Fr. Rob Galea Performs at Theology On Tap Kickoff

for their time I am very glad to call him my friend and he's one of those great men in the church pretty much everybody knows reason for it is as you know he as you perhaps know he worked with three Pope's Pope John Paul the second Pope Benedict and he works now with Pope Francis so he has the history of talking and knowing the Pope's but he's a man of a deep faith and for the time and I spent some time together in Canada / Canadian Thanksgiving which I have to say it's not as nice as the American Thanksgiving so sorry Tom although he really was trying it was beautiful it was beautiful he invited me again but but but he was telling me a story of his TV station as you know he runs salt and light TV which is a national Catholic TV and in Canada and and he was saying how the decision that he was approached to run this TV after the World Youth Day and he had no interest in it and it was Pope John Paul the second who said to him Tom your choppers to evangelize and you have opportunity you go and you do it that's why he did it and and I found so much hope in it of knowing that all what it is is you and I turning to somebody and say that already gave you the gifts you need just go and use them and he did so beautifully and the other person we have tonight with us is father Rob who came all the way from Australia and a father up and I know each other for amazing long time about two days we met on Saturday for the first time in person although we've been following each other in social media a lot and the amazing thing about father oppos'd is you will hear him he is an amazing artist but but the stories you listen when he speaks you know that he knows Jesus and that's one thing that I hope we know arrived too if there's a lot of us today or view today who know of Jesus but you don't know who Jesus is I hope that today's talk will help you to recognize something in your hein heart and mind what will help you to realize that Jesus wants to be in the relationship with you as he is her father at which he so beautifully talks about so please join me in welcoming the straw amazing man as we will welcome them to theology now the first thing is if you check out our socks Peter told us the only way we can be here is if we have colored socks so this is the first time I'm wearing these kind of socks I'm very happy to be back in Chicago I came last year for the first experience and I was blown away by it the night before last year I celebrated the mass at st. Clements as I did last night - and Chicago Rocks something's happening here with young adults and it's really a great blessing let me tell you about this young guy that's sitting next to me here I met him exactly 10 years ago it was in Sydney at the World Youth Day it was on the Friday night and having been a former director of World Youth Day and now the head of a TV network I was invited that night to be in the anchor booth of ABC television Australian Broadcasting not our ABC here and I was narrating the Stations of the Cross it was absolutely spectacular and the ending stations the final stations were in the harbour in Sydney on the water it was nightfall Sun was going down and the crucifixion had just taken place and there we are doing this live narration they lowering the body of Jesus from the cross you see all this smoke going up in the background and then this young guy gets up to sing a song above all dead silence came over 250,000 young people who were gathered there complete silence emember turning to the anchor I said who was that and he said to me some seminarian from Malta I said where's Malta who's the seminarian it's old he sang the song and I said to myself I gotta go find who this person is and 250,000 people because this guy is doing something special I knew nothing about Rob Galia at that moment and over the past ten years the world has discovered something about him his story is told in a wonderful book we brought a number of copies of it they're available in the back table afterwards break through but it's really a fascinating wild story this is a young boy grew up in Malta by the way where's Malta well it says in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean means the center of the earth so it's in the middle of the center of the world revolves around Malta or if you can't find it on a map it's in acts 28 in the Bible you know what happened in Malta a big shipwreck Paul got into a big mess in Malta so we remember the Maltese and shipwrecks and we remember Rob now was it you grew up in a Catholic family I did I brought up in a Catholic home in in Malta Mota's 98 percent Catholic can you imagine there are like churches every as many Starbucks as there are coffee shops as there are here there are churches in in Malta like everywhere you look very Catholic country but I'm also we're famous for two things in Malta one is our catalyst city how do you say that catholicity that catholicity and like every people praying on the streets feasts and so on but we're also famous for our partying we love to party we have the biggest street party in the world hosted ten minutes from where I lived which is called the Isle of MTV and the drinking age in Malta 16 so they go when I speak to teenagers this is where I tell them about the pilgrimage I'm organising sociology on tap theology on tap originated in Malta then