A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 113

In today’s episode for the A Catholic Life Podcast I cover May as the Month of Mary with a focus on customs and practices we can do to observe our Lady’s Month.

1. Customs for the Month of Mary
2. The Month of Mary
3. How to Make a Marian Pilgrimage in America
4. Why We Honor Jubilee Years

This episode of A Catholic Life is brought to you by the Sanctifica app — and if you’re passionate about living the liturgical year, this is the tool you’ve been waiting for. Feast days, saints, traditional devotions, indulgences — Sanctifica weaves it all into one beautifully crafted app. No fluff. No trends. Just timeless Catholic tradition — right at your fingertips. Personally, I’ve found it incredibly helpful in staying rooted in the Church’s rhythm — from  reminders for feast days and ember days, to novenas and spiritual treasures that otherwise may be easily missed. If you’re looking to bring structure, beauty, and deeper meaning to your daily spiritual life — Sanctifica makes it simple. Download it for free today on the App Store or Google Play. It’s a powerful companion for anyone striving to truly live a Catholic life.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 112

In today’s episode for the A Catholic Life Podcast I cover why and how the Catholic Church possesses from God Himself the authority to bind people to certain laws.

1. The Various Kinds of Law – Is the Catholic Church Too Legalistic?
2. Ecclesiastical Laws and the Church’s Authority to Bind and Loose
3. Primary of St. Peter and His Successors

This episode is sponsored by PrayLatin.com. PrayLatin.com offers Latin prayer cards to learn and share prayers in the sacred language. Learn your basic prayers in Latin conveniently on the go. Practice your pronunciation with easy-to-follow English phonetic renderings of Latin words. PrayLatin.com offers prayer cards in various formats, including Latin-English rosary pamphlets with the traditional 15 mysteries. Shop for additional Latin resources like missal booklets, server response cards, and more. Visit PrayLatin.com today.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 111

In today’s episode for the A Catholic Life Podcast I cover what a Papal Conclave is, who can become Pope, and why and how we should be praying for a Supreme Pontiff.

1. Traditional Funeral Rites for Supreme Pontiffs
2. The Election of a Pope Explained
3. Prayer for the Election of a Supreme Pontiff

This episode of A Catholic Life is brought to you by the Sanctifica app — and if you’re passionate about living the liturgical year, this is the tool you’ve been waiting for. Feast days, saints, traditional devotions, indulgences — Sanctifica weaves it all into one beautifully crafted app. No fluff. No trends. Just timeless Catholic tradition — right at your fingertips. Personally, I’ve found it incredibly helpful in staying rooted in the Church’s rhythm — from  reminders for feast days and ember days, to novenas and spiritual treasures that otherwise may be easily missed. If you’re looking to bring structure, beauty, and deeper meaning to your daily spiritual life — Sanctifica makes it simple. Download it for free today on the App Store or Google Play. It’s a powerful companion for anyone striving to truly live a Catholic life.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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Safeguarding Your Soul in the Digital Age

"Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8)

In a world filled with increasing temptations at every turn—especially online—how do we remain faithful to God’s commandments, protect our families, and pursue holiness in a culture that normalizes impurity? The answer begins with serious resolve and concrete tools. That’s where Covenant Eyes comes in.

A Commandment Forgotten

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house: neither shalt thou desire his wife…nor anything that is his” (Exodus 20:17).

This commandment, often overshadowed by others, directly forbids coveting another human being—especially someone else’s spouse. It calls us to wage war against the interior sins of lust and unchaste desire. As Canon Francis Ripley wrote: “The Ninth Commandment forbids all willful consent to impure thoughts and desires and all willful pleasure in the irregular sexual promptings or motions of the flesh. That is, it forbids interior sins of thought and desire against the Sixth Commandment."

The Catechism of the Council of Trent goes further, stating that covetousness—the very desire to possess what does not belong to us—leads to breaking every other commandment. It is the root of all evil, and its most insidious form in our time is the sin of lust, especially through pornography.

The Silent Crisis of Our Time

Pornography is not a harmless indulgence. It destroys marriages, enslaves souls, ruins vocations, and invites grave spiritual danger. Every fully deliberate act of impurity, even interior, is a mortal sin. If unrepented, it separates the soul from God for eternity.

In past ages, these temptations were harder to access. Today, they are one tap away on every phone, tablet, or laptop.

Are you or someone you know struggling with online temptation? In today’s digital age, protecting yourself and your loved ones from harmful content is more urgent than ever. That’s where Covenant Eyes comes in—a powerful accountability and filtering software designed to help you build good habits and stay pure online.

