22 Jun 21 – My Letter Regarding the Holy Communion Controversy

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber.

[2] I'm with Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[3] And I have the honor and pleasure to have Bishop Strickland on once a week to talk about the Catholic faith and how to fall in love with Jesus Christ and his bride the church.

[4] Bishop Strickland, welcome to another hour.

[5] Hello, Terry.

[6] God bless you, Bishop Strickland.

[7] Hey, we have, for those who are brand new, what we do here is we talk about Bishop Strickland's, uh, tweets about some of the tweets that he did in the previous week and then we go right into the catechism of the Catholic Church and read right from the catechism to talk about like right now we're in the profession of faith now why do we do that I bet you everybody who's listening right now would agree with this statement that the majority of Catholics today don't have a really good grasp of their Catholic faith that maybe they just last something when they were young and they're an adult now and they just missed out on learning the fundamentals of the faith.

[8] And so my analogy is if you're a good boxer or a good ball player, you work on the fundamentals to be a good sportsman.

[9] Well, in the faith, you've got to work on the fundamentals.

[10] And I say year -round, and I'm doing that.

[11] I'm a good example.

[12] I'm 64 years of age now.

[13] And through the grace of God, this is my 50th year that I've been really in love with Jesus Christ in the Mass, in the Eucharist.

[14] And I say to myself, every day I'm learning something more.

[15] I never stop until my last breath.

[16] And so I would encourage you to study your faith every single day, taking a Bible in the catechism.

[17] So that's my suggestion.

[18] And Bishop Strickland, you made several tweets this past week.

[19] And one of the tweets you talked about is that you said, It's critically necessary that we call every Catholic to a deep, profound relationship with Jesus Christ in this real Eucharistic presence, and that we, because we'll never renew the Catholic Church without that, and the Immaculate Virgin Mary as anchors, and we must cling to that.

[20] Well, Bishop Strickland, I got what you said, but, you know, the saints have been saying that for centuries.

[21] That's nothing new.

[22] Well, yeah, we just keep repeating the same message, but obviously it needs to be repeated because too many aren't listening.

[23] Yep.

[24] And really, both of those, the devotion to the blessed sacrament, the real presence of Christ and the Eucharist, and the devotion to his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, like we talk about so often, Terry, that is supernatural.

[25] And we need to really deepen.

[26] For those of us who do believe, as you were saying, it's a lifetime of learning, a lifetime of deepening that faith.

[27] Because we're talking about infinite mysteries.

[28] Yeah.

[29] Mysteries that are so far beyond our imagining and our ability to understand.

[30] It really, it's a poverty to.

[31] not recognize what a wonder the life that God has given us really is.

[32] And the more we dive into that, and the saints are reminders of that.

[33] They are people who got it, who understood that we are living a profound mystery.

[34] Even at this moment, both of us, 60 -something men, that there are things going on in our bodies keeping us alive that are full of amazing science and mysteries that can't be fully explained.

[35] That's just being here.

[36] As we speak, just we need to be, that's one of the beauties of children.

[37] I had the chance to visit a family of seven children's, last night.

[38] Awesome.

[39] Just had a nice family dinner with them.

[40] Yeah.

[41] Um, the youngest is just over two months old.

[42] Oh my god.

[43] The oldest is 15.

[44] Awesome.

[45] Um, seven kids.

[46] But what calls that to mind is the, there was one little stinker, uh, about four years old.

[47] Oh yeah.

[48] But just full of curiosity, asking me questions, just so full of life.

[49] Yes.

[50] And really, Terry, I need to remind myself, and we all need to be reminded to be children of God.

[51] And to have that kind of excitement and joy and curiosity about every day.

[52] Do I live that?

[53] I wish I could say I did.

[54] I work at it, but as adults, we get bogged down.

[55] in the serious problems and the struggles and the controversies and the turmoil.

[56] And it's, I mean, there's a lot to be bogged down in.

[57] There's a lot of turmoil.

[58] There's a lot to be worried about.

[59] But I think if we keep God's divine perspective, I mean, we can't really.

[60] We can't imagine that.

[61] But even if we try to approach it, I think, what does Christ tell us?

[62] Be like children.

[63] children, not childish, but childlike.

[64] If we look at politics, if we look at the church, if we look at business, if we look at all the so -called adult world, a lot of it comes down to childishness.

[65] We want it our way.

[66] We want to be in charge.

[67] We want all the power.

[68] We want all that.

[69] We want, we want.

[70] Isn't that what the childish child does?

[71] Christ calls us to be in charge.

[72] We want all the power.

[73] We want all the, we want.

[74] to be childlike, to be those who are full of wonder, full of joy, full of hope, and recognizing very seriously but joyfully, we are just scratching the surface of the mystery of life and the wonder that God has laid out for us and to believe and to live as if we've got it all figured out and we've got all the answers like so many do um it's a poverty it impoverishes us from the wealth of life that god wants to share with us bishops tricklin you should have we were talking just like that today on the terry and jesse show jess was out of town and i was speaking about redemptive suffering and how we're called to the universal call to holiness that it's not just bishops or priests or nuns that are called to holiness.

[75] We all are called to this holiness.

[76] And when we realize that every action is like a blank check, it has infinite value if we give it to the Lord, that even among all this craziness, whether it's in the church or in the government, and it is, it's crazy right now, that we as individuals can have that union with that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, especially in the Holy Eucharist, and we can offer all that to Jesus and be part of the big solution in the church.

[77] It excites me to even think like that.

[78] And thank you for sharing that insight on that, because this is what we need to have, because people are going to become distraught when we see all the things that are going on in our culture and in our church, and we have to remember this, that we're part of the solution, and it's by our holiness, by living in union with Jesus Christ, saying close to the sacraments, his visits to the blessed sacrament, and getting to confession, and we're doing our duty.

[79] And I think that's all that God can ask of us is to do our duty.

[80] Our Lady of Fatima talked about sanctifying that with the family.

[81] And I just think that as a bishop, you keep hitting on the fundamentals, and this is what every Catholic needs today.

[82] And Bishop Strick, and I'm going to be honest with you, I got solar panels up on top of my roof.

[83] I try to recycle plastic bottles, but I'm so glad that you're not telling me, about recycling and getting solar panels and being a good steward which i i get that and you're taking your time to spend on my soul and getting myself prepared to meet god when i die with holiness that's so much more important than putting solar panels up or recycling so thank you for doing that and that's not a you know hit on people who are talking you know to be so careful about this you're talking about the most essential things in life, salvation.

[84] And I thank you for that.

[85] All right.

[86] Really, Terry, let me touch on that because I think you, you're saying something that's very profound and very important to remember that we so easily lose touch with in today's complicated world.

[87] You're, you're concerned, you have solar panels and you recycle.

[88] Work about recycling, all that, because you're a man of faith.

[89] Yeah.

[90] Because you know God and you know who you are.

[91] That's my job is to help people know God and to know who they are.

[92] If we know that, then we're not going to be selfish.

[93] Exactly.

[94] I mean, we're going to at least work against that tendency to be selfish.

[95] We're all sinners.

[96] Yep.

[97] But if we want a better world, we need to know God.

[98] Amen.

[99] Know that we are built for everlasting life, that our destiny is salvation.

[100] When we really grasp that, like the saints, we begin to say, yes, every moment of my life is then valuable, like that blank check that you mentioned.

[101] It needs to be cashed in on doing good every way that we can.

[102] being aware that, like you talk about redemptive suffering, that all of that's bound up in the simplest things sometimes, sometimes huge things, sometimes devastating moments in our lives that we offer to God and it becomes redemptive.

[103] But we build toward that by developing a lifestyle where, and I'm still, I mean, we're all a work in progress.

[104] We all have to keep learning.

[105] But rather than complaining, just saying, Lord, I give that to you.

[106] Maybe a person is aggravating us, or maybe they did something that really isn't fair or isn't just.

[107] But to offer that to the Lord intentionally begins to build toward that redemptive suffering that can be huge when it comes to really big moments of suffering we can offer to God.

[108] Well said, you're listening to the Bishop Stricklandauer on Virgin Most Power Radio.

[109] with us with more of the Bishop Strickman Hour.

[110] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickman Hour, and we're talking about redemptive suffering.

[111] I want to just thought, this is a thought that came in my formation letter as the Opus Angelorum, and the comment was that if we understood suffering, especially in the hospitals, the wasted pain that's going on because people haven't been catechized to understand they can unite that sufferings with the sufferings of Christ, they say that it could become like a spiritual atomic power plant where graces would be flowing throughout the world and conversions would be taking place because so many people are praying with their suffering and that's a very efficacious way to pray because God honors that and so that's why we wanted to think about what we can do for the church is offer every action to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our life becomes a continual prayer.

[112] Bishop Strickland, you also made a comment.

[113] We're actually recording this particular show on the 15th of June.

