De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

This week, in the penultimate session of Father Robert Barron's epic Catholicism Series, we explore the way in which we speak to God and form a relationship with Him in prayer. Father Barron explores Catholic spirituality, which is centred on prayer. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." CCC 2559 On pilgrimage to the places where the great saints and spiritual masters lived, Father Barron explores the different types of prayer: contemplation; adoration; petition; and intercession. In telling the stories of Catholics like Thomas Merton, St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, Fr. Barron demonstrates how the human person can be transformed through prayer that manifests a deep, spiritual commitment centred in Christ. Outline:  I. The Fire of His Love: Prayer and the Life of the Spirit A.  What is prayer? B.  There are many forms and expres...

As regular readers will know, I have been running Fr. Robert Barron's Catholicism Project in the Parish as part of our 'Year of Faith' evangelisation. This has been very well received and I think everyone involved has really enjoyed each of the sessions. Last night I was at a Catenian meeting, but got home to find that several lovely ladies were still there from the Rosary group which meets every couple of weeks. Several of these had been to the Catholicism Project the night before, the session was about the Saints as you can see from the overview I posted here . There's a clip here from the presentation to give you a flavour:   The Saints Fr. Robert looked at in detail were Katharine Drexel, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Edith Stein and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Two of these saints, the two Teresa's if you like, suffered 'dark nights of the soul' a devastating sense of loss and separation from God, and Fr. Robert spoke about this in his pr...

Fr. Robert Barron’s Catholicism Project: Lesson 8 – A Vast Company of Witnesses Tonight at Our Lady of Lourdes School, the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Joseph, Leigh-on-Sea will be presenting the 8th Session of Fr. Robert Barron's excellent and epic Catholicism Project . This fantastic series of documentaries attempt to redress the modern situation that we encounter of other people telling the Catholic story, and telling it wrong! Instead, we need to tell our own story, we need to re-invigorate ourselves with all the beauty, colour and texture of our incredible faith. This series sets out to do that, it is our story told by us. This week, we are looking at the Vast Company of Witnesses~ The body of Saints which constitute an extraordinary and indefatigable proof of the Catholic faith for many people. This is an overview of the session: I. St. Katharine Drexel  A. Birth, childhood, family: devout Catholic B. As a teenager, developed a detailed program for ...

"The Eucharist "is the great school in which we learn to see the face of God, we enter into an intimate relationship with Him, and we learn at the same time to turn our gaze towards the final moment of history, when He will satisfy us with the light of his face." ~Pope Benedict XVI, Jan. 16, 2013, General Audience ~ This week (Wednesday 16th February) at Our Lady of Lourdes School, the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Joseph, Leigh-on-Sea will be presenting the 7th Session of Fr. Robert Barron's excellent and epic Catholicism Project . This fantastic series of documentaries attempt to redress the modern situation that we encounter of other people telling the Catholic story, and telling it wrong! Instead, we need to tell our own story, we need to re-invigorate ourselves with all the beauty, colour and texture of our incredible faith. This series sets out to do that, it is our story told by us. This week, we are looking at the The Church's Sacrament a...

Dear Friends This week's lesson was entitled: OUR TAINTED NATURE'S SOLITARY BOAST: MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the programme and found it beautiful, familiar and emotional. Fr. Barron's presentation began by looking at the Annunciation  a word which has been anglicised from the Latin Vulgate (the 4th century translation of the Bible by St. Jerome) Luke 1:26-39: Annuntiatio nativitatis Christi. Unlike the stories of the gods of the Greeks, Roman's and ancient Pagans, the God of Israel is not forceful or violent. Rather, He extended an invitation that respected Mary's free-will. Mary is visited (Fr. Barron goes as far as to suggest 'courted') by the Angel Gabriel and gives her assent; her fiat, opening the door to our salvation and cooperating and collaborating with the work of her Son. "Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it." ( CCC 964 ). Mary's li...

So last night was the first session in my parish's presentation of Fr. Robert Barron's Catholicism Project . I felt extremely nervous yet also very privileged to be introducing the programme, but I had some amazing partners: Fr. Kevin, James Devor (assistant organist at Brentwood Cathedral, Composer, and RE & Music Teacher at the Campion School , which is where I went to school), Liam Connelly, Director of Adult Education at Southwark Diocese and lecturer in Catechetics at Maryvale, Mary Laverty, (long time teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes School), Bridget Huggins (a long time parishioner) and Jan Lewis (the Parish Secretary). Father opened the evening with a prayer, and then I gave the following introduction to the course which I based on Catholics Come Home 'Epic' advert : Welcome to what I hope is the beginning of a stimulating journey we are going to make together over the next few weeks. For me, being Catholic is about living my life the best way...