Do the Ten Commandments apply to all aspects of our lives, including the online world where the distinction between virtual and real actions often becomes blurred?
Let's hear Ed Van Buskirk, a big proponent of teaching the Ten Commandments in our schools and homes, explain how God's Commandments serve as a roadmap for happiness and meaningful relationships rather than restrictive rules.
• Truth is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ who declared "I am the way, the truth and the life"
• Pornography and online misconduct degrade God's masterful creation of the human person
• The culture's devaluation of human bodies affects real people with devastating consequences
• Parents should have ongoing conversations with children about the sanctity of their bodies
• The "11th commandment" refers to Jesus's Great Commission to share these teachings with others, to be disciples of Jesus and disciples of God's love
• Commandments function like rules of the road, providing freedom rather than restriction
• Simple ways to incorporate the commandments include displaying them in homes and using them for examination of conscience
Visit "If U Love Me" Ministry and Ed Van Buskirk's ministry online https://godsrecipe.org
https://ifuloveme.org
for resources including free downloadable prayers and materials to help implement the commandments in daily life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ed Van Buskirk (00:00):
I started seeing truth as a person and that
person being Jesus, and he tellsus very clearly.
He says I am the way, the truthand the life, and that really
(00:22):
struck me as I was studying theTen Commandments and thinking,
wow, truth, God is truth, andtruth exists in the creation of
us as male and female, thecreation of the sun and the
stars and the planets, and so wehave truth everywhere.
You know, some people deny theexistence of truth.
(00:44):
There's never any absolutetruth.
Well, I strongly disagree withthat.
The confusion that's going on inthe world causes it makes it
very difficult for us to seewhat is true.
It makes it very difficult tosee God in the confusion, and
that's right where Satan wantsus to be confused and not able
(01:06):
to find what is true.
You know, there's a lot ofthings that we hear where we
think you know that sounds likeyeah, that sounds pretty
truthful, that sounds like agood theology, but sometimes
there's a little sprinkle of alittle bit of a lie in the midst
of the truth bit of a lie inthe lives of Catholic women, to
(01:46):
help them in living out ourvocation of raising the next
generation of leaders and saints.
Co-Host (01:52):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armor
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.
Sheila Nonato (01:59):
Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast, friends
, and sorry for this lateedition.
Last week it was the funeralfor a very good friend of ours,
the father of Keri-Lee, thewoman, the prayerful friend who
introduced me to my husband andvice versa, and please pray for
the repose of the soul of herfather, Mr.
(02:23):
Dennis Mullan, and I sincerelyappreciate your prayers.
I am back again this week totalk to you about again the Ten
Commandments and it's part twoof our interview with Mr.
Ed Van Buskirk of the "If youLove Me ministry, and my
(02:44):
sincerest apologies for thetechnical difficulties that we
were I was not able to fix andyou know, sometimes there's also
that sort of spiritual battlegoing on on the internet.
I don't know, yeah, sometimeswhy things happen on the
technical side and can't fix.
The only other issue I had withsort of technical difficulties
(03:08):
was with the interview withFather Rob Gallia, a priest from
Australia who does greatministry, and I will put a link
to that episode with him andalso a link to his website.
But yes, back to this week'sepisode.
We're talking about the TenCommandments and I'm sort of
(03:30):
wearing something in preparationfor summer, looking forward to,
I guess, the end of school thekids are and I guess the moms as
well.
They can have a little bit ofrest in the summer.
But does that mean, when we'relooking forward to summer and
summer activities, that thelearning ends and some might say
actually the learning is justbeginning during the summer?
(03:51):
Is that there's sort ofhands-on learning?
And do we always sort of endlearning about faith and the
Bible when school ends?
And I'm sure you know theanswer is no.
And so when the kids are not inschool, they might be online.
They might be playing games,video games or on social media,
(04:13):
seeing things you might not wantthem to see.
But how does social media, howdoes the Internet?
How does that impact our dailylives?
How can we explain to ourchildren that the Ten
Commandments they still applyeven on the online world, the
virtual world that we mightthink doesn't exist?
And so how does the TenCommandments apply in the
(04:39):
virtual world?
And let's hear Mr.
Ed Van Buskirk of "If you LoveMe, ministry.
And let's hear Mr Ed VanBuskirk of If you Love Me
Ministry explain to us how thecommandments can apply to that
practical side of the Internet.
Thank you and God bless, andplease join me in a Hail Mary,
(05:00):
in the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, theLord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, prayfor us sinners now and at the
hour of our death, Amen.
And if you hear the dishwasherrunning, somebody asked me how
do you do this?
homeschooling and podcast,sometimes writing, although it's
(05:23):
been a little bit on the backburner nowadays, but I did write
an article for The B.
C.
Catholic about Tammy Peterson.
I'm not sure if it's going toget published, but I do hope so,
and if it does, I'll let youknow.
But how do you do this?
Well, sometimes you have to do.
You can't do everything.
Sometimes you have to do thingswhen you can, and right now I
(05:44):
can do the podcasting when thedishwasher is running.
So please excuse the noise fromthe dishwasher, but please do
stay for the conversation withMr.
Ed Van Buskirk.
I apologize again for thetechnical difficulties, but I
truly believe the power of hismessage overcomes those small
technical difficulties and thankyou again and have a blessed
day.
Thank you, and I'm just goingback to the online world again,
(06:06):
the virtual world, because Iread a book that children
nowadays are being brought up bythe phone, the sort of the
omnipresence of the phone, andmaybe there's a grey area for
them that you know, or even someadults, that what if you know
the commandment, you should notcommit adultery?
What if it happens online?
(06:27):
They don't even see the person.
Maybe they think, well, nobodyknows, nobody sees, and maybe
it's not really adultery becauseit's just happening online.
You know, people get detached.
I guess they're in the virtualworld and the reality gets
blurred.
Yeah, they're in the virtualworld and the reality gets
blurred.
You know, is it OK?
And if nobody knows what I'mdoing, maybe it's OK.
(06:49):
Can you speak to that?
That you know what?
How do we sort of embody thecommandments not only in our
real life but also in our onlineactivities, like if let's say
we say something not very niceto somebody we don't know online
.
You know, "ou said somethingdumb," I don't know something
(07:11):
like this, but you don't knowthe person and nobody got harmed
because you're really justtyping.
Can you speak to that?
Is that still against thecommandments?
Ed Van Buskirk (07:21):
Yeah, Regardless of The Commandments and
pornography online, the virtualworld, even if it's not an
actual image of a person, butit's a created image.
God has created the mostmiraculous being in our bodies,
(07:43):
miraculous being in our bodies,the crown jewel of his creation
is the human person.
And as someone who you know, aperson looks to God and goes,
wow, I really want to adore you,I want to follow you, I want to
(08:04):
follow you, I want to love you,but then goes and looks at what
he created in a self-servingway that degrades the purpose
and the image that God createdthat.
How does that degrade?
How does that tear down thecreator?
(08:26):
No, you've got these wonderful,beautiful instruments
Stradivarius, I think, theviolins, I think he the violins.
If, if somebody took one ofthese wonderful, beautiful
Stradivarius and and went up to,to, to the, to the maker of
(08:46):
them, the creator of them Ican't remember his first name,
Johann, I think, Stradivarius, Ithink if they went up to him
and say, hey, watch this, I canmake some pretty cool music with
your beautiful violin, and theyturn it over and they get
drumsticks and they startbeating on it with drumsticks
and it's kind of fun, you canhear it, and so forth.
(09:07):
How would Stradivarius, JohannStradivarius, how would he feel
as being the creator of that,when we take what God has
created as being the mostmasterful creation and degrade
it the way that our culture isdoing it?
What is that doing for ourrelationship with God, If I'm
(09:33):
just the one who's viewing thatit just degrades all of us as
human beings and it creates usinto those objects of just
self-pleasure.
Now, the first threecommandments are about our
relationship with God.
The last seven are about ourrelationships with one another
(09:54):
and as we pursue those we'regoing to have better
relationships.
When we don't pursue those, ourrelationships are going to
struggle.
We're looking at those two setsof commandments of loving and
they're summarized when Jesustells the Pharisees what the two
greatest or what the greatestcommandment is.
The first and the greatestcommandment is this, You shall
(10:14):
love the Lord, your God, withall your heart, with all your
soul and all of your mind.
" That's our relationship withGod.
And then he calls us to loveneighbors, when he says the
second is like it you shall loveyour neighbor as yourself.
These commandments, lovingothers as ourselves.
And so if I'm going to degradeanother person by looking at
(10:42):
images that are on the internet,that's degrading to them.
It's also degrading to me andit separates us as individuals
and it makes us, you know,regardless of whether we're
married or not, young or old.
It causes us to look at otherpeople and think, oh, they don't
stack up, they're not asperfect as that image that I saw
(11:06):
, and we start to degrade thepeople in our lives, thinking
less of them.
So that's one way it plays out.
I heard a story of a gentlemanwho had his ways.
He had been the manager of astrip club and he told the story
(11:27):
how, in the springtime, whenyou are graduating from high
school, he would go and hang outwhere they hung out and buy him
a drink, and he'd figure outwhich ones didn't have any real
direction in their lives.
And he would say you know, ifyou don't really have anything
lined up for you, know whatyou're going to do now that
(11:49):
you've graduated, once you comedown.
I've got a nice place that youcan work for me at just serving
some drinks.
Well, she shows up and it's astrip club and he goes, don't
worry about them, all I want youto do is to serve drinks.
After two weeks, he said in twoweeks I've got that young girl
(12:14):
doing more than serving drinks.
And a year goes by and the youngwoman has become accustomed to
that lifestyle, become addictedto drugs to make her feel like
she's, you know, to get over hershame.
And the next year comes alongand the guy goes out and
(12:39):
recruits another group of girlsand the girls that she he
recruited last year's out thedoor and she's broken, she's
used up.
And so if somebody says, well,I'm just looking, I'm not doing
anything where that's, that'susing somebody up in such a
horrible way.
And for somebody to say itdoesn't hurt anyone.
And for somebody to say itdoesn't hurt anyone.
That story made it sopoignantly clear to me that that
(13:02):
is so false.
That is such a lie that itdoesn't hurt anyone.
This young girl now either hasto scrape herself up off the
sidewalk and somehow figure outhow to get back on a good course
, which is very, very difficult,or she's stuck in that
lifestyle.
Now she's out on the streetsand addicted and her life
(13:24):
becomes just hell for her.
Sheila Nonato (13:31):
That's a tragic, tragic story.
I'm just wondering what can men, husbands, fathers, I'm just
wondering what can men, husbands, fathers, how can they help
sort of in sort of theredemption of the image of Mary,
of purity through thecommandments?
What can men do to instill thatin their daughters when they're
(13:55):
raising their daughters andbeing sort of that role model,
just like St Joseph?
How can also women sort of beredeemed in the beauty and the
truth and the goodness that Godhas created them to be?
Ed Van Buskirk (14:07):
Yeah, for both the men and the women, is to
look at Christ, look at thepassion of Christ, look at the
complete commitment in His body,to His bride, the Church, to
understand how we need to liftup the wonder and the gift of
(14:36):
our bodies to our spouses andyou think of a young man or
young woman?
What fortitude and strength dothey have to have to to navigate
and withstand the pressures ofour culture and to preserve
themselves as the pure gift fortheir bride or for their husband
(14:57):
?
This is what Christ did, and weneed to look at Christ and
really see the correlation notthe correlation, but the perfect
example of marriage in Christ,in the passion in Christ and
giving himself to us.
And for a parent to talk totheir children, especially their
(15:20):
, we really need to start thisconversation with the children
when they're quite young and tolift up the miracle and wonder
of their bodies, not by gettinginto what is adultery and what's
not adultery, but to implantwithin them that God has a, a
(15:40):
purpose and their body is madein the of god.
And we need to make sure thatwe treat our body with reverence
.
We need to treat our body.
Therefore, we put the clotheson and we keep our clothes on
and we keep that.
And God's got a plan for you.
And so, as they grow up tocontinue this conversation.
(16:02):
And when you see it beinghonored the body being honored,
to point that out, when you seeit being dishonored, to point
that out that person must notrealize how important their body
is as God's given it to them.
Then, when they get to be ofthe right age to start talking
about how this gift is theirgift to their future husband or
(16:25):
their future bride, and toexplain to them how we're proud
of them for living their life inpurity, so that they will have
that to give and to not give itto anybody who doesn't deserve
it.
St John Paul II.
(16:45):
He said, "It's not that we maketoo much of sex in our culture.
We make too little of it.
We don't give it the glory andthe purpose and the honor and
the reverence that we should andthat it deserves.
And we need to do that asparents.
We need to turn that tablearound and flip things right
(17:09):
side up so that our children cansee what purpose their bodies
are for, and to start that at ayounger age and to have those
conversations throughout theirlives.
Sheila Nonato (17:22):
And I guess when you're talking about sort of you
know, there's again adetachment in sort of removing
the sanctity of the body, thereverence for the body as God
created it created each one ofus to be and love.
Removing love, it's just usingpeople as objects, which is not
(17:45):
what God intended and it's notwithin His Commandments.
And I'm just thinking aboutalso the passage you chose for
your ministry, "If you love me,obey my commandments, keep my
commandments.
But Jesus told his disciples atthe last supper.
And your book.
The title of your book, "od'sRecipe for a Wonderful Life.
(18:05):
It's sort of rooted becausepeople think, oh, the Ten
Commandments are punitive,they're boring, I can't do it,
it's too much.
But it's really rooted in love.
God loves us so much he wantsus to spend eternity with him,
because heaven is happiness.
And when we sin, when we gooutside the commandments, we are
(18:26):
actually, we think that we'refree from God, but we actually
become slaves to sin, right Toour addictions.
And so can you please sort oftell us how does this all relate
to?
You mentioned that the 11thcommandment.
How does the theme of loverelate to all of God's
commandments and then this 11thcommandment?
Ed Van Buskirk (18:47):
Yeah, the 11th commandment, that people always
look at me funny when they lookat the table of contents of my
book or we have 11 sessions inour video study and they say,
okay, ed, what's this 11thcommandment?
And I say, well, you'll have toread the book and find out.
But really, it truly is one ofGod's commandments.
(19:11):
It wasn't given to us on MountSinai, written on the stone
there, but it's the last wordsof Christ in the Gospel of
Matthew.
It's the last words of Christin the gospel of Matthew when he
(19:31):
is going to ascend back to hisfather.
And so in Matthew, chapter 28,verses 19 and 20, it says Jesus
says for and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, the Sonand of the Holy Spirit, teaching
to observe all that I havecommanded you and, behold, I am
(19:54):
with you always, until the endof the age.
This is not just for thedisciples to go, and it's not
just for the nations as we thinkof them, but it's all the
peoples of the nations.
And we have to start in our ownfamilies.
We have to start in our owncircle of influence, those who
(20:15):
are near and dear to us.
We need to teach, we need tolive the commandments we need to
know them we need to apply them, we need to share the
commandments, we need to knowthem, we need to apply them, we
need to share them with others.
We need to teach them to othersso that they can not just follow
the commandments for the sakeof following the commandments,
but so that we can have thoserelationships that the
commandments bring us to andcall us to, starting with our
(20:36):
relationship with God, startingwith our relationship and then
going to our relationships withone another.
And so this commandment iscommissioning all of us it's
referred to as the GreatCommission commissioning all of
us to be disciples of Christ.
And what a wonderful way to dothis with the Ten Commandments.
(20:57):
It can be a real simple thing.
It doesn't have to be complex.
It could be as simple asputting the 10 commandments up
in your living room, just forstarters, and saying to the
family you know, god gave themthis.
Explain to the kids.
This is why God gave these tous, and this is about us getting
along with one another and intoloving God.
(21:18):
And let's make sure that we notjust have this as a decoration
on our wall, but it's somethingthat we put into practice in our
daily lives and children.
Will you help me if you eversee me doing something that is
not in alignment with one ofthese commandments, will you
help me remember that I need tofollow these commandments.
It can be very simple.
(21:38):
You know college students gooff to college.
Very simple, you know collegestudents go off to college.
What a nice gift to send themin a care package, an image of
the Ten Commandments to have ontheir dorm room floor of wall as
a reminder for them.
(21:58):
Married couple, as a weddinggift, just you know, get a nice,
beautiful.
We've got them on our website.
You can print them off,download them and print them off
and put them into a nice frameas a gift.
That can be an easy way to getstarted being a disciple but
then to intentionally use thecommandments as a daily
(22:19):
examination of conscience tohelp us to realize okay, what
did I do today that wassupportive and showed,
demonstrated the virtues of thecommandments: "Don't steal,
calls us to generosity, Don'tlie, calls us to integrity and
truth and so forth.
So we can see in ourexamination of conscience not
(22:41):
just when we didn't follow God'splan, but we can see in our
examination of conscience notjust when we didn't follow God's
plan, but we can see in ourexamination of conscience how we
did and be able to say God,thank you for giving me the
grace to choose instead ofchoosing my way in there, and so
putting these into play in ourdaily lives and sharing them
(23:04):
with others is what we're calledto do.
Sheila Nonato (23:09):
And was there anything else that I didn't ask
you?
That is very important for thelisteners to know.
Ed Van Buskirk (23:18):
If your perspective of the Commandments
is negative, take a second look.
Look at them from why God gaveus these Commandments.
Not just what they say, but whydid God give us these
commandments?
Were they given to us out ofjealousy?
(23:43):
Were they given to us out ofanger, or were they given to us
out of love?
God only does anything out oflove and therefore we should
give them as a gift, a sinceregift, and really put them to
(24:04):
play in our lives, and familyrelationships will be better,
business relationships will bebetter, relationships within our
nation, relationships withinour world will be better, and
they all lead us to union withChrist and union with everyone
else with Christ.
Sheila Nonato (24:23):
And I guess, when we go back to scripture, look
at Exodus, the golden calfhappened because Moses was not
there and he didn't have theCommandments yet, but it's
because the people didn't know,they didn't have a roadmap, a
guide, and this is what thecommandments are, as you were
saying in your book, that weneed this roadmap, because if
(24:45):
not, we will veer.
We might veer off into thewrong direction, into the desert
, wandering for 40 years, right,yeah.
Yeah, when God has the path thatyou know, hey, here's maybe not
a shortcut, but here's the way.
And along the way, you willhave struggles, you will have
crosses, but here's the way andalong the way.
Ed Van Buskirk (25:18):
You will have struggles, you will have crosses
, but I am giving you sort of,like you said, a recipe to be
happy, because sin does not makeus happy.
It roadmap analogy is very good, and when we think of the road,
most everybody who's going towatch this has driven an
automobile, probably within thelast 24 hours, but certainly
within the last week or two.
And without the rules on theroad, what would it be like to
(25:44):
go out and drive?
Would people say?
I'm not going out on the roads?
People are kind of crazy on theroad sometimes, but that's
because they're not followingthe rules.
If people discard the rules ofthe road, the more dangerous
they are, more, the less are toenjoy the roads for the purpose
(26:07):
they are.
Why is it that we don'tbegrudge the rules of the road,
but we begrudge the rules thatGod gave us for success in life
to to enjoy the life the waythat he wants us to enjoy.
And so we have laws all aroundus.
(26:27):
What would it be like to watcha football game if half the
players didn't follow the rules?
How frustrating would that beif they weren't enforced?
And we don't regudge thoserules.
We need to make sure that wesee these rules as giving us and
we don't regudge those ruleswith happiness, with
(26:49):
relationship, and not just thelife to come for us.
Sheila Nonato (27:11):
Yes, freedom in Christ, that's what the
Commandments bring us andhappiness.
So yeah, Was there anythingelse you wanted to add?
Did you want to close with aprayer?
Ed Van Buskirk (27:21):
I do have a closing prayer that I close a
lot of my talks with and thisreally resonates with folks.
I'm going to read this kind ofslowly so that we can really
absorb this prayer.
And so let's begin In the nameof the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit.
Amen and the Holy Spirit, amen,creator of the universe and
(27:44):
redeemer of my soul, give meyour grace to grow in your
commandments each day and inyour mercy when I stumble.
You are the Lord, my God.
I will not have any gods beforeyou.
I will not use your name in vain, but will glorify your name in
all my words and actions.
(28:04):
I will keep holy the Lord's dayby preserving you only for
worshiping you and forrelationship with family and
friends.
I will honour my father andmother and teach my children to
do the same.
I will not kill, but will honorand protect life from
(28:24):
conception to natural death.
I will not commit adultery, butinstead I will honor our bodies
for the sacred purpose of newlife within marriage.
I will not steal, but instead Iwill cultivate a heart of
generosity.
I will not steal, but instead Iwill cultivate a heart of
(28:44):
generosity.
I will not lie, but ratherhonor truth in all my words and
actions, and I will not covet myneighbor's spouse, nor covet
the things of this world.
Rather, I will set my heart onbuilding treasures in heaven.
Amen In the name of the Fatherand the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sheila Nonato (29:06):
Thank you very much and that is a beautiful
prayer.
It's, I think it's in thebeginning of your book and,
given its length, I feel youknow, as you said, you can use
it for the examination ofconscience and we can still keep
going with our prayers, and wecould add that in.
So I encourage everyone tocheck out your book and your
website.
Can you please tell us wherecan we find you and your
ministry online?
Ed Van Buskirk (29:27):
Yeah, our website is https://godsrecipe.
org and we've got a variety ofthings that you can download for
free and print it off.
You can print this prayer offthere.
We do have them on nice cardsthat are very helpful.
I know a number of people whohave just been so happy to have
(29:51):
this prayer by their bedside andthey start their day with it
and they end their day with it.
And this one gentleman, he saidI've got several of them around
in frames.
I put them in little frames soI can see them frequently as
reminders to remember to notjust not do what it says to not
(30:11):
do, but to do what call us, tocall us into the greatness which
really unites us.
So we have them on our website.
You can buy the cards but youcan just print it off on our
resource page.
Sheila Nonato (30:27):
Awesome, and I think this would be great near
the confessional as well,because sometimes we forget, but
yeah.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:33):
Yeah, it is.
I had a.
One of our parishes here intown has the 10 commandments on
the doors of the confessional anice big and somebody painted
them.
Sheila Nonato (30:43):
Well, thank you so much again.
I really appreciate your timeand your presence.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:47):
Thank you.
Sheila Nonato (30:48):
I know it took a while to get this interview but
unfortunately I was runningbehind as a busy mom.
But I am grateful for your time.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:56):
It all works out in God's time.
Sheila Nonato (30:57):
Amen, thank you for your wisdom and for your
ministry, and I'll be prayingfor you.
I'll be asking the listeners topray for you and please go
check out the website, becauseit will bring you to many
resources that will help us inour motherhood and in educating
our children.
So thank you again.
Thank you so much, thank you somuch.
So thank you and God bless andhappy feast day.
(31:19):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
So thank you and god bless andhappy feast day.
