CVS Live Guest - 2023-01-27 - Brandon Danilition

Author Streamed Friday January 27th, 2023

There are 206 episodes in the Guest:Solo series.

Streamed September 30th, 2023

CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-30 - Tyler Smith

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-30 - Anthony Stine

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-28 - Alan Judd

Streamed September 27th, 2023

CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-27 - Maria J. Bain

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-24 - Shounak Das

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-09-15 - Bug Hall

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-02-25 - Jeff Elsdon

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-02-25 - Ben

Streamed February 25th, 2023

CVS Live Guest - 2023-02-25 - Mason Carson

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CVS Live Guest - 2023-02-04 - Adrian K.

Streamed February 3rd, 2023

CVS Live Guest - 2023-02-03 - Andre Rose

Streamed January 3rd, 2023

CVS Live Guest - 2023-01-03 - Adrian K.

Streamed December 30th, 2022

CVS Live Guest - 2022-12-30 - Joust7800

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-12-17 - Will Lawson

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-12-16 - Shawn Ruby

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-12-09 - Ryan Adler

Streamed November 30th, 2022

CVS Live Guest - 2022-11-30 - Will Lawson

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-11-18 - Dirk Lafleur

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-11-11 - Don Johnson

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-05-14 - Joe

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-05-01 - Ben

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-04-12 - Joe

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CVS Live Guest - 2022-02-10 - Aidan Lisney

Streamed January 30th, 2022

CVS Live Guest - 2022-01-30 - TJ

Streamed December 31st, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-12-31 - Zackery

Streamed September 26th, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-09-26 - Nikola Krcic

Streamed September 18th, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-09-18 - Bill Whatcott

Streamed September 17th, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-09-17 - Nathan

Streamed September 3rd, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-09-03 - Chad Ellis

Streamed March 21st, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-03-21 - Ben

Streamed February 28th, 2021

CVS Live Guest - 2021-02-28 - Nikola Krcic

Streamed February 23rd, 2020

CVS Live Guest - 2020-02-23 - Pykris

Streamed February 22nd, 2020

CVS Live Guest - 2020-02-22 - Aidan Lisney

Streamed January 25th, 2020

CVS Live Guest - 2020-01-25 - Kalen R.

I discovered Brandon's Xenfona channel on YouTube and he accepted my invitation. He's 20 years old today, but he had a religious existential encounter at about age 13. He went through a brief Atheist phase only to become Catholic at about age 17 or so. It was a delight meeting him and hope to chat with him again soon. God is good.Check out his Xenfona channel here: https://youtu.be/OK4B_AX78U8


