"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
The invitations to the next Daughters Of The King event have now been emailed out. We’ve made every effort to make sure we’ve included everyone, but if we’ve missed you, please send me an email and I’ll send you the registration details.
Yesterday I took a break from my series on Mary, but today I would like to continue looking at some further objections raised by a reader, Monica in the comments section of an old post concerning The Ark of the New Covenant.
Today’s discussion will focus around the notion that Mary is enthroned as Queen of Heaven.
Last month I read an article about Professor Steven Hawking in which he was quoted as saying:
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark”
Well, that’s nice… As intelligent and qualified as you are to answer questions about black holes and quantum gravity, I’m afraid Professor Hawking, this is a philosophical question. It was for this reason, after reading the article, my Facebook status quickly became:
“Hey Stephen, do want to hear my thoughts on String Theory?”
Professor Hawking has recently been increasingly vocal over the question of God. I was originally going to write a longer post about Professor Hawking’s recent assertions, but then I remembered that Fr. Barron had produced a superb video where he addressed some of these issues:
Today we cover the last few verses of Philippians:
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. – Philippians 4:21-23
Here are my final thoughts:
For an audio-only version of this video, please click here.
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
It’s time for another Manvotional! A couple of weeks ago, the Art of Manliness posted an a section of a 1946 Army manual. I’ve recorded it onto MP3 below.
Manvotional (Download)
“Clenched Teeth” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that I’ve been slacking for a while. I haven’t really written anything substantial for at least a month. Sure, I’ve published every day, but the posts have been extremely brief.
At the beginning of October I began a new series, The Bogwash Epistles, a spin-off of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Despite having notes for the next ten or so letters, I only completed a few. I had also intended to do a series of posts to supplement the talk I gave at Theology On Tap, expanding on some of the areas I had to truncate due to time constraints. That didn’t happen. I had wanted to do a post examining the logic of those who oppose Halloween. Nope, that didn’t happen either… 🙁
The last two months have certainly been busy, so time has been at a premium, but even though now my time constraints have relaxed a little I feel like I don’t have the “head space” to do much writing.
This is all a long-winded way of saying that I’m going to take another blogging hiatus. I’m going to take a break from writing for all of December. As before, quotations from the Desert Fathers are scheduled to keep you company while I’m away.
I’ve been studying Hosea recently and in that book the Lord speaks through His prophet saying that He will draw Israel back out into the desert, to the place where she first encountered Yahweh. It is there that He will speak tender words to her, restore her and rekindle the Divine Romance. I’ve booked myself a weekend silent retreat, blocked Facebook and cancelled a bunch of activities I had planned for December. I think t’s time to head back to the desert…
