If you’ve read this blog for any length of time it will be clear by now that I have a great love for the liturgies of Eastern Christianity. There is a reverence there and a beauty which I find extremely attractive. It feeds my soul.
A few days ago I came across this video of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, speaking about the liturgies of the Church and about the need for liturgical renewal, particularly in the Western Church:
While watching this video I was reminded of an article I read on the blog “Neal Obstat” where the author recounted a conversation he had with a member of the Coptic Church. Rather surprisingly, this Coptic Christian argued that the chief obstacle to reunion with the Catholic Church was not a matter of dogma, but the “banalization” of the liturgy in the West.
Out of all the “Out there” beliefs I’ve looked at so far, this one is by far the biggest head-scratcher. It is the belief that the Bible prohibits the consumption of alcohol.
I was rather blind-sided when I first came across this belief, initially not knowing what to say because it is rather equivalent to hearing somebody say that the moon is made out of cheese.
Here is a statement I recently saw:
“The Bible says alcoholic drink is evil. It is not just the amount one drinks that makes drinking a sin. God condemns the drink itself: ‘Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise'”
– Proverbs 20:1
Huh. Well, firstly, that passage doesn’t condemn alcohol outright, it just states that those who are “led astray” by it are not wise. This is hardly shocking stuff – I’ve witnessed enough nonsense spoken through an excess of wine and enough pointless fights started through beer-induced stupidity to know this to be true.
However, aside from trying to make this passage say something it doesn’t, Scripture presents many other problems with such an assertion. When Paul told Timothy to take wine for his stomach, was he telling him to ingest something morally evil (1 Timothy 5:23)? Should deacons only “moderately” indulge in this immorality (1 Timothy 3:8)? When Jesus transformed water into wine did he lead everyone at the wedding into sin (John 2:1-11)?
A while ago I saw an article on Facebook which reported that Fr. Bourgeois, a priest who for many years publicly opposed the Catholic teaching of a male-only priesthood, had been dismissed from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to the article with the comment “Those bastards in the vatican!!!!”.
My friend has links to the Catholic Church and we have Catholic friends in common, but when I saw the article on his Facebook Timeline I noticed that not a single person had offered a defense of the Church’s actions.
I am part of a Bible Study currently working through the Gospel of Matthew. The group has been meeting for over a year now and we’ve worked our way through several books of the New Testament.
When we come together, before we begin looking at the book in question, we have a bit of a question-and-answer session. The goal of these questions is to have a clear understanding as to the structure of the New Testament.
Over the months that we’ve been meeting, the number of questions have increased. I thought it would be encouraging for everyone to see how many questions concerning the New Testament they can now answer. It turns out that, not only can they recite the books of the New Testament in order, but that they can answer over fifty questions about it:
1. In what language was the New Testament written? 2. What is the likely exception to this? 3. Which books appear first in the New Testament? 4. Why are these books placed first in the canon? 5. Why do they appear in this order? 6. Which Gospels are attributed to Apostles? 7. With whom is Mark associated? 8. What is Mark’s other name? 9. With whom is Luke associated? 10. What is Luke’s profession? 11. What comes after the Gospels? 12. By whom is it written? 13. To what genre does it belong? 14. What is the first main message of the Acts of the Apostles? 15. What is the second main point of the Acts of the Apostles? 16. Between what years do the events described in Acts of the Apostles take place? 17. What appears after Acts? 18. Why are these epistles placed in this order? 19. What are the names of the cities/communities? 20. From where did Paul write the epistle to the Philippians? 21. What city was he probably in at the time? 22. Why did Paul write that letter? 23. Who probably delivered this letter for Paul? 24. What are the main themes of that letter? 25. What Christian hymn does Paul quote in the letter in Chapter 2? 26. What is the main theme behind the letters to the Thessalonians? 27. What claim-to-fame do the Thessalonian letter have? 28. What appears after Thessalonians? 29. Who was Timothy? 30. What background information do you know about Timothy? 31. Who was Titus? 32. Who was Philemon? 33. Where did Philemon most likely live? 34. What is the context of the letter? 35. What was the name of Philemon’s slave? 36. What is the meaning of the slave’s name? 37. What does Paul ask of Philemon? 38. What appears after Philemon? 39. Why does Hebrews appear here? 40. What literary genre is Hebrews? 41. What is the main theme of the book? 42. What did St. Thomas Aquinas think about the authorship of this epistle? 43. What appears after Hebrews? What category of books do we call these? 44. Who most likely wrote James’ epistle? 45. How would you summarize James’ epistle? 46. What documents appear next? 47. What documents appear after that? 48. After that? 49. What is the final book of the Bible? 50. What is its literary genre? 51. What are the two main senses of Scripture according to the Catechism? 52. What are the three types of spiritual senses?
I wasn’t taught this stuff in school. In fact, I remember that when I was teaching Confirmation it came as a surprise to many of the students that there was an Old Testament and a New Testament. Why isn’t this stuff taught in Catholic schools?!
When I first heard that Jorge Bergoglio had been declared Pope, I immediately looked him up on my Conclave Android app and my eyes were quickly drawn to the sentence which said that in Argentina he had been the Ordinary for Eastern-rite Catholics without an Ordinary of their own rite.
I was hopeful that, given this background, his pontificate would be particularly sensitive to the the Christian East. I have not been disappointed.
Even in these first few months that he has been Pope, both East and West have made gestures of friendship, building on the great work of their predecessors. Inspired by this, I started to consider what I could do.
As I was thinking about this, I remembered an article I had read over at Ramblings of a Byzantine Catholic where it said that the East and West remain divided “because our love has grown cold”. So, if that’s the case, what could I do to nurture and express love for our Orthodox brethren?
Over the past few days we have been looking at suggestions as to what can be done to draw people back to the Catholic Church.
Today is the final post in this series. These suggestions focus on the conversations which you will have with those who have drifted away from the faith:
Today I continue the “Catholics Come Home” series which began a few days ago. Today the evangelization suggestions focus around parish life…
10. Your parish
It’s important to support and build up your parish home. It is to your parish that you will be inviting people. Just as you would prepare your home if you had people coming over to visit, you should help make your parish a vibrant and welcoming place.
“As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another“ – John 13:34-35
Serve your parish in whatever way you think appropriate. I’d invite you to get creative! Think about what you love and then consider how this could this be used for the glory of God and for drawing people to Jesus and His Church. For example, do you love board games? Organize a board game night!
A while ago I saw an 
