02 Jul 24 – The Approach of Midnight

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] This week and next week he is in Europe.

[2] Keep him in your prayers.

[3] He's going to lords and other Marian shrines in Europe on a pilgrimage with Mother Deity, which is a wonderful nun and others.

[4] So keep him in your prayers.

[5] I'm taking clips from him and also from Archbishop Fulton Sheen today.

[6] We're going to hear a clip on Pro Life, The Approach of Midnight.

[7] One of my favorite all -time talks by Archbishop Sheen will be on.

[8] on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[9] And then we will take more of his tweets in catechism, and we'll have a great show with the bishop, even though he's not physically here.

[10] So I would ask the bishop to read the gospel of the day for July 2nd, 2004, and that happens to be from Matthew, or excuse me, Mark.

[11] And actually, it's Matthew.

[12] I remember you seeing it here now.

[13] As it says this, it's Matthew 8, Chapter 8.

[14] verse 23 to 27, as Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him.

[15] Suddenly, a violent storm came up on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by waves.

[16] But he was asleep.

[17] He slept through it.

[18] They came and woke him saying, Lord, save us.

[19] We are perishing.

[20] He said to them, why are you terrified oh little of little faith then he got up rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm the men were amazed and said what sort of man is this whom even the winds and the sea obey the gospel of the Lord praise to you Lord Jesus Christ this gospel reminds me of a storm we're going through right now in the church and I was thinking about it and I'm saying Lord, save us.

[21] We've got so many problems in our church right now.

[22] I mean, it seems like the church is falling apart.

[23] Please help us.

[24] Then I realized this gospel is saying, stay calm, stay focused on your faith, live a holy life, stay close to Jesus, and it will get through this storm.

[25] Where we won't get through the storm is when we start panicking.

[26] Oh, no. you know the church is being destroyed it's not it can't even be destroyed from within and I see it being done right now with bishops who are not faithful to the gospel who have bought into modernism who've bought into the worldiness but this is a storm we're going to pass and the question is are you asking Jesus Christ for more faith every single day of your life if you're not doing that then you won't you'll you'll you'll fall into the storm Because that's how you're going to survive by having a strong faith in Jesus and turning your life to him and not worrying about all the details.

[27] Details we can get lost in.

[28] So that's my take on that gospel.

[29] I hope you get it because of the practicality is the universal call to holiness, which is exactly what the Second Vatican Council calls all of us.

[30] I was listening to our Monsignor this morning at Mass. and this is a day where he was talking about the universal call to holiness and how so few people realize that call.

[31] They don't realize, oh, I thought that was for the priest, the bishop, the sisters.

[32] No, it's for us lay people to live heroic lives.

[33] How do we do that?

[34] Serving our family.

[35] I know for me, I just got back from giving my 18 -month -old granddaughter a ride in the car so she can get her nap in.

[36] I was pleasing Jesus Christ by doing that by being a grandpa yep and your daily duties this is the key in life that a lot of people just don't realize and they go I want to go do the missions I want to go do this I'm going to go just do your daily duty remember our lady of Fatima talked about that that this is your suffering do your duty every day whether you're a kid doing your homework or an adult getting to work on time every day and serving your family by providing for your family.

[37] That pleases Jesus Christ.

[38] And I just want to emphasize that because I think the world tells us differently.

[39] They think, oh, no, you've got to be popular, you've got to do this, you've got to, you know, mesmerize everybody.

[40] No, just live your quiet life.

[41] That's what God calls you to do and your family.

[42] Serve your family, even when you're a grandpa like me. All right, I wanted to go to some of the family.

[43] some tweets by Bishop Strickland that he tweeted this week.

[44] And I remember back in the year 2000, and you probably do if you're as an old guy, 24 years ago, the homosexuals decided to do a gay pride parade in Rome.

[45] And Pope John Paul II, the second, said something that I think Pope Francis could use and mimic and follow.

[46] The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, said at that time, I feel obliged now to mention the well -known homosexual demonstrations held in Rome in the past few days.

[47] In the name of the Church of Rome, I can only express my deep sadness at the offense to Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics throughout the world.

[48] Well said, Holy Father.

[49] the church cannot be silent about the truth great line i'm not underline that line the church cannot be silent about the truth because she would fail in her fidelity to god the creator and would not help to distinguish good from evil i'll give you the exact date when he said it july 9th the year 2000 I yearn for a vigor of Christ to have that kind of clarity on this issue of homosexuality because unfortunately now we have a different approach that says you're all welcomed and I don't hear anything about repent and believe in the gospel so I think this quote from John Paul 2 needs to be loud and clear from the present Holy Father Yeah.

[50] Be consistent.

[51] Confirm us in our faith.

[52] John Paul too did just that.

[53] All right.

[54] The next tweet is in regards to Pope Pius the 12th.

[55] He says, we belong to the church militant.

[56] And she is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass her destruction.

[57] Yeah, the devil would love to see the church be destroyed.

[58] destroyed.

[59] When he sees prelates, high prelates, saying things like, it's okay to go into a second marriage, fine, no problem.

[60] Boy, the devil says, I gotcha.

[61] And when he hear things like homosexuality, you deserve to love just like everybody else.

[62] And the devil says, yeah, I got you.

[63] And then when people say things like, well, you know, that used to be a sin, we don't consider that a sin anymore.

[64] The devil says, I got you.

[65] And the last one I'll put is we just had it happen.

[66] Comedian Roberto Benigni tells children there's no hell our purgatory at the Vatican World Children's Day in front of the vigor of Christ.

[67] And the devil says, I got you.

[68] But we have to remember, all of us here can be praying and making reparation for all those people.

[69] horrible things that I just described that are not consistent with the perennial teachings of the church.

[70] And I love what Bishop Strickland said after the Pope Pius I 12th comment about church militant.

[71] It is critical that we remember and act on these words, complacency in the face of the power of darkness leaves us defenseless and weak.

[72] Let us be strong in Jesus.

[73] Yeah, let us really have strong faith to stand up to error, even when it's coming from inside the church.

[74] I mean, over the last 45 years for me, I've heard so many things from priests who just didn't get well formed.

[75] And they said things like, oh, yeah, there's no purgatory.

[76] And nothing, you know, they're like, where did you get that?

[77] and then I found out later that the formation of the priests for years was deficient.

[78] So I can't blame it too much on them, but a lot of it is regarding good formation.

[79] And this is why you want to get to good seminaries.

[80] And as I told you last week, I ran into two more two newly adain priests last week and then two seminarians from San Francisco.

[81] We're at our chapel here over the Sunday Mass. And I was so impressed with these guys.

[82] They get it.

[83] They know we're in a crisis.

[84] They know the modernist approach.

[85] They reject it.

[86] They're staying quiet.

[87] They're going to get ordained.

[88] And then, as he said to me, Terry, give us 20 years.

[89] I said to the young man, young man, I'm all for 20 years, but I won't be here.

[90] I'm 67 years old.

[91] I'll probably be dead.

[92] but I'll be praying for you.

[93] I hope to be in heaven, but I can see the writing on the wall that this turnaround is coming because all of the priests who are being ordained now it's a different breed from the 90s and Vermont.

[94] They're going to be bishops soon.

[95] They're going to be leaders and I really believe they can turn this around.

[96] Might not be for my lifetime but my grandchildren and my great -grandchildren will experience that.

[97] That's why I'm fighting hard to proclaim the gospel because I want to see more fish coming into the Catholic faith and to do it through are living out that Catholic faith.

[98] When we come back from the break, I really have something powerful to share with you.

[99] Bishop Strickland always does pro -life messages, every show.

[100] And I pulled something back that I got 30 years, 40 years ago, and I called it the approach of midnight.

[101] It was Archbishop Sheen's talk at a 1974 pro -life.

[102] conference right after roe versus wade came out 1974 boy did he speak for the unborn and when i come back i'll play that clip it's a little about eight minutes long but put your seatbelt on because you're going to have america's bishop bishop strickland listening to archbishop fulton sheen stay with us we'll be back after a quick break and now back to the bishop strickland hour welcome back indeed the Bishop Strickland hour.

[103] Bishop Strickland will be back in another week.

[104] He's out in Europe.

[105] And I have the smartest guy in the room.

[106] I always call Archbishop Sheen.

[107] He gave a talk back in 1974 at a pro -life rally right after Roe versus Wade came.

[108] And wow, it was, it woed me. I mean, I went, wow, I had distributed thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of these recordings back in the 1980s and 90s in the year 2000s.

[109] And I still haven't.

[110] So I wanted to play a clip of it because I think it'll inspire all of us to fight for the unborn.

[111] Mr. Engineer, can you play Bishop Sheen's clip?

[112] Now, from the letter from this girl, I will just read you passages from it.

[113] Please listen to my plea.

[114] What I have to say cannot be found in pro -life rallies and newspaper reports, nor medical accounts of statistics against abortion.

[115] What I have to say will hopefully be a value to you, which is one of my basic reasons for writing.

[116] My decision to have an abortion was by no means quick.

[117] I knew down deeply I was wrong, but gave in to my selfishness and chose my own well -being to my babies.

[118] I rationalized that I could make it half right by doing it in my own way.

[119] I received a saline shot and went home instead of remaining at the hospital.

[120] I wanted to be alone at the moment of my baby's death.

[121] I went to a motel and anxiously awaited for labor to begin.

[122] Throughout the labor, I was able to think of nothing but the physical pain at hand.

[123] Then there was a tiny baby girl with me, death.

[124] The shock and hurt of holding your own self -destroyed child is not describable in words, but by choice, I wanted a moment alone with my baby for a chance to say, I'm sorry.

[125] But when the time came, how inadequate and how foolish the word sounded.

[126] A garbage pail wasn't good enough for my baby, so I chose a soft, bed.

[127] Then I was all alone, with all the months of indecision and all the realization, the fear, physical, psychological anguish, and my own dead baby.

[128] I was torn with the thought of why didn't I wait three months more, and my baby would be able to love me back.

[129] All the things I should have thought of before were only thought of at that moment.

[130] I stayed with my dead baby, for several days, not able to leave her.

[131] Not realizing that the very day I even doubted having her, I left her and all I ever stood for.

[132] I buried my baby, and have been working since then toward redirecting my life, and I hope for some purpose.

[133] As selfish people, we tend to react more to what will happen to us in this life and ignore belief in eternal life.

[134] But in everyday hell of mind can now be pointed out, never hearing a baby cry without crying within yourself, counting days to see how older baby would have been, watching the sunrise without thinking, my baby will never experience this, looking at other children and wondering what would my baby look like.

[135] Wondering what contributions my baby could have made to our children, desperate society wondering if your my baby will ever forgive me wonder if my baby listens when I speak to her wonder if I'll ever have another chance of motherhood who will blackball me wondering of God will ever forgive and take me back wondering that one can ever again participate in a church service without feeling self -hate and hypocritical.

[136] And all this deserved hell, I faced.

[137] In conclusion then, in the early days of Christianity, Herod waited until the babe, babes were two months old.

[138] And then, about 31 years later, another life was taken, an innocent life.

[139] He had a cross put upon his shoulders, carried it up the rocky heights of Galgatha, looked out upon a temple whose lorays were reflecting itself against a sun about to hide its face and shame.

[140] Roundabout were mockers, but also a penitent Magdalene and a mother who's hated to see life taken from her child.

[141] And John who understood that life and divine life, as well as anyone except of woman and he who was on the cross.

[142] And from that cross, divine life said, Father, forgive them.

[143] They know not what they do.

[144] Forgive who.

[145] Forgive the doctors who take a life in the dark.

