Ignatius Press Podcast

With the announcement that Pope Francis will be consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary later this week, the words and message of Our Lady of Fatima—and some of the controversies to which they gave rise—are in the news. Paul Senz, author of FATIMA: 100 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE MARIAN APPARITIONS, explains the history and context of the upcoming consecration, and addresses some of the misconceptions that persist about previous consecrations, particularly those enacted by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s.

We'll be talking to Dr. Edward Sri about the Blessed Mother, specifically in his book, "Rethinking Mary."

https://www.ignatius.com/Rethinking-Mary-in-the-New-Testament-P3072.aspx

Scholars often have questioned how much the New Testament can tell us about the Mother of Jesus. After all, Mary appears only in a few accounts and speaks on limited occasions. Can Scripture really support the many Marian beliefs developed in the Church over time?

In Rethinking Mary in the New Testament, Dr. Edward Sri shows that the Bible reveals more about Mary than is commonly appreciated. For when the Mother of Jesus does appear in Scripture, it's often in passages of great importance, steeped in the Jewish Scriptures, and packed with theological significance.

This comprehensive work examines every key New Testament reference to Mary, addressing common questions along the way, such as:

• What was Mary's life like before the Annunciation?

Rethinking Mary in the New Testament offers a fresh, in-depth look at the Mother of Jesus in Scripture—one that helps us know Mary better and her role in God's plan.

https://www.ignatius.com/Real-Philosophy-for-Real-People-P3672.aspx

The philosopher Paul Weiss once observed, "Philosophers let theories get in the way of what they and everyone else know." For many, the very word "philosophical" has become all but synonymous with "impractical".

Yet whether we like it or not, almost every corner of our lives—from dissertation writing to channel surfing—brings us face to face with competing philosophies and world views, each claiming to tell us definitively what it means to be human. How can we know which one is right? And what difference does it make?

To Robert McTeigue, S.J., it makes every difference in the world. Consciously or not, we all have a world view, and it decides how we live. In this book, McTeigue gives a funny and invigorating crash course in practical logic, metaphysics, anthropology, and ethics, equipping readers with a tool kit for breaking down and evaluating the thought systems—some good, some toxic—that swirl around us, and even within us.

In McTeigue, classical philosophy finds a contemporary voice, accessible to the layman and engaging to the scholar. Real Philosophy for Real People is an answer to those philosophies that prize theory over truth, to any metaphysics that cannot account for itself, to anthropologies that are unworthy of the human person, and to ethical systems that reduce the great dignity and destiny of the human person. As the author insists, "A key test of any philosophy is: Can it be lived?" With Thomas Aquinas, this book teaches not only how to know the truth, but how to love it and to do it.

Join us as Kathryn Lopez from the National Review Institute interviews Marcus Grodi, author of Life from Our Land: https://www.ignatius.com/Life-from-Our-Land-P1484.aspx

Voices from every direction beckon us, even push us, toward better and faster technology, with the promise of more wealth, more pleasure, and, consequently, more happiness.

But have we become so bewitched by the siren song of material progress that we've lost the ability not just to achieve, but to discern what true happiness is? What criteria do we use to plan for the future, for retirement? At the end of our earthly lives, how will we measure our fruitfulness?

In this book Marcus Grodi discusses what he and his family discovered, mostly by surprise, after moving from the city to twenty-five acres of Ohio farmland. This move involved a radical shift in priorities for all of them, but mostly it helped them to discover some critical truths about our relationship to nature and to nature's Creator that apply regardless of where a person lives. He offers wonderful reflections on his going- back-to-the-land experience as a metaphor for drawing closer to God.

Jen Nilsson has an MBA, a nice condo, and a fast-track job at a tech start-up in Silicon Valley. If her big product launch goes well next month, she may finally land the marketing director job she's been gunning for. But then her younger sister, Katie, just out of college and estranged from their newly devout parents, blows through the front door, dumping cardboard boxes and a lifetime of personal drama onto Jen's just-swept floor.

Family is family, and Jen lets her sister, the embodiment of all that annoys her, move in. Maybe she'll turn aimless Katie into a model adult. But when Jen's own well-laid career plans hurtle off the tracks—a corporate buyout, a layoff, and a disastrous business trip to China—she turns more and more to Katie for support and begins to reassess the place of family, and love, in her life.

