30 May 23 – Standing Up for Christ in the Secular World

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[2] We're honored to have the good bishop here to talk about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and his bride the church.

[3] Thanks again, Bishop Strickland, for taking a busy schedule to take an hour with us each week.

[4] Thanks, Terry.

[5] Thank you.

[6] You know what, Bishop Strickland, let's be honest about it.

[7] What could better, what could we do better than to share the gospel of Jesus Christ?

[8] I can't think of anything.

[9] I really do.

[10] No, I mean, I'm sure we both agree.

[11] That's why we do this every week.

[12] Yeah, that's exactly.

[13] And it's, you know, I know we both agree that it desperately needs to be shared.

[14] Gosh.

[15] Really pretty much, I mean, I say very often we need to be first century Christians in the 21st century.

[16] In some ways, we're getting worse than the 21st century.

[17] because it's not just, I mean, things are being rejected that we have known were true since the first century.

[18] And it's just, I mean, honestly, the word diabolical comes up to me all the time.

[19] And I think we need to call out evil.

[20] And there's too much evil going on.

[21] We're not in darkness.

[22] We know the light.

[23] We should be joyful.

[24] I mean, here we are on the doorstep of Pentecost.

[25] Yes.

[26] We just celebrated the ascension of the Lord.

[27] Yes.

[28] Last days of Easter.

[29] That's what we need to be focusing on and learning more about.

[30] So it's an honor and an obligation to share the catechism.

[31] Yeah.

[32] And to teach it as fully as we can.

[33] And it's funny because later in the show, we're going to be covering chapter 7 in the catechism on the Holy Spirit, which is appropriate for this time of year with the birthday of the church coming up on Pentecost Sunday.

[34] Bishop Strickland, your tweets, just for those who are brand new, because we're getting lots of new listeners.

[35] For those who are brand new, we take the tweets of Bishop Strickland.

[36] Also, we take the catechism that the Diocese of Tyler publishes, the way of Christ.

[37] We have the student book, and we cover this.

[38] Because two reasons.

[39] One, we're convinced.

[40] Both, I mean, Bishop Strickland and I both are convinced.

[41] There's a great need to teach the faith to the flock because we keep hearing people all the time asking, at least for me, and I get phone calls and I'm just a layman.

[42] I'm not in management.

[43] I'm in sales.

[44] But I get a lot of people who call me and say, Terry, what's going on with our church?

[45] What do we believe anymore?

[46] So I always tell them, Bishop Strickland, the deposit of faith, get your catechism out, no matter what you hear from the top of the church down to the bottom, cleric.

[47] If they're not teaching this deposit of faith, then, you know, not even the Pope can change the deposit of faith.

[48] You're safe.

[49] So have we reassured that you're going to hear lots of crazy things going on, which I hear every day in the church, but stay focused on who is crucifix I have in my hand, on Jesus Christ, because that's who we worship.

[50] As important as Bishop Strickland is, as a bishop of Tyler, can I tell you something about him?

[51] He's a man. But he's a man. But he's a a man that has a mission as a successor of an apostle and his judgment is going to be on how well he passed on the faith now i'm a layman my judgment would be how well i worked with my wife and family did my daily duty in supporting my kids my wife and the faith that's going to be actually what i'm going to be judged on not on this radio show i mean part of it but most importantly what my vocation is calling to do so i want everybody to understand that this is important that this is important that we know the faith because we can't live something we don't know.

[52] Bishop Strickland.

[53] Go ahead.

[54] Your thoughts.

[55] Just, yeah, absolutely.

[56] And I just wanted to say, underscoring what you said, at one point in human history, God walked this earth.

[57] Amen.

[58] Jesus Christ.

[59] We believe that?

[60] Yep.

[61] That is part of, that's what the deposit of faith is built throughout.

[62] Yes.

[63] That Jesus Christ, the son of God, was conceived in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, was born in Bethlehem.

[64] He walked this earth for 33 years, and he taught his truth, revealed by God, revelation that we couldn't know without God speaking to us.

[65] God spoke to his people, the chosen people, and what we call the Old Testament, for, thousands of years before the Son of God came, preparing the way.

[66] But God doesn't walk this earth now.

[67] But we are blessed to live in the time after the Son of God did walk this earth.

[68] And so we believe what He taught us.

[69] That's what people need to be anchored on and just continue to be strong.

[70] When, like we've said before, when we see something that is new or old that's brought back or whatever, we, you know, people say, don't judge.

[71] And absolutely.

[72] Ultimately, thankfully, whether you and I decide we're going to judge or not, it's ineffective.

[73] Right.

[74] God is the judge.

[75] But we do make judgments.

[76] And we make judgment.

[77] based on the truth that we know and the truth is what god has revealed to us plus the natural law and what we can come to know simply by being human beings created in the image and likeness of god terry there's so many things yes that are it's like oh well this has changed no one hasn't Truth doesn't change.

[78] And, you know, a while back, I thought my best example was a bit ridiculous.

[79] But there's so many ridiculous things that I think we do need to just remind each other.

[80] You know, because people are acting as if and operating as if whatever can be changed just by human choice, by human belief.

[81] look at the law of gravity, you know, I mean, I use that as sort of a silly example, but we've got, I mean, we've got people questioning things as basic as the law of gravity.

[82] I mean, people are saying, oh, I identify as this.

[83] Maybe you identify as an eagle, but if you jump off a 10 -story building, you're going to die.

[84] Yep.

[85] that's truth.

[86] That's reality.

[87] And it sounds ridiculous, but some of the things that people are doing are just as ridiculous.

[88] And people need to be called out on their insanity rather than saying, oh, that's how you identify.

[89] That's simply insane.

[90] It's ridiculous.

[91] It's harmful.

[92] It's as harmful as someone saying, I identify now as an eagle, and I'm going to jump off this 10 -story building and sword to the heavens.

[93] I'm sorry, you're not going to.

[94] And that needs to be a wake -up call for all of us.

[95] It sounds, and I can imagine people just cackling and laughing and making fun of me for that example.

[96] But that's how basic we need to get.

[97] And those kinds of truth, are simply, what do little kids learn?

[98] Little kids learn that fires hot, that sharp things cut you.

[99] I mean, the parents help them, but little kids learn it.

[100] But now we're acting as if things that little children have learned.

[101] As a matter of fact, I saw just recently a little clip of a, I'm not sure what it was based on, but like a little four -year -old girl talking about what's the difference between male and female.

[102] I mean, here's a little four -year -old girl.

[103] I'm sure she, you know, whatever she, however she had been prepped, but what she says is absolutely true.

[104] And she says there's one bone in the body that makes it very clear.

[105] It's called the pelvic bone.

[106] Oh, my God.

[107] And that bone is either.

[108] male or female.

[109] It's constructed so you can have babies or not.

[110] You can't change that bone from what the original plan given by God was.

[111] This is a four -year -old girl.

[112] It was just used as an illustration.

[113] Yeah.

[114] But we've got to remember these basic truths and not let anyone scare us or yell us or all the stuff that's going on.

[115] I mean, all the stuff that's going on.

[116] I mean, to cause us to be woke.

[117] Woke is as dead asleep as anything.

[118] Being awakened is knowing the truth of Jesus Christ.

[119] Woke needs to be opposed by every person of faith.

[120] And I'm sure both of us get more and more tired and sickened by what we see going on.

[121] I mean, things like Bud Light and Target, all these things, we need to quit, I'm just saying, us collectively.

[122] People know the truth.

[123] We need to simply say, no, I'm not going to spend a dollar in your store or on your product or on anything you're doing.

[124] And the more, I mean, because that's God for a lot of these people.

[125] I mean, I'm sort of on my soapbox, but.

[126] I love it.

[127] We need to speak up because thankfully Archbishop Corleone, he nailed it when he talked about this garbage going on at Dodger Stadium.

[128] Yes.

[129] And it's satanic.

[130] It's evil.

[131] And he said, it shows what God, with a small G, these people worship.

[132] And he's absolutely right.

[133] He nailed it.

[134] They worship the worldly.

[135] fake, non -divine gods of money and power and worldly influence.

[136] And it is the path to hell.

[137] And they need to wake up.

[138] And anyone of faith needs to be stronger in faith than ever.

[139] Why don't you really tell me what you think, Bishop Strickland?

[140] You're absolutely right.

[141] We come back.

[142] We're going to talk to about another cardinal Robert Serra on a quote that just fits right in.

[143] Stay with us, family.

[144] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[146] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour indeed.

[147] Bishop Strickland, at the break time, I went and looked up that video of the little girl on a pelvic bone, at what she said, and I thought, oh my gosh, it's just so sweet to this little girl.

[148] Somehow I'm going to have to get that out because that's a, that's a keeper.

[149] Because of what you just said, Bishop Strickland, about, you know, we're acting like God doesn't exist.

[150] Even, and I'm going to be honest with you, I see it, and I know you see it too.

[151] Even inside the church, there are elements in the church that are woke and also elements in the church that have compromised on these perennial teachings by not even speaking up about these things.

