LifeCraft Read-Alouds
LifeCraft presents you stories and essays that inform and challenge the mind, feed the soul, and warm the heart. We uncover little known treasures and bring back neglected classics to offer you a variety of joyful and life-changing perspectives. Presented with clarity and passion, these recordings are perfect for your morning commute or a fireside family gathering. Keep checking back for new offerings.
Episodes
22 episodes
[Essays] Learning How to See Again by Joseph Pieper
In this classic essay, Josef Pieper offers a powerful warning (already some 70 years ago!) that common practices are subtly but surely threatening our very humanity, by blinding us to the world around us.
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9:38
[Excerpts from Classics] Pericles Funeral Oration as reported by Thucydides
One of the most famous speeches in the history of western civilization, this classic is a masterpiece of rhetoric that paints an unforgettable portrait of the ancient city of Athens, and the men who died in her defense.
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24:15
[Essays] Easter and Sunday: The First of All Festivals by Josef Pieper, excerpt from In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity
In this remarkable excerpt, Josef Pieper explains that what Sunday and Easter celebrate not only underlies all other feasts but should permeate every moment of every day.
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10:29
[Meditation] The Good Thief by Alban Goodier, SJ
In this heart-stopping sketch, a spiritual master retells one of the most dramatic moments of the Passion of the Lord: the interchange with the good thief. It offers a unique angle into the Divine Mercy and will emblazon on your heart the words...
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12:13
[Essays] Thoughts About Music by Josef Pieper
Music, whether we realize it or not, “plays a role in man’s formation and perfection, as contribution or hindrance.” So argues the great philosopher Josef Pieper in articulating the wisdom of the ages about the power of music for good or ill. T...
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22:03
[Essays] The Honor of Work by Charles Péguy
This essay has no soft edges. Peguy is controversial and minces no words. “Today, an artisan is no longer an artisan.” “Those bygone workers… had an absolute honor.” Writing at the dawn of the twentieth century, Peguy is a Frenchman recalling p...
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18:51
[Short Stories] Gaeglers and the Wild Geese by Walter Macken
A master story-teller offers another delightful sketch of rural western Ireland when life was more simple but human interaction as rich and entertaining as ever.
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19:43
[Excerpts from Classics] The Death of General Ashby from I Rode with Stonewall by Henry Kyd Douglas
One of the most revered Confederate cavalrymen, Turner Ashby was Stonewall Jackson’s right hand in the world famous Valley Campaign. This excerpt offers an unforgettable sketch of the Shenandoah Valley and of Ashby’s knight-like service and dea...
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19:12
[Excerpts from Classics] Long John Silver and Capt Smollett: A Manly Encounter from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The most remarkable fictional pirate of all time finds his match in the indomitable Capt Smollett. This short chapter called ‘The Embassy’ is itself a treasure in this legendary yet subtle tale of manly character and coming of age.
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14:21
[Excerpts from Classics] Bishop Laval and Jacques, from Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock
This is a powerful sketch of an early Bishop in French Canada (he was declared a saint in 2014) and his interaction with an illegitimate boy he encounters on the streets of Quebec. (Cather's portrayal is historical fiction about a real man.)
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21:34
[Essays] On Sacramental Things by Hilaire Belloc
A short, striking essay reflecting on the power of everyday things to move the soul and to connect us to the highest realities.
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14:42
[Short Stories] The Missioner by Hilaire Belloc
This lovely short story by Belloc is perfect for a winter evening: you can feel the cold of the north countries and the warmth of the fire. Great for all ages, this story artfully raises a cluster of issues, including the amazing power of music...
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15:43
[Short Stories] At the Sign of the Lion by Hilaire Belloc
Belloc sketches a visit to a remarkable inn and a remarkable conversation about our desire that simple, beautiful things of this world endure into the next.
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20:21