Pints With Aquinas - 100 Things You Can Give Up For Lent!

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

😄 Get exclusive content at: https://mattfradd.locals.com/support 🔵 https://www.strive21.com 🚫 YouTube Reccomends Blocker: https://bit.ly/3KneZSl 🚨 Use promo code TRYLOCALS to try it out free for an entire month!

We're live, yeah. I'm speaking in the... G'day and welcome to Pines with Aquinas. My name is Matt Fradd. That over there is Thursday. That. Wow. I spoke to ChatGP.

I had to tell you not to treat the robot as a human. But I call you... Right out the gate. That. Welcome to Pines with Aquinas. Today we are going to be discussing a hundred different things you can give up for Lent. Now truth be told, I have a bunch of things, but not a hundred, but we're going to try to get it to a hundred.

So if you're in the live chat, give us suggestions and if they are sufficiently interesting, we will be sure to shout them out. So let's see a couple of things before we get going. Lent in the West starts on Wednesday. I'm a Byzantine Catholic, so Lent started for me today. I did. So I am actually underway. Yup. I don't want to say what it is

because I feel like that's kind of... What, you gave up? Yeah, I don't do that. I don't think I even told you. No? Yeah, I think it's good to keep it to you. Close to your chest, as they say. Anyway, so a couple of things I want to address before we get into things. First of all, yes, Sundays are part of Lent. It's like a myth in Catholicism. People think Sundays aren't part of Lent, but we literally call them the first Sunday

of Lent. So it is part of Lent, but that does not mean that you can't abstain from your fast on Sundays. Yeah. And here's why. What's taken up voluntarily? What's given up voluntarily rather can be taken up voluntarily. You know what I mean? Like if you maybe I said the wrong way around, but if I choose to go above and beyond what the church has prescribed, say by giving up chocolate, it's not just Sunday. On Monday, I want to eat chocolate. I could do that because it's a voluntary thing I've imposed upon myself.

Now that doesn't mean you should. I think you should be cooler than that. But that's that's I wanted to throw that out there. I also want to let people know that we are I'm going to be and have recorded daily meditations for Lent by Thomas Aquinas. So this sounds like something that Matthew Kelly would do or that Ascension Press has published and I'm sure they're both awesome. But before it was cool, Thomas Aquinas back in the 13th century actually wrote daily meditations for Lent to help you prepare for Easter. So

what I've done is I've recorded each of those and I've put Gregorian chant in the background and over at matfrad.locals.com we're going to be releasing one a day. So that's something you could do for Lent. Go over and join matfrad.locals.com. If you use the promo code TRILOCALS, capital letters, you'll see it in the description below. You get a month for free. We're doing a ton of stuff over there. Bonus interviews like my interview with JP Sears or Awaken with JP. I'm interviewing him this Friday. That'll only be available on Locals. Next Sunday, I'm interviewing in person, Matt Walsh, George Farmer, Michael Knowles down in Nashville.

That will only be available for Locals that won't be here on YouTube. So go over to mattfrad.locals.com, support us so that we can keep getting better equipment and growing the stuff that we're doing, paying Thursday and everybody else who does stuff for us. It's not just Thursday. It's a lot of other people. It's like four or five other people.

But also please subscribe. Also, please, please do it. Matt, Fred dot locals dot com. And you also get access to those daily meditations for Lent. All right. Are we ready? Yeah, we're good to go whenever you want. Now, are you able to kind of count as we go through these? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you.

All right. First of all, you could give up candy for Len. And don't listen to the haters that tell you that that's not good enough. You know, people say that you've heard a lot of candy like you should treat it seriously, like Len's not just about giving up candy. Well, yes, obviously. But for some people giving up candies hard or if you're in Australia, lollies, you don't know how much candy I eat. Exactly. You don't know me.

I wake up and... Yeah. So you give up sweets. That would be really cool. You could give up coffee if you wanted everybody around you to hate you. So double bonus there. You could give up... This is something I gave up recently Thursday. I gave up my phone on the toilet.

OK, as soon as I said that, I felt embarrassed because I don't know if people are at the stage where they can finally admit that they look at their phone while they're on the John. I mean, everybody does it. OK, I look at my phone. I get that it's gross, but you probably do it. So one thing you could do is just poop without the distraction. Okay. Another thing you give up is music in your car. If you're into that vaping, because you should just give that up. Anyway, be a man or a woman and smoke a cigar.

Don't vape. You should give up crocs. We were just down at the shoe store buying my son some sneakers for track. And there was a pair of Crocs for fifty dollars. What's your opinion on Crocs Thursday? I don't want to get us banned. I mean, I think whatever. I have opinions about people who wear similar to James Donald Forbes McCann's opinions about people who wear crocs similar to James Donald Forbes McCann's opinions

about people who vape. Ah, okay. See, I think crocs like pajamas for your feet. I don't know if you should be wearing them in public. Here's another thing you could give up. Please give up yoga pants. Or if you're going to wear pants that make it look as if someone has painted your pants on.

But I'll tell you what Thomas Aquinas said. So if you think what I'm saying is offensive, buckle up. He said the woman who dresses immodestly is like someone who digs a hole and then covers it over and sets a trap for a man. Deal with it. So give up yoga pants, give up Crocs. You could give up YouTube except Pines with Aquinas. No, no, you should give up Pines with Aquinas as well. Yeah, just listen on the audio platforms. Do you know what's funny?

Do you remember back in the day where you don't remember this, when the internet first started, you would go to all these different websites. It felt like there's just so many options. Whereas now I think most people go to like three or four websites they go to daily wire they go to life team they go to I don't know I'm just coming up with random names yeah I can tell they go I mean let's what are the three websites you think you go to honestly the most are the three websites I would go to the most would be YouTube probably daily wire I don't know like I'm watching a show with my wife, like peacock or.

