Fulton Sheen Predicted This 70 Years Ago | Dr. Peter Howard

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Doctor Peter Howard. So good to see you, man. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Likewise, brother. Good to see you. [00:00:07] Speaker A: What years did you go to Steubenville? [00:00:10] Speaker B: 93 to 96. [00:00:12] Speaker A: You're so old. [00:00:14] Speaker B: I know. [00:00:14] Speaker A: I went 94, 98. [00:00:16] Speaker B: I know. I remember. I had just enough. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Those are blessed times, man. [00:00:20] Speaker B: I know. It's a pioneering moment. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. [00:00:24] Speaker B: You just look at what God has done with so many at that time. [00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah, so much came out of it, man. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:00:30] Speaker A: You want to get your doctorate from there? What was the path to that? [00:00:35] Speaker B: Well, the doctorate was something was sort of a dream that I had, but I never wasn't sure it was going to be materialized. And it took many years later. I mean, I didn't get the doctorate until 2008, and that was after years of discerning what God wanted me, wanted to do with me. And that took quite a while. We're talking until about 2000, 2001, after World Youth Day, that kind of ignited a lot of things. But then it was also this man, Fulton Sheen, who changed all my whole trajectory. And I said, lord, I don't really know what you want, but I'm going to follow the passions in my heart and I'm going to just go. I'm going to go to Rome as a layman. And I remember, like, talking to, you know, we were in Denver, Archbishop Shep Pugh. I got to know him when we lived here, and he was just kind of like, what are you going to do with that, Peter? What are you going to do with that? You know, it's kind of like, oh, my gosh, it's testing me. But I was glad he'd asked that question, because every time he did, the zeal just got more and more. It's like, I don't really know, but I know God wants me to go that path. And I kind of felt the Abraham call, go to a place that I'll show you. And so I did. And after World Youth Day, I ended up going back in the fall to Rome for almost three years. And that began my higher studies. And then my doctorate was years after. When I came back to Aspen to work in Aspen for. At the parish for a while, a green light was, yeah, you can work on your doctorate, Peter, while you work here. I was like, all right, dude. So, you know, it was a great path. It was a dream, but it was like, it was a means to an end. It wasn't like, oh, yeah, I got the. I won't even say today because, you know, a doctorate in sacred theology, you know, Std. Anyway, it's. Yeah, it was. It was just a joy because everything was a part of. [00:02:26] Speaker A: For those who don't know, Sacred theology, doctorate. Just gotta clarify. That's what we're talking about. That's what they call it. So go ahead. [00:02:31] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:02:32] Speaker A: It's next level. It takes more, I mean, frankly, more work to get your sacred baccalaureate, Sacred master's or license. [00:02:40] Speaker B: And the license, yeah. [00:02:41] Speaker A: And so there's more steps. And you did in Mariology? [00:02:45] Speaker B: I did. I mean, the overarching thing was dogmatic theology, but every time I had a chance to write a thesis, it was on our Blessed Mother. So when the doctorate came around, I was able to combine two passions. Our Blessed Mother. And at this time, he was now servant of God, Fulton Sheen. And that made him eligible to write a doctorate on. So I was like a dream come true. And I was able to do it from Aspen and I go to Rome for about six weeks. So the family was really tiny at that point, like one or two. So it worked out. And thanks be to God, because that wasn't the mission. I'm like, this is it. This guy changed my life so much, I'm bringing him everywhere. [00:03:22] Speaker A: And Mary Alger, you're a full blown Catholic heretic. I mean, you're not kidding around. You're not apologizing for it. You're just full on heresy. [00:03:31] Speaker B: Exactly. And I wrote on Mary as Mediatrix and the teaching of Fulton Sheen, which is. Now there's all this hype about it, but what's really cool is talk about something that has kind of a prophetic nature. It's a work whose time has come because the clarity is all in there. Like, every answer. Like, I just did the grunt work, but Sheen did the rest of it. And I just put out his brilliance. You want to answer that whole argument? Not just for Catholics, but for everybody. It's right there. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Wow. Okay, Sheen, that's why you're sitting here. I mean, some big stuff going on, man. Of all the people I know, and I've known you for a long time, you are the biggest Sheen nerd. You're the guy who has the Sheen comic books, the Sheen playing cards. There are none. The Sheen bobblehead. I don't think you have one of those. [00:04:20] Speaker B: It's funny you say that. [00:04:21] Speaker A: Do you? It's like a new line of products. I mean, really, you were just in love with Sheen and with his message. I mean, a lot of people are, but you more than anybody I've known way before. Like, we knew he was going to Be canonized or. Well, he's going to be canonized. Give us the time. But before the be advocation, like, when did your heart get lit on fire with love for this guy? What drew you? Yeah, because I want to hear that. Because I think we're all supposed to be kind of drawn in right now. The Lord's saying that to us, to his witness. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you know, there's something that Sheen said later on I came across in. It was exactly true for this. He said, the course of one's life is not determined by the trivial incidents of day to day living, but by a few decisive moments. For me, this was shortly after Steubenville. So this is 1998. I was in Dallas, Texas. I was teaching. I was with a whole group of Franciscan alumni. You would know them all, probably, I think. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Where were you teaching? [00:05:20] Speaker B: I just taught a semester at one of the Catholic high schools. I was only there for a year. This was like a transitionary year. And so I knew I was not meant to stay there. So I went on a personal retreat from. I was in Dallas, and I was going to go three hours east to East Texas. And on my way out, I stopped at my sister's place. And she's like, hey, Pete, you want to listen to this series that I have of Fulton Sheen? I had not really even. I knew nothing of the man. I had heard of him. Sometimes people quote him, but I was like. Honestly, I was like, I got my mixtape. This is my Lenten. [00:05:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:05:57] Speaker B: My personal retreat. I got like my Talbot mix. [00:06:01] Speaker A: Oh, man. Yeah. [00:06:03] Speaker B: On cassette tapes. [00:06:05] Speaker A: I love this. [00:06:06] Speaker B: I know. We relate to. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Cassette tapes. Were the best. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Exactly. I was totally set. And I'm not even exaggerating. I was like a three hour drive. But she's like, this changed our pastor's life. He just died from cancer. Was really young. He was at this retreat. He and Peter, you're discerning. You're still discerning what God wants you to do. I was like, I just took it. And I was like, I don't know. I was going to listen to it, but I literally. There was a prompting. Peter. It's like, peter, give me a chance. I was like, is that the Lord? Is it Sheen or. But both. But. All right. But I was like, I'm going to give 10 minutes max, and this is either going to connect or not. And I put it in. And within the first two minutes, I knew my entire life was going to be changed from this retreat just because of the way he spoke. And there was A power behind his voice that I had never experienced. We studied under some of the best professors in the world, and they're fascinating, and the information and all that. But when he spoke, I felt like the people in Scripture like, who is this man who speaks with such authority? And he opened with a joke. You know, he's like, in Philadelphia, he's lost. And he's asking this boy, can I get directions to some place like 5th and Chestnut? And the boy's like, what are you gonna talk about? And he's like, I'm gonna talk about heaven and how to get there. Do you want to come and find out? And the kid's like, you don't even know the way to City Hall. You know? And the irony was, like, for me, was this guy was now setting from that moment a blueprint for my whole life. And I sat in my car because that was the only thing that could play the cassettes. That whole weekend of retreat, and I was at my aunt's cabin. It was beautiful. I went in just at night to sleep, and I just listened to this over and over and over. And it was. He captivated my soul. He grasped it in a way that. And not only that, it wasn't like a retreat was like, oh, my gosh, that was so cool. Like, oh, my gosh, Lord, this. Thank you. It was. I had a massive decision to make. And for me, I left Texas. I still was like, I don't know if God's calling me to the priesthood, that windows seems to be closing. But whatever you're calling me to, Lord, I want every single person that I can access to experience what I just did. Because this is going to. This radically changed my life. It put practices, concrete, simplistic practices that challenged me that I still do to this very day. And it's. The daily holy hour is the biggest one. So that was the genesis of everything. And then it was, okay, Lord, you know, he leadeth me from that point. And she became my, like, my life coach, my General MacArthur, you name it, he was all of those. And I just felt in the background, you know, introducing him to people. But I knew his time would come. And it has. 20 years later, almost 20 years later, [00:08:58] Speaker A: how has he stayed in the background? 