24 Aug 21 – Good Philosophy Leads to Good Theology

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber, and I have the honor of having this hour with Bishop Strickland, like you each week, to talk about what's most important in life, the meaning and purpose of life, through the catechism of the Catholic Church and through his tweets.

[2] So we start off with the tweets.

[3] Bishop Strickland, welcome back from your out -of -the -country trip.

[4] Thanks, Terry.

[5] God bless you.

[6] Okay, Bishop Strickland, you hit it right off.

[7] I love this tweet because it seems to me, that you nailed something regarding the full gospel, the gospel that deals with love and mercy, but not just mercy, but love too.

[8] And you pointed out, it said, an important article from Crisis Magazine, one of my favorite magazines, that emphasizes the healing power of the whole message of love and mercy that is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[9] And then you put dot, dot, dot, dot, and I like this part, my favorite part of the line, cash value, stop preaching half Gospels.

[10] And I say that because I've seen that in my own life where people are afraid to tell people the truth and they're sitting, right?

[11] It could be contraceptions, it could be on homosexuality, and we don't want to tell people the truth.

[12] Tell me what made you tell people about this article that you felt so strong about it by tweeting it?

[13] Well, what you've just said, and as I read the article, I thought it gave a balance.

[14] It wasn't attacking anyone.

[15] It was just laying it out in a logical way that what the gospel message is and the fullness of truth that we desperately need.

[16] Every person needs the full truth that God is revealed to us so that we can make the right decisions.

[17] with the free will that God has given us.

[18] And when we give only half of the message, I mean, like we've talked about, yeah, in that, the gospel passage, it always comes to mind is the woman caught in adultery.

[19] And when Christ says, you know, your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.

[20] That is, it's a, it's a, It's the full message.

[21] Amen.

[22] I have to seek repentance and ask forgiveness for my sins.

[23] Yes, God's mercy is there, thankfully.

[24] And that's what we really do need to emphasize to, we're all sinners.

[25] Every person on the planet, the Blessed Virgin Mary, we just celebrated her assumption into heaven.

[26] She was the only, according to Catholic teaching, she was the only the only, the only human being that ever lived because of the intervention of God's grace, protecting her from original sin from her immaculate conception.

[27] So with the Blessed Virgin Mary in heaven, thankfully she's appeared and given her message, repeating herself over and over, the same message, turned from sin and live the virtues of the gospel.

[28] It's those two parts.

[29] They're always the fullness of the message.

[30] sin is a reality, evil is a reality.

[31] Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has conquered the power of sin and death, but it's still part of our reality.

[32] And the awesome challenge and gift that God has given us is that we have the free will to choose that we can choose to embrace that power that Jesus Christ sacrifice so much to offer us that sin and death has no power over us if we make that choice.

[33] And God's mercy is always there when we slip and we do as sinners.

[34] We fail to live that perfectly.

[35] Hopefully we continue to grow in virtue and turn from sin more and more and grow more and more in sanctity.

[36] Frankly, Terry, like we've talked about it before, we're not.

[37] new kids on the block.

[38] We're not youngsters.

[39] We're, you know, who knows how many more years either of us have, but we know that we've lived more than 60, we've been blessed with more than 60 years of life.

[40] Amen.

[41] Not always full of blessings or feeling blessed, but 60 years of life that can only come from God is a blessing.

[42] And we need to live in that kind of joy.

[43] joyful, light, and hope that we've been blessed with more than 60 years of living.

[44] If it ends tomorrow, how can I complain?

[45] Can't you complain?

[46] How can we say, oh, I only had 62 years plus.

[47] You had more than that.

[48] It's gift.

[49] That's the context we need to live in, to rejoice in the gift that every breath, every heartbeat that God gives us to share in his creation, to share in the wonder of the world.

[50] And that's what the fullness of the gospel is.

[51] That's what the whole gospel is, that when we sin, we're choosing to turn away from life, really, to turn away from everything that Christ offers us.

[52] God's abundant mercy never closes the door and said, okay, you turned away, one, two, many times and so the door is closed.

[53] We can choose to turn away permanently, but God is always there offering us the new opportunity.

[54] We've talked about deathbed conversions.

[55] Those are a great blessing, just like we've talked about the good thief.

