Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”
A profound midnight Mass experience transformed Bobby Fredericksen from a corporate party-goer to a purpose-driven Catholic father and podcaster. His conversion story reveals how encountering Christ's peace in the Eucharist altered the trajectory of his life.
"When you're in this desert, it's pretty lonely," he shares, describing how he gradually built Catholic friendships through men's groups, podcasts, and parish activities. His approach to "normalizing Catholicism" resonates particularly with men seeking authentic faith without becoming "weird" or disconnected from their identity.
Whether you're a convert seeking community, a parent wanting to strengthen your family's Catholic identity, or someone looking to integrate faith more seamlessly into daily life, Bobby's practical wisdom offers actionable insights for living "purposely Catholic" in today's world. Explore his podcasts—The Catholic Couple and Purposely Catholic—for more inspiration on normalizing and celebrating authentic Catholic living.
Read his article: Creating a Catholic Family Mission Statement: A Guide to Unity, Purpose, and Faith
Jacks Latest Blog Young Men United in the Eucharist: Heroically Rebuilding the Three Necessary Societies
Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's hard to explain to people on the outside, you
know, but it was that encounterthat I felt like I was won over,
like I knew I was his and hegave me so many graces from the
very beginning, like theEucharist, like I knew that I
knew that was Jesus.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh, I just got goosebumps man.
I played Catholic football forone year.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
played Catholic football for one year.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And, like St Lucia, fatima, you know, the last
visionary, really the mainvisionary of Fatima, meaning
she's the one that lived to anolder age, you know she only
died in 2005, same year JohnPaul did, and she wrote a letter
to Cardinal Kofara and JohnPaul and she said the last great
battle that we're in right now,in essence, is going to be over
marriage and the family, andwe're seeing that.
(00:44):
So let's talk about what yougot going there, because it's so
important for us to nurturethese.
We're leaving these kids,aren't we in a vacuum, bobby?
In just so many ways right now.
It really bothers my heart.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We didn't want to leave it to chance of that.
Our kids are going to get notonly a great education but,
which the most important thing,was getting our kids to heaven
and having that.
You know that, that core ofhaving Jesus at the center of
school, exodus.
And what happens?
You know, god frees theIsraelites and they go into the
desert and right away.
What do they want?
They want to go back to slaverybecause that's what they're
(01:19):
used to.
And as a convert, I left theslavery of sin and all these bad
habits, but I hadn't yetcultivated the promised land,
the friends, the people to help.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a
production of the John Paul IIRenewal Center.
I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
You know, in our turbulenttimes and our culture, it's easy
to forget that marriage andfamily lives.
This is actually our mission onearth, especially as men.
As such, Catholic YouTuber andpodcaster Bobby Fredrickson
shares his lived advice on howto purposely keep your mission
(02:04):
of faith at the forefront ofyour family and on your mind,
Bobby, welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Thanks for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, I want to dig in a little bit to your bio
because I find it interesting,so I'm sure our audience will
too.
You're a convert to Catholicism, experienced a miraculous
conversion over 15 years agoafter attending Midnight mass,
an encounter that foreverchanged your life.
Bobby co-hosts the CatholicCouple podcast and the Purposely
Catholic podcast.
Bobby is happily married for 15years and a father to two great
(02:36):
kids.
He also leads a men's group, aBible study, a connect group.
His mission is to inspireothers through his down-to-earth
approach to Catholic living andnormalizing Catholicism.
That's a lot to do, brother.
Right before we came on, youwere talking about a book you're
reading to try to slow down man, In a way you have to right.
(02:58):
We have to get into silence, wehave to get into some time to
take a little break and allowourselves to be filled up.
On the other hand, as I getolder, Bobby, I feel this
urgency.
Man, you know, we see what'sgoing on in the culture, huh?
So tell us a little bit abouthow you see the culture.
Maybe you could touch on thatconversion story at some point.
(03:18):
You know, maybe right off thebat wouldn't hurt.
And then we want to dig intowhy creating a family mission is
more important than ever intoday's fast-paced culture.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, well, thanks for having me.
That's a great introduction.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, it's funny that we justhad the gospel from this last
Sunday, which was thisjuxtaposition between Martha and
Mary, that it's an either-orbut it's a both, and it's just
that we are called to be likeMary but still have to do the
Martha stuff.
(03:49):
We have to first, though, sitat the feet of Jesus, so that we
know how to prioritize our timeand how to put that into place.
So Katie and I just did anepisode all about that, because,
as Americans, as we get older,we start to feel that urgency.
Well, we only got so much timewe got to get all this stuff
done.
But, rushing through our dailylives, we miss those
opportunities when people wantto interrupt us, like our kids
(04:12):
or somebody who needs help orsomebody who just wants to talk
to you, and we're like, well, no, I have to go on to this next
thing.
So, for me, this wholeconversion thing really changed
my perspective on what thatlooks like.
I was all you know.
I was working in corporateAmerica, working seven to seven,
Monday to Friday.
Like didn't get to even eatlunch at my desk.
I was just running, running,running, running until I
(04:34):
eventually like just conked outreally living a life of sin and
alcohol and all the things thatgo with the you know that white
collar culture.
And I was dating my now wife,who's actually it's gonna be 15
years Wednesday.
We'll be married 15 years.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Congratulations, man yeah thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So we started dating and there was something about
her that was different than allthe girls I've dated up to that
time and I didn't know exactlywhat it was.
It turns out she was Catholic.
She was going to mass.
She wasn't really taking herfaith that serious, but she
still made mass a priority.
And she just invited me tomidnight mass and I was kind of
(05:14):
like, well, I'm not reallyinterested in that.
But then she goes.
Well, we usually go out, have adrink afterwards.
I'm like okay.
So you know, she kind of hookedme a little bit there and I
walked into.
Her parish at the time was wherewe're from, calumet City, st
Andrew the Apostle.
It was just a beautiful oldstyle cathedral church and it
was midnight mass.
The lights were down, the choirwas singing.
(05:34):
So beautiful, everything wasdecorated so beautiful.
So it was like the beauty.
When I first walked in I waslike whoa, I've never seen a
church like that.
So the beauty really helped, Ithink the conversion experience.
And at that point in my life Ihad lost my job, lost my house,
I had lost my hair, like I wasgoing through a stressful time.
I don't know why my wife waseven interested in me when we
(05:55):
were dating.
She saw something in me I didn'tsee in myself, and she invited
me, I accepted and I justremember being at that mass and
I said you know, lord, if you'rereal, let me know, I'm open,
I'm open to it, I'm you know, Imade all these problems on my
own.
I can't fix them.
I've tried.
It's not working.
I'm at the bottom.
(06:16):
If you're real, show me.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And how old are you, bobby?
At this point I'm well, I'm 45now.
That was like 17 years ago,yeah.
So you know, early 30s, yeah, Ilived a wild 20s, 20, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So I was living wild.
I was a fraternity guy, I justkept it going.
I kept the party going aftercollege and didn't stop
bartended, bounced, and then Istarted working corporate
America, but I just never sloweddown as far as the partying and
, like I said, it all camecrumbling down.
I went to mass and I literallyI did.
At the time I didn't know whatthe Holy spirit was and I just
(06:52):
remember feeling the sense ofpeace, the sense of love.
That was something that I neverexperienced.
I mean, I come from a good homeand things like that, but it
wasn't like this.
I felt this peace in my souland when I walked out of there I
just turned to my girlfriend atthe time, now my wife and I
said I think I want to comeevery Sunday.
I'm like I didn't know whatthis was and she was like what
(07:12):
and I haven't missed since.
So I've been going.
I went to the RCA program andthen, through a great teacher in
RCIA, I had somebody who wasvery knowledgeable and we had a
smaller class and he tookinterest in me and then he gave
me a couple of CDs of fatherCarapi and he kind of spoke to
me as being somebody who waswayward, so I.
So after that I just startedgobbling up everything as far as
(07:34):
Catholicism reading podcasts,youtubes, and then got involved
with our pastor and startedgetting us, asking us to get
involved, and then he sent ussent me and a couple other guys
to lay leadership at Mundeleinto go through the program and St
Xavier's, and then I wentthrough that and then just
everything after that just keptgoing.
The more I got to know Jesus,the more I wanted to get to know
(07:57):
him more and I wanted to shareit with other people.
Once I heard what a discipleactually was, I'm like I want to
be one of those.
You know I've been working eversince.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Wow, that's a beautiful story, man.
You know, I was writing thismorning, bobby, and in it I
referenced Matthew 7, and it'sverse 13, 14, 15, and Jesus
talks about most people are onthis broad, you know.
They go through the broad gate,they're on this broad road.
Really, that leads todestruction, to nowhere, and how
(08:29):
many of us could tell thatstory man.
And then he invites us to thenarrow gate and you go.
You know what is that?
Well, you experienced that.
And the important thing is, andI think especially, we have a
lot of young people.
So, bob, I'll just give you alittle background on this.
Right, see the sword behind me.
That's a big Claymore sword.
So we have an apostle for youngmen especially, called Claymore
(08:51):
, Miletus Christi, soldiers forChrist, and that's the big sword
that William Wallace andBraveheart made popular, you
know, and it's fighting thatbattlefield of the heart, right?
So then you go through thisnarrow gate and they encounter
this.
What you're explaining is anencounter, man, you know, like
the world gives you peace.
It's like the absence of, maybe, war.
(09:15):
That's peace to us, you know,but the peace you're describing
is the peace only Christ cangive us.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
It's.
It's hard to explain to peopleon the outside you know, but
it's.
It was that encounter that Ifelt like I was won over, like I
knew I was his and he gave meso many graces from the very
beginning, like the Eucharist,like I.
I knew that, I knew that wasJesus.
Ooh, I just got goosebumps, man,yeah, I played Catholic
(09:43):
football for one year and likethey're like you got to go to
CCD class.
I went to one class and then Inever showed up again, but I was
still able to play football.
So I was just trying to playfootball.
But I went to one mass and Ididn't know what was going on
and I went up and received theEucharist.
So I had no idea what it was.
No one told me, I just followeveryone, no one was really
paying attention.
So I'm like okay, so then fastforward after I actually was
(10:05):
getting ready to be acceptedinto the church and receive my
first communion and, uh, but myfirst confession.
Of all the bad things I did,which were many, the one thing
that really bothered me was that, because I knew that that was
Jesus from the very beginningand I knew that I received that
unworthily and I just didn'ttake it serious and that really
bothered me and I that was justa grace that God gave me from
(10:27):
the very beginning, that I knewthat was his body, blood, soul
and divinity and, um, it's been,you know, essential to this
continual conversion that I haveso much.
So where you know, now the lastfive years I've been going to
daily mass that like I feel whenI'm not receiving, like I'm
open to temptation, I'm open tolike I need more Jesus in my
life.
I had such a bad past for solong.
(10:49):
It's like one Sunday a month, aweek wasn't enough.
You know, it's like it startedfirst, just like on Wednesdays
in the middle of the week tokind of help me out.
But the more I stay tied to himin the Eucharist, the better
off I do as far as living outthe faith.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, but you know you're explaining so much there
and I just want to pause for acouple because we've got a lot
of young guys especially joiningus, right.
So this podcast will go out toeverybody, but we have this
apostle.
It's very inspiring when yousee these young guys, they're
looking for something more.
They don't know what it is andyou're describing what that is.
(11:23):
You know, over my shoulder Idon't know if you could see it,
but it's the image of divinemercy and you know you see the
blood and the water coming outof Christ.
And I did the same thing youdid.
When I came back into thechurch, I went to receive the
Eucharist.
Well, I forgot about the whitepart.
You know, that's that nuptialbath, brother.
You got to go to a confession,get baptized I'm getting ready
(11:45):
for the wedding feast, right andthen you can go receive the
Eucharist, and that's what weexperience.
It's really something to see.
So thank you, man, for sharingthat right.
So it sounds like you can't stop, bobby.
You've got a lot of thingsgoing, man, so tell us a little
bit about, really, this familymission.
I want to talk about thisbecause St Lucia of Fatima, the
(12:12):
last visionary, really the mainvisionary of Fatima, meaning
she's the one that lived to anolder age.
You know she only died in 2005,same year John Paul did, and
she wrote a letter to CardinalKofar and John Paul and she said
the last great battle thatwe're in right now, in essence,
is going to be over marriage andthe family, and we're seeing
that.
So let's talk about what yougot going there, because it's so
(12:32):
important for us to nurturethese.
We're leaving these kids,aren't we in a vacuum, bobby?
In just so many ways right now,it really bothers my heart.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, once I became a father, you know, it definitely
changed everything.
It's something within us Ithink once you lock eyes with
your child it's like this senseof responsibility, protection,
fighting, it just kind of comesnatural.
It's those other things thathave to be nurtured like you
know how to be compassionate,how to listen.
You know those other things,the fighting and those kinds of
(13:04):
things.
Protector, you know, providingthose kinds of come natural.
I've been working a lot at that, trying to, you know.
You know, do with Jesus, themodel of being a lion and a lamb
like the lion can cut for usmen, comes a little bit easier.
The lamb is the hard part andhow to, how to surrender our,
our own, our own wills, and howto sacrifice well and to put
(13:26):
ourselves last.
So I've been working on thosethings.
But for having a partner like mywife who's taking her faith
very serious.
So when I converted she reallystarted taking her faith more
serious.
And now she went and got twomasters.
She's got one, well, almost twomasters.
She's got a couple classes andshe's going to finish her
catechesis and evangelizationmasters, but she's also went and
(13:48):
got a master's inadministration.
She's now Catholic schoolprincipal, so she's the
principal at our kids school.
So it's like bringing you knowwe're like we didn't want to
leave it to chance of that.
Our kids are going to get notonly a great education but,
which the most important thing,was getting our kids to heaven
and having that, you know, thatthat core of having Jesus at the
(14:09):
center of school.
So my wife, she takes our kidsto school every day and she's
leading them that way.
So I'm looking to what, what canI do?
You know I work, I'm a truckdriver, I work for the city.
So, other than, you know, goingto work, providing doing those
things, I try to offer up my day, pray for them.
I start my day with Mass, thengo there and do my prayers, do
the rosary, do the Divine Mercy,every day.
(14:31):
But I'm still thinking thatthere's some more things that I
need to do.
So our parish is on fire.
It's like—.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I know that parish, it is on fire.
Yeah, st John the Evangelist.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
It's wall to wall.
It's people who are serious,young families too.
Bobby right, young families.
Yeah, my wife's school is atcapacity.
There's a waiting list.
There's over 500 kids in herschool when she started it was
about 350.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Wow, what a blessing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You know.
But what I always telleverybody, the secret behind
that whole place is that there'sa perpetual adoration chapel
that's been there for 25 years.
Amen In the parking lot of theschool in between the day chapel
, so it's there every time I getto go pick up my kids.
Hey, let's go say hi to Jesus,you got 10 minutes, let's go.
So, leading by example in ourlives, not being too busy to be
able to do those things, to beable to do those things.
(15:23):
But what really started tochange our marriage and the
ministry that I was doing wasstarting to share the faith with
other people, trying to explainwhy I and for myself to
understand why do I believe whatI believe.
Like a lot of Catholics haven'ttaken the time to say, well, I
believe this and this is what Ibelieve, and being able to talk
it out.
So my wife and I started runningAlpha at our old parish.
We did that for six years,where you know it's the
(15:44):
evangelization program.
We're trying to get people toget closer to Jesus, and then
there's an awesome retreat and aHoly Spirit retreat.
So we were leading those.
So then we came to St John theEvangelist during COVID and then
we just jumped in.
They already had Alpha goingthere.
So we just came in asparticipants just to meet people
at the new parish and then fromthere we started what the
(16:07):
parish calls connect groups.
So for the last two years we'vebeen meeting with 25, 30 people
twice a month where, for ourgroup, it's all parents and
people who have kids.
So our kids come, so we gettogether for fellowship and a
meal, then somebody gives a talk, then we have small groups,
then we do praise and worshipand then we pray with each other
.
It's like an hour and a half totwo hours, but our kids get to
(16:30):
come there.
They get to see what you know,how important Jesus is to come
together with us.
So leading by example has beenvery important to our kids to
see that, hey, jesus isn't justsomething we do an hour on
Sundays.
This is, our life is builtaround this, and so we've been
enjoying that.
We got one this Friday.
It's like we've become reallyclose.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Are you doing this in the church, Bobby, or at home?
We do it in each other's homes.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So we started Alpha it started, you know, in the
church, and then after that,alpha is just the first letter.
It it's the beginning.
So, like people always wantmore, like how do we get to
continue to grow in our faith?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
yeah, so are you.
Are you running this connectprogram right on the back of
alpha is, is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
yeah, that's how purposely like that yeah, that's
how we do it.
First, because alpha, you knowit's, it's an easy program, it's
it's basicallynon-denominational, but it's got
a lot of catholicism in it.
But it's basic, like I alwayssay, evangelization for dummies,
basically it's just goingthrough the basics of our faith.
Is there more to life than this?
Who's Jesus?
Why did he die?
(17:30):
How can I have faith?
And helping to create spacewhere people can openly have
questions, and then eventuallywe get into, like the catechism.
Then we get.
The first step is hey, havethis encounter with Jesus, have
this, you know, through theretreat of the Holy Spirit
weekend, where people are, theyfeel comfortable with the people
that you're around, that theyopen themselves up.
(17:50):
Then God does all the work.
It's not the program, it's notme, it's not the other people,
but getting to a place wherepeople feel safe, heard and
where they can trust, to wherethey let down their guard so the
Holy Spirit can come in and dothat work.
And I've seen lives changed.
And after people's lives arechanged they want to know what's
next.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Connect groups.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Now we have, I think, 11 connect groups going on
throughout the parish and wemeet twice a month, from young
adults to older people and we'rekind of in between.
We got the you know, the 40year olds 30 to like 50 in that
range and most of us have kidsand, like I said, we get to get
together.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You need that when you get together at specific
times.
You need those common bonds.
You know, that's that commonbond of okay, we have these kids
now.
Now we see what the culture.
You wake up, don't you?
You say, ooh, I got to dobetter, man, I got to do better.
(18:44):
Because the culture is justripping these poor kids, their
hearts and their heads.
They're stealing theirinnocence is what they're.
You know, the culture stealingtheir innocence, it obliterates
their moral imaginations, rightand, and it's reduced this
beauty of love, right, this,this Eros, this love that you
had when you, when you saw yourwife, right, and your wife saw
you, kind of in that first time,and you feel that spark, you
know, and uh, that spark, youknow, and it wants to steal our
innocence, it wants to take thatbeauty of that away and reduce
(19:06):
love down to feeling and thendown to sex, you know, and we
sabotage this.
This is why what you're doingand what you're talking about is
so important.
Now, when you're working, youknow, and you're doing these
podcasts and stuff, how doesthis all fit in together with
those things, with all the otherthings that you're doing?
I'm trying to get a big picture, man, because you're doing a
lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
We've been doing the catholic couple for four years.
It started during covid, so wehad a bunch of time then to do
it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So this is your podcast, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
this is catholic couple.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
The catholic couple, my wife and I, so we can look up
the catholic couple and find itright.
Yeah, yeah, we're on YouTube,we're on Spotify.
Apple.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
We've done over, I don't know like 120 episodes,
125 episodes.
But we started during COVIDbecause we didn't have a whole
lot of stuff to do.
But my wife was going throughthis master's program, I was
reading all these Catholic booksand there wasn't a whole lot of
(20:05):
people that we can talk toabout things that are a little
bit deeper than sports, theweather, those kinds of things.
So we were having thoseconversations with each other.
So we said, hey, why don't weinvite other people into this
conversation?
It's kind of moreconversational.
And then we, you know itstarted to, you know, evolve.
Then it's like, okay, we'regoing to focus on some marriage
things, focus on some familythings.
We do liturgical things,whatever's going on, like this
last one we did about Martha andMary, because we were thinking
about it, because of the gospel.
So a lot of it is led by theHoly spirit.
So we do that once a week.
(20:26):
It's very tough sometimes and,I won't lie, the devil does try
to get between.
Anytime my wife and I are doinganything productive for the
Lord, the devil wants to come inand try to create division and
we are very busy.
My wife's a principal.
Her job she's working.
Right now she's at school doingstuff.
It's like it never ends.
So for her to add more thingsonto her plate makes it hard, so
(20:48):
it is a sacrifice.
But once we sit down and turnon the camera and do it like
afterwards like like it wasgreat.
But it's that fact of gettingthere which is hard, but we see
the fruit from it.
We're very active on socialmedia and Instagram and TikTok,
so we do a lot of our apostolatethere.
So we do that once a week.
But then I also do PurposelyCatholic, which is with Khalil.
(21:12):
He's our pastoral associate ofadministration, so he's
basically runs the parish, allthe things that father you know.
So father can do the sacramentsand do those kinds of things.
So he's leading the leadershipteam.
He sets all the things for thewhole parish and, like I said,
our parish has so many thingsgoing on from you know a school,
you know the chapel, the bigchurch, and we're attached to
(21:34):
the Shrine of Christ Passion,which is beautiful, so there's
always something going on.
So we do a weekly podcast andour parish has a studio.
That's an old garage house thatthe parish owns.
We turn it into a studio.
So we do a weekly podcast thereBeautiful yeah.
And more of that is more gearedtowards men's stuff.
You know like things are goingon.
You know we'll we do talk aboutsome current event type stuff,
(21:55):
what's going on in the news, totry to look at it through our
lens of our Catholic faith.
But we also do a lot of stuffof hey, what's it like to be a
father, discipleship and Khalil.
He did six years in a seminary,studied in Rome at the NAC, and
he discerned out right at thevery end.
So he's very knowledgeable andwe have great conversations.
We get along great.
So trying to fit all this init's a lot.
(22:17):
And then I also run a men'sgroup that we meet twice a month
at 7 am in the morning, whichis like my favorite thing to do.
I love to work out and likecoming out of COVID I'm like
people just wanted to getoutside.
So I'm like, well, you know,there's only so much small
groups and talking about ourfeelings and our faith and stuff
, which is great.
But sometimes men just want toget outside.
(22:38):
So we get out 7 am, we meet atthe park, we have some
fellowship, we do some prayer.
Then you know, we have ourintentions, we offer those up
and then somebody runs a workoutusually me or one of the other
co-leaders and then we have agood workout for a half hour 40
minutes and then, like I said,we had that perpetual adoration
chapel, no-transcript or, youknow, 9 o'clock at night when
(23:12):
everyone's going to bed.
So we're doing that twice amonth and you know we've been
doing that for a few years andthe fruit that's coming from
that is, you know, iron,sharpens iron.
The guys are leaning on eachother when you know, hey, you
know a guy in our group wasadopting a son and trying to
help that out, and you knowanother one's, you know,
struggling with with, you know abreakup, and one's struggling
(23:32):
with these kind of stuff.
Does it yeah when you're thereto to help lean on each other
and help that out.
It's busy.
But you know, like mar, likeMartha and Mary, when Mary sits
at the feet of Jesus she's ableto see what's important and how
to do that.
So when you're busy and youhave all these things going on,
that's when you need prayer more, because God will help give you
that lens of well this thingneeds to go away, this thing's
(23:55):
very important and give you thatgrace to help to try to get it
all done, but do it well.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, see, this is what I, when we have these young
guys and and and look at, it'snot only young guys we, we we
speak to to engage couples,married retreats.
I do parish missions, bobby,all the way from Anchorage,
alaska, down to South Carolina,three-day parish missions and
stuff.
So we're talking to all kindsof people.
But it really inspires me whenthese young guys that don't
(24:23):
really know what they're lookingfor, but they're looking for
something more.
Here's someone, someone witness, like you're doing right now,
because it's real.
It's real.
You know, when I'm looking fordirection, when I start to open
up my heart, when I start topray and get some direction,
it's really real.
But of course, that's when thetemptations come, don't they,
brother?
And I think that's not onlywhere the sacraments and prayer
come in, but that's where thiscommunity that you're talking
(24:46):
about come in, because I knowBobby's going to be watching me,
man, and if I fall, it's notjust me falling right, it's all
my buddies, all my friends thatare counting on me and vice
versa, you know so.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, it was tough for me as a convert and you know
I'm reminded of the story ofthe Israelites when they get out
of slavery.
We're reading that today atmass about Exodus and what
happens.
You know, god frees theIsraelites and they go into the
desert and right away, what dothey want?
They want to go back to slaverybecause that's what they're
used to.
And as a convert, I left theslavery of sin and all these bad
(25:22):
habits, but I hadn't yetcultivated the promised land,
the friends, the people to helpguide me, mentor me to help me
to get there.
And so what happens is that whenyou're in this desert, it's
pretty lonely, it's tough, andthat's what I felt in my
spiritual life, especially atour old parish.
It was mostly elderly people.
There wasn't really a whole lotof people to have groups with,
(25:43):
which we did make some groups ofpeople, but it's different when
there's people you know closerto my age, who are active and
want to do things like that.
Being at our new parish, it wasjust like, you know, making
these connections with otherpeople that are taking their
faith very serious.
And you know, I had to create agroup of people that I wanted
to help cultivate.
You know this men's workoutgroup.
(26:03):
We call it Ascent because we'reon this journey to, you know,
to, to, to climb, but it's veryhard.
So if you're listening andwatching right now and you feel
like, hey, I want a group ofthose people, it's like, well,
sometimes, number one, you gotto pray for it.
Say God, I want a group offriends who are going to, you
know, strengthen me, to help me.
You know, in this tough timesin the desert, because it takes
(26:23):
sophistication to kind of get tothe promised land, it's hard
because we want to go back towhat's easy, what we know.
And when you have thatconversion, when you've been won
over and had that encounterwith Christ, you have to be
built up.
You know, I like the focus.
Uh, their, their motto is win,build, send.
So you got it.
You got won over by Christ, youhad this encounter, but it's
easy to fall back down to whatit was like before.
(26:46):
You were one.
