"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
“…we are at war… Just look around you. Look at all the casualties strewn across the field. The lost souls, the broken hearts, the captives…”
– John Eldredge, Epic, Page 102
The article We are at war first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
A few years ago I went on a pilgrimage to Rome with some friends from Washington DC. We spent a wonderful few days touring the sights and praying in some of the most beautiful churches on earth.
Sadly, this weekend I received a message on Facebook that one of the priests who accompanied us, Fr. Bill Dunn, recently died. A doctor for thirty years before entering the seminary, he was a kind and gentle soul. I hadn’t met him prior to our trip, but he and I had the opportunity to become better acquainted on one of our itinerary-free days in “The Eternal City”. We ended up wandering around the city in a search for the best cappuccino money could buy:
Fr. William Dunn: Rest In Peace
The natural human response at the death of a friend is one of mourning, sadness at being physically parted from a loved one. For the Christian, however, death is not the end. As Christians, we also respond with thanksgiving, praising God for allowing us to share in the life of one who loved the Lord so deeply. Finally, the Catholic also responds with petition, that God will have mercy on our friend’s soul and grant entrance into Heaven. I say it is a Catholic’s natural response but, in truth, I think it is the natural response of every Christian, Catholic or otherwise. We want the best for our loved ones, in this life and the next, so we naturally want to intercede for them in this life and the next.
“The word “good” has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”
– G.K. Chesterton
The article Depends what you mean by “good”… first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
In my random atheist encounter last weekend we spent some time talking about faith and science. I spoke about the limits of science (the material world) and the philosophical presuppositions which science must assume to be true:
1. A world outside our minds must exist
2. We must be able to attain true knowledge of this world
3. Logic must be operable
4. Our sense must give us trustworthy data
5. Nature must be orderly and constant
(I didn’t make up this list, I read it a while ago on Soul Device)
On Saturday evening preparing for the glory of Sunday, Arsenius would turn his back on the sun and stretch out his hands in prayer towards heaven till once again the sun shone on his face
– Sayings, Aresnius 30
The article Waiting for the glory of Sunday first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
So bad…so, so bad…and more than a little racist… Why do Christians try so hard to be cool?
The article Rappin’ for Jesus first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
On Thursday I wrote a little bit about John 6 and the Eucharist in response to a conversation I had with Gerry, a non-Catholic. Today I would to take a very brief tour of the belief in the Eucharist in Early Church.
The problem with saying that Jesus is only symbolically present in the Eucharist is that apparently nobody told this to the Early Church. Below are a collection of quotations from Christian documents of the 1st and 2nd Century. These demonstrate without a doubt that Christians have, from the earliest times, understood the Eucharist to be a sacrifice performed by priests in which Jesus Christ is truly present: