Where I have Been

Wow, it's been 4 months since I last posted. For the most part I have been absent from my usual online activities, but I have really missed it. I really hope to get back to posting at Beggars All again, but it may be a few more months before that happens.

So where have I been? Well, I have been trying to build up some online work so that I can someday work from home. I'm tired of working outside of the home, have lost interest in my field and would like to have a more time to spend with my family and to pursue personal interests. Top amongst these "personal interests" is a better theological education (which may just be more time reading) and online apologetics.

Unfortunately, my progress so far is not so great. I don't have alot of extra time to spend on building up projects so it will take more time. In the meantime, I need to put blogging aside to focus.

I do have plans to start some new sites focused around some of my apologetic interests. But again, it will probably be awhile before I get to them.

Quiet Time

While there is never a loss of things to write about, I just have not had the time to pursue a given topic. The fact that September is quickly approaching doesn't help - I feel like I really need to enjoy what remains of summer.

I have some new responsiblities at work and a child starting school (which will change schedules around at my house) along with the usual stuff (eating, sleeping, etc.) I will continue to focus my efforts over at Beggars All but haven't quite decided what to do with this blog. Perhaps change to a more personal angle. Perhaps not.

Just thought I would update the 2 people who happen to read this blog. I wish I had more to share.

Trust in Mary

At the hour of our death...

Pope Benedict said, "prayer was the secret" of St. Edith Stein, who knew she was headed toward death, but radiated peace and concern for others.

St. Maximilian Kolbe's last words were reported to be the beginning of the Hail Mary, he said.

"It is moving to note that the humble and trusting recourse to the Blessed Mother is always a source of courage and serenity," he said.

As the church prepared to celebrate the Aug. 15 feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the pope told his visitors, "Let us renew our trust in the one who, from heaven, watches over us with maternal love at every moment." Catholic News

Back at Beggars

I just realized my most recent post said I was on a break. I am back, sorta, but only posting over at Beggars All. Here are some of my recent posts over there:

The Alleged Magisterial Perspicuity
Faith is Optional?
Victory Through Mary
Venerating Bones
Follow the Pope

I am taking a break from blogging.

I'll be back in a couple of months.

Choosing Religion

Muslim converts to Catholicism:

The Muslim-born journalist baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Easter Vigil said he wanted a public conversion to convince other former Muslims not to be afraid of practicing their new Christian faith.

Why did he convert?

“While he moved definitively away from Islam five years ago, Allam said it was Pope Benedict's teaching that convinced him to become a Catholic.

’He has said the basis for accepting a religion as true is how it accepts the basic rights of the person, the sacredness of life, freedom, choice (and) equality between men and women," Allam said.’”

Well, I guess if you are just looking for “religion”, that’s a reasonable method for choosing.

Jewish Salvation Without Christ

Writing in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in December 2000, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote, "As Christians we are the inheritors of their faith in the one God."

"Our gratitude," the future pope wrote, "must be extended to our Jewish brothers and sisters who, despite the hardships of their own history, have held on to faith in this God right up to the present, and who witness to it in the sight of those peoples who, lacking knowledge of the one God, 'dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.'"

Two years later, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Relations With the Jews, told a U.S. conference that Christians cannot ignore their core belief in the universality of salvation in Christ.

However, he said, "this does not mean that Jews, in order to be saved, have to become Christians; if they follow their own conscience and believe in God's promises as they understand them in their religious tradition, they are in line with God's plan, which for us comes to historical completion in Jesus Christ."

-Catholic News