Tag: featured

“If Protestantism Is True” Review

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About a month ago I received my copy of Devin Rose‘s new book “If Protestantism Is True”. I’ve been a subscriber to Devin’s blog for some time, distributed some of his podcasts at the JP2 Group and occasionally interacted with him over the Internet.

I was therefore looking forward to read his book. Unfortunately, I had Vocation Director prescribed reading this month and that had to be done first! Last week I finally completed my reading assignments and so I finally got started on Devin’s book and, since it’s nice and compact at 162 pages, I read it from cover-to-cover this weekend.

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TOT: Anthony D’Ambrosio on “Beauty”

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March 28th, 2018: Anthony D’Ambrosio @ Mission San Diego

About the speaker: Anthony D’Ambrosio left seminary in 2010 to seek a more creative way to bring the Gospel into contact with post Christian culture. After spending five years growing a successful youth ministry, he founded a creative agency in Dallas Texas that partners with entrepreneurial ministries and startups to help them build their tribes and rally people to their causes. He is also one of the founders of Catholic Creatives, an organization focused on sparking a creative culture of innovation in the church. He loves poetry, scotch, Lord of the Rings, MMA, & cooking.

You can subscribe to the San Diego Theology On Tap Podcast using either iTunes or Google Play.

Main Talk (Download)

Q&A (Download)

Discerning Thoughts

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As some of you know, since returning from England, I have embarked upon a period of discernment concerning the major areas of my life: vocation, location and occupation. I have been taking some time out to re-examine where I am, what I’m doing and asking if I’m where I’m meant to be…

In my early/mid-twenties I had set aside some time to specifically look at the question of ordained ministry. After getting frustrated and tying myself in knots, I received some good direction from a priest and after much prayer finally concluded that I was not being called to ordained ministry, or at least not for the time-being.

A lot of stuff has happened in my life since my mid-twenties, so it seemed like a good idea to return to this question.

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Pushing our pro-life religion

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Have you ever been speaking about abortion and heard someone who’s pro-choice exasperatingly exclaim “Stop imposing your religion on me!”? Well, today’s entry in this abortion series addresses that very issue…

Why are you pro-life?

Last year, I posted on Facebook that I was at the March For Life in Washington DC. This raised the interest of some of my pro-choice friends, so I explained to them why I’m against abortion and why I’m pro-life.

In response to my explanation, I was told again and again that Christians should stop imposing their religion on others. I found the objection rather odd. Why? Well, I found it strange because I hadn’t mentioned religion once in any of my arguments. Neither had any of my friends when they contributed to the thread. All the arguments against abortion which were presented did not rely at all on a theistic worldview.

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Interestingly, the people who first brought religion into our discussion were those who were pro-choice. Again and again they returned to the idea that we were arguing against abortion on religious grounds. However, we never mentioned God, nor did we cite any religious text or authority. Funnily enough, something very similar happened on Brandon Vogt’s blog around the same time…

Unfortunately, rather than responding to our (non-theistic) arguments, some retorted with cheap shots against the Christian faith. Not only that, we were repeatedly treated to my own personal pet peeve, the armchair interpretation of Bible by non-Christians, which naturally included the classic misinterpretation of “Judge not lest you be judged”.

I’ve said many times bore that, even if I were not a Christian, I’d still be pro-life. The arguments against abortion don’t require a belief in God. The pro-life arguments are scientifically, philosophically and psychologically robust. If I were an atheist I might perhaps have some difficulty explaining why human life has intrinsic value, but it’s an instinct that I don’t think I could deny, even if I wanted to.

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Symbolism: The Nativity Icon

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I never thought that going to Matins would generate so many blog posts! So…today I sat next to this icon of the Nativity:

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In the centre of the icon is Mary the Theotokos, with the infant Christ in a manger, together with some animals (“The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib” – Isaiah 1:3). These figures are not in a stable, but in a cave, which reflects the Eastern tradition as well as the practice of the time for keeping animals. Above the cave are the other well-known nativity characters: angels, shepherds, and wise men following the star.

However, what I didn’t understand were the scenes depicted on the bottom-left and bottom-right corners of the icon. In the bottom-left we see St. Joseph sitting by himself with an odd look on his face and in the bottom-right there’s an illustration of what looks to me like an infant baptism taking place. What do these scenes represent?

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Pope writes another great blog entry

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No, not that Pope. There is a priest in Washington DC whom I have long regarded as my Virtual Chaplain, completely unbeknownst to him!

Virtual Internet Pastor

During my years of wandering I lacked a spiritual director or even a regular parish (this blog isn’t called “Restless Pilgrim” for nothing!). During those wilderness years I had a three month stint in Washington DC and, towards the end of my time there, I discovered Msgr. Pope’s parish.

I greatly enjoyed my visits – my exposure to gospel music until then had been limited, but I loved the enthusiastic singing I heard there. What impressed me most though was the preaching…

Msgr. Pope’s homilies were of good length, exegetical, impassioned and practical. I had often been critical of the standard of homilies in the Catholic world and hearing this kind of preaching was a breath of fresh air.

After my visa expired I left Washington DC and continued my wanderings around England and the USA. Fortunately, I soon discovered Msgr. Pope’s blog, together with his homily recordings and podcast feed. This meant that whether I was living in London, San Diego or somewhere in between, I received the same teaching. It was like having a regular pastor again 🙂

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Mega Mass Meme

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In the Diocese of San Diego we’ve had various “Mega”-themed events. It all began with “Mega Mass”, then “Mega Adoration” and then “Mega Rosary”. We even had something akin to a “Mega Bible Study” at the end of my Theology On Tap talk.

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Why have “Mega” events? Well, we Christians often need to be reminded that we are part of something much larger than ourselves. We need to be reminded that the Church is far bigger than just our local parish or our local Bible study.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. – 1 Peter 2:9

This idea has been brought home to me at several points in my life, but the one which sticks out to me is when I traveled to Australia in 2002 and visited Hillsong church in Sydney. If you’ve never been, it’s absolutely massive. It was quite something to be surrounded by a couple of thousand Christians singing praise to God.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, …crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!”
– Revelation 7:6-10

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