Discipleship Quads and Food as Medicine (Dcn. Greg Beasley)

James Caldwell: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers, and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle crowd, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Hello, all. Welcome back to another episode of Manly Catholic. This is James, and with me in beautiful Rockford, Michigan, in Deacon's backyard, Deacon Craig. Welcome to Manly Catholic Podcast. Great to be here. Thanks for opening up your home, letting us come in, hang out with you for a little bit. No, it's exciting. I mean, I love what you guys are doing on this podcast and whatever we can do to help. And ⁓ it is a it is a great setting. So bless to be here. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, again, thank you for your time. Really appreciate it. ⁓ before we ⁓ dive into my wonderful opening question, I think we should start with the Saint Michael prayer. Absolutely. Name the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke and we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast in hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. Father, Son. Amen. All right, Deacon. The warm up question. Warm up question. All right. You could be the patron saint of anything. What would it be and why? ⁓ it would be the patron saint of love. Because in the diaconate formation, one of the things really took away from it is God is love. And it's found two places in scripture, one John four eight, and then eight verses later, one John four sixteen. ⁓ so and I think then I also did ⁓ Matthew Kelly's fourth quarter. ⁓ yeah. And the virtue I chose was love. And if you look at ⁓ you know, the fruit of the spirit, the first one is love, joy, peace. And then if you look at the three theological virtues, faith, hope, love, and Saint Paul says, of these the greatest is love. Yeah. So I think that was what I would be the the patron saint, patron saint of love. Beautiful. Is there a patron saint of love? I don't know if there is. That people probably say Cupid, you know, but I don't know if there's a Saint Saint Valentine, maybe? I'm looking this up. Valentine's Day. Saint Valentine. Yeah. ⁓ Saint Raphael, patron saint of matchmaking and happy meetings. Saint Dwinwyn, the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Saint Anthony of Padawa. He's also heavily petitioned by those seeking to find a spouse, or true love. Look at all that. Yeah. Didn't know there's that many. I didn't know that either. See? Thank you, Google. All right. So, Deacon. Tell us a little bit of your backstory. Who was Deacon Greg before you became Deacon Greg? Because you've been deacon now two years, I believe. Yes. All right. So tell us just a little bit of backstory. I have a good vocation story. There's a lot of the there's not much of there's a lot of backstory. ⁓ so I'm originally not from around here, so I grew up in Seymour, Indiana. Okay. ⁓ so went to Catholic grade school up till sixth grade. Okay. And then in seventh grade, I had the choice of going staying Catholic or going public. But then in the class was only going to be eight people. So I'm like, ooh, I don't know if I want to go into class. It's only eight people. So I chose to do public at that point. And then my mom stopped going to church. So my dad never went. And then at that point she pretty much stopped. And then from there I went through high school. ⁓ you know, relatively decent high school. But then went to ⁓ Purdue. So ⁓ boilermakers. Yeah. It was but I'm from Indiana and I there's Indiana's like two different halves of the state. I didn't I didn't know Notre Dame was in Indiana growing up because southern Indiana is a lot different than northern Indiana. ⁓ interesting. But I didn't know that until I went to Purdue. I'm like, they're in they're in Indiana. Didn't even know that. they're not that far? No, not that not not that far from West Lafayette. ⁓ then I I co opt with General Motors. So that was quite the experience. Okay. So then the way Purdue does it, which is really good, you go to school for a full year and then you alternate work and school for three years. And then you go all school. So it's a five year program, but you almost get two years work experience because you don't have summers off. You're always going one or the other. ⁓ and that was a phenomenal experience and it was really good too because GMI, now Kettering, had a co op program. So they were pretty structured at that. And at one point I was seventeen years old and supervising UAW workers that had been there thirty four years. Wow. So you have to learn humility. You come in and a little bit. What do you need for me to make this run well? So that was quite the experience. And then in my junior and I had an Air Force scholarship in high school, but I turned it down because at Purdue it was only worth eight hundred bucks a semester. Uh-huh. And you give up a lot. So you got to do exercises, you got to do more classes, a bunch of other things involved. And I said, for eight hundred bucks, it's not worth it. I'll figure something out. And that's when co-op came along. But then I did feel a call to do the military, but then my junior year I got the postcard in the mail and it was like, Do you ever thought about joining the Nuclear Propulsion Officer Canada program? I'm like, Okay. Sounds cool. It it was. It was pretty intense. It's really intense. And then what you had to do, you didn't have to, you just had to keep your GPA up and just keep your grades up. And then you got paid in school. ⁓ wow so then I I went through the interview process for that, interviewed with the Admiral, got into that program. So at one point I was co oping and getting money from the Navy. So it worked out really well for that last year because it paid for it all. Yeah. So that that all w went went well and then ⁓ was went through nuclear power school. So you went you get after you get your com you graduate, you go to Officer Canada School for sixteen weeks, get your commission, then went to nuclear power school for six months. And nuclear what is nuclear power school? Yeah. It's pretty intense. So everything I learned at Purdue in four years, they covered in two months. ⁓ wow, the six month program. Okay. So it's it's it's one of the most intense programs that I've ever done. ⁓ You get probably equivalent to a master's, but civilian world doesn't recognize that. So we did nuclear power school and then I went to Idaho for six months to run reactors. So that's prototype school. And then after that went to submarine officer basic course in Connecticut and then a station in San Diego. So ⁓ and that that was a great place to be, San Diego. Where in San Diego? ⁓ well the sub base is right on on Ballas Point. ⁓ Point Loma. And then it was really good because we lived in Point Loma. We had four guys with orders there. And ⁓ one guy, John, said, Why don't we pool our money that the Navy gives us and then rent a house? Yeah. Cause me and Jeff were gonna get a two bedroom apartment, then Dave and John were getting a two bed apartment. But they told me about it. And so I'm driving up this hill and I'm like, ⁓ okay, it looks okay. It's an orange stucco house from me outside. Walk in and it's a four bedroom, three bath house that that has its own pool overlooking downtown San Diego. And sounds miserable. It was terrible. So the landlord lived right here. So we said, Well, if you put a hot tub in there, we'll give you this much more a month. She goes, Okay. So then she put in a hot tub in the corner. Somebody cleaned the pool every week, and we're living in downtown San Diego. Or overlooking downtown San Diego and Slumming it. Slumming it out in the Navy. It was amazing. And then 'cause sub base was only a mile away. ⁓ so to get to work it was just down the hill to right, no traffic. Yeah. ⁓ gosh. And and at first when we were all getting there before we got qualified, we were there quite a bit. Yeah. But after about a year, you'd be there by yourself most of the time. 'Cause this guy was on a six button deployment, this guy had duty, this guy was out to see. But then your wardroom would just come over. So yeah. There was always stuff going on. Was the brewery there? Ballast Point Brewery. It not at that point. ⁓ You you yeah. Great brewery. Shout out to Balls Point. Yeah. You're going to sponsor, just saying. That would be awesome. Yeah, Balls Point is great, great beer. And they're not that far from where we lived 'cause we lived right on ⁓ Talbot Street then. Yeah. Okay. Was where is that in relation to ⁓ Pendleton? Camp Pendleton. Camp Pendleton's quite a bit north. Okay, more north over. Yeah, that is. So with Camp Pendleton, if you're going north on the five, you need to get gas here because Camp Pendleton is there's nothing. It that far. Okay. It's pretty far. It's like at least twenty, thirty miles. Okay. You can't get off. You got to drive straight through Camp Peton. ⁓ man. Okay. So how long were you in this living arrangement with the sweet hot tub and downtown San Diego? And that's great question because I did that for eighteen months and then I met my wife and got married. So then moved to Ocean Beach. So we were three blocks from the ocean. Yeah. So that was good too. ⁓ so yeah, I was living there for eighteen months and pretty much eighteen months at both places. So I was there for about three years. Okay. Awesome. And then what do you guys do after that? ⁓ then after that she was originally from Grand Rapids. Okay. So then from there I got out of the navy and then went to Of all places, being from Purdue, I went to IU to Bloomington. So it was it with Grivals. Yeah, it was with General Electric appliance. They had a they had a place there. Okay. That's why it's a black belt with Six Sigma and Jack Walsh. ⁓ man. And then sh then at that point she wanted to get back to California. So we went to California and I was in had a sales territory about five counties back before GPS and everything else. ⁓ so you had the Thomas guides and you were just looking at the numbers. Were you Southern California? I had yes. So I I had You have Orange County? I had San Diego, Orange County, Riverside, Santa Bernardinos, and LA County. I'm from Orange County. I don't know if you knew. Yeah, no. What what part of Orange County? ⁓ so Placentia. So like Yorbilinda, Brea, Anaheim. Yep. No one knows where Placentia is, but Yeah, I don't know that one. But yeah. We lived in the Laguna Hills that was right by the urbine spectrum. So it kinda goes right up the five. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Dickin, we were Basically neighbors, man. Yeah. That was a great deal 'cause we that was probably the cheapest place we could live. It was a condo complex that you couldn't see from the five and five four ⁓ five where it met. Yeah. You could look up and you're like, I don't know if there's but there was a lot of condos up there. and then she my wife wanted to move to Grand Rapids. So then we sold that condo and then bought a five bedroom house for forty thousand less. Gosh. I mean that's the thing moving from California to ⁓ a hundred percent. Grand Rapids. So that was That was a good move. But then at that point, then got a divorce from from that wife. Okay. So that was the bad part of the move. But that's how I got to Grand Rapids from and then we moved here without a job and I started working with Eaton Aerospace. So I've been with Eaton Aerospace for twenty six years now almost. ⁓ wow. And what do you do for them? What are you doing now, I guess? Well s ⁓ almost the same thing. When I came into Eaton, I was a product sales engineer for the plant that's right by the airport. Okay. And they make electromechanical actuators, they do utility actuators, anything that needs to to move. Yeah. Rotary or linear. and then in two thousand six I became an account manager. So my boss says now you're not just covering Grand Rapids, you're covering, you know, all all the plants we have. So get out of there because if you if you are staying there, then you they'll they'll suck you into all the Grand Rapids stuff and you cover more of the Grand Rapids. So I'm okay. And it was a really wise advice. Yeah. And so I was thinking about this the other day. So I've been working from home since twenty two thousand six. Wow. Really? So you just travel. Travel to see the customer. Okay. So like right now, my customer is Boeing Defense. So I spend a lot of time in St. Louis. So that's where a lot of the stuff is going. They make the F fifteen, the F eighteen, the T seven. Okay. How often do you have to travel to Saint Louis? It's about once a month. Okay. But I usually drive, it's a seven hour drive. ⁓ that's not bad. Yeah. I love I love road trips too. It it is. I mean, but you're a lot of podcasts. A lot of podcasts around roads. Right, man. So I got ⁓ on there just fooling. That's right. Just go through next, next. Yeah, that's right. So okay, so been with this company about twenty six years. Okay. So tell us about becoming a deacon. Well, and now that's an interesting story 'cause you met Janine earlier. Yes. ⁓ And so ⁓ yeah, we haven't gotten to that story yet. We have not. Okay. Let's go that seems more important. Yeah, it is. Maybe it's all tied together. And it's it's tied. And and and probably the deepest dark part of my life was after the divorce. The way I've heard it described is it's like sewing two pieces of material together, ripping it apart. Yeah. No two pieces of thread or this ever the same again. Right. And and that was really tough. And then it was like, you know, bad relationships, a lot of bad things going on there. And then then I finally met A really great Christian lady ⁓ who was pretty well known in Grand Rapids. And all of a sudden that relationship just kind of ended. It just I didn't call her, she didn't call me. And then I was going to the Cattle Barons Ball. And I had a friend, and I was going to Kenwood Community Church down in Kentwood of all places. ⁓ and then my friend was in a in my small group. She had tickets to the Cattle Barons Ball for the Can American Cancer Society. Okay. Yeah. And then Janine had tickets to the American Kansas. So that's where we met. Mm-hmm. So we met there and then I never got her phone number and she never gave it to me. But then I called Grand Valley and that's how we kind of started started dating ⁓ I think it would have been two thousand eight. Okay. So yeah. Wow. And she was Catholic and I was Protestant. Mm-hmm. And we're like, Okay, well the plan is we'll go to Kenwood Community Church and then go to her church, ⁓ here at Our Lady of the Constellation. And and that didn't work too long. Yeah. Because after I came back and received the Eucharist, I'm like then went back to Kentwood Community Church. It just didn't feel alive. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ and and that was the turning point. Then she gave me a book, Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic. ⁓ okay. By David Curry. And I must have been traveling because I read that book in three days. 'Cause normally I write when I started the book, when I finished the book, yeah the front cover, it was three days. And I handed it back to her and said, I want to be Catholic. So that was one book. One book. Were you thinking about Becoming Catholic before then or was that book just It was that along with be being receiving the Eucharist. I mean 'cause that was the probably the two two big things. That book answered all my question and then when I received the Eucharist, I realized how much that offers. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. Okay. So then been married to Janine since two thousand eight? Eight eight ⁓ nine is when we got married. So we met in ⁓ eight, ⁓ seven and they got married in ⁓ nine. And then that's when I moved here. So he lived here for forty years. Wonderful. And then ⁓ moved in there after that. And so that's what's and then after we got married, then I got confirmed in April third, two thousand ten at the Easter vigil. So I just came in fully into the church sixteen years ago. Yeah. Yeah, I'm only ⁓ twenty eighteen. So yeah, eight years. So what brought you you in? My wife as well. Also from Grand Rapids. What's Grand Rapids women, man. Now were you born in s ⁓ California? Yeah. So I grew up ⁓ Orange County Until grad school, well, in grad school, and then ⁓ so physical therapy, and then Betsy came out, my wife, from Grand Rapids to Azusa Pacific in ⁓ California. And so we both went to PT school out there, and then we started dating. And yeah, with with her, my a little bit my conversion story was ⁓ pretty much when we started dating, she basically told me. Like I'm Catholic and that's never changing. Yeah. And for me, I'm like, all right, whatever. Like I didn't grow up anti Catholic by any means. I didn't know really what their beliefs were. I was always like a non denominational Protestant. And then the first book, I mean I started listening to Patrick Madrid. ⁓ 'cause ⁓ when I was still a student doing rotations, I was ⁓ like from seven to eight was my commute and that was when Patrick Madrid was on. So I was listening to that. Is that in Orange County then? It's Orange County. So you had a lot of commute. I mean traffic. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was like twenty twenty miles, but it was like an hour and a half. So Galapagos Madrid, Catholic Answers, World on Fire, and then I read Rome Sweet Home by Dr. Scott Hahn. And yeah, just all started the stumbling blocks just. So did you come in the church out in California or here in Actually in Boulder, Colorado about places. Yeah. So when we were about to get married, we wanted a little bit of a an adventure, so to speak, to start our marriage. So we moved to Colorado totally out of whim. We're just like, that'd be a fun place to live. And it was. It was a blast. And yeah, so we went to Boulder, great priest there, Father Peter Musset. He was he's he was at Boulder, he's no longer there, but he was there for like 15 years, and that was the main parish, St. Thomas Aquinas for the university. So University of Colorado Boulder. And for those of you don't know, C U Boulder is like very much an atheist agnostic area in the country. And but he was on fire for the faith. He he was known as the hippie priest because he just had like very long beard, long hair, ⁓ did kind of odd things here and there, but very he loved Jesus, loved the church, ⁓ very funny and witty, very smart, and ⁓ he brought so many young people to to the church. So ⁓ he was a great guy. But yeah, so I got confirmed out there, and then three years no, two years after I got confirmed, we moved to So we guys do PT. in Colorado or were you doing Yeah, so yeah, so we did ⁓ I was at an outpatient clinic for a year and my wife was also doing she was doing like ⁓ women's health like public floor therapy and stuff like that. You didn't less no skiing when you were there We did I did learn how to ski out there. Yeah I did my lesson one lesson and then her parents took us all to Tellyride Colorado. I know if you've ever been to Teliride a very awesome skiing And my first experience of like true skiing was teleride. And so he accidentally took us on a blue a blue route to start with. He's like, I thought it was green, but I did okay. So fell like ten times during the trip. That's all right. Got back up each time. So there's a big difference 'cause I've skied out in Colorado a couple of times. You go you you think you're good here, but then you're like, if you go out there you you better go green. Start with green. ⁓ yeah. One hundred percent. Yeah. But no, it was I mean it's just so interesting how how God works obviously and All the little things you look back at your life too. All the the things that led up to, you know, meeting your wife and moving to Grand Rapids and it's like, ⁓ yeah, good God actually. So you you started out in California, but then in Colorado it started getting deeper and deeper. And then then you did you go through OCIA? Yeah, I went through CIA. RCIA, yep. I went through RCIA back then. And then yeah, so then we had our first kid after after the Easter vigil. And by that point we were there for like two and a half years. We're like, okay, it's probably time to move. closer to family. And so then we did ⁓ I did a year of travel therapy. So just contract work. I did four months here, eight months California, and then COVID hit. And then I ended up getting a job with my current company here. And then we moved here in twenty twenty. But then part of that from your family is your family's still out in Calvary. Still in California. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that that was hard moving away from them. But we try to get out there. We're trying to get out there more frequently too my my parents get time to go out to California. ⁓ 100%. Yeah, February for sure. January we can have like January's okay. It's like, all right, it's winter, it's snowing, and then you get to February, you're like, all right, this is kinda this kind of sucks. So but ⁓ all right, so back to you. Okay. The Akinet. What led down that journey? ⁓ it's really it wasn't really a call, but it's just ⁓ one of my favorite scripture verses is Luke twelve forty eight. And the way I had it memorized ⁓ to whom much is given, much is required. ⁓ So I just felt like I had been given a lot. So I wanted to get back. Nice. And then so since I work here, work remote, typically what my lunch is is eating leftovers at the counter and reading Faith magazine. So what I used to do is I used to read it from front to back. But then all of the events going on are in the back. So by the time I got to the back of the issue, it said there's three diacoma information meetings. And the last one is tomorrow night. I'm like, ⁓ Okay. And I never really thought about it. No one mentioned it to me. And then I saw that. So then I went to get information about it and said, Okay, maybe this is for me. So that's how it all came about, as I just saw in Faith Magazine about it. And I had the last informational meeting happened to be the the very next night. Was this like an England's like you should go to that? Like a prompt in the Holy Spirit? Or you're just like I didn't know. So I so I It was like, I just want to learn more. Yep, here we go. You know, and and then it was that called if I if I could give back. ⁓ and that started the journey. And then there's a process of them discerning you, you discerning that. And at first ours was four years long, but now it's about a five year program. It's it went and and at first I didn't think that was wise, but then discernment does take time. Sure. And I know I was even in my class or is we start off with sixteen, nine got ordained in January thirteenth of twenty twenty four. And with that I was even months away. We gotta take a five day retreat. So I went with a couple of guys that was in my ordination class. We went to Manrisa over on the other side of the state. So it was a silent retreat during the day, but at night we'd have a campfire and talk. And I'm sitting there going, and and the guy was Fernando ⁓ and I went with ⁓ deacon ⁓ Lawrence Dutler. So we were at this retreat and I kept asking him like, Well I don't know if I can do more inside the church being a deacon or being a lay minister. Mm-hmm And and Fernando said something very wise to me and it it proved to be very prophetic. He said, Once people know you're a deacon, people will come up to you. He goes, If you're not a deacon, that won't happen. And he goes, You can absolutely do more inside the church than you could on the outside. Yeah. And so I and at that point I was still months away. Still that was my question that I had to get answered. And on that retreat, I did get that answered and and I did agree with him. And then he was right. So yeah, like even during the After mass, we people come up to you with so many different things, but if they didn't know you're a deacon, they wouldn't approach you with that. That's very true. That's a very good point. And that was that was the big turning point. Yeah. So it wasn't really a calling. It was just I got more information, felt too much is given much as required, struggled with is it better to be inside the church or outside the church? He said that I'm like, That makes sense. And then then got ordained in in January thirteenth. So gosh, that's amazing. Now, would you mind breaking down for maybe first time listeners? What does a deacon actually do? Like what's your role, what's your purpose? What's kinda like the day to day role as a deacon, especially at a a parish? You're obviously with with Father Don, we're gonna ask you about that soon. But ⁓ yeah, just kinda like your day to day role with with being a deacon. And there's three main things. Words, so you proclaim a gospel and you you read it and then also preach it, and then liturgy. So liturgy is l the sacraments. So as a deacon, we get to do a few things. ⁓ baptize, Mary, bury. The other way people hear that is hatch, match, and dispatch. And then you get to do benediction of blessing. So those would be the liturgical parts of it. And ⁓ so word, liturgy, and charity. So those are the three parts that make up what a deacon does. And it's it's kind of ironic too, people don't realize that deacons actually work for the bishop. So the way it's structured is we and it's it kind of blows my mind to think that my boss's boss is the Pope. Because I report to the bishop, the bishop reports to the Pope. Right. So ⁓ They're just one step removed there, D Yeah. Not too far away, you know, corporate America, you're like, wow, you know. But you know, it's pretty, pretty flat for the the Catholic Church. ⁓ so yes, ⁓ but those are the three parts that you do is word, liturgy, charity. And then when you get to your parish, then you work out with the the priest what they want you to do for that priest. ⁓ parish. Okay. And and that's where it ranges. Even in my class, some people were more involved with maybe marriage prep, which at our parish, Father Dom does the marriage prep. so it just depends on what the the pastor needs. You kind of get down and you talk about, you know, what you want to do, what he needs you to do, and then you sign and say, Okay, these are the duties. So when I came to all C, Father Dom said, Well I want you to you know serve as many Saturday masses as you can and then preach at the time the first weekend masses of the month. And giving a full time job, I'm talking, ⁓ that sounds easy. You know, that that's not much. But then you start looking at it, you're like, oof, you know, then you're I'm not used to going to Saturday Mass. So then you gotta stop early to, you know, get cleaned up to go to Mass. ⁓ so the project, you know, like the wood pile you saw and stuff here, you gotta gotta maybe not as full as what you want because Saturday's not not your own anymore. And then so it It was just right. It wasn't ⁓ so doing what Father Dom asked at the parish wasn't too much, it wasn't too little. ⁓ but it it just depends on what they want you to do. So you could do a lot more with different activities, RCIA, marriage prep, you know, server training, things like that. Okay. How does that conversation go with the bishop? So 'cause obviously you have family duties as well. So it's not like a priest. So does he kind of gauge to like Okay, like Dick and Greg, he's in he's in Rockford, so we're probably gonna keep him closer to Rockford. Like do you guys have these conversations like, hey, what's like realistic of what you can commit to type of thing? I'm just curious like what those conversations are because that's totally different than a parish. It's like you just you go, you know. Right. Which you I I guess you technically have to as well, but there's also more nuance I would I would think as well when you're talking to the bishop. There is and I don't know what all The bishop does, but you do meet with the bishop as part of going in and he says, Where would you like to go? And you say, Okay. And for me, being this close to LC, I'm like, Yeah, it's so close that makes it convenient. ⁓ but I don't know what the process he uses. So in my class, of of the nine people ordained in my class, only one did not get their home parish. Okay. And that was with you at IHM. So ⁓ Deacon David Bevins didn't, but he's really close to IHM. So where he was at St. Thomas. ⁓ St. Thomas. Okay. Yeah. So where they lived, it's really close. There's like six churches right there anyway. So So that one made sense. So I don't know what the process is, but I think the bishop looks at where the needs are and w and they say it's a twenty five mile an hour, twenty five mile radius is where you can be assigned. Where from here that could be a lot of parishes even from here. Yeah. So luckily I got ⁓ OLC is the is the parish. But I the process is looking at the needs of it and the bishop decides and I'm don't know what all his decision process is. Didn't know, but he asked questions and asked you what you wanted. Yeah. It's kind of up in the air until you decide until you find out. So it's got to be a tough job being a bishop. So what's it like being with Father Dom? ⁓ it's it's great. I'll tell you ⁓ one of the things that I was kind of concerned about being a deacon is I didn't want to lose my experience of mass. Yeah. I thought When you got to mass and then now you're serving during mass, it wouldn't be quite the experience. And my experience has been just the opposite. So if if you want mass to go by fast, be a deacon. Because it feels like five to ten minutes. It just goes by. It's and and serving with Father Dom, he is so intense. Like even now, I still make a lot of mistakes during mass. In the beginning, then made a lot more mistakes. And I say, Father Dom, sorry I I didn't do that right. He's like, I didn't notice. 'Cause he is so intense and locked on. And and when you're up there on the altar with him, you just feel it. Yeah. He is just incredibly intense and it's just goes by so quick. So it's been a blessing to serve with with Father Don. Just an incredible priest and very reverent ⁓ with the Eucharist past and and really appreciates it. Yeah, yeah. I can you can tell too, just being in the congregation too, like how much he just loves the Eucharist and how much Yeah, like you said, how much he's locked in. It's like that's his one hundred percent focus. And yeah, I do you ever How how how's the how do I want to wear this? Do you ever like almost forget that you're serving sometimes? Cause you're just like so locked into it's like, ⁓ wait, I gotta I gotta has that ever happened to you? It's like, ⁓ I gotta actually do this next. Not too much. Because cause you and I like the way Father Don putties is like it's memory muscle. When I first started and you're making all these mistakes, but then you you kind of know at this point you do this. But it it's kind of amazing that if if the thing that'll throw you off, like if if server does something, it kind of throws you off, and then you're like, Wh where was I? But it's that memory muscle for the the actual actions. Right. But as far as my mind wandering, it's so intense. Okay. So good. Which has been good. So yeah, I feel like me too. I'd just be like, ⁓ gosh, what do I do next? ⁓ wait, I'm at mass. Yeah. That's it. ⁓ way, I'm serving. But but it there's have been times where you're like thinking about the Eucharist and like, ⁓ yeah, I've got to do stuff here. I mean you're so in the moment you're like participating with him. I need to help him. Yes thing. There there's things I have to do here in a in a little bit. So what ⁓ what other things has Father Dom kind of put on your plate, so to speak, besides obviously serving, like you said, preaching every Sunday. Well, that was initially, I'm sure it's increased since then. What other kind of things are you doing? Not too much. Okay. ⁓ I know with ⁓ Deacon Jim kind of traveling more and stuff as as he's retired, ⁓ there'll things come up and it's it's if I have and and the way it's put by the bishop is these are the priorities we were told is it's your faith, it's your family, it's your job, and then deaking it. Because the diaconope is a rice nice round number. So you gotta support your family. So that's what is and the class ahead of us told us this. And we said after a year we asked them what are the big things you struggle with. And they said you need to learn to say no. Because if your family has something and the parish has something, you're gonna need to take care of your family first. Yeah, for sure. So that was good for me. And I've tried to do as much as as I could. But one thing that ⁓ is happening more is if there's, you know, funerals, I try to serve as many funerals as I can and I'll Flex at work to get the time off to do that, or just this past week there was a a committal that Father Dom asked me if I could do. I checked my schedule, said yes, I can do that. So there is the the baptisms, the the the marriages and the the funerals are probably the things that are you know come up more often. And then the preaching of mass, like you said. What was the what was the t phrase you used? Hatch and dispatch. Hatch, match and dispatch. Hatch, match and dispatch. So baptize, Mary, Mary. All right. Hatch match dispatch. How many hatches are you doing? At OLC. OLC's picking up. We've heard a lot, but then we had Deacon Logan was there for the transition. ⁓ Deacon Logan, yeah. Well now Father Logan. I now Father Logan. Yes. So so Father Don wanted to give him the most experiences possible. So I and I talked to some of my people ordained in my class, and within the first eighteen months here, roughly two years at OLC, I'd done like forty baptisms. Me. And that's not all of them. Yeah. So we have a pretty young parish, but that kind of slowed down once Deacon Logan came on board. ⁓ that's amazing. That's probably been the most thing that they've done is baptisms. Yeah. Awesome. Because most people they get married, they want a a mass. So Father Dom will do that. Okay. And most people when they're have a funeral, they'll want a mass with that also. So we can do the ones that don't have the mass. He needs to say no more, Deacon. Well, if they want the mass, give them the mass, give them the Eucharist. Yeah, for sure. Hundred percent. Well, I've heard from Two sources about you, Deacon. Okay. Two. Mike and Jeff. That you are the discipleship quad guy. I love it. I think it's incredible. Let's talk about it. Okay. What what is it? How'd you hear about it? How did it start? Why should all guys be in a part of one? ⁓ those are all good questions. Yes. And some of those I don't have answers to. That's okay. I don't even know how I first heard heard out heard out heard about it. Uh-huh. ⁓ but when I did, you know, I I think the the real thing that kind of gets me about this the discipleship quad is in the Great Commission, that's what we're called to do. You know, in Matthew and he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That's what we're supposed to do. Baptizing them, which I get to do as a deacon. Hatchin'. Hatchin'. In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, and and tea and teach them all that I've commanded you. So that's why I'm excited about it, because we're called to be disciples and make disciples. ⁓ and then when you think about it, Jesus had his quad, right? Who who was Jesus' squad? Peter, John, and James. Right. James right here. There we go. Now now who is Mary's quad? And you gotta read this real close to find out. Joseph? Females. ⁓ females. Females. ⁓ another Mary, right? Yep. ⁓ well another another Mary, three Marys. Yeah. And and I wro I don't think I wrote it down here, but you gotta read the the section real close because Mary at the foot of the cross it said there was Mary. Veronica? No. And there was Mary's sister. So you gotta read the you gotta read the passage really close 'cause it says at the foot of the cross is Mary, Mary's sister. Yes. Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopus. ⁓ so it's four Marys. Probably only ⁓ Mary's sister, so that's about her name. So so that's why I think that sh Mary had a quad, because Mary's sister probably wasn't named Mary. Yeah. Because you gotta read the sentence real close when put the commas in, you know, Mary, mother of Jesus, comma, her sister, comma Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas. ⁓ So that's why I think Mary had a quad too, and it was her sister, Mary Magdalene, and and Mary the wife of Cleopas. Interesting. ⁓ So she had her quad too. So I think that that all made sense to me. But then we started doing it. ⁓ the way it's done, and you know, actually, oddly enough, I was at Stupenville last week for a ⁓ priest deacon seminary and retreat, and Deacon Bob was there. ⁓ nice. And so I get the time the chance to talk to him because he actually played at the harp there at Stupenville. And they said, Hey, he's playing there tonight at five o'clock. You wanna go see him before the next session? We're like, Yeah, we'll go do that. ⁓ and then I'm actually had some time to talk to him. night before or actually the night after. And the way the book is done is just incredible because there's he looks at seven characteristics of a disciple and he starts from the inner. And you spend like 10 weeks just knowing identity. Because if you don't know who you are, nothing else is going to go forward. And it's really our identity our identity of of sons of God and and women for their ⁓ being a daughter of God. And then then you go out from there And then you look at the sacraments, you look at prayer, then you go out from there and you look at ⁓ service and community. But the way it's done, so we it's it's very easy. And at the at the back of the the first book, what he does, he says how to start a quad. And he and he lays it out. So this is what you need to do. Then each week, ⁓ so the whole whole thing takes about forty four weeks. So you grab three guys, same you know, same gender, or three, or three girls. So don't mix the beams on this one because you start off and some I've done it a couple of times. I'm three quarters of the way through the the second quad. But one of the feedback I got from the first quad is when you do your first sessions, everybody tells their testimony. So it's it's about an hour and a half long. And unlike Batman as you, which is a great program. I know Mike talked about that. This you're talking about this book for an hour and a half each time. So we we meet at six o'clock and then we're done at seven thirty so people could get to work kind of the same schedule as that man as you. So that manages you here at OLC is at Thursdays. And then typically I do a quad at Tuesday at six AM. And then you just follow this book and you you do have homework. And like that man as you, you do have homework. And finally I I got this rhythm, like if you read a couple scripture passages a day, and then there'll be a section with maybe four or five pages. So if you just do something every day, it's about fifteen minutes. But it it's kind of the dialogue and then at the very beginning everybody sh does their testimony. So the first two weeks is people giving their testimony in in the hour and a half time frame. So shares her testimony, then somebody else gives her testimony, and then the the following week ⁓ they they have two more people share their testimony. And that's where you get pretty intimate pretty quick. Yeah. But when you go through this, you're just like, you know these people really well. And ⁓ the way Deacon, you know, Bob Rice and ⁓ wrote the book and the way he breaks it down in those seven sections, then as you're going through, there'll be like a checklist. How am I doing in each of these seven characteristics? How do I compare with how I was, you know, a few weeks ago? And you do that a couple of different times during the the the process, the journey. And that really helps to see where you're growing. But you can see that you're growing and the way he words things in here is just incredible. He could take a incredible concept and just take it down to a couple of words and like, I get it. Yeah. So just very well written. Prove great content. Yeah, I remember I listened to a podcast with Father John Ricardo and ⁓ what's his organization, Acts 29. And he he he was explaining like discernment. And he was obviously the the big discernment, like your vocation. But then he says what a lot of adults especially do is they stop the discernment process. So it's like, God, like what are you calling me to do? Right. But he talks about, so he said. They do retreats and ⁓ he ha he just has them there's four main questions that you need to ask, basically. And he's like, you can take like a week on one or you can take a day on one. He's like, I don't want you to do more than like two a day. anyways, but the first question is is asking God, like, who do you s who what do you call me? Or like how do you see me, basically? And he said, It's incredible. Sometimes you'll he's like Either he's like we recommend doing it in adoration or just a quiet, quiet space. But adoration's the best. And he says sometimes you'll get ⁓ like your actual name, sometimes it's like a nickname, ⁓ or just like one or two words type of thing. But the identity piece that that's what made me think of it is just because so many of us too, we are just lacking, okay, what who am I? And like what is God actually calling me to to do and to be? And I know ⁓ I know if you've heard of Devon Shat, who works with ⁓ he's written some books and he's he co hosts ⁓ the Catholic Catholic Gentleman podcast. He's on there ⁓ quite a few times, but he talks about like the the masculinity crisis is ⁓ actually a crisis of identity. Like we just don't know who we are. And if we don't know who we are, like how are we actually going to fulfill like the mission God called us to if we don't even know what he calls us, basically. So I just love that. That that is the the core basically of the discipl discipleship quad. So yeah, so okay, so forty four I mean that's pretty intense. Yeah. And and that goes back to because in I don't when you were in California, did you hear of Rick Warren? ⁓ yeah. So Pastor Rick. He's one of my Saddleback. He's one of my airflow heroes. So I was a member of his church. ⁓ you were going to Saddleback? I was going to saddle back and they have a c they have an incredible one. He goes, you know. I I love what he said. He says, you know, Pastor Rick, you're too big. He goes, No, we're not big enough. If you look at the number of people in Orange County and you look at how many we're not big enough. Yeah. I will never apologize. But he goes, the secret to making a big church feel small is is small groups. Yeah. And so that's all that's how they would run their church with a series of small groups. And then I was there before he wrote The Purpose Driven Life. ⁓ yeah, I've read that a few times. Yeah. And and and this goes along with that because I read the book and I didn't get the five purposes. And then I went through a small group with with Saddleback and I got the five purposes, which goes along with this, because it's worship, fellowship, discipleship, and then ministry and mission. And I didn't understand what the difference between ministry and mission was. Ministry is where you're you're serving your people, the church, you know, in in your congregation, but mission is when you're out serving others. So that's what he says the five purposes of a purpose driven ⁓ life is. And that goes in with discipleship. And I think strategically puts discipleship in the center because you build up to it. Worship, fellowship, discipleship. Then you start ministering to your church and and ministry and then to the world and mission. And that goes along with discipleship as being the core. Yeah, that orderly function to then being the core of discipleship is knowing who you are. And that goes along with I love the five questions from Matthew Kelly. He says, Who are you? Why are you here? What matters most? What matters least? What's the best way to live? Yeah. And if you can answer those five questions. The golden man got the ticket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They that is one thing I think we've talked about on the podcast too. I Protestants do the small group thing way better. And yeah, 'cause and ⁓ my example was was Rick Warren. And and because that is like their main thing, like you have to get involved in a small group because too many people they just they can go into a church. And they can just sit in the back and no one will say hi to them. You know, and it's just, you know, people get comfortable, you know, this is my seed, these are my people I say hi to, you know, it's just kind of human nature. But yeah, like and I think this, I mean, just hearing you talk about it, I think that would be an easy way to get people on fire for it. Because yeah, you get that intimacy and then so forty four weeks and then do you like rotate to a new group or do you stick with that group for idea? Like I and I know ⁓ Mike was talking about God. Yeah. So like if you have somebody and you f you form a a quad and then now that quad goes out and forms other quads and then those quads go out and form other quads, you know, it's not too long before you you do that. Right. I mean, and that's theoretical, but if you could just even get a few people to do it, but I think they if you even if you just form one disciple, I mean, yay, that's that's great. ⁓ and I think it goes along with too, I think the thing that makes this really good is the accountability. Like with small groups of saddleback, it's like if you don't see ⁓ at church, now they're accountable. ⁓ And with Exys ninety too, because you think you would have been able to make it to Exis ninety without the accountability? Absolutely not. You've you've done it once or ⁓ I've done the full Exus program twice. I've done Saint Michael's Lent twice. I think Saint Michael's Lent like the sweet spot. Okay. It's like forty five days. It's like just hard enough, but it's not as intense. Yeah, Excess ninety is brittle, man. I don't have you done Exys? I I I did Exys ninety back to back. So So you 180 or two years in a row? Back to back in the same year. So I started in January. Crazy. And then ninety days. And then somehow started like in May or June again. And then at that point, this is how we found out our hot water heater didn't work. So I think it didn't work during this entire time because I wasn't taking hot showers. And then by the time I started taking hot showers again, I'm like, there's not enough here for two hot water for two people. And that's how we found out, ⁓ we needed a hot water heater. But back to back, Exus 90, we didn't know it. That's hilarious. So that was that experience. Were you like walking on water by the end of it? ⁓ but that that's one of the problems I see. But now that's this question for you. How were you able to keep the disciplines you had during Exodus 90? ⁓ that they can struggle I didn't. I didn't either. Terrible. I mean, yeah. I was absolutely awful. Yeah. Yeah. I ⁓ so Exis ended ⁓ Easter, obviously. And so my My big thing I'm a huge hockey fan. So like right when Easter ⁓ you couldn't watch hockey during the Well then playoffs started. ⁓ And so I'm a huge Ducks fan. But they go on the playoffs for hockey goes on for what, three months or something? Yeah. So but no, the problem was that the start time was ten PM. Oof. Yeah, West Coast time, right? So I I was just staying up late and that just like totally derailed me. Yeah. 