Podcasts about Church Fathers

Join the conversation as Matt and John talk about sports, Jerome, and Youngblood   0:00- intro 3:30- sports 17:25- Jerome 32:30- today in sports  38:08- one thing

Good morning! On today’s show, Matt Swaim and Anna Mitchell welcome Fr. John Gavin to share more thoughts from the Church Fathers on Christian maturity. Other guests include Stephanie Mann with more poetry from John Keble, and Kevin Schmiesing with This Week in Catholic History. Plus news, weather, sports, and more… ***** A Prayer to Our Lady, Health of the Sick Our Lady, Health of the Sick,I look to you for the comfort of a mother’s love,I pray to you on behalf of those who are sufferingand for my own healing needs.Mary, your love strengthens meand brings me peace. Our Lady, Health of the Sick,embrace all who are emotionally and physically ill that they may return togood health under your tender care. And please intercede for my veryspecial needs. (mention your needs here). Mary, your love strengthens me and brings me peace. Our Lady, Health of the Sick, pray for us. Amen. ***** Melissa Overmyer is online at ascensionpress.com/blessed. Full list of guestsSupport the show: https://www.sacredheartradio.com/donate-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canon Stephen Sharpe, ICKSP, serves as Parochial Vicar at St. Joseph Shrine in Detroit, Michigan. He was ordained in 2020. In Today's Show: What spiritual steps should I take to deal with my anxiety besides prayer? If we have a thought that's a mortal sin, and we fight to overcome it, do we need to confess it? With the advent of the internet and new means of communication, do you believe that we have a better understanding of the Gospel today as opposed to the Church Fathers? ​​What is one thing people miss a lot about participating in Mass? And more. Visit the show page at thestationofthecross.com/askapriest to listen live, check out the weekly lineup, listen to podcasts of past episodes, watch live video, find show resources, sign up for our mailing list of upcoming shows, and submit your question for Father!

Can the devil be saved?While many Christians assume the answer is obvious, the Eastern Church Fathers offer a far more nuanced discussion than most people realize. In​ this episode, Nathan Jacobs explores the five major positions found within the Christian East on whether Satan and the fallen angels can ultimately be​ redeemed—and what these views reveal about God's goodness, providence, and the nature of salvation.Rather than focusing on speculation, this conversation examines how the Fathers reasoned through the question and why their answers consistently​ point back to the infinite love of God.======================================Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:00:50 Theology vs. Theological Opinion00:01:32 Five Views on the Devil's Salvation00:03:04 Why Most Fathers Say No00:03:19 St. Paisios and Praying for the Devil00:04:37 St. Ammonios on God's Will00:06:21 St. John Chrysostom and the Unpardonable Sin00:07:21 St. Maximus the Confessor00:08:54 St. Symeon the New Theologian00:10:19 Why John of Damascus Says It's Impossible00:11:23 Death as Mercy00:16:46 Why Angels Cannot Be "Remade"00:19:53 Can the Devil Be Saved?00:20:18 Pseudo-Dionysius on Corruption00:22:55 Origen and Universal Salvation00:26:51 Gregory of Nyssa and St. Isaac the Syrian00:28:26 The Five Positions Summarized00:30:25 What the Fathers Agree On00:31:09 God's Providence and Love00:35:29 The Common Thread00:36:13 A Final Story from St. Sophronius======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and ourbook club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================Relevant Links:​God's Omnipotence Explained: Can God Really Do Anything? https://youtu.be/qEYzy1Wbjcg​On Apokatastasis and Universal Salvation​: https://open.substack.com/pub/nathanajacobs/p/on-apokatastasis-and-universal-salvation?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webAll links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

Thursday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus; 5th century Church Father; he studied under Bishop Cornelius and was ordained Bishop of Ravenna by Pope Sixtus; he was given the name Chrysologus or “golden-worded” by Empress Galla Placidia, daughter of Roman Emperor Theodosius I; he died in 450 Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 7/30/26 Gospel: Matthew 13:47-53

Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, Deacon Garlick invites you into a rich, methodical exploration of eros: the primal desire to satiate in beauty and be happy. What if the restlessness in your soul—the endless craving for more beauty, more fulfillment, more rest—is not a curse but a divine gift?Reclaiming Holy Eros https://www.theascent.io/p/reclaiming-holy-erosWomen as Icons of God, Beauty-itself https://www.theascent.io/p/the-beauty-of-woman-as-an-icon-ofPorn as a Poor Expression of Eros https://www.theascent.io/p/the-poor-erotics-of-porn Far from the pornographic or puritan distortions that dominate modern thinking, this ancient concept runs like a golden thread through Homer, Hesiod, Plato's Symposium, the Old and New Testaments, the Church Fathers, Dante, and even Pope Benedict XVI's Deus Caritas Est. Deacon shows how eros is the very question of the human condition—an upward call that moves the soul from lesser beauties to greater ones until it finds rest in Beauty itself.Drawing on his own spiritual labors, the host walks listeners through Plato's ladder of love, the marital imagery of God's covenant with Israel, the Song of Songs, Christ's union with the Church, and the harmony between erotic ascent and the self-giving love of agape. Along the way he recovers a lost grammar of desire that is both natural and supernaturally elevated by grace—one that produces virtue, fecundity, and genuine theosis. The result is not abstract theory but a living path: a latticework upon which your own understanding of restlessness, happiness, and the call to become more Christlike can grow.Whether you have wrestled with the restlessness of the heart, wondered how pagan wisdom and Christian revelation speak to one another, or simply want a deeper vision of love that orders the soul toward God, this conversation offers something rare: a beautiful, coherent tradition that answers the deepest questions of what it means to be human. Listen, and begin the ascent.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Eros and its significance in Christian spirituality01:54 Eros in Homer, Hesiod, and the primordial cosmos07:12 Plato's Symposium and the ladder of love15:07 Eros in the Old Testament: Marriage and divine love20:00 Eros in the New Testament: Christ and the Church30:06 Eros and the ascent to divine beauty40:11 Eros, virtue, and happiness in Christian thought50:02 Eros and grace: the divine ascent and participation in God01:00:10 The harmony of eros and agape in Christian life01:10:08 Practical implications: loving God and neighbor through eros01:20:01 Conclusion: recovering holy eros as the heart of human and divine loveKeywordsHoly Eros, Christian eros, Plato Symposium ladder of love, divine beauty, eros and agape, Deus Caritas Est Pope Benedict XVI, Song of Songs, marital imagery God and Israel, Christ bridegroom Church bride, Ephesians 5, St Augustine restless heart, Gregory of Nyssa, bridal mysticism, Bernard of Clairvaux, John of the Cross, Diotima, ascent to God, theosis, pagan and Christian erotics, Homer Hesiod Aristotle eros, natural and supernatural love, virtue and beauty, Ascend Great Books Podcast, Deacon Harrison Garlick, reclaiming holy eros, spiritual ascent, rest in God.

Every person eventually asks: "Why is this happening?" Together, we'll explore how suffering affects the mind and soul, what the Scriptures and Church Fathers teach about hardship, and how we can find God's presence, purpose, and hope even in our darkest seasons.

“What divided us from the Orthodox Church?” This question opens a discussion on the historical and theological rifts between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The episode also addresses which non-Roman rite churches maintain apostolic succession, the validity of Orthodox sacraments despite schism, and how to respond to Eastern Orthodox interpretations of early Church Fathers regarding papal authority. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 02:26 – What originally divided us and the Orthodox Church? 11:00 – Which Churches outside of the Roman rite have apostolic succession and how are they traced? How are orthodox sacraments valid even though they are in schism? 18:23 – How do we respond to EO who use early church fathers on Matthew 16 and Isaiah 22 and claim it’s not about the papacy? 22:54 – What’s the difference between Orthodox Church and orthodox teaching? 28:51 – My brother married a Greek Orthodox woman. Does one have to be baptized in order to remarry there? I'm worried that he might have committed apostasy. 31:47 – Eph. 4 says to walk in unity. This episode is causing disunity by dissing the orthodox. 41:29 – The gates of hell will not prevail. If the Church were to proclaim error, what should the faithful do, go underground, go orthodox or what options would there be? 47:50 – I’m a southern Baptist. John 15 seems to support that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father. Can you clarify? 51:35 – I recommend William and all his listeners to read the Alexandria document and the Chieti Document.

