Fr Sean's Podcast

Send us a textThe liturgy is the participation of the People of God in the Work of God.We got into the work of God, specifically as seen from the Trinity as a whole and distinctly in their Persons.

Send us a text1. The liturgy glorifies God and sanctifies humanity2. Liturgy is the work of Jesus Christ3. The liturgy drives the economy4. The liturgy uses mixed media5. It demands our active participation6. The liturgy manifests the Church7. The liturgy expresses and causes unity8. Liturgy is a foretaste of heaven9. Liturgy should be beautiful10. The liturgy sings the word.

Send us a textAs we are trying to absorb a hermeneutic (perspective) of continuity, we dove into a few key figures in the contemporary liturgical history who gave form to what is called "The Liturgical Movement."--Dom Proseper Gueranger--St Piux X--Romano Guardini--Odo Casel--Dom Virgil Michel--Piux XII

Send us a textWe get into some good stuff:1) You will die2) Go to heaven3) Life your life to make your heaven self proud4) Don't plan on living forever5) The practical preparation: Spiritual, financial, legal

Send us a textHere we talk about pastoral principles, that is, caring for the person in all the different ways.Also, we talked about the basics of morality:1) You must do what is reasonable to keep them alive.2) You don't have to do everything

Send us a textWe have to keep things balanced. Health and a long life are goods given to us by God, and though they're not the absolute goods of life (think of the martyrs), we must care for what God has given us.Prudence and Temperance are #1 (and #2).We must keep our diets, our sleep, our exercise, our stress, our recreation, our work, our family time all in proper balance, to the degree that it matches our state of life.

Send us a textYou have no permission to be ignorant. Here's a few awesome quotes from the Church:You Must Know: “A training that grounds a man in the basic principles governing the work of the media in human society, as explained above, is nowadays clearly necessary for all.  The means of communication genuinely enrich man's minds if their character and function is understood.  On the other hand, men who do not sufficiently appreciate their importance, may find their liberty diminished.” (comunio et progresio 1971)) The good: “It can “bring about a deeper knowledge and stud of humanity and, with the aid of appropriately heightened dramatic effects, can reveal and glorify the grand dimensions of truth and goodness.” (Inter Mirifica) (inter mirifica, Vatican II) The Truth “Every communication must comply with certain essential requirements and these are sincerity, honesty and truthfulness.  Good intentions and a clear conscience do not thereby make a communication sound and reliable.  A communication must state the truth.” (Comunio et progresio P 17)

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Send us a textThese are complicated issues that have various nuances and distinctions, tune in!

Send us a textThe simplified version is God created us male and female. It is unhealthy to view your healthy body as unhealthy and needing a change. Sex and gender are intrinsically united, though tension may be experienced in unhealthy psychologies. One cannot socially, hormonally, or surgically attempt to because anything other than one's biological sex. If one does so, it's an offense against one's Creator and the best result is being a masculinized woman, or a feminized man.

Send us a textFriends, this was already a question, but it became a very large question in COVID-19. Here's the scoop.Here are resources to know which vaccines are ethically developed without cells lines derived from cells of an aborted child, and those that do.https://www.fli.org.au/aborted-foetal-cell-lines-vaccines/https://ohiolife.org/issues/vaccines_abortion_fetal_tissue/

Send us a textIn this episode, we walk through the basics of sexual morality. So much depends on one's understanding on marriage, and if someone is wrong, their morality is gong to be wrong, too. We must make these truths clear, and we must promote chastity.So, see the Marriage Episode #2-4 to understand marriage from nature and revelation.

Send us a textIn this episode we look at above all the call to mercy in healthcare.  With this base, we dive into the rights and responsibilities of the doctor (healthcare provider in general) and patient, and also the fundamental ways that the relationship between the two can be lived out:1. Contractual (not ideal)2. Paternalistic (not ideal)3. Autonomous (not ideal)4. Covenantal (this is what I'm talking about!)It should be noted that the right to healthcare is not absolute. We live in a world with limits: limits of time, limits of money, limits of supplies, limit on the years of our life.

Send us a textFirst off, don't do it. Why?Utlimately these embryonic children have rights, and so often these rights are ignored.Secondly, children have a right to be conceived, born, and raised in the context of a natural, loving relationship of a husband and wife.Thirdly, each human person has a unique and personal relationship with Christ. Cloning confounds this.

Send us a textHeads up...listener discretion advised as I go into the different methods of an abortion, which are gruesome.Abortion. What's the definition? Whare are basic principles? How do I talk with people about this? Can a human embryo have rights?Tune in!

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Send us a textLife is awesome!Jesus calls us to life, and to even the Divine Life! Pretty wild!It's not just bodily life, but life in itselfWe should have the attitudes of1) awe2) respect3) care4) defense

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Send us a textTo enter into marriage, like all vocations, you've got to discern marriage it! Do I want to enter into conyugal love with this person?There is also the preparation: remote (from kid-years to young adult-years), proximate, and immediate.

