EP 11 | Fr. Bishoy El Antony – Gripping Exorcisms, Epic Miracles & His Book A Monk Around the World - The Salt Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
how can I write God's glory in my life?

(00:03):
no, no,we don't make deals ever with the devil.
Someone's just come out with a book.
You don't want me to confess?I will not confess.
I like singing in ArabicWe are not to assume don't make jokes now,
we are in a very bad time.
But I don't want anybody
outside of Egyptto use the Coptic language, for me.
It was nothing.

(00:24):
She hold me, hold me like that.
in Canada.
And we don't have that at all.
with one hand.
When, I can't bring him back.
I can only kick him out.
So anyone ready to be martyred come.
which story in the book do you thinkpeople will be most shocked by?
bodybuilder. Look at my muscles.

(00:44):
Deep, deep, deep in the desert,you will find resistance.
there is somebody abovetaking care of everything.
Everyone.
just wait. Wait.

(01:17):
Welcome to the Salt podcast.
I am George Iskandar, as always.
I have with me my co-host who still singleby the way, got Simon Thomas.
So back by popular demand,our guest returns
to dive even deeper into his incrediblejourney of monastic life.
Spiritual warfare,walking with God around the world.
Get ready for more wisdom, more fire, andmore stories that will steal your soul.

(01:39):
Pleasewelcome back Father Bishop Al Anthony is.
Now, before we get
started, there's a bit of big newsout there.
Someone's just come out with a book.
It's a beautiful, beautiful bookwritten by Father Bishop Anthony himself.
It's called A monk Around the Worldand Making of a monk.
So before we get started, can you please,please tell us about this book?

(02:03):
What?
What it took to make this book andall the stories that you have behind this.
This book is a journey in the life.
Just tell people that anybody
can go through, everything.
Hardship, betrayals, good stuff.

(02:27):
Spirituality, failure.
But still, God is glorifying
his his name and glorifying himself
in every step.
I wrote
about, under the name Anonymous Monkbecause I was going to first
write it under, written by nobody,but I found it.

(02:51):
I said, what does it mean?
Nobody. I'm I'm nobody.
But anyway, I said anonymous monk,because as a monk,
we don't write our name on anything.
Even when I had to,
write icons.
My, I, I didn't sign it with my name.

(03:11):
What did you write?
Nobody.
No, I, I had to sign a monk from SaintAnthony Monastery. Wow.
Yeah.
Well, so it's not in our, That's life
to keep thinking, writing your name and everything.
A few things from our last episode.
Last time you told us,about the building, the famous story

(03:32):
about the building collapsing on youafter you ask God for a sign.
So what we want to know is, since then,has there been any other moments
you asked for a sign, and God answeredjust as clearly or unexpectedly.
Actually, always I ask for a sign
because, you need an answer,

(03:52):
and, you need to be surethat if God agreed about something or not.
And as I said, signs can come from God
by, various way.
Some people, they believe in the Bible.
God will send them a message. So
especially if they are reading the Bibleevery day.

(04:14):
So God can send them a message.
Some other they ask God on on the altar,
some asking their spiritual fatheror whatever is there.
A spiritual father said they they follow,
and this is sometimes a, realize it.
When somebody come and ask me about something and my answer, it's not my answer.

(04:39):
Not according to my personality.
I know what I say in church.
In front of that question.
But sometimes I force itto say something else that mean that guy
prayed a lot and said,I will go and ask God
through my spiritual father.
So you can feel that,it's out of your hand.

(04:59):
Well,
and I always tell people
until now askGod every anybody say anything.
I said ask God to have ask for sign.
Just, just ask for any sign.
Gideon in the Bible.
Ask for nonsense.

(05:20):
And God answered him.
And the God of the Old Testamentis a God of the New Testament.
He can answer at any time, any question.
So I believe yeah,I ask, for science and,
God always, like, for example,
because I'm, I'm kind of old monk

(05:44):
when my spiritual father 20 years agoor so,
he posted,
nobody agreed to take my confession
because most of the monks younger than me.
And they kept going.
Going until I get ya angry.
And they said, Lord, you don't wantI beg everyone.

(06:08):
You don't want me to confess?
I will not confess.
Until you send somebody
telling me come and confess with me
which it is impossible
among us and no one else life.
No one would say that.
And one dayI went to one of the monasteries

(06:30):
and I met was a very, very saintly emunah.
So to me awhere are you coming to confess or what.
Well so it was my sign
and I said I will never confessuntil you send me somebody.
It was impossible sign.
And I always say,when you ask God, ask for impossible sign.
Wow. So it's clean. Yeah.

(06:52):
And this is very good.
Well, well, based off the last podcast,
you said that your greatest desireto the viewers and to us was to live
as a hermit father, deep in the desert,completely away from everyone.
It's funny enough to say thatthe complete opposite happened to you.
If anything, you've traveled the world.
Preaching? God, obviously.

(07:13):
Yeah. I heard you recently came backfrom a missionary trip.
So with that being said,do you ever feel as though you didn't
get to live out your hermit dream,but instead something bigger than that?
Or are you happy withhow things have played out in your life?
It's not bigger or less.
It's not like that at all.
It's, a vow of obedient.

(07:35):
So whatever,
whatever order comes to me, I obey.
Obey.
So go to your monastery. Okay?
Get out of the monastery.
Okay. Whatever happened? So.
And if you rememberwhen I didn't listen to God last time,

(07:56):
I do unto youthat whole building collapse on top of it.
So I don't want that again.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I think, it's really specialthat you have that kind of relationship
with God where you just are obedient,but do you ever think, you know, you.
Are you
are you satisfied, or do you feel likeyou would have preferred to be isolated?

(08:18):
Or do you feel you're satisfiedbecause you're fulfilling
what God wanted for you, even thoughit's not what you wanted for yourself?
I'm satisfied with his well,whatever he chose for me,
always better.
Even if I, if I was by myself,
I'm sure it will not be good.
For me at least,because God knows what is good

(08:41):
and what is, not good for me in my life.
So it's, and they're also easier
for you to obey and anything happen.
Say, Lord, I'm obedient.
That's right. It's not my responsibility.
So it's I.
I live a day by day.
I don't live years.

(09:03):
I don't live.
Months? No. Just a day by day to day.
I'm obedient. Listening to God.
Glorify his name.
Pleasing him as much as you can.That's it.
Well, like the Bible says,that today is sufficient
for sufficient for todayis its own troubles.
Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

(09:24):
Yeah.
Also last time you said, about,
how Father Anthony appearedto someone else with a message
that was for you, but not directly to you,but a message somewhere else. So
have you ever had a momentwhere a saint or angel did appear to you
personally?
I don't see anything,

(09:44):
but, I remember when we were a young.
Before I get into the ministry,
we had to, take many,
transportationuntil we reach the wellness
and either to work 16km or 50km

(10:07):
to reach the monastery.
If we reach that the beginning
of the way to the monastery in the desert,
sometimes it's dark
and we can get lostin the desert in the night.
So I remember that when theyI found that very strong light,
me and my friend from the monastery.

(10:29):
So we followed the light
until we reach there and we went.
When we reached the monastery we said toI will not thank you one for the light.
He said, what light?
Said the light that you, And,you show us the way.
You said, my son,we don't have electricity

(10:53):
and we don't have light.
This is Santa Anthony.
Clearing the way to youbecause he doesn't want you to get lost.
How do you. When that happened?
1919. Wow.
Wow. It's unbelievablehow that that stuff happens.
And what do you think at that age
when when you hearthat I'd be at a loss for words?

(11:15):
If what can I if I can ask?
We had a
nearly a two hour podcast before, andI felt like we covered a lot of things.
But one thing we didn't get to coverwas asking you, what's one question
that you didn't get to be asked last timethat you wish you would have been asked
from us and or wanted to answersomething about the church?
I mean,

(11:35):
because I, I served outside of Egyptfor a long, long time.
And one of the question that I wisheveryone asked me,
what do you think about the Coptic Churchin, in, in that they,
you agree or not?
But nobody asked,you know, and I ask you that at all.

(11:56):
So what's the answer to it.
I think it's
I like the Coptic language.
I like so much the songs in
or the hymns in, in Coptic language
because I, I grew up in, in Egypt.
And this is very normal for any Egyptian.

(12:18):
He likes the music.
He likes everything about Coptic
and wanted to Coptic means Egyptian.
As you know it came originally from Qatar,
the land of Buddha, and was, an ancient
god for the, in the throne time

(12:40):
and the, and the Greco-Roman time,
they couldn't say,so they said Egypt as Egypt.
Egypt.
So I know I am Egyptian and,
originally Egyptian and I'm speaking.
Yeah, I can read.
Right. Coptic.
And I like to sing in Coptic.

(13:01):
To pray in Coptic.
But I don't want
anybody outside of Egyptto use the Coptic language,
but use the country as the languageof the country that they are in. Other.
Why is how we can preach
how we can get others to Christianity.

(13:24):
What about our generation,the next generation.
Think about Coptic Church after 50 years
from now in the diaspora,what it will look like.
Do you think your son
or grandson will speak
except the English will understandEnglish only you will.

(13:47):
And especially this languageyou are not talking with it.
You are only singing with it.
It's like Latin.
And they're going to Catholic Church
for, because of that, I said,
I'm always begging the deacons.
Please sing in English.
It's nonsense
to say

(14:07):
languagethat you yourself don't understand
unless you look to the right sideof the screen
on the left side of the screento know the translation.
Once you did that, your,
your mind will not processall that together.
Spirituality raise your heart.
Bring praying in Copticand looking to the translation.

(14:31):
Unless you are a genius. I'm not.
I'm definitely not.
It's hard to multitask,especially if you don't really understand.
And like.
Like I'm not fluent.
George is much, much better than me.
With Coptic.
But I just try. Like you said,when you go to church.
Focus on Godand focus on seeing with your heart
and not just trying to learn everythingthat you're not too sure about.

(14:51):
Leave that at another time. Yeah.
I was prayingin, in Africa, in Kenya, in the old days.
In many, in many languages.
I prayed for a healing
kipchumba a a a balu at most
or most of the, they have in Kenya, 149,

(15:12):
languages or tribes with their language.
But I had to praybecause I started to make the holy the
the Book of Prayer and thelectures, the prayer in many languages.
And I had to say word by word.
That's besidesomebody to take the translation and
to put in the right, way. But

(15:37):
I didn't understand what I'm saying.
I know I am in the reconciliation period,
but, what does it mean?
It's just a memory for me.
It was nothing.
Yeah.
I try hard while I'm reading
what I'm reading to today's my heart.

(15:59):
Because of only that Jesus Christ,the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
I, I feel the old,
in front of God.
Otherwise I'm just reading.
And this is what's happeningwith those who are speaking in
or singing in Coptic language.
We have to care about the new generation

(16:22):
that they have to pray, not singing.
We are not to assume that.
Yeah.
But anyway, you know, I completelyunderstand your point of view 100%.
But I also for myself, I love Coptic
and I love singing Copticand I very much loved his behalf.
And I find sometimesI like singing in Arabic because I for me,

(16:45):
and I do understandArabic more than I understand Coptic,
but I feel like I've already,I already know it really well in English.
So then when I say it in Arabic orI say it in Coptic, I actually feel like
I'm praising on a like in a different way,which is unique, which is more,
it doesn't get as boringwhen you keep saying the same thing
in English over and over.You say it in Arabic.
You know, it has a different meaning.
And you and then you start learningsome of the words and Coptic.

(17:08):
And in my experience, when I've,I've taught hymns classes before.
A lot of the kids love the Coptic.They love it.
And they are so proud of themselves.
And it makes them love the church.
This is the point. Yeah.
They proud of themselves?
Yeah. They are not like others.
They are better than others.
This is the point which I always see.

(17:29):
Are you gonna learn Coptic to show off?
If you want to
pray, you willpray with any language in this matter.
So if for the sake of the church
and sake of every soul in the church,even one, I will say
the church has 99 persons
and one cannot understand.

(17:51):
What do you think about Jesus will do.
He will leave the 99 singingbecause they are very close to God.
And he will look for that oneand said what you forgot my my sheep.
Well you don't care about them.
So because of that
I like in Australiathat there is some liturgies
in English and some liturgies and Copticand Arabic and English.

(18:16):
So if you like so much the Coptic go.
If you don't like the Coptic,if you know
only Englishyou have to go to the English literature.
So as long as you're sayingthere's a service
that's completely English, that's fine.
As long as there's a servicethat caters completely English.
And then there could be a servicethat has English.
Coptic Arabic doesn't. Yeah.
At least there's an optionto keep to keep our tradition

(18:37):
and our own language as Coptic.
Yeah I love I love the roots.
Even if you see in my bookI'm going deep, deep into the roots.
But I don't want to force.
What I believe in
to the people.
Because it will go away for you

(18:58):
just to wait for 20, 30 years.
That's it.
Even your son.
That makes me sad.
Now. But you're rightI, I understand your point completely.
Yeah.
So moving on from that.
One of, from the last episode,one of the most watched clips that we had
was when you were talking about,facing the devil alone on the mountain

(19:22):
that has had the most attention, even,
strangely enough, on Instagram, like, some people have shared it
that have hundreds of thousandsof followers, and they're not even Coptic.
They're not even from what I could see,their name is maybe a Latino name.
And there are other people that, you know, English
that have been sharing this clip.They were very moved by it.
There was something about it.

(19:43):
So, they'll really groupby that moment that you shared.
So can you take usmaybe a little bit deeper on that
and maybe share another encounterof a demonic experience or any experience
that you've had that you can share?
Always.
I don't want to hearhad to talk about devil more than angels,
but that just one storyor two stories of the devil, the rest.

(20:07):
And it honestly, it's something thatpeople are very interested in.
I think maybe sometimes by knowing it.Yeah.
That fear makes you, strangelyenough, brings you closer to God.
Yeah.
Of course, as long as there is andthere are angels, there are also devils.
And it's written in the Bible.
It's not, according to our imagination.

(20:29):
His name was Satan El
Satan was, one of the cherubim
or cattle beam.
The single, of cherubim is cut upor shouted cherubim.
Yeah.
So God put into him all the knowledge,

(20:51):
the shadow beam.
And he found himself.
And because of that, also the cherubim.
You find a lot of eyes.
Symbol of knowledge.
He's full of knowledge.
Word cherubim means full of knowledge.
So God put
and thatguy and that cut up all the knowledge.

(21:14):
I said I know everything.
Why I don't be God.
And he was proud of himself very much.
So he, he fell and took
from all the ranks of the angels with him
some they believed in him.

