Tag: English

Some conservative Roman Catholics have displayed quite some anger and frustration over the use of some indigenous statues of a highly pregnant naked woman in some quasi-religious ceremonies and a display in a church, in the context of the Synod of the Amazon in Rome; Continue reading Pachamama – Paganism in the Church?

I’ll admit it right at the outset: the title of this note is not original with me; it is borrowed from a book I read sometime in the 1980s and which massively influenced my thinking on this subject.

Continue reading Decision Making and the Will of God

Recently I was drawn into two similar, strange discussions in one day.

First, in a conversation about taking pictures and filming in public church services someone said that being photographed or filmed during worship was irritating, since worship was such an intimate thing that it was almost like being photographed or filmed during sex.
Continue reading Intimate Worship in a Public Church Service?

A Ukrainian-Catholic friend posted the below hymn for the Feast of All Saints.

I am afraid this hymn, and the feast of All Saints (or more specifically, the distinction between All Saints and All Souls) demonstrates a couple of reasons why, despite the very welcome increasing reconciliation between the churches as well as individual Christians, I will not “swim the Tiber” (or the Bosporus, for that matter) any time soon. Continue reading Some Thoughts on All Saints/All Souls

Interesting insight from Stuart Dauermann:

The Great Commission is not,

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to know all that I have commanded you.” Continue reading Disciples observe what Jesus has commanded

This is a “Tribute of Affection” to Abbé Jacques Hamel, written yesterday morning as the news of his martyrdom became public. It was written by Fleur Nabert, a sculptress specializing in sacred art who knew Abbé Hamel personally. It appeared on the French Aleteia site; I found it very moving and thought it worth translating for my English-speaking friends.

Continue reading A Tribute of Affection to Abbé Jacques Hamel

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is doing some recruiting for support positions (accountants, secretaries, building maintenance) for various “fields” of a Christian mission organization. Apparently many leaders of this organization have bought into the idea that people need to be passionate about what they are doing, and so candidates have been rejected for not having a passion for accounting, or maintenance, or office work, etc … while essential positions have remained unfilled, sometimes for years.
Continue reading Passion or Vision?