Women of Grace with Johnnette Williams - Feb 8, 2022

us this now here's your host johnette williams good morning everyone and welcome to women of grace live i am john at williams and i'm delighted to be with you today i'm delighted to be with you every day monday through friday right here at this same time on this same station as we use these airwaves to discuss issues that are important to you and to your life of faith we always do invite you to give us a call here we've got matt gabinski on the phones today and i know that he's eager to hear from you but i got to tell you what i am triply eager to hear from you today i want to give you a toll-free number to use if you're here in north america it is eight three three two eight eight e w t n that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six we're eager to receive your questions or your comments your insights your inspirations your words of encouragement all of that available right here on women of grace live and the interaction that we have with you is very meaningful both to myself and to all of those who listen today so you will be a blessing if you call in with your question and who doesn't want to bless others right we certainly do eight 833-288-3986 that's eight three three two eight eight e w t n if you're outside of north america you can use this number it is country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five that's country code one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five in addition to all of that we're available for you out there uh in social media land at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page we invite you to use the chat feature there to put your question or comment in do submit it to us and when you do then michael mccall today will retrieve it and he will get it up on the board for us and we'll be able to answer it we have rich jesse sitting in for jeff berson right here and women of grace live he's producing the show i think he's got his hand in that social media as well along with michael mccall we're very happy to have them with us today on our broadcast and we're happy to have you with us again 833 288 ewtn if you're a first time caller or a first-time submitter please let us know we'll ring our welcome bell for you for your debut your premiere right here on women of grace life it's always a joy i want to share with you a couple of things coming up we're always so eager to let you know what's happening in the world of women of grace and uh you know we're very active apostolate for women men also participate frequently at our women of grace events and all and we're happy to have you guys with us too as i always like to say real men listen to and watch women of grace right you certainly do and sometimes participate in our events we've got some really good things coming up and this is one where we want your men to participate there is going to be a wonderful valentine's online retreat hosted by presented by yours truly and my husband jack williams this saturday february the 12th from 9 00 am until 4 pm eastern time we want you to join us we are very excited about this i am excited about this been praying for you i know that the lord has wonderful blessings in mind for you to receive all you need to do to find out about this valentine's online marriage retreat is to go to our website womenofgrace.com you're going to see it advertised there it's in the slideshow and it's also down there listed under events if you click on it either place it's going to take you to a landing page you can see the schedule there you can see the talk titles there but most importantly you can register there oops daisy you certainly can you can register there and we want you to register there because we want you to come we want you to nourish your marriage your marriage needs to be nourished you know as jack mentioned on radio yesterday uh when he was my guest for monthly marriage monday he said you know mostly every other location and you use the example of the priesthood requires years of preparation but for the vocation of marriage there's little preparation that's done you know and i think in times past that was probably all right because the divorce rate was very low divorce was a scandal in and of itself we had strong intact families hopefully in most cases witnessing to married life the ups of married life the downs of married life the requirements of virtue that are necessary to hang in there during the tough times were demonstrated and so in a very real way it was something that individuals lived with on a daily basis and so there was that example that was being given but today when we live in a day and a time where you know the number of intact marriages versus those that are our marriages that uh you know have uh are there uh come to dissolution through legal means such as divorce you know we're almost topsy-turvy in in the percentages for that so we see that we have far less good modeling of marriage in family life today what we do see is a a propensity in our day and time one to redefine marriage and two uh to make it disposable and and so that is what children are experiencing today so the need to really you know have a firm understanding of the great gift that the sacrament of matrimony is and what it means to live that vocation is very very real and yet we have very little marriage preparation and and this is really a bur under my saddle so to speak you know it's something that really irritates me uh and i don't understand why we're not addressing it i don't understand why we're not training children up uh with the knowledge of what the sacrament of matrimony is meant to be and i want to tell you something it's very interesting because whether you go into religious life or whether you become a priest if you're a man or whether you are married you know the fact of the matter is the the the reality of what relationship is the reality of that nuptial bond is very real and present in all vocations very real and present for the individual who chooses