(21:34):
He thought he can be God,but he cannot. Why?
Because God, not only full of knowledge,
he's full of mercy, full of love,full of justice, full of everything.
This second,
Saint Augustinesaid, from all the ranks of the angels
followed himexcept one rank, which is Seraphim,

(21:57):
because the seraphim word means,
full of love.
Although he said
anyone filled with love to God
he will not fall. So,
said the
nails and then he hates the human beings

(22:19):
because he can see the plan for themto go to heaven
after he brought them out of, Eden.
So he kept trying hard,
tempting them since Adam and Eveuntil today and,
until the end of the world to bring them

(22:41):
with him to hell.
And, Yeah,
I've seen many people possessed and,
I don't know which storyI told you about last time
you said when you were on the mountainand, stopping you to go from to the,
holy somebody that,he will find in my book,

(23:02):
some stories about that,because when I was young,
I've seen my spiritual fathercasting out demons
and also was a layman.
The archdeacon or,the one who leads the, chanting.
He was amazing.
Also doing that.
Easy for him.

(23:24):
I'm not gifted in that.
And when I talk aboutwhy I don't want to talk,
because when I talk about the peoplethings that I,
I can cast out demons.
I didn't try and I will not try.
Because I know it's not my gift.
And it's very good for a personto know Yanni.

(23:45):
His position. Yanni.
I can say I can cast outyou know I can't
and I don't wantand I know it's not my gift.
It's a gift of one of the giftsof the Holy Spirit.
And he can give it toanybody even layman.
So the Archdeacon, he was blind

(24:10):
and you know, in the old daysall those who are leading chants,
chanting that, that was
all of them were blind.
Because it's easy for a blind personto listen
and to get any hymns very quicklymore than those who can see.
The first one was not blind,

(24:32):
it was I Ibrahim, I, it
head
or archdeacon of at the time of PopeShenouda
the third.
And he I want, I know he was very famous.
All the people Christians, Muslims,they know very well that,

(24:55):
he is he cast out demons.
One day I was taking him home,
and I am leading him to.
And he's he's area was kind of poor area.
And while we are on the way,
a very big lady stopped him

(25:18):
and she stopped in front of him.
He couldn't see.
Then he said, oh, what is this?
My son?
I was naughty as he told me to.
All because she was very, very.
So he touched her.

(25:39):
It's soft.
So the lady in like what
I said, she said, boy,what are you saying?
I am a lady.
So that the archdeacon said,
when you are standing in front of me,she said, get into my house.

(26:02):
He said, no.
She said, if you don'tget my into my house, I will carry you.
Oh my God.
I said, no, I will notcome into your house even by force.
I said to him,
we had to call himMa le means teacher said teacher,
if you have, sight,if you can see her, you wouldn't say that

(26:26):
you would obey immediately.
He said no, stop talking.
Then.
Then he, She carried him.
Oh, well.
Oh, my God,she just gesture in front of him.
He said, no, this is not good.
Let me down.

(26:47):
And we were in the yard close to the.
It was 6 p.m. or seven.
After a little bit dark.
Then, I said to him, my, teacher,
go with her when I have to go to my mom.
And my mom would be very upsetif I am late.

(27:09):
She hold me, hold me like that.
She said you will get.
I will come with him.
Who will take him home?
I said mom will be upset.
She said, no, don't say that.
And she pushed both of us inside
into her house.
Then another room.
This woman was strong, and,

(27:33):
she closed the door behind us.
When we went, we found three couches
that said nothing.
So the teacher said,
what is in this room? My son?
I said nothing.
Just three couch.
She said.
He said why? She brought us here.
I said, I don't know,

(27:55):
maybe because you are fatand they will eat you.
And then in the feast,because they were not Christian.
If I don't make jokes now,
we are in a very bad time.
He was very tired.
Very, very kind.
I loved him so much. Yeah.
Anyway,

(28:18):
just two steps.
He said, let us sit 2 to 3 steps.
I found again
underneath of the couch and the couch.
The first couch
is almost naked,
and she has a lot of, injuries,which is very weird.

(28:38):
She big as well?
I think I got scared.
For her,the teacher said to me, what's going on.
I said there is somebody killed here.
A girl has been killed.
He said killed.
I said yeah.
I suggested that you come

(29:00):
here.
He said yeah.
He said blood coming overany part of her body, her neck or
I said, no, no.
He said, is she blue?
I said, no,
her tongue out.
No. Her eyes out.
No. Wow.

(29:20):
I said, can you put your your ear on her
heart to see if she's still alive or not?
Yeah.
I went and I said, this is, teacher.
She is still alive.
I said, that means she is possessed.
Once he said thatI was on the top of the gun.

(29:41):
The cow. It's on over his shoulder.
This is a crazy story. Wow.
Then, he sat down
and, the lady came in and she said.
Did you cast him out?
You will not come out of this roomunless you cast him out.

(30:04):
He tried to talk to her.
She said, no, no, you.
I know you can,
you can cast them out.
And she locked the door again.
So I was behind his back,looking while his praying.
And while he is praying,
the girl was one hand.

(30:26):
She raised the couch
on the couch.
The coach is very heavy.
Three,four men has to carry it with one hand.
When, she was in the gym
all the time,I think, or her devil was in the gym
and, the, the teacher was heavy.

(30:46):
I mean, I have ten maybe, or so.
She she carried all of us with one arm,
and that that teacher
didn't know what's happeningbecause he found his leg in the air.
I said, what's it doing on my son?
Now, how? He keeps asking.Give what's happening?
He ask to expire.

(31:07):
So I said nothing.
The devil carrying us now.
So he said, in the name of our LordJesus Christ.
Who does that one?
She put.
Put a put it, then immediately. Oh.
Yeah.
And he started, to pray.

(31:27):
And the devil started talkingin a very bad, voice
and he said, look,
I know you want to go out, so I pretend
that I am out of there
until you go out.
So he tried to make a deal
with the teacher. So.

(31:52):
I said to the teacher,
I think this is a good
he's a good guy.
He knew that.
I have to go to my mom quickly.
But, the teacher said,
no, no,we don't make deals ever with the devil.
I said, he's good.
He knows that we are in a very bad way.

(32:13):
Amen.
Situation.
He didn't listen.
Then he kept to praying, and they said
no, you'll have to come out to her.
And until at the end, the devil said,
okay, okay, I will come out of her eyes.
The, teacher said no from her toes.

(32:34):
I said to the teacher,
let him come out from anywhere.
You don't make it too specificand there is no need for all that.
So he kept saying, no, my son.
He comes out of her eyes.
If he come out of her eyes,he will destroy her eyes.
So he has to come out of something.

(32:57):
If he destroyed, no problem.
Finally.
Thank Godhe came out of her toes with the blood.
And her mom was standingon front of the door
when she, she heard her daughter saying.
Mom, where are you?
Because she found she found the teacher,

(33:19):
and I went to him looking at her.
And, she was, Yeah.
Shy or, But I said to her, don't worry.
He cannot see. And I'm young knowing.
But her mom came immediately insideand she start,
making a noise of happinessand got us, some drinks.

