Hope you had a blessed Fourth Sunday of Lent!🙏✝️
Time for another Catholic Meme Monday.
That’s all I have this week. Stay tuned for next week’s Catholic Meme Monday. Receive updates straight to your email inbox by subscribing to The Simple Catholic blog.
P.S. If you prefer receiving quality Catholic humor in daily doses follow me on Instagram @thesimplecatholic.
Editor’s Note: The Simple Catholic Sunday Funnies This new weekly feature of wholesome and funny Catholic comics strips is presented by The Simple Catholic. Current contributors include Father Alvaro Comics, The Catholic Cartoonist, and Sam Estrada.
Father Alvaro is a comic focusing on the humor, beauty and challenges of parish life in the Midwest. The characters, though fictional, are based on various Priests, Nuns and Deacons from my parish in Madison, Wisconsin. Father Alvaro combines my passion for brief storytelling with sharing the Catholic Faith. I hope these comics bring moments of joy to readers.
Follow on Instagram: @fralvarocomics
Sam Estrada is a Seattle-based graphic designer, illustrator, and animator. As the eldest of a large Catholic family, he has witnessed the importance of good Faith formation, from womb…to tomb. His goal is to use art and digital media to not only educate his audience, but to inspire them to imitate the Origin of Art, God Himself. Find more of his work at prostrada.com!
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Dalton, founder of The Salty Catholic Instagram meme account, via phone call on March 8th 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
I am a convert, I grew up as a Southern Baptist in Tennessee. I became Catholic when I joined the Army in 2019. Less than a year ago I became a Byzantine Catholic. The only Rite the Archdiocese of the Military Services have is the Roman Rite. So I joined the Roman Rite and later became an Eastern Catholic.
During my conversion I was discerning between the Orthodox and Catholic Church and that Eastern spirituality appealed to me.
I was formally accepted by the bishop in 2023 shortly after I separated from the army.
Chaldean, Melkite, Byzantine. I settled on the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church.
It’s just a matter of helping people discover the relatability of life and helping make that connection with the faith.
Things that come up where I crack a little joke when the circumstances arise.
Since 2020, my reasoning is very boring. One day I found various meme templates and added Catholic captions to them. People started sharing them.
It’s between two of my more recent ones. I made one using the crucifix and the second was about going to the Divine Liturgy vs. going to the club.
Byzantine Catholics have a rich tradition of iconography – how has this visual tradition influenced your approach to creating memes?
In a certain way, memes can be a form of sacred art. If you can find a way to include that spiritual truth to it. In a modern understanding you could make that connection.
I think my favorite icon is the one I keep in my classroom. It’s called “Divine Ascent” . It’s related to the doctrine of theosis. The icon was originally found in Saint Catherine’s Monastery, located on Mount Sinai.
I have a couple that jump to mind. The first one is pretty standard, I wish more Roman Catholics would embrace the Jesus Prayer. It’s pretty much constant for me. As much as I can I devote my time to that prayer.
And the second practice is to embrace specifically Eastern iconography. This type of iconography takes you deeper into the spiritual life.
A lot of Eastern monasteries will create these types of icons. It’s always good to support them.
There are some that are culturally and traditionally to Eastern Catholicism. One I recommend is Saint Gabriel the Fool for Christ. He is an amazing guy, he was an Orthodox Christian, his life was centered around humility and looking foolish for Christ.
Similar, but different, Saint Paisios of the Holy Mountain is another favorite of mine. Everyone sought his advice. He was popular and his quotes are widely circulated. Any devoted Apostolic Christian should adapt his advice.
All of it. The fact that anyone appreciated what I created. I didn’t have any expectation of this recognition when I started the account.
The explanation I give to my students is that it’s the same belief with different perspectives and practice.
I do see that happening but it is an unintentional byproduct of my account. I am seeing an uptick of Eastern Orthodox following me (I notice in the comments section and the occasional DM).
I’ll have to think about that for a second, there is something in particular about the liturgy that calls the individual just profoundly as it calls the collective. The perspective I noticed in the Roman Rite was that the individualistic spirituality was set aside. During the Divine Liturgy, individuals are called while the collective is also drawn deeper into the life of God during the liturgy.
If Roman Catholics could take one thing from the Byzantine tradition to enrich their faith, what would you recommend?
Other than the Jesus prayer and iconography, I think probably the asceticism. I think there’s a temptation in Western spirituality to be afraid of living the faith in such a radical way. Eastern spirituality calls all to live this ascetical life.
Hello! I am the Salty Catholic! I am a Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic. I’m also a part-time mememaker, a full-time husband, and a full-time high school theology teacher. I have two degrees in theology, and I’m pursuing doctoral studies in theology as well. While seeking my own theosis in this life, my hope is to also bring orthodox knowledge of the faith to others through humor and goodwill.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed John Flynn, founder of The Barricade Guard, via phone call on March 14th, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
The Barricade Guard began in early 2023. It began as a book project, with the main mission being to strengthen Catholic families both physically and spiritually and defend the Church (domestic and Universal). My goal with the YouTube videos is to inspire parents, more particularly fathers, to be spiritual leaders and protectors of their family.
That’s an interesting question. I think as I was getting started I was thinking a lot about the spiritual health in terms of passing on the faith and a reasoned defense. On the physical health side I was thinking exercise and food. Regarding the physical side, it evolved to focus more on the physical defense of your family should an emergency come up. I am looking for new ways to share with families especially as it relates to current issues and how they can help defend their domestic Church.
For me personally, I think a couple things affected my experience. Coming out of my college years, I fell into bad habits and wasn’t taking my faith seriously. Before I had my desire to take my faith seriously, I wanted to improve on my physical side, exercising, going to the gym. As I improved my physical health and became more disciplined I was inspired to take more ownership of my faith.
My girlfriend, now my wife, was a convert to the Church and asked me questions about the Catholic Faith. She challenged me to learn more about our Faith. Through the lens of Theology of the Body and seeing the union of the human person as body and soul inspired me to want to help promote this to others.
I think spiritual warfare is very real. We live in a time when people might downplay the reality of the Devil. They might think about how everyone goes to Heaven and downplay the reality of evil. With Christ on our side, we ultimately don’t have anything to fear. As parents raising kids in their formative years, we can adequately equip them with the tools when they face temptations.
Knowing the tools and having the proper wisdom from the Holy Spirit is how I am thinking to equip parents on this issue.
Exactly! On an aside, the Barricade Guard, some people might think that the word barricade means leaving the world or turning away and closing yourself off in a fortress. It is more like protecting your family. Father Boniface Hicks on an episode of Pints with Aquinas talked about righteous anger as the barricade holding proper boundaries between the sin of wrath and permissiveness. It’s the virtue that lies in the middle of the two extremes.
I think the secular world is recognizing we are living in a post-Christian world. One challenge is to raise our children in the faith and to instill a sense of gratitude for our Catholic faith.
Secondly, the increase of technology and how to protect our children and teaching them how to use and navigate this technology (AI, social media).
On the physical side, being prudent with how to discern the best way to protect your physical health (with the constant change of various diet trends). There are common elements that work.
All of these topics I try to address throughout the videos and content on The Barricade Guard.
Please Like and Follow on:
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@BarricadeGuard
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Locals – barricadeguard.locals.com www.barricadeguard.com
I am a Catholic husband, I.T. Specialist, and father of six young children (ages 2 to 14). My wife and I have been married for sixteen years, are involved with marriage and vocation ministries through our parish and diocese, and homeschool all of our children. I also serve on our parish’s security team, and am a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Joe Coleman via phone call on March 12th, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
We work with pretty much anyone who wants to create Catholic content but our primary focus is Catholic business owners. I have audio-produced a variety of Catholic projects over the years. I really didn’t see serving this specific niche. It seemed to be that Catholics who are running businesses according to the teachings of the Gospel were underserved. It fills a need that hasn’t gotten as much attention as non-profits and ministry.