So you have to be built up.
You can't do it on your own.
It's like we you're a, you knowyou heard the saying that
you're the average of the fivepeople you spend the most time
with.
So you still hanging aroundwith your knucklehead friends
who are doing knucklehead things.
You're going to do those kindsof things.
But if you find some godlypeople who are, you know, true
friends, who are chasing afterthe Lord, that philia, that
(27:07):
brotherly love that you're bothchasing, you know, virtue, or
lucky enough to have a group ofpeople that that's going to help
you persevere in those deserttimes, so that you can, you know
, run together, you know,towards Christ.
And it's tough.
I mean, it was just me and mywife.
Basically that's how we had thepodcast, and it took a while,
but I was praying for it everyday.
Lord, bring me some men who arechasing after your own heart,
(27:28):
Like, bring me some men who arelike me, who, you know, want to
normalize Catholicism.
We don't have to be in thechurch every day, but like, hey,
they're there, they like to gohiking, they like to work out,
they like to, you know, have funand still have a beer with your
friends.
But the difference of goinghome early and not getting
blackout drunk or going to, youknow, see movies that are
(27:50):
inappropriate, things like that,where we have some common
things but but we don't have tobe weird.
You know, that was my wholething.
It's like I didn't want to losewho I am.
I don't want to be weird.
Now, all of a sudden, you knowI wanted to be myself, but be
authentically the best version Icould be, that whose God was
calling me to be.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and you know so many young people.
When we're talking to them theyget this idea this is a Puritan
ethic.
You know, catholicism is notPuritan brother.
You know what, when you freeyourself all of a sudden, you
walk into the awe and wonder notonly the awe and wonder of
being outside and really seeingthe stars, and really seeing the
stars and start to reflect on,ooh, you know, I didn't create
(28:26):
this universe, man.
You know I didn't write thislarger story.
You know amazing amount ofpride, right, that guys will
come into the story and, youknow, fall for this moral
relativism, right, there is notruth, only my truth and your
truth, et cetera, et cetera, andhave so much pride that they
don't just sit back and go.
Man, there's a lot going onhere.
(28:46):
I don't understand it all, butI want to walk into the story.
That's what you're describing,to walk into the story and then
you start to see, say, for men,you start to see women
differently, you really start tosee.
It's very important Now.
You know I do a lot of podcastsand a lot of talks on eros.
You know this great eroticdesire, but Plato would call it.
(29:07):
It's not just sensual, it's adesire for all that's true, good
and beautiful.
And here's the point he knewthe ancient Greeks, 400 years
before Jesus, knew that therewas that spark, was a divine
spark.
So when I see the woman right,I was just describing to some
guys I was in Costco and comingdown the aisle and I'm no spring
(29:28):
chicken anymore, right, and Ilook up and and and oh man, this
girl was just so beautifulcoming at me, right.
But now I know better.
I say thank you, jesus, for thebeauty of that woman, thank you
for letting me feel that divinespark within me again.
I pray with her and for her atthe same time, and so it lifts
(29:48):
me up.
When I lift her up and man,things open up, man, I get
goosebumps just thinking aboutit, bobby Well that's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
That's not going to go away.
Those things aren't going to goaway.
But how we think about those, Idon't want it to go away.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
See if you know, if you know that God's calling you
into that divine story throughthe beauty, awe and beauty of
nature, through women, throughour sexuality, you know, through
everything that you experiencegreat books, great people, great
friends then you don't want itto go away.
I just want to make sure that,like you said you know I'm
shooting at the stars, I don't.
(30:24):
You know, it's like a rocket.
You know, if you get thatrocket going the wrong way, you
implode, but if it's starting togo the right way, man, it'll
take you all kinds of places.
This is the adventure thatwe're talking about here.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, I love the St Irenaeus line that the glory of
God is man fully alive.
And he wants us to be full oflife.
He gave us those desires, butthey need to be ordered well,
thank you.
Towards our wives, towards God,towards the true beauty, but not
to be used, but to sacrificefor it.
That's what love in our faithmeans is to sacrifice for it,
(30:57):
not to use it or abuse it or tolust after it, but to hold it up
.
You know, the level of oursociety is going to be based on
how we hold up women and havinga daughter.
Now it just totally changedeverything.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So tell me about the kids.
So you have a boy and a girl.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, a 12-year-old girl going into seventh grade
and my son who's going to be infourth grade, and they're so
different.
You know, and as a dad, I'm oneof four boys.
I grew up with two brothersthat are cops and you know my
brother that that that was inand out of jail and then you had
me in the middle.
But you know, mma fighters likewe're, we're, we're a crazy
(31:33):
bunch of dudes, you know.
So having a girl like my mom'stough as nails she's four 11,
but she's like she's tough.
So having a girl is like awhole new world for me.
So I'm learning on how it's sodifferent and for me, having
that has changed my perspectiveon women in general, the way not
just I look at her but my wifeand all women in general,
(31:54):
knowing that everybody issomeone's daughter and made in
God's image, that we're there tohold up that virtue.
But I think a lot of it whatyou're hitting on, that it's
important to step outsidesometimes and especially getting
out into the stars or going toadoration and being disconnected
(32:16):
from God's plan of Sundays,having that Sabbath day, that
rest where that's meant for us,to take a step back from the
busyness of our lives so that wecan put those things in
perspective.
Like, yeah, mass is important,but after that, like
consecrating that day to familyor, you know, to doing these
mini retreats or doing thosethings, or when you get, you
know, the chance to actually getout.
(32:38):
We just got back from SouthDakota.
We went to the Badlands andMount Rushmore and it just
really has changed myperspective.
Coming back, we're already likeplanning our next trip with the
kids.
It was like no screens.
We were just in God's beautifulcountry, like hiking with the
kids and just seeing them comealive in nature, and you know,
we climb some of these high,these high mountains.
(32:59):
We get up to the top and justto see the pride and how hard
they worked and how they got upthere, and then just that grace
that God gave me to look down atthem like man.
This is what it's all about,like seeing all this immense
beauty that he created.
But what it's all for, it'slike we're we're built to know
him and he's trying to show methis is me, and then we're
called to love him and then lovemy kids well and give them
(33:19):
these experiences.
But it takes intentionality tostep out of our busyness of that
day-to-day stuff and then wecan help get that perspective
and that gratitude of thosethings that we're trying to do.
It's just so easy to get caughtup in get up, go to work, pay
the bills, come home, pick upthe kids.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh man, and look at Bobby.
I think that's what most peopleare doing.
You know you integrate and tryto integrate the faith into a
mission statement that guidesdaily life, and so we're talking
about building up the domesticchurch here and building up a
mission statement.
Like you said, it has to beintentional, because fly by the
(33:56):
seat of your pants, raising kidsdoes not.
If it ever worked, it certainlydoesn't work today with the
phones and the social media, theculture, the problems that we
see in the public school systems, bringing these national sex ed
standards and stuff right intoour schools, right?
So we have to be intentional.
So talk about that a little bit.
We're going to ask you to joinus by helping us get the word
(34:20):
out.
So, if you can make sure yousubscribe and then hit like, no
matter which platform you're on,remember that the Become who
you Are podcast is on audio onany music or podcast app.
We're up on Rumble YouTube.
You can find us on X.
When you do subscribe, hit thelike button.
(34:40):
A couple things to share withpeople Love Ed, love Ed is just
such an important apostolate.
So it's within our apostolatethe John Paul II Renewal Center.
This helps parents give thetalk to their children.
We're trying to push back onall these gender ideologies and
the porn culture and give thechildren the truth and do it
(35:02):
through their parents, and wehelp them do that.
The other one is is is reallytaken off to.
It's claymore militants,christy soldiers for christ.
That's where you see the swordbehind me, that's the big sword.
That's our logo for claymore,that's a claymore sword.
And this is for young people,especially young men.
Gen z high school all the waythrough, let's call it till
(35:24):
they're 30 years old or so.
They're starting to reallyunderstand that something
nefarious, very toxic, is goingon in the culture, and so
they're stepping into the churchand we're discipling them.
So we want to help get the wordout about those things and,
lastly, consider financiallysupporting us.
Everything's in the show noteshey, god bless you.
(35:44):
Thanks again.
We'll be right back to today'sshow.
You know I was poking around alittle bit and you're talking
about your faith into a missionstatement, some of the key steps
to crafting a meaningfulmemorial family mission
statement.
So we're talking about thosethings already, but you're even
being more intentional.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
More intentional.
Yeah Well, like I said, ourother podcast is purposely
Catholic, like we have to beliving a life on purpose and if
we don't, then we just getwhatever comes our way.
It's like we didn't help.
You know, God says ask, youreceive, knock, the door's going
to be open.
So if you don't ask, if youdon't set it up, it'll never
happen.
Then you're just going to getwhatever the culture is going to
throw to your your way.
(36:31):
So my wife had this idea of hey, let's film a podcast about
creating a mission statement,but let's record it live on the
fly, involve our kids andobviously the Holy spirit.
We used a truthfully kids huh.
Yeah, yeah, we did a wholeepisode with the kids and it
turned out better than I thoughtbecause we were doing.
We had like a battle cry, likea family motto that we had for a
long time, which was hard work,pays off.
(36:51):
So anytime things were goinghard, whatever, I'd just go hey,
hard work, and the kids wouldbe like pays off.
It was kind of like one of thosethings but it's a very
important thing in our family isthis growth mindset.
We shouldn't be praising likehey, you're so beautiful, you're
so smart.
When you do that with the kids,when things do get hard,
(37:13):
they'll shut down.
So when we praise their hardwork, then when things fail,
like okay, this is anotheropportunity to learn, or things
like that.
So that was our, our motto.
But I'm like, okay, well,something's missing.
Jesus is missing out of thisequation.
So my wife and I we had theidea like we need to make a
mission statement, like ourparish has one, her school has
(37:34):
one, all the businesses have one, anyone who, who is, you know,
they have a vision and then theyhave a mission statement.
So we did a podcast.
We sat down as a family, wedidn't have a script and and
both of the kids, it's prettygutsy actually.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, and I guess you could always get rid of it if
it didn't work out, but it'sstill pretty gutsy right.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Let's just do this thing, and I've done a podcast
with each one of themindividually on different topics
, and they did pretty well.
So I'm like okay, so we did one, my daughter did one on angels,
and I forgot what my son did.
But they're comfortable,they're not shy, so it worked
out.
So.
So the first step for us waswhat are?
So we had our motto hard workpays off.
(38:14):
I'm like, okay, so what aresome of our values that we, as
Catholics, you know, hold, holdin high esteem?
So we had started having thisconversation.
Like you know, obviously, wepray every day together as a
family.
We go to mass every Sunday, youknow.
We, we try to help people, wework hard, we do these kinds of
things.
So we had a list of all thesevalues of you know, but the
(38:36):
trick was is to involve the kids.
You don't have to record it andput it on YouTube, but when you
incorporate them into theprocess, then it makes more
buy-in.
That isn't like, hey, well, dadmade this thing.
Therefore, we're going to do it.
But yeah, but you know, whenyou have that connection with
them and have some input into it, then they feel ownership in it
(38:57):
.
So it was.
It was also a, you know a familybuilding, you know conversation
of connection and you knowtrying to unify the family.
So so we did that.
So you want to have some values, you know make a list of
different things, see what'simportant to you as a family,
and we have.
You know, the catechism tellsus the purpose of life is to
know love, serve God and toserve others.
(39:18):
So we know that there should besomething close to that.
You know, to know God and tolove, love him, serve the poor,
all those kinds of things andthen create some actions to go
with it.
Because if we just have astatement and don't have any
actions to make it work, thenyou know it's just going to be a
bumper sticker or somethingthat just flies away Without
(39:38):
action, bobby.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Without action it doesn't work.
You know, I think about that.
This is John Paul's teachingright, just exactly what you
said, though.
A body and a soul right.
Without this grace and withoutaction, the default position is
just sin and death.
I mean, that's just the reality.
If I just live on the surfaceof this life, get blown away,
let the spirit of the age takeme, this is what you fall into
(40:00):
sin, but certainly you're goingto die, and you better start to
think about that right Now.
A body and a soul open, likeyou're talking about, to grace,
right to receive the Holy Spirit, to receive grace, to receive
the Eucharist, etc.
Now I have the potential forhuman flourishing, I have the
potential for human freedom, butnow I have to act.
John Paul would say you have toact, and he would say this to
(40:22):
young people Say, young people,you know that your life has
meaning to the extent that it'sgiven away to others, to your
point.
And when you walk in, you knowthis is what we're supposed to
do.
This is from Genesis 1, right,go forward, multiply, form
families, right, and then go outuntil the garden.
You know, go out, go out, goout, go out.
You know we people will ask mesometime, bobby, like where is
(40:46):
God?
You know I don't see him, bobby.
I said, dude, you're supposedto be the visible reality of
love in the world.
You are supposed to bring itinto the world.
This is why we're created, youknow.
God says, hey, I'm creating youto bring my divine love into
the world.
So you do it, and so we see itin each other.
Right, mother Teresa talkedabout this all the time.
