Journeying With The Saints

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to our second to last reading in the third part.

This is a hard one for me, I'm going to admit it. Mostly, because I feel I have an opinion about this topic that nobody else on planet earth has. I'm not saying my opinion or feelings on the matter are right or anything like that, but it is the way I feel.

Mostly, I keep my opinion on this topic to myself, because everyone thinks I sound like a heartless meaner when I do voice my thoughts and so I just keep them to myself.

The topic: Widows

Let's hear what St. Francis says in Chapter Forty of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, welcome to another great day. Today, St. Francis is going to continue on with his talk for married couples, but he's going to be speaking about the intimate side of marriage and, so, if you have little ones around, you may want to chose to listen later.

He doesn't get graphic or anything like that, in fact, he uses eating food as a metaphor for the marital act, which might sound funny until we get into the reading.

The first time I went to Ephesus, our tour guide took us all over and explained many of the structures that we were seeing. One of the structures that we came across had these open holes, but they were kind of out in the open, so they weren't for using the bathroom. Let me just say, there were many things that were particularly hard about being a woman in the ancient world, but the public bathroom situation was way better for women than men. Men just sat, basically in a big room together, sitting on open holes, and discussing politics and other matters while using the John. That is just the grossest thing ever.

Anyway, back to the other open holes. These holes were used for throwing up. The ancients, the well-to-do's, at least, would have feasts, and they would gorge themselves, throw up, and then go back to gorge some more. Utter gluttony and no self-control.

You probably felt a bit disgusted hearing that, as I did, and we should. That's a horrible thing to do. So, what about sexual relationships with our spouse? Should we engage uncontrollably and with no discipline?

Let's see what St. Francis has to say as we turn to Chapter Thirty-Nine of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims and welcome to our reading on advice to married couples. This is a long reading, but, it's really, really good and what I have to say afterwards is important.

So, let's jump right in by turning to Chapter Thirty-Eight of the Third Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. It's a great day to be together with St. Francis.

Today, we are going to be talking about desires. Some desires are good and some are definitely not. Sadly, we live in a world that says, "Whatever you desire is fine." This isn't true and it gets us into a lot of trouble with temptations and sins.

I think this reading today points very closely to the last two of the 10 Commandments: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife and you shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

We can't desire things that aren't ours to desire, are fruitless to desire, or are bad for us to desire.

With that, let's open our books to Chapter Thirty-Seven of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, and welcome back to another great day with St. Francis. Today, I'm going to get political because, well, what I have to talk about fits the reading so well.

I've told you before that I am a very black and white person. What's wrong is wrong and what is right is right. I'm not super interested in gray areas. I'm a very justice-minded person. I believe in giving people what they are due whether that be good or bad.

I'm, also, very interested in using our reason—not emotions—to guide us. Even though I'm a pretty dramatic person and you would be think that I'd be ruled by emotions, I'm very much guided by logic and reason. If you have an incoherent, illogical, unreasonable argument, I'm pretty much done listening to you. I don't care how convincing your "lived experience" is. This is why for nearly eight years, I fought with my husband on Catholicism. I didn't shut off because I found all his arguments coherent, logical, and reasonable. It frustrated me to no end to argue with him, but I could not prove him wrong. Consequently, I am Catholic now.

Today, St. Francis is going to talk to us about the necessity of a just and reasonable mind.

Let's open our books to Chapter Thirty-Six of the Third Part.

Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. I truly appreciate when you join along with me here on the podcast.

Over the years, my husband has talked pretty consistently with our kids about working out your discipline muscle. This relates very well to today's topic which is on being faithful in small and great things.

Let's jump right in today and turn to Chapter Thirty-Five of the Third Part.

Hello, fellow pilgrims. Welcome back. We've got a super short reading today, a bit of a continuation from last time's reading.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself that St. Francis doesn't want us to have any fun—no dancing, no games of chance, recreation needs to be super limited.

I think it's important to remember that St. Francis isn't saying that we can never dance, or never go to a ball, or never play poker or bingo or never buy lottery tickets for stocking stuffers. I'll admit, that is one of my favorite stocking stuffers to buy.

His point in bringing all this up is that he wants us to discern, to be moderate, and not allow our indifferent recreations become occupations, as he puts it.

So, let's open our books to Chapter Thirty-Four of the Third Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. We are still learning about how to live virtuously here in the third part of the book.

I will start today by saying, if you have sensitive ears around, this may not be the podcast for them. So, just to warn you before we get started.

If I would have read today's reading back when I was in high school, I would have considered St. Francis the biggest stick in the mud there every was. If I would have read it in my twenties, I would have waved him off as some kill joy. Even into my early thirties, I would have thought that he was a guy who never had one bit of fun ever and I would have had a hard time taking him seriously.

Now, though, that I have some maturity and experience under my belt, I can appreciate the point he is trying to make. He is going to talk to us today about balls and dances. He says they are lawful, but they are dangerous. Let's see why he thinks that as we turn to Chapter Thirty-Three of the Third Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for joining me today. I have a feeling today's reading is going to make some roll their eyes or disregard it because of the subject matter.

When I was first reading it, I thought, "Oh, boy, St. Francis is going to have a hard time convincing people of the problem with dice and gambling card games."

But…but…as you read or listen to what he is saying, he makes a very compelling point AND after having lived in Las Vegas, I know exactly what he is talking about.

So, today, we are going to hear about forbidden games and I encourage you to just hear out St. Francis. Let's open our books the Chapter Thirty-Two of the Third Part.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims. I hope that your day is starting well or ending well. Or, hey, maybe you are in the middle of your day and, if so, I hope it's going well.

Everywhere we turn, we hear about stress. People are constantly saying that they are stressed about this and stressed about that. Headlines talk about how stressed everyone is and how our society is one of the most anxious, stressed, and depressed on record.

To add to that, people tell me pretty frequently that they don't have time for anything. They are soooo busy. Swamped, in fact. When I ask what is keeping them so busy, no one can tell me clearly. They hem and haw around, but I'm never left with a clear picture of what is packing their day so tightly that they have no room to breathe.

I know people work and people take care of their kids. I, also, know that some people are in school and that keeps people pretty busy. But, overall, I think there is a bigger culprit—wasted time.

People work or go to school and then they spend hours upon hours glued to some screen. Before they know it, they look up and realize that laundry needs to be done or homework needs to be done, the kitchen needs cleaned, and the kids put to bed. Time has condensed because of all the screen time and then people feel pressured and stressed to get stuff done.

To add to this, they aren't enjoying any amusements which refresh the mind and relax the body. Screen time does neither of these.

St. Francis is going to talk to us about the importance of lawful amusements. Let's open our books to Chapter Thirty One of the Third Part.