Episodes
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
The Angelic Doctor: An Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas with Dr. Michael Bolin
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
The story goes that the church sacristan overheard Thomas Aquinas speaking in prayer before the crucifix. Thomas was asking whether all he had written about the Christian faith was correct. “You have spoken well of me, Thomas,” came the audible answer, “What is your reward to be.” Thomas replied, “Non nisi te, Domini. Nothing but You, Lord.”
On January 28 we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas and while most Catholics know that he has a special place in the Church, we may not appreciate how great a place he occupies.
Dr. Michael Bolin has been studying Thomas Aquinas at least a far back as his undergraduate days at Thomas Aquinas College. This week, he'll give us a kind of crash course in the life and teaching of The Angelic Doctor.
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Magi, Baptism, and Marriage: Celebrating Epiphany with Fr. James Schumacher
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
“What are you doing, O Magi?” asked St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “Do you adore a little Babe, in a wretched hovel, wrapped in miserable rags? Can this Child be truly God? … Are you become foolish, O Wise Men … Yes, these Wise Men have become fools that they may be wise!”
With the presents snug in their new homes, the wrapping paper recycled, the New Year’s Eve noisemakers silent, the so-called “holiday season” spent, we can breath a sigh of relief and look forward to celebrating Epiphany.
Epiphany, a solemnity, means “showing” and the Church draws our attention to the Three Magi, to John the Baptist, to Jesus’ first miracle turning water into wine. “Can this Child be truly God?” Epiphany a firm and reliable, “Yes!”
Wyoming Catholic College faculty, staff, and in-town alumni attend Holy Rosary parish here in Lander. This week, our pastor, Fr. James Schumacher gives us some insights on the celebration of Epiphany.
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
”Cur Deus Verba”: Reflections on the Incarnation with Dr. Jeremy Holmes
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
The third century theologian Origen wrote concerning God becoming man, “The human understanding with its narrow limits is baffled, and struck with amazement at so mighty a wonder knows not which way to turn, what to hold to, or whither to betake itself… To utter these things in human ears and to explain them by words far exceeds the powers we possess either in our moral worth or in mind and speech.”
Wyoming Catholic College theologian and Bible scholar, Dr. Jeremy Holmes quotes Origen in his book Cur Deus Verba: Why the Word became Words. On the one hand, what can we say as we contemplate the mystery of God, the Creator of all things, as a swaddled new-born lying in a bed of straw?
On the other hand, while words are not fully sufficient, if we are to obey the commandment to love God with our minds, we can surely—we must surely—say something.
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
Creation and Preservation in St. Thomas Aquinas with Dr. Travis Dziad
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
While Genesis 2 tells us that on the seventh day God rested, Thomas Aquinas noted, “It would seem that God did not rest on the seventh day from all His work. For it is said (John 5:17), ‘My Father worketh until now, and I work.’ God indeed ‘worketh until now’ by preserving and providing for the creatures He has made, but not by the making of new ones.”
Perhaps taking a cue from Aquinas, the hymnist wrote, “What God’s almighty power hath made His gracious mercy keepeth.” God made all things and preserves all things whatever “preserves all things” means.
Wyoming Catholic College theologian, Dr. Travis Dziad has been considering this question for some time now taking St. Thomas as his guide.
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Knowing God Through Reason and Revelation with Prof. Kyle Washut
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
In the first chapter of his letter to the Christians in Rome, St. Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20).
History bears out the truth of St. Paul’s statement. You don’t need a Bible to know that God exists and that he is eternal, powerful, intelligent, just, and creative. We all live on the same planet, see the same nature, and are able to come to the same obvious conclusions—even if some people refuse.
Nonetheless, Christianity is not a nature religion. It is a revealed religion. God has spoken through the words of the inspired writers of Scripture and through the Church.
So where are the boundaries between what any human can understand about God through reason and what requires revelation?
Prof. Kyle Washut has been discussing just that with our Wyoming Catholic College sophomores as they read St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae together.
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
Understanding the Trinity with Dr. Jeremy Holmes
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner wrote, “Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere ‘monotheists.’ We would never know they believed in the Trinity, because nothing about their lives reflects trinitarian engagement.”
While Christians are monotheists—that is we believe in only one God—we are not what Rahner called mere monotheists. We believe there is one God who exists eternally as a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “God in three Persons, blessed Trinity,” as the hymnist put it.
On May 4, our podcast featured this week's guest, Dr. Jeremy Holmes, talking about his new book Cur Deus Verba: Why the WORD Became Words. The book is a theology of Scripture, but it begins with a chapter entitled “Why God Created: The Trinity.”
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Faith and Reason in Benedict XVI's The Regensburg Address with Dr. Michael Bolin
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
When he delivered his “Regensburg Address” in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI set off a firestorm of anger. Not only had he criticized Islam and modern scientism, he had the temerity to suggest that what the world really needs is Catholicism. Nearly fifteen years later, sound far less profligate and far more prophetic.
Of course, the Regensburg Address was not primarily about Islam or about scientism. Pope Benedict argued for the place of reason in human life. Without it, we either end up with subjective religiosity ungoverned by reason and leading toward fanaticism or we limit reason to mathematics and physics leading to a cold, calculated science that erases religion and morality and with them our humanity.
Dr. Michael Bolin read Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address with our Wyoming Catholic College seniors in the weeks before graduation.
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Why the WORD Became Words with Dr. Jeremy Holmes
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Quoting St. Jerome, the great fifth century Bible scholar, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (133) tells us:
The Church “forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
Theologians throughout the life of the Church pointed out not just a connection, but a identification between Jesus Who is the Word of God made flesh and the Scriptures, the Word of God written and handed down to us.
But how does that work? What does it mean?
Theologian Dr. Jeremy Holmes hopes that his new book will answer that question. The title is Cur Deus Verba: Why the WORD Became Words.
To sign up for the free distance learning course "Reading Your Bible for All It's Worth," visit the Wyoming Catholic College website.
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
He Is Risen! with Dr. Kent Lasnoski
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
“The Resurrection of Jesus,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross.”
The resurrection is not reincarnation. It’s not reanimation. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, second Person of the Blessed Trinity really and truly died on the cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and rose again from the dead.
During Holy Week, our podcast featured Dr. Jeremy Holmes discussing the Gospel of John chapter 19—the cross. During this Easter Octave, Dr. Kent Lasnoski joins us to discuss John chapter 20 and the resurrection.
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Pilate, the People, and the Death of Jesus with Dr. Jeremy Holmes
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Faithful cross, above all other,
One and only noble tree:
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be:
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
While each time we see a cross or a crucifix and every time we attend Mass we have the opportunity to ponder Christ’s great sacrifice, during Holy Week it becomes almost the exclusive focus of our attention.
Writing about Good Friday in his book Death on a Friday Afternoon, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote, “This is the axis mundi, the center upon which the cosmos turns. In the derelict who cries from the cross is, or so Christians say, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The life of all on this day died. Stay a while with that dying.”
The Gospel of John, chapter 19 tells the story of that dying. In this podcast Dr. Jeremy Holmes discusses John 19 and the death of Jesus.