Respect Life Radio

Fr. Timothy Vaverek: Realizing that Jesus Christ came to set us free

“Jesus is calling us in this life, not just in the life to come, to throw off the disorder and the resulting evil — whether it's through our ignorance or through our deliberate sin — to throw that all off and come to stand upright. Don't go around crouched and bent over and twisted — and then: oh, we're going to accommodate you so you can walk around in that kind of distorted way.

"No. We have to stand up, walk on our two feet. And that transition from being twisted around — it's like physical therapy. It's painful for us. But it sets us free,” said Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek, STD, a parish priest in the archdiocese of Austin, Tex.

Vaverek is the author of “As I Have Loved You: Rediscovering Our Salvation in Christ” (Emmaus Road Publishing) and whose recent articles for The Catholic Thing include "Accompanying Those Innocently in Error” and “Of Sin and 'Mitigated Culpability.'”

Eric Sammons: Understanding the titles given to Jesus Christ

Many of the titles given to Jesus “have Old Testament connotations. He's called Elijah, Jeremiah, King of Israel, Son of Abraham, Son of David. All these things have connections to the Old Testament. That's something we learn about in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Matthew is writing primarily to Jewish converts, people who have become Christian in the first century; they were Jews. Or, people that were thinking about Christianity from the Jewish background. So he really wanted to tie in that Jesus is that promised Messiah you read about in the Old Testament; here He is," said Eric Sammons, author of books, including “Who Do You Say I Am? Unlocking the 24 Titles Given to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew” (Sophia Institute Press).

Sammons is executive director of Crisis Publications and the editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine. Follow him @EricRSammons on Twitter. Listen to a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him: Pope Francis and the Latin Mass conflict. 

Fr. John Bartunek: To deepen your prayer, get ready, set, go

A simple structure for prayer is "ready, set, go. 'Ready' is you just create a sacred time and a sacred space. I'm going to meet with God. I'm going to have my time alone with the Lord every morning, in this particular place. I'm going to light a candle...You begin that time, you turn off your phone, you recollect yourself...So that's getting 'ready,'" said Fr. John Bartunek, LC, author of books, including "40 Days to Peace and Union with God: A Journey in Prayer Through the Daily Gospels" (Sophia Institute Press). 

"Then 'set' is the first things that you say to God. We recommend just thank God for something specific. Ask him for something that you need or someone you love needs. And then open yourself to receive whatever grace He wants to give you. So that's 'ready, set' and then you're ready for the 'go.' And the 'go' is the real substance of this time of prayer. And we've got five different steps that you can use during that." 

Dr. Kevin Vost: Journey through Lent with the help of St. Thomas Aquinas

"There's a meditation for every single day of Lent, typically about two pages long...focusing primarily on Scripture and on teachings of the Church Fathers. And yet, there's enough in each of those two pages — that meditation — that if you started that early in the morning, it will give you plenty to chew on, to ruminate, to ponder again throughout the day, in ways that will draw you closer to Christ every day as Lent progresses," said Dr. Kevin Vost, Psy.D., a professor and author whose recent book is "Aquinas's Lenten Meditations: 40 Days with the Angelic Doctor" (Sophia Institute Press).

Learn more at his website, drvost.com and hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Dr. Vost: Taking care of your body for health and holiness.

 

Joy Stockbauer: Every preborn child, even conceived in a crime, has a right to life

"When a woman suffers sexual assault or rape — and especially, becomes pregnant in those situations — a woman is looking for justice. The abortion industry can so easily tell women to believe that justice in their circumstances would be having an abortion, and in fact, that having an abortion is the only just option," said Joy Stockbauer, policy analyst at the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

"When in reality, it's super important to speak the truth to women in this circumstance — and to anyone who cares about women in this circumstance — that the unborn child conceived by rape or incest had nothing to do with the circumstances of their conception. That child is in no way to blame for the acts of their father. To believe that an abortion is the right option in this circumstance is to say that that child deserves to die for something that they didn't do — for something that someone else did. And so, it misplaces justice."

Stockbauer went on to say that "justice in cases of rape or incest is absolutely necessary. And pro-lifers need to be the first people to say that — to advocate for justice. But justice looks like punishing the wrongdoer, not punishing an innocent party."

