Modern ‘Arianism?’ 

[00:00:00] CA: Welcome, welcome, one and all, welcome to the Catholic Experience, episode number 31, recorded Friday, June 14th, in the year of our Lord, 2024. I was going to say 2014. for joining me. I’m your host, The Catholic Adventurer, and I’m very happy that you’re joining me today. I really, truly am. Boy, this is the first, this is the first proper episode I’ve put together in over a month.

[00:00:31] The last episode was kind of, uh, I didn’t slap it together, but it wasn’t intended to be an episode. 30. I kind of made it an episode because it was longer than I expected. Um, anyway, yeah, I gotta tell you, leveling with you here, it’s getting very hard to do these damn podcasts. Um, I was so close to saying, you know what, folks, I think I’m just not going to do the long form podcast anymore.

Announcement

[00:00:59] CA: So let me start with an announcement. I am not saying I’m not doing long form podcasts anymore, but here’s what I do want to say. It’s really hard producing these. It’s really hard finding uninterrupted time to produce these. I have been trying to produce this show for two weeks and always something is in the way.

[00:01:17] I can’t do the recording that day or at that time. Can’t do the recording. Have to do the recording. It gets interrupted. I have to stop. I lose my mojo, so I have to start over again. It’s been hell trying to do this. I just can’t squeeze out the [00:01:30] time. What I have had time to do is short form stuff. I’ve been posting stuff to Twitter.

[00:01:38] Twitter can go to hell. I’ve been posting stuff to TikTok and to Facebook. And, as promised, I have been somewhat regularly posting stuff to my locals community. So here’s the deal. If you enjoy what I do, please, please, please, for God’s sake, follow me on, uh, on Locals. Subscribe, sign up for my Locals. You can sign up for free and you will still get some content on a fairly regular basis.

[00:02:06] If you sign up to become a paid member for five bucks a month, you get even more content more regularly. So I would really strongly encourage you to do that. CatholicExperience. Locals. com. Catholic Experience. Dot locals. com. It’s the name of the podcast, not the name of the host. It is not Catholic adventurer.

[00:02:28] It’s CatholicExperiene.locals.com. Thank you very much 

The Rundown

[00:02:33] CA: Let’s get on with it today’s show. I’m going to start off with It’s so funny. I’m starting off with an episode of the pulse, right? That’s my news segment That’s my news segment. If you if you if you don’t know and I’d actually already recorded the news segment Um, what was it, last week that I did that?

[00:02:55] So this week, it might be out of date, I don’t know. I don’t even remember the stories that I covered. [00:03:00] So, it’s my funny, it’s my funny take, not funny, but I try to be light and, and witty about it. It’s my witty take on, uh, some, some news headlines. That’s at the top of the show. Then I’m going to talk just for a few minutes about the Chosen.

[00:03:17] I’m going to give you what I think about the Chosen and, you know, what other people think, apparently. Not everybody loves it, um, but I’m going to tell you what I think of it and why. I’m going to break it down, basically, how it’s produced, the value of the theology, and stuff like that. And then I’m going to talk to you About a resurgence of the church of the Aryan heresy.

[00:03:37] Not a resurgence of the Aryan heresy itself, but a resurgence of the culture, the climate, the attitude that produced the Aryan heresy. 

Why the culture behind Arianism is Modern

[00:03:47] CA: Here’s the thing that’s crazy about Aryanism, and by that I mean, you know, as I, as I’ve been saying, the culture and whatnot, the church.

[00:03:57] Let me back up. Arianism is the heresy that holds that Jesus Christ was only a man, he was not divine, he was only human, he was an exalted creature, but he was just a creature. That’s basically Arianism. And even though the church authoritatively declared that that is wrong, that that is false, even though the church authoritatively proclaimed In the Nicene Creed, and in, in councils, that Jesus Christ is true God and true man.

[00:04:28] Arianism held on for dear life [00:04:30] for a very long time. Well, how is that possible? That’s almost unthinkable today, right? That the church can officially declare something, and people will say, Nope, that’s not true. That’s unthinkable, right? Think carefully. Is it unthinkable? Is it? You see it in the church today, don’t you?

[00:04:48] We’re going to be talking about that. 

[00:04:50] . So I’m talking about the culture, the climate, the attitude that, that was responsible or fundamental to the rise and continuance of the Aryan heresy. We’re going to talk about how we’re seeing that in the church today. That’s at the bottom of the show.

[00:05:05] First, as I said, thank you for joining me. I am the Catholic Adventurer. Please follow my socials. Here’s a little shortcut for you, by the way. I know I’m kind of all over the place on my socials. I’m gonna get, here’s the URL to my bio link, okay? It’s basically a link tree. If you know link tree, then you already know what that, what that URL looks like.

[00:05:26] If you don’t, here it is explicitly. https://linktr.ee/catholicadventurer Okay, yeah, link tree. L I N K T R dot E E Slash Catholic Adventurer all of my socials are linked there. My, my latest content is all there. Some extras and stuff all there. Great place. It’s a good central hub for all things Catholic adventure. Okay, let’s get on with it. Here we go with the pulse.

The Pulse: German Nudists

[00:05:57] CA: This is the Pulse. German nudists fear [00:06:00] for the future of their lifestyle amid falling interest. Are we witnessing a cover up? Next, you can get more than just a bucket of fried chicken in Kentucky now. Kentucky Parish offers scheduled appointments for same sex blessings. Pull up to the drive thru and stand by for 11 herbs and spices.

[00:06:16] And then, Pope’splaining enters the Twilight Zone. Pope’s friends and other observers try to make sense of homophobic PR disaster. Coming up right this very second on The Pulse. Yet another Pulse. Here we go. I’ve been foreshadowing this on socials, and I think I made an announcement on my podcast catalog that I’m going to be doing this episode and this segment of The Pulse.

[00:06:37] Finally, I’m getting around to it. Finally got some news stories that I think you’re going to find entertaining and a little bizarre. First up, German nudist. From the Guardian, German naturists fear for future of lifestyle amid falling interests. Celebrations cancelled due to low uptake as people go off public nudity.

[00:06:57] In country known for its liberal attitudes. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but there are actually people who like to swagger around in the nude, stark naked. My only knowledge of this was in jokes, but apparently it’s a thing. People like to Strip down, and go off on a beach, and, and hang out. I, I really don’t get it, personally.

[00:07:21] Uh, I kind of understand feeling weighed down by your clothing. Do you ever, that ever happen to you? Where you feel like you kind of want to get put on, Oh, pardon me while I [00:07:30]slip into something more comfortable. You know, you’ve all heard that line in the old movies. Um, and then I’ll throw on some sweatpants or something.

[00:07:37] But, uh, I don’t understand this nudity thing. Anyway, enough about what I think about it, let’s go to the story. An organization promoting nudity and a self confident approach towards the body in Germany has, has sounded the alarm. They sou folks, they sounded an alarm. I wonder, are they, is the, is the article being literal? Because, you know, those Germans are crazy. They sounded the alarm, has sounded the alarm over the future of naturism in the country. Now, first thing to point out is they’re calling it naturism, naturism, as if we’re just dogs and cats and in the wild we’d be nude. Naturism. It’s nudism. That’s what it is.

