Hi folks - as you know, the next major section in our Journey through the Gospels is John chapter 6, with the feeding of the multitude (along with synoptic parallels) and the Bread of Life discourse. I am really looking forward to getting into that!
Having said that, I have prayerfully discerned that doing The Journey as a live stream is not really working. The main reason is that it's just too much to expect very many people to organize their lives around it - and I completely understand that - which means I am that much more grateful for those of you who have made the commitment to try to be online with me for the live streams. But for the time being, at least, I'm going to let go of the live format, and do sessions of The Journey as pre-recorded videos, which I will upload to Locals. Then you can watch each session at your convenience. You won't have the immediate Q&A, but I hope you will post your questions whenever you watch the video. Please plan to post your comments and questions to the main feed here in the community (as opposed to commenting on the video itself). That way everyone can see the comment or question, and my response.
I have not yet heard back from one of my publishers about a book contract for 2025, so I don't yet have a sense of the big picture of my work load for this year, but I have some other writing projects I've been asked to do, and my schedule of speaking gigs has ramped up too, so I'm not entirely sure what my writing and podcasting/video schedule will look like this year, but I do hope to have occasional live streams, and/or revisit some of the "venues" (piazza, pub, cafe) that we've tried in the past. I really appreciate your patience as we try things and see what works, and I am committed to doing everything I can to make participation in this community worth your time.
It has always been my hope that this would become a place of conversation, and that I could funnel all comments and questions from other platforms, like YouTube, here to this main feed. That is still my goal, so I encourage you to post here - comments, questions, deep thoughts, prayer requests, reflections on (or questions about) one of my books, recommendations for other books, or movies, or whatever. Although we try to keep this a politics-free and argument-free zone, it is appropriate to talk about cultural issues and how we live our faith in the world. I would love for this to become a place of mutual encouragement.
OK, that's all for now - more info to come - Remember we won't be doing the Saturday morning sessions of The Journey any more - just look for the next installment of The Journey to be uploaded as a video. Sorry to say, it won't be this weekend - I have some homework to do! Just know that I will try to have a new installment more or less every week, but I can't promise to give myself specific deadlines. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions!
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX