Catching Foxes

Kind of an Agnostic

Managing Decline?: 2% drop in Mass attendance per parish, per year. Average Sunday Mass is 1/3 full. This has been getting worse - and it's be tracked and known - for 20 years, but no one has done anything. They got used to the decline. They got used to the emergencies without the urgency that crises can motivate. Beacons of Light, criticized by Rod Dreher as trying to put a nice spin on dire circumstances, is also evangelization and discipleship centered. *What are the Families? * * 208 parishes under 109 pastors, common pastors but not coming together. * Some of the 109 pastors are over 70 and some even over 75 (post-retirement) * Final set of 60 families will be announced this year * Spring, priests will be announced as pastors - 49 of them will not be pastors, some will finally be able to retire. * We want Father to lead his new Family- are we ready to lead the New Evangelization? Archbishop Schnurr sees the needs as hyper local, so he’s supportive but leaving the pastors to decide for their own communities… _Luke's Money Quote: _I don’t think people get how bad it actually is! The Emergencies are everywhere. The Catholic Church is an afterthought!

Emergencies in Cincinnati, with Mike Schafer and Sean Ater

We chatted with Jonathan Blevins as he takes the plunge from full-time parish Director of Evangelization to full-time Twitch Streamer. We talk about online culture, the dangers of VR, the importance of Catholics being in this space, and what's it like being Ninja's brother, the most famous esports gamer in the world.

The Joy of the Streams, with Jonathan Blevins

Topics include: What do you do if you're afraid of sex? How do you cultivate the right kind of knowledge of your partner before marriage? "Noone could be a man unless his father has died. "- Freud

An Audience of 4

First: We got an update for Gomer's family and Luke's return to grad school work. Also: "Fundraising is a Grind" and Parish Development. Baby Boomers got 70% of the wealth, but are the most generous. Gen Xers set the culture and Millennials drive Pop Culture. Then: Erin, Luke's wife, ruins their car out of stubbornness, Gomer spent hundreds on his latest YouTube hobby (lighting), and we discuss the Disney Movie Renaissance. Finally: We talk about the passing of Norm MacDonald.

Family, Disney, & Norm MacDonald

Four parts: Gomer's latest YouTube obsession, but it's more altruistic. Then 3 practical, yet sexy questions from Patreon supporter Moira. Luke discusses an awful picture of an employee and posits: "being miserable is not a personality." Finally, we conclude with Woodstock 99.

Being Miserable is Not a Personality

The Artist plays with symbols without necessarily knowing fully what they mean. And when Art is bent to tell a moral and not a story, it becomes Propaganda.

Diamonds

We start the show talking about the recent Provincial Assembly (thanks for the invite, Fr. Roberts and Fr. Cahill!) and then stuff about Church life and not giving a crap about a bunch of Church stuff. Then Luke brings up some documentary on the Traditional Latin Mass (that's not anti-Vatican 2) and Luke goes off on a rage about those who seem to think that the TLM is magic and will fix everything when the FREAKIN' NAZIS HAD THE LATIN MASS AND THOSE FREAKS COMMITTED GENOCIDE! Finally a chat about daughters dating and what it was like hanging out with parents.

The TLM is good, but it isn't Magic

Milli Vanilli, The Darkest Timeline, Millennial Analogies; Bishops and their Gomer; Classical Theism Podcast (this monday with gomer); Gomer's Intimidation by Luke; Peak Gomer Peak Luke A Redemptive Story from that night Luke wears Grandpa's pants (and Grandma's blouse) Forgotten Ruin book series and Gomer's Daughter talking about "suppressive fire" Patreon Question: How do you get over a very serious relationship breakup Gomer's Theology: How the ancient catholic church viewed "Church" differently than we tend to do in today's Americanized, Protestantized Christianity, especially in evangelization.

Blame It on the Rain

Luke and Gomer talk money and the Church (not the Vatican, but fundraising). Then Gomer updates everyone about Shannon and what's next there (minute 40ish). Finally, as Luke tries to hang up, Gomer demands Luke tells him all about the new audiobook Luke's listening to about the Late Night wars between Leno and Conan.

