Category: school
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Opening the Mind. Paris – 1240 AD
τότε διήνοιξεν αὐτῶν τὸν νοῦν τοῦ συνιέναι τὰς γραφάς.Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures…And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:45,27 THERE’S THIS CURIOUS – and shameful – event that happens in the reign of King St Louis…
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Atonement Homily
Reposted from last year for this feast. The assignment: Drawing from the doctrine of atonement expounded by Anselm, Aquinas, and Dr Margaret Turek’s Atonement, you are to give a homily on this subject to adult parishioners. GOD HATES SIN. It’s perhaps an uncomfortable claim for we are aware that we sin although, perhaps, we tapdance…
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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 Purpose of Liturgy
FATHER ABBOT LOOKED AT ME. Mr Novice, Day Two. I had said something like, “yes, I can make the Daily Hours and Mass, and I see the Lectio Divina on the daily schedule, but when do I pray?” He asked what I meant. And I replied, “Usually I wake up and say these morning prayers,…
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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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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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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.
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St John Application Questions
THE ASSIGNMENT WAS to do one of several application questions from the Ignatius Study Bible for the Gospel of John for the assigned chapters (2, 7, 12, 17). The study questions for the Ignatius Study Bible are amazing. The study guides can be downloaded for free in PDF format here. 2:15–16. What attachments do you…
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Textual Echos of Priesthood
The assignment was to discuss the ways that “priesthood” is echoed in the Gospel of Luke. I didn’t quite buy it. I was left either writing a paper I could not support or, else, ranting a bit. I tried to do a middle course and follow Thomas Aquinas: take the opposing position seriously and then…
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Whose Image is This?
The assignment was to present answers to some study questions for Matthew Chapter 22 (RSVCE – 2nd Edition) in the Ignatius Study Bible. The Study Guides can be downloaded free here. Since this wasn’t a written paper, this text is more the general idea of my presentation, which went over my 20 allotted minutes. The…
Orthoparadoxy 