On the topic of restoring a hurt friendship, I have experienced the true joy of this. A good friendship of mine took a big hit a few years ago due to some immature behavior on my part and some backbiting on his part. But I matured and he matured, and we tried again. It took both of us being humble and open, and putting the other's good at the center. He's one of my closest friends today and the joy of our friendship is one of my life's greatest blessings.

Always love when you have your friends on. These are generally my favorite episodes. Need another Jacob/Marc/Rob episode.

Somewhere there’s a Muslim with the last name “priest” lol.

PETITION: Please have Thursday on your show, Matt!!!

I am smiling and nodding all through out. I work in Qatar, as you know, a muslim country, and work is double the load now that it is during Ramadan. Listening to this episode while closingand cleaning up the kitchen which I am dreading all day for I am tired, but this got me through ❤️ God bless us all

The question of "What do I do if I can't find a friend?" and the response of "Consider moving" is just really frustrating. Lack of friends sucks - but is it honestly worth leaving to another town far away from mine and my wife's family on the off-chance (no guarantee) that I can establish meaningful and lifelong friends in a "vibrant" Catholic community ?

What I find interesting is the high quantity of writings in classical thought on friendship (Plato's 'Laches'; Cicero's 'De Amicitate'; Aristotle's discussions in the 'Ethics', Christ's discourses about it in Saint John's gospel, and perhaps many others whom I have neither read nor heard of) in contrast to the low quantity on the same in the modern era. It is almost as if people in the ancient and medieval world took love and friends more seriously than they do in our own age.

My best friend and I first bonded over coffee, literature, and our common Christianity even tho she was Cath. and I was Prot. After I became Catholic, our friendship reached a whole new level. I don’t think we would be as close today if we weren’t united on that deepest level, in Communion if you will.

Not me being hyperfocused on timber framing. Thanks for driving my wife crazy by providing me topics to discuss with my pillow ad nauseam while she tries to sleep😅

I don't understand why the videos with Jacob don't get more views. They are legitimately some of the best on this channel.

👍 Your conversations together are always extremely helpful....only around 15 mins in and already have new usable ideas for healthy bonding activities. I'll keep listening... thanks!!

Great Podcast guys, it was really enjoyable to listen to. I have one comment on: "When your wills are aligned, there friendship is" I disagree, I think that would still apply to two guys who decide to rob a bank together and split the money. That's not a true friend. A true friendship begins when you love your friend for who they are, and receive their love in return. It begins when you look at another in contemplation and (like God) say "It is good that you exist." If you say - "You are my friend" - it must be forever. As the goodness you see in that friend will never go away because it comes from God via the virtue of being made in His image. and another comment on - On why Live interviews are better - Love (and therefore friendship) requires presence.

2:32:42 "I think it was Fulton Sheen or somebody... Poor Fulton Sheen, he’s the repository of all uncertain quotes." That's a good quote :D Works for Chesterton and Einstein too ;)

It’s funny as a Catholic I have made plenty of Muslim friends. I have NO Catholic friends. I would like to find Catholic friends, people I have in common with in my area but I can’t! It’s sad!

Yesterday I walked right next to the Governor of Oregon and her wife and male guard in an empty intersection next to my parish in an area with so many homeless, crime, enabling and distress these past years, I simply ache for my Salem though looked at as a threat in my maleness. Viva long honest friends. Degarmo & Key Apathy Alert. St. Joseph, pray for us. Mother Mary, Pray for us.

Wonderful discussion on an incredibly important topic.

Jacob’s story is such a great testament to faith!

2:36:00 I’ve been married for five months - life is SO hard, marriage is not 💕😇 Praise the Lord

Great conversation ❤ thank you Matt

Great episode

These are some of my favorite talks Matt you are totally crushing it🎉

Thursday laughs like the way I text/type a laugh.

It's always so sad to hear just how many people do not have real friends. Our culture definitely is against friendship, but it's also an art that individuals need to cultivate. I think when you learn how to be a good friend you can then make friends. Otherwise your efforts are just frustrated. I have several great friends and I often forget this is not the case for many people.

I have been married 5.5 years, so I’m open to being wrong on this and growing in wisdom. Marriage is not hard. I’m not saying it doesn’t have challenges. It if course does. My wife and I have a 3 year old and a one year old, and they don’t have halos so obviously they can be difficult. But if we say marriage is hard the question has to be asked in comparison to what? I’m sure the priesthood is hard. I know being single was hard. Dating was hard. Engagement was hard. Marriage is no more hard than those, so if we say all of those are hard then hard loses its meaning. I have the same view of marriage today as I had before I was married. Being married is to wake up each day and say, well im going to love my spouse today or at least try my best. Some days I suck at it. Some days I knock it out of the park. I suspect everyone in every vocation could say the exact same thing. The ratio of how many good to bad days you have is just the ratio on how well you are growing in virtue. (I did write this before they had they back and forth.)

