Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

-
Taking up the Cross Lectionary:  97 Reading 1 -  2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19 Reading 2 -  Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 Alleluia - 1 Peter 2:9 Gospel -  Matthew 10:37-42 Welcoming Christ, Welcoming the Cross ... LESSON: The Cost and the Welcome My brothers and sisters in Christ, today's Gospel ends a long discourse in Matthew chapter 10, where Jesus has been preparing his disciples for mission. He has warned them about persecution, about division, even about being hated for his name. And now, at the very end, he gives us these striking words: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me… whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me." These are hard sayings. They almost seem to contradict everything Jesus teaches elsewhere about honoring father and mother, about loving our neighbor, about the sanctity of family life. So what is going on here? Jesus is not telling us to love our famili...
Post a Comment

Review: A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within

-
A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within by Francis George

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The preface makes it clear that this is a series of essays (30-45 mins ea.) meant for reflection and not for apologetic discourse and theology/philosophy.  While they contain a unifying theme and is directly targets to a relatively small audience of Catholic Intellectuals, it is useful for reflection by the laity as well.  In general, these essays identify a tension between modern secular culture, grounded in rational/intellectual ideals and the traditional culture of the church grounded in faith/spirituality.  These essay attempt to argue for the necessity of a synthesis between the two … without surrendering the putative authority of the magisterium … by appealing to the belief that [American] culture sees religion as the basis for communicating a moral code that tells us how to what we should  do [as well as what we should think] that us a way to behave within society.  All of this appears to be used as a foundation for essay 7 and the rehabilitation of Vatican II as a means to renew the mission of the Church to change the world by renewing/reforming the Church to be able to “talk to everyone” aka ecumenism.  There is an interesting caveat here that highlight the danger of the Church losing its identify if it abandons its intellectual roots to become absorbed into service where there is no call for conversion (the primary mission of the Church).  The last essay continue the rehabilitation effort for recent Popes attempting to preserve their moral authority and leadership.

Over all these was an interesting series if lacking in much depth; however, in view of the stated goal in the preface, it accomplished what it sets out to do, so I am inclined to give due credit with respect to how it rates against other works in the genre even as the preferred audience remains fairly restrictive (I doubt it would hold much interest for those outside the Catholic Church).

Preface and Retrospective
Chapter 1 - Saints in Catholic Intellectual Life
Chapter 2 - An Integrate Life
Chapter 3 - How God Thinks
Chapter 4 - A Christian Intellectual in a Post Christian Society
Chapter 5 - A Christian Intellectual and the Moral Life
Chapter 6 - Education that Integrates Culture and Religion
Chapter 7 - Integrating the Second Vatican Council
Chapter 8 - Recent Popes and the Renewal of Catholic Intellectual Life

I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#AGodlyHumanism #AudibookFree 

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dominican Inquirer

-
Image
  Technically speaking, this is really more of an independent, unstructured, investigation of a particular Lay Dominican Fraternity, where you can attend meetings as a guest with no particular commitment ... sort of a "try it before you buy it" approach to see if you and the fraternity members are even remotely compatible.  Given some of the conflict within the American Church today ... this might not be a given.  As might be expected, there can be strong personalities and intense beliefs about how to approach the faith within the fraternities that can reflect the same divisions that are seen in the Church at large.   However, there are also some additional questions to contemplate to see if you might be a fit for the Dominican Family in general.  Each of the Major Orders that have tertiaries (third orders) share their specific charisms (gifts) with their lay members, so in addition to a general desire for a deeper spiritual devotion to the faith, there are elem...
Read more

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector   Lectionary: 150 Reading 1 -  Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 [sic] Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23 Reading 2 -  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Alleluia -  2 Corinthians 5:19 Gospel -  Luke 18:9-14 '... for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.' In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. This story is closely connected to the one which comes just before it about the persistent widow who secures a just decision from a dishonest judge. While the first encourages us to pray and never give up. The second reminds us how, and in what manner, we ought to pray. However, to fully understand the example Jesus gives us, we should look more closely at first the century audience that He initially spoke to. A faithful Jew at that time would have assumed two things: That the Pharisee was a very holy and devout man.  And that...
Read more

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

-
Image
Word of God Sunday Lectionary:  67 Reading 1 -  Isaiah 8:23—9:3 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14 Reading 2 -  1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17 Alleluia - Matthew 4:23 Gospel -  Matthew 4:12-23 The Promise of Salvation Under a New Davidic King.   The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light … In the first act of creation, God created light and “saw that the light was good. God then separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4) … However, light and darkness are more than just opposites; they are symbols, metaphors, and emotional currents that have shaped our understanding of the world around us for centuries. Within the stories we tell each other, we find a natural contrast between what is seen and what is hidden, between safety and the unknown, between clarity and mystery. This duality of light and dark exists because of one’s relationship to the other … and our experiences of the two. For those of us who have spent any time on the w...
Read more

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

-
Image
Lazarus and the Rich Man (Dives)   Lectionary: 138 Reading 1 -  Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10 Reading 2 -  1 Timothy 6:11-16 Alleluia -  Cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9 Gospel -  Luke 16:19-31 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.' Justice, both socially and spiritually, is at the heart of today’s readings. Social Justice is about seeing the “unseen”… remembering the “forgotten” in our society. It’s about the men, women and children who only want a better life in a world that God has given to all of us, just not a select few. In our first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Amos, the prophet of social justice. God called him to speak to the rich of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The country was about to be destroyed by the Assyrians while the wealthy “lie on beds of ivory” and “drink wine from bowls,” confident that “the ruin of Joseph” ...
Read more