Archive for January, 2010

Papacy in Scripture VII: Peter in the Gospel of Mark

Posted in Love & Truth on January 27th, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Morrow3 Comments
St. Mark

In this post I’m moving first to Mark’s Gospel before looking at any other major books or passages of the NT because the tradition of the early church, following the testimony of Papias (preserved for us by Eusebius) is that Mark’s Gospel is a summary of Peter’s preaching in Rome. What is interesting about this view ...

Dr. Gary Anderson: The Story of One Catholic Scholar of Biblical Interpretation

Posted in Bible, Conversion Story, Love & Truth on January 25th, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Morrow4 Comments
Dr. Gary Anderson from his University of Notre Dame profile

Dr. Gary Anderson is Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the University of Notre Dame and is quickly becoming one of the world’s leading scholars of Second Temple Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls and especially of biblical interpretation among early Jews and early Christians. He is also a Protestant convert to Catholicism. He earned a B.A. from ...

Papacy in Scripture VI: Introduction to St. Peter in the New Testament

Posted in Bible, Papacy on January 20th, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Morrow5 Comments

Continuing my series of posts on the biblical roots of the papacy, we have finally come to the NT. In a book that was influential in my own conversion to Catholicism, the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (current Pope Benedict XVI), wrote that “it would be misguided to pounce immediately on the classic proof text for ...

Journal Review: Letter & Spirit

Posted in Bible, Reviews on January 18th, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Morrow2 Comments

I wanted to take a moment to alert our readers to what I consider to be the finest journal on the market dealing with Scripture and theology: Letter & Spirit .  Letter & Spirit is a relatively new journal (first published in 2005) from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, an organization with which ...

The Difference of One

Posted in Conversion Story, Love & Truth on January 11th, 2010 by Jason ShanksBe the first to comment
Crossing the Tiber

Every year at the Rite of Election in my diocese, the Bishop stands up and does an informal poll with those seeking to become Catholic at Easter.  He asks them how many of them decided to become Catholic through reading Catholic literature or hearing or seeing Catholic radio and television?  Some hands raise.  He then ...

There And Back Again

Posted in Conversion Story, Love & Truth on January 6th, 2010 by Biff Rocha2 Comments
Biff 1

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, I always considered myself Catholic. For my family being Catholic consisted in being baptized and attending Mass on Christmas and Easter, but most of all, we were Catholic because we were Italian. I took the typical Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes and was confirmed. In high school, nearly all ...

La Befana the Christmas Witch

Posted in Holidays (Holy Days), Liturgical Year on January 4th, 2010 by Biff RochaBe the first to comment
befana_epifania

The Christmas Witch has always been very dear to me. Doubly blest, she would visit me twice during each Christmas season: once at home to fill my shoes, and once by way of a friend. One of my best friends in high school was Lucia Travaglini, and after the Christmas Mass on January 6th, we’d ...