yeah you could say that now 98% Catholic so you were a little Holy Roller there right from the beginning yes I was born out and I was born with the rosary beads in my hand with the beads yeah no but um I wasn't in fact my parents had faith but I started to rebel at the age of 16 when I was at the age of 14 you know I my parents might anyone here have strict or had strict parents or is a strict parent okay some of you say you have strict parents but my parents are like super strict my I'd go up I don't I have a good day and I take something happened I took a selfie put it on Instagram I'm at this and hypothetically speaking because if this happened now this would be weird but not that I take selfies because I take a lot of them but let's say I take this selfie and I put it on Instagram and the first girl the first person to like it is this girl I like at school and so she likes and I'm in a good mood I'm great getting ready to go to school remember I'm like 13 years old and I'm putting my backpack on and I go downstairs and and before I'm having breakfast my dad would approach me and boom on the back of my head and I turn around I said dad what was that for I didn't do anything wrong and it pointed me to say Rob you haven't done anything wrong yet but you will it's cop your father was proactive he was proactive he just made that and he was right but so I started to rebel and I decided at the age of 13 14 then I realized that I had less and less in common with my parents and I started to hang out with friends do everything I could to to hang out with to get away from home yeah Rob in the book you know I read the book and I said this ain't the seminarian that was singing there and the Stations of the Cross there's some juicy parts in this book girls drugs drinking stealing you name it he did it and look what color clothes he's wearing today now what the heck got you through all of that stuff well I think my life's just started to spiral start to get worse and and I really ended up in a place of darkness by the time I was 16 and the age of 16 I was addicted to a whole lot of things due to drugs I was addicted to to drinking to stealing to to violence that I was used to hang out with a group of friends and I used to go into shops and I would steal stuff but one day something happened I went into a shop - with I was 16 years old I went with my bicycle to pimp my ride and so I go to a bicycle store he has no idea what I'm talking about so so I go into the store and I want to get a speedometer for my bicycle and as I go into the store so I tell the shop keeper I say hey do you have this can I get this video mat and he goes to the back of the store and then I grabbed this video meter and I run out get on time ceiling it's called stealing so I started not be a percent Catholic country steel yeah well they go it's a freely given freely received freely but so I started I started cycling and I'm trying to get away as fast as I can but my group of friends cycle after me and they literally and my closest friend at that time just kicked me off my bicycle and just stood on top of me and started punching me punching me and he's saying like what the heck is going on every time we hang out with you you're getting us into trouble and so they add that's this point at 16 they decided hey I'm not gonna hang out with you anymore and the only people that would hang because I kept going out the the only people that would hang out with me where these gang gang these guys basically used to sell the weed okay you can google that later the police and so you heard a siren when you were down there and you got in trouble well it was [Music] [Applause] so we've arranged that that's the sound to accompany these actions that's coming out of the speaker so yeah they don't these were the only people that would hang out with me these gang leaders and that go around just causing fights for no reason and they're a very violent group of people and I would hang out to them which start fights with people on the street I saw for example once there was a guy with a snapback it with a cap and I just looked at him and I told Chris who was the head yeah leader I said Chris look at that snapback and he looked at me he pushed me and in a friendly way he pushed me said Rob go and take it I'm saying Chris how am I gonna take that's not back this guy is 30 years old I'm 16 but he pushed me in he said Rob go and take it and so I got up from my seat because I was scared of Chris so I get up and I go and I stand in front of this thirty year old and I grabbed this snapback and I put it on my head and I walk away now I'm thinking that this 30 year old what's he's gonna think what's this twerp gonna do you know it's just going to grab the snap back of my head and walk away but he didn't so what happened was he went to grab my hat but 10 of my friends jumped on this guy and beat him up so badly and he was pretty much left for dead now these are the people I would hang out with and at that moment I remembers with this snapback on my head standing in on top of this person thinking wow I'm so powerful wow I'm so influenced but you weren't open to grace for one minute no it is you just shut God out of this whole thing what's gonna get you through all this well grace is gonna get you through this is the hint for a song oh I tell you what I think about sang with Stanga song but this