(33:42):
And she was so happy.
And this is one of the thingsI will never forget.
I remember even the house which I enteredand how it looks like,
how many stepsto the door, everything. Oh,
you can't believe that.
Okay, let's just unpack this story.
So, for all the laughing when the devil,like you said, you heard the devil

(34:04):
when the devil came out from her toes,did something physically come out?
Blood. Oh, wow.
Matters.
A lot of blood.
Just blood started gushing outwhen we stopped.
It was what was apparent about her.
Like were her eyes.
The voice was very different.
Voice of a men or, bad men were, not a girl.

(34:25):
And then she came. Her voice,it were very lovely.
After that.
Well. And how old are you this?
Ten. Ten?
That that excites the commentary.
We thought he was, like 1929, but still,like, for him to be in that circumstance
and having to explainto the blind to all the.
And then forget jumping back and tell him,wow, wow.

(34:46):
So I can't forget that, I've seen
in my life, even, even,
I wasn't in Canada after I became a woman.
And, I went to Canada to study
one of my professors
told me, father,

(35:08):
can you come and have, a dinner with us?
And at home I said, yeah, yeah.
So I went with her.
She was a single momwith her little baby boy.
And while we are in the kitchen,the kitchen is very huge, very big.
And she said, father,I will show you something very strange.

(35:28):
She put her babyon, a chair, a wooden chair,
and grab it to this sideso it goes to the other side by itself.
Every time she do that,it goes to the other side.
Then she saidto me, isn't it a nice game?

(35:49):
I said, maybe.
She said,
why do you own your, what is your opinion about that?
What do you think about that?
Why the chair moves.
I don't know.
She said, I think there is
a very, very strongmagnetic field in this area.
So it grabs the chair to the other side.

(36:10):
I said magnetic field.
It's a wooden floor.
I wouldn't a chairI wouldn't son everything is wood.
I mean why it moves.
She said if the chair has one
screw or nail it can move.
If there is a very strong magnetic field.

(36:31):
I said maybe it's okay.
You are my professor or whatever you say.
It's it's right there.
I want it to succeed.
She said, yeah,but what is your own opinion?
At that time, I have to tell the truth.
I said.
Maybe unclean spirit,said further unclean spirit.

(36:53):
It's in in Egypt, in Africa,not here in Canada.
And we don't have that at all.
I said, why the devil has no visa?
What do you mean?
She said, we weren't.
We don't believe in that at all.
I said, okay, this is up to you.
She said,can you prove what you're saying?
I said, yeah, get me a glass of wood.

(37:18):
You got me a glass of water.
I prayed and,I made the sign of the cross, and I
sprinkled the water on the same placewhich the chair moved.
It stopped.
Right. Left with the baby.
Without the baby. Stop.
She was mad at me and said.
Did you support a game? Ruined the game.

(37:40):
Oh my gosh.I said, you were playing with the devil.
She said, doesn'tmatter. Bring him back. What?
I can't bring him back.
I can only kick him out.
Just one way.
Not to.
And she said, but I want him back.
I the my son was like that.
All the time.

(38:00):
I said don't worry.
He's listening to you now and thenwhen he find you that you like him
so much, he will bring some of his friendsand come back to this house.
Don't worry.
Everything will move. Not only the chair.
Even you will move out of the houseafter that.
Well, that's, Yeah.
Thank you for sharing those stories.

(38:20):
Very moving stories.
But, you know, on the topicof demonic forces, there's a new toy.
I don't know if you've heard of it.It's called the boo boo.
And it's something that's going viraland everyone's buying it.
And actually, some people are talking
about, having paranormal experienceswith this toy.
Some people are saying that sometimesit's eyes changes colors,

(38:44):
sometimes it makes noises, sometimes, they wake up with scratches on themselves.
And some people think it's just,you know, a myth or just conspiracy, but,
if we can pull it up on the screen,you'll see that there is,
that's the toy there.
And apparently this is, a demonic forceor demonic entity called Pazuzu.

(39:04):
And people are saying that'swhat it's based on.
So I guess what I wanted to ask you,is this something
that we should take seriously?
As as, you know, somebody trying to put something out there
that is demonic, or is it just somethinglike conspiracy theory and we should
just ignore it?
Actually, it can be both, one of them.
We can say this is right or this is wrong

(39:27):
because, I,I didn't see any other except,
you know, and,
I myself,I say if the devil himself not Catholic,
we are stronger enough,
strong enough to destroy him.

(39:47):
But for.
Yes, I am sure 100% that,
because I have seen a family,
they give, they give a toy,
like a lovable, but it wasn't until,
six years ago

(40:10):
to her daughter, their daughter,
because she became Christianand they were completely.
So they they give her, a toy for her kids
the same day.
She and her husband,
they saw devils in their

(40:31):
in the house with their eyes.
They were sleeping.They were sitting on the bed.
Everything breaking in the in the house.
And they can see them.
They got scared, of course.
And they were making cross everywherearound them, around them.
And the baby in the middletill the morning.
Imagine the whole night.

(40:53):
So she called me in the morning and said,what happened exactly?
I said, yeah, it's okay.
Throw away this, toy,
don't keep it in your or burn itor do something in
and know quickly
confessbecause you have been for a long time.

(41:14):
You didn't confess.
And you and your husband,and take a communion
and baptize your baby quickly.
And over that fast.
And, pray for seven days.
And during these days, I want you to pray,
especially with the Psalmsin every corner in the house.

(41:38):
Keep going. Little by little.
Six days.
Gradually that the noise and the devils
decreasing the placewhich they prayed together in.
There is no no devil.
Then kept going and goinguntil they left the house completely.
And the seventh day God, Jesus Christour Lord, appeared to them both.

(42:03):
And he told her,I will reward you for what you did.
Well.
So I believe it can be like that. Yeah.
It's easily.
So I if I am a parentand I have a kid with me or a baby
or a little kid, I wouldn't do that,I wouldn't give him anything.

(42:24):
The people talked about it.
This first, second.
I can get in it.
Like babyJesus and Mary and give them the third.
If I take somethingeven in a little toy or any toy,

(42:45):
I myself I would
put a holy water on it.
And clean it many times with thatholy water.
You clean the mug when you biteyou clean the cup.
Why you don't clean thatwith the spiritually.
I mean we don't know anything.
Something bringing from outside.
Of course some people will say you are funny and what are you saying.

(43:08):
This is nonsense.
What are you losing.
Exactly. Yeah.
It's better 100% that something happened.
And your kids is more importantthan anything else in the world.
100%.
So actually we, one of our crew members had a toy,
and we had Bishop Marmaris yesterdayand we asked him the same question

(43:28):
and we had the toy out.
And after we finished filming,I actually had the toy here and I said,
you know, to my manualwho was, who was with us in manual.
Please get rid of this Lapu toy.I don't want it in the studio.
As I said that this wall behind mefell on my head out of nowhere.
This wall which has beenstaying stationary for the whole podcast.
Everything was fine out of. No.It just fell on my head.

(43:49):
So I thought, I don't knowif I was going to release that one.
Nothing else.
Phil, just the one with Georgewas standing and it went straight on him.
So I don't know if that isany kind of sign or I was very upset.
It was. The cameras are cold.
All right.
So like I said,we'll move on from the devil.
No more devils.
Let's start talking about angelsand happiness.

