Pints With Aquinas - E.L.F. Founder on Giving Up Fortune to Become a Priest (Fr. Scott-Vincent Borba) | Ep. 588

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Fr. Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics and former Hollywood beauty mogul turned Catholic priest, recounts his conversion after a mystical vision of Saint Michael the Archangel, his decision to give away his multi-million-dollar fortune to charity, and his path through seminary to ordination. Ep. 588 Theotokos Rosaries: https://dwplus.shop/TheotokosRosaries - - - 📚 Resources Mentioned: Truthy 30 Day Free Trial: https://get.truthly.ai/TlbX/MATT30 - - - Today's Sponsors:  Hallow: If you’d like to grow deeper in your relationship with God, visit https://hallow.com/mattfradd and get 3 months free. Charity Mobile: Visit https://charitymobile.com/MATTFRADD and use code MATTFRADD to get a free phone with every new line, plus free activation and free shipping. Seven Weeks Coffee: Go to https://sevenweekscoffee.com/PINTS and save 15% forever when you subscribe. Plus, use code PINTS for an additional 10% off your first order and a free gift. PreBorn: Families are where we first learn how to love and be loved. When we invest in families, we’re not just helping people today, we’re shaping future generations. Dial # 250 and say “BABY” or visit https://preborn.com/PINTS .  Catholic Herald - Subscribe to Catholic Herald, and enter promo code FRADD for 30 days of free access: https://thecatholicherald.com/subscribe?plan=us-digital-monthly&coupon=FRADD Catholic Peoples Foundation: Don't let this once-in-a-century Route 66 celebration pass you by. Visit https://V8sForVocations.org and get your tickets today. - - - Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: ⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe⁠⁠ 📲 Download the free Daily Wire app today on iPhone, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, and more. - - - 📕 Get my newest book, Jesus Our Refuge, here: https://a.co/d/bDU0xLb 🍺 Want to Support Pints With Aquinas? 🍺 Get episodes a week early and join exclusive live streams with me! Become an annual supporter at 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mattfradd.locals.com/support⁠⁠⁠⁠ - - - 💻 Follow Me on Social Media: 📌 Facebook: https://facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattfradd 𝕏 Twitter/X: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Pints_W_Aquinas⁠⁠⁠ 🎵 TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@pintswithaquinas⁠⁠⁠ 📚 PWA Merch – ⁠⁠⁠https://dwplus.shop/MattFraddMerch⁠⁠ 👕 Grab your favorite PWA gear here: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com - - - Privacy Policy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/privacy⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I was the co-founder of Elf Cosmetics, the individual who created the initial concept, got in touch with the investors. You were like partying with Paris Hilton and the Kardashians. I was at my Hollywood Hills home where I just renovated, and I noticed that I had everything. Why am I not happy? Why don't I feel loved? Even though I was loved all the time. So did you keep the house and cars?

I had multiple cars who inspired me and he said, give one of your cars. It was my Austin Martin. He wanted me to sell. How much does a car like that? That car close to 200,000. Can you tell me what it was like going to the vocations director? How did they judge whether or not they would accept you? I actually put on my best suit.

For the meeting. I took my Maserati that day. He looked at me. He said, oh my gosh. He said, I have so much work to do. If you think that your sin is too big to be forgiven, If you think that there is no way that you can have a relationship with God because God is too far away from you to hear what you are. And for those people who think that God is not real, please think again.

He can utilize your entire life for good if you give them the opportunity to say yes. And that is the truth. Yeah, that's what I was saying. One of the nice things about long form discussions is, Yeah. Like on these small shows, like a 10 minutes, say everything. This is like, we can just take a... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, Father Borber, it is an honor to have you on my show. Thank you. For those who are watching and they're like, who is this priest? Could you sort of sum up where you were, what you left, and where we are now? I obviously want to get into our story and I want to take it slowly, but just... Sure, sure. So I was the co-founder of Elth Cosmetics, the individual who created the initial concept.

The business plan got in touch with the investors. I also was the founder of Borba Nutraceuticals, Borba Skin Care, Borba Water, with licenses with Anheuser-Busch, QVC, as one of my major investment partners or actually live. media. And then my final brand that I was working on before, or actually right smack during my conversion, was Scott Benson Borba, incorporated. So that was going to be a flagship brand. All right. And I'm told, you correct me if I'm wrong. Right. Here's because I didn't know much about you before this interview. So I'll just be honest about that. But you walked away from an estimated $3 billion net worth donating it all to charity, including selling your car. Is that right? Actually, no. The company is worth that amount. I was with the company since, if I'm not mistaken, 2004. I departed around 2019. At that point, we're a very large company, a multi-million dollar company. The investors were preparing it for its next stage for the private equity investment and stock market. I had another company called Borba, where I put a lot of my energy into.

So when I transitioned away, my estate was, again, very, I had, I did very well. Just the fact that you're referring to it as an estate. Oh, that sounds like you're doing well. I've never referred to my place as an estate. It just, I humbly was taken care of, and I did well. it and also my other company, Borba, since it was mostly a TV business, selling business, and a distribution of my water business. So I had a substantial amount with my team. And what year was your conversion, which I...

I'm roughly 53 right now. Well, I'm going to be 53 next week. So I had my conversion when I was 40. Okay. So I want to say... 13 or so years ago? Yes, roughly. All right, so maybe we can start... Maybe we can start here. Sure. 15 years ago, if I had to met you and said, hey, just so you know, 15 years from now, you're going to be a Catholic priest. Well, how would have you reacted to that?

I would have rejected it, stating that I wasn't holy enough, that... God was going to do something with me that would honor his name in other ways. But in my heart, God called me when I was 10 years old when we moved to the Central Valley into a small farming town. And I ran away from him. And all throughout the years, through all of my business adventures and journeys. He sent people to me in grocery markets and sidewalks

and just random places asking if I was a priest, even when I'm not even dressed in black as a cleric. So how funny. Our God has such an amazing sense of humor. He has every emotion, obviously, perfected, But he is the truth of good humor and vibrancy and love and just in every which way the best of the personalities you could ever meet. So 15 years ago, you didn't despise the Catholic Church. No, I was actually a Sunday Catholic.

Okay. I would go to confession, but I would abuse the sacraments. So I would party hard on the weekends. And then I would have a week or I would work hard and then I would go to confession and then I would do it all over again, which is exactly what we're not supposed to be doing. Yeah. So I think a lot of people fall into that kind of space when you're not converted. You truly don't know the truth about the gospel and about our Lord and why we're here on earth, which is to either reject God or to accept God, which warrants our place in heaven or heaven. hell. But I didn't believe that. I didn't believe in the reality of God and the truth that he's so

alive and real and so intimately placed in our lives to help direct us as well as he has his hand on this entire world on how he wants salvation for all souls. I didn't get it. I didn't believe it. I didn't live it. I was completely far away from it. And so that was probably attractive to the secular world and that's probably what attracted me to the secular world. What about your friends who you would party with? If you had told them that you'd be a priest one day? You know, it's so interesting, a lot of my good friends were part of the industry. So, you know, major agents and major publicists. What do you mean industry? Hollywood. So, for instance, one of my publicists was from CIA, which is creative arts agency. And a lot of my, the people I networked with was

what's from that. That's where most of the celebrities are signed to. Um, my best friends, producers and, uh, publicists and agents and managers, um, producers and celebrities all were, um, it was, it was more of a, a relational, transactional type of relationship with most of them. Yep. But the ones that were, I thought, more friendly were they literally let me know that they were very happy that I actually had a conversion, that I was in a different space. But they wished me well in that they were on a different path of life than I was. I respected that. But I also love them enough to pray for them because I want them all to come to the same reality of truth that.

that God, out of his gracious mercy and love, was able to give to me. I was watching a little clip of you this morning. Is it the morning show or the today's show? Yes, I did both. Okay. Well, I just wanted to say thank you because, you know, I could imagine, because you just became a priest last month. Did I get that?

Like roughly three weeks ago. Three weeks ago. Glory to Jesus Christ. Yes, praise and our blessed mother and St. Joseph. Amen. Because the Holy Family has gotten me through everything. So years ago, a husband and a wife in Lithuania sent me one of their handmade rosaries, and I was so struck by it, the weight, the quality, the care in every detail.

It was seriously the most beautiful rosary I'd ever seen. Now, in collaboration with Theotokos Rosaries, I'm making two of their hand-crafted rosaries available to you over at Dailywire.com slash shop. Italian olive wood, gold, plated brass, micro braid cord built for a lifetime of prayer. Each one made by hand in Lithuania. These are not just beautiful rosaries. They can be family heirlooms that you would pass down. Use for personal devotion. You could also give them as a wedding gift, ordination gift, confirmation gift, or for graduation. Now the first batch sold out right away. So, pre-order yours now at dailywire.com slash shop before the next batch is gone. That's dailywire.com

slash shop. I would think, though, a lot of priests go, okay, this is a big secular platform. I don't want to overdo it. I don't want to kind of, but you went in ready to evangelize. And when you talked about St. Michael's showing up and yeah, it was a really beautiful message of hope that you're giving to the whole secular world there, as you're saying, to them, like none of us are too far gone. God's mercy. So, yeah, thanks for that. You're welcome because God has made me in everything I've done, my father, he's now deceased. He always told me when I was a young kid that I did everything a thousand percent, either good or bad. Yeah, all in.

All in. And with my life and journey to this point, with everything I did from school to you name it, it was all in. And I gave myself completely to the world before. I mean completely. I went after it like I wanted a big piece of the apple for myself. Yeah. And so I put everything into it with the conversion. And God knows the creature that he's made with me.

He knew that he instilled me with all of those skills and those qualifications to be able to utilize this for his glory when the time was right. And he knows that I'm entering into this space, not wanting to be a priest, but to be a holy priest, to be a priest that truly knows the love of God. His number one attribute is mercy and that there's no sin that he can't forgive. But more importantly, he wants me to go after the heart of hearts. He wants me to be the Jonah going through Nineveh, walking through the cities of the world, preaching repentance and forgiveness and preparation for what is coming. And so I promised him that I would not only do his will, but try to do it with his help well. Yeah, good. I wanted to be, I believe that the marriage and the vocation of a priest is like a spousal union with God.

We take away gender, you take away all that stuff that the world has perversed. And it's such a spousal union with the church and with God itself that I believe that he needs people not to look away in the church, look away from the challenges, and lean right in to the issues and the difficulties to speak the truth. But most importantly, I want him to be proud of his son. I want him, I want to be one of those men that he's always wanted in the world of creation, the world of human nature, that he can truly say, I'm proud of him. And so that's what drives me. That's been driving me ever since my conversion day is because I've sinned so much and I understand his mercy so deeply and greatly that it calibrated me so differently that now I want to do everything so he's happy and gratified and glorified.

There's a great line in the, uh, between Christ and Faustina. He says the greater the sinner, the greater right he has to my mercy. Amen. That's something to read. And his number one attribute as she says is mercy. Yeah. Because you think about it. if someone has upset, like, for instance,

just a man and a woman in their marriage relationship, say it went awry, and one of the spouses was the cause of that, when they have compassion and love for the other, and they forgive them from the bottom of their heart, and they want to move forward with the gift of grace from God, that mercy changes the entire relationship. It is, you understand what that person has done for you. You are entering into it with a different type of love and affection that you have never

would have known without that. You are respecting them at a different level because they have given you something that you couldn't have given yourself. And that is what I'm working off of right now is that love and that compassion that Jesus Christ gave me, which is a free gift. I mean, I warranted hell. But he can work with anyone, forgive anything, and reinvent anyone who he chooses. Has it been beautiful hearing the sacrament, hearing people's confessions?

