Daily Breakfast 652 – Life in Balance
In this episode: Cliff’s pursuit; changing my Sunday; the Silver Surfer; San Antonio CNMC promo; Sarah Bauer’s breakout session; the Atlanta Eucharistic Congress; Librivox, the iPod and great free catholic audiobooks; the Titanic.Links:
- Cliff’s Pursuing a Balanced Life podcast
- ‘Audiobooks’ – free iPhone/iPod application
- Librivox
- Eucharistic Congress Atlanta
- Catholic New Media Celebration San Antonio
- Sean’s CNMC promo song: ‘People Are Going to San Antone’
- Angela’s CNMC Tourist Guide
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I love your podcast, thanks for the info on LibriVox. I was not aware that you can actually find free audio books online. This is the best!!!
Hi Father, The song is a parody of Charlie Pride’s country hit “Is anybody going to San Antone”. It’s a classic!
Congratulations Fr on making a tough decision. Your resources are limited and you need to make sure that you are spending your time in the most fruitful manner. It can be hard to say ‘no’ to someone or to stop doing something that you’ve been doing for a long time, but sometimes that’s what is best for everyone.
Keep up the great work on SQPN – that is time well spent!
Thanks for what you do.
God bless,
Mike
Father,
Thank you for giving our Audiobooks app a ’shout-out’. It is really encouraging to hear that people are enjoying it and finding it helpful. The surprise-me button was a last minute add-on, put in on a whim. You made my day!
Thanks,
David
Father, you are hard to follow sometimes, but I’m glad you are able to find some balance…
Hi Father Roderick! My name is Matt. I come from Australia. I am actually a Protestant Christian but I find your Daily Breakfast show very interesting. I heard about it a while ago from Jeff Roney. I started listening a bit then got busy. Now I am back and eager to listen. Thank you very much for making this podcast. Bye and God bless!
Father,
Rambo 1&2 and 16 are my favorite, Rambo III did nothing for me.
If you like old movies might I recommend “A bridge too far” it is a WWII movie about Operation Market Garden, staring Gene Hackman, Sean Connary, Robert Redford and many other notables.
Looking forward to seeing you in San Antonio, praying my boss will let me off. I have asked my parish to include in the bulletin for the next 2 weeks and I have heard the word is circulating thought the Knights of Columbus Councils.
It’s unfortunate to hear that you have chosen to move away from the 150 daily Dutch listeners. Many of us have to struggle with the less exhilerating tasks along with the exhilerating tasks.
I would encourage you to reconsider the Dutch show.
Father Roderick, you are in the prime of your career with a unique opportunity to make differences for generations to come. Keep pushing and fighting the good fight. Don’t just settle for watching videos multiple times, and playing video games for 10 to 20 hours (based on fictional movies) that you won’t remember in a few months. These are diversions that contribute little to people that need reasons to embrace (or continue to embrace) the Catholic faith.
You never know when the “golden nugget” show is recorded that helps one listener turn the corner and embrace the Catholic tradition. This includes the listeners on the radio show.
The older Dutch Catholics helped you with your Rome studies in your time on of need. Now some of them are in need and may not be able to travel out to see movies, get videos, play games, and other exhilerating diversions. These 150 people likely enjoyed the lighter side of your show. Try to remember that older people are also likely spectators that lurk in the internet and are less enclined to engage in high tech feedback. The lack of feedback does not necessarily mean that your show was not being well received by some of the older audience. Perhaps you can help bridge the generation gap for them.
Then there is the younger audience that you could grow if you are able to persevere with the show. Perhaps, younger listener shows could be targeted on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and older listener shows could be targeted for Wednesday and Fridays.
Please reconsider the Dutch show in a geographic area (Europe) that is in need of positive reasons for those struggling with their faith in a secular society to continue their efforts with the Catholic community. The Dutch Catholic radio audience potential shouldn’t just be written off. See if you can hang in for the rest of the summer….then the rest of the year … then maybe you will have heard one compelling story of how your efforts and struggle made the difference and helped someone turn the corner.
