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La Bonne Vie

La Bonne Vie

By Kyle Albarado

Great conversations about the joys, struggles, strategies, and triumphs in the pursuit of fostering Catholic, classical homes.
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Episode 24: Beauty

La Bonne VieJan 30, 2022

00:00
54:39
Back to School Shorts: Ethos
Aug 21, 202313:11
Back to School Short: Attention
Aug 14, 202309:57
Back to School Short: Education in Freedom

Back to School Short: Education in Freedom

This is the first of a series of Back to School Shorts reading excerpts from Stratford Caldecott's Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education. In this short, we read from Caldecott on the liberal arts and their role in an education for freedom.


La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from ⁠⁠John Paul the Great Academy⁠⁠ dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by ⁠⁠L'Angelus⁠⁠.

Aug 10, 202313:02
Episode 2.5: Liturgical Formation (Part 1)

Episode 2.5: Liturgical Formation (Part 1)

Deacon Conque and Kyle are back in the studio this week discussing the idea of liturgical formation.


Show Notes

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from ⁠⁠John Paul the Great Academy⁠⁠ dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by ⁠⁠L'Angelus⁠⁠.


Apr 03, 202346:32
Episode 2.4: Dr. Jacob Imam

Episode 2.4: Dr. Jacob Imam

Kyle and Deacon sit down with Dr. Jacob Imam to discuss the money, the Gospel, and the good life.


Dr. Jacob Imam is one of the founders and contributes regularly over at New Polity. Here are a few of our favorite contributions.


La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from ⁠John Paul the Great Academy⁠ dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by ⁠L'Angelus⁠.


Mar 20, 202353:14
Lent and the Good Life: Episode 26

Lent and the Good Life: Episode 26

It's that time of year again! Time to recommit to the work of our salvation. Here's a segment from our Lenten episode from last season. To hear the full episode, click the link provided below.

Full Episode



La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.


Feb 25, 202314:11
Episode 2.3: Meet Mrs. Odinet Part 2
Dec 12, 202228:26
Episode 2.2: Meet Mrs. Odinet
Dec 05, 202223:35
Episode 2.1: Cultural Commitments
Nov 28, 202245:51
Episode 27: Meet Mr. Baker
Mar 02, 202242:15
Episode 26: Getting Ready for a Classically Catholic Lent

Episode 26: Getting Ready for a Classically Catholic Lent

Deacon and Kyle talk this week about getting ready for a classically Catholic Lent. Join as we converse about the wisdom of the classical Lenten devotions to pray, fast, and gives alms.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Lenten Message 2003

"The Son of God loved us first, while "we were yet sinners", with an unconditional love which asks nothing in return. If this is so, how can we fail to see the season of Lent as a providential opportunity to make courageous decisions inspired by altruism and generosity? Lent offers us the practical and effective weapons of fasting and almsgiving as a means of combating an excessive attachment to money. Giving not only from our abundance, but sacrificing something more in order to give to the needy, fosters that self-denial which is essential to authentic Christian living. Strengthened by constant prayer, the baptized reveal the priority which they have given to God in their lives. The love of God poured into our hearts ought to inspire and transform who we are and what we do. Christians must not think that they can seek the true good of their brothers and sisters without embodying the charity of Christ..."

Click here for Kyle's reflection on Lent in the Economy of Salvation.

1. Lenten Joy

ּ• allow Lent to wound us to be drawn in by the Lord

• arriving at Easter ready to FEAST!

• traditional Lenten observance: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving

• Ash Wednesday starts Lenten contemplation

2. Thinking about Words Deeply: Contemplating Lent

• etymology of Lent: spring

• sacramental vision: the natural patterns of spring signify the spiritual call of Lent

• rediscover the joy of eternal life, the treasures of the spiritual life

• preparing for a good death: the role of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving

• the tension of Lent: doing what pleases versus seeking joy; the tension to be in the world but not of the world

• Lent originally was a season to prepare for the renewal of our baptismal promises

• begin Lent before it starts, ask the Holy Spirit to be a part of planning; it's not about showing off but showing up

3. Contemplating Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

• the warning on Ash Wednesday: don't celebrate Lent like the hypocrites

• be led by the Spirit, following the Lenten example of Jesus

• the spiritual life should not feel like the world feels

• avoid acedia (sloth) this lent through the classical principle of multum non multa: much of one not many

• Lent is not about proving to God how much we love him, but allowing God to reveal to us how much he loves us!

• defining and contemplating prayer, fasting, and almsgiving

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Feb 23, 202201:18:25
Episode 25: Incarnational Beauty

Episode 25: Incarnational Beauty

Kyle and Deacon Conque continue to get transcendental in this final installment from our series on the transcendentals. Join us as we contemplate transcendental beauty and the Cross.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Address during Vigil of Prayer at 15th World Youth Day, August 19, 2000

"It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle."

