Dion DiMucci: Reveted To The Catholic Faith From Presbyterianism - The Journey Home (5-1-2006)

good evening and welcome to the journey home my name is Marcus Grodi your host for this program our guest tonight is a returning guest this is open line first Monday and on this episode I invite back a previous guest from the journey home program someone who told his story before but we didn't have quite as much time for your questions so tonight is the night for you to ask our guests questions as soon as we get good phone calls and emails that are interesting we'll go with them but let me give you the phone numbers right off the bat and then I'll tell you who we've got tonight one 802 two one nine four six all outside North America 205 271 29 80 and you can send us an email at journey home at ewtn.com our guest tonight is someone who's very familiar to a bazillion of you Dion DiMucci in fact you probably know him more as Dion that's all I remember him from the days when I remembered singing his songs and dancing to his songs I've got a few of them written down here that I know you've heard of runaround sue the wanderer teenager and love Ruby Ruby Ruby baby scuse me but the one that I most remember which also came after a turning point in Dion's life was Abraham Martin and John and a song that I know still touches many of us now Dion at sea has sold 32 bazillion thirty two million albums worldwide 1985 he's nominated for a Grammy for his gospel album I put away my idols in 1989 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this is what's really exciting and you're gonna talk about this a little bit is that your new album Broxson blue was just different than anything you've done before really is number three on the blues charts I mean that's exciting so Dion welcome back to the journey home that's great I have you here it's been a long time though Lord if I didn't know me I'd be impressed it's been a 2,000 I did this show in 2000 it's good to be back thank you it's great to have you back about a lot of people asking for you to come back and like as I mentioned to the audience we'll take phone calls and emails soon as you start calling in but on the open line the first thing we do is though you told your whole story last time and if the audience is interested you Cody EWTN religious catalogue and get a copy of the tape when you were here first but why'd you give him a little summary reminder of your journey a little summary okay born in the Bronx they let one person out a year they let me out and 1968 now I come from a small Italian neighborhood in in the Belmont section in Bronx New York near Fordham College it's a macho Italian neighborhood you know everything was the code of the streets was reputation and respect and it had nothing to do with the character character we didn't how to spell the word and you know I growing up my parents weren't religious but they were they were married in Mount Carmel Catholic Church I was baptized confirmed there and I just spoke there for their hundredth anniversary the church was built in 1906 they had the anniversary I went up there with my beautiful wife Susan we we celebrated with them Oh because there was a thousand Italians it was like Italians gone wild it was it was it was great I had a great time there and you know Monsignor John Ruvo asked me to talk up there but the church was so instrumental in my life I didn't get the teaching from my home my parents were so busy arguing they had they had two fathers that drank a lot so they they didn't know how to get along and the more they argued I'd get in I they had wonderful qualities don't get me wrong but I'd go in the room and I'd practice guitar I started writing songs you write a song you could make sense of the world within three minutes you could you can resolve conflict and it's so I got involved in music you know the the macho thing looking like the rebel king of the neighborhood bopping along in the Bronx I passed Mount Carmel Catholic Church on Crotona Avenue and Monsignor Joseph Penn Akoni was always out of it for some reason I think maybe my mother called him said he's passing now because you know in 1955 I was maybe 15 years old and I was strutting along the street and he said Deon come over here and I walk over he says this rebel without a cause James Dean that movie said what's this rebel without a cause movie he said you don't rebel without a cause what's that Rebell for the truth Deon oh yeah Monsignor I'll do that and I'm walking home I walked the way next time I'm past and he says Deon yo Deon come over here what makes a man happy well Monsignor if I could get a Thunderbird and get a date with Susan I think you know or a hit record Monsignor I'd be happy you know you'd say no the virtuous man is a happy man st. Thomas Aquinas and I go oh yeah okay because the guys on the corner working the gangs you know the lure the street being cool kind of pulled me out you know so I'm I walk away and and and then I turn around I'd say Monsignor what's virtue I didn't know what it was and he'd give heed take me in and keep lesson yeah he'd say it's a I still remember it it's a it's a habitual and firm disposition to do the good well later on you know getting into the record business with the drugs and the alcohol and the you know trying to be cool and trying to having my feet firmly planted on a cloud I had no foundation start to take the drugs your life spirals out of control I have 12 gold records on my wall was at the top of my profession but inside I didn't have any internal life there was everything was if you didn't see it it didn't exist so I started we