[114] And I noticed that you said, I encourage everyone to make June 15th a special day of prayer dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.

[115] And you said you can visit a link on your tweet.

[116] What's that all about?

[117] Why St. Michael on the 15th of June?

[118] Well, it really is connected with the, it's very well known that it's Pride Month and really just out of love for everyone and a desire to share the truth.

[119] Yeah.

[120] And St. Michael is powerful.

[121] Yep.

[122] So to turn to St. Michael and to pray for all of those who are caught up in.

[123] the darkness of thinking we can be prideful about any sin.

[124] I mean, not to just zero in on the sins that are really pertinent to Pride Month, but any sin.

[125] To be prideful and say, well, let's celebrate our choice to ignore what God is revealed to us.

[126] Let's not.

[127] And St. Michael is a great image of the power of the Lord.

[128] Say Michael doesn't have any power.

[129] He points us to the power of God.

[130] Amen.

[131] And as the archangel, Michael, that is something we need to remember.

[132] The power of good that is in the angels, they are personal beings.

[133] They're their spirits.

[134] They're not, they don't have physical beings, but like us.

[135] But, um, I thought it was important in the middle of June to just take a day to really remember.

[136] I say the St. Michael prayer often, and I'm sure many people do.

[137] But more of us need to recognize what does that prayer acknowledge that evil is real?

[138] and the demons are roaming this world seeking the ruin of souls.

[139] The Bible.

[140] That's not, you know, to make us all fearful.

[141] If we believe in Christ, we should fear none of that, but we should be aware.

[142] We should be wide awake and alert to the wiles of the devil working to drag us into hell with the rest of the demons.

[143] Again, it comes back to, do we really believe?

[144] believe in heaven and hell, I do.

[145] And if we do, if we say, yes, I believe there's a heaven.

[146] Yes, I believe there's a hell.

[147] Then if we have a brain, we want to avoid hell and we want to embrace heaven.

[148] St. Michael's there to help us in the battle.

[149] And it is a battle.

[150] A battle of the spirit, a battle between good and evil.

[151] Well, said Bishop Strickland, that's exactly where it's at.

[152] Now, you had another profound tweet by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the venerable Fulton Sheen, who had a great love for the Blessed Sacrament.

[153] And you quoted him, he said in his book, The Treasure and Clay, the secret to my preaching is that I have never in 55 years missed a spending an hour in the presence of our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament.

[154] He said, that's where the power comes from.

[155] That's where sermons are born.

[156] that's where every good thought is conceived.

[157] Now, Bishop Strickland, this is the same Bishop Sheen for 60 years, because he spent 60 years of doing this as a practice, and he prayed that our Lord would take him while he was in adoration in the Blessed Sacrament, and on December 9th, 1979, that Sunday morning, they found him dead on his knees before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

[158] Now, Bishop Stry, I don't know about you.

[159] Maybe I say, whatever, I pray that whatever God sends my way, I will die his way.

[160] But I sure wouldn't mind dying before the Blessed Sacrament.

[161] But my question to you is, you took this quote.

[162] Obviously, you took it seriously because you spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament.

[163] So you're encouraging us all to do this.

[164] Is that a fair statement to spend time before our Lord?

[165] Absolutely.

[166] And just to really acknowledge that, um, I'm sort of late to the work.

[167] I mean, I've always believed from the first communion as a little kid, seven years or so, seven years old.

[168] I've always believed in the real presence.

[169] That's where I was taught.

[170] Thankfully, I've never wavered in that belief.

[171] But I have to say that faith has grown.

[172] Amen.

[173] And my being a priest has been a great.

[174] blessing and it's also brought the challenge of a deeper faith I didn't spend my early years always many of the young priests talk about doing that the the daily holy hour yeah and that's become much more my practice now I actually try to maybe I guess I'm making up for lost time yeah because I try to spend more than just an hour in adoration when I possibly can yeah but I That plugs us in.

[175] And like you said, Terry, not just for priests, not just for ordained people, not just for the holy ones, which, you know, a lot of people sort of question that these days, but because all of us are sinners.

[176] Of course.

[177] But it really is for all of the baptized, all believers, the more we can, like for for yourself, a husband, a father.

[178] and a grandfather to plug in to the power source.

[179] That's what Archbishop Sheen is talking about.

[180] And I can testify that even though I'm late to the game and I didn't make it a practice as much as I should have and could have.

[181] But thankfully, I'm waking up to that and encouraging others to.

[182] But I can testify that my homilies, my teaching, my joy my life everything that's going on for me as a bishop now for going on nine years in November I'll be a bishop nine years and everything I do as a bishop the power source is that prayer before the blessed sacrament and I would add to that and I know that Archbishop Sheen would add to it what I what we talked about earlier prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and prayer begging the Immaculate Virgin Mary to help me pray better before her son, to follow him more closely, to turn to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[183] I mean, I'm a broken record that is just going to keep repeating that as long as I have breath to repeat anything.

[184] And Bishop Strickland, I'll tell you, little kids have.

[185] impressed me with their love for the Eucharist.

[186] I see mothers and moms.

[187] If you're listening, take your children to go visit Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

[188] Don't worry about the baby crying.

[189] I'm going to be honest with you, Bishop Strickland.

[190] I get mad sometimes when people say, hey, the baby's making some noise.

[191] You know what?

[192] What did Jesus say?

[193] Let the little children come on to me. Well, here's what impresses me. I see little kids wave to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

[194] I have a grandson.

[195] and when he was one year old, Father Wolfgang was giving Holy Communion.

[196] I didn't even notice it.

[197] I always carry my grandson up when I go to receive Holy Communion, okay?

[198] And, you know, a lot of times the priest will give him a little blessing.

[199] Great.

[200] But I bring him up, and he's just one year old, and what does he do?

[201] He puts his mouth out with his tongue out.

[202] He wants to receive Holy Communion like the rest of us.

[203] Now, I did notice for the last four months that he's still doing that every time I bring him up, and I try to explain to him, you know, son, when you get to be big, you'll be able to receive Holy Communion.

[204] I mean, he barely can say a word, but he's already being exposed to the Blessed Sacrament.

[205] I think that is a good idea, and I would encourage our parents to bring Jesus.

[206] I know mothers that make holy hours at churches, and they bring the children in to visit Jesus.

[207] And I know an order of priests who would come to our family conferences, and it was awesome, Bishop.

[208] He still comes to our Wichita family conference, and they teach the little children about Jesus and the Eucharist.

[209] And I'm going to say this now, because a generation was lost, or two generations, for love for the Eucharist.

[210] You give a little child his love for the Eucharist, and he's got that when he's young, it will stay with him for life.

[211] Whether he rejects it at one point, he'll come back to that because the graces that are there will be there for him when he's older.

[212] and I'm convinced that many young people will not leave the church.

[213] And Bishop Strickland, hey, hate to give you this statistic, and you know it.

[214] 88 % of young adults by the time they're 23 are not practicing their faith.

[215] And I guarantee it that if they had a love for the blessed sacrament, many of them would not leave the church.

[216] So what you're saying makes a lot of sense to me, and I would encourage, again, families, even once a week, holy hours.

[217] I know we did that when our kids were young, and there wasn't anybody else in the church.

[218] We had perpetual adoration.

[219] We took an hour and brought our children in, and we would talk to them about who's there.

[220] This is instruction time.

[221] And again, if the kids can have that love for the blessed sacrament, the source and summit of the Christian life, that's what I think is so important, especially today.

[222] So I'm a broken record with you, Bishop Strickland.

[223] We need to talk about Christ's love in the Eucharist.

[224] encourage people to visit Jesus.

[225] Matter of fact, I'm going to be honest with you right now.

[226] There's a priest in our chapel.

[227] I'm spoiled.

[228] We have a church 100 feet away from this studio.

[229] And my priest's friend is a major in the military.

[230] And he was just coming to visit.

[231] And he says, Terry, can I use your chapel to say mass?

[232] Because I'm on my way down to San Diego.

[233] Heck yeah, he's in there praying a holy hour right now.

[234] And he told me, I'm so blessed because I'm always in and out of hospitals or in and out of the hotels and doing military and to spend that time before the blessed sacrament it's like gold and so not just priests but everyone okay i'm done preaching on the eucharist bishop strickland you're the bishop i'm just a layman but i wanted to give that witness of how powerful it is to spend time before our lord and our eucharistic king all right we're almost done with this segment bishop strickland can you give us a plug on your institute that you have in your diocese please i want to it.

[235] Yeah, the St. Philip Institute, St. Philip Institute .org is the website, Philip with 1L.

[236] Actually, on the Eucharist, they have a great video that's available there on the Eucharistic miracles.

[237] And certainly those aren't things that are required for people to believe, but I think there are some miracles that have been approved by the church.

[238] And I think they remind us of the great miracle that the Eucharist did.

[239] Well said, Bishop Strickon, we come back.

[240] We're going to talk about your letter to the flock of Tyler.

[241] Stay with us.

[242] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[243] Bishop Strickland, you wrote a letter to your diocese, but I read the letter, and I think it's to every Catholic who's baptized, because you're talking about a letter to the flock of Tyler regarding the Holy Communion controversy.

[244] Well, you've spoken for weeks on this topic, but can you, I mean, I like what, I'm just going to say, you said in your letter that your main purpose is always to teach the Catholic faith clearly and give us all the knowledge we need to address the many controversies that arise, not just on the Holy Eucharist, but it could be a number of controversies.

[245] We have a deposit of faith.

[246] So what made you clearly write this letter to your flock?

[247] are you uh what was your concern well yeah the the controversy about politicians that call themselves devout catholics but are supporting not anti -catholic teaching or supporting abortion which is contrary to what the church teaches um it really terry you know i'm a pretty simple guy So am I. And it's simple.

[248] I get frustrated that it becomes so complex and so convoluted.

[249] It's it's simple.

[250] We believe that abortion is intrinsically evil.

[251] It's the murder of an unborn child.

[252] And to support something that's intrinsically evil that we consider murder that's clearly stated as such in the in the catechism of the Catholic Church, to support and really, vigorously promote that is contrary to the Catholic faith.

[253] And doing anything that is clearly contrary to the Catholic faith and then receiving communion is more than an appropriate, it's a sacrilege.

[254] It's wrong.

[255] And that's basically what I said in this letter.

[256] It reminds me, Terry, of the attitude that's that's pretty much something of sort of the history books as far as I understand.

[257] But, you know, the mafia was pretty prevalent.

[258] I suppose it still is, but you don't hear much about the mafia.

[259] You hear about other groups of gangs and everything.

[260] But if you go back to the movie The Godfather, and you have these actors portraying these mafia leaders, they're having somebody murdered, and then they're going to church and receiving communion.

[261] It's the same problem.

[262] Yeah.

[263] It's a contradiction.

[264] Yeah.

[265] We're all sinners.

[266] I, and that's what I tried to acknowledge in this letter, I have to acknowledge that I need to repent of sins and I need to grow in virtue, that's a step in the right direction for properly receiving our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

[267] If we all, if we have to be perfect, nobody should be going to be meeting ever.

[268] That's not what the Lord gave it, gave his body and blood for.

[269] It is to heal us and to strengthen us.

[270] But I was thinking about it earlier today, Terry, that we sometimes it's like the attitude is, well, you know, to use different imagery or a different idea, it's like you have cancer and you're just going to put this ointment on it instead of digging out the cancer, having surgery to eliminate the tumor so that you can be healed.

[271] That's what you seem to hear sometimes.

[272] And maybe I'm just not understanding what's being said, but if you have the tumor of mortal sin in your life, if you can use that imagery, to say that mortal sin is a tumor in your life that needs to be eliminated, to receive communion as some sort of a saving ointment, which it's meant to be, it's the body of Christ.

[273] Right.

[274] But to receive that without eradicating the tumor and seeking the full healing that Christ offers us, to me, that's contradictory.

[275] And it's really playing with fire.

[276] To receive Christ when we're blatantly denying Christ in another aspect of our lives, that contradiction, what did the scripture say?

[277] A house divided cannot stand.

[278] and if we think of ourselves as a dwelling of the Holy Spirit, that's a division that is going to catch up with us somewhere along the way.

[279] If we're denying Christ and denying the teachings of his church and then receiving him in his Eucharistic presence, something's got to give.

[280] And frankly, I want to do my best to continue to turn from sin, to repent of my sin, to repent of my sin, to confess any sins that I'm aware of and to seek humbly to be as worthy to receive our Lord as I can be, that's what it's about.

[281] And to ignore the teachings of Christ's church and then to receive him in communion, that contradiction is not healthy to the soul or to the body of Christ that the church is.

[282] Bishop Strickland, as a layman, I have two proposals I want to run by.

[283] You tell me I'm all wet.

[284] I need to be corrected.

[285] But I was thinking about a married man like I am.

[286] I have intimacy with my wife and only with my wife.

[287] I commune with her.

[288] And now this might be a bad analogy, but correct me if I'm wrong.

[289] That is, when I receive holy communion, if I'm in mortal sin, it would be like having relations with another woman.

[290] In other words, I'm not prepared to do that because I've made my commitment to my wife, so I would be sinning.

[291] So if I'm going to receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin, I'm using that analogy of my married status is saying I'm committed to her.

[292] And so the analogy is it would be like committing adultery because I am having intimacy with a woman that I'm not.

[293] not married to.

[294] And if I'm going to receive Holy Communion in the state of objective mortal sin, it's the same thing.

[295] I can't commune with my Lord until I clean my soul.

[296] So that's number one.

[297] Number two, I read a magazine for many years called Homeletic and Pastor Review.

[298] Now, it's only online now, but I've read so many articles about the Eucharist and how so many of our priests have been formed poorly in the seminary.

[299] Maybe you were, I don't know where you had to the seminary, but their love for the Eucharist, in understanding the Eucharist, they were giving, you know, like lay people, where about 80 % of us who don't really believe in the real presence of Christ and the Eucharist.

[300] I think, and this is my take from being around priests, and I've talked to priests who don't believe in the real presence, they're like no big deal.

[301] Give communion to anybody.

[302] I share this story, and I don't mean to be, I won't say names, but I was at a mission down in San Diego, and I was talking about you can't receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin and the pastor had his arms folded in the back of the church and I thought oh I'm in trouble now but hey you know what it is what it is so he you know I was staying at the rectory I was at the dinner table having a great meal we're just talking and he says you know what I did today and I said no Monsignor what did you do today just that's a conversation he said well there was a lady that she needed me to give Holy Communion to she's very sick and her daughter came and You know, her daughter had been away from the church 25 years.

[303] And when I gave Holy Communion to the mother who was very sick, who was a devout Catholic, I asked her if she wanted to receive Holy Communion too.

[304] And so what do you think of that?

[305] And I'm at the dinner table and Bishop Strickland, I think it was the Holy Spirit because you know if I would have said, you're, you know, I said, pass the salt, Monsignor, I need some more salt on my potatoes.

[306] I really did say that to him.

[307] And I didn't answer them.

[308] because I felt like, what can I say?

[309] He heard me speak on this.

[310] I thought, Terry, you were going to confess that you threw the mashed potatoes at him.

[311] Well, the point I'm making is I've met priests who just don't think it's a big deal because the Eucharist I question, and I'm just saying, maybe who am I to judge, but I see this by talking to them that they don't believe that it's really the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

[312] Over 42 years, I've met priests to say, it's just a symbol.

[313] And I'm like, you're a priest and you think it's just a symbol?

[314] Well, no wonder why.

[315] Really, Terry, I've thought about the same realities.

[316] And really, I don't know that I've ever personally heard a priest actually admit that he doesn't believe.

[317] Certainly, you can see by their actions and by the way, you know, giving communion to whoever walks in and says, I'll take some.

[318] you know that that attitude is really a lack of faith yeah and Terry if I believe that yeah I quit I hear you man I would wish you would quick so honestly why bother yeah it's not just the game it's not just going through some motions and that's sadly the way too many seem to treat it is if you know and there there are many issues that arise where people say, oh, yeah, sure, they can receive communion.

[319] We need to really believe.

[320] And frankly, if you do believe, I've had non -Catholics tell me, if I believed what you believe, what you say you believe as Catholics, then I'd be on my knees all the time.

[321] Amen.

[322] And I, those people, I think, are authentically speaking.

[323] about what we who do believe, we really need to pay attention to.

[324] That's why we need, because the Lord of the universe is there, veiled in the form of bread and wine, his real body and blood, and the saints speak of this in beautiful ways through the ages, we as Catholics really need to decide, do we believe this or not.

[325] And if we say, I mean, I hope people ask that question and come to the side of faith, because it really all becomes meaningless.

[326] If you don't believe that life is sacred, if you don't believe that bread and wine becomes the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, why do we believe that?

[327] Because he said it did.

[328] Read chapter six of John's gospel.

[329] Jesus said this is my body this is my blood I believe him amen that doesn't mean I fully live up to that belief I need to keep working at it but if we don't believe it then we might as well just shut it down amen I was going to say brother but amen bishop you're listening to the terian justice show we're going to open up our catechisms and we get back to paragraph 185 welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[330] We're going to open up our catechism, but I want to also promote something coming up.

[331] It's on the Theology of the Body by St. John Paul 2.

[332] It's called Sex and the Honor.

[333] It's going to be a conference held August 7th here at the Sacred Heart Chapel.

[334] We have Dr. Louis Sandoval, psychiatrist, and on the Healing and Deliverance Ministry in the Diocese of Orange, who has a weekly show here on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[335] We also have Sherry Bollinger, who is actually one of the producers of the film Roe versus Wade, and she's very much in Hollywood with moral teachings, and so I think she'll be good.

