Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Catholic Conversations #187: The First Night of Christmas & Catholic Joe

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Catholic Conversations #187: The First Night of Christmas & Catholic Joe · Catholic Spirit Radio

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  Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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  Good day, and welcome to Catholic Conversations.
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  I'm your host, David Liptak, and
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  I'd like to go ahead and start off our conversation here with a prayer.
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  Please indulge me with the Memorare.
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  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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  Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who
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  fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided.
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  Inspired with his confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins,
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  my mother. To thee do I come. Before thee I stand sinful and sorrowful.
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  O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
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  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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  We have an interesting book that we're going to be reviewing.
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  We have the author and the illustrator here with me today.
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  The title of the book is The First Night of Christmas, and it's an interesting perspective.
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  It's Christmas seen through the eyes of children.
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  So I have with me Mr. Mike Bull and Nancy Johnson.
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  Mike is the author of the book, and Nancy was kind enough to go ahead and be
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  inspired to be the illustrator.
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  Would that be accurate as far as terminology is I would consider my wife,
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  late wife, Patty, to be the author.
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  Okay. I would be maybe a co-author. Co-author. I was more of an editor than anything. I see.
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  Very well then. So, we have co-author and editor, Mike Bull,
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  and illustrator, Nancy Johnson.
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  So, Mike, if I may, probably a basic question you get asked all the time with
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  respect to this wonderful book.
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  The illustrations are, and the combination of the pictures, I'll address that with Nancy.
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  So, Mike, can you give us a little bit of a background of the inspiration that
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  you and your wife had with respect to the first night of Christmas, please? Yes.
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  I'd have to say that the biggest influence was from Clement Moore,
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  the author of The Night Before Christmas.
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  Moore was a biblical scholar, and I'm sure that when he wrote his book,
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  the Bible had played a part in his book.
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  Well, like many, it was a family favorite for all of us, but Patty wanted to
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  have a rhythm pattern that Moore did in his book, but to reflect the biblical
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  story of the birth of Christ.
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  And then Patti also was inspired by her grandkids, and she wanted to have a
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  book that told the true story of a Lord and Savior birth.
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  So Patti had the inspiration based off the night before Christmas and wanted
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  to have more of, as you mentioned, the true story of Christmas, per se. Right.
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  And for the benefit of your grandchildren. Right. It's a very wonderful story
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  in itself. That's excellent. That's excellent.
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  So how did you, was it taken from that thought process?
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  How did you go from, jeez, I think this is a pretty good idea,
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  to actually putting it down into, let's say, a book form?
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  We got feedback from several of our, we had made copies. Sure.
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  The original book started off with Patty's story. I went and found cartoons.
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  On the internet, made copies of them, took it to the copy shop in Bloomington,
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  and they made enough copies for family members and for friends.
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  So your first rough draft was essentially for, like you said,
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  your family members and your friends.
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  What do you think about? A couple of dozen copies to go ahead?
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  And now you've got somebody to go ahead and kind of review this and say,
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  you might be onto something here. Right.
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  We've gotten numerous feedback from people saying that, We should try to get it published.
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  And it was 2021 that Patty decided that, yeah, why not give it a try?
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  No, we didn't know what was ahead of us. Never doing that before.
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  So it was a journey to go from your close-knit family and your friends to look
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  into getting it published. Okay.
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  Now, I have no clue as far as the inner workings of needing to go through and find publishers.
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  I guess there's opportunities to go ahead and check online.
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  Did the copy shop help you out at all as far as publishing or recommendations?
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  No, I did it all online. So you did it all online. So you found publishers to
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  go ahead and do this online. Oh, fantastic.
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  Okay. Well, we like publishers.
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  In today's age, publishers are no longer, a lot of them not taking unsolicited manuscripts.
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  So it's tough to get into the door.
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  Gotcha. Through a traditional publisher. I see. So, we do what a lot of writers
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  do today and want self-published. Self-published. Oh, my.
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  Well, here again, I'm not familiar with the intricacies of having to go and publish a book,
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  yourself. That in itself seems like another journey even over and above what you had done here.
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  It was. The two of you, you and Patty, embarked on this mission, so to speak.
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  So you've got this idea and this concept, and you had your pictures that you
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  had pulled together, correct? Right. Okay.
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  So I'm going to go ahead and ask, when did you end up meeting Nancy here,
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  and how did you start to collaborate with Nancy?
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  Were you friends, family, or did she knock on the door one day and say,
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  hi, I like this book. I found it in the library.
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  I'm going to let Nancy share that. Okay. Nancy, if you would.
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  Well, I first met Patty and Mike at church. It was about 25 years ago.
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  I was a single mother and I was facing an uncertain future myself.
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  And I was taking photographs and making Christian greeting cards to sell locally.
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  I would have liked to have gone nationally, but didn't have a way.
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  And I was raising a child, So I had to put it all on hold. We fast forward 25
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  years and I'm walking in the neighborhood and Mike and Patty don't live too far from me.
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  And they knew of my creative ability and my daughter's and asked if I could
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  perhaps illustrate their book. and I said, oh, you know, I've not had experience
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  in this and my daughter is busy in her career.
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  So at first I declined the opportunity and I didn't realize at the time that
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  Patty was deteriorating.
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  She was starting to, her health was failing. I see.
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  And she did see part of my drawings. She liked my artwork and she had a dream,
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  a desire, I should say, to have this book go worldwide. and share.
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  And so, that's how we left off. Patty didn't see the finished product. I see.
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  So, you had the conversation with Patty. She expressed her vision. Yeah. Okay.
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  And you thought, wow, this is kind of daunting by the sounds of it thus far. Yeah.
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  And Mike, now you've got, you have a finished product right now,
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  but then you went to go ahead and collaborate with Nancy and I'm assuming on
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  Patty's prodding to go ahead and say, what can we do from a,
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  I don't know, would improvement be the word or to enhance? That's probably a better word.
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  To go ahead and enhance the book that you had.
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  And I presume you brought Nancy in and said, well, here's what I've got. Right.
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  What do you think you can do with this? Would that be accurate?
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  That's the way it went. That's the way it went.
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  Okay. So now, Nancy, you've got this book in your hand.
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  So he comes to the house, knocks on my door and said, this is the manuscript.
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  Can you do this? And I hesitantly said, I'll try. Okay.
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  And it took me a little while just to get my ideas going because my background
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  in art was taking photographs.
