Journey Home - Former United Methodist Minister - Marcus Grodi with Jeffry Hendrix - 02-28-2011

good evening and welcome to the journey home my name is Marcus Grodi your host for this program every week I have this great privilege that EWTN gives me to introduce to you men and women who because of their love for Jesus Christ following the guidance of the Holy Spirit their hearts and minds were open to the beauty of his church and as I've said many times often it was not the place they intended to go thought that this was the Lord was guiding them but as they became more and more open to the fullness of the church they recognized this is home and they needed to come home such I think is true of our guest tonight he'll talk to us in a moment Jeffery Hendricks former United Methodist pastor so it's not only that that our guest Jeff was drawn to a deeper relationship with Christ in his church but he was a pastor and so we have all those layers of issues that are involved when a clergyman discovers the beauty of the church and what that will require of him every week our guests come from different backgrounds and in some sense the Methodist background because of the theology seems to have a particular openness to the Catholic Church but it's not just a step over a puddle they're often issues so I'm glad you've joined us tonight and Jeffrey it's great to have you on a journey home it's an honor to be here Marcus thank you thank you because I know you your journey has involved a lot of layers as I would say not just the issue of a ministry into the church but often some of this but specific issues that the Lord has brought you through you've written this book which you may talk about a little later a little guide for your last days we'll talk about that later part of the program but this in many ways came out of your own spiritual journey which we'll talk about in a bit so what I normally do on the program is get out of the way as soon as I can to invite you just to take a long step back to start the beginning to give us a glimpse of your own spiritual journey well it goes way back for me for me it seems that the Holy Spirit really first broke through into my life when I was very young four or five years old my father and evangelical pastor in the Midwest in Indiana Cecil Hendrix brought home some long-playing records and oh they were you know classical records and apparently although I have no personal recollection of it my parents say they found me sitting in front of stereo crying listen to this music but I do know what the music was it was rimsky-korsakov's Scheherazade anyway love it so I'm still movie or to me it does when I when I need to I turn on she Herzog once in a while and so that was the first opening to truth beauty and goodness if you will and it it stuck with me I started playing the violin when I was seven I begged my parents because of that record to let me play the violin and they say now you got to remember I've got a brother older brother who stall State Center for Indiana yeah who looked at me like he wants to do what said Center yeah he was an all-state football basketball centers are tall football centers are six foot I didn't tell us but anyway so I played the violin and that led me into wanting finally as a freshman in college to becoming a music major and I started I was very good at great grades I was excelling with my music and then the Holy Spirit did it again and suddenly tuning and retuning the strings practice practice practice it was like this isn't ultimate enough surely life is more about than just retuning and practicing passages as beautiful as it was it had to be more and all this time you were PK I'm a preacher's kid that's right and I'm attending DePaul University as a music major so I'm so you know there were I've gotta gotta be honest there were times when I was sitting listening to my father's sermons and I'd be counting coughs 257 258 but wait to say wait what I love that okay having been a pastor that counted coughs - you know you're wondering you're wondering are those costs mean that my sermon is minoo tubes or whether I was worth listening to but the point is that you probably had the training as good as any young man of the faith exactly you I knew my way around the Bible okay most Protestants know their way the sword drills and you know saying that books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers you don't so on right down the line but it hadn't sunk indeed and so the Lord at that time between my first year and second year of college said Jeff you're gonna enter the ordained ministry and I said huh I changed majors to religious studies my grades weren't as good weren't as good high B's low A's but it felt right it felt ultimate more ultimate okay and then the music became great I enjoyed us still played in the college orchestra but I felt like I was on a stronger bead with the way that the Lord wanted me to go successfully finished my undergraduate Greeks was accepted to the Divinity School at Duke University down in Durham and inherited a great basketball team there too and met my wife there so we courted our first year and got married between our first and second years of seminary Michele is and to this very moment a United Methodist pastor in the bridging annual conference so she can honestly say and I can honestly say for her that she didn't know what she was going to end up married to a Catholic layman okay let's back up to shore little more sure because there's something I'd love the audience to especially the Catholic audience to appreciate is that you're in a Methodist environment where your father was a Methodist pastor Catholics don't realize it often that there's a push for one of the P K's to follow the father true that's it did you experience any of that then no no no ostensible push no no fingers in the back of my you know like this come on Jeff move over here none of that he was obviously pleased that I was going into thee ordained ministry alright but it but it's interesting that often in the environment of Methodism as well as other Protestant denominations when a young man has a awakening to Jesus Christ and maybe leaning the assumption is seminary pastor it it becomes this trajectory I'm not saying that this was your particular case but that's a normal understanding especially if you're a BK not only that but I think that in the Protestant world as opposed to the Catholic universe there are fewer options available and so that seems to be the shoot that you do find yourself going well if you feel moved by the holy spirit to follow Christ in a more dedicated authentic way obviously you belong in the ordained ministry what else is it here you know you could possibly move into Christian education but there are still overtones that that's where women belong in the Protestant world music ministry perhaps but I wasn't the keyboard person you know and then required and generally it's when you think about in the in the Protestant world yeah usually a man goes to seminary exactly if he's going to be the father and husband that usually the idea of being a Christian a director at a local church because Protestant churches generally are not 300 you know 3,500 members with enough donations to support a high paying Christian ed director that's not usually the case in the Protestant world so it's usually seminary you said earlier on you had a lot of information but you were counting coughs had you had you encountered a life-changing experience with Christ at Duke in your process of becoming a minister yet no it had very early uh and again you know twelve years old altar call my father was very evangelical it was very normal for to have a an altar call at the end of services after sermons and so forth we're at a Methodist Church okay I'll back up leaving well this is shaggy-dog story and I apologize for that my father started out as a United Brethren pastor oh yes okay and then they merged with the evangelicals they became the EU B's evangelical United Brethren and in 1968 the EU B is merged with the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church so he came up not as a Methodist but as a much more evangelical person that explains the organist of the altar call and the call for that right what you may not always find in your average United Methodist obably not oh so did you carry on some of that same tradition of him when you went to Duke as you look back on your own call to ministry Duke was an incredible place and I can honestly say and I'm just gonna throw this out there that some of the people who guided me even though they didn't know they were doing so into the Catholic Church were great Methodists one being for example our worship professor dr. we'll Willimon who is now bishop of South Carolina a United Methodist Conference there will a Willimon was someone who opened my eyes to Christian worship historically we studied topologists we studied our early liturgy and we realized that we were in the midst of a neck you medical liturgical time change where we were being invited to celebrate as United Methodists a Eucharist service that includes words that any Catholic would recognize we lift them up to the Lord right there the sursum Corda is right there in the united methodist service which is why not while I was at clergyman Catholics for whatever usually personal reasons rather than theological reasons they wanted to be remarried they wanted to you know for those kind of reasons they would come to my church and attend a Eucharist services go I can go I can worship here that didn't bother my consciousness till the last few years before my conversion we're gonna get there because I but I think that is interesting and some of our audience especially the audience that have been following the Protestantism for the last 50 years that movement liturgical movement which I think I'm guessing began in the United Methodist Church spread to the Presbyterians Lutheran's to Lutheran's because when I was a pastor in the late 80s I began receiving all kinds of information from the head office to encourage me in my more evangelical Presbyterian churches to become very liturgical and a lot of that stuff had Kooks buri written on the bottom that doesn't surprise me which is the Methodist publisher me now with that part of distribute so I mean we were seeing that coming out from the Methodist Church even some some Methodist magazines that were much more into spiritual guidance spirituality mmm-hmm which was not Calvinist but definitely coming from the United Methodist perspective hmm mm-hmm so you met your wife at just a minute eSchool you both are on the pastoral track right and you both graduate from do it can become ordained ministers I transferred from the North Indiana Conference to the Virginia conference with the bishops with their bishops blessing and as we waited for the phone call from our future district superintendent to give us our first appointments sitting there poplar apartments just off of the campus of Duke University we realized that we were kind of a strange creature this clergy couple but we weren't alone the Virginia conference had many clergy couples like ourselves now we were a new entity to a lot of parishes in the Virginia conference but we had a very very progressive first district superintendent dr. Lee Shafer who seemed to hoard these Duke clergy couples onto his district like he knew he had good prospects good people very knowledgeable and he wanted them for his district so that began our adventure of going in separate directions every Sunday morning so you weren't assigned all the same though sometimes that has happened when they're bullies tried that once and I can talk to you about that later we haven't tried that once but yeah before we get beyond Duke and the two of you are both in the track I mean to a certain extent once the door was open to the ordination of women then there's I'm trying to think why you would ever stop from having clergy couples you know what I mean I mean why would the wife just be the pastor's wife if she says why doesn't she I mean there's no stopping that right I mean that's there is no there's no Governor on that so to speak however it's by no means the norm it's still the exception but it is I can't even hazard a guess what percent you know Memphis clergy coming out are in that situation maybe 15% maybe as high as 20 no higher than that I don't think but a I'd say a full at least half of seminary graduates are women now coming out of the United Methodist they were a quarter of the seminarians when I was in seminary gone well a quarter of them were women right and I'm being more and more surprised as I deal with converts how often I'm finding their clergy couples and not always both coming in sometimes one or the other and not just Methodists Assembly of God I'm hearing a lot of clergy couples but so you get your first assignments the two of you to two separate churches right hit it off in separate directions now that first year I underwent an extreme emotional spiritual trauma and I I've really it goes back to our were those fingers being pushed in my back or not and quite honestly Marcus I said this is not for me after one year well one year I said this this I this is not my call I'm gonna go back and go into counseling or something else and took a year off and that was my my desert time if you will I went out into the desert and took some college classes work tables at a local restaurant and did a lot of journaling and it was during that time that I experienced my call this time it wasn't to please mom and dad it was God saying Jeff yes you do have a location went back to the special relations committee of the Virginia conference and and they said yeah okay okay let's try it again so with that year off I then went into the next 19 years of ministry and never looked back how many churches did you pass her in those 19 I haven't counted I mean the reason I say that is it again our audience I mean I realized that every summer you can get reassigned correct in the United Methodist system we are appointed theoretically one year at a time the vote takes place in January but I need to say something about that your desert time a friend of mine our first year Reverend Jim Godwin introduced me to an ecumenical book study that took place at Holy Cross Abby the Cistercian monastery in Derry Ville Virginia and there I met father Mark and father Edward and they led this ecumenical book study would start with 20 minutes of centering prayer or just prayer you know contemplating a few words of Scripture then we'd have coffee Nona said we discuss quite books like the Cloud of Unknowing theological Germanic Thomas Merton this journey things like this and then I started going on retreats and I never stopped every year and it was at Maryville at the Cistercian monastery that God had his way with me and I was a crypto Catholic progressively for the next 20 years getting more and more intense into that so no let me say though at that point as I look back on some of these spiritual materials that were arising during that period I forget the name of the Methodist publication that I subscribed to that which is really more in the area of spiritual growth and just so contrary to my Calvinist background but yet the idea it was not that through the spirituality you become Catholic but how you reclaim some of these great writers from the past you're not thinking about where they came from but just the fact that they're loving Jesus Christ and that they're trying to I mean that's all that I guess as you were seeing in that yeah and and if I had if there had been anything to stop me from moving closer and closer to the Catholic Church that's exactly what I would have done and you know to quote our RINO you know a renowned Catholic convert now from the Episcopal Church he wrote a book saying you should practice the the virtue of stability you know stain your denomination what did you do he became a Catholic so I can empathize with that within his in his move I could have been a very good Methodist very deep into this the Desert Fathers and the the spirituality that has been the churches you know legacy for 2,000 years except and again I don't want to scandalize anybody anybody by what I'm about to say but I really needed the real presence that is in the Blessed Sacrament that is in by Eucharistic grace all the sacraments I needed what the Catholic Church in its fullness could offer and I was not receiving in the Methodist Church but wait a second you were pastor doing the Lord's Supper that's right time to time oh and you just have met will work to your words you know what I'm saying can you just a believe that this is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus when you do the words of consecration for first Corinthians 11 this is the total my answer is totally inadequate because it is very subjective like yourself we celebrated Eucharistic services for Methodists that's once a month whether we need it or not okay and I had parishioners say Jeff the way you celebrate you believe this you believe that this is transforming the blood the bread into the bond of Christ and I did I mean I put as much oomph into it as I could but it was qualitatively different than kneeling before the tabernacle at Holy Cross Abbey and feeling again this is subjective and I can always say it's experiential feeling our Lord's true presence body blood soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist in the Catholic Church I can't I can go no farther than that because it is a subjective experience on my part yeah and it does deal with the issues of authority and whether we were sent as pastors I mean those are other issues well there was your wife on this journey at all with you during this time she attended the same ecumenical book study with great pleasure and and I honor I respect I admire her ministry within the United Methodist Church to me she is a living example of what our Catechism says in numbers 8 18 19 837 838 that God's grace is infused into the other churches of Christianity to a lesser degree that that last phrase would be my addition to that because my wife fully believes in the real presence of Christ when she celebrates her Eucharist service in the Methodist Church I never experienced it that way yeah yeah and maybe we could deal a little bit later about whether one believes it or not doesn't necessarily make it true though what am i deal with that a little bit true but we so but you're still at this point in your journey is still faster both serving in different churches for 19 years mm-hmm I started to see a former abbot out at the abbey father Mark delery for spiritual direction not too often about every three months and I would again continue all my retreats there it was only my last year that I started to see father Jack Peterson who is the director of Youth apostles for private catechesis I was serving my last church just north of Fredericksburg Virginia and he was at the Catholic center there at Mary Washington College and so I would slink in on Tuesday afternoons and and see him for an hour as we walk through the Catechism and by then I knew what I had to do I knew it I had to do I need I knew before that but and this is a matter of a little guilt on my part as I said to father mark my spiritual director you know for my family's sake I can't just sleep now I have to get my 20-year pension I have to do that you know and it was it was hard those last few years waiting you know it was like coming back to earth from a moon voyage and being told you got to stay in orbit for another you know X number of days before come on I want to go so it was very difficult to wait but very fulfilling once I was confirmed as a full member in full communion with Mother Church all right how many years ago with that Oh like 10 years ago okay the summer of 2001 all right did did you have any doctrinal issues you still had to get over during those 20 years before you fully accept the church like a lot of converts I didn't fully appreciate the role of Our Lady however that has changed astonishing of way over the last 10 years it's very warm she's very much our mother you know other than that no I had no issues to me what Protestants you know my family's very ecumenical my father was as I said you be a Methodist pastor I had a brother who married a beautiful Filipino gal and he became Catholic and since he's become United Methodists again older sister is friends Church okay sister another sister is grace Brethren we're all over the place okay but still there's this wide gulf might be myself and them because of my choice of the Catholic Church I never had an onus against the Catholic Church even in my youngest days I just didn't have that that knee-jerk well of course you can't be can ever was a part of my psyche which probably opened the door for me then from that for most like GK Chesterton I didn't have to fight against that I was willing to look so but your wife did not follow you in when you came in is that right that's very right as I say she's still serving United Methodist churches in Virginia and I am very happy that she is would I like her to follow me into the Catholic Church we have to not argue about those issues I think dr. Hahn is said that arguing never got him anywhere with his wife Kimberly and I'm the same way I'm not a very good apologist I don't think it's not my vocation well sometimes with our own family as the hardest ones to be apologetic with both in both senses of the word apologetic right yeah but the I know that later you were going to talk about you the Lord brought you through a particularly difficult issue was that after you came into the church the age of the cancer Israel oh yeah that only developed in 2008 okay yeah all right why don't we take a break now okay and then we'll come back because I'd like to talk about okay what about your call to ministry now that you become Catholic what about all those issues and then also dealing with the issues that led to the writing of your book all right Jeff so let's take a break we'll come back this welcome back the journey home again now Marcus Grodi your host and our guest tonight is Jeffrey Hendricks former United Methodist pastor wife's also a pastor still remaining a good faithful United Methodist pastor you've weave in your journey we've got you coming into the church about ten years ago or so right right so you landed into the church did you feel any different it was very I felt like I was in free fall during those days leading up I remember going to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for my sacrament