[56] There was a good thief and a bad thief on the crosses next to Christ.

[57] One said, if you're all, the powerful son of God that you claim to be, get us all off these crosses, take care of this.

[58] But he said it very sarcastically and blasphemously, really.

[59] The good thief, traditionally called Dismas, said, Lord, I sin.

[60] He repented there on the cross.

[61] He repented of his sins and said, I deserve the punishment that I'm receiving, but the Lord extended his mercy.

[62] We can't count on being St. Dismos, who at the last hours of his life, had the chance to be forgiven.

[63] And what beautiful words to hear, you will be with me in paradise.

[64] That is what we're all.

[65] That's what God wants to say to each of and every one of us, but he gives us the freedom to say, I don't know.

[66] I want paradise.

[67] I want my own world.

[68] We can create our own world, but it will fall to dust.

[69] And what we need to remember is we're built for that paradise that the Lord offers the good thief on the cross.

[70] So it's got to be repentance of sin in embracing the mercy of the Lord, deeply grateful for the mercy.

[71] But if we ignore the repentance, then the mercy, God's not able to offer us mercy because he's given us the free will to say no to that mercy if we won't repent of our sin.

[72] And what I would emphasize, Terry, is that sin of any form.

[73] It's not just the sexual morality sense.

[74] I mention them so often because they're so ignored.

[75] And many people are pushing aggressively to say only half of this message is what we need to hear.

[76] God is merciful.

[77] So do what you want to do.

[78] Do anything.

[79] God is merciful.

[80] That's not the full message of the gospel.

[81] And that applies to any kind of sin, whether it's lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, sloth, envy or pride, or any other sin, if we ignore the full message of turning from that sin embracing the mercy, then we're not accepting the gift that God offers us.

[82] And we're condemning others.

[83] If we promote that, we're condemning people to damnation because we're saying, oh, just ignore the sin.

[84] Just ignore the sin.

[85] God's merciful.

[86] Yes, God's merciful.

[87] But, and really, Terry, it goes to the very, as you were talking earlier, philosophy and theology fit together.

[88] Yeah.

[89] And it goes to a bad philosophy.

[90] It's not accurate for the way God has made creation and the way God has made us to say, we can ignore those things that are distorting creation itself, and God's mercy will just allow us to share in his everlasting life.

[91] The way God has made creation, there are certain rules that we are called to acknowledge and to live by.

[92] That's what it gets really down to.

[93] It's not me saying something.

[94] It's not someone saying, well, I'll just give half of the gospel.

[95] It's about what is reality?

[96] What is truth?

[97] How are we made?

[98] And we are made in the image and likeness of God.

[99] We are made to continue to be converted and to repent of sin.

[100] Sin is basically a disengaging from what is true, what is real, what is lasting.

[101] God's life is what's lasting.

[102] When I sin, I'm buying into the temporary context of this world.

[103] Whatever form that sin takes, that's what people need to hear.

[104] Amen, to big name into that.

[105] Our lady of Fatima said it.

[106] Souls are going to hell because of sins of the flesh.

[107] So that's why you keep preaching on the sixth and ninth commandment.

[108] That was back in 1917.

[109] has only gotten worse with pornography at the level that it's at.

[110] When we come back, we'll talk to Bishop Strickland about what he just talked about and he said, good philosophy leads to good theology.

[111] What do we mean by that?

[112] And much more on Virgin Most Powerful radio, the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[113] Stay with us, family.

[114] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[115] And I just want to thank you for joining us this hour.

[116] Isn't it nice to be able to have a conversation with a bishop?

[117] And I'll just say a bishop who actually, you know, they all believe, but I'm just so committed to the truths of the faith and that he's not afraid to speak them, even when it costs him something.

[118] So I thank you for that, Bishop Strickland.

[119] I'm going to set a stage and you can disagree with me or agree with me, but I really think St. Thomas Aquinas' teachings for our priests and philosophy are really critical for a good philosophy.

[120] And I'm going to say that it was splendor of the truth that St. John Paul II put out that quoted St. Thomas was the first time since the council.

[121] And I believe that, this is my opinion, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that when we fell away from the teachings of Thomas Aquinas informing our young priests, maybe you were one of them, I don't know.

[122] But St. Thomas has such richness and is so good when it comes to philosophy.

[123] that many of the priests that were ordained in the last 30 or 40 years, many of them didn't get good philosophy and their theology was affected in a very poor way.

[124] So you tweeted that it was important, you know, to really have good philosophy in regarding Catholicism.

[125] Am I on to something or would you go ahead and disagree with me?

[126] But I think the Thomistic philosophy is critical even today.

[127] Well, absolutely, because St. Thomas, Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica captured a lot of, it really is an amazing text and very dense, very full of teaching on all kinds of, but it is, it has become a way of understanding who we are as human beings and how we answer the age old questions that every child has.

[128] in one way or another.

[129] And St. Thomas Aquinas, the to mystic teachings, are a great treasure that, you know, that's one of the reasons that Pope St. John Paul II is such a gift to the church because he took us back to a lot of those basic teachings.

[130] And what we, like we've talked about before, Terry, one of the things that I try to emphasize is what we're after is knowing the truth.

[131] Amen.

[132] We all long for, and not the truth just of the latest headlines.

[133] Sadly, we're in a time where you really can't trust the latest headlines because different papers contradict each other.

[134] I mean, newspapers are sort of falling out of fashion, but they still are sort of a symbol of proclaiming the truth.

[135] And there's too much corruption there.

[136] It's hard to know the truth of even what happened in, you know, some recent circumstance.

[137] But what St. Thomas Aquinas is getting at and what philosophy gets at is what are those eternal truths?

[138] What are those objective truths that are always with us, the truth of who a man is, who a woman is, the truth that we're created in the image and likeness of God, the truth that life is sacred from conception to natural death, all of those basic teachings, and people will even go to some of what St. Thomas Aquinas taught, because science had developed to a point where they didn't have some of the understanding that we have now, certainly we have to put it into the historical context.

[139] But the great philosophical truths of St. Thomas Aquinas help us to understand how we work and how we can make good, how we can use our free will in responsible ways.

[140] St. Thomas talks about those kinds of basics in a very, in a way, that's not so popular with us now, but he poses questions and says, well, maybe this is the answer.

[141] Maybe this is the answer.

[142] Maybe he uses his mind.

[143] And, you know, we can, one of the, as you've said, with the formation of priests, thankfully, you know, I'll say that I think seminaries are stronger now.

[144] Oh, I agree with you.

[145] they were when I was in the seminary.

[146] Oh, you were in a couple.

[147] Thankfully, I was at what I believe, what I was told even in those days was one of the better seminaries.

[148] Good.

[149] Not perfect, but associated with the University of Dallas, which is strong, has continued to be about the truth.

[150] Yeah.

[151] And good basic philosophy, which is the foundation of good basic theory.

[152] Amen.

[153] Where things got off track with the Enlightenment and with a lot of the modern philosophers who started to, you know, sort of question, can we know anything and what is real and what is true?

[154] And they wandered away from things that we know, we know to be true.

[155] And it, you know, some of the, the, I'm, you know, not well versed in.

[156] I don't claim to be in some of the modern philosophies.

[157] But they got into some pretty bizarre stuff.

[158] Yeah, they did.

[159] That it affected politics.

[160] It affected theology.

[161] It affected all other truth.

[162] I mean, a lot of the, you know, the socialist and the communist movements, a lot of those writers came from a bad philosophy.

[163] Yep.

[164] a bad philosophy of of who we are and what the world is about because it it disengaged from being able to really believe and develop i mean st thomas equine has developed a philosophy built on the revelation of god and when you you wander away from that your philosophy becomes unmoored, unhinged.

[165] And that's a lot of the socialist and communist writers.

[166] That's what they got into.

[167] They had a philosophical underpinning that was not rooted in God.

[168] I read something recently that the communist constitution, I mean, this I believe was referring to the Constitution for the Soviet Union when it existed.

[169] And it said, people can have religion privately, but it was illegal to practice it.

[170] Yeah.

[171] That's antithetical philosophically to what religion is.

[172] Religion isn't just a me, God relationship.

[173] It's living that truth in affecting everything you do with your interactions with other human beings.

