Our study of St. Matthew's Gospel began in June 2017 and concluded in February 2022. Sessions were recorded starting in March 2020 as we discussed Matthew 16:24:28. The recordings are available from The Gospel of Matthew Bible Study playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

In studying St. Matthew's Gospel, the class focuses on:

• The interpretation of Gospel passages in the Patristic tradition., especially by St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom.
• The traditional Catholic and pre-Reformation understanding of the particular Gospel passages.
• St. Matthew's use of the Greek language.
• St. Matthew's use of the Old Testament, and his reliance on typological fulfillment (as opposed to prophetic fulfillment).
• The way in which Jesus has drawn on the traditional understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures in a way that transforms their meaning.
• The unity of St. Matthew's Gospel, which moves away from viewing isolated "stories" or episodes but instead views the Gospel as an integrated whole.

This is a thorough, slow-paced study that examines the letter's Christology, its view of the relationship between the Old and New Covenants, the author's focus on the people of God as a whole rather than individual disciples of Christ, the significance of Jesus as the High Priest of the New Covenant who has directly opened the way to God's sanctuary, and the author's interest in liturgy as a central feature of worship. It examines the Letter to the Hebrews from the richness of Catholic interpretation, including the interpretation of the Patristic Fathers. Videos of individual classes are available from the Letter to the Hebrews playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

The Eucharist playlist on YouTube includes discussions with Father Vu about the Eucharist, as well as classes that explain and defend the Catholic understanding of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Does the Mass seem to you to be pure ritual? Do you want to understand the meaning behind the ritual? Do you want to experience the fulness of our Lord's presence in the Mass? In this series of videos based on a class on the mass held at SJV in the first half of 2023, we seek to uncover the meaning behind the ritual so that we can more fully appreciate the mass and in the process grow in our love for our Lord and Savior.

Sessions are available in The Mass playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

The Laudato Si playlist on YouTube includes the complete set of classes held at St. John Vianney that studied Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.

The former members of the class also maintain the Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home blog that is updated weekly with either reflections on theology, science, or the Bible, or with practical actions that we can take to save our common home.

The Last Supper playlist on YouTube uses St. Matthews words of institution (Matthew 26:26-29) to examine the meaning of the Eucharist and the issue of whether Christ is present substantially in the Eucharist or whether bread and wine are only symbols. The videos approach the Last Supper from a number of points of view:

• The Passover meal and the Last Supper as a remembrance (or anamnesis in Greek). We explore the meaning of anamnesis.
• The literal meaning of the words of institution in St. Matthew's Gospel, as well as the literal meaning of the words in the Bread of Life discourse in John chapter 6.
• The Last Supper as prophetic action.
• The typological significance of the Last Supper. We examine Jesus as a prophet like Moses, the Passover and the Passover lamb, manna, and the Bread of the Presence.
• The significance of Jesus' declaring the blood of the covenant. Besides examining the meaning of the new covenant based on Jeremiah 31:31, we also examine the covenant ceremony as a blood sacrifice shared by the parties to the covenant.
• The meaning of Jesus' statement that, "I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

As a sequel to the archdiocese's Racial Equality Series, we studied the history of racism in American Christianity. (Note the focus on Christianity as a whole, and not specifically on Catholicism.) The early classes explored the apparent contradiction between individual responsibility for sins and the inheritance of sins (the sins of the fathers passed on to the sons), the pattern of missionary activity in Europe in the early Christian era, the behavior of Catholic missionaries in the colonization of the Americas, and the significance of Critical Race Theory. Thereafter, the class was based in large part on our text, Jemar Tisby's The Color of Compromise. Videos of the class are available from the History of Racism in American Christianity playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

More than half a century after the Second Vatican Council, Catholics still debate its meaning and significance. Often, however, our opinions about the council are formed in isolation from the work and the teaching of the Council itself. In this class, we examined Vatican II through the lens of the major documents produced by the council. The topics discussed by the class included the liturgical reform initiated by the council, its view of the church as a sacrament to the world, its call for an active community of believers, its attempt to redefine the relationship of the Bishop of Rome to his fellow bishops and of the bishops to their archdiocese, its view of religious freedom as an inalienable human right, its emphasis ecumenism, and its view of all religious as reflecting, however imperfectly, an image of the divine.

