04 November 2026
Traditional Catholic Evening Prayers in English | November
Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III: XXXV That Ultimate Happiness Does Not Consist in the Act of Prudence
From Contemplating History
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274), was a Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian, Jurist, Dominican Friar, and Priest. Known as Doctor Angelicus "Angelic Doctor," and the Doctor Communis "Universal Doctor" his writings serve as a defense and proof of the validity of Christ's authority over all. The Summa contra Gentiles (also known as Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium, "Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers"). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. The structure of Saint Thomas's work is designed to proceed from general philosophical arguments for monotheism, to which Muslims and Jews are likely to consent even within their own respective religious traditions, before progressing to the discussion of specifically Christian doctrine.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274), was a Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian, Jurist, Dominican Friar, and Priest. Known as Doctor Angelicus "Angelic Doctor," and the Doctor Communis "Universal Doctor" his writings serve as a defense and proof of the validity of Christ's authority over all. The Summa contra Gentiles (also known as Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium, "Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers"). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. The structure of Saint Thomas's work is designed to proceed from general philosophical arguments for monotheism, to which Muslims and Jews are likely to consent even within their own respective religious traditions, before progressing to the discussion of specifically Christian doctrine.
Book III discusses providence and the human condition, that is good and evil acts, human fate and intellect and the relation of created beings to the creator.
Whether you are a history enthusiast, a student of religion, or simply curious about the impact of the Roman Catholic Church on the world, this playlist is designed to provide an informative and engaging journey through its captivating past. Subscribe to the Contemplating History channel for more educational content and immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of history.
Transhumanism is Just Religion for Atheists! With Fr Michael Baggot
From Matt Fradd
After losing her faith and leaving a protestant seminary, Meghan O'Gieblyn discovered transhumanism. Her observations of the movement and how it really works are very interesting, and she asks interesting questions. Fr Michael Baggot explains her thought and evolution to Matt.
Catholics and Evolution
From
Catholic Answers apologist Trent Horn explains to a caller what Catholics can believe about evolution and how to interact with unbelieving family members who have problems with the biblical account of creation.
Ever since he converted to Catholicism at the age of seventeen, Trent Horn has had a passion for explaining and defending the Faith. After earning a degree in history from Arizona State University, Trent traveled the country training pro-life advocates on college campuses to engage opponents in compassionate and persuasive dialogue. After completing a master's degree in theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Trent served as the Respect Life Coordinator for the Diocese of Phoenix. In 2012 he joined Catholic Answers as a speaker and staff apologist.
Is Heaven Simply a Monotonous Succession of Days Without End?
NO! We will enjoy the beatific vision, the greatest joy possible for a created being. We will be in the very presence of the Most Holy Trinity.
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From Aleteia
By Philip Kosloski
Sometimes we may have a false view of Heaven, thinking that we will experience an unending extension of life on earth, which does not bring ultimate satisfaction to the soul.
For some of us, the prospect of "eternal life" is not met with much enthusiasm. Our minds might imagine a similar experience to our life on earth, except that there is no end.
This view of eternity is very common, especially in modern movies and TV shows that show life after death as something similar to the life you lived on earth.
In all honesty, that isn't very exciting.
What is it like, then?
Ocean of infinite love
Pope Benedict XVI pondered this same idea in his encyclical, Spe salvi, where he reflected on this common attitude toward eternal life:
Perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment. To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable.
If that is what eternal life is, then it makes sense why people would not want to enter into it.
To continue living our life in Heaven seems like being trapped in a hamster wheel for all eternity.
The good news, is that's not the Christian view of Heaven.
Pope Benedict XVI explains the true vision of eternal life:
[It's] something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy.
We don't know much about Heaven, but we do know the indescribable joy we will experience, being plunged into God's ocean of love.
It's like receiving the warmest hug around our whole being for all eternity.
We have much to look forward to in Heaven, which will be greater than our wildest dreams.
Election Results Breakdown for Issues That Matter to Catholics
Everyone is focusing on the partisan results. States had major moral ballot measures across the country that directly conflict with the Catholic Church's teachings.
Things You Didn’t Know About Medieval Life
From Modern History TV
Step back in time and experience the realities of medieval life. In this long-form medieval history compilation, Jason Kingsley CBE, the Modern Knight, explores what everyday life was really like during the Middle Ages, bringing together hours of historical research, practical demonstrations, and insights into the lives of ordinary people. From peasants and farmers to knights, castles, clothing, food, travel, work, and daily survival, discover how medieval men, women, and children lived in a world very different from our own.
Forget the myths and fantasy stereotypes this video focuses on genuine medieval history, drawing on historical sources, archaeological evidence, and hands-on experience to recreate life in the Middle Ages as accurately as possible.
Whether you're interested in medieval England, castles, knights, peasant life, historical clothing, medieval food, or simply enjoy relaxing educational content, this compilation offers an immersive journey into the medieval world.
Topics featured include: Medieval daily life, Peasants and farmers, Medieval clothing and fashion, Food and cooking in the Middle Ages, Medieval work and occupations, Village life and communities as well as Customs, traditions, and beliefs
Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | November
Our Freemasonic World
From I Miss Christendom
The world today is much different than at any other time in human history.
Throughout human history, most societies were structured with a monarchical form of Government and a common religion as the guiding force of that government and its people.
Concepts such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of expression were basically non-existent.
Of course, this is such a foreign concept to us today that we feel it must have been a thousand years ago. But in reality it was only a few generations ago.
In fact, this was the case throughout Europe and the rest of the world until the later part of the 19th through the middle of the 20th centuries.
When a series of revolutions and wars toppled the long-standing royal houses, setting up Democratic republics in their place.
We are told that this all happened naturally. That the people rose up against these oppressive dynasties.
But the reality is this was done by a behind-the-scenes organisation called Freemasonry.
A Leader of the Real Reformation, Charles Borromeo Saw a Need and Filled It
Today is his Feast Day. He was a leader of the true Reformation, the counter to the protestant revolt that destroyed what had been Christendom.
From Aleteia
By Nicholas Senz
His example shows us the way to call the Church back to its true self, rather than splitting and splintering it.
Five hundred years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, the word “reformation” has become synonymous with Protestantism. When we speak of “the reformers,” we typically mean people like Luther, John Calvin, or Ulrich Zwingli. Yet too often we forget about another reformation, a Catholic Reformation, that helped to cure the Church of some of its late-medieval ills rather than amputate its limbs. And one of its great figures, St. Charles Borromeo, is commemorated November 4.
Many aspects of the Church in the year 1517 were not healthy. The clergy were generally ill-educated and often failed to live up to the moral standards their state in life requires. Prelates essentially bribed the papacy for appointments to plum dioceses, which they would then tax but not reside in or oversee in any meaningful way. And the understanding of the relation between money and indulgences had slipped down the slope from a form of almsgiving to, in some places, essentially buying one’s way into heaven. The faith of many of the laity bordered on superstition, but the clergy were too ill-equipped or too little interested to properly teach them.
The Protestants saw this situation and denounced the Church, first in its practices, then in its teachings, ultimately either leaving or being expelled, splintering the Church into factions. Far from a reform, this was a revolt, which only exacerbated rather than alleviated the Church’s problems.
The Church responded to these challenges by calling an ecumenical council at Trent, but the initial sessions were sporadic. When Pope Pius IV was elected, he appointed his 22-year-old nephew, Charles Borromeo, as cardinal, and brought him to Rome to assist in the Curia. Despite his youth, Charles had already received degrees in both civil and canon law. He organized the third and final convocation of the Council of Trent and oversaw the production of the Roman Catechism, which was the standard universal catechism for more than 400 years and became an invaluable tool for teaching the faith.
Charles continued his reforming efforts after he was made archbishop of Milan, particularly focusing on education. Charles recognized that many of the ills of the Church were due to poor education of both clergy and laity. So he founded seminaries and colleges both in his archdiocese and throughout Europe for the intellectual and spiritual formation of the clergy, and he established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (the famous CCD) for the religious education of children. Charles’ legacy in this area is such that he is remembered today as a patron saint of catechesis.
But he was not only focused on the intellectual life of his flock—he fed their mouths as well as their minds. He was a patron of the poor, taking on great personal debt to feed the hungry during times of famine and hardship. When Milan was struck by plague and the city’s governor and nobles left, Charles remained to organize the care of the sick.
Charles’ personal holiness and spiritual leadership helped revivify the Church. Though his strict responses to an age of laxity earned him many enemies in his day, a sterling legacy emerged. Charles’ commitment to sound catechetical learning and solid priestly formation produced a laity and clergy with a much deeper grounding in the Catholic faith, less prone to the vices of superstition and greed that plagued the Church of his time.
