Episodes
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
Lent Begins with Fr. Godfrey Okwunga
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
Tuesday Feb 21, 2023
Exactly 13 years ago today, Pope Benedict XVI noted in his Angelus address, “Lent is like a long ‘retreat’ in which to re-enter oneself and listen to God's voice in order to overcome the temptations of the Evil One and to find the truth of our existence. It is a time, we may say, of spiritual ‘training’ in order to live alongside Jesus not with pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: namely prayer, listening to the Word of God and penance.”
On February 21, 2010, the day Pope Benedict made that remark, Lent had already begun. For us, today is Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of this season of spiritual retreat. Fr. Godfrey Okwunga, who grew up in Nigeria, is Wyoming Catholic College’s Latin chaplain and had this to say about Lent.
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
“Dumb but Disciplined: Why You Should Wake Up to Your Alarm” with Mr. Aidan Wood
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
“As a modern man,” wrote Wyoming Catholic College senior, Aidan Wood,” the paths to happiness are seemingly endless, and endlessly confusing. However, there is one simple path that guarantees man’s mission: the path of discipline.”
We all know the feeling: While trying to lose some weight, you pass the donuts someone put in the break room. Just one won’t hurt. Reading St. Thomas Aquinas is a great idea, but I’m tired in the evening and TV is an easier option. The alarm goes off, but well… there’s a snooze button.
Our guest, Mr. Aidan Wood, wrote his senior thesis and oration on the topic of discipline. Clear here to hear his presentation.
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Augustine’s Confessions with Dr. Daniel Shields
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
St. Augustine was a prominent teacher of rhetoric in Roman North Africa and in Italy. Despite his success, he was restless, constantly casting about for what was true until he found his rest through faith in Christ. A great sinner, we learn in his Confessions who became a great saint.
Dr. Daniel Shields is attending sophomore humanities this semester and has been reading through Confessions with our students and he shares with us what he finds so compelling about the book.
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Jesus Baptism and Ours with Prof. Kyle Washut
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
All of Lander including our Wyoming Catholic College Students love Sinks Canyon. The natural beauty is breathtaking and on any given day regardless of the season, you can meet people hiking, rock climbing, fishing, camping, birding, and mountain biking. Once a year, however, you’ll be able to see another unexpected activity: processing, worshipping, and the blessing of the waters.
Our guest this week, Wyoming Catholic College Professor Kyle Washut, reflects on this great feast.
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
How and How Not to Be Happy with Dr. J. Budziszewski
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
While there may be people in this world who don’t care one way or another about happiness, it’s safe to say that most people often say to themselves, “I just want to be happy. Is that too much to ask?”
The question is how to achieve happiness if “achieve” is even the right word.
University of Texas Austin Professor of Government and Philosophy, Dr. J Budziszewski, takes on that question in a new book, How and How Not to Be Happy.
Dr. Budziszewski lectured at Wyoming Catholic College on the topic of that new book and was kind enough to join us for this podcast.
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
Lumen Gentium and All Saints’ Day with Prof. Kyle Washut
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
Tuesday Nov 01, 2022
Each year on November 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, remembering those brothers and sisters in Christ who lives demonstrated heroic virtue and faith. “The Saints,” said Pope Francis, “were not superhuman. They were people who loved God in their hearts, and who shared this joy with others.” And he goes on to say, “To be saints is not a privilege for a few, but a vocation for everyone.”
Perhaps by happy providence, perhaps by cunning design, back in 2017, Wyoming Catholic College professor Kyle Washut was teaching the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium to our seniors just in time for All Saints Day. Here is what he had to say.
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
Introduction to ”Spe Salvi” by Dr. Michael Bolin
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
The 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought featured readings on the topic “Mortality and Eternity” including Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 encyclical Spe Salvi.
“The belief that love can reach into the afterlife,” wrote Pope Benedict, “that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death—this has been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it remains a source of comfort today.”
Dr. Michael Bolin gave the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought participants this introduction to Spe Salvi.
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Introduction to St. Robert Bellermine’s Sermon on Death by Dr. Scott Olsson
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
The Book of Hebrews 9:27 reminds us, “it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment.”
St. Robert Bellarmine, had, it seems, a congregation that had, for the most part, forgotten that truth. Their lives were focused on this world, their concern for death and judgment weak, their hearts cold to the things of God and to their faith.
As a good pastor, they needed to be warned. Bellarmine preached four sermons on the four last things: death, judgment, hell, and heaven. At the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought, we read the first of the four, Bellarmine’s sermon on death.
Dr. Scott Olsson gave us this introduction before we broke up into seminar groups to discuss Bellarmine’s words.
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
Numbering Our Days: Lecture by Dr. Jim Tonkowich
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
Tuesday Jun 28, 2022
“Teach us to number out days,” sang the psalmist, “that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
This past June 12-17, the 2022 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought convened here in Lander. Adult learners came from California, Texas, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and elsewhere to study great texts on the theme “Mortality and Eternity.”
Our Wyoming Catholic College faculty led the sessions comprised of a short lecture introducing the reading followed by seminars.
This summer, The After-Dinner Scholar will bring you those lectures. And while they are helpful on their own, they will also serve as an introduction to your own study of the texts in the curriculum.
We began Sunday, June 12 with an after-dinner lecture to introduce the week. That night Dr. Jim Tonkowich spoke about Psalm 90.
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Dante and The Sin of Ulysses with Prof. Adam Cooper
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
Tuesday Apr 26, 2022
The eighth circle of Dante’s Hell are the Malabolge, the evil ditches. In the eighth evil ditch false counselors are punished, trapped in flames. Dante the pilgrim asks Virgil his guide about one flame in particular Virgil answers, "Within this flame find torment Ulysses and Diomedes.”
Ulysses is also known as Odysseus who, after conquering Troy, wandered ten years trying to get home to his kingdom of Ithaca, to his father, Laertes, to his beloved wife, Penelope, and to their son Telemachus. After he finally returns to all that was dear to him, Dante tells us, Odysseus succumbed to wanderlust "to gain experience of the world and learn about man’s vices, and his worth."
The voyage did not end well. Death and Hell take him. But did he deserve to be in Hell? Was his sin really as great as all that?
Prof. Adam Cooper has been teaching Dante helps us understand.