Sessions of the class were recorded and are available in The Teaching of Vatican II through the Council's Documents playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

The Christianity and the Coronavirus playlist on YouTube examines how, as disciples of our Lord and Savior, we are to understand and respond to the pandemic. One video examines a common misconception that God "caused" the pandemic as a sign of judgment. Others focus on St. Cyprian of Carthage, whose work, On the Plague, dismisses the myth that Christians should be exempt from the epidemic (or are "covered by the blood of Jesus") and focuses on the necessity for Christians to respond with acts of love and charity.

As Catholics, we often find it difficult to defend our faith when confronted with criticism from atheists and agnostics, and especially from members of other Christian denominations. Sometimes, we even end up accepting in whole or in part some item of Protestant or evangelical belief that runs counter to the teachings of the Catholic Church. This set of videos aims at helping us to become better equipped both to understand and to defend our faith. It covers some of the most common areas of criticism of atheists, agnostics, Protestants, and evangelical Protestants, and discusses how to respond to them.

There are three critical elements of apologetics:

• We must understand the audience that our apologetic is intended to reach.
• We must know enough about our faith to offer an adequate defense.
• A successful apologetic pursues truth and rejects propaganda.

The videos focus on successful apologetics in all three areas. Some of the individual videos in the series include:

• The apologetics of Aristedes of Athens, a second century apologist.
• Responding to atheist and agnostic beliefs that God doesn't exist or that we can't be sure that God exists.
• The Catholic understanding of the Bible and its rejection of sola scriptura and Biblical literalism.
• The Catholic understanding of eschatology (the last things) and its rejection of the doctrine of the rapture.
• The Catholic understanding of the historical process and its rejection of dispensationalism, the philosophy of history adopted by most evangelical fundamentalists,.
• A defense of the papacy.
• The importance of infant baptism.
• A defense of the Catholic doctrine of purgatory.

The complete set of videos from the Apologetics class held at St. John Vianney in 2020 and 2021 is available from the Catholic Apologetics: Defending the Faith playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.

The Olivet Discourse playlist on YouTube analyzes our Lord's end time prophecy in St. Matthew's Gospel. It examines Jesus' response to the disciples' two questions (when will there be no stone left upon another, and what will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age). Jesus responds to the first by presenting a prophecy of the Jerusalem Temple's destruction, a prophecy that was fulfilled in 70 A.D. He responds to the second by saying that there will be no sign, but that a disciple must always be alert and prepared. Preparedness means always to expect Jesus' coming, and to recognize the face of Jesus in all those we encounter.

The Catholic Eschatology: The Last Things playlist on YouTube includes a number of videos from both the Gospel of Matthew Bible study and the Catholic apologetics class that focus on the end time and the second coming of Christ. The videos include:

• A very fast-paced, two-part overview of Catholic eschatology based on on the Olivet Discourse in chapters 25 and 26 of Matthew and chapters 21 and 22 of The Revelation to St. John.
• A more detailed, slower-paced study of the Olivet Discourse in St. Matthew's Gospel.
• An examination of the doctrine of the rapture, a view championed by evangelical fundamentalists who believe that Christ is coming soon to snatch believers out of the world before a 7-year period of tribulation, which will in turn be followed by Christ's millennial reign. This view stands in sharp contradiction to the teachings of the Church.
• An examination of dispensationalism, the theology that underlies the rapture. The video examines its profound flaws, including its bad theology, its defective hermeneutics (Bible interpretation), and its flawed understanding of the historical process.

The Responding to Allen Parr's "Are Catholics Considered Christians" playlist on YouTube examines Allen Parr's YouTube video "Are Catholics Considered Christians and What Are the Differences in Beliefs?" in detail, since it offers a standardized evangelical critique of Catholicism. We explore its distortion and misunderstanding of Church history and its misguided view of the Catholic Church and its theology. We also defend Catholicism in a number of areas in which Parr criticizes and often misrepresents the teaching of the Church:

• The doctrine of salvation: how a person gets to heaven.
• The authority of the Bible.
• The books of the Bible: whether they should be based on the Masoretic text or the Septuagint.
• Approaching God: whether we can approach God directly, or our relationship must be mediated by a priest.
• The existence of Purgatory.
• Prayers for the dead.
• Prayers to the dead.
• The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the doctrine of transubstantiation.
• The practice of infant baptism.

Mystagogy refers to the study of the revelation of Christ through the sacraments. These videos focus on the discussion of the sacraments of baptism, chrism (or confirmation), and the Eucharist in St. Cyril of Jerusalem's Mystagogical Lectures. St. Cyril was Bishop of Jerusalem from 348 to 386.

Sessions are available from the Mystagogy of St. Cyril of Jersualem playlist on the SJV Kirkland Adult Faith Formation channel on YouTube.