Why This Podcast? (#001)

[Music] welcome to the first episode of the burro shire podcast i'm brandon Vaught one of the co-hosts and i'm joined by my best friend father Blake Britton the other co-host father Blake we've been talking about doing a podcast together for a while we've kind of kicked around different ideas it came it lingered it came back and finally here we are we're recording the first episode of the podcast I'm excited you excited I'm incredibly excited just the Lord has been so generous in our friendship and the many things that he's blessed our own personal lives with throughout these past couple years and it's just gonna be wonderful to to be able to share that with others as we move forward so I thought we maybe start this first episode talking about why this podcast there's a proliferation of Catholic podcasts Catholic YouTube channels Catholic blogs and websites all over the place why in the world do we need another one I think you get that question though I'd like to start by talking a little bit about our history the two of us how we got connected with each other and how our friendship bloomed it's funny I remember I at least I have a memory of my version of how we first met we haven't coordinated these stories so I'm curious to see how well it matches up with your memory of how we first met but in my version I remember being at a party at a mutual friend's house John and Selena Brown good friends of both of ours here in the Orlando area I should mention that father Blake and I both live in the Diocese of Orlando we're all we're both in Central Florida and we're both born and raised here in Central Florida so this is our town so anyway native Floridians we're a dying breed I hear you every time I travel somewhere and someone's like where you're from Florida is like no but where were you born I'm like right right Florida and they're like you were born in Florida really I know you and I both born in the same diocese in Florida it's like Orlando's such even more rare you know nowadays you have so many people moving into the state you know exactly anyway we're at this party and I think it was like I think John and Selena had just baptized there Baby Sienna or something like that if is a baptism party I think maybe house blessing maybe that's what it was a house blessing blessing that's what it was and so at the time you were seminarian and you were invited to party I think you got there little late so there was you know a bunch of us sitting around and we were talking theology and books and spirituality and then you came in and you know you're full of smiles full of laughs gregarious but then you sit sat down kind of near us and I don't know if you and I started talking or if I overheard you talking to somebody else but I heard Ratzinger heard von Balthasar and then I heard John Paul the second and you're talking about all these theologians that I know and love and my ears perked up I'm like wait a second here's a here's a man cut after my own heart so after that we invited you to come to our house we had recently moved out to a homestead which we call burrow Shire more on that here in just a few minutes and we asked you to come out as a seminarian to to bless the house and to do the house blessing that you had done at the Brown's house and if I remember correctly again I want to get your version of this whole story but you came over and you know we had dinner we did the house blessing you and I came back to we have this little library room at our Burrell Shire homestead with I don't know a couple thousand books there's a little library room with a couple thousand probably under selling it but it's my my study my library and a couple leather chairs we sit down and we really didn't know too much about each other but we start talking and immediately the engines start revving we realized wait you know you read this you like that you know about that you're you know the longings of your heart or such-and-such in this direction and and yours too if I remember we started talking at like six or seven and ended at close to midnight you know as one of those it was one of those time rare rare rare times in life when you meet somebody and you know it happens a lot in romantic relationships are much rarer I think and and just deep friendships where you meet somebody and you're like you and me we're just cut from the same cloth you know we come from the same place our hearts are a - the same you know notes yeah so we'll talk more about our history and background I'm sure as we move on but does that version jive with your version of the story oh it really does it really does that was such a beautiful providential encounter that we had at that home blessing and what I found most beautiful is I reflect on not just our friendship but just in general the way that the Lord works the fact that it took place in the context of a liturgical celebration this blessing of a home this consecration of a particular family to the Lord is just what a beautiful place for a friendship to begin to begin in this place of right worship this place of adoration of God this place of consecration and then to see that blossom out even to the consecration the blessing of your own family in your own home and so yeah most certainly I remember all those experiences I do remember sort of holding court in the living room of the Brown family specifically mentioning Joseph Ratzinger and as we continue that this podcast in the future our listeners will hear that name spoken of again and again and again I I joke