The Art Of Catholic With Matthew Leonard

"For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways" (Psalm 91:11). Since the last show was, shall we say, a bit dark, I decided we needed a burst of light. How much more light can you get than angels? And to shed light on an already bright and beautiful topic, I've got author, speaker, EWTN host, and all around terrific human being, Mike Aquilina. Mike has written a ton about the angels. (Check out his beautiful devotional "A Year With the Angels" when you have a chance.) Today's show includes the following topics: Are all angels alike? Do they have a primary role? How are angels and humans different? The greatest piece of advice ever with regard to guardian angels How to establish a relationship with your guardian angel Can fallen angels (i.e. demons) ever be saved? Does our relationship with angels change in heaven? What do the Church Fathers say about angels? All that and more on this bright, beautiful and powerful episode of the The Art of Catholic! Happy Easter! Matthew P.S. Don't f

Light the blessed candles, grab your crucifix, and find your biggest bottle of holy water. My guest today on the Art of Catholic is author Dr. Paul Thigpen and our topic is spiritual warfare. In particular, we’re discussing his really fascinating book titled “Saints Who Battled Satan: 17 Holy Warriors Who Can Teach You How To Fight The Good Fight and Vanquish Your Ancient Enemy.” And I’m gonna tell you right now, this is no typical saint book. It’s pretty wild. "Who is Paul Thigpen", you ask? He's the editor of TAN Books and the best-selling author, co-author or compiler of forty-five titles. Among his most popular books are The Burden: A Warning of Things to Come and The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to End Times Fever. Paul is a convert to the Catholic faith and has served the Church as an award-winning journalist, historian, apologist, catechist, and member of the National Advisory Council of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. His work has been translated into twelve languages (including

Perhaps the most dramatic and gut-wrenching moment of the crucifixion is Christ's cry of dereliction: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But many people have no idea what it actually means. Like so many other converts to Catholicism, I was raised with a misunderstanding of how the Cross of Christ actually saves me. Believe it or not, over the years I've heard some homilies at Mass make the same mistake. (Not in my home parish...just in case my parish priest is reading this:) But it's important. Because if you get the Cross wrong, you get everything wrong. In this special Triduum/Easter episode of The Art of Catholic, I'll briefly discuss: What Jesus actually did on the Cross: both the correct and incorrect views How the way we're saved dramatically impacts our view of salvation and thus how we live How to understand the apparent abandonment of the Son by the Father as he hung on the Cross Why the Cross should fill us with confidence This episode will help you dive more deeply into the mystery and tr

Your eyes were opened...and that's a good thing. If you listened to Part 1 of my discussion with the renowned author and speaker Dr. Brant Pitre (BrantPitre.com), not only were you probably incensed by the attacks of skeptics on the Gospels, you were heartened by Brant's destruction of their arguments. The truth of the matter is that we can trust in the origin of the Gospels. We can trust that Christ is who he says he is. In Part 2 of our interview, our discussion based around his new book The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ includes the following: When the Gospels were written and why it matters How do we explain apparent differences or discrepancies in the Gospels?  Why Jesus knew exactly who he was...God (though Gospel critics say otherwise) The incredible connection between Jesus and the Old Testament book of Daniel (and how the Angel Gabriel plays into all this) The real reason Jesus was sentenced to death by the Jewish leaders Why the first Christians believed in the resu

Let's start with two simple, yet crucial questions: "Do you trust the Bible?" and "Do you believe Jesus is God?" Many of you are thinking, "Of course, Matt!" Even so, you certainly know a lot of people in our post-Christian world who don't agree. They're skeptics. And there are a lot of people seeking to create more of them. In fact, some people who spend their professional lives studying the Gospels go around making wild claims about Jesus and the Gospels that just don't pass historical muster: claims such as “We can’t trust the Gospels because we don't have any idea who wrote them," or "Jesus never claimed to be divine." It's crazy! And the awful thing is, they’re using shoddy "historical" arguments to destroy the faith of a lot of Catholics, and people don’t even realize it. They trumpet their “scientific” findings and somberly declare that the Gospels don't stand up to careful scrutiny and call into question Christ’s claims. But it's a sham. Their positions are full of holes so big you could drive a truck

