January 9, 2025 • 45 mins
Join us for a vibrant episode of the SEEK Podcast, recorded live from the Max Studios stage in Salt Lake City, featuring the dynamic trio from the Beatitudes podcast—Jeff Schiefelbein, Nick Bezner, and Paul Kolker. This episode dives deep into the intersection of humor and serious faith discussions, with a special appearance by Anthony D’Ambrosio, who shares the compelling story behind his latest film project, “Triumph of the Heart.” The film chronicles the heroic sacrifice of St. Maximilian Kolbe during World War II and its impact on cultural identity and resilience within the Church.
Explore how storytelling and artistic expression play pivotal roles in evangelization and cultural renewal. The conversation also sheds light on the personal journeys of those involved, revealing how personal trials can lead to profound insights about faith, suffering, and the human spirit. This episode is a testament to the power of community and humor in facing life’s challenges, encouraging listeners to find hope and meaning in the legacy of figures like Kolbe and the potential for a modern renaissance in the Church through creativity and faith.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Beatitudes.
Oh yeah, Beatitudes, here we go.
Crank it up there, Kyle.
Hey, ladies and gentlemen,welcome to the Beatitudes.
This is a podcast and amovement for Christian men and,
it turns out, for women too,walking through authentic
fraternity on their way toeternity with Christ.
We are so happy to have a liveaudience.
(00:53):
This is only the second timewe've done this third actually
at a conference but we're goingto involve you later.
But first let me introduce youto the crew.
My name is Jeff Shufflebine.
I'm one of the Beatitudes.
I'm joined by Nick Besner.
I love roller coasters.
You love roller coasters, I do.
You're in for one.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Just a fact.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And I got Paul Kolker on my left and I like short
walks on the beach, and we aretruth, goodness and beauty.
No Sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Hey, if you've ever seen the Beatitudes, or if you
haven't, let me explainsomething to you.
We have been using humor as anaccess point for conversations
that are truly about the thingsthat matter in our life, our
walk with Christ, the strugglesthat we have, the joys, the
triumphs, the trials.
And in a minute we're going tobe hearing from one of our
awesome guests.
He's a returning guest for us,but first I just want to let you
(01:38):
know that how many in here,real quick, have ever heard or
seen the Beatitudes before?
Just quick show of hands or youcan just clap or yell Okay, we
got a couple good ones in here.
Yeah, all right, you're in forwhat you said a roller coaster
of humor and holiness.
What would you say?
Homer-ness, holer-ness, whatabout you, paul?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Loveliness.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Anthony, what is this ?
What is this show?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
It's Catholic.
Whose Line Is it Anyways?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Catholic.
Whose Line Is it?
Anyways, there is some improv.
Hey, and before we get intoknowing Anthony, you came here
today to the Beatitudes and weare going to include you in
today's show.
So, if you don't know this,paul Kolker is actually a
trained professional improvcomedian.
That's correct, and we're goingto include you in this show
through an improv exercise atthe end.
But, paul, you want to explainthis?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
to him yeah, so the way this is going to work is
we're going to be having slipsof paper going around, and so if
you have pens on you, great, Ithink we also have some extra
pens and all that but we needyou to write down phrases or
sentences.
These can be words of wisdom,favorite movie quotes, things
that you would see ondecorations that your mom hangs
in the kitchen.
I'm just like the deepest, mostpowerful, impactful phrases
(02:46):
Live, laugh.
Love might be an example, right, but just don't use that one,
because we always get that one.
But yeah, so if you'll fillthose out, we'll have somebody
coming around collecting thoseslips and then we're going to
use those later in the show.
We're going to continue withthe rest of the show as y'all
are doing that, but feel free.
I believe we've got Jake overhere with the blue hat on
backwards.
We've got John Heinen over here.
(03:07):
He's got the nice man.
Look at that.
He's dressed to kill, that'sright.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And then we got Sophie right here too.
Sophie's helping Thank you Allright, good, well, listen on the
Beatitudes.
We always do this show live andwe're lucky enough to have
Anthony D'Ambrosio here.
We actually go way back.
Who here has heard of theD'Ambrosios Woo?
Somebody?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
jumping up.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
Jumping for joy.
What's?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
up.
Yeah, we got a couple people.
That's awesome, Love this.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
All right, we're going to share a little bit of a
story of Anthony's background,but there is a movie, a
feature-length film, coming outthis year 2025, called Triumph
of the Heart, and it's all aboutMaximilian Kolbe and the nine
other men that entered into thestarvation chamber when Kolbe
replaced another prisoner to goto their death and pass through
(03:56):
it, and Anthony is the writerand director.
He's also our friend and amentor to the Beatitudes A
mentor.
Well, you wore your Beatitudesblue and white today.
This is incredible.
Welcome to the show, anthonyD'Ambrosio.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Thanks for coming back Just to show fans who here
is named Colby or has Colby as aconfirmation.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
saint Say woo All right, all right all right, yeah
right down front.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
We met somebody earlier who has a first-class
relic of Maximilian Kolbe.
I'm going to assume that peoplehave some knowledge, but let's
take a step back.
Who's Maximilian Kolbe first?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Maximilian Kolbe was basically the World War II
Bishop Baron and he was a mediastar and executive.
He started the first Catholicbig media conglomerate in Poland
, had millions of subscribers tohis magazine.
But he's really known now forsaving the life of another man
in Auschwitz, stepping forwardand giving his life so that
another man who had a familycould go free, and he after that
(04:54):
lived for 14 days without foodor water, giving testament
through song and poetry andprayer to the goodness of God in
the midst of Auschwitz.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So you've been doing this project for a couple years,
but this isn't your first diveinto the creative world.
Anthony and his brother yearsago started a movement called
the Catholic Creatives.
Can you just take us back towho's little Anthony that would
be now leading the charge onthis feature-length film about
Colby Like?
Where did you come from?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
So I went to a seminary, at St John Vianney
Seminary in Minnesota, and Ileft that with a philosophy
degree and knew that God wascalling me to something else.
And as one does if you graduateseminary with a philosophy
degree, I face-planted into theadult world with no idea what I
was going to do.
So I did youth ministry, andduring youth ministry you
(05:44):
realized that we needed storiesthat could be told of our saints
, that would show the heroism ofour Catholic culture, and that
there was just not enough ofthat in the world.
And I saw that one of the bigproblems was that our faith
doesn't really do a great job ofsponsoring, promulgating
creativity and artistry.
We're very great at talkingabout truth and we're very good
(06:07):
at outreach, but we're not verygood at promoting those, you
know, people who are a littlebit off the beaten path, who do
a little bit wonkiness and whoare artists that can tell the
truth and goodness of our faiththrough beauty, through stories.
And so I started somethingcalled Catholic Creatives and
that's how I got to know youguys.
Did you know, paul before that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Did you know Paul growing up?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Oh yeah, we actually went to a youth group together
at St Ann's in Texas.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
And then we went to seminary together.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
That's right.
We were in seminary at the sametime for a couple years there
discerning.
At the same time, I think I wasin the chapel praying and you
were dressing up like a pirate,I think.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That did happen multiple times.
I did have the security of theschool get called on me once for
running around with PVC noodlesand we were having ninja
battles, ninja battles, yeah,and they confiscated our pool
noodles and said that we werebearing weapons illegally on
campus.
So you were praying and I wasgetting into trouble illegally
on campus.
So you were praying and I wasgetting into trouble.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Wait, do you have any stories about Paul?
I know Paul prayed, but Pauldid some other stuff too.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Come on, Well, we called him the Punisher because
he made very bad puns.
Still doing that.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yep, yep, big fan of puns the.
Punisher, yes, the Punisherindeed.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Okay, so you used to be one of us.
We're all from DFW, we all goto the same parish.
You used to be local to us andyou left us to go to the great
state of Colorado.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Denver, colorado, baby, we got any Denverites out
there?
We have a few.
Yeah, I mean it's Focusheadquarters.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know youguys are here.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
All 15 of y'all came here.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wow, we got 16 from Dallas.
So, no, we.
This project, though, didn'tstart as a feature length film.
Let's go back to what washappening.
That ended up being that Colbywas going to take over your life
, and you would be so ingrainedwith Colby.
Where did this come from, so?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
I guess, to get very real, I had a faith crisis while
I was doing youth ministry.
I had a girlfriend that I feltlike God had told me that I was
going to get married to.
I was giving my life toministry and I came down with an
illness that was very hard todiagnose and during that time
(08:21):
one of the things that it causedwas chronic insomnia, so I
could only sleep for about 20minutes to an hour a night and
that created this incredible, Iguess, suffering in my life and
I couldn't hold on to my job.
I couldn't do all of the thingsthat I thought that God was
calling me to.
I ended up having to end therelationship because I couldn't
move forward into marriage withthis woman that I love deeply.
(08:46):
And in the midst of that grief Ilost my faith, in the midst of
that, because I couldn't see howa good God could allow
something like that bad tohappen without any real reason
to it, and I was gravitatingtowards this really deep sort of
angst and anger against God.
And in the midst of that Istarted to have these dreams
about St Maximilian Kolbe and Ibegan to realize that Kolbe
(09:11):
entered into the suffering ofthese nine other men.
There was nine other men in thisstarvation bunker that we don't
really talk about very oftenand we talk often about the way
that he saved this life ofanother man who was able to go
free and survive Auschwitz.
But there were nine other menwho were starving to death with
the saint and he had to talkwith them and be with them in
the midst of their grief andtheir suffering and in some ways
(09:33):
I felt like I was one of thosemen.
I was cast into this darknessand this cell of suffering that
I couldn't get out of and Ididn't know if I would ever be
healed.
And the conversations that Ibegan to have with Colby in this
sort of like deep place ofsuffering and of like
sleeplessness.
That became the grounds formaking a short film about St
(09:55):
Maximilian Colby that was toldfrom the perspective of one of
these nine other men who is aPOW in the camp and who had a
love, who was at home and wastrying to get back to and who
ultimately died with Colby.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What was the intent of this short film, Like what
was that used for?
I actually don't even know whatwas happening with this thing.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Yeah, so part of that was that the Diocese of Dallas
had hired my company.
