Father's Day Service Talk 2026

MY FAITH CONTEXT

My dad passed away almost five years ago. 

At that time, I was not a practicing Catholic. In fact, the entire concept of religion was foreign to me.

Like many people in my generation, I was raised notionally Catholic. 

I was baptized, received my sacraments, attended CCD, and went to Mass on Sundays. 

It would be unfair to say I learned nothing, but it is fair to say that I never truly understood what Christianity was claiming. 

I don’t even ever remember hearing that Jesus was God.

I do recall Dad saying: the least we can do is give one hour to God each week.

My dad was right, but God and the Church just never made sense to me. 

In school, I excelled at science and engineering. I was taught that when hypotheses or ideas or proposals don’t make any sense then they’re discarded or ignored. 

For me, Christianity required me to accept too much by faith.

That was too much for me. Religion became irrational & irrelevant; it simply didn’t justify my attention.

SECULAR FATHERHOOD & FALSE IDOLS

All of that is the backdrop for how I understood fatherhood for most of my life. 

My understanding of what it meant to be a father was entirely shaped by the modern secular culture around me. 

A dad gets a job, earns money, maintains the house, cuts the grass, and helps coach the kids’ sports teams.

I don’t blame my dad for this at all. 

It was the post-WW2 / post-Christiandom culture he was formed in. 

He worked hard. He provided. 

He wasn’t greedy, rather he was diligent and responsible when it came to things like retirement accounts, college savings or mapping out our family vacations.

Those were the priorities the world taught him to focus on. 

The only serious things we ever talked about were always about my career and financial planning.

Church was certainly part of his life, but the idea that Jesus Christ should be the supreme love around which everything else revolved would have seemed foreign to him. 

Church to him was a one-hour-a-week thing.

He loved my brother, my mother, and me very much.

He encouraged us, sacrificed for us, and wanted what he believed was best for us. 

His understanding of the good life was simply shaped by a more modern, secular vision of human flourishing.

My dad was originally from Buffalo, and his greatest love outside of our family was the Buffalo Bills. 

Since I only wanted to love what my dad loved, despite growing up in Philadelphia, I became a Bills fan too.

If you know anything about the Buffalo Bills fanbase, you know it is a rabid, zealous, deeply committed community.

I realize now that my dad and I worshipped a false idol in the Buffalo Bills.

All my meaning, purpose, and identity in life was about my career and my football team. 

Being a Bills fan comes with a certain kind of unexplainable, mysterious suffering. 

The “Wide right” Superbowl loss to the Giants in 1990 is of course the most famous tragedy. 

Then there was the Music City Miracle in 1999 when they lost a playoff game to the Titans on a fluke trick play that ended the game (we all know that was an illegal forward lateral!)

We sports fans use words like “suffering” and “miracle” in strange ways, don’t we? 

The suffering you feel when your sports team loses is trivial compared to the real suffering of those with actual physical and mental health afflictions. 

But when you’re worshipping a false idol, logic and reason don’t prevail.

GRACE THROUGH SUFFERING

And so after my dad died, my love for the Bills just wasn’t quite the same. 

With him gone, I wasn’t getting phone calls from him before the game, at half time, after the game.

From here it’s hard to explain what happened. 

In hindsight all I can say is that God’s grace started trickling into my heart.

I want to briefly pause and again acknowledge the sheer absurdity of what I’m suggesting here. 

The world is littered with grave injustices: genocide, war, abortion, human-trafficking, children living in poverty, etc. 

In a post-WW2 /  post-Christendom generation, so many of us exist in such a secluded comfortable middle class, such that the greatest Cross that we could experience came from our favorite football team losing in heart-breaking ways?! 

It’s so ridiculous that I almost considered re-working my whole talk to take the Bills out of it. 

But then in prayer I felt like God the Father said to me something like, “Ryan, the Bills were the conduit of your dad’s massive love for you. He was an imperfect teacher of the Faith, but he and your mom gave you the sacraments and they reflected more of my love to you than you ever appreciated.”

I know this is a Father’s Day talk, but I need to mention that my mom is suffering tremendously right now through the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease.

She has had to grieve the loss of her husband while dealing with a degenerative neurological condition. This is real tragic heart-breaking suffering.

I have come to believe that somehow God allowed my mom to offer her suffering in union with Christ’s Passion for her loved ones. All while my dad was silently loving us like St. Joseph, very much present in our hearts the whole time.

SPIRITUAL CONVICTIONS & REALIZATIONS

So maybe through my mom’s suffering, and maybe mysteriously with the help of prayers of those across heaven & earth, God’s grace stirred my restless heart and brought me back to Him. 

The whole process led me to discover and know the following 2 things that the Church teaches are very real and true:

  1. ONE: Evil is real. Demons or fallen angels are real beings. Satan rules this fallen world and modern secular culture.

  2. TWO: God is real. Jesus Christ is God the Word, the Logos, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

And with the mind of my heart illuminated, I now understand that God’s words in the Bible are all true. 

So it’s clear what St. Paul means when he wrote in his letter to the Colossians, talking about Jesus on the Cross:

"He disarmed the principalities and the powers, and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.” 

Just for clarity by “principalities and the powers” he’s referring to death / sin/ hell/ satan / evil.

Meaning as horrific this fallen world is, the love of God and the light of Christ is infinitely greater and more powerful. 

So once I understood both the depth of just how unimaginably bad humanity’s fallen situation is, and then how supremely eternally good what Christ accomplished through the Cross was, the Gospel finally made sense as the greatest news the world has ever received!

I now have such a thirst to learn more about the mysteries of our faith and Church teachings that I had no interest in understanding as a young man.

I’ve learned how the Catholic faith isn’t just a collection of rules and traditions. It’s a coherent description of reality itself. And it’s not just an idea or one philosophy. God’s reality invites us into active cooperation within the Trinity and with one another, and most importantly with a living relationship with Jesus Christ that transforms every aspect of daily life. 

And now that I feel alive in the truth of the Gospel, it completely changed the way I think about fatherhood.

All the confusion and uncertainty I had about ultimate purpose and meaning in life has clear answers now.

As Christians we understand that God has a purpose for every human life, we each have our unique calling or vocation.

The goal is not about high paying career, comfort, wealth, or status.

The goal is sainthood: becoming the person God created you to be.

And there’s a path through almost any career that can lead you to holiness if you remember to listen to God in prayer to learn how to align your gifts with God to help advance the common good.

And regardless of your professional calling in life, if you’re a dad, then fatherhood comes with certain vocational responsibilities that are primary before anything else:

  1. Number ONE, daily prayer is essential. Everyone needs to build a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer. I need to continue to encourage Kimberly, Kerrigan and Shane to do the same and I need to pray for them. And remind them to pray for others. I can attest that God hears and answers prayers. Ask, seek, knock is very real!

  2. TWO: Kimberly and I bear the primary responsibility of forming the faith of our children. While the parish has a great Catholic school and Faith Formation team, as parents we need to take an active role to take ownership here. Several studies have consistently shown that if a father actively practices his faith, then it has an enormous influence on whether his children will practice their faith as adults. This supports the notion that the kids will love and worship what dad loves and worships.

  3. THREE: Regular weekly Mass participation is the foundation of our existence here on earth. If practicing our faith boils down to loving God and loving neighbor, then doing this is impossible if we’re not showing up to properly worship God, alongside our neighbors. We need to nourish ourselves weekly spiritually through God’s greatest gift in the Eucharist. 

Practicing our faith is NOT easy. 

My kids know their dad is far from sainthood.

We’re all sinners and make mistakes but thankfully Jesus is merciful and gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

I pray that the graces Kim and I receive there helps us to become the kind of parents where Kerri and Shane never have to wonder whether they can come to us with their mistakes, fears, or struggles. 

I want you guys to know that no matter what happens we are committed to loving you guys unconditionally. 

In the end, worldly things can never fully satisfy us.

Sports teams lose. Careers end. Health fails. 

Even the people we love eventually leave this world. 

But we can live confidently as Catholics suffering joyfully in a fallen world on pilgrimage to heaven, because we already know that Christ won the victory that matters most.

He already defeated the evil one and we need to constantly remind ourselves that it all ends well when we trust in Jesus. 

So in closing, maybe God really was working through my dad afterall with a long term plan to use the Buffalo Bills as an imperfect instrument of the father’s love. Maybe next year is the year, Dad.

 

What follows in this letter may not make sense to everyone, and it's not because the ideas are too academically dense or intellectual, but because faith itself is just not understood the same way other topics are learned.

Jesus taught mainly through parables —everyday analogies that invited people to see reality differently, without forcing them to agree. Those who were open leaned in. Those who weren't simply heard a story and walked away.

The people who need to hear my testimony below the most have either stopped reading or are thinking with supreme confidence about how I'm obviously wrong in my conclusions.

I’m building this with them in mind; those who may be most skeptical, resistant, or unsure, yet still deeply loved by God. By approaching things this way, the hope is to cast as wide a net as possible, and trusting God with whatever comes of it. Some will walk away, and others may find their way back unexpectedly. The outcomes aren’t mine to determine, only to be faithful and obedient in the attempt.

This letter includes a few analogies, but those who make it to the end are likely to be people whose hearts are already open to Jesus. In that sense, you can read what follows in the same spirit as when Jesus explained things more explicitly and fully to his disciples in private (Mark 4:34).

There’s something deeply important I want to say here near the beginning, while I still have your attention. It’s one of the most tragic and widespread misunderstandings about our faith for those that are unfamiliar. No matter how far you’ve fallen, no matter how deep the addiction, no matter how hopeless or unworthy you feel, Jesus is waiting with open arms to forgive you. There is no such thing as being “too far gone” for His mercy. There is no sin so great that it can overpower His infinite love. Have a quick look at this explanation from Bishop Barron. I share this up front because I learned this for the first time just a few years ago and it was something that looking back was a notable moment early on in my reawakening journey.

This business is a mission to answer God's calling to better put to use the strange, intellectual gifts the Lord has given me to help save as many souls as possible.

The purpose of this letter covers:

  1. Informing everyone of my calling and career change.
  2. Sharing my witness and testimony about the truth of Jesus Christ as the launching point of this mission-driven business.
  3. Praying that some of you immediately decide to start speaking with our Lord in prayer daily.
  4. Hoping that some non-practicing Catholics read this and decide to start going to Confession and Mass again.
  5. Having faith that all of you who do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist will at least keep an open mind and follow along with me and my family's journey.
  6. For those who already know that the Eucharist is truly, really, and substantially the Body of Christ (God’s Wisdom, Word, and Life made present and given to us as edible informative morsels of infinite Love) then, my hope is that you’ll join me spiritually on this journey to see if, together, we can help families and communities become vessels of God’s grace and love, pouring it into the world as fully as He intends.
  7. I want to thank my family and friends who have been very patient and loving in walking with me, and who have poured needed Catholic tough-love over me at times in the process. Kimberly will become a saint before anyone! I've never been a part of any parish in my adult life other than St. Paul's here in Ramsey. But I can't imagine wanting to worship anywhere else. The thought, care and love that radiates from the liturgy and dances gracefully throughout the liturgical year is so beautiful. I don't mean to sound prophetic, but it's simply somehow a special place, and a special living cell in the Lord's Mystical Body. The Spirit is very alive here. Thank you to everyone who cooperates with Jesus to make this parish a wellspring of His grace. In my very small way, I feel summoned to help be a steward of this infinitely deep reservoir of God's grace into a world quietly aching for mercy, order, and real hope.
  8. Finally, if anyone feels moved by this letter and feels they may have relevant talents and a bit of spare time to offer, then feel free to reach out (e.g. passion for editing, non-fiction publishing, graphic design, game design, Catholic metaphysics, Catholic education/pedagogy, advanced scholarship on angels & saints). I'm not looking for financial capital as the plan is to boot-strap for a while. I love you all, but please don't reach out trying to sell anything, I assure you there's no budget beyond the minimal web site fees.

If you would like to support the good of the cause here, your prayers are first and foremost more valuable than money. Sincerely, for anyone that is financially poor, your heartfelt love in prayers for my family and mission are worth so much more to me and God than any money you could possibly spend in my business.

For those that can afford it, please do have a look at the art I have up in the store here. I am working on a book along with other publications. I have a few faith-based games and other things in development. Books and games take time to get right (I'll share more about my plans and mission in future posts under the Letters section of this site), but ahead of that I have created some devotional art. Yes, it's heavily AI-assisted, but I can assure you it was all made with love through a prayerful and thoughtful process.

Long term my calling is probably not about AI art generation; at the beginning here it's a way to generate some initial income while bringing decent truth, goodness and beauty into people's homes. So again, if you'd like to support my mission then please feel free to buy some! The Universal Maid of Orleans was my first piece. St. Joan has provided me great inspiration and is one of my patron saints (many thanks to my spiritual director for introducing me to Joan!) The business makes about ~30-50% in profit on each piece. It's fulfilled via a print-on-demand service called Printful.

The rest of the very long letter below is adapted parts of the first book I'm working on. I've used the "accordion" text format here where you can get the gist of it by just reading the numbered section. And then if you're interested to better understand you can click to expand the detail for each one. Please excuse the rough feel of the two appendices at the end; it's still a work in progress trying to discern the best way to communicate some of this in an accessible-enough way.

I am Catholic, and fully submit to the authority of God and Church teachings. For any Catholics reading this, I’ve done my best to keep this appropriately “Church-aligned,” but please know that my goal with this letter is to communicate the truth to a diverse audience. Please forgive any poorly worded statements, and if something I write could be interpreted as “that’s not what the Church teaches” then please know this is not my intent. I am not a Bible scholar, I'm very much still at the beginning of my own faith formation journey. This is why it's taken me so long to write this as my fear for guiding incorrectly (and my very healthy fear of God!) has driven my learning. I'm trying my best to do God's will. In particular, my life has many Jewish friends whom I care deeply about, and while I don’t really understand it, it seems clear that part of my calling involves interfaith discussion with the faithful remnant. Don’t be put off by the fact that I use God in places where most Christians would say Jesus Christ. For this letter, in a heavily interfaith Jewish and secular agnostic context, my aim is initially to focus on recovering the reality and truth of God for modern minds. "My heart's desire and prayer to God on their behalf is for salvation." (The Letter of Paul to the Romans, Chapter 10, verse 1)

And of course, as I review the above I pick up a book and these words from St. Bernard of Clairvaux jump off the page at me: "Write what you will, I shall not relish it unless it tells of Jesus. Talk or argue about what you will, I shall not relish it if you exclude the name of Jesus. Jesus to me is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song in the heart."

Thank you Lord for creating saints who help us love you better!
1. In our modern consumer culture, most of us hear the word “poor” (Jesus quoting Isaiah up above) and think of those in poverty, but Jesus meant much more than just lack of financial or material wealth.


Whether you're reading this from a place of financial wealth or economic struggle, one thing is nearly universal in the modern world: we’ve been trained to believe that money, comfort, status, and pleasure define a good life. But strong balance sheets and the "good life" can mask spiritual poverty and become a distraction from the deeper call to live for God. His message of glad tidings (literally good news) is intended much more for the spiritually poor: those who have centered their lives on wealth, status, influence, and comfort rather than God. This isn’t a statement of judgement. The sense of the word “poor” is very difficult for most modern secular minds to wrap their heads around. The lack of our ability to comprehend the meaning here (the “recovery of sight”) is the result of the modern secular “post-religion” worldview we were born into. 

And if you’re thinking, “I’m not poor, I’ve got a great life, making great money, a job that's challenging where I'm respected, I have status, stability, go on amazing vacations; overall I have a lot to be grateful for,” I hear you. I thought the same not that long ago. But ask yourself: if your life is really full, why does silence feel unbearable? Why do you need constant noise, entertainment, endless scrolling, numerous cups of coffee, pills—anything just to keep it all going? Why does stillness make you restless or anxious?

You’ve been trained to mistake comfort for peace. But this is a false peace. You don’t have peace. You have distractions that constantly try to swat boredom away like a gnat that just won't die. You’re medicating yourself with comfort, pleasure, entertainment and calling it meaning.

Your comfort isn’t freedom; it’s sedation and numbness. Maybe you coasted through COVID while millions suffered—and you came out thinking, “I’m fine.”

But you’re not fulfilled. You’re just not suffering enough yet to realize you’re empty. And the most dangerous part is this: comfort can feel like life while quietly functioning as a coffin—keeping you asleep, your soul numb, lukewarm, and drifting toward eternal oblivion.

We grew up playing games like the Game of Life or Monopoly that taught us that money, power/control/influence, pleasure, status/prestige/fame, and a relaxing comfortable retirement define what is good in life, as if it was just a matter-of-fact given about reality, and these are simply the goals of a successful and happy life. Strive for these things and you win the game of life. These are the “goods” we have been trained to aim for to give us meaning in our lives. 

These things we’ve been taught to strive for aren’t actually inherently bad. Money itself isn’t bad, it’s the love of money without any serious desire to seek alignment with God that’s the issue. These things, when we order lives under God, become understood as gifts of time, talent and treasure. God owns them not you. They exist to be stewarded on His behalf in service to the greater good which extends beyond you and your tribes. In the end, the question isn’t how much you have, but whether you use the gifts God afforded you to make the world better instead of just serving yourself, your close circle and the worldly organizations/groups you’re a part of. “Neighbor” is every person whose life intersects with ours where you can be kind and charitable towards. Again, beyond our own tribes.

Loving a neighbor requires seeing their full dignity, listening for their real needs, and discerning how you could help them across two dimensions. Either/both: (1) by helping them to realize they need to align their life with, and under, God and/or (2) helping them become who God created them to be. And in the process you’ll build a new relationship, even if it’s a fleeting encounter with an Uber driver, or the beginning of a new lifelong friend.

People think of the word “charity” as only a financial thing. Financial charity is of course important, especially if you’re waking up to the reality of God and you find yourself sitting with a lot of treasure that you haven’t been stewarding very well. But contributing time and talent can go a long way, especially if you commit your heart and intent to praying well. Also, encouraging words or quick helpful wise advice rooted in God can go a long way.  

Loving (worshiping) these worldly goals (falsely idolizing them) without first loving God and neighbor as the highest priority is the existential issue.

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar, for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (The First Letter of John, Chapter 4: verse 20c). 

"You shall not hate your brother in your heart.  You shall surely rebuke your fellow, but you shall not bear a sin on his account. You shall neither take revenge from nor bear a grudge against the members of your people; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." (Leviticus Chapter 19, verses 17-18) 

If you’re not an actively practicing Jew or Christian and/or don’t currently pray, worship and work every day to orient your life under and towards God, then I’ll do my best to explain. Otherwise the preceding verses and message about the existential importance of loving God and neighbor probably won’t make any sense. And by existential, it's meant in a very serious eternal sense.
2. So what exactly are we poor in? Truth. Well, more accurately, modern minds are poor in lacking the ability to properly perceive what’s true. We're held captive controlled by fear in an all encompassing false belief system.

We are born into a fallen world that distorts our ability to perceive reality. In Genesis, humanity’s disobedience—beginning with Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—introduces this fracture. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned with full knowledge. He saw what was happening and said nothing. He chose silence over truth, comfort over courage. In that moment, he became the archetype of moral cowardice which haunts humanity to this day.

When humanity chooses to trust itself to define what is good and evil apart from God—rather than trusting God through prayer, obedience, and alignment with His will—our capacity to recognize and live in accordance with objective truth is impaired. Truth itself doesn't disappear. What is damaged is the human ability to see it and make sense of it clearly, desire it rightly, and order life around it.

What do I mean by objective truth? At the most obvious level, it means that reality is real. It has a built-in structure, order; it's not random. Laws of nature are real. Gravity is real. Math is real, as in its invisible order and structure exists before mathematicians discover or uncover its truths created by God. And just like there's no debate on what's correct or incorrect on a math test, this extends into universal invisible truths related to morality and ethics. This order of invisible truth isn't limited to the world of math and numbers. The ability to determine and define correct and incorrect, right and wrong in an objectively true sense exists in nature independent of any opinions humans have. When people believe in, or trust, ourselves to define right and wrong rather than trusting the God-given truth of what's right and wrong, then this rupture in trust has a devastating effect. It has a cascade effect that spreads an animal-like primal fear mindset that reverberates through and fractures the peace and harmony of everything. Without an ability to align on objective truth under God, like a North Star everyone agrees on, humans begin to view one another as rivals or obstacles, leading to this "fear mindset" rather than the natural trust mindset. And when we exist in this animal-like fear mindset, and see everything as like it's a dog-eat-dog world, or needing to survive like savages in a jungle, then our whole ability to see, perceive and make sense of reality is impaired. When this survival mindset dominates, it blinds us to deeper meaning, corrodes trust, and numbs our spiritual awareness. We're held captive, controlled by fear in an all-encompassing false belief system.

This, of course, takes some leap of faith to trust that what I'm telling to you here is true. That these Church teachings are the truth, but after all what do witnesses do? We testify to what’s true. Is it a silly tradition or superstition that witnesses in court place their hand on the Bible to swear to tell the truth? Is it some psychological trick used by smart humans to get people to be truthful in their testimony? Or is it possible that God’s word is indeed true?

I am writing you here to testify: God’s word is true.

Not only are God’s words in the Bible true, but Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh—the eternal Truth of God spoken into human history, the living meaning behind every line of Scripture, the fullness of divine revelation made visible, touchable, and personal. And the Church, founded by Jesus himself, is also entrusted with the living responsibility of guarding, interpreting, and handing on that truth faithfully across time. Scripture didn't fall from the sky complete and self-interpreting; it was received, preserved, discerned, and proclaimed within the life of the Catholic Church. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures continues to guide the Church so that God’s revelation is not distorted by private opinion, cultural fashion, or raw power. This does not place the Church above the Word of God, but under it—as a servant, not a master—ensuring that what God has revealed remains intelligible, coherent, and faithful in every age. Without this living authority, Scripture fragments into competing interpretations, each claiming divine backing, and truth collapses into preference. The Church exists precisely to prevent that collapse, not by inventing new revelation, but by safeguarding what has already been given.

