Category: Catholicism

16% Checkup

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…and so another month is torn off the calendar and we have now entered March. Time for a New Year’s Resolution check up!

1. Spend 30 minutes every day in Scripture: I’ve not done as well with this as I did in January. I’ve spent a good bit of time in the Word, but it really hasn’t been devotional reading. Summary: “Could try harder!”

2. More dancing: Hmm…really failed at this one in February. I had great plans but they were consistently scuppered by forces outside of my control. I really have to get on top of it this month…

3. No more rushing: Still doing well with this one. I’ve been pretty good at keeping my timetable balanced and reasonable.

4. No chocolate: Still haven’t touched a single piece. It’s getting hard though. A couple of times I’ve been at a café and I’ve very nearly bought myself a pain au chocolat without thinking. I can really sympathize with the Vicar of Dibley on this one:

5. Get into the best shape of my life: Not bad, but could still do better. I’ve got into the habit at work of doing push-ups and pull-ups each time I go downstairs to go to the bathroom or to get a drink. My diet has remained pretty modest. I still haven’t got back into the regular way of exercising though… :-/

6. At least five minutes of guitar practice every day: Still going great. I’ll probably start playing at the LifeTeen Mass soon.

7. Keep proper track of finances: Much better. I now have a “finance guy” who is badgering me to get things sorted. Things should be probably settled after I get back from England.

8. Get back to England for a couple of weeks: All flights are booked and the majority of people are now organised.

It has been a busy month. I’ve also taught teenagers to Foxtrot, started learning New Testament Greek, requested a Social Security Number, passed my Californian Driving Test and finished a Bible study on the Epistle of St. James. All in all, not bad…

Favourite People: Fulton Sheen

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When musicians, artists and writers are interviewed, they are often asked about their influences.

Now, although I’m no Bono, something I’ve been meaning to do ever since I started this blog is to share with you some of my own influences.  These are the people who have made a profound impact upon me and substantially contributed to the person I am today.

In this post I would like to briefly talk about someone who has had an impact upon me and my faith fairly recently. In fact, up until nine months ago, I had never even heard of him. The person I’m talking about here is Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

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It’s all Greek to me…

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Okay, I know this title is an incredibly obvious pun (and far below my usual, high standards), but I thought I would make it now before anyone else did. 🙂

As most of my friends know, I’ve been wanting to study New Testament Greek for some time. However, this has been easier said than done. For a start, my geographical wanderings in recent years have made committing to a course of study difficult. Also, finding somewhere that teaches New Testament Greek is not such a simple task as one might imagine and finding one which is cost-effective only adds to the fun…

When I began my “Introduction to the New Testament” course about a month ago at the Pastoral Center I asked the instructor for suggestions as to how I could bring this desire to learn Biblical Greek to fruition. He suggested that I:

1. Contact Bethel Seminary
2. Learn using a self-study course

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Meditation From Cardinal Newman

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The other night I had a meeting with some of the Young Adult leaders in the Diocese. We shared dinner together and were offered a reflection by a Miles Christi priest.

The evening was opened with a meditation by the recently beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman. Newman is someone I’ve like for some time. I haven’t read any of his works in their entirety (yet), but I’ve always enjoyed the excerpts I’ve come across.

One thing I’ve always admired about Newman was his single-minded determination to follow the truth where ever it lead him and to serve Christ whatever the cost…

God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission, I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

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Who’s your daddy? St. Polycarp

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Today is the feast day of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Contrary to the insistence of some of my friends, “Polycarp” does not mean “much fish” 😉 Rather, his name means “much fruit”, an appropriate appellation for a man whose life was full of the fruit of one whose life was devoted to Jesus Christ:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”

– John 15:5

Polycarp, perhaps more so than any other Apostolic Father, provides us with a bridge between the Apostles and the Early Church. When Polycarp was young he sat at the feet of St. John and when Polycarp was old, another young man, St. Irenaeus sat at his feet and would later become one of the great defenders of the faith against the Gnostics.

Polycarp has a link to another Early Church Father. In fact, I have mentioned St. Polycarp on this blog before, when I wrote about the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and his letter to the bishop of that city, Polycarp. In his letter, Ignatius exhorts Polycarp:

“The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life”

– Ignatius to Polycarp

The turbulent times did indeed call for a great bishop and they did indeed find one in Polycarp…
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Nostra Aetate

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In the concluding post for the “Introduction to Islam” series I quoted the Second Vatican Council document “Nostra Aetate” since it provides Church teaching regarding non-Christian religions in general, and Islam in particular.

In the JP2 Group we will be working through this Council document, once we have concluded our current series.

In preparation for this study I have put together a formatted PDF of this document. I also recorded the text onto MP3, which I thought I would also post here:

Nostra Aetate (Download)

Bible Study Notes: The Epistle of James

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Those eagle-eyed among you might have noticed a new menu item appear at the top of this blog yesterday. The “Notes” menu is now going to be the place where I put the notes I make for Bible study sessions.

As you’ll hopefully see, my notes for the Epistle of James are already uploaded. I spent last night typing them up from my recent journey through that letter.

Over the coming weeks I’ll tidy them up a bit and hopefully make them a little more intelligible since, when I wrote them, I wasn’t expecting anyone else to see them and so they’re rather terse and inconsistent in format.

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