The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

15 Fr. Tim Anastos
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders podcast. My name is John Mahalio, founder and president of Elementary Advancement Solutions. The goal of this podcast is to connect Catholic school leaders from across the world to grow Catholic education.

Visit us at www. elementaryadvancement. com to see how we can help you make advancement seem elementary at your school. As Catholic school leaders, being able to provide our students with opportunities to grow in their faith. He is part of our vocation. Now there's many ways we can do this. My guest today on the podcast has found new and creative ways to reach the students as chaplain at St.

John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His real homilies can be found all over the internet, providing creative and witty ways. to relate the weekly gospel readings to everyday life. Whether you're eight or eighty, Father Tim's words can help each of us develop and grow in our relationship with Christ.

If you enjoyed today's [00:01:00] podcast, it would mean the world to me to drop a comment or a rating on the particular platform you're using. Feel free to share this with other Catholic school leaders who you feel would benefit listening to it. Thank you so much in advance. Now, here's the episode with Father Tim.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast. My name is John Mahalio, President and Founder of Elementary Advancement Solutions, where we strive to connect Catholic school leaders and make advancement easy for everybody. Make it seem elementary. Today, it's my absolute honor and privilege to have Father Tim Anas us on the podcast with us.

Father Tim is a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago and he's the chaplain of St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois Chicago. He serves as a Eucharistic preacher for the United States Conference of Catholic [00:02:00] Bishops. He earned his bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of Illinois.

and a bachelor's degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He previously served as a parochial vicar of Mary Seat of Wisdom Parish in Park Ridge, Illinois. Father Tim releases Real Homilies, one minute reflections on this Sunday, mass readings through the lens of the church tradition, pop culture, and self improvement with Spirit Juice Studios.

He recently released a book titled Jesus, Make Me Fully Alive, 30 Holy Hour Reflections, which can be purchased on Amazon and many other places on the web. Father Tim, welcome! It's great to see you.

John, great to be here. It's awesome to be able to talk to you. Really looking forward to this.

Well, thank you so much. So, I know that as I read your book and I watch your real homilies and such, I can see that you are somebody that's on fire with your faith, which is, which is just awesome to see. [00:03:00] But as you note in your book, a lot of young people, you kind of, I don't want to say you fought this relationship with Jesus, but you had to develop this relationship with Jesus.

And talk us through the role that Christ played in your life growing up.

Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. And I think everyone has, everyone has a story. Everyone has a unique story of their relationship with God and how he has guided them throughout their life. And for me, I grew up Catholic went to Catholic grade school, Catholic high school went to the University of Illinois in Champaign.

And, Like, yeah, most of my time growing up was I identified as Catholic. as a family, we went to Sunday mass we prayed before meals. But other than that, I didn't really actually know what it meant to be Catholic. I just know, I just knew don't kill anyone and like open doors for people and be nice to them.

That's like, honestly, like when I was growing up, that's what I thought being a Christian was just, yeah, be nice and don't be[00:04:00]

That checked all the boxes.

Right, right. Check all the boxes. And so it wasn't necessarily bad. It was just that I actually never really encountered who Jesus was. It was until college, which is so funny because I went to Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, and then, you know, a public, a huge public big 10 school for, for college.

And so when I was there, because as a college kid, you are living totally just by yourself. You were independent. And it was during that time where I had to at least take the faith seriously or just reject it or ignore it. And it was during my freshman year, I got I got invited to a retreat this Catholic retreat and I decided to go on it because Um, and yeah, kind of stalked her on the retreat, went on it because I had a crush on her and it was during that retreat where for the first time ever, I encountered Jesus.

[00:05:00] I encountered who God is and that he actually wants a relationship for me. That, okay, if this is actually real, if Jesus Christ really really did live and then he really did die. And then he really actually did rise from the dead. Then I have to like, I had to change, I had to change things about my life.

If this is actually true. And so it was in that moment of being convicted that the Lord is real, that, okay, if this is actually real now, I need to say yes to the, all of it. Or I need to just say no and ignore it and do my own thing. So it was definitely at that moment as a young person where it was no longer just doing what my family does.

