Tag: featured

Covered By The Cross

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I recently told this story to a friend of mine.  As I was driving home afterwards, I thought that it might be worth sharing here too…

When I was living back in England, my parish had a Hospital Visiting Ministry with which I was involved, run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Every Saturday we would hand out free newspapers, identify the patients who would like to receive Holy Communion the following day and spend some time speaking with them. This would be done by two different people every week, each covering half of the hospital.

Out of all the wards we visited, the one I hated visiting the most was the ASU, where stroke victims were treated. I think I disliked visiting this ward more than any other because it was often a very frustrating experience.

I’ve always placed a very high premium on communication, and those in the ASU usually had difficulty with speaking, a common consequence of suffering a stroke. It frustrated them not being able to make themselves easily and fully understood and it frustrated me in not always being able to understand them.

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Lectionary Notes Update

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The Past

For the last few weeks I have not been pleased with the quality of the Lectionary Notes I’ve produced. They have seemed terse and inadequate and, even to produce notes of this mediocre quality, have consumed a substantial amount of time during my week.

As you may have noticed, no notes were posted this week…

Empty Book

The Present

Recently I have been trying to cut down on activities in an attempt to get a little bit more balance in my life. I haven’t felt that I’ve been doing justice to all my different responsibilities by spreading myself so thinly.

burn candle at both ends

The Future

I’ve therefore decided to no longer produce Lectionary Notes each week (Don’t worry though, I won’t be Vandapooling!). However, despite this news, I am not planning to give up these notes either completely or permanently…

I originally began producing the notes for whomever was leading Bible study at the JP2 Group. Since most members of this Young Adult group have now led Bible study several times, I will now only produce my notes if the person leading that week is leading for the first time. For those more experienced leaders, I will simply point them to my Lectionary Resources post.

Over the lifetime of this blog I have produced commentary for forty-two different Sundays which, if one includes the vigils and feast days, is approximately 18% of the Lectionary. It would be great to reach 100% coverage, writing a complete commentary for the entire Lectionary. If the Lord grants me the years and the opportunity, I would love to pick it up regularly once again and complete it…

Introduction to Islam (Part 5 of 5): The Catholic Response

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Today I would like to conclude my introductory series to Islam. This series wasn’t intended to be an apologetic response to Islam, just an accurate and objective description of Islamic belief and practice. It is my hope that this will lead to a better understanding of Islam by Christians.

Over the course of this series we have looked at the origins of Islam, Muhammad, the teaching of the Qur’an, as well as the faith and obligations of Muslim life.  I would now like to conclude by looking at what the Catholic Church had to say about Islam at the Second Vatican Council.

The Catholic Church sets forth its binding teaching regarding Islam in the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions” (also known as “Nostra Aetate”, literally “In our time”):

#1 In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth. One also is their final goal, God…

The church says that she sees it her task to “promote unity and love”. This unity and love is fostered by considering what unites humankind and, in this “big picture” vision of the world, we are reminded that every single person comes from God and every single one will, some day, return to Him.

#2 … The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.

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PWJ: S4E98 – AH – “After Hours” with Patti Callahan

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New York Times bestselling author, Patti Callahan, returns to the show to talk about her forthcoming book, Once Upon A Wardrobe, which will be released on October 19th.

S4E98: “Once Upon A Wardrobe”, “After Hours” with Patti Callahan (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Audible, 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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Who’s your daddy? St. Ignatius of Antioch

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This is the first entry in what I hope to be a regular series of posts about the Early Church Fathers.

It is a good thing to study the Early Fathers because by reading their writings we can get a better picture of what the Church looked like during those early centuries, both during the years of persecution and the years of peace.

The Church Fathers speak to us of the Faith they learned from the Apostles and from their immediate successors.  If we would sit and listen, their words can still instruct and inspire us today, just as they did for Christians under their care in their own time.

I would like to begin this series of entries with my favourite Early Church Father, the inspirational martyr and gifted writer, St. Ignatius of Antioch.

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

– James 1:12

My posts on the Fathers will not normally be this long, but reading St. Ignatius for the first time had some a profound effect on me I want to try and do him justice.  Read to the end, it’ll be worth it, I promise.

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Empty Chairs At Empty Altars: Part 1

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“Sedevacantists” are people who believe that there is currently no Pope, that the “Chair of Peter” is currently empty. In fact, the name “sedevacantist” itself comes from the Latin phrase, “sede vacante”, which literally means “empty seat”.

Sedevacantists typically assert that there hasn’t been a valid Pope since the death of Pius XII (1958), or sometimes even since the death of Pius X (1914). They reject all the Popes which followed (John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul I, John-Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis) and usually accuse them of some kind of heresy, typically the heresy of Modernism.

At the end of last year I was contacted by a chap named Mike. I had been commenting on a YouTube video by Fr. Robert Barron concerning the Second Vatican Council and Mike started sending me private messages which quickly revealed his identity as a sedavacantist.

Mike

I decided to devote a few of posts here to my discussion with Mike. His emails were filled with large portions of text which he had copied and pasted from his website and there was also unfortunately some name-calling (mostly against the Church, although later against myself specifically), but fortunately within the midst of all that we actually did manage to have some real conversation. It is my hope that, in reviewing our exchange, if you ever meet someone like Mike you’ll know what sort of thing to expect…

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