Pints With Aquinas - The SSPX, Filipinos, and Blue Haired Women | Ep. 538

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

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And we're live. Gide, Internet. Matt Frad here, coming to your live for an AMA. I've already got some questions in from my local supporters, which I plan on addressing. But if you're here and you want to hang out with me, have a coffee with me, I got two coffees at the ready. This is what I need to keep me going. And yeah, I'll just share with you what's been going on, what's going on with the channel, who we've got coming up as far as interviews and much else besides. just been in Europe for the last two weeks. No, that's definitely not true. Someone poked their head in and I got distracted. Two and a half months. I was in Austria and I was in Croatia. And if you remember,

I told you, I was going to be writing two books and working on a pints with Aquinas app. So I have finished one book. It's called Jesus Our Refuge. It'll be out shortly. It's by far the most intimate book I've written, very devotional, helps us turn away from the false refuges and towards our blessed Lord and take comfort in him. I have another book that I'm writing with Daily Wire. No, no, not Daily Wire. Word on Fire. That's not the same thing.

And that comes out, I should have that done by the end of October. And then the Pines of Aquinas app is banging on all cylinders. So there you go. Lots going on. Before we get started, I want to let you know that we are going to be doing a 33-day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary. And we're going to be doing it over at matfrad. In the description, you can click the link, become a member of our locals, and then starting

on the 4th of September, we're going to do a 33-day preparation. And we're going to be using Father Boniface Hicks' excellent book, Fruit of Her Womb. And I've got permission from the publisher to share those parts from the PDF of his actual book to everyone on locals. So it's going to be really great. And if you're looking for an amazing community where people don't troll and just support each other and share their Catholic faith, head on over to matfrad.com.com right now. Please support us, become a member. And then when you do, you get a bunch of free things in return, like our live streams one week before they hit YouTube, daily live streams from me lately. I've been doing that. And then this upcoming consecration. So there you go. All right, let's get into it. We've got some questions. As I say, some of them have already come in from our local supporters. So I'll, address them and then if you have questions in the live chat maybe i'll get to you r xn1 per i can have no idea what this handler says i saw online that you went to an

sspx mass in europe is that true or fake news yeah it is true i was in vienna with my good wife and we woke up Sunday morning and I typed in Latin Mass and of course all the websites are in German but I opened this one website up and I could tell okay this probably means Sunday and a time so I Google translated it and yep it's not far it's a four minute walk from where we were staying at a hotel in Vienna so we walked down beautiful church that the SSPX are using I went to confession. Priest was so beautiful, compassionate, like, yeah, awesome. And then we sat through Holy Mass, and it was beautiful. The Gregorian chant was lovely. Oh, my goodness. It was really beautiful. Anyway, so obviously it's all in Latin until you get to the homily. And I'm sitting

there in the homily, and I keep hearing about Lefev. Just German words interspersed with Lefeb. I'm like, Oh, and I walk up the back because I need to go to the bathroom and there's like a little kiosk selling Catholic merchandise and there was a lot of books about the SSPX. And that's what I realized I was at an SSPX chapel. What are my thoughts on the SSPX? Can I be honest with you? I know a lot of podcasters say to you things like, I'm going to tell you the truth. I'll always tell you the truth. I don't know if I do that. But I do hope that I'm always sincere in what I share with you, even if I end up being wrong. Pines with Aquinas is not the Catholic Church, it's not the catechism of the Catholic Church, obviously, it's just one middle-aged dude sharing his opinions about the Catholic faith and his walk with our blessed Lord, and of course interviews with amazing people. So here's my take. I'm really confused. That's my take.

You've got really smart people on both sides of this debate, and I don't have the time to go down a rabbit hole to get to the bottom of it, Or at least maybe I'm not interested enough to do that. So on one side, you've got intelligent Catholics, right? Like Kennedy Hall and Jimmy Aiken, who are saying, no, they're not in schism. Stop saying that. You can attend Holy Mass there to fulfill your Sunday obligation. Just don't adopt a, what's the word, a seismic spirit.

Now, on the other side, obviously I had John Solzer on the show, and I've had other people on the show who I would think are very intelligent, And maybe this isn't John Solz's opinion, so I don't mean to put this on him. But I've had others who say, yeah, they're definitely in schism, and you cannot fulfill your Sunday obligation by going there. I think this is just, this brings up a more general epistemological problem. Like, what do you do when people you trust on both sides are telling you something? And to your mind, the church hasn't been very explicit one way or the other.

Like, we know that the SSPX are in a canonical irregularary. when it comes to the church. But it's not explicit, you know. I mean, I even went on truthfully, and I asked truthly, are the SSPXenicism? No. Are the Russian Orthodox church anicism? Yes. So, anyway, by the point the homily came around, I was just staying there. And look, if I had have woken up in the morning and realized there was an FSSP church, which there was, actually, in the city that I had to drive to, yeah, we would have went there. But we didn't. Um, so that's, and here's the other thing I think Americans have to understand while I take a drink of my delicious cabuccina. You know, in America, I know people might complain about their bishops or their parish priests, but we have it pretty good in America compared, especially to certain places in Europe.