Your Friend From Ohio,
Jim
@Jim: I understand what you say, but I have to correct a few assumptions.
First of all, the audience listening to the Catholic Radio station that carried my show has 24h/day Catholic programs available to them. They will be perfectly o.k. without my program. So far, there are no indications that many young people are listening to the station – for now, their primary target audience is the elderly.
Secondly, don’t underestimate the incredible strain that a daily show puts on a podcaster when there is no feedback from the audience, no support to produce the show and no measurable effect. It’s like talking into an abyss – the only echo you get is the sound of your own voice. I can only spend my energy once, and I’d rather spend it on projects that evangelize more effectively.
Thirdly, even though I talk about movies and games regularly on the show, I don’t play video games or watch movies to the extend you seem to suggest. I hardly have one hour per evening to wind down and spend on entertainment. No person can work 24 hours a day, it’s not healthy. Priests are human beings to, and we are all working very hard, so we need our ‘time off’!
The core issue I tried to make clear in this episode is that the perceived need for something is not the criteria for spiritual discernment when it comes to your vocation or specific mission. Trying to run around 24h/day trying to save the world will only accomplish one thing: rapid burn out. What really matters is to do what you discern is God’s will. Only he is the savior of the world, and he never asks for the impossible.
To heal the ailing Church in Europe, the efforts and prayers of *all* Catholics are needed, and in the end, only God can change hearts. The more I pray about this, the more I’m convinced that I made the right decision.
Hope this helps you to understand my point of view.
Father,
I am listener of your show.
I got this link from a friend and wanted to share it with you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
God Bless you.
With all due respect and understanding, why don’t you give up the Daily Breakfast and produce a once or twice weekly show, perhaps Monday and Friday.
I would imagine you have lost a lot of marginal listeners who look for a “Daily” breakfast, only to find five shows since May 1st.
It may be time to call it quits.
Have been listening to your daily breakfast for about 2 months and really enjoy it. Hope you will keep it up for a long time. I especially enjoy your enthusiasm for Star Trek and scifi. Listening while excersizing makes the time go faster. Thanks for all you do.
Hi Father,
Just wanted to drop a note and say I really enjoyed this episode – especially how our time-management should be treated as discernment too. That’s a really good point to make. I like how you talked about the signs of discernment too, i.e. how we can recognise if something is God’s will.
Oh, and thanks for the LibriVox thing too; I’ve gotta give that a whirl.
By the way, in case you don’t know dailybreakfast.com is redirecting to an (experimental?) Wordpress blog… Not sure if you intended that.
Re podcasts and that, I’m kind of in two minds. I quite agree with Michael in that it may now be too much of a demand on your time to have a daily Daily Breakfast. Yet, on the other hand I do like the idea of a daily show! And on the other ‘other’ hand (a third hand?), I agree that maybe Holland needs some more attention too.
Anyway, keep up the good work and God bless you,
Mark
Hello Fr. Roderick,
I stand by my comments that the 150 listeners are important. What does the story say about the mustard seed? and seeds on the path?
I was hoping to encourage you to hang in there with the evangelization in Europe. From what I have read and heard, the European Catholic Church is struggling just as much (or perhaps more) than the U.S. Catholic Church. It sounds like there are more choices for U.S. Catholics than Dutch Catholics … as far as new media goes.
It would be a shame to have the Dutch Catholics hanging on in the European Catholic community left with few media choices and therefore being left behind. It is undoubtedly difficult for them to maintain a positive mental attitude when they are being challenged by the wide variety of non-Catholics. Especially considering their faithful efforts to continue to maintain the beautiful churches and to continue to educate future priests.
The five hour a week commitment to use your natural gifts is not the same as a 24 hour a day commitment to save the world. I do not know how you spend your 24 hours each day, I was merely responding to what I heard in this episode.
Perhaps you could draw your positive feedback from SQPN and carry that strength into the needed European evangelization where you do not receive the same level of feedback?
