Podcasts about Augustinian

This summer replay episode features a conversation with Joey Sherrard about his new book The Augustinian Pastor, exploring how the life and theology of Augustine can shape modern pastoral ministry. Drawing from his own journey—especially rediscovering Augustine during COVID—Sherrard highlights how Augustine's work as a hands-on pastor was itself the outworking of and context in which he did his theological reflection. Key themes include the importance of pastoral friendship, the ongoing struggle with pride and sin, and the cultivation of humility through dependence on God. Pastors should see their ordinary work not as a barrier to theological depth, but as the very place where rich, enduring theology is formed.Join a CPT Cohort Program Attend the 2026 CPT Conference

In episode 501, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb dig into the parable of the watchful doorkeeper in Mark 13:32–37 — four tightly packed verses that Jesus uses to call his servants to alertness before his return. But this isn't a passage about spiritual caffeine and white-knuckling your way through the Christian life. Tony and Jesse unpack what "stay awake" actually means through the lens of Reformed theology: active, differentiated stewardship in the ordinary means of grace, faithful vocation in every sphere of life, and a corporate ecclesial readiness that belongs to the whole church, not just the individual. This episode reorients the familiar language of watchfulness away from anxiety and date-setting toward the sturdy, quiet confidence of a believer who knows who they are, whose house they serve in, and why that identity drives everything. Key Takeaways "Stay awake" is a command about identity, not performance. The doorkeeper doesn't do what he does to become the doorkeeper — he's already the doorkeeper. Christians are watchful because of who they already are in Christ, not to earn or secure that status. Vocation is not optional waiting — it's active, differentiated stewardship. Christ's ascension corresponds to the master's departure, and the interim period is characterized by each servant being given his own work, reflecting Calvin's doctrine of vocation and the Reformed insistence that the Christian life between the ascension and the Parousia is not passive. Watchfulness is corporate, not merely individual. The church, as the pillar and buttress of truth, is called to a collective readiness. In Presbyterian polity, every act of a valid church jurisdiction is an act of the whole church — meaning each member has a genuine stake in the faithfulness of the whole body. The ordinary means of grace are the means of watchfulness. Prayer, the Word, the sacraments, fellowship, and sitting under preaching are not supplementary to vigilance — they are the very instruments by which God preserves and prepares his people. Two errors must be avoided: speculative date-setting and practical indifference. Uncertainty about the hour of Christ's return is neither an invitation to calculate nor an excuse for carelessness. It is the very grounds for sustained, ordinary faithfulness. The warnings of Scripture are themselves a means of grace. Following Westminster Confession of Faith 17, the sobering warning of verse 36 is not a threat to the elect's final security but a pastoral instrument by which God preserves his people in living, active faith. The rooster-crowing language of Mark 13 anticipates the Passion narrative. The clustering of watchfulness, the night watches, and the crowing rooster in this chapter echoes the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter's denial — a connection particularly resonant given Mark's traditional association with Peter's testimony. Explanatory Paragraphs Vocation and the Active Interim One of the most theologically rich observations in this episode is the way Jesse frames the master's departure as corresponding directly to the ascension of Christ. The key phrase in verse 34 — "each one his task" — is not incidental detail. It reflects the Reformed doctrine of vocation at full strength: every believer, in every sphere of influence, has been given particular work to do on behalf of the Lord during Christ's bodily absence. This is not a passive waiting room existence. It is an active, differentiated stewardship that is deeply personal and yet accountable to the master who owns the whole house. The ascension does not mean abandonment, and the parable makes that clear by the fact that the servants are left in charge — trusted, commissioned, and expected to be about their work when the master returns. The Church's Corporate Readiness A standout contribution of this episode is Tony's move from the individual to the ecclesial. Drawing directly from OPC Book of Church Order, Chapter 3, he argues that church power is not vested in officers alone but in the whole body of believers. This means that when any legitimate church jurisdiction acts — whether in discipline, instruction, or governance — it is the whole church acting. The parable's doorkeeper is therefore not just a figure for personal piety; he is a figure for the corporate watchfulness that belongs to every member of the household. Tony's point is that a Christian who is disconnected from his local church, indifferent to what is being taught and decided elsewhere in the visible church, is not simply failing at individual holiness — he is failing to be awake in the fullest sense the parable intends. The Ordinary Means of Grace as Watchfulness Itself Perhaps the most pastorally stabilizing insight of the episode is Jesse's observation that watchfulness is not some extraordinary spiritual heroism layered on top of normal Christian life — it is normal Christian life. The ordinary means of grace are ordinary precisely because they are the regular, appointed instruments through which God delivers his grace to his people. Prayer, the Word, the sacraments, and fellowship are not preparatory disciplines that get you ready for the real work of being watchful. They are the work. Tony reinforces this by noting that a person who persistently refuses the ordinary means of grace is not simply being unwise — they are declining the offer of God's grace, which is a far more serious matter than mere spiritual lethargy. Memorable Quotes The doorkeeper doesn't do what he does to become the doorkeeper in this parable. He's already the doorkeeper, and the fact that he's the doorkeeper explains why he's given certain responsibilities and certain commands. That's the way it is for us as Christians. - Tony Arsenal The warnings of Scripture are themselves among the ordinary means by which God preserves His people... the sobering possibility of being found asleep functions pastorally not to threaten the loss of the elect, but to press home the seriousness of watchfulness as the fruit and evidence of genuine faith." - Jesse Schwamb When I go into a patient encounter at the hospital, or when I pull up to a red light, or when I order a sandwich at McDonald's and they get it wrong — I bring with me the fact that I am a Christian, the fact that I am a servant of Christ, that I am a doorkeeper in the house of the living God. - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript Jesse Schwamb: [00:01:00] Welcome to episode 501 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.  Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brother.  Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. Well, we've got some more kingdom teaching on tap right from the mouth of Jesus. We're going through all the parables, if you haven't been tracking with us so far, and we're finding ourselves in Mark chapter 13. And as J- only Jesus can do, packs four verses with all kinds of rich, robust theology, and it's all in this kind of strange setting, actually. A guy heads out of town. He hands his servants the keys. He tells the doorman, "Hey, watch the place," with the same kind of e- enigmatic and vague energy that I imagine, like, your cable internet provider gives you when they give you an arrival time between now and Friday. And then Jesus lists literally, like, every possible hour He might show up, evening, midnight, rooster clock, dawn. And all of this is for His glory and for our benefits. [00:02:00] And we're gonna somehow try to see if we can take all of these four verses, which are so jam-packed, and fit them into our conversation. That's our challenge, and it's gonna be yours to listen to. So welcome to this episode.  Affirm or Deny Segment Jesse Schwamb: But before we do all of that, it is everybody's favorite time. Well, except for Wicked Scriptures. That is really everybody's favorite time. Second favorite time is where we find something in our lives, Tony, that we either affirm with because it's awesome, it's exciting, want everybody to know about it, or conversely, we deny against something because it's just not that great. We don't like it. Don't waste your time with it. So everybody longs to know, in this conversation, are you affirming with or denying against?  Tony Affirms Psalm Music Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming something tonight. Uh, the listener might remember, I don't know, maybe a month and a half back, I affirmed a particular setting of Psalm 63 in the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. And as I was kind of, you know, looking around for, I wanted to find a track to sort of maybe add to the end of the episode just to sort of, [00:03:00] like, put a point on that. I stumbled on, um, a song, singer, I don't know if you'd call him a songwriter, 'cause he's mostly just writing song- psalms. But he's, he's arranging them. He's, you know, writing the guitar line for it or whatever. Uh, his name is Matthew David Montgomery. Uh, I don't know that you would know him from anywhere, but he's on, um- Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, wherever. Uh, he does an arrangement of O God Show Mercy to Us, which is Psalm 63, uh, setting A, I believe, in the Trinity Psalter hymnal. But, um, it's, it's in other hymnals, other psalters, uh, under the same name with the same tune. Uh, he has a beautiful singing voice. He does a lot of, uh, what's typically called, like, finger style, uh, guitar picking, uh, which is just very melodious and very gentle and soft. Um, it would be a great addition to, like, your morning devotional time to just, like, pick a psalm that he sings, that he's, he's recorded. Um, you can get most of his stuff for free on, uh, YouTube, or again, if you have Apple [00:04:00] Music or Spotify, it's available there. Uh, again, his name is Matthew David Montgomery, and he's got several, uh, several albums. He has ones that specifically is psalms called Psalms for Singing. Um, and then he has a couple finger style hymn songs, uh, hymn albums that are like, you know, like I don't know, more modern hymns, He Will Hold Me Fast, Only Holy God- Right kinda like Getty, um, Getty-style and City Alight songs, those kinds of sort of that complex of modern hymnody. Um, but he's excellent, and it's excellent theologically rich sound music. Um, I haven't listened to everything, but he seems like he's in kind of that, uh, sort of vein of worship music production producer peoples, um, that are just putting out good, accessible music. I know, like, a lot of small churches, uh, have in the past have had to resort to using tracks like this actually to sort of lead their vocal music. Um, that would be something to think [00:05:00] about. It's simple. It's arranged in a straightforward fashion. Many times it's arranged according to the psalters, which are by, almost by definition are designed for congregational singing. So it's good. It's great. Use it for family worship, listen to in your car. I don't know, workout music. I don't know if you would work out to this, but I guess you could try. Um- I love it ... but yeah, I usually, I usually listen to, um, Oh God, Show Mercy To Us probably, like, once a day. I listen to it usually in the morning to kinda center my day and get my head in the right space. Um, but yeah, it's just good stuff. David, um, Mi- Matthew David Montgomery, uh, the specific one was Psalms for Singing, but, um, all of his stuff is really great.  Jesse Schwamb: All right.  Jesse Affirms Hymn Devotional Jesse Schwamb: People are gonna think we're totally conspiring now, but I promise we're not. This is just how our minds work in collective fashion, that we never speak about stuff together. So my affirmation is right in the same vein. So I'm actually excited about this one because it might just be the golden age of daily books about, like, theological meditation. It might be. And [00:06:00] so this one is really good, and I'm super stoked because I'm kind of on the cusp of this one because I got an advance copy of this book, and it's just out now. It's called Awake My Soul, and it's daily readings, 365 hymn texts taken throughout church history from the Middle Ages to 1900. And each hymn for the day includes s- a suggested tune and then, like, a short historical slash, like, theological meditation. The beauty of this- Wow One, I'm learning all kinds of new hymns that are not my favorite. Two, you can either read them or... There's no music included in this, except that in the back there's an index that will give you... There's, like, a little code every day. This is like a s- it's your own treasure hunt. There's a little code on each day, and if you take that code and go back to the end of the book, what you'll find there is names of popular hymns or songs that you do know the, the tune to, and then you can take that same tune and use the same poetic meter that the hymn is in that you don't know, and guess what? You can actually sing it. So you're prepared every day to sing [00:07:00] music and to sing brand-new music with great confidence and high conviction. So this is, like, the bridge here. Go listen to some good music. And I would say if you wanna buy this, because it is brand new, go to hymnworks.com. It's by P&R Publishing. That's where you'll find the best price. It's, like, 25 bucks. It's a beautiful clothbound, like, handsome two-color printing with a ribbon. And also Passion Week and Advent are clearly marked and can be adapted for use in any calendar year. So there you go. Like, it's the double-barreled affirmation for good singing, good hymns. By the way, for all the brothers and sisters of exclusive psalmody, we see you raising your hands in the back. Actually, if you're doing exclusive psalmody, you're in the front. So we see you in the front, and this- And you're  Tony Arsenal: probably not raising your hands.  Jesse Schwamb: You're definitely not raising your hand. We see your hands  Tony Arsenal: in your pockets. Jesse Schwamb: We see you standing there  Tony Arsenal: stoically.  Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. We see your hands in your pockets, never coming out. That's fine. Yeah. Uh, this book also is for you because so much of it is actually just, uh, the psalms adapted for kind of [00:08:00] more, when I say contemporary, between the Middle Ages and 1900 worship. So, uh, there you go. I think this is lovely. Uh, we didn't plan it, but you've got two great resources for daily living and daily singing.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Building Daily Liturgy Tony Arsenal: And, you know, I think, um, there is sort of an element, and I'll be quick about this, where we are set up... We have such a, like, a dearth of riches in terms of accessibility to musical worship. And y- you know, used to think of it as, like, daily devotions, but I think the more, I think the more accurate and I think a, a more theologically rich term is a daily liturgy. Right. Um, you know, with books like Be Thou My Vision, um, by I think it's David Gibson, or, you know, he has, like, the Christmas version and the, um, I think there's an Easter version of it where it really walks you through a, a full daily liturg- liturgy with, like, a call to worship and a, a confession of sin. And, [00:09:00] um, and you could take these resources, whether it's an album like David, uh, or, like, um, David Michael Montgomery. That's a country singer, I think. Whatever the guy is that I recommend. I don't have his name in front of me. Uh, whether it's an album like that or whether it's- Right ... this resource Jesse's talking about, or like I've said before, like, just the trendy Psalter Hymnal app on your phone which will play the music for you and display the words. You can take this and there... I, I hate to say it this way because I know there's a lot of people that, that make good profitable use of sort of like evangelical, I would call it, like, fluffy devo kinda stuff. Uh, which ironically on my list of affirmations of things that are in the queue, there's, there's a devotional resource that even kinda falls into this category. Yeah, there is. But, um, there really is no good excuse for not having some sort of robust daily worship pattern. Right. Um, because you can, you can really make use of these resources to create a pretty cohesive, well put-together, pleasurable kind of [00:10:00] daily worship set or liturgy or experience, I don't know, whatever word you wanna slot in there. Um, a- and really get... Like, really just have an excellent experience out of it, really have good resources. So yeah, I'm, I'm on board. I think it's great. I would love to, I would love to be able to, uh, to take a look at that. So maybe next time we're in the same geographical location you'll have to show me. Jesse Schwamb: Oh, I'll bring it. We'll, we'll do it. It actually doubles as a hymnal because it's all indexed, so you can actually- Yeah ... just use it as a hymnal. I love books that give you two purposes. Oh, that's a double threat book right there. And that means, like, for the spaces taken up in your life and on your shelf it can do more than one thing. That's like having a kitchen appliance that, like, I don't know, is like an air fryer and it brews beer. Like, that's worth- Yeah ... the space all the time  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, I just recently found out that they make washers that are also dryers, and they're in the same machine, and- Wow.  Jesse Schwamb: That's transformative ... I  Tony Arsenal: would feel like a millionaire if I had one of those- Reading Mark 13 Parable Jesse Schwamb: 'cause- Well, speaking of [00:11:00] feeling like a millionaire, and I think what you challenge us with is settling in some patterns of daily worship and living for God, it just so happens that Jesus has some instruction for us in that same way- Nice ... in Mark chapter 13. So let me start beginning in verse 32. And if you're tracking along or keeping score at home and you've gone to this chapter, what you're probably gonna find is we're actually in the, the parable of the fig tree, or just at the end. But w- we're not gonna touch that one, not yet, so don't get too excited. We're actually coming right at the end of that. So picking up in verse 32: "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Now, this is Jesus speaking: "See to it, keep on the alert, for you do not know when the appointed time will come. It's like a man away on a journey who, leaving his house and giving authority to his slaves, each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake – for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the [00:12:00] evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning – lest he come suddenly and find you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake." Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  What Stay Awake Means Tony Arsenal: Yeah, it's a good, uh, it's a good parable. And, you know, this is covering a lot of the same ground as other parables that we've, uh, approached. I think what's a little bit, uh, unique or different about this one is that some of the, some of the cautions that we, um, brought out with the other parables, because they were actually longer and had more details, um, some of those cautions don't necessarily apply the same way here. Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: Right? We, we talked about the parable of the 10, of the 10 virgins, or the wise and foolish virgins, whatever you wanna call it, and we talked a lot about how this language of, like, stay awake seemed to be misapplied, uh, as, like, falling asleep is foolish. Because in that para- that particular parable, [00:13:00] um, both the wise and the foolish virgins fall asleep. It's not the falling asleep that was the problem, it was the being prepared, um, for the master's return. Uh, in that case, having the proper equipment, having your, you know, your lamps trimmed, your oil ready, all that stuff. In this parable, um, it really is about being awake. Like, being awake is the task. Yes. It's the specific command. That's right. And so our task tonight is to unpack a little bit about what it even means to be awake, what does this parable say to us about that. Um, but I, I think this one falls a little bit more in line with kind of what we maybe... I know this is weird to say. It falls a little bit more in line with what we've been talking about as a, sort of like a little bit of a legalistic approach to some of the parables. This one really does have, I th- I think, has more to do with, uh, the, the sort of production that Christians are expected to have.  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: The, the, the holiness, the good works we're expected to have, and how [00:14:00] that plays into kind of our alertness, our, our fittedness for service, uh, and, and maybe ultimately even the way that we're rewarded in the last, the last times or in, in heaven. All of that kinda plays in here, and this is kind of like Mark's equivalent to sort of like the eschatological parables that we talked about at, at the end of Matthew in, you know, Matthew 25 and, and sort of that area  Jesse Schwamb: I totally agree.  Vocation and Stewardship Jesse Schwamb: I think this bad boy, even just the first verse, it's like a compact statement of the doctrine of vocation and providence all wrapped into one. And it's easy to read it and just kind of fly by that stuff and say, "Of course, I need to be aware of what's going on. I need to be aware of God's presence or seek Him in worship." All that's true, but there's a lot in this because, of course, the master's departure here corresponds clearly to Christ's ascension. There's like a real bodily absence that nonetheless does not amount to like abandonment. And then to your point, what I think starts to differentiate us from some of like the [00:15:00] other parables where we've been very careful about parsing this, has been this assignment, each his own work. It's reflecting like a really traditional like Reformed, I think, emphasis, even from like Calvin's doctrine of vocation, that the Christian life between the ascension and the Parousia is not one of like passive waiting, but there is like an active differentiated stewardship, and it's every believer. And even though it's just a sentence, there's like a lot of particularity in this to remind us that each one has a task, and that task is something that you should undertake on behalf and for the Lord  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and this, um, the other element of this, um, that I think is interesting is, you know, we don't wanna, um We wanna be careful not to try to build entire theological, like edifices, edifices. I'm not sure which word is right. Edifice. We don't wanna build huge theological structures on top of like slight variations in words. And, and I know that, um, that can [00:16:00] sometimes be very popular in our circles and, and I'm, I s- absolutely support the grammatical historical interpretive method. I don't think it's the only el- only, you know, hermeneutic we should think about. But I definitely agree with the words matter and the meanings of the words matter. Right. But we can also go too far in, like, making an entire theological point hang on the particular choice of a verb pars- like a verb tense or mood or whatever. But I think it's interesting, um, w- the sort of what we might call the parable proper starts in verse 34, but in verse 33 it says, "Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come." That's not the parable. That's Christ giving a command to his immediate audience, and then I think vicariously therefore for us. When we get into the parable and it, and it says, uh, that the command for the doorkeeper, right? So the, he, he takes his servants, he puts his servants in charge, and I s- I take that to mean, [00:17:00] like, he leaves the house to them. Like, he leaves them to their task. They're, they're not, they're not having to report to anybody. They just manage the household- Right ... autonomously or independently. Um, each with his work, so there's this idea that, like, each of the servant has their own proper sort of realm of the house that they manage, right? The gardener's managing the garden, the, the house, you know, the, the, um, the, the person who's in charge of the money is managing that. And the doorkeeper, which is a particular role, his task, his charge, his, he is commanded to stay awake. Now, the phrase, the word for stay awake in verse 30, uh, 34 is not the same word that's used in verse 33. Now, I, I have not done the word study on this or, or the c- commentary work to know how significant that is, but we do affirm that the Holy Spirit inspires each individual word.  Jesse Schwamb: That's right.  Tony Arsenal: And I think we could make an argument that sometimes a word is just used, um, at least on a, on a [00:18:00] human level. It, it's just you don't wanna use the same word multiple times. Like, just like anyone writing any sort of pi- piece of work, you don't use the same word repetitively. You vary the words. You use, use synonyms to, to spice it up and to give it some variety. But also, I think there may be some significance in the fact that within the story, within the parable, the command to stay awake is a particular word, and then a different word to stay awake and to be watchful, and there's this repetition, "Be on guard. Keep awake." Like, those are parallel statements. Um, those, that's a significant thing that that word is different  Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. It's a huge, I think, reminder that there's all... The- even, again, I can't believe how much is packed. Now that I think about this, we start talking about it into, like, a single sentence. But every believer, like every servant in this house, has been given some kind of task suited to his place. I believe that's what Jesus is trying to impress us with. And that idleness is not an option countenanced by the text because the doorkeeper's [00:19:00] particular charge to watch, like you were saying, functions to me, I think, almost like a synecdoche. Like, it's f- for the whole- Yeah ... household's duty. His vigilance stands for what is in fact required of every servant, since verse 37 will then extend this command to, like, everybody. So just- Yeah ... within, like, this little space of writing or this little space of teaching, I think what we have here is, like, it's realistic for us to say we've got the twin realities that ground really biblical ecclesiology in the interim period. We have Christ's real absence, but that's, like, against, I would say, any collapsing of the already into a fully realized eschatology. And then you have Christ's ongoing ownership and authority over his house, which is the church, against any notion that the church is left to autonomous self-governance. So the house, in other words, re- remains Christ's, and the servants remain accountable to him, not to themselves, like you've just said, and each one is accountable to God in a unique way according to the task that he's given them. So again, this beautiful marriage of [00:20:00] both the responsibility, the providence, and the responsibility that we have before God in being responsible to him, but also that he is governing all things for his good and for his glory.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Doorkeeper Role Explained Tony Arsenal: And you know, I think, um, the word doorkeeper here too, uh, you know, as I peek at the Greek a little bit, the word doorkeeper is also a much broader term than, uh, it might seem. You know, like I think, you know, one of my kid's favorite shows is like Curious George, and there's a character in the, the story that's literally named Doorman, and he's just the guy that like opens the door in the apartment that- Right ... Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat. But the word doorkeeper in, uh, in the Greek here, when applied to a, a female, is understood to be like the janitor. So the doorkeeper might even be considered something more like the master of the house. Like think of like, um-  Jesse Schwamb: Lady's ...  Tony Arsenal: uh, like the, the head butler, right? In like if you think of like Downton Abbey, right? Right. The, the guy who actually like takes care of and like [00:21:00] runs, the house manager or something like that might be a better way to look at it. And I think you're right that his charge to stay awake, to keep alert, it does extend to the entire household, but it also is a particular command for that figure.  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: Right? So yes, everybody is given their task. This, this person, this doorkeeper, he is, um, called out specifically, individually, right? It's not as though he's the only servant in the house. There's all these other servants, they each have their task, and they're all commanded to keep about their business. The doorkeeper, the master of the house, the, I don't know, head butler, the head ch- the chief janitor, I don't know what you would want, the head custodian of the house, um, and don't think of custodian or janitor in terms of like- Like the school janitor who like cleans the toilets and mops up after the kids throwing up and stuff. The, the janitor or the custodian of the house is really the person who kind of like runs the household, the sort of like head servant of the house. [00:22:00] His command to keep watchful, to be on guard or to be alert is because, um, the, the master's return is sudden and unexpected. Right. And so if the doorkeeper doesn't keep up with things, if he's not awake, if he's not running things, if he's not managing things, if he's not alert and awake, then not only does his task get, get, um, undone... And I think like we think of it like, "Oh yeah, be on guard." You sometimes hear this parable or, or variations of this parable taught as like you gotta keep the wolves out, like he's the guard at the door. Right. I don't think that's what this is getting at. It's really more like if this, if the doorkeeper s- falls asleep on the job, then the entire house falls into disarray, and you can't recover that when the master all of a sudden is at the gate. If you're just the guard, I guess you might be able to snap to attention and like, you know, pull your pole arm or whatever it is up. Like you might be able to snap to attention and kind of fake it. But if you're the guy who manages the entire household and the [00:23:00] whole household is in disarray because you've fallen asleep on the job, there's no recovering from that when the master taps you on the shoulder and says, "Please wake up, I'm home." You just can't recover from that. And so I think that's, that's the element of the story, the element of the parable that we probably need to think about a little bit more is, all right, w- no one of us is the doorkeeper of the church.  Jesse Schwamb: That's right.  Tony Arsenal: But also none of us are not the doorkeeper of the church. So like we all have a role and a responsibility in, in the church to sort of like be a part of, an active part of the church, an active part of God's kingdom, which is not, I'm not trying to say we're all gatekeepers, right? We're not all called to be r- to rule over the church. Like there's a particular office of ruling elder that I would say exists, uh, you know, that's codified in the OPC. But even within other kinds of s- setups, there's usually some sort of elder, you know, setup where there's elders that are not teaching elders. They're not there to like teach and minister and, and preach. They're there to [00:24:00] like govern the church and support the needs of the body spiritually. That's really, uh, you know, like a particular office, but that's also a task and a role that we all share as Christians is to, to sh- sort of, I almost said shepherd, but that doesn't feel right, but it also doesn't feel wrong. To sort of like manage the business of the congregation and the church- That's right ... and the, the invisible church as a whole. That's the task of every Christian, and that's really what this parable's getting at, I think.  