[146] forgive the hospitals who become a party to the party of the necrophilics forgive the nurses who are sickened at the sight but still go on forgive particularly the doctors who get money for it and to make us feel some fear that if they were paid the same amount for taking off one of our fingers I wonder if we could save our fingers.

[147] forgive the women who cooperated with the death and the men too not because they're smart but because they're ignorant and if they ever come to him who is on that cross they will find their forgiveness but they must come and they must ask for whenever their silence round about me by day or night I am startled by a cry It came down from the cross The first time I heard it And I went out and searched And found a man in the Throes of Crucifixion And I said, I will take you down And I tried to take the nails out of his feet But he said Let them be For I cannot be taken down Until every man, woman and child Come together to take me down But I said What can I do?

[148] I cannot bear your cry.

[149] And he said, go into the world and tell every that you meet.

[150] There is a life in the womb.

[151] Godless.

[152] Now you know why I called it Life in the Womb.

[153] That talk is one of my favorites when it comes to the pro -life movement.

[154] And I wanted to play this country song.

[155] A young 18 -year -old woman came out last week.

[156] It's the fifth the national chart for country music, and it talks about the baby's perspective of her being in the womb and wanting to talk to her mama.

[157] This is a powerful song.

[158] You should hear the whole thing, but I'm going to ask Mr. Engineer to play about a minute of the song.

[159] Listen to the lyrics.

[160] They're powerful.

[161] Yeah, the lyrics really make you tear up because it's so powerful from the mama's and the daughter's baby's position.

[162] this talk by bishop sheen if you want to get the incomplete talk go to catholic rc .org and you can download that whole talk the approach of midnight there's life in the womb by archbishop fulton sheen that talk was done in 1974 right after roe versus wade came through also i wanted to mention you know we're going to be uh having a trip with bishop strickland to southern California regarding the missions.

[163] We're calling it reconquering Southern California for Christ.

[164] It's coming up, and we're going to be putting it on our calendar.

[165] You can at least look at the dates.

[166] I believe it's in March of next year.

[167] And you go to vmpr .org and just say you're interested in coming with us, and we'll get you a travel agency we're working with.

[168] We'll send you all the details of that event.

[169] And that way you can spend five days with Bishop Strickland, it's a limited group.

[170] We're probably going to have maybe 120 people.

[171] And Jesse Romero will be there.

[172] I'll be there.

[173] Matt Arnold will be there.

[174] So we'll rotate tables for dinner.

[175] And you're definitely going to get some good talks by Matthew Arnold and Jesse Romero, Bishop Strickland.

[176] And I'll probably give a couple talks over that five -day period on sharing your faith.

[177] So that's something that I wanted to mention to you.

[178] When we come back from the break, I want to continue on Bishop Strickland's tweets, because they are powerful.

[179] And I love when he quotes the scriptures, because to me, when you quote the scriptures, it's something that sticks with me for life.

[180] And some of the ones he's quoting from, from Romans, are just, you know, so good.

[181] And I'll never forget when he tweeted this, oh, my gosh, wait to you hear what St. Athanasius said about, yeah, the Catholic faithful and what we are to do in the 4th century.

[182] and see how this applies to us in the 21st century.

[183] So you're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[184] Stay with us, family.

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

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

[187] Welcome back, indeed.

[188] Bishop Strickland will be back in another week.

[189] He's in Europe touring Marion Shrines like Our Lady of Lords again.

[190] So he's looking for support there.

[191] So keep him in your prayers.

[192] one of his tweets He says Faithful Catholics need to cut off the funding to these men and their corrupt causes He's talking about people who don't support the magisterial teachings of the church Don't expect he said the Vatican to intervene I don't now Because the corruption runs even deeper there Pray for hearts to be turned back to Christ And evil exposed in his cleansing light That's a great way of saying it I remember Cardinal Gagnon I didn't meet him but Father Charles Murr who I do a show every Monday with knew him well as a secretary he was his secretary and he was asked what do we do about these dissenters that are dissenting from the teachings of the church and he came out with a simple answer don't donate don't give him any money so now here it is what 45 years later now Bishop Strickland says we all have an obligation to donate what we can to the good charities, right, support them.

