Biblical Scholar, Dr. John Bergsma, a former Protestant pastor who converted to Catholicism, tackles the most common Protestant objections to the Catholic faith from confession and icon veneration to sola scriptura, papal infallibility, and the development of doctrine, using Scripture, early Church history, and his own conversion story.

Ep. 583

📚 Resources Mentioned:

The Gospel of John with Dr. John Bergsma: https://StPaulCenter.com/pints

Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: https://stpaulcenter.com/store/ignatius-catholic-study-bible-old-and-new-testaments

Dr. Bergsma Bio: https://www.johnbergsma.com/biography

Theotokos Rosaries: https://dwplus.shop/TheotokosRosaries

It’s Last Call! Stephen Meyer is back to destroy the most common arguments for atheism.

Pints: Last Call Ep. 18

📚Resources Mentioned:

The Story of Everything: https://www.thestoryofeverything.film

Return of the God Hypothesis: https://a.co/d/0b7QUSqd

Mother Natalia is back and it’s her first visit to the new set. She shares her vocation story as well as insights into Byzantine spirituality, sin, suffering, and intimacy with God.

Ep. 582

📚 Resources Mentioned:

Christ The Bridegroom Monastery: https://www.christthebridegroom.org

What God Is Not Podcast: https://whatgodisnot.com

Working on an entire album of lofi music. Here's one of those songs. Album should drop next week. THEN, a couple of weeks after that we hope to have our 24/7 stream up and running.

THE ERROR OF ARIUS ABOUT THE INCARNATION

In their eagerness to proclaim the unity of God and man in Christ, some heretics went to the opposite extreme and taught that not only was there one person, but also a single nature, in God and man. This error took its rise from Arius. To defend his position that those scriptural passages where Christ is represented as being inferior to the Father, must refer to the Son of God Himself, regarded in His assuming nature, Arius taught that in Christ there is no other soul than the Word of God who, he maintained, took the place of the soul in Christ’s body. Thus when Christ says, in John 14:28, “The Father is greater than I,” or when He is introduced as praying or as being sad, such matters are to be referred to the very nature of the Son of God. If this were so, the union of God’s Son with man would be effected not only in the person, but also in the nature. For, as we know, the unity of human nature arises from the union of soul and body.

The...

RESTORATION OF MAN BY GOD THROUGH THE INCARNATION

We indicated above that the reparation of human nature could not be effected either by Adam or by any other purely human being. For no individual man ever occupied a position of pre-eminence over the whole of nature; nor can any mere man be the cause of grace. The same reasoning shows that not even an angel could be the author of man’s restoration. An angel cannot be the cause of grace, just as he cannot be man’s recompense with regard to the ultimate perfection of beatitude, to which man was to be recalled. In this matter of beatitude angels and men are on a footing of equality. Nothing remains, therefore, but that such restoration could be effected by God alone.

But if God had decided to restore man solely by an act of His will and power, the order of divine justice would not have been observed. justice demands satisfaction for sin. But God cannot render satisfaction, just as He cannot merit. Such a service pertains to one who ...

I belong to a women's Catholic Facebook group and I cannot get over how incredibly ignorant and uncatechized so many if them are. Thankfully, it is done in a spirit of inquiry and gentle education, but it really is shocking. Information is do readily available these days and yet so many are blatantly ignorant, blind, even, in scandalous ways!

One woman was afraid she would go to hell if she missed Mass because her special needs toddler was too sick to go and she needed to take care of him. Everyone lovingly reassured her of the truth.

Maybe that's why it is so prominent in this group. Women can safely ask questions and get gentle answers.

One of the biggest anti-Catholic arguments I hear is that Catholics don't know their faith and, sadly it is very often true. I see that turning around these days, but it is sad. I certainly don't expect everyone to know everything or be able to articulate it, and Lord knows I have ignorant gaps, but it is startling to see so many cradle ...

🙏 A Catholic Intercessory Prayer for All

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Heavenly Father, this prayer is for everyone who sees it — those whom I know and those whom I don't know. It is lifted up for the stranger and the friend, for the forgotten and the beloved, for the lost and the found.

Lord, I pray this prayer not because I think I am better than everyone else, but because I know I am not. We are all in need of Your mercy, Your healing, and Your grace. None of us can walk this life alone, and none of us is beyond the need for prayer.

So I come before You humbly, Lord — for the sick and the suffering, for those burdened by addiction and sin, for the broken families and the grieving hearts, for the lonely, the hopeless, and those who do not yet know You. I pray for the dying and for those who have no one to pray for them.

I ask, through the boundless love You have for each soul, that You pour out Your mercy upon all who read these words — seen and unseen, ...