Jesse Schwamb: I think so too. And I, I don't wanna, like, build too far a bridge away from that point. I think it's worth sitting there for a second because what occurs to me as you were saying that is I just happened to be reading Calvin's commentary this morning in 1 Corinthians 5, and he builds this whole theological argument around this idea that he, he basically is saying, "Why should the Corinthians mourn over one man's sin?" And he gives two reasons. First, as a consequence of the communion that exists among the members of the church, it's becoming that all should feel hurt at or so it's deadly if one of their members should fall. And the second is when such an erroneous sin is [00:25:00] perpetrated in a particular church, the perpetrator is an offender in such a manner that he pollutes the whole society. That is to say, I think it's kind of in line with what you're saying, that corruption in one place will affect the entire body. That is like falling asleep, pulling away from the mission Being found outside of the mission of God's, uh, for God's glory is something that hurts the church body. And we might ask, like if there is in our own lives a persistent sin, some kind of corruption, then we ought to ask, is there any form of corruption that we're contributing to the body of God? And I think those, these like real consequences of what it means to live in a way where we find ourselves, again, outside of what it means to worship whole heartedly, to worship with heart, soul, and mind, all of which we do imperfectly. Yet at the same time- Yeah ... are we being awake? Are we being made aware? Watchfulness and Rest Jesse Schwamb: I, I wonder if part of what's envisioned here and in view with Jesus' teaching is not just this idea... Almost like I think sometimes we, we say stay awake or we say be [00:26:00] watchful, and of course like I love that Jesus mentions like the four watches. Like that's, I think, like a distinctly kind of Roman division of the night into four three-hour segments. And of course it's gonna suggest to Mark's gentile audience that, and, and underscore this point, that it's not which watch, but that no watch may be presumed safe from the master's arrival. And so I think when we hear that stuff we think, "Well, this means like don't fall asleep." In other words, like there's going to be a test somewhere in your life or all of your life where you're going to be legitimately tempted to take a rest, and you can't take a rest. You gotta keep like just going thrust or no th- you, there's no other choice- Right ... but to give it your all. I think what's better here and what's in view is in all areas of life, are you awake to the reality that God has given you work to do in the spheres of influence that you have, in the particular place in which you live, among the church people whom He has given you to worship with? Are you aware that at all times you ought to be moving and working and for His glory, [00:27:00] even while you are literally sleeping in rest so that you might do those things for the next day? So I- Yeah ... I don't wanna get too hyped up on it's kind of like, again, what's the spiritual equivalent of always drinking Celsius and Red Bull and just like toughing it out- Yeah like with your eyes wide open. It's, it's way more than that.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, uh, this is gonna seem like a weird transition, but it's, it is but also isn't. Um, I, I saw an interesting video the other... I'm getting super nerdy here right now. But, um, I saw an interesting video on YouTube the other day that was talking about how strange it was that there is like a night shift on the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek Next Generation. But, but actually like- It, it demonstrated something to me that, like, even on a, you know, this is obviously a fictional television show, but, like, even on a spaceship where there is no sun, there is no actual reference- Right ... for what a day is, right? We think of a day, and, and rightfully so, it's locked into a 24-hour cycle because of the [00:28:00] way God has created the Earth to spin, and the sun, and the sunrise, sunset, et cetera. But in this fictionalized universe, in this fictionalized world, there's no sunset. There's no, uh, chronology, yet they still divide on, on this, they still divide the day into these three watches. And it's funny, 'cause they talk about how, like, well, there's, there's the day shift, there's the sort of like second shift, and there's the night shift. And they actually even, like, turn the lights down on the ship to simulate a day-night cycle. And, and what it got me thinking about, and I think in the parable, obviously, like, it's the four watches of the night. Um, I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and, like, when you're gonna do what's called a long rest, you have to determine who's gonna set a watch. If you don't set a proper watch, then the dungeon master may make it so monsters show up and you don't get your long rest. This idea that- Even resting is an appropriate and necessary execution of- Right ... the task to be watchful. That's right. Like, I think that's important. If you are, um, i- if you think of like, uh, Lord of the [00:29:00] Rings, right? And they set a watch. Uh, the responsibility of the people who aren't on watch is to make every, every use of that time to sleep so that if something happens, they're alert. And then when also when it's time for them to take watch, they're able to be watchful. And, uh, the other thing I wanna, wanna just comment really quickly on, because I, I, I didn't do a lot of prep for this episode. Big shocker. We don't prep a lot for these episodes. And this is another Markan parable that I'm not super familiar with.  Church Alertness and Power Tony Arsenal: But one of the things that as we're talking through it I'm, I'm becoming more convinced of, is this really is about not just any one individual being alert, although there is implications for us. It's really about the whole church being alert.  Jesse Schwamb: That's  Tony Arsenal: right. Like, the church is the, uh... I, I think it's in, I wanna say it's in Timothy, I don't know where, but the Church is the buttress and pillar of truth, right? So that's not to say we're the, we're the arbiter of truth, but I wanna read this. The... I don't know any other podcasts, although in our circles there [00:30:00] probably are other podcasts that you might hear someone reading out of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church book of Church Order, Form of Government, chapter three, verse, uh, passage one here. Uh, but this is, this is, as I said, uh, BCO chapter three, Form of Government. Uh, and this is, the chapter is titled The Nature and Exercise of Church Power. And when I was coming into the OPC, I don't think I was surprised, uh, in terms of like I thought the theology was different. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was articulated and how clearly it was articulated. So I'm just gonna read the whole section here. It says, "The power which Christ has committed to His Church is not vested in special officers alone, but in the whole body. All believers are endued with the Spirit & called of Christ to join in the worship, edification, and the witness of the Church which grows as the body of Christ, fitly framed and knit together through, uh, that which every joint supplies according to the working and due measure of each part." Sidebar commentary. The BCO doesn't [00:31:00] have proof text, but if they did, they would just be citing to Ephesians 5 here. Um, back to what the text says. "The power of believers in their general office includes the right to acknowledge and desire the exercise of the gifts and calling of the special officers. The regular exercise of oversight in a particular congregation is discharged by those who have been called to such work by the vote of the people." So just to summarize that, officers, at least in the OPC Um, ruling elders are nominated and voted into, into office and essentially, uh, given their powers, their official powers, their official responsibilities, not by the presbytery, uh, and not by some hierarchy, but by the congregation. They call from within.  Church Authority From Congregation Tony Arsenal: But that, that means that the power of the ruling elders, the, the authority of the ruling elders, is not derived from some hierarchy. It's derived from the [00:32:00] authority and the exercise of power of the whole church. And the other thing, I won't read this, but the other thing that I found, um, really interesting that I really like is in Presbyterianism, and, and I, I believe Presbyterianism is what the Bible teaches positively as a command. I know there are other church polities, and I know everybody is trying to figure it out, and we don't all agree. I think Presbyterianism is the right way.  Jurisdictions And Whole Church Acts Tony Arsenal: But either way, um Presbyterianism works on a s- sort of an idea of, uh, jurisdictions, right? And they're kinda concentric circles. They're not necessarily hierarchical, but it's, it's narrow jurisdictions and then broader jurisdictions. And the most narrow jurisdiction is the session of a local church over that congregation. But what's really interesting is that the, the Book of Church Order calls out that when any valid jurisdiction of the church is exercising its authority, it's not just that jurisdiction that's [00:33:00] acting. That's an act of the whole church, the entire Orthodox Presbyterian Church. So in a congregation where someone is in unrepentant sin and that, uh, session makes a decision, votes a decision to excommunicate that person, to remove them from the rolls, consider them to be an unbeliever, that's not just an act of that jurisdiction. I- i- as a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, when some church in Sacramento, California, I don't know if there's an OPC in Sacramento, I assume there probably is, but some church in Sacramento, California, the presbytery or the session excommunicates someone, I am e- I'm engaged in that act. That's an act of the whole church.  Watchfulness Beyond Personal Piety Tony Arsenal: And this, the, the only reason I go there and I bring, I kind of dive into that level of granularity is I actually think that this is kind of what this parable is teaching, is that as individuals, we need to be alert because the whole church acting is the whole church acting. So whether this takes the [00:34:00] form of me just being really un- un- like, locked into my local church and making sure that I'm active in my local church, or whether... And I think there are some of us who are called to this, um, and I think our, our podcast in some levels sort of takes this shape a little bit, are watching what other people in the church are doing and sometimes are offering corrections, right? It is not the case that an average blogger has ecclesiastical authority in the strictest sense, but when I see, or, or anyone who is sort of involved in online commentary, podcast, blogging or otherwise, I see someone in the church teaching something elsewhere and I call that out, that's me sort of fulfilling this command of Mark 13. I'm being watchful Because what that Christian says or does, if they're truly a Christian, actually does have something to do with what I believe. It actually does have something to do with me as a believer. That doesn't mean that you should get up in everybody else's business. That's not what I'm saying. Like, sometimes- Right ... the thing [00:35:00] that's going on in the church over there is just that thing that's going on over at the church there. But for example, there was a pretty high-profile, um, uh, ecclesiastical, I don't know if it was a trial, but like an ecclesiastical deposition, I guess, um, for a presbytery down in the Southwest, um, about some pretty gnarly things that were being said by an elder in the OPC church, and I wrote to that presbytery. They haven't sent it to me yet, but I wrote to that presbytery and said, "Hey, what you did at that meeting is an act of the whole church that I'm a part of. Can you send me the minutes?" And I have a right to do that, because I wanna see what's going on. I wanna understand what statements they're making on behalf of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of America. Or, I just combined like 1,000 different denominations- Yes, you did. ... into one sentence. But I, I think the point is clear, like the, the parable of the watchful doorkeeper or the porter is not about exclusively, I do think there's an element of it, but it's not about our individual piety. It's about the sort of readiness state of the entire church for [00:36:00] Christ's return, if you really boil it all down  Avoid Date Setting And Indifference Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, so we, I think before we leave verse 35, we, we are at least contractually obligated to say, though we've said it before, that there are two errors here that we should definitely seek to avoid. And because we're talking about, again, this idea that we do not know when the master of the house will come, that is the reason why we wait, and we are watchful, like you just said. But it means that the first is any kind of, like, speculative date setting, which is a fool's errand. We've talked about that at length. Yeah. The second one, again, I think we're contractually obligated to say, is a practical indifference, maybe sometimes dressed as, like, pious agnosticism, like treating the uncertainty of that hour as grounds for some kind of spiritual carelessness rather than heightened attentiveness. So I think where all this wraps up with what you said about one representing all, that, that is the church's responsibility. Yes, you're right. In Timothy we get the command that this is the center and the pillar. So I... That obviously all this coheres with just straight-up biblical [00:37:00] doctrine of assurance and perseverance, because the elect are kept by God's power through faith. So what that means is watchfulness is not some kind of, like, anxious uncertainty about final salvation, but instead it is, like, this disciplined fidelity in the means God has appointed. Ordinary Means Of Grace Jesse Schwamb: And what are those means? Like, I feel like this is where everybody just shouts back, "Ordinary means." You know what I mean? When I say means- ... you say ordinary. Means- Or I should, I should say it the other way around. Ordinary. But this idea that, like, what are those things God has put into our lives, has appointed for us to use, has commanded us to up- obtain for ourselves by his power? It's prayer, it's the word, it's the sacraments. It's a mutual watchfulness within that visible church like you were just describing, and it's precisely because the timing of Christ's return has been sovereignly withheld from creaturely knowledge. So there's actually a lot in this that I think assuages that, that really sensitive Christian conscience, which is like, "Well, are you telling me I have to do more?" That's not what we're saying at all. We're, we're saying, "Do the things which God has empowered you to do." And guess what? Those things [00:38:00] are just very chill, very ordinary things that take on extraordinary influence and power in our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit. So again, it's like this whole thing of saying, like, when we work, we work. When we pray, God works. It's the same kind of thing here. There is work to be done. There is a watchfulness to undertake in all the activities of our lives. But it is not like whatever the, again, the equivalent, like, is of, like, spiritual, I don't know, like shots of espresso and, and Celsius to just try to, like, by all accounts, by your own power, somehow just not sleep. Uh- Yeah ... not sleeping is not what this text is about. It's actually about being aware, worshiping in awareness around all the things, and then devoting ourselves to all the stuff that we keep talking about, to praying, to studies in the scripture, to having family devotions and time of worship, to baptism, and to the Lord's Supper. That's what watchfulness is all about.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:39:00] Yeah, and I, I think, um, you know, this is again I do think this parable has more to do with the idea of kinda getting after it. I, I think that's how we usually talk about it, like getting after holiness. Yeah, it is. Um, I, I think this parable has more to do with that than some of the other parables with similar language that we've talked about. But I, I also think, um, as Reformed Christians, uh, we get the, we get the cart before the horse if we think that even though that's what it's about, that that somehow places the onus on us to do the good works, right? Right. The good works are prepared for us in advance that we might walk in them. And, uh, i- it's not even right to say, like, our responsibility is to walk in them. That's not even quite right theologically. Like, we are going to walk in them. Like, that's, that's the thing, is the doorkeeper is given this charge. He's commanded to stay awake, and in good Augustinian fashion, it's really more along the [00:40:00] lines es- of the doorkeeper is made to stay awake because he's been commanded to. Jesse Schwamb: Yes, that's right.  Tony Arsenal: And I think that's, that's really key.  Fruit Checking And Assurance Tony Arsenal: And yes, there is some- something to say for, uh, fruit checking. And I, I know that there are probably some in our audience that just, like, threw up in their mouth a little bit when I said that. Um, but the, the reality is, a lack of fruit, uh, i- in our life, and by fruit I'm talking about good works. Primarily I'm talking about the ordinary means of grace, like you said. A, a person who is refusing to avail themselves of the ordinary means of grace, right? Right on. Regular church attendance, prayer- Right ... the sacraments, Bible reading, um, sitting under the preaching of the Word, fellowship with other believers. Um, I would even say to some extent regular s- regular financial support of the Church. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and I... There, there are times where that may not be, uh, the most feasible thing, and so that's a decision between you and the Holy Spirit and for you to discuss with your pastor. [00:41:00] But, but the reality is God has given us these ordinary means of grace as a gift and as a way to nourish and support us. When we refuse to take part in those, and I use the word refuse intentionally, when a person refuses to attend church, for the most part most of us who have had a season where we don't, don't attend church, and I, I had a long season when I was in college where I just didn't attend church. There was no good reason for it. I just didn't do it. And if I'm being really honest, it was 'cause at that time in my life I had some sinful patterns that I didn't wanna face up to, right? That's usually what it boils down to.  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: Um, but for those of us who d- who refuse to, uh, take part and to avail ourselves of the ordinary means of grace, that should really cause us to question our salvation. Not because the ordinary means of grace cause our salvation, but because the ordinary means of grace are exactly as they're called. Exactly. They're the ordinary means by which God delivers His grace to us. So if we're refusing to receive God's grace, it means we're refusing to receive God's grace. And the only people ultimately who are not forgiven are [00:42:00] those who receive to ref- you know, refuse to receive God's grace. So I think this, this passage has more to do with us in an indi- sort of on the individual level, us being actively engaged and partaking in the, uh, the administration of the covenant of grace, to use a more technical term, right? The administration of the covenant of the grace are the visible means of grace. If we refuse to be baptized, if we refuse to partake of the Lord's supper, if we refuse to attend church and to sit under the preaching of the word and to pray, then we are, we are turning down God's offer of grace. That's right. We're taking the gift that He desires to give us, and we're saying, "No thank you." Well, when we phrase it that way, it's a flat rejection of God's grace that we're engaged in.  Church Mission And Readiness Tony Arsenal: But on a, on a sort of like big picture scale I think it has to do also along with these lines that I'm talking about of the Church itself being ready. Well, how does the Church prepare itself for Christ's [00:43:00] return? Again, the ordinary means of grace, right? We prepare ourselves by teaching and ministering, right? C- I think it's Colossians 1:28. If I was on Reformed Forum, I'd have this memorized 'cause it's their, like, theme verse. But, like, equipping every person for the ministry of Christ, equipping every person, making sure every person is, uh, mature and ready. Like, all of those things come together as the primary mission of the Church. And I know this is gonna trigger some people, but, like, evangelism is not the primary mission of the Church. The primary mission of the Church is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, which takes place mostly on the Lord's day. I think all of that, the personal dimension, the corporate dimension, all of that coalesces in this command to be watchful, to stay awake, to be on guard, to s- be about the task, to be in charge of the commands you've been given. All of those different concepts come together in what Christ is talking about here in verse 37 when He says, "I say to you, I say to all, [00:44:00] stay awake." Like- Right ... that's what we're talking about. So it's not as simple as personal piety. It's probably not as complicated as some sort of, like, I don't know, least of these, feed-the-poor schema that happens sometimes. All of that happens. It really is just about the Church being the Church and doing the things the Church does, both on the individual level, but also on the corporate level. Perseverance And Scriptural Warnings Jesse Schwamb: And that's why, as loved ones of God, then we can come to verse 36, which is the full warning, and we actually read it as a great comfort. So it says, "Lest he come suddenly and find you asleep." And after all we're talking about here, the way I read this warning against complacency is entirely consistent with, instead of being contradictory to, the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. Because perseverance is not fatalism, and I'm just... I'm still learning this, loved ones. Like, and even here, what I marvel at is the warnings of scripture are themselves among the ordinary means by which God preserves His people. So I go back to the Westminster [00:45:00] Confession of Faith chapter 17, which notes that, "Believers may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, fall into grievous sins, and so incur God's displeasure, even while never finally falling from grace." So that sobering possibility of, of quote-unquote being found asleep I think functions pastorally not to threaten the loss of the election, of the elect, but to press home I think, like, the seriousness of watchfulness as the fruit and evidence of genuine faith, which is what you're talking about. That, that's kind of like the Reformed theological jam in a sense, and that's why, where I think we'd anchor like James 2, Hebrews 3 and 4. There is, like, a call of the necessity of perseverance in the means as the mark of the true as opposed to be merely, of course, like some kind of profession of discipleship. The visible church, and we talked about this too, mixed as it is, is here warned that the formal membership in the household is no substitute for actual wakefulness. And so I hope we see that warning as not something [00:46:00] that's like, "Well, you gotta, you gotta check yourself every day 'cause if you just step out of line once, if you fall asleep at any little thing, then it just goes to show you that you weren't serious enough." Instead, it's like you said, Tony, like even the warning itself is proof positive that God will save, that He arrests, that He holds everything firm and secure, and that even the setting of the table or the preparing of the good works and then the way in which you walk in them, we might ask, how is it that you are even walking? Yeah. And so even this is all an act of God, whether we speak about that, uh, that justification, that initial positional sanctification, and even the progressive frame as well is all f- happens here because God is in fact doing that good work. So it's a good warning because it reminds us that what's, I think, the particular and special dispensation of the Christian is that in this falling asleep, as the Westminster Confession says, it may mean that we fall even into grievous sins. We're incurring God's displeasure. We're not disrupting our [00:47:00] identity in Christ, but we are disrupting our harmony with Christ. Yes. And so we always want to seek and to live in that kind of beautiful harmony where there is, I think, obedience for a word. There is a special fellowship that comes from being close to God in this way. We should always strive after that and want that very thing, but at no point does the Christian who even falls into grievous sins, as the Confession reminds us, fall outside of God's mercy and grace. Merely we fall outside of God's pleasure, and we r- we're finally returned to grace by His power in our lives, whi- which He Himself affects so that even in our fall, even in our death every day, there is a little bit of resurrection that restores us. Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Rapture Ready Misreadings Tony Arsenal: Yeah, another way, um, another way to put this, um, and I, I don't mean to trugger, trig- to trigger, uh, our dispensationalist friends and family who are listening to the show, um, there are I will speak from my own experience coming out of a dispensationalist framework when I was in [00:48:00] high school and early college. Um, there was a lot of focus on being, quote, "Rapture ready." And I, I think sometimes we can read parables like this to think that stay awake means be Rapture ready. And what that means is, like, in some forms of dispensationalism, and I think probably many forms of dispensationalism, there's this idea that, like, if you're not right with God in, in this sense you're talking about, if, like, you're in disharmony with God when the Rapture comes, you may ultimately be saved, but you're not gonna be saved by the Rapture, which means you're gonna have to deal with the tribulation, and that's no good. So, like, if your piety's not on point when the Rapture happens, all your friends are gonna be taken away, and you're gonna be left behind, right? I don't think it's too much of a characteristic- a caricature to talk about Left Behind when there's an entire dispensational book series about this, right? Right. The whole concept behind the Left Behind novel is that it's populated by people who thought they were Christians who weren't. Uh, and some of [00:49:00] those are because they had a false profession of faith. Some of them were just back- what, what a lot of people would just call backslidden Baptists or backslidden Christians who, who had a genuine profession of faith but just weren't living in a holy fashion. I think we can sometimes read this, whether we're dispensationalists or not, we can read these kinds of parables in light of Rapture readiness. I think it's, it's both more assuring and also infinitely more severe than that. Right. It's not about Rapture ready. It's about whether you're saved or not. Right. Whether you are in the kingdom of God, whether you are among the household of believers. All of the people in view in this parable are members of the master's household, right? Uh, they're all his servants. So it's not as though there are some who are, um, outside of his family that are be given, being given a command to be watchful. There's also no consequence implied for the doorkeeper if somehow he's not watchful. It's more along the lines of if you're in the faith, if you are the doorkeeper or a [00:50:00] doorkeeper in the g- in the king's house, then you ought to be watchful because that's what you do. And so there's no, like, implied consequence. There's no assumption that the doorkeeper somehow won't be watchful. So I think if there's any sort of, like, gut check, status check that needs to happen, it's really more along the lines of are we in the Lord's household or are we not? That's right. That's right. And I think that's, that's what you're getting at. If we're in the Lord's household, if we're members of his house, if we're servants in his kingdom, then we will be awake when the time comes. We will be awake when he returns.  Rooster Crow And Passion Echoes Tony Arsenal: And the other thing, and I'll just throw this out there maybe as a tease. I don't, I don't think there's enough here for us to come back to it next week, uh, although I've been wrong before, and sometimes Jesse and I have conversations right after that turn into the next episode. I think it's really interesting- I don't know if you ran into this when you were reading it, but- Yeah ... verse 35: "Therefore stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at [00:51:00] midnight or when the rooster crows," that's a very interesting phrase to me- It is, yeah ... "or in the morning." It's just another chapter or two when- Yeah ... we see the disciples fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? Gethsemane. Um, the disciples fall asleep. We see language of the watches, right? The, the hours that Christ is alive and dies on the cross are associated with the watches. Right. And then of course the rooster crowing. And it's a very well-known, um, uh, I, I don't wanna call it a fact 'cause that might be too strong, but it's a pretty accepted, uh, theory in, in the sort of, uh, academic understanding of the, the authors of the Gospels that Mark, uh, Mark actually represents Peter's testimony. That the sort of a- apostolic imprimatur of the Gospel of Mark is actually that M- John Mark, probably while he was ministering with Peter, was being told these, this account, and he's collecting Peter's, Peter's [00:52:00] statements on the events of the Gospel It is very interesting to me that this phrase about the rooster crowing associated with being watchful and ready in the service of the master- Yep would appear particularly in the gospel that's asso- associated with Peter. Right. And I'll throw that out there just as maybe food for a discussion- ... in our Telegram chat, but I do think e- even that is sort of for our benefit, right? Right. We're not talking about, uh, this isn't a parable about what happens when you betray Jesus and hang yourself with a rope, right? This isn't, this isn't Judas who never was a believer. If we're drawing this peril- parallel, this is a parable about Peter, or related to Peter's experience, uh, who was restored, who ultimately had a moment of sleepiness, I guess, both physically and, you know, spiritually here. Had a moment of, of sleepiness, but ultimately was awake when the master came. That's right. And I think, like, there's something there for us to tease out, and, and again, [00:53:00] maybe we'll leave that for the Telegram chat. Maybe that's just for your own personal study. I've done zero commentary work, so maybe this is a connection that I feel- ... is super novel, but actually everyone else makes. Um, but I just thought it was really interesting how closely that language, that sequence of the watchfulness, the watch, sleepiness, awakefulness, and the rooster crows, how closely that lines up to the events that w- would be if we were going through Mark sequentially- Yep ... we would be encountering in just a couple chapters, right? In just chapter 15. They're coming up. Um, we're talking about this exact thing. So it's very interesting to me, is it... The Holy Spirit is amazing in how He has put together this. Yes. Even if, even if that is a super tenuous connection, it's still a connection. And- Agreed ... I have a tough time thinking anyone who's familiar with the, the passion accounts would read this and not go, "Woo." That's a lot of language from the passion account. It's a lot of- Yes ... language related to what happened in just a few chapters.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes. I'm with you. Like we said, there's so much that's within these couple of verses, and you'd have to think if you were reading this with brand-new eyes, [00:54:00] with eyes that never seen this text before, and you were just going straight through, you'd come in just a few short chapters to that whole narrative in Gethsemane and be like, "What? Did he, didn't he just, didn't this guy Jesus just say to them- Like be watchful, stay awake. And here they're... Isn't that ironic? Here they are in the garden, and he said- Yeah ... to them again, "Stay awake." They fall asleep. He comes back, he's like, "Could you not watch for one

