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Drive time and welcome to Catholic drive time this is your host Adrien fona today is Thursday December 28th 2023 the Feast of the Holy Innocents Merry Christmas Christmas to you we’re still in the Octave of Christmas so don’t you dare put down those Christmas lights don’t take down
That Christmas tree but because today is still Christmas and we’re celebrating the Holy Innocence now you may ask what is or who are the Holy Innocents the Holy Innocents are those children who Herod had assassinated murdered because he wanted to kill Christ and so they died in the stead of
Christ now these Holy Innocents these blessed Innocents did not desire to be martyrs but were in fact Martyrs this is opposed to St stepen who wanted to be a martyr and became one now we notice this because St Steph is a feast we celebrate right after Christmas and then St John
St John who desired the same he wanted to be a martyr but he was not he would not die they tried to boil him alive and he would not die but the Blessed Innocents did not desire to be martyrs but were now is there any reason to believe that those children were not
True Martyrs uh were where is the Merit to obtain the crown of martyrdom to this doubt one would say that they would would the goodness of Christ be defeated by the cruelty of Herod could that impious King order those Innocents killed and Christ not crowned those who
Died died because of him so many of the fathers speculated that our Lord sent an angel or himself sent himself to those Holy Innocents in an apparition and appeared to those children and gave them the grace to have their eyes open and by eyes open they’re talking about rationality that they were
Given reason as a divine grace because obviously by natural means they would not have that Grace yet but supernaturally they were given the grace to receive reason and in that moment the Angels explained to them the truth of the Gospel the truth of the birth of Christ and that they were to be
Killed for Christ and they were given an opportunity in that moment to consent to that Grace and according to the fathers they all accepted it and were then baptized by their blood and so then they are thus considered true Martyrs now the thing to meditate upon especially on the Feast of the Holy
Martyrs is twofold one would be something that is very personal to a lot of people which is children who die in infancy especially those who are baptized those children who are baptized who die in infancy they are Saints in heaven I pray to them ask them to pray for you I have
A friend who died or his his daughter died in infancy right after they were born he was able to baptize her and she died they had the feast or the the funeral right or rather not the funeral right the mass of the Angels is what they do instead of the funeral right
Because they need not pray for their soul for they know for certainty that they are in fact in heaven and they Maria Castle was the the child’s name and I pray to Maria Castle every now and then when I think about her I’ll pray to her and ask for her
Intercession because she is a true Saint and how many of us have family members that are like that that we can pray to and ask for their intercession we have a Perpetual advocate for us and our very families the second thing that we should meditate upon in regards to the Holy
Innocence is the monstrosity of abortion for these is a taking of the children’s lives who are still in the womb of their mothers these children have not had a chance to be baptized these children how how the most cruel thing possible is done to them it was a tradition of the church
Until very recently that children who were unbaptized would go into limbo and this what was Limbo limbo was considered a place of perfect natural happiness because someone could not enter the kingdom of heaven with original sin but they also did not Merit hell because they did not commit any actual sin and
So they could not go to hell and they could not go to heaven so where did they go well according to St Thomas aquinus they went to limbo and this is the place of perfect natural happiness but they still lacked the befic vision and this is a terrible tragedy and so
For that reason we should be all the more against the sin of abortion so what do we pray for on this feast day of the Holy Innocence what do we pray to the Holy Innocence for well one let’s pray that we have an Ever increase in Devotion to our family members who are
In heaven especially those Holy Innocents and we pray for an end to the scourge of abortion throughout our state throughout our country and throughout the world all you Holy Innocents pray for us joining us right now is Rudy Carlos good morning to you Rudy good morning Adrian and wow St Maria Castle
Pray for us St Maas Garcia pray for us I have a friend who had the same situation and it’s it’s so true that you know like these Holy Innocents we have a certainty that if even if we if we lose our child if we have a situation like for example
Uh this this poor woman here in Texas who uh was considering aboring her child because of Tri 18 which you can listen to that interview on our YouTube page you can search for it we had Kim Schwarz on to talk about that but even even if your child only lives for a certain
Small amount of of time but you get the child baptized you have a saint interceding for you in heaven how beautiful is that how beautiful it is that we have these Holy Innocents that despite they have they had this this horrible decree by Herod uh against them
That we have them in heaven interceding for us that’s incredible amen a little Advocates little Advocates I like that little Advocates that’s really adorable actually that might honestly that sounds like um and I don’t mean a gangster name I was thinking that sounds like you know those uh the tiny
Saints I make I would be like a I’m trademarking that right now don’t use it make a make a little little company that sells little miniature Saints be like little Advocates there are Timothy Tim M our producer is holding up his tiny Saint or his little advocate he has over
There praise be to God well coming up on the show today we got a lot going on at 15 past the hour Timothy Flanders with the meaning of Catholic is going to be joining us we’re talking about the gates of hell oh our lord said the gates of hell
Will not Prevail against the church well sometimes it feels like it has we’re going to talk about that with Timothy Flanders coming up at 15 past the hour we’re going to be talking to him for the entirety of the hour so stick with us and the next hour Alan Smith with Bishop
Sheen today will be joining us and we’re going to talk about Christmas last week we talked about Advent and preparing take making the most out of the last days of Advent and today we’re going to talk about Christmas what did fol and Sheen ask us you and I to meditate upon
During this Christmas season I think it’s going to be a wonderful conversation so stick with us throughout the entirety of the show you’re not going to want to miss not one single moment of it but let’s begin with prayer we’re going to be praying for your intentions we’re going to be praying for
The Salvation of souls the liberty and exaltation of holy mother church for our friends family and benefactors and all those we promise to pray for and that you have a very Merry Christmas in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Ghost amen oh Divine Infant Jesus I
Have recourse to thee please through thy Blessed Mother assist me in this necessity because I firmly believe that thy Divinity can help me I hope with confidence to obtain thy holy Grace I love thee with all my heart and with all the strength of my soul I Repent
Sincerely of my sins and I beg thee oh good Jesus to grant me the strength to triumph over them I resolve never more to offend thee and I come to offer myself to thee with the intention of enduring everything rather than to displease thee henceforth I desire to
Serve thee with Fidelity and for the love of thee Oh Divine infant I will love my neighbor as myself all powerful infant oh Jesus I implore thee again assist me in this need grant me the grace of possessing thee eternally with Mary and Joseph and of adoring thee with
The angels in the Heavenly court amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost amen and now your old new news from Rudy Carlos welcome back to Catholic DriveTime keeping you informed and inspired I’m Rudy Carlos here are your breaking news and stories
For today the Biden Department of Justice sues Colony Ridge for bait and switch sales and predatory financing the suit announced today is filed in the US District Supreme Court or the US District Court rather for the southern district of Texas and states that the massive Housing Development sold plots
Of flood prone land without water sewer or electrical infrastructure all while exploiting a language barrier at the expense of customers a September investigation by the daily wire highlighted how the development’s marketing practices appear to be aimed at people who are in the United States illegally the development sells
Inexpensive plots of land at high interest rates targeting buyers such as illegal immigrants Who are ineligible to apply for traditional loans and the media attacked Johnson for protecting his daughter ABC news Wednesday published a hitpiece against house Speaker Mike Johnson for encouraging his then minor daughter to
Remain absent back in 2015 he says quote ABC News and their ilk have no shame or rather that was actually the Catholic vote director of governmental Affairs Tom mclusky they have made it clear that they have no problem attacking teenage girls if it furthers their perverted agenda and I have another treasure story
For you and I think you’re going to enjoy this one in fact it may even encourage you to go seek some treasure out in your local thrift store the headline is she bought a $3.99 vase at Goodwill $3.99 and it just sold for $100,000 in a stroke of thrift store
