June 27, 2025 • 48 mins
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What happens when you start defining yourself by your struggles rather than by your God-given identity? Deacon Gerald Marie Anthony tackles this profound question in a conversation that strikes at the heart of what it means to be authentically human in our confused modern world.
The conversation delves deep into what Pope Pius X called "the synthesis of all heresies"—modernism—which teaches us we don't need God to progress. This mindset manifests when we put our ultimate trust in money, work, technology, or social acceptance rather than in our Creator.
Through St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy devotion, we discover the antidote to modernism's emptiness. Whether you're battling pornography addiction, wrestling with unwanted attractions, or simply feeling lost in today's confusing cultural landscape, by placing our trust in Jesus rather than in ourselves or worldly solutions, we can experience true transformation.
Get a copy of Deacon Anthony's Book Here:
Peaceful Hearts, Zealous Hearts
How the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy Devotions’ Complementary Messages Make Us New
Visit Deacon Anthony's Website
Discussion Questions with Scripture references:
- How does defining ourselves by our struggles rather than our God-given identity as beloved children of God impact our spiritual life, and what does Scripture teach about our true identity in Christ?
Scripture Reference: John 1:12 – “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
Reflection: Consider how the cultural focus on struggles (e.g., addictions, societal pressures) can overshadow the truth of our identity as God’s beloved. How can embracing this identity help us overcome modern emptiness? - What are the dangers of modernism, as described by Deacon Anthony, which places trust in worldly things like money, technology, or social acceptance instead of God, and how does Scripture guide us to trust in God alone?
Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Reflection: Reflect on areas in your life where you might be tempted to trust in worldly solutions over God. How can Jesus’ teachings help you redirect your trust to Him? - Deacon Anthony highlights the Divine Mercy devotion and practical steps like confession and prudent choices to break free from brokenness. How does Scripture encourage us to embrace God’s mercy and make choices that align with His will?
Scripture Reference: 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Reflection: How can the practice of confession and intentional decision-making help you let go of faults and live out your God-given purpose? What steps can you take to avoid “lukewarm” faith?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, and it's important to know that we as men
, but also we as people, we'renot made simply for sex, we're
made for love.
And because we're made for love, when we are made for love, we
can go into these various typesof intimacy.
The happiest people can becelibates, and I mean because,
(00:23):
if you're following God's will.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know some of them, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, whether you'refollowing, whether you're
married, whether you're acelibate, when you're doing what
you were made for, you find joywhen you sleep with someone.
That means that those wordsmust mean something.
You must already have alifetime commitment to them,
because when you give yourselfcompletely to another person and
they receive that, that shouldbe something that brings you
(00:50):
closer to God.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
One of the first things that these young men do
in the morning before they lookat their phone, Deacon Anthony,
before they look at their phone,unless they're just turning off
the alarm, they get down ontheir knees and they say be it
done to me according to yourword, right, Just with our
blessed mother.
And then we listen to ourblessed mother and she says you
know, do as he tells you, right,Do as he tells you.
(01:12):
The problem is with our twistedpassions and desires.
So, what they learn is we don'tlive to your point.
I'm a Catholic man.
I'm not just a addicted man.
I might be an addicted man, butI am a Catholic addicted man
and that gives me power to getout of it right.
Welcome to the Become who youAre podcast, a production of the
(01:43):
John Paul II Renewal Center.
I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
I am excited to be with an oldfriend.
He hasn't been on the show fora while.
He's snubbed us a little bit,but it's great to be on.
Deacon Gerald Marie Anthony,welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Thank you for having me, Jack.
It's great to be here.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, you know, we have an apostolate.
I was telling you about DeaconAnthony.
It's actually about that swordbehind me, the Claymore sword,
and it's a Claymore MiletusChristi.
And so we have these young guysand they're waking up against
all odds.
Deacon, it's amazing actually.
You would think the toxicculture couldn't get any worse,
(02:21):
and I don't think it could have.
Culture couldn't get any worse,and I don't think it could have
.
You know, with the pornographyand the gender ideologies and
the anxiety and the governmentdebt taking these guys' futures
away, I think it got to thepoint.
Actually, I don't think Italked to them, you know.
It got to the point where theyjust go you know something's
wrong, something's wrong.
And they woke up, and they don'tknow always exactly what it is,
(02:42):
but they started to vote.
You saw them voting for Trump.
You know, I don't think theyeven knew why.
They just knew it needed to bechanged.
And here's a guy standing upright, and now this is a great
time to evangelize them, becausenow they're saying, okay, now
what you know, and so we'rebringing them in and you write
these great books, you have thisgreat heart and and they're
learning, they're learning, andso maybe, before we get into
(03:05):
anything else.
Can you just briefly tell themwhere you're at and what it
means to be a deacon?
And your decision to be adeacon is a little different
than some of the other guys too.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, yes.
So thanks for that question,jack.
Yeah, so to be a deaconactually is to be a servant of
the servants of God.
That's what the word deaconmeans.
It means servant, and I chosein a special way to be a
celibate deacon.
Most deacons that just carryout the order of deacon, they're
(03:38):
married.
But I wanted to give mycomplete life to the Lord.
And the great thing about that,no matter what vocation you're
at, you realize when you giveyourself completely to the Lord,
that's where you find your joyand your happiness right.
So, as a deacon, the bishop hastwo arms.
He has he's the head, then hehas an arm of blessing, which is
(04:00):
the priest, then he has an armof charity, which is the deacon.
I felt that God was calling tome this arm of charity and so I
go out into the world.
I have four big apostolatesthat I do, all with the
spectrums of life.
I have the Legion of Mary,which is kind of evangelization.
Then I also have somethingcalled a mom's peace, where I
(04:22):
help people that have hadmiscarriages.
Have something called a mom'speace where I help people that
have had miscarriages.
Then I also do something withhelping college kids and high
school kids to keep their faith,which is the Associates of St
John Bosco.
And then, finally, at the end oflife, I have something that's
called the Divine Mercy Home, soI help people as they're going
to meet the Lord.
(04:42):
Then I have the mother of lightas well, which is we help the
unfortunate.
So I want it to be that arm ofcharity.
Why?
Because when we give our armsand we give our hands to people,
it becomes a source of strength.
And, as your organization,apostolate, also talks about,
when you're fighting together,you're stronger, and that's why
(05:05):
we call us, as the church,militant.
So, as a deacon, I want to helpencourage people to be able to
take up that fight, becausetruth, goodness and human
dignity matter.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yes, they do, thank you.
Thank you for that, you know,we forget that.
You know, charity, which can besaid as love, is a theological
virtue, and what does that mean?
You know?
That means that I have to befilled, that I'm not going out
there by myself.
First of all, I'm going outthere, always with God, in union
with God, and that's whatyou're doing with all of your
apostles, especially when youcall something charity, right.
(05:38):
And then the second thing yousaid is I'm not even going out
alone, right, I'm going out withGod, but I'm not even going out
alone with God.
I'm going out with a brother orsister, you know, and here with
Claymore, miletus Christi,soldiers for Christ, where it's
another brother, you know, jesussent us out two by two, for a
reason you know, and I'll tellyou.
You know, deacon Anthony, whenCOVID hit, we didn't have
(05:59):
anything for the young guys thatwere working with us.
We had nothing to do with right, so we lost a lot of those.
I mean, they're still with us alittle bit here and there, but
I was alone for a long timetrying to just hold this
together, right, because youreally couldn't go out and speak
that much I could.
I could get out a little bit,but not as much, and it got
lonely.
It got lonely, man.
I like having somebody to talkto, you know, and say hey, let's
(06:22):
go together and do this thing,huh.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean and this is one of the things it's very
easy and the devil likes this wecan be broken a lot easier when
we're by ourselves, as if we'rea group, we have that big
bundle.
It's harder to break becausewhen two or three are gathered
or the Lord even promised there,I am in your midst and when
(06:46):
you're by yourself, it's veryeasy to say, oh well, hmm, god
isn't necessarily caring aboutthis or watching about this, and
you can start to get distracted.
This is where groups are soimportant, and because we also
image the Trinity, a community,a triunity of love.
(07:06):
But love always draws usoutside of ourselves, which is
why isolation can be sometimesthe devil's playground, and we
have to be aware of that.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yes, yes, yes, thank you for that and again.
So what we're doing withClaymore and what you're doing,
what you're describing, is, youknow we're sharing this right,
we're sharing this journey witheach other, and the day that I'm
down or the day that I feelweak today, you'll say hey, jack
, how are you doing today?
I say I'm not doing good man,and you'll be.
You know you'll be leading me,you'll be picking me up.
(07:36):
You know you'll be saying, hey,let's grab a coffee right, and
vice versa.
And so this happens all thetime.
You know it's a beautiful thing.
The other thing I want to justtouch on because we have a lot
of young guys have beenstruggling with pornography and
this really bothers me.
What we've done to these youngguys, deacon, anthony, because
their innocence was stolen fromthem.
These young guys were 8, 9, 10,11 years old.
(07:59):
You know they hear something atschool, some sexual term or
whatever.
They Google it or they get on acomputer.
They get caught intopornography and I've spoken
about that a lot, so I'm notgoing to get into it now.
But they've stolen theirinnocence.
It's really a sin, and when youdo that to young people, you
obliterate their moralimaginations and you take that
(08:21):
beauty of what a woman lookslike, the beauty of just love
itself, and you turn it intolust.
So the reason I say that to youis because you mentioned
earlier that you're not going tobe married as a deacon.
You went into it as a singleman, which means you took a vow
of chastity and celibacy.
(08:42):
And young men don't thinkthat's possible.
But it is possible and I justwant you to touch on that
because it is possible.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And it's important to know that we as men, but also
we as people, we're not madesimply for sex, we're made for
love.
