A Word from Our Outpost, with Joseph and Crystal Gruber

We're speaking animals. It's a defining attribute. Yet when I look at how I speak, I realize that I could be better. This episode proposes  a way to become a better speaker (and yes, it has to do with God. Everything to do with God, actually. It also was an excuse to do some Marvel voices. Not MCU-Marvel, just comics-book-Marvel...) (and yes, this is another episode that is doubling as practice fo...

Recording an episode with a newborn is slightly trickier than we remembered from last time, so fortunately Joseph's brother Jacob was coming through town, and stopped to record an episode with Joseph! We use as a launching point two paragraphs from Plato's Phaedrus, reproduced here, including the bit that the title of this episode alludes to at the end of the quote: "At the Egyptian city of Naucra...

Failure is a funny thing-- very few people like it, but it can teach us so much if we let it. I suppose this is inspired in part by Carol Dweck's book Mindset , but it's also inspired by the Christian life and the virtue of hope and the virtue of humility. And it's short-- I'm still wondering if shorter episodes are the way to go, or episodes like last week that went over an hour are more the way...

This time, the shownotes are going to be much more like a works cited page and less a description. This is in part because we've got a newborn to tend to, and in part because Jacob and I referenced a lot of things. But as a general overview, Joseph read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad recently, and started talking to Jacob over the phone about some ideas related to both that book and Catholic social te...

Before you get too far, know that this episode is predicated upon you listening to episode 106, "The Catholic Church and Conversion" . So if you haven't listened to that one, please do so! It's taken from Chesterton's book by that name, and is quite good. We're back for a longer-length episode this time, with an unpremeditated discussion of some of Chesterton's best work. I say 'unpremeditated' be...

Holy leisure-- what is it and why do it? We did a short little video for something else, and as noted on other episodes, we are very close to holding the baby that's been residing in Crystal's womb. So we thought you wouldn't mind hearing something short and to the point and includes both of us!   I'm reading through Dietrich von Hildebrand's Ethics with some people, and it's just plain good. Von...

I've heard a lot of different ways people talk about conversion, but there's something about the three stages that Chesterton outlines from his own conversion that I very much appreciate and have seen in many stories. He captures in his inimitable style some aspects of the path of conversion that I don't hear spoken of elsewhere. So I decided to just read passages from Chesterton wherein he descri...

In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment. He answers with not only the greatest commandment, but also with the one that follows it, and then follows that with the whole apparatus for handing those commandments down to others. Anytime Jesus tells us something is the greatest, or best, or first, it should probably give us reason to listen more attentively. These commandments to...

Wherein we discuss the differences between heroes, mentors, and coaches, and why we need them...and a bit about becoming them. If we want to become better, one of the easiest ways is to stand on the shoulders of giants. There seem to be three basic ways to benefit from other people's journeys-- have them teach us what they did, have them coax out of us our own way forward, or simply have them as a...

It's a confusing story, dark, even. Jesus takes a look at a fig tree, finds it to be unsatisfying, and curses it, after which it withers and dies.  Is it the story of a capricious and arbitrary God-man smiting something that doesn't go His way? Or can we read it in its context as a story in Holy Week that deepens our understanding of Who Jesus is, what He comes to do, and how He is going to accomp...

Very simply, "data" comes from the Latin "dare", meaning to give.  Data is that which is given. With that in our back pocket, we can let that change how we approach the world, each other, and, yes, our relationship with God. 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...

There's a lot in G.K. Chesterton's essay, "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family", and we set out to discuss some of it in this episode! From the reserved style, to the fear of the other, to the problem of evil, to our sincere desire to sit and talk with Chesterton himself, our conversation on this essay was freeform, a free-for-all, and free for all.  A book that is mentione...

Free will, clubs, cliques, modernity, family, community, weakness, perspective-- all of these things are covered in G.K. Chesterton's wonderful essay "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family". For our 100th episode, we go back and forth reading it aloud for you. You can find the text here (and I copy/pasted it below as well): http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/heretics/ch14.html J...

Reading changes us. Why not choose who we want to change us, and read their works? Several things to note for this episode: Yes, this is another episode that doubles as me practicing for a Toastmasters meeting; Yes, I could have mentioned the Bible in both this episode and in Toastmasters, but didn't, and fought myself on that one. For one, I think there are some people who are intimidated by read...

'Compatibility' often sounds rather bland. Sure, it seems important in a relationship, whether romantic or platonic, that there be some level of compatibility. But without understanding the levels of compatibility, it's really difficult to assess it, or find it, or achieve it. This episode explores the depths and the heights of compatibility.  The book referenced is Liturgy and Personality by Diet...

Crystal informed Joseph just before we recorded that there's a song that goes, "Make new friends, but keep the old-- one is silver and the other is gold." We don't sing it on this episode, but we stole part of the first line for the title! Meeting new people can seem scary, or uncomfortable, or in our perilous times, downright dangerous and life-threatening. But it isn't usually that bad. We talk...

We were delighted to sit down and talk with Maclaine Capshew, an Instagrammer and Catholic missionary, to discuss the role of social media in evangelization. We try not to use our medium to talk about the medium of podcasting, but every once in a while, it's good to step back and examine the structure that all of this is resting on.  This is one of our longer episodes, and quite clearly, there's m...

Holy Week is busy. Here's a short episode! Fundamentally, there seem to be two reasons to climb a tree. Listen in to find out more!  If the show notes are much longer, they'll be longer than the episode! Please do feel free to share and rate and review our podcast. This one might be especially fun to share!                       Full disclosure-- Joseph recently joined Toastmasters, a speech-givin...

Jesus gives five major sermons in Matthew's Gospel-- the sermon on the mount, the sending of the twelve, the parables, this sermon in Matthew 18, and a final one with a lot of woe and destruction. Of the five, I think we know which one gets the most talked about, and it rhymes with the merman on the fount. But this sermon, Matthew 18, is worth a look at too. In it, Jesus lays out what we should ex...

This is a controversial topic in Catholic circles, and we try to treat the topic fairly and as fully as we can. Because it touches on questions of life and love and marriage and children and decisions in the past as well as decisions in the present and future, we ask that you listen with an open mind and heart.  Catholic couples sometimes approach natural family planning (NFP) with an odd mindset,...

When Pope Paul VI wrote Humanae Vitae , he flabbergasted the world, especially parts of the Catholic world. Many expected him to signal a change to almost-two-thousand years of Catholic teaching regarding human sexuality, and when he didn't bend, he faced widespread rejection and ridicule.  Despite the reception, the encyclical itself is a beautiful presentation of the call of married couples to r...

There's a controversial topic in some Catholic circles-- NFP-- Natural Family Planning. Some Catholics think it's just like contraception, so wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Some Catholics think it's a lot harder than the contraceptives they're using, so wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Or so we've noticed... This isn't an episode on that. Instead, it's a step or two before that topic...

We felt like we had some missing pieces in our last episode, and so we called in a ringer-- Fr. Steven Oetjen.  We talk about his experience in learning the liturgy of the hours, as well as a couple of meta-lessons in learning.  We also talk a bit about controversial parts of the Psalms that are currently not part of the Psalter.  And ultimately, we talk about not just the benefits, but the deepes...

If you've ever looked at other religions and thought, "Man, I wish we had set times where we would stop whatever we were doing and joined in a communal prayer," then have we got a Christian prayer for you! If you've ever wanted a way to pray through (most of) the Psalms over the course of four weeks, have we got a prayer for you! If you've ever wanted to pray with a spouse or a roommate or housema...

Did you ever wonder why the Bible comes with a song-book in the middle?  It didn't have to. In fact, people were Israelites and worshipped God without an official songbook for some time before David came along. Looking at the Psalms as gratuitous can be helpful for us to foster gratitude and avoid taking them for granted.   As always,  support our work by going here ! join the monthly marriag...