'Cause for me I I know like sleep is an anchor for me. So if if my sleep is off ⁓ it I just like I kind of derail like then I'm not working out as much or you know, I I give myself excuses not to eat very well, things like that. So sleep is an anchor for me. Another thing for me, and the the best thing that I think I've I've said it before on the podcast for me was is we there was a group of us, it was a group of six, and every week we met for ⁓ adoration at five thirty for an hour and then we met for like the weekly fraternity meeting. Yeah, we was your exodus a group of six or so yeah. So it was through we started with IHM and then we had fourteen and so we split into three groups. So I led a group of six and there was another leader who did four and another leader who did four. Okay. ⁓ and we wanted to keep even numbers 'cause of the the anchor. Right. Versus an odd odd number. But yeah, every week we met for adoration for an hour. And that was like by far the most fruitful part for me at least. And a lot of the guys too said the same thing. ⁓ But yeah, th it's like the post the post ninety fog, so to speak. It's like, okay, like what do I do now? And then it just slowly chips away and and everything too. So I know they they're trying to find 'cause they have like XS three sixty five now on the app at least where they have like daily reflections and things like that. And the reflections are awesome. but yeah, it's it's definitely is when you go hard for so long and then there definitely is a letdown and then ⁓ no, I still struggle with that too. I know. Am I any better? Are my habits, you know, some some ways, yes, but in a lot of ways it's not as intense as it was during Exodus ninety. Yeah, creatures of habit for sure. And Jesus didn't say in the the the desert for only forty days. So he did, you know. Yeah, see? And he only did forty. He was a pretty extreme Exodus. Ex Extreme Exodus forty, just like the the the the Jesus Exodus. All right. So you said identity was was number one, but there's seven Like core concepts, right? What are what are the other six? ⁓ one of 'em's prayer and then sacraments. So they're all ⁓ so you start with identity, then you go prayer, sacraments, obedience. Okay. So those are the ones that kind of make up the interior. Okay. You have in the core is your identity. And then as you go out, then you have service, community, and sharing. Okay. And so those are the three on the outside, then you have three the next, which were the the prayer, sacraments, and obedience. Okay. And that's one of the things I think about that and I've thought about this a lot. I said, how and that's why I chose love at the beginning. You pay for save anything, love. And I thought, how can I love God? And the way I thought about it is really it's an across it called wolf. Worship, obedience, love others, deeds, words and prayers, and follow. And I think obedience is a a key part of loving God. 'Cause if as a as a father, you know, if your parents or if your your children are obedient, it it's it's a it's a form of love. ⁓ So that's that's one of the ones that make up that inner inner is the obedience. Wolf, I like that. Yeah. Yeah, I I've thought about that too. And yeah, it keeps coming back to the obedience piece because I always think of Saint Thomas Aquinas' definition, you know, to to love someone, right? It's to will the good of the other. But it's like God God is has everything. Like he made me. He he did love, right? How do I will his good, so to speak, right? What can I do for him? Well I am Yeah. And all I can do is Yeah, I I like that. But yeah, the obedience because I mean even Jesus says, ⁓ if you if you love me, you will do what I command, right? You will follow my commandments. Yeah. It's pretty straightforward. You really don't need the other nine. Yeah. If you truly got that one right. Yes. That's simple. It's it's simple in theory, but in practice, in actuality, obviously we as humans we we like to complicate. And I think the quinas got it from Aristotle. You about the four guys. People say, I don't have any guys, I don't worship any idols. Well, you probably do. Wealth, pleasure, power, honor. Yeah. I thought about this a lot. So I could put all my sins into one of those four categories. Easy. Easy. Wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. Yeah. So yeah. All right. So back to the discipleship quad. Okay. So so forty-four weeks. And then so what those seven concepts, are you just going through like week by week a new one of those seven or you guys is it is it like structured the whole forty four weeks or is it based basically based on how the group is progressing together. So this is like, no, for seven weeks we're doing identity, for seven weeks we're doing this. The way it's done is is brilliant. And I couldn't figure out the rhyme reasons. Some the stuff I can, like the first, you know, ten, eleven weeks is is identity. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. And then at some points he said for the next seven weeks we're gonna take ⁓ in order. And then some weeks it'll jump back and forth. And the rhyme reason why it jumps back and forth, but if you there's always a scripture verse with it and there's a starting prayer, and there'll be one of those things identified for that to consecrate on that week. and I don't know why some weeks it jumps back and forth. Some weeks you'll do them in all in order. But then you do have the self-assessments where you're saying how am I doing in each of these seven areas. Okay. And you can see your progress over time between when you started and where you were at that point. Gotcha. ⁓ but the rhyme of reason I know that identity's first Sometimes you'll do them all in order, but then there's the content is different about, you know, for obedience or for sacraments. There'll be a focus. ⁓ and you feel convicted quite a bit. You're like, ⁓ I I should be doing more, I should be doing this. ⁓ but yeah, these it's just extremely well done. And there's so much in a short period of time that he takes, like you said, these concepts and and boils them down. And I know one of the things we learned in the ⁓ diaconet was anim anemnesis. Which means when you're doing mass, it's present. It's not the Jews, you're not, you know, redoing the the sacrifice, you're remembering, you're representing. And that's what the Jews, how they thought of Passover. And that's the use they word used for that. ⁓ and it's making it real again. And the way he words it in here, you're just like, ⁓ now I get it. Makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah. Is there a reason for four, the number four? I I think The main reasons because that's what Jesus did. Okay. His inner circle. The inner circle and Mary had one too with her sister and Mary Magdalene and Mary's wife with Clopus. I think that's the main reason for quad. Yeah. That would make sense though. But yeah, I I know too, they've done ⁓ there's there's always a study somewhere about like the right number of Yeah, 'cause if you have too many people then you don't get deep enough, but then if it's you know, like obviously one person is good, but you need to expand out their circle a little bit too. What's that? Fellowship. The fellowship had nine. ⁓ Lord of the Rings. Okay. Yeah. That's true. Jeff brings up a good point. Well, I think it's, you know, if you look at there's a lot of fours. There's the four seasons, there's the four gospels. So there's a lot of things. And then if you look at the personality traits or love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So there's there's a lot of fours. So there's fours coming up a line. Okay. I'll have to think about that. That's true. But so for you then, so how many how many times have you done the quad? one complete and then three quarters of the way through another one right now. What have you found has been the most helpful for you. Or how have you seen I guess better question would be how have you seen yourself grown with the quad? I I think the the key thing again is that the relationship and and that's probably the biggest thing I got out of the deaconate formation was the the bond you formed with those other eight guys that got overdained at the same time. Just is a really strong bond. we don't see each other as much as we like to given our schedules. But when we do, it's like you you were never apart. Yeah. So I think that would probably be the number one Just their the bond you you form with with your brothers. But then the content is just really good. Like going through the second time, you're like it it's so deep that you you didn't realize you'd already read that before. Yeah. Same thing. But now you're seeing it from a different point of view. Right different perspective. The the content is really good and it it covers a lot of different things, parts of the catechism and the the different principles, early church fathers, scripture. ⁓ very well well read. So it's Catholic. In nature. Very Catholic. Very Catholic in nature. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So how do people learn more? Or if they want to join? Like do you go on a website, you fill anything out, and you just grab your three guides and say, Hey, let's do this. It it it's so easy that you could do that. Okay. Because in the back of the part one it says how to start it. And then one of the guides it says is don't cross the beams. This this is a men's group and this is a women's group. This is not a don't combine them because in the beginning when you give your testimony it gets pretty raw pretty quick. Yeah. Don't want to have those conversations. Sure. You know, between between the sexes. Yeah. Don't cross the beams. That's Ghostbusters. Don't do either. Streams or beams. Streams or beams. Yeah. So ⁓ and then the other thing they say, like in the back, is like if one if only two people can meet, don't meet. So we at least have three. So a lot of times I travel for work. So if if Three are gonna be there. You don't wanna take, you know, five years to get through this. Yeah, for sure. So that's why it's roughly a year because it's 44 weeks with breaks, people not being there. And then we just say, okay, we'll meet the next week and cover the same thing. Yeah. Coffee and prayer. It's the perfect blend. Mystic Monk Coffee isn't just another cup of coffee. It's handcrafted by the Carmelite monks of Wyoming, roasted with care and infused with prayer. Whether you're starting your morning or fueling your day, Mystic Monk Coffee has you covered. It offers rich, bold flavors that are as divine as their mission. By choosing Mystic Monk, you're not just enjoying exceptional coffee, but you're supporting a community of monks dedicated to their work, to prayer, and to the church. It's coffee with a cause. So what are you waiting for? Visit Mystic Monk Coffee dot com and experience the brew that's fueling faith and flavor. All right, we're back from the break, Deacon. Unexpected break. Now we're ready to settle in. We're gonna talk about what's called the Daniel Plan. Okay. I know nothing about the Daniel Plan. I heard you knew you know a thing or two about it. I do. I love the Daniel Plan. Let's talk about it. Okay. Tell me about it. As if I were your student. Gotcha. So here we go. So ⁓ Rick Warren, as you know, we talked about earlier saddleback church. You know, they do a lot of baptisms in the weekend. So he was good. A lot of hatches I'm using that now, Deacon. A lot of hatching going on. And so he was sitting there and it was in the hundreds. And after he got done, he goes, I'm fat. My parishioners are fat. We need to do something. And then if you look at across America, even today, I've heard statistics, 775% of the United States is overweight. ⁓ yeah. And that's why he's crazy. That's why he wrote this book. And this was 2010 when he did this. And I've heard about it for years, but I never did it. I'm like, okay, I'm a good big Rick Warren fan, earthly hero. He's done a lot. Wrote purpose-driven life, number one best selling book besides Bible, lived in the same house, drove the same car. That's my type of guy. ⁓ but he said we need to do something. So then he reached out to a couple different well-known doctors, Mehmet Haas, who was one of them, and then ⁓ Daniel A. Men and Mark Hyman. And they and I think they might have been pressioners there in Southern California. Yeah. So they got together and wrote this book, and it's really about faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends. But for me, the the thing that hit me about this book was the food part. ⁓ faith I get because without me you you you can do nothing, John 15, 5. But the food, he said food is medicine. And the section on food is, you know, about ⁓ 70-some pages, 75 pages. And when I read that, I was just convicted. And cause we talked about earlier about how in Exodus you got back to your old habits. But after reading this, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to my old habits as far as food. Yeah. ⁓ and that was probably the biggest one. And with the food, and it it's kind of related to some of the best advice I've ever got in confession. So Father Stephen Durkey. Father Durkey. Some there. Great guy. I can I can say this because it's not, you know, anything in him, it's not any of my sins. But I Father, Father Stephen, how can I keep from sinning? He goes, When you learn to hate your sin. You'll stop sinning. And that was kind of what this book did for me on food, because it talked about processed food, talks about sugar, ⁓ talks about carbs, talks about trans fats. And you get the point and you learn to hate food. For instance, so I always thought that, you know, these cashew bars would be healthy for you. I'm like, hey, they look pretty good. They have cashews in it. You read, and okay, it's got a lot of protein. Yeah. But then I started looking at after you read this book, how to look at a a label. And you look at the ingredients, is 34 grams for the bar, nine grams of sugar. And then study after study is showing just how bad sugar is for especially high fructose corn syrup. That's probably the the death cargo of everything. ⁓ so after I read this book, oddly enough, we're in Dominican Republic on vacation, and I'm reading the book on the beach, you know, about this, not eating the healthiest at the Honey, we can't have any of this. Take it away. Alcohol, you know. All inclusive, you know, you eat eating whatever you want, doing all that. Yeah. ⁓ but I get done with this book and I said, you know, I've got to do something different. So so far I've lost eleven pounds doing this and I really haven't exercised that much more. Because I really think the thing that really affects your weight is not how much exercise you get. 'Cause you can be on the treadmill like an hour and you're like, ⁓ man, I three hundred calories, really. That that was a Snickers that I just did there for an hour. ⁓ so it's really what you eat and then The amount and when and how you eat. And that's what this book has really done for me. I've got I got to go of five more pounds. So I'm I'm I'm getting there. But I I think that might be one of the big differences between this and XS ninety is like I don't know if I can ever eat food like that again. Yeah. And I I get that that's such an important point too, is because the biggest misconception, like you said, is I mean, I tell my my patients this all the time too. It's like It's like, yeah, I like I wanna exercise more and 'cause I want to lose weight. And I go, like exercise is like five to ten percent. It's honestly ninety percent is going to be what you're eating. And yeah, because I mean there's only walking is great, like low intensity walking is great for a long duration. That actually will help produce fat loss. But yeah, if you want to lose weight, it's all it's all in your diet too. And my wife and I are we're becoming like super crunchy people. And Crunchy. Which was Crunchy. ⁓ you haven't heard Crunchy before? Yeah. So Crunchy was kind of like a ⁓ a backhanded compliment to people who were like trying to be super healthy. Okay. It was probably like early twenty tens. Is that it? Like Crunchy? Yeah, Crunchy? ⁓ maybe it was a California thing. I I think it was. It's a California thing. I think if you think of Crunchy is synonymous with granola, but granola's actually not that all that healthy. It's not either. I know. So I mean crunchy is associated with granola, because that was kind of the granola type people. But it granola is all that healthy. But no, I mean that it's such it's so important too because ⁓ going back to the crunchy thing, is ⁓ I I think I was listening to a podcast and I mean I don't know how true this is, but ⁓ and it was a faith based podcast and they said They believed that all diseases that we know on earth can be cured through like food and plants and herbs and nutrients. And I was like, that would make a lot of and cause their whole point was like, why why wouldn't God give us the the natural remedy in this creation that he gave us to all these diseases that we're, you know, discovering, so to speak. So ⁓ yeah, I mean we can go down the whole the whole health nut thing, but Yeah, I mean food is is so I mean you are what you eat, right? And that's that's what I love being Catholic too, because like you're literally consuming the more you consume Jesus, the more you're gonna like him, right? I mean it's just natural. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yes. And then the other analogy too is like if you had a hor ⁓ racing horse, would you feed him the things you eat? Yeah. Would you go through McDonald's, would you do this, would you do that? No. You would you he would get the best of this and he would get his sleep, he'd get his exercise, he'd get the right water, he'd get everything he needed. So what for you in the book then led you down to I'm never gonna eat this way again. Was it just like all the data behind it or is it just like a conviction, it's like, ⁓ I'm actually feeding my body trash, basically. That the and and it's all the above, I think, wrapped around it. Then what he said, food is medicine. And like you said, I know people that had cancer and they went vegan and the cancer went away. Yeah. And so I thought maybe I should go that extreme, but I mean this right here is good for now, maybe take some other steps later. But it it's just the combination of the way they do it and they give you the statistics behind what sugar does for your diet. ⁓ god, sugar's horrible. Yeah. It is, but it's in it's everywhere. It like in like in that that bar it was just nine grams just everywhere. Yeah. So they talk about fasting in there? ⁓ they do. Okay. And and then the other part too, and along with this, I mean for the last year and a half I've been which in have you heard of like the blue zone Stan Butner? No, I have not. We we listened to it. It started about a year and a half ago and it's just phenomenal. But on there You get a guy that says, I take a hundred supplements a day, I take zero. And so you get this wide range of what they do. But if you really break down the blue zones in a good I think the number one thing is sleep. Because there's been study after study after study of getting the right amount of sleep. Now for me, seven hours is what I do. And that that was the thing with Access ninety too, is the big takeaways of XS ninety that I did pretty good on after that. Better now after I see these studies from the blue zone is sleep. The next one is food and then movement. It doesn't have to be aggressive, nutty sort of ⁓ exercise. And sometimes that can do more harm than good if you do a lot of running or something, your body's not able to handle it. But movement, because I the the thing now is sitting is a new smoking. ⁓ so that one, and then the other one is rest. And I love the book by Matthew Kelly, ⁓ slowing down to the speed of joy. And it really makes you think God said, ⁓ you know, remember the Sabbath. You should do that. And and I've weeks when I do it. High week is better. Yeah. I'm like, ⁓ why why why how do I have to learn that? And then the other part of that, that blue zones, so it's really sleep, food, movement, rest, and then community. And time after time again, you look at people with depression, anxiety, community is so key. And it goes back to what we're talking about earlier with small groups, having that group of people that if something goes wrong, you can reach out to people, say, Hey, I I'm struggling with this, like Exodus ninety. We're like, ⁓ I'm craving this. Hey, hold hold hold tight, hold tight, you can do it, you know. So yeah, the community's a big piece of it. So with this plan, is it is it meant to be like a short term, like a forty day thing? Number four again. There's no keep going. You just keep going. So so food, faith, family, fellowship, and focus. Focus. Yeah. Okay. Tell me more about those other ones. Well, similar self explanatory, like focus. I I I think that the two that really make this what he says makes this different. I mean, it really hit me said food is medicine. But faith. I mean, with when Jesus said, you know, without me you can do nothing. And then if you also think about I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit, would I feed the temple, feed the Holy Spirit this stuff? Right. Probably not. That's not what God intended, like you said. ⁓ and then the other thing would be the friends, having that that group of people like Exodus ninety that you can go to or a small group. And then I I've like Focus and when things on focus is it's just like a race car driver. If you look to the wall, where where are you gonna go? You're gonna go into the wall. Don't don't look at the wall. Don't look at the wall. ⁓ and so that's what the focus was about. And fitness was saying, do what's right for you. I mean, if it's a if it's a walk, if it's a run, if it's a slight jog, you know, do what you would you would stay with. Yeah. I mean, if it's if it's bicycling, if that's kind of what would keep you moving, but it's not really the strenuous of it, it's the movement. Like you said, it's five percent of it. The the bigger part of it is what you're eating. Yeah. And then when you eating too. And they they do talk about in here, and it was either on here or the blue zones talking about a good fast is one meal a day. And then what happens is there's I forget the exact name of it, but what they do is there's c cells in our bodies that when they don't have food, they start repairing the things that cause cancer. Yep. And so that fast has medical advantages to it. And only if just for less calories, but then the body is starting to repair itself when it's fasting. Yeah. Yeah. Fasting, I think, is is almost like a a superpower. Like it does so much for your body. I actually did I could a couple three day water fasts with some guys from IHM. And you just look at all the data statistics like why are why are like people who have cancer not being prescribed like, hey, try to do a fast? Because your body goes into hyperdrive of like hyperprotective modes, like let's get rid of all the crud that's in our body. And you know, it's just, I don't know. I the West Western medicine has totally flipped everything. I I tell people, Western medicine is fantastic if you have an acute injury, you need brain surgery, things like that. But like for chronic diseases, conditions, like we have totally failed. And you know, my my mom, she she has lupus and rheumatoarthritis, so autoimmune diseases And her whole I mean, she was diagnosed probably in her mid thirties and she's in her mid sixties now. So for thirty years, all they've really done is is attack the symptoms. So I mean, they're putting on like chemotherapy. And what does chemotherapy do? It wipes out your immune system. I'm like, how is that actually helping? And, you know, versus like, okay, so we know with an autoimmune disease, ⁓ We know what triggers is inflammation in your body. Okay. So why don't we just get rid of the inflammation? Okay, so what are your food allergies? Right. What are your food sensitivities? And, you know, my wife and I actually did this last no two winters ago. ⁓ we went down to the Born Clinic, only for the Born Clinic, but they're very much like a holistic approach. And we got our food sensitivity tests and she said, Do this for three months and ⁓ and then you can slowly like reintroduce this food back into your into your system. But ⁓ the whole point is that we you remove inflammation your from your body and it is amazing how good you feel. And it's what did you end up eliminating? Was it flour? Was it so yeah, so my big triggers were ⁓ were peanuts, which I love peanut butter. ⁓ peanuts it was ⁓ And you could have cashews and other types of no okay yours most nuts. Okay, most nuts were bad for me. So mine was limited to peanuts. Yours was? Yeah. And I did It would and so I could do cashews, I could do almonds, I have a little bit of r reaction too, but not all the nuts, which is good for me because I love like pistachios. Yeah. That would be in Pistachio is another high one for me. Yeah. I love pistachios too. ⁓ a lot of dairy. So like milk was not good, eggs. But she said ⁓ I could have butter and I love butter. So I usually buy butter everything up. I also do ⁓ bulletproof coffee. Have you had that before? No, no. Butter in your coffee, blend it up. Margin? No, too