1. Memory and Beauty

ּ• the importance of memory, "Do this in memory of me."

• repetitio mater memoriae, repetition is the mother of memory (Click here for a video from Dr. Christopher Perrin discussing this important principle in classical education.)

• remembering what's at stake: the fullness of life we have in Christ

• Is the Cross beautiful?

• Cardinal Ratzinger, The Feelings of Things, a Contemplation of Beauty

• avoiding the danger of letting mystery become familiar; "without contemplation, familiarity becomes contempt"

• willingness to be wounded by beauty

2. Expectations, the Scandal of the Cross, and Beauty

• beauty strikes us something gratuitous, beyond our expectations, more than we deserve

• the Lord's loving lagniappe

• the beauty of the Cross is not in physical appearance but in truth

• beauty inflicts a wound of love

• true knowledge is being struck by the arrow of beauty that wounds man

• beauty not in the "ahhh" but in the "owww"

• example of the Blessed Mother and her Immaculate Heart

• the pain of beauty roots us to stay in the mystery

3. Beauty and the Paradox of the Cross

• the depth of beauty available to us in paradox is beyond anything else; the paradox of the Cross

• the good life as a lifetime of being wounded in the contemplation of the Cross

• the profound relationship between beauty and suffering

• hunger is the best spice, being present in the scandal of the Cross enhances the wound and increases our awareness of beauty

• spending time with the Lord in His agony 

• Lent as a communal contemplation of the Cross

• we don't want the wound of beauty to heal, we want the wound to increase our dependence on the Love of God

• an education of the Cross 

• Lent is not about proving to God how much we love him, but it's about letting God love us.

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Feb 07, 202201:05:59
Episode 24: Beauty

Episode 24: Beauty

The wait is over! Season 2 kicks off with Deacon Conque and Kyle continuing to get transcendental in this final installment from our series on the transcendentals. Join us as we contemplate transcendental beauty.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Address during Vigil of Prayer at 15th World Youth Day, August 19, 2000

"It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle."

1. What is beauty?

ּ• the importance of ideas in the life of the mind

• real experience of beauty is a conversion to reality

• unity, truth, and goodness allows us to possess being, but beauty is about us being possessed by being

• beauty is profoundly Eucharistic

• aesthetic beauty vs. ontological beauty

• St. Thomas Aquinas and beauty: beauty is that which, when contemplated, delights

• What does it mean to delight in something?

• the problem with social media: tempts us to share an experience of beauty before ever having the experience of beauty

2. Encountering Beauty

• beauty, longing, and pain

• beauty, recreation, and entertainment

• being entertained by the show Friends is ugly

• the danger in allowing our kids to be entertained by things that are not beauty

• the importance of letting beautiful things order us

• the conversion from entertainment to recreation

• Seinfeld as the antithesis of Friends: a world that punishes sin and vice as opposed to being rewarded for sin and vice

• *Word Check: Kyle mentions how something beautiful harmonizes with reality as opposed to being dissident with reality. In using dissident, he really meant dissonant but made a verbal faux pas. A dissident is a person who is disagreeing or dissenting in opinion or attitude. Something is dissonant when it is out of harmony, incongruous, disagreeing or harsh in sound, or music characterized by dissonance.

3. Getting Real about Sin and Beauty

• We should care about what we are entertained by.

• An Examen: Is what we are drawn to good for us, beautiful, rooted in truth, unifying? Temperance: How much time do I spend being entertained?

• things are ordering us; what are we being ordered by?

• In the Home: How do we spend time as family

• We are not helpless with regard to our preferences. Our desires are shaped by growth in beauty.

• If we order eating to health, can we ever enjoy boudin balls in an ordered way?

• Albarado's argument for the beauty and nobility of boudin balls

• The Lord's invitation: Come and see. Or, come and become someone who sees. This is the encounter of beauty.

•  beauty, seeing God, and purity of heart

• temperance frees us from addiction to goods so that we can be free to enter into the ontological beauty

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jan 30, 202254:39
Episode 23: Goodness Gracious

Episode 23: Goodness Gracious

Kyle and Deacon Conque continue the conversation on transcendental goodness. Join us as we seek to conform our wills by affirming, pursuing, and being grateful for goodness.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio

"No less important than research in the theoretical field is research in the practical field—by which I mean the search for truth which looks to the good which is to be performed. In acting ethically, according to a free and rightly tuned will, the human person sets foot upon the path to happiness and moves towards perfection."

