Word of Life Conference in San Diego

If you’re in the San Diego area in November, you should come out to my parish, Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church in San Diego, as we will be hosting “The Word of Life” Biblical conference. 

Our speaker will be Fr. Deacon Daniel Dozier. I’ve heard him speak at a previous event in Phoenix, Arizona and I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed. 

The conference will run from 10:30am – 4:30pm. Registration is by donation, with a suggested donation of $25. You can register here.

NO Improvements?

Those of you who know me will know that I purposefully attend the “Extraordinary Form” (EF) of the Mass several times a year. This form of the Mass is sometimes known as “The Tridentine Mass” and is the Liturgy which our grandparents would have typically attended.

There’s much to commend the Extraordinary Form and I would love to see it become more widely available. However, as much as I love the older form of the Mass, I have to say, that when it’s done well, I actually prefer the “Novus Ordo” (NO) Mass. This is the amended liturgy which came about following the Second Vatican Council and which is more typically found around the world today in Roman-Rite Catholic Churches.

(Having said all that, I actually go to Byzantine Liturgy on Sundays)

Although I generally prefer the Novus Ordo, I think it’s safe to say that every Catholic has been to a typical parish Mass where the service has, well, left a lot to be desired… These banal liturgies have considerably nurtured the feeling among more traditional Catholics that the Novus Ordo was a considerable misstep in the development of the Roman liturgy. However, personally I think that when it’s done well, it’s thoroughly beautiful.

In recent months I’ve been in an extended email exchange with a friend who infinitely prefers the Extraordinary Form. During our discussion, I gave some suggestions of some simple things which can be done to elevate the typical Mass-going experience and I thought I’d share them here. Not all of these are Novus Ordo-specific, but in my opinion they would resolve many of the problems which are more commonly associated with the new form of the Mass…

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PWJ: S4E18 – AH – “After Hours” with Leo Gallegos

Matt recently appeared as a guest on the Alto podcast run by his friend Leo Gallegos. They chatted about C.S. Lewis and about how to navigate the highs and lows of life.

S4E18: “After Hours” with Leo Gallegos (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunesGoogle Play, Amazon, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube. The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

More information about us can be found on our website, PintsWithJack.com. If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

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Bringing out the best in men

Now, to be honest, I’m not much of a Vanity Fair magazine reader. I guess I’m not really part of their core demographic. After all, it’s not like their articles regularly reference Star Wars, martial arts, Catholic theology or computer programming languages. As such, typical Vanity Fair content is not really my thing.

However, the November issue of Vanity Fair features something that attracted my interest, an interview with Jennifer Lawrence, the star of the popular “Hunger Games” movies.

Katniss_peeta_train

As you may know, about a month ago Miss Lawrence’s iCloud account was hacked and nude photos found there were released onto the internet. In the Vanity Fair interview she spoke about this invasion of privacy and the trauma she experienced as a result. In the part where she spoke about the photos, she made a comment which I found no less revealing than the pictures themselves. Here’s what she said:

“I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you.”

I’m afraid to say that the sentiment expressed here is one which may well be felt by other women, which makes me very sad.

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Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 4 (“The Purity of faith”, …)

islam

Another day, another collection from the Qur’an…

Surah 112 -“The Purity of faith” (Al-Ikhlas)
In the hadith (collections of stories about Muhammad’s life), Muhammad said that this surah is equivalent to a whole third of the Qur’an. It asserts tawhid (Islamic monotheism), saying “He is Allah, [who is] One”, but also appears to specifically challenge Christianity and Jesus as the status of the only begotten Son of God (“He neither begets nor is born”).

Questions

Q1. Would you agree that “He neither begets nor is born” is a statement referring to the Christian belief that Jesus is the Son of God?

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