[174] And so, and sadly, we're seeing the same thing more and more pushed, even in our, you know, still constitutionally based democracy, but there's a real strong push to make religion private and not part of the public square.

[175] That's what communism did.

[176] Yeah.

[177] And then it's really not religion.

[178] all.

[179] I mean, thankfully, no one has developed the ability to invade our brains and tell us that we can't believe something.

[180] But what communism does is try to curtail any way, any thing that you do influenced by what's in your heart and mind, what you believe to be the truth.

[181] You can believe that basically communism and as i understand it i'm no expert i'm communism but it basically says you're sure you're free to believe whatever you just can't act on it and curtailing your freedom in that way means you're not really free at all and that you are basing your government your society on a philosophy that says God isn't real at all and where does that take us?

[182] It takes us down some very dark paths that sadly we don't seem to learn from as much as we should.

[183] I mean, when the Berlin Wall fell back in 1989, I was a young priest.

[184] I'd been a priest for four years.

[185] I remember that whole fall and all the excitement of that.

[186] I mean, you know, the Soviet Union collapsed and everything, but in too many ways, the world is worse off than it was when at least communism was more contained into certain areas.

[187] It seems to be invading everything at this point.

[188] Bishop Strickland, I can understand your formation as a young priest from the University of Dallas has a great track record of orthodoxy.

[189] but I think a lot of our listeners are wondering, and I've read this and somewhere you had written about this, that when you were ordained as a bishop, something changed in the sense of your, not just your commitment to Christ in the church, but can you share in a few minutes of what happened when you were ordained because you're very outspoken today?

[190] Well, really, Terry, I do trace it back to, I mean, we believe our faith teaches.

[191] that the sacraments are real.

[192] They have an effect.

[193] Bread and wine become the body and blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

[194] And, you know, as I've said, I would willingly claim a title as a poster child for what the Holy Spirit can do in the sacrament of holy orders.

[195] That's the only explanation I have.

[196] And it wasn't some immediate change, but it began me down a path as a bishop.

[197] And frankly, Terry, as I've shared many times in different settings, you keep hearing you're a successor of the apostles.

[198] At least in my experience of this kid from East Texas, it had an effect on me. It should.

[199] And I believe that that anointing.

[200] Yeah.

[201] that is part of the beautiful liturgy of the ordination of a bishop, sometimes called a consecration of a bishop, that had an effect.

[202] And the effect deepened and deepened.

[203] And really, I can say continues to deepen, Terry.

[204] Wonderful.

[205] Because I'm still weak and sinful, and I continue to be called to greater virtue.

[206] It's given me a strength to be willing to, as I know I've shared in different contexts.

[207] I don't know if we've talked about it, but when I pray the stations of the cross, which I pray more than ever, I used to think of it.

[208] Honestly, I used to think of it as something you do during Lent and sort of just, you know, go through the motions.

[209] I pray the stations now frequently, really as part of the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, because they're all woven into that.

[210] And when I pause at that station where Christ is stripped of everything, yes i say joe are you ready to be stripped of everything stripped of your office stripped of life stripped of everything wow and that's what all of us from our baptism are called to follow the lord and say yes i'm willing to be stripped of everything am i i hope so but that's what we're called to amen that's not just for bishops or priests that's for everyone baptized wow willing to be stripped of it all for Christ.

[211] Well said, Bishop Strickland.

[212] We come back.

[213] We'll talk about a great saint you cheated about St. Maximine Colby.

[214] Stay with us, family.

[215] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland hour.

[216] Bishop Strickland was talking about the stations of the cross.

[217] I was really just moved by that.

[218] And the reason I say that, Bishop Strickland, we have beautiful stations in our chapel that are 150 -year -old paintings.

[219] And I love the stations in our chapel.

[220] But just recently, I was able to put some outdoor stations in my backyard.

[221] So I walk every day in the morning, and when I come through the gate, there's a little area there where I do the stations in the morning, and it has been very efficacious for me. And the content of what you just said about, you know, we're all called to be stripped of, you know, this world to get to heaven, and that we're going to imitate Christ, and it's not just for priests and bishops and sisters for lay people, too, that moved us.

[222] So I'm going to give a recommendation that everybody can go on Google and type in Stations of the Cross.

