10 May 22 – Roe v Wade: The World is Waiting

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name is Terry Barber.

[2] I'm with Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[3] Each week we go through the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[4] We go through the tweets of the bishop.

[5] And we talk about cultural issues because we need to be in this battle.

[6] Christians can't be silent anymore.

[7] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking an hour out of your time to share the gospel.

[8] Thanks, Terry.

[9] Bishop Strickland, first thing I want to talk about, this is the month of June.

[10] And we have the Sacred Heart Devotion.

[11] And I wanted to ask you to give us a little commentary on your thoughts about this coming June and what we should be really reflecting on.

[12] Well, thanks, Terry.

[13] As we prepare for the month of June, it's a blessing this year that June 24th is both the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which follows the calendar and June 24th.

[14] is the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

[15] Wow.

[16] And so I think the coincidence of those two is very significant.

[17] And what I want to do is to promote here in the Diocese of Tyler, but really encouraging everyone to promote the month of humility and the sacred heart.

[18] Jesus Christ is our first and foremost model of humility.

[19] Yeah.

[20] As he becomes one of us, incarnate among us, every breath that Jesus takes in this world is a model of humility.

[21] We talk about him being born in Bethlehem, absolutely, but he's conceived in the womb of a woman like we were.

[22] He grows and develops in that womb.

[23] He's born into this world.

[24] Jesus Christ is humility incarnate.

[25] as He is Truth and Love Incarnate.

[26] So we need to embrace that wonderful humility of our Lord.

[27] And look to the saints.

[28] Look to St. John the Baptist.

[29] I love his humility.

[30] He points to Christ and says, He must increase, I must decrease.

[31] That needs to be the attitude of every baptized Christian in the world.

[32] and for us as Catholics, baptized and confirmed, hopefully most of us, we need to embrace that call to humility.

[33] What is the brokenness of our world except a prideful, arrogant approach that says, I'm going to do it my way?

[34] Terry, you talk about all that all the time.

[35] I want to really, for myself and for the priests of the diocese, for the priests of the diocese, for all the faithful, and for really everyone who believes in Jesus Christ to make June, this year especially, a month of humility and the sacred heart of Jesus.

[36] A big amen to that, Bishop Strickland.

[37] I'm going to go to one of your tweets for the month, the end of the month of April, regarding St. Peter Chanel.

[38] and the quote you know you talk about the your quote is this the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith are we willing to be martyrs for the truth that Jesus Christ lived he suffered died and wrote very I'm not hearing you okay mr. engineer you can't hear me let's see if we can get that ready now I can okay this is a lot of background talk okay we need to get that out then I don't hear anything but St. Peter Chanel said this in a quote that you sent you talked about saying the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith are we willing to be martyrs for the truth that Jesus Christ lived suffered and died and rose to share st. Peter Chanel pray for us and the quote from him it says it doesn't matter whether or not I am killed the religion has taken root on this island I will not be destroyed it will not be destroyed by my death since it comes not from men but from God.

[39] It seems to me, Bishop Strickland, that quote, we can all say it for ourselves because it's not us, it's Christ who lives in us.

[40] What are your thoughts?

[41] Is that what you were trying to convey here?

[42] Absolutely.

[43] And St. Peter Chenel is a great missionary and martyr who just, in that quote, so beautifully captures the spirit of the martyrs.

[44] Right.

[45] So many through the ages of the church that have poured themselves out and given their lives for the cause of the gospel.

[46] St. Peter Chanel is one among many who is a living example of that ancient reality of the church.

[47] The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

[48] of new Christians.

[49] It inspires people to say, this person was willing to die for it.

[50] And we know that in the acts of the apostles, the apostles, after Pentecost especially, are strengthened.

[51] And they're told, in the readings just that we've heard during this Easter season, especially from the acts of the apostles, the Sanager keeps saying, we told you to quit using that name.

[52] And Peter and the other apostles say, we're sorry.

[53] We cannot.

[54] We cannot deny our Lord Jesus Christ.

[55] We need to have that same strength of faith and that same willingness to put it all on the lot and to say, I'm going to teach the truth of the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, no matter who tries to stop me. And there have been many emperors and many powers of of the world that have tried to stop the message of Christ.

[56] They tried to stop it with him.

[57] That's why he was crucified.

[58] They thought, we'll kill this Jesus of Nazareth and we'll get rid of this problem.

[59] Instead, they just put fan to the flames of the Holy Spirit to spread the problem of Jesus Christ all over the world.

[60] And St. Peter Chanel just captures it and recognizing he's willing to give up his life because the Lord is working through him, we need to live with that same attitude.

[61] And really, Terry, I get more exasperated and we just have to quit worrying about public opinion and politically correct and proclaim Jesus Christ.

[62] The apostles and so many of the saints like Peter Chanel would just be ashamed of us for worrying so much about not getting crossways with public opinion or with the politically correct.

[63] We've allowed people to be led to perdition because people are denying the message of Jesus Christ outright and encouraging people to adopt this denial of the truth of Jesus Christ.

[64] It is Church is all about proclaiming the fullness of Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul, and divinity, and the Eucharist, in all the sacraments, and the power of God's word, in the teachings of our faith, we have the fullness of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church.

[65] I live in an area where many Christians don't believe that, but we know it's the truth.

[66] So we've got to, with kindness and with patience and with fervor and joy, but with strength.

[67] We have to say the truth, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, and Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church.

[68] Is the Catholic Church the perfect model of holiness?

[69] No, it hasn't been since the beginning.

[70] There's corruption.

[71] We're all sinners, but we've got to always seek to overcome that.

[72] And the bar that we need to raise on for each of us, for myself first, is to seek a deeper holiness and to know why.

[73] Because we are the mystical body of Christ in the world.

[74] The world desperately needs what we have to offer.

[75] And it isn't us.

[76] It isn't Terry or Joe.

[77] It's not a bishop or a devout layman.

[78] It's Jesus Christ.

[79] He's the one we offer to the world because he offered himself to the world.

[80] He is salvation.

[81] He is our Savior.

[82] We need to just get over it and start being about proclaiming that truth because our world is falling apart around us and people are pointing to all kinds of reasons.

[83] But the reason is we've lost God.

[84] God hasn't abandoned us, but too much of humanity is abandoned God.

[85] And we who know him and believe, we've got to be stronger in speaking the truth, not in violence, not in attacking, not in denying the value of any single person, born or unborn.

[86] We've got to proclaim the value of the person because Jesus Christ told us, every one of us is created in God's image and likeness, in the image and likeness of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

[87] great talk Catholicism here Bishop Strickland thank you that's exactly what we need no no you know baloney just just get right to the fundamentals Bishop Strickland I wanted to give a plug to Texas needs fatima dot org they're implementing the rallies for I think six months of rallies can you tell I mean first I'll give the website Texas needs fatima dot org go to that website you'll find out all about it but you're actually participating in this right Yeah, it's a movement to, we traditionally celebrate the month of May as a Marian month, pray the rosary.

[88] Wonderful.

[89] October, another Marian month, pray the rosary.

[90] What this, there's America needs Fatima already.

[91] Texas needs Fatima.

[92] There are various states that are embracing this as well on a state level.

[93] And we're doing it in the diocese of Tyler, one of the 15 diocese in the state.

[94] of Texas.

[95] Texas Needs Fatima is about praying the rosary in, in the diocese, in different parishes for June, July, August, September, October, from May to October to pray the rosary and to encourage that, not just in May and October, but throughout the year.

[96] Amen.

[97] Go to Texas Needsfatima .org.

[98] When we come back, we'll have something from St. Athanasius.

[99] Stay with us, family.

[100] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[101] I gave you a little tease about St. Athanasius.

[102] We just celebrated his feast day.

[103] I'm of the opinion, Bishop Strickland, that he's the model for us because in his time in the 4th century, Aryanism was alive and well, and people dressed like you.

[104] I'm sorry to be so funny here.

[105] People dressed like you, about 80 % of the bishops were on the wrong side of theology, and they were Aryans.

[106] So they weren't really teaching what the Catholic Church taught before.

[107] And you tweeted this, Bishop Athanasius, you put, he's talking about they, the heretics, basically.

[108] They claim that they represent the church.

[109] But in reality, they're the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray.

[110] Even if Catholics faithful to tradition are reduced to a handful, they're the ones who are the true church of Jesus Christ.

[111] Now, Bishop Strickland, that quote's powerful, but I have a quote in my mind that I read years ago to follow up with that.

[112] He said to the bishops who weren't being faithful, and he said this to the people, let them have the church, we have the faith, meaning, you know, they can have the physical building, but don't deny your faith because they are going to give you a building.

[113] That's not important.

[114] What's most important is not the building.

[115] It's our faith.

[116] Now, Bishop Strickland, I don't want to get you in trouble, but I think Athanasius today is as a really good model for guys like you and for me. Am I on to something?

[117] Absolutely.

[118] St. Athanasius hits the nail on the head.

[119] It's about holding the sacred tradition, the deposit of faith.

[120] All the glory of the sacraments, the Word of God, the whole spirit.

[121] message, the truth that the church proclaims.

[122] And as you point out, all the trappings of the church, they can be wonderful.

[123] You can have a beautiful church where the sacraments are celebrated.

[124] But if it's a matter of, okay, do we hold to the truth or do we hold to the buildings and to the treasures, absolutely, it's a no -brainer.

[125] And for St. Athanasius, that's exactly what he understood, is he was willing.

[126] And somebody said just recently, because we just celebrated St. Athanasius, and he was exiled five different times in his lifetime.

[127] I love the his, not his motto, I guess, but the phrase that was popular in his day, Athanasius contramundum.

[128] Athanasius against the world.

[129] Amen.

[130] And he models for us, Terry.

[131] Like you said, for you as a layman, for me as a bishop, for every baptized man and woman Catholic, that we should all be willing to be with Christ against the world, if that's what it takes.

[132] Amen.

[133] I mean, Christ sent his disciples out in the great commissioning to go out to the world and proclaim the good news.

[134] We still have to do that.

[135] And we can't allow even people within the church to distort and just outright falsify the good news.

[136] The truth doesn't change because the truth is an incarnate person.

[137] Jesus Christ incarnate is the truth.

[138] As we say, he's the face of truth.

[139] And that's where, Terry, I know that you.

[140] as a layman committed to your work, me as a bishop, we are here because we're devoted to Jesus Christ.

[141] Amen.

[142] We know him, and I've never, you know, I've never seen an apparition.

[143] I haven't heard the voice of Christ speak to me. I mean, in our hearts, we do.

[144] Of course.

[145] We believe that through scripture, through prayer before the Lord in his Eucharistic presence, in all kinds of ways, the Lord does speak to us.

[146] And he tells us the same thing that his mother tells us, turn from sin and live the good news, live the truth of the gospel.

[147] Change your life.

[148] In the false message that's out there that is so destructive within the church and certainly in the world, but sadly, too many in the church are supporting the world rather than like St. Athanasia is saying, live the faith, cling to the tradition of faith.

[149] Know that that's the truth.

[150] If the world opposes it, okay, we're contramundum, we're against the world.

[151] But the world always needs us.

[152] And that is what we've got to stay strong on and not give in to the world.

[153] As if we, well, we'll gather more people and more people will be attracted to the faith.

[154] If we just sort of compromise here and there and make them more comfortable, that's not what people are after.

[155] The church is not just a club.

[156] It's not just a place to feel comfortable.

[157] It's really the opposite.

[158] It's a place for the greatest challenge of our lives.

[159] It's a place to be challenged to the depths of our being, to be changed, to repent of our sins, and then repent again, and then repent again, and keep going deeper into holiness.

[160] We talked about it before, Terry.

[161] The universal call to holiness, that tends to be treated as just, One more nice phrase from a church document.

[162] It must be the very fabric of what makes our lives have meaning and direction.

[163] That call to holiness.

[164] For me, I got a long way to go.

[165] Me too.

[166] And I can say that you do too, just because all of us do.

[167] Of course.

[168] And the more we recognized, we were talking about humility earlier, humility is just being rooted in the truth.

[169] We recognize that before Almighty God, we are nothing.

[170] But with him, we can become his children.

[171] He wants us to.

[172] He gave us his only begotten son to help us on that way.

[173] They sent the Holy Spirit.

[174] God has given us every assistance that can be imagined for us to know the truth and to choose the truth.

[175] But he will never.

[176] force us.

[177] And that's the reality that the church has always faced.

[178] The great missionaries like St. Peter Chanel, they went out and the emperor said, you better quit teaching this truth.

[179] It's disrupting my community.

[180] It's affecting my power.

[181] And Peter Chanel said, sorry, I can't stop.

[182] Ultimately, that emperor had him killed.

[183] But Peter Chanel, like all the great missionaries.

[184] We've all got to be missionaries.

[185] Amen.

[186] And you hear messages even within the church, oh, don't try to convert people.

[187] That is not the gospel.

[188] Amen.

[189] That is not Jesus Christ.

[190] Yes, we're called to convert people, not to coerce people, absolutely.

