"The helpers of our faith are fear and patience; our allies are long-suffering and self-control." The so-called Letter of Barnabas is neither a letter nor by St. Barnabas. Written by an anonymous author sometime between the years 70 and 150 AD, it is a work of allegorical scriptural interpretation chiefly notable for its early date. Having been composed well before collection of the New Testament into a canon, the Letter of Barnabas attempts to illustrate the Old Testament's fulfillment in...

"I say, a University, taken in its bare idea, and before we view it as an instrument of the Church, has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture... It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it." In 1854, Newman was invited to Dublin by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to serve as...

"Give me thy grace, good Lord, To set the world at naught;" The 16th and 17th centuries produced a number of men whose courageous faith was accompanied by prodigious learning and literary talent. Among these was St. Thomas More, who wrote poems while languishing in the Tower of London, 1534-1535. Read here are "Lewis the Lost Lover" and "Davey the Dicer", titled after the popular tunes of the day to which he wrote the poems. According to his biographer and son-in-law William Roper, More...

"Anyone who will calmly consider what he has done without God, cannot fail to realize that what he does with God is no merit of his own; and so we may rejoice in that which is good in us, and take pleasure in the fact, but we shall give all the glory to God alone, who alone is its author." Part 3 Chapter 1 - How to Select That Which We Should Chiefly Practice (00:00:38) Chapter 2 - The Same Subject Continued (00:09:33) Chapter 3 - Patience (00:16:32) Chapter 4 - Greater Humility...

In this livestream, James Majewski and Thomas Mirus we discussed errors artists can fall into in pushing back against a moralistic approach to art found within the Church. Rather than reacting away from rigidity to excessive openness, the mature Catholic artist has to get over himself and be a servant. Also discussed: The relation between order and surprise in beauty, morality and culture. Note: the video begins abruptly in the middle of our introductory fundraising campaign pitch - because...

We thought Catholic Culture Audiobooks listeners might be interested in this discussion with Mike Aquilina, host of Way of the Fathers, also on the Catholic Culture Podcast Network. For those who missed the YouTube livestream Q&A with Mike Aquilina on May 8th, 2023, here is the audio. It was a lively conversation where Mike fielded viewer questions about important cities of the early Church, early evidence for papal primacy, the role of charity in the early Church, Origen, the...

We'll be doing YouTube livestreams on the next 3 Monday evenings, as part of CatholicCulture.org's May fundraising campaign. In these freewheeling conversations, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and prompt discussion in the live chat box! 5/8, 8pm ET - Mike Aquilina (host, Way of the Fathers podcast) 5/15, 8pm ET - Thomas Mirus & James Majewski (hosts,Catholic Culture Podcast, Catholic Culture Audiobooks, Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast) 5/22, 8pm ET - Phil Lawler &...

“When the Master himself has explicitly said of the bread, ‘This is my body,’ will anyone still dare to doubt? When He is Himself our warranty, saying, “This is my blood,” who will ever waver and say it is not His Blood?” These the two final catechetical lectures given by Cyril to catechumens around 349 A.D are termed the Mystagogical Lectures. In them, Cyril instructs the newly baptized on the mysteries into which they had just been initiated: baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist. He...

"It is not enough to be Christians in name. It behooves us to be such in fact. [...] So let us become His disciples. Let us learn to live the life that Christianity calls for. No one with any other name than this can belong to God." St. Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch. The only extant writings by St. Ignatius are the seven letters he wrote as a prisoner on his way to Rome to face martyrdom. In this letter, Ignatius encourages the Magnesian Christians to maintain their unity and...

"For the one who was born as Son, and led to slaughter as a lamb, and sacrificed as a sheep, and buried as a man, rose up from the dead as God." A vernacular version of the earliest surviving Easter vigil homily by a second-century bishop about whom little is known. Full text: https://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp Alternate translation: https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio Theme music: 2 Part...

"People are shown to be not particularly spiritual at other times if they do not prove themselves to be more spiritual in these days." St. Leo the Great's pontificate was described by Pope Benedict XVI as “undoubtedly one of the most important in Church history”. His 96 extant sermons, given during the period 440-461, reveal his great desire for the unity of the Church and his strong belief in the primacy of the papacy. These three Lenten sermons were given in the years 441, 442, and 443...

"I don't know which is the cause of the greatest grief for me: whether those who were slain, or those who were captured, or those whom the devil so deeply ensnared." St. Patrick's Letter to Coroticus is one of two extant works from the fifth century bishop who would come to be known as the “Apostle of Ireland.” Written several years into St. Patrick's missionary work in Ireland, this letter offers a stern rebuke to a British warlord named Coroticus and his soldiers, the latter of whom had...