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  So I had no idea how I would put together all the pages for a book.
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  And then just praying about it, I just felt like God said that I needed to start painting with it.
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  So I kind of just enveloped the picture of the photograph with the painting,
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  kind of a juxtaposition.
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  I kind of liked the real children being used for our book.
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  Well, and the book itself is an interesting combination of Nancy's,
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  was it watercolors? Yes.
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  Nancy's watercolors, enhanced with—now, are these your pictures,
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  Mike, or are these your pictures, Nancy's? They're my photographs.
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  Photographs, I'm sorry, your photographs as well.
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  So, I don't know if I'm familiar with ever seeing anything that had a combination
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  of both in this type of a presentation before.
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  What was your inspiration to try to pull this together like this?
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  Well, I felt that the photos of real children might evoke more compassion in the purchasers.
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  In this book, you see the birth of Christ portrayed through the imaginations
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  of children, humbly brought forth in like their childlike faith.
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  So they're kind of playing make-believe. So that was my idea of bringing in the real people.
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  We actually have more that we want to do with our book.
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  We want to donate 10% to nonprofits.
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  And so in doing that, I felt that if we used real children, people might,
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  you know, see the compassion for the need.
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  Well, I would agree. I think that the combination that you're in both your watercolor
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  work as well as your photographs, and I'm looking, as I'm thumbing through this
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  now, you've got some just delightful pictures,
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  photographs of the children that kind of tie into the story in itself.
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  But I also noticed that you're looking at the percentage of the proceeds that
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  are donated to Project Rescue.
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  Can either one of you kind of elaborate on Project Rescue? Can you inform us
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  a little bit about what's that about?
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  It's an organization, a Christian organization, that has stations all over the
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  world that are helping women and children who have been caught up in trafficking
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  to rescue them from that.
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  Oh, my. So you've got monies that will go to trying to,
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  bring these people out of the trafficking issue and trying to save themselves.
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  What an endeavor. Wow, that's pretty heavy to go ahead and look at something
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  of that magnitude. That's a very serious thing going on these days, especially.
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  Now, when did you come to the, when was your book actually published?
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  When was it made available?
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  September of 2023. 23. Okay.
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  And Nancy, up to that point, you were, prior to this book, if I understand correctly,
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  You were a photographer. Yes.
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  When did you get into the artwork as far as painting is concerned?
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  I've only dabbled in a little bit of painting, oh gosh, a few times over the past five years.
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  So basically, it just started with the book. I see.
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  Why don't we go ahead and take a short break right here, if you don't mind.
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  Welcome back to Catholic Conversations. David Littag here, enjoying a conversation
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  with Mike Bull and Nancy Johnson,
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  both the authors, co-authors, pardon me, and illustrators of the first night of Christmas.
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  And I'm going to go ahead and bring up this book is available.
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  We're offering a giveaway here to send an email to the station here at office
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  at catholicspiritradio.org.
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  Send us email, mention the book title. The title is The First Night of Christmas.
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  And randomly selected emails, we'll be able to go ahead and get a copy of this particular book.
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  Beautifully illustrated, wonderful words.
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  I think it's one of those that'll go down as a classic in our homes,
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  certainly for children and or grandchildren. It may be something that could be passed down.
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  I think we've got approximately three copies that'll be made available for those
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  who come again and email office at catholicspiritradio.org, please.
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  Right now, run, don't walk. So we were talking with Nancy as far as the process
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  of this, the book and the illustrations and the composition that you were in,
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  we were involved with, Angie. Can you continue that if you would, please?
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  Well, when we put the book together, I decided that I needed to add some more
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  pages to kind of lengthen it some.
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  And we put together an introduction page explaining the concept of the interactive
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  pages that are inside the book for children along with their adult to engage with one another.
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  So, I thought that would be… And you also have a couple of Bible scripture verses
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  that you've included in here as well as far as reference is concerned,
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  both Old and New Testaments as far as the biblical references are as well.
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  So I think that certainly lends itself to a greater interaction or engagement
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  between the reader and the youngsters that are actually listening to this.
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  I think it's a wonderful combination to bring those two things together.
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  I'll put this out to both of you, if you don't mind. Mike, if you don't mind,
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  what's some of the positives, maybe some of the spiritual changes that you had
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  experienced as a result of this particular journey that you and Patty,
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  because you're carrying on her
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  legacy that you would have experienced bringing this book to the public.
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  Right. Please. Well, one of the things I learned,
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  is I've been reminded that God's timing isn't my timing.
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  And I can get frustrated with that, that God sees the big picture.
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  And deep down, I know that God sees the big picture, and I'm reminded that it's
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  not about me. It's about God.
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  And if this book succeeds, to God be the glory. Amen. And if it fails, to God be the glory.
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  Nancy, your thoughts. How was your spiritual change or happening that you've
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  been engaged with when working through the process of putting this book together?
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  First of all, it was more than just a book journey. I've discovered that God's
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  will and purpose for me was to love Him more and to love people.
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  And that being said, I just believe that through our trials and our adversities,
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  we're given the desire to help others in a way that were useful.
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  Learning to listen to God's voice has really helped in stepping out in faith
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  for the completion of this book.
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  It's involved different graphic designers, Ann Charback and daughter Tess Fagan.
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  Ann passed away before we finalized the book, and so we went ahead and printed
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  the book anyway with the help of my daughter Tess.
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  And we are still on this journey and printing a second edition in 2026 with
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  the help of a pastor, Jeff Miller, pastor of Godspeed Church.
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  And he also is owner of Indy Christian Publishing Company.
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  Well, God bless. How about that? We just keep meeting different people to further this along.
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  I just feel like by trusting God's timing and perseverance and not giving up,
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  we've actually impacted a lot of people and witnessed to them.
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  Well, as I was looking through your book, you made mention of a couple of names that you had brought up.
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  But goodness gracious, there's a couple of dozen illustrators,
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  dedications, acknowledgments that you have within this book. So, your journey….
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  Where it started off to go in as a nice little story for your grandchildren
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  has engaged and brought in so many other people and so many other lives that
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  you probably didn't expect that you were going to be,
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  touching so many other people's lives with a children's book.
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  I thought that's fascinating to go ahead and to have found that out.
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  Now, you mentioned that you had a, most recently you ran into the pastor who
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  has a, was it a publishing company? Yes. Is that what you just said?
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  So, and your desire is to go forward with this.