Send us a textWe get into it!

Sacraments are instruments, they do what they signify.Sanctifying grace increases.Sacramental graces are made available (constantly), though they might not be able to be fruitful because of mortal sin or lack of attentiveness to receiving it fruitfully.**Through the sacrament of marriage, Jesus' love for the Church is MADE present!There are helping graces for the natural ends of marriage that have now been supernaturalized: procreation/education of children, and to be helpmates to each other.The other category of helping graces is to help re-order marriage, family life, and the world towards divine ends. Marriage, therefore, becomes a remedy for sin, it builds up the Church, and is an element of the substance of our divine worship.

We get into some stuff here:A Sacrament is a sacred sign instituted by Christ to sanctify us and build up the Church.It is a primordial sacrament from the beginning because it is a communion of persons that represents THE Communion of Persons, and because it foreshadows the love of Christ for His ChurchThe administrators are the couple themselves that exchange vows.The sign is the consent of the couple, and the enduring part of the sacrament is the marriage bond.

This is awesome. This is an excellent candidate for wedding readings any day of the week!

Here, Jesus lays out his teaching on marriage by taking us back to Genesis.He highlights the permanence of marriage.He clarifies what constitutes adultery, in an external way and in an internal way.He also talks about Himself as the Bridegroom. That's interesting!

We start pretty fast!It's clear that marriage is hurting as an institution: fewer marriages later in life with less children and more divorces... Tough times...Why? In addition to the selfishness and weakness of the flesh of all times, there is the perceived increase in the expectation of the necessities of life, individualism with its inability to trust and fear of commitment, the objectification of women with pornography, technology that make the fruitfulness of option perceived as optional, and we don't prioritize sacrifice.It comes from a dualism and a materialism.And Pope St John Paul II shows up and brings the Theology of the Body in the nic of time!1) Dignity of the human person2) We are soul and body3) There are two ways of being body--male and female4) The sexual differences reveal the "spousal meaning of the body", that is, we are meant to be gift5) The spousal meaning of the body is fulfilled with the mutual gift resulting in marriage, a communion of persons, which mirrors the Trinity6) Sin ruins this plan, specifically lust which causes an alienation between man and woman.7) But Jesus sets us free and restores what has been broken/wounded.

Rhetoric is the craft/art of Persuasion, persuading someone to adjust an attitude or behavior.  It is made up of three elements:Ethos--the credibility of the speakerPathos--the open frame of mind of the audienceLogos--the message that is clear, convincing and relevant

How can you be a good thinker? Well, it doesn't happen by accident.You need to make an argument that is good, valid (following the rules of logic) and soun (with truthful premises).You can do it starting with more specific thinks and work to general conclusions (inductive reasoning) or work from the general claims to the specific (deductive reasoning).Be aware of fallacies! There are many fallacies that are spewed out by the world (and sometimes by our own lips, yikes).

The first two chapters of Genesis are excellent.But I also take a birds eye view of key figures, the legislative texts, Wisdom literature, and the prophets.

Holy smokes, my friends, I wrote a book! "A Brave New Algorithm" by Sean O'BrienYou can find it on Amazon and Walmart's website. Give it a good rating!In this episode, you'll hear the story behind it, the writing process, what challenged me and fascinated me, and why I think it is awesome!

Natural Law: God has an eternal, beautiful wise plan with which He created the universe. He placed this plan in our very being. We have the intellect to recognize it and the freedom to participate in it.The ends of marriage are (1) the procreation and education of children, (2) the mutual help of the spousesThere are two properties of marriage: (1) exclusivity, and (2) permanence.There are three goods of marriage: offspring, fidelity, and the sacrament.Because marriages naturally result in children, which have an impact on the larger society, society has a right and duty to have reasonable policies and legislation protecting marriage and the family.

See Bob Schuchts Book "Be Healed" for more.An actual or perceived injustice can open the door for us to believe a lie.  That bad belief can then lead to an inner vow, which then opens the door to a lot of hurts in life.Healing happens through1) Chooseing Jesus to be our security, so we can courageously look at the difficult parts of our life.2) Allowing the Holy Spirit to enlighten us through prayer and openness.3) Healing advances by, again, more prayer, community life, unwinding perceptions to believe in the real and complete truth, charity therapy, and accepting our cross.

We're not individualist or communists. We've got to aim at the truth right down the middle.  We have our unique, personal human dignity, and yet we rely on others.This is how to do it:--Solidarity--Healthy opposition--Dialogue

Education! Here's the name of the game.There's a lot of goals for education, but let's be different and say that human flourishing is the top goal towards which all the other elements of education aim.What is human flourishing? Doing what is unique to humans with excellence, aka, using our intellect and knowledge with excellent.  Therefore, maximizing our wisdom and our moral character.  That's the point, and then we spend the rest of the podcast flushing that out.

