Breaking In The Habit

Learning From Others

This week, there is an unintentional theme among all of my videos: look to others to improve on their mistakes. I’m only seeing this common thread now, but it seems to be a good message.

Not all prayer is good

Prayer is our way to connect with God. It should be encouraged always. But just because prayer is necessary, doesn’t mean that it’s always fruitful. It takes practice. In this Upon Friar Review, we look at four examples of prayer that’s… a little off. (Because of technical difficulties, this was intended for last Friday, but was released Monday. I’ve included it once again here as a summary of the week.)

https://youtu.be/dbWbQa1yi1I

The Franciscans have messed up

Look at the Franciscans today and compare them to how St. Francis lived. It’s quite a contrast. Many have concluded that we’ve betrayed the foundation of the Order… and I don’t completely disagree. History needs context, and evaluation needs nuance. Ultimately, we’re all in need of reform.

An Atheist’s misguided rant

What do you do when a comedian does a bit entitled “religion is bulls***”? If you’re Fr. Patrick and I, you watch it, take it all in, and try to make the best of it.

https://youtu.be/WUpeMKfehe8

The Jesuits Copied the Franciscans…

And made a more efficient Order. This is my take on the foundation of the Jesuits. Look to the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and you will find the Franciscan charism running through his veins. He was clearly influenced by our life and work, and we applaud him for what he did with it.

No Podcast this week

Unfortunately, life got the best of me last week! With an out-of-town wedding and extra things to cover, I had to push back the recording of our episode of Everyday Liminality. It wouldn’t have fit into the unintentional theme of the week anyway! New episode set to release Tuesday!

The Rich, Young Man

This weekend, the Gospel at mass is about the Rich Young Man who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Because he has many possessions, he goes away sad, a cautionary tale for us all. While many will contend that it is about an inappropriate attachment to money, I think that it is much more than that: it’s about discipleship. In my book Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship, I use this passage as a jumping off point to ask the reader, If you were to put yourself in the rich young man’s position, what would Jesus say you need to let go of? In other words, what is preventing you from following Jesus unreservedly? If you’d like to explore this question further, you can purchase copies of my book here.

Hope everyone has a great week! Peace and good,

Fr. Casey

Happy Feast! Two New Videos!

That’s not how your pray!

After some technical difficulties on Friday (YouTube blocked our video!) we’re happy to share this week’s Upon Friar Review! It’s a pretty great video, if I say so myself, looking at the funny ways that prayer is depicted in media. Sometimes, it’s good to look to bad examples so that we know what NOT to do!

https://youtu.be/dbWbQa1yi1I

Ignatius, the Copycat?

It’s pretty well known that St. Ignatius of Loyola was inspired by St. Francis. But how deep does it go? In this first episode of Reclaiming Catholicism, I look at the many ways that the Franciscans influenced the Jesuit Order, and why that’s a great thing for the Church. This video premiers at 11:15 this morning.

A New Series?

Reclaiming Catholicism

For years, I made videos explaining the faith, digging into the history and nuance of how Catholicism developed. The “Catholicism in Focus” series was a resource that I know many people appreciated. Unfortunately, I dreaded making them, and eventually couldn’t justify the series anymore. Well, it’s back. Sort of.

Progress Isn’t Always Progress

For many, history is a story of constant progress: we are more advanced than a generation ago, which was more advanced than the generation before that, and so on, back to the caveman. But is this actually true? I’d like to suggest that this is a lie of the Enlightenment, and it’s gotten us into some big problems lately.

FREEEEEEEEDOM!

Few movies are quite as iconic in recent memory than Braveheart. Before there was The Lord of the Rings, this was the film everyone watched for some ancient, brutish heroism. It definitely has some historical flaws, but Fr. Tito and I are willing to overlook them.

Upon Friar Review Video Blocked

One of the challenges in making a “react” style channel is YouTube’s draconian approach to fair use and copyright infringement. Many weeks, our videos are automatically flagged for including copyrighted material, which requires a dispute process. Every video, thus far, has been released, but sometimes it takes longer than others. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting on this week’s video to be released. When it’s up, I’ll let you know!

In Response to Trent Horn

Last week, a popular apologist by the name of Trent Horn posted a response to my video about the Chosen where I discussed the origins of the Gospels. Because of this video, many have concluded that I was incorrect in my presentation, or worse yet, deeply misinformed and heretical. A few words.

