Made in His Image: Coffee Conversations #13 w/ Jonathan Roumie

this is uh good morning philippines this is teresa zapanta for sosa of empower philippines welcome to coffee conversations this is dr jude verzosa good morning america good evening america we are actually broadcasting live from seattle yes we are just blessed today it is the first friday and we are just thankful to the lord that we are here because we have a special guest for everybody tonight before we begin i would like to just let you know where we are at for empower philippines so nine years ago we started what we call now empower philippines this is to target the poorest of the poor in our country the philippines so even though jude and i live in bonne lake washington we strive to fulfill that mission along with our family to come home and fly two to three times a year to help with medical mission surgical dental missions in the prisoners help fund schools for the indigenous tribes in cullion for the tagbanua help fund orphanages for the vulnerable elderly and the youth and help for the tuition fees and scholarships for the orphans of survivors of extra drug war extrajudicial killings and also of seminarians and actually our favorite one is to enjoy and partake breaking of the bread with the poorest of the poor war the beggars and the street sides of the metropolitan cathedral of san fernando which is with the church where i grew up in anyway so that is the the original intent of empower philippines which we've been doing for the past nine years we felt that it was our calling to provide for physical poverty coven 19 broke out and it just erupted and all of a sudden we are doing coffee conversations because jude and i felt as many of you had probably felt the same thing that there was spiritual poverty we were dying in the inside we were looking for people to help us nourish because if we want to get to heaven we have to be in this together we have to create opportunities for what would people do in this time and so we have created coffee conversations and we thank god because god has been giving us this five loaves and two fish through people who say yes to us like today's guest so that physical poverty to spiritual poverty we tie all of this in and today in the philippines it is the feast day of the saint of the poor verse of the poor mother teresa of calcutta it's very providential it is very providential to have our guest today to celebrate with us with st say mother teresa of kolkata he she always said she's always seen the poor in kolkata but there was never a kind of poverty that she was baffled by when she saw this different kind of poverty in the states which is what we call spiritual poverty so i think right now we are in that we're trying to nourish ourselves in the spirit so there we are that's the reason why we have coffee conversation so i will leave uh i will give the microphone to jude yeah let's introduce our guest for today uh jonathan rooney is an actor director producer and musician he has appeared on chicago med the mindy project the good wife the newsroom law and order ncis among other shows some of his notable voiceover work includes voice matching michael douglas for marvel's ant-man and wasp british actor henry goulding and crazy rich asians he serves as the vice president on the boards of two non-profit media companies catholics and media associates and gk chesterton theater company and was recently nominated for people knighthead by the order saint gregory the great jonathan rumi credits his catholic faith as the foundation of his portrayal of jesus the actor at the center of the highest grossing crowdfunded media project in history we would like to welcome jonathan rooney welcome gentlemen hi guys thank you so much i'm so excited to be here thank you for having me what an honor well thank you thanks thanks for saying yes you give us quite a scare just a while back yeah about that instagram yeah i apologize i i realize i have um some days i feel like i've got just a little too much on my plate and uh uh but god god makes uh makes things right so you know uh clearly i'm here uh we're good to go and uh i couldn't be happier but um yeah thank you i know i mean you being so busy and saying yes to us i mean it wouldn't have been great i was thinking a while ago well maybe since he plays the role of jesus it can be in two places at one time yeah you know there's a couple of saints that have been known to bi-locate like saint padre theo but uh yeah i'm just in one place i'm just one one humble little man that's right we could have joined you before the rosary we're playing yeah well you know what i i i pushed it to three hours from now so if you're around please join me we will do that we'll make it appear okay jonathan um we wanted to ask if you could lead us in in prayer and maybe read the gospel today um sure sure let me just pull that up the gospels and thank you for um for bearing with my schedule and for uh all of the craziness we want to thank leslie for helping us out yeah leslie is amazing okay so folks like jonathan is looking for the for the gospel for today the format of the program is such that we would be interviewing jonathan after the gospel reading and after he leads us in prayer yes and after that if we have time we would really uh we'd want to entertain some questions we want to be very respectful of jonathan's time as you can tell he's very busy and then we'd like to say a prayer for jonathan before he goes um and then stay tuned because average jonathan leaves we we have some conclusions some announcements for you yeah um and so correct me if i'm wrong i'm reading from the fifth of september for saturday or am i reading for for uh the fourth you could read the four yeah okay because i know there's a time difference and we're talking okay so pacific time okay i wanted to make sure that i got the right reading you know why because there's more speaking lights for you uh and just the gospel is it luke yes please god okay 5 33 39. okay in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen amen reading the gospel of luke glory to you the scribes and pharisees said to jesus the disciples of john the baptist fast often and offer prayers and the disciples of the pharisees do the same but yours eat and drink jesus answered them can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them but the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them then they will fast in those days and he also told him a parable no one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one otherwise he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak likewise no one pours new wine into old wineskins otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be ruined rather new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins and no one who has been drinking old wine desires new for he says the old is good the gospel of the lord praise peace to you lord jesus christ the father thank you sure thank you jonathan i mean um what an apt gospel i was reading through it this morning and i know you'd be reading it but jesus description of holiness was not confined to sacrificial in isolation like the scenes not nor on on just pure austerity alone it was communal it was inclusive it was non-judgmental he talked about the wedding uh the weddings traditionally the traditional weddings have been uh quoted in the in the new testament many times he said can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them jesus is truly the bridegroom and the church is the bride he's the marriage between heaven and earth and humanity and divinity and i think i thought it was apt because this is what you do jonathan you play the role of jesus humanity without taking away from his from his divinity and i think it's a great segue we wanted to ask you um who you are jonathan maybe you could describe us tell us about yourself before the chosen um well i'd like to think that not much has changed about me personally um other than my walk with christ has grown exponentially deeper um [Music] who i who i was and and who i still am is as a person that has been um given this desire and these gifts to serve god through my art i've been an actor for oh probably about 20 some odd years but in between that time i've done a bunch of other types of side jobs to kind of you know to to make ends meet to make a living i'm also a musician you know i'm somebody that has worked very hard to to to try to do what is right in my life and and to what is right hopefully has served god's will and not just my own but that's a daily struggle i think many of us um face is is doing doing the things that we feel called to do the things that we're inspired to do the things that we're excited to do and then doing the things that god is calling us to do and hopefully the two intersect at some point they don't always do that and i found that a couple as as you know recently as a couple of years ago that i i thought i was doing what god wanted me to do um but i wasn't really trusting him fully completely and so i i realized that at my probably the lowest point in my life on many levels spiritually financially you know um emotionally um it was at my lowest