Tag: featured

At the name of Jesus…

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bowIf you have ever visited an Eastern Catholic parish or Eastern Orthodox parish, you will have noticed that whenever the Trinity or any of the divine names are mentioned, the priest and people will cross themselves and incline their heads in a bow, even if only slightly.

This is a practice I really like and I’ve often wished that this would be more present at western parishes. Well, I recently found out that, at least in theory, it should happen there too…

The place where you discover this is the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which is basically a commentary on the Missal, explaining how Mass should be celebrated:

A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saint in whose honor Mass is being celebrated.
– GIRM 275

How about that?! I did a little more digging and found out that this practice has considerable antiquity. For example, in the 13th Century, the Fathers of the Council of Lyons seem to have been inspired by the epistle to the Philippians where St. Paul talks about how “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on the earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10). Here’s what the Council said:

Each should fulfill in himself that which is written… that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; whenever that glorious name is recalled, especially during the sacred mysteries of the Mass, everyone should bow the knees of his heart, which he can do even by a bow of his head.
– Council of Lyons II, Constitution 25

So, even if it’s not common practice in your parish, I’d invite everyone to follow the guidance offered to us by the GIRM and to honour the Lord, His Mother and His Saints with this small gesture of reverence.

There’s no such thing as a fertilized egg!

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220px-married_bachelor_filmposterI’ve got a longer article in progress on the subject of abortion, but today’s post is an extremely short entry on a point I’ve been wanting to mention for some time…

Whenever you see an abortion debate, either in a formal setting or on Facebook, it’s not long before you hear someone, typically from the pro-choice side, talk about “fertilized eggs”. I only note this because I think it’s always worth pointing out that “fertilized egg” is something of a misnomer…

I say this because once an egg is fertilized, it ceases being an egg. It is now a new, distinct human organism. Calling it a “fertilized egg” is rather like referring to a man as a “married bachelor”. It’s nonsensical since, once married, a man ceases to be a bachelor. Likewise, we would never refer to someone being a “born fetus” because once the child is born it ceases to be a fetus.

That’s all for today 🙂

 

Restless Pilgrim Tour 2017

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microphoneNow that I’ve finished the Camino, the most common question I hear is: what are you going to do now?

I still have a couple more weeks in England, but after that I will be flying back to the United States in time for Thanksgiving. I’m going to be based in San Diego but I’m planning to do a little more travelling. I don’t have the moniker of “Restless Pilgrim” for nothing…

I’m intending to travel around the States, seeing friends and revisiting some of my favourite cities, as well as exploring some of the places which have remained too long on my “To Do” list…

The goal of these trips isn’t simply to be a tourist. I will have to get a job again at some point, so I will be talking the opportunity to meet with local companies and possibly do some job interviews. However, the thing I’m really looking forward to is serving at local churches along the way.

In the past I’ve spoken at “Theology On Tap” (Example #1 | Example #2), led Bible studies and organized swing and salsa evenings. I’d love to make myself useful and offer my services in these areas, free-of-change, as I travel around the States. I don’t need a stipend or travel expenses.

So, if you’d like me to come to your parish, please forward this link to the relevant person at your parish and send me an email. It could be at Diocese Young Adult event. It could be at a parish mission or at your parish’s Bible Study or discussion group. Let me know where you are in the States, and I’ll do my best to make sure that I can be in your part of the country at the right time! References are available upon request.

Catholic Life

Mass Appeal: The Liturgy is the greatest thing ever!
Do you find Mass dull? In this talk I explain why the Mass is amazing and what you can do to get more out of it.

Social Media & Your Soul
How can we use Social Media and the Internet without being used by them?

How I met your (Blessed) Mother (Listen)
I will be talking about how I came to know Mary, even after years of struggling with the Church’s teaching on the Blessed Mother. In this talk I will be offering some suggestions on how we might grow in our love for Mary and come to understand her role in Salvation History more deeply.

Evangelism

Catholics Come Home: Drawing the lapsed back to the Church
Based on a previous blog series, here I tell a little bit of my own story and discuss what you might do to try and draw people back to the Church.

Evangelization for the terrified (Listen here)
Jesus told his disciples to go out to the whole world and share the Good News. If it’s “Good News”, why does that seem so scary?! In this talk I explain why we shouldn’t be shared of doing evangelization and give some very practical tools for speaking to your friends and family about the Faith.

Apologetics for the confused
What do you say when someone asks you why you’re Catholic? In this talk I go through a few key principles to employ when being called upon to defend what you believe.

Knock, knock. Who’s there?
What do you do when a Jehovah Witness or Mormon comes to your door? Over the course of this talk, I explain the origins of these groups and give some guidance on how to speak with them in a constructive way.

No God but God: An introduction to Islam
Approximately 23% of the world’s population identify as Muslim, but many Christians know relatively little about Islam. In this talk I provide an overview of the religion, as well as its similarities and dissimilarities to Catholicism.

Church History

The Worship of the Early Church (Listen here)
What did the first Christians do when they gathered together? If you could travel back in time to the end of the First Century and attend a Christian gathering, would you feel out-of-place?

Was the Early Church Catholic?
I’ll trace the roots of Catholic thought, theology and practice in the first few centuries of Christianity.

