December 3, 2024 • 25 mins
Join us on the SEEK Podcast as we host Dr. Edward Sri from “All Things Catholic” in a heartfelt discussion about revitalizing faith within ourselves and others. In this episode, we delve into practical and compassionate strategies for reconnecting loved ones with their faith.
We kick off this episode with the crucial role of hope in spiritual renewal. Dr. Sri shares engaging narratives that underscore the impact of prayer and the miraculous power of God’s intervention, like the story of the paralyzed man healed through his friends’ faith.
This episode is not just informative but also a call to action to live out our faith more fully and help others discover their path back to God. Whether you’re a long-time listener or joining us for the first time, this episode promises to inspire and equip you for the journey.
Join us at SEEK or engage with us online to continue the conversation.
Register for SEEK: seek.focus.org
Follow our Social Media @focuscatholic
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Seek Podcast, where we explore faith,
inspire hope and buildcommunity.
My name is John Michael Lucidoand I'm excited to invite you to
join us this season as we diveinto topics about the faith with
people from all over theCatholic world.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode.
Know that we are praying foryou.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi, I'm Edward Sri and welcome to All Things
Catholic, where real faith meetsreal life.
Do you have friends or familymembers who are away from the
Catholic Church?
Maybe they stopped practicingtheir faith, or maybe they just
never came to know Christ in apersonal way.
(00:42):
Do you long to bring them back?
Do you long for them toexperience how much friendship
with Christ and living as aCatholic makes all the
difference in our lives?
Of course we do.
We want to do that, but many ofus are not sure how.
I don't know how.
I don't know what to do.
I'm afraid I don't know what tosay.
I don't want to get it wrong.
I don't want to drive them away.
(01:10):
What do I do?
Well, that's what we're goingto take a look at in this week's
podcast.
We're going to consider 10commandments of what to do and
not to do when we share ourfaith with those we love.
So welcome to All ThingsCatholic.
I'm your host, edward Sri, andI want to give a special shout
out to anyone checking out theshow for the first time.
Thanks for being with us.
Hope you enjoy the show.
If you want to learn more aboutthe All Things Catholic podcast
, you want to get the show notesthat I give each week comes out
every Tuesday.
You can get the show notes bysimply texting All Things
(01:33):
Catholic to 33777.
So text All Things Catholic oneword, all Things Catholic to
33777, and you can get thepodcast in your inbox each week,
as well as the show notes.
Now, before I get into these TenCommandments, I want to share
with you something I'm reallyexcited about, something that's
coming up here soon.
I want you just to imagine thisscene.
(01:53):
Picture 20,000 young peoplegathered together in a big arena
, not for a rock concert, notfor a sporting event, but to
fall on their knees and worshipJesus in Eucharistic adoration.
Imagine thousands and thousandsof them going in a long,
mile-long line to confession.
Imagine them going to dailymass with hundreds of priests
(02:14):
and religious and seminarians.
Imagine them hearing amazingtalks by Father Mike and Sister
Miriam and Curtis Martin andJason Everett and others, and
imagine that this gathering isnot just for college students,
but there's also thousands andthousands of adults and lay
leaders and moms and dads allcoming to the Focus Seek
Conference, january 1st through5th in Salt Lake City.
(02:36):
So that's what I'm so excitedabout.
If you could please pray, thereare many young people right now
making decisions whether or notthey're going to go, many of
them preparing their hearts andminds to encounter Christ in a
profound way.
We hear about so manyconversions.
I've met so many priests whotold me they had their
conversion at SEEK or they wentto the SEEK conference and
that's when they sensed the callfrom God to become a priest.
(02:59):
So please pray for theconference, but I also want to
invite you because, as I said,it's not just for college
students.
Please pray for the conference,but I also want to invite you
because, as I said, it's notjust for college students.
We get thousands of adults thatcome, whether they're
professional adults working inthe church as a DRE, a youth
minister, a campus minister or aCatholic school teacher, or
just ordinary lay people thatare moms and dads trying to pass
(03:20):
on the faith in the home, ormaybe parents that are in a
small group with other parents.
And it's a great gathering.
And there's a special track wehave called the Making
Missionary Disciples track,which is awesome, where you can
go to the general sessions andhear the great talks by Father
Mike and Sister Miriam and thekeynotes in the evening, and go
to the big masses with all thecollege students in the morning,
(03:41):
but then during the day, whenthe college students are going
to their special talks forchastity and dating
relationships, you can go to theMaking Missionary Disciples
track, which is about how welive our faith as disciples in
the modern world today, asadults, and how we practically
can be trained to share ourfaith more effectively with
others, in the workplace, in ourparish, in our own homes, with
(04:03):
our own children.
So you can check this all outat seekfocusorg.
That's seekfocusorg, the SEEKconference, january 1st through
5th in Salt Lake.
Now we're talking about 10commandments for how to share
the faith with those we love,and I want to be clear.
There's many other points youcould bring in.
I'm just going to zoom in on 10today, but it was really fun to
(04:24):
think about these.
I'm going to start off with thefirst commandment Thou shall
have hope.
Thou shall have hope.
As I travel all over the world,I meet many parents that are so
sad that their children haveturned away from the church.
Or I meet many people that areso sad that their friend, their
old roommate, is no longerpracticing the faith, and our
(04:44):
temptation is to lose hope, andthat's exactly what the devil
wants.
He wants us to get discouraged,he wants us to despair and give
up praying and sacrificing andtrying to evangelize.
And we want to remember twothings.
We want to remember, first ofall, that soul was made for God.
That person you love, no matterhow confident they may seem,
(05:05):
joyful and happy they may seemon the outside, know that they
were made for God.
Their souls are made for Godand if they don't have God, then
there's going to be somethingin their soul that's off,
something out of order, out ofharmony, there's something
missing, and that's God in theirlife.
So while on the outside theymay look very confident and they
(05:27):
have it all together and theydon't need God, deep down, just
know the truth that there'ssomething off in their soul,
that there's a certain sorrow, acertain restlessness, a certain
yearning for something more, nomatter how much they give the
appearance that they don't needreligion, they don't need the
church, they don't need God.
I think about the great StAugustine.
(05:47):
You may know his story.
Augustine was a very successfulman.
On the outside it looked likehe was so happy, he had
everything.
He had success, he had a lot ofwealth, he had a lot of fame,
he had a vibrant social life.
He had premarital sex andpleasure.
From the Roman pagan standardsof his time it looked like this
was the guy that had it all, andso of course he must be happy.
(06:10):
But on the inside he wasn't,and he writes about this in his
autobiography, the Confessions.
He writes about how he wassearching for peace, for
happiness, and just couldn'tfind it in all the things of
this world.
And he had everything the worldoffered, but he was looking for
more.
And he says in the beautifulopening paragraph of the
confessions he says you havemade us for yourself, o Lord,
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and our hearts are restlessuntil they rest in you.
So know that that friend, thatchild, that brother of yours
that's away from the church, hisheart is restless, he's longing
for something more and God canuse that desire that he put in
that man's heart, that woman'sheart, to bring him back to
himself.
Secondly, also just know you'renot the only one trying to
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evangelize your friend.
God is, and God is so much moreeffective and powerful than we
are.
God can work miracles.
We should always have hope thatGod can do what we think is
impossible.
Right, because anything wethink is impossible God can do.
The same.
God, who calmed the storms,gave sight to the blind, raised
the dead, can bring back thatloved one to himself and know
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that God loves that person morethan you do.
So never give up hope.
Always have hope.
That's the first commandment.
Thou sh Always have hope.
That's the first commandment.
Thou shall have hope.
Second commandment thou shallalways pray and intercede.
Never give up on prayer.
The beautiful power ofintercession, the power of our
prayers are really amazing and Ithink we don't always realize
this.
(07:38):
I'm going to go to a Biblestory from the Gospels, from
Jesus's life, that illustratesthis.
Do you remember that story ofthe paralyzed man?
The paralyzed man can't walk.
So he can't walk to Jesus andhis friends come and they carry
him and they bring him to theroof and they make the hole in
the roof to bring the man downand where Jesus was teaching,
inside this house, and thenJesus heals the man.
(07:59):
But do you know why he healedthe man?
It says that his friends werethe ones that brought him and he
decided to heal the paralyzedman.
Notice, the paralyzed mandidn't walk there by himself.
He's paralyzed, can't do that.
His friends brought him toJesus and Jesus saw their faith.
(08:20):
Notice, the gospel zooms in anddoesn't say that he saw the
faith of this poor paralyzed man.
The paralyzed man, when he'sbrought down, doesn't reach out
his arm to Jesus and say heal meplease.
We don't get a reference tothat.
Instead, the Bible tells usJesus saw their faith, his
friend's faith, and he healedhim.
(08:40):
Here's my question for you Doyou bring your friends, your
loved ones, to Jesus?
Do you love your friends somuch you bring them to Jesus in
prayer, in intercessory prayer,and does Jesus see your faith?
Does he see your longing, yourheart pouring out in prayer,
interceding for them?
Does he see your faith?
Because that's what he did withthe paralyzed man.
(09:01):
He saw their faith and then hehealed the paralyzed man.
If Jesus sees your faithconstantly pouring out in
intercessory prayer, he may healthe one you love and bring him
back to himself.
Okay, third commandment Thoushall offer sacrifices.
Now, this, I love this one here.
Many times when I'm meetingpeople as I'm giving, doing
speaking events around thecountry, I hear people say
(09:23):
things like you know, oh, drShreya, what do I do for my
child or my brother or my uncle?
And you know, I pray for them.
I'm praying for them and I say,do you offer sacrifices for
them?
And I could tell many of themare like, um, I hadn't thought
about that and I love it.
They're good, they really werepraying for the ones they love.
And that's a good first step.
But Jesus invites us to do moreand that's my question for you
(09:50):
Are you willing to offersacrifices for the ones you love
?
Do you love them enough to givethings up for them?
Give things up, things you like, Do you offer penances for them
?
When we make little sacrificesthe traditional practice of
offering a mortification,offering penance for other
people God uses it.
It is a really powerfulinstrument of evangelization and
it's not enough just to prayfor those we love, do we offer
(10:11):
sacrifices for them?
So here's my question for youDo you love that person in your
life that's away from the church?
Do you love them more than yourfavorite latte, your favorite
coffee?
Nothing wrong with a latte,nothing wrong with a coffee.
But could you give up yourfavorite drink for a month for
the sake of the soul of theperson you love?
Could you give up your favoritebeer for the person you love?
(10:32):
Could you give up your favoritebeer for the person you love?
Can you give up your favoritechocolate?
Do you love that soul more thanyour favorite sports team, your
favorite show?
In other words, could you giveup watching your sports team for
one season?
Man, that would be really hard.
Okay, maybe that's really hard.
So how about this?
Could you just give up watchingone game a month, you know,
(10:53):
like, okay, the first game ofevery month we're not going to
watch?
Do you love that person in yourlife more than your favorite
thing?
And when we offer up the thingsthat are dear to us, things that
are good, they're not bad, weoffer it up.
That's a generous sacrifice.
We can unite it with Jesus'ssacrifice on the cross, uniting
it in his sacrifice, madepresent at the mass.
And that is the highest form ofprayer, the sacrifice, the mass
(11:16):
.
And we can unite all of ourworks, all of our joys, all of
our sufferings, all of oursacrifices with Jesus at every
mass.
So thou shall offer sacrificesto be at number four.
Thou shall not be anxious andpressuring.
Do not be anxious.
We should never be anxious.
But too often when we're worriedabout someone we love, we have
a close friend, maybe it's ourspouse, maybe it's a child we
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can just get really anxious andwe lose our inner peace.
We lose that calm confidencethat comes from trust in the
Lord.
Do I really trust the Lord?
Do I really trust that thisperson is in the Lord's hands?
And it's not up to me, becauseit's often very self-reliant,
very prideful, I think.
When there's anxiety aboutwhat's going to happen with my
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kids, it seems like I'm justloving my kids, but many times
it's just I want to be incontrol.
I don't like this situation.
It's frustrating me and I'manxious.
