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Speaker 1: Welcome to a Numbers game with Ryan Gurdusky. Thank you

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Speaker 1: guys for being here. We are one week away from Christmas,

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Speaker 1: and if you were like me, you are not ready

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Speaker 1: at all. This weekend is going to be a marathon

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Speaker 1: in the life of Ryan Gurdusky to try to get

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Speaker 1: everything ready in the last few days and make it

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Speaker 1: all seem pretty effortless. And so if you're by any

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Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination seeing me running through a mall

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Speaker 1: or store and a complete panic, just look, just know

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Speaker 1: I don't always look like that. Before I get to

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Speaker 1: my topic, I have some pretty funny gossip that I

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Speaker 1: think you guys would like. I was invited to a

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Speaker 1: cool Christmas party that I wanted to tell you about it.

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Speaker 1: I was invited to the Mediaite Christmas party. Media I

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Speaker 1: is kind of a lefty center left website that covers

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Speaker 1: all things media. So I got the invitation last week

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Speaker 1: and I immediately thought, Okay, this is either a mistake,

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Speaker 1: which they follow up and said it was a mistake,

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Speaker 1: or that it was going to be a very d

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Speaker 1: list event, because you know, I know I was invited,

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Speaker 1: so I couldn't have possibly been like a very cool thing.

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Speaker 1: But I expectations Bernhei going in, I went thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be a bunch of bloggers or whatnot. And

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Speaker 1: I walk in the door and the first person, first

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Speaker 1: two people I see is Joe and Mika from Morning Joe,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, uh, okay, and then Brian Stelter from

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Speaker 1: CNN walks in right behind me, and I just all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden it dinged on me like it's not

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Speaker 1: going to be a Dalist party. It's going to be

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Speaker 1: a liberal party. And I am the token conservative that

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Speaker 1: was invited. That's why I thought walking in, and I

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Speaker 1: was immediate scrambling with like, okay, who on earth is

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Speaker 1: going to talk to me for the next hour while

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Speaker 1: I just have a glass of wine circle try to

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Speaker 1: find the host of the party and thank them for

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Speaker 1: inviting me, because I'm never really invited to a lot

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Speaker 1: of events, so I wanted to at least thank them

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Speaker 1: for inviting me with the hope that, you know, I

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Speaker 1: would be invited to something else in the future. So

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Speaker 1: I see Joe and Mika, who I saw actually at

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Speaker 1: a party in twenty twelve. It was a Fox News

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Speaker 1: MSNBC mixer in twenty twelve ahead of the New Hampshire

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Speaker 1: Republic in primary and this is when Joe Meeka were

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Speaker 1: just colleagues, even though that they very clearly in front

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Speaker 1: of everybody else didn't seem to be colleagues anyway. So

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Speaker 1: I'm circling the room and I'm trying to find somebody

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Speaker 1: who will like maybe one other conservative or center right person,

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Speaker 1: and I see Scott Jennings from CNN sitting down in

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Speaker 1: the corner and he's talking to somebody. And I'm always

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Speaker 1: under the assumption that no one knows who I am.

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Speaker 1: I just feel like, you know, because I work so

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Speaker 1: much by myself, and I don't you know, I'm not

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Speaker 1: always like stopped or whatever. Once in a while happens.

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Speaker 1: But I walk up to Scott Jennings and I just

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Speaker 1: put up my hand. I go, hi, I'm Ryan gar Dusky.

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Speaker 1: He just goes, yeah, I know, I know you are.

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Speaker 1: You're kind of very well known on senn among scenen

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Speaker 1: circles anyway. Could have been nicer, a little more subdued

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Speaker 1: in real life than I thought he was, because some

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Speaker 1: of these people who are very like show business y,

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Speaker 1: even in the political media world, they're like, you know,

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Speaker 1: they are very performative even in private, and he's not

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Speaker 1: like that. He was very real, kind of just hung out,

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Speaker 1: really real guy. And there was a guy saying next

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Speaker 1: to him, and I was like, who is this person?

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Speaker 1: Like why is this guy chatting his ear up? So

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Speaker 1: when the guy got up, I go, who is that?

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Speaker 1: He goes, Oh, it's you know, it's an agent and

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Speaker 1: you know I was throwing his card at me or whatever.

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Speaker 1: And I realized that almost all of the talent, or

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Speaker 1: not all of them, I would say at least half

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Speaker 1: of the talent was there with their agents, and the

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Speaker 1: agents were like walking them around to meet certain people.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, this is like extremely this is

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Speaker 1: like watching an owner of a prize horse, like showing

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Speaker 1: them to different people is very weird. Anyway, I see

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Speaker 1: Megan Kelly and she couldn't have been nicer. I was

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Speaker 1: a complete horre and just asked her to come back

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Speaker 1: on her show. I was like, ha, me back and

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Speaker 1: people from the podcast where there to Vicky Ward. I

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Speaker 1: had her on about Epstein. She was great. She's working

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Speaker 1: on a new book about Luigi Menas, Scott Mangioni, Luvisy

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Speaker 1: Mangioni The Killer, So we were talking about that for

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Speaker 1: a little while and I saw Alex Thompson from Axios

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Speaker 1: and we're talking about the Bidens and he's working on

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Speaker 1: all these stories about the twenty twenty eight Democrat primary.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking about Gavin Newsom, you know, sharing funny

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Speaker 1: stories about what he's like. And then I run into

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Speaker 1: a girl and she must have been like twenty five

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Speaker 1: years old something like that, twenty five to thirty that range,

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Speaker 1: and she just goes to me, you know, New York's

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Speaker 1: not the scene that it used to be. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, who are you like Frand label with so

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Speaker 1: he used to hang out Andy Warhol in the seventies

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Speaker 1: and now you're not. I'm like, when was the scene?

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Speaker 1: And she's like twenty fifteen, and I'm like, I these

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Speaker 1: people are just young people who think they've been through

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Speaker 1: more than they have. Just exhausted me anyway, and then

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Speaker 1: this is the kind of crazy thing. So I as

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Speaker 1: I'm leaving, I see someone else who a journalist who

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Speaker 1: I know I'm not gonna name his name because I

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Speaker 1: don't want to give him, you know, publicity, but he

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Speaker 1: was His company that he had worked for at the time,

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Speaker 1: was ruthless to me when the whole scene in episode

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Speaker 1: happened last year. So I just say hello briefly because

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Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna be rude. And

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Speaker 1: he was talking to Ari Mulber, who was just being

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Speaker 1: He's just being someone very very interested in himself. And

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Speaker 1: I said to him, I said, tom, oh, I've been

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Speaker 1: on your I was on your show like ten years ago.

