All right, this is Father Bonaventure Chapman, OP, and Father Gregory Pine is not here at the moment, as you can tell. He may be come later, who knows. He is detained.
He is a busy man, but if you say prayers for them, that's always exciting, so do that. And in the meantime, this is Godsplaining, or in particular, it's Livesplaining. I'm your host, Father Bonaventure Chapman, for this one.
And as always, if you want to like and subscribe to us, just go ahead and check on that and Patreons. You can support us through those particular ways and whatever else we say at the top of the hour. But many of you are probably here lots of times.
You probably know what we say at this sort of thing. But I've forgotten. In any case, I'm excited to be here for a short period of time.
So if you have any questions, particularly for me, to join with the other friars answering in on or chiming in on or concerned or something, now is your chance. But. In the meantime, instead of opening banter with my partner in crime, Father Gregory, I will do opening banter with myself and say happy first beginning to the semester. For any of you that are in school right now or going back to school or teaching or this sort of thing, or taking students to school or something, it's that time of year again, which is exciting, of course. I'm always excited.
You forget what it is to be a teacher until you're back in the classroom in front of students who are just kind of waking up. and getting ready for the year. But I assume everything kind of changes around this time, you know, whether in the household and lunchboxes and all that kind of stuff and nostalgia in my mind. Or if you're a teacher or if you're a student now, everything's kind of like getting into the work a day world, you could say.
Summer's over and we're now back to business in fall. So I wish everyone a blessed fall so far and a good beginning to the semester. If you're in school or around schools, as we are, um, Or otherwise, if you have kids going off to school, a blessed time to have a little more time to yourself and not having to worry about keeping them all busy.
Okay, the episode today we were going to talk about is reading recommendations. And this was kind of a way of getting at like what we're reading. But what we're reading is not always the same as reading recommendations. Because, you know, sometimes we read stuff that we wouldn't want to recommend as one of the questions we'll see is, you know, everyone makes mistakes. And then we also do literature episodes as well.
So. we don't talk about all these things. But I wanted to think about just, you know, what, what's we've, what have we read this summer or this around this time or reading that might be something you want to share with other people.
And I've been thinking about three things and you're going to be able to guess one of the books that you ought to, that everyone ought to read or at least think about. But I want to start with the first one, poetry. This is not something that I do a lot of reading on and I really ought to, I feel bad about this, but poetry is like going to the gym for me.
Like it just. it embarrasses me because I feel like I should be better at stuff than I am there. And poetry is kind of the same way.
Like, you know, I know how English works and I like literature and I like reading and I'd like to fancy myself as a bit of an artiste or a critic or something like that. But poetry is for me tough. It requires a lot of work to really get into it. The kind of poets I read, so T.S.
Eliot, Ezra Pound particularly, I find extremely difficult. But I love Robert Frost. He's quite delightful.
But you always, I always... feel like with the poetry is just get something else it's doing something else but when i do read poetry uh and and you could not in a sense simple poetry um or pleasant poetry or something i i'm reminded by the the point of it and how poetry is different than prose right prose is about you could say just the content now there's style of course of course of course but poetry is about the the kind of shape of the words you know the sound that they make you Not that we even hear them all the time, but like as we read them to themselves, either loud or as we hear them in our head, as we read it in silence, there's something about the shape of these things. And so one poet that recently that I've just picked up because of the Stoicism retreat, that the Men's Wilderness Retreat that we talked about last time I live-splaining with Father Patrick and talked about Stoicism, what we did in the wilderness. Adam, who was in charge of the camp there, recommended Joyce Kilmer.
Joyce Kilmer, who's a Catholic poet. um, from North Carolina, um, and wrote some poems about that area that we were in, um, but near Brevard County and such. Um, and so I picked up this short, it's small. It's, this is a great part about, uh, modernity is you can print up, you can pick up small books that are, uh, printed self printed, you could say, and, uh, for, for cheap.
And then you have the beautiful works there. So I've just been kind of working through this and it is, there's something delightful about poetry and poetry. And so this is, I'll just read you one of these things, which is, um, which is called trees, which is the. the title poem of this thing and it says this trees i think that i shall never see A poem lovely as a tree, a tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth's sweet flowing breast, a tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray, a tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair, upon whose bosom snow has lain, who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. There's nothing particularly complicated about that, but it's something pleasant. There's a sort of child likeness in poetry because there's the fun of kind of rhyming there.
There's a sort of serious point that's told to us in a particularly easy way. We're not we're caught off guard in a way about the difference between constructing things as we do and how God naturally construct things that just kind of flow out and do the things we ought to do to pray and eat and do all these things. So I like that. That's delightful. So Joyce Kilmer, if you're looking for a Catholic poet, it's not very long.
And if you want to be able to say when someone says, hey, I bet you don't read poetry, you can say, no, Joyce Kilmer, great poet, American poet, this kind of thing. So Joyce Kilmer, Trees and Other Poems. I think it's like $5 on Amazon. So that's one recommendation.
The second is equally delightful. Not exactly poetry, but still pretty good. This just came out.
We're going to have, no, this is just a teaser because we're going to have a... an episode with Dr. Michael Gorman. But Professor Michael Gorman of CUA, School of Philosophy, a great school, has just published his newest book, A Contemporary Introduction to Thomistic Metaphysics.
A Contemporary Introduction to Thomistic Metaphysics. So if you've ever wondered what you missed in college about Thomistic philosophy and metaphysics, the hard things like this. This book, again, nice paperback from CUA Press, beautiful press.
Well, it's delightful to look at. It's got some nice, but you can't see this sort of thing, but it's well laid out. The font's spectacular, easy to read, and just delightful.
Dr. Gorman, anyone who knows Dr. or Professor Gorman, he's the ordinary professor, which means he's the barumta professor at CUA of philosophy. He's one of our elites, you could say, because ordinary, extraordinary professors are not as high as ordinary professors, but he's an ordinary professor. He's been on episodes before, so he's just a delight.
He does a lot of TI talks as well. wonderful man, but he writes in an easy flowing, fantastic, clear style. There's nothing heavy about it, even though it's an extremely heavy subject. So it has this kind of lightness to it.
