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Christmas Thoughts

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Those of you who know me will know that I’m someone who is not a very “Christmas-y” sort of person…

Why?

Well, it’s probably partly because all my childhood recollections of school between September to January are dominated by memories of interminable carol rehearsals! I hate shopping at all times of the year, but especially during the Christmas rush. I hate picking up pine needles and I think fake trees are, well, fake. I don’t like the dark or cold which I usually associate with Christmas. I always look forward to the extraordinary liturgy of the Church at Easter, but at Christmas it is largely unchanged. And finally, nothing annoys me more than the saccharin-coated cheeriness which seems to be induced in people every December.

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There’s something about Mary… (Part 3 of 3)

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I’m going to finish this today, I promise! This is the final part of a series responding to a comment which was left on a post I wrote about the Mother of God. This was the comment:

“‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ If Mary were sinless, why did she need a Savior? Wouldn’t she be lying?

Did she realize Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? When she compared herself to the law of a holy God, had she realized she had formerly, lied, coveted, dishonored her parents by not always obeying them, etc. and like every single person needs a Savior? There are none good, no not one (Romans 3), except Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Also see Romans 11:6. Thank you Jesus, my Savior.”

Today I’m going to conclude my exploration of Kelley’s comments and offer some closing thoughts…

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Head back to Sunday School, Colbert…

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On Catholic Memes, I just saw a video where Stephen Colbert challenged another celebrity to a Catholic throwdown. This time his opponent was Patricia Heaton, star of “Everybody loves Raymond” and “The Middle”:

Oh Stephen…you disappoint me.

I counted at least three major Catholic mistakes in this throwdown, three “maxima culpas”, if you will. So get out your sackcloth and ashes, and let me I teach you something about the Catholic Faith…

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Demystifying the Daily Mysteries

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For the last few days (the last nine days, in fact!), I’ve been praying a Novena. This has meant that I’ve been praying the rosary every day. As you may know, the Catholic Church has assigned to each day of the week a different set of “mysteries”:

Monday: Joyful Mysteries
Tuesday: Sorrowful Mysteries
Wednesday: Glorious Mysteries
Thursday: Luminous Mysteries
Friday: Sorrowful Mysteries
Saturday: Joyful Mysteries
Sunday: Glorious Mysteries

These mysteries are the events in the life of Jesus and His mother, such as the Resurrection and when Jesus turned water into wine. Catholics are invited to meditate upon these mysteries as they pray the rosary. Previously, whenever I went to pray a rosary, I always had to do a google search to check which mysteries were assigned to that day. However, after nine days of praying the rosary, I’ve come up with a little mnemonic to work it out:

Jesus Saves, God Loves Sinners, Jehovah God

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Sunday Lectionary: Arise and shine!

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4th Sunday of Lent, 18th March 2012

In our First Reading last week we read about the giving of the Ten Commandments and this week we continue our Lenten tour through the high points of Old Testament Salvation History.

Our First Reading begins on a rather somber note. The Kingdom of Judah had abandoned God’s Law and, as a result, the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and the people led into captivity. All of God’s promises to King David seemed to be lost! We hear the people’s song of lament in today’s Psalm.

However, because of God’s mercy and through His divine providence, the pagan King Cyrus decides to grant the Jews their freedom, releasing them from bondage.

In the light of the New Testament, we know that God’s promises to King David were not forgotten, but that they all found their fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth, both Son of David and Son of God! The freedom granted to God’s people by King Cyrus was simply a foreshadowing of Jesus’ work of salvation. It is through the King of Kings that we are released from the bondage of death and brought to new life.

In our Second Reading, St. Paul tells use that “because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, [He] brought us to life with Christ”.  These words of St. Paul are themselves only an echo of the Master’s teaching. In this week’s Gospel Reading, during His discourse with Nicodemus, Jesus reveals the heart of the Father: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life“.

Full of confidence, therefore, in God’s mercy and love, let us approach this week’s Eucharistic liturgy with the joy of those who have been granted new life 🙂

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A Little thought: Dangers of being literalistic…

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For the last few weeks, for one reason or another, I haven’t been able to attend the Divine Liturgy at my parish, meaning that I’ve had to go to a Roman Mass instead. The Readings for the last couple of weeks in the Roman Lectionary have been rather interesting. Over the next couple of days I wanted to share a few extremely brief thoughts…

The First Reading on 27th July caught my attention. We heard of Solomon’s encounter with the Lord, and God’s gift to him of divine wisdom. At the end of the passage, God says to Solomon the following:

“I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.” – 1 Kings 3:12

It struck me that this is a perfect example as to why we have to be careful when we interpret the Bible. If we were to take this passage literalistically*, we would have to conclude that Solomon is absolutely, categorically, the wisest man ever. However, from the Christian point of view, that’s not true, is it? What about Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus wiser than Solomon?

“Well, obviously, Jesus is the exception!” some might say. Now, that’s true, but it does at least demonstrate the point that words like “never” and phrases like “no one” aren’t always quite as absolute as they may first appear.

Prophet-Solomon1

* This is in contrast to interpreting a passage literally, which is where we look to the meaning intended by the Author. The phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs”, when literally interpreted, means that it’s raining heavily. To interpret “It’s raining cats and dogs” literalistically means that family pets are falling form the sky.

A year of blogging

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Today marks my blogging anniversary. I have now been writing this blog for one year exactly.

[Pause for applause]

Over of the 365 days of this blog’s existence I have written 137 posts, which works out at about a post every two or three days. Not bad at all.

Not a lot of people know this, but I was officially declared dyslexic at school when I was ten years old. As such, writing has never come easily to me.  Even if you see a post on this blog which is composed of even just a few sentences, I can guarantee you that I put quite some time into its composition. Therefore, the fact that I’ve managed to regularly write on this blog every two or three days for a year is really quite an achievement for me 🙂

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