11 Jan 22 – Spiritual Goals for the New Year

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name's Terry Barber.

[2] Happy New Year, everybody.

[3] This is a great year.

[4] You know why?

[5] Because God has got plans for each one of us, and I'm asking God every day, what do you want me to do today?

[6] Because that's what I take one moment at a time.

[7] Bishop Strickland, thanks for joining us again.

[8] I wanted to ask you if you have some thoughts about the New Year's resolutions.

[9] And I'm not talking about, you know, the number one resolution in the country is getting out of debt.

[10] I read that on the internet.

[11] I think that's important.

[12] But I was talking about some spiritual resolutions.

[13] What are your thoughts about that?

[14] Well, I absolutely agree, Terry, that they need to be spiritual.

[15] And really, the resolution that I keep returning to is basically living that heart of the prayer of the Our Father, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[16] I just keep returning to that and so many things that I read.

[17] So many of the saints really speak of that, and it's so easy to just sort of take it for granted and not really focus on it, but the saints really emphasize, and it makes perfect sense, the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.

[18] So I think that needs to be our New Year's resolution to really seek what is God's will in each of our life?

[19] lives.

[20] That's so beautiful.

[21] That sets up right with a book I read when I was a youngster called Abandonment to Divine Providence by Pierre de Cassad, a French Jesuit.

[22] And he said, God's will is manifested moment by moment as long as we're staying faithful to our duties and our state in life.

[23] And I think of that when I was young.

[24] I said, well, that means I got to do my homework.

[25] That means I got to obey my parents.

[26] I got to do all these things as duties.

[27] And I'm pleasing God doing that.

[28] So when people ask me questions, well, what is God's will for me?

[29] Well, what's your duty?

[30] What is your state in life right now?

[31] Do it well.

[32] So I appreciate that.

[33] Bishop Strickland, if there was one or two action items for our listeners to do, whether it's visits to the Blessed and Sacrament or maybe taking a little time off from the cell phone that's in my hand right here and using that time for prayer, are there any suggestions you have that might help somebody really connect deeper with Jesus Christ for the new year?

[34] Well, one thing will sing, simple thing that I've suggested to people, and it might be a good New Year's resolution, is anytime you pass a Catholic church to just get in the habit, some people do it, but it's much less than it used to be.

[35] To simply make a sign of the cross, say a little prayer, because in the churches, Christ is present, there in the tabernacle.

[36] And I'd encourage if I know very often it's not practical, but if you could stop in and make a visit, as they say, to Christ and the Blessed Sacrament, that would be even better.

[37] And I think that would flow from being more conscious.

[38] Think about, I mean, even for myself, and I'm not in an extremely Catholic area, but I often pass multiple Catholic churches.

[39] just as I'm going about business or visiting different places or just going from my home to the office.

[40] Makes sense.

[41] Well, you know, one of your tweets kind of sets that up.

[42] I noticed on December 29th, you said in a tweet, this is pretty much the gospel message.

[43] I mean, this is every year, every day of our life.

[44] Repent, confess your sins, seek to live in grace, bow humbly to God's divine will.

[45] This is the heart of Jesus' message through 2 ,000 years.

[46] It is our urgent call for today.

[47] This is the answer to all the poverty and justice and evil in our world.

[48] And then you summarize it again.

[49] Repent and believe in the gospel.

[50] I mean, that's such a biblical message.

[51] Thank you.

[52] What was your point here?

[53] Just to summarize the message of Christ?

[54] Yeah, and I think it is important to influence.

[55] that it's really simple in many ways.

[56] Profoundly challenging to live, but just like that phrase from the Our Father, the will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[57] It is mysterious in the sense of really understanding God's will in a very specific way.

[58] But when we remember, God's will is our salvation.

[59] It really makes it pretty simple, and the challenging part is living it.

[60] Absolutely.

[61] But I think a lot of times we tend to say, oh, it's too complicated or I'm not a great theologian.

[62] But most of the saints, some of them were brilliant people.

[63] They were humble as well.

[64] And they acknowledge that the greatest learning pales in comparison to the mystery of God.

[65] And so being simple about it is really the greatest wisdom.

