JP2 Resources

Every week since the start of the year I have brought a handful of CDs to the JP2 Group to hand out. These CDs have contained a selection of the best faith-related podcasts I’ve found on the Internet. Previous CDs have included material from Peter KreeftCatholic AnswersDevin RoseA Good Story Is Hard to FindFr. Robert Barron and, of course, the legendary Catholic Stuff You Should Know.

My aim in doing this has been to bring people into contact with a wide range of Catholic resources, in the hope that they find a few speakers they really enjoy and who help them in their spiritual journey. So today I thought that I would write this short post, pointing to the Resources page of the JP2 website in the hope that the readers of this blog may also benefit.

World Youth Day

Most of my American friends have now returned from World Youth Day, so I thought I would write a quick entry welcoming them back! Hi guys… 🙂

It’s entirely possible that some people reading this blog have never heard of World Youth Day. Well, it was started back in 1985 by Pope John Paul II and, every two or three years, is marked by a week-long international event. It is for this reason that last week the Pope and 1.5 million Catholics gathered together in Madrid:

If you’d like to read a personal account of the week by an English pilgrim, I’d invite you to check our Hannah’s write-up over at Transformed In Christ.

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My thoughts on quantum gravity

Last month I read an article about Professor Steven Hawking in which he was quoted as saying:

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark”

Well, that’s nice… As intelligent and qualified as you are to answer questions about black holes and quantum gravity, I’m afraid Professor Hawking, this is a philosophical question. It was for this reason, after reading the article, my Facebook status quickly became:

“Hey Stephen, do want to hear my thoughts on String Theory?”

Professor Hawking has recently been increasingly vocal over the question of God. I was originally going to write a longer post about Professor Hawking’s recent assertions, but then I remembered that Fr. Barron had produced a superb video where he addressed some of these issues:

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Favourite People: Fr. Robert Barron

In a previous post I spoke about one of my favourite people, Archbishop Fulton Sheen. I spoke about how I came to discover him, his sermons and writings, as well as try and describe something of the impact he had upon me.

I think it is appropriate therefore, that in this next entry, I’ve chosen to talk about someone whom I’ve often heard referred to by other people as “The Next Fulton Sheen”.

This person is Fr. Robert Barron.

If Sheen Had YouTube…

Fr. Robert is a priest who lives near Chicago in the United States. I first came across him on YouTube while I was still living in England.  He is a published author (I finished his book “The Eucharist” this week), but he has also embraced the new media and is using it to extend the reach of his ministry. It is in this sense that he is like Fulton Sheen – he’s a superb communicator and uses all means available to proclaim the faith, although in terms of style he and Archbishop Sheen are very different.

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