Pints With Aquinas - Why the Ordinary Catholic Life Is So Beautiful (Fr. Simon Esshaki) | Ep. 572

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Father Simon Esshaki, a Chaldean Catholic priest from San Diego with over 500K TikTok followers joins Matt to talk about why he became a priest, what celibacy actually means, confession and how to pursue sainthood no matter your state in life. Ep. 572 - - - 📚 Resources mentioned: True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort: https://a.co/d/09d9YDsY Litanies of the Heart by Jerry Crete: https://a.co/d/085DNhnW - - - Today's Sponsors: St. Paul Center: Share your faith with others this Easter Season by joining the Easter Accompaniment Challenge. Sign up and become a member today at https://stpaulcenter.com/pints  Hallow: Deepen your personal relationship with God today. Visit https://hallow.com/MattFradd to get 3 months free. Seven Weeks Coffee: Save up to 25% with promo code 'PINTS' at https://sevenweekscoffee.com/PINTS Good Ranchers: Get $25 off your first order and FREE meat for life when you use code PINTS at https://GoodRanchers.com  - - - 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

When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. What's your advice to someone watching,

and they know they need to go to confession, but they're afraid or they're really, really embarrassed? Jesus is there to save you. Jesus is there to give you his love and his mercy. And he's there to take the sin of the world, to take your sin that is this weighty burden on you. The Lord wants to take it. This desire to belong to something beautiful, something ancient. What happened? We're not being told to want it. Everything feels so fluid, so cheap, so mass produced, so unsacred. I don't know if that's it, if it's created this deep earth. I think that's true too. Community culture.

You can go get drunk and you can do all that stuff every day. Go ahead. You know, that's cheap stuff. But this is something that's a treasure. What was it about true devotion of Mary in particular that you think led you into a deeper relationship with Christ? She was there with the Lord in the beginning of his life, in his ministry, and in his death, and in the life of the church as well. I realized that I need her, actually, in my life. This is, I'm just going to actually have you open it.

Oh, my goodness gracious me. Father Simon, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Matt. It's good to be here. I'm just going to launch into it. Why are you a priest? Why would you do such a thing? I became a priest because I love Jesus and I love the church.

And I want to be sanctified myself in doing the will of God for myself. And so I discerned from a very young age, actually, very young. I was, I mean, the earliest I can remember, I was probably like seven or eight years old, is when I saw the priesthood as something that really appealed to me. So there was a priest, his name is Father Michael. He was the pastor of my parish. It's a Chaldean parish, so it's one of the Eastern rights of the church. Maybe we'll get more into that later. But so he was the priest that baptized me and I really looked up to him.

And my dad is a deacon as well. And so it might have been also my dad's influence too because he loves the church and he loves the priesthood. And so he really put it on my on my heart. So I do have this memory of being in the sacristy of the church when I was very, you know, like I said, seven or eight years old. and my dad being like, tell Father Michael what you want to be when you grow up.

And I'd like rehearse this line. I said, I want to be a Caldean Catholic priest. So that was very early on. Were you an altar boy? I was an altar boy. Yeah. And I was very involved in the church community. I would go to the catechism classes

and mass every Sunday, obviously. And then when I got to high school, I stopped thinking about it. I said, you know what? I'm going to be a deacon like my dad, get married, have kids, and then maybe my son will be a priest one day. That's what I was hoping for. But then during high school is when I really had a, I don't want to say it was my first encounter with Jesus, but it was one of the life-changing, not moments, but times of my life and of my

faith where I really grew in my personal relationship with Jesus. So my faith, at the time when I was growing up was formed by the community, by the church community and by my family life. So we would pray together at home. I would go to church always, but high school is my first memory of actually taking the time to pray privately with Jesus and to really form my relationship with him personally and to read the Bible. And so I would. was doing that and that really made me love the Lord, made me love the church. And actually around that time, you know how like we didn't have social media back in the day? How old are you?

So I'm 34. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So we're 42? Yeah. I was, I was watching the, no, I just, I just saw the Trent, Trent Horn episode. Yeah.

So I was, you know, very much, you know, agreeing with a lot of the stuff you guys were saying about, you know, back in the day how life was. And so, yeah, we didn't have social media back in the day. There was no Netflix. I don't even think YouTube. 2006, I think, YouTube started. So when I was, yeah. So around that time, the summers were extremely boring. You know, you'd just be home and there's nothing to do.

And so one day I was so bored that I went on an adventure in my house. And I just went through looking through all of my parents' stuff. They weren't home. They were at work. And I said, you know, I'm just going to see what's around here. Okay. Love it. Yeah.

So I remember just going and looking and I found a cupboard of my dad's books. So he had a bunch of books And I was just You know I would like take a book And I was judging the books By the cover You know

I would just look at the cover And I didn't like to read My dad would Would make us read During the summer sometimes Good man My sisters and I Yeah

And so I I would read it So you were the only son I'm the only son Okay And I have two sisters All right So I have an older sister

And a twin sister actually Well God bless your father Yeah Yeah He's willing to give his son To the church Yes. He's a very good man and, you know, a very faithful servant. And so, you know, he used to go to Catholic conferences and collect books. And so I was looking through the books, judging them, you know,

like looking at the pictures, looking at the titles, you know, like I said, because I was that bored. And then I found true devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort. And I looked at the back of it. And I had no real devotion to Mary at that time. You know, I mean, I was a Catholic boy, so we grew up praying the rosary and everything, but I didn't really understand. I knew we had statues, and it was all part of the faith,

but I read that book, I mean, I read the back of it first, and it said something like, this is known to be one of the most important books written about the Virgin Mary, and I started to read it, and I actually finished it that summer. It was my first time. Wow.

Yeah. It was my first time. Someone who didn't like reading. That's quite a feat. How old were you? I was probably 15 at the time, 15, 16. Wow. Yeah.

And so yeah, I didn't like reading, but I read the book that summer. And it really strengthened my love for Jesus through Mary, through her love of the Lord, her love of me. I realized her role. her role as a mother for me spiritually. And so my devotion to Mary while I was, you know, getting closer to Jesus and reading the scriptures, I think I read true devotion before I started reading the scriptures myself, actually. It was like an entryway to the scriptures and to get closer to Christ.

And so I would do that and then I would go to the youth group at my church. This was another big moment in my vocation. story because I saw youth that just loved the Lord, but they were also cool. They were like normal people, you know? Sorry, can we pause on Mary a little bit longer? I know I did ask you how you became a priest or why, but let's talk about the Virgin Mary. Yeah, for sure. So the objection that you often hear is, why do you Catholics make such a big deal about Mary? And you just said yourself that you weren't even really reading the scriptures. So that would seem to confirm the Protestant objection that you Catholics are way too interested in Mary.

You read a book about Mary before you're reading the scriptures. Like, isn't this a poverty? And I guess, so then what was it about true devotion of Mary in particular that you think led you into a deeper relationship with Christ? Yeah. So there was a line in the beginning of the book that really stood out to me. And it was St. Louis de Montfort saying that Mary is, I think he said, says she's less than an Adam, right, compared to God. And she's just a creature. And then he says, or rather nothing at all compared to he who is. Yes, yes, yes, exactly. Yeah. And so he admitted that,

right? Mary is a human being and she is almost nothing in comparison to God. Yeah. And yet he used her to come into the world. He came through her. He came through her. He came through her willing through her yes. And so the fact that he picked a human being to come into this world through and he was raised by her. And Jesus in his humanity was, you know, he came from her as a human being.

His full DNA is from her. And so, and he gave her to us, like I said, to be our mother from the cross. like we read about in the gospel of John. John, the beloved disciple, was there at the cross and he represents all disciples being called the disciple whom Jesus loved and Jesus said, behold your mother.

And she was there with the Lord in the beginning of his life, in his ministry, and in his death, and in the life of the church as well. She was with the apostles on the day of Pentecost. And so I realized that I need her actually in my life. And I know that might sound very bad to some people like, what do you mean? Like you need Jesus, right?

But Jesus became a man. He became a human being. And we are members of the body of Jesus. And so if Jesus had a mother and were members of his body actually, and he gave her to us to be our mother. And so she is our mother in a spiritual sense. I find this is really helpful. Before you say what you mean, it can be helpful so it's not to be misunderstood

that you begin by saying what you don't mean. I like speaking to a Muslim say. And the Muslim says, well, it sounds like you believe in three gods. And you go, all right, I'm about to talk to you about the Trinity. Well, let me begin by telling you what I'm not saying. there is only one God. That is what I believe. There is only one God.

I'm not saying that there are three gods, right? And if the person I'm talking to now believes me now, I can start talking in a way that you might find confusing, that might sound as if there are three gods. But I've already told you why now I'm happy to explain what that means. I think that's what's so helpful about that line from Louis de Montfort, because very few saints have spoken so, you know, with such love and devotion about the Blessed Virgin and Louis. to the fact that he begins with, you know, that. And it's like then I feel like, I really think it's really only Catholics who've had influence from Protestants

that have their guard up. I don't know if there's any other reason to have your guard up, except when people kind of tell you you shouldn't have a devotion to Mary. Right. But I feel like that just helps the Catholic and it should help the Protestant

just kind of drop their shoulders. Okay, all right. So you're not saying she's God. You're not saying we should worship her. You're saying she's nothing compared to God. You're saying that God had no absolute need of her. Good. All right. Now tell me what you mean. You know what I mean? I feel like it just kind of put you in a place to hear it. Yes, yes, exactly. And so sometimes when I advise people spiritually,

I'll sometimes ask them, like, do you have a devotion to Mary? And they'll kind of ask me, what does that mean? And I'll tell them that, I mean, it could mean doing a Marian prayer, devotional, like the rosary. But it could also mean just talking to Mary. You know, and like this could also, I just want to say what I don't mean. Just like you said, I don't mean praying to her as if she has the divine power of God. I mean being spiritually connected to our mother who is with us. And with us, I mean the communion of saints. Like in Hebrews 12, it says there's the cloud of witnesses that is above us, yet they're kind of near as well.

