A Word from Our Outpost, with Joseph and Crystal Gruber

Does it ever feel like the world is against building up true community? Depending on where you live, the world around you might truly be physically constructed to be antithetical to building true community. So you're not crazy that it's hard!   We talk about suburbia, zoning, the rise of the automobile, and the desire to have so little "not in my backyard" that we just don't have anything in our b...

In 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote an apostolic exhortation called Evangelii Nuntiandi , or Evangelization in the Modern World . He asks 3 burning, important questions, so Joseph shares them and comments on them a bit! The full encyclical can be found here: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi.html As always,  support our wor...

Joseph and Deacon Jacob finish their discussion of the book of Job! Apparently there's a hugely significant pattern to life with God that is both good to recognize and good to live out!  Again, the scholar we rely on quite a bit is Jon D. Levenson. As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here ! catch our other pod...

Joseph's seminarian brother, Deacon Jacob, hopped on a call to talk about the book of Job-- in part because it's featured in the Liturgy of Hours' Office of Readings right now, in part because it's an intriguing book, and in part because Deacon Jacob wrote a paper on the book of Job this past semester. The main thrust of his argument flows from the scholar Jon D. Levenson. We went a little long, s...

Jesus gave us three great loves for our lives-- God, neighbor, and self. But what does love of self mean?  Listen in to find out more!   Please feel free to review, rate, and share 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://ou...

We had a delightful time reconnecting with Andrew Reinhart, who is doing really great work both in Toledo, OH and in the podcasting world with his podcast "Physically Spiritual." His work is predominantly to explore the links between health and holiness, and to help others to become truly gift. His story is both intriguing and instructive. His website is here: https://www.becominggift.com/ and his...

When we talk about evangelization, what images come to mind? Going door to door, or hosting an event? Talking to a stranger at a coffee shop, or standing behind a table and handing out coffee to passers-by? There's a fundamental difference between the kind of evangelization that says, "We're here, if anybody's interested!" and the kind that says, "You're here! I'm interested!" Anyway, we talk abou...

It's likely a truism that the statements "This is difficult" and "This is easy" are the two sides of most endeavors-- the beginning and the state of mastery. But instead of seeing difficult things as invitations to the journey toward mastery, we (and perhaps others) often recoil from the difficulty.  We talk about beginnings, and beginning well, and setting ourselves up for success in this episode...

Holy matrimony is a pretty great thing. We think so, and it seems like God does too, what with blessing it with a three-fold blessing and all. In this episode, we talk about how there's an evangelical dimension of each of the blessings of marriage-- procreation/education of children, fidelity, and the sacrament itself, or as St. Augustine put it, proles, fides, et sacramentum. We reference Humanae...

The famous atheistic/Nietzchean cry that God is dead, and we killed him, is lived liturgically from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. But from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday, we can live liturgically through a strange period of agnosticism alongside Thomas the Apostle.  While we'd love to say that arguments for the divinity of Christ and the historicity of the Resurrection are airtight, and defi...

Are we taking time to be leisurely? Are we free to study the true, good, and beautiful? Are we liberated enough to spend time on the liberal arts? Or are we stuck in a consumer culture that pushes a sterile curiosity? All this and more on this episode!   Joseph referenced a book by Paul Griffiths, called Intellectual Appetite. We recommend it!   https://www.cuapress.org/9780813216867/intellectual-...

Just some thoughts about Holy Week from Joseph and Crystal Gruber.   Feel free to reach out to us a hello@ouroutpost.org, and while we're still getting other resources put together, there's a mostly-complete course on dating like a Catholic that you can check out here: dating.ouroutpost.org   Happy Holy Week! As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership he...

Joseph listened to a Catholic/Protestant debate about sola scriptura recently, and was struck by how both sides seemed detached from the Catholic sensibility about where scripture comes from. The quote he shared is from G.K. Chesterton's The Catholic Church and Conversion :   https://ignatius.com/the-catholic-church-and-conversion-ccacp/?gclid=CjwKCAjwq-WgBhBMEiwAzKSH6ES1t3UdpbJ9Q_ysbl-J-FpQminmh2...

