Deacon Mark Campbell hosts on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, digging into the history of the True Cross relic and why sacramentals lift the mind and heart to Christ. Dr. John Sehorn, academic dean of the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, explains why deep theological formation matters for clergy, lay leaders, and everyday Catholics who simply want to explain the faith better. Plus FOCUS missionary Gregory Kinser on the move from college campuses into parishes, Joe Stopulus previews the St. Thomas Classical Academy gala with Bishop James Conley, and Monday news, sports, and a rainy central Iowa forecast.
Deacon Mark Campbell opens Monday, September 14 — the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross — filling in for Bo Bonner alongside Ayden Pugh. After the Saint of the Day reflection on St. Helena's recovery of the Holy Cross and its return by Emperor Heraclius in 629, Deacon Mark and Ayden talk relics: how a splinter of the True Cross is authenticated, the old quip about there being enough fragments worldwide to rebuild Noah's Ark, and why sacramentals exist to lift our minds and hearts toward Christ's suffering, resurrection, and our salvation. Deacon Mark also connects the feast to Sunday's Gospel on forgiveness — that we can only extend forgiveness once we've truly accepted that no sin is too great for Christ to forgive.
Dr. John Sehorn, academic dean of the Graduate School of Theology at the Augustine Institute, joins to talk about the driving need for rigorous theological formation today — challenges that, as Pope Leo has pointed out, are less about technology than about what it means to be human. Dr. Sehorn walks through the Institute's St. Louis campus, now in its third year, and its distance education program (three of four master's programs are fully online with no residential requirement), how courses train students not just to know the faith but to hand it on, and where its 1,100+ alumni and roughly 550 active students are serving as catechists, DREs, K-12 Catholic teachers, Bible study leaders, and parents. He also shares his own conversion story: entering the Church in 2007 after studying Scripture back to "ground zero" and coming to recognize the Church as mother and teacher. Learn more at Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology.
Gregory Kinser closes the show as one of the first full-time FOCUS parish missionaries in Iowa, serving at St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll. Gregory explains how FOCUS's "win, build, send" model of spiritual multiplication — rooted in 2 Timothy 2:2 — translates from college campuses to a parish serving young adults, young families, empty nesters, retired couples, and older singles. More at FOCUS and St. John Paul II Parish.
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