Okay. I think mine would be different depending on if I'm working or not. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm just talking about. And it's funny working for YouTube. That's kind of what I do.

Yeah. I don't work for them. But yeah. All right. YouTube. You could give up meat and only eat fish and eggs. You could give up eating until 3 p.m. Why not do that? It's hard for the first couple of days, but then your body gets into a routine. And three o'clock is that hour where our blessed Lord died for mankind. So fasting until three and

then eat whatever you want. That's an option. You could give up podcasts. All right. Here's something you could give up. This is something my wife's giving up. Nothing but meat and animal products. So my wife's been dealing with a lot of health issues, so she's going to strict carnivore this land. If it doesn't have a face, I don't want it in my place. I don't know. No, but it has to have anything with a face that once had a face she can eat or a direct animal product.

Why did we do a stream with chat GPT last night? It was less off the rails than this. Online shopping. You give up online shopping. I know, see, I just don't know when people put restrictions that the church doesn't. I don't like it. You know, so sometimes people say, why don't you take on something for Lent? And then people are very critical of that.

But yeah, you could do that. There is a beautiful prayer that I pray in the morning, stirring the great fast called the prayer of St. Ephraim. You look that up, you do that. We also should maybe obviously give to the homeless, give to people who are in need of you, give to people who are on the side of the highways, give to people who are walking around your streets. Or is that just Stubinville and LA?

I don't know. But yeah, you could like always have cash on you. And I give it to a homeless person. I remember this one joke that a comedian made. He said, I'm not going to give him money. They're going to buy drugs. He's like, well, what do you want them to buy? They live in a box.

You want them to buy like a chest of drawers? He didn't find that funny. You could buy subway things and like coffee, cars. You can give that to people. Yeah, you could give up your excess. Like in the vein of that, you give up, like go to your closet, figure out things you don't wear and give it to the poor. Do it. You know what St.

Basil says about that? I know it's terrifying, terrifying what he says. Yeah. If you have two coats, you're a thief. If you have two coats, you've stolen one from a poor. I don't take that seriously, obviously. Nor do you. You probably have two coats. I do.

Yeah. Give up. OK, so here's some comments on YouTube. I asked people what are some creative things to give up for Lance. So we're going to go through those as well. This guy just said give up. I saw that. to give up for Lance. Are we going to go through those as well? This guy said, give us all that. Just give up. No, no, sorry.

I thought you were talking about the one that just came in. Oh, no, no, no. I've just what did he say? Giving up being ugly. Wow. Dude, some of us don't have a choice. OK, you give up music. You know, one thing I don't know if it's the older I'm getting, but I just don't like

popular music and not out of a Puritan sensibility, but just because I find that it comes back to haunt me, especially like the top 20 sort of stuff with very catchy choruses. The other this morning I woke up and I'm singing some stupid song and I didn't know why I was singing it. And then I realized I heard it like five days ago in Guatemala And it just comes back like a ghost to haunt me So you could give out everything but like Gregorian chant or like Bulgarian Orthodox chant that is really freaking cool I have never heard that look that up you got gonna give me you know what I do it right now spit me a verse of bulb

universe all right Bulgarian Orthodox chant All right check this out. chant. All right. Check this out. Oh, my gosh, it's. Bro, that sounds like Tibetan throat singing. I'm going to skip a bit. We go. It's exactly the same.

Hang on. Oh. Oh, my gosh. Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. All right, listen. You get the point. Isn't that beautiful? It's really beautiful. Oh, my golly. So you can do that.

All right. So check this out. I want to show people an article whenever you're ready Thursday. for. Oh my golly. So you do that. All right. So check this out. I want to show people an article whenever you're ready Thursday. This is a true thing. This is something you could actually do. There's a name to this. It has a history, has a pedigree.

You could drink only beer for Lent. And I'm not joking. Check this out. Man commits to beer only fast for Lent, loses 25 pounds. I feel amazing. A Cincinnati man has taken an all or nothing approach to Lent, deciding to consume nothing but beer for the 46 days leading up to Easter. He's already lost 25 pounds from the fast and claims he feels amazing. Del Ho, what a guy. If you know him, buy him a beer. I'll pay you back. Well, maybe not a beer. Maybe he's totally done with beer after the last limp.

His decision is pretty convenient considering the fact that he happens to be director of sales at Ohio. You know what? Father Jason told me about this guy. He must know him. 50 West Brewing. He said in a YouTube video that slimming down was one motivation for his drastic decision. He had a starting weight of 292.5 pounds, which was the most he's weighed in six years. It was pretty rough to see, he said, but Hall actually took his beer fasting cue from an ancient tradition.

There you go. That's what I meant. Practiced by monks in the 17th century. Polona, is that how you say it? Monks moving from southern Italy to Bavaria in the 1600s lived by strict rules and one of them was to banish all solid food during lent Side note I once was staying with the companions of the cross in Ottawa and an elderly priest whose name I've forgotten was going on a

No solids lent Yeah, cool Somebody in the live chat just said the beer thing sounds like the opposite of Lent. Do you want to explain why that is? Dude, listen, what are you going to do? Wake up. Imagine the first day would be fun, but the second day morning time for breakfast.

I don't know if it would be fun after the third or fourth day. You also have to imagine that by the end of Lent, your tolerance is so good that you're never drunk ever again. Like you could never even be buzzed ever. To be clear, we're not talking about drinking in a moderation. Obviously, we're not talking about drunkenness and you're not talking about drinking Kura's light like you would die. I think like, well, that's not true. You could fast without food for at least 40 days.

You'd be probably fine. But in order to get the kind of what the vitamins, the nutritional stuff you need, you'd want to be drinking stout. So anyway, let's keep reading. So 1600 people did this, according to Catholic News Agency. Beer was a common staple during that time period. So the monks looked into it as a meal replacement. I'd be so tired all day. Do you get tired when you have a drink? No.

Yeah, I do. Someone offered me a drink, like three. I'm like tired when you have a drink? No. Yeah, I do. Someone offered me a drink like three. I'm like, what are you talking about? I have to have a nap. Beer was a common staple during that period. They would they wound up developing unusually strong types of beer to serve their fasting needs. Salvatore, as they called it, was high in carbohydrates and nutrients. It was now known as Doppel, Doppel, as doppel, doppel, doppelbock, doppelbock. Yeah.

Whole an army veteran said the monks practice fascinated him and he wanted to see if he could push himself to the limits by replicating what these men once did. He also believes that in general going without food is crucial from time to time. Fasting is a big part of being a human being. He said after his eighth beer, it didn't say that I made that up. Anyway, that's pretty cool. So you could do that. You can give up everything, but be a look at that guy. Oh, wait, did you click story continues?

Yeah, but it's OK. I don't even know how many were at, but that's something you could do. All right. We are at 17. This guy said you could give up watching Taylor Marshall. That seems mean. But I mean, you could. I'm sure he would agree. You also give up watching me give up your excuses for not having a daily prayer practice.

Yes. So here's something you could do. And I really, I really mean this. People like you've been giving very practical things. I'm going to do it for you right now. Here's what I want you to do for the great fast for Lent. Get a crucifix. Buy it right now. So it'll come in a couple of days or find one.

You're a Catholic. Hopefully you should have one. Put it by your bed. Here's what we do. When you wake up in the morning, the very first thing you're going to do is pick up that crucifix and kiss it. Then you're going to fall to your knees and say, Our Father, Hail Mary, glory be done. That's it. I mean, you can do more for Lent, but that's it. You can do that. I love Jordan Peterson's thing about what's something you could do that even you fat, awful loser that you are would do.

He doesn't say that. What's that you could do that you would do that would make your life better? This is something you could do. Kiss the crucifix, roll over onto your knees. You don't have to feel pious. You don't have to feel holy. You don't have to feel pious, you don't have to feel holy, you don't have to feel collected, and offer three prayers. You could do that for Lent. Place time used on social media or internet to improve your social and prayer life and other hobbies. That's right. We have said social media. That's going to be

very hard. Inactivity in your fitness. What does that mean? exercise Commit to do a form of exercise every day. So active rest days instead of doing nothing. Yeah, that's good Even if every day you decided to go on like a three mile walk. I Mean you could also do something a lot more rigorous, but something yeah, you give out crack Marked it down. I Just finished my first week out of Egypt through Exodus 90, I'm not sure I should be on here Yeah, man. No, you're giving up enough Exodus 90 is the bomb. I don't know. I'm still working on that That's not helpful. Okay sleeping on the floor. You can give up your bed

Do it. Yeah, that would be tough. This person responded and said, I did that one land even with a thin foam mat. It killed my back and started to cause pain issues more than just some soreness and stiffness to offer up. I switched penances about halfway through. Definitely recommend it for those who can tolerate a huge adjustment from mattress to floor. My son did that a couple of years ago. I'm so proud of my son. He's giving up YouTube for land. Is he really? Isn't that cool?

Good for him. Oh boy. Not exceeding the speed limit. Okay, this is a really good one because I not only exceed the speed limit, I go through red lights when they seem unnecessary. Okay. Unashamedly.

I'm gonna admit to a specific one. Do it. Right now. The one, you know where the, they've got the road shut off right before St. Pete's if you're going north. And it's a three way stop now. So it's literally impossible that the people coming up are going to be going straight and you, and the light is like ridiculously long. Yeah. Yeah. I run that red light all the time with joy. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Every time I pull up to that thing, if there's not a car like you can see down the street all the way to the where like stupid. Yep, I run that one. Now you go to some where I go, this is obvious. Now, I should let people know that we live in a town that used to be what? How many times the population it

is now? Oh, 10, I think so. But I don't think we've removed any of the traffic lights. No. So we're in a town with way removed any of the traffic lights. No. So we're in a town with way too many traffic lights that make no sense at all. And they're also not sank up properly. So maybe you could give up that going through red lights. I don't know, but you could give up. I like that though. Yeah. Not exceeding the speed limit, not even by two or three miles over. If you're the only car on a wide open highway. Yeah, it is, he says, surprisingly difficult. That's good.

This person says I did all I did all use of headphones. One lent that doesn't make sense. He gave up all use of headphones. OK. Oh, I see. He gave up headphones with an additional note to not bother anyone else in the slightest with anything I might listen to. Good. Honestly, if you're one of those people who listens to things in public, I just you are far gone. Like there's no redemption for you at this point. I don't think people

who go to restaurants and they crack open their phone actually and they listen to whatever. Like this isn't your place. This not everything is about you. We might not want to listen to the things that you're playing. Stop it. I was hoping you'd share, Matt. I saw the upcoming video about creative land. Okay. Your go to sin. Yeah. You know, we should be giving up sins anyway, but fair enough.

That's not. All right. You I want to get your opinion on this Thursday because Nicholas says he's going to do ice baths every morning. He says I'm debating, but I think I might try it. Now's the time. Now's the time to decide because tomorrow starts. And this person says, why not just cold showers?

