In this episode, John and Fr. Stephen celebrate the first anniversary of 'My Friend the Friar' in one of the libraries at the Mount Carmel Center monastery in Dallas, Texas. Their chat includes topics such as reflections on the podcast so far, navigating the complex relationship between faith and culture in a modern world, peanut butter tacos, and the Incredible Hulk. Join us, and don't forget to share the love and this podcast with someone you believe would enjoy it!
Have something you'd love to hear Fr. Stephen and John talk about? Email us at myfriendthefriar@gmail.com or click here!
In this episode, John and Fr. Stephen celebrate the first anniversary of 'My Friend the Friar' in one of the libraries at the Mount Carmel Center monastery in Dallas, Texas. Their chat includes topics such as reflections on the podcast so far, navigating the complex relationship between faith and culture in a modern world, peanut butter tacos, and the Incredible Hulk. Join us, and don't forget to share the love and this podcast with someone you believe would enjoy it!
Have something you'd love to hear Fr. Stephen and John talk about? Email us at myfriendthefriar@gmail.com or click here!
Welcome to the my Friend the Friar podcast and thanks for listening. If you like my Friend the Friar and want to support us, please consider subscribing or following us if you haven't already done so, and if you found us on YouTube then, don't forget to click the notification bell when you subscribe so you'll be notified of new episodes when they release.
Speaker 1:Thanks again and God bless. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me and my friend, the Friar father Steven Sanchez, a Discount Carmelite Priest. Good evening, father. Good night, father. Good evening.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, it's taking a while to set up. Oh, technology, I work in technology. This should not be that hard. Okay, we're not at the castle, we're not at my house, we're at another castle. We're at another castle, we're at Mount Carmel Center. I'm going to move my mic so I can relax for a second. All right, and we're just chatting tonight. Yes, we are. Before we chat, though, I have two user or two user questions. That's how you know I work in technology, because the end users have questions. I have two. I have two listener questions, okay, okay, first of all. First question is how am I supposed to know who the angel of the load is if I don't listen to the episode where you explain who the angel of the load is? Do you have any answers to that? Listen to the episode, buddy. Oh, my goodness. The second question you can probably guess who this one comes from too before I left the house. Can a pope be? This is technical language. Can a pope be depopped?
Speaker 2:No, a pope can abdicate. Yeah, you can abdicate. The only way a pope would be removed from office if there were some, if the council was not a legitimate council to elect, right, for example, when we had two popes and three popes. I was just thinking about that. Yeah, yeah, we had two popes, three popes. It was a matter of there were the council's opposing councils right there. So opposing councils and electing opposing popes. So then eventually there was a three popes and eventually the others two of them abdicated. They recognized and realized that they were not elected legitimately. There was more politics involved than anything else, and so the papacy was preserved from that. But yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:Because could you be ex-communicated while you're in office? You could be, so that would be like depoping.
Speaker 2:You could be ex-communicated. You have to ex-communicate. If you did something that would carry an automatic ex-communication, then you could have basically ex-communicate yourself. It's de facto right. For example, during the great schism between the East and the West, so the pope ex-communicated the archbishop or the Orthodox leader, and the Orthodox leader ex-communicated the pope, and so they ex-communicated each other. But basically it's pointless at that point. There were separated churches at that point.
Speaker 1:What do they call them Patriarchs? Yeah, can a bishop ex-communicate someone? Yes, can a bishop ex-communicate another bishop?
Speaker 2:That would have to go through the College of Bishops. It would have to be the Synod of Bishops. For example, during the early heresies, some of the bishops that were part of the Arian heresy were ex-communicated by a Synod. There was a Synod of Bishops got together and they had the whole theological discussion and the bishops that refused to recant the heresy were ex-communicated. They're removed from office. Deposed, not depoped. Yeah, deposed, not depoped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is a taco, a sandwich, it's a folded sandwich. Yes, you ever like peanut butter and jelly and you only have one piece of bread, so you just fold it in half and it's a taco sandwich.
Speaker 2:Taco sandwich, that's what it is. It's a peanut butter taco Peanut butter taco.
Speaker 1:I did that with pancakes. The best taco peanut butter sandwich taco thing ever.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. Warm corn tortillas with peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Really oh.
Speaker 2:Baby.
Speaker 1:I have to try it. I like warm peanut butter because it melts. Yes, it's got a gooey. Yeah, it turns into like a sauce. Yeah, it's so good. Peanut butter and ham go well. Yeah, that's a hurricane story growing up. We had to empty the fridge and then we ended up not leaving, so we had nothing left but peanut butter and ham, and so I made a sandwich. It was good. Microwaved it, it was good. So random. So we've been doing this for a while now. We missed our anniversary.
Speaker 1:We missed it, I forgot. I'm sorry, I forgot your anniversary.
Speaker 2:I forgot yours too, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, because that would have been the beginning of August.
Speaker 2:Was it August that?
Speaker 1:we began Because we worked on it for so long before we released anything. That's true, and so then August is when we released something. I can't remember the date now, but I think it was the beginning of August. So we've been doing this like a year and a month. Year and two months, because we're in October. Right, holy cow, what's your favorite episode?
Speaker 2:I think for me episodes I nerded out on the martyrs, I really enjoyed diving into the history of it, everything. I was involved with that and, again, even our episodes didn't cover everything that we could have, but I really enjoyed that. I really did dive deep into that. In fact, I was listening to, I was watching on Netflix, I was watching a special on the samurai fight for Japan and who comes up? Hirayoshi.
Speaker 1:The famous.
Speaker 2:Hirayoshi Like oh okay, of course nothing to do with the church or the persecution of the Catholics or the Christians or anything.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, there's basically the war for unification of Japan, which I think is very interesting. Yeah, so I don't know, I think it's those, I like those, and some of I think probably some of the more the deeper dives into parts of the catechism that we did, some of the questions, sacraments. You know, I think all of it is really I enjoy all of it because it's, I think it it just helps me to remember, recall the richness of the faith and how everything is so intertwined with everything else and how it's all tied together and how everything builds on everything else. And so, yeah, I just yeah, I think again, the martyr episode, I think probably the least downloaded or the least listened to.
Speaker 1:That's funny. I'm going to look it up while we're sitting here.
Speaker 2:I'm going to listen to, but I think I really enjoyed it. I was like, wow, I wish I could do more in this. I don't know, I just think it's just thinking about the fact somebody would have the courage to die for the faith is just to me just kind of makes me pause right, Like, wow, would I have the courage, the grace and the strength to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I've been with a lot of people and it's funny that you talk about that, because in our last episode we were saying how I guess we had recorded it a while back too, and then we finally released it.
Speaker 1:And we recorded it right around the time when the catechism in the year started, and it is Schmitz, with a sound at the end, yeah, yeah, cause I was listening to the episode and I was like, oh man, what is it? So I went and looked it up and so did Schmitz, but anyway, they had just kind of done the introduction to the third pillar right before we recorded that. And so now, funny enough, they're in the 10 commandments and he's doing a really good job. I think he's really doing a good job and I think the thing that, the thing that makes it so good, is like, say what you want about Father Mike, but he loves the Lord and he, like he loves his word, he loves his law and everything, and so you can just tell it when he's talking about it, and I think it's a whole lot easier to accept things from somebody when they're really excited about it.
Speaker 1:Right when they're convicted, yeah and so he's doing really good job so far, and we're still just on the first commandment, but oh, so he's doing more than just reading it he's commenting on it. Yeah, so he'll like read it and then it's like kind of break it down. Okay good Right.
Speaker 2:I was afraid they were just gonna just like read the runnacle. Please don't do that yeah please don't do that.
Speaker 1:So, father Mike, wherever you are, you're doing good Keep it up buddy. So gosh, why are we? Oh, the catechism stuff, that's what made me think about it. But yeah, so our most popular episode is still our pilot episode about the Sacred Trudwan.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like by far the most popular. Now I wanna see where we're at with the the martyrs. Yeah, scrolling, scrolling, cause we got a lot of episodes scrolling. I'll say this much they're not the last place, okay, not the last place, but the most popular one for the martyrs was the English, or England and Wales. Oh, yeah, cause everybody loves English history. It's like knights and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is interesting part of history, the 1500s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're just so much going on.
Speaker 2:Fascinating all over the world. Yeah, cause that's during the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, portugal, and all that was going on in Japan too, yeah. Yes, it's been a rough time to live. Oh, anyway, so with the martyrs. He commented in either today's episode or the day before, I can't remember, but it was the whatever part of the Bible where they're asking that old man to like eat the meat and he's like no, I won't eat the meat If it's. I don't remember if it was pork, if it was something like Some.