I started a marketing firm lateron and they hired our company
to help them put forward anevent that was like a South by
Southwest outreach to youngadults in Dallas who were not
Catholic, and we were talking alot about the idea that a lot of
people were leaving the faith,not necessarily because of the
(10:35):
big questions of wokeness thatwere coming out around then the
big like hot and buttonpolitical topics, but a lot of
them were leaving because theyfelt like they couldn't ask
life's biggest questions in thecontext of church.
And so we brought forward thiswhole event that was about
asking the biggest, mostdifficult questions of life, of
(10:56):
grief, of grief of doubt, ofsuffering, and we used that
short film as a way to start theconversations there.
We showed it in a theater indowntown Dallas and it was like
this atomic bomb of spiritualgrace went off and all of these
people were going to confession,that were distanced from the
church.
They were coming back, theywere having these open
conversations that they neverthought they could have of
(11:17):
sufferings, of people in theirlives that had committed suicide
, people who had died in theirfamily or gone to prison, things
that they would never havetalked about before, that we're
able to share because of thisfilm, and so we knew that we
needed to make something thatwas even bigger, to share
Colby's story with the world.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Well, and I think you had said with Catholic
creatives to kind of jump backto that stage.
You wanted to start a newrenaissance because that's what
the church had helped foster wayback when.
Right, I mean, that was kind ofthe goal is that art can
evangelize.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
I think that one of the biggest problems that we
have right now in the church isthat we've lost the culture war
and we've been trying to fightit on the terms of the culture
through like argumentation andthrough politics.
And really, when we were thestrongest, when we're most
ourselves, is when we were beingsacramental.
Like our personality as thechurch, our inheritance is
(12:12):
sacraments, and that meanscommunicating grace through
symbol.
The symbol that creates theexpression of the grace that it
signifies, and our art, ourbeauty, is a part of the way
that we do that.
Our cathedrals and our art hasalways been the thing that has
made us the most ourselves, andwe are the most ourselves when
we were doing that.
(12:32):
And I think that if we wereable to create an artistic
culture inside of the faith, wewould find ourselves ramping
back up into the limelight ofculture again if we did that.
So that's what the newrenaissance is all about.
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Here's a question.
So you're talking about thesenine other men.
What do we know about those men?
Did we know about their livesand the details of their
backgrounds?
Were they all Jews that hadbeen put into the consecration
camp Like?
What's the deal with these men?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Yeah.
So this is something that a lotof people don't know is that at
the time, auschwitz, in the verybeginning of the war, it was
founded to destroy the identityof the Polish culture.
Polish culture is, as many ofyou guys know, very Catholic and
very, very nationalistic.
They're a country that's beenconquered over and over and over
and over again, and theirresilience as a culture has been
(13:22):
the way that they've held on tothe cross.
And so the way that they weretrying to destroy the culture of
Poland was by bringing inclergy and the leaders in the
church and the leaders in Polandthat were political leaders who
were also connected to thechurch, to basically dehumanize
them.
Their goal was to completelyrip the humanity away from them,
(13:43):
even as they died, not just tokill them and exterminate them,
but to do so in the way thatshowed them that they had no
humanity to begin with, and thegoal was to therefore subjugate
Poland as a sort of slave stateor vassal state of Germany.
And so they brought in peoplelike Maximilian Kolbe, who were
people who could lead, who werepeople who had followings, and
(14:07):
they brought them all togetherand basically did everything
that they could to make themkill themselves, turn on each
other, etc.
And so Kolbe's story instepping forward to save the
life of another man, it was notjust to save this one man's life
, but to remind everyone inPoland that they could not be
destroyed, that their identityas humans, as Catholics, could
(14:28):
not be destroyed by theoppressors that were coming to
take them over.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, so I remember less than two years ago we hung
out with you in Denver up therefor some event and you let us
know about that short film.
I had never seen it before.
Then I'm gonna turn to Nick fora second.
Nick, do you remember the firsttime you watched the Proof of
Concept Like?
Talk to us about what youexperienced then and how that
helped to catapult where we arenow, 24 months later.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Yeah, that's right.
So saw the short film and thenAnthony's like hey, I have a
script.
I was like let's read it.
This is amazing.
You know, you go through thestory and I think it's so
interesting.
Your is not suffering or thatlife is supposed to be easy, but
it really is.
We have that cross.
And what does that cross looklike?
(15:24):
And what I experienced readingthe script was how it would
apply to anybody who watched thefilm.
Right, you can relate in a way,because no matter where you're
at in your life, in your journey, you've got a cross right Rich,
poor, you know any demographic.
You're going to have some waythat this relates and speaks to
you, and I thought that was thepower of the story.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah, it's one thing that I think that we, our
greatest artists, have alwayshad a lot of darkness in their
art, which is kind ofinteresting, but like you think
about Caravaggio and some of thegreatest pieces of work that
we've seen, it's like alldarkness and then this, like
brilliant light highlighting theperson of the gospel.
You see this in the greatdepiction of the prodigal son
(16:07):
coming home and embracing thefather, and these sorts of art
that were made.
At that point we, as Catholics,we were looking at the darkness
and seeing how the light ofChrist could shine through it.
In our film, one of the thingsthat I really wanted to show is
that all of these men who werein the cell with Colby, these
were people who were just likeus, who had lives, who had
(16:28):
families at home, they haddreams, they had whole stories
that brought them to that pointthat got cut short in the most
brutal, terrifying and horribleway that you could imagine, and
God sent somebody likeMaximilian Kolbe, a saint, to be
(16:50):
with them in the midst of theirsuffering, and for me, it makes
me like tear up every time thatI think about it, knowing that
they were not alone in thesuffering that they went through
.
It's also a testament to thefact that we are not alone in
our own darknesses, and that itgives us the chance to be able
to share about those things andtestify to God's goodness in the
midst of our suffering.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Well, and that's the other thing, like the darkness,
I think, sometimes can scarepeople away.
This is an intense film, right?
This is not.
We know how this ends, right?
It's not.
It's not necessarily a happyending, but it is a very joyful
ending and I think that's thething.
It's like the triumph of theheart, right, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
So you know, I gotta tell you what happened next.
And there's a greatfaithfulness, but all creatives
have this like I'm just gonnamake this up, but almost like a
fraud, complex, like is anybodygonna like this?
And so we watched thing.
By the way, paul's voice was inthe very first one as one of
the Germans coming in and that'sright, roughing up the yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I said I'd like to participate in this film and you
were like how?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
about as a.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
German soldier.
Thanks for that.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Appreciate it.
That's a clip.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So then, uh, what was so wild is we said, can we help
with this?
We literally wrote an email to50 people, held a couple events
with friends in town and nextthing, you know, whoops, you had
all the money you needed tojump on an airplane and fly to
Poland one way.
Yeah, what happened next man?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Well.
So it's really interestingbecause we needed enough money
to buy a house, but without anyreal like here's what that's
going to do.
We had a movie and we had amovie idea, we had a script and
we were like, hey, we need halfa house, we need a whole house,
we need like $400,000 to be ableto get out there and do this.
And, uh, all of you guys helpedus to raise that.
Uh, it came so much faster thanI thought that it would come
(18:28):
and all of a sudden I was like,oh wow, oh my gosh, this is
commitment.
So we had enough to get outthere.
We bought one-way tickets toPoland because we knew that we
needed to make the movie inKowli's hometown and we had to
find actors and we had to findlocations, we had to find
(18:50):
costumes all of these things tobe able to create a film.
And in the midst of that we hadthese big shoots where we had
to recreate Auschwitz.
Hundreds of people that were intown for these days and we had
a freak snow.
That happened.
It was the middle of Septemberit's not a time that it snows
normally in Poland.
We were like what's the worstthat could possibly happen?
(19:11):
And it would be that snow wouldcome down during those two days
.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Wait real quick.
That snow would come downduring those two days.
Wait real quick.
You've never heard a grown mancry on the phone like Anthony
when the snow was coming.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Oh, come on, jeff, it was a few tears.
I had onions that I waschopping while we were talking.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
That's what it was.
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
But yeah, basically, as the snow happened, it meant
that we needed to raise another$50,000 in order to reschedule
hundreds of people close downthe city streets.
All of that that we had to doin order to be able to reshoot
this couple of days.
And there were lots of otherthings that happened like that
(19:49):
that we needed God'sintervention directly to get
through, and you guys were bighelps to me as I was facing the
you know, I guess, the cliffthat I was like, standing on,
looking down, like there's noway that I can pull this off and
, as one does, god always bringspeople into your life that can
help you, kind of encourage youthrough it.
And Jeff made a couple of phonecalls and was like I got you
(20:11):
the money, let's make thishappen.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Do you know?
I think about this film becausethe story of these men you have
these firsthand accounts ofwhat people could hear from the
cells or the janitor coming in.
There was a camaraderie formed,there was a fraternity formed.
They were in this togetherinstead of turning on one
another.
But my question is this youwere not filming in easy
(20:36):
conditions, you didn't have theluxury of a Hollywood lot, you
didn't have a lot of things.
What was it like for the crew,for the actors, for the locals,
to experience the making of this?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, you think about what a movie has to do.
It's trying to recreate thesemoments of real life, and the
closer you can get to thereality, the more real it seems.
And God in some way, I think,always creates a space when
you're trying to give your lifeto him as an artist.
He makes you relive the thingthat he wants you to learn
(21:11):
through the course of making thething, and for us, that meant
we didn't have enough money inorder to do any of what we were
trying to do.
I had people who looked at thescript and they were like you
need at least $2 million to dothis, and we were trying to do
it for 400,000.
And what that meant for us wasthat we were living in hostels
where it was just literallythere was not even a kitchen.
(21:31):
We had 100 people packed into aroom where all we had were cots
, like no sofas, one bathroom,and we've got 100 people in this
place and all of us were insome way living joyfully in the
midst of all of that poverty andwe were learning what Colby had
to learn.
(21:51):
You know he was a missionarythat was very accustomed to
suffering.
He went to Japan Like thinkabout this Speaking Polish,
which is one of the hardestlanguages ever in the history of
the world to learn.
It's got like 10 consonants init per sound.
