Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"The tranquility of grace smoothed away the sharpness of the law, while the spirit of adoption swept away the fear of servitude. His own sacred expressions, then, tell what is the nature of Christ's teaching, so that those who wish to reach eternal blessedness may recognize the stages which approach to that happy goal."

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.

In this homily on Matthew 5:1-9, Leo beautifully discusses each of the Beatitudes, using various Scripture passages to masterfully draw out their meaning.

Links

St. Leo the Great Sermons: https://verbum.com/product/120449/st-leo-the-great-sermons

Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2218

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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.

"The Liturgy is a school of the presence of God; and teaches us to stay in the presence of our God as He was manifested to us in the Incarnation! Call it rather a school of the presence of Jesus, and of love!"

This third section from Part Five of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), considers the Church's liturgy and its essential connection with the interior life of the Christian.

Episode 6: Part Five (sections 1 - 2) & Appendix

00:00 - Intro

00:39 - 1. What Is the Liturgy?

05:24 - 2. What Is the Liturgical Life?

13:59 - 3. The Liturgical Spirit

48:12 - 4. The Advantages of the Liturgical Life

01:12:51 - 5. The Practice of the Liturgical Life

Links

The Soul of the Apostolate full text: https://www.cmri.org/0-olmc-mission/catholic-books/soul_of_the_apostolate.pdf

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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.

"Even if I have long neglected it, Jesus calls me tenderly to mental prayer, and offers me special help in speaking this language of faith, hope, and love... Am I going to resist this appeal of a Father Who calls even the prodigal to come and listen to His word, to talk to Him as a son; to open his heart to Him and to listen to the beatings of His own?"

Part Five of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), begins with practical principles for living the interior life and concrete guidance on mental prayer. In addition, Dom Chautard provides ten aids to mental prayer in the included appendix.

Episode 6: Part Five (sections 1 - 2) & Appendix

00:00 - Intro

00:39 - 1. To Active Workers: Hints on the Interior Life

08:51 - 2. Mental Prayer: A Necessary Element of Interior Life, and Consequently of the Apostolate

10:09 - i. Fidelity to Mental Prayer

15:37 - ii. What Mental Prayer Ought to Be

18:45 - iii. How Am I Going to Make My Mental Prayer?

36:50 - Appendix: Ten Aids to Mental Prayer

Links

The Soul of the Apostolate full text: https://www.cmri.org/0-olmc-mission/catholic-books/soul_of_the_apostolate.pdf

SUBSCRIBE to Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-culture-audiobooks/id1482214268

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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 will attempt to suggest to you on the present Festival some of the incentives to wonder and awe, humility, implicit faith, and adoration, supplied by the Ascension of Christ."

A powerful Ascension sermon from St. John Henry Newman's Anglican period.

Links

Mysteries in Religion full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume2/sermon18.html

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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.

"If, then, the infinite benevolence of God wins our love, certainly His justice commands it; and were we able, as the Saints made perfect are able, to combine the notion of both in their separate perfections, as displayed in the same acts, doubtless our awe and admiration of the glorious vision would be immeasurably increased."

St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within the Church of England and ultimately led to many conversions to Catholicism.

In addition to the profound influence these sermons had on both Anglican and Catholic theology, they also bore a personal significance for Newman's own conversion to Catholicism years later.

These fifteen sermons, though deeply interconnected in theme and insight, are not sequential in nature; rather, each stands on its own as a distinct and self-contained reflection on faith and reason. Newman lays the groundwork for themes developed in later works, such as Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.

In this sixth sermon, Newman opposes the sentimental tendency to portray God as mere benevolence, insisting instead that true religion acknowledges God's perfect justice together with His mercy.

Links

On Justice, as a Principle of Divine Governance full text: https://www.newmanreader.org/works/oxford/sermon6.html

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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.

"Come—I sing of a splendid dream, a mighty marvel, that came at midnight when the tongues of men are silent. A strange tree—most wondrous strange!— stretched forth branches in a blast of light."