Luck Jessica Vincent nabbed a vase from a Virginia Goodwill for a mere $4 a summer little had she know that it was a rare creation by Italian artist Carlo Scarpa the 13.5 in tall m Masterpiece part of scarpa’s elusive penit series it uses a complex glass technique giving
The illusion of brush Strokes Vincent and Avid thrifter additionally expected to pay more but happily accepted the surprise deal after posting about it in a Morano glass group offers rolled in with one member uh proposing $10,000 intrigued Vincent consulted with Wright auction house where she spoke with the founder Richard brigh the
Auction house estimated the vas’s value between $30,000 and $50,000 but the bidding friendly took everybody by surprise Sarah blumberg a glass specialist at WR emphasized the Rarity of such finds especially in a Goodwill sitting the final bid reached an astonishing $107,000 Vincent still catching her breath expressed disbelief saying quote
It’s really unbelievable that my $3.99 vase sold for $85,000 unquote she plans to use the unexpected windfall to renovate a farmhouse she recently purchased that sounds like a pretty good investment if you ask me those are your headline news this morning and thank you for listening to Catholic drive time the
Gospel of the day comes from Matthew chap 2 and you can probably guess what the topic is it is the Holy Innocence of course Matthew chap 2: 13-18 but since we already talked about the Holy Innocence we will skip this and talk about our Lord and our lady and St
Joseph fleeing into Egypt now it’s interesting Cornelius lapid he starts off his commentary saying the reasons why Christ F fled into Egypt rather than to Assyria or any other country is because now what do you think he’s going to say he’s going to say some very beautiful intellectual theological
Reasoning he says because it was near to Judea there you go so that I mean okay that makes sense that makes a lot of sense uh he gives other reasons as well in including spiritual ones I thought that was kind of funny now okay so the third point he makes he says because
Egypt was full of idols and superstition they worshiped dogs crocodiles cats calves Rams goats and whatnot Christ entered into Egypt that he might cleans it from this filthiness and consecrate it to the true God he said listen to the sermon of St Leo the great he says then
Also the Savior was brought to Egypt in order that a nation given up to ancient errors might now be signed for salvation n to come for hidden Grace that she which had not yet cast out Superstition from her mind might receive truth as her guest whence also Isaiah prophesied
Mystically of the same thing saying behold the Lord shall Ascend Upon A light cloud and shall enter into Egypt and all the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence and so St Jerome relates that the idols of Egypt did in fact fall down when Christ came into it
And soan relates that when was an ancient tradition that when Christ entered hermopolis the city of Egypt a lost y tree bowed herself down and worshiped him as god wow praise be to God so many stories like that even cited in the Quran of all places imagine and
From apocryphal books like the infancy of the Savior mindblowing our Lord is true God and the idols who are truly demons recogniz it and worshiped him we’ll be right back with more Catholic drive time time right after this some Protestants like to charge the Catholic church with changing
The Ten Commandments because it omits the prohibition of making graven images found in Exodus 20 but is this true no and here’s the reason why like augus the Catholic Church sees the prohibition of making graven images as merely an extension of the first commandment you shall have no other gods before me in
Light of the context it seems that Augustine was right for immediately after God prohibits the making of graven images he says in verse 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them the prohibition is against idolatry not the making of images in an absolute sense so
The Catholic Church didn’t change the Ten Commandments and it’s not guilty of idolatry and having statues in his places of worship I’m Carlo brard with a ready reason for Catholic answers catholic.com there will come a day when each of us will be asked to review the movie of our
Life and give an account to God we will sorrowfully relive the bad times and joyfully revisit the good thankfully no matter what you’ve done there is hope since Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it so if you’ve been away from church for a while we invite
You to come home and find the peace that only comes from God visit Catholics come home .org and welcome back to Catholic drive time this is your host Adrien fona praise be to God it’s so good to be on with you today during this can you can I can I say it can I say we’re in the Christmas season am I allowed to say
That now or my the mobs going to come after me no praise be to God we made it can you believe it praise be to God uh joining us right now is Timothy Flanders the editor of of well a number of things one Peter 5 and meaning of cast Catholic
Both of those apostolates excellent things something I check every single morning I check 1 Peter 5 to see what’s being put out there every morning before the show so I cannot recommend it enough but there was a new book that just got put out by Timothy Flanders when the
Gates of Hell Prevail what Catholics do in Dark Times good morning to you Mr Flanders praise be to God amen amen it’s good to have you on and I can’t think of a a better topic during our times uh when the Gates of Hell Prevail very provocative title you think uh this is
The the call and cry of so many Catholics during a time of very great confusion great chaos it feel feels like every other day something new comes out of uh out of the Vatican something new comes out of your local Parish something new happens and you’re thinking we’re
Thinking oh is this is this it is it over is this the time and I am very encouraged cuz I was going through your book I was reading through it and I was very encouraged by by the fact that the first chapter titled every 250 years the church faes certain destruction well I
Was very encouraged by the fact that the church is still here after 250 years every 250 years something horrible happening in the church and yet the rumors of the demise of the church have been greatly exaggerated because we see these crisis and we get to the point
Where we’re like there’s no way can survive this I’m thinking of the muhammadan invasion the Battle of leono and yet the Protestant Revolution destroyed the church The muhammadan Invasion threat in the church and yet we’re still here we still thriving and while many Souls leave the faith our
Lady appears as Our Lady of Guadalupe there in Mexico becoming the Empress of the Americas what say you Mr Flanders a couple weeks ago our lady Guadalupe that was an example of one of those times the Protestant revolt you have Heretics destroying things across Europe millions of Catholics are
Leaving the church and then suddenly Our Lady of Guadalupe just kind of comes out of nowhere and a millions of souls come into the church and then Guadalupe comes goes across the Atlantic again and is involved in leono and there’s sort of this just crazy situation and what I
What I kind of gather from history is that uh God works in a way where we really can never expect and predict how he’s going to deliver his church and this is the way of Gideon when when Gideon has his army and God tells him to put away more and more soldiers because
And he says the reason I’m doing this is so that you don’t glory in yourself so that you know that I’m the one who delivers you and this is the this is sort of the way that God delivers his church he asks us for faith at a time
When to our rational fleshly eyes it seems that all hope is lost because it actually is if if we’re just talking about our own human power only with God’s help uh can these these things be overcome so this there these different points where we we talk about wow there
Was kind of certain destruction being faced by our forefather so the book is addressing what did our forefathers concern themselves with how did they get through it how are we to understand that because I think we’re facing another situation like that and every new every new
Situation seems to be worse than last it seems just getting worse and worse and worse but every time God comes through and he fulfills his promises you know it kind of reminds me of your your previous book a city of God versus city of man where it kind of takes you through the
This kind of Journey Through History seeing the the spiritual war which goes right in line with the the fiscal War because we I think we overly emphasize the passage where we say uh we we are War not with flesh and blood but with the powers and principalities because I
Mean quite often we are actually Waring with with flesh and blood uh people are physically attacking us and I think that is something to keep in mind as well is this a kind of a continuation or is chapter one kind of struck me as a summary of city of God versus city of
Man yes it it that that that chapter was written before before I wrote city of God vers man it it was this is a collection of writings that I really began writing this book back in 2019 when I first started uh writing publicly and speaking publicly and so it’s an
Attempt to apply the wisdom of our forefathers that they Ed to get through their times to our times how do we apply that to today and so yeah that chapter one is sort of a summary of the book and it so it allows just a very brief survey
And I think it puts everything into perspective because I think when we see that history it’s a lot easier for us to face something like we are today amen now speaking of seeing things happening in history making it easier to face things today a couple weeks ago maybe it
