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Avoiding Babylon

Avoiding Babylon Crew
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Avoiding Babylon was started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these difficult and dark days, when most of us were isolated from family, friends, our parishes, and even the Sacraments themselves, this channel was started as a statement of standing against the tyrannical mandates that many of us were living under. Since those early days, this channel has morphed into an amazing community of friends…no…more than friends…Christian brothers and sisters…who have grown in joy and charity.  As we see it, our job here at Avoiding Babylon is to remind ourselves and those who enjoy the channel that being Catholic is a joyful and exciting experience. We seek true Catholic fraternity and eutrapelia with other Catholics who, like us, are doing their best to live out their vocation with the help of God’s Grace.  Above all, we try to bring humor and joy to the craziness of this fallen world, for as Hillaire Belloc has famously said: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!”

  1. 13 HR AGO

    Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 9

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! What if the one obstacle to holiness isn’t scandalous sin but quiet hesitation—the elegant excuses that slip between intention and action? We open Scripture with Ezekiel’s hard clarity on personal responsibility and the Gospel scene where a marginalized mother refuses to let go until mercy answers. Those readings set a challenge: justice must be lived, and faith must persist, even when it’s uncomfortable. From there, we dive into Divine Intimacy’s piercing take on imperfections. These aren’t headline-grabbing failures; they are the habitual refusals of “the better act” that charity quietly suggests. We talk candidly about how self-love disguises itself as prudence, how good reasons can become polished delays, and why a life of minimums keeps the soul heavy. Temperament enters the picture too: some of us process before we move, which creates a tiny window where excuses multiply. Rather than shame that wiring, we train it—just like learning fast, safe responses in emergencies. You’ll hear practical, field-tested ways to make generosity easier and overthinking harder. We share simple pre-commitments that reduce friction—like keeping a set amount of cash for almsgiving, deciding in advance when not to give, and otherwise choosing the more charitable assumption. These small designs of the will help us act before hesitation talks us out of love. Along the way, the Canaanite woman’s grit inspires our own: stay, ask, trust. If you’re ready to use Lent as a training block for the will, this conversation offers a clear path forward—Scripture for vision, spiritual tradition for diagnosis, and concrete habits for change. Listen, reflect, and then try one pre-commitment this week. If it helps, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who overthinks generosity, and leave a short review to tell us what habit you’re testing next. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    26 min

  2. 1 DAY AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    2/24/26 LOCALS Show

    Rob screwed up and accidentally ended the show before switching over to Locals so a new stream had to be created. What if a conference actually centered people instead of stages? We’ve been sketching a new model: short, focused talks tied to a single theme, followed by rotating roundtables where speakers sit with small groups and swap tables every twenty minutes. No marathon lectures. No numb chairs. Just real conversation, then unhurried time together over bourbon and cigars so ideas can breathe. We want fewer performances and more encounters, a space where curious Catholics and thoughtful friends can test assumptions, ask blunt questions, and leave with relationships that outlast the badge.That people-first lens runs through everything we tackle this week. Lent gets real when you’re at home and the pantry is loud, so we trade hacks on environment design, meatless protein, and why Sundays feel like oxygen. We confront the mess in the media machine—viral promos, sloppy receipts, and the way outrage beats rigor—because credibility matters if you’re speaking with authority. We also get concrete about Catholic identity where it counts: obituaries that ask for prayers instead of instant canonizations, clarity on Communion, and reverence around cremation and burial. Language shapes belief, especially when grief and custom collide.Public stakes show up in Minnesota’s proposed gun bills—semi-auto bans, registration, and warrantless home inspections for grandfathered owners—raising constitutional and practical alarms. Then we turn to the geopolitical horizon: mounting pressure around Iran, BRICS implications, and how easily a “limited” plan can spill beyond intentions. We don’t posture; we pray for prudence, steady hands, and the wisdom to choose truth over theater.If you’re hungry for a conference that trades clout for clarity, or you’ve wrestled with fasting, funerals, media trust, gun rights, or the risk of war, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a saner take, and leave a review with the one question you want on a roundtable card next time.

    53 min

  3. 1 DAY AGO

    Reacting to Reactions on Our Own Video: A Lesson in Pointless Endeavors

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! Ant and Rob react to your reactions from the last video. Is this pointless? Probably. Will it still be peak content? Absolutely. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    1h 7m

  4. 1 DAY AGO

    Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 8

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! A cloud on Sinai, bread in the desert, and three days in the heart of the earth: today’s journey moves from spectacle to substance, asking what truly builds a life aflame with God. We read Exodus as Moses steps into the cloud for forty days, follow Elijah from exhaustion to angelic strength on the road to Horeb, and listen to Jesus refuse showy signs while pointing to Jonah and to the deeper family formed by doing the Father’s will. These texts sketch a path through fatigue and doubt toward fidelity, where zeal is not noise but a steady yes. From there, we open Divine Intimacy and face a hard kindness: venial sin does not kill love, but it cools it. We explore how deliberate small faults chip away at fervor, how habitual concessions breed spiritual lethargy, and why the saints insist on sorrow even for slight offenses. At the same time, we draw hope from the distinction between frailty and willfulness. Stumbles borne of weakness, met with quick contrition and humility, can become doorways to deeper trust, a lived discovery that without Christ we can do nothing. We end with the Lenten Ember Days, those seasonal waypoints that knit prayer, fasting, and intercession to the rhythm of the year. You’ll hear practical ways to abstain and simplify meals, offer reparation, and pray for priests and vocations, not as box‑checking but as a way to refill the “swept house” with grace. If you’ve felt your zeal thinning, this conversation offers a clear, concrete plan: hate even small sins because you love greatly, confess promptly, repair generously, and let simple practices warm the heart. If it helps, share this with a friend on the road and leave a quick review—then tell us what Ember practice you’re embracing this week. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    21 min

  5. 2 DAYS AGO

    Voices Across A Century: A Memorial to My Grandparents

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! A century speaks when you can hear it. Rob opens his family archive to share a carefully restored 2002 interview with his grandparents—two voices that carry Minnesota farm grit, German cadence, and the quiet strength of a marriage begun at sixteen. What starts as a personal memorial becomes a living piece of oral history: Depression-era setbacks, threshing crews and one-room schoolhouses, a boy who learned English after first grade, and a medic shipped through Texas deserts to India on Christmas Eve. You’ll hear how work stitched life together—textile mills turning rags into wipers, long shifts at Armor’s, and the steady math that bought and paid off two homes. The war years come alive through field hospitals, penicillin lessons learned the hard way, and a Himalayan rest camp where cool air and careful roads offered relief. Then the light shifts to St. Paul: a wedding day with tough fried hens and a missing lipstick, two rooms with a shared bath when housing was scarce, and the hand-painted nativity set that became the heart of every Christmas. Faith isn’t abstract here; it’s a crib built by hand, a pew filled every Sunday, vows taken seriously, and affection practiced more openly with the next generation. We move through the tenderness and the hard parts—sectarian jabs in a mill yard, the discipline that shaped character, a grandson’s death that still breaks the voice, and the fierce pride that spills over when grandkids serve Mass, finish college, or skate under winter moonlight. There are cabins and cocoa suppers, moon-bright sled hills, and the crunch of horse hooves on snow drifting across memory. There’s even a strange echo of history when our granddaughter works in India decades after her grandpa served there, set against the grounded skies of 9/11. If you’ve ever wished you could bottle a voice before it’s gone, this is your nudge. Press play, meet our family, and think about the stories you want to save. If this moved you, subscribe, share it with someone you love, and leave a review with the one memory you’d record first. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    1h 52m

  6. 2 DAYS AGO

    Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 7

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! A city trembles at Jesus entering Jerusalem, money changers scatter, and prayer reclaims the Temple—then Isaiah reminds us that God’s word never returns empty. That collision of images frames a hard truth we often dodge: we grieve material losses faster than we grieve the loss of grace. We walk through Isaiah 55 and Matthew 21 before opening Divine Intimacy to explore how charity unites us to God while sin unravels that union, not as theory but as lived reality that shapes how we react, choose, and love. We talk candidly about why our instincts are upside down—why a totaled car or a hospital scare can feel bigger than mortal sin—and how to retrain the heart. Monthly confession even without grave sin, a nightly examen that names patterns and near occasions, and a daily act of contrition begin the reset. From there, charity becomes fire: it purifies faster and deeper than fear, and it makes our sacrifices mysteriously fruitful for others. The saints understood this solidarity; their burning love helped convert souls because love destroys sin more effectively than punishment alone. Formation spreads outward. Parents can build a home that hates sin more than loss by tying small fasts to real intercession and by teaching kids that reconciliation restores friendship with God. With Ember Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday upon us, we offer simple, concrete steps: abstain from meat, add a fast you can keep, and pray for priests, seminarians, and future vocations. Along the way there’s a quick behind-the-scenes note about fixing the mic and asking you to flag audio issues—because details matter when the goal is clearer prayer and deeper attention to the Word that always bears fruit. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs a nudge back to confession, and leave a review telling us one practice that helps you love God more and hate sin better. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    23 min