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Speaker 1: And he was like, my show wasn't existed for ten years.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, it was twenty seventeen, whatever that math is,

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Speaker 1: that's when I was on your show. Very very smart guy. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the reporter who has been not very kind to me

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Speaker 1: throughout the last year, his company has not been very

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Speaker 1: kind to me. He ends the conversation by saying, if

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Speaker 1: you have any scoops, please pass them my way. And

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Speaker 1: I was like, I would never give you a scoop.

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Speaker 1: Your outlet is left wing trash, and you've did nothing

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Speaker 1: besides trash me.

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Speaker 2: Why would I give you scoops?

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Speaker 1: Which is just it is so commonplace for journalists who

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Speaker 1: are so under the belief that yeah, I could trash you,

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Speaker 1: but we're all friends, we're all kind of in the

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Speaker 1: business together, or whatever whatever they believe. I was like,

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Speaker 1: this is the worst kinds of people. So that was

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Speaker 1: the really cool scoop of the entire story, and you know,

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Speaker 1: the media and just the people who still work there.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was really funny and my audience would

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Speaker 1: enjoy it. But I wanted to so I want to

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Speaker 1: tell you guys about that, and I wanted to take

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Speaker 1: a second to talk to you about what is upcoming,

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Speaker 1: which is Christmas. And you know, it's not just about

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Speaker 1: Christmas parties and shopping and wrapping gifts and trying to

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Speaker 1: take the season as much as possible. So I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about the faith and about faith in particular.

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Speaker 1: I know it's not a religious podcast, but it is

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Speaker 1: I think appropriate given this season. I am Catholic. I

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Speaker 1: put it in my bio in part because I got

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Speaker 1: so tired of people calling me a fat Geo on Twitter.

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Speaker 1: I thought that maybe they'll mix it up and call

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Speaker 1: me a fat Italian, but it hasn't really worked out anyway.

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Speaker 1: I am Catholic. I was born and raised in the faith.

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Speaker 1: I briefly kind of walked away from it during college

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Speaker 1: and the end of high school. I guess there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of people do, and came back to on my

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Speaker 1: own accord. And as I've continue to age and as

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Speaker 1: I break down data a lot, I noticed how important

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Speaker 1: matters of faith and religion are and how much they

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Speaker 1: are Like religion is like a muscle, right, So if

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Speaker 1: you only go to the gym two or three times

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Speaker 1: a year and you quit every few months, this is

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Speaker 1: someone like me. If you're not super diligent and you're

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Speaker 1: not going to see gains. You may be able to

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Speaker 1: put off some weight, but you're not going to see

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Speaker 1: gains like you are. And if you're somebody who only

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Speaker 1: typidly or randomly attends church and only praise really when

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Speaker 1: the aeroplane is about to take off and the doors closed,

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Speaker 1: you're probably not educating yourself that much on faith. You're

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Speaker 1: probably not developing a deep relationship. You're probably not and

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Speaker 1: I say this as a Catholic who both has done

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Speaker 1: a lot of work on faith and still has a

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Speaker 1: lot to do, so no judgment on it, but you're

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Speaker 1: probably not getting to a place where you feel very

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Speaker 1: strongly about it. And you can't get to a place

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Speaker 1: of deep devotion, let alone exploring the really interesting things

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Speaker 1: like mysticism or miracles or other stuff. If you don't

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Speaker 1: put the work in and I know religion, it's a

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Speaker 1: very bad rap. People make a lot of false claims

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Speaker 1: about religion, that they're all the same, or that their

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Speaker 1: response for all the history of all the wars in

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Speaker 1: the world, and that you know, they've only been negative.

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Speaker 1: It's only been a negative institute that has worked to

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Speaker 1: divide people and break down people and use for powerful

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Speaker 1: men to just kind of, you know, control everything. And

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Speaker 1: I remember this a long time ago, and I've never

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Speaker 1: told the story before. A long long time ago. I

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Speaker 1: was campaigning for a candidate running for office, and as

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Speaker 1: most of my life story has been, and there was

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Speaker 1: a woman there and she had run in the Democratic

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Speaker 1: primary and for I think city council or something like

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Speaker 1: that lost and she was getting into it with like

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Speaker 1: and this is a long time ago, so like one

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Speaker 1: of the first purple haired you know, they thems I've

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Speaker 1: ever seen before, and they were the they them, the

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Speaker 1: super liberal was going aftim about religion. This woman, this

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Speaker 1: Democrat who had run for office like owned and a

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Speaker 1: very like in a very substantial way, owned this like,

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Speaker 1: very progressive person who clearly hated religion. And she said

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Speaker 1: she was just giving a brief history on the Catholic

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Speaker 1: Church in New York City in the last thirty years,

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Speaker 1: things that I did not know, things that people kind

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Speaker 1: of bypass. She was specifically talking, and this was a

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Speaker 1: gay person. She was talking about the AIDS epidemic, and

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Speaker 1: she's like, the only places that would take AIDS patients

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Speaker 1: was the Catholic Church, Catholic hospitals. She's like, it was

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Speaker 1: the nuns who were doing the work that the government

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Speaker 1: refused to do. And I don't remember every detail she

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Speaker 1: laid because she laid it on one after the other. Failder.

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Speaker 1: And this was, you know, over ten years ago. But

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Speaker 1: I was, I was, I was very taken aback about

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Speaker 1: how this woman, who is probably you know, central life,

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Speaker 1: she was clearly a Democrat, was able to stand up

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Speaker 1: for her faith and not interfere with her politics, and was

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Speaker 1: able to sit there and stand up for it in

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Speaker 1: the face of somebody where it would have been so

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Speaker 1: convenient to join them and say no, this is a

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Speaker 1: force for good. And I wanted to present my audience

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Speaker 1: with some numbers that she want thinking about that. So

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Speaker 1: here are some some numbers on why religion in your life,

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Speaker 1: in your society is a force for good. Students who

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Speaker 1: attend church as a high school senior more often are

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Speaker 1: the most likely students to have as. This has been

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Speaker 1: true since nineteen seventy six. Forty two percent of millennials

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Speaker 1: who attend church weekly are reported to be very happy,

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Speaker 1: compared to just twenty two percent who never attend church.

