Saint In Progress

With summer so close, it’s a good time to plan how to continue to grow in your spiritual life. In this episode, Mike talks about the Church’s special devotions in the months of June, July, and August. He also takes on the dangers of the “my parish is my club” mentality, and wraps up with a discussion on religious orders: what they are, how they’re different from diocesan priests, and a thing called “religious third orders” that you might be called to join.

Links:

* Sacred Heart Enthronement Network

* Sacred Heart Store

* Association of the Precious Blood

* St. Lois de Montfort’s Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

In this episode, Mike starts off talking about an episode of The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd that not just gets its facts horrendously wrong, but does so in a way that makes the Catholic Church look bad (in a subtle, passive-agressive sort of way.)

Then after talking about a statement that then-Fr. Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) made back in 2012 about how we can’t allow the liturgy to become spectacle, Mike breaks that open and gives real-life examples of what liturgy turned into spectacle looks like.

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

This week, Mike talks about being stalked by advertisers… and by saints. Listen as he tells how it seems like the current saint that’s stalking him is St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Also, as recording was wrapping up Mike’s phone and computer started going crazy with the news that “Habemum Papem”… we have a pope!

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

This week Mike starts off by talking about how coaching softball he’s able to weave in elements of the faith. Then he digs into an article he read about why and how you should write in your books (the horror!), his revelatory experience when he accidentally found the Catechism of the Catholic Church while attending a Protestant Bible study, and the importance of why the infallible text of the Bible needs the Catholic Church as its infallible interpreter.

Show Notes

* How to remember everything you read (article)

* The Haydock Biblical Commentary online

* Ignatius Catholic Study Bible

* Catechism of the Catholic Church

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

Links:

* For prayers for the dead, see the section “Prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory​” at catholictreehouse.com/prayers

* The Saint Challenge

* Isaiah 22:15-25: Shebna, Eli′akim, and the keys

* Matthew 16:13-19: Jesus, Peter, and the keys

* Numbers 13:1-16: Spies sent to Canaan, Hoshea’s name changed to Joshua

* Epistle of Pope Clement I to the Church at Corinth

* What is Divine Mercy Sunday?

Our work here on Substack is made available at no charge, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free to make. Your generous support keeps the lights on in the treehouse, and helps us deliver our content to thousands of people every day. Support our work with an annual or monthly subscription.

from “Mary, Help of Christians,” by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer O.F.M.

from “Mary, Help of Christians,” by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer O.F.M.

from “Mary, Help of Christians,” by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer O.F.M.

from “Mary, Help of Christians,” by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer O.F.M.

from “Mary, Help of Christians,” by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer O.F.M.