(44:10):
Onto the topic of what we discussedlast episode of miracles.
You mentioned to us that an unforgettablemiracle that you told us.
And thousands of people heard it waswhen the young boy that was speaking to
you and his family, you prayed to Godand he received a new eye.
And that was an extremely big miracle.
On that note, could you tell the viewers

(44:31):
and us as well,what's the second biggest miracle?
What's one of the biggest miraclesyou've been a part of or witness?
Yeah, it was in Africa 45 years ago or so.
And I had to
preach one of the tribes and,

(44:55):
to make sure that the bishopthat came into
it decided to test this, tribe,their faith here.
You wanted to test their faithbefore I baptize them.
So when he.
He asked me, what is.
What are you talking about with them?
I said about faith.
So he said I would give, lastly, lecture about faith, and that's it.

(45:19):
Oh, okay.
We went and he started to talk
so that guy, the big guy in the tribe,
it was it was oneI he stood up there, very tall, actually.
Maybe for meespecially are very, very tall.
So he looked to the bishop and said,Bishop, stop talking.

(45:40):
We don't want more about faith.
The little father told us everything.
I said, so what do you want?
I said, we want to see your faith.
Do you have faith or not?
So what do you mean?
He signed for somebody they brought for us

(46:02):
a girl in a basket,
half paralyzed.
She was 17, 18, 18 years old.
And all her
have not functioning at all.
She cannot stand. She cannot.
I don't
so he said, let her stand.

(46:24):
Show us your faith.
The the bishop.
At that time, he was very mad at me.
He thought that I know that's actually.
He didn't know.It was surprise for me to.
And I don't know why.
I was crazy laughing.
And I couldn't believe myself in that,

(46:48):
situation. And,
so, his Grace said, you don't understand.
He's older than me there, and he knows.
He said, they can kill us if
we don't know why you are laughing.

(47:08):
So the guy in the big guy said.
Father,
what he's saying, why he's yelling at you?
I said,because I didn't teach you anything.
He's upset.
Said no, you taught us everything.
I said, I see to why you forgot

(47:30):
that there is somethingcalled the action of the sick.
When we come
and place him in prayers,anoint the sick and according to God's
will, you will, kill or not.
So you forgot all that.
And you think that we have magic?
Stand up.

(47:50):
Stand up.
Yes, we have faith,but we don't do it like that.
Said. Okay. No problem.
Will get you oil.
I said no it's not.
Yeah oil. It's it's prayers.
And now it's getting darkand he's there area.
It's very dangerous to stay more in.
So I said I said we can come

(48:12):
next week early very very early.
And you can prepare yourself.
Will come to pray.
Anyway he
said she'sshe has been 18 years like that.
If we add another week no problem.
But if you don't come next week

(48:32):
you have to run out of the countryand out of all Africa
because we will kill everyonebelongs a member in your church
and will burn every church you have
and will, will treat you everywhere.
I said, I said, no one will come.
For sure will come back and his grace

(48:56):
assured that
we left.
We didn't.
Took the whole way to home,
praying.
And, when we arrived,
we said we have faith.
And if this is God's will that we get
be killed, that that mean it's his will.

(49:21):
If he wants to cure her, to amend them
and bring them to Christianity,it will be a blessing.
So it's all in his hand.
We ask a
group, those who are Africansand they are very close to us.
We said, guys, we have the situation.
So pray with us and fast for one week.

(49:44):
And we're all prayingand fasting the whole week.
At the end we said
anyone has a very, very strong
faith can come with us.
Faith in what?
Not in the cure of the girl,
faith in his will,whatever he choose for us.
So anyone ready to be martyred come.

(50:09):
And we went and, he prayed and prayed.
Three language,
three languages
and, English.
We were praying in English. Translate.
And then to the tribe of the,
so three prayer,seven prayers times three.

(50:31):
It's 21 prayer.
And after we finished up,he finished and anointed her with the oil.
His grace.
I was waiting for her to stand.
We don't have enough time.
They will not let us leave a long time.
So I said to her, stand up.

(50:53):
And the girl looked at me.
What?
Stand up.
You have to stand.
I was 23 years
old, so I was very young and crazy also.
And so I said, don't.
Don't look at me like that. Stand up.
She didn't.
So I, I told them, just wait.

(51:16):
Wait. She will stand up.
And I took, I took her, from the basket
with my hand under her shoulder.
And I carried her well,so she was in front of my facing my face.
But her I have is dead.
So I kept saying, you have to try to standup, have faith, stand up.

(51:42):
And the girl realized she cannot
but over said.
Then I found her, that her face going
up, up, up.
I was shaking and I looked down.
I found her leg is getting muscles
but in front of your eyes.

(52:02):
And their eyes saw
so little by little she could just
little by little she kept standing.
She was very tall, by the way.
I was holding her waist at the end
and they made a very big noise.
All of them?
Oh, yeah.

(52:22):
Your, look.
So I thought they are going to kill us.
The girl said, don't be afraid, father.
They are happy. They're happy.
What is there to say?
Well, what happened?
There is earthquake, and I,
and this is, it was amazing thingthat you can see with yourself.

(52:43):
Actually, we we we, baptizedmost of this tribe after that.
Well,
wow. Praise the Lord.
He's amazing. He never change.
God is always there,even in the 21st century.
Wow. Wow.
So we are always seeing the bad stuff.

(53:07):
Yeah.
And all.
What is by hand looking, but still a lot.
A lot of good thingshappening in the world
on all what we need
just to have observation.
Even in your life.
Why I wrote this book,
it's just kind of observationto teach the people

(53:31):
have to observeGod in every step in your life.
Absolutely every step.
And he cares about little, little thingsyou can't imagine.
We were in Africa last week
and,
it happened that we stayed in a Nairobifor one night.

(53:52):
Then we went to Safari.
My back was hurting a lot,so they had to go to a very,
another five, six hours driving to a
place called, Misano.
So, the
father and, the leaders of the trip,they said, no, no,
no, you have to go to Nairobi by, flight,then take another flight

(54:16):
to Kisumu.
Okay. Thank you so much.
You are helping mebecause my back is hurting.
Then I took a very little flightfrom Safari.
It's, among animals.
I'm going to take care ofeveryone behind.
And that one on the ground. Say bye.
I will not buy. I'm gonna.

(54:39):
I will not, the other one has to come with me.
But they didn't found except one seat.
When I arrived in Nairobi,
I found a message from them telling me.
Sorry about your second flight.
Canceled.
I said, okay, Lord,whatever you want to, you don't care.

(55:01):
So I went back to the Coptic Center.
And for many closely
I went to the same room which I was in
since I left Nairobi.
I kept looking for my wallet.
I couldn't find it at all.
At all in all the bags.
Even the bags went directly to the placewhich you will go to

(55:24):
when I enter the room.
I don't know why I did that, I.
I wouldn't do that at all.
I opened one of the drawers beside me.
I found my wallet.
So the father said to me,
God canceled a flight was 100, 100.
But passengers,just for your sake to find your wallet.

(55:49):
He's amazing.
God, he cares about you.
Wherever you go, he will take care of you.
Even the little things. Wow. Yeah.
So we have to praise the Lord.
It's fineand good to hear the good stories.
And I think that's.
It's a good time that you brought up
your book as well, that wewe talk about your book now because.
Yeah, if we can just pull up the bookon, on it's available on Amazon.

