Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#636 "Jesus, I Trust in You": Breaking Free from Modern Emptiness
Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”
What happens when you start defining yourself by your struggles rather than by your God-given identity? Deacon Gerald Marie Anthony tackles this profound question in a conversation that strikes at the heart of what it means to be authentically human in our confused modern world.
The conversation delves deep into what Pope Pius X called "the synthesis of all heresies"—modernism—which teaches us we don't need God to progress. This mindset manifests when we put our ultimate trust in money, work, technology, or social acceptance rather than in our Creator.
Through St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy devotion, we discover the antidote to modernism's emptiness. Whether you're battling pornography addiction, wrestling with unwanted attractions, or simply feeling lost in today's confusing cultural landscape, by placing our trust in Jesus rather than in ourselves or worldly solutions, we can experience true transformation.
Get a copy of Deacon Anthony's Book Here:
Peaceful Hearts, Zealous Hearts
How the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy Devotions’ Complementary Messages Make Us New
Visit Deacon Anthony's Website
Discussion Questions with Scripture references:
- How does defining ourselves by our struggles rather than our God-given identity as beloved children of God impact our spiritual life, and what does Scripture teach about our true identity in Christ?
Scripture Reference: John 1:12 – “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
Reflection: Consider how the cultural focus on struggles (e.g., addictions, societal pressures) can overshadow the truth of our identity as God’s beloved. How can embracing this identity help us overcome modern emptiness? - What are the dangers of modernism, as described by Deacon Anthony, which places trust in worldly things like money, technology, or social acceptance instead of God, and how does Scripture guide us to trust in God alone?
Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Reflection: Reflect on areas in your life where you might be tempted to trust in worldly solutions over God. How can Jesus’ teachings help you redirect your trust to Him? - Deacon Anthony highlights the Divine Mercy devotion and practical steps like confession and prudent choices to break free from brokenness. How does Scripture encourage us to embrace God’s mercy and make choices that align with His will?
Scripture Reference: 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Reflection: How can the practice of confession and intentional decision-making help you let go of faults and live out your God-given purpose? What steps can you take to avoid “lukewarm” faith?
Jacks Latest Blog: Building the City of God or the City of Man
Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal
Subscribe to our Newly Resurrected YouTube Channel!
Sign up for our Newsletter: https://jp2renew.org/
Yes, and it's important to know that we as men, but also we as people, we're not made simply for sex, we're made for love. And because we're made for love, when we are made for love, we can go into these various types of intimacy. The happiest people can be celibates, and I mean because, if you're following God's will.
Speaker 2:I know some of them, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I mean, whether you're following, whether you're married, whether you're a celibate, when you're doing what you were made for, you find joy when you sleep with someone. That means that those words must mean something. You must already have a lifetime commitment to them, because when you give yourself completely to another person and they receive that, that should be something that brings you closer to God.
Speaker 2:One of the first things that these young men do in the morning before they look at their phone, Deacon Anthony, before they look at their phone, unless they're just turning off the alarm, they get down on their knees and they say be it done to me according to your word, right, Just with our blessed mother. And then we listen to our blessed mother and she says you know, do as he tells you, right, Do as he tells you. The problem is with our twisted passions and desires.
Speaker 2:So, what they learn is we don't live to your point. I'm a Catholic man. I'm not just a addicted man. I might be an addicted man, but I am a Catholic addicted man and that gives me power to get out of it right. Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Riggert, your host. I am excited to be with an old friend. He hasn't been on the show for a while. He's snubbed us a little bit, but it's great to be on. Deacon Gerald Marie Anthony, welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me, Jack. It's great to be here. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, we have an apostolate. I was telling you about Deacon Anthony. It's actually about that sword behind me, the Claymore sword, and it's a Claymore Miletus Christi. And so we have these young guys and they're waking up against all odds. Deacon, it's amazing actually.
Speaker 2:You would think the toxic culture couldn't get any worse, and I don't think it could have. Culture couldn't get any worse, and I don't think it could have. You know, with the pornography and the gender ideologies and the anxiety and the government debt taking these guys' futures away, I think it got to the point. Actually, I don't think I talked to them, you know. It got to the point where they just go you know something's wrong, something's wrong.
