Featuring Michael Matheson Miller Everything has gone haywire. At every corner our traditional way of life is being undermined by forces that seem to come from every direction. It's a constant assault. And it's extremely easy for a Catholic to get caught up in being a "child of the times" without even realizing it. It's a slippery slope. We've got to be able to identify and understand the danger and consequences of the ideological war that is attempting to re-define truth, freedom, and reality i...
Apr 10, 2019•59 min
https://youtu.be/jmii0zRKP5A I've got ten bucks that says you've never heard a lot of this stuff. When I was coming into the Church 20 years ago, I struggled mightily with the Virgin Mary. Partly, it was because I couldn't find Marian doctrine and devotion in Sacred Scripture. I was blind. Eventually, I came to realize how deeply Mary is woven into the fabric of the sacred text once you know how to really read the Bible. But Brant Pitre just blew my mind on a few things I'd never heard. (That's ...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr 11 min
Decisions, decisions... Life holds a lot of options and it's often hard to know which way to go, especially when it comes to serious, life-changing matters. Thankfully, we've got help. St. Ignatius of Loyola penned his famous Spiritual Exercises to enable people to discern the spirits - discern God's will for their lives. And the great thing is that's it's not pie-in-the-sky. It's super practical and down-to-earth. In fact, understanding his Exercises can save you a lot of headache and heartache...
Feb 14, 2019•1 hr 18 min
"'Slaves of Mary?' Are you kidding me?" That was my first (second, third...tenth) reaction to the words of St. Louis de Montfort in True Devotion to Mary, the classic text on our topic. The whole idea of consecrating yourself to anyone other than Jesus Christ made zero sense to me. Not anymore. I now understand and completely embrace the whole idea of consecration to Our Lady. And I can tell you from experience that it's life-changing. It can change yours, too. So join me for a conversation on t...
Dec 11, 2018•41 min
Not sure if you caught it, but Archbishop Vigano recently told the American bishops they'd better be afraid...very afraid. Why? Because if you want to become a saint, the first thing you need is fear. Fear isn’t typically the first thing that pops into your mind when you think about growth in sanctity, but it's a must. Not any old fear, of course...we're talking fear of the Lord - one of the most powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit (see Isaiah 11). And Archbishop Vigano's recent letter nails it. S...
Nov 19, 2018•24 min
Yes, some look like Jedi hippies. Yes, their giant rosaries look like medieval weapons. Yes, many haven't worn socks in a very long time. But they're the real deal. About whom am I talking? Catholics with a religious vocation. You know...monks, nuns, and such. And while most of us aren't called to their life, we should pay very close attention to them. Why? Because they can show laity the pursuit of holiness in its essential contours. In other words, they can show us the way to heaven. So in ord...
Oct 31, 2018•59 min
What should we do? That's the question that keeps coming up in my conversations and email exchanges. What is the appropriate response of faithful Catholics to this ongoing crisis? While some are leaving and others are all-out attacking, most of us are caught somewhere in the middle. We’ve always thought of ourselves as faithful Catholics. We’ve always honored our priests and bishops. We’ve always been a bit awed by the papacy. So we’re torn. We want this all to be fixed, but don’t know what tool...
Sep 26, 2018•58 min
These are not easy times for Catholics. I've received a lot of emails from people, and had a lot of conversations over the last several weeks with Catholics on the brink of despair. How could this happen? What is going on? What are we going to do? I share your pain and confusion...deeply. And while I'm horrified by daily revelations about the cancer that is eating our Church alive, I also know that Christ is King and His Church will endure. In this episode of the Art of Catholic I'm going to wei...
Aug 30, 2018•26 min
There's a lot of confusion about love these days. That needs to change. On this episode of the Art of Catholic, we'll peel back some of the deeper layers of love. In fact, we'll get to the heart of Christian love. My guest wears spectacles and dark socks with his tennis shoes, but can still drain 3's in a pickup game. His name is Dr. Michael Healy and he's the former Academic Dean at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He's smart. And this is his specialty. His "Nature of Love" course at Fran...
Aug 01, 2018•58 min
Parts of it should actually scare you. All of it should inspire you. The Our Father is the most famous of all prayers, taught to us by God himself. And while you've probably droned through it a few thousand times, have you ever really dug into what you're saying? For a long time, I hadn't. And my guess is it's the same for many of you. So in celebration of the upcoming (at least in many countries) Father's Day holiday, I thought I'd pay homage to the Our Father on the Art of Catholic podcast, by...
