Ed Van Buskirk shares his journey from IT business owner to founder of If You Love Me Ministry after a men's retreat challenged his knowledge of the Ten Commandments, leading him to see them as God's recipe for a wonderful life rather than restrictive rules.
• Discovering the Ten Commandments as relationship-builders that foster harmony with God and others
• How confusion serves as Satan's weapon to divide and create chaos in society
• Understanding truth not just as a concept but as a person—Jesus Christ
• The Garden of Eden story revealing how broken commandments lead to broken relationships
• The ministry's "God's Recipe for School and Family" program implemented in 56 Catholic schools
• Using family kits with puzzles and resources to make the commandments accessible and engaging
• Applying the commandments to navigate modern challenges like social media, pornography, and artificial intelligence
• Seeing the commandments as a spiritual compass that helps cut through confusion with clarity
• Learning from Mary's example of saying "yes" to God by putting the first commandment first
• How even small deviations from truth (being "2% off target") can lead us dramatically astray over time
For more information about If You Love Me Ministry and resources on the Ten Commandments, visit https://ifuloveme.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ed Van Buskirk (00:00):
When I started looking into The Commandments,
and specifically the eighthcommandment, it's really the
first time that I startedlooking at truth not as just an
idea or yeah, something's eithertrue or it's false.
It's just kind of the lightswitches on or off.
But I started seeing truth as aperson and that person being
(00:21):
Jesus, and he tells us veryclearly.
He says, "I am the way, thetruth and the life.
Sheila Nonato (00:31):
Habemus Papam! We have a new Pope, Pope Leo XIV,
the first from the United States.
A monumental day yesterday, onMay 8th.
Pope Leo spoke of the peace andthe love of Jesus Christ.
He prayed a Hail Mary and hespoke of the hope for the
missionary church to bring thebody of Christ as united and one
(00:54):
under God.
This is what the successor ofSaint Peter is tasked to do to
sow the seeds of faith insideand outside the church, to reach
the far corners of the world,speaking the truth of the good
news.
On this Mother's Day, in ourown way, as mothers, we also sow
(01:16):
the seeds of faith, faith, hopeand love in our own domestic
church, in our homes, in our owndomestic church, in our homes.
I share this seed that Ireceived from a beautiful,
faithful lady, Mrs.
Pereira.
This is a monstrance seed withan interesting story, and let me
(01:39):
show you.
It is a seed, a white seed,that has a picture, almost a
painting, hand-drawn, of themonstrance on a white seed, and
it has an interesting story.
This is a real seed thatactually grows into a green bean
, as Mrs Pereira had told me,and I am looking forward to
(02:02):
going and seeing her garden tosee it, and I am looking forward
to going and seeing her gardento see it the way that it has
blossomed into a green beanplant.
And let me tell you about thestory.
There are a couple of stories ofthis monstrance climbing French
bean, the first story beingaccording to a website called
(02:28):
Growing Food Saving Seeds in theUK.
There are two stories connectedwith this being.
First, there's a story of athief who supposedly stole a
monstrance, which is a RomanCatholic church vessel where a
consecrated host, the body ofChrist, is exposed for adoration
inside a church, meaning peoplepray in front of the monstrance
(02:49):
where the blessed sacrament isinside.
And it was buried in a field.
And when the field's ownerwanted to plow the field, the
horse did not want to go overthe spot where the monstrance
had been buried, and so thefarmer dug up that spot and he
found a monstrance had beenburied.
And so the farmer dug up thatspot and he found a monstrance,
returned it to the church andthen the farmer sowed white
(03:11):
beans and to his astonishment,according to the website, it
grew and there was an image ofthe monstrance inside on the
bean when he had harvested it,when he had found it.
According to the second legend,a monk had planted white beans
in a monastery garden as therewere troops advancing.
(03:34):
There were hostile troops, andthen the nuns all buried the
church artifacts, which includedthe monstrance, in this garden.
And they had reported a miraclethat the white beans which were
beside the monstrance had thisimage of the monstrance
(03:54):
imprinted upon them.
And so, Dear Sisters in Christ,as the Holy Father is tasked
with sowing the seeds of faith,we are also tasked with this
great, humble and significantrole as mothers in our own
families, to plant those seedsof faith, to help our children
(04:17):
to grow in the love and hope ofthe Resurrected Lord and to be
the beacons of light in a worldof darkness, to be the leaders
that we want to see in oursocieties, that will help the
disenfranchised, that will helpthe marginalized and that will
also be that source of strengthof faith for everyone around us,
(04:41):
for all of our neighbors, forour family.
And in this vein, how do weplant the seeds of faith?
We refer to the Bible, sacredscripture, and the most famous,
of course, aside from Jesus'teachings, aside from the
Beatitudes, are the TenCommandments, and this is one of
(05:03):
the most famous rules that Godhad given us.
And if we read in the TenCommandments, we read how God
himself had written thecommandments, had taken his hand
, his finger, to write out eachof The Commandments on the
tablets that Moses was asked byGod to bring up to the mountain.
(05:27):
If you love me, keep mycommandments.
In a world that says moralschange over time and prefers
relative truth, your truth or mytruth, to absolute truth, do
the Ten Commandments stillmatter?
Ed Van Buskirk says absolutely.
(05:49):
He believes in it so much thathe left his IT business to start
If you Love Me ministry, whichspreads the good news of the Ten
Commandments to students,teachers and parents.
Ten Commandments to students,teachers and parents.
(06:09):
In the Bible we read of how Godwrote the commandments with his
own hands.
We discuss why the TenCommandments form part of the
story of God's love for hispeople in sacred scripture and
why they remain relevant today.
While we recorded thisinterview on the Feast of the
Annunciation of Mother Mary, weare now in the month of May and
celebrating Mother Mary, and itis most appropriate to present
(06:33):
to you this interview thatremains relevant, that will help
us in our journey of motherhood, in our role as mothers to
helping to raise the nextgeneration of leaders and saints
and helping to sowing thoseseeds of faith, hope and love.
Thank you, and God bless andhappy Mother's Day, and let us
(06:56):
pray for our new Holy Father,pope Leo XIV.
May God bless him.
May God bless the Holy CatholicChurch, amen, and the
inspiration of Our Lady.
I strive to tell stories thatinspire, illuminate and enrich
(07:30):
the lives of Catholic women tohelp them in living out our
vocation of raising the nextgeneration of leaders and saints
.
Co-Host (07:34):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.
Sheila Nonato (07:41):
So welcome to the podcast, Mr Ed Van Buskirk,
from Kansas City, Missouri.
You're the founder of If youLove Me Ministry.
And Happy Feast of theAnnunciation, by the way.
Ed Van Buskirk (07:52):
Well, thank you very much.
It's a delight to be here withyou and I'm excited for our
conversation.
Sheila Nonato (07:59):
Thank you, as am I and your organization, If you
Love Me.
Ministry is seeking totransform society by restoring
the truth and the wisdom ofGod's Ten Commandments in a
world of confusion.
Can we please start with aprayer?
Ed Van Buskirk (08:14):
Oh, that would be great.
Let's begin in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The angel of the Lord declaredunto Mary and she conceived of
the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
(08:34):
womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, prayfor us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death.
Amen, the handmaid of the Lord.
Sheila Nonato (08:48):
Be it done unto me, according to your Word.
Ed Van Buskirk (08:50):
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Sheila Nonato (08:58):
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:03):
And the Word was made flesh.
Sheila Nonato (09:06):
And dwelt among us.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:07):
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Sheila Nonato (09:15):
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:19):
Pray for us,
Sheila Nonato (09:22):
That worthy of the promises of Christ.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:25):
Let us pray Pour forth.
