Latest / Arena Ablaze Podcast / He Left His Career to Build a Catholic School | Will Durant

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He Left His Career to Build a Catholic School | Will Durant · Arena Ablaze Podcast

• 0:02
  Welcome into the arena.
• 0:04
  This is the Arena of Blaze podcast, where
• 0:07
  our goal is to inspire men through conversation,
• 0:10
  through witness, to join us in passing through
• 0:13
  the Forge of Mary, where her Holy Spirit,
• 0:17
  her spouse the Holy Spirit, can come, melt
• 0:19
  down our hearts, recreate us, make us worthy,
• 0:22
  to wield the most powerful sword the world
• 0:25
  will ever know, which is the Holy Face
• 0:27
  of Jesus, and to engage in the spiritual
• 0:29
  battle that rages all around us.
• 0:32
  I'm your willing host, Marco Sandoval.
• 0:35
  I'm joined, as always, by my fellow son
• 0:37
  -of-a-monk, Todd Powers.
• 0:39
  How are you doing today, Todd?
• 0:41
  I'm good, thank you.
• 0:43
  Marco, how are you doing?
• 0:45
  I'm doing pretty good.
• 0:46
  I'm in the spiritual battle.
• 0:48
  Yes, it's been a rough week.
• 0:50
  Dealing with the effects of it.
• 0:51
  Today is the feast day of St. Maximilian
• 0:54
  Colby, which is one of my most favorite
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  saints.
• 0:57
  Very near and dear to the 33-day
• 0:59
  consecration.
• 1:01
  I'm actually wearing my Lord's socks today, luckily.
• 1:05
  I didn't really put them on on purpose,
• 1:07
  but I am the Immaculate Heart, comes from
• 1:11
  that.
• 1:11
  You're living to fight another day.
• 1:12
  Living to fight another day.
• 1:14
  What we're called to do.
• 1:15
  Exactly.
• 1:16
  Today we're joined by Will Durant.
• 1:18
  How are you doing, Will?
• 1:19
  I'm doing great.
• 1:21
  I'm wearing my red as well for St.
• 1:23
  Maximilian Colby.
• 1:23
  There you go.
• 1:24
  I love it.
• 1:25
  Before the introduction, I have to tell everybody
• 1:26
  how excited I am to have Will on
• 1:28
  here, even though we've never met.
• 1:31
  I'm thrilled.
• 1:31
  I'm thrilled to be here.
• 1:32
  I don't get excited about much, do I?
• 1:34
  No.
• 1:35
  I'm extremely excited.
• 1:36
  Will's one of my favorite people.
• 1:38
  I love watching his life.
• 1:39
  I've been up close, and then just watching
• 1:41
  his life from afar, and all that he's
• 1:42
  doing is just fascinating.
• 1:45
  So before we get started here, if you
• 1:47
  find value in this conversation, please make sure
• 1:49
  you like, subscribe, drop us a comment.
• 1:52
  If you have questions for us, questions for
• 1:54
  our guests, please leave that.
• 1:55
  We feed on your comments, so we can
• 1:57
  take these conversations in a direction that's most
• 2:01
  beneficial for you all.
• 2:03
  Our true algorithm is the Holy Spirit, so
• 2:06
  we begin by always renewing our total consecration
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  to Jesus through Mary, that we may do
• 2:11
  everything within, through, and for Mary as her
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  instrument, so that she can lead us to
• 2:18
  more perfectly do everything within, through, and for
• 2:22
  Jesus.
• 2:24
  I, Todd Powers, a repentant sinner, renew and
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  ratify today in your hands, O Immaculate Mother,
• 2:33
  the vows of my baptism.
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  I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus
• 2:39
  Christ even more closely than before.
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  Mary, I give you my heart.
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  Please set it on fire with love for
• 2:48
  Jesus.
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  Make it always attentive to his burning thirst
• 2:52
  for love and for souls.
• 2:54
  Keep my heart in your most pure heart,
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  that I may love Jesus and the members
• 2:59
  of his body with your own perfect love.
• 3:03
  Mary, I entrust myself totally to you, my
• 3:07
  body and soul, my goods, both interior and
• 3:11
  exterior, and even the value of all my
• 3:14
  good actions.
• 3:16
  Please make of me of all that I
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  am and have whatever most pleases you.
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  Let me be a fit instrument in your
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  immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest
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  possible glory to God.
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  If I fall, please lead me back to
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  Jesus.
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  Wash me in the blood and water that
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  flow from his pierced side, and help me
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  never to lose my trust in this fountain
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  of love and mercy.
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  With you, O Immaculate Mother, you who always
• 3:48
  do the will of God, I unite myself
• 3:51
  to the perfect consecration of Jesus as he
• 3:55
  offers himself in the Spirit to the Father
• 3:58
  for the life of the world.
• 4:00
  Amen.
• 4:01
  So today we're with Will Durant, husband and
• 4:05
  father of seven, soon to be eight.
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  Eight means a full quiver in the Bible?
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  Full quiver, I get told that, yeah, full
• 4:12
  quiver.
• 4:13
  He's 33 years old.
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  He was raised near Cheney, a farming community
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  near Cheney.
• 4:19
  He started working on the farm at 14
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  years old.
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  He graduated from Newman University and Wichita State
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  University with degrees in education and a master's
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  degree in educational leadership.
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  He met and married his wife Katie while
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  he was at Newman.
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  He's taught in both public and private schools
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  for the past 11 years, and he currently
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  serves as the principal of a private liberal
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  arts school, St. Pope John Paul II Independent
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  School.
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  I always put the Catholic, Independent Catholic School.
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  Independent Catholic, that's right.
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  Welcome in, Will.
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  Thank you, thank you for inviting me to
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  be here.
• 4:54
  You're very welcome.
• 4:57
  We were really excited to have you.
• 4:59
  Well, I just want to kind of start
• 5:00
  the conversation always with just kind of the
• 5:02
  genesis of Will Durant.
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  We kind of went through where you're from,
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  but just kind of tell us about...
• 5:09
  Yeah, did you always want to have a
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  big family?
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  You know, that's a funny question because when
• 5:13
  my wife and I got married, I was
• 5:15
  not Catholic at the time.
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  I'm convert, and we can talk about that
• 5:19
  a little bit, but you know, I was
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  like, nope, I want to have three kids.
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  My wife's like, nope, I want to have
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  four kids or five kids.
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  I'm like, okay, we'll settle on four, you
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  know, and then we get married and enter
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  down that road, and the Lord just keeps
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  revealing over and over and over how we
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  can further our trust in Him and just
• 5:37
  the blessing that each one of our children
• 5:38
  have come to us, and so every moment,
• 5:41
  you know, when we consider having another one,
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  the most recent story with our eighth, you
• 5:46
  know, the Lord telling my wife, do you
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  trust me?
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  Do you trust me?
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  And here we are with soon to be
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  eight children, and back then I was only
• 5:54
  three, right?
• 5:55
  Only three children and wasn't even Catholic at
• 5:57
  that time, so yeah.
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  I would say my story kind of unfolds
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  a little bit just with the really firm
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  foundation of my family, very Christian foundation.
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  My father growing up was a non-denominational
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  pastor, just Protestant pastor, so we definitely lived
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  out our whole life as a ministry, you
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  know, pouring out into people, not expecting anything
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  in return, but pouring into people the love
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  that Christ has for them, and so that's
• 6:24
  being modeled, you know, imitation, how one of
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  the ways in which we learned being modeled
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  for me as a child going all the
• 6:30
  way up, you know, until I left the
• 6:31
  house to go to Newman, and the funny
• 6:34
  thing there, you know, when I went to
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  Newman, I can remember telling my parents I
• 6:37
  was not going to marry a Catholic girl,
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  and lo and behold, the Lord's sitting here
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  laughing at me like, you think you have
• 6:43
  it in control, but buddy, you just wait,
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  and yep, met my wife while we were
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  both in college, both pursuing a degree in
• 6:53
  education, both had scholarships to sing there at
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  the college, and so we ended up having
• 6:59
  every single one of our classes together for
• 7:02
  one of the semesters, and that's really where
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  our friendship first enkindled, and then leading that
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  into dating, right, with the purpose and intent
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  of a vocation of marriage, and I'd say
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  that's something for both of us when we
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  thought about dating, it was for a purpose
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  of marriage, right, and from that, you know,
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  we really jumped into it as young college
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  kids beginning married in college, right?
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  Was there any hesitation with her being Catholic
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  with your pre-determined opinion?
• 7:34
  No, no, no hesitation.
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  We had some frank conversations.
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  You saw holiness in her, you saw the
• 7:40
  Christian faith being exercised in her life.
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  And she would say as well that she
• 7:44
  doesn't have one of those deep conversion stories
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  because she was raised cradle Catholic, and so
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  she never felt like she lost her faith.
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  So she was exactly who I was praying
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  to for the Lord when I was, you
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  know, praying for that future spouse of mine
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  of I wanted someone who knew their faith
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  and knew who Christ was and was willing
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  to raise our children in that.
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  So with that came deep conversations at the
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  time of me not being Catholic and raising
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  our kids Catholic, and, you know, I look
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  back as the Lord had me in a
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  specific place to put people in front of
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  me at a specific time to slowly reveal
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  to me, because it was, you know, I
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  was going to mass with her, you know,
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  we were singing in the choir for mass,
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  but it wasn't necessarily something that I was
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  like super adamant about at that time.
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  And then let's fast forward a couple of
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  years into our marriage, right, where we are
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  living out this Catholic faith.
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  I was teaching at a Catholic school surrounded
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  by great people, definitely bringing to light something
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  new and kindled within me about my own
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  faith.
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  And I had just completed two years of
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  masterclasses once a week, you know, gone from
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  the household.
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  We had three kids at that time working
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  on my master's and my master's was at
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  WSU.
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  Okay.
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  Okay.
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  And so I would leave school from teaching
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  and I would go and every Monday night
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  had class from six to nine.
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  That's so hard.
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  It was hard on, especially a young family.
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  Any writing research, real school?
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  Oh yeah.
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  With three kids.
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  With three kids, real school, real research.
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  You earned it.
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  And a big part of that's because I
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  have that rock of a spouse that I
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  have at home that supports me in that,
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  right.
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  And then, you know, I told the Lord
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  I had no intention of going into administration.
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  I just, I wanted to pursue that degree.
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  Comes with higher pay over a longer period
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  of time.
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  If I do it earlier, it helps out.
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  You know, that was definitely a money thing
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  at the time.
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  But again, change of mindset now.
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  And I'll talk about that.
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  But going to school full time with three
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  children at home, it was tough.
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  And so I told the Lord, I was
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  like, there's no way I'm going to go
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  through another year of RCIA classes, you know,
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  going through, you know, I was open to
• 9:54
  the idea of converting and becoming Catholic, you
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  know, officially.
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  What everybody tells me is I was already
• 10:00
  Catholic and I just didn't know it yet.
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  Okay.
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  So everybody told me that.
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  Sister Connie, she told me that.
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  She was instrumental in my wife's conversion, too.
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  She does.
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  And that's why I mentioned her because she's
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  a lovely lady.
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  Was there a specific moment, scripture passage, theology,
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  something that you looked at, obviously, that said,
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  yes, this is the true faith?
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  I go back to what I tell people
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  is, growing up Christian, there's truths.
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  To how I was raised, but there's a
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  fullness of truth found in the Catholic church
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  that isn't anywhere else.
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  And I see it in the beauty, the
• 10:42
  beauty that our churches in and not to
• 10:45
  put down any Protestant church here whatsoever, but
• 10:48
  there's some of the most faithful Christian practicing
• 10:51
  human beings in my life are Christian Protestants.
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  Yes.
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  It's it's beautiful.