this is a this is my story a story of grace a place coming from this place of desperation a place of hopelessness a place of violence to eventually discovering a hope that changed my life forever and this is what I do with the rest of my life I'm not ashamed of the darkness of my life I regret hurting people but you know what one of the things that God does is he takes our mess and he turns it into a message and this is one of the things that sometimes we're ashamed of the darkness in our life but if we take that darkness and surrender it to God that mess that very mess becomes a beautiful message to give hope to other people and this is what this song is about it's called only by grace [Music] be single race how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found no longer blame I see I have chosen to run this race to reach the end coz I have forgotten it's only by grace that I can see you face solely by Gracie it's fly by that thing grace you lift me high I lift up my hands to you it's you know who can show me the way the way to the Father [Music] oh I've tried to it wants to know but when all spin said I know that I do for you it's only by gravy feels fine by that same grace you lift me high I lift up my hands do you know show me the way don't leave my green skin see then I can be on I'm called to be and lift up my hands to you it's you know you can show me the way to the so leave on crazy [Music] do you it's you belong me soli [Music] I lift up my way to [Music] [Applause] robbed when I read about some of the messes you caused at home and you got involved with some gangs told some lies and you ran for your life one time and you hid in your room what went on during that period well what happened was I continued to get involved with these gangs I continued to get involved with this group but we started it started to get really violent and it started to get really bad and to a point where I started to realize also that this was not me I wanted deep down I wanted to help people deep down I wanted to be kind to people but I wanted to be liked I wanted to be honored and appreciated more than I wanted to be true to myself and one day I'm sitting in a nightclub I'm 16 years old almost 17 I'm actually legally in this nightclub and as I'm sitting there a group of friends come into the club and say Rob quickly get out of here because Chris this guy the head gang leader was looking for you now what happened was he I had said a lie about Chris and he found out about it and so I remember getting up it was like at 2:00 in the morning I get up and I run home and I knock on my my parents door and I say mom dad you have to you have to help me and so my parents woke up and and eventually what I did was I hid in my room for six weeks I didn't go out I didn't do anything I didn't go to school I was just terrified so terrified they didn't find me this is a group of friends didn't find me straightaway but they found my best friend Daniel and what they did was they got his head and they smashed it against the door of a hotel and they cracked the door of this hotel and he ended up in intensive care left as well left for dead and I knew that these guys were looking for me and I was terrified and so for six weeks I was there on my on my bed just kneeling down on my bed crying myself to sleep and every morning every morning waking up thinking of ways I could end my own life where I would just bang my head against the wall just to take away this feeling of loneliness this feeling of pain I would harm myself just to be able to feel somewhat alive somewhat in in existence and so it just ended up in this place of absolute absolute darkness where I just didn't want to live anymore what did your parents think through all of this like you got a mother I know your mom and dad I know your brother and sister I know your dog I knew all those people I was at your home what did they think when you're going through all this well my parents suffered a lot as you can imagine you know they saw the pain they saw the addictions they would go into my room my mom saw the drugs she saw the the things that that were going on she knew a my dad too and it was heartbreaking for them because they felt that they failed as parents but you know what one thing that happened was I was writing this book in fact under the first and the first chapter and as I was writing the book one of the things that I I did was I was writing and I was giving my mom the chapters to read so that's when it was published she wouldn't be shocked so and she and I said I would give her the chapter and then I'd call her the next week or she'd call me and she'd say Rob I read the chapter and she read this chapter this chapter of me kneeling down in my room banging my head against the wall and my face at this point was filled with acne I was just so depressed and I was just I was just so hopeless and my mom I read this book and I said mom did you read the chapter and she she calls me and all of a sudden she goes quiet and she starts to cry she says she says Rob you have no idea my mom calls me Rob not father and just saying and and so she says Rob and she said does your mom call you father that your mom never never okay my grandfather used to call me Father that was me mom calls me Tommy yeah so um my mom she said Rob you you have no idea she said you know when I was reading this chapter one