The theological position that Horn presents in regards to the dating of the Gospels has gained popularity in recent years, but it remains the minority position. Few legitimate scholars advocate it. In critiquing my take, he failed to acknowledge that what I was presenting has been the prevailing scholarship for decades, found explicitly described in the introduction to the New American Bible, the translation commissioned and approved by the USCCB. Intellectually, I am open to the validity of his claim, but found his presentation very disingenuous and misleading—he is free to critique the prevailing scholarship, but don’t present it as if it’s my personal idea and that I alone am in error. I simply presented what most theologians accept to be true.

The second issue regarded what he deemed confusing about my language. Taking just a few lines, out of context, he concluded and told his viewers that I denied the historicity of the Gospels. This is simply not true. The problem that most seem to not understand, possibly even Horn, is that the discipline of history changed drastically after the Enlightenment. Today, it is all about precision of facts. We want pure objectivity. That is not how history was written in the time of Jesus. It included symbolism, theological reflections, exaggerations, and allusions to other words, and was written not simply to document what happened but to convince the reader of something. With that in mind, it would be inappropriate, as I said in the video, to read the Gospels as we would historical documents today. They are not newspaper articles. They are not history textbooks. They are historical and contain much of what really happened, but they also contain a lot more. For this reason, they should be treated more as theological documents than as pure, objective history.

This is neither my opinion nor a controversial take. It’s simply how biblical scholarship works. To suggest from this that I do not accept the historicity of the Gospels is more than disingenuous—it is highly hurtful to my reputation as a priest. Any suggestion that I am not orthodox in my beliefs of that I am uneducated is simply not true.

Have a Happy Feast!

This week Franciscans around the world will remember the life and death of St. Francis of Assisi. I hope your celebrations go well!

Greatest Movie Ever?

The Jesuits used to be tough guys

At least, that’s what Fr. Patrick says to open this video. Reviewing The Mission, the two of us respond to the heroism of the missionaries who, with almost nothing on their back, traveled around the world to spread the Gospel. It’s an inspiring, haunting film that will change you. I go back to this movie often, and listen to the music on a regular basis.

https://youtu.be/2Wt3OzXU40w

The Dark Knight deserves the hype

The Dark Knight is heralded by many as one of the greatest super hero movies of all time. I’ll go a step further: I believe the Joker in this movie IS the greatest super hero villain of all time. Fr. Tito agrees. This movie has layers: ethical questions, dark issues, easily accessible action scenes, and a whole lot of entirely unbelievable scenarios. We get to them all in this week’s podcast.

Dunk the “Monk”

Yesterday, I volunteered for the “dunk tank” at an event for the elementary school students. It was a pretty fun time, even for the one being dunked!

I did, however, get to join in on the throwing fun. When one of the high school theology teachers took his turn, I was the first to jump up… and totally dunked him. Right before hitting the water, you’ll notice him saying “I’m praying to St. Thomas Aquinas.” This is an ongoing joke we have, a rivalry between the Dominicans and Franciscans. I guess Scotus won this one!

No Reflection, but…

Sorry for nothing posted to Breaking In The Habit’s YouTube channel this week, but there will be a double feature next week, including a special announcement on Monday! Be sure to check back for both videos!

Hope you all have a great week! Peace and good,

Fr. Casey

Some Heavy Stuff This Week

What Happens When A Priest Loses His Faith?

The television show House is about curmudgeonly who is incredible at solving rare cases of diseases… and also hates everyone. Including God. In the episode that Fr. Patrick and I reviewed, he’s met his match. Not only is his patient a priest who claims to have had a vision of Jesus, this priest has lost his faith. Oh, and he’s been accused to sexual misconduct with a minor. This is not a funny episode… but it is quite powerful.

https://youtu.be/V5iLoOxZteA

The Best “Sports” Movie of All Time

Field of Dreams is a classic. Which is why it made it onto our podcast this semester, a list of all-time classics. But is it a “sports” movie? Fr. Tito will split hairs and Fr. Casey will present a wild fan theory about the movie.

What Gives the Catholic Church the Right??

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of Christian denominations in the world. And yet, the Catholic Church claims to be the “One, True Church.” Where does that sense of authority come from? Let me tell you, it’s the most fascinating thing I’ve ever produced on this channel. Seriously. You don’t want to miss this video.

Helpful Resources About the COVID Vaccines

While COVID vaccines have been around for almost a year now, there still seems to be confusion about its moral usage. I still see it online all the time, people claiming it is it immoral because of its connection to abortion. I made a video last December about the Catholic Church’s take on moral cooperation with evil, but I’ve found these article helpful as well.

Anti-Vaccine Catholics Break Moral Theology Principles

12 Things Less-Remote Cooperation in Evil Than COVID Vaccines

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter!

Peace and good,

Fr. Casey