Father Spitzer’s Universe - 2018-08-01 - God's Inner Call Pt. 2

[Music] [Music] hello and welcome once again to father Spitzer's universe where no man has gone before but we go every week to find the intersection of faith and reason coming to you from the mothership here in the heart of our EWTN studios in Irondale Alabama on Mother Angelica Way where it all began back in 1981 believe it or not and of course each week we joined father Spitzer and it's always important for you to send us your emails check us out on Facebook send us a tweet on Twitter and for all things that relate to father Spitzer two places the magic Center's website Manchus sent to one word.com and of course now we are working with credible Catholic calm and that's what we're going through a wonderful wonderful program once again I don't now father finds all the time but he did it and we've got God's intercal part too that's what we're talking about and speaking of something to talk about you know there's a guy named dr. ray guarendi we all love here at EWTN and you could see his book is up there and EWTN publishing proudly publishing this for the month of August thinking like Jesus the psychology of a faithful disciple by dr. ray guarendi you know it's going to be interesting and a lot of fun to read and a lot of good material in there thinking like Jesus available through our ewtn religious catalogue and of course all of father Spitzer series he's done for us here at EWTN as well as many of his books are available through the EWTN religious catalogue as well that being said we turn once again to the Rising Sun where father Spitzer I should say the settings son because you are in California here and it's another day as we continue on a little bit earlier there than it is for us here and as always if you can start off with a prayer we'll kick the show off absolutely in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen Heavenly Father we give you thanks for your blessings especially the blessing of your call the way that you speak to us in the depths of our heart the way you call us and invite us ever more deeply into yourself we ask you Lord for great discernment and wisdom in seeing the manifestation of that call both in our external lives and right in the midst of our hearts so that we might follow you more nearly and so inherit the the fullness of your promise through Jesus Christ your son our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God for ever and ever amen of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen amen and we pray for all those people who are in need of prayer from us and would like us to pray for them as well God's inner call part two from incredible Catholic com but before we delve into that material let's pick up some questions that you are audience sent to us in the last couple of weeks for father Spitzer to deal with first up an email dear father Spitzer you recently discussed a study which indicated that modern man advanced suddenly about seventy thousand years ago and had souls before this sin didn't exist okay however in the and earth halls buried dead cared for the sick and had religion and art wouldn't this indicate that they also had souls PS please give an update about your I treatment as well and this is from Donna mm-hmm yeah Donna you know the the neanderthal offshoot let's say you know from homo sapiens as you probably know there is an offshoot called homo sapien neanderthalensis and that and our offshoot is homo sapiens sapiens and we do know that there were some interactions and even some mating that probably went on between homo sapiens sapiens and Homo Sapien Neanderthal incest would they have had souls very difficult to say you know on just on the basis of the burying of of their deceased whether or not they actually had heart is another thing but just to kind of jump to that conclusion on the simple you know evidence of burying the deceased it's probably a pretty difficult thing to do the main thing that leads all of you know the the you know so many of the scholarly community to come to the conclusion you know that a human being something is very different seventy thousand years ago is the coincidence of about seven different things relevant syntactical language the capacity for mathematics the capacity for symbolic art the capacity of course for a seeming sense of not just burying the dead that shows respect but that they're burying the dead with objects that look like they could be used in an afterlife indicating they had a sensitivity to that furthermore you know there is this huge geographical almost adventurous sensitivity to just going to the beyond and an ability to sort of make cognizant maps of it not as accurate of course is the kind that we would use today but definitely primitive mapping and then of course that the discovery of culture and society especially with legal codes a manifesting conscience and when you get the coincidence of all seven of these items it's this that leads us to suspect seriously that we have a soul remember you know Saint Agustin following Plato you know elucidated those five transcendental desires that desire for perfect truth the perfect love perfect goodness goodness are just as perfect beauty and perfect home and it's all of these items you know that are manifested in this huge explosion that seems to have occurred just about seventy thousand years ago now do we see this with Neanderthals no we really don't but we do see there are some seeming matings that might not happen that there are some you know interesting precursors maybe to a soul maybe with the bear of dead but but clearly the the manifest move into full-blown religions symbolic manifestations of religions the the actual use of the word God which of course requires syntactical language to do that you know to