Scripture Study :: Inside The Bible

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If you're the type of person who likes to have the t.v. or radio on for company while doing household chores or hobbies this is a great--and better--alternative.

Inside The Bible, a 13-part series hosted by Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J., "presents all 72 books of the Bible in a seamless and magisterial narrative. Outlining each book, he shows how Sacred Scripture reveals God’s Mind to us: who we are; why the world is here; and what God wants us to do to reach the fullness of our humanity. He reveals how the story of Israel is also our story as individuals."

So listen online or download to your favourite mp3 device and get working...and learning!

It has also been added to the category 'Catholic Bible Study And Other Courses' in the sidebar.
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Can't Find A Spiritual Director?

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The following excerpt is from The New Theological Movement blog.

When You Cannot Find A Spiritual Director
by Reginaldus
Feast of St. John of the Cross, December 14 [2010]

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On the feast of St. Teresa of Avila (October 15), I wrote a short post regarding what qualities we ought to look for in a spiritual director. In response to this, several people wrote asking what ought to be done if a suitable director could not be found, or if the director desired could not fulfill this role due to a lack of time. I had promised to write a second article to address this situation, and it seems fitting that we take the opportunity provided by the feast of St. Teresa’s spiritual director, St. John of the Cross, to consider this troubling and all too common scenario: Recognizing the importance of spiritual direction and the lofty qualities required of a director, what ought we do to if we cannot find a spiritual director?

What to look for in a spiritual director

First, I briefly summarize the October 15 post:

1) The good director must have a knowledge of the spiritual life. Not only must he have progressed to at least the beginning phases of contemplation, but he must also have a profound knowledge of the fundamental principles of the spiritual life. St. Teresa says that it would be better to have a learned director who is not very  holy than to have a holy director who is not learned.

2) The spiritual director must be faithful to the Church. Any director who deviates from the clear teaching of the Catholic Church is a poor guide in the spiritual life.  Moreover, the good director will guide his directees along the path to holiness according to the spiritual traditions of the Catholic faith (as opposed to Eastern religious practices) – hence the primary tools of the spiritual life which the good director must recommend are prayer and mortification.

3) Finally, it is not necessary that a spiritual director be a priest. However, it is generally safer to choose a priest rather than a lay person. Nevertheless, a well educated and faithful lay woman would make a much better director than an ignorant, dissenting priest.

Do I really need spiritual direction?

We all need at least some level of spiritual direction – at the very least, we need the counsel of a confessor. Spiritual direction is an ordinary part of the Christian life, something to which we all should avail ourselves at least at some point of our spiritual journey. However, there are times and circumstances which demand a more intense and consistent program of direction – this is when one on one direction becomes truly necessary.

[...]

[The article goes on to address the following topics:]

What if I cannot find a suitable spiritual director?

Spiritual reading

The example of the saints 

Self-direction?

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The full article can be read here. 

A number of writings from the saints whom the author recommends are available free online at Catholic Treasury. The link is in our sidebar under the category 'Books.'

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Added: GCatholic.com

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GCatholic.com--Giga (one billion) Catholic--has been added to our 'Reference Sites' category in the sidebar.

This mega site originating in Toronto, Canada is aimed at Catholics around the world. It houses a comprehensive array of information on such topics as Catholic Dioceses in the World, Titular Sees by name and type, Pontifical Representations, Documents and Speeches, International and National Shrines, List of Saints and Blesseds Since 1979, Churches of the Week, Catholic Church in Canada, and so much more.

Read why they have earned an Excellent (Green) fidelity rating from CatholicCulture.org.
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Added: ElectAPope.com

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ElectAPope.com has been added to the category 'Reference Sites' in the sidebar.

Have you ever wondered: What is the correct term for when "the Pope is no longer the Pope, and a new one has not yet been elected"? What two ways can a pope leave office? Upon the death of a pope, what time frame must he be buried in? and what must be destroyed and what does its destruction signify? Strictly speaking, who can be elected Pope? When does a newly elected Pope officially become Pope?

Then this site--run by a Catholic canon lawyer--is for you.

See why it has earned an Excellent (Green) fidelity rating from CatholicCulture.org.
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Added: Old Testament Name Quiz

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Who was the initiator and architect of the Tower of Babel? Who had his name changed to Israel? Who was rebuked by his talking donkey? What was the name of King Solomon's Queen Mother?

Test your knowledge of these and 36 other questions with a new quiz from Catholic Bible 101: Old Testament Name Quiz.

This and the other fun quizzes from Catholic Bible 101 are a great way to get your kids (and yourself) reading the Bible.
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Added: Dominican Students

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Dominican Students has been added to the 'Orders/Vocations' category in the sidebar.

