15 Nov 22 – Zeal for the House of God

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber, and I enjoy every week I get an hour to talk to Bishop Sheen about how to fall in love with Jesus Christ.

[2] And today is a special day, November 9th, when we're recording this, it's the dedication of the Lateran Basilica.

[3] And Bishop Strickland, can you share a little bit about the significance of today's feast?

[4] Well, yes, thank you, Terry.

[5] The Lider and Basilica is one of the oldest basilicas in Rome.

[6] It's actually the mother church of the Diocese of Rome.

[7] It's the Pope.

[8] It's Pope's Francis Cathedral.

[9] The Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.

[10] And so as we celebrate this building, I think the liturgy, I celebrated two masses today.

[11] And the liturgy really reminds us a lot of people, a lot of Catholics would probably say, why are we celebrating a building?

[12] We should be, you know, into poverty and everything, which we should be.

[13] We should care for the poor, but it's not a contradiction in any way.

[14] The celebration of a building is not for the material wealth of the building, but for what it represents.

[15] And the beautiful way that the readings today speak of us as a temple and the building as a temple.

[16] We are a temple of God.

[17] Christ speaks, I mean, it's basically has him cleansing the temple, his father's house, and says, you're turning my father's house into a marketplace.

[18] In earlier in that gospel, he says, he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple area.

[19] That is one of the strongest representations of Christ.

[20] And certainly, I mean, he's the son of God.

[21] So he is always right.

[22] He is always true.

[23] And the fact that he takes that strong step just shows how important it is for the temple of our bodies and the temples of the Lord, the house of God that is the church, certainly the buildings, but the living body of the church, the body of Christ.

[24] Christ is reminding us how sacred those realities are and that we need to have that kind of zeal, as it says, zeal for your house will consume me. That's what Christ is showing is a zeal for the house of his father for the temple there in Jerusalem, an actual building that he walks into, and it cleanses, visit, it's a reminder that in this time, we need to have zeal for the temple of our bodies.

[25] Amen.

[26] And the broken reality that we see with the bodies of children being slaughtered, the bodies of young people being violated through pornography and through abuse and through trafficking of human beings.

[27] for use as bodies and very often for sexual abuse.

[28] It, you know, zeal for the house of the Lord, it really speaks of zeal for the building of the church.

[29] The churches are sacred.

[30] This is holy ground.

[31] We need to recognize that sacred space that a church is.

[32] Too often in our time in this country and another, places, churches are violated.

[33] And when a building is violated, it really is a violation of God.

[34] And we need to have zeal for God's house as his son did.

[35] It's, you know, there's so many elements of this that we need to be reminded of and that we need to be very clear about.

[36] And we need to have zeal for the sanctity of our own bodies, for the temple that it is, and do our best to rid ourselves of any iniquity and sinfulness that diminishes the sanctity of the temple that we're called to be.

[37] And an echo of that is in our world to keep sacred the temples of God, the church, just as Christ did when in one of the strongest images in the gospel, he makes that whip of courts.

[38] We need to have that kind of zeal and know and remind people that the wrath of God is real.

[39] Scripture talks about the wrath of God.

[40] God is merciful.

[41] Absolutely.

[42] Thank God.

[43] God is merciful.

[44] Father, son, and spirit.

[45] Jesus died to wash the world with the mercy of God through the blood and water that flowed from his side.

[46] but God is justice as well.

[47] And sometimes that justice is expressed as wrath.

[48] I mean, if you look at the Old Testament, there are many times, and I think we've forgotten that.

[49] As Christian people today, we've forgotten the Old Testament images.

[50] And really, Terry, I think we need to be very aware of what God did when his people wandered far from him.

[51] The people of Israel went through it over and over again.

[52] And that's part of the beauty of the story of Israel.

[53] God's faithfulness, even when his chosen people weren't faithful.

[54] His church and his people, there's too much infidelity in both today.

[55] Certainly there are faithful people, just like in the scriptures where God has asked, if there are only 10 faithful people, will you have mercy?

[56] And God says, yes, if they're 10 faithful people, but ultimately that his wrath is not held back because there weren't 10 faithful people.

[57] I think all those stories are not just stories from ancient texts of the Bible.

[58] They're talking about the relationship of the people of God with God, our eternal.

[59] God, Father, Son, and Spirit, as we know Him.

[60] In the Hebrew Scriptures, they only knew God, the one true God.

[61] We know that the one true God that they knew was really the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, from eternity.

[62] From all, from the before time began, God is one, Father, Son, and Spirit, the Trinity.

[63] So all of that, I guess you can tell it, it just, sort of overwhelms me with the need that we have to get back to God and to respect the world that God has given us.

[64] Respect our own lives.

[65] Respect the lives of others.

[66] There's so much in this election that's just happened.

[67] There was so much leading up to it about people concerned about crime.

[68] And they should be concerned about crime.

[69] But in what is resulted in the endorsement by too many across the nation, states that like California, but sadly, California is not the only one.

[70] Yes, it's large, it's powerful, it's wealthy, and it should be about the sanctity of life.

[71] Instead, they approve this proposition that basically says, we can kill babies in the womb at any point in any way, and literally inviting others to come to California to kill their babies.

[72] And it's just evil.

[73] Well, I'm in California.

[74] We're actually willing to pay for your airfare from your state of great state of Texas to fly to California.

[75] We'll put you in a hotel and will kill your baby.

[76] I mean, is this microphone on?

[77] Is that true?

[78] Yes, it is.

[79] Bishop Strickland, you mentioned the election.

[80] And, you know, this is the day after the election.

[81] and you tweet it deeply tragic, sadly, that basically you talked about California, Vermont, also Michigan for their ballots that are going to basically say killing of unborn babies up to birth.

[82] You know, it's a terrible day for the innocent little children.

[83] But you said deeply tragic, sadly this represents too many in our nation and our world.

[84] People are blind to the truth.

[85] You're always talking about truth.

[86] The slaughter of innocent children in the womb dooms us all.

[87] May all of us who know that life is sacred, sacred gift from God, stay strong against the evil this unlashes.

[88] And Bishop Strickland, you did something that I was really happy to see a bishop do, and I know that you take heat for it, but you tweeted in response to Jen Sacki, who used to be the communications director for our president.

[89] She's now working for our network.

[90] She tweeted this, and I want to give your response, She said, this night is not turning out exactly like the red waivers predicted so far.

[91] And then you responded, you're right, Ms. Saki.

[92] Saki.

[93] Instead, the red wave are the blood of innocent, unborn children your friends are unleashing across our land.

[94] Tragic, deeply tragic for all of us.

[95] When I read that, I said, thank you, Bishop, for speaking the truth right there.

[96] And I know for you to say this, but I actually saw quite a few people said on your response to that tweet, they were glad that someone like you, a bishop of the Catholic Church, spoke out for the unborn.

[97] What made you do that?

[98] Well, Terry, we have to.

[99] They don't have voices.

[100] They are people.

[101] Yes.

[102] They are persons.

[103] We, there's no, it's just a silly game of wishful thinking.

[104] for these people that, too many Catholics that say, oh, well, you know, it's not a person, or if they can't feel, we can go ahead and abort them.

[105] It's just, what does the church teach us?

[106] Amen.

[107] From conception to natural death.

[108] That's right.

[109] And it's very clear that from conception, there's a new person, a new person that will never be repeated.

[110] And sadly, in our present culture, they're extinguished, before, they can even really develop very far and draw a breath.

[111] Yes.

[112] But they will never be repeated.

[113] We've lost that individual for all eternity.

[114] Wow, when we come back, we're going to talk about another layman putting out the truth about life.

[115] Stay with us, family.

[116] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[117] We've been talking about standing up for life and the issues that are so important in our country.

[118] And this is the day after the election.

[119] Fortunately, we talked about many states, including California, who are basically saying by this vote that we can kill babies up until birth, which is really tragic.

[120] Now, you tweeted also about my partner on Virgin Most Powerful Radio, Jess Romero, who talked about the five non -negotiables and the following of Jesus Christ.

[121] He actually was on Fox News, a national show.

[122] 1 .2 million views came out through life, through YouTube, through Facebook, and Jesse got, we got a lot of new listeners from that.

[123] But that wasn't the reason he did it.

[124] He did it because it was the truth.

[125] And so you said, thanks, Jesse.

[126] The five non -negotiables are about following the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[127] Thank you for speaking sanity in an insane world.

[128] Let us pray that believers will wake up to what is at stake in this election.

[129] Well, what did Jesse say in a minute and 15 seconds?

[130] Let's play it.

[131] What big issues are you talking about that are important to you?

[132] Pete, I'm part of Catholics for Kerry, I'm part of Latinos for Carrie, and I'm part of cops for carry.

[133] On the cops for carry, I don't know, one street cop, any line cop that's going for the Democrats with this whole defund the police nonsense.

[134] I got two sons that are working the streets right now.

[135] one in Kansas, one in Phoenix night watch street cops they took after me, after dad every line cop is voting for Kerry and the Republican Party because we want to fund our police.

[136] Number two, Latinos.

[137] In the Latino soul, we're conservative.

[138] We believe in faith, family, freedom, hard work.

[139] When you talk to any Hispanic and you line up the two platforms, they say, hey, I'm a Republican.

[140] Number three, on the Catholic side, So I got three hats.

[141] On the Catholic vote, the church has given us a criteria of five things called the five non -negotiables, said, you cannot cross these lines.

[142] When you look at the Democrat and the Republican Party platform, the Republican Party platform is congruent with Catholic moral teaching on family and life.

[143] The Democrat Party violates all five non -negotiables.

[144] You cannot be a Catholic and a Democrat.

[145] Well, Bishop Strickland Lehman are saying this all.

[146] over the country, and it's nice when a bishop says, you know what, thank you for restating the facts.

[147] And I noticed Bishop Strickland that you also said a big amen to LifeSight News where it said, Catholic Bishop, you can absolutely not be a practicing Catholic and support abortion.

[148] And what that's all about is it sounds like it's a hard thing to say.

[149] I've been saying it for years, but I'm a layman.

[150] But to, I have nothing against, something politics, it's basically the babies.

[151] I mean, in other words, if your policy on your platform says you want to support killing of innocent life, they don't call it innocent life, but reproductive, they use a euthemism, reproductive rights.

[152] It's basically killing unborn babies.

[153] And Bishop Strickland, I know that, you know, people say, well, this is, no, it's not politics, it's morality.

[154] Am I on to something?

[155] Absolutely.

[156] And we just have to keep speaking the truth and really keep waking people up.

[157] That's why I supported what Jesse had to say because obviously he wakes a few people up.

[158] Yeah.

[159] And as you talked, I think this, you were talking about this before we started recording, but young people have not been formed.

[160] Right.

[161] And they, they're lost.

[162] And they're just grasping at the world and finding emptiness and despair.

[163] And sadly, the things they're choosing has no future because there's no truth in it.

[164] There's no value of the gospel.

[165] And And that's what we're about.

[166] That's what I'm about.

[167] That's what believing people are about.

[168] And, you know, one thing that this election reminds us of is that's not our salvation.

[169] No. Jesus Christ is our salvation.

[170] Certainly, we need to work toward justice.

[171] We need to work where every life is held sacred.

[172] And people, you know, we've talked about this so many times before, but obviously people are still totally out of touch with the reality that if we're as a nation slaughtering the weakest, unborn, powerless child, and that's who they are, it's a child of God, just as you are, just as I am, when we're, we're promoting the slaughter of the children, we can't expect anything, but reaping the whirlwind of violence in our nation.

[173] And that's been talked about a lot.

[174] But the vote didn't really indicate that people have really gotten to the root understanding of what is the root of that violence?

[175] it's when you ignore the rights and the value of another person and certainly I believe Christ calls us to respect he did well I don't just believe it I know it he he says it in the gospel love your enemies yes love those who persecute you right love those who are trying to take your life and we see those examples of the martyrs and saints through the ages, so many beautiful examples of loving those who are ultimately taking the life of the saints.

[176] That's the kind of love we're called to live.

[177] Not to attack, not to get vicious and ugly and angry.

[178] And sadly, sometimes that happens.

[179] People get all riled up about the atrocity of abortion, and then they go and do harm to another person.

[180] That's never the answer.

[181] But we've got to stand very clear and going back to the gospel image, we have to have zeal for the house of God, zeal for the house of God that every person is.

[182] When we walk past a person on the sidewalk or when we drive past them on the free, one.

[183] Yes.

[184] If there's a person driving that car, then that is one of the houses of God.

[185] That's a sacred temple of the Lord that we've got to respect.

[186] Part of that respect is calling them to the truth, without violence, without hatred, entering our hearts.

[187] We've got to lovingly and compassionately, but clearly speak the truth.

[188] That's respecting the house of God.

[189] That's respecting the house of God the temple of the Lord that every person is well said and you know you talk about young people I have a study here November 7th 42 % of generation Z are diagnosed with a mental health condition this found out that almost one third of the generation the Z responded overall that their mental health is bad well I'm going to make this point that many of the young people think they know what Christianity is about, but they've never been introduced to the person of Jesus Christ.

[190] And, you know, this Generation Z, it's 66 % of them, say they don't even feel stable.

[191] Half of these young people don't feel ready to join the U .S. workforce.

[192] And overwhelming majority say they're concerned about the future of the economy.

[193] 90 % are perpetually worried about their personal finances and sociologists identify Generation Z as the third largest American population behind the millennials and the baby boomers.

[194] And you know what?

[195] These guys are in their 20s now, these men and women, and they're voting.

[196] And I got to believe, Bishop Strickland, that they're not voting, as you said here, please vote with a well -formed conscience, which knows that life is sacred.

[197] This is one of your tweets, from conception to natural death, and that marriage is between one man, one woman, and that God created this male and female and other teachings that speak to the sacred value of every person.

[198] Because you know where they're getting their values from, the media, from this cell phone that I have in my hand.

[199] They're not listening to the shepherd's voice.

[200] And so I'm asking you, as a shepherd of the church, these young people, Generation Z, are lost.

[201] It seems to me, and you're participating, participating in this revival of the Eucharist fervor by, you know, we're going to actually have you and Bishop Athanasia Snyder and Father Mer and others participate in teaching about the Eucharist and about the meaning and purpose of life because it seems to me, Bishop Strickland, that we have a generation or two that just didn't get a close relationship with Christ and the world is influencing them more than the church and I think that's part of what happened with this election that they just weren't well formed.

[202] That's my take.

[203] Absolutely.

[204] And that's on us.

[205] I mean, that's on the church.

[206] That's on the baby boomer generation.

[207] And all the people, I mean, we've got to admit we haven't shared the treasure of the truth with the next generation for all kinds of reasons.

[208] I mean, certainly I didn't intend to drop that ball and neither did you, but as a society we have, and as a church, and people are lost.

[209] I mean, you know, the sociologists and the people that study the civilization in the years to come, we'll look back and see one of the things that we need to see now is that when people lose the truth, when they lose that formation of the human person that certainly is ultimately in Jesus Christ.

[210] He gives us the model of how to live as a human being.

[211] He teaches us and he models it in the 33 years that he spent in this world.

[212] And in his suffering, he shows us how to deal with suffering.

[213] Jesus is the teaching.

[214] He's truth, incarnate, but we haven't shared him with the next generations.

[215] And it, sadly, I think when we get back, long after we're gone, historians will look back and say, hopefully they will see how critical it is to share the truth with every generation.

[216] Yes.

[217] When you fail to do that with a couple of generations, you're in bad shape.

[218] reaping the whirlwind, and that's where we are.

[219] We're in a world that's coming unglued because people have forgotten who God is and are outright rejecting God and vehemently rejecting God.

[220] When we reject God, we're really rejecting ourselves because we're created in the image and likeness of God.

[221] And that's what we see unfolding, these politicians that are adamantly against life.

[222] Yes.

[223] And then the wonder why the world is coming apart at the seams.

[224] It's only logical, sadly, that when you reject the truth, things are going to start to unravel, and that's what we see.

[225] But our hope is always in Christ.

[226] We just have to individually, and as the human family, look to Christ once again.

[227] When we come back, I'd like you to talk a little bit more about not just the truth, but also how we have our faith in Jesus and the four last things that are so important for us to realize.

[228] Stay with us, family.

[229] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[230] Every week we talk about the truth of the gospel, and we talk about defending life, we talk about our blessed mother, we talk about the Eucharist because these are the fundamentals that, in my opinion, need to be taught right now in the church and in the world.

[231] And Bishop Strickland, you've talked about truth and you've also talked about the problem of moral relativism because it seems that we have people who say to you, Bishop Strickland, you have your truth and I have my truth and they actually believe that nonsense.

[232] Yeah, absolutely.

[233] That's as when he was Cardinal Rutzinger, he talked about that relativism that has just swept the world, certainly in this country, but in, you know, all of humanity and in the church.

[234] I mean, it's like the truth is this malleable thing that we can just shape according to our image.

[235] I mean, that's what I keep going back to is when we reject God, which as humanity, too much of humanity has rejected God, when we reject God, we're really rejecting ourselves and we're without a rudder.

[236] We're with no direction because if we don't know where we came from, we don't know where we're going.

[237] And if we're trying to eliminate the God that we came from, the God that we're called to for eternal life, no wonder people are so confused and so lost.

[238] And, you know, it really is tragic, but, you know, once we know the truth, we have an obligation to share that truth.

[239] Right.

[240] And that's what we try to do, you know, week after week as we talked together, to just remind people that, no, it's not all relative.

[241] It's, there are basic undeniable truths that guide us through life and that God wants us to know.

[242] God has revealed himself to us through his son and the power of his spirit.

[243] God wants us to know him.

[244] We can know him intimately through his son, Jesus Christ.

[245] The Catholic Church has the greatest blessing for all time, for all humanity.

[246] But we've failed to share that blessing.

[247] Right.

[248] And we need to get back in focus.

[249] And we will eventually.

[250] It's Christ's Church.

[251] It's Christ's world.

[252] He's the Lord of all.

[253] at the end of Matthew's Gospel, like we've said before, he says all power in heaven and on earth has been granted to him.

[254] Every one of those elected just yesterday from whatever party, whatever's persuasion, every one of them needs to remember that any power they have, any authority, ultimately, if it's legitimate at all, it's root.

[255] in the power of the Lord, and the power of God.

[256] He is the Lord of the universe, and we need to wake up to that truth quick, or we're going to continue to see the collapse of things that we love, of people in peril, of life being treated like trash.

[257] I mean, it's just wave after wave of destruction that comes.

[258] comes when we fail to remember that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

[259] And what we need to remember, and we talked about earlier, we need to remember the joy and the hope and the light that Christ brings.

[260] Amen.

[261] We've talked about a lot of dark stuff and the evils of abortion and all of that.

[262] But if people will turn to the light of Christ, and really embrace the truth that he suffered, lived, suffered, died, and rose to share with us, then the joy is unimaginable.

[263] We can't express the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and following him.

[264] And one thing that I know frustrates both of us is that we know that we're built, for our eternal salvation.

[265] That's what we're here for.

[266] To work toward eternal salvation.

[267] What we have forgotten, even as a church, what we've forgotten is when we're working for that eternal salvation, then today and tomorrow are blessed in unimaginable ways.

[268] All the greed, all the evil, all the destructive power of lust, all the seven deadly sins lose their power.

[269] We draw back from those deadly sins when we're focused on our destiny in everlasting life.

[270] No, it's not just about dying and returning to the Lord.

[271] It's living for him right here and now and recognizing that any meaningful lasting joy is going to come from staying focused on what the end of our life is about.

[272] I mean, like the good old Baltimore Catechism says so simply, why are we here to know, love, and serve God in this life and be happy with him in the next life?

[273] That's the focus that we need to return to.

[274] And to recognize that happiness, we're never going to be totally happy in this life because we're longing for something more.

[275] We're longing for that fulfillment that only comes beyond this world.

[276] But we can find meaning and happiness along that path.

[277] But if we're not on the path to God, anything that looks like happiness is ultimately likely to bring us to destruction or at least to leave us empty after it passes, because this world only gives us passing joys that if we're on the right path, can be signposts that guide us deeper into life with God, into ultimately complete union with God in everlasting life.

[278] But if we're not on that path, any joy of this world is fleeting and becomes meaningless all too quickly.

[279] Bishop Strickland, I can't say, of how important what you just said for the modern man today because most men and women today think that this is all we get, this one life.

[280] They do not believe, they don't have any, their supernatural faith has not been given to them for whatever reason.

[281] Maybe they didn't have been taught it or they've rejected it, but what you're telling them is the absolute truth about life and that we're all going to have an exit interview and we're going to have to be accountable for every word that we said everything that we're doing and here's the kicker yes we're going you know bishop sheen says without good friday there's no easter sunday i get it there's suffering just because you're on fire christian doesn't mean you're not going to have any sufferings as a matter of fact you will have a lot of suffering in this life but because we have the ultimate knowledge that we're going our soul's going to live forever with God, I'd like to ask you to talk a little bit about, you know, I mentioned the four last things that whether you believe it or not, this is how it works.

[282] I mean, I know people say I'm going to jump from a six -story of a building right off the building, and I don't believe in gravity.

[283] But, you know, have you passed the third floor?

[284] Everything's fine, but that sudden stop at the end, you're going to have to say, hey, there's gravity.

[285] And I think the world today doesn't understand death and judgment and those things that are ultimately going to happen so how do we share that message that they like you were just saying there's you know you're you're meant to be with god for all eternity well terry the four last things where do they come from they come from the teaching of god very specifically from jesus christ he tells us about the four last things He's very clear in many passages, and certainly we're learning that.

[286] God is revealing that even before he brings us his son to be the fullness of revelation.

[287] God is already teaching the people of Israel, our ancestors, death, judgment, heaven, and help.

[288] And so we receive that basic truth, those teachings that focus from Jesus and from the gospel.

[289] and Jesus makes it very clear in several passages in the gospel.

[290] Yes, he does.

[291] That there will be a separation of the sheep and the goats.

[292] That's one image he uses.

[293] There will be the weeds and the wheat.

[294] And we're living clearly in the time when it's all jumbled together.

[295] Yeah.

[296] But there will be a separation.

[297] There will be a judgment for believing Christians and sadly, even for believing Christians and Catholics, too often, we've lost touch with just those basics of death, judgment, heaven, and hell that Christ reveals to us.

[298] It's like, oh, well, everybody's going to go to heaven.

[299] That's not what Jesus says, and I'm going to stick with what Jesus says.

[300] Amen.

[301] I mean, we don't have a guarantee, and we need to, to, cooperate with the grace of God.

[302] No, we don't accomplish our salvation on our own.

[303] Christ has accomplished our salvation, but we have to choose to cooperate with it.

[304] And through baptism, through the other sacraments, we have the grace to make that daily choice.

[305] When we fail, we go to confession.

[306] I talk to the young people at our high school today.

[307] I had mass for the dedication of St. John Lateran, and I talked to him about the importance of going to confession.

[308] And that's why we have a penitential right in some form or another at the beginning of every mass to remind us, what's it reminding us?

[309] Death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

[310] We've got to make those choices, not just at the end of our lives, but daily, to be ready to face the Lord.

[311] And one thing we need to remember in that discussion of the four last things, we kind of presume that we're going to have a chance to make those final choices.

[312] We may not.

[313] We may make the choices today, and there is no tomorrow, and we better hope we made the choices today.

[314] Well, said, when we come back, we'll talk more about the four last things, and also the importance of silence.

[315] How does that work with our relationship with Christ?

[316] Stay with us.

[317] We'll come back after a quick time.

[318] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[319] I feel like this is the fundamentals of our faith being taught here today by the good bishop.

[320] And one of the things that Bishop Strickland, I thought, was important when we talk about the four last things and about the meaning and purpose of life.

[321] And that is, we have a very noisy world that we're in today.

[322] The phone, the radio, the TV, the internet.

[323] We're constantly looking at phones.

[324] And it seems to me that it's going to be very difficult to be very difficult.

[325] find Jesus if we're not silent and I recommend people to go to the blessed sacrament I know you do too but how do we carve time into our schedule to actually be quiet and listen to God's word and listen to God and not be distracted too much by the noise of the world well Terry I'm glad you bring that up and how do we do it you just have to maybe start small because we do live in a noisy world.

[326] And people are scared of quiet, really.

[327] But we need it.

[328] And I'm glad you mentioned that because one thing that occurs to me over and over again is how separated we are from nature.

[329] I mean, like, I'm sitting in my office, you're sitting in an office.

[330] Yes.

[331] There's not a lot of nature that is very close to us.

[332] I mean, thankfully, we, you know, we live in a nice town here in Tyler where their trees and their lawns and all of that.

[333] But I think we need to pay attention to, because one thing that connected to the whole silence, I mean, there's, there's a humility in silence.

[334] And there's a recognition that we're not God.

[335] We're not in charge of everything.

[336] Just be still and know that I'm God.

[337] It reminds me of that.

[338] And we need to remind ourselves of that because the world is constantly telling us that we can control things.

[339] We control a lot.

[340] I mean, there's a switch on the wall, I can go flip it, and suddenly the lights off, it's dark, I can turn off this computer, we can control a lot of things.

[341] Right.

[342] And we have a tendency, I mean, I think it really affects us because we want things to happen instantly.

[343] And we push a button, something happens.

[344] That's not how God works, and that's not how nature works.

[345] works that God has given us.

[346] It's not how our bodies work.

[347] I mean, we don't just say, okay, I want to push a button and lose some weight or get stronger or get better at some sort of athletic endeavor.

[348] It takes time.

[349] We have to train ourselves.

[350] We have to learn.

[351] Nature takes time.

[352] God moves slowly through nature.

[353] We need to remind our ourselves of that.

[354] Because I think that's a way a lot of people lose touch with God is because, you know, I've even had people say, well, I said a prayer and I didn't get an answer right away.

[355] So I turned from God.

[356] Oh, no. And, you know, that isn't how God works.

[357] I mean, for one thing, he may very well have answered the prayer, just not the way we thought it should have been answered.

[358] There's some humility in that also.

[359] So the silence that you mentioned and the recognition to turn to God.

[360] I mean, I think that's what it comes down to.

[361] And that's what silence really causes us to do.

[362] I'm sure we both read about people in prison that had had a real conversion experience because they were left on their own.

[363] And when there's silence and when we're not sort of insulated in all this noise, you have the opportunity to think about God and to think about yourself and to come to a deeper relationship there.

[364] So thankfully, we're not thrown in prison, but we need to take advantage of silence and let it sort of retune us to the great mystery that is there.

[365] When we're always filling ourselves with the noise that we create, then it can kind of shield us from the reality that we're ultimately not in charge and that this world is beyond us.

[366] That can be scary for people.

[367] I think that's the reason we fill up the world with so much noise, but if we take the time to get past maybe the fear and enter into the silence, that allows us to come to know God.

[368] It reminds me of that beautiful scripture passage where God isn't in the big storm.

[369] He's not in the earthquake.

[370] He's in the tiny whispering sound.

[371] Yeah.

[372] And it takes some silence in our lives to hear that whispering sound of God's voice.

[373] You know, Bishop Strickland, I'm listening to you.

[374] I'm thinking over the years, I've had people talk to me and say that they're, you know, they have anxieties and they're having these issues and I've always said about the silence but I've always encouraged them to you know on their way home from work just take 15 minutes and sit in the church before the blessed sacrament and I honest the truth I got to tell you so many of those people have told me that that was a game changer for them and they just relish that time they don't go home until they spend a little time she said it was up to an hour this woman just recently told me she makes a weekly holy hour and it's really made her relationship with Christ and her focus and her family and everything was like it made everything real clear because she was there silently praying and she felt like she had like actually her first time where her prayer life was a dialogue with God and I'm thinking it's got to be the graces of the blessed sacrament I mean you can be quiet at your home and that's okay but it just seems to me that there's such a powerful experience before the blessed supper.

[375] I've experienced that in my life, and I know I'll just be honest, I'm going to share something with you that the people have never heard before, but I was at the Napa Institute.

[376] This just came to my mind, and it was really early in the morning, around 5 o 'clock in the morning, and I like to make my holy hour early.

[377] And I go into this chapel at this conference, and there's four or five Catholic bishops that beat me to being in the church to pray.

[378] And you were one of them.

[379] And I just thought about it, Bishop Strickland, that this is a great way to deepen your relationship with Christ, silence, and also before the Blessed Sacrament.

[380] Your thoughts?

[381] Oh, absolutely.

[382] I would encourage everyone listening.

[383] Many people, thankfully, are regular attendance at Adirassette.

[384] but if we really believe that he's there yeah we need to be in his presence and he tells us that through various saints that he wants especially priests and and I'd encourage everyone listening to pray for their priest thankfully a lot of priests are waking up to this and are spending more time with the Lord in the in his Eucharistic presence.

[385] and silence and to just be with him.

[386] But every priest should have that time.

[387] And I encourage the priest in this diocese to have a daily holy hour, to spend that time with the Lord in his presence.

[388] And I can tell you, it's enriched my experience of celebrating the Mass and of everything.

[389] I do as a priest because Christ becomes more, you're closer to him.

[390] He's more really present, not absolutely in the Eucharist, in the tabernacle or in the monstrance and exposition, but he's really present in our lives more deeply and we're more tuned in.

[391] And I have to say, of course, you know, I'm 64 years old and as you get older, at least in my experience, you're much more comfortable.

[392] with silence and you want a bit more silence.

[393] But several years ago, I basically quit listening to the radio in my car because that's such good silence time and good opportunity for prayer.

[394] And I don't even think about, when I was younger, during Lent, I would give up listening to the radio just during Lent.

[395] But over the past four or five years, I've just given it up, period.

[396] Awesome.

[397] I don't even think of turning on the radio.

[398] And we need to find that silence time because it helps to feed our soul and to remind us that all the noise is a distraction from recognizing who we are and who we're looking toward in God.

[399] well said well said i would like to ask if you could give us a blessing before we have to call it a night please sir almighty god we ask your blessing for terry and for all of his crew that help us to enter into these times of learning and growing in faith of joyfully seeking the lord and knowing him more deeply knowing our catholic faith more fully through the catechism through the word of god through the magisterial teachings of our faith.

[400] We pray that everyone listening joyfully embraces a deeper life in Jesus Christ.

[401] And we trust that a deeper life in Christ always brings us greater hope and joy and answers the questions in our hearts.

[402] So we ask your blessing, Lord, for all of us who seek you, Father, Son, and Spirit.

[403] May the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Saints intercede for us.

[404] in powerful ways.

[405] And we ask this, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[406] Amen.

[407] Thank you so much, Bishop Strickland.

[408] For those who are brand new listeners, we have all the podcasts of all the shows, not just Bishop Strickland's show, but all the ones that we have here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio, you can just download those at your convenience by going to vmpr .org.

[409] And one last plug for the St. Philip Institute.

[410] This is an institute we talk about, you know, on regular basis, it's part of your diocese, and you have something there to share also, Bishops, right?

[411] Tell us a little bit about it.

[412] Yeah, the St. Philip Institute, it exists to share the truth of Christ to form disciples.

[413] It's about evangelizing and catechising.

[414] Doing everything we talked about, that too many young people haven't been evangelized and catechized.

[415] it's a great treasure that we need to share and we have the St. Philip Institute, a great team of young people working hard to share the truth of Jesus Christ and there are many great institutes like that that we need to celebrate and we need to learn from.

[416] Well said, St. Philip Institute, check it out.

[417] Thanks again for joining us here on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[418] I ask your blessing upon all of our listeners that they will share the gospel that Jesus Christ has given to us through his bride to the church.

[419] And again, you can listen to all of our shows by going to vmpr .org.

[420] And I always tell people, I'm too blessed to be stressed.

[421] I'm too anointed to be disappointed.

[422] And if hope was money, I'd be a billionaire because my hope is in Jesus Christ, the savior of the entire world.

[423] May God bless you and your family.