"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Last week I was in San Antonio giving my “Entrepreneurial Faith” talk to the YCP chapter there.
“Entrepreneurial Faith” (Download)
Q&A (Download)
— Questions —
• You’re an British Catholic. How is that possible?!
• What did you read which led you back into the Catholic Faith?
• How can I put the gift of writing to the service of the Church?
(Just as I was about the answer this question, there was a thunderclap outside!)
Our three-part “Theology On Tap” series came to a conclusion tonight. The Associate Young Adult Director, Pamela Poe, had tasked me to give a talk which answered the question “What does it mean to be a restless pilgrim?”. In this presentation, I recount the story of my own faith journey, I describe the story of Salvation History as a pilgrimage, and I explain why we’re all restless pilgrims…
“What does it mean to be a restless pilgrim?” (Download)
“Q&A” (Download)
If you would like to hear audio from other San Diego “Theology On Tap” sessions, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play or manually via the RSS feed.
— Questions —
• “What’s the next journey you have in mind?” (Winner of the box of fine tea)
• “How long were you on the Camino before you started to regret it?!”
• “Do people really die on the Camino?!”
• “Before you reverted, what did you believe about the Eucharist?”
• “How did your Protestant friends explain John 6, where Jesus speaks about eating and drinking his Body and Blood?”
• “Does the restlessness ever come to an end? Should we ever be able to settle?”
• “What is the Byzantine Church?”
• “What is the difference between an English and an Australian accent?”
Last night I gave a talk for The Goretti Group. This was a variation on a talk I gave at the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference.
Is there life before marriage? (Download)
I’ve written a couple of articles for the Goretti Group in the past which you might like to read: Dear Miss Lawrence and “I waited until my wedding night to lose my virginity and I wish I hadn’t”.
Yesterday, I visited St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Los Angeles. The St. Ignatius Women’s Group invited me to give a presentation on the Blessed Virgin and the Early Church. This was a a longer version of a talk I had previously given at St. Brigid’s here in San Diego.
Over the course of forty-five minutes, I told the story of my initial struggles concerning Mary and the Catholic Marian doctrines, explaining how I eventually came to see the truth and beauty in the Catholic Church’s teaching concerning the Blessed Virgin. The audio and the handout are both available for download.
Mary and the Early Church (Download)
I was invited to speak to the group at St. Ignatius by a long-time reader of this blog. If you’re also interested in having me speak to a group at your parish or at a Diocesan Theology On Tap, please see my Speaking page for examples of other recorded talks. Just send me an email and we can work out the details! 🙂
As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I was in Dodge City, Kansas for SKYAC, the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference.
During the afternoon, I gave one of the “FED Talks”. For those of you familiar with TED Talks, it was of a very similar format. However, whereas TED Talks are short presentations on Technology, Entertainment and Design, the FED Talks in Kansas were focussed on the subjects of Faith, Evangelization and Discipleship.
My own FED presentation was a version of my talk on “Getting More out of the Mass”. Preparing for a ten-minute talk was a surprisingly time-consuming process! It’s hard to clearly communicate something of value in a restricted time window! It completely validated the quotation which is commonly ascribed to Woodrow Wilson:
“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation;
if fifteen minutes, three days;
if half an hour, two days;
if an hour, I am ready now”
For those of you who would like to hear the full-length version of the talk, I should be giving it in San Diego sometime in May.
Getting More Out Of The Mass (Download)
So this past weekend I was at the Southern Kansas Young Adult Conference (SKYAC). I gave a few talks on the retreat, which I’ll post here over the next couple of days.
The afternoon opened up with a talk on relationships from the magnificently-bearded Dave DiNuzzo (“Relationship Martyrdom vs Relationship Suicide”).
Following Dave’s presentation, the married couples on the retreat had their own breakout talk, but all those without wedding rings on their fingers were sent to another room to listen to…me! In my talk, I tried to answer the all-important question…is there life before marriage?
“Is there life before marriage?” (Download)
I know I said I wouldn’t be posting during Lent, but this weekend I gave a talk, “Evangelization for the terrified”, at the San Pedro Calungsod Young Adult Retreat in San Diego and promised that I’d upload the audio the following week, together with links to the resources I mentioned in my talk.
Unfortunately, the original recording has the last ten minutes cut off… 🙁 Fortunately, I just re-recorded the entire talk here at home. Since I didn’t have the time restrictions I had on the retreat, this recording is a little longer. Think of it as the Director’s Cut or the Extended Edition, which includes ten minutes of never-before-heard material!
I began my talk by referencing the Papal Encyclical Evangelization In The Modern World.
When I speak about learning your faith, I mention a number of low-cost services which will help you learn the Catholic Faith:
FORMED (Catholic Answers)
ClaritasU (Brandon Vogt)
New St. Thomas Institute (Dr. Taylor Marshall)
I also mentioned recommend the following sites which are completely free:
Institute of Catholic Culture
St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
I mention that you can buy cheap books/CDs/DVDs to give away from Dynamic Catholic.
For staying up-to-date with Catholicism in the media, I recommend listening to Hearts & Minds and the Don Johnson Show.
If you would like lots of good examples of how seasoned apologists engage non-Catholics, please check out Catholic Answers Live.
The talk was concluded with a retelling of the story of the Sun and the Wind from Aesop’s Fables.