around with my parishioners and say you know Joseph rats gred whose name every head shall bow but so yeah mentioning Joseph's rats or von Balthasar and then that transferring over eventually to you and I sitting down and having another conversation and really it was not just a meeting of minds it was not just a meeting of sort of passing similarities but in the end there was a communion of hearts and I was immediately reminded of two sets of saints you have st. Agustin in st. Elias who themselves called each other brother hearts and Gustin one time said whatever my brother ala Pius says can be said of me and then also you have st. Gregory now Sciences of course and in st. basil the great one of the greatest friendships in history and to see that there's something deeper in a true friendship then just this familiarity of likes there's an actual communion of heart and soul there's this orientation towards the good there's this orientation towards desire ultimately for Christ and for salvation that it's as if it had been forged before but we only recently cognizant of it and that's some that even Aristotle will speak about on a regular basis and his dialogues on the friendship so it really is it was an amazing and and thank God wonderful encounter and I'm happy that the Lord's blessed us with it I remember after that night one of the first stories that came to my mind was one involving CS Lewis and anybody who knows me knows I'm a CS Lewis aficionado love everything about CS Lewis and when he grew up in Ireland there was a young boy who lived across the street from him named Arthur Greaves they were about the same age I think maybe about two or three years apart something like that but Arthur was a sickly boy he was he was basically bedridden for much of his life couldn't really get out of the house and play and so because of that even though they were neighbors Lewis never really became friends with him never went to play with him never invited him to his house they kind of her just acquaintances but one day Lewis was a young man I think it was shortly before he was going off to college and he received an invitation to go to Arthur's house to spend time with him cheer him up maybe and Lewis remembers that you know I didn't particularly want to but something compelled me to do it so I went over there and he said I walked into Arthur's room and he was laying in his bed sitting on his bed stand where all of these books of Norse mythology there's one in particular called myths of the North's men and Lewis said when I saw those books I live in like looked at Arthur and my eyes lit up and he describes this and a couple of this moment and a couple of his later books and one of his books called the four loves he says friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another what you - I thought I'd only one and so Lewis it was like you love Norse myth Norse legend like he didn't know anybody else who enjoyed those things he was kind of getting into it himself but didn't know anybody that could talk could talk you know intelligently about it with him that was passionate about it with him and because of that encounter Lewis and Arthur became best friends other than Lewis's brother he was the closest person in his life until he died they we have collections of that letter all the way till right before his death and that's how I felt with with you not to compare myself for us to Lewis but it was north Legends although you and I also have some interests in that realm too but certainly it was it was the Ratzinger thing it was the von Balthasar thing the communal thing whereas like you to you know I don't know anybody else here that was passionately concerned about those things so that's kind of what we want to share through this podcast although I want to go a little deeper Blake and talk about the purpose of this podcast you know because lots of people have amazing friendships you know but that doesn't mean that it's worth creating a whole podcast about and this isn't right any means meant to be a myopic discussion of our friendship and what the Lord has blessed us with the reasons that we decided to start this podcast are several and I want to go through them one by one and let you talk about each one of them in particular so first one or the main driving reason we thought something like this was needed was because you have a millennial layman me so I have a wife Kathleen and six children with a seventh on the way I work you know a normal job so a millennial layman working in the world and a millennial priest father Blake who's deeply concerned about all issues related to theology and spirituality in the church but how as Vatican to envision these vocations are not in competition with each other and they're not on independent streams running in their own directions but that they're mutually enriching and I think that's the greatest fruit we've discovered in our friendship is how your vocation as a priest has shaped mine as a father father and a husband and and vice versa talk a little bit about that maybe yeah this is one of the great graces that is underappreciated and unfortunately because of the scandals as well and a lot of other factors this is also a relationship that's been damaged namely the relation between the priest and the family in general but also the priests and lay people in particular specifically when it comes to the vocation marriage and Holy Orders there's a compatibility there there's a comparative nastain earring of one another's vocations that takes place and so for