The Lent Giveaway 2022 is now closed. See the winners.
+JMJ+ Join me as I celebrate the 26th anniversary of my reception into the Catholic Church, my 13th year as a Catholic blogger, and my 3rd year owning this site, with a Flash Giveaway. Drawing will be this Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. I’m hoping that way the winners might receive their books by Ash Wednesday, or close to it.
Continue reading “Lent Giveaway 2022”
+JMJ+ Two things for tonight: first, a note about the virtual Catholic Bible conference that starts tomorrow. I registered already and then ran over here to tell you about it. Looks really interesting and I’m excited about it. Second, I’ve been working on a blog plan for the year and I’m looking forward to that, too.
There will be lots of free content at the Catholic Bible conference, I think, and a premium tier gets you continuing access to the content with downloadables and such. That’s what I need, something I can access way after the thing is over because I can hardly ever sit down and pay attention while these things are actually happening. More about the Take and Read: A Journey Into the Bible and a video below.
Continue reading “A new year and a renewed focus”
As Eve played an essential role in our downfall, Mary played an essential role in our redemption. And she still does. How, you ask? Consider these parallels. First, concerning Eve, then Mary as the New Eve, some points from the second chapter of Brant Pitre’s book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary.
Continue reading “Cooperation, Eve in our downfall, Mary in our redemption”
(Lightly edited on July 25, 2020, to bring some things up-to-date.) I was browsing the web, wondering what to write about tonight for the series. I was re-reading an article at Catholic Answers titled Mary, the Mother of God,* and a window popped up in the lower right-hand corner asking if I have devotion to Mary. Well, yes, I do, I replied. Then it said, Let’s celebrate, and offered me a free ebook about Mary. I ❤️ ebooks and the Blessed Virgin Mary so I said, YES. A few seconds later I was glancing through 20 Answers: Mary, by Tim Staples. Thank you, Blessed Mother and Catholic Answers!
I’ll just give you a couple of samples here. First, something most of us Catholics have heard at some point from non-Catholic family, friends, or even strangers: that the Bible expressly forbids praying to Mary and the Saints because it condemns all communication with the dead. Period.
Continue reading “Praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints is Biblical”I waited as long as I could. I had an unreasonable hope that Verbum would release an edition of Brant Pitre’s new book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, quick, fast, and in a hurry. But they hand-tag their books and that takes time, and I don’t even know if they have any plans to do this one, so I’ll just have to get a Verbum edition later if one becomes available. Because I gave in and bought the ebook. (Downloadable books, ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found thee! Well, not at last because I found thee years ago, and now I have that Etta James song stuck in my head.) ;)
Back to the book. Looking at the table of contents, we’ve got:
May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in her honor I’ll be writing a brief blog post every day in May about some aspect of the Church’s teaching about her, or a book or video I’ve found interesting and helpful, or whatever else I can come up with. So it’s Something About Mary Every Day in May—except for the first few days of the month that I’ve already missed. (Cuz it wasn’t on my to-do list and if it’s not on there, it does not get done. Got my handy dandy liturgical calendar planner now so hopefully I can keep up, at least better than I have been. It’s already May, which is pretty late to buy a calendar, but I didn’t have one so I did. When I order next year’s, I’ll post a link to it.) Hey, I should’ve named this, Something About Mary (Almost) Every Day In May. Hmmm. Nah, too late to change the graphic. It takes me forever to do those things because I am sooo slllooowww. ;)
Continue reading “Something About Mary Every Day in May (except for the days I already missed)”Just found this to share with you. Romans: The Gospel According to St. Paul: A Nine Lesson Audio Bible Study Course from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, SalvationHistory.com.
“An engaging, informative, and thought-provoking nine lecture series by Center President Dr. Scott Hahn, as well as Center Fellows Dr. John Bergsma and Dr. Brant Pitre, they will walk you chapter by chapter through the biblical book that most scholars consider Paul’s greatest theological masterpiece. Along the way, you’ll come to a deeper understanding of the Church’s teachings on justification, faith and works, spiritual fatherhood, the role of Israel in salvation history, baptism, the dignity of the body, the life of charity, and more.”
