Category: Catholicism

TEA: Getting More Out Of The Mass…in ten minutes (Dodge City)

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Dodge

As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I was in Dodge City, Kansas for SKYAC, the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference.

During the afternoon, I gave one of the “FED Talks”. For those of you familiar with TED Talks, it was of a very similar format. However, whereas TED Talks are short presentations on Technology, Entertainment and Design, the FED Talks in Kansas were focussed on the subjects of Faith, Evangelization and Discipleship.

My own FED presentation was a version of my talk on “Getting More out of the Mass”. Preparing for a ten-minute talk was a surprisingly time-consuming process! It’s hard to clearly communicate something of value in a restricted time window! It completely validated the quotation which is commonly ascribed to Woodrow Wilson:

“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation;
if fifteen minutes, three days;
if half an hour, two days;
if an hour, I am ready now” 

For those of you who would like to hear the full-length version of the talk, I should be giving it in San Diego sometime in May.

Getting More Out Of The Mass (Download)

TEA: Is there life before marriage? (Dodge City)

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BJD

So this past weekend I was at the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference (SKYAC). I gave a few talks on the retreat, which I’ll post here over the next couple of days.

The afternoon opened up with a talk on relationships from the magnificently-bearded Dave DiNuzzo (“Relationship Martyrdom vs Relationship Suicide”).

Following Dave’s presentation, the married couples on the retreat had their own breakout talk, but all those without wedding rings on their fingers were sent to another room to listen to…me! In my talk, I tried to answer the all-important question…is there life before marriage?

“Is there life before marriage?” (Download)

TEA: Evangelization For The Terrified (SPC Retreat)

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Terrified

I know I said I wouldn’t be posting during Lent, but this weekend I gave a talk, “Evangelization for the terrified”, at the San Pedro Calungsod Young Adult Retreat in San Diego and promised that I’d upload the audio the following week, together with links to the resources I mentioned in my talk.

The Talk

Evangelization For The Terrified – Extended Edition (Download)

Unfortunately, the original recording has the last ten minutes cut off… 🙁 Fortunately, I just re-recorded the entire talk here at home. Since I didn’t have the time restrictions I had on the retreat, this recording is a little longer. Think of it as the Director’s Cut or the Extended Edition, which includes ten minutes of never-before-heard material!

Referenced Resources

David and SarahI began my talk by referencing the Papal Encyclical Evangelization In The Modern World.

When I speak about learning your faith, I mention a number of low-cost services which will help you learn the Catholic Faith:

FORMED (Catholic Answers)
ClaritasU (Brandon Vogt)
New St. Thomas Institute (Dr. Taylor Marshall)

I also mentioned recommend the following sites which are completely free:

Institute of Catholic Culture
St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

I mention that you can buy cheap books/CDs/DVDs to give away from Dynamic Catholic.

For staying up-to-date with Catholicism in the media, I recommend listening to Hearts & Minds and the Don Johnson Show.

If you would like lots of good examples of how seasoned apologists engage non-Catholics, please check out Catholic Answers Live.

The talk was concluded with a retelling of the story of the Sun and the Wind from Aesop’s Fables.

Lent with Meg

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Lent is now on the horizon. If you’re looking for some creative Lent ideas, I thoroughly recommend that you check out the following post from my friend, Meg Hunter-Kilmer, entitled 100 Things to Do for Lent:

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Meg has lots of great suggestions as to how one can embrace the Church’s exhortation to pray, fast and give alms. If you’re looking to have a more creative, out-of-the-ordinary Lent, please give it a read.

If you’d like to know more about Meg, or if you’d like to get energized about Lent, Meg was also recently interviewed on Fountain of Carrots where you’ll get to hear how she approaches the upcoming liturgical season:

Debate: Has the Qur’an Been Changed

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Once of the central claims in Islam is the immutability of the Qur’an. It is repeatedly asserted that what was given to Muhammad is exactly what is found in copies of today’s Arabic Qur’an.

I’ll be writing about it myself once I’ve finished reading the Qur’an, but in the meantime, here’s a very detailed debate focussing on this very question:

Evaluating Horn and White’s Debate

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A while ago I posted the video of the debate between Dr. James White and Trent Horn on the issue of whether or not it is possible for a Christian to lose his salvation.

The broad response that I’ve seen on the Internet (from both Catholic and Protestant alike) is that Trent put forward the significantly stronger case, and I would agree with this assessment. I’m a fan of Dr. White in many areas and I’ve seen him more successful in other debates debating Catholics, but in this case, I think his position was shown to be very weak.

Dr. White recently put out a video in response to this consensus, explaining how it is that he thinks we should evaluate debates. I literally just came across the following YouTube video which examines this video. It’s a little bit polemic, but if you’ve seen the debate, I think it’s well worth a watch…

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