[191] And that's what we get accused of.

[192] If people just see bits and pieces of sort of a distorted history, Catholicism in her missionary work in the past is accused of coercing people and violently causing people to become Catholic.

[193] Maybe that happened here and there, but because we are sinners, absolutely.

[194] Wrong things happen.

[195] Missionaries were sinners and they made mistakes, but the mission of the church was always to bring people to the truth.

[196] And we can't let anyone get away with saying, don't bring people to Jesus Christ, because that's the mission of the church.

[197] if we're not to bring people to Jesus Christ, the church, including all the buildings and all the wealth and all the properties, all of it can just go away because it's not needed.

[198] It's desperately needed because it's all about sharing Jesus Christ.

[199] It's not about the beautiful basilicas.

[200] And I've seen the wondrous buildings in Rome and throughout Europe.

[201] They're beautiful churches in this country.

[202] But it's not about beautiful buildings.

[203] They could.

[204] all disappear and the church would still be here.

[205] The church is the heart of the faithful, knowing the sacred heart of Christ, and through his sacred heart, we're drawn to the Father in the Spirit.

[206] That's the church, and that's what we've got to remind people.

[207] And any voice that says, don't bring people to Jesus, don't try to convert people.

[208] That isn't of Christ.

[209] I don't know what they're thinking, but that isn't the message of Jesus Christ.

[210] And we have to proclaim because it's the truth that sets us free for every person on the planet.

[211] That's Christ's mission for every person to know him.

[212] And that is the mission of his church, his bride.

[213] Thank you and thank you because this is what we need.

[214] Now, Bishop Strickland, there's another retired bishop from St. Angelo.

[215] He was the bishop there from 1985 to 2013.

[216] he's probably elderly, I don't know, but Bishop Pfeiffer pointed out that the Hyde Amendment has saved around 2 .5 million babies, and he's basically writing a letter to all the bishops and saying, we bishops need to speak out and act more forcefully in the defense of all human life, but especially the life of the unborn in the womb.

[217] He said, this requires more effective dialogue, engagement with the public officials, especially Catholic public officials.

[218] He expressed hope that the president, of the United States will change that course.

[219] Now, he's retired.

[220] He, you know, he doesn't need to do that.

[221] I'm sure he's going to get, you know, a little kickback in a sense of people.

[222] He's, why don't you just be quiet and stay retired?

[223] But I only bring this up because I think even as a retired bishop, we all are supposed to be speaking up for life.

[224] And so how did that affect you as a active bishop to hear someone who's retired in your own state and he's reaching out and saying, we need to do more?

[225] Wonderful.

[226] I know Bishop Michael Pfeiffer, and I'm glad he does speak up, especially for the sanctity of the life of the unborn, and for any ways that the children of God are harmed and mistreated in our world.

[227] So I applaud what Bishop Michael Pfeiffer had to say.

[228] Yes, he's a Bishop Emeritus.

[229] He's retired.

[230] But you don't retire from being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

[231] As long as we're breathing, we have that all.

[232] obligation to continue to proclaim Christ.

[233] And that's what Bishop Fyfer is doing.

[234] We need more and more voices, retired or active bishops, priests, deacons, laymen and women.

[235] We need to just be a mighty roar of love and joy knowing the truth of Jesus Christ.

[236] Because all the darkness that is sold in the world and that it's invaded too much of the church with all the compromise, people have come to believe some of the things that the church says, no, this isn't the truth.

[237] But we need to patiently, lovingly, but forcefully teach the truth.

[238] Stay joyful, stay strong in the message of Jesus Christ.

[239] And I thank Bishop Pfeiffer and thankful for many other bishops, the ones that signed the letter to the bishops in Germany.

[240] I mean, we all have that obligation to share the truth.

[241] All of us wander from the truth.

[242] I have.

[243] We're all sinners.

[244] We can all get misinformation or just through our own concupiscence and sinfulness.

[245] We follow the easier path of the path that looks more beneficial.

[246] We can be wrong.

[247] All the Lord asks us to do is to repent of our sins, to reform our lives, and to follow him.

[248] It's an ongoing journey for all of us, and I'm very glad that Bishop Fyfer continues to speak up because yes he's not responsible for a diocese any longer but he's still a man of Christ and we need his voice thank you we sure do and all of our voices to speak up talking about that when we come back from the break bishop strickland i want to talk to you about the supreme court the leaks that came out on the roversus wade they are saying that it's authentic but not a final position you tweeted about that and much more than after that folks we're going to open up the the Catholic Church.