So you think about, like whatis the sound that C-Z-H-S-P make
when you're reading a letter?
Like it's amazing?
(22:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Then you go this guy is like I'mgoing to go to Japan, which is
the second hardest language tolearn, and I'm going to
translate my Polish newspaperwithout Google Translate into
Japanese, and I'm going to dothat with no money and like
three other Franciscan friars inone of the most hostile
(22:33):
environments to Christianitythat the world knows.
And so he knew what it was liketo be on mission with other
people suffering with him, andthat's what we got to learn.
We were, we had to literallythe actors had to starve to
death together.
We had to be on an Auschwitzstarvation, less than 1,000
calories per day diet in orderto get down slim enough to be
(22:56):
believable.
So we would do that, even Iwould do the diet with them.
We had to shave all of the hairoff of our heads and kind of
enter into that sort ofmilitaristic, dehumanized, like
our personalities all blendingtogether kind of sense.
We were in a prison that wasdamp and dark, that had no AC,
for October, november, actingout these incredibly terrifying,
(23:20):
difficult scenes together allday, every day, and so you would
think it would create thisincredibly intense, heavy
culture, but it was the opposite.
At the end of the day, after wejust are coming back and we
don't even have enough money fordinner and we're just eating
soup.
And we're coming back home justlike singing Disney songs and
(23:40):
like having the best time of ourlives.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So that's what it was like.
People think, oh, you're makinga movie, so that's so glamorous
right Luxury Hollywoodlifestyle yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
We got the trailer where we got you know, all the
fun stuff and, like snacks,gotta go to makeup.
We could not afford any of that.
Literally we were.
We were across the street froma mall and this old person that
had no power and we had to runone extension cable all the way
across the parking lot to plugin and we couldn't have the
light and the heat.
We had a little space heaterthat was like that's the one
(24:12):
heater we have, so like any timethat we finished a scene and
said cut, we had to like unplugthe light and plug the space
heater back in and get blanketsover the guys so that people
would like not get sick.
So that's, those are theconditions we were working in,
it's like method acting turnedinto method producing.
We're just going to raise, justenough money to keep you alive.
Yeah, but these are the sort ofsacrifices you know that you
(24:35):
have to make if you want to dosomething for the Lord.
That is like absolutely unique.
That's never been done before.
That's completely off thebeaten path.
I think God wants you to belike without enough to be able
to prove that he's the onebehind it.
That's just.
You see the story of God's workthroughout the Old Testament.
It's always the little guy thatdoesn't have enough that God
(24:56):
uses to turn the tables on.
You know the culture.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, david and Goliath, or I mean, or in my
weakness, he is made strong.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Right yeah absolutely .
Story of Gideon.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
you know your first film ever to make of long form,
and you decided to do it inPoland.
Yeah, what have you learned orbeen surprised like?
What are the surprises, goodand bad, that have come to you
over this last 24 months?
I would say?
Speaker 5 (25:21):
that one of the biggest surprises is just that
when you have a dream and youhave something on your heart
that God is giving to you, godwill give you the resources that
you need, no matter howimpossible it is, if you step
forward in faith.
And that, to me, has been thebiggest surprise.
I think you know how kind ofsmall my brain was when I was
(25:43):
first thinking about the film.
I was like can we do this formaybe like $250,000 in Dallas,
we can find a little thing thatwe can.
It's like God kept onstretching the dream over and
over and over and over again,because I was still immature in
my faith, where I couldn't dreamas big as God was dreaming, and
I think that that has been thebiggest lesson that God has
(26:04):
taught me.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Walk on the water.
Yeah, get out of the boat.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
See with the eyes of the Lord.
There's a lot more abundance inhis camp than there is in mine,
and I just have to be able tolook at the world around me
through the eyes of the kingdomand not through my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Anthony, is it fair to say, like what you went
through physically and then yourspiritual crisis and then
finding Colby and locking intothe Colby story.
It's kind of two-part questionhere.
Number one how much of thismovie is actually about your
walk with Colby?
When I think about being one ofthe nine in that cell?
And I would also then say, howmuch do you see that Colby took
(26:43):
that leap of faith that you tookover and over with printing
presses and moves and newcommunities?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great question.
Like every saint, you heartheir story and that story is
almost always a snapshot oftheir life, like the ending
snapshot.
That's, like you know, theharvesting of their life.
But before that, there's all ofthese moments in silence and
the secret of God bringing thatperson forward just one little
(27:10):
step in faith.
And my story is very much tiedto the story that I'm telling,
like God saved me, the same waythat Colby saved these other men
through the working of, throughthis story, through bringing me
into this story and showing mewhat it looks like to suffer
(27:31):
well, and I would say that mylife is, at this stage, is so
deeply formed by it that itfeels like God.
Colby met me in my cell and Ihave therefore been ministered
to by him, and I'm now givingout of what Colby gave me, like
I was discipled in some way byhim.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I got to tell you this is getting heavy, so I
would like to lighten it up witha little game.
Let's do it.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
The game is called Blessed are the Jokemakers, for
they shall inherit the 102points.
It's a big one, 102 points.
How?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
does this work, Paul?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
The way this is going to work is we've got a
character card and a card fromthe Catholic card game and we're
going to answer the prompt onthe Catholic card game as this
character.
So we have to just try to makethis work.
In the moment we're going tocome up with it and the
character we have to become Waitwait, so real quick, each one
of us is going to go.
Oh yeah, we're going to each doour own version.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
But, anthony, are you playing or are?
Speaker 5 (28:27):
you going to judge?
Oh, I'm so into it.
Yeah, I'm playing.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We actually need y'all at which is that how they
say it?
A show of applause.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
A round of applause.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, a show of your hands how who won.
So we'll go through this andliterally this is improv.
We don't know what's coming outnext, so go for it.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
So, as a person who is stuck in the decade of your
choice, the topic of the nextpapal encyclical is you can't
(29:09):
think this long.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
You got to dive in.
Here's mine.
All right, stop Substantiateand listen.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I got nothing.
I got nothing.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I'm going eyesight's baby.
I would say, stuck in the 60s,that you know it'd be Fides et
Ratio.
I think it really dives intoboth the faith and the reason.
And when you put those twotogether.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It's kind of mind-blowing, bro.
Bro, what Latin did you justuse?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Faith and reason.
It's actual Latin, bro.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Bro In a very distant future.
The most recent encyclical isad hominem about whether or not
zombies are men and whether ornot they should be protected
(30:10):
under sacramental law.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Oh hey, welcome to the juice joint.
You know, the next papal incyclical is going to be about
whether everybody should becarrying a tommy gun all right,
real quick show of hands.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Skip me, paul yeah, I got fives of applause, anthony
nothing got some nick.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Nick takes it.
Nick takes it 102 points.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Congratulations Tune in to the Beatitudes.
Every Monday for the Blessedare the Jokemakers and on Friday
we have our bonus shows.
Anthony, I have a question.
We know that the youngergenerations, between the
smartphones and the social mediaand the crazy things going on
in the world, that there is alevel of anxiety, there's a
level of frustration, is a levelof anxiety.
There's a level of frustration,a level of depression.
(31:00):
You've been to some of thosedark places.
I'd ask you right now, just totalk to the people that are here
and the people that are goingto listen to this, what's your
advice after having gone through?
I know all of us have a darkday, but you went through some
dark nights.
Talk to us about what is youradvice to folks when they face
this.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
One of the things that I found to be most
difficult was how hard it wasfor other people to understand
what I was going through, theisolation that comes from not
being able to fully explain howdifficult of a grief it is, and
people were coming to me all thetime trying to make everything
(31:41):
make sense.
You know, maybe God is trying toteach you this lesson, or, you
know, god is going to makesomething beautiful out of this,
and that sort of thing wasalways like nails on a
chalkboard for me as a Catholic,and in the midst of my doubt,
as I was trying to sort ofexpress the anger that I had
with God, I was becoming distantfrom my own family because I
(32:02):
couldn't fully express howdifferent of a life I was living
compared to the life that theywere on, and I think that what I
needed to do and the bestadvice that was given to me was
just to like let go of myresentment and listen to the
voice of love that was inside ofme.
That was ultimately God's voice, but I had so many layers of
(32:22):
like anger against what wasgoing, against what God was
saying to me and against whatother people were saying to me,
that I couldn't listen to thatvoice of love that was inside.
That was God's voice,witnessing my suffering and
having compassion for me.
So I would just say that likelet go of the resentment and
listen to the voice of lovethat's inside of you.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Man, what if you're on the other side of this?
You know your buddy or yourfriend or your even coworkers
going through something?
What you got a lot of peoplethat gave you advice that was
making it go deeper and worse.
What would you say to any of usthat are here trying to walk
with a friend?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Being with someone in silence is way more powerful
than trying to make it makesense.
And I think that the worstinstinct that we have is, when
we're confronted with the sortof suffering that other people
have, that feels like it'ssenseless.
There's almost like adefensiveness that we have
against it that we want tosomehow reconcile it and try to
(33:20):
make sense of it.
Like there's gotta be a reasonwhy.
And if you try to bring thatenergy into the conversation,
it's going to ultimately fallflat, because a lot of suffering
doesn't.
God doesn't give that to peopleintentionally Like God brings
us into places of suffering andhe uses it, but he doesn't cause
(33:40):
it.
He doesn't like as a chessplayer.
Chess player like here's thesuffering that I'm going to give
to this person.
That's going to be their griefand their cross to carry and if
we try to bring that to it, it'sgoing to really be, I think,
ultimately senseless to thatperson and drive them further
away from God.
Because I think all of us knowdeep down a good God would not
do that.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
So yeah, so what you're saying is just being
there with the person versustrying to define or label or
categorize or solve thesituation.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Yeah.
Yeah, we try to help and like,let me fix that for you.
And it's like no, sometimes youjust need to listen, Let me
change how you're thinking aboutthis.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
It's like no, just like.
Hold them, let them be, youknow, in doubt, let them be
angry with God and just be withthem in the midst of that, and
that's really what this movieshows Colby doing for the nine
other men.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Man.
It's funny.
I was thinking about ifsomebody's in this struggle.
My anecdote is do you want togo see a movie with me?