And so those are the saints who have gone before us and who have loved the Lord and love us as well and we're members of the same team, of the same body. And so there's not a separation of us here and them there. There is physically, but spiritually we are connected. And so that's what I mean. I mean being spiritually connected, having a relationship, just like I have a relationship with you,

I mean, this is what heaven is going to be. to be a unity of all these people in relationship with one another and with God. And I like how Patrick Madrid puts it, since no part of the body can say to another part, I have no need of you. Right. Therefore, the earthly Christian cannot say of the heavenly Christian, I have no need. Yeah, yeah. And who better.

It's truly one body. Yeah, exactly. And who better to have that bond with, that spiritual connection with, than the mother of Jesus. Yeah, all right. And so I will encourage people mainly because of my experience, because of how much it helped me just to speak to Mary. You know, one of the most prominent stories of Mother Mary in the scriptures is the wedding at Cana.

One of my favorite stories, you know, the first miracle of Jesus. And there's something in there that one day I was either doing a Bible study or I was going to preach on it. And so I was, you know, I like to meditate on the gospel that I'm going to be preaching on first. And so I was just meditating, reading it slowly. And I realized something in that story, which was really profound. And it's that the people of the wedding, they had to, in some way, invite Mary into their

private life, into something that they didn't want exposed to everybody else. And so they invited Mary kind of like behind the scenes. Like she had access to their life to maybe something that they were ashamed of, right? This fact that they ran out of wine. And so because they allowed Mary that access into their life, this great miracle happened. And, you know, obviously this is the first miracle of Jesus. It wasn't a healing miracle. It wasn't a way for him to come and show the world how strong and how powerful he is.

You know, you could have raised people from the dead. You could have done something more to show the world how powerful you are. But that's not what the point of Jesus was. The point of Jesus is that he doesn't just want to show his power. And he doesn't only want to heal us physically. He wants to give us what the wine represented, which is abundance of joy and overflowing of God's life in our souls. And that came because they invited Mary into that.

Love it. You know, shame. I've never thought of it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it really helps spiritually, too, to invite her in. And she will comfort you and she will allow the grace of Jesus to come into your life in a very deep and beautiful way. Yeah.

Thank you. So you start going to this youth group. Yeah. The kids aren't complete losers. Yeah. So they were, you know, normal people. and they love the Lord and they like to go out and eat

and play video games and stuff and there's a priest that you know, Father Andy. Love him. So he is the first American-born Caldean priest actually. And so he's the first one of this new generation of priests.

And so I mentioned the priest's father Michael at the time God bless him but he was a older Iraqi man, right? And so I didn't really connect with him very well. So I would go to that youth group, and then I remember Father Andy moved to San Diego from Michigan. And I remember vividly this one day I was in high school at the youth group,

and he came to take charge of the group and of the youth ministry, and we're doing a Q&A with him. He's a bright guy. And he's a very bright guy, but what stood out to me the most was that he loved cheeseburgers and he liked to play video games and I was like whoa this guy

this is a normal guy you know and so that was kind of my first experience of the priest being a human as well and so I started to really be open to it and really think about it and obviously there was

challenges Did you have a rebellion phase in your teenage years or in your young adulthood? Did you do what many of us unfortunately did and got up to? Not really. No. Yeah. I was just a chill guy going to church. I did have my struggles, obviously, you know, with sin and temptation.

But I never really, you know, drifted away from the church or from the Lord. Thank God. allow me to ask a question kind of pointedly, but just to be real, because I know that there's a lot of people who are watching and, like, they've got this question. It's like, what was it like to think, because I'm never going to have sex?

I understand it's more than that. I'm never going to have a wife. I'm never going to have my own children. I understand that. But just to be a little kind of direct and blunt about it, what was that like? Well, I mentioned that when I got to high school, that's when I said,

I'm going to be a deacon and I'm going to have kids. Yeah. And that was the reason. I mean, you know, you start to get attracted to girls and stuff. And you're like, okay, when I was seven or eight years old, I didn't have these attractions. Now I do. And I can't see myself living without this. It's a human need, basically, you know. And so I didn't want to really pursue the priesthood after that. And it was because of that. And yet when I started to, you know, have my devotion to Mary, when I started to read the scriptures and when I started to go to the youth group and all that stuff kind of happened. And then the thought of the priesthood really came back and it was more serious. It just wouldn't leave me, the thought of the priesthood. And then I remember like really struggling in my discernment because there was this girl that I liked at the time. and I was discerning and thinking about it

and saying that there's no possible way that I can do it. And I remember watching a show on EWTN. I forgot which one it was, but there was this old Italian priest. I don't know if you know about, I forgot his name, this old Italian priest. And he was speaking about this very topic. and one thing that he said

really changed my whole perspective he said why can women make men happy basically like essentially why it's because God created them and gave them the capacity to make men happy

it's because of God he's the source he's the creator and so he said in the priesthood and the religious life we just kind of cut out the middle man or the middle woman. And you go to the source itself. Of the joy. Yeah. The source of the joy and of the human fulfillment. And so I started to think about it from another perspective, like not just from a physical perspective, but from a spiritual perspective of the fact that if God really wants

me to do this, I think he's going to make me happy doing it as well. And I think that it's not just gonna be something where I'm gonna have to make a huge sacrifice and suffer. There will be a sacrificial aspect, there will be suffering, but there will also be the ultimate fulfillment and joy. If you do God's will, if you do your vocation, what he's calling you to do.

And so I started to think about it in terms of what comes next. Like, you know, I think it's Pope John Paul II in the theology of the body. He speaks about celibacy. And so I, you know, started learning about it at the time as well because he speaks about celibacy as looking toward the future unity that we will all have with God. And those of us in that vocation are kind of living that in a certain sense now. Yeah. Right.

This reminds me of a great line from Dr. Peter Craft having to do with sex and heaven and how we won't be in sexual relationships in heaven. You're right. He says, asking, can we have sex in heaven? Is like a child first learning about sex asking her mother, well, one day when I'm married and I do have sex, can I eat candy while I'm having sex? And the mother says, oh, sweetheart, you won't want to. Isn't that a wonderful? That is. Yeah.

That is one of them. So this idea that the earthly carnal man is thinking, I couldn't possibly be happy. Yeah. Without sex, it's like, then you don't have any clue how beautiful it's going to be. Yeah. Yeah, I has not seen and ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him. That's what St. Paul says. And yeah, absolutely.

This is, I mean, when you don't only think about it in terms of the physical and in terms of your desires, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that first temptation that Jesus was tempted with. I used to always think that it was, it was just about God using his power and not wanting to just use his power for something like that when he could just wait and eat later, you know? Maybe that's a part of it. Oh, I see. You know, the changing of the stones to bread. Maybe that's a part of why it was wrong. but also if you look at the response of Jesus, when the devil told him changed these stones to bread,

Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So bread as the thing to fulfill your physical desire for hunger or, you know, sex to fulfill the human desire, that's not all what life is about, but there's more to life and life needs to be guided by that first and most important

most prominent thing which is the Word of God and his life for us and so if the Word of God guides our life then it's going to guide our desires as well and and

the desires are there but they just have to be ordered ordered properly. And so for the priests and for us celibates, God doesn't say put away these desires. Obviously, you're not going to use them in the way that married men use them.

Yeah. But those desires are part of what it means to actually love. And so I feel like because I've been so, you know, thank God by His grace, I've been so dedicated to my priestly ministry. I've really even felt the true joy that the priesthood is. That's beautiful.

You know, we live in such a cynical, sarcastic age that's been battered by scandal after scandal after scandal. And you just sort of sense in the modern Christian that he just doesn't believe in sanctity. He doesn't buy it. He would much rather be cynical about it and say it's all affront. Like all these priests, they're into stuff, they're doing stuff on the side. But, you know, the thing could be turned around, can't it? It's like, okay, I'm a married man. And so, you know, but before marriage, you might have this false idea that I have two options.

I have celibacy or any of these women. Yeah, right. First of all, most of these women aren't that interested. Thank you very much. Second of all, once you're married, what you realize is that your option was actually celibacy or this particular concrete woman. But even then, I would imagine the desires and temptations that you and I experience aren't that dissimilar. Because, you know, newsflash, for those at home, like, once you get married, it doesn't make every other woman on the planet unattractive.

Right. And it doesn't make you only have, you know, initial sexual desire toward the woman you're married. And so you still have to train your lower passions to be in order with reason, you know. But, okay, what do you say? that cynical sarcastic take that I'm referring to because it's not like we're without precedent. We do have examples and they come out by the day and they will because man is a sinner continue to come out where we see priests and bishops and youth ministers and all sorts. And this is true in the Protestant community.

It's true in Eastern Orthodoxy. What do you say? Well, first of all, so yeah, like you mentioned, I get to sleep with one less woman than you. Right? I mean, that's correct. That's what it is, right? Which is obviously zero. So I think that, and I've reflected on this a lot,

because around the time of my discernment was when the sexual scandals of priests was really getting out there. And so I used to read those stories and just be very discouraged by the priests because I, from a very early age, like I said, I saw the priesthood as this spiritual ideal as like a walking saint, you know. So I was just very shocked when I would read stories like that.

But then I realized that for the priesthood, for priests and for married men, and for anybody, either you're striving for sainthood or you're just not. And it's either you're going to be a saint or you're going to be a huge, scandalous person. sin and in that in the process of sanctity and sainthood is a lot of discipline, a lot of virtue and a lot of obviously relying on the grace of God. And so yes, there is a tough aspect to it, but you are going to reach that goal. You're going to have that prize. I mean, it's like somebody, if you just want to fulfill your desires, okay, go ahead, do whatever you want. But, you know, I think I actually preached about this on Super Bowl Sunday.

I was watching the game and then I had to go do mass. And so it was kind of on my mind. And I forgot even what the gospel was. But I did connect this idea. I said, you know, some players might want to choose to just go sit on their couch, eat ice cream, sleep in, and not work hard. And they're going to have that comfort. And they can have that.

But the ones that are the champions are the ones that are determined, they are disciplined, and they make those sacrifices, and they get a different type of joy. They get to hold the trophy. And that's a different type of joy. And that's what sainthood is. You know, even St. Paul will, you know, say that we're running the race and we're not going for an imperishable crown, but for something, or, I mean, we're not a perishable crown, but for something that's imperishable, something that's so valuable.

And so that's the answer. And this is what I tell married people as well. Are you guys trying to be saints? Honestly, like I see, I mean, I think I can say the majority of couples that I see are not trying to be saints. And so a lot of the time... The question even probably seems a little abrasive where it really should be the most obvious question. Yes, exactly. Yes. Exactly.

