A Word from Our Outpost, with Joseph and Crystal Gruber

If there's one thing modern man has forgotten, it's how to celebrate.  We've probably forgotten more than that one thing, but it's a good place to start again ! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we...

it's a weird fact that, for laypeople, odds are good the only confessions they'll ever hear are their own. Priests get to hear quite a few more. So Joseph has his brother, Fr. Peter, on to talk through some practical tips for making a good confession, from a priest's perspective. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here...

Fr. Peter Gruber, CO, joins Joseph for an exploration of some core concepts that Fr. Peter has found time and again to be helpful for people seeking spiritual direction. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https:/...

We have some amount of choice over what streams in front of us. Are we happy with the streams we decide to plant ourselves by? Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we have...

In light the national call to give thanks this week, it's good to remember that thanksgiving is a command, and for good reason! Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we have...

If someone offered a longer life or a deeper life, which would you choose?  Unfortunately, we often choose a less-deep life without even the benefit of getting a longer life out of it... Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by click...

We live in an upside-down kind of world, with technology in our pockets that would amaze and astound any other generation, and we use it to feed the vice of curiositas... Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https:...

Most of us, when we think of the natural law, we're not thinking of how we're made to participate in transcendental realities...and yet, that's exactly what the natural law is about!  Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking...

Delighted to interview Catholic artist and former FOCUS missionary, Leanne Bowen! Check out her work at leannebowen.com ! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we have upcoming in terms of events here:...

Maybe just maybe, a lot of the Christian life makes more sense if we know that we're called to be saints...and if we know what saints are, too.   As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we have upcoming...

Maybe you've heard the line before: Pray, pay, and obey. Maybe the person saying it actually meant: Sit down and shut up.  But what if it meant exactly what it said? What if those were three excellent admonitions for our life as Catholic Christians? Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter li...

The proliferation of 'hate-speech' and the slinging of phobic-motivations seems to just continue to rise, and I think there are interesting reasons for that. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost....

Joseph Ratzinger, in a 2000 instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote on some of the reasons we suffer. Joseph goes over them, and adds a couple for good measure! https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20001123_istruzione_en.html As noted in the episode, knowing that there are reasons for suffering may not lessen the sufferi...

If we don't know the difference between meaning and purpose, we're liable to follow the world down a weird rabbit-hole of endless purposes with no meaning to ground them. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https:...

What if we took divinization seriously? What if our work, our thoughts, our feelings, were all meant to be divinized through and through? Andy Hickman, of Hēl, believes exactly that.  Check out his electrifying essay here! Check out opportunities to sample some of the work of hēl during the week of September 29th, 2025, here: https://hel.co/workshops/hel-week-experience-organization/   And check o...

A lot of people still talk about wanting things to be like the 1950s. Biggest problem with that? The 1950s not only weren't perfect, they were the set-up for the 1960s and everything that followed. So why not focus on the 2050s, and doing what we can to build something great on whatever is good right now? As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here !...

Through a bit of serendipity, Joseph recorded an episode about this coming Sunday's gospel, without realizing it until afterward! The reading can be found here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090725.cfm Catholic husbands, check out a five-part series designed for you! https://youroutpost.stellarwebsystems.com/join?euuid=a0e6e22a-7d33-11f0-b441-16ffeab70ea9 As always,  support our work...

There's a very cliched understanding of wanting to study the Bible the way that Jacob wrestled with God...which I wrestle with a little bit in this episode... As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we h...

Apostolicam Actuositatem says we ought to have a certain human and well-rounded formation before being trained for the apostolate...and yet so often spiritual, intellectual, and practical formation for the apostolate is offered to people with no regard to their human formation. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here !...

I interview Benjamin Stenlund, former FOCUS missionary, current husband/father/craftsman, both about his time as a full-time missionary and what he's been up to since!  Find his work at https://www.benjaminstenlund.com/ As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by...

One of the coolest lines from Proverbs describes what Wisdom has been doing from the beginning: "[T]hen I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race" (Proverbs 8:30-31). Wisdom's playfulness and delight model for us a holy call to play in this world, even amongst its seriousness. List...

Wherein Joseph and Crystal host Mike and Alicia Hernon from the Messy Family Project . As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by clicking here: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/ see what we have upcoming in terms of events here: https://ouroutpost.org/events/ sen...

Saint Paul's letter to the Galatians is a wild ride, and in between discussions about circumcision, kosher laws, and St. Peter making a fool of himself, is a section on what it is to be free.  Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other podcast, Love Your Marriage, by...

This is a talk we gave at Wright State University in Dayton in the spring of 2024-- it's a brief overview of some basic principles for Catholic singles on how to date like a Catholic. For those who miss Crystal on the podcast, this is a delightful taste of the back-and-forth that is our life! If you go back to the mid-60s of our podcast, you'll find an 8-part series that'll go more in-depth on the...

There's an epidemic of loneliness out there, a crisis of friendlessness, a dearth of relationships...and there doesn't have to be. The solution to so many problems begins with making an invitation, and letting people make a free response to it. That requires both the invitation, and a holy detachment from the result. Listen in to find out more! As always,  support our work by going here ! joi...