And look, others are going topick up on our anxiety, whether
it's a friend, a child, arelative.
They're going to pick up on ourlack of peace because we can't
help ourselves.
We feel like we have to fixthem, we have to manage them, we
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have to control them.
I have to say something, I haveto do something.
All of this is rooted in panicand fear, and that won't work
well.
God can use us as an instrumentof evangelization.
The more we have that innercalm and peace about the
situation, the more we rely onhim and trust in him.
Otherwise, when we're anxious,what happens is we'll end up
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pressuring the person they'regoing to pick up and feeling
like we're just pressuring them.
We're forcing them to go tomass or try and make them feel
guilty, you know, for not goingto mass, or make them feel
guilty for living with theirgirlfriend, and we're putting
pressure on them and we alwaysare anxiously having to bring
something up.
We have to talk about the faith.
Maybe we don't always have tobring things up all the time.
I think about what St Ambroseonce said to Monica Monica.
(13:06):
St Monica was the mother of StAugustine and she was so sad
that her son had turned awayfrom the church and she was very
anxious about it and just verysorrowful and crying.
And she's going to Ambrose, whowas a bishop, and saying the
situation needs to change.
Can you go talk to him?
And Ambrose just kind of smiles.
I can imagine him smiling andhe says to Monica, maybe it's
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time you spoke to Augustine lessabout God and time that you
spoke more to God aboutAugustine.
I love that.
Maybe it's time you spoke toAugustine less about God and
time you spoke more to God aboutAugustine.
Otherwise, you're always tryingto talk to Augustine, you're
trying to bring him back and youcould just imagine a mom
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constantly going after her sonlike this.
The son's not going to respondwell and that's why sometimes
maybe it's more prudent to notspeak up all the time, because
that's coming from a place ofanxiety.
So thou shall not be anxiousand pressuring.
All right, the next commandmentwe're going to turn to.
I want to take a look atcommandment number five.
Thou shall pray for an Ambrose.
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I think that's one thing wecould see from the story is, you
know, monica wasn't the primaryperson.
God used to break throughAugustine's his hard heartedness
and his mind was filled withmany heresies and false ideas,
and it was Ambrose that God used.
Ambrose was a bishop and he wasa great scholar, a great
intellect, and because Augustinewas a great scholar himself.
(14:33):
He really came to respectAmbrose.
He said, wow, here's someonethat's really smart, he's really
wise, a great scholar, and hebelieves in Jesus and the
Catholic Church.
And so they had a lot ofconversation and God used those
conversations with Ambrose tobring Augustine to his
conversion.
And I think that's true in manycases.
Maybe your old friend from highschool is not going to listen
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to you, maybe your brother thatyou grew up with is not going to
listen to you, maybe your childis not going to listen to you.
But you can pray to God thatGod will bring him an ambrose,
somebody else, that God will putsomeone else in this person's
life to be a witness to thetruth.
So pray for an ambrose, praythat God brings that person into
your loved one's life.
Sixth commandment you shall notjust give them a book.
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This is a funny one, but I hadto put it in there.
I had to single this out.
You shall not just give them abook or a talk or a video.
I say this because so oftenwhen I'm out speaking, someone
will come up and meet meafterwards and they'll say, dr
Shree, which book of yoursshould I give to my son?
Or which book should I go buyto give to my sister.
And I kind of just smile on theinside and I just pause and I
(15:41):
say, hey, tell me why you thinkthey should read a book.
And then I ask them some otherquestions.
I say do you think they'llactually read a book if you give
it to them?
And many times all of a suddenthe person will say oh yeah,
you're right, they probablywon't read the book.
Now don't get me wrong.
I've written many books andmany of you have told me how
(16:06):
much my books have made adifference in your walk with the
Lord.
And I hear stories of peoplewho've read a Scott Hahn book or
a Fulton Sheen book and itchanged their life.
And God uses that.
I believe that.
At the same time, I think inmany cases a book isn't going to
solve the problem.
In other words, especially ifyou don't have a relationship
with them, if they don't trustyou, if you haven't won the
right to be heard, you comingand giving them a book might
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just be another thing, like oh,there goes my Catholic friend.
You know, he's super religious,he's always giving me books.
Or there goes mom.
Again, she's always giving me abook.
You know it might not bereceived well.
Now again, you may have afriend or family member that
loves dialoguing with you aboutreligion and really will read a
book.
Go for it.
And sometimes I think onoccasion it's okay to even give
that person a book, even if youdon't think they're going to
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read it.
But they'll keep it on theirshelf and then at a certain
moment of their life, whenthey're going through a great
trial or they've got a questionthat they didn't have before,
maybe they'll grab that book.
I hear stories of that.
So I'm not saying never give abook, but don't think that
that's the silver bullet.
You know, like I'll just givethem a book and they'll read
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this book and then they'lloryprayer.
It's easier to give a book thanit is to offer sacrifices of the
things you like.
It's easier to give a book thanit is to give of your time,
your heart and your very self.
And that's what's moreimportant, which leads to the
seventh commandment Thou shallbe incarnational.
What do I mean by that?
The incarnation God took onhuman flesh.
He became man.
He became man, he became one ofus.
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Even though we turned away fromhim, he came and sought us out.
He entered into our world.
He didn't say, oh, come up tome in heaven.
No, he entered into our world.
And you see this in Jesus'spublic ministry.
He's not sitting in thesynagogue waiting for people to
come to him.
He's not handing out flyers andsaying, hey, go hear my talk in
the synagogue tomorrow evening.
No, he's going out and spendingtime with the people.
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He's spending time with themover meals.
He goes to the tax collector'soffice where Matthew is.
He goes to where the fishermenare on the Sea of Galilee.
He's entering into their world.
Do you do that with the peopleyou love?
Do you enter into their world?
Do you spend time with them andtake an interest in their lives
?
What makes them tick?
What are they really interestedin?
Do you take an interest intheir interests?
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Do you love them enough toreally know their heart?
Well, I think about what St Paulsaid to the Christians in
Thessalonica.
He said we gave not only thegospel but our very selves.
Sometimes I think we're justquick to just want to give
truths of the faith, but wedon't give of ourselves.
