Institute of Catholic Culture

09/12/2026

🎉🎉🎉 WE HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT...
Guess what is coming up next at the ICC 🤫

09/08/2026

FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

On September 8, the Church solemnly celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of only three birthdays in the entire liturgical calendar, alongside Our Lord and Saint John the Baptist.

As always in the liturgy, the distinction is doctrinal and not merely devotional. The Church celebrates the birth of the Immaculate one, she who was from the first moment of her conception “full of grace,” the living vessel through whom the eternal Word would enter human history, the dwelling place prepared for divinity to unite with humanity anew.

If the Incarnation is the central event of human history, then the arrival of the Theotokos, the God-bearer, is itself an event of cosmic significance. Lady Mary’s birth is the penultimate act of a divine plan that spans the entire Old Covenant, through the lineage of Abraham, David, and the prophets, culminating at last in the household of Joachim and Anne in an obscure corner of Roman Palestine. Saint Andrew of Crete, whose Great Canon remains one of the liturgical masterpieces of the Eastern tradition, captured the theological weight of the feast with characteristic precision: “The Virgin is born, tended, formed and prepared to be the Mother of God, the universal King of the ages.”

The Nativity of Mary is the prelude to salvation, the dawn before the sunrise, the moment when the long night of the Old Covenant begins, imperceptibly but irreversibly, to give way to the light of Christ.

09/08/2026

📌 RECAP: The Shroud of Turin Exhibit, sponsored by the Institute of Catholic Culture

This past Labor Day weekend, the Institute of Catholic Culture and Othonia sponsored a display of the Shroud of Turin at St. George Catholic Church in Sacramento, making their Middle Eastern Festival not only an opportunity for food, music and dance, but also an occasion of grace. Hundreds of visitors who passed through were able to ponder the linen – the science, the history and the faith it bespeaks.

The setting was carefully crafted to pose the question which has surrounded the cloth for centuries: Who is the man of the Shroud?

Our thanks belong to Othonia, whose exhibit made the encounter possible, and to St. George Melkite Catholic Church, whose hospitality gave it a home among the tables.

For those who attended, what captivated you most: the science, the history or the Face?

09/04/2026

🖨️ The Curriculum goes to press!

The printed curriculum for the new year is hot off the press and on its way to the benefactors of the Institute, whose support is the reason these offerings exist at all.

The Poncini children visited the printer as the sheets were running and learned how the pages are cut, folded and bound before mailing. They even had a chance to work several of the machines themselves! The ICC is known for its lectures and recordings, but so much more happens behind the scenes; enjoy this rare glimpse of how our work unfolds.

The booklet features the annual curriculum and the whole of the coming quarter: each individual lecture with its date, the ongoing courses, and the faculty who will teach them. They look lovely and keep as nicely on a kitchen counter as on a parish table.

Let us know when the brochure arrives in your mailbox! 📮

09/03/2026

GOD DID NOT PROMISE US A LATER⁠
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Leah Libresco Sargeant opened the second lecture of our Benedict Option series with a call to build community where you are right now and with an answer to an oft-repeated objection, nearly always expressed as a plausible excuse or a prudent plan:⁠
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“WHEN I graduate, when I get married, when we buy a house, THEN…” ⁠
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No matter how worthy these sentiments may seem, they do not allow us to remain idle, do not absolve us of Christ’s commission to build the Kingdom in our present circumstances. God has promised no one a “when” or a “later” – He may return at any moment and will ask us to give an account.⁠
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Her book, “Building the Benedict Option”, encourages each of us and outlines a modest task. What can you possibly undertake, with your unique gifts and where God has placed you, in the next two weeks or two months, to foster the community in which you live?⁠
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Share your ideas below!

09/02/2026

🔥 OUR NEW CURRICULUM YEAR, 2026-2027 IS HERE!

The new ICC curriculum year has been posted today! We invite you to reflect with us on the gift of “the land.”

In this first quarter, we focus on the ancient and biblical world, the fundamentals of human nature, and the Old Testament revelation, preparing attendees for the Advent of Christ and the beginning of the Christian era.

Join us as we venture from the Garden of Eden, through God’s promise to Abraham and the gift of the “Holy Land,” to the Messiah’s very entry into this people and place, the establishment of His Kingdom, the Church, and His call to go out to all nations to restore all creation in preparation for the new heavens and new earth - the New Jerusalem and Paradise Restored!