Modern people are “poor” not because they lack resources, intelligence, or opportunity, but because we’ve been raised in a modern culture that forms our belief system to a worldview where our ability to trust God as the source of truth and reality no longer makes any sense. 

The modern mind’s ability to recognize truth, goodness, and meaning is deceptively kept in this distorted state completely ignorant of the fact that through prayer, and doing what God says, we all are given a path to be with him forever. When we're taught from childhood to treat wealth, comfort, status, power, and control as the highest goods then it diverts our attention from God to focus on false goals in life. Goals that keep us trapped captive with a false sense of freedom, in a false reality which, if left unchallenged, risks becoming an eternal existence separated from the God who is Love.

A culture that elevates wealth, comfort, power, and control trains people to want the wrong things and to judge their lives by the wrong standards. This doesn’t just distort individual choices, it creates a population that is easier to manage, easier to frighten, and less willing to sacrifice for truth or the common good while simultaneously producing a false understanding of what a good life is. 
3. How is this possible? Maybe you hear what I’m saying, but you still don't get how this could possibly be true. Maybe it still doesn't make any sense.

For the relatively recent span of human history, the industrialized world has been kept intellectually exiled from what cultures for all of recorded time have broadly agreed on. For thousands of years, prior to the Industrial Age, most cultures have discovered, understood and taught the truth: that all of existence is fundamentally good (or, in many Eastern traditions, fundamentally in harmony). The Source of everything visible (earth and the physical universe) and invisible (heaven and the spiritual realm) is understood by the world’s great faiths as God, the Divine, or a transcendent spiritual reality. 

Across the overwhelming majority of cultures and religious traditions, God (or the Divine) has always been understood as the Creator of all things, including each person, whose deepest identity is defined by their soul or spiritual essence. The teachings of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, many/most Hindu traditions, and many Native American and African spiritualities, and numerous other faiths all generally agree on the following:

  1. Reality originates from, and is sustained by, a single good and loving Divine Source of Creator (different traditions name the Source or Creator differently),
  2. We each have a personal relationship with the Source (expressed in different ways according to each tradition),
  3. Human beings each possess an enduring soul that survives death in this world, and
  4. Each of our lives have objective meaning and purpose grounded in that Source.

Note: The above describes broad patterns in lived religious belief, cultural practice, and spiritual self-understanding rather than claiming agreement across every formal philosophical or theological system. Traditions differ significantly in how they describe ultimate reality. The claim is not that all religions share identical doctrines, but that across most cultures, everyday spirituality and moral vision consistently affirm that reality is not accidental, consciousness does not emerge from the material, and human life carries objective meaning and purpose grounded in a transcendent order. To be clear, no ancient religion or philosophical system prior to Judaism articulates the idea that a personal God created everything from absolutely nothing. That idea is unique to biblical revelation. But my point is about the broader, nearly universal intuition that existence has meaning, the soul is real, and we are oriented toward something higher than ourselves. Not a force or impersonal power, but a divine being who wills, loves, and enters into relationship with His creation—an analogy would be if Tolkien, was not only creator of the world of Middle-earth but if he actually wrote himself into the story Himself as its Creator and Lord.

In contrast, in the span of just about the past ~150 years, modern culture has conditioned us to think that faith, religion and spirituality is an optional thing. Maybe you’ve concluded that spirituality is real, or that even Jesus is real but that organized religions aren’t good and are like mind control for people that don’t know any better. Or for people that just haven’t had the education to understand all the progress society has made through modern science, technology and engineering. Or maybe you think of it as some psychological story people identify with as a self-comforting mental health technique. The world’s moved past thinking that any of that could be true and not just opinion, right? This is where I was at mentally just a few years ago. I barely ever thought at all about religion or God or Jesus for like 30 years of my adult life. I had no malice towards religion or those that practiced their faith, but it was simply a topic of no use to me in a more advanced modern society. Technically, I was agnostic since I knew I didn’t know everything, so there was no benefit to actively being atheist. Just in case God was real there was no benefit to being or saying I was an atheist. Praying and going to church simply wasn’t a priority.

In hindsight I see that God led me down a path over the past several years where He mercifully fed me undeserved grace that illuminated an intellectual journey. Today I understand that the Good News is so profoundly true that I’ve discerned a calling to change careers and commit the rest of my time in this life to share it with His children that haven’t yet gotten the memo yet. Turn towards God before it’s too late! 

I don’t expect you all to simply trust me just because I say it’s true, but at least trust that I wouldn’t create the added stress in my family to decide to leave a great job, working for a great company, making great money, in a dream corporate innovation role, working with an amazing boss and alongside an incredibly talented team of kind and world-class scientists and business executives unless I really believed this is true. It wasn’t that I was unhappy (not by any worldly metric for sure), it was more that God made it clear I needed to do this according to His will because it did more good this way. Plus the healthy fear of God is a very real thing.

Most people today don’t reject faith because they studied it and found it false. They dismiss it because no one ever showed them how it was real or they simply refuse to pay it any reasonable, intellectually honest, amount of attention. In the modern age, religion has been quietly rebranded as an outdated relic of our ancestors who didn’t know better or a private old-fashioned sentimental tradition. God isn’t debated, He’s just ignored. And even worse we’ve been raised in a culture that conditioned us to have a sort of bizarre mental emotional allergic reaction any time someone even mentions the name Jesus Christ. For some of you reading this, I can imagine you might be having a weird sense of embarrassment for me, or a thought like: “wow, what a shame Ryan’s gone and become some crazy annoying Jesus dude.” Jesus is plain socially unacceptable to bring up with nearly everyone I meet in routine conversation. It’s oddly true in the company of Catholics that routinely go to Church! 
4. For most of human history until the industrial revolution, moral authority, civic virtue, and law were understood to rest on a spiritual or transcendent order that stood above human will. The US Founding Fathers overwhelmingly understood that religion is socially necessary, not decorative, not private, not optional.

It was more of a given, as in, it was obvious that universal truths that societies rely on for coherence come from a transcendent source beyond just human opinion. There’s no shortage of differing opinions below this, but the one constant stabilizing bedrock of human history has been a widespread recognition that intangible universal truths like justice, morality, virtue are objectively real and exist. Different cultures debated their content and application, but rarely denied these aspects of reality altogether.

Jefferson, probably the least religious US founding father, even wrote that our human rights are endowed by their “Creator.” This isn’t a claim about religion, it was (to anyone living at the time) an obvious given common sense metaphysical philosophical statement about reality. The Founders never intended to construct a public square stripped of God, but rather a space where different religious voices could testify to objective truths.

We’ve witnessed modernity’s intellectual and moral collapse, and this has devastatingly created a world where people are starving for meaning. The root cause is that the modern secular worldview is false and rests on assumptions that cannot ultimately account for moral obligation, human dignity, or shared meaning.

By falsely stating “God is dead,” (not always explicitly but functionally or practically given most people don't act as if He's real today), it denies the reality of intangible objective universal truths that come from the Creator. If there is no "universal truth" from God, then "good" and "evil" just become whatever the majority (or the powerful) decide they are. If this doesn’t already seem clear to you then I’m unlikely to convince you in a sentence or two. But the historical link between modern philosophical assumptions, educational formation, and the moral disasters of the 20th century is well documented, and the present moment continues this trajectory. I’d be happy to share (a book and/or curriculum here is something I’m working on). 

If you received a typical American education after the 1940s and were formed by modern American culture, you were shaped by a worldview that subtly distorts how reality, truth, and morality are understood. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s the predictable result of a society that rewards control, efficiency, profit, entertainment, and comfort, while treating moral truth as a matter of consensus rather than something objectively real.

When people are conditioned to see the universe as nothing more than inert matter, with life and consciousness treated as accidental byproducts of a cosmic beginning whose ultimate origin remains unexplained, they begin to lose the natural instinct that existence carries meaning. This mindset doesn’t just erase God—it dissolves the ground for moral order, personal identity, and transcendent purpose. In such a worldview, wonder is replaced by mechanism, and the soul is reduced to circuitry. It becomes harder to perceive truth as something objective, beauty as something real, or love as anything more than a neurological event. The result is spiritual amnesia.We were told, or it was otherwise implied, there’s no such thing as God, what a silly outdated notion. And morality is whatever the “experts” and “thought leaders” agree it to be as long it works for those in control.

Everyone is free to define their own truth however they want which is another way of saying that truth doesn’t have to actually be true. What a strange destructive religion where you’re not even told you’re being formed into a faith, truth is opinion and it doesn’t even have a God? When the intelligentsia of society philosophically align on “God is dead”, and morality and human dignity are just arbitrary human invented social constructs, then it’s not surprising that corporate systems not actively aiming to order under God, behave like bodies without a governing conscience. When the main goal is simply profit, and ethics and laws are seen as annoying constraint to deal with, then it’s not surprising that good people can slowly operate unknowingly in their small specialized part of the God-less body without appreciating that the whole is justifying doing all sorts of bad inhumane things (e.g. war = money/greed = good; consumer culture = sickness = money/greed = good; bureaucracy = avoiding moral responsibility through process = sloth / moral cowardice = power/control = good). 

There’s a reason why Eisenhower got Baptized while he was in office, and why he added “In God We Trust” on our money and “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Without God things start to fall apart, as in entropy, chaos, death.

“The path we travel is narrow and long, beset with many dangers. Each day we must ask that Almighty God will set and keep His protecting hand over us so that we may pass on to those who come after us the heritage of a free people, secure in their God-given rights and in full control of a Government dedicated to the preservation of those rights.” -President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 20 February 1955
5. This false modern secular worldview is the mental prison that Jesus has broken us free from! And all the modern broken institutions that sit confused in the wake of modernity’s collapse are included in the ones who are poor that Jesus is bringing the good news to.

The message today perfectly parallels the situation that the Jews were in during Jesus' time. Jesus was sharing the good news that He has fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy and is here on Earth to break the cycle of enslavement. 

When Jesus stands in the synagogue and declares, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He was telling them that He was the living fulfillment of the Year of Jubilee prophecy in the flesh. In ancient Israel, the Jubilee was a divine "reset" that occurred after seven, seven year sabbaths (7x7) or 49 years, as a kind of super sabbath. In the 50th year all debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and ancestral lands were returned to their original families, like a system of merciful restoration built into Israel's law (like starting the Game of Monopoly over again, restoring fairness and giving every family a renewed chance). In worldly terms, those with little
—the poor—benefitted from the reset, but if you were a wealthy landowner it was painful. But Jesus wasn't just offering a political strategy or a new set of rituals to "manage" the stresses of life. He was announcing the permanent end of the cycle of enslavement and the deceptive false sense of worldly freedom. This wasn’t just an announcement of policy; it was a proclamation of spiritual liberation. You can think of it like Jesus was giving the inaugural address of His public ministry announcing the kickoff of the restoration of all things. After every worldly freeing event the Jewish people experienced over history (e.g. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece), they were always still spiritually enslaved (along with all Gentiles) by a prideful bondage caused by a fallen world. 

