MMM...Locusts!

We wrap up Season 2 with a potpourri of topics. What will Season 3 have in store?...

We welcome Bridget from Saint Teresa of Kolkata parish in Pittsburgh. And we talk. About stuff. Y'know, as we do.

Rob needs a big ol' hug after taking the Jordan Peterson Personality Test.

In the biggest show of our storied careers, we welcome special guest Father Jay Donahue, who regales us with tales of priesthood, philosophy, and guacamole. Y'know... the big three.

More stuff during stay-at-home time.

Recorded via Skype. Because, social distancing.

Full disclosure—the title of this show is basically clickbait. This is an episode we actually recorded back in December (at the time of this release, it's now March), and we do talk a little about vaping at the beginning of it. Beyond that, who knows. I didn't have the patience to listen the whole way through to determine what it was ultimately about. God bless y'all for sticking with us. So, if you can figure out an actual topic for this episode... I guess you win.

Among many other things, Rob talks about his recent trip to Brazil. We experimented with this episode by livestreaming it to Facebook so it's a little rough and unfocused. In other words, there's no difference from our usual efforts.

As of this recording (March 12, 2020), the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic is just getting ramped up here in the Pittsburgh area, and we talk about some of the weirdness surrounding that. But as a counterbalance, Jesus tells us a BUNCH of times in Scripture not to worry! Thanks, Jesus!

Talkin' 'bout cults and stuff. Then some Catholic statistics, and finally some statistics about YOU, our own dear listeners.

Since we have such a limited depth of knowledge, and we're easily distracted by shiny objects, we talk about demons some more. And something about a pigeon wearing a sombrero. As you do.

We welcome back Christine McLean, cradle Catholic and friend of the show, to talk about the dangers of new-age spirituality, specifically the pseudo-therapy called Reiki. Y'know, auras and chakras and mantras (oh my!) and stuff. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before Rob tried to do yoga.

Give it up, yo.

We welcome special guest Christine McLean, cradle Catholic and friend of the show, to start the discussion of a long list of faith-related topics she (and we) feel are worth discussing, but which the MMM...Locusts! crew knows little about! As usual, our buffoonery means we barely get started before the show is over. That's our fault, not Christine's. And when we say "our fault," we mean Mike.

Given a somewhat diverse array of topics from Rob to discuss, Lee and Mike pick "The Demon House," which probably ends up not being about what either of them thought it was. But if you've listened to this show for any length of time, you're used to disappointment by now.

Mike and Rob dive into a movie review of the Joker. What is all the hype? Is the movie not appropriate for Christians? Find out Mike and Rob's opinion. Warning: If you haven't seen the movie yet, you are going to here a lot of spoilers.

All three of us became Catholic as adults, and so had to change or let go some ideas about faith we had prior to embracing Catholicism. What were some of them? How did we do it? Frankly, a better question might be, 'How do we resolve still being human pieces of crap with the faith we profess?' Maybe another day...

What the title says. We play a Christian version of the ever-popular "Would You Rather?" game.

What sorts of secrets do the fearsome, deep, dark recesses of sub-Reddit beneath sub-Reddit hold? Only Mike knows for sure. Explore with us now some Catholic-themed questions he discovered while spelunking there. Be afraid. We are.

This is another one of those "where's it going?" episodes. We start off talking tennis, head into the differences between hard rock and heavy metal, and then? You'll have to listen to find out.

We already know what happens when two great, complimentary minds get together and compare notes—great discussions. But what happens when you run one of those discussions through the filter of three dull, directionless "intellects"? Click PLAY to find out.

Never heard of acedia? You're not alone. Sometimes referred to as "the noonday devil," it describes a state of not caring about your condition in the world, especially spiritually. Boy howdy, do we ever suffer from this! And true to form, we barely talk about it. Come listen!

Weirdly, Mike & Rob wanted to counter their "sans Lee" episode by doing a show entirely ABOUT Lee. So, whatever. This one is full of nonsense and singing. We'll get around to doing "A Show About Mike" and "A Show About Rob" as well. Now you're hooked, aren't you?

