Welcome to the Bishop Strickland hour. My name's Terry Barber. I'm with Virgin,
most powerful radio.
And I have the honor each week to interview and have Bishop Strickland talk
about his tweets and then open up the catechism of the Catholic church to share
the good news Bishop Strickland.
Thanks again for taking the time to share the gospel with our listeners.
Thank you, Terry.
Hey, Bishop Strickland. I, I got a quote here, uh, you know, BI, uh,
Scott Hahn, Dr. Scott Hahn is someone I go back 30 some years ago.
I recorded his original conversion story and I've listened to everything
that man has ever done.
It's given me a great education on the faith and you tweeted,
uh, something that he said on the Eucharist. I,
I just wanna share it with the listeners and then tell me why you did it. He,
Scott Hahn said in every Eucharist,
we reenact that Easter Sunday at AMAs,
Jesus reveals himself to us in our journey.
He speaks to our hearts in the scriptures,
then at the table of the altar and the person of the priest.
He breaks the bread, the disciples begged him, stay with us.
So he does though.
He had vanished from our sight and the Eucharist as
at MAs, we know him and the breaking of the bread,
your thoughts.
Well, I, I shared that because I,
I share your appreciation of, uh, Dr. Scott, hah,
and just that really needs
to be, we need to constantly remind ourselves of that.
That really every mass, as, as we know, is,
is a little Easter. Yeah.
And that whole experience of the risen Lord,
that the early part of the acts of the apostles speaks of that we have a lot of
those readings for the Octa of Easter, um,
that really needs to be constantly, uh, revisited and,
and prayed over and just absorbed that.
That's what we're doing. The mass, isn't just another ritual.
It's not as has been promoted in our lifetime so much.
It's not primarily a, a family meal.
It's a sacrificial offering of the son of God,
to the father for all humanity. And that's what every mass is.
It's,
it's the capturing the power
of the resurrection on that altar at every single mass.
And we just have to keep emphasizing that for me as a Bishop for priests and
deacons mm-hmm ,
and for all of the laity to really Terry,
the more we can emphasize that the more we will be
reverent be focused, be God centered,
be everything that we should be at mass.
The more we enhance that Eucharistic faith just recently,
I was encouraged once again,
in my work as a Bishop to focus on Christ and the
blessed sacrament mm-hmm and on his sacred heart. Amen.
And to know that his sacred heart is a living heart present with us
in the great mystery of the son of God.
Now having returned to the father, he's at the right hand of God,
the father with the holy spirit,
but he's also here the same Jesus that was
conceived in the womb of Mary born in Bethlehem, all the stories of the gospel,
all of those, uh, the AME story, um, the,
the new Testament Jesus is with us.
And we need to just deepen our faith and deepen our commitment to live
in his light. If we really know him, I can speak for myself,
Terry, the more deeply I know him, I'm still a sinner.
I'm still weak and can be tempted, but it does make it easier.
The more it's like he's a Lord
and a friend. Yep. That you, you personalize it.
You don't want to offend him. Yeah. It's not just, oh,
I don't wanna break the rules. It's just like,
I'm sure that we had relationships. My parents weren't perfect.
I'm an imperfect son. They weren't perfect parents of course,
but they were the kind of parents that I didn't want to disappoint.
And that's the personal relationship we need to have with the Lord
that we don't want to disappoint him, look at all he's done for us.
And I do disappoint him and I humbly return to confession and say,
Lord, forgive me. And we need to, I need to, we all do.
But that quote from Dr.
Hahn just reminds us of the reality that he's there
and we need to deepen that and
reinforce it in every way that we, we can.
There're different things that really deepen our faith for each of us.
But we need to, to look for those things, the power of God's word. Yeah.
The imagery of the sacraments, celebrating them reverently.
And I would encourage the,
the people that are listening to us. Now,
if you're disheartened by the lack of reverence of people around you,
or even by the priest or deacon, that's there at the mass. I mean,
we're all human. Sure. We can all lose that. Focus,
know that you can minister to them by demonstrating,
not in some showy way,
but simply being reverent dressing.
Well for mass, not, it's not about how expensive it is,
but are you there to greet the king,
your Lord and savior your,
your Royal master that is Christ in the,
in the Psalm for today, we, the Psalm speak,
the Psalm sprain speaks of our glorious king. Um,
and he is king of the universe and we have the chance to
encounter him. You know, I get carried away with .
