Latest / Claymore: Become Who You Are / #674 The Plan Of Life; To Love as God Loves...Plus Sergeant Columban Meets Padre Pio

Transcript

#674 The Plan Of Life; To Love as God Loves...Plus Sergeant Columban Meets Padre Pio · Claymore: Become Who You Are

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Happy Friday.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: This is our weekly Friday edition where we share the Claymore battle plan for young men, and I like to say the people that love them and also some older men, huh, that are still young at heart.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Today we're at Act 7.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: This is really a great uh act, the plan of life and Christian vocation to love as God loves.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to tell the story of Sergeant Columban, a true story from my father, World War II vet, who knew Sergeant Columban, and when he speaks about where he meets Padre Pio.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: So I'll talk a little bit about that.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: The scripture reading for today, Mark 10, verse 21, Jesus looked at him and loved him.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be telling the story of a rich young man.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to Claymore, I'll just tell you real quick, the Claymore Battle Plan, it's a three-step battle plan for restoring the human heart, human dignity, and then marriage in the family, understanding what that is and the importance of that, and then going out and restoring the nation.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: It's really fighting the evils of our time and the spiritual warfare that we're in through the power of truth and love.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So Claymore Battle Plan is a handbook for young men in spiritual warfare inspired by the life and teachings of John Paul II.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I am finishing this handbook, I'm actually editing the last couple chapters, because of the suggestions that I had from the young men that we're working with.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Instead of writing a regular chapter book, we call them acts, each one, because they're very short.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: And there's 52 of them, one for each week of the year, and we share this with one another.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, when we get it all put together, it it's uh it's a comprehensive way to live your life, to find uh love and the truth and to speak the truth in love and to fight these spiritual battles.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And um just to let you know, uh it'll be published, I don't know exactly when, but I'll keep you updated on that.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: It'll probably still be some some months out.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: But this is Act 7.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: And the the good news is I published the prior acts on my Substack and on X.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So I'll put those in the show notes.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to find those and catch up with us if you want to, always supported by this Friday podcast.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: So tune in every Friday on any podcast or music app.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: If you want to watch this, um you can go to YouTube, our YouTube channel.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: And again, uh, you know, subscribe, hit like.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: The YouTube channel, um I got away from for a while, especially during COVID, because they were they were uh censoring too much stuff.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: But it seems with uh with the with Donald Trump administration in they're allowing us to to really put up what we want.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: So we're putting a lot of things up there now, but we need to build up that channel.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: So if you go to YouTube, hit subscribe, uh, hit the like button so we start to share this and build up that channel.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and also uh check out the other podcasts.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: I usually put at least one up every Tuesday.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And in and again, the content I have you in mind, so the content should support all the other work that we're doing.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: All right, let me dive in here.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: I'll do it just a little intro.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: It's very important to for me and for all of us to look back on our lives, two important things.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: The first one is a young man, I left home early, and I and I and I would I want you to to really take time to think about this.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: What is in a in a in a man's heart, what is in any human being's heart is to know the truth.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, how should I live?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: What's the best way to live?
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Who who am I, first of all, and and what's the meaning and purpose of my life?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: How best should I live?
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I knew that.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I was driven from that as a young man, leaving home the very day I got out of high school.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Confusing time then.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Vietnam War was going on.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Um I had friends coming back, and you've heard me tell these stories already, so I won't spend a lot of time on that.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, but some of the my older relatives and friends who were actually fought in Vietnam, by the time I got uh of of age of the draft, uh the war was over.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: But uh but I have a lot of friends that went through that war and were really damaged by um by that, what they saw, etc.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Also, the sexual revolution was coming by, a twisting and distorting on the on the human heart, and I've covered this again in the past too.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're living through even some more confusing times, and that's why the importance of the Claymore battle plan to get our hearts together to understand the meaning and purpose of our life, why would we create it male and female?
4:45
SPEAKER_00: How do I find love uh that satisfies forever?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Happiness in this life here.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: So God has a plan for us, and that's what we're unfolding here.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth?
4:57
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth of things?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're trying to get behind.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is these deep desires to love and be love.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: And I remember this as I was traveling, and I spent a lot of time exploring new cities, different places.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And always when I would came to a new city, I was always looking for that one person that could be a friend, you know, that I get to know that would know me.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: We were not made to journey alone.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: So those two things.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth?
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And this, what is this relationship thing about?
5:28
SPEAKER_00: But, but, but, but when I left home, I had plenty of friends.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: And I also had a this uh a beautiful girlfriend.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she was just gorgeous, touched my heart.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Yet I needed to put something needed to come first before those real other relationships, and I didn't know what it was.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: How should I live?
5:46
SPEAKER_00: So I left home, I left those friends behind me, I left this girlfriend behind me, thinking, you know, I'm gonna come back, which I ultimately did.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: But I had to search for the truth.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: So what was that first?
5:56
SPEAKER_00: But they're linked, this desire for the truth and also desire to love and be loved.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is in our design, this is in our very, very uh DNA.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: It's important not to forget that.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I I maybe I'll bring up one other thing.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I have these beautiful uh friends of mine who are the saints and the mystics that I talk to all the time.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: One of them, and I have a holy crush on her, and she knows this, my beautiful sister in Christ, uh Saint Catherine of Siena.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Saint Catherine Siena was a mystic and this this just this power.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: And uh the reason I bring her up is she would talk about three things that were important as we're going about the search: memory, understanding, which is reason, and also our our free will, created so she talked about freedom a lot.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Memory.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is that memory again.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: I always want to remember back, and I think it's important to even journal this, is this desire for the truth.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Because when I met John Paul II, when I came deeply back into my faith, it was it was a long journey.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: And I want to, I never want to forget that I was driven by that, driven by what is the truth.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: When I finally found the truth, Jesus Christ, I'll I'll uh I'll let you know right away, because when you're wondering what is the truth, the truth is not a something, the truth is a somebody, and his name is Jesus Christ.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: But but I want to remember that this is in our hearts already to seek him, to seek the truth, to understand what life is all about.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: And then you're using your uh understanding, number two from St.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Catherine to Sienna, memory being first.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to go out and use my understanding, which is reason, your reason.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And what does your reason do?
7:41
SPEAKER_00: We're all, you know, what makes us different than all the animals is we have reason, intellect, and free will.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason is always seeking the truth.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: It's in us already.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: What is the truth of things?
7:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're unpacking uh here today, and with the Claymore battle plan.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And finally, it's free will.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: You're free to decide.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: John Paul uh II would say that once you understand who you are and your meaning and purpose in life, now the battle really begins on the battle of the human heart between love and lust, between being a self-giving person and someone that grasps and takes.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: That's the battle.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: And so your will, when properly understood, is like a motor, John Paul would say, to choose the good, to choose the good.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: So we have we have this battle, the spiritual battle you see all around us, between good and evil, and again, between lust and selfishness, and becoming a self-giving person.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And this is the battle of the human heart.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And we've unpacked much of that already in the earlier acts.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to move forward here today.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: But those are just things to keep in mind as we're going through this act seven, the plan of life and the Christian vocation.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And what is that?
8:53
SPEAKER_00: To love is God loves.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: This is the core, this is the meaning and purpose of our life.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: And so let me go on with this.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read from this act.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Again, you can get this act uh today to read yourself, and you should just go to my Substack and go to X, and I post these on there, and this is coming right from that handbook again.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: So we're, you know, we have a plan here.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: All right.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: So let's start this way.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the ultimate meaning and purpose of your life, to love as God loves.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're made for love, whether it's through the vocation of marriage or a religious person, like a priest, a sister, a monk, or a consecrated celibate.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: So following Jesus' teaching on the sanctity of marriage in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, so we've talked about those things.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: So the next, very next uh parable or chapter comes a poignant encounter that unfolds.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And it's between a rich young man who approaches Jesus asking, Teacher, what deed must I do to have eternal life?
9:59
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds like this.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: He said, Why do you ask me about the good?
10:03
SPEAKER_00: There is only one who is good.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about God.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: There's only one that is really good.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: If you wish to enter into life, he said, keep the commandments.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: The young man inquires, which ones?
10:16
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus replies, Well, you know the commandments.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear a false witness.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and mother.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Also you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: And the young man responds to Jesus.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: He says, I have kept all of these for my youth.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: What do I still lack?
10:36
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're getting at today.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: What do I still lack?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm searching for what?
10:40
SPEAKER_00: The truth.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: The young man, despite thinking that he's kept all the commandments, trying to be good, right?
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Continues to desire something more.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: It's in our hearts.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked upon him and loved him.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, Jesus looked upon and he looks upon you and me, and he loves us.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And he says to hit this young man, but he says to us, You lack one thing.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Go and sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: And then come follow me.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, at that saying, this young man's countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: He left Jesus, for he had many great possessions, many great possessions.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: That's so important.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Today, what what separates us in essence from seeking the truth, from following Jesus?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, we have all these things today, right?
11:30
SPEAKER_00: All this noise.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: We have uh you know all this social media stuff that when we're getting all bombarded by all this, and and we think we just we gotta be rich, we gotta get money.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: And you know, money's important, your job's important.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll be talking about all those kind of things.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: But what do I still lack?
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Something has to come first.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Something has to come first.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: What do I still lack?
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, John Paul wrote this.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: He said, the question's a very important one to all of us.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: It shows that in the moral conscience of a person and more precisely of a young person who's forming the plan for his or whole life, there's a hidden aspiration to something more.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: That's why you're here.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: What is that something more in my heart?
12:12
SPEAKER_00: This aspiration makes itself felt in various ways, John Paul said.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: And we can also observe it among those who seem far from religion, far from faith itself.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: We're asking these questions.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: When the young man asks about the more, what do I still lack?
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks upon him with love.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And this love finds here a new meaning.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Man is carried interiorally in our hearts by the hand of the Holy Spirit.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: This is the way we're created.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: From a life according to the commandments to a life in the awareness of the gift.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And Christ's loving look expresses this interior transition.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: What does that say?
12:52
SPEAKER_00: That despite the commandments and trying to figure out, okay, I can't kill, I can't murder, I gotta honor my father and mother, there's still something in the heart that says there's something more.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is taking you from the rules.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: We think commandments are rules, but really they're the heart of God expressing, you know, all the good things that uh and the way to live.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: They're like guardrails.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: But this interiority is we have this desire for even something more.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a relationship, it's having an intimate relationship.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about following rules, it's developing intimacy.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: That's where those two things that I expressed in the beginning were searching for the truth.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: How should I live?
13:31
SPEAKER_00: But also it's a love story.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: It always comes down to love.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by that?
13:46
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to move all your distractions apart.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Your real possession right now is your youth, John Paul would say.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: This time to explore that no matter what you do for work or how you're making money, etc., and all the things that you're concerned about, we have to put this first.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: So what is this awareness of the gift, this interior transition to which Jesus is talking about?
14:09
SPEAKER_00: It's the core of the Christian vocation to love as God loves.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And such a is such a love even possible?
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, St.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: John Paul II affirms, he goes, Yes, my dear friends, it is possible.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: The Christian is capable of living in the dimension of the gift.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, this dimension is not only higher than the dimensions of mere moral obligations known like the commandments, but it's also deeper, more fundamental.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: We seek to love and be loved.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: It bears witness to this fuller expression of that plan of life.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: John Paul says, which you begin to construct in your youth.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: We got to set the foundation.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: The dimension of gift, to be a gift to other people, also creates the mature outline of every human and Christian vocation.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: John Paul said, Dear young people, do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Do not let yourself be dispirited by those in this world that are disillusioned with this life, that are seeking and grasping and taking more, because you'll continue to try to fill yourself and you'll never be filled.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: You'll always be looking for something more.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: So to live the gospel means to love, to love totally, giving oneself completely for the sake of others, to become unselfish.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the interior desire.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Why?
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the way we're created in the Imago Day, right from the very beginning of Genesis, where God creates us in his image and his likeness.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
15:37
SPEAKER_00: To love as God loves.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: In youth, a person asks, What must I do?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Not only of themselves or trusted figures like parents and teachers, but also of God, their creator and Father.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: This question arises in the intimate sphere of prayer.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: This is where we get this from when we pray, when we sink to our knees in the Claymore battle plan first thing in the morning, where one seeks a close relationship with God.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: What must I do today?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: What is the plan that you have for my life?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Your creative fatherly plan.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: What is your will?
16:14
SPEAKER_00: I wish to do it to live out the truth.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: So the church recognizes Christ followed me as the foundation of even the religious vocation, right?
16:23
SPEAKER_00: So you're thinking maybe I'll be married, have a family, these are the dreams.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are married, maybe you have families.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: You're still seeking something more.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, he talks about this, the foundation of the religious vocation, too, through the profession of the evangelical councils.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: We take this uh vow, the religious do, of chastity, some of them poverty and obedience to God.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: A person embraces this way of life of Christ, live for the kingdom of God.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: By professing these vows, the religious individuals bear unique witness to God's love above all, and the universal call to union with Him in eternity.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Some are called to offer this exceptional testimony before others than in the religious life.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And why do I bring this up?
17:09
SPEAKER_00: And you say, well, what has that got to do with me, this religious vocation?
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, it has a lot to do with you.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Because when we think about the witnesses like St.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Catherine of Siena that I mentioned, and the other uh uh uh people that say, look, it I'm not gonna get married in this life.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: I skip this marriage and go right to the marriage of the Lamb, right to this unique relationship with God.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And what importance is that for us?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Because we could see that a person can skip this earthly marriage and be filled with God's life and love.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And too often we forget about that and we're trying to fill ourselves with a person first.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: It's always what the religious show us that go to God first, be filled with divine life and love, and then we give that in the world, even in our marriages and with our families.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: So this is very, very important in this Latin rite where we have the religious to skip this marriage and are filled with God.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: It's very important to know that.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: So in the dialogue with the rich young man, Christ's call to follow me resonates with particular clarity, often heard in youth or even in childhood.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we think about our childhood, you know, in our innocence, we're searching for that.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And and that's why prayer and God flow so easily into our hearts in our innocence.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Such was the case then for Sergeant Columban, before the clamor of the world sought to silence it.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: So I want to tell you a story about Sergeant Columban meets Padre Peel.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: I start I start this I start the story this way.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I sat on a padded carpet, my back against the wall, facing a dozen high school sophomores assigned to me for small group discussion.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: I had just given a presentation, and I took this small group of young guys down the hall.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: After I opened the floor, I said, Are there any questions on what we just discussed?
18:58
SPEAKER_00: And a hand shot up, and this young boy goes, How do we know Jesus really loves us and died on the cross for us?
19:04
SPEAKER_00: It happened so long ago.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Does he still speak to us today?
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, That's a great question.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: I could answer it in a number of ways, but let me share a story my dad shared with me, a World War II veteran that's still with us, almost a hundred years old, and he told me the story when I was about your age.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Dad, like many American GIs, especially those stationed in Italy, came home with stories about Padre Pio.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: So Padre Pio was born in Italy, was ordained a priest in the Capuchin Order at the age of twenty three.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And even as a young man he loved to pray and especially loved to pray the rosary.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: He felt that Jesus was calling him to offer his life to God as a victim for poor sinners and for the souls in purgatory.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: At thirty-one years old, while praying before a crucifix, Padre Piel received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: These painful wounds bled, especially during mass for fifty years.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Padre Piel also possessed gifts of healing, bilocation, the ability to read human hearts, especially in the sacrament of confession.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just add this, that Padre Piel was alive when my dad was telling me these stories as a young man.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: So it was amazing that this is a living saint with a stigmata.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: I wear a blue band on my hand here that I picked up and I've told this story before.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Pray, hope, and don't worry from Padre Pill.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyways, after the war ended, my my dad and a couple of friends bought a small plane that they would fly from Chicago to a small airstrip near the Benedictine Monastery in Atchison, Kansas.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Once there they would drive an old car they kept at the airfield to the monastery there, where Brother Steve, a childhood friend who had become a Benedictine monk monk, had received permission for my dad and his friends to hunt on the grounds there.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: They had a lot of grounds there.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And evenings then were spent dining and conversing with the monks that lived there.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: On one such trip, my dad mentioned his devotion to Padre Peel to Brother Steve, who replied, You know, if you want to know more about Padre Peel, you should talk to Father Columban.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: He's also a World War II vet who met Padre Peel when he was stationed in Italy.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Well my dad was thrilled, and he wanted to meet Father Columban right away.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Brother Steve told dad where to find him, and off my dad went down the series of connecting hallways to the other side of the monastery.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Finding the door to Father Columban's room slightly ajar, he peered in and he knocked.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Father, who was sitting at his desk, looked up with a warm smile and invited my dad in.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, Father, Brother Steve mentioned that you were a veteran of World War II and you know something about Padre Pio.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: I also served in the war, was hoping that you might have a few minutes to speak to me about him.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: With that, Father Columban's face changed.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: His eyes closed for a moment, he became very reflective, and then he said, Yes, soldier, I know a little bit about Padre Pio.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Come sit down.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: He began.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I was the master sergeant in charge of the squad.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: We had been in many battles, first in North Africa, and then again as we pushed through north through the boot of Italy.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: One day, as we were camped near the town of San Giovanni Retundo, a couple of men from my squad approached me and said, Hey, Sarge, aren't you Catholic?