  7. 3 DAYS AGO

    Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 6

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! Judgment that looks like mercy, a Shepherd who refuses to lose a single sheep, and the honest truth about what happens to our good habits after Easter—this conversation brings Scripture and daily life into the same room. We open with Ezekiel 34’s promise that God Himself will seek, gather, and feed His people, then let Matthew 25 confront us with a standard that is both simple and searching: feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned. If love is real, it takes a shape; if faith is alive, it meets a face. We talk candidly about conversion as a daily reorientation rather than a one-time burst of zeal. Drawing on classic spiritual wisdom, we explore why aiming high matters—“no limits” not in noise or burnout, but in a steady refusal to settle. Sanctity grows where grace meets generous cooperation. That looks like motives purified by prayer, small promises kept on dull days, and a weekly work of mercy that grounds piety in service. The judgment scene stops being a threat and becomes a map for a life that recognizes Christ in the least. Then we address the cycle many of us know too well: Lent focuses us, Easter delights us, and within weeks we drift. The goal is not to maintain Lenten intensity forever, but to keep conversion continuous and real. If you’re longing for a Lent that doesn’t evaporate when the alleluias return, this one’s for you. Listen, take a note or two, and choose one habit to carry into the bright weeks ahead. If it helps, share this with a friend and make your rule together. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s the one practice you’ll keep after Easter? Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    19 min

  8. 4 DAYS AGO

    Divine Intimacy - Lenten Meditations for 2026 - Day 5

    Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link! The desert exposes what we truly love. We open Lent’s first Sunday by sitting with Saint Paul’s urgency—now is the day of salvation—and then step beside Jesus as he refuses the devil’s plausible shortcuts: bread without trust, spectacle without obedience, power without worship. Each scene becomes a mirror for our lives, where comfort, image, and control tug at the heart. Instead of rules alone, we explore how confidence in the Father reframes fasting, how humility undercuts pride’s hunger to be seen, and how true worship breaks the spell of more. From there, we draw on Divine Intimacy to map the great combat against the triple concupiscence of flesh, pride, and avarice. Temptations are not signs of failure but invitations to rely on actual grace, given right at the edge of our limits. We talk frankly about how to answer in real time: short prayers that steady the will, simple acts of penance that teach the body to wait, and a habit of trust that keeps us from negotiating with shadows. The goal is not stoic toughness; it is attachment to God that makes lesser loves lose their grip. We also share a personal journey of leaving the sacraments, tasting what the world promises, and returning through the sobering call of fatherhood. That honesty shapes how we speak to a generation raised on noise and nihilism. Beauty—cathedrals, chant, the traditional liturgy—cuts through cynicism, not as aesthetic escape but as a sign of the real. Yet beauty must be paired with truth about the Church’s wounds, or seekers feel betrayed. We hold both: the spotless Bride and our imperfect pilgrimage. The way forward is dependence, not self-sufficiency—letting God reorder desire so Lent becomes training in freedom. If this conversation helps you face your own desert with courage, share it with a friend, subscribe for the full Lent series, and leave a review to tell us what practice keeps you grounded right now. Support the show Need seafood for Lent? Check out https://shoplobster.com/ and use code AB10 to get 10% from Maine's ONLY Catholic lobster company. Check out our new sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order! ******************************************************** Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.avoidingbabylon.com Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss

    23 min
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About

Avoiding Babylon was started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During these difficult and dark days, when most of us were isolated from family, friends, our parishes, and even the Sacraments themselves, this channel was started as a statement of standing against the tyrannical mandates that many of us were living under. Since those early days, this channel has morphed into an amazing community of friends…no…more than friends…Christian brothers and sisters…who have grown in joy and charity.  As we see it, our job here at Avoiding Babylon is to remind ourselves and those who enjoy the channel that being Catholic is a joyful and exciting experience. We seek true Catholic fraternity and eutrapelia with other Catholics who, like us, are doing their best to live out their vocation with the help of God’s Grace.  Above all, we try to bring humor and joy to the craziness of this fallen world, for as Hillaire Belloc has famously said: “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!”

Information

  • Creator
    Avoiding Babylon Crew
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    611
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Avoiding Babylon
  • Show Website
    Avoiding Babylon
  • Provider
    Robert Blyton

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