Speaker 2:And they woke up, and they don't know always exactly what it is, but they started to vote. You saw them voting for Trump. You know, I don't think they even knew why. They just knew it needed to be changed. And here's a guy standing up right, and now this is a great time to evangelize them, because now they're saying, okay, now what you know, and so we're bringing them in and you write these great books, you have this great heart and and they're learning, they're learning, and so maybe, before we get into anything else. Can you just briefly tell them where you're at and what it means to be a deacon? And your decision to be a deacon is a little different than some of the other guys too.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. So thanks for that question, jack. Yeah, so to be a deacon actually is to be a servant of the servants of God. That's what the word deacon means. It means servant, and I chose in a special way to be a celibate deacon. Most deacons that just carry out the order of deacon, they're married. But I wanted to give my complete life to the Lord. And the great thing about that, no matter what vocation you're at, you realize when you give yourself completely to the Lord, that's where you find your joy and your happiness right. So, as a deacon, the bishop has two arms. He has he's the head, then he has an arm of blessing, which is the priest, then he has an arm of charity, which is the deacon.
Speaker 1:I felt that God was calling to me this arm of charity and so I go out into the world. I have four big apostolates that I do, all with the spectrums of life. I have the Legion of Mary, which is kind of evangelization. Then I also have something called a mom's peace, where I help people that have had miscarriages. Have something called a mom's peace where I help people that have had miscarriages. Then I also do something with helping college kids and high school kids to keep their faith, which is the Associates of St John Bosco.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, at the end of life, I have something that's called the Divine Mercy Home, so I help people as they're going to meet the Lord. Then I have the mother of light as well, which is we help the unfortunate. So I want it to be that arm of charity. Why? Because when we give our arms and we give our hands to people, it becomes a source of strength. And, as your organization, apostolate, also talks about, when you're fighting together, you're stronger, and that's why we call us, as the church, militant. So, as a deacon, I want to help encourage people to be able to take up that fight, because truth, goodness and human dignity matter.
Speaker 2:Yes, they do, thank you. Thank you for that, you know, we forget that. You know, charity, which can be said as love, is a theological virtue, and what does that mean? You know? That means that I have to be filled, that I'm not going out there by myself. First of all, I'm going out there, always with God, in union with God, and that's what you're doing with all of your apostles, especially when you call something charity, right. And then the second thing you said is I'm not even going out alone, right, I'm going out with God, but I'm not even going out alone with God. I'm going out with a brother or sister, you know, and here with Claymore, miletus Christi, soldiers for Christ, where it's another brother, you know, jesus sent us out two by two, for a reason you know, and I'll tell you.
Speaker 2:You know, deacon Anthony, when COVID hit, we didn't have anything for the young guys that were working with us. We had nothing to do with right, so we lost a lot of those. I mean, they're still with us a little bit here and there, but I was alone for a long time trying to just hold this together, right, because you really couldn't go out and speak that much I could. I could get out a little bit, but not as much, and it got lonely. It got lonely, man. I like having somebody to talk to, you know, and say hey, let's go together and do this thing, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean and this is one of the things it's very easy and the devil likes this we can be broken a lot easier when we're by ourselves, as if we're a group, we have that big bundle. It's harder to break because when two or three are gathered or the Lord even promised there, I am in your midst and when you're by yourself, it's very easy to say, oh well, hmm, god isn't necessarily caring about this or watching about this, and you can start to get distracted. This is where groups are so important, and because we also image the Trinity, a community, a triunity of love. But love always draws us outside of ourselves, which is why isolation can be sometimes the devil's playground, and we have to be aware of that.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, thank you for that and again. So what we're doing with Claymore and what you're doing, what you're describing, is, you know we're sharing this right, we're sharing this journey with each other, and the day that I'm down or the day that I feel weak today, you'll say hey, jack, how are you doing today? I say I'm not doing good man, and you'll be. You know you'll be leading me, you'll be picking me up. You know you'll be saying, hey, let's grab a coffee right, and vice versa. And so this happens all the time. You know it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2:The other thing I want to just touch on because we have a lot of young guys have been struggling with pornography and this really bothers me. What we've done to these young guys, deacon, anthony, because their innocence was stolen from them. These young guys were 8, 9, 10, 11 years old. You know they hear something at school, some sexual term or whatever. They Google it or they get on a computer. They get caught into pornography and I've spoken about that a lot, so I'm not going to get into it now.
Speaker 2:But they've stolen their innocence. It's really a sin, and when you do that to young people, you obliterate their moral imaginations and you take that beauty of what a woman looks like, the beauty of just love itself, and you turn it into lust. So the reason I say that to you is because you mentioned earlier that you're not going to be married as a deacon. You went into it as a single man, which means you took a vow of chastity and celibacy. And young men don't think that's possible. But it is possible and I just want you to touch on that because it is possible. Yes.
