Yesterday, I visited St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Los Angeles. The St. Ignatius Women’s Group invited me to give a presentation on the Blessed Virgin and the Early Church. This was a a longer version of a talk I had previously given at St. Brigid’s here in San Diego.
Over the course of forty-five minutes, I told the story of my initial struggles concerning Mary and the Catholic Marian doctrines, explaining how I eventually came to see the truth and beauty in the Catholic Church’s teaching concerning the Blessed Virgin. The audio and the handout are both available for download.
I was invited to speak to the group at St. Ignatius by a long-time reader of this blog. If you’re also interested in having me speak to a group at your parish or at a Diocesan Theology On Tap, please see my Speaking page for examples of other recorded talks. Just send me an email and we can work out the details! 🙂
Before we leave the Easter season,  I wanted to share with you something that stood out for me during the last days of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday. It was a slightly odd thing for me, being that it was the subject of marriage….
How did I manage to get to the subject of “marriage” from the Easter celebrations? Well, what was running through my mind throughout the Easter liturgy was the last part of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” – Ephesians 5:21-27
Now, without a doubt, this is a passage that has been abused over the years.  It has certainly been used for the subjugation of women and the preservation of tyrannical husbands. In response to this, many have rejected the entire passage out of hand. I don’t think either of these two positions is acceptable, since both reactions ignore the passage’s context and miss the important imagery being used by Paul.
Episode 9: Friends in high places, Part IIÂ (Download)
— Show Notes —
* My other podcast is “The Eagle and Child”, where my friend Matt and I talk about the works of C.S. Lewis. At the moment we’re working through “Mere Christianity”.
* The Camino De Santiago is a pilgrimage route from the south of France to the far western coast of Spain. I walked this route in September of 1996.
* Our first Saint was St. Basil of Caesarea. I spoke about the Emperor Valens, Arianism and the Council of Nicaea. I’ve written a little bit about St. Basil here.
* When speaking about Mother Teresa, I quoted Peter Kreeft, a well-known Philosophy Professor at Boston College: “I think nobody alive today is a more powerful agent of conversion than someone like Mother Teresa. You can refute arguments but not her life. When she came to the National Prayer Breakfast and lectured President Clinton about abortion, he had nothing to say to her. He can’t argue with a saint. It’s too bad there isn’t an easier way, because becoming a saint is not the easiest thing in the world. It’s much easier to become an apologist or a philosopher or a theologian”
* I also quote from St. Augustine’s “Confessions” (XIII, Chapter 7, 17) “But I, miserable young man…entreated chastity of You, and said, Grant me chastity and continency, but not yet. For I was afraid lest You should hear me soon, and soon deliver me from the disease of concupiscence, which I desired to have satisfied rather than extinguished”
* Nessa also quoted from Pastor Rick Warren: “Most people today do not know the difference between a hero and a celebrity. Celebrities are famous for being famous and typically use the spotlight to promote themselves. The difference between heroes and celebrities lies in the reason for their sacrifice. Celebrities often make sacrifices, but they are made for personal benefit: to win a game, an award or an election. For instance, professional athletes, actors and entertainers may be celebrities, but they are not really heroes. They sacrifice for what they do because they enjoy it, or for money, or for fame or for personal satisfactions. Heroes, in contract, sacrifice for the benefit of others. They are self-giving. Mother Teresa is ‘Exhibit A’ of a true hero, a Saint”
Yesterday, I posted a quotation from Pope John Paul XXIII for this week’s “Wise Words on Wednesday”. When I published it, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Jay about the Papacy.
I have mentioned Jay on this blog before. He was a Protestant with whom IÂ dialogued for a few months several years ago. When speaking about the Pope, here’s what he had to say:
“…[the Pope] has the names of God such as Holy, Father, …Vicar of the Son of God (which means in place of God)” – Jay
So, Jay asserted that Catholics give the Pope “the names of God”.
When I replied to him I responded by working through each those names  in turn: “Holy”, “Father” and “Vicar”…
“Q” is the name given by theologians and historians to the hypothetical document which would account for the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but which are not found in Mark:
Although I think the existence of the Q source is a distinct possibility, I’ll admit that I’ve grown very weary with all the modern scholarship which takes its existence as Gospel (so to speak) and who seem to enjoy developing more and more elaborate theories concerning its existence.
Given this, I simply have to share the following quotation which Joseph Heschmeyer put up a quotation on Facebook yesterday:
“I must admit, though, that the affirmation of Q’s existence comes close to exhausting my ability to believe in hypothetical entities. I find myself increasingly skeptical as more refined and detailed theories about Q’s extent, wording, community, geographical setting, stages of tradition and redaction, and coherent theology are proposed. I cannot help thinking that biblical scholarship would be greatly advanced if every morning all exegetes would repeat as a mantra:
“Q is a hypothetical document whose exact extension, wording, originating community, strata, and stages of redaction cannot be known.” This daily devotion might save us flights of fancy that are destined, in my view, to end in skepticism.”
– J.P. Meier, “A Marginal Jew: Mentor, Message, and Miracles”
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October 25, 2018: Mari Pablo @ St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church
About the speaker: Mari grew up in a Hispanic family in Miami. She graduated from Franciscan University with a double major in theology and psychology has her master’s in theology from the Augustine Institute. She has worked in ministry for over 15 years. She is passionate about St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, and was recently featured in Ascension Press TOB programs. Mari has a deep love for food but an even greater love for Christ and is dedicated to helping others encounter him.
You can subscribe to the San Diego Theology On Tap Podcast using either iTunes or Google Play.
Yesterday, I posted a 
 