It was, I have to like, the Lord is inviting me in a personal way. So that's how it kind of got started for me.

and I, and I love the fact that you use the words that relationship because that, that time, and I know Matthew Kelly talks about that carefree timelessness that we have with Christ, [00:06:00] and, and just you know, take that time to pray, take that time to talk with him, and I think I hear people oftentimes say, well, I can't do, you know, I can't go to holy hour for an hour, and I can't go to I feel less holy because of these things, and I gotta get this stuff done at work, or I gotta get this stuff done around the house.

But you point out something in your book, you say, you gotta start somewhere. And what do you say to that person who says, You know, I just don't have that, I want this relationship with Christ, but I just don't have time for it, or I feel like I'm inadequate, I'm not doing a good enough job. How do we start that approach and to develop that relationship?

That's a great question. And I think we eat easily fall into, especially if we are growing in our faith or we want to grow in our faith. Most people are married, they have jobs, they are busy. They are trying to make money for their kids and for their, their future. And that's, that is what the Lord is calling them to.

But there's the pitfall of those who are married, those who are very young people [00:07:00] who are growing in their career that they automatically think, okay, if I, if I need to grow in my faith and I have to become like a monk and I have to just take tons of hours to, to pray and to like, offer, offer graces, you know, and offer worship to the Lord.

But that's not true. The Lord is not calling you to be a monk. He's not calling you to be a nun or a priest. He's calling you to be someone in the world, living with their family, growing in their career. And it's not so much about the time. hours, two hours, whatever. It's just consistency. It's all about consistency because, as you said, that word, that keyword is relationship.

Any good relationship that we have It doesn't really depend on the amount of time that we spend with a person, but it's that consistency. Anyone, honestly, anyone who is married knows that. It's about consistency in the relationship, not about, like, the intense feelings that come along with it. No, it's about being consistent.

There was a article that came out several [00:08:00] years ago in the Chicago Tribune. about this couple they both loved each other so much. They wanted to get married. And so, the guy created this huge, intense, like proposal scavenger hunt for the girl where he gave her all of these different clues, going to different places around Chicago.

Eventually one of the clues was this one way ticket, plane ticket to New York and so the, the girl gets on the flight, she doesn't know what's going on, she gets to the, to New York, and there's more clues there, she ends up getting on top of the Empire State Building. Where he's waiting for her, and he gets down on one knee and he proposes to her, like this huge, big proposal, and he proposes to her, and her answer is no, and like, this is crazy, this

is why it was in the Chicago Tribune, I know, it's, it's crazy, and the reason why she said no is She wanted to be really honest with him and she basically told him, you love to do these grand gestures [00:09:00] and these intense things for me.

But the reality is you're not, you haven't been consistent with me. And I can't marry a guy who is not giving me time every single day. To, to love me and to, to be with me. It's not about the intense moments. It's about, I just need consistency. I need security, same thing, same thing with Jesus. What do we need?

We need to be consistent with them, even if it's 10 minutes a day. I think every person on the face of the earth has 10 minutes that they can give to the Lord. I once suggested to someone, like, even if you have five minutes and it was a student and the student was like, yeah, but I feel like five minutes is the amount of time that I give to someone I don't like.

I was like, okay, well, that's good to know. Okay, then give, then give 10 minutes. Don't give 5 minutes. But it's consistency every day that builds a relationship. Not just alright, Jesus, I'm gonna give you this Sunday, I'm gonna give you this hour at [00:10:00] mass, I'm gonna worship like crazy, and then I'm gonna ghost you for the rest of the week.

I'm just gonna ignore you for the rest of the week. That sounds like an unhealthy relationship.

I think that's the, the piece right there is, is just taking those few minutes of intentionality, because whether you're serving the Lord through a ministry, whether you're a husband, a wife, student, whatever, that's your vocation. And so that vocation of how can we develop that relationship with Christ and develop a relationship to further it, and I, and I love the one story in, in, that you shared about you know, Mother Teresa saying, well, the guy said, I don't have time for holy hour, and she said, well, then you need to do two, which if you, if you've read any of her any of her work or anything like that, she was I had the opportunity to have somebody that, that she worked very closely with speak at a school one time.