[66] well said well i thought of another tweet that you mentioned on the 29th the following day said this is the attitude of a man of faith and you quoted st thomas more one of my favorite saints he says and this is important we think about our culture today how we want to be approved by man no who cares what people think of you it's what god thinks but here's what the quote is i do not care very much what men say of me provided that god approving that god approving you of me. That is an important quote for today's culture.

[67] Absolutely.

[68] And it again gets back to God's will because God approves of us if we are seeking and living his will.

[69] Yeah.

[70] And we have to remember his will is the greatest blessing for us.

[71] And we can really even imagine because his will for us is to share everlasting life with him.

[72] And the great irony is we find that so challenging to live because this world, as beautiful as it is, pales in comparison to what God wants to share with us in everlasting life.

[73] Well said.

[74] You also had a tweet praying for Pope Francis, which we pray for the Pope, the bishops yourself, priests every Thursday night before the Blessed Sacrament.

[75] We'll do that again.

[76] this Thursday from 7 to 9.

[77] If people are in Southern California, you're always welcome to come and join us here at the Sacred Heart Chapel.

[78] You said, pray for Pope Francis to resist the same forces that his predecessor fought 70 years ago.

[79] Come, Lord Jesus, fill the hearts of your faithful and renew the face of the earth.

[80] Well, what was that quote from the Holy Father 70 years ago?

[81] I about fell over again.

[82] Pope Pius the 12th.

[83] He nailed it.

[84] Here's what he said.

[85] I am worried by the Blessed Virgin's messages to Lucy of Fatima.

[86] This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menaced the church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the faith in her liturgy, in her theology, and in her soul.

[87] Here all around me. Wow.

[88] He says, innovators who wish to dismantle the same.

[89] sacred chapel, destroy the universal flame of the true faith of the church, reject her ornaments, and make her feel remorse for her historical past.

[90] Bishop Strickland, that was 1951.

[91] I would never have thought that.

[92] I mean, I wasn't born by the, I wasn't even around, but I, he must have seen the upcoming of what we call modernism because everything he talked about has happened in my lifetime.

[93] Yeah, and I find it kind of strange that people will be upset when I say pray for Pope Francis.

[94] I think hopefully, I know I always tell people I appreciate their prayers more than anything.

[95] And the world that Pope Francis faces, as you point out, is terribly corrupt, threatened with violence.

[96] There are more concerns than we can even really completely understand.

[97] And so Pope Francis needs our prayers and needs the strength of the Holy Spirit to do his work.

[98] So I really am mystified when people praying for the Pope.

[99] I don't see how that can be a negative thing.

[100] No. We pray for him in the liturgy, but we need to pray for him from our hearts as well.

[101] He's just a man facing tremendous challenges, and as all of us are.

[102] And I always pray at the rosary that the whole pray for our father, Hail Mary, and glory because we were taught as children to pray for the Holy Father.

[103] And my prayer is, I pray for Pope Francis that he will confirm us in our faith.

[104] And that's a prayer every night we pray.

[105] Now, Bishop Strickland, it's interesting.

[106] I'm reading this book called Couples Awake Your Love by Cardinal Robert Sirrah, published by Ignatius Press, and on page 53, they have a quote from Pope Benedict the 16th that says something very similar.

[107] He said, this is what is for my part, during his apostolic journey to Fatima.

[108] Pope Benedict the 16th in an interview May 11, 2010, was not afraid to declare that.

[109] This too is something that we have already known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way.

[110] What's he talking about?

[111] Well, the greatest persecution of the church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the church and that the church thus has a deep need to relearn penance and to accept purification.

[112] Bishop Strickland, I read that while I was convalescing from COVID, and then I got your tweet and I put the two together and I said, there's two Pope saying that basically the same thing that the church is in need of a purification and we have it going on in our own time.

[113] So it just seems to me that praying for the Pope, praying for bishops, praying for priests is really a critical element in our church right now to help with this renewal that the church is constantly involved in because the church can't stay stagnant.

[114] It's stagnant.

[115] It needs to renew itself.

[116] But that quote from Pope Pius the 12th and Benedict the 16th are really saying a very similar thing.

[117] Now, when we come back from the break, I have a couple more tweets, but then I want to get into the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[118] The next tweet, yes, it's one of my favorite.

[119] It's one of my favorites.