thing kept coming to my mind she said I I used to see you so depressed and I used to see you the only time you used to leave your room was to go and eat something so you'd get out of your room you'd walk you're gonna need something and then you walk back to your room and you'd close the door and you'd lock the door I had no idea that you wear on your knees then but this makes so much sense to me she said she said while you were there on your knees you'd walk back to your room and you lock the door she says as you walked towards your room I used to walk right behind you she says as soon as you locked your door and you went to your room and you started to kneel down and to get the in the state of hopelessness I used to kneel down outside your room and I used to pray and she used to pray she said I used to pray for my little angel that's me and choose to fall on her knees and she said god I'm not gonna get up from my knees until you save my little angel you see because even though I have lost all sense of hope my mom never did she said why is that why one of the songs on your CD is about an angel yes all right I feel like a cow being milked folks we practice this but this in fact I did yes write the song about about this at this moment you know this this moment where my mother would just be on her knees and pray for me and I honestly I stand here today I stand here today in this collar I stand here today as a priest because of the perseverant prayer of my mother and those of you here maybe who are not mothers or maybe you are maybe you have mothers that are praying for you but we're all sometimes have been begging God for something just don't give up persevere because God is able to do great miracles when we not only pray but when we persevere in prayer it's your mom's name Monica no no what's her first name her first name is Anne because it sounds like Saint Monica praying for a little Agustin when he was not a good boy that's right for 30 years so this song this song is called angel which is a song dedicated to my mama but also to those of you who are praying for a miracle for the angels in your life [Music] you are more than I hope for in my heart is overwhelmed by the beauty of all that you are now and my life is changed forever some wine great but you will be happy that your smile will last forever [Music] you Miley let him [Music] [Applause] [Music] let him [Music] let his face shine right on you you to place gold [Music] my little angel that may live now is life serves its joys and sorrows that break but you will all gone to the love that's never-ending so I pray that you will be happy that your smile will last forever [Music] [Applause] you let him [Music] let him [Music] face shine right on you leading you to it's gone [Music] my little angel [Music] [Applause] after that darkness you got involved in some church groups quite by accident - you got a phone call or somebody tried to call your sister and then suddenly you go to some youth what happened with all of that well my mother's friend started to work I don't know I was in this place and again I'm desperate and I'm thinking of ways I could end my life and I'm and the thoughts start to get become more and more real and they start to become more and more dark and I knew deep down that I needed to do something but I didn't know what to do I was trapped in my room I couldn't go out because I couldn't hang out with my friends I couldn't do anything I couldn't even go to school so I'm there in this dark place and that all of a sudden I hear the phone ring and my grandma calls my mom and she invites this is complicated she invites my sister to a youth group and I'm overhearing this telephone call and I'm thinking why am i why didn't they invite me and my mom didn't bother inviting me because she knew that I wouldn't say yes but so but I I knew I had to do something and this was my way out and so I got out of my room after my mom hung up the phone and I said mom I want to go to this youth group and she nearly fainted she couldn't believe like what I was saying and and so I decided to go to this youth group two days later I get a telephone call from a friend an old friend of mine who said hey I'm gonna come and pick you up and I'm thinking wow this is amazing this is a miracle but my mom called my friend to call me and so my friend comes to pick me up and and and take me to this youth group and I go to this youth group I'm standing at the back and I'm thinking these are just a group of freaks just a group of freaks on and as I'm sitting I'm watching these people and I want to keep away from these people because they seemed really nerdy but you know what they seem so happy and so joyful but I depressed so I didn't want to be around happy people I don't want to be around joyful people so I just sat at the back but I remember going home and thinking mani and I I want that joy I want that joy and so I went the week after and the following after the week after that and I kept going to this youth group but one day maybe five weeks as five weeks of me going there was this medical doctor his name was dr. John and dr. John stood on the stage and he started to preach but he started to talk about Jesus now what impressed me was not that he talked about Jesus but that he talked about Jesus in a way as though he had just had a conversation with him he talked about Jesus as though