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Send a textPeaches and Trent riff on an uncomfortable truth the Air Force rarely markets well: per capita, it's the most lethal force in modern warfare. From GWAT kill ratios and budget realities to why “Chair Force” jokes might actually be strategic misdirection, this episode spirals into a candid breakdown of how the services really operate. They dig into logistics versus lethality, why the Army wins wars by sustaining them, how the Navy quietly controls the underwater domain, and why the Space Force affects everyone whether they realize it or not. The conversation also tackles SOCOM funding myths, why selection and pipelines aren't interchangeable, the reality of special mission units, and how expensive it is to create—and keep—elite capability. Messy, funny, blunt, and very Ones Ready.⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 Ones Ready intro and sponsor plug 03:00 OTS explanation and what it is not 06:45 Peaches' per-capita lethality hot take 09:30 Air Force vs Army vs Navy reality check 12:00 Budget myths and service comparisons 14:00 Space Force impact explained simply 16:00 GWAT lethality and air dominance 18:30 Logistics wins wars—Army perspective 21:00 Why ST isn't a unilateral force 23:30 SOCOM funding myths clarified 26:30 Selection vs pipeline differences 31:00 Why SOCOM doesn't “shut down” pipelines 35:30 Competition, standards, and why comparison is dangerous 40:00 Cost of training elite forces 45:00 Life in special mission units vs white side 49:00 Panels, recruiting, and community outreach 54:00 Lethality, truth, and why the Air Force undersells itself 56:30 Closing thoughts and upcoming OTS events
St. Croix Tax Benefits Explained, Build Wealth Without Leaving the U.SGrant McGaugh is the CEO and founder of Five Star BDM, Brand Development and Marketing, with deep experience in business development, personal branding, and investment banking strategy. In this episode, we talk St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, tax strategy basics, brand building, the BRAVE framework, and why positioning often beats having the best product.Guest:Grant McGaughCEO and Founder, Five Star BDMEmail: grant.mcgaugh@5starbdm.comRecorded: December 18, 12pm ESTChapters:0:00 Grant McGaugh introduces himself0:33 Kellen intro, Diversified Game opens the show1:06 Why St. Croix, tax advantages, Caribbean leverage6:26 Is St. Croix truly Black run, power and economics10:11 Healthcare, logistics, tech opportunity on islands16:20 BRAVE framework, why visibility matters23:36 Grant's book, First Light, and authentic leadership27:14 Investment banking, who qualifies, $3M EBITDA sweet spot33:00 Purpose, reinvention, leaving the W2 mindset43:30 Community impact, Omaha AI, St. Croix development45:55 Omaha opportunity, affordability, building legacy51:10 Final message, HAI, visibility, executionLearn the mindset and moves that lead to real results. Please visit my website to get more information: http://diversifiedgame.com/
The saints aren't waiting to be admired — they're actively trying to help us right now. In this episode, Dr. Greg sits down with Dr. Gerard McNicholas to unpack the psychology of devotion, what a living relationship with the saints can look like, and why the "messiness" that sometimes shows up during consecrations may actually be where God is doing His most personal work. Key Topics: Why Dr. Greg says most of us "block" the saints. How devotion becomes a real relationship instead of just a pious habit. When consecrations stir up drama—and why that can be a good sign. The psychology behind spiritual "trends" and jumping into devotions too fast. How scrupulosity and the "tyranny of the shoulds" hijack your prayer life. Why St. Joseph and Our Lady want to be part of your daily life. A simple four-step way to ride out anxiety and spiritual desolation. How friendship and Ignatian wisdom keep you from panicking in hard seasons. Why letting the saints "do their job" can change how you suffer. Learn More: Being Human Ep. #56: Writing Your Story with God with Dr. Gerard McNicholas "When Coping Mechanisms Aren't Enough" – Dr. Gerard McNicholas' interview on The Catholic Sinner Show Catholic Mindfulness Virtual Retreat – An 8-week journey into peace, trust, and deeper relationship with God The Surrender Novena by Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo – A devotion rooted in surrendering control and trusting Jesus more fully. Hope and Help for Your Nerves — Dr. Claire Weekes' classic guide on anxiety, panic, and nervous suffering Summit of Integration – Be the first to hear about event updates and special offers Consecration to Jesus through Joseph by Dr. Greg Bottaro and Jen Settle – A deep dive into devotion, psychology, and relationship through the Holy Family Consecration to St. Joseph – Fr. Donald Calloway's guide to rediscovering the fatherhood and mission of Joseph Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment Follow Us on Socials: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter (X) | LinkedIn
Once again, a huge thank to you all of the Patrons who make this possible! You can see the finished edited version of the AMA here: https://youtu.be/NIKIypSORkQPhilosopher Jason Jorjani joins Lev Polyakov for an unfiltered Ask Me Anything that becomes a full-scale journey—from hidden technology and the coming Deep State coup, through metaphysical control systems, civilizational genetics, occult intelligence networks, and Brazil's role in the post-collapse world, all the way to Promethean myth, tantric energy, and the fate of human individuality.Jorjani connects the dots between zero-point propulsion, the CIA's spiritual experiments, Iranian esotericism, and Zohran Mamdani' as a 5th Columnist for a return to the middle ages.This was originally streamed on Patreon before editing. Consider supporting the show today: https://www.patreon.com/breaktherules--
Jenn Tully joins Matt Sidhom for the last new music mix of 2025! They trace November's most interesting new releases and rare finds, from soulful love songs to rediscovered Springsteen, with detours through genre-bending pop and hopeful rock. Surprises, callbacks, and a few future anthems round out the mix.• Why St. Paul and the Broken Bones still hit with tender, timeless soul• The Neighbourhood's DIY textures and Haim's thoughtful George Michael nod• Big Wild's airy lift and why minimal lyrics can still feel huge• Balu Brigada's bright groove carrying conflict fatigue• The Tuk Smith comeback and classic hooks done right• Foo Fighters balancing grief, grit and forward motion• Noga Erez's shapeshifting production and pointed perspectives• Kacey Musgraves' elegant devotion without clichés• Cheap Trick's new spark and modern parallelsSponsor: Early Bird Morning Cocktail with promo code SUPERMIX10https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/sam-new-music-november-2025/pl.u-E4p3sVMmxr1. Fall Moon - St Paul & The Broken Bones2. Private - The Neighbourhood3. Gone - HAIM4. Sideways - Balu Brigada5. Troubled Paradise - Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts6. Stardust - Wild Child7. Gun in Every Home - Bruce Springsteen8. Telephone Busy - 5 Seconds of Summer9. Asking for a Friend - Foo Fighters10. Penny Lame - Noga Erez11. If The World Burns Down - Kacey Musgraves12. Twelve Gates - Cheap Trick Support the showVisit us at https://www.superawesomemix.com to learn more about our app, our merchandise, our cards, and more!
The Gypsy Tales crew is back! Join us as we break down the 2024 SuperMotocross World Championship playoffs from the Gold Coast. We give a bit of insight as to where we have been and why we weren't on the ground for the SMX Playoffs. In this episode: • SMX Championship recap - Why the format needs work • Haiden Deegan vs Jo Shimoda • Jett Lawrence's dominant 450SMX performance • Hunter Lawrence's playoff push • Why St. Louis was the best track of SMX 2024 • Charlotte's sketchy drag strip setup issues • The problem with triple points scoring • Chase Sexton crash • Listener audio notes from the Gypsy GangWe discuss the confusing Olympic-style scoring system, and why riders struggle with bike setup at drag strip venues and of course we had to give our take on the Deegan situation. Plus, hear our take on why St. Louis proved you don't need gnarly rhythm sections for great racing.After a break for Cape York adventures, we're back with fresh perspectives on what worked and what didn't in SMX 2024. Should SuperMotocross move away from drag strips? Is the triple points system broken? We dive deep into all the controversial topics.
Discover the powerful story behind Triumph of the Heart, which debuts September 12th, 2025, a film inspired by St. Maximilian Kolbe. Join Logos Podcast as we sit down with filmmaker Anthony to explore his journey into cinema, the art of filmmaking, and the deep spiritual themes behind this moving project. Learn about the production process, the moments that resonated most, and gain insight for aspiring Catholic filmmakers. https://www.triumphoftheheart.com/Connect with Logos Podcast:Website: www.logos-podcast.comSpotify: www.open.spotify.com/show/3PCPWBvNcAbptX17PzlC2x?si=BkEHS4vGSf-xmMlDFcpZ2QApple Podcasts: www.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/logos-podcast/id1560191231YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqauK7TPfOwe80B-ckOeelQInstagram: www.instagram.com/logospodxastPatreon: www.patreon.com/logospodcastSponsored by the Augustine InstituteApply now at www.augustine.edu/logosTimecode:0:00 - Warped Tour4:29 - Augustine Institute Ad5:00 - The Roots of the Film9:55 - Suffering and Love 12:00 - Why St. Maximilian Kolbe?16:10 - Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson?22:50 - Beauty & Cinema32:00 - The Production of the Film39:57 - The Artist Must Be Poor44:15 - The Universality of the Film47:40 - Special Scene51:20 - Love Unto Death53:15 - Advice to Creatives55:15 - The Triumph of the Heart59:15 - Thank you Anthony!Support the show
In this special Unpacked bonus episode, we're going behind the scenes of our newView From Afar podcast, which spotlights the people and the ideas shaping the future of travel. Afar editors traveled to the floor of IPW, the annual travel conference organized by the U.S. Travel Association to share the best of America with the rest of the world. In this episode, we hear from Afar editorial director Billie Cohen, who conducted interviews over two intense days, covering everything from major cities like New York and Boston to more under-the-radar places like St. Louis and Buffalo. What emerged were fascinating themes about welcoming international travelers, the economic realities of tourism, and how destinations are bouncing back from natural disasters faster than you might think. Billie shares why these conversations left her more excited than ever to explore America—and yes, even try that controversial St. Louis pizza. On this episode you'll learn: Why international visitors make up only 20 percent of NYC tourism but contribute 50 percent of tourism spending How destinations like Asheville and Fort Myers are ready for visitors much sooner after disasters than you'd expect The creative ways cities are spreading tourism benefits beyond traditional hotspots through neighborhood storytelling Why St. Louis might be America's most underrated arts destination (with surprising Monets and opera premieres) Don't miss these moments: [03:58] The economic reality: Buffalo losing 20% of its Canadian visitors this year [05:56] Why disaster-hit destinations need visitors for recovery, not just sympathy [09:26] St. Louis's free cultural offerings that rival DC's Smithsonian museums [12:38] Billie's skeptical New Yorker take on St. Louis pizza and why she's willing to try it anyway [15:00] The delicate balance between promoting neighborhoods and over-touristing them Explore More Head over to View From Afar to hear Billie's full conversations with these destination leaders who are reshaping how we think about American travel: Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of Meet Boston, talks about how this most American of cities is celebrating in 2026. Julie Coker, president and CEO of New York City Tourism and Conventions talks about NYC's plans for its 400th birthday. Tamara Pigott, executive director of Visit Fort Myers, shares how she's transformed southwest Florida into a world-class destination that offers much more than gorgeous beaches. Carolann Ouellette, President of the Maine Office of Tourism, on how the outdoors is essential to the state's economy and its communities. Brad Dean, President and CEO of Explore St. Louis, discusses why he chose the Gateway City over offers from New York and Chicago and how America's heartland is ready for a renaissance. Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara, talks about Buffalo's rich architectural and Black history. Walt Leger, President and CEO of New Orleans & Company talks about the city's vibe and where to go beyond the French Quarter. Helen Hill, executive director of Explore Charleston, talks about the importance of showing a city's true history. Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville, talks about the resilience of people and western North Carolina. Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Travel Tales, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us. Unpacked by Afar is part of Airwave Media's podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast.