Is fasting good for us more than just spiritually? Is that even a question, and is Joseph just a gnostic at heart?  Crystal has been reading a book about the health benefits of fasting, which prompted today's episode.  We reference the book Eat, Fast, Feast by Jay Richards: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/eat-fast-feast-jay-w-richards?variant=32207678439458  As an aside, we also referenced...

The most perfect prayer, taught by the perfect Teacher, is the Our Father. But we're not perfect pray-ers, and it's worth taking some time to look at the prayer taught by Christ and see what lessons we still have to learn from it.  Because, guaranteed, none of us are able to pray the Our Father with our desires rightly ordered, yet. St. Augustine wrote, "The entire life of a good Christian is in f...

https://www.etymonline.com/word/alms#etymonline_v_10906 Apparently, the word almsgiving comes from the Greek word for mercy. Who knew? Our pastor knew. So he told us that on Ash Wednesday, and Joseph has been thinking of that off and on for the past week.  In other news, you can always reach us at hello@ouroutpost.org, and we welcome your correspondence! We're starting a new ministry, so please ke...

On February 1st, we started to work full-time on Our Outpost-- we're just trying to awaken an authentic Catholic culture through holy matrimony. That's it. This episode, we thought we'd tell you a bit more about that, and why we feel called to work on it, and to give you a preview of things to come. Check out our website at www.ouroutpost.org  And you can check out our funding page at https://www....

Judging people. It's easy to do, easy to justify, and yet, somehow, it's still probably not all that good for us or for others. So we talk about judging others, and why we might judge people, and what we can do to ameliorate our judgy-ness.  Bonus-- Crystal is back!  As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriage membership here ! join our email newsletter list here !...

3 young men are thrown into a fiery furnace, 3 young men walk out. What happened while they were there? How does it prepare the way to understand the Crucifixion? How does it dispose our hearts to bear suffering?  Joseph and Deacon Jacob sit down to figure it out! The full chapter can be found here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/3 If you'd like Deacon Jacob Gruber's full paper, find the pdf...

Advent is almost over, and I for one don’t feel like I did a great job getting into the spirit. But what is the spirit of Advent? And what are other thoughts that I have about it? Listen in to find out more!   If you're a Catholic single, check out the course we've put together on dating like a Catholic: dating.ouroutpost.org If you're married, we'll be coming out with content for you in the new y...

In the Illinois Capital Rotunda, there are a series of religious displays currently out-- most significantly, a menorah, a Nativity scene, and a display for Sol Invictus that includes a crocheted serpent around crocheted apples and a copy of Copernicus' "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres". I've heard the story mentioned a few places, and wanted to offer three notes that I've not been hear...

We had the great honor to be invited to be SEEK podcasters this year! This is the episode we recorded to also go out on the SEEK23 podcast , where you can also find other sponsored podcasts as well as recordings from previous conferences! SEEK is a 5-day Catholic conference in St. Louis, this January 2-6. We'll be there, with all of our kids, and it would be delightful to see you there as well! Fi...

If you've never read anything by Frank Sheed, we have two recommendations for you right off the bat- Theology for Beginners , and Theology and Sanity ! Joseph wanted to talk about an insight Frank Sheed had in Theology and Sanity, about how original man was gifted with not only a helpmate for the work of the world, but also a helpmate for the work of worship. Our neighbor, our spouse, our friends,...

Sometimes we lose a little perspective. Sometimes we miss the things that are right in front of our faces. Hopes and dreams are very good things-- granted! But for those raising a family, or hoping to raise a family, it's worth taking a step back and weighing which is the greater good: a particular dream, or the reality of what marriage and family call forth from us? Sometimes we hear in Catholic...

We dive into another paragraph of Vatican II's decree Ad Gentes (found here: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html) This one is all about the laity and our role in the Church. Turns out, if we're not living out our faith in the world, the Church won't grow-- but if we do live out our faith in the world, that opens up the...