[00:08:17] It’s not naturism. Because you can be your natural self. Dressed in a three piece suit, and you can still be who you are naturally. Nature has, has little to do with what we’re wearing. Unless, you know, I’m a man and I’m dressed, I’m wearing women’s clothes. Then I’m dressed in a way that, that is discordant with my nature as a man.

[00:08:39] But they’re just trying to, they’re trying to dummy this down to make it seem like it’s no big deal. We’re naturists. This is what nature has intended. Give me a break. The German Association for Free Body Culture, an umbrella organization for myriad naturist interest groups, has told its members that celebrations in August, marking the anniversary of its [00:09:00] creation, will no longer go ahead owing to a lack of interest.

[00:09:06] Celebrations won’t go ahead owing to a lack of interest. Membership of the DFK has slumped from 65, 000 25 years ago to fewer than 34, 000 now, with many remaining members said to be losing interest. So, one of the things that people are losing interest in is being naked in public. You might have guessed that.

[00:09:27] Another thing that worries people about this is the digital age. There are drones flying overhead. There are people with cell phones and tiny cameras, and they’re worried about being photographed and plastered all over the internet. The across generations part is especially icky to me because what you have is grown men, some of them quite old, they just want to kind of hang around with younger women in the nude. Do we really think that’s not happening? 

Sin Wants to be Hidden

[00:09:55] CA: You know, interesting to point out here, that after Adam and Eve sinned, they ran and hid because they were naked. Well, there’s two things there. First, they ran and hid because they sinned. And sin wants to be hidden. It doesn’t want to be known. Usually. Usually it wants to be hidden.

[00:10:18] And the way you sin without having to hide it is you make it look normal. Ordinarily, sin wants to be hidden. And that’s why Adam and Eve hid. Was [00:10:30] there a shame over their bodies? There was a type of shame. It’s not how we think of shame today, but let’s just go with that. There was a type of shame, I guess you could say.

[00:10:38] Adam says, we were hiding because we were naked. I’m paraphrasing. God said, who told you you were naked? In other words, they had a sense of wrongness that they shouldn’t have unless they had done wrong and therefore had context. The only way you know that you’ve done wrong, not a knowledge of it, but, not an awareness of it psychologically or mentally, but a knowledge of it personally.

[00:11:00] How you don’t truly have a knowledge of something until you’ve done it. So they had a knowledge of wrongdoing because they had done it. That’s basically what God is saying. How do you know that you were naked? How do you know that you had done wrong? How do you were naked? And then, fast forward, God produces a garment and dresses them.

[00:11:21] They did not dress themselves. God produced a garment and dressed Adam and Eve. So there is nothing natural, really, about being openly nude. Now, I’m not saying there’s nothing natural with being nude, like, in the shower. I’m talking about openly nude where you’re on display for everyone to see. There’s nothing natural about that.

[00:11:45] God produced a garment to dress Adam and Eve in. So the natural, it’s because of our fallen state, but the natural status of the human body is it is dressed, it is clothed, [00:12:00] it is covered, it is concealed. That is natural. That is natural. For reasons I won’t get into, and it almost doesn’t matter in this conversation.

[00:12:10] So this naturist thing, and it’s basically, it’s basically public nudity. They’re calling it naturism because public nudity sounds a little perverted. And I get it, you know, these people are probably sitting on a beach playing checkers. It may not be sexual for some of them, but you can bet for damn sure it’s sexual for many of them.

Kentucky Same-Sex Blessings

[00:12:30] CA: All right, let’s move on. That one went too long. Kentucky parish offers scheduled appointments for same sex blessings. Unbelievable. The first thing I thought of when I read that headline was Kentucky fried chicken. We do chicken, right? Well, maybe you can go through a drive thru and not just order a bucket of chicken.

[00:12:46] Maybe you can order a blessing for your same sex union. Two, from Catholic News Agency, written by Daniel Payne. A parish in the diocese of Lexington, Kentucky is openly promoting blessings for same sex couples despite a Vatican directive that suggests such blessings should be spontaneous. Historic St.

[00:13:06] Paul Catholic Church in downtown Lexington says on its website that same sex couples who would like a blessing can contact the church’s pastor, Col. Sanders, no, Fr. Richard Watson, via phone or email and basically order up the blessing. I’ll take one to go, thank you. The offer made via, the offer made via the church’s [00:13:30] LGBTQ plus ministry page is accompanied by a link to the Vatican’s December 2023 website.

[00:13:36] Fiducia suplicans declaration. So the directive basically says that ministers should not prevent or, or this is from fiducia, should not prevent or prohibit the church’s closeness to people in every situation. So I’ve said it and I’ve said it and I’ve said it. People are going to abuse this document. And people are.

[00:13:56] The parish has previously promoted same sex couple blessings in a Facebook post on January 1st of this year. On January 1st, the church declared that history was made when two women asked for a blessing which Father Richard freely offered according to the guidelines of fiducia. The women had been civilly married for 22 years.

[00:14:16] The parish is almost bragging about it, if you can believe that. So, this fellow, Zarkovsky, uh, runs the LGBTQ apostolate. And that’s all I’ll say about that, I’ve spoken about him in the past, but now that we’re naming his name, I wanted to tell you who he was. Zarkovsky, meanwhile, made headlines last year when he revealed that Pope Francis had sent him a personal message in which the Holy Father praised him for his LGBTQ.

[00:14:41] Outreach quote, thank you for your ministry. The Pope said I pray for you. Please continue to do so for me now Here’s what’s interesting. I actually did a pulse segment on that story Well, that was one of the stories I covered on a pulse segment about a year ago when this happened Which I can’t believe it’s that long ago already It’s almost a year [00:15:00] ago and I pointed out and I’m saying this to set up the next story I pointed out that I’m a little annoyed that the Pope seems to give a cold shoulder to conservatives and yet he is sending handwritten messages to people like Zarkovsky or Zarkovska who run an LGBTQ or an LGBT outreach.

[00:15:24] A handwritten note, not just a quick email or text, handwritten note, put in a mailbox and everything. 

Pope Says ‘Faggotry’

[00:15:32] CA: That having been said, let’s go to the next story, from Reuters. Analysis, Pope’s friends, observers, and others I guess, try to make sense of homophobic PR disaster. Did you hear about this one folks? It’s going to shock you, if you didn’t hear about it, this is going to really really shock you.

[00:15:49] But not in the way that you’re suspecting. Francis is a Pope of many firsts. The first to use that name, the first from Latin America, and the first from the Jesuit order. Since last week, he’s also the first Pope to apologize for using foul language. Yes, it’s true. Francis was quoted by Italian media as using the Italian term Frochiaggine.

[00:16:15] Roughly translated as faggotness or faggotry. A closed door. In a closed door May 20th meeting with Italian bishops. It’s a closed door meeting with Italian bishops, folks. That means somebody [00:16:30] amongst those Italian bishops squealed on him. The Vatican issued an apology, but after that, the other Italian, but after that, other Italian reports attributed more gay slurs to the Pope, as well as chauvinist language associating women with gossip in a separate meeting with Roman priests.

