Thinking Faith With Eric Gurash And Dr. Brett Salkeld

Join Deacon Eric for this special summer retreat with Mary through the lens of the Caryll Houselander spiritual classic, "The Reed of God." Journey with Mary as a spiritual companion and guide through the nativity, ministry, death, and resurrection of her Son Jesus Christ and discover new avenues to faith, discipleship, and mission. Show Snippet: "Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day for years to this office or that school or factory is nothing else but waste and weariness. But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us, Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile." Retreat Materials: https://bit.ly/ReedOfGodRetreat Find the Reed of God here; https://amzn.to/3Pzky2P

This week Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett discuss an evangelization event at Holy Rosary Cathedral for the Regina Cathedral Village Arts Festival whose overwhelming success not only revealed the deep hunger in the human soul for something more but also showed that evangelization doesn't have to be hard. Show Snippet: "So when we were preparing for this event, we were trying to imagine what kind of, I mean, logistically how many candles do you get for something like this? We thought 300 candles would be generous. A hundred candles an hour. It's almost two a minute. We went through 300 candles in about 25 minutes. All told, we used more than 1200 candles."

In this part 2 of 2 episodes, Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett are joined by Glenmary Home Missioners vice president Fr. Aaron Wessman, author of the book "The Church's Mission in a Polarized World." We'll discuss the modern struggle with polarization within the Church and wider society and look at how best to respond from a Catholic perspective. Show Snippet: "The son of God is sent and crosses over and he unites himself more intimately now with the world, right through the incarnation and it is that movement that is God's movement to come close to us, even in our weakness and our sin in the messiness of the world around us, to unite himself in order to bring about salvation. And it is that movement that is at the heart of any missionary discipleship. It is always a willingness to cross over to the other." You can find Fr. Wessman's book "The Church's Mission in a Polarized World" in your local Catholic bookstore or online at; https://www.newcitypress.com/the-church-s-mission-in-a-polarized-world.html 

Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett get together this week to discuss one of life-s trickiest topics; talking to our kids about sex. When do you start? How do you broach the subject? What do you say? It could be an example to follow, or a cautionary tale but its sure to be interesting! Show Snippet: "If you talk about how cigarette companies are trying to get you hooked early and exploit you and make money off of you. Kids are like, "Hell no."  And so something similar with porn too; te performers are being exploited, but so are you. There are people on the internet who are trying to catch you early and make you a customer for life to serve their ends and make you a slave." 

Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett get together this week to discuss one of life's trickiest topics; talking to our kids about sex. When do you start? How do you broach the subject? What do you say? It could be an example to follow or a cautionary tale, but it's sure to be interesting! Show Snippet: So one of the things that we do in our family, and this especially because we have a range of ages and we're having conversations where there's people who are five are in the room, and people who are in the room. We've developed a set of coded language. It works really well because it's ambiguous enough that it says something true that a five-year-old can understand, but a fifteen-year-old who knows a little more about the mechanics of things can also get what it is that you're saying.

This week Dr. Bret Salkeld sits down with author and poet Dan Sherven in this part two of two, to discuss the differences between Roman and Orthodox Catholic approaches to the problem of sin. Show Snippet: "Kane kills Abel and goes on to found cities just like Romulus. But the difference isn't that you have two brothers killing each other, which happens by the way, in mythology all over the world. But the Bible's unique in actually siding with the victim. And this shows up throughout the Old Testament, the suffering servant in Isaiah, for example."

This week Dr. Bret Salkeld sits down with author and poet Dan Sherven in this part one of two, to discuss the differences between Roman and Orthodox Catholic approaches to the problem of sin. Show Snippet: "You can actually be like, "You know, Western Christians can learn from Eastern Christians that,  this way of talking is a good counterbalance to this other way of talking that has these potential misunderstandings associated and vice versa." Right? And so people who are really good at that kind of dialogue actually generally end up with a really deep and rich kind of theology."

Mental Health in the Bible: David, Elijah, Job, and Paul This week, Deacon Eric breaks open sacred scripture seeking biblical models for navigating mental health challenges. He discusses David, Elijah, Job, and Paul and how their experiences can provide guidance and support for our own challenges today. Show Snippet: "How often depression, especially in the face of feeling as though we have done all the “right” things, leaves us to self-isolation and that desire to “sleep it all away.”  God enters into Elijah’s depression as a friend, offering some words of comfort (though not a solution), a bit of food, and an invitation to rest for a bit.  God’s angelic messenger gave him strength and renewed his purpose, showing Elijah he was not alone."