say something about something we don't see that really with Neanderthals they they seem to have had a highly developed the sense of tool-making they have a highly developed sense of affection we also see you know even a you know like elephants who you know really grieve their dead and and they do they treat that their their the elephant remains with respect elephants are thought to be highly highly intelligent you know and they will grieve you know for a long time but all of these things do not manifest a soul per se as we described it in our last episode so to be honest with you I think probably not but I think they're coming close and of course this is just pure speculation on my part but I would just say no I think that really belongs to Homo sapiens sapiens specifically to the the genre that and the species that would come to us from both mitochondrial Eve and Y chromosome Adam okay now what if somebody's sitting out there saying this is kind of interesting and it's good to see how science and faith or late to one other but what does it really matter to me sitting around here in the year 2018 whether and Neanderthals had a soul or maybe some of them had a soul why does that actually matter in my life let alone my personal salvation well I think some people might want to say you know gosh if Neanderthals had a soul well wouldn't that mean that there were not you know just one first set of parents okay mitochondrial Eve in Y chromosome Adam okay and as I said whatever we can say Neanderthals certainly did not have a soul like the one manifested in homo sapiens sapiens 70,000 years ago from the lineage of mitochondrial Eve and Y chromosome Adam not even close so I mean that part of it I don't think there's any question about so I don't think they had a soul and furthermore you know I'm not saying that you know that you know you should draw some great lesson about your faith from the scientific coincidence however it's nice to know that there is a kind of coincidence that that has gone on once again because there are many such coincidences between science and faith and that should give credibility to our faith and at the same time give that faith resonance to the scientific discovery that has pertinence to salvation and the ultimate dignity of human beings science can't do that for itself but when a coincidence between faith and science happens it infuses the scientific discovery with that salvific discovery as well as the ultimate dignity of human beings and of course our ultimate destiny as well ok exactly and that that does cleared up even for me one of the questions speaking of what concerns our audience probably maybe even a little more than that as she wanted to know Donna wanted to know what the status of your eye treatment is oh I forgot that part of the question I'm sorry I've done it yeah I'm awaiting FDA approval and to make a long story short I'm in a program at the University of Iowa they have taken my stem cells from the base of my arm and they have culture the the stem cells and redress them back to my embryonic stem cells they've used a technique called CRISPR to remove the the gene that gives me retinitis pigmentosa and they've replaced it with a normal gene and now they've cultivated you know you know the equivalent of two little surface rods and cones of kind of an embryonic I if I can put it that way that would be about four and a half months old very similar to the rods and cones I would have had and my mother's womb and they've done it on a dissolvable polymer sheet and that's going to become a little carrying case because it has folds in it and when they're ready to deliver they they just fold everything up and and essentially put it right underneath the vitreous humour and then the the dissolvable polymer polymers dissolve and then once that occurs I actually might be able to see very very well you know this unfortunately has not yet been approved by the FDA and it does have to be approved for me to take advantage of it so I await once again the Food and Drug Administration's permission to begin the clinical trials although it has been done with animals quite successfully right so we'll keep that in prayer and ask everybody to remember you and for that to happen expeditiously and be successful one in fact it does happen as well and let's move ahead from Twitter a person wrote to us and said a professor or a prominent University actually told me that the Bible was proof of alien life and that verses with and it proved it this left me a bit scared and not sure what to think could you address this please and this is Eliza okay Eliza just two quick thoughts you know first of all there are some people who actually there are some passages in Genesis and people have interpreted these passages in Genesis about a race of giants and of course you know the the stories about gods as it were mixing with human beings etc etc in the first chapters of Genesis there and a lot of people have made this out to be evidence of alien life now I don't know what kind of a professor you're speaking with but I mean this is what we call in logic a leaping non sequitur I mean you've got some passages that might you know among several thousand other interpretations point to an alien life form all those other interpretations have been completely ruled out and the only one that remains for this group of people is that the Bible is proving an alien life form now this is a very very very weak argument and if I were you from a logical point of view and from an evidential point of view I wouldn't put any credit in that argument whatsoever I mean it is really a leaping non sequitur you know one plus one equals two therefore e equals mc-squared except of course you know this is all the steps in between have simply not been shown and all the possible