As our digital age moves increasingly toward live streaming all content, all the time, who determines what's appropriate for public consumption, and how do they monitor/edit it? The bigger question, really, is how does this show fool them into allowing its distribution? Because we'll obviously fall short on any sort of quality metric.

"Sans" is French for "without." So, this episode was Rob & Mike, doin' their thing.

Whew! Talk about right in our wheelhouse. We go to town talkin' about doin' science and whatnot, and theology, and biology and biography and bibliography and all kinds of big words we know exactly what they mean. Preach.

Yes, we step away from our roles as chatty Catholic converts to do a little role playing in a mythical, medieval milieu. Enter Lee's dungeon realm with Mike (Torgo the Half-Orc) and Rob (Ximxur the Elf) and discover how many things you can wear as a hat when you have a rope. And no, that statement will NOT make any more sense to you after you've listened to the episode.

Two of the great voices of the Catholic Church today—theologian Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and new media guru Bishop Robert Barron—recently released letters addressing the abuse scandals. We take their prayerful, intelligent, well-reasoned, hope-filled missives and dumb them down to our level, which is seldom a good thing. But hey, we mean well.

Have you heard about this new abortion law hullabaloo setting the American South on fire? As Christians—specifically Catholics—we know what the Church teaches about abortion. But do specific circumstances (rape, incest) alter the argument? Listen to us try to sound intelligent about the whole thing. Then, we talk about doubt. Surprise, all Christians struggle with doubt now and then! I mean, they do, right? Right? Uh...

We continue our discussion of Mike's—er, that is—a Christian's ideals of the key steps around what it takes to be a joyful person. To reprimand our own frequent bouts of stupidity, we included hot salsa for comments that fail to contribute to spiritual growth. This salsa's hotter than Mike, Rob and Lee, so to the average listener, it is likely "mild."

Space aliens are our higher power? Taking drugs can help you channel God? These are crazy ideas, but they are being shared on the internet. The MMM...Locusts! team has fun with the topic but also shares what Catholic leaders are doing to obtain a true connection to the higher power. It's a recommended workout for the spiritual mind.Link to the rules discussed in this episode:https://www.mmmlocusts.com/2019/05/04/rules-for-catholic-life/

Are you kidding? That's a wrap? Yep. Season 1 of the MMM...Locusts! podcast has come to a close. God bless you all and thank you for listening! We do a li'l retrospective here of some of our favorite show moments from the last year, and we look ahead to what's in store for Season 2! Well, Lee & Rob do. Mike phones it in.

Pardon our dust, as we move into our new digs! And pardon the echo/feedback, as the episode gets underway. We're like n00bs again, lol. Anyway, this time we talk a bit about our most recent hiking trip, and the lessons we learned about God out there in the lonely wilderness. And stuff.

How does our Catholic faith form our consciences when it comes to voting, public opinion, or simply the way we deal with our fellow human beings? How do we know who to support as representatives and leaders in a world that has become largely detached from the concept of Absolute Truth? Wow, that's a lot of words.

Witches and Wiccans and Pagans, oh my! This Halloween week, we talk about what the heck Wicca is. Is it evil? Is it harmless? Is it the anti-Catholicism? Damned if we know. (See what we did there?) As a bit of side trivia, we recorded this episode using Google Hangout, all warm and snuggly in our jammies in the warm confines of each of our own homes. Lee's dog, Anya, makes a special guest appearance. You can watch the livestream of this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/e_HaeNKfyBQ!

Welcome to our 30th episode Halloween extravaganza (part 1)! Listen if you dare. In this XL-sized, double episode we talk about ghosts and demons (with some actual personal accounts of encounters with the spirit world), the Catholic history of Halloween. On the second half of the episode (which you'll find separately as Episode 1.30b), we play an awesome game that—potentially—ends in one of us DYING. Who do you hope it is? Don't answer that... Mike takes enough abuse.

Part 2 of the MMM...Locusts! Halloween blowout—THE GAME. Listen to see who lives, who dies, who gets indigestion from eating too much Halloween candy on-air.

