Teaching & Preaching: Deacon Matt's homilies & podcasts

In this final episode of our "Summer School" podcast series, we look at the modern heresies of Deism and Modernism, the threat they pose to religion, and the effects they still have in the Church and in the world today.

In our podcast series FINAL episode we take a look at two modern heretical movements, Deism and Modernism, and how the ideas proposed by each still affect many people's approach to religion in general, and Christianity in particular, today.

This week we take a look at the origin and the core errors of Protestantism and the Catholic Church's response at the Council of Trent. We talk about Martin Luther, Sole Fide, Sola Scriptura, Indulgences, and the status of Protestants vis a vis the Church today.

Join us in learning about two influential medieval heretics, John Wyclif from England and John Huss from Bohemia. Both these men not only criticized (justifiably) certain abuses of the Church hierarchy, but also denied the validity of the hierarchy and the authority of the Church.

Waldo (Valdes) was a rich merchant in Lyons, France, who gave up his wealth to dedicate himself to a life of radical poverty and preaching the gospel -- but without the approval of the Church. Waldo and his followers would go on to develop many theological errors that would put them at odds with Catholic doctrine. Vestiges of the Waldensian movement still survive today, including in North Carolina!

Spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, which is what it means to evangelize, is a duty that belongs to every one of us. In its document on missionary work, the Second Vatican Council says that “the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God.” A homily preached at St. Mary Mother of God Roman Catholic Church in Sylva, NC, on July 7, 2019 (14th Sunday of Ordinary Time).

The Cathars were a medieval heretical group that is often painted in a sympathetic light in revisionist histories as an "underdog" religious reform movement persecuted for their beliefs by the Catholic Church. But is there more to the story? Find out in this week's episode!

A homily preached on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 28, 2019, at St. Mary Mother of God Roman Catholic Church in Sylva, NC.

“Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by its very nature, is a worship of the love with which God, through Jesus loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our love by which we are related to God and to other men.” - Pope Pius XII

This week we look at the Iconoclast heresy which rocked the Eastern Church during the eighth and ninth centuries and contributed in part to the growing rift between the Eastern and Western halves of Christendom.

While the West was confronting Pelagianism, both Nestorianism & Monophysitisim rocked the eastern Church during the 5th century. Nestorianism taught that there were two persons in Christ, one human and one divine, while Monophysitism taught that Christ only had one divine nature. In confronting these heresies, the Church definitively formulated the doctrine of the hypostatic union, that Christ is one Divine Person with two natures, human and divine.