I've been sniffly and achy and tired. So, rather than write much today, I'll just post the links that I'd like to spend time writing about.
Peregrinator at Canterbury Tales, an Anglican convert to Catholicism, is doing a series on the "Top Ten" doctrines to which non-Catholics object. So far he's covered Papal Universal Jurisdiction; (everyone's favorite) Indulgences and the Treasury of Merit; Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead; and Relics and Images. He promises more --- should be good.
An anecdote about the year they took the crucifixes off the wall at Boston College (and the comments are interesting too).
"God's Milk: An Orthodox Confession of the Eucharist." Early Christians, apparently, frequently used the image of breastfeeding as an image of the Eucharist. What I like about this piece is that, although the imagery is distinctly about mothering, the ancient writers aren't tempted to stray from the revealed terminology of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. (A far cry from the new Episcopal Primate's now-infamous inaugural "Mother Jesus" sermon.)
Click here and scroll down to Sunday, June 25, "Dining With Dead Jesuits," for a meditation on what's been lost (on purpose and not), sparked by a meal at the Culinary Institute of America in New York --- located in the former Jesuit seminary of St-Andrews-on-Hudson.
The so-called "ex-gay" movement continues to be controversial. Eve Tushnet writes about (among other things) living chastely as a Catholic with same-sex attraction, and tends to turn a skeptical eye (both practically and theologically) toward the programs set up to "cure" people of same-sex attraction. This post contains some lengthy comments from readers; the one I found most interesting was one about the differences between Catholic and evangelical-Protestant views of the human person and how that affects their respective, for want of a better word, "prescriptions" for Christians who experience significant same-sex attraction.
A blog post of Eve's led me to Disputed Mutability, a blog by a self-described Calvinist Protestant woman who identifies herself as "ex-gay." She, too, is critical of many of the "cure" programs; her success, she says, was found in a Christian residential program that was "not ex-gay specific, but was for all sorts of spiritual/behavioral issues." Here's her story: as Eve says, "honest" and "challenging."
Neal at Literal-Minded waxes musical. (But not musically.)
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