How we're trying to help:

The Solution is Easy

"YouTube University"

Meeting Halfway

Once when returning to Paris, St. Thomas Aquinas and an assistant stood overlooking the town on a nearby hill. Thomas' assistant remarked, "Isn't it a beautiful sight?" to which the saint is said to have responded "I would trade it all for that one Chrysostom manuscript I can't seem to get my hands on."
Fortunately, we no longer have to search every monastery library in Europe to find that one work by St. John Chrysostom, but we now are impeded such a mountain of information, it can be difficult to know where to look for what is actually worth spending time on.

We selected YouTube as our primary source because of the variety of presenters with long-standing reputations and that it's a well-known platform that would make finding content easier for those less familiar with the internet. We have found that these lists are actually more popular with the older generations than "Gen Z" or the "Millennials". It seems that perhaps the younger generations have heard of these presenters from friends that they know in Catholic groups, while the older generations haven't had a chance to learn of them yet. That's part of the reason why we're making printable lists- even if the older generations are familiar with the internet, it can be helpful to have a hard-copy reference sheet available.

One of the motivations for this project was leading the compiling of a few different Catholic libraries, at the high school, college, and parish level. The really unexpected part, was that many people checked out books, and in fact, many of the books checked out were not foundational-level books; they were intermediate to advanced level works on Catholic spirituality that turned out to be most popular. Quite simply, it seems that the people want to learn- the trick is figuring out how to get the resources into their lives in a way that they can use them easily. This is one of the few benefits of a smartphone- your Catholic library, in print, audio, or video, can now be with you wherever you go!