Recommended Book of the Day



First, this is a book I worked on with Pat Madrid but let me give you the review of another publisher who has worked with Pat on books for his publishing house but still thinks this is the best one that Pat has done!



From Sophia Press' Publisher John Barger:



As is a fine Swiss Army knife to an avid outdoorsman, this book is essential to both the career apologist and the weekend evangelist. With a mere flick of the thumb, these pages fall open to a well crafted and highly researched response to any snare that a Bible thumping Protestant might lay in your spiritual path. Madrid's deft, eloquent explanations,-coupled with his meticulous Scriptural citations, -make this book the all-purpose survival tool for those of us who oft times feel that we're hacking our way through a tangle of "Biblical" challenges to our faith.

Problem with the Papacy? Flip open age 30. Need to refute an attack on Mary? Page 65. Got somebody questioning the existence of purgatory? Page 84. Etc., etc., etc.



I've worked with Madrid on a couple of his books, yet this small gem remains my favorite.



On page 14, Madrid recommends that the reader "take the notes and verses listed here and highlight them in your Bible." I did. The Bible I use when debating Protestants bears notes and citations I gleaned from Patrick Madrid's Where is That in the Bible. Your Bible should,too.

Today is the Feast of St. Martha



From the Office of Readings, this quote from St. Augustine:



No one of you should say: “Blessed are they who have deserved to receive Christ into their homes!” Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says: Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me.

Cardinal Reveals Hope Died a Catholic



From CNS STORY::



"Entertainer Bob Hope died a Catholic, according to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles.



'One of my greatest joys is knowing that Bob Hope died as a Catholic,' Cardinal Mahony said in a July 28 statement.



'Over the years I would invite him to join the church, but he would respond in his typical humor, 'My wife, Dolores, does enough praying to take care of both of us.' But eventually her prayers prevailed and he was baptized into the Catholic Church and was strengthened these past years through the regular reception of holy Communion.'

Evidently, Bob Hope was Catholic?



From Gallantry: The Electronic Newsletter for Knights:



"On January 4, 1998, Cardinal Roger Mahony presided over an Investiture ceremony in Los Angeles for the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great where over 60 Los Angeles citizens were granted papal Knighthood as Knights and Dames of the Order. Among those honored were actor/comedian Bob Hope and his wife Dolores, Fox Network owner Rupert Murdoch, actor Ricardo Montalban, and Disney executive Roy Disney, brother of Walt Disney.



The honorees were cited for their contributions to the Catholic Church, the Christian faith and their service and charity work. Murdoch and Disney are not Roman Catholics, but their wives are, and they were honored by the Order as well. News reports that Bob Hope is 'not Catholic' ignore the fact that (a) his mother was a Roman Catholic and had her son Baptized in the Roman Catholic Church (as reported in A&E's Biography of Bob Hope) and (b) Bob Hope married his wife Delores in a Roman Catholic Church in the days when Rome required that both parties in a Roman Catholic marriage be Roman Catholic."

Churches of the Stars?





A web site devoted to star gazing at church, this one a Catholic one where the late Bob Hope attended with his wife.



St. Charles Catholic Church

At 100 Bob Hope is Dead



His wife, a devout Catholic and big fan of Father Benedict Groeschel. I wonder if Bob Hope every converted? Anyone know?



From

ABCNEWS.com : Bob Hope Dies at Age 100

Looking for Something to Strectch Your Christian Thinking?



I've become a huge fan of the late Orthodox Theologian Alexander Schmemann. His works continue to amaze me and enliven my faith. I found a web site devoted to him for all those out there who would like to know more about him:



Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann Web Site



Let me also recommend three books written by him. Remember he is was an Orthodox priest, so there will some things that are different for Catholics--but this is solid stuff:





The Eucharist Sacrament of the Kingdom:...



A great book on the Mass and everything pertaining to it.







If you only buy one, buy this one! It'll give you a whole new outlook on what it means to be a follower of Christ!





Celebration of Faith: I Believe. . ....



A shorter work that goes through the Creed among other beliefs.



Here is a sample of his writing from the web site above:



Just as the Church of the Old Covenant, the old Israel, existed as a passage to the New Covenant, was instituted in order to prepare the ways of the Lord, the Church as institution exists in order to reveal — in "this world" — the "world to come," the Kingdom of God, fulfilled and manifested in Christ. She is the passage of the "old" into the "new" — yet what is being redeemed, renewed and transfigured through her is not the "Church," but the old life itself, the old Adam and the whole of creation. And she is this "passage" precisely because as institution she is "bone of the bones and flesh of the flesh" of this world, because she stands for the whole creation, truly represents it, assumes all of its life and offers it — in Christ — to God. She is indeed instituted for the world and not as a separate "religious" institution existing for the specifically religious needs of men. She represents — "makes present" — the whole of mankind, because mankind and creation were called from the very beginning to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the receptacle of Divine life. The Church is thus the restoration by God and the acceptance by man of the original and eternal destiny of creation itself. She is the presence of the Divine Act, which restores and the obedience of men who accept this act. Yet it is only when she performs and fulfills this "passage," when, in other terms, she transcends herself as "institution" and "society" and becomes indeed the new life of the new creation, that she is the Body of Christ. As institution the Church is in this world the sacrament of the Body of Christ, of the Kingdom of God and the world to come.



We recover thus the eschatological dimension of the Church. The body of Christ is not and can never be of this world. "This world" condemned Christ, the bearer of new life, to death and by doing this it has condemned itself to death. The new life, which shone forth from the grave, is the life of the "new eon," of the age, which in terms of this world is still "to come." The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, by inaugurating a new eon, announced the end of this world, for as no one can partake of the "new life" without dying in the baptismal death, no one can have Christ as his life unless he has died and is constantly dying to this world: "for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). But then nothing which is of this world — no institution, no society, no church — can be identified with the new eon, the new being. The most perfect Christian community — be it completely separated from the evils of the world — as a community is still of this world, living its life, depending on it. It is only by passing into the new eon, by an anticipation — in faith, hope and love — ofthe world to come, that a community can partake of the Body of Christ, and indeed manifest itself as the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ can never be "part" of this world, for Christ has ascended into heaven and his Kingdom is Heaven...