Immaculate Heart Church Crosslake, MN

Father Mike Schmitz says that if you had asked him to come up with an idea for a podcast that rise to the top of Apple’s Podcast charts, “The Bible in a Year” wouldn’t have been it.

After all, he says, the podcast, put out by the Catholic publisher Ascension Press, is pretty simple: a few words of introduction, three readings from the Bible, and a few words of explanation, around 20 minutes all told.

The results of the election verified something that has been increasingly clear over a number of recent election cycles: politically, anyway, we’re divided just about in half.

Nationally, in terms of popular vote, out of all those tens of millions of votes cast, the margin was less than 5%, just like it’s been the last three presidential elections. In fact, in the 21st century, five of the six presidential elections have ended up that way.

It’s always interesting when very great and holy saints and even doctors of the church seem to give conflicting advice — like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis de Sales do on the timely and important topic of anger.

Deacon Kyle Eller