I’ve just finished reading The Gospel Truth: A Lectionary-Based Catechism for Adults , by Kenneth Ogorek, sent to me by The Catholic Company . For each of the Sunday liturgies in all three cycles, the book includes the Gospel reading, a short discussion linked to relevent sections of the Catechism, three questions for reflection (one intended for children) and some suggestions for further reading from both scripture and the Catechism.
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The Gospel Truth
There was a particular point during my years as a Buddhist when I was struggling with the question whether to give up the vows I had taken as a Buddhist nun and to return to lay life. Aggravating my struggle was the sense that I had somehow irrevocably blown it, that I was hopelessly confused.
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Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
Today’s second Mass reading comes from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and it is a passage I think we could all benefit from reflecting on
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The Body Is Not A Single Part, But Many
Hugh Owen again took the time to make a (from my point of view very long) reply to my response to him. I wasn’t able to post it with the formatting in Blogger, and it would be too confusing to take away the formatting, so I’ve put it on a separate page.
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Creation of the World – Hugh Owen’s Response
In today’s Gospel from St. Mark, Jesus “summoned those he wanted and they came to him.” The passage itself refers to Jesus’ summons of the “Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.” Those twelve were an incredibly diverse group, including fishermen, a tax collector and a zealot primarily interested in seeing the Roman forces overthrown. They included well-known names as well as some of whom we know nothing
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Answering the Summons
We continue to hear reports of the devastating effects of last week’s earthquake in Haiti. Many are on the ground in Haiti, offering medical and other assistance. Many more of us are able to donate financially
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Praying for Our Brothers and Our Sisters
I was reflecting on the fact that the Christmas season is over and we are now in Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. Although “ordinary” in this context doesn’t mean usual or average, so much as it means not-seasonal, there is some value in keeping in mind our usual understanding of the world
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Ordinary Time
Today’s first Mass reading, from the First Book of Samuel, reminds us that God doesn’t always make choices in the way we might expect. God tells Samuel to go to Jesse of Bethlehem, telling him that God has chosen one of Jesse’s sons to be his king. As the first son, Eliab, is presented to him – doubtless the oldest, perhaps the most impressive, Samuel is sure, based on Eliab’s “appearance and his lofty stature,” that this must be the one.
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Anoint Who?
Today, the United States celebrates Martin Luther King Day, one of the very few U.S. holidays commemorating an individual person. We celebrate King for his commitment to nonviolence in his protest of racial discrimination, a commitment that was rooted in his Christian faith
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Martin Luther King, Jr. and Loving Our Enemies
Just before the close of business Friday (i.e., the beginning of a three-day weekend), I discovered that my laptop had a virus. Several phone calls with the University of St. Thomas IT folks resulted in the conclusions that (1) no technician would be available to to look at the laptop until Tuesday morning and (2) I should not use my laptop in the interim
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Attachments
This post may be opening up a big can of worms, but worms, if let on their own, can sometimes get pretty nasty, and need to be dealt with, so here goes… Some philosophers, such as Peter Knauer, have argued that the principle of double effect is the “fundamental principle of ethics.” I would argue that this position is overstated, but that nonetheless, an analogous extension of the principle of double effect might correctly be called the fundamental principle of ethical “problems,” How so?
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The Principle of Double Effect
Paul Harvey Good stuff over at Immanent Frame: First, a little follow-up on Darren’s post from yesterday: ” Christianity and the Crash,” collects a number of scholarly responses to Hanna Rosin’s article ” Did Christianity Cause the Crash ,” from the December 2009 Atlantic . Our friends Anthea Butler and Jon Walton weigh in, along with Mark Taylor, Harvey Cox, and several others
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Christianity, Crashes, and Special Experiences
New Online New on All Considering A year of spiritual blogging: time for some statistics Merry Christmas Michael Mirdad interview The five stages of the soul transformation process: Michael Mirdad New on squidoo Quiz: Dalai Lama facts and trivia You’re Not Going Crazy…You’re Just Waking Up! Michael Mirdad Quiz: Wicca and Paganism facts and trivia A Course in Miracles – famous quotes and sayings Buddhist Texts Through the Ages A World Full Of Gods : The History of Early Christianity New: My spiritual Quotes Blavatsky Christmas and New Year Quotes Theravada Buddhist quotes about happiness Inspiring science quotes about Happiness The rest of my spiritual newsletter containing: Short Quotes, Editorial and Clara Codd on the Yoga of Motherhood.
