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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!

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.  

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. So what did you do? How do you care for her deeper needs? How do you grow in Divine Intimacy together as a dating couple and married couple? The book that I mention is called Turn the Ship Around, by L. David Marquet: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/314163/turn-the-ship-around-by-l-david-marquet/

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 things, so that is going to be the description! Kate Gallimore's blog can be found here: https://thefamilygal.wordpress.com/

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: How does future tripping play into an active romantic relationship?  Is it appropriate to plan into the future with your significant other, if yes what does that look like? What does emotional chastity look like in a relationship? How do my boyfriend and I create and seek common interests? How can my boyfriend and I encourage a continual conversion of heart in each other? It's good to be back to regular podcasting! For those for whom dating is not a pressing topic, consider sharing these episodes with friends for whom it is pressing, and rest assured that we will finish up with all of the dating questions after next week! Next week's questions will include a couple of heavy hitters!

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 do you do if you ask a girl out and she doesn't give a clear response? -What if you've never been asked out and worry that it will never happen? -How do we help our friends not future trip when they have feelings for someone? -What do you do when you have a crush on someone else and a guy asks you out? it feels like a disservice to the guys who do have the courage to ask you out... -Can you still pursue a long-term relationship with someone who doesn't have Christ in their life?

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 retreat 3.5 years ago, in the fall of 2018. We weren't sure how well it was received back then. Freshmen from that retreat are now seniors, and some of them came to this retreat with their fiances! So we're hopeful that it was received even better this time around! We reference prior episodes a fair bit in this one: episodes 65 through 73 (skipping one of the episodes that was an interview with Dr. Scott Powell) are our episodes on dating. This current episode is meant to be a kind of compendium of those episodes, and is to be a precursor to episodes wherein we'll unpack some of the questions we received at the retreat. So if you like this episode, feel free to jump back to episode 63 and listen from there for a while. And also, if you like this episode, feel free to rate and review the podcast, and share it with a friend!

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 interest is something that may have been left behind in one's life.  I reference Augustine's "On the Catechizing of the Uninstructed", which is a delightful overview of both pedagogy and salvation history, and can be found here: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1303.htm   We hope to get back into the regular swing of things on our podcast soon. One of the wrinkles is that I started a weekly radio show with a friend, which currently can only be found on-air at our local Catholic radio station and on soundcloud, here:  https://goodshepherdcatholicradio.org/radio-show/two-master-of-theology/

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 we dove in and discussed  the main ideas. The sermon of Newman's that we're pulling from the most--"Personal Influence as the Means of Propagating the Faith"-- as well as essentially everything else St. John Henry Newman ever published, can be found here: https://newmanreader.org/   More information about the classical high school that Joseph is helping to start in Jackson, MI, can be found here: https://www.castgeorge.com/   Joseph took a quick look for the image of Diogenes on a world full of torches, and couldn't find it. He definitely heard it in his philosophy of science class in undergrad to underscore the issue of finding a scientific paradigm that could really go the distance, and it stuck with him since then, but he can't recall if it was in Thomas Kuhn's work on scientific paradigms, or if it was just a fun image the professor  had cooked up.  

'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, with a few deletions where either there was more audience interaction or where Joseph misspoke. There was a powerpoint going on throughout. Hopefully the clicking noise doesn't bother you. Here's a link to the powerpoint to make up for the clicking: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19SDXnLfkBKvsmGgkNAk3xH3_rtaeC_Xp/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109347061461753442400&rtpof=true&sd=true  We just moved into a new house, and our baby is starting to sleep more, so I'm hopeful we'll have more of the Joseph and Crystal dynamism soon! In the meanwhile, please feel free to rate and review the podcast and share this episode. It may not appeal to you in your state in life, but you may know people that it could appeal to!

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 is about to happen, and then out of nowhere, we throw up a roadblock to real intimacy.  It's good to know about these roadblocks, and why they hinder real, meaningful conversations, so we share three of them. We referenced another pretty heavily in the third part of the vulnerability series, and that one is the giving of advice (when not asked for).  They're not always bad, and sometimes even good, but when we habitually turn a conversation into a storytime, or start praising someone evaluatively, or start reassuring them, we're thoughtlessly turning conversations into discussions about ourselves, our opinions, and our convictions, rather than giving the other a chance to share their side.  If you'd like to hear about more of them, let us know, or check out where we got them from: We're pulling from a book called People Skills, by Robert Bolton: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BFXAS0/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 It's a good book. It's not perfect, but it's ok.

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 receiving someone, and to avoid that discomfort, we tend to practice poor listening skills. Actually taking the time and energy to hear someone may take practice, but it's effort that is worth it. Also, we talk at the end about how a certain Catholic practice tells us what receiving people should look like, ideally.

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 together with a new baby around... The episode's original description is below: What is most vulnerable about you? Probably what is most vulnerable about me, or any other human. We know each others' weak spots, because we know where we are weak. We name a fair number of them, though we don't pretend to having the exhaustive list. These are the things we talk about amongst people we trust, and the things we hide from people we don't.  

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 around... The episode's original description is below: Wherein we talk about the need for vulnerability in relationships, and talk a bit about what vulnerability is. Being human means we stand in relationship with others. In so standing, we are capable of being hurt. That capacity to be hurt is the risk we take in being in a relationship.  This isn't to say that the reason to be in a relationship is to get hurt, but if we were un-hurt-able, we'd also be untouchable, and ultimately un-love-able. Here is the link to the Brene Brown TED talk: https://youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o

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 for my Toastmasters speech.)   The one quote is from paragraph 22 of Gaudium et Spes: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html

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 Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality."   With that as the launching point, you can imagine that our discussion was quite lively. I imagine that were you to use this passage as a launching point, your discussions would be lively as well! Feel free to rate, review, share, and subscribe to this podcast. In so doing, you may be aiding in the reclamation of wonder and conversation in our world.

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 we ought to go. Shorter episodes are much easier to record and edit and upload, but I enjoy our longer conversations.  Regardless, we'll see how I manage the next few weeks while Crystal continues to recuperate from having grown and birthed a person. 

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 teaching, and then asked Jacob if he'd hold his thoughts for a few days so we could record them. And here we are! Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII-- this is the one Jacob recommended everyone read and Joseph seconds that idea Caritas in Veritate by Pope Benedict XVI Nov. 18 2018 General Audience with Pope Francis Laborem Exercens by Pope John Paul II Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin And then another good intro to the idea of subsidiarity: https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/solidarity

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' because Crystal and I often touch base about major points we'd like to discuss, and I pressed the 'record' button before we had a chance to do so, because recording with a full-term-plus-four-days woman is a chancy thing, not to be delayed. And I say 'best work' because I think he hit upon something about conversion that so many atheists and agnostics see, and so many cultural Christians/cradle Catholics miss, which is that it's a terrifying thing to say yes to something as bold as the claims of the Catholic Church. And I say 'discussion' because there were times neither of us were quite sure where we were going, but we were glad to keep going until we got there. Anywho, we hope you enjoy!

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 Hildebrand definitely  influenced this episode. Probably my life as well. http://www.hildebrandproject.org/literature/ethics As does Josef Pieper continue to influence me (Leisure: The Basis of Culture -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AYEYFQG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0 )