[120] It's Archbishop Bolton Sheen.

[121] As you know last week, Bishop Sheen took the place of Bishop Strickland for a talk on the devil.

[122] I hope you folks enjoyed that one.

[123] When we come back, we'll talk more with Bishop Strickland.

[124] Stay with us, family.

[125] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[126] We're going to have another tweet by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, that this is a tweet that I think Bishop Strickland might have done once or twice before, but it's so good that it needs to be repeated.

[127] You said, wise words from Archbishop Sheen on the last day of 2021.

[128] Let us take the side of Jesus Christ to resolve to live in his light and truth in 2022, and in every year the rest of our lives.

[129] you know Bishop Strickland it just crossed my mind when I was reading your words here and I thought what about going to Mass this year and acting like every Mass you go to could be the last Mass of your life I've heard that that's a good way to really get in touch with the Mass by just saying this could be the last time I have an opportunity to go to Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion this could be my I want to make it fervent and why do I say that because it's easy to get used to the sacraments because you've been doing it all your life.

[130] So let's make it that little special plot.

[131] Here's what you're referring to.

[132] Sheen says, the refusal to take sides on a great moral issue is in itself a decision.

[133] It is a silent acquiescence to evil.

[134] The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire conviction while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.

[135] Every time I read that quote from Sheen, I go, amen.

[136] Unfortunately, he's right.

[137] Bishop Strickland, before I ask your comment on that, what just crossed my mind is I saw an article, and the article was about how it's a loving thing for men to get visectomies for birth, control to make sure that they're playing their part with their spouse or whoever they're with that they're not going to bring forth new life and not count on the wife to use birth control and this is their act of love and I thought are you and there's they're volunteering they're going all over the world promoting visectomies and they're trying to do a thousand in a day and you know they're bragging about this and I thought how sad they have no idea poor thing but again here we are Christians who have been given the faith and you know many of us have been just sitting on our hands and not taking aside on the way we vote for the unborn or if we want to vote for maybe you know Santa Claus who's going to give us benefits if we get him to be our president and not really count on the moral issue so it seems to me that this quote that you quoted Fulton Sheen really does apply right now.

[138] to us.

[139] Well, absolutely.

[140] And it's really very scriptural, Terry, because Christ says you cannot serve both God and Mammon.

[141] And basically, Archbishop Sheen is just quoting that with different words, but it's the same concept.

[142] You've got to choose sides.

[143] You've got to make your choice.

[144] And I hope and pray that many will continue in 2022.

[145] to seek to choose the light of Christ, even though light for all of us sometimes blinds us, sometimes exposes things that need to be changed in our hearts and in our lives.

[146] But light is ultimately the source of life and in very natural ways and in supernatural ways.

[147] So I think that we need to really embrace that call of Making a choice and always choosing the truth, choosing Christ, choosing his light, choosing life.

[148] The choices we make really do make a difference.

[149] And as you're illustrating with these people promoting vasectomies or promoting any immorality, there's so many things that are broken in our society.

[150] it's hard to really embrace all of it it's hard to deal with it but i would encourage all of us to to simply make our daily choices to follow christ to live god's will like we're talking about before well said this is the month of the holy name of jesus and you quoted a you in your in your tweet the holy name of jesus the church revealed to us the wonders of the incarnate word by singing the glories of his name.

[151] The name of Jesus means Savior.

[152] It has been shown in a dream to Joseph together with its meaning to our lady at the enunciation by the Archangel Gabriel.

[153] Now Bishop Strickland, I have a little book called The Wonders of His Holy Name printed by tan books.

[154] I was a teenager when I read this book and it really impressed me to say the name of Jesus all through the day.

[155] And I still try to say that Jesus, mercy, Mary, help.

[156] Those are little prayers I try to say.

[157] But here's something I want to say that in this little book, it says, each time we say Jesus, it's an act of perfect love, for we offer to God the infinite love of Jesus.

[158] It also says in this booklet, the holy name of Jesus saves us from our innumerable evils and delivers us especially from the power the devil who is constantly seeking to do us harm.

[159] And then the last one I'll just say, these three.

[160] The name of Jesus gradually fills our soul with peace and joy we never had before.

[161] So I really appreciate you tweeting about the powerful name of Jesus.

