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Giving Thanks

November 22, 2012 pilgrim 7 comments

For those of you not living in the United States, today is Thanksgiving.

A few days ago, after making a snide remark about the upcoming national holiday, a friend suggested to me that, given that I have a lot to be thankful for, I really shouldn’t be so curmudgeonly about Thanksgiving. My friend was quite right. After all, if the central focus of Catholic worship is “Eucharist” (literally “Thanksgiving”), then perhaps I should be a bit more enthusiastic about a yearly national holiday in which people call to mind all things for which they are thankful….not forgetting, of course, that Squanto was Catholic! Mea culpa.

Pray, tell me

So, since today focuses on “thanksgiving”, I’d like to take this opportunity to find out your thoughts about “giving thanks” for your food when out in public…

Do you pray before you begin a meal at a restaurant? If so, do you pray out loud or in silence? Catholics usually begin and end their prayers with a sign of the cross – do you omit that when you’re in public or just do a very small, quick one? What about if you’re with other people, some of whom aren’t Catholic or Christian?

Religious Oppression

Our new Bishop, Bishop Flores, when speaking to all the Young Adults at the “Mega Mass”, spoke about a time when he went to dinner with a group of young adults and was rather surprised when they just began eating their food without saying grace. When he queried this, one of his dinner companions said that they didn’t do it because they didn’t want to “impose their religion” upon other people in the restaurant!

Table Manners

Growing up, we generally said grace before meals when we sat down together as a family. I grew a bit slack during my teenage years, but in my twenties I started to pray much more regularly before eating, one of the good habits which arose from dating a wonderful and extremely faith-filled lady.

However, I still didn’t generally say grace when I was out at restaurants or when I was with non-Christians. I just felt too awkward. This all changed when I once saw a small group in a restaurant saying grace. I found something extremely touching about them bowing their heads in prayer, thanking God with gratitude for their meal, unashamed of any odd looks this might draw. So, inspired by their example, I now just get over myself and pray regardless, throwing in a nice large sign of the cross at the beginning and end to boot 🙂

So what’s your opinion? Do you have any particular blessings you pray before eating? Leave your comments below!

Catholicism

Staying Connected

December 8, 2011 pilgrim 3 comments

I wrote this post over a year ago but I never felt quite comfortable in publishing it. I now think it’s time…

I have my friends in Washington DC on speed dial. I am only a few clicks away from video chatting with my family in England. I regularly send emails and texts which could wait until we meet in person, but I choose not to delay because of the ease of communication. We live in a world in which we are increasingly connected to one another…

This idea of a deep connection between people in far-flung locations is nothing new. Catholicism has clearly understood this concept for two thousand years. I mean, think of all the things that Catholics “share”. Regardless of where we are in the world, we are all washed in Baptism. We share in the same Spirit. This connection through the Spirit is indeed profound; we are all bound together, even with those who have already died and are in Heaven. We pray common prayers such as the Our Father and Hail Mary. We share a common Sunday liturgy. We proclaim the same creed. And finally, of course, we share the same Eucharist meal.

Catholicism

Manvotional: Essential Qualities of Leadership

November 8, 2015 pilgrim Leave a comment

It’s time for another Manvotional! A couple of weeks ago, the Art of Manliness posted an a section of a 1946 Army manual. I’ve recorded it onto MP3 below.

Manvotional (Download)

“Clenched Teeth” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.

Catholicism

Lectionary Notes July 24th

July 20, 2011 pilgrim 3 comments

Sorry it’s a bit late – it’s been a hell of a week…

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 17, 2011

Reading 1: 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12

Scripture:

The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” Solomon answered:

“O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”

The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. So God said to him:

“Because you have asked for this— not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right— I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.”

Virgin Regret (Part 4): Getting to the wedding

February 28, 2015 pilgrim Leave a comment

Earlier this week, I wrote a couple more parts to my series which exames the story of a girl named Samantha, who remained a virgin until her wedding night, but who now regrets this decision.

So far in this series, I have spoken about the distinction between chastity and abstinence and I have also presented the Catholic vision for sex and marriage, contrasting this to the woefully inadequate formation which Samantha appears to have received.

Today I would like to begin by looking at the reasons Samantha was taught for remaining a virgin until marriage and then look at what she wrote about the road to her wedding day.

Restless Pilgrim Tour 2017

November 10, 2016 pilgrim Leave a comment

Now that I’ve finished the Camino, the most common question I hear is: what are you going to do now?