Because?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
this is a great one.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Now, when are people going to be able to see this in
theaters?
Speaker 5 (34:43):
It will be in theaters in September or October
we haven't nailed down the dateyet exactly but before that, if
you want to help us, we aredoing screenings, hopefully in
the top 50 cities.
That will be places where wewant to release the movie.
So if you want to make sure themovie comes to your city, reach
out to me.
You can find us onwwwtriumphoftheheartcom, you can
(35:08):
find us on Instagram attriumphoftheheart, and you can
basically put your name forwardto be somebody that helps us
bring the movie to your city.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Thanks for putting those W's in the website.
I'm Gen X and we don't know howthat works without the W's, so
thank you for it.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Yeah, yeah, slash right, thanks.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, listen you guys .
You contributed something thatwe're gonna have a little bit of
fun with, and uh, we've got our.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
We've got our notes.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah so, ladies and gentlemen, the man in this coat
who just handed stop for asecond, stay up here.
This is john heinen, also knownas the catholic gentleman, and
today he is a courier.
Service for your suggestions,john.
Thank, thank you so much.
John can be found on podcastsand things everywhere.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I always feel underdressed when he's around.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, he's a gentleman.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Yeah, we're just a bunch of dudes.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yeah, but you know, the Catholic Gentleman is
actually a singular brand, it'sM-A-N right.
Yeah, we're dudes, we're incommunity.
All right, I'm not going tolook at these.
We're going to start passingthese out, but don't look at
them just yet.
This is for the game in aminute.
I'll kind of separate these outfor you.
Anthony, what is your favoritething about the Beatitudes?
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I love the humor.
I think that you guys arebringing something really unique
to the Catholic podcastingworld and I love that everything
that you guys do is like thisvery masculine kind of like bros
talking together and Don't lookat him Making sure that
everything is lighthearted andfun.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Well, this show hasn't been funny yet, yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
We've been talking about death and depression and.
But the triumph, the triumph,the triumph of the heart, that's
right.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
This is a near occasion of comedy.
Yeah, okay, okay.
The Triumph of the Heart.
That's right, this is a nearoccasion of comedy.
Yeah, okay, okay.
So Paul's going to set thescene for us Now.
Listen, paul does this as aprofessional.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
So don't judge us judge him.
Thank you, jeff, for that.
All right, so what's going tohappen here is we're flashing
forward now.
So it's September or Octoberlater this year when we're
actually at the premiere ofTriumph of the Heart.
We're all on the red carpet,we're going to be interviewing
(37:10):
Anthony there, all right.
So flash forward with us, butwe have to fit your sayings into
what we are asking him and whatwe're reflecting on about the
movie, and we're going to try tomake it make sense.
So it's going to be a beautifulmess.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We'll figure it out.
The scene starts as we'reexiting the limo, having gotten
an awesome opportunity to ridethere with Anthony.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Anthony, I'm just so proud of you, man, Like I can't
believe you have gotten to thispoint.
You did it, you broughtyourself here, and all you had
to do was, on a daily basis,remind yourself suck it up,
buttercup.
That's right.
That's right, suck it upbuttercup every day.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That's what I say.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
When you would call me from Poland, you were like
but Jeff, I know what you'regoing to say, so I'll just say
it for you.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Yeah, you were crying profusely.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
I mean, this was Colby's.
My favorite quote from Colbywas suck it up, buttercup Well
it's a translation from Polish.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, it's funny, because myfavorite quote from any saint
was actually I don't evenremember the saint, but it's
this one that I have on mybathroom mirror.
It says don't ask for answers,don't ask.
What does this say?
Speaker 4 (38:18):
And this is where Jeff's dyslexia kicks in.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
Yeah, that was my favorite quote from that saint
too.
That unnamed saint and unnamedquote, that was my favorite
quote from that saint too, thatunnamed saint and unnamed quote.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Just don't ask for answers, it's not going to do
you any good.
Speaker 6 (38:28):
It's not going to happen, for sure.
Yeah, but it was funny yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
I mean, I remember being on the phone with you,
jeff, and the thing that yousaid to me that was like perhaps
the most impactful thing thatgot me through the dark night of
the soul was they may take ourlives, but they will never take
our freedom.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
And look what happened from there.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
It's the triumph of the brave heart Right.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Perfect, and that's how we got to the red carpet.
You know, I've always heardinsiders in Hollywood.
They would just like hey, whenyou get to the red carpet, make
sure that you speak softly andcarry a big stick.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
And that way the reporters have to lean in.
Yeah, that's right.
You want to draw them into yourmessage and the big stick to me
when I saw you get to the redcarpet.
It's that big stick you'reusing as a cane, and so I think
that's perfect for you, that'sright, dressing as a dapper
dandy walking around with a tux.
(39:26):
It's funny, though, because youknow Nick was doing all this
spreadsheet work.
He helped her create the proforma and all the financials
behind the film.
And I would look over hisshoulder and I'd say, nick, what
are you doing?
And he'd say, jeff, this isreally high end stuff.
Just remember fake it till youmake it.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
I was like which is kind of what you do.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
And then I took over and I wrote a couple of Excel
functions.
That's great.
We lost a lot of money that day.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
They didn't work.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Well, you know, I love that.
There was that scene in themovie that nobody saw coming, I
mean, and the whole theme of itwas really centered around the
words a faint heart never won afair lady.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Right, you know the deep romance that was happening
in the movie.
You know it's probably the mostheartbreaking part of the whole
story.
And in the movie, you know it'sprobably the most heartbreaking
part of the whole story and Ithink that you know one of the
things that I was reallymeditating on when I was writing
that part was that Cameron Cuese duerme, se lo lleva la
corriente.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Spanish is a pretty common language in.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Poland, in Poland, yeah, I've heard that.
I've never been, but I've heardthat's, yeah, very common, very
common.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
No, that's incredible .
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
I think that roughly translates to Irish dancing yeah
.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, I mean you think about the way, because he
wouldn't just say it.
He started singing it to us andyou had those mariachis in
Poland.
Right it?
He started singing it to us andyou had those mariachis in
Poland, and then they did Irishdancing.
I mean it was like a wholemelting pot Multicultural.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
That is really what Pope Francis was writing about
when he said that on Wednesdayswe wear pink.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
On Wednesdays we wear pink.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Well, that's when he has the Wednesday audiences, and
so that's appropriate,especially on Gaudete Sunday.
Speaker 6 (41:03):
Or Gaudete Wednesday maybe.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Anthony, I actually was able to make a couple of
phone calls and I got a coupleof the biggest media outlets to
come here and they said this isa Catholic film.
Like we don't do.
This, this is for you guys andyou Christian guys.
What can you tell us that couldpossibly change our minds?
And I said, look, ma'am, Ishould warn you, I have the
(41:28):
authority to make a citizen'sarrest.
And they were like so youarrested them?
Well, yeah, they were like nowe got it.
We didn't even know youunderstood those rules.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
Yeah, I mean they all came.
I'm just glad we got to watchthe director's cut.
That just reminds me of thatdeleted scene where Colby was
like I feel the need, the needfor speed he wanted to get to
the 14 days faster, Faster speedthis up.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
That's a dark joke.
That's what it was.
It's a dark joke.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Well, I know to kind of wrap this up, paul had a
couple yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
I saw the early headlines for what the reviews
are going to say.
I mean, they're going topublish them tomorrow and try to
promote the show.
Gosh, you're an insider.
Yeah no, I get around and Ihear some things and what they
said was the headline is goingto be somebody with serial
killer handwriting here.
Oh wait, here we go.
Why did the striped shirt guydo burpees before the show?
Speaker 3 (42:22):
They are asking that everywhere that couldn't be a
more specific and honestheadline.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
I mean specifically for you as well, I feel like
that was really personallytargeted.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
It was in fact hey but actually that was on the
conservative side.
I looked on the other side.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Oh yeah, what did they say?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Why is Gamora?
I mean, that's a great questionwhy is Gamora a?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I mean, that's a great question.
Why is Gamora a thing?
Speaker 5 (42:46):
Yeah, I think the answer to that we all know is
this Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa house.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Oh man, I did not see that coming, that the media
would pick up on that, becauseit was like an undertone.
It's so subtle so subtle theentire thing Right?
Well, goodness, I feel likewe're in a state of something
right now, and that's probablywhere we're going to call it a
day.
Listen, everybody, you can goto www.
(43:15):
H-t-t-p-s Period yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
I also have a challenge for everybody, that's
here.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Oh, let's hear the challenge Okay.
Speaker 5 (43:21):
So one of the things that we're doing, maximilian
Colby.
He was able to sacrifice a lot.
He was able to live for 14 dayswithout food or water, and so
just to give everybody a littlebit of a taste of his aesthetic
life, we are doing a plankchallenge where you can plank.
We get four people, guys orgirls, to get together and plank
(43:44):
for as long as you can, and thewinners will get to be picked
up in a limo for a VIP screeningof the movie, not tomorrow, but
the next day, and they're overthere.
So any place that you see thesestriped shirts and this little
cutout with Maximilian Kolbe,you can get your plank in.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Look it's the producer.
Yeah, Hi, Cecilia, Hi.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
Cecilia.
You can get your plank in, andif you plank for long enough,
then we will get to share themovie with you guys.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
I thought this was just a cool shirt you had.
She has the same shirt.
Yeah, you got a whole uniform.
Oh, my goodness, what do wehave to do to get a shirt Planks
?
Speaker 5 (44:19):
That will also be.
That's a next step up from theplants.
That's a burpee challenge,Burpee challenge.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
All right, Listen, you can check out.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I never got through the website Triumphoftheheartcom
.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
That's the website.
You can go there, hey and alsofor being an awesome guest.
I sat on a pair of socks.
These are yours, they're thenew.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
St.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
Michael the Archangel socks for you, my friend, by
Sockreligious, here we go.
St Michael the Archangel, allright, be out of dudes every.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Monday and Friday.
Thank you to Mac Studios, toKyle Hyman, his whole crew.
We love you guys.
Hey, listen, we are going tosee you at the premiere of
Triumph of the Heart and for therest of you, we will.