[223] Because I'm assuming, you know, in my own generation, Bishop Strickland, many people weren't taught to even do the stations of the cross.

[224] It was kind of like, yeah, maybe we'll do it for six weeks at the Lent, like you said.

[225] But it's a very efficacious spiritual exercise.

[226] So I'm going to recommend everybody, Google Stations of the Cross.

[227] And just like you pray your daily rosary, go through those 14 stations.

[228] It's a powerful experience.

[229] And I really think what it does for me is it keeps me focused on godly things during the day.

[230] So I just want to recommend that.

[231] Bishop Strickland, you tweeted also about a great saint.

[232] One of my favorite saints, I actually was at his canonization.

[233] St. Maximilian Colby, October.

[234] 10th, 1982, you were just a young, no, no, you were in the seminary when he was ordained.

[235] That's right, 85, so 82, and I was about 20 years old, so we were both young pups.

[236] But the point of it was, I was moved by his work, and you tweeted about him.

[237] So let's get into what you said a little bit about, first of all, tell me what is it that St. Maximine Colby has touched you in your own, you know from your own life because i i think that's first of all an important aspect and then tell us who he is and a little background on him please sure um well it's interesting because i find saint maximilian colby to be a great model and a great saint for our time that's what the saint pulled for two different reasons really um i had the chance to be there in poland wow where he had his radio station.

[238] Oh, my goodness.

[239] I don't know if radio stations have a patron saint, but if anyone is at St. Maximilian Colby.

[240] Yeah.

[241] Because he was a pioneer in radio.

[242] Right.

[243] They're in Europe long before, you know, the whole Nazi takeover and all of that that World War II resulted in or was caused by.

[244] So St. Maximia, and that's what really, I guess, struck me, because certainly I'd heard of St. Maximilian Colby, his great martyrdom, his willingness to take the place of a husband and father and say, I'll take his place.

[245] That's a great heroic act.

[246] And certainly that's enough.

[247] Yeah.

[248] But what I would say, Terry, is St. Maximilian is a great saint for our time.

[249] in the way he lived and in the way he died.

[250] He used the brand new technology of his day, radio, to evangelize.

[251] And I think he's a great reminder that every tool that is given to us has the opportunity to be used for good.

[252] I was just thinking recently flying back, you know, on a huge 7 -7 -7 jet.

[253] And I've always, you know, as long as I can remember, as a kid, I love, I still love gadgets, I love machines, I love the intricacies in it.

[254] It really is amazing that we can fly around the world.

[255] And we can do so many things.

[256] But what struck me as I was on this plane and praying and trying to sleep a little, but what really struck me is that we live in a world where so many deny God, but we can truly say in a very philosophically logical way that would say, I think St. Thomas Aquinas would say, yeah, that's why we need to think about it.

[257] that what occurred to me is that plane came from God and people say, oh, this guy's really crazy and he thinks God makes planes and all that sort of silliness.

[258] But philosophically, if we think about it, and what occurred to me, really, I mean, you know, as a bishop, but hopefully I'm supposed to be a man of faith.

[259] Yeah.

[260] But here I am on the plane, praying and thinking about all of this.

[261] It occurred to me that Orbel and Wilver Wright.

[262] Yes.

[263] Where did the inspiration that comes in 2021, it's manifest as this huge 777 plane?

[264] I think it's A380 that's another company.

[265] Those are huge two -story planes.

[266] It came from the mind and others worked on airplanes.

[267] I mean, Leonardo da Vinci had some ideas about flight.

[268] But where did that come from?

[269] It came from human minds.

[270] Where did they come from?

[271] They came from God.

[272] So we can really say in sort of a philosophical reasoning, you know a path of reasoning out where did that plane come from it originated with from the human mind being inspired to think we can make a machine that will allow us to fly through the air yep i'm sure that people told orbel and wilbur that they were crazy many of the pioneers of technology are told that'll never work, but obviously it does.

[273] And you can fly around the world.

[274] That's kind of going back to what we were talking about.

[275] I'm not sure how I got off.

[276] Well, you know what?

[277] I'm laughing too, Mr. Strickland, I'm getting a chuckle because bottom line, we were talking about St. Maximilian Colby.

[278] Using technology.

