EDITOR'S ROUND-UP

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Last weekly email for the year and a big thank you!

Dear Friends,

Dr Ian Elmer is back this week — well, he's actually still on holidays but he sent today's commentary to us by carrier pigeon and we still haven't been able to catch up with him and the one that went missing two week's ago. Fortunately these last two commentaries have been pretty much self-contained. Today's has a focus on a question that still irritates some today — the question as to whether we humans are "saved" by faith alone or by our actions and adherence to the Law is still controversial in some quarters nearly 2000 years after the line was drawn between the two viewpoints. Dr Elmer takes us back to examine the origins of this controversy which can be found in the time of St Paul. The commentary includes discussion of an interesting re-evaluation of the Jewish approach to the Law — "The Mosaic Law was not a means to salvation or redemption, but a response to Grace". <Link to Ian's Commentary>

For our weekly readers could I draw special attention to the competition we launched on Christmas Day. The Catholica member or subscriber who is first to crack the secret code in our Christmas Day animation and get the last gnome to speak will be able to choose up to $100 worth of CDs, books and gifts from the Catholica Online Shoppe. Look for the details further down this page under the headline Christmas Puzzle.

As this will be our last email to weekly readers for 2008 I'd like to extend a big thank you all for your support over the year. I'll be taking a break from laying out a daily commentary from Monday through most of January. We will continue to publish one email on Saturday's, beginning on 10th January, unless we come across any particularly poignant news story and publish any extras. Our forum will continue to be open 24/7. Later in January I will run a daily countdown of the most popular commentaries we have published since Catholica started. Surprisingly some of the commentaries we published back in 2006 are still rating highly in 2008. (In another way we shouldn't be surprised because it was always the original objective of Catholica that a large part of our appeal would be via search engine enquiries and that is where a large part of the interest in those older commentaries is generated.)

The "God Experience"… Today's commentary from Dick Westley is great stuff for reflection over the holiday period. He's looking at "the God experience" through the lens of contemporary science and contemporary theology. Is our experience of God merely some illusion, or delusion — or is it grounded in some reality? This is fascinating terrority. You'll even find the links behind many of the photographs used to illustrate the commentary take you off to further articles worth reading. Sadly this is the last commentary from Dick from the series of workshops he ran in Chicago last October. <more>

Now for something completely different for Christmas 2008 The Christmas animation above also contains a puzzle. The animation is interactive. When it has played through and stopped you can click on each of the gnomes they will light up and give you a further message. All of them except one that is. He lights up but doesn't say anything. Embedded in the animation though is a secret code sequence. If you can break that and get him to speak he will give you a code. If you are the first to successfully obtain that code and email it to me — editor@catholica.com.au — it will be our pleasure to provide you with free choice to up to $100 worth of books, cds or gifts from our Catholica Gift Shoppe (which will be back online in the new year when this contest ends with a new range of products). I actually ran a slightly different version of this animation which I first produced about 5 years ago. On that occasion I offered 100 cash. One very-bright 14 y.o. had broken the code by about mid-afternoon on Christmas Day. This year I've made it a little more difficult. If you haven't already guessed, the entertainment is mainly for the benefit of children or grandchildren of subscribers and members of Catholica. It might keep them occupied for some time over the Christmas period if they suffer from that holiday malaise of boredom. To break the code sequence takes good visual perception and some application of logic. The contest is also open to adults if you find yourself bored at any stage too LOL. You can watch the animation full screen by clicking HERE. (Click your back button when you've finished.) <more>

What do you want out of this Christmas? We're turning the Wednesday Forum into a Christmas Forum today to explore the topic of what everyone would like for Christmas. If you had your druthers (complete freedom, complete power and access to any resources) to wish for anything for Christmas this year, what would it be? <more>

No theological games here! Following on from the interesting discussion generated last week by his commentary, Dr Andrew Kania today cuts into the real heavy stuff looking at the Theology of the Soul. He suggests we might read this reflection in light of Psalm 51: 1-17. This is a "no-nonsense" theological commentary seeking to explore the ultimate objective of the spiritual quest from a largely Eastern Catholic perspective. This is spirituality for adults at its best! <more>

10.5: The name of Israel was expunged from all records… One of the great tragedies of human history has probably been the destruction of Jerusalem. Who do we blame: the Romans in general, Hadrian or his successors in particular, or Simon Bar-Cochba who led the Jewish revolt that was put down by the Romans? Who knows? What we do know is that Jerusalem was left a virtual wasteland for much of the Common Era up until the 20th Century — our "living memory". Tom Lee's commentary today looks briefly at what happened to Jerusalem under the Romans but ends with some valuable insights into what all this meant for the subsequent development of Christianity as well. This concludes Part 10 of his manuscript. <more>

Merry Christmas from a converted Scrooge in San Jose! Tom McMahon asked me to hold the commentary he'd already written on penance for this Sunday 'cos "'tis the season to be jolly". In its place he sent through a second commentary more in keeping with the Spirit of the Season. He bases much of this commentary around an article in America Magazine on the Christianity of Charles Dickens by Michael Timko. Between Michael Timko and Tom McMahon you'll find much worth reflecting on and getting jolly about in preparation for Christmas… <more>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher