Paul Jernberg is a composer of sacred music and director of the Magnificat Institute, which offers education in the patrimony of Catholic liturgical music. He tells Thomas about his career, including an interesting digression about gospel music and its relation to Catholic liturgy, the criterion of “noble accessibility” in liturgical music, and what Roman Catholic composers can learn from the ancient Eastern chant traditions. This episode contains selections from Jernberg’s Mass of St. Philip Neri, used with permission. If you would like to hear more episodes with music throughout, please send Thomas feedback at podcast@catholicculture.org. Links http://www.pauljernberg.com/ Purchase the Mass of St. Philip Neri album http://www.pauljernberg.com/preview Magificat Institute of Sacred Music https://magnificatinstitute.org/ Paul Jernberg, “The Logos of Sacred Music” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=535 Jernberg on David Clayton’s Way of Beauty Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5xpu6Ldr-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIAK-o5JIL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NxbTo4BO4Q

The name of Garrigou-Lagrange has long been a byword for a fusty, rigid Thomism of days gone by, allegedly more concerned with centuries of accretions built up by scholastic commentators than with the original teaching of the Angelic Doctor himself. Only in traditionalist circles was his name still spoken with respect. But recent years have seen a wider reevaluation of this French Dominican priest and theologian, and a new translation of his work The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life shows that Garrigou has been unfairly dismissed as a purveyor of airless theology. The translator of this work, Matthew K. Minerd, joins the podcast to discuss Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s legacy and some of the book’s central themes. These include mystery from on high and from below (not only spirit but also matter is mysterious), the importance of common sense for philosophy, the different senses in which we use the word “to be”, the supernaturality of faith, and the eminence of the Deity beyond any of His attributes insofar as we know and name them by reason. Through all these topics it becomes abundantly clear that only by preserving the distinction between natural and supernatural can theology remain itself. Links Buy The Sense of Mystery: Clarity and Obscurity in the Intellectual Life http://www.emmausacademic.com/publications/2018/5/18/sense-of-mystery An excellent article on chastity by Matthew https://www.hprweb.com/2017/10/on-the-lowly-yet-vital-importance-of-chastity/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The young Italian sculptor Jago is best known to Catholics for his marble bust of Pope Benedict XVI, which the Pope himself awarded with a pontifical medal. Upon Benedict’s resignation, Jago radically reworked the piece into its current form, Habemus Hominem. In this episode Jago discusses the meaning of marble, how he had to teach himself because his art professors opposed studying the great masters of the past, and his innovative use of social media as a new, decentralized form of patronage. Links Jago on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jago.artist Video of Jago transforming his bust of Pope Benedict https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqVwRookYJ0 Article on Habemus Hominem https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2018/02/21/shirtless-statue-pope-benedict-causes-art-sensation-rome/

One of the core things that has gone wrong with our culture in the past several decades is the denigration of every virtue associated with the perfect woman, Mary. Gentleness, humility, (true) beauty and especially motherhood: these are all antithetical to the radical feminism that is now thoroughly mainstream. If modern women are rejecting the very model of womanhood, it’s no wonder the data tells us they’re miserable. What they have embraced instead is described by Carrie Gress as the spirit of anti-Mary. Carrie’s new book, The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity, details how Satan has used women’s malcontent as an entry point to completely devastate them and the culture they were meant to create and nurture. She dispels the illusion of the sisterhood, as early radical feminism was filled with backstabbing, mental illness, and unhappy women who hated not only men but each other. She argues that the misbehavior of so many women today is a defense mechanism due to the lack of unconditional love from their parents. Finally, she points women to Mary and her virtues as a way of finding contentment in the unconditional love of God the Father, and of rediscovering the feminine beauty that will be crucial to healing our culture’s wounds. Links The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/the-anti-mary-exposed.html Episode 4 – The Marian Option – Carrie Gress https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=4 Carrie Gress http://www.carriegress.com/ Theology of Home (used to be Helena Daily) https://theologyofhome.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Abby Johnson was the youngest clinic director in Planned Parenthood history. After witnessing an abortion on ultrasound, she quit, became a Catholic, and founded And Then There Were None, an organization which has helped over 500 workers leave the abortion industry. We discuss the new film Unplanned, based on her memoir by the same name, and delve into the vicious cycle of moral blindness which enabled her to work in the abortion business. Links Unplanned movie https://www.unplannedfilm.com/ Unplanned book http://www.unplannedthebook.com/ Abby’s Twitter https://twitter.com/abbyjohnson And Then There Were None https://abortionworker.com/ This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Michael Pakaluk, acting dean at the Catholic University of America, shares insights from his new translation of Mark’s Gospel, believed to be based on St. Peter's eyewitness accounts. He discusses the narrative techniques of Mark and how tense shifts create urgency and emotional depth. Pakaluk emphasizes the human aspects of Christ, portraying him as a relatable figure. He also explores the significance of healing miracles and the secrecy surrounding them, reflecting on their impact on public perception and the portrayal of Jesus's humanity.

