Mary, My Mother, My All

never before have we been faced with so many choices about how we should think act and live how should we spend our time our resources and our money blessed are the pure in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven how do we view ourselves and those around us blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted how can we find true success and lasting happiness blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land how can we know what is right and true blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God how can we make sense of suffering and loss blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and those of us who want to continue with Jesus need to choose him and choose each other in a deeper way welcome to the choices we face welcome to another week of the choices we face my name is Ralph Martin and Peter Herbeck is our co-host we have a special guest today father Donald Calloway who's a Marion priest he's currently the vocations director for his order stationed at Franciscan University and stupid will work welcome father Donald thank you very much for sure appreciate it pleasure to be here well tell us a little bit about your order and what you're doing and well we're actually a pretty old order we were founded in the 17th century in Poland and pretty much to promote Our Lady's Immaculate Conception the official date of our founding is 1673 and of course the dogma of the Immaculate Conception didn't happen till 1854 and so our founder was kind of ahead of his time and were the the first community to have the title of the Immaculate Conception in its title that privilege so really we have a great charism in the church and now we've been given a great gift in our worldwide community of promoting divine mercy because of our polish connections the whole st. Faustina the message of divine mercy and the devotion almost was kind of put in our lap by Sister Faustina st. Faustina spiritual director to one of our priests and he kind of made a promise to God if you help me to flee from Poland at that time from World War two I would dedicate the rest of my life to promote this message and the Lord got him out and so to this day we're kind of known for that we run the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge it's a famous place that many people go to and one gets large crowds come on Divine Mercy Sunday that's right I mean almost 20,000 last year the largest ever yeah tell us just briefly about st. Faustina and the Divine Mercy devotion what you think the significance of that is for the church today it's a major significance our Holy Father of course has said on many occasions that this is a message for our times I'm actually writing my life Sencha thesis on say Faustina right now and as I go over all the material in her diary and all of many things that have been written about her this is a time when we need God's mercy it's an age where the so many souls are so wounded in so many ways with lack of trust with a doubt with all kinds of confusion and division and this is an age when we really need to recognize that our Lord loves us so much he's he's so concerned about us he cares for us and he knows there were weak and wounded and broken as individuals as a world and so he's come with that message for the last century and into this century the third millennium with the message of trust in me you know I'm worthy of trust I'm your Savior I want to forgive you I want to bless you and heal you and I think that our Holy Father is so aware of that he's done so much to promote divine mercy of course beatify canonizing her and then at her canonization actually declaring the second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday it's something dear to his heart and I think it's something dear to the present age of the church and where we're at I've heard from a priest you probably know father Jorge Kazuki that a Saint Faustina saw her mission as helping to prepare the church in the world for the return of the Lord that's right yes she says that in her in her diary I mean actually our Lord says that to her and that's a it's a bold statement but you know yet when you look at the way that the world is going with all the things that are happening against life you know from from the beginning to the end so many attacks against you know Catholicism and all these kind of things you have to wonder where are we going and where are we headed and can we go any further with our kind of depravity and where we're headed and I think that that's what the divine mercy message says is there's reason for great hope and Trust but we've gotten to a level now I think of our lives and world situation where something has to happen to change us something of a biblical proportion in my opinion we have to be jolted and I think that as our sails come it would be certainly a jolt that would that would help do it yeah is there in her writing and looking toward the return of the Lord does she talk about some major events prior to coming or she mainly say our purposes get the message of mercy out before he comes right yeah I don't - to my knowledge I don't think she pinpoints it to a precise event or anything like that pretty much you know our Lord told her she was the secretary an apostle of His mercy and he said before I come as the just judge I will come as the merciful Savior and this is a time of grace to kind of prepare humanity for what is to come how its to come what form the things will be in the future I don't believe to my knowledge in the diary that that is kind of given specifically she's almost kind of one who is preparing the way for something that is to happen so they tell us a little bit about how you've experienced mercy in your own life also the your own story I tell you I really feel like I'm the recipient of divine mercy because of what I've gone through I'm a convert to Catholicism and went through a lot in my youth wasn't baptized as a Christian when I was born and really went through a really tumultuous youth in and out of different families I've actually had you know three fathers and just a real real tough time and after going through many things that I look back on I think to myself I'm so grateful to be alive yeah I really rebelled as a teenager and went through tough things kind of looks like what area well actually believe it or not I was born in Michigan Dearborn Michigan but we moved shortly after West Virginia is kind of my claim I claim West Virginia I love it's a simple place but shortly after that in an another marriage that my mother was in she married a military officer and so we started to move all around the globe we