saying what's life about what is you know where am I going why am I here Who am I what's this about you know I start asking these questions and my father-in-law would tell me it's ad on us you keep seeking seek and you will find knock and the door will be open ask and you will receive I feel like a lot of people are gonna end up in front of the Lord saying how come he said what do you never asked but I asked in 1968 I was 28 years old I said I'm using these drugs I'm drinking I don't know what to do he lifted the obsession to drink and drug right out of me April 1st 1968 haven't had a drink or a drug since I have three daughters who have never seen me drink a drug three grandchildren I I have a piece these days you know and I I came in contact I would say I understood God's power before I understood his reality you know his and later on I I said a prayer and I I had some evangelicals witnessing to me in my neighborhood and I said another prayer and Jesus became very real to me and my life has never been the same I a light went off in the pit of my chest came out every pore of my being when I said you know Jesus are you real could you could I know you like this and I've never been the same so I found the Lord back then in the 70s and went to a lot of evangelical churches and different denominations because we moved periodically and I heard a lot of different teachings but I went where all the volume and exuberance was you know I thought that equal truth great preaching fell in love with reading scripture because I could read the book of Timothy and cries it's just so beautiful the stuff Paul writes you know it touches your heart it's so real the truth really it gets where doctors and drugs and all the culture can't get the culture can't get there but God could get there and he touched my heart through Scripture and I met a lot of wonderful people visiting and going to these different churches so it's been a great journey and Susan and I here and well I can't we're loving it now in our lives we have strands of things we're interested in that are parallel you know all that our families and our friends and our hobbies and our jobs and all of that each has kind of a trajectory and when it's a change in one of those things it affects everything else and I'm particularly interested in how this transition at this point in your story we're just talking about you're an evangelical you're on fire for Jesus and you're loving Scripture and recognizing though you may not put two and two together that what you're experiencing is what that old father had told you many years ago but what increases what impact during this time did it have on your music well I I recorded five gospel albums they I started writing songs I started you know music to me is like a diary over the years if I look at my life I could see I could actually see what I was thinking and feeling it's like Dion music it comes comes out from the center of me you know and I have five gospel albums they could be found on Dion DiMucci calm but I loved I sang in different churches and for youth groups just love gospel music it's very uplifting had a big effect on my life I just walked around went to family functions carrying a Bible at times you know just I just was I saw everybody I just you know my sisters I just looked at them with such love and and and my mom who's 92 she walks around like a an 18 year old she's she's wonderful but but you know it I think the Lord started changing our whole family kind of like broke a lot of Patty's that we were into you know it's a wonderful thing I know the one song that I mentioned earlier Abraham Martin and John which so many will remember that that was a unique one in your journey in this from us on the outside because it was different I think that was the first song I I recorded after my conversion I started seeing things from God's heart and I saw that you know these guys like a guy like John Kennedy or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King even Lincoln you know that they were shot down in the prime of their their life and that you could kill the dreamer but you can't kill the dream people like us pick up on it and we we carry it further but I wanted to put it into a song because it was a solution and the country was so Restless at that time in 1968 well you know there are kids all over the country and you don't know you know we're in war at the time and it was it was disturbing times and so I thought let me like again you could take three minutes and you could result you resolve conflict or bring a solution out and say there is a state of love that does exist and we can work for it you know make it real so that was a wonderful I think God was in that song oh you know it touch so many of us now so your you had come back not to the Church of your roots but in evangelicalism which brought you back to Jesus in a really strong way what opened your heart then to come home to the Catholic Church that's a long journey because but I'll try to make it quick here it was was going to a swell recording gospel music and going around to different churches maybe the faith teaching or Calvary chapel's or Presbyterian churches or Lutheran Church always in all kinds of churches singing youth groups all different teachings just incredibly different it's almost you know like one pass that can't teach at the other church because the teaching is so different yet we're all saying this is the inerrant Word of God this is infallible this is the truth we're a Bible believing Church we teach the word so the past that reads the scripture and he teaches for forty-five minutes but