Was it was last week we talked about um Cardinal Renay and Cardinal Renay in a interview he did a number about a decade ago he was asked by a priest um or he was asked about a priest who said oh these are not the worst times there’s
Been so many times that were worse so we shouldn’t worry so much and Cardinal Ren’s response was well even if it’s the case that it was worse in the past does that mean we should just not be worried about today at all because just because stealing was worse in the past we
Shouldn’t worry about Steelers today and I thought that was a very astute opport um OBS observation and so Mr Flanders tell me about this in history what examples in history do we have to know hey maybe it’s not the worst times maybe it is the worst times but we’ve certainly had other
Crises yeah absolutely I mean the first one that comes to mind is that there was there was just a movie out called Napoleon and that’s a great example of a a certain destruction moment because the church in France faced this genocidal situation where uh Catholics were just
Being butchered but not only that the pope himself was captured uh pas I 6 by Napoleon and Napoleon boasted that he was Pas the last and he captured him and brought him to France and he died there unburied and so and it was Christmas 1800 and there was no Pope so they they
Weren’t able to get a new pope there was just no Pope he had been captured by Napoleon he’s sitting there unburied he mated it’s like wow and and then he goes and conquests Europe Napolean has d destroying the church but Against All Odds they they got together and they
Elected Pas I 7th and they had no resources so they made a paper tiara to put on P iith and it was p i 7th who actually faced down Napoleon and uh faced him down excommunicated multiple times fought him and there was the Holy league and then there was this revival
In France some of the greatest saints come out of France in this this time right when France had had faced the darkest period then there’s the Kur ARS one of the greatest Saints uh the greatest priests uh but the central theme of the book is talking about the
Gates of hell because it’s it’s centered on the devotion of our lady on Holy Saturday because that the the whole birth of Christianity is really in the darkest moment of really all of history which is is the death of Christ where Christ dies he literally dies and the
Book is a reference to the fact that when our Lord says the Gates of Hell the Greek and the Latin are referring to the gates of Hades and uh in Latin and says in fery so that’s the same word that we use in the Apostles Creed he descended
Into the inferos and so it’s talking about death the gates of death will not Prevail and yet Christ himself allows himself to re be literally killed and so he he he allows the Gates of Hell to Prevail for a time or at least according to our eyes of flesh but the idea is
That on Holy Saturday our lady had this unshakable Faith and Hope that God would do something totally unexpected to never less fulfill his promises and so God brings us through this darkest period in order to bring us to the light and that is the very essence of Christianity
Right there and and so so that is that is the the main example that sort of illuminates every other example right so that okay we can spend a little bit of time on this because I think it’s very very fascinating is the topic of the Gates of Hell prevailing against the
Church because like we mentioned before people kind of throw this verse around and it seems as though people think that it means that everything must be hunky dory in the church and whenever things are not they’re like well but the gates of hell not Prevail against the church
So how how do we have the situation that we’re in uh so let’s let’s dive into that a little bit you mentioned what the actual passage itself was talking about in your book you quote St Thomas aquinus and you quote many other uh theologians and Saints on what this passage means so
Let’s start there what what does this passage mean uh from a a exegetical manner well there’s just a historical literal interpretation when when our our Lord is bringing St Peter to cesaria Philippi and there’s people theorize that there is there he may have been referring to an actual place in Caesar
Of Philippi which was this pit where they threw all the carcasses so all the corpses and the Deads were thrown into this pit so he might have been referencing this very thing there’s also a there’s also another sort of gate of Hades uh associated with the temple um
But in both cases we’re just talking about death and before Christ there was this place called shaol or the grave or Hades you have it in Homer where all the dead people just go down to this place and that’s where all the dead went and that’s what we actually truly believe is
That all the dead people before Christ were down in this place called the grave or called Hades and so Christ is referring to the gates of Hades he’s not using the Greek term gehenna that’s a different term in English it gets into it it becomes the same word so it’s a
Little confusing gehenna is referring to an actual place called The Valley of Ben hinan which was all where all the bodies were burned that’s where the is isites sacrificed their sons to the demon gods and so he’s talking about the fires of Hell gehenna which is the afterlife and
The punishments of hell that’s a different place Hades is just where every dead people go good and bad they all go to Hades so when Christ is saying the gates of Hades the Gates of Hell will not Prevail over the church there there’s a lot of different aspects to
That but the the one most conspicous aspect is just talking about death itself death itself will not prevail um and so we have that exotical aspect to it and what I looked at is what I looked at was the exotical tradition how how have the the theologians understood this
Verse and so they were the difficulty is that they’ve people as you said people throw that around and what I attempt to do in that chapter is show that the definitive uh description of what exactly does that mean where where exactly is the line where okay now the
Gates of hell do Prevail right and I think that’s a a great point to to pick up we’re going to go to a quick break uh when we come back from this break I want to pick up on this topic because yeah so there’s the there’s a historical
Understanding of what the passage means and then we apply this to the church and there is debate about how exactly that should be understood and so when we come back from the break this what we’re going to talk about with Mr Timothy Flanders with the meaning of Catholic
And one Peter 5 the editor of one Peter 5 the book is when the Gates of Hell Prevail and so we’re going to talk about this in just one moment don’t go anywhere more on Catholic drive time right after this and remember Merry Christmas keep the hope of Christ within
Your hearts no matter what happens no matter what anybody says keep the hope of Christ in your hearts we’ll see you in just one moment hello this is Steve GLE with your one minute tool for Catholic evangelism here’s the question for your non-catholic friend your only daughter
Met a fine young man who was a committed Mormon she now wants to join his church what’s your answer well here’s your three best friendship tools for Catholic evangelism number one a reason for no doctrinal positions such as the deity of Jesus and the Trinity your reason for
Yes you deem seemingly moral character as superseding biblical truth secondly Orthodoxy your answer is probably no but how and why your resistance to Mormon Doctrine does not just come straight down from the Bible it comes from the first five centuries of brilliant theologians Bishops and popes these Catholics wrote debated and fought for
Truth example in 250 ad 311 and 417 three different popes excommunicated three different Heretics sabellius Aras and Pelagius they denied the Trinity the Eternal de of Jesus or taught that human effort warranted salvation would your pastor ex communicate a heretic well unfortunately your pastor can only remove someone from his local
Congregation but that’s okay that guy will probably end up being being welcomed at a church down the street the Guadalupe Radio Network would like to invite you to listen to a life lived joyfully a show where we explore the call to Holiness and the life of virtue join our host Martha Fernand
Sardina mon Senor Charles Pope Steve gleon and saraso as they discuss Ways to Live an authentic Catholic life to strive for Holiness and grow in virtue tune in Monday through Friday at 300 p.m. central 400 p.m. Eastern you can also be a part of the conversation with questions or comments at 8777 5
79424 and welcome back to Catholic tribe time this is your host Adrien fona praise be to God it’s so good to be on with you today well it’s always good to be with you actually to be honest but especially today because we are finally we finally made it to the Christmas
Season we survived Advent well I mean ad was actually really really really fast this year it just flew by and I struggled to make sure I got all my Christmas gifts uh purchased and ready to go so I worked on that to the last possible second but uh praise be to God
But I have a very good Christmas gift for you what is that exactly well it’s this amazing interview that we’re going on right now with Timothy Flanders because joining us right now is Timothy Flanders the editor of one Peter 5 in the meaning of Catholic good morning to you Mr
Flanders good morning praise be to God it’s h good to have you on we right before we went to break we were talking about your book when the Gates of Hell Prevail a very provocative uh title of a book but I think it is incredibly important this time and I wanted to read
To you a message that I got from a friend of mine and he was very he was very just disturbed by some of the news that was coming out of the Vatican he’s a uh medical student he was working on getting doing some uh surgeries and he
