Pints With Aquinas - Really Exciting News!! :-)

Episode Date: April 21, 2018

Hey all, in this episode I share with you some exciting things that we're doing at Pints With Aquinas and some exciting projects we're planning. Please support at Patreon.com/mattfradd

Hey guys, welcome to Pines with Aquinas. My name is Matt Fradd. Glad you could stop by for this kind of exciting episode. What I want to do is share with you some of the goals that we've met over the last few months, and then a couple of goals that I'm looking at that I'm really excited about. If you've been listening to Pines with Aquinas for a while now, you know that in, when was it, November, December, I quit my job. I still find that funny. And started doing Pints with Aquinas full time. And I reached out to you at the time and I'm like, if you guys want to support me, now's the time to do it. And so many of you stepped up to the plate and I'm so grateful to you all. And your support has enabled me to do different things. So I just want to kind of go

over the things that we've accomplished and then two exciting announcements that I haven't really announced yet, okay? So, one of the things I said I would do once we got a certain amount of patrons is that we would begin Pints with Aquinas chapters around the world, okay? This obviously takes some back-end work because I have people send in applications, I have to have a reference from a priest, I have to contact that priest to make sure that that person is a faithful Catholic. But right now we have several Pines of the Quinas chapters in the country. And these people have, they meet for beer and friendship and they read a book that we assign them. And it's good classical Christian literature, right? Like Augustine's Confessions or Boethius's Constellation of Philosophy or things like that. So that's really exciting. So that is now underway. By the way, if you want to apply to be a Pines with Aquinas chapter director,

go to pineswithaquinas.com to figure out how to do that. Now, another thing I said we would do is once we get a certain amount of patrons, I would hire somebody to manage my Instagram account to create inspiring Pints with Aquinas memes. And we've done that. This has been happening now for several weeks. If you don't follow me on Pints with Aquinas on Instagram, actually, I think it's Matt Fradd is my name on Instagram. But yeah, be sure to because I've got this guy. He's awesome. And shout out to Kiernan Doyle. You're the man. But yeah, you'll notice that we've started that. And this is just a way to kind of inspire you. And we use quotations directly from St. Thomas Aquinas. So if you follow us on Instagram, you know, you'll get that kind of, we do it like about

four times a week. And so that's something we've been able to do. Another thing I said that I would do once I got a certain amount of patrons is I would start recording high-quality professional videos, similar to those of Father Mike Schmitz. And I'm happy to say that we are about to release the first one very soon, next month. You'll see the first one, and then they'll start coming out weekly. All of this takes not only money, right? But it takes time. Like I, if I wasn't able, if I didn't have your support, I would have to travel a lot more. And that wouldn't allow me to do a number of these things. So that's happening. And I'm really excited about that. All right. I want to tell you about two projects I want to do, and I'm really excited about that. All right, I want to tell you about two projects I want to do,

and I'm really excited about them. So here's the first one. The second one's even more exciting, but here's the first one. I want to record a 182-part series on Bible history. So my kids go to a classical hybrid school where they read really good books, and there's a book published by Tan, by Ignatius Schuster, Father Ignatius Schuster, called Bible History. And this is a classic work that was actually used to educate generations of Catholic children from

sixth grade through eighth grade. But you know what it's like. I mean, today, my suspicion is if you went into a typical school and started reading this, they would be like, oh, wow, I don't understand it. It's too difficult. Because it was written like over 50 years ago. And it's beautifully written. And as I said, there's 182 chapters in this book. And then it's followed up by study questions to make sure you remember what you just read. Okay. Well, this work is in the public domain. Okay. So I have made sure of that. And that's what I want to do. I want to record 182 of these podcasts. So you can listen to them in the car, your kids can listen to them on the way to church or just on a road trip. And then those questions,

right? And then the kids get to respond. But don't misunderstand me. If you are even in your 30s and consider yourself to be a rather intelligent person, this will also be a beautiful way to inundate and saturate your mind with the Word of God. It's not just big quotations from Scripture, you understand. It uses a lot of Scripture, but then there's sort of, let me see if I can give one example. Okay, so at the end of every chapter, other than the study questions, Father Schuster also shows how this Bible story is fulfilled in the New Testament and by the church. So if you think of that, where Moses gives the Ten Commandments and where he strikes the rock and water comes from it. So here's just the last little bit of that chapter. Father Schuster says,

the tree which sweetened the water of the desert was a figure of the cross, which sweetens the sufferings of this life. The manna which daily fell from heaven and sustained the Israelites for 40 years in the desert was a figure of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, who every day during the Holy Mass descends from heaven to nourish our souls for life everlasting. The waters which flowed from the rock when struck by Moses signify the graces which flow so abundantly for us from the sacraments. Okay. So that's what I want to do. And what I'll do at the end of this podcast is I'll play you just one of those episodes. Okay. So you can hear what it will be like. All right. But again, for that, I'm asking, I want to get around a hundred more patrons. Okay. And again, if you give me five bucks a month, that's fine. I just want a hundred more patrons. Now that might sound like a lot, but we're getting like 300,000 downloads a month now.