We beseech thee, O Lord, thygrace into our hearts that we,
to whom the incarnation ofChrist, thy Son, was made known
by the message of an angel, may,by his passion and cross, be
brought to the glory of hisResurrections.
Through the same Christ, ourLord.
(09:45):
Amen.
In the name of the Father, HolySpirit.
Sheila Nonato (09:50):
Amen, Thank you for that.
And so I wanted to start.
You had a radical call to thisministry, so please tell us from
the beginning what were youdoing before this and what
happened.
How did this all start?
Ed Van Buskirk (10:07):
doing before this?
And what happened?
How did this all start?
Yeah, well, just a quickbackground on my upbringing.
I'm the youngest of seven in aCatholic family wonderful
parents, wonderful family raisedthrough the Catholic teachings
in the Catholic schools and wentthrough Catholic education all
through my academic years andthen raised my children Catholic
(10:28):
.
And then it was when I wasapproaching my 50s.
I attended a men's programcalled that man Is you and the
presenter was telling a storyand the story was basically
challenging us as men as towhether we were good guys.
And I sat there amongst theother men, a fairly large group,
(10:49):
and I was thinking to myselfwell, I think I would qualify as
a good guy.
Not too many people call me ajerk, so I think I'm a good guy
overall.
And the next question was well,if you're a good guy, are you a
good guy according to the TenCommandments?
And once again I thought, well,yeah, I think I would qualify
(11:13):
for that.
The story continued and itbecame evident that he was
saying well, if you're a goodguy according to the Ten
Commandments, that must meanthat you know the Ten
Commandments.
And I sat there, I put my handsunder the table and started
counting on my fingers the TenCommandments.
And I got up to like five orsix and I'm starting to struggle
(11:37):
and I'm thinking why don't Iknow the Ten Commandments, the
Ten Commandments.
And I went home that day and Iwas really bothered because,
first off, if I didn't know TheCommandments, I probably wasn't
living them very well, so Iprobably am not the good guy I
thought I was.
But then, secondly, it was justlike why, with my background,
(12:01):
do I not know something so basic, foundational and important as
the Ten Commandments?
And so I started writing themout longhand and then rehearsing
them at stoplights, and sothat's kind of how the story got
started.
Sheila Nonato (12:18):
Awesome, and you were in the tech industry.
Is that correct?
Ed Van Buskirk (12:23):
Yeah, my business IT services company.
I started when I was 36 and ranthat for 21 years and over time
, as this realization I didn'tknow the Ten Commandments kind
of came into play and I startedrehearsing them.
Something interesting kind ofstarted to happen.
(12:43):
I started noticing the TenCommandments all over the place.
The Ten Commandments aresprinkled throughout and very
integral to the scripturepassages and you think of Jesus'
teachings as parables andeverything that is really in the
gospel.
It's him teaching us how tolive the Ten Commandments and as
(13:08):
Catholics we focus on that alot, but we don't focus on the
specific Ten Commandments, wedon't have them top of mind.
And what I realized that daywas that if I don't have them
top of mind, I'm not living themin my heart, I'm not putting
them into play intentionally inmy day and at the end of the day
(13:28):
, if I do an examination and Igo back and go, oh, I didn't do
that right, I didn't do thatright.
Well, we shouldn't be trying tofigure out what we didn't do
right, we should be preparingourselves to do what is right.
Right, and it was several yearsafter realizing this that I
just felt God's calling to sayokay, what are you going to do
(13:56):
with what I've been revealing toyou?
And over time I realized thatGod was calling me to do more
than just have that for myself.
And so it was okay.
Well, I'm the men's leader atthe church, let me go find a
good Catholic program on the TenCommandments, and I'll do that
for the men.
And year after year I keptlooking for a program on the Ten
Commandments and I could notfind a good Catholic program on
(14:22):
the Ten Commandments.
And I could find some that hadthe Ten Commandments as maybe
one session or two sessions in aprogram.
But I wanted something thatfocused specifically on the Ten
Commandments and I couldn't findone Interesting.
It's very surprising becauseyou see the Catholic Catechism.
It's a good, thick book, about900 pages book, and there's four
(14:48):
sections in the Catechism.
One entire section is dedicatedto the Ten Commandments.
And so you got to think if wegot one quarter of our Catechism
dedicated to the TenCommandments, why are we not
speaking about them more?
Why aren't we bringing theminto the forefront much more
(15:09):
prevalently, much moreintentionally?
And so our ministry.
We got started in the scripturepassage where Jesus says if you
love me, you will keep mycommandments John 14, 15.
I really like that scripturepassage.
There's a lot packed into it,but two key words I want to
point out real quickly.
(15:29):
It starts with the word if.
The verse sounds like astatement, but it's a challenge.
Do I love God enough to trusthim, to trust in his wisdom of
them, the love of them, enoughto set aside what I think is
earthly, the right thing to do,or maybe, in the business world,
(15:52):
the right thing to do and trusthim and then keep his
commandments?
And a lot of people say well,yeah, I keep the commandments,
I've got them on the wall.
See, they're right over thereon the wall.
Well, that doesn't mean thatwe're keeping them.
We have to keep them, whichmeans we need to know them, we
need to understand them, howthey operate and when to apply
(16:12):
them.
And so keeping them is a lotmore than just memorizing them
for a test when we're in thefourth grade.
Sheila Nonato (16:21):
And is that when you realized this?
Is that when you wrote toPresident Obama?
Ed Van Buskirk (16:27):
Yeah, that really is.
I was trying to think what do Ido with this?
How do I make these more thanjust for me?
And so at the time you knowthey're just there still is a
lot of, uh, of confusion,there's a lot of heartache,
there's a lot of hardship, um,and division.
(16:47):
And so I started writing uhletters how the commandments can
be the solution and theantidote to the struggles that
we have, everything from povertyto unwed pregnancies, to the
divorce rate, to problems witheconomics.
(17:08):
The Commandments, they're God'srecipe for a wonderful life,
but they're the antidote forsolving these problems.
And it's amazing.
And so I started writing himthese letters and, of course, I
just got form letters back fromhim each time and they didn't
really go very far from thatperspective.
(17:31):
But it was interesting, as Iwrote these letters, how much I
started to truly realize how,you know, we have to live them
individually, we have to embracethem.
That's really the only thingthat we can control.
But as we as a parish community, within our civic communities,
(17:52):
and then it grows out from thereas we embrace these
commandments, bring them to theforefront and really hold
ourselves together in love,accountable for them, it starts
to change a community and asmultiple communities really
start to embrace these, itstarts to change the state,
let's say.
And then it grows out from thecountry.
(18:15):
And then you think of the warsthat are going on right now.
The Commandments are being theroot cause of somebody saying
you have something that I wantand I'm just going to steal it.
If we can embrace how weshouldn't, as individuals, be
looking to what we can take butwhat we can give, how much
(18:39):
better off will countries be interms of being neighbors to one
another?
They truly are the antidote tothe challenges that we face
individually, societally-wise,and in the country and in the
world.
They're amazing.
Sheila Nonato (18:55):
Are they being taught in your state?
What's sort of the status?
Ed Van Buskirk (19:01):
In the public schools, are you saying?
Sheila Nonato (19:03):
Yeah, like in the public schools, yeah.
Ed Van Buskirk (19:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of states.
Last count there are 13 statesthat have introduced legislation
in the past couple years tobring the Ten Commandments in,
just to display them on thewalls along with other
historical documents.
Actually, louisiana actuallyhad their legislation passed and
(19:35):
it was signed by the governor,and it's been since this
happened last summer sometime.
It's since been put on hold byyou know lawsuits that came and
a judge put some kind of aninjunction on it.
So in the public schools, youknow there may be some that are,
(19:55):
you know, and maybe in smallcommunities, but in general in
the public they have been takendown since they were taken out
of the schools and so they'renot being taught in the public
schools.
Sheila Nonato (20:10):
And so can you tell me about your ministry, and
how does it teach thecommandments to?
Is it in schools in parishes?
Ed Van Buskirk (20:19):
Both.
It's both Our bishop here inthe Kansas City St Joseph
Diocese on the Missouri side ofthe line he has been just
supportive of our ministry.
We have a program called God'sRecipe for School and Family,
and really a big challenge withthe commandments is to get
(20:41):
people's perspective of thecommandments as not just being a
list of rules imposed on us bya demanding God, but how they're
God's gift to us, a God'srecipe for the life that he
wants for us.
Gift to us, a God's recipe forthe life that he wants for us
and the life that we yearn for.
And so all of our programs arecalled God's Recipe for a
(21:06):
Wonderful Life, something thatreally shows how the
commandments are not a list ofDebbie Downers, but how they
lift us up and they help us tohave the wonderful life we want.
And so the bishop asked us toput our school and family
program into every school in thediocese for the fourth graders
and their parents.
It's really a parent-ledprogram, getting people to be
(21:29):
involved in their faith.
And so he asked us to put thisin to all the schools and the
school of religion for thoseparishes that don't have schools
.
And so that's 56 that we are inthe process of running through
that program for the first year.
We started last September andit really goes throughout the
(21:50):
school year.
It starts off with a TenCommandments family kit.
Throughout the school year itstarts off with a Ten
Commandments family kit.
So the kids take this familykit home with them.
I don't know if you can get agood look at that there.
It's got a letter to mom anddad in there and the kids open
it up and they're real excitedabout it and they pull out a
(22:11):
jigsaw puzzle.
So we got a jigsaw puzzle.
It's an image of the TenCommandments for the family to
put together.
And once they put it togetherthey don't want it to just get
shoved in a drawer or in thetrash.
So we put a picture frame inthe package.
So mom and dad picture frameand put the puzzle in there and
(22:33):
the family can decide a goodplace to present it.
And then we've got a book formom and dad that we put in there
.
Dad can use this.
It's just got a few pages foreach commandment but it gives
them enough insight that theycan conduct some nice
conversations for the children.
And then there's a familyactivity for them to go and
(22:55):
usually there's somethinginvolving food, something
involving the outdoors to reallydiscover what that commandment
really means.
And then every month,throughout the school year, we
feature one commandment a monthand we send to the families just
(23:16):
a short email with an aspect ofthat commandment that maybe
they haven't thought of, such asdon't steal.
It does mean don't steal, butthat really calls us to
generosity, and you think ofstealing, how that harms our
relationship.
Stealing causes, whether theother person knows that we stole
it or not, there's a divisionthere.
(23:37):
It divides us, it separates us.
But that commandment is reallycalling us into generosity and
with generosity it unites people, it brings a relationship.
And so we send these emails togive them a little more insight
on the commandments and thensome questions to ask around the
dinner table just to get someconversation going.
(23:58):
So that goes throughout theschool year.
So the school and family programis one thing.
We then have an 11-sessionvideo study for parishes and
individuals at the adult levelto really understand how these
commandments operate, at theadult level, to really
understand how thesecommandments operate, and so
that is.
We have that in about 20parishes that are mostly here in
(24:20):
the Kansas City area, but someoutside of the area as well.
And then I go and I get theopportunity to share what these
commandments can do in front ofgroups, at a conference or in a
parish setting at retreats, andthey apply to everything.
I'm going next month down toWichita to speak to a business
(24:42):
group.
This last weekend I was up atBenedictine College giving a
talk at their Changing theCulture Symposium, and when I
get a chance to do that it is agreat opportunity to help people
see these commandments not justas a list of rules on the wall
but something to take and tolive every day.
Sheila Nonato (25:02):
Is it also for homeschooling families?
Ed Van Buskirk (25:05):
Yeah, absolutely , homeschool families
homeschooling families to usethis family kit.
That would be a perfect thingfor homeschooling families to
put into play and to use that astheir could be for their
curriculum.
But we really are trying tolook at how to live the
commandments, not just look atit from a let's memorize what
(25:28):
these are.
And in terms of, I guess, livingthe commandments so today is a
(25:53):
Marian feast and in terms ofdecisions to make and we learn
to the first commandment first.
The first commandment is thefoundation for all of the other
commandments.
I am the Lord, your God.
You shall not have any strangegods before me.
(26:16):
When we put that, when we getthat commandment right, then
we're going to not use God'sname in vain.
We're going to only use God'sname in reverence and in awe and
in prayer.
We're going to make sure that wedon't fill up our Sundays with
(26:37):
getting the laundry done,cutting the grass and all the
chores we're going to make surethat we truly set that day aside
as a holy day.
And when we get those firstthree commandments to where
we're really, those are aboutour relationship with God.
And as we pursue those threecommandments and really pursue
(27:01):
God through those commandments,then it becomes very for us to
make the choice.
I, to people, I'm not going tosteal from them, I'm not going
to commit adultery, I'm notgoing to covet what other people
have in a disordered way.
It starts to become verynatural.
And so when we have those forksin the road and we're thinking
(27:24):
well, in worldly ways, I shouldgo this direction.
But if I follow God's wisdomand trust in him, I'm going to
go this direction.
I may not want to go thisdirection, but I'm going to
because I love and I trust God.
So, getting back to Mary, herewe are on the Feast of the
(27:46):
Annunciation.
So this is a great question.
The angel Gabriel came and saidwell, God wants you to trust
him.
He has this for you, to do thisin the face of everything that
would be so counter-cultural foryou.
(28:07):
People are going to be makingremarks, they may spit on you,
they may do worse to you whatyou have done.
The law said you should bestoned.
That's the worldly way.
But Mary, because she put thosefirst three commandments first,
the only way she could have saidyes is because she had no
(28:29):
strange gods including herself,and she was able to say yes,
gods including herself and shewas able to say yes.
(28:53):
And by having God first firstin my life and order everything
else in my life in terms of howthey lead me and how they lead
others to God.
And as we put that firstcommandment first, it becomes so
(29:15):
much easier to say yes whenwe're tempted to lie.
When you say yes when we're infront of our computer and
something teases us to go onedirection, we're able to say no.
That's going to lead me awayfrom God.
And it applies in our drivingwhen we drive on the roads to
drive with generosity for oneanother, so that everybody can
(29:39):
enjoy the roads and get to theirdestination safely and not full
of rage and being upset.
Mary is the example of beingable to say yes, I'm going to
accept God's plan and set asidemy plans.
My guess is she woke up thatday and she wasn't thinking.
(30:01):
You know, if I get asked if I'mgoing to be the mother of God
and to bear God's son.
I think I'll say yes.
That day it probably wasn'twhat she woke up, day it
probably wasn't what you woke up.
So we don't know when thatchallenge, when that real demand
(30:23):
or that real demands, not thatwhen that calling for us to be
ready to say yes and as we livethese commandments in the small
ways, it prepares us to say yesto that calling from God.
Sheila Nonato (30:36):
On the bigger things, when you mentioned the
relationship of Mother Mary withGod, I'm sort of thinking about
the book you wrote and also theGarden of Eden, our first
parents, adam and Eve, whodisobeyed God's commandment, and
how that relationship betweenGod and man humanity was broken
(31:00):
at that instant and how Jesuscame to repair that and to
redeem us.
Can you talk about what is theconnection with the commandments
and having right relationshipswith God and with each other?
Ed Van Buskirk (31:15):
Yeah, it is all about those right relationships.
And the Garden of Eden is whereit begins.
You got Adam and Eve andthey're living a life of harmony
One another, harmony with God,with all the blessings that God
has given them on earth.
And they had one commandment,not 10.