[00:16:49] Let me just back up. Before I get to what is really the most important part, let me get to the first itch that I want to scratch. Women love to gossip. The Pope said something like, we aren’t women, we shouldn’t be gossiping, or we shouldn’t be gossiping like, like women do, he said something like that. It wasn’t degrading or objectifying, the way he said it, and also, it’s true.

[00:17:10] What do men do, when they want to take their offense to the next level, when they want to respond to an offense? Usually men get physical, right? What do women do, when they want to get back at you? They, they destroy your character. They gossip. That’s what, that’s just what women do. Men, a man will punch you in the face, A woman will tear your, your reputation to shreds behind your back.

[00:17:33] That’s what women do. So let me break this down for you. The Pope was meeting with these bishops and he was reiterating the church’s ban on gays slash homosexuals in the seminary. And he went on to say, there is already too much faggotness in the church. Faggotness or faggotry.

[00:17:50] There’s too much faggotry in the church. And I gotta tell you, faggotry is a very, very funny word. It’s one of those words in the English language that just sounds funny. I get that [00:18:00] it’s, it’s a rude word, but to me words are just words. It depends on how you use them, right? But some words in the English language are just funny, like cracker is a funny word to me.

[00:18:10] It’s just a funny sounding word. Faggotry is also another sound, funny sounding word. And I just think it just sounds really funny. The thought of the Pope saying there’s too much faggotry in the church, to me is just hysterical. So that was what he said. Alright, closing out this segment. Francis has a reputation for having a salty tongue, especially in private.

[00:18:31] So while the reported anti gay slurs shocked many, they didn’t seem out of character to people who know him. “I’m obviously not justifying his use of an offensive term, but it’s normal for him, in private, to speak very, very directly. Papal biographer, Austin, uh, LeVray, I think is his name, Austin LeVray, has said he doesn’t talk like a politician, I guess, in private.

[00:18:58] I think that’s very promising to know. You know, when you’re a public figure, I mean, folks, do you think I talk like this in private? I mean, mostly I do. Um, but I, I do clean up my speech a little bit when I’m in front of a microphone. Everybody who, everybody who has a public face or a public voice cleans up or dresses up sometimes, sometimes out of, out of a, a, a sometimes it’s disingenuous.

[00:19:24] They’re trying to present a person who they aren’t. Right? And sometimes it’s [00:19:30]not disingenuous, like it’s not disingenuous for me when I try to clean up my presentation, my vocal presentation. Right? It’s just me being professional. It doesn’t shock me if the Pope has a, quote, salty tongue in private. It doesn’t shock me at all.

[00:19:46] I would expect that. I would expect that the Pope we see in front of the camera and in front of the microphone is softer than the Pope that, uh, people are seeing and hearing more of. Behind closed doors that that I would expect that but what did kind of surprise me from this story is Where where it said as I just read it in private.

[00:20:10] It’s normal for him to speak very Very directly. There are two varies in the story and that’s a direct quote in private It’s normal for him to speak very very directly the papal biographer said again. It doesn’t surprise me. It shouldn’t surprise you In fact, I find it very promising now Having said that,

Pope’s ‘Salty Tongue’

[00:20:29] CA: I would like to know what goes on in the Pope’s head.

[00:20:33] When he says some of the things he says in public, I would like to know how did he formulate this thought privately? Or how does he talk about it privately to others? You know, when he’s talking like to his closest confidants, you know? For instance, Do you foresee there will be any ever female priests or deaconesses?

[00:20:56] No, that no was great. That was [00:21:00] fantastic, but I wonder how did that come together as he was thinking through it? You know privately or talking about that subject Privately, how did that come together? Holy Father, do you think we should ever have female priests or deaconesses? Are you crazy? Listen to me. I have a question to ask you No, no serious sit down sit down.

[00:21:22] I have a very very serious question to ask you. Are you a stupid? Are you a dumb? Tell me true. If you are stupid I must have your resignation today because that is a very stupid question. Will we ever, holy father Will we ever have female pre, no stupid. That is a stupid. Are you crazy? Are you loco? Homie, homie, homie Escúchame, homie, listen to me.

[00:21:55] No, shut up. Stop talking. No, stop the talking. Are you a stupid? Because what you say right now is stupid. I made the Pope so Spanish in that first day. I made that Pope more Spanish than Ricky Ricardo in that. But that would, listen. Would it be funny? Or would it not be funny? If that’s how that went down in private?

[00:22:17] Are you a stupid? Do you want me to punch you in the face? And now the camera’s rolling. Holy Father, will there ever be female priests? Mmm, no. Man, oh man. I’d like to be a fly on the wall, [00:22:30] boy. I would love to be a fly on that wall. So there you have it. I think I kept that down. Oh, Lord have mercy. That still ran longer than I That’s supposed to be a 15 minute segment.

[00:22:40] 15 minute segment. 20 minutes at most. I’m already, my timer says I’ve been talking for 35 minutes, but you’re not going to know it because by the time this gets to the editing flow, it’s going to be 10 to 15 minutes guaranteed. And that’s the pulse.

On ‘The Chosen’

[00:22:58] CA: The news is crazy town. If you want it to be crazy, you need to report on it. Crazy town. Hope you enjoyed that. Now, I wanted to say a few things about The Chosen. Now, like me, you’ve probably seen every Jesus movie that has ever been made. You’ve probably seen every other religious movie that has ever been made.

[00:23:26] For instance, the Ten Commandments was not a Jesus movie, but it’s a religious movie, right? The Chosen is very, very different. It’s very different from the rest. Probably my favorite one of all time has got to be, my favorite Jesus movie, has got to be, um, The Passion of the Christ. Probably my second one, my second favorite, I guess, religious movie of all time, Ten Commandments.

[00:23:51] My least favorite, well, apart from Jesus Christ Superstar, my least favorite is probably The Greatest [00:24:00] Story Ever Told. Hard to believe, right? The Greatest Story Ever Told, the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, to me, was the worst movie ever made, or at least the most boring movie ever made. But that’s just me.

[00:24:15] Coming, coming at it from the perspective of, like, production, right, like a producer’s eye. Worst movie ever made. The most drab storytelling. Um, just bad. I didn’t like how they, I didn’t like how they presented what’s in the Gospels. I thought they missed a lot of really good opportunities. But whatever.

[00:24:37] We’re talking about The Chosen. I resisted watching The Chosen for a while, at first, because I expected it to be a modern day Jesus Christ superstar. I really did. I expected it would be very modern, um, or modernized theology. I expected that it would be not faithful to the Gospels, like to the factual Gospel accounts.

[00:25:01] Um, I just didn’t, didn’t expect it to be enjoyable at all. But I was very surprised, as I started watching it, very surprised that I liked it very, very, very, very much. Now, I did send out to the locals, I did ask people, you know, do you watch The Chosen? And if you do, what do you think of it? Mostly opinions were positive, some were, were, were critical.

[00:25:25] Most of the critical ones were rational. I didn’t agree with them, but they were rational. They came [00:25:30] from rational people, people that, you know, I don’t think are crazy. And some of them were, some of the responses were a little silly. For instance, did someone said that it’s not biblical? Because it’s not, because the script doesn’t, the script is not the Gospels.