Speaker 6 (44:56):
See you in the Eucharist God bless you.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Thanks for listening to this episode recorded live at
SEEK.
Miss the conference or want torelive your favorite moments?
Seek Replay has you coveredAccess, powerful keynotes,
inspiring talks and exclusivecontent to take your faith
deeper, anytime, anywhere.
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now.
(45:27):
And don't forget to join us forSeek 26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
Welcome to the Seek 25 podcast, featuring some of
our favorite podcasters recordedlive at the Max Studios podcast
stage during Seek 25 in SaltLake City.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Beatitudes.
Oh yeah, Beatitudes, here we go.
Crank it up there, Kyle.
Hey, ladies and gentlemen,welcome to the Beatitudes.
This is a podcast and amovement for Christian men and,
it turns out, for women too,walking through authentic
fraternity on their way toeternity with Christ.
We are so happy to have a liveaudience.
(00:53):
This is only the second timewe've done this third actually
at a conference but we're goingto involve you later.
But first let me introduce youto the crew.
My name is Jeff Shufflebine.
I'm one of the Beatitudes.
I'm joined by Nick Besner.
I love roller coasters.
You love roller coasters, I do.
You're in for one.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Just a fact.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And I got Paul Kolker on my left and I like short
walks on the beach, and we aretruth, goodness and beauty.
No Sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Hey, if you've ever seen the Beatitudes, or if you
haven't, let me explainsomething to you.
We have been using humor as anaccess point for conversations
that are truly about the thingsthat matter in our life, our
walk with Christ, the strugglesthat we have, the joys, the
triumphs, the trials.
And in a minute we're going tobe hearing from one of our
awesome guests.
He's a returning guest for us,but first I just want to let you
(01:38):
know that how many in here,real quick, have ever heard or
seen the Beatitudes before?
Just quick show of hands or youcan just clap or yell Okay, we
got a couple good ones in here.
Yeah, all right, you're in forwhat you said a roller coaster
of humor and holiness.
What would you say?
Homer-ness, holer-ness, whatabout you, paul?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Loveliness.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Anthony, what is this ?
What is this show?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
It's Catholic.
Whose Line Is it Anyways?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Catholic.
Whose Line Is it?
Anyways, there is some improv.
Hey, and before we get intoknowing Anthony, you came here
today to the Beatitudes and weare going to include you in
today's show.
So, if you don't know this,paul Kolker is actually a
trained professional improvcomedian.
That's correct, and we're goingto include you in this show
through an improv exercise atthe end.
But, paul, you want to explainthis?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
to him yeah, so the way this is going to work is
we're going to be having slipsof paper going around, and so if
you have pens on you, great, Ithink we also have some extra
pens and all that but we needyou to write down phrases or
sentences.
These can be words of wisdom,favorite movie quotes, things
that you would see ondecorations that your mom hangs
in the kitchen.
I'm just like the deepest, mostpowerful, impactful phrases
(02:46):
Live, laugh.
Love might be an example, right, but just don't use that one,
because we always get that one.
But yeah, so if you'll fillthose out, we'll have somebody
coming around collecting thoseslips and then we're going to
use those later in the show.
We're going to continue withthe rest of the show as y'all
are doing that, but feel free.
I believe we've got Jake overhere with the blue hat on
backwards.
We've got John Heinen over here.
(03:07):
He's got the nice man.
Look at that.
He's dressed to kill, that'sright.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And then we got Sophie right here too.
Sophie's helping Thank you Allright, good, well, listen on the
Beatitudes.
We always do this show live andwe're lucky enough to have
Anthony D'Ambrosio here.
We actually go way back.
Who here has heard of theD'Ambrosios Woo?
Somebody?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
jumping up.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
Jumping for joy.
What's?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
up.
Yeah, we got a couple people.
That's awesome, Love this.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
All right, we're going to share a little bit of a
story of Anthony's background,but there is a movie, a
feature-length film, coming outthis year 2025, called Triumph
of the Heart, and it's all aboutMaximilian Kolbe and the nine
other men that entered into thestarvation chamber when Kolbe
replaced another prisoner to goto their death and pass through
(03:56):
it, and Anthony is the writerand director.
He's also our friend and amentor to the Beatitudes A
mentor.
Well, you wore your Beatitudesblue and white today.
This is incredible.
Welcome to the show, anthonyD'Ambrosio.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Thanks for coming back Just to show fans who here
is named Colby or has Colby as aconfirmation.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
saint Say woo All right, all right all right, yeah
right down front.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
We met somebody earlier who has a first-class
relic of Maximilian Kolbe.
I'm going to assume that peoplehave some knowledge, but let's
take a step back.
Who's Maximilian Kolbe first?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Maximilian Kolbe was basically the World War II
Bishop Baron and he was a mediastar and executive.
He started the first Catholicbig media conglomerate in Poland
, had millions of subscribers tohis magazine.
But he's really known now forsaving the life of another man
in Auschwitz, stepping forwardand giving his life so that
another man who had a familycould go free, and he after that
(04:54):
lived for 14 days without foodor water, giving testament
through song and poetry andprayer to the goodness of God in
the midst of Auschwitz.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So you've been doing this project for a couple years,
but this isn't your first diveinto the creative world.
Anthony and his brother yearsago started a movement called
the Catholic Creatives.
Can you just take us back towho's little Anthony that would
be now leading the charge onthis feature-length film about
Colby Like?
Where did you come from?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
So I went to a seminary, at St John Vianney
Seminary in Minnesota, and Ileft that with a philosophy
degree and knew that God wascalling me to something else.
And as one does if you graduateseminary with a philosophy
degree, I face-planted into theadult world with no idea what I
was going to do.
So I did youth ministry, andduring youth ministry you
(05:44):
realized that we needed storiesthat could be told of our saints
, that would show the heroism ofour Catholic culture, and that
there was just not enough ofthat in the world.
And I saw that one of the bigproblems was that our faith
doesn't really do a great job ofsponsoring, promulgating
creativity and artistry.
We're very great at talkingabout truth and we're very good
(06:07):
at outreach, but we're not verygood at promoting those, you
know, people who are a littlebit off the beaten path, who do
a little bit wonkiness and whoare artists that can tell the
truth and goodness of our faiththrough beauty, through stories.
And so I started somethingcalled Catholic Creatives and
that's how I got to know youguys.
Did you know, paul before that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Did you know Paul growing up?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Oh yeah, we actually went to a youth group together
at St Ann's in Texas.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
And then we went to seminary together.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
That's right.
We were in seminary at the sametime for a couple years there
discerning.
At the same time, I think I wasin the chapel praying and you
were dressing up like a pirate,I think.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That did happen multiple times.
I did have the security of theschool get called on me once for
running around with PVC noodlesand we were having ninja
battles, ninja battles, yeah,and they confiscated our pool
noodles and said that we werebearing weapons illegally on
campus.
So you were praying and I wasgetting into trouble illegally
on campus.
So you were praying and I wasgetting into trouble.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Wait, do you have any stories about Paul?
I know Paul prayed, but Pauldid some other stuff too.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Come on, Well, we called him the Punisher because
he made very bad puns.
Still doing that.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yep, yep, big fan of puns the.
Punisher, yes, the Punisherindeed.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Okay, so you used to be one of us.
We're all from DFW, we all goto the same parish.
You used to be local to us andyou left us to go to the great
state of Colorado.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Denver, colorado, baby, we got any Denverites out
there?
We have a few.
Yeah, I mean it's Focusheadquarters.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know youguys are here.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
All 15 of y'all came here.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wow, we got 16 from Dallas.
So, no, we.
This project, though, didn'tstart as a feature length film.
Let's go back to what washappening.
That ended up being that Colbywas going to take over your life
, and you would be so ingrainedwith Colby.
Where did this come from, so?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
I guess, to get very real, I had a faith crisis while
I was doing youth ministry.
I had a girlfriend that I feltlike God had told me that I was
going to get married to.
I was giving my life toministry and I came down with an
illness that was very hard todiagnose and during that time
(08:21):
one of the things that it causedwas chronic insomnia, so I
could only sleep for about 20minutes to an hour a night and
that created this incredible, Iguess, suffering in my life and
I couldn't hold on to my job.
I couldn't do all of the thingsthat I thought that God was
calling me to.
I ended up having to end therelationship because I couldn't
move forward into marriage withthis woman that I love deeply.
(08:46):
And in the midst of that grief Ilost my faith, in the midst of
that, because I couldn't see howa good God could allow
something like that bad tohappen without any real reason
to it, and I was gravitatingtowards this really deep sort of
angst and anger against God.
And in the midst of that Istarted to have these dreams
about St Maximilian Kolbe and Ibegan to realize that Kolbe
(09:11):
entered into the suffering ofthese nine other men.
There was nine other men in thisstarvation bunker that we don't
really talk about very oftenand we talk often about the way
that he saved this life ofanother man who was able to go
free and survive Auschwitz.
But there were nine other menwho were starving to death with
the saint and he had to talkwith them and be with them in
the midst of their grief andtheir suffering and in some ways
(09:33):
I felt like I was one of thosemen.
I was cast into this darknessand this cell of suffering that
I couldn't get out of and Ididn't know if I would ever be
healed.
And the conversations that Ibegan to have with Colby in this
sort of like deep place ofsuffering and of like
sleeplessness.
That became the grounds formaking a short film about St
(09:55):
Maximilian Colby that was toldfrom the perspective of one of
these nine other men who is aPOW in the camp and who had a
love, who was at home and wastrying to get back to and who
ultimately died with Colby.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
What was the intent of this short film, Like what
was that used for?
I actually don't even know whatwas happening with this thing.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Yeah, so part of that was that the Diocese of Dallas
had hired my company.
I started a marketing firm lateron and they hired our company
to help them put forward anevent that was like a South by
Southwest outreach to youngadults in Dallas who were not
Catholic, and we were talking alot about the idea that a lot of
people were leaving the faith,not necessarily because of the
(10:35):
big questions of wokeness thatwere coming out around then the
big like hot and buttonpolitical topics, but a lot of
them were leaving because theyfelt like they couldn't ask
life's biggest questions in thecontext of church.