(31:39):
They had one commandment youshall not eat from the tree with
the knowledge of good and evil.
Now, I don't, you know, it'seasy to put ourselves, you know,
and look back on it.
But if you've got the entiregarden full of all this
wonderful, beautiful fruit andGod says this tree over here,
(31:59):
don't just leave it alone.
But Satan, in his trickery, hestarts to.
He puts a wedge between God andEve by saying did God really
say that you would die?
And he puts a little doubt inthere and gets her to start to
(32:24):
think, hmm, hmm, he got it.
First she said well, he didn'tsay that we would die.
And the conversation continues.
And she first, he sows doubt.
And then he tells a flat outlie Surely you will not die.
And then he says God knows thatif you eat of it you will
(32:49):
become like him.
And so Eve is putting a wedgebetween that relationship and
making God out to be the bad guyand as we see the story unfold,
they disobey the onecommandment and instantly their
(33:10):
relationship changes, theirrelationship with God changes.
They go and they hide, theystart blaming each other.
Ah God, the woman who you puthere.
She tricked me into eating.
So you start to see conflict,the harmony is gone, the
division has started and Satan,same thing today.
(33:32):
He sows doubt, he tempts us andhe sows doubt and then he says,
"h, God just doesn't want youto do whatever it is that you
want to do, because he's tryingto restrain you, he's trying to
restrict you.
And we need to go back to thatfirst sin and go.
How is that first sin relevantin our life today and the
(33:56):
relationship?
So if I'm tempted in businessworld, if I'm tempted to, let's
say, bend the truth to a clienton what this new wonderful
product is going to do for themand how much money it's going to
save them, if I get it, well,what's the difference going to
make?
He's still going to do finewith it.
(34:18):
That lie, that sin client maynever find out about it, they
may never realize it.
But now I become a slave tothat sin and now I've got to
keep that sin a secret and inorder to do that, I'm employed
talking to that client because Idon't want to have my sin
(34:40):
disclosed, and that separationbegins.
And so let's say the clientdoes find out about it and they
go well, I can't trust youanymore.
And let's say our employeespick up that I'm not trustworthy
as a business owner and theemployees go, I'm going to move
on to someone else.
So you got your clients andthen vendors start to wonder
(35:03):
what's going on there and whatgood is a business, or how
effective is a business, if it'snot going to have any
relationships with their clients, their employees and their
vendors?
Right there you can see how itjust in a business world it
shrivels up In the family, thefamily relationships.
(35:24):
They can be blessed by showinggenerosity and trust and
treating one another with honor.
That the fourth commandmentcalls us to build, those
relationships within the family.
But how often do we look andhear stories of relationships
within families being shredded,somebody disobeying one of the
(35:46):
commandments or more?
But in all of these situations,for all of us, we always know
that while the damage of thoserelationships can be damaged
easily, christ is always thereto take us back, to restore us,
to put us on the right path, togive us the forgiveness and show
(36:09):
us the mercy that we can beginto restore our relationship with
God and with one another.
And it takes time.
But over time, as we live thesecommandments and people see, oh
, he's changed his way.
I'm starting to hear that he'sbecome a person of integrity.
(36:30):
He is not the person he used tobe.
Then those relationships can bemended and restored.
It takes time.
In our relationship with God,God's always ready to restore us
back to him.
Sheila Nonato (36:49):
But we've got to do our part.
And when you mentioned aboutconfusion in your book, you also
mentioned that confusion is afavourite weapon of Satan to
divide, to create chaos.
And one of the, I guess, goldencalves of our day is the phone,
social media, the internet, youknow, spreading gossip, and we
don't even have to put our realname on if you go to on X, or
(37:13):
formerly known as Twitter youcan just spread gossip and not
have to have your real identitythere.
Nobody's going to know who youare.
There's also, unfortunately,addiction to pornography, even
amongst children, which is veryheartbreaking for me to hear,
and there's also AI.
You know, we don't know what istruth.
(37:34):
What is the truth and what iswise advice if we just ask Chad
GPT to help us make ourdecisions?
What is happening in our worldtoday and how can we bring it
back to truth, wisdom and order?
Ed Van Buskirk (37:52):
Yeah truth.
When I started looking into thecommandment, and specifically
the eighth commandment, it'sreally the first time that I
started looking at truth not asjust an idea or yeah,
(38:12):
something's either true or it'sfalse.
It's just kind of the lightswitch is on or off.
But I started seeing truth as aperson and that person being
Jesus.
And he tells us very clearly.
He says I am the way, the truthand the life, and that really
(38:35):
struck me as I was studying theTen Commandments and thinking,
wow, truth, god is truth, andtruth exists in the of us as
male and female, the creation ofthe sun and the stars and the
planets, and then you have thetruth of what the particle was
(38:55):
and how they interact together,how you pick up an object and
you let go of it, and the truthof gravity is that it's going to
always pull it to the ground.
And so we have truth everywhere.
Some people deny the existenceof truth.
There's never any absolutetruth.
Well, I strongly disagree withthat, and the only thing that
(39:19):
happens is people get confusedabout the truth, and confusion
causes us to.
When we're confused, it's hardto find truth, truth being Jesus
, and so in our culture rightnow, they've had to come up with
(39:40):
new terms for truth or lying.
Actually, they've had to comeup with new terms for lying
because they don't want peopleto know what it really is.
There's misinformation anddisinformation that has suddenly
become a part of vocabulary inyears.
Instead of people saying thatwas a lie, let's call it for
(40:03):
what it is.
Let's not use a euphemism tocover it up.
The confusion that's going onin the world makes it very
difficult for us to see what istrue.
It makes it very difficult tosee God in the confusion, and
that's right where Satan wantsus to be confused and not able
(40:24):
to find what is true is true.
And you know, there's a lot ofthings that we hear where we
think you know that sounds like,yeah, that sounds pretty
truthful, that sounds like agood, a good theology.
But sometimes there's a littlesprinkle of a little bit of a
lie in the midst of the truth.
And so when we think about thatand think, well, it's mostly
(40:47):
true.
Well, let's say it's 2% nottrue, it's 2% lie, and so we use
that as our philosophy, wedecide that that's something
we're going to really put intoour character and really esteem
to follow, and we're 2% offtarget and over the course of 10
(41:09):
, 15 years.
How far off target can we be?
Think of a plane flying fromSan Francisco to New York and
they're 2% off their trajectoryof to get there.
They end up in a totallydifferent state.
We want to make sure we get thefull truth and the chaos and the
confusion and the chaos and theconfusion that we have in our
(41:31):
world, especially with the youngmen and women, the young folks
who are listening to this socialmedia, to the newscast it's
impossible to really know whatis truth on all of that and the
confusion that it's causing them.
And that's where TheCommandments can really come in,
(41:54):
so important for equipping allof us, especially our young
children, as the targets of allthis confusion, to bring them
back into what and navigate allof the confusion and to see,
okay, if I put God first in thatfirst commandment and I start
(42:23):
to understand how thesecommandments really work and
operate in our daily lives,whether we're a junior high
student in the school, or we'rea business person in the
workforce, or a retired person,or a woman or a man who's taking
care of things at home, if Ican put God first in my life,
all the confusion that comes upin my world and day I can say
(42:43):
wait a minute time out.
Let me just go to thiswonderful recipe that God has
given to us in the TenCommandments and go, let's just
see how this really stacks up.
Oh, wait a minute, this isn'tgoing to lead us to God.
This is going to take us awayfrom God.
It's a direct violation of thecommandment you shall not kill.
(43:04):
We're not going there.
And then trust to accept that.
This is an interesting thingbecause it involves so much of
life, investments, and when welook at the investments, the
companies that we invest in, andreally look to see how their,
(43:28):
what their business is about andwhat other industries they
support and what products theyproduce, how closely do they
align with the Ten Commandments?