Join the conversation as Matt and John talk about sports, Church Fathers, and Beach Volleyball   0:00- intro 2:25-sports 17:35- Athanasius 38:04- today in sports 44:16- one thing

Good morning! On today’s show, Matt Swaim and Anna Mitchell welcome Fr. John Gavin to share more thoughts on what the Church Fathers had to say about Christian service. Other guests include Dr. John Bishop from FORGE to discuss his program for forming Catholic men, and Kevin Schmiesing with This Week in Catholic History. Plus news, weather, sports, and more… ***** Prayer of St. Albert the Great “Govern my heart O Lord, lest it drift into useless and disordered thoughts. Do not permit me to become excessively preoccupied with anything at all, even matters and concerns that are useful and good in themselves. Temper the affections of my soul so that I may neither love nor hate anything in a way that exceeds due proportions. Let me neither rejoice nor be saddened beyond the measure that is fitting and rational.” ***** Dr. John Bishop is online at myforge.org. Info on Dr. Benjamin Reinhard’s presentation for the Institute of Catholic Culture can be found at instituteofcatholicculture.org. Melissa Overmyer is online at ascensionpress.com/blessed. Fr. John Abubakar, OSA shared about the new Pope Leo Sustainability medal; find out more at villanova.edu. Full list of guestsSupport the show: https://www.sacredheartradio.com/donate-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Read OnlineFrom Humble BeginningsJesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” Matthew 13:31–32Today's Gospel presents two brief yet profoundly rich parables—the mustard seed and the leaven—each revealing distinct dimensions of the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Together, they draw our attention to the Kingdom's humble beginnings and hidden power, which unfold silently yet irresistibly in the world and within the human soul.Each parable possesses layers of meaning, and the Church Fathers deeply explored these levels. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the seed is frequently interpreted as Christ Himself. As “the smallest of all the seeds,” the mustard seed illustrates the hiddenness and apparent insignificance of Christ's earthly life, from a worldly point of view. He entered the world in obscurity, born in a cave in Bethlehem, fleeing into exile in Egypt, and growing up in the humble village of Nazareth. His divinity—the Eternal Word through whom all things were made—was veiled beneath the lowliness of His humanity.Even as He hung upon the Cross, His divine majesty was hidden from the eyes of the world. Yet from this seed of self-emptying love—this total descent into poverty and death—sprang forth the triumph of the Resurrection, shattering the bonds of sin and death. In His risen glory, Christ has become the “largest of plants,” and, as the parable says, “the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” This image is often understood as a symbol of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, in which the peoples of the earth find shelter, nourishment, and eternal hope.The mustard seed also represents Christ planted within each soul. When He is sown in the fertile ground of our hearts—through faith, prayer, and the Sacraments—He takes root and grows, transforming our lives from within. Though His presence may begin in us imperceptibly, it has the power to expand beyond all measure, bearing fruit not only in our lives but in the lives of all those we encounter. Ultimately, this growth finds its consummation in the New Heavens and the New Earth, where the Kingdom of God will be fully revealed.The second parable—the leaven—expresses a similar truth in another form. The leaven is often interpreted as Christ or His grace, working silently and effectively. Mixed into three measures of flour, it gradually transforms the entire batch—symbolizing the hidden work of grace within the soul. Here, Christ is not only among us, but within us, sanctifying every part of our being from the inside out.Today's Gospel concludes with a beautiful citation from “the prophet,” taken from Psalm 78:2: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35). On the surface, the parables appear simple, but they conceal divine truths from those who approach with indifference or pride. Yet for those who receive them in faith and prayerfully ponder them, the Holy Spirit opens the inner meaning. What was hidden from the beginning of creation is now disclosed—not to the wise and learned of this world, but to the humble of heart. In this way, the parables serve as a school of divine wisdom, inviting the soul to move beyond mere appearances into the depths of God's eternal plan.Reflect today on the hidden ways in which Christ is at work in your life. Are you attentive to His quiet growth within you? Do you nourish the seed of His presence through prayer and the Sacraments? Trust that, even in small beginnings, God is building His Kingdom—in you, through you, and for His greater glory.Most glorious King, You desire that Your Kingdom be born within our lives through the grace poured out by Your Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Come to me, Lord, and plant the seed of grace deep within my soul. Let it take root and grow, transforming me according to Your perfect will. Through me, expand Your Kingdom on earth, until the day we behold the fullness of Your eternal Kingdom in glory. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: Parable of the Mustard Seed, by Lawrence OP, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Source: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

In my previous episode, I explored whether the Eastern Church Fathers actually reject the theory of evolution. In this follow-up, I answer a different question entirely: Do I reject evolution—and if so, why?Rather than appealing to the age of the earth or death before the Fall, this discussion examines the philosophical foundations of evolution through the lens of realism, a metaphysical framework embraced by the Eastern Church Fathers. Along the way, I respond to common objections, clarify my views on Young Earth Creationism, and explain why these conversations matter for Orthodox theology.======================================Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:00:53 Two Questions About Evolution00:01:58 Why I Reject Evolution00:02:40 Realism vs. Nominalism00:05:01 Essential vs. Accidental Properties00:06:31 The Problem with Evolutionary Change00:12:20 Why Nominalism Undermines Science00:16:14 The Church Fathers and Realism00:19:11 "According to Their Kind"00:20:55 Responding to Common Objections00:22:18 Old Earth vs. Young Earth00:27:06 The Consensus of the Fathers00:31:48 What Kind of Consensus Matters?00:36:01 Theology vs. Science00:42:15 The Orthodox Mind and Philosophy00:45:14 What the Fathers Actually Handed Down00:47:20 Can You Be Orthodox and Young Earth?00:49:08 Responding to More Objections00:57:12 Is Young Earth Creationism Possible?01:00:03 The Real Danger======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and ourbook club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================Relevant Links:​Do the Church Fathers Reject Evolution: https://youtu.be/4BugOwStHqg​The Most Important Question: https://youtu.be/nVmPIMg4St4The Truth About Why Do Christians Worship on Sunday:  https://youtu.be/0wCnpitmfZgMisunderstanding Mystery: https://youtu.be/VlWiYFfHTeYThe True Christian Philosophy | The Metaphysics of the Ecumenical Councils: https://youtu.be/sFWp2QQzUFAAll links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

In this episode, cold-case detective and Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace reopens "the Judas file" and asks a blunt question: Was Judas ever truly saved, or was he an unsaved insider from the start? Drawing on a detective's methodology, J. Warner walks verse by verse through every major Judas passage, examines Judass remorse in Matthew 27, and weighs historic voices—from the Church Fathers to the Reformers—before offering a cautious but clear verdict. Along the way, he shows how Judas became a trusted ministry insider, a treasurer, and a preacher, yet still serves as a chilling warning that you can be close to Jesus, busy in ministry, and never actually belong to Him. This episode is designed to help believers, leaders, and skeptics think more carefully about salvation, apostasy, secret sin, and the danger of mere proximity to the truth. If this conversation is helpful, please subscribe, rate, and review the podcast—then share it with a friend. Your reviews on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast platforms help more people discover and engage with this content.

Today Pastor Michael is joined by his good friend Daniel Rohde, a seminarian at Reformed Theological Seminary. We talk Church Fathers, Asceticism, and where it seems to come up short.  You can join us behind the patreon paywall if you want to hear the conversation continue as we investigate what Gregory of Nyssa thought about Virginity. patreon.com/therestlesspodcast    

Join the conversation as Matt and John talk sports, Origen, and on thing they liked 0:00 Intro 01:24 Sports Roundup 14:36 Church Fathers Part 2 - Origen 37:03 This Day in Sports History 41:51 One Thing We Liked  

An Eastern Orthodox caller asks, “On what standard do you say Orthodoxy is false?” Joel Settecase turns the authority question back around, pressing whether councils, synods, Church Fathers, and tradition can define their own limits. This intense theology and apologetics exchange ends with a clear Gospel presentation: salvation by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone, according to the Bible alone.===================================================Download your free apologetics guide here: https://thethink.institute/store/p/transcendental-argument-for-god-tag-cheat-sheet-downloadable-pdf Men: Want to become the worldview leader your family and church need? Join the Hammer & Anvil Society. We provide in-depth education and community for Christian men: https://thethink.institute/society===========================================================Think Debates is a ministry of the Think Institute, NFP. We rely on the generous support of our Ministry Partners to pursue our mission. Your financial contributions help equip Christian fathers and their families with the education, resources and community needed to stand firm on God's word in today's challenging climate. Thank you for your help in preparing thousands of regular believers to explain, share and defend the Christian message all over the world.The Think Institute, NFP is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN: 88-3225438). Donations to The Think Institute are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.Donate now: https://thethink.institute/partner

It is very easy to get the church fathers wrong. From thinking that their doctrine was better or more pure, or that their proximity to Christ and the apostles gave them greater authority, there are many ways to go astray in considering their proper place in the church's history. And while Christ has used many men to lead his church, the primary means that He has used to mature and cleanse his bride is the leading of the Holy Spirit working through the power of His Word. One of the central concepts of the church is its corporate nature and that the church is Christ's bride, who is being made ready for him. But because we are often tempted to focus on individuals and their personal contributions and achievements, the church fathers often become a distraction from the corporate nature of the church and how Christ has made it more mature in both doctrine and practice. In this episode, we try to provide a biblical framework for thinking about God's love and care for the church without putting the wrong emphasis on the people he used. We also discuss how the church fathers are often used to make bad arguments about the church and its doctrine, particularly by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Even the term “church father” gets used far too liberally by many, with the Roman Catholic church recognizing people as fathers as late as the eighth century (and, of course, they choose to elevate those whose writings support their favorite heresies).The church fathers deserve honor as the ones whom God used to lead the early church. But they do not deserve greater honor than other leaders who came after them. God has and is using different men to lead his church, but in the end, Jesus Christ is the one who is cleansing his bride. We should not sit at their feet and act as if they were made the ones to finalize the doctrine of the church. That honor belongs to our one true father, God himself, who will mature his Son's bride, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”Timecodes00:00 Intro05:24 Early Church in the Bible17:14 Who Has Authority?25:01 The Holy Spirit's Plan49:35 Theological Development57:10 Church Father ExamplesProduction of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NCPermanent Hosts - Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua HornTechnical Director - Timothy KaiserTheme Music - Gabriel Hudelson

