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Daughters Of The King

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The regularity of my posts in recent times has been pretty lamentable, but at least I can now finally explain why.  Much of my time over the last couple of months has been taken up with preparations for “Daughters Of The King”…

Genesis

The whole idea began back in August at Dan’s bachelor weekend.  Together with eight other guys, I spent the weekend hiking and camping a few hour’s drive from San Diego. While we were catching our breath halfway up a mountain, one of our number, Mike, shared with us an idea he had…

Mike wanted to put together some sort of event for all the ladies in our lives: friends, girlfriends, wives, sisters and mothers.  He wanted an evening for the guys to gather together specifically to honour all of the ladies.  Quite an extraordinary idea to come out of a bachelor weekend, hey?

Planning

Towards the end of September we began preparations.  I sent out an email to all the men on the JP2 mailing list, inviting them to join us in this unique enterprise.  Twenty men stepped up to the challenge…

We initially met at my apartment, drank some beer and discussed what kind of event we might organize. We were not short of ideas!  (In later meetings we would institute the “Don’t suggest an idea unless you’re willing to take it on yourself” rule!)  After much discussion, the idea we settled upon was to throw a classy gala evening in the parish hall of Our Lady of the Rosary.  We decided that the event would be completely free to the ladies and that the men would cook and serve all of the food.

We had wanted to hold the event on the same date as some Marian Feast, but we ended up choosing November 21st, the Feast of Christ the King.  From the title of this feast, we quickly settled upon the name of our event, since we would be spending the evening honouring the daughters of our aforementioned King.  Only later would we realise that this date is, in fact, actually also a minor Marian Feast, The Presentation of Mary, the commemoration of Our Lady’s presentation as a child in the Temple.

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Another Patristics Resource

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Wow, they just keep coming!  Soon there will be published yet another “user friendly” resource for the writings of the Early Church Fathers! I just got the following email from Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers:

My debate was a beautiful failure. My opponent was Dave Hunt, an inveterate anti-Catholic, a Fundamentalist writer of risible but widely-read books that “exposed” the Catholic Church… Our venue was a large hall near Detroit. The place was packed, chiefly with people who weren’t sympathetic to the points I was trying to make. One such listener was Alex Jones, then pastor of an inner-city Pentecostal church.

Years later, when Steve Ray introduced me to Alex, he said I was responsible for Alex’s conversion to the Catholic faith—but that Alex hadn’t been impressed by a single argument I made during that debate (Ouch!)

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Know your Rites

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The other week I resumed a former “hobby” of mine.  When I was living back in London I would often go and visit Eastern Rite Catholic churches…

What’s Rite?

A “Rite” in this context generally refers to a group within the wider Catholic Church which is associated with a particular liturgical tradition.  The main Rite with which most people will be familiar is the “Latin Rite”.  This is what is followed in most Catholic churches in Western Europe and the United States.  However, what most people don’t know is that there are six other Rites in the Catholic Church. The Catechism in paragraph #1203 lists these other Rites as Byzantine, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite and Chaldean. The majority of married Catholic priests (yes, you heard me right) will be found in these Eastern Rite Catholic churches where the discipline of celibacy is not exercised in the same way.

I love visiting Eastern Rite churches – I get to explore an unfamiliar liturgy, but unlike when I visit Protestant churches, I also am able to receive communion because the churches which I visit are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.  So far, I have participated in Maronite and Byzantine (Melkite & Ukrainian) liturgies.

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Who’s your daddy? St. Ignatius of Antioch

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This is the first entry in what I hope to be a regular series of posts about the Early Church Fathers.

It is a good thing to study the Early Fathers because by reading their writings we can get a better picture of what the Church looked like during those early centuries, both during the years of persecution and the years of peace.

The Church Fathers speak to us of the Faith they learned from the Apostles and from their immediate successors.  If we would sit and listen, their words can still instruct and inspire us today, just as they did for Christians under their care in their own time.

I would like to begin this series of entries with my favourite Early Church Father, the inspirational martyr and gifted writer, St. Ignatius of Antioch.

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

– James 1:12

My posts on the Fathers will not normally be this long, but reading St. Ignatius for the first time had some a profound effect on me I want to try and do him justice.  Read to the end, it’ll be worth it, I promise.

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Sunday Lectionary: Welcoming the Lord

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The readings in this Sunday’s Lectionary speak to us of hospitality.

In the First Reading we hear recounted Abraham’s reception of the three strangers to whom he offers his choicest food.  In the Gospel we hear another story about the hospitality offered to Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, the two sisters whose brother, Lazarus, Jesus had raised from the dead (John 11).

The Gospel this week is as follows:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:-28-42

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