And so we brought forward thiswhole event that was about
asking the biggest, mostdifficult questions of life, of
(10:56):
grief, of grief of doubt, ofsuffering, and we used that
short film as a way to start theconversations there.
We showed it in a theater indowntown Dallas and it was like
this atomic bomb of spiritualgrace went off and all of these
people were going to confession,that were distanced from the
church.
They were coming back, theywere having these open
conversations that they neverthought they could have of
(11:17):
sufferings, of people in theirlives that had committed suicide
, people who had died in theirfamily or gone to prison, things
that they would never havetalked about before, that we're
able to share because of thisfilm, and so we knew that we
needed to make something thatwas even bigger, to share
Colby's story with the world.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Well, and I think you had said with Catholic
creatives to kind of jump backto that stage.
You wanted to start a newrenaissance because that's what
the church had helped foster wayback when.
Right, I mean, that was kind ofthe goal is that art can
evangelize.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
I think that one of the biggest problems that we
have right now in the church isthat we've lost the culture war
and we've been trying to fightit on the terms of the culture
through like argumentation andthrough politics.
And really, when we were thestrongest, when we're most
ourselves, is when we were beingsacramental.
Like our personality as thechurch, our inheritance is
(12:12):
sacraments, and that meanscommunicating grace through
symbol.
The symbol that creates theexpression of the grace that it
signifies, and our art, ourbeauty, is a part of the way
that we do that.
Our cathedrals and our art hasalways been the thing that has
made us the most ourselves, andwe are the most ourselves when
we were doing that.
(12:32):
And I think that if we wereable to create an artistic
culture inside of the faith, wewould find ourselves ramping
back up into the limelight ofculture again if we did that.
So that's what the newrenaissance is all about.
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Here's a question.
So you're talking about thesenine other men.
What do we know about those men?
Did we know about their livesand the details of their
backgrounds?
Were they all Jews that hadbeen put into the consecration
camp Like?
What's the deal with these men?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Yeah.
So this is something that a lotof people don't know is that at
the time, auschwitz, in the verybeginning of the war, it was
founded to destroy the identityof the Polish culture.
Polish culture is, as many ofyou guys know, very Catholic and
very, very nationalistic.
They're a country that's beenconquered over and over and over
and over again, and theirresilience as a culture has been
(13:22):
the way that they've held on tothe cross.
And so the way that they weretrying to destroy the culture of
Poland was by bringing inclergy and the leaders in the
church and the leaders in Polandthat were political leaders who
were also connected to thechurch, to basically dehumanize
them.
Their goal was to completelyrip the humanity away from them,
(13:43):
even as they died, not just tokill them and exterminate them,
but to do so in the way thatshowed them that they had no
humanity to begin with, and thegoal was to therefore subjugate
Poland as a sort of slave stateor vassal state of Germany.
And so they brought in peoplelike Maximilian Kolbe, who were
people who could lead, who werepeople who had followings, and
(14:07):
they brought them all togetherand basically did everything
that they could to make themkill themselves, turn on each
other, etc.
And so Kolbe's story instepping forward to save the
life of another man, it was notjust to save this one man's life
, but to remind everyone inPoland that they could not be
destroyed, that their identityas humans, as Catholics, could
(14:28):
not be destroyed by theoppressors that were coming to
take them over.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, so I remember less than two years ago we hung
out with you in Denver up therefor some event and you let us
know about that short film.
I had never seen it before.
Then I'm gonna turn to Nick fora second.
Nick, do you remember the firsttime you watched the Proof of
Concept Like?
Talk to us about what youexperienced then and how that
helped to catapult where we arenow, 24 months later.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Yeah, that's right.
So saw the short film and thenAnthony's like hey, I have a
script.
I was like let's read it.
This is amazing.
You know, you go through thestory and I think it's so
interesting.
Your is not suffering or thatlife is supposed to be easy, but
it really is.
We have that cross.
And what does that cross looklike?
(15:24):
And what I experienced readingthe script was how it would
apply to anybody who watched thefilm.
Right, you can relate in a way,because no matter where you're
at in your life, in your journey, you've got a cross right Rich,
poor, you know any demographic.
You're going to have some waythat this relates and speaks to
you, and I thought that was thepower of the story.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah, it's one thing that I think that we, our
greatest artists, have alwayshad a lot of darkness in their
art, which is kind ofinteresting, but like you think
about Caravaggio and some of thegreatest pieces of work that
we've seen, it's like alldarkness and then this, like
brilliant light highlighting theperson of the gospel.
You see this in the greatdepiction of the prodigal son
(16:07):
coming home and embracing thefather, and these sorts of art
that were made.
At that point we, as Catholics,we were looking at the darkness
and seeing how the light ofChrist could shine through it.
In our film, one of the thingsthat I really wanted to show is
that all of these men who werein the cell with Colby, these
were people who were just likeus, who had lives, who had
(16:28):
families at home, they haddreams, they had whole stories
that brought them to that pointthat got cut short in the most
brutal, terrifying and horribleway that you could imagine, and
God sent somebody likeMaximilian Kolbe, a saint, to be
(16:50):
with them in the midst of theirsuffering, and for me, it makes
me like tear up every time thatI think about it, knowing that
they were not alone in thesuffering that they went through
.
It's also a testament to thefact that we are not alone in
our own darknesses, and that itgives us the chance to be able
to share about those things andtestify to God's goodness in the
midst of our suffering.
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Well, and that's the other thing, like the darkness,
I think, sometimes can scarepeople away.
This is an intense film, right?
This is not.
We know how this ends, right?
It's not.
It's not necessarily a happyending, but it is a very joyful
ending and I think that's thething.
It's like the triumph of theheart, right, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
So you know, I gotta tell you what happened next.
And there's a greatfaithfulness, but all creatives
have this like I'm just gonnamake this up, but almost like a
fraud, complex, like is anybodygonna like this?
And so we watched thing.
By the way, paul's voice was inthe very first one as one of
the Germans coming in and that'sright, roughing up the yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I said I'd like to participate in this film and you
were like how?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
about as a.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
German soldier.
Thanks for that.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Appreciate it.
That's a clip.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So then, uh, what was so wild is we said, can we help
with this?
We literally wrote an email to50 people, held a couple events
with friends in town and nextthing, you know, whoops, you had
all the money you needed tojump on an airplane and fly to
Poland one way.
Yeah, what happened next man?
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Well.
So it's really interestingbecause we needed enough money
to buy a house, but without anyreal like here's what that's
going to do.
We had a movie and we had amovie idea, we had a script and
we were like, hey, we need halfa house, we need a whole house,
we need like $400,000 to be ableto get out there and do this.
And, uh, all of you guys helpedus to raise that.
Uh, it came so much faster thanI thought that it would come
(18:28):
and all of a sudden I was like,oh wow, oh my gosh, this is
commitment.
So we had enough to get outthere.
We bought one-way tickets toPoland because we knew that we
needed to make the movie inKowli's hometown and we had to
find actors and we had to findlocations, we had to find
(18:50):
costumes all of these things tobe able to create a film.
And in the midst of that we hadthese big shoots where we had
to recreate Auschwitz.
Hundreds of people that were intown for these days and we had
a freak snow.
That happened.
It was the middle of Septemberit's not a time that it snows
normally in Poland.
We were like what's the worstthat could possibly happen?
(19:11):
And it would be that snow wouldcome down during those two days
.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Wait real quick.
That snow would come downduring those two days.
Wait real quick.
You've never heard a grown mancry on the phone like Anthony
when the snow was coming.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Oh, come on, jeff, it was a few tears.
I had onions that I waschopping while we were talking.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
That's what it was.
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
But yeah, basically, as the snow happened, it meant
that we needed to raise another$50,000 in order to reschedule
hundreds of people close downthe city streets.
All of that that we had to doin order to be able to reshoot
this couple of days.
And there were lots of otherthings that happened like that
(19:49):
that we needed God'sintervention directly to get
through, and you guys were bighelps to me as I was facing the
you know, I guess, the cliffthat I was like, standing on,
looking down, like there's noway that I can pull this off and
, as one does, god always bringspeople into your life that can
help you, kind of encourage youthrough it.
And Jeff made a couple of phonecalls and was like I got you
(20:11):
the money, let's make thishappen.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Do you know?
I think about this film becausethe story of these men you have
these firsthand accounts ofwhat people could hear from the
cells or the janitor coming in.
There was a camaraderie formed,there was a fraternity formed.
They were in this togetherinstead of turning on one
another.
But my question is this youwere not filming in easy
(20:36):
conditions, you didn't have theluxury of a Hollywood lot, you
didn't have a lot of things.
What was it like for the crew,for the actors, for the locals,
to experience the making of this?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, you think about what a movie has to do.
It's trying to recreate thesemoments of real life, and the
closer you can get to thereality, the more real it seems.
And God in some way, I think,always creates a space when
you're trying to give your lifeto him as an artist.
He makes you relive the thingthat he wants you to learn
(21:11):
through the course of making thething, and for us, that meant
we didn't have enough money inorder to do any of what we were
trying to do.
I had people who looked at thescript and they were like you
need at least $2 million to dothis, and we were trying to do
it for 400,000.
And what that meant for us wasthat we were living in hostels
where it was just literallythere was not even a kitchen.
(21:31):
We had 100 people packed into aroom where all we had were cots
, like no sofas, one bathroom,and we've got 100 people in this
place and all of us were insome way living joyfully in the
midst of all of that poverty andwe were learning what Colby had
to learn.
(21:51):
You know he was a missionarythat was very accustomed to
suffering.
He went to Japan Like thinkabout this Speaking Polish,
which is one of the hardestlanguages ever in the history of
the world to learn.
It's got like 10 consonants init per sound.
So you think about, like whatis the sound that C-Z-H-S-P make
when you're reading a letter?
Like it's amazing?
(22:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Then you go this guy is like I'mgoing to go to Japan, which is
the second hardest language tolearn, and I'm going to
translate my Polish newspaperwithout Google Translate into
Japanese, and I'm going to dothat with no money and like
three other Franciscan friars inone of the most hostile
(22:33):
environments to Christianitythat the world knows.
And so he knew what it was liketo be on mission with other
people suffering with him, andthat's what we got to learn.
