Entries Tagged as 'catholic'

March 27, 2008

Mother Teresa…

 
In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.   –Mother Teresa
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.   –Mother Teresa
 
Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.   –Mother Teresa
I do not pray for success, I ask [...]

March 26, 2008

Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth…

The Other:  Postmodern shorthand for anyone differing in any way from “us,” born of the reality that in an era of radical pluralism and globalization, we are constantly confronted with people who are indeed different from us.
Tony Jones, The New Christians:  Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier
Jesus and the Kingdom, Brian McLaren
Can you imagine a community [...]

March 13, 2008

Private Jesus versus Communal Jesus: Apostolic Ministry

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  1 Corinthians 3:11
“The Church, the House of the Lord, is built upon the foundations of the faith of the Apostles and prophets.”                                      –St. Basil of Caesarea (379)
“Through the great shepherd of thy flock, Jesus Christ [...]

February 16, 2008

A stunted ecclesiology…

“To read deeply in history is to cease being Protestant.” 
Cardinal John Henry Newman, himself a famous convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism
 
I’m pretty sure I have ceased to be Protestant (to the extent that I ever was).  As a good Evangelical, I grew up with a fairly under-developed ecclesiology (H/T J.I. Packer for the “stunted ecclesiology” [...]

February 15, 2008

The Future Lies in the Past…

Here is an excerpt from a story in the most recent issue of Christianity Today.  The article is entitled…

The Future Lies in the Past
Why evangelicals are connecting with the early church as they move into the 21st century. 

From Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and living, practicing monks and nuns, they must learn both the strengths and the [...]

February 11, 2008

Orthodox Study Bible…

 
Thomas Nelson is publishing the first ever Orthodox Study Bible.   Here is the way Amazon presents this Bible:

The FIRST EVER Orthodox Study Bible presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible.
Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of [...]

February 5, 2008

The Sacrament of Unity…

The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity.  It makes us into one body.  The apostle Paul writes, “As there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:17).
The presence of Jesus among us and in the gifts of [...]

February 2, 2008

A lenten fast…

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training….  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave….                                 1 Corinthians 9:25-27
Lent begins next week.  Easter is early this year–March 23 in Western Christianity.  Thinking [...]

January 16, 2008

Called by name…

Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands!  The LORD called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.  Isaiah 49:1
I have been meditating on this verse as I prepare to preach Sunday.  A recurring theme in the lectionary texts for Sunday is that of being named by God.  [...]

October 26, 2007

Decomposition…

The actual Christian task involves…
“accepting ourselves as we are in our confusion, infidelity, disruption, ferment, and even desperation.”
–Thomas Merton