De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Fr. Jeff Woolnough praying Holy Mass at the Church of Gethsemane I've just had a lovely surprise! My friend Fr. Jeff Woolnough, a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and the priest in charge at St. Peter's Eastwood just popped in having returned from a quite spectacular trip to the Holy Land with Kimberly and Scott Hahn. Fr. Jeff with the Hahns Fr. Jeff is such a blessing to us here and so enthusiastic, it is such a great joy to know him. He has been a great encouragement and inspiration to me in respect of his incredibly courageous journey home to Rome. Now, in his own words "Becoming a Catholic has opened so many new doors and so now just humbly thanking God!" It sounds like the trip was amazing, and deeply emotional for Jeff, as he was able to do so many things he would not have been able to do before he entered fully into communion with the Church. The wonder of visiting the places we read about in the Gospels was greatly enhanced by...

The 'Wailing Wall' in Jerusalem when I visited. I had the honour of reading at Mass this morning, a powerful reading from 2nd Kings 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-36. One of those passages that had me reaching for my study Bible as soon as I got home because it mentions a couple of things that always fascinate me. One is 'the Ban', the ancient custom of slaughtering every man woman and child of a people in order to avoid retribution. The other is the survival of an Israel loyal the to the Covenant despite overwhelming odds. The Assyrians suffer the loss of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men and struck camp without firing an arrow. Wow! My analytical mind immediately wonders what is the history behind this passage? Did this really happen? Psalm 91 seems to say that the Assyrians were struck by plague and thus decimated. The theological ramifications are serious. Think about it in this context: Today, more than half of the six billion people alive in the world trace thei...