Padre Peregrino – Page 73 – Theology from a wandering priest

4 08, 2015

Under the Table and Dreaming

By Father David Nix|2015-10-12T01:46:26+00:00August 4th, 2015|Theology|

I’m biased, but I think my little sister is the best writer I know. Before I knew what one was, she had a blog. Talking on the phone to her last night, I started thinking a lot about Mark chapter 7: And from there [Jesus] arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet He could not be hid. But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell down at His feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she [...]

30 07, 2015

ET (Extra-Terrestrial)

By Father David Nix|2015-10-29T14:44:58+00:00July 30th, 2015|Theology|

Like most kids growing up in Denver in the 1980s, the only thing that could slow me down was sickness or a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. My brother and sister and I were always spellbound. We didn't like to re-watch most movies, but his we could watch over and over and over. Spielberg, clearly Jewish by his name, had a better mystical understanding of the Old and New Testament than many Catholics. For example, I don't remember a single homily growing up on worthy reception of Holy Communion as the Apostle Paul warns the lukewarm Corinthians: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty [...]

25 07, 2015

St. Mary Magdalene Part 2 of 2

By Father David Nix|2015-10-12T01:48:21+00:00July 25th, 2015|Theology|

The above picture is taken from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It is clear in this movie, and in most private revelations, that Mary (the Mother of Jesus) knew Mary Magdalene long before the crucifixion. Granted, Scripturally I know of no other time when Mary and Mary are found in the same place, except John 19:25 (the three Mary's at the crucifixion.) So my theory can't be proved from Scripture. However, using common sense, we can be very sure that Mary and Mary didn't simply introduce oneself to each the other at the foot of the cross. It can be assumed that this would be an inappropriate time for introductions; [...]

22 07, 2015

St. Mary Magdalene Part 1 of 2

By Father David Nix|2015-10-12T01:47:48+00:00July 22nd, 2015|Theology|

Before I was a priest, I was a paramedic. I remember running a call with the SWAT team in Southwest Denver. It was a midnight drug-bust and we had to accompany the police in the event that someone become wounded in the raid. We entered minutes after the SWAT team...and it had a pretty anticlimactic ending. The police arrested only two people. The young man and woman were caught in a compromised position, so to speak…and it smelled filthy. I was surprised at the stench, and it wasn’t the smell of drugs that was off-putting. Later in seminary, I remember reading on my own about how certain saints (like St. Christina the Astonishing) could smell impurity [...]

21 07, 2015

Ransom Note

By Father David Nix|2015-07-22T14:11:20+00:00July 21st, 2015|Theology|

Last week, Planned Parenthood was exposed for handing over the tissue of dead babies for research. The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, immediately made a press release explaining that Planned Parenthood itself did not make any money on this. Here's proof she was lying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCs_gvImyw America will be shocked, but the question remains: What will end abortion? Today, a woman in Louisiana texted me the answer: "Our Response: Prayer and fasting isn’t enough! We need to sacrifice all for the love of God." We need to sacrifice all for the love of God. America has seen the evil of abortion, but we continue to slaughter 3,500 children a day. Why? Most [...]

9 07, 2015

Free-Will and Suffering

By Father David Nix|2015-07-14T00:55:03+00:00July 9th, 2015|Theology|

Should God have ended the world when Adam and Eve sinned? As I tell high-school kids, as soon as Adam and Eve had sinned...There were only three options that God had for a planet spiraling towards total sin: 1) Blow up earth to end both sin and free-will...or... 2) Turn people into robots that would automatically obey, so as to terminate free-will but keep the planet...or... 3) Send a rescuer who could transform the human state of suffering into redemptive suffering. If you can think of a fourth option, let me know. In the mean time, notice that only the third option allows for free-will. Because option #3 allows for free-will to continue among both the good and evil people on [...]

4 07, 2015

America’s Passion

By Father David Nix|2015-07-05T10:48:55+00:00July 4th, 2015|Theology|

Driving across the country just two days ago, I came into DC during the night. Fireworks had already started over our Nation's Capital. As I drove, I had been listening to the unabridged version of the book that probably many of you have read: Unbroken. It's the story of resilience of an American soldier from WWII named Louie Zamperini, liberated from a Japanese concentration camp. (See above.) Louie belongs to what Tom Brokaw called "The Greatest Generation." The Greatest Generation had what it means to be an American: passion. In The Greatest Generation, Brokaw interviews an older couple about divorce, and why divorce flattened future generations so severely. The older woman's remedy [...]

1 07, 2015

The End of the Mass

By Father David Nix|2015-07-02T08:39:05+00:00July 1st, 2015|Theology|

You might think that this is a grumpy-the-grump post on bad liturgy with a title like "the End of the Mass," but it is not. The "end" simply means the goal of something. The Greek word telos was appropriated into the English to mean "the end term of a goal-directed process." For philosophy students out there, it's the final cause. What is the telos or goal or end of a pencil? Writing. What is the goal or telos of the Mass? We will get to that, but—okay—permit me one grumpy-the-grump story in contrast. Last year, I was traveling across Florida. In Tampa, I stopped into a Church one afternoon. I kindly [...]

17 06, 2015

Sons of Thunder

By Father David Nix|2015-07-10T13:26:32+00:00June 17th, 2015|Theology|

By a strange turn of events, I have to spend a day in Istanbul while trying to get home from Spain—even though it's the opposite direction. The reason this is especially strange is because these two countries were evangelized by the brothers James and John, sons of a Galilean fisherman named Zebedee. These two men became first century Apostles of Jesus Christ. Jesus nicknamed them "Sons of Thunder" because of their attitude towards life. After His resurrection, Our Lord sent St. James to Spain and St. John to Turkey (with His own Blessed Mother.) I flew from James' land to John's land today, and I'm tryıng to navigate a keyboard set up for the Turkish language at 9pm here in the city [...]

13 06, 2015

Pilgrimage 5 of 5

By Father David Nix|2015-10-15T19:00:57+00:00June 13th, 2015|Theology|

When I lived in a hermitage in Arizona called Merciful Heart Hermitage I was befuddled about why my hermit buddy named it Merciful Heart and then spoke so much of the Heart of the Father. "We only know of the Sacred Heart, not of the heart of the Father," I silently thought. But one day, in this very hermitage, I was reading the Gospel of St. John, and I noticed that the chest of Jesus (upon which the Apostle John listened to the heartbeat of love at the last supper) was the same Greek word (κόλπον ) as found much, much earlier in John 1:18: No man hath seen God at [...]