And he shared that story about, you know, meeting her and her saying, you need to come to where I'm at to, to minister. And, and he said, well, I don't have time to do that right now. [00:11:00] You know, maybe in a couple months I'll come, and she called him the next day, and he said I can come in a few months, and she said no, no, I'll see you on Tuesday, and his reaction was okay, well I gotta see what my schedule is, she said no, no, Tuesday I'll work, and hung up the phone, and so it's that kind of intentionality of like, let's not put it off, let's, let's, you know, we all say that we gotta start, you know, we can, we'll start our good habits during Lent, and it's like, no, no, why wait till Lent, you can start that today no better time in the present for that, so.

One of the things that I hear schools talk about and churches talk about is trying to reach the youth of the parishes. And you've kind of taken some unique approaches, maybe not necessarily just to really reach the youth, but just in terms of your evangelization with things like the real homilies. For those of you who haven't watched those you know, you can find those online and, and they're, they're quick, they're, but they're to the point they're entertaining, I'll say they always have a great message behind them, but, but it always has a [00:12:00] relatable message to them.

Tell me about the, what inspired you to take this approach, and what are the fruits that you're seeing from, from this type of approach?

Right. I would say, I mean, this all goes, I mean, it goes all the way back to Jesus where Jesus in the Gospels went and met people where they were at whether it was tax collectors, yeah, sinners, Pharisees, Sadducees, he would go to them and, and want to know about them. Like one of the great things about I'm sure as a, as a dad, like being, being a mom or being a dad is one of the greatest ways that you can connect with your kids is to actually like what they like, unless it's, if it's like an unhealthy thing, but like to like what they like, whether it's building Legos or like a baseball or a sport or anything.

Like. When you like what they like their heart opens up to receive you. In the same way with young people to be able to [00:13:00] identify the things that they like and the things that they enjoy and to move in that way. St. Paul, yeah, this goes all the way, all the way back to St. Paul, where St. Paul would go to the places that people would, where people would have public discourse and debate and to be in the midst of.

Like these Greek philosophical debates and St. Paul would go there and share the message of Jesus to where they were at. And so one of the places that young people are at all the time is social media and to be able to bring something good and true and beautiful into this space I think a lot of times people can, I don't know if this is the right word, but like accused social media as a whole medium of communication as evil.

Or as bad. Like YouTube is bad. It's evil. Instagram is bad or evil. Well, no, it's just like, it's a neutral medium that is used for some bad stuff. But it's a [00:14:00] neutral medium that can be used for really good stuff. And so my desire is to bring goodness and truth and beauty to these places where the young, where young people are.

And I think that's where, right there, you, you, you pointed out, you know, well, it's social media, so it's got to be bad, okay, and, and I had the chance to interview Laura Tierney, who's a social media guru, a few weeks ago and she points out, you can, you can use social media for just as much good stuff as, as you can for things that are, are, are not so good, okay and, and I think that's what it is, is that if this is where our audience is, then why aren't we going there to meet them, and I think that's something, You've done really well.

As you do these, these real homilies, I mean, Is this something that, that just comes to you, or is it, I mean, like what, because I know there's, there's some very different creative approaches that you take to them, a lot of pop culture references you know, and you'll see everything in your, in your videos, there's clips from TV shows or things like that clips from The Chosen, [00:15:00] clips from, you know, all these things that are all out there, morphed into one thing that's a one minute quick hit on what's coming up, or what's just happened this past week.

Right. Yeah. I, honestly, I, I, I don't know. My strategy for it is just to, as I prepare and pray over a homily that I'm going to give, like the Sunday homily, I pray and prepare to, in a way, give what the Lord wants me to give during these reels. So yeah, there's definitely, I, I think, The Lord gave me a gift of being able to hone in on something that I've seen, like a movie or a TV show or something going on in culture, and just to relate it to Jesus.

And I think I was trained in that way, so before I went to Rome for my studies, I did two years in Rome. of Philosophy at Mundelein Seminary. And the rector at the time was Father Robert Barron, who is now Bishop Barron, who was in charge of Word on Fire. And his whole thing [00:16:00] is taking everything, what he calls like the seeds, the seeds of the culture, the seeds of the word, taking everything from the culture and identifying the really good and really true and really beautiful things and applying it to Jesus.

Because that's the reality. There's so much in this world. That is really good, really true, really beautiful. And that points to Jesus because Jesus is good goodness and truth and beauty. It's what we call in philosophy, the transcendentals that, that even you know, a tree reveals something about something that is good and true and beautiful.

And so that's my, that's my desire. And I have this kind of honed in mentality of when I watch a movie, like I'm already looking for, okay, where's, where's Jesus in this? so.

there's, there's something in this movie that I can use here, you know, just something and, and, and, you know, I always tell people, like, if I go to a conference or if I go to a hear a speaker or something like that you know, sometimes I spoke, well, I'm not going to do that, and other [00:17:00] times it's like, well, I can use that, you know, piece of things, so you're always going to take something away from something, and maybe it's a positive, or maybe it's an hey, there's something that I'm going to point out that we shouldn't be leading ourselves down to.

right, absolutely. And so here at the Newman Center, about three years ago, we opened up a coffee shop. It's literally on the other side of where the chapel is. So it's funny, you walk into the hallway and you smell the incense for mass, but you also smell the coffee which is great. And so it's it's one of the top coffee shops around the area here in Chicago.

And there's nothing, we don't put any religious items in the coffee shop. It's just a very, Easy way for people to enter in. But coffee Originally was it was a Muslim drink. It was like an Arab drink that got brought over to, to Europe. And one thing that's really cool about it is that the Pope at the time, I think he was, his name was Pope Honorius, Pope Honorius.

Wanted to know about this coffee because a lot of Christian Catholic Europeans were saying, no, coffee is bad. Coffee is evil. It's like a [00:18:00] Muslim drink. We, we can't touch it. Like we're, we will become evil if we drink it. But the holy father at the time was like, well, I want to, he said, I want to try this devil's drink.

Like, let me try it. And he tried it and he loved it. He found goodness and truth and beauty in it. And he was like, let's baptize it. Let's, let's make it something good for our culture. And so. Now everyone drinks coffee. So it's just this idea that, okay, there's something really good in this. Jesus is all good.

And so it's somehow leading to the Lord, which

and I down here in North Carolina are very grateful for the coffee which is, which is part of our daily daily routine for

sure. Yes, most certainly. So when we talk about our youth I think one of the things is, as I read the book, something that I see in a lot of our young people, and I'm sure you, you do as well, because you pointed out some examples of that, is there's so much that they're dealing with.

So many things that, that even you and I didn't deal with growing up. You know, there's, there's fear, there's anxiety over [00:19:00] things, acceptance, being overwhelmed, schoolwork pressure from peer peer groups, friends, things like that. and in them you found this, this different reflections that you brought to them.

And I guess to anybody, but I'm focusing on the youth here as, as part of the schools. Just, I love the, a star that you, that you brought up. I thought that was, that was outstanding, that approach to things. That imaginative prayer, which is something that, you know, a pastor a few years ago brought up this imaginative prayer, and it was something I had never heard of before.

But it's very powerful. And so, talk about the components and how you tried to kind of deal with these issues that our youth face each and every day to bring them to their level and to give them something to reflect on.

Yeah. And it really, I mean, just disclaimer. It wasn't me creating these things for students. It's 2000 years of tradition of the

church and of prayer. Yeah. And that, that Jesus, like when he founded the [00:20:00] church gave us, gave us the Holy Spirit. We all have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. We all, know how to pray because we have this intimate relationship with God.

And so just even, this ache or yearning in our heart, that's, that's prayer. Just relating it to God, that's prayer. Doesn't have to be amazing, beautiful words, it's just our heart language with the Lord. And so, yeah, young people, there's a lot of different struggles. That, yeah, we did not have and that grandparents, great grandparents did not experience, but the same factor, the factor that never changes is Jesus, is God, and is love for them, and so pointing them back towards the Lord and their identity is totally key.

