"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
A while back I wrote about my friend Jenna and her attempt to join an order of nuns who look after terminal cancer patients. Well, I’ve just heard that, once the money from all the different fund raising efforts has come in, she will be only $269 away from achieving her goa
So, if you’d like to help turn one of these…
…into one of these…
…then go find one of these (preferably your own)….
…and then go here…
I am part of a Bible Study currently working through the Gospel of Matthew. The group has been meeting for over a year now and we’ve worked our way through several books of the New Testament.
When we come together, before we begin looking at the book in question, we have a bit of a question-and-answer session. The goal of these questions is to have a clear understanding as to the structure of the New Testament.
Over the months that we’ve been meeting, the number of questions have increased. I thought it would be encouraging for everyone to see how many questions concerning the New Testament they can now answer. It turns out that, not only can they recite the books of the New Testament in order, but that they can answer over fifty questions about it:
1. In what language was the New Testament written?
2. What is the likely exception to this?
3. Which books appear first in the New Testament?
4. Why are these books placed first in the canon?
5. Why do they appear in this order?
6. Which Gospels are attributed to Apostles?
7. With whom is Mark associated?
8. What is Mark’s other name?
9. With whom is Luke associated?
10. What is Luke’s profession?
11. What comes after the Gospels?
12. By whom is it written?
13. To what genre does it belong?
14. What is the first main message of the Acts of the Apostles?
15. What is the second main point of the Acts of the Apostles?
16. Between what years do the events described in Acts of the Apostles take place?
17. What appears after Acts?
18. Why are these epistles placed in this order?
19. What are the names of the cities/communities?
20. From where did Paul write the epistle to the Philippians?
21. What city was he probably in at the time?
22. Why did Paul write that letter?
23. Who probably delivered this letter for Paul?
24. What are the main themes of that letter?
25. What Christian hymn does Paul quote in the letter in Chapter 2?
26. What is the main theme behind the letters to the Thessalonians?
27. What claim-to-fame do the Thessalonian letter have?
28. What appears after Thessalonians?
29. Who was Timothy?
30. What background information do you know about Timothy?
31. Who was Titus?
32. Who was Philemon?
33. Where did Philemon most likely live?
34. What is the context of the letter?
35. What was the name of Philemon’s slave?
36. What is the meaning of the slave’s name?
37. What does Paul ask of Philemon?
38. What appears after Philemon?
39. Why does Hebrews appear here?
40. What literary genre is Hebrews?
41. What is the main theme of the book?
42. What did St. Thomas Aquinas think about the authorship of this epistle?
43. What appears after Hebrews? What category of books do we call these?
44. Who most likely wrote James’ epistle?
45. How would you summarize James’ epistle?
46. What documents appear next?
47. What documents appear after that?
48. After that?
49. What is the final book of the Bible?
50. What is its literary genre?
51. What are the two main senses of Scripture according to the Catechism?
52. What are the three types of spiritual senses?
I wasn’t taught this stuff in school. In fact, I remember that when I was teaching Confirmation it came as a surprise to many of the students that there was an Old Testament and a New Testament. Why isn’t this stuff taught in Catholic schools?!
UPDATE: The answers have now been posted:
Answers 1-16 | Answers 17-27 | Answers 27-42 | Answers 43-52
The article New Testament Warm-Ups first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
Nessa and I could not meet up this week, so I recorded a solo where I talked about meeting Christ in my Father’s death.
Please subscribe to this podcast using iTunes, Google Play or Podbean. If you have any feedback or would like to pose a question for an upcoming episode, you can send us a message from the website or tweet us at @davidandnessa.
Episode 12: Memento Mori (Download)
— Show Notes —
* “Memento Mori” is a phrase in Latin which means “Remember Death”
* If you were wondering where Whidbey Island is, it’s here.
* The book I referenced was “Something Other Than God” by Jennifer Fulwiler:
“The Catechism explained that praying for the souls of the dead is a tradition going back to the first Christians and to the Jews before them… The living sent their love for the deceased into the spiritual world, like adding water to a stream that would eventually float their lost friends home“
* Don’t believe me about the ninja boots? Here they are.
* The Psalm I quoted was Psalm 84:6
Blessed are the men whose strength is in [the Lord]… As they go through the Valley of Baca [weeping] they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
* The poem I quoted at the end was “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” by Gerard Manly Hopkins:
…for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not His
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
* A written version of what I said in this podcast is available on my blog.
A friend of mine recently told me about a conversation she had with her friend who considered himself a follower of Jesus, but who also held to the popular Dan Brown myth that one also often hears from Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims, that the divinity of Christ was something invented by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.
Don’t trust murdering albino monks when it comes to theology…
I promised my friend that I would put together a post to demonstrate the Divinity of Christ from both Sacred Scripture and Early Church history, so here it is…
I’ve recently been involved in a number of conversations about Christianity and swearing.
This week, a Catholic friend whom I very much respect suggested the possibility that it might be okay to “swear intentionally in the proper context”. I took some time to write a substantial reply on social media, so I thought I’d share it here as well, as I think it sums up my main thoughts on the subject…
The first objection I see to swearing is the clear motif from Scripture concerning Christian speech. To begin with, we are told that the words of our mouth are important:
Read moreLet the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
My favourite band, Casting Crowns, just released a video of a song from their new album “Come to the Well”. The song is called “Jesus, Friend Of Sinners”:
This is definitely one of my favourite songs from their most recent album Come To The Well. It has a few lyrics which I find devastating:
Jesus, friend of sinners, …we cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing…
A plank-eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided…
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers…
…and finally…
Nobody knows what we’re for, only what we’re against, when we judge the wounded…
It is this last line which I find the most powerful. Before hearing this song I had never really thought that when I judged someone, I was judging someone injured. We’re all wounded, of course, both by the Fall and our own personal histories.
Until I heard these words I had never really considered that when someone does something which disappoints or hurts me, it might be due to a wound which that person had previously sustained, so rather than judging and condemning that person, I should instead see him as someone in need of healing.
Over the past few months I have, on occasions, remembered this song and the resolution it inspired: Be More Gentle With People. When I have done this, and managed to set aside my indigence and anger, and tried to “look for the wound”, the results have been quite surprising. I have found my heart softened and the reservoirs of compassion and patience which I had long thought empty, refilled.
Now, if only I could remember this resolution a bit more often…
Today is the feast day of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Contrary to the insistence of some of my friends, “Polycarp” does not mean “much fish” 😉 Rather, his name means “much fruit”, an appropriate appellation for a man whose life was full of the fruit of one whose life was devoted to Jesus Christ:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”
– John 15:5
Polycarp, perhaps more so than any other Apostolic Father, provides us with a bridge between the Apostles and the Early Church. When Polycarp was young he sat at the feet of St. John and when Polycarp was old, another young man, St. Irenaeus sat at his feet and would later become one of the great defenders of the faith against the Gnostics.
Polycarp has a link to another Early Church Father. In fact, I have mentioned St. Polycarp on this blog before, when I wrote about the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and his letter to the bishop of that city, Polycarp. In his letter, Ignatius exhorts Polycarp:
“The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life”
– Ignatius to Polycarp
The turbulent times did indeed call for a great bishop and they did indeed find one in Polycarp…
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