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These YouTube transcripts are generated automatically and are therefore unformatted and replete with errors.
shoot I forgot to adjust your image there you go okay good and we are live I'm here with my friend Zenfone is that how you pronounce it well you could just say Brandon but yeah my name is zenfana uh that's the YouTube uh name for me online at this moment okay cool very cool very nice to meet you uh so I'd like to start my shows my interviews with new guests by asking you to go back and fill us in on the back story what's your faith Journey been like uh you seem very young so tell us how old you are tell us when you first discovered God and religion tell us how many different World Views you've gone through because of your family and because of your own reading and where you landed where you are today and where you'd like to go and all that sort of good stuff please well my name is Brandon um online as in sinfauna um I'm 20 years old at that moment so well I guess if I were to explain my story a bit uh they'll definitely uh over simplifying uh some of it um I was dominant uh for the most part raised in a single mom uh household I was still close by dad uh but I would know how old I was when they separated but it was a pretty healthy separation compared to separations that I know of uh so basically I lived with my mom and I wasn't really raised religious I was just kind of I had no knowledge of religion I had absolutely no idea what Christianity really was uh you know the only time I had encountered Christianity there was one time where my mom took me inside of this uh Catholic Church of a big cathedral but it was only to like a candle so I had no idea what it was um what the purpose was other than the candle was I guess a symbol of some kind but I I don't have any really knowledge of it you know and I lived in Toronto I was raised in Toronto and it's one of the most Multicultural places in the world you people there's people wearing burkas wearing crosses I mean you can counter very different cultures and religions and I I understood that that was culture I didn't really understand that there was a belief framed around it and very personal uh belief and so I was more so just interested with science nature and that was as far as my knowledge went um I didn't really have this philosophical idea of a Creator so to speak however as I draw drew closer to science and nature I did kind of have an intuition of a Creator God and even though I wasn't taught about God wasn't raised religious I kind of instinctively knew that there was a Creator and so I would sometimes pray on occasion and I guess out of my childhood in a sense like my prayers would always be answered with that kind of Drew Me Closer be like oh I have to do this every day now and so I would usually just say like a prayer uh every night before bed uh just to God and not really having understanding other than that this is the creator uh and so my fascination with like spirituality um definitely I would say struck when I was 13 years old when I heard someone explaining uh Jesus Christ and Christianity he wasn't even talking to me he was talking to my mom uh and I just happened to be kind of overhearing the conversation of his witness of faith and I remember when he was explaining it to her I felt like crying so like he was there definitely to speak to me but it was to my mom and so it was like but I was there to listen and I felt like crying at just the words and I didn't even know why like okay you're explaining about Christ it was like it wasn't even that what he was explaining it was like beautiful he was just like talking about it and yeah I felt like crying because just there was something I was like wow this is so real like there's something I just know in my heart about this and so I started to pray that Jesus and explore Christianity from there and I remember when I first did that like I would just crying and like because they intimacy that was so real and that was what I would say I was like maybe past 13 years old uh so I would say that about that time and I had access to social media so I would do some research and I would just kind of hear stories about people who became Christian so that was basically as far as my faith went but I didn't really have an idea still I I probably couldn't even tell you what the Bible was I probably even couldn't like explain anything like that to you other than that this Christ figure is real and the the concept of the Creator and prayer definitely being a part of my spiritual life and so I definitely experienced that uh personal upbringing Within Myself of spirituality and I started to have these dreams when I was that age I remember one in particular that was very impactful for me then and still is um I was 13 still and I would say this was about Easter it was this was Easter time and it might actually been Easter um and so in the dream I remember there was like a valley that was very bright like it was like very very vibrant colors and there was this man carrying a heavy cart and on this path and so there's this huge Valley a very vibrant and this man with a heavy car is pushing it along this path and the path heads to this like Cube like castle and so he's walking towards there with something to deliver and then um the frame ships it's like a movie the next scene now I'm inside the castle from the perspective of the person who's like the king or princess or whatever the person sitting on the throne of that castle and I'm looking at that man who was having the heavy cart approaching me on the throne and he offers me this crown that is like so vibrant like the colors like radiate towards you and so uh you know it's kind of almost like a Disney movie you think about it the colors just like like shine towards you and I remember it like feeling like the colors like touched into my soul like it was very intimate and then whoever I was uh looking from the perspective from it was sitting on the throne looking gazing on this Crown then the person said this the paraphrase why should I wear a crown of gold and silver when my Lord wore a crown of thorns and wore for me and the way that it was said was so dramatic and it just hit me and so I had no knowledge of the Christian faith other than I guess the very Essentials uh but anyway some years go by I'm 16. eventually uh you know I had an atheist phase which I could go into if you want but I want to kind of just get the story over done with I started to explore again my Christian faith and um this time began to look at the Catholic side of it and it eventually I became Catholic and then after that once I was already Catholic it took like so I was baptized a couple years ago uh when I was 18 when I actually became Catholic and it took a while for me to realize that I would say perhaps even just last year that that was actually a quote from Saint Elizabeth of Hungary who was a a princess so having a dream about a Catholic saint whose princess has a castle whatever and I had no knowledge of that but my dream is perfectly that with a quote like it was like oh this is real this is true and so that's definitely where like a part of me realize that that you know like you could say any religion or spirituality whatever you want you could make a case you can make an argument for why it's true but more than what's true what's real and that's where it impacts me to realize that the Catholic faith Catholic Christianity is Beyond true it is true but it's more than that it is it's real and it's an active uh Faith it's alive and active and it's happening all around us and to realize that the faith is something real intangible is something that like you know you can't get rid of yeah it's supernatural and uh the fairy tales the stories Hollywood movies Disney which you mentioned all of these are very very pale Shadows low quality low budget reproductions of the reality which is Jesus Christ and his church in Salvation history right so we think about the other way around we think about reality is grim and a lot of well a lot of more jaded adults people that have lived through more than you have so far uh think about just escaping from the reality of day to day because it's oppressive and it's Bleak and they want to go into let's watch a movie Let's Escape let's go on a fantasy let's go have an orgy let's do uh uh you know join a swingers club let's inject some fantasy and some uh some excitement because my life is not barely worth living so this is the reality of uh hell on Earth it's not really hell because there is hope but there are a lot of people that are struggling to Find meaning and if they only knew their creator and had if they only were able to open up to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our Protestant separated brethren love to emphasize if they only had that then they wouldn't be trying to escape and I'm guilty myself wanting to escape the drudgery of day-to-day life I'm 53 years old and you get tired you get worn out from uh just you know the bad news in the news and you know the crime the the corruption in the world and you just you want to escape so I do understand I'm not condemning anyone but we should choose where we're going to escape into for do we want to go from uh reality into a lower reality like one of Satan's fantasies or do we want to go from our meager understanding of reality into a higher reality into God's reality so that's what I was thinking about when you were describing that uh that period do you want to comment on that before we move on well sure sure the great harm in what you're bringing up it's a form of escapism and people wonder like well okay why why would that be bad you know like it's just a quick pleasure for myself and I mean like okay well I mean you know I could just like make a quick case that it's against religion or whatever but like okay well that's religious beliefs like what's the great harm well you mean even from a psychological view it's a form of escapism I mean the the form of pleasure it's like Hedonism and you know Hedonism is uh you know it's feeding a black hole and so you know music and movies and all this stuff I mean I love music I love to watch movies on occasions but the great harm where we can become obsessed so to speak that I even I've faced my life too it's like you could almost become like depression as a symptom of that and you know you don't feel depressed when you're watching or or listening to music but then outside of listening to music all of a sudden you start being more depressed and it's like you have to rely on it and it's this this form of escapism and Hedonism but ultimately it's feeding a black hole and it's like a parasite that just like it's a way that energy of yours and so it's like very much what we're witnessing today where we're not necessarily considering what's essential to mental health and what's very needed for therapy you know most of therapy today is utter BS and isn't based on science at all when the psychology shows okay exposure therapy one of the greatest forms to actually conquer trauma let's try everything else to cure trauma other than that it's like what do you mean that's literally the what what science has shown is the answer well let's just look for Answer anywhere else there could there has to be an answer somewhere else than this answer well you have the answer and the great harm is that there's not really an answer anywhere else and we're not really considering the truth of it and so you know when I was struggling with mental health when I I've had therapy for maybe maybe a few years I don't really know how long precisely but you know what are you going for therapy for and obviously there are good therapists I won't deny that um and there are obviously people where they need therapy for certain reasons but like when I went it's like why was I going it was kind of just affirming like depression affirming my anxiety and you know you hear I guess from this mainstream New Age spirituality a big thing about affirmations you know I am wealthy I am rich it's like you're literally doing that but negative affirmations I am depressed I am sad I am suicidal that's what you're going to the therapist for and it's like it's so strange that you're going it's a it's and I'll say this therapy monitor therapy is a parody of confession because you're going You're emitting it but there's no Absolution there's this advice and advice is very simple you can try to take it but it's not it's not an act at that moment and the thing about confession is you're not going there like it's a therapist you're not like explaining your big issues not that you can never do that but why do we have these struggles what's the the the the cause these are symptoms depression anxiety what are these symptoms of you can cure the symptoms but the cause is still there so you always struggle with depression and that's where the therapists have to say you can never cure it you have to you have to cope with it well yeah because you're never curing the cause you're only going after the symptoms so the symptoms will always come back to you have to continue to cope with it what's the cause well it's sin you know like if it's fornication any form of sin this harms you psychologically for example uh uh you know like like when it comes to like sex the psychology of Sex You Are embedding your psychology with the other person and so when it you break apart from them it's like a part of you breaks and it's a real damage and so you can just call like explain these symptoms away oh I have depression oh I'm having bad you know arguments all the time with my mom and whatnot but what's the cause okay well it's that sin you have to go and confess and so you know I won't act like you know confession fixes everything in a sense it does but in a sense you go back to confession but we are definitely witnessing a culture that is a post-christian culture a society that had strong Christian values and now it got rid of religion threw the baby out with bath water and now these are the consequences of a post-religious culture trying to find its roots and ultimately everything that we're fine in modern society is a parody at what Catholic Christianity had already objectified yeah for sure I agree with you 100 and I'm sure you've heard the um I'm sure you've watched some reality TV whether you like it or not and there's this thing called the confessional in many reality shows where the the contestant speaks one-on-one to the camera and bears their soul about what they're going through on this uh game show because that's what reality TV is it's a game show okay and um the reason I like watching reality TV with my wife and she's not a Catholic by the way um is because you know you get a glimpse into the human soul and in a way it's kind of perverted because there's this confessional where you're in a little box as a contestant burying your soul about whatever whatever your struggle is if it's a love show or you're trying to find a husband or wife or whether it's a Survivor where you're trying to win a million dollars whatever it is uh you know these are real human beings bearing their soul and it is tragic that it's such a cheap imitation of what Christ has to offer Us in the church with with sacramental confession true and true encounter with god with the God man and the source of every good and so it is everywhere this this phenomenon that you that you're bringing up about the uh perverted uh parody I think that's the word you used the parody of uh Christ and his church and the sacraments and we could go through if we wanted to and we could catalog everything that's in the Catholic church that is good and wholesome and we could say how it's been taken over by this Protestant sect or by Islam or by uh this uh secular mechanism in society that is replacing that need that's been neglected by the Catholic church and this is not to blame any particular members of the hierarchy over the past 2000 years that haven't fulfilled their Duty and therefore have allowed it to go out into the world and to be twisted and perverted and then thrown back in our face but that is what's happening that is what's happening and I often think I want to talk to you about um our brothers and sisters our separated brothers and sisters in the products of the uh Community but this is how I think about them I think about the body of Christ the mystical Body of Christ and Saint Paul talks about the different members the eyes not the food and the food is not the nose and the nose is not the shoulder and whatever and the way I think about protestantism is that it contains Catholic truth but it's like lopped off a finger or a hand or a nose or an ear and it's just magnifying that one element of the Catholic faith and uh you know there's a tendency for Catholics to look at a Protestant denomination and to say oh no they're wrong but that's to Mr to miss the point what we have to say is that's that's correct the element that you're focusing on at the exclusion of everything else is good and holy in its proper place in the body everything has to be coordinated and everything has to work together a nose is good but we can't just have the nose and the function of the nose and the same with every other body part and that's how I see the fractured Body of Christ and this is one of the many reasons why Christian Unity is at the very top of my priority list I'm praying for Christian unity all the time my wife is culturally Greek Orthodox and I'd like you to comment on everything I just said but I also you want you to just throw in uh to let me know and my listeners know what is your ethnic background because you look like you have some sort of uh Balkan or Eastern European Roots well yeah yeah uh on my dad's side Ukrainian uh my mom's side is a mixture of English UK and uh Chinese so there we are very very mixed and so yeah well I I could get more into the cultural like aspect of that but I guess the comment what you said uh I said earlier I guess the first part of what I was mentioning is my exploration of Christianity I explored Christianity for a while and eventually led me to Catholic Christianity but before particularly Catholic the Christianity I was presented was very aggressively anti-catholic and so you know I had all those like typical things Catholics worship Mary Catholics aren't true Christians uh they believe they have to work to get to heaven I mean we all hear the stuff but you know I was pulling up a Bible verse that I'll mention uh because it has to do with this but you mentioned how like when it comes to protestantism which I forget if it's like 40 000 different denominations and far more vast number of theologies to include than that you know when it comes to all the problems and evangelicals and the list goes on and on all these are only ultimately little sets of what Catholic Christianity fully comprehends I mean you know Martin Luther was big on saying you're saved by grace no worse just Grace uh John Calvin was big on predestination and you know what I found really interesting in Catholic Christianity is it reconciles the whole thing it brings up works it it emphasizes on what like the whole Grace thing the predestination but it makes sense it's the fullest sense and so you know I I'll mention this because it's response to precisely that it's Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10 is a famous passage and I'll read it with some commentary too but anyway so this is the start so that's what it says for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not because of Works lest any mans are both so I'll move on to the next verse in a second but that's the famous passion that they'll use they say it has nothing to do with work it's Grace and in a sense we could agree that we are saved solely by as a gift of God and so we don't have anything to argue here but the next verse verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so