We're living in a culture now where Well, let me say this, John Paul II, when he was When he was the Pope [00:21:00] or even before he was the Pope, when he was just a priest in Poland under communism, the whole government, all the, the government was telling young people who they were like, you are as good as what you produce.

That's your value. Whatever you produce for the government. That's yeah, that's your value. That's who you are. And John Paul, the second over and over would, that was the struggle that they were going through. He's like, no, no, no. You, your identity is that you, you're his, that you're the Lord's, that you're a son and a daughter of the Lord.

That's your identity. You don't, you can reject who they say you are. Like, let me, let me share with you who you are. You're a son or daughter of God. And that, that identity has no, has not changed with our young people. They are not being told that they're a cog in the machine, that their value is what they produce.

It's very different. The culture is saying now, you actually don't have any identity, and so you have to choose that identity for yourself. You have to create that identity, whether it's [00:22:00] some kind of yeah, whether it's your career or your job, that's your identity, or you're some, like, who you identify as, like, all these things that the culture is saying, no, you have no identity.

You're a blank slate, and you have to create it. If I grew up like that, I would be like having anxiety every day. Like, what do you mean? I have to create my own identity. What do you mean? I have to like, figure out who I am, but here's God who is saying, no, no, no. You, I have, I created you, your, your mind and your identity is that you're my son and that you're my daughter that can never be taken away from you and you can live into that.

So God giving us our identity. It's not slavery at all. It's freedom. that we actually feel free to be a son, free to be a daughter. And so with young people, it all begins there. So that's, especially with all the different prayer practices, like you mentioned the star imaginative prayer, it's all getting back to you can feel safe and [00:23:00] you can feel secure knowing that you're, you're loved and that you're, you're a son or daughter of God.

That's your identity. And that's where we can begin.

And I think that's, that's a beautiful way of putting it because I think so many times our youth and I'll be honest, we even have adults that are guilty of this. We go on social media you know, hey, and I saw this once that somebody said, I put a picture out. And I didn't get as many likes as I thought I would.

And thus, then it makes the person feel inferior because they put out what they thought was a nice picture of themselves and, and, and not enough of their friends at the high school. He's liked it and it made them feel inferior. Okay. Or we put things out there, a comment or something, whatever. And it doesn't draw the attention that we, and then automatically what are our minds go to is, Oh I'm in trouble here, and those feelings of self doubt creep in, especially for our youth, especially for our young people who are still trying to, you know, Figure life out [00:24:00] And so, and I think that's where it's so important to us as Catholic school leaders who have that opportunity to work with our youth. And I always point that out to schools, especially ones that start in preschool and, and you have Catholic school, those, because I know not everybody has this where you're blessed enough to have a preschool and then a K 8 school, and then a high school, that's a Catholic school, we have these kids for 13, 14, 15 years.

how are we giving them that formation, to do what you just said, to let them know that Christ exists? I've got you. I've got you. And you're, you're created my image and, and, and, you know, I love you for that. And so, developing that relationship right there and just instilling that, that fire in their, in their hearts, I think is so critical as something that we need to do as Catholic school leaders.

Amen. I agree.

Talk to me about recognizing that, that there's a lot of Catholic schools out there and, and you and I kind of talked a little bit about this on offline you know, we want to give our kids [00:25:00] this, this fire we want to get them excited about their faith. There's a, there's a great book that I used to read every couple of years.

And it was, it was called, if you don't feed the teachers, they'll eat the students. And while it's not like a book in terms of the faith, but it was just in terms of. You know, if we're not giving our teachers what they need you know, how can we expect that they're going to feed the, the, the students what they need?

Okay. So as a Catholic school, how can we make sure that we're giving our faculty the fruit that they need to sustain them, to move forward, to provide this just wonderful gift to the students?

Right. Absolutely. And yeah, I liked what you said. It just reminds me of. Like when you're on, when you're on an aircraft and God forbid, like you lose cabin pressure or whatever, what happens? The oxygen mask comes down and you're told, like parents put on the mask first and then you put on the mask for your kids.

