Reviewed at BMCR … Giusto Traina, 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire
Reviewed at BMCR … Ramsay MacMullen, The Second Church. Popular Christianity A.D. 200-400
Reviewed at BMCR … Chiara Torre (ed.), Martini Bracarensis De ira: introduzione, testo, traduzione e commento (an edition of Martin of Braga — book in Italian, but the review’s in English)
Come along and set your feet in the footsteps of the Fathers.
Once again, I’m helping to lead a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. It would be awesome if you could join us. I do think this is our best lineup ever:
and Yours Truly
My hope is that — if you want to join us and you can afford to go — you and I can enjoy a grace-filled week together, celebrating Mass at the tombs of the Apostles and Fathers, visiting the holy sites, and enjoying the visual, cultural, and culinary delights that the Eternal City has to offer.
The pilgrimage takes place May 23 to June 1, 2010, and the days and evenings will be full. The trip will be sponsored by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.
We’ll spend time in the Catacombs of St. Callistus; the Basilicas of St. Peter, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major; the churches of St. Clement, the Pantheon, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, St. Augustine, St. Peter in Chains, St. Agnes, and Saints Praxedes and Pudentiana. In these holy places rest the relics of so many of the ancients: Saints Peter and Paul, Saints Simon and Jude, St. Lawrence, St. Gregory the Great, St. Leo, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Monica, and many martyrs whose names have been lost to history. (St. Jerome, too, if you accept that much-disputed tradition.)
We’ll tour the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. We’ll climb the Holy Stairs. We’ll pray the Stations of the Cross in the Colosseum. We’ll wander the Roman Forum, see the Arch of Constantine, the Arch of Titus that depicts the emperor’s return to Rome with the plunder of Jerusalem. We’ll visit the tombs of many Jesuit saints at the Church of St. Ignatius. We’ll stroll through dazzling Piazza Navona, and we’ll even leave a little time for gelato or shopping.
Each day will include brief seminars on aspects of history, archeology, and theology related to Christian Rome. We’ll take meals together, celebrate daily Mass together, pray a daily Rosary together, and walk and talk together.
In Rome you’ll gather memories you’ll treasure for the rest of your life — memories you’ll draw from as you guide children or grandchildren, teach CCD, or otherwise witness to the faith. You’ll gather memories that will feed your prayer and help you to feed the prayer of others.
Please pray about whether you might join me and these good friends of mine.
St. Paul Center pilgrimages tend to fill up, once they’re announced. So, if you’re interested, it’s better to register sooner rather than later.
You’ll find an itinerary and registration details here.
There’s a great conference coming up at St. Paul Seminary in Crafton, Pa. (just outside Pittsburgh), Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7. It’s titled “Priesthood and Blessing,” and it will be a good way to mark the Church’s Year of the Priest. It’s not, however, primarily for clergy, and it’s not all about the ordained priesthood. It’s for all Catholics, since we share in the “common priesthood” of Christ.
The lineup of speakers is outstanding. I’ve heard them all and would gladly pay to hear them again.
Friday, November 6
Scott Hahn: “Receive the Spirit: Priesthood and Blessing in the Gospel of John,” 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 7
Fr. Pablo Gadenz (Seton Hall University): “The Priest as Spiritual Father”
Dr. Brant Pitre (Notre Dame, New Orleans): “Jesus, Passover and Priesthood”
Dr. Mary Healy (Sacred Heart, Detroit): “Christ’s Priesthood and Christian Priesthood in the Epistle to the Hebrews”
Dr. Dan Keating, (Sacred Heart, Detroit): “Life-Giving Blessing in St. Cyril of Alexandria”
Bishop David Zubik will celebrate Holy Mass and preach.
Fr. Robert Barron of Chicago (and YouTube) will deliver the annual address in memory of Father Ronald Lawler, OFM Cap.
Registration for the conference is $50 per person, only $25 for full-time students. Seminarians attend free of charge.
You can register online at www.SalvationHistory.com or by calling 740-264-9535.