(41:07):
She saw Christ in others.
So I'm just reiterating thepoint that you're making and
action and that's for anybodylistening.
Right, I have to act, whateverthat is.
That could be just getting onmy knees and praying.
Today they could be visitingthe poor down the street.
Whatever, I got to do something, man, I got to start to step in
.
And then you start to see it.
You become part of this process, right?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
And the mission statement, we get the word
missio.
Mass is means we're sent.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So this is our being sent.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
The focus model is win, build, send.
So you got to have thatencounter.
Then you got to be have someformation.
You got to know what to do onceyou get out, so you're writing
down.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Let's just say people are listening to this, so you
got to.
You know, if I, if I'm going totake out a piece of paper at
home, do I invite the kids thenaround the table and I say, hey
guys, just thinking about you,know some things.
You hold important some valuessome, some things that what's
important to us as a family,what are?
Speaker 1 (42:02):
the things to do, you know, and you may have sports,
you may have school, you mayhave study, reading, whatever
the.
What are the things we hold up?
You know, taking care of thepoor.
We like to serve, we like to to.
You know to pray the rosary,whatever the things are.
Everyone's going to beindividual, have their own
unique thing.
So brainstorming about it, okay.
Then the second step is okay.
(42:22):
So then how are we going to putthat into action?
And then you got to bring itall together.
So for us, as a family we cameup with as a Catholic family, we
love God by praying daily,working hard and loving others.
And I, my wife and I I reallyliked loving others harder, but
(42:42):
we ended up going with justloving others.
You know, like work hard butlove others harder.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
But we, so actually yeah, so then we, so then I love
it.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
We put it up on a a banner that my wife made on her
cricket.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So keep that there for a second.
So our family mission state welove God by praying daily,
working hard and loving othersand and hold it up just a little
bit more.
So there you go.
So you got three hearts on it.
It looks like you got thesacred heart of Jesus.
You got the sword.
We got the sword here in theback.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
The mother and the St Joseph's heart.
So you got the three hearts and, as a reminder, the Holy Family
gives us that mission.
What does it look like?
So, first and foremost, we praydaily, not just individually.
We come together every night topray together as a family, and
that's a non-negotiable Even ifit's hey, we're just going to
say to our father, you know,we're on the road or we don't
have time to sit there and praya rosary together.
(43:33):
That we are coming together,that we have intentions, we lift
each other up, we pray overeach other, we pray with each
other, which, as Catholics, wedo a bad job of.
Not just praying prayers, butpraying Like that's important,
to say our rosaries and divinemercy, I say them every day.
Those are important.
But having that ongoingconversation and relationship
(43:54):
with God as it's going, that,practicing the presence of God,
inviting him into everythingthat we do, that's not just
something on Sundays, butespecially like, hey, you know
God, what do you want me to do?
Lord, guide me, whatever thatmay be.
So praying daily as a familyimportant, working hard is very
important.
You know, we want to be thebest version of ourselves.
(44:16):
I really like St Francis deSales.
He tells us.
You know, everything can beturned into a prayer.
We just got to ask God to bewith us.
Then we offer it up.
Then we have to accept whatevercomes.
But when we ask God intowhatever that is, we offer it up
.
We can't do it half.
You know, halfway we do.
We offer things to God.
(44:36):
We got to give him our best, wegot to give him our first fruit
.
So if I, you know, I like towork out, so before I work out
I'll say God, be with me in thisworkout, keep me safe.
I want to offer this workoutfor my wife, for the Pope or
whatever it may be, so then Ican't do half reps and like be
just.
You know, I got to be focused,I got to give them my best and
that's then I accept.
Hey, however, it went after thatand, yeah, sometimes you know
(44:57):
we're not going to get theresults we want all the time,
but at least knowing that Iworked hard, I put that effort
in there, and that we are calledto love others, which you know
is Catholics, that isn't afeeling.
We know that love is associatedwith sacrifice.
So how are we going tosacrifice for others, the poor,
each other, for God you know,for our workplaces or whatever
it is that we need to do.
So, trying to incorporate thatin what, like I said, my wife
(45:19):
put that on a cricket and that'son our door as we're coming in
and out of the house, so we'rereminded of it every single day
when we make decisions as afamily.
Does that go to our missionstatement?
Are we thinking about thosethings?
Are we putting that in theforefront?
Because it's really easy, onceyou do make a family mission
statement, to let it go by thewayside, like so many companies
and places have them.
They're just slogans, nobodyknows anymore.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, no one knows it , because they're not living
them out.
You're describing living themout, though, yes and you have to
continually remind them becausethey'll forget.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
they're kids, you know, and I got to remind myself
, just like anything it's like,so don't make it too long and
make it something where it'sgoing to be memorable.
You can't have a wholeparagraph and do this and blah
blah blah.
You want to make it kind ofshort.
If you go to the article we didon CatholicExchangecom, I'm
(46:10):
sure you can share the link andhas a laid out of the details on
how to do it.
We use Truthly AI it's aCatholic AI to help them like
hey, give us like some framework.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I didn't know there was a Catholic AI.
Yeah, actually.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I got to know the founder.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
What's it called?
It's called Truthly.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
T-R-U-T-L-Y.
We actually are the CEO and thefounder of the company who's
actually coming on our podcasttomorrow.
I met him at SEEK in Utah, butthey started this AI.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But it runs it through the lens of our Catholic
faith and helps teach you thefaith, how to pray, but it's
giving you.
You know, it's approved by thechurch and I know Matt Frads
he's co-founder of it and PaulKim, yeah.
Yeah, you know AI is not goingaway.
So how do we use it in the lens, just like Google and YouTube?
It's like now we use thesetechnologies for the good and we
want something that's going totake it not through the secular
(47:03):
culture, but it's going to runwhatever we're trying to do
through the lens of our Catholicfaith.
So I found it to be helpful,especially when it comes to
podcasting or YouTube or thingsabout the faith.
So we've been using that highlyrecommended.
So you said like hey, help uscome up with some ideas on some
values.
We like to do this and do thisand it can really help you in
the process.
But mostly it's just havingthat conversation and getting it
(47:26):
out there to see like, hey,what do we hold highest in our
family, what is most important?
And if it's not God first, thenwe need to do some re-event,
you know, some re-configurations, you know, but then trying to
see okay, we don't have to lieLike we, we should make it
what's you know, closest to whatour values are and what we hold
.
You know, and it's going to bedifferent, like there's people
(47:46):
who are more focused on servingthe poor.
Some people are more focused onthe rosary or whatever that may
be, craft it to where it'ssomething that's going to be
something to suit you and yourfamily, and you know, then you
can also like distill it downinto like a battle cry, Like you
know we did.
The hard work pays off.
Our parish uses one that's likeeverybody knows.
In the parish it's be discipleswho make disciples, and then
(48:09):
everybody knows it.
So you can also then distill itdown into just a couple words,
just as like a battle cry.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I love it, brother.
So if we start to wind downhere, don't leave until we make
sure that you got my info so youcan send me your links.
Right, Because we want to getthe links in the show notes.
So what's the rest of the daylook like for you and can you
unwind?
You got that A personalitygoing.
(48:35):
Can you unwind enough just torelax a little bit today?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Absolutely not.
No, my day's been.
I go to 4.30 every morning I goto daily.
I start my day with prayer inLectio Divina, in scripture, go
to 6 am mass.
So we went to mass this morning, prayed the rosary.
I did two other shows thismorning.
I went live on the IowaCatholic Radio and then Catholic
Faith Network and I did thatand then after this I'm going to
(49:01):
the gym, I'm going to yeah,beautiful.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
So what does a workout look like?
The workout Cardio and weights,or what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Cardio.
I do the cardio and weights, orwhat are you?
What are you doing?
Cardio, I do like, well, I'lldo some walking, probably, since
I'm off today, it'll be like a,a vacation kind of workout.
I'll hit, uh today's, uh, someshoulders and traps and the
weights and then I'll do someincline walking and then 20
minutes in the sauna, which Idon't get to do much when I'm
off.
I got extra time which is likeit's like a prayer place.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
I love, love it.
When we're talking to youngguys.
You know there's so many ofthem are struggling with porn
and all this kind of stuff.
Right, and what we'redescribing when you do the
physical too, and especially ifyou go in there prayerfully you
know it's amazing how you canrelax.
You know, look as goofy as thissounds and don't tell my
(49:50):
neighbors about this, but I gota gym set up downstairs.
I love to ride a bicycle.
Right, I'm a martial artist,love to ride a bicycle.
But I go downstairs sometimes Ijust put on some good music and
I got the weights in my handand I'm just warming up and I
start dancing down there.
I just feel a joy.
I almost like, just like ooh.
It's almost like a spirituallike ooh, just loosen up and
(50:10):
move, and there's somethingpowerful about that movement.
Anyways, my point is you got tokeep your body in shape too,
man.
If you let your body go, thenyou let your mind go and you get
into porn, you get into allthis stuff.
Of course, you know you can bein great shape and still let
your spiritual side go too.
But my point is you got to bebalanced, man.
You got to be doing all of thisstuff as men.
I think you know.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah, I think it's.
I think when we train ourbodies, we also are learning how
to train our souls.
It's like our spiritual musclesand our physical muscles are
very similar.
It's like, well, if you don't,you know, do the things that
help build those up you, if youdon't use it, you lose it.
You know, I love the StAugustine who says you know,
treat your body like you'regoing to live forever and treat
your soul like you're going todie tomorrow.
(50:51):
It's like, you know, as we getolder, it gets harder and you
know, I've had back surgery, Ihave all these things.
So I I have to work out and forme, you know, you know I've
been in over 50 fistfights in mylife, like that was my life
before I became Catholic.
So I still have this aggressivenature and for me, when I hit
the weights, it's a way for meto decompress, to get that
(51:12):
aggression out, to challengemyself, you know, to set those
goals.
Like, hey, I want to benchpress this and I want to try to
do that.
But I built a gym at my work.
So usually I work out at workand I got, you know, like five
or six guys I helped train thereand then we work out together.
But before I start, I got aboard and on it it says I got
the whole thing filled.
None of them are Catholic, butI have a huge school school size
(51:34):
board.
I got a huge gym at work that Ibuilt over the years over 10
years and the whole board isfilled with quotes.
I got the our father in Latin.
I got Matthew seven, which youwere quoting.
I got that up there.
I got Psalm 51.
I got a space that says thisworkout is offered for and it's
underlined every day I write adifferent name there, so like
I'm able to to turn that in.
And then, uh, I made this shirt, if you can see it.
(51:56):
It says it says five, that's tengo ahead five sets, ten reps,
which is the rosary doing fivesets of ten, hail mary's, so
it's like isn't that beautifulso talking to men in the ways
that they know is.
You know that's what we do.
Where can I get a shirt likethat?
We actually are.
They're not up.
I got a box here.
We're just getting them up onour website,
(52:18):
purposelycatholiccom.
They should be up there.
Hopefully in the next week orso.
We're going to have them upthere.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Okay, when that's ready, I'm getting one of those
or a couple of those I'm gonnapass.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, we brought them to the the c conference and
they sold out like in, like oneday, because the men who see
that like once they feel likewhoa, five sets of ten, like
that's how we talk in the gym,like what kind of work love that
what better than five sets often?
you know, hail mary's, that'show we we talk about the rosary
and you know, for me, theworkout is a prayer.
You, like I said, when you askGod to be with you and you offer
(52:52):
it up.
Anything we do, like StBenedict teaches us ora et
labora prayer and work, foldinglaundry or walking the dog,
working out, whatever we'redoing can be turned into a
prayer.
It doesn't have to be in achurch, but it's that
intentionality, that beingpurposely to be able to offer
that up and to invite God intoanything we're doing it and then
(53:12):
do it well, and then thatitself can be a prayer,
especially when we're busy,especially when you got jobs
that are.
You know that you may not belike my job is not something I
chose to want to do, but ithelps provide for my family.
I got great benefits andinsurance and it is a sacrifice.
But what changed for me in thatis that I learned how to turn
it into a prayer and be gratefulfor the job that I have, those
(53:35):
things, instead of looking atall the things that I don't have
or what I want to do andturning that into, you know, a
prayer and trying to find a waythroughout the day to do one
good deed for somebody out ofthe ordinary and try to
transform the mundane intosomething sacred.
And it doesn't have to be in achurch.
That could be through our lives, it could be working out, that
could be, you know, walking.
It could be anything if we'redoing it for the right reasons
(53:56):
and asking God, inviting Himinto it, just like St Benedict
taught us.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Bobby, you're an inspiring guy, man, I'm glad I
met you.
But here's what's inspiring youcan take right your everyday,
what people are doing, what anyman listening to this, any woman
listening to this, can start tofold some of those things into
their daily life and make adifference, not only in their
own life.
When you go out and you'redoing those things, sharing
(54:21):
those things with the guys atwork on the board, you become a
better person.
John Paul would say when youstart to do those small good
things, you become good, I amgood.
Or or I start to do theselittle evil things, you know,
and over time I become evil, Iam evil.
You know.