[162] Is that something you just wanted to bring up because it was the month of January that we dedicate the month of January to the Holy Name of Jesus?

[163] What was the point of your Well, that and, I mean, January 3rd is the Feast of the Holy Name.

[164] There you go.

[165] And the atrocities of the blasphemy of the name of Jesus is something that I think we, who believe, he is Lord and Savior.

[166] Again, we have to make, we have to choose, and we have to make decisions.

[167] I hear too many faithful people who I don't think they realize what they're doing.

[168] they will use the name of Jesus as if it were just another expletive or carelessly or even worse.

[169] If we, I mean, the Jewish people, the Israelites saw the name of God so holy, they wouldn't speak God's name.

[170] They have sort of an acronym to represent God.

[171] and we need that kind of reverence for the name of God's son and for God, Father, Son, and Spirit, really, but we need that name powerfully.

[172] I couldn't agree more with you.

[173] I wanted to follow up the last tweet, and that was, as we begin 2022, let us pray in a special way for all who are harmed by pornography.

[174] It is one of the worst plagues on the children of God's needs to be fought vigorously.

[175] Pray for all who produce or consume this evil and for those who are enslaved and trafficking for this evil.

[176] Now, Bishop Strickland, I just did a little research on this topic for another radio show, and 68 million Americans have sexually transmitted diseases.

[177] We call it SPD.

[178] And we continue to allow this pornography to go on.

[179] and feed these people so that what's happening is we spend $16 billion a year, a billion, to take care of people with STDs when we're allowing all this horrible stuff going on with pornography that's feeding people to be sex addicts.

[180] And we act like, you know, that's not a problem, but, you know, what the real problem, I'm sorry to have to put this politically, but, you know, the virus, the COVID -19 is where we're putting all of our energy in to tell people we can't.

[181] get, you know, COVID, but, you know, STDs, sexually transmitted diseases?

[182] Now, we're not going to try and, you know, curb that at all.

[183] We're going to look, because, you know, that's just people having fun.

[184] Nick, we can't stop that.

[185] My point to you is your plea to stop pornography.

[186] This is ruining marriages, families.

[187] We had a famous movie star tell us just recently that pornography ruined her life as a youngster.

[188] She started using pornography when she was 14.

[189] She's 22 and she can't have relationships because of the violence she saw.

[190] It's still going in her mind.

[191] And so this is a huge topic.

[192] And it's nice that the bishop, you are speaking out on this because you're the moral leadership of our church.

[193] Our leaders are our bishops, our pope, cardinals, priests.

[194] And we need more people like you to speak out against this because it gives us a courage to also speak.

[195] out.

[196] So I thank you for what you said about the evil of pornography.

[197] Well, Terry, it really just struck me that we don't speak of it enough.

[198] And it really is a sort of a silent plague.

[199] Yeah.

[200] Because the people that are made into commodities that are used to produce pornography, the people that are addicted to it and caught up in it, young people, older people, they're certainly, and none of us are immune to it because it's pervasive.

[201] But we just need to, I think one of the basic things that can help us is to recognize that those people, whether they're doing it willingly or not, but they're like the actress that you mentioned, once you get caught up into that, it really distorts your own value and the value of every person involved.

[202] It's just, and as with so many things, and we've talked about a lot of things, Terry, but the money behind it is huge, and that's part of the problem.

[203] If it wasn't a profitable situation, then certainly still the concupiscence and the lust that we all have to deal with as sinners is something that's always going to make it a challenge, but the profit motive is it really makes it into truly a plague against humanity.

[204] I talk to priests all the time who talk to couples whose marriages are falling apart to men whose lives are falling apart.

[205] So many times pornography is part of the story.

[206] Because it's devaluing of the person.

[207] As you know, we talk about it probably on just about every episode, the sanctity of the life of the unborn.

[208] Amen.

[209] And certainly that is critical, and lives are being taken.

[210] But it just occurred to me that another facet of the sanctity of life that we need to be much more vocal about is the whole plague of pornography.

[211] Well said, before we take the break, I just want to give a good news story.

[212] There was a article at the end of the year, Fishing for Abortion Story.

[213] news outlets received unexpected responses, okay?

[214] So many people, and I just want to give this one from Roxanne.

[215] She wrote, she said, I was pregnant at 16, was supposed to spend the summer in France as an exchange student.

[216] The baby's dad's family knew a doctor who could take care of it.

[217] My dad said, we will help you if you want to have this baby.

[218] Well, that baby turns 41 on Thursday, and she is so happy.

[219] I just want to say there's so many of these stories.

[220] where they kept the baby, even when the doctor said this baby's going to be defective, and the lady says, well, you know what, I'll leave it to God.

[221] And, of course, the baby was born perfect, and now they're having grandchildren.

[222] This is the value of life, and we just have to realize if you are in a pregnancy unexpected, that you could adopt, you can give your child up, but never kill the baby through abortion.

[223] This is not the answer for our culture.

[224] When we come back, we're going to open up the catechism of the Catholic Church for paragraph 270.

[225] Stay with us, family.

[226] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[227] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[228] I love this part of this show.

[229] I think about it.

[230] I don't know how long we've been doing this show together, but it seems like it's been a while where we're going through the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[231] We take the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, all the basic stuff that I feel like it's so important today in the church.

[232] church that we encourage people to study the fundamentals of the faith.

[233] I think of my partner Jess Romero, who was a boxer, and I was a baseball player.

[234] And what did we major on?

[235] The fundamentals in our sports.

[236] So what do we major on in our religion?

[237] The fundamentals.

[238] I mean, Bishop Strickland, I can talk about the hypostatic union today and the nature of the human and divine nature of Christ.

[239] And that's great for you theologians.

[240] You want to talk about that.

[241] But I think for the Joe Six -pack, understanding the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, the catechism, it's just so important because it gives us meaning and purpose in life.

[242] And we act like God doesn't exist in our culture, so we need to actually go the extra mile and really study our faith.

[243] So if anybody doesn't have a catechism to Catholic Church, I'll get you a catechism.

[244] You can call me at 877526 -215.

[245] Because this is really critical because without your studying of your faith, in my opinion, you'll lose your faith in this world.

[246] So paragraph 270 is where we're at right now, Bishop Strickland.

[247] I'll read the paragraph and of course you can give your commentary.

[248] 270 starts off with God is the Father Almighty whose fatherhood in power shed light on one another.

[249] God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs by the filial adoption that he gives us i will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the lord god almighty finally by his infinite mercy for he displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins wow there's a lot in that paragraph Yeah, and it really just reminds us how dependent on God we are, and it's so easy for us to forget that.

[250] I reflect a lot recently, Terry, that, you know, the world of technology that we have surrounded ourselves with, which it can certainly be a lot of good in an instrument of being able to do good things, like having this radio show.

[251] and so many things, but it hasn't been really very long in human history that none of this existed.

[252] And the problem that develops is the more control we have of the world, the more technology where we can make it warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot and, you know, do all the different things that technology can do for us.

[253] We can forget how dependent we are on God.

[254] And here in the diocese of Tyler, we are, this year I've declared as the year of Mary, the Immaculate Virgin Mary, and our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Eucharist.

[255] You were talking about the fundamentals.

[256] Yes.

[257] And those are they, those two people, and God's own.

[258] own son, Jesus and Mary, they are the fundamental pillars of faith that can really strengthen us.

[259] And what that catechism quote is talking about is even the gifts of all the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, God gives us his own son, Jesus Christ.

[260] All of that flows from God.

[261] And hopefully, the closer we grow to our devotion to Jesus, the Son of God, to his Immaculate Mother, the Virgin Mary, all of that serves to not only honor those great saints and the blessings in our lives, but also to really remind us of.

[262] who we are and of what our life is about and reminds us of the dependence we have on God for every breath, every heartbeat, the more we can develop that attitude.

[263] And I need to as well.

[264] We all, here we both are with cell phones and using electronic instruments to communicate.

[265] We can all get sort of caught up in that and forget to go back to the fundamental truths that Mary and the Jesus represent for us and remind us, they're always taking us back to God the Father.

[266] He is the source of everything.

[267] And I would encourage we talked a little bit in this episode about New Year's resolutions and the spiritual resolutions we need to make is to really remind ourselves how dependent we are on God.

[268] And one way to do that, I know people look for just simple, concrete ways, be more in touch with God.