On this episode of Eat the Damn Bread, I'm taking you beyond the City of Light and into the sun-drenched hills of the South of France to one of the most magical places I've ever wandered, St. Paul de Vence. Don't get me wrong, Paris is, well...Paris, but sometimes the most Parisian thing you can do is skip Paris and choose stillness over spectacle and presence over pressure, which is what the French lifestyle is really all about. Tune in because I'm sharing: Why St. Paul de Vence completely stole my heart How you can get there easily from Nice (on a budget or in style) What makes this village feel like a living, breathing piece of art Where to sip rosé, see Picasso's legacy, and feel James Baldwin's spirit This town feels like Provence and the Riviera fell in love and had a very chic baby—and trust me, it's worth the visit. I'll also let you in on how we're incorporating this dreamy spot into my upcoming French Riviera Retreat, including a golden hour dinner that will be very hard to rival and unlikely to forget! ✨ Whether you travel with me or venture out solo, I hope this episode inspires you to slow down, explore with intention, and fall in love with the parts of France that don't always make the top 10 lists—but leave a lasting mark on your soul. Visit thecuratedretreat.com to learn more about joining me on retreat, and if you go to St. Paul de Vence on your own… please let me know! I want to hear all about it. Useful Resources: Let's be friends, oui?! •
Men, are you just clocking in, or are you building the Kingdom of God through your work?In this powerful second part of our Daily Grind with God series, we confront the real battle most of us fight every day, the temptation to see our jobs as a burden instead of a mission. Whether at a desk, in the trades, on the road, or at home with the kids, your work matters to God.This is the truth grounded in Scripture and the Catechism. In Colossians 3:23, St. Paul commands us: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." When you live this out, even the most mundane spreadsheet becomes an offering. Even changing diapers becomes an altar.This episode dives into:How your job is part of your divine vocation (CCC 2427)Why St. Joseph, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Josemaría Escrivá are your daily companions in the grindHow to turn every workday into a prayer through intention, rededication, and excellenceThe real danger of turning work into your god—or treating it like it's meaninglessAnd most importantly, the spiritual challenge I give every man listening: Offer your work this week as a sacrifice for a specific intentionIt's time to stop coasting. Get intentional. Sanctify your labor. You don't need to change careers—you need to change your heart.3 POWERFUL QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:“Your desk, your tools, your kitchen—that is your battlefield.”“God doesn't want your sloppy seconds. He wants your best.”“Are you working for God, or are you working for yourself?”KEY TAKEAWAY FOR CATHOLIC MEN:Start offering your work every single day for a specific intention—your spouse, your kids, your priest, the souls in purgatory. Make your labor a prayer. This is your battlefield. Fight with purpose.RESOURCES & REFERENCES MENTIONED:Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2427Colossians 3:23St. Therese of Lisieux – The Little WaySt. Josemaría Escrivá – Spirituality of WorkSt. Benedict – Ora et Labora (Pray and Work)Book: The Power of Silence by Cardinal Robert SarahEvent: Men's Silent Retreat – June 14, Grand Rapids, MI @ Franciscan Life Center (Link in show notes)SHARE THIS EPISODE Men, we are in a war—and most of us are losing the battle in the workplace by treating our job like it's separate from our faith. Forward this to a brother who's stuck in a rut, burned out, or tempted to check out. We need soldiers—not spectators.Send us a text Support the showPlease prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Buy Me A Coffee page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. Be sure to follow us on X for more great content. As always, please pray for us! We are men who strive daily to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Subscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy faces Check out our website Contact us at themanlycatholic@gmail.com
For renowned fiddle player Liz Knowles of Portland, Maine, St. Louis Tionól is a must attend event each year. “It really parallels events that we've been to in Ireland,” she says. Knowles reflects on the annual festival and St. Louis' Irish music scene in this bonus podcast episode. For more on tionól events happening this weekend, and for a deep dive into St. Louis' Irish music scene, check out our other recent podcast episode: Why St. Louis is home to one of the nation's best Irish music scenes.
What makes therapy Catholic—and is it really just adding a rosary to the session? In this unique episode, Dr. Greg is the one answering the questions, sitting down with college student Lucina Frank who's wrestling with how to bring her faith into the world of psychology. Their conversation pulls back the curtain on why CatholicPsych's approach feels so different—because it is—and how it responds to the deep hunger for healing that actually honors both our humanity and our faith. Whether you've been skeptical, searching, or simply curious, you'll walk away seeing therapy—and the Church's role in it—through a whole new lens. Key Topics: Why “just adding prayer” isn't what makes therapy Catholic The real difference between faith-informed and faith-integrated therapy How a Catholic understanding of suffering changes the entire therapeutic goal What St. John Paul II's personalism offers that secular psychology can't How CatholicPsych is meeting a deeper need in the Church—and why it matters The danger of over-spiritualizing therapy (and how to avoid it) Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction 03:07 – From Divorce to Vocation: Dr. Greg's Journey to Becoming a Therapist 09:05 – What's the Therapeutic Approach at CatholicPsych? 13:15 – Leading Clients Toward True Human Flourishing 17:00 – Therapy Isn't About Erasing Suffering 21:32 – Faith-Informed vs. Faith-Integrated Therapy 28:54 – Do Catholic Therapists Just Add a Rosary to the Sessions? 32:19 – Where Does Spiritual Direction Fit in Therapy? 41:12 – Why St. Thomas Aquinas Still Matters in Modern Psychology 46:22 – What St. Thomas Got Wrong about Gender Learn More: CatholicPsych's model of daily accompaniment: Integrated Daily Dialogic Mentorship Spiritual Passages by Fr. Benedict Groeschel Discernment of Spirits course by Dr. Greg Bottaro Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) Mulieris Dignitatem by Pope John Paul II Related Episode: Ep. 197: Correcting Aquinas: JP2's Truth Bomb on Gender and Human Dignity Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment Follow Us on Socials: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter (X) | LinkedIn
Men, do you know who you are? Not just your name, not just your job title—but your lineage.Today, in Day 3 of our St. Joseph Lenten Series, we focus on one of his most overlooked but crucial titles: Noble Offspring of David. This isn't just about history—it's about your identity. St. Joseph wasn't just a humble carpenter. He was a direct descendant of King David, fulfilling God's divine plan. And guess what? So are you.In this episode, we break down:✔️ Why St. Joseph's royal lineage matters for Catholic men today ✔️ What true nobility looks like (hint: it's not about wealth, power, or status) ✔️ How your name and your actions define your legacy as a manThis episode is a wake-up call. You are not just another guy drifting through life. You are a son of God, called to lead, protect, and serve. Will you answer that call?3 Powerful Quotes from the Episode:"True nobility is not about power, fame, or fortune. It's about living in a way that reflects the goodness of God.""Men, we come from a royal lineage—spiritually and historically. Are we living up to it?""If you're not walking in step with God, you are failing as a man. Period."Key Takeaway for Men:
[This episode originally aired December, 2023] This time of year can be grueling for anyone, but particularly for those who are grieving. So, each year we put out an episode to help you feel less alone and hopefully more equipped to traverse the next few weeks. Today's guest, Melissa Peede Thompson, M.S., is a Grief Services Coordinator at Dougy Center. While she has lots of professional knowledge in this realm, we asked her to talk about her personal experience of grieving during the holidays. Melissa was six when her sister died of gun violence. She was 13 when her father died in a motorcycle accident. And she was a young adult when her grandparents died. Each loss shaped - and continues to shape - how Melissa and her family approach this time of year. We discuss: How her sister's death impacted her parents at the holidays What she remembers about the first Christmas after her dad died Grieving for her her grandparents before they died How the holidays can feel empty, even when the house is full Melissa's realization that grief has left her a little bit "Grinchy" What she's doing to shift how she thinks and feels about the holidays Learning to appreciate being able to spend time with the people who are still alive Why St. Patrick's Day became her favorite holiday Taking the pressure off trying to make the holidays feel the same after someone dies If you missed our past Holidays & Grief episodes, be sure to listen to Ep. 27, 98, 174, 240. And our latest one, 306. Tips For Getting Through the Holidays & Holiday Plan Worksheet.
CULTIVATING SAINTS, SAGES, AND STATESMEN THROUGH THE GREAT TRADITION OF CHRISTENDOMThis is our first episode in the "Angels and Demons, Signs and Wonders" series, where we will cover ancient stories about miracles and preternatural events that provide powerful evidence the Catholic Faith is true.This first episode covers 10 amazing miracle stories from St. Augustine involving the Eucharist, the power of the relics and intercession of the saints, demons, the priesthood, and other sacraments and sacramentals.Support Eternal Christendom: https://eternalchristendom.com/become-a-patron/Connect with Joshua on social mediaX: https://twitter.com/JoshuaTCharlesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshuatcharles/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuatcharles/EPISODE CHAPTERS00:00 - Intro04:24 - Christendom App04:54 - Why St. Augustine Shared Miracle Accounts08:25 - Miracle #1: Relics of Saints Heal Blindness16:35 - Miracle #2: Curing of a Fistula25:17 - Miracle #3: Healing of Breast Cancer by Baptism29:06 - Miracle #4: Gout Cured by Baptism30:40 - Miracle #5: Baptism Cures Paralysis and Hernia31:47 - Miracle #6: Demonic Exorcism by Priestly Prayers and Mass33:00 - Miracle #7: Holy Earth from Jerusalem Cures Paralysis34:59 - Miracle #8: Violent Demon Exorcised by Intercession of the Saints38:14 - Miracle #9: Priest Exorcises Demons by Tears Mixed With Oil39:01 - Miracle #10: Bishop's Prayer Expels Demon39:43 - ConclusionListen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eternal-christendom-podcast/id1725000526Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3HoTTco6oJtApc21ggVevu
Welcome to Habs Nightly, a Montreal Canadiens podcast on The Hockey Podcast Network! Hosted by Mason Dickson and Crescent city native Bayou Benders! Season 6 Episode 2 On todays episode, the boys discuss: On todays episode, the boys discuss: Why St. Louis need to put Slaf back on the 1st line. Lane Hutson & Josh Roy! Patrick Laine, close to return! Is St. Louis stretched too thin? Hey fans, wanna leave a question or comment for Mason & Benders? Contact us at - habsnightly@gmail.com Stay up to date in the world of hockey with Habs Nightly on The Hockey Podcast Network. Every Monday and Thursday The Hockey Podcast Network offers a unique podcast dedicated to your Montreal Canadiens. Podcasts' are between 30-50 minutes & available at thehockeypodcastnetwork.com or wherever you get your podcasts from. Make sure you follow the boys, & The Hockey Podcast Network on Twitter. @habsnightly @BayouBenders @hockeypodnet Sponsored by Draft Kings - Use promo code THPN at signup for exclusive offers! Sponsored by Gametime - Use promo code THPN for $20 off your first purchase! Sponsored by Skylight Frames - Use promo code HOCKEY for 20% off! Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook - the BEST Place to bet touchdowns. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code THPN. That's code THPN for new customers to get $250 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks AND get one month of NFL+ Premium on us! Only on DraftKings - The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred Gambler. In New York, call eight seven seven eight HOPENY or text HOPENY (four six seven three six nine). In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit ccpg dot org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (Kansas). Twenty-one plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in New Hampshire, Oregon, and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see D K N G dot C O slash F T ball. NFL+ Premium offer available only to new and former NFL+ subscribers. Additional NFL+ Premium terms at nfl dot com slash terms.
Where is home? Your place of birth? Or where you feel loved and at peace? I prefer to think it's the latter. And for Helen Agbonison, founder of Africans & African Descendants in St. Albert, it's the same. She's never felt a strong attachment to any place, but since moving to St Albert, she's found her calling. Her home. Her community.Helen joined me on The Newcomers Podcast to chat about moving to Canada 14 years ago, using Yahoo Answers to find friends in Canada as she and her family prepped for the big move. We also chat about:* What it felt like to move to Canada 14 years ago* Why St. Albert is HOME* Why African immigrants struggle to integrate* Why she launched the Africans & Africans Descendants in St. Albert community, and more. It was so good to hear her talk about all the work the community is doing to preserve the African culture. If you've gotten this far, you should probably subscribe.Did you read it? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com
This week Devo helps us through yet another Monday. Does he want to? Nope. Is he gonna half-ass it? Probably. Has he slept at all? Not a bit. But he's here, dammit. Meanwhile, Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. is also having some trouble sleeping, Kermit is kickin' it with some homeys on the west side, and Heywood Banks shares a history lesson. 1. "My Brain Won't Shut the F**k Up" by Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. 2. "Snoop Frog Kermit sings Gin and Juice" by There I Ruined It 3. News of the Stupid! 4. "Why St. Patrick Drove the Snakes" by Heywood Banks Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. is at TomBWild.com There I Ruined It is on YouTube Heywood Banks is at HeywoodBanks.com Thank you to our Patreon backers for making this show possible!!!