And because we're made for love, love, and because we're made
for love, when we are made forlove, we can go into these
various types of intimacy.
(09:09):
It doesn't mean and this isvery important people think
celibacy means you have to staylocked up in the room and you're
not allowed to have friendships, you're not allowed to have joy
.
The happiest people can becelibates, and I mean because if
you're following god's.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Will I know some of them?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I meanwhether you're following God's
will.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I know some of them, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean whether you're following, whether you're married,
whether you're celibate, whenyou're doing what you were made
for, you find joy and that'swhere, especially as a deacon a
celibate deacon you realize thisdoesn't mean that you don't
connect with people.
It means that you find otherways to connect with people,
like, say, for example, greatconversations.
(09:46):
Our minds are made for truth,right.
So when you have a greatconversation with someone,
that's intimacy you can see intoa truth, because Christ is the
truth.
Emotional intimacy, things thatyou can do with other people.
It doesn't have to be sexual,and this is the big lie that I
think a lot of people havebought into.
You're talking about innocencebeing stolen at an early age.
(10:10):
The world says you must sleepwith someone in order to know
them, but God says no.
When you sleep with someone,that means that those words must
mean something.
You must already have alifetime commitment to them,
because when you give yourselfcompletely to another person and
(10:31):
they receive that, that shouldbe something that brings you
closer to God, not away from him.
Any type of lifestyle thatkeeps you from God, that is not
worth pursuing, because thenyou're throwing away your joy
and your happiness.
I remember one time I wastalking to some young men and
(10:52):
they were saying they werestruggling with pornography,
they were struggling withsame-sex attractions, they were
struggling with a whole bunch ofstuff.
And I said, well, look, can youdescribe yourself in three
words?
And they were like yes, youknow, I'm addicted to whatever.
And they said, or I'm sexuallyactive, or even some of them
were hot.
(11:12):
And I said they were like yeah.
I said, but notice the word thatyou didn't say.
You didn't say that I'mCatholic or Christian.
That's at the core of ouridentity, because if we're not
living that out, we're headedtowards a path of degrading
ourselves and destruction inlife, and so we have to be able
(11:37):
to do that.
And me, as a celibate, Iproclaim to the world that love
goes beyond just sex.
Love goes into the inner beingof the person.
And this we also.
All of us will live ascelibates in heaven.
So I'm the preclusion of howall of us are going to live in
(12:01):
heaven, but in the marriage ofChrist in the church.
So there will be celibacy butmarriage in the same time.
So we live out both of thoserealities, but all of them must
be rooted in authentic love.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, you know, and this will be the last thing I
say.
And then I want to jump intoanother subject.
But you know, one of the firstthings that these young men do
in the morning before they lookat their phone, deacon Anthony,
before they look at their phone,unless they're just turning off
the alarm, they get down ontheir knees and they say be it
done to me according to yourword, right, just with our
blessed mother, excellent.
And then we listen to ourblessed mother and she says you
know, do as he tells you, right,do as he tells you.
(12:44):
And now we listen for a coupleof minutes, but anyways.
The second one is temptation'snot a sin, and this is so
important for these young guys.
And here's the fire, right,this fire that they feel, this
passion, that they feel.
You know, god gave us passionsand desires.
The problem is with our twistedpassions and desires.
So, what they learn is we don'tlive to your point.
I'm a Catholic man.
I'm not just an addicted man.
(13:05):
I might be an addicted man, butI am a Catholic addicted man,
and that gives me power to getout of it right.
Most of them live in atwo-dimensional world where they
think they either got to stuffthese desires down or indulge.
We show them no, no, no, no.
God gave you those.
Just lift those desires up, andwhen you use temptation as an
(13:26):
invitation to prayer, you openup something big, you open the
floodgates of grace.
You know, and it's a battle.
That's where the battle comesin, because John Paul would say
this is fought on thebattlefield of the heart,
between love and lust, rightBetween being a self-giving
person that you were describingand grasping and taking.
And so this is liberating, thisis freedom, and if they don't
(13:50):
think they can handle it, itdoesn't matter.
You take it one day at a time,don't you?
Yes, give us this day our dailybread, especially in the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yes, and it's important for them to realize
that it's when you fight thebattle you're slaying dragons as
you're slaying them.
You have to realize eachvictory is important Because a
lot of times we look at the bigpicture and we're like, yeah,
well, hey, you know I'm stillstruggling with this.
No, no, no.
Every victory is important.
It's a step towards the God wholoves you.
(14:21):
And the thing is John Paul II.
One of my favorite sayings ishe says this is important you
are not the sum total of yourfaults and failings.
You are the beloved of God.
Christ died for you so that youcan actually be liberated from
this, so that you're not justbeing buried under lust but
(14:44):
you're actually rising withChrist, bearing great fruit and
living as the man that you arecalled to be.
And this is where I think wehave to take up that sword of
being able to have this sword oflove, where we enter into the
battlefield not afraid butconfident, because Christ is
(15:06):
with us.
And when Christ is with us, whocan be against the St Paul sins
?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That's beautiful and what a great thing to remember
for these young guys that everyvictory, whether it's a day or a
half a day or whatever, theyshould celebrate that too and
thank God for that too.
And I should tell my partnersthat I, you know these disciples
that I'm walking with, hey, Imade it through today without
looking at you know, whetherit's porn, whatever, the
addiction is right.
(15:32):
Celebrate that, because don'talways look at your failures,
because you know we're going tofail here and there along the
way.
Hey, I want to, I want to moveon, if you don't mind.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for sharing it withthese guys, of course, and and
and the and these aren't justthe young men, these are all the
people that love these youngguys, and and we're, we don't
want it, want even one of themto fall through the cracks if we
(15:53):
can help it, right, and so wewere sharing these things with
them, you know, in your book.
So I I'm going to hold this upbecause this is really really
good and because you touch on,and I'll put this in the show
notes and I'll put a nice imageup when I edit.
But peaceful hearts, zealoushearts we're talking about
zealous here right Hearts, howthe sacred heart and divine
mercy devotions complementmessages and they make us new.
(16:17):
So I'm a big advocate.
You can see I have a divinemercy picture behind me and
Sister Faustina, john Paul II,polish.
Of course he canonized her andso I do a little on our needs.
Deacon Anthony, we do.
You know, we have a little appon there, divine Mercy app, and
we listen to just a snippetevery morning of the Divine
(16:38):
Mercy, and so it's justbeautiful.
But anyways, talk about, if youdon't mind, because I think
it's apropos for today, thisheresy that Pope Pius X called
the synthesis of all heresiesmodernism.
Right, yes, and why?
Why did he call it?
And are we not suffering fromthat today?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Oh, my goodness, yes, it is not only the synthesis,
but so many people fall into itbecause it's so subtle.
Now, this is the thing to kindof do a little background to
this heresy, because a heresybasically is, it's a denial of
some aspect of the faith that'sbeing denied.
(17:27):
Why Pope Pius X was callingthis the synthesis of all
heresies is because it takes thevery heart of denying aspects
of the faith, combines them allinto kind of unheresy, which is
we don't need God in order toprogress.
When this came out in 1900s,the world was almost
(18:01):
no-transcript.
They thought, oh well, if I canjust produce things, if I can
get more money, then things willget better.
But then they started to exist.
They said, well, if I'm doingall of these things, I'm getting
busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
Well, I don't have time for God.
(18:21):
I put my trust in the work thatI'm doing, all the activities
that I'm doing.
I'm busy.
I'm going to come back to that.
But then also they said, well,I need to start existing.
Things started coming on, worldWar, I was starting to come up
and they said, well, I need toexist just for the good of
(18:43):
society.
Socialism, I need to be what?
For the good of society.
Okay, socialism, I need to bewhat society needs me to be.
But then they said well, allthese nations are starting a war
.
We need to exist just for thecommunity or the commune.
That's communism.
All of these things, whetheryou're existing for money
communism, whether you exist forwork, where we need to forget
(19:07):
God to progress because we'rebusy, all come together under
that word busy, which is anacronym for buried under Satan's
yoke, and when we become toobusy for God and we start
separating ourselves from him inorder to feel modern or to be
(19:30):
progressive.
That's what this heresy is.
We're buried under Satan's yokebecause we need to be with the
times, no matter how you definegetting with the times.
Work, money, existing for whatother people want me to be, for
the commune or the community, oreven some of these.
(19:54):
They had something that wascalled the syllabus of errors,
where it actually goes throughsome of these examples of
modernism, which was pretty wild.
But all of this goes back toAdam and Eve in the original sin
.
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Isn't that something?
How it's all connected, huh.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, and I mean and this is one of the things we
forget With Adam and Eve, whatwas the thing that happened with
their original sin?
They were like, yes, Satan saysdid God tell you that you
couldn't eat of the fruit?
Did God tell you that youcouldn't eat of the fruit?
Then Eve says he said that wecould not eat of it, even touch
(20:36):
it, lest we die.
Now here's the irony with thisEve actually adds on to what God
said, meaning that they decidewhat is good and evil, and that
we can speak for God, which isanother part of modernism.
Well, look, we've progressedpast God, so I can speak for him
(20:56):
.
This is okay for me, eventhough he's forbidden as one of
these commandments.
Right, we make ourselves intoGod.
Therefore, we don't need totrust him.
Need to trust him, and this iswhere it gets very crucial,
Because if you can't trust God,you then can't give your heart
(21:18):
to him, and if you can't giveyour heart to God, you can't
find the happiness that you weremade for, which is why
modernity ironically, the morethat we embrace it, the more
miserable we actually become.
That's what these guys aresensing yes, and the Lord, he's
(21:38):
like stop it.
I don't want you miserable, Iwant you fully alive.
I have told you these things somy joy may be in you and your
joy may be complete.
But modernism says don't trustGod.
You don't need complete joy,you make your own joy.
You don't need to trust someone, except for either money,
(22:03):
society, the state or your ownself-work.
They call thatself-actualization, which is the
more modern term of it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and these guys are sensing this.
They're really sensing this andyou can see the breakdown.
I think it's important to payattention.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's where I mean, even with the breakdown in all
of these things, ironically insociety in self, in all of these
things, ironically in societyin self, you know, in all of
these things, it's because we'reputting our trust in everything
, even science, because therewas technological benefits that
were coming up.
And we're especially in thatnow.
Even Pope Leo has now mentionedthat he's like, yeah, you got
to be careful, becausetechnology is coming up, people
(22:47):
are like oh, talking about AIalready, isn't he?
Yeah, I mean, I mean you're justlike wow, but it's amazing what
it can do.
I mean because one of thethings this is a whole nother
level of what people can do,talking to some of the young
adults, because AI now cangenerate images as well as it
can gather the data from whatyou have been reading and typing
(23:08):
and stuff like that.
It sends, like if people I knowsome young adults have fallen
into this sadly it sendsspecifically images of
pornography to your Instagram orwhatever social media aspect
you're doing Is that?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
right.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Because it can read your algorithms and say, oh,
they like to watch this, and Imean, and they not only can make
images now, but they'restarting to have AI that can
actually talk and stuff People,and this was I had to do a
workshop on this in my parish.
People are now falling in lovewith AI characters because
they're longing forrelationships, but it's twisted
(23:50):
as we're talking about.
They're longing forrelationships but it's twisted
as we're talking about.
And they're thinking, oh well,here's someone who always agrees
with me, who knows exactly whatI need because of the choices
they can make, algorithms.
But we don't put our trust intechnology alone, science alone,
money alone.
Where do we put our trust?
This is the divine mercydevotion, answering all of this,
(24:14):
even back to Adam and Eve, whoput their trust not in God, but
they put it in themselves.
The divine mercy image saysJesus, I trust in you.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Jesus, I trust in you .
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat, because this has been
coming on for a while, andSister Faustina.
Talk to us a little bit aboutSister Faustina and the way
Jesus spoke to her and how thisall got started, will you?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yes, yes, now, sister Faustina.
It's amazing.
She is a wonderful saint andshe was actually.
Her full name was SaintFaustina.
Well, she you know, sisterFaustina, who will now be Saint
Faustina Of the BlessedSacrament.
Most people don't realize thatshe has the name of the Blessed
Sacrament.
Why is that important?
(25:01):
Because when you go before theBlessed Sacrament, you give your
heart to the Lord.
Then you proclaim that act offaith.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Now, when she was alive, shedidn't live very long.
She came up and the Lordappeared to her and said and
started having revelations toher, promoting this divine mercy
(25:21):
image as well as otherdevotions to it.
Now, it was funny when she waskind of like in her teenagers,
teenage years.
She was dancing and the Lordappeared to her while she was
dancing and said how long willyou keep me?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
waiting.
Isn't that beautiful.
You know, in a sense right andin a very real sense, christ and
God is saying that to all of us.
You know we're the bride, for areason and a beautiful
bridegroom.
Right, jesus comes in and hewants to pour this love out to
(25:56):
all of us.
You know, and and uh, but.
But this is how he pursues.
You know he's going to pursueus all the different ways.
You know god's a romantic.
You know he's.
He's going to get deaconanthony.
He's going to do somethingdifferent than he does with jack
, than he does with the next guydown the street, and it's so
beautiful.
He really looks at us asindividuals.
But you're right, with SisterFaustina dancing, and then he
(26:19):
wasn't against her having funand dancing.
But there's, enough is enough.
When are you going to turn yourheart to me?
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And I think I mean Saint Faustina, as you're saying
, she does image us, because alot of times we like to dance
around.
Everything that the Lord isasking of us, that's true,
except for that one thing.
He's like yeah, you know, hey,I want you to go and do that
deacon, oh, but I have this todo, I have that to do.
I said this deacon, you know,and you can plug your name in,
(26:48):
right, we like to dance aroundand our Lord is saying how long
will you keep me waiting?
Right?
And eventually, st Faustina,she was like, oh yeah.
After she had that vision,she's like, oh, yeah, I need to
go.
So she goes and she enters areligious order and then, as our
Lord starts to come to her, hestarts telling her to write down
(27:13):
all these things and she got aspiritual director.
I'm going to give the shortversion just because of the time
.
But one of the big things thathe revealed with this divine
mercy image is, he said thiswill be part of man's uplifting.
It's connected to the sacredheart.
Because in the image of thesacred heart, which was for the
consolation of Christ, he says Iwill pour out my mercy upon
(27:36):
mankind as an act of love.
Because he said behold theheart which is so loved by God,
but look at the ingratitude ofmen.
But look at the ingratitude ofmen, st Faustina, with the
divine mercy God is saying look,I want to console you wherever
you are.
And this is one of the mostpowerful entrances in the diary.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I'm trying to pull it up here where he actually says
and let's just tell people alittle bit, just a touch, about
the diary, that everybody hasaccess to this and this is
actually part of ClaymoreMiletus Christi, that when we
get down on our knees we havethe app there and we listen to a
little snippet.
I have the diary, you know, alittle bit off to the side.
(28:22):
Maybe when you're explainingthis I'm going to just go get it
and hold it up.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's great Becauseduring this aspect of the diary,
our Lord speaks to St Faustinaand in one of these entrances,
when she's writing it down, isdiary number 1318, where Jesus
yes, there it is, there it is.
(28:48):
And I encourage people to readthat St Faustina's having a
conversation with the Lord andthe Lord says to St Faustina
says my daughter, you're holdingback on me, you're not giving
me everything.
And she's like what do you mean, dear Lord?
I'm a professed religious.
I've given you everything.
(29:09):
He says no, you haven't, youhave not given you everything.
He says no, you haven't, youhave not given me everything.
So now I'm going to startreading from this passage 1318.
She says ask Jesus, tell mewhat it is, and I will give it
to you at once, with a generousheart.
Jesus said to me with kindness,give me your misery, for it is
(29:37):
your exclusive property.
At that moment a ray of lightillumined my soul and I saw the
whole abyss of my misery.
And in that same moment Inestled close to the most sacred
heart of Jesus, so much trustthat even if all the sins of all
demanded weighing on myconscience, I would not have
doubted God's mercy.
Oftentimes, and this is one ofthe things, especially as we're
(29:59):
buried under our misery.
But the thing is, when we cangive even our misery to the Lord
, then he can heal it, and whenthat becomes something that we
give to the Lord, our sufferingis then transformed into
sacrifice.
And when our suffering istransformed into sacrifice, then
we can meet the heart of Christ, experience his mercy and help
(30:22):
with the redemption of the world.
Now, the irony with this isthis is true, authentic progress
, not the progressivism that theworld pushes.
True progress is being able tobe united with the heart of
Christ and help him withbuilding the kingdom of God and
transforming our misery and oursuffering into tools that can
(30:46):
help the world.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
This is the divine mercy and you find yourself in
that.
You know you find yourself, youfind love, you find
relationships.
In that, you know, say exactlywhat you just said for this
young guy that's done everythingwe said and he's getting up off
his knees.
How does that work for him?
You know he's going to givethis misery to our Lord.
(31:10):
He's going to turn it tosacrifice and kind of just go
through that because we don'twant to waste any of this.
You know God wants it all,doesn't he?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yes, and that's the big thing, because love demands
all, especially covenantal love.
We are first and foremost inour identity.
We belong to Christ.
So when we're holding on to ourmisery which is what a lot of
us like to do, either we'resaying, oh well, I'm not good
(31:39):
enough, that's holding on to ourmisery because we've fallen or
we say, oh well, I'm notequipped enough, I'm just doing
this, I'm so wrong.
There has to be sorrow,contrition, but our guilt should
always lead us to the heart ofChrist, not away from him.
This is where, when you'restarting in step one, you have
(32:02):
to realize okay, I have thisemotion that's in my heart.
Right, it turns to misery whenwe embrace that emotion and we
start defining ourselves by whatwe've done wrong or where we've
messed up.
So step one is stop definingyourself that way.
How do you stop definingyourself by that?
(32:22):
So, let's say you're dealingwith pornography or a same-sex
attraction, you start by sayingI am not this, I am the beloved
of God.
Step one right, that'sfoundational.
Then, once you can see andchoose, I am the beloved of God,
defining myself, then you canstart to say, okay, am I going
(32:46):
to give this to God as a gift tohim or am I going to keep this
and keep burying myself under it?
You have to choose that.
The sorrow which allows you tohave your whatever's going on
and you say you're sorry,contrition, and unite it to God,
that's redemptive sorrow.
(33:07):
But when you keep that and youkeep burying it under yourself
under it, that's calledoppressive sorrow.
This is where you getoppression right.
The devil wants you to keepbearing yourself in your sins,
but Jesus and the Holy Spiritwants you to turn away from your
(33:29):
sin, to be able to be embracedwith the love that you were made
for, not to define yourself bythe absence of that love which
you were not made for, but thatactually keeps you downtrodden.
This is where the divine mercycomes in, because if you can
give that to God, then God canpour out his mercy upon you, and
(33:53):
that's what he wants to do whenhe goes to punish the sin.
If you can separate yourselffrom the sin, then he can punish
the sin and love the sinner.
But if you stay connected to itand start defining yourself by
it, then when he goes to punishthe sin, he must also punish the
sinner.
Jesus says trust me, give meyour hand, turn around, repent,
(34:21):
and then you can take my hand,which is always right in front
of you, which is why, in thatimage of the divine mercy, you
always see Jesus.
His foot is taking a stepforward.
He's always coming towards us,even when we turn our backs on
him.
This is why his heart, thisheart of mercy, is meant for us.
(34:44):
We are not just our sins, weare people made to be embraced
by God's mercy.
So, step one do not defineyourself by your sins.
Remember you are a child of God.
Step two choose whether you aregoing to define yourself by
(35:04):
that fault, that failing, or youare going to allow it to be a
stepping stone to embrace God'smercy.
Allow it to be a stepping stoneto embrace God's mercy.
Step three you embrace God'smercy by sacramental confession
if you're Catholic, or sayingsorry, trying to turn to the new
leaf.
Then the last step is takeprudential judgments to not set
(35:30):
yourself up for failure.
Surround yourself with goodpeople that are going to
encourage you towards the loveof God, not in vice.
Make sure that the things thatyou're looking at are going to
be making you pure of heart,like the Lord, not to deceive
your heart in lust.
And then also always continueto keep telling yourself I am a
(35:54):
child of God.
God wants his mercy to bepoured out upon me, because his
mercy endures forever.
Lust does not endure forever,so go towards the mercy.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
That was beautiful, Thank you, Thank you.
You know, when you start totalk about all of those various
issues, what else should peoplelook for when they grab this
book?
I think it's important for allour listeners, but for young
people too.
Is there anything?
Look at you, just unpacked,just probably one of the most
(36:28):
important things they could do.
But what else in here if wecould touch on?
Look at, there's so much right.
We can only touch on one or twoother things.
What would you like to havepeople take away?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, I would also say like so I break in the book,
I break it down by devotion tothe Sacred Heart as well as
divine mercy, because the twoare one.
We're meant for God and God ismeant for us.
That's the big thing.
Now I would like to point outin here, I call it the four
chambers.
I call it quickly the chamberof encouragement, the chamber of
(37:00):
keep asking and this isunpacking the whole book here,
not just in the book here.
The chamber of going with thedevotions, explaining the five
devotions to the Sacred Heart,which is going to be St Fit.
So you're going to have theSolemnity.
You're going to have the 33Days Devotion, 33 Visits
(37:21):
Devotion.
You're going to have the Feastand then you're going to have
the Image as well as this great,great, great Solemnity that
we're going to do.
But then you also have the fivedevotions to the divine mercy,
which is Finch.
So you have the feast image,novena, chaplet, and then hour,
right.
So I like using mnemonics,right?
(37:43):
But in both of these, when youget this, you have this
encouragement keep going.
Then you have get going withthe devotions and then you have
mercy itself.
You put those together, you getan EKG of mercy, and that is
what the world needs.
It's going on life support andwe need to infuse it right.
(38:07):
Get that EKG where you can keepthe hearts going because people
are discouraged.
But the thing is our Lord doesnot want us.
Discouraged meaning youdistance yourself from the core.
Core meaning heart.
That's where we finddiscouragement.
We want encouragement tocontinually, each step, each
(38:28):
moment, each day, the dailybread, like you're talking about
being able to go in the heart,in the core, which is where you
find encouragement.
This book is meant to be amanual to help you to live a
life of encouragement, notdiscouragement, in other words,
(38:51):
to have peaceful hearts andzealous hearts.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Thank you.
And there's no way you can belukewarm today.
I think you know, when we'retalking to young guys, they
sense that, that they pick upthe sword and that sword is not
just charging out.
It's like you said first of all, I have to unite myself with
God.
You know, if my identity is myhave to unite myself with God.
You know, if my identity is mybrokenness, I'm in big trouble.
(39:17):
My identity has to be a son ofGod.
And what did Jesus say toSister Faustina about sin, the
worst sin?
Do you remember If you're theworst sinner of everybody?
Do you have less right or moreright to his mercy, deacon?
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Anthony, yeah, you have more right to his mercy,
and this is one of the wonderfulthings where you can see this.
This really is about the heart.
The Lord says the greater thesin, the greater.
You have a right to my mercy.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yes, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
The Lord wants to give you his mercy.
You are not, and this is thething.
The Lord does not want us tostay broken.
He wants to make us whole,which is why, in the book of
Revelation, he even says behold,I make all things new.
If you want to put on the newman, to be a new man, to not
(40:10):
stay broken, put your heart inthe heart of Jesus and, as and
this is, I would say, one of thethings I'd like to leave the
people with like St Faustina,who had the gift of bilocation,
remember, each of us are calledto bilocation, meaning that our
(40:30):
feet and our hands are here onearth, but our hearts and minds
are always in heaven.
This is how we have to live ourlives and if you do that, by
location, you will find theencouragement and peace that you
will make.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you.
You know we forget, don't we,deacon, that you know Jesus
didn't come to manage our sins,he came with power.
And we Deacon that Jesus didn'tcome to manage our sins, he
came with power.
And the most beautiful thing,when these young guys have been
at this for a while and doingwhat you're talking about, they
go.
Oh my gosh, this is real.
This is real.
I remember myself coming backinto the church.
(41:08):
I was 38 years old and Iremember exactly sitting on the
fence Most men like to sit onthe fence, you know lukewarm
exactly where we're not supposedto be.
And I finally got to the pointwhere we're seeing right now
with this culture and it's notonly out there, we sense it in
our own hearts right, those twothings an interior, toxic thing
(41:30):
going on and an exterior thing.
And you go how do?
I get out of this mess.
And there's only one way, andit's what you're describing.
There's only one way.
You can look around forever, Ican make all the money I want, I
can build all the big plants Iwant, and that's okay.
Go out and do those things,just don't forget that you're a
child of God.
(41:50):
And then our catechism, ourCatholic Church, john Paul II,
would say go out and buildthings.
You know capitalism, we love it, but, but, but.
He would say but, but, but.
When you have everything youneed, the rest is for the poor,
the rest is for the poor.
And that changes everything.
(42:11):
I'm building this up, I'mgiving back to my employees, I'm
making sure they have a goodlife and if I have anything left
after that, I'm going to giveit away.
You know right what happens ifyou have all the treasures in
the world, jesus said, and youlose your soul.
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
And that's the big thing.
God isn't condemning.
You know, taking care of yourfamily or money or anything like
that, but when that place ofGod, that's where it becomes a
problem and that doesn't onlybecome a problem out there.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
It becomes a problem in here.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
How many divorces, how many children out of wedlock
?
How many porn addictions?
How many gambling addictions?
How many whatever?
Because of what?
Because they're not going anddoing what you said.
So this is an interior movementtoo right.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yes, exactly.
And that's one of the bigthings, because it's very easy
to kind of point outwardly andsay, oh well, hey, this is it.
But the Lord says I mean, andthis is also the divine mercy
and the sacred heart devotionsthe Lord is saying I give you my
heart so that you can look atyour heart.
He's the standard.
And I mean and this is thething many people will say, oh
(43:26):
yeah, well, this is going on.
But the Lord says what aboutyou?
What about you?
And when you stand before theLord, he's going to say look, I
offered you all of this.
What did you do with it?
And this is where we're kind oflike oh right, the interior
motives.
And the Lord doesn't do thisjust as just, even with the Holy
(43:48):
Spirit, not to condemn us, butto convict us, because the Lord
wants us at our best.
He's saying I don't want you tohave a twisted interior heart,
because I want you authenticallyhappy, I want you to have
authentic joy.
So I need to root out all thethings that are keeping you from
(44:11):
that authentic joy.
It's not a punishment, it'sbecause he wants us not to just
survive or ride the fence, butto thrive.
He wants us fully alive, fullyour hearts beating not just on
life support.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
That's where that ETG of mercy comes in and that you
know, where do we get this wildidea that this is only about
heaven?
Right, this starts now.
You know, eternity doesn't meantomorrow, does it, deacon
Anthony?
Eternity means forever.
You and I and everybodylistening, we're eternal beings.
This journey is starting righthere and you know, in a sense
(44:54):
this is a love test or a lusttest.
You know, either I become aperson of love, which means
again, I unite myself with thedivine lover and go out and
become a person of love, or Iforget about him and I try to
fill up the infinite desires ofmy heart in this finite world
and I make a mess of everything.
It's not brain surgery, reallyis it?
(45:16):
And trust me, I know this byexperience.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
okay, but it is, I mean, but I can tell you it is
the greatest operation in lifeto choose to either be loved by
God and be his instrument, orchoose to fight against God and
be the devil's instrument.
You know, that's our choices,you know.
(45:40):
So that's it we need to chooseLord.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
That's the bottom right, like you said, that's
what happened in the garden andthat has been passed down to us
all these years.
It's no more complicated, look,your life can get complex, but
the decision we all stand.
John Paul would say, you allstand in some sense at the tree
of the knowledge of good andevil.
Pick a side, my friend.
(46:03):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
And we pray that we always choose Team Jesus.
That's the big thing.
You don't want to play on thelosing team, you want to play on
the winning team.
You know that's.
That's the big thing.
You know you don't want to playon the losing team, you want to
play on the winning team.
And we know that Christ has wonthe war.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
So I mean and have some fun and do it with somebody
like Deacon Anthony.
Go out and find some disciples,some people to walk with and
talk with.
You know, like Deacon Anthony,uh, tonight I go out with a good
buddy of mine and you know wedo a lot of this apostolate
together and we're going to havea little dinner.
You know there's no more joythan sitting down with somebody
else that has that, that hasthat heart that you're speaking
(46:40):
of, and and we sharing thistogether.
It's phenomenal.
You know, how can you have anymore fun there?
You go Right Thinking Anthony.
You're such a pleasure.
Where should we buy thepeaceful hearts, zealous hearts?
I want to put it in the shownotes this is Sophia Press,
right, so we should go write toSophia Press to get this.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, Sophia Institute.
Yeah, go to Sophia Instituteand then just type in Peaceful
Hearts, Zealous Hearts It'llbring you right to it.
Yeah, I'll have a link in there.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
And then how about you?
You do a lot of writing.
If they want to read some ofthe things you did, what's your
main website?
Jmjgerardmariecom.