[279] Using technology.

[280] That's where I was the radio.

[281] And it was 19 in the 30s he was broadcasting he was publishing a magazine that had over 1 .2 million subscribers of the immaculata the man was phenomenal are you ready for this folks he had 800 franciscans living in one monastery now 800 now bishop strickland i don't i've been around to a lot of monasteries but i've never been around where they had hundreds of them okay let alone 800 huge and I got a chance to meet some of those men.

[282] As a matter of fact, folks, I got a chance to meet Guy O 'Necheck was the man St. Maximilian Colby died for and he made a tour in the United States back in the 1980s and 90s, and we got a chance to meet him.

[283] And I was so moved by that because this is the man St. Maximilian Colby gave his life up for.

[284] And the thing that I like about St. Maximilian Colby that is so beautiful, Bishop Strickland, is his zeal for souls.

[285] And you actually tweeted this out, and I'll quote it from you from St. Maximilian Colby.

[286] Before I do that, not only does Bishop Strickland say that St. Maximian Colby is a saint for our times, at the canonization, St. John Paul II said those very words that St. Maximilian Colby is a man for our times, and I think the time has come right now.

[287] especially because he would not compromise his faith.

[288] Here's what he said about the salvation of souls.

[289] The most resplendent manifestation of God's glory is the salvation of souls, whom Christ redeemed by shedding his blood.

[290] To work for the salvation and sanctification of as many souls as possible, therefore is the preeminent purpose of the apostolic life.

[291] You know, I'd love to see the bishops conference quote that.

[292] I mean, really, they've got a nice quote we're going to get to.

[293] But that is really profound and mostly, it's just beautiful.

[294] Is that why you sent that out, Bishop Strickland?

[295] Absolutely.

[296] And I loved his use of that word preeminent that we've talked about before.

[297] Yes.

[298] The salvation of souls is the preeminent work of the church.

[299] Yes.

[300] And that's what we have to remember.

[301] Because when, again, getting back to good.

[302] philosophy, it's good philosophy.

[303] It's good basic foundation and the truth.

[304] Then if you remember that our purpose is our salvation, then everything else begins to fall into that line.

[305] Right.

[306] If you reverse that and if, which many people do in our time live and their philosophical framework for living is get all you can today and get all the pleasure, get all the wealth, get all the power, get everything for today because there is no tomorrow.

[307] That's the philosophical foundation for too many people.

[308] Yeah.

[309] And it even invades the church with our faith treated as if it's just sort of a nice way of treating each other, kind of a nice club to belong to.

[310] Yeah.

[311] But philosophically, it's disengaged from anything deeply meaningful.

[312] Instead, our faith is the philosophical underpinning for what life means.

[313] And it tells us the salvation of our souls is the greatest meaning of all.

[314] Because like we talked about last time, you know, this life is a drop in the ocean.

[315] Yep.

[316] The ocean is eternal life.

[317] And we saw it with that video that we looked at.

[318] Yep.

[319] It goes, I mean, it's gone.

[320] I mean, it literally appears to be meaningless.

[321] And the wonderful thing about what God has given us, even though my life and yours, is just a drop in the ocean, when it's connected to eternal life, it means every breath we take is gloriously meaningful, full of meaning when we stay connected to who we are.

[322] Well said, when we come back, we'll get right into the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[323] We've got that great prayer, St. Teresa, of Jesus.

[324] And we're going to quote today.

[325] Stay with us, family.

[326] We'll be right now.

[327] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[328] I'm looking at my catechism, paragraph 226.

[329] And Bishop Strickland, I look at the richness of the catechism.

[330] When we talk about these paragraphs, it's like it's taking the best of the best of the saints to talk about this.

[331] With this paragraph that I'm going to read, you already talked about it, about self -abandonment.

[332] It says it means, this is paragraph 226, it means making good use of created things.

[333] Faith in God, the only one, leads us to use everything.

[334] that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him.

[335] What a great principle.

[336] And to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him.

[337] It goes on with this little prayer, but what great advice.

[338] Yeah.

[339] It really is amazing that, I mean, this paragraph is exactly what we were already talking about.

[340] that make good use of created things.

[341] And to recognize, that's the wonder of being created in the image and likeness of God.

