Tag: featured

Empty Chairs At Empty Altars: Part 1

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“Sedevacantists” are people who believe that there is currently no Pope, that the “Chair of Peter” is currently empty. In fact, the name “sedevacantist” itself comes from the Latin phrase, “sede vacante”, which literally means “empty seat”.

Sedevacantists typically assert that there hasn’t been a valid Pope since the death of Pius XII (1958), or sometimes even since the death of Pius X (1914). They reject all the Popes which followed (John XXIII, Paul VI, John-Paul I, John-Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis) and usually accuse them of some kind of heresy, typically the heresy of Modernism.

At the end of last year I was contacted by a chap named Mike. I had been commenting on a YouTube video by Fr. Robert Barron concerning the Second Vatican Council and Mike started sending me private messages which quickly revealed his identity as a sedavacantist.

Mike

I decided to devote a few of posts here to my discussion with Mike. His emails were filled with large portions of text which he had copied and pasted from his website and there was also unfortunately some name-calling (mostly against the Church, although later against myself specifically), but fortunately within the midst of all that we actually did manage to have some real conversation. It is my hope that, in reviewing our exchange, if you ever meet someone like Mike you’ll know what sort of thing to expect…

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Ignatius of Antioch and Friends

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Today is the Feast Day of probably my favourite Early Church Father, St. Ignatius of Antioch:

Office Of Readings

Today in the Office of Readings we read a section of one of the letters he wrote on his way to martyrdom sometime around AD 107:

“I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

“No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.”

– Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans

Early Church Relationships

Here is a diagram showing the relationships between Jesus, His Apostles, Ignatius of Antioch and some of the other Early Church Fathers:

Want to know more?

If you would like to read more of St. Ignatius’ writings, or listen to them free on MP3, be sure to check out the Church History section of this blog.

Catholic Bucket List #5: Retreat!

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The last Bucket List item was to go on pilgrimage. Today’s Bucket List item is related to the previous one:

Catholic Bucket List #5: Go on a retreat

In modern society we are surrounded by noise and we fill our days with business and it’s extremely easy for God to be squeezed out of our day. This is one of the reasons why retreats are so needed. Setting aside a day, a weekend or week to reconnect with God and spend some time with him in prayer can be so good for reestablishing a healthy life balance.

No two retreats are ever the same and there are many different kinds of retreat which one may attend. I would suggest that everyone should go on a silent retreat at least once. I know that if you have never gone on one before, the thought of spending long periods in silence is a terrifying prospect, but believe me, by the end you’ll love it!

A couple of years ago I was actively discerning the priesthood and, as part of my discernment I went on a silent Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat given by the Miles Christi priests:

Finding time to get away on retreat can sometimes be difficult, especially if one has children. If so, you might like to take a 3 Minute Retreat!

The Four Loves – Chapter 1 (“Introduction”)

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Four Loves 1

Our San Diego C.S. Lewis Reading Group will starting a new book this week, The Four Loves.

Once again I will be providing an outline of the arguments presented in each chapter, together with quotations and explanatory notes. The chapters in this book are generally a good bit longer than our previous book (Mere Christianity), so I may well experiment with the format of these posts as I work through each chapter.

Notes and Quotes

1. Lewis thought that St. John’s statement that “God is love” would provide a clear plan for this book

“‘God is love,’ says St. John. When I first tried to write this book I thought
that his maxim would provide me with a very plain highroad through the
whole subject. I thought I should be able to say that human loves deserved
to be called loves at all just in so far as they resembled that Love which is
God”

2. He therefore divided love into two types:

(a) Gift-love

“The typical example of Gift-love would be that love which moves a man to work and plan and save for the future well-being of his family which he will die without sharing or seeing”

(b) Need-love

“…that which sends a lonely or frightened child to its mother’s arms”

3. These types of love reflect both divinity and humanity

(a) Divine Love

“Divine Love is Gift-love. The Father gives all He is and has to the Son. The Son gives Himself back to the Father and gives Himself to the world, and for the world to the Father, and thus gives the world (in Himself) back to the Father too”

(b) Relation to God

“…what…can be less like anything we believe of God’s life than Need-love? He lacks nothing… We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness. We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves”

3. Lewis thought he could just praise Gift-love and disparage Need-love

“I was looking forward to writing some fairly easy panegyrics on the first
sort of love and disparagements of the second… But I would not now deny the name love to Need-love… The reality is more complicated than I supposed”

In this section, Jack uses the term “panegyrics” which refers to a speech in which something is praised. He also refers to his “master, MacDonald” was an author and minister he greatly admired, George MacDonald.

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Don’t be too eager to hit “Share”

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Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a post entitled Don’t be too eager to hit “Send”. In that post I spoke about how it’s prudent to exercise caution when sending email, particularly when you’re in a bad mood, as it’s very easy to send someone a nasty message which you may soon come to regret. Today’s post is something of a companion piece: Don’t be too eager to hit “Share”…

facbook-like-and-share-thumbs-up

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Please join me in a “Stupid Boy Project”

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Join MeOne of the first books I read when my sabbatical began was Yes Man by Danny Wallace. Although altered considerably, the book was turned into a movie back in 2009, starring Jim Carey. I had actually read this book before. In fact, that book had played quite a significant part in my final decision to move to America!

In the book, Danny resolves, for the rest of the year, to say “Yes” to every question, suggestion or invitation given to him, in the hope of becoming more open to what life sent his way. As you can imagine, this led to all kinds of adventures, such as when he received an email from the prince of Nigeria asking whether he could have Danny’s bank details… 😉

I’ve been a huge fan of Danny for years and I’ve read all the books and seen the shows chronicling his various adventures. These have included a bet with his friend Dave Gorman to find 54 other people also named “Dave Gorman”, converting his apartment into its own sovereign nation, as well as starting his own cult…albeit a nice one 🙂

If you have read any of Dave or Danny’s books, you will know that Danny’s (now) ex-girlfriend Hanne, referred to his escapades as “Stupid Boy Projects”. Well, September is just around the corner and I have a stupid boy project for you, dear reader! You won’t even need to send your bank details to the crowned sovereign of any nation…

Art Of Manliness

In September I will be working through the PDF guide from one of my favourite blogs, Art of Manliness. The eBook is called Thirty Days to a Better Man and each day you will read just a couple of pages and then set about given the task for the day. For example, on the first day the task is to “Define your core values”. The following day you will “Shine your shoes”. On Day 7 you will “Reconnect with an Old Friend”, on Day 10 you will memorize the poem “If” and on Day 30 receive a straight razor shave.

So, if you’re interested in joining me on this Stupid Boy Project, please download the PDF and I’ll see you on the journey next month to becoming a better man!

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