13 Oct 2020 – The Seventh Commandment (Pt.3)

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber, and I'm having the honor of spending an hour a week with you, our listener, to this one -hour show that talks about the Ten Commandments right now, and we're talking about the cultural issues.

[2] We're on the Seventh Commandment.

[3] We will get to that.

[4] Bishop Strickland, nice to see you today.

[5] How are you doing today?

[6] Good, Terry.

[7] Good to see you.

[8] Yeah, thanks be to God.

[9] We've got some tweets, but you know what, Bishop Strickland, I have something that I wanted to get your take on.

[10] because I'm a layman, you're a bishop, I hear the President of the United States talk about religious freedom and about the abortion issue and the sanctity of life, and I'm going, you know, I'm 60 years old, I've never heard anybody speak like this, especially wouldn't expect the president to say this.

[11] I mean, I get, I say it, I can hear you talk about the dignity of life, but I want to play a clip from President Trump and then get your take on that, and let's have that clip played right now.

[12] I also want to express my deep gratitude to every person who prays for me and for the First Lady and for our country.

[13] We love our country.

[14] There's no country like it.

[15] I grew up next to a Catholic Church in Queens, New York, and I saw how much incredible work the Catholic Church did for our community.

[16] These are amazing people.

[17] These are great, great people.

[18] Catholic schools give many underserved children the chance to reach their God -given potential.

[19] Catholics of all background share the love of Christ with the most vulnerable as they care for the elderly, the homeless, and neighbors in need.

[20] Our nation is strong because of Catholics and all people of faith.

[21] We believe in the joy of family, the blessing of freedom, and the dignity of work, and the eternal truth that every child, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of God.

[22] I will always protect the vital role of religion and prayer in American society.

[23] and I will always defend the sacred right to life.

[24] Today I am announcing that I will be signing the Born Alive Executive Order to ensure that all precious babies born alive, no matter their circumstances, receive the medical care that they deserve.

[25] This is our sacrosanct moral duty.

[26] We are also increasing federal funding for the neonatal research to ensure that every child has the very best chance to thrive and to grow.

[27] every time every time i hear that bishop strickland i'm shaking my head going i can't believe i remember four years ago he said that he was going to do these things and he did him and now he's defending life like i mean like a bishop should be speaking i'm sorry bishop did i say that i want to hear more bishops defend life like that now what's your take i spoke out of turn what's your take on this well terry i agree and um you know it's it's always you're brave to to even put that out there because, you know, oh, it's political and supporting a candidate.

[28] He's, I would hope that for once we could lay aside all the politics, all the different divisions that are coming in the election.

[29] He is the sitting president.

[30] And let's just embrace what we just heard.

[31] The sitting president said, every child born and unborn, is created in the image of God.

[32] He's basically quoting the Catholic Catechism.

[33] He is sounding like a bishop or any faithful Catholic.

[34] And so, and he's not Catholic, but we should be able to, as Catholics, and certainly, there are all kinds of other issues and there are things that are problems that people struggle with, but just for a moment to say, whoever he is, he is the sitting president, and he, as president said, every child born and unborn is created in the image of God, and they need to be respected in that context.

[35] That is what a bishop needs to say.

[36] That's what the church proclaims joyfully, full of hope and light and we need to let that resonate and let that be something that we celebrate whatever other things that this sitting president has said that we may disagree with and there's certainly a lot of that if we could just for one moment forget he's a Republican and he's not a Democrat, whatever and just say he's the president and he said every child born and unborn is created in the image of God.

[37] And then he goes on to speak about what people challenge the church on a lot of times.

[38] Oh, you just want them to be born and you don't care.

[39] He goes on to speak about every child getting the health care, getting what they need to flourish through life.

[40] That's the kind of society we need to build where every person from conception to natural death is protected and cared for and given what they need.

[41] that's a huge challenging mandate that the gospel gives us but we need to keep working at it rather than letting it erode in various areas well said and i would just recommend to our listeners to look at the platform of whether it's the democratic party or the republican party and look at the platform and say is that my platform that i want to support and then you make the decision because i'm not forcing you to make a decision of which one or the other one I know what I'm going to do, but I believe that people need to be informed.

[42] And I appreciate President Trump speaking like this because it resonated with me who I have spent my life trying to support the unborn.

[43] And I mean, I just was shocked when I heard that.

[44] So I appreciate your comments there, Bishop Strickland.

[45] Bishop Strickland, there's another item before I go to your tweets that is huge right now.

[46] And Texas is leading the way.

[47] Big California is way behind Texas on this one.

[48] This is a Netflix, they're being indicted in Texas over this, what I call pornography, cutie's film, sexualizing children.

[49] It's own LifeSight News.