While the Jewish people were under the control of many different physical and political powers, Babylon came to represent something deeper than foreign rule. It became the archetype of spiritual and psychological enslavement, training people to fixate on comfort, pleasure, and worldly security in ways that slowly displace God. In this sense, “Babylon” names a recurring system design that captures the heart before it ever uses force, which is why the New Testament and the Church treat Babylon not as a past empire, but as an enduring pattern that reappears whenever societies organize life to dull conscience, redefine the good as worldly pursuits, and redirect worship away from God. So Jesus was also warning that all those
—that all those throughout the rest of history who cooperate with enslaving, worldly Babylonian systems risk not just a single bad “down year” of a typical Jubilee, but they risk an eternal “down there.” (meaning separation from God).

When your purpose and meaning in life is separated from a path toward the true, good and holy purpose God created you for, your freedom is quietly narrowed rather than expanded. It restricts the space of choices you can consider. It quietly narrows your options for how you can define your purpose in life down to just worldly aims (comfort, wealth, power, or status). This trains cultures to treat these as final ends (your meaning-defining purpose of life). When you hold a total belief-system or worldview where obeying God is not central to your purpose in life then truth becomes negotiable, and it then becomes ok for morality is defined by whoever holds authority rather than by what is genuinely good for the human soul.

When you don’t order your life with God as your highest love and first priority, then you are worshipping false idols. Freedom begins not with self-expression, but with liberation from false masters and false ends. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
6. For faithful Jews today, please don’t be turned off by my New Testament love. As St. Pope John XXIII said when, 15 years after the end of World War II, he greeted a delegation of Jewish visitors in October 1960, “I am Joseph, your brother.”

Maybe it was God’s theo-dramatic providence that led many of you to celebrate the sacrament of marriage shared between Kim and me 49 years later in 2009, a perfect 7x7 Leviticus Jubilee (a providential grace-marked rhythm in time—or maybe it's just coincidence, you’re free to decide).

15 years later in Advent of 2024 the most notable spiritual turning point for me came during an early morning Mass at the Shrine for Our Lady of Einsiedeln in Switzerland (link + a talk). Half asleep at a 6am Mass for maybe 20 people my soul was awakened when a group of elderly women behind me began singing in such beautiful harmony. If I hadn't turned to look I would have believed anyone if they said it was a choir of angels floating above us.

The theo-logic and reason of Jesus truly present in the Eucharist —Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity— had already made sense, but this was the first time the veil lifted in my heart. It was first memorable encounter I'd ever had with the Mother of God and the Holy Family of her Son, Jesus Christ. I'm not claiming anything particularly supernatural in terms seeing apparitions or hearing voices, not even profound thoughts. It was a simple mystical gift of pure love that just started existing from that moment at the center of my being.

"I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you." (The Book of Job, Chapter 42, verses 3-5)

I fully respect the mysterious difference of opinion that Jews and Christians have. In fact I love the interfaith dialog I’ve had with some of you. As I’ve been on a steep Catechism learning curve, it’s been beautiful to discover Nostra Aetate (the Church’s rejection of antisemitism; affirmation of Judaism) and to realize that authentic Christianity doesn’t just affirm Judaism as a past reality, but recognizes God’s chosen people through blood as a living kinship without which the Church cannot fully understand her own identity. Also, watching the show The Chosen has helped me better understand and respect Jewish traditions.

It’s tragically well-established that sinful human beings among the Catholic Church committed grave wrongs against the Jewish people, acting in ways that directly contradicted the teachings and spirit of Jesus Himself. Cardinal Bea, appointed by Pope John XXXIII to lead Nostra Aetate wrote in 1966: “We must acknowledge with sorrow that throughout the centuries Christians have inflicted suffering on Jews and that this is in contradiction with the spirit of the Gospel.” And in on 26 March 2000, Pope John Paul II placed this prayer into the stones of the HaKotel in Jerusalem: 

God of our fathers,

you chose Abraham and his descendants

to bring your Name to the Nations:

we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those

who in the course of history

have caused these children of yours to suffer,

and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves

to genuine brotherhood

with the people of the Covenant.

St. Edith Stein, a Jewish daughter who became a Catholic saint and died in Auschwitz, mystically understood that her life was rooted in both her biological Jewish heritage and her Catholic faith.

In the homily for her canonization, Pope St. John Paul II said: "Through the experience of the Cross, Edith Stein was able to open the way to a new encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith and the Cross proved inseparable to her. Having matured in the school of the Cross, she found the roots to which the tree of her own life was attached. She understood that it was very important for her 'to be a daughter of the chosen people and to belong to Christ not only spiritually, but also through blood'."

Though we remain distinct in theology, faithful Jews and Christians share a profound reverence for God's Word and a common burden to bear witness to truth in a fallen world. Faithful Jews and Christians “dwell together as one” (Psalm 133), and stand united, under God, indivisible in stark contrast with modern secular minds distracted, held hostage, fixated on the worldly game of life. I’ve discerned God would rather that we work alongside each other in solidarity to encourage all of God’s children, who may currently be at risk, to wake up and build a relationship with God in prayer in an attempt to lead many to justice and save their souls forever.

"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; Some to everlasting life, others to reproach and everlasting disgrace. But those with insight shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever." (Daniel 12)  
7. Ok, I'm listening. So what do you suggest? Answer: Repent. Pray. Everyone's goal is to become a saint.

First, I want to quickly revisit a topic I touched on at the beginning of this letter and expand on it slightly. Some people have the mindset of: "well, even if God's real, I'm not worthy, I've done really bad stuff, and I'll just accept hell." This belief that you're too unworthy for forgiveness and should just accept damnation is rooted in despair, not truth. According to Scripture, what matters is not worthiness but the willingness to turn back. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord God. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his ways and lives?” (Ezekiel 18:23). The end of Jeffrey Dahmer’s life is a powerful example. After committing horrific crimes, Dahmer began asking serious spiritual questions in prison. He requested a Bible, began studying, and eventually asked to be baptized by a minister. He expressed genuine remorse, not excuses. He said he knew he deserved nothing, but hoped in God’s mercy. Shortly after his baptism, he was killed by another inmate. His death doesn’t erase his crimes, but his return shows that even the most broken souls are never beyond the reach of repentance (assuming his confession was genuine then he is saved). Note: for those who wonder how it’s fair that someone like him could reach heaven; Catholicism teaches that the soul may suffer greatly in purgatory to be purified. Judaism likewise holds that the soul may undergo deep refinement in Gehinnom. In both, mercy does not cancel justice; it completes it through purification and transformation. (again, here's the link to Bishop Barron explaining it)

But before purgatory is even possible, you need to surrender and acknowledge God as your Lord, repent, order your life with His will, build a relationship with him in prayer daily and worship properly weekly. As your faith starts to grow, it'll start making more sense. (Bishop Barron: Surrender to the Holy One)

We’re all God’s children. He knows and loves each of us personally and individually more deeply than we will ever fully understand, for all of eternity. For Jews and Christians we worship the same God of Abraham. Same Creator. Same moral Law. We all are called to make our personal relationship with God the #1 priority of our lives by putting Him first in how we think, choose and live. Both traditions also teach that the ultimate purpose of life is to grow in holiness by imitating God's justice, mercy, and love in everything we do—what Catholics call becoming a saint, and what Judaism expresses through becoming a righteous person (tzadik) and walking faithfully in covenant with God. Through prayer and worship, we learn how God is calling us to live, and how to properly use the gifts that He's given us to order our lives (including all the organizations we participate in) under God in alignment with His will for the good of others and all of creation. If you don’t pray daily to discern what God, the personal Source of all wisdom is saying, then it’s hard to know the difference between God’s direction and your own limited understanding.

If you haven’t established a daily prayer habit, there’s obviously no set formula for praying, and there’s no shortage of books or YouTube videos on how to pray. But there are some general best practices I can briefly offer. First, it’s important to consistently make the time daily to pray; even if it’s just 5-10 minutes in the shower, on a commute. If you can’t sleep, pray. If you’re Jewish I understand that praying the Shema daily is important along with weekly Shabbat on Friday night and Saturday observance. For the rest of this letter the guidance will be more for Catholicism teaching, but hopefully everyone from other faiths can see that there's so much harmony across our traditions to be celebrated while simultaneously respecting each others' unique beliefs and traditions. 

As a Christian, I usually start with a simple “Come Holy Spirit.” and an Our Father. And maybe a minute of relaxing breathing with: inhale on “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,” …exhale on: “...have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The following is basic general guidance for anyone, regardless of your exact faith. Note: Bishop Robert Barron and his Word on Fire ministry has been my main “go to” resource for much of my learning. You can search YouTube for his name and “prayer.” Here's one. He also has a nice short book An Introduction to Prayer where much of what follows comes from.

  • Be free from distraction, and speak sincerely from your whole heart. 
  • Thank God for everything, especially for the individuals in your family. 
  • Ask God to help you love Him and all His children better (every single human being you impact, directly and indirectly).
  • Reflect on how you’ve been doing and how things are going. Tell God you’re sorry for things you know you shouldn’t be doing (maybe have a look at Psalm 51 for reference). Ask Him to help you see the things you’re doing that you don’t even realize are bad (the definition of  “what’s good” or virtuous is much higher than most modern secular minds realize). 
  • It’s ok to emotionally express any frustration or anger with your current situation to Him and even at Him. He’s truly your personal invisible loving spiritual Father that you can open up to. Talk about what’s on your mind.
  • Be silent. Listen. 
  • What might your infinitely wise and loving Father be trying to tell you through your conscience. 
  • Listen. What does he maybe want you to stop doing? What does he maybe want you to start doing? 
  • Every day offer him your day. Ask Him to help you think, choose, speak and behave in ways that align with His good will. Ask Him to help you be an instrument of His love.
  • God does answer prayers. It’s a fact. It’s not predictable because we don’t see the whole big picture the way God does to realize why what we’re praying for can’t “work” given the situation. But if what you’re asking God for is aligned with the greater good and with His will, then I’ve found one way or another you’ll notice something (or you may simply start to understand some possible reasons why what you asked for can't happen now in the context of the current situation). It might not be what you were expecting, but the mystery of how He seems to constantly surprise and delight His children that try to do good is not something I’ll ever get tired of witnessing.
  • Sometimes Jesus healed immediately, sometimes not. Sit with mysteries like this with an open heart the way you'd sit with a loved one unconscious in a hospital bed. Just be with and contemplate mysteries when you encounter them. "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." (Luke 2:19)
  • Pray for others. Pray for your loved ones. Pray for your enemies. Love all sinners, while hating the sin. It’s arguably the greatest way to love your neighbor. “Far be it from me to sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you and to teach you the good and right way.” (1 Samuel 12:23)
  • Not all thoughts are good or from God, but thoughts that give you peace, clarity, humility, love, patience are a pretty good indicator. Anything that rushes, agitates, flatters or accuses should be questioned. Consolation is defined not primarily by positive emotions, but by what leads one to a deeper love for God and neighbor. While feelings are part of the discernment process, they shouldn't be the sole basis. God can speak through emotions, but the ultimate measure is whether the experience awakens a deeper love for God and for neighbor. (Bishop Barron on discernment)
  • As you go through your day try to be conscious that God is always there to mentally speak with. Our conscience is a very real thing. It connects us to God and points us towards what’s true, good and eternally beautiful. The need to listen to that invisible cartoon angel on your shoulder is very real and very important. 
  • This last point is one that I’ve found to be the hardest to get established as a daily habit, but I’ve also found it to be very fruitful: pray daily with your spouse and/or children. Even if it starts as one Hail Mary between any two family members on your way to school or at breakfast or any time during the morning routine. For me there’s a certain social awkwardness that I just needed to get over. 