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Speaker 1: The most likely to a person to attend church, by

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Speaker 1: the way, is a college degree holder. According to the

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Speaker 1: Manhattan Institute, they found that church attendance by Republicans is

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Speaker 1: linked to lower levels a feeling of racism, anti semitism,

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Speaker 1: and conspiracy theories. In other words, to attend church is

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Speaker 1: to have a greater level of social trust than those

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Speaker 1: who do not attend. Christians who attend mass cricuently are

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Speaker 1: more likely to say it's good to be alive, that

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Speaker 1: they are a person of worth, and the future doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem like it's hopeless. Compared to zele At, atheists are

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Speaker 1: not people who just fall away from religion. These are

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Speaker 1: people who actively hate religion. Those people have significantly more

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Speaker 1: likely to say that life is hopeless and that they

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Speaker 1: aren't very youthful. You even see this in conversations with

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Speaker 1: like zoomers and millennials about children, those who want to

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Speaker 1: have children, and those who, you know, maybe they can't

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Speaker 1: find a partner, maybe they put it off, but they

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Speaker 1: want to have children, and they think that having children

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Speaker 1: is important and good versus those who say the world's

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Speaker 1: so bad, or that you know, it's it's a plague

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Speaker 1: on the world and the environment and the earth or whatnot,

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Speaker 1: it's you could That's a very clear dividing line. And

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Speaker 1: while religion is often correlated with poverty, it's and that's

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Speaker 1: true on a global scale for sure, But in America

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, those who earn one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars a year are more likely to attend mass than

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Speaker 1: those who make less than fifty thousand years and fifty

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, and people who attend church frequently

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Speaker 1: are more likely to give at least two percent of

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Speaker 1: their income to charity. They're more more likely to live longer,

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Speaker 1: and until the last decade, across the board, they were

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Speaker 1: more likely to have social trust. It's a little wonky

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Speaker 1: in some data on social trust recently, but certainly before then,

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Speaker 1: they were more likely to trust people who look differently

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Speaker 1: than them and look the same as that so if

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Speaker 1: religion has all these benefits, there's the benefits of society,

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Speaker 1: these benefits to yourself. Why don't people participate more? And

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Speaker 1: why are people doing it less and less? I think

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Speaker 1: because it's difficult. You know, It's one it's easier to

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Speaker 1: be lazy, which is why sloth is a sin. It's

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Speaker 1: easier to you know, sleep in on a Sunday, or

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Speaker 1: go to the park, or hang out with friends or

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Speaker 1: watch the football game. It's it's difficult, it's time consuming.

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Speaker 1: It's time to take out of yourself and put somewhere

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Speaker 1: at like and put into someone else where you're not

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Speaker 1: the center of attention, where you're not taking selfies, where

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Speaker 1: you're not scrolling or doom scrolling or commenting snightly on

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Speaker 1: Twitter like myself. You're placing your entire being in you know,

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Speaker 1: in a different in a different realm, when you're really

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Speaker 1: focused and you're really there and you're and you're you're

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Speaker 1: in that place. I can't describe it anyone else. In

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Speaker 1: that place, it's a special place where you're completely in

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Speaker 1: tune with the mass, with the music, with lighting the

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Speaker 1: candles and with deep, deep prayer. And you know, I

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Speaker 1: get why it's hard and I get why people who

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Speaker 1: have doubts say it's not for me, or I'll figure

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Speaker 1: it out once I get older and once I have children,

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Speaker 1: And a lot of people do, but some people don't.

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Speaker 1: But if you're interested in, if you're curious, it is

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Speaker 1: like going to the gym. You have to really put

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Speaker 1: the work in. I've always believed that faith is a journey.

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Speaker 1: It's not a guilt trip. Nothing that I'm going to

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Speaker 1: say is going to make you want to do it

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Speaker 1: if you don't. But society, we as a people and

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Speaker 1: us individually are better even if you have doubts, even

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Speaker 1: if you're sitting there and saying, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: everything that my church says is true, is important to

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Speaker 1: go because we as a community are better when we

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Speaker 1: go together. And those countries that don't have high levels

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Speaker 1: of social trust, like especially the non homogenous countries, not

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Speaker 1: like Denmark or Norway, which is no religious attendance, but

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Speaker 1: everyone is basically of the same cultural background that they're

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Speaker 1: able to sit there and continue levels of high social

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Speaker 1: capital if it's decreasing and create like incredibly incredibly fast

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Speaker 1: rate because of immigration. But those who sit there and

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Speaker 1: those people who have high levels of social trust is

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Speaker 1: often oftentimes correlated with religion. So I just would say

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Speaker 1: this to my listeners. If you're looking back at last

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Speaker 1: year and saying, you know, I had a great year,

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Speaker 1: but I could have done some things differently. I could

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Speaker 1: have read more. This is my biggest gripe. Is I

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Speaker 1: didn't read enough this year, Or you're saying to yourself,

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Speaker 1: I didn't go to the gym enough. I gain too

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Speaker 1: much weight, And look for a second in your spirituality,

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Speaker 1: Look for a second where you've put faith this year.

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Speaker 1: Look for a second how you've practiced and how you've

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Speaker 1: shown yourself. Even if you say you're a Christian or

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Speaker 1: you say you're proudly Jewish or whatnot, how did you

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Speaker 1: display that to the world. How did you show that

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Speaker 1: you are a leader of some sort in your everyday life?

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Speaker 1: How did you push and promote that to other people?

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Speaker 1: That maybe being preachy, but I know in the last

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Speaker 1: couple of years about a lot of guys, young men

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Speaker 1: who said to me I'm really thinking about being Catholic.

