Catholic Courses: The Christ - A Faithful Portrait of Jesus from the Gospels

I find that, now that I am out of college, I wish I could return. I have two degrees, a Bachelors in Psychology and a Masters in Business Administration. I didn't particularly enjoy getting either degree, but I needed the MBA, because a Bachelors in Psychology isn't worth the paper it is written on. If I could do it again or had the spare income, I'd major in Theology. Unfortunately, I do not. Fortunately, there is a place called Catholic Courses where you can buy DVDs or CDs and essentially take a university level course at a fraction of the cost. The selection isn't limited to Theology courses either. They have history, literature, philosophy, etc. All are taught through the lens of the Catholic Church though.

The course I completed recently was entitled The Christ: A Faithful Picture of Jesus from the Gospels. In this course Father Alfred McBride presents 8 different talks, each approximately 30 minutes long, on different aspects of Jesus' life and ministry from the four Gospels. There are two classes from each Gospel with Fr. McBride focusing on some of the key aspects that make each particular Gospel unique from the others. For example, one of the major theme of John's Gospel is the divinity of Jesus, and one of the central messages of Matthew's Gospel is the Sermon on the Mount. You can see an Introduction for this course in the short video below.



There are several different ways one can "take" this class. None of them are wrong, but some are more fruitful than others. Since the classes are only 30 minutes each, you could knock all eight out in four hours, which I did. However, I also went back and watched two classes a week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. I then read some of the recommended reading, including on the disc to deepen each 30 minute session. It was like homework. I highly recommend treating this like a real college course. You will only get as much out of these courses as you put in them.

This is a great product, and Catholic Courses is doing a huge service to the Church by offering an affordable way to educate Her members. They looked and felt like I was taking a real course, and Fr. McBride is an excellent speaker and very knowledgeable on the subject of Jesus. The best way I can determine on how to rate a product of this nature is the, "Would I take another one?" factor. The answer is an emphatic yes. I plan on next taking The First 500 Years: The Fathers, Councils, and Doctrines of the Early Church, since I love Patristics! Check back in a month for my review of that one.

Catholic Thursday: Reflections on the Christian Life

Today in Stuart's Study I am going to share with you a book that I read during Lent. It is titled Reflections on the Christian Life and is written by Anthony Esolen. I must admit that I had never heard of Mr. Esolen before reading this book. However, once I started reading the book, his name kept popping up on different websites I visit. Most notably, I discovered he was a translator of Dante's Divine Comedy and has several DVD courses out discussing the Divine Comedy. That's pretty awesome in and of itself.

"Reflections on the Christian Life" spans eighteen chapters. In these chapters, Mr. Esolen walks us through different parts of Jesus' life as recorded in Sacred Scripture. The reader is then called to examine his life through this lens. From the Nativity and His Presentation in the Temple to His Passion and Resurrection, we are called to see the meaning of all the major moments of Jesus' life and how our life relates to His.

The book is also littered with both historical and literary references used in comparison to the life Jesus lived. We see the pride of Cicero in stark contrast to the humility of Jesus. We also see Augustus Caesar's claim to be the prince of peace, when in reality, Jesus is the true Prince of Peace. Mr. Esolen also makes the book personal though by adding his own stories of both his past and his family. It is always appreciated when an author can relate his own personal life to his work, because sometimes we can just feel so distant from the likes of Cicero, Shakespeare, and Dante.

The chapter that hit me between the eyes was titled, "The Hidden Life." It talks about how we want big things for ourselves and great things for our children, but we should be focusing on the small things. Mr. Esolen explains that Christianity is not made up of only the big things like writing a lot of important spiritual works or talking at fancy places, but Christianity is in the small things as well. This was humbling to read, as I have to admit that I strive for the grand and fancy things. I'm ashamed to admit it but it's part of what drove me to start my blog in the first place. I wanted to make a difference on a large scale and be known for making a difference. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a difference, I need to be more humble and not seek glory.

This book was an excellent Lenten read for me, but I feel one could read it any time during the Church Year and still grow from it. If you want to understand your life through the lens of Christ's life, you would do well to read this book, because your life doesn't make sense without God. "Reflections on the Christian Life" merits a 5 star, simply because I can't give it more stars. I look forward to future releases from Sophia Institute Press as all their books I have reviewed so far have been scholarly and well-written.

If you found this review helpful, click this link and hit the Yes button. Thank you.

Catholic Monday: Oremus - A Guide to Catholic Prayer

Greetings my dear readers. We are officially in the Easter Season, and it is a time of celebration and joy! Whenever a season ends, I like to reflect a little bit on the previous season and see how I did, especially if it's a penitential and anticipatory season like Advent or Lent. My goal this Lent was to do the Bible Study Oremus - A Catholic Guide to Prayer faithfully every day, and be a super prayer warrior when Lent was over. I did not meet my goal and am not a super prayer warrior, but I feel I have made some progress, and that's important. There is no plateau in the journey toward salvation. If we aren't moving closer to God, we're slipping further away. Anyways, here is my review of "Oremus."

"Oremus" is an eight week program presented by Fr. Mark Toups. Fr. Toups is a priest in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Louisiana. He is the Director of Seminarians for his Diocese and is also involved with the Institute for Priestly Formation. Each week you watch or listen to a presentation by Fr. Toups, break into small groups (assuming you're doing this on a large parish-wide scale) to discuss questions in your workbook, and then you go home and pray with an assigned Scripture passage for each day of the week, until you meet again the following week.

There are six different passages per week, with Day 7 being a reflection on the passage that spoke to you most. I would have preferred it if there were 3-5 passages. I understand that you don't undertake becoming better at prayer lazily, but it was hard some weeks to do all six passages and then reflect again on Day 7, which is presumably the same day you meet with your small group and watch the DVD. Even a gradual building up to a full seven days would have been welcomed. My wife and I both work and are preparing for a baby, so some days we felt we didn't have the time to devote fully to the study and opted to just read the daily readings from Mass.

The first two weeks of this eight week course also didn't feel as helpful as future weeks. In the first few weeks, you are simply told to read the Scripture passage three times, and then answer four questions. It isn't until Week 3 that you are introduced to Lectio Divina, and even then it isn't until Week 4 where your Lectio Divina is guided with suggestions like, "Consider how God is the author of all creation." These guided suggestions would have been very helpful earlier in the program as I felt that I was floundering a bit early on and trying to figure out what I was supposed to be meditating on. I feel early on when you are learning that you need the guided suggestions more, and as the series begins to come to an end, you are hopefully able to figure out what you want to meditate on for the daily Scripture passage

Overall, I would give this series a 4 out of 5 stars. Fr. Toups is an excellent presenter and speaker and you felt at ease with him talking to you. He seemed to genuinely care about the subject of prayer and helping people become better at praying. The content was also very good. The DVDs were well put together, and the Scripture passages were masterfully chosen. I took away 1 star from my rating, because I felt the program needs a little tweaking in terms of organization. I understand not wanting to overwhelm people early on in the study, but I just felt like I was doing the program wrong for the first two to three weeks, and it wasn't until the guided questions/reflections were introduced that it all started to click.

I'd like to thank Ascension Press for giving me the opportunity to review Oremus - A Catholic Guide to Prayer. You can find this study and other great studies for people of all ages, at their website. If you found this review helpful, click this link and hit the Yes button. Thank you as always to my wonderful readers.