As St. Augustine famously said, the Church is semper reformanda—always in need of reform. Thankfully, we have great examples like St. Charles Borromeo to show us the way to call the Church back to its true self, rather than splitting and splintering it—to have reform, and not revolt.
Learn more about how art was a key part of the Church’s response to the Protestant revolution with this series of articles from art historian Elizabeth Lev. See the series here: Art and Reformation.
03 November 2026
Christian Politics: Origins of the Two Swords Dogma
All of truly Christian politics is based on Famuli Vestrae Pietatis, (quoted below), written by Pope Gelasius I to Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus.
From One Peter Five
By Timothy Flanders, MA
"There are two swords, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled."
Editor’s note: this is an excerpt from the author’s book City of God vs. City of Man: the Battles of the Church from Antiquity to the Present. See also the following two selections for origins of Christian politics before the annunciation of the Two Swords dogma.
The Bishop’s Altar is the Throne of Christ the King in every City-State-Nation
The King of Kings over Rome and All Nations
Two Swords Crusade for the City of God
The first prolonged schism between east and west happened when the Emperor Zeno attempted to impose a compromise with truth, the henotikon, which attempted to reconcile the supporters of Chalcedon with its opponents. For this, the pope excommunicated all who held this doctrine. This was the Acacian schism (484-519).
Pope Gelasius wrote to the emperor saying that the demons had inspired the pagan emperors to assume the title pontifex maximus.[1] He enunciated the foundation of the covenant for Christian peoples:
There are two swords, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. Of these that of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine judgment. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted honorably to rule over human kind, yet in things divine bow your head humbly before the leaders of the clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. In the reception and proper disposition of the heavenly mysteries you recognize that you should be subordinate rather than superior to the religious order, and that in these matters you depend on their judgment rather than wish to force them to follow your will.[2]
The two swords were meant to work together, each in its own proper sphere, to baptize all of society and make a Christian people.
This is what the saints, our fathers had instinctively followed in Armenia, Georgia, Ethiopia, Ireland and at this time, France, where king Clovis was baptized during this schism. The king must rule according to the cultus as determined by the elders of Christian culture. Yet between king and bishop there exists an organic mutual aid. Just as body and soul are united in one person, so the two swords are united in one body politic. This was the proper ordering of Christian culture and peoples. In theory, the east agreed, but in practice, the Roman emperor was pontifex maximus, deposing bishops at will, rearranging the cultus to serve his ends.[3] This was in imitation of Cain and the rabbis who imposed their will on cultus.
Because of this, over the course of 464 years from Constantine (323) to the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), the eastern bishops would hold heretical doctrines and be out of communion with Rome for at least 203 years.[4] These were the schismatic Greeks, while the orthodox Greeks chose to suffer or flee to the west.
The emperor did not listen to the pope in the Acacian schism, and in 516, he continued to style himself pontifex.[5] The central question was this: who is the pontifex maximus, the high priest: the emperor or the pope? It was true that the Roman emperor held a relationship with the bishops that was sacred, but in what sense could he be said to have a priesthood?
Justinian’s Crusade for the Earthly City
The Acacian schism was ended in 519 when a new dynasty conceded the Petrine primacy of “Roman doctrinal prestige” and imposed this on all the eastern bishops.[6] Justinian came to the imperial throne in 527 with his wife, the powerful Theodora, who grew up from prostitution to become the Christian Augusta. Would she be an Artemesian Eudoxia or a Marian Pulcheria?
Dawson says Theodora “fascinated and subdued” Justinian who, according to his contemporary critic Procopius, “overturned the social order” by failing in masculinity and letting his wife dominate.[7] Indeed he himself codified the Two Swords doctrine yet in a way that left open the question of whether he remained in some sense the pontifex maximus.[8]
A sympathetic reading sees his whole reign as an attempt at “the deliberate restoration of the ancient Roman empire” now Christianized.[9] That meant conquest and monuments. Justinian did not lead his army in battle but sent his generals to fight wars with Persia (527-532, 540-562). The Christians under Persia were not only recovering from an internal schism over the sons of Syriac bishops but also, under St. Aba the Great, spreading the Gospel east of the Persian empire and south to modern Yemen and Socotra.[10]
But while the Syriacs were conquering with the Gospel, Justinian was conquering the west with a brutal twenty-year campaign in north Africa and Italy (535-554). This restored most of the borders of Caesar’s empire, allowing his top general Belasarius to celebrate a Christianized rite of triumph in 553.[11]
In his decrees, Justinian celebrated that by his conquests the Persians were made “quiet,” the barbarian Vandals and Moors were made “obedient,” the western Romans “have recovered their former freedom” and “the Tzani [barbarians] have, for the first time, been subjected to Roman domination (which is something that God had not permitted to take place up to this time and until Our reign).”[12] A new Virgil composed a Latin epic poem about the conquests.[13] Meanwhile, the local Roman populace of Italia suffered with the loss of land and souls under the decades of bloodshed.