myself as a priest and this is again been a grace of our friendship but not just of our friendship this is a grace that Holy Mother Church envisions across the board for all Catholics that as priests become involved in the gift in the beauty of their communities they become examples simultaneously of what these communities are supposed to be to one another so for example in my own life and my friendship with you Brandon and and also with friendships with different families in my parish as I spend time with especially young fathers who are trying to learn the ropes of being dads and they see how I love the parishioners they see how I hear confessions they see me anoint the sick they see me present the masses they see me baptizing their children that's supposed to be if I'm doing it with a true heart of zeal of passion of love of pastoral service that's supposed to be an example to them of the kind of love they're to express for their wives and their children in vice versa the more that I spend time with these families and this has just been an unexpected grace of my priesthood the more I spend time with these families the more especially I see these young fathers striving to be good and Holy Catholic husbands and fathers it challenges me and my own priesthood to ask how am I being a priest to my bride the church how am i serving her tirelessly how am i present to her in good times and in bad in sickness and in health so that is something that needs to be more deeply appreciated especially in our generation of millennial Catholics but like I said across the board in order to neutrally enrich one of the one another's vocations and provide also that support and that example that each of us need as we continue journey forward in our journey to holiness another thing I'd like to mention is the fact that father Blake and I are both Millennials you know we were both born in the 80s we shared the Millennial culture we're going to talk about some of those elements and future podcast episodes about what it means to be a millennial Catholic today but I think I'm a pretty big kind of sewer of Catholic media I'm pretty well aware of different podcasts and video channels and what's out there and one thing I realized was there's not a lot available from Millennials for Millennials yeah in the Catholic realm right have a handful maybe of Malil priests doing a little something a handful of millennial laymen doing something I think there's a lacuna dough in this sort of thing millennial priests right millennial laypeople and the convergence of those locations together and the fruit born from it yeah yeah most certainly and so although we'll be addressing a series of topics that some of these podcasts do wonderfully such as the Sacred Liturgy pastoral concerns social justice again what's unique about this podcast will be how do we mutually shape one another's vocations and also how do we specifically ask Millennials as millennial Catholics continue forward in this journey of holiness how do we become Saints in our time this is the question that's been set before every generation of Catholics for the past two millennia and now is being presented to you and I now that's being presented to our listeners how do we become Saints in our age and what they're gonna have the privilege of witnessing is here are two Millennials struggling with that question you're a to Millennials striving with all their mind heart body and soul one is a priests consecrated through the beautiful gift of sacred orders the other as a married man consecrated to the sacred matrimony here's two of us striving to acquire that holiness in our time and we're looking forward to sharing that for the fruit of that striving with our listeners as we move forward and more on that in episode 2 which we've already slammed to title becoming Saints in our time what does it mean that we've been given this time in this place to become Saints we weren't put in 14th century England we won't / in 4th century Cappadocia we're here in 21st century America why did God do that and what does he want for us because of that so more on that here in a minute but let's keep going through why this podcast why this podcast so first of all we mentioned millennial laman millennial priests how are these vocations mutually enriching and encouraging throughout the church second we wanted to provide a break or an alternative to a lot of what I described as the rage generation and in Catholic media today and if you're online you know exactly what I'm talking about I don't have to name names or make specific references but you know that there's been a proliferation of podcast YouTube channels websites that thrive on generating rage and contempt not just about powers and principalities outside the church but within the church that just lamented all of the scandals all the abuses all the bad bishops and this is what the Pope's doing wrong and all that kind of stuff I've talked to a lot of people and I know they're like you've talked to many many more people about this phenomenon and how soul deadening it can be that it away at your soul and yeah one on that point on that point and I have to say yeah for me this has become an extreme Paschal concern especially as a confessor of souls the amount of souls that are struggling with either very serious venue or even very serious mortal sins because of social media because of a lot of the rage anger contempt that's being thrusted both within and without the church both towards hierarchy but both towards also those who are attacking