Pints With Aquinas - Why I Started a LOFI Channel 🎧😊

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

I'll share with you why I started a Catholic lofi channel. We'll also look at what St Thomas Aquinas says are 4 characteristics of joy. 🎧 Catholic Lofi: https://youtu.be/FbsO3bgyH84 😊 Locals (Morning Coffee podcast): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ Aquinas on the four characteristics of joy: Anyone who desires to make progress must have spiritual joy: “A cheerful heart is a good medicine” (Prov. 17:22). The Apostle touches on four characteristics of true joy; First, it must be right, this happens when it concerns the proper good of man, which is not something created, but God: “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge” (Ps. 73:28). Therefore, it is right, when there is joy in the Lord; hence he says, in the Lord: “‘Me joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh.,8:10). Secondly, it is continuous; hence he says, always, “Rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16). This happens when it is not interrupted by sin, for then it is continuous. But sometimes it is interrupted by temporal sadness, which signifies the imperfection of joy. For when a person rejoices perfectly, his joy is not interrupted, because he cares little about things that do not last; that is why he says always. Thirdly, it should be multiple, for if you rejoice in God, you will rejoice in His incarnation: I bring you good news of a great joy, which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior” (Lk. 2: 10); and in your own activity: “When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous” (Prov. 21:15); and in your contemplation: “Companionship with her has no bitterness” (Wis. 8:16). Again, if you rejoice in your good, you will be prepared to rejoice in the good of others; if you rejoice in the present, you are prepared to rejoice in the future; hence he says, again I will say, rejoice. Fourthly, it should be moderate and not flooded with pleasures, as happens in worldly joy; hence he says, let all men know your forbearance. As if to say: Your joy should be so moderated that it will not degenerate into dissoluteness: “The people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary” (Judith 16:20). He says, let all men know, as if to say: Your life should be so moderate in externals, that it offends the gaze of no one; for that would hinder your manner of life.

Hey, welcome to Pints with Aquinas. Thank you so much for listening. If you like Pints with Aquinas and want to support us, you can do that in one of two ways by supporting us on locals or Patreon. If you go to pintswithaquinas.com slash give it'll let you know there what you get in return. Thanks. Hello everybody and welcome to Pints with Aquinas Savannah, Georgia edition.

The reason this studio looks different to my regular studio is because it's not my studio. I'm currently down in Savannah for different reasons. We'll be back up to Steubenville in a few days. Hope you're doing well. I wanted to jump on here and do a live stream and share with you why I started a Lo-Fi channel, what that even means.

I wanna show you some of the artwork that we've come up with, including something that has not yet been released. And then I wanna share with you, and this might seem unrelated, but Thomas Aquinas's four characteristics of joy. Because part of the reason I started this lo-fi channel is because I think we could all deal

with a little bit more relaxation and joy in our life. So that's what we're discussing. Now you know what's funny is I started this and then someone said, what's lo-fi music? And I literally had to look it up. So shall I read that first? I don't know. Let's see. Lo-fi.

It's just chill music that you can work and relax to. It's interesting enough that it's not like sleepy music that puts you to sleep, but it's chill enough that it calms you down. All right, so that's how I understand Lo-Fi music. It stands for low fidelity, apparently. And I got into Lo-Fi back in 2020. This was shortly after COVID lockdowns.

I was just looking for something to write to. I was writing some short stories at the time and I wanted some background music. And so I started listening to classical music and I like certain composers, but a lot of classical music out there, if you just Google it and listen to a bunch of it in a row, thrown together, can be really intense

and that's not what I wanted. So I found Lo-Fi Girl, which is I think the most popular Lo-Fi channel on the web, and I started listening to it since then. So it's kind of funny because when I was a kid, you know, a teenager, I was listening to like Metallica, Pantera, Machine Head, I'm not saying, I was proud of these things, Rampstein, okay,

but that's what I was into. Really intense music. Now that I'm old and I've got four kids, I just want something to listen to that'll relax me. And so that's why I started a Catholic lo-fi channel. I wanna show you this image we just came up with. This is an image of Thomas Aquinas writing away on a book. But if you click the link in the description below

to my Catholic Lo-Fi channel, you can actually listen to that and you can see him writing the candle flickering and things like that. So I paid a very talented artist to put this animation together. And then I also paid a very talented artist to put this animation together. And then I also paid a very talented artist to provide some lo-fi music.