Integrating means two things:a) recognizing dynamic elementsb) putting them in the right direction (which is towards human flourishing or divine charity)The dynamic elements are:1) The emotionalization of our experience2) Relationality3) Sexuality4) Sensitivity5) Biological DynamismThis is all within the process of: self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and self-fulfillmentThe ultimate solution to apply truth to these different dynamics, and then use our will to move it towards the goodness of that truth. You'll see what I mean!

We dive into this pretty dang deeply!Big Conclusions:--The received is in the receiver according to the mode of the receivers.--All knowledge comes through the senses (unless infused by God)--True knowledge is the real assent, higher than any notional assent.

Natural Law is great!God's eternal law, that is, His wise plan of order and beauty for the universe, was placed into created beings by ordering them through tendency and inclination towards their proper end. The eternal law is placed into the nature of the being itself. The human being can participate in this rationally, and this is what we call the natural law.

We dive into this (after a problem with uploading).This is a look at the structure of the human person, and while it's longer than I anticipated, I believe it is super important. I use the 4 causes of Aritotle to get into this:The efficient cause: A human sperm and a human egg got our bodies started, but it needed an eternal influence to cause our immortal souls to start. Therefore, we must conclude that God infused the soul at the moment of conception.The material cause: That's our body!The formal cause: The soul is the form of the body, it organizes our material elements to be what it is: of human nature. We talked about the powers of the soul, the will, the intellect, the passions, etc.The final cause: That's next time!

This is a longer episode than I anticipated! We cover all kinds of things: where do we come from, the importance of our body, the elements of our soul and its various powers.

I love these kinds of teaching! Seeing how the Old Testament conceals the New Testament, which reveals the full purpose of the Old, and then to see how it is lifted up in our experience of the Resurrected Lord in the liturgy and in our life! This is pretty simple, but I believe profound in its simplicity.

We dive into the topic today, recognizing that with a proper understanding of causality in different ways helps to prepare the way for any argument for God's existence.Newman's argument flows from conscience? Where does law come from? Where does that interior command to do the good and avoid evil come from? To whom are we accountable with the experience of responsibility? Well, it is most reasonable to propose there is a Lawgiver who commands us towards the good and holds us responsible. Him we call God.Thomas Aquinas has his five ways:1) Based on motion or change2) Based on efficient causality3) Based on contingency of all beings4) Based on our experience of perfections in the world5) Based on complex design in the universe

You might like this one--it was easy to include many examples!Remeber, the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Everything must be its own sufficent reason for its existence or it must find it in another. Or, everything must either have a cause or be its own cause.The types of causes:Material causeFormal CauseEfficient CauseFinal Cause

We definitely take a deep dive, but the goal is that I teach with simple principles and sufficient examples.  Please God!This answers the great question of life: what is the basis of all existence? How are things related with each other? Where do I come from? What does it mean to exist?

Aristotle was a monster intellect with a raveningly hungry mind thirsty for wisdom.  Some of his big contributions are to recognize that the material world is important, his thoughts on what happiness is, his focus on studying being, even political philosophy.

Plato is definitely a big dog.  His most important ideas are the working up of the cardinal virtues, the proposal of spiritual realities (the realm of the forms), and the idea of participation.  

 Friends, we continue this podcast series on the Eucharist, getting deeper into Communion.  The foundation of this is the following truth: Receiving Communion presumes communion with God and the Church of God.Baptism gives birth to that Communion.Reconciliation and Profession of Faith heals and restores that Communion.Holy Communion nourishes that communion (it does not make or establish it).

I dive on in here.  The big take away is that the greatest effect of the Eucharist is the Communion, which is our participation in the life of God.  It has ramifications for our life with each other, most definitely, as well.

This is a gamechanger episode, specifically because it changed my game! After learning this, I was so much more able to pray the Mass.Here are a few quotes:a.      Gregory of Nazianzen writing to another bishop: “Cease not both to pray and to plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when with a bloodless cutting you sever the body and blood of the Lord, using your voice for the sacrificial knife.”b.      CCC 1085: “All other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past.  The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is—all that he did and suffered for all men—participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all time while being made present in them all.  The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything towards life.” c.      Feingold: “The logic of sacrifice requires that each person makes his own interior act of self-offering and intend that it be represented by the external bodily sacrifice that is offered on the people's behalf by the priest, who is their mediator before God.”d.      St Peter Chrysologus comments on this : When Paul says this, he “raised all men to priestly status….Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest.  Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you…keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer…Let your heart be an altar.  Then which full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice.  God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will."

Here's the two big takeaways:1) Jesus sacrifice to the Father was infinitely more pleasing than our sins against the Father were displeasing.  Jesus wins the scales of justice to win the outpouring of mercy!2) The sacrifice we offer in the Mass is the same sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  It is made sacramentally present (that is, made truly present mediated mysteriously through signs).