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I constantly hear that God knows everything that’s going to happen, but in the Old Testament He changed His mind. It sounds like a contradiction.

How seriously should I take the ancient church fathers given that they are not sacred scripture?

How do I get atheists/agnostics to recognize the bible as a legitimate source?

On the assumption that God is all-powerful, merciful, etc. Then why would he make us if he knew we were going to go through all this suffering and anguish?

Is heaven empty until Jesus returns? If not, then how can Catholics believe that we all go to sleep and enter heaven until the second coming?

In the Our Father, what is the true meaning of” thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?”

How is it possible for Satan to stand in the presence of God in Job if evil can’t withstand the presence of God?

Why doesn’t Mary appear more in the Bible for all the reverence we give her?

Debating with a Christian who claims Eucharistic miracles are demonic; how do I respond to them?

Why should I care if there is a God?

If the writings of the Church Fathers aren’t part of the Bible, why do they matter? We explore their authority and role in understanding the faith, plus tackle questions about God&#8217;s omniscience, Eucharistic miracles, and why Mary doesn&#8217;t appear more often in Scripture.
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Why Should I Take the Church Fathers Seriously If They’re Not Scripture?

Why are marriages a Catholic sacrament?

Do you have any empirical evidence that Catholicism is true?

How can there no longer be public revelation but we still accept private revelation?

How come the Church can reject their own baptism if they were done wrong but can accept protestant baptisms on a whim?

Why should we call priests father if the bible specifically says not to call a man father?

I’m a catechist. Why does the Church not follow Lev. 19:28 and when it comes to tattoos?

Which Catholic Doctrine Troubles You?

In this free-for-all-Friday Trent examines the sad fates that have befallen towns decimated by environmental disasters like unquenchable coal fires and buried toxic waste.

FFAF: Environmental Ghost Towns

What should we think of Pope Pius’ legacy?

How does a conservative Catholic view Gaza?

Can you help me meditate on the fourth and fifth glorious mysteries?

Did Sedevacantism start after Pope Pius XII?

Where is Pope Pius in the canonization process?

How do we make the United States Catholic?

Debunking Lies About &#8220;Hitler&#8217;s Pope&#8221; In this episode, Cy Kellett discusses the legacy and myths around Pope Pius XII with Michael Knowles.
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Debunking Lies About “Hitler’s Pope” w/Michael Knowles

In this free-for-all-Friday Trent shares how he gets his hands on uber-expensive academic books and articles and how you can do that too – with a clean conscience!

FFAF: How I Get Academic Sources Without Going Broke

In this episode, Trent reveals the first lesson in his new course on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you’d like to view future lessons become a premium subscriber at <a title="http://www.trenthornpodcast.com" href="https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trenthornpodcast.com&amp;token=d6b5e1-1-1607486345923" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener ugc noreferrer">www.trenthornpodcast.com</a>. You can also sign up your high schooler to take the full course at <a title="http://www.homeschoolconnections.com" href="https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeschoolconnections.com&amp;token=83c886-1-1607486345923" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener ugc noreferrer">www.homeschoolconnections.com</a>

Back to Basics (and my new Catechism course!)

<div>Can I miss Mass because of the flu going around? My husband and I are in the at-risk age and are worried about receiving communion from someone’s hands.</div><div>Missing Mass due to serious health concerns is considered a legitimate reason.
You stated that your fear is interaction with the hands of the minister of communion.  You could attend Mass and make a spiritual communion instead of receiving communion. You can also politely smile and express a verbal sign of peace instead of shaking hands.
I always recommend people discuss their health and the risks of attending Mass with their medical doctor and make a prudential judgment.
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Can I Miss Mass Because of the Flu Going Around?

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DAY 170
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“Matthew and Luke contradict each other. Matthew says that Judas hanged himself (Matt. 27:5), but Luke says that “falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).”
DEFENSE
The accounts preserve different aspects of the event, but they do not contradict each other.
Both agree Judas died shortly after the Crucifixion. Matthew says Judas hanged himself after returning the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, while Luke has Peter speaking of the event during the period between the Ascension and Pentecost (between forty and fifty days after the Crucifixion). The fact that they agree on the timing, but describe the death differently, shows independent traditions in circulation that affirmed Judas’ death very shortly after the Crucifixion. That indicates Judas did die at this early date.
Judas probably began accompanying Jesus while in his twenties (Jesus began his ministry when about thirty; Luke 3:23). This suggests Judas died a sudden and remarkable death (i.e., not an ordinary death due to old age). Matthew’s report of his suicidal hanging accounts for this, leaving us to explain Luke’s reference to him falling and bursting open.
The earliest explanation is found in the second-century historian Papias, who wrote around A.D. 120. His works are lost but partially preserved in other writers. According to the fourth-century writer Apollinarius of Laodicea, Judas survived the hanging by being cut down before he choked to death, but he quotes Papias as saying Ju- das suffered severe swelling (edema) of the head and body, eventually causing him to burst open (see Monte Shanks, Papias and the New Testament, chapter 4, fragment 6). We now know that edema of the neck and body can be a consequence of strangulation, so Papias’s account may be based in fact.
Others have proposed that Judas remained hanging on a tree branch until his body began to decompose and swell due to the gases decom- position produces. The rope then broke or slipped, causing his body to burst from the force of impact.
Some have noted that the traditional site of Judas’s death features trees along a high ridge where strong winds occur. The winds may have caused the rope to slip, and the height of the ridge may have added to the force of impact, causing the body to burst.
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How Judas Iscariot Died

Good apologetics is not just a quest to have the right answer. It is, instead, one tool in a larger struggle to win souls. This means that it involves spiritual battle. Our guest, Dan Burke, explains spiritual battle for apologists.