I got it, I got it, I got itand I know that, and I'm going
to put it in the show notes soeverybody will be able to find
it.
Hey, deacon Anthony, thank youso much.
We really appreciate it.
(47:26):
Keep up the good work, becausethere's a lot of evil out there
to battle, isn't there?
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yes, yes, yes, but let us take up the sword,
putting our trust in the Lord,knowing that he has won the
battle.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Thank you.
Would you mind giving ouraudience a blessing before we go
Sure?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
Dear Lord, help us to be peoplethat put our trust in you,
taking up the sword, slaying thedragons and all those things
that keep us from you and makethe world stay in darkness.
We ask for you to bless all ofus, that we will continually be
(48:00):
instruments of your grace andgoodness and, through the
intercession of our BlessedMother, as well as Saint Joseph,
protector of the Church, mayAlmighty God bless you in the
name of the Father and the Sonand the Holy Spirit, amen.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Thanks everyone.
Thanks for joining us today.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Bye-bye.
Yes, and it's important to know that we as men
, but also we as people, we'renot made simply for sex, we're
made for love.
And because we're made for love, when we are made for love, we
can go into these various typesof intimacy.
The happiest people can becelibates, and I mean because,
(00:23):
if you're following God's will.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know some of them, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, whether you'refollowing, whether you're
married, whether you're acelibate, when you're doing what
you were made for, you find joywhen you sleep with someone.
That means that those wordsmust mean something.
You must already have alifetime commitment to them,
because when you give yourselfcompletely to another person and
they receive that, that shouldbe something that brings you
(00:50):
closer to God.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
One of the first things that these young men do
in the morning before they lookat their phone, Deacon Anthony,
before they look at their phone,unless they're just turning off
the alarm, they get down ontheir knees and they say be it
done to me according to yourword, right, Just with our
blessed mother.
And then we listen to ourblessed mother and she says you
know, do as he tells you, right,Do as he tells you.
(01:12):
The problem is with our twistedpassions and desires.
So, what they learn is we don'tlive to your point.
I'm a Catholic man.
I'm not just a addicted man.
I might be an addicted man, butI am a Catholic addicted man
and that gives me power to getout of it right.
Welcome to the Become who youAre podcast, a production of the
(01:43):
John Paul II Renewal Center.
I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
I am excited to be with an oldfriend.
He hasn't been on the show fora while.
He's snubbed us a little bit,but it's great to be on.
Deacon Gerald Marie Anthony,welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Thank you for having me, Jack.
It's great to be here.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, you know, we have an apostolate.
I was telling you about DeaconAnthony.
It's actually about that swordbehind me, the Claymore sword,
and it's a Claymore MiletusChristi.
And so we have these young guysand they're waking up against
all odds.
Deacon, it's amazing actually.
You would think the toxicculture couldn't get any worse,
(02:21):
and I don't think it could have.
Culture couldn't get any worse,and I don't think it could have
.
You know, with the pornographyand the gender ideologies and
the anxiety and the governmentdebt taking these guys' futures
away, I think it got to thepoint.
Actually, I don't think Italked to them, you know.
It got to the point where theyjust go you know something's
wrong, something's wrong.
And they woke up, and they don'tknow always exactly what it is,
(02:42):
but they started to vote.
You saw them voting for Trump.
You know, I don't think theyeven knew why.
They just knew it needed to bechanged.
And here's a guy standing upright, and now this is a great
time to evangelize them, becausenow they're saying, okay, now
what you know, and so we'rebringing them in and you write
these great books, you have thisgreat heart and and they're
learning, they're learning, andso maybe, before we get into
(03:05):
anything else.
Can you just briefly tell themwhere you're at and what it
means to be a deacon?
And your decision to be adeacon is a little different
than some of the other guys too.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, yes.
So thanks for that question,jack.
Yeah, so to be a deaconactually is to be a servant of
the servants of God.
That's what the word deaconmeans.
It means servant, and I chosein a special way to be a
celibate deacon.
Most deacons that just carryout the order of deacon, they're
(03:38):
married.
But I wanted to give mycomplete life to the Lord.
And the great thing about that,no matter what vocation you're
at, you realize when you giveyourself completely to the Lord,
that's where you find your joyand your happiness right.
So, as a deacon, the bishop hastwo arms.
He has he's the head, then hehas an arm of blessing, which is
(04:00):
the priest, then he has an armof charity, which is the deacon.
I felt that God was calling tome this arm of charity and so I
go out into the world.
I have four big apostolatesthat I do, all with the
spectrums of life.
I have the Legion of Mary,which is kind of evangelization.
Then I also have somethingcalled a mom's peace, where I
(04:22):
help people that have hadmiscarriages.
Have something called a mom'speace where I help people that
have had miscarriages.
Then I also do something withhelping college kids and high
school kids to keep their faith,which is the Associates of St
John Bosco.
And then, finally, at the end oflife, I have something that's
called the Divine Mercy Home, soI help people as they're going
to meet the Lord.
(04:42):
Then I have the mother of lightas well, which is we help the
unfortunate.
So I want it to be that arm ofcharity.
Why?
Because when we give our armsand we give our hands to people,
it becomes a source of strength.
And, as your organization,apostolate, also talks about,
when you're fighting together,you're stronger, and that's why
(05:05):
we call us, as the church,militant.
So, as a deacon, I want to helpencourage people to be able to
take up that fight, becausetruth, goodness and human
dignity matter.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yes, they do, thank you.
Thank you for that, you know,we forget that.
You know, charity, which can besaid as love, is a theological
virtue, and what does that mean?
You know?
That means that I have to befilled, that I'm not going out
there by myself.
First of all, I'm going outthere, always with God, in union
with God, and that's whatyou're doing with all of your
apostles, especially when youcall something charity, right.
(05:38):
And then the second thing yousaid is I'm not even going out
alone, right, I'm going out withGod, but I'm not even going out
alone with God.
I'm going out with a brother orsister, you know, and here with
Claymore, miletus Christi,soldiers for Christ, where it's
another brother, you know, jesussent us out two by two, for a
reason you know, and I'll tellyou.
You know, deacon Anthony, whenCOVID hit, we didn't have
(05:59):
anything for the young guys thatwere working with us.
We had nothing to do with right, so we lost a lot of those.
I mean, they're still with us alittle bit here and there, but
I was alone for a long timetrying to just hold this
together, right, because youreally couldn't go out and speak
that much I could.
I could get out a little bit,but not as much, and it got
lonely.
It got lonely, man.
I like having somebody to talkto, you know, and say hey, let's
(06:22):
go together and do this thing,huh.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean and this is one of the things it's very
easy and the devil likes this wecan be broken a lot easier when
we're by ourselves, as if we'rea group, we have that big
bundle.
It's harder to break becausewhen two or three are gathered
or the Lord even promised there,I am in your midst and when
(06:46):
you're by yourself, it's veryeasy to say, oh well, hmm, god
isn't necessarily caring aboutthis or watching about this, and
you can start to get distracted.
This is where groups are soimportant, and because we also
image the Trinity, a community,a triunity of love.
(07:06):
But love always draws usoutside of ourselves, which is
why isolation can be sometimesthe devil's playground, and we
have to be aware of that.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yes, yes, yes, thank you for that and again.
So what we're doing withClaymore and what you're doing,
what you're describing, is, youknow we're sharing this right,
we're sharing this journey witheach other, and the day that I'm
down or the day that I feelweak today, you'll say hey, jack
, how are you doing today?
I say I'm not doing good man,and you'll be.
You know you'll be leading me,you'll be picking me up.
(07:36):
You know you'll be saying, hey,let's grab a coffee right, and
vice versa.
And so this happens all thetime.
You know it's a beautiful thing.
The other thing I want to justtouch on because we have a lot
of young guys have beenstruggling with pornography and
this really bothers me.
What we've done to these youngguys, deacon, anthony, because
their innocence was stolen fromthem.
These young guys were 8, 9, 10,11 years old.
(07:59):
You know they hear something atschool, some sexual term or
whatever.
They Google it or they get on acomputer.
They get caught intopornography and I've spoken
about that a lot, so I'm notgoing to get into it now.
But they've stolen theirinnocence.
It's really a sin, and when youdo that to young people, you
obliterate their moralimaginations and you take that
(08:21):
beauty of what a woman lookslike, the beauty of just love
itself, and you turn it intolust.
So the reason I say that to youis because you mentioned
earlier that you're not going tobe married as a deacon.
You went into it as a singleman, which means you took a vow
of chastity and celibacy.
(08:42):
And young men don't thinkthat's possible.
But it is possible and I justwant you to touch on that
because it is possible.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And it's important to know that we as men, but also
we as people, we're not madesimply for sex, we're made for
love.
And because we're made for love, love, and because we're made
for love, when we are made forlove, we can go into these
various types of intimacy.
(09:09):
It doesn't mean and this isvery important people think
celibacy means you have to staylocked up in the room and you're
not allowed to have friendships, you're not allowed to have joy
.
The happiest people can becelibates, and I mean because if
you're following god's.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Will I know some of them?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I meanwhether you're following God's
will.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I know some of them, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean whether you're following, whether you're married,
whether you're celibate, whenyou're doing what you were made
for, you find joy and that'swhere, especially as a deacon a
celibate deacon you realize thisdoesn't mean that you don't
connect with people.
It means that you find otherways to connect with people,
like, say, for example, greatconversations.
(09:46):
Our minds are made for truth,right.
So when you have a greatconversation with someone,
that's intimacy you can see intoa truth, because Christ is the
truth.
Emotional intimacy, things thatyou can do with other people.
It doesn't have to be sexual,and this is the big lie that I
think a lot of people havebought into.
You're talking about innocencebeing stolen at an early age.
(10:10):
The world says you must sleepwith someone in order to know
them, but God says no.
