Catholic Stuff You Should Know

In this week's episode, Frs. Sean and John take a deep dive into two theological topics often untreated (and rarely ever in common) - sin and beauty. The reality of sin, itself a privation, offers a kind of "photographic negative" of the meaning of the beautiful. In a condensed form, Fr. John presents his research on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and Hans Urs von Balthasar, as well as arguing for the complementarity of their theological visions.

While searching for his notes, Fr. Jacob quizzes Fr. John on Augustine's Trinitarian Theology, and then he leads us through the writings of St. John the Apostle, his Letters, his Gospel, and The Book of Revelation with an eye toward the Trinitarian Theology in John. As they ponder the Trinity, Fr. Jacob and Fr. John close the episode by reflecting on the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus found in the Gospel of John, chapter 17.

This week Fr. Sean and Fr. John welcome friend and Sigrid Undset aficionada Danielle Coon to the podcast. Our conversation covers the life of the great Norwegian convert, a survey of her greatest works, and most importantly, an attempt to delve deeply into the genius of her literary witness to the Incarnation. For more from Danielle, check out https://daniellecoon.substack.com.

Fr. Sean and Fr. Jacob discuss the different prayer postures that happen during the liturgy. Understanding prayer postures will then help us to better understand what we believe and how we live.

This week Fr. Jacob and Fr. John take up the question of what makes a teacher truly excellent in the classroom. Taking up the theme "Authenticity is the universal language of resonance" (from a friend Weston), they work to source it in the thought of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.