Texted me and goes look dude I’m I’m getting PR prep for surgery and I don’t have time to deal with all this but what on Earth is going on and this is a text message he sent me he said is this real what do we do this is really bad bro I
Will build my church and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against it I don’t get it is the church the Catholic faithful what is the church this is the kind of world rocking for me but I don’t have time to look into all this if the leadership collapses what is the church
How do you not fall into wrath when stuff like this happens my gut reaction is hatred uh Mr Flanders how would you respond to this message well I would say that the reason that you have the faith is because all of our forefathers persevered in dark
Times just like this one and they passed down the faith nevertheless to you and so I think we can we can say yes it’s very dark time it’s easy to be angry it’s easy to be frustrated but if we take a step back and we think about our
Forefathers and what did they do then we can begin to form a better perspective uh when we talk about the gates of Hades we’re talking about death itself where Christ himself did in fact suffer death and then he rose from the dead and so what we’re facing right now is we’re
Facing an impossible situation that seems like death but we can have faith that God will in fact resurrect the church and not only that we need to consider the fact that the church is triumphant and suffering and militant and the church triumphant has not gone away in fact we just had sister
Willamina revealed as an Incorruptible and uh I think about another thing I think about is um the Eucharistic Miracles that have been recently uh from the novas sordo itself from the new mass and so there we can lament a lot of problems in the church but what about the Blessed Sacrament is
That we have Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament who is still miraculously revealing himself and he’s making Saints so the idea is that if we we think about our forefathers and what they dealt with we can face this dark time with a proper perspective even though it’s difficult
This is our cross to bear but if we think about it that way we can begin to give thanks for the bitterness of this cross amen amen and so how do you say okay if someone says well Timothy I understand what you’re saying here and I understand the suffering but I mean
Christ said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against his church and it seems like uh we got heretic Bishops we have Doctrine being taught that’s just utter Insanity there’s rapid immorality and to my eyes the Gates of Hell prevailed um there’s the churches have been destroyed
The churches is over it’s over for the church how would you respond what what was Christ’s promise uh what did that actually translate to practically speaking well I think the response is to think about our lady on Holy Saturday what did our lady think what what what
May have the Apostles thought of her they may have said wellow she’s you know just got a she’s a you know frantic mother her son has died and we just need to move on in the fact that you know the apostles on the emus road we had hoped
That he would be the one to deliver Israel we had hoped we’ve lost hope it’s all over we got to move on now and that’s what our lady actually rebukes us is that we need to enter into that Spirit of our lady on Holy Saturday because she has that Faith but what does
That Doctrine even translate into it comes into the dogma of the indect ability of the church that the church will be infectable and she will not fail ultimately but a lot of bad things can happen the question is a lot like you said a lot of a lot of lay people throw
The verse around but what does it actually mean what is actually the dogma of that indect ability and I discussed this with two different actually three different theologians two of which are quoted in the book and the the important thing is that before Vatican 2 there was
A lot of confidence of Catholics because things were going pretty well for a while and then things got really bad but during the the period after Vatican 1 there was a lot of maximal interpretation of this Doctrine so people were determining or interpreting it in the maximal way possible uh
Everything will be the way it is we have this Vatican bureaucracy that’s just really churning out some good Doctrine and good good practices and we have this revival all the good stuff is happening but then all this bad stuff happening so instead of holding on to a maximal
Interpretation that has not really that that has not really been what the church has determined over the years the church has not has there’s kind of a minimum of that indect ability one one Theologian I talked to said as long as there’s just one Bishop left in the whole world that
Has the Catholic faith the church is still indefectible and that would be an even wor far worse situation than we have right now and so the the situation could be even even worse than it is right now and the church would still be infectable but the idea is that um there
Would not be a ceasing of the Bishops and a Seas scene of the sacraments in the whole world because the sacraments would still be available the sacramental grace would still be dispensed and people can still become Saints and join the church triumphant so you’re saying that the this idea that the
Infectability of the church means that everything will be hunky dory is clearly not the case that it’s a very minimal requirement is saying that okay as long as the we still have holy orders holy orders still exist and sacraments are still practiced and there is uh the the
True Faith being understood by at least a bishop and one Catholic then we are good to go and the the Dogma has not been contradicted is that is that understood correctly it’s basically that that what is AA what is necessary for you Sal saving your soul is still
Present in the earth and that’s true today is that what you need to save your soul and go to eternal life forever is still present and available to you right now amen all right that’s the indefectibility of the church all right well this leads us to a my favorite
Chapter in your book which was well okay that’s kind of hard because chapter three might be my favorite but also the one uh titled the number one enemy might be my favorite it’s so it just kind of oh those are both really good chapters but the last Christian on Earth in
Immediately I was thinking with the title you’re you’re going to talk about oh whenever Christ comes again will he find faith on Earth he’s going to find the end of times but you actually lead into talking about the Blessed Virgin and we’ve already kind of touched on
This but tell me about the commemoration of our lady on Saturdays because I had no idea of how this tradition started so I was very very intrigued by this yeah I I was uh I was defin when I discovered part of this um so this was this devotion spread during what I call
In my book in my other book the first pornocracy so we’re currently living in the third pornocracy this was the first one back in the 10th Century so the 900s and this is a devotion that was spread by the reforming monks of that time who were from this Monastery called Clooney
So they’re called the cluniac monks and they spread this devotion of commemorating our lady on Saturday and the reason that she was commemorating ated on Saturday so to this day we have this commemoration on on every every Saturday that doesn’t have some other big feast day uh and we also have the
First Saturdays connection to the modern time but the origins of this are in this 10th Century during this very dark time our lady is commemorated on Saturday because she kept the faith when all the disciples had fled uh and in some ways we could piously believe that she was
Really this sort of virtual the last Christian on Earth at that time uh even though we we could give credit to St John and you know these other Marys and whatnot but basically she sort of holds the the bul workk of the church together on this very very dark day and that that
Is that is the heart of of the message of the book really is is taking shelter in our lady on Holy Saturday and so we have this opportunity every Saturday uh we also have the first Saturdays this is part of the crusade of uh Bishop Schneider he asked everyone to do the
First Saturdays this year and ask for divine intervention and this this is really what we can expect we can expect divine intervention uh it might not happen in our lifetime it might be in our children our children’s children but we know that God will deliver his church there will
Be a divine intervention and that’s what our lady hoped for on Holy Saturday it with the completely totally unexpected happening uh that happened at the resurrection but she is sort of this final this last Christian on Earth amen amen and that’s something that I always
I I bring up all the time and people are going to be sick of me saying it but I always say we should pray for the three Virtues Of calm courage and confidence calm because we know we we don’t need to be agitated we need to be able to keep
Our emotions in check make sure that we are taking things in a sober manner a courage to be able to actually face the issue we won’t want to run away we don’t want to retreat we want to face issue head on and fight forward want to try to
Gain round for our Lord and our lady that’s why we call them our Lord and our lady because they are king and queen and we are their vassels and finally of confidence confidence in our lady confidence in her promise at fattima confidence in the Triumph of the
Immaculate Heart we’re going to go to a quick break when we come back Public Enemy Number One who is the primary enemy that we have to fight against we’ll talk about this with Timothy Flanders in just one moment don’t go anywhere more on Catholic drive time right after