When you sleep with someone,that means that those words must
mean something.
You must already have alifetime commitment to them,
because when you give yourselfcompletely to another person and
(10:31):
they receive that, that shouldbe something that brings you
closer to God, not away from him.
Any type of lifestyle thatkeeps you from God, that is not
worth pursuing, because thenyou're throwing away your joy
and your happiness.
I remember one time I wastalking to some young men and
(10:52):
they were saying they werestruggling with pornography,
they were struggling withsame-sex attractions, they were
struggling with a whole bunch ofstuff.
And I said, well, look, can youdescribe yourself in three
words?
And they were like yes, youknow, I'm addicted to whatever.
And they said, or I'm sexuallyactive, or even some of them
were hot.
(11:12):
And I said they were like yeah.
I said, but notice the word thatyou didn't say.
You didn't say that I'mCatholic or Christian.
That's at the core of ouridentity, because if we're not
living that out, we're headedtowards a path of degrading
ourselves and destruction inlife, and so we have to be able
(11:37):
to do that.
And me, as a celibate, Iproclaim to the world that love
goes beyond just sex.
Love goes into the inner beingof the person.
And this we also.
All of us will live ascelibates in heaven.
So I'm the preclusion of howall of us are going to live in
(12:01):
heaven, but in the marriage ofChrist in the church.
So there will be celibacy butmarriage in the same time.
So we live out both of thoserealities, but all of them must
be rooted in authentic love.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, you know, and this will be the last thing I
say.
And then I want to jump intoanother subject.
But you know, one of the firstthings that these young men do
in the morning before they lookat their phone, deacon Anthony,
before they look at their phone,unless they're just turning off
the alarm, they get down ontheir knees and they say be it
done to me according to yourword, right, just with our
blessed mother, excellent.
And then we listen to ourblessed mother and she says you
know, do as he tells you, right,do as he tells you.
(12:44):
And now we listen for a coupleof minutes, but anyways.
The second one is temptation'snot a sin, and this is so
important for these young guys.
And here's the fire, right,this fire that they feel, this
passion, that they feel.
You know, god gave us passionsand desires.
The problem is with our twistedpassions and desires.
So, what they learn is we don'tlive to your point.
I'm a Catholic man.
I'm not just an addicted man.
(13:05):
I might be an addicted man, butI am a Catholic addicted man,
and that gives me power to getout of it right.
Most of them live in atwo-dimensional world where they
think they either got to stuffthese desires down or indulge.
We show them no, no, no, no.
God gave you those.
Just lift those desires up, andwhen you use temptation as an
(13:26):
invitation to prayer, you openup something big, you open the
floodgates of grace.
You know, and it's a battle.
That's where the battle comesin, because John Paul would say
this is fought on thebattlefield of the heart,
between love and lust, rightBetween being a self-giving
person that you were describingand grasping and taking.
And so this is liberating, thisis freedom, and if they don't
(13:50):
think they can handle it, itdoesn't matter.
You take it one day at a time,don't you?
Yes, give us this day our dailybread, especially in the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yes, and it's important for them to realize
that it's when you fight thebattle you're slaying dragons as
you're slaying them.
You have to realize eachvictory is important Because a
lot of times we look at the bigpicture and we're like, yeah,
well, hey, you know I'm stillstruggling with this.
No, no, no.
Every victory is important.
It's a step towards the God wholoves you.
(14:21):
And the thing is John Paul II.
One of my favorite sayings ishe says this is important you
are not the sum total of yourfaults and failings.
You are the beloved of God.
Christ died for you so that youcan actually be liberated from
this, so that you're not justbeing buried under lust but
(14:44):
you're actually rising withChrist, bearing great fruit and
living as the man that you arecalled to be.
And this is where I think wehave to take up that sword of
being able to have this sword oflove, where we enter into the
battlefield not afraid butconfident, because Christ is
(15:06):
with us.
And when Christ is with us, whocan be against the St Paul sins
?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That's beautiful and what a great thing to remember
for these young guys that everyvictory, whether it's a day or a
half a day or whatever, theyshould celebrate that too and
thank God for that too.
And I should tell my partnersthat I, you know these disciples
that I'm walking with, hey, Imade it through today without
looking at you know, whetherit's porn, whatever, the
addiction is right.
(15:32):
Celebrate that, because don'talways look at your failures,
because you know we're going tofail here and there along the
way.
Hey, I want to, I want to moveon, if you don't mind.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for sharing it withthese guys, of course, and and
and the and these aren't justthe young men, these are all the
people that love these youngguys, and and we're, we don't
want it, want even one of themto fall through the cracks if we
(15:53):
can help it, right, and so wewere sharing these things with
them, you know, in your book.
So I I'm going to hold this upbecause this is really really
good and because you touch on,and I'll put this in the show
notes and I'll put a nice imageup when I edit.
But peaceful hearts, zealoushearts we're talking about
zealous here right Hearts, howthe sacred heart and divine
mercy devotions complementmessages and they make us new.
(16:17):
So I'm a big advocate.
You can see I have a divinemercy picture behind me and
Sister Faustina, john Paul II,polish.
Of course he canonized her andso I do a little on our needs.
Deacon Anthony, we do.
You know, we have a little appon there, divine Mercy app, and
we listen to just a snippetevery morning of the Divine
(16:38):
Mercy, and so it's justbeautiful.
But anyways, talk about, if youdon't mind, because I think
it's apropos for today, thisheresy that Pope Pius X called
the synthesis of all heresiesmodernism.
Right, yes, and why?
Why did he call it?
And are we not suffering fromthat today?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Oh, my goodness, yes, it is not only the synthesis,
but so many people fall into itbecause it's so subtle.
Now, this is the thing to kindof do a little background to
this heresy, because a heresybasically is, it's a denial of
some aspect of the faith that'sbeing denied.
(17:27):
Why Pope Pius X was callingthis the synthesis of all
heresies is because it takes thevery heart of denying aspects
of the faith, combines them allinto kind of unheresy, which is
we don't need God in order toprogress.
When this came out in 1900s,the world was almost
(18:01):
no-transcript.
They thought, oh well, if I canjust produce things, if I can
get more money, then things willget better.
But then they started to exist.
They said, well, if I'm doingall of these things, I'm getting
busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
Well, I don't have time for God.
(18:21):
I put my trust in the work thatI'm doing, all the activities
that I'm doing.
I'm busy.
I'm going to come back to that.
But then also they said, well,I need to start existing.
Things started coming on, worldWar, I was starting to come up
and they said, well, I need toexist just for the good of
(18:43):
society.
Socialism, I need to be what?
For the good of society.
Okay, socialism, I need to bewhat society needs me to be.
But then they said well, allthese nations are starting a war
.
We need to exist just for thecommunity or the commune.
That's communism.
All of these things, whetheryou're existing for money
communism, whether you exist forwork, where we need to forget
(19:07):
God to progress because we'rebusy, all come together under
that word busy, which is anacronym for buried under Satan's
yoke, and when we become toobusy for God and we start
separating ourselves from him inorder to feel modern or to be
(19:30):
progressive.
That's what this heresy is.
We're buried under Satan's yokebecause we need to be with the
times, no matter how you definegetting with the times.
Work, money, existing for whatother people want me to be, for
the commune or the community, oreven some of these.
(19:54):
They had something that wascalled the syllabus of errors,
where it actually goes throughsome of these examples of
modernism, which was pretty wild.
But all of this goes back toAdam and Eve in the original sin
.
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Isn't that something?
How it's all connected, huh.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yes, and I mean and this is one of the things we
forget With Adam and Eve, whatwas the thing that happened with
their original sin?
They were like, yes, Satan saysdid God tell you that you
couldn't eat of the fruit?
Did God tell you that youcouldn't eat of the fruit?
Then Eve says he said that wecould not eat of it, even touch
(20:36):
it, lest we die.
Now here's the irony with thisEve actually adds on to what God
said, meaning that they decidewhat is good and evil, and that
we can speak for God, which isanother part of modernism.
Well, look, we've progressedpast God, so I can speak for him
(20:56):
.
This is okay for me, eventhough he's forbidden as one of
these commandments.
Right, we make ourselves intoGod.
Therefore, we don't need totrust him.
Need to trust him, and this iswhere it gets very crucial,
Because if you can't trust God,you then can't give your heart
(21:18):
to him, and if you can't giveyour heart to God, you can't
find the happiness that you weremade for, which is why
modernity ironically, the morethat we embrace it, the more
miserable we actually become.
That's what these guys aresensing yes, and the Lord, he's
(21:38):
like stop it.
I don't want you miserable, Iwant you fully alive.
I have told you these things somy joy may be in you and your
joy may be complete.
But modernism says don't trustGod.
You don't need complete joy,you make your own joy.
You don't need to trust someone, except for either money,
(22:03):
society, the state or your ownself-work.
They call thatself-actualization, which is the
more modern term of it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, and these guys are sensing this.
They're really sensing this andyou can see the breakdown.
I think it's important to payattention.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's where I mean, even with the breakdown in all
of these things, ironically insociety in self, in all of these
things, ironically in societyin self, you know, in all of
these things, it's because we'reputting our trust in everything
, even science, because therewas technological benefits that
were coming up.
And we're especially in thatnow.
Even Pope Leo has now mentionedthat he's like, yeah, you got
to be careful, becausetechnology is coming up, people
(22:47):
are like oh, talking about AIalready, isn't he?
Yeah, I mean, I mean you're justlike wow, but it's amazing what
it can do.
I mean because one of thethings this is a whole nother
level of what people can do,talking to some of the young
adults, because AI now cangenerate images as well as it
can gather the data from whatyou have been reading and typing
(23:08):
and stuff like that.