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Speaker 1: And I've always said, like, I'm here, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk to you. If you want to talk to me,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you the ups the downs, things out I'm

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Speaker 1: talking to one young guy right now who's twenty four

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Speaker 1: and he's evangelical, and he said to me, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking about becoming Catholic, and I say, let me,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about it. Let me show you by example

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Speaker 1: and let me talk to you about the bigger things

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Speaker 1: and help point you in that way. If that's your

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Speaker 1: place to be, So think about that and try to

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Speaker 1: prioritize it for twenty twenty six. I think that is.

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Speaker 1: I think that maybe if we're trying to move to

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Speaker 1: a healthier place, both as individuals and as a society,

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Speaker 1: I think religion plays a big part of that. So

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Speaker 1: not to sound preachy, not to sound like I got

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Speaker 1: it all figured out, because lord knows I don't. I

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Speaker 1: think it's worth passing that message on as we're getting

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Speaker 1: to the Christmas holiday and the Christmas season. So with that,

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Speaker 1: I am having on as my very special guest for

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Speaker 1: the first time I think he's ever done a podcast,

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Speaker 1: is my priest. It's going to be great, it'll be

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Speaker 1: very interesting. That's coming up next with me on today's

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Speaker 1: episode is my priest father, Nick. Father Nick, thank you

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Speaker 1: for being here. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: You're very welcome. Thank you for the invitation.

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Speaker 1: So, Father Nick, you are You're the first priest I

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Speaker 1: ever had who's actually younger than me. When did you

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Speaker 1: become a priest? When did you get decide that this

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Speaker 1: was your life's journey?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think had I sensed a vocation to the

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Speaker 3: priestood very very young. So I went to parochial school

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Speaker 3: and I began to serve Mass when right after I.

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Speaker 2: Received communion about seven years old.

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Speaker 3: And I always felt very close to the church and

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Speaker 3: very interested in what the church was doing, especially at Mass.

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Speaker 3: And so after I graduated high school, I wanted to

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Speaker 3: see if the seminary was something that was for me,

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Speaker 3: and so I joined and it kind of went from there.

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Speaker 3: So I was ordained ten years ago in twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 1: And you studied for a long time in Rome.

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Speaker 3: Correct, So, so I finished my philosophy studies at Think Johns.

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Speaker 3: I went through the Pontifical North American College in Rome,

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Speaker 3: which is the US bishop's seminary next to the Vatican,

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Speaker 3: and I studied at the Gregorian University. I did another

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Speaker 3: bachelor in theology, and then after that I studied for

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Speaker 3: four more years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. We seemed

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Speaker 3: a graduate degree from there, and then after that I

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Speaker 3: studied at Catholic University and I got another master's degree

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Speaker 3: in Biblical languages, so Semitic languages.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when I met Fathernick, he said that, he spoke,

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Speaker 1: I get eight languages. But then he said, but seven

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Speaker 1: of them are dead or something like that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, exactly, yes, most of them are dead.

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Speaker 3: So that's not extremely useful, no, no, in my biblical

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Speaker 3: stuff yet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. And you know it's great because when

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Speaker 1: Father Nick does his homilies a lot of times he

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Speaker 1: will discuss the language used in the writings and how

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Speaker 1: the English translation doesn't always manifest as accurately as it

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Speaker 1: possibly should have or could have in the language.

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Speaker 3: Sure, right, So obviously the Bible was originally written in

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Speaker 3: various languages. So we know that the Old Testament was

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Speaker 3: written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and then the original language

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Speaker 3: of the New Testament was what we say coin a Greek,

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Speaker 3: which is a dialect of ancient Greek. And so studying

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Speaker 3: and being familiar with the ancient languages I think helps

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Speaker 3: us to really approximate the meaning better of the scriptures

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Speaker 3: than from just a translation, because there's an Italian saying

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Speaker 3: that every translator is also a traitor, because when you

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Speaker 3: translate something, you're sort of somewhat removed from the original text,

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Speaker 3: and so learning the original languages kind of allows you

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Speaker 3: to sort of get the original flavor of what the

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Speaker 3: author wanted to convey to the audience. And so that's

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Speaker 3: why it's helpful to know a little bit about the

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Speaker 3: original languages of the scripture.

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Speaker 1: And this not to be a Catholic supremacist for any

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Speaker 1: product and phantomime, but this is why a priest is

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Speaker 1: so much more important than private study groups with just

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Speaker 1: a circle of friends who are already in the English dialects.

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Speaker 3: Sure, so again, you know it's good I mean faith sharing.

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Speaker 3: I mean the Scripture is the word of God, so

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Speaker 3: it does have something to say to each and every

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Speaker 3: one of us by virtue of our faith. But it's

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Speaker 3: Bible study and really delving into the different meanings of

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Speaker 3: scripture through knowledge of the original text brings you to

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Speaker 3: a fuller knowledge. And so you know, there are only

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Speaker 3: a very few people that are capable of doing that,

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Speaker 3: and so I do feel somewhat privileged to be able

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Speaker 3: to read the scriptures in their original but you know,

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Speaker 3: that's the knowledge that I'm very happy to share with them.

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Speaker 1: So my whole monologue was about the benefits of physical church, right.

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Speaker 1: Why attending an actual mass, not just saying I'm a

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Speaker 1: Christian or I'm a Catholic who never shows up, or

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Speaker 1: maybe he just shows up once a year, The benefits

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Speaker 1: to someone's personal life, the benefits to society. And I

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Speaker 1: have family members even who have sat there and said

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Speaker 1: to me, why is it so important just to go

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Speaker 1: to a church? Why can I not be just a

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Speaker 1: more fulfilled I guess, or a practicing Catholic who doesn't

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Speaker 1: attend Mass. I could just read the Bible at home.