The conference usually fills up, so register soon. And bring your friends. It’s a great time, with lots of opportunities for conversation and book-shopping. The speakers are first-rate and the talks are rich, but aimed at non-scholars.
Please let me know if you plan on attending. It would be great to meet in person.
I have to admit: I do love it when a reviewer appreciates my prose.
I had the great pleasure of talking up two of my books with Commander Craig on Catholic Radio 2.0.
We discussed Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts and Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist.
New reviews of Fire of God’s Love appeared in several high places:
Tiber-hopper Russ Rentler is a blogger and doctor, but perhaps known best for his rootsy American music, hammered out with dulcimers, mandolins, and other such. Russ’s new disk, Way to Emmaus, is out and it echoes the Fathers often. “Untier of Knots” draws from Irenaeus’s image of Mary loosening the knot of Eve’s disobedience. “Late Have I Loved You” is, of course, straight out of Augustine (but personal to Russ as well). Russ’s rendition of “Old Time Religion” brings a smile as he invokes a litany of the Fathers. There are also striking arrangements of two of my old favorite hymns, “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” and “Sing of Mary” — but like you’ve never heard them before. Much more, too.
Last year I worked with the folks from Catholic Heroes of the Faith on an animated feature and a documentary on the second-century martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity. At long last, both videos are available for sale or rental. Check them out:
Documentary: The Passion of Saint Perpetua: Martyr of the Faith (or rental). I’m the face and voice through this one, but there’s also lots of footage shot on site in North Africa. The camera takes you into all the relevant ruins.
Animated feature: The Story of Saint Perpetua. I posted reviews of this by noted authors Rod Bennett and Carl Sommer. You can check out new reviews by Binks and Happy Catholic.
Many apologies for my neglect of this patch of land. I’ve been writing and speaking, and more than usual. Busy season is upon us.
There’s been interesting news in the archeology of early Christianity:
MercatorNet ran an interesting analysis of the recent Saxon discovery: Let’s Have Done with the Dark Ages.
The New York Times discussed Counting Coins to Count Rome’s Population.
BMCR has been reviewing interesting books:
Gregg Gardner, Kevin L. Osterloh, Antiquity in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World. Reviewed here.
Judith Perkins, Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era. Reviewed here.
If you’re looking for a good guide to the Mass, check out Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People. It’s by Jeff Pinyan, who blogs at The Cross Reference.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve been sleepwalking through the Mass, you need this book. Jeff opens up the mysteries for us and reveals the Mass to be the most exciting moment of our lives — indeed, of all human history. He illuminates every word and gesture, bell and smell. So buy the book and lift up your hearts! Thanks be to God!
BMCR posted a review of Franz Hasenhütl’s Die Heidenrede im “Octavius” des Minucius Felix als Brennpunkt antichristlicher Apologetik: Weltanschauliche und gesellschaftliche Widersprüche zwischen paganer Bildungsoberschicht und Christentum. Though the book is in German, the review is in English, and the discussion will be welcome by anyone who’s a fan (as I am) of Octavius, the second-century dialogue by Minucius Felix.
If you read this blog, you know how much I admire the work of Rod Bennett. His book Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words is on just about every short list of recommended reading I’ve ever produced. It’s one of the top-selling titles bought from this blog.
As much as I admire his work, I love the man even more. He’s a real gentleman, delightful conversationalist, and a great dad.
Early this week, Rod sent me a note asking for prayers. The floods in Georgia took the Bennett family’s home and all their belongings. Our mutual friend Mark Shea wrote it up with many more details, which I’ll paste below. With Mark, I’m asking your prayers for Rod and his family. With Mark, I’m also begging you to help the family with money if you can. At least consider buying a case of Rod’s book on the Apostolic Fathers and passing them out to your friends!