Justinian imposed punishing taxes on the populace that allowed him to build great building like the hippodrome. But his strict rule, taxes and corrupt bureaucracy, exacerbated the economic and religious tensions. This led to the brutal Nika riots, which burned down much of Constantinople, destroying the Theodosian Hagia Sophia. Justinian was considering running away when Theodora told him in the presence of the Roman senate, “may I never be separated from this [royal] purple, and may I not live that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress” proclaiming that she would rather die in her royal garments than flee.[14] He then killed 30,000 civilians and put down the riots.[15]
Immediately he began to rebuild Hagia Sophia greater and more excellent than ever before. This seems to have become the Christianized triumph arch to cement himself as pontifex maximus presiding over the holy city of New Rome and the sacred empire. Theodora also received a halo in the mosaics of the time. Like Caesar Augustus, Justinian’s propaganda made it seem like “the hidden influence of God” was made “to support the self-assured brilliance of the emperor.”[16]
While this was being built, in 535 Justinian named the city Justiniana Prima after himself and attempted to exalt its bishop’s authority.[17] Missionary activity was closely linked to forming diplomatic alliances to the earthly city.[18]
While Justinian’s wife may not have understood the terminology, she “was emotionally deeply committed to the [Alexandrian] cause.”[19] Even though in theory Justinian believed in the Petrine primacy of pope and bishops, he proved he still saw himself as pontifex by devising a doctrinal compromise between the Antiochian and Alexandrian factions.
For a time he sponsored true dialogos between the parties, but he soon took matters into his own hands.[20] His plan was to suppress some of the terms of the Fathers and then condemn Theodore Mopsuestia to appease the Alexandrians and his wife. [21] The problem was the Petrine authority. Therefore, Meyendorff admits that Theodora “groomed” Vigilius to be pope and extracted a promise to follow the Imperial program of compromise once “elected.”[22] Theodora worked with the wife of the general Belasarius and got him to depose Pope St. Silverius, who died in exile from harsh treatment, and appoint Vigilius instead.[23]
At the same time, Theodora also appointed a parallel hierarchy for the Alexandrians known as the “Jacobites.” This hierarchy elected a new bishop of Alexandria, Theodosius I, whom Justinian himself later deposed.[24] Before this, most faithful simply communed with the local bishop. But the actions of Theodora “led to a permanent schism.”[25]
Then in 543 God sent a severe plague that afflicted, according to one contemporary “the whole world” and left cities “altogether depopulated.”[26] Modern estimates range from 15-100 million dead.[27] It is still called the “Plague of Justinian” to this day. Procopius said this wrath was for Justinian’s brutal taxes and persecution, while Alexandrian John of Ephesus said it was “not only a sign of threat and of wrath, but also a sign of grace and a call to repentance.”[28] In fact, the emperor himself was struck with this plague. In 548, Theodora went to her eternal reward. The Alexandrian Oriental Orthodox venerate her as a saint.
The plague and the death of Theodora seem to have only galvanized his zeal to impose his doctrine as pontifex maximus, seemingly to appease God’s wrath. He called on Pope Vigilius, therefore to keep up his bargain and support the imperial doctrine. But the grace of office proved to give Vigilius back his crusading spirit, and Justinian had to resort to violent coercion to force the pope to sign the “conciliar unanimity” of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, provoking another schism with the west.[29]
Shortly thereafter an earthquake rocked the east, and even parts of Hagia Sophia collapsed. Justinian instituted a service of supplication every year to commemorate the earthquake, and told the city that the immorality of the citizens had caused God’s wrath.[30] He then “employed drastic measures” of coercion to enforce the council. But after Theodora’s parallel hierarchy was set up, he now faced “the resistance of the masses led by ‘underground’ leaders, proud of their martyrdom and gradually beginning to identify their religious cause with cultural non-Greek and non-Roman identity of Syrians, Armenians, Arabs and Copts.”[31]
In 563, Justinian went on pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Michael in Germania seeking healing from the plague.[32] He then suddenly began imposing yet another new doctrine—aphthartodocetism, which proclaimed that Christ’s body was divine—and deposed his bishop of Constantinople for opposing it.
