"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
On Thursday we will be continuing the JP2 Group‘s study of worship in the Early Church by reading another extract from the Early Church. This text comes from the writing of Hippolytus of Rome (c AD 170 – 235) entitled “Apostolic Tradition” and was probably written in about AD 215.
Bishop: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Bishop: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Lord.
Bishop: Let us give thanks to the Lord.
All: It is proper and right.
Love theology. Love music. Love puns.
Since JP2 is now meeting again, I will be resuming my “Sunday Lectionary” posts for the coming week’s Sunday Mass Readings. I did begin one last week but I didn’t finish it in time :-(. So, from now on I’m limiting my writing time to two hours – I do tend to get a bit carried away… 😉
Last week’s Readings focused on God’s call to us. In turn, this week’s Readings focus upon our response to Him.
In the First Reading we hear of how Jonah (eventually) responded to God’s call and then how the people of Nineveh responded to God through the message of His Prophet.
In the Gospel we hear Jesus’ message: repent and believe for the Kingdom is at hand. He calls four fishermen to come and follow him, simple men who, later when He is gone, will become great pillars in His Church.
Having before you many examples of sinners who repented and were saved, be you also earnest in confessing to the Lord, that you may receive pardon for past sins, be made worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the kingdom of heaven with all the saints -St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 386)
I wrote earlier about my New Year’s Resolutions. One of the items was “Complete Reading List”. Here are the books I’ve selected:
I’m sure this little bundle will inspire a blog entry or two…
The Church and the New Media – Brandon Vogt
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
I’m Not Being Fed! – Jeff Cavins
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Godless Delusion – Patric Madrid & Kenneth Hensley
The Passion of Jesus Christ – John Piper
How To Listen When God Is Speaking – Mitch Pacwa, SJ
Father Brown of the Church of Rome – G.K Chesterton
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
The Story of Christianity – Justo Gonzalez
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
I will be beginning with the one at the top of the pile The Church and the New Media which I recently won in a competition over at the author’s blog, The Thin Veil. Thanks Brandon! 🙂
A great little follow-up to the “Why I hate religion but love Jesus” YouTube video I briefly commented on a couple of days ago:
UPDATE: It appears that the chap who made the original video has had a change of heart…
As I mentioned before, I’m currently working my way through St. Matthew’s Gospel. I was reading a commentary the other day where it noted the parallels between the two main Josephs in the Bible:
The first Joseph is the Joseph of the Old Testament.
This Joseph was the one who had dreams and was sold into slavery by his own brothers (Genesis 37:28). When he resisted the advances of his master’s wife he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. Fortunately, because he could interpret the Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:1-36) he later ascended to the role of Prime Minister (Genesis 41:39-40).
Later, during a great famine, Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy grain. After testing their hearts (Genesis 44), Joseph responds with mercy and brings his whole family to live with him (Genesis 47:11-12)
The second Joseph is the Joseph of the New Testament.
This is St. Joseph, the man who was betrothed to Mary (Matthew 1:19). When he found out that Mary was pregnant, he considered divorcing her. However, after an angel appeared to him in a dream, he resolved to take her as his wife and become the foster father of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-25).
After Jesus’ birth, St. Joseph receives another dream warning him of Herod’s plan to kill Jesus so he takes his wife and son to Egypt. Eventually he brings his family back and settles them in Galilee (Matthew 2:20-23).
Most people assume that St. Joseph died prior to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry since he is not mentioned during that time.
Now, the parallels…
