Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival (5th Sunday of Lent 2015)

   Welcome one and all to Sunday Snippets, the weekly gathering of Catholic bloggers who share their posts for the week.  The main gathering place is here, at This That and the Other Thing, home of RAnn,  who, sadly, has announced that this will be the last time she hosts Sunday Snippets.  Many thanks, RAnn, for keeping the Carnival going for so long. Ave atque Vale, Sunday Snippets.

  

We are His people, the flock He shepherds

    Before I get to the links for the week, I want to say a few words about the Season of Lent, starting with: “Today if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.”  This line is frequently used during Lent as an antiphon for the Invitatory Psalm in the Liturgy of the Hours (it comes from Psalm 95, which itself is commonly used as the Invitatory throughout the year).  We can think of this as referring to those who have turned their backs on God altogether, and so it does: we can be sure that he is calling out to them, and going after them like the shepherd going after the lost sheep (see Luke 15:4 & Matthew 15:12). But it also refers to ourselves.  God is always speaking to us.  I know that I myself need constant reminders, that every time I choose what I want to do over what I know I should do, I have “hardened my heart” and not listened to the Voice of the Lord. I am like the Hebrews the desert, who challenged and provoked the Lord, even though they had seen all his works.  It’s a timely reminder that, after all, Lent is all about repenting and turning back to the Lord. 

     Now, on to the week that was. Aside from blogging and working (several jobs), I joined with a few of my offspring recently to begin tapping our maple trees for syrup; a little late, but it’s been colder than usual (the coldest February in these parts since they started keeping records). We’ll see what sort of season we end up with. I also started a new blog. The links below are from both my original blog, Principium et Finis, and the brand new one, called Nisi Dominus.

Sunday – “Cicero At The Gym” Planet Fitness could learn a thing or two from an old pagan, Marcus Tullius Cicero (Special Bonus: Latin joke in picture caption)

Tuesday – “The Breastplate of St. Patrick: Still Relevant After 1500 Years” The world is very different today than it was 15 centuries ago, but the biggest dangers really haven’t changed 

and – “St. Patrick And Slavery To Sin” We see the difference between God’s wisdom and the “wisdom” of the world in the stories of St. Patrick and Julius Caesar 

Wednesday – “Abortion Myth # 6” Pro-abortion activists like to tell about “back-alley” abortions killing “5,000-10,000 women a year” when abortion was illegal; as it happens, the truth is rather different 

Thursday – “Litany of St. Joseph: A Prayer ForFatherhood” If there’s any saint in particular (after the Blessed mother) we should be asking for intercession right now, St. Joseph is the one 

and - “Where Have All The Fathers Gone?” And if you were wondering why we need the intercession of St. Joseph, here’s why 

Saturday - "The Opening of Bach's St. Matthew Passion" & "Bach - St. Matthew Passion (Erbarme dich)" Two clips form performances of J.S. Bach's magnificent Lenten masterpiece