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  I'm not sure if he'll be able to publish the book, but I have come up with a
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  calendar this past year.
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  Excellent. And he is going to help us with putting that forth and promotions.
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  We need help with the marketing. I see. So in another one of those God wink,
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  wink moments, you come across someone who has the talent and the ability,
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  not unlike what Mike found in your neighbor over here and Nancy.
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  And then you've now found your pastor who has the ability to go and put the
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  publishing works together for you as well. So, it's perpetuating the message
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  that you have, and like I said, you've got an opportunity to go and touch so many more lives as well.
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  So, what would be your hope, Mike, or maybe Patty's vision for this particular book?
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  What would you like to see happening with this book itself?
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  Yeah, we'd like to see families have a story to be read during the Christmas
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  season that tells the truth. Gotcha.
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  That God sent His Son, the ultimate gift for us, who came and was born on Christmas
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  Day, and 33 years later was crucified, but it was for us.
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  And I think we wanted people to understand that the real meaning of Christmas
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  is our Lord and Savior, and the love that He has for us.
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  Beautifully done. Beautifully done. And like you said, the...
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  The Christmas is seen through the eyes of children, the innocence.
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  And we've heard about, you know, Lord, you know, God, bring the innocence of
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  the children, bring the children to me.
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  Jesus himself says, bring the little children to me.
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  And it takes the faith of a child to become part of his family.
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  Right, right you are, right you are. So as far as the promotion for this particular
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  book itself, I would assume that you'd like to have this book in,
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  what, everyone's home at one time or another.
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  I would think that would be your great vision, would it not?
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  It would be a dream. That would be a dream. But yes, we'd like to see.
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  Outstanding. That would be fantastic. I would assume you'd like that as well. And Nancy, probably.
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  Now, would you include or would your calendar be separate, something from the book itself?
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  Yeah, the calendar is something separate. Okay. Just another product that would
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  help in raising funds for those that need help.
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  If someone that wanted to go ahead and get this book, where would they go and
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  look for it or where might they find it?
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  They can find the Amazon. On Amazon? Amazon.
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  They can go to vizenovo.com. Okay. And order it from there. You get a hard copy from them. I gotcha.
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  Or hardcover. Okay. And Amazon would have the paperback. So, very timely.
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  It would be a wonderful Christmas gift. It would be perfect.
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  It would be perfect for that. So they can go to Amazon, and I would imagine
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  they just need to go ahead and put in the first night of Christmas.
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  I've noticed on Amazon, ours don't come up near the top.
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  So if they put the first night of Christmas by Mike Boll, then it'll come right
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  up to the top. Okay, we want to make sure we include by Mike Boll.
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  Yeah. That makes perfect sense. That makes perfect sense.
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  So they can go to Amazon and pick it up, or you said they can go to— Barnes & Noble.
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  BarnesandNormal.com. So it's available online at this point.
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  Right. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.
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  So at this point, we don't, Barnes & Noble, they don't have it on their rack
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  yet. Not yet. Not yet. That's a dream.
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  See that happen. That would be wonderful. That would be wonderful. Indeed.
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  And we're working with Ingram Sparks, which is a organization distributor that
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  gets books into the bookstores.
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  Okay. So we should start that process. So we won't probably see much result
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  this year, but hopefully next year we can get them, See them in bookstores.
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  Oh, how blessed an event that would be. Yes. Oh, how nice. To be able to go
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  and see this book on all the shelves come Christmas next year.
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  Boy, I guess Patty would be looking down with big smiles on all of you right
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  now. I believe she is, yes. I would think so. I would think so.
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  Now, Nancy, you had mentioned at this point, neither one of you at this point,
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  you're not necessarily looking for any additions to another book,
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  but you mentioned you had your calendar going.
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  It sounds like you've had a pretty good journey on this as far as some of the
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  easier things and some of the harder things that have been put together.
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  What would you say has been one of the most notable that you kind of pulled
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  together and said, boy, this didn't make sense, but there it was,
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  and it was right in front of me, and it all came together. Either one, it's fine.
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  Well, yeah.
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  One of the things that we discovered is that when you create a book,
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  you've got to self-publish.
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  You've got to send a file to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
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  But you have to send a file by book that would be that they can then print the book. Okay.
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  But every organization has their own separate format. So you had to redo the
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  formatting, which wasn't an
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  easy task, to get it where the book companies could use it. Interesting.
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  Nancy's daughter, Tess, came to the rescue and helped us to do that.
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  So Tess has got the background and the computer aspect of this.
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  Is that what I understand?
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  Yes. Okay. So we have Mike on the computer, Tess on the computer. Yeah.
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  I'm doing the creative part. Wow. Okay.
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  So you got your own little business going right here in one respect,
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  but you've got a wonderful and a beautiful message that you're bringing out to all of us.
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  Just a lovely story and a collaboration that the two of you have put together
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  as far as your illustrations and certainly your co-editing here, Michael.
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  Anything that you folks would like to add, please? Yes, as far as hearing back
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  from readers, the feedback I received was another God blessing,
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  something that's very unheard of.
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  I work at a public school, and the principal was a Christian,
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  allowed me to read the story to every class, and the children loved it.
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  Oh, how wonderful. How wonderful.
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  So you were allowed to go ahead and read it. I was. In the school.
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  That's fantastic. That's a fantastic thing. And, of course, I would imagine,
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  as you said, how could the children not like it?
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  Well, it was unheard of. I mean, that's not something done.
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  Not too often. No. Not too often.
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  I wanted to go ahead and say thank you very much. I certainly appreciate your
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  time, Mike, Nancy. It was a pleasure chatting with you. It was a pleasure. Thank you.
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  Thank you. Were you reading your book, something through it?
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  It's beautifully illustrated. It's a wonderful story.
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  Certainly love the religious aspect of it as well.
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  I mean, we're so blessed to be able to bring this in in today's world where
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  every little bit of faith certainly goes a long way.
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  So, certainly appreciate that. Thank you for having us. Well,
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  the pleasure is mine. Bless you both.
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  So, I'd like to go ahead and conclude with a prayer if I could.
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  This is a prayer of St. Gertrude the Great.
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  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
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  amen. Eternal Father, I offer you the most precious blood of thy divine Son, Jesus,
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  in union with the Mass that's said throughout the world today,
• 23:54
  for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere,
• 23:58
  for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home, and those in my family.