That’s a good question, I worked at KNOM as a producer, on-air host, and a writer. I am very grateful to KNOM for teaching me about the fundamentals of audio-production. A large part of what I did was in-studio interviews or longer form audio packages. I got experience in storytelling and what makes a good conversation. I learned how to help guests get their point across.
We helped develop a podcast called Making Every Class Catholic by Dr. Brett Falkeld where he talked to Catholic educators. He used the podcast to talk to interesting people like the Archbishop of Vancouver. He provided this content for professional and personal enrichment to show how teachers can make all their classes Catholic. He used the podcast to drive people to his subscription community for educational resources. The podcast was a marketing vehicle to help his business to be the first point of contact.
One of the best things about broadcasting is that you can talk about a problem that speaks to the listeners and makes them feel like you are having this one-on-one conversation. You can scale this conversation while still keeping it intimate.
He has a newspaper/periodical that is still in existence: Knight of the Immaculata. Because of this, one of his patronages is that of communication. His biggest claim to fame is his sacrifice in Auschwitz. It is easy to lose sight of heroism in modernity. It is easy to forget that you still can do great things. Our studio is to help businesses tell great stories. We strive for excellence and holiness like the saints. While I will likely not reach the same level as Saint Maximilian, he is still a good model to look up to and inspire myself and my business.
I think of Dr. Falkeld’s podcast. Using it as a marketing vehicle is powerful. The podcast is still a source of traffic to his community. Podcasts as a medium are playing the long-game. You can play the short game with viral posts on social media. But podcasting in general is playing the long-game.
I think the reality is that not everyone is going to be seeing immediate success. Think in terms of months and years versus days. It’s tough to say any business is going to be transformed right away when launching a podcast.
We produce a show called Catching Foxes. It has been going on for ten years. The personal fulfillment the hosts continue to receive from this experience is invaluable to the amount of friends they developed through their podcast.
That’s a good question! I think that space probably expands. It will likely evolve similar to how the podcasting industry in general has expanded. The fact we had presidential candidates this past year going on podcasts. Four years ago this was inconceivable.
The one objection I hear is that the market is so saturated. While there are a lot of podcasts, there is not a saturation of high quality Catholic podcasts. For every Pints with Aquinas, there are 100 “not- Pints with Aquinas”.
The Catholic world moves slow in the tech space. There’s still time to hop on and start a podcast that’s high quality.
They can visit our website at saintkolbestudios.com or email me at joe@saintkolbestudios.com.
Joe Coleman is the Founder and Director of Audio Production at Saint Kolbe Studios. He started his audio career in 2019 as an on-air host, producer, and writer at the oldest Catholic radio station in the US, KNOM Radio in Nome, Alaska. Now, he lives in Tyler, Texas with his wife and soon-to-be-born daughter. P.S. Want a free podcast studio? Seriously! Saint Kolbe Studios is giving away five full podcast setups to new retainer clients. We want to lower the barrier to entry and help you tell your story. Head to saintkolbestudios.com to learn more.
The sun beat down on the street. I walked alongside hundreds of others, following the golden monstrance that caught the light in brilliant flashes. A canopy of white silk moved ahead of us, sheltering the Blessed Sacrament.
Incense rose in visible waves, mingling with the summer air. The priest’s vestments gleamed white and gold. Children scattered flower petals on the pavement. An elderly man beside me sang the Pange Lingua with a voice that trembled but did not waver.
The procession stretched for blocks. People watched from windows and sidewalks. Some knelt as we passed. Others stared, confused. A few snapped photos with their phones.
“What’s happening?” a woman asked her companion.
“Some kind of Catholic thing,” he replied, watching us wind through the streets.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. My knees ached from the concrete.