[269] What I would encourage individuals and families to do is to intentionally spend more time in nature.

[270] Take your children on a walk through the park, get their eyes off the video screens and the video games and the television and all of the electronics and let them marvel at a simple leaf at a tree growing in its beauty in a park, in the flowers, if it's time for flowers to bloom, the animals we might see, Just a simple walk in the park or any creation.

[271] I grew up as a kid, we didn't have to go to the park.

[272] We just walked out the back door and went into the 100 acres that we grew up on.

[273] Wow.

[274] And that, I think we need to be more in touch with that because it puts us more in touch with God.

[275] I can remember as a little kid walking through the woods and praying.

[276] And I'm no saint.

[277] I was no special little kid.

[278] but that's what it brings out of you when you see the beauty of creation around you you know that no human being made that tree or created that mountain or that lake or those flowers, it all comes from God and being more in touch with creation I think is a great resolution for this year.

[279] Well said, that paragraph made me think of a statement that a priest told me one time when I was, again, a youngster and I think was in junior high, He said, if God stopped thinking about you, you'd cease to exist.

[280] And I remember the circumstances because I was looking up at the stars and the priest was at our house.

[281] And I was just kind of saying how big the universe is and how God made all that.

[282] And, you know, God is really big.

[283] You know, I remember saying that.

[284] And the priest told me that, well, he's so big that if he stopped thinking about you, Terry, you'd cease to exist.

[285] And I mean, I was like, what?

[286] Is that true?

[287] and who it is.

[288] But that's what we need to be looking at the wonder of God's love for us.

[289] Paragraph 271, we'll move on to the next one.

[290] God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary.

[291] In God's power, essence, will intellect and wisdom and justice are identical.

[292] Nothing, therefore, can be in God's power, which could not be in his just will, or his wise intellect.

[293] Okay?

[294] That's that little philosophy there.

[295] Yeah.

[296] All right.

[297] Any thoughts on that one or we'll move on to the next paragraph?

[298] Yeah.

[299] Yeah, let's go to the next one.

[300] The mystery of God's apparent powerlessness.

[301] What?

[302] Let's see what we're talking here.

[303] Here comes paragraph 272.

[304] Oh, before we do that, I got to cut.

[305] I think we'll have time to do this.

[306] Faith is God, well, here comes.

[307] Faith in God, the Father Almighty, can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering.

[308] Oh boy.

[309] God can sometimes seem to be absent, incapable of stopping evil.

[310] But in the most mysterious way, God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and the resurrection of his son, by which he conquered evil.

[311] Christ crucified is thus the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than man and the weakness of God is stronger than man it is in Christ's resurrection and the exaltation that the Father has shown forth the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.

[312] Wow!

[313] Go ahead.

[314] Bishop Strickland.

[315] I love that.

[316] That's the old, yeah, go ahead.

[317] It just reminds us of the, really, some of the deep questions that all.

[318] Why does suffering exist?

[319] Why all -powerful God allow it?

[320] It's part of the mystery of creating us in his image and likeness.

[321] Because he gives us.

[322] that's really divine ability to choose between good and evil.

[323] And that freedom to make that choice is kind of the catch -22 of God's creation.

[324] If he had made us unable to choose anything but him, then we're not really free to choose to love God.

[325] And as I read the mystics, they speak of Christ.

[326] Real agony being that he can't save all of us.

[327] And that sort of alludes to the same thing that paragraph is talking about, that God in creation, evil does happen.

[328] And you can say, how can a good God allow evil?

[329] But it's part of that mystery of allowing human beings to create it in his image and likeness.

[330] certainly there are natural disasters that happen but what we have to remember is the ways that we're called to live always in the love of God to live his truth wow that's that's so true I think of a statement of that I thought of when the only value in saying yes to God is you have the freedom to say no gives you free will but here's the beauty of it many times we make the bad decisions and evil comes in and then god still brings good out of this what yeah that's what happens in life when we come back we'll continue to deal with the catechism of the catholic church and his teachings and how it applies to us stay with welcome back to the bishop strickland hour hope you're enjoying the catechism of the catholic church and studying our faith uh really uh you know as a new year's resolution you know i have another suggestion because we're talking about the new year what about once a week listening and to our bishop strickland hour but also on your own taking the catechism and reviewing that at least once a week and applying some aspect of the catechism you can even just go through topics and looking in the back if you want to talk on marriage or the sacrament of penance all these are there and it's very clear and i think it would really help you i know what's helped me in my faith and then the other thing I'm going to throw in, Bishop Strickland, as every, this is critically important, ask Jesus Christ for more faith every day for the new year, and your faith will grow.