• 24:03
  For this we pray, through Christ our Lord, amen. Amen. In the name of the Father,
• 24:08
  and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
• 24:10
  So thank you all. Well, I appreciate you tuning in to Catholic Conversations.
• 24:14
  Have yourself a blessed day.
• 24:15
  You're listening to Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 24:18
  ICatholic Mobile is a 5G mobile phone company dedicated to supporting your faith
• 24:23
  and values, offering unlimited talk and text, reliable data,
• 24:28
  and plans that support Catholic causes.
• 24:30
  A portion of every dollar helps sustain the mission of the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
• 24:35
  With nationwide coverage, iCatholic Mobile connects you to what matters most.
• 24:39
  More information is available at iCatholicMobile.com.
• 24:43
  ICatholic Mobile underwrites for the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
• 24:55
  Welcome to Catholic Conversations. I'm your host, David Liptak,
• 24:59
  and I'm going to start our show off today with a prayer, as I always do.
• 25:05
  This particular prayer is the Memorare. If you'd be kind enough,
• 25:08
  please join me in the prayer in the name of the Father, and the Son,
• 25:11
  and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 25:13
  Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who
• 25:17
  fled to Thy protection, implored Thy help, or sought Thy intercession was left unaided.
• 25:22
  Inspired with his confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins,
• 25:25
  my mother. To thee do I come before thee, I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
• 25:30
  O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy,
• 25:34
  hear and answer me. Amen.
• 25:36
  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 25:42
  Well, we've got a treat for you today. We've got author Stephen Thomas of Catholic Joe.
• 25:50
  And I'm proud to go ahead and say that I had the pleasure of opening this book on Friday night.
• 25:56
  And it was one of those that was very difficult to go ahead and put down.
• 25:59
  Mr. Thomas, I certainly appreciate your work here and enjoyed the book and the
• 26:04
  message that I gleaned from it entirely. It was very good. Thank you so much.
• 26:09
  It's funny because thank you, David, for that. It's funny because I have some people that are mad.
• 26:14
  They get mad at me because they're like, you realize I couldn't,
• 26:16
  I didn't sleep at all last night. It's like, hey, dude, it's up to you, man.
• 26:20
  But no, that's good. I'm glad it resonated. And, you know, I mean,
• 26:24
  let's talk about what resonated with you the most. Because, you know, it's a series.
• 26:31
  It keeps going. So what was the thing that really kind of hit home the most
• 26:36
  for you? Well, I'll tell you.
• 26:39
  As I was concluding this, I felt like I was coming down the mountain.
• 26:44
  I kind of equated it to being on a retreat Friday and Saturday and Sunday,
• 26:48
  where I kind of immersed myself within Joe's life, so to speak,
• 26:53
  and over the course of the weekend.
• 26:55
  And you come away thinking, wow, I'm motivated, I'm inspired.
• 27:00
  I'd really like to see and develop in some capacity.
• 27:04
  We all want to, I think we have that innate desire, at least as a Catholic,
• 27:10
  to go and say, I want what he has. And I think that was something that was in the book itself.
• 27:16
  And I've mentioned that before in classes that I've taught, that looking for
• 27:20
  a mentor and looking for someone as an example.
• 27:23
  And you tag on to people who have that it factor.
• 27:28
  And you certainly created the it factor in your character here as far as Joe was concerned.
• 27:35
  So very cool no that's that's cool David so no and thank you for that because
• 27:41
  that's exactly what I wanted you know I wrote the book for Catholic men and
• 27:45
  and I just thought because you know we've been on our heels we've been kind
• 27:49
  of castigated as Catholic men you know,
• 27:53
  it's like you know I just I was so tired of getting beat up and being on my
• 27:57
  heels and you know so that's where this kind of book came from is from that
• 28:01
  that whole desire to do exactly as you said, we're, you know,
• 28:05
  kind of like to fire you up and for you to be like, all right,
• 28:08
  now, you know, it's time.
• 28:10
  What's my MO? What's my marching orders?
• 28:12
  What am I going to do now? How am I going to make a difference?
• 28:15
  And that's why the tagline on the book, it says, what could one man possibly do?
• 28:20
  It's not a question. It's a challenge. It certainly is. And that's the thing. Yeah.
• 28:26
  I agree. And I kind of equate it to, you've got the.
• 28:30
  Very strong, disciplined, strong-willed character that not only has to be able
• 28:37
  to understand that he can't just plow through life based on what he has learned
• 28:42
  in his past life as he approaches these other challenges that are coming up now,
• 28:46
  but by the same token, he doesn't wear a cape, he carries a rosary.
• 28:51
  And I think it's fascinating that his alarm goes off and it's time to do the
• 28:56
  So it's a constant reminder.
• 28:59
  There it is. It snaps them back to what reality is today and the focus that
• 29:04
  we're supposed to be in God's focus first and how we apply our thoughts processes day in and day out.
• 29:12
  Let me share an Angela story with you, if I could. So, so I,
• 29:17
  you know, again, the book kind of gets, it kind of gets a life of its own,
• 29:20
  right? It gets out there.
• 29:21
  And I had a deacon that I knew who actually brought a box of books to a prison.
• 29:26
  And so I, I got, I got this letter from this prisoner and he,
• 29:31
  you know, he, he, first of all, he goes, you don't know who I am.
• 29:34
  And he goes, I just want, I just want you to know, he goes, I read your book
• 29:37
  and it pierced me to the heart.
• 29:39
  He goes, I'm on fire for the Lord. He goes, I say the Angelus now every day
• 29:44
  at 6, 12, and 6. I'm thinking, how cool is that?
• 29:48
  I mean, just to think that, again, you know, praise God.
• 29:51
  Everything's his great grace. But it's like, how cool is that that you've got,
• 29:55
  like, prisoners that are saying the Angelus now that are kind of bringing those
• 29:59
  seeds of light into what's usually a pretty dark place.
• 30:03
  And, you know, so, yeah, Joe is a, yeah, obviously you could tell the Angelus
• 30:09
  is pretty, it's got a pretty strong presence in the book, right?
• 30:13
  Oh my, yes. Yes, exactly.
• 30:15
  Well, and you bring up dark places as well.
• 30:17
  And most of us think dark places, oh goodness, they're very solemn and we were
• 30:25
  being oppressed by the evil one.
• 30:28
  But you also bring in a different perspective, and I wasn't familiar with,
• 30:33
  that in the quietness and in the darkness, we also have the presence of our Lord.
• 30:39
  And we have a presence of God speaking to us as well.
