27 Aug 24 – Is Our Lady of Akita Relevant to the Church Today?

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[2] And I'm honored each week to do a couple shows with Bishop Strickland on the Catholic faith.

[3] Bishop Strickland, welcome again to your show.

[4] Thanks, Terry.

[5] Thank you.

[6] And before we get to the gospel, I just want to mention that we are going to be talking about some of the current dates that are current events that are going on.

[7] One event that really I struggle with, Bishop Strickland, we'll talk about it later in the show about these people, right now in Chicago, and I don't mean to get politics, but I have to ask you a question, if you were an unborn baby and you saw the election that was going to be taking place, how in the world could a baby, if he could vote, would vote for a party that says you don't have a right to be born?

[8] I just don't see it.

[9] I think 100 % of those babies would vote against any party that would want to murder them in the womb.

[10] Your thoughts, Bishop Strickland?

[11] I totally agree.

[12] It's just privacy that a national party is promoting death.

[13] It's the party of death is what they just need to acknowledge it.

[14] And some of them really celebrate it.

[15] Oh, yeah.

[16] We love our abortions, but it's just evil.

[17] Well, it's so evil that they actually have an abortion.

[18] mobile truck on the location that does abortions there at the convention and vasectomies for men.

[19] So totally opposed to what we as Catholic Christians believe in the transmission of life, I just, you know, in the old days, Bishop Strickland, people would hide things like that.

[20] Now it's...

[21] Really, very, I'll say it.

[22] Any Catholic who votes for that party, no party's perfect.

[23] It is beyond understanding, and it's beyond belief that a Catholic can that flagrantly say, oh, well, they're good about this or that.

[24] Promoting, it's just exasperating.

[25] I mean, it's just terrible.

[26] Well, I'm with you, and I've been in trouble for saying that nobody can be, and this is kind of like what Pope Pius of the 11th said years ago, that you can't be a Catholic and a communist.

[27] Well, I don't think you can vote for that party and still be a Catholic, okay?

[28] At least the one in good standing.

[29] You're still baptized, but you're not in good standing when you vote for the culture of death.

[30] All right, we'll get into that a little later.

[31] But I want to get into the gospel for today, and I believe today is the Feast of St. Monica.

[32] And maybe you could even talk a little bit about that great mother who was such a prayer warrior.

[33] Yeah, absolutely, St. Monica, and she was the kind of woman who became a saint, the mother of St. Augustine, who heard this gospel.

[34] It's the same gospel that Monica and Augustine would have heard, and she did her best to conform her life to these words.

[35] So let's listen to it in the spirit of St. Monica and all the saints.

[36] This is the gospel according to Matthew.

[37] Jesus said, woe to use scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you pay ties of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law, judgment and mercy and fidelity.

[38] But these you should have done without neglecting the others.

[39] Blind guys who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel, won't you scribes and Pharisees you hypocrites you cleanse the outside of cup and dish but inside they are full of plunder and self -indulgence blind Pharisees cleanse first the inside of the cup so that the outside also may be clean the gospel of the Lord praise to you Lord Jesus Christ Terry I think this is a perfect gospel for what what we were just talking about, because this isn't a Christ of milk toast and light words and love, love, love.

[40] Absolutely.

[41] He's love incarnate.

[42] But this reminds us that love has a tough sign.

[43] Love is the strongest force on earth, real love.

[44] We need to remember that.

[45] And this gospel is a great reminder.

[46] I mean, here's Jesus Christ.

[47] calling the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites and blind guides.

[48] And really, Terry, I don't want to point a finger at anyone except myself.

[49] And that's what all of us need to do.

[50] Not saying, oh, yeah, this is terrible.

[51] And he's talking about so -and -so, or he's talking about this or that group.

[52] The gospel is meant to be heard deeply in each of our hearts.

[53] And to ask ourselves, I mean, for me, I mean, I'm a bishop of the church.

[54] And Christ could easily bring these words to us as shepherds in the church today.

[55] And we all need to examine our conscience and look into our hearts and say, where am I guilty of exactly what Christ is accusing the scribes and the Pharisees of?

[56] We need to all hear the gospel and hear our Lord Jesus Christ.

[57] And I think that an important point is that there are attempts.

[58] We've talked about it a lot.

[59] We see the results of sort of soft peddling the gospel, literally eliminating these kinds of passages where Christ gets hard.

[60] The love sounds hard, but it's still love.

[61] He's God's divine son always.

[62] He's always love and truth incarnate.

[63] So when he's saying these things that sound harsh, We need especially to listen because if our Lord is calling people names, I mean, you could say it that way that he says, you hypocrites, blind guides.