I like the need for istic, faith and Eucharistic reverence. Amen.
And that's why I quoted Dr.
Hahn because he reminds us of some essential things that we
can't let go of, whatever form the mass takes, right.
It needs to be centered on Christ and his offering to God,
the father with great reverence and love and awe.
We need to be in awe of everything that happens from the beginning
of the mass to the end, because Christ is there in different ways.
And in his Eucharistic presence, he becomes physically present on that altar.
We need to just deepen that faith and live,
according to what we know to be the truth.
Well said, Bishop Strickland, and that kind of sets up your next tweet.
You're quoting Bishop Athenasius Snyder. Who's been on your show a couple times.
Uh,
he wrote a book called the Catholic mass steps to restoring the centrality of
God, the liturgy. And I've read the book and I've been promoting it.
And if people want to get a copy of it, they can go to V npr.org.
It's on our website.
It really is a beautiful book on reverence and also explaining what the mass
is. You quote it on April 23rd in a tweet,
a Catholic mass by Bishop Snyder. Uh,
you quote a Cardinal way back in 15, 12.
It was a, it was a, in such interesting. It was that the council letter,
letter and council, the fifth one. And, uh, I love the quote.
It's very simple, but it's profound.
It says men must be changed by sacred things
and not sacred things by men.
That seems like it was written for us today 500 years later.
Yeah. And that, I love that quote as well, Terry,
because like you just said 15, 12, I mean,
that's that predates? the Protestant reformation. Yeah.
And he's already this Cardinal yeah.
Is feeling the need to emphasize that. Yeah. So yes,
we get concerned,
deeply concerned about the lack of reverence and the attempts to,
to reshape the sacred in our image. Instead of recognizing,
we have to look to God to know who we really are because we're created in his
image and likeness, um,
what that Cardinal said all those centuries ago. Like you said, it,
it could be a Cardinal speaking now and I'd be applauding him for saying that
because it needs to be said, but I think it's, it gives us some,
uh,
consolation and hopefully strength to stay with the truth that
even in 15, 12, long before or decades,
at least before the Protestant reformation,
a Cardinal of the church is still feeling the need to emphasize sacred.
Things are about changing and shaping us to be more
in the image and likeness that God created us to be in, in a sense,
really, in the light of that quote,
we can say that sin distorts that image and
likeness that we're originally created to be,
that's why the immaculate Virgin Mary is such a wonderful model. Amen.
Because she never had to endure the distortion of
humanity, the distortion of a human woman.
She is protected from that distortion, which is sin.
And so she is full of grace
because she did what that Cardinal is warning that
we need to be aware of. She was changed by the sacred.
We need to do the same. And thankfully we have the same potential.
We're all sinners.
That will always be part of our reality.
Part of the description of who we are,
hopefully repentance centers, amen.
That's the kind of sin we need to be constantly repenting more and
more deeply.
But the immaculate Virgin area is the model of being changed by the sacred.
And it is, I'll say it, it is diabolical,
whether it's in 15, 12 or 2022,
it is of the devil to be changing the sacred, to look more like us.
That is not what it's about. We are meant to be changed by the sacred.
That touches us to be more like we've been created to be,
to be children of God.
Well said, when we come back, we've got a pro-life tweet.
Can't do it with every week. We have to have something on the pro-life side.
This quote, I think will cut your heart. Stay with this family.
You're gonna be blown away. When you hear this.
Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland hour, Mary Barber here at Virgin,
most powerful radio, I've got one more tweet.
And then we're gonna run into the catechism. What are we gonna do?
We're gonna go to paragraph 1691, part three, the life in Christ.
So if you can get your catechism out in a few minutes,
we'll be going to that Bishop Strickland.
There's two things you speak about every week.
And I really respect you for this,
the holy Eucharist and defensive unborn babies,
and our lady. You talk about all these things and it's not like it's, um,
brilliant insights. It's fundamental teachings about our Catholic faith.
And I think it's just what we need. So you tweeted this.
And I remember for the first time reading this years ago, and I was like,
wow, look at the way God designed this. Wow. Okay.