I don't know, because he's not a wimp. Ice baths. What do you think? I understand the way they work. It's kind of cool. Yeah, but also No This is good from Melissa matter She says if you're a woman who enjoys doing makeup you could reduce the amount of time You do your makeup in the morning for the sin of vanity good for her. Yeah, I think my wife one

One lent gave up my own makeup. If you're a dude, you could give up makeup as well. All the time. All the time. Please do. But it is funny how things change in culture, because what seems girly in one period of time might not. I'll give you an example. Deodorant.

My grandfather said to me, and this is definitely going to be a matte out of context take, anybody poof does wear deodorant? That's a gay person. You're writing that down. And I said, yes, well, maybe, but at least poof does smell good, pop. But isn't that funny that he would think that deodorant is girly? You know, you just, you gotta, sometimes you just gotta let the natural must lure the ladies

in. Ah, that's so funny. I texted someone while I was in Guatemala. I said, oh, these women are so beautiful. And he wrote back, it's because they're not in the birth control pill. He's probably right. But maybe- Wait, I won't say on stream, but will I get first try, I guess, who that was? is because they're not in the birth control pill. He's probably right. But maybe. Do wait. Not wearing deodorant.

I won't say on stream, but will I get first try guess who that was? You could voice it like with don't say his name, but like. Uh, I can't see it. You could slack me and I'll let you know. Okay. Well, slack. Anyway, but maybe the natural masks of the undeodorized man is what the ladies need. So if you're a single man and you've been trying to date and you've had no success, put away the Rex owner and the axe deodorant.

Okay, don't be wearing axe anyway. Don't be wearing axe. And I just sent myself a message. So open up your chat to me. All right, let's see. This is like an inside joke. No, but I'll write it back. It's who it was.

This person there. All right, let's see. Give up interrupting people are always having to share your opinion. Giving up arguing with people on the Internet. All right, so here's something I think that's important. Your Lenten resolution has to be very concrete. If there's any soft edges to it. I don't know, for me, I think it's it's more difficult to keep.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I just think very specific things are what you should be committing to. So when you say giving up interrupting people, I agree that would be a good one. But that's kind of difficult because a lot of conversations just naturally involve interruptions, and it would be weird if they weren't there, you know, but giving up arguing with people on the Internet. That's a really good one. Don't respond to any hostile comments. That's an excellent one. Here's something I gave up. So you can jot this down.

I don't even know what number we're at, but 30. We're at 30 right now. Okay. All right. Is whenever I would swear, I would make the sign of the cross. And that was really good. I want to bring that back. I don't like that.

I swear. So very hard thing to do. He's talking about interrupting. Okay. For a lot of people, I think giving up caffeine can reveal a lot about how dependent on it you are. Yes, I'm definitely dependent on it, especially if you go cold turkey. Me personally, I'm giving up all social media because I don't drink coffee. Hey, let me know if we have anything in the description.

And first of all, I just want to point out in the description, sorry, in the live chat, sin, sin. Yeah, thanks, dude. I once gave up the fast lane when I lived in South Carolina. There you go. He says, honestly, change my perspective on traffic and still helps me to this day. Jesus, take the wheel. There you go.

Give up the fast lane. It's good. Saying yes to anything and everyone sounds selfish, but everyone needs to learn the word no and that no. So here's what I think people should do. They should come up with something hardcore and then they can come up with these other like self improvement things. I'm not saying that your Lenten resolution can't be self improving, but I think you want to do something a bit more manly. You know, give up meat, don't eat until the afternoon, don't sleep on a bed, give up alcohol.

You need something a little more difficult. And then feel free to have these tier two things like somebody just suggested Do the traditional midnight fast for communion where you don't you're not allowed to eat midnight until like if you're going to mass Yeah, if you're a daily mass. Yeah, I like that one one thing I well, okay one thing I did a while back. This was good as I set my alarm for three in the morning and When the alarm went off I got out of bed and I said a certain prayer that took about three minutes Then I went back into bed

It was the worst. I'm sorry. Could you say it again? I totally zone so one thing people could do is they could set their Alarm for three in the morning. Oh And at three in the morning wake up get out of, say some prayer and then get back into bed. That's difficult. Uh, what else? Pines with Aquinas? Yeah, thanks, dude. You already said that. Okay.

If you are Eastern Orthodox like me, then you don't have a choice. It's a tarn you're supposed to give up. I do the best I can. So that's one of the differences between the West and the East, right? Like what I've noticed is like in the West, there's this mentality of this is what it says. Therefore, you must follow it to the letter. But what it's asking of you is quite minimal. You know, give up meat on Fridays.

But in the East, it's pretty hardcore. Like, depending on what Eastern Orthodox you are, it's like meat, dairy products, fish, oil, alcohol, you know. But in the East, it's not so much what's the bottom line, like what's the what's the bare minimum? It's here's what the monks do. How close can I get to that? So that's a really good point.

Yeah, I'm giving up video games. I have to come up. Yeah. Tell me about that. I really enjoy them. It's not like an addiction, it's just like, I don't know, it helps me to unwind. I really like doing it. It's something that I have fond memories of when I'm younger.

So it's kind of like one of those things that I do. Like most days I spend like, it's not a ton of time, like 45 minutes to an hour, right? And then I just move on with whatever else actually needs to be done, but it's not necessary. So I'm giving that up. Good for you. Is that gonna be hard?

I think the first few days will be really hard. Yeah. And then are you gonna try to replace it with something intentionally? Yeah then are you going to try to replace it with something intentionally? Yeah. So I'm going to try to replace it with some reading that I want to get done. I'm I'm really trying to pour myself into some good for you, dude.