It is very easy to get the church fathers wrong. From thinking that their doctrine was better or more pure, or that their proximity to Christ and the apostles gave them greater authority, there are many ways to go astray in considering their proper place in the church's history. And while Christ has used many men to lead his church, the primary means that He has used to mature and cleanse his bride is the leading of the Holy Spirit working through the power of His Word. One of the central concepts of the church is its corporate nature and that the church is Christ's bride, who is being made ready for him. But because we are often tempted to focus on individuals and their personal contributions and achievements, the church fathers often become a distraction from the corporate nature of the church and how Christ has made it more mature in both doctrine and practice. In this episode, we try to provide a biblical framework for thinking about God's love and care for the church without putting the wrong emphasis on the people he used. We also discuss how the church fathers are often used to make bad arguments about the church and its doctrine, particularly by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Even the term "church father" gets used far too liberally by many, with the Roman Catholic church recognizing people as fathers as late as the eighth century (and, of course, they choose to elevate those whose writings support their favorite heresies).The church fathers deserve honor as the ones whom God used to lead the early church. But they do not deserve greater honor than other leaders who came after them. God has and is using different men to le

It is very easy to get the church fathers wrong. From thinking that their doctrine was better or more pure, or that their proximity to Christ and the apostles gave them greater authority, there are many ways to go astray in considering their proper place in the church's history. And while Christ has used many men to lead his church, the primary means that He has used to mature and cleanse his bride is the leading of the Holy Spirit working through the power of His Word. One of the central concepts of the church is its corporate nature and that the church is Christ's bride, who is being made ready for him. But because we are often tempted to focus on individuals and their personal contributions and achievements, the church fathers often become a distraction from the corporate nature of the church and how Christ has made it more mature in both doctrine and practice. In this episode, we try to provide a biblical framework for thinking about God's love and care for the church without putting the wrong emphasis on the people he used. We also discuss how the church fathers are often used to make bad arguments about the church and its doctrine, particularly by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Even the term "church father" gets used far too liberally by many, with the Roman Catholic church recognizing people as fathers as late as the eighth century (and, of course, they choose to elevate those whose writings support their favorite heresies).The church fathers deserve honor as the ones whom God used to lead the early church. But they do not deserve greater honor than other leaders who came after them. God has and is using different men to le

It is very easy to get the church fathers wrong. From thinking that their doctrine was better or more pure, or that their proximity to Christ and the apostles gave them greater authority, there are many ways to go astray in considering their proper place in the church's history. And while Christ has used many men to lead his church, the primary means that He has used to mature and cleanse his bride is the leading of the Holy Spirit working through the power of His Word. One of the central concepts of the church is its corporate nature and that the church is Christ's bride, who is being made ready for him. But because we are often tempted to focus on individuals and their personal contributions and achievements, the church fathers often become a distraction from the corporate nature of the church and how Christ has made it more mature in both doctrine and practice. In this episode, we try to provide a biblical framework for thinking about God's love and care for the church without putting the wrong emphasis on the people he used. We also discuss how the church fathers are often used to make bad arguments about the church and its doctrine, particularly by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Even the term "church father" gets used far too liberally by many, with the Roman Catholic church recognizing people as fathers as late as the eighth century (and, of course, they choose to elevate those whose writings support their favorite heresies).The church fathers deserve honor as the ones whom God used to lead the early church. But they do not deserve greater honor than other leaders who came after them. God has and is using different men to le