[50] And I don't even want to describe what I read on the Lifesite News article, but trust me, everybody, this is pornography.

[51] We're exposing our young children to things that they should never be exposed to.

[52] And, you know, I think Bishop Strickland, what I quote this a lot, St. Pope Felix III saying not to oppose error is to approve it.

[53] Not to defend truth is to suppress it and indeed to neglect the confound evil men when they can do it is no less than a sin than to encourage them.

[54] Here's my point.

[55] This is sinful.

[56] Pornography is sinful and we have to stand up and say that's wrong and do whatever we can to stop it.

[57] I have a piece of paper of this indictment in Texas against Netflix.

[58] What do you know about this situation?

[59] You're in Texas Bishop Strickland.

[60] Yeah, I had before you mentioned it, I had heard about this and I applaud this effort because like you have said so often people who are believers, we need to speak up whether a bishop or just this wasn't done by a bishop.

[61] Nope.

[62] But people, and probably not Catholics, but people who believe in the sanctity of every person.

[63] this is child abuse in another form to produce pornography that is using little children it's child abuse and it denigrates the sacred human person that God has created all of us to be so I applaud their efforts to call I mean we've talked before so much of the corruption in the church and in the world, in the nation, and in business, comes down to dollars.

[64] And Netflix is making a lot of dollars in what they do.

[65] If it starts to hit their bank account, they may rethink it.

[66] Maybe not for ethical reasons, but just because it's affecting their bank account.

[67] And I applaud these people for bringing this lawsuit because it's just basic human reality that these are not even just minors.

[68] These are little children depicted.

[69] I mean, I certainly haven't seen anything, but just a clip on the news.

[70] But that's enough to see and to hear some of the descriptions.

[71] It is abusing these children and using them as if they were just a product to sell.

[72] And that's the whole, you know, sex industry that certainly even adults get caught up in.

[73] But to bring a lawsuit, I applaud those who are making that effort.

[74] And I hope that they wait Netflix up to some of that corruption.

[75] I mean, there's so much of it.

[76] We could probably sue just about every network on television if we really started getting serious about it.

[77] But I'm glad that they're speaking up.

[78] And hopefully, if it hits their bank account.

[79] If it hits the bottom line, they'll start paying attention, whether they think, you know, these, you know, Christian prudes that just don't want this free sex to be just everything that everybody celebrates, which is actually destructive to human society, whatever they think about the morality of it, if it hits their bottom line, they'll pay attention.

[80] well said and i would just recommend anybody who has a subscription to netflix terminate it stop spending your money there that would be my recommendation already did well you know what's some other issue good well do it and if you're still if you're still a subscriber go ahead and unsubscribe to to the netflix folks and you know bishop strickland when we come back from the break i want to follow up on a couple tweets but i want to follow up also on this network Netflix about sexualizing children because I want to also point the finger we're pointing the finger at Netflix but you know I want to point the finger at me as a Catholic and at our church also for not clearly demonstrating the beautiful teachings of the Catholic Church that we already taught about on on the Sixth Commandment thou shall not commit adultery and all these other things and then we get penalized by YouTube saying we can't that's offensive to the culture, we're not going to monetize your YouTube.

[81] Okay, well, fine.

[82] But the point I'm going to point is this, Bishop Strickland.

[83] When we come back, I want you to tell us about that sexual revolution in the 60s that we as a church might have just fallen a little short, I think, of conveying the sacredness of life.

[84] We'll be back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[85] Hi, this is Jesse Romero from the Terry and Jesse show also from Jesus 9 -1 -1.

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[95] Thank you for listening to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[96] Thank you.

[97] God bless you.

[98] Keep the faith.

[99] Terry Barber, I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[100] Here's an easy way to do it.

[101] If you're going to sell or buy a house, call real estate for life 877 -543 -3871 because they're going to get you a Christ -centered agent to purchase your home or to sell your home.

[102] And at the close of escrow, a portion of his commission goes right back to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[103] Call 877 -543 -3871.

[104] Thank you so much for your support.

[105] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[106] I'm Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[107] And we've been talking about this Netflix film that they put out called Cuties, and it's been sexualizing children.

[108] Bishop Strickland just nailed it by saying that, you know, the dignity of the human person, again, is being affected here poorly.

[109] But Bishop Strickland, I asked you a question before the break, and I said, you know, I'm pointing a finger at me. and as our church also back in the 60s we had this sexual revolution and what happened at that sexual revolution was in about 1968 the church came out with a document on Humane Vite on the sacredness of life and talking about how marital love is so special that we can't separate the two from love and life and so we have a procreative aspect and a unitive aspect of the marital act and it seemed to me I lived I was only 12 years old 11 years old back then but it seems to me that talking to so many couples they didn't get the message and many Catholics were contracepting for years because it seemed like the church wasn't bold enough to tell us the truth I'm being honest I'm saying we dropped the ball am I on to something I can't certainly go ahead I can hear you now there um it's not the only issue that we're dealing with, but I think it is at the root of a lot of the sexual revolution, because if you look at what Humane Vita talked about, it basically said artificial or contraception is immoral.