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Speaker 1: Why is it imported?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think you know that really gets Yeah, no,

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Speaker 3: I think that gets at the nature of what scripture

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Speaker 3: is and what the church is, because when Jesus ascended

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Speaker 3: into Heaven, he didn't leave us a Bible. He left

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Speaker 3: us a church. He left us, for better or for worse,

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Speaker 3: a juridical and hierarchical structure that we recognize even in

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Speaker 3: extra biblical texts and from tradition. So as Catholics, you know,

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Speaker 3: Protestants have Martin Luther was very famous for saying sola scriptua,

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Speaker 3: which means only scripture. So his point of contention was,

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Speaker 3: you know, there is is a lot of corruption in

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Speaker 3: the church, and the church since perhaps the Middle Ages

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Speaker 3: has lost its way, it's not as pristine as the

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Speaker 3: church as Jesus left it. And so what they did

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Speaker 3: was they sort of abandoned the church structure as it

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Speaker 3: was and went directly and only to sacred scripture. But

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Speaker 3: the problem with that, of course, is that like I said,

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Speaker 3: Jesus did not leave us sacred scripture. He left us

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Speaker 3: the church for better or for worse. And of course

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Speaker 3: the Church is, you know, both human and divine, and

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Speaker 3: so there are going to be problems. But the way

432
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 3: we do that is not dispensing with church's trying to

433
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 3: renew it with our own life. And so, you know,

434
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,960
Speaker 3: the scripture is something that the Church itself has produced

435
00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:49,119
Speaker 3: and has declared authentic and inspired. And so you can't

436
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,720
Speaker 3: have a Bible without a church, and you can't really

437
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 3: have a church without a Bible. And so for Catholics,

438
00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 3: it's about not only scripture, it's about scripture and tradition.

439
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:05,399
Speaker 3: Tradition meaning what the Lord left us in terms of

440
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:09,879
Speaker 3: liturgy and sacraments. And teachings. I mean, even at the

441
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,200
Speaker 3: end of the Gospel of John, he says, but there

442
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,560
Speaker 3: are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every

443
00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:18,639
Speaker 3: one of them to be written, I suppose that the

444
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 3: world itself would not contain the books that would have

445
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 3: been written. And so again there's much more to our

446
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,880
Speaker 3: faith and scripture. I mean, obviously scripture is as countered revelation.

447
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 3: It's very very important.

448
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,360
Speaker 2: But Christ calls us to.

449
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:35,160
Speaker 3: A communion, to a community of faith, and the community

450
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:40,199
Speaker 3: of faith is fully expressed in our common worship and

451
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 3: in our common gathering on Sunday. It's a commandment. And

452
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 3: so for people that say, you know, I just want

453
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,720
Speaker 3: to read scripture or pray by myself, well, that's not

454
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:54,640
Speaker 3: obeying the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath, because from

455
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 3: the earliest times Christians prayed together. That was the whole point.

456
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 3: And if you see even in the Acts of the Apostle,

457
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 3: the way in which the first Christians live was in community,

458
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 3: and they shared everything and they prayed together. And that's

459
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 3: just a reflection of what we believe about who God

460
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:15,159
Speaker 3: is in himself, in the Holy Trinity. It's not just

461
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,920
Speaker 3: sort of a being that is turned in on himself.

462
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 3: It is a communion, a community of persons that his

463
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,399
Speaker 3: Father's done and Holy stood. And so the communion or

464
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:29,800
Speaker 3: the community of believers expresses the fullness of our faith

465
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:33,920
Speaker 3: when we come together on Sunday and when we read scripture,

466
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:38,119
Speaker 3: and when we practice tradition as a community. And so

467
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 3: that you know, there's an important ecclesiology fundamentally that somebody

468
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 3: that would say, Okay, well I'm just going to you know,

469
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 3: practice this by myself, that kind of goes against that ecclesiology.

470
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,879
Speaker 1: So we're coming on to the Christmas, coming up to

471
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 1: Christmas faster than I am prepared for it. And a

472
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: lot of people we go into math one of the

473
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 1: two three times year they ever attend what and some

474
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 1: will just not attend at all? Why is in this

475
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: important season second most important, I guess to Easter in

476
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 1: the faith? Why is it? Why is regular attendance into

477
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: a mass I equated to working out?

478
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:23,719
Speaker 3: Right?

479
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: If you go to the gym three times a year,

480
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 1: you're not going to get you know any kind as

481
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: someone from experience who goes a little more than three

482
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 1: times a year, but not much. The more you kind

483
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,239
Speaker 1: of can go and spend time in your faith in

484
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: some capacity, you're going to be able to really kind

485
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 1: of and as a man who studied a lot, kind

486
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 1: of delve into the more the most interesting parts of

487
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: the religion. If you're just getting the very basics of

488
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 1: the life of Jesus and why it's important to do better,

489
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,119
Speaker 1: you can and really go and actually be a fully

490
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: part of it and understand on a deeper level that

491
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 1: sometimes it's above my head, but I know, but I

492
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: can appreciate and try to learn as much as humanly possible.

493
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: What what is it? What would you say to somebody

494
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 1: who just sits there and says not to take people

495
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,199
Speaker 1: who are just lazy and they can't wake up on Sunday.

496
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: But take people who sit there and say it's just

497
00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 1: not my thing. And I don't think that the church

498
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 1: wants to accept people like me. There are people like that.

499
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, well, you know again, the church is a

500
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 3: mother that wants to embrace all of her children no

501
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 3: matter what. And so people that might feel somewhat excluded

502
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 3: or disenfranchised or a little shy about church for whatever reason.

503
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 3: You know, church is there for people for everyone, you

504
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 3: know who feels that there's some sort of lack or

505
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 3: disorder or trouble in their interior life. I mean, the

506
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 3: church is made for sinners, it's made for people that

507
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 3: feel lost. It's made for people precisely about whom you're describing.

508
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 3: And I think that, you know, this season reminds us

509
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 3: that just as God came down into this world in

510
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,719
Speaker 3: a very kind of in the midst of chaos, in

511
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,479
Speaker 3: the midst of darkness, that's what the Lord does even today.

512
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 3: He enters into our life, or he wants to at least,

513
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 3: and he doesn't mind that our soul is a bit

514
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 3: messy or chaotic or noisy or disordered, right, because that's

515
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,479
Speaker 3: how He entered the world to begin with.

516
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 2: Right.

517
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 3: He was not born in a palace, He is not

518
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 3: born in a hotel or you know, there was even

519
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 3: no room for him in the end, and so he

520
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 3: was born in the midst of you know, a manger

521
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 3: with with noise and smells and all kind of chaos. Right,

522
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:59,199
Speaker 3: And so I think, you know, kind of maybe something

523
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 3: to think about is the way in which Saint Luke

524
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 3: presents the birth of Christ, because this is how the

525
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 3: birth of Christ came about, and he describes the circumstances.