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  Yes.
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  And what they are lacking to that fullness
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  is, is that beauty within the tradition of
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  the church that they don't even know they
• 11:08
  don't have.
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  And so for me, as I was, you
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  know, teaching in a Catholic school and encountering
• 11:13
  Catholics every day, because the Catholic church here
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  and the Catholic diocese, wonderful teachers and instructors
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  who are devoted to their faith there is
• 11:23
  that piece of beauty to the tradition and
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  understanding the purpose of that tradition that I
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  lacked growing up because I didn't know that.
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  I had no idea.
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  And so that conversion, you know, just that
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  exposure and the Lord pondering on my heart
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  over and over.
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  And I told, I told the Lord, I
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  was like, I'm, I'm open to becoming Catholic,
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  but I cannot go for a whole nother
• 11:44
  year.
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  That's be a third year of being, you
• 11:46
  know, away from home on a weeknight over
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  and over again from my family that I
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  just, I couldn't do it.
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  I couldn't do it.
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  So you took the test?
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  Uh, I took, yeah, actually I got a
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  call and an invitation.
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  I got a call and invitation.
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  Uh, that was, it was pretty much right
• 12:03
  before Easter.
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  It was a, Hey, will you want to
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  become Catholic?
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  I'm like, yeah, yeah, let's meet and talk
• 12:09
  about this.
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  And that was it.
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  Right.
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  I mean, so from what every bit of
• 12:15
  my.
• 12:16
  Just formation has been learning on the go.
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  I'm kind of a jump in.
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  Let's find out how this goes, because it's
• 12:23
  through that experience that we really learn.
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  Uh, we can study and we can look
• 12:28
  at the page and we can know the
• 12:29
  definitions, all these things.
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  But until we experience it in a way,
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  it really has that impact of our formation.
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  Right.
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  So from that point, it was like, yeah,
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  yeah.
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  Now, even then, from that point, this was
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  2019.
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  So I still consider myself a baby Catholic.
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  Right.
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  And there is so much that I have
• 12:45
  grown in my, in my own understanding about
• 12:47
  the beauty of the Catholic church that I,
• 12:49
  I continue to want to learn and grow
• 12:51
  in.
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  And so for example, you know, uh, I,
• 12:54
  I can remember being at a Catholic school
• 12:56
  and it wasn't until I had actually left
• 12:59
  that Catholic school that I learned of Marian
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  chance.
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  You know, uh, Ave Regina and, uh, the,
• 13:07
  the, the chance of our church, uh, the,
• 13:11
  the, the process of prime, uh, of morning
• 13:14
  prayer, right.
• 13:15
  Uh, their traditional orders.
• 13:17
  And so it's been, even from when I
• 13:19
  left Catholic teaching, Catholic school, not Catholic teaching
• 13:22
  Catholic school, I've still grown.
• 13:25
  Uh, and you mentioned Marco that.
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  You know, these devotions that we have at
• 13:29
  the church has and supports, even our first
• 13:32
  Marian consecration I did as a year one
• 13:34
  principal with our Catholic, uh, Catholic teachers within
• 13:38
  my, my school here.
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  That's something I never was exposed to anywhere
• 13:41
  else either.
• 13:41
  And so it was like that Marian devotion
• 13:44
  that had a significant impact on our first
• 13:46
  year.
• 13:46
  I give a Testament to her, uh, and,
• 13:49
  and her guiding us through our first year
• 13:51
  as a school, which we can talk about,
• 13:53
  but then, then as, and I'll share this
• 13:55
  story to just the devotion, St. Joseph, we
• 13:57
  did a consecration of St. Joseph and the
• 13:59
  impacts of that consecration.
• 14:00
  So these are things that I learned after
• 14:02
  leaving teaching within a Catholic school setting, I
• 14:05
  was in public school at that time teaching,
• 14:07
  and I was just like, there's so much
• 14:10
  here.
• 14:10
  So it was just an affirmation of the
• 14:13
  beauty that the Catholic church holds.
• 14:15
  But again, I still go back to my
• 14:17
  upbringing.
• 14:18
  My, my parents still Protestant, very supportive.
• 14:20
  My, my siblings, very supportive that they have
• 14:24
  truths there.
• 14:25
  It's not quite the full fullness of the
• 14:27
  truth yet.
• 14:28
  So you've learned a love of Jesus in
• 14:30
  your early Christian formation and you overlaid the
• 14:34
  orthodoxy of the Catholic faith on top of
• 14:37
  that.
• 14:38
  And the struggle that I had with my
• 14:40
  kids is they didn't have a, the.
• 14:45
  Original foundational love of Christ and their Catholic
• 14:48
  school upbringing taught them, learn this prayer, do
• 14:52
  this prayer, say this, all the, all the
• 14:54
  things that, and then you get a grade
• 14:56
  on it and you know what was missing
• 14:58
  the foundational love of Christ and the mercy
• 15:01
  that our Lord, uh, impresses upon, uh, humanity.
• 15:06
  And it's beautiful to see that come out
• 15:09
  of your home.
• 15:10
  What that says, when I reflect on my
• 15:12
  own life is I did a poor job
• 15:14
  myself as their father, I was a meathead
• 15:17
  Sunday going Catholic that was going to go
• 15:19
  to hell if I didn't figure things out
• 15:21
  and it's so necessary to have that formation
• 15:26
  and that love, and then you overlay it
• 15:29
  with the traditions and the rules and the
• 15:31
  don'ts and the dues, and it creates a
• 15:33
  beauty that you're manifesting with your family.
• 15:36
  And that's something that Protestants, they have that
• 15:38
  natural personal relationship that they start with, whereas,
• 15:42
  uh, the Catholics start with their tradition in
• 15:45
  the sacrament.
• 15:46
  And so yeah, correct.
• 15:48
  Correct.
• 15:48
  Oh, absolutely.
• 15:49
  And so I think that played a major
• 15:51
  role in my own formation and my own
• 15:53
  conversion of saying, Hey, yeah, absolutely.
• 15:56
  I want to join the church in Easter.
• 15:58
  And it was that invitation, right?
• 16:00
  What invitations are we giving to others, uh,
• 16:02
  in our lives on a daily basis?
• 16:05
  I love that you brought up the 33
• 16:06
  days.
• 16:07
  I had that same experience going through it.
• 16:10
  There's so much here.
• 16:12
  The apparitions really touched me and it just
• 16:14
  brings the imaginative piece into it for me,
• 16:18
  because imagining what they experienced and what they
• 16:21
  saw.
• 16:22
  And, um, I'm interested in like the seed
• 16:25
  of education for you, because I feel like
• 16:28
  imagination is a big piece of it.
• 16:30
  I mean, the first time I came in
• 16:32
  contact with you was through my son.
• 16:34
  And he was a part of a play
• 16:37
  that they were doing at the school and
• 16:39
  he was really into it.
• 16:40
  He was excited about it.
• 16:42
  And he's not always moved to do stuff.
• 16:44
  And I'm like, what, what is he doing?
• 16:46
  Why is he wanting to build all this
• 16:47
  stuff?
• 16:47
  And so I'm just curious, like that seed
• 16:50
  of you wanting to be an educator, because
• 16:52
  what I, just in this conversation already, you
• 16:55
  can just see the energy that you have.
• 16:57
  And I saw that early on with you,
• 16:59
  with the kids.
• 17:00
  So you have a love of educating kids.
• 17:02
  And then you kind of talked about the
• 17:04
  farm work that you had done.
• 17:05
  So I'm just curious where that seed of
• 17:08
  educating other souls kind of came from.
• 17:11
  Yeah.
• 17:12
  You know, I do have a passion for
• 17:14
  education.
• 17:15
  That's what, that's why I'm here.
• 17:16
  Uh, learning.
• 17:17
  Is there a difference between learning and education?
• 17:20
  Cause from what I hear from you is
• 17:21
  you love to teach a love of learning.
• 17:24
  That's it.
• 17:24
  That's it.
• 17:25
  I love it.
• 17:26
  And if a child has a love of
• 17:27
  learning, they will become educated.
• 17:30
  And they don't love it.
• 17:31
  Then they have no interest in it.
• 17:32
  And that's not gonna, it's not gonna penetrate
• 17:34
  them.
• 17:36
  And so do I always, I tell parents
• 17:38
  this, they're not going to love everything that
• 17:40
  we do.
• 17:41
  Right.
• 17:42
  But I want them to find something that
• 17:43
  they do love and how can, and I've
• 17:45
  seen the fruits of that too, of just
• 17:47
  over the past four years of the foundation
• 17:50
  of our school to, um, but even going
• 17:53
  back to answer your question, you know, I
• 17:55
  was involved when I was at Newman, I
• 17:58
  was involved in the choir.
• 17:59
  Right.
• 17:59
  Uh, but I also was heavily involved in
• 18:01
  the theater.
• 18:02
  I, that was my, that was my day
• 18:03
  job.
• 18:03
  I worked to build all the sets and
• 18:05
  do all the lighting and do all the
• 18:06
  sound.
• 18:07
  And so at my time at the Catholic
• 18:09
  school where I had the privilege of teaching
• 18:11
  your, your son, your oldest, uh, I want
• 18:14
  to say, was he on the stage crew
• 18:15
  side of things?
• 18:16
  Yeah, he was on, he was one of
• 18:17
  my stage crew, uh, kiddos.
• 18:19
  And there's so much to be taught through,
• 18:21
  through the doing of these things.
• 18:23
  And, uh, you mentioned that imagination, like just
• 18:27
  fostering that imagination sets time, gives them time
• 18:31
  to really concentrate on something, right?
• 18:34
  They are, it's something that takes time looking
• 18:37
  out the window to daydream.
• 18:39
  They're thinking about something.
• 18:41
  What are they thinking about, you know, and
• 18:43
  let's give them time to think that because
• 18:44
  it's through that, uh, concentration, which is a
• 18:48
  good habit to form in that imagination.
• 18:51
  You know, this leads into contemplation, bigger ideas.
• 18:55
  What is our purpose, right?
• 18:56
  What, uh, what did God create me to
• 18:59
  do?
• 18:59
  What did God create you to do?
• 19:00
  How is this relationship for, um, that I
• 19:04
  have with the Lord?
• 19:05
  How can it go to, to others?
• 19:07
  Right.
• 19:07
  And so going back to, you know, the,
• 19:09
  the farm work that I talked about growing
• 19:12
  up, you know, working on the farm teaches
• 19:14
  somebody a lot work ethic, you know, we
• 19:18
  as individuals created by God, if we go
• 19:20
  back to Adam and Eve, you know, where
• 19:22
  were they created, they were created to be
• 19:24
  in the garden to work.
• 19:26
  And so there's also a relationship to man,
• 19:28
  the nature of man and work that has
• 19:30
  been, uh, misconstrued and taken apart from, from
• 19:34
  what the original creation was.
• 19:35
  So good, healthy work, especially for young men,
• 19:38
  uh, at an early age, what does that
• 19:41
  teach them and habit formation and character formation?
• 19:44
  Right.
• 19:44
  And so that's something just me working on
• 19:46
  a farm, hot, dirty, hard work, uh, that
• 19:53
  I can, I still go back and cut
• 19:54
  wheat for the farmer.
• 19:55
  Did you work with living things, uh, that,
• 19:58
  you know, like mammals or were they living
• 20:00
  things like wheat and crops or so you,
• 20:03
  your reflection on your hard work was you
• 20:06
  watch things go from little to big harvest.
• 20:10
  And on both ends of it, from, from
• 20:13
  the wheat that we'd be cutting to sowing
• 20:15
  to the cows that you get kicked by,
• 20:17
  but we raise them up and we haul
• 20:19
  them to the butcher store, right.
• 20:21
  Just beginning to end.
