meda as you know my name is David I am the creator and host of CBS in this episode of Mehta I'm going to offer some responses to Nick and Matthew that's Nick's Tom Hauser and Matthew Murdock because Nick had Matthew on his own podcast which is called the prodigal recently he published it on September 4th if I'm not mistaken just a few days ago and he gave me a heads up he said I might find it interesting and sure enough I did and I asked him for permission to do a little meta episode to sort of an analysis some responses and so he said sure go ahead and that's what we're doing today so I'm only going to deal with about five minutes worth of actual footage from that interview and it's a substantial interview goes on for about an hour and a half a little bit longer but check out next on posture comm for more information about his podcast so anyway let's get right into it as usual I'm just going to play little clips and respond to them so here we go on all of that doubtful stuff I totally get in like prayer like my wife is going through some horrible stuff right now okay crippling depression all of this stuff all of these people are praying for her like oh we're praying oh we're praying or praying or praying it's a second why isn't anything happening I wanted to forward you something I sent to David I'm like well if in the cancer you get is God yo says yes no or later prayer is at the center it's at the heart of the religious life and many refused to pray because their prayers weren't answered according to their expectations I've talked about this before in my podcast Saint Alphonsus Liguori says if you want to be saved pray and if you don't pray you cannot be saved it's that simple you have to pray now as to this comment that God says yes no or later to every prayer I don't have much to add to that it's self-evident that God is wiser than I am and so that when I request something it might be good for me so I can give it to me immediately or later or it might not be good for me so he'll say no I mean this is self-evident and I don't see any alternative to this perspective that I offered him now it's possible that some would find my advice to general too broad but I think we should always put emphasis on first things put first things first have that solid foundation Jesus Christ and then you can build you can build on that but if you don't know that God is wiser than you are then you might be tempted to stop praying because your prayers aren't being answered and I've seen this happen so we need to remind ourselves who is God and what is God he is infinite in every perfection he is the source of every good so once we have that in perspective then we can start dealing with creatures and put everything in relation to God because everything needs to be understood in relation to God so we have to put first things first so that's why my answer was very broad in general and I stand by my answer if Matthew is frustrated by my answer then that's a gold to prompt him to look at God what who and what is God what is that first commandment why is it there what does it mean and what are all the logical implications of it and if Matthew or someone else listening comes to the conclusion that there is no God there are logical implications for that too so those need to be looked at and examined but we need to take seriously the first things and the first commandment and we need to look at it whether you're an atheist like Nick or whether you're a monotheistic Riss tchen struggling with your faith like Matthew you need to look at the first commandment take a look at it everything flows from that or something so that's the same as saying absolutely nothing that's flipping it that's the same as flipping a coin it is you know it's the same thing right like like oh you just weren't praying according to his will or the time wasn't right it's just like okay so then why do it at all right of course you can neglect your prayers of course you can but the church teaches that you cannot go to heaven if you persist in that folly if you persist in believing that contingent things are not contingent and that up is down and that good is evil and evil good you are falling away from reality this is not some mystical mumbo-jumbo God is reality God is a source of every good we know that by the contingent thing so when you stray from God when you deny God you are falling away from God you are falling away from reality this is insanity so we need to put first things first and we need to look to God the Father and we need to look to Jesus Christ and we need to look to his church so we look to God the Father we look at the history and we decide that Jesus Christ is the Messiah promised by the Jews and we look at Authority and we decide that the church that Christ founded with infallibility Authority and in defect ability is the Holy Roman Catholic Church and that it is one Holy Catholic and Apostolic and we submit to the church because she's a good mother and so we listen to our mother when her mother tells us that we have to pray and so we pray it's that easy now st. Agustin famously said that if there were obvious advantages to praying then everyone would pray if there were obvious advantages to belonging to the one true religion then everyone would mechanically and greedily hop onto that bandwagon because that's human nature so God allows the good to suffer God allows the evil - prophet and God allows a mixed bag like you said Matthew rolling of the dice would give you the same outcome because otherwise everyone