Tag: featured

Best of British/Irish: Part 3

5 comments

Last week I began a series of posts about comedy shows from back home. I have found that American exposure to these comedians and shows is rather limited. I’ll sometimes meet people who have seen Monty Python, Absolutely Fabulous or Benny Hill [rolls eyes], but there’s so much more on offer!

Since I usually write about subjects related to religion, today I’d like to focus on one show in particular that concerns Catholicism: the very excellent “Fr Ted”.

Fr. Ted is a priest who lives on a tiny island off the coast of Ireland with two other priests: an idiot and an angry drunk who has a fear of nuns, together with a housekeeper who has an obsessive need to serve people tea…

Despite the fact that this show deals with the subject of religion (a touchy area when it comes to comedy), it really pulls it off brilliantly because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Speaking of which, have you ever wondered what would happen if a group of priests got trapped in the lingerie section of a department store? Well, thanks to Fr Ted, wonder no more…

Husbands, *love* your wives

6 comments

Before we leave the Easter season,  I wanted to share with you something that stood out for me during the last days of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday. It was a slightly odd thing for me, being that it was the subject of marriage….

crown

How did I manage to get to the subject of “marriage” from the Easter celebrations? Well, what was running through my mind throughout the Easter liturgy was the last part of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” – Ephesians 5:21-27

Now, without a doubt, this is a passage that has been abused over the years.  It has certainly been used for the subjugation of women and the preservation of tyrannical husbands. In response to this, many have rejected the entire passage out of hand. I don’t think either of these two positions is acceptable, since both reactions ignore the passage’s context and miss the important imagery being used by Paul.

Read more

Manvotional: Essential Qualities of Leadership

Leave a comment

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.Screen Shot 2015-10-28 at 11.04.38 AM

Manvotional (Download)

“Clenched Teeth” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.

Ch-ch-chain…Chain of Fathers*

Leave a comment

A while ago I wrote a post where I listed all the resources I draw upon each week in the composition of my commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings. I realized today that I forgot to mention one very important resource: the “Catena Aurea”.

So what is this “Catena Aurea”? I first heard about it on an episode of the world’s greatest podcast, “Catholic Stuff You Should Know”. The Catena is a book, a Scriptural commentary whose name, when translated from the Latin, means “Golden Chain”.

Mr. T pities the fool who don’t read the Catena!

Read more

Restless Heart: 4 – “Is there life before marriage?” (Part I)

Leave a comment

Bridget

This past week, I gave at talk to the Goretti Group entitled “Is there life before marriage?” In today’s episode, Nessa and talk about some of the issues I raised in that talk. Do some people derive their self-worth from their Facebook “Relationship Status”? What are some common misunderstandings concerning marriage? We then look at the subject friendships, the first area which I suggest deserves careful investment during your single years.

Episode 4: Is there life before marriage? (Download)

 

— Show Notes —

* If you would like to listen to my original talk I gave to the Goretti Group, it is available here.

* The Bible passage I quote at the end of the episode is this section from Sirach:

Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.
…
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.
A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.
A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds;
For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

– Sirach 6:6-17

Please subscribe to this podcast using iTunes and Google Play and if you have any feedback or would like to pose a question for an upcoming episode, you can send us a message from the website or tweet us at @davidandnessa.

TOT: Joyful Discernment

Leave a comment

TOT-ND

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?

1 … 48 49 50 51 52 … 137