the the the point is that people will say it no works at all you can just be a Christian by that Grace even if you're a murderer as long as you confess that Jesus and Lord You're Going To Heaven it's like well not all those say he's Lord Lord go to heaven that's also mentioned in the bible so what's going on there it's not just mentioning it it you know faith without works is dead as I believe the James the gospel or uh sorry the Epistle of James says so you have that passage that by grace verse 8 what I found was amazing doing some research is I found this uh one uh thing that was signed by a bunch of Catholic authorities that was basically affirming yes we are saved by grace as a gift of God apart from our works and that was a radical for me to hear but the next part of it that we are created we are saved for towards good works doing good works that's why Saint Paul and I can't remember where this is in but you can look it up and you'll find where it is in the Bible uh Saint Paul says we work out our Salvation so what's going on there well I mean even Protestants have a kind of idea that there's three stages of Salvation you get saved you're being saved and you will be saved in heaven so you get saved whenever you initially give your life to Christ get baptized in all that there's the process of Salvation working out your salvation as Saint Paul says and then you are safe when you get to heaven when you're judged and you're saved from hell you're you enter Heaven or you've just been saved there and so the the part the part is like you have little parts of it like okay Grace Grace that's it and then you have people like you have to work to have and work to heaven and you have people like the calvinist which and I know Calvinism itself is very divided so people won't necessarily agree with me on this who are calvinisms but you'll have an effective crownliness to a big on predestination and how there are certain people who will get to heaven certain people right now who are destined to go to hell and in a sense you could think that well okay I guess God does know who's going to heaven and hell ultimately despite of our personal choice but there is still an extent of our choice and all these things are ultimately fully comprehended in Catholic Christianity and so that's where I love to say Catholic Christianity is the fullness of the Christian faith Catholicism is the fullness of the Christian faith and I mean I guess this is what I mentioned even in my video that I made which I think I'm maybe spent about a month on was just that was that for the first thousand years of Christianity it was just the Catholic church and the Catholic Christianity and sure you have Orthodox too but it was practically together Orthodox Catholic Christianity and our Bishops were and we were together and all that and what happened is that every other church today you can trace it back to the Catholic church at some point it doesn't matter what church every other church and and I want to have respect and say like it doesn't like I don't have an issue with what church you attend right like I'm cold like it's fine but I'm just saying as a historical fact every Church denomination theology traces back to the Catholic church at some point it's an off-brand church it's an off-brand Christianity it broke off from it so it's off Brandon and I know that that people might get upset with me saying off-brand but it is it is a bit of a joke but it also has some truth to it but the fact that for the first Thousand Years Christianity was the Catholic church and every other Church broke off from it from then well that's an off-brand Christian by definition and you know there's a big issue with that too you can trace the pope all the way back to Peter and we can say that oh well Peter wasn't really the head of the church okay well then what about the pope next to him after that and the Pope after that I mean why did did a person just come when Peter died and say okay I'm going to continue Peter it's like no the succession is real you can literally Trace Peter all the way back all the way to our current pope and the current pope all the way back to uh Peter and more than that it's not whether you actually believe in the succession and the authority of the Pope it was in the late 4th Century in which pope Damascus so now you have a specific Pope with the Catholic Bishops authorize what books to be in the Bible and so I could go more into that at some point too but like the it was at this Council of Rome right and and now just before I go into that just quick explanation for the first 400 years Christianity you didn't really have a singular Bible you had thousands of gospels gospel Thomas and of course the ones we know like Gospel Matthew Mark Luke and John but there was all these gospels like Gospel of Bartholomew Gospel of Mary was one like hundreds of Gospels and way more Epistles and there wasn't just one apocalyptic book like we have Revelation there was more like I think there was an Apocalypse of Peter and Paul if I'm not mistaken it was vast and depending on what community you belong to you might have had a specific collect in the books right Shepherd of Hermes was a very popular one and yeah it was so so there wasn't really a singular text other than like the Torah would probably be the one everyone agreed on the first five books of Moses uh amongst Christians and Jews but it was until the 4th Century in which Catholic Bishops authorized by Pope damasus uh shows which specific books to be included in the as the Bible from Genesis to revelation and so each book was put together by that in the 4th century and that's a big issue the fact that 400 years after Christ the Bible as we knew it came came together from Pope the masses and I think it was Pope's serious or silicious um forget precisely his name but he gave the name to this volume of sacred text as the Bible and so the Bible is a Catholic book and you can debate with me and be like oh well the Bible says this the Bible says that the Bible is a compilation of Catholic teaching so I believe the Bible oh well the Bible says this you guys do this okay if I as a Catholic I'm actually breaking the Bible if I'm actually breaking what the Bible says then I'm falling short of being Catholic you can understand that as a Christian if you're falling short of what the Bible says you're falling short of Christianity well I'm saying it as a Catholic if I'm falling short what the Bible teaches I'm falling short of that because historically it is a Catholic text and yes it's inspired by God and all that too but the fact that that is that sacred tradition of the church and sacred scripture go hand in hand sacred scripture came from sacred tradition and it's equally inspired by God and that's not me making a religious case like oh well here it is like this is historical like okay you believe in the authority of the Bible I hope you do if you believe in the authority of the Bible from Genesis to revelation or isn't it problematic for you that you know for the first 400 years of Christianity that after the first first 400 years it was Catholic Bishops which chose these specific texts to be compiled as a Bible and so to begin with the Bible starts at the Catholic Church absolutely this is I'm getting myself in a lot of hot water with my Protestant brothers and sisters on Twitter I just joined Twitter a few months ago when Elon took over and uh you know I am constantly looking for guests to talk about their religion whether they're Muslim Jew atheist uh Protestant catholic whatever but um my obsession recently is the Bible and the authority of the Bible and the the fact the Manifest reality and we perhaps I don't know if this is a good time to get into this this is a very deep deep deep subject and we could go the rest of our time just talking about the Bible but it is on my mind and maybe maybe this is as good a time as any to get your feedback on my on my idea here it's sort of a pet project that I've been kicking around and it's really really aggravating my Protestant friends on Twitter and I've lost a lot of friends this week just talking about it the idea is that uh there is an inerrant Bible but no one's ever seen it we don't have access to it in a in a human uh natural way here below like you can go to the bookstore and buy 100 different versions of the Bible but they are they are fallible translations of fallible copies of fallible manuscripts and we don't have the actual autographs we don't have the writings of the Patriarchs and the saints that wrote the infallible inerrant Bible which does exist and which is the source of our faith together with tradition like you mentioned and uh it does exist it's up in heaven and we draw from it in a mystical way this is the difference between being a Catholic or or even an orthodox the apostolic faiths like Catholic and Orthodox and we can we don't need to talk about the Schism and the the roots of that and how it's going to be healed but basically if we Clump them together the two lungs of the church East and West the apostolic Christianity is different because it's mystical it's not natural it's not a man-made religion and it's not a man-made interpretation where you use your private judgment to be the ultimate Authority I say and I believe and I'm sorry if it insults you as a Protestant but I say and believe and it's true that every Protestant is his or her own Pope period you are the authority you decide which doctrines you're going to accept which ones you're going to reject which ones appeal to you which ones don't appeal to you which ones make sense to you which ones don't make sense to you and so on and so forth there are a million reasons why you settled on this particular set of doctrines that you accept and I'm sorry but you've made yourself you have submitted not to Christ's Authority not to the authority of the Vicar of Christ or of the living magisterium but you've you've settled on you've submitted to the authority of your own private judgment so this is devastating to the Protestant they don't like to hear it and I want to be charitable every time I remind them of it but I think it's very very important uh to wake people up to this reality you don't want to belong to a false religion you don't want to I don't want to no one wants to the Muslims and the Jews today they don't want to belong to a false religion and they'll cling desperately to a false religion until they are convinced in their heart of hearts that it's worth breaking away from the family from the community from their spouse from their children from their grandparents it's not easy I'm not making light of this but we have to seek the truth we have to find the truth and if you do seek you will find and then you'll get the god-given courage to uh to do what's right and to commit fully and it will cost you something it costs Saint Paul Saint Paul was persecuting the church and he he was confronted with Christ who said why are you persecuting me right and that was the another instance where Christ identified himself with the church and Saint Paul says this is a deep mystery that Christ and his church are one flesh so I've given you a lot to respond to there but the basic idea I want you to respond to is that we only have fallible Bibles here below I call them Bibles militant and the real Bible the actual Bible we draw on it through a mystical Supernatural connection that the living magisterium by the guidance and the power of the holy spirit is able to connect to the actual teachings of Christ and the apostles so what say you well yeah that's a very interesting take and I think I've heard similar cases like that before um and and I've definitely heard aggression of that precise uh uh statement from many Protestants you know that would be very interesting I would definitely encourage you to look into the project regardless of where it leads you um you know I guess like a big issue like a comment you made about being your own Pope uh someone who I think is a catechist uh who was a teacher when I was in rcia who would teach the faith along with the priest there um kind of made that point and before I was Catholic and exploring Christianity myself I was pretty much like my own Pope I was disregarding everyone else I was seeing what the Bible said and trying to make my own mind up about it well I mean there's that famous passage in the book of Acts or someone that's reading a passage from the book of Isaiah and doesn't know what it's saying and so the apostles come to him and he's like I don't know do you know what it says and they come to his Aid to explain it to him guess what he accepted their explanation of the Bible and so you know if you're just going to be that person not sure what it says and then try to wrestle your own mind about it and your own interpretation while you're your own Apostle are you an apostle and something in those amongst certain Protestants and these are very specific Protestants amongst a very particular sect of evangelicals and Pentecostals is they start calling themselves Apostle or I'm the Apostle and come to my church well you're just a pastor my friend why what do you mean an apostle you know what that is legally and spiritually they were the actual followers of Jesus Christ and they would choose men to appoint them as Bishops right and that was Apostle succession or is that in the Bible the King James Bible which Protestants love for the most part and I actually read like twice before I was Catholic uh it talks about Bishops literally in the New Testament throughout it it talks about Bishop Bishop Bishop what's a bishop you know you can't make your mind what's this word and I thought that was kind of weird because I knew Bishops was an Anglican Catholic Orthodox thing and I'm trying to be like a Baptist kind of person Bible alone bible alone no Authority around me it's my personal faith not some organized religion Bishop Bishop Bishop There's an actual institutional like Church and that was kind of odd well I mean again I could go back to the point the fact that the Bible itself the books were chosen and put together by Catholic Bishops but if your church doesn't have Bishops you're not of the Church of the Bible now obviously you know someone could give the random case of what if you're alone in on an island and you have no access to a church at all okay at the very least the most you can do is the most you can say right if you're on an airplane and there's no one around and you're it's falling and all you can say is Jesus I'm sorry for my sins I accept you as mine Lord please save me I'm sure that prayer will be fruitful but as as possible as we are able to go closer to the truth which ultimately leads to Catholic Christianity in particular I mean it goes back to that point and it and when I was exploring Christianity before being destroying becoming a Catholic in particular I was up again not that much Protestant mind where I would read certain sets and try to grab my own rationality about it it was very funny because I had a phase of being a deeply offensive uh conservative type of fundamentalist and then I went to another phase where I was very Progressive uh left this type of Christian just based by my own reasoning of the Bible itself well now as that person and I'm actually being biblical here because it's in the Bible it's a literal biblical story but I'm in that situation where I'm like what does this say well now the apostles come to me the Apostle and they explain it to me well who's the Apostle well they're dead you know long ago well no I mean sure I guess you know the actual individual ones from that time passed away in that time but they appointed Bishops and those Bishops appointed further Bishops and you can appoint you can trace those Bishops in the Bible and the apostles all the way to our current Catholic and Orthodox Bishops and our current Catholic and Orthodox Bishops can trace themselves all the way back to those uh Apostles selected by by Jesus Christ and so we're the Church of Christ not in the sect of Mormons and those folks who claim to be but there's a historical case that we traced ourselves back to Christ himself and so to say that you know there's a differing metaphysical atmosphere to the Bible it kind of is objective to say that in a sense and I don't really know what to say to that much but I would say that it's very interesting for you to explore that and I'm very interested to see where that might lead but the fact that prior to the late 4th Century there wasn't an essential biblical text well here's this what about the Old Testament and this might upset certain people uh I'll say it so basically oh man uh all right so basically I already explained that it took 400 years for the Catholic Bishops to choose the specific collection of texts in the Bible and from Genesis to Revelation and that's where we get our Bible what about the Jewish Hebrew Bible the Old Testament wasn't that there before Christianity well I already explained yes part of Torah definitely but you know from Genesis to Malachi to the full Old Testament that was already discerned by our Catholic Bishops too so what about the Jewish Bible that was selected I think it took a while all the way up to the like 6th Century with the councils of Jamia in which uh uh the rabbis there basically in response to what the church had done discerned their own biblical thing and those same councils were anti-christian that's when Christianity are Christians they were banned from synagogue attendants and that was a an even further Schism a legal Schism between Christianity and and Judaism so Martin Luther not Martin Luther King but the Protestant reformer in the 1500s he you know basically looked back at the Jewish Bible to look at the original and what he found was there are certain books that are in our Christian Catholic Bibles which the Jews don't have particularly like the book of Maccabees perhaps the most famous case and so that's where the lie comes in hand at the Catholic Church added books to the Bible they added these books to the original Jewish Bible well no they added it as much as they added the gospel of Matthew or the or the gospel of Mark and Luke it's they added it to the extent that every other book came together when in the fourth Century an actual Council Council Rome those Bishops chose those specific particular texts so you turn to the what you think is the original Jewish Bible and there are certain books that aren't in it did you add it why is it there well that Jewish Bible in particular came after ours much as a response to Christianity and in the council's journey as I mentioned so if you take yourself to that ancient time uh when Christianity was very new so to speak Judaism was very divided much as Christianity is today we have many sex of Christianity many many Protestant sects and even Catholics themselves are slightly divided as I'm sure you're very aware of but Judaism was vastly divided as such too you had scribes Pharisees you had these like very weird groups where sort of like a monastery where men would hide away in these communities in the desert but it wasn't like just a monster in a Syria it was like their own form of Judaism yes that they precisely and so it was very divided between the Hellenistic Judaism and the Hebrew Judaism Hellenistic being Greek and Greek was basically the language spoken then that's why the original gospels the followers of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Greek you might think it's weird Jesus was Jewish his followers are Jewish why didn't they write in Hebrew well Greek kind of just became like English today they were English replaces Latin uh Greek kind of replaced Hebrew of that time and so the majority Authority of Judaism was Greek and a small minority though definitely prominent you know like the Pharisees were more in particular uh Hebrew and this more dominating Greek Christian uh Judaism is kind of what became Greek Christianity and the Jews that accepted their Jewish Messiah and Jesus so you could say that Christianity Orthodox and Catholic that is is at that an ancient remnant a proper remnant of ancient Judaism and this other Judaism that's Hebrew also represents a differing sect I won't go too much into that but you know there's a big issue where people think that oh it's a new religion well no it's you know like what you know there's a big debate I and I like to hear different opinions and I watch a lot of uh Jewish content that attacks Christianity and I try to really hear what the Jewish Community has to say to try to uh prove against Christianity but I'm just more and more convinced on my side where you know in Discerning my own ancient history research it seems apparent to me that Judaism was divided at that time between a very prominent Greek Hellenistic uh form of Judaism and then another sect that was more particularly Hebrew and a vast minority of Jews who are waiting for their Messiah came to accept it him in the figure of Jesus where we get Christianity in that sense and so when you see the council hegemia in a separation it's almost like sorry what happened with the great schism these two forms of Christianity or Judaism in a set in a sense and that's where if you look at the Greek Orthodox in particular the way that their church is constructed is like how an ancient Jewish synagogue is explained in the Torah where you have images of angels where there is a gate between the before the altar to or like a uh what what is it yeah a screen like it to keep it and that's explained within the Torah and that's how if you go to an orthodox or Eastern Catholic Church you're practically in the original form of a synagogue and it's kind of weird because if you go to an actual Jewish synagogue it is similar to just a Protestant church that you go into like there was a United Church I went to before I was Catholic and if you walk into that or a a synagogue it feels similar the way it's constructed and so Judaism did have its own Reformation especially with rabbinic Judaism just as Christianity had his own information with protestantism so we know that with Christianity there's a reform of protestantism if you want more agent you go to the Catholic Orthodox sex but what about Judaism is it reformed Judaism where I've been at Judaism what do you if you want to get more ancient it leads to Christianity Orthodox and Catholic that is a remnant of ancient Judaism from the Hellenistic Greek sect and so you know I guess I'm not sure where to go there but I guess you are explaining different sex and it's like Judaism all this stuff and even Islam like ultimately Christianity Catholic Christianity is the fullness of the Christian faith and a lot of these it kind of fully comprehends what all these little other sects are trying to grasp absolutely I agree with you 100 the way the way I emphasize um uh or the emphasis that I put in apologetics deals with three stages going from an atheist to a generic monotheist or a classical theist that we can just just use philosophy pure reason and we don't need any uh leaps of Faith whatsoever no faith-based beliefs required to be a monotheist okay this is why I'm not too worried when people attack my Christian faith and they they get all excited thinking that they're doing some damage the the most damage they could possibly do even if they bug dug up the bones of uh Jesus and Mary the most damage they could possibly do is bring me back to generic monotheism and for me it's all about God God the Father anyway right like you mentioned Saint Philip with the Ethiopian and how he said how can I understand it unless you uh if someone explains it to me well Saint Phillips also the one who said to Jesus just show us the father that'll suffice right and of course Jesus said well if you've seen me you've seen the father so I have a sort of a fondness for saying Philip for many reasons but the idea of monotheism and God the father Jesus if you if you watch him listen to Jesus Christ and what he emphasizes it's all about God the Father rendering uh adoration and true worship to God the father so um but no one goes to the father except through the son so the monotheism part I'm very very happy to have anyone attack my Christianity go for it the worst you could do is bring me back to God the Father you know and if I lose faith in the Trinity oh well big deal you know but I mean no one's even come close to shaking my faith in the Trinity I did want to mention just uh I'll throw it out there and you can respond to it later but I did want to mention that the development of the doctrine of the Trinity is something that Protestants don't really want to talk about because they want to lean on their Bible but it's just the fourth century when they got the doctrine of the Trinity so anyway that's another little fly in their ointment with private judgment but what I'm talking about here is the three stages to become a Catholic first you need to get into monotheism for that we can use pure reason then we have to get into Christianity how do you do that you look at uh you look at Jesus Christ you look at history what are the monotheistic religions saying about this Messiah what did the Jews say about the Messiah what did the Muslims say about the Messiah and what did the Christians say about the Messiah you just need to look at history and there's a lot of documentation more than you'll find in any other area of that period that time period of the Messiah there's more documentation about uh both the Messiah than there is about any any other historical figure right so just look at the story and come to your own conclusion and look at the development of Judaism that you just outlined very nicely for us look at how the priesthood fell away look at how the temple was destroyed look it what has happened did something happen did something very big happen uh or not look at your calendar look at the date why do we have adbc look at just look at the basic facts and then examine from the Muslim perspective is it really an honest critique of History to go back and say that these were uh you know uh unitarians and that they did not believe in a trinity is that an honest assessment of the historical time period no it's not so we have to be honest we have to look at history and if you are if you're a monotheist it's basically Judaism Christianity and Islam and the question of the question surrounding the the Messiah the controversies surrounding the Messiah the alleged Messiah the ostensible Messiah if you look at it honestly you will be a Christian it's pretty easy and then you know leaving aside the Predator natural influences of the devil in the world and all the pride and you know uh you know respective persons and these sorts of things if you're just honest with yourself if you have a disinterested Love Of Truth you will become a Christian the final stage once you're a Christian is to look at the question of authority we've already touched we've touched on that you've touched on that in your video that I watched about the Bible and about the Canon and these sorts of things so I just wanted to throw that out there to you that it's not that hard to become a Catholic if you love the truth and if you're disinterested meaning that you're not implicated you're not worldly you're not attached and you're you're willing to follow the truth no matter where it leads at any cost which I think is uh part of the Innocence of children that's why they ask questions that are awkward for adults right so Jesus said you have to be like a child you have to be so this three-step process to get from atheist to monotheist monotheist a Christian Christian to Catholic on paper at least it's very very simple and it's not rocket science it's it's it's it's a slam dunk at every step and at every stage and yet we persist with 40 000 denominations of Christians we've got all kinds of different religions and I love each and every one of these adherents of these different World Views including the satanists the you know the atheists the whoever I love and respect each of these uh persons because they were made in the image and likeness of God Christ died for them and not only that there's a plan in place to bring them into the fullness of the of the truth and uh the image I'll just throw one more thing out there for you to chew on and to respond to which is uh this guy here do you know him patriarch tell me Noah Noah's Ark that's another image I love in the early church fathers they talk about Noah's Ark and there's no salvation outside of Noah's Ark it's the same thing with religion we can't have two True Religions we can't have Christ is not divided as Saint Paul says right so you're in or you're out if you're in you're saved if you're out there's absolutely no possibility of Salvation and that's a Dogma that was actually reaffirmed at Vatican II so I've given you a lot to chew on there a lot to talk about go for it well yeah I mean I would just say like if we remember back I would say maybe this is around 2016 uh because of certain events that were taking place if you merely criticize Islam you're considered islamophobic even if you're just making a rational criticism of it you redeem as a bigot and I think there's something today even similar to that where if you merely criticize Judaism you're deemed as anti-semitic and it's like no I I love a lot of Judaism aspects obviously because I I'm a Christian it's Chris if you're a Christian you're a person who believes that the Jewish Messiah came in the figure of Jesus so you know and I was raised in a prominently Jewish school and so I could say in a certain sense I wouldn't call myself Jewish but there is a certain aspect of my community that that was that and so I'm definitely you know anti-semitic but you know I definitely want to just kind of separate anti-Semitism from merely a rational criticism of a religious construct particularly or the modern Judaism because I I I love to respect and learn about differing religions and cultures no matter what it is and when I hear the criticism from Judaism it's very much uh the basis that oh well you know Christian is that but this is not what we interpret the Hebrew Bible to mean but but all that stuff is based on Modern rabbinic Judaism that is again a reformed Judaism right and if you turn back to the more ancient Judaism those people did come to believe their Messiah came in the figure of Jesus and this Judaism that doesn't that that denounces Christ as a reformed Judaism that well doesn't accept Christ and so you know to to the historical basis is that you know Christianity on the Orthodox and Catholic side are remnants of ancient Judaism so there's not this Schism here of oh well you know Judaism is one thing and Christianity is other we are ancient sect of Judaism that came to believe that our Jewish Messiah came in Jesus and that and and so there's that and it's like you know one common oh no I won't say that uh because it doesn't imply here um but to move on to Islam you know I I I respect a lot about it because of the the Orthodoxy especially um I think that a lot of Muslims that I know and you know I have Muslim friends and I learned about Islam and so like again I'm not as islamophobic either and you know it's just like it's the same to them when I'm hearing Jews and Muslims criticize Christianity I know that they're not persecuting me I know they're not necessarily at the Catholic or anti-christian they're making a rational criticism of my faith and when I make a criticism of theirs it's just each other having rational discussion so just as much as if a Jew or Muslim is criticizing my faith in a rational way I know that they're not attacking it and so when I'm doing the same to them I'm not attacking either we're having a rational discussion here so I definitely want to emphasize on that point but in regards to Islam you know the word itself means surrender to God that's what their Arabic uh term Islam means the same with Muslim is that Muslim is one who surrenders to God and so that's what those original terms mean and so that's uh where the term Islam and Christian uh Muslim were commonly used by Christians even of the Arabic culture prior to the Muhammad form of Islam that we know today as an actual uh organized religion but as for modern Islam the part of it is that that definitely is problematic is the figure of Jesus because if you're a Muslim you have to believe in Jesus you know if you don't believe in Jesus you cannot be a Muslim because even the Quran and the the Islamic faith talks talks about Jesus being a great prophet and teacher from God he's the Messiah but they have a different use of the word yes and that's what I'll get to is that you know the price precisely is well okay what was the point of him first of all the point of Jesus as as prophet and teacher was that he was the last prophet so if you believe in Muhammad if you believe in Muhammad you accept he's the last prophet it is impossible to accept a prophet after him and so if you accept that Jesus is the prophet being the ultimate fulfillment as as the Messiah to be the final Prophet himself well that's kind of problematic because okay if I accept Jesus as a prophet and his role is as the last then I cannot accept anyone other that namely Muhammad and so there's a bit of an issue there but also the claims of the identity of Christ they'll say that oh well Christ was Prophet but he was not God and they'll say that that was a later concept you know and and something I hear from Muslim apology all the time is to show one verse where Jesus says he is God just one verse and the issue with particularly the Jewish religion is that there's not simply a title like God the the higher power the creator has multiple titles no Adonai and so on elohiman you know God being in there too and it's like you could you know say all all these names all kind of the same God right and the thing is Jesus might not necessarily say I'm God word word word but he does say I'm and then just another name that equally implies God like he says I am and that is the self-proclamation of him being the Eternal one that's outside of space and time and so he does say he is god with titles other than God that means the same thing in Judah uh uh religion and so you know you can say well where does he says he's God well he does it just there's many titles and he used other titles to imply it and more so is that in you know you could say that Jesus is just a prophet but you're you're kind of disgracing the purpose of Christ the purpose that he was born to the Virgin the purpose of him coming as the Messiah which was that as the ultimate fulfillment aka the last prophet which would denounce mohabbit and the factor of him being the Incarnation uh the image of God made flesh which denounces the Islamic claimed that he's not God that he's just a man um where he he claims to be God as I mentioned but also the point of him coming into the world and being born of the virgin was that you know like look at this Exodus the book of Exodus the very famous story of Moses on Mount Sinai and you have the burning bush this bush that's on fire but the fire is not consuming it so imagine a bush that's very vibrant with leaves and flowers and berries whatever and it's on fire but the fire isn't hurting the leaves or the bush and so you have this concept that the heavens cannot contain God yet this woman could marry contained what the heavens could not which was God in her womb and that sort of is akin to the uh burning bush that you find in Incarnation this concept of being born of the Virgin that God now dwells here just as he came upon the bush and so to say that Christ isn't God and all that it's kind of missing the point that that the figure of Christ was absolutely you know that the Muslims Revere Mary as a very perfect woman perhaps the most perfect I'm not exactly sure I'm not up to date on their beliefs with respect to Mary but she certainly is revered right honored mm-hmm well I would say more so than um what our Protestant brothers and sisters do but there is a Revival now for things like practices like the rosary amongst certain Protestants I don't know if you're aware of that um they're you know because they like to shop around and they like to revitalize their communities by importing different Catholic things from time to time hey let's go back and look at what the early church used to what practices they used to engage in and these sorts of things and it's a dangerous game because uh you can find yourself Catholic pretty quickly right and I would even comment on that I mean you know the rosary I have one here and uh people can attack the rosary but the issue is that the rosary saved Christianity you might have known about the Battle of Loreto if I'm remembering the Ponto thank you yeah Loretto is a marine operation or something like that I think the Battle of Lepanto uh in which uh in this material Crusade so the Muslims and the Christians were at War anyway there was a Muslim militant group that was going at war with Christianity and so they were going to strike the West strike Europe strike the pope and all that and Christianity was going to be demolished by this Muslim militant group and so the small group of Catholic Christians stood in defense of these colonizers and while they were overwhelmed by the number of Muslims is all they could do as commanded by the pope was to pray to rosary and that's what brought the victory of the battle and so quite literally the rosary saved Christianity then uh it you know in a sense we credit the Rosary in a certain degree to a certain degree for our Christian faith today and so you know it's a very famous prayer and the fact that globally Christianity seemed to reverence this rosary as essential to their medieval Christianity it shows us how essential apart of it was and it's like you know it's a way it's the Bible on beads you're meditating on the Life of Christ and you know you could say Where's that in the Bible well again the Bible came about way later in the late 4th Century that this was it's the differentiation of the Sacred scripture and sacred tradition the rosary was very prominent um for that time too and and much as the Bible eventually came together and was more authorized uh by certain Bishops and and of course I guess you if you believe in the Marian apparitions commanded um but you know the the history of the Rosary there's a deep Orthodox tradition that's like the rosary and I'm not talking about the Jesus prayer necessarily but there's even one where you recite practically the Hail Mary though it said differently there to certain meditations on the Life of Christ just as you do at the rosary but in more Eastern Christian way and so this is very deep ancient Christianity that we're looking at why do we love Mary well because Jesus loved Mary and one thing that the Protestants emphasize is surrendering to Christ looking towards him and one thing that's more emphasized within the Orthodox and Catholic Church though it's not necessary as mentioned as it should be is that we are the body of Christ so when we believe in Christ and accept him we are now in the person of Christ Persona Christie and so we have a duty in his person and so we love Mary and the person of Christ so it's not in in personal Christie that we we love Jesus and Mary and Joseph it's in his person as a very special gift too because if you think about it it's completely centered on Christ and our relationship with Jesus and for for us to participate in the personal life of Jesus that he shared with Mary and Joseph that's the most profound and precious gift the most greatest gift that we can participate in the day-to-day heart of Our Lord that he shared with Mary and Joseph and so we do love Mary and Joseph it's in the person of Christ and you can visualize in meditation from the scriptures of how Mary and Joseph took care of Christ held Jesus in their arms you have the passage in Luke where it says that Jesus subjected himself to them and you have to understand this is the body of Christ as an infant but that represents the church that represents Believers right we are the body of Christ is what the scripture says in the mystical sense so Christians the ancient Christians if you read the writings understood that as Mary and Joseph took care of the infant Christ the holding this body in their arms it represented in a mystical sense each one of us as the church who is the body of Christ and so when Christ subjected himself to them that was the church the mystical body it's not whether you like that or not that's what Jesus did and it as his body uh mystically that that's where we all are you accept that Jesus died for your sins while Mary Stood Beside the cross and so as soon as you accept that Jesus died as your that's for your sins Mary becomes a part of your spiritual Christianity and so you know you could read the writings and it's all just that Catholic view of Mary and Joseph in the person of Christ that we love them and of course it's firstly centered on Jesus and it's from that person of Christ that we love them and so it's that Duty that people forget is the fact that we operate operate in his person but that's where we further are devoted towards uh Mary and Joseph you mentioned a few things that uh prompted some follow-up questions uh so I guess I'll do rapid fire what do you think about theosis the idea that we are uh to die to self and to become Christ in a mystical and real way and that we are uh to become you know Christ uh became a man so we could become God to paraphrase some uh Catholic writings so I mean this is this is emphasized I think even more strongly in the East but what's your take on theosis it's definitely something that people will just say and make arguments about but lip service is something that needs to be carefully examined throughout lectures and stuff and so it's a very complex subject but one thing I'll explain is that there is definitely an essence of uh where you'll find in the spirituality of I think uh Saint uh Catherine of Siena if I remembering correctly and some others of being Christ's beloved and this sort of marriage to God and that is biblical we find in the Book of Revelation uh that Jesus is married to the New Jerusalem this new church well the church is the body of Believers and so it represents the church and this Jerusalem that Christ marries himself to and you know it's this marriage between the church us and God uh you could read the song of songs The Song of Solomon where it's a romantic uh erotic poetry very bizarre to be included in the Bible when they first read it but when I looked at it at a spiritual lens it was very enlightening uh where it's like you know my beloved is mine and I am beloved I am my beloveds and his desire the desire of my beloved is for me and all this quote and so looking at Christ like saying you know I take you as my own please take me as your own Keep Me In Your Love Like There's a definite marriage in our spirituality to God and it could be like into theosis um the fact that we are taken to his love kept in that heart which essentially is heaven to be loved by him and to love him and you know I had an experience after I became Catholic when I was baptized and about the first week after that I experienced this uh weird religious experience uh as the psychologist uh term it where you know I like I I've had anxiety and depression and all that and I've had like panic attacks where you're breathing heavy you can't like you have to just sit down you can't stand and it's out of your control and it was the same thing but it wasn't Panic it was Joy it was being overwhelmed by joy and I felt every cell in my body just loved it was like it was almost as though Christ was just standing in front of me and I really felt that he was literally even though I didn't see anything but it was that experience to love God and to be loved by God and so our faith is a radical romance and that is deeply spiritual that I think that that's where every other spirituality is actually phony there's nothing to it Buddha's I'm sorry I I respect you I I have some Buddhist friends but like to really fall in love with that Nirvana as you call it that whatever is out there Beyond us but defying us fall in the radical romance with it right with God like that there's nothing to compare with it and the Protestants can love Jesus but so often they kind of denounce an extent where it's like okay you love him in a weird Barren sense that he is a king and as you would love a politician that you really really River but to fall in that personal relationship as they call it and this is very complex but like to really fall in love with God I think is an essential element to our faith and that to fall in love with God I mean that is Enlightenment so to speak where you fall every fill every cell of your body and it's like it's beyond this literally because that's heaven and so perhaps the beatific vision and you know if only you knew right and so to be joined to God you know in a sense for him to take you as his own is sort of the beatific vision of of going to heaven you know heaven isn't like you know the Mormons have a concept that when you die and go to heaven heaven might be a planet in another parallel universe or whatever right Heaven you you get each if you get your own planets and so that's Heaven it's literally just a parallel universe you wake up from you know it's like the Matrix you wake up from this reality into another uh but the concept of Heaven is you wake up Beyond like it's maybe you'll have some weird physical sense to it and in a sense yes you will because there's the concept of the Resurrection body uh which I won't delve too deeply into but you know Heaven is also a state of being and for me when people talk about State beings I'm always bored because it's like okay what you're just gonna feel this Perpetual feeling forever and that's it but it's real it's it's a real state of being that you encounter like and of present now and so uh theosis I I don't have much to say on it other than that what Saint Paul says it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and so ultimately that could be summarized and just being an utter state of being loved by God and falling in love with God and that could ultimately be theosis perhaps absolutely absolutely and uh I myself emphasize always emphasize the romance that you that you touched on so eloquently and the love and the uh those who don't understand this kind of talk in the context of religion I would say sadly um haven't even experienced love on earth like with with a person of the opposite sex the two are so intimately related in terms of analogy like the the if you've ever met a beautiful woman and you're a very young man so I don't know how much experience you have but and I'm not encouraging you to seek illicit uh experience that's for sure okay but um I want you to be virtuous and to uh love God first and to obey his Commandments and all that but there's a place if you have a calling to be married there's a place for romantic love and if that's your calling uh it is a religious experience I'm sorry it is a religious experience when you are with your beloved it's a little hint of Heaven it's a little mystical experience just to wet your appetite for God that's what it's all about it's God first and neighbor second and that includes your beloved spouse or supposed to be whatever it is and the beauty the Transcendent beauty of a woman and I'm not exaggerating it's a mystical experience it's a religious experience and nobody asks well aren't you bored what did you do last night well I just stared into the eyes of my beloved well isn't that boring no it's the opposite of boring to to consider being separated from my beloved is hell and that's what hell is it's the separation from the Beloved and they know that God is good when they're in hell but it's too late they know that God is the source of everything that's good everything that they want everything that could fulfill them everything they're seeking now in PornHub they could get in God but they chose to react to their little selfish desires short-term desires to fulfill their pleasures and that's the torture one of the tortures the primary torture of hell is realizing oops I had it all and it was free it was accessible I didn't need money I didn't need privilege I didn't need status in society I was there the door was open I just you know and not only that Christ was knocking constantly at my door and all I had to do was let him in and so that's part of the major pain of hell is that regret and the loss the loss of God this is what the theologians teach and this is what the church teaches it's the primary suffering of help I don't want to dwell on the negative but it's to emphasize is that love is the exact opposite of boredom it is not boring to be with you beloved and even though for those who are not in love looking from the outside in they say well this is silly this is ridiculous what are they doing how are they how is this fulfilling them well you need to be you need to be in love to understand and a lot of people talk about the love language the little silly nothings that are said between a man and a woman who are in love a man and wife uh the little silly nothings the little code words and the little inside jokes and all these sorts of things on The Superficial cynical analysis you could just say this is childish nonsense but there's something deep there's something mystical there's something magical about the Simplicity the Innocence the spontaneity and just the there's a Code there's a magic there's there's so there's a lot more happening uh on that vertical Dimension then what's happening if you only analyze the horizontal worldly dimension of that and to go to fall prey to Satan's lies is to say well it's all about the pleasure it's all about conquering uh your next woman and getting more numbers so you can brag to your friends in the locker room that you've got more numbers than they have and you've conquered more girls than they have and you know the different experiments that you've engaged and all these sorts of things Satan will tell you it's all about the novelty and the next thing and these superficial pleasures and money and power and everything that's good everything that God has given us here every pleasure and every um everything that people are are sort of killing each other to uh to obtain it's sad to say but there are if you look at the history of the wars uh since the fall a lot of it has to do with grabbing power grabbing money grabbing oil grabbing grabbing natural resources at the expense of innocent uh families and these sorts of things it is horrible but this is what Satan does he says look these are good things don't you want them don't you don't you don't you deserve it don't you deserve to have pleasure don't you deserve to have your family Excel and you know to have a nice retirement or to give an inheritance to your children Satan will justify uh grabbing these Goods that don't belong to us and so uh the spiritual battle I'm really rambling on here now but uh the what I'm trying to portray with all of this is that love is very simple and but it's very mystical and Satan hates that and so he wants to replace that with distraction with these superficial pleasures and with all kinds of Goods which are good everything is ontologically good even Satan himself is ontologically good but as Saint Augustine said good by Nature Evil by choice it's all about uh because evil is not a thing evil is not has no substance evil is not a noun but an adverb it's uh it's not a thing but a way this is what Saint Augustine talks about so I'll let you respond to oh that big rant there yeah well like I mentioned earlier what we're facing now is the consequences of a uh post-religious culture and so we're looking for a lot of what spiritual and naturalism and there's a bit of a delay and Paradox and looking in Naturals and for what's spiritual uh I go into certain cultural phenomenons that we're looking at today and and examine as to why these are post-religious consequences uh like if you hmm like the issues of Desire it's again feeding a black hole as Hedonism is and the hole that's in your heart so to speak and this might sound rather poetic but it's also psychological in a sense not literally a hole in your heart but uh you know as much as psychoanalysis goes there is a hole in your heart that desires love and so you feed it with whatever it is that makes you feel loved or and fulfilled that could be food fast food gluttony it could be pleasure it can be self-pleasure self-identity hint hint it can be forms of stuff like that but it's feeding a black hole ultimately what fits in that hole is love God is love and so when you really are in that state of just you are in love by you're in love with God and falling in love with God that you are loved by God in that state certain state that Thomas Aquinas eventually found himself into I I believe uh it kind of just goes away uh it's kind of odd but like you know I've struggled with with certain desires and when you reach a state where you're just loved by God and fall in love with God it kind of just goes away and I think it's because there's a hole in your heart that desires these things but you give it and it's just feeding a black hole but you fit what's properly meant to fit it which is God which is love itself and that it's then where the hole is fit well you don't desire to feed it more you have what's supposed to be put in there it's God and you're fulfilled and your desire is kind of just you don't feel necessarily like you want to like uh you're persuaded for towards uh certain desires because that is the the ultimate desire you know this goes I I forget if it's Socrates um but this Theory and of uh absolutes the forms of absolutes that there is an absolute for everything and you can take your sexual desire you desire for appetite what's the absolute form of your desire just to be loved into love and that's what God is regardless whether God is real I know the atheists will kind of make fun of this but this doesn't even have to necessarily come down to whether God exists you can be an atheist and still affirm that this is completely true and real that psychologically from a mere stance of psychoanalysis like take Jordan Peterson's God who knows whether Jordan Peterson's God is real Jordan Peterson just talks about gobble who knows what that even means you know literally he says what do you mean by God but you know it doesn't have to be a real God it can be completely like a metaphorical portrayal of psychological reality and it's completely true in that sense too when it comes to desire you desire it but once you fall in love with God that's it because you have the absolute form and so you don't need these little minor forms because what's absolute and fills it has been given to you and so again goes back to that Theo system falling in love with God being in a state where you'll love by him and love him and he takes you as your own as his own and you take him as your own where you say my beloved is mine and I am his and his desire is for me as the Song of Solomon says so uh you know like people with the state of religion you know everybody kind of knows that the modern state of religion is very much bundled up into a bunch of rules and old tales and stories but the real depth to it is where you fall in love and that's that that's that's a beautiful radical romance and that's where it's fulfilling and that's where uh the Catholic church needs to be revived with the experience of that in each of our own lives of course not all of us are called to be Mystics or have uh these religious experiences but an emphasis on understanding that is important and I think that Catholic Education definitely needs a massive Reformation especially in Canada and so you know just because we treat religion like oh it's just a tradition from our parents but for Catholic Education to you know there's such a great opportunity that you're raising people that you're teaching youth about our faith you should give them a real encounter right like I kind of thank God in the sense that I wasn't raised Catholic that I wasn't brought in Catholic school because I think that would have damaged my poor my perception towards religion I looked at it for myself I do my own research and I found something that was real that was tangible which is precisely why people leave religion they say it's not real it's not tangible but that's precisely because of the issues of what Catholic Education has become and I think there needs to be massive Reformation with that absolutely while you were talking about a lot of ideas to mind as usual one of the most Plato's simile of the line and he talks about different forms of knowledge starting with fallible opinion at the bottom working their way up through a scientific inquiry which is systematic and then finally arriving at the Pinnacle of knowledge which is attained through an intuition a direct contact an experiential contact with the Divine with the truth okay with the one as a neoplatonist we'll emphasize later so this is maybe an intellectual uh sort of analogy talking about knowledge that the different degrees of knowledge but the um the will is another component of our human nature we have will what do we love like what do we know and what do we love and what do we choose based on our knowledge and what we love and so we can make the parallel I think using Plato's simile of the line in this stepwise progression like what are you what what are you selecting from the buffet that God's given you are selecting the lower Goods do you know that there are higher goods and do you know that there is a highest good and if you know that are your choices modified based on that knowledge are you just going to choose the lower good because it's convenient that that is the definition of sin that I use is knowingly choosing a lower good over a higher good because it's more convenient or for whatever reason short-term gain I don't I don't want to delay the gratification this is Saint Augustine's definition of sin and I think it's the best one choosing deliberately choosing a lower good but we're always choosing Goods that's what I said about Satan he provides God's goods and he basically buys our souls from us using some pennies from our infinite inheritance but the other thing that came to mind while you're talking was the idea of the Dragon in the fairy tale because there's more to there's more to a good fairy tale than just the love story and the princess that the prince gets to kiss and gets to marry there's also the dragon that's captured the princess and that has the treasure has the gold has everything that you want you don't just get the woman you get the gold you get everything and you slay the dragon there's a reason for for that so maybe reflect on that briefly and talk about anything else that comes to mind I've got a lot more questions so I don't know if you have time to continue with me yeah sure sure like um I guess to a bit of what you were mentioning there um started the fairy tale of uh the the dragon [Music] um so you have the the the tower the that in which there's a princess and treasure and there's a dragon that's flying around it protecting it and he kind of the Dragon kind of guards The Princess and the treasure from you keeps it from UK kind of keeps it trapped what's within the castle is kind of good I mean it's well it's the woman right but you know and and in a sense that is a lot of our modern society I mean you could give even just Hollywood as an example our entertainment industry influence is essentially good perhaps I mean there's a huge opportunity in the concept of influence whether that's through music movies just art and you know I had a very much artistic uh upbringing and so I I've had experience with a lot of uh aspects to that and it's very interesting but it's guarded by that Dragon I mean I won't have not I don't have much to get into but it's guarded by that Dragon whether it's these predatory figures or occultism itself that kind of guards your way from ascending to those Heights of uh Hollywood Fame and you know there's a lot of good people in Hollywood for sure uh but there's a depth to it that is very uh infiltrated by certain groups and much of what we find today even certain uh aspects to the Catholic Church where people say oh the Catholic churches this and that a lot of issues with our the Catholic church today is because of groups infiltrating it and certain groups which understand the history that this is the Church of Christ historically based on some of the aspects I told about how the pope is literally traced back to Peter and they understand the history and so one of the greatest aspects is to infiltrate that and kind of manipulate it from within and you know that's where you you have the uh one of the past popes literally saying how the church have been ill-filtrated uh Pope Benedict his book uh that was released after he died recently um slightly touch an edge to that but you know it's real and there's like it's very much like a mafia like like uh a gang of some sort definitely like a mafia where uh you join it but you commit certain acts in order to and if you ever fall short they have something to expose you on you know in in mafias you know you might commit some sort of crime and if you fall short well then they can always just tell the police about your crime and expose you and ruin your life make you a disgrace to your family and a lot of people in Hollywood I mean a lot of people think oh this person is messed up because they committed this and that's a lot of it is like the mafia a lot of people are told to commit a lot of Acts whether they go to Epstein's island or wherever okay you have to engage with this bile act that is just Criminal and if you speak out you're gonna be exposed as a predator and it's because of how this mafia works that has infiltrated a lot of it uh businesses corporations like like Hollywood and I know people be like well Hollywood's a place like you know what I mean by Hollywood the entertainment industry um whether it's religious institutions whether it's educational um institutions there is a great infiltration and so it's sort of like the dragon keeping what's good and so you know how do you fight the dragon do you expose the dragon like what do you do I mean one thing is like honestly our faith is real so taking it seriously is a huge step that's underestimated just to take your your faith seriously is a a a a deep principle to that yeah I say I encourage everyone to take their World Views seriously even if it's Satanism or agnosticism or whatever examine it challenge Yourself by uh you know looking at the assumptions that you are taking for granted with your worldview doesn't matter what the the religion is called or what the particular denomination is it doesn't matter examine it look at it look at the history of it look at the philosophy the philosophical basis of it and the assumptions that you are accepting without having realized it okay because there are logical implications for the fundamental assumptions of any worldview it doesn't matter we're all in the same boat when it comes to committing to a world view either you're consciously committing to all of the unspoken assumptions of it or you may be swallowing a pack of lies in a pack of nonsense without knowing it so there's a limited culpability there's a limited culpability too and so we can't hold everyone to account as if they knew and to to commit a mortal sin is very difficult because you not only need objectively evil matter you need to have full knowledge and full consent of your will wow have you met anyone that has full knowledge of what they're doing and it gives a full consent the freedom of the will to actually say yes knowing the consequences of what they're saying I've never seen that I think it's very difficult to commit a mortal sin what are your comments on that yeah sure sure uh my wife's very anti-catholic and she likes bashing the pope Pope Francis uh so I want to talk to shift gears a little bit talk about Pope Francis I like him I love him I respect him I think he's a good Christian man I think he's Catholic I don't think he's an infiltrator I don't think he's the Antichrist I don't think he's a communist okay I could be wrong about all of this okay time will tell but I'd rather err on the side of Charity and give him the maximum benefit of the doubt and he doesn't rub me the wrong way he his uh the headlines in the newspapers the anti-catholic headlines that say the Pope says this Pope says that I take all of that with a grain of salt I've always taken the anti-catholic mainstream media with a grain of salt on everything that they that they talk about the Catholicism whether it's the Crusades or the Inquisition or Pope Francis or anything else do you are you uh is there someone calling you there no no just just animals I have oh do you need to take care of them no no they're okay they're fine um as for Pope Francis yeah I I agree pretty much on what you said um you know there's a lot of things that people are mad because of what he says uh and I've looked to a lot of his actual speeches and he's and actually witness him saying the precise opposite and so there's a bit of an issue there um you know like yeah like like has it been an issue I mean like people have issues because of things and and you know one thing that I'll just know is like you know the most criticism that he receives are from Catholics yeah so a lot of people like they think that going after Pope Francis is going after Catholics in the Catholic church but even Catholics are probably most people of any group uh topics of themselves Who attack Pope Francis and uh criticize him at the least so you know if people portray an issue towards Pope Francis and act like oh that's Catholics it's like well no Catholics themselves have issues with him um you know you have you have to agree on everything he says on a human standpoint um you know but like people also kind of forget what the pope is you know he's not a dictator he's not a politician he's a spiritual leader so you know people say oh well why can't can he take charge of this and that you know he's a man who's always deep in prayer uh that they kind of keep him there in the Vatican and in A congenital process of prayer and they'll take him out for certain speeches and events um but you know like the real influence where you might see sir think certain things coming out uh where this happens or that people could label Pope Francis as as doing it but often it's influenced from particular Cardinals and Bishops themselves um I mean there's a obvious example uh uh what was his name MacArthur or the character yeah the the bishop or cardinala he was in a bunch of sexual scandals uh and people were bashing on John Paul the two uh John Paul II who was previous Pope and Saint uh because apparently he knew about the scandals and covered it up but if you actually look at the story certain Cardinals and Bishops who were in his Circle uh pretty much explained the situation as they were uh uh blade oblate uh obliged to do to John Paul II but they kind of persuaded that it wasn't true and so the presumption was offered to uh the Pope that it wasn't true and so and it's it's also a bit perhaps of a PTSD trigger because he was he grew up in a very anti-catholic uh uh environment uh and where where the Communist governments uh would make up scandals about priests in order to have a reason to lock them up they were innocent but they would make up these scandals because they were trying to eliminate the Catholic church and so when this struck again it was kind of perhaps even the pts trigger in that sense that he was like okay well he was very much more open to the possibility that this was false and those who are in uh his environment kind of persuaded towards the Pope that yes it was false and so it's not necessarily blamed on the Pope but more so if the pope ever messes up or is accused of doing so it's more so on on the hands of very very particular and specific Cardinals and Bishops uh and he was very unfortunate for sure but you know we we don't leave Jesus over at Judas yeah there's a general misunderstanding uh among anti-catholics and sadly uh perhaps even among certain Catholics about the three attributes of the church uh the authority the infallibility and the indefectability and if we understand those in a balanced insane way given the fact that the man who holds the office of Pope is a human and he might be a grave sinner he might be I believe that the pope can be a heretic the set of acantists say that that's impossible and that's how they justify their position that the seed of Peter is empty have you encountered rad trads online in real life or online and uh the set of acantists do you have any uh do you bump heads with them at all and what do you make of the rad Treads and what do you make of the set of contests General the whole thing raw trads and all that I've definitely encountered that hugely online uh I I feel like I've encountered traditional Catholics I mean people who are harsh towards the pope uh but but they're not said to the Kansas they stole from him as the pope but they're hugely critical of him uh no certain people who uh are around my age uh who who are part of the church that's local to me um that's a link to the college that's by here so I guess like the college here uh and the Catholic people they'll link to that church and so you know I go there and allow young people because link to the college and uh certain of them are are critical towards the pope and very influenced by uh certain online uh rhetoric from some of the rad tribes but instead of a contest uh I would say that uh I've only encountered it really online yeah um it's definitely an issue I have front heads uh slightly but I don't like to because it's like okay I could explain to you just the simple case that like the point of the church is that the pope you know that you know I mean I could I could explain you know my case against him but like I feel like hugely like a lot of times just it doesn't necessarily go anywhere but I can just explain the case and sometimes it will convince like a huge part of what Christ said was that you know the church was on the rock of Peter and that the Gates of Hell will never Prevail against it and to kind of say that you know Peter is the seat of Peter is empty right now it's kind of problematic I mean like for it to have been empty this long you know I don't really have much to say but like you know beneath contempt in a way for you it's beneath contempt yeah like if you if you're a set of accountants you may as well be Orthodox I mean that's they're basically the original set of accountants they yeah they criticized the pope they they kind of had issues with that and so you know if you're don't believe in Authority the Pope I mean you kind of have to be Orthodox because you have no one to celebrate the sacraments for you you know there are certain set of vacantus Cults out there that might claim to be oh we carry Apostolic succession but urine Schism with the Pope you have been excommunicated and now you know you can't continue that succession so it's invalid it's like you know some Protestant sector you know but at least the Orthodox can trace themselves back um and the same with anglicans you know if you're a set of a cantus you know you may as well be Anglican Orthodox they're The Originals of the candidates yeah you do realize the anglicans lost their order right the uh holy orders did you know tell me about that they don't have a priesthood anymore they did at one point because when they broke off uh they started drifting away slowly slowly slowly and they lost the uh they lost their Apostolic standing they are no longer Apostolic if you if you go back if you trace back towards uh King Henry VII eventually I think even uh you know within the past maybe 70 to 100 years I can't remember the exact date when they lost their uh their priesthood but they they strayed too far and they lost uh so they they can no longer lay hands on a man and ordain them as a priest so that's a very big step away from Christ this church is sad but true there's an issue I find with like the Church of England the issue is like it was a part of the Catholic Church uh you know just as much as there's a Catholic Church here in Canada and uh there's Catholic Church in many areas there was a particular Catholic Church of Bishops in England and the only issue really with the church of England that I have is like well used to from the Pope the whole point of the Church of England was that the Catholic church was true you know the fact that Christ established the Catholic church was your uh Authority as the Church of England and the only reason that you're a separate uh denomination is because you know you had a king who excommunicated it by force from the Pope and you know it would make sense to me that after that King that the Church of England would just seek to be reconciled with the Pope they have not as far as I'm aware and so yeah it's definitely kind of a the pressing state so to speak um but you know if your Anglican then your your church basically affirm that the pope is true that the Catholic church is true uh and the only reason it like because that's what it is that's where it came from and the only reason it's not that is because the King by force separated the Bishops of England from the pope so I feel like if you're Anglican your faith kind of by his historical standards affirms the Catholic church is true in which case become Catholic you know uh earlier when we were talking uh you said something I can't remember what it was but I made a little note here from taking notes as you speak and uh I want to talk about it in the context context of ecumenism and speaking with our non-catholic Christian friends um and it's my Approach when there's a controversy someone's trying to tell me what the Bible says or what true doctrine of Christ is based on the by their Bible reading or whatever it was okay or maybe they believe that they had an inspiration direct Revelation from God private Revelation whatever the source of their Doctrine is that differs from what I'm saying uh rather than argue about it this is a technique that maybe you could use in the future rather than argue about it and bring the reasons and the justifications this historical what did the theologians say whatever you just ask the question well what does the church teach on this right and this is a very interesting uh uh sort of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu submission move because they're going to be forced now to talk about Jesus Christ and the church that Jesus Christ built and the authority that that church has to Define doctrine in particular this Doctrine that's controversial between the two of us so you ask what does the church teach and inevitably what I find with the non-catholic Christians that they come back with is well the Catholic church is not the church I know but I didn't ask you if the Catholic church I know that you don't believe the Catholic church is the real church but you have to admit that Christ built a church right so what does that church teach it's not the Catholic Church obviously because the pedophile priests and so on and so forth right Inquisition and all these black Legends can't be the Catholic Church oh no of course not but Christ did build a church you do it meant that right so that church that Christ built what does that church teach and it's a complete embarrassment for the non catholic christian because they're forced to admit that they don't have a church and that the church that Christ built has disappeared and it doesn't teach anything there are there's no organic development of the doctrines which are found explicitly in the scriptures there's no development there's no documentation and what's worse it's 2023 the Church of Christ doesn't even have a website I ask them just send me the link to the headquarters the global headquarters of the church that Christ built and they're like what are you talking about they have no idea it's 2023 and if there's if Christ built a church and that church is alive and well today it's gonna have a website there's no shame in that just like Papyrus with ink on it there's no shame this is not devil's work this is communication I put my ink to the paper and there we go we got a little book okay this is not satanic and it's the same thing with the Internet it's a valid form of communication and for you to laugh at me when I ask you for the URL of the of the church that Christ built it's it's uh it's an embarrassment to me so what I do is I point them to the URL of the Holy See the Vatican and I show them all the encyclicals of the popes and all the documentation of the of the councils and the teachings on the Ten Commandments and exegesis of the Bible and where do we get our Bible and all these sorts of things and uh they just rejected it out of hand but the problem is the problem is they don't have anything to replace it they don't have a church they don't have a church that teaches so what's your response to that well yeah I mean as I said earlier the if you I I appoint the King James Bible which uh you know I read very thoroughly prior to being Catholic though exploring Christianity it talks about Bishops if you open your Bible in general it talks about Bishops um so so the fact that your Bible says Bishop over and over again throughout it if your church doesn't have Bishops then it's not the church that's of the Bible that the Church of the Bible has Bishops if there is an Institutional sense and I don't want to necessarily over emphasize the church as institutional I really don't focus on that at all in my personal life but if you're going to pretend that there's no institution at all that's purely your personal faith and relationship with Christ which again is great but there's no institution that I'm going to kind of emphasize on that because within the Bible it says Bishop it talks about Bishops there is uh you know a college of clergy so you know and and what's the point of the Apostles writing all these letters you know these things that we call Catholic Epistles uh kind of an all title uh is because these apostles were as their Authority being leaders and Shepherds to the church on an Institutional sense they were the heads of it and they were appointing Bishops for it too so the church did have an Institutional existence and when Christ had his Apostles and told him to go into the whole world and preach the gospel to baptize and everything it was based essentially for them to establish these communities and they did these this these Apostles they went into particular areas and established particular Christian communities appointed the Bishops for those areas and they're still alive today they are linked to our traditional catholic churches uh as well as Orthodox churches and so it's well alive today but you know it precisely that if you are not Catholic Orthodox what what where is your church it's very problematic because you could say that the church is simply the the body the spiritual the Believers family the Believers of Believers that you know oh well I believe in Jesus and so does my neighbor so where the church everyone who has been baptized that's the church and we do believe that yes everyone who's baptized this is the church right we're a part of the church as the laity as the people but there are Bishops there are Elders uh presbyters priests described in the the new uh Testament that would look look after a particular Church uh people where they would gather for breaking the bread and Bishops to look over those communities overall that's what they are they're over here that's literally the etymology of the word Bishop episcopoi they oversee right yeah uh you know my Bishop that uh confirmed me in 2009 when I converted from atheistic Satanism that was my worldview before I converted it was raised Protestant I lost my faith at age 14 through a dream a beautiful dream I had about Jesus I lost my faith at puberty and went on to live a very dark atheistic life for 25 years adult life and then I came back to the church 2009 the bishop who put uh who performed the Sacrament of Confirmation I looked at who laid hands on him and who laid hands on him all the way back to Saint Peter there's a lineage in his like there's a website where you can actually go and see I recommend you do it if you were entered into the church if you had any dealings with the bishop you may not have I don't know were you confirmed by Bishop yeah but this was during covet so it was an emergency situation where the priest was given permission but he was given a permission I didn't I did meet him though and I meant the Cardinal uh the Archbishop here Thomas Collins he's a cardinal I went on a treat a retreat asked him a uh a question that he really liked that it was a uh uh what you call a Starstruck moment uh what was the question oh it was it was a very simple question but he really liked it it was just as a priest right uh how it there's like because you have to uh yeah you have duties you know you have to pray the Liturgy of the Hours yeah about seven times yeah you have obligations but you're also there for people so how do you work in life you know as a priest trying to support your community and going out and I I said it better then I'm just kind of kind of yeah remember what I was saying but it was pretty much like well how do you keep that you know you're a problematic question very pragmatic question yeah yeah and he yeah he basically said yes you do have these duties but you know obviously you know like for example the Sunday obligation right we have to go to mass at 10 Mass on Sunday but you know what what happens if you know that the catechism itself gives exceptions well if there's a war if there's something like happening outside where you can't go outside it's like okay then it's okay not to go to church um you know it gets the most radical exceptions obviously it has to do that but you know it's same thing for for a priest right you have obligations but there can be exceptions it's a spirit of the letter fella yep yep it's the spirit so you know you're praying your liturgy and you know but if you if someone comes knocking the door and like please help me father I need your help that's okay aim them right but I'm in the middle of my prayer sorry I can't help you what what he suggested after two was like and I think this was to another question but he also applied it to mine uh was also that you know when it comes to this issue of you know train your liturgy hours like if something comes in a way or you know if you it's just one of those days you miss some of your prayers get back to it where you missed it you know if you haven't prayed all day in this evening then say all your prayers right then and there you have a whole night of Prayer in that case right like uh you know sometimes you know you might just skip the prayers you missed and get to the one that you were at and that might be okay by some Bishops for their priests but as him he was saying like look if you're at a point where it's your third prayer and you miss the other two try to get your other two out there and you know it's uh it's discipline it's discipline and people get all in when it's like you know all while you're obligating prayers you know prayer should be personal yes as well as obligated he's like why not both why not both and so you know it's it as especially as a priest as a pastor it's good to keep that discipline and uh so so what's your daily prayer regimen uh I mean you're very young man but you're on fire for Christ and his church so you may have adopted some fixed prayers that you do in the morning or in the evening is there anything like that or are you only doing spontaneous prayer and uh just talk a little bit about what you're doing now and what you've done in the past what you're aspiring to in the future with prayer I am I am kind of figuring out my schedule at the moment and it's definitely very uh uh bipolar like it changes a lot uh my schedules and the way my routines are but generally you know I mean I have a rosary here so uh reciting the rosary is uh something that I think is very important and you know there are times where I haven't prayed it and whatnot but definitely fixated on praying the Rosary every day did you join the confraternity of the Rosary no I haven't but I've heard of uh I don't know if I've heard of I think I've heard of that before you did have you joined any other confraternities at all no no so it's just a it's just a community and ideally you would actually meet with them and gather and these sorts of things but I belong to a few and I have never really interacted with the people it's just more of a mystical thing and you have camaraderie on the spiritual plane and with the rosary it's like it's teamwork so like if I'm slacking on my rosary today or I burn through it really quickly which I have a tendency to do which is not good but that's what just in my prayer in my walk with God that's where I'm at sort of a nervous disposition and uh you know busy busy busy um then the confraternity is there to help carry the load where I'm slacking you know and if I want to contribute as I should fully and calmly and quietly and I've got a little uh home Shrine here where I can prey on a nailer and stuff like that in front of a crucifix it's very it's very powerful um if I carry my own weight and maybe a little extra for someone in the confraternity who is struggling today or whatever like that so it's teamwork in that sort of sense because this is not an individualistic project Christianity and this is what Pope Francis emphasized when he said it's dangerous to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ he was talking about that if you're just a lone wolf do your own thing right so I remember the presidents were very mad at that so um yeah I was gonna ask you speaking of the Rosary and I'm going to let you talk more about your prayer life but uh Louis St Louis de MO 4. is a great guy to read on the rosary the secret of the Rosary and he has many books oh you have that okay yeah I actually have a a collection of uh it's one big book but it's collection of his texts but uh yeah that includes that is it called God Alone uh no it just um St Louis Montfort and it includes of different books of his and writings including the The Secret of uh the the rosary yeah because I have his letters some of his letters in it do you remember I believe so yeah I'll I should check it out uh I'm reading through a bit of um true Devotion to Mary Cat book yeah I'm reading through that yeah it's that book and I think after that might be the secret of rosary and then there's some others after that yeah beautiful beautiful and so you're uh you're comfortable with it because I've spoken with some Catholics who are not comfortable with the level of um how should I say it it's a very um the emphasis some Catholics find it just a little bit exaggerated I don't but some people find the emphasis and the devotion a little bit over the top you know I don't know is that from reading the books yeah their their impression from reading his his approach toward Mary and the just the over-the-top exaggerate what they consider exaggerated uh romance uh but it's right up my alley the same thing with Saint Alphonsus liguri the glories of Mary if you haven't read that I highly recommend it but the glories of Mary there's a sort of uh Reckless abandon and a real gushing romance about St Louis de Milford and uh Saint Alphonsus look great now the Saint Alphonsus liguri is also sort of a scary guy to read he wrote a book called preparation for death which was very sobering and um but there's also Maximilian Colby I haven't read Maximilian Colby but he's another big Marion uh Saint um so you can talk a little bit more about your prayer life uh if you have more to say but I'd also like you to talk about your your favorite Saints did you adopt uh prayer to a particular Saint or do you have a devotion meaning a love a particular love uh for any of the Saints I love Saint Augustine I love Saint Paul of course and the apostles and Saint Mary of course and Saint Anne the mother of Mary because my wife's name is Anne and there's so many there's too many to mention Saint Joseph of course but um and just all through the centuries there's so many that I could name but uh just touch briefly on your devotions your prayers to the Saints or any particular Saints you love to pray to and saints that you just love contemplating for example this guy here uh you can't really see it too well but it's uh Saint John Vianney just he he just warms my heart just thinking about him or Saint Francis to sales and different Saints like that so just gush a little bit about uh the saints that God gave us sure sure you know when I was um becoming Catholic uh before I was Catholic but this was when I was in RCA so I Was preparing I I got a book it's the confessions I I remember I finished it I think it was the day before my baptism so it was basically defining my becoming Catholic that book converted me by the way from from uh from generic monotheism to Catholicism that's the book that did it Saint Augustine's confessions amazing yes Augustine you know I I don't like how people summarize his teachings if you just go and really look at his death yeah it shows the rationality of Christianity it shows the profoundness of it that it's not at all what we're being given especially this like weird yeah and healthy is more mainstream uh products instead of Christianity where they talk very weirdly and they kind of give a rational approach but the rationality is kind of I'm kind of poor I guess like Augustine hits hard and reading the confession was difficult but I really fell in love with him with Augustine in the fact that I felt like he was explaining my own story and I think exactly it was so odd because that's what everyone else said who read the book that it was like it was their own biography you know the confessions is apparently the first autobiography in the west um like the that we have today at least like fully preserved autobiography in the west is of that one the Confessions by by uh Saint Augustine so you know but but you read it and it's like your own biography that's being told to you and that's very interesting but you know eventually he he finds God and so it's like well I guess that's my conclusion for life where I need to go and you know it's very interesting to see some of his conclusions on that so you know Augustine you know is very interesting because I feel like he says what I need to hear so you know it's very interesting I I was very close to uh considering him to be my patron saint yeah I guess it is kind of like a patron saint like a personal one but uh the one that I chose as like my actual confirmation name uh was Saint Francis of Assisi um and there's the mainstream perception of that like my mom uh always loved him because he likes animals and is linked to Nature and I always did too and so there was that but even more deeper as I explored his uh own faith and Christianity I felt like a lot of mine was reflected in him you know and so Saint Francis Assisi definitely there's a you know deeply in love with like a lot of his spirituality and man but like I don't know a lot of these mainstream franciscans like I don't know like if you actually read his teachings like we have letters from Saint Francis and they're harsh they're very very Hellfire preaching like it's not at all the cute nice guy hippie yeah yeah yeah like father or father father roar or whatever his name is uh you know I don't mean it this perspective at all I know he has like cancer recently or something like that but I I remember watching this interview and he said that hell doesn't exist oh there's a problematic on so many skills first of all he's a Catholic priest and you're saying that the religion is wrong so that would excommunicate you like he's not excommunicated so I don't know why that is but but also he's a Franciscan Saint Francis was heavy on hell so I I don't I don't get that I mean like I could understand where you're coming from but it's like you know if you say hell doesn't exist it's like that's disappointing because so many of us are in hell right now and I mean not literally but it's like how clearly is real because you can go through it and to die in that state then it becomes all the more real and so there's definitely a psychoanalysis uh analysis to hell but you know Saint Francis CC definitely uh is uh one of my favorite Saints I would say obviously because he's my confirmation my patron saint uh but even just what led me to exploring him uh you know there's there's definitely many Saints and I think even like recently like here and there not like a deep devotion but like even like saying uh Mary Magdalene like here and there like uh putting my Gaze on her and her love for Christ and just falling in love with Christ and you know but definitely like as you mentioned Saint Joseph uh you know I recently finished a consecration to him that I've done maybe twice or three times I would say up till now um because well I guess I've been kind of uh what's the term uh what's the term I guess I've just been kind of very overzealous over that um but yeah like like when it comes to Saint Joseph I think there's something very important uh obviously Mary is greater as the theotokos as uh Christ's mother and as well as her Immaculate Conception but other than that other than what all that implies you know she is crowned uh you know for bearing Christ right because he is King now she is Queen uh as the ancient Jewish rule was if you read the Jewish Bible uh the the way that the King then was that the son would be the king the mother would be the queen uh and that sort of plays right there but other than all the obvious things such as that a lot of what you find in Mary will be uh also is shared within St Joseph and so you know he is a very profound Saint and I mean that he's almost as great as Mary other than what makes her the greatest Saint right and so you know he's not the theotokos but he shares something slightly in common with that in the fact that he bore Christ in his arms the fact that he rescued Christ uh from the snares of Herod and in that sense Christ has a baby infant his body very much uh was subjected to him uh as the again the Gospel of Luke literally says you know there's going to be someone who's like oh Christ will never be subjected to humans I'm literally just quoting scripture word for word that he subjected himself to Mary and Joseph um but that the fact that you know and the rule that the mystical Body of Christ uh plays uh therefore the trip in each one of us in Christ as his mystical body are subjected to him and so Saint Joseph definitely um actually I'll show you something if you wait yeah a minute it's uh interesting it's kind of like a wooden icon um I got from Ukraine and it's up St Joseph oh and you know I when I got it it was delayed uh I'm pretty sure because of the War uh that's in Ukraine right now it got it got delayed but it came a while back uh to me when I ordered it and got it blessed uh and I think there's something profound to St Joseph just in my own life because I never necessarily chose St Joseph a part of my personality I think that like St Joseph kind just called me that I I was just kind of called into it um I think in Canada there's something very special the fact that one of our greatest Saints in Canada uh was devoted to Saint Joseph that we have uh the great uh you know what what do you call it the oratory the Saint Joseph in my hometown here in Montreal yeah like I've been uh meaning to go there so yeah if you come let's hook up together we'll go there together for sure for sure I don't plan on any time soon but I'll tell them take a note of that and you know there's definitely like my local church his name Saint Joseph uh you know all you know for all the chances you know it's the patron saint of Canada too right there's that so yeah literally the Patriot Canada like I finally like you know all coincidence AKA not a coincidence that like my spirituality very much debugged uh within Catholicism that Saint Joseph is kind of just inevitable um yeah I mean like Saint Joseph definitely uh and obviously Mary I think that just connecting to the holy family that yeah in Persona Christie and the person of Jesus that we love Mary and Joseph and that's the news very special can you imagine what society would look like if we imitated the holy family and if we put the family first and if we educated our children in a Catholic way can you imagine what society would be like I mean we wouldn't be promoting pornography would we or abortion or abortion and the thing is you know like Mary and Joseph they raised Christ and for about the first 30 years you know what did Christ do he was very much focusing all those essential on the work as a carpenter as far as we know and so you know very much devoted to that and you know if you if you don't find yourself being so profound focusing on the very Essentials I think is essential so you know but St Joseph as a carpenter because what what implies to us now uh if one when we're saved uh if we go to heaven we're sort of you know rewarded in the mystical sense for what implied to us on Earth and so because of Saint Joe being the carpenter he really worked on stuff and as well as literally saving the baby Jesus from Herod uh you know he sort of acts as definitely what is very necessary today uh for the renewal and the rebuilding of the church back to Saint Francis of Assisi uh Saint Francis had these tremendous uh religious experiences where he felt called to rebuild the church as it was the church was very corrupt in this time you know people think it's crap now that all these scandals came from the 60s no they came out from the Middle Ages uh and it was existing his time a little bit more radical today because a lot of these scandals were kind of just publicly known and nothing was done about it so it wasn't even a cover-up it was like okay yep that priest has a bunch of prostitutes nothing you can do about it and so you know he had the profound experience where he was called to rebuild the church and so definitely you know Saint Francis looking at him and actually not not not the hippie version you know we we white hippie wash Jesus enough but to do that to Francis it's like Jesus himself spoke more on hell that he did to heaven and the same applied to Francis I mean you know we we whitewashed uh Jesus into this white hippie uh and we do the same to Francis and so you know actually read his letters take our faith seriously is is definitely important and Saint Joseph definitely more so obviously not more than Jesus but uh Beyond uh Francis uh Joseph um as a uh um as a foster father of Jesus it's yeah definitely needed and so yeah as in the person of Christ and this person too definitely have love uh for Mary and Joseph and and if we you know if there is proper Catholic Education because you know the Catholic faith is supposed to be the light of the world you're in a room that is Pitch Black and someone is in the room and lights a candle it's going to affect the room the whole room will be lit slightly more and so our Catholic faith in a world of darkness is supposed to light it up AKA all are supposed to be drawn to its light and so why aren't they well hugely because we're not lighting it we're just like I brought up the issues with toxic education we're kind of teaching it like a life philosophy um or moral teaching but to really show the beauty of the faith that is a deep you know you're it's a radical romance like to really go there and Center ourselves uh within the Holy Family yeah it's definitely important as you're speaking uh and thank you for all that uh I just wanted to I took a little note here I wanted to mention that uh Saint Augustine is one of my favorites and I entered the faith because of the the confessions as I mentioned and there's a whole story behind that but I won't go into that but just to mention to you that I wanted at my confirmation because we have the option of taking a patron saint confirmation also so I wanted to take Augustine so I would become David Augustine Ross or whatever but I had an actual dream and it might be a mystical Vision or it might be just a silly dream but in the dream the Blessed Virgin Mary came to me and said you're going to take the name Mary so I took the name David Mary so um I don't really care if it was a mystical thing or if it was just a silly brain fart I don't really care either way I'm very happy to have taken the name Mary and it just so happens that the priest who was teaching me the faith because I came to him as a generic model theist I said I don't believe in the Incarnation I don't I don't even believe in the Trinity but I'm I he took me to the mass and I said I want to worship God and this this is this is it I see in the mass I was moved by the mass I want to become Catholic can I become a Catholic without believing in the Trinity and the Incarnation and he said well sure we'll talk you through it we'll instruct you and if you come to believe then you're Catholic if you reject the teachings of the church you're not Catholic but we'll teach you and so I accepted the teachings I became a Catholic but it was the mass that moved me and uh this guy uh this monk his name was Brother David and only after my confirmation when I was confirmed as David Mary only then did he reveal to me and he knew for weeks only then did he reveal to me that he also secretly was given the name Mary in a similar circumstance so he's also David Mary so what are the odds that there are two David Mary's like I've never heard about before I've since discovered online on YouTube a couple of uh monks by the name of who Took the name Marion or David Mary but and it's very common among the saints Saint John Vianney has Mary and a lot of the Saints have about Mary even Saint Louis de Milford took the name Mary I'm not comparing myself with the saint don't get me wrong but um yeah so I just wanted to mention that as a sort of Quasi mystical or potentially mystical Vision that I had with it with our mother well yeah for sure I mean there's nothing necessarily wrong with comparing yourself to the Saints as long as it's you're you're leaving it for a room of uh Improvement um yeah I think there's a little bit of room for improvement yes as long as you know we're turning to the Saints example in comparison for where we might improve which definitely is a lot I mean again Saint Francis literally sold everything he had practically I mean that's a long Leap Forward for me um so you know yeah I mean I I mean regardless of or not of whether that dream at all you know was Mary actually coming to you in the dream I mean I I I I very much doubt that she would at all be disappointed with you taking that name over a fall stream oh well I didn't actually come to you in a dream why did you do that if you came to me Satan wanted me to take them like yeah like you know I'm sure there's people who have dreams about Christ and it's not actually a Dream from Christ right but following it can still be following Christ it's definitely complex but I think that even has to do with personal revelation on Mystics and Saints is that you know like for example three days three days of darkness is a popular prophecy among Saints well the world literally be covered in darkness for three days and will everyone die except those who are good Catholics I mean that's a very radical prophecy but maybe it could even be a more spiritual interpretation to that I don't know what that interpretation would be but who knows how literal that is right I'm sure there's some truth to that an example in your dream was actionary well there's still a truth to it right I mean you know like if you read a book and it was Mary like talking to you but it was written by someone else well did Mary say it maybe some complex City like perhaps but it was that person who wrote the book and so you know definitely obviously you did the right choice you made the right decision obviously as obvious as it can be um but you know yeah like dreams are interesting phenomenal I already explained I opened up with uh the dream that when I've had initial uh interest in Christianity I had that dream practically from Saint Elizabeth Hungary uh asking you know why should I where this crown of silver and gold and she might have phrased that slightly differently but you know why why should I wear this uh crown of silver and gold when my Lord when Christ wore a crown of thorns and wore it for me and I especially remembered that last sentence like or for me like the exaggeration and when I found out that was a quote from her years later when I already become Catholic like I'm pretty sure it was like just last year I realized it was on Instagram from like word on fire or some Instagram account posted her quote I was like what the heck and then I wrote I wrote it I was like oh this is her thing and I read that last part and wore it for me it's like this is literally I had a dream from saying Elizabeth I mean or about her at least I mean it kind of just affirms that the faith is true and it's like you know people could like argue what what the case is about like oh well I'm going to make a case for Islam or Judaism or Protestant Christianity but it's like you can't forget that you know when I was becoming or having initial uh research on Christianity that I was having these experiences that were catholic and I didn't have any knowledge whatsoever about the Catholic church and when I was introduced it was heavily anti-catholic uh misconceptions about it you know it definitely affirms to me that the faith is true and you know you have all those uh you know events Like Our Lady of Fatima we're about 70 a thousand people witnessed this Apparition of the the moving son this heavenly light at least uh and the number of uh allegingly seeing Mary Jesus and Joseph in the sky uh blessing them and a lot of events like that and that was a recent event 1917 I mean that's way more recent than what we you know uh consider uh you have a I I forget what what it's called but it's a famous uh mountain in which there's an image of Mary with uh I believe it's with Francis and Dominic uh and and it's carved in the cave or on the side of the mountain but it wasn't painted it was the mountain itself which formed the image and it looks literally like a painting but some scientists cut a portion of the Rock and it's literally just the the color of the rock the color itself embeds into the wall formed this yeah that fat form this basic Catholic it's not a man-made pigment it's like it would seem like basically it's like if you go and look at rocks there might be like a red rock yeah yeah can you send me a link to that is this a well-known Apparition or is this well known it's not it was uh there was a little girl who apparently had this Apparition of Mary and then when they went to where she saw that that they there was an image there similar to Our Lady of Guadalupe I guess yeah it's comparable um the only thing is like they did uh I guess people who are security they're some of the priests or monks or whoever are there uh they did add a crown uh to Mary so I don't believe that the crown that's on the image was initially there but I guess they just wanted to honor it put the crown there send me a link to that after sure and and same with uh Harley Guadalupe you know like I think there was some slight changes uh just to like kind of put reverence towards it you know like like placing a flower uh you know to to you know before the altar or something like that like you know does it need to be there you know it's just it's a token of love you know yeah and so you know people think that oh you're changing it or whatever but it's not necessarily that um and another case so you know like our lady guapalupe you know stuff like that like and of course the Eucharistic Miracles which uh Colorado was uh very famous for which I'm sure he appreciates uh our work because it has to do with online uh you know like he reported like practically all the Eucharistic Miracles where the uh the bread and wine that we receive in Holy Communion as the living body and blood of Christ actually has a substance of of uh blood like the the bread that is used in communion that we receive as a living body of Christ it bleeds and when the blood is examined it's it's not like someone broke like like scratched their finger and some blood went on the bridge the the blood like that the bread itself is a living body for the blood and so it's like well that's a Bobby then like and not just like it's like a living body and yet you examine and it looks like the substance of bread and so our faith is real it's tangible uh and that just all it goes to more to show that we need to take it seriously uh you know and you know I I can be okay if you're like not like a deeply I guess what when people consider traditional Catholics but as long as you know if you profess to be Catholic you have to be honest with what the teachings of our faith are you know if you're going to profess to be Catholic you have to be honest with the teachings of the faith and you know just to take our faith seriously and it at the very least you know I think a good Catholic routine is you know you go as much as we can right like to go to confession on Saturday and then to church on Sunday that's kind of that's kind of just most churches have it available at those precise times but you know to go on church and Sunday and on day prior perhaps they try to go to uh confession um you know kind of keeping a general clean you know I'm not perfect at it but something like that like but but our faith is real and it's as I mentioned earlier more than what what is simply true uh because you can make a case that anything is true you know it's Pontius Pilate who famously said what is truth and the response that Jesus gave was well he didn't say anything he just kind of kept his mouth closed today um which is very uh spooky so you know truth can be pretty much anything you can make a case for but what's real I mean there's alleged Miracles but when it's scientifically documented it's like that you need to consider that and the fact that our faith has a real substance to it you need to consider it my my friend Nicola chrisek is uh an Albanian guy a really wonderful uh Catholic and he had an experience with tears uh you can check him out on my podcast if you're interested in hearing his story I'm sure I'm sure the two of you will meet and talk on my podcast one day I'll have a group chat but he's saying well-spoken young in the live chat now he's saying well-spoken young man I love it I'm ready and wanting part two already so I do hope you'll come back uh just very very briefly uh I'm a young Earth creationist I don't believe in evolution what's your take on that controversy and you're you're a young Earth creationist yeah well uh you know I I definitely I'm not really precisely sure I'm kind of in the midst of like wondering but yeah like like I completely understand the case where you can accept evolution uh as a Catholic and I've I've rationalized uh where where the the creation story could be read differently but I've been finding some errors like on the scientific field like it's kind of difficult I mean they're problems they're metaphysical problems philosophical problems with the uh with uh the theories of evolution and the theistic evolution is no different and I highly recommend you look into it I think it is important I think it will add value to your uh walk with God but I'm not going to bully you about it obviously you're free to think and do what you want but you'll look into it right you'll look into it and what is the yin yang on the back of your in behind you view can you talk about are those saints that are arrayed in a grid this well you've got the yeah you've got those Saints arrayed in a grid is that correct are those things these are uh uh pictures of the Rosary uh okay the Mysteries okay you've got the Mysteries there okay what about the yin yang represents uh my uh understanding of uh philosophy okay um it's sort of philosophical because there's some Bible verses I wrote next to it okay um basically just about uh you know if you believe in God uh then everything comes from God essentially yeah and so obviously God doesn't create evil in the sense of creating the evil right like I was saying earlier evil has no substance but if everything comes from God or at least he allows it then it's like you know there's a yin yang sort of deal to it I mean I think that it's ultimately symbolizing Christianity and so I kind of take some of that that Chinese philosophy of my ancestry in what I feel like is Christian in the sense of the death and resurrection of Christ that before every Resurrection there's the cross that there is the death yeah I mean there uh there's uh there are truth is everywhere every truth is a Catholic truth that's for sure and uh you know uh the Vatican II put it very nicely when it talked about the the Church of Christ subsisting in the Catholic church and how the means of Salvation are to be found outside of our visible boundaries but that ultimately you only have the fullness within what is what is the animal that's scratching there some pet rats I'm taking care of it's a very complicated story for how I ended up with them so it's okay okay we'll talk about that next time but um just briefly what are those framed uh certificates on your wall yet yeah something that I made myself it just represents like Consecration and stuff like that when for uh First St Joseph that I recently wrote out one so you know when you do a consecration you you say a prayer at the end of it yeah so I literally just went to library printed the prayer out and had a little place for me to sign my name and the date and so yeah I guess at home project yeah yeah I have the same thing for my consecration my monfortian consecration to Mary and uh I do the prayers uh in the morning in the evening I reconsecrate myself and the Heart and Soul of that is a recommitment to your baptismal vows that's the that's what's at the heart of the consecration to Jesus Through Mary it's uh it's a real um emphasis on the vows of baptism and the power of that Sacrament and that's what saves us ultimately that's the the door into Christianity the door into theosis the door into heaven it's uh that baptism that's where it begins and of course it's a long complicated story uh getting there but uh did you are you willing to come back and talk to me some more because I'm I've got a feeling that uh Nikola chrysic is not the only one that wants to hear more from you and I certainly want to hear more from you we come back and talk to us again yeah of course of course I look forward to coming back and if you do if you do make it to Montreal for sure uh email me and it'd be my pleasure to show you the oratory and uh I have a devotion a special devotion not only to Saint Joseph but to Saint brother Andre and if you don't know his story you definitely are in for a treat uh how much do you know about Saint brother correctly um you know the the book consecration Saint Joseph it's pretty much as much as as mentioned about him in that book okay okay anyways the Miracle Man of the Mountain and his story is very touching and moving very humble humble man and uh so yeah a very very very happy to meet you I was supposed to be interviewing a born-again Christian who's very rabidly anti-catholic tonight but he canceled and um so the Lord Works a mysterious ways he sent me he sent me a nice young Catholic man instead so I hope you have the good rest of your night there it's a Friday night do you have any plans to socialize tonight go to the disco club with your friends or anything no no tonight is quiet tonight is quiet good good so all the best I've enrolled you in a Perpetual Master you and your family are going to enjoy those Graces till the end of time and so in exchange I'd like to ask you to just remember me and mine in your prayers okay I'm the only one that converted to Catholicism and uh you know my wife's rapidly anti-catholic so pray for her conversion and my my parents my siblings my nieces and stuff like that if you don't mind just pray for me remember me in your prayers and the way that I do that the way that I respond to that burden of that commitment when someone asked me to add me to their prayers I just ask the Blessed lady to add this person to my daily intentions and then I can mention them by name from time to time just sort of to refresh the intention but our lady will keep track of everyone that you add to your prayer list so you can just add me ask the Blessed lady or whatever your whatever your routine is another thing I want to talk to you about next time is uh the guardian angels what's your relationship like with your guardian angel have you explored that are you building a friendship with him and so we have a lot to talk about there's more to talk about with the Bible the history of the church and I I really want to talk to you about John the Baptist he's one of my favorite Patriarchs and Jesus said he's one of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven right or no the greatest on Earth but the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than him so that's a that's a bit of a conundrum I've always been curious about I'd like to get your take on that next time so uh keep in touch and thank you so much and I as always I let my guests end with sort of a final closing thought something positive what would you like to say to anyone that's out there listening because I do have a lot of atheist listeners believe it or not well I feel like for now I would definitely like to get more into like the atheist phase that I mentioned perhaps for next time uh because it's definitely something that a lot mine exercises brain exercises to really comprehend the concept of like well how could I come to the point of believing God definitely like my atheist face I would like to get deep into that at some point but uh you know I guess just you know check out my other YouTube channel and the video that I posted there yeah I'll put the link in the description thank you thank you yeah I do plan on you know trying to do some more work but that video was enough for me right now I mean you know I I feel like you know some people can say oh what about this and that I feel like you know if you can really understand the points you know just really like listen to what I'm trying to say and like even if you don't agree like just the perspective I guess is definitely enlightening uh but yeah check it out there uh the video is 20 minutes so you know sit down grab a coffee and uh you know sit down watch it it was entertaining it was quirky it was creative colorful your personality comes through and uh congratulations to your parents for raising a nice young man uh you don't have any siblings or what's the story yeah I got a sister and then I got two nephews and won these we'll talk about we'll talk about them next time but meanwhile you'll be in my prayers and I hope you you'll remember me and mine and yours okay so take good care God bless you and we'll talk soon thank you thank you bye