The site "features information on the Dominicans in general and is a good resource for young men discerning a vocation." It includes "Explanation of the Brothers' life of prayer and study"; 'Virtual Tour of the Dominican House of Studies"; "Dominican History"; "Theology"; as well as Dominican spirituality, prayer, and study; videos; and more.

Read why they have earned an Excellent (Green) fidelity rating from CatholicCulture.org.
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Added: Heart To Heart

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Heart To Heart has been added to the 'Devotions' category in the sidebar.

This Web site, dedicated to promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in parishes, has several resources available including a program for participation in this devotion, pictures, prayer booklets, family consecration and enthronement ceremonies, little-known prayers, and how to spread this devotion at the parish level.

Read why they have earned an Excellent (Green) fidelity rating from CatholicCulture.org.
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Scripture Study :: Adventures In Exodus

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The winter season, fast approaching, is typically a time when families stay indoors more. In times gone by, family and friends gathered around the radio to listen to programs like Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, The Saint, and Sherlock Holmes. Although there are still wonderful radio programs on the air - the EWTN network has inspiring programs for the whole family - a great way to spend cold winter evenings together is studying the Bible in the warmth of your own home!

To really understand the message of the New Testament we need to understand the Old. An easy and inexpensive way to do this is with the Adventures In Exodus series. Listen online or download all 10 episodes of the audio series for free, and listen at your leisure. This is also a great way to evangelize your children.

Too busy in the evenings to listen to this Bible study? One of the ideas below might better fit your busy schedule:
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• Save to your flash drive/USB key and listen on a laptop while you're having coffee at your favourite internet cafe.
• Listen with a group of your friends or family.
• Save to your MP3 player and listen while you're commuting on the bus, waiting in a doctor's office/clinic, on your lunch break, going for a walk/jog, exercising at the gym, walking the dog.
• Save to an MP3 player for your kids to listen to in the car.
• Download to an MP3 player and give as a gift to your teen, or as a thank you gift to someone.

Then share with us your comments on how you have used this Bible study and how it has improved your life and your relationship with Christ.

God bless.

P.S.: The link has also been added in our sidebar in the 'Catholic Bible Studies And Other Courses' category.
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The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception

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"... Hail [Mary] full of grace....blessed are you among women." (Luke 1:28)

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This excerpt is from First Things.

Delivered From All Stain

by David Mills
Dec 6, 2010

“Yeah, right” is the way the more irenic of my Evangelical friends react to the Immaculate Conception...

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“It says that Mary doesn't need to be saved,” Evangelical friends with doctorates in theology from elite universities have told me, which is, you know, and I do hate to say this, kind of dumb. I can easily understand their believing the dogma made up out of thin air, but even then they should realize that what is made up is a statement about the way Jesus saved his own mother.

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The word “Immaculate” doesn’t simply mean “perfectly clean,” as we tend to think from its use in real estate ads, but “unstained.” The doctrine emphasizes Mary’s freedom from moral corruption—not, and this is the crucial point, what she is in herself but what she is by the grace of God. Issued by Pope Pius IX in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deuson[*] December 8, 1854, the definition declares that

the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

She is, he wrote, “far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity.” Because God did this for her—because God did it—Mary, “ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity.”

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Read the full article here.
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 [*] Pope Pius IX's Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deuson of December 8, 1854 can be read in its entirety at:

EWTN
CatholicCulture.org
New Advent
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Hanukkah, Maccabees, And Christ

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This is an excerpt from the blog Canterbury Tales.
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Christ's Great Hanukkah Sermon and How It Relates to the Maccabees
by Taylor Marshall

"...the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah, the story of which is recounted in 1 Maccabees.

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In 167 B.C., the Syro-Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes began to persecute the Jewish people. Antiochus IV Greek forbade circumcision, burned Jewish Scriptures, forced Jews to eat unclean swine’s flesh, and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem by commanding an un-kosher sacrifice of swine on the Temple’s altar.

Horrified by the sacrilege of Antiochus IV, an elderly priest Mattathias and his son Judah Maccabaeus (“the Hammer”) formed a militia and waged a war of guerilla tactics against the occupying Greek forces: “Every man who has zeal for the Law and maintains the Covenant, let him follow me!” (1 Macc 2:27). The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated in 164 B.C. on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev. The festival commemorating the event is called Hanukkah, meaning “Dedication.”

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It was the feast of the Dedication [i.e. Hanukkah] at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly” (Jn 10:22-24).

[...]
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Read the full article here.
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