Just to give two examples. So I spent two months in gumming Austria. Now, the local parish church there, we were dissuaded from going to, and not by trads, but by Franciscan University of Steubenville people. They're like, don't go there, he just, he adlibs the words of consecration, it's not a valid mass. Like, I don't think Americans realize how frequent. Maybe it's not the, certainly not the predominant case, but you run into it. into it in Austria. And so the night before I went to this SSPS chapel, my wife and I were

walking around, Vienna, and we went to this beautiful church. And it was, it broke our hearts because it was a beautiful church, but it was locked. But you could pay money for a light show in the church. Lasers and smoke machines and who else knows what. This is just so deeply depressing. So my point is this. If you're someone who's like, okay, I got people on this side saying this, people on this side saying that, I think you also have to factor an account into account where you live. And so some people are going to say, I don't want to risk going to a holy mass that's in, that's in schism, say. I'm not saying they are. I'm just saying that's part of the argument. And then you also have to weigh up, okay, well, do I want to go to another one of these churches where, like, it's quite sad in places like Austria and Germany. So, I won't settle that for you. I'm sure you'll have fun settling that in the comment section, but that's what happened. Now, somebody else asked if I regretted what I posted about women with blue hair. A lot of people got really angry at this.

I even forget what I said, so I need to look it up right now, but this was a question someone had. What did I say? I thought it was quite good. It was a good analogy, I thought. I don't regret it at all. What did I say? Here it is. and this actually fits pretty well into what I was already talking about with these churches in

Europe. I said while in Europe I kept walking into beautiful churches that had been intentionally made ugly with tacky childish banners, giant advertisements for upcoming concerts and modern religious art that has never inspired anyone ever. It reminds me of how sometimes beautiful women choose to make themselves ugly by chopping off their hair, dyeing it blue and tattooing themselves into oblivion. I think both are the result of self-hatred and both could be fixed by accepting their true identity, the Holy Roman Catholic Church and a beloved daughter of God respectively. I think that's obviously true, you know, like people tried to misinterpret me here by saying women who have short hair are ugly. Didn't say that. I clearly was, I was clearly showing, there's clearly this

epidemic, right, of young women who do this. They tattoo themselves everywhere. They chop the hair off. pierce their faces. You really think that's making them more beautiful? If you say yes, I don't believe. I think you're either lying or you're just an ascetical, is that the word? No, uh, aesthetical idiot. Like for some reason, you can't perceive the difference between what's beautiful and what's ugly. So no, I don't regret that at all. Just, you know, I'm not that kind of person, by the way. When people criticize me online and I get a lot of blowback, I tend to go, okay, let me look at this. I don't want to be wrong. No, but this is one of these moments from like, I, I, I, I'm sorry if I, am I sorry if I offended you? No, I guess I'm not, I guess I'm not sorry. I guess I'm not sorry.

I think that's, that clearly makes a person more ugly. By the way, I think most people aren't beautiful physically. Like, look at this. All right, I understand. But I, my saying, my point is people who are beautiful then do that to themselves, I think that can either be the result maybe of self-hatred or maybe not wanting to be noticed because they've been hurt. I don't know. but this church I was talking about in Gumbing Austria, it was so sad because you've got these beautiful Gothic churches, and then they've got these stupid children's decorations plastered everywhere. Modern art, some of it, well, I won't even remind you of the blasphemous art that took place in a particular church in Austria a few years ago because I don't want you to look it up, but I mean,

it's hideous. And I'm like, why do you hate yourself? Why does the Catholic Church hate itself. Why is it doing this? So that's what I think. Okay, someone asked me, when are you coming back to the Philippines? Look at me in the eyeballs, everybody. Anytime they want. I love Filipino people. I think God was showing off when he made them. I grew up in Australia. I had a lot of Filipino friends. No one can cook like a Filipino mother. I think these old Filipino women who are dressing up statues of the infant of Prague are keeping the church together right now. It's like them and the Carmelite monks and nuns. I love the Philippines. I had a great time. I went there a few years ago with Sarah Swofford, Dr. Andrew Swofford's wife. We flew there

together. Just so you know, Sarah Swofford is the most cheerful, chirpy person in the world. It was a long flight. We flew from America to Japan down to the Philippines. And I sat next to her and she, She's like, hey, so how are you? Tell me all about yourself. That was a terrible impression of a white woman. But anyway, I thought, okay, this woman's really, really happy, but I bet you it'll wear off eventually. It did not wear off. She's just, she's amazing.