And so a lot of the time I see them living just miserable lives, you know. Either it ends in divorce or they just live together for the sake of the kids and they just, you know, live miserable lives. And it's because they're like they, I don't know if it's that they don't know. I mean, we try to teach them, but they're not willing to trust that the Lord will fulfill their desires. Yes, come on. You know, this reminds you of St. Dominic. He says something to the effect of, you know, what, well, let me use the catacism quote instead because it's along the same lines.

Either man governs his passions and so finds peace or he allows himself to be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. And I think the reason we choose to be dominated by our passions isn't just because of the difficulty that we will have to endure to put our lower passions in line with our reason and will. I think it's also because we don't believe that happiness is possible on the other side. Do you know what I mean? 100%. Like, let's just grab the thing that's closest to me, whether it's the porn or the beer or the Netflix binging or flirtations with someone who's not my wife. It's immediate at least. And I don't even know if anything is worth getting to if I do

subject my passion. Yeah. So how do we hear then what does that leave with it? Have you ever met Anyone who'd live like that and was happy? I have not. I have never met anyone. Whenever I give in to my passions, it's never worked. Just out of pragmatism, it would be a good idea to stop doing that. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

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just cancel it. You won't get charged to sent. But I don't think you will. I don't think you will do that. I think you'll love it. Go to hallo.com slash Matt Frad to get three months for free. So, I mean, I'm just kind of thinking out loud about how to convince them, you know, because you can, I could, you know, you know, sit here and tell them, look, my, my experience is that when you live a virtuous life and when you control your passions, you will actually even feel the joy and the happiness that God wants you to have, this joy of being a virtuous man. You could talk about the example of our Lord himself, who didn't just come into this world and say, oh, I want to see how my creatures live and I want to live a comfortable life and enjoy

things in this world. No, even our Lord himself came and he fasted and he worked and he suffered. and he died for us. And he's the Lord. He's the God of the universe. And so you could tell them also of the example of Jesus, right? And I hope that they will believe it. And I think that the more they learn about it and try to experience it for themselves,

I think that the Lord will show them that this is worth it and you can do it. Not by your own power, obviously, but by the grace that the Lord offers us. I wonder if it's a comment, because I'm asking myself, you know, because you say,

like, how do we convince them? I'm like, I don't know how to convince me. So let's see. Because I think it's a combination of two things. It's like, I live most of my life,

giving free reign to my passions in, you know, in ways that would be accepted. And if they weren't, I would do it privately, right? And so it breaks my heart that my entertainment throughout my teenage years.

was like horror, heavy metal and pornography, really. I mean, there was other good things too, but that was a big part of my diet. And you just think what that does to your passions, like you've just destroyed yourself. It's like you've got three unruly dogs that you've let do it whatever they want, and now you've got to try to tame them,

and it's a lot more difficult after the fact. Right, right. But then I think what it is, so it's one, I'm dealing with my unruly passions, but I think secondly, when we give in to the passions for these sins, I think a lot of it's pain management. You know,

like I'm just, I don't even know how to articulate why and how I'm hurting, why my relationship with this person, my father, my mother, my wife, my husband, let's say,

is driving me nuts. It's revealing things in me that are scaring the hell out of me. I don't even know how I'm meant to deal with it. I don't even know what it is. It's just something looming and dark and chaotic. That's how it feels, hey?

And it's like, okay, well, the porn is there. Yeah. You know, well, the admiration is there or the what have you is there. Yeah. Yeah. I remember something that really helped me to understand this better was when I was in seminary, I used to have a spiritual director at the time that, you know, passed away a couple years ago. He was an Augustinian priest monk that lived in San Diego, maybe one of the holiest men that I know.

in my life. He was like one of those old guys with white hair and a beard that you just look at him and you're like, that's a walking saint, 100%. Very, very holy man. And one day I was talking to him about, you know, my lustful thoughts that I was struggling with at the time and thinking about the worry of how am I going to be a priest?

You know, how am I going to live my whole life without this and how much of a sinner am I now that I even have these thoughts as a seminarian and I shouldn't and he really helped me see it from another perspective which was kind of a more a more compassionate perspective for yourself and I remember at the time thinking like no no It's too soft. No, yeah. You can't think about it like that. What do you mean?

This is sin. Jesus says, if you look at a woman with lust, you commit adultery with her in your heart. And so, so. Cut the eye out. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Yes.

Yes. And so I remembered at the time really struggling with it. But then realizing later on that, okay, these passions and these desires, are not going to go anywhere. And I can't just say, hey, be a good boy, you know, like to my desires. Right, shut up. Because they're not going to go anywhere. Right. They're not just going to say, okay, fine. So what I realized is that, and I actually realized this through, and I know you know some about this, about, through Jerry Crete. Jerry Creed has been on your show and he talks about IFS and parts work looking at yourself as a multiplicity of different parts and I'm not a psychologist but if you've ever said part of me wants to part of me doesn't then you understand the basis of this even Romans chapter 7 St. Paul says I do the evil that I do not want to do it's like it's like one of the most. most confusing or it's one of the most like relatable the good I want to do I cannot do yeah yeah and so he's deliver me from his body of death yeah and then uh James in his letter says that

you know the passions are at battle with one another and so there is this battle there are these parts of us that you know I've I've learned a lot from Jerry Crete I actually see him yeah good He's a good friend. He's... I love him. He's amazing. Yeah, he says hi, by the way. Oh, nice.

And he's really taught me a lot with his book, Litany's of the Heart, and just this whole perspective of looking at yourself as this multiplicity. Yes, there's a unity. Yeah. For sure. It's not like you have multiple personalities. There's a unity, but you have different parts of yourself that have. their needs, they have their wants, and they have a certain perspective on life. And they think that something is good for you.

But they don't know what, you know, they're like kids kind of that don't really know what's best. And I would encourage people to not listen to me about this and just to go to listen to Jerry Crete's podcast with you. And to get his book litanies of the heart if you're interested. Yeah, yeah. But, but, no, it's think, I mean, think about the eight-year-old boy, right, whose dad hates him. Yeah. Or the nine-year-old girl who's bullied at school continually, right?

And then he or she learn to sort of medicate and without even knowing that that's what they're doing. Let's say they begin to commit self-abuse. And now they've learned this behavior without even thinking how it is they learned it or why it is they go to it. And then you're 20 years old and, you know, you're rejected. or your father says something to you and you find yourself going back to the old behaviors that don't work. And yeah, rather than just like hating yourself,

which actually you shouldn't, you've been commanded not to do, I would say. Being curious, like, what am I doing? Yes. What is it? What am I trying to do? I think there's a lot of wisdom there where it's like, okay, well, I'm not,

let's just use that sin. I'm not committing self-abuse because I hate myself and God. Like if I am sure, maybe that's so buried, but I can't see that. The most obvious reason is I'm in pain and I want to feel better. You know? Yeah. And so then you can have more compassion on yourself and you can work with yourself or using the words of the Lord, love yourself. Right?

You love yourself just like you love your kids even though they sometimes act badly. you're going to teach them and you're not just going to yell at them and abuse them and think that that's how they're going to be formed and learn, right? But you're going to have a relationship with them. Yeah. And you're going to, you know, I mean,

this is what God does for us. He lowered himself and he became a human being. Look at how he spoke to the sinners. Yeah, yeah. And so that's how we have to be with ourselves as well. And this could seem very confusing to some people. And like fluff. And yeah.

And I remember at the time when I was first learning about it, like when the priest first told me. This old man, he introduced you to this idea. Did he? He did, yeah. So that was way back. But then when I would start listening to Jerry Cree and Dr. Peter Malinowski also, then I started to have this other perspective.

But I also remember at first saying, okay, we need to be very careful. with this because it's kind of like you're saying it's okay to sin or it's okay to have these thoughts right which is 100% false we are not saying that I do not believe that but I do believe that we that it will help us to actually change and to be more fully integrated to have more compassion on yourself and to always with the goal of sanctity. That's what it's all about.

And I think that our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect example of what it means to be a perfect human being to have these same desires. He has the same desires that you and I have. Just not disordered. Just not disordered. And he's the example of what it's like to love.

You know, like I look at his interactions with women, for example, right? He had very intimate, beautiful interactions with Mary Magdalene, with the Samaritan woman, others as well. And yet they were perfectly pure. They were perfectly built on true love. And so our Lord is the ideal. The saints show us how in their brokenness they reached their, you know, reached their, you know, state of sanctity through their holiness and their efforts and their reliance on the

grace of Jesus. And it's possible for us as well. And it doesn't just have to be that you have to be this way. So change now. There's the other option of being compassionate like how our Lord is with us, being that for ourselves and watching ourselves grow into the saints that we're all called to be. Yeah. And if people are unwilling to listen to Father Simon or myself, Listen to Francis DeSales. Yes. Right? Yeah.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Mm-hmm. What does he say? Every day begin the task in you. But the idea he's getting at and what the other saints get at is the self-condemnation that flares up in us and seems really masculine in a good way isn't. It's actually like our pride flaring up. Don't you think that's for me? It's like, absolutely, yeah.

How could I be this? How could I have not made my? progress. It's like, why would you think, look at you? Of course, you know, like, but you're deeply loved by the father. And so just that recognition that I'm, I think that's what we have to have, like a deep recognition that the father loves me is really the only thing that can enable me to own up to how deep my depravity is. Because if I don't trust he loves me, then I cannot look at what's inside. Right, right, right. But if he loves me, then I can be willing to look at all that's going on, you know. And because he looks at it.

at all that's going on and he sees everything and he still loves us. And there's nothing that you could do that could change how much he loves you. But he still loves you. You know, obviously the way you act is about how much you love him, right? That's what we're doing with our lives.

But yeah, I think that's a great way to start. We love because he first loved us. So we start by seeing the way that the Lord loves us, and as we are and his desire for us, it's for us, it's for our sake. It's not that he just wants us to act a certain way just so that we can be like robots or something

doing the right things. No, he wants us to be fulfilled and he knows what it's like to be fulfilled as human beings because the first humans, Adam and Eve, they fell for the trap of the devil and our Lord came and undid their act of obedience by showing that he's going to be obedient to God the Father. He's going to go through the suffering. He's going to go through the hardships and the trials.

And he's going to show us what it's going to be like to be that perfect human being. And so speaking of being a good human, I think that's an important approach also to remember that it's not only spiritual. We can't. I mean, as powerful as prayer is. Yeah. It's incredibly powerful. It's unlikely to remove the plaque from your teeth, though. Yes, exactly.

Maybe there are some physical things I could be engaged in, acknowledging my bodiliness. Yeah. So, yes, 100% if you develop a habit of praying the rosary every day, I think that that's one of the best things you can do for your spiritual life. Because, but why is that the case? Not only because of the prayers of the Virgin Mary, and the power that comes from them,

but you're starting a new habit and you're giving that 15, 20 minutes as a part of your day, and so you're going to have to replace something else in your life that you're doing. And so there's a human aspect to our change and to what we need to do from that perspective rather than just saying,

oh, I'm going to start, you know, praying more only. You can't only pray more. You have to clean the room, right? Like there's, there's things that are disordered and you have to put them in their proper order while having that spiritual perspective. It's not like I'm a human and I'm a soul. No, you're you're a unity. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be like being surprised that you can't hold your breath for 20 minutes underwater because you've prayed enough. It's like, yeah. All right. Because I remember this woman came up to me. She was heartbroken because her son was addicted to pornography or so she said and she asked for advice and I was giving a few things and she kind of seemed shocked that I wasn't

giving like purely spiritual advice, which is also obviously good. But of course, even when you say purely spiritual, what does that even mean? No, there's always, the bodily is always involved in the prayer and the confession and the fasting right. But, but that was interesting to me that she was shocked when I would say, yeah, when I would when I would talk about maybe therapy or when I would talk about triggers or when I would talk about, yeah, those sorts of things. It is strange because in almost every other area of life, if you give someone a physical, quote unquote, answer, they're not like offended, you know? Yeah.

Like how to, you know, but when it came to this, it was like she was kind of shocked. Yeah. And I think maybe it's sometimes we have the wrong image of the saints as well. Like we forget that the saints were human beings who were just like us in their struggles and their temptations. And they committed sins in their lives, actually. And yet they had to get from that point to the point of sanctity. And, you know, we mentioned him already, but St. Paul is a great example of somebody who was openly struggling with himself and with these desires that he had openly struggling with them. And we are too.

And I think that when we're able to admit first that, you know, we're like, we're going to have to lower our pride and we're going to have to say, okay, I'm a human being. I'm a fallen creature. And I am in great need of the grace of Jesus. And honestly, if I don't do that every day, I would be the biggest sinner in the world. and I need to completely rely on the grace of Jesus and go to him in vulnerability and in humility. You know, at least I try to do this all the time. And that's what's been the foundation for my spiritual life as well,

is just being able to be vulnerable with the Lord and to open myself to him. Was there a time during seminary that you thought, I can't do this? Or once you joined, were you like, no, I'm committed and I'm going to, and everything kind of flowed quite nicely? Um, there wasn't a major doubt that I had. There were some moments. And I'll be honest with you. I mean, like, during seminary time, I would be serving the church as well. And so, you're leading a youth group. And there's, you know, these youth leaders, very pretty girls, right? And you have, you know, you start to form relationships with them. And this is all while you're being formed as, uh, you know, you're being formed as, uh, you know,

as a priest. And so I had to tell myself, I had to set boundaries for myself. And this was with the help of, you know, my rector and spiritual director, I thank God that I set these boundaries. I said that I'm not going to start

to talk to a girl like that for anything related to anything else besides church business. I'm not going to start that unless I leave the seminary first because I want to, discern freely. I don't want to discern with this distraction. If I discern, then I can go look for a girl afterwards. But like if I discern that the priesthood is not for me, but I want to be free in my

discernment. I didn't want that to be a distraction. And so thank God I, you know, had the grace to be able to just lock in and focus as hard as it is to do that. Thank God I did that. And I was able to get through it. When were you ordained a priest and what was that day like? Oh my gosh. Best day of my life. It was, uh, I'm coming up on 11 years. Praise the Lord. So how old were you when you were ordained? So I was, uh, 23. Wonderful. Yeah. Crikey. That's young. So, yeah, that's amazing. I was 23 when I got married. Oh, cool. Wow. 2000, well, 2006 for me. Yeah, Yeah, mine was 15. Yeah, lovely. Yeah, so basically it was the, you know, the youngest canonically possible that you can be ordained a priest because for the Eastern right churches,

it's 24 is the minimum, 25 is the minimum for the Latin right, but the bishop can grant a six month dispensation. And so... And did you have to apply for that? No, the, the bishop just, you know, takes care of it. If it's after six months, I think it, for Eastern churches, it comes from either the patriarch or the Pope himself, actually. But, so I joined the seminary right after high school. And that was, you know, interesting.

I was 17 years old when I joined the seminary. So it was, I really had to do a lot of growing up in the seminary and a lot of human formation, which was very, very important for my priestly formation. But I was 23 when I was ordained a priest and like I said, it was the best day of my life. I mean, you're building up all these years to that. And I just wanted to give myself to the Lord and to his church. And so to be able to receive that calling and that laying on of hands was the most incredible thing.

I often say that about my own wedding day, that it was the best day of my life. people had told me it goes by quick, you know, and it didn't. It was like time stopped and it was the most perfect thing that ever happened. Wow. Wow. Now I realize that the people in the pews weren't probably having the same experience I was. Isn't that a weird thing when you're having this palpable divine experience? And then you go to other people's weddings or whatever and you're like, okay, yeah, when is dinner? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When's the party starting? That's beautiful. Now, okay, tell me about the Chaldean church. Where are your parents from?

Because you have a bit of an accent, though I suppose you were raised in San Diego. Yeah, so I was raised in San Diego, but I grew up speaking Arabic and Aramaic. Beautiful. A little bit of Aramaic because I learned a lot more when I joined the seminary. But my parents are from Iraq. Beautiful, yeah. That's where most Chaldeans and Assyrians are from. I have to say this, right?

So when I was in San Diego, my wife and I actually sent our kids to that little kindergarten that was attached to your church, I think. Was there a kidney? Do you say that word? Kindergarten, sorry. Yeah, yeah, we do say that word. We do say that word. But there was something. Maybe it's not there anymore.

But anyway, it was a long time ago. I'm 102. Oh, yeah. There is. There is, yeah. But every Chaldean woman I met was phenomenal. And my wife has this beautiful personality. I just love her so much.

She's very, what do you say, just sort of extroverted. And some women don't know how to take that, you know, like they might be a bit threatened. But every woman, these Chaldean women, they were so beautiful. They were just like her. So she was like, I feel like I've met my people. That's amazing. Yeah. They are amazing.

You know, we have a beautiful culture. And Chaldeans and Assyrians are the, you know, now they're the, Christian people of Iraq, basically. You know, there's also Syriac Catholics there and maybe other rights. But the Chaldean church is one of the 23 Eastern right churches in full communion with Rome, with the Pope. But it's a different right, which comes from, you know, R-I-T-E, comes from the, you know, word ritual, which means that we have different rituals.

We have the same faith. We are under the authority of the Pope. We believe in the creed and in the catechism of the Catholic Church. But we have a different way of expressing the faith. This is what the Eastern churches are. It's a different expression of the faith through our patrimony, you know, our church fathers, through our liturgy and through our spirituality.

Do you often get mistaken as an Orthodox priest in airports and things? Yeah, yeah. And how offended are they when you tell them you're Catholic? Not really. I mean, it's, you know, it's always cool because there's the Eastern connection there. So, you know, we speak Aramaic. That's the language of our liturgy. And so a lot of people find that.

Someone else spoke Aramaic. Who was that? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Yeah, and we speak it too. Like it's our spoken language, which is very cool. How wonderful. Yeah, yeah, it's very cool.

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And exclusively for my listeners, use code pints for an extra 10% off your first order. That's a 25% total savings on your first order plus a free gift. Just use code pints at checkout. Now, 23 Eastern churches. Your liturgy is not the different. divine liturgy of Sir John Christosome from what I can tell. So what's going on there? Well, yeah, great question. So each of these Eastern churches, they use a certain right of, you know, of the church, which has developed throughout the years. There's the Latin right, which uses the Roman missile and stuff. You know, it's really funny.

Bromisland stuff. Yeah. You know, it's really funny when sometimes this will happen. You know, people will know that I'm a Catholic priest. And they will even sometimes know that I'm a Chaldean priest and they won't really get the whole, you know, get how it works. And so they'll say, you know, they'll test me. They'll say, do you do the novice or the traditional Latin Mass? And I'll be like neither.

Because our, you know, we don't, like, we just say. Mass, even though it's technically not called the Mass. We call it, I think the Byzantines call it divine liturgy. And we call it the divine mysteries. And mysteries actually is the word for all of our sacraments as well. So our liturgy goes back to apostolic times, actually. It's very cool. Because our liturgy, one of our anaphares or Eucharistic prayers, was written by Ed Day and Mari, who were basically sent by St. Thomas, the apostle, and I think they went with St. Thomas to the Mesopotamia region,

and they evangelized the people there, you know, modern day Iraq. and they, those two, a day, most likely is St. Jude Thaddeus. That's who was one of our fathers and wrote our first and most ancient Eucharistic prayer. And so that's the prayer that we use. Can you say it in English? In our Mass. Give us a sampling of some of these prayers, or do you only know it in Aramaic? No, no, I do know it in English.

worthy of glory from every mouth. Putting you on the spot. Yeah, yeah. You know how like you know it? It's like if you said, say the creed. Yeah, yeah. I know, I know the creed. One time there was a really funny story.

I do the rosary on Instagram. Okay. Live almost every day. And, you know, it's the prayers of the rosary. So like I know them obviously very well. And I say the same Michael prayer at the end. And one day I just blanked out. completely blinked out and I'm on live.

Oh yeah. And I'm like... I promise I'm a priest. I'm like, guys, I'm so sorry that I forgot the words of the prayer. So yeah, that does happen sometimes. But our Eucharistic prayer begins with the words of St. Paul, the greeting. May the grace for our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And it begins with that and it ends with that.

And that's how you know that that section is complete. And basically our liturgy is based on, and I think the Latin right is also based on this as well too, and most liturgies, they're based on the four verbs from the last supper that Jesus did. It says he took, blessed, broke, and gave to the apostles. And so after that, that I learned this from the bishop that ordained me. He was a liturgist. Bishop Sadat, God rest his soul.

He just died about a year ago. Very good man, very faithful to the church and the liturgy of the church. And he taught us, he just said like, Jesus said, do this in memory of me, right? What is the this? What is he talking about? Like, it's, what is it?

And so he would ask us and I said, oh, the, you know, the Eucharist, the Last Supper, the Mass. No, but what is it specifically? And basically, he said it's what he did right before that, right? Right before that, it says he took, bless, broke, and gave, and said, do this in memory of me. And so that's kind of how the church developed its Eucharistic prayer. And so there's the instructional section of the mass.

Ours also is the, you know, similar structure where we start with prayers and then with the readings, gospel, and homily. And then we go into the Eucharistic section. And in the Eucharistic section, there's a part where, you know, the priest will take the gifts. And then there's the prayer of blessing, the, you know, Eucharistic prayer. And then we have, as part of our liturgy, we have a breaking and signing rite. So there's the, there's a whole ritual for the breaking of the bread. obviously representing the death of Jesus

and his resurrection because we signed the host of the body of Jesus with the blood. And then there's obviously the giving, which is when we give communion. Yeah. Were the Chaldeans ever out of communion with Rome? Formerly, yes, but it was probably... Most Eastern churches were more.

I think all except for the Marinites. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And it probably was just because of the distance and the lack of communication, you know, but it's beautiful, isn't it? Like the church is truly universal. Here in Nashville, we've got Coptic Catholics. Oh, wow.

Nice. Nice. And Roman Catholics. Honestly, I love the fact that I grew up as a Chaldean Catholic. And I really see it, you know, that being one of the Eastern churches. and the Eastern churches being able to have their own liturgies and their own practices, I really see that as a beautiful form of unity that we can present to the world. This is what unity really looks like.

You have these different cultures, these different looking people, they speak different languages, and yet they share the same faith and they are united through Jesus Christ. And that's what the Catholic Church is. The Catholic Church is that opportunity to be united. under the authority of Peter, whom Jesus placed as the visible head of the church. And so I hope that one day we will, that they may be won. Yeah. That's the will of the Lord.

Now, you mentioned leading the Holy Rosary on your Instagram account, usually daily. Yeah. You have 127,000 followers on Instagram account. How did that happen? Yeah. And what's that been like? Yeah. So that was pretty crazy.

I didn't really, I didn't go into the priesthood with the goal of becoming an influencer. Yeah. And it was mostly because at the time when I joined the seminary, you know, Facebook was around, but it was just to keep up with people's lives

and stuff like that. And so I did have my own personal social media when I was in seminary, but I would rarely use it. I would post, you know, updates of, about the church or, you know, Bible quotes or things like that. But then COVID happened.

And when COVID happened in 2020, I had Instagram and I was using it, like very rarely, like I said. But I was thinking about ways to reach our people who really were not coming to church much, right? Because of the lockdowns and all that stuff. And so I just, wanted to, you know, find something, find a way to reach our people. And I had this desire

on my heart. And I remember one day I was talking to my little cousin. She was maybe 14, 15 at the time. And she said, hey, I have a question. There's this video that I saw on TikTok, which is, it was like a Protestant, you know, something like that. And she was confused because it was something against Catholic teaching. And it was a one-minute video. It was very attractive. And she had a question about it. And I looked at the video and I said, wait, this is on TikTok?

Because I thought TikTok was just like for people to dance and stuff. Okay. Because it used to be called musically, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. And so she told me, no, there's a bunch of videos on TikTok. There's like anything you could think of is on there, including stuff about the fate.

So I said, huh, maybe I should make one. So I made one and I started to post videos on there. And there were, I think, a couple other priests that I would see their videos around that time in 2020. But I was pretty much one of the only priests on that app. And so my social media growth actually started from there. So I have about over like 500 and 20,000 followers on there. On TikTok? TikTok, yeah.

Were you editing them in a slick way or were you just like, hi? Honestly. My name is father. No, I'm not very good at editing. I would kind of be, you know, I would get decent. Yep. But yeah, I was very like I found a way to make them short and sweet and have a substantial message in there.

And then I would start to just kind of be myself on there. I would start to like do food reviews. as well and you know like post videos about sports and stuff and so like I just wanted to be myself and to bring people to the Lord and so

that got big and then Instagram at the same time also like I would post videos on there on both yeah on on both and then yeah it just kind of blew up wow and what's the response been you have people who are

Catholic searching struggling. Oh yeah, there's been I mean an incredible amount of people learning about the faith and you know I hear stories and I get so pleased that the Lord has used me and

unworthy servant to reach people and I do hear those stories sometimes and I pray for all of the people that watch my videos but for me I know that it's all about the personal, physical encounter with Jesus.

That's what it's all about. So as many videos as I posed, as many live Bible studies that I do, it's not only about teaching people about the faith. It's about leading them to a real encounter with the Lord who became a man for our sake. And so I always encourage people to find their local church

and to go to Mass and to receive the sacraments, the physical ways. ways that Jesus wants to unite with us. And so I have to always balance that. The end goal is not sitting on your phone feeling things looking at a priest. Exactly. And I... Same with this. Yeah. And I realize that early on that it's like it's not just about me throwing messages out there. I have to know what I'm preaching. I have to do it in a way that the people are going to receive it well.

So there was actually a time when early on, I made a video about Pride Month. So this is in 2020. Yeah, so it was, you know, the Pride Month of 2020 was crazy. George Floyd, you know, all that stuff. Right. June of 2020. And so I decided to make a video

because I saw even Christians, you know, Chaldean Catholics within my community, they would go to pride parades and, you know, they would put the rainbow flag in their businesses and stuff. And so I said, I need to teach people. I'm on social media now. So let me just make a video about it. So the video was just a one minute video. Should Christians support Pride Month? And I obviously said no. and I quoted the catechism, which says also, in addition to saying that homosexual acts are sinful,

it also says that we should treat homosexual persons with love and respect and sensitivity. And so I had that as a part of my message, even though it was a very short video. But that video went absolutely viral. Wow. Yeah. And. And. like right away, the ganges. Yeah, pretty much. I did post it on your favorite app, Twitter.

And that's where it got the most traction because I posted it on Twitter. I want to watch this now. Well, I took it down eventually. And honestly, it was because I realized that my approach was wrong a little bit. Was it wrong or did you just get nervous when it. ever I'm turned on you. Honestly, I didn't take it down at that time, actually. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. I took it down later on because I realized kind of like what we were talking about earlier about the aspect of being compassionate with, you know, we're talking about with ourselves, but also as it applies to people as well.

And I thought that there might be a better way of going about this. But I mean that's for another topic But I did actually take it down and I kind of changed my approach a little bit about how I was using social media because I realized the uproar that it caused and it did cause a big uproar actually like I was I was getting threats come on and my family's address got leaked and I was I was pretty scared at that time and I was I was pretty scared at that time and I was I was I was getting threats. I was I was getting threats come on. It can be, it's very overwhelming the first time something like this happens. Yeah, yeah. But I thank God that he gave me the grace to persevere. Good. I'm sure you had a lot of people thanking you for being clear.

I did, I did. I did. I did. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I was clear for sure. And I will never back down from the teachings of the church. You know, I, that's the basic foundation of everything that I teach on social media. anytime I have question about like what language, like what words am I going to say,

I just look at the catechism. I just, and I have full confidence that if I'm saying something that the church teaches, I'm okay, right? But I was learning about how you have to also have relationships with people too,

and you have to lead them to the church, to Jesus, and there's a way of doing that. And so I did kind of change my approach. I stopped being super aggressive and just looking for clickbait. Yeah. And so I started to teach people about the love of Jesus and His mercy and the beauty of the church. And so my social media presence has been growing since then.

What is your favorite thing about being a priest? And by favor, I don't mean most important objectively. Yeah. What do you just love about being a priest? I love to be with the people. I know that's a short answer, but I'll tell you a little bit what I mean. I just love to form good, healthy and holy relationships with people who come to you as a spiritual father. And I love that aspect of spiritual fatherhood that I get to experience on a daily basis.

And so one of the biggest joys of my priesthood is the fact that I have a group of altar servers and their kids. And it started out when they were kids like a few years ago and like all of them were kids. Now some of them are in high school. But I just like I never intended to have this. I'll tell you what it is. And then I'll tell you how I got to that point. Because I have like sometimes over 60 kids coming to daily mass to serve. Daily mass.

60. Yeah, yeah. Serving. What does that even mean? There's more part of this whole like daily mass altar server crew. So obviously they don't all have parts in mass. But yeah. Because then, yeah.

But they all wear the robes. And they all come and sit and. and we do evening prayer before mass. You know, we pray together, and then a few of them have parts where they serve mass. And that's one of the biggest joys of my priesthood is being able to see these kids daily and other, you know, youth members also, you know,

doing youth ministry. But the way that it started with these kids is, you know, like I said, I didn't intend that, you know, who goes into it and says, oh, I want to have 60 kids coming to daily mass? and serving. You know, I didn't ever even think that that was a possibility. But one day, I started an evening mass at my church after I became the pastor. So there was just a morning mass. And then I started an evening daily mass in English because with our right, we have

different languages of our liturgies, you know. So we have our morning mass, which is in Aramaic. And then I started an evening English mass. And we were very very very much. getting anybody attending it but I continued it and then around that same time one of my friends called me and said hey I I have this basketball hoop that I want to get rid of it's a really nice basketball hoop he said do you want it for the church I said sure yeah I'll take it so I took it and I put it up at church and so there would be kids coming around to play and because you know They live nearby and stuff.

And so I would go, you know, play basketball with them, hang out. And then the time for Mass would go. And I would see that they would continue playing in Mass. And I said, guys, I just want to make one rule about this basketball hoop. You can come play whenever you want, but not during mass time. Because mass time, our whole church property has to be focused on that. And so I don't want there to be games during Mass. And they were very respectful.

