"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
In case you didn’t know, Trent Horn from Catholic Answers will be debating James White from Alpha & Omega ministries on the subjection of whether or not Christians can lose their salvation. The rather exciting news this morning is that the debate is going to be streamed live on the Internet at 7pm EST (4pm PST):
Probably the most important thing to consider when preparing for the Camino is your pack. In assembling mine, I consulted the list of recommendations found in a companion book I had bought, as well as some other lists I found online. Here is a categorized list of everything I carried on my back along the Camino:
Walking Gear
Backpack (with rain sheet)
Waterproof jacket
Waterproof trouser/pants covers
Hat (for sun/rain)
Sunglasses
Suntan lotion (SPF 30+)
Buff Headwear (great for keeping the sun off your neck)
Trainers/sneakers for exploring the town in the evenings (Optional)
Clothes
Long sleeve (quick-dry) tops x2
T-shirt (quick-dry) x1
Trousers which convert to shorts x2
Underwear x2
Socks x4
A pair of shorts to be used as pyjamas
Sleeping
Sleeping bag (liner)
Inflatable pillow
Washbag
Flip-flops for the shower
Toothpaste/Toothbrush/Floss
Nail clipper
Quick-drying towel
Laundry
Concentrated washing liquid
Scrubba (Optional, but very convenient and a great conversation starter)
Plastic Clothes Pegs
Other
First Aid Kit (Compeed, scissors, band-aids/plasters, tape)
Phone (and charger)
Camino Scallop Shell (Buy in St. Jean)
Camino Guide Book/Maps
$300 in Euros and an ATM card
I’ll be drawing particular attention to some of these items in subsequent posts.
Equipment | Before you leave home | On the road | Staying in Hostels
In a few days, I will be writing about my experience walking the Camino De Santiago, the pilgrimage route through Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, but in the meantime I have some other Camino-related posts scheduled…
Before setting out on my trip, I spoke to several close friends who had previously walked the Camino, and I asked them for tips concerning my upcoming journey. Additionally, while I was on pilgrimage itself, I asked my fellow pilgrims what advice they would give to a friend who expressed interest in walking the Camino (aside from obvious response of “Don’t be crazy!”).
This week I will be sharing four blog posts which will be an aggregation of all the suggestions I would give to any would-be pilgrims. Each post will focus on one particular area:
2. Before you leave home
3. On the road
4. Staying in Hostels
Quite a few of my friends are talking about walking the Camino this year, so hopefully this will give them a bit of a headstart…
Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls
– Jeremiah 6:16
This week I heard a talk on the Gospel of John by Dr. Michael Barber at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
In the early part of his talk, Dr. Barber discussed the question of authorship of the Gospel. He mentioned how modern sceptical scholars often say that the Gospel was originally anonymous, and that the text “The Gospel according to John” was a later addition. I have often heard claims such as these, so I was delighted to hear Dr. Barber present some potential problems with this position…
The main issue in asserting that the Gospel was original anonymous is that the manuscript evidence does not support this hypothesis at all. Where the manuscripts survive, we find the text present. Not only that, there are some other problems which flow from this…
If the original Gospel was anonymous and the association with St. John was a later development, why don’t we find divergent attributions? Since St. John is not identified as the author within the narrative itself, surely one would expect many divergent attributions to develop? Why was the Gospel never associated with, say, St. Peter? The obvious answer is that the text “The Gospel according to John” was in there from the beginning.
If the sceptics are right, the text had been copied as an anonymous Gospel and distributed throughout the Empire. Why is it that manuscripts from all these different regions bear the text claiming Johannine authorship? It would have been an impossible task to gather up all these different manuscripts retrospectively in order to “fix” them with an agreed-upon author, particularly since they were in different languages (Greek, Latin etc). Once again, the simplest explanation for consistency in all these manuscripts in all these areas in all these languages is simply that the text “The Gospel according to John” was in there from the beginning.
These reasons, coupled with the universal testimony of the Early Church Fathers, should give us great confidence that, from the very beginning, this Gospel opened with the words “The Gospel according to John…”
Who knows the hidden suffering of Catholic men?! Well, thanks to FOCUS, the secret sufferings of Catholic men…
Last week I wrote two posts on the subject of dating outside of the Catholic Faith. In an effort to keep those posts focussed, I had decided to address the specific scenario of a couple composed of two Christians, a Catholic and a Protestant.
However, as I was writing, there was one issue related to dating outside of the Catholic Faith that I particularly wanted to raise, but since it didn’t naturally fall within the parameters which I had set for those articles, I decided to omit it. In today’s brief post, therefore, I would like to return to this issue.
In the previous post, I presented three main areas for potential conflict between a Catholic and a Protestant:
1. The Wedding
2. Religious Practice
3. Children and family life
In addition to these three areas, when a Catholic dates a non-Christian (as opposed to a non-Catholic), there is another area of potential conflict which is particularly worth considering:
4. Chastity
Is your potential spouse committed to chastity? Will this person do everything possible to help you remain chaste?
It is worth pointing out that potential contention over the subject of chastity is certainly not limited to the situation where a Catholic is dating a non-Christian. It is possible that conflict may arise when dating a Protestant or, as I highlighted in my previous post, even a fellow Catholic. There is no guarantee that someone who identifies as “Catholic” actually will believe or practise the entirety of the Catholic Faith.