Choose "The Better Part"
On Damn it. I do that every time. I keep forgetting to turn on my microphone. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining me.
CA:This is the Catholic Adventure coming at you live. Oh, it's a little special announcement, by the way, I wanted to talk to you about regarding coming at you live. Coming at you live on Instagram, Twitter. Unbelievable. You know things are desperate when I'm going live to Twitter.
CA:And on Instagram, my faithful friends there on Instagram. And, of course, at home base on Substack, thank you very much for subscribing to my Substack. Subscribing to my Substack is free. Just saying. Catholicadventurer.substack.com.
CA:Substack where I do everything at a very, very high level of intensity and performance. Yes, sir. Thank you, Jesus. Today, I'm talking to you about choosing the better part. We're talking a little bit about prayer life and the choices we make and how even little choices, little decisions we make with our prayer life in mind make a huge difference in our spirituality.
CA:Believe it because it's the truth. Is recorded. Actually, it's live, but recorded Sunday, July 20 in the year of our Lord 2025. And I say thank you, Catholic church, and thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. So how's everybody doing?
CA:Let's play that music out. Lord, have mercy. It's so, nice to be here with you today. Hello to those of you catching me live on Instagram. Those of you catching me live, of course, on Substack here at home base, and those of you catching me live maybe for the first time on Twitter.
CA:Do you know why it's the first time on Twitter? I'm gonna tell you why. Let me share a little something with you. Music's still going there, maestro. So, usually, when I go live because nobody on Twitter is interested in in my video product.
CA:Nobody's interested in a damn thing in my video product. Nobody watches the reels. Nothing. I think ever in all of my time going live on Twitter, I've gotten, like, two people watching ever, which is fine. People on Twitter like to read.
CA:Fine. That's cool. But when I go live, I usually would go live to Substack. Of course, everything I do, I do on Substack no matter what. Substack, Instagram, my new favorite platform, Instagram, and TikTok, my formerly one of my favorite platforms.
CA:TikTok has been shadow banning me for, like, two months. Part of that shadow ban is it revoked my my my privilege to go live. They're very communist over there at TikTok. They you know, stupid little things are thought of as privileges over there where it's just like normal everywhere else. Okay.
CA:It's a privilege in communist TikTok. So they revoked my live privileges. Fine. I weathered it out. I just dealt with it.
CA:I kept posting. I kept getting crappy numbers. Crappy followers, like my followers tanked. Tank, tank, tanked. Okay.
CA:I was getting, like, pretty fair handfuls of followers every week. It's not necessary it's not strictly about the numbers for me, but it it it shows growth. That's really the thing about the numbers is it shows growth. Okay? And growth means you're making some kind of an impact.
CA:So it's not about the fame. It's about this the the what it's about what the numbers signify, not the numbers themselves. So I was getting a good amount of numbers there on TikTok, a lot of views, good amount of engagement, good amount of followers, and then all of a sudden, just, like, nothing. Okay? I was getting, like, literally, like, one ninth of the numbers that I was getting in terms of views.
CA:And of course, in because because views tanked, engagement tanked. You know how it works. And then because engagement tanks, fewer people are following you, it's sending your stuff to fewer people who are actually interested in tap tapping follow. Okay. Fine.
CA:So I weathered that for about
Speaker 2:a month or so, and it
CA:got really, really bad. Like, some stuff I put up is, like, a 100 views. Again, it's not it's not about the numbers. It's about what the numbers signify. So a 100 views is not to my liking.
CA:Okay. I work very hard. I don't want a 100 views. And you know, out of those 100 views, 99 per them 99 of them are just swiping. Maybe one out of a 100 will actually watch the damn thing.
CA:Okay. TikTok restored my restored my privileges privileges to stream, I don't know, maybe a week ago, maybe two weeks ago. So I started streaming live to TikTok again along with all of my other favorite platforms except for YouTube, which is like, I'm done with YouTube. Anyway, today, I'm preparing to go live, and wouldn't you know it? They revoked my my privileges to stream live to TikTok again.
CA:TikTok once again revoked my privileges. So I am revoking TikTok of its privilege to carry my content. So if you are watching this on demand and you follow me on TikTok, I think I'm done with TikTok. My my channel will stay there. I may post the occasional something, and and I may not because I'm so angry at them right now.
CA:Maybe my mood will change later. I don't know. But, I'm definitely I don't care if they restore my privileges tomorrow. Don't care if they pay me to stream live starting tomorrow. I'm done.
CA:I'm not streaming live to TikTok anymore. You're done. You're done. If you're following me anywhere else, including TikTok, consider, following my account on Instagram at for the queen b v m. The link is in
Speaker 2:my bio. At for the queen b v
CA:m on on did I say TikTok? On Instagram. On Instagram. At for the queen b v m on Instagram. So, that's not just venting.
CA:I just want you guys wrong camera. I just want you guys to know, I'm pretty much kicking TikTok to to the curb at this point. If you like what I do and TikTok is how you get to it, listen. Everything I do, I do on Substack. If you are following me and subscribed to my Substack, which is free, you're getting everything that I do.
CA:If you like the video centric platforms, Instagram is where I do that. At for the queen b v m on Instagram. I do not do YouTube. I am done with YouTube. I am sick of YouTube.
CA:I hate the atmosphere. The people are crazy. For every one solid comment I get on YouTube, it doesn't even have to be like, oh god, love you. You're great. I'm just talking about solid.
CA:Like, just a normal person saying something, whether it's a compliment, a question, even a criticism. Just a normal person. For every one of those I get, I get five bad ones. Plus my numbers there suck, so I'm I'm obviously not cut out for the for the YouTubing, and I'm at peace with that. YouTube is a bit of a man house, so if you enjoy the video product, YouTube is not where you'll find me.
CA:Everything that I do, I do on Substack. If you particularly like reels and stuff, Instagram is where I will prioritize that. Just excuse me for a second. This mic sounds a little hot. Okay.
CA:That's a little bit better, I think. Okay. Because if it sounds hot to me, it's gonna sound hot to you. Alright. That's that's a little bit better.
CA:Like it. I like it a lot. Thank you, mister engineer. So today, we're talking about choosing the better part. Now I've been talking a lot about prayer lately, and spit specifically, I've been talking about building a house of prayer.
CA:Building a house of prayer is like building a fortress that the devil can't penetrate. I knew a priest once, very, very, very, very deep. I suspect he was an I was gonna I was gonna say I suspect he was an atheist, which is so stupid. I suspect he was an exorcist, but that was a secret. Just certain things that he said and certain accounts that he gave, I was like, I didn't I didn't come out and ask him because if he wanted that to be known, he would have just shared it.
CA:I didn't want to embarrass him or, you know, blow up his spot. But I'm I think I'm like 80% sure he was an exorcist. One of the things he told me was that there was a person who was being exorcised. And during the exorcism, I I don't remember how there was another party in this narrative. There was
Speaker 2:the person who was who
CA:was, possessed, and then there was another party, like a family member or something in the house, or I don't remember exactly. But the exorcist, who may or may not have been that actual priest,
Speaker 2:the exorcist said, again folks, I forget a lot of
CA:these details, but the question that came up was, why haven't you been able to possess so and so too? And the demon answered, Oh, we can't get to it was a her. We can't get
Speaker 2:to her. She's always praying. We can't get to her.
CA:She is always praying. Very interesting.
Speaker 2:In my experience as a Catholic, I have also found that
CA:there's a spiritual cloud that surrounds a dark spiritual cloud that surrounds all I'm not saying it's necessarily the demonic. I'm just saying it's a a darkness that surrounds us, and the Lord tests us with trying to see through it, trying to work through it, trying to get out of it. Sometimes when you feel that spiritual upliftment of uplifting or a moment of spiritual clarity, it's like that cloud has broken for a little while. Well, I don't know if that cloud is the demonic or not, but it's certainly something that's negative. Hey, mister t's haircut is just joining me here on Substack.
CA:Hey, mister t's haircut. I don't know. I don't think it doesn't matter if it's the demonic or not. It's something spiritual. I feel like it surrounds all of us, we have to work our way through it, work our way around it, try to focus harder to see beyond it.
CA:Okay?
Speaker 2:In my experience, that cloud does dissipate when you have a rich and healthy prayer life. It dissipates in the most incredible ways. You don't have
CA:to take my word for it folks. The saints all attest to this. They may not they may or may not use the same language I'm using today, but they will all say this. Okay? What I've just told you.
CA:The messaging. The way I put that is building a house of prayer. Look at or check out my last podcast for more on that. It's now available only for paid mem paid subscribers of my Substack, but there is a generous preview that everyone will have access to. If you go there, you won't be able to listen to the or watch the full hour and
Speaker 2:a half, but you'll be able to get
CA:I I think I have, like, a twenty minute segment there that's pretty substantial. Part one of building a house of prayer is setting up the pillars and making sure that you hit those pillars every time you do not move them for anything. I'm going somewhere with this, so pay attention. Okay? There's there's a reason why I'm rehashing some of this.
CA:Do not move the pillars no matter what. You put for instance, my pillars are the ange my pillars consist of the angelus. Pretty good. Consist of the angelus. I like how I phrase that.
CA:My pillars consist of the angelus. So it happens to be at six in the morning, twelve at noon, twelve noon, and six at night. Your pillars don't have to be that. Your pillar can be something that's substantial, but simple. Something that's easy to hit every day, and I strongly suggest you do it three times a day.
CA:Doesn't matter when you do them, at least three times a day. Sometime in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, sometime sometime at at in the evening. Within those pillars is where you do you. What is the prayer that you just love to say? Where you are firing on all cylinders.
CA:What is it for you? Is it the rosary? Is it the divine mercy? Is it novenas?
Speaker 2:Doesn't matter which novena. Is it novenas? Is it, litany? Is it
CA:the liturgy? What is your superpower when it comes to prayer? Where it's like, this is my thing.
Speaker 2:Within those pillars is where you do your thing. Okay?
CA:Let's say for me it's it's reflection on the scripture. That's so within those three pillars, within the time of day, it doesn't matter when I do them. The pillars you have to do at the same time every day. And then the substance of your prayer life happens somewhere inside of those pillars, sometime during the day. If you're a regular viewer of my podcast, you'll notice my Bible isn't here today.
CA:Do you know why? Because I took it to
Speaker 2:my bedroom to reflect and meditate. I'm going somewhere with all of this. Now,
CA:very important that you do not move the pillars. I'm going to read you today's gospel. I'm going to explain today's message that I'm trying to impart, and then I'm going to tell you how everything that I just said applies. Okay? So let's go to it.
CA:Okay. Let's read from today's gospel, the gospel of Luke chapter 10. Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
CA:Tell her to help me. The Lord said to her in reply, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing, and Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her. The gospel of the Lord prays to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Mary has chosen the better part. Now it's interesting.
CA:Martha is not doing something wrong. She's not doing something bad. She's doing something good. She's serving her guests. Specifically, she's serving Jesus and the apostles.
CA:Right? But Jesus tells her, stop worrying about it. Stop worrying about it. Don't be so anxious. Because you always have to take time to be at the feet of the Lord.
CA:You always have to take time to sit in silence and listen to his voice. Listen to what he's trying to tell us. You have to take time to do that. There's going to be all kinds of things in your day and in your life that need to be tended to, need to be worried about. But Jesus says, yeah, all of those things matter, but this matters too.
CA:This is essential. This is what I said in the last podcast. Prayer is essential. It's not optional. It's essential.
CA:It's not just a favor we're doing to God. It's not just, you know, saying, Hey, God. How are you? It's contact with divine power. It's coming up for air.
CA:Because if we don't come up for air, we will drown. We will die. Where is essential? Martha has chosen the better part. Let me go around the room real quick.
CA:I jumped right back into the show, but I could use a mental and psychological breather. Let me go and see, who's saying what in the, socials. Hello to Eric who came back. And Eric Eric said, well, looks like he can't stop me from watching my first live exclamation point. God bless you, my friend.
CA:Thank you, Eric. God bless you too. Ellis, another great fan and friend, says, looks like the guy downstairs doesn't want us to hear about this. Let me let me tell you something. I'm I'm not just talking trash here, man.
Speaker 2:I I ain't jiving you. But that last episode on prayer really worked me
CA:to the bone. I mean, the dumbest dumbest things going wrong with it from the editing to the to the encoding and the publishing, it's like, I just couldn't believe it. After about the five fifth or sixth really stupid thing, and they're they're little stupid things, where one little stupid thing is enough to derail the whole project. So it has to be addressed. You can't just say, oh, well, it went black for a second.
CA:So what? No. It was something so it was, like, five or six stupid little things that you can't overlook. They have to be fixed, or the project isn't going up. Right?
CA:And then after a while, I'm like, okay. I get it. The devil is definitely working against this episode. Definitely, the devil is working against this episode. That's for sure.
CA:Can't fool me none. Oh, thank you. So and then this the livestream not working right, and then and then they and here's the thing. Well, why would the devil wanna do that if it's the devil? Right?
CA:Why would he wanna do that? I'll you why. Because the devil knows me. And he knows that I am very much apt to say, to hell with it. I'm done.
CA:I'm not getting paid for this anyway. If God's not gonna make this easy on me, why should I stress it? It's up to God to make this easier, to make this work, to keep the devil's hand out of it. If God's not interested, then why should I be? The devil knows I am likely to do Maybe not likely, but he knows that I was thinking about it just now.
CA:I was thinking, you know, to hell with it. Let me just forget it. It's just not worth the headache. The devil knows that. He knows.
CA:Anyway, the devil knows. So that's why the devil does that. Because he knows if he screws with
Speaker 2:it enough, there's at least a fifty fifty chance that
CA:I'll just say, to hell with it. Done. Done. Not worth it. He knows that.
CA:So that's why he does that. What can you do? So let me go see who's checking me out here on Instagram. Hello to Gil Christ. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that right.
CA:Gil Christ. I think that's what that says. And Grace Ambudun. Can't pronounce that either, but I think I'm pronouncing it as correctly as I can. Thank you for joining me on Instagram.
CA:God bless you. So we're talking about choosing the better part. We're talking about the necessity and importance of a good and healthy prayer life. And I'm going to talk to you about a couple of things that I'm experiencing in trying to revive my prayer life. I'm gonna tell you just a very brief history about it and things that I'm encountering and realizing as recently as today.
CA:Okay? But first, did you see the last thing that I posted on social media? I'm going to run this for you and play this for you so I can take a breather, and then I'm gonna be back with you. Okay? It's basically my reaction and very, very brief analysis of a female priest consecrating the Eucharist.
CA:How crazy. Let's see if I can run this without any hitch. Please, Lord, let me run this without a hitch. I think it's there and there. On the night he was betrayed at supper with his friends, he took bread and gave you thanks.
CA:He broke it and gave it to them saying, take, eat. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Catholic adventurer here. That's the most important thing.
CA:That is not a Catholic mass. I don't know if it was an Anglican mass. I don't know if it was a Lutheran church, some crazy Lutheran branch that was not a Catholic Mass, but this is very cringe. Seeing a female priest or a priestess doing the consecration of the Eucharist is not a valid consecration, so I don't know, I guess we can't call it that. But even looking at it is cringe.
CA:Not because we're just used to seeing men do that. I think it's cringe because deep down, we see there's something wrong with that. We see that there's something imprecise, or inaccurate, or incorrect about a woman acting in the person of Christ who was a man. Deep down on a fundamental level, that's weird to see. And it's not it's not weird to see because that's not something we ordinarily see.
CA:Priests act in the person of Christ, and this is the most important act a priest does, is the consecration of the holy Eucharist. So that's all I've got to say about that. Oh, we're back. Sorry. Totally missed that cue.
CA:I'm supposed to have somebody here going like this. Sorry. We're back. So I hope you enjoyed that. I saw that the other day, and I said, oh, a thousand percent, I have to comment on this.
CA:Folks, every time the church tells the truth, the devil spins it into a lie. The priesthood is one of those truths. And I always say, where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel right across the street or right next door, always trying to obscure, always trying to make the truth harder to see by by introducing an alternate truth that looks almost so much so very much like the real truth. You have to be laser focused sometimes to see the difference. Even practicing Catholics.
CA:You have it's very easy for practicing Catholics to get very, very intellectually lazy, and they they they're not able to see a truth because they're looking at a lie that's so cleverly disguised as the real truth. I'm not talking about female priests. I'm talking about things that are less obvious than that. You know? Gotta be careful.
CA:Gotta stay sharp. Hello to Salvador who just joined me on Instagram. God bless you, brother. Now I do want to address something very, very important. You may be thinking, why is he always wearing the same shirts?
CA:Now, in that last video, that was a black version of what I'm wearing now. Okay? It's not actually the same shirt. But I'll tell you I'll clue you in on something. I have more than one of everything I like to wear.
CA:Okay? I'm I am historically known as the other man in black. The first man in black being Johnny Cash. I'm the other man in black because I'm always wearing black jeans, and most of the shirts I own, except lately, but most usually, traditionally, of the shirts I own are black, blue, or gray. The other man in black.
CA:I have six pairs of black jeans because I like to wear them. Okay? So I have plenty of them. I have four or five of these. Most of the shirts you've ever seen me wear on the podcast, I have at least two of them.
CA:So if it ever looks like he never changes his clothes, I promise you I change my clothes. I have more than one of everything that I like to wear because if I like to
Speaker 2:wear it, then I like to wear
CA:it frequently. I'm not gonna wear the same thing five days a week, so I buy, like, two of them, two of them, three of them. This one in particular, I have at least four or five of them in blue, and then four or five in black. So, if that ever comes to mind, damn, he is always wearing that shirt, or he wears that shirt a lot. I have several copies of everything that I like to wear.
CA:Okay? I'm not a pig. I promise you. If you're someone who likes to wear the same exact thing every day, I'm not calling you a pig. I'm just saying.
CA:Okay. Let's get back on with this. Choosing the better part. The importance of a good healthy prayer life. Let me tell you about
Speaker 2:my prayer life. And I'm not you know, folks,
CA:when I get into talking about myself, it's not to put myself in a spotlight. It's to share my experience with you. And and what my experiences are highs and lows, and I share them all with you. It's to share them with you so that I can share what I've learned and what I've experienced. I can share my perspective and such so that it helps you.
CA:It's not to put me in the spotlight. Folks, when I started this apostolate, it was a blog, and I never showed my face, and I still to this day and never have used my real name in that blog. Because I wanna share my experience with you, and I don't wanna be the center of
Speaker 2:the attention. The only thing
CA:that has changed since I started this apostolate is now I'm doing a podcast, which I hadn't been before, and I'm damn that camera. And now I'm showing my face, which I hadn't done before. So when I share when when I when I talk about myself, it's not for me. It's not to put
Speaker 2:me in the spotlight. It's so I
CA:can share my experience with you. Okay? Alright. So let me tell you about my history. Some years ago, I don't remember what put this in my in my heart.
CA:Maybe it was just grace. Maybe something, you know, something triggered it, like something that, you know, natural, an experience away. I don't remember. I remember I was going through a hell of a lot at the time. Like, a hell of a lot.
CA:Like, my whole life had been set on fire. Like, literally everything in my life was set on fire. So it might have been that. I I don't remember. Anyway, I had it in my heart that I wanted to come to know God very, very, very, very, very, very deeply and very, very intimately.
CA:And I was I wanted to do that through prayer, through a deep and rich prayer life. If you follow me on socials, you might have seen me post this, like, on x and on Substack notes. I want I wanted to form a prayer life that was very deep, like setting into a boat and just letting go. And my task was only damn that camera. My task was only being in the
Speaker 2:boat and letting the water take me to where it goes. Wherever the water is going, that's where I'm going, in this boat. That's what I wanted my prayer life to be. You know? And
CA:I was going to have this deep and rich prayer life. This is where I started formulating this house of prayer that I've been sharing with you. And as I said, know, not to sound like a broken record, I wanted wanted it to
Speaker 2:be deep and rich and to just be drawn to God like water drawing a boat to its destination. I wanted to be drawn to God through a deep and rich prayer life.
CA:Or another way to think of it is a vessel in space that has no propulsion. It's just floating, but it's slowly being drawn toward this the gravitational pull of some enormous body.
Speaker 2:And all you can do
CA:is sit in that vessel, and you're going where the vessel is going, and the vessel is being drawn to this enormous body and the gravitational pull of this enormous, mysterious body. And I just want it to be swallowed up by what I refer to as the great deep. Don't ask me why, but that's like my my nomenclature? Maybe that'd be the right word? For God.
CA:The great deep. And to just gradually and as you get closer to the great deep, you move faster and faster and faster and faster. And you're getting more and more clarity and more and more intimacy with whatever is drawing you to to itself. And as you get swallowed up, you have a a more complete and more deep and more mysterious. The more questions you have answered or the more the more mysteries that become clear, the more mysteries that introduce themselves.
Speaker 2:Right? And that's what I wanted my prayer life to be. And for a while, I
CA:was doing very well with that, very, very well
Speaker 2:with that. I just wanted to
CA:let go and be swallowed up by God through my prayer life, to know him deeply and personally, like, really, really, really deeply. And at some point, I don't know why, I don't know how, I guess it was very, very gradual, my prayer life became one of survival rather than one of life and living. As if I fell out of the boat, and I'm just flapping my arms and legs trying to tread water, just trying to keep my head above that water, above the thunderous waves, as I said on the socials. At some point, probably gradually by slow degrees, that's when my prayer life became survival. And barely even doing that well.
Speaker 2:And yesterday, as a matter of grace, I'm sure, it just popped into my head
CA:that I had forgotten what I wanted my prayer life to be years ago. Like, it just popped in my head. Do you remember that years ago? That that's what I wanted my prayer life to be?
Speaker 2:And I said, damn, I forgot about that. That's right. Whatever happened to that? I don't know where it went wrong.
CA:Did I grab the rudder in that boat when I shouldn't have? Did I try to manipulate the path, or course, or pace? I don't know. Did my prayer life just get derailed by something? And when I tried to put it back together, I forgot what I wanted the prayer life to be, being swallowed up by the great deep.
CA:Did I forget that when I tried to rebuild? I really don't know where it went wrong, and it it doesn't matter. I've set my will again toward that original ambition to have a deep and rich prayer life. Now for each of us, my friends, a deep and rich prayer life is gonna mean something different because each of us is different. We're each called to a healthy prayer life, but what that means for me is gonna be different from what that means for you.
CA:Okay? But some basic things universally apply. Okay? Building a house of prayer, I think that universally applies. How it manifests for you is going to be unique.
CA:But talking about those three pillars, and then I'm going to tie this all up into that gospel reading. Okay? So stick with me. Talking about those three pillars, I started doing the three pillars again. Sometimes it's an uphill struggle because they have a lot
Speaker 2:of things going on and whatever. Today, so as I
CA:said already, before the livestream crashed, you remember I said that my my pillars are the are composed of the Angelus. So I said my Angelus in the morning, and then I knew later on in the day, I knew I was going to forget to say the angels at noon. So I set an alarm on my watch for, like, 11:57 to remind me to say the the angels at noon. So between it might have been 07:00 and, like, eleven, I look it popped into my head a few times, and I looked at my watch to make sure I hadn't passed, my my goal there at twelve. Just looking at the watch.
CA:Oh, do I to see the angels yet? Oh, do I have to see the angels yet? But you know what changed there? Have you caught it yet? Now my prayer life is in my thinking.
CA:Now it's in
Speaker 2:the cycle. Now I'm aware of it. Now that I
CA:know again, I gotta hit that pillar, gotta hit that pillar, gotta hit that pillar, Now it's in my thinking. Do you remember, you might not have seen the last episode, but I said, you have to order your day around your prayer life instead of ordering your prayer life around your day. Hitting those three pillars at the same time every day is gonna help you tremendously with that. And now here it is manifesting itself again. Now that I have it in my head, gotta do the next pillar at twelve.
CA:Now that it's in my head, it's in my thinking. It's in my planning. Sure enough, I actually didn't need my alarm. I remembered it was like 11:58 or it was like a minute before the alarm went off. I looked at my watch and I said, oh, it's time.
CA:And I went off to be alone, and I did D'Angelus.
Speaker 2:And then earlier,
CA:the Bible that I usually have here, because usually when I read the scripture, it's it's it's here. But I took it and went to my bedroom and sat down in my bed, where I probably have the most personal prayer with the Lord in my bed before I go to sleep.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to bring
CA:this the Bible there and do my reflection and meditation there. I didn't do much meditating, but I did a little reflection. And I may have to I may I may do an episode on on what I read and reflected on today, but I I may not. But the point is, so I got my pillars in place, and now I'm doing my thing. Reflection on scripture.
CA:Reading and reflection on scripture is my thing. Right? But now the machine is now geared toward a prayer life that that doesn't shift for the day. Now, something came up with my wife and kids that interrupted my reading. And you can believe that really upset me, but I contained myself.
CA:Something came up. Okay. Gotta tend to the tribe. Gotta do the daddy thing. Gotta do the husband thing to the best that I'm able to do it.
CA:And and then I went back to finish my reading. So it wasn't as fruitful as I would have liked it to have been, but the important thing isn't the spiritual fruit that I got out of it. The important thing was exercising those muscles, exercising the discipline, forcing myself to, okay, be interrupted and be calm about it, and now go back and finish. There's a psychological there's a there's a a human, a psychological, physical, non spiritual muscle that we have to exercise to have a healthy prayer life, and that's part of it. Part of it for maybe weathering the interruptions or, I don't know, tempering your your whatever it is.
CA:It's gonna be different for everybody. That's part of it. And I can tell you, the more I mentioned this in the article about building a house of prayer, but the more you build that house of prayer and sustain it, okay, amazing things happen within that space, not just within the prayer space, not just within during your prayer time, but in your whole day, a day that is sanctified through frequent prayer. Amazing things happen through God's grace. Amazing things happen.
CA:Things come to light. You see things differently. The cloud that I think covers all of us, this dark cloud dissipates. And it doesn't just, you know, the cloud breaks for a couple of seconds, it dissipates. I don't think it goes away totally, but Lord have mercy, does it clear up.
CA:That's
Speaker 2:been my experience. And I am not a saint. So if I can experience that, all of you can experience that. Very, very important to build that prayer life.
CA:Let me take a pause from the action for a second and go around the room, see who's who and what's saying what. I didn't say hello to j KM Jacek who was there a few minutes ago, and I forgot to say hello to him when I saw him. I got distracted by something. Hello to KM Jacek. Catching me at home base here at Substack.
CA:Thank you for joining me, brother. And nobody else is saying anything on Substack. That's funny. Nobody else is saying anything on on what the hell is this? Livestream.
CA:Not livestream. Boy, is that a throwback? Instagram. And that's okay. If you don't have anything to say, you don't have anything to say.
CA:If you do have something to say, something to ask, throw it in that live chat, and I will get to it when I get to it, and I will be very happy to address it. Folks, if you don't know, you ought to know. Everything I do, I do on Substack, but I'm also I've become pretty active on,
Speaker 2:Instagram, etcetera, etcetera. I'm kind of giving up
CA:on TikTok. TikTok gave me the final middle finger today, which is a shame because the last the last thing I posted on TikTok is is rather blowing up. Three thousand one hundred ninety ninety four views. That, video on the female priest. It's rather a shame, but, you know, TikTok is a I mean, the platform itself, it's a very deceitful platform.
CA:It's it's a very deceitful, and it's very much communist China, the things that they do.
Speaker 3:You don't have privilege to livestream anymore.
CA:Go away. Very communist China. Very, very communist China.
Speaker 3:Okay. You want to livestream? You have to do livestream like this. Okay. Now you have to do livestream of gaming.
CA:They will like, they order you, like, to do these stupid things. Okay.
Speaker 3:Now you have to do the twin. If you want livestream, you have to do the twin. You want more visits? You want more number? You have to do
CA:the trend. I'm not doing your stupid ass trend. I'm just not doing it. Stop sending me these notifications to do this next trend. What are you gonna do?
CA:Shoot me? I'm not doing your freaking trend. Get the hell out of my face. It's very weird, very anyway, but I am on the other platforms. I'm still I'm still on TikTok.
CA:I'm just not going to prioritize it anymore. That TikTok gave me the final little finger, and that's that. So let's get back to this. Let's take it back to the scripture. Okay?
CA:Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my
Speaker 2:sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me. The Lord said to
CA:her in reply, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. You see, Martha was doing something important. Martha was doing something that mattered. But there comes a time when you have to just sit at the feet of the Lord.
CA:There comes a time that you have to do what needs to be done. But Jesus it's interesting. Jesus isn't saying, Martha, Martha, you're working really hard. Martha, Martha, boy, you're doing a hell of lot. He says, you are anxious and worried
Speaker 2:about many things. You are anxious and worried. Don't you know
CA:how that goes? Don't you know how that is? I sure do. Oh, boy, do I know how that is. You are anxious and worried about many things.
CA:He's admonishing her, sort of, like gently. Not just for doing and doing doing, but for being anxious and worried. The things are going to get done. They're going to get done. Don't be anxious.
CA:Don't worry.
Speaker 2:Anxiety and worry are detriments to a good and healthy spiritual and or prayer life. Anxiety and worry. Surrender, leaving it in the
CA:hands of Jesus. Don't ask me how to do that because I still have not mastered that, but I know that this is true. Surrender it to the hands of Jesus. Have faith that it's gonna get done when it gets done as long as you're being diligent and tending to it as it's supposed to be tended to. For instance, maybe maybe Martha was trying to fix up the whole meal all at once, and it's like, the whole meal doesn't have to be done.
Speaker 2:We're not eating it all at once. We're not eating
CA:it all at once. So why
Speaker 2:are you doing it all at once? That's anxiety. That's worry. Just do one course.
CA:And later on, we'll work together to work out the second course. I don't know. But you get what I'm saying? As long as you're doing what you have to do and being diligent about it, it'll get done. Don't worry.
CA:Don't be anxious about things. Because anxiety really does pull you out of a good frame of mind, a good state of mind and a good state of spirit. Different from soul is spirit. It pulls you out of a
Speaker 2:good state of spirit for good and connectable prayer life. You're not going
CA:to reach the heights every time you say your prayers. You're just not going to reach the heights,
Speaker 2:but sometimes you will. You understand? Sometimes sometimes your prayers will will just be labor. Do it anyway. Do it anyway.
Speaker 2:Commit yourself to focusing on it as best as you can, and let it go where it goes. But there's going to be those times,
CA:and I'm being very serious here, where the Lord will take you to high places of prayer and prayerfulness that you have not merited. Depth that just blows you away, you're like, where is this depth coming from? This connection that I'm enjoying in this moment with the Lord, where is that coming from? Just yesterday, this was labor, this was torture, but I did it anyway because I'm committed to doing my prayer. There will be those times, and there's gonna be times where it's just labor.
Speaker 2:It's just something you have to do. But there are going to
CA:be those times where the Lord takes you to heights that you have not merited, you have not earned, but he takes you there to show you around a little bit. Just enough to get you to want to enjoy that all the time. And as your prayer life as your prayerfulness and your
Speaker 2:prayer life progress, you will achieve those heights and sustain them. But it's work. But it's work.
CA:You have to be committed to the work. And I say that as someone who has been at this for years and has still not mastered it. I've had my failures in in enriching my prayer life. I just talked to you about about that a few minutes ago. I've had my failures,
Speaker 2:and I'm still presently in the rebuild phase. But I'm gonna tell
CA:you something else too, man.
Speaker 2:The devil knows how to get you. Boy, does he know how to get you.
CA:And every time I try to reboot my prayer I know exactly the prayers that God wants me to say, because every time I say those pray I try to say those prayers, all hell breaks loose in my life. Usually, in my in my, like, interior life or in my mind, you know, or sometimes in my actual life. I know exactly the prayers that the Lord intends to be my prayerfulness, my my prayer superpower, or my prayer finishing move, my prayer, you know, neutron bomb, I know exactly what they are because every time I try to go there and satisfy my desire to do them, all hell breaks loose. I'll tell you I'll tell you, one of them
Speaker 2:is definitely the rosary. Definitely the rosary. Devil fights hard when I try
CA:to pray the rosary. That that's probably true for everybody. Meditating on scripture definitely is is where where the lord is calling me. I feel the most real when I'm doing that, and it's also where I face the most resistance. The liturgy of the hours, for sure.
CA:Face a lot of resistance there. Lot of resistance. Like, weird resistance. That's not me being a saint.
Speaker 2:All of you can tell that same story. Right? I want so much to do this prayer or this devotion, and I just can't
CA:get it off the ground or something always goes wrong. All of you have that story. All of you have that story.
Speaker 2:So that's about going to do it for me.
CA:Nobody's saying anything in the chat. I hate you all for not saying anything. Say or don't say. It's okay. I just like to check to make sure I'm not missing anybody.
Speaker 2:So be mindful to have a good and rich spiritual life. And I'll give
CA:you this extra bit of advice too. You do have to kind of progress in a way that you don't kill yourself.
Speaker 2:However,
CA:while I don't think it's wise to hit the ground sprinting, you do have to hit the ground running. You have
Speaker 2:to hit the ground running. Don't hit the ground walking.
CA:You know, like, running is is an example. You know, when you haven't gone on a run or a jog for a long time, it's prudent to start slow, like, really slow, like at a fast paced walk or something. Don't do that with your prayer life. Don't hit the ground sprinting, but you do sort of have to hit the ground running. But I'm not there yet, man.
Speaker 2:You gotta push yourself. You gotta push yourself. Don't sprint, but don't walk. Once your feet hit the ground, spiritually speaking in your prayer life, don't just walk fast. Pick it
CA:up to a slow a slow run, at least. Pick it up to a slow run. You gotta because I'm telling you, if you decide to hit the ground walking instead of hitting the ground running, I'm telling you, in the time it takes you to go from a walk to a jog, the devil's already got you. How much time is that gonna take to go from a walk to a jog, spiritually speaking? Say, three days?
CA:A week? You really want the devil to have
Speaker 2:that much access to you? Gotta hit the ground running. Don't hit the
CA:ground sprinting because you're working against yourself, but you have to hit the ground running. Don't give the devil time to work on you. Ellis on Substack says, the path to heaven is the one that feels like hell. But you can get it done, he says. Man, that's that's heavy.
CA:The path to the to heaven is the one that feels like hell. Damn. Ain't that the truth? Hello to knight of the highlands. Damn.
CA:That is a cool name. Let me see if I can see what this fellow looks like. Okay. No. I I was wondering, does is he Scottish?
CA:Does he look Scottish? He doesn't have a Scottish look, so I guess not.
Speaker 2:Knight of the Highlands. Hello. I'm a knight of the Highlands, and I want you to become a Catholic. How do you get
CA:ready to become a Catholic? Anyway, I can go on and on doing my Braveheart impression, but I won't. Thank you for joining me, Knight of the Highlands. Yeah. You figure he's gotta be Scottish of some kind.
CA:Highlands. Who lives in the Highlands but the Scottish? Knight of the Highlands. That's that's a cool name. You should, like, trademark that.
CA:But nobody else can ever use it. And Steve's opinion joined the Substack. I feel terrible when I'm about to sign off from the show and people now start dropping in. I feel terrible because I I wonder if there's, like, a bit of excitement. Oh, this is an interesting live.
CA:Or, oh, I've been seeing some of this guy's posts. I wonder what his live is like. And then I'm like, bye. See you. Like, oh, I'm sorry, folks.
CA:You came in at just the worst time. Just as I'm about to close the show.
Speaker 2:Alright. So moral of the
CA:story is, damn. And then Recess Hall of Famer just dropped in. People are dropping in on Substack now that I'm ready to leave. I'm so sorry. Recess Hall of Famer, thank you for joining me.
CA:You're going to enjoy this episode on demand. It should be on on demand available on demand in the next day or or so, depending on how long it takes me to piece it together because the live crashed a few times. Sandy Sandy f somebody just joined me on Substack, man. This is what I should do. I should start the show, and then I should say, okay.
CA:Time to leave. And then everybody's gonna pile in, and then I actually do start the show. Steve's opinion says, I'll check it out later. Thank you. You're welcome, brother.
CA:Thank you for checking it out now. Ellis says, you should spend the entire show about to end. See, I just said that. Wow. That's crazy.
CA:So Ellis is like, you should spend the entire show, quote, about to end. You'll be the most popular man on Substack by the end of the week. Actually, I know we're saying the same joke, but now I'm thinking that might actually be a funny gimmick. I should actually try that. Anybody on on Instagram with a question or comment?
CA:I'm surprised Night of the Highlands had nothing to say about my funny
Speaker 2:Braveheart voice there on Instagram.
CA:And, I guess that's it, man. It's time to go. Mister DJ, it's been a tough one, man. Mister DJ, play me something sweet. And I wanna thank you all very much for joining me.
CA:God bless you. God be with you all. See you on the rebound. Say a prayer for me and my family, and know that you are all in mine. Benny Lane, god bless you, lady.
CA:Have a good night. Danny, old school Danny. Oh, man. You just missed it, brother. I'm so sorry.
CA:Old school Danny joining me on Instagram. God bless you, man. Anybody I need to personally say goodbye to on Substack? Thank you, Ellis, and goodbye. God bless you.
CA:God bless you, folks. I'll be with you all. Bye bye.