he knew him personally and I'm looking at this guy and I'm thinking what do you mean like you sound like you just had a conversation with him this morning and I'm thinking what's going on and so I about again I wanted the joy and the peace that he had and so I remember going home and he said why don't you try praying just try praying and trying to speak to Jesus so I go home as I do as I did I went into my room I locked my bedroom door I sat down on the chair and I put another chair in front of me and I tapped the chair and I said Jesus sit down and I want to talk to you and it was awkward I locked the door because of my mom walked in now at this point of me talking to an empty chair it was okay trying like being banging my head against the wall but talking to an empty chair was a whole nother level and so I'm sitting there and I'm talking to this chair but I would do this day after day after day and one day strange as it may be I'm sitting down and I sense that there's someone someone's sitting in that chair and there was just this incredible anger that rose up in me and I stood up and I started shouting at this chair Jesus I don't know the chair I don't know whoever there was in the chair and the Holy Spirit Jesus I don't know and and I'm there and I'm shouting and I'm in my mind it is God it is Jesus and I'm shouting why did you abandon me why did you allow me to go through all of the Spain and I'm for and I'm just sold I'm so so angry but and then what happens is again in my imagination I see a like a tear fall down the side of this person's cheek this was my imagination but it was so so real to me and this tear started fall down and I got even more angry I said why are you getting angry and why are you crying I should be the one crying and so did what I realized and then at the moment in a split second just a split second I realized that this person wasn't crying because I was bullying them they weren't crying because they were disappointed in me but that was like a tear of knowing my pain knowing my lines knowing my addiction this person knew everything about me but still loved me and that tear was a tear of love for me now this broke me I just fell to my knees and I cried for three hours I just cried and cried and each time every five minutes I would go up an octave in my crying and I took to a point where I had to grab a pillow and it started with a painful cry but it became a joyful crying because I felt so loved and the cry was so joyful that I was praying God please stop my heart is gonna explode I just felt an incredible sense of love and I cried there with this pillow to my face so that my parents don't walk in and again think I'm gone and I just and that was a moment that was a life-changing moment and I remember thinking God I want to spend the rest of my life living for this and giving this to other people how on earth does anybody with such experiences end up in a seminary and as a priest this is a miracle yeah.well happened what how did you get there well I I had this experience and I continued going to the youth group I started dating I dated this girl for about on and off for about four years it was pretty much a serious relationship but I never really thought about the priesthood but when I started to consider it just a little I used to pray god I'll do you want I'll go around the world I'll sing I'll dance but please don't let me become a priest what did your girlfriend say your girl what your poor girlfriend the girl was safe at the mall at that time because she needs what she knew my prayer that I don't want to be happy but eventually eventually I gave I was giving a concert in Italy I was I started playing music and as I was giving this concert in Italy I see this priest walks in and he's just so cool you know it's so full of life and I'm thinking while I'm giving the concert I'm thinking wow Jesus if I'm anything like this guy I'll consider it and I just and that we became friends and we started to talk and eventually this desire started to grow in my heart and and that is what I used to pray God I don't want to be a priest but give me the desire if you want me to be a priest and so it started to grow and grow and grow and I remember sitting down with my girlfriend and telling her hey I think I'm gonna have to just give this a go and it was really hard it was a difficult situation to break it up but we remained friends we did he's married now yes and she got married - two years ago and asked me to be there at the wedding that was just there like at the husband you look after her now but we remained very good friends we remained good friends and so it's just now try to piece all of this together Malta this little island in the middle of the Mediterranean Australia a big island in the middle of that other body of water how did you get over to Australia well eventually I entered into the seminary I I studied and I took I don't know if you call that a gap here here so we take a year out of our studies and we and I decided to go to Australia I went there and eventually I just work worked in this tiny tiny diocese which is called Santas now we have like 11 people from Santa's there [Applause] eleven aziz and so i worked in this diocese and i just fell in love with the people i fell in love with the place it's a very um Australia is a very secular nation compared to the United States so in a lot of