Clement and the Early Church of Rome: On the Dating of Clement’s First Epistle to the Corinthians – A Book Review

I selected this book from the list available at the Reviewers section of The Catholic Company, as I am very interested in the foundations of the Catholic Church, and the early writings of the Church.

I highly recommend before acquiring or reading this book that you acquire and read a copy of the two letters sent by St. Clement to the Corinthians, as it will make the reading of this text mean more to you.

Over all the book was pretty good. Reverend Thomas J. Herron goes into great detail into the history of the time and the reasoning he has for dating the writings as he does. He has, what I believe to be, sound reasoning behind his though processes, and gives strong validation to those thoughts.

Why is this important? It provides a context to the extent of the Church at the time of Clement before and after he took over as the “Pope” (he was not called Pope in that time in history) of the Christian Church. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the foundations of the Christian and specifically the Catholic Faith.

It is a well written book, worth the read, but I’m not sure most lay people would want to acquire this book, unless they are historians.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Clement and the Early Church of Rome . They are also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts.

Just “Who Is Jesus Christ?” – A Book Review

The list of books available to select from this time around from The Catholic Company Book Reviewer Program made it hard to choose a book to read. There are some great sounding titles there. At first glance I passed on this book, “Who is Jesus Christ?” for many reasons. One of those reasons is that every Protestant Preacher seems to lean on and preach mainly out of this book, and not out of the whole Bible. But I kept coming back to it, and I finally picked it. I’m glad I did!

This books was a great read. It went through the 25 titles and names given to our Savior and Christ, Jesus. In each naming, Eric Sammons, the author, gives great detail behind each title, the meaning of that title or name, and why it is important. He adds text from the Leaders and Doctors of the Church and what they have had to say about the titles/names as well, adding more credence to what he says. He ends each section with a question about that name or title or the meaning behind it and how it effects you, or your response to it, which really got me thinking on many levels.

This book is a MUST READ for any person starting in theology, or at any level of theological studies, and should be read by every Christian, especially Catholics!

This review was written as part of the Catholic Book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery and be sure to check out their great selection of baptism gifts while you are there.

The New York Mosque – Part 2…

Ok, in an earlier post, I stated that legally we can’t stop the Mosque from being built in that location should they have the legally acquired funds to do so.

Now let me state where I stand on this issue:

There are currently roughly 20 Islamic Mosque within a two mile radius of this location, one just one or almost two blocks away from this desired location. Is the area that heavily populated by Muslims that each of those Mosque are overflowing and needing an new place to expand their worship? (If so, it is time to more loudly proclaim the Word of God as given to His people, as promised to Abraham.)

It is the history of the Islamic nation to build a Mosque in each area of importance that they “conquer” and it is even required in the Quran 018:21 states, in a rough translation, that those areas they conquer they are to erect a Mosque over that area. You see this in history in many places, but to name just three times, look in Jerusalem where they tore down the Temple built by the Jewish people and where now stands the Great Dome Mosque, then look to Damascus where there once was a great Orthodox Christian Cathedral, which is now an even greater Mosque, and finally look at Mecca, which was once a pagan holy ground and is now a VERY large High Holy Ground of the Islamic nation, one in which all males for sure, and all Muslims in general are required to go to at least once in their life time. In each case, these sites were once Christian or pagan holy places or icons and when destroyed, were replaced with a Mosque.

My fear here is that the Islamic Nation is now saying, we destroyed you here, and we are now building our Mosque to show ownership of this area. If you listen to Rauf’s comments in 2009, he called the location iconic to his faith, and now he wants to put a Mosque there. See where I am coming from?

The Muslim faith is a peaceful faith, provided you follow their laws and rules, but if you question them on their laws and rules, they will fight to the death or outright kill you. This is NOT the will of the One God we both pray to, Muslims through the family of Ishmael first born of Abraham, Christians through the family of Isaac and the Covenant given to Abraham through Isaac.

This Mosque is not needed, and is a bad sign for those not of the Muslim faith and a sign of conquering and success in the eyes of the Muslims, were there was no success, as we survived the attack and have kept them from doing more open attacks on our Nation, in our Nation. There was no success or conquering here in the US by the Islamic Nation.

Believing in Jesus – A Book Review

Over the past 15 years, I have been studying various religions and the theology behind those religions. Six or so years ago I began “homing” in on the Catholic faith and converted a few years ago to the Catholic faith. I continue to grow in my “new found faith”, and in that function of growing, I am always wanting to get a deeper understanding of where the Church stands on things, and why.

This book was a great find to help me grow in understanding in the faith that God has led me to.

This book follows, loosely, the American version of the Catechism of the Church book released a few years ago. It does a very good job of describing why the Church believes as it does, ties it to the Bible, and explains the differences on a concept between the Catholic Church and other Christian Churches in the Protestant areas.

I HIGHLY recommend this book for any Christian, so they can better understand where the Catholic Church comes from in it’s theology of life.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Believing in Jesus – 6th Edition Revised and be sure to check out their great selection of Mary statues while you are there.

State of the US…

Over the last few years, I have felt more and more that the US needs to step back from the world to an extent and look at itself a little closer. We are spread out all over the world in other nation’s business, but we are not taking care of our own business here in the US.

As a nation we appear to be more worried about the sick, hungry and homeless around the world, and less so with those here in the US. We have many many people here in the US that are without work, hungry and homeless that we should be taking care of. We, as individuals and as a nation, tend to send a ton of money to other nations to help their homeless, hungry and those without work. I have no problem with helping others, and I highly recommend helping anyone we can, anywhere, but why are we forgetting our home front? Can’t a good portion of that money stay here and fix our own ailments?

