Tag Archives: Religion and Culture

Gen. 17: 01 – 27- The Covenant of the Circumcision – Held on Sunday, October 7, 2012

Review from our Previous Session – Discerning God’s will.  Is there a plan for me? In reviewing our group’s discussion from two weeks ago, I detected a common theme in the remarks of Sara, Tim, and Ken.  In one way … Continue reading

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Gen. 16: 1 – 16 – The Birth of Ishmael Part 2- Held on Sunday, September 23, 2012

Gen. 16: 1 – 16 – The Birth of Ishmael – Part 2 A review of last week uncovered that the group took off on its own without uncovering much of the background by attempting to answer the questions which … Continue reading

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mk. 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Tradition of the Elders Background I have drawn this background material from the fourth volume of John P. Meier’s A Marginal Jew in which he devotes 55 pages to this one passage that reference 145 … Continue reading

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Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jn. 6: 51 – 58 The Bread of Life Discourse [Continuing] Background This passage concludes the church’s focus on the Bread of Life Discourse from John’s Gospel. We may notice that the passage begins by repeating the last verse from … Continue reading

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Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jn. 6: 41 – 51 The Bread of Life Discourse [Continuing] Background Fr. Ray Brown’s masterful Anchor Bible study of The Gospel According to John points out that there are two themes in the Bread of Life Discourse; one – … Continue reading

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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jn. 6: 1 – 15 Multiplication of the Loaves Background Whenever I review the literature on the Sunday passage, I am torn, on the one hand, to provide the overwhelming evidence of how the tradition developed over time, and what … Continue reading

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Religion and Culture – The Bishops’ call to defend “our most cherished freedom.”

To get a handle on the relationship between religion and culture, I would like to point out who we are as Christians, state what I take religion and culture to be, express the relationship between these two terms, take a … Continue reading

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Background – The Rejection at Nazareth Once again the notes provided for Mk. 6:1 – 6 are helpful, http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6 As should be clear, the church during this year is asking us to focus on the Gospel according to Mark, the … Continue reading

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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Background The notes provided for Mk. 5:21 – 43 are particularly helpful, http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Mark&ch=5&v=49005021 As the notes state this passage tells us of two stories; the first is a story of the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus which … Continue reading

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An Improbable Message on The Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

The Reading – Lk. 1:57 – 66, 80 When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and … Continue reading

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