Telling the Story: Part 2 Acts 7:1-16 by William Klock When I was an American school kid in the 70s and 80s I learned that the defining events in the history of the United States were was the founding of Jamestown in 1607; the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620; and, of course, the Revolutionary War that began in 1775 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence—well—almost exactly 250 years ago.  There were plenty of other events that shaped the story, but those were the events that set the United States on its trajectory: a heritage from Britain with a good dose of religious freedom and Protestant work ethic coming together in a grand expression of the rights of man shaped by the Enlightenment.  Were there flaws?  Yep.  Slavery was a big one.  But the way I learned the story, the British mainland colonies of North America were on the fringe of the slave trade.  We received a tiny fraction of it.  The real slavery problem was in the Caribbean and Latin America.  Plus, we dealt with it.  The whole Civil War thing—a tragedy.  But it was a story to be proud of. But in 2019, the New York Times began a new publishing project.  They called it The 1619 Project.  It was subtitled, “A New Origin Story”.  Why 1619?  That was the year the first African slaves were brought to Virginia.  Before the Pilgrims.  Before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  It was a deliberate attempt to reframe the story of the United States.  Instead of a story rooted in a proud English heritage and religious liberty and Enlightenment ideals of freedom and liberty, the 1619 Project told the story of the United States as one rooted in racism and slavery and oppression.  Instead of a story that makes you stand proud, it's a story meant to instil shame and guilt. The 1619 Project didn't come out of nowhere.  It made public a story that many people had already been telling, especially to younger generations. And, as you would expect, this resulted in a great cultural clash.  Both sides shouting at the other, basically saying, “How dare you tell our story wrong!”  It wasn't so much a matter of the events themselves.  Both versions of the story involved the same events, the same people, and all of that.  But it highlights how much how you frame a story, how much you stress certain events and people and ideas over others, that you can end up with stories that are essentially the same, while dramatically different.  One instils national pride; the other instils national shame.  That doesn't mean there's no right or wrong.  Framing the American story as if slavery and racism are its fundamental core is dishonest.  But at the same time, telling a story that glosses over those evils for the sake of instilling pride, well, that's a problem too. And as much as this Postmodern metanarrative dilemma was nowhere on the radar of First Century Jews, I think it's a good way to understand what was going with Jews in those days and it's a good illustration of what Stephen is doing in his speech before the Sanhedrin in Ats 7.  [It's page 1087 in the Pew Bibles.]  There were different “parties” competing for influence and control in First Century Judaea and as much as they all told the same story of Israel, reaching back to Abraham and Moses and David, to the law and the Prophets, all rooted in the same exodus and exile and the same promises, how they told the story produced very different results, different feelings about Israel's present situation, different ideas about the future and how to get there—just as how I learned American history makes you smile when you see the Stars and Stripes, but others, having learned The 1619 Project story, feel shame. For Pharisees, unfaithfulness to the law resulted in exile—one that was still effectively ongoing—and only national faithfulness to the law would get them out of it.  For the Sadducees, that was all in the past.  God had restored them from their exile, and the temple and its priests were the proof.  All was well.  For the Zealots, the story said that armed revolution was the only way out of their oppression.  For the Essenes, the group responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, the story said that the everyone and everything had been defiled by unfaithfulness, even the temple itself.  God would wage holy war on the unfaithful, so they—the only truly righteous ones—retreated to the desert to wait and to keep pure.  And there was the historian Josephus.  A generation later, he told the story—after the disaster had happened—to say that the Jewish revolutionaries had brought God's wrath on themselves and that God had raised up the Romans to act as his instrument of judgement.  Same story, but the different ways they told it, the different parts they emphasised, the way they interpreted certain events like the Babylonian Exile, landed them in very different places.  Like I said last week, the story got them to the airport, but they were all waiting at different gates—and none of them the right gate for the God's real homecoming.  That said, all of them held the same markers of Jewish identity dear: the torah, the temple, the promised land, their circumcision.  They disagreed on a lot, but attack any of those things and they'd all join in stoning you after charging you with blasphemy. So what Stephen is doing before the Sanhedrin, backing up all the way to Abraham and telling the story yet again, was in good keeping with what was going on in First Century Judaea.  So—in case you missed last week or have forgotten—in the first sixteen verses, Stephen began telling the story of Jesus and the Spirit by going back to Abraham.  This was the moment when the God of glory—Stephen wants to stress that he's here to glorify the God of Israel, not blaspheme him or his holy things—Abraham was the moment when God stepped into the darkness and misery of his broken, fallen, corrupted creation and called to Abraham.  In Abraham, God was launching his project to restore rebellious humanity to himself and to set to rights the creation that we broke.  Now, there was more to it than this—it's online if you missed or forgot it—but Stephen's main point is that the gospel is not a departure from the story of Israel.  It's not something new that has no roots in what happened before.  He's saying to the Jewish elders: When the God of glory, the God of Israel called Abraham out of Ur and settled him in the promised land and established his covenant with him to make him a nation, that was the beginning of the story that brings us to Jesus, to the cross and the empty tomb, to the ascension and to Pentecost.  The story of Abraham is the story of the gospel and vice versa. Remember, they accused him of blaspheming torah and temple and Stephen's saying, “No way!  Torah and temple are good.  They're glorious.  They're how God prepared us and brought us to Jesus.”  Like I said last week, when you leave your car and board the ferry, you are in no way saying your car was bad.  It got you to the ferry.  But you can't drive on water.  Now it's time do something new—to do the very thing your car brought you to do. And then from Abraham to Joseph.  Stephen tells Isreal's story in such a way to highlight that when the God of Israel acts to bless and to save his people, it's often in unexpected ways.  Abraham was promised the land of Canaan, but never had any more of it than a little burial plot.  And Jacob and his sons were forced to flee the land of Canaan in order to survive a famine.  And Jacob's sons were wicked men who sold their brother, Joseph into slavery after nearly choosing to murder him.  And Joseph went from slavery to prison.  How was God going to work anything good from any of that?  But he did.  The sovereign God was at work all along.  Slavery and prison led Joseph to the premiership of Egypt just in time deliver his family when they arrived.  None of them had ever expected any of that.  But God delivered them.  And Stephen's telling of the Joseph story also highlights that gracious forgiveness has always been at the heart of the story of God and his people.  There was Joseph, hated, abused, sold into slavery by his brothers, but instead of taking revenge, he welcomes them and throw a party. This is what Jesus had been doing as the lost sheep of Israel, the tax collectors and sinners, came to him in repentance and faith. And this is the sort of rejoicing that would take place in heaven were the Sanhedrin to see how the story leads to Jesus and repent.  God was waiting for them with open arms and a promise of blessing, and they should know that, because that's how God's great story has always worked.  It's the key in which this great symphony is written. So now, Moses.  As important as Abraham and Joseph were, Moses stands like a colossus over the story of Israel.  Moses was the deliverer who led Israel out of Egypt and parted the sea.  It was Moses who went up Mt. Sinai and saw God for himself.  It was Moses who came down and delivered the torah to Israel.  It was under Moses that God made a nation out of Abraham's family.  And this is where they've accused Stephen of blasphemy.  They've accused him of speaking against the torah and temple and Moses.  So look at Acts 7, beginning at verse 17.  Stephen highlights three things about Moses.  The first thing he stresses is how Moses was raised up by God to be the right man at the right place at the right time—even though no one would have guessed at the beginning that Moses was God's man for the hour. Stephen says: “God had sworn an oath to Abraham.  [Remember the promise to make him a great nation and to give his descendants the land of Canaan?] When the time drew near for this promise to be fulfilled, the people had increased and multiplied in Egypt, until another king arose over Egypt, one who had not known Joseph.  He got the better of our people, and ill-treated our fathers, forcing them to abandon their newborn children so that they would die.  It was at that time that Moses was born, and he was pleasing to God. He was nursed for three months in his father's house.  But, when they abandoned him, Pharaoh's daughter claimed him and brought him up as her own son.  So Moses was educated in the full teaching of Egyptian wisdom, and he was powerful in what he said and did.” Already, in the life of Joseph, Stephen has stressed that God works human evil for good.  Nothing escapes his sovereign hand.  And just so with Moses.  First, this new Pharoah decides to make slaves of the Hebrews.  Not good.  And then, when their numbers increase so prolifically that Pharaoh fears being able to control them, he hatches a plan to murder all the baby boys.  And so Moses ends up in a basket in the river, where Pharaoh's daughter finds him and decides to raise him as her own.  God turns Pharaoh's hate, prejudice, and injustice against him, sovereignly placing one of those Hebrew boys right in Pharaoh's own home, raised at Pharaoh's expense, and tutored by Pharaoh's own tutors in the famed wisdom of the Egyptians.  God ensure the story is full of irony.  Pharaoh unwittingly nurtures and educates the very man who will be his downfall.  And Moses, himself, receives the training needed one day to oversee, to govern the people of Israel.  Again, at the time, none of this made any sense.  No one could see any significance to the story as it was unfolding.  But God has a plan and one of the things the Jewish people learned from Moses' story—and so many others—is to trust God.  In the famous words of William Cowper, God moves in a mysterious way.  It's another motif in the divine symphony—one that comes back over and over and that God's people out to recognise when they hear the music. Second, Stephen stresses the rejection of Moses by his own people.  Look at verse 23: “When he had grown to forty years old, it came into his heart to see how his brothers, the sons of Israel, were doing.  He saw someone being wronged, and came to the man's defence; he took revenge on behalf of the man who was being oppressed, by striking down the Egyptian.  He thought his kinsfolk would grasp the fact that God was sending him to their rescue, but they didn't. “The next day he showed up as two Hebrews were fighting, and he tried to bring them back together again. ‘Now then, you two,' he said, ‘you are brothers! Why are you wronging each other?'  But the man who was wronging the other wasn't having it.  ‘Who made you a ruler or judge over us?' he retorted, pushing him away.  ‘Do you want to kill me in the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'  At that word, Moses ran away, and lived as a guest in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.” Yet another motif in the symphony, another recurring theme in the story.  Jesus wasn't the first of God's deliverers to be rejected by his own people.  The story highlights that this is sometimes how God works.  Now, there's no one-to-one equivalence between Moses and Jesus.  Moses was rejected because he wasn't ready yet.  He had a desire to see his people freed, but he hadn't yet been called by God to that mission, nor had he received instruction on how to do it God's way.  This way of telling the story, this way of looking back to the Old Testament is something we see all through the New Testament.  I think of the way Matthew regularly explains how something in the Jesus story “fulfils” this or that thing from the Old Testament.  And often we're left wondering how the connection works.  Thanks largely to the Church Fathers, we've been taught to see these connections as literal prophecies or as “types”, as spiritual shadows that prefigure Jesus and various events in his life.  That's kind of close, but it's not quite what Stephen (or Matthew) do.  When Matthew, for example says that in the birth of Jesus Isaiah's words about the virgin conceiving and bearing a child are fulfilled, we wonder how that works.  Isaiah was talking about a young woman in his own day bearing a child…and she wasn't a virgin.  What Matthew was doing was pointing back to an event in Israel's past, in Israel's story, where the birth of a child to a young woman—maybe a princess, maybe the Prophet's wife…it's not clear—but where the birth of this child signalled that God was about to act to deliver his people.  Matthew latched onto that.  This is how God works, but this time—in the birth of Jesus—it's not just a young woman, it's an actual virgin, and this time God's not just delivering his people from a foreign king; this time it's deliverance from sin and death.  Matthew recognised the motif in the music.  It was there in Isaiah's day, a lone violin telling a story that most people missed, but in the birth of Jesus that motif returned, and this time the whole symphony was playing it. Stephen's drawing on the story of Moses the same way.  Moses was rejected by his own people.  A repeating theme in the story that the Sanhedrin—people who know this story, know this symphony so well already—a theme they ought now to see plain as day in what happened to Jesus.  It should be obvious.  They were the ones playing the instruments this time, after all. And then, third, Stephen stresses how through Moses, the God of glory, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God Israel had known for two thousand years, had revealed himself in a new way that no one had expected.  Look at verse 30: “After another forty years, an angel appeared to him in the desert at Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.  When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the vision.  But, as he came closer to see, there came the voice of the Lord: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.'  Moses was very frightened, and didn't dare to look.  But the Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.  I have looked long and hard at the trouble my people are having in Egypt. I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them.  So, come on now: I'm going to send you to Egypt.'” Stephen wants to be clear—and we see this all through early Christian preaching—the God revealed in Jesus the Messiah is not new.  He is the same God who has been directing this story, this symphony from the beginning.  This is the God of their fathers, the God who has been rescuing his people according to his promises for two thousand years.  The God they know.  The God whose character and ways they ought to have recognised in Jesus. Yes, Stephen's saying, Jesus was not what we expected.  In Jesus—and now in the Spirit—God is doing something amazing, something astounding, something new.  And that's why you rejected him.  But knowing the story, knowing the music, we should have expected God would do precisely this: something new, something wild, something we didn't expect.  Because the story is already full of episodes where God does just that.  No one, least of all Moses, exiled to the wilderness, tending his father-in-law's sheep—expected the burning bush.  And yet in that moment, heaven and earth came back together, God spoke, a man was called, and the world was never the same again. And Stephen's point is this: You can't predict the unexpected thing that God will do; but you can be sure—because the story is full of such moments—that God does act unexpectedly to do the things he's promised and that we expect, the very things in which we hope. Holy ground, for example, was something Stephen and his fellow Jews understood.  The temple was holy ground.  It was where heaven and earth met.  But it wasn't the end-all-be-all of holy grounds.  It began at Mt. Sinai—not in Isreal, but in the wilderness—where God met Moses in the burning bush, where the plan to rescue Isreal from her bondage began.  When the Israelites built the tabernacle and the cloud of God's glory descended to fill it, God upstaged what he'd done at the burning bush.  And then again, with the temple.  As if it were the strings playing the motif at the burning bush, and in Exodus 40 as God's glory fills the holy of holies, the woodwinds join them.  And the music was good and it was beautiful, but the Sanhedrin should now be hearing that same motif as, in Jesus and the Spirit the whole symphony comes together to play.  Stephen isn't disparaging Moses.  He's not blaspheming the law or the temple.  He's saying, “Can't you hear it?  Their beautiful theme is now being woven into something far grander and played by the whole symphony.  The motifs have been there all along, the story has always been told this way.  Don't plug your ears to this new thing.  Listen.  And hear how it's taken up all the old themes into something that is nothing short of glorifying to the conductor, to the God of glory. That's as far as we have time to go this morning.  Like I said, Acts 7 is long and there's a lot to unpack.  But I think the great take-away for us from this part—in addition to learning to hear the great story of God and his people—I think the most important thing here is to know that God really does do new and unexpected things.  As we get to know the story, we ought to expect for God to do the unexpected, for God to do new things that upstage what he's done in the past.  And yet, the story also emphatically tells us that as much as God does new things and upstages the things he's done before, those new things are always in keeping with what he's done before.  The past always points to the future and the future never undermines the past.  As the writer of Hebrews tells us, “God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”  We live in an age where too many people are ready to do something new themselves—something that breaks from what or how God has already revealed himself, something that breaks from or that disparages or that blasphemes God's past actions or his past instructions—they take this new human thing and declared that God is doing a new thing.  Andy Stanley saying we need to unhitch from the Old Testament so that God can do something new.  No!  Churches embracing sexual immorality and post-modern notions of identity and sexuality and family and marriage and then saying, “See, God is doing a new thing!”  A thousand times, no!  Brothers and Sisters, the theme of the story, the key of the symphony doesn't change.  God does new things, but those new things follow from what God's already done.  On the other hand—and I think it's mostly in response to all the proclamation of “new things” that aren't godly at all—on the other hand, we can become too fearful, too conservative and we can end up where the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Essenes were: locked down, afraid of the new, and turning away from burning bushes, and unwilling to go where God is actually leading. This why we need to steep ourselves in the story.  This why we need to immerse ourselves in the great symphony and to let the music wash over and through us.  Brothers and Sisters, we need to know the themes and the motifs, to learn the key in which God is playing, to be intimately familiar with how they interact, weaving around and through each other, so that as the story continues to unfold, as the symphony bursts into new movements, we can hear God bringing those old familiar themes to new heights, while also being able to recognise when a different story is being told, or a different symphony is being played.  I've said over and over, Brothers and Sisters: God's word is life.  Know, meditate on it, let it mould you, and then let it pour forth from you to give life to others. Let's pray: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things:  Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