moved every two to three years to everywhere you can imagine and that was a blessing but it was also it has its challenges for a young boy and I didn't have any religion my family didn't have any religion and so I kind of wanted all the things of the world and it was the early 80s when I was kind of growing up so there was there was a shift from I guess I would call it like the the hippie disco kind of culture of the 60s and 70s into the MTV generation MTV had just come out and so I kind of bit onto that and all of the role models that I was seeing of manhood were well not good ones from you know the TV and all those things and so um you know I'd had three fathers I didn't have the best models and so I kind of latched on to that and as we moved around to different locations living in Southern California to places Japan Virginia Beach I really let a taste and a strong desire for the things of the flesh the pleasures of the world to become my all to become my everything and so as a young man a very young like age 12 I started drinking started doing drugs started doing things of the flesh very sinful and that set me on a path of destruction and a very bad actually so that it came to the point where I would run away from home in Japan when we lived in Japan and actually would be gone for about two months was committing felonies in the country of Japan started growing my hair long and you know all the e-ring the whole thing got a - don't remember getting the tattoo but I have it and my life just went down this path of just seeking pleasure in every way and eventually it got to the point where I was kicked out of the country of Japan there's a little dangerous to do fell and he said yeah yeah you don't want to do that I don't advise that I didn't know the language either so there was actually a point where I got involved a little bit with the Yakuza which is the Japanese mafia because when you run away in Japan and you don't know the language you have to have some way of making money and of course I turn to crime as the only thing I knew and that was actually just the beginning my life would get a lot worse when I was kicked out of Japan came back to the United States and got exposed to things I wasn't exposed to in Japan more drugs especially hallucinogenics started doing a lot of LSD mushrooms things like that started following a band called the Grateful Dead the ultimate hippie band at that point my hair was about down to here and that's a pretty destructive lifestyle and there were times I'd be living in the woods on just nothing but macaroni and cheese and all my drugs terrible life and eventually hit rock bottom had many of those experiences went to a rehabilitation center didn't work dropped out of high school I never graduated from high school and continued this destructive lifestyle ended up kind of just wandering around the East Coast as soon as I turned 18 I was thrown in jail in Louisiana then I was fearful that I was being hunted by the law so I ended up living again in the woods kind of just out on my own fearing everything and everyone eventually I went to another rehab in Philadelphia that didn't work either got involved with more girls more drugs there was a time when if I could smoke it snort it or drink it I would and I would do it every day and my life was so bad my posture was so shot I didn't have an identity people would call me Don and I would turn and respond but I was lost completely lost in my life and what's amazing to me is during that whole time if you can imagine my family my mother who's almost full-blooded Italian it's amazing she wasn't Catholic we call her the the Catholic hillbilly she's a great woman great woman she met a Filipino lady during this whole process and this Filipino lady told her I have the answer to all your problems God's army so she said to her I have the answer to your problems you need to talk to a Catholic priest and my mother said okay well I've tried everything else so this actually happened when they were in Japan still so she talked to a Catholic priest and she loved what he had to say you know she was he was telling her about Saint Monica or lady of sorrows and the confessional Imam was worried about you oh absolutely she was you know she didn't know if I was gonna be fine dead on some of the I was committing felonies you know and so that process continued and I was out doing my own thing I didn't know about that I wouldn't have cared had I known I didn't know anything about religion and so I would say about a year after that meeting that priest she converted to Catholicism and so did my father my stepfather and my brother they had a son a Matthew and that didn't mean anything to me I thought oh they've joined some cult or something I didn't know what I didn't know anything about religion and little what I know that shortly after they would convert it would be about two three years after they did that because of her prayers and because of her sacrifices and because of a book that she left on in her bookshelf on Marian apparitions that I read and really it rocked my world my foundations were just belong to heaven is really entering into earth and I never heard anything like that a message is being sent to help us never heard something like that in my life a message of repentance I love coming through Our Lady especially you said it and it was um you know I always tell people I had his great evangelist this is she oh she's the mother of evangelization she cuts to the chase she goes she's so clear you know it's it's black and white when she speaks there's no gray you know I'm mother and this is what you have to do and I I had never heard it in such clarity and when she was saying it I just felt my heart so attuned to the message that I said what this woman is saying is true and I'll believe it that Jesus is the savior of the world that the Catholic Church is got the answers and I can go to confession and don't have to pay for therapy so to speak forgive it yeah I was amazing there's so many stories I could tell you about - you know my first experience at mass which just oh boy well tell us well my first experience of mass I didn't know what mass was I didn't know Catholic lingo and so this priest the first priest I met I kind of started him a little bit when I met him because my hair was down to here and looked completely out of place to be talking to him about you know the things I was talking about so he said to me how about we talk after I celebrate Mass I don't know what celebrate Mass is I'm thinking okay you're gonna dance around in the air I don't know understand his lingo you know whatever well I went to this Mass and I'm sitting in the back of course of the church scared to death and there's Filipino ladies up front and they're doing something I didn't know what it was and I I ain't really saying the rosary they were and they were saying with a very strong Tagalog accent so all I could hear was he Oh made he better get he been able to get a man he Oh maybe but anybody get out man you know I'm thinking what are they saying well if that stopped and then the priest came out and I knew it was the priest because his face was the same but he was dressed I thought like a hippie you know I didn't know that what was going on here and so he comes out and he starts doing all these gestures that I don't know what these gestures are you know he's making the sign of the Cross and and these Filipino ladies are standing and sitting at the same time and they're all saying the same responses at the same time and all of a sudden he's up there at what I thought was just a table I didn't know what was going on he bent over and he had a little white circle and he said very clearly take this all of you and eat it this is my body and he elevated this you know what little white circle well it was only the night before that I had read this book about our Lady of Midori and what was going on there and I didn't know the language but I remember from the book this is the Blessed Sacrament this is Holy Communion this is God and I tell you something I call it just like a rush of the Holy Spirit Catholicism just came into me yeah I knew what was going on and I worshipped I mean I saw those Filipino ladies folding they were just looking wonderfully at what was going on and I'd kind of join them with all that I could and then the priest took the chalice and he did the same thing and I thought that was it I thought I found it I mean this is the answer to everything but what blew me away is when those Filipino ladies stood up and started walking I thought where are they going and then the priest came down and he met him halfway and he held up a little white host and he said the body of Christ let me tell you I I freaked I could not believe what was going on you mean to tell me that you can receive him the god man in this way I drank a lot of things I'd put a lot of things on my tongue looking for happiness that was it that was the meaning for me of everything of time of the universe it was all encapsulated right there in what was going on and I knew at that moment Catholicism is for me I have to become Catholic there's just no question and that accept me on the path to do that and I became Catholic within about eight months Mercy Mercy Mercy Brothers and that grace that's why the grace of God it's really inspiring oh it's like a spoiled kid I tell you that father loves me so much yeah easily well the pride he brought the prodigal home that's very beautiful let's take a we're gonna take a quick break right now we'll come back are you searching for ways to grow in prayer and holiness in reading and sharing the good news and in living as a disciple of Christ do you want to be challenged encouraged and strengthened in living out your faith daily to join us this summer at the renewal ministries Institute the schools of the renewal ministries Institute are an answer to the Holy Fathers call for all Christians to participate in a new evangelization noted biblical scholars and lay missionaries join the renewal ministry staff to provide dynamic Orthodox teachings that will re-energize your faith daily participation in the sacraments worship prayer ministry adoration and fellowship with Catholics from around the world will revive and deepen your commitment to the church's mission call seven three four six six two one seven three zero today or visit us on the web at renewal ministries dotnet to find out more about the renewal ministries institute hi welcome back we're talking to father Donald Callaway who's been telling us a wonderful story about how God had mercy on him and just reached into his life and really rescued him from a life of confusion and pain if you've missed any of that story it's available on our website this whole program will be available on our website so you can see at any time day or night Donald you you you stumbled into mass and you discovered that that was the Lord and that it was possible to have contact with them and that it was in the Catholic Church and tell us what happened after that well after that I went back to that priest after Mass and he had talked to me before that mass and he saw that I didn't know anything well after Mass I seemed to know just about everything about Catholicism I just had infused kind of knowledge and he yeah he set me on a path of doing some more research and everything and I did and I was fully convinced I have to become Catholic there's no question here and as I looked into it more I started to go into the RCIA program but you know I have to tell you I had to drop out of that because it was um it was like crayon Catholicism it wasn't meat yeah a substance you know what I I I were looking for the real stuff yeah yeah right for ya he's made duking it out early councils for I want substance here give me the good stuff and I was getting you know just boy yeah it was a joke Catholicism light yeah and that was disappointing and so I started doing where you at this time what's that what state Virginia we were down in Norfolk Virginia and great people and who was it who catechized me the Filipino ladies well a it would come up to me and they would give me a book about st. Maximilian Kolbe or st. Padre Pio or about st. Louie De Montfort so I just said this is what I have to read you know and and all of that and there was a lot of things that I would find that I asked our lady I said mother cover me with your mantle because I don't want to be deceived I don't want to I want the real Jesus not the one that people are gonna make up to affirm their own sinful lifestyle and called him Jesus you know I want the one mother you know him best point me to him yeah it was it was it was of the Holy Spirit because I would go into bookstores in the mall and I'd see a book and it would say The Lost Gospels and I'm like oh interesting so I start reading it but then I'd be like hmm sound like the savior of the world you know exactly or there was a big angel craze in those days and I would find these books on Angel and they'd be talking about reincarnation and I'd be like no that's not right you know yeah and so the mother really cloaked me from in all of those deceptions and and really guided me so I ended up becoming Catholic within eight months what year was this father that was 1992 okay yeah it was a great year yeah and I became Catholic actually on the feast of st. John Chrysostom September 13th which is - he's now like my my patron saint because I love to preach and he's the golden mouth so I'm like pray for me brother because I want to I'm gonna be fire you know so I become Catholic and those Filipino ladies kept saying to me you would make a good priest he just sweeping me in you know going and so I couldn't believe that I thought you're kidding me I'll never make it well I you know I looked into it and as I prayed about it more of my heart just came aflame with that desire to be a priest and to be a religious and to make vows and so by divine providence the way that I went about my discernment it was very interesting you know I didn't know a lot about all the communities and everything so I enter way all that for all this material got tons of it back and I said to our lady I said mother I love you so much I have to be a Marian priest I have to be yours in every way I'll join the community that has your name in it well there's a lot of those yeah you know so I get all this information I'm like now what do I do and so I said I'll join the community that has your name in it twice and so I looked and here's the congregation of Marian's of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary three times yes I was like Ching you know that's the one I didn't know anything about him so I went and visited and I fell in love with him his thought bridge were there yeah hello Stockbridge in Washington DC and the men were just wonderful men of Prayer Orthodox loved the church the Divine Mercy was part of his perfect fit yeah because I need to you know faceplant myself in front of that image every day Jesus I trust in you you know as I continue to go through the conversion process I need you Lord I need you powerfully in my life and it was a perfect fit good and so I went through all my training and it took me ten years because I I didn't have any high school diploma nothing so they really started you back at the figure they did yeah learn everything so the Filipino ladies there on your ordination day one of them was but she was actually a friend that I met later a lot of the ladies they were military families so they moved all around the world yeah there's one lady I still keep in touch with Vai down in Virginia it's just amazing she really did she had so much to do with my vocation is amazing you know at some point they sent you to Franciscan University students both as a student yeah we moved to Steubenville in 97 as a community and I was part of the first group that went and so I ended up graduating from there got a double major in philosophy and theology and that was a wonderful wonderful experience I just sat in front of Scott Hahn and I took him for every class he taught you know and I just soaked it all in and Mark Mayer Valley and all that and that's where really where I got my love for studies and so after Franciscan we sent our guys to the Dominican House of studies in Washington DC great seminary went there got two degrees from there and graduated was ordained to the priesthood last year on May 31st 2003 choice pick my I picked it because our star ladies feast the visitation and now I'm studying for my life sentient and Mary ology and for better for worse my superiors that made me the how superior of our Marian houses studies in Steubenville good so it's my vocation to do a lot of speaking and writing and that's right so you're just kind of getting the word out hey man it my ordination reception I started preaching I love to preach you can't stop me you have to take the microphone away from me and this visiting priest he looked at my superior and he said what kind of animal have you unleashed on the world that's great but maybe a little bit like like the Montford talking about the Apostles of the last days you know fill with the spirit going from place to place wrong that's right fleeing with the love of God yeah yeah they invade come too fast yes indeed yeah yeah he had the vision of the the final years being Marian in the Holy Spirit prophetic dynamic actually that's what's happening is yeah the Incarnation right here the Holy Spirit's Ryan we're seeing God raising up very true a new springtime for the church oh you said it yeah I always like to tell people the nmi talks that there are so many men just like myself who are in the seminaries now may not have had a such an extreme situation as I did but you know they either left the faith or became lukewarm but something happened and they went to a World Youth Day reluctantly and they encountered our Holy Father and a mere his presence just jolted them or they read a book about our lady or about Padre Pio and these are good men and there's there a lot of wounded healers in the seminary right now who have been there and they've had a lot of all those experiences of the world and now they're gonna be you know filling the the parishes and the places of learning and so forth it's wonderful what's coming that's great yeah it is father Donnell thank you so much for being with us today thank you and Peter thank you thank you Lord for raising up vocations like father Donald and for pour out your Holy Spirit like you have been and thank you for sending Mary is such an evangelist and such a help to so many we like to do we can to help you to respond to what the Lord is doing to respond to this Marian age this age of the Holy Spirit that's calling us to a fervent love of Jesus I've written a booklet called what happens when I die we'd like to make it available to you at no cost just for the asking call the 800 number or write to the address or access our website and we'll get it right out to you until next week this is Ralph Martin and Peter Herbeck and father Donald Callaway wishing you the very best a life spent and complete surrender to Jesus fill with the Holy Spirit loving Mary preaching the gospel life is short and the years fly by with increasing speed life is fragile and the fate of all human flesh is death at some point we all ask what happens when I die is there life after death what will it be like how does what I do in this life affect what happens when I die my booklet provides some answers to these important questions by reflecting on what Scripture and the church say about what happens when I die to receive this free booklet call renewal ministries at 1-800 to eight to four seven eight nine or visit us on the web at renewal ministries [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 7,979

Rating: 4.9203186 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: QwJMtaG60lw

Length: 28min 33sec (1713 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019