And they said, okay. and then all of a sudden, one by one, they started to come to the Mass. You know, it's just a short 30-minute English Mass, right? Like, daily mass. And I would just, you know, encourage them to come and do a reading or, you know, do one of the server parts. And that just grew into this incredible group

and big part of my daily life, actually, which is I just love to open the church to make it like a home. for people and so I have kids coming every day to church and they play basketball we we play ping pong then we go to Mass then we go to the youth group after and then you know we have food sometimes so it's a very beautiful part of my ministry how has it been hearing confessions oh my gosh confessions it can be very overwhelming at times if

like if my prayer life wasn't very solid thank God by his grace he's given me the strength to be able to you know do a holy hour every day I do the liturgy of the hours evening prayer morning prayer mass if I didn't have that then confession would would be impossible why because you're hearing these dark secrets

of people's lives and nobody is supposed to take that burden on themselves. And that's what it's kind of like. You know, it's people coming and they're throwing all these crazy things that they've done at you and you're supposed to be there and take it not on yourself, but to be an instrument of Jesus who is the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world. And so that's what he does in the sacrament.

That's the moment that he takes away the sins of the world. and he uses the priest as an instrument of that mercy. And so it's a very unworthy, you know, like I feel very unworthy to be called by the Lord to perform that sacrament. But I love to see the change in people. And even if it's not change after one confession, I love to see that people are falling,

but they're getting back up by the grace of Jesus. Yeah, it just just occurred to me, you know, because you might say, well, who can you relate to as a priest? And someone might say, well, like a therapist, right? Because people come in a therapy and they lay all sorts of things out. And obviously, it's different for many reasons. But one of them is you interact with these people on a daily basis and as a group. So like therapists aren't doing that. They're not hanging out with people. They're not in the midst of their lives. They're seeing them. I know. It would be more like, you know, here. That's right. Actually, I've, I've never thought about it. At that way, here at the Daily Wire, we have over a hundred people who work here. And I just thought, wouldn't it be weird if everyone in here occasionally came up to just me and said the horrific things they did last night? And then you're in the midst of all these people. None of them know about the horrific things everyone's been doing, but everyone decides to sell you. I can't imagine that.

That must be a real burden. Yeah, this is why some people that know me very well are shy and they don't like to go to confession by me. And I don't blame them. I don't force them to obviously. But it is a very interesting dynamic that the priest has because you do have a relationship with all these people, but you do know these things. And so that's why it's a burden on us.

And I really mean it when I tell people like, don't worry about it. Don't worry about what I know and don't think about that. I'm just here as an instrument of the mercy of Jesus. and I tell people like, I know we're all sinners. Like don't be, don't think that you're so special or that your sins are so special. We're all sinners.

But what you just did is remarkable because everybody's a sinner, but not everybody comes to receive the grace and mercy of Jesus. And you have done that. And so I actually tell people like, you know, it's kind of hard for them to believe, but I say, you know, the more you, like the more grave your sins are,

the more respect I have for you, actually. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, why? Because they realize their need for Jesus. Humility. Yeah. Because I would imagine as a priest,

it would be frustrating to have people come in. You know, it's been five years since my last confession. I guess I was mean to my sister. And you're like, oh, brother. Yeah. Whereas if the person would have dumped everything. Yes. That's a humble heart.

That's what you mean, is it? Yes. That's why I'm impressed. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kind of like the parable that Jesus says of the Pharisee and the tax collector, right? You have the Pharisee that goes to the temple.

He was this ideal model for the people. And he goes and says, God, I thank thee that I'm not like other men for I tithe and do all these good things. Whereas the tax collector, who's seen by the people as this horrible person, goes and he cannot even raise his eyes to heaven and he just beats his chest and says,

God be merciful to me a sinner. And Jesus says that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other one. Or like Mary Magdalene who's just able to open herself to the mercy of Jesus. And so that's why I have respect for these people and I love when they're able to do that. And like honestly, like it's weird to say,

but I get so relieved when I hear somebody just blurting it out, just saying all their sins. I'm like, okay, because sometimes you'll get people, you know, you'll get some like old ladies or something that'll come in and say, you know, father, I don't, I don't really have sins. And first of all, I'm like, why did you come? Like bring your husband. Right. Let me do it.

Or they'll talk about their husband. They'll say, my husband does this and that. And I'll be like, hold on, hold on. This is confession, your confession. He can come on his own time, but you're here. So what are your sins? And I get so discouraged when people just say I don't have. And it's like, like, I think it sounds weird because it should be the opposite.

But I know that they're sinners, you know, I know that we're all sinners. Right. And okay, at least give me something. Give me something. Say I said a bad word or I gossiped or I got a little angry, you know. So, you know, the more that. people say where grace, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, right? And so the more that they're able to open up of themselves, the more the Lord will be able to come into their hearts and

give them that mercy and that grace that's going to make them saints. What's your advice to someone watching and they know they need to go to confession, but they're afraid or they're really embarrassed? Maybe there's a particular sin. They just cannot bring themselves to say out loud. Yeah, for sure. First of all, I would say, I don't blame you for being embarrassed or for being ashamed or for struggling in this way because it's a very hard thing to do. So you're not alone in that state and that shame. But what does it say in John, John 3, the son of God came not to judge, but not to condemn, but to save. And so Jesus is there to save you.

Jesus is there to give you his love and his mercy. And he's there to, you know, like I said, take the sin of the world, to take your sin that is this weighty burden on you. The Lord wants to take it. You shouldn't keep this burden for yourself when the Lord died for you and when he wants to take it from you.

And he's given you this opportunity in the sacrament to go and to give your burdens, to give these sins to him. and sometimes people don't come also because they know that they're kind of in the state of just committing horrific, habitual sins even. And to those people also I would add,

like you've fallen and we all fall, but we need to get back up. And there's no way that you can overcome these sins without the grace of Jesus. And this is how you will receive His grace. The sacraments are the ways that we receive true grace, which is the life of God in our souls, and it's the grace of mercy that the Lord wants to give us in the sacrament. As America celebrates 250 years this year,

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when you subscribe. Goodranchers.com. American meat delivered. For those who are watching, can you divulge anything you've heard in the confessional, suppose somebody, and maybe they have confessed things like murder or adultery or some even criminal activity? That's a very important question. And the answer is absolutely not. There's the seal of confession, which not only is a sin on my part if I were to break it, but it could lead to me being excommunicated from the Catholic Church, breaking the seal.

Like that's how serious it is. And it's because it's not just a normal conversation between me and the person. it's a sacrament. I have no right to take anything that anybody said in there and to go do anything with that information.

It's sealed. And it's because it's not a normal conversation. It's a mystical experience. It's a sacrament. That's, you know, like I said, we use the word mystery

because there's a mysterious aspect to that and to all the other sacraments. But that one in particular, you are experiencing the priest and the person of Jesus who is there as just an instrument of Jesus and he gives you that grace and mercy and you move on. And actually technically speaking,

the priest can't even bring something up to you after the sacrament. If you confessed something and afterward, you know, you go to the priest for spiritual direction and you say, hey, remember what I was talking about the other day in confession? I'm going to say no. No, what were you talking about? What did you say? You have to tell me again now.

so that we can even talk about it, even just with you. Yeah. Yeah. That's really beautiful. That's good. Do you wish that, well, the best advice I remember I heard about confession, or at least a helpful piece of advice is whatever you feel most ashamed of doing and whatever you think will be most difficult to confess, just get that out of the way.

Yeah, yeah. Get it up front. And isn't it true that like, I don't need to come and explain everything to you? I can just go, I committed this sin, I did this, I committed this, I didn't do this when I should of, I wish this keeps coming up. And then you can ask me more questions about it, but I don't need to talk to you for like 50 minutes. I can just lay it out. Yeah, it can be short and sweet. It can just be you saying your sins and you're just getting them out. You're just getting them out so that you can leave them with the Lord who wants to take away your sins and he wants to allow you

the grace to move on. Now there's something actually that I've been experiencing in my priesthood. We have an incredible amount of people that come to confession now. You know, especially in our Caldean churches in America where we have a lot of young priests and we preach about the need for it and we're there for people and we offer it to people all the time. And, you know, we actually offer it, a lot of our churches offer it during mass actually. And so we see a lot of people coming to confession, which is a great thing, because it means that they're receiving the mercy of Jesus.

But I also see another issue now with some people is that they're not receiving the Eucharist because they think they're in the state of mortal sin. Okay. But because, you know, maybe they don't understand what mortal sin is, even though we teach them from First Communion, we teach them about the three

feel free to lay it out for people. Conditions. So it needs to be a grave matter. And that's very important. And just for the Protestants who might be watching, this is going back to St. John, right? Yes, exactly. There is a sin that is a deadly sin or a mortal sin.

Yeah. And so there's a different gravity of sin like St. John says, right? So the sin has to be a grave matter. All sin is based on the Ten Commandments, obviously. So I'll just give an example of that. right, like thou shalt not steal. You could steal a dollar, and that's bad, right? You should never steal, but you could also steal $5,000.

And that's a lot worse, obviously, right? And to steal $1 from you would be different than stealing $1 from a homeless man. Exactly, right? And so there's more than a million different scenarios that people could go through, and the church doesn't list off, this is particularly a grave matter. It does, in some cases, like with going to Mass on Sundays, for example,

it says that that's a grave offense against the Third Commandment, right? But a lot of it is based on our conscience, and that's why our conscience has to be formed by the scriptures and by the teachings of the church so that we are able to know if we have committed a grave action. So that's the first condition for a sin,

to be considered a mortal sin. The second is that you have to do it with your full will, so you cannot be forced to do it. You have to actually choose to do this thing. And then the third is that you have to know that it's wrong and you have to know the seriousness of it as well. And so sometimes people will think that any offense against the Ten Commandments

is a mortal sin. And so they will not receive the Eucharist. And so I'm, like I said, I'm happy that a lot more people are coming to confession. They are receiving the grace of Jesus. And I think that the Lord is going to lead us, like this is where he's leading us. He's leading us to sainthood, to the point where we are perfectly formed. Yeah.

And we know, okay, this is, you know, it's not just about how big of a sinner I am. And that's what I tell people too, by the way, when they come to confession, I say, this is not about you saying how big of a sinner you are. This is about you receiving the grace of Jesus. And it's about you showing how much you need the grace of Jesus. And so that's what it's all about ultimately. And I hope that we can get to that point where we are formed properly. It reminds me of Aristotle and the Nicomachian ethics when he's talking about when you're trying to overcome a particular vice. I think he refers to it like you have to bend.

if a stick is bent, you want to bend it past where it ought to be. Right, yes. So I wonder if that's part of it right, because during the crazy days of the 60s, 70s and onward, I think there was this, to our shame, hesitancy to teach the people about the seriousness of sin. And that's why for many of us were like, well, whatever. I've never been to confession, don't need to. Everything's fine.

