"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
I’ve written before about the Catena Aurea, but I wanted to highlight a new phone app which I came across recently. The (admittedly rather unimaginatively titled) “Catena” app allows you to access Biblical commentary from the Apostolic Fathers.
There are a few bits of the interface which I find a bit clunky, but it’s a small gripe when compared to having Patristic commentary in your pocket for not just the Gospels, but for the entirety of the New Testament!
When Christians get together there’s really nothing we love to do more than to complain! In my experience, what we especially like to do is to have a good whine about the problems we have with our parish. In response to this, I would like to write a series of short posts about some common complaints I’ve heard. Today I’ll begin with one of the most common criticisms:
“Our priest’s homilies are boring…”
As I say, this is a very common complaint. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard people say something like this. Unfortunately, it’s often a reason given as to why someone left to join a Protestant congregation. 🙁
A while ago I wrote a post where I listed all the resources I draw upon each week in the composition of my commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings. I realized today that I forgot to mention one very important resource: the “Catena Aurea”.
So what is this “Catena Aurea”? I first heard about it on an episode of the world’s greatest podcast, “Catholic Stuff You Should Know”. The Catena is a book, a Scriptural commentary whose name, when translated from the Latin, means “Golden Chain”.
Mr. T pities the fool who don’t read the Catena!