[00:25:47] The script is written around the Gospels, it includes the Gospels, but the script is not the Gospels. For instance, and this is, this is true, the characters, Jesus, the Apostles, and everybody else, they talk like, they talk like it’s modern day. Western civilization. It’s certain idioms and phrases that they say, certain wisecracks that they make.

[00:26:08] Um, they talk with a, what they would call a Jewish accent, but they’re saying very modern things, bro. I just made that one up, but it’s that kind of thing that you see, that you get in the show. Okay. So, it’s not like, you know, you know, It isn’t like forthwith that thou shalt find something that’s more They don’t talk like that.

[00:26:35] They talk like it’s a modern day production. Or a modern day story. Okay. But they are pretty faithful to what’s in the Gospel. They’re pretty faithful to what’s in the Gospel. With some stuff, they take a little bit of creative license, but for me, I didn’t find that they took such creative license that they actually changed the Gospels.

[00:26:57] I didn’t find that at all. [00:27:00] There was one moment that I didn’t find it shocking. I was actually very impressed with how they dealt with it. Jesus visits the Blessed Mother, or he returns to Nazareth, and of course he’s staying with the Blessed Mother, right? That’s his, that’s the home he grew up in. Um, Joseph is gone at that point, so they remained faithful there as well.

[00:27:22] And Jesus is talking, they’re sitting down to eat, Jesus is talking to his mother and he says, Where are James and Jude? Or Judas, I don’t remember. But those are the two men, I think those were their names, who are named as Jesus brothers, biological brothers, blood brothers, right? Of course, as Catholics, we know that Jesus had no biological brothers.

[00:27:43] He’s an only child. Protestants believe he had biological brothers. They believe that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but that after Jesus, she and Joseph had other children, which is nonsense. It’s untrue. It’s completely untrue. But what’s interesting in in the Chosen, and I’m sharing this because it’s going to give you, it’s kind of, it will clue you into how things are treated in the series.

[00:28:10] What they did in the Chosen is Jesus asks that once, where are Jude and, and, and I think it was James. And Mary says, well, they thought with everything going, because by then Jesus was gaining popularity. And she says, well, they thought with everything going on, they didn’t want to distract, uh, or whatever.

[00:28:27] I think she, I think that’s what she said. They didn’t want to be distracting or [00:28:30]distract people’s attention. So they decided it would be best that while you’re here, that they stay somewhere else. And that was it. That was all that was mentioned of them. And I think they were referenced one other time in that episode, and they were just referred to as the boys.

[00:28:43] You know, when the boys come back, or something like that, they weren’t actually named then. And at no time were they referred to as Jesus brothers. But if you know what’s in the Gospels, when you hear this exchange between Jesus and Mary, you know that’s what’s going on. He’s talking, you know, he doesn’t say, where are my brothers?

[00:29:01] But the way he’s treating them, it’s obvious they’re talking about people who the Protestants think are Jesus brothers. But they don’t actually say that. And that is the only time they are mentioned, and we never see them. We never see them. So I thought that was very interesting. The way they’re trying to appeal to as many.

[00:29:21] How can I put this? Mainline Christians is possible. I found it to be pretty faithful to the substance of the Gospels. So far, I’m still in the middle of it, but so far, pretty faithful to the substance of the Gospels. They do take some creative license. Okay, I don’t care too much about that. As long as you maintain the substance of the theology, which they do.

[00:29:45] They get some things a little bit off, I notice. There was one Reference, Mary was talking about how awkward her marriage was because she was pregnant. She was already pregnant, and, and she implies that she was showing, but we know that that’s not [00:30:00] true. That when, when Jesus was incarnate in the womb of Mary, she was already betrothed slash married to Joseph.

[00:30:06] We already, we, we, we know that to be true. We believe that to be true. So, that little component. In the storytelling was false, but it’s not treated as an important point. It’s just part of the storytelling, it’s just part of the narrative, this exchange that the Blessed Mother has with Mary Magdalene. And it’s just a completely, it’s a passing point.

[00:30:28] It has no importance at all. So I was okay with that, but I did catch it. But I don’t really catch a lot of stuff. I don’t, nothing has really made a red flag pop up in terms of its faithfulness to the theology, to the Gospels. If you don’t watch it yet, you should consider it. I was a little hesitant, but I find that I’m really, really, really enjoying it because it draws you into the humanity of Jesus.

[00:30:53] Usually all we get is the divinity of Jesus, and he’s wearing a human body. But the Chosen really draws you into the humanity of Jesus, and I think it does it very, very brilliantly. In a way, I almost feel like I’m learning about Jesus for the first time, because I’m in touch with His humanity in ways that my imagination doesn’t do, the reading of the Gospel doesn’t do, and past Jesus movies have not done.

[00:31:21] Really really powerful, really very moving. I will also say this, too. I am very surprised. [00:31:30] That, so far, the Jesus in the series, who’s excellent, Jonathan Remy I think is his name, he’s excellent. The Jesus in the series does not shy away from tough lessons. He does not shy away from, so far, from hard truths.

[00:31:49] Now, people who are very, very strong to the right, they’re going to say, no, Jesus doesn’t call down fire and brimstone enough. He doesn’t zap people with lightning bolts enough. That’s going to be out there. I don’t find the Jesus character to be loosey goosey. Could he be a little more stern? I don’t know.

[00:32:09] Maybe a little. But I’m actually surprised, uh, that the Jesus character in the series So far has even said some, some hard truths like about, you know, separating the wheat from the chaff kind of thing. You’ll have to watch it for yourself. Anyway, you can watch it on, you can watch it for free. If you download the, um, what’s that app called?

[00:32:34] The chosen. That’s the app chosen. You can download it and watch it for free. You can download it on your device. You can download it on Apple TV. I don’t know if it’s probably available on, Google’s version of Apple TV. I don’t know. All right, that having been said, the Chosen gets my seal of approval. 

Return of the Church of ‘Arianism’

[00:32:52] CA: Now let’s talk about a return of the Church Heresies.

[00:32:56] I said at the top of the show I am not saying that Aryanism is making a [00:33:00] return. What I’m saying is the attitude, the culture of the Aryan Heresy has made a return in the modern Catholic Church. I had previously expected, but there is absolutely no way I will ever have time for this, unless I’m paid for it and it becomes my job, I expect, I was hoping, planning even, to do a short series on this, but then I just decided, you know what, let me just make it a little simpler because there’s no way I’m going to have time to do a series on this.

[00:33:30] So here’s how I’m going to do this. I’m going to read to you from a book called Reading the Scriptures with the Church Fathers. By Christopher Hall. Read it a few times. It’s very good. Pick up a copy. Uh, you won’t regret it. And I’m going to read to you what he says about St. Gregory, I think this was Gregory of Nyssa.

[00:33:56] It was either Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of, uh, Nysanzas. I don’t remember which Gregory he’s talking about here. I think it was Nyssa. Anyway. He’s gonna talk about Gregory’s response to this. To a subset of the Aryans called the Unomians. I think I’m pronouncing that right, the Unomians. As I said, Aryanism was, uh, it was a very destructive heresy, nearly tore the church apart.

