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PWJ: S4E71 – AH – “After Hours” with Marilyn R. Pukkila

June 10, 2021 pilgrim Leave a comment

In this “After Hours” episode, David discussed a wide range of Inklings-related topics with Marilyn R. Pukkila, known to some in the Tolkien community as “Marilyn, The Librarian”…

S4E71: “After Hours” with Marilyn R. Pukkila (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google 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.

Catholicism

Blessed are the Gifts

April 10, 2014 pilgrim One comment

A couple of days ago on Facebook, my friend Rachel referred to the “seven gifts of the Spirit”. These are the gifts mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah:

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel [right judgement] and might [fortitude],
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord [piety]…

– Isaiah 11:2-3

I commented briefly on Rachel’s Facebook posting, saying that St. Augustine associated these seven gifts with Christ’s beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). In today’s post I wanted to explain in a little more detail what St. Augustine taught about the relationship between these gifts and the beatitudes…

Catholicism

Colossian Questions

March 22, 2015 pilgrim Leave a comment

As I mentioned before, I’m currently updating the New Testament questions and answers which I run through at the beginning of every Bible study. Today I’d like to cover the questions surrounding Colossians:

58. What was Paul’s situation when writing Colossians?
The evidence seems to point to the same situation as the other captivity epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians). He is in Rome under house arrest in approximately AD 62.

59. Had Paul ever been to Colossae?
No, but he had stayed in nearby Ephesus for three years.

60. Who founded the Church at Colossae?
A Colossian native called “Epaphras” appears to have been converted through Paul’s ministry and first taken the gospel to Colossae.

61. So why did Paul write to the Colossians?
It seems Epaphras visited Paul in Rome and asked him to write to this nascent congregation to speak to the various heresies attacking the Church in Colossae.

62. What were the heresies with which the Colossians struggled?
They appear to be several, but they included issues surrounding circumcision, asceticism, the person of Christ, secret knowledge and human wisdom.

63. Who are the opponents in Colossae?
This very much depends on how one interprets the heresies described, but scholars suggest either Jews, Pagans or early Gnostics.

64. What is noticeable about the way in which Paul speaks about Jesus in this letter?
We call it “High Christology”, since Jesus is described as “the image of the invisible God”, “the firstborn of all Creation”, “in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily” etc.

65. What does Paul say about suffering in this letter?
He describes himself as “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”.

66. During the letter Paul speaks about a hidden “mystery”. What is it?
That Jesus came for us…all of us, both Jew and Gentile

67. What Sacrament does Paul speak about in this letter and in what terms does he describe it?
He speaks about baptism, describing it both in terms of circumcision and death.

1-16 | 17-27 | 27-42 | 43-52 | 53-57 | 58-67 | 68-71 | 72-81
All Questions

Catholicism

Open hearts and sweaty palms

August 20, 2015 pilgrim 11 comments

Today I would like to discuss briefly a liturgical question of our time: should the congregation hold hands during the Our Father? In 1963, the Beatles sang “I wanna hold your hand”. Well, that’s all fine and good, but there’s a time and place for everything…

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to an article which argues why the congregation should not hold hands during the Our Father. Broadly speaking, I agree with the arguments made in the article. However, when people bring up this subject, I often take a different tack to the explanation presented in the article…

Catholicism

PWJ: S3E22 – Bonus – “Orual’s Clumsy Theosis”

April 9, 2020 pilgrim Leave a comment

In our last episode discussing Till We Have Faces, we discussed “dying to self” and Christ’s first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”… The same week that Matt and I recorded that episode, Richael Lucero from the Clumsy Theosis podcast released the first in a series of episodes on The Beatitudes. I thought I would share a section of it here so as to enrich our discussion of Orual’s transformation…

S3E22: “Orual’s Clumsy Theosis” (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube.

If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

The Season 3 roadmap is available here.

Podcast

Beginning Ignatius’ letter to the Romans

September 12, 2010 pilgrim One comment

This week in the JP2 Group we will be beginning our study of the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, an Early Church Father who died in about 107 AD.

We will begin with the letter which I think most clearly communicates Ignatius’ character, his inspiring letter to the Romans in which Ignatius pleads with that church not to try and get his death sentence changed.

After looking at several different translations of this letter, I have created my own abridged version so that we will be able to complete our study of this letter in a single evening. I have decided to make this abridged version, together with its audio, available on this blog:

“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Romans” PDF
“St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Romans” Audio

Faith alone?

October 31, 2013 pilgrim 5 comments

One essential difference which divides Catholics and many Protestants is the question of faith and works in salvation. The disagreement began at the Reformation. In fact, the “material principle” of the Reformation was that we are saved “Sola Fide”, by “Faith Alone” and that works have no place in our justification whatsoever.

This subject often comes up when speaking with Protestants. I think most Catholics have had the experience at one point or another of being told by a Protestant that Catholicism doesn’t preach the Gospel, teaching instead that we have to earn our salvation. St. Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Galatians are often cited during such an exchange.

When this has happened to me in the past, I tend not to dwell too long upon the person’s interpretation of Paul’s epistles. I usually simply point out that in those letters St. Paul is contrasting faith in Christ with the works of the Mosaic Law. I turn then to the Epistle of James, since it presents a bit of a problem if someone wishes to say we’re saved by faith alone…

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