Grazing on “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” – Foreword

By e August 22, 2013 Book Reviews, Jesus Stuff No Comments

Me vida commented the other day that I am a gluttonous reader.

She’s right.

Most of the time I read greedily. I shovel down page after page with hardly a pause, as if fearful that Adam will drink the last Miller Light, or Samuel will snag the last slice of pizza. Some books (e.g. The Stainless Steel Rat) deserve to be enjoyed this way. Others should be savored, pausing frequently to consider the interplay of scents, flavors, and lingering tones. The art of reading well is to know the author, genre, and style well enough to enjoy each book appropriately. It would be just as wrong to attempt to savor a can of Miller Light as to chug a malt glass of Laphroaig 30 Cask Strength.

An old gospel preacher once commented that we are indeed sheep: we trample more green pasture (Psalm 23) than we ever graze . I picked up Dr. Brant Pitre‘s excellent Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist this morning, and decided to re-read it grazingly instead of gluttonously. Rather than speed-read my way through, eager to move on to the next in my enormous backlog of books, I’m going to force myself to stop when something strikes me, meditate upon it, then consider whether I should continue reading immediately, or set it aside to allow time to savor the goodness.

I made it to page x of the foreword.

Scott Hahn writes in the foreword that “Love transforms suffering into sacrifice.”

He goes on to say

Saint Paul preached: “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Note that he speaks of “bodies” in the plural, but “sacrifice” in the singular. For we are many, but our sacrifice is one with Jesus’ own, which is once for all. (Heb 7:27, 912, 9:26, 10:10)

Love transforms suffering into sacrifice.

PitreJesusandtheJewishRootsoftheEucharist_thumb

Discovery – David Clayton, artist and lecturer at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

By e August 20, 2013 Jesus Stuff, Liturgy No Comments

At lunch today, I discovered David Clayton, artist and lecturer at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, where he also blogs.

In addition to a meaningful contribution of Clayton Psalm Tones, Clayton writes on a variety of interesting and evocative subjects.

Clayton also writes for The Newman Society, where he recently contributed some thoughts on Catholic higher education:

[Sacred liturgy] is a school of love that perfects our social relations and our family life and by this society as whole. Accordingly, where there is concern for sacred liturgy there is also concern for the poor.”

Clayton proposes that a liberal Catholic education, therefore, is “directed towards deepening our active participation in the liturgy” – keeping in mind Bishop Sample’s warning not to instrumentalise the liturgy, for ‘Liturgy is not a means to pedagogy or evangelisation although these are the fruits.’

Read more of David Clayton‘s article for The Cardinal Newman Society here.

Dr Taylor Marshall’s first podcast – A brief review

By e August 19, 2013 Book Reviews, Jesus Stuff No Comments

Dr. Taylor Marshall posted his first podcast today, and what a great start!

In this first podcast, Dr. Marshall offers some tips for personal productivity and some advice on finding a spiritual director.

Dr. Marshall’s tips on prioritization and personal productivity were great. In the software development world, we do something similar. At the start of each day, we meet as a team and discuss what we accomplished yesterday, what we are going to accomplish today, and what’s blocking our progress. The same thing can work on an individual basis by including in each new day an evaluation of the previous day’s accomplishments, what blocked progress yesterday, and how to overcome those obstacles today.

Some notes on Dr. Marshall’s format:

  • Although it was mildly frustrating at first, it was right to put the featured segment after the two intro items to “encourage” the listener to hear more than just the feature.
  • The bass is bumped up a bit too much in the audio, or perhaps too much noise correction, resulting in some distortion.
  • The intro music was just a bit too long.
  • Latin word of the day was a nice closer.
  • Of course some times Dr. Marshall will will want to direct us to other resources, but it was refreshing that he did not use this podcast merely a tool to plug other (excellent) materials, but instead focused upon the topic at hand.

So, welcome to the podcast universe, Dr. Marshall!

Y’all go check it out at http://taylormarshall.com/2013/08/001-how-to-find-a-spiritual-director-podcast.html

What does the Roman Catholic Church believe happens when an unbaptized infant dies?

By e August 13, 2013 Jesus Stuff No Comments

Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered above give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptised infants who die will be saved and enjoy the Beatific Vision. We emphasise that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge. There is much that simply has not been revealed to us (cf. Jn 16:12). We live by faith and hope in the God of mercy and love who has been revealed to us in Christ, and the Spirit moves us to pray in constant thankfulness and joy (cf. 1 Thess 5:18).

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION – THE HOPE OF SALVATION FOR INFANTS WHO DIE WITHOUT BEING BAPTISED

How not to lead – Crack the Whip

By e July 23, 2013 Leadership and Management No Comments

Leaders! Don’t do this to the people you lead!

Crack the Whip is a simple outdoor children’s game that involves physical coordination, and is usually played in small groups, either on grass or ice. One player, chosen as the “head” of the whip, runs (or skates) around in random directions, with subsequent players holding on to the hand of the previous player. The entire “tail” of the whip moves in those directions, but with much more force toward the end of the tail. The longer the tail, the more the forces act on the last player, and the tighter they have to hold on.

As the game progresses, and more players fall off, some of those who were previously located near the end of the tail and have fallen off can “move up” and be in a more secure position by grabbing onto the tail as it is moving, provided they can get back on before some of the others do. There is no objective to this game other than the enjoyment of the experience.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_the_Whip