526
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 3: I think as a spiritual exercise. Maybe that's something that

527
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 3: we can think about. You know, how does the birth

528
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,479
Speaker 3: of Christ come about in my life? Where do I

529
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 3: feel the need to be loved or to be embraced,

530
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 3: or what's the brokenness in my life that needs to

531
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 3: be healed or what's the chaos that needs Christ's peace?

532
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 3: And so the Christmas season is a way or an

533
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 3: invitation or a moment to really ponder that question. Because

534
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,199
Speaker 3: the Lord wants to enter into our lives. And again

535
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 3: he does that through the sacraments of the Church. Because

536
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 3: the sacraments aren't just a ritual. They're not just something

537
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 3: that we do over and over them because it's a tradition.

538
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 3: They actually impart something that's called thanktified and great, which

539
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 3: means that it's God's life that wants to dwell within

540
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 3: us and that changes us. And so that's why a

541
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 3: regular practice of the faith is beneficial and I would

542
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 3: say salubrious. It's healthy because it enables the natural virtues

543
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,360
Speaker 3: that we have to grow exponentially because you know, as

544
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 3: human beings, we have so many limits. We're finite beings.

545
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 3: But if we allow Christ to enter into our life,

546
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 3: not just through our personal prayer. But through the sacraments

547
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:36,920
Speaker 3: and through the grace that God gives us through those sacraments,

548
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:42,240
Speaker 3: then we sort of are able to achieve the goal

549
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 3: for which we are created, which is to live in

550
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 3: peace with Christ.

551
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: Something that I grapple with and say I think about

552
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: is how to insert faith in not I mean not

553
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: in every single area of my life, but in most

554
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: areas where I can. So. I'm a boss, I have

555
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: a bunch of employees. Being a leader and showing leadership

556
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: in that faith and in that tradition is very, very

557
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,400
Speaker 1: important to me. Making sure that I represent someone who

558
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: is honorable and leader and leadership and promoting things that

559
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: I think that are important. To sit there, and you know,

560
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: I will have rego conversations with people I don't know

561
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: super well, kind of intrusive conversations about why if they're

562
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: looking at this, why they should explore Cathos. And I've

563
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: met probably like four or five young men, all young

564
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,320
Speaker 1: men who have converted to the faiths in the last

565
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: couple of years, and I'm basically begging at them at

566
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: this point to be their sponsor, and no one's taking

567
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 1: me up on the offer. But though, what are what

568
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: are we called to aside from loving people, which I

569
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 1: know is a big task and something that is I

570
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: guess the whole entire picture. What are we called for

571
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 1: in our daily life as practicing Catholics especially, but as

572
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: Catholics to sit there and to do most where? Or

573
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: can we fill this? Boy this not not philivoid, but

574
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: show our faith in our daily life in some some avenue.

575
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: What I'm saying it was a little slong.

576
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure so. I mean there is a book that

577
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 3: was meant for this. It's called it's called The Imitation

578
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 3: of Christ, and it was written in the Middle Ages,

579
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 3: but if you read it, it sounds like something that

580
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 3: was maybe written a week ago, because it addresses these

581
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 3: very issues. How do I practice the faith day to day?

582
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 3: And you know, I think one of the things is

583
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 3: that we read the New Testament and we look at

584
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 3: what Christ does and how he does it. How does

585
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 3: he encounter, for example, a mother whose son has died.

586
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 3: How does he relate to his disciples kind of maybe

587
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 3: in his employees, right, how does he interact with them?

588
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 3: What words does he use? What's his tenor in speaking?

589
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 2: Right?

590
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 3: And so we looked upon the person of Christ, we

591
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 3: dwell with those images, we pray with them, and then

592
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 3: we try to put them into practice ourselves. So I

593
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 3: think to summarize the entire Christian life, we can say

594
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,959
Speaker 3: it's an imitation of Christ. How does Christ act in

595
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 3: this situation or that? How does He speak to this

596
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:23,239
Speaker 3: person or that? And so the attitudes of Christ in

597
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 3: some ways have to become our own, and we apply

598
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 3: that in the different circumstances that come before us.

599
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: What about when you feel like you've fallen shore, which

600
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: I know everyone does in every capacity their life, whether

601
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: they are a parent or a spouse or a priest,

602
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: or they feel like, this is not my part. How

603
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: do you how do you sit there and say it's

604
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 1: not you know, kick like just kick it away and say,

605
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 1: you know what, how do you how do you as

606
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: a person to sit there and say I will try

607
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: better tomorrow and this is not the end all be all?

608
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, I mean that's that's the entire story of

609
00:31:58,120 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 2: the Old Testament, right.

610
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 3: It's the fact that Israel, you know, makes a deal

611
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 3: with God and says, you know, will will obey your

612
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 3: commandments and will love you and this and that, and

613
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 3: of course time and again they disobey. And there are

614
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 3: some places leads through. God gets a little angry, but.

615
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 2: For you know, it's kind of.

616
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 3: An understatement, I suppose in some cases, but God does

617
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 3: not abandon them. He's always there. And I think one

618
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 3: of the most beautiful things about Christianity itself is that, yeah,

619
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 3: God maybe get angry and pissed off, but he's still

620
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 3: there for you.

621
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 2: He's not.

622
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 3: There's nothing, as Saint Paul says, that can separate us

623
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 3: from the love of Christ. Even when we commit a sin,

624
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 3: there's always the possibility of going back. I mean, look

625
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 3: at the story of the prodigal son who distanced himself

626
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 3: so far from his father but goes back and the

627
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 3: father is not just you know, sitting there, but he's

628
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 3: actively ways waiting for the son to come back. And again,

629
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 3: what a beautiful image that is of Jesus who just

630
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 3: is waiting for us to come back. And so it's

631
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 3: not like God forgets about us. It's not like God,

632
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 3: you know, if they're okay, well, you know, this happens

633
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 3: all the time. So I'm just going to shut the door.

634
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 3: The door is always open. And the Christian life is

635
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 3: really about falling and getting back up again, and that actually.

636
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 2: Is you know, one of the.