point where i finally surrendered and basically said whatever you want god i'm leaving it in your hands i'm giving all of my problems to you i need your help so it was a surrender of not just my circumstances and and my will but my ego as well and i've tried to um i've tried to maintain that level of um exist that kind of existence that surrender since that time um two years ago and as i've continued to do it it's just brought me more and more joy more and more grace um god is so faithful he's so great he's so good to us if we're just willing to to go along with with what he's got mapped out for us and um i've seen that in my life in the in the life of other people who've who really you know made the decision to um to give everything to him so it's been awesome um you know jonathan that is to me as a filipino oh by the way have you been to the philippines yet i have not been there yet no okay well one day hopefully you get to spirit not just spiritually but physically get to the philippines and we could be lovely yeah that would be great hosting yes yes if you will indulge us anyway i was i asked that i asked it because as a filipino right now for them to see you on on their screen in inside the filipino home is to us the best personification of jesus being up close and personal yes you portray jesus but you're still jonathan right that's right and what you're doing right now beyond the script because the chosen series will one day end you know it will be recorded it will be played but what i find as a filipino and i hope i speak for the fellow filipinos back home right now is that what you're doing beyond the script is you are personifying that you are as personable as jesus is which is what we need to be anyway because i think what your story is what our stories are for all of everyone in the world makes for you know what that person can do it in his lowest point he surrendered then you know what i'm inspired because i see we're not always the holy spirit for one another sometimes my husband is not always the holy spirit for me but you know other people can be the holy spirit for us so i think as a filipino i want to just say thank you first for coming into our homes today spiritually hopefully physically you can visit us second we had we just want to affirm your story of your total loving obedience to god and say lord use me and i think that's where we are now that's why you are here saying yes saying your fiat just like the blessed mother so i just want to say thank you for that thank you that's i i really appreciate your words it's very very kind of you and and uh yeah you know all i can um try to continue to do is to um to to remind myself to to really um champion the virtue of humility because that allows um all the other virtues to take root you know i think it was saint augustine that uh that uh that may or might have even been saint vincent de paul all most of the church fathers talk about the necessity of the virtue of humility so i don't want to misquote them but in essence they all agree that without the virtue of humility um none of the other virtues can sort of take root within a person so uh my prayer is that i just hope to you know maintain um that track and uh and and stay connected to christ uh and and try to imitate his uh humbleness and and meekness and and serve him as best i can by uh by quality encounters with all whom i meet um and that no matter where this this trip takes me um whether it's the chosen whether it's you know my work as an actor or life as uh in the entertainment industry um i just hope to that uh god allows me to to stay on the path and keeps me encouraged and and and strengthened for um for all that is to come so thank you for your words and your prayers and your thoughts they they they truly mean a lot to me amazing amazing words you know um i love it humility is the source of all virtues and from all virtues follow you truly embody it um we sense it across the screen uh it must be really difficult to be to to willfully and purposefully want to be humble surrounded by success and success that you have but i want to go back jonathan to your story there's a story behind that you said that there was a lowest point in your life where your humility and your your faith was tested would you mind sharing that with our viewers sure i'm happy to um so you know i i had been out in los angeles for eight years i'm from new york originally i i was born in hell's kitchen and uh which is in the center of manhattan it's sort of on the west side um and i live in queens which is one of the the five boroughs that make up the the city the municipality of new york city uh i lived in queens and then as i got a little older we when i was old enough to go to school my sisters and i we my family we moved to the suburbs so i grew up mostly in the suburbs of new york i went to public school i didn't go to catholic school or anything um i i i uh i was baptized i made my first communion i made my confirmation and i always god was always in my life um and i always had a conversation uh with christ i i'd always talk to christ and and talk to myself i talk to myself all the time i still do but ever since i was a kid i would always just have conversations with with god in my own way and and then um you know i went to art school in new york uh after i got out of college i started working in the entertainment industry i worked behind the scenes i was what they call a location scout for most of my career in new york which meant that uh if a movie was filming scenes somewhere in like a specific location whether it be a bar or a park or uh you know in the middle of a field or something like that my job would be to go find those places that the director might want to film the scene um and so i'd say probably you know after college my faith was um probably i wouldn't say weak but it's it wasn't the most a passionate uh version of what it i knew it could be or what it would eventually become i didn't even know what it could be at the time i just knew that like i always believed in god i loved god and and he was a part of my life and then as i contemplated moving to los angeles you know of course my prayer life started to to get stronger as i got older and when i contemplated coming here that was a big part of the decision and um and i got here and and then there was always this there's always this this concept uh and this uh impetus for for actors and artists or anybody who's desiring to have some kind of success is that you you have to you know the lord helps those who help themselves so it's on you to do what you got to do to make things happen and you can't be idle and you know there are so many people that come to los angeles with stars in their eyes and they they don't do anything to to they don't work at it they don't they think if they're maybe perhaps if they're good looking or or they know somebody or they have a little bit of talent that automatically you have a career that's that's not how it works it's not remotely how it works um if you are young if you have talent if you are good you know or are in the right place at the right time you have good connections you you are somebody yeah you can get a job or two jobs or three jobs um but then you have to have that as well as everything else that it makes a person successful so i think for me that's you have to have a certain amount of goodness and you have to be honest and and even though not everybody always plays by the rules in in life never mind just one niche of an industry versus another so i always you know because it's a really difficult and challenging field in which to work um you're mostly not working you're mostly most of an actor's career is spent not working just statistically the people you see on tv and in the movies make up about three to five percent of the population of those working in the entertainment industry the top the top three or five percent five might even be generous but um that's that's what you see uh and the rest are unemployed or they're doing other jobs or they're working in bars or they're working in you know they have other careers or they're you know and eventually if you're not available when you need to be available if you're not you know ready to go at the drop of a hat where if you've taken a job because you need to feed yourself you're not always going to be available so many people end up drifting out of the business i wasn't ever one of those people that wanted to take a full-time job so that i could not be available to audition so what's the alternative well lots and lots and lots of part-time jobs so that was my life was juggling all different kinds of part-time jobs for several years it got to the point where you know i'm eight years in and i i probably was juggling a version of six or seven different side jobs to just to make ends meet and i started realizing that the more jobs i was taking on because i'm like i gotta make money i gotta drive i gotta you know do this i work in the service industry restaurant whatever you know the more jobs i seem to take on the less money i made i'm like wait a minute how does that make sense i don't this this doesn't compute but that was the reality that was my reality and it got to the point where it was so stressful i was at one point living off of credit cards uh and i woke up on a saturday morning in 2018 in may and i was um i was overdrawn by a hundred bucks my checking account was just overdrawn which means it was there's minus a hundred dollars in it i had twenty dollars in my pocket i was out of food and i had no work and i had a bunch of of uh bills coming up like for that month and i just broke down literally i was on my knees staring up at that crucifix i'm staring at right now being like you know what god for the last eight years i've been in los angeles in the last maybe 10 or 15 as an actor my constant prayer was like lord if this is not what i'm supposed to be doing please take it out of my heart take the desire from my heart because this is really difficult i'm doing everything i'm supposed to be doing and nothing is changing i'm worse off now than when i got here and i don't understand and i had worked as an actor i had done a bunch of tv shows like if you look at the dates on imdb if you look me up on internet movie database and you find me and you see the credits and you look at everything below before 2018 you're like oh this guy works all the time no no it's like one or two jobs a year if i was lucky i wasn't getting any opportunities and i'm like what am i doing wrong and so just on my knees i'm like you know what i've done everything i can do i'm supposed to you know help myself i've been trying to help myself and nothing's happening i've asked for uh some some other desires to to replace to supplant the desire to work as a performer nothing's happened i haven't been given any other opportunities so you know what i'm going to step back now and i'm going to give all of my problems to you all those bills that are due next week in the next couple of weeks i'm going to give that to you where am i going to get food i don't know but i'm going to give it to you because i'm out i'm done you said your burden is easy and your yoke is light well here here's some of mine and so later that afternoon i went to get my mail and i opened the mailbox and there were three checks in the mail that restored everything a week later i got another check that was equal to the three checks that i had that first day on that saturday but that saturday when i got those checks in the mail it was like god said do you get it i was waiting for you to surrender are you ready to let me take over can i step in now whereas up to that point it was like god was saying hey why don't you come to me and i'm like no no god i got it i got i'm gonna i'm gonna get this job but let me just let sorry somebody called in uh god are just like but but let me just i'm like no no no god i got that there's this thing coming through i know this guy is hooking me up with but let me no no no i got it and then god was just like all right you got it you got it i'm gonna let's see how this goes and then finally i'm like all right can you help me can you just help me and he's like all right get out of the way now let me step in three months after that i got called for the chosen wow and that kind of was that was the beginning of the rest of my life thus far wow wow that's amazing you know i suffering does really transform us jonathan i i couldn't i could relate to your story i lived in um i was born and raised in the philippines and i trained uh for my second residency in new york city lived in a basement apartment for twelve hundred dollars this is in two thousand wow and um you you just gotta train and you can't do second jobs and fair jobs and i was living off of um whatever was left which was probably about 200 bucks a month and i was living on food stamps and and um it's amazing that would you say that your suffering made you who you are would you say that it has it has um reshaped you in some sort of way because there's got to be with faith we don't believe in coincidence there's got to be some providential reason for what you've been through right absolutely yeah without a doubt suffering leaves its mark and you've got two choices when you suffer you either offer it up or you get bitter and rejected and if you're busy trying to fight the suffering or be angry about the suffering versus offering the suffering up to god using the suffering allowing the suffering to happen as something that is part of your plan and knowing that it's only temporary that it doesn't last forever nothing lasts forever um if you if you can embrace that versus fighting it it makes it it just alleviates the weight of it to a degree that you you can't even comprehend when you're going through it until you actually do it so you actually have to commit to being okay with the suffering and offering it up so i mean as catholics we're like offered offered up to christ jesus on the cross you know offer it to christ and if i didn't have that if i'd i don't know how i would lens view my suffering like i i might it might be something that i i wouldn't be able to handle in the same way you know um i'm i'm just um i i just don't know what i would do right right you know yes yes um i don't have a question for you jonathan it's just a comment about what you had just shared with us so beautifully again from the lens of a filipino girl filipino you know a young girl we all both of us grew up in the philippines it was just only 16 years ago that we really lived in the united states but still go to our native land because that's where our roots are i mean you know we to me to someone like you who speaks in english american looking well i i thought you were from you've got this middle eastern uh roots but to me if i see someone on tv and i watch them hollywood is equivalent to america america is equivalent to upward opportunity of power of influence you know of everything and then for me to listen to you right now talk about poverty talk about what you see on tv in the movies that's not really what it is you know and just for you to say your innermost and lowest point we're like but that's what made you different that's why god worked in you because i as you were talking i'm like who who will go down on his knees and say lord take over it was you i don't think for any in hollywood right now for people who just want to avoid faith avoid religion in a secular world you know they don't want to talk about god they get embarrassed when they talk about god but you did you went down to your knees and said lord take over and for you for me to hear that i hope that i also speak for the rest of the filipinos who can hear you because it'll resonate to them yes because we're in a poor country and for you to who lives in america and says this let alone you in hollywood this to us is wow this is the gospel of jesus to let go just self-empty that's why jesus you know went down and got himself crucified for us so i just want to say thank you again i mean all of your stories are just so relatable and so i i i want to thank you really i thank god for you thank you thank you that's so beautiful um you know i i find that um a lot of uh much of the entertainment industry's um profile or the perception of hollywood is glamour and glitz and you know power and and uh persuasion um and so to be seen as being vulnerable uh to be seen as being um somebody that does that submits to a higher authority um i'm sure there are people out there who see that as uh you know as a negative as uh as as a weakness as and you know it's like that's not the image you want to portray but that's who i you then have to ask myself well who am i whose opinion am i trying to to to meet you know um somebody had asked me if i've ever worried about uh there being any kind of backlash because uh this was in an interview you know if i was worried about a backlash for being so um open about my faith um and my answer um then has not changed and that is my destiny is not in the hands of men it's in the hands of god so if god decides he wants me to go on and do some other films or tv shows secular or otherwise um as long as they're honoring him in some way and they're positive or or you know or it's at least even if it's like a bad guy you know bad people don't consider themselves bad people they just make bad choices because of the circumstances of their life or whatever or but you know it could be somebody that there's an opportunity for a redemption in that kind of a character like you can as an actor you can't even judge you can't judge the characters you know i can't say that's a bad character be like what makes him make these decisions so um you know but that's not if if god wants me to do these other things who's going to stop him god wins in the end no god that doesn't lose god wins that's right so it's just am i gonna continue to say okay say yes to surrender or am i gonna try to you know participate in in the overarching fear that many other performers and and you know actors uh think when they hear oh you you can't you can't be religious you can't be seen as religious because you'll be blacklisted i'm like i'm too old to care about being blacklist you know what i mean like and i'm not even that old but i just don't care like spiritually i just it doesn't it