My memories about the Philippines, nearly dying in traffic as I drove around Manila, terrified. And while the lovely Filipino hosts were laughing at me, laughing at me. for freaking out. Eating fish for breakfast? Sorry, Philippines. Wasn't a big fan of this one. Didn't like that. Cold fish for breakfast?

I'm good. And then, oh, there was a, the host. I forget her name, but if you're watching, hello, you were beautiful to me. Thanks for being so kind. She said, the truest thing about me that anybody has ever said. I told my wife, I've told people since then,

and everybody agrees. This is the truest statement anyone has ever said about me. And what was sweet is that she was, you know, she spoke to garlic and her English was good, but it wasn't perfect. So she was speaking through kind of, I guess, the best she could in English. And she said to me, you are like a phone with many apps, very exciting, but dies quickly. And that's true. And I was deeply offended, but it was true. Adam Iyer in the YouTube chat

just said, Matt, you've scarred me permanently with your surprise American. Ah, woman intense face. Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, do you know, by the way, that Europeans sometimes speak badly about... I'm talking to the Americans right now. Everybody else can go about their business.

People in Europe speak poorly of you sometimes. And I want you to know. that I do not stand for it and I always stick up for you. I told a French guy, wouldn't you be speaking German if it weren't for them? What is your problem? America is awesome. Shut up. Love Europe, loved Austria, especially love Croatia. But there's this thing. I don't understand it. Who are these people? They come up to me. They complain about loud Americans. I'm like, yeah, they're loud. They've got really great things to say. So maybe you should listen. I don't know what that is where people feel like they can come.

up to you and speak badly about your country and that's okay. Like I don't even consider myself American. I'm an American citizen legally, but I'm Australian and we all know that. If someone from Australia came up to me and complained about Australia, they have every right right to do that, right? If someone in America complained to you about America, right, presuming that it was sort of a reasonable critique, yeah, fine. This is in-house stuff. This is in-family stuff. You can't come to me from France and complain about the country. country I live that my wife is from. Who do you think you are? So, just need you to know that I defended you. All right, other questions that we have here. Mr. J.K. Ruzz, probably not his real

name, says, you're always saying we should speak well of other people, so here's your opportunity. All right, I haven't. This one, say something nice about Taylor Marshall and Tim Gordon. okay well first of all i don't think i ever said we should always speak well of other people because that could imply that we're supposed to speak about everyone all the time and only say good things about them i think what i said was we should take slander and detraction seriously as st thomas aquinas did considered these things grave sins so if i'm going to speak publicly about someone's character i don't know man And I'm not saying there's never a place to do that, but I think you've got to be really careful.

I think that's what I said. So detraction is when you say something true, right, that harms their reputation, but which you have no right to divulge or no right to divulge to these people. There's obviously a lot of that on YouTube, right, Twitter, all that. Slander is when you say something false about someone to ruin their reputation, right? So we don't ever do that. We really have to get better at that. Again, I know there are exceptions, you know, when public things happen, sometimes we have to call things out publicly. I'm open to that. My fear is we go to the exceptions to the rule far too quickly. Sort of like when you see our blessed Lord get angry in the temple and then we justify our irrational anger by pointing to Jesus. It's like, no, your anger was probably irrational and therefore sinful and therefore could send you to hell. think this is true of detraction and slander, backbiting. So we shouldn't do that. And we shouldn't

too quickly point to, well, in certain circumstances, it is okay to justify our sinful speech. But okay, what did you say? Say something nice about Taylor Marshall and Tim Gordon. All right, Taylor, it's not like it's hard. I mean, I've met Taylor Marshall in Lewards. He was perfectly friendly to me. He's got a beautiful family. Something nice about Taylor Marshall. Okay. Last month was it? There was a certain scandal that broke concerning a certain Catholic YouTuber. This certain Catholic YouTuber, unless I'm mistaken, and if I am, please correct me, but I think he had called for Taylor Marshall to be excommunicated. Or if he didn't call for it, he expressed his opinion that Taylor Marshall should be excommunicated.

from what I can tell even though everybody else on YouTube felt they needed to record a video talking about this guy's sins Taylor didn't do that and I just think that is a really stand-up thing right like if someone's calling

if someone's talking about you and why you should be excommunicated and then something terrible happens to that person where you could really drive the knife in kick them while they're down and have some kind of justifying cover for it. You know, you could say what a lot of people said, hey, I'm not gossiping. I'm just alerting people to the truth of this. And again, I'm not saying there's never a reason to

comment on public scandals. That's not what I'm saying. But I just think it's pretty cool that he decided not to say anything. I think that's really a stand-up move. Is that okay? Is that enough to say about Taylor Marshall? All right, Tim Gordon. Timothy Gordon came out swinging against feminism before it was safe or cool to come out against feminism. If you, there was several years ago, I don't even remember when I interviewed him on my show,

I was not at all ready for the critique of feminism that he came to deliver and he didn't come to do it gently like he came and just started shooting it in the face in front of me and I was very confused about what was happening because I think like a lot of people I was under the impression that feminism is just what you're for if you like women I had no idea about the evil roots of feminism uh I would say what a lot of people said okay third wave is bad but first wave was great I don't think that anymore I've changed my mind on that but the point in back to Tim, is that before, and you see a lot of YouTubers are talking against feminism now. Like I saw Catholic Answers doing something about this.