So like, in order for kids to be formed and to know of their [00:26:00] identity the most attractive thing is to see their teachers living out that identity as well. So formation for, for, Teachers is almost more important than the formation for the kids. Just as Jesus, Jesus began with 12 apostles, gave him, gave them his heart and formed them, they were enlivened to be able to go out.

And share with others that they were filled up by Jesus and then they could give Jesus to others. Same thing with the teachers. My encouragement is for teachers to develop some kind of formation program where they can, they can receive the Lord. They can be, have a consistent prayer life. Not just like going to mass on Sunday and then ghosting the Lord for the rest of the week, but having that consistent prayer life.

And especially if there's a Catholic school connected to a church, it's really the heart of the school, in my opinion, isn't the classrooms. The heart of the school would be the [00:27:00] church where Jesus is in the Eucharist. And so being able to, to provide that. One of the things, so before I was a college chaplain, I was at a parish.

in the suburbs of Chicago. And one of our second grade teachers, she was, she was a rock star. Every day she would bring in these, these little second graders through the hallways, past the classrooms, into the church, and they would just, you know, kneel down in front of the tabernacle in front of the Eucharist for like, not even, maybe a minute, maybe less than that, but just recognizing there's, there's God, there's the Lord.

And then they would go back and that was so formative for the, the second graders because, Here's the second grade teacher who is totally convicted. She's convicted of Jesus. She's convicted of the Lord. She lives that identity. She knows I'm a daughter of God. I'm good. safe with him. And I just want to share this with the kids.

She didn't have to give a huge discourse on Holy Communion or [00:28:00] like give these young people theology or anything. She was just a witness to these kids. So yeah, to be formed, have a consistent prayer life and be a witness.

and intentionality behind it. and you have teachers out there that say, I don't have time to do that because I've got to get through my language arts and my math for the day. And we've got this test to do, and we've got this and it's just that intentionality piece that, that emphasis, there's a, there's a, there's something, and I've said this once, I'll say it a hundred times, There's a difference between a Catholic school and a private school and it's that presence of Christ in within our school and whether you're a Catholic school or Christian school or whatever, but that presence of, of Christ being in the, that, that's what drives it.

And so obviously as somebody who's Catholic and somebody who has principal at a Catholic school, I mean, that's what separates our school from private schools is that true presence in that Catholic culture within the schools. Yeah.

Right. Absolutely. And you can [00:29:00] be, teachers are convicted about so many things. One of the teachers, when I was growing up, she she kind of lived. Before she was a teacher, she was a professional opera singer and she was just obsessed with singing. And so one of her priorities was teaching us how to sing.

And that was, she was so convicted that like singing will help you in the future. Which is great that she had that conviction and she made time for it because she was convicted. And so the more and more we, the teachers can be formed to be convicted of the Lord, then they can't help but share the with, with the kids.

And people can pick up immediately when it's authentic passion. You know what I mean? Like, if somebody loves singing or if somebody loves insert whatever it is that, that they just are passionate about doing, you can feel that right there. And you can feel that when, when even I'm sure as a, as a priest who's giving a homily and, and people can feel that [00:30:00] passion about a topic that you're talking about.

Much the same way as the students can feel that passion that's coming off of a teacher's voice for something that they are just in love with.

Right, right. And they can, kids can sense BS from a mile

away.

and non passion. There was a recent, I think it was about a month ago, it was it was a really busy day. I was kind of just having, I was very moody. And one of the students wanted to talk to me and I shared with them, like, basically it was very non passionate.

I was like, oh man, I just, I gotta go hear confessions right now. And the way that I said it gave off the fact that I don't really want to hear confessions right now. And it was very apparent and the student came up to me later and was like, hey, are you okay? Like, you usually love to hear confessions.

Mercy and hearing conventions and stuff. And so they could totally sense that like, yeah, there was something wrong.

And we talk about the the true presence, because that's something that we we just talked about that teacher going to the tabernacle with her, [00:31:00] with her kids each day. I think that's something right there that, that not only a lot of youth struggle with, but that, that adults within our church is, is that faith in, in the true presence.

