Catholicism – Page 250 – Restless Pilgrim

What should I say?

October 16, 2012 pilgrim Leave a comment

The other day a friend of mine sent me a text message saying her coworker was mourning. It was the anniversary of her husband’s death in Afghanistan. Her coworker was asking the question: “Why would God let this happen?”. My friend asked “What should I say?”. Here’s the text message I wrote in reply:

I would say something like “I could talk about some of the different reasons why bad things happen to good people (fallen world, free will, sinful man, God’s plan etc.), but the truth is I don’t know… None of us fully comprehends why terrible things like this happen.

What I do know is that God is the expert at drawing good out of bad, bringing healing out of pain. When Jesus hung on the cross it looked to the world like defeat, but out of the cross came victory over death so Jesus endured it for love of the world.

Your husband, no doubt, joined the military because he thought that it was the right thing to do, to protect the country and people he loved. Jesus did the same.

I can’t explain specifically WHY your husband died, but I CAN say that, if Jesus’ death shows us anything, it’s that suffering is not meaningless and that great acts of love and sacrifice can change the world”

When we encounter someone who is suffering, there is always the temptation to talk about big theological concepts of God’s will, His sovereignty and the fallen nature of humanity. However, in my experience, when people are suffering, this kind of talk is neither helpful nor comforting. We can only point them to the Cross. Apart from the Cross, suffering has no meaning or purpose.

Even then, words are often ineffective. Actions speak much louder. When someone is suffering and I don’t know what to say, there’s a temptation to just avoid that person since I can’t “do” anything. We must fight that temptation! Sometimes all I really need to do is just show up. Be there for my friend. Listen to her. Cry with her. Pray with her. If that person is English, make a cup of tea 🙂

The presence of a friend during a time of suffering speaks much more loudly of the love of God than any words ever could. Love them like Jesus.

Mark Hall, Casting Crowns

Catholicism

Things to give up

October 15, 2012 pilgrim One comment

A friend sent me an article the other day entitled 15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy…

1. Give up your need to always be right
2. Give up your need for control
3. Give up on blame
4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk
5. Give up your limiting beliefs
6. Give up complaining
7. Give up the luxury of criticism
8. Give up your need to impress others
9. Give up your resistance to change
10. Give up labels
11. Give up on your fears
12. Give up your excuses
13. Give up the past
14. Give up attachment
15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations

Catholicism

Update on “Twelve for 2012″…

October 14, 2012 pilgrim 4 comments

I was reading Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog entry The Mystery of the Catholic Book Buyer and it prompted me to write another update for my Twelve for 2012…

Here are the finished books:

The Church and the New Media – Brandon Vogt
I’m Not Being Fed! – Jeff Cavins
The Passion of Jesus Christ – John Piper
Father Brown of the Church of Rome – G.K Chesterton
The Story of Christianity – Justo Gonzalez
How To Listen When God Is Speaking – Mitch Pacwa, SJ
Godless Delusion – Patrick Madrid & Kenneth Hensley

Here are the bonus books/documents I’ve read which were not on the list:

The One Thing – Matthew Kelly
Pillar of Fire and Truth – Catholic Answers
Quitter – Jon Acuff
The meaning of Vocation – Pope John Paul II
Orientalium Ecclesiarum – Second Vatican Council
Deus Caritas Est – Pope Benedict XVI

I am currently reading:

Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Vatican II: The Crisis And The Promise – Alan Schreck (I’m reading this for the course I’m doing)

The books still to read:

Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB

Catholicism

Pauline Tools

October 13, 2012 pilgrim 3 comments

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently leading a Bible study through the Book of Acts. I wanted to do a quick post to make a note of where I got the maps for the study. I got them from the Archdiocese of Toronoto. The site gives a brief synopsis of each of Paul’s letters and also has three great maps showing St. Paul’s missionary journeys:

Catholicism

TOT: Social Media – How to use it without being used by it

October 12, 2012 pilgrim Leave a comment

“Faith on Fire” is a new initiative here in San Diego to help nurture the younger young adult community.

Like “Theology On Tap”, it is held at a bar or restaurant where there is a talk given by a speaker which is followed by Q&A and some discussion. However, unlike “Theology On Tap”, it is restricted to only those between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five.

As I mentioned the other day, this Tuesday I was drafted in at the last minute to cover for the speaker who was ill. Fr. Jacob was scheduled to speak on the topic:

“Social Media and Faith: How to use it without being used by it”

Since he couldn’t make it, I gave the talk instead. The presentation file is available for download here and the audio of the evening is available for download below:

Main Talk (Download)

I based part of my talk on my blog post Don’t Be Too Eager To Hit “Send” and The Mobile Challenge. At some point in the future I’ll hopefully do some other posts on the subject of Social Media to help consolidate my thoughts in this area.

(The book which gave away at the beginning of the Q&A time was The Church and New Media by Brandon Vogt)

Best of British: Part 4

October 12, 2012 pilgrim Leave a comment

I haven’t done a Best of British posting in ages so I figured it’s about time.

In these posts I wanted to introduce Americans to some of the classic British comedy I watched growing up and which was so influential in the cultivation of my “unique” sense of humour (it’s always good to know whom to blame!).

Red Dwarf

Most people know that I’m a bit of a bibliophile and that I love to read, but I don’t think it’s common knowledge which book I’ve picked up and re-read the most times. The title which gets that dubious honour is The Red Dwarf Omnibus, a collection of books based upon the TV comedy called “Red Dwarf”.

Red Dwarf is a comedy set in deep space about crew of the mining ship “Red Dwarf”. The crew consists of the last human alive, the hologram of his dead bunkmate, a creature descended from a domestic cat, a neurotic android and the ship’s senile computer. If that isn’t the formula for comedy gold, I don’t know what is…

In the clip below, the last human alive, Dave, is teaching the neurotic android, Kryten, how to lie:

Men Behaving Badly

Some of the jokes in “Red Dwarf” were definitely more on the “toilet humour” end of the comedy spectrum. Speaking of immature comedies…one show I loved during my teenage years was the suitably infantile “Men Behaving Badly”. This TV show followed the antics of Tony and Garry, two flatmates struggling with adulthood and grown-up life when all they really want to do is sit on the sofa and drink beer.

The following snippet comes from the end of an episode where Tony has been trying to diet…unsuccessfully. Also, Garry’s friends have found out he has actually got a lot of money squirreled away in his bank account. Because everyone keeps asking him for money, Garry goes out and spends all his money on expensive beer and high-end watches for his friends in an effort to get things back to “normal”:

Bottom

No examination of British toilet humour would be complete without a brief look at “Bottom” 😉. Below is probably my favourite scene in the show’s entire run, in which Eddie tries to teach Richie how to play chess…