Teaching. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I think one thing I like doing just as a personal discipline, which I'd like to get back into, is leaving my phone and computer at the office before I go home each night. That makes me unreachable. And that's the point, you know, and then I come back in the morning, I've got like a bunch of texts that I got to respond to, but it just helps separate me. And it makes it a lot easier to do more helpful things that I want to do, like read books. Yeah. Like if I go home and I've got this season I'm watching

or this book I could read, it's like path of least resistance. And I just don't end up reading the book. Yeah. All right. Let's try to get a few more. You're ready. You're going to crank through some. Yeah. Snacking between meals. Just do three meals a day. Instagram filters.

If you use Instagram, just get rid of the filters. This is such a like a teenage. If you're a teenager and you're into that, texting and driving, using emojis to avoid talking about your true feelings. Do people do that? I'm looking at a website right now. I don't know. These aren't my ideas. I do that. I will not be giving that up for a while.

Well, this one says pride. Yeah, good luck giving that up. Instead, pray the litany of humility every day. So that's something you could take on praying the litany of humility every day. This is funny. If you're angry, take up kickboxing. If you're complacent, take up Zumba. If you're my mum, please don't do either.

If you're addicted to porn, sign up to covenant eyes dot com. If you only look at porn occasionally, sign up to covenant eyes dot com. If you never look at porn, but you don't want to accidentally risk it. Yeah. Covenant eyes dot com. They're not even sponsoring this episode, but go check them out. Covenant eyes dot com. The other thing that's cool about covenant eyes is you can block websites that aren't pornographic that you just don't want to go

to. So before I officially deleted my Twitter account like three months ago or whatever, I had Covenantize block Twitter so I didn't have to look at it and then I just had my social media guy post to it but I could never see what he was posting posting I had tried to check a funny one day on this computer and it didn't work. Yeah, that's why that's why yeah Yeah, what else you could also do strive 21? Yeah strive 21 is a 21 day detox from porn course I created for men strive 21 comm here's nothing you could do Pray the chaplet of divine mercy every day you pray the rosary every day. There's two things. Chop them down. Yep.

If you're judgmental, pray for every person that you feel tempted to judge. Yeah, that's good. If you're struggling with vanity, as we already said, give up makeup or your mirror. Maybe. Oh, who was it that a couple of years ago said that somebody gave up mirrors? Wow, that's dangerous. You'd have anything on your face. This shows you how old.

Why are you laughing? Just you could have anything on your face. Um, dessert or like cornflakes in your beard or something. People haven't to see that. It's for love of those people that you should look at your face at least once. You can tell that this is an old article because one of them is watching VHS tapes and not rewinding them. Yeah, honestly, this person says trolling online, but honestly,

responding to comments that you know are not being said or asked in goodwill. Yeah. It's a good idea. You could only watch VHS tapes. Is that? I mean, it's very difficult. You may as well give up TV.

I mean, but here's the thing. Like what are the risks? Like the content that's on VHS versus Netflix, one is probably significantly less heathen. Maybe. Yeah. Although there's a lot of porno on VHS. Don't give up porn. We've said that.

You give up pizza. You could give up. Here's something you give up, right? You could give up gluten. Boom. Write it down. But you could also give up worrying about your weight. Like, what if you just ate bread for Lent?

You'd be like significantly. How should you say heftier? But Lent is not about. You know. It's not like here's your opportunity. It's like you failed your New Year's resolution. We all know that you've stopped with that. Well, now is not like a second round of that. So you could just eat bread.

My friend did that last year and he did look bigger. Not going to lie. He's just farting a lot more and he was. You could give up. Oh, give up TikTok. Just just give that up. No need. Is there is there? No. What?

The Chinese don't need a spy balloon because you have TikTok on your phone. They already know everything they could ever want to know. Nice. Here's another one. Stop apologizing when you're not actually sorry. One thing that bugs me is when people say to me, oh, I'm so sorry. Are you? Because you just you just stepped past me and you didn't realize it I'm so sorry. Are you because you just you just step past me

and you didn't realize it, you're not you so sorry. Like if I said, I forgive you, they'd be offended because they're not actually sorry. Don't say you're sorry if you're not sorry. My bad is excellent. Like you actually bump into somebody. Oh, my bad. Yeah, it was like maybe it was. It's great. There's no forgiveness.

There's no apology because it was an accident. Hmm fair enough I see well, I think in that instance if you weren't looking where you're going you should say sorry, but not so sorry You leave the so for something like, you know, I I killed your cat and you asked me to look after it I'm so sorry, but you're not so sorry. It's like, you know what I mean? Don't say sorry if you're not so sorry. It's like, you know what I mean? Don't say sorry. If you're not sorry. Getting your nails done. Give that up.

If you're a Sheila and you're into that sort of thing. Making excuses. Oh, here's what you said you could take on daily mass. You do that. What else could you give up? Give up cigarettes? But let's make it easy. What if you gave up, because I know you smoke cigarettes. What if you gave up cigarettes and only smoked a pipe?

How significantly annoying would that be? Oh, that would be good, actually. I would significantly... So, the other thing I was going to give up was going to be alcohol. But I think giving up cigarettes and only smoking a pipe would actually be harder for me than giving up alcohol yeah because I could go 40 days without drinking without even thinking about it right yes it's not like I drink on my own I drink socially so like if there's no to drink on my own I refuse to drink socially I know that's a lot oh good for you that's that. Yeah, I'll think about that one.