What does the spiritual life of a ninja blackbelt surfer look like? The answer might surprise you. (The dude quotes Aquinas, for crying out loud.) Join me for the conclusion of my conversation with adventurer and EWTN radio host Bear Woznick. We're getting deeper into the practicalities of meditative prayer and the overall trajectory of the spiritual path for Catholics. But that's not all. A big part of the discussion centers around what it means to actually "let go and let God," and what happens when you do. (You'll even hear how in the world I ended up on a mountain in Guatemala three months after leaving the corporate world.) We'll also dissect something a lot of Catholics have never heard of, called penal substitution. It's the theory of salvation that Bear and I used to hold as Protestants, but makes no sense of the Cross or human suffering. God bless and enjoy! Matt P.S. Don't let Lent just slide by. Grab it by the horns! Click the link to get a free, short chapter from my book Louder Than Words. It's c

I meet a lot of people in my line of work...none like this guy. Have you ever talked prayer with a guy who is a World Surfing Champ? Ever discussed the spiritual life with a bona fide ninja blackbelt? How about chatting virtue with anyone who rode their bike (i.e. bicycle) from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean? Me, neither. That is, until I met Bear Woznick. (Yes, that's actually his legal name.) Bear Woznick is unlike anyone else I know. I met him recently at a men's conference in Florida where we were both speakers. His life, I quickly discovered, is like a movie. That doesn't mean it's perfect. Simply that it's a bit more "exciting" than most of ours. (Seriously, have you ever repelled off the 25th floor of your beachfront condo? He has.) Bear is an author, speaker, and EWTN radio host and who loves the Church and expresses it in a very unique way. You're going to find his story and his message truly inspirational. Blessings, Matthew P.S. Don't let Lent just slide by. Grab it by the horns! Click the

I already know the answer, but I'm going to ask anyway: Have you ever been fully satisfied? How about completely free? For how long? How long until you want a new smartphone? How far into the woods do you need to hike to "get away from it all"? How long before the new car smell wears off? (Approximately 3 1/2 minutes for those with children.) Most of us discovered a long time ago that nothing here can satisfy us for very long. It just can't. And it's not only satisfaction we crave. We want freedom. (Why else do people try to fly without a plane or deep sea dive hundreds of feet without an oxygen tank?) We want to crush the barriers in life that hem us in and quench that thirst that comes from deep inside. It's a constant gnawing - a constant struggle. Why? Because we were created for true freedom! We were designed to be fully satisfied! But there's only one way you can achieve it. So in this episode of the The Art of Catholic, I'm going to provide some keys to help you redirect and quench the spiritual angst

I told you it was good. Part one of my interview with Mike Aquilina about his book Keeping Mary Close: Devotion to Our Lady Through the Ages was awesome. The conclusion is even better. You've got to hear Mike because he really gets fired up showing how even heretics and atheists understood early Christian devotion to the Mother of God, and mocked them for it. He also discusses how love of Mary is channeled to God using a very sweet example from his own life. Our discussion also gets into how the motif of the family life of God is a key to understanding Mary. At one point, he even invokes the Odd Couple! (You're not going to hear that on any other podcast!) Some of the other questions we discuss: They may not have had rosaries, but did early Christians have physical ornaments that expressed their devotion to Our Lady? Given it's intensity, was there ever a danger of Mary eclipsing Christ in devotion in the early days? (Ever heard of the Collyridians? Me, neither!) Do Muslims really venerate Mary? Who were some

I sure wish I'd known this 18 years ago. I'd probably have become Catholic a lot faster. In this episode of The Art of Catholic, I've got one of my favorite people, Mike Aquilina, ready to lay down some serious Early Church knowledge. But we're not just interested in history. We're going to dig into what the Early Church believed and practiced with regard to the Virgin Mary. Adding to the already legendary stack of books he's written is "Keeping Mary Close: Devotion To Our Lady Through The Ages"...and it's awesome. I read a lot of Marian literature when working on The Bible and the Virgin Mary series for the St. Paul Center. What sets this book apart from others is that its focus is upon the Early Church. Speaking as a convert who had serious issues with Mary, this book would have helped me immensely when I was dealing with who she is and what the Church has taught about her through the ages. In fact, I’m a little hacked off that he waited so long to write this. But since this is the Year of Mercy, I'm going

