A Word from Our Outpost: Catholic Marriage, Relationships & Mission

Joseph and Crystal Gruber
  • 5.0 (77)
  • Christianity
  • Weekly

A Catholic show on marriage, relationships, and formation for the lay apostolate. Each week, Joseph Gruber, joined at times by his wife Crystal or a guest, takes a passage of Scripture, a saint, or a good book and turns it into something practical for living as a missionary disciple: at home, in your marriage, in your friendships and dating life, and in your parish and workplace. Joseph and Crystal spent over a decade as Catholic missionaries with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, serving at MIT, UW Madison, Carnegie Mellon, Western Washington University, and a parish in Jackson, Michigan. Today they're the co-founders of Our Outpost, a Catholic marriage ministry that equips men and women for marriage and mission through formation and accompaniment. Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: quiz.ouroutpost.org. Single? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating. Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylife. Our other podcast is Love Your Marriage: ouroutpost.org/podcasts

  1. 6d ago

    Reflecting Together on 300 Episodes

    We've been podcasting since 2018! Wild...and Crystal is back for this episode! Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Reflecting Together on 300 Episodes

  2. Oct 21

    Holy Detachment vs. Miserliness: What Difference Do They Make?

    What would it cost you to let go of your most prized possession? Joseph Gruber looks at holy detachment through his own shelf of Gene Wolfe novels, the Principle and Foundation of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and the final scene of Schindler’s List, and asks whether our possessions have started to possess us. In this episode: My most prized possession; The extra coat in your closet; The boat in the driveway; What the stuff of the world is for; Nobody told us we have to keep it; Beautiful churches and what we’d give; Our time, talent and treasure; Miserliness or generosity. Mentioned: St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises; Matthew 19:16–22, the rich young man; Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun and his other novels on Joseph’s shelf; Schindler’s List and its final scene. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/holy-detachment-or-miserliness/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Holy Detachment vs. Miserliness: What Difference Do They Make?

  3. Oct 14

    The Catholic Dating Culture Is a Dumpster Fire (and What We're Doing About It)

    The Catholic dating culture has often been compared to a dumpster fire, and Joseph explains why. Fresh from a conference of marriage and family ministries, he looks at how technology and the erosion of remote preparation for marriage left Catholic singles unprepared, and shares what he and Crystal have been doing about it for over a decade, from retreats to the new 30 Days to Faithful Dating journal. In this episode: Why talk about dating?; What formed our imagination of marriage; Dating prep is human formation; Practice in every relationship; Speed dating without formation; We can’t do it alone. Mentioned: 30 Days to Faithful Dating, a 30-day challenge and journal for Catholic singles (Preview Edition); Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, paragraph 115. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/the-catholic-dating-culture-is-a-dumpster-fire-and-what-were-doing-about-it/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    The Catholic Dating Culture Is a Dumpster Fire (and What We're Doing About It)

  4. Oct 7

    Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen to Good People? A Catholic Answer

    In the year 410 Rome was sacked, and people asked why God would let it happen. Joseph turns to the best answer he has come across for why bad things happen to good people: St. Augustine’s City of God, written three years later. He reads Book One, Chapter 10, then brings it home to a broken washing machine, shattered mugs and the things we hold on to too tightly. In this episode: The best answer I’ve found; Reading Book One, Chapter 10; What breaks before a big trip; Surrendering what we hold on to; Everything can be turned to profit; Whatever you’re going through. Mentioned: St. Augustine, The City of God, Book One (free text at New Advent); Romans 8:28, 1 Timothy 6 and Matthew 6:19–21; 30 Days to Faithful Dating, a 30-day challenge and journal for Catholic singles. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/why-bad-things-are-allowed-to-happen-to-good-people/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen to Good People? A Catholic Answer

  5. Sep 30

    Education and Its Fruits: Where Are All the Praying Men?

    Judge education and its fruits the way Christendom understood society: as praying men, fighting men and working men. Joseph walks from King Alfred to Prussian schooling to the American classroom, and asks why our schools produce so many workers and so few praying men. If God is calling some to the priesthood and religious life and we aren’t seeing them respond, it may be time to look honestly at how we form our children. In this episode: King Alfred’s three kinds of men; Why America looked to Prussia; A public school that produced priests; A father’s job: room to discern; The highest of callings; My brother is a priest. Mentioned: King Alfred the Great’s Old English translation of Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, with his commentary on the three kinds of men; Chesterton Academy and the Chesterton Schools Network founded by Dale Ahlquist; Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture; John Senior and the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/education-and-its-fruits-where-are-all-the-praying-men/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Education and Its Fruits: Where Are All the Praying Men?