many chemicals. Yeah. You can put margin out. Even the flies won't go to it. That's when you know it's not good. But but the butter they'll they'll be all over, but the the margin they won't go to. So is this based on Dano from the Bible? It is. The plan? Okay. And that's kinda cause remember how he was just to eat vegetables. He's actually I guess we're healthy. I gotta eat meat. But yeah, and the other thing with like Dan Butener talks about is beans. So beans is a good source of of protein. And then it doesn't have the things that meat does. But then there's also a guy in the blue zones that he eats a lot of meat. Yeah. And so that carnivore diet maybe. Yeah. Well, 'cause beans, I know for a lot of people too, a lot of beans, it kind of tears up your line and your intestines. So a lot of like sensitivities and stuff like that too. So I don't know. There's you you can Look up enough people on the internet and they'll have totally different I didn't ask Dan the question. I'm like, what about the gas involved with the beans? But you know blazing saddles. That would have been a good follow up question. Yeah, I know. But and that's the other thing with Dan Butner. He he asked because you're sitting there asking, like, ⁓ what about this, Dan? And then sure enough, Dan will come in and ask the the person he's interviewing that question. Like so he just does a great job of of interviewing about that. So how long have you been on this plan? ⁓ it's only been about three months, four months. Yeah. So you're in the You said Dominican Republic. Yeah. So it was probably in the February time frame. So did you get your wife on board for this plan? Not so much. But I mean but she's like half a plan? Like a Dan plan, not a Daniel plan? Just do do a A N plan. There you go. So yeah. ⁓ but no, she has she didn't embrace it as much, but she didn't read the book yet. So she's like, I'm gonna read the book. But she hasn't read it yet. But that when you read that food section, you'll be like Yeah. It's like you know, Father Stephen said, you gotta learn to hate and then you won't do it anymore. Yeah, I mean food. My wife always says like we're we're such emotional creatures. And I think for a lot of us when we get emotional, we we go to the cupboard. Right? Where can I I want some ice cream, I want beer and I want, you know, all these things. It's not just I mean, you c I mean certain things, even in moderation, is bad. But the thing is like especially with like sweets and things like that, it's never just in moderation 'cause that's not how they make it. Right. They make it so you keep going. No, those potato chip, there's a reason that you actually can't put the Potato chips down. And and that's something I've heard on the podcast and I think it's mentioned in here also is that the people that used to do, you know, cigarettes and people how people get addicted. Now they went to the food industry. Yes. And then it's just addicting to do that. So did you read ⁓ the case against sugar? I feel like we've read the same book. ⁓ yeah. But they talked about that with ⁓ so the big thing with ⁓ like high blood pressure and everything, they wanted to blame salt. It was actually ⁓ sugar that was causing the high blood pressure in all the studies. And then but yeah, they we brought the cigarettes and yeah, they said all the people that were in the cigarette industry when that was like not cool anymore, they just went over to the food and they're like, All right, we need to make sugar more addicting and then like all these studies blew up saying like, ⁓ sugar isn't bad for you and things like that and there was all just funded by these companies that We're selling sugar, like sugary cereals and candies and things like that. I was what are we doing here, guys? What's the latest on coffee? 'Cause I when when Memet Haas says drink as much coffee as an nerve, I'm like, Okay, I'm done. That's all I'm gonna listen anymore. Yeah. So I know coffee was, you know, back and forth, but I think coffee still I mean what Memet Haas said is one of the highest antioxidants there is. So ⁓ has he? ⁓ so he said drink as much as you could. I've heard that, I'm like, Okay, up till three o'clock, then I'm done. I love coffee. Yeah. So I mean Yeah, I have heard so it can become like a bladder irritant if you drink too much. Like there I mean, I've had a patient I literally had a a patient the other day and he used to drink two pots a day. He's down to one pot a day. And that's a lot of coffee. I mean, I love coffee, don't get me wrong, but that is a lot of coffee. So I mean I try to supplement it with drinking water and things like that too. But ⁓ yeah, I tell him, you know, the more coffee the better. So All right, so Daniel Plan, so have you found like you're losing weight, obviously. Have you found though that like you're more focused, you're less foggy brain, you know, less pain if you were ⁓ having pain, things like that. Any other benefits of you to all the above? Okay. And I think sleep is better. I mean the the two are related, and get more sleep, you eat better, you eat better, you get more sleep. Yeah. ⁓ and then also just your movements in your body feels better. Yeah. And it's kinda so funny now. 'Cause I weigh myself more and 'cause you have these goals you want to hit. And then I'm so in tune with my body now, I'm like I I can get on the scale like within half a pound, guess what would I weigh? Before I could do that. It's just 'cause you're more in tune with what's going on. Yeah, for sure. How often are you weighing yourself? ⁓ probably a couple times a week. Okay. So yeah, 'cause I I record it and you know, things that aren't measured, you're not you're not gonna get better at it. So what's your goal? What's your weight goal? You want to weigh that ⁓ right now? So so here here's my weight goal. Well you said you lost eleven. I'm not happy. Five more, right? You said eighty one to one seventy now. Okay. And then if you look at the BMI chart, a lot of people say, ⁓ BMI is crap. I'm like, well, it exists for a reason. So if you look at my BMI to be at five foot eight, BMI of twenty-five, which is the number. Yeah. It's one sixty-eight. So I want to get down to one sixty-five. Because it's kinda like when a submarine comes up for an emergency that it goes like this and then it comes kinda comes back up and settles. Yeah, it's gotta settle. So you wanna go with that one sixty five and then settle around that one sixty eight. Your homeostasis point. Exactly. So I want to go below and then then get there. Okay. ⁓ do you measure your body fat too? I do body fat percentage. No. I don't even know how to There's a couple of different ways to do that, right? With the pinch method or Yeah, there's like the caliper method and then they have these, ⁓ like these handheld things, which I don't I mean, I don't know how accurate these things are. They're probably a lot more accurate now, but you you you grip it and it's it basically ⁓ some like electromagnetic waves and it will measure your body fat. Cause that I think that is I BMI is is great for the majority of the population. ⁓ but yeah, your per body fat percentage because you could technically be rated healthy in the BMI rate, but you're eating all these processed foods and crap, and like you just have a fast metabolism, but you're actually terrible because You're retaining a lot of fat too. What's the most accurate then? Would it be the water method? Is that yes, that actually is. That's like the gold standard. But I mean, like, who's gonna go and do that? So then you just kind of it's just more of a gauge, anyways, too. And most people kind of can tell too. It's like, ⁓ yeah, I'm definitely losing a lot of fat. Right. ⁓ 'cause I mean you look at yourself in the mirror and you can kind of tell, or or just ask your spouse and they'll look and know it's like, yeah. They'll let you know. You're not there yet. You're not there yet. So all right. So how for you, Deacon? You're so I mean clearly it seems like you're You're a man who likes to self improve and is trying to improve discipline. Think about how do you carry that over like into your your faith life as well? Because discipline is gosh paramount in the faith life, the spiritual realm as well. And it's odd oddly enough, I think that the discipline in that carried started there. Yeah. So one thing I did as a Protestant that my my daughter knew that she could either find me one of two places. I was either in the corner reading the Bible or downstairs working out. And I had a habit before I became Catholic that I would pretty much read the Bible every year cover to cover footnotes. Mm-hmm. And so my discipline is it to get up early in the morning and spend that hour and a half, two hours in the morning just doing that. In the Word of God, just letting it speak to you. So I th I think you're talking about discipline and spiritually, but I think the spiritual d discipline of doing that for years, you know, getting up in the morning, spending time in the Word of God, and this is great because what I do now is I say some prayers to Mary in the morning, then I read Word Among Us, read the meditation. Then I read one bread, one body, then I do the hours, then I do this. So that's my morning routine. And I've kept some something similar like that mine for several decades now. But when I was a you know in the Protestant church, not Catholic, the only thing I did was just read the Bible front cover to cover, year after year. And I'd get a new version of the Bible and then read it cover to cover. Footnotes, everything. ⁓ so I I to answer your question, I think the discipline spiritually helped the discipline in the other areas. So th the other stuff hasn't really helped that discipline. It was that discipline of getting up early in the morning and spend that time in the Word or doing spiritual things has helped the others. Two questions. What time do you get up in the morning? And how many times have you read the Bible cover to cover? Oof. Okay. ⁓ it depends on the day. So if I do the quad or that manages you get up at four AM. Okay. Normally my favorite time to get up is four thirty. Okay. So that's when I just sweet spot. Yeah. Four thirty is the sweet spot. Okay. ⁓ And then the number of times I read the Bible cover to cover is at least fifteen. Ooh. Do you have a favorite version of the Bible? When I was there's certain things and I can't find the one Luke twelve forty eight, to who much is Kevin. I've looked at a lot of different versions. I couldn't I don't know how I remember that way that way. But ⁓ I think NIV has some things that are good, but the one that I struggle with right now is I want to get the Bible that's the closest to the mass readings. And I did have the one Catholic, but that went away, the app on the phone. It was a purple one and it had it was the closest. It's gone now. So I was I was using it, using it, and all of a sudden they don't support it anymore. So then I had to go to La Date and then they have the ⁓ New American standard on I like to read the one that's closest like the mask because if the words aren't off, my brain's like, ⁓ that doesn't match. ⁓ but yeah. So I think La Date is the one that I think is the most closest to I I like in right now in NAB But I've really enjoyed the the NIB and then there was the ⁓ Hul Holman Bible was good. Had some different thoughts in there, especially when we talked about ⁓ this one section. I was like, wow, I never really thought of it that way before. Yeah. So yeah, I got the ⁓ what's the Ignatius Study Bible with like Dr. Scott Hahn? That is a beast. That's like almost overwhelming. Now, have you read the word ⁓ word on fire gospels? Yeah, I have four of their ⁓ editions. Okay. The the the gospel one. The gospel one is probably If you're given a gift and I bought for a person at the parish and he said, I've read that thing four times. Yeah. Five times. Yeah. And the thing that that did for me is like in in my office, you'll see the Holy Trinity icon. And that Bible by Word on Fire, it will explain it. Have a piece of art in there. And yeah. They do a really good job. I love that Bible. Yeah. I should I should read that one again. Because that that one's probably if you're just gonna read anything, read the gospels, read that Bible. A hundred percent. Yeah, the commentary there, the art. Yeah. And then with the art, the thing I love about that ⁓ Trinity icon is just it it tells you who's who at the table. A lot of people don't know which one's God, which one's Jesus, which one's the Holy Spirit. Right. The giveaway is the two that are bowing their heads are not God. Yeah. God does not bow his head. Right. And then if you look above them, God will have a city, J Jesus will have a tree, and the Holy Spirit will have wind. But the key thing about that icon is there's room for you. Three at the table, room for you. Yeah. Most tables, small ones, seat four. Yeah. There's room for you. And that's the way I see heaven is being in perfect communio with the Trinity. And if you're in perfect communion with the Trinity, you'll be in perfect communio with others. And that's true perfect community. Yeah. How do you pray, Deacon? Are you do you do like Lecture Divina? Do you I know you the word obviously is is the big thing for you. Do you sit and meditate on it or you just kind of let it kind of wash over you? I fail a lot. Yeah. So And we all my my b best way to pray is to read scripture, let it speak to me. Yeah. And it seems like you can read the same thing over and over again and read meditations. ⁓ something that that I am doing a little bit more now is like, you know, and Ignatius said this, if you of h his spiritual disciplines, do the examine. Yeah, ⁓ yeah. 