Leading a Bible study: Part 3
Continuing the series of posts on Leading a Bible study (Part 1 | Part 2), we finally come to the discussion portion of the Bible study! Here are my suggested Do’s and Don’ts…
DO: Bring cookies 😉
Tag: featured
Wise Men Competition
I mentioned earlier about Fr. Donald Calloway’s recent events in the San Diego area.
In one of his talks on Blessed Mary he mentioned a car sticker he saw which read “Wise men still find Him with His mother”. One of my friends commented a few days later that she had tried to find this sticker online, but to no avail.
Thinking myself to be something of an Internet Ninja, I went looking for it, but also came up empty. Not wanting to be beaten by the Internet, I decided isntead to make it:
I had four of these stickers made, so I now have three to give away. If you would like to win one, simply leave a comment below with the name of a favourite speaker you’ve heard recently. Three names will be randomly selected next week and I’ll email the winners.
The article Wise Men Competition first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
Restless Heart: 9 – “Friends in high places” (Part II)
In this week’s episode, we return to the Saints! Nessa and I share some Saint stories: St. Basil, St. Teresa of Calcutta and St. Philip Neri.
Please subscribe to this podcast using iTunes and Google Play and 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 9: Friends in high places, Part II (Download)
— Show Notes —
* My other podcast is “The Eagle and Child”, where my friend Matt and I talk about the works of C.S. Lewis. At the moment we’re working through “Mere Christianity”.
* Brother Peter, who was walking the San Diego Missions, was from the same order as Fr. Benedict Groeschel, who belonged to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
* The Camino De Santiago is a pilgrimage route from the south of France to the far western coast of Spain. I walked this route in September of 1996.
* Our first Saint was St. Basil of Caesarea. I spoke about the Emperor Valens, Arianism and the Council of Nicaea. I’ve written a little bit about St. Basil here.
* Our second Saint was St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
* When speaking about Mother Teresa, I quoted Peter Kreeft, a well-known Philosophy Professor at Boston College: “I think nobody alive today is a more powerful agent of conversion than someone like Mother Teresa. You can refute arguments but not her life. When she came to the National Prayer Breakfast and lectured President Clinton about abortion, he had nothing to say to her. He can’t argue with a saint. It’s too bad there isn’t an easier way, because becoming a saint is not the easiest thing in the world. It’s much easier to become an apologist or a philosopher or a theologian”
* I also quote from St. Augustine’s “Confessions” (XIII, Chapter 7, 17) “But I, miserable young man…entreated chastity of You, and said, Grant me chastity and continency, but not yet. For I was afraid lest You should hear me soon, and soon deliver me from the disease of concupiscence, which I desired to have satisfied rather than extinguished”
* Nessa also quoted from Pastor Rick Warren: “Most people today do not know the difference between a hero and a celebrity. Celebrities are famous for being famous and typically use the spotlight to promote themselves. The difference between heroes and celebrities lies in the reason for their sacrifice. Celebrities often make sacrifices, but they are made for personal benefit: to win a game, an award or an election. For instance, professional athletes, actors and entertainers may be celebrities, but they are not really heroes. They sacrifice for what they do because they enjoy it, or for money, or for fame or for personal satisfactions. Heroes, in contract, sacrifice for the benefit of others. They are self-giving. Mother Teresa is ‘Exhibit A’ of a true hero, a Saint”
* The final Saint we discussed was St. Philip Neri.
* My request “Sing me soft kitty” was a reference to the TV show “The Big Bang Theory”.
* There is still time to follow us @davidandnessa in order to win the new book by Jackie and Bobbie Angel.
My great hope
When I first heard that Jorge Bergoglio had been declared Pope, I immediately looked him up on my Conclave Android app and my eyes were quickly drawn to the sentence which said that in Argentina he had been the Ordinary for Eastern-rite Catholics without an Ordinary of their own rite.
I was hopeful that, given this background, his pontificate would be particularly sensitive to the the Christian East. I have not been disappointed.
Even in these first few months that he has been Pope, both East and West have made gestures of friendship, building on the great work of their predecessors. Inspired by this, I started to consider what I could do.
As I was thinking about this, I remembered an article I had read over at Ramblings of a Byzantine Catholic where it said that the East and West remain divided “because our love has grown cold”. So, if that’s the case, what could I do to nurture and express love for our Orthodox brethren?