the church I've been really shocked about it be honest with you in the amount of passional counseling I've had to provide just to help people restore their sense of peace and trust in Mother Church and her essential beauty and the fact that although there may be things that are happening which are negative although there may be things that hurt and wound our hearts in the end her her essential nature is still profound still so beautiful still so lovely to behold as st. Agustin will say so wonderfully and so yeah this is something I hope that our podcast can provide is a an alternative a positive and enriching alternative to that negative narrative that sometimes dominates the social media market and I want to be quick to emphasize this this doesn't mean that we necessarily advocate just putting your head in the sand and ignore problems and scandals in the church we'll talk about some of that I'm sure we'll have episodes on the abuse crisis I'm sure we'll have another so it's on theological and the turgid problems and things that are awry so we're not saying ignore that we don't think that's the problem we think the problem is the the tone of conversation what Arthur Brooks calls the culture of contempt that you find online so I like to counsel a lot of my friends that ask me what what Catholic podcast should I consume what video should i watch and now of course I'll say the burro Schneider podcast of course but before this they would say you know which which stuff should I follow and I say apply the litmus test of Galatians 5 with the fruits of the spirit and ask yourself after I watched this video say am I left with more or less love joy peace patience kindness gentleness self-control there's the person hosting this podcast or writing this article or performing in this video did they demonstrate those gifts or do they demonstrate a lack of those gifts now note this has nothing to do with whether what they're saying is true they couldn't speaking truth but lacking all of those gifts and if they're lacking those gifts which are defined as fruits of the spirit meaning if the Holy Spirit's there these gifts will necessarily be present then you can be confident that what they're doing even if they're telling the truth isn't of the Holy Spirit it's of a different spirit now and so we max the maxim is cut eat us in the d'etat today yeah how do you toss a charity name for a mic then like a church document maybe it's bye-bye Joseph Ratzinger every beautiful a beautiful you know you had you had to allow me that time proper homage to His Holiness so but yeah this is notion of charity and truth what what a brilliant and really Christian genius of course that's inspired by the words of st. Paul this notion that we must never water down the truth it's always our responsibility to hold up the truth which ultimately is Christ himself I am the way the truth and the life but that's always imbued that's always infused with a particular spirit of deep passion love for the person to whom we're sharing the truth with or the person to whom we're sharing the truth about and so when we have that deep compassion accompanied by our courageous proclamation of truth then what you get is much more of an enriching reflection on whatever you're speaking about because now it's not coming from a place that necessarily has an axe to grind or a place that may even be of woundedness and hurt but it's now coming from a place of I desire from the depths of my heart out of my love to share this truth with the other which is ultimately a Christian sentiment so that's the second distinction that I think makes this podcast unique that we're intentionally aiming to generate these fruits of the spirit then we're going to talk about some contentious issues I'm sure but not through the culture of contempt we hope that when you finish listening to each episode you've you've are filled with more of those fruits of the spirit yeah let's look at a third thing I've hinted at this a little already that this podcast is specifically for Millennials although certainly it's open to anybody at any age most of all these don't sell that's my parishioners open to anybody of course and a lot of what we say will be you know applicable to anybody at any age but I think there's a lot of Millennials and I've met them I meet them whenever I travel for conferences or when I write speak at different places that are just desperately hungry to find other Millennials who are serious as they are about being Saints that they aren't just paying lip service to this mission toward holiness that they want to find other people who are hungry for holiness hungry for the salvation of souls hungry for evangelization liturgy theology reading spirituality all the above so I hope that that's a little of what this podcast can offer to is a couple of Millennials who can say to other Millennials were with you where we have those same longings and hungers and this podcast will channel a lot of it yeah this generation of Catholics specifically the millennial generation of Catholic I firmly believe will be one of those pivotal generations in church history that will help provide the basis of reflection the basis of moving forward and evangelization for the contemporary world as such it's gonna be so vital for us to build community with one another and when we found that our young adult group here so before I came to the parish there was no young adult ministry now there is thank God and it's thriving one of the main things we did a little survey for our young adults to ask