1. Pope St. John Paul the Great on Pursuing the Good: Tuning the Will

ּ• the danger of pursuing truth without goodness

• the practical dimension of goodness

• being good is higher and more foundational than doing good

• the active life should flow from the contemplative life

• tuning the will to what is real: attention and adjustment

• tuning the will and the path to happiness

2. Incarnating Goodness in the Home

• responding to the good: affirmation, pursuit, and gratitude

• spouses being in tune with each other

• conjugal: with yoking, being harnessed together

• seeing unity with our spouse with gratitude instead of seeing it as a burden

• reality as gift

• nature of a gift: goodness beyond what we deserve-gratitude

• resentment as a lack of gratitude: examining when we feel unappreciated and angry

• resentment and holding on: rooted in us holding on to a sin or weakness that we haven't yet committed to the Lord

• frustration and beating ourselves up when we really just need to adjust our tuning

3. Goodness and the Fundamentals

• a finely tuned will and contemplation

• the tragedy when we don't receive the goodness from our spouse and children

• fundamental goodness and education

• classical education is designed to form students to affirm, pursue, and have gratitude for goodness

• the difficult discernment to take the risk of classical education in high school

• parental authority and educational choices

• gratitude for the gift of classical education

• classical education is to education what the sacraments are to salvation

• the importance and danger of praising our children: praising outcomes creates entitled narcissists

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Nov 15, 202150:05
Episode 22: Collarnary Cook Off & Family Consecration with Fr. Barrett
Nov 09, 202145:23
Episode 21: For Goodness' Sake

Episode 21: For Goodness' Sake

Kyle and Deacon Conque continue to get transcendental this week by talking about goodness. Join us as we seek to conform our wills to being by nourishing our souls on goodness in the first part of this two-part conversation.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

1. Good as a Transcendental

𐄁 truth directs intellect to being, goodness directs will to being

𐄁 goodness is about perfection

𐄁 possession of the good; what do we mean by possession?

𐄁 possession as bond of unity, abiding

𐄁 the good is to be possessed

𐄁 we must pursue good things in good ways, classical education

𐄁 freedom and the good

𐄁 using good versus abiding in good

2. The Proper Response to Transcendental Goodness

𐄁 the chair analogy: valuing classical education appropriately

𐄁 admiration, hope, and how we should be inclined to the good

𐄁 goodness as an invitation to beatitude

𐄁 surrender to the source of goodness as freedom

𐄁 admiration not the most fitting response to goodness

𐄁 affirmation, pursuit, and gratitude are the most fitting responses to goodness

3. Responding to the Goodness of Our Spouse

𐄁 affirming goodness in our spouse

𐄁 the problem when we affirm things that are not good

𐄁 taking time to delight in our spouse

𐄁 affirming goodness and maintaining benevolence

3. Responding to the Goodness of Our Children

𐄁 Storge, Greek word for the kind of love we have for our children

𐄁 pursuing the goodness of our children by playing with them

𐄁 the challenges with pursuing the goodness of our pre-teen and teenage children

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Nov 08, 202101:09:02
Episode 20: Transcendental Truth

Episode 20: Transcendental Truth

Kyle and Deacon Conque continue to get transcendental this week by talking about truth. Join us as we seek to conform our minds to being by nourishing our souls on truth. 

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio

"With a false modesty, people rest content with partial and provisional truths, no longer seeking to ask radical questions about the meaning and ultimate foundation of human, personal and social existence. In short, the hope that philosophy might be able to provide definitive answers to these questions has dwindled."

1. Truth as a Transcendental

𐄁 a primer on the transcendentals

𐄁 analogy of food: transcendentals as soul food

𐄁 sin as a corruption of being: the need to order our loves

𐄁 being nourished by what is more noble, has more being: analogy of music

𐄁 definition of truth: being as known

𐄁 grounding life everyday in God through truth

𐄁 by knowing Jesus, we know truth, and the truth will set us free

𐄁 distinguishing ontological and epistemological truth

𐄁 truth strengthens the intellect

2. Truth and Educational Methods

𐄁 work of classical education prepares truth to nourish souls like a great chef prepares a nourishing and delicious meal

𐄁 modern education: cram-test-forget cycle (John Mays)

𐄁 people love learning: the innate desire to know truth

𐄁 knowing truth versus knowing information

𐄁 educational methods should nourish the desire for truth

𐄁 the danger of educational methods that makes idols out of lower truths

𐄁 being is radically intelligible; transcendental truth is an invitation to a feast

𐄁 being a school community of homes that nourish knowledge of the Father through Jesus in the Holy Spirit

3. Truth and the Home

𐄁 encouraging the pursuit of truth as a priority in our homes

𐄁 the virtue proper to transcendental truth is docility

𐄁 docility is the virtue of being able to quickly recognize truth, apprehend it, comprehend it

𐄁 ordering our loves through transcendental truth: sacramentality of being

𐄁 baptism binds us to the truth: special obligation to truth as Christians

𐄁 the vice opposed to transcendental truth is the vice of curiosities

𐄁 being ruled by curiosity makes us effeminate 

𐄁 the vice of curiositas is the misuse of the intellect for entertainment, power, prestige, or for any uses opposed to the good of the intellect

