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Catholic

2020-08-23T06:00:44-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Passion of Now

Last updated on: August 23, 2020 at 6:00 am By Avellina Balestri

Sometimes life presents strange contrasts, like when I found myself simultaneously watching The Passion of the Christ and hearing background radio coverage of the aftermath of an ongoing presidential race “for the soul of a nation”, as the world turns upside down. It is a surreal thing to be watching Christ suffocating on a tree in the midst of the world spinning chaotically on its thought-to-be-stable axis. We think we can save ourselves, save our own souls. That has always... Read more

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The Cross

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2020-08-06T04:22:15-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pilgrimage to a Small Island

Last updated on: August 6, 2020 at 4:22 am By Avellina Balestri

You are my first love, tossed by the sea of my soul. My blood has run with the timeless murmur of your rivers, and I have felt the stillness of your history stir a flame within me. You have fed with me your yawning silence that speaks volumes, your quiet concealment of your passion, your words of wisdom that strike through me and unlock the innermost chambers. I dream, and the water sings to me, like tears flowing, for I... Read more

2020-10-22T06:59:40-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Abraham’s Sacrifice: Reflections from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Last updated on: October 22, 2020 at 6:59 am By Avellina Balestri

In the past, I’ve had some interesting conversations about the controversial story of Abraham/Ibrahim being asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, which appears (with the variation of Isaac or Ishmael) in both the Bible and the Quran. It seems that quite a few atheists use the story as a symbol of how depraved religious origins are, condoning child sacrifice at the behest of a cruel deity. Indeed, it is commonly sited as one of the harder sections of... Read more

2020-07-17T04:22:51-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Adam, Christ, and Evolution

Last updated on: July 17, 2020 at 4:22 am By Avellina Balestri

The theory of the evolution of species has rocked the world of traditional religious thought ever since it first gained prominence. To this day, even among those who accept theistic evolution, there is a tendency to strain over the concepts presented in Genesis, and try to make them graft with the new information we have given. In particular the struggle rages over the historicity of Adam and Eve as our “first parents”, when it seems more likely that, in the... Read more

2020-08-02T23:46:12-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Tales of Rowan Hood” Book Series Review

Last updated on: August 2, 2020 at 11:46 pm By Avellina Balestri

As most of my loyal readers know by now, I have long had a love affair with Robin Hood since first watching the Disney cartoon at the tender age of six. This love gave rise to my love of England, and from there, the whole of the British Isles. If you ever come to my humble abode, I will happily show you the abundant array of fan-girl memorabilia lovingly arranged on my display shelf, including Robin Hood books, videos, DVDs,... Read more

2020-07-08T19:35:49-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Slaves, Sons, and Submission

Last updated on: July 8, 2020 at 7:35 pm By Avellina Balestri

There is a common claim made that the distinction between Muslim and Christian understandings of God are a stark difference between a distant, remote, severe deity and an intimate, invested, and loving one. There is also much said with regards to the analogies of a Master/Slave relationship on the Islamic side and a Father/Son one on the Christian side. This is typically brought up by those seeking to argue that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God and... Read more

2020-07-07T00:29:41-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Building a Bridge and Drawing a Line

Last updated on: July 7, 2020 at 12:29 am By Avellina Balestri

Is there any hope of a bridge being build between traditional religious communities on the one hand and the LGBTQ community on the other? I don’t believe there’s an easy answer to that question posed in Fr. James Martin’s controversial book entitled Building a Bridge. I do feel that well-intentioned people sometimes fail to address the root of the debate, which comes down to fundamental difference of belief regarding the purpose and function of human sexuality. However, even with these... Read more

2020-06-27T19:23:28-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Song of Exiles

Last updated on: June 27, 2020 at 7:23 pm By Avellina Balestri

In Memory of the New York Draft Riots of 1863 Hear, O Africa, cradle of humanity’s first dreaming, the cry of your oppressed children rises high above the ocean’s crest. Hear the whip crack, splitting the skin baked brown in your fire-stoked sun. Hear the clank of the shackles, the first time they close around free flesh and bone. Does not all humanity now find itself chained? They will beat us out of us, with the languages... Read more

2020-06-18T08:40:24-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Meditation on Meeting Souls Gone By

Last updated on: June 18, 2020 at 8:40 am By Avellina Balestri

I’m the kind of person who must “meet” people. It is the only way I can know them, living or dead. I must feel their presence on some level, or I cannot hope to truly connect. It cannot merely be a matter of learning about them, but it must be them, something that speak to me of their personhood, the shot through soul of them, in look or or voice or energy of movement, or to run the course of... Read more

2020-06-11T09:38:33-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“The Last of the Mohicans” Movie Review

Last updated on: June 11, 2020 at 9:38 am By Avellina Balestri

There is painful, and there is very painful. This revisionist cinematic production of James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans falls into the latter category. Or at least that’s true if historical accuracy, believable acting, and a well-written plot mean anything to the vast array of viewers. Or even the chosen handful of them. But given that’s probably too much to be expected of Holly wood, I apologize for the digression. The story opens in Colonial America in the... Read more

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