Martha Ainsworth’s Contemplative Webpage

It’s a little out of date, not having been updated since 2002, so a number of the links on it are broken. But it’s a very pretty site, and a nice clean introduction to the contemplative world: Contemplative Spirituality: a Guide.

Letter for Mike

My friend Margarita, who is a conservative Christian, has a friend of hers named Mike who is interested in Celtic culture and so she decided to give him a copy of 366 Celt. But, since the book has such a strong Pagan focus and she herself is hardly a Pagan, she wanted to give him a sense of the book’s back story. So she asked me to write a letter to the young man, situating the book both in my own spiritual journey and in my ongoing efforts to balance my devotion to Christ and Catholicism with my radical openness to the grace that flows through all wisdom traditions. Having written the letter, I thought it might be of interest to others, so here it is.

Scary Sexist Homophobic Christian Preacher of the Day

From the blog of Peter Rollins I learned about this horrorshow video on church planting and the discipleship of men, featuring a west-coast pastor named Mark Driscoll:

Okay, am I missing something here? I can agree with Driscoll’s idea that young men need Christ’s message more than any other segment of society. But his is a pandering and gynophobic strategy to evangelize the guys. By implicitly endorsing many of our culture’s homophobic and patriarchal assumptions of what it means to be “a man” seems to me at the very least to be a travesty of the Gospel, if not evidence of how the church’s worst enemies are found within. Driscoll seems to be advocating a cheap repentance where all that is required of a man is an acquiescence to purity-holiness in terms of sexual behavior, followed by giving up the computer games and potato chips and then getting a real job — and getting married and having lots of kids, of course. Rather than acknowledge that the Gospel invites us to the amazingly exciting and challenging task of thoroughly reinventing what it means to be a man (or a woman) in the light of grace, Driscoll settles for taking cheap shots at the herbal tea and aromatherapy crowd. If this is what it means to be a Christian, no wonder church attendance is declining. As Meister Eckhart said, “Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.” In other words, if I have to choose between truth and the crap that Driscoll is mongering in the name of Christ, it’ll be the easiest decision of my day.

That Catholic Show

Some friends of mine have created a video podcast called That Catholic Show. Five episodes so far, each providing a lighthearted look at one aspect or another of the Catholic faith. The most recent episode is a little fuzzy on its history (the script writers seem to have the Middle Ages and the Renaissance confused), but theologically it’s spot on — and it includes footage shot at my place of employment, the Abbey Store.

Chapels in the Shrine

Here are photos of my two favorite chapels at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception: the Crypt Church and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

Trip Links

Fran and Rhiannon and I are on the road. The trip began with a drive up from Atlanta to Hampton, Virginia where we spent his birthday and father’s day with my dad (attending Saturday evening mass at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church in nearby Tabb and going with my dad to Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on Sunday), and taking him out for a father’s day seafood dinner to the legendary Harpoon Larry’s Restaurant (the website is for the “main” Harpoon Larry’s in Virginia Beach, but we ate at their Hampton location). Of course, being the vegan in the bunch, I only ate a veggie sub, but everyone else enjoyed chowing down on the freshly caught and cooked fish.

We left Hampton on Monday and now we’re in the suburban wilds outside of Richmond with our friends Margarita and Michael Noyes. Michael participates in a centering prayer group at Richmond Hill, “an ecumenical Christian fellowship and residential community who serve as stewards of an urban retreat center within the setting of a historic monastery.” It seemed to be a wonderful community; I was there for a simple evening prayer service and community dinner prior to the centering prayer meeting, and had a lovely time.

Today we’re day-tripping up to Washington where we’re going to visit the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and go shopping at one of the most wonderful stores in the world: the Newman Bookstore which is the most amazing Catholic bookstore I’ve ever seen (for example, they’ve got about 100 feet of self space devoted just to medieval theology).

Then tomorrow we depart for North Carolina. After lunch in Raleigh with Jasmine and Mike Morrell (of Sites Unseen), we’re heading for Asheville. There we’ll stay with our friends Cindy and Karen, and do some more shopping at places like The Captain’s Bookshelf (which is as good a place to buy used books as the Newman Bookstore is for new titles) and, of course, the legendary Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café. While in Asheville we will likely eat at wonderful places like the Laughing Seed Café or Mamacita’s Mexican Grill, and might even make it to mass at St Joan of Arc Catholic Church (which has a beautiful new church just two miles from Cindy’s and Karen’s) before returning home Saturday evening.

Anglican Eucharistic Theology

Yet another web page where I could all too easily get very, very lost…

Anglican Eucharistic Theology