And if they don't, then why amI investing in them?
Let's make a better choice.
These commandments applyeverywhere and they help us to
(43:48):
cut through the confusion and tomake the choices that are going
to be good for others and goodfor us and good for our
relationship with God.
Sheila Nonato (44:13):
Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour
podcast.
Co-Host (44:16):
I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom
today.
Please subscribe to our podcastand YouTube channel and please
spread the word.
Let's Be Brave, let's Be Boldand Be Blessed together.
When I started looking into The Commandments,
and specifically the eighthcommandment, it's really the
first time that I startedlooking at truth not as just an
idea or yeah, something's eithertrue or it's false.
It's just kind of the lightswitches on or off.
But I started seeing truth as aperson and that person being
(00:21):
Jesus, and he tells us veryclearly.
He says, "I am the way, thetruth and the life.
Sheila Nonato (00:31):
Habemus Papam! We have a new Pope, Pope Leo XIV,
the first from the United States.
A monumental day yesterday, onMay 8th.
Pope Leo spoke of the peace andthe love of Jesus Christ.
He prayed a Hail Mary and hespoke of the hope for the
missionary church to bring thebody of Christ as united and one
(00:54):
under God.
This is what the successor ofSaint Peter is tasked to do to
sow the seeds of faith insideand outside the church, to reach
the far corners of the world,speaking the truth of the good
news.
On this Mother's Day, in ourown way, as mothers, we also sow
(01:16):
the seeds of faith, faith, hopeand love in our own domestic
church, in our homes, in our owndomestic church, in our homes.
I share this seed that Ireceived from a beautiful,
faithful lady, Mrs.
Pereira.
This is a monstrance seed withan interesting story, and let me
(01:39):
show you.
It is a seed, a white seed,that has a picture, almost a
painting, hand-drawn, of themonstrance on a white seed, and
it has an interesting story.
This is a real seed thatactually grows into a green bean
, as Mrs Pereira had told me,and I am looking forward to
(02:02):
going and seeing her garden tosee it, and I am looking forward
to going and seeing her gardento see it the way that it has
blossomed into a green beanplant.
And let me tell you about thestory.
There are a couple of stories ofthis monstrance climbing French
bean, the first story beingaccording to a website called
(02:28):
Growing Food Saving Seeds in theUK.
There are two stories connectedwith this being.
First, there's a story of athief who supposedly stole a
monstrance, which is a RomanCatholic church vessel where a
consecrated host, the body ofChrist, is exposed for adoration
inside a church, meaning peoplepray in front of the monstrance
(02:49):
where the blessed sacrament isinside.
And it was buried in a field.
And when the field's ownerwanted to plow the field, the
horse did not want to go overthe spot where the monstrance
had been buried, and so thefarmer dug up that spot and he
found a monstrance had beenburied.
And so the farmer dug up thatspot and he found a monstrance,
returned it to the church andthen the farmer sowed white
(03:11):
beans and to his astonishment,according to the website, it
grew and there was an image ofthe monstrance inside on the
bean when he had harvested it,when he had found it.
According to the second legend,a monk had planted white beans
in a monastery garden as therewere troops advancing.
(03:34):
There were hostile troops, andthen the nuns all buried the
church artifacts, which includedthe monstrance, in this garden.
And they had reported a miraclethat the white beans which were
beside the monstrance had thisimage of the monstrance
(03:54):
imprinted upon them.
And so, Dear Sisters in Christ,as the Holy Father is tasked
with sowing the seeds of faith,we are also tasked with this
great, humble and significantrole as mothers in our own
families, to plant those seedsof faith, to help our children
(04:17):
to grow in the love and hope ofthe Resurrected Lord and to be
the beacons of light in a worldof darkness, to be the leaders
that we want to see in oursocieties, that will help the
disenfranchised, that will helpthe marginalized and that will
also be that source of strengthof faith for everyone around us,
(04:41):
for all of our neighbors, forour family.
And in this vein, how do weplant the seeds of faith?
We refer to the Bible, sacredscripture, and the most famous,
of course, aside from Jesus'teachings, aside from the
Beatitudes, are the TenCommandments, and this is one of
(05:03):
the most famous rules that Godhad given us.
And if we read in the TenCommandments, we read how God
himself had written thecommandments, had taken his hand
, his finger, to write out eachof The Commandments on the
tablets that Moses was asked byGod to bring up to the mountain.
(05:27):
If you love me, keep mycommandments.
In a world that says moralschange over time and prefers
relative truth, your truth or mytruth, to absolute truth, do
the Ten Commandments stillmatter?
Ed Van Buskirk says absolutely.
(05:49):
He believes in it so much thathe left his IT business to start
If you Love Me ministry, whichspreads the good news of the Ten
Commandments to students,teachers and parents.
Ten Commandments to students,teachers and parents.
(06:09):
In the Bible we read of how Godwrote the commandments with his
own hands.
We discuss why the TenCommandments form part of the
story of God's love for hispeople in sacred scripture and
why they remain relevant today.
While we recorded thisinterview on the Feast of the
Annunciation of Mother Mary, weare now in the month of May and
celebrating Mother Mary, and itis most appropriate to present
(06:33):
to you this interview thatremains relevant, that will help
us in our journey of motherhood, in our role as mothers to
helping to raise the nextgeneration of leaders and saints
and helping to sowing thoseseeds of faith, hope and love.
Thank you, and God bless andhappy Mother's Day, and let us
(06:56):
pray for our new Holy Father,pope Leo XIV.
May God bless him.
May God bless the Holy CatholicChurch, amen, and the
inspiration of Our Lady.
I strive to tell stories thatinspire, illuminate and enrich
(07:30):
the lives of Catholic women tohelp them in living out our
vocation of raising the nextgeneration of leaders and saints
.
Co-Host (07:34):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.
Sheila Nonato (07:41):
So welcome to the podcast, Mr Ed Van Buskirk,
from Kansas City, Missouri.
You're the founder of If youLove Me Ministry.
And Happy Feast of theAnnunciation, by the way.
Ed Van Buskirk (07:52):
Well, thank you very much.
It's a delight to be here withyou and I'm excited for our
conversation.
Sheila Nonato (07:59):
Thank you, as am I and your organization, If you
Love Me.
Ministry is seeking totransform society by restoring
the truth and the wisdom ofGod's Ten Commandments in a
world of confusion.
Can we please start with aprayer?
Ed Van Buskirk (08:14):
Oh, that would be great.
Let's begin in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The angel of the Lord declaredunto Mary and she conceived of
the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
(08:34):
womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, prayfor us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death.
Amen, the handmaid of the Lord.
Sheila Nonato (08:48):
Be it done unto me, according to your Word.
Ed Van Buskirk (08:50):
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Sheila Nonato (08:58):
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:03):
And the Word was made flesh.
Sheila Nonato (09:06):
And dwelt among us.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:07):
Hail Mary.
Full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Sheila Nonato (09:15):
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:19):
Pray for us,
Sheila Nonato (09:22):
That worthy of the promises of Christ.
Ed Van Buskirk (09:25):
Let us pray Pour forth.
We beseech thee, O Lord, thygrace into our hearts that we,
to whom the incarnation ofChrist, thy Son, was made known
by the message of an angel, may,by his passion and cross, be
brought to the glory of hisResurrections.
Through the same Christ, ourLord.
(09:45):
Amen.
In the name of the Father, HolySpirit.
Sheila Nonato (09:50):
Amen, Thank you for that.
And so I wanted to start.
You had a radical call to thisministry, so please tell us from
the beginning what were youdoing before this and what
happened.
How did this all start?
Ed Van Buskirk (10:07):
doing before this?
And what happened?
How did this all start?