he's really doing commentary so you won the well his commentary is different in this walls of books and commentaries and they disagree with one another and I'm saying yeah I want and and I went to a a Christmas party once and our friend and the Christian movement had dyed his name was Ray beautiful guy and a group of men we all went to the church he was Catholic and if you're not Catholic you can't receive Communion well that that started a whole big discussion at this Christmas party and it seemed to me listening and participating in this this conversation that maybe the Lutheran Church believes here and the the more modern or them the new of the churches if they started out and they you got a Bible and open up a church in the shopping center down the street it became less and less profound the Eucharist I grew up in the Catholic Church you know the Eucharist was the body blood soul and divinity of Christ and now I'm I was listening hearing the church that not there wasn't the real presence there was a real absence nothing there was it was just bread and wine so I was wondering who was right now a lot of disagreements on salvation on baptism on the Lord's Supper and I'm wondering what is truth what which one you know with and it seemed to me that each individual believer on his own has to acquire enough knowledge to know what the truth is or what church is going to lead them to heaven or to eternal life you know what you know the truth set you free book where is which truth where yeah well son I'm wondering about it and I had a few in you know very uncomfortable moments like at Bible studies when I say something that I learned in one church and this church is looking at me like this denominations looking at me like I have four heads what are you talking about well we'll teach you what we we went anyway I went to the pastor of I was in a Presbyterian Church at the time and both wonderful people Marcus I don't want to sound like him this in anybody because I met the most beautiful precious people that taught me scripture and loved Jesus like and want to be holy and want to grow and just have wonderful qualities and and I'm still friends with a lot of guys but I asked the pastor about a few of these things and he said to me Liberty no he said unity and the essentials Deonne unity and the essentials Liberty Liberty in the non essentials and love in all things love and charity in all things so I said oh that's the way it works honestly there's a lot of room for disagreement here so I'm riding home and I'm thinking what are the essentials where do you get a list of these essentials so I start again like you're kind of a mini poet when you're in these streets you come up with it that's the way you taught you read scripture let the Holy Spirit interpret it for you but yet you're reading I'm reading things in Peter that's once against private interpretation and and in Timothy it says the pillar and foundation of truth is the church I'm saying which one which which one so I'm wondering the essentials must be the virgin birth the crucifixion the resurrection the Ascension and I'm reading about a week later I find out that this very quote unity and the essentials Liberty and the non-essentials is the Saint Agustin quote he has writings he was at this illustrious Council of Hippo and 397 he was one of the prominent people that I put the Scriptures together that said this book belongs this doesn't you know today they have all these books like the book of Jude as you watch CNN the book of Tom is the book of men they were there at that time and they through the mouth they knew which ones were genuine which ones they read in the church but the interesting thing about st. Augustine is he defined the essentials and the first one was Authority the Eucharist baptism and it always ended up with in union with the Bishop of Rome and as you read back and you go back to whether it was st. jerome or saint city just early father Justin Martyr or Ignatius even Ignatius and 105 who probably knew the Apostle John who did know the Apostle John and when they were taking him to Rome to be martyred on on the way they stopped in Smyrna and he wrote seven letters and he said don't receive this meal from just anybody make sure it's in its somebody you know we we know is in union with the Bishop of Rome this is the body blood soul and divinity of Christ this you this isn't you know and you just start seeing as you go back and you know and in these churches that I in these denominations I was in everybody was always saying we got to be like the early church you know we wanted to be like the first Christians I'm reading about the first Christians and they sounded Catholic to me I said these guys are Catholic dad Catholic beliefs and with that I started seeing that I said when I started reading and especially passages like John 6 and Matthew 16:18 in light of Isaiah 22 22 in where Jesus says I will build my church upon this rock and I give you the keys to the kingdom what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven and I will be with you till the end of time and the gates of hell won't prevail against my church and the church isn't a naturally human organ it was started from above Jesus gave the church this is the positive faith this truth I thought the church was a tyrant I started I started seeing that it's a humble servant the custodian just the keeper of this deposit of faith and says you know here it is now when I studied that scripture in Matthew where Jesus started his church upon the rock when I saw the the the the teaching authority of the church in the Magisterium the bishops