Three Dogs North

In this episode, the dogs talk about Connor’s participation in the National Eucharistic Revival (1:15), Rob shares a recent decision to change his approach to campus ministry (14:04), and Mike closes with a Tolkien inspired discussion on living in freedom (20:50).

“The way the Eucharistic faith will be revitalized is not through us being really smart or eloquent, but by putting our own oxygen masks on first: praying Holy Hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to the celebration of the Mass, Eucharistic reverence, and care of the poor.” (Connor, 9:55)

“Humility is freedom.” (Connor, 12:58)

“We committed to two things for next year: We’re going to live the sabbath in a biblical way and everything that we do has to be done with excellence, that’s it.” (Rob, 15:55)

“I don’t want to have attachments to my own agendas, but actually discover things as I go, which means I need to have the freedom to follow where life unfolds.” (Mike, 20:57)

“Whose voice is that, because it’s not God’s.” (Rob, 24:30)

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In this episode, the dogs talk about Tyson’s tigers (5:56), YouTube vortexes (11:30), and God’s promise of freedom (14:24). Rob shares insights from an old journal he started as a FOCUS missionary (17:19) and Mike speaks about the peace that comes from resting in Christ (33:35).

“So, philosophically you went from anything for freedom to just certain things for freedom.” (Connor chiding Rob, 9:20)

“There is a longing in my heart for total freedom; to do God’s will; to be in communion with Him all the time.” (Connor, 10:29)

“Lord, I need you so bad to call me out of slavery into freedom, constantly, but I believe that you will do it.” (Connor, 12:10)

“The formula of love: you have to move from self-awareness, into self-possession, which then leads to self-gift.” (Mike, 15:10)

“The Lord promises to set us free from slavery into life.” (Mike, 16:39)

“There has been a slow, steady, gentle, coaxing to freedom.” (Rob, 20:52)

“You can’t promise me another second of life, but you try to promise me a lifetime of misery.” (Connor summarizing St. Ignatius, 22:11)

“I am trying to do God’s will as best I can and He is going to keep moving me from grace to grace to grace.” (Mike, 25:12)

“None of our suffering is meaningless. Period.” (Connor, 35:11)

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If you haven’t yet, listen to S11 E34 Loggerheads (Part 1)

In this episode, the dogs pick up where they left off last time (0:25). Mike clarifies when he thinks control is appropriate in a leadership position (2:50) and Rob proposes that control, when it’s properly used, can be a training in the virtues (12:53). Rob shares an “anointed moment”, which was ultimately born out of being fully prepared (15:25). Connor makes a distinction between controlling others and self-control (17:35) and Mike admits that his parents’ use of control ultimately helped him choose the “good” (20:30). Rob closes out the episode with a question: “How do you foster freedom?” (36:00).

“Leaders do have to control their people, but it’s not a manipulation of free will because those people have freely consented to being commanded by someone else.” (Mike, 3:50)

“When I walk outside, I’m taking your heart with me because we’ve built this relationship together.” (Connor on ideal relationships between parents and children, 9:00)

“Ultimately, I revere the fact that you are a free individual and are not to be controlled.” (Connor, 10:48)

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” (Michael Scott, 27:36)

“I put my pants on one leg at a time.” (Rob, 27:46)

“I jump into my pants.” (Mike, 27:50)

“A father provides an abundance for his children to enjoy” (Mike, 28:10)

“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.” (Luke 15:31)

“Mary will be at the cross in order to spiritually and physically offer her son to the world.” (Connor, 32:10)

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In this episode, the dogs discuss the relationship between authority and control (3:30). Rob brings up the scrutiny readings from The Gospel of John (3:51). Connor takes a hard line against any positive connotations surrounding control (6:10), but Rob and Mike are less convinced (11:30). They end in disagreement (29:20). To be continued….

“When you don’t have authority you need to control people.” (Connor, 6:46)

“In Heaven you get all the joy, but no control.” (Connor, 7:40)

“So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11: 41- 43)

“God never controls. His love is always serene. It is always chaste. It is always non-possessive, even though we might want it to be.” (Connor, 14:32)

“You can’t love without freedom.” (Connor, 14:51)

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)

“Woah, Dad’s here.” (Rob, 25:27)

“God speaks us into being out of Love.” (Connor, 27:10)

“I think when you grasp at things that are beyond your control, then you get in trouble. But when you are stewards of the good things that have been given to you, that’s when you cooperate with the grace of God.” (Mike, 28:25)

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In this episode, the dogs share stories about their respective trips to the Holy Land (6:10) and the freedom of traveling without a phone (3:40). They compare their experiences with Turkish coffee (6:30), travel laundry hacks (14:00), and the breathtaking views in Galilee (15:25).

 “The flip phone is a tool I use, whereas the smartphone had a grip on me.” (Connor, 5:00)

“Anything for freedom.” (from Anne Marie Brummer, 5:47)

“That’s where we became friends with Jesus.” (Mike, 15:45)

“Friendship with Jesus, that’s it.” (from Rob’s book club, 23:28)

“But what, in conclusion, of Joy? For that, after all, is what the story has mainly been about. To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian…. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer.” (C.S. Lewis, 24:17)

 “Part of what makes this place transfigured is not just what happened 2,000 years ago, but right now He is still here.” (Connor, 26:15)

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In this episode, the dogs talk in-person at Rob’s house in Maryville, IL (1:50). They share highlights from the 2022 Three North Hangout which include, but are not limited to: a steak dinner (2:35), the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis (2:10), the Gateway to the West (10:40), a concelebrated funeral Mass (15:51), and Connor’s inaugural viewing of Babette’s Feast (2:38). Mike and Connor gush over Rob’s hospitality (23:00) and they all discuss the importance of hierarchies (25:45) and order (36:40).

“Things are always greater than we can initially perceive.” (Mike, 12:35)

“Oh, how you will enchant the angels!” (from Babette’s Feast, 14:55)

“In the end, what’s most essential about this guy is that he is a soul loved by Christ. That he believes in Him. That he will go with Him when he gets called.” (Connor, 17:50)

“If sins are like garbage, then the priest is like God’s garbage-man.” (Fr. Mike Schmitz, 27:00)

 “All is grace. Everything is possible. Reality is actually more wonderful than what is apparently true.” (Connor, 33:30)

“Christ reveals a hierarchy of Love.” (Mike, 38:18)

“The priesthood is really meant to give your life away for the good of everyone else.” (Mike, 38:40)

“There is an orderedness to the table, the fact that they are there in their places. They are disposed to receive reality and its goodness.” (Connor, 42:15)

“But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty.” (from Blixen’s Babette’s Feast, 54:40)

“At some point in our lives we have no choice but to ask for Him and He will give Himself to us.” (Connor, 53:50)

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In this episode, the dogs talk about various devotions and the grounding force of prayer. Connor shares how grateful he is for the cast (4:00). Mike asks Connor about his morning offering (7:51) and shares how his own offering has changed over time (12:00). Bob talks about his lack of devotions growing up (21:22) and his reassurance in the Precepts of the Church (23:12). Mike speaks to the auxiliary nature of habitual prayer and its transforming power in his life (31:25).

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” (G.K. Chesterton, 1:00)

“There are a lot of grounding fruits to devotions.” (Bob, 15:10)

“Catholicism is a way of life.” (Cardinal Francis George, 15:35)

“Our bodies, our minds, our hearts, they’re in time. Even though we are capable of apprehending the eternal, our bodies still need to sleep every day.” (Connor, 16:10)

“With the liturgy of the hours, I have to be attentive to pray not just with my mouth and my mind, but with my heart. Through the habitual practice, there is a changing of my whole life… The Church leaves room for spontaneous prayer, but doing the same thing over and over again, leads to important encounters with Christ that develops your heart in a fundamental way.” (Mike, 31:25)

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In this episode, the dogs talk about Mike’s recent attendance at a Jordan B. Peterson lecture (1:50), Exodus (2:40), and the dangers of ideology (3:15). Connor speaks about political extremism in The Cypresses Believe in God (17:09) and how difficult it can be to approach reality (22:00). Mike brings the conversation back to Egypt and his own human inclination toward slavery (30:49).

“Leaving Egypt is no easy process.” (Mike quoting Connor, 14:50)

“Prejudice is really just a shortcut for engaging with life.” (Connor, 22:01)

“There is something more to the human person than can be scientifically explained.” (Mike, 27:12)

“The Mass is patterned off the movement from darkness into life, from slavery into freedom, from outside the world into the heavenly Jerusalem through Jesus.” (Mike, 30:00)

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In this episode, the dogs talk about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine and its similarities to previous conflicts (00:45). Rob poses the question: “Do ideas shape history or do people shape history?” (08:15). They all discuss the glory of the saints (20:26), the need for true friendship (25:00), and the communion that is available to us at all times (26:30).

“In the fight for holiness, how I respond to this person’s email, that’s the battle that will make me a saint or not.” (Rob, 14:30)

“Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. (Thomas Merton, 18:10)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“The escape from history and its determinisms is not by standing outside of it but by willingingly entering into it with Christ” (Connor, 18:40)

“Somehow through this suffering and this death we are being drawn not only closer to God but closer to each other so that when we all look back on this, as a family in Heaven, we can say, this is how He saved us.” (Connor, 20:04)

“I need to see the Christian narrative embodied in a person. To have those saints, who bring that into reality, who mediate heaven and earth, that’s a powerful thing to see.” (Mike, 21:56)

“Friendship is one of the great antidotes to despair.” (Connor, 25:00)

“The devil scatters, he wants us to think everything is discrete and separate.” (Connor, 25:21)

“The truth of communion is right here in front of us all of the time.” (Connor, 26:29)

“He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.” (Mark 3:13)

In this episode, the dogs talk about Mike’s new assignment with the 82nd Airborne Division (4:00) and the fulfillment of a decade-long call to be an Army chaplain (10:20). Mike (20:30) and Rob (23:54) lament the loss of their own hair. Connor offers a prediction for the future of the cast (29:50) and they all find a way to offend conductors and balding men alike (25:19).

“You can’t save these people, but that’s not your job. Your job is to do what Jesus is asking and know that He is going to be faithful.”

Fr. Michael Metz

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