• 30:42
  So that I found to be very interesting within the character development as well.
• 30:47
  So, Joe almost has an open line, not only between his two friends as far as priests are concerned,
• 30:57
  but he himself seems to have an innate connection in some capacity where he's being guided,
• 31:05
  or even cryptically speaking, in the moral capacity of how he's supposed to
• 31:11
  be approaching the challenges that are actually in front of him in the book. Yeah.
• 31:15
  Isn't that, isn't that, so that, that part, and I'm glad you picked up on that
• 31:19
  because, so actually one of the few characters that I actually included a real
• 31:23
  name, so there's this mystic, Father Sudak, who actually exists. Is that right?
• 31:29
  Yeah, yeah, so I, I put him in there just so people would be intrigued and would
• 31:33
  actually look, look him up and look, look into his life, and,
• 31:36
  but I, I, you, you, you mentioned something which always.
• 31:40
  Kind of, I don't know, that puzzled me, but just it really intrigued me was
• 31:44
  the fact that when there's, when God is strongly present, like for instance,
• 31:50
  when, and at the transfiguration, you know, you know, Peter was there,
• 31:54
  you know, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, you know, Peter was just like, you know, on cloud nine.
• 31:58
  And then suddenly, you know, like God, the father is there and there's this,
• 32:03
  it says there's a shadow and they, and they all just kind of like went,
• 32:07
  you know, went out. So, same thing with our Blessed Mother, you know,
• 32:10
  the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
• 32:12
  And there's something to be said about the darkness where faith is really forged in the darkness.
• 32:19
  And we have to have the darkness, right? It's that adversity that really prepares
• 32:25
  us for our, you know, for our mission.
• 32:28
  And that's the thing. And that's what I love about our faith is that in our
• 32:33
  faith, it teaches us that our sufferings and our wounds have great value.
• 32:38
  And I'm not going to blow the ending for people, but one of my favorite,
• 32:42
  favorite scenes is when he's in front in the Bishop's Conference.
• 32:46
  And yeah, that's like, that's probably one of my favorite parts of the book. Yeah.
• 32:51
  And I, you know, he brings in his personal experiences and then challenges them.
• 32:57
  I've got a saying that people have heard before, if it doesn't challenge you,
• 33:02
  it doesn't change you. And I think that's indicative of what we're faced with in today's world.
• 33:11
  Certainly not in our day-to-day life, work and whatnot, but we're also challenged
• 33:16
  in our faith life as well to take a stand.
• 33:22
  And to, you know, draw the line in the sand and say, enough is enough.
• 33:26
  Right, and that's, yeah, that's exactly it, David.
• 33:30
  And the thing is, is that I always tell people there's only one teacher in life,
• 33:34
  and the name of that teacher is suffering and pain.
• 33:38
  That's the only thing that will make us change. The only thing that takes us
• 33:42
  out of our comfort, the only thing that will, you know, again,
• 33:46
  people don't like change, they're averse to it.
• 33:48
  And that's one of the things that kind of comes out is that it's through great
• 33:53
  suffering that really the great, you know, great faith and great works and great,
• 33:58
  you know, accomplishments kind of come from that.
• 34:00
  Well, and to your point, when we go through this adversity, our first reaction
• 34:07
  is, well, why would this happen? Why would God let this happen?
• 34:11
  And then you finally come around and say, okay, I can't overcome this myself.
• 34:19
  I have no recourse, but, and I give into my faith and I give into the prayer
• 34:27
  and coming closer to God. I'm being drawn closer to him, to the foot of the cross.
• 34:33
  And most people, I say, not everyone goes and tries to draw the assimilation
• 34:37
  that when you're coming into a period of,
• 34:41
  darkness, not necessarily through the haze, but a period of darkness in our
• 34:46
  lives, that it's, we really need to relinquish and open it up and turn it over, turn it over to God.
• 34:54
  And, and, and. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, for sure. I think, I think,
• 34:58
  yeah, our first reaction is we're averse to suffering and our first reaction
• 35:04
  is to be repelled by it and to want to run from it.
• 35:08
  Yeah, but, but I think, you know. I think what I would challenge people with
• 35:13
  that people are listening right now is that, is take a look at your life right now.
• 35:17
  Identify where, because we all have it, you know, where are the sufferings,
• 35:21
  where are the wounds at right now?
• 35:22
  And, and, you know, whether it's a child that's left to face,
• 35:25
  whether it's a child who's going through some crazy, you know, crazy stuff.
• 35:30
  But but the you know the thing is identify where
• 35:33
  your suffering is right now and what you want to
• 35:36
  do is you want to like first of all identify it
• 35:39
  you know feel it taste it smell it identify it and
• 35:42
  you take it to jesus christ on the cross because he's the
• 35:46
  act of salvation at calvary is outside of time
• 35:49
  and space so we can actually go to the cross and
• 35:52
  we can take that suffering right now we can
• 35:54
  take it with jesus we can offer it through jesus to
• 35:57
  the father for the salvation of souls and and
• 36:00
  think about the the again how much we want to repel against that suffering but
• 36:06
  think about the fact that there will be souls in heaven because we have embraced
• 36:11
  that cross because we have not run away from it we've taken it with jesus christ
• 36:15
  on the cross given it to the father so we can we can take that suffering and make it into something.
• 36:21
  Absolutely powerful something that will bring a soul that should be in hell for eternity.
• 36:26
  To God, and to be with God for eternity. So, I would just encourage people that
• 36:30
  are going through whatever suffering is, because we all have it.
• 36:33
  We all have it. I've got it.
• 36:35
  You've got it, David. We all have those areas of suffering and wounds.
• 36:39
  We take that with Jesus on the cross. We give it to the Father.
• 36:43
  Amen. And I have to go ahead and draw the analogy yet in with your character,
• 36:48
  Joe, here, where he's got all these attributes and character enhancements.
• 36:54
  I mean, And he's well-connected.
• 36:56
  He's got significant talents as far as caring for himself, taking care of himself.
• 37:01
  And yet he has to go and find out that there's a vulnerable side to him,
• 37:06
  that all his training and military background and the experience,
• 37:09
  all that doesn't help him.
• 37:12
  He's got the spiritual side of him that he needs to go ahead and he needs to
• 37:16
  break down to and ask and implore God's intercession.
• 37:22
  Right. And that is the thing that we all have to learn is that.
• 37:25
  We all have to learn that, again, he's got great strength, great power.