[152] You're rare, but I've got to tell you, as a layman, when I hear a bishop speak like what you just said in the first segment, that inspires me to say, look, look, we've got a bishop who's willing to, you know, act on what we actually teach and respond to the, secular humanistic world that's out there in the woke world and say, wait a minute, we're not going to take this on our watch.

[153] We're Christians.

[154] We believe in the Ten Commandments.

[155] And this was something that I wanted to bring up because Cardinal Robert Saraw, you tweeted, said this, the West, that's us, has denied its Christian roots.

[156] And then I think he says something that just makes sense.

[157] A tree without roots dies.

[158] And Bishop Strickland, I got my statistics here in America, and it shows that about less than 50 % of the people don't even, they believe that God doesn't even exist and it's gone way down in the last 20 years.

[159] And when I think about it, in the last 20 years, what's changed?

[160] Well, what's changed is the morals, whether it's on marriage, contraception, even on same -sex marriage, so -called, all these things have been hitting us and it's undermining the faith.

[161] And I'll tell you what's happening, Bishop, and you can correct me because I have no problem being corrected right on the air.

[162] But I think that when we have weak leadership in the church to speak out on these things, and there's very few prelates like yourself, there's some Archbishop Corde de Leon just did it.

[163] But we need more of our leadership to call the woke culture and the godless culture out and say, no, we as Christians, we're not going to let you do this.

[164] We're going to stand up.

[165] And that's my take.

[166] I mean, do you agree that we need to do this?

[167] Absolutely.

[168] I mean, I think obviously we both are on the same page there because we both speak up in our own way.

[169] And I think it's important to realize that it's an obligation that both of us have.

[170] If you know the truth, you have to share it.

[171] And no power on earth can or should.

[172] cause us to tone it down or to be quiet.

[173] Yeah.

[174] You know, we can't respond to someone who says, oh, well, don't talk about that.

[175] That's not what Jesus did.

[176] That's not what the apostles did.

[177] And it's interesting because I've just been reading through, once again, reading through John's gospel.

[178] Yes.

[179] And, you know, one value of rereading scripture is, through the lens of what we're experiencing, we always read it a little differently.

[180] For one thing, it's the Word of God.

[181] It's an eternal truth that has been recorded.

[182] That's part of the deposit of faith.

[183] But one of the things, reading John's gospel, it's one of my favorite gospels, it's theologically very developed, it's very poetic, but also what really struck me is how often Jesus, is threatened with death long before he dies.

[184] And in John's gospel, it's a common theme.

[185] It is not his hour.

[186] I mean, that's repeated over and over again.

[187] And other gospels as well, but especially in John.

[188] And it just really has struck me how many times Jesus is threatened with death.

[189] But he continues his mission.

[190] knowing, ultimately, and he tells his disciples, one day he will die.

[191] He will be taken before the authorities and they will put him to death.

[192] And the apostles really maybe don't believe him or don't really fully understand or it frightens them.

[193] They have different reactions, but it just really struck me that Jesus is threatened by the world, by the powers of religion and the state over and over again during his three years of public ministry.

[194] And it just occurs to me as I'm talking.

[195] Jesus wasn't threatened.

[196] Up until he was 30 years old, were people going after Jesus?

[197] No, because he was quiet.

[198] He was preparing.

[199] He was getting ready to reveal who he truly was.

[200] But what happens once he begins?

[201] He's constantly threatened by the world to shut him up.

[202] He's told to quit.

[203] I mean, as his apostles are told to quit using his name after he dies, rises, and ascends to the Father, Pentecost happens, and they're told, quit speaking the name of this Jesus.

[204] It's causing all kinds of trouble because the truth does divide, just like Jesus said.

[205] I think, Terry, we've got to be stronger than ever, not always remembering.

[206] I shared with you before we began this afternoon that I just did a interview talking about St. John Fisher.

[207] Tell us what he is.

[208] For those who don't know who Fisher is, go ahead.

[209] St. John Fisher was the bishop during the time of Henry.

[210] Henry the 8th.

[211] He died less than a month before St. Thomas Moore.

[212] They were contemporaries.

[213] St. John Fisher, a bishop, ultimately a cardinal before he died.

[214] St. Thomas Moore, a great lawyer and great Catholic and part of the court of Henry A. I think he was chancellor before he got out of Henry's favor.

[215] But both of them woven into the story of Henry.

[216] the 8th.

[217] And I would encourage, I would imagine you can Google it, but the last words of St. John Fisher are inspiring.

[218] Yes.

[219] Because the very last thing he says before he's beheaded is, I pray for good counsel for the king.

[220] The king, Henry the 8th, is the one who said, off with his head, literally.

