The Number One Enemy of Christmas
Michael Whelan SM PhD
One of the indispensable tasks of any …. formulation [of Christology] will surely have to be a convincing vindication of the thoroughgoing humanness of Jesus, a humanness which the classical Christology formally and officially defended, but practically and effectively undermined. [Donald P. Gray, “The Incarnation: God’s Giving and Man’s Receiving,” Horizons, 1 (1974), 1]
How we are affected by what happened in the 4th century.
Michael Whelan SM PhD
The change which affected the priesthood at that time (ie in the 5th century) was itself a consequence of an even deeper change: one which affected ecclesiology as a whole. Mentalities passed from a conception of the ‘Church, community of Christians’ to one which accepted the ‘distance between the lay people and the Church of the clerics’. In the first state there was ‘an organic union between pastors and faithful’ in matters touching liturgical celebrations, councils and other activities of church life. In the second state the idea that predominates is that ‘the whole Christian life and the religious state depend upon the priests, their fidelity, the purity of their life, and their learning’.
The self-emptying of Divine Presence
Notes by Michael Whelan SM
•“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
Conscience and our journey towards adult Christianity
Notes by Michael Whelan SM
Do we dare to dream? Catalyst for Renewal QandA
The crypt, Sunday 22 September 2019. Notes by Michael Whelan SM
A Book Review
Michael Whelan SM
Gerald A Arbuckle SM, Abuse and Cover-Up: Refounding the Catholic Church in Trauma, Orbis Books, 2019, footnotes, index, 226 pages, pb.
Two preliminary comments
The first comment arises from my own experience of appearing as a witness, together with Fr David Ranson, at the Royal Commission on the afternoon of Monday 6 February 2017.
Silence Speaks Truthfully
Notes to a presentation by Michael Whelan SM PhD
Spiritual Practices and Attitudes 9 – I Sought and I Found
Notes by Michael Whelan SM
Spiritual Practices and Attitudes 8. Conscience and Vocation
Notes by Michael Whelan SM
Spiritual Practices and Attitudes 7. Eucharist: Bread of Life
Notes by Michael Whelan SM