Posted by Eric (September 15, 2006 at 3:50 pm)
Karen, a Byzantine Catholic who blogs at ByzFaith, recently commented on my thread on “The Orthodox & Contraception” with some of her concerns about the Catholic Church. With her permission, I will respond to those concerns here, since she raises some important issues on the tension between East and West.
I wouldn’t say that Orthodoxy has changed her position over time, but rather has always been more reluctant to speak out on certain issues, whereas the Catholic Church has positions on EVERYTHING. Most Catholics simply ignore them.
There’s something to what you say, and I wonder if on the whole proportionally more Orthodox actually use contraception than Catholics. I wouldnt’ be surprised if the percentages were pretty close.
The Value of Clarity
But you have to ask why Catholics ignore certain Catholic teaching. For the most part it isn’t because they’ve heard it explained, thought about it, and rejected it. Rather it’s because they’ve either never heard about it, or hearing about it they lack the spiritual or intellectual maturity to really consider it.
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Posted by Eric (September 7, 2006 at 2:55 pm)
Friends, I’m scheduled to be on the Drew Mariani Show today on Relevant Radio, discussing the Pro-Life Action League’s upcoming conference, “Contraception Is Not the Answer”, to be held Sept. 22-23. I’ll be the first guest on the program; I should be on starting at about 3:00 p.m. Central Time.
You can listen live online or tune into the Relevant Radio station in your area.
Update: Well, I wasn’t on for as long as I would have liked; I was all psyched to take calls and the lot. But I’m not going to shake a stick at a free 10-minute advertisement for the conference. Thanks, Drew!
Posted by Eric (September 5, 2006 at 5:09 pm)
I came upon a post recently by one Father Joe, priest in Maryland, in which he criticized the notion husbands and wives confront a demonic struggle in the midst of their marriage, and that to be victorious in this struggle they would do well to employ fasting, singled out by Jesus as particularly effective for casting out demons. Fr. Joe writes:
“Marriages are not principally about powers and principalities, they are about dirty diapers, crying babies, doctors’ bills, making beds, fixing the car, going to church as a family, sleeping as husband and wife naked together under the covers, and so much more.”
Unfortunately, my comments in reponse to this passage were removed from the blog. I offer them here—not to give new life to my dispute with Fr. Joe about what he wrote, which was in response to a particular set of circumstances, but because I wish to share what I hope are a few worthy thoughts.
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Posted by Eric (August 23, 2006 at 12:04 pm)
I was delighted recently to find an incoming link to Square Zero from the photography blog Benra in an article called “What’s Buggin’ You?”. The article included a link to my post, “Insect Photos”. I thought I’d share a few more of them.
This first set were shot with a Canon Powershot SD450, which I recently acquired—all except the photo of the spider in its web, which was shot with a Digital Rebel XT. Click on the thumnails for the full view.
This next were all shot with the Rebel at the butterfly garden at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago: [Continue reading this entry »]
Posted in Photos & Art | Comments Off on More Insect Photos
Posted by Eric (August 22, 2006 at 9:14 pm)
Blessed is he who sits not in the seat of scoffers.—Psalm 1:1
In my last post I said I was going off on a 30 mile road ride. I decided instead to go mountainbiking at Saw Wee Kee park, a woods grown over an old strip mine, filled with miles of tight, hilly, rocky, sandy and very challenging singletrack.
This was my first mountainbike ride in almost a month—it isn’t only the blog I’ve been neglecting under the demands of this exceptionally busy summer—and it was a real challenge. I’m at the point where I can knock out a thirty- or even forty-mile road ride and then carry on with a busy day, but Saw Wee Kee really took it out of me.
There are some among my associates who delight to scoff at the notion that there is any serious mountainbiking in the Chicago area, and never miss an opportunity to sniff when I mention a grueling climb or wicked descent, or employ the word “hill.”
“There are no hills around here,” they tell me. “If you want a hill, you’ve got to go to [insert home state here].”
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