And I get, I get a ton out of this thing. I've really enjoyed it, reading it and just learning new turns of phrase and ways of thinking about, you know, demonstrating substance accidents, like what something is and what something is like. Who would have ever thought that such a nice little distinction there? I have plenty of ways of understanding substance.
Substance and Accidents, but that's a good one. So if, for instance, you've always wondered, like, ah, Dominicans are always talking about essence and essay, and substance and accidents, and act and potency, and all these kind of things, natures and essences and concepts. If you want a primer, an introduction to Thomistic metaphysics, and we'll talk more about it with Dr. Gorman on this later episode, digging in. This is a great book, so I really, really, really recommend it. It's delightful.
You'll enjoy it. He's written it well. Okay, and the third one, of course, gotta do it.
I was in Poland this summer, taking a pilgrimage, wandering around the sites of Poland, of Krakow and Warsaw and Włodzimierzowice and Płock and all of the Faustina sites, JP2 sites, but especially the Faustina sites, really fantastic. And so I just got a lot of, spent a lot of time around her relics and around her remains in Włodzimierzowice outside of Krakow, which was really beautiful. And to read the diary in context, now reading it.
It's a bit like when you read the New Testament, I suppose, and you've been to the Holy Land, you see more there. It's more attached. And for me, like the diary now, I can see where she was. I didn't get to Vilnius, but most of the places where she was, you can kind of see it and kind of smell it where she was. And so if you have not read the diary or looked into it, you should.
It's a beautiful book. It's the conversation between a holy soul and Jesus. And since that is a kind of good description of what...
the sanctified life looks like, you have a version of it here. Now, your experience will be different, but you get to listen in on the diary to her. Now, don't take it from like gems, but like read through it and take time, like a year. It'll probably take you a year to read this slowly, but you get to listen in to a conversation like looking over the balcony in church between Jesus and St. Faustina in the sanctuary might be talking to each other.
And what a privileged moment. What a privileged thing to have the diaries of saints. And some people attach to some saints, some attain, I think saints choose you.
So maybe, you know, St. Faustina is looking out for you and that might be good for you. Other people choose different saints. Different saints, look after them. But if you have not read Faustina or given her a try, I recommend, of course, always, always, always. The diary is a gift to me, at least, and I'm not totally crazy, although maybe a little bit.
Okay, so those are three very different books. We've got Joyce Kilmer, Three to Know the Poems, Michael Gorman, Contemporary Introduction to Thomistic Metaphysics, and Saint Sister Faustina, Diary of Divine Mercy in My Soul. There you go. That's a... Three reading recommendations for you all.
All right, that will do it for now. So let me do some questions. Okay, let's get to our Patreon ones first.
Question, Father Pine recently said in his Pines Chesterton video that Father Vincent McNabb is said to have paid Chesterton a Dominican privilege of singing the Salve, Salve Regina, Salve Regina, that's the Roman tone, right before his death. Is this something that you... friars still do for your brother, priest, Dominican sisters, or friends? Nathan. Nathan, thanks so much for this.
Yes, it is something to do. So the Roman tone, we have our own beautiful salve tones, traditional Dominicans. I think we actually talked about this, maybe it was on retreat.
So this is the praying for protection of our blessed lady, who at night are in compliment after we finish our night prayer, which is also very beautiful because it's the only office that all the Dominicans would have to be at because they might be out preaching during the day, but they're all back at night. And so a comp one has all the special tones. And so our Salve Regina is much more extended, has a lot of melismas, the kind of, this sort of thing.
So the Roman tone is simplified. You can hear it. The Dominican tones are usually a little more elaborate, not too much more elaborate, but a little more elaborate than the Roman tones. So the Roman tone is Salve Regina, blah, blah, blah, okay? But the Dominican one, So it's a little more slower, you could say.
It's got a little more movement as it goes on, this sort of thing. And this is something we pray every night, asking for Our Lady to bless us. And the story, of course, is that Our Lady was seen wandering around, sprinkling water, holy water, on the Dominican friars in the convents, in the early convents.
And this was the friar, or the... the Hebdomadarian, which is the funny name for the person who's head of prayers that week, will go around and sprinkle the brothers with holy water as we've seen the salve kneeling to our lady. And this is particularly important at the deathbed of Dominican friars and sisters, that you appeal to her.
And also because the friar, most of us have been around friars that are dying, will know this thing. This is just like... the thing we've always sung every night of a friar's life.
And so almost every night, I should say. So therefore, it's a way to like join in with the brothers before you pass into eternity. So it's a beautiful thing, I think, both for the friar who is passing on and then the friars around because it will be sung to us too.
So it's the kind of our sending off, giving ourselves over to Mary since she has particular protection, or says she does, of the Dominican order. I know she's got protection of everybody, but like. We got the rosary.
Okay. So yes, we still do it. It's very beautiful. And the Dominican Salve, you can hear it, just go on YouTube or something.
You probably find us singing on, if you go to Spotify or something. I know we did tape, record it, not tape it, record it one time with Father Vincent Farabagan and our Scola. So you can hear, might even be able to hear Father Gregory and myself and Father Jacob Bertrand singing on it.
If you listen for like high squeaky voices, you got mine. Okay. Salve. Great. Um, second question, will father Patrick continue to grow a beard?
I think he will. Um, over the, yeah, over the wilderness retreat, we kind of like Don beards, I should say, or like kind of stop shaving, uh, for a little bit. Cause you're on the cabin or whatever. And father Patrick had already kind of started that.
So, uh, he's just carrying on. It gives him a sort of dignified approach, which is great. Um, so I think I'd last time I saw him, um, yeah, he was here and he has a beard.
So I think he will continue to grow it or it will continue to grow on him if it's not him. Okay, so thanks, Bob and Melissa. Are you going to do another Catholic Classics? I will not, because I didn't do a first one.
I so enjoy the two of you. I assume this is for Father Gregory and Father Jacob Bertrand, and have been looking forward to another. Debbie, thanks, Debbie.
Yeah, those are fun podcasts, aren't they? I have no idea about them, other than the fact that they did those things in two, I think they did two seasons, maybe? But I don't... think there's one planning.
