Catholic Culture Audiobooks

“Consider what it is you mean by praying, and you will see that, at that very time that you are asking for the coming of His kingdom, you are anticipating that coming, and accomplishing the thing you fear.” This Advent sermon appears among a collection of sermons originally written and preached by St. John Henry Newman before his conversion to Catholicism. In it, Newman addresses the question: How are we to pray for Our Lord’s coming, even as His Coming necessarily involves the end of our time for conversion? Links Shrinking from Christ’s Coming Full text: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/sermon4.html SUBSCRIBE to Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-culture-audiobooks/id1482214268 SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter http://www.catholicculture.org/newsletter DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: "2 Part Invention", composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Students of these revered writings should be advised not only to learn the kinds of expressions in the Holy Scriptures… but also to pray that they may understand them.” With these final chapters of Book 3, Augustine wraps up his treatment of figurative expressions. He illustrates just how tricky scriptural interpretation can be, citing instances wherein the same literary figure is employed in different—or even contrary—ways. He quotes many scriptural examples throughout these chapters, always careful to highlight the clearer instances in order to illuminate the more obscure ones. Augustine shows how the scriptural authors utilized the whole range of literary devices—including metaphor, irony, parable, and allegory—even if the authors themselves did not define those devices as such. And finally, Augustine relates a set of seven rules for scriptural interpretation—rules that were previously enumerated by a certain Donatist heretic named Tyconius, but that are here refined and repurposed within the broader context of Augustine’s work. Augustine is careful to stress, however, that these rules alone cannot be relied upon as though a key to unlock the meaning of Holy Scripture. Indeed, as he concludes Book 3, Augustine emphasizes prayer—which he describes as “chiefly and especially necessary” when it comes to understanding the Scriptures. Links Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120407/saint-augustine-christian-instruction-admonition-and-grace-the-christian-combat-faith-hope-and-charity Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3275 Previous De Doctrina Christiana episodes: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm  Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes. Donate at http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio to support this podcast! Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

We had planned today to release the fifth installment in our seven-part series of St. Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana — but in light of renewed lockdown measures being implemented across the United States and elsewhere, we’ve decided instead to re-release another work of Augustine’s previously featured on the show: his letter to Honoratus, on the necessity of keeping the sacraments available. As a Church, let’s not do what we did before in the first shutdown. Let’s not go silently into that good night. Let’s let government officials—and, even more importantly, church leaders—know that the administration of the sacraments is an essential service. If you missed this episode the first time around, give it a listen. Or listen again, considering all that’s transpired in the five months since we first released this reading. For access to this and all of our previous episodes, register for free at catholicculture.org/getaudio Notes Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120446/early-christian-biographies Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3143 Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes. Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

"Is my gloom, after all, / Shade of his hand, outstretched caressingly?" Francis Thompson was an English Catholic poet who died at the age of 47, stricken with poor health that followed him from hard experiences he had had as a young man living on the streets of London. "The Hound of Heaven" was written when Thompson was living at Our Lady of England Priory and recovering from opium addiction. In the poem, one hears echos of Psalm 139 (which Thompson no doubt would have prayed often at the priory): "Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your face? … even darkness is not dark for you and the night is as clear as the day." Links "The Hound of Heaven" full text at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=10546 SUBSCRIBE to Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-culture-audiobooks/id1482214268 SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter http://www.catholicculture.org/newsletter DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: "2 Part Invention", composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“This is the faith by which the Catholic Church lives and progresses, namely, that humanity is believed to exist in Jesus Christ not without real divinity, and divinity, not without real humanity.” The papacy of Pope Leo I  saw the convening of the Catholic Church’s fourth ecumenical council: the Council of Chalcedon.  The Tome of Leo was a central document debated during the Church's fourth ecumenical council, the Council of Chalcedon, at which the hypostatic union of Christ’s twofold nature—human and divine—was definitively set forth. This council took place during the papacy of Pope Leo I, described by Pope Benedict XVI as “undoubtedly one of the most important in Church history.” Written in the form of a letter, the Tome is addressed to Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople. Flavian had recently excommunicated a certain presbyter by the name of Eutyches, who had taught what would come to be known as the heresy of Monophysitism: the denial of Christ’s twofold nature and the insistence that in Christ there is only one nature, wholly divine. Leo invokes the text of the Nicene Creed and references Scripture throughout. He illustrates that humanity and divinity both truly exist in the Person of Christ, the Incarnate Word, and that other mysteries of the faith—notably, Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and our Redemption—depend upon this mystery. The Tome was eventually accepted as doctrinal. To this day it remains a foundational text of Christology, and it is perhaps the theological contribution for which St. Leo the Great is most remembered. Links Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120407/saint-augustine-christian-instruction-admonition-and-grace-the-christian-combat-faith-hope-and-charity Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2133 Donate at http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio to support this podcast! Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

