Respect Life Radio

David Closson: Biblical principles to engage an arrogant culture

"The idea of us trying to impose our sense of right and wrong — especially on something that's so clear [as pro-life] and to tell God we know better — my goodness that is the height of arrogance. But we do live in an arrogant culture that thinks we know better than God," said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council. "In the dialogue and conversations around this particular issue, you see that coming out, unfortunately."

Download a booklet, "Biblical principles for pro-life engagement," from the FRC website. Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with Closson, "Amid all the confusion, what is your worldview?" Follow him @DavidClosson on Twitter.

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby: How the Brown Scapular can deepen your life in Jesus Christ

"The scapular literally sitting on our body reminds us that we are consecrated to Jesus Christ, through Our Lady; that we follow a different path; we carry His yoke, the scapular almost even looks like a symbolic yoke that we wear on our shoulders," said Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C., and the author of books, including "A Journey to Mount Carmel: A Nine-Day Preparation for Investiture in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady" (Sophia Institute Press). "So every day, that scapular is a reminder that I'm going to talk about Jesus Christ. I'm going to follow His way and remain faithful to Him. I'm going to love Him and speak about Him and speak about moral truth and talk about prayer. I will not let myself be silenced."

Learn more about Fr. Kirby at his website, frkirby.com, and follow him @FatherKirby on Twitter.

Charles Nemeth: Understanding the rules of true happiness

For Aristotle and Aquinas, happiness is "a state of contentment, an ability not to get into the highs or the lows but to be right in the mean of the highs and the lows — which means that you're balanced about these things, so your balance of your own intellect and your own will and you're capable of not getting distressed or too depressed or too happy about any particular thing," said Charles P. Nemeth, Ph.D., author of "Finding Happiness in a Complex World: Rules from Aristotle and Aquinas" (Sophia Institute Press). Nemeth is a professor and program director of criminal justice at Franciscan University and the director of its Center for Criminal Justice, Law and Ethics.  

Adam Blai: Avoiding the demonic by honoring God

"Most of these extraordinary cases come from violating the First Commandment and that means turning to a spirit other than God for comfort, information or power. So, if you're not playing around with other spirits than God, you're not usually going to end up in trouble. Now, if you start getting close to being in trouble, confession and the Mass — for the Catholic who has access to those sacraments — is going to resolve more than 90 percent of the situations," said Adam Blai, author of "The Exorcism Files: True Stories of Demonic Possession" (Sophia Institute Press).

Blai works in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and is an expert on "religious demonology and exorcism." Learn more at his website, "Religious Demonology." 

 

Kristen Van Uden: How atheism developed and took root

"This book really shows us that atheism and communism were not natural disasters that were just bound to happen, but rather they were ideological revolutions that were carefully calculated," said Kristen Van Uden, referring to "The Gods of Atheism," a 1971 book by Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., recently republished by Sophia Institute Press.

Van Uden is the author spokesperson at Sophia Institute Press and also "studies the persecution of Catholics under communist regimes," a subject on which she is writing a book. Van Uden is editor of, and a writer for, Catholic Exchange, including the recent article, "How to Make an Atheist," which revisits Fr. Miceli's book.

Fr. Timothy Gallagher: How Rule Five from St. Ignatius can help save your spiritual life

Don't make any changes to your intended spiritual practice — such as going to confession, or attending daily Mass or making a planned retreat or reading Scripture — “when you're in the discouragement of spiritual desolation. That's [St. Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits] classic Rule Five. I wish everybody in the Church knew that rule. I can't tell you how grateful in my own life I am for that rule; how many bad decisions I have not made because of Rule Five. People love it,” said Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., author of "When You Struggle in the Spiritual Life: An Ignatian Path to Freedom" (Sophia Institute Press) and other books. Follow him at FrTimothyGallagher.org.

Hear previous Respect Life Radio interviews with Fr. Gallagher: Understanding “Discernment of Spirits in Marriage” and “Overcoming spiritual discouragement in a time of pandemic."

 

Joshua Nelson: How to offer up your fear

"We submit ourselves to fear and that's a kind of enslavement to passion. And that kind of enslavement to passions damages us. It leads us to sin. It leads us to not fight for the greater good — to sins of omission when we should have done the greater good," said Joshua Nelson, who wrote an article, "Offer Up Your Fear," on Catholic Exchange. "By keeping Christ in mind, and at the forefront, it helps us put our attachments in perspective. Because, in many times and many circumstances that I've experienced fear, it's because I'm overly attached to something else."

Follow Nelson's writing at his blog, Thoughts of a Christian Stoa.

Fr. Robert Altier: For marriage and family under attack, here is God’s rescue plan

"The attack is on the family. The family is the foundation for everything, in our own individuals lives, as well as for the Church and society. So for the good of our children — for the good, of course, of the married people — for the Church and society, as well, it's absolutely a necessity right now to really put the focus on marriage. You look at the history of the Church — and God always raises up people to come to the aid of whatever area is under attack. What the devil tries to do in destroying something, God brings good out of evil and actually makes it better," said Fr. Robert J. Altier,  author of "God's Plan For Your Marriage: An Exploration of Holy Matrimony from Genesis to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb" (Sophia Institute Press). 

Hear homilies from Fr. Altier, based in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, at CatholicParents.org and learn about his series, "Beauty, Truth, Goodness: The Fundamentals of Catholicism."

Jonathan Butcher: Let’s start over with Higher Ed

"Coming out of the pandemic, the widespread dissatisfaction with the way that colleges, as well as traditional district public schools, handled education is palpable. We see it in surveys, we see it in parents moving their kids from assigned schools and creating learning pods and choosing private schools and finding other options for them," said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, Center for Education Policy, at The Heritage Foundation. He wrote a recent commentary, "Don't Reform Higher Education. Rebuild It." 

Hear a previous Respect Life Radio interview with him, "Critical Race Theory and the new intolerance" and follow him @JM_Butcher on Twitter. 

Michael Pakaluk: Embracing four deaths that can lead to eternal life

"There are two models of courage: one is absence of fear — and the other is being afraid, but being steadfast in holding your position, even though you are afraid. The Christian notion of...courage, which Our Lord presents, is different from both of those," said Michael Pakaluk, Ph.D., professor of ethics at The Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. 

He wrote an article for The Catholic Thing, titled "The Four Deaths," in which he recommends reading "The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ," written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. See more on Pakulak, including his published books, at this Amazon.com link.