and union with the Pope when I really understood and accepted this doctrine I knew I could trust the church on everything else and I came in I tell you Marcus I haven't been the same because it's like my joy wasn't complete you know in these denominations it was Jesus me and I had the book and now it's you come into the fullness of the church the splendor of truth' the beauty of tradition and and the history 1,500 years of men and woman who died for the faith who had Catholic beliefs like Justin Martyr wrote a thesis on on the first telling the Emperor it was the body blood soul and divinity of and they monitor now he didn't carry a Bible around they didn't have printing presses at the time but look what he believed I said there's something something I have to I have to find out if I came in I'm telling him I've just been that this was 1996 I went back to the Catholic Church in my neighborhood I went to confession and father Frank was sitting in there I met him that day I said I said I was sitting with him like I'm sitting with you it's looking him in the eye I said father Frank I said I feel like I've been persecuting Christ the body of Christ the church I said I didn't even know I was I didn't know and he got up out of his chase a deer stand up and I said welcome home and I thought I've been home ever since and I don't have to be wondering now I hear a doctrine that I I'm not too sure I learn about it and it deepens my faith and it's uh and the Eucharist is so important because it's wonderful to get great teaching for the mind makes the emotions work well but the will is strengthened by the Eucharist its strength Reese's become very you become strong and in your choices your choices become better and and and you're able to make them Eucharist strengthens you then what I think beyond just our audience hearing you make this clear expression of your faith especially those then know what you've done and accomplished is a great witness that's it as an entire package your music your accomplishments Fame you had a love for Jesus I mean that itself as a witness we have a couple collars I'd like to get in a call or an email before we take our break first of all Rudy from California what's your question hi I'm Marcus and you know what Dee and I remember promoting concerts in Albuquerque and you and I had these very conversations and you were so genuine when both born Catholic but now doing all this great work for Christianity and and Protestantism and even then you were always talking about the genuineness of that substance really two questions number one do you still do the truth will set you free some of those songs that were just incredible instrumentals for me and my faith back then and have you noticed that many people who were born Catholic became Protestant now coming back to the Catholic Church are you seeing more and more of them like I am now living as a talk show host here in Los Angeles Rudy thanks for calling ha ha thanks Rudy yeah thanks to EWTN they're getting you know the truth out there you could hear it and it touched my heart so the truth will set you free I think I'll be doing that on life on the rock on Thursday I still love that song I do it in concert Thank You Rudy so you're still doing your Christian stuff in concert yeah well you know it's to me it's not like the music I do it just comes from me so I'll take a song here a song there you know but yes I love sharing just like especially in a concert you want to get you you know when you when you love the church and you love the people in it and love the family you want to share that with people it's you know it's here's an email from Kanye just in a way as a thank you to you she writes hi Marcus and Dion I saw your program in 2000 and asked how you consoled your own daughter about boy problems in effort to help my own daughter I showed my daughter that tape and I believe it had good effect she is graduating from medical school in May many things for all the years of prayer and support Connie so she's just thanking you for your witness on the program thanks Connie I have great son and laws I must say I got I probably got the greatest son and laws in the world they they care about my daughters like I do you know well you know I have my wife is just she's terrific one on one and she always listened to my daughters and talk to them she she's you know they say you marry the woman who could best get you to heaven if you love her you know I loved uh and you know I'm tired a great mother but my daughters I must say they have great minds they have wonderful minds they made great choices in their life and then on the other hand remember what I said the last time I was on I know Italians are going to get on me for saying this but I used to tell my daughters you tell you a boyfriend that you have an Italian father who's living I use the stereotype for you know - all right let's take a break and we'll come back to someone with more of your questions for dear welcome back Marcus Grodi your host for the journey home here with Dion or just here talking about good old stuff because I remember all of his music and followed it and back when I was aspiring guitarist myself here I'm thought this level when he's at that piano I heard you that was a that was my dreams playing play ya know why you saying Abraham Martin and John on that boat we were on together this was like great piano you know playing it down we've got some phone calls and emails but I do before we take that I just something that just amazes me and I wanted to have your experience your thoughts on this when I think about the industry music