"Since, then, no one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God, and since the chief duty of all men is to cling to religion in both its reaching and practice—not such religion as they may have a preference for, but the religion which God enjoins, and which certain and most clear marks show to be the only one true religion —it is a public crime to act as though there were no God." In this encyclical, issued on November 1, 1885, Pope Leo XIII urges Catholics to give particular attention to national politics and to make use of popular institutions for the advancement of truth and goodness. He warns that, were Catholics to abdicate the field of politics, it would “allow those whose principles offer but small guarantee for the welfare of the State to more readily seize the reins of government.” Leo condemns the politically expedient side-lining of Catholic teaching, warning that it is unlawful for Catholics "to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church but publicly rejecting it.” He especially cautions those who hold positions of authority, writing: “they must remember that the Almighty will one day bring them to account, the more strictly in proportion to the sacredness of their office and preeminence of their dignity.” Indeed, the right exercise of authority—and in particular, the right relationship between the authority of the Church and that of the State— is at the heart of Leo’s concern in Immortale Dei, and the encyclical can be seen as a correction to the defective view of authority that arises from a false notion of liberty. In fact, less than three years after issuing Immortale Dei, Pope Leo XIII issued another encyclical letter entitled Libertas, on the Nature of Human Liberty. Links Full text of Immortale Dei: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4916 The Catholic Culture Podcast Ep. 90—Leo XIII on the State’s Duties Toward the Church—Thomas Pink: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/90-leo-xiii-on-states-duties-toward-church-thomas-pink/ Audiobook of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-leo-xiii-rerum-novarum-pt-1/ Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Reflect for a long time upon what is being read, until the interpretation is drawn over to the sway of charity.” We’re picking up where we last left off in St. Augustine’s great treatise On Christian Doctrine, beginning Book 3 and finally diving into Augustine’s primary concern with this work: the correct interpretation of Holy Scripture.  In the initial chapters, Augustine closely considers the textual minutia of everything from punctuation to conjugation and declension, to pronunciation and inflection. (Lectors, take note!) Of particular concern for Augustine, however, is the correct discernment between literal and figurative expressions. It’s with respect to the latter that some of Augustine’s most salient insights shine through. His multi-faceted consideration of signs and symbols finds application in a wide range of concerns, including the sacraments, inculturation of the faith, and even morality. Augustine is particularly helpful in his discussion, toward the end of the reading, of the Old Testament and of certain anomalous—or even vicious—behavior of Old Testament figures. Any correct reading of Scripture will ultimately conduce to a love of God for his own sake, and of neighbor for God’s sake. Notes Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120407/saint-augustine-christian-instruction-admonition-and-grace-the-christian-combat-faith-hope-and-charity Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3275 Previous De Doctrina Christiana episodes: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm  Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for FREE access to the full archive of audiobooks beyond the most recent 15 episodes. Donate at http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio to support this podcast! Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“It is better to say nothing and be a Christian, than to speak and not to be one.” St. Ignatius’ letters express a clear view of the Church as hierarchical and monarchical, and his Letter to the Ephesians is no exception. In it, Ignatius emphasizes respect and obedience to the bishop and the priests and deacons in union with him.  For Ignatius, the formula is simple: Jesus is the mind of the Father, and the appointed bishops are of one mind with Christ. If the prayer of two or three gathered in Christ’s name is so efficacious, how much greater is that prayer in union with the bishop and the whole Church? Ignatius also issues stern warnings to those who would compromise the Church’s unity and pollute her teaching. In particular, those who would corrupt the family. Ignatius warns that those who bear the name of Christian while behaving in a way unworthy of God cannot be listened to. Again, for Ignatius the formula is simple: faith can no more do the things of infidelity, than infidelity can do the things of faith. Are we to abandon such people? Of course not, Ignatius says. “Do not cease to pray, for there is hope of their conversion and of their finding God. Give them the chance to be instructed, at least by the way you behave.” Yet another simple formula. Links Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/the-apostolic-fathers-walsh-grimm-marique/ Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1628 Other readings of Ignatius’ Letters: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/audiobook_authors_titles.cfm Way of the Fathers, Ep. 4—Ignatius of Antioch: To Know “Jesus Christ Our God” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/ Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold, and what they do not, who know their creed so well, that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.” This lecture was given against the backdrop of a resurgent anti-Catholicism throughout England, marked by anti-Catholic hysteria and government overstep. Although Newman is responding to an institutional prejudice born specifically of establishment Protestantism, his words for the most part can be applied equally as well to prejudice born of secularized liberalism. Newman puts so-called “public opinion” into its place. Newman exhorts Catholics to be straightforward, generous, and forbearing in spite of provocation. “Interpret the actions of all,” he says, “in the best sense that you possibly can.” Links Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View Full text: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/england/lecture9.html SUBSCRIBE to Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-culture-audiobooks/id1482214268 SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter http://www.catholicculture.org/newsletter DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: "2 Part Invention", composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.

“Among this ever so numerous throng of pure spirits, the highest of hierarchies is that of the great contemplative angels… Next comes those who are ministers of the Most High… and finally there are the angels who simply execute the orders of God, as are the invisible guardians of men, communities, and nations.” An excerpt from The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life, by French Dominican theologian Garrigou-Lagrange. In this chapter, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes from the perspective of an angel. In the angel's own words, he describes the nature, knowledge, and limits of the created pure spirit, and by way of contrast elucidates the limits of our own human intellect.  Links Translation courtesy of Emmaus Academic: https://www.emmausacademic.com/publications/2018/5/18/sense-of-mystery The Catholic Culture Podcast Ep. 38—Garrigou-Lagrange, The Sacred Monster of Thomism—w/ Matthew K. Minerd: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-38-sacred-monster-matthew-k-minerd/ Donate at http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: 2 Part Invention, composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.