Category: Catholicism

Come Soon…finally arrived!

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Quite some time ago I wrote about Coming Soon, a book by Dr. Michael Barber concerning the Book of Revelation (“Apocalypse”). I enjoyed Dr. Barber’s book a lot and I expressed how much I’d like to work through that book again in some kind of study group.

Well, nearly three years later, it has finally happened. Earlier this week I met up with a friend at a local Pub and we went through the first chapter of Coming Soon. I’ve affectionately dubbed our little group as “The Oratory of St. Arnoldus“ 🙂

As we work through Dr. Barber’s book each week I will attempt to do a short post summarizing our discussion…

Beer

Proverbs 31:6

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Religion and Gender

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GenderI was recently having a conversation with some friends and the subject of religion and gender came up. It is a common conception that the practice of religion is generally stronger among women rather than men.

I have to admit that, in my experience, it has been the complete opposite. When I was back in England the prayer group and young adult group that I attended was predominantly male. The Bible study group I led here in the States was also predominantly male.

I’m interested to hear your own experiences. Have you noticed a particular gender dominance at your parish and parish groups? Do you have any explanation for this?

Going back east

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A couple of months ago I found myself back around my old stomping ground of Washington DC. It was great to return to one of my favourite US cities, catching up with friends and re-visiting all my favourite places.

As providence would have it, I had the opportunity to hear Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo speak at the Catholic Information Center (CIC).  Deacon Sabatino is founder of the Institute of Catholic Culture, a Virginia-based organization about which I have previously written.

Since writing that earlier blog post, I visited Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Nebraska and did a double-take when I saw an office with his name on it! Clearly this guy gets around! his brother’s name on it!

Anyway, during this “Year of Faith”, the CIC has been hosting a series of lectures on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and I just so happened to be in town for Deacon Carnazzo’s lecture on Orientalium Ecclesiarum, the Decree concerning the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, a subject close to my heart.

ICC

No, I’m not a Roman Catholic…

Deacon Carnazzo is himself an Eastern-Rite Catholic and during his talk he explained the origin of the Eastern Churches and gave a brief introduction to life as an Eastern Catholic. In his talk he encouraged all Western Catholics to become familiar with the Eastern Church. How is this to be done? Well, if you want to get to know someone, you share a meal with them. For Catholics, this means sharing in the Eucharistic feast.

So, in the spirit of this, I have set up a Facebook event and invited my friends to come with me to celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul at the end of the month at my local Byzantine parish. If you’re in town and you’d like to come, feel free to shoot me an email.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

The article Going back East first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

Reading List Update

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It’s time for a quick reading list update. So far this year, I’ve finished the following books

The Screwtape Letters The Great Divorce , Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks – Penguin Classics
Every Man’s Journey – James P. Campbell
Hold Me Tight – Dr. Sue Johnson
After Jesus – Reader’s Digest
St. Francis of Assisi – G.K. Chesterton
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Weaving The Web – Tim Berners-Lee*
Roots of the Reformation – Karl Adam*

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Patron Saint of Chess

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The other day I mentioned that I recently had several opportunities to hear Fr. Donald Calloway speak. During one of his talks he said something concerning St. Teresa of Avila that I had never heard before. He said that in one of her books she spoke about the game of chess. In my childhood I played chess a lot with my Dad, so my ears immediately perked up when he mentioned the game.

Today I set aside some time and tracked down Avila’s text. It comes from The Way Of Perfection in the section where she is speaking about prayer:

Teresa“But you may be sure that anyone who cannot set out the pieces in a game of chess will never be able to play well, and, if he does not know how to give check, he will not be able to bring about a checkmate. Now you will reprove me for talking about games…[but] if we play it frequently, how quickly we shall give checkmate to this Divine King! He will not be able to move out of our check nor will He desire to do so.

It is the queen which gives the king most trouble in this game and all the other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well as humility can; for humility brought Him down from Heaven into the Virgin’s womb and with humility we can draw Him into our souls by a single hair. Be sure that He will give most humility to him who has most already and least to him who has least. I cannot understand how humility exists, or can exist, without love, or love without humility, and it is impossible for these two virtues to exist save where there is great detachment from all created things…

This is an error which we all make: if a person gets so far as to spend a short time each day in thinking about his sins, as he is bound to do if he is a Christian in anything more than name, people at once call him a great contemplative; and then they expect him to have the rare virtues which a great contemplative is bound to possess; he may even think he has them himself, but he will be quite wrong. In his early stages he did not even know how to set out the chess-board, and thought that, in order to give checkmate, it would be enough to be able to recognize the pieces. But that is impossible, for this King does not allow Himself to be taken except by one who surrenders wholly to Him.” – The Way of Perfection

…and for this work she has become the Patron Saint of Chess 🙂

The article Patron Saint of Chess first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

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