arts performing that the pressure there because of the way you're perceived from stage from television the music rises on the charge your fame Rises and what it's like a wave it seems at least as I look at it from afar that this all these people get drawn up in the wave and the fame and there they are and of course the temptations there and the devil laughs are to draw them in all these different directions but when someone has a conversion in the midst of that all of a sudden they're going cross-current to everything everybody else on the great wave how did you did you deal with that that that was a like working for you something had a revelation or an illumination rock-and-rollers and people in the you know the show business they get some you know the adulation you get you get thousands of people clapping for you and screen them everybody's following you with you know the gauntlet of flashbulbs and they want to interview you in well the seat kind of think is something special and nobody does you know everybody's asking what's happened and you think well I'm pretty special I'll tell them so you come up with some stuff you know this dis liberalism even yeah it's it's like they're trying to reinvent the wheel or find out how to do things it's and meanwhile it's in place this you know the way I explained it the only way I could explain it you know people ask me are you a liberal are you conservative I said well I'm liberal with my love and I'm conservative in my thinking and I'll tell you why because rock and roll is especially we pride ourselves on being free and truthful turn up the amps I'll tell you what it's about you know like here's how free I am i could play louder than everybody else but a lot of them never appropriate the truth they never become free yet you start seeing them die very broken you say why the the problem is with the problem I had is I thought freedom was doing anything you wanted and that's not freedom so I try to tell young people I say listen you could get five great guitar players in the room and if we all play the same thing at one time its total I mean if we all play at the same time anything we want it's total chaos but if we know the scale if we know the harmonics if we know the tempo if we know the song if we know that you know the the structure you need structure that's a bad word structure formality that's a bad word to rock and roll you know yet freedom that's like that's not freedom structure but the idea thing is if you know the scale and you follow that scale you get people like Chuck Berry Segovia Jimi Hendrix you know lightning Hopkins you get you know you you you have this total expression same scale same seven notes same harmonics but you have this totally freedom to express your individuality within this like like I heard you say one time when is a train most free on or off the tracks on the tracks when is a fish most free in or out of the water in the water so structure and formality became it changed my it freed me when I thought it was going to oppress me it's free and now you play lose well I've always you know Marcus people don't realize that was where you started really in a way because that you listen to a lot of people including a lot of friends think I grew up to rock and roll I didn't it was no nice I don't know but they it wasn't all rock and roll when I was growing up I'd listen to John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and Hank Williams I tuned in those high-powered southern stations you know and you get like standing around let me get another one and so all this all these songs I grew up with I recorded and you know I called it Bronson blue it's been on the Blues charts for like 14 weeks straight in the top ten I just did it with my guitar and people are loving it so it's surprising me I'm like thank you lord let's take our next car Judy from Pennsylvania hello what's your question I would like to know when you reconverted back to the Catholic Church and you got really close to God was there ever a period in that time when you feel like he abandons you I had just gotten back to the Catholic Church about four years ago and I've been doing everything that I'm supposed to be doing and now I feel God has left me my life had gotten worse oh well first of all GM and say our prayers are with you because I guess there's a lot of people out there like myself Dion we've gone through dry periods I know what it's like so we're with you and we're praying for you and we want the Lord touch you in his but in a very unique way so you know for sure he's there Judy you know read the Psalms you could you could retitle those the Blues you could see the brokenness you could see all through Scripture we're not everybody it's not like I'm sitting here and I have it and always will have it's life isn't like that it's I think personally that when you're feeling like that God is really working sometimes you think well I'm doing something wrong he's not work and he left now he's closer than ever and you keep talking to him and you know I went through a period like that and not like that I go through it periodically and those are the times I really remember and those are the times I really grew not the times that I'm feeling I you know the times I'm feeling great kind of blend into each other and not you know that's wonderful it's wonderful to be joyous happy and free but when you go through those times I think you could really learn some real good stuff you know and I think the Lord's really working at times like that remember when you probably taught your daughters how to ride a bike I taught my sons when they