our young people for example our fourth of fifth generation non-practicing in their faith and I just wanted I just fit in there you know that's where I wanted to to reach out to to people to young people and the bishops they asked me to stay on so eight years ago hands are on your head poof Rob's a priest magic magic and then you start singing all over the place a seminarian you're singing at World Youth Day young priest you're singing before thousands of people and you work in a parish during the week the port bishop to try to hold you down and stuff and he hasn't figured it and then a couple years ago I turned on the internet and I see the x-factor and who's one of the people auditioning for the x-factor but a priest dressed as a priest standing on that crazy stage with thousands of people screaming how did that happen well I got to audition for The X Factor in Australia and one of the things that I wanted to do was to this is where I spend my life my spend my life trying to reach out to young people whether in clubs in schools wherever I can I'll reach out to young people so what happened was I auditioned for the X Factor as I auditioned I intended to leave after the audition you know audition boom and I'm out but I the judges all the four judges said yes and I'm thinking oh crap all right this is big time I want you to pretend we're the X Factor audience and I want you to do what you did that night when you came out on stage before those four judges who looked at you very cynically dressed as a priest with sneakers on do it for us tonight show us what you did that and I on stage I think so I got as I said to audition for The X Factor I got four yeses from the judges and I went on to bootcamp and I continued go to the show but eventually eventually as I continued to progress I actually stood in front of the judges and I I decided to leave the show many didn't understand this but at the end of the day you know what I'll just say this I love being a priest if I had a thousand lifetimes I choose to be a priest in each one I absolutely love the priesthood I love to serve through the priesthood it's not easy in Australia it's not easy to be a priest anyway it's not easy to be a priest but I think it's a beautiful vocation and I it was coming I felt that being on this show even though it was an amazing opportunity could very easily come and take the place of what was most important for me and that's not my pastoral work that's not the priesthood but it was my relationship with Jesus and so this song talks about this that God is able to about God has this amazing plan for our lives but it's up to us to receive those to receive this plan that God has so don't you worry child that's the right song [Music] happier happier I was wrong those days are gone man I still hear the song places where I wanna heal across that's where I had my first I still remember [Music] my father said can I hear you so don't you [Music] there was a time I met I'm a different guy I thought we went through your [Music] I stay [Music] that's where I had my first I still remember how we don't change my father said so don't you worry don't you worry and don't you so don't you worry don't you put time [Music] don't you worry don't you worry there was a time I used to look into my father's eye now I want to tell you something Rob did to me a couple years ago really baffled me got me in trouble but I forgive him now we were in Madrid it was the World Youth Day in 2011 were in a huge Stadium and I'm coordinating a big prayer service with 6,500 Canadians all of the Canadian bishops hundreds of Australians that we set the tone we just calmed everybody down and I said ladies and gentlemen today we have a young priest a singer who's going to put us in a right prayerful mood as we prepare to enter World Youth Day so Rob comes out on stage and I said Rob will now lead us in a meditative song so he looked over at me and he said that's what you think and this is the stunt Rob pulled on me that day when a quiet audience went berserk in the sport right you can do it and I'm gonna forgive you already for doing it okay I think you might know what he's gonna do this is not necessarily a prayerful religious song so it was I think one of the things that I find as Catholics in Australia is that we tend to take ourselves too seriously now I know it doesn't happen here but sometimes we do we're very comfortable Catholics you know you go into a church and you always sit in the same place and you say sometimes the same prayers without understanding what you're doing we had a woman a beautiful woman in our parish and she used to come it used to say always sit in the same place she sat in the same place for 80 years of her life now this doesn't again this doesn't happen here does it and so what happened was she would sit in that chair that same place whether there was someone sitting there or not and eventually she started to get a bit older and she started to arrive a little bit later and so I knew always knew when she arrived because I'd hear a scream as she sat on the person sitting on her seat and this is one of the things sometimes that I've learned is not to take myself too seriously that God looks at us and he loves us and he sometimes tells us hey just just chill you know just stop taking yourself so seriously and this song speaks about this sometimes we just need to