Following Sunday’s announcement that seminarian David Tedesche will be teaching a pair of courses this Spring at St. Charles Borromeo in Greece, comes this from Our Lady of Peace in Geneva. 
Seminarian Peter Mottola will be offering a course on the Mass, specifically focused on the new (corrected) translation of the Roman Missal into English. The following comes from the Our Lady of Peace website:
UNDERSTANDING THE MASS
Explore the Mass and its new English translation with seminarian Peter Mottola. Join us on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in the daily Mass Chapel to experience the richness of the prayers of the Mass like never before!Monday, January 24:
Why do we go to Mass?
Monday, January 31:
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.
Monday, February 14:
The Liturgy of the Word & the Creed.
Monday, February 21:
The Liturgy of the Eucharist
Monday, February 28:
Questions & Answers.Join us for just one or all five sessions. Questions? Please call the parish office at 789-0930 or 789-1124.
A reader/friend has informed me that Peter’s Advent Bible study was quite good, and firmly in line with the teachings of the Church. We here at Cleansing Fire recommend that any reader in that area support Peter in this endeavor, both by your prayer and through your attendance.
On a related note, Our Lady of Peace will also feature a Bible study with Fr. Hoan Dinh, from the Little Rock Scripture Study series.
KEEPING SPIRIT ALIVE! BIBLE STUDY – WINTER/SPRING SEASONIf you never read the Bible; if you have a Bible and still find it difficult to read; if you are searching for a way to enrich your spiritual life, please COME and JOIN US to PRAY, LEARN about GOD’s WORD, and SHARE OUR FAITH Fr. Hoan and a team will lead a Bible Study Program in our parish.
LITTLE ROCK BIBLE STUDY: Introduction to the Bible
The program will begin on Thursday, February 10, 2011, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, at Our Lady of Peace Parish Center 8 Thursday Evenings: February 10, 17, 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
To register, please call Fr. Hoan at 789-0930 or send an e-mail to fdinh@dor.org
Registration deadline is Tuesday, January 18, 2011
This is far less trustworthy. CleansingFire cannot, in good conscience, assure the Orthodoxy of this study. That is not to say that it is certain to be heretical, but the Little Rock series tends to be subjective and modernist in its approach, and uses the Collegeville Bible Commentary which is anything but trustworthy.
Q: I have the Collegeville Bible Commentary for the New American Bible, but it seems really technical. Is this a good commentary?
A: We are unable to recommend the Collegeville Bible Commentary. It is characterized by one-sided, liberal Bible scholarship and lack of fidelity to the Church’s teachings.
A good example of this is the commentary on Romans 1:18-32. In that passage of the Bible Paul states that because pagans worshiped creatures rather than the Creator, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error” (Rom. 1:26-27).
The Collegeville Bible Commentary states “`natural’ and `unnatural’ should be more accurately translated `culturally approved’ and `culturally disapproved.'” This is linguistic nonsense. The Greek word here for “natural” is the adjectival form of phusis, from which we get “physics.” The term means “according to [a thing’s] nature.” It has nothing to do with society’s approval or disapproval. In fact the phrase for “unnatural” (para phusin) was found in the Stoic philosophers before Paul’s time and clearly indicated something that was out of accord with nature. Sickness, for instance, was said to be para phusin (cf. Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 9, p. 265).
The fact that the Collegeville Bible Commentary would go so far as to say that the terms “should be more accurately translated” as “culturally approved” and “culturally disapproved” shows the lengths to which the authors of the commentary are willing to go to push their social agenda. (In the case cited the commentary gives what may be termed a pro-homosexualist interpretation.) This is not scholarship, but the antithesis of it, where a scholar’s personal social or political views are allowed to dominate the data.
We have given only one example of this commentary’s deficiencies, but we have found enough similar problems that we cannot recommend this as a trustworthy work.
Tags: Events, News and Media, Orthodoxy at Work
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good post, Abaccio. I didn’t know that about the Collegeville Bible Commentary. How exciting these young seminarians are! Things are looking up.
Father hoan dinh is a relatively new priest but a good priest. hopefully he keeps his lectures faithful to church teaching.
John,
You will note that I did not criticize Fr. Dinh here, merely the series from which this is taken. It remains to be seen whether or not “a team” that will be helping Fr. Dinh lead this study will be orthodox in their approach. If the study was written by Fr. Dinh and he alone was leading it, I would have fewer reservations. I know at least one reader plans to attend, and he has promised to keep us updated on the orthodoxy of this study.