Tag: featured

Catholicism’s Best Kept Secret: Fathers Know Best

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father-knows-bestI would now like to share with you what I regard as one of the best kept secrets in Catholicism, a group of men called the “Early Church Fathers”.

I myself only discovered the Fathers about ten months ago. Despite going to Mass each week of my entire life (that’s approximately 1,534 sermons), going to Catholic school for six years, and taking part in adult formation throughout my twenties, I can never remember any of these men being discussed or even mentioned with the exception of St. Augustine and, even then, he was only mentioned in passing.

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Quick Apology: Circumcision and Abortion?

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During my blogging hiatus, one of my friends posted the following meme:

Circumcision

When I first saw this meme I sat there for a few minutes trying to work out what argument it was actually making. It’s trying to point out what it perceives as an inconsistency, but what solution is being implied here? Is the meme-maker saying that circumcision shouldn’t happen because of potential pain experienced by the baby? Or is the argument being made that babies should be aborted, regardless of whether or not they suffer pain during the process?

Of course, a false equivalency is being made here. The number of babies who die because of circumcision is somewhat lower than those who die from abortion and, while some advantages to being circumcised may be argued, the unborn typically don’t report too many health benefits following the abortion procedure…

Some more “life verses”…

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Yesterday I wrote a post in which I suggested some possible life verses. Today I thought I’d do a quick follow-up with a few more…

Lazy Students

Most people choose life verses which are inspiring, which call them forth to greatness and holiness…but what if that’s not what you really want? What about if you’re happy and comfortable with failure and laziness? Well, in that case, this is the life verse for you…

Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
– Ecclesiastes 12:12

The recently-shaved

I go bearded from time-to-time. After I shave it off, I always think of this passage:

When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return.”  – 2 Samuel 10:5

Housemates

I live in a house with three other guys. I’m going to recommend one of them in particular to adopt the following passage as his life verse:

He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it will be counted a curse to him.  – Proverbs 27:14

Garlic Lovers

If you overindulge in smelly foods, then this is the life verse for you..

“My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. – Job 19:17

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Empty chairs at empty altars: Part 3

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Yesterday I discussed Mike’s view of the Church and the awkward predicament which comes about from his belief in the conclusion of the sacraments, the papacy, the priesthood and apostolic succession. Today I’d like to finish off by looking at Mike’s treatment of Pope Benedict (who was Pope at the time of our correspondence).

Thus speaketh The Google!

Mike asked me “Why do you think you get over 1,000.000 hits … when you Google … ‘Benedict XVI is a heretic’?”. I said that the answer to that was easy! There are a lot of people non-Catholics out there who think Benedict is a heretic! I would suggest that, since these people would not be Catholic, Mike would probably regard such people as heretics themselves!

Additionally, it’s worth knowing that such a Google query would also return pages which speak of Pope Benedict fighting against heresy. But rather than spend time explaining in more detail how Google determines its search results, I decided to use Mike’s test and apply it to himself…

When I typed into Google the phrase “Mike is a heretic” I found I got 2,540,000 results! That’s over double the number of pages! So…what does that prove? Well, I’d say it probably proves about as much as Mike’s Google query for Pope Benedict…

Benedict XVI

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Integrating Google Calendar with my Blog

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Hey everyone, this is just a little post to test Google Calendar integration for something I’m working on for a parish website. Below is embedded calendar of the JP2 Group, the young adult community which I used to lead:

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 4.11.40 PM

Despite what all the tutorials say, it’s not exactly straight-forward embedding a Google Calendar on a WordPress blog. The calendar is shown in an IFRAME which, unfortunately, WordPress automatically removes when you try to save it. To get around this, I installed an IFRAME plugin and this seemed to do the trick. Thankfully, this issue wouldn’t exist on a regular website 🙂

The article Integrating Google Calendar with my Blog first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

Sunday Lectionary: Saving Shepherd

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Producing these Lectionary Notes has been taking too long again. Therefore I’m giving myself a time limit of a few hours. Let’s do this…

Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 29th, 2012

The Readings at Mass this week focus around the person of Jesus Christ and his unique, fundamental place in Salvation History. In our First Reading, St. Peter boldly proclaims that “There is no salvation through anyone else”. In our Psalm we sing the words quoted by Peter in that speech to the Sanhedrin, declaring that Jesus is “the stone rejected by the builders [which] has become the cornerstone”. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus declares that He is “the good shepherd”  who “lays down his life for the sheep” and, as we hear in our Second Reading, because of this we may truly be called “the children of God”.

At this Sunday’s Mass, confident in the goodness of our Shepherd, let us firmly put our trust in Him.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever – Psalm 23

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