And part of the reason I wanted to do this is because I was just tired personally of there not being a space where I could just sort of relax. It feels like politics has invaded every sphere of our life, be that ecclesial politics or you know American politics or wherever you live politics. I just thought wouldn't it be cool to create a place where we don't talk about any of that, we just offer prayers for each other, you know have prayer requests. So it's been a really beautiful thing I

think. Now we are currently working on a brand new illustration which hasn't been released yet. I'm going to show it to you here for the first time. I reached out to the awesome talented guy who's been creating these illustrations and I said I want a woman on a park bench praying the rosary. That's pretty much what I gave him as far as direction. Well check this out. This is the very first rough draft but I think you'll agree that it looks fantastic Alright, so let's start from the top here Alright, so he's got these little lines here to say that those trees will be swaying in the wind Cat wagging its tail. That's pretty cool. And we got a lovely woman down here praying the rosary I think we're gonna make that rosary a little bigger for people to see

So, I don't know for some of you this might not make any sense at all You might wonder why on earth somebody would do something like that but if if you've been involved in writing projects or Studying it can be really nice to listen to something in the background And I thought well this could also be a beautiful way to evangelize. We'll call it Catholic lo-fi We'll try to make it the best lo-fi channel on YouTube evangelize. We'll call it Catholic Lo-Fi. We'll try to make it the best Lo-Fi channel on YouTube, yes, including Lo-Fi Girl, and we'll see if people can track on over. And when they do track on over, what they're going to find in the live chat and what they're going to find in the comments section

hopefully isn't a bunch of snarky people talking politics, but people who are just there to support each other and to point people to the Lord. So, click that link in the description below and you can head on over to check out the Lo-Fi channel that I started. And yeah, I mean, if people keep subscribing, people keep liking, I'll keep investing in it. Obviously this costs money to be paying for music and paying for illustrations, but I enjoy doing it.

And if people keep enjoying it, I'll keep doing it. So that's kind of it, man. Really, but I enjoy doing it. And if people keep enjoying it, I'll keep doing it. So that's kind of it, man. Really, really excited about doing this. So that brings me to a larger topic, and that is the topic of joy. And what I wanna share with you now are four characteristics that Thomas Aquinas says joy has. Now, if you are part of our locals community,

you've already heard me talk about this. You might not know this, but I do a morning podcast every weekday over on Locals. Locals is a free speech platform. It's like Twitter and that sort of thing, but I'm not gonna be banned for being Catholic, which I'm pretty excited about. If you click the link below,

it'll take you over to Locals. If you sign up, just like you sign up on social media, you can start watching these morning podcasts that I do every morning around 8.30 a.m., 9 a.m. Basically, I pour a coffee. It's usually the first coffee of the day, and we sit down and just have a very casual chat, and that's five days a week when I can make it.

And it's free to watch. You don't have to pay to watch it or anything like that. So check that out if that interests you. Okay let's look at Aquinas's four characteristics of joy. I'm widening the text here, blowing it up so that I can read it without my spectacles which I don't have on me today. So this comes from Aquinas's commentary on Philippians chapter 4 And listen to this first line because it really does sum it up and it's kind of surprising I think to many people. If you're interested in reading along I've put it in the description so just scroll down.

Aquinas says, anyone who desires to make progress must have spiritual joy. desires to make progress must have spiritual joy. Period. Anyone who desires to make progress. What does he mean progress? Well he doesn't mean progress in things that are stupid. That would be regression. He means progress in the spiritual life. If you want to grow in your relationship with Christ, Aquinas says you must have joy. And of course Aquinas is commentating on Philippians chapter four I believe it starts in verse four where Saint Paul says rejoice in the Lord always again I will say it rejoice let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near right evident to all the Lord is near. Right. So he then quotes Proverbs, a cheerful heart is a good medicine. Proverbs 17 22. The apostle touches on four characteristics of joy, which I want to go through.

But first I want to say why this is important to me today. Me and a good mate were having sushi the other day and we were talking about the fact that many people today are angry for a reason they think is justified. And not only are they angry, but whenever they're with friends or family, they will vent and fume about their justified anger. And that might have to do with the state of the country. That might have to do with the guy in the middle of a field, 5,000 miles away from every other human being but still wearing a mask.

That might have to do with something that's going on in your family today. It might have to do with what's going on in Ukraine and Russia. It might have to do with the state of the church. But it feels like a lot of people are angry. But St. Paul didn't say, be angry and complain at all times. We are not morally obligated to do that. We are morally obligated, because Paul tells us to, to rejoice in the Lord at all times.