We undertake this entire journey guided by the light of Blessed Fulton Sheen, soon to be canonized. On September 30, Very Reverend Roger Landry will open our academic year with “Missionary to the Nations,” highlighting how Blessed Fulton Sheen so beautifully and tirelessly sought to reignite the fire of evangelization. At the ICC, we seek to follow his lead in helping others come to know, love, and live the faith using digital means.

📍Every lecture is taught LIVE and at NO COST.

📣 Walk with us as a fellow pilgrim as our curriculum year begins!

09/01/2026

📣TODAY! Dr. Jared Staudt presents "Bread for the World"

Just before his Ascension, Of all the ways to do that, why did he choose to remain present through something we eat? So that those who consume the Body and Blood of Christ not only have communion with him but that they might carry him to the world outside the walls of the church. Imagine what the world could be…

But we don’t have to imagine it! History proves that when the Eucharist is at the center of life, it is there that true culture can be built.

🔔 Join us as Dr. Jared Staudt brings our curriculum year to its conclusion, speaking on how the Eucharist can save civilization.

📍This event takes place TONIGHT, Tuesday, August 11.
Pre-class Discussion: 7:30 PM ET
Lecture: 8:00-9:15 PM ET

08/31/2026

📣 MEET OUR INSTRUCTOR, DR. JARED STAUDT! And join us for "Bread for the World: How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization"

Dr. Jared Staudt is a theologian and catechist who joined ICC to advance his lifelong goal of building Catholic culture.

He earned his PhD in systematic theology from Ave Maria University and his MA and BA degrees in Catholic Studies from the University of St. Thomas, MN.

He has served as a professor, academic dean, director of religious education in parishes, as an associate superintendent of schools, and has helped to found a junior college and multiple high school programs.

He is the author of many books, including "How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization" and "Words Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission of Catholic Education."

His courses for ICC include Theology 101 and 102 and The Beauty of Faith on Catholic art history.

He and his wife, Anne, have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate.

📍 His lecture "Bread for the World: How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization" is now open for registration on our website. Register now!

If the Eucharist truly is the "source and summit" of all life, it stands to reason that the Body of Christ must be at the heart of civilization...

08/28/2026

FEAST OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

On August 28, the Church commemorates Saint Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, theologian, and Doctor of the Church, whose intellectual and spiritual journey remains one of the most consequential in the entire history of Christian thought.

Born in 354 AD in Thagaste, North Africa, to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother (Saint Monica), Augustine was gifted with one of the most penetrating minds of late antiquity. His scholarly pursuits included ventures into Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, and a prolonged immersion in the rhetorical culture of Carthage and Milan before his baptism by Saint Ambrose at Easter 387 AD.

Augustine’s conversion has profound theological significance precisely because of its intellectual integrity: he did not abandon philosophy for faith but discovered in his Catholic faith everything philosophy promised but could not deliver. His “Confessions” – the first genuine autobiography in Western literature, is not a memoir of sin but a sustained theological meditation on the nature of time, creation, salvation, and the restlessness of the human soul without God, while his epic “City of God” established the foundational categories through which the Church has understood her relationship to temporal power for sixteen centuries.

His treatises on grace, free will and original sin shaped the entire subsequent tradition of Western theology; perhaps no theologian outside of Scripture has left a deeper imprint on the Christian mind.

Saint Augustine, pray for us! 🙏

08/27/2026

📣 The ICC will sponsor the Shroud of Turin in Sacramento!

Calling all Northern California Members! On the 5th and 6th of September, the Institute of Catholic Culture, partering with Othonia, will host “Who is the Man of the Shroud?” at the St. George Catholic Church Middle Eastern Food Festival.

The exhibit displays the science, history and faith surrounding the Shroud, in the setting of a parish festival – amongst food, families and friends.

This setting is exactly the goal the ICC seeks: to see the theological formation we offer in the lecture hall bear fruit in the parish hall. Join us!

🗓 September 5 | 12:00 PM – 10:00 PM
🗓 September 6 | 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
📍 9501 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95827

"Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulcher: and he saw, and believed." (John 20:8)