[64] And the strength of the Lord's words, we all need to hear.

[65] I don't want to point at anyone, but I will say, I mean, I need to hear these words like everyone else.

[66] And I need to reform my life in whatever ways it needs to be reformed.

[67] But there are shepherds who aren't listening to this gospel.

[68] And we need to be aware of that, not judging, but calling them back to humbly and honestly listening to the Word of God.

[69] There's too much false message out there.

[70] And frankly, you know, again, we get accused of being political.

[71] But the truth gets politicized all the time so that anything can be politicized.

[72] I mean, the sanctity of the life of an unborn child, that's about as politicized as anything.

[73] Exactly.

[74] But ultimately, it's a precious gift from God.

[75] God's the author of life.

[76] And when leadership in this nation says, God's not the author any longer, we're in control.

[77] that leadership needs to be seriously questioned.

[78] Amen.

[79] And people that are Catholic and are not questioning that kind of leadership, frankly, they better wake up because promoting abortion and immoral activities and a man mutilating his body so that he doesn't have to worry about conceiving a child when he is intimate with a child.

[80] a woman in a way that should always be open to a child being conceived, because the only appropriate place for that intimacy is in the commitment of marriage.

[81] Amen.

[82] But it shows that this leadership is so far from that, that they're promoting evil for men and women because they don't want to fake the consequences of truth.

[83] And, you know, this gospel needs to be heard by the leadership.

[84] of this nation that is attacking life, attacking morality, and acting like we can rewrite the book.

[85] We can't.

[86] We can pretend that we can, and too many in the church are on that agenda.

[87] Oh, this needs to change, and we'll wake up and that will be different, and we'll be open to this and that.

[88] That's false message.

[89] I mean, Mary and her apparitions, many of the prophets, many of the visionaries through the history of the church, have told us, I mean, the scriptures talk about it.

[90] Be aware of these blind guides.

[91] Be aware of false messages.

[92] They're taking you to damnation, not to heaven.

[93] People need to be very aware of this.

[94] And it's in the headlines right now with leadership that wants to, take the leadership of the nation.

[95] These people would love to lead every aspect of this nation in the Congress, in the Senate, in the White House, in the court, everywhere.

[96] And if we allow them to gain more power, we are in serious peril as a nation.

[97] Well said, Bishop Strickland.

[98] When we come back from the break, I'd like to shift gear, Sister Agnes, the seer of a Kita, Japan, she died on the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[99] And I want to just kind of talk about what she heard.

[100] The bishop approved these back in the 70s.

[101] She received messages from our lady July 6th to August 3rd, 1973.

[102] And the reason I want to bring this up because so much of what she said, we're starting to experience in a way that's profound where she says, you know, bishops and cardinals are at each other, disagreeing on things.

[103] and she's talked about we need to pray very much for the pope and the priest, and she talked about how we need to make prayer and reparation, things like that.

[104] This is right for us right now.

[105] So when we come back from the break, I'd like to talk about our lady of Akita and the great message and how it applies to us and how certain people have said, Akita just reaffirms Fatima.

[106] Well, that makes sense.

[107] It's the same blessed mother.

[108] Stay with us family.

[109] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power Radio.

[110] I'd like to say Bishop Strickland and me, both of us, we're too blessed to be stressed.

[111] We're too anointed to be disappointed because our hope is in Jesus Christ.

[112] Stay with us, family.

[113] We'll be back after a quick break.

[114] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[115] Welcome back.

[116] Indeed.

[117] As I promised, I'd like to talk a little bit about our lady of Akita.

[118] And I remember when I first heard the message, and I was like, wow, can you imagine bishops, you know, arguing with cardinals and cardinals and then she said this, which really blew me away at the time as a young man. I think I was in my early 20s when I heard this, that she said that even the work of the devil will infiltrate even into the church in way that one will see cardinals opposing Cardinals, bishops against bishops, and she said, the priest who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confederers, churches, and altars sacked.

[119] The church will be full of those who accept compromise.

[120] What?

[121] Are you kidding me, Bishop Strickland?

[122] And the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

[123] This was a second message.

[124] Bishop Strickland, I don't know, maybe I'm just odd, but I listen.

[125] I hear this message, and I go, we're living.

[126] it.

[127] What are your thoughts about the message?

[128] Oh, I think the message of Akita is very important in this time.

[129] And as you said before the break, some have said, I believe Pope Benedict said, I know that many have said that Akita really harmonizes with Fatima.

[130] And I've even heard some say that really this message of Akita is the third secret of Fatima, which was was toned down when it was actually published.

[131] Yes.

[132] But and I believe that.

[133] I believe that because it's it's a very, I mean, we just read a gospel that was pretty hard hitting.

[134] This is a hard hitting message.

[135] And I think many have tried to deflect it because, you know, what Bishop wants to admit that this is what we're living.

[136] Yeah.

[137] But we need to admit it.

[138] We need to quit compromising.

[139] I mean, that's a huge part of where we are.

[140] One little compromise becomes another and another.

[141] And finally, you find yourself compromised right out of supernatural faith.

[142] faith.

[143] And I think that too many, too many shepherds, too many bishops are in exactly that boat.

[144] And if they're not compromised, they're not strong enough to simply say, no, this is the faith.

[145] This is what we believe.

[146] This is what sacred scripture and the tradition of the church and the catechism and all of the magisterium of the church, this is what it teaches.

[147] Instead, there either unwilling to stand up or they say, oh, it needs to change.

[148] We're modern now.

[149] I mean, in many ways, what the Akita message really gets down to is what happens to the church if modernism takes over.

[150] Yeah.

[151] And that's where we are.

[152] I'm going to share something I've never shared with you, but I'm going to do it right on the air.

[153] In the 1980s, Father Maliki Martin somehow got my phone number.

[154] and I had dozens and dozens of phone calls with him, hours and hours talking to him.

[155] And remember...

[156] I would love to have the...

[157] I know he died back in the early 2000s.

[158] Yeah, yeah, he did.

[159] I would love to talk to that man. Well, here's the thing.

[160] Reading his books is like, Maliki, I don't talk to you.

[161] But here's the challenge.

[162] When I would speak to him, I was like, on the edge of my chair, I said, you mean you were there when the third secret to the Pope was, was, well, I had to saying I was like 20, what, five, maybe 30 years old in the mid -80s, 30 years?

[163] I was young and naive, and I said, you mean to tell me that it's the apostasy?

[164] That's the third secret.

[165] Yep, that's basically what I'm telling you.

[166] And I remember saying, gosh, do I talk to people about this?

[167] And I remember it really, well, I went and called some Jesuit priests.

[168] I won't give them, but I had been advised by priests because I was.

[169] Bishop Strickland, I'm an old guy now, but when I was young, I wasn't as confident to know what to do when certain things happened, so I always seeked advice, and I would always say, could this be true?

[170] Well, you know, he's like a fly on the wall.

[171] I wouldn't take everything he says as absolute truth, so I would be very careful of publishing his material.

[172] That was the advice I got in the 1980s.

[173] But now that I'm an old man, what you just said, that's what I'm saying.

[174] I should have put him on cassette tape and put everything he had.

[175] But I believe that Father Maliki Martin really, I mean, maybe he embellished.

[176] I have no idea because I wasn't, I don't know his, you know, what actually he saw, but what he saw makes sense more now 30 years later when I'm an adult, an old 65, 67 year old man now.

[177] But my point to you is getting back to Akita.

[178] I think you're right.

[179] I think Akita and Fatima are very similar because it's repent, make sacrifice because of man's sin.

[180] And I think that when Sister died on the 15th of the Feast of the Assumption, which was a beautiful day to die on, I read that there was several priests who said that when she dies, we'll actually have more ramifications of what messages were given.

[181] Now, that's just a priest saying that, but I could see that coming because everything she said is talking about what's happening in the church, the evil.

[182] And I'll just say the word evil, Bishop Strickland, that's going on in the church with people dressed like you that have just compromised on sexual morality.

[183] Like, for example, Cardinal Mueller said, overturning Humanevite teaching is a crime against the church.

[184] Now, it's more than a crime against the church.

[185] it's not acknowledging the perennial teachings of the church on things whether it's on same -sex marriage you've got people dressed like you saying that so I can give many examples of prelates compromising what sister said in these revelations and it concerns me so I'm thinking as a layman I'll throw it back to you is that I can only pray and make reparation and atonement and pray for our leaders in our church because as Mons Sr. George Kelly said, where is the church going, where its leaders take them?

[186] Your thoughts?

[187] Well, Terry, I agree with everything you said.

[188] And really, for you as a layman, I mean, certainly you have the responsibility to pray and make reparation and atonement for your own sins and the sins of the world.

[189] That's one reason I'm sitting here talking to you is because I have more responsibility.

[190] Yeah.

[191] I was ordained to be a six.

[192] It would be impossible.

[193] And the story you were on to hear is true.

[194] Hang on a second.

[195] Why don't you repeat?

[196] We just had a little interruption.

[197] Continue.

[198] You were ordained a bishop.

[199] To what?

[200] To speak the truth, to guard the deposit of faith.

[201] Amen.

[202] What I'm saying, Terry.

[203] Yeah.

[204] I have more responsibility.

[205] Oh, yeah.

[206] I have the same responsibility.

[207] the church that you have as a father for your family.

[208] Exactly.

[209] Which, you know, if you think about it, that's a lot scarier responsibility.

[210] I mean, no, I'm not bishop of the old church, but as a bishop, I owe it to the whole church.

[211] Amen.

[212] Truth and not to compromise.

[213] And too many bishops are compromised.

[214] That's just, that's not judging anyone.

[215] That's not, you know, that's just.

[216] reality it's the facts again going back to the akita message yeah we do have bishop against bishop yeah cardinal against cardinal we have pope francis against too many faithful bishops and priests and cardinals yeah i mean that we've just got to acknowledge it and continue to be faithful I mean, part of the Akita message is, I mean, it's chilling, but we need to be aware of it.

[217] It says, I mean, it predicts that there will be great suffering.

[218] And what Akita's, the Akita message says is the good and the bad will suffer together.

[219] That's right.

[220] And many of the survivors will wish they had died.

[221] It's incredible.

[222] That is scary.

[223] a scary message.

[224] And if we're not paying attention to it and thinking that, oh, well, you know, Bishop Strickland or some others, you know, they raise all these concerns and sound alarms.

[225] But, you know, none of that's going to happen.

[226] And it's all just, you know, I won't bet on it because our blessed mother, she is simply promoting her loving son, guiding people to God.

[227] he did.

[228] And she wouldn't have given us these messages if we didn't need to be warned.

[229] And we haven't, what have we done?

[230] As a church, as humanity, we've pretty much ignored her messages.

[231] I mean, is there a great move to, you know, to turn from sin?

[232] The opposite.

[233] We're compromising with sin all the time and have bishops and priests saying, oh, this, you know, don't worry about your sins, you know, it's not that big a deal.

[234] Everybody's going to heaven.

[235] That's not what Christ said, and that's not what his mother said.

[236] I'm going to stick with them.

[237] I mean, and it's challenging for all of us.

[238] Of course.

[239] I mean, we all have to be awake to what we're facing.

[240] And again, there are too many in the world, too many in this nation that are not facing it that are pretending that what we're saying what we've said in these couple of segments already that's that's not the truth and we're we're going in a different direction and i hate to tell them um god is eternal god is the one the creator of all he's the lord of life And when we reject so much of what he's revealed to us, there are going to be consequences.

[241] There already are in many ways.

[242] But I think dire consequences are on the way unless people have a huge conversion, global conversion experience that maybe it will happen.

[243] I mean, we certainly have to pray for it.

[244] But I think it's basically one soul at a time.

[245] And one soul is worth, you know, is unaccountable for what the value of one soul is.

[246] And we always need to remember that.

[247] One thing that I'm frustrated by is the attitude of too many shepherds is like, oh, we need to take our time and be gentle about all this.

[248] Pastoral.

[249] We need to wake up ourselves and wake up the people and say, get holy turn from sin and get holy as quick as you can well said before we take a break i want to remind people that we're bringing archbishop sheen into the conversation when we come back for the break i have a segment from when someone asked him a very controversial question i want to apply it today because the issue is women priests and we know that the vatican is opening up another investigation on whether it would be permissible to ordain women to the deaconate and to the priesthood.

[250] And I'd like you to hear what Bishop Sheen has to say.

[251] And I just scratch my head as a layman and say, why do we keep going back again and again to something that's been defined John Paul 2 back in 94, made it clear that that can't happen?

[252] Well, I'd like to have Bishop Strickland comment on Bishop Fulton Sheen's comment about whether women can be ordained to the priesthood and see if his answer affirms what you think, too, Bishop Strickland.

[253] I'm sure it will, but he's going to use some Old Testament scripture and what priests are all about.

[254] And I think it's going to be interesting.

[255] You won't want to miss this with Bishop Fulton Sheen and Bishop Joseph Strickland.

[256] When we come back from the break, stay with us, family.

[257] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[258] Welcome back, indeed.

[259] I want to take this opportunity.

[260] thought I'd be able to do this, but I do it on the radio all the time, I guess.

[261] I want to introduce Archbishop Fulton Sheen into the conversation regarding women's ordination, because he was asked this, and this was about six months before he died, so he's in his mid, he's 84 years old when he died, so 83, 84 years of age, and the person asked him the question, and I want you to hear it, and then Bishop Strickland can comment on it.