• 37:29
  You know, he's able to get things done. He's able to, again,
• 37:33
  you know, he's not afraid of anybody on the planet.
• 37:35
  But he gets to a point where he realizes, and again, we all get to that point
• 37:40
  where we realize we need God. We need him.
• 37:43
  We need him. We have to trust him.
• 37:45
  Again, it's hard. You know, again, I'd say the biggest heresy of our day is
• 37:50
  that people don't believe that God is good. They don't, I mean,
• 37:53
  they say it, but they don't live their lives like he is, like he's a good father.
• 37:58
  And that's the thing is that we have to get to a point where we let go and we truly trust him.
• 38:03
  And we truly trust him with that child who's left the faith.
• 38:06
  We truly trust him that, you know what, he's, my child's baptized.
• 38:10
  God's going to, God's got him.
• 38:12
  You know, I remember one time when our one son was struggling with mental health,
• 38:15
  really, really tough stuff.
• 38:17
  And I just remember being so just knotted up and gnarled up.
• 38:21
  And, you know, and I was, again, And I was asking her, blessed mother,
• 38:24
  I was like, mother, I go, you know, you've got to help my son.
• 38:27
  And she goes, and like in a very subtle, subtle voice, not an audible voice,
• 38:33
  but she goes, Stephen, she goes, you've consecrated him to me, right?
• 38:37
  And I said, yes. And he's like, then give him to me. And so,
• 38:41
  and again, and he's doing great.
• 38:44
  He's doing great with God's grace. God blessed.
• 38:47
  Yeah, yeah. And actually, happy feast of the Macalachan perception. Yes, exactly.
• 38:52
  How appropriate. How appropriate, exactly. Well, I too can go ahead and relate.
• 38:59
  I had a child who was dealing with his issues, and by the grace of God, it took some time.
• 39:04
  You know, God's time, as we say many times, but he's come around and he's doing
• 39:09
  well. So I'm glad to hear that good things for your child as well.
• 39:13
  That's important. That's important. So, well, there was a couple of things I
• 39:17
  wanted to make sure that we were going to.
• 39:19
  I'd like to get to that. But first, let's go ahead and take a break.
• 39:22
  And we'll be right back with Steve Thomas of Catholic Joe Fames. Let's go.
• 39:28
  You're listening to Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 39:32
  ICatholic Mobile is a 5G mobile phone company dedicated to supporting your faith
• 39:37
  and values, offering unlimited talk and text, reliable data,
• 39:41
  and plans that support Catholic causes.
• 39:44
  A portion of every dollar helps sustain the mission of the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
• 39:49
  With nationwide coverage, iCatholic Mobile connects you to what matters most.
• 39:53
  More information is available at iCatholicMobile.com.
• 39:57
  ICatholic Mobile underwrites for the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
• 40:06
  Good day. Welcome back to Catholic Conversations. I'm your host, David Liptack.
• 40:10
  Having an enjoyable conversation here with the author of Catholic Joe, Mr. Steve Thomas.
• 40:16
  And Steve and I were talking about some of the character developments and how
• 40:21
  he came about putting Catholic Joe together.
• 40:25
  And if you don't mind sharing some of the nuances and how you formed this particular
• 40:31
  character, if you would, Steve.
• 40:32
  That's kind of funny. Yeah, because, you know, like I've been doing a lot of
• 40:35
  interviews and stuff. and people were calling me Joe and stuff.
• 40:38
  And I had somebody, oh, who was it?
• 40:41
  Somebody goes, oh, it was for EWTN.
• 40:44
  They're like, and tell us about how, you know, you became Catholic, Joe.
• 40:50
  Like how you became a superhero. I'm like, no, I'm like, it's super sinner, not superhero.
• 40:55
  So I, you know, yeah, so really, it was a really fun, actually,
• 40:58
  it was a therapeutic thing.
• 41:00
  So I, to create this character, this character represents
• 41:03
  everything that i wish i was in
• 41:06
  in a man and and again this character does everything
• 41:09
  i wish i could do as a man and so it's really
• 41:12
  fun it's really fun to create a
• 41:15
  character that can you know do things that you you know you really can't do
• 41:20
  without getting in trouble you know because there's a lot of there's a lot of
• 41:23
  like things in there where he like he might challenge a bishop or something
• 41:26
  and i thought it's you know kind of a it's kind of a fun thing that he,
• 41:30
  you know, he's able to do that.
• 41:32
  And I really had picked, you know, a friend of mine who's from the military,
• 41:36
  kind of, kind of gleaned some things from him, you know, General Michael Flynn,
• 41:40
  he's a Lieutenant General, kind of picked some, some of his background,
• 41:43
  I kind of copy and pasted with, with the character.
• 41:46
  You know, a couple of things for myself, a couple of things from other people,
• 41:50
  you know, kind of, uh, like you said, it's, uh, kind of like a,
• 41:53
  a holy Frankenstein that we created to, you know, kind of, and,
• 41:58
  you know, I thought, and he's kind of like an icon.
• 42:00
  He's kind of an iconic figure. And I think, and again, you know,
• 42:04
  you could probably speak to this, David.
• 42:06
  You know, it's kind of an iconic figure that kind of gives you hope. Oh, my, yes.
• 42:10
  I agree. Yeah. I agree. It would be characteristics that any of us would certainly
• 42:15
  enjoy, if not desire, to be able to have, to follow, to maintain that type of discipline.
• 42:23
  Yes, I think all of us would appreciate having that, without the scars,
• 42:27
  though. Without the scars.
• 42:28
  And you're thinking, yeah, it'd be great to be able to beat up people and stuff.
• 42:31
  And, you know, so I get it, David. I know you're going with that.
• 42:35
  Well, I appreciate his thought process because he has a very systematic approach to many things.
• 42:44
  And sometimes the systematic approach doesn't necessarily fit in the process
• 42:50
  of coming out the other end and trying to accomplish this because the process
• 42:55
  he goes through and the steps one through, whatever it may be,
• 42:58
  yeah, that's not going to work in a handful of these particular cases.
• 43:01
  And he's met up with other characters that, actually change his perspective
• 43:07
  of what he thought was the direction that he should be going or the,
• 43:10
  the, the way he should approach something.
• 43:13
  And like with Eddie, for instance, that was, I was going to say,
• 43:17
  what do you think about Eddie B?
• 43:18
  Yeah. I thought, you know, it's, I actually lived in Vegas for a period of time.