[193] We just need to be very discerning in order to avoid supporting corruption.

[194] I was on board of a cross Catholic for several years, and I saw no evidence of corruption.

[195] They do great work around the world.

[196] Well, there you go.

[197] There's one of your charities.

[198] And I think it's important that Cardinal Gagnon said, and what Bishop Strickland's, said is important for us to say, look, I'm not going to support in November, you know, when after the, right before Thanksgiving, the campaign for human development that's going on for 50 years, because it undermines the Catholic faith.

[199] So these are the kinds of things you just don't give money to.

[200] Now, he said another tweet out from Pope Leo the 13th, reminding us how to recover from any present, any crisis in the church.

[201] He says, be faithful to Christ, truth incarnate.

[202] That's it.

[203] Holy Life.

[204] That's what we talked about in the first segment.

[205] And then Bishop Strickland, to support that comment by Pope Leal 13th, he's going to quote the book of Romans.

[206] It says, do not conform yourselves to this age.

[207] let us seek to turn from sin and live as children of God.

[208] Oh, sacred art of Jesus, I place my trust in thee.

[209] That is a powerful, powerful quote, and boy, do we need that today.

[210] And here it is Romans chapter 12, one and two.

[211] And this is, brothers, I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.

[212] Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that you may judge what is God's will, what is good and pleasing, and I might add, perfect.

[213] I think of the statement that our lady said about doing your daily duty as a way of pleasing our Lord and not conforming ourselves to this world.

[214] So we have to be different.

[215] I mean, we haven't done a very good job when you think about the statistics that show Catholics and non -Catholics have a very similar position on the moral questions of our culture.

[216] That needs to change.

[217] And the way it changes is that we live a life according to God's will, which is doing his will through our life and following, keeping the commandments.

[218] Remember, our Lord said, if you love me, keep my commandments.

[219] Now here's a, man, this is a great quote from St. Athanasius.

[220] For those who don't know who he is, who he was, the 4th century, he's the man that was attacked by the church exiled five times why?

[221] Because he spoke the truth in season and out and that made some people uncomfortable in the church and the Aryanism the Aryans were alive and well I'm told through history books that about 80 % of the priests and bishops were Aryans what?

[222] Yep they were in error I'm convinced that what took place in the 4th century and what's taking place in the 21st century are very, very similar and that we could learn from them.

[223] Here's what St. Anthonyaceous has to teach us in our century.

[224] He said this in the 4th century.

[225] Even if Catholic faithful to tradition are reduced to just a handful, we call it the remnant, they are the ones who are the true church of Jesus Christ.

[226] So when people break from the church and it's teaching, they're breaking from the church so this idea you know that we have a new morality now no we don't we have what Jesus Christ passed on to us as the truth and the truth doesn't change as Bishop Strickland said and I love this other quote and then we're going to get to some catechism stuff right from Philippians chapter 2 verse 14 to 15 and this is one you want to read on a regular basis.

[227] The Bible says in Philippians, in everything you do, act without rumbling, or arguing, prove yourself innocent and straightforward, children of God, beyond reproach, in the midst of a twisted and deprived generation, among whom you shine like the stars in the sky.

[228] Pray for peace.

[229] When I read that, what that came to my mind was the early Christians.

[230] Remember, Bishop Strickland always would say, we have to become first century Christians again.

[231] Well, we do.

[232] Think about what happened in early Christianity and why so many pagans were coming into the church.

[233] And my observation is that people saw them as being different, different.

[234] One of the things they made a comment was that they said, these people love their enemies.

[235] That was a foreign concept to many people in the early church.

[236] And when they saw Christians living out the gospel, it was very attracting to them and to others.

[237] And I believe that's what the church grew by this first couple hundred years along with the issue of persecution and that's another thought for us all.

[238] We are being persecuted.