[110] And we live in a society Catholic and non -Catholic that just embraced, we can do this, and so we do.

[111] And it's like so many other things that scientifically get developed, it really began with the pill that came along when both of us were just, you know, probably not in school yet.

[112] I wasn't.

[113] Early 60s.

[114] But 1968, the whole drama there was Pope Paul the 6th coming out with this document, Humane Vite, when most of his advisors said, holy father, go ahead and say that it's okay.

[115] And so he, thankfully, he stood for the truth and suffered for it.

[116] And I think it is a significant aspect of the whole sexual revolution.

[117] And there's so many aspects of our broken human reality now that can be traced back to when we get sex wrong, it's destructive to the human family.

[118] And I think, really, Terry, we can take that down to the individual man and the individual woman.

[119] When we get into sexual practices that are immoral and sometimes intrinsically disordered, it takes us down a path of not life, but death and destruction.

[120] And that's the path that we've been on since the sexual.

[121] revolution.

[122] It, and it's gained momentum, you know, certainly in the 2000s, it's just exploded in ways that we wouldn't even have dreamt of when we were kids.

[123] I mean, you know, we were little boys growing up in America and now little boys growing up in America may be convinced that they're supposed to be little girls.

[124] And, you know, all of that begins to happen.

[125] All of these, and it traces back to a misunderstanding of the beautiful gift of our sexual nature.

[126] God created us male and female and has the purpose of a man and a woman committing themselves in a lifelong relationship that is called marriage.

[127] That's the only kind of marriage there is, really, between a man and a woman, open to children.

[128] And that closing the door to children, contraceptive, began to distort the whole gift of sexuality so that it really ultimately becomes a burden and it becomes a destructive force where it's God's intention that it is procreation.

[129] It is part of sharing in that creative gift that originates from God.

[130] So I think absolutely and sadly with Humane Vite, the majority of the bishops said we're not going to follow what Pope Paul promulgated with that.

[131] They didn't teach it.

[132] They didn't share it.

[133] I mean, and we're reaping that neglect of the truth.

[134] And not just a neglect of the truth, but a selling of distortion that has accompanied.

[135] because if you don't have the truth, then you can get a lot of things that are more and more off track, and that's what we're experiencing.

[136] Well, Bishop, thank you for that because it's been my experience talking to people.

[137] Dr. Scott Hahn, who I actually did his original conversion story back 30 -some years ago, when he did his life -giving love talks at our family conferences, I had so many couples come up to me and say, I didn't know we weren't supposed to use contraceptives.

[138] I mean, he honestly came up and said, I didn't know.

[139] And they repented.

[140] They said, I don't, if this is not going to, you know, according to God's will, I want God in my marriage.

[141] And what Dr. Hahn did, he convinced so many couples to change their view.

[142] So I appreciate you saying that very thing, Bishop Strickland.

[143] Bishop Strickland, before I get to one of your tweets, too, I just want to get your take.

[144] You've been very clear, and so is Bishop Athanasia Snyder, who's been a friend of our show many times.

[145] He is basically saying that if there was a mandatory COVID vaccine, and you've been very strong on this for months, he just said, you know, this is bad news, this is not of God, and that we must stop, you know, we must not go along with this.

[146] I can see in the article they talk that 870 ,000 people have signed a petition saying, yeah, if it's with aborted babies, we're not going to take that vaccine.

[147] Are you still on this same page today?

[148] Absolutely.

[149] We need again, we talked about the bottom line and the whole pharmaceutical industry.

[150] There's a lot of money in these vaccines, not just for COVID, but vaccines period.

[151] And it's all woven into the abortion industry so again if we can affect their bottom line and say we're not going to buy it you can't sell it to us yeah if enough people say that they'll start to pay attention yeah because they're they want to make money that's they're not just in the business because they love science right they want to make money and um you know it's certainly the the use of aborted children.

[152] I mean, you know, the, it's just so wrong, so diabolical that like we were talking earlier, for my salvation, I want to be able to tell God, listen, Heavenly Father, I did my best to speak up your truth and said, this is wrong.

[153] This is just diabolical.

[154] It's of the devil.