of penance of reconciliation prior to my confirmation and that was really really again my wife and I always loved going to the National Cathedral which is Episcopalian you know just to wander around on a free day but going to the National Shrine was indelibly different it's like prayer was alive there rather than a museum Gothic piece you know if you will so anyway went to my personal catechist father Jack Peterson who said that he would love to go with me and I arranged with father Marc not at the Abbey to have my confirmation done at the Abbey Oh under the dispensation of the priests that Sacred Heart Church in Winchester so that's that was the home parish that they did it under but my confirmation took place out at the Abbey and kind of strangely they didn't give me my first Eucharist there they just confirmed me and father Jack said what you've got to be able to receive and it just didn't work out so the very next morning I went to my home parish which is st. James in Falls Church Virginia and that's where I first received my first Eucharist at that same time I was deliberating with the office of Catholic schools in the arlington district to see if i could land a job teaching because i've got to put bread on the table and sister Patricia helene earl was very kind enough to open the door to this convert and send me over to st. Charles school to see sister Benedict the principal who gave me the 6th grade teaching position there where I've been for these 10 years I'm in my tenth year teaching at st. st. Charles that does not always that's not always the way it happens from there she converts to the church no no I were blessed in that sound even though I knew it was not going to be a high paying job and we're talking appreciable downward mobility it was like my conversion and that it was a matter of will and of knowing it was right you know and I've always depended on our lady to see us through financially and she's never let us down in these 10 years she doesn't give you more than you need but always enough always enough so I've always depended on her and she's always come through being a Catholic educator is now I feel my vocation my apostolate in so far is can you think of anywhere else where you can work just down the hall from the Blessed Sacrament and go into Chapel when you want to and pray before our Lord you'll bring your mourning your issues up in the morning before school starts this is astounding and yet it's st. Charles so I can do that and I would think at that particular age group that you're working with is a is such an important time period in their lives the first year I was there one of the girls came out of music class where they were getting ready for the Christmas program and the sixth graders were going to sing the 12 days of Christmas to their own words and the words they had for seven were seven sixth grade teachers and I said what's that mean and one of my my students said oh well that means that we've had seven sixth grade teachers in the last four years there's st. Charles I said I'm not gonna let that happen it's it's a challenging year I say that they come in doe-eyed little guileless fifth-graders and something happens between Christmas and Easter they turned to these raging teenage wannabes little surly and and so it's a it's a fascinating year it's a fascinating year I don't know if I answered your question but no no baby it can it can be a crucial age period for them you know 19-year olds are looking into adulthood but these kids at that level are looking is the teen years looking into the middle school ear is it's it's a rite of passage year for them absolutely are they gonna keep their faith in that or is it going to become that's a WoW I mean it's not an easy group to deal with but like you said it's a no it's an apostolate I thought long and hard about applying to high school positions religion teaching positions and I tried a couple times and the Lord just closed those doors and said Jeff you can have much more influence with 6th graders and you can with high school students well and I think it's true I want to ask you a bit about confession because if you would one of the issues that I've found with some converts as we move into the Catholic sacramental life because when we come from a non sacramental life in which it's all symbolic and then we we now intellectually recognize this is Jesus then it you know that we end up with that prayer I believe now help my unbelief help me truly realize that but you were a pastor that dealt with people that would come to you for counseling with the struggles of their life and what you were able to do as a you'v Methodist minister compared to the Catholic Sacrament of Confirmation ten years of Catholic could you compare the two differences in the value of Catholic sacrament of confession any thoughts on that from your own experience as I share in my book I went looking for God's real presence true transcendence in a lot of places even as a United Methodist pastor I got into Union counseling freaks okay nothing untoward nothing illicit but that sort of thing I look went looking for more than I was experiencing in the Methodist pastor it the way I see it now is that what people spend a lot of money and a lot of time doing in counseling in therapy is what the Catholic Church is always provided in the sacrament of reconciliation oh there are so many Unforgiven people out there who are either told oh this is nothing nothing to be guilty about you know it's okay whereas the church and you know GK Chesterton said or worse of this effect I don't need the church to tell me where I'm right I need the church to tell me where I'm wrong and we once you know you're wrong and you have committed this venial sin or this mortal sin you know you know that through the sacrament of confession you're going in there because you want to be in right relationship with God you want to be in right relationship with your neighbor and with yourself and through the sacrament Jesus himself and you know I want the listeners and viewers to know we're not talking about Hendrix converted to the Catholic Church Hendrix went to the Catholic Church because he's hooked on Jesus I wanted to be closer to Jesus Christ and I feel that I and I know that I am today than I was as a Methodist pastor I'm a better father and a better husband than I was because of that but that's a side trip like going pulling back from the side bar when you're in the confessional it's the most freeing and liberating thing to be able to tell honestly those sins and hear those words of Absolution is heaven and I think even my wife realizes the difference when I come home yeah and we have to believe that this is Christ speaking to us through this priest I mean that's we're receiving the words from him for thanks like an email I know I want to get into the issue book grab an email weekend Dave from Galveston writes I wanted to become Catholic for years but unfortunately almost all of my family and close friends are an antagonistic towards Catholicism how can I go ahead and become Catholic knowing that I will be cut off from most of the important people in my life CS Lewis who although he never became Catholic in his lifetime but his secretary Walter Hooper told Joseph Pierce he thinks he would be at this present juncture wrote in Prince Caspian I believe about the issue when Lucy was presented with the image of Ashlyn the Christ figure in the books who said Lucy follow me and she went back through all of her brothers and sisters and everyone else had said as one was telling us we go this way and they didn't believe her that's where our friend in Galveston is and that's where you just have to say you know what it's all gonna work out if I follow our Lord and that's what I had to do because I had to say you know most shell could just reject me she could legally divorce me whether that actually happens or not in reality as we know but I have to do this to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ to be a good husband and a good father and I know I am a better husband and father than I would have been staying as a Methodist pastor you know so it's it's extremely difficult to go against when you know that every family gathering it's going to be that sort of Damocles over your head who's going to say the word that's gonna you know just pierce your heart again in this year past you know our John Henry Cardinal Newman was declared blessed and I think what the church was saying when he when the church recognized that is that the church is drawing us back to rediscovered Newman and his writings and one of the things that Newman would say to his friends and his letters with them when they would ask that kind of question is he would say don't miss this moment of grace hmm don't miss this moment of grace God is reaching out to you and he would dress men that had that very question all these other excuses and he would say what is God calling you to do hmm what is God calling you to do that's that's really the issue is he calling you to the fullness of the church well I want to make sure we talk a little bit about what led you to write this issue this book is called a little guide for your last days I don't want to take away from doug keck when when when you talk to this with him i'm his bookmark program but what was there in your life that made you write this book was it connected with your journey absolutely you know well to me we all spend a great deal of time being bombarded by messages and by images video television internet that want to distract us from the fact that we're all mortal we are all in a hundred years none of us right now listening to this or watching this we're going to be here and therefore as you say don't miss this chance this is the opportunity this is what my book is about because of the life experience that I had I'll try and make this as short as possible when my I had some very troubling symptoms my urologist said Jeff you got cancer the left kidney so I face surgery in April of 2008 for the removal of that kidney ureter recurrence and some chemotherapy that's when I started writing this it's just kind of poured out and a friend of mine authored dawn Eden who has written a book called the thrill of the chase said let me help you get this published and she gave it a Steve Cal Meyer who is the publisher at a bridegroom Press and they lo and behold ago got published it's it's life lessons it's saying if you know that you have a terminal illness and who doesn't you're ahead of 9:00 nine point nine percent of the people of this world who are distracted to death literally and you can be in a state of grace your your eternal life can start right now while you're still alive through the sacraments through the the blessings of Christ in His Church you can be there now and have full assurance of that so that's what the book is about it's literally supposed to be just a little guy to get your house in order you mentioned all those voices are out there it it almost seems like there's two groups of voices out there one group of all for all the different sources talking about is trying to get us to ignore the fact that we're going to die someday there's another whole group of voices out there that almost want to say that death is the worst thing that can happen to us and so everything they talk about is to keep pushing that off you know if you eat differently you won't have to die the exercise you won't die if you have Botox you won't you know all the stuff that's trying to push it off but the point is that death is not to be feared if we're in grace exactly you know if we're experiencing eternal life not death is not the worst thing that's gonna happen to us and the sad thing is is how many people know that but in a kind of perverted way no one is more fascinated by near pornographic interest in death as long as it's not first person singular you know think of the movies think of the movie so we this is entertainment you know final destination or whatever this is entertainment people are fascinated by death as long as it's not pointed in their direction and so the church says this is your opportunity to realize that Mort is in a sense mankind's best friend to okay it helps us realize and count our days to look at them count them with wisdom rather than with distractions alright I get an email Carrie from Colorado I am a deacon in my local parish and often witnessed the powerful healing grace God gives us through the sacraments how are the sacraments given Jeffrey encouragement in his physical suffering oh I cover it in the book you you have to let a priest of your parish know your situation and then stay in close contact your priest will want to administer the sacraments stay always in a state of grace through penance always God is sending us consolations you know of consolations personal revelations all the time but if we aren't in a state of grace our antenna is going to be pointed the wrong direction and we won't receive them so through the sacraments we will be able to receive those constellations and of course we have the anointing of the sink sick which is absolutely essential along with the apophis taluk blessing which carries with it a plenary indulgence now you know when I can talk that right now talk to your local priest about plenary indulgences and the anointing of the sick apostolic blessing because when you are faced with the reality of cancer in my case or some other dreadful prognosis you want to realize that God is really on your side God is going to give you everything you need to draw your last breath faithfully and then on to heaven well if not heaven then we hope only a few years in purgatory well I mean even that's just the front gate of heaven Tagg make sure we clean off our shoes and clothes in other words or being cleansed so that we can stand before God without embarrassment that's the point of precisely of purgatory and we want to make sure everyone and our family doesn't end up in the other place they want to make sure they have Jesus Christ and that they've surrendered to Christ and are receiving the sacraments of his the fullness of his church so he can again stand before God without embarrassment we have an email state Stacy from Ottawa I've recently returned to practicing my Catholic faith and having a burning desire to share the faith with others and what sort of ways can the ordinary Catholic help contribute to the new evangelization that Pope John Paul's called for I think it's very important so that you're not feeling like a lone ranger Catholic to affiliate with some organization I've got a very dear friend who became third or a tertiary a Franciscan I've chosen to become a member of Corpus Christi on Oh which is for men and women who want to serve in a spirit of mere Marion chivalry to pray daily for the renewal unity restoration of Christendom for the Holy Father and his intentions for the conversion of sinners sanctification of all people for families for their restoration and we've got members and 29 nations who are doing this daily through just a little guy you don't have to use the Liturgy of the hours just yet we I like to use the little office of the Blessed Virgin Mary okay very simple morning and evening and it's it's it's a nice way of realizing that you are part of the New Evangelization of the world you used the phrase Marian civil chivalry no that is not a carryover from your ma United Methodist days no Marcus it's neither of those words really we didn't use either those no I think our Protestantism you mentioned Newman a British author that has become very significant to me recently as Monsignor Ronald knocks knocks was a convert his father was a Anglican bishop of Manchester and so he faced a lot of the issues that we face about why are you doing this but he he said that Newman converted because in a sense every convert to the Catholic Church as a witness to truth not his truth not a truth not my truth but the truth and yet the truth isn't a cold calculating objective thing but it's it's a warm and home-like environment for Catholics it it becomes more more so like that the longer you're there and so become part of a group that you know a solar system within the Catholic universe and it really will help christen them in ways that the perhaps you won't see in your lifetime but we'll be making a great part for the effort of the kingdom when I think of this again Marion chivalry again that wasn't a category that I would have used as a Calvinist pastor but it seems to be speak of two things and again encourage you to talk about those both a relationship with Our Lady in a unique way who are we in our active lives in relationship to Our Lady and then this issue of chivalry in a day and age that as in a clue of what we're talking about in that sense first part Marian our lady practice it herself she was the first and best disciple of our Lord when she gave her Fiat she was saying whatever Lord I'll be your handmaiden you