Here's what it is. It said in your tweet,
you said some of the cells of a baby remain in the mother's body,
even after delivery. Okay. We knew that, but check this out.
Folks research has shown that if a mother's heart is
injured,
fetal cells will rush to the site of the injury and change it into different
types of cells that specialize in mending the heart.
What is that? Awesome. I love it. Bishop Strickland, how I, you know,
I I'm sure you, you saw that didn't that just touch your heart?
Oh, absolutely. That's why I tweeted it.
It's such a beautiful reminder of how foolish,
how foolish we are when we think we can do better than God.
And we can ignore his laws and just reshape things. Again,
according to our image, according to what we've decided,
and it's such a poverty,
it's such a foolishness that we need to wake up to God's
plan is
light years beyond us.
as the very best plan, because God is love. Yep.
God's all of his commandments.
All of his designs flow from his reality and
God is love. And what, what a beautiful, beautiful,
scientific fact that we've because of the great science that
God has allowed us and given us the talent to develop,
we can know something like that. Yeah. I mean, it's just amazing.
And there's so many amazing things that go on in the whole
development of, uh, one child in the womb after conception.
It's just the, the things,
if I don't see how anybody could study that
and say, they don't believe in God,
this stuff doesn't just fall together. It's by design.
And it's beautiful. And I mean,
to imagine those cells of a
baby that happened to be left in a woman's body. Yeah.
Going into action to actually those, I mean,
we hear about those plural potent cells. Yes.
That scientists love to violate life and,
and manipulate.
Let's just allow God to be the Lord of life and be in
awe and always protect what he is doing
and trust that his will is always flowing
from his love for us, which is his very existence.
It's just, uh, it just blows you away. It does, uh,
to see that wonderful design of God.
I love it. It made me think of what Fulton sheen said in the quotable sheen.
The final form of hatred of religion is a wish to defy God.
And to main one's to maintain one's own evil in the face of
his goodness and power. If that's not abortion, then I don't know if,
what else he's talking about in other words, uh,
how somebody can kill an unborn baby and think that it's,
it's a good thing to do when it's so evil,
it shows that, um,
they don't have a clue about goodness and the goodness and power of God.
They've, they've totally closed off to that. And so, anyhow,
thank you for that tweet, cuz it's a powerful tweet.
I'm actually gonna use that at a men's conference this weekend. Uh,
I'm gonna add that into my talk because I just think that is so good.
I'll be in tie. I'll be about an hour from Tyler, Texas. I'm gonna be at, um,
uh, St. Anne's parish and uh, you can pronounce the city. It,
it Coppel did I Cappel Coppel Texas St. Anne's parish.
If you're in the air with all those people who already contacted me and Tyler
who said, they're gonna come down and see me from California to tech, to Tyler,
I'd love to see you at the men's conference. It's happening this weekend,
April 30th, Bishop Strickland.
I wanna shift gears right now to open up the catechism of the Catholic church
to par to the a paragraph 1691.
The section of the catechism is part three of the, of the catechism.
And it's under the life in Christ and it's gonna cover
conscience. It's gonna cover the dignity of Christian Christians.
Things that I think are so important for us, but are fundamental to the faith.
So I'm gonna read paragraph 1691 folks,
and then I'll have Bishop strictly comment on it.
Christians recognize your dignity. I love it.
And now that you share in God's own nature,
do not return to your former base condition by sinning.
Remember who is your head and of whose body you
are a member? Oh my goodness.
Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness
and brought into the light of the kingdom of God.
Holy macro. when I read that paragraph Fisher Strickland, I go, man,
there's a lot in that short paragraph.
Absolutely. It is deep with meaning and powerful truth.
A quote from St. Leo, the great. Yep. Um,
and it just reminds us of the
significance of baptism and the responsibility
of living that baptism
Christian recognize your dignity from
really what this emphasizes to me, Terry, is that
what baptism does?
It opens the door for us to share
in the live saving action of Jesus Christ,
his live death and resurrection.
Our baptism makes it all available to us.
Mm-hmm the balls in our court after our baptism.
And that, as this says, uh,
do not return to your former base condition by sending,
but instead live who you are. I mean, this,
this paragraph really says so much.
It really is a catechesis just in one paragraph and
what baptism means. Yep. That recognize your dignity.
