Brian Holdsworth
Why I #Converted to the #Catholic #Church - Part 2: Choosing between Protestantism and Catholicism
updated
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Researches are describing our emerging social climate as an epidemic of loneliness. Even the WHO is taking an interest, saying that it's contributing to increased dementia, heart disease, and strokes.
Gen Z appears to be hardest hit, with many suffering from a lack of both friendship and romantic love. Fewer people are pairing off, forming relationships, and far fewer are getting married. This will have obvious widespread implications for society, so it's worth exploring what's missing from the social lives of younger generations that is preventing them from being initiated into this phase of life.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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If you were asked what the highest natural virtue is, ie. other than faith, hope, and love, do you think you’d know the right answer? Because, for a long time, I would have said justice or prudence, until I later found out that, according to #Church teaching… it’s #obedience.
A virtue is something you can only possess when it is practiced routinely. But how can obedience be said to be a virtue if we only exercise it once we run out of appeals to reasons not to #obey. If it’s a virtue, then this means that when some legitimate #authority expresses some instruction or command, our first response should be to align our will and actions with that expression rather than grasp for reasons to escape that obligation.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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If you want to describe modern Gender theory, you should cite people like John Money, who argued, “Gender is a social construct.” Or Judith Butler, who said, “Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.” These leading thinkers of the theory all seem to argue that gender is a social convention or social construct, rather than something grounded in objective or observable reality. And because they are conventions, that means that they must be voluntarily participated in. No one should be forced to adopt or participate in social conventions.
And it’s on this basis that gender theorists can argue that traditional Christian notions of gender, based on traditional beliefs about the nuclear family are social conventions that should not be imposed on people who do not conform to them.
But if that's true, that means that conventions and practices inspired by gender theory are, on their own view, also social conventions which is why they have no more grounds to force people to participate in those conventions than conservatives can force people to adhere to traditional conventions.
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This week, there was some guy on Twitter, stirring things up by making a video of himself stepping on a holy icon to make the point that people shouldn’t be so uptight about sacred objects, as if those objects deserved more reverence than we owe ourselves. After all, they’re just paint and wood and we are made in the divine image. If anything, the icons should be venerating us. And so to prove his point, he put one on the ground and stepped on it. And I figured, well, he sounds like a Protestant, so I said, he probably wouldn’t do that with the Bible, to which he replied, “Hold my beer.”
And he proceeded to step on the Bible in a follow up video.
His point was, an icon is just paint and wood. To treat it like it’s more #holy than a human being, created in the image of #God is foolish and superstitious and that matters most is what’s in our hearts and minds and now how we treat inanimate objects. Which is why imposing all kinds of devotions that make humans venerate these icons is to act as though wood and paint are more significantly holy than we are.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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Prof. Richard #Dawkins has been getting pilloried on social media ever since an interview was released in which he described himself as a cultural #Christian and that he valued living in a Christian #culture.
But he also insisted that no one should misunderstand that he thinks it’s outrageous that anyone would actually believe the doctrines of #Christianity – like the virgin birth.
Dawkins wants the good effect of a cause without the cause itself. Christian culture is the embodiment of Christian faith. It’s the product of a society of people who genuinely believe and Dawkins wants to enjoy what they produce while denouncing them for the reason they produce it.
And the fact of that incoherence wasn’t lost on most people paying attention, especially Christians – and this includes Christians of all walks of life.
I don’t want to spoil that, but it’s just such a glaring opportunity to point out that a lot of Christians are operating under a theological system that employs this exact same fallacious logic.
#protestantism #solascriptura
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So every now and then, some #celebrity or social media #influencer will make public their #conversion to Christianity or #Catholicism and every time, without fail, it becomes a major focal point for opining and even controversy among #Catholics online.
And just as often, that person - that fresh convert, is almost immediately positioned from influencer in society in general, to influencer or even thought leader in the Church specifically. A couple of recent examples of this include Shia LaBeouf, who needs no introduction, and a model named Nala Ray.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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I recently saw a clip of an interaction between a street evangelist and elderly atheist in which the latter angrily denounced God to him and the crowd of onlookers. And before he could respond, the atheist turned his back and walked away.