They kind of switch around the people involved in that. So I think Father Jacob Burton did two. I think Father Gregory did one.
And then I think they're doing some other people. They just take turns and go around. So I don't think there's another one planned initially. But certainly in the future, I'm sure that's possible that they'll be coming back to do those sort of things.
So stay tuned. Okay. Going in the opposite direction, what's a book you would love but just can't recommend? Alec.
Alec, that's awesome. God-splaining listeners are so sharp, and they ask really fascinating, good questions. I was thinking about this for a second. You know, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I think is that. That's my first thing that comes to mind.
I don't love The Road, but it was something really... I don't mind a lot of, a bit of nihilism, you know, I'm willing to do that. I'm German background. Um, and I study, you know, Nietzsche, I'm not afraid of him. Um, I like him.
Um, but there was a time I was reading the road at night. Maybe some of you have had this experience. Um, I read, I read literature before going to bed.
Um, and, and I just had to stop. It was too black. It was just too dark. And I had, I said, I can't, I can't do it.
I've got to, it's gotta be not tonight or something. Like it was, it was a little dark. Um, It is a good book, though, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because it is just very dark. It's like, I don't know, it's like a deep Maduro cigar or something like it.
But it might not be. If you're not used to smoking them, it's not a good idea. I assume this is even much more. This is much rarer with his other things.
Blood Meridian, for instance. I think it's probably a great book, but probably can't be recommended. But Cormac McCarthy, I think The Road is the one that I think was. It's a good book.
but I just don't know if I could recommend it. Gravity's Rainbow might be that way too, by Pinchon. Although, yeah, I don't know.
Mixed on that. Okay, but that's one at least. Okay, let's see. Love y'all. Thanks so much.
There's so much. And thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Thank you for supporting us and checking in. Will you be at SEEK 2025 in Salt Lake City?
I'm going to try to be there. Also, will you ever have a retreat somewhere in the West? I live in the Pacific Northwest and Pennsylvania is a bit far, but I would so love to meet you all.
Kimberly, Kimberly, thank you so much for that. And for your support and patron and, and, and we are branching out. I come from my family. My mother's side is from Portland, Oregon.
So the Pacific Northwest is fantastic. There's a beautiful place out in Portland. Holy Rosary.
We have placed out there. I know it's another, there's no reason why I suppose we couldn't head out West. We haven't done that yet.
We've been moving kind of. This direction, we went to Nebraska, I think it was, Lincoln, Nebraska. Might be going to Texas. So we're on our way, Unto Vagues.
So we're moving out there. And the Pacific, it would be wonderful to be out there and see people. I'm sure there's plenty of God's plan listeners that might be out there like you. And yeah, that would be easier to get there than fly out. We had the wilderness retreat.
We always get some people that do come from California, which is just impressive and shocking to me. But it's a real testament to your appreciation. So I'm thankful for that. So. Salt Lake City, I don't think I will be there.
We usually have an American Philosophical Association that same time or something in early January, I think it is. I'm not sure. I think also Sikh is doing two things. They're doing Washington and they're doing Salt Lake City and the big ones in Salt Lake City, which is a really, it is quite a gorgeous city.
We went to the Olympics there in 2002. But there will be some Dominicans there. I'm pretty sure about that because we do Sikh stuff and I don't think we're all going to stay in Washington, D.C. I just don't know which of us or who will be out there. but I think that's probably the case.
This is a Father Gregory question. Okay, let's do a little more, a few more Patreon questions while I'm almost done with those and then we get, how are we doing new comments? We have lots of new comments. That's great.
Okay. Hi, Fathers. Years ago, before I was canonized, before he was canonized, I read Lost and Gained by St. John Henry Newman, a novel influenced by his own conversion story. That's right. Do you know of any other works of fiction written by saints or blessed?
I know, of course, there are many great Catholic authors, especially the 20th century, that's true, who we hope become saints one day. That's okay, good. Thank you.
I wish I could tune in live this live stream. Okay, great. Thank you, Mary Catherine.
I really appreciate that. I think I know where you are. I think Baltimore, maybe?
Sometimes I recognize names, but there could be tons of people named Mary Catherine. But sometimes it's nice. This is what's nice about retreats is getting to see faces with names on our livesplaining. But greetings to anyone out there anyway. But Mary Catherine, that's a great question.
I just was doing a little bit of research on this. don't know but in the comment box in the comment box someone might put someone in i don't remember i don't know of one offhand now um because i want to speculate i'm going to go ahead and sally forth into this void for speculation and say that one of the things that makes really great literature really great i think is the attentiveness to the the human condition like the really depth of the human condition the depths of the human condition um you And unfortunately for us, that ends up being a fallen human condition sometimes. And you have to be attentive to the humanity of things. Now.
Faustina is very attentive to humanity, but it's, for instance, it's attentiveness through the divine humanity of Christ and this sort of relationship, always looking up. Whereas novelists and great literature, strikes me, is trying to tell you about the human condition to then tell you to point up in this way. So it's like a second order thing.
Now, that's not to say, of course, that saints can't do this. But I think if I try to guess why there aren't as many saints and blessed that have written this thing is because the literature. Great literature, if we think about it, will have God in some way in it, of course, I suspect. But it's kind of God through the human. So it's kind of a bottom-up move.
Whereas saints tend to be more top-down, I think, if I just had to make an off-the-cuff remark on this. It's a different reason than why I don't think there are many good saint movies. I think there's another reason for that. But literature, I think, is more different. It's not unsurprising.
Let's put it this way. It's not surprising. that we don't have as many great saints who have written literature, I think, than other things.
And it's not, I don't think it's a problem. I think there's something about, it's just not their shtick. It's like, this is a trite analogy, but like there aren't many great saint basketball players or something. And that's no problem with that.
And I think there's something about literature, even though it's about the human condition and saints have a lot to say about that, it's through, I think, a different lens, or at least sometimes can be. Whereas the literature, great literature we have. Dostoevsky, for instance, or Tolstoy or something.
They're in the hustle and bustle in a way that a saint isn't always, can be, of course, but in traditionally at least has not. A lot of saints are religious in monasteries and that sort of thing. And they're meeting people, but they're not, they love God and they're related to him so immediately that they might be away from the human condition a little bit so that they can actually tell the human condition of us about God. Whereas literature, it seems to be as... telling us about us in need of God.