[342] If we could get back to a world where we understand what we're doing right now, here we are, I'm in Texas, you're in California, we're creating a recording that can be shared around the world and can be viewed right now.

[343] I mean, it's just amazing, and yet all of those amazing things that have done this, making good use of created things.

[344] It's what we're doing now is based on using copper for electric wires on silicone to create screen.

[345] I mean, it all comes from things that God has given us in the creative.

[346] mind that he's given human beings and the sad prideful arrogance that has invaded our age of technology that could be a glorious proclamation of the wonder of God.

[347] It should be all of the created world should be a glorious proclamation of God.

[348] And instead, too many.

[349] It's It's a proclamation of human glory, absent of God.

[350] Yeah.

[351] And then it's not glory at all.

[352] Nope.

[353] It's destructive and it becomes more and more destructive.

[354] So this paragraph really, it really captures what we need to remember.

[355] And talking about it's, it doesn't mention St. Maximilian Colby, but that's what he did.

[356] yeah that's right and that's what we need to to not get caught up in the darkness which is very powerful and it it affects me it affects all of us it's easy to get down it's easy to lose the joy it's easy to look at how bad things are and how fractured and how divided whether it's the church or the government or families but let's remember i mean this beautiful one single paragraph of the catechism.

[357] It's not even a very long one.

[358] Oh, short.

[359] It really captures the philosophy that we need to be guided by.

[360] Yeah.

[361] And you know, but if it brings us closer to him, that's it.

[362] It's good.

[363] Amen.

[364] If it takes us further from him, it's bad.

[365] It's simple.

[366] That's how we choose what we do every day with all that God has given us.

[367] Yeah.

[368] If every person, on the planet, just suddenly started to do that.

[369] Yep.

[370] The things that would start to change and the things that are distorted that would begin to take shape in beautiful ways, that's what God wants for us.

[371] And as long as we're the prideful, rebellious children that all of us are as sinners that, and we allow that pride and rebellion to really be the, the philosophical underpinning of our lives rather than the opposite.

[372] I mean, this paragraph, I guess it gets both of us fired up because it says so beautifully and so succinctly, what it's about?

[373] Yeah.

[374] If it takes you closer to God, embrace it.

[375] Cultivate it.

[376] If it takes you away from God, get rid of it.

[377] Amen.

[378] That's the full gospel message.

[379] Half of the gospel is, oh, well, some of it.

[380] have said it takes you a little from God.

[381] But if you don't feel that, if you don't think so, if you disagree, then go ahead and embrace it.

[382] That is not the fullness of the truth.

[383] This is paragraph 226.

[384] It says it so beautifully.

[385] And you know this, I'm going to take this prayer here and put it on my medicine cabinet.

[386] I'm going to photocopy this.

[387] Listen to this folks.

[388] In the catechism, it says this little prayer, my Lord and my God, take from me, everything that distances me from you.

[389] My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.

[390] My Lord and my God detach me from myself to give my all to you.

[391] I mean, that, again, that summarizes a self -abandonment.

[392] That's the key to living a Christ -centered life, is that as, you know, I keep saying Bishop Strickland, Bishop Sheen talks about the song they sing in hell, I did it my way, and the song we sing in heaven, it's I did it his way, self -abandonment.

[393] And I think that if people saw that for what it is, I believe, you know, they have that free will, as you were saying earlier in the show, to say yes or to say no to God, but that prayer right there, those three statements about my Lord and my God, really is all about self -abandonment.

[394] So I'm going to photocopy that put it in my prayer book, put it on a medicine cabinet, and pray that because I believe that's how you get to point A to get to point B. You have to pray it and then live it.

[395] That's my take, Bishop Strickland.

[396] Absolutely.

[397] And what I love about that prayer, I've never, I don't think I've ever read it before in the catacism.

[398] I know.

[399] What I love about it, besides what it says, which is beautiful yeah it's from st nicholas of flu oh my gosh that's right who is that to me that's a beautiful reminder yeah all the saints some are well known some i'd never heard of i mean you're smarter than i am so maybe you knew about oh i did nicholas of flu nope never heard but that prayer is attributed to him and it's a reminder that it's about all All of us, this St. Nick, I'll have to look up, who is St. Nichols of flu?