Tim came out swinging hard against it before it was cool. Didn't he also get fired from his job? I think that I'm 99% certain this is true. He called Black Lives Matter. This was after the George Floyd riots. What did he call him? A terrorist organization. that's obviously true right we all kind of agree that that's true given what transpired since then

but back then to come out and say something like that was insane i mean i'm not saying i just thought why would you do that tim says the things that we sometimes say to our friends but never would we say it publicly so anyway i've got to give him a lot of credit for that and the final thing I'd say about Tim is when Trent came out recently, like Trent and Tim have had some beef, that's all public, when Trent came out a while back a month ago or so, and talked about how his dear wife, Laura, who I love, she's such a beautiful woman, when Trent came out and said she needed brain surgery because she has brain cancer, Tim did a stream, and Tim's gone after Trent pretty hard, I think it's fair to say. Trying to raise money for Laura. And I actually

spoke with Laura and Trent recently, and they said that, and I don't think I'm divulging anything that I shouldn't, that Stephanie wrote a letter and sent it to Laura. And I just think, that is so beautiful. That's really stand-up stuff. So, no, look, I know that people love YouTube drama. That's one of the things that makes YouTube so exhausting, because I know that if I was to start getting involved in this. Go after everybody that went against me or something. Yeah, it would do a lot better. But I guess I don't have the temperament for that. I also don't think it's good or healthy. So my point is just there's a lot of, there's a lot of good people. There's a lot of good people. So that's what I'd say about. Taylor Marshall and Trent Horn. Tim Gordon. Become the Knight.

Good to see you, brother. Just so everybody knows. Become the night. Came the night. and help me set up the audio in this studio. So it's good to see you here, become the night. He says, when Tim did that stream, I was very surprised and happy. God bless them all. Amen. Tacitus Kilgore says there is a place for feminism. The whole problem is that it got hijacked by globalists.

I disagree. I think there's no place for feminism at all. The Catholic Church did not need feminism to teach it how to talk about, treat women. It's just like the Catholic Church didn't need you, BLM, to come in and educate us on why racism is evil. We get that. So, like I said, disagree with that. Emily says, hi Matt, I'm worried about, okay. So I don't want to mention this person's name, because that would probably just sound like detraction, so I'm not going to say that. Hi, Filipino here. What's up, Philippines?

Ah. How is Mr. Peter Craft doing? Asked Daniel. I love Peter Craft. You already know that he's like my, let me see, my wife, my four children, my sixth favorite person in the world. I guess I should include my other family,

but I love Peter Crave. I think he's doing okay. I think he, well, I don't want to divulge anything. I love him and would love to have him one more time on the show if I could. All right, what else are you? got new book asked okay there's a question here about my new book so as i said it's called jesus our refuge uh in jeremiah it talks about our blessed lord says um my people have committed two evils they've forsaken me the font of living waters and they've built for themselves cisterns

broken cisterns which hold no water um and i think we do that like we were made for dynamic experiential friendship with the good god but i think very often what we do is we treat christianity more like a syllogism than a love affair but christ wants intimate friendship with us i mean read brother lawrence read teresa of avila read therese of lezure and so this book is about how to take Christ seriously when he says come to me you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you I will give you rest I feel like we're in a period of human history right now where we are so in need of that rest and comfort that comes from intimacy with Jesus so I wrote that book to kind of help people do that and I'm

I think it's a good book. And one thing that I think is kind of cool is, the reason I went with this particular publisher is I said, I think I'm excited to write this book. I think it will be good, and I want as many people to get it as possible. So we came up with a deal. Basically, I forfeited all of my royalties,

and all those royalties will go back into distributing the book for free to people. So I don't make a cent from the book. Not one cent. Didn't make any kind of upfront. Money, won't make any cent from the audible book that's probably going to come out. Not a cent. The point was just, I think this will be a healing balm to many souls, and I want it distributed. So as soon as it comes out, you guys will be the first to know.

James White wants to debate you, somebody says. Yeah, I'm honored. I'm honored. I mean, you know, James White has been debating for decades. and he's a formidable debater. And so apparently, I'm not, I'm not on X. I post on X, but I post from a kind of third party platform. Just so you know, we have moved on from cappuccino to black coffee.

