Well it may be almost a week after the event but I have now found time to blog about the FAITH winter conference at the "salt free" school of Stonyhurst. It was excellent, though as with most weekend events no sooner are you there but you are leaving!

We had an an interesting journey there as we used Michelles satnav. as she requested I wont say any more about it but we did make it to the conference... via a garden center! Fr Massie convinced us to turn up really early to help set up but most things were sorted by the time we got there. The confernce was on 'Hearig God's word' and it was nice to collect ourselves with mass before the talk began.

Now, and this is why I am rubbish at apologetics, I was going to write a lovely in depth account of the talks however not only have they merged into one coherent talk in my mind but as I was writing I realised that I was bringing in my own proofs and scripture quotes, when discussing this topic area with people. Therefore I shall not go into it (unless my CDs arrive and I get to hear them again). All in all it was an excellent series of talks on a topic which clearly many people are being questioned on at uni, I certainly have had discussions on this area as I have said. It is nice that young people have the oppertunity to go to the well explained talks by FAITH as in my day there were not even youth groups where I lived and being plunged into the icy waters of university, you have to be very in your speedy reading (which I am not) as you are intsantly asked to prove what you believe and why. Oh how I wish someone had prepared me for that!

The outcome of the talk in brief explained in depth the following, the Bible was passed down orally and was then written. Christ apointed Peter as head of his church and Peter double checked that the correct message was being spread. When it came to picking the books of the bible the spirit-lead autority of the church removed books which clearly were not following Christ teaching but also those books which supported other texts but were not adding any additional insights. The Old Testament introduces us to God and predicts Christs coming, the New Testament reveals the message in the Old and the whole bible should be read focused on Christ, as that was how it is written. The Bible should also be read with a Catechism to hand, as Catholics the we look to the Pope for his guidence on moral areas and clarity of the scriptures, which often we can find in the Catechism. We also looked at if the Bible was historically correct and many arrows point that it is, in fact even now acrcheologist are digging up areas that were quoted to have existed in the bible.

As you can see not only have I not written the tip of the iceberg but there were may other points covered... basically you missed out!

The order of the talks was "The Bible belongs to the Church" by Fr Tim Finigan, "Christ – the Key to understanding the Old Testament" Fr Domonic Rolls, "The Gospels – Historical and true" Fr Whats-his-name and "The Bible in our prayer and in our lives" by Fr Patrick Burke.