TED Talk: Conception to Birth
Today I came across a really beautiful TED talk about the medical imaging of the unborn:
Category: Catholicism
When someone leaves
Last week I came across that great article on Our Sunday Visitor‘s website talking about how to respond when someone you love leaves the Church:
It’s really tough when you have to sit and watch someone walk away from the Faith. You want to “fix” the situation and, when you discover that you can’t do it quickly, you all too often do things which simply drives the person further and further away….
There’s some real gold in this article.
The road ahead
“The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way” – JRR Tolkein
What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
I’m going to be teaching a large group of teens to swing dance…sheesh… Please pray for me!
On being wrong
Some food for thought about being wrong…seems like a good way to end the year 😉
(Thanks To Happy Catholic for this one)
TOT: Year of Faith
The 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
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:
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?