would just seek that good and they would mechanically go through the motions and there would not be that corresponding love which is the only reality that separates those who go to heaven from those who go to hell those who go to heaven participate actively and willingly in that love that is God they become that fire so that fire is not a source of torture to them whereas those who reject God and put the contingent things first they too will be engulfed in the flames of God's love but they will suffer because they are not Orion properly they have not chosen life they have chosen eternal death and so it's a very simple alignment with reality if you want to be healthy and happy then you need to respect your nature your human nature which was given to you by God and to do that you need to acknowledge who you are what you are and where you come from and where you're going lately I've been feeling condemned again like I just know I'm not living up to the really hard things in scripture that Christ says if you're my disciple you're gonna put me before your wife--your even life itself and I realize dude I'm not living that way so Matthew Murdock admits that he's not living up to the ideal standard set by the Godman Jesus Christ that's humility right there acknowledging a reality I can save this same thing we're in the same boat right but what's the difference between myself and Matthew the difference is not that I'm holy and Matthew is not holy the difference is that I look to Jesus Christ I look to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I looked at the Saints as examples of what it looks like to be perfect as the father is perfect what does it look like to love God above all things including your own your very self what does it look like to follow the first commandment what does it look like to follow all of the commandments because if you violate one jot or tittle of any of the commandments you violated all of the commandments this is what Jesus teaches us so who do we look to do we look to David Ross no do we look to Matthew Murdock no do we look to Nick's dump Hauser no we look to Jesus Christ God incarnate and His Saints above all he's Blessed Mother this is who we looked to and how do I know this because the church teaches me that this is what we do in Scripture Paul says imitate me just as I am I take Christ so don't be surprised no one else is surprised I'm not surprised God is not surprised so why are you acting like you're surprised you're wasting time and just look to the Saints and humble yourself and acknowledge where you're at and just ask what can I do today to take a little step forward how can I advance how can I become more holy more virtuous and more christ-like it's that simple anything else is a complete waste of time so what when God says like put me before your wife put me before your kids is that the same thing is saying neglect your wife neglect your kids yes Nick this is what the church teaches the church teaches for husbands to neglect their wives and children and for wives to neglect their husbands and their children yes this is what the Church teaches obviously everyone knows that just ask the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or are in raw or Matt Dillahunty or if you think you detect a little bit of sarcasm in my answer you could take three seconds and google it and find out what the Church teaches right it's not that hard I love my family more than I love God no granted I don't believe in God but yeah so it's all about the first commandment if you don't acknowledge God if you don't believe in God you're violating the first commandment so how can you have the grace to pray how can you build grace upon grace if you don't even have it's a dogma of the church that were given sufficient grace each human is given sufficient grace to be saved now of course there's a lot of drama involved and there's an arc there's that character development there's that old saying that every saint has a past and that every sinner has a future so obviously there is a lot of room here for growth for for two steps forward and yes one step back and I was atheist 25 years of my life I am now a faithful Catholic struggling and striving just like Matthew Murdock to take steps forward and to become a saint even though it seems ridiculous it looks impossible and it is impossible but as Tertullian famously said I believe it because it's impossible I believe it because it is absurd just as when we look at the contingent we know that the absolute is there's an absurdity there there's a ridiculousness of that whole paradox of the finite and the infinite being a nothingness God the Creator and me the creature it's absurd it's ridiculous if you're trying to escape from the ridiculous and the absurd there is no escape the atheists have one way of dealing with paradox and the Catholics have another way of dealing with the paradox they can't both be right in principle I suppose it is possible that they're both wrong if some other worldview happens to be the one true religion but as I've said time and time again on my podcast there are many many good reasons to believe that the Catholic Church is the one true religion and no good reasons to believe that any other candidate is even remotely reasonable so if you're in doubt about what I mean I've got many meta episodes talking about this you might want to start with doubt faith and reason and the architecture of doubt the different episodes that talk about where my certainty comes from and how you can have certainty because Christ is not stupid he left us with a church and he left us with signs by which we can recognize the one true church these are called the four marks if the church is one Holy Catholic and apostolic and if we focus on the holiness we can see the Saints as an example of that so my prayer for Nick and my prayer for Matthew and my prayer for myself and for everyone else is the same prayer true and lasting faith true and lasting faith and that begins with the acknowledgment that God is God I was talking to a friend of mine and I said you know do you love God more than you love your parents these guys are Catholic and he said yeah I do and I just could not wrap my mind around that because to me it seems like a fear tactic to me it seems like love me more than your family or I'll send you to hell that's not love to me all those in Hell abused their free will they chose to make of themselves a god they put themselves first instead of putting God first so God does not send anyone to hell but God allows in His mercy in His infinite mercy and love he allows those who hate him to flee to fall away from him because there'd be nothing worse for those reprobate Souls than to be in God's presence in proximity with God in heaven so he allows them to fall away forever and to have their little niche their little it's the mystery of iniquity which is tied up with the mystery of free will will never understand it don't try to understand it will never comprehend it but we can apprehend it we can apprehend the story of Judas and we can look at his example and we can say no that is not the example I want to fall I want to follow the example of the eleven and just as Judas Iscariot was given sufficient grace to be saved but stubbornly said no sistered in this proud folly we too are given sufficient grace and we too can say yes to grace and we can be saved so that's what we have to do now well we have time we don't know how much time we have left we might die this very second this life is so brief we need to gird our loins and get down to work the very serious but joyful work of becoming a saint they say that you know we can have this personal relationship with God I don't feel anything I feel like I know I don't feel like I know a bunch of facts yeah I know a bunch of facts about God I can answer all the sunday school questions I could do all that but do I know him like I know my wife no no who do you have a more intimate personal relationship with yourself or your wife there are things that you haven't told anyone not even your wife but God knows them shameful things regrettable things but also Joy's Joy's that can't be put into words observations desires all of this God has access to it's ridiculous to point to a shadowy analogy of a relationship on this horizontal dimension among humans and to say that it's greater than or more real than the personal relationship that we have with God it's absolutely absurd you don't know who and what God is if you think that your relationship with another human being is more profound and more personal than your relationship with God you're very being every breath you take every heartbeat every thought word and deed is in Christ with Christ and for Christ everything his grace everything this is not a bumper sticker this is not a cute catchy slogan devoid of meaning it's not wishful thinking it's reality everything is grace is evil grace no because evil is an orientation evil is a way it's a falling away from God from the good from everything that's good so everything is grace so when you talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior you need to know that it is a fact it is a reality that you right now have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ the Godman is cooperating with you perfectly flawlessly gracefully subtly God created our human nature not only that but God took on our human nature if you don't think that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ then you don't know Jesus Christ you need to meditate on the contingent and the absolute you need to meditate on the infinite and the finite you need to meditate on good and evil you need to meditate and you need to pray because until you realize how close God is you may as well be a Muslim or a Protestant and just rub your shoulders and say well I don't know when we can't know it's a form of agnosticism we don't have access to that we don't have a personal relationship with God because he is transcendent but not imminent we know that the Catholic Church is the only true religion if for no other reason than because we alone have that knowledge of transcendence plus eminence it's not either/or it's both and this is the Catholic Way ask him say okay so do you know God you know him personally can you demonstrate that show where is he show him to me yeah and if I have to use my imagination if you say oh yeah well I know him he's like imagine this imagine that I don't want an imaginary stuff I want to know him if he said person I want to know him I want to have him that desire that Matthew has to know God and to have a personal relationship with God that desire is a very good thing that's the spark that can become a flame as st. Augustus said if you desire to love God than you do already love God now is there room for improvement yes always for all eternity will be improving on our love if God willing we make it to heaven so that desire is a good thing now Matthew asks where is this God show me where is Jesus Christ on earth today when Jesus ascended into heaven to the Father the apostles were upset and Jesus said to them it's better that I call because if I don't go I won't send you the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit which will guide you the church into all truth it's better for you that I go so when Matthew asks me show me the Savior show me the god man show me Jesus Christ here and now I just point them to the church do you know how many times per second Jesus Christ is being called down from heaven it's sustaining it's literally sustaining the material universe the mass the Eucharist so you want to have a personal relationship you want a concrete experience with Jesus Christ if I told you that Jesus Christ was coming to such in such a place at such in such a time you'd be there millions would this lack of faith hurts Jesus Christ it makes him suffer physically emotionally spiritually in every way in ways we can't imagine this lack of faith hurts the god man it's an infinite insult reparation needs to be made in reparation is being made reparation was made on the cross and reparation is being made through prayer and the sacraments in the church so you can be part of the problem or you can be part of the solution it's just that simple and so I am striving to be part of the solution and I recommend to one and all family friends acquaintances enemies everyone every human that ever lived - past present and future I recommend to one and all to be part of the solution and that means to be part of the mystical body of Jesus Christ as my atheist walls are being broken down I see the temptation to become less intellectually rigorous because it is comfortable to have a cohesive worldview right it's comfortable to be able to say oh this all fits together perfectly it's seamless and then that to just ignore the areas that are just blatantly missing reality like they're not even close so this is what we call a false dichotomy Nik is portraying two options so we've got the absurdity of atheism and Nik admits that atheism is absurd and the only other alternative is the absurdity of self-delusion and lies fantasy but there's another option which is to seek the truth to find the truth to worship the truth to submit to the truth and ultimately to become United with the truth this is the only sane option and it presupposes that there is a reality and that there is a truth and Nick himself admits that there is a reality and objective reality because he admits that we can stray from that reality that we can as he says blatantly ignore reality you want to be sure of yourself but this guy's GK Chesterton a Catholic now you've probably heard you get it he says if you want to be sure of yourself he said the most the people who are the most sure of themselves are the people in the mental institutions you know that guy is so sure of himself that he is the queen of England you cannot convince him every argument you have he has a counter argument of why he is the Queen of England he's the most sure of himself of anyone or a singer who can't sing yeah American writer dead there sure of themselves you don't want to be sure of yourself like that did you want to have that kepta coal mine or else your that's when you're sure of yourself and all of your stuff fits together that's when you can be assured that you're probably be furthest away from any the real truth so this whole question of certainty is conditional if Jesus Christ is Lord then the Catholic Church is the one true church and all of her dogmas are infallible and we should submit her in everything giving assent in mind and will to all of her teachings even the teachings that are not infallible and hence my strong loyalty to the Pope the bishops who teach in union with the Pope it is not enough to submit only to the infallible teachings that would be ridiculous that would be a very impoverished and lopsided and unnatural faith if one limited oneself to the infallible proclamations every certainty is a conditional certainty if this then that we have axiomatic assumptions it's the same thing with the natural sciences is the same thing with philosophy it's the same thing with theology and only God himself he's not subject to any axiomatic assumptions this is the one solid truth upon which we can build religion upon which we can build theology upon which we can build philosophy and upon which we can build natural science this is why I'm comfortable being a young earth creationist even though most people in the Catholic Church look at me like I'm insane because they are so enamored and enthralled by the natural sciences that they think that they can invert the hierarchy of Sciences with impunity that they can place the Natural Sciences above philosophy and philosophy above theology and theology above Christ and this church this perverted inversion is really at the heart of all theistic evolution old age creationism and all these other theories there's a perverted inversion of the hierarchy of the scientists and so again we need to go to first things we need to go to that first commandment build everything on the solid foundation of God and the god man Jesus Christ that's where I'm a little bit worried about David because when I first started listening to him it wasn't as a parent but now I start to see like he's bought into the cult side of Catholicism not the religion side the cult side and there is I think a distinction well I agree that there is a distinction to be made between cults and a religion there is a distinction to be made but it's not a clear-cut distinction it's very loose set of criteria that we can use to distinguish a cult or a sect from a religion and of course there are distinctions that could be used to distinguish the one true religion from all the false religions but this is really neither here nor there because I don't belong to any Christian sect I don't belong to any Catholic independent movements which might be accused of being a cult there are many such organizations and the church allows them to flourish and the church will take seriously any claims against these independent movements within the church and will come to a decision about whether they've strayed too far or not and if some organization goes astray the church will correct them and if they come back so much the better and if they don't so much the worse for them it's the same for everyone we can stray we're allowed to stray there's no one policing me there's no one reading my mail there's no one forcing me to stay I came freely and I can leave freely when I put money in the basket at church it's a voluntary everything I do I do freely I've never ever felt coerced pressured bullied I've never been deprived of sleep I've never had my diet controlled I've never had anything controlled if I fast on Fridays it's be because I want to do something for Jesus Christ the church encourages me to fast on Fridays and the church commands me to fast on certain days it's true but if I don't like it I don't have to do it I can leave I can sin I can go to hell if I want to I can and it's the same thing for you so let's choose wisely he's going for it hard and he even says it too it makes me cringe when he's like yeah if I find out one thing that they said was wrong he's like I'm abandoning Christianity altogether I'm like I really think that they didn't get one thing wrong the laws of thought in the laws of logic are universal so if the church is infallible it can't be wrong in it's infallible pronouncements this is not rocket science I'm not some freakish fanatical cult member I'm a Catholic and Catholics believe that the dogmas are infallible why because that's what the Church teaches it's not optional and if you want to doubt that then you're back to Protestantism and if you want to doubt the Bible then you're back to monotheism and if you want to adult monotheism then you're back to solipsism I'm happy to doubt with you I can go all the way with the doubt that's what brought me to God in the first place so there's no threat to me I'm not threatened by doubt doubt is your friend right but we need doubt faith and reason and reason tells us that if the church is saying that this is an infallible truth and it's not true then there's a contradiction that contradiction is not from God so I will abandon Jesus Christ if the church contradicts herself on these infallible proclamations and I encourage every Catholic to do the same now has anyone in the church ever said anything that wasn't true is this is this the question could anyone really seriously think that I am that naive and foolish that I think that every human being that ever called himself a Catholic has been completely infallible in everything they've ever spoken so it's only the infallible pronouncements that are infallible and so Matthew has no reason to cringe when I say that I'll abandon Jesus Christ if he contradicts himself because I don't worship a lunatic and I don't worship a liar I worship the Lord and the Lord cannot contradict himself and Christ and His Church are one but there is a romantic aspect of Catholicism that I think David has seen and that he's fallen in love with that I've got that I desire I want I do I want it to so again this desire is very good Nick and Matthew both admit to having this desire and this is very good it's a very good sign I remember when I was an atheist one of my closest friends whom I've known since infancy when he converted he confronted me with some tough questions some philosophical questions and existential questions Oh life the meaning of life and eternity and my answers were weak because I was an agnostic atheist at the time and I was honest with him I told him that I want what he has I want that security I want that peace I want that joy I want that contentment I want that meaning I want all of the good things that he has I wanted I just don't happen to believe it and to make a long story short he prayed for me and I converted it eventually I do thank him for those prayers and I believe that they were instrumental very instrumental in my conversion and so I thank him for that very sincerely so I moved and I'm touched by any atheist that would admit the same thing and here Nick Stumpf Hauser is admitting that to me indirectly through Matthew and Matthew saying the same thing so we're all in the same boat we all want meaning and value and purpose and love ultimately and like I said at the beginning of this I'm not different from Nick and Matt in as much as I'm holier I'm not holier I've just said yes I've been given the grace and I've said yes that tiny spark of faith that I was given by the grace of God I was able to nurture it to protect it and by God's grace to build constantly build day by day little by little that flame of faith and I do want it to grow into a raging fire and I believe it is possible I believe that I can be a saint and it's not because I'm holy now it's because I'm on whole eggs because I'm wicked and I'm selfish and I'm proud it's because of that that I want to be holy and I want to be humble and I want to be modest and it's because I'm vicious that I want to be virtuous so we're all in the same boat and I'm here to encourage Nick I'm here to encourage Matthew and I'm here to encourage anyone that's why I do this podcast it's to encourage the listener the anonymous listener the atheist agnostic the Muslim the Jew the Christian everyone we all need to keep our eyes on the prize we all need to remember who and what we are and who and what God is we need to put first things first and I think there's some serious things but it's the thing too like we just have to give them you know I don't want to give up I'm scared to like pray to Mary I'm scared to do any of that stuff I still don't want to do that but I never had a problem with Mary even always raised Protestant even though as atheist for 25 years I had zero problem with Mary so I cannot claim that I can relate to Matthews concern here I can't claim that but what I can do all I can do is is remind him and all Protestants and even Catholics who struggle with Marian doctrines all I can do is remind you that you are very comfortable asking your friends your family your pastor your priest to pray for you you're very comfortable with that and rightly so it's natural God created our human nature and he took on our human nature and we can see Jesus Christ praying and requesting prayers we see so many examples in the Bible of good Christians praying for each other requesting prayers from each other requesting prayers for people that in their family and people they've never met and we're all familiar with this we're all inclined to acknowledge the communion of saints all of us Christians so why the sudden exception with Mary and the Saints in heaven and the holy souls in purgatory why the resistance when Jesus Christ clearly said that he is not the god of the dead but of the living so there is no obstacle to this doctrine of the communion of saints there is no real obstacle there's no substance to the objections none whatsoever so I ask you to pray for me and I encourage you to ask others to pray for you and to not limit yourself ask for prayer participate in the communion of saints I would actually be fine now with like annihilationism like eat and drink for tomorrow we die who's who cares all lights over I just want to sleep and go away forever right because sometimes I don't really want to live forever I don't want I'm just tired and I'm tired of stuff and I'm just like do I just run fall asleep and never get out and just lights out I think there'd be nice so Matthew says it would be nice if death were the end and complete annihilation was the only outcome every miserable reprobate soul in Hell agrees with Matthew that would be nice there's nothing better for those in hell so Matthew is speaking like one was burning in hell so allow me to offer another perspective the perspective of those who are burning in purgatory and burning in heaven the saved the Saints the holy souls their perspective is that life is good god is good there's nothing better than beholding God being close to God getting closer to God knowing God loving God there's nothing better and the Saints all agree with Matthew that it's better that nothingness that annihilation is better than hell but it's not an option the church clearly and infallibly dogmatically teaches that hell is real it's horrible and it never ends it's eternal there's no way out so we can dream about annihilation we can fantasize about annihilation but it's not a reality so think about which camp you're representing when you start talking about annihilation when you start promoting this fantasy this lie about complete and utter annihilation think about who you're serving are you serving God are you serving Satan think about it so next time someone asks you about heaven and hell as the final two outcomes choose heaven it's not stored in those yeah not - yeah - nebulous - that's a problem I can't get a clear answers do you have big you yeah if Catholicism were more straightforward if it were more concrete I think it would be incredible it would be so much more peace inducing as opposed to anxiety inducing right yeah so who do you suppose is to blame for the confusion the lack of clarity the chaos here below who do you suppose is to blame for all why do you suppose we're so dim of wit and weak of will see this is why we need a church that's infallible authoritative and in defective all because in all times and places people want to escape from reality they want to blame God for everything so we need the infallible teachings of the church to remind us that just a few thousand years ago Adam and Eve walked the earth and they disobeyed they disobeyed God they listened to Satan and that crystal clear mirror the mirror of the human mind the human heart the human soul it was shattered by the disobedience our first parents and we see now not clearly but as in a fragmented mirror as st. Paul says we're getting a broken image of reality we're having to piece together this mysterious and dark puzzle but we can't blame God we have to acknowledge reality the reality is that we are in a fallen state we're in a fallen world and there is a way back to paradise and a paradise that's even better than Eden and that way is the truth and that way is the life and it's the person of Jesus Christ and so we cannot afford to ignore the teachings the clear teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church these teachings are clear they are sufficiently clear it's a dogma of the church that we are given sufficient grace we have sufficient clarity we can know by the light natural reason without recourse to divine revelation we can know God we can know that he exists we can know many of his attributes and we can know that Christ is the promised Messiah and we can know that the Catholic Church is the church that Christ founded we can know this we can know it and we can profit by it and we can have clarity and if we put every human that ever lived on a spectrum from those who are most confused on one end of the spectrum all the way up through the bell curve in that middle section where most of us reside and continue on to that tapering off top end of that curve where those privileged few have clarity and genius and perspective and wisdom and a remarkable access to love light and truth if we look at this spectrum it's clear that the Catholic saints occupy that highest portion of the graph and that the great mass at the bottom are destined for hell whether it's one third of humanity or more or less whatever it is the confusion the chaos the worry the angst the anxiety that's in the lower part that's of satan it's not of God and so we look always upward towards Christ and the Saints look to the church listen to the church it's not hard it's not hard to know I'm not confused about the dogmas I'm not confused about what I need to do I need to avail myself in a worthy manner of prayer and the sacraments I need to love God above all things a neighbor for God's sake I need to love my neighbor as myself I need to strive to keep the ten commandments the Ten Commandments are not ambiguous they're not confusing they're very clear if you want to find out more information about what it means to keep the Ten Commandments there are many books there are libraries full of books about the Ten Commandments about morality there are many books about every aspect of the church cult code and Creed if you want to find out you can find out there's nothing stopping anyone from getting answers and Jesus Christ is the answer to every question that's worth asking so I'm not confused to the extent that I am confused and that I am lost and that I am dim of weight and weak of will the church has an answer for me because we fell from grace because we're in a fallen world so even my confusion is not confusing I have certainty about everything that I need to have certainty about we have an infallible way of knowing the essential saving truths we have that to say otherwise is to admit defeat and to commit yourself to nihilism and then the only question is why have you not killed yourself already what's stopping you it's the only question that remains for the nihilist why why but there is hope there is light in the darkness and if st. Anselm famously said in his prayer for enemies I want the same punishment for myself that I want for my enemies namely true and lasting faith that's what I want god that's my punishment I want the fire give me that picture that light of God being diffused all the way from heaven through the nine choirs of angels down to the visible light that we see here on earth we need the intercession of the Saints and the angels the angels can protect us and if we call on them now we can be conducted in the life to come to heaven and above the angels are the Archangels and they can give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of heaven above the Archangels we have the principalities by the intercession of the principalities God can fill our souls with the true spirit of obedience obedience without which will never attain to the power of that next choir angels who are called the powers and the powers can protect our souls against the snares and mounting ever higher in this hierarchy this ladder of the angels that nine choirs we have above the powers we have the virtues who can preserve us from so imagine never falling into temptation this is one of the things we say when we pray the Our Father I went to confession today and the priest told me my was three our fathers he said this is the most perfect prayer it's the prayer given to us directly by God so we pray not to be led into temptation so if you avail yourself of the virtues the fifth celestial choir the virtues we can be preserved from the evil from all evil and especially the evil of falling into temptation now above the virtues we have the Dhamma nations who can help us to go over in our senses and overcome unruly passions how many of us fall prey to passions and are overcome by them because we can't govern our senses of course it's impossible for men but with God nothing's impossible and God has given us the dominations he's given us all nine choirs of angels and above the dominations we have the thrones third choir of angels and these infuse into our hearts a true and sincere spirit of humility without humility will never reach heaven and above the thrones are the cherubim with the help of the cherubim we can leave the ways of sin permanently and run always in the path of Christian perfection without which will never see God and finally above the cherubim we have the first order the highest order of angels the Seraphim this is the choir to which Satan belonged it's the highest order of angels the brightest the most beautiful the most by the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial choir of Seraphim the Lord can make us burn with the fire of God's love the fire of perfect charity so this is my prayer for you Nick it's my prayer for you Matthew and it's my prayer for all humans past present future so that's it take care we'll talk