The Great Divorce: Chapter 1
Summary
We open with Lewis standing in a bus queue. He’s been wandering in continual twilight through The Grey Town in the rain. Other than the bus queue, the town appears to be deserted.
As he joins the queue, a couple argue and they both leave.
The Short Man in front of him makes a disparaging comment about “the sort of society” in the bus queue. After Lewis fails to respond to the slight, The Big Man punches The Short Man who limps away.
Next, a young, seemingly androgynous, couple leave arm in arm, “it was clear that each for the moment preferred the other to the chance of a place in the bus”.
A woman four places ahead complains “We shall never all get in”. A man offers to change places with her for five shillings, but he then double-crosses her. The rest of the group throw her out of the line.
We get the impression that events like this continue to happen for some time until “the queue had reduced itself to manageable proportions long before the bus appeared”. The bus is a stunning vehicle, driven by a driver who is “full of light”. To our protagonist’s puzzlement, the driver’s appearance raises the ire of those in the queue. They all push and shove to get into the bus but, in the end, there is plenty of room for all.
Our man sits at the back of the bus, a good distance away from the others, but is immediately joined by “a tousle-headed youth” who sees in our protagonist a kindred spirit. He comments on his bewilderment at the other passengers, saying they “won’t like it at all when we get there, and they’d really be much more comfortable at home” where “they’ve got cinemas and fish and chip shops and advertisements and all the sorts of things they want”. He says he ought to have taken the bus as soon as he arrived, but he’d “fooled about trying to wake people up”. It becomes clear that this man is a poet and, to our protagonist’s horror, he is about to show him some of his poetry… It is at this point Lewis realizes that the bus is now airborne and he looks out of the window to see the Grey Town disappearing below into the rain and the mist.
Questions
Q1. What words would you use to describe The Grey Town?
Q2. What do you make of the different members of the queue? The arguing couple, The Short Man, The Big Man, The Androgynous Couple, The woman who pays to change places with the man who cheats her…
Q3. In what way do the characters in the line each display one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath
Q4. In what ways are the members of the bus stop similar? In what ways are they different from each other?
Q5. Why do you think the line for the bus is so short? Why do people so easily leave the line?
Q6. Why do you think the members of the queue react so badly to the driver?
Q7. Do you think the tousle-headed youth represents anyone in particular?
Q8. Why does the tousle-headed youth think that the others would be happier staying in the town?
Q9. Who do you think Cyril Blellow was?
Belief Matrix
This post is one of those which has languished in my “Drafts” folder for far too long. Fortunately, a recent article by Joe at Shameless Popery reminded me of this topic and prompted me to finish what I had begun…
I had been preparing a couple of apologetics posts and, to save me some typing, I had been digging through my past correspondence with Protestant friends and acquaintances.
A while ago I mentioned an email exchange I had with a chap called Jay. I was looking through some of our early correspondence and I came across something I had written to him which I thought deserved its own blog entry.
Unanswered Questions
I had asked Jay a series of questions to which he had not responded. Rather than answer my questions about his own worldview, he wanted to jump right in and debate topics such as Mary, Purgatory and Papal Infallibility. Because every Protestant group has a different set of beliefs, I had to understand Jay’s worldview in order to meaningfully interact with it. Here’s what I wrote:
“[Jay,] please address my questions so I can understand where you’re coming from. If you want to know what I believe you can just crack open the Catechism. [This will concretely tell you what I believe and give you a good idea as to why I believe it].
[I can’t do the same for you. Your particular matrix of beliefs is your own]. I don’t have such a simple way of finding out how your theology hangs together and exactly what you believe (“Once Saved Always Saved”? Understanding of Sola Scriptura? Sola Fide? etc.)“
One Minute Book Review: If I had lunch with C.S. Lewis
This morning I finished If I had lunch with C.S. Lewis: Exploring the ideas of C.S. Lewis on the meaning of life by the well-known Lewis biographer, Alister McGrath.
It was an intriguing approach to discussing Lewis’ thought – imagining a series of lunches with the man himself – the dream of any C.S. Lewis fan! The book is not, as one might imagine, a fictional dialogue between the author and Lewis. Instead, in each chapter, the author looks at some topic close to Lewis’ heart and provides a digestible overview of what Lewis had to say about it. Such areas of discussion include the meaning of life, friendship, the importance of stories, apologetics, education, suffering and Heaven.
This was a quick, enjoyable read and provides a nice alternative to the more traditional books about Lewis.