interpretations that would be countered to an alien interpretation have certainly not been thoroughgoing Lee ruled out and so I would call that the the weakest possible argument imaginable so I wouldn't put any credit in it any stock in it I I would just say thank you for that interesting opinion and that interpretation it is one interpretation among many many others run and I'm glad you you look at it that way I don't I thought it was interesting to comment you kind of made that aside there that and to some degree the snake if the the one thing he probably believes in is that there's aliens out of description meanwhile the rest of the book probably goes right by them you know this really what we need to be focused on here you know they're super there's a lot of other important messages in scripture of and then worrying about whether alien life exists or doesn't because that either does or doesn't and we'll shall see dear father Spitzer writes to us young adult who says I'm a young adult and several of my friends have spiritual directors that they meet with often I'm not sure whether or not I need a spiritual director could you explain the pros and cons of having one and maybe offer some input on how long someone should see a spiritual director months years indefinitely thank you and this is from Ann Marie and certainly spiritual discernment is one of the great questions most people have well Ann Marie I would probably say you know if one of three circumstances would probably warrant having a spiritual director for a certain period of time not necessarily on an ongoing basis now if you are a religious sister or or you know if a person you know let's say you know as a priest or a brother yes of course you you want to have a spiritual director in that case if you're a layperson however then the main thing you know there are three circumstances where you may want to look at it number one if you're discerning a vocation absolutely if you're doing that you want to get a spiritual director ASAP the second thing that's that's really pertinent is if you're going through a big life change and you are radically changing your life from one vocation to another vocation or you're doing something that really does require some discernment about what the will of God might be and that's another circumstance where you probably want to take a quick look at getting a spiritual director at least for a short term just to check out your perceptions of where God is leading you etcetera and they have these rules for the discernment of spirits that may help you you know to make a decision in in that particular time a third area which is important is when a person is just beginning a life of really deep spiritual conversion so you know as you're kind of moving you know into a deeper spiritual life with you know more discipline toward prayer let's say you have the privilege of being able to do this there's not a lot of say children who are your responsibility that might be around there's there's your work responsibilities you're not pulling you away but you have the ability to enter into a kind of a a very prayerful religious life you know of mm of maybe even over an hour of prayer a day with courts with maybe mass and with you know devotion etc as you're moving into that you you can expect a variety of things to happen right at the initial point where you enter into it and frankly it much of the time it's the evil spirit trying to deceive the living daylights out of you and and you know he would first want to sort of inflict you with nightmares then some sense of emptiness then other kinds of things like false truths remember we talked a long long time ago but the angel I mean the devil coming appearing as an angel of light etc and and you know seemingly with good advice but it's really not good advice etc if you're making a really deep transition into a deeper spiritual conversion into a deeper spiritual life really moving more deeply into moral conversion you know something that's that's going to to be a huge part of who you are right and and may even turn into a vocation in some sense then my thought would be definitely as you make that transition again on a temporary basis amory spiritual director could be good just to help you through what I would consider those initial hurdles that this the evil one is just gonna throw up in front of you he really wants to stop you he wants to confuse you he wants to make sure that you feel alienated from yourself he wants to you know throw in a whole bunch of temptations like who do you think you are you you you want to be st. John in the Crouch going to be st. Teresa of Avila's that way you think you are it's going to be so many different things that are thrown up in front of you in addition to some nightmare alienation things of that nature which really a spiritual director who knows what they're doing can really help you to get through so that you can make that transition into a deeper life and Plus that spiritual director can give you some points and points just mean ways of meditating ways of transforming your prayer life ways you know directions you should move in your prayer life maybe take you through some of the rules of Saint Teresa of ávila jawed of the cross just to help you get through that transition point I'd say spiritual director would be very very handy there too and of course if you are belong to a lake on fraternity or you're a religious or a priest I mean obviously I know you're not a priest but but the key thing is if somebody in the audience is you definitely want to have a spiritual director in you let me let me ask you like in your situation so are you assigned a spiritual director in your particular case you get to know one or how does that work yeah yeah well I mean you know obviously I'm an adult you know I can pick a spiritual director and the Society of Jesus allows me to do that however you know if somebody is in formation for example oh yeah they're generally first there the novice master de facto becomes their their spiritual director or maybe another spiritual director who's at the Navision but they are assigned a spiritual director but as you sort of move through the stages of formation and you move you know into theology etc you generally would pick your own director and get the directors approval for it but I mean if it's a decent spiritual director nobody's gonna have sera so there could you have a spiritual director who wasn't a priest or do you in fact have one who is not a priest how does that work no I have one who's a priest yeah so that's what you could you you could have one I actually know some people who have a sister you know as a spiritual director and I know the Carmelites you know Pannell Hamburg they do spiritual direction also for priests etc and for others so and and of course you know that yes so it certainly possible they have which you know if st. Teresa of ávila were to come up and say what would you like you know I'd say absolutely let's see if I could fit you in here I guess the prior prior obligation which which part of the mansion am I going to be in that's what you that's right exactly well let me ask you that one of the questions about this because I know for many years different interviews and shows we've done over these that's always a big question for a lot of people is not only should I have one but how do I go about finding one I mean if I'm looking from one what do I do well you know first of all he wants okay you want a person who has a good deal of experience doing this already and you don't want to start up person you know if especially if you're really serious about progressing in the spiritual life or pursuing a vocation etc you really want someone who's been at it for a while for me it's always a combination of what I would call holiness and wisdom both you know that that there is a you know a true insight and balance into the interpretation of Scripture into the fidelity to the church but a keen sort of ability to make distinctions you know a real sensitivity to to you know reading and intelligence you know I think that's important as well of course as personal holiness so if the two things are co-present that's gonna make you a great director I make a person a great director and and of course I would recommend a person who has both one time I think I don't know if this is an apocryphal story or not but one of the sisters have st. Teresa of ávila well you know what's more important you know you know having a spiritual director who is intelligent and educated versus one who is holy what's more preferable you know if one of the two characteristics was going to be lacking what would you say is is the better one to have and she said the intelligent educated ones the better one to have and of course a shock the person right I'm not sure whether this is an apocryphal story but they said well why and her response was well they they'll do less damage you know and so but the clear answer to the question is you want both you know and you don't want them lacking and in too many respects but you know a very very holy person who who maybe just doesn't have you know a lot of discernment wisdom and you know you know education etc it probably better be a little careful there you know and you know but also I'd be very careful about someone who seems really educated and discerning etc but and wise but not very personally holy I'd be really worried there but their answer is both yeah and speaking of that we've got a couple of questions we can squeeze one in before we go to the break that ties right into the whole light there - sermon do you father I've been turning the priesthood for years I really do feel God is clearly calling me become a priest but I do not want to live as a priest I want to find a wife inside a family am i sinning by not listening to God and fighting what he's calling me to do I struggle with this despite for seeking affirmation that this calling is the way to go and this is Joseph well Joseph the first thing I would say is you know you know your desire is really really important you know the movement of your desire is important in in terms of you know the discernment of a vocation you do not want to be in a position where you're gonna fight yourself every step of the way so I know some people have given you an advice that you know of being a priest is the way to go but you know if internally you know you're going be fighting yourself if you think that somehow I I do not desire this you know my thought would be please do not pursue the priesthood at this juncture and know you are not sinning not not to pursue the priesthood there's something amiss when your desire is not you know aligned with where you think that that God is calling you to because one of the key signs of a vocation is a desire to want to be a priest is to want to serve people you know in in their spiritual needs within the church within the kingdom of God but you know the grace that that we are given celibacy is hard for anybody obedience is hard for anybody poverty is hard for most people and in for all intensive purposes you know that's the point is God gives you a grace though you know align your desire with with the call that that he's giving you and and if you've got a conflict up front where you're fighting yourself about this call there's something really a missed there and if I were your spiritual director I would say ah stop everything here you have not finished your discernment process you do not want to be in a state of conflict can you imagine this right you'd be miserable yourself you'd make other people who you