Through Prayer you will start understanding what He wants you to do to help you use the gifts He’s given you to in the best ways possible. For me, it was clear I was called to change my career focus to spread the Good News while simultaneously becoming a better husband and father (Kim and the kids will not be shy to point out I’m definitely still a sinner and am very much a work in progress trying to become a better dad 🙂) . But a good thought experiment to do is: “how would I have to live my life if I were to end up being a canonized saint after I died?” Obviously relatively few people historically have become officially canonized saints, but one of the most illuminating, arguably epiphany-like, “ a ha” moments for me was to realize that the Church literally teaches that the goal for everyone is to try to become saints in this life. I’m not suggesting that everyone that dies a saint will actually be canonized. Most won’t. And if you actually are setting a goal to want to be canonized to be famous, then this is the wrong motivation.

My point is that when you make the whole-hearted commitment to surrender to God, and fully trust Him, then good things happen and you will have a better, more fulfilling life. When you trust to the point of complete surrender and say yes to God’s will instead of any of your own will, then you start to feel more alive and realize that there’s a new true sense of your own individual supernatural freedom. When you understand how to suffer well, and realize that any harm to your body and the non-immortal animal aspects of your psyche (sensation, drives, moods, emotions) can’t harm the deepest immaterial aspects of your soul, your immortal intellect and will, then you start to live with genuine freedom. (Note: if you say yes to God, then it's all ultimately immortal, but before the Second Coming your identity, intellect and will are what persists continuously in purgatory/heaven after your time in this life is over; see Appendix 2 below for more on the soul).

You realize that your self-worth isn’t measured by comfort, reputation, or the fear of losing things in this world. Instead, your heart is anchored in God’s promise, knowing that your life is safe in His eternal hands of love, no matter what happens. Real security comes from trusting Him, not from avoiding pain or controlling outcomes. This is the path to true peace, joy and eternal salvation. This is what it means to try to become a saint, to become holy (saint = sanctus in Latin which means holy); or in Judaism to become a righteous person (a tzadik).

I don’t want to make it sound magical or even mystical, but there’s a certain sort of subtle enchantment to it. Like walking through the back of the wardrobe into Narnia in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Things that you used to not even notice or call a coincidence become small providential signs. Small moments feel charged with meaning, and you move through each day with a calm confidence, knowing you’re held by something real and good beyond yourself. 

After the morning I drafted the bullet points on prayer above I went to the noon Mass, the reading and homily was about the essential importance of daily prayer as the #1 priority in life to make time for God. We’re conditioned to not think too much of supposed coincidences like this, but I simply knew it wasn't a coincidence. They were always there, but you start to notice them more. You start to see that it’s very much true that God gets into the particulars with these sorts of small signs all the time. It’s just that you need to build a relationship with Him in order to see.

It’s not an easy path, but if growing wasn’t challenging then life would be pretty dull. Learn to pray well. Worship well. Cooperate with the abundant grace God offers us all. Suffer the natural hardships of a broken world well, and persist in love. Trust in God and His plan for you, and you might start to notice supernaturally good things happen! 

“The LORD restored the prosperity of Job after he prayed for his friends.” Job 42:10

Just to be abundantly clear. Having the life goal to become a saint doesn’t mean everyone quits their job and becomes a monk in a monastery. It doesn’t mean you give away all your worldly possessions, or give up liking your favorite sports team. But you do realize that these things are not what defines you. Especially if you’re in a position of power or influence, you realize you have an obligation to help folks understand that if organizations aren’t trying to properly order themselves under and in alignment with God then they’re on a path towards eventual collapse and failure.

Prayer, trust, learning to suffer well, beginning to see meaning in the ordinary, all of this, is not meant to float unanchored in private spirituality. It converges somewhere real. It gathers into a center. In the Catholic faith, that center is not an idea or a feeling, but an event that happens again and again in time -a lived rhythm that preserves faith not through constant intensity, but through faithful return, week after week, ordering life around a sacred pause that reorients the heart.
8. The Mass is what sustains Christian life. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. Everything grows and flows from it as the beating heart of Christ, as the circulating source of God's grace, love and eternal life throughout His Mystical Body, manifested as the Church on Earth. By physically consuming the Eucharist worthily, we enter into the most intimate union with God possible in this life, spiritually being at the highest summit on the tallest mountain with God —a real yet infinitely mysterious participation in the Divine nature. By receiving Christ Himself, our souls are in-formed towards His, a foretaste that prepares our hearts for the full and unclouded glory of heaven.

This isn't because the Mass is emotionally powerful or symbolically rich (though it can be both) but because it is where heaven and earth are joined in the most ordinary and unassuming way imaginable (for more on the importance of the Mass here are a few YouTube videos: from the Augustine Institute | from Fr. Chris Alar | testimony of mystic Catalina Rivas part I | testimony of mystic Catalina Rivas part II).

At the Mass, the infinite does not overwhelm the finite. It enters it quietly. Bread and wine remain bread and wine to the senses, yet something decisive has happened beneath the surface of appearances. The same God who orders galaxies and sustains every moment of existence chooses to give Himself not as an abstraction, but as food. This is not a metaphor for spiritual nourishment. It is a claim about reality itself: that God meets us not by pulling us out of the world, but by entering it fully and offering Himself within it.

After the priest, acting in persona Christi, says the words “This is my Body,” a profound mystery unfolds in that moment.

All of the following happens simultaneously:

  • The Incarnation is Manifested;
    The same Word who became flesh in the womb of Mary now becomes sacramentally present under the appearance of bread—true God and true man, whole and entire. It's not a re-incarnation, but the real presence of the same incarnate Christ. The Wisdom and Word of God made flesh as the "Form of forms" (through whom the universe was ordered) now asserts His real presence (again sacramentally, not locally, yet truly and substantially). At an ontological, substantial "in-form-ational" level, the substance of the bread is entirely converted. The physical data (the "accidents" in Aristotelian/Thomistic metaphysics terminology) remains for our senses, but the fundamental "Source Code" of the object is now Christ Himself. God's grace doesn't destroy the "data" of nature; it "over-writes" the underlying reality.
    (Note: It is not “just a symbol,” but neither does that mean it is not symbolic. The Eucharist may be the most meaningful and real symbol in existence because it's the living interface between heaven and earth, sign and substance united in perfect form.)
  • A mini-Good Friday Crucifixion
    is mystically made present: the one sacrifice of the Cross is offered to the Father again, not as a new act, but as the eternal offering of the Passover Lamb, not repeated, but re-presented in an unbloody manner for the salvation of humanity and the whole cosmos.
  • A mini-Easter: the Risen and glorified Christ —victorious over death— is now sacramentally present offering the power of His Resurrection, bringing life out of death, and offering Himself as the Bread of Life.

This is not metaphorical poetry, it's actual participation in the one eternal Paschal Mystery which includes: (1) His Passion —Christ’s suffering in love, where Jesus willingly accepted humiliation, agony, betrayal, mockery, and crucifixion death to reconcile humanity with the Father; (2) His Resurrection —His definitive triumph over death; (3) His Ascension —His return to the Father in glory, which elevates human nature into the Godhead, as the Mystical Body of Christ with Christ Himself as Head seated at the right hand of the Father. The Ascension becomes the trigger for Pentecost, when the life of the Paschal Mystery begins to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit.

It is called Paschal because it fulfills the Jewish Passover (Pesach — meaning “passage” or “crossing over”), in which Christ is the true Lamb whose blood brings not just escape from a physical land in Egypt within historical time, but liberation from the deeper bondage to sin and death in a fallen world.

It is the single, definitive saving movement by which Christ passes from death to life and enters into the glory of the Father, a passage into which we are drawn.

Heaven touches earth. Time yields to eternity. The veil is lifted. And Christ, who once came in flesh and blood, now gives Himself to us in that same fullness—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—under the humble signs of bread and wine.

This is why becoming Catholic is not primarily about adopting a moral code, joining an institution, or mastering a theology (though these all have their place). It is about learning to live in alignment with a reality that has a center, and learning to return to that center again and again. The Mass is where that alignment is restored, week after week, day after day. It is where the life of prayer, the discipline of love, and the hope of eternal communion are gathered into a single act of worship that reaches beyond time while remaining firmly rooted in it.

To understand what it means to become Catholic, you have to begin here, not with rules, but with the place where God gives Himself to the world, and invites the world to be drawn back to Him.

 [I need to edit the following down and integrate with above]
The Heartbeat You Cannot Live Without
~ A Poetic Theology of the Mass and the Body

When you skip Mass—not from illness, hardship, or war, but knowingly, freely—you do something far more dangerous than break a rule.
You disconnect from the Heart.
Not a metaphor.
The Heart.
The Eucharistic Heart that beats at the center of the Mystical Body of Christ.

This Body is not just a symbol. It is not a community club or spiritual metaphor. It is a living organism —structured, ordered, alive. Christ is the Head. You are a member. And the Mass is the heartbeat.

Each Sunday, the Sacrifice is offered again, timeless and real. The Heart pumps divine life—grace like oxygen—into every artery of the Church. From the heavenly altar, graceful blood of life flows. The Eucharist is the charged current of eternal love.

When you are there, rightly disposed, your soul is oxygenated with His grace. Your faith is nourished. You participate in the Act that holds the the cosmos together.

But when you are absent, willingly, stubbornly, you begin to fade.

Like an ember fallen away from the camp fire, once warm, now dimming with each moment of separation fading into dust.

Like a wounded arm with tunicate cutting off blood flow, once strong and alive, now tingling with numbness, unaware it's already beginning to die.

Even if you still “believe”… even if you still “feel connected”…
you are not plugged in.
You are not being fed.
You are drifting toward spiritual asphyxiation.

The shape of participation may linger…
but the life-force is slipping.

You still bear the name, the form, the memory, but not the flame.

Not the pulse.

What circulates in the Mass is not only grace, but God Himself.
Not only Word, but Act.
Not only remembrance, but re-Presence.
The Cross extended into time.
The Resurrection offered to you—glorified spiritual body and soul—week after week.

When you miss it, you miss Him.
And He doesn’t guilt-trip you.
He waits. Bleeding. Radiant. Consuming Himself in love.
And you walk past Him like He’s a park bench on the way to brunch.