If You Can Get It explores the quirks and the humanity of the twenty-first-century business world but finds its heart in the deepening relationship of two sisters as different as Elinor and Marianne of Sense and Sensibility.

https://www.ignatius.com/If-You-Can-Get-It-P3662.aspx

Ahead of the FATIMA movie release on August 28, 2020, we interviewed Paul Senz, author of "Fatima: 100 Questions and Answers on the Marian Apparitions", a companion to the film.

Book: https://www.ignatius.com/Fatima-P3661.aspx

Movie: https://www.fatimathemovie.com/

From May to October, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared six times to three shepherd children in the tiny village of Fatima, Portugal. What started as a private matter was soon known all over town, throughout the country, and around the world. These apparitions are fascinating, and have gripped the imagination of people all over the world, from simple believers to academic theologians; from skeptics to the curious; from scientists to popes.

Fatima: 100 Questions and Answers on the Marian Apparitions utilizes a question-and-answer format to explore the context of these apparitions, why they were so engrossing at the time, what they have meant to the Church and the world in the century since they happened, and why the requests of Our Lady are so important today.

Questions include:

• Who were these children?

The major new feature film, Fatima, tells the story of these apparitions in a narrative and with a limited amount of screen time. As a companion to the film, this book offers the reader greater context and answers many of the questions that the viewer may have about this amazing story.

Despite signs in recent decades of a crisis in the Church, a countercurrent of intense interest in prayer and a close relationship with God is clearly at work today. A deeper esteem for contemplation has accompanied this turning to prayer, and many people desire spiritual direction and guidance.

Written by a recognized expert on contemplative prayer, this book concentrates on the interior hardships experienced by souls who give themselves to God wholeheartedly. More than a summary of the symptoms of interior trial, these poignant observations are the fruit of the author's many years in retreat work. Personal experience, not simply knowledge of the spiritual tradition, inform his concise, carefully crafted comments.

Throughout the book, the writing invites the reader to ponder the subject of spiritual darkness, perplexity, and other struggles in the spiritual life always in the light of the loving God, who draws souls into greater surrender to himself.

https://www.ignatius.com/Contemplative-Enigmas-P3491.aspx

Join us as we discuss "Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis" with Bill Donohue.

https://www.ignatius.com/Common-Sense-Catholicism-P3154.aspx

This work analyzes how the three key elements of a democratic society—freedom, equality, and fraternity—have been misconstrued by intellectuals and policy makers who do not respect the limitations of the human condition. Their lack of common sense has resulted in social and cultural problems rather than solutions to them. By contrast, the social teachings of the Catholic Church mesh nicely with the demands of human nature, and as such they offer the right remedy to our cultural crisis.

Freedom defined as radical individualism has eclipsed the understanding that real rights are tethered to responsibilities. Equality defined as radical egalitarianism yields little in the way of equality and much in the way of state-sponsored social discord. And fraternity without the foundation of familial bonds and religious communities leaves people isolated and disoriented. Catholic teaching offers much wisdom to remedy our insufficient understanding of the elements needed for a free and flourishing society. Its common sense is greatly needed to help modern Americans rediscover the true meaning of their highest ideals.

On Friday, March 20, 2009, fifteen months after the City of Oakland, California, passed a law making it illegal to approach a woman entering an abortion clinic without her consent, Walter B. Hoye II went to jail for standing on a public sidewalk outside an abortion clinic with a sign saying, "God loves you and your baby. Let us help you."

The ordained Baptist minister could have accepted a lesser sentence of community service, provided he agreed never to return to the clinic. But he preferred spending thirty days in the county jail to forfeiting his constitutional right to free speech and his Christian duty to offer help to women in need, most of whom were black like him. Two higher courts eventually exonerated him: one overturned his criminal conviction, and the other judged that the enforcement of the Oakland "bubble law" was unconstitutional.

Walter's dramatic days in prison, where he lived and preached the gospel and won the hearts of fellow inmates, are detailed in this book. The political machinations that created the bubble law and then entrapped Walter are also described, using public records. Both stories are told in the context of Walter's background as the descendant of black slaves and the disciple of his hero Martin Luther King Jr., whose niece, Alveda, has written the foreword for this book.

https://www.ignatius.com/Black-and-Pro-Life-in-America-P3152.aspx

Ukraine, Biden, Lent, abortion, and "The Batman" - Mark Brumley sits down with author and editor Carl E. Olson to discuss the latest stories at Catholic World Report.