know where your sheep but miserable as well you don't want to do this you want to redefine or recontextualize that discernment and you you have to consider what your desires are and the align ability of your desire to what you believe God is calling you to it's very hard for me to believe that God could be calling you to something where you're gonna fight yourself you know a tooth and nail every step of the way there's something and you certainly don't want to go down that route be ordained and then find yourself saying oh gee I really want to get married yeah absolutely because you know eventually you know you know you may fight yourself to the point where you give up and then you wind up doing something that that really is counterproductive exact so my my thought is you know you are not sinning that's the first thing to get off the list number two you need to continue that discernment and if you can't find a line ability between what's in your heart and where do you think God is calling you please do not pursue the priesthood I just don't see that you know as maybe some of your director there are spiritual directors or friends have told you this is the way to go my thought is it's not the way to go if if in point of fact your desire can't be aligned with them with where you think God is calling you right and his conscience of what he feels called to be and to do okay we shall take a break from father Spitzer's insights just for a moment and we will be back here as we continue and father Spitzer's universe talking about God's inner call and some more of your questions straight ahead stay with us [Music] and the voice continues to the heart of father Spitzer's universe and we have one more question for father Spitzer before we get into our topic so we turn to him father we get one more question in that's was sent to us we're going along the same kind of track that we've been on dear father Spitzer is it appropriate to ask a man if he has a call to the priesthood there was a pious young men at my parish whom I do not know personally but I see him regularly massing extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and I thought it would be a good way to quote/unquote put a bug in his ear about the priesthood what do you think and this is barber from Oklahoma Barbara from Oklahoma I think it's a terrific idea and and honestly my own discernment began because a nice person asked me that same question and you know a lot of people just have it in their minds that that they shouldn't you know be a priest they they should stay on the same inertia that they that they're on right and and inertia just means you know that you're you kind of have a momentum and the you know you it's you don't want to get off of it you think this is where you have peace in your life you're doing good things for the Lord etc why rock the boat you know why pursue you know change etc etc and you know I would ask that question and just just place it out there and and just even ask well you know even have you ever thought of pursuing the diac in it you know and see when I was younger and in college and then just moving from college on to you know I was gonna go to law school and I had been a practicing accountant etc you know and as I was just kind of in that in-between stage I began to consider first you know being a deacon and my mother sent me all this information on being a you know a permanent deacon and so forth and that well you know if I went and pursued the diaconate after I was married I could be married and and that that might be a you know I could be serving like a priest but but you know as a clergy person but not really a priest but so I that halfway step though is what opened my mind to want to actually you know looking at this a little bit more deeply and of course when God's grace is present to you you have no idea how all of a sudden you get an idea and go you know I wonder if you know gee my religions the most important thing to me in the world and she you know I do really think I want to serve you know you know the broad people of God right breath rather than just depth with two or three four or five other people in my family I really want to give my psychic energy over to a large number you know and I feel that call in my life and you know maybe I maybe I ought to think about the priesthood even though that could involve celibacy and obedience you know on and all of a sudden you get flooded I mean if God I'm telling you this happened to me if God's behind it you start there's something that just happens and you get the sense that wow this is so right except it's not you saying it's so right it's sort of God saying this is so right and then he's moving you through your desire he's moving through you through a sense of urgency he's moving you through a sense of almost excitement he's moving you through a sense of spiritual consolation and and you wind up going cash you know I think I'll read some more about this and so you start picking up these pamphlets and you can't put them down you know and all of a sudden I would say right when this is starting to happen you can you feel like you're getting pulled right in by the Holy Spirit and you are in point of fact you know the Holy Spirit is gonna make you leave you free at the end of the day to make the choice because it is a choice to to follow the caller not to but the the spirit will give you a good sense of that and a good you know a real grace to look at celibacy and obedience and go you know this is something that that I can do for the sake of the kingdom for the sake of service and then you're going to get that sense too of you know really wanting to serve you know the you know the the people rather than you know just the breath with a family when all those graces are aligned I would say you're being