Admit it. Just like everybody else, your 2016 New Year's resolutions are already in the toidy. (That's a technical term.) And for most of us,  those resolutions dealt with habits we've acquired and want to get rid of like smoking, drinking, or Jazzercise. Then there are those virtuous habits we want to acquire. Virtuous habits will get their own podcast at a later date. Since most of us remain in the "I've got to stop this or it's going to kill me!" or "I'm tired of confessing this same thing over and over" mode, I want to give you 5 key ideas to help you overcome sinful habits so you can spiritually grow and rocket your way to God. Enjoy! Matt Click here to grab a copy of my free pdf 8 Ways To Jumpstart Your Prayer Life. It's not too late to make a new, New Year's resolution that really change your life!

I've made no bones about the fact that Mary was easily the most difficult issue I faced in becoming Catholic. This show is about the scriptural argument that got me over the hump. In the last two episodes (23 & 24), we dealt with the Immaculate Conception. This time, we're going to fill in some background on the Ark of the Covenant from the Old Testament, and then explore the stunning parallels laid out by the Gospel of Luke between that original Ark and the Virgin Mary. Like I said, the dots I'm about to connect are one major reason I fully embraced Church teaching on Our Lady. It's pretty powerful stuff. But as they say on infomercials...That's not all!" I'm also going to drop a really cool insight from Pope Benedict XVI about Mary's Visitation to Elizabeth that I recently heard at Mass. It literally made me "oooh" out loud. (Trust me when I say there are very few things I ever hear in the cry room that make me say "ooooh"...unless you're referring to every time a one-year-old licks the mirror on the do

The more you understand it, the more you realize the Immaculate Conception is a fundamental part of the Gospel message. And, yes, it's in the Bible...big time. This is part 2 of what I started in Episode 23. This episode is going to focus on the Angel Gabriel's encounter with Mary in the Annunciation scene from Luke chapter 1. Far more than just a classic scene in every school's Christmas play, it's a necessary scene in the drama of salvation. And it demonstrates the fact that Mary was conceived without sin. Of course, there are always people who will object. St. Thomas Aquinas himself declared that Mary was conceived with original sin in his famous Summa Theologica. So I'm also going to answer some of the common objections to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and show why objectors shouldn't be so quick to use Thomas for their position of dissent. I promise this is a very, very interesting and informative show. You're going to walk away with a greater appreciation for the amazing role Our Lady plays in

You may love Mary, but can you explain the Immaculate Conception? Better yet, can you explain it from the pages of the Bible? The dogma that Mary was preserved from the moment of her conception from the effects of Original Sin is one of the most important, yet misunderstood Catholic teachings. Many Catholics, not to mention Protestants, don't realize the vital role played by this dogma, much less understand that the roots of the Immaculate Conception are deep in Sacred Scripture. It's totally in there. So this episode of The Art of Catholic is all about beginning to illuminate how the Mother of God is part of the divine thread that God has woven into the fabric of salvation history. How the biblical role she plays in the drama of our salvation actually demands the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. We'll also see how Our Lady's first "appearance" in the opening book of the Bible (Genesis), helps make sense of some of the crazy stuff in the last book of the Bible (Revelation). In other words, Mary's role help

It's not just because we want to look cool or think bigger is better. Catholic Bibles are simply bigger than Protestant Bibles. (And I don't mean they're printed in a larger font. I mean ours have more books than theirs.) The question is "Why?" It's a huge issue...one of, dare I say, biblical proportions. One of the fundamental principles of Protestantism is the doctrine of sola scriptura - the Bible alone. In other words, it teaches that the only sure authority upon which we can base our lives is the Bible because it alone is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. Of course, this belief raises obvious questions. For example, if the Bible is the only authority, then who has the right to interpret it? You? Your pastor? Your mechanic? It's a problem. In fact, the issue of authority was the original impetus behind my eventual move to Catholicism some eighteen years ago. But the problem of authority doesn't just come into play with regard to interpreting Scripture. It has a colossal impact on the book itself. In oth