Margot and Fergus Henderson, are, in my opinion, THE most important couple i Food and Drink.Together, they changed the British gastronomic landscape from meek, tepid swamp of meh to global powerhouse it is today.Fergus created the institution St. John and Nose-To-Tail Cooking, inspiring so many chefs.Margot forged her own path with Rochelle Canteen, inspiring female chefs to enter the kitchen or as Margot says a world of “Blokedom”.Rochelle Canteen is a little oasis, springing and blossoming out Shoreditch streets.A light escape from heavy monotony.White and Spacious, always capacious as the seasons capriciously flow:WI.NT.e.r - SpRiIIINg - Suuu mmm -eerr - A..u..t..t…umNMargot's food is wonderfully imperfect. Like humans, it's craggly, squirly, yummy and not-too-perfectMy goal was to really dig deep into how Margot and Fergus changed British food, their similarities and differences, Rochelle Canteen's uniqueness, St. Johns genius.Hopefully (fingers, eyes, toes crossed) we did that.Full episode live on Monday.ON THE MENUHow Margot Survived and Others Female Chefs Can Thrive in a Chef World of BlokedomThe Difference in (Male) Hunter vs. (Female) Gatherer Cooking: Empathy + Be gentle + simpleHow to be in Business for 25 years - embrace the dramas of every day keep the joy alive keeps the business alive and making it better (that is THE fun)Why English Food is Taking OVerFrench Food as the Best in the World: “Why do we touch on cultures so lightly?The Genius of St. John and Fergus Henderson: Fergus trained as an architect = Different Input = Different Output.The Subtle Art of Drinking a Negroni: It's More Complicated Than You THinkWhy Margot is the “Craftsperson” and Fergus is the “Artist”How To Survive When your Business is Going wrong….”you have to give it more love”Why Margot let's their Chefs “do what they want” + the simple truth is to “Understand everyone's lives truly”Why St. John Stuck to its guns + Slow build then it just happened3 Fergus Henderson Leadership Lessons: “tell them the reason WHY” + “Never Feel Sorry for yourself” + “Be Opinionated and stick to them”-----------------------------------------------
John, Roman, and Old Friend are back to discuss a wide variety of topics.- Roman's new coaching gig- Deion Sanders impact on Colorado- John's 7-on-7 observations- Top 10 area football large schools- Football not a championship sport- Why North County public schools aren't winning championships- Public schools illegally recruiting and what MSHSAA does or doesn't do about it- Guessing 2024 football class assignments- Most desperate area teams to win a state championship- John's high on De Smet- Who were the best teams in St. Louis before GSV (pre-2016)- Coaching changes and key transfers- Why St. Louis has the best sports fans- Where should a new St. Louis football stadium be built?- The chances of St. Louis getting an NFL team- Battlehawks vs Brahams Preview- Super Challenge deep dive (illegal man downfield)- College football- Connor Stallions saga
Welcome to Episode 180 of the Being Human Podcast: The Psychology of JP2: A Bold Proposal In this week's episode, Dr. Greg explores a bold new proposal for a Catholic standard of mental health rooted in the psychology of St. John Paul II. Dr. Greg entreats all Catholic psychologists and therapists to mine the treasures of JP2's Personalism in order to offer hope, clarity, and healing in an increasingly confused and suffering world. Discussed in this episode: Why St. John Paul II's psychology is more brilliant, effective and important to study than any other psychologist (including Freud) The significance of human dignity and personhood in mental health care How the teachings of JP2 can combat the modern mental health crises Pitfalls of a solely scientific approach to mental health The big difference between subjective criteria for mental health and a clear standard for mental health (and why there is no standard for mental health) Being a Catholic psychologist does not mean simply being Catholic in the secular study of psychology Anyone saying they are doing Catholic therapy should be an expert in both the science of psychology and the philosophy of psychology How a model that integrates the spiritual and material dimensions of the human person offers deeper insights and more effective care compared to secular models Find out how you can contribute to and benefit from a Catholic standard of mental health Resources mentioned or relevant: Please share your feedback (drgreg@catholicpsych.com) and share this podcast episode with Catholic mental health professionals If you are a Catholic mental health professional, join the waiting list for Fellowship, a practical way to deeply connect the dots between your identity as a therapist and a Catholic Person and Act by Karol Wojtyla Person and Community by Karol Wojtyla Writings, speeches, and encyclicals of Pope St. John Paul II Setting the Stage: Early Plays of St. John Paul II Past Being Human podcast episodes: Episode 174: Healing or Harm? Unveiling the Truth about Bad Therapy Episode 173: Unmasking Disintegration: Examining the APA's Stance on Gender Identity Episode 145: What Does It Mean to Be Healthy? Episode 124: A Letter to Catholic Mental Health Professionals Episode 123: Fake Science and Real Compassion Episode 121: How the APA is Schizophrenic Episode 81: The Lies of the American Psychological Association Episode 72: The DSM Disease (Part One) Read more on the CatholicPsych blog: What Does Catholic Psychology Mean? More on Catholic Psychology Learn more about our Certification program: CatholicPsych Model of Applied Personalism Need help? Schedule a free consultation with someone on our team to discuss how we can support you; Sign up for Being Human, our weekly newsletter, to stay up to date on the exciting developments at CatholicPsych; Visit our website to read the CatholicPsych blog, shop in the CatholicPsych bookshop, or discover other resources we have available; Download The Integrated App for access to free audio exercises, courses, prayer resources, and more; Become a member of the Integrated Life Community to get access to every course Dr. Greg has created, plus the opportunity to participate in Integrated LIVE's - weekly, Mentor hosted Q&As covering topics like boundaries, communication, trauma, forgiveness, and more! Follow us on Instagram: @catholicpsych Contact us! Have a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address on the podcast? Want to give some feedback about this episode? Email us at beinghuman@catholicpsych.com - we would love to hear from you! Rate, review, and subscribe Please help us in our mission to integrate the Faith with Psychology by hitting subscribe and also sharing this podcast with your friends. Please consider rating or leaving a review of our show. It helps us reach other Catholics just like you who want to become more integrated, whole, and happy human beings. For Apple podcasts, click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate 5 stars, and choose “write a review.” Then type your sincere thoughts about the show! If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any episodes. Subscribe to the podcast now!
EMAIL US: loopcast@catholicvote.org SUPPORT LOOPCAST: www.loopcast.orgIt's possible: Biden hits a new low campaigning for abortion in Florida, What the college protests raging across the country are really about, and the original trio is locked in. Buckle up0:00 - Why St. Fidelis Matters2:22 - Biden Makes the Sign-of-the-cross at Abortion Rally6:04 - Erika Returns!!!11:50 - Back to the Biden Discussion19:07 - Gavin Newsom's INSANE ad27:22 - College Protests Spiral Out of Control41:10 - The Twilight ZoneDid you know… LOOPcast is on your favorite podcast platform. Subscribe on Apple, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen!All opinions expressed on LOOPcast by the participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CatholicVote.
Sarah - how do you explain sacramentals to people without it sounding superstitious? (7:00) Patrick - Does the Catholic church teach divine simplicity? And what are your thoughts on it? Lonny - When Satan fell, wouldn't a higher level of angel need to challenge him? Why St. Michael? (15:02) Jim - Confession - the only sins i ever have are in my thoughts and I get rid of them right away. I don't know what to confess when I get there. (21:34) Break 1 Leticia - In California, most of our cities are named after saints. I think we have a sleeping giant here and we need to pray. David - (on lamb call) Jesus is the ultimate Shepard. (36:13) Break 2 (37:04) Does a couple need to break up if they are intimate before marriage? Patrick answers this question. Jan - (on Elizabeth's call) I had a similar experience when I was pregnant. They said that the baby was stressed and if he was, he was already gone.
On this episode, I spoke with the pastor of my home parish, Fr. John Putnam, on how to make a parish holy.During our conversation, we covered:- Fr. Putnam's story- Why St. Mark's offers confessions multiple times a day, every day- How St. Mark's ended up offering perpetual adoration- The importance of the Mass- Why altar servers are a big part of every Sunday liturgy- How a parish can foster vocations in a real way- And much more...Biography:Father John Putnam has been the pastor of Saint Mark Catholic Church since 2015. He was ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop John Donoghue, the second bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte on May 30, 1992. His first assignment was as interim parochial vicar of St. Lucien Church in Spruce Pine and St. Bernadette Mission in Linville. Since then he has also served as parochial vicar of Holy Family Church in Clemmons and as the administrator of Holy Infant Church in Reidsville. He served as sacramental minister of St. Joseph Church in Eden as well. Father Putnam also served as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury, for 15 years. Since 2003, he has held the position of judicial vicar for the diocese, overseeing the marriage tribunal. He has also served the diocese as tribunal assessor, tribunal judge, vicar for the Salisbury Vicariate and interim vocation director.Our Sponsors:This is a Good Catholic Podcast. If you're interested in purchasing a Good Catholic digital series, use code GBS for 20% off your total order.Looking for the perfect Catholic gift? Check out The Catholic Company and find it today! Use code BRENDAN20 for 20% off your next purchase! Support the show
Newcastle United files its financial report for the 2022-23 season, and its challenge to get to the top of the league in a world of Profit & Sustainability Rate requirements comes into sharp relief. Why the owners are likely delighted with Eddie Howe. Why the international fan base is so important for competitive reasons. Why St. James' Park's current condition is a liability. Why Ollie Holt is such a jackass. All revealed here.
It's our fifth annual holidays & grief episode! This time of year can be grueling for anyone, but particularly for those who are grieving. So, each year we put out an episode to help you feel less alone and hopefully more equipped to traverse the next few weeks. Today's guest, Melissa Peede Thompson, M.S., is a Grief Services Coordinator at Dougy Center. While she has lots of professional knowledge in this realm, we asked her to talk about her personal experience of grieving during the holidays. Melissa was six when her sister died of gun violence. She was 13 when her father died in a motorcycle accident. And she was a young adult when her grandparents died. Each loss shaped - and continues to shape - how Melissa and her family approach this time of year. We discuss: How her sister's death impacted her parents at the holidays What she remembers about the first Christmas after her dad died Grieving for her her grandparents before they died How the holidays can feel empty, even when the house is full Melissa's realization that grief has left her a little bit "Grinchy" What she's doing to shift how she thinks and feels about the holidays Learning to appreciate being able to spend time with the people who are still alive Why St. Patrick's Day became her favorite holiday Taking the pressure off trying to make the holidays feel the same after someone dies If you missed our past Holidays & Grief episodes, be sure to listen to Ep. 27, 98, 174, 240. Tips For Getting Through the Holidays & Holiday Plan Worksheet. Register for our "Navigating Grief During the Holidays" webinar happening on Thursday, 12.7.23, 10 am - 11:30 am PST.
Trending with Timmerie - Catholic Principals applied to today's experiences.
How and why you should pick an authentic Catholic College with Jordan Almanzer, from Kolbe Academy, joining Trending with Timmerie (2:53) Can Catholics donate organs? (13:16) Why St. John Paul II says philosophers Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche are wrong about the human person – Theology of the Body series. (27:00) Raising bossy little girls with Catholic principles. (44:00) Timmerie's favorite books. (48:15) Resources mentioned : Theology of the Body Series – Episode 1 https://relevantradio.com/2023/07/theology-of-the-body-in-the-beginning-special-podcast-highlight/ A link for Advanced Medical Directives https://dioceseofraleigh.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/AD-Final-2017-Zarama-2.pdf Another link for Advanced Medical Directives https://www.cathdal.org/Form-STMS_Advance_Directive_July_2015.pdf Newman guide https://t.co/iN2CbnZ0A3 Kolbe Academy https://t.co/tBQxmhuY2k-
Ohio State picked up a commitment from 2025 quarterback Tavien St. Clair on Wednesday, a decision that will send ripples through the entire class as the Buckeyes look for a monster recruiting class.Why St. Clair and why now? THE Podcast's Jeremy Birmingham and Bill Landis break it down on the THE Podcast Daily for Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Brian is CEO of Intergalatic, a thermal management systems company serving the defense aerospace, civil aviation, and space industries. Brian has spent most of his career working on innovative air and space platforms, both with Intergalactic and Ram Aviation, Defense & Space, a 50-year-old aerospace manufacturing company founded by his grandparents in their garage. Brian graduated from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management, and he also holds an MBA from Southern Utah University. He and his wife Jessica have four children and spend most of their free time navigating parenthood. Brian enjoys science fiction, sports, comic books, gardening and 80s pop culture (the weird stuff). 0:00 Introduction to Intergalactic and Brian McCann 3:00 Heat management systems 5:00 Defense aerospace 7:00 Skunkworks to the moon 10:30 Why St. George 12:30 Business model for bureaucracy 15:45 80s pop culture, Aliens 21:00 Custom business model 29:00 Hiring 31:00 Question and Answer Show links:https://ig.space Social: Twitter - https://twitter.com/siliconslopes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/siliconslopes/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/silicon-slopes/
Brian is CEO of Intergalatic, a thermal management systems company serving the defense aerospace, civil aviation, and space industries. Brian has spent most of his career working on innovative air and space platforms, both with Intergalactic and Ram Aviation, Defense & Space, a 50-year-old aerospace manufacturing company founded by his grandparents in their garage. Brian graduated from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management, and he also holds an MBA from Southern Utah University. He and his wife Jessica have four children and spend most of their free time navigating parenthood. Brian enjoys science fiction, sports, comic books, gardening and 80s pop culture (the weird stuff). 0:00 Introduction to Intergalactic and Brian McCann 3:00 Heat management systems 5:00 Defense aerospace 7:00 Skunkworks to the moon 10:30 Why St. George 12:30 Business model for bureaucracy 15:45 80s pop culture, Aliens 21:00 Custom business model 29:00 Hiring 31:00 Question and Answer Show links:https://ig.space Social: Twitter - https://twitter.com/siliconslopes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/siliconslopes/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/silicon-slopes/
Jake and Brett talk with Father Boniface Hicks, a monk who serves as the director of The Institute for Ministry Formation at St Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He is also Jake's spiritual director. :) This conversation dives deep into this season's topic of "the Good Life?" from the perspective of a monk. The guys talk about the different ways to be a man and how the lives of the saints contrasts with how society tells us to live. Key Points What the good life looks like in the priesthood/religious life. Learning from the saints about what life can look like. Dealing with repetitive tasks as a priest, husband and father and how to keep our hearts in it. What it means to let yourself be loved. The false pursuits people often follow that don't actually lead to happiness. Why St. Joseph is a strong male role model. Being overwhelmed in inadequacy. Key Quotes “Love until it hurts and then there is no more hurt & only more love.” Mother Theresa “St. Joseph was perpetually inadequate but never weak.” -Jake References Fr. Boniface's WebsiteThe Institute for Ministry Formation @ Saint Vincent Seminary Connect with Way of the Heart: Facebook: @wayoftheheartpodcast Instagram: @wayoftheheartpodcast Website: www.wayoftheheartpodcast.com Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow as holy men by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks! Audio editing by Forte Catholic
In this episode, Jess sits down with FOCUS Senior National Chaplain Fr. Kevin Dyer to talk about Ignatian retreats and their power to transform a person's spiritual life. Jess and Fr. Kevin discuss:What is an Ignatian retreat and how is it different than other retreats?Why St. Ignatius of Loyola named his retreat the Spiritual ExercisesThe role of silence on Ignatian retreatsHow to prepare before making an Ignatian retreatFr. Kevin Dyer, S.J., is a priest in the Society of Jesus and serves FOCUS as Senior National Chaplain. Fr. Dyer completed studies at Saint Louis University and Boston College and was ordained in 2010. In 2019, he became a part-time FOCUS National Chaplain, and in 2022 he stepped into the role of Senior National Chaplain. Fr. Dyer resides in Denver, Colorado.