Jun 14, 2018•44 min
You may think you've heard it all when it comes to Mary. Think again. I'm betting that my buddy Curtis Mitch is going to lay some new thoughts on you about Our Lady as we continue to celebrate May, the month of Mary, on this episode of the Art of Catholic. Curtis, as many of you know, has been writing the commentary on the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible for about 20 years. I've never met anyone with his depth and breadth of scriptural knowledge. He's the perfect guy to turn to when it comes to go...
May 16, 2018•51 min
It's the book quoted by God the Father. It's the book quoted by Christ on the Cross. It's the one book we read at almost every Mass. It's the Psalms. While many view the Psalms as merely a collection of beautiful poetry (which it is), there's a whole more going on in this amazing book of the Bible. In fact, it's no exaggeration to say it's one of the most important in all of Sacred Scripture. Yes, they're all important, but the Psalms are special. St. Basil the Great said that the Psalms actuall...
Apr 24, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Ever felt yourself sinking? St. Peter certainly did when after he briefly walked toward our Lord on the surging waves of the Sea of Galilee. And you have to hand it to Peter. He jumped out of the boat during a raging storm. All because Christ said, “Come.” That’s exactly what Jesus says to us every day…”Come.” No matter what storm is raging in your life, you can walk over the crashing waves toward our loving Lord. That’s not pious sentiment for a Hallmark card or an "inspirational" cubicle poste...
Mar 22, 2018•14 min
How about if we do it differently this time? I don't know about you, but it seems like every year Ash Wednesday just sneaks up on me and I'm left scrambling trying to figure out what I'm going to do for Lent. I'm guessing I'm not the only one. But let's make a change. Let's make this Lent the best one ever. How? I'm glad you asked. In this episode of the Art of Catholic podcast we're going to discuss: How to prepare for Lent...and keep it rolling all 40 days How the Catholic liturgical calendar ...
Feb 08, 2018•33 min
There are several questions every Christian needs to ask themselves on a regular basis. The problem is that the world has warped most of our minds to the point that even if we answer them, we're not answering correctly. And there are consequences. (More on the questions themselves later...) In our last episode, Number 72, we began our rediscovery of St. John Paul II's theological time bomb known as the Theology of the Body. It's something many have forgotten, but is desperately needed by a cultu...
Jan 16, 2018•51 min
Tick...tick...tick... Famous Catholic author, George Weigel, said Pope St. John Paul's Theology of the Body is a "theological time bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences sometime in the third millennium of the Church." That time has come. In fact, we're practically past time. Unless you've been under a rock for the last few weeks, you've surely heard about the ever-increasing number of famous figures accused of sexual abuse and immorality. Hollywood moguls, US Senators and Congressmen, fa...
Dec 27, 2017•45 min
We're not supposed to talk about them. They're supposed to be like that embarrassing uncle no one mentions by name at family functions. But that's crazy. In this episode of the Art of Catholic podcast we're going to unveil the beautiful theology and practice of indulgences. Far from being an indefensible leftover we'd rather sweep under the medieval rug, indulgences are a powerful witness to God's mercy. They are an incredible help in our journey to heaven. But we need to understand them. So as ...
Nov 21, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Have we lost? Because a lot of people think so. Earlier this year a book came out called The Benedict Option. It's a runaway bestseller written by a famous former Evangelical named Rod Dreher. He basically says we've lost the culture war and radical change in lifestyle is needed if Christianity is going to survive in the West. And he's right...most of the time. While Dreher's call for a retreat into a kind quasi-monastic existence rings true on many levels, it misses a key ingredient that can ch...
Oct 16, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Twenty years ago, I lost my faith. I didn’t lose my belief in or about faith, but I officially gave up the certainty that I had enough of it to be saved. It was Easter Vigil, 1998. That’s when I became Catholic. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Rebell…I mean, Reformation. It’s been a catastrophe. There are now more than 40,000 Protestant denominations…and counting. As a result, Christianity has become the poster child for hypocrisy. The religion that professes one faith in Jesus C...
Sep 14, 2017•58 min
By now you've come to expect this. And by "this", I mean challenging topics. Well, this one is a doozy. We're going to talk about nature. And by that I don't just mean forests and rivers and cute little squirrels. I also mean human nature. My guest is the brilliant Dr. Ben Wiker, author of an incredible new book titled, "In Defense of Nature: The Catholic Unity of Environmental, Economic, and Moral Ecology." He's a genius at showing how the respect and care for creation necessarily leads to resp...