Speaker 2:Maccabees.
Speaker 1:Offered to a From the Maccabees. Yeah, and so they're like okay, just eat any meat you want. Like it doesn't have to be yeah, just pretend. He's like I won't even pretend, and so, yeah, you know how that works out.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So some people with the martyrs like they're unwavering, they're like, no, I won't even fake it, right?
Speaker 2:Which is your favorite episode? I have the alien episode and Ha, ha, ha Ha ha, ha, ta, ta, ta the.
Speaker 1:I love the story of you guys practicing the baptismal right.
Speaker 2:Oh, ha ha ha.
Speaker 1:The sacraments yeah that was the sacraments. Yeah, yeah, it's so good. I think it's really like, other than the, just the great little stories. I don't know if I have a favorite, but there's things that happen that I I don't know, they're just endearing to me to go back and listen to. Like somehow we always end up talking about movies and Movies and books. Yeah, it's just like. Oh, and this one movie it's like, you know, and it's always a weird movie too. It's like aliens or something like something sci-fi or or what's it called? Babylon 5 or whatever, which I'm still watching, by the way.
Speaker 2:You are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in season two, it's pretty good. It's pretty good yeah it's pretty good For its time it's good, yeah, it's like it's aged. Yeah, the special effects are like. For anyone who understands what this means, it's like PlayStation one graphics Like it's old like 90s stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very old, but it's a good story. It's a great story yeah.
Speaker 1:They do. They do a good job of keeping things. You're aware that things are happening outside of the space station, that there's moving pieces.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And but you're never told what they all are. You're just aware that certain things are going yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're like oh, this is so. It makes you want to watch the next one because you just don't know what's going to happen. So things like that. And then I I've really enjoyed the episodes where we are talking about a, a, some document, some like church document or Vatican document or some cause. Like I, I don't know, I consider myself a pretty average, like I'm a normal Catholic, okay, and then I go to Catholic school. I don't want home school. They eat school lunch at the public school kind of thing, right, or she does they. I don't know. I've got kids everywhere now, but like I would have never heard of this stuff.
Speaker 2:You know, like on the label occasion, that we did the one on the label occasion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just anytime, and I can never say, like any other names, cause they're in Latin like that, like that's what happened this stage in person, but like everything is screwing up, unusual things that just don't put the label on the label and then whatever it all vergessen me Just like people who didn't let me know where to go and they couldn't be like, wait a minute, what was that?
Speaker 1:again, I don't know if they would have even mentioned it. I don't think so, but you've done them, you, it you may have. From to the question I go oh man this is so beautiful I want to go read it, and then I never do right Because I'm a normal Catholic and I got things going on. So life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called life.
Speaker 1:But I think that's a Just those things Aggregated together right Throughout all the episodes. It's just it's. I think you're right, it is a tapestry and it's all somehow blended together and something about that I find very intellectually stimulating. All right, so.
Speaker 2:OK, if you could do something different, if you could change something in the podcast, what would you change?
Speaker 1:I would probably change. Hmm, I don't know. That's a really good question. I think I would probably change. I'd have to say at this point it's the thing is still the length, right. Maybe I think, or I don't know, maybe we need to record new intros for like season three or something like that for next year, I don't know or season yeah, this is season two, we're in season two, yeah, just to change it up, I think, maybe the length.
Speaker 1:Every now and then we have some episodes where I'm like, oh man, that was like 10 minutes too long. Then sometimes it's just so good and I'm listening to it and I just kind of get lost and I'm like, oh, the episode's over. Then sometimes, like the other day, we did a short one. I thought that was good. Maybe something with that.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's a hard thing to come to in terms of what is the right balance? Right, is it somebody that's listening on the way to work and so they only want 20 minutes or 30 minutes, or somebody that really wants to spend some time on a walk listening and thinking and stuff?
Speaker 1:I think that's probably what affects me too, because, depending on when I listen to it, it's kind of how much time I have If it's always interrupted, because I'm like getting in the car and out of the car and in the car, out of the car yeah, I think there's so much out there that it's like I'm curious. Let me ask you this If we could double down on anything like just whatever topic or whatever yeah, I'd say whatever topic Would you double down on the martyrs? Is there something that you think in your experience with spiritual direction or giving retreats and things that people nowadays maybe really need to hear or have some kind of teaching or comfort in a specific topic?
Speaker 2:That's interesting. I think probably there's a need for an awareness of how not just in the faith, but the world how everything is interconnected and how everything affects everything else. For example, I was just talking to somebody recently about the world as we are experiencing it now, the fact that there is so little Christian values left in the West. I was talking to this person. I said well, you know something that I've mentioned before. This is an experiment, a social experiment, to have a country that doesn't have an official religion, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a religion that is imposed, just like it's not associated with any religion, even though it is, was based on some sort of Christian morals. You know, in God we trust and kind of that, and the fact that throughout the years we've basically moved away from all of that. We've moved away from, you know, due to the freedom that has been overemphasized.
Speaker 2:So we can't pray, we can't salute the flag, we can't do any of those things because it hurts somebody or something like that. Okay, and basically what we've done is we have dug ourselves a deep hole as a society and just can't get out of it. And for us, as a believing community within a larger community that no longer has any Christian structures or moral structures, it makes it very difficult for us as believers and as disciples, to understand the faith and to teach the faith, because the basic fundamental structure is no longer there. So, basically, it's a matter of cataclysm from ground zero. It's like you know, what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ For us as Catholics? What does that mean? Right, and so what does it mean to have a Catholic culture? What to have a Catholic culture doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be folkloric or exaggerator or anything like that. No, is there a fundamental understanding of the human person according to a Catholic view, going back to Irenaeus and Augustine and all those things that we talked about before, interesting philosophies and approaches to the understanding of who the human person is meant to be, according to the example set by Jesus Christ, right, and that is what we're supposed to be working towards. And so I think the fundamental, I think the doubling down would be really just some of those Thank you fundamentals that the that the catechism is built upon, but some real, just fundamental communal values of what does it mean to belong to a community of belief? Right, and that's, I think, is what needs to be emphasized.
Speaker 2:And I think part of the fear in the US, in the west, in believing cultures, for example, catholicism or just basic Christianity, some of the fear is they're so afraid of the world changing around them that they're becoming rigid and strict and reactionary, and that's not faith. Yeah, that is not faith, right, that is fear, and that's it's acting out of fear. It's like if I really truly believe and live my life understanding that there is a God who is my father, who loves me and cares for my well being, yes, the world is broken, it's not his fault. But to understand that and to to understand also that I have been invited into the plan to transform the world is as well. I mean, I think there's something there that needs to be re examined, re educated, and I think, as I've mentioned before in some of the other episodes.
Speaker 2:Sometimes the caricature of what it is to be a Christian gets in the way, and sometimes the church is at fault to use anatomy the church as a whole. But people that represent the church at times are at fault. For example, when some of the bishops came out Catholic morality and stuff, like. They came out protesting and arguing I think I've mentioned this before, we might have mentioned this before protesting.
Speaker 2:The last temptation of Christ, like, like okay, so obviously you're protesting out of ignorance because you don't understand that it's based on a novel. And no, that's not what the author is saying. The author is saying is the knot that Jesus was sleeping with Mary Magdalene. The author is saying that the temptation of Christ was what if I had done something different? And that was the last temptation on the cross, was this is what the devil had presented to him? Like, what if you've done something different? You know, maybe you would be on the cross right now. And so the whole story, the novel and part of the movie too, is that Jesus is being tempted with all this stuff. What if I had gotten married? What if I had done that? And then, at the very end, he rejects the temptation and accepts his father's will.
Speaker 2:His father's will and then you're back at the cross and he's dying on the cross like basically it was his kind of his last thought. But but what upset me about it was like you have people in miters protesting. Please educate yourself. If you're going to criticize something like that, investigate, educate and give a balanced critique of that. Yeah, which is fine.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that shows the problem. I wonder if that illustrates a problem. Are we too distracted? Like you think the bishops would have something more important to go and focus their energies on?
Speaker 2:I think part of it too is this. I think part of it too is there is a lot of banner waving and sloganism, and I think there's pressure that's put on bishops too. You have to do this and of course, you know the bishops are human. They're not infallible. Only the Pope is when he speaks infallibly, which is rare, but I think some of it is because bishops are human. Bishops can get caught up in their own piety and their own distraction and their own distorted even distorted view of what the faith is about, because they're in every bishop is from their time, in their culture. So they're not, you know, they're not inserted into the church. They come from a culture in a time. And so if you, if I, come from a culture that is that is, you know, basically besieged Catholicism then my Catholicism is going to be very, very, very different. It's going to be very militant and very, or whatever it's going to be, it's going to be reactionary, right.