In this episode of The Big Picture, Patrick speaks with leading religious and political journalist Catherine Pepinster to examine the soft power, geopolitics, and spiritual influence of Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost).Episode HighlightsThe Rise of Pope Leo XIV: How the Augustinian friar and former missionary in Peru became leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, positioning him as a unique "American outsider" on the global stage.Clashes with the White House: An analysis of the high-profile disputes between Pope Leo, Donald Trump, and Vice-President J.D. Vance regarding foreign intervention, rhetoric on Iran, and controversial religious imagery.Reinterpreting "Just War" & AI: Discussion of the Pope's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which tackles the ethics of artificial intelligence (developed with input from tech figures like Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah) and argues that traditional just war theory is outdated.The Global Shift in Faith: Examining religious trends across the globe, from youth curiosity in the UK to rapid church growth across the Global South and Pentecostal shifts in South America.UK Politics & Vatican Diplomacy: How new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's Catholic upbringing influences his social values, and an insider look at Vatican diplomacy—including Archbishop Sir Paul Gallagher's mission to Moscow.Join the Conversation: If you have a question about the war in Ukraine or any of the conflicts we cover, email us at podbattleground@gmail.comFollow us on:X - @PodBattlegroundInstagram - podbattlegroundProducer: James HodgsonA Goalhanger Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris is away, so Jo and Alex soldier on alone for a deep dive into Romans chapter one. After a quick recap of last episode's discussion on authorship, occasion, and audience, they move into the text itself, working through it in three sections: verses one to seven, eight to fifteen, and sixteen through to the end of the chapter.  The first section covers Paul's dense opening sentence, in which he stacks up three self-designations: slave, apostle, and one set apart for the gospel - that foreshadow themes he unpacks across the rest of the letter. Jo and Alex trace the Hebrew and Greco-Roman background behind these titles, before turning to verses sixteen and seventeen, which they treat as the theme statement for the whole book. Much of the middle of the episode is given over to "the righteousness of God," running through the Augustinian, Reformed, and "New Perspective" readings, and landing on N.T. Wright's suggestion that the phrase carries covenantal, forensic, and eschatological layers all at once.  The back half of the chapter, Paul's account of humanity exchanging the Creator for creation, gets careful handling. Jo and Alex read verses eighteen to thirty-two alongside the Wisdom of Solomon and the early chapters of Genesis, arguing Paul is diagnosing a universal human condition rather than pointing to any one group or behaviour. It's a thoughtful reminder that Paul's argument is building toward the conclusion that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, stands in need of the same solution. Resources The Epistle to the Romans - Douglas Moo (NICNT) Romans - Thomas Schreiner (BECNT) Romans - Beverly Roberts Gaventa (NTL) The Epistle to the Romans - Richard Longenecker (NIGTC) The Epistle to the Romans - Leon Morris (PNTC) Big thanks to Tim Whittle for editing and extra production on this podcast. Get more info at Riverlife Church, and find us on Facebook and Instagram.Subscribe to Bible Streams on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon.