But here's what I want to encourage people to do. Don't just think about it like it's it's go time. It's it's there is no try. There is only whatever Yoda said. You have to make a decision now because it starts tomorrow. Don't go into tomorrow with a few ideas that you might do. Decide now. Or you're lame. Yeah, now or you're lame.

Yeah, you're a dingus. Refute pretending you don't have time to pray at home. Give that up. Maybe go to maybe go to adoration every day. You can do that. By the way, I want to shout out to Christina Meade, who works for Life Teen, who wrote this article that I'm drawing a bunch of these things from. Have you got anything in the?

Somebody just suggested something that I want to Google because I think it is a thing, but I want to find the exact like name of it so I can give. Yeah. I'm surprised there's not more chatter in the live chat, or is there? There's a lot of people, but they're mostly just complaining that, like, you should give that up anyway. Did I say give up yoga pants No, what's the male equivalent?

I'm sorry. I just thought of a completely different job. No worries that had to do with that exact question. Okay. Okay. Yeah So there's this chrome extension called unhook. Okay. And it when you install it, the YouTube recommended page doesn't work. So you have to use search. So you, when you, you can't open it and just start mindlessly looking for things on YouTube, on YouTube, on the, on the website. So like, if you open it, there's no recommended videos. Like you have to know what you want to watch. Could you put a link to that in the description? Please do that. Check that out, guys. That's amazing. I do that.

I open up YouTube. YouTube already knows what I want to watch. I don't even know sometimes what I'm doing. I just pull it up. It forces you to be intentional. That's really good. I like that a lot. Here's another thing you can give up if possible.

Give up your map. Yeah. Give up. I you could give up if possible. Give up your map. Yeah, give up. I don't mean your paper map, if you have that more power to you, but give up that, you know. Mark Barnes has a really good take on maps. Do you remember it? Because I heard it on the show. Go for it. That I mean, I've done a show.

Navigation is like one of the essential human functions and that we rent it from Google now rather than doing it ourselves. That's a lessening of the human person. Yeah, do that. Give up things that make you angry unnecessarily. And that's fuzzy around the edges. So I'm going to be very specific. Give up all political commentary.

This land. Don't listen to the Daily Wire. This land. You do that. Don't listen to church militant or people who talk about ecclesial politics. Like those YouTube channels that only address everything going terrible in the church and in the culture. Don't listen to them. Make a decision. Write it down. Tell at least one person so you feel like you're accountable.

Did you write those down? I feel like I'm doing well. Sorry, I thought we were going to get to like foot. Sorry, I don't know. Trying to like, I said, sorry, I'm not sorry. Stop saying sorry, man. Mendes. All right, let's see, I'm going to check out the live chat. What do we got? What do we got?

I won't be able to find my way anywhere Okay, well then use it I'm not the whole that's really cool. That's the whole point is that well, maybe give up is that you're learning It's yeah, so part of the point of the Lenten feast is or the Lenten fast Wow got that exactly opposite Yeah, the point of the Lenten fast is that you're like supposed to better yourself and so you better your sense of navigation So if you can't get any like if you literally can't get to work Without your map. Yeah, and you're going there every day Yes time that you need to give it up because you need to be able to function on a basic human level without yeah

That's right. I also know that there are friends at all sometimes drive to their house and I use the map even though I can really find where they are. So there's that. I don't know if this is really Patrick Madrid in the chat. Probably isn't. He says give up chatting. So it's probably not Patrick Madrid.

He would say something much more intelligent than give up chatting. 60 by the way. Give up fast food. Pack your lunch every day. Do that. I need to do that. Give up sweatpants. You shouldn't be wearing sweatpants in public anyway. Unless you're working out, I guess.

Oh, this is excellent. Use candles instead of electric light in your home. That's really good. That's why you have to get your whole family on board with. Yeah, you do. My wife keeps saying she wants to do that, but I don't believe her. Look at this. In my parish, we do a 40 day bread and water fast. What is the name of that parish?

Write it down. Bread and water. Giving up using kneelers at mass. Oh, I see. So if you're in the West, you kneel on the ground. Yeah. Fair enough. We're a suit every day. That's a weird one.

Yeah. Try to dress a little nicer. Maybe. Yeah. There you go. I heard Matt say this the other day, reach out to one person a day. I don't think I said that, but I like the advice. An old friend, current friend, people you don't know that well. Good. I'm glad that I said that. Yeah, reach out to people. Somebody just said, give up carpets in your home. And I have a question. If you already have carpet everywhere, are you telling me to tear the carpet out of my

house? That is what I did when I moved into my new house. You know, because you were staying in my house, all that wooden floor, everything was carpeted. There was no wood anywhere. We had to rip all that out. It was absolutely disgusting. Regarding my strive 21 course, somebody just said,. There was no wood anywhere. We had a rip all that out was absolutely disgusting Regarding my strive 21 course somebody just said striped me one helped me so much. I'm now more than six months free from porn Glory to Jesus Christ. That makes me so happy

Strive 21 calm it's a 21 day detox from porn course. It's a hundred percent free It's it's for men help them stop looking at porn or masturbate and check it out strive 21 Here's another thing you could do. It was in my head and now I've forgotten it. So don't worry about it. I'll go. I'll get back to that. You have 66. 66.

Here's another thing you do. Block your app store. It's very easy to do that in settings under screen time. Have somebody block your app store it's very easy to do that in settings under screen time have somebody block your app store it asks them to put a code in and that way you don't have any way of downloading other apps and then delete the apps you don't want to use anymore and then for all of Lant essentially turn your smartphone into a dumb phone this will only work on iPhone just want to put that out there ah yep eliminate yeah. Eliminate. Here's something you could do. Don't don't drink coffee afternoon.

