Do icons get cold?
If you’ve visited my parish or other Eastern parishes, you might have noticed that some icons have a scarf around them:
Like many other people, you might have wondered “What’s that all about then?”
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Sunday Lectionary: Saving Shepherd
Producing these Lectionary Notes has been taking too long again. Therefore I’m giving myself a time limit of a few hours. Let’s do this…
Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 29th, 2012
The Readings at Mass this week focus around the person of Jesus Christ and his unique, fundamental place in Salvation History. In our First Reading, St. Peter boldly proclaims that “There is no salvation through anyone else”. In our Psalm we sing the words quoted by Peter in that speech to the Sanhedrin, declaring that Jesus is “the stone rejected by the builders [which] has become the cornerstone”. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus declares that He is “the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” and, as we hear in our Second Reading, because of this we may truly be called “the children of God”.
At this Sunday’s Mass, confident in the goodness of our Shepherd, let us firmly put our trust in Him.
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever – Psalm 23
Arrogance of Theists
Another day, another meme… I recently saw this one featuring my fellow countryman, Ricky Gervais:
PWJ: S4E63 – AH – “After Hours” with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames
A repeated theme throughout The Screwtape Letters has been that of habits. Fr. Mark-Mary Ames just released a book called Habits for Holiness, so Matt sat down with him to talk about building habits to really annoy Screwtape…
S4E63: “After Hours” with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames (Download)
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Read morePWJ: S1E42 – MC R – “Retrospective”
Having completed Mere Christianity, Matt and I take this episode to discuss the book as a whole, share some of our favourite parts, as well as what it was like to read a book “in public” over the course of a year…
Please send any objections, comments or questions, either via email through my website or tweet us @pintswithjack or message us via Instagram!
Episode 42: Mere Christianity Retrospective (Download)
Catholic Bucket List #5: Retreat!
The last Bucket List item was to go on pilgrimage. Today’s Bucket List item is related to the previous one:
Catholic Bucket List #5: Go on a retreat
In modern society we are surrounded by noise and we fill our days with business and it’s extremely easy for God to be squeezed out of our day. This is one of the reasons why retreats are so needed. Setting aside a day, a weekend or week to reconnect with God and spend some time with him in prayer can be so good for reestablishing a healthy life balance.
No two retreats are ever the same and there are many different kinds of retreat which one may attend. I would suggest that everyone should go on a silent retreat at least once. I know that if you have never gone on one before, the thought of spending long periods in silence is a terrifying prospect, but believe me, by the end you’ll love it!
A couple of years ago I was actively discerning the priesthood and, as part of my discernment I went on a silent Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat given by the Miles Christi priests:
Finding time to get away on retreat can sometimes be difficult, especially if one has children. If so, you might like to take a 3 Minute Retreat!
Invented at Nicaea?
A friend of mine recently told me about a conversation she had with her friend who considered himself a follower of Jesus, but who also held to the popular Dan Brown myth that one also often hears from Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims, that the divinity of Christ was something invented by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.
Don’t trust murdering albino monks when it comes to theology…
I promised my friend that I would put together a post to demonstrate the Divinity of Christ from both Sacred Scripture and Early Church history, so here it is…