This one may be better than the first (which is saying something). In Episode 020 of The Art of Catholic, I began an interview with Dr. Andrew Jones about the very different world of the High Middle Ages. (By different, I'm not only referring to their penchant for body armor and ale.) In particular we talked about the huge impact of the Fourth Lateran Council, and started to dabble in how medievals viewed the 4 Senses of Scripture as a way of life, not just how to approach a book. (If you're thinking, "sounds like a snoozer" you'd be mistaken. It's been a very popular episode. Reports are even circulating about Fourth Lateran Council costume parties since the episode posted.) This is part two of my interview with Andrew. And it might even be better than the first. Among other things we’re going to get into some very interesting material like how the High Middle Ages had a wildly different view of the relationship between Church and State; a much more intimate and integrated relationship between priests and la

Okay. I'm about to ask you a question. Be honest...Raise your hand if you've ever heard of the Fourth Lateran Council. Okay...How about Pope Innocent III? For those of you with your hands still up, how many of you can give me any details on either?...Anyone? Bueller? (That never gets old.) Believe it or not, not knowing is a giant hole in our education. Everyone should know something about both because they played a pivotal role in the history of the Church. Lateran Four is every bit as big as Nicea, Trent, and Vatican II. In fact, it continues to heavily influence how we live today. (Full disclosure...I didn't know "jack" about it until this interview. So don't feel bad if you didn't either.) To plug the information hole in my head and yours, I've brought in Dr. Andrew Jones, an expert on the High Middle Ages (which doesn't refer to people in their late 50s.) He knows all about the Church in the 11th to 13th centuries. Andrew has spent years researching this incredibly rich and fascinating time period and is

The entire Catholic faith boils down to one thing - be like Christ. That's the point of prayer and the purpose of the sacraments. It's the whole enchilada. And if you want to know what it means to be like Christ, look no further than Philippians 2. The opening verses of St. Paul's letter to the Church at Philippi are the key to unlocking his inner life; the self-sacrificial, self-emptying, life-giving love of of Jesus Christ. Of course, St. Paul wasn't alone in his discussion of the incredible, loving humility of Our Lord. Another beautiful description is given by St. Leo the Great. These days they're joined by theologians with lots of letters after their names who call this self-emptying of Christ kenosis.  I just call it hard. In this episode of The Art of Catholic, we'll go through this important and beautiful passage of Scripture, showing how it provides the foundation for the way we are supposed to live. God bless! Matthew “All who have been lost were lost because they did not pray.” St. Alphonsus Liguor

Do you believe in the Trinity? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is both all God and all man at the same time - consubstantial with the Father? Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? Most of you are nodding your internal head, saying "Yes, Matt, of course we do." These are issues most Christians take for granted. We believe them because they are fundamental to our faith. We believe them because they are what have been taught to us, handed down from generation to generation. But why? The quick answer is very simple: Because of Christ. He founded the Catholic Church and gave the Apostles authority. But then what? Acts 1:20 tells us: "His office let another take." In other words, their authority was passed on. And many to whom they passed the torch were the men who, through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, formulated many of the doctrines and beliefs we now take for granted. The belief system of Christianity didn't drop down out of the sky in a catechism. The truth that existed in its fullness in

We all want to know where we come from. What are our biological roots? Who are we related to? People spend a lot of money every year tracing their family tree (hoping it forks!). As Christians, we should desire to know our family tree, too. Like in our natural families, we should want to know who has gone before us in the Faith and what they believed. We should want to know our history. Now's our chance. In this Art of Catholic episode, I'm featuring the first half of Lesson One of The Bible and the Church Fathers. This study is part of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology's Journey Through Scripture Bible study program...and you're going to love it. It's a great primer on the men upon whose shoulders we stand. I've been presenting Journey Through Scripture all over the country (and world) for more than eight years. While I wrote the study, much of it is based upon Mike Aquilina's book The Fathers of the Church (3rd edition). As I mentioned, what you're about to hear is part 1 of Lesson One, which is tit