You shouldn't be doing that anyway, probably. Absurd scandal says give up looking at nice things, looking only at the floor. It's good. You want me to mark that one down? Yes, because I'm struggling really hard to find. Drive less, not to save the planet. Boo.

But to inconvenience yourself. Walk more, share cars, use the bike. That's really good. Oh, give up eating at restaurants. Don't eat out. You already said don't eat out. Ah. Give up using the word like.

Good luck. It can be tough. Give up telling people to stop using the word like when you think you're better than them. It stopped that as well. Stop both of those down. Stop stop writing lol in my comment section because whatever you're thinking is funny isn't and you aren't laughing either. So stop lying unless you are actually laughing, out loud buy taco bell for homeless people yeah give

them diarrhea sure I heard someone say that they give up parking in the best spot it's like a nice little annoying thing to do I like that somebody at the very beginning of the chat suggested this okay there are 46 days in Lent and 46 books in the Old Testament. Coincidence. All right. Here's nothing to do only read the Gospels this Lent. Don't read any other book. I mean you can read menus and Street Science, but as far as leisure only read

the Gospels. I don't know why I pulled you over today. Nope. Stop back there. Oh, sorry. I've given up reading. Okay. I don't know who absurd scandal is, but I like him. He says, force yourself to do boring and repetitive math tasks for penance. He may have not been joking, but give up texting and call people instead. Thursday and I have decided that works well in our relationship, because when we text each other, apparently we don't understand each other.

So there's that. Yep, that's a real thing. Yeah. Try not to speak anything on Fridays like a vow of silence. OK, absurd scandal. I only want you to comment for now on everybody else. Shut up. Everyone else practice what absurd scandal is suggesting and don't talk anymore and just want to hear more from this guy. My wife would be so upset. If I just stopped talking, well, which he pray the Angeles every day, set your

alarm, do that. There's one 80. Yes. Give up music. I think I've already said that. Yep. Give up trying to be right all the time. That no. What? I'm not even marking that. You can read menus and street signs. Maybe crack up.

Oh, good. Draw an embarrassing painting and show it to your friends. But pretend you put a lot of effort into it and you think it's really good. Go to Dolly. Watch. This guy says, uh, watch all pines for the corners episodes by Easter.

Please. That is 100% a woman, Matt. Is it? Oh, bless her. That was good. Thank you. Sorry. What's her name though?

Jean Jean. Jean. Sean. Women cannot. What was this business, they women can try not wearing makeup. You have said that. Don't drink coffee anyway. Don't know what to do. How about that?

She said I don't drink. This is another one of those examples where I just want to get angry. I just want the light to turn on me want the live chat to turn on me. To appreciate what you're doing for them. Protection. Vow of silence, all of Lent. Can you imagine trying to tell your family that that's what you were doing and you hope that they understand?

Well, that's good. So female Casey Royals fan, probably not a real name, says your iPhone has a downtime option. Set it to start at 830 and then you can block app use. That's really good. I like that. For arms or did someone hide this? Oh, wow. What an idiot. Who is this? Oh no no no there's someone hid this okay I didn't hide it no no must have been YouTube it was fine what they said for arms I'm placing a sticky note with a positive

affirmation you are beloved etc and placed it on my on the mirror of public women's bathrooms Satan hates women and they need to know their worth all right sweet and just saw public women's bathrooms and assumed it'd be some trans stuff. Oh, give up wearing coats outside. I mean, that's not a bad idea, Olivia, unless it's really cold. Unless you die of hypothermia. Yeah. Keep in mind your climate for that one. Shut the phone off when you come home at the end of every day.

Yeah, I kind of said that already. While lifting or working out, you can't listen to any music. All right. That's one you could do try not to murder anyone This person said laughed out loud with capital LOL. I appreciate that Sundays are feast days. No fasting No, I had so I've already really very put I already addressed this at the start. You can feast or not do what you want I don't think I'm going to so I had a pack my first pastor when I converted explained it this way that it's just you need to decide at the beginning Of lent. Yeah, and be obedient to whatever that is Don't change it halfway through because you're not making it

How about this one try not to murder anyone so you're murdering? Marking it down This person whose gender which we're not gonna say cuz that what is gender sex said, give up assuming people's sex. I am in fact a woman. This is that Sheila who said that cool thing. Who said that cool thing? Nice. I actually would do a vow of silence, but they make me talk at work. Sad. I mean, that feels like slavery, really.

Some form of, you know, to make you talk at work. Not on Sundays. It's a feast to error. Giving something for Lent shouldn't be giving up sin. Laugh emoji. It's not like you should go back to gossiping after Lent. Here's something I don't agree with. Sometimes people will say, don't give up something for Lent and just take it back an Easter.

Why not? Yeah, no. Play video games with Gen Z teens for a weekend. No, don't don't do you take it down, but I'm going to put a health warning on that one. Giving up telling others what you're doing for Lent. Now, that's that's the only fun in it. OK, then tell me you literally started off by saying I'm not going to tell you. Give up Mondays.

You do give up that and give up Mondays. No beer. Give up beer. So, yeah, maybe alcohol is too difficult, but maybe give up hard liquor and only drink wine and alcohol down. Give up hard liquor. Only drink 40 percent bourbons. You know what I'm saying? I'll actually probably have my smartphone off the majority of the day if someone wants to get a hold of me, they're going to have to call my landline. Nice. Are you still on a landline? Yeah, so do I. Did it ever call while you were at my house? No, I didn't even know you had one. Yeah, I do. You're welcome.