Against persistent fear of death, mortality avoidance, and the vices that emerge from terror management, this episode offers a personal testimony of a Christian experience of dying. With scientific precision, disarming honesty, and immense gratitude for life, biologist Jeff Schloss offers an intimate, firsthand account of his recent diagnosis of an extremely rare terminal neurological disease: multiple system atrophy (MSA). His doctors put the prognosis plainly: "It is terminal, it is incurable, and it's rapidly progressive." A longtime and beloved Westmont College biology professor and senior scholar at BioLogos, Schloss offers speaks directly to the experience of dying—as he encounters each new week of this rapidly progressive disease. He reconsiders the meaning of a "good death": increased gratitude and awareness of gift, the reality of pain, the loss of surfing and guitar-playing, the sacredness of family, and the surprising nearness of Christ as everything else falls away. A profound witness to Christian attitudes about life and death, Schloss seeks not a hero's death, but a daily, humble life-giving commerce with Christ. Schloss revisits a life that began in a nonreligious Jewish refugee family and pivoted through a dramatic conversion as a college-dropout surf bum in Hawaii. He traces what has changed, and what hasn't, now that death is no longer an abstraction but a daily fact in his body. With pastoral care and hope, Mark Labberton explores with Schloss what it means to experience dying rather than simply anticipate it, the grief of losing fifty years of surfing and guitar-playing to pain and paralysis, the gift of Simone Weil's writing on suffering, the Heidelberg Catechism's opening words on "our only comfort in life and in death," and the difference between the thrill of surfing and the sacredness of family and commerce with Christ. Episode Highlights I knew from the second grade that I wanted to be a scientist. I was out collecting butterflies and dragonflies and looking through microscopes at all sorts of things that I couldn't believe were there. As we were talking, it just occurred to me ... he either had what I wanted, or he was clinically crazy. It is terminal, it is incurable, and it's rapidly progressive ... the process of dying I find it fascinating ... It's not fun, but it is fascinating. She wasn't sad just for herself, I'm gonna lose you. And she wasn't sad empathetically just for me, so sorry for you. It was a joint sadness that the life we had hoped to share together, we are not gonna have. The things that are most life giving are out of reach ... I've come to see it's actually not true. The things that have been delightful are out of reach ... the thing that is most life giving, and that is commerce with Christ. I think it was the single most thrilling day of my entire life ... I said, no, those weren't thrilling, those were sacred. I don't want to market this season. I'm not looking for a hero's death, or any kind of publicly attended death. I would have never guessed that in this home stretch, my son and wife could carry me up the slopes of Yosemite Valley. About Jeff Schloss Jeff Schloss has spent four decades at the intersection of evolutionary biology and Christian theology. Now retired as Distinguished Professor of Biology at Westmont College, he continues as senior scholar at BioLogos, working alongside Francis Collins for more than fifteen years. He co-edited "The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion" and "Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective," a Templeton Science-Religion Book of Distinction winner. He has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard. Helpful Links and Resources Jeff Schloss's page at BioLogos, where he serves as senior scholar: https://biologos.org/people/jeffrey-schloss Finding Faith: An Evolutionary Biologist Shares His Story, Schloss's own video testimony for BioLogos: https://biologos.org/resources/finding-faith-an-evolutionary-biologist-shares-his-story Tackling the Divide Between Science and Faith, Westmont Magazine's profile of Schloss's career: https://www.westmont.edu/magazine/spring-2025/tackling-divide-between-science-and-faith The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion, Schloss's co-edited volume: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-believing-primate-9780199597086 Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective, Schloss's Templeton Award-winning co-edited volume: https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802826954/evolution-and-ethics/ Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism, source of the Augustinian science concept Schloss references: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/where-the-conflict-really-lies-9780199812097 Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 1, the confession Labberton reads to close the episode: https://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/1.html Multiple System Atrophy overview, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/multiple-system-atrophy Show Notes Childhood in a nonreligious German Jewish refugee family Grandfather taken by the Gestapo, relatives lost in the Holocaust Early love of butterflies, dragonflies, and microscopes A sixth-grade encounter with Confucius sparks a love of philosophy College philosophy major searching for purpose and for God Dropping out, becoming a surf bum in Hawaii A stranger's dinner invitation becomes a turning point A late-night prayer of surrender met by an unmistakable presence Grad school pairing biology, philosophy, and the study of altruism Alvin Plantinga's Augustinian science and reading creation with a map Decades as senior scholar at BioLogos alongside Francis Collins Why church and science drifted apart over vaccines and politics Science as a reliable path to facts, not truth itself A new diagnosis: rare, terminal, rapidly progressive neurological disease—multiple systems atrophy (MSA) Doctors estimate an average of three years, with wide variation The difference between studying death as a biologist versus the real-time experience of dying A spouse's grief for a shared future that will not happen Losing surfing and guitar-playing as an unplanned kind of fasting Pain described as systemic, exhausting, disorienting Cognitive decline and dark humor about it Distinguishing what is thrilling from what is truly sacred The ache of no longer being able to research and create A flicker of despair met by a choice not to despair Wanting a real death, not a hero's death A wish to thank former students and colleagues before the end Not wanting to become a burden to family Giving God all of one's heart, without earning salvation by it Bonhoeffer's costly grace versus cheap grace Gratitude over entitlement as the ground of faith Simone Weil on suffering as a place grace can work A closing blessing and the Heidelberg Catechism's opening words Carried up the slopes of Yosemite by a son and a wife #ConversingPodcast #MarkLabberton #JeffSchloss #FaithAndScience #BioLogos #MultipleSystemAtrophy #Mortality #ChristianFaith #Westmont #Gratitude Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank opens with a Facebook question from someone who asked, “Is it unbiblical to call yourself a Calvinist or an Arminian; a Lutheran or an Augustinian?”Hank also answers the following questions:How could God fulfil a land promise in 1948 to a people we know genetically did not exist? Dan - CT (2:49)Can a Christian go to hell for doubting God one day and believing the next day? Derek - Indianapolis, IN (8:55)How should I confront a Christian who is gossiping? Dan - Vancouver, BC (15:11)Was Pilate washing his hands a sign of him feeling guilty or him justifying his actions? Jeff - Western, NE (17:02)I grew up in a dysfunctional home, and I am going to meet with my family. How should I handle this situation? Brenda - Flint Hill, MO (19:42)

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (06/23/26), Hank opens with a Facebook question from someone who asked, “Is it unbiblical to call yourself a Calvinist or an Arminian; a Lutheran or an Augustinian?”Hank also answers the following questions:How could God fulfil a land promise in 1948 to a people we know genetically did not exist? Dan - CT (2:49)Can a Christian go to hell for doubting God one day and believing the next day? Derek - Indianapolis, IN (8:55)Why was Eve not scared that a serpent could speak? Could animals speak in the Garden of Eden? Lance - OK (15:11)Are near-death experiences legitimate? Sheila - Brooklyn, NY (20:52)My friend says that he's been talking to the spirit of his deceased wife. How can I explain that this is not his wife? Annie - Wichita, KS (22:14)

As promised, here is our episode about Pope Leo XIV's recent encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, in which he brings to bear Catholic social teaching on the perils of artificial intelligence and what they reveal about what it really means to be human being. It's a distinctly Augustinian reading of our nature and destiny, marked not just by Leo's attention to our limits as flawed and fallible creatures, but the joy and hope found by living into them—which, finally, becomes his plea to see life from the perspective of the lowly, the downcast, the abandoned.  To help us explain such a rich document, we had on our friend Jack Hanson, one of the most perceptive American writers on the Catholic Church. We tease out the connections between this Leo's first and encyclical and that of his namesake Leo XIII's Rerum novarum, an intervention on behalf of working people during the industrial and considered the origin of Catholic social teaching; Leo's "Augustinianism"; the encyclical's critique of artificial intelligence and what that has to do with its account of what really makes us human; and more. Sources: Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica humanitas, May 15, 2026 Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891 Jack Hanson, "A Serious Man: The Militant Mysticism of Charles Péguy," Commonweal, May 3, 2021 – “The Heresy of Americanism,” The Drift, Jun 10, 2025.  Michael Oakeshott, "The Tower of Babel" in On History and Other Essays (1983) Reinhold Niebuhr, "The Tower of Babel" in Beyond Tragedy: Essays on the Christian Interpretation of History (1937) Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” (1985) ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

Welcome to a warm summer's evening in a Medieval barn, complete with twilight birdsong, for Three Ravens Live @ Chiltern Open Air Museum!Set across 45 acres of the Chiltern Hills, "COAM" rescues endangered historic buildings and reconstructs them at its picturesque site - one where a working historic farm and traditional craftspeople continue Buckinghamshire's old folk occupations and ensure they live on in the modern day. Learn more here.This recording, made last Saturday evening, is a celebration of not just COAM and the Chiltern Hills but the entire county of 'Bucks' - a place once ruled over by the pagan king Cymbeline, through which Woden dug a very big ditch, and where Little Witches might hypnotize your sheep before hippy-hopping away over the nearest hedgerow...From the county's ancient gold and silver mints at Aylesbury to the furniture makers of High Wycombe - at least two of whom stuck around after death - local delicacies including the Buckinghamshire Bacon Badger to Augustinian monks catching devils in their shoes, Bucks might not have a particular reputation for being folky, but that's only because the county's people have been keeping quiet about it! Including performances of traditional folk songs Green Bushes and The Barley Mow by Ben and Eleanor, and Eleanor's haunting live performance of local folktale A Promise Kept with dramatic live underscoring, it's an evening to remember, interrupted by a pigeon and topped off with a Q&A session with our lovely live audience!We really hope you enjoy it, and will speak to you again on Monday for the penultimate episode of our Bonus Series Magic and Medicines, all about Familiars and Animal Magic!P.S. We recorded a whole second episode after the audience went home, during which we explored the museum's historic buildings and searched for ghosts between midnight and 2am. We still have work to do to edit it all together, but that decidedly spooky recording will be coming out on the Three Ravens Patreon during July!Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England or Wales' 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of a traditional story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county - and Live Shows come out on Saturdays.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?REGISTER FOR THE TALES OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND TOURVisit our website Join our Patreon Social media channels and sponsors Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first American pope is making time for a racket sport for physical and spiritual health. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.

In this episode of The Future Is Human, I'm joined by theologian and blogger Larry Chapp for a wide-ranging conversation on Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Larry — who writes at GaudiumEtSpes22.com and is a regular contributor to Catholic World Report — brings his characteristic blend of patristics, Augustinian social thought, and sharp Vatican-watching to the document. We dig into the encyclical's Christological anthropology, the Pope's Augustinian reading of the Tower of Babel, the tech-bro backlash, why AI will never achieve consciousness, what the encyclical gets right and wrong on just war theory, and what we're still hoping Leo writes next. Larry Chapp's response to Magnifica Humanitas at CWR: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/05/27/why-i-think-magnifica-humanitas-is-a-pointed-and-prophetic-gut-punch/ Larry's blog: GaudiumEtSpes22.com Magnifica Humanitas : https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

In today's episode, we hear from Joyce Russell, the Helen and William O'Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business (VSB) from 2016 to 2023. Under her leadership, her college strengthened faculty research output, enhanced student programs, upgraded facilities, and established programs aligned with Villanova's Augustinian mission. She expanded alumni efforts and employer connections with the college, while driving fundraising and celebrating the school's centennial year. Today, Joyce has rejoined Villanova's faculty as Dean Emeritus and serves as a Professor of Management and Operations. Joyce is also a Licensed Industrial & Organizational Psychologist and Executive Coach. For over three decades, Joyce served as an executive coach in the c-suite. More interestingly though, she has extended her practice over the last decade to also spend time coaching business school deans and provosts. In addition, Joyce has also set up a new program in collaboration with AACSB called “The Dean's Journey” which we will hear about in this episode – a program intended to help deans as they start new deanships. Joyce lends her expertise on several subjects, including:- internal vs external salary negotiation- the right time to negotiate- the renewal process- the importance of getting it in writingLearn more about Joyce Russell.Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note.Thanks for listening.-Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts--DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn FerryDeansCounsel.com

Hour 1 for 5/22/26 Drew and Ed Morrissey from HotAir.com discuss the recent DNC Autopsy report about the 2024 election (3:23). Topics: midterm election (17:55), and mayoral race in LA (22:55). Then, Augustinian priest Fr. Tom McCarthy discusses the life of St. Rita of Cascia (30:05), and her stigmata (39:24). Calls: my grandma's healing (41:46) and cancer healing (48:08). Link: http://stritashrinechicago.com/ hotair.com x.com/edmorrissey

Send us Fan MailImpossible situations have a way of shrinking our world. A strained marriage, a family feud that won't die, grief that rewrites your future, prayers that seem to hit the ceiling. We're sitting with Saint Rita of Cassia because her life meets all of that head-on, and she refuses to let despair have the last word. Known across the centuries as the patroness of the impossible, Saint Rita doesn't offer a neat story. She offers a faithful one. We trace her journey from Roccaporena, Italy, where she longed to give her life to God, into an arranged marriage marked by anger and conflict. Rita's response is startling in its simplicity: prayer, patience, and daily acts of forgiveness. Over time, her steady love becomes an instrument of conversion in her own home, a reminder that grace often moves slowly and quietly. If you're searching for Catholic hope for a difficult marriage or family tension, her witness is practical, human, and tough. Then the losses come: her husband is murdered, and her sons are tempted toward revenge. Rita's anguished prayer asks God to protect their souls, even at a cost she never wanted to pay. From there, we follow her path into the Augustinian convent in Cassia, her life of service and penance, and the mystical wound she bears as a sign of union with Christ. Along the way, we share simple ways to grow devotion to Saint Rita of Cassia through prayer cards, medals, and a consistent prayer life rooted in trust. If you've been staring at a closed door, let Saint Rita teach you how to knock with courage. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review with the “impossible” you're praying through.More about Saint Rita of CasciaOpen by Steve Bailey Support the showChat with US 24/7 Ask us anything https://chatting.page/mjxs9aerrtgm3lmpndlcepmbyosntrjnDownload Journeys of Faith App for Iphone or Android FREE https://journeysoffaith.com/pages/download-our-appJourneys of Faith brings your Super Saints PodcastsPlease consider subscribing to this podcast or making a donation to Journeys of Faith Help us Grow!Why you should shop here at Journeys of Faith official site!New Mega Search Engine!Lowest Prices and Higher discounts up to 50%Free Shipping starts at $18 - Express Safe Checkout Click HereCannot find it let us find or create it - - Click HereRewards Program is active - click Here

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter Optional Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia, 1377-1457; after the death of her husband and two sons, she sought to become an Augustinian nun; after six years of petitioning, she was accepted in 1413; she was greatly devoted to the passion of Christ and to serving the sick nuns in her community; she is invoked as a patron of difficult cases, especially those involving marriage Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for5/22/26 Gospel: John 21:15-19

Full Text of Readings Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter Lectionary: 301 The Saint of the day is Saint Rita of Cascia Saint Rita of Cascia's Story Like Elizabeth Ann Seton, Rita of Cascia was a wife, mother, widow, and member of a religious community. Her holiness was reflected in each phase of her life. Born at Roccaporena in central Italy, Rita wanted to become a nun but was pressured at a young age into marrying a harsh and cruel man. During her 18-year marriage, she bore and raised two sons. After her husband was killed in a brawl and her sons had died, Rita tried to join the Augustinian nuns in Cascia. Unsuccessful at first because she was a widow, Rita eventually succeeded. Over the years, her austerity, prayerfulness, and charity became legendary. When Rita of Cascia developed wounds on her forehead, people quickly associated them with the wounds from Christ's crown of thorns. She meditated frequently on Christ's passion. Her care for the sick nuns was especially loving. She also counseled lay people who came to her monastery. Beatified in 1626, Rita of Cascia was not canonized until 1900. She has acquired the reputation, together with Saint Jude, as a saint of impossible cases. Many people visit her tomb each year. Reflection Although we can easily imagine an ideal world in which to live out our baptismal vocation, such a world does not exist. An “If only ….” approach to holiness never quite gets underway, never produces the fruit that God has a right to expect. Rita became holy because she made choices that reflected her baptism and her growth as a disciple of Jesus. Her overarching, lifelong choice was to cooperate generously with God's grace, but many small choices were needed to make that happen. Few of those choices were made in ideal circumstances—not even when Rita became an Augustinian nun.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Fr. Iggy O' Donovan reflects on the papacy of his old Augustinian classmate, Pope Leo XIV, a year into office, including recent interactions with the US White House. He talks about the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland and globally and why some younger people seem to be staging a quiet religious revival by turning back to the Catholic faith.

In honor or the anniversary of the election of Pope Leo XIV, we are reposting this episode on Augustinian spirituality.Fr. Barnaby Johns, the Provincial of the Province of St. Augustine for the Order of St. Augustine (OSA), discusses the unique gifts of Augustinian spirituality.Watch a short video about St. John Seminary's Online in M.A. in Pastoral Ministry Program: https://vimeo.com/790530996If you are interested in learning more about the online M.A. in Pastoral Ministry Program for lay students at St. John's Seminary, email Dr. Stuart Squires at mapm@stjohnsem.edu

On this edition of Catholic Forum, Justin McLellan joins the show for the third in a miniseries looking back at the legacy of Pope Francis and the first year of Pope Leo's papacy. Justin is a native of Wilmington and attended the Sanford School before Notre Dame University and has spent the last several years as a journalist at the Vatican. Justin is currently the Vatican Correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org). In this episode Justin shares his experience traveling to Peru soon after Pope Leo's election to meet with the people who knew "Father Prevost" and what the differences in Jesuit and Augustinian spirituality can tell us about how Pope Francis and Pope Leo both approached their role as Pope. Each week you can listen to The Catholic Forum podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music podcasts and    / dioceseofwilm   every Wednesday; and on Relevant Radio 640 every Saturday afternoon at 1:30 for those in the Delmarva/South Jersey region. More information is available at cdow.org/CatholicForum and Facebook.com/CatholicForum. Catholic Forum is a production of the Office of Communication of the Diocese of Wilmington (supported by the Faith and Charity Appeal!) Please like, subscribe and share.

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text MessageThis is a video and audio podcast.   here's the video:  The headline said “The First American Pope,” and within hours the storyline hardened into something neat, political, and overly confident. I didn't buy it, so I went to the source that most commentators skipped: Paul Kengor's new biography, American Pontiff. What I found is a much sharper, more interesting profile of Pope Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost) than the media's early labels could handle.I break down three claims that spread fast and aged poorly. First, the “Francis 2.0” frame: Kengor's research points to an Augustinian mind shaped by St. Augustine's tough realism about grace, sin, and truth, not a personality-driven sequel. Second, the Peru narrative: years among the poor do not automatically equal liberation theology. We talk about what liberation theology actually is, why Rome scrutinized it, and why Prevost's record in Peru looks more like holding the line on sacramental life and formation than riding a political wave.Then I tackle the biggest hot take of all: that 133 cardinals from 70 countries picked a pope to send a message to Donald Trump. That theory collapses once you remember the Catholic Church is a global institution that thinks in decades and centuries. A fast fourth-ballot consensus, Prevost's leadership in the Augustinian order, and his Vatican role overseeing bishop appointments worldwide tell a more grounded story than “conclave as cable-news chess.”If you care about Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican, Catholic Church leadership, and how media narratives get built, listen now, share this with a friend who only saw the headlines, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Key Points from the Episode:• why “Francis 2.0” misses Pope Leo XIV's Augustinian framework  • how Augustine's realism on grace, sin, and truth shapes leadership  • what liberation theology is and why Peru does not equal leftist politics  • how Kengor documents Prevost pushing back on Marxist preaching  • why the “anti Trump conclave” take is American-centric  • what a fast fourth-ballot consensus suggests about the cardinals' priorities  • why Prevost's Vatican résumé matters more than cable-news narratives  • a quick clarification on why I still don't expect a Benedict-style papacy  Now, real quick, if this is the kind of books plus news breakdown that's useful to you, hit that subscribe button.  Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources.Other resources: Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you **high five and knuckle bumps**, we appreciate it greatly!

Brad and Paul discuss the attached sermon, of how it is that the church seems to no longer be a resistant community, as Paul and Origen would have it, "putting on the full armor of God," and how it is that Augustinian just war theory, and its exterior/interior division points to a morally compromised church and culture marked by the rise of Jeffrey Epstein and friends. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Did John Calvin faithfully follow Augustine of Hippo, or did he selectively use him for Reformation purposes?In this episode of FACTS, we examine the real historical relationship between Calvin and Augustine on grace, justification, the Church, apostolic succession, the Eucharist, prayer for the dead, and purgatory.Many claim Augustine was basically Protestant before the Reformation. But is that anachronistic? The better question may be whether Calvin was truly a good Augustinian.We walk through direct quotations, historical context, and where Calvin aligns with Augustine—and where he sharply departs.Topics include:Augustine on grace and free willCalvin on predestination and human inabilityJustification: made righteous or counted righteousAuthority of the Catholic ChurchThe Eucharist and sacramental realismPrayer for the deadPurgatorial purificationWas Augustine closer to Catholicism or Calvinism?If you'd like to donate to our ministry or be a monthly partner that receives newsletters and one on one discussions with Dr. Stephen Boyce, here's a link: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=6381a2ee-b82f-42a7-809e-6b733cec05a7#Augustine #JohnCalvin #Reformation #ChurchHistory #Catholic #Protestant #Calvinism #Theology #Eucharist #Purgatory #EarlyChurch #FACTSPodcast

Dr. Nicolas McAfee, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Economics at Christendom College previews the May 12th 2026, conversation he will have at 7 p.m. in our Lyceum Auditorium (313 Duke St.) with Dr. Shaun Rieley, the Director of Educational Programs & Teaching Fellow at Hillsdale College's Washington, D.C., campus. Their topic is titled "Thomas More: Augustinian Statesman." Click here for more information. 