It sends, like if people I knowsome young adults have fallen
into this sadly it sendsspecifically images of
pornography to your Instagram orwhatever social media aspect
you're doing Is that?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
right.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Because it can read your algorithms and say, oh,
they like to watch this, and Imean, and they not only can make
images now, but they'restarting to have AI that can
actually talk and stuff People,and this was I had to do a
workshop on this in my parish.
People are now falling in lovewith AI characters because
they're longing forrelationships, but it's twisted
(23:50):
as we're talking about.
They're longing forrelationships but it's twisted
as we're talking about.
And they're thinking, oh well,here's someone who always agrees
with me, who knows exactly whatI need because of the choices
they can make, algorithms.
But we don't put our trust intechnology alone, science alone,
money alone.
Where do we put our trust?
This is the divine mercydevotion, answering all of this,
(24:14):
even back to Adam and Eve, whoput their trust not in God, but
they put it in themselves.
The divine mercy image saysJesus, I trust in you.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Jesus, I trust in you .
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat, because this has been
coming on for a while, andSister Faustina.
Talk to us a little bit aboutSister Faustina and the way
Jesus spoke to her and how thisall got started, will you?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yes, yes, now, sister Faustina.
It's amazing.
She is a wonderful saint andshe was actually.
Her full name was SaintFaustina.
Well, she you know, sisterFaustina, who will now be Saint
Faustina Of the BlessedSacrament.
Most people don't realize thatshe has the name of the Blessed
Sacrament.
Why is that important?
(25:01):
Because when you go before theBlessed Sacrament, you give your
heart to the Lord.
Then you proclaim that act offaith.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Now, when she was alive, shedidn't live very long.
She came up and the Lordappeared to her and said and
started having revelations toher, promoting this divine mercy
(25:21):
image as well as otherdevotions to it.
Now, it was funny when she waskind of like in her teenagers,
teenage years.
She was dancing and the Lordappeared to her while she was
dancing and said how long willyou keep me?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
waiting.
Isn't that beautiful.
You know, in a sense right andin a very real sense, christ and
God is saying that to all of us.
You know we're the bride, for areason and a beautiful
bridegroom.
Right, jesus comes in and hewants to pour this love out to
(25:56):
all of us.
You know, and and uh, but.
But this is how he pursues.
You know he's going to pursueus all the different ways.
You know god's a romantic.
You know he's.
He's going to get deaconanthony.
He's going to do somethingdifferent than he does with jack
, than he does with the next guydown the street, and it's so
beautiful.
He really looks at us asindividuals.
But you're right, with SisterFaustina dancing, and then he
(26:19):
wasn't against her having funand dancing.
But there's, enough is enough.
When are you going to turn yourheart to me?
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And I think I mean Saint Faustina, as you're saying
, she does image us, because alot of times we like to dance
around.
Everything that the Lord isasking of us, that's true,
except for that one thing.
He's like yeah, you know, hey,I want you to go and do that
deacon, oh, but I have this todo, I have that to do.
I said this deacon, you know,and you can plug your name in,
(26:48):
right, we like to dance aroundand our Lord is saying how long
will you keep me waiting?
Right?
And eventually, st Faustina,she was like, oh yeah.
After she had that vision,she's like, oh, yeah, I need to
go.
So she goes and she enters areligious order and then, as our
Lord starts to come to her, hestarts telling her to write down
(27:13):
all these things and she got aspiritual director.
I'm going to give the shortversion just because of the time
.
But one of the big things thathe revealed with this divine
mercy image is, he said thiswill be part of man's uplifting.
It's connected to the sacredheart.
Because in the image of thesacred heart, which was for the
consolation of Christ, he says Iwill pour out my mercy upon
(27:36):
mankind as an act of love.
Because he said behold theheart which is so loved by God,
but look at the ingratitude ofmen.
But look at the ingratitude ofmen, st Faustina, with the
divine mercy God is saying look,I want to console you wherever
you are.
And this is one of the mostpowerful entrances in the diary.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I'm trying to pull it up here where he actually says
and let's just tell people alittle bit, just a touch, about
the diary, that everybody hasaccess to this and this is
actually part of ClaymoreMiletus Christi, that when we
get down on our knees we havethe app there and we listen to a
little snippet.
I have the diary, you know, alittle bit off to the side.
(28:22):
Maybe when you're explainingthis I'm going to just go get it
and hold it up.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, yeah.
I think that's great Becauseduring this aspect of the diary,
our Lord speaks to St Faustinaand in one of these entrances,
when she's writing it down, isdiary number 1318, where Jesus
yes, there it is, there it is.
(28:48):
And I encourage people to readthat St Faustina's having a
conversation with the Lord andthe Lord says to St Faustina
says my daughter, you're holdingback on me, you're not giving
me everything.
And she's like what do you mean, dear Lord?
I'm a professed religious.
I've given you everything.
(29:09):
He says no, you haven't, youhave not given you everything.
He says no, you haven't, youhave not given me everything.
So now I'm going to startreading from this passage 1318.
She says ask Jesus, tell mewhat it is, and I will give it
to you at once, with a generousheart.
Jesus said to me with kindness,give me your misery, for it is
(29:37):
your exclusive property.
At that moment a ray of lightillumined my soul and I saw the
whole abyss of my misery.
And in that same moment Inestled close to the most sacred
heart of Jesus, so much trustthat even if all the sins of all
demanded weighing on myconscience, I would not have
doubted God's mercy.
Oftentimes, and this is one ofthe things, especially as we're
(29:59):
buried under our misery.
But the thing is, when we cangive even our misery to the Lord
, then he can heal it, and whenthat becomes something that we
give to the Lord, our sufferingis then transformed into
sacrifice.
And when our suffering istransformed into sacrifice, then
we can meet the heart of Christ, experience his mercy and help
(30:22):
with the redemption of the world.
Now, the irony with this isthis is true, authentic progress
, not the progressivism that theworld pushes.
True progress is being able tobe united with the heart of
Christ and help him withbuilding the kingdom of God and
transforming our misery and oursuffering into tools that can
(30:46):
help the world.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
This is the divine mercy and you find yourself in
that.
You know you find yourself, youfind love, you find
relationships.
In that, you know, say exactlywhat you just said for this
young guy that's done everythingwe said and he's getting up off
his knees.
How does that work for him?
You know he's going to givethis misery to our Lord.
(31:10):
He's going to turn it tosacrifice and kind of just go
through that because we don'twant to waste any of this.
You know God wants it all,doesn't he?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yes, and that's the big thing, because love demands
all, especially covenantal love.
We are first and foremost inour identity.
We belong to Christ.
So when we're holding on to ourmisery which is what a lot of
us like to do, either we'resaying, oh well, I'm not good
(31:39):
enough, that's holding on to ourmisery because we've fallen or
we say, oh well, I'm notequipped enough, I'm just doing
this, I'm so wrong.
There has to be sorrow,contrition, but our guilt should
always lead us to the heart ofChrist, not away from him.
This is where, when you'restarting in step one, you have
(32:02):
to realize okay, I have thisemotion that's in my heart.
Right, it turns to misery whenwe embrace that emotion and we
start defining ourselves by whatwe've done wrong or where we've
messed up.
So step one is stop definingyourself that way.
How do you stop definingyourself by that?
(32:22):
So, let's say you're dealingwith pornography or a same-sex
attraction, you start by sayingI am not this, I am the beloved
of God.
Step one right, that'sfoundational.
Then, once you can see andchoose, I am the beloved of God,
defining myself, then you canstart to say, okay, am I going
(32:46):
to give this to God as a gift tohim or am I going to keep this
and keep burying myself under it?
You have to choose that.
The sorrow which allows you tohave your whatever's going on
and you say you're sorry,contrition, and unite it to God,
that's redemptive sorrow.
(33:07):
But when you keep that and youkeep burying it under yourself
under it, that's calledoppressive sorrow.
This is where you getoppression right.
The devil wants you to keepbearing yourself in your sins,
but Jesus and the Holy Spiritwants you to turn away from your
(33:29):
sin, to be able to be embracedwith the love that you were made
for, not to define yourself bythe absence of that love which
you were not made for, but thatactually keeps you downtrodden.
This is where the divine mercycomes in, because if you can
give that to God, then God canpour out his mercy upon you, and
(33:53):
that's what he wants to do whenhe goes to punish the sin.
If you can separate yourselffrom the sin, then he can punish
the sin and love the sinner.
But if you stay connected to itand start defining yourself by
it, then when he goes to punishthe sin, he must also punish the
sinner.
Jesus says trust me, give meyour hand, turn around, repent,
(34:21):
and then you can take my hand,which is always right in front
of you, which is why, in thatimage of the divine mercy, you
always see Jesus.
His foot is taking a stepforward.
He's always coming towards us,even when we turn our backs on
him.
This is why his heart, thisheart of mercy, is meant for us.
(34:44):
We are not just our sins, weare people made to be embraced
by God's mercy.
So, step one do not defineyourself by your sins.
Remember you are a child of God.
Step two choose whether you aregoing to define yourself by
(35:04):
that fault, that failing, or youare going to allow it to be a
stepping stone to embrace God'smercy.
Allow it to be a stepping stoneto embrace God's mercy.
Step three you embrace God'smercy by sacramental confession
if you're Catholic, or sayingsorry, trying to turn to the new
leaf.
Then the last step is takeprudential judgments to not set
(35:30):
yourself up for failure.
Surround yourself with goodpeople that are going to
encourage you towards the loveof God, not in vice.
Make sure that the things thatyou're looking at are going to
be making you pure of heart,like the Lord, not to deceive
your heart in lust.
And then also always continueto keep telling yourself I am a
(35:54):
child of God.
God wants his mercy to bepoured out upon me, because his
mercy endures forever.
Lust does not endure forever,so go towards the mercy.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
That was beautiful, Thank you, Thank you.
You know, when you start totalk about all of those various
issues, what else should peoplelook for when they grab this
book?
