Hello world…

…and so to my first blog entry. So what’s the point of this blog? Several years ago I blogged fairly regularly about whatever was on my mind, but then Facebook came along and almost overnight I stopped blogging.

Facebook was an infinitely more convenient way of sharing news and photographs with my friends, but my blog served other purposes too. I wrote about my work in software development and about things going on in my spiritual life and, of course, life in general. I intend to re-launch my old blog at some point to write exclusively about technology, but what about everything else?

The title of this blog is “This Restless Pilgrim” and it describes well how I’ve felt over the last few years.  These years have certainly been interesting ones,  filled with uncertainty, adventure, frustration, heartbreak and excitement. I moved to London for the first time and moved around a lot before ultimately leaving England and travelling 5,489 miles away to live in the United States. Living a rather rootless life like this tends to teach you some important life lessons and the whole experience has left me with the feeling that they should be shared.

Also over the last few years I have also found myself increasingly called upon to explain and defend Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Pope Benedict recently spoke about the use of technology to proclaim the faith and search for truth. As a consequence, I would like to share some of my exchanges regarding the faith.

It has been said that a wise man learns from his mistakes, but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others. So, if you would like to learn from my mistakes and get a little wiser (or just feel like having a bit of a laugh at my expense) please feel free to stick around.

Does the Church think that Scripture is important?

During my various apologetic endeavours I have often heard the assertion that that Catholic Church doesn’t think much of Sacred Scripture. I have been told by well-meaning non-Catholics that the Church doesn’t care about God’s word and that our clergy do everything they can to keep the Bible out of the hands of their congregations.

When meeting with these assertions, I invite my interlocutors to peruse the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the official compendium of all that we believe as Catholics. The section concerning Sacred Scripture begins at paragraph #101. It draws heavily from a Second Vatican Council constitution “Dei Verbum” (“Word of God”) and is a nice summary of that conciliar document.

So, what does the Church actually believe and teach about Sacred Scripture?

Bible

Read more

Fixing Matt’s movie knowledge

data-original

As noted in recent episodes of “The Eagle and Child”, my co-host Matt has a pretty dire knowledge of movies. For example, he has only recently been introduced to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. This Christmas was his first time watching It’s a wonderful life (or “Winter Wonderland” as he insisted on calling it…). Put simply, Matt has had some major flaws in his education…

Since one of the great Spiritual Works of Mercy is “Instructing the ignorant”, I could hardly call myself a good Christian if I didn’t attempt to remedy these serious deficiencies. So, with that, these are my “must-see” movies. The basic rule of thumb I’ve used is: would I judge someone if I found out they hadn’t seen these movies?

Aliens
Anchorman (if you live in San Diego)
Back to the Future trilogy

Batman trilogy
Blade Runner
Braveheart
Bruce Almighty
Casablanca
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Dances with Wolves
Die Hard trilogy
Dirty Dancing
Disney: Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Finding NemoLion KingToy Story
Dumb & Dumber
ET
Elf
Ever After: A Cinderella Story
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Fiddler on the roof
Forrest Gump
Gattaca
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gladiator
Good Will Hunting
Goodfellas
Grease
Hitch
Inception
The Mission
Jaws
James Bond: Goldfinger, Golden Eye, Casino Royale, Skyfall
Jurassic Park
Leon: The Professional
Life is beautiful
Lord of the Rings
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Mary Poppins
Marvel: Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers
Memento
Mrs Doubtfire
My Fair Lady
Patriot Games
Psycho
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Rudy
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
Space Balls
The Exorcist
The good, the bad and the ugly
The Matrix
The Bourne Identity
The Breakfast Club
The Big Lebowski
The Princess Bride
The Shining
The Dead Poets Society
The Passion of the Christ
The Shawshank Redemption
The Silence of the Lambs
The Sound of Music
The Truman Show
The Terminator and Terminator 2
The Wizard of Oz
Top Gun
Zoolander

So…what do you think I’ve missed? 

Register for free one-day young adult retreat in San Diego!

Registration is now open for the “Restless” Retreat. This is a free, one day retreat at St. Catherine Laboure on Saturday, April 14th:
SPC

The theme of the retreat is being taken from St. Augustine’s famous line, “You made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts will wander restless until we rest in you”. I swear I did not pick the retreat theme… 🙂

We will have speakers including Jamie Cleaton and Timmerie Millington.

Lunch will be provided. Did I mention this was free?

Secret city on a hill

Often in Scripture we have to harmonize two passages which seem to present some kind of conflict with each other. Today I would like to present one such conflict,  one with which I’ve struggled over the years.

In the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says:

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” – Matthew 5:14-16

So, we’re supposed to let our light shine before others. Got it. Yet…in the next chapter it says…

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” – Matthew 6:1-4

So we should let our light shine….but only in secret? Hmm….

I’ve had people ask me about these two passages before and I have given them an answer, providing some distinctions between each of these passages, but today I’d like to turn the question over to you. How do we reconcile these two passages? What is Jesus trying to teach us? And if we follow His teaching here, what does it practically look like?

Please answer in the comments below.

How do Catholics view the Bible?

I just received an email from someone asking for a copy of my recording of “Dei Verbum”, the document on Divine Revelation from the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Gospel

My blog seemed to be the easiest way to share them. Each of the chapters is in a separate MP3 file:

                                                                            
Chapter 1 (MP3)                        Chapter 2 (MP3)                        Chapter 3 (MP3)

                                                                            
Chapter 4 (MP3)                        Chapter 5 (MP3)                        Chapter 6 (MP3)

I hope these help you with your studies Alyson 🙂

Quick Apology: Catholics think Mary is divine

This should be the last Marian “Quick Apology” I’ll be doing for a while. After all, I have other things I want to write about! However, before we leave the subject of Mary, I wanted to address the claim that Catholics think that Mary is divine…

Objection

On this blog I’ve received comments like the following:

 “Catholics basically think that Mary is divine. It’s like the Trinity has been replaced with a quartet – Father, Son, Spirit and Mary”

How might you respond?

Response

The simplest way to respond to an assertion like this is to ask for any official Church document which teaches this. Can the objector produce a reference in the Catechism, a Council or a Papal Encyclical? I can guarantee you they cannot.

When they are unable to provide the evidence you request, I would suggest that you then point them to the binding teaching of the Catechism:

488 “God sent forth his Son”, but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free co-operation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee…

The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.*

[This is a beautiful teaching from the Early Church, where the Fathers referred to Mary as being a kind of “New Eve”]

489 Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary…Eve…Sarah…Hannah…Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther….

Mary “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established.”

Mary

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