But that's just a thought, Mary Catherine. Okay. Thoughts on beginning a propitiated year in seminary this September. Do you have any book recommendations for a new seminary or even some principles to guide my personal reading?
Yeah, don't be ambitious. I would say focus. We did in novitiate, our training, this is all I know, was to focus on spiritual writing, the Catechism of the Catholic Faith, make sure you read through that, and the Bible. So read through the Bible in one year, read through the Catechism. Make sure you're kind of doing that and then have a bunch of spiritual authors.
Now that could be, so I would, if you're doing this, I would say Eugene Boylan, that tremendous lover, this tremendous lover is fantastic. Columbo Marmion, Life of Christ, Life of the Soul is beautiful. That's another, that's another great classic. Also some saints about, so there's some St. Therese would be good or St. Teresa of Avila or.
or don't forget the diary. Okay. But something like, so you're focusing on the basics of the church, you could say in the catechism, the Bible, scripture, of course, and then some spiritual reading to like get you excited about the inner life that you will not have as much time for when you're out in the apostolate or something.
I think the propodutic year, the idea is this, by the way, those who are inside baseball, there's a year before seminary now to kind of prepare, prepare. It's like a novitiate for us in the religious world, but for diocesan seminaries to kind of prepare you. for the internal life that then you'll be able to live out of in your time there. So I would say, yeah, doctrine in a simple, nice, beautiful way.
Scriptures, of course, and then prayer and spirituality is really good. You'll get plenty of time to do like theology and that kind of stuff. Also literature is very nice, tying on this one. I think the Pope just released a little letter about literature and it's important. So I would say Gerald Manley Hopkins, some poetry.
He's really good. Gerald Manley Hopkins is really good. And then you might want to do Seven Story Mountain with Thomas Merton.
I think you'd really enjoy that as a propodutic here. It's a beautiful story. Augustine's Confessions is also quite beautiful. You might want to read that as well.
Yeah, those would be some recommendations for you. Okay, and God bless, Ryan. All right.
Hi, fathers. Any recommendations for audiobooks that can be listened to as a family? Road trip, a doctor's appointment this week for my four-year-old son's pre-surgery. procedure will have us in the car for about six hours. Thank you for all you do.
Ooh, that's a long time. I don't know. Chronicles of Narnia are obviously really delightful to listen to.
They're not hard listening to do. Father Brown's stories by Chesterton, kind of detective stories, might be good. Something light that you can kind of zone in and out on a bit. It doesn't have to be following a heavy narrative like a foreign piece with Tolstoy or something. Might be good.
So any of that kind of it's like kind of bring down the the level of read so don't you know don't go for like the wasteland matthias elliott or like four quartets or something but some kind of you know story that continues drives along might be good so chesterton's good on this stuff uh for the brown stories um i think t.r tolkien's probably a little too heavy for those readings but you might try the cimmerillion uh might be might because that's kind of like episodic uh but anything by c.s lewis might be good especially his uh his fiction either the uh space trilogy ransom trilogy or uh uh the uh chronic denarnia um yeah that's a not a big listener of books and cars so i Sorry, I can't give any more advice on that, but maybe some people have some advice about that. Okay, great. Good evening, Fathers. Firstly, thank you, Father Bonaventure, for the answer from the previous live stream. Helped out with the discussion of my Protestant friend.
Excellent. Oh, it disappeared. It had one for two, but now it's two. Okay, well, maybe HG Mass, maybe we'll finish it later.
Okay, there it is. Continuing on with the discussions on the faith, can you please recommend books on the biblical links on the teaching of the Blessed Mother, Purgatory, and the Papacy? Thank you for all you do.
Awesome. HG. So Scott Hahn is going to be your kind of go-to man on this kind of stuff. Also, Jimmy Akin.
So he's pretty good too. Douglas Armstrong, I think his name is. Something Armstrong.
I think he's quite good on this stuff. And Brent Petrie might be good, but he's more catechetical, you could say. But Scott Hahn's home, so his Hail Hoy Queen is really great ties, is really beautiful. Yeah.
And then anything by Scott Hahn on those particular topics, he writes specifically for these kind of things. And then, yeah, Jimmy Akin has a lot of links and would be able to get some... He answers more specific questions, but also would have some resources there and recommend these sort of things. Purgatory. Oh, I promise I don't want to recommend, like, Gary Greworth, like, an older book, because it might be...
It's right, but it just might be too kind of like... You got to give the right... It's quite... what's called quid quid recipitur, that which is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.
So you've got to have a sense of, like, how to receive this sort of thing. That's why it's good to have, like, converts who don't have an axe to grind are best to read. So converts in this sort of thing don't have any particular axe to grind against Catholics, but just want them to be more Catholic.
Protestants just want them to be actually Catholics. And that's where I think Scott Hahn might be really helpful with. Gosh, what is his name? Daniel Armstrong, I think.
But if you go to Catholic Answers, Or if you go to Marcus Grodi's website, Coming Home Network, that will give you a bunch of book recommendations, a list of things on those particular topics, and also some videos and things that they might give that as well. So the Coming Home Network with Marcus Grodi, and then, of course, St. Paul's, so Scott Hahn's association would have this too. And then Catholic Answers with Jimmy Akin. There might be some recommendations there specifically that would be good. Okay, great.
Okay, all right. Josie DeMartin, I'm wrestling with how... bodily disabilities will take shape after the resurrection of the body? For instance, if one was born without legs and this suffering is instrumental for the sanctification, would they have no legs for eternity after getting their body back?
This is a really good question, actually. And I, you know, we're all, we're speculating on this sort of thing, but I would say St. Thomas talks about the integrity of the body, that we're supposed to, we're supposed to have legs. We are not souls with flesh cages. It's not like a little kind of ghost hiding this in this machine, this kind of fleshly machine.
But rather, we are embodied. So the soul is throughout the body, and we are embodied spirits, you could say. So we're supposed to have bodies.
And not just like bodies as like a matter. We're so materialistic today in kind of physics. We just think of like bodies as like things. But we need to have living flesh, right?