The quest for freedom in structure is fundamental to Catholic spiritual life (particularly during this season of Lent). It’s also fundamental to musical improvisation. How can you be free and spontaneous without giving way to anarchy and sin, which lead to death?  How can you be organized and disciplined without succumbing to the living death of rigidity? How can you make new music in the moment, with no predetermined composition, that nonetheless has order and beauty? And how can you do all this without taking yourself too seriously? Only the Holy Spirit makes these things possible. My friend Mark Christopher Brandt—improvising pianist, composer and spiritual writer—has spent his life pursuing these paradoxes in the confluence of life as a musician and life in Christ. We discuss his ongoing series of fully improvised albums, most recently the DVD Structure and Freedom, as well as his books of meditations for the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary. Links Mark’s website http://www.markchristopherbrandt.com Structure and Freedom DVD https://markchristopherbrandt.com/structure-and-freedom-dvd.html Sunflowers and Roses (soundtrack album to Structure and Freedom) https://markchristopherbrandt.com/sunflowers-and-roses-album.html Mark's spiritual books https://markchristopherbrandt.com/spiritual-books.html 2017 interview about Mark’s album The Nightingale https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-0-nightingale-mark-christopher-brandt/  

For many people who have never been to Spain, their only image of the country may be the strange spires of Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudí. It is certainly the best-known building in Spain, despite still not being finished—and construction began in 1882! Indeed, Gaudí knew the building would not be completed in his lifetime, but was at peace with this, saying, “My client is not in a hurry.” He was an ascetic with a deep devotion to the Holy Family, and there is an ongoing cause for his beatification with which my guest is involved.   Links Images of Gaudí’s works https://www.pinterest.com/ukiahyaya/antoni-gaudi/?lp=true Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí http://translate.google.com/translate?client=tmpg&hl=en&langpair=es|en&u=http%3A//www.gaudibeatificatio.com/ The Association’s book on Gaudí and the beatification effort http://www.gaudibeatificatio.com/files/docs/GAUDI-BOOK.pdf

You may or may not know that I have a background in jazz piano (I wrote and performed the intro and outro music for this show, for example). In this album I introduce you to about ten of my very favorite jazz albums. This is an experimental solo episode, but don’t worry, we’ll be back to interviews next week.   Links The main list: Charlie Parker, “Parker’s Mood” (1948) (listen to this original version, not the overdubbed version from Clint Eastwood’s depressing film Bird!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wa7El-k3jQ Best of the Savoy and Dial Master Takes (I mentioned the complete set in the episode but this is more approachable): https://www.amazon.com/Best-Complete-Savoy-Studio-Recordings/dp/B000067FUO/ “Koko”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okrNwE6GI70 Erroll Garner, The Complete Concert by the Sea (1958): https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Concert-Sea-Erroll-Garner/dp/B00ZJ5QXDO/                  “I’ll Remember April”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_aILGaLqyc Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto (1964): https://www.amazon.com/Getz-Gilberto-Stan/dp/B0000047CX/                  “Desafinado”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So718wk426c Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio, Smokin’ at the Half Note (1965): https://www.amazon.com/Smokin-At-Half-Note-Remastered/dp/B0006VXF4G/                  “Unit 7”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D12_468jvNk Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (1959): https://www.amazon.com/Kind-Blue-Miles-Davis/dp/B000002ADT/  “Blue in Green”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veDgWww1hIQ Bill Evans’s liner notes: https://www.sfjazz.org/onthecorner/bill-evans-kind-blue-liner-notes/ Bill Evans, Alone (1968): https://www.amazon.com/Alone-VME-Bill-Evans/dp/B00006C79A/                  “Here’s That Rainy Day”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMa2VaV3Voo Miles Davis, Nefertiti (1968): https://www.amazon.com/Nefertiti-Miles-Davis/dp/B003O5MODY/                 “Nefertiti”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHBIfBex7Ig Herbie Hancock, Speak Like a Child (1968): https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Like-Child-Herbie-Hancock/dp/B0007LLQ3W/                 “Speak Like a Child”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTNLWi-xAkE Chick Corea, Friends (1978): https://www.amazon.com/Friends-CHICK-COREA/dp/B01LVWGSGJ "Waltz for Dave": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNdowVQ9nxE   Other albums mentioned: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Bird and Diz (1950): https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Diz-Charlie-Parker/dp/B009R50YU0/                 “Bloomdido”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCGweQ8Oso Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Elis & Tom (1974): https://www.amazon.com/Elis-Antonio-Carlos-Jobim-Regina/dp/B0017YWG2S                 “Aguas de Março”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1tOV7y94DY Miles Davis, Miles Smiles (1967): https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Smiles-Davis/dp/B016QE48TM/                 “Footprints”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62p-CXrYmf4 Herbie Hancock et al., Tribute to Miles (1992): https://www.amazon.com/Tribute-Miles-Various-Artists/dp/B000002MG7/ “Elegy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_DJJyJ5Ogg Chick Corea, Three Quartets (1981): https://www.amazon.com/Three-Quartets-Chick-Corea/dp/B000003OZE/                 “Quartet No. 2, Pt. 2: Tribute to John Coltrane”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQx96DsZXxA

While Tolkien’s brilliance as a world-builder and storyteller is well-established, fewer people are aware of just how unique (and obsessive) his creative process was, or that he was a gifted visual artist. That is changing thanks to an unprecedented exhibition of Tolkien’s personal items, manuscripts and artworks, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth, currently on display at the Morgan Library in Manhattan. John McQuillen, Assistant Curator at the Morgan Library, and Holly Ordway, author of the upcoming study Tolkien’s Modern Sources, join me to discuss the exhibition, which sheds light on Tolkien’s use of visual art to help him solidify his literary vision, the role his stories and artworks played in his family life, and (perhaps surprising to many who view Tolkien as a conservative fuddy-duddy) his willingness to draw on an eclectic range of sources, including distinctly modern ones, to enhance his creative expression.   Links Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth at the Morgan (view selected images from the exhibition) https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/tolkien The exhibition book, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Catherine McIlwaine https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Maker-Middle-earth-Catherine-McIlwaine/dp/1851244859 Holly Ordway http://www.hollyordway.com/ Sheen Center for Thought & Culture https://www.sheencenter.org/ Past Tolkien-related episodes Episode 15: Online Education with The Tolkien Professor—Corey Olsen https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=15 Episode 16: Extremely Specific Middle-earth Q&A with The Tolkien Professor—Corey Olsen https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=16 This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio