Latest / Arena Ablaze Podcast / The Church’s Spiritual Airstrike: Why We Need Carmelites | Father Carney
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome into the arena.
- 0:04This is the Arena Blaze podcast, where our
- 0:07goal is to inspire men to join us
- 0:10in passing through the Gate of Mary and
- 0:12being found worthy to wield the most powerful
- 0:14sword the world will ever know in a
- 0:17spiritual battle that rages all around us, the
- 0:20Holy Face of Jesus.
- 0:21I am your willing host Marco Sandoval.
- 0:24Today we'll be having a conversation with Father
- 0:27Carney, the walk-in-the-streets of Wichita,
- 0:29Kansas, and who preaches devotion to the Holy
- 0:32Face, Jesus.
- 0:34But first, before we get started, if you
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- 0:44Also, please leave us comments and suggestions.
- 0:46We appreciate any feedback we get so we
- 0:49can take the conversations in a direction that's
- 0:51most beneficial.
- 0:53Our true algorithm is the Holy Spirit, and
- 0:56let's begin by renewing our total consecration to
- 0:59Jesus through Mary, that we may do everything
- 1:02with, in, through, and for Mary as her
- 1:05instrument so that she can lead us to
- 1:07more perfectly do everything with, in, through, and
- 1:10for Jesus.
- 1:12I, Marco Sandoval, a repentant sinner, renew and
- 1:16ratify today in your hands, O Immaculate Mother,
- 1:21the vows of my baptism.
- 1:22I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus
- 1:26Christ even more closely than before.
- 1:28Mary, I give you my heart.
- 1:31Please set it on fire with love for
- 1:33Jesus.
- 1:34Make it always attentive to his burning thirst
- 1:37for love and for souls.
- 1:39Keep my heart in your most pure heart,
- 1:41that I may love Jesus and the members
- 1:43of his body with your own perfect love.
- 1:47Mary, I entrust myself totally to you, my
- 1:50body and soul, my goods, both interior and
- 1:54exterior, and even the value of all my
- 1:56good actions.
- 1:58Please make of me, of all that I
- 2:00am and have, whatever most pleases you.
- 2:03Let me be a fit instrument in your
- 2:05immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest
- 2:08possible glory to God.
- 2:10If I fall, please lead me back to
- 2:13Jesus.
- 2:14Wash me in the blood and water that
- 2:16flow from his pure side, and help me
- 2:18never to lose my trust in this fountain
- 2:21of love and mercy.
- 2:22With you, O Immaculate Mother, you who always
- 2:26do the will of God, I unite myself
- 2:29to the perfect consecration of Jesus as he
- 2:32offers himself in the Spirit to the Father
- 2:34for the life of the world.
- 2:36Amen.
- 2:37All right, so we're gonna continue the conversation
- 2:39here a little bit.
- 2:42I'm curious about the traditional Third Order armal.
- 2:46I know you clothed several people here recently,
- 2:49so just a little history on the importance
- 2:53of carmel, where its genesis comes from, and
- 2:57then maybe about what we have going on
- 3:00with the people being clothed.
- 3:02Sure, so Elijah is called the Prophet of
- 3:05Carmel, and he was the one who was
- 3:12a spokesperson for God in the Old Testament,
- 3:14because there were such bad kings and bad
- 3:18priests.
- 3:19He had the Battle of the Masses, and
- 3:23so the false prophets, 450 of them, battled
- 3:26one little Elijah, and that battle ended with
- 3:29fire coming down onto Elijah's sacrifice, because it
- 3:33was acceptable, and the 450 prophets were commanded
- 3:37to be killed to get rid of that,
- 3:39because it was a vicious cycle.
- 3:42The bad king kept pecking priests from the
- 3:43lowest order of society and kept perpetuating evil,
- 3:48so Elijah is known for that great prophet
- 3:51to convict people to come back to God,
- 3:54and he also developed the first monasteries, and
- 4:00so there were monks and nuns that were
- 4:04living on carmel in the Old Testament, centuries
- 4:07before our Lord Jesus came, and when our
- 4:10Lord was here, the prophets of Carmel were
- 4:17continuing to pray, and eventually, after our Lord
- 4:21came and went, then these monks were recognized
- 4:25with their law, their constitutions, by the Pope
- 4:29in 1200, so they had been formalized as
- 4:33a religious community at that point, and so
- 4:37they still exist today, and the Carmelites are
- 4:39known for the guardians of the interior life,
- 4:44so we started a traditional third-order Carmelite
- 4:49here in Wichita, with the blessings of the
- 4:52Bishop, a couple years ago, and we had
- 4:5518 people clothed on the Feast of the
- 4:58Transfiguration, and there's a story, there were some
- 5:03people coming from Denver, three or four, to
- 5:07get clothed, and one of them said to
- 5:13herself, well, I need to go to confession,
- 5:14and she told the other ladies, they were
- 5:15all ladies, and she said, oh, looks like
- 5:18there's a priest over there, and so they
- 5:20went over, and that wasn't a priest, it
- 5:22was Bishop Kimmy, the Bishop of Wichita, and
- 5:26she went to confession to him, and they
- 5:30told His Excellency what they were doing, and
- 5:33His Excellency's comment was hilarious, because they were
- 5:37talking about me, and he said, well, Father
- 5:39Carney is hard to keep track of, so
- 5:41I thought that was so funny, yes, that's
- 5:45a good sense of humor, so yeah, they
- 5:48got clothed a few weeks ago, and now
- 5:54we're all in discernment to get a full
- 5:58profession in one year, and so what the
- 6:02third-order Carmelites do is they pray the
- 6:05Divine Office in the old Divine Office three
- 6:08times a day, so that would be Lodz,
- 6:09which is like morning prayer, Vespers, which is
- 6:11like evening prayer, and Compline, which completes the
- 6:14day, and that would be considered night prayer,
- 6:17and so once a month, we meet at
- 6:21St. Joseph after the traditional Latin Mass, and
- 6:25I give a 45-minute spiritual direction about
- 6:30what we're reading, so currently we're reading the
- 6:33Prophet of Elijah, the Prophet of Carmel, which
- 6:36is Elijah, and it's just an amazing thing,
- 6:39and then sometimes we'll be talking about tools
- 6:42in the interior life, and so when it
- 6:46seems like it's hard to be a Catholic
- 6:48today, and it seems like we really can't
- 6:50get things done that we would like to,
- 6:53as far as with the hierarchy of the
- 6:56Church, we always have the mystical life, which
- 6:58means hidden, mystical means hidden, and so the
- 7:02interior life is where a lot of traditional
- 7:04Catholics are going, so that they don't get
- 7:07lost, they don't get thrown off the Bark
- 7:10of Peter.
- 7:10The Bark of Peter is the Church, and
- 7:12we have to stay on the boat to
- 7:15get into Heaven, because that boat is going
- 7:17to the Gate of Heaven, so that's what
- 7:21Carmel is, it's a third-order, so it's
- 7:23right above the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face,
- 7:26if you would consider it a fourth, and
- 7:28so that's where we're at.
- 7:30So hopefully we'll get a lot of young
- 7:34men and young women to sign up, and
- 7:37we have a foundation of 18 people right
- 7:38now, and so every day these people are
- 7:41praying for the priests of the Diocese of
- 7:44Wichita, and for all other great things that
- 7:48have begun, so that hopefully God will bring
- 7:50them to their completion.
- 7:53I have a lot of questions.
- 7:55I'm curious about Elijah.
- 7:57I'm going back to the beginning, Carmel.
- 8:01So he was taken up by the chariots
- 8:03of fire, and he's to return, he was
- 8:06at the Transfiguration, and so just for those
- 8:10out there who maybe don't, you know, know
- 8:13a lot about Elijah, or maybe have read
- 8:16the books, but don't really understand the connection,
- 8:20would you shine a little bit of light
- 8:21on that, because it's fascinating.
- 8:23So there's only two people who haven't died
- 8:24that are no longer with us, and that's
- 8:28Elijah and Enoch, and so they're in some
- 8:32sort of a paradise that isn't heaven, but
- 8:36it's like an earthly heaven, and they're remaining
- 8:40here because they have work to do still,
- 8:43and so when our Lord came, you mentioned
- 8:48the Transfiguration, the two prophets were there, and
- 8:54Elijah was one of them, and the other
- 8:57one was Moses, the prophet of the law,
- 9:00and so our Lord showed his face as
- 9:04a Transfiguration for three of his special apostles,
- 9:07and so it's no wonder that when Jesus
- 9:13gave us the Holy Face devotion back in
- 9:17the 1840s, he came to a nun in
- 9:19Carmel, in Tours, and so since Elijah is
- 9:23the prophet of Carmel, it's just fitting that
- 9:26he was able to see the face of
- 9:27God, and it's recorded in Scriptures, and then
- 9:30Elijah at the end of time will fight
- 9:33the Antichrist, and I find this very dramatic
- 9:35storyline, that Antichrist will have so much followers,
- 9:40they will think he's God, but then when
- 9:43it seems like he's going to gain all
- 9:44power, Elijah and Enoch will come down and
- 9:47fight him, and Elijah and Enoch will be
- 9:51killed, and they will be laying in the
- 9:53streets for three and a half days, and
- 9:56people are going to be probably taking pictures,
- 9:58like, oh, the pagans will see, oh, we
- 10:00got him, we won, and then they're going
- 10:02to rise from the dead, and everyone's going
- 10:03to be scared, and they're going to have
- 10:05the revelation that the Antichrist is not the
- 10:08true, truly God, and not good.
- 10:11So Elijah is kind of in the bank
- 10:14right now, if you could say, and I'm
- 10:16excited to be one of his disciples.
- 10:21So you mentioned Sister Marie de Pierre, and
- 10:26I was talking about St. Therese of Lisieux,
- 10:28who's another Carmelite, so I'm just curious about,
- 10:32so they had monasteries on Carmel, and then
- 10:37they spread, so just kind of curious of
- 10:40a thumbnail of that.
- 10:41They were in Spain as well, St. John
- 10:43of the Cross, St. Therese of Avila, the
- 10:46interior castle, it's fascinating what you said about
- 10:49how they're the guardians of the interior life,
- 10:53and now you're clothing Carmelites here, so I'm
- 10:57just kind of curious, like, from a 30
- 10:59,000 foot view, the numbers and kind of
- 11:02the spread through time.
- 11:05They basically spread to the west from Carmel,
- 11:08so in all of Europe, and Ireland, and
- 11:11England, and the United States, and Australia, and
- 11:16one of my favorite stories is St. Simon
- 11:19Stock, he's the one who got the Carmelite
- 11:23scapular, and Our Lady told him to live
- 11:27in this little stump of a tree, and
- 11:28this was his house, that's why he was
- 11:30called Stock, and he was given the Carmelite
- 11:33scapular to spread, and Our Lady told him,
- 11:38before they came, when the Carmelites come, they
- 11:39will be wearing this brown, and then you
- 11:41are to join them, and so he did
- 11:44that, so they're the guardians of the interior
- 11:50life.
- 11:52That's interesting, because that was another question I
- 11:54had.
- 11:54I wear a brown scapular, and I know
- 11:56it comes from Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
- 11:58and it, my ears always perk up when
- 12:00a man is given a revelation, because we've
- 12:04talked about this before, how it seems like
- 12:06it's always the women, the nuns, that receive
- 12:09revelations, and I go back to like Our
- 12:11Lady of Fatima, I've always found that to
- 12:13be striking, that the girls could see and
- 12:17hear Our Lady, but Francisco could only see
- 12:20her, he couldn't hear what she was saying,
- 12:22so that's interesting.
- 12:24So we were talking about clothing, these Carmelites,
- 12:29I saw a gentleman wearing his clothing after
- 12:33that, and it looked like a large brown
- 12:35scapular, so just a little thumbnail on what
- 12:40the clothing actually is, and means, and maybe
- 12:43what goes into it.
- 12:44Yes, I have mine underneath my white cassock,
- 12:47you might be able to see it, it's
- 12:49about this size, and we wear it underneath,
- 12:53except when we're doing Carmelite things, like at
- 12:57our monthly meeting, someday, if we get permission
- 13:00from the pastor, we're going to go to
- 13:02Mass, and we're going to be lined up
- 13:04in the front queues, in rank and file,
- 13:07and then we'll go have our meeting.
- 13:09And on processions, we can wear them on
- 13:12the outside too, so when we do our
- 13:14monthly procession of reparation, when we chant the
- 13:19Rosary and Latin, and the Chaplet of the
- 13:22Holy Face, we can wear that on the
- 13:23outside.
- 13:25So we get to wear a bigger scapular
- 13:28when we become a Third Order, because we
- 13:29make a bigger commitment.
- 13:31For example, a priest has the commitment to
- 13:35do a holy hour every day, not just
- 13:38as something he decides to do, but under
- 13:40vows.
- 13:41So it's a more strict promise, but there's
- 13:45also greater merits when one fulfills that.
- 13:48And so lay people, they have to do
- 13:50a 30-minute holy hour.
- 13:53And the priest already has to do the
- 13:55Divine Office, so that's also part of it,
- 13:57but lay people then agree to do three
- 14:00offices, like I mentioned earlier—Lauds, Vespers, and Compline.
- 14:06So that brings me to the other question
- 14:09I have.
- 14:09When I first heard about Carmelite Third Order,
- 14:12you mentioned that to me, my first thought
- 14:15is monks and nuns.
- 14:17I didn't realize that lay people could be
- 14:19a part of it.
- 14:20So maybe kind of explain that, and you
- 14:25explain kind of what they did.
- 14:26But just, I think most people hearing that
- 14:30being clothed as a Third Order Carmelite, they
- 14:32would rule themselves out, because they're not religious
- 14:35people, like nuns or monks.
- 14:37They're lay people, so.
- 14:39Yeah, so when a Third Order Carmelite passes
- 14:41away, they can be buried in a Carmelite
- 14:44habit— a full-gown habit.
- 14:47So that's a privilege that they have.
- 14:50And a First Order Carmelite is a priest,
- 14:53as I mentioned earlier, and a Second Order,
- 14:56a nun.
- 14:57So there's a lady here, Sister Julie.
- 15:02She's had a few ladies come and go,
- 15:05and so with the blessing of the ordinary,
- 15:08the bishop, she's trying to form a group
- 15:10of Carmelite nuns, which would be a Second
- 15:13Order, and they would have papal enclosures.
- 15:17That means they would not be allowed to
- 15:18go outside of the convent, because they would
- 15:22simply stay inside and have that interior life.
- 15:26And it's important to have contemplative religious orders
- 15:30in each diocese, because they're the ones that—they
- 15:36send the airstrike whenever there's some spiritual battles
- 15:40to be done.
- 15:40They're the ones that have that aircraft carrier
- 15:43with the airplanes flying out to fight against
- 15:46evil.
- 15:47And if a diocese doesn't have good contemplative
- 15:50orders, it's going to be lacking in its
- 15:53firepower against the evil.
- 15:56So that's why we're praying that some valiant
- 16:00ladies will come and join Sister Julie to
- 16:03form this Carmel of the Holy Face.
- 16:07Yeah, I do think the power of prayer,
- 16:11it's unbelievably powerful.
- 16:14I know you understand that.
- 16:16I've come to understand it.
- 16:18I think just like in secular society, they
- 16:22don't really understand the power of it.
- 16:26Sometimes it's denigrated.
- 16:29And I go to the mother house of
- 16:34the Immaculate Heart sisters twice a year.
- 16:37They have a procession October 13th and May
- 16:4013th for Our Lady of Fatima, and they
- 16:43hand out these thousand memoriary cards.
- 16:47And there's been several people who have taken
- 16:48those and prayed them, and just miraculous things
- 16:53happen, or the unexpected happens.
