Prayers of St. Bridget
I have just posted a series of recording by my friend Joseph Enright of the fifteen prayers of St. Bridget. To allow for easy consumption of these prayers, I’ve created a podcast feed for them:
Tag: featured
Best Of British
Everyone knows that, when it comes to comedy, it doesn’t get any better than British. Unfortunately, I regularly meet Americans who have not been exposed to the veritable treasure trove of chortles that my country has to offer.
This makes me sad. Instead of enjoying classic shows such as Hancock’s Half Hour, Fawlty Towers (“Don’t mention the war!”) and Rising Damp, they just sit watching the billionth season of The Office (the American version), waiting for it to finally get funny again. I have therefore decided to compile over a series of posts a list of British comedy shows that simply must be watched…
I was fortunate to grow up in an era of great British comedy. Every Saturday night my family would gather together in the living room. We would eat dinner on our laps, which was considered a huge treat, since eating was not typically allowed in the living room. We would then settle in for an evening of great TV. We would receive Yorkshire wisdom from Last of the Summer Wine and listen to the grumpy rants from Victor Meldrew in One Foot In the Grave.
I’ve started watching many of these shows again as an adult. Now when I watch old episodes of Hi-De-Hi! I’m stunned by how many of the jokes went over my head as a child (probably a good thing!). Another show like this was ‘Allo ‘Allo, a comedy set in the unlikely location of France during the Second World War. Actually, it’s quite surprising how many British comedies used wars as their backdrop, the most famous of which is probably Dad’s Army, which tells the story of the men in England’s “Home Guard”:
More ramblings and recommendations tomorrow!
OSAS & Three Cups of Tea: Cup 3
In the last two blog posts I critiqued the Scripture interpretations of Mack, a commentator on my Once Saved, Always Saved post. Mack had responded to my article, claiming that I had been misapplying Scripture passages to support my argument that it is possible to lose your salvation. If you would like to read my two previous replies, they are available here and here.
We have nearly finished looking at Mack’s commentary, so please pour yourself one last cup of tea and we’ll take a look at the final two passages…
Quick Apology: Potential Life?
In January there was the annual “March For Life” in Washington DC. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go this year, but thanks to Facebook, I got to defend life in a different way, through Facebook. Many of my pro-life friends posted about the March on Facebook, and these posts were not without their detractors…
The Objection
As I browsed my newsfeed, one objection which was made repeatedly was some variation of the following:
“The fetus is a potential life”
Is this true? How might we respond to this statement?
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Terrible lessons for men
Yesterday I posted some terrible lessons from the movies for ladies. Today it’s the turn of the men…
Thinking about liturgy
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time it will be clear by now that I have a great love for the liturgies of Eastern Christianity. There is a reverence there and a beauty which I find extremely attractive. It feeds my soul.
A few days ago I came across this video of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, speaking about the liturgies of the Church and about the need for liturgical renewal, particularly in the Western Church:
While watching this video I was reminded of an article I read on the blog “Neal Obstat” where the author recounted a conversation he had with a member of the Coptic Church. Rather surprisingly, this Coptic Christian argued that the chief obstacle to reunion with the Catholic Church was not a matter of dogma, but the “banalization” of the liturgy in the West.
Mere Christianity – Book IV – Chapter 9 (“Counting The Cost”)
Picking back up my notes for C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”…
1. “Be ye perfect” does not mean that God isn’t going to help us until we get our act together
“Some people seem to think this means ‘Unless you are perfect, I will not help you’; and as we cannot be perfect…our position is hopeless. But I do not think He did mean that. I think He meant ‘The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less'”
(a) Jack wouldn’t go to his mother with a toothache because he knew he’d get something else in addition to the relief from immediate pain…
(i) He’d wait until the pain got really bad
“When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother – at least, not till the pain became very bad…”
(ii) …because he knew he’d also get a trip to the dentist…
“I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want…”
(iii) …and the dentist wouldn’t restrict himself just to that tooth…
And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache… if you gave them an inch they took an ell”
(b) God is like a dentist
“Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or physical cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like bad temper or drunkenness). Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment”