The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Supporting Small Catholic Businesses with David Kruse

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

These days, the personal investment with small businesses is often overlooked for expedited shipping and brand status. In today’s episode, we’re invited to an interview with Jeff and OréMoose Founder & CEO David Kruse to find out how to support smaller apostolates who work, not just to make a living, but who strive to bless the body of Christ. Snippet from the Show During the times of Jesus, a father taught his son and his son took up his father's trade. The work that small businesses do means something: it's rooted in passion and life, and it evolves in love. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 299, supporting small Catholic businesses. Welcome again, my friend, and happy Advent to you. We are now celebrating Advent we're preparing for. the coming of the king. You know when I came into the Catholic Church, one of the things that was a big surprise to me when you look at my life after I came back and then before was my understanding of the liturgical year. I growing up had no clue what we were doing, to be honest with you. And the liturgical year didn't mean a whole lot to me. In fact, I know it sounds crazy, but I actually thought that the color change on the vestments of the priest

was just felt like that color that week. I really didn't even pay attention. But after coming back to the Catholic Church, it really meant a lot to me. And the liturgical year really is the life of Jesus laid down on a calendar, starting with Advent. We just finished Christ the King. That was the culmination. And then now we're starting over again. And, of course, we're preparing for Christmas for the coming of the king.

And really, you know, at the heart of preparation, and the readings bear this out, is repentance. And it's a turning, it's a radical turning in our hearts from what is killing us, what is keeping us from real life and turning to the Lord. And we put such an emphasis at Christmas every year on gifts and giving. and we're really, I don't know, I guess we're really not that different than the world in our giving because many times we just simply go online and you know the companies I'm talking about. You can buy anything from them and have a chip to your house in one or two, three days. And there you got everything taken care of for Christmas.

And I'm guilty. I've done it before. You wait till the last minute to get a gift for someone. And because life is busy, you haven't thought a lot about it. And then you go online and in one half hour you got it all done. And I know we do that. I know I've done it. But this year, I'm doing something different.

I want to really think about some gifts for the people that I love and what might really impact them. And I started to think about this as I was talking with a number of leaders of small Catholic business. who struggle, frankly. And we just got done this last week, I think it was, where the whole country focused on supporting small businesses. Even the country is doing this. And they're realizing that there's a lot of small companies that just don't have the money or the inventory

to compete with the big box stores and the big websites. And so what they're saying is, let's go and find the small business and let's support them. which I have actually found in my life, in my searching, that those gifts oftentimes mean more because it's this small business that creates niche ideas that do have an impact on people's lives are very handy and it's not just the same old, same old. And so a number of months ago, it might be a year now. I started really getting involved in supporting some of these ministries, like Oremus, which we're going to be talking with David Cruz, the founder of Oremus, a little bit later on here in just a few minutes.

And he and his brother started up a new company, Oremus, that makes leather products. And of course, I'm thinking right away because I'm a connoisseur of leather products. I enjoy them, specifically covers for Bibles, Magnificat, pretty good. a rosary and all kinds of different leather projects. And I said to them, you know, you guys have a really great vision here. But I heard from them and I hear from other people as well. Jeff, it's hard. It's really hard to compete with everybody out there on the internet, the big companies. And we just wish that Catholics would support us. We're putting our heart into it, whether it's music, art, or creative items like Aramos or books that are published.

published by wine, women in the new evangelization, or subscriptions to hallow, you know, the wonderful number one app in the country for Catholics. And so I thought, you know what to do? I'm going to have a show right before Christmas, and I'm going to encourage you to support the small apostolets. And they may make beer, I don't know, they may make clothing or items or children's material. Whatever it might be, I would encourage you to take some time and this year support them and let them know why you're doing it because you care, you care. I remember talking years ago to a credible artist. I'm talking about painting in the Flemish style and other styles and you could look at their work and say, you know, my word, that could be in a museum. When you get to talking to

them, they say the same thing. And that is, we wish the Catholics would adorn their house with the beautiful things that we're painting or sculpting or the pottery we're developing. Instead, they just go online and we're the starving artists, I guess. And I thought, wow, you know, we should turn that around. We really should. You know, there's a lot of wonderful ideas just here at Ascension Press. The Great Adventure Bible this year for a Christmas gift would be tremendous. The new Ascension Catechism is about as good as it gets. It is gorgeous. A lot of you are texting me saying, I got my copy. Hey, they came out a little earlier and I thought that they would. There's activated disciple book, Walking with God, if you want to go all the way through

the Bible. There's the Insight Journal. That's what Father Mike Schmitz and I put together for really keeping the gold in your life, the insights that you run across when you're studying or you're listening to a CD or you're watching a television series and you hear something and you say, man, that's good. Wow, that's good. And you don't write it down. Well, we put together an Insight Journal just for that. So I'll put that in the show notes as well as, well as, well, well, here's an idea. And I got to admit, I'm not the one that came up with this. Somebody told me about it because they were doing it. They bought, I think it was six subscriptions to the Great Adventure Bible study, and they put them in gifts and sent them to their relatives or friends.

I think it was their friends, actually. And for Christmas, when they open up the gifts, they're going to see that they have been invited to one Bible study with them online, the Great Adventure Bible Study, everything paid for. Now, that's clever, and I would suggest that might be a very good gift to support Ascension this year, they're putting together so many wonderful things and doing so much to revive the faithful and building studies that will reach out and touch people's hearts. There's also music, Taylor Tripodi.

I'll put this in the show notes for you. And if you do want the show notes, all you've got to do is type my name, Jeff Kaven's, one word, and then send it to or text it to 33777. That's right, 33777. And if you do that, then you're going to get all the show notes going forward. There's also some really, really wonderful singers like Taylor Tripodi. She will bless you. Allie Aaliyah.

We've had her on the show before. She will bless you and your loved ones and your teens at Christmas time here. Wine, women in the new evangelization is a, incredible women's ministry that brings women from all kinds of apostolets together and really ministers to all of them. They've got a book that is really hot at Christmas, and it's the Mother of Jesus is wonderfully real. Story for a little girl. It's a beautiful touching story. Great art by Catholics, great writing by Catholics, backed up by Bishop Barron is one of the endorseers of it, and there's other people.

All you've got to do is go to Catholic Vineyard.com on that one. I'll put that in the show notes for you, but it's the mother of Jesus is wonderfully real. That is a book that will touch people. Okay, so I want to get to this interview with David Cruz about Oremus. And by the way, if you know of other small Catholic apostolets that people are kind of forgetting about, would you email me that? I'm going to start putting together a list. And you can get a hold of me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com.

So we're going to go on a visit with David Cruz right after this. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hello, my name is Father Gregory Pine, and I'll be one of your hosts for a new podcast with Ascension called Catholic Classics. Each day we'll read a section from a spiritual classic and then provide some commentary to help you grow in your life of faith, to help you grow in your life of prayer. For our first season, we'll be reading the introduction to the devout life by St. Francis DeSales.

You can find your reading plan at ascensionpress.com slash Catholic Classics. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show. You know, every once in a while, I want to introduce you to my friends. And I've had a number of friends of mine on the show over the years. And today I want to introduce you to a good friend of mine who is involved in a small Catholic company slash ministry who is really doing an amazing job of clothing your Bible with beauty. Now, we're talking about beautiful leather covers for not only your Bible, but also for the catechism, the Ascension Catechism, the bravery, pouches for rosaries, just really, really

good stuff. And I am big into supporting Catholic ministry. And so often when somebody wants to order, say, a Bible cover, something like that, the first thing they do is they grab their computer, grab their smartphone, they do a search on the Internet, they have the two or three top hits, they look at them, oh, that's nice, and they place their order. In the meantime, there are good Catholic brothers and sisters around the world who literally are working hard to try to be a blessing in the body of Christ and at the same time make a living. And my guest today, David Cruz from Brisbane, Australia, really from Mancato, Minnesota,

but he moved out to Australia for love. He can tell you a little bit more about that. But I want to welcome him to the show today. He started a company with his brother, and that is called Oremus. And I know a lot of you've already heard about it because you've been to all these conferences like Sikh and other conferences, and you've seen these Bible covers. They are incredible. David, welcome. Welcome to my show today.

Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, it's good to be here. It's good. Now, what in the world? You're from Minnesota. What took you out to that hot place called Australia? Oh, my goodness. It's very, very hot. It's summertime happening now. Love brought me there to Australia. I fell in love with a girl named Emma. And we actually had to date long distance for 13 months before we met in person because Australia was in there. they're a lockdown during COVID and we met through a mutual friend and yeah it was about it was about eight months into that I felt like man unless she's just incredibly different than I think she is when we meet in person I'm pretty confident I'd like to marry this girl and uh sure enough she came to Minnesota last Christmas for the month whole month of December and it was just amazing she's just

an amazing person we've been married and you inherited a brother-in-law to it didn't you I did Yep, two of them, yep, Tom and Matt, Matt and Tom Frad. Yeah, yeah. She's the baby of the Frad family. Hey, I want to talk to you about Oremus. You and I've known each other for a couple of years. We met through a good friend of mine who knew that I was looking for some leather covers for my Bibles. And he said, oh my gosh, you've got to talk to David Cruz.

He and his brother are doing an incredible job of creating these beautiful covers. and you and I got in touch with each other and started making up a few of them and I just love them. We'll talk about that in a moment, but how did you get started in this, in this whole arena of making beautiful covers for Bibles? Yeah, it was a neat process.

So it involved my grandpa, actually. I grew up in Southern Minnesota, but I spent a lot of my summers out in Northern California with my grandpa, Roger Johnson. And he was a National Wildlife Refuge Manager, a really, really interesting guy. And when he passed away, when I was about 13, I inherited all of his leatherwork tools.

I didn't do anything with it for about, you know, 14, 13, 14 years. And my mid-20s, I was in seminary for the Diocese of Winona, Rochester. And, yeah, I pulled out my leatherwork tools one day, and I said, I'm going to make a bravery cover. You know, I'm using this bravery every day. And I made a cover that was just, so ugly. It was deer skin, it was inside out, it didn't fit right, you know. But then I made another one and it looked a little better. And I made another one and it looked a little better. And pretty

soon my brother's in the seminary, you know, we're starting to say, hey, that's pretty cool. Can you make me one? And then I did a pastoral year and the parishioners would see my Bible cover and my briefie cover and they'd ask for Bible covers. And basically, long story short, in 2020, I felt like God was calling me out of seminary and just to do a lot of this ministry that I'm now doing full time. I had to take a break from looking for a job because I had so many orders with the leather work

and I thought, man, I might as well just jump into this full time. When you and I first met, you know, we were talking about this and I think what intrigued me about you and Oramos, which will get to that title for your company in just a little bit. But the thing that intrigued me was that you were not. not just a leather maker because you can find leather makers anywhere on the internet and you'd say, hey, I need this. But it was your attitude about covering the word of God that intrigue me and also something that a lot of people don't even want to talk about, but they're very interested in it.

And that is what you and I would call patina, you know, this idea that what you create and put around something that is so valuable like the Bible, actually ages with you and is kind of a visual record of your journey, your journey with the Lord. But talk to me a little bit about this whole idea of covering the Word of God with beauty, because I know you are, you're deep into that. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, the motto, our motto that we like to say is, clothing the word, you know, Oremu's Clothing the Word. The idea is you wear clothing to fit into a certain circumstance, right? You wear clothing to, you know, express yourself in a lot of ways, right? And it's that, it's that same kind of ideas that we clothe the word in a way of making

the word of God accessible. Not that it's inaccessible on its own, but in a particular time and a culture, there's ways that we can sort of present the word of God that can make it a little bit more, you know, stomachable for people that are now familiar with, that kind of thing. So we really We really believe in like evangelizing through art in general. So we do a lot of music things and we have different art initiatives. And there's a lot of different sort of aspects to the whole Oremus Industries LLC. The leather work is one of them. But with the leather work in particular, it's really fostering faith through quality craftsmanship and leather work.