were young you know and we start off holding them which the only way they were ever able to get to the point they could ride on their own because we had to let go sometimes they fell you know we had to get going again but you know we had to stand back a little bit so that they could trust and then pretty soon they're able to go doesn't mean we abandoned them you know we're there loving them the whole time well that's what happens in our journeys we would love to have God just kind of hug and as we feel it's tough but sometimes he wants us to grow in our faith be able to step out we have to back up faith is a muscle it's like you you got to go to the gym and it's it's a muscle and sometimes when you don't feel that close you're really doing the grunge work you know you try not to cross road about that absolutely I'll develop dark night of soul it's part of that journey of spiritual journey is exactly like but it's it's a time when he's trying to test our faith he is not abandoned you because he says I will never leave you or forsake you that's his promise so don't ever think that that's the enemy trying to talk you into that so let's take our email from build phrase Dion I know there are many in the music world who grew up Catholic but no longer practice the faith what kinds of opportunities God given you to give witness to the truth of the Catholic Church thanks Bill for email thanks Bill you'd be surprised Susan and I are out to dinner and we you know a lawyer a doctor a friend some someone will sit down at the table and start talking and the next thing I know is I'm talking about confession you know go do they still have that I say oh yeah you meet the nicest people at confession you should you know and sometimes and sometimes you'll find somebody crying right in front of you you know because I love talking to men about Jesus you know because I grew up in a neighborhood and and no one did that with me you know as Catholics we think we don't you know our faith is very private you know but I love talking to the Lord and I love talking to men about the Lord and it's just it's you'd be surprised you you know I just had that boldness there's something about it that it's the most important thing in my life to share with with some of these men so I get a lot of opportunities through the day you get there's always an opportunity all right guys let's take our next caller Laura from Texas hello Laura what's your question what Deion would advice for me since I'm wanting to be converted so you just on the journey all right there's someone on the journey just Laura come on home come on home to the family you know it's just a wonderful place to be everybody wants a home nobody wants to be alone and one thing that I found in Protestant denominations it was a little more like Jesus and me the fellowship was I I must say they I met such precious people in in Protestant denominations and love the Lord they what they know a lot of them a lot of the denominations it's like a thin veneer of who the Lord is because they don't have the family they don't have the history they don't have the fullness of the faith and the beauty of the family and the saints and the communion of saints and the history the beauty of it and so come on home love you all right let's take our next caller Tim from Pennsylvania hello what's your question hi Marcus and Dion question Dion is the power of the Eucharist when you were an evangelical and just how the Eucharist has become so different thanks Jim but like I said I never you know as a as a child Susan I were talking about this today I didn't understand the faith too much we were going to catechism as a as a youngster you know I'd hear I heard some things I had a mild Catholic upbringing I went to public schools but so it took a while to understand and I the Eucharist this it's it's just so beautiful and so it's beyond words it's so profound it's hard to even talk about it but to to be able to go to Mass and come back to the center and feel a and and be in heaven on earth not like heaven on earth but heaven on earth and to receive the body blood soul and divinity of Christ his word it's it's it's totally different it's and and I must say this and I don't want to sound again like I'm talking down because I'm not but trying to talk to a Protestant about the Eucharist and the body blood soul and divinity of Christ is like you ever try to talk to Jesus to another about that Jesus is the Son of God true God true man to a non-believer it's very hard for them to hear it they said everyone everybody's the Son of God everybody you know they have they can't they don't get it and if you talk to a Protestant about the Eucharist it's the same thing or the Catholic Church they it's like this of the they haven't made that step and they can't see it and the Holy Spirit has to do that the Holy Spirit has to enlighten the soul and the mind and and and and you have to be willing to hear it because there's so many misconceptions out there that people get taught and misinformation about the Catholic Church if if half of it was true I wouldn't be in the Catholic Church but none of it is true I mean it's the Holy Catholic and one APIs you know the Apostolic Church that's right thank you do you take into the email Bonnie from Connecticut she writes hello Marcus and Dion I have been to many churches and talked to many people of different faiths and Catholics who have converted to other religions and their reason has been that there is too much authority in the Catholic Church yet Dion you said something that brought you back is authority not need for it I thought to be