Happiness this is Dale alist with a Chesterton minute have you ever heard someone say I accept some of the things the church teaches but I could never embrace the entire Creed because there are some things in it that I just don’t have any use for GK Chesterton says you might as
Well say that there’s a great many things in the encyclopedia britanica that you don’t have use for the church like the encyclopedia is meant for everybody and not just for you it is meant for everybody which just happens to include you the Catholic church is a combination of things that are
Nevertheless one thing we cannot accept only part of it without rejecting all of it want more than a minute visit our website at ww ww. chesterton.org we all know children have a natural innocence and a sense of wonder yet our world is full of distractions that can
Pull families in the wrong direction but with the help of God and a church family your children can grow in the security of faith hope and love weekly Mass provides that critical Faith Foundation needed in life so if your family hasn’t been to mass in a while we’d like to
Invite you home discover more at catholicscomehome.org and welcome back to Catholic DriveTime this is your host Adrien fona praise be to God it’s so good to be on with you today it’s always good to be here with you and I’m so grateful that you decided
To spend some time with me I mean you could be doing all sorts of things this morning I mean you could be listening to music there’s nothing good there’s no good music out there anymore exercising ex you can listen while exercising you can do both it’s no problem I I
Appreciate people joining well praise be to God thank you so much and speaking of joining joining us right now is Timothy Flanders he is the editor of meaning of Catholic and one Peter 5 good morning to you Mr Flanders good morning Jesus is King amen amen truly he is King and we’ve been
Talking about your book when the Gates of Hell Prevail and this book is just I it blew my mind and I can’t recommend this book enough especially you know technically we’re still in the Christmas season so you can still buy Christmas gifts and I would argue that this is a
Great Christmas gift not only because he sets up the crisis he explains how we can react to the crisis how people have acted reacted in the past but then the best part of the book which we’re not going to get into today but you just had
To buy the book to to get into it the best part of the book is the latter half of the book he actually gives a excellent short catechesis of how to live a Christian Life life and I I can’t recommend enough simply for the sake of it’s short concise straightforward you
Could just go buy a bunch of catechism read that too I would recommend kredo and other books like it uh but this is a excellent One-Stop shop that basically covers the whole crisis how to react to it and I very much enjoyed it but right
Now I want to talk about chapter five so we skipped a couple chapters jump into chapter 5 Public Enemy Number One now obviously here Public Enemy Number One we’re talking about uh the Freemasons or we no we’re talking about the devil or we’re maybe we’re talking the bad Bishops the Public Enemy
Number One the bad Bishops uh Mr Flanders who is Public Enemy Number One uh the Public Enemy Number One uh the enemy that you should be focusing on as the first priority in your life is your predominant fault that is the issue what your predominant fault that sounds way less
Exciting in way less uh titillating I can’t put that as a headline tell me about this I I think there’s just a lot of things that we want to worry about but most of the things that we are worrying about we have absolutely no power over
And God in fact has not even asked us to take responsibility for these things we can’t we don’t have power over the choosing of Bishops or this or that thing that we cannot physically change we we’re always praying we always need to be praying for our Bishops and all of
Our leadership but we are not in power over these things the thing that God has given us power over is our soul and this is the primary thing that our forefathers worried themselves about they concerned themselves with and this is actually what changed Christendom which changed the world we think about
For example the Crusades all of our forefathers went on the crus Crusades to save their souls they were worried about saving their own souls and then saving their brother that was their concern and they went on the Crusades and that was one of the most important movements of
The what what is called the high Middle Ages the predominant fault what is the predominant fault well the idea is that each one of us God has given each one of us a personality and this is sometimes there’s there’s different ways to break down your personality there all these
Different personality tests but one that the church has used a lot is the four temperaments and this goes back to the Ancients but there’s these four temperaments uh the fmatic sanguin melancholic and choleric and the idea is that God has created you as a person you
Have a personality and you have sort of this dominant temperament one of those four you also have minor temperaments and whatnot but the main thing is you have this personality and God has given you this this gift this natural gift of who you are and what that is really the
Thing that God has given you to be yourself to be who you are to help others to love your spouse your children with that particular personality but that’s in fact the way that the devil tries to get at you to take your temperament your personality and turn it
Towards your predominant fault this is the fault that is the most important sin you need to work on because we all have various sins that we we deal with but the predominant fault is the one that sort of takes all the sins and brings them all together and tries to bring
Them to hell and that is everybody’s got this predominant fault because everybody’s got their predominant personality and that’s the way that so that’s the sort of the weak point in your own soul in your personality that the devil is trying to use and in a way
It makes it sort of easier because we can get overwhelmed like I have so many different sins to work on and the devil will actually trick you and you’ll say well because you’re not working on these 12 different sins you’re just a failure as a Catholic well all you need to worry
About is this prob going to be number one and all of all the other ones sort of come together with that so the idea is that our forefathers worry themselves about saving their souls and this is the thing that we actually do have power over by God’s grace to actually concern
Ourselves with and do something about and so in that chapter we talk about some of the Practical things that our forefathers have done some of the wisdom given to us um and so this should be our concern every day is I want to overcome my predominant fault this is the Public
Enemy Number One that’s this is the number one thing I need to focus on that’s eye openening Mr Flanders uh you know when an when Adrian was talking about you know I have friends who have said you know it’s over what’s going on I think he was talking about me because
As a melancholic I tend to analyze things from this this perspective and and honestly you can add a little bit of Fire or rather you can add a little bit of gasoline to the fire so to say if you don’t know your temperament you keep falling into the same sins over and over
Again so I think that’s a that’s a really important thing to uh to bring up because it’s true you know we look at the situations right now and you mentioned all kinds of different crisises in the church if we focus on those things and we ignore the fact that
That uh you know we do have the means of Salvation you know we we might end up damned and and it none of this would have mattered anyway yeah it’s it’s very um the the last chapter of the book is talking about the four last things and and it’s really
Amazing how helpful it is if we think about the fact that we’re gonna die it’s it really is very helpful uh it really helps us put everything into perspective a lot of our worries start to melt away is that that’s we that’s the thing we really need to think about am I I’m
Going to die and I’m going to be judged by almighty God and he will say what did you do I I raised you up I gave you your own personality I gave you your temperament what did you do in this time of Crisis did you follow the way of our
Forefathers and pass down the faith and fight for the faith or did you lose lose your faith did you did you have uh Pelin imity where you’re you’re you had smallness of Soul where you were you were frightened you ran away you took the talent and you hid it and you didn’t
Invest it so we’re going to be judged on that yeah I think that’s a very big deal and I know personally I mean I was looking at your list that you have put up here and I’m a melancholic cleric and sure enough this is exactly me a disposition to sorrow a tendency
Predominant faulted of despondency and despair the cleric being um insensitive and tackless I definitely get accused of that at least a couple times a day so praise be to God and and sure enough I mean that’s something that we have to we have to work on something that we have
To be aware of and seeing it written down it actually was very very helpful but one of the things that you mentioned in the book is the difference between being emotional and having feelings and I thought that was very interesting distinction that I really haven’t heard
Anybody talk about too much and uh last couple minutes we have with you what is that about yeah so there’s two chapters in the book that are specifically tied towards men and these are some of the pieces of wisdom that have helped me uh try to work on being a better man in
Our time and one of the things that’s difficult for many men including myself is dealing with your emotions because men are very much this is our strength is the fact that we can do our duty and we can sort of focus on doing the task at hand and doing something no matter
How we feel but the downside is that um sometimes we we don’t deal with our emotions properly we stuff them and then they overcome us uh and so the idea is trying to apply a rational uh basically taking you taking your intellect and joining with your heart and this is
Something that women have we might call it emotional intelligence women have a gift a greater gift of emotional intelligence than men and something that we need to work on as men is really joining our head and our heart so that uh I the the distinction I’m using is
That emotions we can just sort of term these sort of just irrational impulses of our hearts uh that can just be overwhelming and but feelings those are the things we need to apply our reason our rationality to our emotions so that we can join them together and then
Communicate them to uh whether that’s our spouse or our our fraternity our Brotherhood to try to work through them and that so you you are using your rationality your your intellect and your your emotions putting them together to make feelings and that’s we you need to
Be aware of how you feel because you know if you are overcome with sorrow you need to think well why am I feeling this way a lot of times you’re thinking one thing I mentioned in the book this quote from St Thomas where he talks about despair if it despair is very emotional
It’s based on an error about God so you’re thinking you’re very despairing because you’re thinking wrong thoughts about God so these are just a rational way to analyze your emo and then you can communicate those to your brother you know people who can help you out to
Support you in your community uh so you can deal with these things instead of being overwhelmed by emotions amen amen so that is just a small taste of this book when the Gates of Hell Prevail thank you very much Mr Flanders God bless you God love you and have a blessed Christmas
Season God bless Merry Christmas Merry Christmas and that’s going to do it for the first hour if you want to join us in the second hour please do so we have much more going on and check out the book maybe a great gift for Epiphany when the Gates of Hell Prevail you can
Find it on Amazon look it up and I can’t recommend it enough God bless you God love you and I’ll see you very Soon thank you for joining us on your Catholic drive time where it is our pleasure to keep you informed and inspired join us Monday through Friday at the same time right here on your favorite Catholic radio station don’t forget to connect with us just go to facebook.com/ Catholic DriveTime again that’s
Facebook.com/ Catholic DriveTime be sure to share more than just us today share Jesus with with everyone you meet bye now and God love you Guadalupe Radio Network announces the launch of La proesa Legacy Circle formed to recognize and honor our dedicated donors who have made long-term commitments to the network through gifts
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972 661 9792 or info@ Catholic foundation.com I have a friend who says that baptism is a symbolic act and that it has nothing to do with salvation how can I answer him simple show him what the Bible says nowhere does the bible say that baptism is merely a symbolic act that passage
Simply does not exist but the Bible does say this about baptism in Ezekiel 36: 25-27 it says I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses a new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will
Put within you and I will put my spirit within you here in the Old Testament we have a foreshadowing of New Testament baptism in the New Testament Acts 2:38 repent and be baptized every one of you for the Forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit no symbolic language here the book of Acts says be baptized for the Forgiveness of your sins Ezekiel says I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from your uncleannesses the book of Acts says and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit Ezekiel says and I will put my spirit within you you begin to see how God in the old Covenant Was preparing us for what he gives us in the New Covenant Acts 22:16 and now why do you wait rise and be baptized and wash away your sins
1 Corinthians 12:13 for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body what body was that the body of Christ 1 Peter 3:21 baptism which corresponds to this now saves you you scripture simply does not support the non-catholic notion that baptism is symbolic scripture does however very clearly and directly
Support the Catholic teaching that baptism saves us that baptism makes us members of the body of Christ that baptism washes away sin and that through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit just as the church teaches a beacon of Truth in a troubled world this is the Guadalupe Radio Network radio for your soul The Guadalupe Radio Network would like to invite you to listen to a life lived joyfully a show where we explore the call to Holiness and the life of virtue join our host Martha Fernand sarda mon Senor Charles Pope Steve gleon and Sarah stto as they discuss Ways to Live an
Authentic Catholic life to strive for Holiness and grow in virtue tune in Monday through Friday at 3:00 p.m. central 400 p.m. Eastern you can also be a part of the conversation with questions or comments at 87775723804 This Christmas came so early was not expecting it it snuck up right on me the next thing you knew I was planning out what I was going to do for Advent I blinked and all of a sudden it was Christmas Day I know I don’t know maybe
You felt the same way I know certainly I was caught off guard caught off guard but you know what I will not be caught off guard with I will not be caught off guard Three Kings Day Three Kings Day let’s go uh did you play did you did you
Celebrate Three King’s Day growing up no although I think it makes a lot more sense because I’ve heard that some of our listeners will not give presents on Christmas day make it about Jesus which it should be about and they defer to giving the gifts on Epiphany which makes
Total sense makes a lot of sense these last few years I’ve been throwing Epiphany parties and that’s l lurgical living my man amen this year I’m not going to though because my buddy called me he was like hey Adrian are you planning on doing an epiphany party this
Year I was like yeah yeah I was going to something I haven’t send out any any invites yet or anything like that he goes okay um well if if you wouldn’t mind could you um not throw one this year because uh we kind of wanted to do
One and everybody will go to yours if you if you throw yours and we share a lot of friends and so I was like all right all right I won’t throw in a pipy parts and I trying to figure out what kind of Celebration to take can do
During the Christmas time you just have to be part of the committee now yeah oh yes we love committees let’s have a committee to create a party way fun but you know I think what’s important during the Christmas time is that we don’t forget that Christmas is
Not just Christmas day it is not just the 25th and boom it’s over Christmas season over but instead that we recognize it is simply the beginning and so joining us to talk about the true meaning of Christmas is Alan Smith with Bishop Sheen today good morning to you
Allan uh good morning Adrian good morning Rudy uh good morning uh grn family it is great to be here and uh it is that Advent season the time I love those slogans Jesus is the reason for the season and um I don’t know about you but it’s been um a hectic Christmas
Season trying to remind myself about Jesus uh everybody wants to talk about everything but Jesus uh but usually in that week before Christmas we all get with the program and say I should read a spiritual book I should I should do some meditation I should I should quiet down
And reflect on Jesus and uh of course people always say what Fulton Sheen books can I read that talk about Christmas and I always point the to two or three and um we’re going to talk about some of them today so thanks for having me on Amen Alan amen and the
First book I wanted to talk about there’s two books that you recommended significantly there’s four books you mentioned but two that are the most relevant to this and the first one I want to bring up is the true meaning of Christmas which was published in 1955 now the before we get into the
Actual text tell me a little bit about this book because I was reading it and I was expecting it to be a children’s book because it kind of has that feel and it has the pictures throughout it and it’s only probably like 15 pages it’s 30 pages long but with the pictures it’s
Probably like 15 pages big text small pages and so I was like oh this is a children’s book but I’m reading it and it’s really really profound and so is this for kids who is this for and can people even buy this today uh well it’s it’s kind of a lost
Treasure it’s uh very difficult to find I’ll hold it up on the screen for those watching on social media um I haven’t seen a reprint of this book uh for uh quite some time and maybe I’ll do that uh with my own small Publishing Company one day but again it’s it’s a family
Book I think this is what Fon Sheen said you know I want to touch families but especially the adults because they are uh what I like to say the formators of these young children in the faith and so uh when an adult gets it he can then
Pass it on to his children um but I think children still are innocent I like to say that uh but he was really trying to touch the hearts of the adults with these books and uh I don’t think it’s over the head of young children they
Love to be read to it doesn’t matter how deep it is they love to hear their parents’ voice telling a story and it is a beautiful story it’s that great love story of God becoming man so uh I think again it’s a family book uh but it it it