Speaker 2:And so, again, that's part of the whole thing too, that there is such a huge difference in the different matters of viewing the church and understanding the church, and that's why it's so important that leadership understand that I have a cultural bias. I have a bias because I understand the church according to the way that I understand it. I need to study, I need to pray, I need to investigate and educate myself. I need to educate my own understanding of Catholicism, to have a greater understanding of the universal view of the history of the church and speak from that instead of being reactionary, I think for me, I think that the biggest thing that makes me sigh deeply is when you have the church being reactionary instead of being forward-thinking and prophetic, instead of being reactionary to do something positively, do something that is again prophetic, which is what it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1:I think there are a lot of different cultures, the right word, groups that are even non-Catholic, non-christian groups, who recognize that the direction the church goes is like like I feel like there's even a saying I've heard somewhere is like so goes the church, Like so, wherever it's headed is like where the world will follow and when it starts following instead of leading, instead of being prophetic and speaking the truth, no matter the situation, I think that's when things get a little hairy and, yeah, you're right, like a bishop from Central Africa is going to have a very different list of things that he's complaining and involved with than somebody from the United States.
Speaker 1:It's going to be completely different, yeah, and I think that also. That too kind of makes me think about the spiritual nature of things that we have kind of been speaking about lately, the understanding, and you said that you play a part in the story of the salvation of the world as an individual. So you have to know, you have to be aware and acknowledge and accept and participate in this something bigger than just the world.
Speaker 1:It's not just the world, it's the world and right, it's the spiritual thing and you can't but you can't get hyper focused on the end or you turn into one of those heresies from the first couple centuries to where, like, the spiritual things are good and worldly things are bad.
Speaker 2:And I have to say that a lot of it is it's not malicious, it is a desire for good, it's just it's just not cataclyzed or educated right. And so like it's not, like you shouldn't, you know? Blah, blah, blah, blah and like okay, so let's step back from this and let's educate the question and let's see if you want to, if you want to ask the same question, the same way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like you were saying the other day, whenever it was like somebody like there's a peace about somebody who has that like firm understanding and acceptance of who they are and their relationship with God, so they can be, you know, imprisoned and they're at peace. They can be poor, they're in peace. They can be rich and they're in peace. Right Like so. There's something there and, I think, a lot of people, because doom and gloom sells right.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 1:And so that's, yeah, that's very exciting and everything, but if you think about it, us going, us moving into a post-Christian world is no different than the beginning of the church exactly. It's just a pre-Christian world, and so they were. There's nothing going on right now. That wasn't going on 2,000 years ago and so that's.
Speaker 1:It's almost exciting because, instead of worrying about all the things that are going wrong or what Pope or Bishop or whoever didn't do something that they should have done and you know, hindsight, 2020 kind of thing like, how about being excited for what God is doing right now? Yeah, with all of us broken people. Yeah, you know, we got Broken leaders, we got broken podcasters, we got everything is broken, but God is moving and I think that's really exciting. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I Think, I agree, I agree and I think part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it, going back to the podcast, you know a lot of people that have been Pushing us to be more commercialized and to try to get you know more, multiple platforms, and so I could like it's not about popularity, it's not about you know. Yeah, it's a matter like, okay, we're gonna do what we're gonna do and hopefully God's gonna do with it what he wants to do with it, and hopefully they find it interesting enough, the Catholic faith, interesting enough, that that they want to Listen and be open to, to exploring the faith and to Appreciate the richness, the complexity, the largeness of it and the the many different hues and colors and tints of the faith that makes it such a beautiful, beautiful Bride of Christ. And that it's not about you know, customs, that the people that have confused customs with Tradition, with big T tradition right and fighting over Stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I think the the approach that Everyone not just you and I and with this, with this podcast, but everyone should take is If you just help one person in your life get to know Jesus, that's enough. Yeah, that's enough. So, if it, you know, we've been Downloaded in 32 countries now. If just one person Go is, is better informed or, you know, has some kind of fuel to their journey, then that's, then we did our job. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're willing to consider something yeah and I think, I think that I like that to consider something. It's very carmelite of you to say, but yeah, the I think it's. It's also interesting too, because, as Christians were called to community, and this is, you know, the podcast is kind of a venture into a broader community of people that will never see from, like Nigeria, or, right as I think, our latest country, which is great because it's this, this, we are all one family kind of community, but I think it you're, and maybe this is something that in this post Christian society, how many people are are longing for a sense of community.
Speaker 1:And maybe maybe that's what the church brought into the world. I mean, everyone had their little village and their little clan or empire, you know, depending on where you live. But I wonder what it was that? Well, I know obviously the other answers Jesus is what they brought into the. You know, they shared, but it's like how did they bring that to the world around? And like how did it catch fire, you know, and, and really spread? I think.
Speaker 2:I think it is a community and Familiarity and familiarity. By that I mean the familiarity of family. Right, that's what I mean. I was reading about the, the church in Korea what was it, andrew Kim? That we celebrate nacholanga and I did you know, being the geek that I am, I did a little dive into Korea.
Speaker 2:So I was like, oh, that was interesting, so that you know, in Korea there was mostly Confucianism and Buddhism and in Confucianism there's a hierarchy, there's a rigid, there's a rigid kind of I don't say a caste system, but there's a rigid hierarchy. And so Some of the academics, some of the the high society educated people in Korea Got a hold of some Catholic documents that came from China. They were able to read Chinese and they were reading the Chinese that some Jesuits had written for the Chinese Admission. It sort of bled into Korea. And Then these high ranking educated academicians, medicians, Like that word, I'm gonna make a t-shirt that says acumen dishes Academicians okay that's my, that's my academic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the little trademark and they had to translate it Into a language that the people in Korea could read. And so, all of a sudden, what happened was they were very attracted to it because their their translation. There's no such thing as a disciple right. Their translation was Friends of the God of heaven, oh and the idea of friends is what attracted to that, attracted them to the faith because we're all equal. Yeah, which absolutely? The Korean Culture culture kingdoms, right empires.
Speaker 2:We're totally against like no, no, no, no, no. There is no such thing as equality there. We have to keep the hierarchy. And so, when Priests came in to Korea, people walked 500 miles from Korea into China to go ask the Chinese Catholics to send them priests. Wow, and by the time, by the time priests actually came into Korea, there was like 30,000 Catholics.
Speaker 1:Before they even got there.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, waiting for priests because you had catechists. You had these people that were teaching the faith and they all believed yeah and you had, of course, you had lay baptism, you had baptism that.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say, with these people, happen happened to be the laity.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That, that lay vocation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's yes powerful. And I was like whoa, and so they finally. So again I did the deep dive and so I'm gonna like it's about community, it's about Family and so I think one of the the things that is lacking in the West that Most people are hungry for, whether they know it or not, this community. But most people don't know how to live in community, they don't know what the collaboration and the give and take and all that stuff is very difficult for them because families are messed up now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you know again Anybody that's interested there. There was a book that was written about 10, 20 years ago on Narcissism in the United States, written by two PhDs, and basically that's basically what's killing us in the West is the Narcissism.
Speaker 1:Look at me, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's gonna kill us. So you know, we need to those of us that are believers, we need to stay in the church and keep the church up, because the next collapse of the civilization is gonna depend. It's gonna be dependent on us to preserve the civilization, just like it happened before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was just gonna say I'm Thinking about it now all the plagues, all the everything's that go through and wipe out the church is what was there to the monasteries preserved the civilization. Yeah, this, here we go. Mount Carmel Center might be a happening place here in 100 years the center of the future civilization?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if there is a Texas Gosh, it turns into hunger games. Yeah, this will be district I don't know 11, I don't know how many dis I can't remember. It's been a long time since I read those books. Yeah, it's so cool. Spice the makes my, makes me think. My one of my buddies, my other friend, steven, lives down down in Austin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mother Steven, um, yeah, he and I. It was one of the I admittedly I did not respond well in this in this conversation, but he was talking about Dune and how it's like the Catholic it's I don't they call it Catholic something. In Dune it's like a, the church, but it means like it's now universal, like universe wide kind of thing, but it's like a Lower KC, yeah, but but in it's like this, all different religions are all like merged together at some point and I'm just like that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, like you. Obviously. The author obviously didn't Doesn't understand the Catholic church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he got so frustrated because he was just trying to like it's cool because it says Catholic and you're Catholic. No, sorry, stephen.
Speaker 2:It's the wrong Catholics.
Speaker 1:Stephen, yeah, that's funny. Oh yeah so. So what's next for us? We got a lot of traveling, or you've got a lot of traveling, a lot of traveling, got a lot of traveling. Yeah, I still think of Beatitudes. Series might be nice to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But maybe see if we can figure out how to chunk it into either smaller things or-.
Speaker 2:There's still a lot of Vatican documents that we can go through too. I dig those.
Speaker 1:I dig those documents, man, and I maybe it's the history nerd in me too, because I have. I just got a book by Jimmy Aiken, the church father's no best, or something like that.
Speaker 2:That's not familiar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I haven't had a chance to start reading it yet, but it's a decent size book. Jimmy Aiken Is he a country western singer, jimmy Aiken?
Speaker 2:Kidding, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:No, but he has a luxurious red beard, does he? I think, yeah, yeah, and I can.
Speaker 2:I'm qualified he's one of those Catholics, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm qualified to say it's luxurious too. Even if it's only scraggly, I can still say it's luxurious and it makes it so Okay In your world Okay. But yeah. So we got a lot. We got stuff coming up, but we gotta get through the travels. That's gonna be a lot of fun. And then, I don't know, we'll see what happens next year or in the rest of this year. I guess we got a lot of year left. There's a lot left to this year.
Speaker 1:I'm just already tired because the school year started so well. Cool, this was fun.
Speaker 2:I you like all the books.
Speaker 1:I keep banging the microphone stand. I do. I'm kind of like I see a whole bunch because we're recording in the is this the library?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's one of the libraries in this. This one, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I was saying I thought you guys had a different one we do.
Speaker 2:We have several libraries.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I see, strangely enough, I see a lot of Jesuit books on these shelves. I don't know what's going on around here. See, there's one right over there.
Speaker 2:And a Franciscan. There's a Jesuit and a.
Speaker 1:Franciscan book See we're Catholic.
Speaker 2:We take a look at the world. Yeah, you have the Chromalite stuff, you have scripture stuff, you have theology, you have dogma, you have commentaries, you have sacraments. You've got it's-.
Speaker 1:And it looks like you ran out of bookshelves.
Speaker 2:Yes, we need to. I need to call. I need to start taking stuff out and giving them away.
Speaker 1:Well, betty just got, or she just ordered. I don't think it's in yet. St John of the Cross Collective works. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Do you have a favorite saint? A favorite saint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, other than Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, does he count? I mean, he's kind of God. He is the Holy One Come on.
Speaker 2:He is holiness itself. Hello.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's kind of like saying, like St Michael, like I mean he he's an angel, he's there, he wins by default, right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 2:The spiritual Jesus wins by default, Right, so from the human church, yeah, Hmm, Of course there's my patron saint Stephen, who he didn't write anything, but just you know his life and his death has been very exemplary to me and a very convicting life for me. St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sars, who was a passionist, a young he died as a novice, as a young man. His whole story was very, I think, was very attractive to me. But for me, I think it's Teresa and John. Once I got into Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, like yeah, it's all there, it's all there, it's just yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I won't say if I have a favorite saint, because I have a hard time picking any kind of favorites, but I will say this one time when my two nephews were they were little, I can't remember exactly how old, but I'm talking like elementary school age they were driving down from Oklahoma to come visit and my sister was like cracking up when she was telling me about this. They're in the backseat of the minivan or whatever, and they're having this debate over who would win in a fight Jesus or the Incredible Hulk. Because they're like the Hulk is so strong, but it's Jesus, you can't beat him. And so when I said that he wins by default, that's kind of what popped in my head. Anyway, yeah, jesus versus the Hulk. Yeah, make a good comic. Well, great, well, I think we're done here this evening, I think. So.
Speaker 2:It's time for snacks and bed, yeah, it's time for a nice, nice quiet time before I turn in, put on my Marvel Avengers pajamas.
Speaker 1:Incredible Hulk. Oh goodness, all right, we're going to wrap it up. Everyone who's listening please share the podcast. That is the best thing that you could do for us. Yes, amen, and share the podcast with somebody you think might enjoy it. Thank you, god bless. God bless, bye everybody.
Speaker 2:Showing off the Hulk. But finally he found out he did.