𐄁 gossip is part of the vice of curiositas

𐄁 pornography as a perversion of truth

𐄁 the problem of having a low threshold for belief: need to encounter things as true before belief

𐄁 excited about information versus animated by truth

𐄁 don't settle for mere information, seek truth

𐄁 love is the animating principle of the search for truth

𐄁 the role of a parent in speaking the truth

𐄁 take the risk to pursue truth rather than easy outcomes: have meaningful conversations about learning


La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Oct 25, 202101:16:39
Episode 19: Transcendental Unity

Episode 19: Transcendental Unity

Deacon Conque and Kyle continue to get transcendental this week by talking about unity, the often forgotten but oh so important transcendental. Join us as we seek to nourish our souls on unity, the spice of being.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio

"Set within the Christian metaphysical tradition, the philosophy of being is a dynamic philosophy which views reality in its ontological, causal and communicative structures. It is strong and enduring because it is based upon the very act of being itself, which allows a full and comprehensive openness to reality as a whole, surpassing every limit in order to reach the One who brings all things to fulfillment."

1. Meaning of Unity as a Transcendental

𐄁 being and principle of integrity

𐄁 experiencing beings as unified things, as one thing

𐄁 unity of a being highlights relationships with other unified beings

𐄁 God as unity of persons

𐄁 importance of forming our minds by metaphysical principles

𐄁 the metaphysical dimension of how God named himself as "I am who am"

𐄁 nourishing our souls through unity: integrity

2. Restoring Freedom through Nourishment of the Soul on Unity

𐄁 Why we take study seriously: highest power is the ordering principle

𐄁 forming the highest power: intellect

𐄁 ordering all of our powers and faculties

𐄁 back to basics on the function of education

𐄁 integrity: "come on, be real with me"

𐄁 reason without grace versus reason with grace

𐄁 the unique opportunity of faith in Christ

𐄁 experience and the life of the mind

𐄁 great ideas, when they enter the life of the mind, increases our attention to what is most real

3. Unity in Our Life and Home: Prayerful Contemplation of Great Ideas from Revelation 

𐄁 unity as the seasoning of being: having a feast through our experience of reality

𐄁 back to the Trinity: the distinction of each Person in the Trinity highlights the glory of God

𐄁 faith and reason beautifully animate our ability to love

𐄁 circular movement of Love: St. Thomas Aquinas

𐄁 unity and spousal love

𐄁 deepening oneness through pursuing God's love in a meaningful way

𐄁 joy of life, pursuing unity as part of a whole in our marriage and in our home

4. Seeing Knowledge as One

𐄁 avoiding the modern tendency to disintegrate knowledge

𐄁 knowledge is a union with being: the more we know, the more we are united with knowledge

𐄁 let this unity of knowledge echo in the home

𐄁 contemplate with your child out loud, "How is what you learned knowledge?" (in the classical sense)

𐄁 JPG as a campus where knowledge unites our students and not divides them

𐄁 searching for that unity that binds us to one another while increasing what "contrasts" each individual person

𐄁 teaching and parenting from a place of rest

𐄁 the great commandment and the second highlights unity as a both and

𐄁 habitually compromising our health is not real self gift

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Oct 13, 202157:46
Episode 18: The Transcendentals

Episode 18: The Transcendentals

Kyle and Deacon Conque get transcendental this week! We talk a lot in classical education about nourishing souls on truth, goodness, and beauty. But what does this actually mean? What are the transcendentals? Why do we forget the transcendental of unity so often? How do we order our homes by the transcendentals? Join us as we ponder these questions and more.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio

"Wherever men and women discover a call to the absolute and transcendent, the metaphysical dimension of reality opens up before them: in truth, in beauty, in moral values, in other persons, in being itself, in God."

1. The Transcendentals in Classical Tradition and Catholic Faith 

𐄁 truth, goodness, and beauty...but don't forget about unity

𐄁 the transcendentals nourish the soul: cultivating desire

𐄁 defining transcendentals: aspects of being coextensive with being

2. Understanding Our Path to God 

𐄁 metaphysical conversion

𐄁 seeking an education that is timeless

𐄁 grammar, logic, rhetoric, and wisdom in connection to unity, truth, goodness, and beauty

𐄁 handing on the faith effectively

𐄁 orienting our homes to the transcendentals

3. The Transcendentals Cultivate and Nourish

𐄁 each transcendental and how it relates us to being

𐄁 ordering homes by the transcendentals

𐄁 disintegration, grace, and hope

𐄁 invitation to glory through the transcendentals

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Oct 04, 202140:30
Episode 17: Kathryn Lopez
Sep 27, 202136:29
Men of JPG Fall Retreat 2021

Men of JPG Fall Retreat 2021

Join us this Saturday, September 25, 2021 for our Men of JPG Retreat from 8am-1pm. In this promo, Deacon Conque and Kyle take a moment to talk about the day and muse on a few things here and there.