637
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 3: What we call a Marian antiphon, which is a hymn

638
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 3: to the Blessed Virgin Mary for Advent and Christmas, is

639
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 3: called the Loving Mother of the Redeemer, and one of

640
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 3: the lines says, loving Mother of the Redeemer, assist your

641
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 3: people who have fallen. It's strives to rise again and again.

642
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,040
Speaker 3: That's the Christian life, you know, if we are attentive

643
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 3: to what's going on inside, to our interior life, then

644
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 3: we will recognize our faults, will ask God for strength

645
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 3: and forgiveness and by his grave sweet wise again. And

646
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 3: that just happens over and over and over again until

647
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 3: we try to get a little better at it each

648
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:08,279
Speaker 3: and every time.

649
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 1: So you're thirty five, I'm thirty eight. There's a lot

650
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 1: of millennial men and gen Z men who didn't grow

651
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,919
Speaker 1: up with overly religious parents. I did, and my mother

652
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,240
Speaker 1: would have, like you know, she was a Shei Catholic.

653
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 1: There was, But there are the people who don't. And

654
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: if you're if this is something you're and I always say,

655
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: faith's a journey. It's not a guilt. But I can't

656
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: guilt you have a belief system, of course, But if

657
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 1: you're interested in you're exploring, what are resources outside of

658
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: just attending a mess that people could go to who

659
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 1: are intellectually and intellectually available. They're not. It's not you know,

660
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: you're not reading something. You're like, well, this is way

661
00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:49,840
Speaker 1: above my head. I can't I can't deal with it.

662
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 1: But what is something that somebody could go to and

663
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 1: say this is worth just looking at. This is a

664
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 1: you know, not seeing Thomas acquaintance, but you know someone

665
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: on that level and say this is accessible to you

666
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,759
Speaker 1: in an intellectual way where you can feel like you're

667
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 1: reaching into something that's innate in your heart because you

668
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: want to look for it.

669
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So two things come to mind immediately. The first

670
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:19,040
Speaker 3: is Introduction too Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict

671
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,720
Speaker 3: the sixteenth. And I would say that any of his books,

672
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 3: which are all printed by a natious threats, are like

673
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 3: they're easily accessible. So they've written a language that is

674
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:37,720
Speaker 3: I think palatable but also engages the intellect. And so somebody,

675
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 3: I think just picking that up would be very delighted

676
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:42,759
Speaker 3: to read anything. But you know, one thing that comes

677
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 3: to mind is is Introduction to the Politism, which you

678
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 3: know that's just something that I read in high school

679
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 3: because that's when he became pope, and there's an interest

680
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 3: in that. The other thing I would kind of point

681
00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 3: to is Bishop Baron's Catholicism. It's a brief sort of

682
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 3: introduction to what the Catholic faith is, and his approach

683
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 3: is also using the entire Catholic tradition, so he introduces

684
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 3: the person not just to the dogmas and the adoptrines

685
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 3: of the faith, but the architecture, the art, the music

686
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,520
Speaker 3: that the faith has produced over two thousand years, the literature,

687
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 3: because there's a whole section of American and European literature

688
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 3: that is inspired by the Catholic Faith, and so Catholicism

689
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 3: is very, very rich in its symbols, in its traditions,

690
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 3: and I think this book by Bishop Baron, simply called Catholicism,

691
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 3: is something that people might be interested in. And again,

692
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,840
Speaker 3: as I mentioned before, the Imitation of Christ by Thomas

693
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 3: the Tempest is a medieval work, but it's the second

694
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 3: most read book aside from the Bible, really in the

695
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,880
Speaker 3: history of literature, and it was the favorite book of

696
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,400
Speaker 3: several saints, one of them being Ignacious of Loyola, always

697
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,719
Speaker 3: had it on his debt and it served as an

698
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 3: inspiration for generations of Catholics, saints included, and so that

699
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 3: might be a place to start as well. But that's

700
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 3: a little more on the spiritual side of things. That's

701
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 3: so much on the academic side.

702
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,960
Speaker 1: So my last question to you, and this is a

703
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,359
Speaker 1: personal question, because I was talking to with my friends

704
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 1: as a Protestant about this about the saints and ideology ideatry,

705
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: and you know, our conversation about that, and I couldn't

706
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: convince her, but it was okay, it was fine. Who

707
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 1: are sayings that you asked to pray for you or

708
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 1: you look to?

709
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 2: Oh? Sure, So my favorite saying is Ignacious of Loyola.

710
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 3: I have devoted to him because I went to a

711
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:55,239
Speaker 3: Jesuit high school and he is certainly somebody that I

712
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 3: read about and admired his conversion story. He went from

713
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 3: like this and its center to a saint because of

714
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 3: an injury that he sustained in a battle.

715
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 2: So I thought that was pretty cool.

716
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 3: And more recently, as a parish priest, Saint John Deanni,

717
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 3: who is the patron saint of parish priests, who kind

718
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 3: of dedicated his life to the ordinary and simple work

719
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 3: of caring for souls in his parish. And I also

720
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 3: have a particular devote to Edmund Campion, who was one

721
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 3: of the English martyrs during the Elizabethan era. So the

722
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 3: Catholic clergy were expelled from England in the seventeenth century.

723
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 3: I wanted to play their sixteenth century. They did their

724
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:46,719
Speaker 3: seminary and studies in Europe in Cotton, continental Europe, and

725
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,880
Speaker 3: then they went back to England secretly to minister to

726
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 3: Catholics and hiding. And I find his story very, very fascinating.

727
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,240
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, evil and Law the English,

728
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,760
Speaker 3: the famous English author of the last century. I wrote

729
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 3: a biography on Edmund Campion, which is another book that

730
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 3: people might be interested in. Who are you know looking

731
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:13,879
Speaker 3: at hypolicies, And it just tells his story and how

732
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 3: he went from an Anglican deacon to a Catholic priest

733
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 3: who was eventually martyred for his faith in a very

734
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 3: difficult time in history. So his you know, I always

735
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 3: I have a picture of him in my room. I

736
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 3: just find his story very heroic. And you know, he

737
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 3: was a Jesuit as well, and so he was, you know,

738
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 3: a man that was deeply spiritual, but also committed to

739
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 3: the intellectual pursuit of this faith.