Why Covenant Eyes?

Covenant Eyes is more than just a filter. It’s an accountability system. With real-time screen monitoring and detailed reports sent to a trusted friend or spiritual advisor, the software helps you take active steps to stay on the path of grace and avoid temptation before it begins.

Whether you're strengthening your own discipline or safeguarding your family, this is the solution you’ve been looking for. And as a reader of this blog, you can receive an exclusive discount by using the code ACATHOLICLIFE at signup.

Don’t wait—visit CovenantEyes.com and enter ACATHOLICLIFE to start your journey toward a safer and holier digital life today.

15 Ways to Fight the Sin of Lust and Guard Purity

While tools like Covenant Eyes are powerful, they must be paired with the spiritual weapons of the Church. Here are 15 tried-and-true Catholic practices for fighting sins against purity:

1. Receive Holy Communion frequently, even daily if in a state of grace.
2. Make a Spiritual Communion if you cannot attend Mass.
3. Consecrate yourself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, through St. Louis de Montfort or St. Maximilian Kolbe, and renew it daily.
4. Pray the Rosary daily for the virtue of chastity.
5. Say 3 Hail Marys each morning on your knees, asking for purity.
6. Wear the Brown Scapular always as a sign of Marian protection.
7. Invoke Mary immediately at the first sign of temptation.
8. Pray that Our Lady gives you a deep hatred of this vice.
9. Confess frequently to a regular confessor who knows your battle.
10. Meditate daily on the Four Last Things—Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.
11. Practice the Presence of God—He sees all, even our thoughts.
12. Deny yourself small comforts like food and drink to grow in discipline.
13. Dress modestly and encourage others to do the same.
14. Engage in mental prayer 15–30 minutes a day, listening to God's voice.
15. Use accountability software like Covenant Eyes on all your devices. Let a trusted friend or family member set the password.

A Battle Worth Fighting

The fight for purity is not easy—but it is eternally worth it. Our Lord tells us, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). To fall into sins of lust is to risk our eternal salvation. To fight them is to draw closer to Christ, who can purify even the most wounded heart.

We are not alone in this battle. Our Lady stands ready to help those who turn to her. The sacraments, good spiritual practices, and helpful tools like Covenant Eyes give us the weapons we need.

If you're serious about breaking free from online impurity—or helping someone else do so—start today.

👉 Visit CovenantEyes.com

👉 Use code ACATHOLICLIFE for an exclusive discount

👉 Begin a new chapter of hope, freedom, and grace

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A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 110

In today’s episode, on Easter Sunday, the most glorious all feastdays, I address the following:

1. Customs for Easter Week: Food, Activities, Greetings, and More
2. The Agnus Dei Sacramental
3. The Easter Duty: What it is and when it may be fulfilled
4. There is no incompatibility between abstinence and Pascaltide. Observe Friday Abstinence and even Saturday abstinence in Eastertide.

I would like to thank CatechismClass.com for sponsoring this episode.  CatechismClass.com, the leader in online Catholic catechism classes, has everything from online K-12 programs, RCIA classes, adult continuing education, marriage preparation, baptism preparation, confirmation prep, quince prep classes, catechist training courses, and much more. Use discount code Easter25 to save 25% off the Easter Season Course.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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Traditional Catholic Easter Dinner

2018 Blessing of Easter Baskets at St. John Cantius

As the holiest of all Christian holy days, it is fitting that Easter is rife with customs. While cultures may vary in how they observed Easter, a unifying theme throughout is found in food. After having completed 40 days of fasting and 46 days of abstinence, Easter ushers in a period of fifty days where the faithful celebrate through various meats, eggs, dairy products, and other foods which were forbidden in Lent.

On Holy Saturday, the custom originated for the faithful to bring their Easter foods to church where the priest would bless them. The Roman Ritual provides a beautiful blessing of Easter food in the form of blessings of lamb, eggs, bread, and new produce. See Page 225 – 227 for a translation of the prayers in English.

Which foods are found in Easter baskets varied from culture to culture. In Slavic regions, ham was often the main dish because of its richness and serving it was a symbol of joy and abundance at Easter. But lamb and veal were found too. But in any case, the meats were often cooked together so as not to burden the cooks with too much preparation on such a great holy day. In Hungary, Easter is referred to as the "Feast of Meat" (Husvet), because the eating of meat resumes after the long fast of Lent.

As a consequence of having traditionally abstained from all butter, eggs, and cheese, these foods were often found in baskets as well. We see this first and foremost in the continued tradition of Easter Eggs. One truly appreciates Easter Eggs only after having forgone eggs for 46 days. After such a time, having an egg is truly a treat! Russian eggs are traditionally died red due to a story dating back to St. Mary Magdalene, but other cultures have chosen to paint even elaborate symbols on the eggs. 

