as well; for example, in Psalm 136, the same exact phrase is repeated for 26 straight verses! Since Scripture is \u201cGod-breathed,\u201d if you\u2019re correct this would mean that God Himself indulged in the very practice which He condemns elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\nNona: Well, I guess you\u2019ve got a point there, but I still say that our services are more on fire since they\u2019re led by the spontaneous leading of the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter: Having participated in both types of worship, I can tell you that your services \u2014 edifying as they may be \u2014 have just as much form and repetition, consciously or not, as anyone\u2019s. The music and prayer portions always seem to last the same amount of time, and then comes prophecy, the collection, a 45-minute sermon, and so on. The praises almost invariably are \u201cPraise you Jesus,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u201cHallelujah,\u201d \u201cGlory to you Lord,\u201d over and over. The prophecies vary little. I heard a \u201cprophecy\u201d on two occasions at my church where a person blurted out, \u201cI am the\u00a0<\/span>alfalfa<\/i>\u00a0and the Omega\u201d (see Revelation 1:8,11)* [laughs]. If Catholic worship is supposedly so \u201cdead,\u201d I could say that informal worship can be excessively\u00a0<\/span>emotional<\/i>\u00a0and sometimes downright silly \u2014 not always \u201cspiritual.\u201d No Christian group is above criticism, or unable to benefit from others in many ways.<\/span><\/p>\n[* Actual experience of the author, who was a \u201cnon-denominational,\u201d charismatic evangelical Protestant.]<\/span><\/p>\nNona: You know, I\u2019ve never thought about all this in the way you have. But I\u2019ve been on both sides, too. When I was Catholic, I used to get so bored at Mass. I wasn\u2019t convicted or challenged. It was so dry and meaningless, and the homilies left much to be desired. I never heard the gospel till I got saved 12 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter: I don\u2019t know how you could never get challenged or not hear the gospel. At every Mass there are four lengthy Bible readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles \u2014 far more than at Protestant services. Sure, the homilies aren\u2019t generally as interesting and \u201cmeaty\u201d (in a certain sense) as Protestant ones. I admit that you guys win hands down today when it comes to fiery, stirring\u00a0<\/span>oratory<\/i>, but as an adult, you can easily read all the theology and sermons you want. The potential for learning is unlimited. For example, if you want great preaching and food for thought from Catholics, I suggest you read the sermons of St. Augustine, or St. John Chrysostom, or John Henry Newman. Evangelicals love to read Scripture; they could<\/span>\u00a0benefit by reading the works of great Christians of the past also. There is a long, fabulous Christian\u00a0<\/span>heritag<\/i>e just waiting to be discovered by each Christian.<\/span><\/p>\nNona: Perhaps you\u2019re right about that, but isn\u2019t the purpose of going to church to get\u00a0fed<\/i>\u00a0and to gear up for the following week, with all its problems and stress? I need to be exhorted and encouraged.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter: Those aspects are valid, but I would say with all due respect, that being \u201cfed\u201d is for spiritual babes (1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Hebrews 5:12-14). The rest of us can feed ourselves. The Mass requires some\u00a0<\/span>work<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>active participation<\/i>, as Vatican II stresses. The word\u00a0<\/span>liturgy<\/i>\u00a0means\u00a0work of the people<\/i>. The informed, committed Catholic doesn\u2019t go to church primarily to \u201cfeel good,\u201d \u201cget fed,\u201d or to \u201cget moral support,\u201d but to engage in the work of worshiping God with his whole being, including the mind (Luke 10:27), and to\u00a0<\/span>receive Him in communion<\/i>. Even if one doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d anything, it is worthwhile to be obedient to God and worship Him simply for Who he is.<\/span><\/p>\nNona: I-um . . . maybe I\u2019ve been too harsh on Catholics, and judgmental. I suppose Mass wasn\u2019t all bad all the time. Perhaps I was uninformed and lax, and didn\u2019t make enough effort to learn its true meaning.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter: You know, Nona, there are charismatic Masses which combine both traditional and contemporary worship, kind of \u201cthe best of both worlds.\u201d They\u2019re usually a little more spontaneous, and have more lively worship singing (I admit, Catholics generally sing terribly or not<\/span>\u00a0at all!). Yet, the structure of the Mass and liturgy is respected and not violated. You might like the homilies a little better, too.<\/span><\/p>\nNona: I have to admit you\u2019ve really challenged me to examine some of my positions. I\u2019ll have to think about this some more. Thanks, and let\u2019s discuss this again.\u00a0<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>***<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Joseph church, Detroit: my home parish since March 1991: German Gothic revival style (1870s) [Wikimedia Commons \/\u00a0Creative Commons\u00a0Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported\u00a0license] (mid-1990s) * * * * * Nona the Non-Denominational Protestant: I don\u2019t get it, Peter, why Catholics keep putting up with the same old empty form prayers and rituals every Sunday at Mass. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":4778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[416,1526,1522,1523,106,1525,2337,1524,516,383],"class_list":["post-4776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eucharist-liturgy","tag-catholic-mass","tag-devotion","tag-formal-prayers","tag-liturgical-worship","tag-piety","tag-spiritual-zeal","tag-the-mass","tag-vain-repetition","tag-worship","tag-worship-from-the-heart"],"yoast_head":"\n
Fictional Dialogue on "Vain Repetition" and Liturgy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of "vain repetition" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fictional Dialogue on "Vain Repetition" and Liturgy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of "vain repetition" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-23T19:38:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-24T23:53:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/11\/StJoseph4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"401\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html\",\"name\":\"Fictional Dialogue on \\\"Vain Repetition\\\" and Liturgy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-23T19:38:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-24T23:53:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\"},\"description\":\"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of \\\"vain repetition\\\" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fictional Dialogue on “Vain Repetition” and Liturgy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/\",\"name\":\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\",\"description\":\"Catholic biblical apologetics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\",\"name\":\"Dave Armstrong\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Armstrong\"},\"description\":\"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fictional Dialogue on \"Vain Repetition\" and Liturgy","description":"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of \"vain repetition\" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fictional Dialogue on \"Vain Repetition\" and Liturgy","og_description":"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of \"vain repetition\" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_published_time":"2015-11-23T19:38:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-24T23:53:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":401,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/11\/StJoseph4.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html","name":"Fictional Dialogue on \"Vain Repetition\" and Liturgy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-23T19:38:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-24T23:53:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"Fictional dialogue on the topic of Catholics being accused of \"vain repetition\" in the Mass. The garden variety arguments are listed and disposed of.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/fictional-dialogue-vain-repetition-liturgy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fictional Dialogue on “Vain Repetition” and Liturgy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/","name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","description":"Catholic biblical apologetics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e","name":"Dave Armstrong","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Armstrong"},"description":"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"StJoseph4\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/11\/StJoseph4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n