Today on "Catholic Drive Time": Praying the prayers of Jesus – the Liturgy of the Hours with Nathan Wigfield. AND The Irish Government intends to introduce fines and prison sentences for people who pray, hold signs, or try to persuade women not to have abortions while they are within the vicinity of an abortion clinic. ALSO – David L Gray – The connection between a growing barbarism in the world and the Universal call to evangelize the world. India holds first March for Life as Day of Mourning for nearly 800 million aborted children The Biden Admin is flooding the market with 1 million barrels of oil per day to reduce the price at the pump... all from the strategic reserve. After years of rapid growth, the housing market is showing clear signs of slowing down A government crackdown on Catholics in Nicaragua escalated Friday evening, when the country's national police announced an investigation into Bishop Rolando Álvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa. Join Email list! GRNonline.com/CDT GRN to 42828 What's Concerning Us – INFLATION: FAMILIES AMONG HARDEST HIT A new Rasmussen poll found that a majority of Americans – 63% – say they are changing their eating habits in response to historic inflation rates and their effects on grocery prices. “Hit hardest are families with children — with 72% changing their habits to accommodate higher prices for basics such as eggs, milk, butter, and bacon — and women under 40 at 73%,” the Washington Examiner reported. Video shows children in Houston Texas taking oath to be 'martyrs' for Iran's supreme leader Pro-lifers react with dismay to news that Irish government plans to fine for praying near abortion clinic Guest Seg. Nathan Wigfield – St. Thomas More House of Prayer – Liturgy of the Hours What is the Liturgy of the Hours? Why Pray the Liturgy of the Hours? What brought you into the Church? Why St. Thomas More House of Prayer? Why the Liturgy of the Hours? 2nd Guest Seg. David L Gray – DavidLGray.info The connection between a growing barbarism in the world and the Universal call to evangelize the world. Joe Social Media IG: @TheCatholicHack Twitter: @Catholic_Hack Facebook: Joe McClane YouTube: Joe McClane Adrian Social Media IG: @ffonze Twitter: @AdrianFonze Facebook: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Adrian Fonseca YouTube: Catholic Conversations Rudy Social Media IG: @ydursolrac Youtube: Glad Trad Podcast Visit our website to learn more about us, find a local GRN radio station, a schedule of our programming and so much more. http://grnonline.com/
If you want to find answers and succeed in the real estate industry, particularly regarding home ownership, you have to be willing to research and talk to people. How can you close deals and get consumers to feel confident about their home purchases? Join your host Bill Risser as he dives deep into a conversation with https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffdinter (Jeff Dinter) about driving that entrepreneurial spirit in the real estate space. Jeff is the CEO of https://www.gravy.co/ (Gravy) and a serial entrepreneur with a thing for product design who spends most of his career solving problems in the real estate tech and fintech spaces. In this episode, he shares his knowledge on how to work with agents and lenders to build great connections. He also discusses mistakes he has seen throughout his career and explains the new bridge he has created that hasn't existed before. --- Jeff Dinter - CEO, Gravy We go into the heartland of the country, St. Louis, Missouri, and we are going to chat with Jeff Dinter. He is the CEO of https://www.gravy.co/ (Gravy). There are over 100 million renters in this country. What Gravy does is guide them down that path to home ownership. It's very interesting. We are going to have a lot of fun with this conversation. Enough of this stuff. Let's get it going. --- Jeff, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I was very excited to have you on. I get a lot of requests from podcast bookers, and generally, they are from motivational speakers or real estate investors who, somewhere in their life, were poor. I love it when I find people starting up companies doing things a little bit different. We are going to talk a lot about https://www.gravy.co/ (Gravy), your company, but I always like to start in the same place. You grew up in the Midwest, but it doesn't get more Midwest than St. Louis, right? That's right. It's the spot in the middle of the Midwest. Do you still live there? Is your company there? Tell me why it's so special for you. Why St. Louis? I was born and raised in St. Louis. I had a brief stint in Orlando, Florida, with my fiancée at that time but my wife now. For a few years, we ended up moving back, and it's still here. Gravy is very remote-friendly, but our flag in the sand is here. We have got a handful. Our team is in St. Louis. It has always drawn me back for sure. There are probably two reasons that I'm still here. One, it's family. I have got mine and my wife's immediate family. They both live within ten minutes of our house. That was a plus and a big part of why we moved back from Orlando before we had a toddler. Now that we have a child, it's free babysitting plus family time, so that's an easy one. Two is the tech scene in St. Louis. It's been growing more and more over the past decade or so. There are lots of great people, great minds thinking differently, and engineers. I love the environment here. I hear that a lot from a lot of different places around the country. I don't know if it's the time we are in, and with tech being so powerful. These little areas before were not considered Silicon Valley. You've got them all popping up all over the country. It's a great point to your comment. It started on the coasts, and slowly but surely, the density came in and may not have the density of East or West Coast in St. Louis or Kansas City. The good news is that even if it's smaller, the overall concept of thinking differently, getting folks that either want to build software or reimagine different things, the density, appetite to take risks and start businesses are there. It's a cool combination of founders, but also people that make good early team members at startups are all here. I love it. My readers know I have this weird thing with sports. You can see it all around me. Can I assume Cardinals fan, or are you like some other people I know from St. Louis who got bushwhacked into being a Cubs fan somehow? I have got...
SAVE 20 % on your next Vortex purchase with PROMO CODE: TFC20 - https://bit.ly/2KemVsx SAVE 10% on Trophy Line Tree Saddles gear with PROMO CODE: TFC10 - https://bit.ly/3nN4aKu SAVE 10% on Vector Custom Arrow 10% with PROMO CODE: TFC10 - https://bit.ly/3cRh2g4 Welcome to a new episode of The Fair Chase Podcast! Today we have on Christian Shaaf from Uncharted Supply. Christian talks to us about his experience hunting moose and elk in the backcountry, why basic survival skills are important for everybody to know, and how he used to rock out with the drummer from Prince back in the day. We also discuss: - Christian being friends with Jay Cutler - Hunting axis year-round - Interesting midwest drinking laws - How far can moose hear? - Once in a lifetime moose hunts - The challenge of elk hunts - Christian's background in rock - Performing music for troops in the middle east - The 72-hour rescue rule - Why emergency kits can change everything - Why St. Bernards used to carry booze - Do you trust the Steripen? - Sleeping better in the mountains than at home - How nature can be healing Other Sponsor Links: http://www.huntwise.com/ https://www.g5prime.com
This week, we're celebrating the feast day of St. Joseph - and Pope Francis' invitation to all of us in 2021 to “go to Joseph” is still ringing in our ears. But what can we learn from St. Joseph as Catholic women - isn't he more of a saint for the guys? Today I'm sitting down with Elizabeth Lev. She's an art historian and tour guide who lives in Rome and she's recently written a beautiful book on the history of St. Joseph in art. In today's episode, we're talking about what we can learn from St. Joseph as women, and the history of incredible women throughout church history who leaned on Joseph and his creative courage when they were feeling underrepresented or burdened with challenges. Whether you clicked play to learn more about St. Joseph or you, too, are feeling overwhelmed and looking for a silent knight, this letter is for you. Topics we talked about in this episode: What inspired Liz's new book, The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art Why we should turn to St. Joseph and what he can teach us especially as Catholic women Why St. Joseph absent from early Christian art and what sparked his appearance onto the artistic scene How the (sometimes contradictory!) depictions of St. Joseph throughout the centuries can teach us about the history of the Catholic Church What we can do to spark a Josephine renaissance today Liz's favorite depictions of St. Joseph and how her favorite shifted as she wrote this new book How leading students and tourists through the Sistine Chapel encourages Liz to embrace the feminine genius in her daily life as a teacher and tour guide in Rome Resources you should check out after listening to this episode: Pick up a copy of Liz Lev's new book, The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art I loved reading Liz's first book, How Catholic Art Saved the Faith, before our family's trip to Rome in 2019 Visit Liz's website for more information about her tours in Rome Naptime Notes, a new monthly newsletter from Chloe Pre-order my newest book, Sisterhood: Giving and Receiving the Gift of Friendship Check out The Little Catholic Box and access the exclusive bonuses for LTW listeners - this month's surprise is perfect for my fellow coffee lovers! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/letters-to-women/support
What you'll learn in this episode: What charnel houses and ossuaries are, and why they were an important part of people's spiritual lives Why the Catholic Church decorated hundreds of Roman skeletons with jewels in the 17th century Why 17th century nuns were some of the most skilled yet unrecognized jewelers of their day How art and jewelry can help us explore death and other touchy subjects About Paul Koudounaris Paul Koudounaris is an author and photographer based in Los Angeles. He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of California, and he has traveled around the world to document charnel houses, ossuaries, pet cemeteries, and other macabre subjects for both academic and popular journals. His books include The Empire of Death, Memento Mori, and Heavenly Bodies, which features the little-known skeletons taken from the Roman Catacombs in the seventeenth century and decorated with jewels by teams of nuns. His most recent book is A Cat's Tale: A Journey Through Feline History. Additional Resources: Instagram Photos: Rorschach upper half, chest with skull Hergiswil stomach full shot Weyarn head with problem here due to discoloration behind skull due to back lighting through stained glass window Sonntagsberg felic chest detail Bad Schussenried head and chest Peterskirche munditia in shrine three problems, top over curtain over rope and weird candle Transcript: Today, covering a skeleton with jewels seems odd or downright morbid. In the 17th century, it was par for the course for the Catholic Church, which covered the skeletons of martyrs with jewels and lavish accessories to highlight the Church's power. Author and photographer Paul Koudounaris has spent years researching and documenting these little-known historic treasures, which he detailed in his book Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how the skeletons (and human remains generally) were an important part of people's spiritual lives; why nuns were responsible for decorating the jeweled skeletons; and why the Catholic Church's efforts to honor martyrs didn't exactly go as it intended. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. Today, my guest is Paul Koudounaris, who's an art historian, photographer and author whose publications in the field of charnel houses and ossuary research have made him a well-known figure in these areas. Today, he'll tell us about his fascinating work and what it has to do with jewelry. We'll hear about his unusual jewelry journey today. Paul, welcome to the podcast. Paul: Hi. I'm delighted to be here, and I'm delighted to talk about this topic from the perspective of jewelry. Sharon: I was so interested to hear it. Tell us about your journey. Did you get into this field because of your doctoral studies in art? How did you get into it? I don't know what charnel house means, and I didn't want to look it up until I heard your definition. Paul: Well, a charnel house is just a room full of bones. It's from an old Latin word, “caro,” that meant flesh. It's a flesh room, or it was literally a bone room. When they'd run out of room in cemeteries, they would put the bones and skulls in a separate room. They didn't want to discard the bones of their relatives, but they needed room to bury more people. I started out studying that. Of course, that has nothing to do with jewelry, at least not at first, but it does have something to do with a PhD in history. When I finished the PhD, everyone likes to carve their own niche in life, and I was always interested in the macabre stuff. I was very familiar with the famous charnel houses, giant bone rooms, such as the Paris catacombs, which most people know about as big tourist attractions. As I traveled around Europe and looked in depth, I started to realize how many of these places there were that nobody knew about; that weren't famous but were spectacular. I started to realize how these places, these great bone rooms that were constructed in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, had once been a very important part of people's spiritual lives. We had pushed them into the cracks because we are so uncomfortable with the topic of death, and because the churches that administered them were oftentimes embarrassed to own these rooms full of bones because it just doesn't play well in the modern world. So, I got started looking at those bone rooms. I wrote called a book called The Empire of Death that was designed to bring their meaning back into play for a modern audience. Sharon: People must flock around you at cocktail parties. I'm thinking about them being so interested in what you have to say about this. Tell us about how the jewels come into play here. Paul: I was finishing my book called Pyre of Death. It was literally about the bone rooms and the skeletons, the meaning of their décor and their place in people's spiritual lives. When I was finishing that book, I found a topic that was even more spectacular, and it had me hooked. Sometimes in Italy, they would take me into these old bone rooms. A lot of times, they were closed off from the public, so I needed permission from the church. Before I would get into the bone rooms, sometimes I would find these old skeletons that had been put into storage that were completely covered in jewels, and this is where the jewelry angle comes in. They were never part of the bone rooms per se; they were the relics of saints, these whole-body skeletons completely covered over in jewels. I started getting into that, understanding what that was. We can talk about it because it has a very profound meaning in terms of religion. By the time I finished the first book, as it was coming out, I was in London at my publisher's office. I had taken a picture of some of these skeletons, and I had put them on the commissioning editor's desk. I pushed him the photos and said, “Here's the next book,” and he looked at the photos and was like, “Yeah, O.K., that's the next book. We'll draw up a contract. What the hell is this?” It's hard for your listeners to understand what I'm talking about. They might Google it. If they Google my name, Koudounaris— Sharon: And we will have links to everything and photos on the website when we post this. Paul: The book is called Heavenly Bodies. If they Google my name and the book, they would see pictures of what I'm talking about. They truly are