Dr. Brett Salkeld is joined this week by Mark Hornbacher and Adam Jenke of St. Paul Street Evangelization ministries. In this part 2 of 2, they continue discussing their unique ministry work and sharing stories of their experiences in street evangelization. Show Snippet: "It's that universal call to holiness through the Second Vatican Council that rightly pointed out where we can't give what we don't have. And so if we are growing in holiness, and what do we mean by that, being set apart, uh, praying, going to mass, going to confession...spending time with God, going to adoration, If we're living out our vocations in our own life in such a way that we're continually growing in grace and God provides, in his wisdom through the Holy Spirit, charisms and wisdom to know what to say and when to say it." Learn more about St. Paul Street Evangelization at https://streetevangelization.com/

Dr. Brett Salkeld is joined this week by Mark Hornbacher and Adam Jenke of St. Paul Street Evangelization ministries. In this part 1 of 2, they'll discuss their unique ministry work and stories of their experiences in street evangelization. Show Snippet: "A primary thing was listening to people, hearing their stories, telling your story, sharing the gospel, encouraging people to, to pray, praying with them, inviting them to check out the local parish, listening to their thoughts, their concerns about Christianity, and just having a real down to earth conversation." Learn more about St. Paul Street Evangelization at https://streetevangelization.com/

In light of the Vatican's recent repudiation of the "Doctrine of Discovery", we are very pleased to share the following conversation between Archbishop Donald Bolen and Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith on Archbishop Smith's "Up Front" podcast discussing this latest statement from the Vatican and the true history and context of the Church’s relationship with this so-called doctrine. Show Snippet: "Those definitions going hand in hand speak to any concept, argumentation, and justification for European colonizing powers to come and take indigenous lands. And what the Vatican was repudiating was, in a broad sense, any of those argumentations or justifications used to do so, saying it was never right; indigenous people always had rights." Discover more great conversations on the Archdiocese of Edmonton's Up Front with the Archbishop podcast; https://caedm.ca/upfront/

In this episode, Brett is joined once again by Michael Rainey, a convert from Seventh-Day Adventism and the music director at St. Paul's Co-Cathedral in Saskatoon. Last week, they talked about Michael's conversion and his thoughts on church music. This week, they delve deeper into the topic of liturgical music, discussing its history and controversies. Show Snippet: "Musicians have long been known as a contentious and irrational sort. So it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that this has been a struggle. When you think about the music ministry at mass, there is something, different about it as compared to some of the other ministries that happen."

This week on Thinking Faith, Dr. Brett talks with Michael Raney, a convert from Seventh Day Adventism and director of music at St. Paul's Co. Cathedral in Saskatoon. They discuss Michael's journey to Catholicism and his experiences with church music. Show Snippet: "I grew up in a Catholic family, but I never really felt like I had a personal relationship with God. It wasn't until my early 20s that I started exploring different religions and spiritual practices. I was searching for something that would fill the void I felt inside."

In this part 2 of 2, Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett visit with John Jalsevac about the explosion of interest in Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT the newest large language model AI to be opened to the general public that demonstrates remarkable capabilities and is poised to have profound effects on arts, culture and the way humans think about themselves and others.  Show Snippet: "So if you want to train one of these models how to recognize a cat, for instance, what these programmers will do is they create this neural network using many computers. Then they show it images of, millions of cats, and at the end of it, it can predict that it's a cat with a high degree of accuracy. But a human being can actually detect a cat based upon a very small number. We have this capacity to see things as what they are with almost no effort."

In this part 1 of 2, Deacon Eric and Dr. Brett visit with John Jalsevac about the explosion of interest in Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT the newest large language model AI to be opened to the general public that demonstrates remarkable capabilities and is poised to have profound effects on arts, culture and the way humans think about themselves and others.  Show Snippet: "So you can think of certain novels or short stories where someone is trying to woo another person and, hires their poetic friend to write their love letters. And, at the end of the day, that's problematic because you're expressing a kind of sentiment and feeling that goes so deep that it needs to come from the heart...and now someone who wants to impress a girl could  actually go on to ChatGPT and say, write me a love letter..."

Deacon Eric leads a two-part Lenten retreat with a series of reflections on Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Encyclical Spe Salvi - "On Christian Hope." This week, we reflect on the ways we are called to put our hope into action and incarnate hope in the world. Show Snippet: "Living in hope and working for justice and peace, is precisely how we bear witness to the power of Christ's resurrection and bring his light to the world."

Deacon Eric leads a two-part Lenten retreat with a series of reflections on Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Encyclical Spe Salvi - "On Christian Hope." We'll reflect on the biblical roots of hope, the model of fostering hope found in Israel's approach to salvation history, the fullness of hope revealed in Jesus Christ, and prayer as one of the first and essential schools of hope in our lives. Show Snippet: "We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it. It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater." Spe Salvi 37 Archdiocese Of Regina RENEW Lent: https://archregina.flocknote.com/ArchdioceseofRe3  Spe Salvi: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071

What does the Church teach about the use of CRISPR gene editing technology and other advances in biotechnology? In this part 2 of 2, Dr. Brett Salkeld opens a conversation with Sr. Zoe Bernatsky, professor of Moral, Spiritual, and Pastoral Theology at Newman Theological College in Edmonton, Alberta.

What does the Church teach about the use of CRISPR gene editing technology and other advances in biotechnology? In this part 1 of 2, Dr. Brett Salkeld opens a conversation with Sr. Zoe Bernatsky, professor of Moral, Spiritual, and Pastoral Theology at Newman Theological College in Edmonton, Alberta. Show Snippet: "It's relatively straightforward to change a single gene, and if you've ever watched someone suffer with Huntington's, you would say, "I can, I can stop that by changing a single gene? I will take it. Thank you." It's a good example because it's a straightforward one (but) There's lots of other potential things that might be done that are much more complex when there's more than one gene, and then the question of unintended consequences starts to compound."