[155] And, you know, I think more people need to speak up and there's so many things that people are complacent about but more and more I think people are waking up to things but we've got to to speak the truth and and put our money or take our money where our mouth is and that's what they'll pay attention to yeah I mean a lot of people have no real ethics anymore um their their ethics are about if it's going to make me money I'll do it.

[156] But if you take the profit incentive away, then that'll get people's attention.

[157] Well said.

[158] Boy, I couldn't have said it better.

[159] Bishop Strickland, I have received hundreds of emails, maybe in over 1 ,000, because of your show that you did with Father James Altman, I guess about two weeks ago.

[160] And it's going all over the internet.

[161] It's been viewed now, Father, Altman's video over a million times, and I'm sure you're getting a little feedback on that like I am, but most of it's been positive.

[162] How is that interview and that whole tweet that you gave to Father Altman affecting you?

[163] Are you still getting comments about it?

[164] Yes, a lot of positive, some negative, as always.

[165] But when you speak the truth, people are going to react.

[166] And certainly, as I've said, you know, it probably got more political than I even want to.

[167] Politics is broken.

[168] I mean, I think we can all agree.

[169] I didn't watch the most recent or the only presidential debate.

[170] But everyone I heard from both sides of the aisle, from whoever you're supporting, it was an embarrassment for this great nation.

[171] And I mean that word when I say great nation.

[172] It's not guaranteed to stay great.

[173] And there's some of that greatness has already slipped because the morality is slipped.

[174] But there's no better system that humanity has come up with than what the United States is founded on.

[175] A lot of that foundation is eroded and it can erode even further if we allow it to.

[176] But so, you know, I don't want to get political because political is broken.

[177] Absolutely.

[178] Just desperately broken in our nation.

[179] And that debate recently, I think, you know, everyone that I heard and people from supporting different men, different platforms, different parties.

[180] But everybody said that was just not representative of who we need to be looking at to lead our nation.

[181] And so setting the politics aside, if you possibly can, I mean, everything's so politicized, but I think that what Father Altman spoke to, besides getting into some of the political, prudential judgment issues, the main thing that he said that I wanted to support was we need to come to know God and to know, to love God and to know that he loves us.

[182] And there are too many people that just laugh that off.

[183] And whether they laugh at off or not, we believe that their ability to laugh is a gift from God.

[184] I mean, he allows himself to be mocked.

[185] But that can only go so far because the fabric of our world is built by God.

[186] deny it just so far before that fabric starts to unravel.

[187] And so I think that God is love.

[188] The Gospel of John says that over and over again.

[189] We believe that in the Catholic faith.

[190] God is love in a dimension of love that is beyond anything that we can really define.

[191] Love is so distorted, as we were talking about with the sexual revolution.

[192] Love is so broken in our culture, but we need to re -embrace what it means to say as John's gospel says so very clearly that God is love, love is God.

[193] Jesus Christ is love incarnate, and that's what we need to bring people to.

[194] As friends of mine have said, you know, we get more flies with honey than with vinegar.

[195] And, you know, that is what I want to emphasize.

[196] The love and the truth, and it doesn't mean it's easy.

[197] It's still tough, but it's still beautiful and joyful and life -giving.

[198] We'll be right back with more with Bishop Strickland Hour.

[199] This is Terry Barber.

[200] I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[201] Here's an easy way to do it.

[202] If you're going to sell or buy a house, call real estate for life.

[203] 877 -543.

[204] 3871 because they're going to get you a Christ -centered agent to purchase your home or to sell your home.

[205] And at the close of escrow, a portion of his commission goes right back to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[206] Call 877 -543 -3871.

[207] Thank you so much for your support.

[208] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[209] We're going to be covering the Seventh Amendment.

[210] You shall not steal in just a minute.

[211] I wanted to give a plug.

[212] Bishop Strickland doesn't know I'm going to do this, but he's got a new book out.

[213] I saw on the internet from Catholic Answers.

[214] And so I want to just recommend to our listeners to check out Catholic Answers website.

[215] And Bishop Strickland, what's the book about?

[216] Well, it's called Light and Leaven.

[217] And it's my reflections on how lay Catholics can engage the culture and live their faith in the 21st century.

[218] Awesome.

[219] And I want to also make one more plug about your institute here at your diocese and Tyler.

[220] I love it.

[221] I go on that website.

[222] Now, you have great resources.

[223] Tell our listeners for those new listeners, because we got 5 ,000 new YouTube listeners in just the last three weeks.

[224] So go ahead.

[225] Well, the institute is the St. Philip Institute, the website, St .Philip Institute.

[226] dot org, Philip with one L, based on Philip the deacon.

[227] And it's about teaching.

[228] We have podcasts, we have classes.

[229] The institute staff is doing a great job under the direction of Dr. Stacey Trisenkos.

