The Shroud of Turin: An Enduring Mystery (A Five Part Course)

If you go to Shroud University you'll find that I've got a rather intense course on the Shroud of Turin listed.  You can go to the Entrance of the course by clicking HERE  The course consists of five lectures.  The first is a bit shorter than the rest because the camera was running on batteries and the batteries ran down.  Also at the page are links to the slides in both pdf and power point formats as well as two page handouts which was mostly a few reference links.  To get you started, here's the first lecture below if you're interested.

Hardly Working ... I Need To Be Here More

Well here we are running up to the New Year and I'm only just getting around to pointing anyone who comes by to my paper at the Shroud of Turin International Congress held in St. Louis in October this year.  The general website for more videos can be found HERE  and if you are interested in the papers and such check them out HERE

Unique Tetrad Eclipses Coming On Jewish Holidays

Programming Including A Discussion of the Shroud of Turin

The first hour and eighteen minutes is on cancer treatment and the huge cancer industry.  Then right at 1:18:35 or so it starts talking about the Shroud of Turin with Dr. Andrew Silverman.

The Shroud of Turin and The Mystery of Christ's Passion and Resurrection

  This is truly a terrific video about the Shroud of Turin.  One of the things it demonstrates is the impossibility of the 1988 Carbon 14 dating result since the shroud clearly images the same body that left duplicate markings on both the shroud and the sudarium of Oviedo a cloth known to be at least from the 8th century and traditionally believed to be the cloth used to catch Christ's blood as he was taken down from the cross and transported to the tomb.

Another documentary on the Shroud featuring discussion with Dr. John Jackson.  This video includes discussion of the Man of Sorrow which connects to the testimony of Robert de Clare and the device used to raise the shroud.

  A documentary that features Ray Rogers, Peter Soons, as well as Sue Benford and Joe Marino.

Barrie Schwortz on the Shroud of Turin

  Barrie Schwortz is the documenting photographer of the 1978 STURP project which was the most comprehensive serious scientific research done on the Shroud of Turin ever.

John 1:19-23 The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.

Clearly the actions of John the Baptist were disturbing the powers that be.   In the holy land of Jesus' time there were several groups of people.  The Sadducees who were what we might call the government ruling class or religious heirarchy, the Pharisees who were the religious intellectuals, the Essenes  who were a kind of monastic class, and the Zealots who were a class of people who wanted to get rid of the Romans who were ruling the land.

This group was from the Pharisees according to verse 24.  John the Baptist was stirring things up and was very popular with the common people.  He was calling for repentance.  It's quite natural that they would want to know on what authority he did this.  The two obvious possible answers were that he was the expected Messiah or he was Elijah the prophet returned from the dead.  John says he is neither of those and so they are left in a quandary.  "Well who are you then?" is the obvious question.  John answers with a quote from Isaiah thereby claiming that he is the fulfillment of a prophecy.

"Lord" is a special word because it has multiple meanings.  Normally it refers to a member of the aristocracy or royalty but it also is the word used to refer to God rather than pronounce the name of God so it also can mean quite literally "God."  In this case John means both since Jesus is Messiah, i.e. the one who is to come, King, anointed, and some also expected a priestly figure.  The Essenes were expecting two figure a kingly figure and a priestly figure, but in fact the one whom John is a harbinger for is simultaneously King, priest, and God.

The Shroud of Turin and the Cloth of Oviedo

  This is a pretty good video to point out the link between the Shroud of Turin and the other cloth in the tomb with Jesus that was used to keep the blood from spilling out of the body as it was taken down from the cross.

John 1:14-18 A Transition to Speaking of John the Baptist

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)  From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

The testimony of John the Baptist features here for the first time.  John appears as the one who "prepares the way of the Lord" in all of the gospels.  Here John the Evangelist points out that what John said points to the preexistence of Jesus.  We know from the gospel of Luke that Jesus was not before John in the way of the world.  So to preexist John is to be in existence prior to His human conception.  Here the Evangelist points out that the glory of being God's only son is the source of all the grace and truth in the world.  It is from this grace (the bounty of God's gifts to us) and the truth, i.e. what conforms to reality itself, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" that we know God for He is only seen most clearly through His son.  "When you see me you see the Father" he tells Phillip later in John's gospel.  This short passage is a transition to speaking of John the Baptist.

The Institute of Catholic Culture On The Epistle of St. Clement of Rome

Epistle of Clement of Rome The Institute of Catholic Culture is something I only recently discovered and it is a gold mine of fascinating talks. Whether you're a Catholic or a member of the separated brethren or just a person seeking to have some intelligent discussion of some interesting topics, mostly religiously motivated, then this is a great website to know about.

John 1:6-13 A Man Named John

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
After introducing the Word, John the Evangelist introduces John the Baptist.  John is the precursor who is to prepare the way of the Lord as foretold in the scriptures.

Isaiah 40: ³ A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Malachi 3: 1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

Matthew 3: ³ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.’”