doesn't matter to me like it does whatever anybody wants to think or whatever film they want to put me in or not put me in great i would it's fine it's fine because i'm not i'm not answering to them at the end of the day all of this is just temporary this is all just none of this is is lasting you know this inside here is what's going to continue god is forever we are not so i love it i love the courage i mean that is to say and i wrote it down you said my destiny is in the hands of god i mean how many people could say that out in public right you know i self-emptying kenosis kind of i don't i don't get it um i know that i don't understand everything and it's in the hands of god for those of you who are joining us uh late we are interviewing interviewing jonathan rooney and he was rejecting the topic of suffering and jonathan's life story um pope uh our pope emeritus benedict cardinal uh then cardinal ratzinger once said that if we say that i'm going to paraphrase it if we say that the suffering is the inner side of love then we also have to understand uh how to suffer and why conversely avoiding suffering actually causes us to be incapable of life incapable of adapting and he used the word existential emptiness and i thought that was very profound anyway jonathan you've made mention about about how it how it is to work in the industry that you're in um how do you navigate not having any not having to compromise your morals when you make choices about things i mean it must be it must be challenging we know what hollywood is right and um thank god you're working amongst uh colleagues who are wonderful people we've two weeks ago we've interviewed dallas jenkins but how do you do that how do you how do you navigate what what the industry is currently you know i i think there's a lot more good people in hollywood than people think and i think the stuff that you see that is produced that is uh released um i think it unfairly represents the people that are here working in the industry because the majority of the people i met are not like that um maybe the majority of the you know people on the distribution side that are releasing those kinds of films that are harmful to to young people um you know maybe maybe they are like that or maybe they're just so disconnected from themselves spiritually and from who god really is and what affect the work that they're doing is having on people if it's negative um that they just don't know i i i'd like to try to give most people the benefit of the doubt and again sort of referring to you know evil characters don't necessarily know or think that they're evil they like they've got a job and this is what they're doing and and then there is that contingent that is much darker and and they've got nefarious and sinners sinister sort of you know designs on on how to infiltrate and influence the culture um fortunately for me i've never i've never really been faced with that challenge i and and it i i sort of um i liken it to certain kinds of relationships um there's certain people that you're attracted to and people that are attracted to you um you know uh i've certainly been in phases of my life where i've made bad choices in partners where i'm like well that's not the right girl for me but i would tend to repeat that that uh you know uh prototype and repeat the mistake and i'm like what is it that i'm what is what is it about this person or this type of person that i'm attracted to um and so and then there are other people when thankfully i i learn after enough mistakes i i think i've learned my lesson with certain types of personalities that just do not work well with me and and uh um and then there's other types where it's like you wonder i wonder like wow i've never met this type of a person before which there's never been a thing we've just i've never been attracted to that kind of a person with that sort of a lifestyle and like when you ask yourself why is that and i think it's it speaks to the unknown it speaks to the spiritual and i think there are certain spiritual mechanisms and and forces at play that can repel the things that aren't good for you so if you're trying to surround yourself with light and with god people will get that sense when they meet you and the people that are not of the light will also yeah this isn't this isn't the thing we're not gonna do this dance here do you know what i mean like i think it's just this inherent like yeah we're we're probably never gonna work together on this kind of a film or that kind of a films so i i never get people asking me to do like slasher horror films like i've never once been asked to do a film like that and probably because god knows and and maybe so do people know that i probably would never ever do it unless there was something that was like if it was like the exorcist if they remade the exorcist i would love to play father damien like my my role would be damian do you know what i mean there you go for those people who are listening that's that's one thing that i would love to if if they ever remade that film like really did it like the original film if anybody's never seen it it's frightening it's it's a little bit dated uh especially for for younger audiences today but it's still frightening and it was like to me it's like liturgically authentic you know there's an authenticity about the relationships of the priests they're not stereotypes they're not caricatures they're real people like father damien he was you see him he's a boxer and like he's a guy you know and at having a crisis of faith and like humans we have crises of faith many times in our lives for many reasons you know um so it's a plausible that's certainly a plausible um plot you know plot line or a character that i would you know although it's it starts to play with darker themes in the end it's about the light overcoming the darkness so right um yeah but but just the blatant you know graphic or films that are just not appropriate like i've never been asked to do one i probably will never get asked if i was i you know again like unless there's something really redeeming about it i wouldn't i probably wouldn't do it anyway so like i've been lucky god's been looking out for me i guess the short answer uh is that i think just god's protected me from things that have been potentially harmful to me and hopefully given me a a good enough head on my shoulders to discern between projects that i should do and those i shouldn't do right beautifully said um but the exorcist man i mean i was frightened but isn't it true too that um you said authenticity use the word authenticity i mean we have neglected that uh evil spirits and principalities are real it's in the bible that's true oh yeah and um uh the world doesn't allow us to see it that way anymore um anyway we have a i'm going to shift gears a little bit here jonathan because we have a testimony that we wanted to read out to you um we thought it was meaningful and it wasn't powerful yeah before i read it i just want to say this just a few days ago well i we write my husband and i humbly we are not journalists we're not english majors uh i'm just a nurse she's just a doctor but we're writing something it's called daylight it's a man of light it's part of a flagship of in the philippines where we talk about the reflections of the gospel for today so my my assignment was the other day thursday and it was about the miracle of the fish and so i was asking the lord you know if you always do it every week sometimes the holy spirit is either you're kind of like oh i'm going to write again but i said lord give me some glimpse of your holy spirit so i i typed in the chosen of course and then i saw the thing i mean we've seen it everybody who's now watching you has seen the chosen and that's what made us different and i would like to say oh my god um your face as you portrayed it oh boy the holy spirit is really at work with you why without even the words you were nodding at peter take take them to the scene oh well maybe he can take it you're here you want to take us to the scene or yeah yeah yeah there was a scene there where you there's like an acknowledgement um you didn't say can you take us there and then actually yeah you mean just to describe that that part in the scene uh-huh yeah yeah so uh so when i tell peter when i tell simon to uh to go and cast out his net again right and then uh he said but uh rabbi we've been fishing all night nothing and i just kind of stand there looking at him and then he's looking at me and he's like at your word all right and then he goes and he casts out the net and nothing happens and he's staring at me and i'm just looking at him and he's like you see like i told you and i'm like did you tell me and then next thing you know the boat nearly tips over and the nets are dragged down by hundreds of fish uh which they struggled to get into the boat yeah but you know what talking about your story a while ago wasn't that you wasn't that us oh yeah i told you yeah yeah yeah yeah i told you yeah no worries that's right yeah he's like okay yeah i got something for you here once whenever anybody asks me which which of the apostles from the show do i most identify with i just