[221] He said, he needs to be put to death because he was unwilling to compromise with the truth.

[222] Frankly, Terry, and I don't claim to be a scholar of English history or of ecclesiastical history of England, but I'd love to know a scholar to tell me what's the name of another bishop that we remember that stood the ground that St. John Fisher did?

[223] How many of the court of Henry V .A. did what St. Thomas More did.

[224] Soon we'll celebrate the feast of St. Thomas.

[225] And we need to remember these saints.

[226] We were talking about that with St. John Fisher.

[227] We talked about it all the time.

[228] These people didn't die for something that can get changed a couple of centuries later by whoever decides to change it.

[229] Unchanging truth is just that, unchanging truth.

[230] And like we've talked about before, and I think really a lot of this in the church and otherwise, but certainly within the church, how do you decide that truth can change?

[231] Because you don't really know him.

[232] You don't know Jesus Christ.

[233] Sadly, we've all seen the statistics that too many people, too many Catholics don't.

[234] believe in the real presence.

[235] They think it's just an image or a symbol or reminder.

[236] If that's the case with the people in the pews, that sadly has to be the case with too many priests and bishops.

[237] They don't really believe.

[238] And if you don't know Jesus Christ, if you don't really believe what he said, if you don't have a personal relationship with him, which is what the Eucharist and all the sacraments are all about, then maybe it is easier to say, oh, well, the truth that he died for, the truth that the martyrs have died for, oh, we're going to change that because it's too hard or it's too idealistic or it's just all of that, the thing that I remind others and remind myself, all of this, we've had ages of a post.

[239] and ages of losing the truth before.

[240] All of this will collapse.

[241] Whatever's built on falsehood, the transgender lunacy, the just list of things that are going on in our society where people identify as this or that, where marriage is, I mean, I just saw recently a clip about this man talking about a ethically recognized polygamous marriage.

[242] Well, I don't know where that came from, but that seems to be the latest trend.

[243] Once you start saying that marriage is anything, but between a man and a woman for life, open to children, when that starts to erode, then marriage becomes meaningless.

[244] And that's sadly what we're seeing.

[245] People are saying, oh, we're in a polygamous marriage.

[246] And my spouse is they, them, and I'm they.

[247] them.

[248] It's just, it's called insanity.

[249] We've got to simply, I know both of us get excited.

[250] Yeah, you think?

[251] But we need to get excited.

[252] We need to, we need to not be complacent.

[253] We should never attack anyone because even the person with the most insane ideas is a child of God.

[254] but out of love for them we've got to speak up for the truth just like cardinal sarah does and that's why i support him didn't fisher say a prayer what was the prayer he prayed maybe you already told me i didn't pay attention but the prayer he prayed before he was executed for the king can you repeat that to the people well it it may have been a prayer it was his last words as it was presented to me but he prayed for the king to have good counsel.

[255] Can you imagine that?

[256] Yeah.

[257] And what is good counsel?

[258] For the king to be guided in the truth.

[259] Exactly.

[260] He's praying that as he's about to be beheaded.

[261] Yeah.

[262] That's nobility and that is faith.

[263] And that's what we have to be doing to our own enemies, right?

[264] He's a saint that we can model.

[265] So, for example, people in our culture who oppose Catholicism, who are putting out bills for killing innocent life like the President of the United States, Catholic, baptized Catholic?

[266] Are we praying for Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi?

[267] These people who say they're Catholic, but then show us that they're for murdering innocent life?

[268] I mean, yeah, we can get mad, but I think Fisher's example is, let's pray for them.

[269] And that reminds me what our lady of Fatimus said, that souls are going to help because no one is there to pray and make sacrifices.

[270] So I try to preach that to myself on a daily basis.

[271] I'm the Terry and Jesse show.

[272] I end the show on that so that when I do get frustrated seeing weakness or silence, I go, you know what?

[273] I can say before the Blessed Sacrament prayers of reparation.

[274] I can help that cause.

[275] Wow, we're on time for another break.

[276] Bishop Strickland, I want to compliment some of our Protestant brothers who are in the state of Texas.

[277] And I'll tell the people what it's all about when we come back from the break.

[278] get your take on this because they are acting on their Christian faith in regards to proclaiming the Ten Commandments?

[279] What?

[280] Yes, we come back.

[281] We'll talk about that and much more on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power.

[282] Stay with us, family.

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

[284] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[285] I'm complimenting Texas, the great state of Texas, because I live in California, folks.

[286] And when I see that Texas was pushing, church into state with the bills on school chaplains and the Ten Commandments.

[287] They had a bill yesterday.

