A Word from Our Outpost, with Joseph and Crystal Gruber

In discussing God, there's always more to be said. But we get a conversation going about a pretty incredible paragraph of the Second Vatican Council's document, Ad Gentes . https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html Hopefully, it spurs on good conversation for you and your friends! As I'm writing this description, I'm thinking...

By now, most people are somewhat aware of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But how aware are we of the stories being told in the MCU and their effect on us? What level of storytelling are we listening for? How does watching movies figure into being a missionary outpost? Listen in as we discuss those questions in the context of breaking down the 2011 classic MCU movie, Thor ! Joseph has only been wai...

It's been a while since we dove into Scripture together, so here we are! Ephesians is an incredible letter, and we spend some time talking through one of our favorite parts of it!  Some links for you! --Catholic Dating Foundations: https://ouroutpost.org/formation/ --Email list sign-up where you also get an essay on Chastity and Beauty that Joseph wrote: ouroutpost.org/chastity --Our survey: https...

The dating world has gotten...messy? Awful? Confusing? Heart-breaking?  And it doesn't have to be that way. We (Joseph and Crystal) have been teaching Catholic young adults (that weird category of over-18-and-under-40-but-what-we-really-mean-is-unmarried-Catholics) how to date for many years, and now we want to offer our formation to you! We've seen happier, holier marriages as a result, but most...

Turns out, sin is bad. But in what ways is it bad? I think some people have heard that sin "darkens the intellect, weakens the will, and disorders the passions", but how often do we think about what that looks like, in practice? For a great secular treatment of sin, check out the book "Leadership and Self-Deception"!   Here's the link to the survey to help us know who you are and how we can better...

Alright, we didn't do a good job counting the different things about hopes and dreams that we talked about in this episode, but we offer it to you, our listeners, in the hope that it spawns many more than four things about hopes and dreams discussed among you and your friends. Here's the link to the survey to help us know who you are and how we can better serve you! It should only take a minute or...

Classically, there are four stages of growth in the moral life, as well as in the acquisition of any habit/skill. Knowing what they are, and going in with our eyes wide open, makes growth a much less intimidating notion.   Find out more about the Chesterton Academy of St. George here: www.castgeorge.com --It's opening next week!!   As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly...

When we learn something, how are we disposed to receive it? We talk about 4 basic stances we can take toward learning, and why it's important. 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...

Recently, a brother-in-law came to visit and brought a trunk full of power tools. In the course of a weekend, we knocked out a number of projects that have been hanging over our heads for the past year.  This seemed like a really rich image for so many challenges that face us in life-- we have some idea of what needs to be done, but until we have the tools, and have seen them used, and even asked...

Hello, dear listener! We've been podcasting for a few years now, and we'd love a chance to learn who, exactly, we've been talking to! If you have our phone numbers, please let us know that you're one of our listeners, and what it is you listen for. If you don't have our numbers, please email us at hello@ouroutpost.org and let us know who you are, what you listen for, and what you'd like to hear mo...

Meeting people is hard. Having worthwhile discussions with them is harder. Doing so in an environment where neither one of us can really escape is harder still, and that's the crux of the problem with reaching out to one's neighbor. It's never urgent, always important, and just difficult enough to delay and delay and delay. As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriag...

This is the second of two classes that Joseph taught to new missionaries this summer. Ignatian contemplation, or the imaginative entering into a scene of scripture, is a classic way to pray, and we hope that this helps you! 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,...

This past month, Joseph was invited to summer training for the missionaries of FOCUS to teach two classes on prayer. This is his class on lectio divina.   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...

For our last batch of questions, we answer some heavy-hitters: What are healthy expectations to have in terms of a man's leadership in a dating and married relationship? How can I as a woman encourage the leadership of a man and communicate my desires without being controlling or overstep? Joseph, you realized that you could not just attend to your wife's needs of pleasure and making her feel good...

Crystal brings on a friend, Kate Gallimore, to talk about children and how to love them, about suffering, and no one knows what else!  Literally. I haven't listened to the episode yet, so I'll know as much as you do when we all decide to press play and listen to these two friends talk. Crystal told me that it was about loving our children well, and also about suffering, and then about some other t...

To continue honoring our commitment to answer all of the questions asked on a recent retreat, here is another segment of us answering questions about dating! We recommend listening to at least the overview of dating that we did a couple episodes ago, or for the ambitious, the whole 8-part series on dating we did back in the 60s and 70s (of episodes, not decades).  Here are the questions we address...

Here are the questions we answered, all having something to do with before getting into a romantic relationship: -If women should usually go on a date when asked, should men also ask women out when they see that a woman is interested? -If a woman is very clearly interested in you. and you don't want to ask her out on a date, what does the conversation look like of communicating this to her? -What...

A bit ago, we went up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to lead a retreat. This retreat was called "Dating, Like a Catholic". I think some people were confused a bit about why a Catholic retreat would be on the topic of dating. If we think that there is such a thing as the sacrament of matrimony, though, then a retreat on dating is a little bit like sacramental prep.  We had given this same retre...

Every once in a while, it's good to step back and to examine why we do what we do, and how we do it. Getting together with people and studying the Bible seems, at face value, a good thing to do (provided one is either Christian or interested in the questions raised in Christianity). Refining the why and the how  is a way to make a good thing better, and possibly will also serve to reinvigorate int...

How does truth propagate in the world? How can it stand up to the manifold errors that assail it? How can we come to distinguish truth from error in a whole philosophy, a whole way of living? In two words, personal influence. In more than  two words, this podcast episode! Joseph's brother, Fr. Peter, was in town, and had just given a talk on this topic to Catholic students at Hillsdale College, so...

'Way back  in the mid-30s of this podcast, we released five episodes on the college campus as an institution built for building a community of scholars, and how it was well-built to also be a place of evangelization (little wonder, as it is at its root a Catholic institution...). Recently, Joseph had a chance to condense those ideas and give a talk to real live college students. This is that talk,...

We're hopefully just days away from moving into our new house, so please excuse the repeated episode! We think it's still good and applicable! The original description: "I'd like to think I'm a good listener. In fact, let me tell you a story about me being a great listener...rather than actually listen to you." It's an oft-experienced phenomenon-- we start to think maybe genuine sharing of selves...

Ladies and gentlemen, we're 3/4 of the way through our reposting of our series on vulnerability. Then we hope to be back to our contemporary-yet-still-timeless content habit of posting fresh content. But we had a baby two months ago, and bought a house six weeks ago, and are milking both of those excuses this month... It's vulnerable to share with someone. It's also vulnerable to be the one receiv...

About 40 episodes and almost a year ago, we sat down and did a 3-part series on vulnerability. We're re-publishing them over the three weeks that we're in the middle of now! Joseph recently went back and listened to the first one, and liked it enough that he decided to re-share it and its siblings with the world. As an aside, we're still not quite back to where we can reliably record an episode to...

About 40 episodes and almost a year ago, we sat down and did a 3-part series on vulnerability. We'll be re-publishing them over the next 3 weeks! Joseph recently went back and listened to the first one, and liked it enough that he decided to re-share it and its siblings with the world. As an aside, we're still not quite back to where we can reliably record an episode together with a new baby aroun...