740
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 1: You know, that's why I understand that because she's my

741
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:48,800
Speaker 1: birthday Sampinel. So she was a bit of a rebel

742
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: who a lot of trouble and I relate to that

743
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,400
Speaker 1: quite a bit. So right, Yeah, there you go, persisted.

744
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 1: So anyway, father, thank you so much for coming on

745
00:39:58,960 --> 00:39:59,760
Speaker 1: this podcast.

746
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,720
Speaker 2: Really really appreciate it. You're very welcome. There was a delight.

747
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 2: Thank you. Ryan.

748
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: Now it's time for the Asking Me Anything segment of

749
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 1: this podcast. If you want a part of the Ask

750
00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: Me Anything segment, emil me Ryan at Numbers gamepodcast dot com.

751
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,399
Speaker 1: That's Ryan at Numbers Gameplural podcast dot com. I love

752
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 1: these questions. It makes the show so much interesting. I

753
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: love getting to know my listeners. This question comes from Greg.

754
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: Greg says, as a former member of the New Jersey

755
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 1: Libertarian Party for fifteen years, I can say that the

756
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: DSA and the Libertarian Party are very quite similar, except economically.

757
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,279
Speaker 1: Do you think that the rise of Bobby Kennedy, em

758
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 1: and Donnie if they were form their own party to

759
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,319
Speaker 1: take the duopoly which always promised to destroy Do you

760
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,319
Speaker 1: think the rise of Bobby Kenny, Emmon Donnie if they

761
00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 1: were the front runner. I think he's met front runners

762
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 1: of their own party to take the duopolity which they

763
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:52,400
Speaker 1: promised to destroy. I don't know about that. The Libertarian Party,

764
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: I just think is useless. I mean, I don't think

765
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:58,880
Speaker 1: libertarians as a whole are useless. I think they've been

766
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: very important prominently libertarians in this country. Like something like

767
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: Gary Johnson, who was a libertarian. He was the governor

768
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 1: of Mexico. He could have ran for US Senate, won

769
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 1: the Senate seat as a Republican, and promoted libertarianism in

770
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 1: the Senate and be an important player in the country

771
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,240
Speaker 1: the way that like Rampole is an important player in

772
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 1: national discussions. But instead he decided to run as a

773
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 1: libertarian twice, was a spoiler, was almost a spoiler for

774
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,319
Speaker 1: Trump in a couple of states, and then he ended

775
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: up running for US Senate as a libertarian New Mexico

776
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 1: lost there too, and now he's nowhere. I mean, he's

777
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,319
Speaker 1: a rich guy. I wish him well personally, but what

778
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: a waste of time and effort. The DSA is at

779
00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: least smarter than they work within the Democratic Party to

780
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: try to promote and promote their causes and promote their issues,

781
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 1: and they've been enormously successful. They've really kind of figured

782
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 1: out to work to get work successfully on immigrant groups,

783
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:58,319
Speaker 1: on populations of a lot of white yuppies, where they

784
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,840
Speaker 1: can win and where they can make you know, strength

785
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 1: in in numbers, and that's why they've grown across the

786
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 1: entire country. The DSA is, I think, much more organized

787
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 1: than the Libertarian Party is. I don't think the Libertarian

788
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 1: Party and organization really go hand in hand. I will say,

789
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 1: when I was a young kid, I think I maybe

790
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,440
Speaker 1: mentioned this story before. But if I haven't, if I haven't,

791
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:20,399
Speaker 1: forgive me what if I have it? It's interesting. When

792
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: I was like eighteen years old, I was I was

793
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 1: a Democrat for a year because I was going to

794
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:27,440
Speaker 1: see Iraq war and I just thought, if you're if

795
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 1: you're against the Raq war, you must be a Democrat.

796
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:34,440
Speaker 1: So I got to work as like a on the

797
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: street fundraiser for a single day for uh the I

798
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:41,839
Speaker 1: think it was. It wasn't Code Pink. It was some

799
00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:45,400
Speaker 1: one of those anti Bush organizations. I can't remember. Change changed,

800
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:47,440
Speaker 1: dot com, change dot orgs like that. I don't whatever

801
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: it was, remember that was Obama. It doesn't matter what

802
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,480
Speaker 1: it was. It was move on dot org. That's it,

803
00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:54,160
Speaker 1: move on dot org. I worked as as a person

804
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: you walk on the street ask for money from random

805
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: people from move on dot org. For one day. I

806
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: was like eighteen years old, like I'm I'm doing change.

807
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 1: And beforehand we went to like meet and all like

808
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 1: the activists met, and I was just gonna say, iraq war.

809
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 1: I didn't have like a ton of other issues I

810
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: really even thought about or believed in. But I go

811
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:15,920
Speaker 1: to the meeting and everyone is like sitting on a

812
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,720
Speaker 1: beanbag chair and everything smells like cannabis and coffee and feet,

813
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,919
Speaker 1: and it was just disgusting. And they all start talking

814
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 1: about their number one issues and it was like we

815
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: should erase all borders, we should tax everyone at one

816
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 1: hundred percent or whatever. I was like, these people are nuts,

817
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 1: Like this is not where I belong at all. But

818
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: the organizational ability was really kind of impressive to look

819
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 1: at from the from like inside. I was only there

820
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:43,759
Speaker 1: for literally one day. I never went back to show

821
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:46,240
Speaker 1: up for work again, but that was very very impressive.

822
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 1: It's very interesting how organized they are. On the right,

823
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 1: we have some groups that are effective and like that

824
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:55,839
Speaker 1: like you know, Charlie Kirk was amazing at organization, and

825
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: there's a few other ones that are affected. But I

826
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 1: agree with you that the DSA is destructive. I don't

827
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 1: know about Bobby Kennedy and Mondannie I. I don't know

828
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 1: about that answer. And the Libertarian Party, I don't agree

829
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: is like the DSA because I don't think that they

830
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:12,240
Speaker 1: are nearly as organized for us. Anyway, that's some podcasts.

831
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: I hope you like it. I will see you guys

832
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:17,280
Speaker 1: on Monday. Please stay tuned and please like and subscribe

833
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,960
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, where I get this podcast,

834
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 1: including our YouTube video. I appreciate you all, Thank you,

835
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:24,240
Speaker 1: and have a great weekend.