Dining with Jesus: his ministry of meals... Brian Gleeson has written this introduction to today's commentary: "The mission of Jesus the Messiah was to proclaim the coming of the kingdom (reign and rule) of God on earth and make it happen. He was both its agent and servant. His ministry consisted of all the means he used to accomplish his mission. They all expressed his pastoral care of people as their Good Shepherd, the one who lays down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11). One principal ministry was his preaching and teaching. Another was his healings of one kind or another. Yet another was his passion, death, and resurrection. Still another was his ministry of meals, of table fellowship. Too often, though, his ministry of meals has been somewhat overlooked or neglected. The following investigation and presentation is all about it..." Today's commentary might be read as an extension of the discussion started by Kevin Murphy in his commentary last Saturday. [more]

Questioning the Virgin Birth Part 3... Vynette Holliday today continues her challenging argument that the Gospel of Matthew when read through its original Jewish meaning does not provide a justification for the virginal birth of Jesus. This is the second of two parts examining the Gospel of Matthew in a wider series arguing that in the Jewish religious setting in which Jesus moved he would not have been viewed as divine or viewed himself as divine. [more]

Out from Under the Bushel... Stephen, a member of the Catholica community, has written movingly today of the deep trauma caused by abuse. (See "Are sexual abuse victims whingers?") The deepest damage is not caused by thoughts but by the feelings buried deep down inside of us. We all carry negative feelings around with us like some kind of monkey on our back. Victims of abuse carry them more deeply and traumatically than others. Today's reflection by John Chuchman explores similar territory to what Stephen has been discussing earlier this morning on our forum. This reflection from John sums it up well: "Unless I see myself as that beautiful creation of God I cannot truly Love or be Loved"! Our constant challenge is to climb out from under that bushelof our negative feelings. [more]

Finding the presence of the Spirit of God... In these times of scandal in the institution, great uncertainty in the world, and loss of confidence in our spiritual and political leaders there is a temptation to give up. In recent days in our forum a number of people have called for perseverence and solidarity amongst the grass roots. Today's lead commentary from Kevin Murphy sits well with this call. This is "a back to the fundamentals—back to Jesus" call for us to find solidarity in our communion with one another and with Jesus and his core insights. It's a call to let the Spirit of God guide us through these times. As Kevin concludes: "Even if it is sometimes difficult to live with the life of the Spirit of God within official church structures, we all have the freedom and right and responsibility to welcome the Spirit of God into our personal lives." [more]

What will the new liturgical translations achieve? In lieu of our own lead commentary today could I direct your attention to two excellent articles in The Tablet and National Catholic Reporter on the looming challenges with the new liturgical texts for the Mass. Is this whole exercise going to end up with a further great exit out of the pews — perhaps intentional to create a "smaller, purer Church"? There's news stories in CathNews today about the implementation of the changes across Australia and the United States. Don't forget to return to the Catholica Forum and follow the discussion we're having there. See the following links to go directly to the articles and news reports: [NCR] | [The Tablet] | [CathNews (AU story)] | [CathNews (US story)]

The legend of God and Magog... Today's Puzzling Passage from Dr Ian Elmer flow on from last week's examination of the Book of Revelation but also represents an interesting change of direction. Ian today examines the legend of Gog and Magog with a particular objective of explaining the presence of these two legendary figures in one of the City of Melbourne's oldest shopping arcades, the Royal Arcade. [more]