So it really is a small fraction of our listenership that would need to start supporting that I could start embarking upon that. All right. So as I say, stick around, because I'm going to play that episode, the first chapter from that book at the end of this episode. But here's the big thing that I'm really excited about. Once I reach 1,000 patrons, here's what I want to do. I am going to write, have translated, and print apologetics material for Catholic communities in poorer countries around the world. I'm already in touch with a group in Haiti and Uganda. Okay, so the apologetics material that I will write, have translated in print, will be specific to the needs of that community. So I'm already in touch with this group in Uganda,

and they were saying, here are the top 10 things that Catholics don't really know how to answer. So I'll take those 10 things, I'll write a booklet on it, pay to have it translated, pay to have it printed, and then I will fly down and speak in those countries and distribute the material. And all of that is going to be at my expense. The only thing I'm going to ask of the host is that they pay for my flight, that I'm not asking for a stipend for the week of speaking. I'm not asking for, you know, for them to pay for the translation or the printing or the distribution. Like that's

something I feel so called to do. And here's why. Like you might live in America, okay? Most of my listeners are from America. We have been blessed by people like Carl Keating and Patrick Madrid and all these other fantastic apologists, Scott Hahn. And so for us, when somebody says something like, why do you worship statues? It's laughable. Not in a rude way, but just like, oh, come on. Like that's not at all what happens. And ba-bam, way, but just like, oh, come on. Like, that's not at all what happens. And ba-bam, you know, we've got responses at the ready. Well, that didn't just happen, right? That happens because we have been educated by people who invested time in teaching us. Well, in some of these countries, they don't have that sort of thing at their disposal,

right? Like in Haiti, they don't have a lot of this apologetics material translated into Creole, right? Which is the language that they speak there. And so that's what I want to do. And I was even thinking, I haven't thought this through entirely, but it would be super cool, right? Like I'm going to say, you know, next year I fly down to Uganda, if we make enough patrons and I go down, maybe I can take a couple of y'all with me and I can help train you to give breakout sessions for these people. And we can distribute this material to strengthen the Catholic church in these different communities. I am so excited about that. You know, we already know we have listeners from all around the country and all around the world. So somebody posted a picture of this guy from

Columbia wearing a Pines with Aquinas sweater that he got from one of the ones we sold. And it was his friend who posted the picture. And she said, this is my friend. He doesn't speak a word of English, but I call him every week and translate the podcast. And we have a beautiful philosophical discussion, right? Centered around Christ. That is powerful. Glory to God that this podcast is having that sort of reach. So there you go. Those are the two, those are the many projects that we've fulfilled. And here are the two big projects that I want to do, but I can't do it without your help. So if you're listening and you support me, awesome. I'm not even saying support me more. Thank you for whatever you're giving. Thank you.

But you know, all of this stuff takes a lot of time, right? And a lot of energy and even a lot of financial cost. And so I couldn't do these things without you. So a big thanks to you if you're supporting. And if you haven't yet, here's how you would support to get different things in return. Go to pintswithaquinas.com, okay? And when you're there, click support. That will take you over to our Patreon page, which is patreon.com slash Matt Fradd. Okay. If you give 10 bucks a month, you can give more, you can give less, but let's say you give 10 bucks a month. Here's what I'll give you in return. You'll get a free, you'll get my book, Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas, which I will sign

and send to you. You'll also get the ebook version immediately upon subscribing, so you don't have to wait until it gets sent to you. You'll get exclusive access to a new ongoing series we're doing on the history of philosophy. It's pretty impressive. Me and Father Chris Prochazko, a friend of mine, are recording these very long episodes. It's really great. You'll also get weekly exclusive videos from me that no one else gets. You'll get access to an ever-growing library of audio books and audio content. And I'll even give you a shout out on Twitter and you'll have access to our bi-monthly. There's a lot that I give you in return. So it's not just like, you know, support me monthly and I give you nothing in return. Like this is what I'm giving you in return. And I'm also able to do all this work, which I hope you agree with me is good work.

So that's it. All right. So here's what I'll do as we wrap up today. I want to play that first episode of Bible history. And as I say, once we reach enough patrons, then I'm going to start embarking upon recording the rest of the 181 episodes. And my hope is that it'll be a blessing to you and to your family. Here we go. First part, history of the Old Testament, first epoch, from Adam to Abraham. Chapter 1, the creation of the world. The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. Psalm 18.1. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. The earth was void and empty. Darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. God said, Be light made, and light was made. This was the first day.

On the second day, God said, Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And it was so. God called the firmament heaven. On the third day, God said, Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. God called the dry land earth, the gathered waters seas. He also said, let the earth bring forth the green herb and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind.

And it was so done. The fourth day God said, Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. And it was so done. God made the sun, moon and countless stars and set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth and to rule the day and the night. The fifth day, God said, Let the waters bring forth the creeping creatures having life and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven. And God created fish and birds of every kind,

and he blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply. The sixth day God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so done. At last, God created man and gave him dominion over all the rest. And God saw all the works that he had made, and they were very good. The seventh day, God rested, and he blessed that day and made it holy. Questions. What did God create in the beginning? In what condition was the earth at first? What moved over the waters?

What was then made? What was made on the second day? What did God say on the third day? What did God call the dry land? What did God call the waters? What else did God then create? What did God say on the fourth day? What did God say on the fourth day? What did God say on the fifth day? What did God say on the sixth day? What did God give to man?

What did God do on the seventh day?