This may be the most confusing line in the New Testament:  "Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings."—St. Luke 16:9.  Let's see what the Church Fathers say about it. -Donate: https://www.padreperegrino.org/donate/

Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessAbby, Patrick, and Dan continue tracking the reflections – and refractions – of the myth of Narcissus across Western history. From the songs of French troubadours to the tale of Chaucer's Wife of Bath to the poetry of Dante and the dialogues of Petrarch, they examine how Ovid's narrative of Narcissus and Echo grew into a powerful cultural template for dramatizing changing attitudes towards love, sexuality, gender, and more. By the same token, as Abby, Patrick, and Dan explore, the figure of Narcissus became a touchstone for other literary traditions, moral discourses, and theological traditions. Turning to key moments from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Church Fathers, the three then sketch out how the question of narcissism also came to reflect longstanding cultural anxieties about vanity, “vainglory,” pleasure, embodiment, humility, pride, and the nature of selfhood.Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you've traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! (646) 450-0847  A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Find us online:  http://www.ordinaryunhappiness.com X: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!The older we make “creation,” the easier it gets to picture God as distant, hands-off, and only occasionally involved. That's the nerve we keep pressing with our guest Christian as we dig into why Genesis isn't just a timeline question, but a question about revelation, providence, and what God wants us to know about him through the way he creates.We walk through the Catholic case that the Church Fathers and scholastic theologians aren't optional background reading on creation, but central witnesses to how Christians historically understood Scripture. From there we tackle the modern pressure points: why “trust the science” often turns into a one-way authority claim, why debates about evolution and old earth assumptions reshape theology downstream, and why the burden of proof matters when scientific models rely on interpretation and starting premises.Then we get concrete. We talk dinosaurs and the controversy around soft tissue and hemoglobin claims, what uniformitarian geology assumes, and why radiometric dating ends up carrying so much weight in the modern story. We also connect creation to the Fall by asking what millions of years of suffering and predation before Adam would mean for original sin and nature's relationship to humanity. Finally, we pivot to Graham Hancock, global flood memory, ancient structures across cultures, and the Sphinx weathering question, highlighting where alternative history is strongest and where it gets methodologically sloppy.If you enjoy thoughtful Catholic apologetics, Genesis interpretation, creation theology, and honest friction with mainstream narratives, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.Support the showGet 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comFull Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribeRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

Part 2 of Nathan Jacobs' journey into Eastern Orthodoxy.After years of studying philosophy and theology, Nathan began reading the Eastern Church Fathers for the first time. What hediscovered completely transformed his understanding of Christianity, leading him to explore the Orthodox Church and ultimatelyembrace the faith.In this episode, Nathan continues his personal story, explaining how the writings of St. Athanasius, the Cappadocian Fathers, andthe broader Orthodox tradition reshaped his understanding of God, salvation, deification, and the Christian life.======================================Timestamps:00:00 Introduction01:18 Encountering the Eastern Church Fathers04:20 A Different Vision of God08:20 A Christianity Unlike Anything I'd Known09:21 Discovering the Theology of the Fathers14:42 Deification and the Divine Energies18:09 Eastern and Western Christianity Compared23:28 Tracing the Orthodox Tradition25:21 My First Visit to an Orthodox Church26:18 The Beauty of Divine Liturgy30:08 Wrestling with My Final Questions31:04 Entering the Orthodox Church32:12 The East and West Series======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and ourbook club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================Relevant Links:Part 1: https://youtu.be/cWcVOvEu7dM?si=U4Y8eOXsEB9q5DAhEssence-Energies Episode: https://youtu.be/lO1rAzvK3lQ?si=8OOfJZxFUu3-CRDbAll links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

In this episode, we interview Fr. Brad Elliott, OP, a priest of the Dominican Order who converted to the Catholic Faith from Lutheranism. In addition to sharing his conversion story, he also shares prescient warnings about how modern people relate to technology.Fr. Elliott is an Assistant Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA.BECOME A PATRON OF THE GREAT TRADITIONHas our content blessed you or those you love? Then please consider becoming a monthly patron for $10/month or more.➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/become-a-patron/This apostolate is a non-profit under priestly authority, and all your gifts are tax-deductible. Your generosity makes it possible for us to produce our podcast, research, and written content with excellence, while making it available to the world for free, all for the salvation of souls. It also empowers us to work on even bigger projects behind the scenes (stay tuned).VISIT OUR WEBSITE➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/CONNECT ON SOCIAL MEDIAX: https://twitter.com/JoshuaTCharlesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshuatcharles/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuatcharles/DIVE DEEPERCheck out our “Becoming Catholic” resources, where you'll find 1 million+ words of free content (bigger than the Bible!) in the form of Articles, Quote Archives, and Study Banks to help you become, remain, and deepen your life as a Catholic:➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/becoming-catholic/SUBSTACKSubscribe to our Substack to get regular updates on our content, and other premium content:➡️ https://eternalchristendom.substack.com/EXCLUSIVE BOOKSTORE DISCOUNTS➡️ https://eternalchristendom.com/bookstore/CHAPTERS00:00 - Intro: Conversion, Technology, and the Church's Social Teaching02:43 - Welcome, Prayer, and Episode Roadmap09:35 - Technology, Demonic Interference, and the Spiritual Life16:41 - Tools, Machines, AI, and the Dangers of Progress32:02 - Fr. Brad's Conversion Story Begins43:00 - Sola Fide, Grace, Merit, and Catholic Transformation1:20:06 - The Temple, Mortal Sin, and Being Restored by Grace1:40:40 - Scripture, Protestant Tensions, and Catholic Clarity1:53:02 - The Church Fathers and the Road to Catholicism1:54:44 - Catholic Social Teaching, Autonomy, Consent, and American PoliticsThis podcast can also be heard on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Join the conversation as Matt and John talk World Cup soccer, begin a series on the church fathers, and share one thing they like.   0:00 Intro 3:42 Sports Update 15:10 Intro to the Church Fathers 40:20 This Day in Sports History 45:31 One Thing We Liked

This week on JT's Mix Tape #88, the crew responds to the growing controversy surrounding the Book of Enoch after comments made by Wes Huff about a viral clip discussing Enoch, the Ethiopian canon, and the early Church Fathers.We dive into: • Why Jude quotes Enoch • What Tertullian actually wrote • The Ethiopian canon • Sola Scriptura • Fair use and content creation • Ancient giants • Dead Sea Scrolls • Modern art and the CIA • Hidden steamboats beneath Kansas • The strange Nuremberg sky battle • Conspiracy culture vs legitimate research • Why humility matters when studying history Whether you agree or disagree, our goal is to encourage thoughtful discussion while pointing people back toward Christ.