wonderful to expand on that thoughts you just wonder if you expand on that absolutely that's the the teaching authority of the Catholic Church well the primary central issue is Authority what is truth and who has the authority to define it the Lutheran pastor the Methodist pastor the Presbyterian pastor this one that one who and that this was my problem what you know what is truth and who has the authority to define it so Authority was to me this is the primary central issue and once I understood and accepted the authority of the church had set me free people that that I think maybe they're confused when they say see you look at the the Catholic Church even when I was a kid I thought it was looking to you know oppress me or hold me down you know the truth will set you free but there's a veil over people's eyes and like I said only the Holy Spirit could could invade that misunderstanding a real freedom it's anything that that statement that quote that you you use from Augustine you know about unity and essentials well when there's no authority that list of essentials gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until what's left I mean there are there are large Protestant denominations out there that don't believe in the Trinity they're very well-meaning Christian believers that really see Jesus more as a great teacher you know I'm saying is that pretty soon all these what's essential they may limit it to love as the essential well but what does it mean to love and so we end up with just a complete confusion that's why authority is so important you know if you like one a friend of mine said how come you have a catechism all you need is the Word of God you need you need the Bible we have the Bible I said well that's the heart of the Catholic Church the Catechism expresses the heart of the Catholic Church or do you need a catechism for I said well you go to church well turn on TV and look at any Protestant pastor they'll read a scripture and they'll do a commentary for forty-five minutes I said that you know either you believe in that comments that we we have a catechism that that expresses that tells you what certain things mean not what they say that's the problem with everybody opening up churches if you have denominations if you disagree with the past that you take the book and you and I Marcus we could go down to the shopping center and start a new denomination because we disagree and and that's why you have this problem you have thirty thousand denominations out there and growing yep that's right let's take a next caller Bob from New York hello what's your question tonight hi Deann hey dawn Marcus I'm a I'm an artist but also an art instructor we're a public high school here in upstate New York how would you let some of our teenage viewers watching tonight know that the gifts that they have of the Arts are meant to be shared and to give glory back to God and in today's world of so much evil influence especially in the arts what could you say to the youth to give them maybe some courage to give glory back to God by using a talent well first Bob let's say god bless you and your work as a witness and encouraging those young men and women to explore the gift that God has given them for his glory and your witness thank you for your question you know we need we need artists out there just development you know just keep honing their skills and doing you know and sharing beauty and truth and in their art and there's so many ways you could reach people with music and sculpture and paintings and it's it's it's a wonderful way to move people it's a wonderful way to start people and I mean just I was at I was at a wonderful service over the Easter holidays I have a dear friend asked me to go to I think it I think it was a Methodist Church and they had some you know maybe the art was as big as the screen I had five pictures that the kids had done beautiful stuff in the church and the pastor told me after he said you know there was a time when art was important in the church but I'm trying to bring it back I said I said that's the Nick you should think she'd go to Rome you know I said this you know it's yeah well I think was a Gustin I know I don't have the quote correct but but he said that when you sing you pray twice absolutely yeah right and you know there's a layer this this artistic layer that's a gift of grace that's in some ways almost hard to put the touch when the way music can move us in a way that mere words don't there's it's more there and so on the one hand we see it as this great gift of music that can use our senses to reinforce the truth but it also puts a great responsibility on us to use that gift as bob was asking for the glory of God if you're aware of it at times if when you're not aware of it like for you know a long time in my life music was such a gift just to help me express myself so I didn't go ballistic or get twisted instead of going in and becoming isolated it helped me express myself the brokenness the belonging to be home the you know III I define the blues as the naked cry of the human heart apart from God it's like people just wailing you know when I first heard them as a kid that's what I heard you know people longing to be home in union with God they don't know it a lot of times but music I think was given to us I think it's especially the blue is a wonderful art form to express yourself so you don't go you know insane on the journey but it links people because I feel that way to the other words they hear someone singing a song and they're drawn to that I mean I could mention so many Brazilian songs that we've gone through