Kneeling down at 3 p.m. and tell Jesus you love him. That's beautiful. What a lovely thing to do. Play Minecraft with me and my siblings, Matt. Nope. Give up pineapple on pizza. Pineapple on pizza is wonderful. Give up emojis. They are more annoying than LOL. I disagree with that.

Bro, this person just said give up Thursday. Screw you man. Give up your bed, sleep on the floor without a pillow. We already put that. No, you do it. Currently Catholic, but on my way to orthodoxy. OK. What do you want me to say?

Give up. Do you like that little laugh there? Where the guy said said give up Thursday. No, no, I wasn't laughing at that. I'm just laughing at the, you know, people exhale softly out of their nostrils. It's like the least amount of effort you can put into a laugh. Hard interview group to miss, but you still can't justify paying a membership to watch one YouTuber.

I know that means. Jc's oh yeah yeah you don't have to watch it you can also use my promo code and then quit so you don't get charged yeah try locals all capitals count how many footsteps you take daily that would be really annoying give up elev elevators. That's a great one. Give up elevators. There's a good one. You could walk up the stairs. Our elevator only works half the time. Give up swearing. That's a very good one.

You already said that. Give up mean relatives. All right. I don't know, man. What are we at? 89. Oh, come on. OK, chat, GBT, whatever. Let's do it. What are some unusual things? Give up nagging.

Oh, yeah. If you're married, give up nagging. Yeah, don't be nagging. People give up a whole wide range of things, Volantis says. Give up Vegemite. Did someone say that? Yep. Give up social for land to says about that you might. Did someone say that? Yep. Give up social media. We said that. Yep. That was the first thing out of your mouth. All right. Give up television. We said that.

Give up junk food. We've said that essentially. Oh, my gosh. How about. Smoke a cigar every day. That's penance. If it if it's bad for your health, it'll kill you. You don't do that. Take it on anyway.

It's difficult. It'll harm you. But that's the point of land. I marked it down. I'm not happy about it. Ninety two. Filet a fish. You could eat that on fridays. That's definitely penitential You know, I heard recently a guy say that it's bad, but they shouldn't fix it We should maybe post that to youtube for lent. What do you think? That's pretty funny. Yeah, it's pretty funny We could post it for this

Next friday, even though sunday is a mini eas Easter, I'm not going to allow myself any sweets. Okay. Good. That's awesome. Drink whiskey before every meal. Okay. Honestly, absurd scandal. If you want a job, let me know. Whoa. Vail images at home. All right. Give up condiments. That's a good one. Use, uh, students give up taking notes on a laptop. Take notes on paper. That's a good one. Give up spicy foods. That's that's that would be hard for me.

That would be hard for me. I love spicy food. What is catastrophizing mean? Catastrophizing is when it's like everything's melting down. Are you pretending it is like crying over spilled milk? Right. Like if I like sneezed into the microphone and you had a full on meltdown right now, that would be catastrophizing. OK. Yeah.

Dora says this might be inappropriate, as are my favorite comments. But as a joke, my husband said, I'm going to give up not having sex with my wife every day. That's an excellent thing to give up. Do that. Yeah. One thing my wife and I did one Lent is we gave up alcohol all of Lent, but then we bought a bunch of wine for the Easter season and we had a drink every single night. So we committed to not drinking

through Lent and then we committed to drinks. I don't really want to drink. Well, you committed to it. So shut up. Cancel subscriptions subscriptions I guess you could do that yeah give up complaining but here's the thing he said that one okay what we're at right now on a lemon for five minutes after waking up you want to know where out right now yeah 99 we're at 99 so you better make the last thing you say worth it okay I don't know if I've got a good one, but you could give up microwave thing, says Olivia. I just bought a new mic.

Give up Amazon. That's good. There's one hundred and one right there. One hundred and one. It would be hard for you to give up Amazon, because I think Shuff shows up at your house that you didn't order. Yeah, I know. What about this one? Only drink wine when watered down with lots of water. He's joking. that's very funny I

Might take up video games and drinking in the mornings We'll see how I fare by And I should I call for the Jason Run a mile while praying that rosary every day. Yeah. 103. All right. This has been good, I think. Tell me what you think. I said, great. Yeah, I think it's been fun. Tomorrow, I'm interviewing a lovely woman called Roxy, who runs a channel called.

Black Catholic chick, I think. Yeah, that black Catholic chick, so I can't wait to meet her and have her on the show. As I said at the beginning of the show, I am going to be posting Meditations for Lent written by Thomas Aquinas every single day. This Lent over on Locals. I don't offer commentary. I don't offer an introduction. I just read exactly what he said. So go check that out if you want. Matfrad.locals.com become a supporter. If you use the promo code TRYLOCALS, one word

all capitals, T-R-Y, it's in the description below, you'll get a month for free. You could do that in every day throughout Lent. You could listen to like a five to 10 minute meditation from Thomas Aquinas. And then also I've got some big interviews coming out with JP Sears, with Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, George Farmer. Those are only going to be available over on locals, matfrad.locals.com. We do expect there will come a day where YouTube bans us. And so locals will be the ticket, which is why we're pushing that. It's an amazing community of people from all around the world.

And I asked people recently, like, do they like it? Do they enjoy being on Locals? And no one said they didn't. I mean, they're probably someone who doesn't, but the majority of people said it was one of the best online communities they've been a part of. Yeah, it's all your Netflix subscription and get Locals.

There's nothing you can do for land. Matfrad.locals.com. Also subscribe on Rumble. On Rumble? Yeah. Yeah. All our videos go up on Rumble. They do. Yeah. You go watch us on Rumble. Yeah. All our videos go up on rumble. They do. Yeah, he go watch us on rumble.

Yeah. All right. Bye.