[400] Where is flute?

[401] I have no idea.

[402] That's the first time I haven't heard his name.

[403] It's a great image of the richness and the beauty of the church of the kingdom of God that dwells in the church that he's given us, wonderful people.

[404] And like you said, you're inspired to print this out and put it on your bathroom mirror to remind you.

[405] of what life is about, that's what we need.

[406] And to me, it's really amazing.

[407] I keep going back to that discussion we had about philosophy and theology.

[408] This is the philosophy of life that takes you to the theology of life of knowing God.

[409] That's what it's all about.

[410] And that's where we're so lost, even within the church, we're too far from this basic truth.

[411] We can always go back because God is merciful, but we've got to make the effort.

[412] We've got to seek that truth.

[413] And, you know, like you said, live this prayer from paragraph 226 of the catechism.

[414] Put this prayer into action.

[415] It will change your life and my life.

[416] And I'd encourage both of us and anyone listening to really give thanks to God, for the ways this has already changed your life.

[417] Because both of us, I mean, not perfectly, because I'm a sinner and I need to do this better.

[418] Me too.

[419] But what it's been good in our lives has come from doing this.

[420] That's right.

[421] That's what, so that people don't get down on themselves and say, oh, I'm such a sinner.

[422] I could never really live what God is offering me. Give thanks for the ways you already have and offer this prayer as a prayer that you can grow and grow and grow in that goodness and grace of God.

[423] Well, said, and I think of this next prayer that I have on my medicine cabinet for about 30 years, and that's from St. Teresa of Avila.

[424] Oh, I love that one.

[425] That's sitting, well, you've tweeted that before, but that's the one I have on my medicine cabinet.

[426] So move over, St. Teresa of a child Jesus.

[427] We're going to put another one up, but here's what 227 says.

[428] I think we have time to, well, you know what, we have enough time to say this.

[429] It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity.

[430] A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expressed this trust.

[431] And Bishop Strickland has tweeted this many times.

[432] Let nothing trouble you.

[433] Let nothing frighten you.

[434] Everything passes.

[435] God never changes.

[436] Patience obtains all.

[437] Whoever has God wants for nothing.

[438] God alone is enough.

[439] What a way to end a show.

[440] And I love the Spanish version of that.

[441] not a te turbe let nothing disturb you not a teuturebe because saint teresa of of jesus was of spanish yeah spain she was in spain yep well that's a great great point there and and again this is why it's so important to read your catechism here i've been reading the catechism for what since it came out in 93 and and there's still nuggets there that i'm getting so i thank jesus that i had the opportunity to be here with you, Bishop Strickland, and our listeners, to really fire me up about my faith, because this is something that the catechism will do, and we have to open up and read it and implement it.

[442] So I want to thank you, Bishop Strickland, for doing that.

[443] Let me just get another little plug -in for your institute, because that also gives a lot of good information on the faith.

[444] Can you tell us about your institute, please?

[445] Now, the St. Philip Institute, St. Philip Institute .org, Philip with one L. It's all about this truth that we've been talking about.

[446] It's all about providing that philosophy of life that we've been talking about that allows people to flourish and to find their God -given goal in life is to live in eternity with God, to be, to live salvation, to not just live in this world, but to always be on the path to what these couple of paragraphs of the catechism have talked about to be on the path to share everlasting life with God.

[447] And I do want to mention, really, the St. Philip Institute is more and more developing as an institute that serves the whole diocese.

[448] Awesome.

[449] And the phrase that I've just been using recently is for the diocese to be a school of faith.

[450] Amen.

[451] And really, what we do in our Catholic school, what we do in our catechism classes, what we do in our CIA, it needs to be that school of faith where people are learning.

[452] What is the philosophy of life that guides you?

[453] It's in those paragraphs that we just read.

[454] Well, sir, how about a quick blessing for our audience, Bishop Strickle?

[455] Mighty God, we ask your blessing for everyone participating at listening.

[456] May we rejoice in the call of truth.

[457] Dr. Sosage Day.

[458] In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.

[459] Thank you very much, Bishop Strickland.

[460] Thank you, folks, for joining us.

[461] You can always hear the podcast on vmpr .org.

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