He died without establishing a lasting earthly city, nor a lasting peace for the heavenly, and his religious policy is seen by Meyendorff as a “failure.”[33] To the Imperial Greek Christians, he is officially “the great and glorious…holy emperor” yet there seems to be very little devotion to him.[34] The Copts condemn Justinian but praise Theodora, while the Roman martyrology does not commemorate either.[35] His successors attempted the same mixture of dialogos and violence with the same result. Then in 572, while the plague still raged, war broke out with Persia again. No doubt every pious soul cried out to the King of Kings for mercy.
[1] Cameron, “The Imperial Pontifex,” 362.
[2] Robinson, op. cit., 72-73.
[3] Alan Ryan, On Politics (New York: Liveright, 2012), vol. I, 215ff; Posnov, op. cit.,217.
[4] Monsignor L. Duchesne, The Churches Separated from Rome (Kegan Paul, 1907), 109.
[5] Cameron, op. cit., 363.
[6] Meyendorff (Imperial Unity, 212-216) admits this yet attempts to obviate the significance of the event.
[7] Dawson, The Making of Europe, 117; Leslie Brubaker, “The Age of Justinian: Gender and Society,” Michael Maas, ed., Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2005), 433-436.
[8] Posnov, 215-217; Robert Browning, Justinian and Theodora, rev. ed., (London, Thames and Hudson: 1987) 61.
[9] Louth, “Justinian and His Legacy,” Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, 107.
[10] Baum and Winkler, op. cit., 33-34.
[11] Mary Beard, The Roman Triumph (Harvard University Press, 2009), 318-319.
[12] Novella I, preface, trans. S. P. Scott, The Civil Law, XVI, (Cincinnati, 1932) <https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/Anglica/N1_Scott.htm>, accessed March 25, 2021.
[13] Johannis and De Bellis Libycis by Flavius Cresconius Corippus.
[14] Procopius, Wars 1.24, trans. H. B. Dewing (London: William Heinemann, 1914).
[15] Ibid.
[16] Rousseau, op. cit.,123-124.
[17] Posnov, op. cit.,245.
[18] Browning, op. cit.,62.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Meyendorff, op. cit., 222, 233-234, 236ff.
[21] Browning, 63.
[22] Meyendorff, op. cit.,227.
[23] J. P. Kirsch, “Pope St. Silverius,” Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) <https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13793a.htm>, accessed March 26, 2021.
[24] Meyendorff, 256.
[25] Ibid., 228-230.
[26] Evagrius, Church History, bk IV, ch. 24. XXIX, trans. E. Walford (1846) <http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/evagrius_4_book4.htm>, accessed March 25, 2021.
[27] Lee Mordecha et. al., “The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?” Elsa M. Redmond, ed., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec 2019, 116 (51) 25546-25554; Thomas Maugh, “An Empire’s Epidemic,” Los Angeles Times (May 6, 2002), University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health <https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anempiresepidemic.html>, accessed March 25, 2021; William Rosen, Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe (New York City: Viking Adult, 2007), 3.
[28] In Rosen, Justinian’s Flea excerpt, <http://www.justiniansflea.com/bio.htm>, accessed March 25, 2021.
[29] On the story of this schism, see Erick Ybarra, “Vigilius,” <https://erickybarra.org/?s=vigilius&submit=Search> and his forthcoming volume, The Papacy.
[30] Brian Croke, “Justinian’s Constantinople,” in Michael Maas, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian,71.
[31] Meyendorff, 230.
[32] Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, 181.
[33] For a further sympathetic overview of his legacy, see Meyendorff, 245-250
[34] Prologue of Ohrid, November 14th, http://www.westsrbdio.org/prolog/my.html?month=November&day=14&Go.x=15&Go.y=7
[35] Ethiopian Synaxarion, St. Severus of Antioch, February 21(Yekatit 14).
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