Family Research Council has a webpage, titled "Difficult Conversations about Abortion," that includes links to PDF background papers on Rape and Incest, on Prenatal Diagnosis and on Ectopic Pregnancy.

Follow Stockbauer @joystockbauer on Twitter and follow Family Research Council @FRCdc.

Fr. Ed Broom: Seeking holiness through humility

"The saints are God's heroes but they're very humble because they recognize all the good that they can do is because God gives them the grace" that corresponds to it, said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, an author who wrote a recent article at Catholic Exchange, "Humility: the Cornerstone of Holiness."

Later in the interview, Fr. Broom said, "A lot of people don't want to go to confession because they don't want to humbly admit that they have fallen. But the fact of the matter is, as the psalmist points out, even the just man falls seven times a day. If you do pursue frequent confession — I think we should all try to go to confession at least once a month — that's a safeguard against allowing these weeds of pride to grow up and to suffocate humility [and] other virtues."

Listen to previous Respect Life Radio interviews with Fr. Broom, including "Combating the lies of the devil" and "Fighting discouragement with Bible verses" and  "How to resist the attacks of the devil."

Learn more at fatherbroom.com.

Jack Rigert: Defending your kids and family amid a spiritual war

"There is no grand leader or political force that's going to ride in on the great white stallion to rescue humanity or to rescue your family. You have to be the hero. I don't care if you feel like it or not. God will give you the courage and the grace to be able to do that...," said Jack Rigert, co-founder of the John Paul II Renewal Center. "You have to be speaking about [cultural threats] in your house and your home. You have to be bringing your kids to Mass and the sacraments. You have to be praying the Rosary...and if you're not doing those kind of things, then you're just allowing these currents of evil to come in. And your family's going to pay the price."

Rigert, who also hosts the "Become Who You Are" podcast, recently wrote an article on Catholic Exchange, "Stolen Innocence: The Spiritual War on Children and the Family." Follow the John Paul II Renewal Center @JP2Renewal on Twitter. 

Ines Murzaku: How a singing sensation reveals a crisis in vocations

"Various religious orders in the Church are failing precisely because they have abandoned their constitutions, their charisms — and for what?" said Ines A. Murzaku, Ph.D., professor of religion and director of Catholic Studies Program at Seton Hall University. 

Murzaka wrote a commentary, "Like a Virgin?" for The Catholic Thing. She described what happened to Cristina Scuccia after winning "The Voice of Italy" in 2014. An Ursiline nun, Scuccia later left the religious order and "is now a waitress in Spain," according to the article, citing media reports.

See more from Prof. Murzaka at her webpage.

Debbie Cowden: Tired parents, here’s a prayer book just for you

"If you're feeling helpless in your vocation, if you're feeling like you're resenting parenthood or marriage, family life — we want you to be able to find hope; to be able to have some practical tools for getting yourself out of that rut and to be able to experience the joy of your vocation and the love of God — and experience God's peace in your home. We really hope that our book accomplishes that for fellow Catholic parents," said Debbie Cowden, co-author with her husband, David, of "The Prayer Book for Tired Parents: Practical Ways to Grow in Love of God and Get Your Family to Heaven" (Sophia Institute Press). 

Debbie Cowden is senior digital media specialist at EWTN. The Cowdens live in Ohio with their three young children. Learn more about the book at TiredCatholicParents.com.

James Papandrea: Reading the Bible through the Church Fathers

"We live in a world that is so focused on the self and individualism and each person making him- or herself their highest authority, that when you apply that sort of worldview and that sort of way of thinking to reading Scripture, then it very quickly becomes...all about me. And that's entirely the wrong way to read Scripture...Especially as our culture has been influenced by the Protestant Reformation and Protestant Christianity, I think that we have lost our way in terms of how we are supposed to read Scripture," said James L. Papandrea, Ph.D., a professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

Papandrea is the author of books, including "Reading Scripture Like the Early Church: Seven Insights from the Church Fathers to Help You Understand the Bible" (Sophia Institute Press). 

Learn more at his website and hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him: "Pondering the truths of the early Church? It’s Catholic."