I’m still in your corner and want to see you fully utilize your natural gifts.
Respectfully and Cordially,
Jim
Hello again Father Roderick,
I’ll share one more thought.
The vast majority of people spend thousands of hours every year doing jobs that are not glamorous … but their work is needed. It is very common for most workers to work hard for hundreds of hours and not receive the positive feedback and recognintion that people in higher profile jobs receive. It can also difficult for them to continue doing their job. For example, waiters, waitresses, police officers, teachers, lawn mowing crews, movie theatre managers, clerks, accountants, and on and on. Through discipline and mental toughness they persevere and continue to do their jobs for thousands of hours even though they seem under appreciated and over worked.
Many priests are fortunate to receive as much positive feedback as they do. Thata is not typical of most jobs, and it does not mean that the jobs without positive feedback are irrelevant.
Fr Roderick … there are many of us that appreciate what you do and have done with SQPN and your many podcasts. THANK YOU … we don’t tell you and others that enough.
Do take some time for yourself … to recharge and keep you going in the long term project of evangilzation.
Jim,
I understand what you’re trying to say, but I also see you’re not aware of the current situation of that Dutch radio station. I am a hardcore Catholic and I gave up listening to that radio station because I was bored out of my mind listening to Austrian gospel music, praying the rosary (I don’t need a radio station for that), Lauds and Vespers in Latin, so I don’t know what the prayers are about, and more dull programs.
To summarize it: regular Catholics aren’t listening to that radio station, let alone non-Catholics. The only ones listening are the elderly über-Catholic people. If you want to reach new people to revive the ailing church, Radio Maria doesn’t reach that target audience.
Since the resources are limited, it’s wiser to invest your time in other efforts and that is what Fr. is doing right now.
As a Dutch listener I have to agree with Inge. I truly tried listening to the station, but I couldn’t. It’s just horrid. I’m sorry to say something so harsh, but I tried for weeks at different times of the day and came to the same inevitable conclusion. A lot of (young catholic) friends even mocked me for trying so long..
That said, I even stopped listening to Katholiek Leven, because you just need to make choices and the show was slipping from the standard father Roderick normally has. I’m happy that he has chosen to stop. I think he can spend his time more wisely.
Inge and Petra,
Thanks for sharing!
It seems like a wasted opportunity to walk away from the valuable and rare frequency communication license and just write off the station.
I still believe Fr. Roderick is uniquely qualified to help transition a lame radio station to something more hip, interesting, and appealing for the European listeners.
In the U.S., we have a saying, “It is always darkest just before the dawn.” I was trying to help encourage Fr. Roderick to find the energy to push through the moment of darkness with the radio station.
Roderick, thanks for all your efforts with the Dutch show, I’ve listened to it regularly and liked it!
I fully agree with Inge and Petra about Radio Maria. I’m a ‘hard core’ Catholic as well and couldn’t stand it! Not one single person who belongs to Roderick’s target group will actually listen to that radio channel. And it’s a pitty that only 150 people listen to the Dutch show through the website – obviously it’s not reaching out to the right people over there either.
More than 25% of the Dutch people are Catholics, but the vast majority hardly practise their faith. Cradle Catholics are usually indifferent about the Church and in the worst case they are even negative (especially with the Dutch media being so extremely negative about the Church and the pope). So they are not going to listen to a podcast by a priest ‘just like that’.
I would think that Roderick could reach the right people in the Netherlands by appearing more often in the general media (radio, TV). Non-practising Catholics don’t care so much about religious programs, so the more secular these programs would be the better. People who will become interested, can find his English shows on SQPN. For the younger generations the language won’t be any problem.
But first things first. Run the marathon, recuperate, get things going now with the new time schedule and the Sundays off
BustedHalo Cast 127 has an interview with Father Roderick where he talks about how he is reaching out to the European Catholic youth.
It’s an interesting flash back that may be worth a listen if you missed it … or forgot the episode.