"God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves." In this 1939 essay, J.R.R. Tolkien expounds upon his personal theory of fantasy. Considered by many to be his most influential scholarly work, the essay is remarkable both as an analysis of a literary form by one of its most important pioneers and as a key to understanding Tolkien's own legendarium. This reading is unabridged, with the exception of Tolkien’s footnotes and endnotes. Links On Fairy-Stories full text:...

"The artist puts before him beauty of feature and form; the poet, beauty of mind; the preacher, the beauty of grace: then intellect too, I repeat, has its beauty, and it has those who aim at it." In 1854, Newman was invited to Dublin by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to serve as rector for the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, now University College, Dublin. Though he retired after only four years, during this time he composed and delivered the lectures that would become The...

"Therefore, my child, communicate frequently, as often as you can, subject to the advice of your spiritual Father... and by reason of adoring and feeding upon beauty, goodness, and purity itself in this most divine Sacrament you too will become lovely, holy, pure." St. Francis de Sales continues his instruction in the devout life with these eminently practical chapters on how the saints are united to us, how to hear and read God's Word, how to receive inspirations, how to go to confession,...

"The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur—this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time." Pope Benedict XVI delivered this address to scientists at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006, where he was a professor and vice rector from 1969 to 1971. The Pope praised the university's traditional openness to approaching God through the use of reason. He went on to contrast this...

"Now, in the practice of this spiritual retreat and of these brief prayers the great work of devotion lies: it can supply all other deficiencies, but there is hardly any means of making up where this is lacking." In this installment, St. Francis De Sales delves further into his discussion of prayer, focusing his chapters on such subjects as Morning & Evening Prayer, how to receive Holy Communion, and on praying the other public offices of the Church. De Sales stresses the importance of...

“We are now entering on a fresh stage of our life's journey; we know well how it will end, and we see where we shall stop in the evening, though we do not see the road.” Ring in the New Year with this New Year’s Day sermon by St. John Henry Newman, first released on this podcast in January 2020. Full text: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume7/sermon1.html DONATE at http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio  Go to http://www.catholicculture.org/getaudio to register for...

Originally delivered at the Pro Civitate Dei summer school in La Londe-les-Maures, France on June 12, 2022, The Politics of Hell is an in-depth examination of St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrine concerning the social order among angels and demons—and a commentary on the human governmental arrangements to which each most closely corresponds. Links: The Politics of Hell full text at The Josias: https://thejosias.com/2022/06/16/the-politics-of-hell/ DONATE...

But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder high'r;          When to her organ, vocal breath was giv'n, An angel heard, and straight appear'd                 Mistaking earth for Heav'n. "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day" full text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44185/a-song-for-st-cecilias-day-1687 "Alexander's Feast; or, the Power of Music" full text: https://poets.org/poem/alexanders-feast-or-power-music Happy feast of St. Cecilia! More links: DONATE...

“Matrimony was not instituted or restored by man but by God; not by man were the laws made to strengthen and confirm and elevate it but by God, the Author of nature, and by Christ Our Lord by Whom nature was redeemed...” Casti Connubii, or “of chaste wedlock”, was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius XI on December 21, 1930, in response to the approval by the Anglican Communion’s seventh Lambeth Conference of birth control for married couples. Over 90 years later, this encyclical...

"If you drop any science out of the circle of knowledge, you cannot keep its place vacant for it; that science is forgotten; the other sciences close up, or, in other words, they exceed their proper bounds, and intrude where they have no right... no science whatever, however comprehensive it may be, but will fall largely into error, if it be constituted the sole exponent of all things in heaven and earth, and that, for the simple reason that it is encroaching on territory not its own, and...

"Blest powers forbid thy tender life Should bleed upon a barbarous knife; Or some base hand have power to rase Thy breast’s chaste cabinet, and uncase A soul kept there so sweet; oh no, Wise Heav’n will never have it so; Thou art Love’s victim, and must die A death more mystical and high; Into Love’s arms thou shalt let fall A still-surviving funeral." Richard Crashaw was a 17th-century English poet and Anglican priest who later in life converted to Catholicism. He taught at...

"In a word, Religious Truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge. To blot it out is nothing short, if I may so speak, of unravelling the web of University Teaching." In 1854, Newman was invited to Dublin by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to serve as rector for the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, now University College, Dublin. Though he retired after only four years, during this time he composed and delivered the lectures that would become The Idea...

" Religious doctrine is knowledge, in as full a sense as Newton's doctrine is knowledge. University Teaching without Theology is simply unphilosophical." In 1854, Newman was invited to Dublin by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to serve as rector for the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, now University College, Dublin. Though he retired after only four years, during this time he composed and delivered the lectures that would become The Idea of a University. In this second...