"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Last week I announced a competition to win one of three bumper stickers I had created:
And the winners chosen by Random.org are…
1. Mary Hunt
2. Fr. Donald (Don’t worry, if he hadn’t have won I would have sent him one anyway 😉 )
3. Rachel DiGiglio
I’ll be emailing the winners to organize postage/delivery 🙂
For the last two days I have been looking at the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Yesterday I looked at the problem of doctrinal unity and interpretation created by this doctrine. Today I would like to look at the other problem which I saw as I began to reconsider my allegiance to this belief.
Problem #2: The Bible’s origin and teaching
The second problem which really started to trouble me was the Bible itself. A monk from my home parish asked me the question: “Which came first? The Church or the Bible?”. The answer was obvious – the Church came first.
I recall another time when I was ranting about Catholics not reading their Bibles (I still do!). This monk asked me how the early Christians grew in their faith without each having access to their own leather-bound New Jerusalem Bible.
My thinking had been somewhat backwards and these two questions gave me pause for thought.
Today we begin Chapter 2 of Philippians!
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:1-4
Here’s today’s video:
For an audio-only version of this video, please click here.
Today I would like to return again to the subject of discernment. In my previous post I wrote about some of the things I’ve wrestled with during my current discernment process. I explained that I find the call to be holy and the call to Holy Orders rather difficult to distinguish from one another and I expressed my frustration that many people seem to assume that the former necessarily implies the latter….
Those who become monks and nuns take vows of (1) poverty, (2) chastity and (3) obedience. These three are known as the Evangelical Counsels. I’ve found that a lot of discernment material, when you really boil it down, focuses upon these three areas. The problem is that the Church teaches that all Christians are called to live out these counsels!
“Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple”
– Catechism of the Catholic Church, #915
I guess this does affirm something that I’ve thought for some time – that there are many common threads which run through all the vocations. There are also common graces which all people are reliant upon to live out their vocation, regardless of what that vocation might be.
The other day I was sitting in a church which I normally don’t visit, the Immaculate Conception in Old Town, San Diego. After communion I was looking at the crucifix behind the altar and saw the words “Resurrexit Sicut Dixit” written above it. Rather embaressingly, it occurred to me that I couldn’t say for certain what the English translation of these words should be. I’m always amazed at the number of times I come across things while visiting an unfamiliar church building. Good to see all that money spent on my Catholic education didn’t go to waste!
In this week’s Gospel we pick up where we left off last Sunday. Last week Peter gave his confession of Faith, but in today’s reading he doesn’t fare so well….
However, I think the real jewel this week is the Second Reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Every word of this passage is rich with meaning and worthy of meditation.
Well, this is kinda cool! I was having a little look at my WordPress statistics and noticed that somebody in Finland referred to a Restless Pilgrim post!