religious life very real and present for the man who chooses to become priest there is a nuptial element to all of the vocation so why is it that we are not training children up uh through their their religious education and their years of formation to understand what that nuptial reality is if we did maybe we would strengthen marriages today maybe we would make uh you know a big dent in the number of divorces today maybe we would find that we have priests that live the reality of their priesthood with real zeal and fervor a real love for their bride the church right maybe we would see a real zeal taking place within our religious communities understanding the nuptial bond that they have to our lord jesus christ and how that is to be a sign and witness and uh in the world today maybe we would have just a better understanding of what vocation truly is if we were training children up from early on in what a marriage is supposed to be i think we would see a tremendous revolution for the good happening in our day and time but alas all too frequently people enter into marriage with an eye towards if this doesn't work out we'll just get a divorce we even had a question yesterday about prenuptial agreements well i think if you go into a marriage with a prenuptial agreement aren't you just basically you know keeping a little toe in the door so that it might be wedged open and you can walk out of it and what do we do after we're married how much time do we really spend nurturing nourishing our marital bond i don't i don't know but it's for that reason and so many other reasons that we're offering this valentine's online marriage retreat to give real tools that are necessary for the flourishing of our marriages and for us to receive all the matrimonial graces that god desires we receive so i'm inviting you to go to our website womanofgrace.com click on the advertisements for this event go to the landing page look it over but most importantly register and join jack and me this weekend we're looking forward to it coming right back stay tuned [Music] in any language it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn have you ever heard someone say all religions are basically the same thing they only differ in their external forms in the way they express it g.k chesterton says the truth is precisely the other way around the religions of the world do not greatly differ in rights and forms they do differ greatly in what they teach there's only one religion that believes that jesus christ is the son of god that he suffered and died for our sins that he rose from the dead only one religion that believes in one holy catholic and apostolic church the communion of saints the resurrection of the body and life everlasting spend more time with the apostle of common sense visit chesterton.org for more information and go to ewtnrc.com to discover more books and programs written and inspired by gk chesterton i'm roy brown executive director for billings catholic radio catholic radio is arguably the greatest tool for evangelization radio has the power to speak directly to individuals and creates a sense of one-on-one fellowship there is no better way to evangelize than through a relationship where we can share and bring the love and joy of christ to another's daily life the world needs ewtn catholic radio now more than ever the national catholic register is america's most complete catholic news source with a comprehensive view of the world from a distinctly catholic perspective if it's shaping the world as we know it you'll find it at ncregister.com transforming the world one woman at a time let's return to women of grace with johnette williams well welcome back everybody we're so happy you are with us today and i'm looking forward to hearing from you right here on women of grace live we love to have that holy conversation with you the number to use toll-free if you're in north america is 833 288 ewtn again that's 833-288-3986 we're available for you too at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page the chat features there that chat feature's there for a reason because we want you to chat with us and you can leave your question or your comment right there and we will chat with you we'll read your question on the air here and i'll respond to it as best i possibly can if you're a first time caller or submitter do let us know we're going to ring our bell and we want you to greet matt gabinski when you call in he is our call screener and i want you to know that michael mccall is out there retrieving your questions online so please leave a question we love to keep these men busy i'm telling you i sure do we've got kyle with us and he is a first time caller he's calling us from boston massachusetts today i'm ringing my bell to welcome you kyle hi good morning good morning how are you i'm doing well how are you fine thank you so what is your question kyle i was curious on some advice more so than a real question but i have a i have a daughter that i'm looking to take out of public school after kindergarten and now going to a private um catholic christian school i i i would like to hear the the benefits um from you or your callers to maybe um give me some some help if i if i can't afford it what else could i do to really keep her on the same uh level playing field as a private catholic school the same type of morals and principles well kyle thank you for such a very good question and thank you you so much for being such a concerned parent i really admire that all too often we just take our children's education for granted but in our day and time we can no longer do that and i know that you're very aware of what's been happening in the news especially in virginia but we know that virginia is not the only state where we see school boards that are uh you know more like what do i want to say more more like dictators with regard to what goes on in the school as well as serving the needs of of their community um instead of serving the needs of their community or you know passing those