He feeds your soul with the same Divine Life that sustains the stars. Within the same Body that moves with the power of God.

There is only one Heart that can save the world.
And it’s beating on the altar.
Right now.
For you.

Come home before the rhythm stops.
9. Becoming Catholic. All are welcome. Pick a parish near you. Look on their website for more information on OCIA or simply call the parish office and tell them you're interested in joining via OCIA.

Becoming Catholic is not about escaping the world or rejecting reason. It is about learning how to live within reality as it actually is: ordered, meaningful, and sustained by God.

Becoming Catholic is about learning to live sacramentally; to recognize that reality itself is charged with meaning, that time can be sanctified, and that God meets us not only in extraordinary moments but through faithful return to what He has given us.

And all are welcome in the Catholic Church regardless of your background, past beliefs, or life experiences. The Church is a spiritual hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. And saints are people that simply know better than others that they're sinners.

But practically becoming Catholic requires selecting a parish. If you have family or friends near you that are practicing Catholics, then speak with them. Usually the church closest to you is technically your parish, but choosing a parish isn’t always straightforward.

A parish that’s close to home is one you’re more likely to return to consistently, especially when life gets busy or difficult. If you have several nearby options, attend Mass at a few of them to get a feel. Masstimes.org is a decent resource for finding parishes near you.

Notice whether the parish helps you worship well. Environment shapes attention. The space, the music, the silence, and the people around you all matter.

Priests matter too, but not in the way modern culture tends to evaluate leaders. Priests are human, and none will impress every week. It’s usually a mistake to choose a parish based solely on a single priest, since assignments change. Still, it’s worth observing how the priest celebrates Mass, how he speaks about prayer and real life, and how he relates to people outside of the liturgy.

You don't have to obsess about the decision early on. You can change parishes later if needed. Once you have a parish in mind look on their website for more information or you can call the parish office and tell them you're interested in joining via OCIA.

OCIA stands for “Order of Christian Initiation of Adults.” It is a program that instructs you in the Catholic Faith and forms you into a follower of Christ within the community of the faithful and the life of the Church. More on OCIA here.
10. Guidance for Non-Practicing Catholics to Return Home. Go to Confession. Go to Mass every week.
  1. Go to confession before receiving the Eucharist again. Go at least 3-4 times a year. Lent, middle of summer & advent at a minimum. This is a good guide for how to make a good confession: here (links to a pdf on bulldogcatholic.org).
  2. Go to Mass every Sunday & Holy Days of Obligation. Missing Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin for good reason. God offers Himself personally in the Eucharist to heal you and give you eternal life, if you're not able to receive this gift worthily at least once a week, then you're not loving Him #1. Love of neighbor is also about showing up in person to strengthen the local "cell" of the Mystical Body. If you missed Mass you need to go to Confession again. Regular worship is required for spiritual transformation. 
  3. From here, if your heart is in, and you're participating, paying attention at Mass. If you're praying with authentic heartfelt intent, the the Holy Spirit will guide you. After you've established a daily prayer habit, and a weekly Mass habit, then you may start to understand what it means to live. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10)
  4. As daily prayer, regular confession, and faithful Mass attendance take root, the Holy Spirit begins forming the soul through His seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (more from Bishop Barron here). These are not abstract ideas. They shape how you see reality, how you make decisions, how you resist sin, how you endure suffering, and how you grow in love for God and neighbor. This is the ordinary path of real interior transformation; not self-improvement, but becoming spiritually alive.

 
11. For Non-Catholic / Non-Orthodox Christians, let's celebrate our united love for Jesus.

I'm not sure how God plans to unite us all, but the Bible is very clear that Jesus' plan requires division in the process. "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." (Luke 12: 51)

Peace is received by "those on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14) who accept the New Testament. I'm not pointing fingers or trying to stoke division, but Scripture teaches us that the division is inevitable. The only thing I can type here is what I feel the Spirit is moving me to share: the "New Testament" originally meant a sacrificial covenantal act, not a bound volume of texts. For the source of the summary below, please listen to Scott Hahn explain here at 1:00:41 in this YouTube video.

Jesus uses “New Testament” only once, and it is not about a book. The phrase comes from the Greek kainē diathēkē. Kainē means new in kind, not just recent, and diathēkē means covenant, oath, testament, or sacrificial bond. Where does Jesus say it? At the Last Supper. In Gospel of Luke 22:20, He declares: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Pause and notice something: He is not holding a manuscript; He is holding a chalice. The “New Testament” is identified with blood poured out, covenant enacted through sacrifice. This mirrors Exodus 24:8, where Moses seals the covenant with blood. So from the mouth of Christ Himself, the New Testament is first a liturgical reality, not a literary one.

Covenant in the ancient world was always sacrificial. Modern readers often think of a covenant as a contract, but ancient Jews did not. A covenant required sacrifice, blood, a meal, an oath, and participation. The Last Supper contains all five. Jesus is effectively saying, “The covenant prophets promised is happening right now, through me.” So when early Christians heard “New Testament,” they didn't think, “Ah yes, a future anthology of texts.” They thought of the Eucharistic covenant they entered week after week.

Scripture itself says the covenant is not primarily written. Look again at Paul in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians 3:6: “God has made us ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit.” Notice the contrast: letter versus Spirit, ink versus heart, stone versus flesh. Paul is deliberately echoing Jeremiah 31, where God promises a covenant written within persons. This is not anti-Scripture; it is a hierarchy in which reality comes first and writing follows, not the reverse.

The Eucharist existed before the New Testament canon. Historically, the Eucharist appears in the AD 30s, Paul’s letters around AD 50, the Gospels roughly AD 65–95, and final canon recognition arrives in the late fourth century. For more than three hundred years, Christians were already living the New Testament before a finalized New Testament existed. That fact alone overturns a common modern assumption. The Church didn't emerge from the Bible; the Bible emerged from the Church’s sacramental life.

Early Christians understood this very clearly. Take Irenaeus in the second century. He argued that Christian truth is safeguarded in three inseparable realities: apostolic succession, Eucharistic faith, and proclaimed teaching. For him, misunderstanding the Eucharist meant misunderstanding Christianity itself, because the Eucharist isn't just symbolic memory but covenant participation. To know the New Testament is to enter it, not merely read about it.

The Bible presumes the Church rather than the other way around. The New Testament writings assume communities that already possess bishops, liturgy, creeds, moral instruction, and sacramental practice. Paul never tells Christians to start churches by distributing a book. Instead, he writes things like, “what you heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will have the ability to teach others as well” (2 Tim 2:2). Transmission is relational, embodied, and authoritative, again reflecting a sacramental structure.

So is the New Testament a sacrament? We must be precise. The Church does not formally classify Scripture as one of the seven sacraments, but structurally it behaves in a sacramental way, meaning it is a visible form that communicates divine reality. However, the Eucharist is the New Covenant enacted, while Scripture is the inspired witness to that enacted covenant. One is the event; the other is the Spirit-guided testimony to the event. Confusing the two flattens Christianity into information rather than participation.

A massive modern blind spot remains. Many people unconsciously treat Christianity as if God dropped a finished book from heaven. But Christianity is incarnational. God didn't send a text; He sent Jesus Christ. And Christ did not command, “Write.” He commanded, “Do this.” That verb matters enormously because it means the faith is fundamentally enacted before it is analyzed.

The deep theological insight beneath all this is that God works through visible realities that carry invisible grace: the Incarnation, the Eucharist, the Church, human persons, and spoken proclamation. Christianity is not primarily a philosophy to study; it is a life to enter. The New Testament documents are authoritative precisely because they arise from that life and point back into it.

One sentence captures the entire idea: The New Testament is first a covenant you participate in, and only secondarily a collection you read. Once you see that, several things suddenly make sense: why liturgy was central from day one, why apostolic authority mattered, why heresy was dangerous, why unity mattered, and why Christianity spread before the canon existed. It was never dependent on a book alone; it was carried by a living body of the Church.

Because of our shared baptism into Christ, real, grace-filled communion exists among baptized Christians. The unity is wounded, but very much alive, not nonexistent. Baptism signifies a believer's union with Christ and incorporation into the body of Christ. As stated in Galatians 3:27-28, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek... for you are all one in Christ Jesus." This passage underscores the unity among believers through baptism.

Furthermore, Ephesians 4:4-6 emphasizes the oneness of the Christian faith: "There is one body and one Spirit... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." This again reflects the general Christian understanding that, despite denominational differences, all baptized believers share a fundamental unity in Christ.

The Bible supports the understanding of baptism as a sign of inclusion in the faith community and a means of grace. For instance, Romans 6:3-4 speaks of being baptized into Christ's death and raised to new life, emphasizing the transformative nature of baptism. This means that a believer's union with Christ in His death and resurrection, marks a profound change in identity and inclusion in the faith community.

Additionally, Acts 2:38-39 highlights the promise of baptism extending to believers and their children, underscoring its communal and covenantal dimensions. This supports the idea that real, grace-filled communion exists among baptized Christians, even if full visible unity has yet to be realized.

Therefore, those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church. (CCC 838) Many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church. (CCC 819) This includes our love of Scripture, sincere prayer, real discipleship, martyrdom in some traditions, and missionary zeal. So when you look at Christian communities that don't believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and yet see authentic love for Jesus, you are not imagining it. The Catholic Church herself fully affirms it.

This message to non-Catholic Christians is not “Someday you will come over,” but rather, Christ is already at work in you and wherever Christ is at work, He is drawing all of us toward the fullness of unity. The point is to be Christ-centered, not institution-centered.

Jesus doesn't create division for its own sake. He divides in order to gather. He prays: “so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21). Division isn't the final chapter of the Gospel. Unity is. But unity is God’s work before it is ours. In other words,
Christian unity doesn't begin with human strategy, negotiation, or persuasion. God initiates it by changing hearts, drawing believers toward truth, and deepening love for Christ. Our role is cooperation (i.e. prayer, humility, repentance, and loving God/neighbor) trusting that real unity grows from grace rather than being engineered by human effort.

We do see it happen in real life. Entire communities have entered into full communion with the Church through what are called the Personal Ordinariates, established under Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 through Anglicanorum Coetibus. For example, in 2011, Fr. Ed Tomlinson, then vicar of St. Barnabas' Church in Royal Tunbridge Wells, led approximately 70 members of his Anglican congregation into the Catholic Church (parish history link). This group formed the foundation of St. Anselm's Catholic Church in Pembury, Kent, under the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Initially worshipping in a modest 1970s church hall, the community transformed the space into a vibrant parish, incorporating elements of their Anglican heritage into Catholic worship. Today, St. Anselm's boasts a growing congregation of around 200, including many young families, exemplifying how entire Anglican communities can find a new spiritual home within the Catholic Church while preserving cherished traditions.

