Tag: featured

Hello world…

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…and so to my first blog entry. So what’s the point of this blog? Several years ago I blogged fairly regularly about whatever was on my mind, but then Facebook came along and almost overnight I stopped blogging.

Facebook was an infinitely more convenient way of sharing news and photographs with my friends, but my blog served other purposes too. I wrote about my work in software development and about things going on in my spiritual life and, of course, life in general. I intend to re-launch my old blog at some point to write exclusively about technology, but what about everything else?

The title of this blog is “This Restless Pilgrim” and it describes well how I’ve felt over the last few years.  These years have certainly been interesting ones,  filled with uncertainty, adventure, frustration, heartbreak and excitement. I moved to London for the first time and moved around a lot before ultimately leaving England and travelling 5,489 miles away to live in the United States. Living a rather rootless life like this tends to teach you some important life lessons and the whole experience has left me with the feeling that they should be shared.

Also over the last few years I have also found myself increasingly called upon to explain and defend Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Pope Benedict recently spoke about the use of technology to proclaim the faith and search for truth. As a consequence, I would like to share some of my exchanges regarding the faith.

It has been said that a wise man learns from his mistakes, but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others. So, if you would like to learn from my mistakes and get a little wiser (or just feel like having a bit of a laugh at my expense) please feel free to stick around.

Catholic Bucket List #1: Visit an Eastern Rite Parish

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Lists and buckets

I’m a big fan of lists.

Seriously, lists are brilliant!

A little while ago, there was a film released called The Bucket List, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. In the movie, both characters are diagnosed with a terminal illness and, as a result, they decide to write a “bucket list” – a list of things which they want to do before “kicking the bucket”…

If you google “bucket lists”, you will find them on many blogs. If you read a lot of them (and I have), you start to notice some commonalities among them. As in the film, the common theme that runs through all of them is that they are attempts to really try and experience the depth and breadth that that the world has to offer and to truly suck the marrow out of life.

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Resolution Update

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So far this year I haven’t posted any updates regarding my new year resolutions. Well, I’m pleased to report that things are going pretty well…

Resolution #1: Read the entire Bible
I have been sticking with my Bible study reading plan and I’m actually a little ahead of schedule. I’ve finished the entire Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), Matthew’s Gospel, Acts of the Apostles and I’m nearing the end of the Psalms. On the subject of Bible reading plans, Meg Hunter-Kilmer recently posted an article about an alternative reading plan, which I might tackle next year.

Resolution #2: Get back into martial arts
I have now been doing Kung Fu (Choi Li Fut) for three and a half months. I’ve already got my first three stripes and I should be taking my Yellow Sash test sometime in May, after the Kung Fu tournament this weekend.

Resolution #3: Run a marathon
Out of my three resolutions, this is the only one which is a little shaky. I have been building my fitness back up. As well as Kung Fu, I have returned to playing Ultimate Frisbee each week (far more enjoyable than just running sprints) 🙂 I have also been having some intensive massage therapy to sort out some of my muscle issues in my right side. I hope to start actually going out for runs sometime next month.

Ip Man

Getting that date: Five suggestions

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Date MeSo, a while back I wrote a series of posts on the subject of dating which turned out to be rather popular. People clearly love to read and talk about relationships! At the end of the series, several of my friends asked me if I would be writing more entries, but I told them that I’d already said everything I had to share on the subject.

Well…it turns out that I was wrong, because here I am, a year later, writing another post on the subject of dating. A while back, I had a friend of mine message me and say “I wanna ask someone out. Any ideas for a date and how should I ask her out?” Clearly, word had got around that I now have a beautiful girlfriend and this qualifies me to answer a question of this magnitude!

Seriously though, as I wrote in an earlier article, Catholic guys are generally pretty terrible at asking girls out, so I think it’s worth publishing the answer I gave my friend. Not everyone will agree with what I have to say, but that’s fine, please leave a message in the comment box.

Now, I have not always followed the suggestions I am about to give below, but I wish I had. My advice represents the solution to some of the different kinds of mistakes I’ve made in the past… 🙂

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Sunday Lectionary: We were doing so well…

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 28th August, 2011

In this week’s Gospel we pick up where we left off last Sunday. Last week Peter gave his confession of Faith, but in today’s reading he doesn’t fare so well….

However, I think the real jewel this week is the Second Reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Every word of this passage is rich with meaning and worthy of meditation.

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Leading a Bible study Feedback: Part 1

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Last month I published a series entitled Leading A Bible Study. I wrote those posts for two reasons. The first reason was to clarify in my own mind some of the lessons I had learned from leading various church groups. The other reason was to provide a resource for those beginning similar endeavours.

Upon completing the series, I sent out requests for feedback. I contacted friends, other Bible study leaders, as well as some random people on the Internet!

suggestion-box-shredder

In response to the feedback I received, I decided to write a few follow-up posts on this subject. I will devote a post to each area of feedback, quoting the feedback received and offering my own comments in RED.

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