[288] It got rejected, but I have to tell you, the evangelical Protestants are the ones that are behind this.

[289] They're Republicans.

[290] It was voted on it by party lines.

[291] The Republicans wanted to see the Ten Commandments placed in every school room in the great state of Texas, and the Democrats said no. And Bishop Strickland, I don't want to get political, But anytime I can defend the unborn babies, one of the commandments is thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder innocent life.

[292] And the Democratic Party's platform says therefore killing unborn babies were through abortion.

[293] And the Republican Party says, no, we're for pro -life.

[294] And it's just a fact.

[295] I'm not saying, you know, you use that information listeners, but I'm not going to vote for anybody who's going to kill an unborn baby.

[296] So here's the point I'm making.

[297] It wasn't Catholics who got involved in this Texas issue.

[298] It was our Protestant brothers who stood up and said, yeah, let's get the Ten Commandments put in.

[299] Let's get some chaplains in there because we know Christianity is good for the culture because they even talked about the kids being depressed and too many suicides and that the message of Christianity would help these people, and that's why they want to do it.

[300] I want to hear from your take as a Catholic bishop in the great state of Texas.

[301] I would think you'd support that.

[302] Absolutely.

[303] And really, Terry, I have to say that here in the Diocese of Tyler in Northeast Texas, the fact that we are overwhelmingly, we're less than 10 % Catholic.

[304] Wow.

[305] We're overwhelmingly evangelical Protestant.

[306] And that makes it a very comfortable place to be.

[307] Oh, yeah.

[308] The believing Catholic.

[309] Yeah.

[310] There are too many places.

[311] that are predominantly so -called Catholic that would oppose something like this.

[312] And it's, again, going back to the truth.

[313] If you believe what we know is the truth about the Catholic Church, and certainly evangelical Protestants are not Catholic, but they share in the truth, where did they get to Ten Commandments?

[314] They got it through the Judeo -Christian teaching that originated, certainly with Judaism, the Ten Commandments go all the way back to Moses, revealed by God to the Jewish people.

[315] But the Catholic Church embrace them in the Catholic Church is the origin of Christianity.

[316] That's right.

[317] So it's just an irony of the history, the moment in history that we're living is that, Very often, and Archbishop Sheen said this, very often what we're letting go of, the Protestants are hanging on to.

[318] And when it comes to teachings of morality and the basics of things like the Ten Commandments, the Protestants are doing a better job of hanging on to that portion of the deposit of faith than the institution of the Catholic churches.

[319] And I specifically say institution, because the Catholic Church is never limited.

[320] It's not fully defined as an institution.

[321] That's one way of talking about the complexity and the mystery of the church.

[322] I like better talking about it as the mystical body of Christ.

[323] And when we use that language, then in the mystery of Jesus Christ, people who believe, in him and believe in things like the Ten Commandments, there are certainly things where the evangelical Protestants and the true teaching, the deposit of faith of the Catholic Church, where they part ways.

[324] One thing is the sacraments, and most importantly, the beautiful sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ himself.

[325] Evangelical Protestants do not believe Christ when he says, this bread becomes my body this wine becomes my blood that's one of the hallmarks of our Catholic faith but in this culture war that we're in the midst of and battling these evils that were faced at every side we need to link arms with anyone with the truth that is being promulgated and is I mean they like you said they weren't successful in getting, I mean, you know, I can imagine the woke crowd just, you know, going apoplectic to say the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

[326] I mean, that would have made headlines across the world probably, not just the nation.

[327] Sadly, it didn't carry, but I'm glad that they met the effort.

[328] And those are people who know that the teaching of the Ten Commandments hasn't changed.

[329] I mean, one party or another, I mean, it's certainly not only the Democrats, many people in other countries are pushing the evil of abortion, but it's contrary to the Ten Commandments.

[330] Thou shalt not kill.

[331] It's as basic as that.

[332] We all need to support each other in basic truth and build on that to know the deeper and deeper mysteries and truth that we have the whole.

[333] treasure chest of in the Catholic faith.

[334] Well said, you know, talking about the treasure chest of the Catholic faith, you tweeted a beautiful morning prayer, and I'd like to read it because this is where we give it all to God, and this is the prayer you tweeted, a morning prayer.

[335] Lord, teach us to know you better by doing good to others.

[336] Help us to grow in your love and come to understand the eternal mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, doing good to others includes teaching the truth, helping those in need.

[337] It seems that that prayer, Bishop Strickland, has got such a good balance of reflection and action.

[338] So every morning, if people would pray that prayer, I have the morning offering, it's something similar.

[339] You're offering your day to God through the Blessed Mother.

[340] And I just thought that you tweeting that prayer just gives us focus for the day.

[341] Is that why you did that?

[342] Absolutely.

[343] And the beauty of that is, that is just from one ordinary day's morning prayer of the Christian prayer, the bravery, the prayer that ordained priests and religious have an obligation to pray.

[344] It's really the prayer of the church that everyone can be encouraged to pray.

[345] And really, Terry, to me, it highlights something that we all need to pay attention to.

[346] And certainly, I as a bishop, need to pay attention to.

[347] Our Catholic faith in whatever language, in Latin or English or Spanish or French or German, whatever the language, the Catholic faith through ages, through 2 ,000 years, has formulated beautiful prayers.

[348] We need to listen to what those prayers saying.

[349] And my theory is, I mean, I've been a priest for almost 38 years, a bishop for just over 10 years.

[350] It's easy for all of us, and I'll put it on me, not point.

[351] the finger at anyone else, just blame myself.

[352] Too often, I can say a prayer without really taking to heart what it's saying.

[353] I'm with you.

[354] And we need to really take to heart.

[355] The beauty of prayers, certainly we have the classic prayers like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory B, and the list is long of beautiful prayers that we should memorize.

[356] But there are prayers in the Eucharistic prayers, of the Mass, the prayers in the bravery, Christian prayer.

[357] We need to pay attention.

[358] And really, Terry, I would urge every ordained deacon, priest, or bishop.

[359] Let's really listen to the prayers we're offering at Mass or privately.

[360] We need to take the heart what we say in prayer because it should and can change us.

[361] And some of these prayers that are just part of the liturgy of the church, if we really are meaning that prayer when we say it, we're going to be changed.

[362] And we can't just silently allow this evil to overtake the world if we really believe that the prayers that we say.

[363] We've talked about it before.

[364] Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Bavendi.

[365] It's the same basic truth.

[366] Right.

[367] Well, Seth, we only have another minute, but you tweeted about the deposit of faith, and that's so important.

[368] I know we've done talks on it, but I want to just read something and get your take.

[369] What is this deposit of faith?

[370] It's what God has supernaturally revealed to the world through the prophets, the apostles, and most of all through his own son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to which has been handed on to the Catholic faith for the salvation of souls in every place until the coming of Christ in the glory at the end of time, the deposit of faith is a result of a supernatural divine revelation.

[371] I wanted that definition because Cardinal Sirrah says not even the Pope can change the deposit of faith.

[372] So I wanted to get, and I'll get your take on this, well, you know what, I won't read the second part of it, but the deposit of faith is so critical for us to understand that this is not negotiable.

[373] Am I on to something?

[374] Absolutely.

[375] And the key in what you just quoted, the key words are God, faith, and supernatural.

[376] That's what we, too many have lost.

[377] Too many don't believe in God.

[378] Too many have no faith.

[379] Even people that are in my job that claim to be people of faith, they're operating as if they don't believe anything.

[380] I see that.

[381] And everything's up for grabs.

[382] And it's, it's.

[383] faith, believe in God, have faith in God, and look to supernatural truth.

[384] That's part of the deposit of faith is the supernaturally revealed that we couldn't know if God hadn't revealed to us.

[385] God gave us brains where we can know things of the world, we can understand basic realities of how things work.

[386] That in itself is really a revelation of God because of how he made us.

[387] But the supernatural revelations that come from God directly revealing divine word and the teachings of our faith.

[388] That's what we've got to believe in.

[389] And like you're saying, just as Jesus Christ, what does he say?

[390] Today, yesterday, today, and forever.

[391] That's Jesus Christ and our faith in him.

[392] He doesn't say, well, I'll be this way one day, but then I'm going to change and then I'll be something different a few centuries from now and I'll morph into something else that isn't Jesus Christ Right Exactly and when we come back we're going to open up our catechism Again to teach the papal the deposit of faith We're going to have the Holy Spirit The Inspire of Faith and Works This is a chapter 7 of a catechism called The Way of Christ, a student book You can get it from the diocese of Tyler Or go right to the St. Philip Institute And pick it up because we We've been going through it systematically.

[393] Now, why?

[394] It's the same thing last night.

[395] We were in church until not 9 o 'clock last night, teaching from the Baltimore Catechism number four for adults, for convert courses.

[396] And the people have questions that are constantly.

[397] They love it.

[398] They want to have the faith passed on.

[399] And that's what we're doing here on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power Radio.

[400] So if you have the catechism, open up to Chapter 7 on the Holy Spirit.

[401] And we're going to cover that and much, much more on the Bishop Strickland.

[402] Strickland Hour.

[403] And I also want to encourage people to go to the St. Philip Institute's website.

[404] There's lots of great resources there that will help you.

[405] Stay with us, family.

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

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

[408] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[409] We're going to get into the catechism.

[410] And I just want to remind people, if you go to our YouTube channel full sheen ahead, you can get the catechism shows that we've been doing.

[411] Well, basically what we're doing is we work with the Anglican under Bishop Lopes, and we're doing the convert course, my wife, Richard, and myself, and after 12 weeks, we don't do the RCAIA, after 12 weeks, those who participate in this online or in person are going to be baptized into the Catholic faith, and we're using Bishop Fulton Sheen's Life is Worth Living, His Convert Course, and the Catechism, number four from the Baltimore, and yeah, we're finding people are just loving it.

[412] And we're just grateful.

[413] So that's why here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio, I asked Bishop Strickland, or he asked me, I can't remember who did it.

[414] Oh, no. Bishop Strick said, let's talk about the catechism.

[415] Let's teach the people of faith.

[416] Because we've been doing things on the Ten Commandments.

[417] I said, great.

[418] So he's got the catechism.

[419] It's called the Way of Christ and St. Phillips Institute is the ones you can get it from.

[420] It's Chapter 7.

[421] And a great thing because we got the birthday of the church coming up on Pentecost Sunday.

[422] and it's the, I'll read right from it and then get Bishop Strickland to comment.

[423] The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, is the eternal exchange of love between the Father and the Son.

[424] The Holy Spirit dwells in our soul at baptism to transform us to live out the Christian life.

[425] Bishop Strickland, that is so basic, but how many of us as followers of Christ have an understanding of, I mean, the mystery.

[426] In other words, the Holy Spirit, we've heard about God the Father, God, the Son, but I've found that my experience is that people still have a hard understanding of who the Holy Spirit is.

[427] Your thoughts?

[428] Yeah, and I think it's very important to emphasize it's another way that Christ keeps His Word.

[429] Yeah.

[430] He says he is with us until the end of the age.

[431] The Holy Spirit is him.

[432] We've just celebrated in the church, the ascension of the Lord.

[433] And I think that that's one of the feasts that really needs to be emphasized even more in this time.

[434] Yes.

[435] Because it really catechizes that Jesus here on earth, fully God, fully man, ascends to the Father under the power of his own Holy Spirit.

[436] The Virgin Mary is assumed into heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit, not under her own power.

[437] And Jesus ascends.

[438] And I think there's just so much that teaches us about who Jesus really is.

[439] He is all, as he says beautifully in John's Gospel, he's always with the father.

[440] But as he's talking to the apostles, he said, you see me, you see the father.

[441] He returns to the father as he tells the disciples that he has to in order to send forth the Holy Spirit.

[442] All of that is frankly mysterious to me. It's like I don't claim to fully understand, but it's what Christ has revealed to us.

[443] And hopefully we spend our lifetime.

[444] pondering like the saints.

[445] And some of the saints have beautiful writings.

[446] They're beautiful writings in the, again, talking about the Christian prayer.

[447] One of my favorite parts of that is what's called the Divine Office, or the Office of Readings, where there's usually a reading from scripture and a reading from some document or from some saints' reflection.

[448] There's some great writings in this Easter season, and recently, as we approached Pentecost, talking about the Holy Spirit.

[449] If anyone listening has access to the Office of Readings, I'd encourage you to begin looking at that, making it a part of your prayer, because it really speaks ancient truth.

[450] It goes all the way through the 2000 -year history of the church.

[451] From the very beginning, things like the writings of Justin Martyr, the Didiquet, Council documents, from documents of the Second Vatican Council.

[452] It was compiled through the ages, but revised again in the, with revision of the bravery with the Second Vatican Council.

[453] And it really is a treasure of teachings, and it talks a lot about the whole, Holy Spirit.

[454] And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when does that happen at our baptism?

[455] And that's why I just had confirmation at one of our communities just last night.

[456] They had a baby in the congregation.

[457] I just asked the parents, is the baby baptized yet?

[458] They said, no. I said, get the baby baptized.

[459] Because people very often wait longer than they should.

[460] I mean, it's not emphasized the way it was that, I mean, I was baptized, I think, 10 days after I was born.

[461] It's probably the same for you.

[462] But it doesn't have to be that soon, but it should be without delay, really.

[463] And I think that the catechism and canon law still says without unnecessary delay.

[464] Yeah, like that's like 30 days is what I understand the canonity.

[465] Yep.

[466] But we need to, people need to understand the efficacy of the sacraments.

[467] Yes.

[468] They're not just nice ceremonies.

[469] Yes.

[470] They're beautiful, but they change us.

[471] Amen.

[472] You know, the old language, like I'm sure that Baltimore Catechism music, that indelible character of baptism, we need to emphasize that God's intervention conforms us.

[473] more to him than we are in our natural state.

[474] I mean, God has created us good.

[475] We're created, even without the sacraments, we're created in God's image and likeness, but the sacraments are grace to help us.

[476] And the sacrament of baptism is vital because it breaks that sinful original sin that all of us carry that Christ accomplished that freeing us.

[477] That Christ accomplished that from sin, baptism allows us to share personally in that.

[478] The sacrament of confirmation strengthens that gift of the spirit.

[479] And boy, do we need a strengthening in the spirit now.

[480] Boy, you know, Bishop Strickland, when we had our children, we baptized, we tried to get baptisms on the eighth day tying it into circumcision and saying, you know, this is the baptism now of a Christian.

[481] So I would just encourage families to get their babysitaph, babies baptized within the first 30 days.

[482] That's my understanding of what the church is expecting as parents to do.

[483] The next question, this is, I think, a good one.

[484] What is the mission of the Holy Spirit?

[485] Here it is.

[486] Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the church so that the church can continue his mission.

[487] You notice he didn't say my mission?

[488] It's his mission, not the Pope's mission, not a bishop's mission, not a priest or a layman.

[489] It's Jesus Christ's mission.

[490] The Holy Spirit continues Jesus' mission by preserving what Jesus taught, sanctifying people through the sacraments, and giving life to the church.

[491] The Holy Spirit preserves Jesus' teaching by inspiring sacred scripture, maintaining tradition, and guiding the church's magisterium.

[492] The Holy Spirit does this especially by protecting the Pope from officially teaching error about faith and morals.

[493] the Holy Spirit makes people holy through the sacraments by which he gives grace to those who receive them the Holy Spirit gives life to the church and builds you up by transforming the hearts of Christians we also receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit to aid us in spreading the gospel and living it out man you can do a whole hour on what I just read absolutely wow and really Terry my reflection on this is that when Jesus says he has to return to the Father and send in order to send the Holy Spirit to, I think what, and this is just my own reflection, I'm glad to be corrected if it's necessary, but I think it makes sense and it helps me to understand how all of this works.

[494] The Trinity, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit guiding us, and blessing us, and blessing us, us.

[495] Jesus, as we know, was a real man. Amen.

[496] Bless and blood, muscle, bone, skin.

[497] He was a real incarnate man, fully man, fully God.

[498] As a real man, as a real human being, he couldn't be with us in every generation.

[499] He was there for one generation for 33 years.

[500] Even if he hadn't died on a cross, that was a relatively short death or sort of a, you know, I mean, his life was, I guess, a medium length in his time.

[501] People didn't live that long.

[502] Living twice that long was about as long as people lived in his day in the first century.

[503] But he lived for 33 years as a real man. But because he was a real human being took on a real human life, he couldn't live.

[504] He couldn't live in the second century and the third and the fourth and the 21st.

[505] So he sends his Holy Spirit to live among us, to live in us, so that he could be with us for all the ages until the end of the world after his incarnate presence, after his physical human presence.

[506] He's with us in that way.

[507] And of course, in the Eucharist, he's really there in a physical way.

[508] I love the way some of the saints speak of the Eucharist, the humility of the Lord, whose spirit is with us, but his humility that he's silent in a consecrated host and consecrated wine at the mass, but that's consumed.

[509] It's never been the tradition of the church that I'm aware of to preserve in a tabernacle that consecrated the blood of Christ.

[510] But we do have in the tabernacle the consecrated bread, the body of Christ, that of course includes the Lord of Christ.

[511] Bishop Briggins, can we get a blessing?

[512] We only have a minute left, and I think it's important that all of our listeners receive the blessing from the successor of the apostles, like yourself.

[513] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for everyone listening.

[514] Help us to continue to delve into the mysteries of faith, to hold close to us the treasure of the deposit of faith.

[515] to be strong in faith in these difficult times.

[516] We ask this blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.

[517] Amen.

[518] Thank you so much, Bishop Strickland.

[519] For those who want to hear other shows of Bishop Strickland, just go to vmpr .org.

[520] You can hear all the different shows we produce at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[521] Thanks for your support in helping us proclaim Christ in his church.

[522] And we couldn't do it without you.

[523] So thank you for your prayerful support and your financial support.

[524] support.

[525] May God richly bless you and your family and we'll see you again next week.

[526] Same time at the same station.

[527] God love you.