St.Patrick’s Breast Plate

Two Fools on the Road to Emmaus Podcast - Continuing where they left off last week, the guys explore the ways we can connect with God, and advocate a marriage of knowledge and experience, rather than discarding one for the other.  As well, they examine the enlightenment and how it affects our relationships with God.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 30:42 — 14.1MB)

Two Fools on the Road to Emmaus Podcast – Join Mark and Mike as they continue the conversation started last week in “The Austerity Gospel”, by examining the relationship between fear, commitment and intimacy.  Somehow this leads to a question about rapture / tribulation theology, and the selfishness that seems apparent in that thinking when examined from a broad vantage.  And, eventually, the guys find themselves asking a familiar question with major Kingdom implications: does the end justify the means?

Podcast: Download (Duration: 22:59 — 10.5MB)

In the book Athanasius; The Life of Antony the forward by Scott Cairns sums up Antony’s life for me. He writes:
“He (Antony) understood his calling – and that of every human person – to be an invitation … to theosis: human participation in the enormity of the divine Life. He (Antony) understood the fullness of that divine Life to be unmitigated by incarnation and held, moreover, that matter itself was made newly whole and newly Holy by God’s condescension into flesh…. Thus awakened he was pleased to give everything he had – his wealth, his position, his person, – to commence the journey of that life along the way… His struggle, therefore, is for us an illustration of a man deliberately living into Life, leaning into holiness, a man becoming prayer.” Read the rest of this entry »

Originally Published  Dec 2008 in Rock Canada Newsletter.

“Tradition is the living faith of dead people… Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble.” – Jaroslav Pelikan.

For me Christmas has always been a great time and full of tradition. One such tradition in our family is the annual trek to the mountains to harvest our own Christmas tree.  We head westbound with picnic lunches, coffee and hot chocolate in our thermos, sleds, mitts and toques. We arrive in the snow filled mountains and begin our hunt for the new Rose family Christmas tree. The hunt is interrupted by snowball fights, sledding, a bite to eat and warm drinks and then back to the business of finding a tree. “How about this one” my son calls out pointing to a 40 foot Lodge Pole pine and we burst out into laughter with memories of the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase (another family tradition!). This tradition is one of many we enjoy as a family. Do I hope it is a tradition my sons will continue with their families? Sure I do, but more so, I hope they take to heart the wisdom or the values within the tradition itself – the value of family and relationship. The tree hunt is nothing more than a means to that end, to enjoy each other and make memories together, to laugh and play. Read the rest of this entry »