- 16:56What they hope for comes true.
- 16:57Their hope is realized.
- 16:59You hear it all the time.
- 17:01And so like you're saying, there's a whole,
- 17:03how powerful and important it is to have
- 17:06people who are contemplative like that always praying.
- 17:11Now you'd mentioned there was several people who
- 17:13came from out of town to be clothed,
- 17:15so I'm just curious about that structure.
- 17:19So there, it's a Carmelite order that's kind
- 17:24of based here in Wichita, or comes here
- 17:27for its spiritual root, so to speak, but
- 17:30then not all of them live in the
- 17:33community?
- 17:34Yeah, they're called isolates.
- 17:35That means they're isolated, and they don't live
- 17:39close enough to Wichita to come to the
- 17:41monthly meetings.
- 17:43So in the spiritual direction, when I comment
- 17:47on the book for four to five minutes,
- 17:48we record it, and then that's how they
- 17:51get formed, is through that.
- 17:54So there's about six people who are isolates
- 18:01at this moment.
- 18:03So that's where that stands.
- 18:05What's the process for becoming clothed, basically?
- 18:08How long does it take?
- 18:09And yeah, the rule of the third order
- 18:12of Carmelites says that a person needs to
- 18:15come for a couple months to the meetings,
- 18:18and if everyone doesn't have a problem, they
- 18:21can be clothed.
- 18:22They can have a clothing date set.
- 18:24So a minimum of two months, then they
- 18:26get clothed, and then they have one year
- 18:28and one day to discern if they want
- 18:31to do this for life.
- 18:32And if some people are not sure after
- 18:34one year, then we can extend that for
- 18:37two years, and then it would be a
- 18:40commitment for life to do the divine office,
- 18:45to do the holy hour, and to come
- 18:47to the monthly meetings, and then we have
- 18:48more things like a monthly retreat, or a
- 18:51yearly annual retreat.
- 18:53So I'm looking for a place to do
- 18:55that before everyone gets their profession.
- 19:01Profession means that they take their vows, and
- 19:04they're in for life.
- 19:07The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
- 19:10And so for third order Carmelites, it's not
- 19:12as strict as it is for nuns, or
- 19:15as it is for priests, or brothers that
- 19:17do that for life.
- 19:19And there's each one has different constitutions, or
- 19:22rule that they follow.
- 19:23And so we take it exactly as the
- 19:25rule is, from the order of Disc House
- 19:28Carmelites.
- 19:30And so we're just going by the book.
- 19:33And my spiritual director, I asked him, can
- 19:36you give me a list of books so
- 19:39I can form these generous people?
- 19:42And he's really smart, and he gave me
- 19:46a list of many books, and it's a
- 19:48stack about like that.
- 19:49So it's going to be a beautiful formation
- 19:51for the next 10 or 15 years, because
- 19:5445-minute talk can only get through so
- 19:56many pages at a time.
- 20:01So chastity, you say that word, and that
- 20:04always tickles my ear, because I try to
- 20:06talk about it, and I think about chastity
- 20:08as a married man.
- 20:09So you have lay people that are married,
- 20:11I assume, that are part of the third
- 20:13orders.
- 20:14So maybe just briefly what chastity means in
- 20:17that context.
- 20:18The celibacy is for priests, and for brothers,
- 20:24and for nuns and sisters.
- 20:26So that's for life, they will never get
- 20:27married.
- 20:28Chastity is for everyone, and that means that
- 20:31we need to be pure, and we can't
- 20:34be committing sins against the sixth or ninth
- 20:36commandment.
- 20:38So that includes actions, words, and thoughts.
- 20:42And so chastity is that virtue, whenever we
- 20:46get tempted in those three areas, that we
- 20:50turn to Our Lady, or we turn to
- 20:52God, or we we pray, and then that
- 20:55temptation then can be transformed into a merit
- 20:59for us, a blessing.
- 21:01But if we fall into the temptation against
- 21:03chastity, then the devil, the world, and the
- 21:06flesh get more power over us.
- 21:08And so it's a constant battle, as long
- 21:11as we're alive, to fight against the sins
- 21:15that are against chastity.
- 21:18And in the interior life, that's one of
- 21:22the last things that God allows someone to
- 21:24be tempted through, is chastity.
- 21:27And then after a while, if they're generous
- 21:29enough, and in God's own divine providence, he
- 21:31decides this person is now confirmed in chastity,
- 21:34and they won't get any more temptations in
- 21:36chastity.
- 21:37But that's a very rare situation.
- 21:39Like St. Anthony Mary Claret, that great Archbishop
- 21:42of Cuba, he was tempted so much, and
- 21:46he prayed so hard, and then he, with
- 21:49the help of God, overcame the temptation of
- 21:51chastity, and he was given the privilege to
- 21:53never be tempted again in that area.
- 21:55Hmm.
- 21:56Yeah, Father Ritberger says that most spiritual attacks
- 22:01come in through the Sixth Commandment.
- 22:04That sets this, seems like the easiest door
- 22:06in our culture.
- 22:07We just get, it's almost like our defenses
- 22:10are eroded, and through our ears, through our
- 22:13eyes, it's constant.
- 22:15So I do think about, you know, chastity,
- 22:17even in married life, it's really just willing
- 22:20the good of the other, you know?
- 22:22It seems like, to me, like, always thinking
- 22:25about the other person, taking them into account
- 22:29on everything that you do.
- 22:32So, very interesting.
- 22:34Well, the last thing I wanted to ask
- 22:35about was Our Lady of Sorrows, because this
- 22:37is September, and I've been particularly praying for
- 22:41her intercession in my life, offering a decade
- 22:44of the rosary every day, and just other
- 22:48family members for her to look into their
- 22:51hearts, and kind of like, so I just,
- 22:55another thing I heard Father Ritberger say recently
- 22:58I thought was extremely interesting was that, you
- 23:02know, in the midst of an exorcism, basically
- 23:05one of the demons, he said something about
- 23:08Mary's most glorious moment, and he got it
- 23:11wrong, and the demon said, no, that wasn't
- 23:13right.
- 23:14That wasn't it.
- 23:15And then he got from him that her
- 23:17most glorious moment was standing under the cross.
- 23:21So that's, you know, Our Lady in sorrow,
- 23:24but perfect virtue, because she was in perfect
- 23:26virtue at that moment, and I just thought
- 23:28that was very interesting between that and, like,
- 23:31the Pietà that we're so blessed to have
- 23:33at the cathedral.
- 23:34Every time I walk through there, I just
- 23:36stop and look at it.
- 23:37It's so, so beautiful.
- 23:39So those are two images in my mind
- 23:41of Our Lady of Sorrows, but obviously there
- 23:44are others.
- 23:45I've kind of been doing a little series
- 23:47on Mary, and I'm getting ready to go
- 23:51into the presentation in the temple, which is
- 23:54like the bittersweetness of, you know, it's a
- 23:57joyful mystery on the rosary, but then it's
- 24:01one of the sorrows of Our Lady because
- 24:03of the prophecy of Simeon and then piercing
- 24:06of the dagger.
- 24:08So just, yeah, reflect on Our Lady of
- 24:12Sorrows and her importance, too.
- 24:14Yeah, Our Lady of Sorrows is known to
- 24:17reveal when we're not following God's will.
- 24:21And so there's some businessmen who are developers,
- 24:28and they build traditional style churches for the
- 24:33Institute of Christ the King, for the Fraternity
- 24:35of St. Peter around the United States, and
- 24:38they've been asking me if they would like
- 24:43to build something for Wichita.
- 24:46And so I said, well, let's give it
- 24:48to Our Lady of Sorrows.
- 24:52And so we established a thing that I've
- 24:58said called neochristendom, where the pagans, when they
- 25:05heard of Christ, many of them decided to
- 25:07convert because they heard the good news.
- 25:11But later on today, we have neopaganism, which
- 25:15they've heard of Christ and rejected him.
- 25:17And so we have to fight against evil
- 25:20differently than they did when the pagans were
- 25:23just first hearing of Christ.
