By Br. Francis M.I.C.M.

The Catholic Epistles of the New Testament are called so because they are addressed not to a particular church or individual but rather to all the universal Church. Katholicos is a Greek word meaning “universal.” There are seven Catholic epistles: one by Saint James, two by Saint Peter, three by Saint John and one by Saint Jude. It is unfortunate that only ten of the sixteen talks that made up this course are recorded. Nevertheless, these ten talks open up the rich treasures contained in these inspired epistles. Also included in these talks are short lectures on the eight Eastern Councils of the Church, which are the first eight of the twenty-one ecumenical councils.The last eastern council was Constantinople IV, which was held in 869-870. The Patriarch of Constantinople at the time was the persecuted Saint Ignatius.The synod condemned the conciliarist heresy of the infamous schismatic Photius and it also repeated the condemnation of Iconoclasm, which had been issued by the council of Nicaea II in 787. In an attempt to pacify the Greeks, the Roman legates representing Pope Nicolas II also elevated Constantinople above the other eastern patriarchates as second to Rome. This concession did nothing to stop the schism of 1054.These talks are more general in their scope than Brother’s other course on all the councils. The classes were given in the early 1980s in the city of Boston at the St. Louis Marie de Montfort study circle.

10 Lectures on 10 CDs

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