I haven't had enough yet. I've only had a handful. Really? Okay, yeah. Because I haven't been. I should, maybe after this, you'd do me the honor of hearing my confession. I actually brought my confessional stole because I was hopeful that that would be the case, because it would be my honor also too. But I can't wait to get into ministry so then I can celebrate the sacrifice, the most holy

eucharist in a worthy fashion. I cannot wait to provide the same mercy and love that God has given me in the confessional to walk with people that actually are sinners like myself and to be able to give them direction that maybe others that have never had a life before would be counseling them properly. really, to be able to be patient with people that have, I know, that have been patient with me while they're going through their journey with Christ and their relationship and not to force things, but to help them see it in a different light, I cannot wait to be able to help. So 15 years ago, you said you were Sunday going Catholic.

Why? If you're going to go party and do goodness knows what, why were you attending Holy Mass? Because I knew God was real. When I was eight years old, actually not, I would say 13 years old, I was in eighth grade. I wanted to become the president of my Catholic grammar school, middle school, I should say. And I was running up against this really popular guy, and he was giving out propeller hats. and I went to my mom and I said, Mom, I really want to be president of her school,

but I'm not that popular compared to this guy. What could I do? How could I compete with propella? Exactly. And then she told me, she said, okay, here's what you do. You take your rosary. You go to the Blessed Virgin Mother,

the statue we have in her house. You kneel in front of her. You offer her, you ask for her intercession, but you offer to her that you will do something in honor of her and her son. And if it is her will and her son's will, that this would be good for your soul. Yeah. And good for you.

What a good mom. That's a great mom. She said, then she will bless it. She will intercede for you and acquire it. So I did. That was that evening before. Yeah. And I did.

And I offered something very specific to our Blessed Virgin Mother. The next day I won. And I'll tell you, that's what put me, our blessed mother took me so deeply. She wanted me to know that she was not only with me with the whole world, but she was part of my life and that she listened to me and she was going to be there for me. And it changed my whole relationship with God.

I didn't know her son, but I did know the Blessed Virgin Mother. Yeah. And she stayed with me even when I was in my darkest moments in Hollywood. I even asked her help to hold my hand during the times that I was going to enter into SEM more deeply because I trusted that she would help me get out of it when, quote, unquote, I was ready. And she never forsaked me, nor will she forsake any of her children. And I can testify to that because I'm here only because of her intercession. But I would think as people, you know, you can't live in both sin and grace, as it were. And so if you're plunging yourself headlong into sin, why not at some point?

I think that's actually one of the effects that Aquinas says that lust has. He's quoting Gregory and he says it's a hatred of God. And I think it's a hatred of God because God is demanding something and we despise him for demanding that thing. Was there ever a temptation to just abandon the Catholic faith altogether or at least to stop going to Holy Mass or no? Yes. at the last, when my father passed away, there was about these two years that I, it was too much.

So I was running businesses. There was a time where I had to take care of him at home when he had pancreatic cancer. I had to hook him up to all the machines. And my mom was having a hard time with it. So there was a lot of pressure on me. And then I was running companies and I was also helping him with his estate,

which I made many mistakes during that time. because I was dealing with a family and their estate and all these different things. And when I got back to Los Angeles after my dad passed away, I literally was in my room and I told, our Lord, very honestly, it's always speaking up to,

and even saying our Lord, to God, because I didn't have a relationship with Jesus, to God the Father, because I felt that was my connection. And I told him, I said, I'm going to take a break. I'm going to get all this stuff out of my system. and when I'm done, I'm coming and come back.

Okay. He respected it. But I also, at that moment, saw and felt the Holy Spirit come out of me because he couldn't be in a defiled temple. And out of my freedom and my will, I could see the release of that spiritual good that was in me. Not that he fully went away,

but he couldn't be with me in that respect because I willed it with my free will, not for him to be there. So my producer, I didn't really know who Paris Hilton was today. I knew she had a dog and that she had blonde hair. So, but she told me to, she told me this that you were like partying with Paris Hilton and the Kardashians and Demi Moore and lived a Beverly Hills lifestyle with luxury cars. And I mean, what, what, can you talk about the temptation to pride in all of that and where

you were during that time and, and, and, and, what. whether it was making you happy. Pride is my number one advice. It doesn't matter if you're converted or not. You should know yourself well enough to know where you gravitate to. So pride for me is where everything stems from because I oriented myself so much to the worldly life of power and money and fame and fortune. and it allowed me to puppet so many different things in my life, which I shouldn't be of been doing

because God himself is the one that is the master of that. So when I looked at my life, if I led with pride, if I led with my ego, then I knew that it would blind me enough to not see everything else around me. And so I allowed myself, to be overtaken by the demon of pride so then I could not literally but from a from a perspective of just putting tunnel vision putting my blinders on so then I would lead by

that and literally I have to tell you by leading like that I leading a life like that you attract other people that are on that same page because it's you're just magnetized to those people and you guys just get along so beautifully well. And so on the red carpet, in most cases, that's what you got. And that's what I wanted and I went for it. Yeah, it's such a dangerous place to be in, right? Because all of us, we have disordered desires. Disordered. But many of us don't get the opportunity to fully actualize them. That is to say, most of us aren't that attractive, quite frankly. Most of us aren't, you know, well, enough to make a lot of really stupid decisions to gain the world's attention.

I think it was, I forget the saint, uniformity with God's will. I forget who wrote that little book. Afonza, was it little glory? Whoever said it. They said, thank God. You should thank God regularly that you're not as attractive as you might be, not as rich as you would like to be because of all the mistakes and evil that you would commit if you were.

And it's easy, I think, for us and by us, I mean, people who are. who aren't in the limelight, aren't in Hollywood, aren't getting the sort of attention these people are getting to judge these people, to think we're better than them, to be like the publican who's, you know, oh, to be like the person who says, I thank God I'm not like this publican, yeah. Did I get that right? But I think, yeah, I just, I think that's just a good reminder. Like, first of all, we shouldn't be judging anybody. And secondly, if I would want to say to myself, if I'm judging these famous people, like, if you had that

kind of money and that kind of fame and those kind of opportunities, you'd probably be way worse. Yeah, yeah. I was asked recently also too that how would I do it different if I had, knowing now what I would have known then, but from a business perspective, if I would have asked God for his blessing at the gecko, just asking him for his blessing upon, my business planning and my creativity and my future. He wants to be involved in our lives to give us everything that we need now, as well as prepare us for eternal life with him in the future. So it's so interesting that the world projects this.

You must reject him to receive all of the pleasure and all of the rewards that you will be, so happy in. I'm thinking of the third temptation of Christ. Just bow down to me and I'll give you the kingdom. The kingdom and look of what you're going to receive and and it's complete, I have to tell you the truth. It is completely opposite of that. God is, will not only take care of you and everything you want now, but then you will prepare your soul properly with him. People think it's the opposite. it. The world is completely wrong. And he, whatever is good for your soul, he will grant you. And whatever isn't, he won't grant you. So if you have asked him something, after you

set it up like that, you know that God is guiding you in the right direction for your salvation. And, but the joy and the peace and the happiness is there. Because in most cases, it's not. Or it's fleeting. And so that's the difference that people need to know yeah so here's a quote from you i was vapid i had a perverse life my soul was in hell when did you realize that uh okay so everyone every human um as we're all god's creation are have received different gifts especially i can say this upon my baptism um i know that i was a little different because at a very young age, at age five is the first time that I was able to see a little bit of the

mysticism gift that God had given me. When I was at my height and I was at my Hollywood Hills home where I just renovated, I was partying, and I I looked around, and I noticed that I had everything. It was beautiful. I mean, the objects in the house and the curtains and the floors and... The people. The people. I just was like, I looked around and like, why am I not happy?

Why don't I feel fulfilled? Why don't I feel loved, even though I was loved all the time? And it's because I had given myself away, I had to get in my heart away to the world versus to my creator. And I just intuitively knew it. So I knew enough to, at that moment, speak to God the Father.

And this was in the silence of my heart. I looked up to the ceiling and I said, God, if you created me just to be successful and to make money and to be a hedonist and to repeat, why did you create me? Why did you create the human race? Because a lot of us do this. Why did you do this?

Because I'm not happy. And I don't know how to be happy. But I do know that I want to become the man that you created me to be, but I can't do it without your help. And that was my prayer. It was so sincere. And this is while people are milling around you, drinking, talking. Everything. And all of a sudden, and just to answer your question, I had to preface it this way, that in a mystical way, the entire roof, the entire ceiling of my house,

kind of disappeared. It kind of evaporated. And what I saw was eternity of eternity and eternity meeting. And then what I saw come into my peripheral view is St. Michael the Archangel. Now, two weeks before that, he was outside of my office window in my house, standing guard. He's about two stories tall, the most beautiful creature you could ever put your eyes on. You were aware of him prior to this moment? I was aware of him, but I just thought I was exhausted. I thought I was hallucinating a little bit because I was working so hard, I was parting so hard. I was both ends.

I'm just pushing myself so hard. So I just thought, I can't, and it was just constant. Now, at one point, I looked at him and I said, who are you? I remember telling myself that in the office when I was looking outside the window and he looked at me and he he nodded at me, but then he looked right at me and he just went straight up looking back to God, right up to the heavens. A lot of people were taught that they should pray. Far fewer people were taught how, and that's obviously an important distinction. Imagine telling someone they should work out but never showing them what exercises to do or telling someone that they should learn another language but never teaching them a single word of the language. Prayer can feel like that. We know we're supposed to do it, but we're not always sure what to do once we sit or kneel down. And that's one reason I recommend hallow. If you're brand new to prayer, there are guided sessions that walk you through everything step by step.

And if you've been Catholic your whole life, you'll find rosaries, Lexio divina, examinations of conscience, saint reflections, and so much more. Wherever you're starting from, hallow helps you actually begin. Because prayer isn't about performing for God. It's about spending time with him, communing with him. If you'd like to grow deeper in your relationship with God, visit hallow.com slash Matt Frad and get three months free. That's hallow.com slash Matt Frad. We talk a lot on this show about living with integrity. Integrity means more than believing the right things. It means bringing our actions into alignment with our beliefs. And that's not always easy, but sometimes it's surprisingly simple. Take your phone service. You're already probably paying for it. But what if that monthly bill could help support organizations, defending life and strengthening families. That's exactly what Charity Mobile does. Charity Mobile provides nationwide coverage, affordable plans, no contracts, and customer service staffed by ProLife Americans. And every month, they send a portion of what you pay to the Pro Life Pro Family Organization you choose.

For more than 30 years, that simple idea has generated literally millions of dollars in support for organizations doing important work across the country. It's a practical way to buy the way you believe. Visit charitymobile.com slash Matt Frad and use code Matt Frad to get a free phone with every new line plus free activation and free shipping. That's charitymobile.com slash Matt Frad. When that happened when he came into my place, he suspended time. So it felt like everything else around me stopped, but I was still functioning and alive and still still. you know, actioning in my, in my steps. And he then gave me immediately the grace of looking at my soul.

It was kind of like an illumination of conscience where he showed me where I was at in hell. And I'm sure you've heard this and you've read this a lot where there's seven castles in heaven or seven different. And then adversely, everything perversely. Mm-hmm. In hell, there's also that seven layers. And for me, what I saw was I already had a position in place in hell.

I also saw all the demons that were around me that were ready to chop on the bit when I would arrive. He also showed me that everyone around me were being, that were already there, were torment. by the pleasures of the world that they loved. So whatever pleasures, perverse pleasures or deficiencies that they had were the same torments that were used on them for eternity. This is what Faustina says also. It was horrific. Can you say more than that? Or is it, as you say, you said it was a mystical vision.

So are you seeing this as if it's happening and you... It was literally I was in it. It was physically there. I should have died based on the horror that I saw. Animal heads and bodies of humans. And it was just her, it's beyond. The sad part is that we live in a world in Hollywood that takes the reality of the demonic world

and projects it like it's, fantasy. And it's not. A lot of it's not because there are a lot of interpretations that come directly from inspiration, from demons to the, to the industry. So I saw that for the reality of what it was and it was just, it was horrifying. And the only way I could keep stable in that second was through the power of St. Joseph's hand, just keeping me conscience, I guess you could say, you know, because I just wanted to expire, literally die, because it was just too much for me. Upon that, he then allowed me to see how my decisions affected the reality of the world that I was living in. So while I was there, he also showed me how my decisions and my sin affects my living

on earth. And then he showed me how I was walking on earth, kind of like a zon. because of my sin were so great that I had darkening of intellect, like Aquinas would say. So my dark, that darkening of my sin was so great that it darkened my reality of my perception of reality. And so I was walking with people that were already on the road to perdition. I was allowing all of these people and portals. I opened up all these portals in my life that were causing so much havoc and reach. havoc in my life willingly, not knowing, just out of sheer stupidity for my hedonistic life.

And so upon him seeing that, I was just, I just, I couldn't even put it in perspective. It was just too much. It was just too much for me. But it was the reality of what I was at. And it was such a grace from God to utilize the most correct. courageous and powerful of angels and to be able to support me in this in this way to show me the truth. And upon me getting to a point where I just felt like I just needed to get out and just jump, just like I can't do this anymore.

It was another grace from God that St. Michael understood that. And then he allowed me slowly to come out of that situation. And he then took his wings And he then raised him out Which for two feet tall Story tall Is that what you mean? Two feet, sorry, two story tall angel

His wingspan Was the size of a football field And when he used the tips of his wings He just barely moved them It exercised the entire house Now, I did not know, based on my behavior, I did not know that you open up all these portals to bring in all the evil when you do something bad. When you open up your door, it's literally like that. So for me, he showed me the reality of our world, our spiritual world.

And all the amount of demons just like a tornado came in and just went out and up. And the whole place I could sense and feel its light. in peace return. And I was like, what did I do? What did I do? You know, what have I done? Was there any part of you that thought I'm tripping or I'm drunk or this isn't authentic? I, no, no, because I wasn't.

I wasn't drunk. Okay. I, it was more real than myself. Mm-hmm. And there's no way you could, you could, there was no hallucinogenic. aspect to this. After that happened, I looked at him

and he then nodded at me and this is a man you don't want to mess with. He is not, this is not a jolly, this is not your guardian angel, love, embrace and I've had this fortune to get to know mine. This man is business.

This man, man is the one that cast down Lucifer. This man is the one that keeps check. He's the prince of the church. He's the prince of this world. He's the one that keeps it in check. And so when he then started to depart and from a mystical perspective, the ceiling came back and realized itself again to where it was at, I was so horrified. And I felt, like I was out of breath and like, tell me, just beat the heck out of me. How long do you think that actually took place? I honestly, based on where I returned, it looked like not even a second. Because you said it felt like it paused. It just felt like it paused. Like just he just had control of the matter and the elements and everything.

He just had that control. He was given that power. And so when I returned, I immediately kicked out everyone. Tell me how that happened. So you stand up. I literally stood up and said, get out of my house. Wow.

It's done. We're done. Hey. I just. How many people were there? Enough. Enough. Okay.

And how did they react? Thought that I just needed to calm down and just kind of take a, whoa. Take a, just take a step and now like, but what I did is I, I, I fervently kicked everyone out. I grabbed a bag. I packed up my clothes. I locked up my house. I went down to the bottom of Hollywood Hills where I was at.

Checked into the hotel at the bottom of Wilshire and La Brea. And I checked into the hotel. And I went, started walking toward my room with my bag. And God then I could feel the grace. that he had just given me that second and I felt a remorse just an utter remorse and my entire body

of my fabric of my being and when I got to my door which was walking down the hallway going east to the right at the very end I just fell to my knees and I just started bawling and I never cry

I just am not wired that way and I just remember bawling and saying this is not the man my mom and dad raised. This is not the man God created. This is not the person I'm supposed to be. And I was just constantly, I was hyperventilating. And at that moment, I looked up and then,

again, same time frame. This is all happening within an hour of each other based on what I can remember piecing together the reality. And all of a sudden I looked up on my knees, there was this beautiful golden portal circle that just radiated and opened up right in front of me again just like it happened to my house

and through it I could see some semblance of a city something to that effect in the back way in the back but then I saw two figures coming toward me which were all in white just like St. Michael was he was all in the white. He was all white. He was like a painted on. His armor was like painted on. It was just

perfect. It was muscular. But two figures coming in from this portal, it was all radiant and white. And one of them was leading the two. Everything in my body, every fabric in my being, everything that I had knew. It was yearning. It was telling me that this was my creator. Everything in me like, this is your creator, this is your creator. And I was just like, I have never had that feeling like my whole body wants to be absorbed by this, by this man that's walking toward me. And I knew intuitively that was Jesus, but I didn't have a relationship with him. And the man that was next to him was my, was a man that looked like Elvis Presley. Okay.

But it wasn't. And soon after I was staring at him for a couple of seconds, I figured out that he looked like my father when he was young. Because my dad looked like Elvis Presley when he was young. And so my dad, Jesus brought my father because he knew my father was my best friend. And Jesus then came up to me and they were above me. of course they were both above me and Jesus smiled at me

like son like hi I love you I'm so happy you're here I'm so happy that you this feeling didn't say any of those words but it was just like I'm so happy

you're here right now you're asking for my help you're asking you're repentant you want to change he felt I felt that from him and my dad didn't say anything it was just next to him on his on his left. And I then, he then said to me,

are you willing to finally accept your vocation that I've, that I asked you at 10 years old? And then he showed me when he did, when he, and he gave that vocation to me when I was 10 with my mom and my sister's in mass. My mom turned to me and said, do you want to be that man on the altar with those beautiful robes helping people?

And I was like, oh, no, mom, and told my sister, oh, no, that's not for me. But he brought me back. But then he just showed me all the mercy and love that he just had forgiven me from. And that he gave me the opportunity to do his will finally. So I, when you know that you should have been, you should have died a long time ago, you should have been already sent to hell. you should there's there's no out of justice at a sheer justice that's this how it would have been and somebody takes you from that spiritual gutter and brings you back to life you will do anything

for that person but it wasn't just that it's just like I truly knew love from him I could feel it I could sense it and I told them with all my heart yes but and I sort of bawling again but how can you I am so dirty I'm so sinful There's no way you can use this. No one's going to take me seriously. No one's going to, and I was talking to him like this. And he loved it because I was telling him the truth. And he was just like, I am God.

I can do anything. I can change anyone. I can work with anything. I can sanctify anyone if they allow me their yes. And I said yes. And then at that moment he showed me what he had planned for me in the future. of my vocation from that point on. And he'd let me know that I would be,

I would have a very difficult time for quite a while to purify. But he would be with me and that he would not forsake me. And that he promised me that he would take over for where my dad left off to continue to be there for me and to raise me. And oh my goodness, he's never doubted. He's always been with me. He has never forsaken me. forsaken me. But that process, and that was about three years before he entered into formation, was the hardest three years of my life. Now, after he showed me that, my father walked over to my right, he put his left hand on my right hand shoulder. Jesus went and turned, we all faced the same way, which was facing east after I had plenty of time to think about this, facing east, facing the godly Jerusalem, right? And Jesus put, his hand on the right, as in the right, as in the sheep.

And they prayed for me, that moment together for my vocation, for the sanctification of my soul. And soon after that, after I went to adoration. Can I just ask real quick, why was it important that you left your house that night? Because I could imagine kicking everybody out of the house and going to bed. Why did you feel I need to get out of this house? Because during the time that St. Michael showed me, that house was a den of sin. It was, he showed me how what I allowed, what I entered into, what I opened up by allowing people to enter into the house.

All of the things that I did, it was every room, every place, everything was, it just reminded me of the person that I didn't want to be that I was. And so there was no way I wanted to be. I didn't care if St. Michael exercised it. I didn't want to even touch that place. And I just finished remodeling it. So it's like, again, the humor of God. You know, it's like... And so I remember that just, you know, being there and then praying for me

and then them walking back up toward the heavenly Jerusalem and then the portal closing back, everything coming back into perspective. And that was the start of my purgation. and that was the start of my journey to where I'm at today. So you said between then and... That's a long answer. Sorry. I wish it were longer.

I found it fascinating. So, no, it was... That's the truth. I mean, it's like, I don't care what people say. That's just the straight. Yeah, I mean, were you afraid that people would look at you like you were crazy if you started telling them this story? Absolutely. And they did think that.

They did, yeah. And who did you tell? I mean, are you telling friends who aren't Christian? Are you telling your parents? I was, I initially told my family first, and they thought that I was having a breakdown. Okay. And are you telling them with the kind of new enthusiasm, the enthusiasm of a new Christian? Actually, no, it was enthusiasm of a scared man running from the demonic.

That's what happened because God had to unleash his justice on me because he is a just God. So that means that out of his just love, he must. enact justice. And so he allowed me to be tormented by all of the demons that I allowed into my life from my own freedom. So he reversed it. So for many years, I was tormented to get to a point where I understood the reality of what I was dealing with and how I could help him and assist him. Have you heard of St. Mary of Egypt? No. St. Mary of Egypt was a prostitute, I think for about 17 years. And she had a profound encounter with, I think, a first class relic of the cross heard the voice of God and went out into the desert. And she says that she had a time of, I think

it was 17 more years of dealing with the demons until, I guess she was free of that. I don't really understand that, but just what you said reminded me of her story. Oh, yeah. No, there's no Nurt's doubt, yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, please. I want you to talk about that, but did you go to, when did you go to confession after that? And what was that experience like? It was.

I'm sure you took it a lot more seriously. It was literally the next day. It was the same night day, you know, because it was late. So I checked into the hotel early morning. Okay. And so I went to confession that late morning, early, early afternoon at St. Victor's, which is down the road. Yeah.

And I remember that the priest, I scared, I was, I was so tormented during that moment by all of the afflictions that was going on around me that the office manager knew that I was going through something. And he literally grabbed his Bible and held his Bible in his hand and said, just wait for the priest. Wow. And. Wow. So when you say you were afflicted, can you expand on that? Yeah, it's just, you know, when the devil, I remember when the devil lost his hold, I remember hearing in my ear him screaming no, no, as in he's losing my soul.

Because God was claiming it back. And so when we give ourselves over to whatever it is that is our vice, we are allowing the those demons to come into our life from a literal perspective. And so when I rejected them and then I started to try to walk in that way, which is really quickly, immediately after that, that God, again, at his justice, allows the inverse to then purify you. That was at least my case. Right.