within our life but when you said sometimes they're not aware of it a song that often comes back to me a different form of music another was a style from the 60s and 70s Bacharach and Hal David who wrote many good songs but you know what the world needs now is love you know well understood from a correct perspective as a powerful song the windows of the world I mean did they know what they were writing or with God writing through them anyway you know I mean it's amazing what God can do even through you know whomever and yet we can be touched by that and I've got an email here comes Roger in Greenville South Carolina Dionne would you say that it was the true the scripture or the teaching of the church that was most instrumental in your conversion Thank You Roger truth the scripture of the teaching of the church you know I think he's wanting you to split here is there a thing I think God personally just touched me he said it's your tiny touch my heart you know I prayed I was what happened to me it was people witnessing to me talking about Christ and you know that's a witness itself because sometimes eventually people are up there then people feel they're untouchable but the fact that someone talked to you god bless him you know yeah well somebody asked me said do you believe in God I said of course I believe in God he said who and I said you know Oh God anyway yeah what like what do you believe so I was like just kind of you know the father well what does he you know give me a little more could you give and I I didn't know what to say I had no idea what to say and he started talking to me about Christ and I thought well that's nice you know but because I prayed I used to jog and I used to bless homes I said God you know thank you for my you know all you've done from but I didn't know Jesus and one day I asked the question in prayer I said God it would be nice to be closer to you that was my prayer and he answered me he just revealed himself to me and I had a very profound sudden brilliant awakening that I knew why God stepped into history and and and why he came to reconcile me to the Father and there was a book there was there was a you know he there were words about him and things he said and I want it and that's why I went to scripture and scripture led me to the church I think anybody who gets into Scripture and love scripture and studies it will come into the church eventually because you know people say things like well Catholics only have tradition or you know it's a bunch of tradition well the when when you read scripture you'll see that the Apostle Paul says Pesa in Thessalonians and in Corinthians a few times he says pass on this tradition to you know faithful men who will pass and huh because jesus said go and teach he didn't say go and give books out or you know he said you know they didn't have that at that time so it was I mean the scriptures are very important let's see we get another call and Tony from New Jersey hello Tony what's your question hi markets hide beyond that god bless you both I'll try to be brief on the cradle Catholic and Dion between sometime between 84 and 86 you did a concert which I attended with friends of mine at a place in Edison New Jersey cloth will st. fellowship and that you did almost like an altar pearl for the men to come up on stage we'll get a sing and I'm gonna think oldies and Beyonce and even though I'm about 10 years younger than you and I just want I was really touched I was standing right next to your jam and with you I don't play an instrument but it was I was in heaven too and hearing your testimony and your witness and one final quick question of my wife and I were wondering what metal or metals are you around your neck and what do they mean to you when is the Blessed Mother Tom Monaghan gave me this said the Pope blessed it that's right on there and one is the st. Francis symbol Christ good to hear from you Tony I still have that fervor again thank you for calling and bringing back such great memories you know and closing tell us a little bit more about this this Blues out you've talked a little bit about what blues is and there are those of us that have heard blues but tell us about your album again and how people might find out about it well you can't find out about the gospel albums and everything outside that on Dion DiMucci com all right great Bronks in blue is an album that my wife just kept she hears what I sing around the house she says Dionne you sing this better than there you to sing this so you know I I love the way you sing this stuff you know you why don't you do an album of that Susan I don't want to compete with Buddy Guy and BB King I you know I see I grew up to this music and they these songs have been in my head for like 50 years I went into the studio recorded all these songs I grew up with - with my guitar they've been in my head and in my guitar did them there's 14 songs people love in it you know so I Thank You Susan for asking Dionne think you're joining us on a journey home again thank you for your witness and we look forward to hearing more good things from you and and I will tell the audience I like that new album so it's good to have you here Dion DiMucci comm find more information about this thank you for joining us on the journey home it's always a pleasure to being with you god bless you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 13,975

Rating: 4.816092 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television, Presbyterianism (Religion), JHT01094

Id: hmBeuOCWRwc

Length: 56min 28sec (3388 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 29 2014