So we don't know what's going to happen by the time I hit the bottom of this mug, but it will be magical. Or it will be frantic. I don't know. Yeah, so I was honored. I mean, obviously I've watched a lot of debates between James White. and Jimmy Aiken, James White, and Trent Horn, and Patrick Madrid, and... So will I debate James White?

No, I won't. Because I'm not good at debates. I don't know why more people won't just admit this about themselves. Have I engaged in debates before? Yes, I did like two or three debates with Cameron Batuzzi on his channel back when he was Protestant. I've done a debate on an English radio show called Unbelievable about pornography. What else have I done?

you know, and then sometimes I'll get into some sort of adversarial back and forth with people like Dennis Prager or I was on Ben Shapiro's show to kind of debate whether lust was possible in marriage, but that was more of a conversation than a debate. But I'm not good at them. That's why I don't want to, I wouldn't debate James White, but I would highly encourage James White to continue debating Catholics because the comments I'm seeing under these videos and that I'm hearing about more and more is that James White is one of the best Catholic apologists out there in that he is leading many people into the Catholic Church. But I wouldn't debate James White

because I'm not good at it. That's the answer. That's so hard to say? Why don't more people say that? What else? Are you a cat or a dog guy? I have a story about this. So I've been to Ukraine a couple of times since the war started to offer aid in different capacities with different, you know, anyway, last time I went to Ukraine, this sounds like a wild introduction to me telling you whether I'm a cat or a dog person. But last time I went to Ukraine, I went to a beautiful

Greek Catholic monastery in Univ, Univ, in Western Ukraine. Father Jason and I were driving there, and the roads were so bad, there were so many potholes. We had to swerve like this all the way to this Catholic monastery. And if I'm not mistaken, the kind of inner church, maybe from the 13th century, I arrived and I went there, and there was a peace that I felt that blew me away. I remember looking at a tree and feeling jealous because I wished I was it and could just stay here in this piece forever. We went to the church and the mum.

Monks were praying probably the ninth hour. And it was just so beautiful to be there. Beautiful, you know, Ukrainian chant. And then they invited us to have dinner with them. Lunch. So me and Father Jason went in, and it was this beautiful, low-ceiling, vaulted cement-type room. And it was me and Father Jason

and about 10 other monks. and our dinner was done in complete silence. And the monks were waiting on me, you know, bringing me coffee, bringing me food, taking things away from me. I think this was a grace from the Holy Spirit. I felt like an ugly creature that was being waited on by angels. I felt like an ugly thing that was being loved by angels. It was a grace. And I started to cry because I was so moved by it.

Now, you know how sometimes you cry and you want to cry because it's like a nice release? And then there are other times that you start crying and you think, not now. This is, please, this is embarrassing. Don't do that. Don't do that. I could not stop crying.

I mean, I was silent. I tried to cover my face. Eventually, I had to excuse myself. Father Jason's like, what happened? in there. All right, here's the point. Up until that point, I guess I would say I, if you said, do I like or hate cats, I would say I probably hate them. They're like rats. I don't like them. I hate them. They make me sneeze. They're dirty. I just, I don't like, I've never liked cats. But because of the way those monks treated me, I made a decision there in this monastery in

Univ that I would always be kind to cats. So, whenever I walk, anywhere. If there's a cat, I now always get down and pat it. And the other, we were in Austria, and I, because I call the cat Univ, because that's where the monastery was. I'm like, yeah, you niv. And I pat them, and I tell them they're beautiful, and I love them, because that's how the monks treated me an ugly creature. Is that too much to share? Does that make any sense to you? Probably doesn't. I don't know. So, I'm a dog person, if I had to choose, but I've stopped being mean to cats. How do you feel about that? It's so good? I don't know.

All right, let's see. A lot of people are commenting. Did you see Cap Catholic channel members read the entire Bible from start to finish without stopping? Whoa! Whoa! They raised tens of thousands of dollars for, charity. It took them 112 hours. Wow. I didn't know that. I don't even know who they are, but that sounds amazing. Somebody just said, I got, I hate cats, but now I don't kick them from what I

just shared. No, it's more than that. It's more than that. It's that. It's that I actually will bend down and pat them and then sneeze my head off and that's okay. Jeff asks if I have a new necklace. What is the internet? I don't understand. Do I have a new neck? No, it's not a new necklace. It's a miraculous medal. My goodness gracious, that's so funny. What is your preferred source for Catholic news? I don't know if I really go looking for Catholic news. So there's that. How can I love Jesus more? What? What? a beautiful question. I want to share something with you. What did I do with it? I want to share something with you that will answer this question. So first of all, I don't know who runs this