them what they want to prioritize number one beautifully was piety in the liturgy so spirituality is what they were eating for the most and we have done our utmost to provide that for them for Eucharistic Adoration masses reconciliation cetera but second to liturgy and piety second to spirituality was community that they want to feel like they're not trying to become a saint by themselves that there's someone else from their age group who also is mutually striving for sainthood and holiness and so that is something that we hope to provide and to let you know that there are those out there striving for the same thing and also to encourage you from what you hear to go out to build those communities yourselves and to start having and forging those friendships which can help guide the church in the ages to come one thing that strikes me a lot when I reflect on our friendship is something I heard Curtis Martin from Focus say he says many of his talks that throughout the church's history Saints often come in pairs that it's yeah it's quite rare to have a saint who's just on his way to holiness and achieves tremendous sanctity all by himself you have Francis and Claire you have yeah Benedict and his sister you have Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier that right they come in twos or threes or fours now again not to be pretentious and say that father Blake and I are Saints but to say we're pursuing this together the two of us but with you those who watch and and view this podcast that if you're serious about piety holiness liturgy theology all that we're serious - and we're here with you - I always tell my students at my school at our school mass it's no fun becoming a saint alone it really isn't sainthood is best done as a group activity and so I always encourage these kids from our kindergarten to our eighth graders start becoming Saints together that's what makes it a blast is whenever you're you can go and your best friend is also trying to become a saint with you that when you go over to someone's house everyone at that house is trying to become a saint with you when you go over to a party then when that party is trying to become a saint with you see what we're doing here is that we're tapping into the depths of our hearts desire not just for holiness but also for communion and we're feeding both those things simultaneously so thank God the kids are very responsive to that at the school but you're right I mean this is something that all of us are called to do and it's much more fun Saint it's always more fun as a group activity than as a solo activity let's talk about two saints who embody that that you and I often speak about read about and talk about and that's st. Gregory Gregory nezzie ends and and st. basil they had this profound friendship where they were focused on one thing getting themselves to heaven and getting each other to heaven that's their whole friendship revolved around that basic goal say something about those two yes to amazing church fathers who we will speak about and later podcast we have to there's some of those pivotal players right hey Church history you're giving names for a good encyclicals like that'd be a great film series name if someone wanted to use that you know but you have these two amazing you know these two amazing church fathers and of course they weren't friends at first they end up meeting later in their studies and they become friends amidst that mutual striving for a deep intellectual life but what Gregory in particular recognizes in basil and you can read this for those of you who have access to the leaders of the hours in the office of readings on January 2nd which is the feast day of these two Saints there's a beautiful reflection by Saint Gregory on his first encounter with st. basil and he mentions how he felt as if when he spent time with basil it was one soul that had been cast into two bodies one soul that had been cast in two bodies one soul forged in the same flame of love that now existed in two persons and they never experienced Envy with one another they never experienced unhealthy competition with one another they never experienced greed or selfishness with one another the only thing that they experienced was what Gregory wittingly caused holy Envy so in other words the desire to outdo one another in holiness the desire to outdo one another in sanctity and this is what constantly strove when each other so for example iron sharpens iron we read in the gospel right so these two were sharpening one another constantly through their mutual striving for Christ I always say a true friendship and I know we're gonna have another podcast just on friendship and developing true healthy Christian friendships later on but just as a prelude true friendship is not when two people face one another true friendship is when two people stand side by side facing Christ stand side by side facing a common goal their brothers in arms and their arms are not hold held by the hands they're linked arm in arm like brothers going into battle like the Roman legions and so this is what Gregory and basil epitomize on their own friendship and they're a great example of not only what we're trying to achieve in this podcast but just for every Christian what a friendship should look like as we strive for mutual holiness I've seen that in our own friendship the holy Envy between two of us and I'm thinking about my direction me looking at at you or alongside you just seeing the various penances that that you perform the various commitments that you