And, and I had a, a deacon a few years ago. He was talking to a men's group that I belong to, and he said, you know, minister from another faith said to him, Do you truly, do you really believe that's, that's God? Do you really believe that? And he said, Absolutely, I do. He said that when I receive communion, I would be on my knees because if I truly believe that, and, and so we talk about that true presence and getting our youth to understand that, that, that just this idea that this is the true presence.

This is not just, you know, a symbol this is the true presence. Talk about like just how you work through that or how you, how you present that topic to, to our young, younger generation to get them to understand that concept.

I mean, there's a lot of different ways because there's so many students are experiencing and going through many different things like kind of [00:32:00] intellectual conversions where they want to know more, you know, about, you know, about scripture and the proof for the Eucharist and stuff like that.

And so that's a route to take to really enter into like, John chapter six, the bread of life discourse and really go through it with them. But a lot of other students, I would say a majority of students, at least here experience, they grew up having this mentality that God is just really far away.

That God is up in the clouds just waiting for us to mess up. That he doesn't really care about what I do until I do something wrong. But he's just very distant. And so. To be Catholic, to be Christian is like completely the opposite, where God actually, he not only wants to be close, but he makes himself close.

Like Jesus desires to be close to us in the incarnation, he becomes a human person for us, experiencing everything but sin and then dying for us, proving his love for us, but then he doesn't stop there. He doesn't just go [00:33:00] back into heaven and he's like, okay, that was great. I proved it now go live your life.

He's like, no, I still want to remain with you. I give you my body. I give you my blood. I give you my whole self in the Eucharist. So that's, it's been very effective just to share like how Jesus desires to be close to us. So close that we actually receive him into our very bodies. There's nothing more intimate than that.

And so that, that was really effective for young people to realize. Wow. The lengths that God is willing to go to humble himself, not, I mean, God humbled himself to be a baby, a very baby who was completely unsafe in the world, but now he's humbling himself to a piece of bread for us. That's, that's very convicting for young people to hear that.

Now that's an awesome way of looking at it for sure, and I think whether somebody is 6 or 60, they can, they can really take from that and say, whoa, that's, that's a real, that's a breakdown right there of, [00:34:00] of just exactly what it is, because I'm always stunned to read the statistics. People say, you know, what percentage of Catholics believe in the true presence?

And it's, it seems to be going down every year. It's like, no, you're, you're missing this year. You're missing just this wonderful, beautiful sacrifice that, that Christ has made for us. Yeah. As we move forward, and in terms of, so, so let's talk to our school leaders out there, whether it's a principal, whether it's a pastor, whether it's a assistant principal, I don't know, whatever the whatever it may be.

We want to make sure that, that in the future of our, of our Catholic schools because, and I mean, obviously, you're, you're in Chicago, and, and you know, I know that there's some schools that have closed recently, and which always just breaks my heart to, to see. We want our schools to thrive, not just survive.

And so to talk to our, our principals, our pastors, our, you know, any, anybody that's leading a school, leading a parish school what are the things that you would say to them to continue to make their schools authentically [00:35:00] Catholic? to stand out from like I said, that difference between that private school and that Catholic school and, and, and to grow our faith.

What are some things that you might to give them a pep talk, I guess, so to speak about, you know, getting these kids on fire about their faith so that when they do leave our schools after their senior year, if it might be a high school that they go out and set the world on fire and not just sway like a reed in the wind.

Right, right. And yeah, I guess my, the first thing that comes to mind in my own heart, my advice is to you, like all Catholic leaders who are listening to this, you deserve to be fed. Like you deserve to be enlivened by Christ and you deserve to be, to be fed and to know him so that you can be alive and be a witness to the Lord.

I think there's, there's so much, and I want to honor everyone who is Catholic leader in a school, especially that there's a [00:36:00] lot of sacrifice that are, that are involved in working in the Catholic schools. Yeah, less money, less career opportunities. So there is sacrifice. And in that sacrifice, it bears so much fruit if we give it back to the Lord.

But first and foremost, you deserve to be fed. You deserve to have a relationship with the Lord. And just that, like having the conviction and being a witness, that just oozes on to the other students, or to your kids and to your students. So it's not so much, I need to have this right program, like to, like these, this right catechism to give the kids.