[331] I've found that to be exceedingly important in life by asking for these special graces of a stronger faith in him.

[332] All right.

[333] Paragraph 273, only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power.

[334] Without faith, nothing makes us true.

[335] This faith glories in its weakness in order to draw itself Christ's power.

[336] Wow.

[337] The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that nothing will be impossible with God and was able to magnify the Lord, for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy.

[338] is his name.

[339] Oh, our lady is the model.

[340] Go ahead, Bishop Strickland.

[341] That's a great paragraph.

[342] Well, it just emphasizes what it's all about for us is faith.

[343] And it's interesting.

[344] I've read different, I think it was St. Faustina that asked Christ about his faith.

[345] And he says he doesn't have faith.

[346] At first, that might be surprising to people.

[347] It just emphasizes who Jesus Christ is.

[348] He's fully God and fully man. And certainly, as God, he knows faith is about believing in what we don't fully understand or fully know.

[349] Christ as God knows all things.

[350] It's a great mystery of who Christ is, fully God and fully God.

[351] fully man. But I think it's a good emphasis to remember that faith is for us as creatures because we need to, as you said, to continue to grow in faith.

[352] The great thing about the saints is that they are people that don't say, oh, I've become holy enough.

[353] I can kind of coast.

[354] They're always looking for a deeper holiness.

[355] And some of the great saints like St. Teresa of Lesoth, St. Teresa of Avala, St. John of the Cross, just the list goes on and on, St. Catherine of Siena.

[356] They are people who, until their dying breath, continued to seek a deeper faith.

[357] And they model for us what we're called to.

[358] It really highlights for me something, Terry, that I think we need to emphasize.

[359] Because certainly, I mean, as Christ himself says, Christ really gives us the model in his first words in Mark's gospel, when he says, repent and believe in the gospel.

[360] And I think absolutely the first step, as Christ tells us, and the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, they're constantly repeating, repent, turn away from sin and live the truth of the gospel.

[361] We're constantly being reminded of that.

[362] It really is about growing in the mystery of our faith and growing in recognizing how much we don't understand, but we're called to deepen.

[363] Really, it's about relationship.

[364] And I guess that's what is the most important probably for all of us, just in our day -to -day living out.

[365] of our relationship with Christ, to turn from sin and to live the gospel.

[366] We turn from sin because sin disrupts our relationship with God and with others.

[367] That's what we have to realize about.

[368] Even sins that nobody may know about, we can kind of kid ourselves that, well, that's not as big a deal or it's not as important because it doesn't look like it disrupts relationships.

[369] But any sin is about a rupture in our relationship with God.

[370] So repentance is always the first step.

[371] But I think we're living in a time where even faithful people who want to really embrace the fullness of their Catholic faith and who really want to live in the way of Jesus Christ, I think it's easy for us to just say, well, I didn't sin, so I'm okay.

[372] And certainly, repenting of sin is the first step, but we have to keep seeking virtue, and that's what the saints show us.

[373] As you said, to continue to pray to Jesus for deeper faith.

[374] You know, I think of the fact that sometimes I know some of the Holy Father's Pope John Paul II, St. Pope John Paul II, said that bring us back a sense of sin that we need to understand that we are sinners.

[375] Sometimes, even in the church today, this idea of universal salvation, that nobody goes to hell that, you know, you just, you know, be a nice person.

[376] You don't need the sacraments.

[377] You know, that's, you know, God's so merciful.

[378] And I just think that, you know, That's not what our Catholic faith has taught for 2 ,000 years, and that it's important to understand to get that sense that we can offend God by not following His commandments.

[379] And then Jesus said, if you love me, keep the commandments.

[380] So it's very clear.

[381] Let's see if we've got room for one more paragraph, which is 274.

[382] And then Bishop Strickland, before I do that, I want to make a plug for your institute again, because I want people to have resources that will build them up in the Lord.