Part of the reason we have so many homeless and hungry people here in the US is the cost of pretty much everything. Due to our

As our military continues to shrink, we continue to send troops to nations all over the world. We have our presence all over the world, and we try to control those areas any way we can. While our people are in these places, in many cases, dangerously so, we have many issues going on here in the US that require attention. Let’s bring our troops home, strengthen our boarders to stop attacks on our great nation, and work on ourselves instead of worrying about other nations, unless they, as a whole nation call us for help, and agree to foot the bill for us coming over to help. If a nation wants us there to help, let’s go to a process where they pay us to do so. And let’s only go if they ask us to come, not if we feel that we need to help them out to become more like us. (Being more like us is not always a good thing….)

The reason we have so many people out of work and homeless is the cost of pretty much everything in the US is too high. This is because each person wants to make more money than we probably should make. We need to look at the cost of making things, lower our wages (or freeze them were they are now), which will help in reducing the cost of producing new things. We need to then look at the cost of medical care. And not the way the President is currently doing it…. I also think that we could very much go back to more barter sales. They are there now, but it could grow!!

Many of the Christian Churches here in the US are busy sending their “Missionaries” to other nations in order to bring more people into their faith. I agree with the concept, very much… But I say we have MANY people in the US that need to hear the Word as well. Why are we sending our resources overseas, when there are many people in this nation that need us as well? What is a better way to taking the Word overseas is to train people from that Nation here, in the US, and then let them go back home and spread the Word to their people “their” way! Makes a lot more sense to me to go this way…

Many people are going overseas to adopt infants and small children. We have many, many kids in the system here in the US that are very much in the need of being adopted by a loving, caring family. We are we going overseas and taking kids from their heritage when we should be helping these kids locally? Yes, I know that the laws here in the US make it very hard to do so here in the US. But that can be fixed. We need to look at these laws and make it so that adoptions can happen in the US in a better manner, and with a bit of an easier path.

While I am not 100% behind bringing everyone home and locking down the boarders and totally closing in on ourselves, as I think International trade is important, but I do think we need to put most of our focus on US and not on other nations… Let’s regrow our nation into a strong, united nation and get all of us in the US in valid housing, be it hospitals, apartments, homes, etc, being feed daily, and cared for by the right people. Let us dig into why people feel the need to do drugs, as from where I sit right now, that is a key problem here in the US. We need to clear up the drug trafficking, and the only way to do that is to stop the users from using it, and to do that, we need to get a strong grip on why they do the drugs, and then snip that need…

Ok, sorry for the rambling and soapboxing. Had to get it off my chest…

Haiti – Religion

The event in Haiti where the 10 “Christian” people attempted to take 33 children across the boarder into the Dominican Republic has me wondering about the people I live with here in the US.

First, let me set the record straight. Many people that know me think that I am not supportive of the people of Haiti post the massive earthquake they weathered. I am. I am 100% behind sending help and support their way to help them get back on their feet and to help clean up the mess left over from the devastating earthquake. My problem with Haiti is the corruption that I have seen in the people from Haiti that I have come in contact with, which have been many such people. I have not, as yet, met one Haitian that was not corrupt in more than one way. I pray that not all Haitians are corrupt though!

Back on track now: While I do not think all 10 of the US Citizens involved in this event knew 100% what was going on, I feel confident that many did know that what they were doing was illegal, in Haiti, the US and Internationally! One does not go into a devastated area such as this area, pick up 33 children and put them in a bus and drive away without any paperwork, legal status, etc, in the hopes of taking the kids to a place that caters to families trying to adopt children and a second purpose to indoctrinate those children into your faith base.

I am pretty sure with some of those kids that were “taken” from existing parents, that money exchanged hands between this group and the parents. This is human trafficking. Plain and simple! And I’m not 100% against the parents in this case, it it provided them with some badly needed money, while giving their children a chance to grow in a better condition. I AM 100% against the people on the other side that probably paid that money and took the kids though.

What Haiti needs is for people to come in and help heal the hurt and sick, help feed and water the hungry, build temporary and permanent housing for the homeless, and help the nation rebuild their lives. We don’t need to be looking at the nation as a place to build our families, or our wealth. (These kids were apparently going to a place in DR that was basically an orphanage that taught the faith and housed the kids until people paying big money would come to the resort and pick their new families then head to the US, meaning people were going to make money off of this move. This is NOT what Christianity is about!)

Take Five, Meditations with Pope Benedict XVI – A Book Review

WOW!! This book made me really look into my faith basis and re-align my thoughts and actions!! Reading some of the words of the current Pope and Scripture that backs his words was very enlightening.

This book is well written, by Mike Aquilina and Father Kris D. Stubna, has a very strong message, and “supporting documentation” for that message. It is a very easy read, fits in your pocket so you can keep it with you to ponder upon through your daily activities, and it translates the Pope’s writings an speeches into English in a readable manner. This books is written “for the Catholics”, but I am confident that any Christian would gain from it as well.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Take Five – Meditations with Pope Benedict XVI.

Sharing Christ’s Priesthood – A book review

The first book I received from “The Catholic Company” was “Sharing Christ’s Priesthood – A Bible Study for Catholics”.

This book was well written, after a slow start in the first couple of pages, and is a book that I would recommend to all Christians, not just Catholics. Mr. Aquilina walks you through the Bible, showing the history of God’s priest from Adam to now. It explains, in some detail, about the history of priesthood, and then talks about the Catholic priest system.

It goes into great detail in reminding us that ALL Christians are Priest of Christ! Something we should all remember daily!

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Sharing Christ’s Priesthood – A Bible Study for Catholics.