And we hear a lot about that and in various circles of
the dignity of, of people and, and how that needs to be guarded.
But the greatest dignity is to be transformed,
to have our sins washed away and given the life of God through baptism and
really what it reminds us of Terry is it that
door remains open.
If there's anyone we know who has baptized,
but is not living in a Christlike way, we can all make that choice.
We all do. To some extent, we're all sinners,
just because we've been baptized, it doesn't make us immune to sin. Right.
But it does make us able to constantly return
to that state of grace as we call it in the Catholic faith to
live in the state of grace is to return to that original
place where we were when we were baptized.
I love to think about, I mean, of course as Catholics, we have infant baptism.
Mm-hmm , you can be baptized later,
but we believe that as the,
the can law and the catechism says it shouldn't be delayed
unnecessarily. I think I was baptized 10 days after I was born.
And you were probably about the same. Yeah, because that was the norm back then.
Sure. It needs to be more the norm. Once again,
there's no reason to delay a baptism. There does need, I mean,
the can law says a well founded hope that this person will live it.
And that's just reminding us baptism. Isn't some sort of magic ritual,
but it's a transformation sharing in the life of God being freed
from our sins and sharing in the life of grace.
We need to constantly seek to return to that state of grace.
Anytime we've wandered,
that's the original place we need to come from.
And you know, when we sin,
we wander down a dark path away from the light.
But the great thing is,
and what I want to emphasize to anyone and everyone listening.
It's never too late to return to that state of grace and baptism.
And for us as Catholics,
we're blessed with the sacrament of confession that
returns us to that state of grace.
I love to think about newly baptized infants.
Mm-hmm we talk about six or seven years old.
I think the official number is seven, probably with your kids. I mean,
I've talked to a lot of parents and they're saying, uh, Johnny's only five,
but I think he's there. I'm with you the age of reason. Yep.
But what's that about?
It's are we mature enough to choose right and wrong?
Definitely.
A one or two year old child is not old enough. That's right.
They're just beginning to figure out what life is and who they are
as we all are for the lifetime. But you know,
a two year old can't sit and I love to, I mean, they could drive us crazy.
Yeah, they do. They can be, you know, they can get into stuff.
They can even do themselves harm. Yep. If we allow them to,
they need our guidance. They're very vulnerable, but they can't sin.
But at a point,
every one of us reaches that age of reason where we begin to
have our own personal responsibility and we sin
and we wander off at probably some of the earliest sins for all of us
are breaking one of the commandments. Hopefully not in the most serious of ways,
but honor the father and the mother,
we break that because we get to be Brighty kids that are
not wanting to do what our parents tell us.
And hopefully we learn to be respectful and to be
obedient and to recognize that's not just good etiquette,
but it's part of being, living our baptism.
It's part of not returning to that former base condition.
You got it well said, Bishop Strickland. I, uh, I wanted to mention,
I have a two year old grandson and it's so important to give them formation.
Even at these early stages, they watch everything.
We took him to the good Friday, uh, session, uh, you know,
service at the church where we venerated the cross. When he went home,
he picked up a crucifix like this and started processing and asking
everybody to kiss the crucifix .
Yeah.
But you see whatever good or bad they pick it up.
Now my wife and this is the last one I'll share it. Why two years old?
He, my wife treats my feet because that's all your nerves are in your feet.
And she has this device that helps me with my circulation.
And because I have painful feet, my grandson said, grandma,
I want you to treat Jesus's feet where he has wounds because he hurts too.
Really? And that's two year old.
Now he's getting the idea who Jesus is at age two.
And while by the time I bet he's five years old, six years old.
He'll be getting close to that age where he'll be able to receive Jesus in the
holy communion. I'm already setting above for it. Hey, stay with us.
We'll be back for, with the Bishop Strickland hour.
Welcome.
Back to the Bishop Strickland hour.
We're talking about the catechism of the Catholic church,
but I just wanted to give a good news story. Bishop Strickland.
I I'm constantly asking mom and dad to stand up for their children in
regards to the secular world that we're living in and whatever is undermining
the Catholic family. Uh, that's what we have to, uh, uh, stop fending,
stop supporting. Well, uh,
Disney loses 50 billion in stock value as its pro L G B
T activism, intensifies, mom and dad. I've talked to the parents,
they're stopping their subscriptions. They're not supporting, uh,
videos or movies that they're gonna buy from Disney.