You wonder how these crazypoliticians got to the point
(54:44):
where they're so twisted anddistorted.
Well, slowly, you know, andthen all of a sudden, boom,
you're there and what you'redoing is you're unwinding that
man.
You're unwinding the evil inthe world, you're bringing good
in the world and this is veryinspiring.
So good stuff, man.
Hey, thank you for the workyou're doing.
God bless you, bobby.
Thank you so much for your time, man.
(55:04):
Hey, thank you everyone.
Thanks for joining us today.
Talk to you again soon.
Bye-bye, thank you so much.
It's hard to explain to people on the outside, you
know, but it was that encounterthat I felt like I was won over,
like I knew I was his and hegave me so many graces from the
very beginning, like theEucharist, like I knew that I
knew that was Jesus.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh, I just got goosebumps man.
I played Catholic football forone year.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
played Catholic football for one year.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And, like St Lucia, fatima, you know, the last
visionary, really the mainvisionary of Fatima, meaning
she's the one that lived to anolder age, you know she only
died in 2005, same year JohnPaul did, and she wrote a letter
to Cardinal Kofara and JohnPaul and she said the last great
battle that we're in right now,in essence, is going to be over
marriage and the family, andwe're seeing that.
(00:44):
So let's talk about what yougot going there, because it's so
important for us to nurturethese.
We're leaving these kids,aren't we in a vacuum, bobby?
In just so many ways right now.
It really bothers my heart.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
We didn't want to leave it to chance of that.
Our kids are going to get notonly a great education but,
which the most important thing,was getting our kids to heaven
and having that.
You know that, that core ofhaving Jesus at the center of
school, exodus.
And what happens?
You know, god frees theIsraelites and they go into the
desert and right away.
What do they want?
They want to go back to slaverybecause that's what they're
(01:19):
used to.
And as a convert, I left theslavery of sin and all these bad
habits, but I hadn't yetcultivated the promised land,
the friends, the people to help.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a
production of the John Paul IIRenewal Center.
I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
You know, in our turbulenttimes and our culture, it's easy
to forget that marriage andfamily lives.
This is actually our mission onearth, especially as men.
As such, Catholic YouTuber andpodcaster Bobby Fredrickson
shares his lived advice on howto purposely keep your mission
(02:04):
of faith at the forefront ofyour family and on your mind,
Bobby, welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Thanks for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, I want to dig in a little bit to your bio
because I find it interesting,so I'm sure our audience will
too.
You're a convert to Catholicism, experienced a miraculous
conversion over 15 years agoafter attending Midnight mass,
an encounter that foreverchanged your life.
Bobby co-hosts the CatholicCouple podcast and the Purposely
Catholic podcast.
Bobby is happily married for 15years and a father to two great
(02:36):
kids.
He also leads a men's group, aBible study, a connect group.
His mission is to inspireothers through his down-to-earth
approach to Catholic living andnormalizing Catholicism.
That's a lot to do, brother.
Right before we came on, youwere talking about a book you're
reading to try to slow down man, In a way you have to right.
(02:58):
We have to get into silence, wehave to get into some time to
take a little break and allowourselves to be filled up.
On the other hand, as I getolder, Bobby, I feel this
urgency.
Man, you know, we see what'sgoing on in the culture, huh?
So tell us a little bit abouthow you see the culture.
Maybe you could touch on thatconversion story at some point.
(03:18):
You know, maybe right off thebat wouldn't hurt.
And then we want to dig intowhy creating a family mission is
more important than ever intoday's fast-paced culture.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, well, thanks for having me.
That's a great introduction.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, it's funny that we justhad the gospel from this last
Sunday, which was thisjuxtaposition between Martha and
Mary, that it's an either-orbut it's a both, and it's just
that we are called to be likeMary but still have to do the
Martha stuff.
(03:49):
We have to first, though, sitat the feet of Jesus, so that we
know how to prioritize our timeand how to put that into place.
So Katie and I just did anepisode all about that, because,
as Americans, as we get older,we start to feel that urgency.
Well, we only got so much timewe got to get all this stuff
done.
But, rushing through our dailylives, we miss those
opportunities when people wantto interrupt us, like our kids
(04:12):
or somebody who needs help orsomebody who just wants to talk
to you, and we're like, well, no, I have to go on to this next
thing.
So, for me, this wholeconversion thing really changed
my perspective on what thatlooks like.
I was all you know.
I was working in corporateAmerica, working seven to seven,
Monday to Friday.
Like didn't get to even eatlunch at my desk.
I was just running, running,running, running until I
(04:34):
eventually like just conked outreally living a life of sin and
alcohol and all the things thatgo with the you know that white
collar culture.
And I was dating my now wife,who's actually it's gonna be 15
years Wednesday.
We'll be married 15 years.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Congratulations, man yeah thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So we started dating and there was something about
her that was different than allthe girls I've dated up to that
time and I didn't know exactlywhat it was.
It turns out she was Catholic.
She was going to mass.
She wasn't really taking herfaith that serious, but she
still made mass a priority.
And she just invited me tomidnight mass and I was kind of
(05:14):
like, well, I'm not reallyinterested in that.
But then she goes.
Well, we usually go out, have adrink afterwards.
I'm like okay.
So you know, she kind of hookedme a little bit there and I
walked into.
Her parish at the time was wherewe're from, calumet City, st
Andrew the Apostle.
It was just a beautiful oldstyle cathedral church and it
was midnight mass.
The lights were down, the choirwas singing.
(05:34):
So beautiful, everything wasdecorated so beautiful.
So it was like the beauty.
When I first walked in I waslike whoa, I've never seen a
church like that.
So the beauty really helped, Ithink the conversion experience.
And at that point in my life Ihad lost my job, lost my house,
I had lost my hair, like I wasgoing through a stressful time.
I don't know why my wife waseven interested in me when we
(05:55):
were dating.
She saw something in me I didn'tsee in myself, and she invited
me, I accepted and I justremember being at that mass and
I said you know, lord, if you'rereal, let me know, I'm open,
I'm open to it, I'm you know, Imade all these problems on my
own.
I can't fix them.
I've tried.
It's not working.
I'm at the bottom.
(06:16):
If you're real, show me.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And how old are you, bobby?
At this point I'm well, I'm 45now.
That was like 17 years ago,yeah.
So you know, early 30s, yeah, Ilived a wild 20s, 20, yeah,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So I was living wild.
I was a fraternity guy, I justkept it going.
I kept the party going aftercollege and didn't stop
bartended, bounced, and then Istarted working corporate
America, but I just never sloweddown as far as the partying and
, like I said, it all camecrumbling down.
I went to mass and I literallyI did.
At the time I didn't know whatthe Holy spirit was and I just
(06:52):
remember feeling the sense ofpeace, the sense of love.
That was something that I neverexperienced.
I mean, I come from a good homeand things like that, but it
wasn't like this.
I felt this peace in my souland when I walked out of there I
just turned to my girlfriend atthe time, now my wife and I
said I think I want to comeevery Sunday.
I'm like I didn't know whatthis was and she was like what
(07:12):
and I haven't missed since.
So I've been going.
I went to the RCA program andthen, through a great teacher in
RCIA, I had somebody who wasvery knowledgeable and we had a
smaller class and he tookinterest in me and then he gave
me a couple of CDs of fatherCarapi and he kind of spoke to
me as being somebody who waswayward, so I.
So after that I just startedgobbling up everything as far as
(07:34):
Catholicism reading podcasts,youtubes, and then got involved
with our pastor and startedgetting us, asking us to get
involved, and then he sent ussent me and a couple other guys
to lay leadership at Mundeleinto go through the program and St
Xavier's, and then I wentthrough that and then just
everything after that just keptgoing.
The more I got to know Jesus,the more I wanted to get to know
(07:57):
him more and I wanted to shareit with other people.
Once I heard what a discipleactually was, I'm like I want to
be one of those.
You know I've been working eversince.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Wow, that's a beautiful story, man.
You know, I was writing thismorning, bobby, and in it I
referenced Matthew 7, and it'sverse 13, 14, 15, and Jesus
talks about most people are onthis broad, you know.
They go through the broad gate,they're on this broad road.
Really, that leads todestruction, to nowhere, and how
(08:29):
many of us could tell thatstory man.
And then he invites us to thenarrow gate and you go.
You know what is that?
Well, you experienced that.
And the important thing is, andI think especially, we have a
lot of young people.
So, bob, I'll just give you alittle background on this.
Right, see the sword behind me.
That's a big Claymore sword.
So we have an apostle for youngmen especially, called Claymore
(08:51):
, Miletus Christi, soldiers forChrist, and that's the big sword
that William Wallace andBraveheart made popular, you
know, and it's fighting thatbattlefield of the heart, right?
So then you go through thisnarrow gate and they encounter
this.
What you're explaining is anencounter, man, you know, like
the world gives you peace.
It's like the absence of, maybe, war.
(09:15):
That's peace to us, you know,but the peace you're describing
is the peace only Christ cangive us.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
It's.
It's hard to explain to peopleon the outside you know, but
it's.
It was that encounter that Ifelt like I was won over, like I
knew I was his and he gave meso many graces from the very
beginning, like the Eucharist,like I.
I knew that, I knew that wasJesus.
Ooh, I just got goosebumps, man,yeah, I played Catholic
(09:43):
football for one year and likethey're like you got to go to
CCD class.
I went to one class and then Inever showed up again, but I was
still able to play football.
So I was just trying to playfootball.
But I went to one mass and Ididn't know what was going on
and I went up and received theEucharist.
So I had no idea what it was.
No one told me, I just followeveryone, no one was really
paying attention.
So I'm like okay, so then fastforward after I actually was
(10:05):
getting ready to be acceptedinto the church and receive my
first communion and, uh, but myfirst confession.
Of all the bad things I did,which were many, the one thing
that really bothered me was that, because I knew that that was
Jesus from the very beginningand I knew that I received that
unworthily and I just didn'ttake it serious and that really
bothered me and I that was justa grace that God gave me from
(10:27):
the very beginning, that I knewthat was his body, blood, soul
and divinity and, um, it's been,you know, essential to this
continual conversion that I haveso much.
So where you know, now the lastfive years I've been going to
daily mass that like I feel whenI'm not receiving, like I'm
open to temptation, I'm open tolike I need more Jesus in my
life.
I had such a bad past for solong.
(10:49):
It's like one Sunday a month, aweek wasn't enough.
You know, it's like it startedfirst, just like on Wednesdays
in the middle of the week tokind of help me out.
But the more I stay tied to himin the Eucharist, the better
off I do as far as living outthe faith.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, but you know you're explaining so much there
and I just want to pause for acouple because we've got a lot
of young guys especially joiningus, right.
So this podcast will go out toeverybody, but we have this
apostle.
It's very inspiring when yousee these young guys, they're
looking for something more.
They don't know what it is andyou're describing what that is.
(11:23):
You know, over my shoulder Idon't know if you could see it,
but it's the image of divinemercy and you know you see the
blood and the water coming outof Christ.
And I did the same thing youdid.
When I came back into thechurch, I went to receive the
Eucharist.
Well, I forgot about the whitepart.
You know, that's that nuptialbath, brother.
You got to go to a confession,get baptized I'm getting ready
(11:45):
for the wedding feast, right andthen you can go receive the
Eucharist, and that's what weexperience.
It's really something to see.
So thank you, man, for sharingthat right.
So it sounds like you can't stop, bobby.
You've got a lot of thingsgoing, man, so tell us a little
bit about, really, this familymission.
I want to talk about thisbecause St Lucia of Fatima, the
(12:12):
last visionary, really the mainvisionary of Fatima, meaning
she's the one that lived to anolder age.
You know she only died in 2005,same year John Paul did, and
she wrote a letter to CardinalKofar and John Paul and she said
the last great battle thatwe're in right now, in essence,
is going to be over marriage andthe family, and we're seeing
that.
So let's talk about what yougot going there, because it's so
(12:32):
important for us to nurturethese.
We're leaving these kids,aren't we in a vacuum, bobby?
In just so many ways right now,it really bothers my heart.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, once I became a father, you know, it definitely
changed everything.
It's something within us Ithink once you lock eyes with
your child it's like this senseof responsibility, protection,
fighting, it just kind of comesnatural.
It's those other things thathave to be nurtured like you
know how to be compassionate,how to listen.
You know those other things,the fighting and those kinds of
(13:04):
things.
Protector, you know, providingthose kinds of come natural.
I've been working a lot at that, trying to, you know.
You know, do with Jesus, themodel of being a lion and a lamb
like the lion can cut for usmen, comes a little bit easier.
The lamb is the hard part andhow to, how to surrender our,
our own, our own wills, and howto sacrifice well and to put
(13:26):
ourselves last.
So I've been working on thosethings.
But for having a partner like mywife who's taking her faith
very serious.
So when I converted she reallystarted taking her faith more
serious.
And now she went and got twomasters.
She's got one, well, almost twomasters.
She's got a couple classes andshe's going to finish her
catechesis and evangelizationmasters, but she's also went and
(13:48):
got a master's inadministration.
She's now Catholic schoolprincipal, so she's the
principal at our kids school.