1215 - Side - famous person who excelled in more than one career 1220 - Just how bad is this little leaguer's behavior? What did Allante say in front of City Hall today? 1230 - Remember when Elise Stefanik called out the UPenn President and other Ivy League Presidents for not condemning anti-Semitism? She joins us and reminisces on the highest watched hearing in US history. How does her book detail on how we as an American society got to a point like this in our schools? How tremendous have been the Ivy League students speaking out on the atrocities they see on their campuses? How does the book detail those stories, including good actors and bad, schools that are doing things right, and deterring bad schools from continuing hateful practices. What does she think of the Eric Swalwell situation and the zero tolerance policy that must be re-implemented back into Congress? What's next for Elise? 1250 - Your calls. 1 - After an electrifying performance at City Hall today, Allante McAuley joins us in studio today. What was it like today? We revisit his performance. Are these bills City Hall is proposing just all theaters to show their base that they're trying to do something? What is Allante trying to show as an elected state committee member, to both the public and fellow committee members? What event is Allante doing this weekend? How did the Goerge Floyd summer help shape Allante's thinking? 115 - Why is RFK Jr. back in the news? Your calls. 120 - Who is this PA Representative talking out of her behind on education and funding? 130 - Why is Brian Fitzpatrick continuing to distance himself from Trump? Will Embiid play vs the Celtics? 140 - Your calls. 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild! 155 - Your calls. 2 - Pastor Bill Devlin joins us from Northern Nigeria today! What kind of work has he been doing there and what kind of stories does he have to tell? What does Bill think of the Pope latest comments on war, especially from an Augustinian? What is the “Just War” theory? Why do cardinals wear red? 215 - Dom's Money Melody! 225 - Your calls. 235 - The new affordability nemesis? FIFA! 240 - Your calls. 250 - The Lightning Round!

1215 - Side - famous person who excelled in more than one career 1220 - Just how bad is this little leaguer's behavior? What did Allante say in front of City Hall today? 1230 - Remember when Elise Stefanik called out the UPenn President and other Ivy League Presidents for not condemning anti-Semitism? She joins us and reminisces on the highest watched hearing in US history. How does her book detail on how we as an American society got to a point like this in our schools? How tremendous have been the Ivy League students speaking out on the atrocities they see on their campuses? How does the book detail those stories, including good actors and bad, schools that are doing things right, and deterring bad schools from continuing hateful practices. What does she think of the Eric Swalwell situation and the zero tolerance policy that must be re-implemented back into Congress? What's next for Elise? 1250 - Your calls. 1 - After an electrifying performance at City Hall today, Allante McAuley joins us in studio today. What was it like today? We revisit his performance. Are these bills City Hall is proposing just all theaters to show their base that they're trying to do something? What is Allante trying to show as an elected state committee member, to both the public and fellow committee members? What event is Allante doing this weekend? How did the Goerge Floyd summer help shape Allante's thinking? 115 - Why is RFK Jr. back in the news? Your calls. 120 - Who is this PA Representative talking out of her behind on education and funding? 130 - Why is Brian Fitzpatrick continuing to distance himself from Trump? Will Embiid play vs the Celtics? 140 - Your calls. 150 - Dom Giordano Presents: Progressive Women Gone Wild! 155 - Your calls. 2 - Pastor Bill Devlin joins us from Northern Nigeria today! What kind of work has he been doing there and what kind of stories does he have to tell? What does Bill think of the Pope latest comments on war, especially from an Augustinian? What is the “Just War” theory? Why do cardinals wear red? 215 - Dom's Money Melody! 225 - Your calls. 235 - The new affordability nemesis? FIFA! 240 - Your calls. 250 - The Lightning Round!

Donald Trump's onslaught against the Pope is almost overshadowing his first visit to Africa.  The US president accused Leo of being soft on crime, untroubled by the prospect of a nuclear Iran, and in league with the radical left. Trump's angry about the pope's repeated criticism of the US and Israeli war on Iran. But Leo says he's not afraid of Trump. Has there ever been such a deep rift between a pontiff and a major world leader and what are the implications? Vatican historian and commentator Professor MASSIMO FAGGIOLI is with Trinity College, Dublin. While he was in Algeria, the first stop on his Africa trip, Pope Leo visited the Basilica of St. Augustine. It's near the ancient ruins of Hippo Regius. He walked in the footsteps of St Augustine of Hippo, who lived around the year 400 AD. Leo's an Augustinian priest so he was returning to the home of his spiritual father.In the occupied West Bank village of Taybeh, radical Jewish settlers continue their campaign to seize the land long owned by one of the last unified Christian communities in Palestine. Now the Christians are turning to Pope Leo, hoping he'll visiting their village and ramp up pressure on the Israeli government. The parish priest is Fr. BASHAR FAWADLEH.Soon after he returns from his 10-day trip to Africa, Pope Leo will finish his first encyclical. It's almost certainly on the opportunities -- and dangers -- of artificial intelligence. The perils of AI, especially on higher education, have prompted Notre Dame University to set up a new Centre for Technology and Human Futures. The director is Associate Professor VICTORIA LORRIMAR. GUESTS:Professor Massimo Faggioli is professor of ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College DublinFather Bashar Fawadleh is parish priest in Taybeh, a Christian village in the middle of the West Bank in Palestine.Associate Professor Victoria Lorrimar is director of The Centre for Technology and Human Futures at the University of Notre Dame

This episode features a conversation with Joey Sherrard about his new book The Augustinian Pastor, exploring how the life and theology of Augustine can shape modern pastoral ministry. Drawing from his own journey—especially rediscovering Augustine during COVID—Sherrard highlights how Augustine's work as a hands-on pastor was itself the outworking of and context in which he did his theological reflection. Key themes include the importance of pastoral friendship, the ongoing struggle with pride and sin, and the cultivation of humility through dependence on God. Pastors should see their ordinary work not as a barrier to theological depth, but as the very place where rich, enduring theology is formed.

Hi there hello audient, how've you been?The end, they say, is near. Some say this end is the apocalypse.Others call it "a new Middle Ages" ..sorry, I mean "East". Some say 'end' with the meaning of goal - for example the goal of the war on Iran - and shift the definition of 'end' according to the means they can afford...War as capitalism in other means I guess.Due to the unfortunate combination of our illustrious MC being quite unwell, and Sagi having seemingly fallen down a particularly steep and slippery economico-theologico-geo-politico rabbit-hole-o - -                  ..it might have become a tad monological at times.The thread that starts us off concerns the "raw" nature, or feel, of this war. American liberals opine over Bush that bothered to lie at least; he spoke around the oil, not through it (or to it for that matter).But the political chaos of this war - the lack of inhibitions in doing, as Chancellor Merz says, "our dirty work" - does serve to expose a hand that prefers to remain invisible (Max Weber would say it has spiritual aspirations). And it also exposes a structure, and a problem, with a long, seldom discussed, history. The invisible hands of the "secular" west's global capitalism can be uncannily traced to the first Crusade in 1095; where a power-drunk Pope called for the destruction of the vile race that defiles the Holy Land (incidentally solving much internal strife and crime, as the first 70% of his speech suggest)...Seen in this more nuanced lens, this conflict was a long time coming. The seeming insanity of everything about this war, the feeling that no one is holding the Westphalian reins, leaves only the most ancient of hands to steer the course of events.But the real issue is one of Sovereignty - a secularized (Christian) theological concept based on their conception of 'God' (and the violence that this concept did to the Jewish 'Hashem'). This problem never stops rearing its head whenever Christians find themselves in conflict; the Eastern/Western Church schism, the Crusades that were used to "blow off steam" of intra-Christian aggression ("Go attack the heretic Muslim! (instead of robbing our clergy...) We must save the Holy Land!"), the way that an Other like itself (universalist, potentially Imperial, economically relevant) immediately conjures messianic fires in the religious (and supposedly "secular") world, aching for an apocalypse.The peace of Westphalia took all that religious animosity of yet another Christian schism (the Reformation), and channeled it inwards; classic Augustinian move. If "all" cannot resolve the problem of sovereignty - i.e. how to respect difference under a metaphysics that presupposes access to, and comprehension of, both God's totality and infinity. The very logic of Westphalia is already Protestant; access to God, to the Sovereign, was only further internalized by Luther who gave it to the "individual" believer, but the indivisible, absolute sovereignty of 'God' remains. Its claim remains; now in individual hearts that can snap at any moment, spontaneously, as if manifesting destiny.And this is the framework through which we read this conflict. Considering the westphalian system and the effects of forcing it on the Middle East, the reasons for which this system was forced and enforced in the first place (hint: it's not to bring any enlightenment, and certainly not democracy, to the yum yum oil-rich region), the fact that it caused a structurally antisemitic pressure that resulted in the solution of "Israel," its uncanny protection by 'western liberal democracies' (often blatantly double-standardized...), and also dissolve the nagging question of "does Israel have a right to exist"The rest is up to you, audient.Are you still there..?...

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Dcn. Harrison discusses the last two cantos of the Purgatorio (32-33) with Joshua Charles of Eternal Christendom and Dr. Frank Grabowski of Holy Family Classical School. We are reading the ODYSSEY NEXT! Check out our 12-week schedule.See our collection of written guides to the great books!Check out Joshua Charles' Eternal Christendom.Check out Holy Family Classical School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.They explore the symbolic significance of Beatrice's role in guiding Dante through his spiritual journey, highlighting her as a representation of divine grace and wisdom. The conversation also touches on the allegorical elements of the sacred tree and the griffin, which symbolize Christ and the intertwining of spiritual and temporal authority.The episode further examines the complex allegories of spiritual and temporal power, focusing on themes of judgment, schism, and the corruption within the church. The guests discuss Dante's critique of ecclesiastical corruption, particularly involving figures like Boniface VIII and the Avignon Papacy, and how these historical contexts are woven into the narrative. The prophetic visions of church corruption, represented by the harlot and the coming hero, the Greyhound, are analyzed for their implications on Dante's vision of divine justice and societal renewal. The discussion is enriched with references to biblical texts, especially the Book of Revelation, which heavily influences Dante's imagery.Throughout the episode, the philosophical underpinnings of Dante's work are explored, with particular attention to the influences of Platonic, Augustinian, and Thomistic thought. The conversation transitions from the individual soul's purification journey to broader societal and political reflections, emphasizing the need for harmony between spiritual and temporal powers. The episode concludes with reflections on Dante's vision for renewal and hope, encouraging listeners to consider the allegories as guides for personal sanctification and societal transformation.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Context of the Podcast03:07 Exploring Dante's Purgatorio06:02 The Role of Beatrice and Grace08:50 Imagery and Symbolism in Canto 3212:06 The Pageant of Church History15:00 The Griffin and the Tree of Knowledge17:53 Temporal vs. Spiritual Authority20:45 The Significance of the Pageant23:57 Concluding Thoughts on Dante's Vision29:18 The Role of the Church in Governance30:01 Wealth and Temptation: The Weight of Luxury32:13 Temporal Authority vs. Spiritual Purpose34:26 The Emergence of the Dragon: Schism and Violence36:05 The Transformation of the Chariot: Corruption and Power38:47 The Harlot and the Giant: The Church's Grotesque Reality42:37 Dante's Perspective on the Papacy and Authority49:35 The Need for a Temporal Leader55:41 The Prophetic Vision of the Future01:00:21 The Purifying Power of Temporal Authority01:04:21 The Role of the Tree in Justice01:06:47 Understanding the Moral and Anagogical Senses01:10:46 The Discord Between Heaven and Earth01:16:42 The Significance of the Two Rivers01:22:40 Baptism and the Renewal of the SoulGood work on reading the Purgatorio!We have a few episodes from THE ASCENT up next and then we are reading the Odyssey.

Send a textWe trace Saint Louise de Marillac's journey from noble beginnings and deep personal loss to a life poured out for “our lords the poor.” We follow how Eucharistic devotion, patient discernment, and partnership with Saint Vincent de Paul shape the Daughters of Charity and offer a living model of mercy for the Church today. • early life in 16th century France shaped by privilege, uncertainty, and grief • prayer, education, and interior resilience forming compassion for the marginalized • discernment as a slow surrender to God's will rather than a single choice • marriage, caregiving, and widowhood as a hidden school of selfless love • founding the Daughters of Charity as service beyond cloister walls • Eucharistic devotion fueling corporal works of mercy in streets, hospitals, and orphanages • suffering, illness, and doubt transformed into persevering trust in divine providence At Journeys of Faith, inspired by the Augustinian charism and grounded in Eucharistic centrality, we invite you to walk in her footsteps, to seek God in contemplation and serve Him in every suffering face.Open by Steve Bailey Support the showChat with US 24/7 Ask us anything https://chatting.page/mjxs9aerrtgm3lmpndlcepmbyosntrjn View all of our blog posts here https://journeysoffaith.com/blogs/eucharist-mary-saints Download Journeys of Faith App for Iphone or Android FREE https://journeysoffaith.com/pages/download-our-app Journeys of Faith brings your Super Saints Podcasts Please consider subscribing to this podcast or making a donation to Journeys of Faith we are actively increasing our reach and we are seeing good results for visitors under 40! Help us Grow! ***Our Core Beliefs*** The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our Faith." Catechism 132 Click Here “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” 1Thessalonians 4“ ...

In this episode of Chasing Leviathan, host PJ Wehry sits down with Dr. Yuval Avnur, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanities Institute at Scripps College. They dive into Dr. Avnur's new book, Why Read Pascal Today?, and explore why Blaise Pascal remains one of the most vital voices in the philosophy of religion.Dr. Avnur challenges the traditional understanding of Pascal's Wager. Rather than a cold, calculated bet designed to force belief, Avnur explains that Pascal viewed human nature fundamentally as a "heart with a belief-forming mechanism attached to it."Together, PJ and Dr. Avnur discuss:Pascal's Augustinian roots and his skepticism toward "pure reason"Why the condition of our hearts dictates the evidence we are willing to seeThe "crisis of desire": Why endless distraction leaves us unsatisfiedWhat does a 17th-century philosopher have to say about our modern lives? Dr. Avnur breaks down why we can have every comfort at our fingertips yet remain entirely empty, and how a "Pascalian" approach can help us engage with one another more humanely—seeking to understand the heart rather than just winning the argument.Make sure to check out Avnur's book: Why Read Pascal Today?

The United States and Israel began bombing Iran just over a week ago. Iran responded by bombing their aggressors' allies in the Gulf States. Hundreds are dead and the purpose of the war remains unclear. We discuss the latest developments, examine the theocratic system in Iran and whether Christian nationalism influences the Trump administration. Taking part are Tara Kangarlou journalist, author of The Heartbeat of Iran and adjunct professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC and by Oliver McTernan, director of Forward Thinking- a mediation and conflict resolition NGO.The group of Conservative Anglicans, known as Gafcon, met in Nigeria's capital Abuja this week. They are opposed to the appointment of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury - Sarah Mullally. There are 95 million Anglicans around the world with the Archbishop of Canterbury being their spiritual figurehead. It had been thought that Gafcon would elect their own leader and cause a full scale split but instead they elected their own leadership council. Madeline Davies from the Church Times has been following the story.We also talk to Prof. Daisy Fancourt on how being involved with artistic pusuits, whether it's dancing, reading or visiting msuems and galleries, can lower the risk of developing depression, lower blood pressure and ease chronic pain. And Brian Heffernan- an expert on Augustinian history talks about his new book on Pope Leo the 14th and whether being an Augustinian is more important to The Pope than being American.

"Rational Mind and Non-Rational Agency: Aquinas' Augustinian Account of the Sinning Will & the Hierarchy of the Soul", a lecture given by Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis at Thomas Aquinas College, New England, on February 27, 2026. Part of Thomas Aquinas College's St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series.

Send a textA medieval count opens his granaries, breaks bread at church doors, and pays with his life—yet his witness refuses to fade. We follow Blessed Charles the Good from royal exile to Eucharistic bravery, revealing how real leadership looks when a city goes hungry and markets turn cruel. The result is a gripping portrait of faith with sleeves rolled up: prayer that becomes policy, devotion that becomes distribution, and a martyr whose justice still speaks to crowded food banks and quiet kitchen tables today.We start with Charles' early formation in Denmark and Flanders, where Augustinian spirituality shaped a heart inclined to the poor. From there, the story surges into the famine of 1124: corrupt merchants hoard grain, prices spike, and Charles acts. He opens storehouses, organizes daily bread lines at Saint Donatian's, and confronts profiteers with clear moral courage. Listeners step into the scene—cobblestones, hunger, and a count who refuses indifference—before entering the cathedral where conspirators strike as he kneels in prayer. His blood seals a testimony already written in loaves and mercy.From history, we pivot to now. We map medieval shortages to modern hunger—food deserts, wage precarity, and conflict—and ask how Eucharistic love should move us. Along the way we highlight the corporal works of mercy, the power of just governance, and stories of providence from across Catholic tradition. The thread is constant: charity that costs us something changes everything. Expect practical takeaways on fasting that frees resources, almsgiving that preserves dignity, and community efforts that turn parishes into places of daily bread and shared hope.If this journey opens your heart, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who cares about justice, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then take the next step: support a local pantry, examine your buying habits, and let worship overflow into works that feed both body and soul.Open by Steve Bailey Support the showView all of our blog posts here https://journeysoffaith.com/blogs/eucharist-mary-saints Download Journeys of Faith App for Iphone or Android FREE https://journeysoffaith.com/pages/download-our-app Journeys of Faith brings your Super Saints Podcasts Please consider subscribing to this podcast or making a donation to Journeys of Faith we are actively increasing our reach and we are seeing good results for visitors under 40! Help us Grow! ***Our Core Beliefs*** The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our Faith." Catechism 132 Click Here “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” 1Thessalonians 4“ Click Here ... lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...” Matthew 6:19-2 Click Here...

IL – Father Tom McCarthy joins Patrick to discuss Listening During Lent As an Augustinian what was Pope Leo trying to say with his letter? (5:10) What prevents us from listening to God during Lent? How can we combat temptations to distractions when trying to listen to God? (13:41) what does it mean that Pope Leo says Docility is at the core of conversion? (17:02) Carol - I didn't have a way of listening, but I have one now...with Fr. McCarthy. I'm listening to him and he is phenomenal. He's humble, sort of quiet, and he's just phenomenal. So blessed in my spirit right now. Just want to say thanks for being there. (20:08) Break 1 Judy - I'm 83. Got married a long time ago. We got back from our honeymoon, and I said, 'Let's go to church.' He said we weren't going to do that. Felt cut off for the longest time. Needed a spiritual meeting and went to a Quaker meeting which is silent. Had liturgical dreams...would be in the church and dreamed in procession. Couldn't make the dream go away. Went back to episcopal church for a while and husband said we should go to Catholic church. It's been wonderful. (27:55) Leo - Listening now and my whole life. 81 and don't know what to do with the rest of my life. Talked to priests and they tell me to pray, and don't seem to get anything from it. (31:12) How does Fasting help us listen to God? (35:48) Break 2 (40:09) Fasting from Gossip? (42:32) Beth - Discerning God's will. Something I've always struggled with and felt I never got an answer. Sometimes no answer is THE answer and we expect something specific. Maybe God doesn't have that planned for us. Why doesn’t God always speak to us more clearly? Resources Listening and Fasting: Lent as a Time of Conversion https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2026/02/13/260213d.html

Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Mayor Mamdani, JD Vance, and more. A friend of Pope Leo XIV shares Augustinian insight into the Holy Father's Lenten message.

