Category: deacon school
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The Lay Faithful Essay 2
The Assignment: In less than six hundred words, what is important about using the correct terminology in referring to the ways the lay faithful collaborate with the ordained ministry? FOR THIS QUESTION, it seemed useful to draw on liturgical theology. In the work of the late Fr Alexander Schmemann, especially his Eucharist, he discusses how…
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The Lay Faithful Essay 1
The Assignment: In less than six hundred words, what is the secular character of the lay faithful and how is it related to the universal call to Christian holiness? The most direct answer, in need of unpacking, is found in Lumen Gentium 31, cited in both CL (repeatedly) and in Aumann’s On the Front Lines…
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The BVM, Challah, and Celibacy
SO, AS WAS EARLIER mentioned I’ve been wrestling with an article from First Things, published in 2002, called Celibacy in Context. I don’t mean “wrestling” as in struggling with, but rather as in Jacob saying to God, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” Celibacy is not only hard for some folks…
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A Helper
DOING A GOOGLE ON A First name is such an interesting project: you find a lot of people with that name, of course – people you did not know, some stars, a few politicians, sometimes a saint or scoundrel if there is one that is particularly notable. Names common in other languages sometimes result in…
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Theology of Marriage
The assignment was to pick 15 questions out of 24 or so. This was the review over the whole class. POPE ST JOHN PAUL said, “The only adequate response to a person is love.” Love is the correct response, then, to a person present to us: the icon of God. Love is an act of…
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Be the Mikveh
And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. – Matthew 8:3He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ – John 7:38Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will…
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The Holy Family
The assignment was a 7 minute homily on a specific feast in the Advent/Christmas cycle. My assigned day is Holy Family Sunday (which is actually a Friday this year). Be available to be someone’s chosen family. WHAT IS THE MOST INTIMATE thing you can do with someone in public? Any guesses? It’s eating together. Sharing…
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Jesus does go on, doesn’t he?
This is an assignment for my Homiletics class. Randomly picks out of a hat, as it were, it’s a coincidence that these are the readings for last Sunday. Yes, these homily assignments are extremely on-brand for me. The Readings for the 27th Sunday, Tempus per Annum (C2) Is he grateful to that servant because he…
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Whose Wedding?
The assignment was a five-minute homily on the stated passage. We began with the exegetical work in an earlier post. Scripture: John 2:1-11 Today, Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church, is calling us to our wedding feast. A CHALLENGE has come to me three times: in two podcasts and a book. The podcasts are Every…
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Showing your work
For the first assignment in homiletics we were to read the book Elements of Homiletic: A Method for Preparing to Preach by Otis C. Edwards. Then we were to put the method in play using a randomly assigned Gospel pericope. My passage was the Wedding At Cana, St John 2:1-11. The method, by the way,…
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Atone-over
IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH’s Book of Common Prayer (1979), as the priest breaks the consecrated bread, is sung the Fraction Anthem. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.” John the Baptist, of course, refers to Christ as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”…
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Lord of the Sabbath
The assignment: Your essay will address two questions: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What insights are gleaned from his words and deeds: his baptism, his temptations in the wilderness, his Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, his “I AM” sayings, etc.? What can we understand about Christian discipleship in light of the person and…
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The Face of God
FIRST DAY IN CHRISTOLOGY CLASS was hard because too much thinking! Dr Turek teaches in a way that leaves you thinking for hours after it’s all over. I’m still digesting it today, Monday, but it seems less like “thinking too much” and more like we were praying. Contemplata aliis tradere, and all that: You get…
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Colossians
THE ASSIGNMENT was to read a selected book of the New Testament (in my case, The Epistle to the Colossians) and answer selected questions. A five-page paper was assigned as well as a 10-12 mins presentation. What Problem is Being Addressed? This depends on who is writing and when. Is this letter written by Paul…
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A Burning Faith
Reflection Paper on Hebrews. Dancing with Jesus from Fear, through Faith, to Fire.
Orthoparadoxy 