Tag: featured

“Getting” The Begetting

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As part of one of my New Year’s Resolutions, I’ve begun reading through the New Testament. The other day I discovered something about the genealogy of Jesus which I thought was rather interesting. Matthew’s Gospel begins thus:

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, … and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam,  …Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, … Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

To our modern minds, this list seems rather dull, but to a First Century Jew it is tremendously exciting and important. If you want to know the man, you learn about his family. Anyway, Matthew’s list is about begetting! How can that not be exciting?! 😉

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There’s something about Mary… (Part 3 of 3)

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I’m going to finish this today, I promise! This is the final part of a series responding to a comment which was left on a post I wrote about the Mother of God. This was the comment:

“‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ If Mary were sinless, why did she need a Savior? Wouldn’t she be lying?

Did she realize Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? When she compared herself to the law of a holy God, had she realized she had formerly, lied, coveted, dishonored her parents by not always obeying them, etc. and like every single person needs a Savior? There are none good, no not one (Romans 3), except Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Also see Romans 11:6. Thank you Jesus, my Savior.”

Today I’m going to conclude my exploration of Kelley’s comments and offer some closing thoughts…

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Parallel Consequences

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Unanswered Questions

Yesterday I outlined the various parallels which can be found between Jesus’ Passion and Polycarp’s Martyrdom. I ended the entry by asking:

“But what does this all mean? Why are there these similarities between the deaths of Jesus and Polycarp?”

The martyrdom account itself ascribes these similarities to the providence of God:

“By almost every step that led up to Polycarp’s martyrdom, the Lord intended to show us anew the type of martyrdom narrated in the Gospel…” – Mart. Pol., 1.1

But that then raises the question: why might God wish to present to His Church a death like that of Christ?

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Christian Unity and Pro-Life

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Last month was the anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark abortion legislation here in the United States. In response to this, there were various pro-life events such as the March for Life in Washington DC and the Walk for Life in San Francisco.

prolife

I was over the moon to find out that there was a special event being organized here in San Diego‘s Balboa Park. The turnout was quite good, approximately 3,000 people attended and many organizations were represented.

I remember thinking how nice it was to be back around non-Catholic Christians again. In England I had a lot of contact with Christians of other denominations, both from attending non-Catholic services and from various ecumenical activities. But what with one thing and another, this hasn’t happened so much since I moved to the United States, my religious social circle being made up almost exclusively of Catholics. It was therefore really wonderful to see Christians of different denominations coming together on a Saturday morning to bear witness to the sanctity of human life.

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Why stop now?

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For the last six weeks Catholics have been abstaining from meat on Fridays as part of their Lenten observance. Lent is over!…Easter is here!…does that mean that we can stop now?

In centuries past

Christians have historically done penance on Fridays to remember our Lord’s Passion, as well as on Wednesdays to recall Judas’ betrayal:

…fast on [Wednesday] and [Friday] – The Didache (1st Century), Chapter 8

What about now?

There has been some confusion over this subject in recent years, but Canon Law states:

The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent – Canon 1250

So, it’s clear that every Friday is a penitential day. But what kind of penance is required?

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