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Guest Post: “Offer it up”

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Offer It UpA couple of months ago we had a guest post here at Restless Pilgrim from Tom Massoth. Well, today we have another guest post, this time from my long-time friend, John. I met John for the first time during a short stay in San Diego. A couple of years later, I returned to the USA and we had the chance to be neighbours. I take personal credit for him meeting his wife!

Today’s post is an abridged version of an article John wrote a while ago where he discussed the meaning of a phrase you commonly hear in Catholic circles…

It seems to be something of a catch-phrase in modern Catholic culture, but what do we really mean when we say “offer it up”? Is it more than just a religious way of saying “Suck it up” or “Quit complaining”?

“Offer it up” is more than a simple invitation to prayer. Those three words are an invitation to participate in the gospel.
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Sunday Lectionary: Called, sanctified and sent

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Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist: 24th June, 2012

After being “fearfully, wonderfully made…knit…in [his] mother’s womb”, we read in this week’s Gospel of how Elizabeth gave birth to a son and how he was named “John”.  It’s a solemnity again! This week we celebrate the birth (“nativity”) of the one who would be the herald of the coming Messiah, John the Baptist:

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1-6

As we celebrate Mass this week, let us pray for courage to step out boldly as prophets, to speak truth to our world and to prepare the way of the Lord.

The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission… “[They] must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church” and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God. – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraphs 1268 and 1270 

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Artwork of God’s Artwork

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In a previous post I explained the meaning of the text “IC XC” which is found in Eastern icons. I thought today I would do a quick follow-up to explain the letters which commonly appear around the Theotokos…

The Theo-what?

“The Theotokos” (pronounced “th-ay-oh-to-kos”) is the name that Eastern Christians (both Orthodox and Catholic) typically give to Jesus’ mother, Mary. It was also the word used in the proclamation of the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. In the Western Church, “Theotokos” is often loosely translated into English as “Mother Of God” (whereas it literally means “God-bearer”).

Giving Mary the title “Mother of God” has certainly caused some heated arguments in the history of Christianity. Some have mistakenly seen this title as an elevation of Mary to a height even greater than that of Jesus (if such a thing were possible!). Yet the title “Mother Of God” is really much more about Jesus than Mary, since to say that Mary is not the mother of God is to say that she gave birth only to His humanity, which would indicate  some kind of rupture between Jesus’ human and divine natures. That’s kind of a weighty topic…I think I’ll come back to that another time….

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Lectionary Notes: The Seed of Life

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15th Sunday In Ordinary Time: 10th July, 2011

Each week I produce notes for the upcoming Sunday Gospel for the Bible Study at St. John’s.

It’s a mixture of my own random thoughts, combined with what I’ve found in commentaries, sermons. I’m toying with the idea of publishing them here each week, so this is a bit of a test-drive…

If you think you’d find it helpful if I posted this each Monday evening, please let me know.

The Readings for this week focus around Jesus’ “Parable of the Sower”…
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The Epistle of Joy – Episode #12 (Video)

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In the previous episode we read all of Paul’s accolades and achievements. In today’s text he speaks about how he now views them since coming to Christ…

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. – Philippians 3:7-11

Here’s my reflection…

For an audio-only version of this video, please click here.

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Meat and Milk

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I make a habit of posting here every day and I have been doing so for the majority of the five years that I have been blogging. As a result, to date I have 1,872 posts on this blog!

Posts

Now, not all of these posts are substantial posts. Every Monday I post a music video (“Music Mondays”), every Wednesday I post an inspiring quotation (“Wise Words on Wednesday”) and every Friday I post a funny picture or video related to the Faith (“Friday Frivolity”). Not only that, I often advertise other people’s websites and articles. However, mixed in with all these simple posts are the more substantive articles which I have written.

For quite some time now I have been concerned that many of my old posts now go unread because they’re mixed in with all these other posts and are therefore hard to find. One reader sent me a message saying that, once he discovered my blog, he went back to the very beginning and read through all of them! While that’s impressive dedication, I doubt many would do that. I recently set about taking some steps towards remedying this situation and making my more substantial articles more easily available…

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