• 20:23
  Uh, and this is something I'm passionate in
• 20:25
  terms of education.
• 20:27
  Uh, kids need to see a beginning to
• 20:29
  end.
• 20:29
  Okay.
• 20:30
  We start them at a very young age,
• 20:32
  learning, uh, simple parts of speech beginning to
• 20:35
  the grammar of dissecting a sentence to then
• 20:38
  the end of the writing and the speaking,
• 20:40
  right.
• 20:40
  On the same, same note, you know, when
• 20:43
  our kids start to grow plants at the
• 20:45
  school, they start with a seed beginning.
• 20:48
  We grow it, we see it.
• 20:49
  We watch it to go from a little
• 20:52
  seed to two feet tall.
• 20:53
  We sell it.
• 20:54
  Uh, we keep some and we watch the
• 20:55
  produce, the fruit come from that.
• 20:57
  Do you propagate any of those?
• 20:58
  We do.
• 20:59
  Oh yeah, we do.
• 21:00
  And so even with the chickens, we hatched
• 21:03
  chickens at the school.
• 21:04
  They see the whole process.
• 21:05
  They see him hatch.
• 21:06
  It's glorious.
• 21:07
  It's amazing.
• 21:08
  And their curiosity, going back to the imagination
• 21:10
  that really got your son, uh, into the
• 21:13
  theater side of things at a middle school
• 21:15
  age level, that imagination, that experience, uh, is
• 21:19
  what helps them flourish as young, young people,
• 21:22
  um, that give them the interests.
• 21:24
  Right.
• 21:25
  And then it is our, our job to
• 21:27
  work with as an educator to work with
• 21:29
  parents because parents are the primary educators.
• 21:31
  And I say that over and over again,
• 21:32
  I'm here to aid the parent, you know,
• 21:34
  to be the school, being an extension of
• 21:36
  the home, not taking the place of the
• 21:38
  home and as teachers, not taking the place
• 21:41
  of the parent, but an extension of the
• 21:43
  parent, right.
• 21:44
  And, uh, if we can really have that
• 21:47
  good thought, solid foundation of relationship with parents,
• 21:50
  school, with families that we give these children,
• 21:53
  these experiences from beginning to end, uh, evoking
• 21:56
  imagination, character formation, habits, aptitudes, right.
• 22:00
  And we're giving something that they will have
• 22:03
  a love for.
• 22:04
  But again, remember, I, they don't love everything
• 22:06
  when we're out there picking weeds, when it's
• 22:07
  105 degrees outside, they're not loving it.
• 22:09
  But what does that teach them?
• 22:11
  Perseverance, uh, a service of heart, you know,
• 22:15
  uh, we're doing this for somebody else.
• 22:17
  Oh, the playground need weeded for those kindergartners
• 22:19
  play on it.
• 22:19
  We're going to do it for the, we're
• 22:21
  doing it for the kindergartners.
• 22:22
  Right.
• 22:22
  And so those experiences of my childhood, you
• 22:25
  know, with my parents into my time and
• 22:28
  the university with, and then finding, you know,
• 22:31
  my wife to then my time, even teaching
• 22:33
  Catholic school, it's, it's been something I've always
• 22:35
  been passionate about of working with children because
• 22:38
  they're hungry.
• 22:39
  They're hungry for truth.
• 22:41
  They are great at questioning things.
• 22:43
  And, you know, an education, a traditional education
• 22:45
  that what we call grammar, stage of learning,
• 22:47
  the youngers, when they get to that logic
• 22:49
  level of learning, they are questioning everything.
• 22:51
  So if you wonder why your teenager is
• 22:54
  snapping back at you with a snarky question,
• 22:56
  it's, it is developmentally like they're going through
• 22:58
  this logic stage.
• 22:59
  Now let's train them to do that appropriately.
• 23:01
  Right.
• 23:02
  Of what is respectful.
• 23:03
  What is, what's the intent of your question?
• 23:07
  And it's a deeper desire to know, to
• 23:11
  know what, to know, to love, serve God.
• 23:14
  I mean that he's at the root of
• 23:16
  it.
• 23:16
  They don't know that.
• 23:17
  Right.
• 23:18
  But how do we get to that, to
• 23:19
  that point?
• 23:20
  And it's through these experiences of my own
• 23:23
  that I bring to, bring to the children
• 23:25
  that I work with.
• 23:26
  Perfect.
• 23:26
  I want to get back to Will Durant,
• 23:28
  the man, because I don't know that everyone
• 23:31
  really knows how you got to this place.
• 23:33
  So as I was saying, I had met
• 23:36
  you through that and was surprised, but always
• 23:39
  knew my son very smart, I think got
• 23:41
  like a 32 on his ACT, but he's
• 23:44
  very active.
• 23:45
  He was, he was always listening, but spinning
• 23:47
  around with action figures in his hand, he's
• 23:50
  not a sit in his desk type.
• 23:51
  So I'm like, this is interesting.
• 23:53
  He's got my son's attention.
• 23:55
  And then the next time I remember was
• 23:58
  at the Blue Ribbon School at Magdalene.
• 24:00
  So just curious about that because a lot
• 24:03
  of that was kind of going on in
• 24:05
  the background and I didn't at the time
• 24:06
  really realize that you were spearheading that.
• 24:09
  So just maybe talk about that experience of
• 24:12
  how that was like kind of something that
• 24:13
  was a nation, that was a national honor
• 24:15
  that you brought to the schools.
• 24:17
  And describe the honor, like, uh, from a
• 24:19
  percentage of school standpoint and what it means,
• 24:23
  please.
• 24:24
  Yeah.
• 24:24
  Okay.
• 24:25
  So, and I, that was a great moment
• 24:27
  to be a part of, of that school,
• 24:29
  a great part of my own experience again,
• 24:32
  uh, with being within that Catholic school as
• 24:34
  part of that conversion story that I just
• 24:36
  shared, right.
• 24:37
  The great people involved.
• 24:38
  And so while I was working on my
• 24:40
  master's at WSU for administration, you know, I
• 24:43
  was, I was having to do so many
• 24:44
  mentor hours, had a wonderful mentor at Magdalene.
• 24:47
  And that was one of the things that
• 24:48
  was given to me as a kind of
• 24:51
  an administrator in training was this application for
• 24:55
  this National Blue Ribbon Award and what is
• 24:58
  it?
• 24:58
  Well, they only choose one private school out
• 25:01
  of the state to receive that award.
• 25:04
  The entire state of Kansas, Johnson County, Wyandotte
• 25:07
  County, all the Kansas city schools.
• 25:10
  One private, because it's the private school sector
• 25:12
  is chosen a little bit differently than the
• 25:14
  public school sector.
• 25:15
  So one private, there's a lot of good
• 25:16
  private schools, a lot of good private schools.
• 25:18
  And it was, I mean, this application was
• 25:21
  supposed to be a reflection of everything that
• 25:23
  the school was doing.
• 25:25
  Okay.
• 25:25
  So I just had, in that respect, I
• 25:27
  just had a small role of putting it
• 25:28
  together.
• 25:28
  Now a small role.
• 25:30
  It was when the application starts with a
• 25:32
  certain amount of labor work laws because of
• 25:35
  the amount of work it takes to put
• 25:36
  it together.
• 25:37
  It was intensive, but I had a lot
• 25:39
  of great team members that had the information
• 25:42
  that it was just compiling and a lot
• 25:43
  of writing.
• 25:45
  So this, this document ended up being about
• 25:47
  40 pages, reflection of the school, of its
• 25:49
  mission, of how it met the, the standard
• 25:54
  in which the state of Kansas and the
• 25:56
  national level was wanting to see of how
• 25:59
  we excelled as a school.
• 26:01
  Right.
• 26:02
  And so I did have the honor of
• 26:04
  putting that together, a lot of rewrites.
• 26:06
  And as I said, my mentor, she guided
• 26:08
  us through it and the Catholic schools office
• 26:10
  was thrilled to help us as well when
• 26:12
  we got into any hiccups.
• 26:14
  But through that, I was able to highlight
• 26:16
  what made the school exemplary.
• 26:19
  And it was the one private school that
• 26:22
  was selected for that year.
• 26:24
  And so we did get to travel, myself
• 26:26
  and the principal and the pastor and the
• 26:28
  superintendent got to travel to Washington DC, to
• 26:32
  receive that honor for the school.
• 26:34
  And so I chuckle a little bit because
• 26:36
  my, my own understanding of education and school
• 26:40
  testing has since changed, being definitely in the
• 26:44
  Catholic, class school renewal.
• 26:47
  And so I do chuckle a little bit
• 26:49
  because, you know, here I was writing this
• 26:51
  big articulate document that really focused on test
• 26:55
  scores.
• 26:57
  And, and since then I've had my own
• 26:58
  conversion of education, but it was still an
• 27:01
  honor to be part of.
• 27:02
  And so that's where, you know, I was
• 27:04
  spearheading that from the backside as just a
• 27:06
  young, a fairly new teacher at the time,
• 27:08
  new to administration at the time.
• 27:10
  And then lo and behold, we were chosen
• 27:12
  and got to receive that honor and award
• 27:14
  for the school.
• 27:15
  And then we celebrated as a school community
• 27:16
  that, that honor.
• 27:18
  As parents.
• 27:19
  Thank you.
• 27:20
  Thank you.
• 27:20
  As parents, I just remember thinking, wow, you
• 27:22
  know, it's one of those things where it's
• 27:24
  like, oh, we're blue ribbon.
• 27:25
  What is that?
• 27:25
  And then the kind of like, the more
• 27:26
  you see, you're just like, oh, that's really
• 27:29
  exceptional.
• 27:31
  And then you see people that are behind
• 27:33
  it.
• 27:33
  And I'm like, this Will Durant guy, he's
• 27:35
  like a rocket ship to the moon.
• 27:37
  What's going on here, right?
• 27:39
  Yes.
• 27:39
  Yeah.
• 27:40
  And then kind of the next time that
• 27:42
  I really took notice of you, I get
• 27:46
  an email saying, Will Durant is leaving the
• 27:50
  school.
• 27:51
  And I was shocked.
• 27:52
  I'm like, this guy's a rocket ship to
• 27:55
  the moon, as far as, you know, from
• 27:57
  a parent perspective.
• 27:58
  So I didn't quite understand and COVID was
• 28:00
  going on and there was just a lot
• 28:02
  of turmoil about how we were going to
• 28:04
  respond to all that.
• 28:05
  And then we kind of get that notice
• 28:06
  there too.
• 28:07
  So I just, just a moment about that,
• 28:09
  because I know, you know, as we've talked
• 28:11
  about and kind of given our witness, suffering
• 28:15
  kind of as fertile soil for new growth,
• 28:18
  which is what you're in now.
• 28:19
  So yeah.
• 28:20
  Yeah.
• 28:20
  Yeah.
• 28:21
  Yeah.
• 28:22
  Meeting you as a, as a parent, right.
• 28:24
  And having the honor to teach your son
• 28:26
  and into just the background of my administration,
• 28:31
  as administrative time there, you know, I had
• 28:33
  accepted an administrative role, uh, and then COVID
• 28:38
  hit and it, it does come with, uh,
• 28:42
  an administrative role does come with decision-making
• 28:44
  and being on the same page of all
• 28:46
  your, all your team in that case.
• 28:48
  Right.
• 28:48
  And me growing up out West, a small
• 28:51
  town farm, I'd say I had a different,
• 28:53
  uh, difference of opinion on the nature of
• 28:57
  our reaction to, to many of the COVID
• 28:59
  protocols.
• 29:00
  And I was, I was pretty quiet about
• 29:01
  it.
• 29:01
  Uh, nothing in your face about it.
