7 Quick Takes, vol. I

I'm trying my hand at joining Conversion Diary's meme-series of "7 Quick Takes".

-1-

I read Jeff Cavins' I'm Not Being Fed! this week. I'm usually not a fast reader, but I've had the book since July and I've wanted to read it. I read it this week because I was going through a bit of a "dry spell". I was feeling stagnant in my faith... I had no questions, no concerns... I wanted to jump start myself. This book definitely helped.

And I'm already onto another book...

-2-

The weekly Young Adult Bible Study I facilitate has chosen A Thousand Splendid Suns as our first book to read as an introduction to social justice issues. It's a new concept for our group. I hope it goes well: we'll read a book, discuss it and its relation to Catholic social teaching, and then do something.

-3-

At that Bible Study this week, I spoke about the SSPX/Holocaust controversy this week. A bit of ecclesial history was in order. Please pray for the Pope, for Bishop Fellay, and for Bishop Williamson. (Prayer for a lot of other people is in order too.) Please pray for the continued reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X with the Catholic Church.

-4-

I read Pope Benedict XVI's message for Lent this year. I'm planning on blogging about it (when we get closer to Lent). "Give up and give to" is my personal theme for Lent. I'm bringing fasting back. You should too. Pope St. Leo the Great thinks so.

-5-

I'm teaching my first real Religious Education (I prefer "Faith Formation") lesson on Tuesday. I recently volunteered to be a catechist for my parish's Confirmation-candidate students. The topic is "Jesus: His Mission and His Message". I hope to engage the students and get them into the topic, understanding how it relates to their faith, to Confirmation, to their everyday lives, and to their relationship with Jesus Christ and one another.

-6-

I'm retreating this weekend. Twice. On Saturday is the RCIA retreat (6 hours); I'm a team member and a sponsor, but I wasn't one of the planners for the retreat so I'm not entirely sure what it'll be about, although I expect Lent and the Scrutinies will be brought up. On Sunday is the Confirmation retreat (4 hours); as a recent addition to the catechist team, I had absolutely nothing to do with this and was only invited this past week.

-7-

Flexing my apologetics muscle... in charity. I'm involved in a bit of a discussion about the necessity and meaning of baptism at Kinney Mabry's blog, Preacherman. I'm also involved in a discussion about what is made present in the Eucharist on the Catholic Answers Forum. And I called into EWTN Radio's Open Line this week to ask about "temporal punishment", a topic related to Purgatory and indulgences. I need to listen to the podcast and write down Mr. Donovan's answer.

I hope I did this "7 Quick Takes" thing right.