Hits home with the adults so then we have okay so this is like maybe a Trope or I don’t even know what what would you call it a stereotype maybe of like Hallmark movies discovering the true meaning of Christmas it’s better to give than receive or something like that that’s
Kind of the the Hallmark Christmas the the Hallmark um reason for the season but Allan what does folon Sheen say the meaning of Christmas is well it’s the meaning of Love um God so loved the world that he sent his only son you know we think about gifts we
Think about what can I give but yet God was ahead of us he says I’m going to give you something that’s going to bring you eternal life so the meaning of Christmas is really the meaning of love and God is love and I think he just shows us that um
Sometimes we’re blind sometimes we’re like Shepherds um we don’t know much uh but even if we’re like wise men uh wise men don’t know everything and they always want to learn more and so we’re always learning at the foot of the master and sometimes the master is in a
Crib in Bethlehem and yet we have this beautiful time to Humble ourselves every year to bow down in front of the crash in front of those beautiful manger scenes that we set up to humble oursel and to adore uh but again to thank god with love he loved us and let’s love him
Back and Fon Sheen reminds us that we have a duty to love God amen amen and I was reading this and here’s what just a section here from like page 22 it says out to the hillside to a stable cave where Shepherds drove their flocks in storms Joseph and Mary go for shelter
There in a place of peace and Tranquility in the utter abandonment and cold of a Windswept cave there under the floor of the world Mary as a flesh and blood sorum lifts up to the Gaze of all the hosts of the world Behold the Lamb of
God who taketh away the sins of the world he who is born without a mother in heaven is born without a father on earth now what here is I know right Rudy’s like man that it’s poetry it it’s like profound it’s spiritual it’s intellectual and it’s formatted like a
Children’s book and I’m like gez like this is this is a Top Notch from from Sheen right here um Allan what is your takeaway from this well again fatherhood motherhood Brotherhood he ties it all in so beautifully um he mentions to us that we have a new father of course it’s we
Think of St Joseph of course being the father of Jesus the Foster father but he points to God the father and we share that father we share Christ mother and I think fton Sheen is presenting that to us remember that you are part of a Heavenly family our lady is adoring the
Lord but she wants to give us the Lord and it’s beautiful how he talks in uh um what I call lurgical words uh the sacrament you know she’s the sacren uh things like that we don’t give God enough reverence and due respect and I think this is what we sometimes fall
Into uh the sin of just um I want to just say ignoring the Lord trivializing the Lord um we need to give the Lord pride of place and I think Fulton Sheen is just showing in this poetic um masterpiece of the true meaning of Christmas that uh
God is to be loved adored 365 days of the year so uh you’re part of a royal family uh enjoy that enjoy that amen amen you know okay so I many people would accuse me of being a contrarian and I don’t know where people get that idea from I I’m very affable
I’m very much agreeable to to most people I don’t know what people are talking about but whenever I hear the the Hallmark it’s better to give than receive and maybe it’s the it’s the contrarian aspect of me the little bit that that exists there but immediately I
Want to say really the exact opposite is true in the context of Christmas it is better to receive because we what are we doing on Christmas time we are trying to prepare ourselves to receive Christ into our hearts to prepare for the reception of Christ at the second coming and of
Course to meditate upon the reception of Christ in the Nativity um what say you Alan yeah it’s it’s a Divine invitation I think those are the words that Fon Sheen uses it’s a Divine invitation come you know our lord said come come and see and yet we don’t respond to that
Invitation God calls us every day yet so many of us don’t answer the call so let us remember that this Divine invitation is given to us every day but especially at Christmas to uh set aside that time to come and to reflect on how God loves us um again that invitation is proposed
Every day and especially here at Christmas let us remember to accept that invitation and bring the Lord into our hearts now I I chuckled a little bit at what Fon Sheen said here at the very end of the book and I’m going to spoil the book of course it’s not a fiction book
So it’s not like it’s you’re going to be like oh darn I wasn’t expecting that ending but um and also you can’t really buy it right now so I I feel okay spoiling the ending here’s what he says at the ending and I love the way the
Humility in which he kind of f sheine sets us in so he says here that God pieces of his own handiwork began to be partakers of his divine nature and in the truest sense of the word his children this would be something that transcends our nature far
More than a marble blooming or a dog quoting poetry the power is there to make us different than we are it is for our freedom to decide if we will respond and if we are willing to pay the price of having the dross burned off the gold
In the Flames of Love let it not be said by anyone I am too foul I am a beast I am not worthy to be lifted up it was to assure sure just such persons as these that he was born in a stable and on his first night in this world companioned
With beasts tell me about this Alan well I think in a way he’s referring to us as beasts and you know we are sinners but you know and again he’s trying to be kind to us but to remind us to say uh remember you are a sinner you need salvation um and you
Need to go to the Lord um I think it’s just that gentle reminder to not not to um you know be proud but to be humble and uh again I think of our Lord he’s still surrounded by beast and yet we want to be tame Beast we want to be
Converted beast and uh God calls for our conversion but it’s Fon Sheen’s way of bringing about the conversation for us to um talk about yeah we’re sinful and we need to um you know be redeemed and so especially at Christmas time the need to go to confession it’s that call and I
Would remind everybody if you haven’t done so this week get to confession get to confession amen and I I love that Allan because I know I mean I think about the passage where the woman who our Lord tells her it’s not right to give the food for the children to the
Dogs and the woman instead of being indignant or being offended or being like how dare you call me a dog uh she instead says but even the dogs receive the scraps from the table she recognizes herself and says yes I am a dog I am but please please grant me this Grace anyway
Grant me this Grace nonetheless despite the fact that I am just a beast and I I take great comfort of that and Fon Sheen’s words there give me great comfort because I recognize wow I am a wretched Sinner and I need conversion and it’s so delightful to know that
Christ loves loves to reside amongst the Beast and he loves to reside with me despite my sinfulness we’re going to go to a quick break when we come back I want to talk about the 1966 book on Fon Sheen Christmas Inspirations a excellent book and I heard there was a really good
Narrator of the book on YouTube so we’ll talk about that coming up in just one moment so don’t go anywhere more Catholic drive time more Bishop Sheen today right after this this is Dale alist with a Chesterton minute how many times have you heard someone talk about how important it is
To be Progressive have you ever asked them what they mean by that GK Chesterton says progress is a useless word for Progress takes for granted an already defined Direction and it’s exactly about the direction that we disagree we can’t have progress until we’ve stated what our goal is and then
We can determine whether or not we’re moving closer to it or farther from it the real question is not whether we are progressive but what is our goal my goal is to get to heaven and to help others get there too what’s yours want Chesterton for more than a
Minute visit our our website at chesterton.org hi this is Dave Palmer do you love all that you’re learning about the Catholic Church here on the grn and are you ready to dive into the deep if so join us each Friday afternoon beginning at 1: p.m. central for back to the father on the
Gn’s Facebook YouTube and Twitter pages as we discuss key teachings of St Thomas aquinus Suma theologia and their application to our everyday journey through this life and our goal of returning back to the father each Friday at 1 P p.m Central email back totha grn online.com for more
Information and welcome back to Catholic drive time this is your host Adrien feka praise be to God it’s so good to be on with you today it’s always good to be here with you today especially during the Christmas season we made it to Christmas ah and you know we were talking with
Alan Smith before it went to break about I was saying how I I feel like I’m just a nasty animal but God loves to reside with me anyway and Rudy was like same bro same yeah know the the conversation it uh it reminds me of uh something that
I’ve I’ve taken on daily and I owe a little bit of inspiration to to our friend Alan Smith but also to our my spiritual director um who suggested you know you really need to you really need to start your day off in prayer and uh so I’ve been making a spiritual
Communion every morning and at different times of the day as well because it doesn’t have to be just the morning and one of the one of the prayers that I’ve embellished for this spiritual communion is to say Lord come into my heart although my heart is not unlike that
Manger it’s completely unfitting for you the the master the the creator of the universe to come into my heart despite the fact you know it’s it’s it’s like that manger but by your presence you can make it Worthy and uh and I I just think I want to