Yeah, well, just a quickbackground on my upbringing.
I'm the youngest of seven in aCatholic family wonderful
parents, wonderful family raisedthrough the Catholic teachings
in the Catholic schools and wentthrough Catholic education all
through my academic years andthen raised my children Catholic
(10:28):
.
And then it was when I wasapproaching my 50s.
I attended a men's programcalled that man Is you and the
presenter was telling a storyand the story was basically
challenging us as men as towhether we were good guys.
And I sat there amongst theother men, a fairly large group,
(10:49):
and I was thinking to myselfwell, I think I would qualify as
a good guy.
Not too many people call me ajerk, so I think I'm a good guy
overall.
And the next question was well,if you're a good guy, are you a
good guy according to the TenCommandments?
And once again I thought, well,yeah, I think I would qualify
(11:13):
for that.
The story continued and itbecame evident that he was
saying well, if you're a goodguy according to the Ten
Commandments, that must meanthat you know the Ten
Commandments.
And I sat there, I put my handsunder the table and started
counting on my fingers the TenCommandments.
And I got up to like five orsix and I'm starting to struggle
(11:37):
and I'm thinking why don't Iknow the Ten Commandments, the
Ten Commandments.
And I went home that day and Iwas really bothered because,
first off, if I didn't know TheCommandments, I probably wasn't
living them very well, so Iprobably am not the good guy I
thought I was.
But then, secondly, it was justlike why, with my background,
(12:01):
do I not know something so basic, foundational and important as
the Ten Commandments?
And so I started writing themout longhand and then rehearsing
them at stoplights, and sothat's kind of how the story got
started.
Sheila Nonato (12:18):
Awesome, and you were in the tech industry.
Is that correct?
Ed Van Buskirk (12:23):
Yeah, my business IT services company.
I started when I was 36 and ranthat for 21 years and over time
, as this realization I didn'tknow the Ten Commandments kind
of came into play and I startedrehearsing them.
Something interesting kind ofstarted to happen.
(12:43):
I started noticing the TenCommandments all over the place.
The Ten Commandments aresprinkled throughout and very
integral to the scripturepassages and you think of Jesus'
teachings as parables andeverything that is really in the
gospel.
It's him teaching us how tolive the Ten Commandments and as
(13:08):
Catholics we focus on that alot, but we don't focus on the
specific Ten Commandments, wedon't have them top of mind.
And what I realized that daywas that if I don't have them
top of mind, I'm not living themin my heart, I'm not putting
them into play intentionally inmy day and at the end of the day
(13:28):
, if I do an examination and Igo back and go, oh, I didn't do
that right, I didn't do thatright.
Well, we shouldn't be trying tofigure out what we didn't do
right, we should be preparingourselves to do what is right.
Right, and it was several yearsafter realizing this that I
just felt God's calling to sayokay, what are you going to do
(13:56):
with what I've been revealing toyou?
And over time I realized thatGod was calling me to do more
than just have that for myself.
And so it was okay.
Well, I'm the men's leader atthe church, let me go find a
good Catholic program on the TenCommandments, and I'll do that
for the men.
And year after year I keptlooking for a program on the Ten
Commandments and I could notfind a good Catholic program on
(14:22):
the Ten Commandments.
And I could find some that hadthe Ten Commandments as maybe
one session or two sessions in aprogram.
But I wanted something thatfocused specifically on the Ten
Commandments and I couldn't findone Interesting.
It's very surprising becauseyou see the Catholic Catechism.
It's a good, thick book, about900 pages book, and there's four
(14:48):
sections in the Catechism.
One entire section is dedicatedto the Ten Commandments.
And so you got to think if wegot one quarter of our Catechism
dedicated to the TenCommandments, why are we not
speaking about them more?
Why aren't we bringing theminto the forefront much more
(15:09):
prevalently, much moreintentionally?
And so our ministry.
We got started in the scripturepassage where Jesus says if you
love me, you will keep mycommandments John 14, 15.
I really like that scripturepassage.
There's a lot packed into it,but two key words I want to
point out real quickly.
(15:29):
It starts with the word if.
The verse sounds like astatement, but it's a challenge.
Do I love God enough to trusthim, to trust in his wisdom of
them, the love of them, enoughto set aside what I think is
earthly, the right thing to do,or maybe, in the business world,
(15:52):
the right thing to do and trusthim and then keep his
commandments?
And a lot of people say well,yeah, I keep the commandments,
I've got them on the wall.
See, they're right over thereon the wall.
Well, that doesn't mean thatwe're keeping them.
We have to keep them, whichmeans we need to know them, we
need to understand them, howthey operate and when to apply
(16:12):
them.
And so keeping them is a lotmore than just memorizing them
for a test when we're in thefourth grade.
Sheila Nonato (16:21):
And is that when you realized this?
Is that when you wrote toPresident Obama?
Ed Van Buskirk (16:27):
Yeah, that really is.
I was trying to think what do Ido with this?
How do I make these more thanjust for me?
And so at the time you knowthey're just there still is a
lot of, uh, of confusion,there's a lot of heartache,
there's a lot of hardship, um,and division.
(16:47):
And so I started writing uhletters how the commandments can
be the solution and theantidote to the struggles that
we have, everything from povertyto unwed pregnancies, to the
divorce rate, to problems witheconomics.
(17:08):
The Commandments, they're God'srecipe for a wonderful life,
but they're the antidote forsolving these problems.
And it's amazing.
And so I started writing himthese letters and, of course, I
just got form letters back fromhim each time and they didn't
really go very far from thatperspective.
(17:31):
But it was interesting, as Iwrote these letters, how much I
started to truly realize how,you know, we have to live them
individually, we have to embracethem.
That's really the only thingthat we can control.
But as we as a parish community, within our civic communities,
(17:52):
and then it grows out from thereas we embrace these
commandments, bring them to theforefront and really hold
ourselves together in love,accountable for them, it starts
to change a community and asmultiple communities really
start to embrace these, itstarts to change the state,
let's say.
And then it grows out from thecountry.
(18:15):
And then you think of the warsthat are going on right now.
The Commandments are being theroot cause of somebody saying
you have something that I wantand I'm just going to steal it.
If we can embrace how weshouldn't, as individuals, be
looking to what we can take butwhat we can give, how much
(18:39):
better off will countries be interms of being neighbors to one
another?
They truly are the antidote tothe challenges that we face
individually, societally-wise,and in the country and in the
world.
They're amazing.
Sheila Nonato (18:55):
Are they being taught in your state?
What's sort of the status?
Ed Van Buskirk (19:01):
In the public schools, are you saying?
Sheila Nonato (19:03):
Yeah, like in the public schools, yeah.
Ed Van Buskirk (19:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of states.
Last count there are 13 statesthat have introduced legislation
in the past couple years tobring the Ten Commandments in,
just to display them on thewalls along with other
historical documents.
Actually, louisiana actuallyhad their legislation passed and
(19:35):
it was signed by the governor,and it's been since this
happened last summer sometime.
It's since been put on hold byyou know lawsuits that came and
a judge put some kind of aninjunction on it.
So in the public schools, youknow there may be some that are,
(19:55):
you know, and maybe in smallcommunities, but in general in
the public they have been takendown since they were taken out
of the schools and so they'renot being taught in the public
schools.
Sheila Nonato (20:10):
And so can you tell me about your ministry, and
how does it teach thecommandments to?
Is it in schools in parishes?
Ed Van Buskirk (20:19):
Both.
It's both Our bishop here inthe Kansas City St Joseph
Diocese on the Missouri side ofthe line he has been just
supportive of our ministry.
We have a program called God'sRecipe for School and Family,
and really a big challenge withthe commandments is to get
(20:41):
people's perspective of thecommandments as not just being a
list of rules imposed on us bya demanding God, but how they're
God's gift to us, a God'srecipe for the life that he
wants for us.