[262] So, Mr. Engineer, play that clip.

[263] All right, well, he's getting that clip.

[264] Bishop Strickland.

[265] Let's see if Mr. Engineer's going to click.

[266] If not, well, let me just throw this at you, Bishop Strickland, while we get the clip.

[267] You do YouTube on a regular basis.

[268] You have short presentations on different aspects of the Catholic faith.

[269] Did you just do some recent ones?

[270] Because I haven't chatted with you in a week.

[271] So maybe we can do a little plug for your YouTube channel.

[272] Yeah, they're always, more or less once a week they come out.

[273] I did one that reflecting on the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary that we just celebrated.

[274] And there are others, just topics or saints, things that are in the news.

[275] I talked about the Eucharistic Congress and the need to have an ongoing Eucharistic revival.

[276] I mean, really, we need to be in a permanent state of Eucharistic revival to go deeper and deeper into the mystery of the present.

[277] of the Lord and the Christ.

[278] And you know, they can just type in on the YouTube, your name, correct?

[279] That's how they can get the YouTube channel.

[280] Right.

[281] Now, one other thought that I had, when I was growing up, maybe you got this too, but, you know, 40 hours devotion.

[282] In our diocese, we rotated throughout the year.

[283] Each parish would take a 40 -hour devotion where the Eucharist would be exposed.

[284] We'd bring a priest, we'd come in and preach on some aspect of the faith.

[285] normally it was on the Holy Eucharist and then by the 1980s it stopped and what I know about it is because they would publish it in our diocese and paper so you knew where to go for this and it seems to me that that would be a really good practical thing I talked about you know other things like putting a tabernacle back in the center of the church and other things that would you know help with bringing the real presence but Bishop Strickland when you were a young man you would lived more of in a rural area, unlike I was in Los Angeles County, but did you guys have 40 hours devotion in your diocese when you were a young man?

[286] No. What?

[287] No. And I was in a very rural area.

[288] I mean, we had, we didn't even have daily mass. We were at a little mission.

[289] Wow.

[290] So a lot of those things, and frankly, the priests that served us were very caught up in the new things.

[291] They were more interested in promoting the new things and some of those traditional devotions we just didn't experience not in the church i mean i heard about it in other places but so we didn't we but i think the 40 hours devotion is is beautiful and it really is inspired i mean 40 is a number from scripture the the 40 days in the desert all of that um 40 years, but also the hours of Christ in the tomb.

[292] Yeah.

[293] It's what that's partially inspired by.

[294] Beautiful.

[295] We're going to get that clip on Bishop Sheen, once the engineer lets me know he has that.

[296] Also, I wanted to talk a little bit.

[297] You have your YouTube about the Eucharistic Revival.

[298] It appears to me that Eucharistic adoration.

[299] in general is coming back into the church.

[300] And I've noticed it in the last, no, five or six years with youth groups where they're bringing, I mean, locally here within five miles from here where I'm at in Southern California, they're advertising Eucharistic adoration for over an hour.

[301] And again, they give a talk, and then they have a little social.

[302] And these are the 20 -some -year -olds.

[303] And I'm thinking, what a great thing to do.

[304] because, again, when I was a young man, and other than the youth mission for the immaculata, who I got into when I was in my early 20s, consecrating myself to the Blessed Mother.

[305] We follow the ideals of St. Maximine Colby, Eucharistic Adoration, Total Consecration.

[306] That was great.

[307] But the idea of a youth group, when I was a young man, was we're going to go watch a movie.

[308] And they had no content about the deposit of faith and once you know it appeared to me that that was not feeding the flock now mr engineer you're here we're going to play the bishop i'm going to shift gears the bishop sheen quote if i could mr engineer for the issue of women's ordination my final thought about growing up it seemed that right after the council much of all this that was really solid teachings on the eucharist we changed the whole focus on just, you know, being kind of a serenipity where everybody just got along and we didn't really talk about these mysteries of the faith.

[309] And I think the fruit of it was fruitless.

[310] Okay, that was my point.

[311] Mr. Engineer, can we play the clip of Volt and Sheen on the Women's Ordination?

[312] How do you feel about women not being able to become priests?

[313] Well, how do I feel about?

[314] First of all, that isn't a feeling.

[315] And there's nothing to do with it.

[316] If the good Lord wanted women to be priests, he would have made his own mother one.

[317] And it isn't a sex choice.

[318] And we won't get into that.

[319] It's something that's hidden deeply in the scriptures where a man is the symbol of Christ and the woman is the symbol of the church.

[320] As in the Old Testament, man was the symbol, the husband was the symbol of God.

[321] and Israel was his wife so the old prophecy prophet said Israel thou art my spouse God speaking that's where the mystery is hidden not in the question of feeling civil rights there's nothing to do with that and furthermore I don't know how we'll be improved we are not the best but he doesn't choose the best women might be better he didn't choose me because I was better than someone else Bishop Strickland this was like six months before he died guys I've watched the interview it was his last interview in the media and here he is 84 years old months away from meeting God and this woman asked him a question about the injustice about women not being preached your thoughts about his answers Well, his initial answer, it's perfect.

[322] How do you feel about it?

[323] It's not about feeling.

[324] And I mean, this was, you know, years ago, and that has overwhelmed society even more than it did back then.

[325] Everything's feeling.

[326] How do you feel about it?

[327] And then he goes on to indicate it's how God has structured things.

[328] You know, they talk about.

[329] Oh, the equality of men and women.

[330] Men and women are different, but precious, both.

[331] And we need both.

[332] We need the complementarity.

[333] We need the difference between male and female.

[334] I mean, I've always thought if, I mean, I guess what I would add to what Archbishop Sheen said is for women to recognize one, One of their sex is the one chosen to be the perfect one, the sinless one, married full of grace, the mother of Jesus.

[335] No man reaches that level of holiness.

[336] So, you know, feel great about that, ladies.

[337] But if it's not about feeling, it's about the truth that God has revealed to us.

[338] us.

[339] And if we know that truth, then, you know, what occurs to me for all of us, whatever our role is a tremendous gift and dominay non -sumdignus for all of us.

[340] Lord, I am not worthy.

[341] No man is worthy to be a priest of Jesus Christ, but Christ has chosen us as he chooses us.

[342] As he chooses apostles and no woman is worthy to be the mother of the son of God, but God chose to make a woman worthy.

[343] As the church fathers talk about it, Mary benefited from what Christ's sacrifice accomplished.

[344] Mary benefited from it before it had happened.

[345] That's how God's great.

[346] works because it's part of the structure of the universe.

[347] I mean, it really is.

[348] And like you said, it is frustrating, but we're in a frustrating time when many things that we know are the truth haven't changed.

[349] We'll not change.

[350] But it's like everything's up for grabs for some people.

[351] And it's not.

[352] That reality will never change in many different ways.

[353] ways.

[354] And we need to, and we will, as humanity, we'll come back around to understanding what God is revealed to us, what natural law reveals, what simply living life reveals to us.

[355] Some things don't change, and they're not going to change.

[356] But we're in a time when the arrogance and pride of humanity is just off the rails and acting like we can change anything we want.

[357] It's simply not the truth.

[358] And so Archbishop Sheen's answer is perfect, especially when he addresses the woman's question.

[359] How do you feel about this?

[360] Who cares?

[361] It's not about feeling.

[362] It's about knowing the truth and knowing God's love for each and every one of us, male and female.

[363] You know, just to confirm that I got a quotable Sheen book, and he said, I quite, I looked it up.

[364] We live in a sensate age.

[365] We are no longer governed by faith.

[366] We are no longer governed by reason.

[367] We are governed by feelings.

[368] And, you know, I don't mean to ridicule feelings because, you know, I appreciate when someone says to me I feel sad.

[369] I get that.

[370] Okay, deal with it.

[371] I get it.

[372] But don't make decisions based on feelings.

[373] It's just, that's our whole culture right now.

[374] Well, and one thing that I would point out, because absolutely, we're, We're sensed beings.

[375] We have feeling.

[376] Oh, yeah.

[377] But we need to remember every feeling is temporary.

[378] That's right.

[379] Well said, we come back.

[380] We're going to get into the catechism, the Christian moral life.

[381] Whoa.

[382] Put your seatbelt on, folks.

[383] Stay with us.

[384] We'll be back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power.

[385] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[386] Welcome back, indeed.

[387] For those who are brand new to the show, We try to get a catechism lesson in each show.

[388] Why?

[389] Because I think if everybody asks the question about the Catholic Church and the Catholic lay people, especially, and you know what, Bishop's trick, and I'll even say the clergy, I think their lack of catechesis has affected not only lay people, but priests.

[390] And so why do we go back to the catechism?

[391] Because it's essential because we need to know what Holy Mother teaches when it comes to.

[392] morality, and that's what we're getting into right now.

[393] People say, well, why is it that same -sex marriage, so -called, is wrong?

[394] We should be able to give a reason for our hope that says it's wrong.

