I now have a Goddaughter-in-law!

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A while ago I wrote a short post about my friend Mike. He was Baptized at the Easter Vigil this year and I had the honour of being his Godfather. Well, the ol’ boy just chalked up another Sacrament! A couple of weeks ago he married my former neighbor, Mara.

For Better For Worse

Back when I began Restless Pilgrim I wrote a post entitled Early Church Fathers, Love & Romance and I was going to end this current post with my favourite quotation from St. John Chrysostom, but I thought instead that I’d end with a Scripture as Mike and Mara really did a superb job of choosing the Readings for the wedding. The Second Reading they chose was the same one I read for my sister at her wedding…

…I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19

I’d appreciate it if you’d say a prayer for them tonight 🙂

The View From The Pew

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The homily given by the priest during the Catholic liturgy is incredibly important. Unfortunately, the homily is often one of the primary topics about which Catholics (and particularly former Catholics) complain.

“The ministry of the Word…among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place…is healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture” 

– Dei Verbum, 24

Unfortunately, it is often said that the homily is often unintelligible, boring, uninspiring and unrelated to real life.

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Our priests certainly have a challenging task assigned to them. They should therefore receive our support and constant prayers. We should listen carefully to each homily, attentive to what God wishes to teach us, each one of us, through His minister. When I returned to the Church, I was often humbled by listening to a homily and being shocked by the gold that was there for the taking, if only I had ears to hear.

However, in today’s post I would like to do something a little brave and suggest some practical ways in which the typical liturgical homily could be enhanced. I know I’m in a bit over my head here. I am not a priest, nor have I been trained in homiletics, but as a Catholic layman, over the course of my life thus far, I have heard over 2,000 homilies. So, for what it is worth, drawing upon my experiences from my side of the pulpit, here are my top ten suggestions for the preachers of the Word…

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Power Rangers and Bikinis

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Power Rangers and bikinis?! Well, that has to be the most random title for a post in the history of this blog (and that’s saying something). Below is a video of Jessica Rey talking about the history of the bikini:

If Jessica looks familiar to you it’s quite possibly because she is a former Power Ranger, from Power Ranges: Wild Force. Although she no longer helps Zordon defend the earth from alien baddies, she helps make it a better place by designing modest swimwear. She is also a chastity and modesty speaker.

Thinking about liturgy

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If you’ve read this blog for any length of time it will be clear by now that I have a great love for the liturgies of Eastern Christianity. There is a reverence there and a beauty which I find extremely attractive. It feeds my soul.

A few days ago I came across this video of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, speaking about the liturgies of the Church and about the need for liturgical renewal, particularly in the Western Church:

While watching this video I was reminded of an article I read on the blog “Neal Obstat” where the author recounted a conversation he had with a member of the Coptic Church. Rather surprisingly, this Coptic Christian argued that the chief obstacle to reunion with the Catholic Church was not a matter of dogma, but the “banalization” of the liturgy in the West.

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