So it's like bringing you knowwe're like we didn't want to
leave it to chance of that.
Our kids are going to get notonly a great education but,
which the most important thing,was getting our kids to heaven
and having that, you know, thatthat core of having Jesus at the
(14:09):
center of school.
So my wife, she takes our kidsto school every day and she's
leading them that way.
So I'm looking to what, what canI do?
You know I work, I'm a truckdriver, I work for the city.
So, other than, you know, goingto work, providing doing those
things, I try to offer up my day, pray for them.
I start my day with Mass, thengo there and do my prayers, do
the rosary, do the Divine Mercy,every day.
(14:31):
But I'm still thinking thatthere's some more things that I
need to do.
So our parish is on fire.
It's like—.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I know that parish, it is on fire.
Yeah, st John the Evangelist.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
It's wall to wall.
It's people who are serious,young families too.
Bobby right, young families.
Yeah, my wife's school is atcapacity.
There's a waiting list.
There's over 500 kids in herschool when she started it was
about 350.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Wow, what a blessing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You know.
But what I always telleverybody, the secret behind
that whole place is that there'sa perpetual adoration chapel
that's been there for 25 years.
Amen In the parking lot of theschool in between the day chapel
, so it's there every time I getto go pick up my kids.
Hey, let's go say hi to Jesus,you got 10 minutes, let's go.
So, leading by example in ourlives, not being too busy to be
able to do those things, to beable to do those things.
(15:23):
But what really started tochange our marriage and the
ministry that I was doing wasstarting to share the faith with
other people, trying to explainwhy I and for myself to
understand why do I believe whatI believe.
Like a lot of Catholics haven'ttaken the time to say, well, I
believe this and this is what Ibelieve, and being able to talk
it out.
So my wife and I started runningAlpha at our old parish.
We did that for six years,where you know it's the
(15:44):
evangelization program.
We're trying to get people toget closer to Jesus, and then
there's an awesome retreat and aHoly Spirit retreat.
So we were leading those.
So then we came to St John theEvangelist during COVID and then
we just jumped in.
They already had Alpha goingthere.
So we just came in asparticipants just to meet people
at the new parish and then fromthere we started what the
(16:07):
parish calls connect groups.
So for the last two years we'vebeen meeting with 25, 30 people
twice a month where, for ourgroup, it's all parents and
people who have kids.
So our kids come, so we gettogether for fellowship and a
meal, then somebody gives a talk, then we have small groups,
then we do praise and worshipand then we pray with each other
.
It's like an hour and a half totwo hours, but our kids get to
(16:30):
come there.
They get to see what you know,how important Jesus is to come
together with us.
So leading by example has beenvery important to our kids to
see that, hey, jesus isn't justsomething we do an hour on
Sundays.
This is, our life is builtaround this, and so we've been
enjoying that.
We got one this Friday.
It's like we've become reallyclose.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Are you doing this in the church, Bobby, or at home?
We do it in each other's homes.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So we started Alpha it started, you know, in the
church, and then after that,alpha is just the first letter.
It it's the beginning.
So, like people always wantmore, like how do we get to
continue to grow in our faith?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
yeah, so are you.
Are you running this connectprogram right on the back of
alpha is, is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
yeah, that's how purposely like that yeah, that's
how we do it.
First, because alpha, you knowit's, it's an easy program, it's
it's basicallynon-denominational, but it's got
a lot of catholicism in it.
But it's basic, like I alwayssay, evangelization for dummies,
basically it's just goingthrough the basics of our faith.
Is there more to life than this?
Who's Jesus?
Why did he die?
(17:30):
How can I have faith?
And helping to create spacewhere people can openly have
questions, and then eventuallywe get into, like the catechism.
Then we get.
The first step is hey, havethis encounter with Jesus, have
this, you know, through theretreat of the Holy Spirit
weekend, where people are, theyfeel comfortable with the people
that you're around, that theyopen themselves up.
(17:50):
Then God does all the work.
It's not the program, it's notme, it's not the other people,
but getting to a place wherepeople feel safe, heard and
where they can trust, to wherethey let down their guard so the
Holy Spirit can come in and dothat work.
And I've seen lives changed.
And after people's lives arechanged they want to know what's
next.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Connect groups.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Now we have, I think, 11 connect groups going on
throughout the parish and wemeet twice a month, from young
adults to older people and we'rekind of in between.
We got the you know, the 40year olds 30 to like 50 in that
range and most of us have kidsand, like I said, we get to get
together.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You need that when you get together at specific
times.
You need those common bonds.
You know, that's that commonbond of okay, we have these kids
now.
Now we see what the culture.
You wake up, don't you?
You say, ooh, I got to dobetter, man, I got to do better.
(18:44):
Because the culture is justripping these poor kids, their
hearts and their heads.
They're stealing theirinnocence is what they're.
You know, the culture stealingtheir innocence, it obliterates
their moral imaginations, rightand, and it's reduced this
beauty of love, right, this,this Eros, this love that you
had when you, when you saw yourwife, right, and your wife saw
you, kind of in that first time,and you feel that spark, you
know, and uh, that spark, youknow, and it wants to steal our
innocence, it wants to take thatbeauty of that away and reduce
(19:06):
love down to feeling and thendown to sex, you know, and we
sabotage this.
This is why what you're doingand what you're talking about is
so important.
Now, when you're working, youknow, and you're doing these
podcasts and stuff, how doesthis all fit in together with
those things, with all the otherthings that you're doing?
I'm trying to get a big picture, man, because you're doing a
lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
We've been doing the catholic couple for four years.
It started during covid, so wehad a bunch of time then to do
it.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So this is your podcast, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
this is catholic couple.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
The catholic couple, my wife and I, so we can look up
the catholic couple and find itright.
Yeah, yeah, we're on YouTube,we're on Spotify.
Apple.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
We've done over, I don't know like 120 episodes,
125 episodes.
But we started during COVIDbecause we didn't have a whole
lot of stuff to do.
But my wife was going throughthis master's program, I was
reading all these Catholic booksand there wasn't a whole lot of
(20:05):
people that we can talk toabout things that are a little
bit deeper than sports, theweather, those kinds of things.
So we were having thoseconversations with each other.
So we said, hey, why don't weinvite other people into this
conversation?
It's kind of moreconversational.
And then we, you know itstarted to, you know, evolve.
Then it's like, okay, we'regoing to focus on some marriage
things, focus on some familythings.
We do liturgical things,whatever's going on, like this
last one we did about Martha andMary, because we were thinking
about it, because of the gospel.
So a lot of it is led by theHoly spirit.
So we do that once a week.
(20:26):
It's very tough sometimes and,I won't lie, the devil does try
to get between.
Anytime my wife and I are doinganything productive for the
Lord, the devil wants to come inand try to create division and
we are very busy.
My wife's a principal.
Her job she's working.
Right now she's at school doingstuff.
It's like it never ends.
So for her to add more thingsonto her plate makes it hard, so
(20:48):
it is a sacrifice.
But once we sit down and turnon the camera and do it like
afterwards like like it wasgreat.
But it's that fact of gettingthere which is hard, but we see
the fruit from it.
We're very active on socialmedia and Instagram and TikTok,
so we do a lot of our apostolatethere.
So we do that once a week.
But then I also do PurposelyCatholic, which is with Khalil.
(21:12):
He's our pastoral associate ofadministration, so he's
basically runs the parish, allthe things that father you know.
So father can do the sacramentsand do those kinds of things.
So he's leading the leadershipteam.
He sets all the things for thewhole parish and, like I said,
our parish has so many thingsgoing on from you know a school,
you know the chapel, the bigchurch, and we're attached to
(21:34):
the Shrine of Christ Passion,which is beautiful, so there's
always something going on.
So we do a weekly podcast andour parish has a studio.
That's an old garage house thatthe parish owns.
We turn it into a studio.
So we do a weekly podcast thereBeautiful yeah.
And more of that is more gearedtowards men's stuff.
You know like things are goingon.
You know we'll we do talk aboutsome current event type stuff,
(21:55):
what's going on in the news, totry to look at it through our
lens of our Catholic faith.
But we also do a lot of stuffof hey, what's it like to be a
father, discipleship and Khalil.
He did six years in a seminary,studied in Rome at the NAC, and
he discerned out right at thevery end.
So he's very knowledgeable andwe have great conversations.
We get along great.
So trying to fit all this init's a lot.
(22:17):
And then I also run a men'sgroup that we meet twice a month
at 7 am in the morning, whichis like my favorite thing to do.
I love to work out and likecoming out of COVID I'm like
people just wanted to getoutside.
So I'm like, well, you know,there's only so much small
groups and talking about ourfeelings and our faith and stuff
, which is great.
But sometimes men just want toget outside.
(22:38):
So we get out 7 am, we meet atthe park, we have some
fellowship, we do some prayer.
Then you know, we have ourintentions, we offer those up
and then somebody runs a workoutusually me or one of the other
co-leaders and then we have agood workout for a half hour 40
minutes and then, like I said,we had that perpetual adoration
chapel, no-transcript or, youknow, 9 o'clock at night when
(23:12):
everyone's going to bed.
So we're doing that twice amonth and you know we've been
doing that for a few years andthe fruit that's coming from
that is, you know, iron,sharpens iron.
The guys are leaning on eachother when you know, hey, you
know a guy in our group wasadopting a son and trying to
help that out, and you knowanother one's, you know,
struggling with with, you know abreakup, and one's struggling
(23:32):
with these kind of stuff.
Does it yeah when you're thereto to help lean on each other
and help that out.
It's busy.
But you know, like mar, likeMartha and Mary, when Mary sits
at the feet of Jesus she's ableto see what's important and how
to do that.
So when you're busy and youhave all these things going on,
that's when you need prayer more, because God will help give you
that lens of well this thingneeds to go away, this thing's
(23:55):
very important and give you thatgrace to help to try to get it
all done, but do it well.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, see, this is what I, when we have these young
guys and and and look at, it'snot only young guys we, we we
speak to to engage couples,married retreats.
I do parish missions, bobby,all the way from Anchorage,
alaska, down to South Carolina,three-day parish missions and
stuff.
So we're talking to all kindsof people.
But it really inspires me whenthese young guys that don't
(24:23):
really know what they're lookingfor, but they're looking for
something more.
Here's someone, someone witness, like you're doing right now,
because it's real.
It's real.
You know, when I'm looking fordirection, when I start to open
up my heart, when I start topray and get some direction,
it's really real.
But of course, that's when thetemptations come, don't they,
brother?
And I think that's not onlywhere the sacraments and prayer
come in, but that's where thiscommunity that you're talking
(24:46):
about come in, because I knowBobby's going to be watching me,
man, and if I fall, it's notjust me falling right, it's all
my buddies, all my friends thatare counting on me and vice
versa, you know so.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, it was tough for me as a convert and you know
I'm reminded of the story ofthe Israelites when they get out
of slavery.
We're reading that today atmass about Exodus and what
happens.
You know, god frees theIsraelites and they go into the
desert and right away, what dothey want?
They want to go back to slaverybecause that's what they're
used to.
And as a convert, I left theslavery of sin and all these bad
(25:22):
habits, but I hadn't yetcultivated the promised land,
the friends, the people to helpguide me, mentor me to help me
to get there.
And so what happens is that whenyou're in this desert, it's
pretty lonely, it's tough, andthat's what I felt in my
spiritual life, especially atour old parish.
It was mostly elderly people.
There wasn't really a whole lotof people to have groups with,
(25:43):
which we did make some groups ofpeople, but it's different when
there's people you know closerto my age, who are active and
want to do things like that.
Being at our new parish, it wasjust like, you know, making
these connections with otherpeople that are taking their
faith very serious.
And you know, I had to create agroup of people that I wanted
to help cultivate.
You know this men's workoutgroup.
(26:03):
We call it Ascent because we'reon this journey to, you know,
to, to, to climb, but it's veryhard.
So if you're listening andwatching right now and you feel
like, hey, I want a group ofthose people, it's like, well,
sometimes, number one, you gotto pray for it.
Say God, I want a group offriends who are going to, you
know, strengthen me, to help me.
You know, in this tough timesin the desert, because it takes
(26:23):
sophistication to kind of get tothe promised land, it's hard
because we want to go back towhat's easy, what we know.
And when you have thatconversion, when you've been won
over and had that encounterwith Christ, you have to be
built up.
You know, I like the focus.
Uh, their, their motto is win,build, send.
So you got it.
You got won over by Christ, youhad this encounter, but it's
easy to fall back down to whatit was like before.
(26:46):
You were one.
So you have to be built up.
You can't do it on your own.
It's like we you're a, you knowyou heard the saying that
you're the average of the fivepeople you spend the most time
with.
So you still hanging aroundwith your knucklehead friends
who are doing knucklehead things.
You're going to do those kindsof things.
But if you find some godlypeople who are, you know, true
friends, who are chasing afterthe Lord, that philia, that
(27:07):
brotherly love that you're bothchasing, you know, virtue, or
lucky enough to have a group ofpeople that that's going to help
you persevere in those deserttimes, so that you can, you know
, run together, you know,towards Christ.
And it's tough.
I mean, it was just me and mywife.
Basically that's how we had thepodcast, and it took a while,
but I was praying for it everyday.
Lord, bring me some men who arechasing after your own heart,
(27:28):
Like, bring me some men who arelike me, who, you know, want to
normalize Catholicism.
We don't have to be in thechurch every day, but like, hey,
they're there, they like to gohiking, they like to work out,
they like to, you know, have funand still have a beer with your
friends.
But the difference of goinghome early and not getting
blackout drunk or going to, youknow, see movies that are
(27:50):
inappropriate, things like that,where we have some common
things but but we don't have tobe weird.
You know, that was my wholething.
It's like I didn't want to losewho I am.
I don't want to be weird.
Now, all of a sudden, you knowI wanted to be myself, but be
authentically the best version Icould be, that whose God was
calling me to be.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and you know so many young people.
When we're talking to them theyget this idea this is a Puritan
ethic.
You know, catholicism is notPuritan brother.
You know what, when you freeyourself all of a sudden, you
walk into the awe and wonder notonly the awe and wonder of
being outside and really seeingthe stars, and really seeing the
stars and start to reflect on,ooh, you know, I didn't create
(28:26):
this universe, man.
You know I didn't write thislarger story.
You know amazing amount ofpride, right, that guys will
come into the story and, youknow, fall for this moral
relativism, right, there is notruth, only my truth and your
truth, et cetera, et cetera, andhave so much pride that they
don't just sit back and go.
Man, there's a lot going onhere.
(28:46):
I don't understand it all, butI want to walk into the story.
That's what you're describing,to walk into the story and then
you start to see, say, for men,you start to see women
differently, you really start tosee.
It's very important Now.
You know I do a lot of podcastsand a lot of talks on eros.
You know this great eroticdesire, but Plato would call it.
(29:07):
It's not just sensual, it's adesire for all that's true, good
and beautiful.
And here's the point he knewthe ancient Greeks, 400 years
before Jesus, knew that therewas that spark, was a divine
spark.
So when I see the woman right,I was just describing to some
guys I was in Costco and comingdown the aisle and I'm no spring
(29:28):
chicken anymore, right, and Ilook up and and and oh man, this
girl was just so beautifulcoming at me, right.
But now I know better.
I say thank you, jesus, for thebeauty of that woman, thank you
for letting me feel that divinespark within me again.
I pray with her and for her atthe same time, and so it lifts
(29:48):
me up.
When I lift her up and man,things open up, man, I get
goosebumps just thinking aboutit, bobby Well that's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
That's not going to go away.
Those things aren't going to goaway.
But how we think about those, Idon't want it to go away.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
See if you know, if you know that God's calling you
into that divine story throughthe beauty, awe and beauty of
nature, through women, throughour sexuality, you know, through
everything that you experiencegreat books, great people, great
friends then you don't want itto go away.
I just want to make sure that,like you said you know I'm
shooting at the stars, I don't.
(30:24):
You know, it's like a rocket.
You know, if you get thatrocket going the wrong way, you
implode, but if it's starting togo the right way, man, it'll
take you all kinds of places.
This is the adventure thatwe're talking about here.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, I love the St Irenaeus line that the glory of
God is man fully alive.
And he wants us to be full oflife.
He gave us those desires, butthey need to be ordered well,
thank you.
Towards our wives, towards God,towards the true beauty, but not
to be used, but to sacrificefor it.
That's what love in our faithmeans is to sacrifice for it,
(30:57):
not to use it or abuse it or tolust after it, but to hold it up
.
You know, the level of oursociety is going to be based on
how we hold up women and havinga daughter.
Now it just totally changedeverything.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So tell me about the kids.
So you have a boy and a girl.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, a 12-year-old girl going into seventh grade
and my son who's going to be infourth grade, and they're so
different.
You know, and as a dad, I'm oneof four boys.
I grew up with two brothersthat are cops and you know my
brother that that that was inand out of jail and then you had
me in the middle.
But you know, mma fighters likewe're, we're, we're a crazy
(31:33):
bunch of dudes, you know.
So having a girl like my mom'stough as nails she's four 11,
but she's like she's tough.
So having a girl is like awhole new world for me.
So I'm learning on how it's sodifferent and for me, having
that has changed my perspectiveon women in general, the way not
just I look at her but my wifeand all women in general,
(31:54):
knowing that everybody issomeone's daughter and made in
God's image, that we're there tohold up that virtue.
But I think a lot of it whatyou're hitting on, that it's
important to step outsidesometimes and especially getting
out into the stars or going toadoration and being disconnected
(32:16):
from God's plan of Sundays,having that Sabbath day, that
rest where that's meant for us,to take a step back from the
busyness of our lives so that wecan put those things in
perspective.
Like, yeah, mass is important,but after that, like
consecrating that day to familyor, you know, to doing these
mini retreats or doing thosethings, or when you get, you
know, the chance to actually getout.
(32:38):
We just got back from SouthDakota.
We went to the Badlands andMount Rushmore and it just
really has changed myperspective.
Coming back, we're already likeplanning our next trip with the
kids.
It was like no screens.
We were just in God's beautifulcountry, like hiking with the
kids and just seeing them comealive in nature, and you know,
we climb some of these high,these high mountains.
(32:59):
We get up to the top and justto see the pride and how hard
they worked and how they got upthere, and then just that grace
that God gave me to look down atthem like man.
This is what it's all about,like seeing all this immense
beauty that he created.
But what it's all for, it'slike we're we're built to know
him and he's trying to show methis is me, and then we're
called to love him and then lovemy kids well and give them
(33:19):
these experiences.
But it takes intentionality tostep out of our busyness of that
day-to-day stuff and then wecan help get that perspective
and that gratitude of thosethings that we're trying to do.
It's just so easy to get caughtup in get up, go to work, pay
the bills, come home, pick upthe kids.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Oh man, and look at Bobby.
I think that's what most peopleare doing.
You know you integrate and tryto integrate the faith into a
mission statement that guidesdaily life, and so we're talking
about building up the domesticchurch here and building up a
mission statement.
Like you said, it has to beintentional, because fly by the
(33:56):
seat of your pants, raising kidsdoes not.
If it ever worked, it certainlydoesn't work today with the
phones and the social media, theculture, the problems that we
see in the public school systems, bringing these national sex ed
standards and stuff right intoour schools, right?
So we have to be intentional.
So talk about that a little bit.
We're going to ask you to joinus by helping us get the word
(34:20):
out.
So, if you can make sure yousubscribe and then hit like, no
matter which platform you're on,remember that the Become who
you Are podcast is on audio onany music or podcast app.
We're up on Rumble YouTube.
You can find us on X.
When you do subscribe, hit thelike button.
(34:40):
A couple things to share withpeople Love Ed, love Ed is just
such an important apostolate.
So it's within our apostolatethe John Paul II Renewal Center.
This helps parents give thetalk to their children.
We're trying to push back onall these gender ideologies and
the porn culture and give thechildren the truth and do it
(35:02):
through their parents, and wehelp them do that.
The other one is is is reallytaken off to.
It's claymore militants,christy soldiers for christ.
That's where you see the swordbehind me, that's the big sword.
That's our logo for claymore,that's a claymore sword.
And this is for young people,especially young men.
Gen z high school all the waythrough, let's call it till
(35:24):
they're 30 years old or so.
They're starting to reallyunderstand that something
nefarious, very toxic, is goingon in the culture, and so
they're stepping into the churchand we're discipling them.
So we want to help get the wordout about those things and,
lastly, consider financiallysupporting us.
Everything's in the show noteshey, god bless you.
(35:44):
Thanks again.
We'll be right back to today'sshow.
You know I was poking around alittle bit and you're talking
about your faith into a missionstatement, some of the key steps
to crafting a meaningfulmemorial family mission
statement.
So we're talking about thosethings already, but you're even
being more intentional.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
More intentional.
Yeah Well, like I said, ourother podcast is purposely
Catholic, like we have to beliving a life on purpose and if
we don't, then we just getwhatever comes our way.
It's like we didn't help.
You know, God says ask, youreceive, knock, the door's going
to be open.
So if you don't ask, if youdon't set it up, it'll never
happen.
Then you're just going to getwhatever the culture is going to
throw to your your way.
(36:31):
So my wife had this idea of hey, let's film a podcast about
creating a mission statement,but let's record it live on the
fly, involve our kids andobviously the Holy spirit.
We used a truthfully kids huh.
Yeah, yeah, we did a wholeepisode with the kids and it
turned out better than I thoughtbecause we were doing.
We had like a battle cry, likea family motto that we had for a
long time, which was hard work,pays off.
(36:51):
So anytime things were goinghard, whatever, I'd just go hey,
hard work, and the kids wouldbe like pays off.
It was kind of like one of thosethings but it's a very
important thing in our family isthis growth mindset.
We shouldn't be praising likehey, you're so beautiful, you're
so smart.
When you do that with the kids,when things do get hard,
(37:13):
they'll shut down.
So when we praise their hardwork, then when things fail,
like okay, this is anotheropportunity to learn, or things
like that.
So that was our, our motto.
But I'm like, okay, well,something's missing.
Jesus is missing out of thisequation.
So my wife and I we had theidea like we need to make a
mission statement, like ourparish has one, her school has
(37:34):
one, all the businesses have one, anyone who, who is, you know,
they have a vision and then theyhave a mission statement.
So we did a podcast.
We sat down as a family, wedidn't have a script and and
both of the kids, it's prettygutsy actually.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, and I guess you could always get rid of it if
it didn't work out, but it'sstill pretty gutsy right.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Let's just do this thing, and I've done a podcast
with each one of themindividually on different topics
, and they did pretty well.
So I'm like okay, so we did one, my daughter did one on angels,
and I forgot what my son did.
But they're comfortable,they're not shy, so it worked
out.
So.
So the first step for us waswhat are?
So we had our motto hard workpays off.
(38:14):
I'm like, okay, so what aresome of our values that we, as
Catholics, you know, hold, holdin high esteem?
So we had started having thisconversation.
Like you know, obviously, wepray every day together as a
family.
We go to mass every Sunday, youknow.
We, we try to help people, wework hard, we do these kinds of
things.
So we had a list of all thesevalues of you know, but the
(38:36):
trick was is to involve the kids.
You don't have to record it andput it on YouTube, but when you
incorporate them into theprocess, then it makes more
buy-in.
That isn't like, hey, well, dadmade this thing.
Therefore, we're going to do it.
But yeah, but you know, whenyou have that connection with
them and have some input into it, then they feel ownership in it
(38:57):
.
So it was.
It was also a, you know a familybuilding, you know conversation
of connection and you knowtrying to unify the family.
So so we did that.
So you want to have some values, you know make a list of
different things, see what'simportant to you as a family,
and we have.
You know, the catechism tellsus the purpose of life is to
know love, serve God and toserve others.
(39:18):
So we know that there should besomething close to that.
You know, to know God and tolove, love him, serve the poor,
all those kinds of things andthen create some actions to go
with it.
Because if we just have astatement and don't have any
actions to make it work, thenyou know it's just going to be a
bumper sticker or somethingthat just flies away Without
(39:38):
action, bobby.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Without action it doesn't work.
You know, I think about that.
This is John Paul's teachingright, just exactly what you
said, though.
A body and a soul right.
Without this grace and withoutaction, the default position is
just sin and death.
I mean, that's just the reality.
If I just live on the surfaceof this life, get blown away,
let the spirit of the age takeme, this is what you fall into
(40:00):
sin, but certainly you're goingto die, and you better start to
think about that right Now.
A body and a soul open, likeyou're talking about, to grace,
right to receive the Holy Spirit, to receive grace, to receive
the Eucharist, etc.
Now I have the potential forhuman flourishing, I have the
potential for human freedom, butnow I have to act.
John Paul would say you have toact, and he would say this to
(40:22):
young people Say, young people,you know that your life has
meaning to the extent that it'sgiven away to others, to your
point.
And when you walk in, you knowthis is what we're supposed to
do.
This is from Genesis 1, right,go forward, multiply, form
families, right, and then go outuntil the garden.
You know, go out, go out, goout, go out.
You know we people will ask mesometime, bobby, like where is
(40:46):
God?
You know I don't see him, bobby.
I said, dude, you're supposedto be the visible reality of
love in the world.
You are supposed to bring itinto the world.
This is why we're created, youknow.
God says, hey, I'm creating youto bring my divine love into
the world.
So you do it, and so we see itin each other.
Right, mother Teresa talkedabout this all the time.
(41:07):
She saw Christ in others.
So I'm just reiterating thepoint that you're making and
action and that's for anybodylistening.
Right, I have to act, whateverthat is.
That could be just getting onmy knees and praying.
Today they could be visitingthe poor down the street.
Whatever, I got to do something, man, I got to start to step in
.
And then you start to see it.
You become part of this process, right?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
And the mission statement, we get the word
missio.
Mass is means we're sent.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
So this is our being sent.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
The focus model is win, build, send.
So you got to have thatencounter.
Then you got to be have someformation.
