (Download)

Q&A (Download)

One of the parishes with which I’m involved here in San Diego will be hosting a conference as part of the Year of Faith. As soon as we have our dates and speakers confirmed I’ll post some more information.

Private Revelation

2 comments

In my various wanderings I have, on occasion, come across a certain breed of Catholic who is extreeeeeemely attached to stuff like the Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, as well as medals and other specific prayers and devotions, all of which leave me feeling rather…meh.

Now, I’m not rubbishing any of these devotions, not at all. In fact, some of them eventually won me over and now feature significantly in my spiritual life, such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet. However, I’ve often found the rather overzealous promotion of some of these devotions to be rather off-putting.

I think what I have found unsettling is the unspoken (although sometimes spoken!) assertion that such-and-such a devotion IS Catholicism, or at least a fundamental part of it. My expressions of disinterest, therefore, have been taken almost as acts of apostasy! How could any self-respecting Catholic NOT be absolutely enthralled by this devotion?!

So why am I bringing this up? Well, this morning I was clearing out some of my old browser bookmarks and came across a great article by Mark Shea where he addressed this very question and gave some superb advice:

“[T]he good news is that the Church binds you to none of it… If it helps your devotion to Christ, then great.  If not, or if it gives you trouble, just stick with the public revelation [i.e. the official, binding teaching of the Church] and it will be fine.” – Mark Shea

You can read the full article here:

private revelation

What do you think? Are there any devotions which you follow which you’ve found helpful? Or have you ever been put off by someone’s extremely zealous promotion of one?

1 … 425 426 427 428 429 … 551