[336] My wife, Mary Danielle, will be speaking also at that event.

[337] And then we have a women's conference with a couple good holy priests coming, and that'll be September 18th here at the Sacred Heart Chapel.

[338] And for those who missed the men's conference last weekend, you can still watch it by going to vmpr .org.

[339] are calling us at 877 -526 -21 -51.

[340] Bishop Strickland, I'm opening up the catechism of the Catholic Church to paragraph 185.

[341] It's a section 2 of the profession of the Christian faith.

[342] The creeds.

[343] So 185 paragraph says, whoever says, I believe, says, I pledge myself to what we believe.

[344] Communion and faith needs a common language of faith.

[345] affirmative for all and uniting all in the same confession of faith.

[346] Well, that makes sense, right?

[347] We all have to be on the same page.

[348] Yep.

[349] Just recently, one of the Office of Readings reflections, I forget which saint was reflecting, but talking about the Our Father, there's a reason that Jesus gave us, when the disciples asked, Lord teach us to pray.

[350] he teaches the Our Father, and it's not the My Father, it's the Our Father, reminding us that we are one body.

[351] We are a communion.

[352] We are meant to be in unity with each other and with the Lord.

[353] So that's what this basically is expressing.

[354] When we say, I believe, we are part of the body of belief that is the church.

[355] So good.

[356] Paragraph 186 follows up from the beginning.

[357] the Apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulas for all.

[358] But already early on, the church also wanted to gather the essential elements of its faith into an organic, articulated summaries intended especially for candidates for baptism.

[359] So someone who is going to be baptized, it made sense.

[360] You have to give them a summary of what we're believing in.

[361] And is that the genesis of Bishop Strickland of catechisms from the idea that new members were coming in that we had to somehow give them the basics?

[362] Sure.

[363] That's exactly what it is.

[364] And as the church came to understand more clearly, who Jesus really is, fully, fully God, fully man. Amen.

[365] Interestingly, from a different perspective, in the early church, there was a lot of, there were a lot of questions.

[366] There were a lot of heresies that developed.

[367] Some said, oh, he was really a man that was just very holy, but he wasn't God.

[368] Others said, well, he was just God, but he just sort of dressed up like a man. He sort of put on a man suit, but he wasn't a real human being.

[369] being.

[370] The church came to the faith, fully God and fully man, and that's what the creeds or the profession of faith begins to express.

[371] Awesome.

[372] This paragraph 187 says, such a synthesis are called professions of faith.

[373] Since they summarize the faith that Christians profess, they are called creeds on account of what is usually their first word in Latin, credo.

[374] I believe.

[375] They're also called symbols of faith.

[376] So Bishop Strickland, I wanted to ask you, back in the 1960s, I believe St. Paul the 6th, I wrote in 1968, the same year he did the Himani Vite encyclical, he said it was the creed.

[377] And what I read is he just summarized a creed that the church has always believed.

[378] And I was told that the reason he did that is because in the 1960s, it started getting a little crazy, and the Holy Father wanted to just, you know, he did the Mysterium Fide, which is on the Holy Eucharist, saying we believe in the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, because there were questions.

[379] It seemed like Paul the 6th took the creed and just took the ancient creeds and restated all of this to kind of shore up anybody who was, you know, might think that we have had some compromises.

[380] And it seems like creeds have been very important to keeping people, you know, united on the unity of the church.

[381] Absolutely.

[382] And that's the catechism that we're reading from is an outgrowth from that idea of there is a truth that has been revealed to us.

[383] And to capture that, whether it's in the paragraphs of the catechism or the few words of the profession of faith that we make on Sundays, it helps to reinforce.

[384] It helps to echo what we believe.

[385] And I'm sure we've both heard, even as kids, repetition is the soul of learning.

[386] And that's what a creed allows us to keep repeating the same basic things.

[387] I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

[388] And just a quick note, I have a video that's called Our Catholic Faith, and I did this back in the 1990s, right when the catechism of the Catholic Church was kind of getting worked out, I think it was 93, and I took the Baltimore Catechism and used sacred art to teach people the fundamentals of the faith, the attributes of God, the four marks of the church, and I want to make that available to anyone who wants it.

[389] If they want to call 877 -526 -215, you don't have to make a donation, but if you want to help us, you know, we have to bake the DVD and mail it to you, that'd be grand.