The Dream of the Rood is an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem, composed as early as the 8th century. It takes the form of a dream-vision in which the narrator sees the Cross on which Christ was crucified, and most of the poem consists of a speech given by the personified Cross, telling the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, with the Wood sharing in the glory of the Word.

The virile style and the warrior ethos of Anglo-Saxon verse took on a Christian form in this poem, with Christ being depicted as a heroic warrior and the Cross as his loyal retainer, with self-sacrifice rather than a contest of arms gaining the victory.

James Majewski gives a dramatic reading of The Dream of the Rood, as recently translated by Tessa Carman and J.C. Scharl.

Links

The Dream of the Rood: A New Translation full text: https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/the-dream-of-the-rood-a-new-translation

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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.

Lives of the Popes on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lives-of-the-popes/id1885968422

Lives of the Popes on CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/lives-of-popes-podcast/

"... we shall find it difficult to estimate the moral power which a single individual, trained to practice what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years. While the Scriptures are thrown upon the world, as if the common property of any who choose to appropriate them, he is, in fact, the legitimate interpreter of them, and none other; the Inspired Word being but a dead letter (ordinarily considered), except as transmitted from one mind to another."

St. John Henry Newman's Oxford Sermons, delivered during his time as an Anglican preacher at the University of Oxford, were instrumental in shaping the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive High Church traditions within the Church of England and ultimately led to many conversions to Catholicism.

In addition to the profound influence these sermons had on both Anglican and Catholic theology, they also bore a personal significance for Newman's own conversion to Catholicism years later.

These fifteen sermons, though deeply interconnected in theme and insight, are not sequential in nature; rather, each stands on its own as a distinct and self-contained reflection on faith and reason. Newman lays the groundwork for themes developed in later works, such as Grammar of Assent and Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.

In this fifth sermon, Newman contends that Christian truth spreads and endures in the world primarily through the personal character of holy individuals, rather than through the influence of institutions or intellectual arguments alone.

Links

Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating the Truth full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/oxford/sermon5.html

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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.

"No work takes deep root, or has real stability, or will perpetuate itself, unless the apostle has begotten the interior life in other souls. Naturally, he cannot do this unless he himself is strong in the inner life."

This episode concludes Part Four of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935). Among other things, there is featured an illuminating description of the progressive stages of conversion, which Dom Chautard includes as an aid for spiritual directors.

Episode 4: Part Four (sections e - g)

00:00 - Intro

00:39 - e. Because the Interior Life Begets Interior Life, Its Results Upon Souls Are Deep and Lasting

20:09 - f. Importance of the Formation of "Shock Troops" and of Spiritual Direction

46:12 - (Stages of Conversion - Categories for Spiritual Directors)

57:48 - g. The Entire Success of the Apostolate Depends on One Thing: An Interior Life Centered on the Blessed Eucharist

Links

The Soul of the Apostolate full text: https://www.cmri.org/0-olmc-mission/catholic-books/soul_of_the_apostolate.pdf

SUBSCRIBE to Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-culture-audiobooks/id1482214268

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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.

"Am I really one of those who depend upon their mental prayer, their visits to the Blessed Sacrament, above all upon their Mass or their Communion, to put real moving power into their preaching? If I am not, I may perhaps be a loudly 'tinkling cymbal,' or even give forth the more pompous din of 'sounding brass,' but I am not communicating to others any love, that love which makes the eloquence of the friends of God impossible to resist."

Part Four of the classic work by the French Trappist monk, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), describes the many ways in which the interior life ensures the fruitfulness of active apostolic works.

Episode 4: Part Four (sections a - d)

00:00 - Intro

00:39 - The Interior Life is the Condition on which the Fruitfulness of Active Works Depends

07:36 - a. The Interior Life Draws Down the Blessings of God

15:18 - b. It Makes the Apostle Capable of Sanctifying Others by His Example

23:51 - c. It Makes the Apostle Radiate the Supernatural: the Efficacy of This Radiation

01:13:42 - d. It Makes the Gospel Worker Truly Eloquent

Links

The Soul of the Apostolate full text: https://www.cmri.org/0-olmc-mission/catholic-books/soul_of_the_apostolate.pdf

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

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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.