How has Pope Leo's papacy gone so far? How has he been approaching things? Has it been a change from Pope Francis? We'll break it down with Father Arthur Purcaro, an Augustinian friar who worked with Pope Leo before he was Pope Leo

In this episode of Thinking Christian, Dr. James Spencer is joined by Dr. Greg Quiggle to continue the German Reformation series—this time focusing on Martin Luther’s years in Erfurt and the startling turn that led him into the Augustinian monastery. Luther wasn’t headed toward ministry. He was a brilliant student on track for law, positioned to become his father’s “golden ticket” in a world with no social safety net. But beneath the surface, Luther’s life was haunted by a question that medieval Europe could not escape: What happens when I die—and how can I stand before a holy God? Greg places Luther’s fear and guilt inside the lived world of late medieval Germany—where death was constant, God was often imagined as perpetually angry, and the Church shaped the calendar, the culture, and the imagination of everyday life. The episode then centers on the famous storm moment: Luther, terrified by lightning, cries out to St. Anne and makes a vow—“Help me, and I will become a monk.” Unlike so many foxhole vows, Luther follows through. From there, James and Greg explore what life in Erfurt’s Augustinian monastery likely entailed: regulated prayer, ascetic discipline, study, and the grinding pressures that could intensify Luther’s already sensitive conscience. The discussion highlights the deep irony of Luther’s early story: the monastery was supposed to bring peace—but for Luther, the spiritual “solutions” only made the struggle worse. The episode ends by setting up the next move in the narrative: the relationship between Augustinian theology, Luther’s extreme ascetic practices, and the transition toward Wittenberg under the guidance of his mentor/confessor, Johann von Staupitz—where the next stage of Luther’s transformation begins. Quotelos Travel offers small, expert-led “Tours for Ten” that provide an intimate and unforgettable way to explore church history and culture with guides who truly know the locations. Learn more at quotelostravelservice.com, and check out their upcoming trips to Germany, England, and Switzerland. Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. Today is part three of my book report on David Bentley Hart's book called That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. The past two weeks we covered the beginning of his book, the Introduction. I'm going to begin this section by reading out of his final remarks, because he does a good job of simplifying his arguments here at the end of the book. So we'll start with that. Hart says on page 201, It may offend against our egalitarian principles today, but it was commonly assumed among the very educated of the early church that the better part of humanity was something of a hapless rabble who could be made to behave responsibly only by the most terrifying coercions of their imaginations. Belief in universal salvation may have been far more widespread in the first four or five centuries of Christian history than it was in all the centuries that followed, but it was never, as a rule, encouraged in any general way by those in authority in the church. Maybe there are great many among us who can be convinced to be good only through the threat of endless torture at the hands of an indefatigably vindictive god. Even so much as hint that the purifying flames of the age to come will at last be extinguished, and perhaps a good number of us will begin to think like the mafioso who refuses to turn state's evidence because he is sure he can do the time. Bravado is, after all, the chief virtue of the incorrigibly stupid. He goes on to say, I have never had much respect for the notion of the blind leap of faith, even when that leap is made in the direction of something beautiful and ennobling. I certainly cannot respect it when it is made in the direction of something intrinsically loathsome and degrading. And I believe that this is precisely what the Infernalist position, no matter what form it takes, necessarily involves. And to remind you, if you didn't hear the past two episodes, Infernalist refers to the notion that there is an unending hell of pain and torture for the unregenerate or the unrepentant. Further down page 202, Hart says, I honestly, perhaps guilelessly, believe that the doctrine of eternal hell is prima facie nonsensical for the simple reason that it cannot even be stated in Christian theological terms without a descent into equivocity, which is equivocation, so precipitous and total that nothing but edifying gibberish remains. To say that, on the one hand, God is infinitely good, perfectly just, and inexhaustibly loving, and that, on the other, he has created a world under such terms as oblige him either to impose or to permit the imposition of eternal misery on finite rational beings is simply to embrace a complete contradiction. All becomes mystery, but only in the sense that it requires a very mysterious ability to believe impossible things. [Jumping down the page, he says,] Can we imagine logically, I mean not merely intuitively, that someone still in torment after a trillion ages, or then a trillion trillion, or then a trillion vigintillion, is in any meaningful sense the same agent who contracted some measurable quantity of personal guilt in that tiny, ever more vanishingly insubstantial gleam of an instant that constituted his or her terrestrial life? And can we do this even while realizing that, at that point, his or her sufferings have, in a sense, only just begun, and, in fact, will always have only just begun? What extraordinary violence we must do both to our reason and to our moral intelligence, not to mention simple good taste, to make this horrid notion seem palatable to ourselves. And all because we have somehow, foolishly, allowed ourselves to be convinced that this is what we must believe. Really, could we truly believe it all apart from either profound personal fear or profound personal cruelty? Which is why, again, I do not believe that most Christians truly believe what they believe they believe. So, what he's saying here, what I've been talking to you about, is the idea that God, the God Above All Gods, what we call the Father in Gnosticism, would condemn people to everlasting torment, everlasting torment, with no other goal than to punish, because they're never going to get out of it. That's what everlasting means. And so it's just punishment for the sake of punishment, and that that great, unlimitable God would impose this punishment on little, limited, finite beings who only lived a brief millisecond of time in the great span of time of God. That God would create these people for the purpose, basically, of condemning them to everlasting torment. You see, that is not even rational. It doesn't make any sense. Not if you believe God is good. It's impossible. Now, if you think that God is evil, well, then that's not God, is it? By definition, if you believe that God is cruel and vindictive and unreasonable, well, that's not the God Above All Gods. And this should come as relief to those of you who think you can't believe in God, because God is so cruel and vindictive. Perhaps you were raised in an extremely cruel household with extremely vindictive parents, or schoolteachers, or somebody got to you and, in the name of God, inflicted cruelty upon you. Then you have come to accidentally transpose their human cruelty onto God, because they told you to. But that's not God, by definition, you see? And when I say, by definition, that means, like, cold is not hot, by definition. Cold is cold. And if you're going to start arguing, oh no, cold is hot, well, then you're not talking about cold, you're talking about hot. Do you see what I mean? And if you have been rejecting God, the God Above All Gods, because you have this view of God as merciless and vindictive, cruel, illogical, unfair, unjust, take comfort, because that's not God you're talking about. Now, it may be the small g god of this world. It could be the guy whose best friend is Satan, because remember, that is a small g god of confusion. And its main job is to cause you to forget that you come from transcendent goodness, that you come from above, from the God Above All Gods, and that you do have freedom. You do have free will. You are meant to inherit joy. You are to do good works, and to be happy, and to be in love, and to love everybody else. Don't let some evil archon, or evil Demiurge, or evil human, redefine God in such a way that you reject God, because that's the mistake. That's a categorical error. And that's why I say, take comfort, have joy, receive the love that was meant for you. Throwing out the baby with the bath water means to reject the Good because you can't sort it out from the bad. Refusing to accept God or Christ because you reject the flawed Christian Church is an example of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Okay, back to the book. On page 205, Hart says, It was not always thus. Let me at least shamelessly idealize the distant past for a moment. In its dawn, the gospel was a proclamation principally of a divine victory that had been won over death and sin, and over the spiritual powers of rebellion against the big G God that dwells on high, and here below, and under the earth. It announced itself truly as the good tidings of a campaign of divine rescue on the part of a loving God, who by the sending of his Son into the world, and even into the kingdom of death, had liberated his creatures from slavery to a false and merciless master, and had opened a way into the kingdom of heaven, in which all of creation would be glorified by the direct presence of big G God, [or the Father, as we call him in Gnosticism]. And by the way, this paragraph that I just read about early Christianity, is entirely consistent with this Valentinian Christianity that I share with you here. That is the entire purpose of we second-order creatures being sent down here below, to bring the good tidings of life and love and liberty to the fallen Demiurge, and now subsequently to all of the people who have been hoodwinked by the Demiurge and Satan into believing in the false god that does not incorporate love. Hart goes on to say, It was above all a joyous proclamation and a call to a lost people to find their true home at last, in their father's house. It did not initially make its appeal to human hearts by forcing them to revert to some childish or bestial cruelty latent in their natures. Rather, it sought to awaken them to a new form of life, one whose premise was charity. Nor was it a religion offering only a psychological salve for individual anxieties regarding personal salvation. It was a summons to a new and corporate way of life, salvation by entry into a community of love. Nothing as yet was fixed except the certainty that Jesus was now Lord over all things and would ultimately yield all things up to the Father, so that God might be all in all. Now we're going to go back into the earlier part of the book to explain some of these concepts in more depth. Hart has broken his book into four meditations, or four subjects we could call it. The first meditation is, who is God? The second meditation is, what is judgment? The third meditation is, what is a person? And the fourth meditation is, what is freedom? A reflection on the rational will. So in the first meditation, who is God? Hart explains to us that, The moral destiny of creation and the moral nature of God are absolutely inseparable. As the transcendent good beyond all things, God is also the transcendental end that makes every single action of any rational nature possible. Moreover, the end toward which He acts must be His own goodness, for He is Himself the beginning and end of all things. This is not to deny that, in addition to the primary causality of God's act of creation, there are innumerable forms of secondary causality operative within the creative order. But none of these can exceed or escape the one end toward which the first cause directs all things. And so what he is saying here is that the first causality is the expression of God's goodness, the purity of God reaching out through the Son and into the Fullness of God—emanating. That is the principal causality. That is the prime mover of all things, what we call the base state of consciousness, the matrix. But then there is a secondary causality that takes place subsequent to that. And I guess the first act of secondary causality was probably the fall, in that it was the first act of will prompted by ego that apparently deviated from God's original plan, although the Tripartite Tractate does say we shouldn't blame Logos because the fall was the cause of the cosmos which was destined to come about. But whereas the Father is the prime mover and remains shielded in purity and fullness and goodness—you see, all the love emanates from the Father, evil doesn't swim back upstream. It's all emanating from the Father, and it's all good. But we do have secondary causality down here in the created cosmos, primarily due to the actions of the Demiurge and the never-ending war that runs amuck down here. Hart says, page 70, First, as God's act of creation is free, constrained by neither necessity nor ignorance, all contingent ends are intentionally enfolded within his decision. And second, precisely because God in himself is absolute, absolved, that is, of every pathos of the contingent, every affect of the sort that a finite substance has the power to visit upon another, his moral venture in creating is infinite. One way or another, after all, all causes are logically reducible to their first cause. This is no more than a logical truism. In either case, all consequence are, either as actualities or merely possibilities, contingent upon the primordial antecedent, apart from which they could not exist. In other words, all the things that happen down here in the cosmos couldn't have happened without God giving it the first start, without the Father giving it the initial emanation. He goes on to say, And naturally, the rationale of a first cause, its definition, in the most etymologically exact meaning of that term, is the final cause that prompts it, the end toward which it acts. If, then, that first cause is an infinitely free act emerging from infinite wisdom, all those consequence are intentionally entailed, again, either as actualities or as possibilities within that first act. And so the final end to that act tends is its whole moral truth. The traditional definition of evil as a privation of the good, lacking any essence of its own, in other words, what we would call in Gnosticism, evil is the shadow of the good. Evil is the shadow of Logos. It's not a thing in itself. It's the absence of the love and the light of the Father. It is also an assertion that when we say God is good, we are speaking of Him not only relative to his creation, but as he is in himself. All comes from God, and so evil cannot be a thing that comes from anywhere. Evil is, in every case, merely the defect whereby a substantial good is lost, belied, or resisted. For in every sense, being is act, and God, in his simplicity and infinite freedom, is what he does. He could not be the creator of anything substantially evil without evil also being part of the definition of who he essentially is, for he alone is the wellspring of all that exists. Jumping down the page on 71, Hart says, “God goes forth in all beings, and in all beings returns to himself.” That's how I describe as we all carry the Fullness of God within our being, and within every cell of our being. And since we are carrying the Fullness of God within us, we will have to return to the Fullness of God ultimately. We can't be lost in everlasting torment, because we are the Fullness of God, and God cannot torment itself. Hart says, God has no need of the world. He creates it not because he is dependent upon it, but because its dependency on him is a fitting expression of the bounty of his goodness. Doesn't that remind you of, in the beginning, the Father was alone, and he admired his goodness and beauty and love. He was full of love and beauty, and gave birth, so to speak—He emanated the Son. And the Son and the Father gave glory to one another. And in that giving of glory to one another, then the Son emanated the Fullness. And then in giving glory to one another in the Fullness and to the Son, the Fullness emanates us, the second order of powers. And it's all because you can't love without having an object to love, even if it's only in your own mind. Love requires an object of devotion, and giving glory is the reciprocal of love. We give glory because we were first loved. It's a fitting expression of the bounty of goodness, as Hart puts it. Then he goes on to say, This, however, also means that within the story of creation, viewed from its final cause, there can be no residue of the pardonably tragic, no irrecuperable or irreconcilable remainder left behind at the end of the tale. For if there were, this irreconcilable excess would also be something God has directly caused. Now, in our Gnostic gospel, there is a remnant “left behind at the end of the tale.” And that is the shadowy archons that were never a part of the original creation because they did not come from the “first cause” discussed earlier. The shadows of the Demiurge did not come from the Fullness or the fallen Aeon, but are only the absence of the qualities of that Aeon, this is why they are referred to as shadows. They are figments that do not have a reality outside of the Deficiency. Therefore, they have no home to return to in the Fullness of God. They are not from the Fullness. And he talks a bit about Hegel's system and dismisses it, and I'm not going to go into it. Hart says, The story Christians tell is of creation as God's sovereign act of love, neither adding to nor qualifying His eternal nature. And so it is also a story that leaves no room for an ultimate distinction between the universal truth of reason and the moral meaning of the particular, or for any distinction between the moral meaning of the particular and the moral nature of God. Only by insisting upon the universality of God's mercy could Paul, in Romans 11.32, liberate himself from the fear that the particularity of that mercy would prove to be an ultimate injustice, and that in judging His creatures, God would reveal Himself not as the good God of faithfulness and love, but as an inconstant God who can shatter His own covenants at will. Hart reminds us that down through the centuries, Christians have again and again subscribed to formulations of their faith that clearly reduce a host of cardinal Christian theological usages, most especially moral predicates like good, merciful, just, benevolent, loving, to utter equivocity, and that by association, reduce their entire grammar of Christian belief to meaninglessness. [On the next page, 75, he says], consider, to begin with the mildest of moral difficulties, how many Christians down the centuries have had to reconcile their consciences to the repellent notion that all humans are at conception already guilty of a transgression that condemns them justly to eternal separation from God and eternal suffering, and that in this doctrine's extreme form, every newborn infant belongs to a massa damnata, hateful in God's eyes from the first moment of existence. Hart loves to throw in Latin. Massa damnata obviously means that the masses would be damned. The very notion of an inherited guilt is a logical absurdity, rather on the order of a square circle. All that the doctrine can truly be taken to assert, speaking logically, is that God willfully imputes to innocent creatures a guilt they can never have really contracted out of what, from any sane perspective, can only be called malice. But this is just the beginning of the problem. For one broad, venerable stream of tradition, God, on the basis of this imputation, consigns the vast majority of the race to perpetual torment, including infants who die unbaptized. And may I point out that in Gnostic Christianity there is no inherited guilt at all because the Fall was not caused by the first humans, Adam and Eve, but occurred at the Aeonic level. Christianity carries a remnant of that understanding forward when it refers to “fallen angels,” but it does not connect the dots to realize their culpability in original sin. And then the theology of grace grows grimmer, for according to the great Augustinian tradition, since we are somehow born meriting not only death but eternal torment, we are enjoined to see and praise a laudable generosity in God's narrow choice to elect a small remnant for salvation, before and apart from any consideration of their concrete merits or demerits, and this further choice either to predestine or infallibly to surrender the vast remainder to everlasting misery. So it is that, for many Christians down the years, the rationale of evangelization has been a desperate race to save as many souls as possible from God. The time has really gotten away from us, and we've only touched the first meditation, so I hope you are enjoying this theology. It's theology, and I know that's difficult slog, but I'm sharing with you these thoughts because they comprise basically the sum total of Christian theology for the past 2,000 years, and it has gone through changes here and there. David Bentley Hart is a scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy and a scholar of religion and philosopher and so forth, and I think that he has very clear sight. So we'll pick this up one more time next week, and I promise we'll wrap it up. Onward and upward! God bless us all! This book gathers the essential insights of gnosis into a clear, approachable form. Gnosis can be as simple or as intricate as you choose to make it, but its heart is always accessible. A Simple Explanation guides you through the often tangled vocabulary and shifting landscapes of Gnostic thought, offering a path that is both illuminating and easy to follow. The glossary alone is a treasure—an indispensable reference for anyone exploring ancient Christian mysticism, the Nag Hammadi texts, or the deeper layers of spiritual philosophy. Now available in paperback, hardback, Kindle, and audiobook editions through amazon and your local booksellers.