Germans have this distinction. The body as just a body is Körper. So it's like, so we talk about like bodily health, just in material sense is Körperlich gesund. But...
flesh, like a living body, a body that's animated, that's Leib. So when you consecrate the precious blood in the German, it's Leib Christi, not Kürbe Christi. It's not dead body. It's not just inert body.
It's Leib Christi. It's living flesh. And we're going to have like a living, and that means our bodies are meant to do the things they're meant to do. We're supposed to have legs, we're supposed to have hands, because that's how we grasp things with, that's how we orient ourselves in the world.
And it's a suffering in this world to have these disabilities, to be missing something. I mean, missing legs is huge, much, much more than this, for instance. But like for eyes, right?
I have really poor, I take these out, I can't see a thing. Like I just can't do it. Does that mean in the resurrection, I won't have perfect vision?
Whatever it means to have vision in the resurrection? No, I'm supposed to be able to see perfectly, not like have to wear lenses or something. And if you're disabled in this life, it can be because of the cross, only because of the cross.
the cross, it can be a means of sanctification because it's a matter of offering your will over to God, even in situations you don't understand, right? It's not like the lack of legs in itself. is good and sanctifying.
It's the use of a deficiency or a lack that is in it, that is the goodness there. So the will is able to love in some way or accept or hand over this deficiency, this situation that then sanctifies, what, not the body per se, but the will that then sanctifies the body in relation to us. So, but in heaven, We won't need any more sanctification, right? So the instruments of sanctification, like the sacraments, or even our disabilities, in a sense, are to be gone away with.
We're supposed to be full and complete. It's not to say that someone who's disabled is less of a person now. Of course not, because we're spiritual.
Essentially, our personal dignity rests in the rational soul, which is fundamentally knowing and loving our intellect and our wills. But we all miss things. Age does this too. But it's supposed to be back. Now, the details, how that works out, no idea.
But just because something can be a means of sanctification doesn't mean it in itself is therefore a good. A disability or any suffering is in itself, per se, a deficiency. But because of the cross, because we can unite our wills in acceptance, in love and obedience, as best we can, through prayer.
and love of Christ who accepted the cross for us, then it can be used. The cross itself and nails through the arms, no particular sanctifying value per se, but insofar as they can be used and accepted as the instruments of love and obedience according to God and Christ's will in the garden, then they are used for that. Okay, so hopefully that's, so they will have, you will have legs for eternity if you don't have legs, and that'll be good.
Okay, Kyle McClone, hello, Father. Thank you, Kyle, hello. Um, this thing is really having a fun time. I'm just gonna say hello to Kyle. That's great.
Thanks, Kyle. If there's maybe you're down here more. All right.
Joseph DeMartin, in your experience, does listening to an audio book register in the mind in a different way as opposed to reading a physical paper copy? Do you have a preference? Yes, I do.
I think reading is really helpful. Because listening to an audio book, see, the mind is not just like a receptacle. And it sounds like, you know, Senator Byrd and talking about the internet, right?
It's not a, it's not a Big truck, it's a series of tubes and wires. But I mean, it is true, the mind is in act when it knows things, like it's an activity. We tend to think of activity as just physical things, but our intellects and our wills, right, are activities.
When I love someone, I'm doing something, I'm loving. When I know something, I'm doing something. It's a spiritual activity, it's a mental activity, but it's in act. And the more we're in act, the more we're present. You can think about like taking on shape.
is taking on more density and being. Read A Contemporary Introduction to Thomistic Metaphysics by Dr. Michael Gorman. So the thing is, what will get you most in act?
And I don't mean like running while you're reading, but the act of reading itself. And I think audiobooks, while beautiful and are good, and hey, second best is fine too, they're not as good as actually reading because when you're reading, you are doing more of the work. You're constructing, you're bringing it into you. Whereas in audiobooks, it's close, but it's still coming.
It's doing the work to get to you, right? You're just kind of accepting it. Whereas in reading, you're going to the page. This is a phenomenological thing and point it to you. Okay.
So I think you're doing more there. Just like, for instance, why books tend to be better than movies because you tend to do more. One, there's a bunch of reasons, but one of the reasons is that you're doing more in the book to create it and you're making it more like you because that's what knowledge is taking something into you. Love is you going out. to another.
But in reading, when you're reading a book on a page, you are doing more. And not only do you remember more in that way, you could say, as long as you're sometimes reading out loud and hearing it, but you're doing more yourself. So you're making it more your own. Although there's nothing wrong with audio books, you know, but I prefer regular books.
Okay. The Patchy Cantor. Oh, my dad used to recite that poem when we were growing up.
God rest his soul. I hope it was trees. Oh, fantastic.
Fantastic. Okay. That's great. Hallelujah. All right.
Good evening. Good evening to you. Okay. Let's see.
I love your name play. Very creative. Thank you.
Notice it's Libra Ventura. Libra Ventura, I suppose. Latin for book. Okay. Let's see.
Reagan. Quickly. Reagan, how are you? Hello. I'm wondering if there's a classic work of literature, perhaps a book that is recommended to you that lets you down.
Yeah, there was. I have to say, and I should like him, but Steinbeck. I don't do Steinbeck that well.
I know he's a great writer. East of Eden. This was really big when I was in college. And everyone loved East of Eden.
All my friends loved East of Eden. And I just got nothing out of it. The darn thing just did nothing for me. Um, it just seemed much ado about nothing. It's on the themes that I would have cared about, right?
It's about Calvinism and whether like, are you destined to be a sinner, you know, the, the, the sun or like, you know, must you mayest you it's all this kind of beautiful thing. Um, and that book, maybe I need to give another try because you know, part of the thing when you have good literature, it's like when you have good paintings and you go, nah, not that good. You've just judged yourself, right?
Good literature is just good literature. And so it, it. judges you, you don't judge it. And so I'm sure it's maybe just, it let me down the sense of, it was my own kind of failure or something to miss it.
What have you. Could reach a particular member that which is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. Maybe I was just kind of trying to be a controversialist or something, but I didn't like it. But one of my good friends, Nicholas Leach, shout out, also didn't like it.