And let us not forget cheese. As another item formerly forbidden in Lent, cheese is a great treat to those who have abstained from it for the 46 days of abstinence. The Russians would customarily make a custard type of cheese that was shaped into a ball. Known for its bland but sweet taste, it was meant to indicate that it is fitting that Christians should still engage in moderation and never gluttony even in Eastertide. And on this point, Fr. Goffine expresses similar rationale for why the Church enriches such customs with blessings from the Roman Ritual:

Why does the Church on this day bless eggs, bread, and meat? To remind the faithful that although the time of fasting is now ended, they should not indulge in gluttony, but thank God, and use their food simply for the necessary preservation of physical strength.

Russian Easter baskets will often feature salt as well as a reminder of our Lord’s own words in Matthew 5:13, which remind the Christian of his duty. And alongside these items is sometimes found horseradish, which symbolizes the passion of Christ yet, when mixed with sugar, helps us see how the Resurrection has sweetened the Passion of Christ.  Indeed, the details indicate to us how cultures valued and celebrated the Resurrection with intricate attention to detail. Even the butter in some baskets would be shaped into the figure of a small lamb or at least decorated in stick form with the image of a cross on the top.

This year, ask your priest to bless your Easter foods, even if it is a few days after Easter Sunday, and enjoy these worthwhile treats with your family as a reward for your abstinence this Lent.

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The 40 Hour Passion Fast and the Black Fast

The Strictness of Holy Week

The Passion Fast is a term which refers to the fast which began for some as early as sunset on Holy Thursday and as late as 8 AM on Good Friday. No one was allowed to eat any food during that time until sunset on Holy Saturday, which – since most fasted for Communion – extended until the morning on Easter Sunday. It was often called a “40 Hours Fast” and represents the original Lenten fast. For those who were too weak to follow this fast the minimum fast at this time was that of xerophagiae.

Xerophagiae is a diet of simple, dry, uncooked food, such as raw nuts, bread, fruits, and vegetables. Fish and oil are not part of it and neither are flesh nor animal products. It was a precept to fast on these only during Holy Week by custom and/or decree until approximately the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (reigned 590 – 604 AD), who mentions nothing of it. It may still have been a custom at that time but no mention of it is made in the Decretals of Gregory IX published in 1234.

The Black Fast

A commonly misunderstood aspect of fasting is the “black fast.” Is the Passion Fast a Black Fast? Is it the only Black Fast? What is the true definition of a black fast? And what is it not? The Catholic Encyclopedia from 1907 answers as follows:

This form of fasting, the most rigorous in the history of church legislation, was marked by austerity regarding the quantity and quality of food permitted on fasting days as well as the time wherein such food might be legitimately taken. 

This is based in practice on the fasting done by the Early Church and the Apostles. In practice, there are three criteria that make a fast a “black fast” as the Encyclopedia identifies:

In the first place more than one meal was strictly prohibited. At this meal flesh meat, eggs, butter, cheese, and milk were interdicted (Gregory I, Decretals IV, cap. vi; Trullan Synod, Canon 56). Besides these restrictions, abstinence from wine, especially during Lent, was enjoined (Thomassin, Traité des jeûnes de l'Église, II, vii). Furthermore, during Holy Week the fare consisted of bread, salt, herbs, and water (Laymann, Theologia Moralis, Tr. VIII; De observatione jejuniorum, i). Finally, this meal was not allowed until sunset. St. Ambrose (De Elia et jejunio, sermo vii, in Psalm CXVIII), St. Chrysostom (Homil. iv in Genesim), St. Basil (Oratio i, De jejunio) furnish unequivocal testimony concerning the three characteristics of the black fast. 

Hence a black fast is one that meets these criteria:

1. Only one meal a day

2. Complete abstinence from all meat and animal products

3. The one meal may only be consumed after sunset.

Consequently, it is not a total abstinence from all food and drink whatsoever that makes a fast a “black fast”. And it also does not mean that one eats only bread. Vegetables are certainly allowed at the meal. And the Passion Fast is one such Black Fast

Want to learn more about the history of fasting and abstinence? Check out the Definitive Guide to Catholic Fasting and Abstinence.