So here's a question to askyourself that person you love
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that's away from the church, dothey know that you love them.
Many of us say, oh yeah, I knowthat.
Yeah, they know I love them.
I tell them I love them all thetime.
But here's a second question Dothey know that you know them?
Because do they know that youknow them?
Do you really know them?
Do you know them on the inside?
Do you know what's really goingon in their heart?
Do you know what their hopesare, their fears, their joys,
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their sufferings?
Do you really know them?
And do they know that you knowthem?
Because you can't love them ifyou don't really know them and
they're not going to know youlove them until they first know
you know them.
So go be incarnational themuntil they first know you know
them.
So go be incarnational, enterinto their world, enter into
their heart, spend time withthem, get to know them, get to
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know what they like and get toknow what they're interested in
and their joys and their sorrows.
And then when you speak PopeFrancis makes this beautiful
point then, when you actuallyspeak into their life, you
become a welcome voice, asopposed to just a voice on the
outside just telling them whatto do.
You become the voice of afriend if you really are a
friend and you know them.
Commandment number eight thoushall lead with mercy.
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What do I mean by this?
Oftentimes we're too quick tojust want to focus on truths
like doctrinal truths, moraltruths like the real presence
and the Immaculate Conception.
The Catholic Church is the truechurch, or we're going to talk
about.
You know, cohabitation is wrong, pornography is wrong,
homosexual acts are wrong.
And don't get me wrong, I'mgoing to be clear.
You have to believe those to bea true Christian disciple, but
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we don't have to lead with thosepoints.
You know we never run away fromthem.
When a question comes up, weshould always speak the truth,
but we don't have to lead withthose truths.
And whenever we're talkingabout the faith, we always want
to incorporate the other side ofthe gospel, which is mercy.
We should never talk about themoral truths without reminding
people of mercy.
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Because if all I do is just comeand say cohabitation is wrong,
pornography is wrong, that's nothelpful, because the guy that's
struggling with his pornaddiction probably knows it's
wrong.
He has a sense of helplessness,he feels so ashamed.
Probably he doesn't need tojust hear this is mortal sin.
(20:38):
He needs to hear how much Godloves him, even in the midst of
his sin and his mistakes and hisaddiction.
How much God loves him andwants to help him.
God wants to forgive him.
Addiction how much God loveshim and wants to help him, god
wants to forgive him.
We need to preach how much Godwants to offer forgiveness and
how much God wants to not justforgive but actually offer grace
to help us overcome our sins,our weaknesses and our
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addictions.
This is the point St Bernard ofClairvaux makes.
He says that the main reasonpeople don't turn to God is
because they don't know how kindand gentle and how quick to
forgive he is.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They don't know that about God.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And so don't just talk about the truths all the
time.
Talk a lot about how wonderfulGod is, how loving he is, how
kind he is, how patient he iswith our mistakes, that he knows
we stumble and we fall and he'salways there to help us get up.
Do you talk about that morethan just your favorite
hot-button moral issue in theculture?
Again, I want to be clear.
We shouldn't run away fromthose tough moral issues.
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We have to hold on to them.
But we can't only preach that.
We have to talk about God'slove and how quick he is to
forgive, but we also have totalk about His grace.
That people feel like I justcan't live this Catholic life,
so why bother?
I'm never going to overcomethis addiction, so why do I want
to even bother trying?
They need to know how God, inhis grace, can free us from
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whatever is enslaving us.
The God who made that paralyzedman walk can make you in your
area of life where you feelparalyzed and just not able to
walk.
He can make you walk again.
That's our God.
Let's talk about how great ourGod is and his power and his
love and his mercy.
Ninth commandment thou shall notcompromise your faith.
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I've already just touched onthat, and I just want to
highlight this one, becausesometimes we could be afraid of
what other people think oh, if Isay this, are they going to be
mad.
And so if someone does ask us aquestion about a tough moral
issue, we should not run awayfrom it.
We should speak what the churchteaches, with the caveat of
what I just said bring italongside the gospel of God's
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love and his mercy and hisforgiveness and his grace to
heal us.
But we should always remainfaithful to Jesus and never fear
, never be afraid of what otherpeople are going to think.
Be faithful to Jesus.
Last commandment, 10thcommandment thou shall pray for
the opportunity to share thegospel.
You know, pray for that.
Really, just say, lord, I prayfor the chance to have the
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conversation.
Maybe I can't talk to thisperson right now, maybe I need
to build up the friendship,maybe I need to build up trust,
but I pray at one point I canhave that conversation and if
you pray, it'll happen, if youbeg God, god help me to open up
a door for me to speak in tothis person's life and share the
gospel.
And it can be in a simple way.
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You don't have to like memorizethe catechism to do this.
You can just you know someone,your friend is going through
great suffering and you couldshare with them a Bible verse
and you can just say, hey, Iknow, you're going through a
really hard time in it.
This is, this is tough and Iwant to just share with you.
Here's a scripture verse thathelped me when I was going
through a great, a great triallike this.
Maybe you want to know theKerygma more.
(23:45):
You want to be able to know thegospel message better so that
when these conversations come upyou can bring in parts of the
gospel message.
If you want to learn more aboutthe Kerygma, you can go back to
the podcast series I did August20th through September 17th of
this year, 2024.
I did a five part series allwalking through the gospel what
is the Catholic gospel, theKerygma?
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You can also go tofocusequiporg.
They have many free resourceson how to share the gospel, how
to share the faith.
But just know that you canshare from your own experience.
You don't have to be an expert.
Training makes you better, butif you've encountered Christ,
you've experienced how Jesus hasmade a difference in your life.
You can share from that.
So thou shall pray for theopportunity to share the gospel
(24:30):
with the one you love.
Now, I hope this has beenhelpful here If you want to
learn more about my podcast andget in your inbox each week with
the show notes.
You can type all thingsCatholic and text that to 33777.
That's all things Catholic.
One word to 33777.
And if you want to learn moreabout the SEEK conference this
January, go to seekfocusorg.
That's seekfocusorg.
(24:51):
That's seekfocusorg.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Thank you for joining us for this episode.