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

[250] Stay with us, family.

[251] We'll be right back.

[252] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[253] I wanted to set the stage here.

[254] The Supreme Court confirms a leak opinion on the Roe v. Wade is an authentic but not a final position.

[255] Now, much has been said about this.

[256] We've got already violence going on at the Supreme Court building with people who are upset about this ruling we're going to have a whole lot more going down with this I would say we need to pray for the safety of the Supreme Court justices who will sign this opinion and for their families they were going to be enduring I think some major problems in the months to come I hope their courage is there to stand firm for the truth and not worry about you know the safety issues but Bishop Strickland you tweeted thanks be to God for the Supreme Court decision, you know, this leaked one, it could change possibly.

[257] But, I mean, we have to wait a bit longer probably until June to know for sure.

[258] But even the very fact that this got leaked out just made, you know, headlines.

[259] And there's a lot of people that are really, really upset that this could be, you know, half the country could make it so that abortion in their state is illegal.

[260] And we're talking thousands and thousands of babies being born because of this.

[261] What's your take on all of this, Bishop Strickland?

[262] Well, it is, it was good to read the leaked opinion that is saying that the Roe v. Wade decision needs to be struck down.

[263] It needs to be returned to the states.

[264] I think that definitely is a step in the right direction.

[265] Of course, we know that no state, no nation should have it legal that unborn children are murdered in the womb.

[266] but we live in a very imperfect world.

[267] So it's a step in the right direction, at least, to say, rather than it's the law of the land to say that abortions available everywhere, at least the states get to decide and look at the issues.

[268] And then it comes to people in individual states to work at the sanctity of the life of the unborn and the sanctity of the life of the mother and everyone involved, but to not be murdering in order to so -called solve a problem.

[269] So the decision as leaked is definitely the step in the right direction.

[270] As it seems with everything in the world today, Terry, especially in this nation, but really worldwide, everything's controversial and everything's complicated.

[271] And the fact that, I mean, one of the repercussions of what happened with the leak of this opinion, I think it was by Judge Alito.

[272] Yes, it was.

[273] And the leak is a breach of ethics for the Supreme Court that's very significant that is a deep and important issue as well as what the decision was dealing with.

[274] sanctity of life issue and the validity of Roe v. Wade.

[275] So both of those questions are going to continue to reverberate through the news cycle and people until we hear, we get the actual official opinion of the Supreme Court in this case.

[276] You know, people, there are all kinds of theories that who knows what the motivation of whoever it was that leaked.

[277] But I think for the reason of the Supreme Court should be a sacred institution.

[278] Sadly, is anything sacred for people in our nation now?

[279] Certainly, we know that many things are sacred, but too many people are acting as if nothing sacred.

[280] They can destroy history.

[281] They can tear down statues.

[282] They can cancel whoever they want, nothing sacred.

[283] We know that that is a path of devastation and destruction beyond the issues of the sanctity of life, which are the most significant issues.

[284] So there are two very, very significant issues that we have to deal with.

[285] The sacred nature of the Supreme Court in allowing those justices to read the, the information to analyze the case.

[286] They work very hard and they need to.

[287] They are considered the experts in the law and they look at all the different issues.

[288] And if that confidentiality and that ability for them to make their judicial decisions on what is the truth and what is right, if that's undermined, then, you know, the value of the Supreme Court is deeply harmed.

[289] And I hope that we don't see the long -lasting repercussions of this, but it certainly is a very, very fragile place for the Supreme Court.

[290] And then you switch over to the decision as it was leaked and published, talking about how the Roe v. Wade needs to be struck down and it needs to be returned to the states.

[291] There's already been some violent reaction to that.

[292] And what I, in another tweet, encourage people to pray that for the Supreme Court justes.

[293] Amen.

[294] They're just men and women like us.

[295] They're not perfect super beings.

[296] They're just men and women, very intelligent, very well formed in the law.

[297] But they need to be free to vote according to what the law says and following the Constitution.

[298] I'm no constitutional lawyer, but as I understand the way it's supposed to work, the way the founding fathers crafted, what has been this great nation and allowed us to attain the greatness that is there, that the process is for them to look at the Constitution and compare what the Constitution says with what laws are being questioned.

[299] Is it constitutional or not?

[300] And that is sacrosaned.

[301] That is sacred to this nation.

