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“They did not kill him”

February 10, 2013 pilgrim 2 comments

One of the major points of divergence between Islam and Christianity is that, in addition to denying Jesus’ divinity, Islam asserts that Jesus did not die on the cross. We find this assertion in Surah 4 of the Qur’an:

Just in case you don’t read Arabic(!), here is the English translation:

[They said] “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah”… [But] they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them… Rather, Allah raised him to Himself… – Surah 4:157-158, Sahih International

Catholicism

The iMissal

February 9, 2013 pilgrim 4 comments

Yesterday morning I came across the following video:

That’s right…an iPad lectern! And, I checked, this thing is a real product available for purchase!

At lunch, as I walked to a nearby sandwich store, I got to thinking about whether or not I thought an iPad-based parish would be a good move or not. There would be some clear advantages to having an electronic Missal and an electronic Lectionary:

Catholicism

Wise words for newlyweds

February 7, 2013 pilgrim 2 comments

Last month I wrote a post talking about the large number of my friends who got engaged or married in December. In the article I asked my married friends to write in the Comments, giving their advice for my newly-engaged and newly-married friends.

Many thanks to all of you who responded to my request and shared with us lessons learned. Here are some my favourite quotations…

Catholicism

Contraception and Abortion

February 5, 2013 pilgrim Leave a comment

I have rather mixed feelings about Michael Voris. Many times he’s often spot on with his criticism, but I often find him unhelpfully aggressive and combative. Since we’ve just had the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade, I thought I’d post this video of his where he talks about the relationship between contraception and abortion:

Here’s the document that Mr. Voris quotes:

“In some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception… for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail“
– 1992 Casey vs. Planned Parenthood

The link between contraception and abortion is undeniable.

Catholicism

Let’s talk about love

February 3, 2013 pilgrim 3 comments

clement The Second Reading at Mass today is one of those better known Scripture passages, St. Paul’s praise of the virtue of love, found in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, …“. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to quote the rest of this passage as you will have certainly heard it at…every…single…wedding…you have ever attended 😉

It is my guess that St. Paul’s great hymn of love was the inspiration for a section of an epistle written by St. Clement of Rome at the end of the First Century. A few decades after St. Paul’s death, St. Clement wrote a letter to that same troublesome Corinthian congregation to address that community’s latest round of problems. Some young whipper-snappers had usurped control of the church and deposed their clergy. The Bishop of Rome wrote to them, urging the members of the church to obedience and to brotherly love.

If you’re happy and you know it…

February 3, 2013 pilgrim 19 comments

Something has been bugging me for some time now. The vast majority of Masses I’ve attended in the States have ended with applause. Back in England I encountered this fairly often among non-Catholic congregations, but quite rarely in Catholic parishes.

Here in San Diego I play the guitar in at a LifeTeen Mass and there is applause every week as we finish the final song. Now, there was a time when I wasn’t fussed about the clapping, but now it really rather bothers me…

Catholicism

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