Galactic Catholic: very interesting posts

I found Sarah's blog, Galactic Catholic, via her response to one of my posts below. Very interesting posts in that blog, and a good tendency to respond to God's invitation: "let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18), by looking at Science and the physical universe. She has one up there now on Biology. Please visit!

Still alive, but barely blogging

Luckily, that doesn't mean I stop reading. News and other blogs, mostly. Here, for example, is a sad case of a Catholic judging a Catholic convert (from Protestantism). Jimmy Akin happens to be an inspiring Catholic writer/blogger, whose lucid writing is always a welcome light when .. well.. emotional mayhem is ensuing around religious discussions. He understands the catechism very, very well, likewise canon law (though not a canon lawyer himself, I think), the Church Fathers, and of course, Holy Scripture.

Why on earth would anyone decide that being a Catholic convert is not Catholic enough? I don't really get it. After all, we're all converts. Not one of us was born a Catholic, not one of us was born a saint (with the exception of the Blessed Mother and, in a way, St. John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb of his mother). We are also called to conversion everyday, and in a special way during Lent. The problem isn't in a convert like Jimmy Akin (or Mark Shea, or Scott Hahn). The problem is the pride of Catholics who have become Pharisees, whose distrust of converts to Catholicism outweighs their charity and trust in God's gracious call for all his children into the fullness of truth.

Am I a convert, you might ask? Oh, yes I am. Ideally, right after every trespass against God and against even the least of his children.

Converted because of the new Ark of the Covenant

Astounding that an Evangelical would convert because of Mary. Quite interesting too that the convert, John Weidner, correlates this with the sacraments. Not that it's shocking -- it makes sense, after all.

Over at other blogs: John Stott; Vatican II

Just noting down goings on at other blogs, on two unrelated topics. Intentional Disciples reports on the last public address by Dr. John Stott, the most widely respected Evangelical preacher/writer today, it seems. I've only looked at a few of his writings and they are very good. His last public speech, Dr. Stott shares his insights about Christ-likeness being "the will of God for the people of God." In my days with the La Sallian Campus Ministry, being Christ-like and Christ-centered was the common theme (and so we had one week every year to celebrate this message).

And Darwin Catholic muses on Vatican II based on his reading of Frank Sheed. Vatican II was not necessarily either of what extremes in the Church claim it to be (or have been).