Money, Pain, and Late Night

Sponsored By:Catholic Match: Faith-focused Dating: the largest Catholic dating site in the world—where thousands of Catholics find their spouse. Promo Code: FOXESBetterHelp.com: This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Catching Foxes listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/FOXES Support Catching FoxesLinks:Quote by Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man wh...” — “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Invictus by William Ernest Henley | Poetry Foundation — It matters not how strait the gate,       How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate,       I am the captain of my soul.If— by Rudyard Kipling | Poetry Foundation — If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,        Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,     If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,        And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!Sufjan Stevens – No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross — There’s blood on that blade Fuck me, I'm falling apart My assassin Like Casper the ghost There’s no shade in the shadow of the crossJoe Esposito – You're the Best — Try to be best 'cause you're only a man And a man's gotta learn to take it Try to believe though the going gets rough That you gonna hang tough to make itEverything Sad Will Come Untrue — “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” —Sam Gamgee to Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings (chapter 4, Book Six) “[Some mortals] say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” —C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, chapter 9.

Is everything sad going to come untrue?

Kevin Heider is the best and we owe him a TREMENDOUS amount of gratitude.

Do you want to know how I prepared for this?

"U.S.S. Gloria, this is Mission Control, do you copy?" "Houston, this is the U.S.S. Gloria, good to hear your voice We are coming out of the eclipse now I see the sunlight, it's beautiful The sunlight is beautiful" Jesus Christ, light of the world, You never did forget me. And when I bled in darkness, You held me, still held me. When desperate nights I cursed You, You loved me, still loved me. Jesus Christ, You dry the tears, You break my heart of stone. Your words are life cut marrow through the darkness to the bone A heart of flesh You gave me; Only You can save me. Savior! Daylight! I am coming home!

The Light of Things Hoped For...

Saturday: Last full day of school, if Luke can get his paper done today. Tension in a program like this that is executive, and nature of time crunch, you are constantly forced to prioritize how much time and attention to give each individual task. Tension in Luke’s cohort: Luke loves intensity of the schedule- Meeting after meeting, decision after decision, restraint after restraint- but the others are upset that it’s too intense and things are getting lost in the shuffle. But that’s the point. You’re becoming a better non-profit executive, not an expert, researcher, or professor. You just need the ground under your feet. Gomer bought a minivan for cash after telling his wife “We aren’t getting a minivan today.” He didn’t even pull out of the parking lot yet before he made the decision. It checked the boxes and was inexpensive enough. Gomer likes talking shit about people. Why? You are called to be a tiny god, but you aren’t acting like it, so you stomp on others to fake elevate yourself. A micro-dose of divinity. Sin as false-theosis, self-divinization is always pulling God down to our level, whereas divine filiation is God lifting us up to His level, as it were. The goal is to feel more than human, but I cannot do that for myself, so I have to bring down other humans. Yet, to be “more than human” in reality is to be humble, realizing that you can’t make yourself more than human on your own, you need God to do that. But why work? Why asceticism and mortification? If I have free will, where does God’s grace come in? The hypostatic union is the only answer! Also, the woman who cut my hair was flawless. She was dead quiet. Never small talked with me once other than “do you want what you got last time.” And that was it. Once she hummed along with the song for like 15 seconds but that was more pleasant than disruptive.

Sin as Micro-dosing Divinity

Main Topic: discussion around Dr. Tracey Rowland's "What did Dostoyevsky mean when he said ‘Beauty will save the world’?" Opening Banter: Luke's test on non-profit boards led Gomer to ask about a FICTIONAL Catholic non-profit.

Beauty will Save the World!

Luke and Gomer became friends Freshman year at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and 14 years later they started a podcast. The show oscillates between a conversation between just the two of us and interviews that we do together of other, fancier people. Sometimes we get explicit either by being too honest or by being too stupid. Either way, it's fun!

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Catching Foxes

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