Heresy Podcast: 4th century Arians vs. St. Athanasius
This podcast considers the heresy of Arius and how St. Athanasius (featured image on blog, feast day 2 May) promoted the faith that is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. That Christ is homoousian (of one substance or one in being) with the Father is the true and orthodox view. Heterodox or heretical views include homoiousian (that the Son is of a similar substance to the Father but not the same) and homoian (that the Son is similar to the Father, in all things, without speaking of substance) and heteroousian (that the Son is of a different substance from the Father, that is, created, as Arius wrongly taught.) But again, the orthodox teaching is that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are homoousian or one in being as found in the Athanasian Creed, below in both English [...]
Fathers: Protect Your Children Spiritually
What is Transferred in the Generational Line One of the most amazing things about the God of the New and Old Testament is how He deals with families. Although women are frequently holier than their husbands, God has chosen—already found in the first book of the Bible—the generational blessing to be transferred from the husband through the boys of his family and so on. Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.—Genesis 27:38 We long for our father's blessing, but we often only receive his negligence or bad habits. Nowadays, there is a lot of talk these days about generational curses, and these do indeed exist, but we have to be careful about falling overboard into generational fatalism. At one [...]
Who Did the Saints Listen to in a Church Crisis?
This podcast is about the difference Divine Law, Ecclesial Law and Particular Law. This is the necessary interlude for forthcoming heresy podcasts from the fourth century onward.
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
About 1700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, so he was brought from Israel to Egypt. But due to Joseph's supernatural ability to interpret Pharaoh’s prophetic dreams, the Pharaoh raised him to Prime Minister of Egypt: Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you." And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”—Gen 41:39-41. Notice that this happens in the first book in the Bible, Genesis. Soon, Joseph’s entire family arrives in Egypt, and things went well for the Jews…for awhile. The next book of [...]
Why is the Protestant Bible Missing Several Books?
This is by Joel Peters. It is taken from Twenty One Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura. One historical fact which proves extremely convenient for the Protestant is the fact that the canon of the Bible – the authoritative list of exactly which books are part of inspired Scripture – was not settled and fixed until the end of the 4th century. Until that time, there was much disagreement over which Biblical writings were considered inspired and Apostolic in origin. The Biblical canon varied from place to place: Some lists contained books that were later defined as non-canonical, while other lists failed to include books which were later defined as canonical. For example, there were Early Christian writings which were considered by some to be inspired and Apostolic and which were actually read in Christian public worship, but which were later omitted [...]
Easter Sermon
Why does suffering on earth continue after the Resurrection? The power of the Resurrection is also mentioned in this scientific study linked here.
Heresy Podcast 3: The Third Century
This podclass tackles the heresies of the third century including Sabellius (founder of Modalism), Paul of Samosata (forerunner of the Adoptionist heresy), Manes (founder of Manichaeism that temporarily ensnared St. Augustine early on in his conversion) and finally we consider two semi-heretics, Tertullian and Origin. On the blog that has photos, you can see Tertullian above. Below is Man-E-Faces, a good symbol of the Sabellian or Modalist heresy. The third century heresies as outline by St. Alphonsus Liguori in the 18th century can be found on this link.
Pro-Life Eucharistic Procession Sermon
Several hundred people joined us in Jacksonville, FL as we priests carried the Holy Eucharist before three abortion centers in the monstrance under a canopy.
Modesty Part II: Theology
Nota Bene: My last blog post showed that modesty is actually a means of cultural empowerment for women, not a means of making them overly-subservient. Ladies, if you're going to have thin-skin reading the still-binding modesty-norms of the Catholic Church, please re-read part I to understand that this blog is not about oppression but freedom (cf Gal 5:1) One summer evening, a couple years before I knew I would ever live in Florida, I was passing through the city of St. Augustine, south of Jacksonville. That evening, I went in to pray at North America's first Cathedral. It is stunningly beautiful. Later, I came outside the Cathedral to find the small city humming with life and history. Like most downtown Cathedrals, there were quite a few homeless men. I've learned that most of these conversations are short, due to mental illness [...]
Modesty Part I: Sociology
Before jumping into the tough topic of modesty, I want to set the stage in a sociological manner. Let's consider romance in any culture, be it Catholic or pagan. It is universally accepted in every culture's romance that the person least-invested in the relationship is the one with the most control. Imagine two 20 year olds approaching engagement in any civilized country today or two hundred years ago. It is always the one who is least "in-love" who controls the advance of this relationshiop. The one most in-love (be it the man or the woman) wants to get married. The lover less "in-love" maintains the veto power in moving forward, meaning this person actually has more power in the relationship, despite (because!) of the lessened emotions encountering the other. This is as true for those who maintain their virginity in [...]