• 29:03
  And you want to respect what you have
• 29:05
  and understand what you're going through.
• 29:06
  But at the same time, uh, I really
• 29:09
  wasn't willing to.
• 29:11
  Uh, back down on, on what I felt
• 29:13
  was to be, to be right.
• 29:15
  Uh, and so really, it really did come
• 29:18
  down to, uh, my, my participation in the
• 29:22
  holy sacrifice of the mass that, that was,
• 29:24
  that was it.
• 29:25
  And I wasn't willing to, uh, do some
• 29:29
  of the things that they were asking us
• 29:30
  to do within that time of mass.
• 29:32
  Now on the school side, this is my
• 29:36
  role.
• 29:36
  This is my job.
• 29:37
  Okay.
• 29:38
  But really when it came to me attending
• 29:41
  mass in the fullest form and entering into
• 29:44
  that sacrifice, I wasn't willing to contradict that
• 29:46
  or go against that.
• 29:47
  And so, you know, it was a moment
• 29:50
  where the several meetings were had, but at
• 29:52
  the end of the day, I knew God
• 29:54
  was going to take care of my family.
• 29:56
  He's going to take care of me.
• 29:57
  I was going to stand on the ground.
• 29:58
  I was, this was the hill I was
• 29:59
  going to die on in the sense of
• 30:01
  I'm not going along with this.
• 30:03
  And I mean, we're seeing the effects of
• 30:04
  it.
• 30:05
  We'll see the effects of the, the actions.
• 30:07
  For many, many, many, many years or decision
• 30:09
  -making many, many years.
• 30:10
  And again, not to know, you know, put
• 30:13
  anybody in a place of authority at that
• 30:15
  time is not no easy task, uh, to,
• 30:18
  to recognize what goes behind the scenes is
• 30:20
  not always what we see, um, to really
• 30:22
  understand the decision-making.
• 30:23
  So to no fault of theirs, but it
• 30:25
  was something I was not going to put
• 30:27
  the mask on, right, I was not going
• 30:29
  to, uh, hide my face in the moment
• 30:31
  of celebrating, uh, the Eucharist.
• 30:33
  And so I did choose, uh, to quietly
• 30:37
  leave, uh, and went back to farming, doing
• 30:41
  construction work for a year.
• 30:42
  And it was tough.
• 30:44
  It was tough because my passion was education.
• 30:46
  My passion was children.
• 30:48
  Uh, and when, when you're covering yourself, it's
• 30:51
  very hard, uh, when we are relational beings
• 30:55
  to teach a child that needs to be
• 30:57
  behind that screen or behind that line or
• 30:58
  behind whatever the things that we did to,
• 31:01
  to say it was out of protection, right?
• 31:03
  And so I went to construction and then
• 31:06
  after construction, I went right into public education.
• 31:08
  And at that time we were still dealing
• 31:10
  with, you know, years, a couple of years
• 31:13
  of protocols, whatever they may be.
• 31:15
  But, uh, but because it was public education,
• 31:18
  you know, I still had the ability to
• 31:20
  go to mass and be who I was
• 31:22
  face to face with God in that moment.
• 31:24
  Right.
• 31:25
  And so that experience of public education was
• 31:29
  eye-opening to get me to reflect on
• 31:32
  the state of education as a whole, right?
• 31:35
  As a whole and just articulate some things.
• 31:37
  So when I came to this point in
• 31:39
  my life of my educational career of what
• 31:42
  is classical education, it really opened my mind
• 31:46
  and my heart to a fullness of education.
• 31:49
  So I talked about the fullness of a
• 31:50
  truth within my own faith.
• 31:51
  I would say there's a conversion of mind
• 31:53
  of, of education and educational practices and, and
• 31:56
  fullness of education that I was discovering as
• 31:59
  well.
• 31:59
  So God knew what was happening.
• 32:02
  He, he did take that sufferings, you know,
• 32:04
  it was not easy to make that decision
• 32:06
  to know that I saw myself being in
• 32:09
  that school forever.
• 32:10
  I really did.
• 32:12
  And I love the people.
• 32:14
  I love the families.
• 32:15
  I love the administration, you know, and the
• 32:17
  community itself.
• 32:19
  However, it was a decision that, you know,
• 32:22
  my wife and I were like, this is
• 32:24
  something that I will be unhappy this whole
• 32:26
  entire year and it will play an effect
• 32:28
  on my family.
• 32:29
  And so when I look at what was
• 32:33
  I able to, you know, gain out of
• 32:35
  it, it was that freedom.
• 32:37
  But it didn't come without the, the sacrifice
• 32:39
  and sufferings.
• 32:40
  Well, I just love, it's just fascinating to
• 32:42
  me.
• 32:43
  I love these stories because in life, when
• 32:45
  I say we're in a spiritual battle in
• 32:48
  life, these things come to you all the
• 32:51
  time.
• 32:52
  Sometimes they're very small and insignificant, seemingly.
• 32:55
  Sometimes they're really big decisions where you have
• 32:58
  to decide whether you're going to follow your
• 32:59
  conscience and be true to yourself or whether
• 33:01
  you're going to do, you know, maybe just
• 33:04
  do a little something that you don't think
• 33:06
  is right, but you got all these other
• 33:07
  attachments that make you do that.
• 33:09
  And so I just think it's such a
• 33:11
  good witness for men that when you, um,
• 33:15
  when you choose, there's going to be consequences.
• 33:19
  That's never going to be free.
• 33:21
  And, um, that the such fertile soil to
• 33:25
  trust the trust that it requires is such
• 33:28
  fertile soil for new growth.
• 33:30
  And so not to be afraid of maybe
• 33:33
  the world tearing down your false preconceptions and
• 33:37
  trusting that God will build you up the
• 33:39
  way he wants you to be.
• 33:40
  I just love that witness.
• 33:42
  So thank you for that.
• 33:43
  And my feeling on this is that the
• 33:45
  example you set was, uh, you took honor.
• 33:51
  You were honorable in the way that you
• 33:53
  did it.
• 33:53
  And you gave dignity to the institutions that
• 33:58
  you left.
• 33:59
  A lot of people aren't emotionally mature enough
• 34:02
  to do that.
• 34:04
  And you maintain your dignity and you did
• 34:07
  what you needed to do with honor.
• 34:09
  And that should be commended.
• 34:12
  But to your point, you know, it was
• 34:14
  hard, right?
• 34:14
  I was leaving something that I truly believed
• 34:17
  in, but I'm sure there was some anger
• 34:19
  involved and frustration and all those human things
• 34:22
  that you just want to, I just want
• 34:24
  people to know my story.
• 34:26
  Just, and that was probably it.
• 34:28
  That's probably you as a parent.
• 34:29
  It was like, what happened?
• 34:30
  Because there probably wasn't much shared about why
• 34:32
  I was leaving.
• 34:33
  And I, and that wasn't the intent of
• 34:35
  it, but, uh, it was beautiful.
• 34:38
  It was, you were able just to go
• 34:40
  silently into the good night and without any
• 34:44
  disturbance in the force and reappear remade Gandalf,
• 34:48
  the white.
• 34:50
  And that's funny.
• 34:51
  That's kind of like the next time I
• 34:53
  crossed paths with him, he's Gandalf the white.
• 34:58
  You know, things continued on the course they
• 35:01
  were on.
• 35:02
  And we got to a point where we
• 35:03
  made a decision that we were going to,
• 35:05
  uh, go to start going to St. Peter's
• 35:08
  and I'm in St. Peter's mass.
• 35:11
  And I look across the way and lo
• 35:13
  and behold, there's Will Durand over there.
• 35:15
  And so I, after mass, get up and
• 35:17
  go over there and give him a big
• 35:18
  hug.
• 35:19
  And like, what are you doing over here?
• 35:20
  And then, um, we reconnect and, and just
• 35:24
  kind of like the school idea keeps kind
• 35:27
  of coming through.
• 35:28
  He's starting to create it.
• 35:29
  So we had some conversations about it and
• 35:31
  I'm just fascinated by it.
• 35:33
  Yeah.
• 35:33
  Yeah.
• 35:33
  Yeah.
• 35:34
  And, you know, again, another wonderful community that
• 35:36
  we were able to be a part of
• 35:37
  the Lord, you know, drew us to, and
• 35:39
  my kids ended up going to, to that
• 35:41
  Catholic school and, uh, but then for me
• 35:44
  coming into mass and looking over, it was
• 35:46
  like, that's Marco, what do you know?
• 35:49
  You know, and reconnecting with you.
• 35:50
  It was just one of those God moments
• 35:52
  of, I think you were there cause you
• 35:54
  had family there and, uh, we were attracted,
• 35:56
  uh, to the freedom that we had there
• 35:58
  during a time of turmoil.
• 36:00
  Right.
• 36:00
  And so it was that same kind of
• 36:03
  like Marco, um, that familiar face when you
• 36:06
  spent your whole time and I wasn't from
• 36:08
  the area around the school.
• 36:09
  So we, we commuted to, uh, my first
• 36:12
  Catholic school there that I taught at.
• 36:14
  And so when you see that familiar face,
• 36:15
  it's just like that, that rewelcoming, uh, it's
• 36:18
  like the prodigal son, the embrace of the
• 36:21
  father, you just see that face when you
• 36:22
  went through something and you knew that person,
• 36:24
  but to see, oh, I wasn't the only
• 36:26
  one, uh, you know, fighting, uh, interior spiritual
• 36:30
  battle there and that embrace.
• 36:31
  Yes.
• 36:32
  And then you start, um, talking about this,
• 36:36
  this new idea for new school and people
• 36:38
  from that parish were kind of collecting around
• 36:40
  you and, and just, just talk about the
• 36:43
  Genesis of that.
• 36:44
  Oh, wow.
• 36:45
  I mean, God's handed at all.
• 36:47
  Uh, so the, the schools, uh, that I
• 36:50
  currently serve as principal at St. John Paul,
• 36:51
  the second independent Catholic school, it's a bit
• 36:53
  of a mouthful.
• 36:54
  However, just the beauty of even the intentionality
• 36:57
  of the name came and was revealed to
• 36:59
  us after.
• 37:00
  And so I can mention that in a
• 37:02
  little bit, but like-minded community found there
• 37:05
  within St. Peter's.
• 37:06
  And that's where we started to find each
• 37:09
  other and be like, Hey, I got this
• 37:10
  idea and Hey, you had this idea and
• 37:13
  seeds were planted in, in several hearts.
• 37:15
  And so from that moment, those people that
• 37:19
  just had these seeds planted of education, of
• 37:22
  kind of fighting back a little bit between
• 37:25
  what is right and what is true and
• 37:26
  what is good and what is beautiful, right?
• 37:28
  Finding those elements, it brought us together.
• 37:31
  And, and Marco, you were one of those
• 37:33
  on our originally like idea board, I'll call
• 37:36
  them, right?
• 37:37
  We came together and they were members of
• 37:39
  that community.
• 37:40
  Marco was?
• 37:40
  Marco was.
• 37:42
  You didn't ask me.
• 37:43
  And I got attacked.
• 37:45
  I tend to be like, I am a
• 37:46
  target for spiritual attack.
• 37:48
  Every time I try to say yes.
• 37:50
  And you know what?
• 37:51
  On that, on that original idea board, uh,
• 37:54
  you, yourself, you know, we, my wife and
• 37:57
  I, we have, uh, two daughters.
• 37:59
  One of those daughters, uh, ended up being
• 38:01
  in the hospital all during this time, several
• 38:03
  times, ongoing seizures.
• 38:05
  And, and we attribute her, her health back
• 38:08
  to the blessed mother.
• 38:09
  I can talk about that too.
• 38:10
  But, uh, one of the other members, her
• 38:12
  husband died during that time.
• 38:14
  Another, you know, we, it was spiritual attack
• 38:17
  after spiritual attack on many of us of
• 38:18
  that original board.
• 38:20
  And one gentleman, he passed away.
• 38:21
  That was on that original idea board.
• 38:23
  And, and so we knew we were going
• 38:26
  down the right path when we were being
• 38:28
  attacked, because that is something the devil likes
• 38:30
  to do is he likes to take something,
• 38:32
  see, he sees what's good and he'll attack
• 38:34
  that he wants to draw you away from
• 38:36
  that through these sufferings.
• 38:37
  But for us, it was a moment to
• 38:40
  deepen our foot in the ground and say,
• 38:43
  we're going to, we're going to continue onward
• 38:44
  because you know what, this is what the
• 38:45
  Lord has for us.
• 38:46
  And so Marco was on that original idea
• 38:48
  board.
• 38:49
  And through those attacks, we, we survived, you
• 38:52
  know, this would have been, uh, August, September
• 38:56
  of 2021.
• 38:58
  Okay.
• 38:59
  And we, we persevered.
• 39:00
  Uh, there were times where we had moments
• 39:02
  of nothing within our board at that time
• 39:05
  and all the way to April of 2022.
• 39:09
  Okay.
• 39:09
  Uh, of getting new members on, and this
• 39:12
  would be what I would call the founding
• 39:13
  board members into opening school in August of
• 39:16
  2022 with families that were just like, yeah,
• 39:19
  that sounds great.
• 39:20
  Let's do it.
• 39:21
  Uh, they were like-minded families through the
• 39:23
  turmoil.
• 39:24
  So I say it's the silver lining of
• 39:25
  COVID that opened our eyes to the state
• 39:28
  of education, uh, to the state of, uh,
• 39:32
  the things that we were encountering within the
• 39:33
  culture as well, right?
• 39:35
  And so we had 16 families join us
• 39:37
  that first year.
• 39:38
  And as I mentioned that first year, we
• 39:40
  had a consecration to our blessed mother, a
• 39:42
  33 day consecration, Mary and devotion that really
• 39:45
  got us through that first year.
• 39:47
  And from that moment, we're, we're just open
• 39:49
  year five.
• 39:50
  And we went from starting out with 16
• 39:52
  families and 41 kids.
• 39:54
  Now we're at 44 families and 95 kids
• 39:56
  and year five.
• 39:58
  And, uh, that's where Marco and I again,
• 40:00
  just rekindled in that beginning of this idea,
• 40:03
  uh, that our job, our children deserve better
• 40:07
  of them, what we're giving them and what
• 40:10
  is that?
• 40:11
  Well, let's discover it.
• 40:12
  And it's rooted in the Catholic faith and
• 40:14
  it's rooted in the tradition of Western civilization
• 40:17
  of a traditional education and the great books.
• 40:21
  Uh, and is, so it's something that we've
• 40:24
  gone back to as a school community.
• 40:26
  And since then going from the idea board
• 40:28
  to the founding board to now a sustaining
• 40:30
  board, we see new members come on that
• 40:32
  are active.
• 40:33
  And, and, and now our, our role, uh,
• 40:36
  is, is building a school, funding a school.
• 40:39
  And so every year has been a complete
• 40:40
  trust in God, one, the first two, three
• 40:43
  years making budget, uh, but then growing that
• 40:46
  to now we have extra, we need to
• 40:48
  be planning for where's the, where, where's the
• 40:51
  school going to lay her head.
• 40:52
  Right.
• 40:53
  And, you know, just earlier in the year,
• 40:55
  January of 2026 year purchasing property.
• 41:00
  Right.
• 41:00
  And having no debt in that through the
• 41:04
  generous donors and the, the, what, what the
• 41:07
  Lord's put on their heart to help us
• 41:09
  in this mission.
• 41:09
  And so now we're on the next big
• 41:11
  trust of raising money to build a school
• 41:13
  because we're busting at the seams where we're
• 41:15
  at and we need a building and we
• 41:16
  need to be on property on campus with
• 41:19
  this vision, uh, of education.
• 41:21
  So, uh, it's all from the very beginning,
• 41:25
  just complete trust in God that this is
• 41:28
  yours, it's not any of ours.
• 41:29
  Yes.
• 41:29
  There's been a lot of hands that have
• 41:31
  helped make it come about.
• 41:33
  Yes.
• 41:33
  You know, I played a role in my
• 41:35
  leadership as the first principal and, uh, we
• 41:38
  have our founders, but really we attribute this
• 41:41
  as the Lord's and I can't take credit
• 41:42
  for what the Lord's doing through me.
• 41:44
  And so to continue to operate and say,
• 41:48
  this is yours, it's yours to succeed.
• 41:51
  It's yours to fail.
• 41:52
  You just use me in it.
• 41:53
  And that complete trust, if it's going to
• 41:54
  fail, then what I've become better out of
• 41:57
  it because of you.
• 41:58
  I, if it's going to succeed, we are
• 42:00
  better out of it because of you.
• 42:02
  And it's just that complete trust, right?
• 42:03
  Uh, this is his and he's going to
• 42:05
  let it continue to grow and flourish.
• 42:06
  And it's through those struggles that I, you
• 42:08
  know, my wife and I went through during
• 42:09
  those times of, uh, complete trust in the
• 42:12
  Lord to say, I'm not returning.
• 42:13
  And this was August.
• 42:14
  There was no teaching jobs open in August.
• 42:16
  So that's why, you know, back to farm
• 42:18
  work, back to farm labor, uh, running, running
• 42:21
  dump trucks scenario, then knowing I, the Lord
• 42:25
  wants me in education.
• 42:26
  So I'm back in education and yikes.
• 42:28
  The state of education to let's do something
• 42:30
  different.
• 42:31
  Right.
• 42:32
  That's awesome.
• 42:33
  Does the school receive any support from support
• 42:35
  for Catholic schools?
• 42:36
  It's an organization I donate money to.
• 42:39
  Uh, the answer is no.
• 42:41
  Have you inquired?
• 42:42
  We receive support through a different organization called
• 42:45
  cornerstone.
• 42:46
  Okay.
• 42:47
  It is the same scholarship granting organization that
• 42:49
  support Catholic schools is set up as.
• 42:51
  Okay.
• 42:52
  So it is you support support for Catholic
• 42:54
  schools through your tax dollars.
• 42:56
  We are partnered with cornerstone that does the
• 42:59
  same for donors.
• 43:00
  And then those tax dollars go to the
• 43:02
  school through scholarships for qualifying students.
• 43:06
  I'm a big supporter in what you all
• 43:08
  are trying to do.
• 43:09
  And so when, when we're done, I'd like
• 43:11
  to talk to you about that, because whether
• 43:14
  it's, uh, whether it's engaging a scholarship for
• 43:18
  a child or multiple children, um, because they're,
• 43:23
  they're families that when you're outside of the
• 43:26
  tithing stewardship program, it, it's a, it's a
• 43:29
  serious commitment.
• 43:30
  And, uh, I believe in what you're doing.
• 43:33
  I I've seen, uh, another, uh, private school
• 43:37
  here.
• 43:38
  I had my youngest child go to school
• 43:40
  outside of the Catholic school system.
• 43:42
  And I saw what being a customer looks
• 43:44
  like.
• 43:45
  I've after having that experience, I thought, well,
• 43:48
  the Catholic schools are the customer.
• 43:51
  Once I saw how this relationship worked, I
• 43:54
  felt like they teach a love of learning.
• 43:57
  I've never seen this classical education is so
• 44:00
  beautiful.
• 44:00
  And what you're doing is combining all of
• 44:03
  that.
• 44:04
  And, and, and it's, I, it's a blessing
• 44:08
  to this area.
• 44:10
  I just hope it catches on.
• 44:12
  It is, it is.
• 44:13
  And even our diocese here is catching on
• 44:15
  and it's, it's good because it's what's good
• 44:19
  for the kids.
• 44:19
  Let's go.
• 44:20
  Those people that are going to come out
• 44:21
  of your organization are going to be the
• 44:22
  future leaders in all the Catholic communities around.
• 44:26
  They're going to have the kind of faith
• 44:28
  that you were, that you were brought up
• 44:30
  in and layered on with the orthodoxy of
• 44:33
  the traditions.
• 44:34
  Yes.
• 44:35
  Let's get into the, the school and the,
• 44:37
  what you guys do there.
• 44:38
  I came to your open house, the new
• 44:41
  property, absolutely beautiful.
• 44:43
  Just like unbelievable.
• 44:44
  And I'm walking around so impressed by the
• 44:48
  property and like the information boards, you guys
• 44:51
  have what you're doing, the community piece with
• 44:54
  the parents.
• 44:54
  I'm like, I want to come to a
• 44:56
  dance class.
• 44:57
  I want to come to, I want to
• 45:00
  come to school here is the way I
• 45:01
  walked away from that thinking.
• 45:03
  I want to learn how to build what
• 45:05
  all the different, like the carpentry things and
• 45:07
  just all the stuff you had going on.
• 45:08
  So maybe just kind of talk about the
• 45:11
  school.
• 45:11
  Yeah.
• 45:12
  You know, and it's going to go back
• 45:13
  to our mission as a school, our mission
• 45:15
  statement and within it, I'm not going to
• 45:16
  recite it cause it's quite long.
• 45:18
  Uh, but it really highlights the purpose of
• 45:20
  our school is for the community.
• 45:22
  It's for the family, it's for the students.
• 45:24
  And so it's all, you know, that purpose.
• 45:26
  So what you're talking about there, you know,
• 45:28
  we have things that we're doing with the
• 45:31
  kids, but then we want to educate the
• 45:33
  parents.
• 45:34
  We want to open that same exposure to
• 45:36
  the Western tradition to parents as well.
• 45:40
  And so, yeah, we had, we we've had
• 45:41
  the summer open houses.
• 45:42
  Cause like I mentioned, we're raising money to
• 45:45
  build a school so we can be out
• 45:46
  there full time.
• 45:47
  In the meantime, we're in a rental space
• 45:49
  and we're busting kids back and forth between
• 45:51
  that, uh, the school space and our rental
• 45:53
  space, uh, making it work this year with
• 45:56
  the intention of having a full K through
• 45:58
  eight school out there next year.
• 45:59
  That's, that's our goal.
• 46:01
  Uh, and it's, it's taken a lot of
• 46:02
  people to, to continue forward with making that,
• 46:06
  helping us get that financial piece of things.
• 46:09
  That's important too.
• 46:10
  Right.
• 46:11
  So the school itself.
• 46:12
  Yeah.
• 46:13
  Uh, our new property that you came to
• 46:15
  was a gift, complete gift, and it comes
• 46:20
  with a wonderful story.
• 46:22
  And so every year our kids have a
• 46:26
  showcase in the evening where they showcase what
• 46:28
  they've learned, what they've recited, the beautiful poetry,
• 46:30
  acting out Shakespeare to singing, uh, to chanting,
• 46:34
  Latin, uh, sharing astronomy or insect studies, nature
• 46:38
  studies, just all types of things that the
• 46:40
  kids have learned throughout the year.
• 46:41
  And, and that the theme of that showcase
• 46:42
  that year, uh, was chosen feast of St.
• 46:45
  Joseph, the worker, May 1st.
• 46:47
  Okay.
• 46:48
  And St. Joseph, uh, 33 days before that,
• 46:52
  as a school community, we got materials.
• 46:55
  We had our little school map, a little
• 46:57
  St. Joseph consecration for families that we did
• 47:00
  as a school community.
• 47:02
  And May 1st was consecration day.
• 47:05
  And on that very same day, I had
• 47:06
  a colleague out of Hutchinson come down and
• 47:08
  she's like, Hey, can I see your school?
