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My Favourite Podcasts

January 16, 2018 pilgrim 11 comments

I listen to a lot of podcasts… I mean, A LOT of podcasts. In fact, I listen to so many that I’ve trained myself to listen to them on double-speed so that I stand a chance at being able to get through them all each day. So, in case you’re interested, here they are…

Personal Development

The Catholic Man Show

Catholic Creatives

Entertainment

Buffering the Vampire Slayer

BBC Comedy of the Week

How Did This Get Made?

Inside the Exorcist

The Catholic Playlist Show

Trending

WhiskyCast

History

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

History Matters

The Fall of Rome

The History of the Early Church

C.S. Lewis

Girl Podcasts

Do Something Beautiful

Theology

Discerning Hearts presents Fr. Timothy Gallagher

Hobo for Christ podcast

Institute of Catholic Culture

The Patrick Coffin Show

The Word on Fire Show

Theology On Tap San Diego

Lectionary

Bishop Barron’s Sermons

Homilies – Our Lady of Mount Carmel

St. Elias Homilies (Melkite Church)

St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church

Apologetics

Catholic Answers Live

Cross Examined

Unbelievable

Do you have any podcast recommendations?

Catholicism

Christian Copycat

October 7, 2014 pilgrim Leave a comment

In Bible Study last week we just finished up our study of St. Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians. During our time together, it struck me how many times the subject of “imitation” is raised in the letter. In this post I’d like to take a brief survey of these references.

Likeness in Jesus Alone?

The first example of imitation and mimicry appears in the very first chapter of the epistle:

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit… – 1 Thessalonians 1:6

This is typically the verse that I reach for when speaking with Christians who object to the Catholic devotion to Saints, and who tell me that “The only person we need to imitate is Jesus”. Clearly, this wasn’t the opinion of St. Paul, who speaks proudly of how his fledgling congregation imitates, not only Lord, but also the senders of this letter (Paul, Timothy and Silas).

In that first chapter Paul describes himself as a nursing mother and a loving father:

But we were gentle… among you, like a nurse taking care of her children… for you know how, like a father with his children – 1 1 Thessalonians 2:7,11

Given these loving parental terms, it’s hardly surprising that the Thessalonians began to imitate the evangelists.

Catholicism

Sometimes you just have to shake things up a bit

July 11, 2010 pilgrim 3 comments

I’ve been mulling over the best way to start this blog. There’s so much to say about my decision to quit my job and to start working for an American company; so much to say about my nomadic life and eventual move to the United States…but I’m getting ahead of myself. As Glinda, the Good Witch Of The South, would say, it’s best to begin at the beginning…

Begin the beguine

Although in some ways the seeds of this adventure had been planted earlier, things started to come to the fore in 2006. I had been living in Cheltenham for about four years. I had moved there following university, after a brief, false start in Salisbury (my employer went bankrupt three days after I joined). There was nothing wrong, per se, with my life in Cheltenham; I had good friends, a lovely church and a great place to live, but I couldn’t shake my feeling of unease. Life just seemed a little bit too….predicable and, well, comfortable. There was nothing in my life which was pushing me out of my comfort zone. I had recently passed into my mid-twenties and it felt like I was just getting old and boring before my time…

I was at a loss as to what I should do to get out of this funk. I considered changing careers. I thought about becoming an IT trainer (I’ve always enjoyed telling people what to do). I also gave serious consideration to resurrecting my sign language and training to be an interpreter. I considered moving to another town or city in England. The trouble was, after living in Cheltenham, pretty much everywhere else appeared ugly, boring or had limited job opportunities. I did consider moving abroad, but that just seemed far too scary!

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Catholicism

Abortion Changes You

May 26, 2011 pilgrim Leave a comment

Monday marked the end of this month’s “Theology On Tap”, a Diocesan Catholic young adult event, this time hosted by the JP2 Group. Our opening speaker at the start of the month was the incomparable Paul J Kim and the series of talks was brought to a close by Michaelene Fredenburg.

Michaelene’s talk was entitled “Invitation to healing: reaching those touched by abortion”. Abortion is certainly a very sensitive subject and Michaelene handled it beautifully and delicately. She didn’t present a theological treatise as to why abortion is wrong, but rather presented insight into the life of someone who has been affected by abortion and offered some guidance as to how to sensitively help that person.

It’s inevitable that most people reading this post will have been affected in some way by abortion, either directly or indirectly. For this reason, if you were unable to make it to this last “Theology On Tap” session I would encourage you check out her website at AbortionChangesYou.com.

(In related news, the ex-fiancée of Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler has recently spoken about the abortion she had, It’s truly worth reading. Tyler himself having spoken about this earlier in the month)

Catholicism

Second Century Liturgy Uploaded!

November 7, 2012 pilgrim 4 comments

A while ago I uploaded a document to the Patristics section of this blog which was a short extract from the writings of St. Justin, apologist and martyr of the Early Church. The extract came from his First Apology where he wrote about the liturgy of the Church in Rome during the Second Century. I’ve recently been doing some blog maintenance and I’ve now recorded that document onto MP3:

First Apology (Extract) from St. Justin Martyr

More recordings will be coming over the next couple of weeks: Apostolic Tradition and the Liturgy of St. James.

Historic Worship

I would suggest that a large number of Christians naturally assume that the Early Church worshiped in the same way as their own congregation in 21st Century America:

Relevant Worship (Thanks to Patrick Vanderpool for the artwork)

Thankfully, we are not left in ignorance as to how the Early Church worshiped, since Church Fathers such as St. Justin left us written descriptions. These documents show us that the Early Church had a structured liturgy which had, at its centre, the Eucharist.

PWJ: S4E6 – TSL 2 – “We are family”

October 13, 2020 pilgrim Leave a comment

Like old times, Matt and I sit down to discuss a chapter of C.S. Lewis! In this chapter of The Screwtape Letters, Uncle Screwtape advises his nephew on how to handle the patient’s church-going…

S4E6: Letter #2 – “We are family” (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube. The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

More information about us can be found on our website, PintsWithJack.com. If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

Podcast

How do you honour Mary?

September 13, 2014 pilgrim 4 comments

When doing apologetics, I personally find it best to vary the approach I take. Every person is wired differently and a well-crafted explanation which would convince one person may completely fail with someone else.

annunciation

Often when Catholics and Protestants talk about Mary, they jump straight into the “big” topics: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Intercession, the title “Mother of God” etc. However, I have often found it helpful to rewind the conversation when I see things moving in this direction. Instead of speaking about specific doctrines, I like to talk about Marian devotion at its most a basic level.

So, in today’s post I would like to present a dialogue between a Protestant (“Pete”) and a Catholic (“Catherine”), modeled on some conversations I’ve had where I have used this approach…

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