You got to know what to do onceyou get out, so you're writing
down.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Let's just say people are listening to this, so you
got to.
You know, if I, if I'm going totake out a piece of paper at
home, do I invite the kids thenaround the table and I say, hey
guys, just thinking about you,know some things.
You hold important some valuessome, some things that what's
important to us as a family,what are?
Speaker 1 (42:02):
the things to do, you know, and you may have sports,
you may have school, you mayhave study, reading, whatever
the.
What are the things we hold up?
You know, taking care of thepoor.
We like to serve, we like to to.
You know to pray the rosary,whatever the things are.
Everyone's going to beindividual, have their own
unique thing.
So brainstorming about it, okay.
Then the second step is okay.
(42:22):
So then how are we going to putthat into action?
And then you got to bring itall together.
So for us, as a family we cameup with as a Catholic family, we
love God by praying daily,working hard and loving others.
And I, my wife and I I reallyliked loving others harder, but
(42:42):
we ended up going with justloving others.
You know, like work hard butlove others harder.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
But we, so actually yeah, so then we, so then I love
it.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
We put it up on a a banner that my wife made on her
cricket.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So keep that there for a second.
So our family mission state welove God by praying daily,
working hard and loving othersand and hold it up just a little
bit more.
So there you go.
So you got three hearts on it.
It looks like you got thesacred heart of Jesus.
You got the sword.
We got the sword here in theback.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
The mother and the St Joseph's heart.
So you got the three hearts and, as a reminder, the Holy Family
gives us that mission.
What does it look like?
So, first and foremost, we praydaily, not just individually.
We come together every night topray together as a family, and
that's a non-negotiable Even ifit's hey, we're just going to
say to our father, you know,we're on the road or we don't
have time to sit there and praya rosary together.
(43:33):
That we are coming together,that we have intentions, we lift
each other up, we pray overeach other, we pray with each
other, which, as Catholics, wedo a bad job of.
Not just praying prayers, butpraying Like that's important,
to say our rosaries and divinemercy, I say them every day.
Those are important.
But having that ongoingconversation and relationship
(43:54):
with God as it's going, that,practicing the presence of God,
inviting him into everythingthat we do, that's not just
something on Sundays, butespecially like, hey, you know
God, what do you want me to do?
Lord, guide me, whatever thatmay be.
So praying daily as a familyimportant, working hard is very
important.
You know, we want to be thebest version of ourselves.
(44:16):
I really like St Francis deSales.
He tells us.
You know, everything can beturned into a prayer.
We just got to ask God to bewith us.
Then we offer it up.
Then we have to accept whatevercomes.
But when we ask God intowhatever that is, we offer it up
.
We can't do it half.
You know, halfway we do.
We offer things to God.
(44:36):
We got to give him our best, wegot to give him our first fruit
.
So if I, you know, I like towork out, so before I work out
I'll say God, be with me in thisworkout, keep me safe.
I want to offer this workoutfor my wife, for the Pope or
whatever it may be, so then Ican't do half reps and like be
just.
You know, I got to be focused,I got to give them my best and
that's then I accept.
Hey, however, it went after thatand, yeah, sometimes you know
(44:57):
we're not going to get theresults we want all the time,
but at least knowing that Iworked hard, I put that effort
in there, and that we are calledto love others, which you know
is Catholics, that isn't afeeling.
We know that love is associatedwith sacrifice.
So how are we going tosacrifice for others, the poor,
each other, for God you know,for our workplaces or whatever
it is that we need to do.
So, trying to incorporate thatin what, like I said, my wife
(45:19):
put that on a cricket and that'son our door as we're coming in
and out of the house, so we'rereminded of it every single day
when we make decisions as afamily.
Does that go to our missionstatement?
Are we thinking about thosethings?
Are we putting that in theforefront?
Because it's really easy, onceyou do make a family mission
statement, to let it go by thewayside, like so many companies
and places have them.
They're just slogans, nobodyknows anymore.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, no one knows it , because they're not living
them out.
You're describing living themout, though, yes and you have to
continually remind them becausethey'll forget.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
they're kids, you know, and I got to remind myself
, just like anything it's like,so don't make it too long and
make it something where it'sgoing to be memorable.
You can't have a wholeparagraph and do this and blah
blah blah.
You want to make it kind ofshort.
If you go to the article we didon CatholicExchangecom, I'm
(46:10):
sure you can share the link andhas a laid out of the details on
how to do it.
We use Truthly AI it's aCatholic AI to help them like
hey, give us like some framework.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I didn't know there was a Catholic AI.
Yeah, actually.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I got to know the founder.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
What's it called?
It's called Truthly.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
T-R-U-T-L-Y.
We actually are the CEO and thefounder of the company who's
actually coming on our podcasttomorrow.
I met him at SEEK in Utah, butthey started this AI.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But it runs it through the lens of our Catholic
faith and helps teach you thefaith, how to pray, but it's
giving you.
You know, it's approved by thechurch and I know Matt Frads
he's co-founder of it and PaulKim, yeah.
Yeah, you know AI is not goingaway.
So how do we use it in the lens, just like Google and YouTube?
It's like now we use thesetechnologies for the good and we
want something that's going totake it not through the secular
(47:03):
culture, but it's going to runwhatever we're trying to do
through the lens of our Catholicfaith.
So I found it to be helpful,especially when it comes to
podcasting or YouTube or thingsabout the faith.
So we've been using that highlyrecommended.
So you said like hey, help uscome up with some ideas on some
values.
We like to do this and do thisand it can really help you in
the process.
But mostly it's just havingthat conversation and getting it
(47:26):
out there to see like, hey,what do we hold highest in our
family, what is most important?
And if it's not God first, thenwe need to do some re-event,
you know, some re-configurations, you know, but then trying to
see okay, we don't have to lieLike we, we should make it
what's you know, closest to whatour values are and what we hold
.
You know, and it's going to bedifferent, like there's people
(47:46):
who are more focused on servingthe poor.
Some people are more focused onthe rosary or whatever that may
be, craft it to where it'ssomething that's going to be
something to suit you and yourfamily, and you know, then you
can also like distill it downinto like a battle cry, Like you
know we did.
The hard work pays off.
Our parish uses one that's likeeverybody knows.
In the parish it's be discipleswho make disciples, and then
(48:09):
everybody knows it.
So you can also then distill itdown into just a couple words,
just as like a battle cry.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I love it, brother.
So if we start to wind downhere, don't leave until we make
sure that you got my info so youcan send me your links.
Right, Because we want to getthe links in the show notes.
So what's the rest of the daylook like for you and can you
unwind?
You got that A personalitygoing.
(48:35):
Can you unwind enough just torelax a little bit today?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Absolutely not.
No, my day's been.
I go to 4.30 every morning I goto daily.
I start my day with prayer inLectio Divina, in scripture, go
to 6 am mass.
So we went to mass this morning, prayed the rosary.
I did two other shows thismorning.
I went live on the IowaCatholic Radio and then Catholic
Faith Network and I did thatand then after this I'm going to
(49:01):
the gym, I'm going to yeah,beautiful.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
So what does a workout look like?
The workout Cardio and weights,or what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Cardio.
I do the cardio and weights, orwhat are you?
What are you doing?
Cardio, I do like, well, I'lldo some walking, probably, since
I'm off today, it'll be like a,a vacation kind of workout.
I'll hit, uh today's, uh, someshoulders and traps and the
weights and then I'll do someincline walking and then 20
minutes in the sauna, which Idon't get to do much when I'm
off.
I got extra time which is likeit's like a prayer place.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
I love, love it.
When we're talking to youngguys.
You know there's so many ofthem are struggling with porn
and all this kind of stuff.
Right, and what we'redescribing when you do the
physical too, and especially ifyou go in there prayerfully you
know it's amazing how you canrelax.
You know, look as goofy as thissounds and don't tell my
(49:50):
neighbors about this, but I gota gym set up downstairs.
I love to ride a bicycle.
Right, I'm a martial artist,love to ride a bicycle.
But I go downstairs sometimes Ijust put on some good music and
I got the weights in my handand I'm just warming up and I
start dancing down there.
I just feel a joy.
I almost like, just like ooh.
It's almost like a spirituallike ooh, just loosen up and
(50:10):
move, and there's somethingpowerful about that movement.
Anyways, my point is you got tokeep your body in shape too,
man.
If you let your body go, thenyou let your mind go and you get
into porn, you get into allthis stuff.
Of course, you know you can bein great shape and still let
your spiritual side go too.
But my point is you got to bebalanced, man.
You got to be doing all of thisstuff as men.
I think you know.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah, I think it's.
I think when we train ourbodies, we also are learning how
to train our souls.
It's like our spiritual musclesand our physical muscles are
very similar.
It's like, well, if you don't,you know, do the things that
help build those up you, if youdon't use it, you lose it.
You know, I love the StAugustine who says you know,
treat your body like you'regoing to live forever and treat
your soul like you're going todie tomorrow.
(50:51):
It's like, you know, as we getolder, it gets harder and you
know, I've had back surgery, Ihave all these things.
So I I have to work out and forme, you know, you know I've
been in over 50 fistfights in mylife, like that was my life
before I became Catholic.
So I still have this aggressivenature and for me, when I hit
the weights, it's a way for meto decompress, to get that
(51:12):
aggression out, to challengemyself, you know, to set those
goals.
Like, hey, I want to benchpress this and I want to try to
do that.
But I built a gym at my work.
So usually I work out at workand I got, you know, like five
or six guys I helped train thereand then we work out together.
But before I start, I got aboard and on it it says I got
the whole thing filled.
None of them are Catholic, butI have a huge school school size
(51:34):
board.
I got a huge gym at work that Ibuilt over the years over 10
years and the whole board isfilled with quotes.
I got the our father in Latin.
I got Matthew seven, which youwere quoting.
I got that up there.
I got Psalm 51.
I got a space that says thisworkout is offered for and it's
underlined every day I write adifferent name there, so like
I'm able to to turn that in.
And then, uh, I made this shirt, if you can see it.
(51:56):
It says it says five, that's tengo ahead five sets, ten reps,
which is the rosary doing fivesets of ten, hail mary's, so
it's like isn't that beautifulso talking to men in the ways
that they know is.
You know that's what we do.
Where can I get a shirt likethat?
We actually are.
They're not up.
I got a box here.
We're just getting them up onour website,
(52:18):
purposelycatholiccom.
They should be up there.
Hopefully in the next week orso.
We're going to have them upthere.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Okay, when that's ready, I'm getting one of those
or a couple of those I'm gonnapass.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, we brought them to the the c conference and
they sold out like in, like oneday, because the men who see
that like once they feel likewhoa, five sets of ten, like
that's how we talk in the gym,like what kind of work love that
what better than five sets often?
you know, hail mary's, that'show we we talk about the rosary
and you know, for me, theworkout is a prayer.
You, like I said, when you askGod to be with you and you offer
(52:52):
it up.
Anything we do, like StBenedict teaches us ora et
labora prayer and work, foldinglaundry or walking the dog,
working out, whatever we'redoing can be turned into a
prayer.
It doesn't have to be in achurch, but it's that
intentionality, that beingpurposely to be able to offer
that up and to invite God intoanything we're doing it and then
(53:12):
do it well, and then thatitself can be a prayer,
especially when we're busy,especially when you got jobs
that are.
You know that you may not belike my job is not something I
chose to want to do, but ithelps provide for my family.
I got great benefits andinsurance and it is a sacrifice.
But what changed for me in thatis that I learned how to turn
it into a prayer and be gratefulfor the job that I have, those
(53:35):
things, instead of looking atall the things that I don't have
or what I want to do andturning that into, you know, a
prayer and trying to find a waythroughout the day to do one
good deed for somebody out ofthe ordinary and try to
transform the mundane intosomething sacred.
And it doesn't have to be in achurch.
That could be through our lives, it could be working out, that
could be, you know, walking.
It could be anything if we'redoing it for the right reasons
(53:56):
and asking God, inviting Himinto it, just like St Benedict
taught us.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Bobby, you're an inspiring guy, man, I'm glad I
met you.
But here's what's inspiring youcan take right your everyday,
what people are doing, what anyman listening to this, any woman
listening to this, can start tofold some of those things into
their daily life and make adifference, not only in their
own life.
When you go out and you'redoing those things, sharing
(54:21):
those things with the guys atwork on the board, you become a
better person.
John Paul would say when youstart to do those small good
things, you become good, I amgood.
Or or I start to do theselittle evil things, you know,
and over time I become evil, Iam evil.
You know.
You wonder how these crazypoliticians got to the point
(54:44):
where they're so twisted anddistorted.
Well, slowly, you know, andthen all of a sudden, boom,
you're there and what you'redoing is you're unwinding that
man.
You're unwinding the evil inthe world, you're bringing good
in the world and this is veryinspiring.
So good stuff, man.
Hey, thank you for the workyou're doing.
God bless you, bobby.
Thank you so much for your time, man.
(55:04):
Hey, thank you everyone.
Thanks for joining us today.
Talk to you again soon.
Bye-bye, thank you so much.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.