You know, we really, there's something about holding a Bible cover that's covered with a nice leather cover that just makes it, you know, it's not something that you can just toss on the bookshelf and forget about it anymore. Right. It becomes an heirloom. It becomes the real, it takes the prominence on your bookshelf that the Bible really should take over the other books on your bookshelf, you know. Yeah, you're right. And it draws your eye to it right away. I'm holding in my, in my hands right at the moment one of your Bible covers that is so beautiful that my, you know, you gave me like three or four of them to choose from and the one I liked my wife chose and so I'm looking I'm holding her Bible right now and I'm like oh how did I give that up it's so beautiful that Emily got it and that's that's good maybe there's

more leather out there somewhere where I can get one made but um when I when we wake up in the morning the two of us we spend quite a bit of time every day praying and reading scripture at the beginning of the day together and I go and grab the Bible so that we can start and I know which one's hers by the cover and I can go across the room and grab it And just knowing, this is interesting, just knowing that that Bible with that cover is my wife's mean something because in 20 years from now

or 30 years from now, my kids all know that's her Bible. I know that's her Bible. And that Bible is distinguishable by the cover on it and the quality of the work. And so it's kind of part of her now. And I think that that is just really, really cool. Yeah. No, I love it.

And it's, the things are, they last forever. I mean, they're like indestructible, you know. We always tell people it should, it should last your lifetime, you know, and there's something special about that, you know, when it becomes, when it becomes something that you can, you can walk with, you can journey with, you can carry it with you. And it becomes, it takes on the oils from your, from your fingers, you know, and it changes the look of it. And over the years, it becomes more and more you, you know, and more and more of a companion.

You know, we all have those things that we got from our grandparents or whatever. and you can just tell that, oh, yeah, Grandpa, you know, used this his whole life. And now I get to continue that on, you know. Yeah, there's evidence of your grandpa there, right? Yeah. There's evidence. Yeah, that's what you and I, we're on the same page with that. And that brings up that word patina, you know.

And when people come and attend a conference that I'm speaking at, and I have one of my Bibles with the Bible cover on it, that's the number one thing they ask. Can I see that Bible cover? And I almost want to stop him and say, why, you know, but I know why. They do. They want something beautiful to cover their Bible with. And I think a lot of people are on, I don't know if they're uncomfortable about talking about it or they don't know how to talk about it. But there's something about the well-worn Bible cover that intrigues people in the same way as worn out jeans attract people.

You know, when I was a kid, I went and got a pair of Levi's and I begged my mother. to wash them 20 times so that they would look worn out. You know, I took the hem out and had my mom wash them and wash them and wash them. And I guess it's because it just said something about the journey that we're on. And that it's more permanent than so much of what we run into today, which is, you know, we can throw it away. We're throwing everything away. Yeah. But this is something we don't want to, we don't want to throw away.

Yeah. So when people buy them, what do you hear from people? when they see your products at seek conference, focus, other church gatherings, what do they say? People love the experience of them, I would say, you know. People love the smell and the look and the feel, you know. They pick them up and they say, wow, this is real leather, you know? Because that's one of the things. Like when I first got into leather work, I remember just, I started noticing kind of like

when you have a certain car, you notice all those cars on the road. it's like I started noticing like okay everything made out of leather you know at this store or whatever and I started noticing that there was a lot of leathers that were kind of they really shouldn't be considered leather and I remember looking up one day what yeah what yeah what can be officially considered leather as a retail and it's a really really wide spectrum things that can hardly that have just a very very minimal amount of actual leather can actually be considered leather And so I think a lot of people have gotten used to leather products being anywhere from really expensive, high quality, authentic leather to just really cheap kind of toss, you know, kind of plastic-y leather. And I think that's one of the big things is people see ours and they think this is this is the real deal.