spectacular. We're talking about entire human skeletons, head to toe, completely covered in jewels. It was something utterly spectacular that has apparently been blotted out, pushed aside because of our own anxiety dealing with this kind of material in the modern age. That's how the jewelry angle comes in. Sharon: How did they decide which skeletons were going to be covered in jewelry? Paul: The skeletons that were jeweled had nothing to do with the charnel houses themselves. The bone rooms were filled with people from the cemetery. The skeletons were something different. To understand why these were important, I need to talk a little bit about the historical background. I know since this is a jewelry show, people have different levels of awareness of religious history, so pardon me if some of this is a little rudimentary, but it's very important in understanding this topic. I think we all know about the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther, in the 16th century, takes the first breakaway group from the Catholic Church and other groups start to leave. The Catholics, who thought they were inviolable and didn't think they could really be hurt by these Protestant break-away groups, by the time they take this seriously, they've lost about half of Europe and they have to respond. They have to produce something to bring people back in their church. The Protestant groups all had different viewpoints, but one thing the Protestants universally disliked was the Catholic practice of relics, relics being those little bits of bone or a lock of hair or some piece of a holy person that would be on display in a church. “Look, we have St. Peter's fingernail.” The Protestants didn't like that kind of stuff. First of all, they thought it was cultish or death-y. More importantly, they thought it was leading people into idolatry, because maybe someone's praying to a fingerbone rather than praying to God. So, the Protestants go around and destroy the relics. When the Catholics decided to rebuild their church and try to bring people back in, they said, “Well, we need new relics, and they need to be spectacular. We need to show them.” The Catholics understood propaganda, and they understood that people respond to visual symbols more than they respond to abstract ideas. So, they said, “O.K., we're going to rebuild the churches. We are going to bring in new relics, but relics that are so powerful, like nobody has ever seen before, that are really going to attract people.” And so they needed new relics. Around this time, they rediscovered the catacombs of Rome, which were early Christian burial sites. They would send people down there to look for early Christian martyrs. Because they gave their lives for God, to the church, early Christian martyrs have a status about equivalent to a saint. They would take these skeletons of these early Christian martyrs from Rome and send them to northern Europe to the battleground areas where they thought they could win people back from the Protestants. Mostly that was in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Then they would cover them over completely in jewels, and they would put them on display in these newly re-founded churches as a citadel for people to say, “Look, this is the glory. This glory you see in earthly terms, a skeleton covered over in jewels, this is a reflection of the heavenly glory, the heavenly Jerusalem, that God promises to people who are true to the faith, who will fight for the faith, who fight to reestablish the truth faith, the Catholic Church, in the face of its adversaries, much like these martyred people once fought to found the faith against heathens and pagans of the world.” Sharon: When they went back to find these early martyrs, did they have an X on them? How did they know? They just said, “This was a martyr”? Paul: That's the big problem. The Roman catacombs are famous for Christian burials, but other Romans were buried there too. You could do either of them; you could cremate or you could bury, your choice, and the Jews put their people in the catacombs, too. So, how do you go down into these 1,400, 1,500-year-old tunnels and figure out who in there is a Christian versus a Roman or a Jew, and who has actually been martyred? Of course, it's very difficult. Again, as I said, the Catholics really understood propaganda. These people they were sending north, were they really Christian martyrs? They didn't intend it as a total fraud. They looked for certain symbols. If there was a letter M on a gravestone, they thought, “O.K., well, if there's a letter M, it might mean martyr.” Then again, the gravestones were often broken, so they might see an M, but it might have been part of a larger word. Maybe it was the word Mars; maybe it was someone who had dedicated their lives in the service of the god Mars. You really didn't know, so a lot of it was guesswork. One of the things the Christians looked for were little vials that had been filled with blood. If there was a vial near the grave that had been filled with blood—or then, it had turned to a brown or a reddish dust—they decided, “That must be a martyr because there's a little vial that had been filled with blood. It must be that person's blood that was spilled at his martyrdom. This is definitely a martyr; take him out and send him north.” What they didn't know is the Romans also had a funerary practice that is basically the backstory for us putting flowers on a grave. The Romans would sometimes put vials of perfume near a grave, and perfume over time can also turn into this brownish power. So, you're asking how they knew. They really didn't. A lot these people who were reborn as Christian saints may have been Roman fisherman, for all we know, and people would have been primed to venerate a fisherman. It's a wild story historically. They would pull these skeletons out and rebaptize them. They'd call it batizati because they didn't necessarily know who they were. The catacombs had been ransacked and they were not in good condition, so they'd pull these skeletons out and have a baptism. They'd rebaptize them and give them a name because they didn't know who they were. A lot of these skeletons would have names like Felix. Tons of skeletons who were named Felix who were sent forth from these catacombs. Why Felix? Names like Felix or Clemente, names like that. Why? Because they sound like proper names, but they're also the names of virtues. Felix is the base word for felicity meaning happiness. When they call a guy Felix and send him out, they're saying, “We're not really saying he's a saint by the name of Felix or a martyr by the name of Felix; we're saying he is the epitome of Christian happiness because he died for God.” Now, as I said, this was a propaganda war that these jeweled skeletons were involved in, so when they get to Germany, people didn't question, “Yeah, we have St. Felix here.” One of the most common skeletons to be sent out of the catacombs was St. Valentine. Why St. Valentine? The real St. Valentine has always been interred in Italy, but to make sure they were well received—because, again, this was propaganda to re-found the church. There is no Google to stop people from saying, “Oh, St. Valentine has just arrived in our town. Blessed be, we are graced by the God of love.” There's no Google to say, “Wait a minute, this is horrible. Valentine's interred in Italy.” They're just going to accept it for what it is. You asked a good question: how did they know? They really didn't, but these were tools to re-found a church. They were really jewels of war. These jeweled skeletons were tools of war in the battle against Protestantism. Sharon: You said you stumbled on this, but how come people didn't know these were here? Paul: They did a little bit. It would be unfair to say no one knew. They were still around. I think most of them—it's another question you can asked: what happened to the bulk of them? A lot of them were destroyed, and a lot of them were destroyed for certain reasons. When they fell out of favor, people would rob the jewels from them and throw the skeletons away. I would say most of them, maybe two-thirds of them, have been destroyed, but a lot of them were still around; they were just only known by theologians or people who were really plugged into Catholic history in those places. When I was working in Germany photographing these, I was staying at a friend's house in Stuttgart. Every day I would come back to her house, and she would sit me down at the table and say, “O.K., show me what other crazy things you found in my country that we don't know about.” The bulk of Germans didn't even know these skeletons were there, even though they had been a big part of spiritual life. There were several problems with those skeletons. First of all, I've already told you that a lot of them couldn't be brought. When the Enlightenment came, they decided, “We need to get a lot of the superstition out of religion.” There were actual doctrines passed in Sumer that said, “O.K., we can't have relics on display without a proven provenance, because we don't want people praying in front of a Roman fisherman's bone.” A lot of them were put into storage for that reason. A lot of them were simply removed by the churches and taken away because they didn't want the modern church to be associated with a skeleton covered in jewels. It's not a good look for the modern world. We have an incredible anxiety over death, plus the church gets accused of being a death cult, and what better proof would you have of a death cult than walking into a church and seeing a jeweled skeleton? A lot of them got pushed away in one very strange incident. There were some skeletons they felt bad about removing because it was such an important part of local history. They said, “Well, we want him out of our church. We don't want this look anymore. We don't want a jeweled skeleton in our church, but we don't want to throw him away because he's a part of local history and local lore.” So, they cut a hole in the wall. They shoved it in the wall and plastered the wall over, so he's still technically in the church; he's just literally inside the wall trapped in plaster. So, they got rid of them. It's funny; times change, tastes change. For me, in writing this book, of course I had to get into the theological history, but it was more of an appreciation or reinterpreting them and saying, “O.K., these may have been failed religious items, and they may not have been the skeletons of the people they thought. They may not have been the Christian martyrs, but we can still appreciate them in the modern world as incredible works of art, the finest works of art in human bone that have ever been seen, and incredible works of jeweler's art to cover them like that and make them so splendid. Let's appreciate them in those respects.” A lot of people do love the photos, not for the death aspect or the theological aspect, but for the artistic aspect. Times do change. There's one in a church in Switzerland. There was a variance to bejeweling them. Sometimes they would put them in suits of armor. If they thought it had been a military martyr, they'd put them in a suit of armor. This one has always been on display and they've never removed it. It's still there in the modern church. I talked to the priest about it at the church in Switzerland; its name is St. Croesus. I was like, “Do you ever get any guff at the church for having this skeleton in armor there?” He was like, “It actually does us some good because the heavy metal kids think it's really cool to come to church because there's a skeleton in armor.” Times have changed. Sharon: That's really interesting. When you look at the photos in your book, Heavenly Bodies, it's just amazing the jewels and how they decorated them. Talk about works of jewelers' art, or any kind of art. Paul: I think one very important aspect of this is the people who did the work. That is another forgotten chapter in history along with the skeletons. People are often surprised when I tell them these skeletons were mostly decorated by nuns. They weren't decorated by professional jewelers, and they weren't decorated by big-name artists. They were decorated by teams of nuns. People are sometimes surprised when I say that, but we have to understand life in a convent at that time. Remember, a convent had to have an economy. It had to support itself, and all the money didn't necessarily from donations. Nuns were very skilled in certain trades, what were then sometimes called women's arts. They didn't get the same respect as sculpture and painting, the kind of arts that have been traditionally patriarchal, but these nuns were skilled in what were called women's arts, things like textile making, jewelry work, beadwork, wirework. Some of these nuns were probably the Michelangelo or Leonardo of working with jewelry at time; it's just that we don't know them because our history has always been a patriarchal view. Their names are signed to these skeletons, and they do incredible work. They would send skeletons undecorated up to Europe. The church would get them, and they would turn them over to teams of local nuns. The nuns might take years decorating them, a very costly process, a very time-consuming process, but nuns have the right religious temperament to deal with such an object, They can do it, they have a love for it, and very importantly, nuns had the technical and artistic skill to do this kind of jewelry work, to do this kind of textural work and to do it beautifully. That's another really important of the story. It shows the incredible, high level of skill of these female artists that had been living in these convents to do this kind of work. Sharon: Also too, I assume that one would think they're trustworthy and not be afraid that the jewels were going to disappear. Paul: Oh, sure! Like I said, the nuns had the perfect temperament to deal with the sacred object, and the nuns obviously were not going to steal anything. Sharon: Why were these jeweled skeletons in on display? Did people parade past them in the church? How did that work? Well, I guess they were underneath in the charnel house. Paul: They were on display in the church. They were never stored in the charnel houses. That only came later when they removed them. They would set them into altars in big glass cases. It's the reason that so many of them are posed. A lot of them are posed in a resting pose, full body laid out, almost like they're waking from a sleep. The reason for that is the best place to put them was in the predella of an altar, right underneath the altar table. Of course, that's a long, thin area. They would usually put them in there, so that explains why so many of them are in that resting pose. People would see them every time they walked into the church, but you asked about parades. When they were drilling them into the panel, the technical term for moving a relic is a translation. When they would translate the relics into town and bring them in the church, it was a religious holiday for the town. They would parade them in front of the entire town. Everybody would come out to meet their new patron saint. It was a very big event. Canons would shoot off, and there would be a military parade and an escort for them, and they'd set them into the church with much hoopla. These were very revered objects at the time, and many of the local churches would have special feast days in appreciation of the new saint that had come to them, this new, jeweled skeleton. For instance, in one instance in Germany, a town did have a skeleton they called St. Valentine, so of course they all took him to be the god of love. So, every year on Valentine's Feast Day, myriad couples and boyfriends and girlfriends would come and march and stand in front of this skeleton who, like I said, for all we know, might have been a Roman fisherman. But they'd stand in front of the skeleton they were calling St. Valentine, and they would renew their vows and renew their love for one another in front of the skeleton. The town had even commissioned an orchestral piece that would be played every year when people would stand in front of the skeleton and speak their vows. So yes, they were very much on public display and they were very much a big deal.