The hell's not possible for me. Yeah. And that's why that generation, like a lot of our youths that come to confession, their parents don't go to confession. Or they say, I don't have any sins like you say. Or they say that. Yeah. And that's that's a scary thing, right? To not go. And in some cases, it's, you know, like the, the first ones of the parents to go are the moms. And, you know, a lot of the time the dads will not go because it's, it's embarrassing for them or, you know, they're, they're too prideful to go and stand in that line and to admit their faults.

I don't know what it is, but I'm glad the kids are doing it at least. That's where we are now, and that's better than them not going. And I think that the more they go, it's going to be on us priests to form them properly so that they are not withholding, they're not receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist and not having that life of God. God in their souls, which actually forgives venial sins too when you receive it. But that's the goal for all of us, is to have that full unity with Jesus. All right.

Now, you said at the beginning of this interview that you had something for me, and I can barely stand. Man, you went that long without even asking about it. I'm very proud of you. What it is. So it's a couple of things. I'll start with something that you just mentioned. Okay.

So you mentioned the Nicomacian ethics. Yeah. And Father Andy. Come on. Yeah. Got you something and he said he wrapped it himself. Stop it. Yeah, look at how he wrapped.

Oh, that's the joke. So he was my first philosophy teacher. I had never been to university before. So that's his new book. That's beautiful. Life lessons from the Nick and McKee and Hapags. He must be proud of me if he watches this, which I'm sure he doesn't. That was my favorite philosophy class.

Yeah. Honestly, it was, it was incredible. He taught physics, metaphysics, physics. I remember learning in his class that change was the actualization of potential as potential. And at some point, as he was explaining this, it hit me. And there was the light of understanding, and I got it. And immediately after I just, I rushed to the adoration chapel and fell on my face. I'm like, I would have never thought that understanding what change meant would do that.

I think motion. What did I say? You said change. Oh, yeah. I think motion is the, yeah. Well, by change, I mean motion. Yeah, yeah, right, right. Okay, so motion is the what, actualization of potential?

As potential, yeah. And as much as... I just remember that, like, not because I'm so good at philosophy, but just because it was just such a shocking thing, like you said. Yeah. Yeah, he's terrific. Well, thank you. Thank you to Padre.

So that's from Father Andy. And Father Andy also... Come on. He completed an amazing word. which is this. It's the book of before and after. So this is Caldean liturgical prayers in English. He did this? Yeah. This is beautiful. Yeah. So we have a prayer book called the Hodra. That's an Aramaic word. And it's all of our little almost all of our liturgical prayers that are all compiled evening prayer, morning prayer, other other stuff from the liturgy. And this is this is a gold mind.

Like there's beautiful prayers. And is this Aramaic? Yeah. It's pretty wild. I mean, just to drive the point home for those at home, that when you celebrate the divine mysteries, when you're consecrating the elements, you're not only using the same words Christ used, but in the same language. Yeah. That's very cool. Tell us what Abba means.

And how we might misunderstand it as Christian. Yeah, Abba means Father. Yeah. And so when we say that, we are speaking about God the Father and also it's about that, like, intimate relationship that. Because I'm looking at the Our Father now. Abun, how do you say the Our Father in our way? Can you say more than that?

Abund Vashmayya, Nithkadashashashmer, Teethe Malcuthah. I need you to know that that's not how I would have pronounced these words. This is really great. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. For sure. I would like it. Okay, so the last thing.

Oh, there's more. There's one more. Cricky. So this is, I'm just going to actually have you open it. So I've made it easy for you to open. All right. Okay. And I'm going to have you open it.

Okay. Sorry. This is like, we're going to do a new segment on Pines with Aquinas where I just open up people's gifts. All right. So who's this from? This is from Father Randy as well. I didn't know he missed me so much. This is from an iconographer.

Okay. She's a Chaldean young woman named Mary Nissan. Oh, my goodness, gracious me. That is amazing. I promise I'll hold it up for the camera. Whoa. Glad you like it. Yeah, a hand-painted icon of St. Thomas.

Crikey. What's her name? Me and her got that idea. Thank you. She was there showing her art. Her name is Mary Nissan. It's on the back there. So she's a young up-and-coming iconographer.

That is outstanding. And so for those at home, non-nicete domine. Should we tell the story of that? You're going to have to tell that story. All right. This is, well, Mary, you said? Yeah. Thank you, Mary.

You're beautiful. And God bless you. She's a big fan of the show as well, too. Well, that's nice. And that's so beautiful. that not only does you have this gift, but I'm told that sometimes when you tell an artist you have a great gift, they're like,

well, yeah, but I work my butt off. So God bless you for all the hard work that you've put into this. Don't ever stop. So Thomas Aquinas, toward the end of his life, had a vision of our blessed Lord. Brother Reginald, his secretary,

apparently overheard the conversation that was taking place in front of the tabernacle. They say, by the way, that Thomas would sometimes, when he couldn't understand something, He would lean his head against the tabernacle and weep, oh, and get insight from our Lord. But apparently in this one vision, our Lord, said to Thomas, you've written well of me, Thomas. What would you have as your reward?

And he said, non-nissite domine, which they tell me means nothing if not you, Lord. That's a great answer. Yep. Like, I'll have everything. Yeah. Or nothing. But I need to have you. Yeah.

So long as I can get you. That's really beautiful. Yes. Well, that's very sweet. Thank you. I will put this up somewhere in the studio. You know what? I think I'm going to remove that one. No offense to the whatever person may have put that there. And we have to put this there. That's so sweet. Can I show you my church remodel? Because this was... But you need to send it to Maria so we can put it up on the screen. Everyone else can see it. I will, I will. Is this the one I went to, right, in San Diego? Is this the church? A while ago. We used to live there. You used to live there. You know that.

Yeah, yeah. We have three churches. Oh, I didn't know that. In Alcahoun. And so... You have three in Alcahond. Three in Alcahonne, one in Spring Valley now. So there's four within like a 15 minute, you know, drive.

But you might have been to this one. So I just want to show you because she actually painted the icons for this. And I think she was 20 years old at the time. This was two, three years ago. So she's very young. But this was her first major project. Yeah. And I'm very happy about this project.

because this is right when I became the pastor. I said we have to remodel it. So this is how the church looked, and I just want you to swipe like that. All right. That's how it looked first. This is how it looks. And absolutely awful.

I hate everything about it. No offense. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. So she actually painted all of those icons. There's no way you paid her enough to do that. We didn't, actually.

No, it's not possible. Yeah. But what a gift of love, hey? and service. Yeah. And even how you were able to change those awful panels. Right, right. So it seems like do you still have the panels, but they've been...

No, no, we change everything. Like we move the whole ceiling, all the flooring. All right. So I've got a question for you. Don't forget to send these to me so we can put them up for people. Why do we suddenly desire beauty again in the church, right? Because the way the liturgy was celebrated after the council often left a lot be desired. It was hokey intentionally. It was ugly intentionally. It was creative. It was really

regressive intentionally. Yeah. So that's, I mean, we could bemoan that. Okay. Right, right. Fair enough. It was a time of revolution in the world, not just the church. Maybe it has something to do with the 60s and 70s and all. Yeah. And the lack of oversight and maybe Satan. Okay. But, but what's maybe more edifying to talk about is this return to beauty. This return to tradition. This return this desire to belong to something beautiful, something ancient. What happened? Why is this suddenly something we want? In other words, we're not being told to want it, but the young people want it.

Yes, yes. Like the boomer masses, forgive me. Not what young people want. The young people want tradition and beauty and incense and Latin or in your case, Aramaic. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, where is this coming from? I think that we are realizing more and more the greatness of what it is that we're participating in,

the mass, the liturgy, the sacraments, and that it needs to look like that on a physical level as well. You know, like it cannot look like the world. It cannot look like what modern designers want to draw for their homes, right? Like, that's a home. Well, can I just... Let me insert something. Yeah. Like, that first image you showed me.

And it's like every other, many other Nova Sort of churches. I don't mean to pick on your church. But, yeah. Our homes are better than that. Right, right. Do you know what I mean? It's not even like we're making churches look like our homes. Yeah.

We would hate to live in a place like that. So I'm still, I'm baffled that we ever decided to do that. Yeah, so, yeah, exactly on that point. Why do we spend so much money and make our homes look nice? It's because we are living in there, right? But God is living here. God is living at the church. And so we make our churches beautiful.

We make the liturgy beautiful. And unlike what the world is, I mean, in like music, for example, right? It shouldn't sound like regular music that you would hear on the radio. There's the radio and then there's the worship of God. There's mass. I remember being one time I went to give a talk during a process. Protestant service. It was on like, you know, Iraqi Christians and the persecution and stuff. And I was giving a talk. And so I went to the service. And I just remember, you know, during the music time,

there was a little kid that was jumping around during the music time. And I was, I just remember thinking, like, this kid is not going to grow up knowing the difference between a rock concert and worship of God. Like that both of the things are going to be, um, equated in his experience. And so the church has to be different. Mass worship has to be different. And there's a reason why the church will teach us that as well in its documents about the reverence that we need to have at mass. Okay.

But my question is still, why do we, I know that's, maybe you don't know because I don't know. Why do we want it? Why is this not coming from the top down but the bottom up? Yeah. I mean, that's my experience. I know. You agree? Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, I definitely agree. Our people are really desiring these things more and more. And I don't know, maybe it's because we're teaching them of the greatness of God and of what worship actually is. That worship is not something that I do because I want to or in my own way. but I do it according to the way of he who I worship, right? Like according to the way that he established for me and the way that the church will teach for me because worship is the highest and most great thing

that I can do as a human being. And so I do think that's a part of it is that the church is teaching people about the importance of these things themselves and then the young people now from their experience, they, when they go, they experience something unlike they've other, they've, um, they've experienced in the world. And I think that lights up a fire in their, and their heart and they, and they just want more of it. Yeah. I wonder if it's got something to do with the fact that we are like a cultureless people.