What I find with a significant sample size of atheists is that they don’t just disagree with certain doctrines of religion, like Christianity - they hate it, in an unambiguous way. The lack of ambiguity is demonstrated by the consistent habit of relying on condescension, ridicule, and what Chesterton called “the sneer”. They don’t just disagree; they consider the thing to be contemptuous.
But when pressed, I’ve seen many leading atheists, Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins come to mind, admit that there isn’t any possible evidence that would persuade them. For example, if they were to witness a miracle, some event that is impossible without supernatural intervention – which is the only kind of evidence that could exceed reasonable doubt, they would rather conclude that they were hallucinating or had gone insane than admit that something supernatural had occurred.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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It's often claimed that big families cause more #environmental strain, but I argue that the opposite is true. A contraceptive culture has created the prospect of economic decline and necessitated disruptive immigration policies, forcing us to show less legitimate concern for the environment. Further, small families which consume relatively similar energy resources as large ones are a much less efficient use of those resources.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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To be a lay person, living in the world, requires us to give our attention to secular and profane things, out of necessity, but only as a temporary measure for this pilgrim life. As the #Bible says, as a consequence of sin, we have to gather our provisions by the sweat of our brows through labour.
But our ultimate life, the one we’re training for, is devoid of schedules, work, income, car insurance, or any of those kinds of obligations. The afterlife has one concern, which is the love and #worship of #God.
And this is the big challenge of the lay vocation - that our attention on the secular can become so all consuming that we forget to make any time for the #sacred and thereby lose out on opportunities to be made #holy.
So, especially in these seasons when the #Church is calling us to pay attention to that which is holy, it’s really important that we not neglect to respond to that challenge.
#holyweek #lent
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When I first became #Catholic, if I was going to pick up something to read to study the #faith, it was almost exclusively going to be something contemporary. So, examples of that would be encyclicals by John Paul II or Benedict XVI, modern apologetics, and devotional literature originating in the latter 20th century.
And then as I worked my way through those resources, I eventually started to read older Catholic texts, like older encyclicals and councils, #Church fathers, scholastic sources, etc. and I have to admit, I was dumbstruck by how sharp the contrast was between older texts and newer ones.
I had heard people claim that there was a rupture in the Catholic Church that took place in the 20th century, and not having had much experience of that myself, I didn’t pay much sympathy towards those kinds of sentiments. They seemed extreme and hysterical to me.
But through this process of reading a more comprehensive body of literature, my own sensibilities on such claims have grown in sympathy. Now, I don’t agree that there’s a rupture in the fundamental sense, as if to say, the essence of the Church has been lost, but I do think that there is a very striking transformation that took place within the Church over the 20th century.
And it’s what I would describe as the misplacement of ornamentation.
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I was recently introduced to a YouTube channel
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Journalism is about capturing what is uncommon and unusual. It is about discovering that rare exception in the events of the day, and making it the exclusive preoccupation for public consumption and discussion.
And, unfortunately, this obsessive preoccupation with the uncommon occurrence has trained us to treat the exception as the norm and to form our understanding of the world, each other, and ourselves according to it.
And this laundered perception of reality is no more obvious than the way that non-Christians perceive Christianity and the Church.
This is why everyone believes that the Church has always been opposed to science. Because we all know about Galileo. His story characterizes one of less than a handful that always get carted out to support the theory of the conflict between scientific progress and the Church.
But if you wanted to talk about all the clergyman and devout Catholics who spent their lives contributing to the deposit of scientific knowledge, under the enthusiastic financial patronage of the Church, you’d have to alphabetize them because names starting with a single letter would fill a page.
All of the horrible things people first think of when they think of the Catholic Church are instances of exceptions. They commemorate the times when members of the Church failed to live up to the creed that they professed to adhere to.
It’s the exception that proves the rule. If you can be shocked by corruption it’s because that isn’t the norm. If it were, you wouldn’t be shocked by it.
