Catholic Carnival # 94

Food for the soul can be found in this week's collection of posts for the Carnival. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did! (links are fixed now - sorry for the delay.)

Understanding the ground on which people of other faith communities base their beliefs is as relevant and necessary today as it was over 150 years ago. The Blog from the Core presents the eighth of nine lectures written by Cardinal Newman in the summer of 1851 called Ignorance Concerning Catholics the Protection of the Protestant View. The Blog from the Core also has the previous posts in this series: Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England.

Owen at Smithereens in his post The poetry continues challenges us as the world, even the Christian world, speeds by, to find the poetic space Mary found at the feet of her Lover.

I must confess to being partial to Pope Pius XII as my great grandmother was also a Pacelli, sharing with this Pope the same birthplace in Italy. At A Catholic Life you can read how Pope Pius XIl condemned Nazism. The author asserts that unlike what "Hitler's Pope" by John Cornwell states, Pope Pius XII actually stood against Nazism and saved thousands of Jewish lives.

Our Heavenly Bridegroom is a reflection on the Mass readings for Sunday August 27, which considers briefly the interrelated meanings of marriage and the Eucharist. It can be found at HMS Blog. The gospel readings these past few Sundays are ones which were pivotal in my journey home.

There is much food for thought in CowPi Journal’s post called Do Not Use Me God. Summing it up by saying “Friends do not use each other,” Mark offers this exercept: "And I was talking to her and I said, 'You know, I just want the Lord to use me.' And she said, 'Well, forget it. God doesn't need you for anything. God doesn't want to use you. He wants you to love him.'"

In her post No Fairies Around Here the author of the blog Contrariwise takes a huge step forward in her quest to be a better godmother when she teaches her brother to pray the Rosary.

In her post What is access versus inclusion? Ruth at Wheelie Catholic describes how providing physical access ,such as ramps, for Catholics with disabilities, is much easier than inclusion, which is about making each person feel valued for the gifts and talents he has to offer. Her post encourages Catholics with disabilities to participate and volunteer in their parishes.

In an informative post about donor conceived persons A. Noel at Finding Pasture does a great job of pulling together quotes from several affected bloggers, quotes from the Church on this subject, in addition to her own thoughts.

Pray ForMe is the name of a post by Eddy Lee at To Jesus Through Mary. As Eddy makes the decision not to pursue the seminary he asks for prayers to make sure he is making the right decision. What a fine young man!

Sarah at just another day of Catholic pondering submits her post, Jesus, the Toddler for this week’s Carnival musing “Was Jesus a toddler? Well, of course he was! So just what did that mean for his sainted (literally) mother?” As the mother of a young and rather rambunctious member of the toddler race, Sarah can't help but ask herself these questions...and pursue them.

Some days the temptations and struggles of this journey overwhelm me. In her post, Abba Moses the Ethiopian, gang leader, robber, priest, martyr --- a desert story, Karen Marie at From the Anchor Hold encourages her readers that if Abba Moses could manage to be heroically holy, then anybody can! Thank you for this post Karen Marie!

One of my favourite verses of Scripture is Romans 5:20: ”But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” In his post, I deserve THIS?, Penitens from A Penitent Blogger reflects on evil, faith, and unconquerable
grace.

Jay from Deo Omnis Gloriaexplores why people accept or reject Jesus and Christianity in his post What if Jesus Appeared in the Sky Every Night?. The last paragraph is especially worthy of some reflection.

Exploring how contraception affects families and why we should avoid it, Jay from Living Catholicism puts his thoughts on church teaching into a thought provoking post called Contraception and the Catholic Family. Sometimes I squirm when confronted with clear Church teaching but when I read this post I thought to myself, “How could it be any other way?”

God can use anything to get our attention and change our perspective. In a post called Miraculous Medal found at 50 Days After Athanasius contra mundo tells his story of how Mary, especially as represented in the Miraculous Medal, came to be an important part of his devotional practice.

Eric "Funky Dung" Williams presents Plan B: Not Abortifacient But Not a Panacea Either posted at Ales Rarus. He notes that while he does not believe that Plan B is abortifacient, and therefore needn’t be fought by pro-lifers as such, that does not mean that he thinks over-the-counter access to it is a good idea. The related posts as well as the comments on this post are food for thought.