We were, we had to literallythe actors had to starve to
death together.
We had to be on an Auschwitzstarvation, less than 1,000
calories per day diet in orderto get down slim enough to be
(22:56):
believable.
So we would do that, even Iwould do the diet with them.
We had to shave all of the hairoff of our heads and kind of
enter into that sort ofmilitaristic, dehumanized, like
our personalities all blendingtogether kind of sense.
We were in a prison that wasdamp and dark, that had no AC,
for October, november, actingout these incredibly terrifying,
(23:20):
difficult scenes together allday, every day, and so you would
think it would create thisincredibly intense, heavy
culture, but it was the opposite.
At the end of the day, after wejust are coming back and we
don't even have enough money fordinner and we're just eating
soup.
And we're coming back home justlike singing Disney songs and
(23:40):
like having the best time of ourlives.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So that's what it was like.
People think, oh, you're makinga movie, so that's so glamorous
right Luxury Hollywoodlifestyle yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
We got the trailer where we got you know, all the
fun stuff and, like snacks,gotta go to makeup.
We could not afford any of that.
Literally we were.
We were across the street froma mall and this old person that
had no power and we had to runone extension cable all the way
across the parking lot to plugin and we couldn't have the
light and the heat.
We had a little space heaterthat was like that's the one
(24:12):
heater we have, so like any timethat we finished a scene and
said cut, we had to like unplugthe light and plug the space
heater back in and get blanketsover the guys so that people
would like not get sick.
So that's, those are theconditions we were working in,
it's like method acting turnedinto method producing.
We're just going to raise, justenough money to keep you alive.
Yeah, but these are the sort ofsacrifices you know that you
(24:35):
have to make if you want to dosomething for the Lord.
That is like absolutely unique.
That's never been done before.
That's completely off thebeaten path.
I think God wants you to belike without enough to be able
to prove that he's the onebehind it.
That's just.
You see the story of God's workthroughout the Old Testament.
It's always the little guy thatdoesn't have enough that God
(24:56):
uses to turn the tables on.
You know the culture.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, david and Goliath, or I mean, or in my
weakness, he is made strong.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Right yeah absolutely .
Story of Gideon.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
you know your first film ever to make of long form,
and you decided to do it inPoland.
Yeah, what have you learned orbeen surprised like?
What are the surprises, goodand bad, that have come to you
over this last 24 months?
I would say?
Speaker 5 (25:21):
that one of the biggest surprises is just that
when you have a dream and youhave something on your heart
that God is giving to you, godwill give you the resources that
you need, no matter howimpossible it is, if you step
forward in faith.
And that, to me, has been thebiggest surprise.
I think you know how kind ofsmall my brain was when I was
(25:43):
first thinking about the film.
I was like can we do this formaybe like $250,000 in Dallas,
we can find a little thing thatwe can.
It's like God kept onstretching the dream over and
over and over and over again,because I was still immature in
my faith, where I couldn't dreamas big as God was dreaming, and
I think that that has been thebiggest lesson that God has
(26:04):
taught me.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Walk on the water.
Yeah, get out of the boat.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
See with the eyes of the Lord.
There's a lot more abundance inhis camp than there is in mine,
and I just have to be able tolook at the world around me
through the eyes of the kingdomand not through my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Anthony, is it fair to say, like what you went
through physically and then yourspiritual crisis and then
finding Colby and locking intothe Colby story.
It's kind of two-part questionhere.
Number one how much of thismovie is actually about your
walk with Colby?
When I think about being one ofthe nine in that cell?
And I would also then say, howmuch do you see that Colby took
(26:43):
that leap of faith that you tookover and over with printing
presses and moves and newcommunities?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great question.
Like every saint, you heartheir story and that story is
almost always a snapshot oftheir life, like the ending
snapshot.
That's, like you know, theharvesting of their life.
But before that, there's all ofthese moments in silence and
the secret of God bringing thatperson forward just one little
(27:10):
step in faith.
And my story is very much tiedto the story that I'm telling,
like God saved me, the same waythat Colby saved these other men
through the working of, throughthis story, through bringing me
into this story and showing mewhat it looks like to suffer
(27:31):
well, and I would say that mylife is, at this stage, is so
deeply formed by it that itfeels like God.
Colby met me in my cell and Ihave therefore been ministered
to by him, and I'm now givingout of what Colby gave me, like
I was discipled in some way byhim.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I got to tell you this is getting heavy, so I
would like to lighten it up witha little game.
Let's do it.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
The game is called Blessed are the Jokemakers, for
they shall inherit the 102points.
It's a big one, 102 points.
How?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
does this work, Paul?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
The way this is going to work is we've got a
character card and a card fromthe Catholic card game and we're
going to answer the prompt onthe Catholic card game as this
character.
So we have to just try to makethis work.
In the moment we're going tocome up with it and the
character we have to become Waitwait, so real quick, each one
of us is going to go.
Oh yeah, we're going to each doour own version.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
But, anthony, are you playing or are?
Speaker 5 (28:27):
you going to judge?
Oh, I'm so into it.
Yeah, I'm playing.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We actually need y'all at which is that how they
say it?
A show of applause.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
A round of applause.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, a show of your hands how who won.
So we'll go through this andliterally this is improv.
We don't know what's coming outnext, so go for it.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
So, as a person who is stuck in the decade of your
choice, the topic of the nextpapal encyclical is you can't
(29:09):
think this long.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
You got to dive in.
Here's mine.
All right, stop Substantiateand listen.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I got nothing.
I got nothing.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I'm going eyesight's baby.
I would say, stuck in the 60s,that you know it'd be Fides et
Ratio.
I think it really dives intoboth the faith and the reason.
And when you put those twotogether.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It's kind of mind-blowing, bro.
Bro, what Latin did you justuse?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Faith and reason.
It's actual Latin, bro.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Bro In a very distant future.
The most recent encyclical isad hominem about whether or not
zombies are men and whether ornot they should be protected
(30:10):
under sacramental law.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Oh hey, welcome to the juice joint.
You know, the next papal incyclical is going to be about
whether everybody should becarrying a tommy gun all right,
real quick show of hands.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Skip me, paul yeah, I got fives of applause, anthony
nothing got some nick.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Nick takes it.
Nick takes it 102 points.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Congratulations Tune in to the Beatitudes.
Every Monday for the Blessedare the Jokemakers and on Friday
we have our bonus shows.
Anthony, I have a question.
We know that the youngergenerations, between the
smartphones and the social mediaand the crazy things going on
in the world, that there is alevel of anxiety, there's a
level of frustration, is a levelof anxiety.
There's a level of frustration,a level of depression.
(31:00):
You've been to some of thosedark places.
I'd ask you right now, just totalk to the people that are here
and the people that are goingto listen to this, what's your
advice after having gone through?
I know all of us have a darkday, but you went through some
dark nights.
Talk to us about what is youradvice to folks when they face
this.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
One of the things that I found to be most
difficult was how hard it wasfor other people to understand
what I was going through, theisolation that comes from not
being able to fully explain howdifficult of a grief it is, and
people were coming to me all thetime trying to make everything
(31:41):
make sense.
You know, maybe God is trying toteach you this lesson, or, you
know, god is going to makesomething beautiful out of this,
and that sort of thing wasalways like nails on a
chalkboard for me as a Catholic,and in the midst of my doubt,
as I was trying to sort ofexpress the anger that I had
with God, I was becoming distantfrom my own family because I
(32:02):
couldn't fully express howdifferent of a life I was living
compared to the life that theywere on, and I think that what I
needed to do and the bestadvice that was given to me was
just to like let go of myresentment and listen to the
voice of love that was inside ofme.
That was ultimately God's voice, but I had so many layers of
(32:22):
like anger against what wasgoing, against what God was
saying to me and against whatother people were saying to me,
that I couldn't listen to thatvoice of love that was inside.
That was God's voice,witnessing my suffering and
having compassion for me.
So I would just say that likelet go of the resentment and
listen to the voice of lovethat's inside of you.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Man, what if you're on the other side of this?
You know your buddy or yourfriend or your even coworkers
going through something?
What you got a lot of peoplethat gave you advice that was
making it go deeper and worse.
What would you say to any of usthat are here trying to walk
with a friend?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Being with someone in silence is way more powerful
than trying to make it makesense.
And I think that the worstinstinct that we have is, when
we're confronted with the sortof suffering that other people
have, that feels like it'ssenseless.
There's almost like adefensiveness that we have
against it that we want tosomehow reconcile it and try to
(33:20):
make sense of it.
Like there's gotta be a reasonwhy.
And if you try to bring thatenergy into the conversation,
it's going to ultimately fallflat, because a lot of suffering
doesn't.
God doesn't give that to peopleintentionally Like God brings
us into places of suffering andhe uses it, but he doesn't cause
(33:40):
it.
He doesn't like as a chessplayer.
Chess player like here's thesuffering that I'm going to give
to this person.
That's going to be their griefand their cross to carry and if
we try to bring that to it, it'sgoing to really be, I think,
ultimately senseless to thatperson and drive them further
away from God.
Because I think all of us knowdeep down a good God would not
do that.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
So yeah, so what you're saying is just being
there with the person versustrying to define or label or
categorize or solve thesituation.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Yeah.
Yeah, we try to help and like,let me fix that for you.
And it's like no, sometimes youjust need to listen, Let me
change how you're thinking aboutthis.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
It's like no, just like.
Hold them, let them be, youknow, in doubt, let them be
angry with God and just be withthem in the midst of that, and
that's really what this movieshows Colby doing for the nine
other men.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Man.
It's funny.
I was thinking about ifsomebody's in this struggle.
My anecdote is do you want togo see a movie with me?
Because?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
this is a great one.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Now, when are people going to be able to see this in
theaters?
Speaker 5 (34:43):
It will be in theaters in September or October
we haven't nailed down the dateyet exactly but before that, if
you want to help us, we aredoing screenings, hopefully in
the top 50 cities.
That will be places where wewant to release the movie.
So if you want to make sure themovie comes to your city, reach
out to me.