• 47:09
  I would love to see it.
• 47:10
  Uh, I was like, it's not a great
• 47:12
  day.
• 47:12
  We got all this stuff going on.
• 47:13
  We're building sets and it's, it's show day.
• 47:15
  And so, uh, I was like, I got
• 47:16
  about 40 minutes here in this section of
• 47:19
  time.
• 47:19
  So she comes down, uh, and I take
• 47:21
  her through the school.
• 47:22
  And at the time we were located in
• 47:24
  Coleridge, wonderful community that was opening to us.
• 47:26
  We rented a small house cause we needed
• 47:28
  more space.
• 47:28
  We were growing and she came down and
• 47:31
  just saw everything we were doing.
• 47:32
  It was like, this is awesome.
• 47:33
  Okay.
• 47:34
  But fast forward to the evening, I was
• 47:35
  headed up the stairs to go get the
• 47:37
  kids ready to say it's show time.
• 47:39
  I get a message from her.
• 47:40
  And it's like, Hey, I got the perfect
• 47:42
  property in mind for you.
• 47:44
  And it was the property that we bought.
• 47:45
  It was property that came to us on
• 47:47
  the feast of St. Joseph after doing a
• 47:48
  33 days consecration of St. Joseph.
• 47:51
  And so we have from the, from that
• 47:52
  moment, it's like this property came about because
• 47:55
  of St. Joseph.
• 47:56
  You give me goosebumps because there's nothing more
• 47:59
  true in the world than what you're describing.
• 48:03
  Yeah.
• 48:03
  33 days consecration.
• 48:06
  St. Joseph is the one that would do
• 48:08
  something like that.
• 48:10
  And I mean, this is the truth that
• 48:12
  the world misses.
• 48:13
  They just don't get this.
• 48:15
  So go on and love it.
• 48:17
  And so it took from May 1st to
• 48:19
  September to get an agreement, a purchase agreement
• 48:22
  of that property.
• 48:23
  It took from then September to January 2nd
• 48:26
  to close on that property to secure the
• 48:28
  funds.
• 48:30
  And with every major milestone, it came with
• 48:34
  a, on a day of a day for
• 48:38
  a saint, a saint day, a feast day.
• 48:41
  And one of the donors, I can remember
• 48:43
  walking away.
• 48:43
  We, we asked all the donors, you know,
• 48:45
  what's your patron saint?
• 48:46
  And that donor shared the saint of impossible
• 48:49
  causes.
• 48:49
  Right.
• 48:50
  And so here we were like, this is,
• 48:52
  this is, this is it.
• 48:54
  This is impossible without God, without the intercession
• 48:56
  of these saints.
• 48:57
  And so from that point, uh, closing to
• 49:00
  opening up to our families for the very
• 49:01
  first time of having the building blessed, uh,
• 49:04
  walking the property and having a priest come
• 49:06
  and bless the property, we did a whole
• 49:08
  litany of saints, the very saints that we
• 49:10
  collected from the donors that helped purchase the
• 49:13
  land.
• 49:13
  We collected their, their patron saint.
• 49:15
  And so we prayed and we did a
• 49:17
  whole walking and put Benedictine medals in each
• 49:19
  of the corner of that property.
• 49:20
  And, and this property is devoted to our
• 49:23
  blessed mother through the intercession of St. Joseph
• 49:25
  and to the saints that made it came
• 49:26
  to be about that.
• 49:27
  This isn't any of our doing.
• 49:29
  It's, it's definitely his.
• 49:30
  And so since then, uh, we have had
• 49:33
  ownership for what?
• 49:34
  Maybe six or seven months now.
• 49:36
  And, uh, from when you came, it was
• 49:39
  pretty rough and St. Joseph, the worker is
• 49:41
  also appropriate because it needed a lot of
• 49:43
  work.
• 49:43
  And here we are, we've got a community
• 49:45
  that has designated their time to doing the
• 49:48
  work.
• 49:48
  And so at the same time we had
• 49:50
  that going on, I was working on another
• 49:51
  grant and I'll tell you, Marco English is
• 49:54
  not my best grammar, absolutely not spelling.
• 49:58
  No, you know, I was growing up.
• 50:00
  We didn't have phonics.
• 50:01
  We had whole reading.
• 50:02
  And so that my reading, I had to
• 50:04
  do all the classes growing up of all
• 50:06
  the extra reading.
• 50:07
  And so I cannot stand to write.
• 50:10
  And somehow I keep finding myself in this
• 50:11
  moment of writing these big applications.
• 50:13
  Right.
• 50:14
  So, uh, come last, last fall, I completed
• 50:17
  an application, uh, through an organization here called
• 50:20
  Bella, wonderful organization, uh, offshoot of the Coke
• 50:24
  industry.
• 50:25
  Uh, and so through the Vela organization did
• 50:28
  a multi-step, uh, a grant.
• 50:30
  With the intention of growing our common, what
• 50:33
  we call our common arts department, uh, which
• 50:35
  is the works of our hands in addition
• 50:36
  to the liberal arts, which is the shaping
• 50:38
  the intellect and then the fine arts shaping
• 50:40
  the soul.
• 50:41
  Right.
• 50:41
  All three of them, how they form the
• 50:43
  whole human person.
• 50:45
  And so wrote this grants and it was,
• 50:47
  it was lengthy.
• 50:49
  A anyways, we, we received word at the
• 50:51
  beginning of the year that we were awarded
• 50:52
  a hundred thousand dollar grant, uh, that then
• 50:55
  we are right now, tomorrow pouring concrete.
• 50:58
  Uh, we are as dads coming and building
• 51:00
  this greenhouse.
• 51:01
  This is community.
• 51:02
  This is, we are, we are coming together,
• 51:04
  uh, bringing our young boys to be a
• 51:06
  part of it.
• 51:07
  Uh, and we are erecting this greenhouse, uh,
• 51:10
  for, for the school kids that we are
• 51:12
  going to grow things year round.
• 51:13
  We are going to teach them, uh, the
• 51:15
  love of work, uh, the exposure to what
• 51:19
  is good, true and beautiful.
• 51:20
  And so in addition to the greenhouse, we,
• 51:22
  we've got animal livestock on campus that the
• 51:24
  kids are taking care of.
• 51:25
  They learn to cook.
• 51:26
  So preserve, uh, in addition to reading good
• 51:29
  literature, you know, one of the books they
• 51:31
  were reading last year, the main character was
• 51:33
  a high tanner.
• 51:33
  Well, what better way to read about this?
• 51:36
  And imaginative literature and then have a, one
• 51:38
  of the eighth grade boys bringing a deer
• 51:39
  hide that he shot and killed, and we're
• 51:41
  scraping that deer hide and we're tanning it,
• 51:42
  and then we're turning that deer hide into
• 51:44
  leather projects that we're learning to.
• 51:46
  Right.
• 51:47
  So the connection of the common arts to
• 51:49
  the liberal arts, some of it is rope
• 51:51
  minimization.
• 51:51
  We talked about that.
• 51:52
  Uh, and there's a purpose in place and
• 51:54
  time for that, but it can't all just
• 51:56
  be that.
• 51:57
  So you use the work of the hands
• 51:58
  like carpentry to teach math and geometry.
• 52:00
  Oh, yes.
• 52:01
  That's that application.
• 52:03
  Now, is it always like all planned out
• 52:05
  that way?
• 52:05
  No, it's so much open, especially in our
• 52:07
  foundation of the workings of the Holy Spirit.
• 52:09
  These are things of the Holy Spirit, but
• 52:11
  you know, we have our own beehives.
• 52:12
  Okay.
• 52:13
  A perfect shape, a circle, but the beehives
• 52:16
  with their shape of the hexagons there to
• 52:19
  the creation of the honey, that we harvest
• 52:21
  the honey, we sell the honey.
• 52:22
  We take the wax, we make lip balm.
• 52:24
  Uh, we, we learn to care for God's
• 52:26
  creation.
• 52:27
  And then how does that serve our community?
• 52:29
  And so the, the real life application, does
• 52:32
  it come as, as, uh, easy as that?
• 52:36
  No, uh, but it is so open to
• 52:38
  the Holy Spirit to work within us, to
• 52:39
  see that real life application.
• 52:40
  But sometimes you don't point it out, but
• 52:42
  you lead it out of the children.
• 52:43
  You let them discover it.
• 52:45
  You don't just race to the point and
• 52:46
  tell them this is the answer.
• 52:47
  You let's let them find the answer and
• 52:49
  guide as adults, guide them to that.
• 52:51
  Because sometimes we know with our, with some
• 52:53
  of our children, I can think of one
• 52:54
  of mine that if I just tell him
• 52:55
  that he's going to do the exact opposite.
• 52:56
  Right.
• 52:57
  Yeah.
• 52:57
  And so if you lead it out of
• 52:58
  them to lead out a child, uh, you
• 53:01
  know, wonder, uh, Aristotle said this wonder, uh,
• 53:06
  leads to wisdom, right?
• 53:07
  Begin in wonder.
• 53:09
  So with our children, the things we do
• 53:11
  want them to wonder, and then wisdom leads
• 53:14
  to that contemplation.
• 53:15
  And so that is the basis of our
• 53:18
  school in the, in the school community.
• 53:19
  So it takes a team to do it.
• 53:21
  We have wonderful people that have made it
• 53:23
  possible and everyone, every one of them has
• 53:26
  their own story of how God got them
• 53:27
  involved into this.
• 53:29
  And the reason being, because the Lord wants
• 53:32
  to see something happen through the artworks to
• 53:35
  have an impact on the other schools around
• 53:38
  of teaching the truths that we can discover
• 53:42
  and for education as a whole, right?
• 53:46
  Yeah.
• 53:48
  Man, right now I'm like trying to, um,
• 53:50
  advise kids on college and majors.
• 53:54
  And I think in terms like what you're
• 53:57
  talking about is excites me so much as
• 54:00
  an intellectual man who likes to learn, was
• 54:04
  good at school, was, you know, went to
• 54:06
  engineering school, uh, went to business school, but
• 54:10
  always was left empty with all of that
• 54:13
  because it was just, you're learning from a
• 54:15
  book with the idea of getting your fingers
• 54:18
  into it and, and, and discovering where you
• 54:21
  want to go with it is so appealing
• 54:23
  to me.
• 54:23
  And so when I, like my girls are
• 54:25
  trying to figure out what they're going to
• 54:26
  major in in college and I'm like, college
• 54:29
  just teaches you how to be an employee.
• 54:30
  Like there's an entrepreneurial aspect to it as
• 54:33
  well.
• 54:33
  That imagining, wondering, creating.
• 54:37
  Um, you know, I come from a family
• 54:38
  of entrepreneurs.
• 54:40
  Um, my family that came here from Mexico,
• 54:42
  they were upholsterers.
• 54:43
  So my grandpa had a big upholstering business
• 54:45
  and always did well.
• 54:47
  And his sons learned that trade from him.
• 54:49
  And I always wanted to be a, an
• 54:51
  entrepreneur.
• 54:53
  Didn't know how to do it.
• 54:54
  I always had one friend that was saying,
• 54:56
  what can you do?
• 54:56
  You know, you're smart enough to do something.
• 54:58
  You need to do something.
• 54:59
  And I was so locked in the structure
• 55:01
  of go to college, get the job, go
• 55:05
  work for the company that I was like,
• 55:08
  I can't do anything.
• 55:09
  It's too big.
• 55:10
  You know, so I just love the seeds
• 55:13
  that you're planting, making young, making boys into
• 55:18
  good, virtuous young men and honoring the work
• 55:21
  of their hands.
• 55:22
  It's so important.
• 55:23
  I just love that.
• 55:24
  And you know, you point that out.