You know, and we do, we pick leather from Minnesota, actually, from SB foot. that's like the sister company to red wing shoes and they just make the best in my opinion they make the best weather in north of America you're you're in the big leagues now i didn't know that that's that's that's everybody knows red wing you know those those quality shoes and and that's another thing that's another thing if you go on youtube you'll see all kinds of people with their red wing shoes and they talk about wearing them and wearing them and how old they are and almost like heirlooms in their will you know So you're in that league now.

Besides Bible covers, what else do Eremus produce? Yeah, we do, we've got bravery covers, Roman missiles, rosary pouches, valet trays, wallets, macsatchels, cross bodies, coosies, what else, dop kits? We have like this beautiful dop kit, like a toiletry bag. Yeah, a couple of other things. I think that's about it. That's pretty cool. And you work with your brother.

Yeah, my brother Joseph. Yeah, we both have had really similar kind of journeys in our discernment and whatnot. And last year, he moved back into early 2021. He moved back to the United States from Italy. He was in Italy for about eight years. And we started working together. And it's just been awesome. I love my whole family.

But Joe and I are the two youngest. So we've always been fairly close. We fought a lot when we were little boys. but as we grew up, we learned how to get along and really cherish his brotherhood. All right, so the big question. The big question. You could have come up.

You could have come up with some really fancy Latin name or named it after a saint or Greek or Hebrew or something. Oremus? Oremus. Tell me about that. You're in a league all yourself, yeah. Oh, gosh. You know, the honest truth,

And here's the honest truth. When in seminary, there's just a funny sense of humor that develops around a lot of things because you're just, you're with the same people most of the time, and you're living in your faith, and there's a lot of joy of the Holy Spirit there. And when I was in seminary making leather covers, I thought one day, man, if I ever turned this into a business, I would call it O'Re mousse. But I would spell the moose like the animal, because the animal is really cool, you know? Yeah. And I just thought, you're a Minnesota kid. Yeah. I just thought it was funny. So when I started the company, I thought, well, went as well. But it ended up being, there ended up being a lot more kind of significance to it. One of the things I found out, I told somebody that I wanted to name the business Oremus. And they said, did you know that moose actually kneel when they eat?

Oh, really? Yeah, because they're so tall, they actually kneel. Wow. You backed into that truth, didn't you? That's really good. I didn't know that Moose Neal. Yeah, and we kind of keep the, part of it too is we have kind of this tradition. There's a lot of my grandpa in the company, you know, the kind of the memories of my grandpa. And for us, for Joseph and I and for the rest of the team, you know, we love animals. We love the natural world. And my grandpa was just a really, really strong advocate for just an appreciation for nature.

Well, that is a, but that's a beautiful thing. You know, back in Bible days when, you know, Jesus was here on earth, a father taught his son. His son took up the trade of his father. And you don't see that a lot these days. And the fact that you're working with your grandpa's equipment and he was a leather worker, I think it means something. And it speaks of family and your relationship with him. And I think it just increases the value of what you're making. You didn't wake up one day and say, you know, I need a job.

I think I'll make leather goods. You just kind of grew out of your life, you know. know, and your love. And you're a musician too, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, we just, Emma and I just started a Catholic record label called Enemy Love Records. And yeah, we're starting, it's music made by Catholics, and we're ministering, we're trying to minister to Catholic musicians as well. So we host that. What's the name of that again? Enemy Love Records. Enemy Love Records. Yeah, like Love Your Enemies, but Enemy Love, like the kind of love, you know. Yeah, well, I want to make sure that all of my listeners.

can get a hold of not only this, the covers and things, but also your music. And I have to salute you for going out and being a pioneer as you have. It's not easy. It isn't easy to be a pioneer in the Catholic world, especially when you're going up against Amazon and, you know, is there Oremus Prime yet? Not yet. Not yet. But you're going up against all of these giants.