Why would a philosopher become Orthodox?In this deeply personal episode, Nathan Jacobs shares the story of his journey from a Lutheran upbringing, through philosophy, skepticism, art, and years of intellectual searching, to discovering the Eastern Church Fathers and ultimately embracing Eastern Orthodoxy.This is not simply a conversion story—it is an account of how questions about truth, God, beauty, morality, and the nature of reality led to the Orthodox Church. Along the way, Nathan reflects on his spiritual awakening, his study of philosophy and theology, his encounter with the Church Fathers, and the profound impact of experiencing the Divine Liturgy for the first time.If you're exploring Orthodoxy, interested in philosophy, or wondering why so many scholars and thinkers are finding their way to the ancient Christian faith, this conversation is for you.======================================Timestamps:00:00 Introduction00:29 Turning East and My Story01:33 Growing Up Lutheran07:56 A Spiritual Awakening17:17 Studying Philosophy and Christianity27:42 Discovering Process Philosophy45:09 Encountering the Eastern Church Fathers01:16:45 My First Orthodox Church Experience01:23:15 Entering the Orthodox Church======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and our book club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================All links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

How do you know if someone is the right person? Join the Louhs as they explore dating, relationships, and God's purpose for marriage through the wisdom of Scripture, the Church Fathers, and practical psychological insights.

Father Deacon Robert Klesko explains the importance of Church unity

Is the theory of evolution truly incompatible with Christianity? Many assume the Church Fathers rejected evolution outright — but is that what they actually taught?In this episode, Nathan Jacobs examines the writings of the Eastern Church Fathers on creation, death, Genesis, and the age of the earth. Rather than asking whether evolution is scientifically true, this discussion explores whether Orthodox Christianity actually requires Christians to reject it.Drawing from figures such as St. John of Damascus, St. Irenaeus, St. Basil the Great, and other early Christian writers, Nathan explores what the Fathers believed about creation, corruption, the Fall, the image of God, and the purpose of humanity.If you've ever wondered whether evolution and Orthodox Christianity must be in conflict, this discussion offers a historical and theological perspective that is often missing from the conversation.======================================Timestamps:00:00 Why Evolution and Christianity Are Seen as Opposed01:19 The Two Biggest Objections to Evolution04:09 Why the Eastern Church Fathers Matter05:41 What “Death” Really Means10:41 Was Death Present Before the Fall?13:28 Are Animals Naturally Mortal?22:15 Did Animal Death Exist Before Adam?27:14 The Age of the Earth31:13 Are the Days of Genesis Literal?37:15 What the Church Fathers Actually Believed40:57 Final Thoughts ======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and our book club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================Relevant Links:Essence-Energies Episode: https://youtu.be/lO1rAzvK3lQRessurection Episode: https://youtu.be/Pwgm-7d2O2kDo All Dogs Go to Heaven? https://youtu.be/HlAk0Jm8xd4?si=BwTMvHqJ5ye3PXmKWhy Do Christians Worship on Sunday? https://youtu.be/0wCnpitmfZg?si=7UUKhaIMZK1YSQHF Substack on EvolutionPart 1: https://theologicalletters.com/p/an-eastern-perspective-on-the-creation Part 2: https://theologicalletters.com/p/an-eastern-perspective-on-the-creation-fd5All links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

In this installment of Mary in the Dock, we put the claim of Mary's perpetual virginity on trial. Many Protestants see the “brothers of Jesus” mentioned in the Gospels and the word “until” in Matthew 1:25 as decisive proof that Mary and Joseph had a normal married life after Jesus' birth. We examine those objections carefully and then explore the Catholic response — from the broader biblical and Jewish use of the word “brother,” to the idiomatic meaning of “until,” to the early and unanimous witness of the Church Fathers. Far from being a late ascetic invention, the perpetual virginity of Mary emerges as a profoundly fitting expression of her unique role as the New Ark and the Mother of God. Whether you're wrestling with this teaching or simply want to understand why the Church has always held it, this episode offers a clear and Scripture-centered defense. SUPPORT THIS SHOW Considering Catholicism is 100% listener-supported. If this podcast has helped you on your journey, please become a patron today! For as little as $5/month you get: • Every regular episode ad-free and organized into topical playlists • Exclusive bonus content (extra Q&As, Deep-Dive courses, live streams, and more) • My deepest gratitude and a growing community of like-minded listeners ➡️ Join now: https://patreon.com/consideringcatholicism (or tap the Patreon link in your podcast app) One-time gift: Donate with PayPal! CONNECT WITH US • Website & contact form: https://consideringcatholicism.com • Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com • Leave a comment on Patreon (I read every one!) RATE & REVIEW If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating (and even better, a review) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — it really helps new listeners find us. SHARE THE SHOW Know someone who's curious about Catholicism? Send them a link or share an episode on social media. Thank you! Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

For much of the liturgical discussion of the past century has been conducted within strangely narrow horizons. One side asks whether worship should be traditional or contemporary. Another asks whether it should be formal or informal. Some debate ceremonial complexity while others debate accessibility. Some concern themselves with relevance, others with aesthetics. But these arguments often assume a framework that would have been entirely foreign to the Fathers of the Church. In this podcast we seek to recover  that which has been lost in the hopes of renewing the liturgical life of the church.

What did Augustine and Aquinas actually believe about virginity — and what does it reveal about us? In this episode, we explore the surprisingly rich theology of the Church Fathers on sex, celibacy, and the body. Their views can seem strange to modern ears, but that strangeness might be the point: it forces us to examine assumptions our culture takes for granted. We also tackle one of the harder pastoral questions in the church today — can unwanted singleness ever be called a "gift"? And what role does a voluntary vow play in living out the kind of celibacy the Bible actually describes? Support the Podcast Support us on Patreon Website: thatllpreach.io IG: thatllpreachpodcast YouTube Channel

Did the Gospel of Mark originally end at Mark 16:8, or do Mark 16:9–20 belong in Scripture? For nearly two centuries, modern textual critics have questioned the authenticity of the final twelve verses of Mark, leading many modern Bible translations to bracket the passage or include editorial notes suggesting it may not have been part of the original text.In this episode, Brandon Briscoe is joined by Dr. Jim Alter, pastor of Grace Baptist Church and founder of Purified Seven Times, to examine one of the most debated passages in the New Testament.Rather than focusing solely on competing manuscripts, this episode explores what is ultimately at stake in the debate over Mark 16:9–20. Brandon Briscoe and Dr. Jim Alter discuss how the doctrine of preservation shapes a believer's approach to Scripture, examine the historical testimony of the Church Fathers, and evaluate the claims surrounding Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. They also consider the doctrinal significance of the longer ending of Mark—including Christ's post-resurrection appearances, the Great Commission, the apostolic sign gifts, the Ascension, and the confidence Christians can have that God has faithfully preserved His Word.Whether you're interested in biblical preservation, textual criticism, church history, or the reliability of Scripture, this conversation offers a detailed look at one of Christianity's most significant textual debates.Visit https://lfbi.org/learnmore

Saint Irenaeus (130–202 AD) was a Greek bishop recognized as one of the most important early Church Fathers and one of it's first major apologist. He is noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by opposing Gnostic interpretations of Christian Scripture and defending orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna in Turkey, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist. His annual Feast day is June 28 and he is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Protestant Lutheran Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2022. History of the Papacy podcast at https://amzn.to/3SKhnsC Christian Saints Podcast available at https://amzn.to/3QOz8q2 Irenaeus of Lyon books available at https://amzn.to/4vuEYvR ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's TIMELINE video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVine Mark's History of North America podcast: www.parthenonpodcast.com/history-of-north-america Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 X (twitter): https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Audio credits: History of the Papacy Podcast, Sidetrack Episode 1, Irenaeus of Lyon, Sept. 7, 2013 (AtoZ History); Christian Saints Podcast, Episode-Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, August 21, 2021 (Generative sounds & Paradosis Pavilion). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let’s explore the life and times of Irenaeus of Lyon (130–202 AD), a Greek bishop recognized as one of the most important early Church Fathers and one of it's first major apologist. Saint Irenaeus is noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by opposing Gnostic interpretations of Christian Scripture and defending orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna in Turkey, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist. His annual Feast day is June 28 and he is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Protestant Lutheran Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2022. Traditional Catholic Daily Devotional podcast at https://amzn.to/4xP3oSi Getting Through Life with Theology podcast at https://amzn.to/4xKjAEw Irenaeus of Lyon books available at https://amzn.to/4vuEYvR ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's TIMELINE video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVine Mark's History of North America podcast: www.parthenonpodcast.com/history-of-north-america Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 X (twitter): https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Audio credits: Saint of the Day podcast: Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (202) August 23, 2025, Greek Orthodox Deacon Jerome Atherholt and Ancient Faith Radio; The Saint of the Day podcast (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, June 28, 2024) Good Catholic and The Catholic Company; Traditional Catholic Daily Devotional (SSPX US District, Angelus Press) St. Irenaeus, July 3, 2025; Getting Through Life with Theology Podcast with Dr. Sydney Sadowski, St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Heresy, August 8, 2025; Saint Irenaeus on Saint Of The Day podcast with Mike Roberts by Covenant Network (ourcatholicradio.org) June 28, 2025. Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Logos Academy's mens reading of the complete Book of Enoch starting June 30th every Tuesday evening at 7:00pm EST. Over the coming weeks we'll explore the Nephilim, Watchers, giants, Second Temple Judaism, the reception of Enoch among the Church Fathers, and its influence on the world of the New Testament. Inside Logos Academy you'll receive: • Weekly live reading sessions • Historical and theological commentary • Live Q&A discussions • Access to our brotherhood of Orthodox Christian men • Additional courses, study guides, and exclusive content