Encourage people to to make these spiritual communions because the more that we receive Christ the more that we could be Christ for the people around us people who interact with us wow that was uh way more profound that I was expecting Rudy I was going to make a joke about it
But that was way way more profound than I was expecting so I’m like okay well there you go I’m well he was about I just want to put up for the record he was going to Laugh at My spiritual life yeah he was going to laugh at me that
Was the plan but but I have re I have diverted my plan uh so before I put my foot in my mouth I’m gonna go joining us right now is Alan Smith with Bishop Sheen today good morning to you Alan uh good morning Adrien good morning
Rudy it is great to be here during the Christmas season to talk about uh the baby Jesus and uh how uh we can best serve him and how we can be uh that salt of the earth light of the world uh the light of the world is uh it’s so
Important uh we still live in darkness and this great light is about to shine upon us and so who better to point us to that light uh than the venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen in his many Christmas meditations and books that he has written over the years amen amen
Before we went to break we were talking about the 1955 book the meaning of Christmas the true meaning of Christmas rather and now I want to bring up his book Christmas Inspirations before we dive into the content of it tell me about this book yes uh it is a book that uh was
Produced uh as you said in 1966 um again Fulton Sheen knew that uh people were hungry for meditations uh during the Christmas time and so he penned 45 separate Reflections to carry us through uh Advent and Christmas um he knew there was a hunger and uh I tell
You uh this uh magazine was produced in on mass and was um of course well received uh back in 1966 and um it’s a hard um addition to find I would hope someone would be publish it um in the not so distant future because we’re hungry for these Christmas meditations
Like how often can you find a great Christmas book a great uh Advent reflection book uh they are hard to find and so uh fold and Sheen knew that and of course put this to pen and I tell you these meditations uh Carry Me Through uh Advent and Christmas because as we
Talked about earlier uh we don’t want to admit it but we are beast we are sinners and uh I tell you f and Sheen this is what he does so well he brings us to that uh acknowledgment that God is God and we’re not God uh we are again um
Sinners that are trying to make it to heaven and yet when we humble ourselves it’s amazing what happens and so uh these Reflections speak of humility they speak of um just the promise that God has given us and they really uh help us to just um it’s Clarity with Charity I
Love that saying uh folden Sheen uh gives us great clarity and delivers it with Charity uh in this book Christmas Inspirations yeah I think uh I agree I think somebody should definitely take this project on and reprinted or maybe bishop Sheen today Bishop Sheen today you know there’s a lot of really
Interesting things you can do with artificial intelligence you can plug in the the voice of fton Sheen to read it out like oh man that’d be wild really cool yeah well right Allan the book itself I was uh listening to you read it you have a great reading of it on
YouTube and maybe we can plug that of where people can listen to that but I want to start from the end of the book and go work our way backwards because I’ve already read through the first beginning of it and I want to get sneak
Peek from your opinions on the end of it so it’s mostly for selfish reasons I want to do that the end of the book is why we give gifts at Christmas and I was like gez fol and Sheen just contradicted everything I said I was talking about
How you know Christmas better to give than receive oh you know it’s good to receive it’s good to receive during Christmas time but folon Sheen has a little bit of a spin on this tell me about this last chapter why we give gifts at Christmas Alan Smith well it’s it’s a birthday
Celebration and you know I uh have experienced reading this book and I uh enjoy reading it cover to cover every year and uh we recorded uh these 45 Reflections on YouTube on my channel Allan Smith and so uh but again uh the ending of that reflection says it all he
Says it is the birthday of God in the form of man in order that man might be like unto God whenever we give gifts we tear off tear off the price tag so that there will be no proportion between the gift of the lover and the love of The
Giver there is no price tag on the gift of Christ we can never buy him but we can sell him as Judas did his gift of Love Is Free is that why we scorn it and so of course he reminds us we have the potential to betray him uh but yet uh
Again the gift is free and so um yeah sobers us up and kind of says okay I’ll be good I’ll be good how long that will last uh we don’t know but uh still uh again he’s trying to remind us uh don’t be so proud and remember the Lord can’t
Be bought he can’t be bought but he can be sold um again his gift of love is free and so let’s return that gift of love to him you know it’s funny Allan you you say that because I was thinking about like uh there’s a marketing principle of reciprocity like you want
To give somebody a gift but you don’t want to tell them make them feel like they’re buying a product because if they’re buying a product then they’re like oh well you gave me this gift so I’ll give you the equivalent amount of money of what the gift is worth but in
The context of divinity the context of Our Lord the gift that he gave us is infinite that we can never pay it off so if it was if he was selling it to us if it was something he was giving to us in order to try to trade it off off with
Money it would be over for us we would never be able to pay it we never be able to buy that product and so it’s such a Grace that it’s in fact free and that reminds me of the chapter on page 62 of the book uh titled free where he talks
About the the fact that this is in fact something that’s happening by the will but not something that is being forced upon us but done out of Charity out of love out of the Divine Life uh tell me about this chapter well again it’s it catches our
Eye you you read the title it’s free and you go oh I love what’s free and so uh naturally uh again Fen Sheen’s ending of that thing says it all he says once this Christmas spirit seizes a soul it transforms it Christmas is thus perpetuated and becomes a living thing
Called Christ Christianity as we freely give our Wills to his will to be strengthened our minds to his intellect to know truth and our flesh to his flesh to be purified it is all free but we are so frightened that if we give our finger
To the Babe he will seize our hand but what peace to be ravished by love and I think a lot of times we are afraid to give God our little finger because he might take our hand uh we’re afraid to give him a little commitment because he’ll ask for total
Commitment so uh again we have that opportunity to give ourselves to Christ once again at Christmas okay we have just about two minutes left with you Allan and it’s just a tragedy that we don’t have more time to talk about this so before with a little time we have
Left I want to ask you Alan Smith with your inspiration from folon Sheen uh what is the Christmas message that you would like people to leave off with and then let us know where we can find uh at least some of this content of some of
These books right you can find me at Bishop shay.com just remember that we need Bishop Sheen today so Bishop she today.com but I’ll leave you with this short message and it’s a poem from uh again uh Christina Rosetti uh I love Fon Sheen loves to quote her and it was just
Saying what can I give and so she says what can I give him poor as I am if I were were a Shepherd I would bring him a lamb If I Were A wise man I would do my part yet what can I give him I can give
Him my heart and so I would say to everyone give Jesus your heart uh give him your heart at Christmas and um again it will be a good gift uh that will produce much fruit so um as I said so many times read Sheen watch Sheen listen
To Sheen uh he will help you get to heaven so uh thank you for this opportunity and of course want to wish everybody a Merry and blessed Christmas amen thank you very much Alan God bless you God love you and hopefully we’ll be talking to you very soon yes God love
You too and that’s gonna do it for the well that’s gonna be do it for the show today because there’s no after show considering it is the Christmas season and we might be taking a couple days off not too many days don’t worry we’ll be
Back but we are taking just a couple of days off so we this is a no after show today so the show’s over for today but stick with us because we will be back at 6:00 a.m. Central 7 Eastern across the Guadalupe Radio Network and Catholic Spirit radio and remember during this
Christmas season just echoing the words of the great man Alan Smith himself welcome Christ into your heart today welcome Christ into your heart open it up wide and like Rudy said make it a Manger where our lady can lay the Christ child right into our hearts what a beautiful
Beautiful thing to think about today and throughout the entirety of the Christmas season God bless you God love you you can keep up to date with us sign up for our email list go to grn online.com CDT for all that information but remember God bless you God love you
And have a very merry Christmas Thank you for joining us on your Catholic drive time where it is our pleasure to keep you informed and inspired join us Monday through Friday at the same time right here on your favorite Catholic radio station don’t forget to connect with us just go to facebook.com/ Catholic DriveTime again that’s
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