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Thirty years ago, we never imagined we'd be navigating conversations about gender identity and sexuality with our children, but here we are. In this powerful conversation, Dannah Gresh from Pure Freedom Ministries shares biblical wisdom and practical tools to help you confidently guide your kids through today's confusing culture.In this episode, you'll discover:✅Three key Bible passages every child needs to understand about their body and identity before the world tells them lies✅How to have age-appropriate conversations about gender and sexuality without robbing your children of their innocence✅The critical difference between accepting and affirming when someone you love is walking through gender confusion✅Why your child's maleness or femaleness is directly connected to reflecting God's image in the world✅Practical strategies for responding with both truth and compassion when your kids encounter gender ideology at school or onlineReady to equip yourself with biblical truth? Grab the resources Dannah mentions in this episode to start these important conversations with confidence.Get your FREE Basic Pass to Life Skills Leadership Summit 2026 to give you confidence that your kids will be ready for adult life: https://HowToHomeschoolMyChild.com/lsls26Resources Mentioned:It's Great to Be a GirlLies Girls BelieveLies Girls Believe Mom's GuideLies Young Women BelieveLies Women BelieveIt's Great to Be a BoyLies Boys BelieveLies Men BelieveDannah Gresh is the founder of True Girl, a ministry dedicated to providing tools to help moms and grandmas disciple their 7–12-year-old girls. She is the co-host of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth's Revive Our Hearts podcast and Revive Our Hearts Weekend. She has authored over twenty-eight books, including a Bible study for adult women based on the book of Habakkuk. Dannah and her husband, Bob, have just released a new book and limited-series podcast called Happily Even After which tells their marriage redemption story. They live on a hobby farm in central Pennsylvania.Show Notes: Introduction: A Topic We Never Imagined FacingKerry: Well hey everyone, Kerry back here with Life Skills Leadership Summit. Today I'm excited—not because of the topic, because it's a really difficult topic on sexuality and gender—but Dannah Gresh, I've just gotten to know her from a distance through podcasts and Revive Our Hearts and reading one of her books as well. But I do know that she has got a lot to say on this issue. So Dannah, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.Dannah: Oh, I am so honored and delighted. Thank you for having me.Kerry: So before we get started, let me just pray for us and we'll let God guide this conversation.Father in Heaven, thank you. Thank you for today. Thank you for Zoom. Thank you that we can have a conversation and we can share it with many, many people. We thank you that you are sovereign, that you're the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we can rest in that no matter what's going on around us. And there's a lot of mess going on around us, but we can have our hope in Jesus.We just thank you for Jesus and the bond that we have in Him through the blood that He shed for us. I thank you for Dannah being here. I pray that the things that you want said will be spoken through this conversation, that you will be glorified, and that the ones that are listening, you will just really touch their hearts and show them what types of practical steps or spending more time in the Word—whatever you want them to do—and just to be led by the Holy Spirit. We pray all these things in Jesus' powerful name, amen.Dannah: Amen.About Pure Freedom Ministries and PartnershipKerry: Okay, for those of you that don't know, Dannah has Pure Freedom Ministries and this has two parts: True Girl and Born to Be Brave. By the time y'all listen to this, you probably already heard one of my kickoffs because we do one on Sunday night before the whole week and I'll explain it.But they are our organization that we are supporting through this Summit. So we'll take the profits that we make on anyone that upgrades from free to VIP. If you upgrade to VIP, 5% of our profits will go to this organization. And then some of our speakers—you've probably heard about the ones that have chosen to—if they decide to donate 5% of their commissions, then I will match that 5% as well.So hopefully, you know, that will be just a little way that y'all can support what Dannah and her team are doing. So I just want to make sure everyone understands that before we get going.Dannah: What a blessing. Thank you so much.Dannah's Story: From Teenager to Ministry LeaderKerry: Well, let's before we start this topic, can you just tell people a little bit about yourself?Dannah: Sure. Well, I love Jesus first and foremost, and He is the best part of everything about my life. I came to know Him when I was a really little girl through Child Evangelism Fellowship five-day clubs. I just love Child Evangelism Fellowship to this day because I remember that moment when I surrendered my heart and my life to Jesus. So precious.But fast forward—at the age of 15, I was a teacher for Child Evangelism Fellowship. I was teaching Sunday school in my church to three-year-olds, and I loved the Lord like crazy. But I was in a Christian dating relationship and was blindsided by sexual temptation.I just thought that was not possible in my life because I loved the Lord so much. And it became this great shame and this great heartache of my life until I was about 26. I just really understood that even though it had been so long since I'd experienced that sin and chosen that sin, I hadn't really received the redemption and the freedom that Christ died to give me.When I did, my life changed. And I had to get out my megaphone—my proverbial megaphone—and tell teenage girls. And then as I was doing that, ministry just kind of exploded.I was praying, "Lord, let me graduate to college girls and adult women." And the Lord said, "What about my little women? What about my 10-year-olds and what about my 9-year-olds and what about my 8-year-olds?"I was like, "Lord, that's really great. Somebody needs to do children's ministry, but what about me graduating from high school girls to the older women?" And He was persistent. The Lord just kept opening doors.Before we knew it, we really are one of the largest ministries that takes biblical truth to 8 to 12-year-old girls. And now we have boys—we just added them in the last few years—through live events, box subscriptions, Bible studies, online Bible studies, at-home Bible studies with mom. We want to put mom in the driver's seat. We believe that's what God's Word says—that mom and dad belong in the driver's seat of a child's moral development.Now we fast forward to this year. We live in a time and a day and age when the government and a lot of different political entities believe that parents aren't equipped to make moral decisions about their children. Well, we still believe they are.And now I understand why the Lord has put us in this critical position. One of the things we've done really well through the years is take whatever the difficult issues of the day are—when we started, that was AIDS—and we look at it through a biblical lens.Today, that biblical lens that we look through, we're looking at the issue mostly of gender and identity. And when you think about how do we talk to an 8-year-old about that biblically without robbing them of their innocence, and also just the depression and anxiety these kids are at the tip of the spear...Teens have long been at the tip of the spear, but the enemy has moved the line backward. And now it's those 8 to 12-year-olds that really are having to grapple with things that their little hearts and minds aren't ready for. But we know how to do that in a way that's safe and biblical and most importantly keeps mom and dad in the driver's seat.The Trends We're Seeing in Gender IdentityKerry: That is so good. And I know I'm on y'all's True Girl mailing list, and so they have things and I have downloaded a few things just to find out exactly what they are. I'm giving my daughter some of y'all's books as well. I think it's the Lies Young Girls Believe, something like that. I'm not quite sure what it was.But I do have to tell you, all of a sudden I have one more connection with you because I grew up with Child Evangelism Fellowship and I became a believer at a Good News Club. I started, went to their CEF training as a teenager, and then we did the five-day clubs in Houston. So I was like, oh wow, that's so interesting. Small world.Dannah: They are a fruitful ministry. Look at us—we're passing, we're the fruit, we're passing on fruit. We're the fruit of their fruit.Kerry: My parents, they're in their 70s and 80s, and a while back they would lead Good News Clubs in the public school for like five years. They're still going on with it and all. So I love it. It does work.So okay, so we are in a just a strange time. And if you had asked us 30 years ago, we'd be going, "No way, we wouldn't be dealing with these issues." So what kind of trends are you seeing right now when it comes to gender identity and sexuality?Dannah: Well, you know, I would say heterosexual is definitely not in style. And what we see is a lot of teens claiming to be pansexual, where they're just willing to erase anything that has a baseline of truth to it and embrace everything. Basically, is what pansexuality is.A lot of teens in terms of gender are saying they're non-binary. That's just what's in style right now. And you might say, "Well, but there really is a problem. There are some kids that definitely struggle with gender dysphoria."Absolutely, that's true. Historically, we've known for decades that children—a very, very small percentage of them—are born with things like Klinefelter syndrome, fragile X syndrome. These are syndromes like Down syndrome where there are chromosomal abnormalities in that child's body.And the parents and the physicians have to work together to decide, how are we going to raise this child? Most cases, they can take a blood test and they can determine this child is clearly male or clearly female. But we have some issues that we're going to have to deal with because of these syndromes.But in most cases, they can really figure out what's happening there. And so that's the good news. But I think it's an important thing for us that we have to be compassionate because for some people that you meet on the street that you're not quite sure—are they male or female?—that's not a choice. It was something that they were born with. That's very difficult and painful. So we have to be careful.But on the other end of the spectrum, what we're seeing right now is—well, let me explain it this way. In about the year 2011, there was a shift from transgenderism being predominantly a male problem to now, it is today predominantly female. You see more teenage females transitioning than males.So the intellectually honest sociologists will say, "What happened to make that really dramatic shift happen?"And I think probably the person that's been bravest about it is a woman named Abigail Shrier. She's a journalist, not a believer as far as I know, conservative though, and yet very intellectually honest. Some parents kept writing to her and saying, "We need somebody to research this."And she brought together some of the bravest sociologists, some of the bravest intellectually honest ones. And what they found was clusters of girls transitioning. So in other words, a school district or a school or a city was seeing a lot of girls transitioning, and there were pops of this all over the United States.Now if this were a more intellectually honest occurrence, you would have seen it happening more evenly over the culture. But that's not the case. What's happening is cluster contagion. And that's what we're calling it now, which basically is peer pressure causing girls to say, "I don't feel comfortable in my body."Now let me remind you, there aren't very many of us that felt super comfortable in our body in seventh grade. But we weren't having somebody sit there next to us and telling us that might be because you're not really a girl.So I guess what we're seeing is a lot of confusion. Majority of what we're seeing is mass confusion that we need to prepare our children for and that we need to speak into truthfully. But we can't forget the compassion because there's a sliver of people struggling right now where this really is a deeply painful thing and not something that they chose.Why This Topic Is Critical Right NowKerry: That is something. So I mean, to me it seems pretty obvious, but why do you think this topic is so important right now?Dannah: Well, it's—let me say, take that from two angles. One reason it's important is because your children are being lied to, and we need to speak truth into their hearts and into their minds. We have to put so much truth into them that there's not room for the world's lies.When they see or hear a counterfeit, they immediately know, "That's not what I learned from God's Word. That's not what I learned from my parents whom I trust to be true." And they come to you and they say, "Hey, I just heard this." And you help—might not know the answers, but you help them figure out.But here's why I think it's really important, and this is why it's been important since the beginning of time. In Genesis 1:26 and 27-28, in that chapter we see God saying that He's made us in His image. And then He could have listed almost anything about us that would have made us like Him—our language proficiency, our ability to compose sonnets, our creativity, the fact that we would figure out how to defy gravity and fly to the moon. All these things about us are so God-like. Our even our emotions—animals are emotive, but not to the degree that we are.And yet God says one thing: "In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them."Our maleness and our femaleness is a distinct part of representing the image of God on this lost world. That's why it matters more than anything. And that's what our children need to know more than anything.How Parents Can Communicate God's TruthKerry: That is so good. I mean, it really is. We need to—and I love what y'all do is always going back to the Bible, you know. And this is a Christian conference. There's plenty of things out there for parents, but we want to make sure we're always going back to the Bible.So what are some things that parents could do? Like you want them to—one of the things that I know I've heard you say many times, we need to speak truth to our soul, but first we have to teach our kids what the truth is. How can parents communicate God's truth in regards to gender and sexuality and identity?Dannah: Well, I obviously encourage them to get them in the Word and some of these key passages that talk about our bodies. And I basically have three key passages that I think our kids need to study about this. I write about them in It's Great to Be a Girl. My husband and one of his co-authors writes about them in It's Great to Be a Guy. That's for kids aged 8 to 12, somewhere in that range.First one is in the book of 1 Corinthians. It says that our bodies exist to glorify God. That the purpose of our body is to glorify God. You know, we get really sidetracked and we think our bodies are for us to feel good, for us to feel pleasure, for us to look good and be this just vision of beauty or handsomeness, whatever it is.Our bodies were created to glorify God. That's why they exist—to showcase Him, to give honor to Him. That's why we dress carefully and tastefully and modestly. That's why we use language that's becoming and careful. That's why we don't get into the dark.I'm always concerned when we get into really dark-looking countenance and clothings and styles because Jesus is light and He is love and He is joy, and we want our countenance to reflect that. But my body doesn't exist for Dannah. My body exists for God.Then the second thing is the one I just mentioned earlier: Genesis 1:26 and 27, that the purpose of my body—how I glorify God—is as a female or male image-bearer. Because glorifying Him—I like to say that the moon glorifies the sun, okay? The moon doesn't have any light of its own, but it reflects the light of the sun, and that's why we have a full moon. They're so beautiful.Well, in the same way, we have to look like God. That's what glorifying Him means. And Genesis 1:26-27 says we do that best in the defined roles, the binary roles of maleness and femaleness. So they matter. They're important.And then the other verse that I think is really important is in Romans 12:1 and 2. It says, "I beg you brothers, by the mercy of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice."So when my body, which was created to glorify God, doesn't feel like glorifying God as a female image-bearer of God, it becomes a sacrifice to God because I choose to live sacrificially according to the purpose of my body as a female image-bearer.Now I don't know that those are the only passages that your children need to get into, but those are three of the big ones that they need to memorize, dissect, be familiar with, understand. And that's going to give them more than studying all the counterfeits. That's going to give them the fuel they need for the conversations that are going to come up in their lives at one point or another.Age-Appropriate Conversations About TruthKerry: That's so good. Because we don't know what's going to happen in 20 years, you know, and what things they're going to need to know.When you think about even these three passages or talking about truth at different ages, because you've talked about 8 to 12 and then we've got teenagers, would you approach them differently or do you have any suggestions about that?Dannah: Well, with teens, of course, I'm going to be a lot more forthright. Although more and more—we just had a mom communicate with us that her child is attending a private school, not a Christian school but a private school. And just this year, the daughter came home and said, "Hey, we have Teacher X teaching at our school." And I'm not going to say the name. And it's not Mr. X or Mrs. X, it's Teacher X.And of course this mom said, "Well, do you know if Teacher X is male or female?" And she kind of said, "Well, this is what I think, but that's probably—they're trying not to look that way." So there's obviously some gender confusion there.What was really interesting is that when they have a student teacher, this parent had previously gotten a letter that said, "This is the teacher, this is what you need to know about them, I want to introduce them to you, they'll be starting on this date, they'll be ending on this date." In this case, that didn't happen.So that child is in about fifth grade. So we're not—and I've heard in my own school district of kindergarteners who are being told, "You get to pick your pronoun in my class. Maybe you weren't allowed that opportunity at home, but in my class you get to choose what you are, who you are."And so more and more we are having to have more of a conversation that we want, especially if we've chosen for our children not to be homeschooled or not to be in a space where their teaching is governed by truth. And that's not you, but it may be your friends, and it may be someone you're conversing with or having coffee with, you know, needs to know—hey, some crazy stuff is happening in some of these schools.And they don't believe it until it hits them. And then that's how this mom was. She's like, "I heard about it in California and I heard about it in this state and that state, but my state?" Yes, your state.So I think it's really important that we let them drive the questions though. So at high school we maybe are being, you know, we're talking about transgenderism, we're talking about all the different language that is used—the LGBTQ+, non-binary, binary, pansexuality.Mom, dad, you got to do some vocabulary work on this one. You've got to know the words, and that's going to help build your credibility. If you have a child who has been exposed, if you don't know a word, just say, "I'm not really sure what pansexuality is. Let's look it up and learn together, and then we're going to go to God's Word and figure out what He says about it."But when you're under, I would say 12 years old, I would just stick to God's truth. And what you're going to find, and what we have found as we have taken moms and daughters through It's Great to Be a Girl online Bible study or It's Great to Be a Guy online Bible study, is that studying it in the Bible and having mom and dad sitting there talking with you about it brings up the questions.They'll say, "I heard that so-and-so down the street has two dads," or "I heard that this friend at church has a brother who's becoming a sister." And you have the opportunity then to talk to them about that stuff.But I really like to let them drive that rather than us introducing things. And there's such a fine line there. And what I want to say is we don't—we have to be very careful about being afraid of the topic of sex because God isn't. He's not afraid of the topic, and we don't need to be afraid of it.But there are developmental phases where our children are more ready for some of these things than others. And if you can delay some of these conversations until they are developmentally ready, I think that's wise.The Importance of Reclaiming Biblical SexualityKerry: I think that's really good. And I appreciate you saying that we need to talk to them about sexuality more than just what sex is or how do we have kids, that type of thing. Because I know I heard on one of y'all's podcasts, you know, if we don't reclaim the sexuality and what's going on, the world is going to take over, which is what it's doing. And the church really does need to understand it. And if moms and dads don't, they need to do some research and stuff.Dannah: Well, and Ephesians 5:31 and 32 says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." And then it's almost like the Apostle Paul has ADHD or something. Because it's like he changes the subject. He says, "I'm really talking about Christ and the church."And this verse probably more than any other in Scripture tells us that marriage is meant to be a picture of the love Christ has for His bride, the church. But you can see that taught from Genesis to Revelation. It's a very important picture in the body of Christ.And if we do not wake up to really protect and defend that picture, we're going to wake up one day to see the gospel completely marginalized—not just marriage, but the gospel.And I guess my question for all of us is: if sex and marriage really does represent the love of Christ, the gospel, how motivated is Satan to see that picture destroyed in our lives, in the lives of our children? We have to be vigilant. We have to be informed. And we have to be so full of grace for those moments when we mess up or our kids mess up.Navigating With Grace and CompassionKerry: Yeah. And I think you just said that—I was coughing—grace and patience. Because you're talking about having compassion for these people that are really dealing with issues. And I think sometimes the church gets so, "Oh my goodness, look at them, they have children that are homosexuals or whatever."And yet we—I mean, no, we don't tolerate—I mean there's a blend between tolerating, but we also need to show grace at times because the compassion of God is what draws people back. The kindness and stuff. Would you have anything to say about sort of where you draw the line? And not that we want to judge people, but we do want to come alongside.So we've got moms here that want to help with their kids, but then they may have people in their family or in their church or something. What are maybe some practical things that they could do to handle these situations?Dannah: Well, some practical things are teaching our kids grace. Teaching them a gracious response.Bob and I, my husband and I, discipled a young man for many years who is non-binary now. Young adult man. And we still will have lunch with him. He doesn't live locally, but when he's coming through, he still wants to visit with us and talk with us.I got a birthday text from him that said, "You're like my second mom," because we have blessed him with our love and our presence, which is genuine. It's not fake. We adore him. He is easy to talk to, intelligent. We had so many high hopes for how he would—and still do—influence people for Christ.But we do not—we accept, but we do not affirm. We accept, but we do not affirm.So he knows—one of the last big conversations we had about his journey into homosexuality and a non-binary lifestyle was very pointed where my husband said, "I believe you've been set apart, and I believe that you have different desires, and that you have to obey the Lord with Romans 12:1 and 2. You need to sacrifice your desires for the purpose of your body glorifying Christ."And it was a very pointed conversation. And we haven't talked about that since then, but he knows where we stand.So we're honest, you know. One of the things that's really a challenge right now is the question of pronouns, right? Do we use the pronouns or do we not use the pronouns?And with this individual, I avoid using pronouns because the pronouns he wants are "they" and "them." I will not do that because God's Word commands me not to lie, and it's not truthful. However, I'm not going to rub salt in a wound of all the struggles that he's walking through.So I do my best to navigate through just not using either his new name that he wants or the pronouns. He knows that's what I'm doing.I know another woman who—she did transition for nine years. She had her breasts cut off, she had hormones, she was bearded, she was talking like a guy, she lived as Jake for nine years. Her name was Laura.Her mom stayed on her knees, stayed in a prodigal prayer group. And when it came to the name—she wanted to be called Jake—her mom said, "I can't call you that, but I know it's going to offend you. Can I call you honey? I'll do that."And it was a compromise they made together. So you see, accepting but not affirming is a really important line we have to make.Because this is the question that Rosaria Butterfield asked in a recent book that she's written. I believe the title is Five Lies of Our Post-Christian Culture. But she says, "Is your church, is your home, is your family a safe place for someone to repent of their sin of homosexuality or gender—" I'm not going to call it confusion, but rebellion. Okay?Because gender confusion, I would say, is probably going back to some of those syndromes I'm talking about, right? You're going to feel some confusion when you're not quite sure how your body is showing up, right?But gender rebellion, I would say, is what my friend Laura went through. She knew she was a girl, but she wanted to stick it to her mom and stick it to God. And she did for nine years. And then the Lord got a hold of her heart.But partly, I think the Lord got a hold of her heart because her mom never accepted Jake, never accepted the lie, never used the pronouns. And yet she still loved and accepted the child.Kerry: Fine line.Dannah: So good.The Reality of Dealing With These IssuesKerry: Yeah, we've got to love. And I, for one, I mean, these aren't just teenagers. You know, I had friends whose kids have transitioned, and the parents, the mom and the dad don't even agree on the pronoun issue, you know. And that's a really hard thing.What I really like about what you just said is she communicated with her daughter and they talked about it instead of just doing this and then, you know, that child getting angry and then blocking them out of your life kind of thing. And so communication just seems to be vital as well, even if they're going down that path.Dannah: Yeah, so communication before and after is key. And it's not easy. It's hard. And there'll be tears on both sides and disagreements. But you want to walk through it in such a way that you maintain a place where they know what the truth is and they know where to come when they finally do understand what the truth is.Kerry: Yeah, I always tell—because I host a prodigal prayer group too—and the two things I'm always like, we can always love and we can always pray. You know, we cannot change them, but we can pray and we can never give up. You know, God's not giving up on us, so we shouldn't be giving up on our kids or other family.Dannah: Yeah. And you know, when it comes to praying, I find that people that I love that aren't walking with the Lord—they might be offended if I start asking them, "Who do you think Jesus is?" But they're never offended when I say, "How can I pray for you?"They might define it differently, but it keeps that door open of them knowing, "I care about your spirit. I care about your spiritual life. I care about you." They know that praying is important to me.And when I just say, "How can I pray for you?" their hearts often just flood open with things that they want prayer for.How Did We Get Here?Kerry: That's a really good point too. Okay, let's—how have we talked about all this? How do we get where we are today? Because, you know, like we said, 30 years ago we would have never thought—yeah, you know, there was homosexuality back then, but that was pretty much it. How do we get here?Dannah: Oh, I think that it's how we got here is, you know, we were an Augustinian worldview. The United States of America had this worldview that was predominantly established by Augustine, St. Augustine of Hippo. He believed that love was the highest good in humanity and that that love should be reflective of the truth of the Bible.And that really was the worldview of our culture. And that meant that there was one man and one woman marriage.And then when it really started to break down, honestly, was Freud, who felt that the highest good was sex. He thought that that was the highest need in a human body. And so the conversation started to change as Freud, who did bring us some decent diagnostic tools in terms of understanding and being more aware of our emotions and our mental health—but psychology doesn't do anything, really, if you look at the stats of recovery from psychological methods. Hardly anything outside of Jesus.I mean, single-digit recovery. In my mind, if I'm having some mental health problems, I don't want to go to a place that can give me a single-digit percentage chance of getting better.But then enter Alfred Kinsey. Alfred Kinsey came into the scene, and he was a very unwell man emotionally and mentally. And so he was really excited about the things that Freud taught and believed that he could prove that not only was his theory correct—that our highest need was sex—but that most of the sexual things that these prudish Americans thought were, quote-unquote, sinful were actually very normal behavior. Things like homosexuality and even pedophilia.And he said, "I'm going to prove that those are okay." So he did the Human Sexuality Volume 1 and Volume 2 reports. And his research was really horrific. He hired pedophiles who had been jailed for pedophilia to conduct experiments on children.And it was really child sexual abuse that was recorded in those volumes. But nobody talked about that. Nobody said who did the research and how did you get it done. At that time, it just became the playbook for the sexual revolution of the '60s.But they said, "Look, look, we do want sex. We do need sex." And then the sexual revolution—during that time, a virgin in college named Hugh Hefner read those volumes that Kinsey wrote and said—and this is a quote—"I'm going to be Kinsey's pamphleteer."And as you know, then he went on to create his pamphlet, which was Playboy, normalizing objectifying women. I'm not going to call it anything other than what it is.And so it was this—it was a lie we all wanted to believe. Not me, not you, but the culture wanted to believe because it justified their sin and their desires instead of controlling them. They could justify those sins and desires.And I think when we had about a 30-year climb to making gay marriage legal, but that was kind of a floodgate moment. You know, I feel like from the night that the White House was covered in rainbow colors until today, it's just been a floodgate of Sodom and Gomorrah-esque sin.And whereas it was this slow, steady climb for decades, now it's just a playground.Signs of Hope and BacklashDannah: Now, I am thankful that we're seeing some—I guess what I would call backlash against some of this. In Canada, this year—last year, rather—we saw the first case where a patient who underwent transgender gender reassignment surgery is suing the physician for what happened to her body.Because she said, "I came to you with a mental health problem, and when I was very mentally unwell, you told me the solution was to cut up my body." And she's suing that doctor.Tavistock, which is a gender assignment clinic in the UK, has been shut down because so many of the doctors and nurses are saying, "You only saw these patients two or three times before you let them self-diagnose that they were gender-confused and began treating them." And the doctors and nurses said, "That's not okay. We didn't adequately find out if they really did have gender dysphoria. We're just letting them self-assign."And that's still happening in the United States. But because Canada and the UK are ahead of us, I'm encouraged that we're going to start to see backlash very soon.So don't stop using the correct pronouns. Don't stop calling girls "she" and "her," and don't stop calling boys "him" and "his." Like, we are not crazy. We just feel crazy because the conversation happening in our culture is a little mad.But we are going to start to see a backlash in the next five to 10 years.Kerry: It sounds depressing, but it is encouraging.Dannah: And our hope is in Jesus, who we know can—always, just like I didn't think the education system could ever get fixed, and then COVID hit. And I was like, "Oh my goodness, look, God can do something when it looks like everything's falling apart."He can do the same thing with the gender and sexuality issues. And—excuse me—and even our hope isn't even in this world. I just have to say that. Like, more and more, as it gets crazier and crazier, it makes me hungrier for heaven and the new heaven and earth that we will know after Jesus' return.And for anybody, you know, who maybe you're listening to this and you're the one that cut up your body, you allowed that to happen—you know, when Jesus returns, the new heaven and the new earth, He's going to perfect you and receive you as He created you and fix everything that this world can't fix. And there is such hope in that.Kerry: That is so good. Thank you so much. And yes, He can. And He redeems ashes to beauty all the time. So amen.So I know y'all have some resources that I think would be helpful. Could you share a little bit about that?Resources to Help FamiliesDannah: Sure. Well, I mentioned It's Great to Be a Girl and It's Great to Be a Guy. Those are two books that we take parents and kids through an online study on, but you could do it at home. You can do it as part of a homeschool curriculum.Another book that I have is Lies Girls Believe and A Mom's Guide to Lies Girls Believe. Those go together because I think this extends beyond gender. It's a battle for truth.And the interesting thing about truth is that we know Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He was truth. So this whole conversation is an assault on Him.And so that book, and Lies Young Women Believe, introduced teen girls and tween girls to really studying: What is truth? What does it mean? And how do I figure out when I'm believing a lie? And what God's Word says about it, and what is true?So I would say those are really important books. We're working on Lies Young Men Believe, but we also—my friend Aaron Davis just wrote Lies Boys Believe. So good tools.We've had lots of friends tell us they've used them as homeschool curriculum. And I would love to see you explore them. They are great. They really are.Kerry: I have—well, I've done Lies Women Believe. And then I will say, too, for those of you—this probably doesn't pertain to a lot of you—but they have them in Spanish. I used to work in El Salvador and go down there once a month and work with a school down there. And we started with Lies Women Believe, but they had a teen girl Bible study, so then they did the Lies Young Women Believe.I don't know if they've done the girl, but when I was looking at your site, I was like, "Oh, they have Spanish books too." So if y'all are in another country, just know that there are resources for you there as well.Dannah: So wonderful.Closing EncouragementKerry: Well, as we close, is there anything you would like to say just in closing?Dannah: Just I think it's so important right now that we are just so deeply in love with Jesus. It's one thing to know all these things in our head, right? But until it gets here...The reason we have prodigals prodigalizing and the reason we have deconstructors deconstructing is because there was a lot here, but we didn't quite maybe get it here. And so what I'm learning is that I can't push it here in the kids I'm teaching, but I can do what I need to do to sit at the feet of Jesus and minister to Him in worship, in prayer, and opening the Word.I don't want to just know the facts of what I read in my Bible this morning. I want to know that I had an encounter with Jesus.So my prayer for you is not just that you would know the facts about all these hard conversations that we're having to have right now, but that more than anything else, you would be so in love with Jesus that your heart beats to reflect His image.And so I pray that for you, and I pray that for your children too.Kerry: Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thanks for just taking a little time out of your day to be with us. I really appreciate it.Dannah: Oh, it was so good to be here, Kerry. Thank you. God bless you. I pray that you're so blessed by this conference.Kerry: Very good. Well, I am Kerry Beck with Life Skills Leadership Summit. We'll talk to you next time.