We hope you learned somethingand encountered Christ in some
way.
If you enjoy what we do, pleasesubscribe and share this
podcast with a friend.
This helps us reach more peoplewith and for Christ.
Until next time, this is JohnMichael Peace.
Welcome to the Seek Podcast, where we explore faith,
inspire hope and buildcommunity.
My name is John Michael Lucidoand I'm excited to invite you to
join us this season as we diveinto topics about the faith with
people from all over theCatholic world.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode.
Know that we are praying foryou.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi, I'm Edward Sri and welcome to All Things
Catholic, where real faith meetsreal life.
Do you have friends or familymembers who are away from the
Catholic Church?
Maybe they stopped practicingtheir faith, or maybe they just
never came to know Christ in apersonal way.
(00:42):
Do you long to bring them back?
Do you long for them toexperience how much friendship
with Christ and living as aCatholic makes all the
difference in our lives?
Of course we do.
We want to do that, but many ofus are not sure how.
I don't know how.
I don't know what to do.
I'm afraid I don't know what tosay.
I don't want to get it wrong.
I don't want to drive them away.
(01:10):
What do I do?
Well, that's what we're goingto take a look at in this week's
podcast.
We're going to consider 10commandments of what to do and
not to do when we share ourfaith with those we love.
So welcome to All ThingsCatholic.
I'm your host, edward Sri, andI want to give a special shout
out to anyone checking out theshow for the first time.
Thanks for being with us.
Hope you enjoy the show.
If you want to learn more aboutthe All Things Catholic podcast
, you want to get the show notesthat I give each week comes out
every Tuesday.
You can get the show notes bysimply texting All Things
(01:33):
Catholic to 33777.
So text All Things Catholic oneword, all Things Catholic to
33777, and you can get thepodcast in your inbox each week,
as well as the show notes.
Now, before I get into these TenCommandments, I want to share
with you something I'm reallyexcited about, something that's
coming up here soon.
I want you just to imagine thisscene.
(01:53):
Picture 20,000 young peoplegathered together in a big arena
, not for a rock concert, notfor a sporting event, but to
fall on their knees and worshipJesus in Eucharistic adoration.
Imagine thousands and thousandsof them going in a long,
mile-long line to confession.
Imagine them going to dailymass with hundreds of priests
(02:14):
and religious and seminarians.
Imagine them hearing amazingtalks by Father Mike and Sister
Miriam and Curtis Martin andJason Everett and others, and
imagine that this gathering isnot just for college students,
but there's also thousands andthousands of adults and lay
leaders and moms and dads allcoming to the Focus Seek
Conference, january 1st through5th in Salt Lake City.
(02:36):
So that's what I'm so excitedabout.
If you could please pray, thereare many young people right now
making decisions whether or notthey're going to go, many of
them preparing their hearts andminds to encounter Christ in a
profound way.
We hear about so manyconversions.
I've met so many priests whotold me they had their
conversion at SEEK or they wentto the SEEK conference and
that's when they sensed the callfrom God to become a priest.
(02:59):
So please pray for theconference, but I also want to
invite you because, as I said,it's not just for college
students.
Please pray for the conference,but I also want to invite you
because, as I said, it's notjust for college students.
We get thousands of adults thatcome, whether they're
professional adults working inthe church as a DRE, a youth
minister, a campus minister or aCatholic school teacher, or
just ordinary lay people thatare moms and dads trying to pass
(03:20):
on the faith in the home, ormaybe parents that are in a
small group with other parents.
And it's a great gathering.
And there's a special track wehave called the Making
Missionary Disciples track,which is awesome, where you can
go to the general sessions andhear the great talks by Father
Mike and Sister Miriam and thekeynotes in the evening, and go
to the big masses with all thecollege students in the morning,
(03:41):
but then during the day, whenthe college students are going
to their special talks forchastity and dating
relationships, you can go to theMaking Missionary Disciples
track, which is about how welive our faith as disciples in
the modern world today, asadults, and how we practically
can be trained to share ourfaith more effectively with
others, in the workplace, in ourparish, in our own homes, with
(04:03):
our own children.
So you can check this all outat seekfocusorg.
That's seekfocusorg, the SEEKconference, january 1st through
5th in Salt Lake.
Now we're talking about 10commandments for how to share
the faith with those we love,and I want to be clear.
There's many other points youcould bring in.
I'm just going to zoom in on 10today, but it was really fun to
(04:24):
think about these.
I'm going to start off with thefirst commandment Thou shall
have hope.
Thou shall have hope.
As I travel all over the world,I meet many parents that are so
sad that their children haveturned away from the church.
Or I meet many people that areso sad that their friend, their
old roommate, is no longerpracticing the faith, and our
(04:44):
temptation is to lose hope, andthat's exactly what the devil
wants.
He wants us to get discouraged,he wants us to despair and give
up praying and sacrificing andtrying to evangelize.
And we want to remember twothings.
We want to remember, first ofall, that soul was made for God.
That person you love, no matterhow confident they may seem,
(05:05):
joyful and happy they may seemon the outside, know that they
were made for God.
Their souls are made for Godand if they don't have God, then
there's going to be somethingin their soul that's off,
something out of order, out ofharmony, there's something
missing, and that's God in theirlife.
So while on the outside theymay look very confident and they
(05:27):
have it all together and theydon't need God, deep down, just
know the truth that there'ssomething off in their soul,
that there's a certain sorrow, acertain restlessness, a certain
yearning for something more, nomatter how much they give the
appearance that they don't needreligion, they don't need the
church, they don't need God.
I think about the great StAugustine.
(05:47):
You may know his story.
Augustine was a very successfulman.
On the outside it looked likehe was so happy, he had
everything.
He had success, he had a lot ofwealth, he had a lot of fame,
he had a vibrant social life.
He had premarital sex andpleasure.
From the Roman pagan standardsof his time it looked like this
was the guy that had it all, andso of course he must be happy.
(06:10):
But on the inside he wasn't,and he writes about this in his
autobiography, the Confessions.
He writes about how he wassearching for peace, for
happiness, and just couldn'tfind it in all the things of
this world.
And he had everything the worldoffered, but he was looking for
more.
