Tag Archives: scripture

LibriVox

I promised I’d write about this a long time ago. Sorry, Jim. Mea culpa. From The Life and Times:

"I am always amazed to find something new and really useful on the internet, and how that changes how we can entertain ourselves. This find is one people should know about. Recently I came across librivox.org which is a volunteer collaborative project to make audio recordings of books in the public domain. access to these recordings is free. They read from texts of books in the public domain from another great website http://www.gutenberg.org/ which has already put 2,000,000 ebooks on line and 17,000 of those are available free. Anyway, back to librivox, some of the recordings are by single readers and some are collaborative efforts with multiple readers. Quality can vary, but some of it is excellent[…]"

"Is anyone out there interested in collaborating and/or coordinating a recording the ‘Lectionary’, the readings common to many christian religions on a three year cycle. The church year begins the first week of advent, so we could start now for a December release of the next cycle. The readings are short, but best with three different voices for each week. We could also do different biblical versions to accomodate different religions or nuances. Perhaps they could be released on a weekly timetable, so it would not be too much work at any one time."

If you are interested, reply to this LibriVox forum post

Healing Prayers

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"In churches, mosques, ashrams, ‘healing rooms,’ prayer groups and homes nationwide, millions of Americans offer prayers daily to heal themselves, family, friends, co-workers and even people found through the Internet. Fueled by the upsurge in religious expression in the United States, prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies."

"’Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism — every religion believes in prayer for healing,’ said Paul Parker, a professor of theology and religion at Elmhurst College outside Chicago. ‘Some call it prayer, some call it cleansing the mind. The words or posture may vary. But in times of illness, all religions look towards their source of authority.’"

"The outpouring of spiritual healing has inspired a small group of researchers to attempt to use the tools of modern science to test the power of prayer to cure others. The results have been mixed and highly controversial. Skeptics say the work is a deeply flawed and misguided waste of money that irresponsibly attempts to validate the supernatural with science. And some believers say it is pointless to try to divine the workings of God with experiments devised by mortals."

"Proponents, however, maintain the research is valuable, given the large numbers of people who believe in the power of prayer to influence health. Surveys have found that perhaps half of Americans regularly pray for their own health, and at least a quarter have others pray for them."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

"[The apostles] cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." – Mark 6:13

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." – James 5:14-15

I’m curious. Have any of you every prayed for your own or someone else’s healing? Did it work? How did you know?

Investigating NFP: An Ob/Gyn’s Point of View

Investigating NFP: Pius XI

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Click here to read the previous post in this series.

It’s time to get our hands dirty by digging into the writings of recent popes to find out what they had to say about contraceptive issues. Let’s start with Pius XI’s 1930 Casti Connubii, which was written in response to the Anglican Communion’s decision that year to permit artificial contraception within marriage (general acceptance came later).

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Remember That You Are Dust, And To Dust You Shall Return

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“Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

On the first day of Lent we heard these words (adapted from Genesis 3:19) spoken as a priest dipped his thumb in ash and made the sign of the cross on our foreheads. They served as an outward sign of an inner penance and a symbol of mortality. We wore those ashes for the remainder of the day, or at least until they rubbed off. Wherever we went and whatever we did, we were witnesses to the faith. Those who saw us know that we have been baptized into the death of Jesus Christ and hope to share in His resurrection.

More people attend Ash Wednesday mass than Christmas or even Easter, the holiest day of the year. That alone is impressive, but more impressive is the fact that it’s not even a Holy Day of Obligation. We are obliged to attend Sunday mass and a handful of special occasions, but that rarely guarantees universal or even majority attendance. A recent survey found that only a third of those who identify themselves as Catholic attends mass weekly. Yet a great many of the remaining two-thirds will take time out of their work day to attend a morning or midday Ash Wednesday mass to receive ashes.

Why do people make such special efforts? Would we still attend if we didn’t have something to show for it? Are we publicly displaying our piety, real or pretended, seeking the admiration of men?