• 43:22
  So there were a handful of Eddie B's you could have walked into at any given
• 43:25
  place, but I can appreciate his motivation. Yeah.
• 43:29
  And we all would like to be able to say that we have that compassion and openness
• 43:34
  where we can look at others and say, well, they're not like us. They don't look like us.
• 43:39
  They don't talk like us, but I'll care for them. I'll reach out to them and
• 43:44
  hopefully I can give them hope.
• 43:46
  And I think that's where a lot of this mission is. Can I give you an example?
• 43:49
  Please. Can I give you an example of how that happened?
• 43:51
  So I went to pick up my son from the, he was with the Franciscan Friars Renewal.
• 43:56
  So I went to pick him up, brought him back, And we stopped at this gas station.
• 44:00
  I always pray, you know, I was like, you know, Holy Spirit, please use me in any way that you can.
• 44:05
  And so anyway, so we go into this gas station and I walk in and suddenly I see
• 44:09
  this, you know, a big, large, dark man with this multicolored jacket.
• 44:14
  He's got tattoos all down his neck, his hands and, you know,
• 44:18
  probably lived a pretty rough life.
• 44:20
  And God was like, I want you to go up and I want you to tell him that you like his jacket.
• 44:25
  And I'm shaking like this oh man I
• 44:28
  go you know again it's a big guy right so I
• 44:31
  go up to him I go up to him behind him I'm behind him in line
• 44:34
  I go I go hey dude and he turns around I go hey I really like your jacket man
• 44:39
  and he kind of looks at me you know and then he big smile flashed a big smile
• 44:43
  big african-american guy right he just flashed a big smile and I go did you
• 44:48
  you know is that custom made he goes no no he goes I got it I'm with some place
• 44:52
  in New York where I live and
• 44:53
  blah, blah, blah, and I thought, oh, okay.
• 44:56
  And he goes, say it, you know, he says, hey, thanks for saying that,
• 44:59
  and he walks out, and then I'm getting ready to go out, and God goes,
• 45:03
  I want you to tell him that I've got him in my hands.
• 45:06
  And I'm like, you know, and I'm going, oh, geez. And so my kids come out of
• 45:11
  the bathroom, and I go, hey guys, I go, hold on a second, I gotta go say something
• 45:13
  to this guy, and I walk up to him, he's pumping gas, and he turns,
• 45:17
  he looks up at me like, what, you know, what do you want now?
• 45:20
  And so I go up to him, and I got my hands out, like in front of me,
• 45:23
  like, you know, Hey, I don't normally do this, but I, I,
• 45:27
  But God wants me to tell you that he's got you in his hands.
• 45:30
  This guy stood up, probably about six, four, six, five, stood up.
• 45:34
  He goes, did you hear what he just said? He screamed into the guy in his car.
• 45:38
  I rolled his window down. It's his brother.
• 45:41
  And the guy goes, I was just telling
• 45:43
  my brother just now, we got to start playing. We got to start playing.
• 45:47
  And so I go, God is a good father.
• 45:51
  He loves us so much. And this guy, he grabs me and he doesn't just like man
• 45:56
  hug. He like cheek to cheek, you know, pulls me into himself and he goes,
• 46:01
  I feel like crying right now, man.
• 46:02
  And so anyway, but it's just one of those things where if we're open,
• 46:08
  you know, to do that difficult thing, if we're open to the Holy Spirit,
• 46:13
  you know, you just never know how you can affect somebody's life, you know?
• 46:17
  My goodness, yes. And there's so many out there that could use that.
• 46:22
  And it's difficult to go ahead and be receptive.
• 46:28
  You know, your point came in, and in that particular case, at least in my estimation,
• 46:32
  was, wow, you noticed a particular jacket about him. And it was a very simple
• 46:37
  comment that you made, but it was a door opener.
• 46:40
  And it was— But it was God telling me. I would never do that.
• 46:45
  I'm like, the big dude, he looks, he's got tats, died, he's probably spent time
• 46:48
  in prison. I'm like, I don't want to go messing with this. You know what I mean?
• 46:52
  But it was like God saying that I want you to say this.
• 46:55
  And then to go out and to say, I want you to tell him I've got him in my hand.
• 46:59
  And again, you know, I didn't want to do that. I was very uncomfortable doing it.
• 47:05
  But when I did it and I was, you know, again, it could have changed the trajectory
• 47:10
  of this guy's life forever. You know, you just never know.
• 47:14
  Oh, I agree. I agree. So let me ask you this, Steve. With regards to the character
• 47:20
  and or your prayer life, similarities drawn between the two?
• 47:25
  Yeah, there's some similarities there for sure. And, you know,
• 47:29
  especially like with adoration, adoration is a life. It changed.
• 47:34
  It just, you know, again, I've been on this journey since I've been in high school.
• 47:38
  You know, it was, you know, I had a really rough life as a kid growing up.
• 47:43
  You know, came from a divorced family, a lot of darkness, a lot of brokenness, a lot of loneliness.
• 47:47
  And it was the story of Fatima. So somebody left a Mother of Christ Crusade
• 47:53
  booklet from the Blue Army, the story of Fatima. It just changed my life.
• 47:58
  And that's where it all started.
• 48:00
  And then, again, I've been on this journey since I was 16. I'm 62 now, so it's at 40, whatever.
• 48:07
  It's 40 plus years I've been on this journey.
• 48:10
  And it wasn't until I really started to go to adoration every day and just sit
• 48:15
  with our Lord and just sit with him that that kind of took the relationship
• 48:20
  to a whole different level.
• 48:22
  And again, I wrote a lot of the book in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel where I'm talking to Jesus.
• 48:27
  I'm like, you know, I'm like, Jesus, what, you know, how should I how should I say this?
• 48:31
  You know, really just begging him for the grace because anybody could put words
• 48:35
  on a piece of paper, but God can inject that grace into those words and God
• 48:41
  can inject the ideas, you know, the creativity.
• 48:44
  You know, creativity is a gift. I mean, every, like, great idea I have,
• 48:48
  it's a gift from God. It's not like I can squeeze it out, you know what I mean? Right, right.
• 48:52
  It's very interesting to go ahead and hear you say that you're being inspired
• 48:58
  while in the Adoration Chapel with regards to your particular book here. That's fascinating.
• 49:04
  I take my laptop, this was probably profane, but I take my laptop in there and
• 49:10
  towards the back and I'll just start typing away. And, and again,
• 49:14
  it's, it's, it's a holy thing.