Benedictus. It's like the Magnificate, but for the Latin Mass. I'm so grateful they put this together because I'm a knucklehead and I cannot follow the ribbons. I often say I'm not a trad, but I am an inspiring trad. Anyway, I want to share this beautiful prayer with you. My basic answer is read the scriptures and accept his love for you, and in so doing, you will not be able to do anything but love him in return. But I think one way to love our blessed Lord is to tell him we love him. And even if you don't feel it, you know, to say, Lord, I love you and I won't wait till tomorrow to tell you that or to when I feel it. I love you. Anyway, hang on. Let me just find this beautiful, beautiful prayer. It was a prayer for after Holy Communion. Sorry, I know this is

awkward. Just stay with me. Prayers, okay, listen to this prayer. I'm all going to make you endure it. I don't know who wrote it. It's so beautiful. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Thou hast come to me the sacrament of thy love. Thou hast been pleased to make my poor heart thy sanctuary. Welcome, Jesus, welcome. Receive, O Lord, my most profound homage in union with that of the angels and the saints. I bow down before thee, and with all the powers of my soul, I adore thee. Thou art Christ, the son of the living God. I love thee because thou art infinitely good. I love thee because thou hast redeemed me by thy precious blood. I love thee and thank thee because thou hast given thyself to me in the sacrament of thy love. O grant that I may love thee ever more and more. May the sweet flame of thy love

consume my soul so that I may die to the world for love of thee who has vouched safe to die upon the cross for love of me. My God, my only good. Thou art all mine. So it goes on. Such a beautiful, such a beautiful prayer. How do you love Jesus? Yeah, you read the scripture you thank and then you just say something like this you say oh god i love you for loving me i love you for coffee i love you for the mountains i love you for my wife i love you for a good cigar i i love you for your character i love you that you loved me first I love you that when I was your enemy, you died for me, you know?

Just tell him you love him. Speak to him like a friend. So that's what I'd say. You guys having fun? Are you enjoying this live stream? I don't really usually do live streams like this because, well, I don't know why. But if you do like it, tell me in the comments below, maybe I'll do some more. Okay, we just got a super chat. Thanks a lot, Ben. He says, would love to see an interview with Dr. Lawrence Feingold.

His works on the Eucharist and Sacramento Economy are outstanding. All the best, Matt. Cool. I haven't heard of him, but that doesn't mean much. I'm sure he's a terrific fella. So thank you. Miss Accountant, XYZ, says, Matt's the first apologist that I started watching before I reverted. I have to say I reverted because I was baptized it too. Yeah, right, beautiful. I'll tell you a beautiful story that just happened to me that blew my face off and then I put it back on and now I'm here doing a live stream because it was going to be really hard to do a live stream while my face was off. So here's what happened. I'm in Austria. By the way, it's wild how far and wide pints

with Aquinas goes. It's wild to me how I keep getting recognized in the most bizarre of places. like I was at the Lego shop in Vienna, and the lady behind the counter said, Pints with Aquinas. I was at an airport checking my bag in, and the lady said Pines with Aquinas, who worked there. I was in split in Croatia, and someone drove past and went,

Mertfried, that's bananas. So it's always a reminder to me to take what I'm doing seriously for the glory of God, because this thing goes far and warm. wide. But anyway, here's the story. I was in Austria, and this beautiful nun came from Iceland. Or Iceland. I don't know how you pronounce it. Iceland, I guess. And she knew that I was going to be in Austria. So she tells me this story. She's like, okay, she says everyone in Iceland who goes to a Catholic church, almost everyone is not native to Iceland. They're Filipinos,

because Filipinos are awesome, or they're from somewhere else. Most people are atheist or Lutheran. So our Catholic churches don't really have people from Iceland there. She says one day these two young men show up who are native to Iceland and they want to get baptized. They want to be Catholic. And she's asking them questions and they know a lot about the faith. And she's like, how did you learn all this? And they said, Pines with Aquinas. Come on. That made me so honored. And if you're one of those fellas, I'm not going to give more information away

because let me tell you this. This fella, check this out. He wakes up early in the morning and sneaks out to Holy Mass so that his father doesn't find out he's attending a Catholic church. So if you're watching right now, I want you to know, I love you, I pray for you. I gave a couple of beautiful rosaries to this nun to bring to you. Keep the faith, brother. Jesus loves you and I hope to meet you one day. And anyway, so it's really quite beautiful to see this, you know. So anyway, I just want to share that with you. It was a beautiful story. Ah.

All right. What else you want to talk about? Let's see. More questions from locals. Guys, please support me. Go to matfrad.com. I know that sounded like a desperate attempt to get your money, but it kind of is.