Sep 21, 202109:32
Episode 16: Meet Ms. Byers Pt.3

Episode 16: Meet Ms. Byers Pt.3

Deacon Conque and Kyle are excited to welcome back Ms. Emily Byers this week for the last part of a great conversation with Ms. Byers to discuss community, holiness, vocation, discernment, and education.

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Gaudium et spes

"The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown."

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

1. What is a person?

𐄁 created by God with dignity

𐄁 others as the face of Christ

𐄁 personalism in the philosophy and witness of Pope St. John Paul the Great

𐄁 persons are gifts

𐄁 the importance of affection in teaching students as persons

𐄁 love others and let others love us

2. Learning is a Communal Activity

𐄁 the image of God at work in members of our community

𐄁 getting to know Jesus and spend time with him, know his voice and listen

𐄁 "I only actually love Christ as much as I love the person I like the least." Dorothy Sayers

𐄁 respect for others as looking again

𐄁 responding to frustration with peace (respecting God's time)

3. The Mystery of Persons and God's Revelation

𐄁 Quote from Gaudium et Spes often referred to by Pope St. John Paul the Great

𐄁 hearing the Father's voice

𐄁 encourage one another to the perfection of charity

𐄁 even our sins as invitation to deepen our relationship with the Lord, and even to deepen our relationship with others

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Sep 20, 202139:24
Episode 15: Meet Ms. Byers Pt 2

Episode 15: Meet Ms. Byers Pt 2

Deacon Conque and Kyle are excited to welcome back Ms. Emily Byers this week for part 2 of 3 of a great conversation with Ms. Byers to discuss vocation, discernment, and education.

Quote from St. John Paul the Great, Address to the Young People of Scotland, 1982 

"In the first place I say this: you must never think that you are alone in deciding your future!"

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

1. New Year, New Role

𐄁 Dean of Student Formation

𐄁 assisting simplicity in discernment opposed to vocational anxiety

2. You are never alone in deciding your future

𐄁 how to spend time with the Lord in prayer

𐄁 ordering our loves

𐄁 how does the very overt spiritual formation in lower school transition into upper school

𐄁 encouraging students to take ownership of their spiritual formation

3. Entrusting Students with Responsibility for Spiritual Growth 

𐄁 rules and encouragement

𐄁 having meaningful conversations for the young kids and teenagers

𐄁 be not afraid when our kids don't always receive the invitation, don't be discouraged

𐄁 the need to remind and invite the young often

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Sep 13, 202135:50
Episode 14: Meet Ms. Byers Part 1
Sep 08, 202128:17
Episode 13: Classically Catholic

Episode 13: Classically Catholic

Kyle and Deacon Conque talk this week about the meaning that springs forth from combining the terms 'Classical' and 'Catholic' and why it's so important to our mission at John Paul the Great Academy.

We apologize for the late post this week due to Hurricane Ida. (And the background noise that couldn't be filtered out.) 

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. "To accept the Gospel’s demands means to affirm all of our humanity, to see in it the beauty desired by God, while at the same time recognizing, in light of the power of God himself, our weaknesses: “What is impossible for men is possible for God” (Lk 18:27)."

1. Pondering how to teach in a classical and Catholic way

𐄁 it's all about the Incarnation!

𐄁 beyond being a model, education and learning is communal

𐄁 because of the Incarnation, the classical worldview is the most fitting worldview to make Catholicism accessible

𐄁 the importance of St. Thomas Aquinas, the universal doctor, a great model of what it means to be a classical Catholic

𐄁 classical education as bringing back together what was rendered asunder by the Original Sin

𐄁 lex orandi, lex credendi applied to education

𐄁 the liturgical dimension of education

2. Classical vs. Traditional

𐄁 tradition as what is handed on

𐄁 classical as what participates in the fullness of time

𐄁 to be Catholic is to be traditional

𐄁 education is impoverished to the extent to which it does not hand on a tradition

𐄁 highest expression of tradition is the sensus fidelium, the deposit of faith

𐄁 highest expression of classical worldview is the virtue of religion, justice applied to God

3. Crossing the Threshold of Hope

𐄁 Be not afraid to live out our baptism heroically, daily for what is impossible for man is possible for God

𐄁 order our homes by what is eternal

𐄁 Strive for the docility for fullness

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Sep 01, 202132:40
Episode 12: Catholic

Episode 12: Catholic

Kyle and Deacon Conque talk this week about the meaning of the term 'Catholic' and why it's so important to our mission at John Paul the Great Academy. We use this term often as a community; it's familiar to anyone whose been around. Join us as we get behind the veil of familiarity and ask: What do we mean by Catholic?