kinds of regulations and those kinds of of decisions that would be in agreement with the parents so i'm very concerned about public schools today i think public schools really are more like indoctrination camps i think that they're places where children are being trained up in an ideology that is very uh contrary to the revealed truth of sacred scripture and the teachings of the church in many cases it's a very pagan secularist philosophy and by that i mean you know when i say paganism they might not be teaching them to to bow down before you know it you know a golden calf but the fact of the matter is in a certain sense they are because they're teaching them to bow down to the golden calf of the state which is what happens in totalitarian countries so i'm very concerned about our public schools i'm very concerned about the curricula the curricula has been invaded by uh very aggressive militant groups of individuals there are agendas that are written into the curricula we've heard a lot about critical race theory they might not call it that but it just comes in in a different way but the concepts that are being presented are the same and we know that the national education association as well as the other uh teachers union uh basically uh are are forwarding this and have become not just a strong lobby but have become a very strong control agent within our public schools so for all of those reasons i recommend that people get their kids out of public school if they can so i admire your concern for your little one and um you know i would want to say this however that not all catholic schools are created equal either lots of catholic schools have become simply a reiteration if you will of what's going on in the public schools uh they mirror that and they invite into the the curricula that is being presented some of these concepts that seem to be uh flourishing within the public school systems so i think it's very important for us to see what the the the textbooks look like to look at what the workbooks look like to have a real understanding of who the teachers are i would want to check out my catholic school and see are there any religious there and if so from what communities and then i would research those community communities to see off if they are if they hold true to to catholic doctrine because many of them do not i would also if you have teachers there that are lay teachers i would want to find out a little bit about those lay teachers these are the people that we're entrusting our children to for the majority of their waking hours every day and so it's very very important that we check it out and we understand so i admire your desire to do that if in fact you are not able to find a really good catholic school and if you've determined that public school is not the way for your daughter to go and i certainly hope that you consider that it isn't uh then i would encourage you to to see if there isn't something that you could do with regard to um you know a a homeschooling sometimes these home schoolings operate in in kind of like a charter school environment i would check that out there you have more control over what your child is ingesting through education than in any other way and if there's a member of your family that is able to take on that responsibility i think that that is the best course of action for parents today a good classical education is going to serve any child throughout their life and it's going to teach them how to think and to think rightly so that's what i would say that's my advice it's my counsel and and i would really encourage you just make sure as a parent you do your due diligence it's very very important for you to do that and as i say i really admire you for having this kind of of concern and this kind of discerning interest in your child's education and those whom you entrust your child for that portion of your child's day to think that we can undo everything that's been done when the child comes home is very very difficult especially in their very early formative years and from what i see in my notes here your daughter's a little one and you mentioned uh kindergarten she's finishing up kindergarten and you're looking at first grade so she's very impressionable you want to make sure that the right impressions are being formed does that help you absolutely i really really do appreciate it i knew i i had a similar belief and that's why i i wanted to to ask that but um i really appreciate your advice and it will be taken oh kyle i'm so happy and that makes me so glad and it's one of the reasons why we love being able to use these airwaves uh we live in very contentious times and and we we can become very confused ourselves in the process of trying to figure out which way we're supposed to go and i just thank and praise the lord for the opportunity that we have through uh through catholic radio and through ewtn so and all of the great affiliates obviously that bring it out there i'm very very grateful for for you guys and women i'm very grateful that there are still chances to hear it on the ear and to catch it because you don't see it on tv a lot and it's definitely not being put out in hollywood in the movies so you got to look a little bit harder to find it but um when you find it and you and you really believe what you're hearing it feels like you've uh you found your home your family so um i i appreciate everything you have said and um i will continue to listen um but thank you thank you very much i really do appreciate it you're welcome kyle and thank you very much and you know friends this issue is is such an important issue and i know that there are so many wonderful teachers that are very disgruntled very very disgruntled discouraged very concerned and and i know that many teachers in public schools are very very anti what is being put forth by the nea and very anti the curricula that they're being asked to teach and i know many of them practice heroic courage every day and really don't teach it uh they put their jobs