Deep Dives with Fr Sean: the Super Catholic Catechesis Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This is my favorite in the series: how to pray at the Mass!  Ready to have your life transformed?  Well, tune in.  This is something that totally rocked my world, but it wasn't part of my catechesis as a kid--nor in my bachelor's degree in theology!  But it's super relevant so that when we're at Mass, we're giving God our best.

Send us Fan Mail Why do we have to go to Mass on Sunday?  Well, it's so good, and shouldn't we do good things?  A deeper answer looks at our duties and responsibilities towards God: just as we owe our parents care and support for their care and support for us when we were most vulnerable, so we owe God our everything (thanks, praise, etc.) since without Him, we're jack squat.  We ha...

Send us Fan Mail We are hoping the pandemic is nearing its conclusion with the vaccine rolling out in force, so it is fitting to ask a few questions.  Why do have the Mass at all?  Well, Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me."  But it is also fitting for God to give it to us as a continuation of His Presence, of His Sacrifice, and of His Communion with us.  Plus, it's fitting for...

Send us Fan Mail This is kind of where we're at, as we hope that we can be peacemakers at home and abroad.

Send us Fan Mail Here I share my own testimony, and then breakdown what Lent is Scripturally and how to dive into it.

Send us Fan Mail So I cheated a little.  It's not so much as a commentary on all these chapters (primarily since they are a smattering of many moral nuggets).  Instead, I focused in on TWO verses! Romans 12:1-2  "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be...

Send us Fan Mail We dive into what St. Paul talks about regarding the Jewish people and the coming of Jesus Christ.  The covenant and the promises, etc. were given to the Jews to prepare them for Jesus, but what if they miss Jesus?  St. Paul writes in his sorrow that they still have a special place in salvation history and all they have to do is be received by the Lord.

Send us Fan Mail Howdy ya'll.  We dive into chapters 6-8.  Chapter 6 talks about our entrance into Christ's death and resurrection through Baptism.  Chapter 7 address our fight for the fulfillment of our sanctification (flesh vs spirit, the power of sin, Paul's own battle).  Chapter 8 gets into the fulfillment of all this in glorification, in our sonship, in reception of the Holy Sp...

Send us Fan Mail I love this stuff.  Here, we take a deeper look at chapters 4 and 5.  St. Paul unwinds what is meant by justification and discusses the importance of faith for justification.  It's important to look at his example of our Father in Faith, Abraham, as well as the parallel between the Old Adam and the New Adam, who is Jesus Christ.  By justification, we pass from the slavery, si...

Send us Fan Mail Here we take a deep dive into Romans 3:21-26.  In many way, this is the everything.  It is beautiful in its simplicity (we are justified in Jesus redemption by faith) and really awesome in its theological exploration of what is meant by redemption, expiation, justification, faith, etc.

Send us Fan Mail Here, we walk through the next chunk of St. Paul (1:18-3:20).  Both gentiles and Jews are equally accountable for their lack of covenantal fidelity, gentiles in accord with the revelation of God's presence and decrees as observable in nature, Jews in accordance with the Law received by Moses.  In the face of God's righteousness (covenantal fidelity), our infidelity is no...

Send us Fan Mail We are starting a new commentary!  The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.  With some introductory comments, I then get into Paul's zeal for his Gospel mission.  I define the righteousness of God as His covenantal fidelity.  I explain more about the definition of the Gospel, as well.  God bless!

Send us Fan Mail I love this stuff.  It's all about love!  And charity is the chief of the virtues.  I walk through defining charity, and then I do a step by step commentary on "Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  And love your neighbor as yourself.  That is love God with all your intentions, with your passions, with your min...

Send us Fan Mail In honor of the year dedicated to Saint joseph, I give a reflection on his point of view of the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ and some of the things we can do to imitate his virtues that he expressed at that time. Many blessings to each of you and may Saint Joseph intercede on our behalf!

Send us Fan Mail Here in this episode of hope, I address hope as desire for the Kingdom of God and a reliance on God's help.  That means we have to lean away from presumption, pelagianism, and despair.  It's easy to think "I'm a good person.  I don't need God."  But it's wrong.  We need God's help, and he's very ready to provide it!

Send us Fan Mail Here we dive into faith and reflect on Abraham our Father in Faith who exemplified "the obedience of faith" that St. Paul talked about.  In our crisis of faith, we must hold fast to these two dimensions: trust and obedience.

Send us Fan Mail Wokeism is a bad word for some; for others, it's salvation.  What about for Christians.  We need to use our brains to see how the God-given worldview helps us to interpret this new, secular movement.   

Send us Fan Mail We talk about temperance, the habitual disposition to moderate our passions and impulses.  The fruit of temperance is serenity.  We have so many impulses that we need to control: food, sex, domineering attitudes, shopping, rest, work, social media...not to mention any addictions.

Send us Fan Mail We dive into justice today.  Justice is the firm disposition to give to God or someone their due.  It can be either the justice of exchange (the swapping of goods or services), distributive justice (the sharing of the community goods with the individual), or the justice that "gives back" (when we give our duty to the whole--I called this retributive just...but it's...

Send us Fan Mail We dive into a little catechesis on fortitude!  Fortitude is the habitual disposition to withstand any obstacles.  It must be done prudently recognizing any fear but not being a slave to it.  It can be expressed either as patience, as someone just has to withstand the obstacles that are coming at the person, or as courage, we someone walks forward in the good despite the obstacles...

Send us Fan Mail Prudence is the use of right reason to direct our actions.  It identifies the way to get there.  It identifies the golden mean between extremes.  It commands virtuous actions like a charioteer.  It includes deliberation (not acting rashly), judgment (not waiting for ever or using the wisdom of the world), and execution of the decision (which is aided by the other virtues, otherwis...

Send us Fan Mail We walk through the Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle and look step by step at his thought process of noting that (1) each craft has an end, (2) there are minor crafts that serve greater crafts, (3) there is a craft, an art, a "know-how" above all things to which all other crafts are directed, (4) this is called happiness, or human flourishing, (5) to understand it better...

Send us Fan Mail Just thinking some things through out loud.  

Send us Fan Mail It's relevant here.  Check this out for clear thinking based on Gospel values regarding our current national situation.

Send us Fan Mail We dive in again for a discussion on these two capital sins, which I believe are both leveraged by consumerism. Buy more! Do more! Consume more! Eat more! And so on. But let us prepare ourselves to be victors on Earth so that we may arrive in Heaven! We'll look at the background for these sins and also some tips to avoid them.