[230] Just getting the truth out there, like we talked about a lot, Terry.

[231] The truth isn't out there.

[232] And too many diocese and bishops are just not speaking up the basic truth the way we should.

[233] I know a lot are working hard, but we've all got to work harder to share the truth.

[234] And that's what the St. Philip Institute is about.

[235] They're doing a great job.

[236] And we have to, we have to engage the culture that we face and bring the truth to it.

[237] Well, sick.

[238] That type of me into a bishop here in Los Angeles, Bishop Robert Barron.

[239] I heard him say this, because I learned a lot from that bishop, and he said this, and see if this doesn't resonate, because what you're saying, he said, it is a sign of a corrupt church that stops thinking deeply about the truths of Christianity.

[240] A church that is against being precise about his teaching is a corrupt church.

[241] You know, when I heard the bishop speak like that, Bishop Strickland, I was like, what?

[242] You mean, basically what he's saying is we have to be very precise on what we teach.

[243] And Bishop Strickland, you probably never heard that quote, but Bishop Robert Barron said it to a lot of lay people and said, we need to be very careful when we proclaim what the church teaches.

[244] It's what it proclaims.

[245] It's not our personal opinion.

[246] What's your take on it?

[247] Absolutely.

[248] And it echoes what I heard Bishop Barron say at the last bishop's meeting, last November, when he said, we have to quit watering down.

[249] He was talking about evangelizing young people that we're losing, we're just hemorrhaging young people from the church.

[250] They're walking away because they don't see any reason to stay.

[251] And he said, we have to quit watering down the faith.

[252] I think to use precise language and to say, this is what we teach, that's what he's getting at with that question.

[253] quote.

[254] Well, you know, 83 % of the young people by the time their 23 are not practicing their Catholic faith.

[255] This was a Sophia Press report that I got.

[256] And just for all those who are listening, we have a young lady who is a movie star lady.

[257] She's 29 years old, and she's on fire for the faith, and she's starting a new show trying to reach out to young people to help them fall deep in love with Jesus and the church.

[258] So that's just a plug there.

[259] Now that I got all the plugs out of the way.

[260] I just wanted to say on your tweet, you got a lot of good tweets.

[261] I know today we're recording on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, and we covered that on the Terry and Jesse show.

[262] It's my wedding anniversary of 30 -some years.

[263] I can't remember of 30 -stop.

[264] Congratulations.

[265] Thank you very much.

[266] And I think our lady of the rosary is a great devotion.

[267] And Bishop Strickland, you talked about on your tweet about at the end of each month, and this is just great advice from a spiritual father.

[268] On your quote, you're telling people there would be a good idea to do this examination of conscience.

[269] And if you haven't been to confession that month, to get to confession, is that something that you just tell people as normal advice?

[270] Because that seems like common sense advice.

[271] Well, I think it is common sense.

[272] And fairly often people will ask, how often should I go to confession?

[273] And I guess through the years, my response has been to at least ask, yourself the question once a month.

[274] There are a lot of things.

[275] We pay bills once a month.

[276] There are a lot of things that happen on a monthly basis.

[277] Going to confession at least 12 times a year is definitely a healthy step in the right direction.

[278] I know for myself, I just went to confession today.

[279] I'm not going to share my sins, but I will proudly share that I've celebrated the beautiful gift of the mercy of God through his son, Jesus Christ in the sacrament of confession today.

[280] I need it.

[281] And I'm so grateful that it's available to us.

[282] And what I started to say is, I think any time I ask myself, if I do that, you know, I'd try to go every couple of weeks, but I'm a bishop.

[283] I need to.

[284] Some go once a month, once a week.

[285] But if we ask ourselves, should I go to confession, I think a well -formed conscience is probably 99 times out of 100, the answer is going to be, yeah, I think I should go to confession.

[286] So just stopping to ask the question.

[287] And, you know, thankfully, people will often say that they don't have any mortal sins to confess.

[288] And I think even people have been taught.

[289] I've talked to people that have converted to the Catholic faith, and they were basically taught that if you haven't committed a mortal sin, you don't need to go to confession.

[290] Well, that's actually not accurate for what the church teaches.

[291] The precepts of the church say we need to go.

[292] The bare minimum is once a year, but I think if we ask ourselves on a monthly basis, should I go to confession?

[293] I was born on the 31st of the month.

[294] So for me, some months don't have a 31st day.

[295] But if you were born on the 16th, you might think, you know, just make the 16th of the month every month a time to ask myself, should I renew, should I renew my baptism in the sacrament of confession this month.

[296] I think most of the time, a well -formed conscience is going, and not getting scrupulous, not denigrating ourselves because we're sinners.

[297] That's not what God asks us to do, but he wants us to be freed from our sins.