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Spiritual Quotes, Buddhist texts, ACIM, You’re not crazy and Quizzes…
When religion reporters get together we like to discuss the great mysteries of our field. You know, questions like, “Why can’t more journalists learn that ‘Episcopal’ is an adjective, while ‘Episcopalian’ is a noun, even though it sounds like an adjective?” Here’s another one: If network-news executives spend millions of dollars on focus groups and surveys detailing the interests of viewers in average American homes, and this research keeps showing that Americans are very interested in faith issues, then why don’t we see more religion-news coverage on television? Why isn’t there a weekly show on religion news — a news show, not a shouting-match show — on Fox News (in light of that network’s heartland demographics)?
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Blind spot in 20-20 ‘Blind Side’ story?
Since Sunday evening, I keep coming back to the lyrics of one of the songs sung by our teen choir during Mass this week. The song is titled, The Heart of Worship and the refrain from the song goes: I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus
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It’s All About You, Jesus
Although the traditional day for the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord is January 6, the celebration is now often moved to the Sunday closest to the day, which means the Catholic Church celebrates the Epiphany today. I confess that the first use of the term “epiphany” that had any real significance to me was the secular use of the term by James Joyce to refer to a sudden flash of insight or perception. I remember spending lots of time in senior High School English class talking about epiphanies in Joyce’s Dubliners and others of his works
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Solemnity of the Epiphany
The Dec. 2009 issue of Scientific American seems unusually boring at first sight. At a more thorough reading though, it has some interesting tidbits relevant to this blog: A bouncy universe Recent theoretical physics calculations by Horava split time from space in the General Theory of Relativity
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Uplifting science news: universe and environment
Among the many blessings of this time of year is the ability to take some extra time to spend with family and friends. Many of us have at least a few days off from work around Christmas and New Year (OK – we academics have more days off than do many others), allowing us to visit with friends we might not otherwise be able to see so easily
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The Love of Friendship
Today the Catholic Church remembers the Holy Innocents – the babies of Bethlehem massacred by King Herod in his effort to find and destroy the Christ child. How many were killed in Herod’s determination to kill all who resembled Jesus in gender and age is unknown; the estimate ranges from 10,000 to a few dozen. The numbers don’t really matter a whole lot
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Innocent Victims
Pope St. Leo the Great Sermon 25 The Nativity of the Lord CHAPTER 1 My beloved people, although the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which he clothed himself with the flesh of our nature, is ineffable, I make bold to speak, not trusting in my skill, but relying on his inspiration, so that in this way, on the day which was chosen for the mystery [sacrament] of the restoration of man, we may offer something that can edify those who hear it
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Christmas Sermon 25 of Leo the Great
Today we celebrate the audacious reality of God becoming human. The intermingling of divinity and humanity which allow us a share of God’s divine nature. Ian Oliver, in a poem titled, A Christmas Prayer , writes that as a result of this “inexpressible” enclosure of dvinity and humanity in the one body of Christ, “to be human was never the same, but forever thereafter, carried a hint of its close encounter with the perfect.” And that is a central part of the message of Christmas
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Christmas Day
I met Ben Schachter at the 2009 Conney Conference on Jewish Art: Performing Histories, Inscribing Jewishness , where coincidentally, we both presented Eruv themed works. In addition to making humorous Jewish themed conceptual art, Ben is a curator and is the man behind Tzit Tzit: Fiber Art and Jewish Identity
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Tzit Tzit: Fiber Art and Jewish Identity
We’ve just finished the Christmas concert season of the various choirs in which my daughter sings. I have delighted over the last few weeks at the sounds of the choirs, admittedly taking particular delight in a solo Elena sang in one of her Chamber Choir songs and in her piano accompaniment of one of the songs for her High School Concert Choir.
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What Can I Give Him?
I’m not the best at reminding myself to attend to holiday greetings, but this year I’m so wrapped up in preparing for Christmas, that I had to remember to give you all my greetings too. Quite suitably, today is the day of the winter solstice – when earth, sun and the centre of the galaxy align, as they do each year. Yes, that’s a 2012 hint
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Merry Christmas
For the second day in a row, we hear proclaimed in the Gospel the account of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, after the angel tells Mary that Elizabeth is with child. Yesterday I commented on Elizabeth’s declaration of Mary as the “Mother of My Lord.” In contrast, what struck me as I sat again with the passage was the beauty and simplicity of the encounter between these two women. This is the only passage I can think of in the Gospels that records an encounter between two women (which is perhaps not surprising).
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Two Women Meet
I was just writing a mini-article in response to a request. As I was writing it, I came across an article I wrote earlier this year. I’ve linked to it previously, but here it is if you didn’t see it back then – click here . Let me just quote a paragraph: We must preach as those genuinely captivated by the love of God in the Word of God.
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What Will They Copy?
This week was the third gathering of the four week Advent Retreat in Daily Living I’m giving at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Our theme for this week is Our Response to God’s Invitation.
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Advent Retreat in Daily Living – Our Response To God’s Invitation