And they're shutting them down because they're undermining their kids.
And I think this is a,
a good thing that parents are standing up to things that are gonna undermine
their children by boycotting. 'em. Now I'm not much a big guy on,
on this boycott,
but I think it's a good thing to stop supporting companies that
undermine the family.
Well, Terry, I, I agree, um,
parents as the,
the catechism teaches us and it just makes sense besides being
Catholic teaching, it's just good, common sense.
Parents are the primary educators. Amen.
And just like your you're talking about with your two year old grandchild. Yeah.
Yep.
Children are made by God to be like sponges.
Exactly. They pick up on everything and the good and the bad. Exactly.
And parents need to be very aware that they think,
oh, Johnny's only two. He is not here in this horrible language,
or he's not here seeing these images that,
that don't fit with nature and creation. Um,
we parents need to be aware and we need to support them.
The children are picking up on things. I mean, we were kids once,
of course. And I remember, you know, seeing things that probably were,
I mean, not, you know, pornography or anything,
but just inappropriate things for a five year old to see. Sure. And it,
you remember it and maybe something violent or something just
beyond that age. Yeah. That they just don't need to see parents.
And I know it's exhausting for good parents because there's so much out there,
but they need to be vigilant.
And I applaud the parents that are saying, you know,
it's not about boycotting Disney.
It's about guiding your children in the way of truth. Amen.
It really,
really loving them as a mother and a father really loving your
children. As I say so often the greatest charity,
the greatest love is the truth.
And you're not gonna allow that two year old grandson or daughter
to, um,
just do whatever they want because you know, they've got to be,
even at that age guided in the truth. And as they get older,
it gets a little more complicated and they're asking more questions and their
free will kicks in. all that a parent can do.
Or a grandparent is try to guide them to shape them
in the right direction. Ultimately,
we all have to make our own choices and these parents are helping
their children to know the dignity of the person,
just like the catechism talks about to live your dignity.
And what Disney is promoting is the greatest lack of
dignity in a devastation for the human person,
because it's not the truth.
And we can get away with ignoring the truth for a while,
but it catches up with us.
Loving parents are going to do everything they can to help their
children know what the truth is so that when they get old enough,
they're saying that that's what I want. I want to follow Jesus. Amen.
I want to live his truth. They make it their own.
That's the challenge and the joy of being parents.
Great advice for mom and dad. Thank you, Bishop Strickland.
Let's move back to the catechism paragraph 1692 under
the part three life in Christ, the symbol of faith confesses,
the greatness of God's gifts to man in his work of creation
and even more in redemption and sanctification.
What faith confesses,
the sacraments communicate woo.
By the sacraments of rebirth.
Christians have become children of God partakers in the
divine nature, coming to sea in the faith,
their new dignity, Christians are called to lead,
hence forth a life of worthy of the gospel of Christ.
They are made capable of doing so by the grace of Christ
and the gifts of his spirit,
which they receive through the sacraments and through prayer.
Wow. I just, Bishop Strickland, when I read these paragraphs,
it's so rich that, you know,
this is why I encourage people to get the catechism because they're getting more
in that paragraph.
I'm sorry to have to say that all week probably of catechesis in their life.
This is really good stuff. What are your thoughts on that paragraph?
Well, I, I totally agree.
It's in so many of the paragraphs of the catechism. Yeah. I mean,
you could really break it down sentence by sentence sometimes
phrased by phrase. Yeah. Yeah. And,
and very significant truth that we need to,
to hold onto for our dear life. Yep. Um, it,
it strikes me, it says the symbol of faith confesses,
and some people may say, what are they talking about?
What's the symbol of faith.
And we know that that is one of the ways that a creed or profession of faith
is spoken of, um, a symbol of faith it's.
And I think it's a great reminder that we really need to
listen to what we're saying. And I mean,
parents could make it a very simple thing to just every Sunday
at mass, when we make that profession of faith every week,
take one of those phrases and talk to their children about what does that mean?
I know a lot of parents are overwhelmed because we weren't well, catechized,
at least I wasn't, uh,
as a kid because it was not the time of good catechism. Yeah.