on the line as a result of it and in most cases these individuals are working because they need to work uh so we're in a tough time and a lot of people are in a tough place and i got to tell you we are living in a time that really requires heroic virtue i don't know how you feel about that but i want to tell you we need heroism today we need people men and women of courage today we need men and women who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the good the true and the beautiful and i don't mean that uh you know with small g uh so small t and small b i mean it with capitals the good who is god himself that truth who is our lord jesus christ that beautiful which is every human person whom he's created in his image and likeness and the beauty and the wonder of his created order so we need men and women that are really willing to stand firm and i want to encourage you in a certain way i want to encourage you to dig very deeply into the graces that you received at your confirmation if you have not received confirmation maybe you've received sacrament of reconciliation maybe you've received first holy communion that maybe you've never received confirmation i want to encourage you to receive that sacrament i really do i want to send you to your priest i want to send you to your parish i want you to talk with somebody there about how you can receive it you can receive that sacrament as an adult right wish that we received it at the moment of our baptism as infants but we do not uh for the majority of parishes we do not the fact of the matter is the younger will receive that sacrament the better off we are why is that what is the sacrament of confirmation it is not you know like a catholic bar mitzvah it is not that it is not us making an adult decision to follow our lord jesus christ it is not any of that what does it do it is a strengthening sacrament it's a sacrament that strengthens those gifts and graces that we received in our baptism we get it in baptism but they're strengthened in us through the sacrament of confirmation why because we are going out into a world that rejects god you know every day and time has had that element of rejection it's greater at some periods of time than other periods of time we are living through a time when the rejection of god is all around us even in our pews people that come to mass receive our lord body blood soul and divinity but do not live that truth that reality outside of the confines of the mass and maybe not even in the confines of the mass so we have a lot of people you know who who are who who who are negating the power of religion like saint paul talks about and i think he's into timothy you know um who who uh make a pretense of religion but negate its power there is power in these sacraments and when we realize that and we dig into those sacraments we find that we have the graces that we need the strength that we need to be that sign of contradiction in the world today is it easy no was it easy for any of the great saints to lay their life down for their faith no was it easy for them to face the daily contradictions and trials and the suffering that were theirs no but they rose to the occasion and i know that today we need men and women who will rise to the occasion who are willing to be counter-cultural who are willing to take their religion seriously who are willing to die for holy mother church holy mother church is so beleaguered right now i continue to think about that vision of don bosco you know and here's the bark of peter and it's under attack and it's you know it's about to capsize but two pillars rise high and that bark of peter is tethered to each one of those and that that those two pillars keep that bark of peter from capsizing and what are they the eucharist and our blessed lady what are they the eucharist our blessed lady i'm going to ask you again and i want you to say it the eucharist and our blessed lady we must tether ourselves to the body blood soul and divinity of our lord jesus christ and to tie ourselves to our blessed lady and whose immaculate heart we find safe refuge and we must ask our lady to unpack for us those mysteries of her son's life that we might drink deeply from that well of salvation and begin to live that salvation out in each and every encounter that we have each and every trial that we face each and every contradiction that is ours each and every suffering that we endure and actually we shouldn't endure we should embrace it and how do we do that where's the strength come from from the sacraments from the nourishment of the eucharist from the confession of our sin but also from those other that those two basic you know sacraments of initiation of which receiving the eucharist is one but through baptism and our confirmation i want to read you a little something i am i am really psyched on this topic and i want to hear from you 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 i want to know are you willing are you willing to lay your life down for the church are you willing to ask god to give you that kind of courage that kind of fortitude that kind of strength are you willing to be a hero for our world today are you willing and if not what's holding you back i'd like to know about it you know i mean i can talk a game here behind this microphone but i ask myself all the time father god give me the grace of final perseverance give me the grace of final perseverance give me the graces that i need to be that that individual that you've created me to be at this moment in the history of man please help me because in and of myself you know i'm lost i don't have that strength that's divine strength that's holy spirit strength but it does come to us by way of the sacraments and i'm looking in divine intimacy and today's reading and in this you know i do want to tell you divine intimacy is is one of these books that you want to grow in your spiritual life then you need a copy of this book it's available for you at ewtn's religious catalog ewtnrc.com this is a book that that is filled with such treasure uh that you'll be able to mine this for the rest of your life and really you know not be able to drink the living water that comes from every one of these meditations to the full you won't be able to drink it to the full you'll be able to taste it but but but we're not going to drink these these fantastic realities uh until we're in heaven to the full but here here it goes it says this and this is today's reading it is meditation number 72 um in in the copy of divine intimacy that i have and it's on the sacrament of confirmation and father gabriel of saint mary magdalene writes this he says at baptism we become temples of the holy spirit i want to know that if you believe that do you believe that you are a temple of the holy spirit i hope so because that's the fact of the matter and that is who you are you are a temple of the holy spirit and then he says in confirmation this divine spirit comes to us in greater plenitude and get this folks and sets us apart as knights of christ k-n-i-g-h-t-s sets us apart as knights of christ capable of fighting to defend our faith and the church one of the sadnesses of my heart is how we have so watered down the sacrament of confirmation today and i know we're coming up on confirmation season basically within our catholic parishes you know i want to know i would love to know i'd love to take a survey and see how many of those programs tell those children that they are becoming a knight k-n-i-g-h-t for our lord jesus christ who is capable to fight and defend our faith in the church i'd love to know because that's what the sacrament of confirmation is ordered to it is not ordered to say oh yeah you know yeah i believe jesus is the lord of my life and so now i'm going to make the sacrament of confirmation to prove it that is not what it's about it is not like a catholic bar mitzvah coming of age and it certainly is a graduation from what we need to know about our faith it's not a graduation from the need to study our faith we should be studying our faith every day through sacred scripture and through good teaching i want to continue with this capable of fighting to defend our faith in the church we have very great need of this sacrament especially today when god's enemies and the snares and enticements of evil are increasing to such an extent that it often requires great courage and sometimes even heroism to stand firm in our catholic faith and morality confirmation imprints an indelible mark on our soul the glorious character of which is a soldier for jesus christ so i want to encourage you man up woman up let's be who god's created us to be at this moment in the history of man 833 288 ewtn give us a call here 833 288 3986 coming right back after the break stay with us ewtn live truth live catholic the reason we pray is first we oh god worship thanksgiving and adoration he created us and everything around us and prayer of praise and adoration is his due for giving us everything including the thought that we praise and in that thanksgiving we are made better for realizing what he does for us [Music] and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who suffer with cancer lord jesus christ healer of souls and bodies we praise you for this day of life we ask you to look upon all of those in our ewtn family who have been diagnosed with cancer we pray for those who are undergoing difficult cancer treatments and for those who have lost heart a divine physician bring them healing and body and mind and soul console them with your presence and give them even joy in their suffering amen want to be notified when women of grace goes live on facebook simply follow ewtn radio's facebook page and click on the bell icon to be notified cna is the only fast reliable and free catholic news source that brings blogs stories and opinions to your fingertips the latest catholic news is at catholicnewsagency.com encouraging women in their gift of authentic femininity here's more women of grace with john ed well welcome back everybody we're so happy that you're with us today and we'd love to hear from you our lines are open for you we've got matt gabinski ready to take your call today be sure to let him know if you're a first time caller so we can ring our bell for you the toll-free number for you to use if you are here in north america is 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 that is the way that you can join us right here on women of grace live where we love to have that holy conversation with you i also want to encourage you to go out to ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page we've got the chat feature there for you you can leave your question or comment there and we will retrieve it today michael mccall is retrieving it uh for jeff berson who is out today and rich jesse is producing the program today for jeff so we thank you all for being so attentive to these duties and responsibilities and for making our show what it is and i encourage you to make it even more by giving us a call here eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six so i was talking about the sacrament of confirmation why it's so important today i was reading to you from divine intimacy meditations on the interior life for every day of the liturgical year written by father gabriel of saint mary magdalene now this particular collection of meditations was actually printed back in the early 60s 63 and then it received the imprimatur in 64. uh but father gabriel of saint mary magdalene died in 1952 so you know he predated the publishing of these meditations and these meditations were largely made to religious women so it's interesting to me when he talks about what he was seeing happening at that time and the necessity of the sacrament of confirmation the fact of the matter is he didn't live to see he was living he died in in in the 50s the 50s were the you know heyday of the catholic church here in the united states of america now he's a belgian priest but all that being said the fact of the matter is what is given to us here i think is near prophetic that that somewhere the holy spirit was impressing upon him uh you know that this needs to be stated and it would have application to a time a day and time that would come after his own day and time and certainly it has i want to read you this last little bit and then i'd like to hear from you about what your thoughts are on the sacrament of confirmation what your thoughts are on the need for heroic virtue today what your thoughts might be on what holds you back uh you know or makes you afraid it's okay to be afraid i don't i don't think that fear we don't evaluate heroism and we don't evaluate courage by way of the percentage of fear that's in our hearts right because the fact of the matter is it's heroic to overcome that fear and move forward anyway it's heroic to to to walk in courage you know when you're trembling inside saint paul writes that i think it's to the corinthians um in fear and trembling i came among you in fear and trembling i came among you he was fearful so much so that he was trembling but it didn't stop him he went anyway that's heroism that's courage you know so if you're fearful that's okay just tell the lord i'm fearful i'm fearful about this i'm fearful about that i'm fearful about this that's why we do what i suggested a little while ago we pray for the grace of final perseverance but father gabriel says this uh and and i'll let it sit here with regard to confirmation because i do want to hear from you 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 he says therefore we may say that at least virtually confirmation is the sacrament that consecrates the heroes and the martyrs of duty for it gives man the strength to live in open profession of his faith even at the cost of great sacrifices not excluding the sacrifice of his life if this were necessary he says when cowardice or human respect tempts us to waver we should repeat saint francis of assisi's daring words night of christ are you afraid and recalling the happy day of our confirmation when we were solemnly consecrated a soldier of christ we shall find the strength to continue the battle and to win we want to be winners we want to be those more than conquerors in christ jesus this our day and time was entrusted to you it was entrusted to me and god's given us every spiritual blessing in the heavens that we need by way of the sacramental structure of our catholic church to be able to live out that reality and to make a difference not just a slight difference but a huge difference like the difference that the martyrs of the early church made when they were consumed by wild beasts the blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith i think it was saint irenaeus it said that i could be wrong you can correct me if i am and so we are going to shed our blood if not red blood we're gonna shed that blood that comes by way of rejection scorn misunderstanding being reviled being hated but that is not for naught that is the way in which redemptive grace flows into the world from the cross of christ us in union with it and through the wounds that we experience in the heart if not in the flesh 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 is the way that you can join us today right here on women of grace live where we do love having that holy conversation with you we're encouraging you to pick up the phone and give us a call we're also encouraging you to use the opportunity out there at ewtn radio's youtube channel and facebook page we encourage you to leave your question or comment there if you're a first time submitter either way let us know so that we can ring our bell for you i would like to that will welcome you to the show today you know it's an interesting thing i remember when i was confirmed i was confirmed in the fourth grade saint robert bellarmine catholic church in east mckeesport pennsylvania and at the time our bishop was john wright who would go on to be a cardinal of the church and i remember very clearly receiving that tap on my cheek that little you know it was a little strike it didn't hurt and that tap was to remind me that i was a soldier for christ jesus and i remember how carefully the religious sisters who taught me the attention sisters of charity shared with us that the that the bishop would strike us on the cheek and he would ask us some questions the the answers to which we would have to provide to him to show that we were ready for this sacrament and he did he he asked us a few questions individually as we came up and then to to show that that that we had basically passed the test or had the muster he gave us that little pat you are a soldier for christ jesus and he said those words i'm so sorry that that's been dropped from the sacrament of confirmation for our people today you know we unfortunately have lost the reality of that sacrament we need to bring it back it's all i got to say we need to bring it back 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 looking forward to hearing from you today uh phone line is lighting up and we're encouraging you to add to that i think one of these lines has your name on it quite frankly so please do pick it up keith did and he's in worcester massachusetts today good morning keith how are you and uh thank you for taking my call you're welcome my joy um i i listen to you periodically i'm usually on the road in sales and and i i'd come across uh your topic and i and i really did uh prick a component of my conscience to say something that i was talking with the screener that um you know you're you're right i mean the confirmation that is that is a holy devotion that is a again background on me i i was a protestant about five years ago and came into the catholic faith um and because i got married and i said you know what the catholic church uh i i really studied it out and it and it really reading the bible brought me to catholicism yeah really i mean that's that that the map is there even even in the king james version at the time i was like well there's