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Everyone knows that #beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that true #art is defined by self-expression rather than the communication of beauty. But the problem with that view is that every single thing a person does, is a revelation of themselves (ie. self-expression).
If art is about self-expression, then everything is art… and also, nothing is art. And it’s worth asking, how did we get to a point in which art has become so devalued in the minds of those professing to be its stewards and curators?
And the answer is, because art and culture are downstream from philosophy and creed.
So what are the underlying philosophies that dominate the contemporary artistic world? They are #modernism and #postmodernism. Both of which fundamentally reject and deny any notion of the objective beauty.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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In the aftermath of the fallout that Budweiser beer was experiencing among conservative patrons, a new beer company, called “Ultra Right Beer” tried to position itself as a natural alternative.
And to introduce itself to its consumer audience, it launched marketing campaign with a pinup calendar called the “Conservative Dad's Real Women of America 2024 Calendar” as its centerpiece.
And as you’d probably expect, many self-identifying conservatives objected to the idea that a pinup calendar is at all compatible with what it means to be a conservative. But amazingly, this objection was met with opposition by other so-called conservatives, including the high-profile women who posed for the calendar and who are positioned as conservative influencers.
All of which highlighted the fact that if you peak under the label conservative, you will be immediately confronted with a conspicuous divide between those who might be described as Social Conservatives and those who describe themselves as Classical Liberals or Libertarians but all of whom are routinely described by the media as, conservatives.
And it all raises an obvious question for a person like me which is, what is a conservative and what exactly is it that we are conserving?
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This moment of history and our way of life is utterly eccentric and foreign to the human experience. That might be why we look at every generation that precedes us as strange or inferior. But if you're convinced that you're the only sane person, maybe you're actually the crazy one. Our dependency on a constant stream of media entertainment is something that few people seem to offer any skepticism towards. Yet, it seems to breed a long list of dysfunction in our lives. For my part, I'm going to cut those ties and see where that leaves me. I explain why in this video.
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Inspired by atheist commentator, @CosmicSkeptic's (Alex O'Connor) video, in which he convinced #ChatGPT that #God DOES exist, I thought I'd conduct a similar experiment in the opposite direction - trying to convince it that God does not exist. I've found AI's to be interesting sparring partners when it comes to philosophical debate. You can certainly learn a bit about the subject matter as well as test the logical validity of arguments you find persuasive.
Alex O'Connor's video: youtube.com/watch?v=wS7IPxLZrR4
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If you’ve followed this channel for any length of time, you probably know that I’m a convert to the #Catholic religion.
And so I’ve done videos on this channel about why I didn’t become a Protestant, or why I’m not Eastern Orthodox, and why I’m not a Muslim, and some of the comments on those videos have issued the challenge to explain why I’m not a #Jewish.
There are two dimensions to being a member and practitioner of the Jewish religion. One is the hereditary dimension and the other is the creedo/cultural/religious dimension.
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They’ll say that people who are moral have an evolutionary advantage and societies that work together also have an advantage, so as natural selection chooses those who will survive and reproduce, it will favour more moral members of the species.
And I have to say, I find this to be extremely unconvincing.
#morality #ethics #darwinism #evolution #philosophy
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There’s an expression (Ape of the Church) that seems to be getting more and more attention these days, which was coined by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to describe what the Church teaches about a final deception that the faithful will have to endure before the second coming of Jesus. He called it the Ape of the Church, which would be an #apocalyptic counterfeit Church inaugurated by the #Antichrist.
And more than a few people have taken this to be a description of where we find ourselves in the Church today. In fact, when I went to go look for the exact text here to quote it online, the first website I found it on is a sedevacantist website which claims that ever since Vatican II, the Church has been in a state of apostasy and this quote is one more piece of evidence to prove their case.
And it wasn’t just Fulton Sheen who claimed that the Church would suffer such a rival. It’s actually well established in Church teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in Article 7 says:
“Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God…”
The #Catechism goes on to say that this religious deception will claim to realize within history our messianic hope that can only be realized beyond history in the life of the world to come. That is to say, the antichrist will promise us the fulfillment of all our longings here, now, in history rather than in the next life and the restoration of all things after the second coming of Christ.
