Follow Christ: 2018

Friday, December 28, 2018

Former Anglican ordained priest for Arundel & Brighton | ICN

Former Anglican ordained priest for Arundel & Brighton | ICN: Deacon Jack Lusted was ordained a priest by Bishop Richard Moth for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel & Brighton on 19 December, in Arundel Cathedral. Father Jack was born in Eastbourne and brought up in Hailsham where he went to school before attending Sussex University...

Feast of the Holy Innocents | ICN

Feast of the Holy Innocents | ICN: The story of the massacre of the Holy Innocents is described in the Gospel of St Matthew. The Three Kings, following the star, come to King Herod, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews, looking for Jesus the promised newborn Messiah. Herod asks them to return to him after they have found...

Thursday, December 27, 2018

St John | ICN

St John | ICN: St John, son of Zebedee and Salome, was one of the Twelve Apostles. John was called to be an Apostle by Jesus in the first year of His public ministry. He is believed to be the same person as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos and the Beloved Disciple. John's older brother was St James...

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

St Stephen | Dec 26

St Stephen | ICN: St Stephen is recognized as the first martyr and a patron saint of deacons. In the Acts of the Apostles, it is recorded that he was denounced for blasphemy after a dispute with members of a Jewish synagogue in the year 36.St Stephen was one of the first seven deacons ordained by...

Friday, May 11, 2018

Benedict XVI Christianity and the crises of cultures

p97-99

The history of religions is coextensive with the history of humanity. As far as we know, there has never been an epoch in which the question of the One who is totally the other, the Divine, has been alien to man.

The knowledge of God has always existed. And nowhere in the history of religions, in various forms, we encounter the significant conflict between the knowledge of the one God and the attraction of other powers that are considered more dangerous or nearer at hand and, therefore,more important for man than the God who is distant and mysterious.

All of history bears the traces of this strange dilemma between the non-violent, tranquil demands
made by the truth, on the one hand, and the pressure brought to make profits and the need to have a good Relationship with the powers that determine daily life by their interventions, on the other hand. Again and again, we see the victory of profit over truth, although the signs of the truth and of its own power never disappear completely. Indeed, they continue to live, often in surprising forms, in the very heart of a jungle full of poisoness plants.

But is this true even today, in a totally non-religious culture, in a culture of rationality and of the technology it harnesses? I believe that the answer is yes. For even today, the question man poses goes beyond the sphere of technological rationality. Even today, we do not limit ourselves to the question: "what can I do?" We also ask: "What ought I do, and who am I?"

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Divided Loyalties: May 11, 1532

Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation: Divided Loyalties: May 11, 1532: Chronicler Edward Hall describes the events of May 11, 1532, when Henry VIII told Thomas Audley, Speaker of the House of Commons, that the...

One Bread One Body.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Many people today ask, ‘Why should I go to church?’ Why can’t I just worship God in my own way?

Many people today ask, ‘Why should I go to church?’ Why can’t I just worship God in my own way? Surely religion gets in the way with my personal relationship with God?’ From the earliest times, following Jesus was never just a private or personal matter. Christians came together to live in community, to profess their faith in Jesus Christ, to witness to his resurrection and live by his teachings. The reason given for this is given by Christ himself, when he said, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’ The vine and its branches are one. There is a mutual interdependence of branch and vine, and branch with branch. To say, ‘I will follow Jesus but no the Church’ is to separate Jesus from the Church, to cut off the branches from the vine. The first disciples of Jesus had seen him, eaten with him, and spoken with him after his resurrection. As a consequence they had a deep sense of connectedness with him, a connectedness from which they drew great strength. Jesus had chosen them. He had made them his friends and sent them out to bear fruit, fruit that will last. By this all will know that we are living branches of the Vine – by the bond that exists between us and the care we show for one another.
I am the Vine, you are the branches