And I think sometimes Catholics have to be reminded of, hey, your brother and sister are working here too and trying to do something that has value and beauty and it's for the kingdom of God. So let's pause for a minute and ask ourselves, well, you know, Christmas is coming up, confirmation, baptism, birthdays. Maybe there's something of great value I could get my family. And who knows? Maybe it's a great adventure Bible marrying an Oremus cover as I have on my studio desk here. right now. So what do people do if they would like to get a hold of your incredible work, these Bible covers and other covers and your music? Yeah. If you go to Oremus.com, O-R-E-M-O-O-O-O-O-S-E-O-O-S-E-O-S-E. There's just everything you need. There's a music page on that website as well. If you want to access the

newly released album that I just released actually on October 27th. It's called Just Listen, and it's a nice mix. But yeah, the products are available and we just, we really believe in giving people something that makes a good gift, especially around the Christmas season, you know, whether it's somebody that, you know, is into their faith or somebody that you'd like to encourage to get into their faith. We've got everything from every, every price range and any good quality products that can help foster the faith. That's the goal. That's fantastic. I'm reminded of, you know, in the Old Testament, when God told Moses to build a taber. He said, choose Bezalel as the chief artisan. Bezalel was the one that was responsible for building the

tabernacle. And he said, there's two criteria. It has to be for, you know, beauty and grace. And it has to carry that beauty with it. And so when God had Moses build that tabernacle, he was interested in beauty, in it becoming beautiful. And that beauty does say something. And certainly your work does. You're also, you know, showing up at a lot of the places that Ascension presents audience shows up, things like Sikh and conferences and Stubanville and Augustin Institute and other places that that's kind of your audience, isn't it? No, it's really, it's been such a huge blessing to be able to get involved with the growing church in the United States. It's just, I mean, it's really amazing, especially in Minnesota, I feel like we're just having a renaissance of Catholic culture and, and. and growth, you know, and yeah, it's been really, really beautiful. You know, we've been getting connected.

There's a lot of entrepreneurs doing a lot of things in the United States right now, and meeting them has been amazing, just amazing people. Like really, I just, man, very holy people. I've learned so much just talking to the different people that are doing different projects, you know, and people just really living out there faithfully, just full on. That's great. Well, I want to thank you for being on the show today. You and I've been talking about it for a long time

and getting you out here. I wanted to introduce you to all my friends on the podcast. And the best to you, blessings to you, continue to pray for you. And I've already got a couple things that I'm going to put my order in for because my office is slowly filling up with old rameous leather,

which is a good thing for me and it's a good thing for you. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Jeff. My pleasure. And my friends, I just want to encourage you again, to support Catholic businesses, especially these small businesses that are trying to make it.

I can't tell you the number of young people who had a vision to start something, and they started it with a great zeal and excited. And initially, their friends around them and their family, they were excited. But then friends didn't tell friends, and those friends didn't tell friends. And before you know it, it was like, you know what, I'm going to have to do something else. but I'm here just to encourage you support these people, whether it's musicians and all of our friends who are in the creative aspect of the faith like Oremus just this year, bless them, bless them, and pray for them.

And who knows, maybe your kids are going to grow up and want to do something very, very similar. Well, I want to thank you for joining me once again this week, and if you do want the show notes, all you got to do is text my name, one word, Jeff Kavans, and the number to text to is 3377. It's about as biblical as you can get. 3377. And we'll get you all the show notes. And we're going to have all of the information on how to get a hold of David and Oramos right in the show notes. So God bless you, my friend, and have a wonderful week.

Thank you.