How Hebrew is your Faith?

How Hebrew is your Faith? I think that within Christianity there is always this Marcionite tendency to try and sever Christianity from its Jewish roots.

When I was back living in London, I had the privilege of hearing the testimony of a man called Roy Schoeman. Roy is the son of Jewish parents who escaped the Nazi persecutions in Germany before World War II. He studied for a while under the noted Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg before eventually falling into atheism. Some time later he had a dramatic conversion and, a little while later, found his way into the Catholic Church.

When I first heard Roy speak, it renewed my appreciation for the Jewish roots of Christianity. I have since listened to a number of his talks and I’ve found that his Jewish perspective often gives me a new awareness when looking at the Sacred Scriptures. I have found this particularly true for St. Paul’s epistles, especially the letter to the Romans.

I would thoroughly recommend everyone to spend some time in the Audio and Video section of his website, listening to his testimony and to some of his talks, I think you’ll find them really enlightening.

“After all, if you [Gentiles] were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature…[and] grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will…[the Jews]….the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!” – Romans 11:24

Early Church Fathers, Love & Romance

Yesterday’s post was rather long, so I’ll keep this one nice and short.

After the Office Christmas Party this weekend one of my coworkers, Kevin, and his girlfriend got engaged.  This put me in mind of two of my favourite quotations from the Early Church Fathers on the subject of love and marriage.

As I think I’ve said before, one of the things which constantly surprises me is that, although these men lived so long ago, they have so much wisdom from which today’s world could benefit.

The first quotation comes from a priest of the late 4th Century called John.  His preaching was so renowned, he acquired the name “golden mouth” or in Greek “chrysostomos”.  He is most commonly referred to as St. John Chrysostom.  He is one of the few to be declared a “Doctor of the Church”, a greatly deserved title.

“An intelligent, discreet, and pious young woman is worth more than all the money in the world. Tell her that you love her more than your own life, because this present life is nothing, and that your only hope is that the two of you pass through this life in such a way that, in the world to come, you will be united in perfect love” – St. John Chrysostom

Beautiful, isn’t it?  Superb advice – you’d never guess he was a celibate priest… 😉

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The Fiery Imagery of Purgatory

Recently, a listener to our C.S. Lewis podcast reached out to us. She had just begun RCIA with her family and they were quite taken aback when the priest described Purgatory in the following way:

“Purgatory is a place of fire and burning. However, there will be hope there because you will know you’re getting out someday.”

RCIA Class

It seemed to her that this would make the work of Christ incomplete. After the class, her daughter exclaimed:

“How do they expect anyone to convert if you’re still going to Hell? Because that’s exactly what Purgatory sounds like!”

When they got home, they did some googling and found several other sources that said Purgatory would be the same fire of hell, but with the hope of one day escaping.

Since my co-host and I had spoken about Purgatory on the podcast, she sent us a message expressing her consternation. I too once balked at the fire imagery I saw in some artistic depictions of Purgatory (such as in the altarpiece above), so I thought it would be a good idea to turn my answer into a blog post…

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Scripture Nerd Moment…

This afternoon I came across something which made me chuckle while I was out taking my afternoon stroll with Scott Hahn (Dr. Hahn couldn’t make it in person but was considerate enough to be present on my iPod).

I was walking through one of Seattle’s many lovely parks and I came across some children’s play equipment:

IMG_1482

I noticed that the bars of the fence enclosing the area had names written on them. I assumed that these were the names of the donors who helped pay for the equipment. It was then that I noticed one particular entry:

IMG_1483The Thomas family appeared to have wanted a Bible verse included with their name. Their choice of verse made me chuckle. Can you guess what text is found in Luke 18:16?

A *truly* extraordinary Minister!

St TarcisiusSince in JP2 we’ve been studying early Christian worship, we’ve been talking a lot about the Eucharist. A story which illustrates the importance of the Eucharist to the Early Church is that of St. Tarsicius.

St. Tarsicius was an acolyte (one of the minor orders of clergy) who was killed by a gang of pagans as he carried a portion of the Eucharist from the Eucharistic liturgy.

It is quite likely that he was taking Holy Communion to someone sick or in prison. At that time it was also the practice for some of the consecrated bread to be taken from the bishop’s Mass to the other Masses around the city as a sign of unity with the bishop.

Here is how Tarsicius’ story is recorded in the Roman Martyrology:

“…the heathen met [him] bearing the sacrament of the Body of Christ and asked him what it was he carried. He judged it a shameful thing to cast pearls before swine, and so was attacked by them for a long time with sticks and stones, until he gave up the ghost. When they turned over his body, the sacrilegious assailants could find no trace of Christ’s sacrament, either in his hands or among his clothing.”
– Roman Martyrology

The Eucharist – a meal worth dying for…

TOT: Jackie Francois-Angel

April 18, 2017: Jackie Francois-Angel @ St. Luke, El Cajon

Jackie is a full-time traveling speaker, singer/songwriter, and worship leader from Orange County, CA. In 2006, she became an artist with OCP/SpiritAndSong.com with whom she has released two albums.

She has been involved in youth ministry since she graduated high school, and she now travels the globe speaking to young people about God’s love and leading worship for various events and ministries. In 2013, she married the love of her life, Bobby Angel, and they now have two adorable little girls.

“Gifts Of The Holy Spirit” (Download)

This was our first time in quite a while recording Theology On Tap audio. The audio quality will improve over subsequent recordings.

Jackie

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 18 (“Jonah”)

jonah

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. If you had to go to work today, then you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that I’ve waded through 109 verses to bring you this commentary on Surah 10:

Surah 10 – “Jonah” (Yunus)
The opening few pages of this chapter are pretty standard stuff:

  • Muhammad’s critics object that Allah’s revelation would come through a man.
  • Allah’s role as creator is emphasized and the natural world (the sun and moon in particular) are held up as signs pointing the people to God.
  • We have the usual statements about the disbelievers heading to the Fire and the believers going to “Gardens of Pleasure”.
  • Several times man’s fickle and forgetful nature is lamented and that Allah saves him from affliction, but yet he continues his path unaltered.

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