The argument can be made, from a Catholic vantage, that everyone is an addict since the human condition itself means we’re all afflicted with concupiscience—the inclination to sin. As St. Paul says, we do the very thing we don’t want to do. Alcohol, drugs, gambling—and especially, for more people than are willing to admit, pornography—are a cross many of us bear. Listen to us approach the topic in typical Mmm...Locusts! style: through a dense fog of nonsense. Consider this part 1 of an ongoing discussion.

Okay, so here's what happened. We got some new equipment and moved show production over onto that. But despite what FELT LIKE thorough quality and performance pre-checks, our primary recording source failed. And our secondary recording source failed. So this audio comes to you straight from our backup's backup recording source. AND IT'S LOUSY. Sorry, Angie.

Just because you had a turkey sub for dinner last night doesn't mean it existed, scientifically, does it? Is 3-D printing the Eucharist a valid way to compete with the upcoming Church of the A.I.? Is playing Bingo with Gladys inherently sinful, harmless fun, or a great way to steal her Social Security check? We don't know. But we talk about it anyway.

Let's talk about the Apostles! After all, we profess in our Creed that we believe our Church is Apostolic. That must mean the Apostles are kind of important. Where did they go after the Resurrection, and how did they die? Yeah, we'll cover that—but guess what? This is MMM...Locusts! where you either barely get anything on-topic, or you get WAY more than you actually want. Hey, every show needs a niche.

We prattle around talking about some other belief systems, with Rob giving us some insight into his non-denominational days. And other stuff. Honestly, trying to follow our stream of consciousness gets exhausting. But in a good way!

What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done? We get into some detail (probably too much) about our biggest faux pas in life, and how God has used them to teach us and (hopefully) make us better. As a teacher, God is hilarious, and his methods are just bonkers, man.

Come, join us for a rousing game of "Catholic Jeopardy!", sort of. Credit is due to stillcatholic.com, us we used their "Catholic Trivia" questions without alteration or, frankly, verification of accuracy. So if any of the trivia answers are wrong, don't blame us. Actually, do blame us, but blame them too. There's always enough blame to go around, isn't there?

Basically a hodge podge of topics—Mike's Buddha t-shirt among them. Notably, we discuss the fact that MMM...Locusts! is up for an award at the 13th Annual Podcast Awards in the Religion & Spirituality category (podcastawards.com)! Rob bares his soul (as usual). Plus, Lee talks about throwing a perfect spiral.

Unfortunately, we probably need to talk about the recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury report regarding the tragedy of child molestation by certain priests, and the Church's response to it. Certainly not our usual direction of discussion, but one we would be remiss to ignore. (As usual, we get to it eventually.) We're not experts in what to do about it—we just try to talk it out a little.

A very special episode of MMM...Locusts! We went backpacking and tried to record the show out in the woods! It kind of worked, until it didn't. But then it did again. Sort of. Anyway, give it a listen. (Special bonus Rosary content in the after-show!)

What kind of world do we live in? Well, one where opinions are increasingly frowned upon, unless they are sanctioned by the agenda of the moment. You certainly have to watch what you say, because people are more and more easily offended, and offending people is becoming a high crime. Ha HA! Try to be funny now, you stupid Catholic podcasters! We'll shut you down quick! We'll make you wish you never—wait... which side am I on?

There was once a young gentleman named Adam Boyle who knew more about Catholicism than the three of us put together on our best day. Adam's a sophomore at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and he joins us to talk some Theology and Catechetics, yo. Listen and learn. We did!

Rob can't resist playing a game too, so he brings in "Would You Rather?" and, well, we play "Would You Rather?" Deep theology? No. But there are some questions with moral leanings, so we actually do delve into Christian thought a bit. And Mike is so, so wrong about everything.

Mike's 3-episode game moratorium has expired, and he wastes no time getting back to it. With questions pulled right out of "Catholicism for Dummies," it's 'answer-correctly-or-sing-an-80's-song' time once again. We're sorry.