While the Personal Ordinariates created for Anglicans provided a structured pathway for entire communities to enter into full communion together, most Protestant traditions in America are far more decentralized. Many do not share a common liturgy, governing authority, or historical framework that would make a large-scale corporate reunion practical (though there is the Pastoral Provision process for married former Episcopal clergymen in the United States to petition for ordination as Roman Catholic priest). As a result, the movement toward unity in the US typically unfolds less through sweeping institutional transitions and more through personal journeys of conscience. Some pastors enter the Church alone. Others are accompanied by members of their congregations. Some members of Protestant congregations obviously convert as individuals. And of course many faithful Protestants remain where they are, continuing to love Christ with sincerity and devotion. None of this should be interpreted as failure or collapse. The Holy Spirit is not in the business of extinguishing authentic Christian faith but of drawing it patiently toward deeper communion.

History suggests that God often works slowly, beneath the surface, aligning hearts with the Kingdom of God invisible in heaven before we see it manifest here on earth. Jesus did of course promise division first, but over time it will become convergence. Not through pressure, but through shared surrender to the same Lord.

So rather than imagining a future defined by institutional absorption, it may be wiser to recognize what is already true: wherever Jesus Christ is loved, wherever Scripture is honored, wherever repentance is real and lives are offered in His service, grace is already at work. If fuller unity comes, it will not be because vibrant communities were diminished, but because the good within them was gathered, purified, and brought into a more complete communion.

How this will unfold remains a mystery known fully only to God. But we can trust that the same Spirit, who awakened faith across so many Christian communities, is more than capable of guiding His people without wasting the devotion He Himself has planted. In that confidence, we need not fear the future of Christ’s Church. Our task is simpler and far more demanding: to remain faithful, to grow in charity, and to keep our eyes fixed on the One who prayed that His followers may all be one.
12. CONCLUSION: We don’t know exactly when the end will come. But I do know the modern mindset and worldview that many of you reading this have—and I now know it’s simply wrong. I’m not asking you to agree with my opinion. I’m telling you something I’ve studied seriously and encountered firsthand: Jesus Christ is real. He is true. Jesus Christ is God. And God loves you personally more than you can possibly comprehend.Every single one of you reading this, no matter what you believe, is my brother or sister—created in God’s image and called to become one in Christ, the New Adam. And because I know this to be true, I’m writing this letter to beg you: come home to the God who is Love, before it’s too late.

This return to Love is not a frantic rush. It is a quiet, steady transformation, an interior re-ordering of the soul. St. Edith Stein described it as a deepening capacity to care for others:

"To be a mother is to nourish and protect true humanity and bring it to development.” "The soul of woman must be expansive and open to all human beings... it must be quiet so that no small weak flame will be extinguished... warm so as not to benumb fragile buds... This is only possible if the soul is anchored in God's heart."  -The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 2

As a dad, it might seem curious that I’d be drawn to a quote about being a mother, but as I’ve started to understand in the spiritual life, or maybe it’s called the professional intellectual life, that the concepts of masculine/feminine, mother/father, parent/child, family are ontologically more spiritual truths where our understanding of these terms in a modern world are tragically sterilized as simply biological phenomena. 

The family is not just a social arrangement or biological accident. It is a living icon of God’s own life. The love between husband and wife, the openness to new life, the daily acts of patience, sacrifice, forgiveness, and fidelity; these are not sentimental ideals. They are the shape of reality itself. They reflect the very structure of divine love: self‑gift, receptivity, and fruitfulness.

Mary isn't revered by Catholics because she is distant from ordinary life, but because she perfectly lived what every family is called to live: she received God’s Word, nurtured it, and offered it to the world. She shows us what it means for a human life to become a dwelling place for God. Every family is invited into that same vocation. A home can become a sanctuary. Ordinary love can become sacred ground.

When parents welcome life with reverence, when spouses remain faithful under strain, when forgiveness is offered again after it feels impossible, when children are formed in truth instead of comfort—this is not just “being a good person.” This is participation in something eternal. This is how grace becomes visible. This is how God’s life quietly enters the world through kitchens, bedrooms, dinner tables, late-night conversations, and unseen sacrifices.

It occurred to me (or should I say God graciously gifted me with the thought in prayer) that the structure of the Hail Mary prayer can be helpful as a teaching meditation on the fundamental spiritual importance of the family. This is obviously not meant to be a replacement of the Hail Mary prayer, but simply a way of showing what the family itself is meant to become:

Hail, family, called to be full of grace,
(called to receive God’s life through prayer and obedience)
The Lord is with thee.
(His presence is the soul of every holy home)
Blessed art thou among households,
(when love, fidelity, and truth are lived daily)
And blessed is the fruit of thy love: children,
(each person created directly by God in His image)
Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for us, sinners,
(model of love, obedience, humility, and perseverance)
That our homes may become places of faith and channels of Divine Mercy,
(where Christ is welcomed, takes root in our hearts through the Eucharist, and given to the world)
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

But living out this prayer (becoming a family, a person, or even a community where Christ is truly welcomed and God’s love is made visible) demands something more than ritual words or fleeting inspiration. It calls for a daily reordering of our loves, a conscious turning away from whatever might claim first place in our hearts.

When you’re not consciously aiming to order your life under, and aligned with, God’s will then you’re worshiping a false idol #1 whether you realize it or not. Worshiping a sports team is a good example of a typical false idol. There’s nothing wrong with loving sports or anything God created (money, power/control, status, pleasure etc.), but ,again, when we love them more than God, and the fruits of your behaviors driven by these desires aren’t aligned with God’s greater good then your love for these things is not healthy. These things can’t give you your identity, meaning or purpose (only God can), but rightly ordered under God, love for the things God made us passionate for is meant to be a gift to be used for good. 

Fanaticism for a sports team can help us better understand the importance of our faith. After recognizing Jesus in my life, I initially regretted all the years I’d obsessed about the Bills as a main reason for being, but after reflecting more I started to realize that being a Bills fan is deeply formative for faith. Loving the Bills teaches fans how to stay loyal through disappointment, how to hope without guarantees, how to suffer loss without giving up, and how to share joy with others.  No fanbase understands the reality of miracles and suffering better than Bills fans. My dad never taught me much of the Catechism, but maybe God was working through him with a long term plan to use the Buffalo Bills for good. Maybe next year is the year, Dad.
13. Appendix A / alternate text on philosophy, science and Luke 4

Many intellectually honest scientists, philosophers and leaders across various institutions both private and public have acknowledged the fundamental flaw of the incoherent materialist worldview modernity has been built on. 

I’ve spent a large part of my life doing “deep dive” analysis on various topics across science, technology and modern corporate business operations. Once I started diving deep on Catholicism and getting into the meat of Church history, philosophy and the overwhelming amount of highly credible, intensively-investigated supernatural miracles, I began to realize that, while technically, it’s a faith you need to believe in, I got to the point where I logically couldn’t understand any way how anything else could be true. 

And then more recently over the past 6 months, once I started to better understand how to practice my faith, build a relationship with Jesus and more fully trust Him, I came to see how the Aristotelian  metaphysics (with elements of Platonism) adopted by the Catholic Church provides a framework that fully integrates modern science. It  offers a much more coherent way to understand and explain phenomena that otherwise remain 'unsolved mysteries' under the outdated materialist paradigm—addressing everything from the nature of consciousness and the goal-directedness of biology to the emerging view in physics that meaning is more fundamental than mass.

Freedom of religion is critical. Religious liberty isn’t just a social courtesy; it’s an essential protection for democracies and a roadblock against tyranny because it forces the state to admit there is a moral authority higher than its own will. In fact Catholicism, or any form of Christianity, shouldn’t be the official religion of the US. This wouldn’t be Christian since God has given everyone free will to choose the God who is Love and provides eternal life. Which leads me back to the good news!

Let’s return to the passage from St. Luke above. The Jewish audience hearing Jesus ~2000 years ago were very familiar that Jesus was quoting an Old Testament prophecy (from Isaiah ~700 years prior) regarding the release of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity (present day Iraq).

They would also have recognized that Isaiah’s words were not just about a past political event, but about a recurring pattern in their own history. In Isaiah’s time, many Jews lived with outward stability and religious activity while quietly absorbing the values of surrounding empires, trusting alliances, wealth, and cultural sophistication more than God Himself. 

Babylon wasn’t about physical enslavement like in Egypt. Babylon named a condition where God’s people were materially functional, culturally sophisticated, and economically productive, yet cut off from their true center of meaning, worship, and freedom under God. Many Jews in exile were not starving or imprisoned; they were settled, educated, and successful—yet the prophets still called them captives because their lives were being ordered by a system that quietly replaced God with empire. That is exactly why Isaiah’s promise of release, sight, and Jubilee mattered then, and why Jesus deliberately re-announces it centuries later. He is not talking primarily about political escape or material relief, but about liberation from a false account of reality that people have learned to accept as normal. Once you see that, it becomes much easier to understand why this message is aimed not at those visibly desperate, but at people who are outwardly fine while living inside a worldview that can’t actually sustain truth, meaning, or moral responsibility.

By Jesus’ day, something similar had happened under Hellenistic and Roman rule: impressive infrastructure, education, and legal order existed alongside deep moral and spiritual confusion, with faith often reduced to law-keeping, identity, or political hope. Jesus’ audience knew this pattern well, because they were living inside it again. That is why Isaiah’s language of captivity, blindness, and release still resonated—exile had returned in a new form, not as chains or deportation, but as a life ordered more by human systems than by trust in God.

But today, modern minds have a harder time recognizing this pattern because the entire category of God and spirituality has been pushed out of our shared understanding of reality. We’ve been trained to see the world almost exclusively in material, technical, and psychological terms, so when something goes wrong we look for policy fixes, therapies, or new technologies—not repentance, re-orientation, or truth beyond ourselves. Unlike earlier generations, we are rarely taught to interpret history, suffering, or moral breakdown in relation to God at all. As a result, captivity becomes nearly invisible. It doesn’t feel like exile because we no longer have a clear sense of what “home” under God would even mean. When transcendence is removed from the picture, confusion gets renamed as complexity, moral drift as progress, and spiritual hunger as a private emotional issue. That makes Jesus’ proclamation harder to hear—not because it is less true, but because we’ve lost the conceptual language needed to recognize what He is offering release from.

Like Isaiah’s audience, America and most all industrialized nations live in a time of outward success and inward confusion, where trust in human systems has quietly replaced trust in God.

ADDITIONAL TEXT
during the covid years I also had the opportunity to serve on the advisory board for the kids’ Catholic elementary school, The Academy of St. Paul. The combination of learning about advanced biotechnology, artificial intelligence, real intelligence in biology and Catholicism along with an undeserved blessing of God’s mysterious grace, led me to discover and profoundly understand that: (1) the most logical way to understand and explain biological intelligence was through the Christian concept of the Logos, the Word of God (Gospel of John), and (2) the truth of the Trinity is analogously reflected in nature at every level of existence (from atoms to cell cultures to human societal cultures) which, as I’ve since learned and experienced, exists supernaturally and fully in God Himself.