simon peter simon petey without a doubt just hard-headed thinks he needs to do it himself and uh just just trying to just trying to you know make his way his way and uh and it's only when he lets the lord when he says yes to the lord does his life change and his nets are overflowing so yeah that is not more perfect analogy for for the moments in life that i have experienced god's grace in such a way yeah and so yeah gave us chills so just looking at you without the words you expressed it you know jesus expressed it without words and i was bawling again i was like crying and the thing is when you know when your girl when you get older like me when you're crying during the day you're like you're so tired your eyes are heavy i'm like this is why i don't want to watch the shows and over and over again it's exhausting yeah i wish i wish i could do that to my wife when i'm out of work but it won't work what are you up to we need others that's why we need god so anyway so you gotta hear this out allow us to read this because sure a filipino woman who reached out to us okay my name is mae ferreros mother of daniel and sophia a wife to the late eric ferreiros i have been a pioneering member of the catholic charismatic group the our lady of guadalupe prayer community based in makati philippines for over 27 years now for almost 23 years i was married to a man considered a perfect husband we have served our prayer community together since we became members and have treated it as our second family sometime in 2017 eric was diagnosed to have a rare skin cancer called miracle disease our family's world is figuratively shattered when in october 11 last year barely three weeks before his 50th birthday we lost eric after a month-long hospital confinement it was and still is a crashing blow to our family most especially to me it has been a very difficult year so far and i admit that there were moments when i asked the lord why he took eric so early from us we had so many plans yet to be fulfilled and we have served him faithfully in and outside of our prayer community next year it would have been a silver wedding anniversary and we were looking forward to a grand celebration as renew our vows my facebook profile picture was taken last year when we had a renewal of vows in cana during holy land pilgrimage one of the greatest blessings that gave me comfort during this difficult time was watching the chosen during the london season jonathan rooney's portrayal of jesus has moved me to believe that the lord was truly human yet divine while he was on earth that he can relate to all of us especially our struggles and sufferings have been trying to get in touch with jonathan when i heard his anecdote during the international eucharistic conference about the woman who lost her son and called out to him as he was portraying jesus in a church event i felt the pain of that woman as i've also undergone a similar loss i would have wanted to get a hug from jesus to feel that the lord truly understands and also feels the deep hurt i'm going through the chosen most especially jonathan's portrayal of jesus has been instrumental in the healing processes that i'm still going through right now may jonathan and the chosen touch the chosen touched many more lives in the years to come now he has a question for you many people have already asked you what your favorite scene is i would like to ask you what scene did you find most challenging for you and what challenges did you encounter and how and how did you overcome it most challenging scene beautiful testimony thank you that's really lovely wow there's uh that's profoundly moving thank you for sharing that with me yeah her name is god bless you man and we uh i will be praying for for eric's repose of eric's soul and uh may if i could give you a big hug in person i certainly will so there's a virtual hug for you big old virtual hug right there i'm sure she's in tears right now oh yes oh yeah yeah yeah i'm not too far off i'll tell you that after hearing that that's something um the most challenging scene i think i think the most challenging scene for me came when i started to um to preach to the crowd in episode six um for the uh the healing of the paralytic when the paralytic gets lowered through the roof of zebedee's house yeah so uh it starts off it's just a bunch of us myself the disciples zebedee and his wife salome and uh we're having a conversation and then their neighbors come in and then a couple more neighbors then come to the window and then a few more gather outside the door as things are progressing i think it took five days to shoot and there were all these different elements that we were focusing on and when the crowd started to get really um big outside of the house jesus i stand up at one point to be able to drop to address them all because there's so many of them to make sure they can hear me and i start preaching the parables um the woman who goes to the judge and asks for justice the um the the pharisee and the uh the tax collector who are preaching in the synagogue and i think the tax collector can't lift his eyes to god and the the the uh the pharisee who who says thank you god that i'm so holy that i'm not like this tax collector if i have their jobs right i may i may be off on that um but uh but he basically thanks god that he's not like that guy over there and and uh and such powerful parables but um we were filming them where it was a little bit on me but mostly about watching all of the faces of all these other people and seeing all these things that were happening at once because the result was the biggest scene we've shot in the show so far and all these there was like 20 different main actors that were all on set in that scene at one point and so as we started as i started to preach the parables you know um and city in a hill uh you do you don't light a uh uh a book you don't light a candle and put it under a bush bushel basket you put it on the stand for a lamp stand for everybody to see a bunch of these parables as i started preaching the parables i became very aware of myself and what i was saying the words i was saying to these people and who it was that spoke these words and we were kind of moving through these scenes pretty quickly because it wasn't so much about me preaching was about everybody else right but we would finish one set up and go to the next one and i just felt unsettled and this is the beginning of the day i i just felt very disturbed and i and i said to dallas he said dallas can you can we just slow down for a second and he said why what's what's wrong he had no idea what i was going through but i was it's just it's just a storm inside i said i'm having a hard time right now getting through all of this and we're just moving from scene to scene it's like why are you having a hard time and it dawned on me and i said because i don't feel worthy to be saying these words i don't feel worthy to be standing here watching these people staring at me as if i'm jesus preaching to them me jonathan i don't feel like i belong here and then he just stopped and he he understood what i was saying and he put his hand on my shoulder and he said brother none of us are worthy not a risk already but you and i are here making this show telling this story so that others may know about him or something to that effect and immediately i just felt this burden just like wow my load was lightened and i and i recognized it's like wow okay yeah this is this is not i can't let ever let this be about me it's never about me but you know i'm human i'm sinfully human i'm a very very flawed human being and and i don't hide that because i can't there's no there's no way to uh all i can do playing this role is to to pray that i'm able to empty out enough of myself so that the holy spirit can work through me and be a channel and that people watching experience an encounter with christ they may not have had before or experience an introduction to christ if they've never met him if they don't know who he is and and that's it that's all i can do i i can just say the words i pray i go to mass before i start filming i try to go to confession i find the church whenever i get to to wherever we're filming and when i settle in i make sure i go to mass i take i try to go to confession i try i take the you know i receive the eucharist and i try to get powered up powered up to go then deliver that spirit as god allows it to flow through me to to to elevate the words and make you know my voice his voice or or vice versa you know make have his voice work through my voice and so that there's almost nothing recognizable of me yes and that it's him you know wow that makes sense yes i i i got reminded of our guests a month ago it was chris stefanik and then he said so prof something profound it is through jesus yeah you you say lord i'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed i'm not worthy and then if you in the next few minutes you are receiving him inside you you know it's so beautiful i mean no none of us are worthy and dallas is right all of us are right and you know don't let satan you know defeat him because he was playing around in your mind jonathan oh yeah few minutes later god is with us you know it's just so beautiful yeah yeah you know um why are you in here why you're playing the role so well the humanity of jesus because the authenticity shines in you um thank you amazing that was that's beautiful you know um i i gotta crack this joke i really have to i know it's okay this is from my son skyler who's probably managing this to the show and um i don't know if this is original or not but uh he says a couple of months ago says dad now i know um that jesus is catholic because jim caviez is catholic and rumi's catholic this is a joke i'm sorry i couldn't let that happen oh no well i mean if you look up on wikipedia the founder of the catholic church is jesus they list him as the founder of the church which he was for 1500 years and then so part of the thing i try to do whenever i pray with people and i so many of my brothers and sisters out there are non-catholics it's so important we're so fractured as a body of christ it's so important to remember that we worship the same son of god it's the same savior and we we have more in common than we do uh than then we'd have differences so i think it's important to remember that and when we're dialoguing and praying with each other to to really embrace and celebrate that fact that there's so much more that unites us and if we just talk to each other about the things that we don't understand about each other without judging from some lofty ledge you know with you know ready to just fire an arrow whenever we can be like you don't believe this you're dead to me you know like i find that that is such a prevalent um attitude uh this sort of cavalier-like i have all the answers like no you don't have all the answers you know nobody has all the answers god has all the answers and if we're again if we're engaging in that virtue of humility that's our job is to be humble and know that we don't know everything and people have different beliefs and if you don't agree with them or you think that they're wrong or you you you know you feel that they're misguided well then pray for them pray for them don't you know don't let's not tell them to their face like you're wrong and here's why don't go trying to win the argument because you'll never you'll never change anybody you'll never want them to even want what you have or what you know or want to be a part of the faith if if people if we're always going at each other with these big clubs and pointing these fingers and you know thinking that uh you know that we're more righteous than other people we have to remember that we can be bold but we have to be humble and we have to lead our conversations with each other with our brothers and sisters with love you know and eventually that's what wins out that's what wins out when i started praying during the quarantine i started praying the divine mercy chaplet because it was just something that god put on my heart to do and i'm like really online yeah but like on facebook yeah do it live do it live really but then people will really know i'm catholic yeah they will but but it's okay okay fine all right i started doing that and then i started doing the rosary i'm like what am i doing i'm like you know if i was ever worried about people not hiring me because i was too outwardly you know christian and then catholic just like well that's that's the that's the proverbial nail in the coffin but for me it was you know it was liberation because i just it doesn't again it's not their mankind does not rule my destiny so i just said this is what's been put being put on my heart so this is what i'm doing and in the process god has opened up all these channels and these graces for me to meet other people like dr scott hahn like bishop baron like all these other influential people that have taught me so much about my own faith that i didn't know there's so much that i don't know um and so the other thing that happened was that all these you know non-catholic brothers and sisters because i feel i just want offered an opportunity for people to pray with me just let's just pray to jesus and yes we're going to pray the chaplet on rosary beads and many of you don't know what that is but let me tell you this is kind of what it is and this is why it's it's kind of okay because it's all about jesus it's all about jesus and if you just take a minute to explain and demystify and and you know demythologize what it what our prayer life is people will then be open and then start seeing the richest richness of that of of our history and of their own faith the origins of their faith the next thing you know i'm getting messages saying hey i'm a lifelong southern baptist but i just got my first set of rosary beads you know and like um i got a message from this guy who who for years would get these anxiety attacks he was i think also southern baptist or pentecostal maybe and he said he started he openly started praying the chaplain and he he said his anxiety attacks stopped and and how does that happen well the spirit works through through people and that when when when we lead with love and openness and communion community and dialogue well then the spirit is is now able to work in people's lives people are open to receiving the spirit you know and uh and i just found it's like you know to to to borrow a a crude uh agrarian uh expression you get more flies with honey so um i i don't know why you'd want to get a bunch of flies honey but uh but that's the the expression um yeah i think it's just it's i wanted to mention that because i think it's it's so important now when when we see the enemy trying to use us uh as tools against each other that's that's when we gotta step back and be like whoa what's what's going on here okay so i got catholics against catholics because of x y and z like really like is that what we need to be doing right now like we're we're not the enemy he's the enemy that's the enemy out there doing this to us so let's be self-aware let's let's really recognize what's going on and and throw aside the political uh differences within the church and let's just focus on christ and and you know be stronger as a culture because that's how we're going to defeat the enemy that's how we're going to defeat evil i i love you calling that out um that's what christ has always wanted the united church but here's another thing that you could add to your story jonathan we have always been missionaries we've we we like working on the sidelines you know getting our hands dirty and it kind of keeps us grounded yeah but your show has made us step out of our comfort zone myself especially i i don't like being from the camera i i like being in an exam with my patients talking about things everything in confidence you know that's true but here you are and i'm thinking you know here's this guy he's famous he's got everything loose doing this and he's playing the rosary yes and he's getting a following well not so much about the fun but it's about it's about how does he do that and um here we are talking to you and letting you know that you you have changed the way our ministry is going you've added an arm to our missions and our mission work thank you yeah and you know when do we do is it okay we still have a few minutes with you sure yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure i changed that rosary to nine o'clock so that's okay okay all right and listen and i'm going to tell you what that was and and again thank you and i apologize for that because that probably freaked a lot of people out here's what happened and god is now sort of prompting me to to tell this to everybody uh-huh sorry it's okay i got a call from a friend um or a message from a friend his wife's best friend is planning on going through with terminating a pregnancy tomorrow because the um the baby has down syndrome apparently so when he told me this the first thing i could think to do was to just jump online with as many people as i could get and i started calling every prayer warrior that i knew and send in messages like we gotta we gotta try to change this we gotta try to change this from prevent this from happening through our prayers through our prayers so everything else in my mind just went out the door and all of a sudden that became mission central how do i fix this how do i help this in some way what can i do i can't do anything except gather people to call down the spirit to work through this poor woman's uh heart and her mind against all the forces that are surrounding this woman saying that this is what she needs to do and she unfortunately is um feels that that's the decision she has to make so um tonight at uh nine o'clock pacific in uh about a little less than two hours i'm going to be on instagram live um praying a rosary which i haven't done in a while uh in honor of this woman um her name is samantha so i'd like to ask all of your viewers out there to pray for samantha for samantha's heart and her mind for strength and the courage um for god to to open her heart to changing it and seeing that she has the opportunity to save this life that it is a life worth saving no matter what the doctors are telling her no matter what circumstances no matter what science is telling her