[395] So let's get into this catechism, and I like to plug the St. Philip Institute in Tyler, Texas, because they're the ones who published this catechism.

[396] And I think Bishop Strickland, you were the bishop when this first came out there in Tyler, is that correct?

[397] Correct.

[398] Correct.

[399] And so I'm sure you know the people who put this together.

[400] It was a lot of lay people.

[401] Is that a fair statement?

[402] Laid people and clergy.

[403] Together.

[404] A number of people were involved in putting it together, but good people.

[405] Yeah, yeah.

[406] Well, we're going to cover the chapter 18 talking about the Christian moral life is working with God's grace to conform our thoughts, words and actions to God so that we can enjoy eternal beatitude with him.

[407] I say that because that's why we go to confession.

[408] I went this morning.

[409] Why?

[410] Because I know I'm a sinner.

[411] And the moral teachings, when I go through the Ten Commandments as an examination, I always find that I need to go to confession.

[412] Because I'm not perfect.

[413] I know that I fall short of the mark when it comes to living the Catholic.

[414] Catholic faith.

[415] So I kind of get down on my knees and ask for forgiveness.

[416] And I think that most of us would say that.

[417] So here's the first question in the catechism.

[418] Why do we have to live a good moral life?

[419] Mr. Strickland, I'm not going to read the answer.

[420] I'm going to let you tell us, why do we have to live a good moral life?

[421] Because you texted or you tweeted something that just said the consequences of sin versus living a good moral life.

[422] Your thoughts?

[423] Well, what our faith is about is why we have to live a good moral life.

[424] God is revealed to us.

[425] You go back to the Ten Commandments, God is revealed to us.

[426] There's right and there's wrong.

[427] We come from God, who is all goodness, all truth.

[428] He's the font of truth and goodness and beauty.

[429] Everything that is good in creation is a good.

[430] a reflection of the goodness of God.

[431] And we are part of that.

[432] We have the unique ability, unlike any of the rest of creation, we have the ability to choose between right and wrong.

[433] Adam and Eve went off the rails with that grave responsibility.

[434] Yep.

[435] And, but that's why we have to live, seek to live, live a moral life.

[436] Thankfully, God doesn't expect for us to get it right immediately.

[437] Some do.

[438] Some are sanctified from very early.

[439] I mean, some of the great saints were just very close to being sinless people.

[440] Like the little flower.

[441] Yeah.

[442] But most of us struggle with sin.

[443] And the point of that, the reason we're called to a moral life, really the way I would put it.

[444] it, Terry, so that we become more who we are.

[445] Exactly.

[446] But we are meant to be.

[447] We come from God.

[448] We're created in the image and likeness of God.

[449] We're meant to return for eternity after this brief life.

[450] We're meant to return to God for all time, for eternity.

[451] And so living the moral life is what we're supposed to do.

[452] It's how we're meant to live.

[453] When we choose freely not to do that, we're diminishing ourselves.

[454] And a great example of what is sin, really, in our lives.

[455] I was at a gathering recently, and a man who's a man of faith, but not a theologian, an engineer.

[456] But he said he likes to think of a dimmer switch, you know.

[457] And I think that's a great, you know, we need analogy.

[458] We need to be able to make it something that we can understand.

[459] And this man who's an engineer said he thinks of sin as like a dimmer swam.

[460] If we're to be the light of the world, that's what we're called to be when we're living in the state of grace.

[461] We're like we're shining.

[462] I mean, we never shine as brightly as Christ himself.

[463] He's the light of the world.

[464] But we're supposed to shine forth echoing his light.

[465] And the saints do that.

[466] But when we sin, it's like we turn down, we dim that light a bit.

[467] Veneal sins dim the light slightly.

[468] But as they add up, it can get more and more dim.

[469] Mortal sin turns out the light.

[470] But thankfully, what do we do to get the light shining brightly?

[471] Again, to get the dimmer switch back to full brightness.

[472] We go to confession.

[473] Amen.

[474] best our sins to God through the priest in the sacrament of confession.

[475] And really, I think that's a beautiful, it just comes to me that, but as many people that listen to these shows and that are seeking to be faithful, they go to confession, as they should, as I do, as you do, as we all should, on a regular basis.

[476] But I'd encourage people as they're waiting in that long, Hopefully it's a long confessional line.

[477] Many people are going to confession.

[478] We all need to go.

[479] But to think and to remind yourself that anyone who makes a worthy confession and truly offers their sins to God and is absolved of those sins sacramentally in confession, is they're walking out of that confessional?