And my friend Derek and I were just sitting down having sushi and thinking, I don't want to be the kind of person who's always angry, who's always complaining, who's always pointing out about what's weird on TikTok or what crazy new thing the left is pushing. I want to love my family. I want to rejoice in the Lord. I want to celebrate what is good. And there is a lot to celebrate. Tell me if you've had this experience.

You meet somebody, let's say on a Monday. You've never met that person before. You are blown away by how incredibly beautiful and charitable and kind and hilarious this said individual is. And then it occurs to you that yesterday, that would be Sunday, you didn't know this fellow existed. Now that you do, you realize that the world is better than you thought it was. And not only better because you now know that that person exists, but it was better even when you didn't realize he existed The world is a beautiful place. It's far more beautiful than we think and the Lord is in control and Yet for many of us including myself Maya Culpa

We can be upset and complain and whine and fume at all times Instead of rejoicing in the Lord at all times now. I'm not saying there aren't things to be legitimately angry over but there should never be an instance in the spiritual life where our peace is stolen. There is no good reason the spiritual authors, the saints would tell us to lose our peace. Now I lose my peace almost all the time. Well that's not true but you know every day. So you go to the traffic light and it's turned green and the friend in front of you still hasn't gone forward. It's frustrating. Lots of things get angry about but we don't have to do that. It's

not like the Lord needs you to be angry to bring about his righteousness. In fact, the Bible says the very opposite. Says the anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God. So the Lord isn't calling you to be angry and to complain and to point at other people and to judge them.

In fact, he said the opposite. The Lord is calling us to rejoice at all times. And in a day and age where we're surrounded by politics, where even YouTube channels like this one very often talk about current events that bring anxiety, we have to remember to keep our eyes on the Lord, devote our attention to him, put him above all things so that we can have this sort of joy. What do you reckon? I hope you agree.

All right, let's look at the first characteristic of joy. First it must be right. It has to be proper. It can't be improper. You can't take joy in things you ought not to take joy in. Maybe they're immoral. Maybe they're intemperate. You know, it has to be ordered.

So Aquinas says, first it must be right. This happens when towards something that is against another person or against my own good, this isn't right. The proper good of man is not something ultimately created, but God Himself. This is why in Psalm 73 we read, but for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge. I think a lot of us who are more sort of politically right, or if you don't want to adopt that label, maybe even those who would consider themselves politically left, but are somewhat scared about the

forces that are coming against society from what we might call pejoratively the woke. And so we might then seek to take our refuge in political commentary in particular Catholic podcasts or websites. But what we need to do if we want to be joyful and if we want to be holy, which we've been commanded to be, is to be joyful in the Lord by taking refuge in him. I have made not Ben Shapiro my refuge, not whoever,

Michael Voris, Taylor Marshall, Matt Fr Fradd father Mike Schmitz whoever I have made the Lord God my refuge Therefore it is right when there is joy in the Lord Hence he says in the Lord right rejoice in the Lord we read in Nehemiah My joy the joy of the Lord is your strength alright, so that's the first thing. It has to be properly ordered. The second characteristic of joy is that it's continuous. Good luck with that. Hence, Paul says, rejoice always. Now what's interesting is we read pray at all times and for that reason, people in the East developed, you know, this prayer we call the Jesus Prayer. We pray the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, right?

Or something to that effect. The idea is to be able to pray at all times because Paul says, pray at all times. But Paul also says, rejoice always. So even though because we are journeying through this veil of tears, it will be interrupted, we should strive to rejoice at all times, okay? So this perfect joy is joy that's not interrupted by sin, but is continuous. Think about that for a moment.

Not interrupted by sin. And yet the world would have us believe, and sometimes you and I fall into the trap of believing that in order to be joyful, I have to be engaged in the things of the world. Maybe the things that I have repented of, but now pine for. Like the Israelites in the desert, pining for the flesh pots of Egypt. Yes, they were enslaved, but at least they had this thing. Their desires were too weak.

Their desires for freedom and to worship God and to be their own people wasn't strong enough. I've heard Ralph Martin say this and I think it's something we should commit to memory. It's quite simple. Sin never helps. Sin always hurts. Sin never helps. Sin always hurts. Sin never helps, sin always hurts. I'll be honest, the first time I heard that I thought, yeah, I don't know, it kind of does.

Sin can help, right? If I'm really stressed out and then I do something objectively sinful, there's some sort of relief I get from that, or else I wouldn't have done it. That's perhaps why I or you find certain things addictive or why we have a compulsive habit towards certain things. But ultimately they don't bring joy. Five

seconds after fruition, you feel sad, dejected as you ought to be, ashamed as you ought to be. Right? If you feel stressed out and then you start yelling at your husband or yelling at your wife or kids this is not good and even though you may have blown off some steam if you're a somewhat decent individual you regret it and feel bad about that right so sin whatever the sin is never helps it always hurts it's what interrupts our joy sin is the enemy. But sometimes, says Aquinas, it is interrupted by temporal sadness, which signifies the imperfection of joy. For when a person rejoices perfectly, his joy is not interrupted, because he cares little about things that do not last. This is very

powerful. See, I wrote a book called How to Be Happy by, well, not by, I wrote it so it's by me, How to Be Happy and it was based on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. By the way, here's a shout out for the book. It's on Audible. You can listen to a sample there, see if you like it, buy the book there or buy it wherever, Amazon, wherever Amazon how to be happy it's called. Aquinas differentiates felicity and beatitude right. Beatitude is perfect happiness. For Aquinas happiness means the perfection of man. We won't fully experience that in this life but only as we encounter God in the beatific vision since he and he alone is a fulfillment of all our desires and he and he alone is he who perfects our human nature. We can experience some degree of happiness in this life which he calls felicity. So

for Aquinas happiness is about an objective state not a subjective impression of Satisfaction or contentment, okay, so for Aquinas the Blessed Virgin Mary Weeping before her executed son is Happier than the man or woman in a drug-fueled orgy somewhere right now. Because happiness has to do with the perfection of man, right? The fullness of joy will not be had in this life, though we still ought to rejoice, keep turning and having joy. But here's why we can be more joyful than those in the world, he says.

For when a person rejoices perfectly, his joy is not interrupted. Listen to this, here's the line, because he cares little about things that do not last. That is why Paul says always, he cares little about things that do not last. If you and I cared little about those things which did not last and instead concerned ourselves with the will of God, with his majesty, with his worship, we'd be very, very, very, very, very, well, I should say much more happy. All right. Check this out. Let's see if I can find it here. I love this line from Teresa of Avila because it kind of gets to what Aquinas is saying. This is attributed to her. I've never confirmed whether or not it's her or not. Let me know in the comments if you like. She says, let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away. God

never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices. All right, so to that point there of he, that is the man growing in joy, growing in sanctity, cares little about things that do not last. All right, so those are the first two things. First characteristic of joy is that it be properly ordered. The second, that it be continuous.

Here's the third. It should be multiple. Why multiple? Because if you rejoice in God, you will rejoice in his incarnation. Okay. And in your own activity, we read in Proverbs, when justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous. And in your contemplation, companionship with her has no bitterness, Wisdom 816.

Again, if you rejoice in your good, you will be prepared to rejoice in the good of others. If you rejoice in the present, you are prepared to rejoice in the future. Hence he says, again, I'll say rejoice. So to have joy in something is to have joy in many things. If A implies B, A therefore B. I mean it's logically airtight. If I believe in the Christian God, then I will not only take joy in that belief but joy in his incarnation. I will also take joy

in that he decided to die for me and wants me to be in heaven with him. I like this line too, if you rejoice in your good, which is something God wants for you, I have come that you may have life and have it to the full, John 10 10, if you rejoice in your good you will be prepared to rejoice in your good, which is something God wants for you, right? I have come that you may have life and have it to the full, John 10 10. If you rejoice in your good, you will be prepared to rejoice in the good of others. Are you prepared to rejoice in the good of others? What about others who are engaged in similar activities to you, similar work to you, who have similar aspirations to you? What about when they exceed you in their talent or effort, material success or even spiritual success? Are you prepared to rejoice in the good of others? Well we should be. One of the

things I love about Pints with Aquinas, I have to say, is getting to have people on the show who don't have much of a platform, but some of the most beautiful and intelligent and insightful people I've ever encountered, and just getting to introduce them to you. And I've had multiple people who've been on Pints with Aquinas

reach out to me and say like they've got more speaking requests and they can keep up with now or People have reached out to them to thank them For what they had to say on the show. What a beautiful thing to be able to I know showcase sounds like a bad word because they're not just I know showcase sounds like a bad word because they're not just objects their subjects right but it's showcase these beautiful men and women who are striving for sanctity in the modern world All right. Here's the fourth characteristic of joy. This is interesting. Listen, it should be Moderated and not flooded with pleasures as happens in worldly joy