Not to torture, but to discipline and to heal. He is such a good God. He has his hand. even during that process, he only allows what you can handle. And I could have, he really, I allowed it. But I was in my, I, I was at my edge all the time because of, of his hand. But he needed me to know that this is what I needed to go through and that I needed to know the truth. So out of the vocation to be sanctified and to be holy, I need to be.

be able to help people get back from these types of situations in the future based on me trying to be a holy priest based on his graces. And so it was something. It was, it was, it was, the priest came in. Yeah, tell me about that. He sat next to me. I even told him in the confession. I said, look, there's one right now. And he saw it and he's like, he saw it? He saw it? He looked around. He's just like, he went like this. And he said, God, God allowed it. So he didn't think that I was crazy. So God allowed it. And he just was beyond himself.

He was just like he was a vicar. So he was all brand new and he didn't want to deal with this. And I was sitting there. And he asked me for my confession and I just gave it to him for all my sins. And I just went and I just was trying to do a general confession real quick. But I was not in the right space. And I just was verbally vomiting everything out. and he once he gave me absolution

and he touched my head it was like a boom this spiritual bomb that radiated off me it was like him touching me and it was like boom you could just feel averberation and it wasn't that that purified me it cleared me up no no no no it just

set me on I was I was cleansed I received my penance but now I was on on the right track. And I immediately went from there. I wanted to get away from that parish because I even didn't want to bring on to that parish, kind of like Joan again, bring on to that boat,

you know, all of the, you know, the curse. And I went to an adoration chapel at Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills. I remember all of this. And I went into the chapel and I went inside and I knelt down in front of, the blessed sacrament and my most holy angel

was there next to me guiding me through the process because he knew God knew that I needed help to be put in a situation that's when I first met him and that's the journey that I then called that same day

to my sister in Idaho to see if I could just take a break and come to her house okay and that's what happened so you flew over or? Flew over and I had I called my and like what sort of

work responsibilities or business responsibilities did you currently have? I was just launched. I had put so much money into Scott Vinson Borba, Inc. Okay. It was an enormous amount of product development I did. I was just ready to launch it. And I put everything on hold. And I had warehouses filled with different products for different brands.

and I just kind of ceased, put everything on pause, and I called over to my real estate agent, and I asked her to put up my properties. Did you ever go back to that house? No. No. Wow. I had everything done. Because you said you packed a bag, but presumably there was a lot more there that you wanted, or no?

I just didn't go back. Okay. I just had, she had a moving company, she had a staging company come in, she sold it, everything was done via email and phone. That's nice for them walking into a freshly exercised house. Yeah. Praise God. That's the only way I would have sold it. I even told my real estate agent what was going on and she just said, let's not talk about this.

City one. And then I called my money manager up and I told him what was going on. And did you say everything? No, I, I, I, I, I, with some people you were circumspect about how much that, which is prudent. But he immediately abides me. He wouldn't do anything out of prudence. He, he, he didn't have to. I could have forced him, but he, he said, absolutely not. I'm going to make you think about this. And you're going to, we'll get back. You taught, what did you say to him? What did you instruct him about your finances?

I asked him to divest my whole portfolio, which inclusive of all of my accounts and my, and my, my, you know, Can I ask how much that was worth? A lot. Okay. And enough. Enough. Yeah. And he just advised me that I worked my entire life for this and that it would be completely difficult if I ever, if I went back to zero and to try to do it again.

And that he advised me that I worked all my life to get to this level and that this is my future and my retirement. And what did you say? I told him that day that don't be an obstacle or a hurdle for me to do God's will. But out of respect for you and for what you've done for me in my career, I will step back and think about this and put in perspective. But that was my initial calls to them during this process. Do you have friends from the party or friends from your life texting you, calling you, what's going on? Where are you? What happened?

Yeah, I had to change my number real quick. Why? Because it was just like that. But why wouldn't you want to interact with them? Because... Forgive me if that's a stupid question. No, not at all. It's every question is a good question.

It's because all the people I had in my life, 90-some percent of them that were texting me in that way or calling me. They all were on the wrong road. Okay. They're all in the wrong space. And if I continued to communicate with them, it would bring me back. slowly to a person that I knew God would not allow and God made it very clear to me that once I got off the track He put a very short leash on me and he still has it on me Very short leash that any time I'm off that path

He's going to allow whatever to come back in and get me right on the right path and so and he made that very clear over and over again That must have been liberating to change your did you change your email and phone? I changed email I Oh phone My dress I went to Walmart I went to Walmart and bought normal clothes

Because what kind of clothes Were you wearing before Dolce and Gabana Hugo Boss Ralph Lauren Um Louis Vuitton bags and shoes

And Gucci this And Yeah And your car was back in Beverly Hills I had multiple cars Okay Yeah Yeah

And they were just sitting in a garage Somewhere Or sit in the garage Yeah Most of us have little daily indulgences. Maybe for you, it's whiskey on the back porch or a great steak. For me, it's having a cigar or a pipe every morning. I also really enjoy a good cup of coffee.

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Was she a practicing Catholic? Oh, my whole family. Okay, so they're praying for you. Oh. But I mean, that's a pretty profound experience. Yeah. To share that with the uninitiated would terrify them. But to share that with the initiated is still like, really?

Are you sure that happened? That's pretty wild. That doesn't happen to people. But because my siblings and my mother knew my lifestyle, they knew that this was happening because they knew that you couldn't live the way I lived. and not for it not to happen at some point in your life. Either to destroy you or for God to save you, one of the other. All right, so you go to confession and then you don't go back to your house.

So that day, did you book a flight? Yeah, I actually went, I was at a, in between that time, calling my sister, I was at a park bench. Park bench. Off of Wilshire Boulevard, and I, I don't know what street it was, but it was at a park. And I remember I was lying down there going, I'm not going back. Wow. And my sister was like, come get a flight, get over here. Yep. Get yourself here immediately.

And I said, okay. God bless her. Yo. Good sister. I have the best family. What was it like? Okay, honest question. What was it like buying Walmart clothes after wearing such beautiful clothes?

It was because I had. God fully invested in me and I was invested in him. He was always invested in me, but I was invested in him. I was horrified for my behavior of how I idolized all the material goods in this world. Yeah. So when I bought my first clothing at Walmart, I started crying. In Walmart? Yeah.

Because it wasn't the man. I was just a B. It was just... Yeah. You weren't crying because the clothes were so bad. That's a joke. I'm sorry. You're crying.

I shouldn't say that. No, no. It's so true. It's just... He's a terrible. No, it's... It says Chardonnay all day. What does that even mean?

It's just... It was just... I remember buying a jacket and sweats and... And socks and underwear and all that stuff. And praising God how happy I was. to bring the truth and reality into my life and to give me a second chance. Yeah. So it was the best feeling to put on that quilted puffy coat and to walk out with those items that I knew that were more me than what I was wearing before.

Yeah. And then how long were you with your sister and what was your routine like while you were there? So when I was there, just like a normal human behavior, I was, she was going through a tough time also too in her family. Poor thing. She's such a good mom. Such a good mother and wife and person. And I was there in conversion. She wasn't, she didn't flinch.

She'd put metals in my room and around the house. and she knew I was going through everything. She did. She should have. And she was such a strong person and her kids to allow me to come in. And I was just talking about it because I didn't know who to talk to. I thought I needed to shake, wake up from this and to get back to my old life. Not old life is in sin, but old life is in business because that all, I could just throw myself into work.

Yeah. And I can just forget about all this stuff. And so I was going through all those motions. and within a couple months, I bought a house in Idaho. Okay. And I was in there no more than a week and a week and a half. And our Lord made it very clear that he did not want me there and that I needed to go back to the diocese of Fresno.

And he gave it to me in a very big way. And I literally turned around. And I just leased out a warehouse to ship everything into. Yeah. And I had to then release it out to get out of my lease and then sold my house one in the week because our Lord was very specific that I made the wrong decisions that I was not going on the right path. And he promised that he would keep me in the right direction. And it was, I was just so stubborn, so headstrong. So in Spanish, like Dergo in like stubborn in Portuguese is.

like, I was just like an old pack horse. It was just, I wanted to stay in my old ways. Yeah. You know, so God had to take his omnipotent hand and use it on me many, many times to get me to be in the right space. So you had told your finance guy that you'll step back and think about it. What was the result of that thought process? He wanted me, he wanted, he wasn't, I don't think truly. worried about his commissions or yeah anything like that i i think that um he wanted me to understand that i could do good yeah right by keeping my finances um so did you keep the house and cars no okay so how did that so i had that work so once i got back to california i moved in my mother and i started taking care of my mother because my dad had passed yeah gave my sister stacey my

sister Stacy, so my sister standard was in Utah, my sister Stacy was in California, allowed me time to get a warehouse in my hometown to then transfer everything to a warehouse and then I was gonna start to just process and think. Yeah. And so that's what I did. I set up a desk in the warehouse

and I just started a process. Then I hired a person to help me with all of the inventory management of it, and then I just started to pray. I promised myself I would get up in the morning. I would go to the warehouse. I would just pray all day long while I was working, and which I did.

And that's when God came in and spoke to my heart and said, it's time for you to give. And inspired me, because I had multiple cars who inspired me, and you said, give one of your cars. Give one of your cars. Away or sell us? sell it. Yeah.

And give the proceeds. And so, of course, being myself, I started negotiating with God. Mm-hmm. Saying... Like Abram? It's just ridiculous. When you would think about it, it's just like ridiculous. But I did.

And I said, okay, Lord. How about this? Him me out. That's what I did. I said, how about I sell it? It was my Aston Martin. He wanted me to sell. So I said, how about I sell it?

give half to charity, and then I'll take the other half and buy a truck for my business. And then he immediately said, all of it. And I said, all of it? Why didn't need to? It's so much, so much money? Okay, forgive me. How much does a car like that? Oh, it's, well, my version was close to, that car close to $200,000.

Yeah, that'll be. Yeah, so he knew that, he knew me well enough, of course. to know that that would be the key to open up the floodgates. Yeah. So he used a prize possession of mine that I love so much to then open my heart for everything else. So I prayed before I did it, I prayed to our Blessed Virgin Mother

of where she wanted me to give the money. Yeah. And I was reading the book, Mary's Heart will triumph from Mariana Soto from Magigory from where our Blessed Mother has been appearing since 1981

Okay At the very back of her book It had this logo of Mary's Meals Yeah Which is, you know I have only good things to say about Mary's Meals And so my initial check I called over to

the head director and I said hey you know I'm going to be making a donation and she said okay sure and I told her and she said oh that's so wonderful I really appreciated it you know and and then she said let me set you up with a call with our founder that's fair and I said sure and then when I got to talk to him I just loved his story and he was helping out and he told him and he told told me the story and how it started with a shed and how our blessed mother has kept it going and flourished it. Well, blah, well, now has, because companies now managing all the different countries and helping so many different families continue the process of being able to grow their own food and sustain themselves. And, oh, my gosh. And I said, I think you'll probably begin another donation.

And he just said, yeah, great, no problem. You know, just let me know, call me up. So after that, as soon as I got done, I called over to my money manager and I said, liquidate everything. Liquidate everything. And then at that point, he knew not to push back. Okay. And he did. So it took some time to sell everything, the stocks and the bonds and the 401Ks and divest and this and that and the other.

It took a while. And every time he would transfer something over to my local bank. I then in return would send it out. So during that time, I would pray. And the first big check was from our Lord telling me where to give it. And that was during my first meeting with my vocation director at that time. Or one of my first meetings with him. And it was a large check that he wanted me to donate to St. Charles Borromeo Church,

which is in my hometown, which is the largest. North American parish church in all of North America. You'd like wonder like, why the heck is that happening and that being built in Vicelya of all places and the breadbasket of the world

just, right? Just random. Just like magic or just like where she paired everywhere, right? Like, and so as soon as I wrote that check, golly. And I gave it to them.

The deacon in the office came up to me and he said, are you sure you want to do this? And I said yes. And I started crying when I gave him the money and he took it. I had my check and he had the check. There's just this dude in Walmart clothes giving me a check. I don't know anything about it.

Right. And I actually started to rent a car also too. I rented a Nissan Centra from Hertz. And I started driving that around because I couldn't drive my cars anymore. Yeah. And was it at that point that you realized that regular cars suck or? No. That would be a difficult.

I've never driven a fancy car like that, but I would think that. Yeah. I'll tell you, there is something about how certain cards are made and other handmade and stuff. But it's so my Kia, I drive a little Kia right now, Kia Rio, 2018, it's been such a good little car. I know it's a joke to most people. How liberating, I'm sure that must have been. It's whatever fits in my Rio is what goes with me. Anything that doesn't fit in there in my life doesn't go with me.

So that's how I live now. Yeah, yeah. So it's just funny that after that check was made to St. Charles, I then opened a floodgate where then I identified other places I wanted to put my money into, which is the Bethlehem Center for the Homeless and for different organizations that help the poor, cancer patients that needed health clinics or helping to give hydration because I had products

that I could give for that. And cosmetics for the women that wanted to beautify themselves to give them some hope during the process of going through the cancer patients. Oh, man. That's beautiful. And then I called back over to Mary's Meals. And I said, I'm going to give you a big endowment. And he then willing to accept it, but then he also said, I need to tell you something.

I need to tell you that once this is done, you can't go back. Yeah. He said, so I don't want you to have remorse with this. That would be awkward. Just kidding. And he said, I don't want you suing me because you made a wrong decision trying to get the money back that I'm going to utilize in for. He was so gracious. God bless him.

And I started laughing on the phone. I said, I promise you, I won't do it. I know it's going to be hard. So I went to the bank, to Wells Fargo Bank, and I sat down with a teller. And the transactions were so large that it was the full amount for the for the, for the branch location for a day of all their transactions for a whole day. So they couldn't allow me to send what I wanted to send so we had to break it up into multiple days. And they had to stop transactions. They had to send other people to transactions or other locations.

Wow. Yeah, never been a problem. But was there, was there part of you that was scared? I mean, you're doing a beautiful thing and you're inspired to do it. And I'm sure it's all grace from God. And I'm sure. It's all grace. And I'm sure it's very liberating.

Was there part of you that's like, what? heck am I doing? Yeah, it was the lady that I gave the first transaction to. She looked at me and she looked right in my eyes and she said, I don't know if I could do, I could, I could do what you did, or what you're doing. Her name was Rose. We'll not forget it. And I remember everything coming to that day where I made the big one, the big, big ones, where everything could have happened traffic accidents lines that were out the door of a tiny little place that never had anybody in there i mean it was just like everything that possibly could happen were it was happening the days that i wanted to do this you know so i just knew that that was all these hurdles and obstacles coming

from the evil yeah this was god's will that this was god's will did you have and if this is too personal question tell me but did you have friends and family at this point being like like he's giving away money. I need money. I imagine that's quite a cross for someone with a lot of money having people who are just trying to suck up to you to take from you. My family was never like that. I had lots of different people in my life that were like that. I was a very giving soul. So I was very generous to most people. But my family never stood in my way of doing any of this. They never counseled me. They never counseled me against it.

That was a blessing because if they would have, I probably would have listened to them because I trusted them. But they never stood in my way because they knew was my salvation. They just knew it. And my family went through so much with me because of all that I was going through to transition my life from the secular world to the to priestly formation, and they saw the torment that I was going through, and the cocoon that God had put me in, and I was being refashioned, and I was broken, and they knew that God was piecing me back together, and it was very hard for them because they saw how painful it was, but they also knew that it was going to be new life with it when I entered or exited out to the other side.

So I was just speaking to Chandler, who is your... He is the director of communications and innovation for the Fresner Dioces. He's probably one of the best communication directors that I've ever worked for in my entire... Wow. That's high praise coming from the business world, huh? Yes, because he understands the church. He understands he's very close to God. So he's managing both aspects to make certain God's name is glorified and everything that I do. And it's so refreshing and so beautiful that I just had to say something about that. Nice. Well, he said, ask Father about how he was giving away his Louis Vuitton clothes to homeless people. So I'll be honest with you, I had to ask him Louis Vuitton to get that right.

Yeah. Can you tell me what that means? I guess this is really high-end clothing and bags, is it? Yeah, yeah. Louis Vuitton is like, in my opinion, was, not now, but before the, that's what I would spend my money on just to fill the void of happiness, just purchasing. I had a whole office full of boxes of Louis Vuitton bags and shoes. etc that whenever even open i would just go shopping just to just to feel good yeah and then i would just throw it into an office i see um but that's how because i was so void of of trying to obtain that love or that happiness from something so when you sold your house all that stuff was moved over somewhere

to ship was put into and honestly a lot of it i don't even know who made it okay honestly i just i really i took inventory of thought what I thought I had and I was just like, I'm missing a lot of stuff here. Yeah, right. Wow. All right, so tell me about what it's like to give these items to homeless people. How did, how did you do that?

So what happened was after I got rid of my Maserati, I went back home and I was so, I was so exceptionally elated. And I remember driving over to the dealership, And the bloods aversion mother appeared in formation of the clouds. And I just knew that she was so proud of me because of the inspirations that her and her son had given me that I'm actually executing on so quickly. It was just like zero to 60 because I didn't want to, I wanted to make up for lost time. And so I didn't want to wait.

I just wanted everything to be done now because that's how my personality is. I just wanted to. All or nothing, yeah. All or nothing. And so I got back home in that evening, my mom and dad or my mother had this beautiful house on the lake. And it's just gorgeous. And second floor is where we watched TV together. And that's where I had my room and I had two closets full when I moved.

I just had two rooms packed with stuff. Yeah. And I started to, she saw me going back and forth the whole time while she's watching the movie. She's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, I'm packing my car up with stuff I don't need. And she's like, what are you, what are you, what are you doing? Like, and I'm like, yeah, I don't need these suits anymore. I don't need this stuff.

And she's just like, what are you doing? You're like, I'll ask you one more time. And so I just said, mom, it's okay, it's okay. And then I packed my car up and then the next day I went to church. and then afterwards I went to which is called the Oval which is by St. Mary's Church and Vyselia which is part of the Good Shepherd Parish

which is my home parish and I went to the Oval where all these homeless are and tents and pitched and all that stuff and I come in I have lunch bags full of stuff I'm giving out lunches and then I come back with a whole bunch of designer clothing and I started to hand it out

And then all of a sudden, it was like somebody just rang the dinner bell because everyone around started to come. And then... And you're just, you have your car boot open, a trunk open? I just, no, I went to go into, because it was filled. My car was filled with it. So I just came in and started grabbing loads of it. And I, some guy, some homeless man, grabbed the Dolce and Gabonna coat.

And he's like, this is my size. okay, who's a large? Who's of this? Who's of that? And people were like, I'm this, I'm this, I'm not at it. And it was just, it was the most exuberant, exciting day. Because you should see these people. This is real, man.

This is real. Like, it was just, it made so many people happy. They had food. They had clothing. We were talking. We had fellowship. It was exactly what. what God wanted me to do is to give them things

that they couldn't obtain themselves right now, just give them a little bit of happiness and joy. And I made certain that everyone knew that this all came from Jesus Christ himself, that this was inspired by God himself to give to all of you that day. This was all a gift from him. And they were looking at me like,

Jesus is real? I'm like, he's more real than me and you together. other. And it was it was a perfect opportunity to evangelize and to and to show the love of God that he can use an instrument to give his, to share his love that you feel with others. Can I make a confession? The older I get, the less interested I am in content and the more interested I am in wisdom. That's not much of a confession. That was more of a brag. But you get the point. There's no shortage of Catholic content today. Podcasts. videos, social media posts, tweets, hot takes, but wisdom requires something slower. It requires

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org and get your tickets today. So you entered seminary in 2021. I mean, and at 48, yeah? So that's, that's a 40, I think 45, I'm 50. Oh, okay, sorry. So I think so. I think around there. Around 45.

Yeah. So that's not common, right? A lot of people who enter the seminary enter much younger. Can you tell me what it was like going to the, I don't know, who did you go to the vocations director to say, I think I have a vocation? How did that work and how did they react? especially when they knew your story. So what happened was I started discerning when I was in my warehouse

and I knew God wanted me to start. There was a holy man named Father John Farrow that my family, my beautiful cousin, Teresa, connected me up to. And he started the process of spiritually directing me. And his best friend was Father Gary Thomas, which is my current spiritual advisor, these men are the most holy of men that I've ever met in my life.

And they knew that God was working with me, but they knew I needed to be cleaned up. So they're both exorcists, and so they knew how to help me with the deliberation prayers and to get the shackles of these to make certain that all of my sins were rectified that, yeah.

Sorry to interrupt you, but I mean, before that point then, how did they judge whether or not they would accept you? What was that process? You have to go, you have to sign up to your point. You had to sign up with a vocation director in your diocese. The vocation director then puts you into a period of time where you are with other men who are also discerning the priesthood. So you go to a monthly meeting where then you read scripture,

you share, you talk about God. You talk about the future. You talk about where you're at. The initial meeting starts off with the vocation director and yourself, and you're supposed to give an account of your life. And then he then invites you to discern or not to discern. And so he can either turn you away or invite you in for the discernment process, not to go directly to seminary.

Now, my brother that was also discerning with me at my home parish, received that invitation to go right to seminary that same day. I was not because my vocation director knew that he didn't want me to backslide and he wanted me to make certain that this was the correct thing. So to your point, when I went to him, it was the time of me trying to figure things out and I was very much still of the world and this was before I gave my clothes to the homeless. I actually put on my best suit For the meeting

For the meeting I took my Maserati that day I had my hair slick back And I went to his office Thinking, thinking But I was doing the right thing That I, that this is what normal This is what everyone does

You look good Right? You're presenting your, you're putting your forward You know the best Your foot forward So he opened the door up And my car was parked right in front of his door He looked at me.

He said, oh my gosh. He said, I have so much work to do. That's literally what he said. You were like, thanks? I was deflated. I was all puffed up and ready to go and I'm going to go be a priest for God. I'm going to do this. And he was just like, oh my goodness.

And then he entered in. And now before I went to the meeting, I was a daily mass goer at this time, confession every week and I try to still stay on that week to 10 days max two weeks and so I promised God

I told him I promised our Lord because now at this point I had a relationship with Jesus I knew the truth and so I promised Jesus I said

I'm going to tell my vocation director Father Dan Avila which is a he's a beautiful man very hard on me but I needed to have some that was going to guide me in that way. But he told, I told, I promised our Lord that I would tell him the truth. And what I did is I told him every aspect of my life from my spirituality on God's hand,

mystically being part of my life to my sins, everything, down to everything. What I did, how I did it, what I've used, everything. he it was a three hour plus conversation he told me in his 13 or 14 years of being a vocation director he said he had never once had a man come in and be that transparent for their life he said it usually takes five or six times before they open up because they and now trust but i told him i said that's not how god wanted me to be he wanted me to lay it on the table so you could make the decision if you wanted to allow me to enter into his church

because I did not want you to come back or the bishop or the church global to come back to me and say, if you would have told me these things, you would have never become a priest. So I wanted the church to make the decision and you're the lock to and the key to this church. And so he then sent me to,

he rightly so sent me to St. Luke's, which is this beautiful place where people can go for counseling and healing within the church. And he had me tested to make certain that I was psychologically fit, that my spirituality was real, that my vocation and my conversion was real, that I wasn't manufacturing these things, that I wasn't, going to be putting the church in a position where it would be challenged by any of my past behaviors or if I was actually willing to move forward knowing that I would have to change my life so dramatically and drastically. Wow. What was that experience at St. Luke's like? How long did it last?