Speaker 1:And it's important to know that we as men, but also we as people, we're not made simply for sex, we're made for love. And because we're made for love, love, and because we're made for love, when we are made for love, we can go into these various types of intimacy. It doesn't mean and this is very important people think celibacy means you have to stay locked up in the room and you're not allowed to have friendships, you're not allowed to have joy. The happiest people can be celibates, and I mean because if you're following god's.
Speaker 2:Will I know some of them? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean whether you're following God's will.
Speaker 1:I know some of them, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean whether you're following, whether you're married, whether you're celibate, when you're doing what you were made for, you find joy and that's where, especially as a deacon a celibate deacon you realize this doesn't mean that you don't connect with people. It means that you find other ways to connect with people, like, say, for example, great conversations. Our minds are made for truth, right. So when you have a great conversation with someone, that's intimacy you can see into a truth, because Christ is the truth. Emotional intimacy, things that you can do with other people. It doesn't have to be sexual, and this is the big lie that I think a lot of people have bought into. You're talking about innocence being stolen at an early age. The world says you must sleep with someone in order to know them, but God says no. When you sleep with someone, that means that those words must mean something. You must already have a lifetime commitment to them, because when you give yourself completely to another person and they receive that, that should be something that brings you closer to God, not away from him. Any type of lifestyle that keeps you from God, that is not worth pursuing, because then you're throwing away your joy and your happiness.
Speaker 1:I remember one time I was talking to some young men and they were saying they were struggling with pornography, they were struggling with same-sex attractions, they were struggling with a whole bunch of stuff. And I said, well, look, can you describe yourself in three words? And they were like yes, you know, I'm addicted to whatever. And they said, or I'm sexually active, or even some of them were hot. And I said they were like yeah.
Speaker 1:I said, but notice the word that you didn't say. You didn't say that I'm Catholic or Christian. That's at the core of our identity, because if we're not living that out, we're headed towards a path of degrading ourselves and destruction in life, and so we have to be able to do that. And me, as a celibate, I proclaim to the world that love goes beyond just sex. Love goes into the inner being of the person. And this we also. All of us will live as celibates in heaven. So I'm the preclusion of how all of us are going to live in heaven, but in the marriage of Christ in the church. So there will be celibacy but marriage in the same time. So we live out both of those realities, but all of them must be rooted in authentic love.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, and this will be the last thing I say. And then I want to jump into another subject. But you know, one of the first things that these young men do in the morning before they look at their phone, deacon Anthony, before they look at their phone, unless they're just turning off the alarm, they get down on their knees and they say be it done to me according to your word, right, just with our blessed mother, excellent. And then we listen to our blessed mother and she says you know, do as he tells you, right, do as he tells you. And now we listen for a couple of minutes, but anyways. The second one is temptation's not a sin, and this is so important for these young guys. And here's the fire, right, this fire that they feel, this passion, that they feel. You know, god gave us passions and desires. The problem is with our twisted passions and desires.
Speaker 2:So, what they learn is we don't live to your point. I'm a Catholic man. I'm not just an addicted man. I might be an addicted man, but I am a Catholic addicted man, and that gives me power to get out of it right. Most of them live in a two-dimensional world where they think they either got to stuff these desires down or indulge. We show them no, no, no, no. God gave you those. Just lift those desires up, and when you use temptation as an invitation to prayer, you open up something big, you open the floodgates of grace. You know, and it's a battle. That's where the battle comes in, because John Paul would say this is fought on the battlefield of the heart, between love and lust, right Between being a self-giving person that you were describing and grasping and taking. And so this is liberating, this is freedom, and if they don't think they can handle it, it doesn't matter. You take it one day at a time, don't you? Yes, give us this day our daily bread, especially in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's important for them to realize that it's when you fight the battle you're slaying dragons as you're slaying them. You have to realize each victory is important Because a lot of times we look at the big picture and we're like, yeah, well, hey, you know I'm still struggling with this.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. Every victory is important. It's a step towards the God who loves you. And the thing is John Paul II. One of my favorite sayings is he says this is important you are not the sum total of your faults and failings. You are the beloved of God. Christ died for you so that you can actually be liberated from this, so that you're not just being buried under lust but you're actually rising with Christ, bearing great fruit and living as the man that you are called to be. And this is where I think we have to take up that sword of being able to have this sword of love, where we enter into the battlefield not afraid but confident, because Christ is with us. And when Christ is with us, who can be against the St Paul sins?
