Who is the King?
By Carole | October 10, 2008
I can’t believe it’s been nearly two weeks since I posted. I suppose my attention has been engrossed in American politics, in and amidst the daily routines of study and ministry. I was with Our Lady’s School of Evangelization last weekend putting on a Born of the Spirit Seminar, and we heading into our fifth week of the same Seminar at a parish here in Dublin. I’m seeing people making decisions for a deeper and more committed faith. Some of them have been a long time coming.
There are some great stories, and profoundly personal. I’m finding that real evangelization often takes place person to person, and one at a time.
One of the things we talk about in the seminar is, what does it mean to be in the Kingdom of God? It means deciding who is going to be king–who is going to ’sit on the throne’ in your life? Is God on the throne, or are you? This is one of the main reasons I think that religion is such a dead experience for so many people–they have never given up the throne.
This past weekend, one of the students showed me a little video that captures the question quite nicely.
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Give Up Yer Aul Sins
By Carole | September 28, 2008
In the 1960’s someone recorded some Irish children telling Bible stories. Some time ago, the recordings were re-discovered. Let’s just say, they didn’t do too bad! Here are a few goodies.
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Losing the Plot
By Carole | September 24, 2008
A friend sent me this article, published in First Things. Although written by an Anglican, it could just as well have been written by or about a Catholic situation, for it accurately describes the ‘contentlessness’ that characterizes so much of how the faith is presented to us these days, in homilies, catechesis programs, and etc. It offers at least one diagnosis of the spiritual anemia that seems to be our lot in life.
An Unworkable Theology
by Philip Turner
Copyright (c) 2005 First Things (June/July 2005).It is increasingly difficult to escape the fact that mainline Protestantism is in a state of disintegration. As attendance declines, internal divisions increase. Take, for instance, the situation of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The Episcopal Church’s problem is far more theological than it is moral—a theological poverty that is truly monumental and that stands behind the moral missteps recently taken by its governing bodies.Every denomination has its theological articles and books of theology, its liturgies and confessional statements. Nonetheless, the contents of these documents do not necessarily control what we might call the “working theology” of a church. To find the working theology of a church one must review the resolutions passed at official gatherings and listen to what clergy say Sunday by Sunday from the pulpit. One must listen to the conversations that occur at clergy gatherings—and hear the advice clergy give troubled parishioners. The working theology of a church is, in short, best determined by becoming what social anthropologists call a “participant observer.”
For thirty-five years, I have been such a participant observer in the Episcopal Church. After ten years as a missionary in Uganda, I returned to this country and began graduate work in Christian Ethics with Paul Ramsey at Princeton University. Three years later I took up a post at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. Full of excitement, I listened to my first student sermon—only to be taken aback by its vacuity. The student began with the wonderful question, “What is the Christian Gospel?” But his answer, through the course of an entire sermon, was merely: “God is love. God loves us. We, therefore, ought to love one another.” I waited in vain for some word about the saving power of Christ’s cross or the declaration of God’s victory in Christ’s resurrection. I waited in vain for a promise of the Holy Spirit. I waited in vain also for an admonition to wait patiently and faithfully for the Lord’s return. I waited in vain for a call to repentance and amendment of life in accord with the pattern of Christ’s life.
The contents of the preaching I had heard for a decade from the pulpits of the Anglican Church of Uganda (and from other Christians throughout the continent of Africa) was simply not to be found. One could, of course, dismiss this instance of vacuous preaching as simply another example of the painful inadequacy of the preaching of most seminarians; but, over the years, I have heard the same sermon preached from pulpit after pulpit by experienced priests. The Episcopal sermon, at its most fulsome, begins with a statement to the effect that the incarnation is to be understood as merely a manifestation of divine love. From this starting point, several conclusions are drawn. The first is that God is love pure and simple. Thus, one is to see in Christ’s death no judgment upon the human condition. Rather, one is to see an affirmation of creation and the persons we are. The life and death of Jesus reveal the fact that God accepts and affirms us.
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A Few Photos from the Summer Festival
By Carole | September 23, 2008
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- The Irish Olympic Turf Skiing Team
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- Competitive Banjo playing
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- The Lovely feet of those who bring good news!
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- Wettest August on Record
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- View from the back
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- Can't fake joy like this...!
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Teachable Moment
By Carole | September 18, 2008
In case anyone wonders what values the Pope thinks ought to guide one’s discernment in the upcoming election….For the confused…a little clarity. You know who you are.
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. …While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.” (Letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to Cardinal McCarrick, July 2004)
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Spirit on the Move
By Carole | September 15, 2008
Tomorrow night, another Born of the Spirit Seminar begins at St Anne’s Parish in Shankill. As of now, 70 parishioners are signed up–that’s the max the parish hall will hold. This is happening because one young woman, who is the pastoral assistant in the parish, was so enthusiastic about her own experience going through the seminar that we did last year, she sold it to the parish.
The next night, Wednesday night, the Duc in Altum course is underway in Porterstown. 20+participants last week, gathering weekly for the next year for a bit of input and prayer to discern whether they might start a new faith community. This is the other result of the same seminar mentioned above.
Great fruit, if I do inspect it myself.
As always, keep these things in your prayers. Perhaps the only way to keep Ireland from falling victim to what’s happening in England is to ’strengthen what remains’.
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