Our Teen Catechism group just met for the last time this schoolyear. We've been reading and discussing Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI, and after over a year of work, finished the book! I spent another afternoon in the kitchen in honor of this momentous occasion, and built this sweetly unhealthy but singularly appropriate confection.

The lappets and cross are white chocolate, the rest cake and buttercream. Not having a patented papal-tiara baking pan, I gave it a slightly unconventional shape, but you get the idea:)

You Might Find This Interesting...

Cardinal Ruini, in a speech to religious, urged them to use the internet to reach young people on the authentic message of Christ. From Zenit.

"A priest from Novara told me that the theme of 'Jesus' is very much discussed by youth in blogs. The focus, though, comes from destructive books that are widespread today, and not from Benedict XVI’s book ‘Jesus of Nazareth.'

"What will the idea of Christ be in 10 years if these ideas triumph?"

The 76-year-old prelate admitted, "I don’t understand the Internet, but especially young religious ought to enter blogs and correct the opinions of the youth, showing them the true Jesus.”

hat-tip Clairity

A view from inside St. Peter's Jail Cell

A view from inside St. Peter's Jail Cell, originally uploaded by littlebuddha73.

I found this one photo on Flickr of the Mamartine Prison. Interesting!

Church Councils

I now have a cleaned-up copy available here.

Because this question came up in the meeting when I passed out the Church Councils overview... Here is the definition of an "Ecumenical Council" according to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Ecumenical Councils are those to which the bishops, and others entitled to vote, are convoked from the whole world (oikoumene) under the presidency of the pope or his legates, and the decrees of which, having received papal confirmation, bind all Christians. A council, Ecumenical in its convocation, may fail to secure the approbation of the whole Church or of the pope, and thus not rank in authority with Ecumenical councils. Such was the case with the Robber Synod of 449 (Latrocinium Ephesinum), the Synod of Pisa in 1409, and in part with the Councils of Constance and Basle.

Side-reading on where the Bible came from

I haven't read this yet, but thought some of you might be interested for some summer reading. This has been recently republished by Sophia Institute Press (150 pages total):

What is the Bible? by Henri Daniel-Rops

Table of contents:

1. The Book of Books

2. From the Spoken Word to Our Bibles

3. The Canon of the Two Testaments

4. God Speaks Through the Bible

5. The Bible Was Delivered to Men

6. The Bible as History

7. The Bible Reveals the Acts of God

8. The Old Testament: The Book of Preparation

9. The New Testament: The Book of Revelation

10. The "Mystic Mill" and the Senses of the Bible

11. The Book of Man

12. Understanding Scripture

Chronological Listings of the Popes

Per last night's discussion regarding problems in the Church dealt with during Church councils.

EWTN's list doesn't include the anti-popes

Here's a list that includes the anti-popes

Manifestation of God's Love - a Literary Example

from Uncle Tom's Cabin...

Here is George, Eliza's husband, after being reunited with her and their son in a Quaker farmhouse and accepted as an equal by their hosts.

It was the first time that ever George had sat down on equal terms at any white man's table; and he sat down, at first, with some constraint, and awkwardness; but they all exhaled and went off like fog, in the genial morning rays of this simple overflowing kindness.

This indeed, was a home, - home, - a word that George had never yet known a meaning for; and a belief in God, and trust in His providence, began to encircle his heart, as, with a golden cloud of protection and confidence, dark, misanthropic, pining, atheistic doubts, and fierce despair, melted away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good-will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple, shall never lose their reward.

This seemed rather pertinent to our Deus Caritas Est discussions.

Augustine a Model of Conversion...

This is a great piece from Zenit and Pope Benedict XVI