Yes. Are you alive? Are you fully alive and on fire for the Lord? Because that's the most attractive thing ever. That's what all the saints did. Like the saints are just totally alive and in love. And being in love, that's really attractive to other people. So yeah, that's my invitation.

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. So. Obviously we, I mentioned at the beginning, you, you do the the real [00:37:00] homilies, the, the book that you just had come out. So talk real quick about the, the, the book Jesus Make Me Fully Alive, 30 Holy Hour Reflections. Talk a little bit about what you know, kind of, I know you said, Hey, all I did was, was, was let the, let the Lord work through me here.

Talk about the book and, and what people can expect to kind of gain from it. It's a great book.

Thank you. Thank you, John. I think it really stemmed from the core group of students here at the Newman Center last year, where they were recognizing that the more and more that they prayed and the more and more that they were growing in their faith, the more alive they became. I think there's this, especially with young people, they think, Oh, if I say yes to religion and if I grow in my faith or read too much of the Bible, then my personality will die, that I will be just this weird.

Like Jesus freak or something like that, but Jesus promised like, no, you're, you're, you're meant to be alive. Like I want you to have life to the full. And so when we [00:38:00] get close to Jesus and when we grow in our faith, we become more of ourselves. Like you become you, we, you're like, you become, yeah, definitely more of yourself.

And so hearing the students say this, Like, they no longer want to, like, live this life of walking around like a zombie on campus. But they actually want to be alive. I was like, yeah, this is so real. And this is so convicting. I need to, I just want to dive into this more. And so, this whole book is helping people to get to a point where the more and more they pray, the more and more consistent they are, things in their heart are just unlocked.

And they just become, yeah, more alive. And so the whole book is a 30 day journey every day. Whether it's 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour of prayer, there are prayer prompts where you can, there's a reflection and then prompts on what to pray with. If you're doing that for 30 days, you're just, you become, yeah, you're with the Lord and He's [00:39:00] speaking words of love to you and, You will never be the same afterwards.

So that's, yeah, that's basically the book, the gist of the book. It's kind of like a slingshot. Like, the more and more you do those 30 days, the more and more you're pulling back the slingshot. And at the end, like, pshh, like you just, you are now free to pray. You don't need a book. You don't need anything.

You just, you know how to pray and you know your relationship with the Lord and you're more free.

And you don't have to wait till next Lent to do it. You can, you can get the book anywhere right now. And, and it's a, I think it's a great read because it really does it. And, and the, and the chapters are very short, quick with, with a great reflection. And, and like you just, and even a part to journal in the book kind of as, as you're going along.

And so, great book. It's a, it's a great read. I recommend it to anybody. They can, people can pick the book up on, what, Amazon, another, probably anywhere that, that books are sold just go on there and, and Also now, I want to just give you one more plug here for the real homilies. People can find those anywhere but just want to talk about that real quick, where people can [00:40:00] find those, because if you haven't seen these yet, I'm telling you, you got to check them out.

They're really, really insightful. They're entertaining but they also provide you a lot of spiritual fruit as well.

Yeah, real, real homilies is one of my, just the joys of these past couple years of doing it one, I have fun doing them, and two, just being able to see the fruit in that there was a fear when I first started doing them. Is this young people use the word cringe a lot? Like when something is like lame, like, oh, that's cringe.

I was, I was worried that it was gonna be cringe, but praise God. The Lord is definitely working through this medium of social media. And so you can find these minute long homilies on Instagram, on YouTube, on TikTok. You can go straight to Spirit Juice Studios website. But if you, if you have Instagram or YouTube, you can look up Spirit Juice.

And Real Homilies, R E E L, Homilies to, to check it out. It's a minute of your time, and yeah, you have the rest of [00:41:00] eternity to, to think about it.

Yeah, most, and I promise you if you check those out you will, you will, you will not regret it. It's, it's, it's a well spent moment of your day for sure. The book is fantastic. I encourage you to check that out. Father Tim, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time today to connect with me and, and to do this podcast with us.

Thank you, John. It was absolutely a pleasure.

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