Gift to us, a God's recipe forthe life that he wants for us
and the life that we yearn for.
And so all of our programs arecalled God's Recipe for a
(21:06):
Wonderful Life, something thatreally shows how the
commandments are not a list ofDebbie Downers, but how they
lift us up and they help us tohave the wonderful life we want.
And so the bishop asked us toput our school and family
program into every school in thediocese for the fourth graders
and their parents.
It's really a parent-ledprogram, getting people to be
(21:29):
involved in their faith.
And so he asked us to put thisin to all the schools and the
school of religion for thoseparishes that don't have schools
.
And so that's 56 that we are inthe process of running through
that program for the first year.
We started last September andit really goes throughout the
(21:50):
school year.
It starts off with a TenCommandments family kit.
Throughout the school year itstarts off with a Ten
Commandments family kit.
So the kids take this familykit home with them.
I don't know if you can get agood look at that there.
It's got a letter to mom anddad in there and the kids open
it up and they're real excitedabout it and they pull out a
(22:11):
jigsaw puzzle.
So we got a jigsaw puzzle.
It's an image of the TenCommandments for the family to
put together.
And once they put it togetherthey don't want it to just get
shoved in a drawer or in thetrash.
So we put a picture frame inthe package.
So mom and dad picture frameand put the puzzle in there and
(22:33):
the family can decide a goodplace to present it.
And then we've got a book formom and dad that we put in there
.
Dad can use this.
It's just got a few pages foreach commandment but it gives
them enough insight that theycan conduct some nice
conversations for the children.
And then there's a familyactivity for them to go and
(22:55):
usually there's somethinginvolving food, something
involving the outdoors to reallydiscover what that commandment
really means.
And then every month,throughout the school year, we
feature one commandment a monthand we send to the families just
(23:16):
a short email with an aspect ofthat commandment that maybe
they haven't thought of, such asdon't steal.
It does mean don't steal, butthat really calls us to
generosity, and you think ofstealing, how that harms our
relationship.
Stealing causes, whether theother person knows that we stole
it or not, there's a divisionthere.
(23:37):
It divides us, it separates us.
But that commandment is reallycalling us into generosity and
with generosity it unites people, it brings a relationship.
And so we send these emails togive them a little more insight
on the commandments and thensome questions to ask around the
dinner table just to get someconversation going.
(23:58):
So that goes throughout theschool year.
So the school and family programis one thing.
We then have an 11-sessionvideo study for parishes and
individuals at the adult levelto really understand how these
commandments operate, at theadult level, to really
understand how thesecommandments operate, and so
that is.
We have that in about 20parishes that are mostly here in
(24:20):
the Kansas City area, but someoutside of the area as well.
And then I go and I get theopportunity to share what these
commandments can do in front ofgroups, at a conference or in a
parish setting at retreats, andthey apply to everything.
I'm going next month down toWichita to speak to a business
(24:42):
group.
This last weekend I was up atBenedictine College giving a
talk at their Changing theCulture Symposium, and when I
get a chance to do that it is agreat opportunity to help people
see these commandments not justas a list of rules on the wall
but something to take and tolive every day.
Sheila Nonato (25:02):
Is it also for homeschooling families?
Ed Van Buskirk (25:05):
Yeah, absolutely , homeschool families
homeschooling families to usethis family kit.
That would be a perfect thingfor homeschooling families to
put into play and to use that astheir could be for their
curriculum.
But we really are trying tolook at how to live the
commandments, not just look atit from a let's memorize what
(25:28):
these are.
And in terms of, I guess, livingthe commandments so today is a
(25:53):
Marian feast and in terms ofdecisions to make and we learn
to the first commandment first.
The first commandment is thefoundation for all of the other
commandments.
I am the Lord, your God.
You shall not have any strangegods before me.
(26:16):
When we put that, when we getthat commandment right, then
we're going to not use God'sname in vain.
We're going to only use God'sname in reverence and in awe and
in prayer.
We're going to make sure that wedon't fill up our Sundays with
(26:37):
getting the laundry done,cutting the grass and all the
chores we're going to make surethat we truly set that day aside
as a holy day.
And when we get those firstthree commandments to where
we're really, those are aboutour relationship with God.
And as we pursue those threecommandments and really pursue
(27:01):
God through those commandments,then it becomes very for us to
make the choice.
I, to people, I'm not going tosteal from them, I'm not going
to commit adultery, I'm notgoing to covet what other people
have in a disordered way.
It starts to become verynatural.
And so when we have those forksin the road and we're thinking
(27:24):
well, in worldly ways, I shouldgo this direction.
But if I follow God's wisdomand trust in him, I'm going to
go this direction.
I may not want to go thisdirection, but I'm going to
because I love and I trust God.
So, getting back to Mary, herewe are on the Feast of the
(27:46):
Annunciation.
So this is a great question.
The angel Gabriel came and saidwell, God wants you to trust
him.
He has this for you, to do thisin the face of everything that
would be so counter-cultural foryou.
(28:07):
People are going to be makingremarks, they may spit on you,
they may do worse to you whatyou have done.
The law said you should bestoned.
That's the worldly way.
But Mary, because she put thosefirst three commandments first,
the only way she could have saidyes is because she had no
(28:29):
strange gods including herself,and she was able to say yes,
gods including herself and shewas able to say yes.
(28:53):
And by having God first firstin my life and order everything
else in my life in terms of howthey lead me and how they lead
others to God.
And as we put that firstcommandment first, it becomes so
(29:15):
much easier to say yes whenwe're tempted to lie.
When you say yes when we're infront of our computer and
something teases us to go onedirection, we're able to say no.
That's going to lead me awayfrom God.
And it applies in our drivingwhen we drive on the roads to
drive with generosity for oneanother, so that everybody can
(29:39):
enjoy the roads and get to theirdestination safely and not full
of rage and being upset.
Mary is the example of beingable to say yes, I'm going to
accept God's plan and set asidemy plans.
My guess is she woke up thatday and she wasn't thinking.
(30:01):
You know, if I get asked if I'mgoing to be the mother of God
and to bear God's son.
I think I'll say yes.
That day it probably wasn'twhat she woke up, day it
probably wasn't what you woke up.
So we don't know when thatchallenge, when that real demand
(30:23):
or that real demands, not thatwhen that calling for us to be
ready to say yes and as we livethese commandments in the small
ways, it prepares us to say yesto that calling from God.
Sheila Nonato (30:36):
On the bigger things, when you mentioned the
relationship of Mother Mary withGod, I'm sort of thinking about
the book you wrote and also theGarden of Eden, our first
parents, adam and Eve, whodisobeyed God's commandment, and
how that relationship betweenGod and man humanity was broken
(31:00):
at that instant and how Jesuscame to repair that and to
redeem us.
Can you talk about what is theconnection with the commandments
and having right relationshipswith God and with each other?
Ed Van Buskirk (31:15):
Yeah, it is all about those right relationships.
And the Garden of Eden is whereit begins.
You got Adam and Eve andthey're living a life of harmony
One another, harmony with God,with all the blessings that God
has given them on earth.
And they had one commandment,not 10.
(31:39):
They had one commandment youshall not eat from the tree with
the knowledge of good and evil.
Now, I don't, you know, it'seasy to put ourselves, you know,
and look back on it.
But if you've got the entiregarden full of all this
wonderful, beautiful fruit andGod says this tree over here,
(31:59):
don't just leave it alone.
But Satan, in his trickery, hestarts to.
He puts a wedge between God andEve by saying did God really
say that you would die?
And he puts a little doubt inthere and gets her to start to
(32:24):
think, hmm, hmm, he got it.
