WOF 405: Why We Love Distractions

The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Brandon Vogt

God, Vogt, Catholicism, Catholic, Faith, Christianity, Barron, Religion & Spirituality, Christian, Church

4.9 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Friends, why do we love being distracted from the important things of life? The great French philosopher Blaise Pascal observed, “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”

On today’s episode of “The Word on Fire Show,” Brandon Vogt and I discuss why it is so hard to be still and contemplate reality, and how we can get better at it.

A listener asks, what are some things laity can do to build unity in the Church?

Links

Bishop Barron at World Youth Day
Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees Edited, Outlined, and Explained by Peter Kreeft
Saintly Creatures: 14 Tales of Animals and Their Holy Companions by Alexi Sargeant

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We have to deal with the great abiding central questions about God, about meaning, about
0:10.2	where my life is going, about death, the fact of death, the fact that I'm confronted with
0:17.1	eternity.
0:18.1	You know, there's this life I'm leading and then it's surrounded as it were by eternity.
0:24.0	But those questions are so hard and they're so challenging and they're just too immense.
0:31.9	And so what I do is I distract myself endlessly from them.
0:44.3	Welcome back to The Word on Fire Show.
0:46.4	I'm Brandon Vaat, the host and the Senior Publishing Director at Word on Fire.
0:51.3	We love being distracted.
0:53.8	Why is it so hard to sit still, quietly and contemplate reality?
0:59.3	And how can a 17th century philosopher help us escape this quandary?
1:04.5	That's what we're discussing today with Bishop Robert Barron.
1:06.7	It joins us as he usually does from our studio and Rochester.
1:10.3	Bishop, welcome.
1:11.3	Hey, Brandon.
1:12.3	Good morning, good to see you as always.
1:14.4	You have had an extraordinarily busy last couple months, but probably the big event was
1:18.8	your international travel to World Youth Day, which was in Lisbon, Portugal.
1:23.7	Tell us how that went.
1:25.2	It was great.
1:26.2	I loved it.
1:27.2	I've been to four World Youth Days now.
	...

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