called now one way of helping a person to get there is a simple question have you ever thought about a vocation you just seem to be the type that that looks like you'd be a real good priest just thought I'd say it I think it's a great idea it sure helped me and it helped a lot of people I know right to kind of move along that track or they may just say well I've thought about it and I even discerned it and that's not for me and you go well thanks I just thought I better ask right have you ever said that to someone oh yes oh yes as a matter of fact you know I've seen some really excellent students and and sometimes I've sort of made a you know a suggestion you know and people said oh I've thought about it I I really discerned it but no I think I'm called the marriage I and let it go other people to be honest if have actually said you know okay she didn't give them worse grades they decided not to pursue the priesthood or anything like that in your class yeah you know you want graving out of grading on a curve that may in that or anyway all you're looking to pass this course listen better start the survey brother no I I didn't do that with it the context of a class that was a bit funny indeed okay yeah force force priesthood and let me let me ask you the other question kind of I know we're running out of time but I'm just thinking in terms of what you were talking about were there times when you felt like when you're starting it called where you tried to ignore the call and you did feel pulled like you were just yeah I mean uh there was always that pull you know my dad had been an attorney and had a firm a law firm in Honolulu that he would have liked me to take over I was a good person with business and building businesses and our family had businesses and you know I saw you know a function for me that you know and I surely did not want to disappoint him and I surely didn't want to disappoint him in doing you know to law school etc and all of these things were weighing heavily on me you know when I was making my discernment and sometimes I just say oh you know I just don't want to make this phone call you know but ultimately I did you know again God gives you Grace's and even though there's a reluctance to you know to disappoint you know your father or whatever you know in my case you know really there are graces there where you're gonna pick up the phone and you know you'll do what you have to do to follow what you really believe is where the Lord is leading you but when you've got an alignment of all kinds of graces in your life when your religions the most important thing in your life when you think you have the grace of celibacy and obedience when you really think you've got that grace to want to serve the the people of God as a whole rather than you know just maybe your family in a real intimate and deep commitment when you've got that grace that that movement within your soul that desire that's spiritual consolation of just feeling like you're embedded in a kind of a holiness that's pulling you beyond yourself there's a real alignment of Grace's there and when that happens I'd say the Lord is really tapping you on the shoulder you want to be around a spiritual director is going to help you to discern these things make sure you're kind of not locking yourself into something that these are genuine Grace's that are that are really part and parcel of your life you know I would say you know that's if everything checks out you know you know follow the Lord's College it's like anything else there are gonna be difficult days they're gonna I just remember one day I was sitting at a baseball game when I was still in in seminary and I it was bat day and you're supposed to bring all your kids to to you know the ballpark you know so they could get the free bat and so I was there surrounded by a million dads with their kids and I just remember having this little mini crisis right on the spot just going - you know all these dads with all their kids and look at what they're doing and Here I am in seminary you know you know learning philosophy you know Lord I hope you know what you're doing and you know you're gonna have those days when you really you know get into that mode where you go have I you know been you know just kind of crazy here and the answer is no follow the grace as as st. Ignatius says don't get all upset every five minutes you know when when something starts happening it's the same thing you know that the evil spirit when you first discern a vocation he is gonna put so many obstacles in front of your path he's gonna say see you're doing this not because of you know a real desire to serve God's kingdom but you have the following five ulterior motives and let me elucidate all of them in lurid detail for you and of course a minute you start you go oh my gosh maybe I'm entering a vocation with bad faith so you forget about the fact that 99% of the time you really want to serve God you really want to service me but you really want to serve the king really want to serve his truth you really do want to make a difference right you know to the kingdom of God you forget about the 99 percent and you're going to the one percent ulterior motives because he's pounding on you to do it and of course without that spiritual director there help you through it kind of can miss the you know the point but you know God's gonna give you the grace sufficient you know to move through this but you have to have trust in God too you have to say you know I really do want to serve the kingdom you know I really do feel that I have God is calling me to that you know the the the dignity and and sense of you know broad service that this vocation of priesthood has to offer and and I I am going to pursue it you know and you know once you make that decision in trusting