[239] We will see how God will bring these evils and he'll bring good out of it.

[240] People have said that to me and I said well I might not see it because I'm old but God is going to bring good out of horrible things like you know letting a transgender guy I read to the kids in Rome.

[241] How's he going to bring good out of it?

[242] I'm not sure yet, but he will.

[243] And I wanted to leave you on this last tweet that Bishop Strickland for this show that he did a meditation by Benedict Burr in 1963.

[244] He said, Thus, the Church of Christ is stronger than any earthly power, more durable than any mere kingdom, earthly kingdom, in spite of all the forces that is brought to her to bear on her for her destruction, she lives, she prospers, and grows.

[245] In spite of persecutions, which she has suffered, in spite of the false teachers, yep, who have risen within her.

[246] See, this is nothing new, what we're going through.

[247] She continues her way serenely and unperturbed.

[248] Why?

[249] I'm See how you have to have supernatural faith to have that?

[250] False philosophies arise to undermine her doctrine.

[251] Oh yeah, but she conquers them all with her wisdom.

[252] Her enemies continually oppose her, but she silences them all with the example of her purity, virtue, and holiness.

[253] I want to read something to you that, is a little change in theology that many high officials in the church say that we need to start doing.

[254] And this is a direct quote from Pope Francis.

[255] He said, theology must develop using an inductive method never before we did this, which starts from the different contents and concrete situations in which people are inserted and allows itself to be seriously challenged by reality.

[256] The knowledge of the people's common sense is a Logos theologian that must be privileged first of all by theology.

[257] Theology must enter into the culture worldwide and religious traditions of people and divert into a culture of dialogue and encounter between the different traditions and different knowledge between Christian denominations and different religions.

[258] That's not been the approach for 2 ,000 years.

[259] What happens when you have this approach that, well, let's just see what we can do to agree on and maybe we need to compromise our truth with your truth and we'll come up with another truth.

[260] That's how I read that.

[261] And I've never read anything like that.

[262] vigor of Christ who made it clear that we need to stick to the perennial teachings of the church and do theology the way we always do God -centered rather than on man's experience because we know that if we take man we know we're going to justify everything that we don't want to be doing and we do it and justify it so when we come back from the break here on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[263] I wanted to open up the catechism of the church and do a few teachings again on confession.

[264] As he said last week, Bishop Strickland, we need to have a revival of people going to confession.

[265] The Eucharist in confession are connected, and it's pretty obvious if you look at Catholic churches on a Saturday evening, very few people are going to confession.

[266] So if you're waiting for someone to ask you to go to confession, that's a me. I just went yesterday.

[267] Why?

[268] I'm a sinner.

[269] You're a sinner.

[270] We're all sinners, but we have to ask for mercy.

[271] The mercy doesn't come automatic.

[272] You can't just say, hey, I assume it.

[273] No. We have to repent and believe in the gospel.

[274] When we come back, we'll open up our catechism, talk about the great sacrament of penance confession.

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

[276] back indeed.

[277] Now we're going to open up our catechism, and it's the way of Christ's student book, Catechism.

[278] Before I open it up, I want to just say there's a reason why we continue to teach out of the catechism.

[279] I think everybody listening would agree there's a lack of catechesis in the Catholic Church, and there's a lack of teaching.

[280] We hear, you know, hey, you got to keep your homily down to eight minutes.

[281] People want in and out.

[282] It's like getting to a fast food place, get in and get out, and that's just not working.

[283] People aren't having a deep relationship with Jesus Christ when they have an eight -minute homily once a week.

[284] So that's why we say you need to study your faith.

[285] Because when you study your faith, scripture and catechism, your relationship with Christ will grow.

[286] You spend time before the blessed sacrament, as Bishop Strickland keeps telling us, your faith will grow.

[287] Remember I said, every day ask Jesus Christ for more faith.

[288] With that, your faith will grow.

[289] If you don't ask, you won't get it.

[290] So this is why it's important that we continually teach from a catechism.