I did. I went to public school.
I had a great family and that's where I learned the faith.
But as far as formal catechetical classes,
they weren't strong.
They simply weren't a good people trying to do their best,
but they weren't being guided by the church. Well,
in the 1960s and seventies and beyond,
so that poor catechesis that parents of today are dealing with and now
grandparents, it,
it puts them in a very vulnerable position and they feel inadequate,
but really the profession of faith, it's not, I mean, it,
it expresses some very hard one and deep
theology that,
that took counsels to get it figured out fully God and fully man,
Jesus Christ, who he is, but it's there. Um,
the profession of faith is something is a great catechetical
tool that every parent can use.
And if there's a phrase that you're really not sure what that's talking about,
you can always do a little research, but I would encourage us.
And what I try to do,
even celebrating mass is really get a little
louder and a little more emphasis on, I believe in one God. Amen.
I believe in Jesus Christ. Amen. I believe in the holy spirit,
I believe in the one holy Catholic and apostolic church,
we need to wake up to, this is what we believe.
This is the symbol of our faith. And it,
it troubles me sometimes. Yeah. That, you know,
it it's easy and our human reality,
you get used to something and it's easy to just drone through it.
And if somebody just said quick,
did you make the profession of faith? And it's like, oh, oh, uh,
I think I did, but you have no recollection of it because you're daydreaming.
And you're thinking about the pot roast you're gonna have for lunch instead of
really focusing on. So,
and that's part of what we have to do for reverence.
And the liturgy is really listen. Yeah. Really be engaged. Sure.
We all get distracted. Even the priest presider can get distracted,
but discipline ourselves out of reverence for the Lord who
is there to,
to bring ourselves back into focus and to really listen to what we're saying.
I mean, the catechism is great,
but we can also simply praying the mass can be a great
catechesis if we really listen to what's there.
Well set again. And this paragraph again, I, I,
I just wanna encourage people to open up their catechism at least once a week.
I'm just gonna make a quick comment that here I am, uh, in,
in my mid sixties,
and I'm still reading the catechism on a daily basis. And I'm telling,
telling you, I get fed by that. I get fed by good holy books. The,
the diary of St Faina has great stuff. I mean, there's so many good books,
but I wanna encourage our listeners, uh,
to get into good Catholic book and read it and get, you know,
your scriptures that way lives of the saints,
because we're in competition with the world right now.
What I mean by that is they're competing for your air time.
in other words, some TV show that's useless, right? Uh, you know,
maybe I love Lucy reruns. I don't know. Maybe you like the three Stooges.
What does that do for you entertain you,
but I wanna encourage you to spend that time on things that will have
eternal values of your soul for all eternity,
but that's why I encourage people to open up the Bible and your catechism
to really study your faith.
And that's what Bishop Strickland does with us every week.
If this is your first time, you're listening to the show,
we have lots of other shows on our website V npr.org
and, uh, Bishop Strickland before we have a minute and a half before the break.
Uh, I wanna promote also the Institute that you have,
uh,
because I think people need to know about what your Institute has as resources.
Now. Thanks Terry. It's the St.
Philip Institute website as they on the screen,
or if you're just listening St.
Philip institute.org Philip with one L the only.is
between St. Philip Institute and.org, uh, a pretty easy,
uh, website to access. There's some great resources there.
Some podcasts of, of discussing what it means to be,
uh, Catholic, what the, what the catechisms talking about.
What's it mean to live as a baptized member of the body of Christ as a child of
God. So the Institute, we've got some great young people, half my age,
who you're doing a great job,
because they love the Lord and they love their Catholic faith.
So I encourage people to check out the Saint Phillips.
I also encourage you when we come back, I wanna ask Mr.
Bishop Strickland about partakers of divine nature.
What's that all about here on
welcome back to the Bishop Strickland hour. We're on paragraph 1692,
and I love this par this little sentence in there. What faith confesses,
the sacraments communicate by the sacraments of rebirth.
Christians have become children of God,
partakers of the divine nature, Bishop Strickland.
I just think that is so awesome to think about what baptism does for us,
your thoughts.
Absolutely. Terry, it transforms us.
And one thing that the church teaches is
something I know you're very familiar with, but the,
probably many of us kind of forget about.