know the film the nativity shows it so beautifully the issues that she had to face socially you know an unwed mother apparently so we follow her example she is the the sterling example of being a disciple of our lord of her son chivalry yeah it it's almost a romance if you will you know in a literary sense we are picking up our sword and we are placing it at the feet in fealty to our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings who deserves our utter fealty that's what we do as Catholics and chivalry isn't just opening doors for ladies that's nice but it's it's saying I've got cancer okay I'm going to offer this up I'm going to I'm going to unite my suffering with the suffering of our Lord not that God needs my suffering for the redemption of the world but if we willingly like our lady say Fiat let it be according to your word we're part of the action of redemption and that's chivalry all right got an email Jesse from Youngstown how can I move from being a Christian in the general sense of the term to allowing Jesus to take the center focus of my life frequent communion this'll movie from the general category of Christian to someone who has put Christ at the center of your very being he's our Creator he is the Word made flesh he is the one through whom all was made that was made this is the first chapter of st. John's Gospel hmm and oh I could agree more than continue reflecting on all aspects of the mass what it is we're saying when we're in the liturgy what's the liturgy trying to do what do we mean by what we're saying even the Amen will receive our Lord and what do we mean by that I mean all those things contribute to taking it a little more seriously and not flippantly and moving on to a deeper deeper movement of that and I think converts ourselves we have just arrived we have to continue growing exactly yeah sanctification takes a lifetime of conversions everyday it's a conversion in the process of sanctification an email this comes from Marie from Baton Rouge Louisiana I am an elderly widow and feel alone and abandoned even by God in the midst of all the pain I have everyday how can I cope with everything I'm going through first I hope that that you have a relationship with the priest who is coming to visit you and bring you the Blessed Sacrament I I hope that's happening I'm sure if the parish knows that it will happen it needs to happen people who are feeling like outcasts or or life has the the parade has passed them by don't have to be in that perception you know we can be dynamos of Prayer whether we're in a nursing home whether we're you know rejected by our family we can be active parts of what God wants to have happen for the good in this world the situation that you find yourself in is what monks and religious actively seek because they want to be withdrawn from the world so that they can be dynamos of Prayer it's a matter of perception and letting the Holy Spirit all through that perception it is interesting to note that in the New Testament documents almost all the writers reminding these new Christians their responsibility for the widows and the orphans from the very beginning recognizing their loneliness and the way they would have felt apart from everything and our responsibility to reach out to them they're part of the family never let them feel like this woman is in the in the pagan world you were a nonentity or a non-person if you were a widow or an orphan and they had no concern for you what sort that's what set us apart as Christians in those first centuries they when they said see how they loved one another that they were saying look at how they treat the widows what kind of the treat the orphans and the Deacons of course we're out there you know immediately minute or so left let's say we got a United Methodist watching our show tonight what would you like to say to them to encourage them to consider making the same journey home you've made all I can say is that I love the Methodist Church I always will it taught me to love Jesus here seyton avoid hell and love God with all my heart soul mind and strength it wasn't enough for me because I'm weak I'm needy I need the sacraments I need the Magisterium of the church tell me what's right from wrong I would tired of being my own Pope on Sunday morning scared me to death and if you are needy like me if you're weak like me don't cast off the Catholic Church don't assume that it's wrong it is the head water of all Christianity and I have found great fulfillment here now Jeff thanks for your witness god bless you very much in your book again a little guide for your last days it's for people who are facing the last part of their journey right at any time of their life making sure they take appreciate the life that God has given that oh yeah you don't need a coffin standing in the corner of your monk's cell but you know you need to realize you're mortal alright alright thank you Jeff and thank you for joining us on this edition of the journey home I hope that Jeff's journey as well as his discussion of the different aspects of his journey has been encouragement to you whether you're Catholic or not Catholic we're is there anything we can do to help you make sure you contact EWTN the coming home network we're here to stand beside you to help you discover the fullness of Jesus Christ and His Church god bless you see you next week you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 6,945

Rating: 4.6595745 out of 5

Keywords: EWTN, Journey Home, Marcus Grodi, Jeffry Hendrix, United Methodist, Minister, Catholic, JHT01307

Id: 54T43aTiVRo

Length: 55min 21sec (3321 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2011