to do or what they're recommending or the the troubles that it's going to bring her that she may tune all those voices of the enemy out of her mind and that she may invite the source and summit of life through christ the holy spirit and god the father to work through her to to change her mind and to allow this baby to be born even if it means she has to give it to up for adoption or for whatever it is god forbid though anything is better than the alternative than than to not go through with it or to feel that she has no support or no help so so um yeah i would just ask for and i don't even know this woman but i just feel com i feel strongly compelled that that we can we can change the outcome of this situation through the intercession of the blessed mother and our prayers and the more people we get praying the better absolutely absolutely so so viewers 9 p.m is 12 9 p.m pacific standard time is 12 noon your time so in a few hours yeah please join uh uh us with jonathan rooney what's what's your what's your instagram account my instagram handle is uh at jonathan rumi official jonathan rooney official yeah it's the only one there's a you'll know it's me because there's about almost 58 000 followers if there's like 200 it's a fake account they keep popping up from time to time but it's jonathan rooney official there's about 58 000 followers uh that that's how you know until they verify my account that's how you know that's how you'll know it's the right one so actually i think they know it already because they were the ones who alerted us that there is a rosary happening at the same time when we would interview you today so they said oh some of them messaged us and they said are are we still on with jonathan rooney out in powerful yeah can i just say this this is so providential two things you had just shared with the the second most christian nation in the asia next to east timor the philippines i believe it's east timor the philippines is the asian gateway to christianity and if filipinos would pray for this woman samantha and for the little unborn maybe i am sure we could storm the heavens through prayers because it's just providential to me and also mother teresa who's always defended the unborn and can i just say this i was just about to say this because this thing here it says get used to it we had this shirt for it during oh that's awesome yes we wore it during our interview with dallas and he was like oh you guys are wearing it i'm not even wearing mine and so you know but this get used to different which is my um face mask you know i know you're not asking of uh but um you have it too i have i have no i got a different one with a cross uh it's somewhere somewhere i have a one with the fishes with the with the chosen yeah just as the chosen one yeah okay sorry well yeah but i just thought that i would let you know that the beginnings of empowered philippines is because we also have a special needs child it's not down syndrome though but it's the same we he attacked his autism he's for his 16. he is the reason why we do what we do really god bless you we could we're already in the states we don't have to do what we're doing we don't have to this being in front of you and to speak in english because that's not our language it's not our first language all of this is hard work but it's effort but it's a relationship with jesus because you can't have a relationship and you don't work hard for it you will lose it you know any relationship you have to have effort and uh for god just like you when we said you know what lord allow you just just be in this you know take take take the lead you drive our our our either this pilgrimage not me but you and that's what god did you know he he he he transformed zach his name is zach and he's the reason why we're doing this the speaking of humility speaking of the chosen we see zach through matthew when you chose him no when jesus chose him even though he was different yeah and so when you shared samantha's story i thought that that was also me because i asked the lord why i don't want anyone different the world will measure my son because he is different but guess what you have taught us get used to different things so so for those folks who are undergoing some some kind of experience like samantha is undergoing maybe thinking about uh aborting a child because they're different i will tell you right now the biggest blessing in our lives short of our marriage and our and our family is zach because he has taught us how to be sanctified how to suffer and then be transformed and now he's gotten us closer to god and how he has put meaning into our lives that would not have otherwise been possible had we had another child there's so much value in that life thanks god that's before we end did you receive the yeshua no no it's a bishop's yeah we we sent it to the address that we leslie well maybe he hasn't been around okay all right you want to talk about i don't know yeah this is the book it's is if the chosen is the movie that talks uh tv series that talk about uh jesus up close and personal this is our best of our beloved bishop pablo david who wrote a behind the scenes book uh oh i think it was addressed to your what was that your work address maybe it's still there yeah yeah if it was if it was to my manager he may still have it oh okay because yeah because i'll i'll let him know that there might be something there then because of covid everything is wacky and so it's been nobody's been at their offices and stuff is massively delayed so i apologize it looks like a beautiful book though yeah bishop pablo david is a it's a figure in the philippines and he's a bible scholar and he's written and he holds you in very high esteem really oh in our first pilot episode he actually spoke about you and the work that the chosen does and um he wrote a book yeshua which talks about the amount of jesus it takes it from a different angle and he wrote the and he wrote a dedication for you and um wonderful oh i can't wait to see it thank you so much yeah i will i will let my manager know to uh to make sure he checks his his uh office mail yeah jonathan how can uh uh people support you and your mission what would your message be for the audience [Music] you know um yeah i i think um definitely you know um supporting the chosen i also have um i have a um i'm the vice president of a a non-profit entertainment company that's just getting off the ground called gk chesterton entertainment um we've got um every for the last several years i've been doing a passion play and that's now led to the formulation of a company with a my co-director and the director the founder of the company um a gal by the name of maria vargo so there's uh i can also send you a link but uh if you go for for more information we're just putting up a website in the next couple of months um if people want uh to get a copy of the dvd of the the passion that we've done uh well i don't know if you guys can play american dvds over there in the philippines we can and if there is a uh um [Music] what do you call it now media that we could download or they could download yeah yeah so if you go to the last days uh the last days passionplay.com you can sign up and and then we'll we'll send people information on um how to get the dvd how to get how to download the the video um the last days passionplay.com um yeah and then uh speaking of uh matthew um there's an app that i'm um i partnered with uh the uh the largest um catholic meditation and prayer app called hallow um so if people are familiar with calm and headspace this is like that but for catholics and christians and it's not um just catholic stuff but there's all sorts of prayers but it's it's largely there's a large contingent of catholic prayers and uh liturgy of the hours and uh lectio divina that you can do and there's music and uh and i did i narrated um several chapters from the gospel of matthew that you can fall asleep to uh and listen to the uh the beatitudes the sermon on the mount uh which we're actually focusing on for season two of the chosen so it kind of worked out very coincidentally it just worked out really well um uh there was some ethnicity there yeah he sleeps ahead of me that's not bad right is that no if you fall asleep it's perfect so if you go it's all it's uh if you go to hallow.com jonathan uh you can download uh that there and there's a 30-day free trial that you can listen to my material the stuff that i've narrated and i've got more stuff coming down the line so um yeah hallow.com jonathan and there's also a link in my bio on instagram as well as a link i think on facebook so there's a few links there and empowers it's very calming it it just really it's a great way to end your day um just listening to it with you in bed uh turning on the app i mean it has it has been it's a calming effect very peaceful very very peaceful way to retire i used to toss and turn um i i really think that that's made me yeah uh calm down really truly yes right yes and if you want to yeah go ahead so go ahead i was just gonna say like if also people you know like if you're on the go and you're busy and and you're like oh man it's so late and i didn't do my prayers and i could have done them earlier but like you can schedule prayer time you know you can have through the app it makes it so much easier to be able to have devoted dedicated time to praying you know and praying the kinds of prayers that you want to pray so um there's so much there this this to explore so i i uh and and the way it's done a lot of the meditations are done so that you know there's breathing involved and it's like you know it's it's like traditional meditation but with you know with the focus on on christ and and god and and uh which is how it should be you know yeah i recommend that we recommend that hello yeah yeah so to our listeners we're going to wrap this up but i apologize uh to eric baruchillo and anusha banasam i know you have questions and ness i know you had questions you have a fan club listening in and they had questions tonight we just think guys we just want to be respectful of your time i um sorry it um but i hope you found this very meaningful especially the need for praying for uh samantha and the people who are going through difficult uh circumstances like she is um yeah we would like to pray for you is that okay can we pray for you oh please i'll take makes them available while she prays in the real presence in the blessed sacrament so this is very special so we will actually send it to the same reality it's a third class relic yes yeah so they're waiting for me to see it i i can't see you guys at the moment here it has it has the colors of the philippines like another event i think i just see myself at the moment the tomb of jesus um in the holy land that's awesome yeah where he wrote thank you yes yeah hopefully we get to melee to the address and you can yes yeah you know i'll have my uh publicist shoot you an address that will probably get to me faster so okay all right yes perspective thank you perfect thank you jonathan sure okay and for the people who are listening and after this we'll let jonathan go and then stay in for now stay with us for some announcements name the father and the son the holy spirit amen heavenly father we thank you for this opportunity to learn and draw inspiration and purpose from the life story of jonathan rooney we also draw comfort in that you truly are with us in a divine and and human way that you chose to live with us suffer and die for us as part of salvation history not because you had to because you wanted to you wanted to show that you are the embodiment of love help us to live out our purpose and just as jonathan is doing we pray for him and his mission that he may continue to glorify you in his work and in his life keep him in good health always bless and we pray and that you bless his personal intentions as well and we ask this with intercession of our blessed mother and in jesus name amen name the father and the son of the holy spirit amen god bless god bless all of you thank you for what you do and for your ministry and may god always keep you guided and protected and and covered in in all of your endeavors and your um your missionary work your blessing to to to all who are watching so thank you that means a lot to us thank you very much john well you're going to be very busy we know mine one day hopefully we can host you in the philippines god i would love to i i had just seen um the uh recently i got a sneak preview of the documentary on father patrick payton there's a movie called pray and the rosary uh rallies that he did in the philippines were incredible and and in fact they the filipinos are credit him with the change in regime from what i understand from this documentary which is amazing so i think it would be such a wonderful opportunity to to get to be there as well uh and and you know follow in his hallowed footsteps oh the bishops would love to welcome you and uh that would be amazing yes yes yeah you will change the landscape of you you reinvigorate the catholic faith in the philippines yes yes wow all right god willing thank you gentlemen we will join you thank you guys thank you so much thank you god bless you thank you see you soon bye-bye all right folks um wow that was that was really truly powerful and and very authentic we have a lot to learn from from jonathan yes yes again um i i say this a lot as from the lens of a filipino woman i appreciate the vulnerability the being vulnerable meaning allowing yourself to just be open to who you are and sharing who you are because this is the purpose of life to define it by what god wants you to be not what the world wants you to be and for him to say the lowest pit and share with us his lowest the the crisis in his life the many crisis in his life that's to me you're right authentic because you don't get that in at least what we know of america of hollywood you know of power yeah and you know he puts the the masculinity and the coolness back in catholicism i mean why is it i ask myself this question okay why is it not cool scary um anxiety provoking to come out and and talk about the catholic faith and and and to profess that you belong to the one true catholic and apostolic church why is it scary uh here's a guy who is who stands to lose everything by doing so and we know that and he puts himself out there and prays for people who that he doesn't even know that's right like samantha got to call him calling folks to just create a rosary i mean i mean you know we look up to saints as as role models uh they're like our idols and to meet someone like jonathan who professes humility um it's it just creates a great feeling you know we could we we have someone to to follow yes and i hope that just like what jews and i feel you know even though we are here and you are there we're all together it just happened that god placed us here and more more and more realized why god placed us here it's because we become conduits to inviting people from where we live in america and then have them come to us come to you maybe not physically yet but at least spiritually because in real in in essence it is where jesus abides in in within our hearts and i thought that that is the the mission that we have for each other in in this time of covid when we are not sure we have these people who are sure of their faith you know when you're not certain there are these people who are certain who are was without a doubt will say and declare you know that i'm a christian i believe in god i'm i'm a catholic and i pray the rosary and i don't i'm not i don't apologize for it and if you don't understand it i will explain to you so this is all encompassing the mission and vision of empower philippines of what it is to be a christian of what it is to be catholic so i hope uh before we say goodbye for uh i would like to ask you also as we pray for samantha please as we join jonathan in his instagram rosary at 9 00 pm in one and a half hour one and a half hours in the philippines at noon time i also would like for you also please to uh join me uh in kapampangan and uh since january to ju to september we have lost eight priests i i hope i got the number right we have lost eight priests through death and and i know that in the archdiocese of san fernando where i come from in the philippines in pampanga we are mourning we are grieving because and um priests and you know for a priest to to to educate a priest until he is finished and be ordained in the holy orders takes about average of seven years maybe or eight years i'm sorry about the number but i i'm just uh speculating that's the the number of years it takes for someone to be a priest so just recently we lost someone who's only two year old two years old as a priest and then recently an older one but anyway please help us in praying for the souls of the priests also for those across the world of course who have lost their lives either through covet either through any tragedy we are with it we are in this together if our destination is heaven we cannot be saints just by ourselves we need each other and that's why we keep doing this coffee conversations for however long god wants us to do it so again i hope i got uh for me i got inspired by jonathan rooney's profession of faith the declaration of his faith and um unapologetically catholic and i get inspired by the feast of whose feasts we celebrate today saint mother teresa of kolkata who love the poor and i thought i will share that also with you where you live be there be like saints uh mother teresa uh find your kolkata akubo we find our pampanga we find our uh mesa we find philippines wherever we go so i hope that that is also what you uh get inspired from uh um basing on what's happening today look at our calendar now we have dr edward stewie next um next week um go visit our web our webpage you could also look us up on on facebook empower philippines follow us and please please pray for us we need your prayers as well god bless you everyone um good good evening and um god bless y'all

Channel: Empower Philippines

Views: 33,790

Keywords: jonathan roomie, the chosen, empower philippines, philippines, jonathan roumie, jonathan roumee, catholicsm, catholic church, christianity, christian

Id: YvaXtHggom8

Length: 92min 33sec (5553 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020