Hence he says let all men know your forbearance, sometimes gentleness, sometimes translated meekness, but let's go with forbearance. As if to say, your joy should be so moderated that it will not degenerate into dissolute-ness. We read in Jude 1610 that people continued feasting in Jerusalem before the sanctuary. He says, let all men know as if to say your life should be so moderate in externals that it offends the gaze of no one for that would hinder your manner of life. So it might sound like he's saying to you be joyful, but just not too joyful. But that's not what he's saying. It might sound to you that he's saying rejoice, but don't rejoice too much. No, what he's saying is if we rejoice but are intemperate in that rejoicing, then that

kills joy. Sin kills joy. You already saw that in one of these four points that sin is the enemy of joy. Sometimes you'll encounter people laughing like hyenas madly and you think that doesn't look happy, that looks kind of psychotic or something. Sometimes we engage in material pleasures but in an intemperate way and as I say thereby we hinder our joy. And a nice analogy might be this. And think of a fire. A fire in the living room, in the fireplace, very good thing. But that fire on the carpet, on the

couch, burning down the curtains, no longer what you want. Right? So this joy ought to be moderate, not flooded with pleasures. as we've seen the man who chooses to flood himself with pleasures is really no longer joyful. Let all men know your forbearance therefore your joy should be so moderated that it will not degenerate into dissolute-ness. Let all men know this joy. So there you are, fellas. We're gonna be joyful. And we're gonna encourage each other to be joyful

in a joyful kind of way. So I hope that's a blessing to you. I wanna share with you again a couple of these animations that we've put up on Catholic Lo-Fi. If you're interested in checking it out, click the link in the description below. You can listen to it there. I paid someone to create 15 beautiful Lo-Fi tracks for me to check that out. It's like a two and a half hour thing.

You can just watch Thomas Aquinas banging away there, writing on his suma. And we plan to be releasing more of these animation loops. And as I pointed out earlier in the show, but for those who weren't here, here's an example of one where in the process of creating, this is a woman on a park bench praying the rosary. People have said to me,

like, why isn't it Gregorian chant? Why don't you do that? Well, maybe I will in the future. But the point of a lo-fi channel is to play lo-fi music. So it's not a Catholic Gregorian chant channel, it's a Catholic lo-fi channel. So what is it that makes it Catholic? Well, I'm Catholic, I run it.

The illustrations are Catholic, have Catholic elements in them. and it's a place where we offer prayers for each other during the live streams and in the comments section. It's kind of cool. All right, we just got a super chat, so I better check this out. Okay, add to broadcast. Whoa. Super chat from Sean McKenzie, Wolfpack.

I don't know what's happening here, but from Form A Bridge, God bless you Matt, love the work that you're doing. Well thank you very much, I don't understand that at all. But that probably says more about me than about you. Well here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna have a sip of coffee. And if you've got something you wanna bring up in in the live chat I'll see if I can get around to answering some questions. Thank you so much for being here by the way. Hey do

you know we've got over 210,000 subscribers now right now? It's ridiculous. I'm so grateful. I love this job as if this is a job. Get to sit with beautiful people, talk about things that are interesting. I'm so grateful. I really am so grateful to God. I rejoice in the Lord. Cheers. So if you haven't subscribed, do it. That's what I was getting at. All right, let's see here. Catholic chant, channel idea. Yeah, go do it. Chant lo-fi? Do it. Cool as that. Sounds great.

And I will rejoice in your good should it succeed in competing with mine. Which it won't because mine's the best. Will this Catholic lo-fi beats be available in Halo? Ah, I don't know. That would be available in hello. I don't know that would be up to hello But I'd say in the meantime, I'm looking to get it on Spotify and YouTube music But it's one of those things like this is a side endeavor for me So if this goes well, I'll put it's kind of like you throw something out there If people put a lot of energy into it and they're interested

What I mean is if people show interest in that thing, then I'll put more energy in it. But let's say no one's interested. I'm not just gonna keep paying a ton of money and cranking out new videos and paying animation artists and things like that. So one way you could show that you like the Catholic Low Fly channel is by subscribing to it. All right, what do we got here?

