The actor Kevin O’Brien, star of stage, screen, and now, audiobooks, is a fine and worthy member of my clan. I am sure that his <downloadable mp3s of works by Chesterton and Pope Benedict XVI will be an ornament to your iPod or other music player.

However, I mean “clan” in the very most extended “all O’Briens are descended from Brian Boroimhe from back about AD 980″ kind of way. He is not related to me in any closer fashion of which I’m aware, nor do I know him personally.

I do have a younger brother named Kevin. But trust me, he looks totally different. Also, not an actor.

(I’m not related in any non-clan fashion to Michael O’Brien, either. Although I have annoyed him with my commentary on positive Christian draconic imagery from medieval Catholic tradition, which proves I must be family!)

On Christian Doctrine continues, as St. Augustine points out that it’s easier to teach and defend the faith if you know how to talk.

Book 4, Chapters 1-4.

11:19.

My series of nearly randomly chosen letters by St. Jerome continues, as we finally finish out that letter to young Miss Eustochium, with some pretty good advice and imagery from our favorite curmudgeon.

Letter 22E

19:03.

The Brand of Silence continues, as Prale steps into the darkness.

Chapter 6: Murk – and Murder.

19:44.

UPDATE: It works better if the file’s been uploaded. Sorry about that.

An Introduction to the Devout Life continues, with chapters on how to pay attention to the Bible, how to read devotional literature, and how to make the most of it when God inspires you with a good idea.

Book 2, Chapters 17-18.

9:34.

An Introduction to the Devout Life continues, with advice on how to attend Mass, how to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours and other group public prayers and pious activities, and how to talk to the angels and saints.

Book 2, Chapters 14-16.

11:53.

The Ring and the Book continues. In this segment, the Pope announces his continued belief in God from personal experience, and compares the virtue of a pagan poet without benefit of revelation to the lack of virtue of many of modern days. (Next week we’ll finish this book and move on to the next.)

Book 10E.

20:14.

The Ring and the Book continues. In this segment, the Pope thinks about the poor showing that Christianity is making in this case in the lives of people who know better, and should do better.

Book 10D.

24:04.

The Ring and the Book continues, after being abandoned on this podcast since January. (Yes, it’s a little too big for me. I admit it.) For those who weren’t listening back then or who have forgotten in six months, this epic poem about a strange case of a wife’s flight and a family’s murder in Rome, in the days of the Papal States, is ripped from the pages of Italian history. Browning turned a book about the various court cases into a poem about the same events seen from various points of view of testimony and judgment. It’s fascinating stuff, and there’s certainly plenty of it.

In this segment, the Pope finishes thinking about his judgment of the actions of Pompilia and Caponsacchi.

Book 10C.

15:14.

From the author of The Lani People and “Pandemic” (and a book on animal physiology), we now get a space Navy story ripped from the pages of the December 1960 issue of Amazing Stories — “A Question of Courage”.

Imagine you’re an officer newly assigned to a ship in wartime. As soon as you get there, you sense something wrong….

Part 1

25:43.