relax sometimes we just need to enjoy and to understand that God loves us that God loves us whether we're here in the pub amen amen whether we're at the gym my life I like to go to the gym I find Jesus at the gym in the church wherever he is God just wants us to relax and enjoy his love and his presence so this if you'd like to join me in this song it's a very old song but I'm sure you you remember it I threw my hands up in the air sometimes singing I come and celebrate life [Music] [Applause] got a little I came to dance dance dance dance I ain't the phone cuz that's my plans plans plans plans I'm wearing off my favorite friends friends friends friends give me some space for both my hands sands and fans get kick and it goes nice and it goes on I throw my hands up in the air sometimes saying [Music] I could celebrate like say let go cause we gon rock this book we gonna go all night we gon light it up like it's dynamite cause I told you once now I told you twice we gonna light it up like it died of mic I came to move move move get out the way of me and my crew crew crew crew I'm in the book some gonna do do do just wanna know I came here to do do do do yeah yeah and it goes on [Music] [Applause] I throw my hands up in it sometimes sane gotta I couldn't celebrate live [Music] cause we go cause we gonna cause we gonna like it's dynamite cause I told you now I told you twice we gon light it up like it's dynamite I gonna take it all night I'm gonna be the last one standing cuz I'm over I'm gonna be the last one [Music] I just want it all I just want it all gonna put my hands in the air your hands in me put your hands in the air [Music] I throw my hands up in the air sometimes Oh God I come celebrating go cause we gonna rock this look we gonna go all night we go like deal like a dynamite I told you once now I told you twice we gon light it up like it's dynamite now if you can imagine that that was supposed to be the opening song for a prayer service and I have all the bishops of Canada marching in procession the Cardinal behind when they got to the stage and the Cardinal just leaned over and said to me what am I supposed to do now I said the goal is to keep them in their seats because everybody stood up on chairs and waving flags and he looked over at me and he said sorry father one thing that struck me very much in your story is a person who played a very important role in your life a young man with muscular dystrophy I want you to tell us how that man helped shape you inform you as the priest you are today yes one of the as I was growing up as a teenager I started to rebel I started to get a lot of anger I had a lot of anger in my heart but it also at the same time I'm befriended I became very good friends with a young man named Daniel Daniel was just one year older than I was and so we became good friends at the age of when I was about 13 years old and eventually we did become best friends but it was to be without difference so I'd hang out with him and then hang out with another group of people but Daniel eventually started to get worse and worse and worse to the point where I literally had to look after him to the point where I'd have to change him take him to the shower and so and so forth but one of the things that I did learn from that is a compassion and care when I did eventually have this encounter with Jesus I recognized Jesus because of Daniel and this is one of the most beautiful ways where we can encounter the love of God through other people through serving other people especially the broken especially the poor and the voiceless those who whose seemingly sometimes cannot look after themselves you have a passion to go after young people in the peripheries people who are lost you got a way of communicating with them why well because I was lost and I am here today because there were people who reached out to me and I see too many young people teenagers all the people lost because they have no one even though they want God but there's no one who can communicate God to them in a language that they can understand so with every breath everything I have social media to making movies to writing books to see these - whatever it takes making and getting on the radio I'll do whatever it takes and to give this Gospel message this this message of God's unconditional love for them how many CDs have you done already well I've recorded five albums four of them are available here and I understand I read that they're making a movie about you well they're making a movie about the book which I happen to feature in a movie when is this movie coming out we don't know it's in pre-production at the moment there's a Hollywood company and that's how our working on that the bestseller it's gonna be a box office we need to get some lights on board it'd be insulting light now one of the things Rob also did which has touched many of us is he grew up in Malta speaking Italian grew up speaking English is multilingual he's also done some very beautiful music that's meant for the liturgy a couple years ago I discovered one song that he did which he told me he wrote to accompany the preparation of the gifts at mass it's absolutely gorgeous and I've asked him tonight especially for us because there's a few Catholics here to sing this song for us it's a beautiful song called male feed baked in Maltese and in English here we are here we are all right go for it so I'm gonna finish off with this song is that right I'm there's one more okay no okay maybe not but this song talks is about the the time of the procession of the gifts the time where we are to surrender our hearts and our lives with the gifts of bread and wine so I'm going to sing it in Maltese English and Italian because I can because I want to show [Music] see Vietnam down the lane now is sacrificial tasali government of Ruta Lee narco Shifu ectly who told to call you Lavery day you naughty ideally then they feed a midol hope Saleem be they feeding only read a ta-da letter I mean [Music] [Music] return odds towards the altar now to behold a sacrifice on Calvary at this moment broken for us all that we may be all we call to be here we are its life we have to offer oh we are with this bread and wine laying it down oh we are we will be for you now here we left with my concern your la mia vita in C Michael in panel quest of endorsing your Dido to torch okay so no they call me queen navantia senior we're yours [Music] [Applause] I'd like to conclude with a little thought for all of us tonight one of the reasons why I think the world and so many people have taken to Pope Francis is because of such normal ordinary human warm behavior people call him the great revolutionary the only time he's used the word revolution is in that wonderful document he wrote five years ago called evangelii gaudium the joy of the gospel when he talks about the revolution of tenderness of the Son of God who came down to us but I think there's another revolution that's been underway in the church the past five years and I'd like to call it a revolution of normalcy because everything we see him doing and saying is normal Christian behavior when I think of my friend Rob brother priest we lived miles apart but were in touch through social media Rob for me I didn't tell him I was going to say this Rob is a wonderful example of a normal priest people think that we come down from heaven people have got these crazy ideas that we're born with wings and we fly down and we're lily-white and we've got no crises and no broken families and no sins and no addictions and no drinking and nothing else I've yet to meet one like that but what rob has done for millions of young people and I've seen it rob has reminded us that because of all of those things in spite of all of those things but more because of them God is able to call somebody and somebody is able to come forward and put all of his or her gifts at the feet of the Lord I don't think Rob ever thought years ago that he'd be an x-factor priest I don't think Rob ever thought that sirens would be sounding for him all night in Chicago but none of us have thought that too so on behalf of all of us here in Chicago tonight on behalf of hundreds of thousands of young people who have heard this incredible normal story you don't hear it may be enough but I'd simply like to say thank you that the breakthrough book really moved me I'm a professor I read the book twice it's a moving moving story and now to show how the secular and the sacred can come together in this remarkable way do one more for us okay do one more so what I'm finish off with I will finish off yep okay this is a song this is my latest single I'm in the middle of recording and a new album which is a pop album which is an album written with the intention of writing for the church within the church but also trying to get out there getting on radio getting and I'm collaborating with some of the best artists in the world this this song which I'm gonna sing is called Domino's which is I've collaborated with a girl called Errol ausco who's one of the biggest who just latest singles is with Jason Derulo so the one with me and then with Jason and so [Music] this song is called Domino's it talks about that we're all broken we all are in sometimes a millions of pieces but when we surrender these millions of pieces to God God takes these pieces and creates a work of art what's the cool corner in the shadow speaking of the piece of a broken heart she's trying to find way back to the light this is not she magic one decision should change the direction trying to find a way to make it right and there's a man people with a broken heart everyone is looking for change pieces make a work of art when we surrender to them in a room too many people is surrounded yet is something long no one could ever he's smiling he's hiding all the pain and hurt inside of him it's fire times a little every day [Music] people with a broken and everyone is looking for change there's a big pieces makeover cover when we surrender to love we all fall every single one by one you just like wait Tommy no we all fall wonder have to find out [Music] we sue and we surrender we surrender on to the we surrender we surrender love we surrender we surrender we surrender on to the Thranduil Natsumi people with a broken looking for change [Music] make the change make the change [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you

Channel: CatholicChicago

Views: 36,840

Keywords: catholic faith, catholic doctrine, catholic church history, catholic blessing, catholic beliefs, catholic, catholic bishop, catholic saints, catholic answers, catholicism, catholic mass, catholic church

Id: tbu5ZxF1IR0

Length: 65min 9sec (3909 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 26 2018