[291] And if you don't own the catechism of the Catholic Church, I would recommend the first edition.

[292] It's the big green one.

[293] I'm holding in my hands.

[294] And study that.

[295] As you know, the Terry and Jesse show, every show we take two paragraphs from the catechism in the last segment and teach from that.

[296] Why?

[297] Because people need a refresher course.

[298] So right now we're on chapter 15 on reconciliation and the anointing of the sick and we're on question 12.

[299] This is kind of like the same format of the Baltimore Catechism.

[300] The question comes, who can receive the sacrament of the anointing of the sick?

[301] Any baptized person?

[302] who is gravely ill or in danger of death through the sickness or of old age.

[303] People, you probably have seen a lot of people saying, on Saturdays, everybody can come to the parish on first Friday.

[304] We're going to anoint everybody.

[305] Well, sometimes the anointing is done what I call rather liberally, and I'm sure Bishop Strickland would relate to this, where anybody who's 50 years or older can receive the anointing.

[306] and I thought of that I thought well that's not what the church teaches it says if you're gravely ill or in danger of death through sickness or old age so the description I mean I remember I was 50 years old and I was pretty good health and they're saying come on up and get anointed and I'm thinking I think that might be an abuse so just keep that on the back of your mind next question who can administer the sacrament of the anointing of the sick well only a bishop or a priest can and i'm unfortunately bishop strickland i've seen it where lay people have come up and said why can't we do this and it's because the church says you can't you need to be have holy orders you've got to be a deacon or a priest and again if you see a lay person doing this just don't go up to them the next question how is the sacrament of the anointing of the sick administered well the bishop or priest anoints the forehead and the hands of the sick person while praying through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit may the Lord who frees you from sin, save you, and raise you up.

[307] Wow.

[308] And if you want to get the big catechism out that I just showed you, a lot of these are paragraphs 1422 to 1468.

[309] God's forgiveness flows through the priest to reconcile sinners with the church and with God.

[310] So I hope that helped you on that question because I think it's important.

[311] Now, I've been talking about all these newly ordained priests this last month of June and that I met them and I'm impressed with them because they're very holy men and they're going to live holy lives and they know their priesthood and they're out fired up about it.

[312] Let's talk about chapter 16, which is holy orders.

[313] Holy orders is a sacrament of the apostolic ministry by which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the church through the laying of hands.

[314] What is the sacrament of Holy Orders?

[315] Great question.

[316] Holy Orders is the sacrament that makes a man into a bishop, priest, or deacon.

[317] Notice I said a man. Just to make it clear for everybody, and Bishop Strickland, I know we would say this, if you've seen they've tried this in Mexico ordaining women and the Vatican finally caught up with these guys and said don't do it but it's not valid so even if a woman was ordained by some wayward bishop it's still not going to make the woman a priest only a man can be a priest now when did Jesus institute the sacrament of Holy Orders.

[318] Well, that's a great question to ask.

[319] Reasonable.

[320] Jesus instituted holy orders at the Last Supper when he told the Apostles to carry out his mission of sanctifying the world with the words, do this in memory of me. Next question.

[321] Who may administer the sacrament, the sacrament of holy orders?

[322] Only a bishop may administer holy orders.

[323] So if a layman comes and lays hands on a person and says, now you're a priest, that's not how it works.

[324] Tell them, no, I've seen that too.

[325] Number four question, what are the degrees of the holy orders?

[326] This is important to understand.

[327] There are three degrees of holy orders.

[328] The episcopate, that's bishops, the presbyter, that's priest, and the deacconate, which is the deacconate.

[329] men ordained as deacons serve the church by assisting with catechises, liturgical celebrations, and pastoral care.

[330] Men studying to become priests are first ordained deacons and are called transitional deacons.

[331] See, they're transitioning to from deacon to priest.

[332] Deacons who are not preparing to become priests are called.

[333] permanent deacons.

[334] Now, I have seen this happen where a deacon, as ordained as a deacon, his wife dies, and just so you know, deacons can't get married again.