So, and he's a great guy. The other one was, I have to say, I feel bad about this, really bad about this. Goethe's Faust.
uh that is supposed to be spectacular and it's maybe i just built it up too much it was all right it was all right but like one of the greatest pieces of german philosophical poetic work i don't see it but that's again probably my fault that kind of let me down okay um oh beautiful chant thanks for that but you can't or yeah you can probably sing too i expect right okay okay that's beautiful poem i'll add to listen yeah do do it's beautiful the uh trees and there's a bunch of those Slow money times. Sympathetic to Universalists, but Judas. How do you Dominicans understand Judas? That's, wow, sympathetic.
Okay. Yeah. Well, let's put it this way. Universalism, so this is a question of what you do with Judas.
So Judas obviously betrayed Christ. Christ knows from all of eternity. So if you say, well, hold on a second.
If there's universal salvation, then what about Judas? Let's go back up for a second. Universalism, you might think this is nuts. Obviously, there's a hell. Um, uh, fair enough.
But you also might think, um, that God never loses. Promise one, like God, his will is done. And two, he says in scripture that he wants all to be saved.
So God wants all to be saved and God can't fail. I want ice cream now, but I'm not all powerful. So I'm not gonna get ice cream, right? I don't really want it now either, but I want to hold a toad right now.
That's fair. Uh, but I don't have one. Not all powerful. Whatever God wants, God gets, right?
That's one way of thinking about it. And so you might be sympathetic to universalists, not from like the soft kind of side, although there's nothing wrong with the soft side. I think if everyone's, we should have all kind of a sense of sympathy to universalists, because I mean, the alternative, like hell is really bad, right? It's really, really bad for eternity. It's really bad.
So there should be some sympathy, I suppose, universalists. And you might even work yourself up in a theological sense of like the cosmic victory of Christ. you know, it's a deep David Bentley heart. This kind of thing is defeating all evil. Um, and if there's a hell, there's always evil around.
Right. So like, and he doesn't, his souls don't get annihilated. So you might think like, there's just seems like there's a reason maybe to be universalists. Right now, on the other hand, um, we generally associate, well, God, God has, you know, he has desires, simplicity, terror.
Um, he wants this. And he has desires, you know, secundum quid, according to a particular means. So he wants us to love him in a particular way, right?
And I don't mean like, you know, giving us, giving him treats, but in the sense of freely, right? And so you might think, well, he wants him to be saved, but under the condition that we're free and we could reject him. And therefore, if we do reject him, he can either turn us not into humans, so he can either force us to love him, which he doesn't want, or he accepts. His choice. It's not like he's like, oh, no.
It's his choice. He set it up that way, and he accepts hell. He accepts the possibility you can say no to him, right?
So that's the, you might say, okay, all right, hell makes sense. So Judas obviously would be a case of this. Now, I'm, Judas is tricky. There's a good tradition on this, of course.
I mean, obviously, Judas, son of perdition, all this language. If you're a universalist, obviously, you have to say something about that. But if you're a universalist, you have to do that with Satan, too. I think universalism is, universalism is best arguments, I think, are working off the divine nature and being less concerned about the person sort of thing. It's sort of weird inverse relationship to what we normally think about.
We normally think like the heretical position. I think it's kind of heretical. If you affirm it, if you assert it, I should say, you can hope for it.
We don't know, but it seems like you're really opposed to it. On the other side, uh the anti-universalist position the just kind of standard position the eternal damnation position uh i think it's just due to hell i mean it's due to love i should say and faustina talks about this stuff right like Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, but under the condition of love. Now, God's a master and he does all things.
He controls all things. So like no one's in hell that he doesn't want there, but he doesn't want anyone to be there. So it's under the conditions.
So it's tricky. But Judas, yeah, I mean, if you're a universalist, you've got bigger problems than Judas, I think. You've got, you know, you've got Hitler, Stalin, Satan. You know, what do you do with those guys? Like if you're a universalist, they're still...
what are they doing what are they doing um so i think there's yeah i don't think i don't think judas is too hard for universalists you're already strapped with a lot of stuff anyway and so you're just going to run roughshod over that okay cool um let's see here uh hallelujah a new season catholic class is starting soon a dominican prince is going to read the biograph of a carmelite name of the story of a soul by st. therese oh fantastic there it is that's right here we go thank you see this is so so helpful i don't watch the story of the soul by st. therese who many people love She doesn't do as much for me. I mean, she does lots for me, I'm sure. And I did read her in Navishit.
And I do, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But I'm more of a, Faustina does a little more for me. But Saint Therese, fantastic.
Okay. AJ. Hi, Father. Curious if you have any thoughts on Borges.
Oh, yes. Have you been thinking about reading him once I finish Christian's Lava Star? Well, Christian's Lava Star is fantastic. I have to say, AJ, you're better than me on this.
I have that Christian's Lava Star and I have not read it. It's on my bookshelf. I mean to read it.
and Before I Die, Dea Volenta, I hope I will. But I haven't read it yet. Borges, hang on, stay tuned. I'm not going to say too much about it because Father Gregor and I are doing a literature episode on Louis, on, yeah, Borges, his short stories, his fiction particularly, short stories, which are fantastic. Love him, love him.
Man, is he good. Man, is he good. So great, yeah, you should look, but grab his, yeah, his short stories. They're just, they're fantastic.
Okay. It's on the Ascension Presents community post board. It's just FYI. Thank you.
Okay. Kyle James. Hallelujah.
Father Michael Joseph is actually a Discalced Carmelite, not a Franciscan. Whoa, look at that. I've seen some other people mistaken for Franciscan or an Ascension Presents thread.
It is true. They look similar to us. The Discalced Carmelites and the Franciscans, they have that brown.
Now, I'm not an expert on this because my color is. Sometimes just the top part you can't tell, but they have belts, which are different, I think. Obviously, shoes would be different. Also, they wear.
Carmelites, I think if I'm correct, they were the opposite of us. They were like a white cap, if I'm remembering correctly. Okay, cool.
It does look... So it is... I've always thought someone should make this. I'm sure they have this, right? Someone put this in the thread for homeschoolers or just anybody who'd have some fun.