You can find us onwwwtriumphoftheheartcom, you can
(35:08):
find us on Instagram attriumphoftheheart, and you can
basically put your name forwardto be somebody that helps us
bring the movie to your city.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Thanks for putting those W's in the website.
I'm Gen X and we don't know howthat works without the W's, so
thank you for it.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Yeah, yeah, slash right, thanks.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, listen you guys .
You contributed something thatwe're gonna have a little bit of
fun with, and uh, we've got our.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
We've got our notes.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah so, ladies and gentlemen, the man in this coat
who just handed stop for asecond, stay up here.
This is john heinen, also knownas the catholic gentleman, and
today he is a courier.
Service for your suggestions,john.
Thank, thank you so much.
John can be found on podcastsand things everywhere.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I always feel underdressed when he's around.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, he's a gentleman.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Yeah, we're just a bunch of dudes.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yeah, but you know, the Catholic Gentleman is
actually a singular brand, it'sM-A-N right.
Yeah, we're dudes, we're incommunity.
All right, I'm not going tolook at these.
We're going to start passingthese out, but don't look at
them just yet.
This is for the game in aminute.
I'll kind of separate these outfor you.
Anthony, what is your favoritething about the Beatitudes?
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I love the humor.
I think that you guys arebringing something really unique
to the Catholic podcastingworld and I love that everything
that you guys do is like thisvery masculine kind of like bros
talking together and Don't lookat him Making sure that
everything is lighthearted andfun.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Well, this show hasn't been funny yet, yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
We've been talking about death and depression and.
But the triumph, the triumph,the triumph of the heart, that's
right.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
This is a near occasion of comedy.
Yeah, okay, okay.
The Triumph of the Heart.
That's right, this is a nearoccasion of comedy.
Yeah, okay, okay.
So Paul's going to set thescene for us Now.
Listen, paul does this as aprofessional.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
So don't judge us judge him.
Thank you, jeff, for that.
All right, so what's going tohappen here is we're flashing
forward now.
So it's September or Octoberlater this year when we're
actually at the premiere ofTriumph of the Heart.
We're all on the red carpet,we're going to be interviewing
(37:10):
Anthony there, all right.
So flash forward with us, butwe have to fit your sayings into
what we are asking him and whatwe're reflecting on about the
movie, and we're going to try tomake it make sense.
So it's going to be a beautifulmess.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We'll figure it out.
The scene starts as we'reexiting the limo, having gotten
an awesome opportunity to ridethere with Anthony.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
Anthony, I'm just so proud of you, man, Like I can't
believe you have gotten to thispoint.
You did it, you broughtyourself here, and all you had
to do was, on a daily basis,remind yourself suck it up,
buttercup.
That's right.
That's right, suck it upbuttercup every day.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That's what I say.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
When you would call me from Poland, you were like
but Jeff, I know what you'regoing to say, so I'll just say
it for you.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Yeah, you were crying profusely.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
I mean, this was Colby's.
My favorite quote from Colbywas suck it up, buttercup Well
it's a translation from Polish.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, it's funny, because myfavorite quote from any saint
was actually I don't evenremember the saint, but it's
this one that I have on mybathroom mirror.
It says don't ask for answers,don't ask.
What does this say?
Speaker 4 (38:18):
And this is where Jeff's dyslexia kicks in.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
Yeah, that was my favorite quote from that saint
too.
That unnamed saint and unnamedquote, that was my favorite
quote from that saint too, thatunnamed saint and unnamed quote.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Just don't ask for answers, it's not going to do
you any good.
Speaker 6 (38:28):
It's not going to happen, for sure.
Yeah, but it was funny yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
I mean, I remember being on the phone with you,
jeff, and the thing that yousaid to me that was like perhaps
the most impactful thing thatgot me through the dark night of
the soul was they may take ourlives, but they will never take
our freedom.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
And look what happened from there.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
It's the triumph of the brave heart Right.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Perfect, and that's how we got to the red carpet.
You know, I've always heardinsiders in Hollywood.
They would just like hey, whenyou get to the red carpet, make
sure that you speak softly andcarry a big stick.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
And that way the reporters have to lean in.
Yeah, that's right.
You want to draw them into yourmessage and the big stick to me
when I saw you get to the redcarpet.
It's that big stick you'reusing as a cane, and so I think
that's perfect for you, that'sright, dressing as a dapper
dandy walking around with a tux.
(39:26):
It's funny, though, because youknow Nick was doing all this
spreadsheet work.
He helped her create the proforma and all the financials
behind the film.
And I would look over hisshoulder and I'd say, nick, what
are you doing?
And he'd say, jeff, this isreally high end stuff.
Just remember fake it till youmake it.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
I was like which is kind of what you do.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
And then I took over and I wrote a couple of Excel
functions.
That's great.
We lost a lot of money that day.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
They didn't work.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Well, you know, I love that.
There was that scene in themovie that nobody saw coming, I
mean, and the whole theme of itwas really centered around the
words a faint heart never won afair lady.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
Right, you know the deep romance that was happening
in the movie.
You know it's probably the mostheartbreaking part of the whole
story.
And in the movie, you know it'sprobably the most heartbreaking
part of the whole story and Ithink that you know one of the
things that I was reallymeditating on when I was writing
that part was that Cameron Cuese duerme, se lo lleva la
corriente.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Spanish is a pretty common language in.
Speaker 6 (40:23):
Poland, in Poland, yeah, I've heard that.
I've never been, but I've heardthat's, yeah, very common, very
common.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
No, that's incredible .
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
I think that roughly translates to Irish dancing yeah
.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, I mean you think about the way, because he
wouldn't just say it.
He started singing it to us andyou had those mariachis in
Poland.
Right it?
He started singing it to us andyou had those mariachis in
Poland, and then they did Irishdancing.
I mean it was like a wholemelting pot Multicultural.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
That is really what Pope Francis was writing about
when he said that on Wednesdayswe wear pink.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
On Wednesdays we wear pink.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Well, that's when he has the Wednesday audiences, and
so that's appropriate,especially on Gaudete Sunday.
Speaker 6 (41:03):
Or Gaudete Wednesday maybe.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Anthony, I actually was able to make a couple of
phone calls and I got a coupleof the biggest media outlets to
come here and they said this isa Catholic film.
Like we don't do.
This, this is for you guys andyou Christian guys.
What can you tell us that couldpossibly change our minds?
And I said, look, ma'am, Ishould warn you, I have the
(41:28):
authority to make a citizen'sarrest.
And they were like so youarrested them?
Well, yeah, they were like nowe got it.
We didn't even know youunderstood those rules.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
Yeah, I mean they all came.
I'm just glad we got to watchthe director's cut.
That just reminds me of thatdeleted scene where Colby was
like I feel the need, the needfor speed he wanted to get to
the 14 days faster, Faster speedthis up.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
That's a dark joke.
That's what it was.
It's a dark joke.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Well, I know to kind of wrap this up, paul had a
couple yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
I saw the early headlines for what the reviews
are going to say.
I mean, they're going topublish them tomorrow and try to
promote the show.
Gosh, you're an insider.
Yeah no, I get around and Ihear some things and what they
said was the headline is goingto be somebody with serial
killer handwriting here.
Oh wait, here we go.
Why did the striped shirt guydo burpees before the show?
Speaker 3 (42:22):
They are asking that everywhere that couldn't be a
more specific and honestheadline.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
I mean specifically for you as well, I feel like
that was really personallytargeted.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
It was in fact hey but actually that was on the
conservative side.
I looked on the other side.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Oh yeah, what did they say?
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Why is Gamora?
I mean, that's a great questionwhy is Gamora a?
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I mean, that's a great question.
Why is Gamora a thing?
Speaker 5 (42:46):
Yeah, I think the answer to that we all know is
this Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa house.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Oh man, I did not see that coming, that the media
would pick up on that, becauseit was like an undertone.
It's so subtle so subtle theentire thing Right?
Well, goodness, I feel likewe're in a state of something
right now, and that's probablywhere we're going to call it a
day.
Listen, everybody, you can goto www.
(43:15):
H-t-t-p-s Period yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
I also have a challenge for everybody, that's
here.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Oh, let's hear the challenge Okay.
Speaker 5 (43:21):
So one of the things that we're doing, maximilian
Colby.
He was able to sacrifice a lot.
He was able to live for 14 dayswithout food or water, and so
just to give everybody a littlebit of a taste of his aesthetic
life, we are doing a plankchallenge where you can plank.
We get four people, guys orgirls, to get together and plank
(43:44):
for as long as you can, and thewinners will get to be picked
up in a limo for a VIP screeningof the movie, not tomorrow, but
the next day, and they're overthere.
So any place that you see thesestriped shirts and this little
cutout with Maximilian Kolbe,you can get your plank in.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Look it's the producer.
Yeah, Hi, Cecilia, Hi.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
Cecilia.
You can get your plank in, andif you plank for long enough,
then we will get to share themovie with you guys.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
I thought this was just a cool shirt you had.
She has the same shirt.
Yeah, you got a whole uniform.
Oh, my goodness, what do wehave to do to get a shirt Planks
?
Speaker 5 (44:19):
That will also be.
That's a next step up from theplants.
That's a burpee challenge,Burpee challenge.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Love it.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
All right, Listen, you can check out.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I never got through the website Triumphoftheheartcom
.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
That's the website.
You can go there, hey and alsofor being an awesome guest.
I sat on a pair of socks.
These are yours, they're thenew.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
St.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
Michael the Archangel socks for you, my friend, by
Sockreligious, here we go.
St Michael the Archangel, allright, be out of dudes every.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Monday and Friday.
Thank you to Mac Studios, toKyle Hyman, his whole crew.
We love you guys.
Hey, listen, we are going tosee you at the premiere of
Triumph of the Heart and for therest of you, we will.
Speaker 6 (44:56):
See you in the Eucharist God bless you.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Thanks for listening to this episode recorded live at
SEEK.
Miss the conference or want torelive your favorite moments?
Seek Replay has you coveredAccess, powerful keynotes,
inspiring talks and exclusivecontent to take your faith
deeper, anytime, anywhere.
Head to seekfocusorg backslashreplay to download now.
(45:27):
And don't forget to join us forSeek 26.
Check out seekfocusorg for moreinformation and to register.
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