[335] They made that commitment when they were ordained a deacon.

[336] So if the wife dies, they stay to become a deacon.

[337] but some men who I know who are deacons have actually gone on to become Catholic priests because they're celibate now and they want to dedicate more time to the service of the Lord and I've seen some holy deacons that were permanent that when their wives died became Catholic priests and boy they were on fire for the Lord so those are those degrees and that's why I wanted you So the second degree of holy orders is the presbyterate or priesthood.

[338] Priests act in persona Christi, that is in the person of Christ.

[339] Priests the bishop and carrying out his duties by celebrating the sacraments, governing parishes, and teaching the faith.

[340] Now the third in highest degree of holy orders is the episcopate, man ordained.

[341] as bishops, call it receiving the fullness of the priesthood.

[342] Man ordained as bishops receive the fullness of the Holy Orders and are direct successors to the apostles like Bishop Strickland.

[343] Somebody ordained him.

[344] I don't know who it is, but I'm sure he does.

[345] And somebody ordained that bishop and that bishop all the way back to Jesus Christ.

[346] So as a successor of the apostles, bishops continue Jesus' mission as priests, prophet, and king and by being responsible for sanctifying, teaching, and governing the people of God.

[347] I love the church's role to teach, govern, and sanctify.

[348] And I have to say it's been difficult these last 50 or 60 years because the teaching church has not been as fervent as it was in the earlier years where people could really know what the church's teachings are on a particular issue.

[349] And this is why I think it's important that we study the faith.

[350] I have to tell a story when I was going to confession yesterday.

[351] There was a young man. Maybe he's listening now because in the confession line I gave him a virgin most powerful radio a little card to download the app so he can start listening.

[352] He must have been about 30 years old, father of a little two -year -old.

[353] and he loves the faith and getting into apologetics and when I told him our connection with Scott Hahn and Jesse Romero and all the other good speakers he's like, man, I'm interested, I want to hear that and then I talked to him about spiritual warfare and he lit up.

[354] He's hungry for the faith.

[355] He said he didn't get it when he was young as a youngster, just didn't get passed on.

[356] Now he's an adult, and he's really, everything.

[357] He's like, well, this is, I can't believe what I missed.

[358] Well, this is why we do what we do here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[359] And I would say this is why Bishop Strickland takes a huge amount of time every week to be on the air teaching the Catholic faith, because he said it to me before.

[360] We just didn't get it.

[361] You know, there's a lack of teachings of the faith.

[362] So this is why he comes on twice a week on Virgin Most Powerful.

[363] Radio, to articulate what the church teaches when it comes to the faith.

[364] And I would also encourage you, our listener, to listen to Father Charles Merr, who's good friends with Bishop Strickland.

[365] He's on every Monday at the Terry and Jesse show.

[366] And he also has a great love for Holy Mother the church, great love for the Mass, and our lady, and you'll learn a lot from him.

[367] So if you're listening on the radio and you want to get our direct programming, you can get our free app.

[368] The app goes on your phone, and it's free.

[369] You get all kinds of free downloads, lots of free things.

[370] So if you're listening, just go ahead and put on your Apple store, just put in virgin most powerful radio .org, and you can get the free app on your Apple store any other downloads.

[371] I hear the music.

[372] Bishop Strickland would say, time to go.

[373] But hey, we'd say something like, Bishop Strickland, what state should we be living in?

[374] He'd say, Terry, the state of grace.

[375] And I'd say, yep, I agree.

[376] I need to be living in the state of grace.

[377] How do I do that?

[378] By staying close to Jesus Christ and the sacraments.

[379] So if you're waiting for someone to encourage you to go to confession, that's me. It's life -changing.

[380] And again, we need that renewal of going back to confession, like a Eucharistic review, renewal of the church.

[381] Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting us.

[382] You can go to vmpr .org, become a monthly donor, and we'll be sending all kinds of great downloads.

[383] May God, richly bless you and your family.