  6. Sep 23

    What People Get Wrong About Divorce, Annulments, and the Catholic Church

    Some people think an annulment is just Catholic divorce. Joseph explains what divorce and the Catholic Church’s declaration of nullity really are, starting with John the Baptist, who lost his head for refusing to bless Herod’s remarriage, and St. Thomas More, who lost his over Henry VIII’s. A declaration of nullity doesn’t end a marriage. It recognizes that, because of a lack of capacity, consent or form, no marriage ever took place. In this episode: A world shattered by divorce; Three ways a marriage can fail to happen; Pizza, margarine and the sacraments; When consent was missing; Divorce rates among Catholics; Share the vision and support marriages; The survey and closing prayer. Mentioned: Mark 6 on John the Baptist and Herod, and Matthew 19 on marriage and divorce; St. Thomas More and the Oath of Supremacy under Henry VIII; The Catechism of the Catholic Church on the sacrament of matrimony. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/divorce-and-the-catholic-church/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    What People Get Wrong About Divorce, Annulments, and the Catholic Church

  7. Sep 18

    Why Marriage Is Foundational to Everything: A Catholic View

    You would not exist without the coming together of a man and a woman, and neither would anyone you’ve ever met. Joseph unpacks marriage as foundational to everything: to our existence, to the patterns of love children carry into the world, and to the way God reveals himself as a communion of persons and as Christ the bridegroom. Something this important is worth holding on to, even when it costs us. In this episode: You exist because of marriage; Patterns passed to the next generation; An image of the love of God; The joy of self-gift; Love desires union; Pick up your cross; Honor thy father and mother. Mentioned: Genesis 1, male and female in the image of God, and John 2, the wedding at Cana; Ephesians 5, the great mystery of Christ and the Church; Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited; Wendell Berry on how we all come from divorce. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/marriage-as-foundational-to-everything/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Why Marriage Is Foundational to Everything: A Catholic View

  8. Sep 9

    Catholics Are Losers (And Why That's a Good Thing)

    Catholics are losers, and Joseph thinks that’s the genius of the faith. We are free to lose anything and everything except our soul, so we can lose without losing our peace. In a world absorbed by fear of missing out and being cast out, our Fridays, our Sundays and our devotions train us to hold the things of this world lightly and to find communion with the One who, in the eyes of the world, lost the hardest. In this episode: Catholics are losers; Tolkien and the long defeat; Identity tied to passing things; Sundays and unproductive things; Gardens, social media and identity; Winning the world and losing your soul; Following the one who lost the hardest; The survey and closing prayer. Mentioned: J.R.R. Tolkien on the long defeat; Mark 8:34–36, take up your cross; what does it profit to gain the whole world and lose your soul?; Friday abstinence, the Lord’s Day and the Ember Days. Chapters and full transcript: https://ouroutpost.org/catholics-are-losers-and-why-thats-a-good-thing/ Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: https://quiz.ouroutpost.orgSingle? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: https://ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating/Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylifeJoin our email newsletter: https://ouroutpost.kit.com/b87742fd64Visit our website: https://ouroutpost.org/Listen to our other podcast, Love Your Marriage: https://ouroutpost.org/podcasts/Support our work: https://ouroutpost.org/donate/Email us at hello@ouroutpost.orgIf this episode helped you, please rate, review, and share!

    Catholics Are Losers (And Why That's a Good Thing)
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About

A Catholic show on marriage, relationships, and formation for the lay apostolate. Each week, Joseph Gruber, joined at times by his wife Crystal or a guest, takes a passage of Scripture, a saint, or a good book and turns it into something practical for living as a missionary disciple: at home, in your marriage, in your friendships and dating life, and in your parish and workplace. Joseph and Crystal spent over a decade as Catholic missionaries with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, serving at MIT, UW Madison, Carnegie Mellon, Western Washington University, and a parish in Jackson, Michigan. Today they're the co-founders of Our Outpost, a Catholic marriage ministry that equips men and women for marriage and mission through formation and accompaniment. Married? Take our free four-minute marriage quiz: quiz.ouroutpost.org. Single? Preview 30 Days to Faithful Dating: ouroutpost.org/30-days-to-faithful-dating. Husbands? Get our free course, Happy Wife, Happy Life: ouroutpost.kit.com/happywifehappylife. Our other podcast is Love Your Marriage: ouroutpost.org/podcasts

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