God seeing that alignment of the signs that I just talked about you want to keep following that grace you've got to have a really good mitigating reason to start believing another scenario because if you if you don't have that criterion of a really good mitigating reason every single time a little mini reason comes up and you start doubting yourself doubting your discernment you know you go you're gonna drive yourself crazy and that's exactly where the evil spirit wants you to be just driving yourself crazy so I just would say there would be days like that day you know at the ballpark or I just say Lord Jesus I just place my trust in you I think you're calling me to serve your kingdom you know I mean I've got my obvious down Falls my obvious failures my obvious you know a lack of ability in a million different areas okay I think you're calling me I think I have something to really give to the kingdom of God into your church I really do following it and you've got to have that resolved just like you have to have the same resolve in marriage you know and you have a lead-up time in the jesuits of course of at least nine years you know in the diocesan priesthood about seventy six to seven years you have a very good lead-up time to to really make that but you really gotta move there has to be a part of decision in trust as well as discernment of the call that God is giving you and a good spiritual director can help yeah yeah and some discernment you obviously shown us and being in a bad day in a ball park where they sell beer you have to be very very careful very very careful I don't know if they do bad days anymore because people decided those bats came in kind of handy when they were dealing with the security guards unfortunately that's right so we have we have a couple of minutes to talk about God's inter call now all of these things are these all God's inter call and how does this relate to what's incredible Catholic well I think you know God's inter call well first of all you know we've been talking about the numinous experience in the previous episode we talked about the idea of the sacred you know and we talked the Mersey al yada we talked about God's inter call and conscience right where God is actually directing us in helping us you know through a moral code to come to a you know you know to live out a real authentic life of following him and following the teaching of his son in the church and we've talked about to that that you know that what we call the every man's Odyssey you know that that sensitivity to a real battle between good and evil out there and that that we want to you know enter into the battle even though it means self-sacrifice for the noble cause of advancing the kingdom all these things are part of every single human beings inner call and so that part is what I would call a generic inter call from God to invite you into a life of holiness invite you into a life of religion into a life of transcendence and so forth that's the first part of the call but there are stages of the call as well and so as you see you know when I got to college for example the call toward transcendence and toward God was very much alive of course I was brought up as a Catholic and this what this meant was you know when as I was going through college when I sort of got my intellectual conversion things settled you know so I started studying some of the areas you know the Freedman singularity equations things like that that help me make a consistent pick between you know I could see science you know supporting faith in God and I could metaphysics my metaphors of course and the proofs for the existence of God for the first time very important in my intellectual conversion and really discovering the Scriptures etc extremely important in my intellectual conversion so all of these things were important but then I started moving into that spiritual conversion and that's where I began to see I need more than just belief in God right I need more than just belief in a God who is all-knowing and an all-powerful a God who is an unconditioned unrestricted continuous creator of all else that is was an unrestricted act of understanding understanding itself etc that's a great philosophical scientific God which is also the god of Christianity but the god of Christianity is so much more and God calls us to say come you know learn about Who I am not just about what I am and so he calls us into the life of Christ and Christ gives that definitive revelation of who God is he talks about the heart of the Father as we've talked about the father of the prodigal son we've talked about the Heart of Jesus as reflective of the heart of the Father and we begin to see does God answer prayers all these questions that philosophy and science can't answer that can answer a lot of things about God but they can't answer the question about does God answer prayers does God fill us with grace in our lives does God redeem our suffering does God call us to heaven does is God beneficent as he wants us to get to heaven right etc said all these questions have to be you know answered by revelation we're in desperate need of Revelation and as I was in college having sort of come through that spiritual conversion that the intellectual conversion I finally got to that point where I knew I was being called to a deeper reality and I just got this infusion another inner call you know that where I was beginning to say you know what really makes sense to me is Jesus's revelation about the love of God that makes sense to me it's completely different from any other religion you know in the face of the planet the idea that God could be unconditional love and the idea of his definition of love which seemed to me very authentic and of course it was going to be self-sacrifice there's going to be a hard