It was. Must have felt like an interrogation? It was. They were beautiful people. Yeah. But it was a hardest three days of my life. Really? Even more than my death of my father was hard, but that was a really hard time because God wanted me through my vocation director to lay down everything at the foot of the cross.

So they were asking me specific questions about my history that either I would have to be transparent about or not and live with that the rest of my life. So these questions were so, so very confidential, but very, very, very hard to communicate. And I remember. And is it sort of understood that you will be very transparent? You're supposed to be. I mean, you're there because they're trying to qualify you for everything. And so either you give God, which you're supposed to give them or you don't. And I'm not going to be that man.

It's going to be like that. And people who know me know me to know that I won't do that. I've had my hard times in life, but I'm an honest man. And like you say, if you're going to be accepted into seminary and eventually ordained a priest, it's like, well, then I'll tell you everything. Either have me or you don't have me, but I don't want to hide parts of my life. No. And I told him everything.

And I remember there was one thing that was so deep, deep, deep that I was asked in a meeting. and I just evaded the question. And I went to the chapel that evening at St. Luke's. And I knelt down in front of the, of our big, huge picture of our Lady of Guadalupe in the chapel. And I prayed, and I prayed to her blessed mother. And I said, Mom, and I call her Mom. And my mom knows that when I say Mom, it's to the Blessed Mother.

And when I say Mama, it's my mom. Okay. It's my. knows it. She raised me like this. So that's my mother. My Blessed Virgin Mother is my mother. Yeah. So I was crying to her because I didn't tell the most important thing to answer the question. And I started crying to her saying, Blessed Virgin Mother, I know that you want me to place everything at the foot of the cross, but this is, this is going to kick me out. This is, I'm not going to be their priest. If I say this, then it's going to kick me out. I know it and I started crying and said,

but all I want to be is a good holy priest. I need your help. I need your help to have the strength to tell me to tell them the truth. And then I said, I said, I need your help to do this because it is not fair to you. It is not fair to God. it is not fair to me if we move forward and I am not the priest

that you desire me to be and our blessed Virgin Mother spoke to me and told me that she was with me and she gave me the grace I needed

to immediately walk out pick up a phone that was right outside the chapel and call over and this was after hours and I left a message with the psychologist that asked me the question. And I just said, hi, this is Scott. I wasn't able to answer your question, but I want to actually answer it now.

And I'm going to leave it for you on this message. So you knew that I wasn't going to move backwards on this, and we can talk about it tomorrow. And I went, blah, blah, blah, and I went, and that was it. And I went back, and I couldn't. and sleep that night. I went back the next day. He called me in.

He sat me down. He asked me to go through it specifically. He asked me to answer any specific questions with it. Then I just, I was in silence. And he was in silence after I answered. And then I asked him the question. I said, what is your thoughts? And he said, you want me to tell you the truth?

And I said, of course. No, I would you lie to me? What are you thinking I'm asking for? And then he said to me, I will put all of my money on you. I will put all of my money on you. And I said, what are you saying to me? He said, I'd rather have a man that's going to be a priest to tell me the truth so we can work out a plan to work on what you need to work on so you can heal.

So you can be the priest that you are committed to be for Jesus Christ. Then a man that's going to tell me something that I want to hear. Never work on it. never heal, and then to harm the church, and to harm our Lord. And he said, I will tell this to your vocation director. Now, on the call, I remember my vocation director, probably thinking that I was going to be rejected. Oh, yeah. And I remember the whole team, there was a whole team of seven people, I think, around there that all had their time with me, that all were communicating to my vocation director on this conference call.

Was it just like being stripped naked? It was like, it was like none other. I've never been through this my life. I've always been put on pedestals. And this one, I felt like it was lower than lint. You know, so it was just a place where I had to go. And I remember my vocation director saying, tell me what's going on.

And then they told them, they all said the same thing what I just told you. And he was just like, I don't know about this. And he had every right to feel that way. The vocations director? And then I then had the courage at that point to say, if this isn't right for you I totally understand

and agree with it but I know my vocation is real and I've placed myself on the line of being honest and I will find a home to live out my vocation with Christ and when I said that that's what changed the conversation to opening everyone's heart

including my vocation director to give me a chance and that's when I started, that's when soon after I entered into formation. Wow. Because I was willing to fight for the truth. I bared my soul. I was transparent about my life. And I was going to be a witness of God's mercy and love to everyone I meet.

And that is what I wanted to showcase to them and to my vocation director. But I also wanted to make certain. that I knew, that they knew, that I needed to be consistent with my life, that they needed to see this consistently throughout my time of information to know that I was truly the man that I was now convicted to be through Jesus Christ. Praise God. Can we talk about the sin of vanity? I mean, you've founded a ginormous cosmetic company. What is the sin of vanity and how should we be on guard against it?

well what do you what do you mean by vanity yeah vanity vanity is um before I understood when I

my intention for creating my companies all were beauty related was to create little mini celebrities that was my whole

idea is I could if I could give them if I could make them look and feel like they were more worthy of what they thought that they

were, that they would buy into the brands that I would create. So what I was doing was inviting them to be prideful, to idolize themselves and to idolize celebrities and to idolize the companies that they're buying, the brands that they were buying and making gods of other things outside of God himself. So when I was at seminary my first year, I remember going to the concert that we had, it was a fundraising concert

where all the seminarians would sing at Mount Angel. I remember one of the seminarians came up to me in the lobby area before we went on stage. And I can't sing. And he randomly came up to me and he said, you know, I wanted to tell you I always stayed away from skincare and stuff like that because it just brought vanity to my life.

And I just wanted to let you know that. Cool. Thanks. Thanks, man. As soon as he said that, he walked off. It was right after he said it, he walked off. He could tell he wanted to get it off his chest. And then God enraptured me again in that, in that forever length of time it was,

and showed me from a vanity perspective on how many of people that I brought in to that sin. Okay. With the products that I created, it was, it was, there was so many people. I couldn't even see how far in any direction that I could see, how, where it ended. And I got so sick that I almost wanted to throw up.

and he wanted me to know that that sin is what warranted me hell. That sin is because I brought so many people to pride and to idolization outside of him and his love and his mercy and what the truth was for the world that I would be doing penance for the rest of my life because of it. And that's one of the reasons why our Blessed Virgin Mother in the very beginning asked me to become vegetarian is to give up meat for the reparation of my sins

and also to also do penance for my brother priests because I personally asked her Blessed Mother after she told me that I wanted to do it forever because I knew of the effects of having penance based on trying to reconcile your life. And after I figured out the vanity aspect and how hilarious it was, I knew now that I had to tell the truth

to people that there's no problem of utilizing and making yourself look and feel better. Okay. There's no problem with that. That was going to be my question. No. The young woman out there is like, Should I not be wearing makeup?

No, there's no problem with enhancing your outer beauty. No. But you're not to idolize it. You're not to present yourself in a way that is projecting what you're not. You're not trying to look and feel like a celebrity. You're not trying to take away the aspects of drawing people in because you're trying to utilize your sensual skills to, to, you know what I mean? I would love your take on this because I know, actually we should point this out.

We're speaking about vanity and makeup. We're under bright lights here. And so I have makeup. You do not. You're like, I'm good. Thank you, which I love. I don't know much about makeup. I suppose, I know nothing about makeup, but I guess it's come a long way.

Yeah. And sometimes I'll see a woman. without her makeup and I'll go, oh my gosh, you're a completely different, that's a completely different face. Yeah. So here's just an honest technical question I'm actually interested in. Is that because of the advancement of makeup and how we have played it? Or has it always been that way and I didn't know it? Or do you know? No, no, no. It's back in the day with silver screen, based on the information and knowledge I have, they had beautiful makeup artists that, that, for big screen, that would be able to, you're literally paint,

it's like a painter, an artist. An artist would come in that actually had artistry skills that would use the actual makeup, the colors, to paint a picture on the face of a human. And so they would be creating a photo, looking at a photo, creating it on a person, and then that actress or actor would come out and act. So that's how it started.

Okay. The, the, What has happened throughout the years is once that took over and we started to have celebrities tell us what to do and what to wear and what to see, that and advancements of technology of making certain formulas act and work better, eyelashes and all these other things come into fruition, you started, we started to manipulate it. and perverse it again, just like with anything good. And so instead of trying to be, trying to create an art that stays with an art, we have now taken art and started to worship it. And so in the beauty world, by putting up a picture of your favorite celebrity and trying to be like that person is what most women would do.

And same with the guys. The guys looked, had their haircut and wore this or started to work out. and fit this type of character, then we would worship that and want to be the same because we know that that is being projected and that's what we want to become. And that's where we start losing ourselves. The devil knows that if he can take us in one direction

and get us off track, that's the crack that he can work and start to pull us in everything else. And slowly but surely we lose sight of reality. And that reality is what we are and who we are Jesus Christ. And that's that's the truth. I wonder though, like I hear what you're saying that there's nothing wrong with trying to enhance your appearance. A wife wants to be pleasing to her

husband and that's good. She shouldn't be trying to look pleasing to other men but to her husband. But I also think there's probably a line that you cross. There's a line you cross. Right. And that that must be a hard. I wonder then if we shouldn't be sort of, I don't know, like I'm not a woman. I don't understand the pressures on women to look a certain way. So I don't mean to speak into it callously, but I wonder if there needs to be just a gentle pushback about, you know, be brave enough to look the way you look. You know, my wife, who I love, you know, sometimes she wears makeup, sometimes she doesn't. And she doesn't, her personality doesn't change when she doesn't have makeup on.

She's a very confident, beautiful woman. And I think that's been a good example for my beautiful daughters. And I know for me personally, my girls are in their late teenage years now, when they're they don't wear makeup, I actually find them more beautiful. And I always tell them that, like, oh, you look so beautiful. Like, I don't want to shame them for wearing makeup either. Do you see what I'm saying? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's everything in life is based on what I know from the truth of our Lord and our Lady is about intention. But I don't want, let me preface that. Intention. Intention means my intention is not to present myself looking like the next X.

celebrity or the ex-singer or to be a mini-me of that. Yeah. My intention is not to utilize my wiles and or the femininity of a woman or etc. Or the or the muscularity of a man to try to to use another person with how they want to use them in the way of sexuality or to to lure them away in a way that. It's not going to be helpful for their unification of the relationship with God. So that's the intention part. But what I've noticed with myself and with what I have coming is that people think that being a good person is enough.

That my intention is to be a good person. And I am good to everyone. I do give to the Sunday collection. I am nice to people when I walk by. that's enough and that's not okay that's not enough and if we continue to layer these things we slowly start to chip away at who we really are and why we're on this earth and that earth and the reason why is to is to justify ourselves and to warrant heaven or hell to to to we're justified by God but he's giving us a chance on this earth to reject or to accept and that is we keep forgetting

what life is. And that's the point. That is the whole point is that I didn't understand that. I thought it was a fallacy. I thought it was complete. We think it's like maybe maybe life is the ramblings of the postmodernist where the journey is the destination. Or maybe it's a porno. Or maybe it's a like what is it? It's like. Yeah. And it's like no, no, it's a spiritual war. It's a spiritual war. And we are meant for friendship with the good God who wants us to be in friendship with him so that we can know him and spend eternal life with him. And it's like, oh, wow, that's the point. And all of a sudden, that changes how you look at your day and your future and your friends and family. There is no annihilation. Some people believe that you're just annihilated at the end of our death. No, no, God, even with the

angels that fell, their spirits live in demonic world forever. They go back and forth between heaven and earth they they what do you mean they have heaven and earth or hell and earth i mean depending on earth and i see earth and and uh i see hell and hell depending on yeah whether it's a fallen angel or exactly and so what what we don't understand is that god is all powerful and all creative he does not kill he he is not the author of death So when he creates, he creates. And in our souls, in our humanity, when he creates our soul, it will always be alive. It's just depending on where it lives for eternity.