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The Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin

Through the boldness and generosity of St. Joseph of Arimathea and St. Nicodemus, who sought the Body of Our Lord from Pilate (cf. John 19:38) despite the consequences they would suffer from the Jewish leaders, Our Lord’s Body was given a proper burial as the Scriptures affirm: “And Joseph taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument and went his way” (Matt. 27:59-60). In imitation of the humility of the Lord, Who was buried in a simple linen cloth, the altar at Mass is likewise clothed in a simple linen cloth, as St. Bede the Venerable relates: “The Church's custom has prevailed for the sacrifice of the altar to be offered not upon silk, nor upon dyed cloth, but on linen of the earth; as the Lord's Body was buried in a clean winding-sheet.” 

Yet more than merely having a reference to it in the altar cloth, we are privileged to still have on this earth the actual burial cloth of Our Lord, which is known as the Shroud of Turin, since the holy relic has remained in the city of Turin, Italy for centuries. The Shroud of Turin has been subjected to a variety of rigorous examinations to confirm its authenticity using scientific methods, despite the rather obvious conclusion that the intricacy and detail on the Shroud could not have been created by Medieval or even modern technology. In fact, the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado has demonstrated that the fold marks found on the Shroud indicate it once resided in Constantinople in the 10th-11th centuries, in contrast to those who claim that the shroud was a 14th century forgery.  This corroborates the claim of historians who maintain that the Lord's burial cloth was in the possession of Byzantine emperors before the Sack of Constantinople in A.D. 1204. 

The Holy See remained silent on the Shroud until the middle of the 20th century when, in 1940, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli obtained authorization from the Archdiocese of Milan to produce the Holy Face Medal with the image of the Holy Shroud. Pope Pius XII subsequently approved the image in 1958 in connection with devotion to the Holy Face and the Feast of the Holy Face, which he instituted to be said on Shrove Tuesday of each year in reparation for the offenses of Mardi Gras.  Further corroborating the approval of devotion to the Shroud is the celebration of the special feast in honor of the Most Holy Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Turin, which was observed on the Friday after the Second Sunday of Lent in Turin in the pre-1955 Roman Missal. 

Closer to our times, Pope Benedict XVI further expressed his own belief in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin as the Lord’s own burial cloth by calling it “a truly mysterious image, which no human artistry was capable of producing. In some inexplicable way, it appeared imprinted upon cloth and claimed to show the true face of Christ, the crucified and risen Lord.”  Yet while the Church has officially not decreed that the Shroud of Turin is the actual burial cloth of the Lord, the scientific evidence of the Turin Center of Colorado points to this reality. As Holy Mother Church affirms in her actions, whether or not the cloth is authentic has no bearing on the validity of what Our Lord taught or on the saving power of His death and Resurrection.

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A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 109

In today’s episode, on Passion Sunday I address why and how we should pray the Stations of the Cross including the forgotten history on the Stations, how to gain an indulgence for praying them, and how praying them at home differs from praying them in a parish.

1. A Catholic Life Podcast Episode 6 on Passion Sunday
2. The History, Indulgences, and Purpose of the Stations of the Cross (along with how to pray them at home)
3. The Way of the Cross: A Treasury of Stations

This episode is sponsored by PrayLatin.com. PrayLatin.com offers Latin prayer cards to learn and share prayers in the sacred language. Learn your basic prayers in Latin conveniently on the go. Practice your pronunciation with easy-to-follow English phonetic renderings of Latin words. PrayLatin.com offers prayer cards in various formats, including Latin-English rosary pamphlets with the traditional 15 mysteries. Shop for additional Latin resources like missal booklets, server response cards, and more. Visit PrayLatin.com today.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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A Catholic Life Podcast: Episode 108

In today’s episode, on Laetare Sunday, I discuss why Catholics rightfully honor the saints who Heaven our prayers in Heaven and who can intercede for us on earth:

1. A Catholic Life Podcast Episode 5 on Laetare Sunday
2. Laetare Sunday as Mothering Sunday
3. Are the Saints Alive? Can They Hear our Prayers?
4. The Certainty of Sainthood: How the Church Recognized Saints Through the Ages
5. One Peter Five Series on Miracles as Proof of the Catholic Religion

I would like to thank CatechismClass.com for sponsoring this episode.  CatechismClass.com, the leader in online Catholic catechism classes, has everything from online K-12 programs, RCIA classes, adult continuing education, marriage preparation, baptism preparation, confirmation prep, quince prep classes, catechist training courses, and more. It is never too late to study the fullness of the Catholic Faith, and CatechismClass.com is the gold standard in authentic Catholic formation online. Their Catholic Liturgical Year Course for a one-time cost of $129.95 includes lessons throughout the entire liturgical year on many forgotten days.

Subscribe to the podcast on Buzzsprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I-tunes, and many other platforms!

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