What do we got here? Man, this is very hard to read for my old man eyes. Pine through the coinus says, your boy EB. What's up, your boy EB? It's very hard to sound cool while you're Australian. Your boy EB, what's going on? He says, I had the hardest day of work since I started at the place I currently work at and I prayed the Jesus prayer and that helped me from freaking out from stress and I got

through it. It's beautiful man, good for you. Billy G. Can you guys read this? Is it just me? Any chance of some vids going back to the original premise of the podcast where you just ask a random question and see what Aquinas is to say about it. There's probably not a chance of me returning to that in a full-time way. I know that bothers some people because they really liked the original

pints with Aquinas where I would just tackle a question. But you know in this little video, other than talking about my Catholic Lo-Fi channel, I talked about Aquinas's thing, you know, in this little video, other than talking about my Catholic Lo-Fi channel, I talked about Aquinas' thing, you know, for characteristics of joy, so maybe I could do more of these sort of solo episodes and, you know, we could tackle it that way. God, a super chat. God bless you. Thank you so much. I will henceforth refer to the Lo-Fi channel as Vibes with Aquinas and rest assured your channels have...

I don't know why I'm reading it in that like really cool way but... ...have been a blessing even to a Protestant like me. You are so welcome. And for the thousandth time, I love my Protestant brothers and sisters. If you're a Protestant and you're here, you are so welcome. I love you. You teach me how to be a better Catholic, at least if you're a good Protestant. In the sense that, I'll just point out one friend of mine. Maybe she's watching.

Alisa McLaughlin lives in Portland, Oregon, or close enough to there. That woman loves Jesus Christ. She reads her scriptures devoutly. She loves the poor, you know? And I'm not saying Catholics don't love the scriptures and love the poor They do but my point is we can learn from each other We should thank each other We encourage each other. Yeah, we're not united in the way that Christ would have us be united and we hope to be But it doesn't mean we've got to create ideological opponents where there's no need

You know, we can differ we can disagree we can argue and in fact And in fact I do do that. Cameron Batuzzi and I argue regularly. But I love him. He's a good friend. If he chooses never to become Catholic, I'm still gonna be a good friend of his, you know? Even though he's got better hair than me. Don't even care. Anyway, good to have you. Sergio says, I just subscribe. Thanks for the work that you do. Thank you very much. Very, very kind of you. Pines with Aquinas, you talk a lot about beauty. Well, I am born, I am a born ugly person. Is it okay for me to imagine our lady as an ugly person too? Um, well, are you ugly? I mean, maybe you are, but I feel that might be a little harsh.

Aquinas, when he talks about beauty, he says this very unhelpful definition. He says, beauty is that which when seen pleases. That which when seen pleases. And I'll tell you this. My wife and I had been married nearly 16 years. Neither of us looked the way we did on our wedding day. My beautiful bride who I reverence and love, my best friend in the world she is, she's had four C-sections.

Talk about this as my body given up for you, eh? When I look at my wife and I see the scar where my four children came from, or the maybe few scars, is that something which when seen pleases? It is to me. Because I see my wife's love for me. I see her laying down of her body for me. In fact, I think it's more beautiful than it was before. Not beautiful in the sense that it's a perfect body, obviously a scar is a sign of a sort of deficiency of some sort, but I don't know, man. I love her and I love her body.

I love her aging body. I love her gray hair. I love her wrinkles. I love her wrinkles, I love, she's beautiful to me and she's more beautiful to me now than when I married her I think. Because I know her, the mystery that, I don't know her actually, she's such a mystery to me you know. Point is, maybe you're ugly on a superficial sense but I don't know, it's been my experience

that the more I get to know somebody, the more I find them beautiful. So just go easy on yourself. You might also want to ask why it is you wish to see Mary as ugly. Like what's that about? Is it because you don't find yourself acceptable in the sight of a beautiful mother? Why not instead allow the beautiful Mary,

more beautiful than any woman you've ever even dreamed of, love you, lead you to Jesus, you know? Because I promise you, she doesn't find you ugly. What else we got here? Cincy Kid? Matt, you are putting, you're not putting a smile on your wife's face with all that. You don't know that. I'm absolutely putting a smile on her face with all that.

You don't know my wife. I do. But I'm not going to tell you to keep my wife's name out of your mouth and slap you on the face. Sorry. I had to bring him in somehow. What are my thoughts on the debate on the resurrection yesterday? Wasn't the best debate on the resurrection I've ever heard before.

Dr. Price was coming at it, I think, from something of a mythicist point of view, if not entirely. So the debate focused a great deal on the gospels and the meaning of the words of Paul and things like that. I actually really like Dr. Price. he seems like a nice fellow. I'd love to sit down have a cigar with him, chat with him, but it seems to me that certainly William did a lot better. But that's just, that's my take.