Read more and download the audio: Romans: The Gospel According to St. Paul.
More free Catholic audio in the Resources pages.
Recently I found three really interesting pages that I want to share with you: Catholic Cross Reference, Online Catholic Library and a page on the Church Fathers at the St Paul Center for Biblical Theology. I added the first two to the main Resource page because they cover so much ground it’s hard to categorize them any further without adding them to every page in that section (and the thought of doing that makes me break out in hives). I added the St Paul Center page to the new Church Fathers page which I added earlier today here on Catholic Heart and Mind. :)
The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology is a non-profit research and educational institute that promotes life-transforming Scripture study in the Catholic tradition. The Center serves clergy and laity, students and scholars, with research and study tools — from books and publications to multimedia and on-line programming.
Our goal is to be a teacher of teachers. We want to raise up a new generation of priests who are fluent in the Bible and lay people who are biblically literate. For us, this means more than helping people to know their way around the Bible. It means equipping them to enter into the heart of the living Word of God and to be transformed and renewed by this encounter.
We read the Bible from the heart of the Church, in light of the Church’s Liturgy and living Tradition. In this way, we hope to help people experience the heart-to-heart encounter that Jesus’ disciples experienced on that first Easter night, when they knew Him in the breaking of the bread: “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us…while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (see Luke 24:13-37)
Jeff and Emily Cavins have a new Scripture study soon to be released through Ascension Press. You may be familiar with Jeff from the show he produced and hosted for several years on EWTN, Life on the Rock, and from his work with Dr. Scott Hahn on EWTN’s popular series Our Father’s Plan (listen to or download from EWTN, buy from Amazon or from EWTN Religious Catalogue) and the Great Adventure: A Journey Through the Bible.
This new series is intended to be less a study and more an introduction to lectio divina, praying with and meditation on Scripture, and conversation with God, an intimate and life-changing encounter with the living Christ. Hopefully a parish near here will offer this study soon. If not, I may have to get a set of the DVD’s for myself. (See video below or watch on YouTube. See website.)
Daring to Walk the Walk, the first study in the Walking Toward Eternity series, introduces you to seven key virtues and outlines practical steps for living them out in your life.
At the end of each session, you will come to the point of change as you ask the Lord three keys questions:
1. What are you asking of me Lord?
2. What specifically do you want me to do?
3. When?
Read or listen to more about lectio divina, praying the Scriptures:
Updated January 14, 2021
One session into the 24-week Bible Timeline Study by Jeff Cavins (sessions are free at this host parish), part of the Great Adventure series, and I am thoroughly hooked. After class I drove to a favorite place for lunch, where they have wi-fi, and ordered the Study Kit. You can get it from Ascension Press. [CD’s and DVD’s can be purchased separately.]
Continue reading “Bible Timeline Study, the beginning of a Great Adventure”
First I was going to start re-writes on the (still unnamed) novel in July after a brief rest. Then I was going to wait until August. But now, after a conversation with a friend this past Sunday evening, I’ve been so inspired and exhilarated I could hardly wait for Monday morning to get back to work on it. I got out every piece of Bible study material I have, including every Bible study I have on MP3, beginning with Tim Gray’s study on the Gospel according to Matthew, entitled The King and His Kingdom.
Now most of us know that Christ is King. But most of us here in the U.S. don’t really realize what kingship means, much less do we really understand the notion of kingdom. We tend to think of ourselves as the center of our own universes, captains of our own ships. Continue reading “King and Kingdom, Both and not either or”
Updated, Oct 26 2012
I moved the list of Scott Hahn Bible study audio off of this post page and onto its own resource page to make it easier to maintain and update. Please see Audio Bible Study Free Courses from Scott Hahn.
Also see Resources > Audio Free and Catholic > for more from Scott Hahn and other great teachers, speakers and writers. I add to the resource pages as I find things and as I find time.
Catholic Heart and Mind 