[302] It's part of the three branches of government and the balance of powers.

[303] And all of that has gotten really messed up lately.

[304] And we need to speak up and be very clear.

[305] The Supreme Court has a role.

[306] The legislature has a role.

[307] The executive branch has a role.

[308] Too much of that has been blurred.

[309] And to lose the sacred values.

[310] and authority of the Supreme Court is another drastic blow to this nation.

[311] So we've got to really take care of both issues.

[312] The sanctity of life is really, I mean, that has to be dealt with.

[313] And people have said that, you know, they point to a similar situation, which caused the civil war in this country, just diametrically opposed.

[314] And if we look back, slavery in many ways, you can look at some of those court cases.

[315] And it was speaking the same way people speak about the unborn is they're not a person.

[316] They don't have rights.

[317] They don't have value.

[318] And that is we finally woke up to the evil of slavery.

[319] We need to wake up as a nation to the evil of abortion.

[320] whether or not we can get there in our lifetime, who knows.

[321] But we've got to keep working at it.

[322] In this decision, both gets to the value and the sanctity of the ability of the Supreme Court to make these decisions, the important sacred duty they have, and also the sanctity of life, which we've got to move away from what has promoted more than 60 million abortions since Roe v. Wade, we've got to change that.

[323] But as I always say, Terry, the main thing we have to change is hearts.

[324] Amen.

[325] God to change the hearts of people that are ready for whatever reasons to deny the value and the rights of an unborn child.

[326] Well, said, and I just want to add that we've never had a leak in the Supreme Court in its entire history.

[327] So this is very unusual.

[328] And I would also, again, pray for those Supreme Court people who are making this decision that they won't be afraid of the consequences for speaking the truth about the unborn because there's a lot of pressure on all of them.

[329] All right, Bishop Strickland, I want to shift gears to the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[330] And why do we take the catechism?

[331] Because this is something so important to us as Catholics, for those who are non -Catholics listening, we work on the fundamentals of our faith.

[332] We need to understand the basic teachings of our faith so that we can grow and deeper in love with Jesus.

[333] So we're taking this series called Part 3 in the Life of Christ that systematically talks about the life of Christ and how it applies to us.

[334] And we're on paragraph 1694.

[335] So I'm going to read it.

[336] And then this is a novel idea.

[337] You know what?

[338] We're getting only a couple minutes for this break.

[339] I'm going to hold off on reading this.

[340] and I'm also going to just give a quick shout out talking about our lady of Fatima this Saturday as the first Saturday of the month we're going to be at our chapel, had over 100 people praying with us last month.

[341] This is our second month implementing the Fatahua message.

[342] You're welcome to come.

[343] We have a mass. We have the rosary.

[344] We have confessions.

[345] We have a potluck after all of this.

[346] So that'll be on the 7th of May, first Saturday of the month.

[347] So I just want to give a shout out to those people in Texas.

[348] I was there last weekend for a men's conference.

[349] I know you've enjoyed the Bishop Strickland Hour, and I hope maybe someday I can meet up with you again the next time I'm out in Texas.

[350] And then the other plug I want to give is Father Don Callaway, who's one of my favorite priests.

[351] He's going to be at Pray for Priest's Rosary Crusade, Saturday, May 28th, at the Hughes Stadium in Sacramento.

[352] This is a football stadium that holds 20 ,000 people.

[353] God bless them.

[354] I'm going to be there with Father Donald speaking on stories about how we can help priests live out their vocations.

[355] And they got 20 ,000 people coming.

[356] If you can't make it, I would at least go to, because I think they're going to stream it.

[357] Rosary Crusade for priests in Sacramento, California, and participate by praying your rosary.

[358] We're going to do something, a novel idea.

[359] going to give every person there a copy of Bishop Sheens called and chosen.

[360] It's a priest retreat that he did back in 1978, and we're going to ask all 20 ,000 people to give that to their local parish priest, and that is going to help them understand their vocation even better.

[361] Now, Bishop Strickland, forgive me, but a lot of priests need continual formation that they might have lacked, and I think you even talked about it, in your own seminary training.

[362] And I think Bishop Sheen is a great man to help priests fall deeper in love with Jesus, especially with the Eucharist and Our Lady.

[363] When we come back, open up your catechisms to paragraph 1694 here on the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[364] Stay with us, family.

[365] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[366] We're turning over to the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[367] This is such a great book for everyone to read every day.

[368] I mean that.