Here’s Mark …
I spoke to Rod this morning. He was standing in eight inches of mud on the *third* floor of his house. He is the soul of Christian courage and fidelity in all this, though his voice cracked a couple of times and nearly broke my heart. They have lost *everything*. And they had *just* sunk $30,000 dollars into a renovation (“The roof didn’t leak” he said.) Thanks be to God, they have flood insurance and so should be able to find a new home. But everything they own is gone and they are, like us, basically lower middle class folk. His library he built his whole life is goo. All their kids’ things. All his wife treasured. Everything. Look around your home at all the dear familiar things you take for granted. Now imagine it all taken away. Every stick of it. He is meditating on Job and saying to God, “I’m not going anywhere.” But it’s bitterly hard.
They will stay in their folks’ summer home for the time being. But that’s 150 miles away, which means his wife will have to radically scale back her work hours as a nurse–and that means way less income. Plus, the kids are traumatized and are now suddenly thrust into a strange place far from friends and familiar things.
All of which is to say “They could really use, not just your prayers, but your help.”
As it happens I’ve not done a Tin Cup Rattle this quarter since a) I hate doing them and b) God has been generous to us lately. That means that whatever you might have been thinking of putting toward my tin cup is still burning a hole in your pocket and looking for something to do.
So here’s what I’d like to propose: I would like to urge you to go log on to PayPal and click on the “Send Money” tab. Then enter Rod’s email address (wonderboss@yahoo.com) and be as generous as you can be. Do NOT–I repeat, NOT–send the money to me by clicking on my Paypal button, but instead log onto the site and use the “Send Money” tab to get it directly to Rod. If you can’t do the PayPal thang, then please send as big a check as you can to:
Rod Bennett
640 Parkcrest Pl. NE
Marietta GA 30068
I know you guys. I have very high confidence in your generosity and kindness! Please delve down in to those great big hearts of yours and make God proud. Such generosity will be remembered well at on That Day.
And, as you can, link to this post and get others on board to help a good family in desperate need. Unleash the Power of the Blog!
Recently I served as consultant for an animated dramatization of the last days of the second-century North African martyrs Perpetua and Felicity. It’s titled The Story of Saint Perpetua, and it’s the first in a planned series, Catholic Heroes of the Faith.
The animation’s getting rave reviews from folks I respect:
“Well done and quite inspirational! I was very impressed indeed, both with the historical accuracy of the content and with the entertainment value.” — Rod Bennett, author of Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words
“The scriptwriters did their homework well, and have produced a story with a high degree of historical accuracy. The artwork is also of a consistently high quality. The richness of the colors and the vividness of the character drawings are at times reminiscent of The Prince of Egypt and other Hollywood productions.” — Carl Sommer, author of We Look for a Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of the Early Christians
Here’s a little news item on the video.
I had a great time on the air, on Sirius, with Greg and Jennifer Willits, “The Catholics Next Door.” You can listen in here, on their site. We’re talking about my book Fire of God’s Love: 120 Reflections on the Eucharist.
You’ll find that book reviewed here by Evann.
By now you’ve probably seen this: a fragment from the world’s oldest Bible (Codex Sinaiticus, fourth century) was found hidden the library of St Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.
BMCR reviews Christos Didaskalos. The Christology of Clement of Alexandria, by Oleh Kindiy.
Brilliant, a man deeply cultured, Clement left us one of the warmest voices of the pre-Nicene Church. His portrait of Christ is complex, according to Kindiy, according to the reviewer:
Christ as the New Song is the captivating fish net which attracts non-Christians to Christianity and which retains them as Christians. The first changes of the new Christians in the congregation are also the work of the New Song.
At the next stage, Christ the Pedagogue takes over the responsibility for the newly converted and teaches them how to live as Christians. After that, the Pedagogue teaches the Christians how to read the Bible in a proper way, for example by introducing them to the ideas of different levels of the biblical texts. Further, the Pedagogue teaches Christians about the identity of God, which was hidden from them until then, and also about the identity and destiny of humans. Another part of the Pedagogue’s work is to heal humanity in order to lead humanity back to its original health.
Christ as High Priest brings the advanced Christians who have been taught by the Pedagogue and Teacher to the highest level of knowledge (gnosis). At this level, the Christians will be able to see and contemplate God, and they will consequently be one with God (theosis).