Like, this thing costs a lot of money to run. We've got people who I pay full time. We pay for people's flights and hotels. It would help me if you would go to matfrat.orgas.com and become a member. We have a lot of things going on. I do these live streams. Lately, I've been doing them every day just for local supporters. We have a, as I said, in the beginning, a 33-day preparation for total consecration

where Father Boniface is going to lead you through it, by the way. He's also recording videos just for local supporters. The publisher has given us the rights to the book to share with people on locals. It's going to be cool. And it starts September 3rd or 4th. So now would be the time to come a local supporter. Okay, Travis says, do you have any thoughts on the balance between faith and reason? Coming from a Protestant background where faith alone, grace alone, scripture alone a primary,

there seemed to be a lack of mystery or mysticism to the point where solar ratio, that is to say, reason alone is the driving force. I tend to find myself thinking what religious decisions look like before the Enlightenment, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I would read, if I were you, I would read the first question in the Summotheal OGA, the prima paas. The very first article, he asks the question whether in addition to philosophy anything else is needed, meaning sacred doctrine. And Aquinas says, yeah, absolutely, because there are some things that we can know through human reason, such as God exists, other people exist, what have you. But then there are other things that we cannot know through. through reason alone, such as the existence of angels, perhaps, unless someone

individually encountered one personally and had some sense of that. The Holy Trinity is not something we can know through reason alone. So there are a lot of things that we can't know through reason alone. And so you might say, well, in the scriptures, doesn't it say, and this is, I think this might be the first objection Aquinas responds to. Maybe I should just look it up. Give me on a sec here. All right.

In the first part, the nature and extent of doctrine. Okay, is it necessary? All right, so check. All right, so here's the first objection. It seems that besides philosophical science, we have no need of any further knowledge. For men should not seek to know what is above reason. And he quotes from Syrac, seek not the things that are too high for thee.

But whatever is not above reason is fully treated of in philosophical science. Therefore, other knowledge besides philosophical science is superfluous. And his response is, Okay, although those things which are beyond man's knowledge may not be sought by man through his reason, nevertheless, once they are revealed by God, they must be accepted by faith. Hence the sacred text continues for many things are shown to the above the understanding of men, Syrac 325, and in this the sacred science consists. So that would be theology.

So the reason theology is a science is because God revealed himself to us. suppose it were the case that God existed, that he created us, but never revealed himself to us, theology wouldn't exist, because theology is the study of God and the study of his revelation toward us. If he had never revealed himself to us, we would merely have philosophy. And Aquinas thinks philosophy can get us quite a ways. But even Aquinas when he talks about God, he says that we cannot know what God is, that we can only know what God is not. So you might say that Aquinas is agnostic about God's nature, because God's nature is infinite, and whenever we define something, we are putting a limit on it in order to understand it, so we can never comprehend God,

not in this life or the next, so we can't know what God is. But we can know that he is, and when he reveals something to us, we can know things about that. So I don't know if that's the beginning of a help, but there you go. There's some thoughts. For the Filipinos wondering. So, okay, cool. I love that we've got Filipinos in the chat. And I'm really glad I spoke very highly of you,

which is impossible not to do because every Filipino... Filipinos are like Mormons. In this sense, I've never met a Filipino that I didn't go, oh, you're so cool. I feel that way about Mormons. but when i especially old filipino mothers i love i love old filipino mothers i kind of wish my mother was an old philippa i just love them and so i'm a big fan of the philippines that's what that was ha ha ha glory to jesus christ

sparky 27 says hey matt i'm an eastern orthodox christian and just want to let you know that videos, I'm nervous to see where this goes, led me out of the church, that your videos and interviews have led me to converting to Catholicism. That's great. Let's see if I can, does this work? Come on. That's great. Glory to Jesus Christ. Capturing Christianity's in the channel. What's up? Cameron Batus, the Batusinator. Good to see you. I'm glad we all agree Filipinos are awesome. That seems to be the main theme of today's live stream. Just Filipinos are the bomb.

Good. Glad that we all agree on that. All right, let's see if I have any more questions from my beautiful supporters over on locals. Shawna says, excited for the community consecration coming up. Yes, me too. Dave Javu says, who would you say is the best saint as a role?

model of masculinity. St. Joseph is the obvious first choice, so who's the second and why? I don't know. I haven't thought about this, but one saint that came to mind was St. Louis de Montfort. So there is a story, and I think it's pretty well attested to some of the details I'm about to share maybe slightly off. There's a story of St. Louis de Montfort preaching a mission, and next door to the church, or close to the church, was a tavern where men were being very rowdy. So St. Louis pauses the mission, goes over to the tavern. He tells everyone to be quiet. They make fun of him, and he punches one in the face.

And then my understanding is that the next day, that guy was in the front row of the mission. So that's a story I've heard. You can feel free to check out whether or not that's true. I hope it is. It's a great story. So maybe Louis de Montfort. I think that's kind of manly thing to do anything.