• 49:15
  I want it to be, I want God to consecrate it so that it will touch hearts,
• 49:19
  you know, like it did with you and, you know, so many other people.
• 49:22
  I just, I talk to people all the time and they're like, yeah,
• 49:25
  I gave this book to so-and-so. He's a young man, you know, he's 28 years old.
• 49:29
  He read it and he said it changed his life. And, you know, I mean,
• 49:32
  that's, that's, you know, I mean, that's what I, that's what I live for now that I live for that.
• 49:38
  I live to be able to bring souls back to the father. That's all I want. Oh, God bless you.
• 49:43
  The instance you just brought up about The Gentleman with the Jacket,
• 49:48
  and you've got a handful of similar circumstances in the book itself.
• 49:52
  But I wanted to go ahead and bring up that you were talking about possibly yet
• 49:56
  a sequel to this book or possibly even a movie or movie series that you're developing or working on.
• 50:01
  Yeah, so I've got the framework for the next book.
• 50:04
  It's hard because I have to work full-time, and I mean I can't afford just to take six months off.
• 50:10
  And if anybody out there is listening that is well-heeled with resources,
• 50:14
  if you want to sponsor my next book, then, you know, give David a call.
• 50:20
  Here we go. At the radio station. We'll put you in touch.
• 50:23
  Yeah, so I got, and I reached, yeah, so there's a movie producer who is definitely interested.
• 50:29
  We talked about putting it into a movie series, so kind of like a Jack Reacher type thing.
• 50:35
  And that's how I envisioned it from the very beginning. I envisioned it as a series.
• 50:39
  It's ongoing, it's feeding our Catholic faith in a beautiful way and,
• 50:44
  you know, kind of a, it's not a catechism, it's a very kind of hopefully creative, you know,
• 50:50
  weaving in the faith and just the ordinary lives, right, of people.
• 50:55
  Well, you're bringing into context the current moral relativism of our society
• 51:00
  and how we've just kind of fallen into this, well, it is what it is, attitude.
• 51:06
  And you're bucking the system and you're calling upon not a priest,
• 51:13
  not a bishop. You're calling on everyday Joe, laity, to step up.
• 51:18
  That's right. And that's why the name Catholic Joe, it's everybody.
• 51:22
  Everybody is called to do super, super heroic things.
• 51:26
  Because again, if we look at what the meaning of our baptism,
• 51:29
  I mean, think about this.
• 51:30
  The meaning of our baptism is we are grafted into God's family.
• 51:34
  It's not, that's not like a cute figurative.
• 51:37
  It's real. We are grafted. I can call the creator of the universe,
• 51:41
  almighty God, immortal God.
• 51:43
  I can call him Abba or daddy or father.
• 51:46
  Jesus, the Savior of the world, is my brother. You know, our dear blessed mother, she's my mother.
• 51:52
  You know what I mean? It's like, these are real things. And one more thing,
• 51:57
  you know, we've got something that Moses never had.
• 51:59
  We've got something that Elijah never had, that Abraham never had.
• 52:02
  We've got Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. We take God into our mouths and into
• 52:07
  our bodies and into the DNA of our bodies.
• 52:10
  We have something that none of these great, you know, people of,
• 52:14
  you know, of the past never had the opportunity.
• 52:18
  I mean, we've got the ability to have a greater intimacy than Moses,
• 52:23
  a greater intimacy than Elijah.
• 52:25
  So, I mean, we've got such richness in our faith. It's just incredible.
• 52:30
  Oh, I agree. I agree. And the understanding of who and what the Eucharist is
• 52:37
  and what it could be and what it means to us as far as Catholics.
• 52:42
  I agree. It's fantastic.
• 52:44
  Well, Joe, Joe, sorry, Joe. I called you. Stephen, here we go. I called you.
• 52:48
  Not the first time I guess this happened. I did it again. Hey,
• 52:51
  dude, I'm telling you, David, everybody that interviews me calls me Joe and I'm like, that's funny.
• 52:56
  I would imagine anymore. So now your wife doesn't call you Joe.
• 53:01
  No, no. Yeah, he's got other names for me.
• 53:06
  Well, Mr. Thomas, I certainly appreciate your time. You've been very gracious.
• 53:11
  I wish you the blessings galore when it comes to the expansion of your ministry
• 53:16
  here through your book, through your video.
• 53:19
  And I pray that more and more people healed and they're brought to the faith
• 53:25
  through the writings that you're being inspired by there in the Adoration Chapel.
• 53:31
  Yeah. Yeah. No, it's great, David. And thank you.
• 53:34
  I just, I enjoy it. And again, I just, you know, anything, anything we can do
• 53:39
  at this point, it's like, we just, we just want to, we want people to have what
• 53:43
  we know is out there and then what we experience ourselves.
• 53:46
  And, you know, it's like I said, our faith is such a, it's a,
• 53:49
  such a beautiful love story.
• 53:51
  And, but we need men to step up. We need men to be fathers, to be leaders.
• 53:56
  We need men to be like this Catholic Joe figure. I agree. Amen.
• 54:01
  So I presume they can go ahead and pick up Catholic Joe on Amazon,
• 54:05
  anywhere in particular? No, don't go to Amazon.
• 54:08
  Okay. No, we don't, we don't want to support Amazon. Just go to the website,
• 54:12
  CatholicJoeSuperhero.com.
• 54:15
  CatholicJoeSuperhero.com. You can buy it there. And yeah, and that,
• 54:18
  you know, I just, again, just love, love, love giving the books out.
• 54:23
  And, and, you know, like I love hearing the stories too.
• 54:26
  So I love hearing your stories. stories about it as well, David.
• 54:29
  Pleasure is indeed mine. I certainly appreciate your time, Mr. Thomas.
• 54:33
  God bless and continued success in all your endeavors here. I'd like to go ahead
• 54:37
  and conclude with a prayer to St. Richard the Great.
• 54:40
  In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 54:44
  Eternal Father, I offer you the most precious blood of thy divine Son,
• 54:47
  Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today.
• 54:51
  For all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere,
• 54:55
  for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family
• 54:59
  through Christ our Lord. Amen.
• 55:01
  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
• 55:05
  Thank you once again for listening to Catholic Conversations. Have a blessed day.
• 55:09
  You've been listening to Catholic Conversations. Download our podcasts at catholicspiritradio.com.