The true light who enters the world is one who preexisted and "... the world came into being through him; ..." a claim to divinity since we know the world came into being through God.  He come incognito into the world, hidden as it were and the people to whom he comes and reveals himself mostly don't receive him.  But those who did receive him received a special gift.  They are given the power to become children of God.  It is a power not a blind gift for they must first receive him through believing in his name and become literally children of God born not of blood or human will or flesh but born of God himself.  This is a gift beyond price and certainly beyond any human merit.

John 1:1-5 In the beginning ...

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

What are we to think of this?  God is in the beginning with the Word.  I suppose unpacking "beginning" might be helpful.  God stands outside of space and time, so a word like beginning can only refer to the beginning of something and the only something we know of is our own cosmos.  The "Word" translates the Greek word logos (λόγος) which has many more meanings than the English word "Word."  It means not only the spoken word but such things as reasoned discourse and underlying structure or generative word hence a kind of fruitfulness.

This Word is with God and the Word was God ... now just stop for a minute.  You can't just be with God and be God unless you're distinct in some sense in the two usages.  This is the source among other sayings of Jesus for the doctrine of the Trinity.  The Word is in the beginning with God.  The Word is God.  And the Word is the agency of creation.  Note that it says "Through him all things were made and repeats the claim in the negative, that nothing was made without him.  Now we see the Word is a him.  The Word is the creative power of God but is distinct from God yet God.  Sounds like two of the persons of the Trinity.

Now we get another aspect "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind."   Here we see the Word, God, creator, is also the generator of life which is clearer with logos than with 'Word.'  The light illuminates mankind.  Now this seems clearly a metaphor.  What kind of light illuminates mankind and is also appropriately described as the Word?  Aristotle uses the word logos in the sense of reasoned discourse.  So one possibility is that the light is the light of man's reason illuminating his mind.  It may also be a spiritual light, illuminating his soul, a kind of grace that raises him above where he would be purely by nature.

Finally we see the light shining in the darkness and the darkness not being able to overcome it.  To be overcome by darkness is to have your light extinguished.  This would work equally well with spiritual light which could be extinguished by sin and hence darken the soul or intellectual light where are reason is darkened by our submission to baser passions.

All of these understandings seem to apply and so we see the action of the logos creating and illuminating us intellectually and spiritually, a truly intimate relationship with God.

W

What Am I Going To Do With This Blog?

Well it's been a long time since I visited my blog here.  I originally started it with the thought that it would be a good way to encourage me to contemplate and write about scripture on a regular basis but as often happens, my best laid plans, well intended though they may have been, soon enough came to naught.  But I would like to change that.  I'm not sure of the best way to go about it.  Perhaps the way would be to pick something to systematically go through and write about regularly and I was thinking that the other day when the Holy Spirit jogged me and said "The Gospel of John" ... I love the gospel of John so I'm going to try to get back in harness and write reflections on the gospel of John going through it systematically.

Perpetual Virginity of Mary

Testimony of One Who Died and Returned

Worth a listen ...

Video On the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin

The Best of Intentions ...

This is a blog that is near and dear to my heart, but it is also one which I have been neglecting. I'd like to find time to come back to it often in a contemplative manner and share the thoughts that the good Lord causes in me when I am reading and trying to appreciate scripture and other religious and spiritual writings. But my life seems always too full of competing forces and challenges and requirements and obligations so that I rarely get a chance to come and find the inner peace that one needs to do justice to such a goal. I'll try to do better, but I can't promise anything.

A Saint In Progress?

The process of canonization practiced by the Catholic Church is a process which confuses a lot of people. The Catholic Church does not create saints. God creates saints through the cooperation of the saintly and the grace God give that empowers them. What the Catholic Church does is test claims that certain people led extraordinary live of sanctity and the tests are rigorous and difficult and if upon investigation a person passes all the hurdles the Church declare them worth of veneration in a multistep process. The Church does not create saints because only God can do that.

Moving On

Fr. Corapi makes a video statement. It is unclear what has been going on. All the free advice from all the folks who are clueless about what is going on and are making gratuitous guesses are not helping the situation.

What it comes down to is charges by an unnamed person or persons against Corapi. The charges themselves are unclear and mostly seem rather doubtful. Corapi has denied any impropriety but he's not been too clear about what he is denying. So there is a huge amount of uncertainty and vagueness. Unless you know more not only about the charges but about the relative integrity of the players, it just isn't clear who's at fault and why. I'm decidedly on the fence but I think people who are giving Corapi the benefit of their free advice are mostly not helpful. The analogies they are making are suspect and the judgments they are making are uninformed. Under those circumstances they are more part of the problem than part of the solution.

The Problem In A Nutshell

The failure of the church to teach clearly and unambiguously is not only a tragedy, it is a sin which the bishops and priests will have to answer for. Looking around the wreckage that is the Catholic Church compared to what it was when I was a boy is enough to make me cry. I like Fr. Corapi's dichotomy of all the people into Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves. The problem we have is that those who should be Sheepdogs are too often Wolves or Sheep. We could certainly use some Sheepdogs.