Miguel says, hi, Matt. When will you have Dr. Alan Harrelson back on? Would love another pipe cigar smoking episode. God bless. Thanks. Yeah, Dr. Harrelson was on the show. He talked about pipes and tobacco. I don't know when I'll have him back on, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. Matthew says, how would you describe yourself in a sentence? How would you describe Cameron? That's my wife. Um, gosh, I don't know. Like, there's obviously like the sappy theological claim. Like, I'm a beloved son of the father. That's my identity. But you're going for something probably

more whimsical. So I would say I'm like an iPhone with many apps, very exciting but dies quickly. And I would say that my wife is the most beautiful, fierce, tender-hearted, hilarious woman I have ever met in my life. And I know you think that I have to say that because I'm saying it publicly and that I don't really think that. At least if I were you, I would think that because I'm a cynic about all human beings. I just assume that everybody's doing terrible things and it'll all come out eventually. But I really like my wife. Like I like her so much. Anyway, she's pretty cool. I just interviewed her. You can go watch the episode right now. Oh, by the way, do you know that we have a separate channel right now? It's called More Pints with Aquinas. That's where we put all the clips. We stopped

putting them on this channel. It's now over on More Paints with Aquinas. I'd be so honored if you would go over there and subscribe. It would really help. Thank you. Subscribe here too if you haven't already. Timothy says, do you have any recommendations on how to gently invite our extended family and or friends to confession before communion? We don't want to scare anyone away entirely, but also want to present the faith as we best understand it. Yeah, it's a fair question because obviously, you know, if someone's coming back to the church, the first thing you don't want them to feel is rejection.

especially if they're sensitive about Catholic things like that, about not receiving Eucharist, I mean. But I think I would just say it, frankly. Like, hey, you might want to get to confession before you go to receive Holy Eucharist, because I think it's been a while since you've been to Mass, right? Just say it like that. I think that's the other thing to realize.

Like, you don't have to convince a person to do something, but you can tell them, hey, you should go to confession before you receive Eucharist because you haven't been to mass in a while, and just leave it at that. And if they take it poorly, that's okay. Just, you know. Or say, hey, I'm going to confession this morning. Do you want to come with me? I need to go before I receive Eucharist, and you might have to as well, I guess. Is there something like that?

Mole McCabe says, hey, Matt, I've heard you talk about dealing with scrupulosity before. I've just realized recently I have a weakness in this area. Have you any thoughts on how to get over this hurdle? Yeah, it's the same thing I always say. go buy the book I believe in love or by my book when it comes out Jesus Our Refuge because there's a lot about scrupulosity there as well

yeah look hey I posted something I was kind of proud of recently I think I formulated it well is what I mean are you allowed to be proud of things I don't know let's see if I can find it um Oh yeah. Here's what I said. And this is, this would be helpful, I think. I posted this on my substack and on Instagram. Scripture calls the Holy Spirit our advocate, our paraclete.

Now, you may not know what that word means. Paraclete. It's a Greek word that literally means someone who stands at your side to defend you, like a lawyer arguing your case before a judge. all right meanwhile satan is called the accuser of our brethren who accuses them day and night before our god revelation 1210 this contrast is powerful the devil stands against us hurling condemnation and shame but god sends his spirit to stand with us to defend console and strengthen us god is not your enemy you have an enemy but it is not the one who gave his life for you as saint paul reminds us if God is for us, who can be against us? But I would also say, like, we have to make this distinction, I think, between a tender conscience and

scrupulosity. We should all have a tender conscience. We should, as Catholics all agree, that it would be better for the entire world to die of starvation than for you or me to commit a venial sin. Sin is atrocious, okay. And so we should have a tender conscience, but that's different from scrupulosity. So I would just sort of entrust yourself to the good God who sent his son to die for you, who's opened heaven under your feet, and who desires you to be saved. You cannot sit before anybody else and feel as comfortable as you should feel when you sit before the loving father. What do you think about that? J.W. says, this live stream makes me nostalgic for PWA circa 2021.

Thanks. I appreciate that. I appreciate that very much. Yeah, I used to do solo podcast before it turned into a long form kind of discussion show. There are questions here that would get me in legal trouble that I cannot answer, so I won't. All right, what else do we have? This is fun. Thanks to be in here, everybody. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

I'd appreciate that. Travis says, what's your go-to whiskey? I don't know. Anything cheap. I love Lagovolent in the winter. I like bourbon in the summer. I really like... This isn't a whiskey, or at least a bourbon whiskey,

but I like... I like... Um, mescal. I like mescal with lime. Especially here in Florida, where it's so hot and humid. This is how hot and humid it is where I live in Florida. When you drive, sometimes you need to leave your windshield wipers on, because the windshield collects moisture even when it's not raining.

It's, dude, it's bananas. All right. Thanks for being here, everybody. God bless you. I hope you're well. I hope you, I don't know, I just. And just shout out to the Philippines. I guess that's, to sum up this live stream,

It would be, hey, Philippines, you're awesome. Thanks for being here because apparently a lot of Filipinos just into the chat. And hi. God bless you.