"They are the class of feelings we should have—yes, have in an intense degree—if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize His presence."

This sermon appears among a collection of sermons originally written and preached by St. John Henry Newman before his conversion to Catholicism. In it, Newman emphasizes that true reverence arises from a deep, abiding awareness of God's presence.

Links

Reverence, a Belief in God's Presence full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/sermon2.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.

"You thought perhaps when learned Campion dies, His pen must cease, his sugared tongue be still; But you forgot how loud his death it cries How far beyond the sound of tongue and quill."

In 1581, a young Englishman named Henry Walpole attended the execution of the Jesuit Edmund Campion. As Campion was hung, drawn and quartered, Walpole stood close enough to be spattered with his holy blood. Though Campion’s fame in England was already great, Walpole would amplify it further with a splendid, lengthy poem, which became enormously popular among English Catholics—so popular that the man who printed the book had his ears cut off as punishment.

In his poem Walpole wrote: We cannot fear a mortal torment, we, This martyr’s blood hath moistened all our hearts, Whose parted quarters when we chance to see We learn to play the constant Christian’s parts.

This was more than wordplay: Two years after Campion’s death, Walpole became a priest, and was himself hung for the faith in 1595. Links

Lyra Martyrum: The Poetry of the English Martyrs: https://www.clunymedia.com/product/lyra-martyrum/

Catholic Culture Podcast #69—The Poetry of the English Martyrs—Benedict Whalen https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-69-poetry-english-martyrs-benedict-whalen/

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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.

“This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ, we can understand the starting-point of this Encyclical Letter: “God is love”. It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move.”

Deus Caritas Est, or “God is Love,” was the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, released on December 25, 2005. This letter focuses on the nature of Christian love, particularly examining the relationship between God’s love for humanity and the love Christians are called to show others. Benedict grounds his reflections in Scripture and tradition, aiming to clarify misunderstandings about Christian love in a contemporary world marked by both cynicism and sentimentality.

In this first part, titled “The Unity of Love in Creation and in Salvation History,” Benedict explores two distinct yet intertwined dimensions of love, eros and agape, arriving at the newness which biblical faith brings to man's understanding of love—a new understanding that finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the incarnate love of God.

Links:

Full text: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.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.

"For we don't invent marriage... any more than we invent human language. It is part of the creation of humanity and if we're lucky we find it available to us and can enter into it. If we are very unlucky, we may live in a society that has wrecked or deformed this human thing."

Elizabeth Anscombe was a prominent 20th-century British philosopher, known for her influential work in ethics and her deep commitment to Catholic doctrine. In her essay 'Contraception and Chastity'—one of the earliest defenses of Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae—Anscombe expertly explains the evil of contraception and contrasts its use with that of methods of natural family planning. 

Read by Karina Majewski

Links

Contraception and Chastity full text: https://global.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/PH19B/conchastity.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.

"St. Michael" full text: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/st-michael

"Angelic Guidance" full text: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/angelic-guidance

"Guardian Angel" full text: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/guardian-angel-2

Happy feast of the Guardian Angels!

More links:

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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.

"In proportion as we lean to our own understanding, we are driven to do so for want of a better guide. Our first true guide, the light of innocence, is gradually withdrawn from us; and nothing is left for us but to 'grope and stumble in the desolate places,' by the dim, uncertain light of reason."

This sermon appears among a collection of sermons originally written and preached by St. John Henry Newman between 1825 and 1843, before his conversion to Catholicism. In it, Newman warns against the dangers of intellectual pride and underscores that the path to true wisdom lies in humble submission to God's commandments, not in self-reliant reasoning.

Links

The Self-wise Inquirer full text: https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume1/sermon17.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.

"But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator. Just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over his specifically sexual faculties, for these are concerned by their very nature with the generation of life, of which God is the source."

Issued in 1968, Humanae Vitae is the final encyclical letter of Pope Paul VI. In it, he rejects the conclusions of the 1966 majority report of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, and instead reaffirms the Church's longstanding opposition to artificial contraception while promoting natural family planning as a moral alternative. The document remains a significant source text for Church teaching on responsible parenthood, marital love, and the sanctity of life.

Links

Humanae Vitae full text: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.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.

"For there are two, O emperor Augustus, by which the world is principally ruled: the sacred authority of pontiffs and the royal power."

Pope St. Gelasius I reigned as pope from 492 to 496 AD and is best known for articulating the doctrine of "the two swords." This doctrine explains that man is subject to two powers: the temporal and the spiritual. Whereas the temporal power wields natural authority to promote the common good, the spiritual power wields supernatural authority for the care of souls. While recognizing that these two powers complement one another, Gelasius asserts the ultimate primacy of the spiritual authority over the temporal.

Pope Gelasius' contributions helped shape the relationship between church and state in medieval Europe, and to this day the Church's position remains what he first described in this famous letter to the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I.

Links

Famuli Vestrae Pietatis full text: https://thejosias.com/2020/03/30/famuli-vestrae-pietatis/

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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.

"And just as the all-holy body of God's Son, which was taken from her, rose from the dead on the third day, it followed that she should be snatched from the tomb, that the mother should be united to her Son; and as He had come down to her, so she should be raised up to Him."

John of Damascus, also known as St. John Damascene, was an influential monk and theologian of the 8th century. He is considered the last of the Greek Fathers and is primarily known for his definitive defense of icons against the iconoclast heresy. His influential body of work includes sermons, hymns, and an encyclopedia that summarizes the philosophical and theological developments of the Patristic era. His significant contributions to the Church's understanding of her doctrine and liturgy have earned him the title "Doctor of the Church."

In this sermon—one of three on the Dormition of Mary—St. John reflects upon Mary's participation in the mysteries of salvation, describes the gathering of the apostles and angels to honor her departure from this world, and exhorts all to celebrate the great feast of her Assumption.

Links

Sermon II: On the Assumption full text: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/johndamascus-komesis.asp

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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.

"Constantine's submission of his power to the Church has been a pattern for all Christian monarchs since, and the commencement of her state establishment to this day; and, on the other hand, the fortunes of the Roman empire are in prophecy apparently connected with her in a very intimate manner, which we are not yet able fully to comprehend. If any event might be said to call for a miracle, it was this."

In this chapter from Newman's Essays on Miracles, written in his Anglican period, Newman evaluates the historical and evidential support for the miraculous event which led to Constantine's conversion to Christianity around A.D. 311-312. 

Links

Appearance of the Cross in the Sky to Constantine full text: https://www.newmanreader.org/works/miracles/essay2/chapter5-4.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.