Questions Covered:

14:16 - I don’t understand why icons are so treasured when they appear to be so ugly.

21:00 - When I see representations of St. Joseph, he is depicted as an old man, I wonder if this depiction was decided by Church tradition or the painters themselves?

29:46 - Can you talk a little bit about Michelangelo’s faith?

34:04 - How can counter-reformation art save the faith? Art is too flexible to do that.

44:23 - My favorite artist is El Greco. What do you think about his art?

46:05 - You said earlier that art had been dumbed down and cheapened for masses. What are your thoughts about sacred music? Should there be a return to more beautiful music?

Questions Covered:

03:56 - What are partial and plenary indulgences? How do they work?

12:28 - I struggle with pornography. Do you have advice or a patron saint to help me with this?

17:49 - There is a company that does gene editing. Is it unethical to invest in such a company?

21:22 - If you’re married in the Church, get divorced, and remarry the original person again, can you go to Communion?

22:52 - Is Sunday a cheat for Lent?

28:36 - Is sin defined as anything contrary to God’s nature? Does this mean that all things created by men are sinful?

32:18 - How can I prepare for the veneration of St. John Vianney’s heart? Is this a somber event?

35:30 - I am considering joining the priesthood. Which books should I read?

40:54 - I am in RCIA. Am I allowed to receive ashes at Mass today?

42:15 - How does apostolic succession work when there are multiple people trying to become pope?

42:15 - How does apostolic succession work when there are multiple people trying to become pope?

44:28 - I was regularly praying until a couple months ago. How can I restart my prayer life?

47:13 - Why can’t we just pray to Jesus? Why doesn’t the Catholic Church let priests get married?

52:46 - Is it a sin to speed while driving?

I recently stumbled upon an AWESOME four book series for men that has the potential to change men into true men of faith. This week on Off the Shelf my guest is author Mark McCann and we discuss the first in the series To the Ends of the Earth: Character. We walk through the book which is setup as a 10 week devotional. What will you learn? To be a man of Catholic character is to imitate Christ!

This week on the podcast we talk about the lenten practice of fasting. Fr Ian is fired up! The whole point of fasting during lent is to get our flesh in line with our spirit, since "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak". To fast from good things for a time especially food allows us to bring the reality of our emotions and discomfort to the surface and actually deal with them. We talk about the 1st reading from Deuteronomy that discusses why and how to make a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and that it is important that these fasts are done also out of thanksgiving, not just penance. In the Gospel we talk about the temptations Jesus faces and how he undoes the sins of Adam and the Israelites by resisting the temptations. We have the ability to be with Christ in our temptations because he himself was tempted.

A BTS look at the why of abuses in language: blasphemy, profanity, and vulgarity.