In a world flooded with thousands of competing voices — each claiming to represent “biblical Christianity” with their favorite proof texts — how do you actually tell authentic, orthodox Christianity from heresy? From the Gnostics and Arians of the early centuries to today's endless online teachers and influencers, the problem is as old as the Church itself. In this episode we explore one of the clearest and most reliable answers the Church has ever had: the ancient principle captured by St. Ambrose — “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” We unpack Jesus' own words to Peter in Matthew 16, the witness of the Church Fathers, and the crucial distinction between the individual pope and the papacy itself. Along the way we address how this visible criterion for orthodoxy played out in history — from anti-popes to the East-West split — and why it still matters in our age of doctrinal noise and personal brands. Popes fall on a bell curve like the rest of us, but the office Christ established remains the living anchor that keeps the faith one. If the question of authority and the pope has been the final hurdle in your journey toward the Catholic Church, this conversation offers honest clarity and genuine encouragement. The same Peter who denied Christ three times was still entrusted with the keys — a reminder that the Church has always been God's mercy at work through imperfect instruments. SUPPORT THIS SHOW Considering Catholicism is 100% listener-supported. If this podcast has helped you on your journey, please become a patron today! For as little as $5/month you get: • Every regular episode ad-free and organized into topical playlists • Exclusive bonus content (extra Q&As, Deep-Dive courses, live streams, and more) • My deepest gratitude and a growing community of like-minded listeners ➡️ Join now: https://patreon.com/consideringcatholicism (or tap the Patreon link in your podcast app) One-time gift: Donate with PayPal! CONNECT WITH US • Website & contact form: https://consideringcatholicism.com • Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com • Leave a comment on Patreon (I read every one!) RATE & REVIEW If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating (and even better, a review) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — it really helps new listeners find us. SHARE THE SHOW Know someone who's curious about Catholicism? Send them a link or share an episode on social media. Thank you! Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

“How do I defend the Trinity?” This question leads to a discussion on the eternal subordination of the Son and how to address claims of heresy. Additionally, the episode touches on where the Church Fathers sourced their Hebrew scriptures, the need for ecclesiastical permission in fictional scenarios, and the Catholic perspective on lying. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 01:50 – Where did the Church Fathers get their copies of the Hebrew scriptures? 12:00 – How do I best defend the Trinity against someone who calls it heresy specifically in regards to eternal subordination of the son? 21:00 – Would the ghostbusters need ecclesiastical permission to do what they did in the movies? 28:58 – Is it ever ok to lie from the Catholic perspective? 35:40 – When did it become a custom for religious people to change their names? 42:15 – Does Romans 4 (particularly Romans 4:5) conflict with Catholicism's doctrines faith, works, and a love? 52:45 – What is the church's position on simulation theory?

Why does Scripture call Jesus the Lamb of God? Was it merely a metaphor, or is it the key that unlocks the entire story of redemption?In this episode, we trace the biblical theology of the Lamb from Genesis to Revelation. Beginning with the first sacrifices after the Fall, we follow the thread through Abel, Noah, Abraham, the Passover, the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the prophets, showing that biblical worship has always been sacrificial at its core.We then examine John the Baptist's declaration: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Why did he identify Jesus this way? How does Christ fulfill the Passover? Why does John's Gospel carefully structure the Passion around the slaughter of the Passover lambs? And what does Revelation's vision of the Lamb standing as though slain reveal about worship in heaven?Along the way, we'll explore the testimony of the Church Fathers, including Melito of Sardis, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and Leo the Great, who all saw Christ as the fulfillment of every sacrificial type in Scripture.Most importantly, we'll consider what Revelation 5 reveals about the heavenly liturgy and how the worship of heaven centers forever upon the Lamb who was slain and now reigns. The Lamb is not merely part of the Christian story—He is its center.From Cain and Abel to the heavenly throne room, Scripture points to one reality:The Lamb who was slain now stands forever, receiving the worship of all creation.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#AgnusDei #LambOfGod #Catholic #Eucharist #Mass #BookOfRevelation #Passover #JesusChrist #ChurchFathers #BiblicalTheology #Christianity #CatholicPodcast #FACTSwithStephenBoyce #JohnTheBaptist #Revelation5 #HeavenlyLiturgy #Sacrifice #Worship #BibleStudy #CatholicFaith

Program for 06/19/26 Covenant Community Church: Father's Day

We welcome back Steve Ray to trace the legacy of the Apostolic Fathers, the early Christian leaders who helped preserve the apostolic tradition in the generations before the New Testament was compiled. What can the witness of these earliest Church Fathers teach Catholics about the origins and enduring identity of the Church? Show Notes Apostolic Fathers: Handing on the Faith DVD The Church's own “wisdom from grandpa” is worth memorizing Verbum iCatholic Mobile The Station of the Cross Merchandise - Use Coupon Code 14STATIONS for 10% off | Catholic to the Max Read Fr. McTeigue's Written Works! "Let's Take A Closer Look" with Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J. | Full Series Playlist Listen to Fr. McTeigue's Preaching! | Herald of the Gospel Sermons Podcast on Spotify Visit Fr. McTeigue's Website | Herald of the Gospel Questions? Comments? Feedback? Ask Father!

There is an essential doctrine at the heart of historic Christianity that was famously preserved by the Eastern Church Fathers but completely lost to the Western tradition: the Essence-Energies distinction. This video traces the history of this concept, moving from its philosophical origins in Aristotle through its development in Alexandrian Judaism and into the New Testament, culminating in the Church Fathers of the Christian East. The distinction proves to be the indispensable key to how the East understands the gospel, the Trinity, and the Incarnation, while also shaping less obvious doctrines, including the sacraments, veneration, divine revelation, and the nature of the Church itself.======================================Do you like this content? Join Jacobs Premium to get exclusive access to essays, lecture series, monthly Q&A Zoom calls, and our book club. Use code: LEWIS to get a discount: https://www.thenathanjacobspodcast.com/Support the East West Series: http://theeastwestseries.com/======================================Relevant Links:Episode on Resurrection: https://youtu.be/Pwgm-7d2O2kJacobs article on revelation: https://www.academia.edu/34403154/The_Revelation_of_God_East_and_West_Contrasting_Special_Revelation_in_Western_Modernity_with_the_Ancient_Christian_EastAll links:The Theological Letters (Substack): https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastX: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathanandrewjacobsAcademia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobsListen and please review the podcast elsewhere:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcast

“Why is the Apostolic Age not a well-known part of Church history?” This question opens a discussion on the significance of early Church writings, including the role of the Church Fathers and the authenticity of the Apostolic Fathers’ texts. Other topics include the importance of listening to the Church Fathers and the historical context of early Christian martyrdom. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 02:45 – “Why is the Apostolic Age not a well known part of Church history? 20:00 – Why listen to the Church Fathers? 23:00 – How do we know the writings of the Apostolic Fathers are real? 38:00 – What is the spelling of the names of the writings you mention? 43:40 – Did Paul write things down in the Bible that Jesus didn't tell him? 45:55 – Has Steve been on an archaeological dig? If so, what did he see? 47:15 – What did these Apostolic Fathers believe? 52:03 – How did it go from the apostolic fathers being martyred to Catholics killing Protestants at the Reformation?

