Kresta in the Afternoon

As Britain began to emerge from lockdowns earlier this year, Guardian columnist John Harris began to wonder whether it had all been for nothing. As a man of no religious faith, he lamented that he lacked “even the flimsiest of narratives to project on to what has happened, nor any real vocabulary with which to talk about the profundities of life and death.” Al looks at his comments and discusses.

Advent is quickly slipping by, but it’s not too late to take advantage of this time of preparation to meet our Lord. Marcus Peter has teamed up with Ave Maria Radio to release a series of video reflections to help us through this season. He joins us.

Even before the pandemic, it was easy to browse through the news headlines and find yourself asking “where is God?” Most of us have probably experienced this time of spiritual dryness, sometimes called the Dark Night of the Soul. St. John of the Cross explored this in a poem of the same name. His feast was yesterday, and today we talk about it with Dr. John Love.

We all have areas in which we are ignorant. And ignorance can be overcome by learning.  But is there a point when ignorance becomes arrogance? Al discusses.

This week we begin the O Antiphons, the short chants used during Vespers to help prepare us for the final days of Advent. They are deeply set in scripture, history and tradition and we’ll look at how they serve as a catechesis on salvation history with Gregory di Pippo.

Detective J. Warner Wallace listened to a pastor talk about Jesus and wondered why anyone would think Jesus was a person of interest. He was skeptical of the Bible, but he’d investigated several no-body homicide cases in which there was no crime scene, no physical evidence, and no victim's body. Could the historical life and actions of Jesus be investigated in the same way? He decided to find out....

What lessons can we learn about the modern church from a short story written before the Civil War? Al looks at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark to explain.

In December 2015, Petr Jasek traveled to Sudan to evaluate how his ministry could help persecuted Christians there. He planned to be back home within a few days. But as he prepared to board his return flight, he was summoned for questioning by Sudanese security agents. He would spend the next 445 days in prison and would share a cell with ISIS fighters. He shares his story.

When we consider Catholic spirituality, there are two words with deep meanings that tend to get tossed around: “Liturgy” and “Mysticism.” We tend to think of Liturgy as formalities such as the sacraments, practiced in public, and mysticism as the uncontrollable, private experiences. In other words, they are separate categories. So how could there be a “Liturgical Mysticism?” David Fagerberg joins...

The result of the Dobbs v Jackson case will be monumental for the pro-life movement, but it's important for another reason. It will tell us whether the conservative legal movement of the last 40 years has been a success. Gerry Bradley joins us with more.

For Dr. Brent Robbins, who was raised Catholic and became an atheist, the problem of evil and suffering was a big reason why he stopped believing in God. And while he never found a simple answer to why a good God would allow suffering, he did come to understand that there were more layers to that question than he’d initially realized. He shares his story.

In 1998, Michael Bay and Bruce Willis teamed up in the action film Armageddon, in which a team of oil drillers train as astronauts to destroy an asteroid bound for earth, saving all of humanity. Well, according to a recent thought piece by Oxford professor Richard Crisp, they may have made the wrong decision. Crisp wants us to consider, given the suffering caused by humans, if a mass extinction ev...

Kresta Comments: Why do we have a liturgical calendar?

Many people today, especially younger generations, have stopped going to Mass because they don't "get anything out of it." But we don't go to Mass to get a good feeling - we got to worship God. And when we understand this, our approach to the Mass changes. We talk with David Seitz

The collapse of liberal moral and political order has led to a welcome revival in Catholic political thought. So says Andrew Jones in an essay examining peace and the problem of power. What does he mean? What has led to these collapses? Andrew joins us.

Kresta Comments: What is the Role of Government?

Whatever one thinks of Jesus, it is impossible to be neutral about Mary's place in Christian doctrine and devotion. Either Mary is essential to the faith as the Mother of God, or she is a mere woman, or (perhaps) she is a quasi-pagan goddess who endangers the dignity and prerogatives of her son as Creator and Lord. There is no middle ground, no shared pronunciation by which Mary might be both the...

Colleen Pressprich first made a consecration to Mary in college and continues to renew her consecration on every Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It's a wonderful gift, but it may be too advanced for young children. That's why she has developed a Marian consecration for families. She joins us.

St. Augustine said that "the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old is fulfilled in the New" and we touched on that topic earlier this week with Stephen Clark. The early Church Fathers saw every part of Scripture as linked to every other part, and the Blessed Mother's role in Scripture is no exception. In what ways can we find Marian imagery in the Old Testament? We talk with Sandra Mies...

May may be the “official” Month of Mary, but December is a special month as well. With the Feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Guadalupe, not to mention Christmas, it’s an ideal time to rediscover what the Gospels say about our Blessed Mother. William Albrecht and Fr. Christiaan Kappes join us.

Nolan Ostrowski contracted COVID-19 this summer and was admitted to a hospital in Lansing, Michigan in July. As he lay in bed a few nights later, a figure appeared next to him – it appeared to be Solanus Casey. His condition soon downgraded and he was taken to another hospital for special treatment. But now, he’s doing better. He joins us to tell the story.

Last month the US State Department updated its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” for violations of religious Liberty. This year Russia joined many of the usual suspects such as China, North Korea, and Iran. But controversially, Nigeria is no longer included in this group. Ed Clancy joins us with his analysis and also his own report on the plight of Christian women around the world.

“The Best Week Ever” is a bold statement. When one hears it, the first thought might be of a lavish family vacation—not a college’s summer program. And yet, these are the key words participants of the Experience Christendom Summer Program use time and again when describing the transformative time they spent in Virginia for one week—a week that provided them with the faith-filled educational experi...

On Wednesday the Supreme Court met to hear oral arguments in the Dobbs v Jackson case. We spoke about it last week and the initial reaction was that pro-lifers have good reason to be optimistic about how everything played out. We take a closer look at the questions that were asked, trying to get a feel for how the Court may rule this spring. Pat Gillen joins us.

Yesterday the White House announced a Diplomatic Boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. This means that athletes will still compete in the Games, but no US officials will be there. Will this send an effective message? How might China respond? We take a look.