Church Fathers argued, yes. Arguing's good. Aww. You've always felt welcome as a Protestant. Good. Times I haven't made you feel comfortable, I apologise. Well, welcomed I mean. Man. What else we got here? Few more and then I'll get going. Based Matt as per usual. I'm too old to really know what based means. Somebody tell me.

Kyle says, hey Matt, where did you get your church warden pipe? I've been looking for one recently. All right, I'm gonna tell ya. All right, I swore I wasn't gonna tell anybody but I'm gonna tell ya right now. Go to Etsy and look up like a Gandalf pipe. I bought it off a fella in Ukraine. Alright there you go. Don't say that I don't do anything for you. Christopher West says your boy EB. Sorry let's see.

Christopher West was honestly so amazing. When we see the whole world with a sacramental view, then that purifies and baptizes the world in our minds. Amen. Alisa says, I read your book. Does God exist? Cool. What did you think of it?

And also, you should seriously consider giving me a review because that really helps me. Hang on, first, only if you liked it. If you thought it was the worst thing, just no need. No need. Let's see here. This lovely lady here. Estefania. I don't know if, I'm so sorry.

I screwed that up. Did I tell you about the time I met this beautiful Hispanic girl outside of a church? And I said, hello, what's your name? And she said, Teresa, forgive me. And I said, ah, Teresa. And I went, oh, and I tried to say it the way she said it. And eventually she just looked at me and went, Teresa. And I felt like an idiot.

But hey, she said, this lovely lady says, thank you, Matt, I appreciate all that you do for my friends. And I, oh, all. But hey, she said, this lovely lady says, thank you, Matt, I appreciate all that you do for my friends and I, oh, all that you do, my friends and I love you, thank you so much, that's super kind of you. This fella says, politics is religion in a secular world. The problem isn't so much that politics has entered every aspect of life, it's that our Catholicism hasn't entered hardly any areas of our daily life. That's very interesting. Yeah, I heard somebody say that

When you lose metaphysics, you're left only with politics. God have mercy. I Etsy manliest site on the web. All right, sweet Maccabeebee! Maccabeebee says, I sometimes watch relaxing fireplace videos while I'm reading or drinking a cup of tea. Nice to have a Catholic alternative to these videos. I think lo-fi is a beautiful alternative to these videos. Yeah.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Baced, having a solid foundation. Alright, sweet, so you're teaching your old brother Matt Fradd some things, thank you. I do not know who Jeremiah Bannister is, off the top of my head. Pints, who says Heather Green says, what? Your opinion on Tim Gordon? What, your opinion of Tim, on Tim Gordon? Well, I think I'll tell you what I think of him as a person,

but first I'll say Tim and I, I think differ in emphasis, and I think we also disagree on certain issues. But I would say that Tim is, as far as a husband and a father, just a real solid guy. He came over to my house back in the day and just seeing the way he loved his wife and his kids was beautiful, really beautiful. I think some people might have the impression because he talks a lot about like, I don't know.

I mean, his wife's Twitter handle is literally listen to your husband, I think, or ask your husband. So people might have the impression that he's just some like I don't know tyrant but he's not at all he's so good and he was so kind with his children and so beautiful to his wife so I can tell you that about him. I don't know him that well but that's you know. Father Spitzer on pints please. Yes that man is fully blind at this point so I'm not sure if he'll make his way out to Steubenville or not but... Maximilian says Matt how about some new classical music? The classical music nowadays is not even classical, it's junk.

I want something more like Rachmaninoff. Yeah, I don't know. I like classical music, but what's one of my favorites? favorites. I think it's Buck who composed something called Yezu man's longing or fulfillment of man's longing or something. I think that's a beautiful song but I'm not a big classical... I don't listen to classical much you know. Any suggestions on fun things to do with your spouse in Steubenville? There are literally two things to do in Steubenville. Number one, go to Leo's coffee shop on 4th Street.

Number two, go check out the lovely little chapel on Franciscan University. There's actually more, but that's a start. What's this fella saying? Osmond. The moment you talked about how you love your wife light started to shine brighter. No, check out the video at the end of the live Transmission. Thank you. Okay. Joy of man's desiring. Okay. Cheers. Yeah, such a bloody beautiful song. Beautiful song.

