Tag: featured
Your advice is needed!
Lovely readers! I’d like your advice please!
At the end of this week things are going to change… My company just approved my request for a two-month sabbatical.
I’m going to use the time for three things. First and foremost, I’m going to use this time to discern the road ahead. Next, I’m going to take this opportunity to tick some things off my bucket list. Finally, I’m going to use the time to have a bit of a rest, a shabbat, if you will…
I’m currently planning how I’m going to structure those two months, and this is where I’d appreciate your input. I will be spending the first week of the sabbatical on retreat at a monastery at an undisclosed location in another part of the United States…
After that, what should I do? Or, put another way, if you had two months off work, how would you spend your time?
The Eucharistic Minister’s Words
Every now and then I have readers email me directly. Here’s one I received earlier this week:
“Last week my Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion was saying, “THIS IS THE Body of Christ.” It struck me as wrong. Is this ad-libbing, embellishing, inappropriate, or no problem?”
In case anyone is interested, here was my reply…
V2, We Love You: Introduction
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m planning on offering a series of blog entries about the “Ecumenical Council” commonly known as “The Second Vatican Council”, or simply “Vatican 2”.
Most Catholics will be able to tell you that Vatican 2 was important, but, in my experience, fairly few are actually able to articulate well why it was important. Many are not able to explain what exactly Vatican 2 was, what it actually taught and why it is important in the history of the Catholic Church. It is my hope that this blog will help shed a little light on these issues.
I think that it is best, before I get stuck into the meat of Vatican 2, that I attempt to give something of a general introduction to the concept of councils in general, and ecumenical councils in particular.
“Is there life before marriage?”…the video
A few weeks ago I gave my presentation on “Is there life before marriage?” to the Goretti Group. The audio for that evening is available here, but I just saw that the video has been posted on the Goretti Group’s YouTube Channel:
If you would like the audio version of this presentation, you can download it from the feed on iTunes and Google Play.
You also might be interested to hear the discussion of some of the ideas raised in this talk between myself and Nessa on recent episodes of The Restless Heart podcast (Episode 4 and Episode 6). The podcast itself is available on iTunes and Google Play.
Eunuchs for the Kingdom?
Yesterday, I had a conversation on Facebook about a passage concerning the “eunuchs” in Matthew’s Gospel:
10 The disciples said to him [in response], “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”
11 But [Jesus] said to them, “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”
– Matthew 19:10-12
What does this text mean? Here’s a five minute explanation…
Head back to Sunday School, Colbert…
On Catholic Memes, I just saw a video where Stephen Colbert challenged another celebrity to a Catholic throwdown. This time his opponent was Patricia Heaton, star of “Everybody loves Raymond” and “The Middle”:
Oh Stephen…you disappoint me.
I counted at least three major Catholic mistakes in this throwdown, three “maxima culpas”, if you will. So get out your sackcloth and ashes, and let me I teach you something about the Catholic Faith…