[00:34:29] And [00:34:30] what has always been shocking to me, that despite the church’s authoritative teaching on the matter of the Trinity, Aryanism continued. Amongst the lay people, presbyters, bishops, deacons, unbelievable to me. Because you would think, well, if the church officially declares something to be so, then the matter is closed.

[00:34:57] But folks, now we don’t have modern day doctrinal teaching, but we do have modern day authoritative teaching on existing doctrine. We get that today. And even today, there are Catholics who say, Nope. Nope. It is not that way. It is not that way. My friends, if you’re among those who are saying, Well, until there’s an official council, I don’t have to believe anything.

[00:35:23] My friends, if I’m begging you, if that’s what you think, I’m begging you to hear what I’m telling you. That is exactly how Arianism started. Until there’s an official council, I don’t have to believe it. When the Holy Father says something, unless he’s saying something that’s actually heretical, which so far he has not, when the Holy Father says something, it carries an authority.

[00:35:50] It may or may not have absolute authority, right? For instance, um, an encyclical and a bull do not have the same [00:36:00] authority. I don’t know which one has greater authority. I used to know, but I’ve forgotten. They don’t have the same authority. But the Second Vatican Council absolutely has authority. You can’t pick and choose which councils you’re going to trust.

[00:36:15] And you can’t find, I’m sorry, ridiculous reasons for saying, well, because this and this and that and that, I don’t have to, I don’t have to follow that council. Oh, yes, you do. Or, or you’re just part of the problem of the resurgence of the Aryan heresy. I’m sorry, that’s just true. Enough said about that. We do have a church today where people are picking and choosing what kind of authority they will permit the church to have.

[00:36:45] Whether the church is the Pope, or the church is the Magisterium, or the church is the Synod. I understand not all of these things have equal weight and authority. I understand that. I understand that. But we cannot have Catholics pretending that none of them have even advisory authority. Or teaching authority.

[00:37:06] We can’t pretend that they have no authority. We can’t. Because then we’re Protestants. Let me get down to it. This, what I’m about to speak now is coming from the book and I will interject here and there. Gregory’s attention appeared to focus on radical Aryan, on a radical A radical [00:37:30]Aryan group known as the Unomians.

[00:37:32] How do you get more radical than Aryans? Okay. The Unomians. This group, now listen carefully. And, I want you to pretend that we’re not talking about the church of the past. Pretend we’re talking about the modern church. You might even want to pretend that we’re not talking about Unomians. You can fill in some other group category there, and you choose what category you want that to be, depending on what you hear, um, is, is fitting, okay?

[00:37:59] This group exalted their supposed ability to plumb rationally the depths of the divine being itself. The Unomians believed they could clearly comprehend the divine essence and distinguish the relationships between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the use of reason alone. Who does that sound like to you, folks?

[00:38:26] If you are particularly sharp, you might first say, you know what, that actually sounds like atheists. Well, it does, doesn’t it? But wait. There’s more. Let me back up. So you normally believe they could easily comprehend the divine essence and distinguish the relationships between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the use of reason alone.

[00:38:50] Anyone with an ounce of sense, they believed, would surely recognize that there was only one God, the Father. To predicate [00:39:00] further personal distinctions within God’s being was to speak incomprehensible gibberish. In fact, there was scant room in Unomian thought for incomprehensibility or mystery of any sort.

[00:39:19] Does this still sound like atheists to you? Starting to drift from atheism, but yet it still kind of echoes the modern atheist, right? Let’s keep going. The Unomians, now listen carefully to this one. The Unomians were a cocky, self assured bunch. Ready to use rational syllogisms, or syllogisms, I don’t know what that word is, and I don’t know how to pronounce it, pardon my ignorance.

Theological Methodology

[00:39:45] CA: Ready to use rational, I don’t know, arguments, to poke holes in the ideas of their opponents, but all the while blind to the drastic implications of their own theological methodology. All the while blind to the drastic implications of their own theological methodology. In other words, their conclusions were flawed because their theology, their, their theological methodology was flawed.

[00:40:18] Okay? I’ll give you an example. The Pope is a heretic because he says humans have infinite dignity, but only God is infinite. Okay? . [00:40:30] So that’s, that’s a flawed theological methodology. And I know there are probably priests who are saying the same thing. I’m gonna tell you a secret. Any priest who says that is a liar.

[00:40:43] Pause for effect. Any priest who says that, the Pope is a heretic because he says humans have an infinite dignity and only God is infinite and that’s the heresy of yadda yadda. Any priest, folks, any priest who you have heard say that, he is a liar on purpose. Because a priest knows for damn sure the difference between what is heretical and what is not.

[00:41:05] Cough. And any priest worth his salt who has gone through nine years of formation can work out this problem in his sleep. And if he is a priest, then we know he’s not stupid because you actually have to have a head on your shoulders to go, to successfully go through nine years of formation in the seminary.

[00:41:24] So if you know of a priest who is saying, that’s heresy because only God is infinite and therefore human dignity can’t be infinite, that priest is willfully, knowingly lying to you. You can tell him I said so.

[00:41:40] Here is what I would consider proper theological methodology on the question of the infinite dignity of man. And I think I’ve said this in the past too, like either on a show or on socials when this question has been presented to me. This is the cover of my blood, blood of the new and eternal covenant or testament.

[00:41:59] It will be [00:42:00] shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Let me ask you something. How can something be new and eternal How can a covenant be both new and eternal? Heresy! Blasphemy! So my treatment of that is, the law is never new. The law has always been so. The covenant has always been, right?

[00:42:28] You know, Moses said you could be divorced, but from the beginning that has not been so. Truth does not have a beginning. The covenant does not have a beginning, even the law doesn’t have a beginning. Our knowledge of it has a beginning. God, who is eternal, is the chief legislator of the law, or of the covenant.

[00:42:49] And so, the covenant is eternal, even though for us it’s new. The covenant we enter into is new for us, but that has always been so. Feel me? What about human dignity? Well, where does human dignity come from? Because God didn’t create human dignity. Did you know this? Human dignity, where do we get our dignity from?

[00:43:10] God, right? Let us make man in our own image and likeness. God is eternal, right? Let us make man in our own image and likeness. So, there’s going to be the image, image and likeness can be seen as two different things, but we won’t go there. Image and likeness coming from [00:43:30] God, that means our dignity is eternal because it comes directly from God in His image and likeness, and He is eternal.

[00:43:36] It comes directly from God. He didn’t create it and put it in us. It comes from Him. And that is how human dignity is, is eternal. And, admittedly, before That document, uh, Dignitas Infinitae, I think, before that document, I had never in my life considered human, uh, dignity is infinite. I never had to. So when I first heard that, I thought, huh, that’s peculiar.

[00:44:03] But then I tried to work it out. Apart from just reading the document, this was my thought process, what I just shared with you was my thought process.

[00:44:14] And so that’s what I worked out. That, I offer this humbly, okay? I’m not saying I’m like, I’m not like some great theologian, but I would offer that that is proper theological methodology, okay? To say that, well, human beings can’t have infinite dignity because only God is infinite, that is, I’m going to be charitable, that is flawed theological methodology.