Speaker 2:That's beautiful and what a great thing to remember for these young guys that every victory, whether it's a day or a half a day or whatever, they should celebrate that too and thank God for that too. And I should tell my partners that I, you know these disciples that I'm walking with, hey, I made it through today without looking at you know, whether it's porn, whatever, the addiction is right. Celebrate that, because don't always look at your failures, because you know we're going to fail here and there along the way. Hey, I want to, I want to move on, if you don't mind. Thank you for that. Thanks for sharing it with these guys, of course, and and and the and these aren't just the young men, these are all the people that love these young guys, and and we're, we don't want it, want even one of them to fall through the cracks if we can help it, right, and so we were sharing these things with them, you know, in your book. So I I'm going to hold this up because this is really really good and because you touch on, and I'll put this in the show notes and I'll put a nice image up when I edit.
Speaker 2:But peaceful hearts, zealous hearts we're talking about zealous here right Hearts, how the sacred heart and divine mercy devotions complement messages and they make us new. So I'm a big advocate. You can see I have a divine mercy picture behind me and Sister Faustina, john Paul II, polish. Of course he canonized her and so I do a little on our needs. Deacon Anthony, we do. You know, we have a little app on there, divine Mercy app, and we listen to just a snippet every morning of the Divine Mercy, and so it's just beautiful. But anyways, talk about, if you don't mind, because I think it's apropos for today, this heresy that Pope Pius X called the synthesis of all heresies modernism. Right, yes, and why? Why did he call it? And are we not suffering from that today?
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, yes, it is not only the synthesis, but so many people fall into it because it's so subtle. Now, this is the thing to kind of do a little background to this heresy, because a heresy basically is, it's a denial of some aspect of the faith that's being denied. Why Pope Pius X was calling this the synthesis of all heresies is because it takes the very heart of denying aspects of the faith, combines them all into kind of unheresy, which is we don't need God in order to progress. When this came out in 1900s, the world was almost no-transcript. They thought, oh well, if I can just produce things, if I can get more money, then things will get better. But then they started to exist. They said, well, if I'm doing all of these things, I'm getting busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Well, I don't have time for God. I put my trust in the work that I'm doing, all the activities that I'm doing. I'm busy. I'm going to come back to that. But then also they said, well, I need to start existing.
Speaker 1:Things started coming on, world War, I was starting to come up and they said, well, I need to exist just for the good of society. Socialism, I need to be what? For the good of society. Okay, socialism, I need to be what society needs me to be. But then they said well, all these nations are starting a war. We need to exist just for the community or the commune.
Speaker 1:That's communism. All of these things, whether you're existing for money communism, whether you exist for work, where we need to forget God to progress because we're busy, all come together under that word busy, which is an acronym for buried under Satan's yoke, and when we become too busy for God and we start separating ourselves from him in order to feel modern or to be progressive. That's what this heresy is. We're buried under Satan's yoke because we need to be with the times, no matter how you define getting with the times. Work, money, existing for what other people want me to be, for the commune or the community, or even some of these. They had something that was called the syllabus of errors, where it actually goes through some of these examples of modernism, which was pretty wild. But all of this goes back to Adam and Eve in the original sin. Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:Isn't that something? How it's all connected, huh.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I mean and this is one of the things we forget With Adam and Eve, what was the thing that happened with their original sin? They were like, yes, Satan says did God tell you that you couldn't eat of the fruit? Did God tell you that you couldn't eat of the fruit? Then Eve says he said that we could not eat of it, even touch it, lest we die. Now here's the irony with this Eve actually adds on to what God said, meaning that they decide what is good and evil, and that we can speak for God, which is another part of modernism.
Speaker 1:Well, look, we've progressed past God, so I can speak for him. This is okay for me, even though he's forbidden as one of these commandments. Right, we make ourselves into God. Therefore, we don't need to trust him. Need to trust him, and this is where it gets very crucial, Because if you can't trust God, you then can't give your heart to him, and if you can't give your heart to God, you can't find the happiness that you were made for, which is why modernity ironically, the more that we embrace it, the more miserable we actually become.
Speaker 1:That's what these guys are sensing yes, and the Lord, he's like stop it. I don't want you miserable, I want you fully alive. I have told you these things so my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. But modernism says don't trust God. You don't need complete joy, you make your own joy. You don't need to trust someone, except for either money, society, the state or your own self-work. They call that self-actualization, which is the more modern term of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and these guys are sensing this. They're really sensing this and you can see the breakdown. I think it's important to pay attention.
Speaker 1:That's where I mean, even with the breakdown in all of these things, ironically in society in self, in all of these things, ironically in society in self, you know, in all of these things, it's because we're putting our trust in everything, even science, because there was technological benefits that were coming up. And we're especially in that now. Even Pope Leo has now mentioned that he's like, yeah, you got to be careful, because technology is coming up, people are like oh, talking about AI already, isn't he?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I mean you're just like wow, but it's amazing what it can do. I mean because one of the things this is a whole nother level of what people can do, talking to some of the young adults, because AI now can generate images as well as it can gather the data from what you have been reading and typing and stuff like that. It sends, like if people I know some young adults have fallen into this sadly it sends specifically images of pornography to your Instagram or whatever social media aspect you're doing Is that?
Speaker 2:right.
Speaker 1:Because it can read your algorithms and say, oh, they like to watch this, and I mean, and they not only can make images now, but they're starting to have AI that can actually talk and stuff People, and this was I had to do a workshop on this in my parish. People are now falling in love with AI characters because they're longing for relationships, but it's twisted as we're talking about. They're longing for relationships but it's twisted as we're talking about. And they're thinking, oh well, here's someone who always agrees with me, who knows exactly what I need because of the choices they can make, algorithms. But we don't put our trust in technology alone, science alone, money alone. Where do we put our trust? This is the divine mercy devotion, answering all of this, even back to Adam and Eve, who put their trust not in God, but they put it in themselves. The divine mercy image says Jesus, I trust in you.
Speaker 2:Jesus, I trust in you. Can you talk a little bit about that, because this has been coming on for a while, and Sister Faustina. Talk to us a little bit about Sister Faustina and the way Jesus spoke to her and how this all got started, will you?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, now, sister Faustina. It's amazing. She is a wonderful saint and she was actually. Her full name was Saint Faustina. Well, she you know, sister Faustina, who will now be Saint Faustina Of the Blessed Sacrament. Most people don't realize that she has the name of the Blessed Sacrament. Why is that important? Because when you go before the Blessed Sacrament, you give your heart to the Lord. Then you proclaim that act of faith. Jesus, I trust in you. Now, when she was alive, she didn't live very long. She came up and the Lord appeared to her and said and started having revelations to her, promoting this divine mercy image as well as other devotions to it. Now, it was funny when she was kind of like in her teenagers, teenage years. She was dancing and the Lord appeared to her while she was dancing and said how long will you keep me?
Speaker 2:waiting. Isn't that beautiful. You know, in a sense right and in a very real sense, christ and God is saying that to all of us. You know we're the bride, for a reason and a beautiful bridegroom. Right, jesus comes in and he wants to pour this love out to all of us. You know, and and uh, but. But this is how he pursues. You know he's going to pursue us all the different ways. You know god's a romantic. You know he's. He's going to get deacon anthony. He's going to do something different than he does with jack, than he does with the next guy down the street, and it's so beautiful. He really looks at us as individuals. But you're right, with Sister Faustina dancing, and then he wasn't against her having fun and dancing. But there's, enough is enough. When are you going to turn your heart to me? It was beautiful.
Speaker 1:And I think I mean Saint Faustina, as you're saying, she does image us, because a lot of times we like to dance around. Everything that the Lord is asking of us, that's true, except for that one thing. He's like yeah, you know, hey, I want you to go and do that deacon, oh, but I have this to do, I have that to do. I said this deacon, you know, and you can plug your name in, right, we like to dance around and our Lord is saying how long will you keep me waiting? Right? And eventually, st Faustina, she was like, oh yeah. After she had that vision, she's like, oh, yeah, I need to go. So she goes and she enters a religious order and then, as our Lord starts to come to her, he starts telling her to write down all these things and she got a spiritual director. I'm going to give the short version just because of the time.
Speaker 1:But one of the big things that he revealed with this divine mercy image is, he said this will be part of man's uplifting. It's connected to the sacred heart. Because in the image of the sacred heart, which was for the consolation of Christ, he says I will pour out my mercy upon mankind as an act of love. Because he said behold the heart which is so loved by God, but look at the ingratitude of men. But look at the ingratitude of men, st Faustina, with the divine mercy God is saying look, I want to console you wherever you are. And this is one of the most powerful entrances in the diary.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to pull it up here where he actually says and let's just tell people a little bit, just a touch, about the diary, that everybody has access to this and this is actually part of Claymore Miletus Christi, that when we get down on our knees we have the app there and we listen to a little snippet. I have the diary, you know, a little bit off to the side. Maybe when you're explaining this I'm going to just go get it and hold it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I think that's great Because during this aspect of the diary, our Lord speaks to St Faustina and in one of these entrances, when she's writing it down, is diary number 1318, where Jesus yes, there it is, there it is. And I encourage people to read that St Faustina's having a conversation with the Lord and the Lord says to St Faustina says my daughter, you're holding back on me, you're not giving me everything. And she's like what do you mean, dear Lord? I'm a professed religious. I've given you everything. He says no, you haven't, you have not given you everything. He says no, you haven't, you have not given me everything.
Speaker 1:So now I'm going to start reading from this passage 1318. She says ask Jesus, tell me what it is, and I will give it to you at once, with a generous heart. Jesus said to me with kindness, give me your misery, for it is your exclusive property. At that moment a ray of light illumined my soul and I saw the whole abyss of my misery. And in that same moment I nestled close to the most sacred heart of Jesus, so much trust that even if all the sins of all demanded weighing on my conscience, I would not have doubted God's mercy.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, and this is one of the things, especially as we're buried under our misery. But the thing is, when we can give even our misery to the Lord, then he can heal it, and when that becomes something that we give to the Lord, our suffering is then transformed into sacrifice. And when our suffering is transformed into sacrifice, then we can meet the heart of Christ, experience his mercy and help with the redemption of the world. Now, the irony with this is this is true, authentic progress, not the progressivism that the world pushes. True progress is being able to be united with the heart of Christ and help him with building the kingdom of God and transforming our misery and our suffering into tools that can help the world.
Speaker 2:This is the divine mercy and you find yourself in that. You know you find yourself, you find love, you find relationships. In that, you know, say exactly what you just said for this young guy that's done everything we said and he's getting up off his knees. How does that work for him? You know he's going to give this misery to our Lord. He's going to turn it to sacrifice and kind of just go through that because we don't want to waste any of this. You know God wants it all, doesn't he?
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's the big thing, because love demands all, especially covenantal love. We are first and foremost in our identity. We belong to Christ. So when we're holding on to our misery which is what a lot of us like to do, either we're saying, oh well, I'm not good enough, that's holding on to our misery because we've fallen or we say, oh well, I'm not equipped enough, I'm just doing this, I'm so wrong.
Speaker 1:There has to be sorrow, contrition, but our guilt should always lead us to the heart of Christ, not away from him. This is where, when you're starting in step one, you have to realize okay, I have this emotion that's in my heart. Right, it turns to misery when we embrace that emotion and we start defining ourselves by what we've done wrong or where we've messed up. So step one is stop defining yourself that way. How do you stop defining yourself by that? So, let's say you're dealing with pornography or a same-sex attraction, you start by saying I am not this, I am the beloved of God. Step one right, that's foundational. Then, once you can see and choose, I am the beloved of God, defining myself, then you can start to say, okay, am I going to give this to God as a gift to him or am I going to keep this and keep burying myself under it? You have to choose that.
Speaker 1:The sorrow which allows you to have your whatever's going on and you say you're sorry, contrition, and unite it to God, that's redemptive sorrow. But when you keep that and you keep burying it under yourself under it, that's called oppressive sorrow. This is where you get oppression right. The devil wants you to keep bearing yourself in your sins, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit wants you to turn away from your sin, to be able to be embraced with the love that you were made for, not to define yourself by the absence of that love which you were not made for, but that actually keeps you downtrodden. This is where the divine mercy comes in, because if you can give that to God, then God can pour out his mercy upon you, and that's what he wants to do when he goes to punish the sin. If you can separate yourself from the sin, then he can punish the sin and love the sinner. But if you stay connected to it and start defining yourself by it, then when he goes to punish the sin, he must also punish the sinner. Jesus says trust me, give me your hand, turn around, repent, and then you can take my hand, which is always right in front of you, which is why, in that image of the divine mercy, you always see Jesus. His foot is taking a step forward. He's always coming towards us, even when we turn our backs on him. This is why his heart, this heart of mercy, is meant for us. We are not just our sins, we are people made to be embraced by God's mercy.
Speaker 1:So, step one do not define yourself by your sins. Remember you are a child of God. Step two choose whether you are going to define yourself by that fault, that failing, or you are going to allow it to be a stepping stone to embrace God's mercy. Allow it to be a stepping stone to embrace God's mercy. Step three you embrace God's mercy by sacramental confession if you're Catholic, or saying sorry, trying to turn to the new leaf. Then the last step is take prudential judgments to not set yourself up for failure. Surround yourself with good people that are going to encourage you towards the love of God, not in vice. Make sure that the things that you're looking at are going to be making you pure of heart, like the Lord, not to deceive your heart in lust. And then also always continue to keep telling yourself I am a child of God. God wants his mercy to be poured out upon me, because his mercy endures forever. Lust does not endure forever, so go towards the mercy.
