The Busted Halo Cast® is our weekly podcast that answers questions of faith ranging from the simple basics of the Catholic faith to complex dilemmas of everyday life. We also highlight a church to visit that other young adults have found welcoming and vital and preview next week's scripture readings.
Busted Halo’s Fr. Dave Dwyer, Fr. Steven Bell, and Barbara Wheeler-Bride co-host every week offering their faith-filled answers to your questions. You can call-in your questions to (917) 591 8476 or e-mail us at questionbox@bustedhalo.com
Intern-only podcast! Busted Halo Interns Amy Snopek, Alex Ponchak, and Vicki Gruta answer a question about reading the Bible and what helps them gain a better understanding of scripture. Church Search in San Diego.…
John’s Gospel describes Jesus forming a “whip of cords” (John 2:15) and using it to drive out them out of the temple. How can we reconcile Jesus’ apparent anger with the notion of anger being a deadly sin? First, we don’t know that Jesus was angry. We do not have a description of his inner state of mind. What we do have is a description of bold behavior – fierce action. There is a difference between being angry and being fierce. In fact, Jesus’ disciples describe his actions in this scene as reminiscent of a passage from Scripture: “Zeal for thy house will consume me.” (Psalm 69:10) In other words, the disciples characterized Jesus’ demeanor as being zealous, not angry. Finally, for those who dismiss…
This is a very insightful question. Sometimes the differences in interpretation of Scripture and Tradition seem overwhelming. However, unity is possible because Christ prayed for it at the Last Supper “that they all be one…so that the world may believe.” Thus, as John Paul II said in Paragraph 20 of Ut Unum Sint, “the movement promoting Christian unity, is not just some sort of “appendix” which is added to the Church’s traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does.” (See: http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0221/_INDEX.HTM)
So unity is possible, it’s just a matter of how. The principle…
The other day I was reading in Acts 8 about Philip the Evangelist, my namesake, along with some study bible commentary on his history. Even though I was named after him, I have never read these passages before. I finally did because recently I began using a plan to read through the entire Bible in a year.
I’ve led Bible studies, attended college-level classes on scripture, and heard hundreds of sermons about Bible passages. But until now I’ve never read it all — only the “popular bits.” Of course, I’d heard a sermon or two about Philip’s meeting a eunuch on the road to Gaza and baptizing him, but until now I’d never read about the rest of his travels or learned about…
Fr. Dave, Brittany Janis, and intern-of-the-week all brave the swampy studio for a podcast about whether or not Catholics share the concept of the “Priesthood of all Believers” with other Christian denominations. Church search goes all the way up to Alaska. 07-14-10…
Catholics differ from some Christian Churches which accept the Scripture as the only source of God’s revelation. Catholics have a strong belief in the truth of Scripture, but we also believe in tradition as a way in which God continues to reveal truth to us. Tradition can include beliefs, customs, prayers, and worship, the teaching of popes, bishops, theologians and Church councils. It’s our process of continually reflecting on the way in which the Word of God encounters our own experience as a community of faith.
Catholic understanding is that tradition includes the Scripture, and began before the gospels and letters were written. We do believe that Scripture is a unique revelation from God and…
What’s the deal with the book of Revelation? It seems kinda demonic
more than something from God to me.
The Book of Revelation is one of the most misunderstood and abused books
of the Bible. It is easily misunderstood because it is filled with
symbolism whose meaning is often lost on today’s audience. It is abused
because some people take advantage of the seemingly nebulous meanings of
the symbols in the book and assign their own meanings to them in order
to frighten others into thinking that the end of the world is near. So,
why is the Book of Revelation written in such a strange and unique
style? It’s actually a form of literature called apocalyptic literature
which deals, not with a catastrophic…
Question: Who is the disciple that Jesus loved? A nun told me that it was John but then a scripture professor told me something else about it being all of us.
If I could provide the definitive answer about the identity of the “beloved disciple” and publish it in a book, I could probably retire tomorrow on the royalties. Unfortunately, we don’t really know for sure who the beloved disciple is. The phrase appears in the Gospel of John five times. Since this phrase appears only in John’s Gospel and does not appear in the other Gospels, it was traditionally assumed that it referred to John the Apostle and evangelist. Some scholars believe that this was an autobiographical device employed by John to refer to…
This is a little bit like asking, “Why are there different look-out points for the Grand Canyon?” The Grand Canyon is simply too large, complex, and majestic to be taken in from one and only one perspective. In the same way, the experience of Jesus is too grand to be limited to one perspective. For this reason, we are blessed to have four Gospels – 4 different perspectives of the experience we call Jesus. Each evangelist tends to focus on a different aspect of the story. Interestingly enough, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (aka, The Feeding of the 5000) is the only miracle, other than the Resurrection, to appear in all four Gospels. This is an indication to us of the significance of this story which teaches…
The story of Jonah is one of those Scripture passages that we as Catholics would say is a TRUE story, but not necessarily FACT. Catholics believe that everything in the Bible is TRUE in a religious sense. However, when it comes to scientific and historical truth (facts), there are times that the Bible is not totally accurate.
Why? Simply because the Bible comes to us from a time when most people were not literate and certainly not as literal as we are today. They did not have science and history as we understand those fields today. So, although there is a great deal of historicity in the Bible (proven by archeological study), we also find that there are places where figurative language was used. Figurative language (for…
A financial advisor and a scripture professor offer advice on how to navigate the current economic crisis
Whether it is the rising cost of your weekly grocery bill, water cooler rumors about layoffs or the nightly news, everyone is reminded about the downturn in the economy on a daily basis. Last month, the Pope was quoted as saying, “We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing.” While that may be true on a spiritual level, money is an inescapable aspect in our daily lives. If money vanishes, so does our ability to feed, clothe and house ourselves.
For most of our generation, this is our first experience of a global financial crisis. What should the government do? What should we do as Christians? Busted Halo interviewed Timothy Sandoval, a professor of the Hebrew Bible…
Father George Coyne, SJ, former director of the Vatican Observatory, talks with host Mike Hayes about the Catholic Church’s official view on evolution with regards to scientific theories and religious interpretations of the origin of the world. As part of our ongoing series “Googling God: Resources for the Spiritual Seeker,” Fr. Coyne covers topics like:
Is intelligent design science?
Can a Catholic believe in evolution?
Are the stories of scripture scientifically based?
What does science say about our religious beliefs?…
So many Catholics go to Sunday Mass and are not Christ-like during the week. So many "good people" do not attend a formal church service every Sunday. Where in the Bible does it require weekly attending of the Mass? Can a very good Christian or Catholic be a holy person in action and deed including prayer and not be attending the ritual of Mass every Sunday?
One of the ten commandments is “remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then…in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-10).
The commandment doesn’t say anything about going to church; it simply sets aside one day of the week as a day of rest, when no work was to be done. It became customary among the Jewish people, however, to see the sabbath as a day to be “with” God in a special way. Much of their prayer centered in the home, but they also developed…
The other day I was reading in Acts 8 about Philip the Evangelist, my namesake, along with some study bible commentary on his history. Even though I was named after him, I have never read these passages before. I finally did because recently I began using a plan to read through the entire Bible in a year. 
Whether it is the rising cost of your weekly grocery bill, water cooler rumors about layoffs or the nightly news, everyone is reminded about the downturn in the economy on a daily basis. Last month, the Pope was quoted as saying, “We are now seeing, in the collapse of major banks, that money vanishes, it is nothing.” While that may be true on a spiritual level, money is an inescapable aspect in our daily lives. If money vanishes, so does our ability to feed, clothe and house ourselves.