There was no dramatic road-to-Damascus moment. It was more like a geeky science-journalism hobby where every road eventually led to seeing these same conclusions. It started by learning about what some biologists have shown for over a hundred years, and where the contemporary work of biologists makes this truth undeniable now: intelligence in biology isn’t located in DNA, it originates somewhere outside of physical matter. DNA gives us the ingredients of life, but it doesn’t explain how those parts are shaped into a living, intelligent whole. Cells don’t just follow instructions like machines. They solve problems and “know” what to do: how to grow into organs, heal wounds, and act in ways that serve the whole body. Even single-celled organisms can model their environment and solve problems. This kind of built-in coordination and intelligent problem-solving points to something deeper than chemistry. This means that science needs to update its assumed (often never thought about) metaphysical assumptions about how reality actually works. 

Philosophers (originally Aristotle) called this deeper principle “form”, the inner pattern that makes a thing what it is, and exists as a real but invisible informational blueprint-like structure of the physical living thing. Forms define everything’s identity, purpose, and final coherent physical form. This is why the word “information” originally meant; to put form into. 

And then behind every individual form is something even more fundamental: a universal source of order, meaning and intelligibility. The philosophical term for this is called the Logos, the mysterious rational dynamic living structure of reality (Stoics, Plato). It’s not just another form. It’s the “Form of forms”: the living pattern that gives rise to all other patterns.

Each specific form can be understood as a partial reflection, or proportional expression, or finite echo of the universal Logos, shaped by it and pointing back to it as its source.

That’s why reality isn’t chaos. It’s a web of meaningful structures—physical, biological, mental, and social—that all follow a kind of grammar.

Without introducing religious doctrine or theology, reality consistently exhibits a triadic structure that appears across every level of reality:

[1] things stably exist making them real rather than nothing, they have identity [2] per above each thing has a form—an invisible organizing pattern or essence—that gives it intelligibility and governs what it can do; each form participates in the one Logos, and [3] Third, each thing has a dynamic purpose—a directed energy unfolding toward its end. This movement isn’t random but goal-oriented, drawing the parts into a fuller realization of their form. Wholeness emerges through this fulfillment. This structure appears in physics, biology, mind, society and beyond. 

***

[1] things stably exist, making them real rather than nothing; they have identity, and that identity appears symbolically within the larger hierarchy of forms.

[2] each thing has a form—an invisible organizing pattern or essence—that gives it intelligibility and governs what it can do. This form expresses itself symbolically in structure and behavior, allowing higher levels of form to “read” its meaning and integrate it into broader patterns. Each form participates in the one Logos.

[3] Each thing has an intended purpose and naturally organizes itself in ways that unifies its parts into a coherent meaningful whole such that it’s understood symbolically at the next organizational level in the hierarchy of forms. This integrative movement is meaningful as well as purposive, fitting the thing into higher levels of order within the hierarchy of forms and allowing the whole to be more than the sum of its parts.

***

This movement isn’t random but goal-oriented, drawing the parts into a fuller realization of their form. Wholeness emerges through this fulfillment.

In Christianity, the Logos is not just an abstract principle but God the Son, the eternal Word of God who became flesh by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s as the New Ark of the Covenant. In this divine-human union, Christ stands as the true New Adam, with Mary as the New Eve, the Mother of God and of all who live in grace. The Trinity is the deepest mystery of God’s inner life. While reason can perceive an analogous structure in reality—where things exist, have form, and are directed toward a purpose—only divine revelation discloses that this pattern reflects the eternal communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

There’s no doubt there will be countless scientists raised in a modern culture that were taught that souls and spirits and God was all a myth who will mock and scoff what follows, but for anyone willing to be intellectually honest, unbiased I am certain that when people evaluate all the options, they will conclude that mind-grounded Aristatolean hylomorphic metaphysics is the best metaphysics for science to adopt because it fits all empirical observation and it enables worldviews that sensible can integrate with faith and reason in order to recover objective morality while also being able to explain consciousness.

Other text:
Existence isn’t accidental, that reality has a source with intention and relational depth, and that purpose is woven into the fabric of being.

Nigeria offers a rich case for examining how traditional metaphysical intuitions can resonate with Christian theology. Among the Igbo and other southern Nigerian peoples, belief in a supreme creator (Chukwu) coexists with a layered cosmology: Ala (earth and moral order), Amadioha (justice), and Chi (personal spirit). While distinct from Christian doctrine, these elements parallel aspects of the Christian triad—Ala as grounding moral structure (Logos), Amadioha as the transcendent source of judgment (Source/Father), and Chi as the indwelling guide of one’s path (Spirit). Scholars like Chinua Achebe have cautioned against reducing indigenous systems to foreign categories, and rightly so. But the symbolic resonance remains noteworthy. Nigeria’s extraordinary Catholic growth—seen in its seminary enrollments and vocations—may reflect a cultural readiness for a vision of reality grounded in meaning, relationship, and moral form. These parallels invite serious dialogue, not reduction, between metaphysical worlds.

Judaism and Catholicism differ theologically, but they share deep principles about God, morality, and human destiny. Both affirm that God is personal, just, and merciful—not an impersonal force but a being who forms covenants, judges with justice, and forgives those who repent. Human beings are morally accountable, with eternal consequences based on their response to God. Both traditions affirm a future resurrection of the dead, where the righteous are vindicated and the wicked face judgment (cf. Daniel 12:2).

Repentance plays a central role in both: teshuvah in Judaism and the sacrament of Reconciliation in Catholicism express that sin is real, but not final. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are also shared disciplines of return and purification. The moral law in both is covenantal—obedience and love of neighbor are how one remains in right relationship with God.

Most striking is the shared view of life’s purpose: to become holy. Judaism calls each person to imitate God’s holiness and honors the tzadik (righteous one) as a model. Catholicism speaks of becoming a saint—conformed to Christ in love and grace. Despite doctrinal divergence, both see life as a journey toward union with (or delight in the splendor of the Divine Presence with)
God through justice, mercy, and faithfulness. "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:2)
13. Appendix B / on the soul

God is very real and alive, and our souls are very real! The human soul is the informationally-real, immortal form of the body created and sustained by God. It is what makes our bodies’ alive and human, not just a collection of biophysical parts. Soul (Latin: anima) means the form of a living body. We, as human beings, are ensouled by God at conception and given unique immortal rational souls. Technically, souls are not unique to humans. All living biological organisms have a kind of soul that organizationally informs their bodies and gives them their life, structure, and purpose-driven identity. Plants have vegetative souls, which organize them for growth, reproduction, and nutrition. Animals have sensitive souls; they have the basic life functions of plants, and on top of this God created them with the ability to sense and perceive the world, feel emotions, and respond, but they do not have rational thought (unlike humans). All of empirical science (and all evidence across history/experience/culture) lines up with the above once classical metaphysics (especially hylomorphism) is translated into modern language in an intellectually honest way. This is a large part of what I’m working on.

As human beings uniquely made in the image of God, we each have a rational, spiritual soul. In one united nature, we are embodied persons, a profound unity of the material and the spiritual. Our souls include the biological powers shared with plants and animals, but most importantly, God has given us spiritual powers: intellect, the ability to know truth, and free will, the capacity to choose the good.

Our inner life reflects this unity in a uniquely human way. Our awareness and experience integrates the subjective emotional and instinctive aspects we share with animals into the higher powers of intellectual reason and free will that we share with angels and God. Powers of intellect and free will allow us to know objective universal truths like morality, justice, mercy, beauty, and even God Himself. Because we are made in His image, as we cooperate with His will and trust in Jesus Christ, by the gift of His grace, He illuminates our path with wisdom so that we can understand objective truth, choose the good, and seek God and the beauty in creation. Whenever philosophy discovers something genuinely true, it’s because the human mind is aligning with an objective rational order that exists independently of us. Reason doesn’t create truth and meaning; it discovers it. Christianity identifies this rational and personal, infinitely mysterious, living order as the Logos, the divine Wisdom and Word through whom reality is structured and known. Reality is intelligible (knowable) because it was created through the divine Wisdom and Word of God Himself. Because we are created as beings with intellect and free will, our souls participate in a spiritual order that transcends the physical, and continue to exist eternally in spirit after the body dies.


And so we, as human beings, are not just one creature among many. Through Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully human, we understand that all of humanity, as human nature perfected and healed in Christ, exists as a microcosm of the whole cosmos. In our one nature, through Christ, we hold together: the material patterns of inanimate chemical elements, the growth and vitality of simple life forms like plants and microbes, the sensing and feeling life of animals, the spiritual power of intellect shared analogically with angels, and the calling to share fully, by grace, in God’s own wisdom and love.

Christianity is not a mythic exception imposed on a secular world. Jesus Christ is the key to understanding, and living within, the structure of existence because He reveals that reality is personal, ordered, and loving. The world is not a machine running on blind mechanical laws of physics. It’s a relational order where an eternal river of life is freely given by God the Father as the personal source of it all, proceeding through God the Son as divine Personal Wisdom through whom all is ordered, and brought to fulfillment in Personal Love by God the Holy Spirit. One Trinitarian God in essence, three distinct Persons in relation. Christianity begins from the conviction that reality itself is personal, and that to be a person means to know, choose, and love in relationship, not to exist alone.

The Trinitarian God is love: one living, divine personal reality who grounds all existence, perfect in identity, intellect, and will. Because we are created with identity, intellect, and will (capacities that include the ability to grasp universal, immaterial truths like morals, justice or mathematics) our souls participate in a spiritual order that transcends the physical, and continue to exist eternally in spirit after the body dies.

We are not spirits trapped in bodies nor are we flesh and bones animated by a ghostly spirit in a biological machine. We are life forms whose spiritual soul and biological body are inseparably joined in one nature where God personally knows and loves each of us down to every single cell, molecule and electron more than we will ever be able to understand. 

Note: God also created angels which are pure spiritual forms or simply spirits with natures consisting of identity (personhood), intellect and will. 

This classically grounded metaphysical understanding of reality, when carefully translated into modern language, provides a clear foundation for recovering science as an ethical and morally ordered human practice. Scientists and engineers can understand their work as a genuine vocation: a response to God’s invitation to participate in, pursue, and discover the rational order and wonders of creation. Even if I could set aside some of the more mystical aspects of my personal experience (which I can’t), on pure logic alone, alongside all the evidence of everything we see across all topics (science, history, psychology, modern culture, global economy, geopolitics etc.) this takes me ~99% of seeing how the Catholic Church is true. The final ~1% leap of faith is completed by revelation in hearing the Good News. Compared to all the other philosophies, crossing this 1% isn’t just an obvious choice, it just starts to become a lived reality you participate in where there’s absolutely no doubt.

God’s providence, Spirit, along with loving family, friends, and perfect strangers led me to a profound and mysterious understanding of how Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

Jesus is everyone’s best friend, it’s just that most of us grew up being formed in, and still live within, a modern secular culture that didn’t make it easy for us to learn about or make sense of our faith. Modern culture definitely makes it very hard for Catholics to wrap our heads around the infinite importance of the truth of the Eucharist. Our friendship with God isn't only encountered through prayerful thoughts and words from Sacred Scripture, but His Truth and Love is something our souls can be formed by (informed by) physically, that you literally can eat to participate communally in God’s life, when receiving the Eucharist properly at Mass. “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)