It's a giant pub crawl, but for a habit crawl, put up to all different habits, the main habits of religious orders. And then people could check off the ones they've seen, they've found. Wouldn't that be a great idea to have a family or something to see if you can... catch all of the cool habits, this sort of thing. Okay, great.
Here we go. Victoria Holmes. All right.
Another one of our, uh, retreatants. I've been recommending Malachi Martin's books, but on surface level research, he seems to kind of controversial thoughts. Victoria, fantastic. Um, yeah, he's a little controversial.
So Malachi Martin has an interesting experience, uh, time with the Jesuits. Um, I read hostage to the devil when I was young. Um, and that's a book on exorcism and it's pretty good.
Um, so on. But he is a little controversial because he left the Jesuits, if I remember the story correctly, under blah, blah, blah circumstances. Nothing as far as I can tell, just like he was worried about the orthodoxy or something.
You can see him on firing line as a conservative figure politically. But there is some kind of there's some kind of controversy with him. I don't think that means you shouldn't read like his history of the Jesuits.
I think it's particularly negative on them. But I don't think that's, you know, I would have to follow James, Father James Brown. S.J., who's sometimes on livestream, what he thinks about Malachi Martin. But he is a controversial figure. But it's not all bad.
And Hostage of the Devil was actually quite a good book, if I remember correctly, when I was reading as a Protestant. And he's a pretty good writer. But there is something there. Okay. Dante's Purgatorio.
Of course, that is a great recommendation. And we actually did a series on that, on the Inferno, Purgatorio, and the Paradiso. So they're great to read through at some point.
Oh. Okay, thank you for the recommendation, Father. No problem, HG. Hallelujah, look up what Father Hadron said about Malachi Martin says a lot. That's fantastic.
Yep, Father Hardin is fantastic. He's really a gem. He's an absolute gem. One of our older priests here, Father Willoughby, before he passed on when I was a student brother, he would sometimes preach with Hardin's catechism or something, his doctrine of the faith. And I remember he gave a sermon on Wednesday, on Woden's Day, and he said, brothers, you'll...
Today's Wednesday, and Wednesday is after Woden's Day, and you'll never forget this homily, because it's from Hardin's book. And it was, I never forgot. Never forgot. You know, who would?
Okay. What is the 50s denial of Faustina? Oh, yeah.
So initially, because of some poor translations of the diary, because it's a complicated history, some of her doctrines sounded problematic. So it sounded like God was being placated. There was like, just theologically, the translations were a little bit bizarre, and it sounded a little bit inappropriate.
And so there was concern about Faustina in the early. in the early times. But then when they opened the archives, spent more time with the translated things, paid more attention, did the research, then it was okay.
So there was initially though, and you can look it up. It's not something to really worry about, but there was initially a little concern about the image of God, I think if I remember it correctly, and some of her writings just seemed to not jibe well. But welcome to Google.
trust your source you know be careful what you read if you if it's from a very negative thing you want to watch out for it but that was a there was a mistranslations of the diary initial mistranslations and things because scribble down and just kind of doing this quickly and hidden things um so that's what um was the problem but it's not like there's keeping it secret now it's just uh that's just the history of it complicated got here not literature related but curious why some prayers are slightly different for example the glory be sometimes they hear it without the world's end as Also, Holy Queen leaves off the ending. Yes, this is true. Kathy, so, yeah, different translations in English of the Latin, you know. So in Dominicans, we say, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen. But I think it's going to be, it's going to change. To glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, which is more common, I think, for most people, world without end. But it's in secula seculorum. So it's just translating that in secula seculorum.
in Latin. And there's just multiple ways you could do it. It's just like, for instance, the Hail Mary, you know, we've kind of, we still use blessed art thou amongst women.
Most, a lot of people do. But sometimes there's among, you know, but the glory be is a bigger change, I suppose. And then of course, Hail Holy Queen.
Sometimes you leave off that second hail, hail, you know, Hail Holy Queen, mother of mercy, hail our life. It's just, you know, standard customs as people are doing this thing. But the glory be, I think is, shall is what we're going to move to.
But Dominicans tend to say, We have the older translation. So we say we don't have the shell ever. Shelby, I don't know it.
Okay, Kyle. Glenn, what are the best books for someone to grow in the interior life of prayer? That's a great question.
The Practice of Mental Prayer. I forget who the author is. Thomas Rohrbach. He was a Carmelite. He has a book called Conversations with Christ, I think it's called.
It's a very short book. It's about Therese's. method of prayer, which is a loving conversation with Christ.
That's spectacular. That's really spectacular. Eugene Boylan's Difficulties in Mental Prayer is quite good.
It tells you what prayer is up to, this sort of thing. And yeah, but I would say Conversations with Christ, or Conversations with Christ I think is the, Rohrbach I think is his name. I can see the picture. It has Teresa of Luzon on the front of it.
Sorry, Teresa of Babylon on the front. And then Eugene Boylan's uh mental difficulties in prayer um would be good yeah those are the two kind of go-to for me um yeah that's that's too bad okay um let's see uh oh and oh and of course i'm just stupid um uh time for god by jacques philippe uh that's a good one that's a really nice easy just gives you a sense of monastic prayer and what like that meditation meditative prayer is supposed to look like um so that's good don't jump into three ages of spiritual life immediately um by gregory lagrange but that okay um all right so give those a go uh any thoughts on shakespeare he's great isn't he dumb it's fantastic um yeah i mean it's funny you do shakespeare in school so much that you kind of assume he's like a kid's author at least i'd assume that but then when you you read the plays or see the plays again like hamlet it's just it's just good it's really good i don't like his comedies that much it's my own kind of thing i tend to like his tragedies more but julius caesar is just spectacular let's be tight the complication that brutus is in on that thing man just fantastic um and hamlet it's hard to beat that you know the intertumor oil of a man who's so assertive of himself but can't go ahead and do something and screws up because he waits too long you know because he's yeah so um all that really really gorgeous um yeah uh so and i mean joseph pierce this is his area right joseph pierce does a lot of shakespeare kind of stuff um but so you can look up if you want to do that but i'm There's just some great... There's some great Shakespeare stuff.