I think it's important for allour listeners, but for young
people too.
Is there anything?
Look at you, just unpacked,just probably one of the most
(36:28):
important things they could do.
But what else in here if wecould touch on?
Look at, there's so much right.
We can only touch on one or twoother things.
What would you like to havepeople take away?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, I would also say like so I break in the book,
I break it down by devotion tothe Sacred Heart as well as
divine mercy, because the twoare one.
We're meant for God and God ismeant for us.
That's the big thing.
Now I would like to point outin here, I call it the four
chambers.
I call it quickly the chamberof encouragement, the chamber of
(37:00):
keep asking and this isunpacking the whole book here,
not just in the book here.
The chamber of going with thedevotions, explaining the five
devotions to the Sacred Heart,which is going to be St Fit.
So you're going to have theSolemnity.
You're going to have the 33Days Devotion, 33 Visits
(37:21):
Devotion.
You're going to have the Feastand then you're going to have
the Image as well as this great,great, great Solemnity that
we're going to do.
But then you also have the fivedevotions to the divine mercy,
which is Finch.
So you have the feast image,novena, chaplet, and then hour,
right.
So I like using mnemonics,right?
(37:43):
But in both of these, when youget this, you have this
encouragement keep going.
Then you have get going withthe devotions and then you have
mercy itself.
You put those together, you getan EKG of mercy, and that is
what the world needs.
It's going on life support andwe need to infuse it right.
(38:07):
Get that EKG where you can keepthe hearts going because people
are discouraged.
But the thing is our Lord doesnot want us.
Discouraged meaning youdistance yourself from the core.
Core meaning heart.
That's where we finddiscouragement.
We want encouragement tocontinually, each step, each
(38:28):
moment, each day, the dailybread, like you're talking about
being able to go in the heart,in the core, which is where you
find encouragement.
This book is meant to be amanual to help you to live a
life of encouragement, notdiscouragement, in other words,
(38:51):
to have peaceful hearts andzealous hearts.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Thank you.
And there's no way you can belukewarm today.
I think you know, when we'retalking to young guys, they
sense that, that they pick upthe sword and that sword is not
just charging out.
It's like you said first of all, I have to unite myself with
God.
You know, if my identity is myhave to unite myself with God.
You know, if my identity is mybrokenness, I'm in big trouble.
(39:17):
My identity has to be a son ofGod.
And what did Jesus say toSister Faustina about sin, the
worst sin?
Do you remember If you're theworst sinner of everybody?
Do you have less right or moreright to his mercy, deacon?
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Anthony, yeah, you have more right to his mercy,
and this is one of the wonderfulthings where you can see this.
This really is about the heart.
The Lord says the greater thesin, the greater.
You have a right to my mercy.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Yes, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
The Lord wants to give you his mercy.
You are not, and this is thething.
The Lord does not want us tostay broken.
He wants to make us whole,which is why, in the book of
Revelation, he even says behold,I make all things new.
If you want to put on the newman, to be a new man, to not
(40:10):
stay broken, put your heart inthe heart of Jesus and, as and
this is, I would say, one of thethings I'd like to leave the
people with like St Faustina,who had the gift of bilocation,
remember, each of us are calledto bilocation, meaning that our
(40:30):
feet and our hands are here onearth, but our hearts and minds
are always in heaven.
This is how we have to live ourlives and if you do that, by
location, you will find theencouragement and peace that you
will make.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you.
You know we forget, don't we,deacon, that you know Jesus
didn't come to manage our sins,he came with power.
And we Deacon that Jesus didn'tcome to manage our sins, he
came with power.
And the most beautiful thing,when these young guys have been
at this for a while and doingwhat you're talking about, they
go.
Oh my gosh, this is real.
This is real.
I remember myself coming backinto the church.
(41:08):
I was 38 years old and Iremember exactly sitting on the
fence Most men like to sit onthe fence, you know lukewarm
exactly where we're not supposedto be.
And I finally got to the pointwhere we're seeing right now
with this culture and it's notonly out there, we sense it in
our own hearts right, those twothings an interior, toxic thing
(41:30):
going on and an exterior thing.
And you go how do?
I get out of this mess.
And there's only one way, andit's what you're describing.
There's only one way.
You can look around forever, Ican make all the money I want, I
can build all the big plants Iwant, and that's okay.
Go out and do those things,just don't forget that you're a
child of God.
(41:50):
And then our catechism, ourCatholic Church, john Paul II,
would say go out and buildthings.
You know capitalism, we love it, but, but, but.
He would say but, but, but.
When you have everything youneed, the rest is for the poor,
the rest is for the poor.
And that changes everything.
(42:11):
I'm building this up, I'mgiving back to my employees, I'm
making sure they have a goodlife and if I have anything left
after that, I'm going to giveit away.
You know right what happens ifyou have all the treasures in
the world, jesus said, and youlose your soul.
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
And that's the big thing.
God isn't condemning.
You know, taking care of yourfamily or money or anything like
that, but when that place ofGod, that's where it becomes a
problem and that doesn't onlybecome a problem out there.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
It becomes a problem in here.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
How many divorces, how many children out of wedlock
?
How many porn addictions?
How many gambling addictions?
How many whatever?
Because of what?
Because they're not going anddoing what you said.
So this is an interior movementtoo right.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yes, exactly.
And that's one of the bigthings, because it's very easy
to kind of point outwardly andsay, oh well, hey, this is it.
But the Lord says I mean, andthis is also the divine mercy
and the sacred heart devotionsthe Lord is saying I give you my
heart so that you can look atyour heart.
He's the standard.
And I mean and this is thething many people will say, oh
(43:26):
yeah, well, this is going on.
But the Lord says what aboutyou?
What about you?
And when you stand before theLord, he's going to say look, I
offered you all of this.
What did you do with it?
And this is where we're kind oflike oh right, the interior
motives.
And the Lord doesn't do thisjust as just, even with the Holy
(43:48):
Spirit, not to condemn us, butto convict us, because the Lord
wants us at our best.
He's saying I don't want you tohave a twisted interior heart,
because I want you authenticallyhappy, I want you to have
authentic joy.
So I need to root out all thethings that are keeping you from
(44:11):
that authentic joy.
It's not a punishment, it'sbecause he wants us not to just
survive or ride the fence, butto thrive.
He wants us fully alive, fullyour hearts beating not just on
life support.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
That's where that ETG of mercy comes in and that you
know, where do we get this wildidea that this is only about
heaven?
Right, this starts now.
You know, eternity doesn't meantomorrow, does it, deacon
Anthony?
Eternity means forever.
You and I and everybodylistening, we're eternal beings.
This journey is starting righthere and you know, in a sense
(44:54):
this is a love test or a lusttest.
You know, either I become aperson of love, which means
again, I unite myself with thedivine lover and go out and
become a person of love, or Iforget about him and I try to
fill up the infinite desires ofmy heart in this finite world
and I make a mess of everything.
It's not brain surgery, reallyis it?
(45:16):
And trust me, I know this byexperience.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
okay, but it is, I mean, but I can tell you it is
the greatest operation in lifeto choose to either be loved by
God and be his instrument, orchoose to fight against God and
be the devil's instrument.
You know, that's our choices,you know.
(45:40):
So that's it we need to chooseLord.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
That's the bottom right, like you said, that's
what happened in the garden andthat has been passed down to us
all these years.
It's no more complicated, look,your life can get complex, but
the decision we all stand.
John Paul would say, you allstand in some sense at the tree
of the knowledge of good andevil.
Pick a side, my friend.
(46:03):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
And we pray that we always choose Team Jesus.
That's the big thing.
You don't want to play on thelosing team, you want to play on
the winning team.
You know that's.
That's the big thing.
You know you don't want to playon the losing team, you want to
play on the winning team.
And we know that Christ has wonthe war.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
So I mean and have some fun and do it with somebody
like Deacon Anthony.
Go out and find some disciples,some people to walk with and
talk with.
You know, like Deacon Anthony,uh, tonight I go out with a good
buddy of mine and you know wedo a lot of this apostolate
together and we're going to havea little dinner.
You know there's no more joythan sitting down with somebody
else that has that, that hasthat heart that you're speaking
(46:40):
of, and and we sharing thistogether.
It's phenomenal.
You know, how can you have anymore fun there?
You go Right Thinking Anthony.
You're such a pleasure.
Where should we buy thepeaceful hearts, zealous hearts?
I want to put it in the shownotes this is Sophia Press,
right, so we should go write toSophia Press to get this.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, Sophia Institute.
Yeah, go to Sophia Instituteand then just type in Peaceful
Hearts, Zealous Hearts It'llbring you right to it.
Yeah, I'll have a link in there.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
And then how about you?
You do a lot of writing.
If they want to read some ofthe things you did, what's your
main website?
Jmjgerardmariecom.
I got it, I got it, I got itand I know that, and I'm going
to put it in the show notes soeverybody will be able to find
it.
Hey, deacon Anthony, thank youso much.
We really appreciate it.
(47:26):
Keep up the good work, becausethere's a lot of evil out there
to battle, isn't there?
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yes, yes, yes, but let us take up the sword,
putting our trust in the Lord,knowing that he has won the
battle.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Thank you.
Would you mind giving ouraudience a blessing before we go
Sure?
Speaker 1 (47:40):
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
Dear Lord, help us to be peoplethat put our trust in you,
taking up the sword, slaying thedragons and all those things
that keep us from you and makethe world stay in darkness.
We ask for you to bless all ofus, that we will continually be
(48:00):
instruments of your grace andgoodness and, through the
intercession of our BlessedMother, as well as Saint Joseph,
protector of the Church, mayAlmighty God bless you in the
name of the Father and the Sonand the Holy Spirit, amen.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Thanks everyone.
Thanks for joining us today.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Bye-bye.
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