“The Eucharist is not merely symbolic, but a profound reality where we encounter Jesus Himself,” the priest had said before we began. “Today, we process with Him through our streets as a public testimony of our faith.”
The bells rang out, marking our progress through the neighborhood. Someone handed me a Holy card. The procession paused at a makeshift altar on the Church steps. People knelt on the hard pavement.
I closed my eyes in the bright sunlight.
“We aren’t just walking,” a young mother had told her confused child. “We’re following Jesus.”
The child had nodded solemnly, clutching a small paper banner.
Three days later, I sat alone in the parish adoration chapel. The same monstrance stood on the altar, but without the canopy, without the crowd.
The wooden kneeler creaked under my weight. My breath sounded loud in the silence. A clock ticked somewhere behind me. The single candle flame didn’t waver.
An air conditioner hummed briefly, then quieted. For twenty minutes, nothing moved except the slight rise and fall of my chest.
I checked my watch.
St. Mother Teresa once said, “When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host, you understand how much Jesus loves you now.”
Now. Present tense.
My mind wandered to Sunday’s grocery list. I pulled it back.
The silence grew heavier. More substantial. The golden rays of the monstrance caught the light once, then didn’t again. My knees hurt in a different way than they had during the procession.
I shifted on the kneeler.
During Sunday’s procession, the priest had proclaimed, “Christ goes out to meet His people!” His voice had carried over the crowd, amplified by speakers. Here, in the chapel, no voice spoke. The same Christ waited, but in silence.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori wrote, “Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us.”
My breathing slowed.
During the procession, we had moved through space, covering blocks of the city. Here, in adoration, I moved through something else. Not faster or slower—different.
The digital clock on the wall blinked silently: 3:47 PM.
“Know that I am with you always, until the end of the age,” Christ had promised. In the procession, we had demonstrated this truth publicly. Here, in this empty chapel, I experienced it privately.
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
The Host remained unchanged, white against gold. Minutes stretched. A car passed outside, then nothing.
Pope Benedict XVI once emphasized, “In the Eucharist, Christ is always coming to meet us.” During Sunday’s procession, we had walked with Him through the streets. Here, in adoration, He walked through the landscape of my thoughts.
The chair beneath me felt hard after forty minutes.
In the procession, we had been many voices, many steps, moving as one body. Here, I was one voice, silent. One body, still.
I bowed my head.
The same Christ was present in both spaces—under the silken canopy surrounded by hundreds, and here, in an empty chapel on a Wednesday afternoon. The miracle didn’t change. Only the context.
I looked up at the monstrance.
“It is you who have come to me,” a line from St. Elizabeth of the Trinity surfaced in my memory. “I didn’t go looking for you.”
The chapel door opened. A woman entered quietly, genuflected, and took a seat in the back row.
During the procession, our public witness had been powerful—Catholics united, moving through the secular world with our Eucharistic Lord. Here, two strangers sat in silence, united by the same Presence.
I stood to leave.
The mystery remained intact. The same God who had processed through streets now waited in stillness. The same Jesus who had drawn crowds now drew individual hearts, one by one.
I genuflected before the monstrance.
In the procession, we had shown the world our Faith. In Adoration, our Faith showed us the world as it truly was—a place where God waits, where time changes, where silence speaks.
I opened the chapel door.
The woman remained kneeling, her head bowed. The candle flame flickered once, then steadied.
I stepped outside. The chapel door closed behind me with a soft click.
Eucharistic Adoration: He Waits for You in the Silence
7 Reasons You Should Go to Eucharistic Adoration
Reflections on the National Eucharistic Congress: Faith, Healing, and Revival
Hope you had a blessed Sunday!🙏✝️
Time for another Catholic Meme Monday.
That’s all I have this week. Stay tuned for next week’s Catholic Meme Monday. Receive updates straight to your email inbox by subscribing to The Simple Catholic blog.
P.S. If you prefer receiving quality Catholic humor in daily doses follow me on Instagram @thesimplecatholic.