Speaker 2:That was beautiful, Thank you, Thank you. You know, when you start to talk about all of those various issues, what else should people look for when they grab this book? I think it's important for all our listeners, but for young people too. Is there anything? Look at you, just unpacked, just probably one of the most important things they could do. But what else in here if we could touch on? Look at, there's so much right. We can only touch on one or two other things. What would you like to have people take away?
Speaker 1:Well, I would also say like so I break in the book, I break it down by devotion to the Sacred Heart as well as divine mercy, because the two are one. We're meant for God and God is meant for us. That's the big thing. Now I would like to point out in here, I call it the four chambers. I call it quickly the chamber of encouragement, the chamber of keep asking and this is unpacking the whole book here, not just in the book here. The chamber of going with the devotions, explaining the five devotions to the Sacred Heart, which is going to be St Fit. So you're going to have the Solemnity. You're going to have the 33 Days Devotion, 33 Visits Devotion. You're going to have the Feast and then you're going to have the Image as well as this great, great, great Solemnity that we're going to do. But then you also have the five devotions to the divine mercy, which is Finch. So you have the feast image, novena, chaplet, and then hour, right. So I like using mnemonics, right?
Speaker 1:But in both of these, when you get this, you have this encouragement keep going. Then you have get going with the devotions and then you have mercy itself. You put those together, you get an EKG of mercy, and that is what the world needs. It's going on life support and we need to infuse it right. Get that EKG where you can keep the hearts going because people are discouraged. But the thing is our Lord does not want us. Discouraged meaning you distance yourself from the core. Core meaning heart. That's where we find discouragement. We want encouragement to continually, each step, each moment, each day, the daily bread, like you're talking about being able to go in the heart, in the core, which is where you find encouragement. This book is meant to be a manual to help you to live a life of encouragement, not discouragement, in other words, to have peaceful hearts and zealous hearts.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And there's no way you can be lukewarm today. I think you know, when we're talking to young guys, they sense that, that they pick up the sword and that sword is not just charging out. It's like you said first of all, I have to unite myself with God. You know, if my identity is my have to unite myself with God. You know, if my identity is my brokenness, I'm in big trouble. My identity has to be a son of God. And what did Jesus say to Sister Faustina about sin, the worst sin? Do you remember If you're the worst sinner of everybody? Do you have less right or more right to his mercy, deacon?
Speaker 1:Anthony, yeah, you have more right to his mercy, and this is one of the wonderful things where you can see this. This really is about the heart. The Lord says the greater the sin, the greater. You have a right to my mercy.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:The Lord wants to give you his mercy. You are not, and this is the thing. The Lord does not want us to stay broken. He wants to make us whole, which is why, in the book of Revelation, he even says behold, I make all things new. If you want to put on the new man, to be a new man, to not stay broken, put your heart in the heart of Jesus and, as and this is, I would say, one of the things I'd like to leave the people with like St Faustina, who had the gift of bilocation, remember, each of us are called to bilocation, meaning that our feet and our hands are here on earth, but our hearts and minds are always in heaven. This is how we have to live our lives and if you do that, by location, you will find the encouragement and peace that you will make.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You know we forget, don't we, deacon, that you know Jesus didn't come to manage our sins, he came with power. And we Deacon that Jesus didn't come to manage our sins, he came with power. And the most beautiful thing, when these young guys have been at this for a while and doing what you're talking about, they go. Oh my gosh, this is real. This is real. I remember myself coming back into the church. I was 38 years old and I remember exactly sitting on the fence Most men like to sit on the fence, you know lukewarm exactly where we're not supposed to be. And I finally got to the point where we're seeing right now with this culture and it's not only out there, we sense it in our own hearts right, those two things an interior, toxic thing going on and an exterior thing. And you go how do?
Speaker 2:I get out of this mess. And there's only one way, and it's what you're describing. There's only one way. You can look around forever, I can make all the money I want, I can build all the big plants I want, and that's okay. Go out and do those things, just don't forget that you're a child of God. And then our catechism, our Catholic Church, john Paul II, would say go out and build things. You know capitalism, we love it, but, but, but. He would say but, but, but. When you have everything you need, the rest is for the poor, the rest is for the poor. And that changes everything. I'm building this up, I'm giving back to my employees, I'm making sure they have a good life and if I have anything left after that, I'm going to give it away. You know right what happens if you have all the treasures in the world, jesus said, and you lose your soul. Exactly.