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A common refrain you will hear against belief in God’s existence, according to Christianity, goes something like this: If my salvation depends on belief or faith in God, and is therefore extremely important to him, he would obviously want me to believe in him. And the thing is, he could make himself easily known to me. He could simply appear, speak to me, or perform some other kind of definitive sign to let me know that he at least exists. If he’s all powerful, such a performance would be effortless for him. But he doesn’t do that. So he either can’t, is indifferent towards my belief, or he’s not there. None of those conclusions is compatible with the Christian notion of God.
You’ll often hear atheists recite an argument like this, known as the argument from divine hiddenness. Although, I have heard some atheistic standard bearers, like Richard Dawkins, Peter Boggohsian, and Peter Atkins admit that there is no evidence that could possibly convince them that God exists - even if God wrote a message to them in the stars, they would have to conclude that they had gone insane.
In other words, their problem isn’t that there is no evidence, their problem is that they won’t admit any possible evidence that God doesn’t exist – for them this is about a devotion to a system of faith in certain enlightenment era presuppositions, not evidence.
#divinehiddenness #atheismvstheism #theismdebate
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My goal with publishing on YouTube has been to try to inspire people to take the claims of the Christianity and the Church, seriously. And why is that? Well, if I’m going to psychoanalyze myself, if I consider the weaker parts of my character, it might be for tribalistic reasons, because I want to see my tribe strengthened.
But I also know there’s a big part of me, and I’d like to think it’s the bigger part, that wants to see others benefit from those claims in the way that I have. And that’s merely anecdotal, I know. But I have an intimate understanding of the difference between Catholic Brian and, let’s say Pagan Brian. Because I’ve lived both of those lives.
Pagan Brian was directionless, hopeless, struggling to realize any of the goals I wanted in life, and ultimately depressed and lonely. Catholic Brian still has adversities, and probably quite a few more given how much more I’ve taken on it in life, but it’s a life in which I have hope, I have confidence in my moral direction, in which I’m surrounded by the kinds of people and friendships that I would not trade for my former life. In which I’m able to fall asleep at nice, peacefully after having been renewed in grace and confidence in the ultimate good of this life, no matter what I experienced during the day and whatever regrets I might have.
If you subtract Pagan Brian from Catholic Brian, you end up with a difference that is precious and so good, that I desperately want other people to experience it as well. That’s what motivates me to sacrifice a good portion of my work week, and therefore my income, to doing this. Kind of thing.
But more and more, we find ourselves, as Catholics having to fight internal battles which for outsiders looking in, isn’t a great way say, hey, you should become Catholic too.
#popefrancis #catholicchurch #catholicnews #churchabuse
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Increasingly, we’re seeing movements in the #Church that want to say, come as you are, stay as you are, all are welcome as they are – with no simultaneous message of, if you want God’s promises of eternal life, you’re going to have to change, you’re going to have to respond in some way – first and foremost by repenting.
You’re going to have to recognize your faults and renounce them to begin the process of being healed of them. You have to embrace a process of sanctification. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
And to endorse or give your blessing to someone as they are, in the name of inclusivity, is not inclusive and it’s not loving. And so anybody who wants to say that’s the defining feature of a God of Love, is lying to you.
A Church that prioritizes unconditioned inclusivity has more in common with Hell than it does with God’s Kingdom. Because all are welcome as they are in Hell. Hell doesn’t expect you to change or become better as a prerequisite to admission. In fact, it doesn’t want you to change, it wants you to stagnate and miss out on your fullest happiness and purpose in life, which we admitted from the beginning, is not where we are. We can all improve, remember? Hell wants you to skip out on all that and is happy to take you as you are.
Admission into God’s kingdom is conditional. All are invited, but not everyone comes.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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Last week, I addressed the latest controversy in the Church about the declaration Fiducia Supplicans – which if you’re looking for more reasons to become Catholic, we have the best names for things… but anyways, the declaration gave permission for priests to bless same sex couples, which as any reasonable person should have anticipated, has caused a lot of controversy, confusion, and division in the Church.