path right you know love is not an easy thing but the fact that we were on a journey with him toward that very special definition of love always within the context of his mercy always within the context of the guidance of the church and as I began to sort of investigate this and move into a spiritual conversion my inner call this inner grace this inner kind of movement towards him ever more deeply into his who not just into his what mm-hmm God was motivating it interiorly but then of course as he always does he complements it with all kinds of graces from the outside so I'm getting all these wonderful insights from the Holy Spirit right to you know you know follow him through Christ Jesus follow him through the church so I would open up you know a scripture commentary and for the first time my life I looked at this drums you know biblical commentary and I open this thing up to the New Testament I'm just reading the first few chapters of this and it's like just I can't get enough I'm reading and reading and reading and reading and just gulping this stuff down like it's the stuff that you know it makes more difference in the world to me than anything else and it's all about Jesus and it's all about the historical Jesus but all about the the revealed Jesus and the teaching of Jesus and I can't get enough of it and then all of a sudden I get exposed to Saint Thomas Aquinas on a real level not just the proofs of the existence of God right but now we're talking about the Trinity and his doctrine and it was almost like holding his books or like you know like there's something holy about these writings and you know interiorly I was drawn into it not just you know that the the the writings itself which did draw me into it right I mean I was literally you know you know held captive by how intelligent this man was how sensible he was how he could unpack all these things yes it took me a little time to learn the rhetoric of a medieval you know method but once I had that down it was interesting how you know I was just riveted again by books but it was more than that I knew those books were holy I knew the Bible was holy the Summa was holy that there was something about it interiorly that was drawing me into itself into himself through those books and they himself with a capital H was of course the Lord and I was growing more and more and more and finally I just said Wow all of this is occurring where did I get all of this holiness right I got it from the church and then I felt really really impelled interior ly and I was not a retreat guy I mean people would always say you know Spencer you should go on a retreat oh I'd just say I'm more a reader guy thank you but no thank you but finally of course these two incidents happened where God just says I'm gonna seal the deal and one of them was an Ignatian retreat with a fellow by the name of Father Steckler may his soul rest in peace because he was so good to me and of course just moving into that retreat and feeling the consolation of God during that retreat I had not a scintilla of a doubt this was gone this was the father of Jesus Christ this was Jesus Christ present through the Holy Spirit I was just moving interior li but again it would be complemented with all these exterior things because people would come up to me and talk to me about the church and all these things that I had no idea you know really I had no idea that you know when I was confronting with the church and finally you know I get to the point where I discovered GK Chesterton because a friend of mine Mike Patton goes Spence you know have you ever read orthodoxy I said orthodoxy no I don't think I have and he goes you haven't read GK Chesterton who's GK Chesterton didn't know silico just read this book and of course from the first sentence half of me is laughing and half of me is going oh this guy's dense and of course I didn't even understand the half of it to be honest with you at the time but I knew there's something absolutely right about this and he's very very popular on the network yell Alquist / yes and John Walker and took charge we've had featured and I may even get a chance to talk to G K Chesterton about that wonderful book sometime on bookmark people can look forward to that possibly but that's all the time we have in this universe for this week so father Spitzer here give us your blessing absolutely bow your heads and pray for God's blessing and may the Lord send His Holy Spirit known upon you to enhance the call that he has given you within the call to his truth his goodness his justice his beauty his love and his home so that you might be called ever more deeply into the teaching and into the heart of Christ which is the heart of his father and in so doing discover the truth that's in the church discover the goodness in the church and follow that teaching into the fullness of service and into the kingdom in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen thank you so much father always a wonderful experience spend time in your universe with you we shall see you next week thank you so much and a reminder that coming up on EWTN we're gonna have the Knights of Columbus 136 supreme convention August 7th 8th and 9th coming to you live from Baltimore Maryland I'll have the pleasure of being there as well so we look forward to that and of course next time join us when we'll be talking about the five transcendental desires that's next time right here on father Spitzer's universe I'm Doug Keck we shall see you next time as we journey again take care [Music] you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 4,257

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

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Id: 8DfsMAup7k8

Length: 56min 26sec (3386 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 01 2018