[298] And even if we can be grateful, and sometimes in confession, I've told people, give thanks to God that you're not dealing with serious mortal sin, but you're still a sinner.

[299] And the grace of the sacrament is a great strength to grow in virtue and to turn from sin more and more powerfully, more and more completely.

[300] So I think that that is something that I would encourage all of us to do every time we flip that calendar to ask ourselves, have I gone to confession this month and should I go?

[301] Well, said, I know St. John Paul too, when he was alive, said that He called it devotion, a confession of devotion, that you get the graces of that sacrament, even if you don't have mortal sin.

[302] The very fact that you're going there and repenting, maybe you're making a general confession.

[303] Maybe the point of it is there's graces that are given at that sacrament for you.

[304] So I thank you for that.

[305] Bishop Strickland, you also tweeted about first Saturdays.

[306] And, you know, this is another once a month first Saturday devotion.

[307] And I love what you put on your tweet.

[308] you know he talked about the little flower and you also talked about uh the prayer that the angels taught the children at fatima and this is a prayer that i think is appropriate because bishop strickland i don't know maybe you're different but in california um the devotion to the holy eucharist uh we act like he's not even there that people don't understand about the real presence and here's the prayer that the angel taught the kids and i pray this prayer every day my my wife and I is my God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love thee.

[309] I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love thee.

[310] And I say that because we're living in a world where so many people haven't been taught on the real presence.

[311] You talk about the pro -life issue, Bishop Strickland.

[312] We're always beaten up on the issue of the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life.

[313] If we don't get their Eucharist right, if we don't get the mass then we've missed so much of our Catholic faith.

[314] And so is that why you put that prayer in to kind of encourage people to have great love for Jesus and the Holy Eucharist?

[315] Absolutely.

[316] I'm all about the Eucharist.

[317] Here in the diocese, we're still coming toward the end of the year of the Eucharist.

[318] Wow.

[319] And as Catholics, he's really there.

[320] He's present in the consecrated bread and wine at every mass. I reflect on that, and I pray before him.

[321] as much as I can.

[322] And it brings great strength and great blessings.

[323] And just to go back to the sacrament of confession, I often encourage people.

[324] Jesus is really present in the Eucharist and he's present in a different way, not in a physically manifest way, but he is present in confession also.

[325] Absolutely.

[326] It's another opportunity to encounter Jesus.

[327] And we look at the Gospels, how often does he forgive people's sins in the Gospels, in his public ministry?

[328] For those three years, as he worked through the Holy Land and around Jerusalem and cured people and healed people, very often, a cure was accompanied by, go, your sins are forgiven.

[329] And that's what he says to us.

[330] He says to us through the words that the priest offers, just like in the consecration at mass, the priest uses the words of Christ himself.

[331] And Christ is speaking those words of absolution using the voice of the priest.

[332] So if you love Jesus, you can encounter him in the Eucharist and be fed by him, and you can encounter him in confession in very specific ways.

[333] Of course, he's president in all the sacraments, but especially the Eucharist and confession.

[334] I like to call them the sacraments of the journey.

[335] We're all needing to be fed and needing to be forgiven over and over and over again throughout our journey in life.

[336] As I can say, it's a big amen to that, Mr. Strickland.

[337] I love it.

[338] And we're going to get back to the Seventh Commandment.

[339] We come back.

[340] I promise you, you shall not steal.

[341] We've got something on Love of the Poor.

[342] That's what we're going to be talking about.

[343] Paragraph 2443.

[344] And if you have your catechism, you can look that up.

[345] We'll be back with more to inspire you to fall deeper in love with Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.

[346] Help the Helpless, a Minnesota -St.

[347] Paul non -profit organization chaired by Father of Tier and Volunteers, is humbly asking you for your kind support to help the poor and the handicapped children in India and Ecuador.

[348] Through financial support from the help of the helpless benefactors, the children are provided with clothing, food, education, shelter, and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

[349] The mission is to help children thrive and become self -sufficient young adults leading productive lives.

[350] We also provide aid to poor families in Ecuador with food baskets, medicines, medical assistance, and help with funeral needs for the deceased.

[351] The work in India is done by Father Antonio's organization, St. Mary's.

[352] In Ecuador, the work is being done by the servant -sisters of the home of mother.

[353] You can call us at 877 -762 -8857.

[354] To learn more, please visit our website, triple -w .helpthe -helpless .org.

[355] God bless you.

[356] This is Terry Barber.

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[363] Thank you so much for your support.

[364] Welcome back.

[365] Bishop Stricklandauer.

[366] I'm Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[367] If you're enjoying the show, you can always listen to this on podcast.

[368] send it to your friends.