And as should also be expected, it has rattled the faith of many others. I saw more than a few comments from people saying, how can I remain Catholic or simply declaring that they’re leaving at this point. So, I wanted to address that concern and respond to the question about whether I intend to remain Catholic or why you should remain Catholic.
But before I do, I wanted to say a little more about the document in question because there have been some new developments and a lot has been said since I last addressed it here. Like, a LOT has been said. So, let’s say some more.
#fiduciasupplicans #samesexblessings #catholicLGBTQ
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There was a video that had gone viral recently and even made a few news headlines of a couple who has committed themselves to living the DINK lifestyle. Which at this point, I’m not sure if it’s a euphemism or a pejorative, but if you don’t know, it’s an acronym which stands for double income no kids.
And in the video they extolled all the reasons why their life is one to be envied with all the great privileges that they get to enjoy as a result of this lifestyle choice. And what struck me about it was how superficial and self-centered all the of the privileges and benefits that they had identified were.
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In light of recent news of Michael Voris' resignation and public disgrace, I can understand how many might be scandalized and dismayed. And while secret sins, when exposed, can shock us, I wonder why so little attention was paid to the very public sins of CM and MV. What about their habit of using "truth" as a weapon with little regard for our obedience to charity? What about the habit of routinely denouncing people and exposing their private sins (detraction)?
There were so many red-flags about this behaviour, that I don't think anyone should have been surprised that even secret faults would eventually make themselves known.
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In light of recent news involving the confiscation of living provisions for Cardinal Burke, by Pope Francis, I thought it worth trying to find some clarification on the question is there no possible scenario in which a Pope can be corrected? St. Peter was publicly corrected for his moral behaviour by St. Paul and there have been popes who have been corrected theologically. Pope John XXII had been corrected for preaching that souls don’t experience the beatific vision until after the final judgement – which was false and he eventually amended that stance based on corrections that he received.
St. Thomas Aquinas gives us distinctions about how and when a subject can correct a superior. For those who believe that Cardinal Burke was guilty of stepping outside the bounds of St. Thomas' teaching, they may find themselves being equally guilty of the thing they accuse the good Cardinal of.
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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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Do #Christians and #Muslims #Worship the Same #God?
Depending on what period of history you consult #Church statements about Muslim and Christian relations, you may get a fairly different emphasis. For example, if you consulted statements from the time in which Christendom and even Rome herself were desperately defending her borders from Islamic military conquest, then you will likely hear about how – these guys – we don’t really like these guys.
But, in the 20th century, at a time when the Church wanted to emphasize fraternity and peace in the world, you would come away with a fairly different emphasis. And for some who are only familiar with the more modern emphasis, it seems like more than a few people are left drifting into indifferentism – in which they think it doesn’t really matter whether your Christian or Muslim, or some other tradition. Whereas some have reacted quite harshly to modern Church statements and want to say that Islam, and all other religions are merely false and nothing else need be said about it.
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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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These are my (further) thoughts on the Bishop Strickland removal, in response to Michael Lofton's rebuttal of my earlier thoughts, and how I think good Catholics should understand this history we are living through in the Catholic Church.
Michael's video: youtube.com/live/1pOqpkrJsHY
#bishopstrickland #reasonandtheology #popefrancis #vatican #catholic
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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
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I know that for many people, whether we should use projector screens or not at a Catholic mass is a trivial thing, it’s not the kind of thing that should cause divisions and debate, but if you take at least one moment to think about the implications of this dilemma, I hope you’ll see why it’s not just some trivial complaint, but actually a symptom of a much more serious concern in the #Church today – and therefore, worth spending some time talking about.
The #Catholic mass claims to be a re-presentation of the sacrifice of #Jesus Christ for our sins where he becomes truly present – God walks onto the stage and invites us to worship him and be united to that sacrifice by consuming his body, blood, soul and divinity in the #eucharist.
That’s a pretty serious thing, so whatever we do to accessorize or “enhance” that occasion in the #liturgy isn’t something we should take lightly. And the Church, in her teachings, does not take such considerations lightly – which is why we shouldn’t either.