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Dominum et Vivificantem. “The Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing on the experience of Pentecost and her own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the earliest centuries her faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one in whom the inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings, constituting in them the source of eternal life."

1. Reflecting on the Word 'Catholic'

𐄁 from the Greek: Universal; uni-verse, one verse

𐄁 objective reality of the Church

𐄁 universal as a fullness 

𐄁 membership in the Church as invitation to be more converted by fullness, by the Universal reality of Christ's Church

𐄁 Baptism: entered into a fullness to love God above all and to share that fullness by loving neighbor as self

𐄁 To be Catholic is to be missionary

2. Catholicism and the Eternal Logos

𐄁 the Trinitarian meaning of "Catholic"

𐄁 the classical mindset unlocks the deep meaning of Catholic

𐄁 the Incarnation, the fullness of time, and the Classical world

𐄁 the Eternal Logos, Greek term from classical worldview baptized by the Gospel to reveal Christ

𐄁 the Church is not Judaism 2.0, something that is both the fulfillment of Judaism and something completely new

3. Catholic as an Adjective Should Describe Someone Fully Alive!

𐄁 dominant binding force of our community at JPG is a desire to live more and more Catholic lives

𐄁 the primary image of docility for us is the Blessed Mother in her great Fiat

𐄁 a secondary image of docility for us is the sensus fidelium 

𐄁 receptivity to Tradition

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Aug 23, 202130:56
Episode 11: Classical

Episode 11: Classical

Kyle and Deacon Conque talk this week about the meaning of the term 'classical' and why it's so important to our mission at John Paul the Great Academy. We use this term often as a community; it's familiar to anyone whose been around. Join us as we get behind the veil of familiarity and ask: What do we mean by Classical?

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio. “A pioneer of positive engagement with philosophical thinking--albeit with cautious discernment--was St. Justin. Although he continued to hold Greek philosophy in high esteem after his conversion, Justin claimed with power and clarity that he had found in Christianity “the only sure and profitable philosophy.” Similarly, Clement of Alexandria called the Gospel “the true philosophy,” and he understood philosophy, like the Mosaic Law, as instruction which prepared for Christian faith and paved the way for the Gospel."

1. Historical Meaning of the Term Classical

𐄁 look at the meaning of classical in terms of its historical, role in the liberal arts revival, and cultural meaning

𐄁 classical as referring to a particular moment in time, the classical moment: the ancient Graeco-Roman world

𐄁 important common beliefs from the classical moment: a view that truth was objective, could be known, and virtue too was objective and could be pursued

𐄁 an example of "classical" as an adjective: Coca-Cola Classic

𐄁 classical worldview requires a belief in what is most noble and good

𐄁 other examples of the significance of "classical" as an adjective

2. Classical Philosophy as a Basis of the Classical World

𐄁 avoiding the temptation to romanticize the past

𐄁 the foundational principles of classical philosophy are timeless, not relegated to a particular time

𐄁 David Hicks, Norms and Nobility, the tyrannizing ideal

𐄁 Why value these pagan philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, etc.)? They are great thinkers acting nobly in pursuit of the natural law written on all of our hears, Christian and pagan alike.

𐄁 Man's transcendental nature: essential for meaningful happiness

𐄁 freedom through duty

𐄁 Classical world and the language of the Gospel

𐄁 virtue demands human excellence being an objective value

𐄁 post-modern world-view demolishes the foundation of what paved the way for the Gospel 

3. Truth, Objective Reality, and Christ: a pearl of great price

𐄁 Why we choose the classical world view at John Paul the Great Academy

𐄁 virtue of docility: justice applied to a teacher

𐄁 docility and the starting point

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Aug 16, 202127:27
Episode 10: Temperance

Episode 10: Temperance

Deacon Conque and Kyle talk about the virtue of temperance. Join us as we seek moderation in our discussion of the role of temperance in the Christian life, Classical Education, and our homes.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, General Audience, 22 November 1978. “A temperate man is one who is master of himself. One in whom passions do not prevail over reason, will, and even the "heart". A man who can control himself! If this is so, we can easily realize what a fundamental and radical value the virtue of temperance has.”