Blood & Ink: How the Early Church conquered the world (Listen here)
How did a small Jewish sect, started in the First Century, whose founder was publicly executed, manage to conquer the might of the Roman Empire? In this talk, I explain how the first Christians witnessed to Jesus both in their writing, lives and martyrdom, thereby winning the world for Christ.

Solving today’s problems with ancient wisdom
In this talk, I look at how the problems which face the Church today can be addressed using the wisdom of the first Christians, the Early Church Fathers.

Mary and the Early Church
Come to appreciate the Mother of God through the witness of the Early Church.

Women in the Early Church
We often hear about the Church Fathers, but were there mothers too? In this talk I look at the lives of some of the most important female figures in the Early Church.

Scripture

Reading Sacred Scripture for all its worth (Listen here)
How do Catholics read the Bible? What can you do to get the more out of Scripture at Mass? If you want to grow more familiar with the Biblical texts, where do you start?

Big Picture Bible: Salvation History in 60 minutes
If someone asked you to explain the overarching story of the Bible, what would you say? In the space of an hour I run through the story of salvation history and help give a framework for making sense of individual stories.

Hidden Treasure: How the Old Testament is unveiled in the New (Listen here)
This is an exploration of “Biblical Typology”, the way of reading Scripture which was developed by the Early Church Fathers, seeing in the Old Testament foreshadowings of the events of Christ, His Mother and the Kingdom of Heaven.

References are available on request

Polycarp and the Presidency

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trump

I awoke this morning to discover two things.

The first thing was confirmation that Donald Trump is going to be the next President of the United States.

The second thing I found was my Facebook Newsfeed in a state of practical hysteria.

To lay my cards on the table, while I have not supported Hillary Clinton, I have also not been much of a fan of Donald Trump either. I was more than a little suspicious of his claim to being pro-life and, like many people, I was rather disturbed by some of the words which came out of his mouth on a range of subjects.

But what can I say? That’s democracy! Whether you like it or not, the American people have spoken and, despite the many celebrity endourcements of Hillary Clinton, the American people have chosen Donald Trump.

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The name “Jehovah”

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Since I haven’t written about Jehovah Witnesses in a while, I thought that today I would address the origin of one of this group’s distinctive practices – exclusive use of the name “Jehovah”.

watchtower

If you ever come across Jehovah’s Witnesses, either on the street or if they come to your door, it’s not unusual for them to emphasize that God’s name is “Jehovah” and the only appropriate name to be used in reference to Him. They might even go further and claim that other Christian groups have “hidden” the name of God despite, as we will see, that this word was first invented inside the Catholic Church.

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Buffering the Vampire Slayer

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bufferingthevampireslayer_1000xI’ve always been an avid fan of podcasts, but in recent months my habit has been increasing somewhat. Even while I was walking the Camino De Santiago, I’d listen to a couple of podcasts each day, catching up on shows such as The Art of Catholic, The Catholic Man Show, and Hobo For Christ.

Early on in my journey across Spain, iTunes recommended a podcast called “Buffering The Vampire Slayer”. This was a podcast about the popular Joss Whedon show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which tells the story of a teenage girl who fights the forces of darkness who converge upon her town of Sunnydale.

I had seen the movie while I was still a teenager and, although it was a little goofy, I rather enjoyed it. I was initially unconvinced by the subsequent TV adaptation, but I soon grew to like it. Throughout university, my housemate Andy and I would always set aside time to watch the latest episodes, as well as those of Buffy’s companion show, Angel. It’s therefore not much surprise that I decided to heed iTunes’ recommendation and give the podcast a go…

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Matrilineal Judaism?

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judaism

I recently read an article by Taylor Marshall, the author of the excellent book, The Crucified Rabbi. In this article, he shares with his readers that he has recently discovered that he has Jewish ancestry. Towards the end of his post, he addressed a concept which I’ve heard throughout my life, but to which I have never really given much thought. This is the idea that Judaism is matrilinial, that you’re considered a Jew if either you are a convert or your mother is Jewish.

This belief seems to be first officially found in the Mishnah, the Second Century codification of Jewish Oral Tradition. I did a little bit of research and found out that matrilinialism is still officially upheld by Orthodox Jews. In contrast, Karaite Judaism holds a patrilinial belief, saying that Judaism comes through the father, and Reformed Jewish groups favour a bilinial stance, saying that you’re Jewish if either parent is Jewish.

In his article, Dr. Marshall presents a number of very compelling Biblical examples to show that Judaism can’t be matrilinial:

1. The tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh
These were the sons of the patriarch Joseph and the heads of two tribes of Israel. Their mother was an Egyptian, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. If Judaism is matrilinial, that would exclude a sizable portion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel!

2. Moses
He married and had children with a Cushite (non-Israelite) woman.

3. David
We read in the genealogy of David of his grandfather Obed. He was the child of Boaz and Ruth who was a Moabite. If Judaism is matrilinial, Obed was not Jewish and, by extension, neither was King David!

I’ve seen some writers respond to these arguments by saying that the Jewish people (“a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”) only begin at Sinai with the giving of the Law. Other explanations say that the conversion of the foreign wife to Judaism is assumed even if the biblical text sees no need to explicitly narrate it.

However, as a Catholic, it doesn’t really matter whether Judaism is matrilinial or not, since every Catholic has a Jewish mother, Mary the Theotokos! As Pope Pius XII said in 1938 to a group of Belgian pilgrims, “Spiritually, we are Semites”.

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