New Book! Take This Bread: Reflections on Sacred Scripture

My latest book Take This Bread: Reflections on Sacred Scripture is now available on Amazon.

New Book Now Available on Amazon!

Hello Everyone! I am pleased to announce that my book on Catholic Theology entitled, A Journey of Faith: Essays in Catholic Theology is available on amazon!

Book Recommendation – The Teachings of the Church Fathers

  The Fathers of the Church have been a rich resource for the spiritual and intellectual foundation of Christianity. In this book, John R. Willis provides an extensive selection of writings from these Fathers under a variety of different themes, for example from Revelation, to the Church, to Sacred Scripture, through the Incarnation, the Sacraments, and the Last Things. This book is very cool since you can just sit back and have the Fathers of the Early Church speak to you on a wide variety of theological topics.

Book Recommendation – The Hidden Manna

    The second edition of this book by James T. O’Connor is a great resource for those wanting an indepth study on the historical development of Eucharistic thought from the time of the Apostles to the present day. Here is one of my favorite quotes from this book, “the Eucharistic appearances are themselves the boundary between the visible and invisible orders of creation, the horizon at which earthly time and the everlasting aeon of the blessed touch. The appearances are the window whose far side holds ‘what God has prepared for those who love him.’ (1 Cor 2:9).”

A Meditation: In Christ are the firstfruits of the resurrection

by St. Irenaeus, born around 130 AD. The Word of God became man, the Son of God became the Son of Man, in order to unite man with himself and make him, by adoption, a son of God. Only by being united to one who is himself immune could we be preserved from corruption and death, and how else could this union have been achieved if he had not first become what we are? How else could what is corruptible and mortal in us have been swallowed up in his incorruptibility and immortality, to enable us to receive adoptive sonship? Therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, the Word of the Father, is also the Son of Man; he became the Son of Man by a human birth from Mary, a member of the human race. The Lord himself has given us a sign here below and in the heights of heaven, a sign that man did not ask for because he never dreamt that such a thing would be possible. A virgin was with child and she bore a son who is called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” He came down to earth here below in search of the sheep that was lost, the sheep that was in fact his own creature, and then ascended into the heights of heaven to offer to the Father and entrust to his care the human race that he had found again. The Lord himself became the firstfruits of the resurrection of mankind, and when its time of punishment for disobedience is over the rest of the body, to which the whole human race belongs, will rise from the grave as the head has done. By God’s aid it will grow and be strenghtened in all its joints and ligaments, each member having its own proper place in the body. There are many rooms in the Father’s house because the body has many members. God bore with man patiently when he fell because he foresaw the victory that would be his through the Word. Weakness allowed strength its full play, and so revealed God’s kindness and great power. (from Christian Prayer Catholic Book Publishing)

A Meditation – Praise for Deliverance from Trouble

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continuously be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. The young lion suffers want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:1-10)

Book Recommendation – Blue Like Jazz

  If you are not like the herd, but are searching for a different rhythm, or find yourself marching to the beat of different drummer, or prefer the road not taken in your quest for God, then this could be the book for you to read. In Donald Miller’s Author’s Note at the start of this book he says, “I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened…“

A Meditation: Do this in remembrance of me

“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'” (Luke 22:19) Our liturgy or the way we worship in public within the church expresses our faithfulness to this command of Jesus. Luke tells us in Acts 2:42, 46 that from this beginning of the church at the Last Supper “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers … and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.” Justin Martyr in 155 AD also provides us with a fascinating glimpse of what worship was like in the early church. We can see in this description of the worship celebration from nearly 2000 years ago many similarities to the structure of how we worship today.

Theophilus Cafe – February 26

Theophilus Cafe is a place where we can have a running dialogue based on a question or issue that I post. Think of the Cafe as a virtual coffee house where you can gather with your friends and discuss the posted topic or just reflect on it.  Please post your thoughts on this topic in the comments. So the question today is : What is your sacrifice or what have you given up for Lent ?

A Meditation: Living in the radiance of God

There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day: it is all one (2 Peter 3:8)

Psalm 90

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next. Before the mountains were born or the earth or the world brought forth, you are God, without beginning or end. You turn men back to dust and say: “go back, sons of men.” To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night. You sweep men away like a dream, like grass which springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers and fades. So we are destroyed in your anger, struck with terror in your fury. Our guilt lies open before you; our secrets in the light of your face. All our days pass away in your anger. Our life is over like a sigh. Our span is seventy years or eighty for those who are strong. And most of these are emptiness and pain. They pass swiftly and we are gone. Who understands the power of your anger and fears the strength of your fury? Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart. Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever? Show pity to your servants. In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. Give us joy to balance our affliction for the years when we knew misfortune. Show forth your work to your servants; let your glory shine on their children. Let the favor of the Lord be upon us: give success to the work of our hands, give success to the work of our hands. (from Christian Prayer, Catholic Book Publishing)

A Meditation: When Christ Comes, God Will be Seen by Men

by Irenaeus, who  was born in 130 AD and was a  priest in France. He was martyred in the year 200 AD.

 

There is one God, who by his word and wisdom created all things and set them in order. His Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in this last age became man among men to unite end and beginning, that is, man and God.

 

The prophets, receiving the gift of prophecy from this same Word, foretold his coming in the flesh, which brought about the union and communion between God and man ordained by the Father. From the beginning the word of God prophesied that God would be seen by men and would live among them on earth; he would speak with his own creation and be present to it. He would free us from the hands of all who hate us, that is, from the universal spirit of sin, and enable us to serve him in holiness and justice all our days. Man was to receive the Spirit of God and so attain to the glory of the Father.

 

The prophets, then, foretold that God would be seen by men. As the Lord himself says: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. In his greatness and inexpressible glory no one can see God and live, for the Father is beyond our comprehension. But in his love and generosity and omnipotence he allows even this to those who love him, that is, even to see God, as the prophets foretold. For what is impossible to men is possible to God.

 

By his own powers man cannot see God, yet God will be seen by men because he wills it. He will be seen by those he chooses, and in the way he chooses, for God can do all things. He was seen of old through the Spirit in prophecy; he is seen through the Son by our adoption as his children, and he will be seen in the kingdom of heaven in his own being as the Father. The Spirit prepares man to receive the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, and the Father, freeing him from change and decay, bestows the eternal life that comes to everyone from seeing God.

 

As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing his glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life. (from Christian Prayer, Catholic Book Publishing))