New writings of one of the Church Fathers have been discovered. Who says I don't present good news?Sponsored by Sanctifica App:https://sanctifica.comSources:https://www.returntotradition.orgorhttps://substack.com/@returntotradition1Contact Me:Email: return2catholictradition@gmail.comSupport My Work:Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/AnthonyStineSubscribeStarhttps://www.subscribestar.net/return-to-traditionBuy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/AnthonyStinePhysical Mail:Anthony StinePO Box 3048Shawnee, OK74802Follow me on the following social media:https://www.facebook.com/ReturnToCatholicTradition/https://twitter.com/pontificatormax+JMJ+#popeleoXIV #catholicism #catholicchurch #catholicprophecy#infiltration

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”A former Anglican Priest says, “I lost the argument,” and somehow that turns into a battle for truth, conscience, and coming home. Kevin Middlesworth joins us to share the winding road from a devoted evangelical childhood, through Calvinist and Reformed theology, into Anglican priesthood, and finally into full communion with the Catholic Church.We talk about the moment when so many Christians hit a wall: the authority question. Who gets to say what Scripture means, what the Eucharist really is, and what the moral life demands? Kevin describes the hidden exhaustion of being your own final judge, the “crushing weight” of trying to carry every doctrine alone. From there, we follow the breadcrumbs that led him to the Church Fathers, the Catechism, and St. John Henry Newman's insight on conscience as God's persistent voice.This is not just an intellectual conversion story. Kevin opens up about marriage, friendship, and the real cost of changing course, plus why he refused to pressure his wife while she wrestled with the same Catholic claims. Eucharistic adoration, Confession, the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the surprising discovery that what once looked like “extra's” is actually God's abundance.If you're curious about Catholicism, returning to the faith, or trying to find solid ground in a noisy culture, come listen. Subscribe, share this with a friend who's asking hard questions, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Join the movement: Claymore Milites ChristiSupport the show

Dave took another trip to the emergency room this week — though this one wasn't for him. His daughter Bernadette and one of his boys built a foam block bridge, she went off the side of it, landed on the wall, and broke her clavicle. Clean break. When Adam got the x-ray, he zoomed in, screenshotted just the broken collarbone, and sent it to Lady Haylee with no context — let her think Adam had been out grinding, building fences, shouldering it like a tough guy. Bernadette, for the record, is doing great. Three weeks and she's back to normal. As Dave put it, if you're going to break your clavicle, do it young. Don't do it at Jim's age.A lot of life packed into this one before the topic. Adam and his boys, Luke and Jude, are going to read the Aeneid together this summer — Luke already read it at Holy Family Classical School, so he'll lead the way. Adam helped Dave harvest wheat (the invoice is coming), and the two of them talked homesteading honestly: you don't get into it to save time or money. It's a lifestyle, and the pork chop costs $400 if you're foolish enough to count your own labor. Adam also turned 40 — by the time this airs, the birthday's passed — and he spent his Substack this week reflecting on the four ten-year cycles he's got left, if he's lucky. The big lesson from 30 to 40: he had it backwards. He was making his life serve the business instead of the business serve his life. Build the habits of prayer, reading, and friendship young, because life only gets busier, and it's far easier to keep a habit than to add one.Two prayer requests worth holding. Lady Pamela's due date is this week — baby Niles number seven, two middle names this time, names not yet shared. And baby Mary is still in the NICU. They're going to try again this week to take her off the breathing tube. She's weaning off sedation — which means withdrawals, which is hard — but she's gaining weight and getting stronger. Get past the tube and the next hill is open heart surgery. Adam's grateful for every prayer, and for the guys who sent DoorDash cards. Keep praying for Mary. And a shout-out to Dan O'Brien, David's father-in-law, walking the Camino as this drops — Dan, hope the feet are holding up.This week's pour is a funny one: WhistlePig's 250th Anniversary of America 10-Year "Piggy Bank" Limited Edition Straight Rye, 55% ABV. The box is a literal piggy bank and the bottle is a chrome-plated ceramic pig. Spicier and more herbal than your Weller or Buffalo Trace — but smooth for the proof, with caramel and warm undertones. Picked up at Broken Arrow Wine and Spirits, owned by a good Catholic family from St. Benedict. Jim's yummy scale (bourbon scale): 5.87 out of 6.Then the main course: the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. Luke 2, the last joyful mystery, the only Gospel that records it — and the very first time Jesus is recorded speaking. Adam walks through it with the Catena Aurea, Aquinas's compilation of the Church Fathers edited by St. John Henry Newman. The caravan to Jerusalem split women and children up front, men in the back, and a twelve-year-old could be in either — so Mary thought He was with Joseph, Joseph thought He was with Mary. Theophylact says it wasn't negligence. A logistical blind spot. Any father who's left a kid at church after coffee and donuts gets it.The three days they searched? St. Ambrose says that's no accident — a rehearsal for the three days of the Passion, lost and then found again. The age of twelve is no accident either: right before the bar mitzvah, the Lord fulfilling the law perfectly, right on time, and twelve standing for the tribes and the apostles. Watch Mary, too. She brings her grief straight to her Son without accusation — "why have you done this to us?" — modeling how a soul carries pain to Christ: honestly, blaming no one, trusting before she fully understands. Watch Joseph, who says nothing, and pursues his mission relentlessly without drama. That's the masculine answer to adversity: very well, and you handle it. Protect, provide, establish.Was Jesus being disobedient? The Fathers say no — His higher obedience to His Father's business ran underneath the surface, and verse 51 shows Him going home and being subject to them. God first, then family, and that order doesn't fracture the home. It grounds it. And where did they find Him? In the temple. His Father's house. Which is the whole point: you can find Jesus in nature, in the car, anywhere — but you are guaranteed to find Him in the church, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the tabernacle of every Catholic church in the world. If you want to become holy, go be with Him. Get an adoration hour. Holiness doesn't happen the way Adam's buddy Juan figured he'd "just kind of one day have a six pack." You have to do something about it. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDDave's daughter Bernadette breaking her clavicle falling off a foam block bridge the kids builtAdam screenshotting the x-ray and sending just the broken collarbone to Lady Haylee with no contextAdam reading the Aeneid with his sons Luke and Jude this summer — and why he's doing it men's-group styleHarvesting wheat, and the honest economics of homesteading ("the $400 pork chop")Why you never homestead to save time or money — it's a lifestyle, not a shortcutAdam turning 40 and his Substack reflection on the four ten-year cycles he has leftThe biggest lesson from 30 to 40 — making the business serve your life instead of your life serving the businessWhy habits of prayer, reading, and friendship are easier to keep than to add laterLeveraging competent friends instead of trying to do everything yourselfLady Pamela due this week with baby Niles number seven — and the two-middle-names debateBaby Mary update — another attempt to come off the breathing tube, weaning off sedation, gaining weightWhy open heart surgery is the next hill after the breathing tubeDan O'Brien walking the Camino — a shout-out for sore feetBourbon of the week: WhistlePig 250th Anniversary 10-Year "Piggy Bank" Limited Edition Straight Rye, 55% ABVThe ceramic pig bottle, the piggy-bank box, and why a limited shelf whiskey runs $250–$350Jim's yummy scale hitting 5.87 out of 6 on the bourbon scaleThe Finding of Jesus in the Temple — Luke 2, the last joyful mystery, and the only Gospel that records itThe first recorded words of Our LordReading the story through the Catena Aurea — Aquinas's compilation of the Fathers, edited by St. John Henry NewmanHow the Passover caravan split women and children up front and men in the back — and how Jesus fell into the gapTheophylact on why it was a logistical blind spot, not negligence or bad parentingSt. Ambrose on the three-day search foreshadowing the three days of the Passion and ResurrectionWhy the age of twelve matters — the year before the bar mitzvah, and the symbolism of the twelve tribes and apostlesJesus fulfilling the law perfectly and right on time, not jumping aheadMary bringing her grief to Christ without accusation — the model for carrying pain to the Lord"About my father's business" vs. "in my father's house" — the translation and what it meansSt. Bede on faith preceding comprehension — assenting before fully understandingSt. Joseph as the model father — pursuing his mission relentlessly, without drama or self-pityMary honoring Joseph's fatherhood — "your father and I" — and why spouses don't belittle each otherHow complaining about your spouse to others actually breaks your wedding vowsWas Jesus disobedient? The Fathers say no — the higher obedience running underneathThe devil's-advocate case that He chose to be left behind, and His right as the Logos to do soJesus using the Socratic method in the temple — asking questions and "making them wonder upon him"The hierarchy of Christ's presence — and why you're guaranteed to find Him in the tabernacleA convert's story and the simple counsel: you just need to be in front of Jesus"Nothing if not you" — non nisi te, Domine — St. Thomas Aquinas's answer to the LordThe spiritual six pack — why holiness never just "happens on its own"Getting an adoration hour as a statement about the kind of man you want to beREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks & Writings:Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aquinas, edited by St. John Henry Newman (the Fathers' commentary on the Gospels)The Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 (the Finding in the Temple, vv. 41–52)The Aeneid by Virgil (Adam's summer read with his sons)The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer (mentioned alongside Luke's classical reading)Adam's Substack, The Grounded Builder — this week's reflection on his ten-year cyclesSaints & Church Fathers:St. Thomas Aquinas (the Catena Aurea; non nisi te, Domine)St. John Henry Newman (editor of the Catena Aurea)Theophylact (the caravan blind spot, not negligence)St. Ambrose (the three days foreshadowing the Passion; Mary's grief without rebuke; "right on time")St. Bede the Venerable (faith preceding comprehension; the hierarchy of loves)St. Teresa of Avila ("no wonder you have so few friends, with how you treat them")St. Humbert of Romans (the importance of place and location in prayer)The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph (the model of unified, honoring...

We all know the story of the Visitation in the Gospel of Luke. But do you know the full meaning? What is the symbolism and literal interpretation by the Church Fathers? What is the Connection to the Book of Revelation? Is Mary the New Ark of the Covenant? Hear Fr. Chris Alar explain with all new details about this amazing event in the Bible.