(56:13):
So just pull it up on the screen.
And in the meantime, I'll. Here it is.
So what made you decideto write the book now?
Like,
in this time period of your life?
Why didn't you write it before?
Or what made you move to write this book?
Now, I don't know.
God told me to write, and,

(56:34):
actually, I won't,I would, I would like to,
to have this booksince years, many years ago.
But I didn't.
Part of a suddenI started to write Private Life to do it.
And God helped me a lot to to have it.
And so I said, maybe this is God's will.
Also.
I'm, I don't think a lot.

(56:56):
Whatever it comes and it goes. Yeah.
You go with the flow. Yeah.
So was there any part of your story thatyou were hesitant to include in the book.
Yeah.
That my personal relationship with God,
I didn't talk about it at allbecause this is very, very private.

(57:17):
Any appearance of the Saints
which other doesn't know I never mentioned
some stuff is political
either.
To the countrieswhich I was in or to the army or whatever.
I didn't mention it.
I mentionedjust a little things about it.

(57:38):
So you've lived with snakes,
you've slept on cliffs, you've metpresidents, you've buried martyrs.
You sat down to write this.
How do you know what to choose?What made it into the book.
Because you've had such a full life.So what.
How do you know what to put in the book?
I said I was thinking about about it.
As I told you for many years,
how can I write God's glory in my life?

(58:02):
How he was presentin every time of my life.
So in my childhood,
how I became in the church, how
I grow up in the church,what my, about my childhood.
It's most of the book.
It's all about my, childhood.

(58:22):
Until, one year in monastic life.
So I'm going a year after year
thinking what God did with me
and, just,
as much as I can memorize, I put
you had one story that I read in the book,towards the beginning, which was about

(58:43):
when you were getting baptizedand what happened.
Can you explain what happenedwhen you were being baptized?
And this story also, I didn't hear it,except after I became a monk,
say, two years or so, something like that, that,
my dad was very upset
that I became a monk,and my mom was encouraging,

(59:06):
and she said to him,
we know that he will be a monksince he is born.
He said to, what do you mean?
She said, did you forget the,the close of the baptism?
So I was curious to understand.
I said,and there were two monks sitting there.
I said, mom, what are you talking about?

(59:27):
She said, no, no, we don't wantto tell you that since the beginning.
I said, yeah, tell me now.
I added my mother.
She might as well.
Yeah.
She said that, in your baptism, they we
we lost your clothcompletely the white one.
And we didn't find any.
Then a monk, which we don't knowfrom whom he came,

(59:48):
came to the territoryand give us a cloth for a monk.
I said, let him wear this.
They said they cannot wear black in his.
He said, no, no, it can work.
I am a Buddha. I'm telling you that.
So they.Because they didn't find anything.
So I am the only boy, I think,
baptized in, black cloth.

(01:00:10):
Wow. For a reason. Oh my God.
All right.
Other than the baptism story,
which story in the book do you thinkpeople will be most shocked by?
You don't have to go too much into it.
I think all the storiesit has around 120 stories.
Yeah. Wow.
So if it's anything like the storyhe told us,
it's definitely worth reading 100%.

(01:00:32):
And it isn't in the book or something.
That's what I am.
Well, another question was,did you write this book for the church,
for the worldor for the next generation to come?
Actually, for the world, for the church.
I know thethe people in the Coptic Church.
They are very spiritual.They don't need even
they experience God many times.

(01:00:53):
And,
even a little kid in the CopticOrthodox Church,
he will be better than me and went througha lot of things more than me.
But for the world and other churches,
we I wish all first.
I wish all the Orthodox,our Orthodox brothers and sisters

(01:01:17):
in, Eastern or Western countries,
hear about how we grow up,how we became monks.
We get we read always about monk.
Russian monks, Greek monks.
But you don't hear anything about Copticmonks.
We're the ones that startedthe monasticism. Yeah.

(01:01:39):
Why doesn't that?
Is the first monk in the whole world.
So, I wanted also to
to show themthat God is working with us for those
who are not believing, in our orthodoxy.
Yeah.
No, we God is working with usvery clearly on a daily basis.

(01:02:02):
For those,
don't believe in God at all.
This has happened, and it's it's all.
All what's in this book?
It has evidence.
I'm one of them.
I'm evidence that I became a monk.
So I think they, they can just,

(01:02:24):
reconsider thinking about God.
He is the creator,and he's the one who is almighty God.
When I say almighty,it means he is dealing with everyone
1 to 1, on a very, very,
even tiny, stuff in their life. Wow.

(01:02:50):
So after a lifetime of serving God,
in hidden places, what was itlike suddenly to put your whole story
out into the world?
Was it something that you felt likeit was really freeing and satisfying,
or do you feel like it was likeyou felt exposed or felt exposure by this?
Actually, whatever.
In the book, I already saidand many videos all around the world.

(01:03:11):
I mean, you know,I am working on and media
for around, what, more than 20 years.
So I tried to preach by whatever I can.
And now, I'm parish priesttaking care of a congregation,

(01:03:35):
but still in my, my mindthe rest of the world.
How can I help them,how can I, preach them?
How can I let themthink about God by anyway?
So I wrote this book.
With that being said,
if someone read your book who doesn'tbelieve in God, what do you believe?
What do you hope happens to their heartby the time they finish the last page

(01:03:59):
that he touched and come back to the Lord?
Actually, I have, a young boy,he's, year 11.
He read the whole book in one day. Wow.
And he came, the following day
and said, father,can you help me to be a monk?
Also,this is it is very nice to hear that.

(01:04:19):
And that after he, read the book.
It's beautiful.
Yeah.
So you mentioned earlier on thatyou signed it by, anonymous Coptic monk.
That really stood out. Of course.
And I think,
you know, obviously,
I know that you're very humbleand you don't like to boast,
and that could have beena reason behind it.
But I think it's very importantthat at least people know it's from you,

(01:04:40):
because once they know people,you're known for your story.
So once they know that all these stories
are in one place,they'll definitely come find it.
But, do you feel like still happy thatyou left it as an anonymous Coptic monk?
Or would you have preferred to knowbecause I don't want my name to be.
I want them to know. Christ, not me. I'm.
I'm not a nobody.

(01:05:01):
As I said in the beginning,I want them to focus on that.
Happen was a person.
However, that person.
And it can happen with me.
Yeah.
This is what all the message about.
Yeah.
God is working
well beautiful.
Okay. So I'd like to shiftgears a little bit now.

(01:05:23):
So we'd love to get your adviceon something.
We had a guest with us a few weeks ago.
His name was Alex Dorado.He's also known as the Voice of Reason.
It's a 30 minute clipavailable on YouTube if you.
Someone wants to watch the whole clip.
But basically, I was arguing the pointsfrom a lecture of Pope
Shenouda, and, of course, I'm inno shape to argue with him.
He this is his full time job,and he's very, very learned in this study.

(01:05:46):
But, I wanted to see his point of view.
So I guess we're very lucky that we haveyou here. So I'd love to hear
your experience or response to Alexwhen it comes to purgatory.
His name is Alex. Alex? I like this guy.
Yeah, I like his way of talking.
You know, I'm not a theologian.

(01:06:08):
I'm just a monk, and there's been nothing,
and we don't know anything about thatin the Bible.
Also, only Paradise.
And, this is the waiting
for the souls Paradisefor the good people,
and, Hades for the, wicked

(01:06:30):
and the next step after the Judgment Day.
Kingdom of heaven or hell?
May the Lord forbid.
Do you have any personal storiesthat you able to share
about the whole process of purgatoryor people after their death?
Yeah,
you'll find it in the book.

(01:06:51):
Okay.
But, there is, I can't forget that guy.
He was confessing with me,and he has come to the monastery
from time to time and to confess,
then I said to him, my son, I'mgonna, travel.
And you have to, be carefulbecause you have to go to a mother

(01:07:15):
father to confessionbecause, you need to confess.
You need to repent.
I said, why, father? So why?
Because, Yeah.
Half of the girls of the cityin your released
and the other half waiting to see

(01:07:36):
you have to to repentand be good as much as you can.
Yeah. He said, look at me, father.
I looked at him. He said, I'm cute, right?
I said, yes for sure. You are cute.
It's a bodybuilder. Look at my muscles.
So what?
What do I do? You look at me.
I just said, look, something.
It's like it's, He said,

(01:08:00):
my dad is very, very rich,and I'm the only son.
All his money is mine.
And I like sin.
I like sinning well, very much.
And why?
Why you want me to beaway from something I like?
But I
promise you, I will be good before I die.

(01:08:22):
I said, that's very good.
Can you tell mewhen are you going to die?
He talked a little,and he said, not before or 60.
Before I turned 60.
When I turned 60, I will stop everything.
And I will be a saint.
Will I saint?
I said, if what if you don't reach 60?

(01:08:47):
He said, why, I'm healthy, I'm strong.
I'm sad.
Even you can have an accident and die.
I said, don't worry.
I'm preparing everythingwhile my car is hitting the other car
or another car hitting my car, I will say,Lord forgive me and I will die.
So he figured out no,

(01:09:08):
like on the cross.
I said to
him, I don't think that will happen
because you are sinningand you know that you are sinning
and you're not pleasing God in your act.
And why, my son?
You had to come and confess.
He said, no, no, no, I had to come.

(01:09:29):
And because you are the only friend
I like and I trust,
so whatever you want, I would do it.
You told me about repentanceand confession.
I said, okay, no problem.
But in my heart,
I didn't changebecause I know I will go back to my sin.

(01:09:50):
I said to him, I told you,
you have to repentand I'm in front of God.
I warned you, I can't do anything anymore.
And I traveled.
It was 22, 23 at that time.
I traveled, I
came back to the monastery,I became, a hermit.

(01:10:11):
And then I went to service againand many times for 23 years.
I didn't see him for a while.
He became now 45 plus.
And he I found him left for mea message every year.
Father, I want to see you. Please.
Please call me back or come.
You know, the office.

(01:10:33):
My dad.
So I went to him.
I found out that he became very,very rich.
Four times more than his dadbecause he was very,
very smart guy.
He said to me, father, do you rememberwhen you had to tell me to repent?
What I had to say?
I said, yes,you're the only one crazy for me.

(01:10:55):
Then you will repent before you die.
You have a canceror are you going to die or something?
I said no, I
died already and I came back to life.
I said, what?
I don't believe in these stories, I don't.
He was crying and said, father,you have to listen to me.

(01:11:15):
And I said, okay, calm down.
Tell me anything,but don't force me to believe it.
Just tell me I'm.
He said I went to
this, specific
hospital for appendix operation.
It's nothing.
It's a very little operation.

(01:11:36):
And he said while I was there, him
inside the operation room,
I found myself two persons.
They were already finished the operation,
and, doctors were, washing their hands.
And I found myself
down, and I'm standing, seeing my buddy.

(01:11:58):
I came out to my buddy.
He said I got scared,especially when I saw the doctors
are running to resuscitate
my heartand trying to bring me back to life.
And when I got
scared, I found something or somebody
suckered me out of the room,

(01:12:21):
out of the city, out of the whole earth.
And I went in a very, very fast.
Like, very fast. More than a rocket.
Speed,
into, a dark,
narrow, tube.
Of course, there is no tube,but I think the darkness

(01:12:43):
was surrounding him very much.
I said at that time, I have seen
my self clearly very clear
from moment one in life,
not as a video or TV. No.
I came back to my life.
I lived it again,but in a very, very fast way.

(01:13:08):
So the first thing I've seen,
the nurse carrying me out of the womb,my mom and
I can feel her gloves on my skin.
Oh well.
And when I she put me
into the chest of my mum,I can hear the pulse of my mom again.
And I went through all my life,

(01:13:30):
every details like look very quickly,
the hits of my friends,the kiss of my dead, everything.
Then he said that, the age of 12, 13,
I start to realize sin.
I knew I'm sinning, but I love sinning.

(01:13:52):
So I kept doing that.
What happened?
Nobody can see that.
But I saw that my spirit from moment
went was very clear in front of me.
Like my buddy.
But my spirit was full of lightwhen I born

(01:14:13):
and kept full of light until the years
when I get into teenager,
everything I do, it leaves like,
dark spots in the light,
dark spot, dark spot, dark spot.
I became fully dark.

(01:14:36):
I say, when I had to cometo you at the age of 19 or 20
and you
told me about repentance and confession.
I said, it's okay, no problem.
Even if it will not do anything,it will clean me.
If I will not is right.
And every time I talk to you,
I come back very pure again.

(01:14:58):
The full of light again.
Until you left.
I didn't confess all these years.
And he started crying and shaking.
And he said, trust me, father,I was like any devil,
any other devil beside me,because the devil is a dark spirit.
He said I became a dark spirit.

(01:15:21):
I came, but the only problemthat they were grabbing us down and down
from a level of darkness to more levelof darkness, more and more nonstop
and I was crying and said, Lord,I thought they would give me
a chance to say I'm sorry.
And he said, while
I'm among all that,I heard a very strong voice saying,

(01:15:44):
I will give you another chance.
So my spirit flipped
and went faster than before to my body.
It was for the first time for me
to see somebody came back to life.
I didn't believe
and or maybe I said, look,you were under anesthesia and anesthesia.

(01:16:08):
Make hallucinationor maybe God wants to give you
I listen,he said you don't believe me, right?
Okay.
And he called somebody.
I said, she's a Christian.
Doctor was with us.
Assistant of the surgeon in the,operation room.
I ask her about me.

(01:16:29):
I said when it was this one,
he said, this operation,
he said around two monthsago or a little bit more.
I talked to her, I said, I am, I, I,
I know you very well and I said,do you know somebody?
His name is so-and-so.

(01:16:49):
So why on earth you remind me of that guy?
I said, why?
She said, he's cured me further.
He's cured me very, very much.
He died.
We tried everything, everythingto bring him back to life.
And we couldn't.
Then we covered him

(01:17:11):
and we were standing in the room
in a semicircle, blaming each other.
He's very rich.
And it's appendix operation.
How come that a guy die in such operation?
It's not about heart or anything,
she said.
And of, I can see the dead body.

(01:17:34):
And we were talking around 6or 7 minutes after we covered him,
and all of a sudden he sat down.
She said I was going to afford.
And instead of him, because I couldn'tbelieve myself, the dead man said no one.
And when he they ran to him,
he was opening his eyes,very wise, and said,

(01:17:56):
light, light, I need light.
Please turn on the light because, youknow, always the operation room itself.
So they turned on all the lightsand she said, you know,
do you know, father,that he was, for around
two months under psychological treatmentbecause he was refusing
to close his eyes againwhile he got scared

(01:18:19):
of what he said.
So why he didn't go to the purgatory?
Purgatory? Why?
If there is purgatory
and all this,the all the stories after that
which I heard, it has no purgatory yet.
It has also only seeChrist and run to him or her, dies

(01:18:44):
or sadness and bad
way in.
You got a second chance? Yeah.
So unbelievably lucky.
Well,
so we're now entering the final reflection
of, our questions, where I know youdo not want to talk about yourself at all.

(01:19:05):
You like to bring up storiesto glorify God.
But these next couple of questionswe're going to ask you personally for you
where your growth is.
And hopefully people learn a thing or twoso that we can
maybe we can follow it.
So you've lived in caves,cities, villages, media studios.
You've lived everywhere.

(01:19:25):
Where in the worlddid you, Father Tony, feel closest to God,
and where did you feelthe most spiritual resistance from God?
Of course, I can be close to God at any,anywhere in the world.
Because God is everywhereand he is not out.
His in is in my heart.
So how come that I keep looking for him

(01:19:49):
even deep in the desert or among people?
Still the same.
I can see God everywhere
and the empty desert
and in the hearts of the peopleand their acts.
I can see God clearly.
Also, I believe that,

(01:20:11):
when you are connectedto God, the connection not
it's not, signal of,
what, and,
a telephone or a phone or a mobile and.
No, it's, it's it never goes away.
Sometimes down, sometimes up,
but still connection.

(01:20:34):
Yeah.
And, resistance everywhere.
Deep, deep, deep in the desert,you will find resistance.
Deep in the worldyou will find resistance.
And you have to fight on a daily basis.
That's it.
Also.
Well, last time you you let us know that,maybe what you found

(01:20:56):
as your biggest weakness was thatyou love too hard and you love too strong.
And that was your greatest challenge.
Even though it's it'sactually your greatest strength.
But is that still your greatest challengethat you feel that you love too much?
Or do you feel thatthere is another challenge that you have?
I don't have any challenge and go down.

(01:21:17):
And lot of life.
Yeah. God is taking care of me.
So I'm, spoiled completely.
Yeah, but even there is
any challenge, either good or bad.
I mean,
I found God there to defend you,
to help you, support you.

(01:21:38):
For example, sometimes
kind of worries can come to your head
or to my head all the time for something.
Then I ran to God and said,you can't leave me like that.
I don't want to.
I don't want to worryabout anything in the world.
So you have to help me,and with a lot of prayers goes away

(01:22:01):
and maybe died in me that way.
What about with everything you've seen?
The devil at ten yearsold, the miracles that you've seen.
What?
I don't want it to be a general question,but what still amazes you
the most about your relationshipwith God every day?
He's so sweet and has a sense of humor.

(01:22:23):
Sometimes that makes.
But it's definitely where you got it from.
Sometimes.
Sometimes he,
God does something which you are not,
expecting at all.
So when I, when I lost my wallet,I lost my wallet
and he changed everything.

(01:22:44):
It changed the trip.
It canceled the other flight.
He changed everythingjust to find my wallet.
I said, God, it was easierto send it to me wherever I am.
Then there is no need for it.
But He and God is very niceand very and very connected.

(01:23:05):
So what do you think breaks
God's heart the most in the world rightnow. Sin
the sin of the world.
And one of the main sin
is not to believe in him.
Imagine that a man has a baby.
He took care of him and he make him a very

(01:23:28):
big man.
Rich men give him everything.
And at the end he said to me,you're not my dad, I don't know.
No, no, you go away from me.
What's in the feelings?
I think this is the worst.
And, I feel sorry that God at the window
an our days.

(01:23:49):
Most of the people,they don't want to believe in him.
With that being said and people struggling
with their faith, if you were directlyto speak to a young man or woman.
Well, not as a monk necessarily,but as someone who's seen
most of the world, what,what would you say to them as someone who
maybe doesn't want to believeor has struggled believing, even though

(01:24:11):
they could be in the fake?
As I said before, you didn't be wise,
and even there is a probability of 0.0001.
That is. God.
So it's it's you will be wiser
if you, if you believe in him.
Becauseyou are not going to lose anything.
So it can be simple.

(01:24:34):
One of the main things in the world now
everyone is complicated.
And especially as the,the things getting easy in my hand.
I took everything for granted.
So I feel my health
under Medicare or whatever,

(01:24:57):
the government taking care of me, or my insurance taking care of me.
But they cannot keep your life,
the you have to know that
there is somebody abovetaking care of everything.
Everyone.
So this is my,
advice to everyone

(01:25:17):
that was, who doesn't believe in God,you know? So.
So another question we have iswhen you're alone in your cell in silence,
what prayer do you find yourselfreturning to over and over
the there is a prayer of,Jesus prayer, which I like the most.
And,
sometimes, I like

(01:25:38):
to prayed many times, many times nonstop.
Which Psalms in particularand not particular any time.
And, and, do you have a favorite psalm?
Yeah. Have mercy upon me.
Oh, Lord.
And, have the Psalm 5151.
What's the greatest lessonthat God is still teaching you

(01:25:58):
till today, even after all these years,
he is always reminding me to be humble.
And to keep loving himaccording to his way.
Not my way,
and to respect him

(01:26:18):
and my life,
and not to be a block stone
or stumbling anybody
going to hit, to his way
because he loves people so much.
So this is the least I can learn from.

(01:26:39):
Okay.
And, you met saints and served withmartyrs and walked through spiritual fire.
In the end, what do you believemakes a person truly holy?
If he takes the spiritual life seriously?
I, I'm not yet I'm trying I'm struggling.

(01:27:00):
I'm trying to be,
with God in the, in God.
And I know that I will keep struggling
until the last breath in my life.
And I have no problembecause I know Jesus loves me so much.
So I think all the saints took their lifevery serious.

(01:27:22):
Spiritual life.
I mean, they became sense.
And this is what,we see in many, like, wow,
somebody like, Pope Kerry for example,he well he's just, stick a stick
a lot with his routine spiritual routine
every day at his everyday mass, every day.

(01:27:43):
And he never changed that.
And, little by little,
he opened, or his eyes open to heaven.
So whatever he says,it happened in heaven.
So he became very, very holy man.

(01:28:04):
We've
spoken about abortion, spokenabout Pazuzu.
We spent on the boat level.
We've spoken about,we've covered just about everything.
And I want to ask, please,because I don't know
when we'll get the chance to interviewyou again.
Is there one final storythat you can share with us in the viewers
that I think I told the minister,yeah, this now the story is,

(01:28:24):
they can read the rest,but that's the story for sure.
Okay.
And our final question is,
if this was your last message to theworld, what would you say?
Love God and fear God.
This is the most important thing.
And you have to believe that. Is there.

(01:28:45):
Yeah.
As you believe inmany things not cannot unseen I mean.
Let God one of them
to believe in him even his unseen.
Oh Amen. Amen.
Thank you so much father.
We've taken a lot of your time.Really appreciate having you on the show.
We appreciate the laughs and the storiesand this follows next level.

(01:29:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I think I've leftthat hot in my life, to be honest.
So thank you so much, father.
Well thank you miss welcome.
Having a God bless you. Thank you.

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EP 11 | Fr. Bishoy El Antony – Gripping Exorcisms, Epic Miracles & His Book A Monk Around the World

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP 11 | Fr. Bishoy El Antony – Gripping Exorcisms, Epic Miracles & His Book A Monk Around the World