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New Ark of the Covenant Response (Introduction)

April 15, 2014 pilgrim 133 comments

ark_of_the_covenant

Last week a comment appeared on my post Biblical Mary: The Ark of the New Covenant by a lady named Monica. Here’s what she had to say:

People praying the rosary, singing Mary songs, etc is a form a worship no matter how much catholics want to deny it. These things only belong to God. I have seen pictures of Mary sitting next to God in His throne as she was was co-equal with God when she was only a human like any of us. Of course she was blessed by God and deserves to be honored but it does not imply a godly position. God chose her by His grace, grace is God giving us something we dont deserve.

Why do we need Mary as mediator when Jesus Christ already paid the price for our sins so that we could approach God directly? Saying that we need Mary as mediator is like saying that what Christ did in the cross is worthless or meaningless. Read Luke 23:45 which says that the curtain in the temple was broken apart in two, this symbolizing that the use of mediators (like in the old testament where only the priests could enter the most holy of the holy places and approach God to intercede for people) was terminated.

Apologetics

PWJ: S2E31 – AA – Patti Callahan

September 24, 2019 pilgrim Leave a comment

At the beginning of Season 2, I interviewed author Patti Callahan about her latest book, Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Now at the close of the Season, Patti returns to talk to Matt about her own podcast, Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

S2E30: “After Hours” with Patti Callahan (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast).

Time Stamps

01:00 – Matt’s Introduction
02:47 – Drink and quote of the week
06:57 – Overview of “Becoming Mrs. Lewis”
10:37 – Joy, the false self and “Till We Have Faces”
19:39 – Lewis’ own journey
21:44 – Lewis, personal faults and Mrs. Moore
27:05 – What has happened since your last appearance here?
30:46 – How did this new podcast come about?
33:11 – Who will you be interviewing?
37:41 – Joy’s poetry
41:07 – What did you learn in the process of putting together the podcast?
43:40 – Will there be a movie of the book?
48:43 – How has this project transformed you?
49:56 – Patti’s talks at an upcoming retreat
54:16 – What else is on the horizon for you?

Podcast

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 16 (“The Story”)

December 24, 2016 pilgrim Leave a comment

Today we return (again) to the story of Moses and encounter some notable differences between the Qur’an and the account found in the Hebrew Bible…

Surah 28 – “The story” (Al-Qasas)
We open again with the assertion that the Qur’an is “a clear Book”.

We jump to Egypt and are told about the Pharaoh who persecuted the Children of Israel. The Qur’an describes this rather strangely, saying that “[Pharaoh] made [the people of the land] into factions, oppressing a sector among them”. This “sector” is assumed to be the Israelites. However, things get weirder still. We are told that one of Pharaoh’s ministers is a man called “Haman”. Now, there is a man in the Old Testament by that name, who was indeed a government minister and who also sought the downfall of Israel. However, this man lived in a different land and in a different time period, when the Children of Israel were saved by the intercession of Queen Ester. It should also be noted that the when baby Moses is brought into the royal household, it is Pharaoh’s wife, not his daughter, who is his principal saviour.

Apologetics

TEA: How I met your Blessed Mother (St. Brigid)

January 26, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

Last night I led Bible study at a local parish and I was asked to give an informal talk beforehand on the Virgin Mary.

My talk was entitled “How I met your (Blessed) Mother” and in it I told a little bit of my story and explained how I overcame my deep-seated resistance concerning Mary and how I ultimately came to embrace the Catholic teaching concerning the Blessed Mother.

Some friends couldn’t make it last night and asked me to record the talk, so for anyone who would like to hear it, the audio is available below.

How I met your (Blessed) Mother (Download)

OCD: Curse and Blessing

January 24, 2013 pilgrim 16 comments

Earlier this week I produced a summary of a paper written by Dr. Daniel G. Amen about combating Automatic Negative Thoughts. I decided that today I’d add something of an addendum to that post and talk a little bit about my experiences with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

OCD is an anxiety disorder in which the sufferers have repeated, unwanted thoughts which compel them to perform certain actions which provide relief from the unwanted thoughts. This relief, however, is only temporary and the feelings, unbidden, soon return. The OCD mind then demands that the actions be performed once again. The actions quickly become ritualistic, increasingly elaborate and need to be repeated over and over again with increasing frequency in order to relieve the sufferer’s mind.

Catholicism

Polycarp and the Presidency

November 9, 2016 pilgrim 4 comments

I awoke this morning to discover two things.

The first thing was confirmation that Donald Trump is going to be the next President of the United States.

The second thing I found was my Facebook Newsfeed in a state of practical hysteria.

To lay my cards on the table, while I have not supported Hillary Clinton, I have also not been much of a fan of Donald Trump either. I was more than a little suspicious of his claim to being pro-life and, like many people, I was rather disturbed by some of the words which came out of his mouth on a range of subjects.

But what can I say? That’s democracy! Whether you like it or not, the American people have spoken and, despite the many celebrity endourcements of Hillary Clinton, the American people have chosen Donald Trump.