• 55:26
  I have five sons.
• 55:27
  And so this becomes so important to me
• 55:30
  with, with the young men that we have.
• 55:31
  I get a lot of parents that come
• 55:33
  a majority of them with boys and they
• 55:36
  see how good this can be for their
• 55:38
  son.
• 55:38
  Now, as I tell them, there is a
• 55:40
  time to teach them.
• 55:41
  Yes, we have to sit, we have to
• 55:42
  be attentive.
• 55:42
  We have to sit behind a desk.
• 55:43
  We have to learn to take notes.
• 55:44
  These are good habits and skills that are
• 55:46
  also taught.
• 55:47
  However, there's also time to run, to climb
• 55:50
  a tree, to sharpen a stick.
• 55:52
  Right.
• 55:52
  Uh, and so for young boys, they need
• 55:57
  that balance, proper balance.
• 56:00
  Right.
• 56:00
  Uh, they, they have that extra energy.
• 56:03
  So let's harness that for good, right?
• 56:05
  Let's not just retain them to a desk
• 56:07
  and then send them to the principal's office
• 56:09
  when they can't sit there because that's against
• 56:11
  their human nature.
• 56:12
  Right.
• 56:13
  And so we can create a model that
• 56:15
  is a balance of that.
• 56:17
  Then we are shaping their hearts, their heads,
• 56:20
  their minds.
• 56:21
  And that is, that's a comment by, um,
• 56:23
  Christopher Hall who came up with the common
• 56:25
  arts idea.
• 56:27
  That then what are those young men going
• 56:29
  on to become successful fathers?
• 56:31
  And there's, there's a, there's a booklet that
• 56:33
  really changed my own fatherhood, my own instruction
• 56:36
  of young boys.
• 56:37
  It was, it's called, uh, successful fathers by
• 56:40
  James Stinson, I believe.
• 56:42
  And it's about the role of the father
• 56:44
  and generational curses of wounds of the father.
• 56:48
  And so I look at my role as
• 56:52
  being father to my sons.
• 56:54
  And what do I want that to be?
• 56:56
  Because whatever wounds I give them, they're going
• 56:59
  to move on to give their children and
• 57:01
  it's going to be generational.
• 57:02
  So what spiritual bonds can I break there?
• 57:07
  Uh, so my children go on to be
• 57:09
  successful fathers or successful in their vocation.
• 57:13
  And this is something that all of our
• 57:15
  young men need.
• 57:16
  They need good role models.
• 57:17
  And I have, uh, two stellar, uh, male
• 57:21
  teachers that are that model in education.
• 57:25
  And it's not often that you see them
• 57:27
  in the lower grades and it's so important
• 57:28
  to have them in the lower grades, uh,
• 57:31
  because it is recognizing how God created male
• 57:33
  and female different, right?
• 57:34
  And the beauty of the, the, uh, feminine
• 57:39
  genius, the beauty of the masculine genius, right,
• 57:42
  there's a place for both.
• 57:43
  And it is instructing them in creation of
• 57:47
  what that looks like.
• 57:48
  Right.
• 57:49
  And so setting up with great, uh, working
• 57:54
  with great families, one, uh, great models of
• 57:57
  the faith, great models of St. Joseph and
• 58:00
  Mary to then imitating that within the school
• 58:02
  day, and then building on that with the
• 58:05
  nature of the child of how God's created
• 58:07
  them.
• 58:08
  Uh, and I worked with this on my
• 58:10
  staff, like this year, that was something I
• 58:11
  worked heavy on was the nature of the
• 58:13
  human child, because if we can understand a
• 58:15
  philosophical lens, not anything like, Whoa, way up
• 58:18
  there, but really a very natural lens of
• 58:20
  a child.
• 58:21
  Uh, and we see them being jittery.
• 58:23
  We don't just keep them at the desk.
• 58:24
  We need to get them moving, right?
• 58:25
  We need to give them something.
• 58:27
  Uh, because if then they, they're not going
• 58:30
  to focus and they're not going to take
• 58:31
  anything from you.
• 58:31
  If you don't have the relationship with the
• 58:33
  child, they're not going to receive anything from
• 58:35
  you.
• 58:35
  So that relationship, that understanding of them helps
• 58:39
  them blossom, especially as young men, you know,
• 58:40
  they need that, they need to be encouraged
• 58:42
  to do something.
• 58:44
  And to think big, you know, what impressed
• 58:46
  upon me when I was growing up was
• 58:48
  the great adventure stories.
• 58:49
  King Arthur and the round table, Swiss family,
• 58:52
  Robinson, Robinson, Caruso, uh, Lord of the Rings,
• 58:56
  the Hobbit, Louis L'amour, insert the name
• 58:59
  of great adventures, quests, doing hard teaching honor,
• 59:04
  you know, Louis L'amour books taught me
• 59:06
  more about right, wrong, justice, and being an
• 59:09
  honorable man than anything I learned in school.
• 59:12
  And it was at a time in my
• 59:14
  life when I had a dad that was
• 59:17
  impressing upon me all the great values and
• 59:20
  characteristics to be a man I had, unbeknownst
• 59:23
  to him, these books that were impressing the
• 59:27
  same characteristics upon me, and I didn't know
• 59:30
  it at the time.
• 59:31
  I just thought these were just stories.
• 59:33
  You know, you read the odyssey or you
• 59:35
  read some of these King Arthur and the
• 59:37
  round table.
• 59:38
  And, and, you know, I, I didn't know
• 59:40
  that, you know, some of this was very
• 59:42
  sinful, it was just bad.
• 59:44
  And, you know, but there's meaning in all
• 59:46
  of that.
• 59:47
  And those are the very books in which
• 59:49
  we utilize in the classroom.
• 59:50
  And if there's one piece of advice that
• 59:53
  I give and I give every year to
• 59:55
  our young families, our young dads is read
• 59:59
  to your child every night and read them
• 1:00:01
  a book that's on the good book list.
• 1:00:04
  John senior was professor at KU for a
• 1:00:06
  long time.
• 1:00:07
  He started the integrated humanities program.
• 1:00:09
  They're huge influence on my own understanding of
• 1:00:11
  classical education.
• 1:00:12
  And he had compiled this great books, a
• 1:00:15
  thousand great books.
• 1:00:16
  And so you, for you as the father
• 1:00:18
  to choose one of those books of adventure,
• 1:00:20
  like you say, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Oh,
• 1:00:24
  it's amazing.
• 1:00:24
  It gets the, it gets the imagination.
• 1:00:27
  And then, like you said, it teaches them
• 1:00:29
  character.
• 1:00:31
  I mean, virtue formation right there of right
• 1:00:33
  and wrong.
• 1:00:34
  And this is something kids, kids can lack,
• 1:00:36
  right?
• 1:00:37
  They don't have a concept of right and
• 1:00:38
  wrong because they haven't been taught right from
• 1:00:39
  wrong.
• 1:00:40
  And so with that, um, that's one, my
• 1:00:43
  biggest pieces of advice is for dad.
• 1:00:45
  It's great for mom to read.
• 1:00:47
  Yes.
• 1:00:48
  I prefer the father to read to their
• 1:00:49
  children at night and the kids will remember
• 1:00:52
  it forever.
• 1:00:53
  Right.
• 1:00:55
  And enunciate words and give life to the
• 1:00:58
  words on the page and, and, and be
• 1:01:00
  emotional about it.
• 1:01:01
  Yes.
• 1:01:02
  And the kids see that you can just
• 1:01:04
  see their eyes.
• 1:01:05
  They're just, they're excited.
• 1:01:06
  And then they're sad.
• 1:01:07
  And then what's going to happen less next
• 1:01:10
  dad.
• 1:01:10
  What?
• 1:01:11
  Yep.
• 1:01:12
  Yep.
• 1:01:12
  That's living.
• 1:01:13
  I recall reading a little house in the
• 1:01:15
  Prairie series to my children.
• 1:01:16
  This had been probably five or six years
• 1:01:18
  ago when we were reading that series and
• 1:01:19
  just everything that came out of that, the
• 1:01:22
  next thing, you know, they're out there playing
• 1:01:24
  in the yard, little house on the Prairie.
• 1:01:25
  They were all dressed up.
• 1:01:26
  That's mom.
• 1:01:26
  That's Paul.
• 1:01:27
  And they were having the best time of
• 1:01:29
  their life, you know?
• 1:01:32
  And, uh, it's those moments that I like,
• 1:01:34
  this is, this is worth it.
• 1:01:35
  It's worth it.
• 1:01:35
  It's hard.
• 1:01:36
  You know, as, as fathers that, you know,
• 1:01:38
  sometimes we get home from work and we
• 1:01:39
  are dead beat tired.
• 1:01:40
  We don't got it, got it in us.
• 1:01:42
  Right.
• 1:01:42
  Or it's hard because we've got littles that
• 1:01:44
  are running around and sitting on people, all
• 1:01:46
  the things.
• 1:01:47
  Uh, and mom needs a break.
• 1:01:48
  Yeah.
• 1:01:49
  And the sane of the household.
• 1:01:51
  Absolutely.
• 1:01:51
  Right.
• 1:01:52
  Of this is a role.
• 1:01:54
  I got to step up.
• 1:01:55
  I'm going to read.
• 1:01:56
  Mom's going to do, go, go, go find
• 1:01:58
  a moment by herself or sometimes, sometimes it's
• 1:02:00
  just, uh, doing something on our own for
• 1:02:02
  that moment in time, that 30 minutes, right,
• 1:02:04
  right before bedtime.
• 1:02:06
  And then the kids are engaged and they
• 1:02:07
  love it because dad's reading to them and
• 1:02:10
  becomes the routine.
• 1:02:10
  So when dad doesn't read to them, they
• 1:02:12
  remind me, right.
• 1:02:13
  They remind me.
• 1:02:15
  Um, but it can be hard.
• 1:02:16
  And I'm, I'm guilty of that, of missing
• 1:02:17
  those moments of, oh, it's been a little
• 1:02:19
  while since we read something.
• 1:02:20
  Ooh, summer gets busy.
• 1:02:21
  Our nights are different, you know, all the
• 1:02:22
  excuses, all the attacks of outside world, uh,
• 1:02:25
  from all the different activities that could pull
• 1:02:28
  us apart as the family.
• 1:02:29
  And this is where I'm also very intentional
• 1:02:32
  within my own family is, you know, the
• 1:02:34
  world's taken an attack on the family.
• 1:02:37
  How does it do that?
• 1:02:38
  Well, we need all these different sporting events
• 1:02:40
  and there's nothing wrong with sports by any
• 1:02:42
  means.
• 1:02:42
  But when I'm running here and I'm running
• 1:02:44
  there, I'm running there.
• 1:02:45
  Suddenly we don't have family dinner time.
• 1:02:46
  We're not sitting around the table.
• 1:02:48
  You can't go to mass hearing poetry being
• 1:02:50
  read to them.
• 1:02:51
  They're not hearing stories being shared, right?
• 1:02:54
  There is an attack on the family and
• 1:02:55
  we've got to, as JP two said, uh,
• 1:02:58
  hence the family goes, so does the world.
• 1:03:00
  So the role of the family, we got
• 1:03:02
  to recapture what is that role?
• 1:03:04
  And we got to reestablish it.
• 1:03:05
  It's not to raise division one athletes.
• 1:03:08
  You know how many families think because my
• 1:03:10
  kid plays organized this sport that they're going
• 1:03:12
  to go get a scholarship and they, it's
• 1:03:16
  just not going to happen.
• 1:03:17
  Yeah.
• 1:03:17
  And it's hard telling my kids.
• 1:03:18
  Yeah, we're not playing ball this summer because
• 1:03:20
  that's a lot of gas.
• 1:03:21
  That's a lot of running.