And he says in the beautifulopening paragraph of the
confessions he says you havemade us for yourself, o Lord,
(06:33):
and our hearts are restlessuntil they rest in you.
So know that that friend, thatchild, that brother of yours
that's away from the church, hisheart is restless, he's longing
for something more and God canuse that desire that he put in
that man's heart, that woman'sheart, to bring him back to
himself.
Secondly, also just know you'renot the only one trying to
(06:56):
evangelize your friend.
God is, and God is so much moreeffective and powerful than we
are.
God can work miracles.
We should always have hope thatGod can do what we think is
impossible.
Right, because anything wethink is impossible God can do.
The same.
God, who calmed the storms,gave sight to the blind, raised
the dead, can bring back thatloved one to himself and know
(07:18):
that God loves that person morethan you do.
So never give up hope.
Always have hope.
That's the first commandment.
Thou sh Always have hope.
That's the first commandment.
Thou shall have hope.
Second commandment thou shallalways pray and intercede.
Never give up on prayer.
The beautiful power ofintercession, the power of our
prayers are really amazing and Ithink we don't always realize
this.
(07:38):
I'm going to go to a Biblestory from the Gospels, from
Jesus's life, that illustratesthis.
Do you remember that story ofthe paralyzed man?
The paralyzed man can't walk.
So he can't walk to Jesus andhis friends come and they carry
him and they bring him to theroof and they make the hole in
the roof to bring the man downand where Jesus was teaching,
inside this house, and thenJesus heals the man.
(07:59):
But do you know why he healedthe man?
It says that his friends werethe ones that brought him and he
decided to heal the paralyzedman.
Notice, the paralyzed mandidn't walk there by himself.
He's paralyzed, can't do that.
His friends brought him toJesus and Jesus saw their faith.
(08:20):
Notice, the gospel zooms in anddoesn't say that he saw the
faith of this poor paralyzed man.
The paralyzed man, when he'sbrought down, doesn't reach out
his arm to Jesus and say heal meplease.
We don't get a reference tothat.
Instead, the Bible tells usJesus saw their faith, his
friend's faith, and he healedhim.
(08:40):
Here's my question for you Doyou bring your friends, your
loved ones, to Jesus?
Do you love your friends somuch you bring them to Jesus in
prayer, in intercessory prayer,and does Jesus see your faith?
Does he see your longing, yourheart pouring out in prayer,
interceding for them?
Does he see your faith?
Because that's what he did withthe paralyzed man.
(09:01):
He saw their faith and then hehealed the paralyzed man.
If Jesus sees your faithconstantly pouring out in
intercessory prayer, he may healthe one you love and bring him
back to himself.
Okay, third commandment Thoushall offer sacrifices.
Now, this, I love this one here.
Many times when I'm meetingpeople as I'm giving, doing
speaking events around thecountry, I hear people say
(09:23):
things like you know, oh, drShreya, what do I do for my
child or my brother or my uncle?
And you know, I pray for them.
I'm praying for them and I say,do you offer sacrifices for
them?
And I could tell many of themare like, um, I hadn't thought
about that and I love it.
They're good, they really werepraying for the ones they love.
And that's a good first step.
But Jesus invites us to do moreand that's my question for you
(09:50):
Are you willing to offersacrifices for the ones you love
?
Do you love them enough to givethings up for them?
Give things up, things you like, Do you offer penances for them
?
When we make little sacrificesthe traditional practice of
offering a mortification,offering penance for other
people God uses it.
It is a really powerfulinstrument of evangelization and
it's not enough just to prayfor those we love, do we offer
(10:11):
sacrifices for them?
So here's my question for youDo you love that person in your
life that's away from the church?
Do you love them more than yourfavorite latte, your favorite
coffee?
Nothing wrong with a latte,nothing wrong with a coffee.
But could you give up yourfavorite drink for a month for
the sake of the soul of theperson you love?
Could you give up your favoritebeer for the person you love?
(10:32):
Could you give up your favoritebeer for the person you love?
Can you give up your favoritechocolate?
Do you love that soul more thanyour favorite sports team, your
favorite show?
In other words, could you giveup watching your sports team for
one season?
Man, that would be really hard.
Okay, maybe that's really hard.
So how about this?
Could you just give up watchingone game a month, you know,
(10:53):
like, okay, the first game ofevery month we're not going to
watch?
Do you love that person in yourlife more than your favorite
thing?
And when we offer up the thingsthat are dear to us, things that
are good, they're not bad, weoffer it up.
That's a generous sacrifice.
We can unite it with Jesus'ssacrifice on the cross, uniting
it in his sacrifice, madepresent at the mass.
And that is the highest form ofprayer, the sacrifice, the mass
(11:16):
.
And we can unite all of ourworks, all of our joys, all of
our sufferings, all of oursacrifices with Jesus at every
mass.
So thou shall offer sacrificesto be at number four.
Thou shall not be anxious andpressuring.
Do not be anxious.
We should never be anxious.
But too often when we're worriedabout someone we love, we have
a close friend, maybe it's ourspouse, maybe it's a child we
(11:40):
can just get really anxious andwe lose our inner peace.
We lose that calm confidencethat comes from trust in the
Lord.
Do I really trust the Lord?
Do I really trust that thisperson is in the Lord's hands?
And it's not up to me, becauseit's often very self-reliant,
very prideful, I think.
When there's anxiety aboutwhat's going to happen with my
(12:00):
kids, it seems like I'm justloving my kids, but many times
it's just I want to be incontrol.
I don't like this situation.
It's frustrating me and I'manxious.
And look, others are going topick up on our anxiety, whether
it's a friend, a child, arelative.
They're going to pick up on ourlack of peace because we can't
help ourselves.
We feel like we have to fixthem, we have to manage them, we
(12:21):
have to control them.
I have to say something, I haveto do something.
All of this is rooted in panicand fear, and that won't work
well.
God can use us as an instrumentof evangelization.
The more we have that innercalm and peace about the
situation, the more we rely onhim and trust in him.
Otherwise, when we're anxious,what happens is we'll end up
(12:42):
pressuring the person they'regoing to pick up and feeling
like we're just pressuring them.
We're forcing them to go tomass or try and make them feel
guilty, you know, for not goingto mass, or make them feel
guilty for living with theirgirlfriend, and we're putting
pressure on them and we alwaysare anxiously having to bring
something up.
We have to talk about the faith.
Maybe we don't always have tobring things up all the time.
I think about what St Ambroseonce said to Monica Monica.
(13:06):
St Monica was the mother of StAugustine and she was so sad
that her son had turned awayfrom the church and she was very
anxious about it and just verysorrowful and crying.
And she's going to Ambrose, whowas a bishop, and saying the
situation needs to change.
Can you go talk to him?
And Ambrose just kind of smiles.
I can imagine him smiling andhe says to Monica, maybe it's
(13:28):
time you spoke to Augustine lessabout God and time that you
spoke more to God aboutAugustine.
I love that.
Maybe it's time you spoke toAugustine less about God and
time you spoke more to God aboutAugustine.
Otherwise, you're always tryingto talk to Augustine, you're
trying to bring him back and youcould just imagine a mom
(13:49):
constantly going after her sonlike this.
The son's not going to respondwell and that's why sometimes
maybe it's more prudent to notspeak up all the time, because
that's coming from a place ofanxiety.
So thou shall not be anxiousand pressuring.
All right, the next commandmentwe're going to turn to.
I want to take a look atcommandment number five.
Thou shall pray for an Ambrose.
(14:11):
I think that's one thing wecould see from the story is, you
know, monica wasn't the primaryperson.
God used to break throughAugustine's his hard heartedness
and his mind was filled withmany heresies and false ideas,
and it was Ambrose that God used.
Ambrose was a bishop and he wasa great scholar, a great
intellect, and because Augustinewas a great scholar himself.
(14:33):
He really came to respectAmbrose.
He said, wow, here's someonethat's really smart, he's really
wise, a great scholar, and hebelieves in Jesus and the
Catholic Church.
And so they had a lot ofconversation and God used those
conversations with Ambrose tobring Augustine to his
conversion.
And I think that's true in manycases.
Maybe your old friend from highschool is not going to listen
(14:56):
to you, maybe your brother thatyou grew up with is not going to
listen to you, maybe your childis not going to listen to you.
But you can pray to God thatGod will bring him an ambrose,
somebody else, that God will putsomeone else in this person's
life to be a witness to thetruth.
So pray for an ambrose, praythat God brings that person into
your loved one's life.
Sixth commandment you shall notjust give them a book.
(15:18):
This is a funny one, but I hadto put it in there.
I had to single this out.
You shall not just give them abook or a talk or a video.
I say this because so oftenwhen I'm out speaking, someone
will come up and meet meafterwards and they'll say, dr
Shree, which book of yoursshould I give to my son?
Or which book should I go buyto give to my sister.
And I kind of just smile on theinside and I just pause and I
(15:41):
say, hey, tell me why you thinkthey should read a book.
And then I ask them some otherquestions.
I say do you think they'llactually read a book if you give
it to them?
And many times all of a suddenthe person will say oh yeah,
you're right, they probablywon't read the book.
Now don't get me wrong.
I've written many books andmany of you have told me how
(16:06):
much my books have made adifference in your walk with the
Lord.
And I hear stories of peoplewho've read a Scott Hahn book or
a Fulton Sheen book and itchanged their life.
And God uses that.
I believe that.
At the same time, I think inmany cases a book isn't going to
solve the problem.
In other words, especially ifyou don't have a relationship
with them, if they don't trustyou, if you haven't won the
right to be heard, you comingand giving them a book might
(16:27):
just be another thing, like oh,there goes my Catholic friend.
You know, he's super religious,he's always giving me books.
Or there goes mom.
Again, she's always giving me abook.
You know it might not bereceived well.
Now again, you may have afriend or family member that
loves dialoguing with you aboutreligion and really will read a
book.
Go for it.
And sometimes I think onoccasion it's okay to even give
that person a book, even if youdon't think they're going to
(16:48):
read it.
But they'll keep it on theirshelf and then at a certain
moment of their life, whenthey're going through a great
trial or they've got a questionthat they didn't have before,
maybe they'll grab that book.
I hear stories of that.
So I'm not saying never give abook, but don't think that
that's the silver bullet.
You know, like I'll just givethem a book and they'll read
(17:09):
this book and then they'lloryprayer.
It's easier to give a book thanit is to offer sacrifices of the
things you like.
It's easier to give a book thanit is to give of your time,
your heart and your very self.
And that's what's moreimportant, which leads to the
seventh commandment Thou shallbe incarnational.
What do I mean by that?
The incarnation God took onhuman flesh.
He became man.
He became man, he became one ofus.
(17:29):
Even though we turned away fromhim, he came and sought us out.
He entered into our world.
He didn't say, oh, come up tome in heaven.
No, he entered into our world.
And you see this in Jesus'spublic ministry.
He's not sitting in thesynagogue waiting for people to
come to him.
He's not handing out flyers andsaying, hey, go hear my talk in
the synagogue tomorrow evening.
No, he's going out and spendingtime with the people.
(17:50):
He's spending time with themover meals.
He goes to the tax collector'soffice where Matthew is.
He goes to where the fishermenare on the Sea of Galilee.
He's entering into their world.
Do you do that with the peopleyou love?
Do you enter into their world?
Do you spend time with them andtake an interest in their lives
?
What makes them tick?
What are they really interestedin?
Do you take an interest intheir interests?
(18:12):
Do you love them enough toreally know their heart?
Well, I think about what St Paulsaid to the Christians in
Thessalonica.
He said we gave not only thegospel but our very selves.
Sometimes I think we're justquick to just want to give
truths of the faith, but wedon't give of ourselves.
So here's a question to askyourself that person you love
(18:33):
that's away from the church, dothey know that you love them.
Many of us say, oh yeah, I knowthat.
Yeah, they know I love them.
I tell them I love them all thetime.
But here's a second question Dothey know that you know them?
Because do they know that youknow them?
Do you really know them?
Do you know them on the inside?
Do you know what's really goingon in their heart?
