How ought we to live?

Today I ended up having an hour-long amiable discussion at a bar with an atheist. It made me very sad to hear him speak of Christians and the Church in such bitter terms. What then, is to be our response as Christians?

daniel-in-the-lions-den

A brother asked him [Poeen], “How ought we to live?” Poemen replied, “We have seen the example of Daniel. They accused him of nothing except that he served his God”

– Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 1:13

The solution to any anxiety is more prayer!

ignatius-loyola

“After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan’s temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he’ll have an incentive to leave you alone.”

– St. Ignatius of Loyola

(Thanks to Anh for this one)

When it takes an atheist to explain the faith…

Yesterday I posted a video of some Dominican Nuns reacting to Pope Francis’ election. Here is the other video which I really wanted to post during my Lenten blog fast:

For those of you who don’t live in the US, the chap on the right is Penn Jillette, one half of the magic group “Penn & Teller” and a vocal atheist. I’m pretty sure everyone knows the guy on the right, the former British tabloid writer and editor, Piers Morgan.

Until recently I had no idea that Piers called himself a Catholic, but when Pope Benedict resigned he became incredibly vocal about it, tweeting and saying many things that would give a first year theologian a rather impressive aneurism.

I love the way it takes an Atheist such as Penn to explain to a professed Catholic such as Piers the basics of Catholicism…

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