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Jesus: The New Moses

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In last Sunday’s First Reading we read how Charlton Heston Moses said that another prophet would come after him. This promise reaches its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. This is why Jesus is often referred to as “The New Moses”.

Below are a list of similarities between Jesus and Moses which I recently added to my commentary on last Sunday’s Readings:

1. Pharaoh killed all the the male Hebrew babies, but Moses was saved (Exodus 1:22; 2:1-2).
Herod killed all the male babies in and around Bethlehem, but Jesus escaped (Matthew 2:16-18).

2. Moses fled from Egypt, but later returned (Exodus 2:15; 4:18)
Jesus fled to Egypt and later returned to Israel (Matthew 2:13-23)

3. Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law (Exodus 24:1-3)
Jesus delivered the New Law at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-3)

4. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant through the blood of young bulls (Exodus 24:8)
Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant through His own blood (Matthew 26:28)

5. Moses did not eat or drink for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 34:28)
Jesus also fasted while being tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:2)

6. Moses delivers the first five books of the Bible (Genesis – Deuteronomy)
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives five extended sermons (Matthew 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 24-25)

7. Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness (Numbers 21:9)
Jesus said that, in a similar way, He Himself would be “lifted up” (John 3:14).

Possible Life Verses

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A while ago on this blog I shared my “life verse”, my favourite Bible verse by which I try to live my life…

But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
– 2 Corinthians 12:9

I brought up the subject of life verses in my Theology On Tap talk. I told those attending that I wanted my talk to inspire those present to read the Bible, to be the kind of person who has a favourite book of the Bible and to be the kind of person who has a “life verse”.

Moses always enjoyed sharing his favourite Bible passages...

Moses always enjoyed sharing his favourite Bible passages…

I invited those without a life verse to keep their ears open for their life verse during future times of Bible study and during the Liturgy of the Word. Otherwise, what would they say if they got cornered at a party by some enthusiastic Christians, who asked for their life verse?!

Life Verse Lottery

I made the point that picking a life verse at random is a risky strategy since, if one decided to play it safe and pick psalm, one might end up choosing Psalm 38…

For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh
– Psalm 38:7

If your new friends know their Bible well, or if they look up your “life verse” on the spot…then things will get awwwkward! As they leave the party, don’t expect them to shake your hand…or even touch you in any way whatsoever!

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Bible alone? Part 1

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sola scripturaToday I’d like to speak about “Bible Alone” Christianity, also known by its Latin name, “Sola Scriptura”.

Sola Scriptura is an important issue to discuss because it underpins virtually all of Protestantism. It was the Formal Principle of the Reformation. This topic has come up in every discussion I’ve ever had with non-Catholics. It is the major Protestant presupposition and, although the Catholic Faith can certainly be defended from Sacred Scripture, this presupposition really needs to be tackled early on in any Catholic-Protestant dialogue.

This article is another of those half-written posts which languished in my “Drafts” folder for a long, long time. I had intended to write a substantial and thorough article concerning Sola Scriptura since my own realization concerning the shortcomings of this doctrine was the tipping point in my return to the Catholic Church.

However, once again, my desire to write a thorough post has prevented me from writing anything at all. I resisted writing until I had time to do the subject matter justice. So, once again I am forced to return to the words of G.K. Chesterton “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”. Rather than waiting until I can do a perfect job I’m just going to sit down, write something and get it out there. So, please put on your crash helmets…here we go…

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Lectionary Notes, August 14th

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August 14, 2011: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings this week focus around the Gentiles (those of non-Jewish ethnicity) and their place in salvation history. In the First Reading we hear the Lord proclaim through the Prophet Isaiah, that His house will be a house of prayer “for all peoples” and in the Psalm we sing about God’s glory being proclaimed “among all nations”. In the Second Reading, St. Paul gives us some insight into the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles in God’s plan for salvation. Finally, in the Gospel we read about Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite women who, although a Gentile, is granted her request by the Lord because of her great faith.

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Integrating Google Calendar with my Blog

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Hey everyone, this is just a little post to test Google Calendar integration for something I’m working on for a parish website. Below is embedded calendar of the JP2 Group, the young adult community which I used to lead:

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 4.11.40 PM

Despite what all the tutorials say, it’s not exactly straight-forward embedding a Google Calendar on a WordPress blog. The calendar is shown in an IFRAME which, unfortunately, WordPress automatically removes when you try to save it. To get around this, I installed an IFRAME plugin and this seemed to do the trick. Thankfully, this issue wouldn’t exist on a regular website 🙂

The article Integrating Google Calendar with my Blog first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

TEA: Getting More Out Of The Mass…in ten minutes (Dodge City)

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Dodge

As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I was in Dodge City, Kansas for SKYAC, the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference.

During the afternoon, I gave one of the “FED Talks”. For those of you familiar with TED Talks, it was of a very similar format. However, whereas TED Talks are short presentations on Technology, Entertainment and Design, the FED Talks in Kansas were focussed on the subjects of Faith, Evangelization and Discipleship.

My own FED presentation was a version of my talk on “Getting More out of the Mass”. Preparing for a ten-minute talk was a surprisingly time-consuming process! It’s hard to clearly communicate something of value in a restricted time window! It completely validated the quotation which is commonly ascribed to Woodrow Wilson:

“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation;
if fifteen minutes, three days;
if half an hour, two days;
if an hour, I am ready now” 

For those of you who would like to hear the full-length version of the talk, I should be giving it in San Diego sometime in May.

Getting More Out Of The Mass (Download)

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