We have one of our Dominican friars here, Father Jordan Sajak, teaches at Providence College, expert on Shakespeare, PhD from Amherst. He's working on Shakespeare stuff. So there's a lot there too. Yeah, Shakespeare, I don't read them, but I pay attention as much as I could.
Okay, hold on a minute. Do you bear, yes, Fire Within was a great book that I started with. He tapped into Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, right, exactly right.
Fire Within by Thomas DeBay. That is a great book. Also, Yeah, yeah, that's really great. Also, that reminds me, there's a great book by St. Gabriel of Mary Magdalene, I think is a Carmelite.
And he writes on union with God. It's called Union with God, I think. And it's on John of the Crosses, how to read John of the Cross and the Carmelite. Because Carmelites are masters at prayer, right?
Dominicans are supposedly masters at doctrinal preaching and teaching, right? But Carmelites are masters at prayer. That's why I mentioned Rohrbach with the conversation with Christ, getting used to Teresa of Avila's way of prayer.
It's beautiful. Her Interior Castle is another classic on that. But Father Gabriel of Mary Magdalene, I think, is really, really good.
So that's that union. I think it's called Union with God. It's a very short book.
It gives you a sense. And then you can read he has a longer one called Divine Intimacy, which is the kind of daily reflections. And that's beautiful.
But the Union with God is one of the best books. of spiritual books I've ever read. I recommend it to all my spiritual directees. It's really, really, really good. Yeah, there you go.
Boom. That's fantastic. Thank you. There's another book called Union with God, I think, which is also Columbo Marmion's, some of his advice and things.
And Marmion's fantastic too, by the way. Really good. There's a lot of good spiritual writers out there. And so don't worry about getting the perfect one exactly. But if you want to know about prayer, if you want to really do interior prayer, I think you've got to do Carmelites.
A lot of times because the Carmelites, of course, had Dominican spiritual directors. Now it's not like we gave them the prayer. They just spent a lot of time in prayer.
But they're really good prayers. A lot of time in prayer. I hang out at a Carmelite monastery in Denmark, Wisconsin. And they're spectacular.
So if you want to do prayer, if you want to do doctrine, Dominicans are kind of your deal. I suppose if you want to do prayer, we go to Carmelites. They're just bosses.
And the sisters are wonderful. It's wonderful to know Carmelite nuns. And if you really love the prayer, you could join one of the Carmelites because you will not be happier.
than anyone if you are called to the religious life uh if that's what you want to do if you want to love jesus and that took your way you will not be happier i promise you it's a it's fantastic okay but i want to finish i want to go back to hg because they have one more i think also any books explaining the social teachings of the church would also be helpful i've always i've already recommended some writings by chesterton's introduction but it it to be a misstep at god's point okay yeah uh social teaching the social signals yeah they're um uh So, Barron has a book out, and we're in a fire that has some of the social encyclicals kind of stuff. There's also a social compendium on it. I mean, this is kind of a minefield. The social encyclicals are fantastic in many ways because it's the church saying, hey, we care about the world, and we got stuff to say about it.
At the same time, there's just a lot, and it's also because it's a social encyclical, it's more bound to its particular times in a way. If you go through Rerum Novarum, and then Quintissimus Anio, and Santissimus Anios, and all this kind of... You just see developments. They're more particular.
They're like the letters, as opposed to the Gospels, you could say, in Paul. There's still scripture, they've gotten that analogy. There's still magisterial teachings, social teachings.
But they're closer to... because there are facts on the ground. So, yeah, there's...
I don't know. But, Father Gregory is teaching... sexual and social ethics at the house of studies this year now you can't take that unless you're a student here but uh he will have an excellent list of catholic social teaching books so if you email godsplaining uh at ops.org whatever our email is and ask father pine to father gregory if you ask father gregory to give recommendations he's obviously praying to syllabus for us he's teaching this i think next semester so he you know no father gregory it'll be fantastic okay um so yes so do that okay and yeah Karma has radically changed my prayer life. Exactly, exactly. Finally, Kathy, 12 Keys to Prayer by Jerome Curdle.
Lovely little book, but almost always a pamphlet, really. You know, it doesn't need to be long. Like, that little book, Conversation with Christ, on the, you know, is simple, or A Time with God.
But the important part is to pray, right? And I, as a Dominican, I tend to, maybe some of you are like this too, we just kind of keep reading. And the important part is, you know, to just... pray.
That's why I love Faustina, because whenever I'm in a bind, I can read a paragraph of her, and she immediately pushes me up to talk to God, pushes me to pray. And that's what all of our reading, I think, is supposed to do. Immanuel Kant does not push me to prayer as quickly as St. Faustina does. But it's not his intention.
Maybe it should be. Okay, that is it for now. Signing off. Sorry, Mr. Father Gregory.
But say prayers for him, of course. It's fine. And we'll be back at some point later. This is my second time, I think, doing a live pointer alone. It's kind of bizarre, but I'm happy to have you all here.
It's really delightful. It's always good to kind of sum. It's not the retreat interaction back and forth, but there's kind of some give and take, and I get to see your faces, and that's delightful. So it's...
It will get us to the next retreat when we can all be together, maybe in the Pacific Northwest. But as always, please like our podcast, wherever you subscribe to. If you want to become a Patreon donor, if you want to give anything, it would be delightful to have anything. If everyone gave $1 to the Catholic University of America, it's all of its monetary problems. If every Catholic gave $1 to Catholic University of America tomorrow, all of its problems monetarily would be over with.
That's fantastic. So little things make a big difference if there's a bunch of people. So we're happy to receive anything. We're grateful.
We pray for you. We say masses for you, say rosaries for you. So and please, you know, I'm assuming you do for us as well. We need that as a community. It's beautiful.
So if you like this episode or whatever, share and like and send it off to some friends. Hopefully it's been helpful to you. It's been helpful for me to talk about some of these issues because I don't always deal with them in philosophy of art class or my honors logic.
Hopefully my students haven't realized that I'm on this because who knows how that will go. But we'll sign off from now here a little bit early. Looks like we're good. Thank you, all of you, for being here.
Please know that you are in our prayers. Please keep us all in your prayers. And we'll catch you next time on God's Plane.