Crappy Catholic Reboot

Hey — welcome to Crappy Catholic Reboot! In this short talk I share how I grew up Catholic but didn’t really know much about it until I started reading and asking questions. I explain how learning more about the Bible, saints, angels, and the church helped me believe again and get excited about my faith.

What you’ll hear:
 • How I felt when friends said mean things about the Catholic Church.
 • Why reading and learning made me want to stay Catholic.
 • Why faith can be like finding someone you want to spend your life with — it feels good, steady, and full of surprises.
 • Why it’s okay to make mistakes and keep trying every day.

If you’re curious about faith or just want to hear an honest story, stick around — we’ll learn and laugh together. 

Transcript

Hey, is it possible that that either you're not Catholic or if you are Catholic, you're not that excited about Catholicism because you just don't know that much about it? And the reason I ask is because I I was raised Catholic. I'm a cradle Catholic and I didn't realize how little I knew about it. So, yeah, I went through first communion. I went through catechism. (00:24) I went through confirmation and all that. And I'm just as I look back, I'm just actually surprised and even kind of shocked about how little I really did know about Catholicism, being Catholic, the richness of it, you know, 2,000 years of history for goodness sakes. And it wasn't until I was in my 20s till I think, you know, until I was challenged. (00:45) And by that I mean that there I had an episode where I had some friends who were Bible Christians and they started talking about you know Christianity and of course Catholicism and they were saying things like well the pope is the antichrist and the Catholic church is the of Babylon. And of course when someone says that to you when you identify as Catholic I I was horrified. I was shocked. (01:10) I don't I don't think I was offended. I was more shocked and and I'm kind of sad that I wasn't offended. It's like what are you guys talking about? It was more of like it was incredulous. It's like how how can I be part of something that is so horrible and so rotten? That's what I was thinking. So I started reading and I started reading and I started reading. (01:35) I started reading Catholic stuff. I started reading um Bible Christian stuff. I I started reading all of it, the history, the beliefs, and everything like that. And thank God for that because I really did start getting excited about my faith. I started getting excited about all the things that Catholicism has to offer, all all that we believe about the saints and the angels and heaven and hell and all the things that really matter in life. (02:01) So, I'm so grateful that I that I did that work and and I've come to the point now that I just believe that the Catholic Church is who she says she is. That Catholicism is how God showed us how he wants to be honored and worshiped and glorified and that he did that through Jesus Christ and he showed us. (02:24) So, that's where I am today. It's a matter of belief. It's a matter of just getting up and not sitting there and wrestling with, well, is it true? Is it not true? What are all these little things that I have to look into? Do I have to question this or question that? And I was kind of humbled in the way I heard an interview not too long ago and the interviewer was talking to a comedian and the topic of the Bible came up and the comedian just said, "You know, the Bible is the word of God. (02:51) I I just believe it." And I think it was a beautiful thing to say because at some point you want to get to a point where you're like I just I just believe this. I just do because to live in doubt all the time to say simply question all the time is just it's exhausting. But for me it came at the price of learning and studying really knowing what I believe to the point where it's like look I've read enough. (03:16) I know enough. If X is true then Y is true. Okay. So I don't I don't have to keep digging and digging and finding. In fact, what's even more fun now is once I'm at that point of I believe that this is true. And it's almost like, hey, here's another thing. Hey, here's another thing. You know, it's like getting married and you find the one person in your life you want to be with for the rest of your life. (03:41) And it's like, you know what? I just know that this is the person for me. I know that we're married. This is now my my spouse. Oh man, I just learned this other cool thing about him or her. I just found out this. I just realized this. I was in a tough spot and I didn't think my spouse was even going to come through and and she did. (04:00) I just use that as an example of the excitement of once you're in a place where you just believe it, everything else is frosting on the cake and it's awesome. So, because of that, I I just can't imagine being anything else. I can't imagine looking at other Christian religions and I have and I just I I am more convinced now than ever that I'm in the right place. (04:26) And I hope that on this channel I can I can do that more for you is share that excitement because there's things that not only do I now know that I didn't know, but now there's things that I was taught that are coming back to the forefront. Like I'm learning more about the angels in our everyday life. I'm learning about the saints and those who have gone before us in in history who have shown us the way. (04:49) I've learned more about the Bible, where it came from, you know, how it's in the form it is today, the ceremonies of the church, what everything means, but how it applies to your everyday life. You know, we're living in a world that just every day is just it's falling apart more and more where there's so much evil in the world. (05:06) There's so many things falling apart. And for me, the bedrock is my Catholic faith because humans let you down. The world lets you down. Materialism is horrible, right? If if you put your trust in your your things and your wealth and everything like that, it lets you down every We have so many stories over history of people who just trusted in their money who thought, "Oh, this is happiness. (05:34) " And it wasn't and it's fall and they've fallen over and over and over again. So to me it's a rock solid foundation of how to be happy in this world and then be happy in the next one for for all eternity. So but I also realized that in being Catholic and again I I call this channel the crappy Catholic because each day is a new day of of of getting up of trying and pretty much falling down over and over and over again. (06:02) And the beauty of that is you get another chance until your last breath to try again, to be to recognize your flaws, to recognize you have things to work on, to recognize that there is so much work to do to get to heaven. And that's part of the journey, too. And I hope you'll be part of that is to realize that you're not perfect as you are. (06:27) That you you have flaws, you have vices, you have strengths, you have weaknesses. And by being a better Catholic, you become a better person because you're working on the things that matter. You're working on how to be a better friend, how to be a better spouse, how to be a better son, daughter, father. Because in following Christ, and following the the church and how she has given us so much wisdom, this treasure trove of of the sacraments and the faith. (07:02) And as we move forward, she gives us that guidance. She keeps helping us. She picks us up by giving us things like Catholic saints and angels and teachings and doctrine and dogma. It is so to me so refreshing to have a place you can go where things are a lot more black and white than they ever are could be in this world. (07:21) We have to figure it out yourself. I don't want to figure it out myself. This world's been around too long. people have gone before us to help figure it out and to offer a way into an off offer um you know a path to to go forward. So I just know that if you keep moving, if you keep showing up, if you keep trying, if you're a person of goodwill, good things are going to happen. (07:43) And it's such it's it's so refreshing again in this world that has just gone absolutely bonkers to have a place to go to. And and for me, I find that to be in in in the Catholic church. And I hope you find that too. Again, whether you're Catholic or not. And I say that especially if you're Catholic, because you may have become lukewarm or or just like kind of disassociated from your faith or just kind of wandered away from it or just kind of lackadasical about it. And I understand. I get it. (08:13) We also live in a time where a lot of our our Catholic leaders have just kind of like they it seems like they've just kind of shrugged their shoulders like hey good luck figure out yourself. So thankfully we have the church's teachings, we have the deposit of faith and we have each other. So I hopefully with this channel I want I want to bring out the excitement of being Catholic and all the many ways to that that the church guides us and leads us and helps us. (08:40) So, I hope again you'll come along for the ride and whether you're Catholic or not Catholic, whether you're a believer or non-believer, I just I hope you'll join me on this journey and we're we're going to learn a lot and we're going to have a lot of fun. So, stay tuned and here we go."