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[370] Bishop Strickland, we've been going through the Ten Commandments for weeks, and it's, you know, one of the offices for you as a bishop is to teach, govern, and sanctify.

[371] And one of the reasons I asked you to be on our Virgin Most Powerful Radios, because you were teaching so well, and I thought, well, let's let Bishop Strickland come on our network and teach people the faith because there's such a great need for that.

[372] of the things I'm learning when I go through the catechism, I just love it because there's so much gold in those pages, you know, there's just so much, it's like wisdom from the saints, from the Bible, it's just fathers of the church.

[373] Well, I'm on paragraph 2443 under the Seventh Commandment says, God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them give to him who begs from you do not refuse him who would borrow from you you received without pay give without pay it is by what they have done for the poor that jesus christ will recognize his chosen ones when the poor have the good news preached to them it is a sign of christ's presence the church has been doing this for two thousand years absolutely we need to be continuing that isn't that a fair statement we need to continue to help the most vulnerable people in our culture absolutely that's an obligation that flows from our baptism for each of us because as you mentioned part of the office of bishop is teaching but all of us are anointed as children or most of us when we're baptized we are anointed with the chrism and called to be priest prophet and king the prophetic office is the teaching office.

[374] So all of us have a role in teaching.

[375] And as we know, with children especially, we teach by example.

[376] You know, I saw my parents giving to the church and giving their, not just treasure, they didn't have a lot of treasure, but they gave their time and their talents and volunteered and were involved.

[377] And I learned from that.

[378] Without my parents sitting us down and saying, we're going to teach you, kids just soak it up when adults.

[379] Adults are, and especially parents, are giving that kind of good example.

[380] I'll never forget taking my kids down to Tijuana, that's south of California and Mexico.

[381] With Mother Teresa's sisters, we were supporting their mission down there.

[382] And my kids were just young, eight, nine, ten years of age, and they saw the poverty down there, that they had no idea.

[383] And I remember my daughter taking her savings, and she said, Daddy, I want to give this to the poor, because they don't even have hardly anything and they don't even have a place to live and I said, good, okay, well we did that and it was a good way of teaching her that we need to share our goods with the poor.

[384] And another paragraph, Bishop Strickland says the church love for the four is part of the constant tradition.

[385] This love is inspired by the gospel of the beatitudes of the poverty of Jesus and is concerned for the poor.

[386] love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to be able to give to those in need it extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty mother teresa talked about that very thing in america i left the back door open before you and i put the air -conditioned people were starving for love yeah absolutely mother teresa had some great quotes on on poverty.

[387] I mean, and she was that example that I talked about.

[388] And, you know, certainly we live in a society of abundance, you know, with the whole COVID situation.

[389] That has eroded somewhat.

[390] And, you know, people can't have access to some things that they were accustomed to as much.

[391] But certainly that hasn't been an overall tremendous.

[392] impact, but what the gospel reminds us of is, in many of the saints, St. Vincent de Paul, so many of them give us a great example of living that idea of poverty, St. Francis, that we just celebrated October 4th.

[393] I mean, his story is famous where he got in trouble with dad for giving away the clothing.

[394] I mean, he was, you know, his father had an industry selling fine clothing to the wealthy people and St. Francis got in trouble for giving it away.

[395] But I think we do need to remember and the saints remind us if we have a closet full of clothes that we hardly ever wear, we need to share.

[396] And it doesn't mean that we can't have what we need and have an abundance of what we need.

[397] But if we could share better, And I think that what we face is economic systems that try to do that for us, and it doesn't work.

[398] When you force people to live the gospel values of caring for the poor, it doesn't work.

[399] It undermines what you're trying to do.

[400] So like we were saying earlier, I think that our system in the United States, I mean, look at how many people have gone from the rags to riches stories.

[401] And sometimes those riches get out of hand and they get too caught up in the wealth.

[402] Certainly that is part of our sinful reality that we all have to work against.

[403] But what the catechism is talking about is something that all of us need to pay attention to.

[404] I mean, as a Catholic priest, I wouldn't be described as wealthy by most people.

[405] I don't make much money.

[406] But I have more than I need.

[407] And I try to give to causes and to support those in need in responsible ways.

[408] We're all called to do that.

[409] Bishop Strickland, the final paragraph says what you're saying.

[410] It's a great saint paragraph 2446.

[411] St. John Chrysostosum vigorously recalls this.

[412] Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life.

[413] the goods we possess are not ours but theirs the demand of justice must be satisfied first of all that which is already due in justice is not to be offered is not to be offered as a gift of charity that paragraph should knock everybody off their horse i mean that's that we have an moral obligation to help the poor yeah and it's a beautiful illustration of what we've talked about with all these commandments, thou shalt not steal.