Beautiful song. Paleocrat says, great debate yesterday, long overdue, especially after Zeitgeist movie. Your lighting is better today though. You know what's the, well I'll tell you in a second. Also I absolutely love listening to Catholic Glowfire while writing my book. That's awesome dude. Okay, the problem with the lighting is I don't have professional lighting. I'm in Savannah right now and I've got two big bright windows. Hey do you guys want to know a secret? I haven't announced it publicly but I'll tell you if you want to know. It's kind of a big

deal I think. Not the biggest deal but it is a big deal. You tell me in the live chat if you want me to tell you and then I might tell you. Sláinte. Oh okay thanks for explaining this. This fella says Matt Telegram is... what is that? What does that mean? Changing apologetics in a big way the wolves in the chat a part of the glad trad Chat called the wolf pack the wolf pack is based on prayer real life and okay, so that's awesome I don't know what any of that means, but it sounds good. All right, you guys wanna know. All right here It is you ready? I'm about to tell you you ready. Shh. Listen. Shh. Here it is Tomorrow I Listen, here it is. Tomorrow.

I interview Mark Wahlberg. But it'll be a short interview and it won't be live. Sony has given me a zoom link and they will do the recording and then they will send me the recording and then I'll upload it That's kind of cool, right? Mark Wahlberg, you know that actor fella. I Don't know. Is that cool? Here's another thing. It's kind of cool. I Might be well, I've got someone who's bringing Jordan Peterson into Steubenville this Monday And I'm offering Jordan Peterson way Steubenville this Monday, and

I'm offering Jordan Peterson way more money than you think I'm offering him to come on my show. Did you see the lighting go up again when I talked about Jordan? Whoa! But I don't think he's going to do it. I don't think that Peterson will do it. But it would be cool, wouldn't it? I'm going to go see Jordan Peterson Monday night with my son and a friend. It'd be really great if he said yes, because it's like three

minutes away. Come on, just do it. We'll see what he does. But that's a few things that are going on. So if you haven't subscribed yet, subscribe to the channel. You won't miss this stuff. Well, maybe you will, but I'll feel better. All right. Amanda Benner says, you inspired me to read the Brothers Karamazov. Can you give me advice on how to read it so I can fully understand its symbolism and depth of meaning? My advice would be to read it every year or to read it more than once. You know, sometimes you can ruin your Bible reading by reading it along with a commentary. It just kind of interrupts the flow. You know, it's like the Lord wants to speak to you through just reading His word. And of course, biblical commentaries are phenomenal.

I'm not saying anything bad about them But I think sometimes the Lord just wants to just read read my word All right Obviously the Brothers Karamazov isn't the Word of God, but it's probably the closest thing we have. Okay, that's a joke Maybe not but just just trust yourself to understand what Dostoevsky is saying to you Trust your own internal reactions as you're reading through it. I'd do that. I'd be more interested in that, you know,

than finding some commentary on it. What if I just did this for like three hours and didn't say anything? And then someone said, do you think it's a loop? No, it's too good to be a loop. And then everyone unsubscribed. Double D TV says, hey Matt, so pleased to have found you. Thanks. Gerardo is not a fan of Jordan Peterson.

Okay. Coming on to Pines with a Koinus should be rule 13 for Jordan Peterson. Can you invite Stephen Colbert? Nah. Yeah, can you guys do this? Would you go on Twitter and just tell Jordan Peterson to go on plans with Aquinas? If I mean honestly, if you want to boost my chances, you could do that if you wanted to.

All right. I think that'll do. Absolute pleasure. You guys are beautiful. May God bless you. Dude, I want to tell you how much I'm offering Jordan Peterson, but you wouldn't believe it. But let's just say I have found an advertiser who is willing to give quite a bit of money. I'm just throwing it out there. Not going to say what it is.

If you and I have a drink one day after the second bourbon, I will tell you, but I'm not gonna tell you publicly. But what's crazy is I know that my friend's gonna offer him and say, hey, Matt's gonna, if you'd like, and he'll still be like, yeah, I'm gonna have a nap. Because when you're Jordan Peterson, whatever I'm offering him is like me offering you five cents to do something. You're probably like, I'm good, I'm really fine,

but thank you. All right, friends, God bless you. I hope you have a lovely day. Do me a favor, click the link in the description below to the Lo-Fi channel and subscribe and please join us over on Locals. Locals is a free speech platform where I run morning podcasts every morning

over a cup of coffee with a bunch of people. You don't have to support me financially to be part of that but you do have to sign up for it just like you'd have to sign up to Twitter to watch me on Twitter or something, you know But I'm not on those social media platforms. I have people who post there, but I do post over at locals. Oh Wow people are guessing how much I'm offering hmm Glory to Jesus Christ glory forever