Now, I know that there's a strong culture amongst your beautiful, Chaldean people and they try to maintain it when they come to the States. But I think for many people, we feel like, what are we, what is, what are we What are we have in common except hangover after New Year's in the Super Bowl? What is uniting us? Exactly. And so everything feels so fluid, so cheap, so mass produced, so unsacred. I don't know if that's it, if it's created this deep thirst for community culture. And I think it's very refreshing for people.

You know what I'm saying? You can go get drunk and you can do all that stuff every day. Go ahead. That's cheap stuff. That's easy to do. You can find that anyway. anywhere. But this is something that's a, that's a treasure. It's also, I think, it must be hand in hand with whether or not we take our faith seriously, because if you stop believing

the faith, as some priests and apparently some bishops did, right, I'm not accusing large-scale bishops, but still there were bishops who are postatized or, you know, it's like, okay, if I'm no longer, if I don't longer believe the gospel, then I'm no longer going to preach the gospel. and the beauty of our churches, of our liturgies, of our music did just that. It preached the gospel. So if I've given up on the gospel, if I don't even believe in God, much less Christ and his salvation, then it's almost like it trickles down into even our art. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know if I want to mention this, but I am going to mention it now because it came to my mind as an example of this, which is the way that the priest faces en masse, right? I've experienced doing both, and I personally prefer Adoriantam facing the cross during the Eucharistic prayer, like in the same direction as the people. And I've experienced, like, when you're facing the people,

it kind of, it becomes about you. Like, it's hard to not think about that. That they're all looking at me. How's my face now? Like, how is my expression? How's my voice? Like, and so it just becomes kind of, it could become just like a show that the priest is putting on rather than the priest leading the people and worship toward God. Yeah, yeah.

It would be, I think there's a lot of changes that need to be made. But at the very least, it would be lovely if we could get to the point where the bishops told their priests. directly. If you want to celebrate Aderienta, you won't be punished for it. Like, at the very least, could that happen, you know? At the very least, yeah. And it's, and like, I'm sure they're scared that the people might get confused. Yeah, but teaching. But who cares? Yeah, they're already confused. My point, though, is I would imagine if a priest knows the bishop has his back, well, then he can pastorly address this issue of confusion. And then he can know that no matter what complaints come in, the bishop got his back. Right. Right. We have a great bishop in Jacksonville.

Okay. Austin Augustine would be the diocese. Oh, okay. Just like, you know, he's like, look, if the church allows it, who am I to forbid it? So he's not coming down, forbidding the Tridentine Mass, he permits it, you know. And the priests respect him because he's not like a micromanage. Yeah. Holy, he's a good man, you know. There are so many good bishops out there. Doing things like this and being faithful and very particular in how we worship God, I think is one of the most important things that we can do as a culture, as a world. The church needs to lead in showing the world what it means to worship, what it means to value something more than just what's in this world, and the liturgy is where we do that, first and

and foremost. And so if the liturgy is messy and it becomes about us and it matches with the with the things that the world does and the styles. And if it's not something that's set apart like a treasure, then it's just not going to have that effect. It'd be like if the marital embrace became vulgar and not out of love and not with kindness or say it's like the most sacred thing of your marriage. If that becomes perverted, the whole thing is that's both, if it becomes perverted, it's a symptom of where your marriage is

and it's also going to influence your marriage. And it's almost like the most sacred thing of our religion is the liturgy. And if we don't respect that. Yeah. But so I'm pleased. I'm so pleased that there seems like this revolution of sanctity, sacredness and this desire and hunger for beauty.

And so God bless this beautiful Mary woman. Yeah. Yeah. Now you have a podcast. Yeah. So my priest friends and I, we started a, media company through our diocese,

and it's called Corbana Media. Corbana is the Aramaic word for Eucharist, actually. And it literally means sacrifice or offering. And so even like, I'll just mention something about that word. If you go to a Sierra Malabar liturgy, they use the Chaldean rite as well. And so they will call their liturgy the Korbana. And so it's, you know, obviously the Eucharist, the Korban is the source and summit of our faith.

And so we decided to call our company, Korbana Media. And so we have two weekly podcasts that I'm on. One is just a, it's called Feeding Fathers, where people feed us. And yeah, so we eat food every episode, but we try to feed people with good spiritual nourishment as well. And so we talk about random topics, you know, related to the culture, the church, theology, whatever is going on or whatever we feel the need to speak about. And so that's with four priests. And I'm usually one of them. And then I also have another podcast called Youth for Truth.

Youth for Truth. Is that the one you had me on? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So this is a new one. Yeah. And you asked me a while ago what, like,

my favorite thing was about being a priest, and I love youth ministry so much. And when I was in high school, I actually started a club, and we called it Youth for Truth. And I actually stole that name from another youth group or something. So shout out to you guys.

This was like way back in the day. I had just heard about this youth group called that. And it was a club where I would meet with public, just with my friends at school. And we would talk about the Bible and just hang out. And then when I became a priest, I told some students that I used to do that in high school

and they said, we want to start that. Would you help us? I said, of course I'll help you. So basically it's turned into an incredible thing now where myself and a couple other of my priest friends, we go to eight or nine different high schools weekly. And we have clubs there and we teach people, you know, and it's just open to everybody.

and it's a beautiful ministry that I love. And so I decided to name the podcast after it because that's what the podcast is. It's just talking to young people about the faith, about the culture, and about things that they're interested. Great. Well, we'll link to that below. Thank you so much.

Yeah, anything else you want to lay out there before we wrap up? No. No, thank you. Thanks for coming. Yeah, Corvana Media. You know, check it out. Thank you very much for all the work that you're doing.

And I'm incredibly grateful that you had me here. Honestly, like, I've been watching the show for a very long time. Really? Yeah, I'm a big fan. That's nice. And I can't believe that I'm here right now, actually. Wow. Well, I'm honored to have you.

Thank you. This is beautiful. So this is everything. This is your... Yeah, yeah. That's pretty much the liturgical prayer life of the church. Okay. Of the Chaldean Church.

There's a lot more that's not translated. but this is the main part. And I hope Father Danny doesn't get mad at me for saying that wrong, but I think I'm correct in saying that. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, this is the main stuff of the liturgical prayer of the church.

And so this is just for the Chaldean church or the other Eastern Churches used as? So the Cerro Malabar would also use that and the Assyrian Church as well. So the Assyrian Church is like our counterpart are, you know, apostolic. I don't want to say Orthodox because they don't call themselves Orthodox, but we were one church.

We were just called the Church of the East back in the day. And so now there's different... It's beautiful. A couple different groups. The variety in the church, sorry. But we pray the same prayers. Yeah. And that's a beautiful thing, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a, like, I'm seeing week one, week two, week three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have week one and two for our... you know, standard. Oh, I see, and you go back and forth between them. Evening prayer. What he has in here is

the first portion of the book is the traditional way that it was done back in the day, but then there was a reform that was done by my previous bishop, Bishop Saddha, who I mentioned earlier. He led this liturgical reform, and so it was just organized a little better, and so the reformed version is also in here too. Okay. So it's pretty cool.

I see that you have some, prayers that I'm familiar with from the Ukrainian church and the Byzantine. What is that holy God, holy mighty one? Yeah. So that's a beautiful example of our church being open to something which we would consider the West, which is the Greeks because they're West of us, right? Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, wow, that's funny. Isn't that funny? Yeah. The Greeks are West. Yeah. So we are speaking of the word that you asked me about, Abba, Father, there's a one of our great saints of our church is Mar Abba. He was a patriarch of our church,

and he brought this prayer into our liturgy. And I mentioned that I do the rosary to. So we're not against these beautiful devotions, but we have our liturgy as well. And we encourage our people to know our liturgy, to know our church fathers, and to pray with them as well, because this is who we are as Caldean Catholics.

And it's a beautiful thing to preserve. I would encourage all the Eastern churches to keep their beautiful traditions and their beautiful prayers and their patrimony and spirituality. Because this is a, it's a gem to offer the church that this is part of what makes the church so beautiful is that we have all of these different rights.

Yeah. Are you having, so, okay, so to that point, you know, in Canada, for example, right, if you live in Quebec, all of a sudden, you're pretty defensive about English, okay. And it's like, fair enough, because if you're not, you will become an English speaking province. So you kind of get why it's illegal to have, you know, the English, but not, you know, okay. Yeah. Or however it works. I'm not an expert on Quebec and how they make science. But it seems to me that like there's a sense in which, you know, I understand why Eastern churches have to be a little bit on guard.

Do you know, if that makes sense? Absolutely. Absolutely. So I appreciate what you're saying. Like you can incorporate the rosary and you can draw. Stations of the cross, for example, yeah. But I've also been, like, I remember I was in Romania and I went to this church. I'm like, this is like a Western church. What are you doing?

Like, yeah. Like you have such a rich history draw from it. Yeah, exactly. So how do you find that balance? Because I'm sure, too, as you've got these young people and yourself who are a desire as to reclaim your tradition, you know, like, I actually understand why an Eastern priest would be like, the rosaries of beautiful private devotion. We're not going to do that before divine liturgy because that's not part of our heritage. Right, right. Yeah. And that seems like a bad thing to say, maybe, but I don't think it is. It's like you need to emphasize what's being lost to regain it. And speaking of what you were mentioning earlier about the young people having a desire for these beautiful things, the altar server group that I mentioned, like they have learned how to chant these beautiful prayers that are centuries old. And they chant them and they've learned.

And it's becoming like a very beautiful thing for them to participate in. and they love to participate in it. And it's because we priests, you know, starting with Father Andy, who's, you know, led this beautiful initiative, we're trying to give them this, which belongs to them already, but they don't know.

And they don't have access to it. Maybe it's because of the, you know, previous church hierarchy that have been just bringing different things that, you know, the, whole Catholic church knows or does. But that's the reason why we're translating these things into English.

And we're also translating them to be singable in the same melodies. So the melodies have an effect, like they have a spiritual effect on yourself. Because like there's different melodies and they should move you to feel things, right? And so we translate things to be sung, but in English though. but we also keep Aramaic for certain prayers, but we keep the prayers and the spirituality, but we also have the, you know, flavor of the church, liturgies and history.

Father Simon, thank you for being on the show, and I'm so grateful that you exist. Thank you for saying yes to the priesthood. We're blessed to have you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.