[383] Can you tell us a little bit again for those who don't know about the St. Philip Institute?

[384] Yeah, thanks, Terry.

[385] The St. Philip Institute really exists.

[386] It's an institute for catechesis and evangelization.

[387] It's about sharing the glorious truth of Jesus Christ with individuals, with families, with couples approaching marriage, with children in school, with young people in college, with everyone.

[388] And we've got some great young people.

[389] I know I'm the oldest person that is, I guess you could say, on the staff of the Institute.

[390] We've got some great young people that are very on fire with their faith, very knowledgeable, very talented.

[391] I encourage people to go to the website, St .Philip Institute .org, and just jump into some of the podcast or the articles that are published, the great teaching, because we need the truth to strengthen us against sin and to strengthen us to seek deeper virtue, to repent and believe the good news.

[392] Amen.

[393] Oh, God bless them.

[394] All right.

[395] Paragraph 274, nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds, that nothing is impossible with God.

[396] Once our reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily, and without any hesitation, admit everything that the creed will afterwards propose for us to believe, even if they be great and marvelous things, far above the ordinary laws of nature.

[397] Now, go ahead, Bishop Strickland.

[398] I'd like to hear your comments on that one.

[399] Well, it's just reiterating once again what faith is about and its power to change us.

[400] I think what that paragraph really highlights for me is that it's a way of living.

[401] It's a way of being.

[402] And I think we've gotten too much away from that, the life of the church.

[403] Even faithful Catholics can think, well, it's just about going to Mass once a Sunday, once on Sunday and not sinning.

[404] And certainly, those are basic fundamental steps, but you have to keep going and deepening that faith.

[405] And I think that's really what that paragraph highlights for me is that it's a way of life.

[406] It's a way of making every choice that we make of how do we live our lives if we're driving through traffic?

[407] Certainly, we don't want to have an accident.

[408] But are we the courteous driver, are we the one who's always aware of those around us?

[409] And that's what living the faith is about.

[410] Whatever we're doing at work, at home, with our family, with friends, even when we're alone, we should be asking ourselves, how do I live as a faithful disciple?

[411] And how do I grow in virtue?

[412] How do I do a better job?

[413] And as you mentioned, one of the paragraphs we've talked about, speaks of Mary, knowing very well that all things are possible with God.

[414] I think that's something for all of us to really reflect on and be more conscious of, because giving ourselves over to the will of God can be very daunting, especially if we say, well, I don't want to, I'm a sinner, and we can be fearful.

[415] We can be afraid that God's will is our destruction.

[416] which it never is, but God's will is justice.

[417] And if we ignore him, then we're going to have to deal with his justice, which is perfect.

[418] And really, ironically, is merciful always.

[419] It's always perfectly balanced with mercy.

[420] But to know that all things are possible with God hopefully allows us to really embrace his will freely and peacefully and joyfully.

[421] lot of the great saints speak of living with a peaceful heart and comes from knowing God loves us and embracing his will and knowing that if it's God's will, it's good for us, even though in the short time it can feel like a calamity or punishment or even a tragedy, but if it's God's will, it's good for us.

[422] Well, said, I want to leave with a quote from St. Teresa Vavula It's on my book, How to Share Your Faith with Anyone, page 123.

[423] She says, I know that with God's help.

[424] If you practice living in the presence of God for a year or perhaps only six months, you will be successful in attaining it.

[425] Think what a short time that is acquiring such a great benefit.

[426] It will be laying a good foundation so that if the Lord desires to raise you up to achieve great things, he will find you ready because you will be close to him.

[427] May His Majesty never allow us to withdraw ourselves from his present.

[428] presence again.

[429] Bishop Strickland, how about a final blessing for the new year?

[430] God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[431] Amen.

[432] Thank you so much.

[433] If you'd like to listen to all the other podcasts, go to vmpr .org.

[434] Matter of fact, you can listen to all the different radio shows we have, everything from pro -life to apologetics, you're defending the faith.

[435] It's all on our website, vmpr .org.

[436] We have a spiritual warfare conference coming up.

[437] You can register.

[438] online and going to vmpr .org, or the chat rip will be our guest priest at this conference later this month.

[439] May God richly bless you and your family.