1. What is temperance? A Classical View

○ moderating our pursuit of goods, not evils

○ temperance and the ordering of the passions: training our desires

○ the danger of intemperance

2. Temperance in Light of the Incarnation

○ in light of faith, hope, and charity, temperance increases the tension we experience to be in the world and not of it

○ urgency of temperance, a great Christian need: the freedom to say yes to Christ present in those around us

○ self-indulgence is an enemy of the call of Christ to serve the poor

○ temperance and poverty of spirit

○ training temperance in the home

○ temperance and Fear of the Lord, the gift of the Holy Spirit

○ nourishing and cultivating desires through temperance

○ an example of intemperance: binge watching

○ the freedom to enjoy goods in community

○ temperance is about aiming our desires to the highest goods: becoming more hungry for heaven

○ fasting from goods to discover the need to grow in temperance

3. Living out Temperance

○ bios (physical) goods; bodily level of goods, psyche (psychological) goods, and zoe (spiritual) goods

○ discerning intemperance through attention to charity; having a hungry heart on a heroic journey

○ the spiritual offering of fasting rooted in charity

○ living in constant satisfaction dulls our cognition, feeds delusion

○ masculine and feminine ways to pursue temperance; stability and rootedness in the home

○ overindulgence in communal goods weakens community

○ concuscible and irascible goods

○ temperance in thought, word, and deed

○ choosing words carefully in the home

○ temperance with spiritual goods and cultivating spirituality in the home

○ mutlum non multa: much of one thing, not many things

○ the temptation of distraction

○ the liturgical life and temperance

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Aug 09, 202101:20:25
Episode 9: Fortitude (Courage)

Episode 9: Fortitude (Courage)

Deacon Conque and Kyle talk about the virtue of fortitude. Join us as we find the courage to discuss the role of fortitude in the Christian life, Classical Education, and our homes.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Veritatis Splendor. “...there is nonetheless a consistent witness which all Christians must daily be ready to make, even at the cost of suffering and grave sacrifice. Indeed, faced with the many difficulties which fidelity to the moral order can demand, even in the most ordinary circumstances, the Christian is called, with the grace of God invoked in prayer, to a sometimes heroic commitment. In this he or she is sustained by the virtue of fortitude, whereby — as Gregory the Great teaches — one can actually "love the difficulties of this world for the sake of eternal rewards".”

1. What Is Fortitude/Courage?

     ○ courage and baptism

     ○ freedom from fear

     ○ courage, relationships, male and female

     ○ avoiding recklessness

     ○ how we experience fear

2. Courage to take the Classical Risk with Education

     ○ why it's worth it

     ○ modern education is NOT courageous

     ○ avoiding discouragement: how we can discourage others

     ○ how to encourage learning

3. Courage to Be the Primary Educator

     ○ foundation of parental authority: marriage

     ○ courage to be humble: meek and magnanimous

     ○ the courage to be vulnerable and receive help

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Aug 02, 202157:19
Episode 8: Justice

Episode 8: Justice

Kyle and Deacon Conque talk about the virtue of justice. Join us as we pun our way through a deep dive in the role of justice in the fullness of Christian worship, community, and homes.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Message for Celebration of World Day of Peace, 1 January 2002.
"True peace therefore is the fruit of justice, that moral virtue and legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and responsibilities, and the just distribution of benefits and burdens. But because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations."

1. Hierarchy of theological and cardinal virtues

○ St. Thomas Aquinas’s approach to moral theology: vision of the human person
○ Josef Pieper, Christian Idea of Man
○ Justice as Answer to the Prudent Question

2. Justice Before God

○ The virtue of religion: justice applied to God justice in worship and the beauty of the mass
○ the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, enabling worship that is just and right
○ letting the source and summit ripple out into our homes
○ Justice and the Examine Prayer, Episode 1 of the Festina Lente Podcast
○ We owe God devotion: the devotional life of our home
○ virtue ethics: grace perfecting our nature
○ nature of worship: we become like the thing we worship

3. What is justice?

○ Living the truth with others
○ duty, obligation, and relationship with others
○ religion: re-ligare, binding again
○ right relationship and the boundaries for freedom with others
○ gift of self to the one thing needed
○ worship through a devoted and righteous life
○ justice and charity
○ motivation of charity leads to justice

4. Justice in the Home

○ the danger of justice without prudence: discipline that is prompt and consistent
○ justice is lived out for community and with community
○ hunger and thirst for righteousness propels us to seek justice in and through Christ
○ seeking justice with the Holy Spirit's Gift of Knowledge

5. Who is Owed What?
○ the starting point of justice in community
○ seeking justice as a Christian: self-sacrificial charity
○ the pursuit of justice is a blessing
○ justice and docility: Christ as the example
○ emotional life and the difficulty with justice: sin and narcissism
○ ordered social justice vs. modern "wokeism"
○ justice and the fourth commandment
○ grace to order our homes justly
○ demanding justice from our children is a two-fold blessing
○ An example: "Yes Sir, No Sir; Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am"

6. No Justice, No Peace

○ Pope St. John Paul the Great's view of the human person in light of mercy and forgiveness
○ mercy, forgiveness, and justice
○ hurt feelings can inspire or corrupt justice
○ beyond justice-benevolence: good will for all
La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jul 26, 202101:01:38
Episode 7: Meet the Munzings Part 3
Jul 19, 202133:17
Episode 6: Meet the Munzings Part 2
Jul 12, 202125:39
Episode 5: Meet the Munzings
Jul 05, 202124:30
Episode 4: Prudence

Episode 4: Prudence

Deacon Conque and Kyle talk about the virtue of prudence: ordering our life, our home, and our desires to Christ...but how? Let's explore the role of prudence in living the good life.