Ed Van Buskirk (31:20):
Thank you very much.
If you ever want to do a deepdive on any of the individual
commandments or just have meback to talk from a different
angle, uh, please reach out, I'dlove to do that yes, absolutely
, thank you pleasure meeting you, sheila mine the pleasure,
pleasure is mine.
Sheila Nonato (31:36):
Thank you so much .
Ed Van Buskirk (31:38):
Take care.
Bye-bye God bless, bye-bye.
Sheila Nonato (31:54):
Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour
podcast.
Co-Host (31:57):
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.
I started seeing truth as a person and that
person being Jesus, and he tellsus very clearly.
He says I am the way, the truthand the life, and that really
(00:22):
struck me as I was studying theTen Commandments and thinking,
wow, truth, God is truth, andtruth exists in the creation of
us as male and female, thecreation of the sun and the
stars and the planets, and so wehave truth everywhere.
You know, some people deny theexistence of truth.
(00:44):
There's never any absolutetruth.
Well, I strongly disagree withthat.
The confusion that's going on inthe world causes it makes it
very difficult for us to seewhat is true.
It makes it very difficult tosee God in the confusion, and
that's right where Satan wantsus to be confused and not able
(01:06):
to find what is true.
You know, there's a lot ofthings that we hear where we
think you know that sounds likeyeah, that sounds pretty
truthful, that sounds like agood theology, but sometimes
there's a little sprinkle of alittle bit of a lie in the midst
of the truth bit of a lie inthe lives of Catholic women, to
(01:46):
help them in living out ourvocation of raising the next
generation of leaders and saints.
Co-Host (01:52):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armor
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.
Sheila Nonato (01:59):
Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast, friends
, and sorry for this lateedition.
Last week it was the funeralfor a very good friend of ours,
the father of Keri-Lee, thewoman, the prayerful friend who
introduced me to my husband andvice versa, and please pray for
the repose of the soul of herfather, Mr.
(02:23):
Dennis Mullan, and I sincerelyappreciate your prayers.
I am back again this week totalk to you about again the Ten
Commandments and it's part twoof our interview with Mr.
Ed Van Buskirk of the "If youLove Me ministry, and my
(02:44):
sincerest apologies for thetechnical difficulties that we
were I was not able to fix andyou know, sometimes there's also
that sort of spiritual battlegoing on on the internet.
I don't know, yeah, sometimeswhy things happen on the
technical side and can't fix.
The only other issue I had withsort of technical difficulties
(03:08):
was with the interview withFather Rob Gallia, a priest from
Australia who does greatministry, and I will put a link
to that episode with him andalso a link to his website.
But yes, back to this week'sepisode.
We're talking about the TenCommandments and I'm sort of
(03:30):
wearing something in preparationfor summer, looking forward to,
I guess, the end of school thekids are and I guess the moms as
well.
They can have a little bit ofrest in the summer.
But does that mean, when we'relooking forward to summer and
summer activities, that thelearning ends and some might say
actually the learning is justbeginning during the summer?
(03:51):
Is that there's sort ofhands-on learning?
And do we always sort of endlearning about faith and the
Bible when school ends?
And I'm sure you know theanswer is no.
And so when the kids are not inschool, they might be online.
They might be playing games,video games or on social media,
(04:13):
seeing things you might not wantthem to see.
But how does social media, howdoes the Internet?
How does that impact our dailylives?
How can we explain to ourchildren that the Ten
Commandments they still applyeven on the online world, the
virtual world that we mightthink doesn't exist?
And so how does the TenCommandments apply in the
(04:39):
virtual world?
And let's hear Mr.
Ed Van Buskirk of "If you LoveMe, ministry.
And let's hear Mr Ed VanBuskirk of If you Love Me
Ministry explain to us how thecommandments can apply to that
practical side of the Internet.
Thank you and God bless, andplease join me in a Hail Mary,
(05:00):
in the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, theLord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, prayfor us sinners now and at the
hour of our death, Amen.
And if you hear the dishwasherrunning, somebody asked me how
do you do this?
homeschooling and podcast,sometimes writing, although it's
(05:23):
been a little bit on the backburner nowadays, but I did write
an article for The B.
C.
Catholic about Tammy Peterson.
I'm not sure if it's going toget published, but I do hope so,
and if it does, I'll let youknow.
But how do you do this?
Well, sometimes you have to do.
You can't do everything.
Sometimes you have to do thingswhen you can, and right now I
(05:44):
can do the podcasting when thedishwasher is running.
So please excuse the noise fromthe dishwasher, but please do
stay for the conversation withMr.
Ed Van Buskirk.
I apologize again for thetechnical difficulties, but I
truly believe the power of hismessage overcomes those small
technical difficulties and thankyou again and have a blessed
day.
Thank you, and I'm just goingback to the online world again,
(06:06):
the virtual world, because Iread a book that children
nowadays are being brought up bythe phone, the sort of the
omnipresence of the phone, andmaybe there's a grey area for
them that you know, or even someadults, that what if you know
the commandment, you should notcommit adultery?
What if it happens online?
(06:27):
They don't even see the person.
Maybe they think, well, nobodyknows, nobody sees, and maybe
it's not really adultery becauseit's just happening online.
You know, people get detached.
I guess they're in the virtualworld and the reality gets
blurred.
Yeah, they're in the virtualworld and the reality gets
blurred.
You know, is it OK?
And if nobody knows what I'mdoing, maybe it's OK.
(06:49):
Can you speak to that?
That you know what?
How do we sort of embody thecommandments not only in our
real life but also in our onlineactivities, like if let's say
we say something not very niceto somebody we don't know online
.
You know, "ou said somethingdumb," I don't know something
(07:11):
like this, but you don't knowthe person and nobody got harmed
because you're really justtyping.
Can you speak to that?
Is that still against thecommandments?
Ed Van Buskirk (07:21):
Yeah, Regardless of The Commandments and
pornography online, the virtualworld, even if it's not an
actual image of a person, butit's a created image.
God has created the mostmiraculous being in our bodies,
(07:43):
miraculous being in our bodies,the crown jewel of his creation
is the human person.
And as someone who you know, aperson looks to God and goes,
wow, I really want to adore you,I want to follow you, I want to
(08:04):
follow you, I want to love you,but then goes and looks at what
he created in a self-servingway that degrades the purpose
and the image that God createdthat.
How does that degrade?
How does that tear down thecreator?
(08:26):
No, you've got these wonderful,beautiful instruments
Stradivarius, I think, theviolins, I think he the violins.
If, if somebody took one ofthese wonderful, beautiful
Stradivarius and and went up to,to, to the, to the maker of
(08:46):
them, the creator of them Ican't remember his first name,
Johann, I think, Stradivarius, Ithink if they went up to him
and say, hey, watch this, I canmake some pretty cool music with
your beautiful violin, and theyturn it over and they get
drumsticks and they startbeating on it with drumsticks
and it's kind of fun, you canhear it, and so forth.
(09:07):
How would Stradivarius, JohannStradivarius, how would he feel
as being the creator of that,when we take what God has
created as being the mostmasterful creation and degrade
it the way that our culture isdoing it?
What is that doing for ourrelationship with God, If I'm
(09:33):
just the one who's viewing thatit just degrades all of us as
human beings and it creates usinto those objects of just
self-pleasure.
Now, the first threecommandments are about our
relationship with God.
The last seven are about ourrelationships with one another
(09:54):
and as we pursue those we'regoing to have better
relationships.
When we don't pursue those, ourrelationships are going to
struggle.
We're looking at those two setsof commandments of loving and
they're summarized when Jesustells the Pharisees what the two
greatest or what the greatestcommandment is.
The first and the greatestcommandment is this, You shall
(10:14):
love the Lord, your God, withall your heart, with all your
soul and all of your mind.
" That's our relationship withGod.
And then he calls us to loveneighbors, when he says the
second is like it you shall loveyour neighbor as yourself.
These commandments, lovingothers as ourselves.
And so if I'm going to degradeanother person by looking at
(10:42):
images that are on the internet,that's degrading to them.
It's also degrading to me andit separates us as individuals
and it makes us, you know,regardless of whether we're
married or not, young or old.
It causes us to look at otherpeople and think, oh, they don't
stack up, they're not asperfect as that image that I saw
(11:06):
, and we start to degrade thepeople in our lives, thinking
less of them.
So that's one way it plays out.
I heard a story of a gentlemanwho had his ways.
He had been the manager of astrip club and he told the story
(11:27):
how, in the springtime, whenyou are graduating from high
school, he would go and hang outwhere they hung out and buy him
a drink, and he'd figure outwhich ones didn't have any real
direction in their lives.
And he would say you know, ifyou don't really have anything
lined up for you, know whatyou're going to do now that
(11:49):
you've graduated, once you comedown.
I've got a nice place that youcan work for me at just serving
some drinks.
Well, she shows up and it's astrip club and he goes, don't
worry about them, all I want youto do is to serve drinks.
After two weeks, he said in twoweeks I've got that young girl
(12:14):
doing more than serving drinks.
And a year goes by and the youngwoman has become accustomed to
that lifestyle, become addictedto drugs to make her feel like
she's, you know, to get over hershame.
And the next year comes alongand the guy goes out and
(12:39):
recruits another group of girlsand the girls that she he
recruited last year's out thedoor and she's broken, she's
used up.
And so if somebody says, well,I'm just looking, I'm not doing
anything where that's, that'susing somebody up in such a
horrible way.
And for somebody to say itdoesn't hurt anyone.
And for somebody to say itdoesn't hurt anyone.
That story made it sopoignantly clear to me that that
(13:02):
is so false.
That is such a lie that itdoesn't hurt anyone.
This young girl now either hasto scrape herself up off the
sidewalk and somehow figure outhow to get back on a good course
, which is very, very difficult,or she's stuck in that
lifestyle.
Now she's out on the streetsand addicted and her life
(13:24):
becomes just hell for her.
Sheila Nonato (13:31):
That's a tragic, tragic story.
I'm just wondering what can men, husbands, fathers, I'm just
wondering what can men, husbands, fathers, how can they help
sort of in sort of theredemption of the image of Mary,
of purity through thecommandments?
What can men do to instill thatin their daughters when they're
(13:55):
raising their daughters andbeing sort of that role model,
just like St Joseph?
How can also women sort of beredeemed in the beauty and the
truth and the goodness that Godhas created them to be?
Ed Van Buskirk (14:07):
Yeah, for both the men and the women, is to
look at Christ, look at thepassion of Christ, look at the
complete commitment in His body,to His bride, the Church, to
understand how we need to liftup the wonder and the gift of
(14:36):
our bodies to our spouses andyou think of a young man or
young woman?
What fortitude and strength dothey have to have to to navigate
and withstand the pressures ofour culture and to preserve
themselves as the pure gift fortheir bride or for their husband
(14:57):
?
This is what Christ did, and weneed to look at Christ and
really see the correlation notthe correlation, but the perfect
example of marriage in Christ,in the passion in Christ and
giving himself to us.
And for a parent to talk totheir children, especially their
(15:20):
, we really need to start thisconversation with the children
when they're quite young and tolift up the miracle and wonder
of their bodies, not by gettinginto what is adultery and what's
not adultery, but to implantwithin them that God has a, a
(15:40):
purpose and their body is madein the of god.
And we need to make sure thatwe treat our body with reverence
.
We need to treat our body.
Therefore, we put the clotheson and we keep our clothes on
and we keep that.
And God's got a plan for you.
And so, as they grow up tocontinue this conversation.
(16:02):
And when you see it beinghonored the body being honored,
to point that out, when you seeit being dishonored, to point
that out that person must notrealize how important their body
is as God's given it to them.
Then, when they get to be ofthe right age to start talking
about how this gift is theirgift to their future husband or
(16:25):
their future bride, and toexplain to them how we're proud
of them for living their life inpurity, so that they will have
that to give and to not give itto anybody who doesn't deserve
it.
St John Paul II.
(16:45):
He said, "It's not that we maketoo much of sex in our culture.
We make too little of it.
We don't give it the glory andthe purpose and the honor and
the reverence that we should andthat it deserves.
And we need to do that asparents.
We need to turn that tablearound and flip things right
(17:09):
side up so that our children cansee what purpose their bodies
are for, and to start that at ayounger age and to have those
conversations throughout theirlives.
Sheila Nonato (17:22):
And I guess when you're talking about sort of you
know, there's again adetachment in sort of removing
the sanctity of the body, thereverence for the body as God
created it created each one ofus to be and love.
Removing love, it's just usingpeople as objects, which is not
(17:45):
what God intended and it's notwithin His Commandments.
And I'm just thinking aboutalso the passage you chose for
your ministry, "If you love me,obey my commandments, keep my
commandments.
But Jesus told his disciples atthe last supper.
And your book.
The title of your book, "od'sRecipe for a Wonderful Life.
(18:05):
It's sort of rooted becausepeople think, oh, the Ten
Commandments are punitive,they're boring, I can't do it,
it's too much.
But it's really rooted in love.
God loves us so much he wantsus to spend eternity with him,
because heaven is happiness.
And when we sin, when we gooutside the commandments, we are
(18:26):
actually, we think that we'refree from God, but we actually
become slaves to sin, right Toour addictions.
And so can you please sort oftell us how does this all relate
to?
You mentioned that the 11thcommandment.
How does the theme of loverelate to all of God's
commandments and then this 11thcommandment?
Ed Van Buskirk (18:47):
Yeah, the 11th commandment, that people always
look at me funny when they lookat the table of contents of my
book or we have 11 sessions inour video study and they say,
okay, ed, what's this 11thcommandment?
And I say, well, you'll have toread the book and find out.
But really, it truly is one ofGod's commandments.
(19:11):
It wasn't given to us on MountSinai, written on the stone
there, but it's the last wordsof Christ in the Gospel of
Matthew.
It's the last words of Christin the gospel of Matthew when he
(19:31):
is going to ascend back to hisfather.
And so in Matthew, chapter 28,verses 19 and 20, it says Jesus
says for and make disciples ofall nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, the Sonand of the Holy Spirit, teaching
to observe all that I havecommanded you and, behold, I am
(19:54):
with you always, until the endof the age.
This is not just for thedisciples to go, and it's not
just for the nations as we thinkof them, but it's all the
peoples of the nations.
And we have to start in our ownfamilies.
We have to start in our owncircle of influence, those who
(20:15):
are near and dear to us.
We need to teach, we need tolive the commandments we need to
know them we need to apply them, we need to share the
commandments, we need to knowthem, we need to apply them, we
need to share them with others.
We need to teach them to othersso that they can not just follow
the commandments for the sakeof following the commandments,
but so that we can have thoserelationships that the
commandments bring us to andcall us to, starting with our
(20:36):
relationship with God, startingwith our relationship and then
going to our relationships withone another.
And so this commandment iscommissioning all of us it's
referred to as the GreatCommission commissioning all of
us to be disciples of Christ.
And what a wonderful way to dothis with the Ten Commandments.
(20:57):
It can be a real simple thing.
It doesn't have to be complex.
It could be as simple asputting the 10 commandments up
in your living room, just forstarters, and saying to the
family you know, god gave themthis.
Explain to the kids.
This is why God gave these tous, and this is about us getting
along with one another and intoloving God.
(21:18):
And let's make sure that we notjust have this as a decoration
on our wall, but it's somethingthat we put into practice in our
daily lives and children.
Will you help me if you eversee me doing something that is
not in alignment with one ofthese commandments, will you
help me remember that I need tofollow these commandments.
It can be very simple.
(21:38):
You know college students gooff to college.
Very simple, you know collegestudents go off to college.
What a nice gift to send themin a care package, an image of
the Ten Commandments to have ontheir dorm room floor of wall as
a reminder for them.
(21:58):
Married couple, as a weddinggift, just you know, get a nice,
beautiful.
We've got them on our website.
You can print them off,download them and print them off
and put them into a nice frameas a gift.
That can be an easy way to getstarted being a disciple but
then to intentionally use thecommandments as a daily
(22:19):
examination of conscience tohelp us to realize okay, what
did I do today that wassupportive and showed,
demonstrated the virtues of thecommandments: "Don't steal,
calls us to generosity, Don'tlie, calls us to integrity and
truth and so forth.
So we can see in ourexamination of conscience not
(22:41):
just when we didn't follow God'splan, but we can see in our
examination of conscience notjust when we didn't follow God's
plan, but we can see in ourexamination of conscience how we
did and be able to say God,thank you for giving me the
grace to choose instead ofchoosing my way in there, and so
putting these into play in ourdaily lives and sharing them
(23:04):
with others is what we're calledto do.
Sheila Nonato (23:09):
And was there anything else that I didn't ask
you?
That is very important for thelisteners to know.
Ed Van Buskirk (23:18):
If your perspective of the Commandments
is negative, take a second look.
Look at them from why God gaveus these Commandments.
Not just what they say, but whydid God give us these
commandments?
Were they given to us out ofjealousy?
(23:43):
Were they given to us out ofanger, or were they given to us
out of love?
God only does anything out oflove and therefore we should
give them as a gift, a sinceregift, and really put them to
(24:04):
play in our lives, and familyrelationships will be better,
business relationships will bebetter, relationships within our
nation, relationships withinour world will be better, and
they all lead us to union withChrist and union with everyone
else with Christ.
