"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Today I gave a talk on a retreat entitled “Jesus In Disguise”, where I look at the different ways in which we can encounter God behind the veil of the ordinary. The audio is available below:
Jesus in Disguise (Download)
In the Second Reading at Mass this weekend we had my favourite passage from Paul:
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The question of suffering is one that everyone has to struggle with at some point. For a good treatment on the subject I would invite you to head over to Canterbury Tales to read Taylor’s article Why do we suffer? The theological answer of St. Paul:
Nearly every religion seeks to make sense of the problem of pain. If God is both omnibenificent {all-loving} and omnipotent {all-powerful}, why then does He allow us to suffer?
The Eastern traditions such as Buddhism dismiss pain and suffering as “unreal.” This solution is difficult to explain to a child with cancer.
Other religious traditions attempt to accrue “good karma” in order to ensure that good times will come with a future reincarnated life. For these traditions, the origin of suffering is past sins, even sins committed in previous lives.
Still other religions, such as Islam, seem to place the origin of suffering in the capricious “will of Allah.”
The Catholic Faith offers an entirely different account of suffering… Continue Reading
Nessa is back and we’re picking back up our discussion “Is there life before marriage?”. In today’s episode we talk about discernment, virtue and service.
Episode 6: Is there life before marriage? (Download)
— Show Notes —
* If you would like to listen to my original talk I gave on this subject to the Goretti Group, it is available here. The YouTube video is also available here.
* During our discussion, Nessa shared a quotation from Catholic Teen Posts on Instagram:
Purity is not the elimination of sexual attraction, but the ordering of sexual attraction demanded by love.
– Catholic Teen Posts
* …and the the quotation I offered from Ravi Zacharias was as follows:
“Chivalry in love has nothing to do with the sweetness of the appearance. It has everything to do with the tenderness of a heart determined to serve”
– Ravi Zacharias
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A while ago, I had a chap called Roscoe commenting on my blog, denying the Catholic claims concerning St. Peter and the See of Rome. In response, I quoted St. Irenaeus, one of the most important witnesses concerning the Church at Rome:
“…that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; …which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority…
…The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate [of Rome]. Of this Linus…Anacletus…Clement…[and] Eleutherius does now…hold the inheritance of the episcopate.
“In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth
– Against Heresies III.3.3 (c. AD 180)
In reply to my quotation of Irenaeus, Roscoe wrote the following:
There are no historical facts to support the idea that Peter and Paul founded the church at Rome. Rome was over 1000 miles away from where they were. We can see what Peter was doing in Acts and he was not in Rome at this time. Most likely the faith was brought there by pilgrims who were converted in the early chapters of Acts.
Roscoe’s main argument seems to be:
1. Irenaeus says Peter and Paul “founded” the church at Rome.
2. Jews from Rome were present at Pentecost and converted to Christianity. It would have most likely been these Christians who would have brought the faith to Rome.
3. Irenaeus is proven demonstrably wrong and therefore his testimony concerning Rome should be regarded as extremely dubious.
I’ve heard this kind of argument a few times in the comment section of other blogs, so today I’d like to respond to it…
A few weeks ago I attended a presentation after Mass given by my friend Huliana, describing her journey from Islam to Catholicism. My friend Nessa took some photographs and I recorded the audio. Here it is…
From Islam to Catholicism (Download)
The relationship between “The Simpsons” and religion has always been a rather interesting one. There was a bit of a hoopla in the press and blogsophere recently when an article in the Vatican newsletter, L’Osservatore Romano, had the headline “Homer and Bart are Catholics”. It was a silly piece which caused, in my opinion, a lot of fuss about nothing.
Having said that, the article was in reference to an analysis done by a certain Fr. Francesco Occhetta which concerned one of my favourite Simpsons episodes: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star”, where Homer and Bart come into contact with the Catholic Church. So, for this week’s “Friday Fivolity”, here are some of my favourite quotations from that episode…
Marge: “All of that standing, sitting and kneeling…It’s like ‘Simon Says’ without a winner!”
Marge:“Catholics can be a peculiar bunch. No birth control, no meat on Friday…”
Homer:“No MEAT?! What do they eat, light bulbs?!”
Homer:“Face it, Marge. Catholics rule! We got Boston, South America, the good part of Ireland, and we’re makin’ serious inroads in Mozambique, baby!”
Marge:“Homer, you’ve been gone all night—and you look like you accepted someone as your personal something. Were you at that Catholic Church?”
Homer:“Look, I know I was supposed to yell at that priest, but he’s so cool! He plays drums in a band with a bunch of other priests!”
Marge:“I knew they’d try to convert you! That’s what they do! Well, I’m not having another twelve kids.”
Homer:“Marge, no one’s saying twelve. Nine, ten, tops!” (Gets out a pamphlet entitled ‘Plop ’til You Drop’)
Bart:“This is a Catholic church. Chicks got no authority here”
Bart:“Don’t you get it? It’s all Christianity, people! The little, stupid differences are nothing next to the big stupid similarities!”
Homer: (after finishing confession) “Woo-hoo, I’m clean! In your face, Lord!“
Fr. Sean:“Not yet, Mr. Simpson. I can only absolve you if you’re a Catholic”
Homer:“Uh-huh. And how do I join? Do I whale on some Unitarians?”
Fr. Sean:“Well, it’s a little harder than that. It starts with looking deep inside yourself…” (Homer groans) “But it ends with bread and wine”
Homer:“Woo-hoo!”
A slight “oopsie” when they had Ned, an Evangelical, praying before the statue of a Saint…
I hope you enjoy. Now, since it’s Friday, I’m off to go and eat some light bulbs… [wave]
UPDATE 01-Feb-2021:
Reception of the Holy Eucharist has recently been the subject of scrutiny in the media, prompted by some of the discussions taking place in the “Synod on the Family”. In my own life, Holy Communion was also the subject of a recent incident concerning a friend of mine.
You see, a friend recently went to a Catholic conference together with a Protestant. Being a Catholic event, there was, of course, the celebration of the Eucharist. When time for Mass came, the non-Catholic was upset that she couldn’t go up to receive the Eucharist. She couldn’t do this because, under ordinary circumstances, the Catholic Church does not allow non-Catholics to receive Holy Communion.
“…members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Communion”
– United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Guidelines For communion”
In this post I would like to provide a summary of what I say when I’m asked why it is that the Catholic Church doesn’t allow anyone to receive Holy Communion (the Eastern Orthodox Churches have similar rules for similar reasons). As usual, this won’t be an exhaustive theological explanation, simply a rough outline of the kind of thing I personally say when I’m asked to explain this particular Catholic teaching.