Hey there folks! This week, Josh and Kross continue their path through the ruins, navigating the Cielcin appearing, and more... A note from Kross: While I talk a lot about Augustinian philosophy, I think it's important to note that this isn't a comprehensive, or even partially complete reading. While I did go 'off' about it, I do think it stays (mostly) true to the core tenants insofar as it pertains to the story. Leave notes below on your thoughts if you have them! We're amped to continue, and next week we'll be back finishing out the story! That episode is a loooong one, so be prepared! Link: https://wordsandwhiskey.show/episode/288-empire-of-silence-episode-7-the-larger-world-of-monsters

Full Text of Readings The Saint of the day is Saint Berard and Companions Saint Berard and Companions' Story Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one's homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom caps all the other sacrifices. In 1219, with the blessing of Saint Francis, Berard left Italy with Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. En route in Spain, Vitalis became sick and commanded the other friars to continue their mission without him. They tried preaching in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached in the marketplace. The friars were immediately apprehended and ordered to leave the country; they refused. When they began preaching again, an exasperated sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining various bribes to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the friars were beheaded by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220. Saint Berard and Companions were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, “Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!” Their relics were brought to Portugal where they prompted a young Augustinian canon to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year. That young man was Anthony of Padua. These five martyrs were canonized in 1481. Reflection The deaths of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Anthony of Padua and others. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis' challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped the Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world. Saint Berard and Companions: Pray for us!Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Full Text of Readings The Saint of the day is Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys' Story “God closes a door and then opens a window,” people sometimes say when dealing with their own disappointment or someone else's. That was certainly true in Marguerite's case. Children from European as well as Native American backgrounds in 17th-century Canada benefited from her great zeal and unshakable trust in God's providence. Born the sixth of 12 children in Troyes, France, Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys at the age of 20 believed that she was called to religious life. Her applications to the Carmelites and Poor Clares were unsuccessful. A priest friend suggested that perhaps God had other plans for her. In 1654, the governor of the French settlement in Canada visited his sister, an Augustinian canoness in Troyes. Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys belonged to a sodality connected to that convent. The governor invited her to come to Canada and start a school in Ville-Marie (eventually the city of Montreal). When she arrived, the colony numbered 200 people with a hospital and a Jesuit mission chapel. Soon after starting a school, she realized her need for coworkers. Returning to Troyes, she recruited a friend, Catherine Crolo, and two other young women. In 1667, they added classes at their school for Indian children. A second trip to France three years later resulted in six more young women and a letter from King Louis XIV, authorizing the school. The Congregation of Notre Dame was established in 1676 but its members did not make formal religious profession until 1698 when their Rule and constitutions were approved. Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys established a school for Indian girls in Montreal. At the age of 69, she walked from Montreal to Quebec in response to the bishop's request to establish a community of her sisters in that city. By the time she died, she was referred to as the “Mother of the Colony.” Marguerite was canonized in 1982. Reflection It's easy to become discouraged when plans that we think that God must endorse are frustrated. Marguerite was called not to be a cloistered nun but to be a foundress and an educator. God had not ignored her after all.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

In this episode the Pugs engage some of the theological roots that gave rise and shape to Western empiricism, especially in the Scottish Tradition of David Hume. In particular, they engage how the pessimistic view of fallen human reason take on a distorted shape when severed from the rich theological setting of Augustine's theology, and then lead to secular reappropriations by secular thinkers like Hume and others. Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode the Pugs engage some of the theological roots that gave rise and shape to Western empiricism, especially in the Scottish Tradition of David Hume. In particular, they engage how the pessimistic view of fallen human reason take on a distorted shape when severed from the rich theological setting of Augustine's theology, and then lead to secular reappropriations by secular thinkers like Hume and others.Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode the Pugs engage some of the theological roots that gave rise and shape to Western empiricism, especially in the Scottish Tradition of David Hume. In particular, they engage how the pessimistic view of fallen human reason take on a distorted shape when severed from the rich theological setting of Augustine's theology, and then lead to secular reappropriations by secular thinkers like Hume and others. Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

“Our longings are much more powerful than our logic, and our desires are stronger than our reason.” (Graham Tomlin on the thought of Blaise Pascal)The Rt. Rev. Dr. Graham Tomlin (St. Mellitus College, the Centre for Cultural Witness) joins Evan Rosa for a sweeping exploration of Blaise Pascal—the 17th-century mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and theologian whose insights into human nature remain strikingly relevant. Tomlin traces Pascal's life of brilliance and illness, his tension between scientific acclaim and radical devotion, and his deep engagement with Descartes, Montaigne, and Augustine. The conversation moves through Pascal's analysis of self-deception, his critique of rationalism and skepticism, the transformative Night of Fire, his compassion for the poor, and the wager's misunderstood meaning. Tomlin presents Pascal as a thinker who speaks directly to our distracted age, revealing a humanity marked by greatness, misery, and a desperate longing only grace can satisfy.Episode Highlights“Our longings are much more powerful than our logic, and our desires are stronger than our reason.”“The greatness and the refuse of the universe—that's what we are. We're the greatest thing and also the worst thing.”“If everybody knew what everybody else said about them, there would not be four friends left in the world.”“Only grace can begin to turn that self-oriented nature around and implant in us a desire for God.”“The reason you cannot believe is not because of your reason; it's because of your passions.”Show NotesGraham Tomlin introduces the Night of Fire and Pascal's meditation on “the greatness of the human soul”Evan Rosa frames Pascal as a figure of mystery, mechanics, faith, and modern technological influence.Tomlin contrasts Pascal with Descartes and Montaigne—rationalism vs. skepticism—locating Pascal between their poles.Pascal's awareness of distraction, competition, and “all men naturally hate each other” surfaces early as a key anthropological insight.Evan notes Nietzsche's striking admiration: “his blood runs through my veins.”Tomlin elaborates on Pascal's lifelong tension between scientific achievement and spiritual devotion.The story of the servant discovering the hidden Night of Fire parchment in Pascal's coat lining is recounted.Tomlin reads the core text: “Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy… Let me never be separated from him.”Pascal's distinction: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers.”Discussion of Jansenism, Augustinian anthropology, and the gravity of human fallenness.Tomlin sets the philosophical context: Pascal as a counter to both rationalist optimism and skeptical relativism.Pascal's core tension—grandeur and misery—is presented as the interpretive key to human nature.Quote emerges: “the greatness and the refuse of the universe—that's what we are.”Tomlin describes Pascal's political skepticism and the idea that politics offers only “rules for a madhouse.”Pascal's diagnosis of self-deception: “If everybody knew what everybody else said about them, there would not be four friends left in the world.”Evan raises questions about social hope; Tomlin answers with Pascal's belief that only grace can break self-love.They explore Pascal's critique of distraction and the famous line: “the sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”Tomlin ties this to contemporary digital distraction—“weapons of mass distraction”.The conversation turns to the wager, reframed not as coercion but exposure: unbelief is driven by passions more than reasons.Closing reflections highlight the apologetic project of the Pensées, Pascal's brilliance, and his ongoing relevance.Helpful Links and ReferencesSpecial thanks to the Center for Christian Witness and Seen and Unseen https://www.seenandunseen.com/Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World, by Graham Tomlin https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/graham-tomlin/blaise-pascal/9781399807661/Pensées, by Blaise Pascal https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18269Provincial Letters, by Blaise Pascal https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2407Why Being Yourself Is a Bad Idea, by Graham Tomlinhttps://www.amazon.com/Why-Being-Yourself-Bad-Idea/dp/0281087097Montaigne's Essays https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23306Augustine's Confessions https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3296About Graham TomlinGraham Tomlin is a British theologian, writer, and church leader. He is the former Bishop of Kensington (2015-2022) in the Church of England and now serves as Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness and President of St Mellitus College in London. He is widely known for connecting theology with cultural life and public imagination. Tomlin is the author of several books, including Looking Through the Cross, The Widening Circle, and Why Being Yourself Is a Bad Idea: And Other Countercultural Notions. His latest book is an intellectual and spiritual biography, Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World.Production NotesThis episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale House FoundationThis podcast featured Graham TomlinProduction Assistance by Emily Brookfield and Alexa RollowEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaA production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

In the mid 17th century, a brave Augustinian priest went back to his homeland in Japan to bring the hope and truth of Christ to his people. Blessed Thomas "Kintsuba" Jihyoe is remembered today for his remarkable heroism, persevering to the very end and ultimately giving his life for the truth. In 2019, Pope Francis visited Japan and said, "Let us find powerful inspiration in the story of the early missionaries and Japanese martyrs. May we never forget their heroic sacrifice! May it not remain as a glorious relic of the past, to be kept and honored in a museum, but rather, a living memory, an inspiration for the works of the apostolate and a spur to renewed evangelization in this land" With that in mind, come listen to the incredible story of Blessed Thomas Jihyoe today andlet his story inspire you on your own journey to sainthood!Parental Guidance: True to the story of Blessed Thomas, this episode contains intense themes of persecuted and martyred christians. Please screen at your discretion for little listeners Saints Alive is brought to you by the #1 Catholic Prayer App, Hallow! Sign up today with a 30-day free trial! Please rate, review and share with friends and family! Find resources on the saints, discussion questions and more about our team by visiting our website: https://www.saintsalivepodcast.com/

"If we accept the principle of non-contradiction as the foundation of logic how do you resolve the apparent contradiction of an uncaused cause?"Stefan Molyneux examines the philosophical principle of non-contradiction and the idea of an uncaused cause through Aristotelian and Augustinian lenses. It questions whether the universe can exist without a starting point, introducing the "unmoved mover" concept. The discussion transitions to scientific theories like the Big Bang, while contrasting humanity's finite view with the eternal nature of matter. He critiques the welfare state from a Christian ethical perspective, emphasizing that true morality stems from voluntary choice. Ultimately, the lecture advocates for a philosophical approach to ethics, suggesting it may better serve societal well-being than traditional religious frameworks.SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneuxFollow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025