Catholic Culture Audiobooks

"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.

My oldest friend, mine from the hour When first I drew my breath; My faithful friend, that shall be mine, Unfailing, till my death...

"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 Our first true guide, the light of innocence, is gradually withdrawn from us; and nothing is left for us but to 'grope and stumble in the desolate places,' by the dim, uncertain light of reason."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.

"So the man whom Satan has smitten ought not to be ashamed to confess his sin, and depart from it, and entreat for himself the medicine of penitence. For gangrene comes to the wound of him who is ashamed to show it, and harm comes to his whole body; and he who is not ashamed has his wound healed, and again returns to go down into the conflict."

St. Aphrahat is known in the tradition as "the Persian Sage." Born in the late third century in the Persian Empire, he flourished amid persecution and is the earliest prominent witness to Syriac Christianity. He wrote in a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, and maintained close contact with Judaism, demonstrating a profound knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish customs. He is best known for his collection of twenty-three writings called the "Demonstrations."

Demonstration VII concerns penitents. Composed in 336-337 A.D., it is the earliest work to treat of the early Church's approach to the sacrament of penance and pastoral care with such precision.

Links

Demonstration VII, On Penitents full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/aphrahat_dem7.htm

Learn more about St. Aphrahat on Way of the Fathers: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/27-aphrahat-parsee-sage-primary-in-time/

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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.

"Your very perplexity in reconciling the surface of things with our Lord's announcements, the very temptation you lie under to explain away the plain words of Scripture, shows you that your standard of good and evil, and the standard of all around you, must be very different from God's standard."

In this sermon from his Anglican period, Newman reflects upon the challenging truth proclaimed uniformly throughout Scripture: the chosen are few, though many are called.

Links

Many Called, Few Chosen full text: https://newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/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.

"Keep his commandments, and you will have a cure for sin."

The Shepherd of Hermas is an apocryphal text written in Rome in the 2nd century. It belongs to the category of "apocalyptic" literature, as it relates a series of revelations given to its titular character, Hermas, who may or may not also have been the work's author.

The Shepherd of Hermas was widely read and respected in the early Church, with some Church Fathers (such as Irenaeus and Origen) even considering it part of canonical scripture.

The text is divided into three main sections: Visions, Mandates, and Parables. Taken together, they serve as an exhortation to repentance.

Part 4: Conclusion

00:00 Intro

00:39 Ninth Parable - Chapter 1 03:35 Chapter 2 05:27 Chapter 3 06:40 Chapter 4 09:12 Chapter 5 11:18 Chapter 6 13:12 Chapter 7 15:15 Chapter 8 17:39 Chapter 9 20:07 Chapter 10 21:59 Chapter 11 24:58 Chapter 12 27:45 Chapter 13 30:38 Chapter 14 32:54 Chapter 15 35:21 Chapter 16 37:36 Chapter 17 39:31 Chapter 18 41:44 Chapter 19 43:28 Chapter 20 44:46 Chapter 21 45:56 Chapter 22 47:10 Chapter 23 48:37 Chapter 24 50:00 Chapter 25 50:36 Chapter 26 53:06 Chapter 27 53:50 Chapter 28 56:08 Chapter 29 57:30 Chapter 30 59:11 Chapter 31 01:01:05 Chapter 32 01:02:48 Chapter 33 01:04:14 Tenth Parable - Chapter 1 01:05:45 Chapter 2 01:07:21 Chapter 3 01:09:14 Chapter 4

This work was released in its entirety in episodic format.

Links

The Shepherd of Hermas full text: https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/the-apostolic-fathers-walsh-grimm-grimm/

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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.