It has been explained to me that this will significantly improve participation at mass. So, the problem we see is that people aren’t participating at least in obvious ways – they aren’t singing along or reciting the responses and prayers like they’re supposed to.
So are theatre-sized #screens at #mass the answer?
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
This is a collection of my worst and best experiences in the time since I #converted to into the #Catholic #Church.
I share stories about speaking in tongues, marriage preparation, being a guitar mass music leader, being refused entry into our parish, dealing with church greeters, and watching churches burn in #Canada.
Support the channel by visiting brianholdsworth.ca
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Support the channel by visiting brianholdsworth.ca
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Support the channel by visiting brianholdsworth.ca
As many of you know now, I recently had the privilege of being a guest on Matt Fradd’s Pints with Aquinas Podcast/YouTube channel and I finally have been able to listen to it all the ay through. As I did so, I was a little bothered by something – which is that Matt kept asking a question that I would start to answer and then, maybe the conversation would head in another direction or maybe I just didn’t feel confident in answering it to the extent that it required. But whatever the reason, I don’t feel like I answered it very well.
So I wanted to take some time to answer it now after having given it a little more thought. So, the question was, “What do we do now?” What he specifically meant was, in examining all the discouraging and distressing news in the world and especially in the Church, with the synod, with corruption scandals, with the rehabilitation of known serial abusers in the Church – if you’re in the habit of paying attention to Church news, which I am to a certain degree, there’s just so much that could cause one someone to lose their faith or their hope, and so what should we do about that? What should our response as lay people be?
And I don’t think he meant, what should people with a platform do about it. I think he just meant what should your average, pew sitting faithful Catholic layperson do?
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
This week I'm interviewing Fr. Gregory Pine OP about #freedom, #liberty, and #virtue. We explore the difference between agency and freedom, how God expects us to use our freedom, and the #Church's #tradition of thought on this question.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
I recently read an article in which a prominent bishop in the Church of England said that the opening words of the Our Father may be problematic because of their association with patriarchy. And of course, the takeaway here, is that when two things are different and somehow need to work together, one or both must change.
In this case, we’re talking about a fundamental, defining characteristic in Christianity, the Lord’s Prayer, and it’s incompatibility with modern assumptions about morality informed by creeds like feminism, liberalism, and egalitarianism.
And in this case, it isn’t that they both need to change, it’s that Christianity is the one that needs to change, because it’s the problematic one. Patriarchy is assumed to be an evil that must be suppressed, and since it may be associated with titles like Father, for God, then that’s problematic.
And this way of thinking isn’t exclusive to the Church of England. I could take a survey among mass going Catholics at the parish closest to my house and I guarantee more than a few would sympathize with this criticism of the Lord’s Prayer – so called because it’s the one that Jesus taught us.
What this reveals, is where a person’s fundamental loyalty lies. When they consider some moral dilemma, where do they turn first for inspiration. Is it to what the Christian creed says, or some foreign and incompatible creed? Because modern liberalism and feminism are incompatible with Christianity – if they weren’t, then neither would have to change.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com
Over the past few years, I’ve watched people that I care about lose their jobs, their homes, and their good name because of the way that society treats people with Catholic views. And as a member of their community, I felt helpless to do anything about it because we aren’t mobilized as a community to respond in a collective way, which is what is needed.
And minorities are great at doing this kind of thing. You seem them mitigating these kinds of vulnerabilities because they recognize that, as a minority, they are vulnerable. But Catholics seem to take pride in being as exposed to the world as possible or perhaps it’s because we’re the largest religion in the world, so we don’t need to protect our community at all.
Well, the fact is, especially for faithful Catholics, we are a minority and if we want to ensure the vitality of our communities, we need to be more deliberate about adopting measures that will strengthen those communities.
What the current trends in our culture and professional sphere have taught me is that our indifference and lack of action on something that the Popes have been calling for, for a long time, has consequences and those consequences reveal themselves in times like what we have been living through more recently.
Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com
Podcast Version: brianholdsworth.libsyn.com