have to here the pit your parish and to your studies and all that type of stuff it spurred me on because relative to say my other friends or other Catholics and my circles it's easy sometimes I think hey I'm doing pretty good you like right I'm pretty devoted I'm pretty pious but then you meet another friend who's just completely sold out to Christ in the church and it's completely given over to the path of sanctity and suddenly you have a new horizon where you think well okay I could be doing a whole lot better I have envy for him so you've pushed me on in that direction and I think that's a sign of a true Christian friendship very much so my father is a marine of our of our wonderful country and when he was in training on Parris Island they had to literally go through an exercise a drill where they picked up someone who was pretended to be wounded and they would have to carry that person somewhere on the battlefield or to safety this is very much also what Christian friendship looks like you have one person who she's striving well two people actually who were striving with all their mind her body and soul for holiness and along the way maybe one of them falls a little short or they become a little discouraged and what does that that friend do he comes and picks up this brother on the battlefield and can they continue walking forward in this journey of holiness they continue challenging one another to a greater devotion and love for Christ and so that's such a wonderful image I feel from our United States military and from my father but that definitely applies to the church militant the army of Christ and how we can also move forward in our own journey helping one another in this there are very struggles but also our various successes in seeing one others an example well let me round off this list of why this podcast so we've talked about you know we have you and I have developed this deep friendship that we want to share with the world not only the friendship itself but the fruits borne from it so that was point number one you have a millennial layman a millennial priest this congruence of vocations that we think can encourage and inspire a lot of other people in the church secondly it was that we wanted to provide an alternative to that rage cult right right right so we wanted to provide something that actually stirs up your hearts and encourages your faith in Christ in the church and not rip it to shreds or not you know build these vices and you like envy and slander third we wanted to create something that was specifically for Millennials again caveat open to everybody not saying you have to be a millennial to to watch this or to listen to this but we do think Millennials especially will find something in these discussions that they're not finding elsewhere but then finally here's the last thing I want to talk about with you we want we hope to use these podcast episodes to plumb the Catholic intellectual tradition yeah this is something father bleak and I are both extremely passionate about that Catholicism has this 2,000 year rich lineage of art science philosophy theology literature amazing minds incredible books and a lot of it gets short shrift and not just the general culture but even in the church today we've had what Bishop Baron calls a dumbing down of the faith for the last couple generations and so we hope to use this podcast to revive a lot of that I think you kind of get a flavor already of the tone and the tenor of our conversations pressures are fun we'll laugh we'll make jokes but this podcast isn't primarily meant to just be faith-based entertainment where you just watch it because it's it's fun it'll give you a good laugh and some you know cheap jokes and things like that we want to share some serious reflection on the beauty and the intelligence of our tradition maybe say a little more about that for the Blake yeah sure this is one of my personal Crusades as a Catholic priest is reclaiming the intellectual wealth of Catholicism especially just among Catholics themselves I'm a teacher at our middle school I teach philosophy and Catholic humanities and you would be amazed and I'll definitely mention this in future podcast again and again I'll refer to this eighth grade class on a regular basis because you'd be amazed at their response to the depth and the substance of Catholic intellectualism we would think and there's been a tendency specifically in the past 50 years or so to believe that the people of God in general couldn't handle or did not want to encounter and handle the Summa Theologica of st. Thomas Aquinas the writings of the church fathers the Catechism of the Catholic Church and so it became sort of platitude 'el if you will this this notion of I'm gonna share basic Jesus loves you kind of things but I'm not really going to go to why what did st. Agustin say about the Gospel of Matthew or not not what I think is just nice about the Gospel of Matthew but what is the wealth of the church it regards the gas of Matthew or the Nativity of Christ or the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary why bring these things up in class and these kids devour it they love it they consume it and not only do they consume it they understand it see their hearts have been aching for this kind of wealth and depth last night I was reading from henan Alou bak who was one of my favorite theologians just again one of the great members of that community of school and he wrote a book called theology in history and there's a section in there talking about different