Do you know what their hopesare, their fears, their joys,
(18:54):
their sufferings?
Do you really know them?
And do they know that you knowthem?
Because you can't love them ifyou don't really know them and
they're not going to know youlove them until they first know
you know them.
So go be incarnational themuntil they first know you know
them.
So go be incarnational, enterinto their world, enter into
their heart, spend time withthem, get to know them, get to
(19:15):
know what they like and get toknow what they're interested in
and their joys and their sorrows.
And then when you speak PopeFrancis makes this beautiful
point then, when you actuallyspeak into their life, you
become a welcome voice, asopposed to just a voice on the
outside just telling them whatto do.
You become the voice of afriend if you really are a
friend and you know them.
Commandment number eight thoushall lead with mercy.
(19:37):
What do I mean by this?
Oftentimes we're too quick tojust want to focus on truths
like doctrinal truths, moraltruths like the real presence
and the Immaculate Conception.
The Catholic Church is the truechurch, or we're going to talk
about.
You know, cohabitation is wrong, pornography is wrong,
homosexual acts are wrong.
And don't get me wrong, I'mgoing to be clear.
You have to believe those to bea true Christian disciple, but
(19:57):
we don't have to lead with thosepoints.
You know we never run away fromthem.
When a question comes up, weshould always speak the truth,
but we don't have to lead withthose truths.
And whenever we're talkingabout the faith, we always want
to incorporate the other side ofthe gospel, which is mercy.
We should never talk about themoral truths without reminding
people of mercy.
(20:18):
Because if all I do is just comeand say cohabitation is wrong,
pornography is wrong, that's nothelpful, because the guy that's
struggling with his pornaddiction probably knows it's
wrong.
He has a sense of helplessness,he feels so ashamed.
Probably he doesn't need tojust hear this is mortal sin.
(20:38):
He needs to hear how much Godloves him, even in the midst of
his sin and his mistakes and hisaddiction.
How much God loves him andwants to help him.
God wants to forgive him.
Addiction how much God loveshim and wants to help him, god
wants to forgive him.
We need to preach how much Godwants to offer forgiveness and
how much God wants to not justforgive but actually offer grace
to help us overcome our sins,our weaknesses and our
(21:01):
addictions.
This is the point St Bernard ofClairvaux makes.
He says that the main reasonpeople don't turn to God is
because they don't know how kindand gentle and how quick to
forgive he is.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They don't know that about God.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And so don't just talk about the truths all the
time.
Talk a lot about how wonderfulGod is, how loving he is, how
kind he is, how patient he iswith our mistakes, that he knows
we stumble and we fall and he'salways there to help us get up.
Do you talk about that morethan just your favorite
hot-button moral issue in theculture?
Again, I want to be clear.
We shouldn't run away fromthose tough moral issues.
(21:36):
We have to hold on to them.
But we can't only preach that.
We have to talk about God'slove and how quick he is to
forgive, but we also have totalk about His grace.
That people feel like I justcan't live this Catholic life,
so why bother?
I'm never going to overcomethis addiction, so why do I want
to even bother trying?
They need to know how God, inhis grace, can free us from
(21:58):
whatever is enslaving us.
The God who made that paralyzedman walk can make you in your
area of life where you feelparalyzed and just not able to
walk.
He can make you walk again.
That's our God.
Let's talk about how great ourGod is and his power and his
love and his mercy.
Ninth commandment thou shall notcompromise your faith.
(22:19):
I've already just touched onthat, and I just want to
highlight this one, becausesometimes we could be afraid of
what other people think oh, if Isay this, are they going to be
mad.
And so if someone does ask us aquestion about a tough moral
issue, we should not run awayfrom it.
We should speak what the churchteaches, with the caveat of
what I just said bring italongside the gospel of God's
(22:41):
love and his mercy and hisforgiveness and his grace to
heal us.
But we should always remainfaithful to Jesus and never fear
, never be afraid of what otherpeople are going to think.
Be faithful to Jesus.
Last commandment, 10thcommandment thou shall pray for
the opportunity to share thegospel.
You know, pray for that.
Really, just say, lord, I prayfor the chance to have the
(23:03):
conversation.
Maybe I can't talk to thisperson right now, maybe I need
to build up the friendship,maybe I need to build up trust,
but I pray at one point I canhave that conversation and if
you pray, it'll happen, if youbeg God, god help me to open up
a door for me to speak in tothis person's life and share the
gospel.
And it can be in a simple way.
(23:24):
You don't have to like memorizethe catechism to do this.
You can just you know someone,your friend is going through
great suffering and you couldshare with them a Bible verse
and you can just say, hey, Iknow, you're going through a
really hard time in it.
This is, this is tough and Iwant to just share with you.
Here's a scripture verse thathelped me when I was going
through a great, a great triallike this.
Maybe you want to know theKerygma more.
(23:45):
You want to be able to know thegospel message better so that
when these conversations come upyou can bring in parts of the
gospel message.
If you want to learn more aboutthe Kerygma, you can go back to
the podcast series I did August20th through September 17th of
this year, 2024.
I did a five part series allwalking through the gospel what
is the Catholic gospel, theKerygma?
(24:05):
You can also go tofocusequiporg.
They have many free resourceson how to share the gospel, how
to share the faith.
But just know that you canshare from your own experience.
You don't have to be an expert.
Training makes you better, butif you've encountered Christ,
you've experienced how Jesus hasmade a difference in your life.
You can share from that.
So thou shall pray for theopportunity to share the gospel
(24:30):
with the one you love.
Now, I hope this has beenhelpful here If you want to
learn more about my podcast andget in your inbox each week with
the show notes.
You can type all thingsCatholic and text that to 33777.
That's all things Catholic.
One word to 33777.
And if you want to learn moreabout the SEEK conference this
January, go to seekfocusorg.
That's seekfocusorg.
(24:51):
That's seekfocusorg.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Thank you for joining us for this episode.
We hope you learned somethingand encountered Christ in some
way.
If you enjoy what we do, pleasesubscribe and share this
podcast with a friend.
This helps us reach more peoplewith and for Christ.
Until next time, this is JohnMichael Peace.
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