• 1:03:22
  That's right.
• 1:03:22
  It's hard.
• 1:03:23
  But also I've got seven kids, so they're
• 1:03:25
  playing ball, they're playing ball in the backyard.
• 1:03:27
  And it's, that's the childhood I grew up
• 1:03:29
  with was neighborhood ball.
• 1:03:30
  Right.
• 1:03:30
  And that's something I still think about that
• 1:03:32
  we don't have anymore.
• 1:03:33
  Well, I thought that was interesting when he,
• 1:03:34
  when he interviewed your, your dad, he said
• 1:03:36
  he had, didn't even touch a basketball until
• 1:03:38
  his junior year in high school and a
• 1:03:40
  lot of the old.
• 1:03:41
  Back in the day.
• 1:03:42
  Great players.
• 1:03:43
  A lot of times would never come in
• 1:03:44
  contact with organized sports until much later on.
• 1:03:48
  Their parents didn't even watch them play in
• 1:03:49
  the games, let alone go to practice.
• 1:03:51
  It's common for a parent to go to
• 1:03:54
  a practice and critique the practice and to
• 1:03:57
  watch the practice.
• 1:03:58
  I mean, the kids can't go anywhere anymore
• 1:04:00
  at these sporting events.
• 1:04:02
  We had a no sports in summer rule
• 1:04:04
  and I'm a sports family.
• 1:04:06
  I went to college on a basketball scholarship.
• 1:04:09
  All my brothers and sisters, my dad did.
• 1:04:11
  And I wanted to go to the pool.
• 1:04:13
  I'm a pool rat.
• 1:04:14
  I wanted to take my kids and have
• 1:04:17
  recreational time.
• 1:04:19
  Do you want to go to weights and
• 1:04:21
  conditioning?
• 1:04:21
  You can do that, but we're not on
• 1:04:23
  a traveling team to do boo, because I
• 1:04:26
  knew the infinitesimal probability of playing sports in
• 1:04:31
  college.
• 1:04:32
  And it takes a special kid that you
• 1:04:35
  never have to ask.
• 1:04:36
  Did you do your workout today?
• 1:04:38
  Because if you have to ask that to
• 1:04:40
  a kid, he isn't going to be in
• 1:04:41
  it.
• 1:04:41
  He isn't going to play that sport.
• 1:04:43
  Just like, Hey, did you do your homework?
• 1:04:46
  There's kids that you don't have to ask
• 1:04:48
  and there's kids you do.
• 1:04:49
  And that intrinsic motivation are the ones that
• 1:04:51
  are going to be successful on their own.
• 1:04:54
  Yeah, there's a, definitely a balance there because
• 1:04:58
  we spent a lot of time with father
• 1:05:00
  Lawrence Carney.
• 1:05:02
  And, uh, uh, he goes around preaching about
• 1:05:04
  the holy face of Jesus, but he's also
• 1:05:07
  the priest that walks the streets of Wichita.
• 1:05:10
  And when you think back to Jesus Christ
• 1:05:13
  himself, he was a carpenter and he was
• 1:05:15
  a walking missionary.
• 1:05:16
  He walked everywhere.
• 1:05:17
  So again, it gets back to this masculine
• 1:05:20
  model of any man can relate to a
• 1:05:24
  lot of your most difficult problems or your,
• 1:05:26
  your aha solutions, so much of your greatest
• 1:05:29
  thinking comes about when you're walking, you're on
• 1:05:32
  a walk or you're working on something and
• 1:05:35
  you get an inspiration.
• 1:05:36
  So the value of moving and thinking, um,
• 1:05:42
  coming together so important for men.
• 1:05:44
  So, yeah, I love that.
• 1:05:46
  Yeah.
• 1:05:47
  If anybody gets an opportunity that's watching this,
• 1:05:49
  that wants to have a better understanding of
• 1:05:51
  the holy face devotion, we have other podcasts
• 1:05:53
  devoted to that.
• 1:05:54
  And we had, uh, father Bernie Georges that
• 1:05:58
  was here and I was in his congregation
• 1:06:00
  was, and he wasn't very aware of that
• 1:06:02
  devotion and the second Saturday of every month,
• 1:06:06
  there is a pilgrimage from Seneca park to
• 1:06:09
  Napsker park with, uh, a replica of Veronica's
• 1:06:13
  veil and a candle.
• 1:06:14
  And we pray in Latin and you know,
• 1:06:16
  all those Western Sedgwick County families, the salt
• 1:06:20
  of the earth families, this, this is their
• 1:06:22
  thing.
• 1:06:22
  I just wish more people would know about
• 1:06:25
  this and it's beautiful.
• 1:06:27
  And the small group that attends really gets
• 1:06:30
  a lot out of it.
• 1:06:31
  And we, we love it.
• 1:06:32
  I love it because I'm like, we're out
• 1:06:34
  here doing work.
• 1:06:36
  Together with other men and other families, we're
• 1:06:38
  carrying this veil that's been touched the actual
• 1:06:41
  veil, um, in the Vatican.
• 1:06:43
  And then when you reflect on, you've got
• 1:06:45
  all these dads coming to pour concrete and
• 1:06:47
  build a greenhouse.
• 1:06:48
  I'm like, I want to do that.
• 1:06:51
  I want to do that.
• 1:06:52
  I want to get together with men and
• 1:06:54
  pray and work for a common goal.
• 1:06:57
  And we have such a, just a great,
• 1:07:01
  it doesn't feel like work because you're surrounded
• 1:07:03
  by people you enjoy being around and they're
• 1:07:06
  people who are building you up rather than
• 1:07:08
  tearing you down.
• 1:07:09
  Right.
• 1:07:10
  Actually, father Carney, he came out to the
• 1:07:11
  school year one to give his devotion story
• 1:07:14
  to the school kids.
• 1:07:16
  And just that exposure to them.
• 1:07:18
  I mean, I think again, helped help set
• 1:07:21
  us on this trajectory to where we've gotten
• 1:07:23
  to today and integrating the Latin, you know,
• 1:07:27
  our kids learn Latin and then integrating it
• 1:07:30
  into our morning prayer time with, with prime
• 1:07:32
  to the Benedictine order, you know, just, uh,
• 1:07:34
  there's so much there in those devotions and
• 1:07:37
  the devotional Holy face of how it's to
• 1:07:39
  lead us closer to Christ on a very
• 1:07:41
  real, easy, not, not easy.
• 1:07:43
  I would say that not easy, but on
• 1:07:45
  a real, very real way, this is obtainable
• 1:07:46
  for those that aren't like, I'm not theologian,
• 1:07:50
  right?
• 1:07:50
  I'm a convert, uh, and it's way ahead
• 1:07:53
  of me or above me, but on a
• 1:07:54
  very real basis for the common man to
• 1:07:56
  be able to just join in communion with
• 1:07:58
  other men.
• 1:07:59
  And we're going to pray this and you'll
• 1:08:01
  start to see that the, the roots take,
• 1:08:03
  take effect in your life.
• 1:08:05
  Yeah.
• 1:08:05
  I love what he says.
• 1:08:06
  Devotion makes your heart grow more tender towards
• 1:08:09
  what you're devoted to.
• 1:08:11
  And I've experienced that in the 33 days
• 1:08:14
  to the Immaculate heart of Mary and the
• 1:08:17
  Holy face to St. Joseph consecration, all of
• 1:08:20
  those things just make your heart grow more
• 1:08:22
  tender.
• 1:08:23
  They make you and beyond that, when your
• 1:08:25
  heart grows more tender, you contemplate more and
• 1:08:28
  you take on the characteristics of what you're
• 1:08:30
  devoted to, all of a sudden you start
• 1:08:32
  to think in terms of those devotions, which
• 1:08:35
  kind of transforms you into an image of
• 1:08:38
  what you're devoted to is what I have
• 1:08:40
  found.
• 1:08:41
  So it's, it's beautiful.
• 1:08:43
  Well, I think that's good.
• 1:08:45
  Unless you have anything else you want to
• 1:08:47
  get out there that I'm missing.
• 1:08:49
  Oh, goodness.
• 1:08:50
  Is there any place that is anybody that
• 1:08:52
  has any interest at all in funding or
• 1:08:55
  supporting?
• 1:08:55
  Oh, JP too.
• 1:08:57
  We'll definitely drop links.
• 1:08:59
  Yeah.
• 1:09:00
  We have our website, we have a website
• 1:09:01
  and we have a whole page on, on
• 1:09:03
  what we're doing, uh, on a property level
• 1:09:06
  wise and the bigger vision of the liberal
• 1:09:08
  arts and the fine arts and the common
• 1:09:10
  arts.
• 1:09:11
  And, you know, I'm after, you know, I
• 1:09:14
  mentioned we have livestock and I'm wanting to
• 1:09:15
  grow that our greenhouse.
• 1:09:17
  I want to put an orchard in, uh,
• 1:09:18
  this draws community together to pick their own
• 1:09:20
  fruit, right?
• 1:09:21
  Uh, we do meet chickens and the kids
• 1:09:23
  learn how to butcher chickens.
• 1:09:24
  And I want it to be community wise.
• 1:09:26
  So there are a lot of things that,
• 1:09:28
  uh, we're not there yet, but, uh, getting
• 1:09:30
  out there, building a school is what right
• 1:09:32
  now our priority is that those funds, those
• 1:09:35
  funds that we're looking to raise.
• 1:09:36
  And so, um, on our website, yeah, you
• 1:09:38
  can find about all about, you know, the,
• 1:09:40
  from the curriculum that we utilize, uh, and
• 1:09:43
  the partnership that we have with the ICLE,
• 1:09:45
  the Institute of Catholic liberal education, uh, all
• 1:09:48
  defines what we're doing, why we're doing it.
• 1:09:50
  And we're always looking for new community sponsors
• 1:09:53
  that, you know, you want to see change
• 1:09:55
  happen, uh, and here's an opportunity for you
• 1:09:57
  to get involved in that change.
• 1:09:59
  Right.
• 1:09:59
  And so I invite you to join us
• 1:10:01
  in that, uh, that we're still in that
• 1:10:03
  capital campaign of ours of raising those funds,
• 1:10:06
  uh, getting those donors to, to continue to
• 1:10:09
  bless the community, but to continue to be
• 1:10:10
  open to the Lord, working through each one
• 1:10:12
  of us.
• 1:10:13
  Uh, because it's part of the story, our,
• 1:10:15
  our own story.
• 1:10:15
  And someday when I look back and say,
• 1:10:18
  you know, I was a part of that,
• 1:10:19
  the Lord chose me to be a part
• 1:10:21
  of that, how humbling that is.
• 1:10:22
  Right.
• 1:10:23
  Um, so that's on our website.
• 1:10:25
  I'd love to share, yeah, share it with
• 1:10:27
  you guys and put it in the comments.
• 1:10:29
  And, and thank you again for, for inviting
• 1:10:31
  me to be on, uh, just, it's just
• 1:10:33
  speak about this match, masculine heart, this, these
• 1:10:36
  ways in which we can devote our lives,
• 1:10:38
  our families to our Lord through the intercession
• 1:10:40
  of our blessed mother, St. Joseph, the devotion
• 1:10:43
  of the Holy face that we continue to,
• 1:10:45
  um, ask the Lord to work through each
• 1:10:47
  one of us in the vocations that he's
• 1:10:48
  given us.
• 1:10:50
  Bravo.
• 1:10:51
  Godspeed.
• 1:10:52
  I'm so excited about this.
• 1:10:53
  So excited about will.
• 1:10:55
  I just hope that, uh, anything we can
• 1:10:56
  do to help you keep doing it.
• 1:10:59
  That's great.
• 1:11:00
  That's great.
• 1:11:20
  Yeah.