22:29
SPEAKER_00: There's a priest nearby, Padre Piel, who can read hearts.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: We're going to confession tomorrow.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Come with us.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, I brushed it off.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: He said, I haven't been to mass or confession since I was a kid.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm not Catholic anymore even.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: One soldier teased him and said, Sarge, you're scared to go to confession to Padre Pio.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: You have too much to confess.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: I shot back after what we've been through, I'm not scared of anything.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, I'll go, and I'll tell that Padre Piel everything, and I have quite a list.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to shock him right out of the confessional.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, the next morning we took a Jeep to San Giovanni Rotundo, where we got in a long line for confession that extended all the way up a hill to the monastery.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: The line was moving slowly, and after about an hour I realized we're never going to make it to confession before we were due to head back to our camp.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Disappointed, we stepped out of line and started to walk down the hill.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: But someone shouted from above that Padre Piel wanted the American GIs to come forward.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: The pilgrims, he said, could wait.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Well we were stunned, and we hurried up the hill.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I found myself in the front of the line and when it was my turn, I knelt down in front of Padre Pio.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: I opened up to him and I confessed everything just like I said I would.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: When I finished, Padre Pio was silent, and I wasn't sure what came next.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Then softly, warmly, Padre Pio said, Son, when you were a young boy, you dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Persevere, and you will become a priest.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Then he blessed me, forgave my sins, gave me penance, and told me to who to see when I got back to the States.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Well I walked out into the fresh air.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Tears were streaming down my face.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I had not thought about that dream since I was a child, and I had told no one about it.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: My life changed that day, and as you can see, my long forgotten dream became a reality.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: But that day wasn't the end of our story.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: He said our outfit would not pull out for over a month, and we went back to mass on many occasions.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was asked to serve as an altar boy at one of Padre Peel's masses.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: There I witnessed Padre Peel suffer the passion with Jesus Christ when he consecrated the Eucharist.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: His hands would bleed, his walking became painful from those wounds.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: He would perspire, and he'd stop for long pauses and silence on the altar with his eyes closed.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, you can see I made it home, joined the monastery, and have been here ever since.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I turned back to the young man in the small group discussion, and I said to him, You see, there's not a serious historian in the world that would deny that Jesus walked upon the earth and that he even died on the cross.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: The question is, did he rise?
25:13
SPEAKER_00: And can he change your life?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I know he changed his lives, I told this young guy, because he changed mine.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And if you ask it will be given to you.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: If you seek you will find.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: If you knock, the door will be open to you for Matthew 7 7.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, pay attention, humble yourself, open your eyes.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: You'll begin to meet others like Sergeant Columbian, whose lives and hearts have been transformed by Jesus Christ all around you.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, I added with a smile, that transformed life and heart will be your such a beautiful story, isn't it?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: And it's a true story.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: When my dad tells a story even now to people that hadn't heard it before, my dad at almost a hundred years old, he closes his eyes, he gets into a an another place.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: This story has changed his life, my life, so many uh people's lives.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Jesus is is true, huh?
26:08
SPEAKER_00: He's he's he's searching for all of us.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: We're seeking the truth.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And again, the truth is not a something, the truth is a somebody.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: He's the person of Jesus Christ.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, he's a person of love, he looked with love on that young man.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: He looks at love with all of us.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: This is a love story we're in.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: And we have to open ourselves up.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: That's why with the Claymore Battle Plan, you can download that battle plan.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing we do in the morning is we get down on our knees before we look at that phone.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: See, we we don't want to bring these other possessions and all this noise and distraction.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: We get down on our knees and you can follow that battle plan there.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: But what in essence what we do is is I picture our blessed mother kneeling with us at her enunciation, where the where the angel Gabriel came down and announced that she was going to be impregnated, impregnated with God Himself, filled with God.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what we're doing.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: We're kneeling with our blessed mother, and we want to be filled with the Spirit of God.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: So we say, Let it be done to me according to your word.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm opening my heart first of all, first thing in the morning.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm setting my priorities straight, right?
27:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting this love story straight so that I can become a person of love in this horizontal, visible world of ours.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: And then we listen to our blessed mother at the wedding feast of Cana, where she told the servants there uh with with Jesus there when they had run out of wine, do whatever he tells you.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we say next.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to listen and do whatever he tells me.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: The next thing, so important, temptations will flood us because we're living in a broken world and a fallen world.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: We forget about this sometimes, and we're being attacked.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: This is a spiritual warfare.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Temptations are going to flood into your mind, pornography and selfishness and all these things are coming at you, right?
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, temptation is not a sin.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself was tempted.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: So the second thing we do is we open up these temptations.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: I feel a temptation come in.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: I open that.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: But every temptation that you have is an invitation to prayer.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: If you understand this properly, every temptation is not even a bad thing anymore because we're getting bombarded.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: We have this concupiscence that uh Saint John talks about, can concupiscence of the eyes.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: We look out into the world and we want things, we want things.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: We want to be filled with this materialistic world.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: It's not all bad.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: We just have to keep everything in perspective.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: The second thing is concupiscence of the flesh, this dragging down in our flesh that sensual desire to love and be love can be twisted into the opposite of love, using somebody else.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of love, self-giving is something like pornography who grasp and take and see another as an object.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: So we open those up.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Don't push those down.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: God gave you those desires.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: They've been twisted and distorted.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: We're offering those up and saying, Jesus, I see the beauty of a woman and I I have this tendency to lust after her.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: This is concupiscence.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Don't feel bad about these temptations, but I don't want to stay there.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: So I open that up and I say, Thank you, thank you, Jesus.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the beauty of that woman.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And now lift my heart so that I see her as a person.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: This is a real battle.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: This takes a long time to overcome.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: But over time, Jesus will give you this.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: And you're walking with him.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: He says, That battle, I will help you.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: I will give you the grace to overcome that.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: But this is your battle too.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: We're in this together.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: You have to fight it on your own heart.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: You have to fight it, but you're not fighting it alone.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: You're yoked to me, and I will give you the grace for that, right?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Then right after that, we listen to a uh I I like to listen to Divine Mercy, just a small clip from Divine Mercy from the diary of Sister Faustina, who has this beautiful relationship with God, who's the the diary of Divine Mercy that Jesus says, I want to pour out my mercy to everybody.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: We're in the end times.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And uh Um, you know, these battles are heating up.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: We can sense this all around us, but God is a God of love when He's hanging on the cross, and the second word for love is mercy.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: You hear this always at the Mass.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: All the listen at the Mass.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: God always wants to pour his mercy out to us.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: He said, He said that the the the worst, the darkest person in the world has has come to me.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Just tell him to come to me and I will pour out my mercy.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you've done in the past, how you've done that, I want you to come back into the story.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: God knows that we came into a fallen world.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: The real whole reason he came is to redeem this, to, to save us.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: So when we feel this in our heart, we open that up and then we proclaim with our lips Jesus Christ, and then you're saved.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: So you're justified in your heart because you believe in Jesus, but that's not enough.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: I have to live it out, I have to speak it, I have to do uh to to in in my actions.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: I you know, in my actions is a motor to the good.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: I become good when I do good things.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: I am good, and you feel that peace in your heart.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, when I do evil, I walk away from God, huh?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And I start to do evil things.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: You see people that are these older people that have been sitting with this proverbial frog for so long in their life, um, rejecting God, and they get to a stage in their life where they they're lost, they're unhappy, they're grumpy, they're lost.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: It's no way to live.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not the way we're supposed to live.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: So, and then we get up off our knees, the last thing, and we love the next person we see, whether that's your spouse, um, or or the cashier down the street, whatever, we become persons of love.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And then we fulfill the very vocation that we all have before the the vocation of marriage or religious life, etc., before we decide even what we're going to do uh for the rest of our lives for work, and all those things are important to us.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: But the first thing we got to get straight is our relationship with God to be filled with divine life and love and then become that person's uh of love in the world.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: This is what changes the world.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey, God bless you.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions, my contact information at info at jp2renew.org.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: I'll make sure I get that message.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: If you're on a um the audio uh podcast, you can you can actually text us there and I'll get that message and we'll answer those questions and we'll talk about those things on next Friday's episode.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Hey, God bless you.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Great to be with you.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Talk to you again soon, everybody.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.