Speaker 1:And that's the big thing. God isn't condemning. You know, taking care of your family or money or anything like that, but when that place of God, that's where it becomes a problem and that doesn't only become a problem out there.
Speaker 2:It becomes a problem in here.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:How many divorces, how many children out of wedlock? How many porn addictions? How many gambling addictions? How many whatever? Because of what? Because they're not going and doing what you said. So this is an interior movement too right.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly. And that's one of the big things, because it's very easy to kind of point outwardly and say, oh well, hey, this is it. But the Lord says I mean, and this is also the divine mercy and the sacred heart devotions the Lord is saying I give you my heart so that you can look at your heart. He's the standard. And I mean and this is the thing many people will say, oh yeah, well, this is going on. But the Lord says what about you? What about you? And when you stand before the Lord, he's going to say look, I offered you all of this. What did you do with it?
Speaker 1:And this is where we're kind of like oh right, the interior motives. And the Lord doesn't do this just as just, even with the Holy Spirit, not to condemn us, but to convict us, because the Lord wants us at our best. He's saying I don't want you to have a twisted interior heart, because I want you authentically happy, I want you to have authentic joy. So I need to root out all the things that are keeping you from that authentic joy. It's not a punishment, it's because he wants us not to just survive or ride the fence, but to thrive. He wants us fully alive, fully our hearts beating not just on life support.
Speaker 2:That's where that ETG of mercy comes in and that you know, where do we get this wild idea that this is only about heaven? Right, this starts now. You know, eternity doesn't mean tomorrow, does it, deacon Anthony? Eternity means forever. You and I and everybody listening, we're eternal beings. This journey is starting right here and you know, in a sense this is a love test or a lust test. You know, either I become a person of love, which means again, I unite myself with the divine lover and go out and become a person of love, or I forget about him and I try to fill up the infinite desires of my heart in this finite world and I make a mess of everything. It's not brain surgery, really is it? And trust me, I know this by experience.
Speaker 1:okay, but it is, I mean, but I can tell you it is the greatest operation in life to choose to either be loved by God and be his instrument, or choose to fight against God and be the devil's instrument. You know, that's our choices, you know. So that's it we need to choose Lord.
Speaker 2:That's the bottom right, like you said, that's what happened in the garden and that has been passed down to us all these years. It's no more complicated, look, your life can get complex, but the decision we all stand. John Paul would say, you all stand in some sense at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Pick a side, my friend. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And we pray that we always choose Team Jesus. That's the big thing. You don't want to play on the losing team, you want to play on the winning team. You know that's. That's the big thing. You know you don't want to play on the losing team, you want to play on the winning team. And we know that Christ has won the war.
Speaker 2:So I mean and have some fun and do it with somebody like Deacon Anthony. Go out and find some disciples, some people to walk with and talk with. You know, like Deacon Anthony, uh, tonight I go out with a good buddy of mine and you know we do a lot of this apostolate together and we're going to have a little dinner.
Speaker 2:You know there's no more joy than sitting down with somebody else that has that, that has that heart that you're speaking of, and and we sharing this together. It's phenomenal. You know, how can you have any more fun there? You go Right Thinking Anthony. You're such a pleasure. Where should we buy the peaceful hearts, zealous hearts? I want to put it in the show notes this is Sophia Press, right, so we should go write to Sophia Press to get this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Sophia Institute. Yeah, go to Sophia Institute and then just type in Peaceful Hearts, Zealous Hearts It'll bring you right to it. Yeah, I'll have a link in there.
Speaker 2:And then how about you? You do a lot of writing. If they want to read some of the things you did, what's your main website? Jmjgerardmariecom. I got it, I got it, I got it and I know that, and I'm going to put it in the show notes so everybody will be able to find it. Hey, deacon Anthony, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Keep up the good work, because there's a lot of evil out there to battle, isn't there?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, but let us take up the sword, putting our trust in the Lord, knowing that he has won the battle.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Would you mind giving our audience a blessing before we go Sure?
Speaker 1:In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear Lord, help us to be people that put our trust in you, taking up the sword, slaying the dragons and all those things that keep us from you and make the world stay in darkness. We ask for you to bless all of us, that we will continually be instruments of your grace and goodness and, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, as well as Saint Joseph, protector of the Church, may Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Speaker 2:Thanks everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We'll talk to you again soon. Bye-bye.