events that led up to the Second Vatican Council and one of those he says was a degradation of the sense of the sacred and he says the number one problem that led to the degradation of the sense of the sacred was the lack of intelligence that grew within Catholic culture and when he says live from intelligence he doesn't mean that people became dumb that's not what he's saying at all what he means is that many many Catholics were deprived over not allowed the opportunity to be exposed to the wealth in depth of the Catholic genius as Catholics were inheritors of the greatest intellectual tradition in world history not one of the greatest the greatest and so for my own heart as a priest but also within our friendship and within this podcast I hope that we can regularly expose ourselves and encounter the beauty of this wealth and depth of the Catholic intellectual tradition because it is the tradition that and the only tradition that can adequately respond to the needs desires and problems of modernity to the needs the problems in the desires in contemporary society to the needs the problems the desires of our current generation all said so you're gonna get a lot more of that and all of the theologians and names you've been hearing sprinkled throughout this episode we'll have much more on them Han Rida luboc joseph ratzinger carroll ET etc etc just a brief in conclusion here a brief summary of just the practicalities of this podcast so what we're thinking right now and maybe after we published the first few episodes it'd be good to get some feedback from you guys listen to ways to what you'd like but well we're thinking right now is that we're gonna release one episode every two weeks so it'll be a biweekly podcast each episode will be between 30 and 45 minutes so somewhere in that range kind of like this first one a quick word about the name of the podcast so we're calling it the burro Shire podcast I hinted at the beginning how our homestead here we live on a small farm right outside of Orlando we have a dozen goats and 40 chickens and pigs and and rabbits and all sorts of things we call our little homestead borough Shire and it's a play on two of our favorite fictional locations the borough which is the house that the Weasleys live in in the Harry Potter series and by the way if if Harry Potter's a trigger for you we'll probably have a whole episode on Harry Potter's apologize but needless to say father Blake and I are both huge fans of Harry Potter along with many of our millennial brothers and sisters so the borough comes from the Weasleys home this this home of warmth welcome family there's been a strong case made by many including my friend Hayley Stewart that the Weasleys are in fact Catholic they're a large Irish family and there's many other indications that they might be Catholics anyway borough comes from them Shire comes from the Shire from Tolkien's middle-earth prominently featured in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so we kind of put those two together that's what we named our homestead and then for father Blake and I it's become a very special place because again it's it's where he and I get together usually at least once a month sometimes more often and the library here at the brochure we call it the inner sanctum but we have our borough Shire Council sessions not again to be too pretentious but these long ranging four or five six seven hour conversations about holiness and faith and the Saints and the Church Fathers and all that so we wanted to sort of bottle up some of that energy and conversation from our private discussions and turn it into this podcast to let it escape out into the world in the church you know I can't help but laugh because for those of you who have seen that wonderful addition by Peter Jackson of the Lord of the Rings books the movies right the first Lord of the Rings movie the Fellowship of the Ring when gay and off is riding his carriage into the Shire and all the Hobbit children are running behind I always get that image anytime that I pulled into borough Shire into the Vaught family home because I pull up and Here Come all six children running out to greet father Blake at the car and they follow behind the whole time until I go to my parking space so always laugh that maybe one of these days I'll shoot some fire all clap you know father Blake but it really is it's it's I think that those two asked they surely capture sort of again the tone of the podcast it's very late able to our millennial generation obviously to the greatest stories that have shaped a lot of our generation the way that we think a lot of even of our virtue our moral formation are shaped by these stories of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and I think and very wonderful ways and so yeah it's it's cool to have that combination there of those two wonderful literary places in order to share that that grace with our listeners and just to give you a little preview of some of the topics we've planned here we've outlined several different episodes that we're gonna talk about the next one which will be episode 2 is on becoming Saints in our time we talked about that a little bit earlier but we also have episodes lined up on video games and culture how and why to pray the Liturgy of the hours Catholic and intellectual it's all about the Catholic intellectual life the glory of God is man fully alive so an authentic anthropology authentic understanding of what man is and what its purpose is spiritual and religious why we need both and why the