'Cause and they in was it I forget who said it, but the unexamined life is not worth leaving. Maybe Alan Poe, I think, maybe said that one. Yeah. ⁓ And that's I'm trying to do more with that. But usually I I I do it through scripture. And then also I love doing, you know, another thing as a deacon, I'm like, I don't know if I want to do liturgy hours. But once you start doing it, you're like, this is so beautiful. Is it required of a deacon? Or it is? Okay. Morning and evening. Just the two. ⁓ just the two. Just the two. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I know for me and I don't do this nearly enough. And I I think I actually learned this in RCIA. And I also learned about have you heard of like memory palaces and things like that? Not so much. Okay. So so basically what I do, it's it's it's a form of lecture divina, but it's ⁓ so I I'm I read scripture and then I'm like kinda reflecting on whatever it is I was just read. But what I do is I go to I call this like my own almost a ⁓ like a memory oasis almost. And so what I do is I'm walking to a a campsite. And I have a backpack on. I call it my backpack of burdens. And there's a huge cross like just in the middle of this campsite. And I put the backpack down there. And then there's a huge bonfire. And then around there I have there's Jesus, there's Saint Joseph, there's Mary, ⁓ JP two, who's my patron saint, ⁓ Saint Therese of Lesou. And then ⁓ just like random saints are just like kinda all around there. And it's just it's ⁓ because I've always loved bonfires, campfires, there's just something about being around a fire. I don't know why. It's just always like I've been drawn to that. And anyway, so I like reflecting on the scriptures, I and I I put the backpack down because I actually learned this from Father Tony. And ⁓ so Father Tony told me, because I was doing spiritual direction with him for a while, and he he gave me this beautiful imagery. He said, if you ever have like thoughts Or things that you just can't seem to get out of your head. He says, one, go to adoration and he but he told me, ⁓ so what he does is he would put these thoughts on a boat and he'd watch the boat sail away. And so he said, Other people they picture like ⁓ like God is is like kind of lifting the thoughts out of their their head, so to speak. So like anyways, use that image. And but anyway, so I go into this like this campground and I just there's always so much fruit that comes from it. Same thing. It's like I know it works. I know it's why don't I do this every single day? For even like five minutes, right? And it's just the I don't know why that human nature, it's like there's gotta be more to it than that, right? Like where's the other prayer? I want the next novena, I want the the next thing. And that's the other thing too, and th this has helped me too, because you know, ⁓ Ephesians One ⁓ one one Thessalonians five seventeen says pray continuously. Yes. How can you do that? And I get distracted. So I have a good morning time, and then by the end of the day, you get to get ⁓ yeah. So one thing I got is called an e eternize. Okay. And it's ⁓ a guy at Purdue, it was a podcast, and I listened to it, I'm like, ⁓ this guy did this. That maybe this will help me. So what this does is you can program it and I keep it in here with my rosary. And I keep in my pocket. And then you can program it to buzz, give you a little nudge, you know, certain times of day. So during the work day, I have this program ten minutes before the hour, it'll give me a little buzz to say, okay, pray and move. Because a lot of times sitting is new smoking. Just get up, do some stretches, do some calisthenics, ⁓ pray and move. What is this called? Eternize. Eternize. Yeah. And and it it's really helped my prayer life because then, you know, clocks used to be they'd ding every hour. And the reason why is that. Remind you to pray. And so what this does, even if it's just a short prayer, the Jesus prayer, you know, Jesus Christ, Son of God. You know that's the one prayer, it's the six AM news. Angelus. I always do the Angelus. Yeah. My friend guys sent me the link for the in up. It just notifies you, it's like, Hey, it's time to do it. But this thing will do whatever you you want to do. So I have it ten minutes before every hour through the workday. 'Cause usually on the at the weekend that I don't get in this whirl. You're morning time and then you're doing enough stuff during the day. ⁓ but this has really helped. And so it's been good. I'll put a link. I I found it right here. Is that it? Yeah. So you could put it on here, but I've got enough around here. I got a crucifix, some metal, and stuff on that. But I keep this in my pocket because I tried my phone, but then you gotta get your phone, you gotta turn it off, and that can be a nuisance. And then then the outlook, for some reason my computer stopped giving me the little things and I tried that. But this has worked better than anything I've tried. Yeah. It's like a little nudge. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Right. Or like if you're in the middle at work, you know, doing physical therapy with somebody, you get this little buzz, no one else knows it. Yeah. You know it. And then maybe we can say a little prayer for them or do you know you're probably moving quite a bit during the day, but if you're not, get up and move. Yeah. It is. And and yeah. But I got it set up to go off at the exact times that I choose, you know. So don't make it into a caller. ⁓ gosh. Okay. Shot collar. Yeah. Yeah, I set alarms on my phone. I have a six AM Twelve PM, six PM, and three PM. And I tried that. I tried nine, twelve. I hate the phone. I hate my phone. It's like gosh. I'm like, I'm trying to use it for good, but it just And then you gotta shut it off. So like I carry money on my side, then you gotta get it out, shut it off. I'm like, ⁓ but this is your little buzz says, Hey, pray, pray and move, pray and move. So that's that's really helped. And then you you mentioned earlier, so what was your confirmation name? You said your patron saint was Saint John Paul. And that's who you're Yeah. Okay. And when you came in the church when? Twenty eighteen. Was he a saint yet? Yeah, he was. Okay. ⁓ yes, he was. Because when I came in the church, when Father Tony was confirming me at the Easter General, nobody asked me at the Easter Vigil. They said, What's your confirmation name? And I chose John Paul. And it was before he was canonized. What's up? So, but I I chose it for three reasons. I he wasn't Father Tony went like this. He went, Can I do this? Yeah. Because And and if he said, Well I can't do this, I'm like, Well, John, you know, the one the disciple that Jesus loved, Paul, the one that had the biggest conversion. There you go. So I had it for three reasons. All right. One that Jesus loved. Uhhuh. ⁓ Paul the biggest conversion. And then j obviously John Paul. You said twenty ten. Twenty ten. That's when I So he was he though, ⁓ what's the second stage? Beatified? I even I don't even know if he was then. He might have been. Yeah. He could have been. 'Cause yeah, April twenty seven. Two two thousand five, right, I think. Yeah. So that's five years after he might've been. Okay. But I guess you can do but I mean Father Tony stopped. Can I do this? Well my cover story was, you know, you know John. Saint. John. The beloved disciple father. Come on now. Paul, the conversion. Conversion. Yeah. So what's time to go to bed? If you wake up at four. Well, see, that's one thing I learned is like you try to get seven hours, but then the other thing I do, since I work from home, and I did this in college, I was king of the power naps. Yes. So after after after you eat, you just get this ragoggy and I can take a fifteen minute map and people are like, Can you sleep in that time? Like, yeah, I wake up, I have no idea where I'm at. So I was like, That's good sleep. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, but I I do that. Try to do that a couple times during the day, usually after meals. ⁓ but then when I go to bed determines when I wake up. So if I go to bed a little bit later, then I'll wake up a little bit later. But always try to get the seven hours to do that. Not always happened, but you you you shoot for it. Yeah. But yeah, so if you go to bed at nine Then you get four. Yeah. Four. Yeah. Four. We can do math. Yeah. There we go. Deacon, any final words of wisdom for our listeners? Final words. Before we ⁓ sign off and let you let you go. ⁓ I would just say dig in your Catholic. I mean, because I love being Catholic. ⁓ my my four loves, I love being an adopted son of God, love being Catholic, love being married, love being a deacon. And the more you find out about your Catholic faith. But it it's personal responsibility. You have to take personal responsibility to dig into it and and definitely choose something, whether it's that man as you, if it's the Daniel plan or forming a discipleship quad, do something that's the right step for you to go farther in your faith. And and the catechism, I think it's the second best book ever ever written. I mean, purpose serving life is good, but I think the Bible's number one, catechism's number two. Yeah, catechisms are rich and too many Catholics just don't. Dig into that. It's all right there. It is. Even people who are learning or are Protestant brothers, I mean, if you want to know about the faith, it's literally all right there. It is so beautifully w written and then it it's just loaded with scripture. Yes. Yes. So it's just incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Take personal responsibility, find something, but dig into your Catholic faith and in the source and summits the Eucharist. Amen. So Amen. Highest form of worship. Deacon, thank you so much for your time. No, thank you. Supporting podcast. Thank you for all the work you do as a deacon and And everything else. And yeah. So I will put links for the discipleship quad, the Daniel Plan, That Man Is You, and this Eternized Cross. And thank you all so much for tuning in. Until next time. Go off the Yes. My gosh. Gosh, D, thank you. Yeah. Thank Heaven's Deacons here. Can you lead us, Deacon? Yeah, we'll say ⁓ my favorite, Help Mary. So then we'll end with the blessing after that. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. The Lord be with you. With your spirit. Maybe God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. Thanks be to God. Now you can go out there and be a saint. There we go. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the show's add value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.