Sheila Nonato (24:23):
And I guess, when we go back to scripture, look
at Exodus, the golden calfhappened because Moses was not
there and he didn't have theCommandments yet, but it's
because the people didn't know,they didn't have a roadmap, a
guide, and this is what thecommandments are, as you were
saying in your book, that weneed this roadmap, because if
(24:45):
not, we will veer.
We might veer off into thewrong direction, into the desert
, wandering for 40 years, right,yeah.
Yeah, when God has the path thatyou know, hey, here's maybe not
a shortcut, but here's the way.
And along the way, you willhave struggles, you will have
crosses, but here's the way andalong the way.
Ed Van Buskirk (25:18):
You will have struggles, you will have crosses
, but I am giving you sort of,like you said, a recipe to be
happy, because sin does not makeus happy.
It roadmap analogy is very good, and when we think of the road,
most everybody who's going towatch this has driven an
automobile, probably within thelast 24 hours, but certainly
within the last week or two.
And without the rules on theroad, what would it be like to
(25:44):
go out and drive?
Would people say?
I'm not going out on the roads?
People are kind of crazy on theroad sometimes, but that's
because they're not followingthe rules.
If people discard the rules ofthe road, the more dangerous
they are, more, the less are toenjoy the roads for the purpose
(26:07):
they are.
Why is it that we don'tbegrudge the rules of the road,
but we begrudge the rules thatGod gave us for success in life
to to enjoy the life the waythat he wants us to enjoy.
And so we have laws all aroundus.
(26:27):
What would it be like to watcha football game if half the
players didn't follow the rules?
How frustrating would that beif they weren't enforced?
And we don't regudge thoserules.
We need to make sure that wesee these rules as giving us and
we don't regudge those ruleswith happiness, with
(26:49):
relationship, and not just thelife to come for us.
Sheila Nonato (27:11):
Yes, freedom in Christ, that's what the
Commandments bring us andhappiness.
So yeah, Was there anythingelse you wanted to add?
Did you want to close with aprayer?
Ed Van Buskirk (27:21):
I do have a closing prayer that I close a
lot of my talks with and thisreally resonates with folks.
I'm going to read this kind ofslowly so that we can really
absorb this prayer.
And so let's begin In the nameof the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit.
Amen and the Holy Spirit, amen,creator of the universe and
(27:44):
redeemer of my soul, give meyour grace to grow in your
commandments each day and inyour mercy when I stumble.
You are the Lord, my God.
I will not have any gods beforeyou.
I will not use your name in vain, but will glorify your name in
all my words and actions.
(28:04):
I will keep holy the Lord's dayby preserving you only for
worshiping you and forrelationship with family and
friends.
I will honour my father andmother and teach my children to
do the same.
I will not kill, but will honorand protect life from
(28:24):
conception to natural death.
I will not commit adultery, butinstead I will honor our bodies
for the sacred purpose of newlife within marriage.
I will not steal, but instead Iwill cultivate a heart of
generosity.
I will not steal, but instead Iwill cultivate a heart of
(28:44):
generosity.
I will not lie, but ratherhonor truth in all my words and
actions, and I will not covet myneighbor's spouse, nor covet
the things of this world.
Rather, I will set my heart onbuilding treasures in heaven.
Amen In the name of the Fatherand the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sheila Nonato (29:06):
Thank you very much and that is a beautiful
prayer.
It's, I think it's in thebeginning of your book and,
given its length, I feel youknow, as you said, you can use
it for the examination ofconscience and we can still keep
going with our prayers, and wecould add that in.
So I encourage everyone tocheck out your book and your
website.
Can you please tell us wherecan we find you and your
ministry online?
Ed Van Buskirk (29:27):
Yeah, our website is https://godsrecipe.
org and we've got a variety ofthings that you can download for
free and print it off.
You can print this prayer offthere.
We do have them on nice cardsthat are very helpful.
I know a number of people whohave just been so happy to have
(29:51):
this prayer by their bedside andthey start their day with it
and they end their day with it.
And this one gentleman, he saidI've got several of them around
in frames.
I put them in little frames soI can see them frequently as
reminders to remember to notjust not do what it says to not
(30:11):
do, but to do what call us, tocall us into the greatness which
really unites us.
So we have them on our website.
You can buy the cards but youcan just print it off on our
resource page.
Sheila Nonato (30:27):
Awesome, and I think this would be great near
the confessional as well,because sometimes we forget, but
yeah.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:33):
Yeah, it is.
I had a.
One of our parishes here intown has the 10 commandments on
the doors of the confessional anice big and somebody painted
them.
Sheila Nonato (30:43):
Well, thank you so much again.
I really appreciate your timeand your presence.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:47):
Thank you.
Sheila Nonato (30:48):
I know it took a while to get this interview but
unfortunately I was runningbehind as a busy mom.
But I am grateful for your time.
Ed Van Buskirk (30:56):
It all works out in God's time.
Sheila Nonato (30:57):
Amen, thank you for your wisdom and for your
ministry, and I'll be prayingfor you.
I'll be asking the listeners topray for you and please go
check out the website, becauseit will bring you to many
resources that will help us inour motherhood and in educating
our children.
So thank you again.
Thank you so much, thank you somuch.
So thank you and God bless andhappy feast day.
(31:19):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
So thank you and god bless andhappy feast day.
Ed Van Buskirk (31:20):
Thank you very much.
If you ever want to do a deepdive on any of the individual
commandments or just have meback to talk from a different
angle, uh, please reach out, I'dlove to do that yes, absolutely
, thank you pleasure meeting you, sheila mine the pleasure,
pleasure is mine.
Sheila Nonato (31:36):
Thank you so much .
Ed Van Buskirk (31:38):
Take care.
Bye-bye God bless, bye-bye.
Sheila Nonato (31:54):
Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armour
podcast.
Co-Host (31:57):
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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In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.