"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
So, after years of swearing I’d never have one, a couple of months ago I signed up for an Instagram account. As part of “The Eagle and Child” podcast, each week we will be posting images with quotations from C.S. Lewis.
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I know I said I wasn’t going to blog any more this month, but I found some time this lunchtime to write down a few thoughts…
Last week at “Theology On Tap” Bernadine Carr gave a talk on the subject of The Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”). In the run-up to her talk I was reminded of a devotional practice I followed years ago when I was living in Cheltenham…
I found myself drawn to praying with rosary beads, but at that time I didn’t feel comfortable with praying the Marian prayers of the rosary. So what I did was to replace the “Hail Mary”s and “Hail Holy Queen”s with short passages of Scripture and pray with those instead.
An example of this is found below. It is a guide to what could be dubbed the “Kingdom Rosary” or “The Rosary of St. Matthew”.
The Kingdom Rosary (MS Word) | The Kingdom Rosary (PDF)
At the beginning of this month, in preparation for Bernadine’s talk, I began this “Kingdom Rosary” and quickly fell in love with it all over again. It’s really helpful for memorizing Scripture and it’s also much shorter than a traditional Rosary, which is ideal if I’m walking just a couple of blocks to pick up a sandwich for lunch.
If any of you end up doing one of these or have any suggested alterations, please leave a comment below 🙂
Today’s “Quick Apology” concerns a very common objection heard by Catholics from Protestants…
“Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest? He’s just a man. Why not confess your sins to God directly?”
Obviously, a question like this truly deserves thorough theological treatment. However, since these are quick apologies, these are the points I typically try to make:
1. Nowhere in the Bible is confession to God through a priest explicitly forbidden. In fact, Scripture explicitly encouraged to confess to other humans (James 5:16).
2. In the Old Covenant, God set up a priesthood for the forgiveness of sins (Leviticus 5).
3. Following this pattern, in the New Covenant Jesus grants His apostles the particular grace and authority to forgive sin:
“He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven, whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained'” – John 20:20-23
Why grant this power unless it is to be used? Through exercising this gift, Church leaders are entrusted with a “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18) and to act “in persona Christi” (2 Corinthians 2:10).
However, in addition to these points, when answering the above objection, I try to include a little testimony about the healing I’ve received through the Sacrament Confession. I’ve often found this more effective and lead to more productive conversations than simply giving above the arguments.
Probably the most important thing to consider when preparing for the Camino is your pack. In assembling mine, I consulted the list of recommendations found in a companion book I had bought, as well as some other lists I found online. Here is a categorized list of everything I carried on my back along the Camino:
Walking Gear
Backpack (with rain sheet)
Waterproof jacket
Waterproof trouser/pants covers
Hat (for sun/rain)
Sunglasses
Suntan lotion (SPF 30+)
Buff Headwear (great for keeping the sun off your neck)
Trainers/sneakers for exploring the town in the evenings (Optional)
Clothes
Long sleeve (quick-dry) tops x2
T-shirt (quick-dry) x1
Trousers which convert to shorts x2
Underwear x2
Socks x4
A pair of shorts to be used as pyjamas
Sleeping
Sleeping bag (liner)
Inflatable pillow
Washbag
Flip-flops for the shower
Toothpaste/Toothbrush/Floss
Nail clipper
Quick-drying towel
Laundry
Concentrated washing liquid
Scrubba (Optional, but very convenient and a great conversation starter)
Plastic Clothes Pegs
Other
First Aid Kit (Compeed, scissors, band-aids/plasters, tape)
Phone (and charger)
Camino Scallop Shell (Buy in St. Jean)
Camino Guide Book/Maps
$300 in Euros and an ATM card
I’ll be drawing particular attention to some of these items in subsequent posts.
Equipment | Before you leave home | On the road | Staying in Hostels
Today I’d like to look at another doctrine that is out there in the Christian world. It is usually called either the doctrine of “Eternal Security” or “Once Saved, Always Saved” (“OSAS”).
In case you haven’t heard of it, this doctrine basically says that once you have been “saved” (however one understands that to happen) you can never lose your salvation – it’s absolutely impossible. No amount of sin can change that. Your card has been stamped, the credit card paid off and your name added to the guest list….
In the JP2 Group last week the question of cremation came up so I thought I’d write a quick post about it here.
Prior to the birth of Christianity, cremation was common. This stemmed in large part from the way Pagans viewed the body and soul. They did not believe in the resurrection of the body. In fact, they had a pretty dim view of the body and cremation was sometimes seen as a way of releasing the soul trapped inside the body.
The Gnostic groups which competed with Christianity in the early centuries held to a similar dualistic beliefs. They viewed the spirit as something good, but the body as something evil.
Christianity, on the other hand, stood in stark contrast to this worldview, affirming the goodness of the body:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over…all the creatures…” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:26-27
St. Paul also spoke about the body in exalted terms, describing it as a temple:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
– 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Because of this, Christians afforded great respect to the body, both life and in death. We find this in the witness of the Early Church (AD 155) after the death of Polycarp:
[T]he centurion…declared [Polycarp’s] body property of the state and, according to their custom, burnt it. Afterwards, we collected Polycarp’s bones, being more precious than the most exquisite jewels and more purified than gold, we interred them in a fitting place. There the Lord will permit us…to assemble in rapturous joy and celebrate his martyrdom – his birthday – both in order to commemorate the heroes that have gone before, and to train the heroes yet to come… – Martyrdom of Polycarp, Chapter 18
The most important issue here though is that Christians proclaimed the resurrection from the dead:
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power…
– 1 Corinthians 15:42
Therefore, because of their belief in the sanctity of the body, as well as to affirm the resurrection of the body, Christians have historically not cremated their deceased. It is not that God would unable to resurrect a cremated body – He can do anything – it is that Christians simply wish to respect something made in God’s image and to affirm the resurrection from the dead. It is for these reasons that cremation has traditionally not been an option for Catholics.
On the 1st February, a new Theology On Tap series was kicked off at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Paradise Hills. Sister Peter Marie and Sister Elizabeth Marie from the Nashville Dominicans gave a talk on “Joyful Discernment”. They were accompanied by some of their Dominican brothers, Fr. Stephen Maria Lopez and Fr. James Moore, who joined them for the Q&A session.
If you would like to hear audio from other San Diego “Theology On Tap” sessions, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or manually via the RSS feed.
“Joyful Discernment” (Download)
“Q&A” (Download)
Questions asked during the Q&A were:
• How long have you been a teacher? What has been your favourite subject to teach?
• What is “sanctifying grace”?
• I felt called to a ministry and that’s now complete. I’m not currently feeling called to anything in particular. Should I wait or should I actively be looking?
• Have you ever experienced synchronicities in your life which you felt were of God?
• Is it selfish to ask God for clarity in your vocation?
• Is it free will if God already knows what I’m going to choose?