[00:44:43] Severely, severely, now understand if that is what you thought too, Well, I also thought that only God is eternal. Well, that’s okay, because that’s what most, that’s what everybody would, would, would think. But you’re not trying to apply theology to, to, to the question. Right? This is just [00:45:00] what you, and to me too.

[00:45:01] I wasn’t trying to apply theology to the question until I tried to. My first thought was, well, only God is eternal. But this is what the church is saying. This is the document the church has put forward. So let me apply theology to it to understand how it’s correct and true. Not to question it, not to challenge it, but to understand it.

[00:45:24] That’s the difference between correct and incorrect theological methodology. Let me go back to the book. The Unomians were a cocky, self assured bunch ready to use rational syllogisms, syllogisms, I don’t know, to poke holes in the ideas of the opponents, but all the while, blind. To the drastic implications of their own theological methodology.

[00:45:50] Folks, Who is it sounding like to you now? At first it sounded like atheists, right? Now, who does it sound like? If you’re saying it sounds a little like Radicalism, you are correct. And if you consider yourself a traditionalist, please don’t be insulted Because not every traditionalist is a radical But every radical is a traditionalist.

[00:46:14] Well, forgive me. I was about to say every radical is a traditionalist. That’s not true. There are radicals on the left, too. There are radicals on the left. And really, I’m including them, too. This sounds like radicalism, right? They’re cocky, they’re self assured, and I [00:46:30] can, I can tell you, their theological methodology at first is good, but the more you press them, the more you see how flawed their theological methodology becomes.

[00:46:44] How flawed it becomes. It becomes so flawed. I have had, I have had radical traditionalists quote and cite theology that came from Protestants. Worse, came from Protestant, um, I will call them Reformationists. But they didn’t know that this theology that they were voicing came from Protestants. They didn’t know that.

[00:47:11] And that’s fine. Again, I’m not saying I’m like the master theologian. I’m not. I really am an idiot. I’m an idiot who’s done a lot of reading and a lot of study across a lot of years. That’s it. That’s all. I’m not saying I’m the master. But here’s what I am saying. I know the difference. I know that, here’s the difference I know.

[00:47:34] If I do not understand why 1 plus 1 is 2, I can’t just take it and delete it. I don’t understand why 1 plus 1 is 2. Okay, then 1 plus 1 must not be important. Well, I know that that’s a problem, right? I don’t understand this formula. Well, then it must be wrong. Or I don’t understand this formula. Well, therefore, it must not be important.

[00:47:55] So I won’t try to think it through. I won’t try to understand how, or [00:48:00] let’s just say, 1 plus 1 plus 1 times 2. That would be six, right? So, I can’t say, well, I don’t understand how that gets to six, so it must not be important. No, I think it through, right? The Unomians did not, and radicals today, on the left or the right, do not.

[00:48:20] If there is something that the church states or teaches that they do not understand, they just throw it away and deem it unimportant. Let me fast forward. Gregory of Nyssa. Chided the Unomians as amateur theologians. Stop. Does that sound familiar? Amateur theologians who know everything that isn’t so.

[00:48:42] Does that sound familiar? If it doesn’t, you’re not paying attention. Because after, it’s 2024, so roughly 24 25 years experience. With radical traditionals, I’m sorry, radical traditionalists, and Sedefakantists, and radical lefties, I can tell you they are all amateur theologians. 25 years ago, I thought they were great.

[00:49:08] Because boy, could they make, could they make error. sound like good theology. Oh man, I had stars in my eyes, boy. I couldn’t believe it. Like, oh man, that’s great. I want to be able to think and reason just like them. I’m not even kidding, that’s really what I thought. If you don’t know, if you don’t follow the show regularly, then you don’t know this, but the radical traditionalists [00:49:30] and the Sedevacantists nearly had me snagged.

[00:49:33] I was very nearly a Sedevacantist. Very, very nearly. But things kept blipping on my radar, and I said something doesn’t seem right with this reasoning. That’s another story. Go back to the past episodes. I don’t remember which one. It’s in the descriptions of the episodes. I talk about it. I think it might have been, um, True Church, False Church, or Beware the Two Churches.

[00:49:56] I think it was that episode that I talked about that. Anyway, Gregory of Nyssa tried to them as amateur theologians, and they are. They are. They just are. And if you ask them, now this is gonna, this is some ancient, uh, not ancient wisdom, so much as ancient humor, I guess. If you ask, this is from, according to Gregory of Nyssa, if you asked the Unomians for the price of bread, they would tell you, the father is greater than the son.

[00:50:25] And the, if you ask them for the price of bread, they would tell you the father is greater than the son. And if you want to order a bath, they would reply that the son is made out of nothing. I have to be honest with you, and I’m not saying all traditionalists do this. It’s the radical ones. No matter what you do or say, they try to make it a theological revelation.

[00:50:47] They try to work it into some, like, theological point. He’s, now Gregory is being comical here, or humorous, but he makes a good point. [00:51:00] That there are amateur theologians who theologize everything, even when it’s not necessary. I And they do it badly and poorly. Back to the book. In the first theological oration, Gregory, uh, concentrates his attention on how the Enomians read scripture and do theology rather than on their specific errors.

[00:51:20] I don’t know if you know this, folks, but a few of the Church Fathers do that. They, they focus on the methodology more. The flaws of the methodology of theology. Not more than the error itself, but in order to show how bad the error is, they start at the methodology. And I do that in debate and discourse, and that’s where I learned it from.

[00:51:43] I always, I don’t want to say I focus, but I definitely include in my arguments why the opposer’s argument is fundamentally flawed. Why the thought process is flawed. Why the reasoning is flawed. Why the substance is flawed. Before I get to the conclusion of the, uh, of the error. Anyway, it does not surprise him that they are making crucial errors because their attitude from the beginning is faulty.

Sound Tone of Mind

[00:52:15] CA: He stands against them, opposed to both their system of teaching and their tone of mind. Folks, if you have a bad tone of mind, you can’t learn anything. If you have a bad tone, if you, for instance, if you think you have everything [00:52:30] right, you’re not going to learn anything. You, you won’t be teachable if you think you have everything right.

[00:52:35] You will not be teachable. You will not be teachable. If someone says something that you swear is false, even though you’ve never quite heard that before, but you swear it’s got to be false, that person may be right, and you will never know. Right? If that’s your, your knee jerk reaction to it. And I can say, I can say that from experience because I was like that for many years, from my youth.

[00:53:02] So, I can tell you from experience, it’s hard to have a good tone of mind. And for me, and I’m just an example. I’m not saying I’m like, the example. I’m just an example. I’m just one among all of you, you know. I’m not, I’m nothing special. For me, it is a daily effort. To have a good tone of mind when it comes to learning and deepening my understanding.

[00:53:25] It’s a, it’s daily that I have to re commit to that. And for, for most others, it’s going to come more easily. For me, it’s, it’s, it’s a real effort, you know. But you have to have a good tone of mind if you expect to learn, to know, to understand truth. Any truth. Now this is running long, so I’m going to fast forward for a minute.