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Excellence Podcast! Today, I have Matt McCord on the podcast. Matt McCord is a 20-year special operations veteran. He has traveled the world defending freedom and today he is not only a successful real estate agent he is giving back. Matt started Legacy Realty Investments where he builds spec homes for workforce housing. He makes a very slim margin to keep this business going and looks to fill the homes with those who are unable to buy the many high-priced homes in the area. Giving them a home near their work and family. The McCord Coastal Team with EXP Realty is an up-and-coming powerhouse in St Augustine Real Estate. Real estate can be tough and tiring. In this episode, Matt delves into his journey from combat veteran to becoming productive in real estate. Dive in with us and take a look at a new perspective of real estate investing! [00:01 - 07:40] Opening Segment I welcome Matt to the show Intermediary and developer for investors Why St. Augustine and workforce housing How Legacy Realty Investments started Who is Matt McCord? [07:41 - 40:38] Combat Veteran to Successful Real Estate Agent A Day in the Life of Matt in the Military Finally, out of the Navy and starting real estate Why real estate is a tough career Matt's First Year in the Business: “This is terrible.” What separates you? Cold-calling and building relationships instead of selling Why small business is tough Following mentors that would take you to the next level Giving Everything for 18 Months to Change His Life The importance of being a person in real estate Looking for something different and moving over to EXP Realty Leveraging people and earning passive income We talk about The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone Beating analysis paralysis Ten Houses in Progress and the One Thing to Look For Matt shares about their experience in their new neighborhood [40:39 - 47:09] Closing Segment Is it more important who you know or what you know? Both. What's on your travel bucket list? Puerto Rico for Christmas Switzerland Connect with Matt McCord See links below Final words Resources Mentioned: Sales Remastered The 10X Rule Sell It Like Serhant Big Money Energy Tweetable Quotes: “Small business is tough.” - Matt McCord “Who you know helps you grow your business, what you know helps you expand your business.” - Matt McCord “Don't just go into whatever you're doing, don't go into it blind.” - Matt McCord Connect with Matt McCord through 904-826-5826, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn! Or you can visit their website. SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW as we discuss real estate excellence with the best of the best! Join our community at www.tracyhayespodcast.com Email Tracy.Hayes@jethl.com to get in touch with me. Connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Check out Jet HomeLoans, LLC and get top-flight resources and first-class service in buying your house!
My guest on the show today is Jorge Gonzalez, the CEO of The St. Joe Company. St. Joe is a 2.53 billion dollar market cap company whose main asset is a huge landholding in Northwest Florida. A lot of investors may remember that the company has been the subject of a number of short reports over the last decade but since Jorge became CEO in 2015, St Joe has consistently grown its revenue and EBITDA—and has diversified its revenue base. Also, after a period of time in which the stock was unable to break out, over the last year it has risen to levels that had not been seen since the mid-2000s. Given the company's recent success, I was excited to talk to Jorge about his vision of the future of the company and what people may not be appreciating its asset base. Specifically, we discussed: - What it means to operate as an owner-oriented company; - The demographic trends that are fueling growth in Northwest Florida; - What the shorts have gotten wrong over the years; - How the company approaches the risk of hurricanes in the region; and - What Jorge has learned from the company's Chairman, Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme Capital This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Timestamps: - 1:18 Introduction - 2:36 Being named the next CEO of St. Joe - 3:19 Shifting St. Joe's strategy, culture, and process of execution - 4:08 Adjusting corporate strategy to expand the total market size - 5:18 St. Joe's vast land holdings and unique moat - 6:38 Florida's demographic shifts and how that might affect St. Joe - 8:18 How COVID has affected the trends driving St. Joe's business - 9:52 Handling cyclicality at a macro and geographic level - 11:46 Building a recurring revenue stream in a traditionally cyclical business - 15:28 Further enhancing an already improving business model - 18:05 Balancing an expansion beyond Florida with internal investment opportunities - 19:10 Choosing between internal development, partnerships and the sale of land assets - 20:58 The synergies that exist between residential, commercial, and other infrastructure - 24:04 Ensuring expertise exists within a small core team - 25:45 What does a good partner look like for St. Joe? - 27:36 What does St. Joe mean by “owner-oriented?” - 29:19 Why St. Joe invests so heavily in growth over buying back shares - 30:52 Lessons learned from Bruce Berkowitz - 31:51 How decisions get made at St. Joe - 34:40 How to decide which people should be on the bus - 37:17 What factors did David Einhorn get right in his 2015 short analysis? - 38:42 St. Joe's remaining developable acreage - 40:14 How St. Joe benefits from a 50-year master development plan - 41:58 What attractions are missing from St. Joe's core counties - 42:58 Building win-win relationships with government stakeholders within the community - 45:27 How St. Joe avoids being seen as “too powerful” within the community - 46:37 Building storm resiliency in an area directly affected by environmental challenges - 49:49 The benefits of building modern infrastructure from scratch - 50:57 How modern community design has improved over the years - 52:35 Futureproofing a home or community as a real estate developer - 55:14 How an investor should approach St. Joe - 58:31 St. Joe's key performance indicators and measures of success - 59:47 Why St. Joe is still a “cheap” investment - 62:07 Looking at book value per share as an assessment of St. Joe's progress - 62:50 Instilling a long-term mentality within a corporate culture - 64:14 Why mistakes are sometimes more valuable than are successes - 65:42 The most misunderstood aspect of St. Joe To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.
We take a break from our Top 100 list this week and deal with a current and timely film, 1985's St. Elmo's Fire. Why St. Elmo? Why indeed. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lineofsight/message
Matt Goul (@mgoul) joins Tim to talk about Ohio High School football, with a focus on Northeast Ohio. Topics include: New preseason schedule New playoff format Why St. Ed's earned the top overall ranking The top region 1 teams, including Mentor, St. Ignatius and Medina Best division 2 teams Top early season games in Northeast Ohio Teams and storylines to look out for throughout the season Follow Matt's work on cleveland.com and on twitter (@mgoul) All St. Ed's games broadcast on stedwardeagles.com
How a Song Can Be a Shield, or, Why St. Patrick’s Day Must Become about More than Green Beer.
We share our thoughts on Texas's recent decisions.(11:27) Why St. Pats should get more hype! (23:13)The royal family is the only liked trust fund family apparently and how to handle "friends with benefits?" (44:44) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/keegan-cathcart/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keegan-cathcart/support
Why St. Joseph? How can we grow closer to our spiritual father? Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, author of Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father, explains that St. Joseph is God's gift to our world in the midst of the current crisis of family and fatherhood. In this episode, learn how we can turn to St. Joseph as a father and role model, especially during the Year of St. Joseph. Learn More In the talk Silent Knight, Holy Knight, Scott Hahn explores how Scripture holds St. Joseph up as a model of virtue—despite St. Joseph never speaking a word. Our duties to God and family are higher than anything else. Learn more in Scott Hahn's new book It Is Right and Just. St. Joseph is also a model for priests. Learn more in this blog by Fr. Carter Griffin.
Audio Transcript: Good morning. Welcome to another online service of Mosaic Boston, Brookline. Hope you're well. Hope you are abiding in the Lord, rejoicing in him, meditating in the gospel, and being filled with the Spirit daily. So happy that you are tuning in with us. Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word?Heavenly Father, we pray that you bless our time in the word today. You have, every single week during this crisis. We felt it. People are being ministered to by your word and we're thankful for that. And I pray today, Lord, encourage us in the faith. I pray, Lord, encourage us with the example of Jesus Christ who came not to be served but to serve. Encourage us with the example of St. Paul who did the same. He served. Encourage us with the examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus, godly people, godly men who gave everything, sacrificed everything in order to encourage the faith of others, in order to plant the seed of the gospel, in order to plant churches. Lord, bless our time in the Holy Scriptures and continue to edify and encourage each one of us so that we can edify and encourage one another. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen.The title of the sermon today is Here to Serve. The whole text that we are about to read is about service, sacrificial service. St. Paul writes this letter to a church in Philippi, a church that he planted with Timothy. Together, they planted it. And the church is growing and as the church grows, there's potential for disunity, for division. And this is what Satan does. One of his strategies. One of his stratagems is to sow seeds of division. So St. Paul writes this letter and says, "There's nothing more important than the gospel because there's nothing more important than Jesus." And there's nothing more important than people meeting Jesus. So there's nothing more important than for us to devote our lives to get the gospel to people. And we do it together as brothers and sisters partnering in the gospel, getting the gospel to people living in a manner worthy of the gospel. And the greatest example of this is Christ himself.Christ goes from the highest of heights to the lowest of depths in order to serve us, in order to save us. So we're in chapter 2 today. The concluding part of chapter 2 of Philippians, it's started with a glorious text, a gloriously Christological vision of who Christ is, what he did in his incarnation, and how that applies to our lives.Last week, we talked about the interplay between God's sovereignty and our responsibility. God work salvation in us. He gives us that gift. We are to receive that gift, receive and believe. And as we do, we then work out our salvation. God gives us grace but we use that grace, so it's not in vain. So we work as hard as we possibly can. And then from that, from that glorious part of the chapter, St. Paul moves to something that seems at first reading so mundane. He shows us a travel itinerary of a few gentlemen. Why St. Paul, why this text? What does it have to do with our lives?Well, what St. Paul is doing is he's illustrating the points that he just made about Christological service, serving like Christ served. About the interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. And then he shows the example of two godly men who are mirroring, they're reflecting that Christ-like service, they have the heart of Christ. They are here to serve.And the other thing I want to just point out about this travel itinerary is these are real people in real time, in real places. And why is that important? It's important because the New Testament is grounded in real history, in real time, in real space. The gospel is rooted in world history, not mythology. These are real people with real lives, and real emotions, and real pain, and real desires, and hopes, and dreams. The gospel is relevant to them, therefore it's relevant to us. It applied to them. It applied to us. We see if someone got sick, someone couldn't come because they had to be in a different place. People had friends. St. Paul had friends and counted on them like we count on our friends. There's deep fellowship, there's deep emotion here. They lived in the same world that we live in. They're in real history. They're real human beings. These are real lives with real stories.The New Testament is a testimony. It's an account, a historically verifiable account of extraordinary things that happened to ordinary people when they submit their lives to God, in service to him, in service to people. That's where we find ourselves today in Philippians 2:19-30. I'm going to start reading with two verses that we ended with last week, verses 17 and 18, because it all flows together. Would you look at the text with me, Philippians 2:17?"Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill."Indeed, he was ill, near to death. "But God had mercy on him and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me." This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.Three points today, we'll talk about the servant's heart, the servant's hardship, and the servant's honor. The context is that St. Paul is in prison in Rome and the Philippians, the church in Philippi, the Philippian Christians take up an offering for St. Paul to meet his monetary needs and they sent it through Epaphroditus who volunteers for the job to travel 800 miles. It took at least six weeks over rough terrain. And on the way, he catches some sickness, some disease, some infection, and it was almost deadly it brought him to the brink of death. But Epaphroditus persists in spite of the pain.Why are we talking about a guy named Epaphroditus? And we need to remember this guy's name, it's important. Because St. Paul knows that the faith, the Christian faith, can't just be taught. It also must be caught. Taught and caught. It's both. He's not just giving them words of faith. He's giving them a real life, flesh and blood examples of this is how you live this out. I know my walk, maybe you can relate, my walk in the faith. I have been impacted by the scripture. I have been impacted by the books of theology, thousands of books of theology that I've read. I have also maybe even more so been impacted by godly people in my life whom I saw serving, whom I saw pouring themselves out for the faith of many, whom I saw sacrificing.I saw this with my parents. I saw this with my dad. I saw this with my uncle. After college, I moved down to Washington, DC for my first job out of college. And I got to live with my uncle who was a church planter in Washington, DC, and my aunt. And I lived with them for a month, and I saw on a daily basis how much they sacrificed, how they worked, how they served one another, how they served their children, how the children served the parents. Incredible gospel-centered family, incredible gospel-centered church. I saw them doing uncomfortable things, getting out of their comfort zone.We would do street evangelism. This is a Russian church, and we would go to on Saturdays, I would work a full week, on Saturdays, I would go to the Russian store and evangelize. Try to share the gospel with these people going to the Russian store. Really uncomfortable, but powerful in bringing many to faith. Moved down to North Carolina, Raleigh-Durham area for seminary. And I remember Andy Davis and his family, and I remember the saints at FBC Durham sacrificing, daily serving one another in radical ways. And that right there ignited a fire in me to give my life to the Lord, to serve him with everything I've got.This week, my wife and I, we celebrated, actually yesterday, Wednesday. You're listening on Sunday, celebrated 14 years of marriage. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, and thank you, Tanya, for your patience and forbearance. But in my wife, I see this heart of service. I've always seen this heart of service. She would give everything she has to those in need, be it family or not. The gospel has to be both taught and caught, and that's why we have the example here of people who have Christ's heart.Jesus didn't just come to be served but to serve. To give his life as a ransom for many. Therefore, dear Christians, service for us isn't an option. There's not elite levels of Christians like Navy SEAL Christians who serve and the rest of us are served. No, if you're a Christian, you're called to serve. And the reason why we have to be called to serve and reminded of this, because it doesn't come naturally. It's hard and you got to develop a heart of service, it has to be cultivated. And I think about it like this.Two weeks ago, we talked about developing the mind of Christ, thinking Christ's thoughts with him. That's how we discern what God's will is, by the transformation of our mind. But also, we have to develop not just the mind of Christ but the heart of Christ. A heart of Christ that beats intact with him. His heart that was poured out, that bled for others. It was that heart that motivated his hands. We need to develop both the head of Christ, the heart of Christ, and the hands of Christ. But today, I want to focus in here. I'm going to focus on developing that heart of Christ.Look at St. Paul in this text, how often he mentions Christ in talking about travel itinerary, which almost has nothing to do with the Lord seemingly. Okay, verse 19, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you." What an interesting phrase. Now I hope to send Timothy to you soon. I hope in the Lord, in the Lord Jesus, what a phrase. Look at verse 24, "And I trust in the Lord that shortly, I myself will come also." I trust in the Lord, meaning if it's the Lord's will. So for St. Paul, every day as he's making plans, as he's thinking what he's going to do in the near future, the Lord and his will informs every decision he makes. It's not just simply common sense, not just simply what he thinks is best, what his wants or his desires are, but he submits everything to the Lord and his will.And he mentions Epaphroditus here, that Epaphroditus got better from his illness. And he doesn't just say, "Oh, thank goodness that Epaphroditus got better." He doesn't say, "Thank goodness," he says, "Thank God." Thank God. Look at verse 27, "Indeed he was ill, near to death but God had mercy on him. Not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." God had mercy on him. God extended his life. Verse 29, "So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men." In the Lord, I hope, I trust in the Lord. God is in control. God is the one who extends mercy by extending life, so receive him in the Lord.The heart of St. Paul is focused on Christ, his heart beats intact with Christ. Jesus is at the center of everything that St. Paul does, thinks, plans, desires, wants. Jesus is at the center. His whole life revolves around Christ. Christ is the focus point. And this is how you develop the heart of Christ. What does Jesus want? What does Jesus love? What does Jesus desire? I want to desire those things. Timothy's focus was the same, it was on Christ. Look at verse 21, "For they all seek their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ, but you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father you served me with the gospel." We all have our own interests, every single one of us. And here St. Paul says there are some Christians in Rome at that time, they're believers. They've confessed, they've professed believing in Christ. But still, he's not number one.For them, they can't say that, "For me to live is Christ." Their interests are higher. Their own personal interests are higher than the interests of Christ. This is why I'm talking about developing the heart of Christ. Your interests are those things that you love more than Christ, which actually is a form of idolatry. But Timothy, no, Timothy, he doesn't seek his own interest. He seeks those of Christ by serving in the gospel with St. Paul. And by the way, Timothy was with Paul when they first visited the Church when it was first founded. So St. Paul knew that if I send Timothy to the Church in Philippi, they will be encouraged by his presence. St. Paul says, "I trust in the Lord that I too will come to see you." Meaning, "I hope that I get to travel 800 miles, six weeks over rough terrain, risking life and limb just to be with you. Just to be in your presence. That's how much I love you." And by the way, this has to inform our ecclesiology what it means to be a church, brothers and sisters.I'll tell you, there's people on staff I haven't seen in person since early March. Pastor Andy, I haven't seen in person since March. I get to see him on video once or twice a week. And I'm telling you, I miss him. I miss you, Pastor Andy. Hope you're doing well. Caleb, I saw at my brother's wedding. Raquel, I got to see as she was standing outside of Ruggles Baptist Church at my brother's wedding also. And I'm telling you when I saw them, and perhaps you can relate, when I saw them, it was a treat. It was a gift. It was a gift for the eyes just to be in the presence of this person. There's something there.Yes, online. Sure. We're thankful we can do this. We're thankful we can do CGs via video. We're thankful. But it's not meant to be a substitute for the greatest present that there is, which is each one of us, of our presence. Our presence is a present from the Lord for one another. So that's why I can't wait to finally meet in person, and I trust in the Lord it will be soon. Epaphroditus has the same focus. His heart beat with the heartbeat of Christ. He pushed himself almost to the point of death to bring a gift to St. Paul. The gift of the finances from the Church of Philippi but also the gift of his own presence. And then we see the heartbeat of Christ in Epaphroditus in that when he hears that the church in Philippi heard that he was sick, he's distressed over their distress. And this is incredible.Not only is he sick physically, but he's emotionally sick and worried that these people are sick and worried over him reveals a servant's heart. Verse 25, "I thought it was necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need." Epaphroditus brought this gift and he completed by his presence what the Philippians could not by their absence. Verse 30, "For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me." And I like this word here for service and minister. Both come from the Greek word liturgia, we get the English word liturgy from. And in secular Greek, the word was used of a man or a person who out of love for his city, out of love for the gods, would give a lavish, generous financial gift to the city or finance a great drama, or outfit a battleship. Meaning this was sacrificial.So we see that Epaphroditus is a minister. He sacrificed much offering, everything for Christ. And this is what it means to develop a heart of service. And also, a servant of Christ is willing to go anywhere that Christ sends, anywhere that Christ sends. Do you think it was easy for Timothy to leave St. Paul's side? No. No, of course not. Look at that relationship, verse 22, "But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel," they loved each other. They had a relationship where St. Paul was a spiritual father and Timothy was a spiritual son to St. Paul.But God was calling Timothy to make this trek to sacrifice, to leave his comfort in order to bless others. That wasn't easy, but it was the Lord's will. Do you think it was easy for Epaphroditus to leave the comforts of home? Take this difficult journey to Rome? No, it wasn't easy, but it had to be done. Do you think it was easy for Paul to leave the comforts of Judaism, the comforts of his faith, and his family, and everything, and to be a missionary? No, of course not. But Jesus said, "I have a mission for you. You are my servant." And a servant gets sent wherever the master says to go.So I wonder, have you ever, and by the way, this is an important question. Have you ever said, "Lord, I will go wherever you tell me to go. Lord, I'm willing to go wherever you tell me to go"? He's told me, I'm here. The question I'm wrestling with is, "Lord, am I willing to stay where you've called me to go?" And perhaps that's what many of you are wrestling with. There's other places to live where you can be much more comfortable, perhaps less useful for the kingdom. It's an important question, "Lord, am I willing to go? Lord, am I willing to stay once I am where you've called?" And the servant who has the heart of Christ is willing to go and willing to serve anyone. Timothy served Paul and then he has to go and serve the Philippians. Epaphroditus served the Philippians, now he's willing to serve Paul.Now there's an incredible story of Philip who has a flourishing public ministry of the gospel preaching in Samaria. And then Jesus says, "No, I want you to leave this great ministry where perhaps you can build a platform for yourself, and I want you to go and preach the gospel on a deserted road to reach the Ethiopian eunuch. I want you to go preach the gospel to this one person." Are you available to go where perhaps you won't make the great name for yourself? A servant doesn't care about their own name. A servant cares about the name of the master and servants put others ahead of themselves. Paul's in prison facing execution. He's encouraged by Timothy's presence and understandably he could say, "No, I can't send Timothy. I need him with me now ministering to my needs." He says, "No, I'm putting the Philippians' needs ahead of my own and the Philippians serve Paul financially. And they sent Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus is willing to serve and go to the brink of death, obviously sacrificing for others.Contrast it with these people who are, in verse 20 and 21, are not concerned for their welfare. Look at verse 20, "For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Christ." Now this is a little difficult to understand because we're talking about the church in Rome. And the epistle to the Romans was written five years before this. Romans 16, St. Paul has a whole list of specific Christians whom he admires, and appreciates, and genuinely thanks for their faithfulness. But most likely, once they came to faith, they were dispatched or sent to other cities. That's why he doesn't have anyone other than Timothy and some of these people who care about only their own interest.The other thing I just want to point out here about the heartbeat of Christ, Jesus deeply loved. He deeply loved his disciples. He deeply loved the people around him in a true, tangible, visible, emotional love. And there's so much love in these verses. It oozes with a bromance, of brotherhood, of fellowship. That's the word, not bromance, brotherhood, it's a brotherhood. Epaphroditus here longs for the Philippians. He's distressed that they're distressed. And the word here's the same word that's used for Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane who was distressed. It's deep emotional pain. The Christian life, my friends, is not stoicism. We have felt emotion, deep, raw emotion, rollercoaster of emotion during this time and that's okay. That's good to feel that emotion. It's good to feel that grief, that tenderness, even tears, sorrow, even slight anxiety.And by the way, this is interesting. That St. Paul says this in verse 27, "But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." St. Paul felt sorrow and "I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious." This is fascinating. St. Paul, did you know at the time of your writing Romans 8, which you gave us, Romans 8:28, "For those who are called by God, predestined by God, and who love God, all things work together for the good"? Didn't you know that St. Paul? Don't you know that your troubles are actually, God is going to use those troubles? There's a purpose in your pain. Didn't you know that St. Paul?St. Paul, didn't you know what you're about to write in chapter 4 where it says, "Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, present your requests to God"? Didn't you know that? Don't be anxious, you're about to write us? And now you're telling us about your anxiety? Well, this is fascinating. And by the way, anxiety isn't something that you can just suppress. It's not something you can just truncate. It's not something you can just turn off. It's something that we battle or something that we strive to replace with joy, with peace, with tranquility. That doesn't mean in this fleshly body, in this sinful world that our anxiety is just immediately gone completely. Now it's a battle for joy. It's a battle for peace on a daily basis. And St. Paul's not afraid of expressing those deep feelings. And as he does, the Lord uses it to minister to others.So the servant of God is willing to go anywhere, love anyone, and sacrifice anything because they have the heart of Christ. Timothy gave up his interest, Epaphroditus almost lost his life. Paul to the Ephesian elders said this in Acts 20:24, "I do not count my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." St. Paul said, "My life is of no value to me. There's something more important than my life and that's Christ. For me, to live as Christ and die." Again, St. Paul did pay the highest price. We don't know if he ever saw the church in Philippi. Verse 24, he says, "I trust in the Lord that shortly, I myself will come also." Most likely he didn't. And this was part of God's plan for him.The Lord when he called St. Paul to himself and met him on the road to Damascus, and St. Paul was blinded and then God tells Ananias, "Go now and minister Paul," to pray over him. But this is what God tells Ananias in Acts 9:15, "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.'" God gives St. Paul the gift of salvation. And he gives him the gift of suffering, as we talked about in chapter 1.And for the Christian, yes, death is sad but we don't grieve as those without hope for the saint. Death is a blessing, it's a home-going. Why did I spend so much... This is a typical Pastor Jan. Most of the time of the sermon, I'm going to spend in point one. Why did I do this? Because we can't talk about the servant's hardships and the servant's honor without focusing on the servant's heart. If your heart isn't motivated by love for Christ, you won't be able to endure the hardship. And if you're just motivated by the honor that you will get, you won't be able to endure the hardship. Your heart needs to be filled with the love for Christ.As a Christian, if you're motivated by anything else than Christ, you will burn out in your spiritual walk. You'll burn out and you'll bum out. Why? Because it's hard. You'll get angry by the way people treat you, by the way... You get hurt. You'll grow weary and frustrated by hardships and sacrifices. You'll quit in disgust and disappointment. If serving for any other reason than love for Christ, if you have any other reason than love for Christ who loved you, gave himself for you, you'll give up. But if you are fueled by constantly being captivated by love for Christ, by the love of Christ, it changes everything.A servant's heart and then, point two is a servant's hardship. There's no service without sacrificing, and sacrificing is hard. It's even painful. Philippians 2:27, "Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him. Not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow," meaning, I've already got sorrow. I'm in prison, I'm facing execution, I'm being persecuted, and the death of Epaphroditus would have mounted that sorrow. Verse 25, "I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my needs." How does he describe the Christian life? Work and fight, worker and soldier, that there's work to do to be a Christian, to live on mission. And that there's a fight to battle. This is war.In all my years of being a minister, in all my years of being a Christian, I have not felt demonic oppression. I've not felt it as tangibly, as powerfully. I've not been as sensitive to it as I do today, in the world, in the nation, in our city, in my own life. We're at war. And war is hard. No one goes to war because it's easy. Look at St. Paul and his own life. 2 Corinthians 11:23-28.He chronicles his hardships, "Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman. With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, and hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."Anytime I read that passage, I walk away and saying, "My troubles are nothing compared to this guy's." And as he's enduring all of that, he's got a love for the church that keeps him going. Soldiers into a boot camp to learn how to endure hardships and battle. And servants we must train. When war comes, that's when we're ready. And today, we're going through a season that we've never lived through. Unprecedented is the word, I can't wait till we go back to precedent times. I miss those. But this is what we've been training for, for the hardships. Philippians 2:22, "But you know Timothy's proven worth," he's been proven. His worth has been approved by testing. That's the same word that's used in Romans 5:3-4, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." Proven worth and proven character. That's the same word here in the Greek.A product is tested before it's sold to prove that it's reliable. Cars need to go through crash testing. And that's how you know it's reliable. St. Paul had persecution, hardship, from without, from within, from above. From without, this is the persecution from the Roman Empire. From within, Christians who are motivated by selfish ambition and envy, criticizing St. Paul. And from above, demonic warfare, and he's being pressed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." We are spiritual war.I've been hearing this from a lot of people. I've been saying this a lot. Like nothing makes sense. I don't know what to believe, whom to believe in the news. I don't know what's true. I don't know what's being spun. I don't know what's being exploited in order to create some political advantage. I don't know. Nothing makes sense. But you know what hasn't changed? The truth of God's word, the truth of the gospel, and that we are at war. One of the reasons why things don't make sense in the physical realm is when people around us don't understand that there's a spiritual realm. Yes, it looks like we are at war here with one another. But that's because there's war above us, and we need to be encouraged that we know who wins.I've read the end of the book. The Book of Revelation, I know, Jesus wins, and we can be encouraged with that. But we are at war, Ephesians 6:10-20. I'm going to read the whole passage because it's so relevant for us today. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand or be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace."In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that and keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly, to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare boldly, as I ought to speak."Spiritual warfare that culminates in St. Paul's action. He says, "What is the action?" It's to speak the gospel boldly. Timothy did not look to his own interests, he looked to the interests of Christ. Many of us are afraid to speak the gospel to our unbelieving neighbors, and friends, and colleagues, to speak the truth of the gospel. Because our primary interest is to be liked. We want to be liked by the people around us but that's not the goal. That's not the goal, to be liked. The goal is to be loved. And the way that people can truly love us is when they are transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So how do we wage the spiritual war? By loving people and telling them the good news of Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't you become a Christian? Why wouldn't you want all of your sins forgiven? Why wouldn't you want to spend eternity with God in paradise where he is at the center?I want to point something out about Epaphroditus risking, Philippians 2:29-30. "So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me," risking. The word for risking in the Greek literally means hazarding his life, gambling. It's a gambling term, it means that he's willing to roll the dice. He's willing to roll the dice with his life, because he sees the pot in the middle. He's willing to risk his life because he knows the reward is greater than the risk. The reward is greater than the risk when you trust in Christ.Blaise Pascal and his Pensées, he had this thing called the Pascal's Wager, in which he said, "Every single person alive today is gambling with their life." And this is the wager, "If God exists, and I live for Him, I have to, in the short term in my life sacrifice finite pleasure, finite comfort. I have to lose something in the short term in order to gain something infinite in the long term." That's the wager. Others are wagering. And they're saying, "No, no, God does not exist. Therefore, in this life, I'm going to live any way I want for my pleasures as if I'm my own king. And I'm risking being miserable in all of eternity, I'd rather be happy as I defined it in the short term." And what he's saying is if like everyone's playing, everyone's gambling, if it turns out there is a God, if it turns out that there is an eternity and that we are eternal souls living in bodies, and we didn't submit to them now, we lose, and we lose for eternity. We lose infinitely. But if you win, you gain everything.I've been watching the Facebook news feed, Sundays, and I get to see who enters the chat, who watches with us. And I've been seeing a lot of my friends from high school, a lot of my friends from college, a lot of my neighbors, and I'm so thankful for that. And from the bottom of my heart, I welcome you. And from the bottom of my heart, I'm calling you to realize the greatness of God and the greatness of his gospel. That God gave his son Jesus Christ to die for my sins and your sins, sins of the whole world, and whosoever believes in Christ shall have eternal life forever, sins forgiven. You'll have blessing in this life. Yes, there are sacrifices. Yes, there are hardship. But there are things that make us stronger and draw us closer to Christ, which is the greatest blessing that there is. It's the greatest deal in the history of all deals.Jesus says, "Come to me, submit to me, give your heart to me and I give you myself," which is better than anything and everything in the world. So it's a no brainer, you should become a Christian. Everyone should. So why go through the hardship? Because you're motivated by Christ, you're motivated by his heart. And you also go through the hardship because there is a servant's honor, that God does honor his servants.And this is point three, the servant's honor, we don't seek honor for ourselves. I want to point that out, but we seek honor for the Lord and the Lord loves to share the honor. The Lord is a generous God who wants to honor his servants. Look at 1 Samuel 2:30, "Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares, I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever, and now the Lord declares, far be it from me, for those who honor me, I will honor and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." And what an interesting thought of a glorious God of the universe, likes to honor, loves to honor. When we honor him, he honors us. 2 Timothy 4:8. "Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing." So any hardship that we face will be well worth it when we see his face, when we see the face of God.Matthew 25:21, "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'" The Lord wants to honor his servants, he does, and he will. Paul honors Timothy also by sending him as his representative. Paul honors Epaphroditus by his commendation. In Philippians 2:29, he says, "So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men," honor such people. And by the way, Paul is doing what he's telling them to do. He's honoring these godly people, godly men in this letter. He admires these brothers, appreciates them for their sacrifice, for their faithfulness.James Fraser of Brea, he says this, "The size and the substance of the spirit of a man's soul is at once seen by the spontaneity, and the generosity, and the exuberance, and the warmth of his praises. Just as the smallness, and the stinginess, and the sullenness, and the mulishness of another man's soul is all disclosed to us by his despicable ingratitude to all his benefactors. Almighty God Himself inhabits the praises of Israel. And to praise, and with your whole heart, all those men and women and children who deserve praise at your hands; that, already, is a certain contribution toward your praise of God."What a text. You got to go back and you got to analyze this text. By the way, James Fraser of Brea, I commend you, I salute you, James. What a quote, what a paragraph. And the alliteration, oh my, the pair-off, phenomenal.Here's what I want to say about honoring one another. I grew up in a Slavic church. I grew up in a Slavic church in Providence, Rhode Island. And in Slavic Baptist culture, there's some quirks. There's a lot of quirks. One of the quirks is that they would have a special music time or like special participation. There's the worship, there's the choir singing, there's the sermon. There were actually three sermons. Our service is like three hours. And someone would come up to sing, someone would sing a song.And there would always be a group of people in the church that wanted to clap, that wanted to honor these people for doing a tremendous job. And then, in every conference I've ever been to, Slavic conference, there's always a contingent of people who say, "No, no, no, don't clap, instead, say Praise God." Interesting if you analyze it, and the fear was if you clap for these people, or you say thank you, or you admire, or you say good job. The fear was, they're going to lose their reward in heaven. And by honoring them, we're not honoring God. So let's not even think about them. Let's just think about God.And I understand the heart behind, the heart is that you don't want to breed narcissism, you don't want to inflate the ego, and you don't want to detract from God's honor. No. But this is what this quote is saying, James Fraser, and this will be seen in the text. "We honor God by honoring people." When we see people reflecting God, and we honor them for that, we're actually saying, "You know what? Good job, and God great job because you created this person, and you filled them with the spirit, and you gave them these gifts and abilities. It's not theirs. But they're working. They're working hard at this." And Scripture is full of compliments paid by saints one to another. Thanksgiving for help, for love, for service, for generosity, and the Lord does this himself.The Lord often praises his servants without even drawing attention to the fact that they couldn't do anything apart from him. This is fascinating. Look at Job 1:8, "The Lord says to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?'" That's what he's saying, "Check him out. He's doing a great job." Look at Numbers 12:3, and by the way, this is one of my favorite texts in all Scriptures. "Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth." Who wrote the book of Numbers? Moses. So Moses is literally sitting there, and he's saying, "Moses is the most meek person on the face... I am, Moses is the most humble person on the face of the Earth." Now you read that, and it's humorous. It's actually hilarious. Because to say I'm the most humble or the meek man is actually showing that you're far from it. But what's going on here?The Holy Spirit says, "Moses, write this down." Moses was like, "I can't write this down." God's like, "Write this down, because I've noticed something in you, Moses. I want others to see it and I want others to emulate you." God praises Noah for being righteous in this generation. God called Solomon very great, even majestic. Jesus commends the woman of great faith. He notices the widow's generosity as she contributes two mites. Jesus marvels at the fate of the centurion. Jesus affirms Nathaniel for not being a hypocrite.The woman with the alabaster jar who goes and she gives Jesus her life savings in this ointment and to anoint him for his burial and his disciples start grumbling, led by Judas. They said, "Imagine how many people we could have fed if we had taken this alabaster jar and actually sold it," and Jesus says this. He says, "Why do you trouble this woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told the memory of her."It's so important for parents to say, "Good job," to your children, to say, "I love you and I appreciate you." Kids are born with a profound need to be loved and appreciated. And it's devastating when they don't receive it, the love, the praise, the appreciation, and so much of our brokenness, personal brokenness, brokenness in the society. It's because kids have grown up without parents telling them, "I love you. I appreciate you." Without fathers saying to daughters and to sons, "I love you and I appreciate you. I'm so proud of you." Hardly anything has greater influence in our emotional and spiritual welfare. Why? This is so important. Why does every single one of us, why do we crave this appreciation and love? It's because we're created in the image of God, was a Triune God, and in the Trinity, in the internal councils of the Triune God, this praise, appreciation, love, compliments, all circulating all the time. It's what God is. It's what God does, because God is love.It's the Father saying, "Son, great job." It's the Holy Spirit saying, "Father, Son, great job." It's Jesus saying to the Holy Spirit, "Great job in filling people. Great job in anointing people. Great job in building the church." And Jesus and the Holy Spirit's saying to the Father, "Great job. You're great, Dad. Thank you."What keeps the praise from being man-centered? How do we make sure that our praise of people isn't fueling narcissism or inflating ego even with our kids? It's when we say great job because of a great God. Great job because of a great God. This is St. Paul, he said this about him. He, actually, he honored himself, which it's crazy, but he did. He honored how hard he worked. He said, "I am what I am by the grace of God. It's all God, Great God. But his grace in me wasn't in vain. I worked harder than the rest of them. But it wasn't me, it was the grace of God." Great job, Paul. Great job, God. Praise God. That's how, we deflect the honor to the Lord. So honestly, practice this in your families. Husbands, admire your wife, speak appreciation, honor, love. Saying, "Baby, you're doing a great job, tremendous job." And wives, honor your husbands by telling them, "I respect you. I see the sacrifices that you're making for us."Parents, admire your children, appreciate your child. Tell your children they're beautiful. My youngest, Milana, whenever she dresses up and she knows she looks good. First step, she goes to the mirror, she looks at herself. She says, "Hmm, hmm." And then she goes into my room and she just stands there. And what's she doing? She's waiting. She doesn't just want me to see, she wants me to speak. I always say, "Baby, you look so beautiful. Wow. That's amazing." By the way, all of my daughters do that. By the way, my wife does that as well. Tell people that you love them. Tell people that they're beautiful. Tell people that you appreciate them. And obviously, we don't overlook harmful behavior. This isn't flattery or fawning. We encourage the good, we discourage the bad.We're not called to inflate egos, but to encourage servant's heart. By the way, this admiration is generous spirit. This mutual appreciation, it engenders unity. There's nothing that unites like this in teams, in companies, in families, in the church. Honor. And here, one more really important point I want to make. Speaking of unity. Speaking of the climate we're in now. I've seen what's happening now. I've seen this before. It's happening now in the church. Churches around the nation. I've seen this before. I saw this in 2016, summer of 2016. Brothers and sisters in the church, when they realize that their brothers and sisters do not vote like they do, that infuriates so much that they leave the body. They left this church and they left the church. I've seen that.When your politics are the reason why you can't love brothers and sisters, that you're not serving the Lord primarily. There's a Lord higher than the lord. So as we engage in politics and political discourse, let us never forget that there's a higher kingdom and we're not citizens of this world. We're citizens of that kingdom, and there's nothing more important than to be united by the gospel of Jesus Christ, extending honor to one another, and respect, and civility, and kindness, most importantly, love. And I will say this as we talk about, as you make political statements online, as you make political statements to one another, make sure don't forget Romans 13. Romans 13:7, "Pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenues are owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed." That's everybody. In particular, in that context, it's those in authority over us.We can disagree with those in authority over us. We can do everything that we can in order to get someone else in authority over us. But whoever is in authority over us now, there is an honor and respect that they are due for the office. So be careful of the way that you talk of those in authority or those potentially in authority because Romans 13:4 says, "He is God's servant. For an allotted time, God has a certain purpose for this." And in that context, it was Nero, who was a terrible, terrible, terrible king. But there was an honor. Ecclesiastes 10:20, "Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king. Nor in your bedroom, curse the rich for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Give honor to those whom honor is due."In conclusion, when you live like this with a servant's heart, enduring a servant's hardship, to receive a servant's honor, you will live a life where you will be missed when you're gone. And that's how Jesus lived. Jesus had a servant's heart, the greatest servant's heart. Jesus endures servant's hardships, he endured the greatest hardship and Jesus received a servant's honor, the greatest honor and name that is above every name, but today, however, he isn't missed. You know why? Because he came back from the dead and we have the presence of Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit with us. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's pray.Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time and the word. What a rich word, always is. And we pray, Lord, that you cultivate in us a servant's heart, to give us the strength to endure a servant's hardship. And, Lord, we long for the day when we get the servant's honor and we thank you for honoring us even now. Give us a grace so that we honor one another as brothers and sisters, in partnership with the gospel. And we pray that you expand your kingdom even in this time, especially in this time, and I pray that the gospel continues to go forth and we pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, amen. Hallelujah. Amen.
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Why do Catholics exalt Mary? I don't mean in general. I mean specifically. The answer may surprise you. Is it because she's perfect? Kind of. But there's a deeper reason. So in this "brief" episode, I'll dig in a little to the underlying, foundational reason we venerate Our Lady. In this episode we'll discuss: Why the Immaculate Conception is demanded by Mary's divine maternity The vital role of the Council of Ephesus in 431AD in Marian doctrine Why St. Thomas declared Mary was predestined to be the Mother of God How Mary is intimately united to the hypostatic union The definition and distinction of hyperdulia (and why people who say Catholics worship Mary are nuts) All that and more in this episode of the Art of Catholic! God bless! Matthew P.S. I'm leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Jim Caviezel, star of The Passion of the Christ! We'll also be joined by Fr. Don Calloway and John Michael Talbot! It's going to be epic! CLICK HERE for details! P.P.S. If you'd rather go to Italy, I'm heading there on pilgrimage, too! Join me in March 2019 for a time of deep spiritual renewal and amazing adventure in Rome, Assisi, Orvieto, LaVerna, and much, much more! CLICK HERE for details! Don't miss a show! Subscribe to The Art of Catholic by clicking this link and then clicking "View in iTunes" under the picture and then "Subscribe"! Love the show and want more people to hear the Catholic faith? Leave a review by clicking here and then the "View in iTunes" button under my picture. This pushes the show up the rankings and puts it in front of more people.