something more to this than what i'm being you know what i'm reading here and as i got further into a tradition it brought me closer to the lord it brought me closer to uh our blessed mother um as i was talking to the phone screener that uh i am burdened in many ways by the the position of the catholic church at present um that uh you know just as you said with confirmation uh when people come into the faith or when they're cradle catholics i you know have uh have talked a little bit about how i see um controversy where you know you i have family members who say they're catholic but they support politics that support abortion that uh support uh the um you know the right uh not having right to life or uh same-sex unions so you have catholics in many ways and i don't i never really understood this and this was for me one of the challenges as a protestant as to why i never really came in sooner but when i became roman catholic you know now i'm i'm the weirdo you know i'm not saying all catholics but for me it's been really a challenge to see that and especially within my own family i've i have special devotion now to our blessed mother um i i wear the blessed metal these are things that were so foreign to me five years ago i would never have done this but the lord led me closer to that and as i've gotten closer to the lord as i've sought him and i've sought our blessed mother i see catholics who are in name only in many cases and it's sad and i just i i'm not trying to call people out i'm not trying to push that on the fact that i just pray if you are on the fence or you're really go back to the church go back to the to the principal documents of what is foundational in our faith and talk to the go to the lord go to the blessed mother pray read the scripture it'll show you exactly who he is and what he values and those should be things that you value to and uh it's sad to see so many who are i i would only say in name only and that's been one of the challenges that i have and i really pray for their souls and i just ask that the congregation those out there who do not only for new converts such as myself but also for those uh who are i don't know maybe struggling with some of the elements of the church um and uh it's really their own sin they need to go and really look inward and seek the lord um and i don't know i'm not trying to be judgmental but i'm just saying that that has been one of my challenges within the faith yeah well keith yeah i really want to thank you for your call today and and i want to welcome you to the family and i'm so delighted that it was through scripture that you were led into the faith and that you realized that there was more to this scripture that there's a story being told you know through the words but but there's a but there's a deeper uh meaning behind them and you see the consistency of the catholic faith uh once you your eyes are open you know so i'm so grateful for all of that and i'm so grateful for your witness today and i'm so grateful for uh your your request to our listening audience today to be the catholics that they're called to be it is it is you know we and there's so many so many things i would like to say in response to to what you've just shared but i would like to say this i i would like to say keith one of the reasons why our lord's called you to the catholic church at this moment in the history of man is because he sees your heart and he knows how sincere you are and he knows how it is that through his grace you can do great things great things in the world through your witness to who the one is that is the way the truth and the life and i know that by being a faithful catholic subscribing to the teachings of the church receiving the sacraments with with preparation and receiving those sacraments with receptivity of heart uh that the grace of god will fill you and take you out there i think that our lady is also pulling together an army today and i think that your love of her is is is a real sign of the fact that she's calling you you know to to be part of that army and what is this army this is this is the army um that that i believe uh god is is filling with with every spiritual blessing that happens to be that sign of contradiction to be a witness to the world today and basically through example and and that witness to lead people home but also through the words we speak and as far as being judgmental it's not judgmental uh to speak the truth you know we have a lot of catholics in the pew and i said it earlier in our broadcast today we have a lot of catholics in the pew that are there you know i'm a catholic and name only listen we we see that in our top politicians today you know secretary of state and and and uh president biden who who claim to be catholic claim to be devout catholics and and yet support abortion through all nine months uh support same-sex uh marriage uh have positions that are so outside of the catholic church it makes you scratch your head going to church every sunday and even praying your rosary doesn't make you a catholic it it it it it encourages enlivens feeds your catholic faith but what makes you a catholic is living the teachings that jesus christ gave to us through his church and through sacred scripture that's what makes you a catholic i think there's probably a whole lot of people out there that would never call themselves a catholic but are far more catholic than a lot of catholics and and you're pointing this out to us today and so we need to know that our sign and our witness is not an oh by the way thing but it's central it's central to the salvation of this our day and time and you are right our blessed lady will lead us and will guide us i want to encourage every priest that's listening today every deacon that's listening today when you preach preach truth don't settle for a moderate approach don't settle you know i was reading a book today where uh not today but this week in preparation for some television programs that we're going to be taping this week and and the man who wrote this book kevin wells uh said that priests have told him that in their seminary days they were taught to preach to the middle in other words not to those that are deeply impassioned about the faith nor to those who basically are just sitting there and disagree with everything the church teaches but to preach to the middle i started thinking about that and i thought okay so what's the middle you know the people that are passionate about their faith their fire the people that that have repudiated their faith even if they sit in the pew you know they're cold so if you're preaching to the middle you're preaching to the what lukewarm and what does god say he's going to do he's going to spew the lukewarm out of his mouth so if you preach into the middle you know you're you're you're you're you're basically encouraging lukewarmness and your homilies are lukewarm we need men who are willing to stand up there in persona christie and teach us the truth and talk about the heart issues and if people walk off the door let them walk out the door you will have nonetheless pricked their conscience and who knows that they won't re-enter those doors some other time but if you leave them wander off because you didn't preach the hard truth then those people if they go to perdition you'll have culpability in that i mean you know we we need to pray for our priests but if you're a priest of god and you're listening please preach the hard truth if you're a deacon and you have opportunity to preach preach the hard truth preach it we need heroism we need in persona christi not in persona moderation i would use the latin but i don't know what it is anyway keith i want to thank you for your call today thank you so so very very much and god bless you and call again you speak truth and i like that let's go to susan susan's a first time caller grandview washington ringing my bell for you today susan how are you i'm good how about you i'm doing dandy thank you good well i didn't have a question i just um i think it was like eight or nine years ago i have uh four grown married children and my youngest daughter married a man who was totally unchurched never baptized nothing and but he would go to church with us if we were there and and and we went to church he would go with us but just really had nothing to do with it well over 20 years they were married in a civil ceremony and they were married 20 years they have two children and on his birthday about eight years ago he got down on money and asked my daughter to marry him in the church and he um so within a year he went through the whole um rcia program right it was the classes and then he was on a weekend he was baptized they were married and actually they were married then they were he was baptized and then he was confirmed the next day i mean all in one weekend our family they live in alaska and a little town in alaska our whole family minus my husband who had passed away we went to alaska we participated in their wedding and it was just such a glorious thing and you could see the difference on his face as he went through it i mean it was just almost like a relief yes so it was just really a an exciting exciting time my my uh youngest grandson who was like seven or eight years old was an altar boy and and my granddaughter's fiance was an altar server as well and i mean it was just and the church was packed yes you live in a little tiny town and half the town showed up how beautiful susan more than half of a morning the catholic didn't even really know what was going on but it was just amazing so we have no idea of the people that were there how he may have influenced them that's right by his actions that's right well you know the beautiful thing susan and the beautiful reality is that our god cannot be outdone in generosity and you know when we witness the sacrament oftentimes we too are blessed by the sacrament and it uh encourages us in so very many ways and you know the blessing that you received the blessing that all of those that attended uh the wedding and then his baptism and his confirmation i'm sure he received first holy communion as well yeah what what a great great moment uh and and again you know this god who cannot be outdone in generosity just lavishes us in his graces so whenever we have the opportunity to witness a sacrament like this being uh being received uh especially those that we receive once right baptism confirmation holy orders the the sacrament of matrimony uh you know we we're putting ourselves into a a uh what's the word that i want to use sort of like a a capsule a grace-filled capsule and we receive as well if we go uh with an open heart uh and if we go with an intention to to be present to the graces that are being poured down from heaven into the life of the individual who's receiving thank you susan for sharing that beautiful story with us i so appreciate it thank you thank you for your your program it is just so fulfilling to me each day oh well thank you dear susan and we have to leave it right there with that very nice comment that susan made and we are available right here on ewtn radio monday through friday at this same time on the same station please do support your affiliates they are able to bring this good news to you through the the commitment of their lives to that station help to support that station so that the good news can continue to go out i want to remind you about that upcoming retreat don't forget it's an online marriage retreat this saturday february 12th 9 a.m to 4 p.m eastern time my husband jack and i are presenting it we want you to be there and we're looking forward to being back with you again tomorrow until we have that opportunity may the abundant life of jesus christ be yours and may god richly bless you bye now wherever you are in the world you can access the ew

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,071

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: YmM0jNq3_Ho

Length: 53min 45sec (3225 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022