In this episode:
- Fr. Chris gives an update on ministry as affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
- An introduction to prayer as communication.
(A series on the how and forms of prayer will continue over the next several episodes)
TBBS116
The Rosary, Western Legends, Forgotten News;
Daily Mass Streams
With Covid-19 still in effect, watch Mass Daily
The Burning Strength Show - Episode 112
A Markan Sandwich, The Witcher, An Artistic Surprise
Archive Spotlight: Ghosts and Purgatory
What does the Church teach about the topic of ghosts and
Archive Spotlight: Adult Education
The Supernatural and The Church's Teaching Tradition
Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lent. Show all posts
TBBS113 - A Covid Update, Prayer As Communication
In this episode:
- Fr. Chris gives an update on ministry as affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
- An introduction to prayer as communication.
(A series on the how and forms of prayer will continue over the next several episodes)
TBBS103 - A Holy Lent, Captain Marvel, New Tech
In this episode:
- Inspiration for a Holy Lent
- A Spoiler Free review of the movie "Captain Marvel"
- A new tech device that has been extremely helpful
TBBS077 - Catholic Worship, The Greatest Showman, St. Joseph
In this episode:
- A closer look into Catholic Worship
- A spoiler-free review of "The Greatest Showman"
- What makes St. Joseph so significant?
TBBS075 – Lenten Practices, Black Panther, Social Media Loss
In this episode:
- Reflection on the 3 traditional Lenten practices
- A spoiler-free review of Marvel's "Black Panther"
- Comment on a unique new story and what we can learn
TBBS074 - #FOMO, Daddy’s Home 2, Ash Wednesday
In this episode:
- Fr. Chris breaks down #FOMO
- A spoiler-free review of Daddy's Home 2
- A short reflection on Ash Wednesday
TBBS035 – Triduum, Iron Fist, Brain Hacking
In this episode:
- Walking through the events of the sacred Triduum
- A spoiler-free review of Netflix's Iron Fist
- A look into an article investigating the concept of "brain hacking"
TBBS034 - Palm Sunday, Crucifixion Science, Ghost in the Shell
In this episode:
- A closer look at the events of Palm Sunday
- A scientific view of the crucifixion
- A spoiler-free review of the movie "Ghost in the Shell"
- A closer look at the events of Palm Sunday
- A scientific view of the crucifixion
- A spoiler-free review of the movie "Ghost in the Shell"
The Tomb Effect - 5th Sunday of Lent
My friends, it is easy to feel defeated when we mess up in life... when we fall to sin…when we lose in something. It is easy to take it to heart and sometimes to even drown in it.
But when we gather in this place… in this Church or any other Church
They are beacons of hope in the midst of a world that focuses on the defeat of the grave.
But we look beyond the grave.
TBBS033 – Stations of the Cross, Power Rangers, Baseball
In this episode:
- Fr. Chris reflects on what the Stations of the Cross mean to him
- A spoiler-free review of the new Power Rangers movie
- A primer to the upcoming baseball season
Blind - 4th Sunday of Lent
It is evident by the story in today's Gospel that physical blindness is not the only type of blindness. Sometimes our hardness of heart and pride can prevent us from seeing the truth and beauty of God all around us.
Dirt- 3rd Sunday of Lent
What was the big deal with this weekend's Gospel? For starters, it was a much bigger deal that just Jesus speaking with a Samaritan Woman at a well. Jesus was willing to break a whole number of cultural norms, enter into the dirtiness of the woman's life, so as to help her become more fully who God made her to be. The beauty of the story is that God desires to do the same for us.
A Midas Temptation - 1st Sunday of Lent (A)
In the story of King Midas, he is tempted with happiness by wishing for a "golden touch". As the story progresses he realizes that this wish was not what it seemed to be at first. When it came to the temptations of Christ, He saw right through the lies of satan. When we're tempted, do we see them for what they truly are, or do we try to rationalize why we should choose to do them?
TBBS030 – Lenten Special: Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving
In this Lenten Special episode:
- Prayer: How do we pray?
- Fasting: Are we fasting properly?
- Almsgiving: There's more to giving than just money.
Ashes and the Breath of Life - Ash Wednesday 2017
"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return"
God created Adam out of the dirt of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. So too does God imbue us with the breath of life, but how often do we think about the significance of this breath?