[390] But it's such a good video when I had a lighthouse Catholic media going, we distributed over 350 ,000 copies of that catechism, and it's just 58 minutes, but it covers the angels, it covers the commandments, the sacraments.

[391] People tell me after they read that or after they watched that video that they learn more in those 58 minutes than 12 years of Catholic education.

[392] Sorry, Bishop Strickland.

[393] I know you've got Catholic schools, but my concern is lots of people just missed out on good catechesis, and that's why reading the catechism, getting good videos on the faith are so important.

[394] And I still say this, Bishop Strickland, my kids grew up on the Baltimore Catechism, and they know their faith.

[395] And it's because they had repetition.

[396] Why did God make you?

[397] You know, all these questions, they got all that.

[398] Now, obviously, they might have the head knowledge but without the knowledge in the heart where they can really live it they're missing that part but you know without without the heart so anyhow I just share that with you because I just want to say for our listeners studying the faith and creeds are incredibly important because this is something that what we call perennial teachings of the church has been going on for centuries and I think that especially in the these times, maybe I'm off, but especially in these times, we need to really major on the fundamentals of the faith because people are going to walk away if they don't have a grounding in their faith.

[399] Absolutely.

[400] And we're hearing too much that people speak as if, oh, well, that's not true anymore or the truth has changed.

[401] And it doesn't change.

[402] I mean, the truth is the truth.

[403] And that's what a profession of faith, these are ancient, centuries and centuries old.

[404] And they've lasted because they speak of truth that really isn't just something that people just wrote down.

[405] It's capturing reality.

[406] It's capturing the truth of who God is, the truth of who we are, just like you speak of the Baltimore Catechism, who made us.

[407] that is a basic answer who made us, God made us, who made you, God made you, that we need to get back to because too many people in it, it works, it's more significant than you might think.

[408] Oh, of course, God may be.

[409] But too many people, without really even stopping to think about it, they may not be professed atheist.

[410] Yeah.

[411] But they act as if they made themselves.

[412] And when we start going down that path, we see a lot of the fractured reality that we see in the world where people are, because if we make ourselves, then we can unmake ourselves and we can change.

[413] And that begins to get really crazy and really destructive to people.

[414] Because the truth is, God made us.

[415] And when we start moving away from, how God made us and what God made us for, then we really start to mess up the world.

[416] And that's a lot of what we see.

[417] People deciding, oh, God didn't make us.

[418] So we can make ourselves and we can abuse those people because they don't have any power.

[419] And it just becomes distorted in ways that are destructive to the individual and to the human family.

[420] And you know, Bishop Strickland, that's what's going on today in our culture.

[421] We act like we're God.

[422] We're usurping God's authority.

[423] And that is offensive, obviously, as a serious sin.

[424] If we can think that, you know, God made me, okay, but you know what, he made me as a man. But I didn't want to be a man, so I want to be a woman.

[425] You see, it's really the same problem we had from the original Adam and Eve.

[426] You know, we don't like God's idea, so we're going to make up our own ideas here.

[427] And so I think that using the catechism to help build up a foundation for people to know their meaning and purpose of life is essential in today's church.

[428] And I thank you for your clarity and your charity.

[429] I will just say as a layman, and I know you've told me this, that if you ever said something in the catechism teaching that was not in this catechism, you would want me to call you out on it.

[430] And I thank you for that.

[431] Bishop Sheen said that.

[432] The laity are going to have to call priests and bishops to be loyal and faithful to the magistrate teachings of the church.

[433] And this was back in the 70s.

[434] So I do it with, when I, when I correct the bishop, if he said something, I would all humility say, Bishop, I'm sorry, but how does that square with this catechism?

[435] And, you know, with all due respect.

[436] And I think that, that's not pride, it's just the fact.

[437] We need, we have a right to the fullness of the truth.

[438] That's what canon law says.

[439] And Bishop Strickland, thank you for taking the time to share the catechism with us.

[440] Could we get your blessing for our listeners, please?

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

[442] Amen.

[443] Thank you again.

[444] And for those who want to hear other shows of Bishop Strickland, just go to vmpr .org, and you can download the free app.

[445] You can listen to these shows anywhere in the world.

[446] And I want to thank all of you who have been supporting Virgin Close Powerful Radio.

[447] We have some new shows coming on with the Knights of Columbus, and you'll see new ones coming up.

[448] the next 30 days so go to our website vmpr .org and may god richly bless you and your family and hope to see again next week the same time for the bishop strickland hour god love you and your family