Happy Epiphany! I hope you had a wonderful 12 Days of Christmas and are continuing the celebration of the Infant Jesus during this week of Epiphany. In today's episode, I draw on Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives" to talk about 5 lessons from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke on 1) the Annunciation of John the Baptist; 2) the Annunciation of Jesus; 3) the nativity scene; 4) the visit of the Magi; and 5) the Logos.

I also briefly talk about some expansion plans for 2020 and ask you to pray for (and with) me as I discern the path ahead.

Also, during Lent we will be doing a multi-part book club on Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. Get your copy now (or reserve it at the library) to read along!

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Merry Christmas from Creedal Catholic! Enjoy this short reading of Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve Homily from 2006. It's great stuff.

Music: What Child Is This (Greensleeves), Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com), Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0

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In today's episode we sit down with Casey Chalk, who is a regular contributor to The American Conservative, Crisis Magazine, and New Oxford Review, among other publications. Casey and I talk about his journey to the Church and his recent article, Protestantism Made Me Catholic, which was responding to Onsi Kamel's opinion piece in First Things called Catholicism Made Me Protestant. Among other things, we talk about:

If you'd like to follow more of Casey's work, head to caseychalk.com.

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In today's episode Fr. Jim Baron, Pastor of Holy Apostles Catholic Church in Colorado Springs, joins me to talk about Pope St. John Paul II's Apostolic Exhoration "Familiaris Consortio: The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World." We discuss whether or not the lessons of 1981 still apply today (they do), talk about vocations to singleness and spiritual parenthood, marriage as a sacrament and its connection with the Eucharist, and much more.

Read Familiaris Consortio at https://cutt.ly/Ae1ckPU.

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In today's episode we briefly explore the "Problem of Evil," using atheist J.L. Mackie's formulation, which can be paraphrased as: "It is not possible that all three of the following are true at once: 1) That God is omnipotent; 2) that God is wholly good; 3) that evil exists."

Is Mackie right? Is God not all good? Does God cause evil or only permit it? Why? Send your feedback to [email protected] or [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

P.S. Tune in next week for a discussion about Familiaris Consortio.

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Today we sit down with Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. (Order of Preachers--the Dominican Order) to talk about the real presence, how to understand the dogma of transubstantiation, and how to respond to some of the more serious objections to it.

Fr. Dominic is the Director of the Thomistic Institute and Assistant Professor in Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Prior to entering the Dominican Order, he was a practicing trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

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In today's episode we discuss the Amazon Synod with Hannah Brockhaus, Senior Rome Correspondent for the Catholic News Agency. We talk about living in Rome and our favorite pastas, why the Synod was called, what the Synod means, and the ridiculous "Pachamama" episode. Follow Hannah's on Twitter (@HannahBrockhaus) and read her work at the Catholic News Agency.

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In this episode we talk about the traditional monthly devotions of the Church, bowing at the Holy Name of Jesus in Mass, abstaining from meat on Fridays, praying the Angelus at noon, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and much more!

Links:

The Monthly Devotions of the Church

"The Angelus" by Jean Francois-Millet

"Are Catholics supposed to abstain from meat every Friday? (Canon Law Made Easy)

Elizabeth Scalia's WoF series on Eucharistic Adoration

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In this episode, Zac and Kevin discuss Benedict XVI's Spe Salvi, a masterpiece of Christian theology that is addressed to the faithful and intended to remind us that our faith is not merely informative--it doesn't just tell us about what we should hope--but rather it is performative, changing and transforming our lives as we are conformed to the image of Christ. This is a great encyclical to read, so head here (read free online) or here (buy on Amazon) to find it!

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In this episode, Zac and Kevin talk about George Weigel's article in the October 2019 issue of First Things, in which Weigel dissects the relationship between modernity and Catholicism and argues that knowing the past 200 years of Catholic history is essential to understanding where the Church finds Herself today. This understanding is especially critical in light of efforts by the German bishops to pursue a synod that hasn't been approved by the Vatican, and by the efforts of certain prelates to modernize the Church via this month's Amazon Synod. We hope you enjoy the discussion!

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