De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Great comment from Fr. Robert Barron on the Noah Movie. I think many of us have seen this as a lost opportunity. Certainly there has been lots of negative Christian comment out there. Truth is, we love the Bible and have invested time in understanding stories like the Noah epic. When you hear that a new film of a Biblical epic is coming out, your hope is that it does justice to the purpose of the story in the Bible, and that it reveals God's purpose faithfully. The reaction that I have read about this film is that it fails to do that, that it instead, has very little to do with the Bible story. Here's one meme a friend posted to make this clear: In his appraisal of the film, Fr. Barron suggests that the film is best understood in terms of a Midrash . A Jewish embellishment of the "bear-bones" of a Scripture text. More formally, one could say the Midrashim are the body of homiletic stories told by Jewish rabbinic sages to explain passages in the TaNaKh (for an ...

Well, here we are at the final episode of Fr. Robert Barron's wonderful Catholicism series. It has been a fantastic journey that has really opened up the beauty and majesty of the faith for us. I know from speaking with many of you how much you have gained from the series and how much you have enjoyed it. If you are interested in continuing your study, please do let Fr. Kevin or myself know and we will be very happy to put on something else in the near future. Tonight, rather appropriately, we are considering the Last Things: Death, Judgement, Hell, and Heaven, something we may not have heard much of lately, but things which are vital for all of our understanding of the faith. I have some more on my blog about this if you are interested, just click here . Here is an overview of the topic: World Without End~Eschatology: The Last Things "God is the 'last thing of the creature. Gained, he is paradise; lost, he is hell; examining, he is judgement  purifying, ...

I have been thinking a bit more on the Dark Night of the Soul topic I posted about here  and the theme of abandonment by God. My mind was running over some of the ideas presented in the film 'The Grey' which is on Sky at the moment. Father Barron reviews the film here and gives you a good idea of the context. The film is a pretty bleak portrait of the futility of human life. We struggle against insurmountable odds and, largely regardless of what decisions we make, we are faced with a stream of difficulties, which only come to an end when we die. The Grey translates this bleak philosophy into a film about wolves hunting men who have crashed in a snowy wilderness. Fr. Robert centres on the challenge made by Neeson's character to God at the end of the film: show up and do something or you don't exist. Feeling utterly abandoned by God, he demands proof.  How familiar is this challenge. It made me really quite sad watching the film, because God really has show...

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...