Suffering – Part 1: Is it inevitable?
I’ve been working on a document for a friend which examines the Scriptural perspective on suffering. I thought I’d share a few sections of it here…
"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
I’ve been working on a document for a friend which examines the Scriptural perspective on suffering. I thought I’d share a few sections of it here…
Time for a resolution update…
1. Read through the New Testament Twice
Ugh. Really bad. Total fail. I think I have to resign myself to the fact that I’m not going to achieve this one…
2. More dancing
You know what? I’m getting there! I’ve started going to a West Coast Swing club once a week, and last night I got my country on at InCahoots!
3. Be more gentle with people
Quite a few successes to report! The body count left in my wake is diminishing!
4. No sodas/fizzy drinks
I very nearly had a Root Beer by accident the other day, but I’m still going strong!
5. Get into the best shape of my life
Last month was pretty bad, but I’ve fought back and I’m back to 162lbs. C’mon, it’s now time to get serious and thing done!
6. Complete reading list
A few more books have been polished off: How To Listen When God Is Speaking and Godless Delusion. I’m currently working on Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth. I have the follow other books to complete by the end of the year:
Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias
Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
This puts me just a little bit behind schedule.
7. Keep proper track of finances
It’s fallen off my radar a bit.
8. Tick something off my TODO list
Still good 🙂
10. Fast on Wednesday and Friday
Good stuff.
11. Give up Facebook for 40 days
I gave up Facebook for Lent. It was rather refreshing. It has certainly changed my relationship with Facebook.
12. Make an effort to dress well for Mass
I’ve done pretty well here, shaving, wearing a shirt, nice shoes etc. I have certainly been more conscious of it.
A while ago my friend Ricardo pointed out to me that I am, in fact, a canonized Saint. Even with my profound sanctity, not to mention my superlative humility, I was a little surprised when he said this. When I asked him about it, he told me that Google now shows a picture of me when you search for “St. Drogo”:
St Drogo was a Saint who lived in the 12th Century and has the dubious honour of being the patron Saint of ugly people! Over a year ago I wrote an article about him, declaring him to be the Patron Saint of this blog.
Well, it turns out that Google went looking for picture of St. Drogo, found my article and falsely concluded that my portrait was, in fact, a picture of this French Saint!
So, on the plus side, I’m now a canonized Saint! Unfortunately, it means I also died in 1185… :-/
For the last few weeks I have not been pleased with the quality of the Lectionary Notes I’ve produced. They have seemed terse and inadequate and, even to produce notes of this mediocre quality, have consumed a substantial amount of time during my week.
As you may have noticed, no notes were posted this week…
Recently I have been trying to cut down on activities in an attempt to get a little bit more balance in my life. I haven’t felt that I’ve been doing justice to all my different responsibilities by spreading myself so thinly.
I’ve therefore decided to no longer produce Lectionary Notes each week (Don’t worry though, I won’t be Vandapooling!). However, despite this news, I am not planning to give up these notes either completely or permanently…
I originally began producing the notes for whomever was leading Bible study at the JP2 Group. Since most members of this Young Adult group have now led Bible study several times, I will now only produce my notes if the person leading that week is leading for the first time. For those more experienced leaders, I will simply point them to my Lectionary Resources post.
Over the lifetime of this blog I have produced commentary for forty-two different Sundays which, if one includes the vigils and feast days, is approximately 18% of the Lectionary. It would be great to reach 100% coverage, writing a complete commentary for the entire Lectionary. If the Lord grants me the years and the opportunity, I would love to pick it up regularly once again and complete it…
As part of my continued service to the students of Franciscan University of Steubenville ;-), I have just recorded the audio for the document “Orientalium Ecclesiarum”.
This document was produced by the Second Vatican Council and concerns the Churches in the Catholic Church which follow an Eastern Rite. Given that I attend an Eastern Rite parish during the summers, it’s rather odd that I’ve never actually sat down and read this document before.
Still, better late than never I suppose…
A long time ago, when I first began this blog, I start producing a series entitled “V2 we love you!”. At the time, the JP2 Group was reading the document “Dei Verbum”. I anticipated that we would work through more of the Council’s documents. My hope was that the series of blog entries would provide a helpful accompaniment to our study.
We didn’t end up studying any more of the documents and so I never wrote the blog posts. However, a little while ago I signed up for a course on the Second Vatican Council at the Diocesan Institute which starts this October. Hopefully that’ll get me motivated and I will once again be renewing my efforts with the series.
Anyway, the text for the document is available here and the audio is available below:
Yesterday I posted some terrible lessons from the movies for ladies. Today it’s the turn of the men…