[480] They're not just, oh, thank goodness, they're done.

[481] So I'm closer, moving down the line closer to the, my.

[482] confession.

[483] But to remind ourselves, that person now shines brightly with sanctifying grace.

[484] Of course, you know, I've even talked to people who sort of admit, you know, very quickly, I mean, frankly, you can get in the parking lot for typical, you know, the lives that we lead and very quickly can fall back into sin in one way or another.

[485] But as a person walks out of the confessional, if they've made a worthy confession, they are shining brightly with the light of Christ again in sanctifying grace.

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

[487] And that's what we need to remember.

[488] It's really that simple.

[489] When we sin, we diminish the light.

[490] We diminish ourselves.

[491] Thankfully, the mercy is always there.

[492] We can go back and confess, even if we've been battling the same sin for much of our life.

[493] we can keep going back we need to have a firm purpose of amendment we have to be really trying really doing our best and i think both of us would testify yeah it takes time but when you stick with it and when you pray more and when you humble yourself before the lord that grace does have its effect you may still struggle with the same basic sins but you can make progress i believe that that's what God causes to.

[494] Keep doing your best to progress in holiness and fight.

[495] I mean, some people have a harder fight than others.

[496] We all make comparisons.

[497] You don't need to compare yourself to anyone else.

[498] Fight your battles the best you can.

[499] By God's grace, you'll make progress.

[500] And that's what God calls us to.

[501] While you were speaking, I was looking up my little quote from St. Alphonseus Ligoria, Doctor of the Church, since this is a moral theologian, he said this, I quote, all the damned are in hell because they have stopped praying.

[502] They would not be there had they not stopped praying.

[503] Bishop Strickland, I'm not asking you to confess anything that you heard in confession, but I know from people who talk to me, they said everything in my life went south when I stopped praying.

[504] Would you agree that that is some critical thing we all need to not give up on?

[505] Absolutely.

[506] And I mean, many times as a priest, and I'm sure you've heard this, when you hear that a priest has left the priesthood, you just simply ask, okay, when did he stop praying?

[507] Yep.

[508] At somewhere along the way, he stopped praying, especially for a priest, but we're all priestly people from our baptism.

[509] That's right.

[510] And I mean, I think it's absolutely right.

[511] And too many people have stopped praying or have never prayed.

[512] And that's why we have to keep proclaiming the joyful, beautiful truth of Christ to inspire people.

[513] And thankfully, people are being inspired all over the place.

[514] I was talking with someone just this morning that was saying they're amazed at how many people.

[515] I mean, the church is a mess in many ways because we've we've tarnished her holiness.

[516] But the holiness is still there.

[517] The truth is still there.

[518] And people are still attracted to the truth.

[519] Even though many are leaving because they're disgusted with the lack of holiness in the human reality of the church.

[520] But the holiness is always there.

[521] And through prayer, we can be deeply attached to that holiness.

[522] And that gives us joy and hope.

[523] that no one can take away.

[524] You know, Bishop Strickland, this is that a minute left, but what you've said over the years with me on this show, and I've confirmed that with people, that going to the Blessed Sacrament to pray is like, you know, getting Eucharistic rays of God.

[525] You know, the presence of Christ is there in a very special way that he's not outside the church.

[526] And I think that if we encourage people once a week to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, to pray their rosary or just spend time before our Eucharistic king.

[527] That changes lives.

[528] Am I on to something?

[529] Absolutely.

[530] Prayer, especially the closer our prayer can be to the Lord.

[531] And there's no way to be closer than in the presence of a tabernacle where the Eucharist is in Eucharistic adoration in the mass. Yes.

[532] The Mass is our most beautiful prayer.

[533] Why?

[534] Because that is where the Son of God comes to us in a brand new way, in a brand new entering into time in that moment when that mass is being celebrated.

[535] So we all need to approach the Mass is that wonderful gift of God coming again.

[536] Beautiful, Bishop Strickland, that hour went fast.

[537] Could I ask you to give our listeners a blessing, please?

[538] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us to grow closer to the Eucharistic face of your son, to know and believe that he is truly with us and to be strengthened in his presence.

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

[540] Amen.

[541] Thank you so much, Bishop Strickland.

[542] Thank you listeners here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[543] Stay tuned.

[544] We'll have another show tomorrow with Bishop Strickland.

[545] You can go to our website, vmpr .org.

[546] find out about all the shows that we offer.

[547] And I want to thank you for supporting us with your prayers and your financial support.

[548] May God bless you and your family.

[549] We'll be back again tomorrow.

[550] Same time, same station.

[551] God love you.