religious dimension is so critical the souls under your care how to how to provide soul direction and soul guidance to your children your friends your family father Blake's one of the best spiritual directors I know so we'll get a lot of insight there how to start a good Catholic library father Blake and I are both bibliophiles we're both basically addicts will tell many more stories about our travels to various bookstores around the world I'm sure no we're not addicts Brandon we just we just need it I'm you know stop whenever we can stop whatever so that's just a little preview strap up with this father Blake when you and I were thinking about what this podcast would be and what topics it would include we both arrived at the same organizing set of principles which were the four pillars of formation that st. John Paul the second outlined for his program of seminary formation so you not too long ago where a seminarian talked about these four pillars and why this is a good framework for this type of discussion yeah on March 15th 1992 st. John Paul the second released a splendid document called past ODIs table of Ovie's I will give you shepherds this document was oriented towards the formation of seminarians for the third millennium so what can we do to healthily and holistically form men in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ the high priest so that they can be bridges of His grace to the people of God st. john paul ii and his typical anthropological genius identifies four areas of formation the human the spiritual the intellectual and the pastoral so each seminarian is subjected to forming these aspects of his person these dimensions of humanity these dimensions of his Christianity so as to go out and minister appropriately and adequately to the people of God however those four dimensions of Christian formation are not just applicable to priesthood but most certainly to Christians universally throughout the world these four areas are something that each and every one of us possess as baptized Eucharist Iced and confirmed Catholics we are all called to be fully human and what does that mean when saint john paul ii says human it means so much more than just the animalistic or the somatic aspects of our persons meanings in just the bare minimum of breathing eating sleeping there's a lot more to keep in formation than that so a lot of our podcasts revolve around human formation what does it mean to be a human being in our time to be fully alive to live life to the fullest John chapter 10 verse 10 I came they might have life and have it to the fullest secondly spiritual formation we are spiritual beings we are defined according to the Catechism the Catholic churches ends religiosa some religious beings this is essential to our naturist persons so how do we form our spiritual life and not just superficially but in a real deep contemplative way and so a lot of these Pataca podcast as well will focus on developing our spiritual lives on a regular basis what do we do to really in turn to the proof unity of a deep mystical encounter with the Living Christ sacramentally through the life of the church and personally in our prayer thirdly intellectual formation we've already Hart on that one a lot but once again is exposing the listeners exposing the world to the beauty of our Catholic intellectual tradition and knowing that there's so much more that we have the opportunity to know and to appreciate as Catholics than is typically given to us in our local parochial experiences and fourth the pastoral formation not really something that's focused on a lot and some would think maybe that only pertains to priests but it doesn't when we are fathers of families we are mothers of families when we're Big Brothers and Big Sisters when we're on sand uncle's grandmas and grandpas we have pastoral responsibilities we ever built we have responsibility for and this is the authentic definition of what it means to be pastoral the care of souls so I as a priest have the care of souls which are those within my parish boundary and of course those beyond them but as the father of a family as the mother of a family you also have the care of souls every single little soul that exists within your home including the soul of your husband or your wife so what are some tools that we can develop to help us be better pastors of our homes that are evangelists of our immediate vocations and our workplaces and our schools and within our own families excellent so we hope all that sounds good if it doesn't we'll probably just stop after one episode and this will be it we'll put this down for posterity's sake but presuming we find at least some people that are interested in all these things we hope to continue in the next episode on becoming Saints in our if you want more on this podcast if you want to share it with others we encourage you to visit the website borough Shire podcast.com and as always with a new podcast the more you can help spread the word about this the better we'd love to share this with as many people as possible so leave reviews on iTunes share the link on social media through email with your friends and family let's draw a lot of people into these conversations together well thanks so much for listening to the first episode of the burro shire podcast we'll see you guys in the next one god bless you

Channel: The Burrowshire Podcast

Views: 1,660

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Id: VLgZ1I7agM8

Length: 44min 59sec (2699 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020