[00:53:49] Because this is something very, very important that I want you to hear. Spiritual health and hermeneutical acumen cannot be separated. I’ll say it again. [00:54:00] Spiritual health and hermeneutical acumen cannot be separated. Those who speak of God must be persons who have been examined by the believing community.

[00:54:10] is according to Gregory of Nyssa. But I can tell you he’s not the only church father who thought so. Those who speak of God must be persons who have been examined by the believing community. Those who are past masters in meditation, that, now this is a quote from Gregory, are past masters of meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least, are being purified.

[00:54:36] So you don’t have to be in a state of perfection, but at the very least, you have to be well along the road. That’s what he’s saying. How can an impure eye study the pure? For weak eyes safely gaze upon the sun, Gregory asks. This touches on a point that I have made in the past one or two shows, one or two episodes, where I’ve said a person’s spiritual health means everything to their receptivity of the grace necessary, required, to understand truth, especially theological truth, scriptural truth.

[00:55:16] The Church of the Aryan Heresy, there was a lot of pious acts, but there was not a lot of holiness. I mean, it was present, but it wasn’t throughout the Church. It was very [00:55:30] much lacking in many ways. We see that today, don’t we? There are people who go to Mass every day and say 38 rosaries a day, and there’s not a lick of holiness in them.

[00:55:42] There just isn’t. They just check it off. Okay, now I’ve, I’ve, putting on the armor of Christ means putting on the costume of holiness, I guess. It’s a costume. And we see that, if you, if, and if you’re not seeing it, look a little closer. A lot of people put on a pious appearance, but their hearts are black as tar.

[00:56:03] I’ll give you an example. I’ll give you, I’ll give you one example and believe me, this example represents the whole, it truly is the rule. Get this.

[00:56:17] I had an exchange with someone on social media a few months ago. In this exchange, this was what I, someone who I would consider a radical traditionalist in this exchange. I don’t remember exactly how this came up, but, I said to the person, you can’t believe everything you see. Just look at, look at Nazi propaganda videos or propaganda films.

[00:56:45] Can’t believe everything that you see on a screen. And I said, you know, look at the Nazi propaganda films as an example. I’m not calling you a Nazi. I’m just making the point. Now, that’s basically what I said. And I was, I was very intent [00:57:00] on saying, I’m not calling you a Nazi. I might not have said it in that very extreme, in that, in that very moment.

[00:57:08] Yeah. Here’s what happened. So I said, you can’t believe everything you see on a screen just because you saw it on a screen doesn’t make it. So just look at the Nazi propaganda films. And then I also gave an example of a film. It’s kind of a mock, a mock video on YouTube, making the case that the destruction of the death star was an inside job.

[00:57:28] And it makes a very strong case. You know what its material is? The Star Wars movie. They’re using actual footage and quotes from Star Wars. But they recompose it to tell a different kind of story. Which is really brilliant. We know that the destruction of the Death Star was not an inside job between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

[00:57:49] We know that. We know that because we’ve seen all the movies, right? But you can remanufacture any truth you want. Using factual material. This person on YouTube did it very brilliantly. The Nazis did it. The Ku Klux Klan did it, right? So that was basically what I said, and he said, you’re calling me a Nazi.

[00:58:12] That’s what liberals do and yada yada yada. I says no, I didn’t call you a Nazi. You can tell from what you read You can tell the point I’m making from what you read there. I’m not calling you a Nazi I don’t play that game and I said this twice in two separate exchanges. I am NOT calling you a Nazi Sorry [00:58:30] that you saw it that I’m sorry if you misunderstood.

[00:58:32] I said, I don’t know how you could have misunderstood. It’s very obvious I’m making a point. I didn’t even conclude with the whole Nazi propaganda thing. I concluded with the Star Wars thing. Okay, fine Wouldn’t you know, this guy continues to bad mouth me and slander me saying, I called him a Nazi. I called him a Nazi.

[00:58:48] I called him a Nazi. This is what modernists do. This is what the communists do. Nazi, Nazi, Nazi. And so everyone else picked up on that and everybody was slandering the Catholic adventure because he called, he called a Holy Catholic, a Nazi. Now this Holy Catholic knows damn well that I was not calling him a Nazi.

[00:59:06] This Holy Catholic, I don’t care that people slander the Catholic adventure. I really don’t care. It’s just the shock of it that Just being intellectually honest, how could you go there, but then calling yourself, you know, I’m a holy, holy Catholic, and you slander it. Okay, look, and maybe this person misunderstood the first time, but then I clarified twice, twice.

[00:59:33] And after seeing and responding to the clarification, he continued to slander me to tell the story he wanted to tell. And it was literally a story he wanted to tell. It was, it was about 20 percent fact and 80 percent he completely made up the facts, made up the details. I, uh, okay, and I’m sure he’s at mass every day, and I’m sure he’s on his knees 20 hours out of 24.

[00:59:56] I’m sure that’s so, and yet, [01:00:00] he’s a liar and a slanderer. Who does that sound like? Who does that sound like? A liar and a slanderer. Who does that sound like? What do those two traits and characteristics sound like to you? But I’m sure he’s at mass every day. Okay. And Satan is an angel. That doesn’t mean anything.

Spiritual Health, and ‘Truth’

[01:00:20] CA: Bring this back to the point as I bring the show to a close. Your spiritual health determines, or your spiritual health conditions your mind and soul to receive the truth. If you are of poor spiritual health, even if you’re praying every day, if your heart is not in it, if your heart is not in it, doesn’t mean you have to pray like a saint.

[01:00:46] But you have to be praying fairly well. Your heart has to be in it. And you’ll know the difference between your heart being in it and you just wanting to recite the prayers. You’ll know the difference. If your spiritual health is poor, you won’t be able to receive the light of truth. Put it simply like that.

[01:01:06] Because the spiritual, now, the spiritual health of the lower case c church is fairly poor. Where it’s strong It’s strong like the saints. I have seen it in action. Where the spiritual health of the church is strong, it is mind blowingly strong. Mind blowingly strong. [01:01:30] Unfortunately, and maybe just naturally, it’s not common.

[01:01:35] What is more common? Well, I don’t want to say if it’s more or less common, but what is fairly common is that the spiritual health of the lowercase c church is pretty poor. Even And especially amongst those who have so much to say about theology. Especially amongst those who have so much to say about theology.

[01:01:58] And it’s not just on the right, it is also the loosies on the left. They have so much to say about what the church teaches and Vatican II and Spirit of Vatican this. And their spiritual health is lacking. And that’s why their comprehension of the truth is lacking. And that’s why there are radicals on the right and there are radicals on the left.

[01:02:21] And it doesn’t matter what the Pope says, what the Dicastery for X and Y and Z says, what traditional church teaching, it doesn’t matter. They will either choose not to see it for what it is, or they will be unable to see it as it is. Because they’re proud, they’re arrogant, self assured, they’re good. They want the truth that they want, and because they’re of poor spiritual condition.

[01:02:53] During the period of Arianism, the church totally authoritatively declared [01:03:00]Trinitarian theology is the truth, and any deviation from it is heresy. And still people held on to it. We’re seeing the same thing today. So be spiritually active, I guess, is the best way to put it. Be spiritually active. Active or proactive.