Spiritual Warfare for Apologists

For much of my life, I struggled to trust in God’s love. I had a firm belief that God loved me because the Bible told me so, but I strove to feel an unshakable confidence in that love. Since my conversion to Catholicism, I have understood more of God’s tenderness, and often that experience comes through Mary. When Jesus shared his mother with us, he was gifting us someone gentle and attentive who would help us experience his love in the uniquely feminine way that infants and children do.
When I was Protestant and miscarried a baby, I felt deeply troubled that my baby wouldn’t have a mother. I knew that the child would be safe in the arms of my heavenly Father, but I couldn’t shake the nagging anxiety that all babies need their mother. Through <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/when-womanhood-feels-pagan">my miscarriage last January</a>, I turned to Mary and asked her to hold my baby. It was the only prayer I had energy to pray.
Later that week, a friend, who is a gifted artist but not at all Catholic, texted me a sketch she had drawn of me kneeling before Mary with my head in her lap while she cradled my baby. I was stunned. I asked my friend what made her draw it, and she said simply, “I don’t know. I just couldn’t get the image out of my head.” I knew that it was the tender reassurance of my mother, that she hadn’t ignored me and certainly wouldn’t neglect mothering my child.
When my husband and I decided to try conceiving again, I asked my rosary study group to appeal to Mary with me. As always, she answered with overwhelming kindness . . . and we conceived twins!
This Advent, I am heavily pregnant with those boys, and it gives me many opportunities to remember the tender sacrifices of Mary. Jesus gifted us his Mother because he knew that we would need her kindness in the trials of this life and that she would care for us the way she cared for him. <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780898705973/Worlds-First-Love-Sheen-Fulton-0898705975/plp?ref_=ps_ms_267691761&amp;cm_mmc=msn-_-comus_dsa-_-naa-_-naa&amp;msclkid=3101f34f3d6018099aff942b10210d20">Her suffering</a> gives “courage to those whose burdens are heavier than their pleasures—to those who have children destined for death when they are hardly launched on the sea of life, to those who find their love&#8217;s surrender betrayed and even despised” (105). Mary, in her immaculate conception, was free to refuse, but instead she gave her fiat. She stood before the creator of the universe in complete purity and chose the path of sacrifice without pleasure because of her complete love for God. When we enter into Christ through baptism, we are adopted into that same depth of a mother’s love.
This reality is made tangible in the maternity reflected by the Church, where we receive the nurturing that a child requires from his mother. We come and are fed. We come to receive graces from the Holy Spirit and teaching from our spiritual fathers. All this is given to us through the image of a mother, in the same way the whole world received God through the motherhood of Mary.
Advent is a season of anticipation and quiet. Christ grew inside his mother in the most ordinary way, and it is through the ordinary that we see him in our own lives. We submit our joys and struggles to Christ the same way Mary submitted her life with Joseph to give him his humanity. Like Christ, we encounter our mother and her kindness most clearly when we settle patiently into the humility of the daily work that is required of us. Through our encounters with Mary, we learn to submit ourselves to the process of sanctification and become like Christ. Mary’s love changes us all into the image of her firstborn so that we can share in his inheritance of eternal life.
As we delve into Advent, I encourage you to look over your life and notice the kindnesses of Mary toward you. I found it in the pain and sorrow of miscarriage—something so common that almost every woman I know has also endured it. Your encounter may be different from mine, but it will almost certainly be found in the quiet, ordinary struggles of human life. There are likely many hidden moments of a mother’s love that are changing you into the image of <a href="https://www.catholic.com/audio/ddp/jesus-as-firstborn">her firstborn</a>.
<blockquote>If we have <a href="https://www.avemariapress.com/products/The-Reed-of-God">truly given our humanity</a> to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not disturb this time of growth. It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ’s radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in our darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that He is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannot help relating everything, literally everything, to this almost incredible reality. This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer (42).</blockquote>
When Jesus came to the end of his suffering, he looked and saw pain and confusion in his disciple. In love and compassion, he gifted us the one who stayed by his side and cared for him through his own struggles—the one who gave him his humanity even as he gives us our deity. “Behold, your mother.”

The Kindness of Our Mother

In this episode, Trent responds to atheist Matt Dillahunty&#8217;s claim that &#8220;claims aren&#8217;t evidence&#8221; when used against doctrines like the Resurrection.