And that is where we come in, in our freedom, and choosing that life. And so that is what I just truly didn't understand. I just thought being a good person, I was a big contributor to, and I was a spokesperson for Covenant House America. I was doing so much good, but I was living a life contrary to what I was projecting. Yep. And that's what a lot of people do in this world. They project one thing, and they live contrary to that. especially now with social media it's quite easy to project a certain way what should our relationship be with the industry hollywood and all the the sorts of things that you were involved in because you just spent some time talking about how you know we put these supermodels or these actors or actresses up and we

we kind of idolize it how should christians think of entertainment and engage with Hollywood and secular productions. Jeez. Every medium has been inspired by God's grace. So every good advancement in this world, God has created and inspired to do good with it. Right. We can pervert it, but... We can pervert it.

So, for instance, I believe that there is such a hunger right now for God. It's unsationable because... we are in a world that has never been like anything else in the history of human, humankind. We have never had advancements at technology. We've never had our phones where automatically you can dive into send any second you want at any part of the day for any age if you have access. There is so many perversions that are going on right now that are just seen as common

behaviors and normal in different societies. We have never had abortion like we've had ever in centuries past like we have now. The cup is overflowed from Christ so long ago. We are on bot time. And so we need to understand where we're at in this world. And Hollywood knows where we're at. if we as Christians and as Catholics specifically could push back to Hollywood saying give us content that is holy, that is sanctified. Passion of the Christ, the chosen.

David, the House of David, I mean, so many good shows that are just, oh my wonder project shows mostly are good. I mean, these are things that are all rated so high and are so. viewed. But yet we get a plethora of content. Filth. Yeah. And so all we have been doing for so long is conditioning the soul to want more and more of that versus the good. And we're so confused because we don't know what the truth is and what we're supposed to be searching for and how we're supposed to be living our lives and what a good life looks at looks looks like versus what was projected to be okay it is just beyond me the catholic faith and the catholic church and the christian faith as a whole has so much power and if we banded together and started to ask for what we should be asking

for we could change the world but it'll take an enlightenment from god to change what you were obviously a very successful businessman, do you come into the church and look around and go, ooh, I can put my business skills to use here? Like, how would you, how would you run the church if they put you in charge of the business aspects of it? Oh, geez. Or is that the wrong question? No, it's not the wrong question. I prefaced with you before too that I would try and want to be as transparent as I can with you. But from a business perspective, I didn't know how God was going utilize me. I just wanted to, I did not expect any of this. I wanted just to kind of slide in and slide out, you know, right into ministry. But God was, he, he, he's given me so many administration

skills and so many different types of skills. For instance, when I was, I'll do whatever God wants me to do first and foremost, whatever my bishop wants. My bishop, Joseph Brennan, is incredible. and our new Pope is doing such a good job trying to get out the word of pro-life and peace and taking away, you know, trying to dismantle AI and God bless him. From an administration perspective, I was asking God, how can utilize me? And two and a half years ago, close to three years ago, there was an idea that my My seminarian brother and I, he just came back from Paris. And he's like, yeah, I was in the cathedral.

And I used in this big, huge machine, I was able to actually use non-cash. And I thought it was great. We don't have it in America. And I was like, oh, my gosh, we got to do that. I asked him if you wanted to join me, but he wasn't interested. Yeah. So I went to my bishop and I said, hey, do you mind if I would dive in? to assist us with trying to allow technology to help us to increase our footprint and to gain more traction and ministry as well as donations for the church because based on the 2013 report from USCB,

we're already seeing that people are not using cash. They're using their credit cards. They're using their bank. And I said, so now we're at a point where that's where it's at. So he, the bishop said, go for it, Borba. go for it. So what I did is I started cold calling into the Silicon Valley companies that had the back-end technology of tap to pay. But they didn't have the machinery and the outfitting for anything that would be physical that I would need. I would need it. So then they put me into companies that had some of these things that they were working with in other industries and other forms of charity. So I then I interviewed different companies. I called over to one company over and Torrey.

And they were on board to help bring the tap to pay technology into the Catholic Church. So then we could start to utilize the donation potential that we had to start to increase ministry efforts and evangelization that we need to do. And it took us about a year and a half, two years to develop and made clips for the baskets. And then now we launched it about maybe a year and a half ago. and the minimum level of entry for the parish to receive a lift is roughly 18% to 20% lift and immediately and sustained. Yeah, this is good. I mean, I'll be honest, I was in Europe recently and they've got these big giant,

ugly screens in these gorgeous churches. I'm horrified by them. And so to me, those machines are to cash in a basket, what a candle in front of a statue is one of those electronic lights. And yet, what are we going to do? I mean, if people aren't carrying cash, which increasingly we're not, and we don't want the church to fall down and we want to fund these, we have to find a way to do it,

how do we do this tap to pay in a way that's classy? Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. So what I was trying to figure out initially is, should we create our own baskets and have it work as a functional piece in the middle of it where then everything could go around it, but that wasn't, most people don't pass.

A lot of people have the old school hand. So we had to utilize something that was able to transition between whatever configuration, each parish church could possibly utilize around the world, not just America. So, because this technology can go everywhere. And so we made a clip that would attach onto these little pucks. Yeah.

That were donation pucks, that were denomination pucks, that you can place in the basket in any configuration with any basket. It doesn't matter what, if it's round, square, rectangle. And it's all, it's something that's rechargeable, something that everyone can use.

So tell me how this works. So I'm sitting in my pew. So you're sitting in pew and it's called tip-tap and they literally... The basket comes down and if you don't have cash or a check, you really take your phone, you just tap your phone.

phone for, you know, whatever credit card you want and you just tap the donation amount that you want to... On your phone or on the... On the actual puck. Okay. So it's preset denominations. And then in the next generation, we're also working on one that actually, well, you can say automatically in one configuration, which denomination you want. So you don't have to even look at multiple pucks. But it, you...

You see younger people pulling out their phones. and donating where in the reports of USCB, it says that they pretty much all dropped off because their parents were the ones that donated. So this is now giving them an opportunity. You can take these pucks and bring them into the candle situations, into candy sales, into nights of Columbus events, into charity events.

You can take them and transition them anywhere you want in your parish cafes for donuts and coffee and then bring them back into the church. It's it is something that is God is it God can use every skill that he's given you and he can transition it for his glory if you're willing to allow him to do that. And that's what God has done with me. He has told me no, all the skills I have given you, not that you've learned by yourself, but I've given you, I'm going to now use for my name for my glory of my name. What about business? I mean, do you encounter Catholic ministries?

I mean, let's just be honest. I think a lot of people recognize a lot of Catholic ministries could certainly be run a lot better than they're being run. Now, there are some excellent businesses out there. Hallow is one of them, excellent prayer meditation app. Ascension presents. They're doing great work. Clearly word on fire. So clearly, thank God, there are good, they could be looked at as businesses right from the point of the government, but these apostolets. Do you also see there could be work where you could help the diocese and other people? will run the business side of things better? If the bishop sees that my skill sets would benefit my diocese, I will do whatever the bishop asks for. My rule is to be obedient and to what... I think all the bishops have a hard enough time with priests, specifically, I can talk to this, maybe challenging their direction.

and I'm not going to be that guy. Yeah. I'm going to be the man that if the bishop wants to utilize my skill set, any which way I will do what he asks for because he needs men. All the bishops in this world need men that will actually do the will of God, which is actually that's what the bishop is for, is to help direct us. Unless it is completely off base and not appropriate, we should be doing the will of God.

So if the church ever wants my assistance in trying to assist it, I would be happy to help it. All right. I have a question that might sound like an accusation, but I'm going to ask it anyway, promising that it's not. You're ready for it? Buckle up. Okay. How is this not just, you mentioned earlier that your major sin is pride. How is not coming on shows like this and morning shows and things like this?

Are you not afraid that this is just pride with a different face? Yeah. You used to do it as part of this big secular company, but now you're getting out there and getting that attention in a different way. Yeah, I think it's a really good question. I haven't been asked that question. I think, number one, I prayed about this immensely. I also reached out to my bishop in my bishop's office about this before I did anything.

The bishop and his office understand that this is an opportunity that God is providing to evangelize. Evangelize for the truth. evangelize for vocations, tell people that it doesn't matter what age you're in, what bracket, that God is willing and open for a religious calling. I'm the perfect individual for that

because I'm an older seminarian, now priest. He also knows that if I am able to touch hearts to tell them conversion is needed, that there's no sin in this world that God cannot forgive, that he is calling us for repentance. He is calling us to conversion. He's calling us back to him because things are going to change in this world soon enough. And this is the opportunity for us to come back to him.

If my story resonates with somebody that is fallen away from Christ, that they think that their life is too far gone to be used for God. benefit that their sin can never ever be seen or sanctified. They're mistaken because God can do anything. God can change anyone. God can influence a vocation that you felt that you were not worthy for. And for anyone who is listening to this to understand that you are not a result of your past or your failures,

but you are a child of God that has been provided salvation and can be redeemed by his hand and by his love and his mercy. If they can hear that message and have hope, then there may be some souls that can be saved today and tomorrow. And so that is the reason why I'm out on this platform,

There is nothing I'd rather do other than just to be in ministry and to be unaware and to be just to be silent in my apostolate. But God has asked me to be Jonah through Nineveh in this world. And if I had I had spurred God for 40 years of my life, if it is two months, that I am on the road talking about his mercy and grace. And there are people think that it's prideful. Then that's what I am okay with suffering to get out the message of what God wants me to give the people that are desperate for hope.

Amen. That's beautiful. Thank you. I mean, I guess you kind of just did this, but I am imagining someone who might watch this right now. And maybe Maria, we can turn this, Maria's listening. Producer Maria. I would like to turn this into a smaller clip. I would like you to maybe give some advice to somebody who's far away from the church. Maybe they're immersed in sins that they're deeply ashamed of.

And maybe more than that, maybe this is the 800th time they've repented. And what they find so exhausting is not the overcoming this once, but I can't seem to get my life together. And they feel like they're fundamentally broken, that they're beyond the redemption and mercy of God. What advice would you have for them? Can I approach the question or answer it in two different ways? Of course.

First and foremost thing that I never was told when I was a teen that a lot of teens need to hear. A lot of young people need to hear. Even now at age seven, seven, eight, they need to hear this because they're already involved with the social media and their phones and getting involved with things that they shouldn't be seen. That if, especially in the Catholic Church, we are given the sacraments.

Confession and the Holy Most Holy Eucharist and all of the sacraments, but those sacraments had changed my life. If you are sinful and have fallen off the rail guards and you go to confession and then you keep on falling, what God wants you to do is keep on trying. You cannot save yourself. yourself. God is the only one that can save you. So what he wants you to do is that he knows as we're humans is that we're going to continue to fall until we are given the graces to not fall.

