Respect Life Radio

Many of the titles given to Jesus “have Old Testament connotations. He's called Elijah, Jeremiah, King of Israel, Son of Abraham, Son of David. All these things have connections to the Old Testament. That's something we learn about in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Matthew is writing primarily to Jewish converts, people who have become Christian in the first century; they were Jews. Or, people that we...

A simple structure for prayer is "ready, set, go. 'Ready' is you just create a sacred time and a sacred space. I'm going to meet with God. I'm going to have my time alone with the Lord every morning, in this particular place. I'm going to light a candle...You begin that time, you turn off your phone, you recollect yourself...So that's getting 'ready,'" said Fr. John Bartunek, LC , author of books,...

"There's a meditation for every single day of Lent, typically about two pages long...focusing primarily on Scripture and on teachings of the Church Fathers. And yet, there's enough in each of those two pages — that meditation — that if you started that early in the morning, it will give you plenty to chew on, to ruminate, to ponder again throughout the day, in ways that will draw you closer to Chr...

"When a woman suffers sexual assault or rape — and especially, becomes pregnant in those situations — a woman is looking for justice. The abortion industry can so easily tell women to believe that justice in their circumstances would be having an abortion, and in fact, that having an abortion is the only just option," said Joy Stockbauer , policy analyst at the Center for Human Dignity at Family R...

"The saints are God's heroes but they're very humble because they recognize all the good that they can do is because God gives them the grace" that corresponds to it, said Fr. Ed Broom, OMV, an author who wrote a recent article at Catholic Exchange, " Humility: the Cornerstone of Holiness ." Later in the interview, Fr. Broom said, "A lot of people don't want to go to confession because they don't...

"There is no grand leader or political force that's going to ride in on the great white stallion to rescue humanity or to rescue your family. You have to be the hero. I don't care if you feel like it or not. God will give you the courage and the grace to be able to do that...," said Jack Rigert , co-founder of the John Paul II Renewal Center . "You have to be speaking about [cultural threats] in y...

"Various religious orders in the Church are failing precisely because they have abandoned their constitutions, their charisms — and for what?" said Ines A. Murzaku , Ph. D., professor of religion and director of Catholic Studies Program at Seton Hall University.  Murzaka wrote a commentary, " Like a Virgin? " for The Catholic Thing. She described what happened to Cristina Scuccia after winning "Th...

"If you're feeling helpless in your vocation, if you're feeling like you're resenting parenthood or marriage, family life — we want you to be able to find hope; to be able to have some practical tools for getting yourself out of that rut and to be able to experience the joy of your vocation and the love of God — and experience God's peace in your home. We really hope that our book accomplishes tha...

"We live in a world that is so focused on the self and individualism and each person making him- or herself their highest authority, that when you apply that sort of worldview and that sort of way of thinking to reading Scripture, then it very quickly becomes...all about me. And that's entirely the wrong way to read Scripture...Especially as our culture has been influenced by the Protestant Reform...

"Today I would like to speak to you about how the Eucharist is the source of our life and it enables us to live the gospel of life," said Sr. Maris Stella, SV, of the Sisters of Life. "As the basis of my reflection, I'll use the Gospel of John and I'll speak about three things: the dignity of the human person, transforming the culture and abiding in Jesus' Eucharistic heart." St. Maris Stella spok...

"What's really so parallel between communism and the culture of death in the United States is this common quality of failing to respect humanity, failing to respect the dignity of the human person. So we see that within communism — and then, of course, we see that within the abortion culture that has been built in the United States since 1973," said Joy Stockbauer, policy analyst for the Center fo...

Everybody knows "the Catholic position on abortion...on contraception and divorce and homosexual acts...so when Catholic priests or bishops or any kind of spokesman for the Church seems to shy away from saying what everybody knows the Church believes, it makes it look as if we're ashamed of our beliefs or we're hypocritical about our beliefs. It makes the witness of the Church — well, just wimpy....

Jesus Christ is present "body, blood, soul and divinity" in the Eucharist, "so why the lack of belief in that truth? And I suggest that it's because of the way we regard and handle — and manhandle — the Eucharist, so that the signs and symbols of the liturgy are not reinforcing the doctrine," said Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas , Ph. D., who wrote an article for The Catholic Thing , titled " What's Re...

The Respect for Marriage Act "poses a pretty significant risk to religious Americans, both individuals and organizations. Like the Equality Act, it hopes to cement into federal law the idea that marriage is not the institution, defined by God, consisting of the union of one man and one woman. It goes, obviously, far beyond that...The first thing it does is to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act tha...

Citing the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, "It is a call to properly care for our bodies," said Dr. Kevin Vost, Psy. D., a professor and author whose many books include, " You Are That Temple! A Catholic Guide to Health and Holiness " (Sophia Institute Press). "We're not talking about just the capacity that you can run miles or lift some huge weight, but just that we're properly maintaining o...

"No one wants to be a member of this club. You just wake up and find out that you've got a card. But what I have found is there's a tremendous fellowship. I know of a couple of parishes where they've formed, quite literally, a St. Monica Club, and they started with reading the book and then they meet...to pray for their families and to have fellowship and to help each other bear the burden," said...

"The idea of us trying to impose our sense of right and wrong — especially on something that's so clear [as pro-life] and to tell God we know better — my goodness that is the height of arrogance. But we do live in an arrogant culture that thinks we know better than God," said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council . "In the dialogue and conversation...

"The scapular literally sitting on our body reminds us that we are consecrated to Jesus Christ, through Our Lady; that we follow a different path; we carry His yoke, the scapular almost even looks like a symbolic yoke that we wear on our shoulders," said Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C., and the author of books, including " A Journey to Mount Carmel: A N...

For Aristotle and Aquinas, happiness is "a state of contentment, an ability not to get into the highs or the lows but to be right in the mean of the highs and the lows — which means that you're balanced about these things, so your balance of your own intellect and your own will and you're capable of not getting distressed or too depressed or too happy about any particular thing," said Charles P. N...

"Most of these extraordinary cases come from violating the First Commandment and that means turning to a spirit other than God for comfort, information or power. So, if you're not playing around with other spirits than God, you're not usually going to end up in trouble. Now, if you start getting close to being in trouble, confession and the Mass — for the Catholic who has access to those sacrament...

"This book really shows us that atheism and communism were not natural disasters that were just bound to happen, but rather they were ideological revolutions that were carefully calculated," said Kristen Van Uden , referring to " The Gods of Atheism ," a 1971 book by Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., recently republished by Sophia Institute Press . Van Uden is the author spokesperson at Sophia Institute P...

Don't make any changes to your intended spiritual practice — such as going to confession, or attending daily Mass or making a planned retreat or reading Scripture — “when you're in the discouragement of spiritual desolation. That's [St. Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits] classic Rule Five. I wish everybody in the Church knew that rule. I can't tell you how grateful in my own life I am fo...

"We submit ourselves to fear and that's a kind of enslavement to passion. And that kind of enslavement to passions damages us. It leads us to sin. It leads us to not fight for the greater good — to sins of omission when we should have done the greater good," said Joshua Nelson , who wrote an article, " Offer Up Your Fear, " on Catholic Exchange. "By keeping Christ in mind, and at the forefront, it...

"The attack is on the family. The family is the foundation for everything, in our own individuals lives, as well as for the Church and society. So for the good of our children — for the good, of course, of the married people — for the Church and society, as well, it's absolutely a necessity right now to really put the focus on marriage. You look at the history of the Church — and God always raises...

"Coming out of the pandemic, the widespread dissatisfaction with the way that colleges, as well as traditional district public schools, handled education is palpable. We see it in surveys, we see it in parents moving their kids from assigned schools and creating learning pods and choosing private schools and finding other options for them," said Jonathan Butcher , the Will Skillman Fellow in Educa...