Saint-ing is as Simple as This

[01:03:20] CA: You don’t have to pray like a saint to become a saint. Just pray well. Pray like you. Just pray well. Because God will bring you to that state where you’re praying like a saint. You won’t even have to try. That’s just gonna be, that’s just gonna come natural. God will make that happen. Have faith and trust in everything the church teaches.

[01:03:41] Anything the Pope says, assume that he’s got it right. If you want to verify, if you want to do some reading and research to understand better, please do that. That, that just makes you human. That just makes you normal. But always assume that he’s got it right. I’m not the Pope’s number one fan. There are things he says that I’m like, I wish he hadn’t said that.

[01:04:04] Or I wish he hadn’t said it that way. Or, and I continue to say this, I wish he would just stop getting in front of a microphone. Although lately he’s been kind of impressive. But I always assume that what the Pope’s saying is, is, is correct, is the truth, reflects established church theology, and it always has.

[01:04:22] Have a spirit of humility and docility. Hmm? Be prayerful, but just pray like you and let God take you to [01:04:30] higher places in your prayer life. Read the scripture, meditate on it 15 minutes a day. If that’s tough, then start with 5 minutes a day and work your way up to 15 minutes. That doesn’t mean you have to read 15 minutes worth of scripture.

[01:04:43] You can meditate 15 minutes on a single line that stands out to you, that stands out for you. You can just browse through some of the pages of the Gospels or the Old Testament, whatever you want, and look for something that stands out for you. The Holy Spirit will prod you, don’t worry. It might be a word, it might be a line, it might be a paragraph or a verse, right?

[01:05:05] And you can meditate on that. Doesn’t mean you have to read Scripture for 15 minutes, although that would be great. But if you’re reading Scripture for 15 minutes, that is not meditation. Forget it. Do read the Scriptures. But what I’m saying is when it comes time to, to prayerfully meditate on the Scripture, that means pick something out that jumps out at you.

[01:05:26] It might be a word, a sentence, whatever. Pick something out and only focus on that for 15 minutes. Close your eyes and think about it. Beyond that, trust everything that the Church teaches and do everything that the Church teaches. Everything that the Church teaches, just do. Just do. Well, it’s too hard.

[01:05:45] Okay. Certain things that the Church teaches may be hard for you and easy for somebody else. And then something else is going to be easy for them. I’m sorry, it’s going to be hard for them and easy for you. But always approach it like the [01:06:00] Church is teaching the truth, no matter what. And always put it into action.

[01:06:04] Always make your best efforts to put it into action. And you’ll, and you will be a saint. I’m telling you. You do that, you’re going to be a saint. I mean it. If you do that, you will be a saint. Sainthood is in the trying, not in the achieving. God handles the achieving. Don’t you worry about that. You can’t, you cannot achieve achievement.

[01:06:26] God brings you there. All he asks of you is the trying, the effort, the work. And the trying involves failing. Yep. Yep. It involves failing. The hurt and the shame and the pain of the failure. Yes, it involves that. And then you get up, which is also painful. You get up and you go again. And this time you go longer, better.

[01:06:49] And then maybe you fail again. Whatever the teaching is. It could be something like gossip, which is an example I bring up a lot because gossip for me was really, really hard to get rid of. Really hard to get rid of. Could be something like that. Yeah. It could be something other than that for you or anybody else.

[01:07:10] But the point is, holiness is in the trying, right? It’s in the trying, God brings you to the achieving. So if you try your damnedest, and you’re prayerful, and you pray like you, let God worry about the rest, you just pray like you, and let God take you higher, put forth the [01:07:30] effort in doing everything the church teaches, which includes the commandments and the gospels, of course, yes.

[01:07:35] But, Just to break it down, everything that the church teaches, just try your best to do all of that well. Let God worry about the achieving it part. Pray like you, do everything the church teaches, or pray like you, try your damnedest to do everything that the church teaches. And at least hold it in your mind and heart to all of it be the truth.

[01:07:57] That’s the start. And then put it all into practice as best as you can. Yes, you will sometimes fail. You will. Let God sort that out. Go to confession, get back on the horse, let God sort it out. God will bring you to achievement. Pray like you, God will take you higher. Try like hell, God will bring you to achievement.

[01:08:18] Pray like you, try your best, you’re gonna be a saint. It really is that simple. It’s not easy, it’s not always pleasant, but it really is that simple.

[01:08:30] It’s not easy and it’s not always pleasant, but it really is that simple. I had to say it twice, because it sounded so nice.

[01:08:41] In conclusion, just to recap something that I said at the top of the show, I don’t know when I’ll be able to do another long form podcast. I can tell you now, this one is already wiping me out. Um, but I do have time to do short form stuff. So if you like what you [01:09:00] get here, Thank you first for listening.

[01:09:03] Maybe I’ll be able to produce another one in a couple of weeks. Maybe not for another month, maybe not for another two months. I really don’t know, but I, I sure can’t do it. We’ll do it every week. Like I used to, but I do regularly put stuff up on locals and on the socials, um, that’s short form. Sometimes it’s as short as a minute.

[01:09:23] Sometimes it’s as long as 10 minutes. But it’s not an hour, hour and a half, because I just can’t do that right now. So if you like what you’re getting from here, please do follow me or, or join up on my Locals community, catholicexperience. locals. com. Follow what I do on socials. Now you can follow me all over socials and that doesn’t mean you’re going to see anything that I post.

[01:09:50] Because it really comes down to the algorithm, whether or not the algorithm wants to distribute what I’m, what I put up there, you know, and who it wants to distribute it to. But if you can follow me on, on, on my socials, go to this address. I’m going to give you my link tree again. Link. T R dot E E. L I N K T R dot E E.

[01:10:13] Linktree, right? L I N K T R dot E E. Slash Catholic Adventurer. Linktree slash Catholic Adventurer. When you go there, you’re going to see links to everything I did recently. You’re going to see the link to [01:10:30] my website. You’re going to see links to all my socials. You’re going to see, um, links to My podcast catalog, which you’re probably already getting.

[01:10:37] You’re going to see, um, Did I say link to the locals? You’re going to see everything that you’re going to be interested in will be there. L I N K T R dot E E. Really stupid URL. That’s not a URL you can just say. That’s a URL that you have to explain. Really, really stupid. I don’t know why they do that.

[01:10:53] Anyway, L I N K T R dot E E slash Catholic Adventurer. Linktree slash Catholic Adventurer. Duh. It would really help me out if you follow me on Locals. Trying to get to 50 members. That would really help me out. Even if you could, even if you sign up for a free membership on Locals, that really helps me out.

[01:11:14] If you sign up for five bucks a month, that helps me out even more. I would really, really appreciate it. This has been the Catholic experience. I’ve been a very tired, worn out host, the Catholic adventurer, signing out of here. Thank you for listening, folks. God bless you. God be with you all. See you on Locals.

[01:11:32] I’ll see you on Locals, right? I might be doing an after show. Just not today. So if you’re interested in seeing an after show, that’s for paid members, five bucks a month. Follow me on Locals, whether you do it for paid or for free, follow me on Locals. Hope to see you there. CatholicExperience. Locals. com.

[01:11:46] God be with you. God bless you. Bye bye.