We continue our Lenten reflection on the Creed. Please see Part I for the ground rules. Please contribute! Update 4/5/14: Part III has appeared. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into... Read more
It was 1980 and El Salvador was in crisis. Conflict was raging between the military government and paramilitary groups (a conflict that would escalate into the twelve-year Salvadoran Civil War). The rural poor were suffering oppression at the hands of wealthy landowners while death squads patrolled the country. Each day innocent people were being tortured and raped and killed. Whenever I read about this period – or talk with those surviving – I am dumbfounded. I cannot comprehend how Salvadorans... Read more
I would like to invite our readers to join me on a spiritual exercise over the next three weeks. Posted below is a passage from the Nicene Creed. I am asking each of you to reflect on it and add scriptural quotations that are closely related in some way to a phrase or passage in the Creed. I have been toying with this idea for several years, every since I read Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Creed: What Christians Believe and... Read more
Vox Nova is pleased to welcome a guest post from Francisco Cruz-Uribe. There are a fair number of paintings that I have noticed recently while faffing about online. They all share a few common features; features similar to those displayed by characters on the show Dragon Ball. For those few lucky enough to have never heard of Dragon Ball, here is a very brief recap. Dragon Ball is a Japanese cartoon featuring over-muscled men fighting in intergalactic battles. The storyline... Read more
There’s a reason that my title is so unwieldy. It has to do with the fact that I’m trying to parse out several things from the standpoint of a non-professional on these matters. When it comes down to it, I know very little about same-sex attraction, whether psychologically, biologically, or sociologically. What I do have are some friends who have taught me a lot about it, some articles I’ve read, and some ideas I want to throw around to get... Read more
I couldn’t help but feel that this passage from the Office of Readings this morning by St. Asterius of Amasea was perfect for the anniversary of Pope Francis’ election: “Let us then be shepherds like the Lord… When one of them was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. When he found it, he did not chastise... Read more
There is an old bit of advice that a trial lawyer should never ask a question he does not already know the answer to; another version, illustrated by the following (apocryphal) story, says he should never ask a question if he does not want to hear the answer. In a trial, a small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman, to the stand. He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?” She responded, “Why,... Read more
On Wednesday, March 5th, the Church began a period of intense prayer, fasting and of giving alms to the poor. Lent. At Eucharistic services on that day, the faithful received the sign of the Cross on their foreheads with ashes. After the homily, the priest was to say: “Dear friends in Christ, let us ask our Father to bless these ashes which we will use as the mark of our repentance. Almighty God, bless the sinner who asks for your forgiveness... Read more
In another of his off-the-cuff remarks to a journalist, this time at Corriere della Serra, Pope Francis took issue with the bifurcation of Church moral teachings into “non-negotiable” and “negotiable”. Here is what he said: “I have never understood the expression non-negotiable values. Values are values, and that is it. I can’t say that, of the fingers of a hand, there is one less useful than the rest. Whereby I do not understand in what sense there may be negotiable... Read more
On January 1, on the Feast of Mary Mother of God, a guest priest at my parish took the opportunity to talk about the advance of women’s rights under Christianity, compared to many pagan and other worldviews (he dared mention Islam in this regard). On the other hand, he noted, our own household is not entirely in order, and he noted, specifically, that the Catholic Church still refuses to ordain women despite the fact that women are just as qualified... Read more
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