Palm Sunday - An Invitation to Holy Week
Celebrating the Fullness of Holy Week
It was as a seminarian that I had an opportunity to truly get into what it meant to celebrate my faith. It wasn't because of my status as a seminarian; rather, it was because I was told by the faculty to get involved as much as possible during the Holy Week celebrations at my home parish. As a youth, we would occasionally go to one or two Holy Week celebrations each year, but never any more than that. Part of that was due to my brothers and I complaining to our mother that it was "too much Church." It wasn't until I could put my faith in the context of the whole of Holy Week that I could truly appreciate what my faith was all about.
Every Palm Sunday, we hear one of three versions of the Passion narrative. This year, we find ourselves meditating on Luke's Gospel. And while the Passion gives us a great scope of what happened during the last week of Christ's life before His Passion, we never truly can appreciate the fullness of it because of how much detail is packed into one Sunday.
Participating in the celebrations of Holy Week truly did change my life as I could day by day walk with Jesus through faith. It is in celebrating the fullness of Holy Week that I could understand a little bit more of what He did for you and for me.
So often in the confessional, I hear phrases like "father, I need to better my relationship with Christ" or "father, can you make any recommendations on how I can increase my faith". If you are the type of person who is thinking this way, and believe me, we could all use a deepening of our faith, then I do challenge you to consider participating at your Church's Holy Week celebrations. Grow in your faith and appreciation for what Christ has done in your life.
5th Sunday of Lent - The Divine Referee
5th Sunday of Lent (C)
We all want to be referees of sorts. How often do we find ourselves yelling at the TV or from the crowd while watching a sporting event? The truth is that while we may disagree with the actual referee, we like having the referee. They provide us with a sense of trust knowing that they do their best to enforce the rule-book and make the game run as it should.
But what about the Divine Referee? Not only do we see folks team up against him in today's Gospel, but they walk away humiliated after they are called out for what they are doing and who they really are. Do we sometimes try to do the job of the Divine Referee?
4th Sunday of Lent - Pride to Humility
4th Sunday of Lent
It is often said that Pride is the root of all sin
Because in the moment we choose sin, we are saying by our actions that we know better than God and others
We can do things on our own –
We don’t need anyone
And we especially don’t need God
Some could even argue that in a moment of sin, we become atheists –
Because we flat out deny God
This is what the younger son does to his father in the Prodigal Son story
He needs to realize that the farther he is from the Father, the more he loses his sense of identity – he loses who he is.
Pride not only ruins our relationship with God, but ruins our relationship with others
As we barrel over the people in our lives, often the ones who love us the most
But we always need to remember
That when we enter into the dirtiness of life
And we’ve hit rock bottom
The Father in heaven is always there to pick us up
Because he is always willing to give us mercy
But we have to be willing to ask for it
February 28 - Scandal
3rd Sunday of Lent
Jesus is breaking down the
cultural norms of 1st century Jewish life
But he is showing us another way
to look at scandal –
Jesus shows us that scandal can
be a good thing
Here we have Jesus going to
Jacob’s well at midday
He sits down next to a Samaritan
Woman and asks her for something to drink
From her response, I imagine this
woman giving Jesus a very strange facial expression here
She wonders why a Jewish man is
there at noontime speaking with her
The Jews never went to the well
at midday because it was very hot
But the Samaritans went to the
well at this time… it was the cultural norm
Jesus enters into scandalous
activity right from the beginning as he starts talking to a Samaritan woman.
Not only was it culturally
unacceptable for Jews to interact with Samaritans -
It was very scandalous for a
Jewish man to speak with a woman who was not his immediate relative
Even Jesus’s disciples enter into
the scene and begin to ask questions to themselves … why is Jesus doing this
Why does Jesus do all of this?
He does it for a variety of
reasons
But I think Jesus enters into
scandal here to show us that some scandal can be good
Most of the stories we hear in
the New Testament sound normal to us.
Jesus cures, Jesus speaks to
people, Jesus does other miracles
But to a 1st century
Jew, He is being very scandalous – going against everything in the Jewish
culture
But Jesus always explains why He
does what He does
He always puts the person first –
even if that means He has to enter into the dirtiness of their life, our life
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