Today’s Readings Podcast Description

When novelty rises in the Church, what must we do? Vincent of Lérins shows us the steadfast example of Pope Stephen, who answered the push for rebaptism with a simple rule: “Let there be no innovation—only what has been handed down.” In these chapters he defends the ancient faith against the danger of new teachings, warning that even gifted and persuasive error must fall when it departs from what the Church has always received. Alongside him, Augustine refuses the mocking answer to the question of what God was doing before creation, and Aquinas teaches us how abstinence, fasting, and the vice of gluttony order the desires of the body under the rule of reason.

Readings:

Vincent of Lérins — The Commonitory, Chapters 6–8 (Sections 15–22)

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 12 (Section 14)

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 146–148 (Abstinence, Fasting, and Gluttony)

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Today’s Readings Podcast Description

How do we hold the faith when new teachings press in from every side? Vincent of Lérins gives us a clear and enduring rule: what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. In these opening chapters of the Commonitory, he shows why Scripture must be read with the Church, why novelty is dangerous, and how the ancient faith once rescued the Church from the storm of Arianism. Alongside him, Augustine lifts our eyes to the eternity of God that stands outside of time, and Aquinas teaches us how shamefacedness and honesty guard the beauty of a temperate life.

Readings:

Vincent of Lérins — The Commonitory, Chapters 1–5 (Sections 1–14)

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 11 (Section 13)

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 144–145 (Shamefacedness and Honesty)

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#ThroughTheChurchFathers #VincentOfLerins #Commonitorium #Augustine #Confessions #ThomasAquinas #SummaTheologica #RuleOfFaith #Temperance

Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Temperance is the virtue that keeps the strongest bodily desires under the rule of reason. In these questions from Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, he shows why the pleasures of food, drink, and sexual union need a special virtue to moderate them. Temperance is a cardinal virtue because these desires most powerfully resist the good of the soul. Intemperance exceeds the measure of reason; insensibility falls short of it. The virtue itself is one, yet it has many parts—shame and honesty, abstinence and chastity, and other related strengths—by which the whole life of desire is ordered according to reason.

Readings:

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Questions 141–143 (Temperance, the Vices Opposed to It, and Its Parts)

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