I still have a couple more weeks in England, but after that I will be flying back to the United States in time for Thanksgiving. I’m going to be based in San Diego but I’m planning to do a little more travelling. I don’t have the moniker of “Restless Pilgrim” for nothing…

I’m intending to travel around the States, seeing friends and revisiting some of my favourite cities, as well as exploring some of the places which have remained too long on my “To Do” list…

The goal of these trips isn’t simply to be a tourist. I will have to get a job again at some point, so I will be talking the opportunity to meet with local companies and possibly do some job interviews. However, the thing I’m really looking forward to is serving at local churches along the way.

In the past I’ve spoken at “Theology On Tap” (Example #1 | Example #2), led Bible studies and organized swing and salsa evenings. I’d love to make myself useful and offer my services in these areas, free-of-change, as I travel around the States. I don’t need a stipend or travel expenses.

So, if you’d like me to come to your parish, please forward this link to the relevant person at your parish and send me an email. It could be at Diocese Young Adult event. It could be at a parish mission or at your parish’s Bible Study or discussion group. Let me know where you are in the States, and I’ll do my best to make sure that I can be in your part of the country at the right time! References are available upon request.

Catholic Life

Mass Appeal: The Liturgy is the greatest thing ever!
Do you find Mass dull? In this talk I explain why the Mass is amazing and what you can do to get more out of it.

Social Media & Your Soul
How can we use Social Media and the Internet without being used by them?

How I met your (Blessed) Mother (Listen)
I will be talking about how I came to know Mary, even after years of struggling with the Church’s teaching on the Blessed Mother. In this talk I will be offering some suggestions on how we might grow in our love for Mary and come to understand her role in Salvation History more deeply.

Evangelism

Catholics Come Home: Drawing the lapsed back to the Church
Based on a previous blog series, here I tell a little bit of my own story and discuss what you might do to try and draw people back to the Church.

Evangelization for the terrified (Listen here)
Jesus told his disciples to go out to the whole world and share the Good News. If it’s “Good News”, why does that seem so scary?! In this talk I explain why we shouldn’t be shared of doing evangelization and give some very practical tools for speaking to your friends and family about the Faith.

Apologetics for the confused
What do you say when someone asks you why you’re Catholic? In this talk I go through a few key principles to employ when being called upon to defend what you believe.

Knock, knock. Who’s there?
What do you do when a Jehovah Witness or Mormon comes to your door? Over the course of this talk, I explain the origins of these groups and give some guidance on how to speak with them in a constructive way.

No God but God: An introduction to Islam
Approximately 23% of the world’s population identify as Muslim, but many Christians know relatively little about Islam. In this talk I provide an overview of the religion, as well as its similarities and dissimilarities to Catholicism.

Church History

The Worship of the Early Church (Listen here)
What did the first Christians do when they gathered together? If you could travel back in time to the end of the First Century and attend a Christian gathering, would you feel out-of-place?

Was the Early Church Catholic?
I’ll trace the roots of Catholic thought, theology and practice in the first few centuries of Christianity.

Blood & Ink: How the Early Church conquered the world (Listen here)
How did a small Jewish sect, started in the First Century, whose founder was publicly executed, manage to conquer the might of the Roman Empire? In this talk, I explain how the first Christians witnessed to Jesus both in their writing, lives and martyrdom, thereby winning the world for Christ.

Solving today’s problems with ancient wisdom
In this talk, I look at how the problems which face the Church today can be addressed using the wisdom of the first Christians, the Early Church Fathers.

Mary and the Early Church
Come to appreciate the Mother of God through the witness of the Early Church.

Women in the Early Church
We often hear about the Church Fathers, but were there mothers too? In this talk I look at the lives of some of the most important female figures in the Early Church.

Scripture

Reading Sacred Scripture for all its worth (Listen here)
How do Catholics read the Bible? What can you do to get the more out of Scripture at Mass? If you want to grow more familiar with the Biblical texts, where do you start?

Big Picture Bible: Salvation History in 60 minutes
If someone asked you to explain the overarching story of the Bible, what would you say? In the space of an hour I run through the story of salvation history and help give a framework for making sense of individual stories.

Hidden Treasure: How the Old Testament is unveiled in the New (Listen here)
This is an exploration of “Biblical Typology”, the way of reading Scripture which was developed by the Early Church Fathers, seeing in the Old Testament foreshadowings of the events of Christ, His Mother and the Kingdom of Heaven.

References are available on request

Announcement

New “Theology On Tap” Podcast!

May 16, 2017 pilgrim Leave a comment

I’m very pleased to announce that the San Diego Diocese has just launched a podcast feed! From now on, the audio from the Theology On Tap sessions will be available on your desktop and mobile devices.

It is available on iTunes:

…and also on Google Play:

If you have difficulty subscribing with either of these, you can either search for the podcast in the respective stores, or manually add the feed to your podcast app:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/sdyam

If you have any problems with the podcast, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to sort them out!

Announcement

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