[369] Sounds like, oh, Terry, you read the Bible every day, read the catechism of the day.

[370] Can I ask you a question, folks?

[371] How much time each day are you spending in your prayer life and your study of your faith?

[372] It's a lifetime occupation.

[373] I would dare to say, here, I'm an old guy in my 60s, and I'm still studying my faith.

[374] I'm at the end of my life.

[375] I want to study every day until I die.

[376] Why?

[377] Because I want to know Christ more.

[378] So I would encourage you to open up your catechism.

[379] Paragraph 1694.

[380] This is under the Part 3 of the Catechism, Life in Christ.

[381] And I also want to just recommend Bishop Sheen did a book.

[382] It was a 350 -page book called The Life of Christ.

[383] Classic book.

[384] St. John Paul, too, love that book.

[385] He mentioned that about Bishop Sheen.

[386] I made it available as an audio download at vmpr .org.

[387] Go to that website and get that.

[388] Just make a donation.

[389] If you can't, that's okay.

[390] but the point of it is you need to know the life of Christ if we're going to imitate Jesus Christ we have to know him all right paragraph 1694 incorporated into Christ by baptism Christians are dead to sin and alive in God and Jesus Christ and so participate in the life of the risen Lord following Christ and united with Him Christians can strive to be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in his love by conforming their thoughts, words, and actions in mind and which is yours in Christ Jesus and by following his example.

[391] Well, what a great time to talk about this in the Easter season.

[392] Yep, absolutely.

[393] This paragraph really, once again, gets to the very heart of what it means to be baptized.

[394] and to live Jesus Christ.

[395] Christians are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[396] And so participate in the life of the risen Lord.

[397] Participate in the life of the risen Lord.

[398] I think we all need to really embrace that and reflect on what does that mean?

[399] It means for each of us to sin becomes more and more antithetical, more and more in opposition to who we are, the more we're in Christ.

[400] We're still sinners, but what this paragraph really reminds me of is baptism, we believe, we know that baptism washes away sin and allows us to share in the life of God.

[401] That's what baptism does.

[402] And for the infant that's baptized, it's only original sin.

[403] They haven't committed personal sin when an older person who has committed personal sin, it's personal sin and original sin that are washed away.

[404] The old language of the church, which we need to hang on to all the old things that express well what we're talking about.

[405] But the church in baptism speaks of an indelible character that is, that is, we're marked with an indelible character when we're baptized.

[406] That's what this is talking about.

[407] Another way of saying that.

[408] Incorporated into Christ by baptism.

[409] We're incorporated into Christ.

[410] We're made different.

[411] We're made children of God.

[412] We can live alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[413] So what this paragraph is really getting at is what it means to live as a Christian.

[414] And it's not some sort of superficial association.

[415] And I think very often, that's how it gets translated by all of us to one degree or another.

[416] It's about a complete transformation of your life.

[417] And as you were saying, Terry, it's about doing that for the rest of your life.

[418] Neither of us, the most foolish thing that we can say, man in our 60s, is, I'm there, I can coast.

[419] I've made it.

[420] Absolutely not.

[421] In many ways, we're just getting started.

[422] And that's the attitude of the Christian is to recognize.

[423] I mean, all the saints, I was really inspired by the celebration recently of St. Catherine of Siena.

[424] Oh, yeah.

[425] She only lived to be 33 years old, but she gained tremendous wisdom.

[426] And she talked about the reality that we can, we have to continue to grow in the mystery of Christ.

[427] and through him to the Father and the Spirit.

[428] The mystery of God.

[429] We can always go deeper because in our humanity, we will never fathom the depths of God.

[430] And St. Catherine of Siena says that so beautifully in her writings, dialogues, where she had very mystical experiences of Christ.

[431] But what she's saying, all the saints echo, I mean, you can look at all the saints, and in different ways, they say the same thing.

[432] We've got to keep growing deeper in Christ.

[433] I compared what St. Catherine said to St. Augustine.

[434] I love to quote him, our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

[435] With St. Catherine, she was saying, the world is restless until it rests in God.

[436] And that's what we have to acknowledge.

[437] all the problems we're seeing that are that invade the church as well the problems of pride the problems of denying God and acting like we're God the problems of arrogance and the problems of just trying to reshape the truth in our image all of that comes from really not knowing Christ I was talking to some friends recently and we hear the word relationship a lot yeah Really, we're called to something deeper than just a relationship with Christ.

[438] It's a, the best I can come up with is a shared incarnation.

