The canon and tradition
I wanted to share a recent post from Soul Device on the canon of the Bible and the subject of tradition:
Category: Catholicism
Blessed are the Gifts
A couple of days ago on Facebook, my friend Rachel referred to the “seven gifts of the Spirit”. These are the gifts mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah:
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel [right judgement] and might [fortitude],
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord [piety]…
– Isaiah 11:2-3
I commented briefly on Rachel’s Facebook posting, saying that St. Augustine associated these seven gifts with Christ’s beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). In today’s post I wanted to explain in a little more detail what St. Augustine taught about the relationship between these gifts and the beatitudes…
In The Beginning: Adam Restored
Last week I published a post in which I examined the different roles of Adam, as part of my In The Beginning series. I demonstrated from the Scriptures how Adam was a son of God, bridegroom, priest, prophet and king.
I explained that it’s important to understand these different roles of Adam because in understanding Adam, we come to understand the blueprint, God’s original design, the original state of affairs before everything started going all askew. Salvation History is the story of our redemption and the return to that original state of affairs.
In today’s post I’d like to look at how Adam’s various roles are taken up once more…
Lazarus Come Forth!
I was back at a Roman Rite parish today to cover the music ministry. The Gospel Reading this week was the episode where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
A while back my work colleague, Thomas, told me about the Christian music he listened to growing up and he sent me a link to “Lazarus”, a song by an artist called Carmen. It’s a little cheesy and the music is a rather dated, but I’ve got to say I find this song rather charming… 🙂
Why Holy Water?
What’s the big deal with Holy Water?
In The Beginning: The many roles of Adam
The creation accounts found in the first and second chapters of Genesis are portions of the Bible with which most Catholics are typically pretty familiar. We actually had a portion read at Mass a couple of weeks ago and we’ll hear a further extract at the Easter Vigil in a couple of weeks’ time.
In today’s post I’d like to draw out a few things we learn about Adam in Genesis. In particular, I’d like to look at the five roles essential to Adam’s identity…
Which Pope said that?
I’m really pleased that the media is receptive to Pope Francis, but I am still a bit mystified as to their level of enthusiasm. Pope Francis is certainly more charismatic then Pope Benedict, but he was a shy introverted academic so that’s hardly a surprise! These Popes can’t simply be reduced to soundbites and appearances.
Anyway, if you think you know the last three Popes, I’d invite you to take this quiz form the New York Times where you have to match the quotation to the right Pope…