Aug 10, 2017•1 hr 14 min
I'm tired of people asking, "Where have all the good men gone?" It's not really all that hard to figure out. They've gone where they've been told to...out. Men are meant to play a God-given, pivotal role in the family, in the Church, and in culture at large. It's a role that's too often abandoned or belittled...to dire effect. We lack children. We lack vocations. We lack men. We are in a crisis that is simply not being addressed by enough people. And if we don't change things quickly, the extens...
Jul 11, 2017•53 min
Ever wonder how we got into the mess we’re in? Why is the modern world so opposed to the Christian faith? What went wrong and how do we get back on track? These are pretty tough questions, which is fine because I've got a pretty smart guest. Today on the Art of Catholic I brought in Dr. Andrew Jones. He's got a PhD in Medieval History and is an expert on the Church in the High Middle Ages. He's also the Executive Director at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Some of you will remember hi...
Jun 08, 2017•1 hr 21 min
It's one of the most overlooked miracles in Scripture. All too often we focus so much on the Passion, death and Resurrection of Our Lord that we breeze right over a pivotal event in our eternal pilgrimage - the Ascension. That would be a huge mistake. Not long ago I picked up one of my many books by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Not a good idea if you have a lot of items on your "to-do" list. He's so incredibly brilliant that I just couldn't stop reading. Benedict's focus was on the importance of ...
May 05, 2017•38 min
Holy Week is upon us. Hasn't Lent flown by? It seems like Ash Wednesday was just a couple weeks ago. And oftentimes we get to this point thinking we could have done a lot more...So let's do something about it. In this episode of the Art of Catholic, we're not going to just talk about theology. We're going to enter into it. How? By meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary as a kind of progression or maturation in the spiritual life. What do I mean by that? Well, it seems to me that the...
Apr 11, 2017•38 min
It might seem a bit odd to discuss beauty at the beginning of Lent. Actually, I find it totally appropriate. After all, this is a season of stripping away the outer layers of this world and conforming ourselves to Him who is beauty. If God is the Beatific Vision, then beauty matters all the time...perhaps especially in Lent. The topic of beauty is something I've wanted to address for a long time because it's all too often ignored. I would go so far as to say that it is crucial for Catholics to r...
Mar 02, 2017•56 min
Make no mistake, this episode is going to challenge you. But it can also dramatically transform your relationships with other people...and God. It's full of deep and practical wisdom that you can start to practice immediately. Our topic is kindness - real kindness - the kindness identified by St. Paul in Galatians. In other words, this is way beyond the "be nice to one another" stuff we learned in pre-school. It's the virtue that radically re-arranges our priorities and changes the world. My gue...
Feb 09, 2017•59 min
It sounds like a wild exaggeration. But according to best-selling author Mike Aquilina (a generally trustworthy source), it was music that saved the ancient world from its descent into despair. My first thought was "Seriously?" Yep. He's not kidding. It's all in his book "How the Choir Converted the Word: Through Hymns, With Hymns, And In Hymns" from Emmaus Road Publishing. (The book is worth a look for the subtitle alone.) Given the state of some current liturgical music, I was skeptical to say...
Jan 26, 2017•52 min
A little bit of knowledge goes a long way...especially when it comes to prayer and Scripture. In fact, you don't need to have any hardcore theological training or lots of letters after your name to get a lot out of prayer. That said, actually studying the Bible - what Pope Benedict XVI calls the "soul of theology" - will put your prayer life on steroids (which is still legal). And a key to understanding Scripture is known as typology. ("Ty-what?") Typology is a 25 cent word that shows how the pe...
Dec 15, 2016•27 min
In case you hadn't noticed, we're at war. We need a weapon. A powerful one. One feared by the Devil. Most of us already have one. It's called the rosary. And if wielded properly it cuts through the darkness like a light saber (especially if it's glow-in-the-dark:). In this special episode of The Art of Catholic, I interview Fr. Donald Calloway, author, speaker, and Vicar Provincial of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. He knows the rosary. In fact, he wrote a great book on it title...
Dec 01, 2016•1 hr 3 min
I've heard it. You've heard it. I used to even say it! "The Catholic priesthood isn't biblical."...Wrong! If you were to boil the (so-called) Protestant Reformation down to its essence, it basically did away with the priesthood. Most Protestants have no sacramental life because there are no priests to give them the sacraments. (Most don't believe in the sacraments at all.) They believe (and I realize I'm painting with a broad brush here) in something called "the priesthood of all believers." Aft...
Nov 18, 2016•59 min