And so what God wants us to do is to continue to go to church, continue to get confession, continue to receive the sacraments, continue to try to be the better person. Because at one point in our life, he's going to intervene and he's going to save us. and that is what I was not told when I was a kid is that I was told that you must be good and that you can't sin well no no no we all sin but we need to continue to go to church

to receive the grace the graces so we can be fortified to become holy and only God can we can only achieve that with God's graces that's number one number two if you are like me where you have fallen away. If you think that you have been made to be a different person

which is not called to be holy or has been made to be different than the scripture passages relate to you to be, if you think that your sin is too big to be forgiven, if you think that there is no way that you could have a relationship with God because God is too far away from you to hear what you are and for those people who think that God is not real, that the world and religious,

and spirituality is not real. I just want everyone to step back and to hear this, that please think again because God is real. God is alive. God is intimate in your life. Knows the decisions that you make

once the best for you will not invade your freedom of choice, but wants you and praise you, and praise for you, that you stay on the right track, he can utilize your entire life for good if you give him the opportunity to say yes. He will love you and meet you where you're at. Wherever you are in sin right now, wherever you're at,

he will meet you there. He will give you the grace to get through it. He will help you to purify to become the man or woman that you've been created to be, But he needs you to ask him. He needs you to invite him into your life so he can take over so you can surrender. So it's about the will of God. And if you commit to the will of God, you will commit to a life of joy and happiness on earth and a life of eternal bliss in the future.

And that is the truth. And that's what I didn't understand. And that's what I want to tell everyone today. Praise God. Could you tell me about your ordination? Yeah, what about it? So how many years were you in seminary? About five or six years?

Seven. Seven years. Yeah. Seven years. It's the same amount of time as a traditional physician would go through. Wow. Now, were there people in your life at the beginning of this seminary journey who thought, there's no way he's going to make it? I mean, I've heard about his lifestyle.

This won't last. Yeah. Although I suppose you can't really answer for that. but yeah yeah here's the here's the honest truth um it's not pretty but um when i first entered um yeah people saw what i did and they thought i was a joke okay um a lot of my brothers in formation and priestly life didn't even out in and outside of my diocese yeah it was it was a really tough go at it um why do you think they acted like that or reacted like that because how can a sinful man that had so many past challenges and lived a life of luxury and fame think that he truly is converted

he's truly that person and that how can he change and how can this conversion really be real and will he even stay in the space and is he converted and how could I be in formation when I've been a good man all my life or how can I he be in formation with me and he be transparent and I not transparent and all these things it was the first year it's like the elder brother not wanting to come in and celebrate the return of the younger son yeah and a brother yeah and I get it I get it I get it and I get it and I get it and I get it. It was hard for everyone for me to be around

them and to be showcasing a major conversion aspect that they saw me going through and being purified of, but I also, as a human and as a man, would love to have healthy, godly,

saintly relationships with my brothers. And I think in the church, in any church, You have to only showcase yourself by the consistency you are and how you deal with people on a daily basis. And for a long period of time,

I have now shown myself for 10 and a half years with including the discernment to be the same man in my conversion, united with our Lord and Lady, to do their will. And I will continue to try my best with God's gracious, to be that man that God created me to be in and with him and for him, and will live my life till the end of my breath,

trying to be a good man for the church. And all I can do is to live for God and to do God's will and to not do man's will. Amen. What was your ordination day like? My ordination day was like... Three weeks ago again, not long ago. Yeah, yeah. It was like a heavenly wedding.

I had two brothers that were a blessing to be with. Who also ordained? Yeah, so the three of us were ordained together. They, it was my whole, my family, because of the decisions, I was the trustee of my dad's estate when he died. And I made a lot of decisions because I was young and not thinking clearly and grieving and dealing with lots of challenges in my life. that I made decisions that helped to fracture my family. And upon my dad's death, my family didn't, we split, and my ordination day was the first time in 16 years

when we all got back together. Wow. So it was a day of grace. It was a day of reconciliation. my family not only forgave me I am rectified with reconcilied with

reconciled with my brothers and sisters and they are now in a space where I think we can move forward in trying to reconcile that entire family that alone outside of the gift of ordination and the grace has

received to be God's priest was the best part of my journey because family means so much and to know my family prayed for me to be this conversion and I pray that we all can move forward in life and move on from the brokenness

that even that I created in our family it was a day it was spectacular it was for me it felt royal and the rest of, was a wedding reception like I always dreamt of. And we had sponsors that came in and paid for beautiful arrangements and for my cousin making the best cake in the world.

And all of the Knights of Columbus and the individuals in the group executing the event made it spectacular. And it couldn't have been more, dreamy, I guess you could say in that word. And I felt it felt it was a very special day. And what was it like celebrating your first mass? Right after. It was that day?

It was right after it was like four hours later or three hours later. And my, because our Lord came into my life so early upon my conversion and our blessed version mother was the instrument that brought me back. to her son. Yeah. I have always felt during my journey back to Christ that my mother and my father, first and foremost, are Jesus and Mary. And then I have earthly mother and father. And so in tradition in our diocese, you're able to receive a, to give a stole to your father.

After your first confession, that he hands to Christ. And then he's asked by Christ, what did you? give me? What have you done for me in your life? And then your father is then obliged to say, I have given you a priest. And then the same for your mother, for your magistergium, that's when you wipe the oil, your consecrated oil on your hands, and you give it to your mother. And she is asked the same question. So I, knowing that that I had the opportunity, I was, I received a approval to offer the Mass for the sanctification of all priests in the world, including myself, first and foremost, to be an example, but also to honor the death of my father. And when I gave the

stoles, I offered the first one to Jesus, because I didn't know if he's ever been received one, and so I wanted to give him one. And then I offered one to my father. And then I offered one to my father. And then with my mother, I offered the first metaturgium to our Blessed Virgin Mother. And then I gave the second one to my mother. I see. And when I gave those, it was, and Our Blessed Virgin Mother were with me. They accepted the gifts. And they told me that they typically don't pick the perfect to be their representatives.

but they pick the sinful for the glory of God's name. And I'm one of the worst. But I can show by my life and how I live it from this point on that I can live it from a godly way and that they've given me the chance to change. And so I pray that God protects me through all the challenges in my life,

so I might give my life fully to him. and to glorify his name and everything I do. Amen. Amen. And what apostolets are you involved in right now in your diocese? I'm sorry. Oh, you're great. I have been just given my first parish assignment,

which is at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which is really beautiful because you have to look at the ministries and the assignments that you're given by God. and most of my assignments were Sorry, I wish I had tissue No, it's okay, no, we're from We're from God Because most of mine were related

To our Blessed Virgin Mother So I know she has her hand on me And What's so beautiful is that OPLH, which is our lead perpetual help We have a great pastor And we have a school

and I'm going to be able to engage with the youth to tell them the truth to help place them on a right path to be honest with them in confession to tell them how to navigate around the hurdles of life what sin really looks like and how to stave

to tell them what real relationships ship's look like and how to navigate a broken heart, to orient itself back to the true heart of sacred, of our Lord's sacred heart and our lady's immaculate heart. That chastity is the most freeing grace and gift from God that we are only made to be given in unity, either in marriage or in our vocations,

that sanctified to the church or to be consecrated single that we're not to be getting our life freely and our sexuality freely to others that once we live in chastity that you have everything you need to be fulfilled until you make that decision with God and we have a really great team

which I can't wait to be part of the sports you know so Cougars is our team and go Cougars with our lady of perpetual help. I just can't wait to be part of the ministry, but my heart, because God has taken me through through the aspects of truly knowing

how we need to be charitable to each other, I hope that I'm giving the opportunity at some point during my priestly vocation to work with the poor and the homeless. Yeah. Because I just know that if that's when I've encountered Jesus in his full humanity outside of the vision I told you about, but that's when I saw him in a homeless person that I was giving a lunch bag to. And I believe in my heart that I will constantly be giving and searching for him again through all the homeless.

and every I, and every name I ask because I want to see him again. Amen. And so that's beautiful. That is what I want to do. Yeah, that's really beautiful. You know, even we as Catholics who have been commanded to love the poor, to give to those who beg of us, you know, we hear something that's true, namely, well, if you give money to them, you don't know how they'll use it. And it's like, fair enough. It's not that there's no merit to that.

use that to justify our indifference and callous heart to the lady or the fella at the stoplight. Yes. Yes. There's a great prayer from St. Ephraim the Syrian, his prayer to the Holy Spirit. What if he thinks in his, it's written as a daily kind of repentance. And it says, if a beggar has come to me and I despised or neglected him. And so often, you know, I do that. I just sort of look through people.

I don't even, you know. And. Yeah, Lord Jesus, help me to see, help me to believe your words, right? I mean, what did he say? Whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done to me. Yeah, he literally told me that never turn away somebody asking for something. Okay. Especially the homeless, he says, because you cannot project on them what you think they're

going to use the money for. He said, you give them the money. And he will do the rest. He will guide them to use the money the way he thinks it should be used. But that's not your responsibility. That's not, he told me that he said that is not your responsibility. Okay. You be appropriate.

You be prudent. You give them what you need. If you're able to buy them, if you're not able to give them food, like I always keep sacks in my car, you give them food. If you can't do that, you buy cards for. subway or for a restaurant, McDonald's, so they can get a meal or if you don't feel comfortable in that way. But that's a way to go about it. But if you only have cash in your pocket, you give them something and you do not worry about it after you give it to them. God will take the rest. You've already, you've done your part. And that's what God wanted you to do. And so

I learned that from the very beginning because I was trying to control my charitable aspect and that's what not God, that is God's control. He's inspired you to, to be generous. You be generous from your accounts. Okay. Yeah, beautiful. Well, thank you for coming on my show. I really appreciate it. Getting on a plane is, I mean, you offer that up. There's a lot of souls coming out of purgatory. I don't know about you, but traveling is not fun for me. And I'm sure you're excited to get back to your parish and begin your ministry. Yes, I can't wait. I can't wait to be part of the team and to be to be supporting everyone there and to be working with and for my pastor I'm very blessed to say the least of my first assignment anything else we want to touch on before

we wrap up I just you said something that you wanted to promote something or mention something that maybe your bishop had asked you to mention I want to make sure I think I was that the school I think yes I already I think I did mention that but what I want to do with you is to say thank you. For going along with God's inspiration to have me on. For choosing me to speak about some really hard things and to be able to utilize your platform to get across the message of Christ

and how Christ has been so intimately profound in my life and how he wants to be profound in everyone's life. to allow me to help me get out the love and hope that God has for the world and to know that there are people like you in this world that still want the good and I pray for you and your ministry that you will be fruitful and that you will touch souls to not only glorify God but for the salvation of their souls. I thank you for what you do, and I thank you for allowing me humbly to be here, and all the best to you and your adventures and your beautiful family.

Thank you. Would it be okay if you led us in a Hail Mary for all those who will watch this show that they would be led to Jesus? Of course. I am the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Mother, I first and foremost ask you to be part of this podcast, to be part of this interview, to touch hearts and through your moments. most chaste spouse, St. Joseph soften hearts

that allow the Holy Spirit to come between all of us to open all of our voices and ears and our minds and our souls to the word

of the truth of God. Blessed Mother, please place your heavenly mantle upon all of the viewers now and in the future and inspire the sharing of

Jesus' word and truth, your son, to the world through this podcast, allow it to flourish and to grow and to glorify your name and your son's name. I also asked, please bless your beloved son's podcast and his family so they may give themselves fully to charity, charity of their time and resources now and in the future.

And with this, we pray, hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now into the hour of death. Amen. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. May Almighty God bless you and the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Padre. Thank you. God bless you. You too.