30. Have you just been consuming his books back then? His tapes? Like, constantly. Hey, friends, I want to beg you to consider becoming a missionary of joy. Click below this video and join the people who are helping this work happen. We're sharing the love and hope and joy and inspiration of Jesus with a world that desperately needs it through our live events, through the media that we just throw out to the world for free, through the core confirmation program that we're creating that can change the spiritual trajectory of a generation and help countless young people find their true identity in Jesus Christ. You make all that happen with a small monthly gift. Would you please consider getting on board and helping us share the love of Jesus with a hungry world? Thank you. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Well, what I did for a long time is I actually just listened to this retreat over and over. [00:09:47] Speaker A: Really? What was the retreat called? [00:09:48] Speaker B: How do we. [00:09:49] Speaker A: How do you get there? [00:09:49] Speaker B: Well, I think now it's under the title On Retreat with Fulton Sheen, which sounds so generic. But it was picked up eventually by St. Joseph Communications. [00:10:01] Speaker A: Dude, back in the tape days, it was. [00:10:04] Speaker B: And here's the thing, too. It was remastered, so it wasn't like. It didn't sound like this was. This is 1972. When he gave it in Dallas, Texas, at the seminary. It was as if we're talking to each other right now. It was that clear. And we don't have all the time in the world. But here's something that really is cool, though. From divine providence, I eventually met the man who recorded it, and he was still in Dallas. He was a seminarian at that time. Then he got into radio and Catholic radio and all that. When we left Aspen in 2016, we went. We were driving around a lot of the country doing family ministry, and he says, if you stop by Dallas, I'm going to give you something. I'm like, all right. So I got there, and he says, peter, you might be the only person who really appreciates this. And he pulls out this box. And so I didn't even open it at the time, but he described it to me underneath. He said, there's glass, so don't drop it. It's my Sheen shrine or whatever. And so eventually, when I got to a place where I lifted it up, it was the exact microphone that Sheen used for that retreat. [00:11:09] Speaker A: Dude, come on. [00:11:10] Speaker B: That medium was right there. He cut. It was the old shure mic, the metal one. You just cut the bottom and you put it on the stand with pictures of him and Sheen with Sheen writing and all these cards. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:11:19] Speaker B: And he says, here it is. And I was just like, wait, he [00:11:22] Speaker A: gave it to you? [00:11:22] Speaker B: He gave it to me. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Why did you not bring it to you? I can't believe. [00:11:25] Speaker B: I didn't do that. I can't. Oh, my gosh. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Cut. I know. Cut. [00:11:31] Speaker B: I'll come back tomorrow. [00:11:33] Speaker A: I can't believe that that Is that's the most epic relic. [00:11:39] Speaker B: If you're like, it's right there behind me. [00:11:40] Speaker A: No, if you're like, do you want a first class relic? If it's bone or this, I'll take the microphone, like 100%. [00:11:46] Speaker B: It is crazy because just the power to the levels of significance because he's the medium that allowed that message to get to me. I was born two years after that, but decades later, that would forever change the life for me. It's like, that's the age in which we are right now. The power of doing that and have the power within us from the Holy Spirit and then transmitting it. And it still continues now. So it's like whatever we say, you just pray for the Holy Spirit. [00:12:19] Speaker A: There was something about the timing where God sent this guy into the world, speaking of the medium, that's so providential, you know, and if you look at the course of human history and world population and where populations were centered, it kind of hourglasses and there's different major world events and wars and stuff that kind of shrink the population. But you know, when Jesus was born and from that time, from the apostles, there's an explosion outward that just keeps exponentially magnifying. But now if he had come like somewhere around here, you know, it would have been harder to get the message to everybody. But when you come, when it's this big, the seed is there in every culture more easily. And Sheen came when there's three channels on TV and not many radio stations and 30 million people a week were listening to him. Which is like, if you put every Catholic and Protestant ministry together, all of us, I mean, all of us, in one week, we're not going to hit 30 million people. We're just not. I mean, unless you're counting impressions, which sometimes we do, that we reached trillions of people last week because they swiped and saw my face going, but like 30 million. So God obviously wanted to plant him in that time because he had something to say through him, not just because of who he is, which is also important. What was he saying? Like what. What's like sum up some key themes of the messages that you've been soaking in more than any other human that I know for 20 years. 20 years. 20 years, right. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Well, I asked what I thought, but I'm going back there now we're talking the 90s, so actually like 30, we're getting serious. [00:13:56] Speaker A: I'm so old, I guess I didn't [00:13:59] Speaker B: come in on crutches or something like that. But it's okay. Like Sheen says, though the goal of every Christian is to become young. Unless you become like a little child, you will enter the kingdom of God. So as we get older physically and all that, dang, we have to become young if we are going to enter heaven. So that's why you notice that in saints, the spirit that they have, it keeps them like a child. And even if you look at Sheen and what he did with things like his love for Mary, he just read this poem, and lovely lady dressed in blue, you know, teach me how to pray. It's like a little child. And he reads it like that. He may have it memorized him to read it. But anyway, yeah, his message, it compounded. You know, he was born 1895, so he's the turn of the century, so you could just imagine what life was like then. He died in 1979. The cultural switch changes. Two world wars, a cold war. In the midst of all that, the 1960s, when there was the identity crisis, really began. I mean, he's. So he taught in the beginning on radio. Those were his strongest messages. They were just 100% super strong Catholic doctrine. But he also did that during World War II. And I think some of the strongest prophetic things he ever said about where culture in the world was going were said right there. And we just watched it happen. And he was ready for the change at every stage, because when he got on TV now, his audience was predominantly non Catholic. People don't realize this. Of the 30 million, 60 million of that, or 60% were non. I'm a theologian. [00:15:47] Speaker A: I'm not a theologian, not a mathematician, Jim. [00:15:49] Speaker B: I just know infinity. That's the only thing that matters. Eternity. [00:15:53] Speaker A: The only number I know is infinity. I'm a theologian, [00:15:58] Speaker B: but 60% were non Catholic. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Wow. [00:16:03] Speaker B: So anyway, so he called it the indirect approach. He'd find something, he says, in apologetics, you have to find something that people have that's common, and then you use that eventually as a springboard to divine truths. And that's what he did in life is worth living. And believe it or not, I mean, I've watched all of those. Every one is a treasure. And what he did was he just saw the erosion and the deliberate removal of God from culture over the last few centuries especially. And he said the only answer left is personal holiness. But personal holiness has to be based on divine truth. So this whole series was, how do you take them from, you know, the existence of God to then literally, you know, the final judgment and eternity with God? Like, how do you put all this together? But he did. He did it in such a way that every soul could understand it. Every single. He's like. You could say I didn't agree with that. But he was so clear. So, so clear. And he said, look, but there's another time that's coming that I'm preparing the world for the church. He said, that's going to be the personalist, the anthropological approach. He says we're going to have to reach people where they're wounded. He saw what was coming out of the 60s and 70s, and that's what you're doing. When I bring Sheen, that's the reason I bring him in, is because he already sees all these things. But it's something I personalize and I want to communicate that. But that's where he is now. He's remaking the world through getting rid of the disorder from within and bringing the order of Christ out of that. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Wow. There's something that always speaks to me about the way he did things, and I need to dive more deeply into all the things he said. But just the methodology is the approach that you lead first with the felt needed in the person's life. And this is what makes evangelization really effective today. You know, so many Catholic ministries start with, here's the cool thing that we have to talk about now. Let's apply it to your life. He started with, let's talk about your life, and back up into. We show that the gospel is compelling because this works for your life better than anything else. It's almost. Instead of truth and beauty, it's starting with goodness. Like, this is good for you. Therefore, you'll trip into the fact that it's true and it's the most stunningly beautiful thing ever. So to lead boldly with life is worth living. Well, dude, okay, I'm part of the 60% who's not even a Catholic. I want to know that. I'm a non Christian. I kind of want to hear what you have to say. When you boldly say life is worth living. Talk about his Mariology. That was a. I mean, since you're a Mariologist and he's a fellow heretic like you. What? Yeah. What stood out about that? He's probably what helped you springboard into studying Mariology or lit your heart on fire about that. [00:19:01] Speaker B: Well, the fire was lit, actually, at Steubenville, but he took it to another level. And it's exactly what you're saying, Chris. It was. I was personally brought into the mystery of Mary. And that was. When you talk about his methodology that was. He talked about Christianity as a reflex action. [00:19:21] Speaker A: I'll do that again because it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful statement. [00:19:24] Speaker B: Christianity is a reflex action. What does he mean by that? He says, what is Christ's first words? Come, come to me. Like you're saying the encounter. It's not like he didn't just start going off on the Beatitudes right there. Come and see. And then what are his last words after they spent three years with him? Go out to all the world, now you're ready. Barely ready. I mean, we just celebrated Pentecost. Now you have to have the Spirit. And Sheen said, the problem that we have today, he says, we have too many go Go's and too little come comes, but that's it. And I found that with Mary, I felt for the first time I felt really connected to her so deeply personally. And that was his approach to all of theology, too. That's why he was so attractive. I knew the doctrines and the. The splendor of that truth was just glaring in front of me. But we always hear that phrase, and you probably know what the measurement is. The distance from the head to the heart is like 13 inches, 12 inches, something like that. Don't miss heaven by that. And it's not all about information. It's not just all about the theology itself. Because if that was the case, Lucifer never would have fallen. He knew it all. But it was the love, it was the. The personal relationship that Mary had. This is why I always saw Sheen as the John the Baptist to John Paul ii. They're identical, their formation, even their methodology. Sheen's a lot easier to understand, but it was that. So Sheen brings you into what does it mean to be a. To be Christ? That's our ultimate goal. And he began. That whole mystery begins with our Blessed Mother. She formed Christ physically in her womb for nine months and then spiritually formed him for 30 years. He's like, if you want to grow on your faith, you have to be formed by Mary. And so he takes us through. He's very biblical in how he did it, which is. I really appreciate that he brings you into the story and he brings out just key things. Like Mary's always the Advent of Christ. She's the Advent where there is no Christmas. That's why when Christ isn't in places, Mary is in places like at Cana, it says, and the mother of Jesus was there. He says, when you go to these places where you're wondering, how are we going to get Christ in or in this Case with the new evangelization, we are doing something new. We're not redoing it. We're doing something new. We bring in our blessed Mother, just like she was there. And then, as Sheen called her, she's the spiritual Trojan horse. You just get in behind enemy lines, and she's a traitor. She betrays you to Christ so fast. And he says, this will be the conversion of the Muslims will come that way because they revere Mary. So he's got. He just beautifully puts it together in a way that's so relational, and that's the missing link of a lot of what is done when it comes to the transmission, communication of truth is that Akshene says it's a living person. And that's been the battle since after the Vatican Council. It was like he got thousands of requests to do retreats. He says the one thing they always asked, bring us Christ. So he start by bringing them Mary and bring them to Christ. The one thing that characterized she more than anything, everything he ever said, everything he ever wrote, every retreat he ever led was for the salvation of souls. And he said, unless souls are saved, nothing is saved. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Boom. [00:23:06] Speaker B: And that is the echo every day of, when I wake up, why am I doing this? [00:23:13] Speaker A: Dang. [00:23:14] Speaker B: And if it's not for the salvation of souls, if there's any ego, as he would use the word, any ego in there, it's got to go. And. But that's it. That's why he's being beatified and I think soon after canonized, because that is what he lived. Everything is summed up in that. [00:23:31] Speaker A: I think that's the compelling power, you know, that you heard in that. In that cassette tape. I miss tapes. The whining was really annoying. [00:23:40] Speaker B: The work that went into ever making one, too, was like, you know, if something went wrong and you saw, you're like, oh, my gosh, it's gone forever. [00:23:48] Speaker A: And then evangelization in those days was like, here, here's a tape. Listen to that. And like, huh, cool. A free tape. Maybe I will. But the power was that he wasn't just transmitting information. Like, he could tell he was saying true things about someone he knew. Like John saying, you know, we talk about what we've seen with our eyes and we've touched with our hands. So he was in love primarily. Right? And we could jump straight into the work of doing. And, like, I want to learn facts so I could therefore share the faith. And one of his main messages. And this is one of the retreats I listened to from him to Priests was the daily holy hour. You know, the most practical thing that he did to be effective was to pray a lot. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Talk about his devotion of the daily holy hour, how that's changed your life, how we need to hear it now in our busy lives. Because he was pretty dang busy, right? [00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah, he was. [00:24:40] Speaker A: He was a mainstream famous person. Like, not like Father Schmitz or even Bishop Barron. I'm talking like Lady Gaga level. Like, the dude couldn't walk down the street without being seen. A third of the country's watching him every week. Won an Academy Awards, thanked his writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. [00:24:59] Speaker B: At least they lost to somebody with those writers. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Right, Right. But then he never rushed past the holy hour. So. Yeah, talk about that. Yeah. He call us on to do the same thing right now. [00:25:14] Speaker B: I'll tell you, it was the big, as you would say, CTA after that retreat call to action that has never, ever left me. And it's one of the biggest messages that I think needs to be known about Shane, of why he's a saint. Because a saint isn't how much, you know, how brilliant you are. It's ultimately because you loved God heroically. And there were other virtues that were attached to that that you lived heroically. And so what was that that made him so holy? And he said it himself. He says it was the unbroken promise he made from the day of his ordination until the day he died of making a continuous holy hour, continuous 60 minutes before our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament. And if he couldn't make it in the Presence, he'd go next to a church because he was traveling the world, you know, for about. When was it? About 15 years. He was the national director for Propagation of the Faith, the missions. So he was traveling the world. He still never missed it. He'd find the Catholic Church and he just walk up and down the alleyway. He'd sneak in if he couldn't get in. But the reasons why he made it are the most important because. And there's different ways. There's biblical reasons he made it, and then there's one historical reason. The ones about from the Bible that he talked about was just from the life of Christ. He says one of the great struggles that we have today is apathy, indifference, and a lack of discipline. And so we need something, especially in an age that's becoming more and more evil. We need something that's going to respond to that. And Jesus gave us that answer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he asked his apostles, and by extension, his disciples to make an hour with him when everything would change for him and for his fledgling church, right there with the first pope. He said, can you not watch an hour with me? And he says, when you make an hour. And what he first, he says, we need a discipline that involves time, something that is hard to do but has flexibility about it, and something that will never break. And he says, jesus gave us that when he asked for an hour. And he says, and during that hour, you do a couple of things that you train your eyes. You're before the one that was the sacrament. You can't see him physically like I see you, but you know he's there, and it takes that hour. You're there, and you're making that presence with him. And he says by that time, when he says, when you can find through the eyes of faith, when you can finally see Jesus in the tabernacle, says that, then you're ready to go out and evangelize. Wow. Because now you can see Christ in every single soul that you meet. This is why Mother Teresa's community did that. They began their day with a holy hour and still do. And then he says, it trains your ears to listen to the Lord. He says, when we go to pray, he's like, we don't do enough meditation. He's like, we do all the talking. It should be, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. We walk in, it's like, listen, Lord, your servant is speaking. And I'm like, I'm guilty. I'll spend an hour, sometimes 45 minutes. It's like I'm saying this, like 50 different ways, the same thing, hoping that one of them will stick with God and he'll grant it. Like, this is so immature. But he says, we need that hour. And he says, most of the time, it's not going to feel like you're not going to have ecstatic moments, but you're going to be the faithful watchdog right there by the Master's side. And someday maybe he'll call. He said, but the most important reason above all is because our Lord asked it. It's the only direct appeal he ever made of his followers. Could you not watch one hour? So he did that. [00:29:15] Speaker A: It's the only direct appeal. Wow. [00:29:19] Speaker B: He said he didn't. And he said, it's interesting. He says it wasn't an hour where you go in and mention all these devotions and stuff. He says it's to sit at the master's feet and have an hour of prayer and meditation because we don't do enough of that. And for example, he'd say, if you're going in to pray and you don't know what to do, get some scripture, bring something with you to pray. Holy book. Read until one thing strikes you and [00:29:42] Speaker A: then stop and you gotta just go be with him. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Not really know what to say. And read the Gospels. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah. He said he didn't ask for anything fancy to, you know, to write anything. He said he asked for one hour of companionship. Wow, that's interesting. So when you're there, like, I didn't feel like I had anything. I didn't, you know. But you were with him for one hour and that's what he asked for. And just allow yourself to listen. For me, I credit that the picking up of the daily holy hour. [00:30:13] Speaker A: Do you make a holy hour every day? [00:30:17] Speaker B: 99%. [00:30:18] Speaker A: God bless you. [00:30:19] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, there's times where I never forget it in the sense of, like, I have to do it, but there could be a moment where. And I'm thinking about it all day. If I don't do it early on, it's really hard. I'm doing it at midnight or not midnight, then it's too late for that day. But anyway, yeah, it's something that it's, you know, it's a few times a year, you know, for me it's like. Because he said once you start doing it, it's the one thing you remember as soon as you wake up. And you won't let go of it until you've completed it. And it's very, very true. It's not like it haunts you. It's the Lord's waiting. And he says, if you can't make it at church, you can make it at home. It's to make the hour. And you say, and the hour is important. [00:31:02] Speaker A: It's a good thing to remember because a lot of people. [00:31:04] Speaker B: That's the first question I get. [00:31:06] Speaker A: My biggest obstacle is, I mean, I gotta get the kids out the door to school. I can wake up early, but I can't drive 20 minutes and then back 20 minutes and do the holy hour and get the kids to school. But I can get my coffee and hold the cross and I can lock in some time there, you know, and if someone's totally overwhelmed with it, start where you are. Like, you know, we always do this to ourselves. Like, you know, I can hit the ideal, or then it's nothing because I failed. It's like if what you got is 10 minutes, if that's what you're. Where you're at. Start there, start there. But, you know, set the goal. And I love the permission to. If you don't know what to say in the hour, just make it a bad hour. I mean, really like doing something. [00:31:44] Speaker B: He said, most of the hours. He's like, most of the hours you won't want to make on a natural level. He said, that's why it's something we're doing to conquer the lack of discipline. He's like, one of the crises. We just saw how disciplined in the world. And he's like, if you love something, you will always make room for it. We find this. It's interesting. Business principles, like entrepreneurs, if you ever listen to conferences that they have, they're very similar things. Tell me what your schedule's like, and I'll tell you what you value. And you're like, okay. And you start going through this. I don't really have any time from my wife or my children. I'm like, oh, my gosh. But I'll spend hours keeping up with what's going on in the world if I really need that. It's humbling, it's sobering, but it's real. And that's the thing. He attaches it all to love. Love and power. [00:32:37] Speaker A: Love. [00:32:37] Speaker B: Because he says, one of the crises that we have is we. We just don't learn. We're being stripped from loving. He says, when you love something, you naturally develop discipline. You naturally develop a willingness to sacrifice. And when you do that with God, he's going to constantly draw you in. And when he asks you to do something because you love, you'll do it. And so that's one of the things that motivates behind the holy hour every day is for that. The other part of it, he says, is power. And you should listen. Maybe you've heard some of his talks on this, but he's very bold. He says when I. He's like, many of you are smarter than me. He says, and more talented than I am, but I have more power than you. He says that. He says, and where do I get this power? He says, you know, at that time, 52 years of a daily holy hour, and our friend of our bus of sacrament. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Oh, man, that is awesome. [00:33:42] Speaker B: He says, when I speak, people listen to me. I can hold an audience in the palm of my hand. Like, you. Like, what an arrogant. But he's like, but who's. If this were any power of mine, God could take it away. You know, like St. Paul. What have you received that you have not been given by God? [00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:58] Speaker B: So why do you act as if it's yours? And so he says, that's what it is. You want to have the power to counsel somebody. You'll learn more by spending an hour with our Lord in a holy hour than if you spent 20 years studying, counseling. [00:34:12] Speaker A: Wow. [00:34:13] Speaker B: And it's one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So these are the things he spoke about in that retreat. And I began to realize that, yes, I love the things that I'm studying, but in the end, if I don't have this, I have nothing. And I could fall like a meteor, like Lucifer did. And, you know, and I fallen many times. You know, we all have those moments. But love, we do it out of love. And that's what we. That's what we need more than anything today, is simply to love our Lord. And can you do something that simple? Could you not watch one hour? An hour speaks to evil. He's. You know, it's in John's Gospel, every time ours used, it's in reference to his passion. And here we are in this time of the passion of the Church. I mean, this doesn't take any kind of studies or private revelation to come to this conclusion of. We're living at the end of an extraordinary era of a battle between good and evil. You have exorcists on your show. [00:35:15] Speaker A: They're kept very busy lately. [00:35:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're all saying that Satan's been given more power. He knows his time is short. We're all coming to an end of an era. Sheen said that St. John Paul II said the same exact thing. And St. John Paul II also made a daily holy hour. That's how he began his day before, in his private chapel. Before the people would come in for Mass, they'd find him in his chair or kneeling with all these prayer petitions. But he'd spend the hour. So that's the source of the power, that if we want to really save souls, he's like, if you're serious about that, you have to do this. One of the things I remind myself constantly in the struggles that are the broader struggles of the world, the conflicts, but also just from within and the challenges that are there. And the holy hour. Sheen wrote back to a priest who had left the priesthood and then came back through the holy hour. And Sheen told him, he says, in life, you will have to fight many battles, but you will win the war before the blessed Sacrament. So when I feel down and out or beaten down, I'm like, no, this is it. I'm in the right place. [00:36:23] Speaker A: One takeaway for me, like, this is an immediate challenge. You know, show me your schedule, and I'll show you what matters to you. I'll put in my schedule. Meetings I have today. I put this in the schedule. You have to make it. This is very important. I'll put in the schedule. I have a board meeting tonight, you know, so those things get in the schedule. But actually, the most important things to me in life are time with the Lord and time with my family. Right. I should actually make sure I schedule, like, movie night with the kids begins at 7pm you know, I'm putting the phone. I'm treating this like a meeting. I'm putting the phone down. I'm putting the distractions away. I'm praying at 6am or 5am Whatever. Where's it gonna fit tomorrow? Well, my default is always, like, it's gonna fit when I wake up, and I'm gonna fit it in. Well, if it's as important as this interview with Peter Howard, I should probably put it in my planner and really get to it and really give it the time. Like, there's nothing else that I'm going to allow into my consciousness during this time. It's with the Lord, and things will come in because I'm very add, But I'm not going to give time to focusing on those all important things that are bouncing around my head. [00:37:30] Speaker B: I'm guilty of justice as you're talking. [00:37:32] Speaker A: It has to get my schedule. [00:37:34] Speaker B: And for me, I found the wisdom of Sheen because he struggled with it. And he said, I eventually realized I had to do it first thing in the morning, like at 5, 5:30. And I was like, I'm not a morning person. When I get up early, it's wonderful. But when I started doing that, that did change everything. I had to change my going to bed and all that too, because sleep's important. But I had a whole day after that, and. And I felt ready for the day. And recently, with all these things that have been happening with Sheen and the beatification, I mean, just so much has happened this year that has slipped away. And I've been battling, like, each day. But I will say this. My son took this on. He's 15 years old. My son Beckett, he took this on, I don't know, four or five months ago. He said, hey, hey, pa, Can I go with you to Holy Hour? And we were working through some things, some challenges he was going through. And I said, look, Beckett, I think this is what. You should just try it whenever you want. You want to go with Me, that's fine. He started going with me every day and then every day. Now he's asking, when are you making your hour? Because he come with me. And so that also has kept me in check. But he's now doing this on his own. And I've watched a complete transformation in him because he was struggling with some, you know, with some big things. And we all, we've all had our moments in our, you know, teens where it gets challenging and it's the, it's the, for me, the most evident example of how this, it works. He's just there and like praying. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Right. But like, we forget that. [00:39:16] Speaker B: But yeah. And like I said, he, I didn't think he'd do it every day, but it's one of those things. Like it's a virtue, you know, it's like anything else. It takes time. Six weeks or I don't know what. You probably know how long it takes to break old habits and how long it takes to. [00:39:32] Speaker A: I think people usually find a number based on what product they're selling. Yeah, I guess this is a 10 day long product in 10 days. Did you know it's been proven that in 10 days. That's. Man, really, that's. [00:39:42] Speaker B: I'm inspired by him because if I look at my text, have you made your hour yet? He's not checking me because he'll go on his own. We live close enough to our parish, which is nice where he can do that, but at the same time, we're so busy that it seems like I can't believe he's done it, but the Lord's working on him. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Boy, that's awesome. [00:40:05] Speaker B: And he's inspiring me now. And that's the crusade. I call it the daily Holy hour revolution. Because that's what Sheen says. We have to win the revolution and then we won't have war. He's talking about the inner revolution. You know, he says something. I think you might like this line too, because I think we have similar likes in these things. He says, God hates peace in those destined for war. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:40:38] Speaker B: I know. It's. [00:40:38] Speaker A: I'm writing that down. I never pick up my phone to write a note down, but I have to write this down. [00:40:45] Speaker B: God hates peace in those. [00:40:46] Speaker A: God hates peace in those destined for war. [00:40:49] Speaker B: Oh, and he's talking about the sword. I came to bring a sword. Christ says those words. [00:40:56] Speaker A: I've seen people literally accept infidelity, abuse of alcohol and feel peaceful because they turn a corner and thought, I'm going to stop battling with my own Conscience. And it's a false peace. Oh, and the Lord's calling us to get to it, man, to get to the front line. But when I say duh about the holy hour, it's like, yes, spending time with Jesus changes things with the maker of the universe. Why don't we run to the obvious first? Like, we run to all the secondary things which are important. Like, you should go to counseling and work on different things. There's practical things. There's practicals we have to engage in, but like the all important, most practical. There's a dude with all the power in heaven and earth granted to him sitting here saying, would you like to sit with me? Because I might have something for you, as you do all the rest. I'm friends with a married couple. There was infidelity. They were just completely broken. They started doing a holy. They couldn't stand looking at each other. They were so angry at each other. They started sitting next to each other, barely touching arms at a holy hour every day. Completely transformed the marriage. Yeah, yeah. [00:42:07] Speaker B: That's next level. [00:42:08] Speaker A: They were going next level. Like, we're about to be done with our marriage. Totally transform the marriage. I mean, and it's. Yeah. I'm like, why wouldn't that be. The first thing we run to is just the source. [00:42:21] Speaker B: Because we have no way to really. It's not measured in the same way that practical things are. You know what I mean? [00:42:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:26] Speaker B: It's like you don't know the effects of a radiation chamber until you realize you've got like 20 cancers, you know, and you've been standing in it. You don't feel it, you don't experience it all of a sudden, but the effects are always on you. Well, if you have a private audience with our Lord every day and you're just with him, that same spiritual power is, you know, spiritual radioactivity is going to. It's going to enter you in some way. And if I could just share just one personal thing on that. It's the daily holy hour. And. And my wife, she's mentioned this as well, that helped us through some really, really dark and struggles that we've had. And especially after we had moved to Idaho, this was like seven or eight years ago, so right around the turn of the millennium. But we had some real struggles. And at first she kind of got. Yeah, it was hard. And she seen me make the whole year, and I was especially making sure I made it then. And. But it was the one thing that she. At first she's like, he's just Escaping like, I gotta make my holy hour. I was like, yeah, whatever, you just got out of this one. But no, I'd go and I would spend a lot of time in silence. I'd weep. I'd do a lot of things, but I let the Lord, I surrender it to him. And sometimes that's all I would be doing. Because I also knew that when I left there, I couldn't just be like, okay, thanks, where I'm checking out. I can't really. I can't leave without a resolution. Jesus never leaves you the way he found you, even if it's subtle. And over time and the things that I know I needed to work on, they started making a huge difference. And just the intercession for the family. So why I think so, I especially emphasize this for men. It got us through that time where most people, like I know many also who have. They know their faith, they know all these things, but they're out the door. They're gone. Something happens and there's no turning back. And on a human level, depending on the thing, you might go, okay, I guess I can understand why they'd feel that. But you never leave. And Sheen, that's another reason she made it. He says, it kept me tethered to the Lord. The rope would never get too far where I could find other greener pastures. He says that's what saved this priesthood. [00:44:42] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Believe me, he was. I'm sure he had his temptations. He loved the limelight. He admitted that in his own autobiography. He's like, I loved it. He's like, I drove a Cadillac. He's like, I can't believe, you know, that I didn't have to have a Cadillac. It didn't. I wasn't, like, attached to it, but I liked it, you know, and he gave 100 million of his own dollars, you know, today's money to the poor. So everything he made on television went to the poor. But he had a few things. And of course, at the last reflection, these are the things you think about those things. And for him, he recorded them down. So Holy hour, man. [00:45:21] Speaker A: I know I was going to land on saying, why now? In history? And we could go there a bit, but we've almost made it obvious the crazier things get, the simpler we have to get. The crazier the world gets, the more we have to come back to basics. I mean, this is. If any business is in crisis, you go back to your. Your why. Why do we exist as a business? Go back to the fundamental questions. Your Marriage is in crisis. Let's remember the vows we took to each other and why we fell in love in the first place. And if the church is in crisis, the why is something this guy just embodied. It's leading boldly with. Fall in love with Jesus and remember that life is worth living. And this is the ultimate solution for all the problems in life. It's the person of Jesus Christ and just being with with him. And let's put a lot of shows behind that and a lot of words behind that, but really it comes down to the one thing it does. [00:46:10] Speaker B: It's that simple. You'll find your purpose when you spend it with the one who created you with that purpose. For me that gave me. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Say that again, because it's a beautiful line. [00:46:20] Speaker B: You'll find your purpose if you spend time with the one who created you with that purpose or for that purpose. And especially we laymen, you know, we don't have. Only the religious state has a guarantee that you know exactly what God is willing for you at that moment. Because it's. You're told to do something. [00:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a convenience. Yeah. [00:46:42] Speaker B: As long as it's not sinful. Excuse me, but we don't. So Jesus also lays out some other key things that we can do in order to, you know, to trust that God's working within us. For me, the daily holy hour was that I would always put everything in the Lord's hands. And before I had to make massive decisions, I especially spent extra time. And I had every confidence because, like, I'm always doubting myself. You know, like Sheen says of the real Peter, he was anything but a rock. So I guess I'm well named. He became one later on, but that made the difference. So when it's like, okay, it's decision time, I had confidence, like, lord, place your desires in my heart, and I'm going to follow them. You don't think the Lord's going to answer that prayer? He will. Just like he's going to answer the other prayer. If you ever pray for suffering for someone, Sheen says that's the other prayer he'll always answer. Another reason why he was a saint and heroic was because he lived that. You know, I have a lot of [00:47:47] Speaker A: great quotes for him that, yeah, drop some man. And how did he live that? Because every saint's got their struggles and trials. It wasn't just all Academy Awards and everything was great all the time. [00:47:57] Speaker B: Well, he had his biggest test, I guess faith. But not like a crisis of faith, but his test, he had two Big tests of faith that I remember one as a child and then one when they pulled the plug on his show. The one as a child is a great story. Shows he was a man of heroic. Young man of heroic faith. He excelled in all of his studies. He's in Illinois. He's at the minor seminary, so kind of college years. And he took this national exam. If you win it, you get a full ride through your doctorate. [00:48:33] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:48:34] Speaker B: Going to your choice of schools. And he won it. And he went to his priest friend, Father Bergen, who was his mentor, the priest who told him, after listening to Sheen's first debate ever, that he's the worst speaker he ever heard. That changed the way he learned how to speak, really. So they became best friends later on. And then Father, he went to Father Bergen and he said, father, look, I got this. Like, this is from God. Like, I would see it like that. And he says, father Bergen's playing tennis, comes over, says, he looked at me right in the eye. Sheen says. And he says, fulton, do you believe in God? He's like, yeah, you know, I do. No, do you really practically believe in God? And she says, at that point, I wasn't so certain. He says, tear it up. God's calling you to be a priest. And he's like, but look, I could become a priest later. Let me just get this. This is my dream. We always talk about follow your dreams. [00:49:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:36] Speaker B: And a natural course of things. I probably, you know, that might be advice for someone to do that, but. But in this case, God put Sheen to the test of obedience, which is the ultimate test. And he says, you know, God's calling you, and you know it, and if you do it, if you tear this up, God will give you something even better. Sheen tore it up later on, would be ordained and would later on go to the University of Levin, where he not only got a doctorate, he got. Well, he was the first American to ever achieve what's called, like, a super doctorate. It was above it and won an [00:50:11] Speaker A: award for his ssstd. [00:50:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know how they did it back then. [00:50:16] Speaker A: Super Sacred theology doctrine, but he did. [00:50:19] Speaker B: And then he remembered. He looked back, he had, like, these flashes would come back, and he'd be like, thanks be to God. He did that because who you never would have known one decision that could. And he used that story for the course of one's life as determined by these key moments. So the other one later on, when they pulled the plug on him, was after he crossed the most powerful prelate in the church. Some would say even more than the Pope in certain respects, because everybody feared him. And it was the man who put him on tv, Cardinal Spellman. Anyway, Sheen, over some issues, when he had the control of the money for the poor, Cardinal Spellman, who was his predecessor in that position and put him in that position, asked for money. And Sheen said no, because he was traveling around. He'd always bring gifts. It was like the first time somebody ever said no. That rift got to Rome. He wasn't too happy about that. Later on, Cardinal Spellman donated, like, millions of dollars worth of powdered milk. Sheen knew it was given to him. Cardinal Spellman asked for payment on that delivery. This rift went to the Pope Paul vi. And Sheen had the receipts proved that Cardinal Spellman was lying. And then at that moment, behind the scenes, Carlos Bellman told Sheen, I'm going to spend the rest of my life destroying you. That's why his show got pulled off literally overnight. And then you didn't hear of Sheen for a while. Then the Second Vatican Council came. After the council, Sheen was then given a choice of a couple places to be bishop, and he chose the Diocese of Rochester, which is one of them. And he had a tough time. He was only there for a few years, but it was where he began to try to implement what was at the council. And after that came a time of, as he said, he didn't retire. He retreaded and focused on the priesthood, saving the priests as well as forming the priests, I think of the new renaissance of the priesthood. And then he spent those last years doing retreats for priests. Even when John Paul, right before he died, John Paul came there to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Sheen wasn't even in the audience right there. He was down praying before the bus of sacrament. And he was kind of exiled then. And then John Paul said, where is he? Where's Sheen? And you're like, he's downstairs. Go get him. And it was like the parting of the Red Sea. And there's that famous embrace. [00:52:40] Speaker A: Oh, he has a beautiful picture of the embrace. [00:52:41] Speaker B: He suffered a lot. [00:52:42] Speaker A: Pull it up, John. I want to make sure. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he. It's very powerful. You could even see the clip, too, where they embrace. And it's the words that Sheen longed to hear his entire life. And John Paul whispered it in his ear. You have spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the church. [00:53:02] Speaker A: It's like, dude, he didn't give in to resentment and gossiping. I remember reading, correct me if I'm wrong here in his Autobiography. He was vague about the conflict with Spelman. [00:53:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he always avoided it. He alluded to it. [00:53:15] Speaker A: He didn't smash the guy publicly. He couldn't, but, you know, no, he. [00:53:20] Speaker B: He said it was the hardest time of his life. He wrote some of his powerful works during that time because he had to go really deep. It's when he experienced what he called his priest victimhood in a way that he never experienced before. But he said, because he gives hints, he's like, during this time of my life. And if you look at, like, the final date is when Cardinal Spellman died, that's when it was lifted. But he says, if you follow Christ, you have to take on the cross, and if you don't, well, there's no other path to holiness other than that. So for somebody who had been given everything, God showed his love by allowing him to suffer in the ways that he did. And he especially suffered on Marian feast days. He said that was his mother's special love for him that let him share in the peace of her sorrowful heart and her suffering. He'd have, like. He had a fragile heart, so he had heart problems. And he'd be like, on a feast day, he's in the hospital. But, you know, he. He got his wish. At the end, though. He. After all the suffering, he said he never stopped praying every day that he would drop dead. He be. Yeah, he would drop dead before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament on the feast day of Our Lady. [00:54:36] Speaker A: Did he? [00:54:36] Speaker B: He did. They literally found them in his private chapel right before the Blessed Sacrament on [00:54:42] Speaker A: the feast day of Mary. [00:54:43] Speaker B: And it was. Yeah. And it was the original feast day of the Immaculate Conception. And it's the day that Our lady appeared for the first time in Mexico City for the evangelization of the Americas. So that's his feast day, and it's [00:54:56] Speaker A: the day that he'll be beatified. [00:54:58] Speaker B: Well, his beatification date is. [00:55:00] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. [00:55:01] Speaker B: But the feast day is chosen. It's that day. And that one date embodies almost everything. If we take that onion and start going down to the core or opposite, take an acorn, see where it blooms. The connections that heaven is making by doing that. [00:55:21] Speaker A: Wow. [00:55:22] Speaker B: Is. We should all ponder that. It's so full of hope. Because Our Lady Guadalupe, the conquest, was the greatest conversion in history. In history. Nine million in eight years. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. Never before. [00:55:36] Speaker B: And an impossible culture to deal with. A culture of death, human sacrifice. They didn't know Juan Diego. These people didn't have any understanding of a God other than a bloodthirsty one. So now Our lady has that conquest, [00:55:53] Speaker A: and literally there was no Mexican people before that, because the Mexican people are a mix of Spanish blood and indigenous blood. And they didn't come together until Our lady of Guadalupe united them. I mean, this is the unique. [00:56:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they couldn't find a way to evangelize them. And the Bishop Zumarraga was writing to Rome saying, please, like, send help. Well, heaven did send help. Because another reason why it's a Pentecost, or two reasons. One is, if you do the math of 9 million in eight years, it's essentially a Pentecost a day for eight years. Like 3,000 conversions a day. And then it's a Pentecost, too, because I didn't know this until not too long ago. [00:56:37] Speaker A: So Pentecost Sunday, the first Pentecost, Acts 2, 3000, came. [00:56:43] Speaker B: If you broke it down for eight years, that's cool. That's why she's the star of the new evangelization. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's just awesome. [00:56:53] Speaker B: And here's another factoid that's really interesting. There was, like, over about a hundred. [00:56:58] Speaker A: Your numbers are spot on right now, though. I'm just gonna say. We're not just dealing with infinity here. No, no, you nailed that one. [00:57:04] Speaker B: It's like, 120 dialects within the indigenous people from the Aztecs. Another reason that made the conversion so miraculous and why the bishop was begging for help, somehow, was because how do you then bring the gospel to so many? Our lady brought it to all of them in her image. And the story itself of Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, and he's entering what the Indigenous people knew 3,000 years earlier. Talk about preparing for an event like this. They called it the Flower World prophecy. The words that he says, where am I? That I've entered such a place of such beauty and flowers are glittering. And it says what all these indigenous people, the Aztecs, the culture Mesoamerica would have known in song form for millennia. And so when this word came out of this miracle and this conversion to Christianity, they were like, what's going on? And when they told the story of Juan Diego, where he was and how he was able to see this, they're like, how? How did he enter the flower world? Because nobody could do it. And they said it was baptism. Where do I go to be baptized? I want to enter the. [00:58:17] Speaker A: So they were teed up. [00:58:18] Speaker B: Exactly. So the image itself. They made pilgrimage to the image. But the story, this oral tradition of what was going on had all these Aztecs wanting to now make pilgrimage to their new mother. And then when they saw the image, as you know, there's like, there's a triptych of just all the. Or pictograph. Not triptych. A pictograph that the locals would have immediately seen from the flower in the middle, the center. The divinity in the center of the universe is in her womb. It just goes on and on. They immediately saw it. [00:58:53] Speaker A: And the connection is beautiful. I mean, this is a media. A picture is a media. It's a medium. Right? That which stands between me and you to deliver a message. That was a medium they had. Here's a medium for the new evangelization. Mary, the star of the new evangelization of Guadalupe. New evangelization Fulton Sheena. It's like he's the poster boy of the new evangelization using all the media that he could Feast day on the same day. Dude, this is what cool connections. [00:59:21] Speaker B: So now check this other connection out. This came out from the beatification date of the 24th, because his previous anniversary is September 20th. But. And I was like, September 24th is a Thursday. This seems so insignificant. Like, other than practically the domes available that day, maybe, yeah. But no, it ends up being the feast of Our lady of Mercy. Why this is so cool as well is because if you look at agadi Guadalupe in 1531, you fast forward to 1931. That's when Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and says, paint this image of divine mercy. That's going to be an instrument of mercy for the world. And now we're coming up to 2031, which Sheen, John Paul II Sheen, saw the cycle of the church in 500 year cycles. We're at the end of that cycle is right at that time. So you have the anniversary of Our Lady Guadalupe and the conquest of the Americas, the new evangelization. The star of the new evangelization. And then you also have the 100th anniversary with the jubilee of the Divine mercy image at the same year. In all this cosmic battle that we're in now, we are. I don't know what it's going to look like, but it is so clear. We are going to witness the most epic of conclusions of a battle. It's like the Tolkien the battle of the five armies and the Hobbit. Or it's like all of Middle Earth, you know, coming together against Sauron and the end of Mordor. It's like all of this mobilization, what you're doing, what we're trying to do, it's to get souls now and for those souls that God will have at that time, it's going to be so epic. And that's why she says, we are living on the precipice of the greatest spiritual revival in history. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Wow. So wow. [01:01:09] Speaker B: And the 2000th anniversary since redemption. [01:01:11] Speaker A: Dude. [01:01:12] Speaker B: It's like, all at the same time. This is unbelievable. It's exciting. [01:01:17] Speaker A: One of my favorite writings about the new evangelization. If you Google Ratzinger New Evangelization. I'm sure you read this. It's not that long. Yeah, but he stages it just like that. And if we don't believe this, then we don't believe in the power of evangelization. But he literally just says the whole future of humanity is on the line if we succeed at the new evangelization or not. If we succeed at bringing people with all the means at our disposal today to Jesus, or we fail at it because people who have no idea why they exist. If you wonder where war comes from and division and the contempt we have for each other in society. I mean, like, when we were kids, you talked about civil war possibly happening in America. People would laugh at you. Now it's like you see the growing contempt. It's like these things look realistic. You know, A World War 3 looks realistic. A scorched earth for all of humanity doesn't look that far fetched. You know, people don't have this optimistic view of the future, but when people don't know why they exist, that's where all those things are on the table. [01:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:11] Speaker A: Everything is in line with whether or not we succeed at doing what Mary modeled, what Sheen modeled, and bringing people to Jesus and back to basics Right now. [01:02:21] Speaker B: That's it. [01:02:22] Speaker A: That's it, man. [01:02:22] Speaker B: And it's all you can encompass the whole thing as and what embodies that whole false hope that everybody's being driven to right now. It's AI. [01:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:35] Speaker B: It will have the answer to everything. [01:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:38] Speaker B: If Elon's right, he said 2027 would be the year that he sees confidently that they would reach what they call AGI, which is artificial general intelligence. [01:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:49] Speaker B: You know, so. Which means it's smarter than everybody. And as the world collapses, something steps in the vacuum to be the Savior. And this is why Sheen always drew us back to the three temptations of Christ. Because those temptations will encapsulate what is always the spirit of Antichrist. And eventually the Antichrist is that he will come as an economic savior. Give them bread and they'll follow you. Jesus was hungry. Turn these stones. Give them Marvels. Throw yourself off of the temple and they'll worship you. And then lastly, these are all the kingdoms. They're all mine. And Jesus never corrected him. So now we're in this global net, you could say, and this is being proposed as people who have no faith at all, who are in these fields, economists, whatever, they see all these things coming down and they're like, we need an economic savior. They even use those words. And AI is going to do that. So it's like when you mentioned the simplicity. This is why with Sheen, it all comes back to that. Why do we spend an hour with Christ? Because Christ is real. Christ is God. God is intelligence. This is the anti God. Not like intrinsically. [01:04:08] Speaker A: No, no. It can be used for good. But when we don't put purpose on it and we just let it run by itself, that's. [01:04:15] Speaker B: This goes back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of science is what the Latin word knowledge comes from. Scientia. It means knowledge. And in a fallen world, as long as the world keeps turning its back on God, it's not like it denies God. It simply chooses another God. And Sheen says, Nine out of 10 times, it's going to be yourself. So the things. The core of evangelization comes down to identity. Sheen was talking about this even in the 60s and 70s that he saw this identity crisis coming. He says, because all the borders will be eliminated. What does he mean? Because something is defined by its borders. A country is defined by its borders, its limits. And when you have an identity crisis, it's because you're trying to work outside of something. You are. He's like having a fish. He said it's like a fish at the top of the Empire State Building, saying, what am I supposed to do from up here? You know, like you're literally a fish out of water. But this is the evangelization that's so needed because it's not doctrinally based first. It's like you said and what Sheen said, it's going after the disorder and the wounded parts. If we don't go there. That personal. It has to be the personal touch first, because they're not going to care about the Eucharist or anything until they know that God actually loves them. He's a God of mercy and he's not going to leave you where you are if you choose. It's your choice to trust him and surrender everything in him. And like St. Jerome, I love this story by Sheen. St. Jerome was with our Lord. I use this during Lent. St. Jerome's talking to Jesus and he says, look, I've given you everything, Lord. I've transcribed the Bible, I've done all these works. And Jesus said, there's one thing more that you haven't given me, that I want more than anything else. Give me your sins. [01:06:14] Speaker A: Wow. [01:06:16] Speaker B: And that's what he's asking us. So the battle today is that there is no sin. Well, eventually, like you mentioned other people, you have to eventually, in order to almost kill your conscience, create your own world where anything you're doing is acceptable. [01:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:32] Speaker B: And we need that anchor back. I think it's your daily meditations. Right, the daily anchor. I know that was not planned. [01:06:41] Speaker A: I didn't pitch that. That was not even planned. Hey, speaking of pitches, how do people get more about what you're doing? And you release a lot of beautiful meditations from Sheen. You've done Advent meditations that I've signed up for that are daily. Sheen through Advent. How do people get all your goodness? [01:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, those. They usually come out just seasonally, but I'm hoping to also working on something that's going to really make everything more personal for everybody. But you can go to fultonsheeninstitute.com that's our big formation base of what we do, our retreats, pilgrimages. You're going to be at the beatification. We're having a pilgrimage to the beatification. We're going to have a conference the day before. I hope that people will join us, because if you like what we're talking about here, we're going to have this all day long. But from other people who have had this kind of super impact, like Sister Dede will be there. [01:07:38] Speaker A: Beautiful. [01:07:39] Speaker B: And so that's another thing where you'll find there we also have. It's called the Fulton Sheen Movement. And we focused a lot on the cause itself, getting people to pray for the beatification and the canonization. But at the heart of that has been the daily Holy hour revolution, where it's an invitation. It's not like you're signing up to, you know, get a product. You're just kind of. It's as Sheen would call it. It's a declaration of dependence. That's what we need. And it's simply saying, I'm going to sign on to that. And you just. And it's. You're holding yourself accountable, not under the pain of sin, but it's. I'm in. I'm all in. And I want to be a part of this because this is going to change the world. And bring peace to the world. So the FultonCheneInstitute.com FultonCheanMovement.com There you go. It's kind of the two lungs that. Well, I think it's going to have a great impact on your life. [01:08:37] Speaker A: Praise God. [01:08:38] Speaker B: Praise God. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Let's pray. Let's pray. Actually, a very simple prayer. I sat at Fulton Jean's tomb in Peoria. It was really moving. I didn't know what to say. And I just prayed liturgy of the hours. I just said, fulton, she pray liturgy of the hours with me. So maybe ask Fulton Sheen, would you pray the Hail Mary with us? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. [01:09:04] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. [01:09:10] Speaker A: And Lord Jesus, help us to see this moment of grace for what it is to receive it and to respond to it by following the path set by our lady of Guadalupe, the path set by Fulton Sheen in the new evangelization and bringing people back to basics, back to you and staying rooted in that ourselves. Amen. [01:09:30] Speaker B: Amen. [01:09:30] Speaker A: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Man, dude, thank you so much, man. Thanks also for, like, the stuff we were talking about. I could see, like, everybody goes through trials in their lives, you know, And I remember a young Peter in Stephenville 70 years ago. [01:09:43] Speaker B: I know idealists, right? [01:09:47] Speaker A: And the Peter sitting here now is far better, you know, because you cling to the daily hole era and those things through the storms of life. And it's formed you in a beautiful way through the sufferings of your own life. Like, we all have our own sorrowful mysteries and. Way to go, man. Proud of you for the doctor. Proud of you more for that. [01:10:07] Speaker B: No, I'm proud of just all the things that the Lord has done. I mean, the Lord is faithful. He just wants us to trust him. He really does. And he'll work it out. And your spouse will be grateful for it as well, because they'll see the change in you, and that's the only thing you can change is yourself. And what a great way to do it. So I'm so grateful for Sheen. So grateful for you, brother. See what God's done with you? It's all good stuff. All things come full circle, and it's getting tighter. We need it. Brothers in arms. It's. Yeah. Good, good stuff. [01:10:37] Speaker A: Praise God. Love you, man. Thanks again, dude. What a grace. We love you guys. Thanks so much for watching What a great time to be a Catholic. What a great time to be alive. Can I preemptively say, blessed Fulton Sheen. [01:10:49] Speaker B: Blessed elect. [01:10:50] Speaker A: Blessed elect Fulton Sheen. Pray for us. Amen. [01:10:53] Speaker B: Amen. [01:10:54] Speaker A: See you guys next time.