[439] Christ became one of us.

[440] And that is, he, as it says here, Christ, by following his example, he is the example of how to live as a human being.

[441] And if we look to Christ in the Gospels, He shows us how to treat each other, how to treat those who are poor, those who are downtrodden, those who are ill, those who are less than in terms of society.

[442] Even in his society, we certainly have that.

[443] We have the homeless and the poor and the neglected and people that are not treated with the value that is God given, certainly the unborn.

[444] but Jesus had that as well, and he specifically reached out to the woman at the well, a Samaritan woman, that he wasn't even supposed to speak to.

[445] He didn't just speak to her.

[446] He had a conversation with her that changed her life.

[447] Jesus gives us the example by his own incarnate work in the world.

[448] Of course, he's the Lord of the universe, and we can kind of excuse ourselves and say, well, he's the son of God.

[449] He's the Lord of the universe.

[450] How can we try to even attempt to follow his example?

[451] But that's why he came to us.

[452] That's why he was incarnate to show us that a man of this world, a man who slept and ate and did everything that a man does except sin.

[453] He's like us in all things with sin.

[454] Jesus showed us the way.

[455] I think it's why, as we've said very often, The early Christians, it was called the way.

[456] And we can really understand that, kind of flesh that out.

[457] They knew that Jesus showed them the way to be human, the way to live and flourish in this life as children of God.

[458] So that's why he became the way that ultimately became the Catholic Church.

[459] The disciples that were part of the way became Christian, and then became what was called Catholic.

[460] It's just the universal way is a good way to describe what the church is about, because Catholic just means universal, as we know.

[461] So Jesus is showing us the universal way for all humanity, whatever continent they live on.

[462] And certainly we acknowledge that as the apostles were sent out by Christ, to teach the world, much of the world, they didn't even know existed.

[463] And so the great missionaries, after the discovery of the Americas, the new world, they went and brought, they did that apostolic work.

[464] And that's what we're called to do.

[465] All of that is captured in this one paragraph of the catechism.

[466] Amazing.

[467] Before you get your, we ask for a blessing, St. Philip Institute's a great resource for our listeners.

[468] Can you share a little bit about that, Bishop Strickland?

[469] Yes, it's St. Philip Institute.

[470] You can go to their website, St. Philip Institute .org.

[471] There's some great young, on -fire Catholic people that are working in the Institute, creating some great videos and great messaging, creating programs for being baptized and helping a family really embrace the, beautiful gift of baptism for a child that has been born into the family.

[472] Really something that needs to be a family celebration, looking at all the sacraments.

[473] So the St. Philip Institute is specifically working to build up the people, the flock of the Diocese of Tyler, both Catholic and non -Catholic, all of the people dwelling in these 33 counties.

[474] It's our mission to share the truth of Christ with them.

[475] And that's what the St. Philip Institute is all about.

[476] Fantastic.

[477] And if anybody wants to hear all the other shows, lots of you are brand new because of our trip to Dallas -Fort Worth area last weekend.

[478] If you go to vmpr .org, you can listen to all of Bishop Strickland's shows on podcast.

[479] And not only that, all the other shows that we produce here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[480] And also, I want to thank those who are monthly donors at this time who are paying our monthly bills.

[481] I couldn't do it without you.

[482] And just for those who don't know what we do, we give away about two or $300 worth of recordings every month to our monthly donors as a way of saying thank you.

[483] And anybody gives $25 or more.

[484] They get a couple hundred dollars worth of audio downloads every month from when I had St. Joseph Communications, all of Scott Hans material, Father Bill Casey, Tim Staples, Alex Jones, Steve Ray, all those good guys are sharing the gospel.

[485] I want you to be well -formed, and this is my way of saying thank you.

[486] So you can go to vmpr .org to become a monthly donor, and you'll start getting those resources sent to you.

[487] Bishop Strickland, could we get a bishop's blessing for our listeners, please?

[488] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for everyone listening to this radio program that we may all continue to seek a deeper life in Christ.

[489] And as we come closer to the month of June to celebrate that 24th of June with seeking humility in the sacred heart of Christ, with the blessing of celebrating John the Baptist and the sacred heart of Jesus on the same day, June 24th.

[490] May we joyfully embrace the call to know Christ more deeply and to share him with others.

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

[492] amen thank you very much bishop strickland folks thanks again for joining us here at virgin most powerful radio may god richly bless you and your family and stay tuned for more shows for next week god love you