[414] There's so much built into that about what is the right to property and where are the limits on that.

[415] And as you said, the saints have reminded us when we're hoarding more than we need, we're stealing from someone who hasn't got enough.

[416] And God has given us an abundant world.

[417] where, you know, there's too much waste and too much, you know, they talk about redistribution of wealth.

[418] It really doesn't work unless it's coming from the person who has earned that wealth.

[419] And it is a great, I'm sure both of us have felt that like your daughter.

[420] I'm sure it made her feel good to give her piggy bank to help those who had nothing.

[421] She knew that she was going to have a roof over her head.

[422] She had the clothing she needed.

[423] She had plenty of food.

[424] And this savings that she had was a little bit extra to do something that she wanted.

[425] To give of that is what we're called to.

[426] We all need to learn that basic lesson to look at what we have and share.

[427] It doesn't mean we should not have the basic needs.

[428] All of us should have our basic needs met.

[429] but the wealth is out of balance when, and, you know, we could talk about this forever, but certain professions make too much money.

[430] I mean, that's just what it comes down to.

[431] And certainly teachers, especially with this COVID situation, teachers are really working hard and facing a lot of stresses.

[432] It was already stressful.

[433] We've all been aware of that for, even when we were.

[434] kids.

[435] You know, teaching is a stressful profession, and they're at the bottom of the economic ladder in too many ways.

[436] And I think we need to really look at what we value and what is a just compensation, a just wage.

[437] We talked about that in one of the sessions before, as we continue to talk about the Seventh Commandment, Thou shalt not steal.

[438] It radiates into a lot of the last.

[439] lot of aspects of human society.

[440] Bishop Strickland, we only have a couple minutes left, but I want to tie this back to subsidiarity, the local church.

[441] Can you just take a minute or two before you give us our final blessing about what the church teaches about subsidiarity?

[442] Yeah, basically it means you, Terry, and me, Joe, as individual men, we have to make our own decisions.

[443] Then for me as a bishop, that I make decisions about the community, the diocese that I'm responsible for.

[444] You make decisions with your wife about your family.

[445] And then it expands from there.

[446] I think we're living in a world, even too many times in the church itself, where it's all coming from the top down.

[447] Subsidiarity, I think, is a basic, it comes from church teaching, a basic idea of God has created each of us in his image.

[448] And we need to live out that image of God by making our decisions about what is just and right and reasonable and proper and that's subsidiarity.

[449] When I make those decisions, I make mistakes.

[450] I'm a sinner.

[451] I get off track, but if we're continually working at it, that creates a much better world when we're all taking responsibility for ourselves.

[452] Beautiful, Bishop Strickland, I love how you teach the faith in such a simple way.

[453] Now, our listeners can listen to this on podcast.

[454] They can like us on YouTube.

[455] We're going to continue next week on the Eighth Commandment.

[456] But I want to give a positive, before you get your final blessing, we're recording this on the Feast of the Holy Rosary.

[457] What advice would you give to families about the rosary and how important it is in family life?

[458] Pray the rosary.

[459] Yeah, that's as simple as that, right?

[460] And Bishop Strickland, that story back in 1571, Lepanto, I want to ask people just look it up on their internet because it's a great, beautiful story of how the power of the rosary and how it helped us back then stay Catholic in Europe, and it's a great story.

[461] So check it out on the internet or listen to the Terry and Jesse show.

[462] We talked in detail with Father Charles Murr.

[463] He gave a great story describing that beautiful miracle in 1571 on October 6th.

[464] 7th.

[465] Bishop Strickland, can we get your blessing, please?

[466] The Lord be with you.

[467] With your spirit.

[468] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all who are listening, that we may all recognize the treasure that we are in your sight, that you love us profoundly, that we may be guided by that love to make the choices we need to make to live your truth and to joyfully embrace each day.

[469] We ask your blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[470] Amen.

[471] Thank you.

[472] You've been listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour here on Virgin Most Powerful.

[473] I really appreciate your support.

[474] You want to go to our website and find out about all the other shows we have.

[475] Go to Virgin Most Powerful Radio .org or give us a call at 877 -526 -21 -5 -1.

[476] God love you.

[477] St. Faustina's Prayer for priests.

[478] Oh, my Jesus, I beg thee on behalf of the whole church, grant it love and the light of thy spirit.

[479] and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to thee, O Lord.

[480] Lord, give us holy priests.

[481] Thou thyself maintain them in holiness.

[482] O divine and great high priest, may the power of thy mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares, which are continually being set for the souls of priests.

[483] May the power of thy mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests for thou canst do all things amen virgin most powerful pray for us virgin most powerful radio sharing the gospel with clarity and charity