An interesting conversation and a beautiful friendship to witness... I'm just thinking if this isn't more of a male thing - companionship, cigar lounges, lawnmowers and all. At least when children are little it's hard to imagine a woman, a mother enjoying the same intimate friendship with her girlfriends. There must be something of a equivalent I'm sure, I just hadn't had the good fortune to encounter the thing and don't really know how to imagine it.

love this

You should get Matt Whitman on the show

Matt, please give an introduction to your guests to explain who they are in the Catholic world. Some of us (old ladies like me) aren't knowledgeable about everyone on the internet, instagram, etc.

Friends that pray together stay together ❤️🙏 #truefriendship

15:39 I was not expecting to hear this reference here of all places it absolutely killed me 😂😂

Great episode!

Another Indian Imam converted to Catholicism many years ago. Please interview him. I can help to connect him.

Just saw these two coming out of Chesterton's Cigars in downtown Steubenville a few hours ago.. All I could say was " Mr. Fradd ... I've seen you on KZfaq '. Kinda corny on my part. I guess I was momentarily starstruck. Alas, at least he responded "hey". Both these gentlemen are doing a good work for the Lord.

I would like to see Dr. Robert Haddad on the show. He is an Australian! ⚘️

Thanks

JOHN CUDDEBACK, PH.D. on Virtuous Friendship and Phylosophy is also phenomenal. You should have him on your podcast. His a great and faithful believer.

Will you guys do a show on the issues or full time WFH? I do think there’s a problem there and you guys touch on it a bit here. I’m fairly depressed when working in isolation from co workers and it seems so obvious but so many people want the WFH life due to its convenience. If indeed you agree with that premise, of course.

Re: marriage being easy (end of discussion) - I think that life in general is easier as a married person because you have a partner and friend to rely on in times of difficult, but I agree with Matt that any difficulties that seem to happen are my own brokenness and sinfulness in encountering those life events. Having the humility to recognize one's own insufficiencies and insecurities makes it much easier, but getting to that point is rough. So maybe to sum up, marriage is easy for the couple but hard for the individual? Which is how it's supposed to be, I think. We throw around the idea that our vocations are our pathways to heaven, but what does that really mean except purgation and purification?

Great episode. On the topic of guys and girls being friends, would you say that maybe a reason guys are not as comfortable in vulnerable/heart to heart situations has to do with the lack of fatherhood in our world? It would seem as though the father's 'vulnerability' (in certain respects) with his sons can help form the sons to know that they can have close male friendships without it becoming weird.

It's always a lawnmower on Lawson lol (former Lawson resident here)

Am I wrong when I say that men make a lot more friends that most women?

That knife was borrowed from Stella's Belle inn Omaha NE. They love you there. They sell knives swords mideval weapons and they love the saints. FAUSTINA IN DA HOUSE

Is Jacob Imam Byzantine Catholic? Anyone else notice the Eastern sign of the cross at 9:45??

Sorry Thursday. We all think we know Brett Cooper.

2:07 on for 10 minutes

How do I get a 'Love Makes Babies and Institutions' tshirt?

Don't get feeling that the guy has a clear sense of what it is he's trying to say. It's just like he's repeating what really smart people have said in fancy words without having a real message himself.

Problems in just the first few minutes: 1.Friendship and charity are synonymous terms (False; Aquinas is explicit that friendship, love, and charity are three different things) 2. When making an analogy, there is always a greater dissimilarity than similarity (False; Imam is confusing Lateran IV's doctrine about language of God with the definition of analogy) 3. One of St. Thomas' "great transformations" is that friendships of utility and pleasure can be movements into real friendship (False; Aristotle explicitly says the exact same thing in the Nicomachean Ethics) I stopped there. This may be useful for some, but it was too sloppy for me. Aristotle's treatment of friendship is one of the best we have. This fellow's gotta read it before he attempts to critique it, especially on a channel named after Aquinas.

Matt endlessly talks about how great Steubenville is and is surprised when young people move there. Matt endlessly talks about how hard marriage is and is surprised when young people avoid marriage.

Uh ladato si? Good?? Rethink that one friend.

love this