Coming Soon: The Vision Begins
Last week there was another meeting of “The Oratory of St. Arnoldus“. This meant that Kevin and I visited a new bar, cracked open our copies of Coming Soon, and dug into the final book of the Bible, The Apocalypse…
Tag: featured
Remembering the Jewish Feasts
Sometimes I forget I’m a bit weird…
Do you have habits which have been part of you for years? Do you have personal traditions which you’ve been following for so long that you forget that they’re not universally shared by the rest of the world?
Well, last month I was chatting with a friend online and he highlighted for me one of my personal eccentricities. Our discussion prompted me to write this post so as to share my weirdness with the world, and in the faint hope of discovering others out there who have similar quirks…
Dateless: Something Something Relationships
Last week I wrote a short post saying that I was soon going to try and tackle a question I often hear asked among my female friends:
“Why doesn’t that nice Catholic boy ask me out?”
I wrote that blog entry announcement partially to ensure that I didn’t chicken out! The subject of relationships and dating is tricky and it’s inevitable that many people would not agree with my conclusions. I’ve tried to do this series a couple of times before but I always managed to find something else to do instead. By publicly saying that I’m going to do it, I’m making sure that I actually will…
You must become like children…
There are many words of Jesus to which I find myself returning time and again, finding in them yet another dimension οr shade of meaning. Today I would like to share with you a little “God moment” I had last week related to a certain passage of Scripture.
Recently, I had a few days vacation in Las Vegas. A friend of mine from England was visiting Arizona and we agreed to meet in Las Vegas since it’s sort-of-but-not-really half way between Phoenix and San Diego. This was my first time visiting Las Vegas. Hopefully I’ll write about my impressions of that city sometime soon but, for now, I would just like to share something that happened on the last day.
Now, I’m pretty sure Hell will be hotter than Nevada, although I don’t exactly see how that’s possible! Man, it was baking! Since the weather was like an oven, we decided to take it easy on our final day and just hang out at the hotel’s pool for a little while…
While I was sunbathing I saw a father and his little girl playing in the pool. The child would climb out of the pool and, with a huge grin and cheeky laugh, she would jump into the pool, into the parent’s waiting arms.
Pushing our pro-life religion
Have you ever been speaking about abortion and heard someone who’s pro-choice exasperatingly exclaim “Stop imposing your religion on me!”? Well, today’s entry in this abortion series addresses that very issue…
Why are you pro-life?
Last year, I posted on Facebook that I was at the March For Life in Washington DC. This raised the interest of some of my pro-choice friends, so I explained to them why I’m against abortion and why I’m pro-life.
In response to my explanation, I was told again and again that Christians should stop imposing their religion on others. I found the objection rather odd. Why? Well, I found it strange because I hadn’t mentioned religion once in any of my arguments. Neither had any of my friends when they contributed to the thread. All the arguments against abortion which were presented did not rely at all on a theistic worldview.
Interestingly, the people who first brought religion into our discussion were those who were pro-choice. Again and again they returned to the idea that we were arguing against abortion on religious grounds. However, we never mentioned God, nor did we cite any religious text or authority. Funnily enough, something very similar happened on Brandon Vogt’s blog around the same time…
Unfortunately, rather than responding to our (non-theistic) arguments, some retorted with cheap shots against the Christian faith. Not only that, we were repeatedly treated to my own personal pet peeve, the armchair interpretation of Bible by non-Christians, which naturally included the classic misinterpretation of “Judge not lest you be judged”.
I’ve said many times bore that, even if I were not a Christian, I’d still be pro-life. The arguments against abortion don’t require a belief in God. The pro-life arguments are scientifically, philosophically and psychologically robust. If I were an atheist I might perhaps have some difficulty explaining why human life has intrinsic value, but it’s an instinct that I don’t think I could deny, even if I wanted to.
New “Theology On Tap” Podcast!
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!
Coming Soon: The Liturgical Apocalypse
The third chapter of Dr. Barber’s book he discusses the relationship between the Book of Revelation and the Catholic Liturgy. It is a brief review of the the material covered in another excellent book by Dr. Hahn’s book, The Lamb’s Supper.
Familiar Imagery & Structure
Dr. Barber begins by noting that no other apocalyptic book of antiquity relies quite so heavily on liturgical imagery as the Book of Revelation. In John’s book we find many things extremely familiar to a Catholic who attends Mass: Sunday worship, priests, vestments, incense, chalices, angels, saints etc.
In fact, the book of Revelation has profoundly impacted Christian liturgy and architecture throughout the centuries. For example, the celebrant’s chair is symbolic of the throne of God, and the surrounding chairs like those of the “elders” (Revelation 4:4).
This final book of the Bible is even divided into three parts which each have parallels with the sequence of the Catholic liturgy:
1. Penitential Rite
The early section of Revelation concerns seven letters which call the Church to repentance.
2. Liturgy of the Word
Later, a book is opened which brings about judgement.
3. Liturgy of the Eucharist
The book ends with the Church being united to Christ in the supper of the Lamb.
But why use liturgical imagery? Revelation uses liturgical imagery because the Eucharistic celebration is the way the Lord comes to His Church. Dr. Barber points out that the Greek word “parousia” which is used to refer to the Lord’s “coming” actually has the primary meaning of “presence”. Upon hearing this fact, every Catholic immediately thinks of the Eucharist and Jesus’ real presence in the Sacrament.
“Every Eucharist is Parousia, the Lord’s coming” – Cardinal Ratzinger