And I think that's what it's not using the same language,
but it's really talking about that indelible character that
we are marked with in baptism. Mm-hmm, really,
it's another way of saying partakers of the divine nature.
We are marked as children of God.
The book of revelation speaks of those marked by the lamb.
And that, that is what is who we are with our baptism.
Yep. It really, Terry I'm so glad that you were wise enough.
I didn't think of it, but ,
these paragraphs are essential. Yeah.
For our time. Ah, man, for this very moment, um,
because there's a lot of darkness out there,
a lot of evil and a lot of confusion and brokenness
in the world. And even in the church, as we talked about, you know,
Bishop's writing a letter to the bishops of Germany,
I'm I feel compelled yes.
To sign a letter like that saying live Christ.
Basically what these paragraphs are talking about
is exactly what every man,
woman and child on the planet is called to.
And for any leader of the church or a leader of any kind,
any mother or father to be advocating a path that leads
people away from this is simply wrong and needs to be spoken out
of that. That's the greatest love we can have, as I say so often.
And I just feel the need to emphasize to people
not to be fearful,
but to be awake and to make clear decisions
to follow in the light of Christ.
And if they're corners of your life, which is true for all of us,
I just went to confession yesterday. Not because always a holy guy,
because I'm not as holy as I need to be. And me too,
we need to constantly seek a deeper holiness and to know
that's our greatest joy, that's our greatest fulfillment.
But as we look at these paragraphs,
I just urge people to really make their decision for
themselves. And for those who are responsible for families,
for husbands and wives to, to make decisions together,
like those parents we were talking about with, uh,
not so much boycotting Disney,
but just because they're guiding their children in the truth of Christ
to live these paragraphs, right. To live their baptism, to say, no,
not for me in my house. We're gonna serve the Lord.
We're going to be true to Jesus Christ. Yeah.
People need to be aware that these,
these are threatening times. We can't be complacent.
We can't just say, oh, that, you know, there's just a lot out there,
but we're okay.
We have to be strong in Christ and whatever comes down the road,
we need to be guided by the light of Christ and stronger than ever.
If it's been a while, since you've been to confession go,
and if you don't have,
if the priests in your area don't provide enough confessions,
tell them father, please make it more available. We're sinners.
We need the sacraments. Thankfully, many priests work very hard,
but I wasn't well formed as a priest in too many ways
I've grown. And we all,
all of us can acknowledge that we're we're failed sinners,
no matter what the formation we receive and no matter what our
background, but we can always do better.
And I would urge people to what I keep praying
constantly repentance, reparation, and atonement,
because there's much evil in the world.
And we can't as Christians. I mean, what this is talking about,
don't go back to that former based condition.
That's pretty strong language. Yup. And a lot of people would say, oh, well,
how dare they speak of human beings in a base condition?
But that's what sin does to us. Yeah. And that's,
what's needs to be rejected with clarity and charity,
as you always say,
but with the clarity we need to simply say no to Satan
and who is the father of lies?
We say no to his empty promises,
we say yes to Christ and people need to seriously
take their life in Christ as the treasure that it is,
and not take it for granted because when we take things for granted,
it's easy for it to be taken away from us.
And I'm not talking about some conspiracy or some, you know,
threat of prophecy or, I mean, there's all sorts of stuff out there.
I'm just saying, let us be aware.
It's not just our time when we talked about, uh, Cardinal from 1512.
Yeah.
And he saw threats to the sacred threats to the life in Christ that
we're called to as the baptized.
I just urge people to be awake and alert just like St.
Peter says in one of his letters be awake because
Satan is prowling like a serpent seeking the ruin
of souls. That's,
that's the reality that we face that always has been. Yep.
And we need to be sober and alert.
Amen. There's a short paragraph.
And we'll end the show with paragraph 1693 says
Christ.
Jesus always did what was pleasing to the father and always
lived in perfect communion with him. Here's the catch here it is.
Likewise Christ's disciples are invited to
live in the sight of the father who sees in secret in
order to become perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
Wow.
wow. That's nice and perfect. As your heavenly father is perfect.
Yeah. From Matthew five. Yep. Verse 48. Yep.
It's so easy for us. And I think we live in a time Terry,
where people have said, ah, that can't be true. That can't be exactly.