First she said well, he didn'tsay that we would die.
And the conversation continues.
And she first, he sows doubt.
And then he tells a flat outlie Surely you will not die.
And then he says God knows thatif you eat of it you will
(32:49):
become like him.
And so Eve is putting a wedgebetween that relationship and
making God out to be the bad guyand as we see the story unfold,
they disobey the onecommandment and instantly their
(33:10):
relationship changes, theirrelationship with God changes.
They go and they hide, theystart blaming each other.
Ah God, the woman who you puthere.
She tricked me into eating.
So you start to see conflict,the harmony is gone, the
division has started and Satan,same thing today.
(33:32):
He sows doubt, he tempts us andhe sows doubt and then he says,
"h, God just doesn't want youto do whatever it is that you
want to do, because he's tryingto restrain you, he's trying to
restrict you.
And we need to go back to thatfirst sin and go.
How is that first sin relevantin our life today and the
(33:56):
relationship?
So if I'm tempted in businessworld, if I'm tempted to, let's
say, bend the truth to a clienton what this new wonderful
product is going to do for themand how much money it's going to
save them, if I get it, well,what's the difference going to
make?
He's still going to do finewith it.
(34:18):
That lie, that sin client maynever find out about it, they
may never realize it.
But now I become a slave tothat sin and now I've got to
keep that sin a secret and inorder to do that, I'm employed
talking to that client because Idon't want to have my sin
(34:40):
disclosed, and that separationbegins.
And so let's say the clientdoes find out about it and they
go well, I can't trust youanymore.
And let's say our employeespick up that I'm not trustworthy
as a business owner and theemployees go, I'm going to move
on to someone else.
So you got your clients andthen vendors start to wonder
(35:03):
what's going on there and whatgood is a business, or how
effective is a business, if it'snot going to have any
relationships with their clients, their employees and their
vendors?
Right there you can see how itjust in a business world it
shrivels up In the family, thefamily relationships.
(35:24):
They can be blessed by showinggenerosity and trust and
treating one another with honor.
That the fourth commandmentcalls us to build, those
relationships within the family.
But how often do we look andhear stories of relationships
within families being shredded,somebody disobeying one of the
(35:46):
commandments or more?
But in all of these situations,for all of us, we always know
that while the damage of thoserelationships can be damaged
easily, christ is always thereto take us back, to restore us,
to put us on the right path, togive us the forgiveness and show
(36:09):
us the mercy that we can beginto restore our relationship with
God and with one another.
And it takes time.
But over time, as we live thesecommandments and people see, oh
, he's changed his way.
I'm starting to hear that he'sbecome a person of integrity.
(36:30):
He is not the person he used tobe.
Then those relationships can bemended and restored.
It takes time.
In our relationship with God,God's always ready to restore us
back to him.
Sheila Nonato (36:49):
But we've got to do our part.
And when you mentioned aboutconfusion in your book, you also
mentioned that confusion is afavourite weapon of Satan to
divide, to create chaos.
And one of the, I guess, goldencalves of our day is the phone,
social media, the internet, youknow, spreading gossip, and we
don't even have to put our realname on if you go to on X, or
(37:13):
formerly known as Twitter youcan just spread gossip and not
have to have your real identitythere.
Nobody's going to know who youare.
There's also, unfortunately,addiction to pornography, even
amongst children, which is veryheartbreaking for me to hear,
and there's also AI.
You know, we don't know what istruth.
(37:34):
What is the truth and what iswise advice if we just ask Chad
GPT to help us make ourdecisions?
What is happening in our worldtoday and how can we bring it
back to truth, wisdom and order?
Ed Van Buskirk (37:52):
Yeah truth.
When I started looking into thecommandment, and specifically
the eighth commandment, it'sreally the first time that I
started looking at truth not asjust an idea or yeah,
(38:12):
something's either true or it'sfalse.
It's just kind of the lightswitch is on or off.
But I started seeing truth as aperson and that person being
Jesus.
And he tells us very clearly.
He says I am the way, the truthand the life, and that really
(38:35):
struck me as I was studying theTen Commandments and thinking,
wow, truth, god is truth, andtruth exists in the of us as
male and female, the creation ofthe sun and the stars and the
planets, and then you have thetruth of what the particle was
(38:55):
and how they interact together,how you pick up an object and
you let go of it, and the truthof gravity is that it's going to
always pull it to the ground.
And so we have truth everywhere.
Some people deny the existenceof truth.
There's never any absolutetruth.
Well, I strongly disagree withthat, and the only thing that
(39:19):
happens is people get confusedabout the truth, and confusion
causes us to.
When we're confused, it's hardto find truth, truth being Jesus
, and so in our culture rightnow, they've had to come up with
(39:40):
new terms for truth or lying.
Actually, they've had to comeup with new terms for lying
because they don't want peopleto know what it really is.
There's misinformation anddisinformation that has suddenly
become a part of vocabulary inyears.
Instead of people saying thatwas a lie, let's call it for
(40:03):
what it is.
Let's not use a euphemism tocover it up.
The confusion that's going onin the world makes it very
difficult for us to see what istrue.
It makes it very difficult tosee God in the confusion, and
that's right where Satan wantsus to be confused and not able
(40:24):
to find what is true is true.
And you know, there's a lot ofthings that we hear where we
think you know that sounds like,yeah, that sounds pretty
truthful, that sounds like agood, a good theology.
But sometimes there's a littlesprinkle of a little bit of a
lie in the midst of the truth.
And so when we think about thatand think, well, it's mostly
(40:47):
true.
Well, let's say it's 2% nottrue, it's 2% lie, and so we use
that as our philosophy, wedecide that that's something
we're going to really put intoour character and really esteem
to follow, and we're 2% offtarget and over the course of 10
(41:09):
, 15 years.
How far off target can we be?
Think of a plane flying fromSan Francisco to New York and
they're 2% off their trajectoryof to get there.
They end up in a totallydifferent state.
We want to make sure we get thefull truth and the chaos and the
confusion and the chaos and theconfusion that we have in our
(41:31):
world, especially with the youngmen and women, the young folks
who are listening to this socialmedia, to the newscast it's
impossible to really know whatis truth on all of that and the
confusion that it's causing them.
And that's where TheCommandments can really come in,
(41:54):
so important for equipping allof us, especially our young
children, as the targets of allthis confusion, to bring them
back into what and navigate allof the confusion and to see,
okay, if I put God first in thatfirst commandment and I start
(42:23):
to understand how thesecommandments really work and
operate in our daily lives,whether we're a junior high
student in the school, or we'rea business person in the
workforce, or a retired person,or a woman or a man who's taking
care of things at home, if Ican put God first in my life,
all the confusion that comes upin my world and day I can say
(42:43):
wait a minute time out.
Let me just go to thiswonderful recipe that God has
given to us in the TenCommandments and go, let's just
see how this really stacks up.
Oh, wait a minute, this isn'tgoing to lead us to God.
This is going to take us awayfrom God.
It's a direct violation of thecommandment you shall not kill.
(43:04):
We're not going there.
And then trust to accept that.
This is an interesting thingbecause it involves so much of
life, investments, and when welook at the investments, the
companies that we invest in, andreally look to see how their,
(43:28):
what their business is about andwhat other industries they
support and what products theyproduce, how closely do they
align with the Ten Commandments?
And if they don't, then why amI investing in them?
Let's make a better choice.
These commandments applyeverywhere and they help us to
(43:48):
cut through the confusion and tomake the choices that are going
to be good for others and goodfor us and good for our
relationship with God.
Sheila Nonato (44:13):
Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour
podcast.
Co-Host (44:16):
I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom
today.
Please subscribe to our podcastand YouTube channel and please
spread the word.
Let's Be Brave, let's Be Boldand Be Blessed together.
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