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, General Audience from October 25, 1978.
So prudence is the key for the accomplishment of the fundamental task that each of us has received from God. This task is the perfection of man himself. God has given our humanity to each of us. We must meet this task by planning it accordingly.

1. Prudence: Wisdom in Concrete Circumstances
○ virtue is not a roadmap
○ right reason in action
○ feeling overwhelmed: an invitation to prudence

2. Pope St. John Paul the Great on Prudence
○ receiving the gift of our life well, order our humanity
○ domestic prudence: how we order our homes
○ radical primacy of grace: ordering our homes to the one thing needed
○ the role of communication
○ docility begins with the Holy Spirit

3. Ordering the Home for Success at John Paul the Great Academy
○ imprudence of smart phones
○ prioritizing as a family
○ prudence and holy courage

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jun 28, 202130:19
Episode 3: Intellectual Virtue

Episode 3: Intellectual Virtue

In this episode, Kyle and Deacon Conque discuss the forgotten idea of intellectual virtue. While moral virtues are an important part of living out the Gospel, they are often overemphasized to the detriment of the intellectual virtues. Morality is ordered when it is a response to knowledge of God. In other words, moral acts of the will follow from docility of the intellect. Join us as we explore the valuable treasures of the intellectual virtues.

Show Notes and Outline

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio
"The truth of Christian revelation, found in Jesus of Nazareth, enables all men and women to embrace the "mystery" of their own life. As absolute truth, it summons human beings to be open to the transcendent, whilst respecting both their autonomy as creatures and their freedom. At this point the relationship between freedom and truth is complete, and we understand the full meaning of the Lord's words: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (Jn 8:32)."

1. Virtue
○ moral and intellectual virtues
○ what is virtue?
○ faith and virtue
○ an example: courage
○ from Aristotle to St. Thomas

2. Intellectual Virtue
○ intellectual virtue enables us to cling to truth easily, to cling to Christ intimately
○ What is the intellect?
○ the intellectual virtues are Trinitarian
○ intellectual virtues and personhood

3. The Classical Difference
○ Intellectual virtues in the home
○ prayer & study in family time
○ leisurely study
○ prioritizing leisure over work, intellectual over moral virtue

4. Wonder
○ disposition of wonder cultivated by intellectual virtue
○ observing and wonder
○ we are guardians of that wonder in our children
○ cultivation in the home by recognizing we are made for virtue

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jun 21, 202130:20
Episode 2: Freedom

Episode 2: Freedom

Deacon Conque and Kyle discuss the meaning of freedom in the context of the Christian life and the role of freedom in fostering a Catholic, classical home.

Show Notes & Outline of Topics
Building classical homes for our classical community through the cultivation of freedom

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio
"
This is why the Church has always considered the act of entrusting oneself to God to be a moment of fundamental decision which engages the whole person. In that act, the intellect and the will display their spiritual nature, enabling the subject to act in a way which realizes personal freedom to the full. It is not just that freedom is part of the act of faith: it is absolutely required. Indeed, it is faith that allows individuals to give consummate expression to their own freedom."

1. Freedom and Life in Christ
  Why is freedom important for the Christian Life?
  What is freedom?

2. Freedom and Marriage
  The role of freedom in spousal love
  Freedom, chaos, and order in the home

3. Cultivating Freedom in the Home
  Threats to freedom in the home
  Being more intentional about freedom in the home
  There is freedom in accepting our failings as parents with hope and confidence in God.
  A quick word on freedom and discipline

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jun 14, 202129:03
Episode 1: Joy

Episode 1: Joy

In this inaugural episode, Deacon Conque and Kyle Albarado discuss the role of joy in the Christian life and in a Catholic classical home.

Show Notes/Outline of Topics

  • Purpose of the Podcast
  • What is joy?
  • The role of joy in Christian Life
  • Joy and Classical Education
  • The role of joy in the family
  • Joy on our campus
  • Joy in the words of Pope St. John Paul the Great

Angelus Address, 1986, Adelaide, Australia

We are meant to have our human joys: the joy of living, the joy of love and friendship, the joy of work well done. We who are Christians have a further cause for joy: like Jesus, we know that we are loved by God our Father. This love transforms our lives and fills us with joy. It makes us see that Jesus did not come to lay burdens upon us. He came to teach us what it means to be fully happy and fully human.


La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.

Jun 07, 202136:05