He didn't really mean that we believe he.
Did. Amen.
And of course, perfection is beyond us. Right.
That's why the church strongly reinforces our belief
in purgatory. Yep.
Because it says we must be perfect as our father is perfect
since we aren't,
we should be grateful for that purging fire that
ultimately brings us the perfection that we're not capable
of. That's what we believe we can choose and do our best.
And because we just celebrated divine mercy Sunday. Amen.
Because of the mercy of God,
he's willing to fill in the gap in our lack of perfection,
but it goes back to what partakers of the divine nature.
We can't be partakers of the divine nature if part of us
is not of God. Amen.
And when we sin where that part of us is not of God.
So we need to be perfected by God's grace.
We have to cooperate with that. We have to make our choice to say, yes,
father, I want to live your grace.
But ultimately we trust in God's grace and his
abundant mercy to forgive us and to guide us in the light of his son.
Well said, I was just thinking while you were talking there,
Bishop Strickland about the book of revelation that says nothing but perfect and
pure will enter the kingdom of God.
And so purgatory is very scriptural in
saying that. So I always joke with people. I'd rather do my purgatory here,
cuz the saints have told us it's better to do our purgatory here
than in the next world.
And I wanna just give a comment and give me your response.
But we talk about self denial as Christians and purifying our
will. And discipline, you talked earlier in the show about,
it seems to me that the Opus day spirituality talks about
walking away from a good dinner, uh,
where you didn't add the second amount of potatoes that you really like,
or maybe you didn't eat the dessert that you would really like the apple pie.
And the principle is that you say no to yourself at every meal. In other words,
moderation. Now that's easy to say hard to do,
but I find that these are sacrifices that
make me stronger. Am I onto something Bishop Strickland?
Oh, absolutely. And what strikes me is you're talking Terry is that,
that it's the best for our health. Oh it is.
It's best for every aspect of who we are. Yeah.
To not overeat and to, to pay attention and to eat the right things and to,
you know, even, I mean, probably you were raised the way I was. Yeah.
If you put it on your plate, you need to eat it.
Oh absolutely.
Well, and that doesn't mean, well,
I just pile as much as I possibly can fit on the plate. You,
but once you do put it on your plate,
you you're judicious about what you choose and then you don't waste it,
but you eat it. And that that's very simple. I mean,
how many parents have tried to teach their kids that,
but it is woven into Christian virtue. Yes.
Into living as children of God means that we eat
healthy and we sustain ourselves and keep ourselves healthy.
But we don't Gorge ourselves and certainly don't eat the things
that ultimately are not healthy for our bodies. Uh,
so it all fits together. It's one truth.
Well said, Bishop Strickland. Um, you mentioned divine mercy, Sunday.
And we all went to confession over the weekend and people were, I mean, I,
at a parish, I was at in long beach.
The pastor has the priest in the confessional, even during mass. And he,
he doesn't buy the idea that you can't celebrate two sacraments. In other words,
the people were in line. They wanna go to confession and he got him in and uh,
he just in his homely, he said, man, it's like starting all over.
You take advantage of divine mercy Sunday. So here's my point.
Before I ask for your blessing,
it's not too late for people still to go to confession and receive those graces.
I, I understand it's like a week or nine days between the Fe. Is that,
is that still the case? How many days? Sure.
It's never too late. Oh, there you go. Um, absolutely.
All right. Could we get your blessing please?
Sure. Heaven, father,
we ask your blessing for all of us. As we continue through this Easter journey,
help us to know that the light of your son shines as brightly as ever.
And that your truth is a truth of love that guides every person
to that perfection, which is beyond us,
but a perfection that you call us to live.
We ask your blessing for all of us in the name of the father and of the son and
of the holy spirit. Amen.
Amen. Thanks again, Bishop Strickland folks,
you can listen to all of Bishop Strickland shows are on
podcasts@vmpr.org.
And there's plenty other shows that Terry and Jesse showed Jesus 9 1, 1,
Terry Maud's practical apologetics,
and many other good shows that help build up the body of Christ.
I want to thank you for listening. Hey God, richly bless you and your family.
And thanks for supporting here, here, and BPR,
Virgin post powerful radio. God love you and your family.