- 25:26And Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that every 400
- 25:32years, the Church goes through a cycle, a
- 25:36death, passion, death, and resurrection.
- 25:40And so I think we're in that passion
- 25:41of the Church right now, because the Church
- 25:44is the mystical body of Christ, and Jesus
- 25:46is the head, and so just as the
- 25:49head went through the passion, death, and resurrection,
- 25:52so must the mystical body of Christ.
- 25:55And so with neochristendom, there needs to be
- 25:59a way to convert the neopagans.
- 26:03And so one of the things that we're
- 26:05talking about is to build beautiful Catholic churches
- 26:10and neighborhoods.
- 26:14Secular people are starting to find out that
- 26:16people want to live in a community where
- 26:18you don't have to walk, or you don't
- 26:19have to have a car.
- 26:20And so there's a group in Tempe, Arizona,
- 26:23called Culdesac.
- 26:25The CEO talks about how he was so
- 26:28successful in building this block where people are
- 26:33living, and there's businesses on the first floor,
- 26:36and there's community.
- 26:38And so if neopagans can build these things
- 26:42and be profitable, wouldn't it be great if
- 26:45Catholics could build these beautiful Church structures, sort
- 26:48of like the churches of Rome or like
- 26:50Quito, Ecuador, and have like a community, like
- 26:52maybe the Carmelites of the Holy Face or
- 26:55something, where people could actually live in a
- 26:59community instead of getting old and going into
- 27:02a nursing home?
- 27:03You could actually be supported by the young
- 27:06people of Catholicism that are taught to treat
- 27:08their parents with greater respect than the society
- 27:10teaches us.
- 27:11So there's a whole bunch in there, and
- 27:13this Our Lady of Sorrows, she definitely will
- 27:17help us to know whether this is just
- 27:18my idea, or it's just my other partner's
- 27:21ideas, or if this is something of God.
- 27:24Because eventually, it would have to be a
- 27:27question for bishops around the United States.
- 27:31And there's other guys talking about this, that
- 27:34this will be a nice trend, where certain
- 27:38bishops would agree to it and have it
- 27:40going, and then once it's working, other bishops
- 27:42will be presented with the idea, look, it's
- 27:45working, here's the pros of it, and here's
- 27:48the cons.
- 27:49And so it'll be easy for bishops to
- 27:50say yes, if it gets into a systematic
- 27:52way of working.
- 27:55So Our Lady of Sorrows was most virtuous
- 27:58at the foot of the cross.
- 28:00She was most glorious when she assumed into
- 28:02heaven.
- 28:04And so since we're going through the Passion,
- 28:05we're going to stay with Our Lady.
- 28:08We've got to stay close to Our Lady
- 28:10during these times and hang with her, and
- 28:13not be like the 10 apostles or 11
- 28:15apostles that left and fled the foot of
- 28:17the cross, but St. John got it.
- 28:20He had the interior life.
- 28:22He put his ear on the heart of
- 28:24Jesus Christ.
- 28:26He was able to see the face of
- 28:28Jesus transfigured.
- 28:30So the interior life has had to be
- 28:32a chosen vessel to be close to Our
- 28:35Lady, who will bring us to the face
- 28:37of Jesus.
- 28:38Now my wife told me something, and I'll
- 28:41end with this, but my wife told me
- 28:43something very recently, pointed something out to me,
- 28:46because I was lamenting the fact that we
- 28:48do these processions, and I feel like the
- 28:50women outnumber the men so sorely.
- 28:52And so I was complaining and whining about
- 28:55that, and she said, well at the foot
- 28:57of the cross there were three women and
- 28:59only John, so maybe you need more women.
- 29:01And I thought, that's a very insightful thing
- 29:05to say.
- 29:06And yeah, so I was like, okay, never
- 29:10mind.
- 29:12I do want more men there, but we
- 29:14got to have our women there too, for
- 29:16sure.
- 29:16So yeah, it's awesome.
- 29:19Well, do you want to give your blessing
- 29:21here to end it?