← The Bryce Crawford Podcast
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- [00:00]
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Father Lazarus
We consider the Eucharist truly one of those mysteries that we can't explain, but truly becomes his body and blood and it's necessary for our salvation.
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Bryce Crawford
I am so logically hardwired and that has been one of the hardest things for me to accept with all the sacraments. Which is why I wanted to talk to you particularly about the Eucharist today. If you wanted to watch this episode early, exclusive content and more, check out our Patreon. Our Patreon is the best place for you guys to support us, keep us producing the podcast, keep producing the evangelism videos, sending us out on the street. And in return you get exclusive content that will only be available on Patreon, early access to all podcast, evangelism videos, our inner circle, group chat, and more. So if you want to support us, go to patreon.com Bryce Crawford today join the Patreon, Support the mission. Get early access to podcasts, videos, exclusive content and more. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver Podcast. I'm Bryce and today I'm sitting down with Father Lazarus of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Thank you for sitting down.
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Father Lazarus
Thank you.
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Bryce Crawford
I'm excited. There's a lot of things I want to talk to you about. I never prepare notes to not only read, but also to learn. I think one of the hardest things that's been for me is to be able to sit down, process verbally, kind of understand certain things, particularly sacraments, particularly tradition. Something that has been on my heart is tradition and sacraments. I am very. I love and respect deeply how you hold tradition. And from the moment we've walked in the fear of the Lord that you have the weight and reverence you have for the sacraments, for the murals, for the saints. It's deeply respectful and it's something that I long for and want a better understanding on. So thanks. Thank you for sitting down with me.
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Father Lazarus
Yes. Blessing for me. Thank you.
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Bryce Crawford
To kind of open up a little bit, I mainly wanted to ask a little bit about, like, how did you start following Jesus? Where did that start from?
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Father Lazarus
Yeah, I was born and raised in the Coptic Orthodox Church and had loving parents and they did all they could to kind of show me who Jesus is. Actually, what's interesting is my dad would sometimes go to the Evangelical Church, even though he was a baptized Coptic. And once in a while we'd go to the Evangelical Church, but mostly in the Coptic Orthodox Church. And they put me in Christian school, so they did all they could. I would say in my late teenage, early college years, I kind of strayed away and wasn't the worst guy in the world, wasn't doing the worst things, but definitely wasn't having a relationship with our Lord. I remember one day that I looked and I sat and I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, if you die today, you know where you're going. Because I wasn't really living with Christ, even though I knew of Christ, and I would say I loved Christ, but I. I wasn't living with Christ. And so I didn't know what to do at that point. And at the time there was a. Our patriarch, his name was Pope Shenouda iii, a very amazing, amazing teacher and blessed father. So we have our own Pope, but we don't consider the Pope as the Catholics consider the Pope. Like, we don't consider him infallible. We don't have those kind of doctrines with Pope. And even though we're part of the Oriental Orthodox tradition, like, so there's the Eastern Orthodox, we're the Oriental Orthodox. The Patriarch of Alexandria was historically, like throughout the first centuries, was revered as one of the highest patriarchs. Some of the greatest church fathers came out of Alexandria, but we never exercised our authority over the other jurisdictions ever, even after we split off in 451. So that's just an aside, but he was coming to visit our church, Pope Shenoudam. And my mom said, you have to go to church. The Pope is coming to our church, my local parish, where I grew up. I was like, okay, fine. What am I going to lose? So I ended up going, and we had one of the bishops who was part of the entourage. The Pope would travel with bishops. One of the bishops came up to me and he gave me the biggest hug ever, like, we're best friends. And he was saying, so good to see you. And even when I looked in his face, there was a light. There was a light emanating from his face. Supernatural. I can't explain it. And he said, so good to see you. And he. What just happened? Who is this guy? I knew that person had something in him that I didn't have. And I wanted to find out what was the secret. And all these thoughts were going through my mind. Does he think I'm someone else? Or did I meet him before and I forgot. I wanted to find out. I was curious who this person was, and I found out he's a bishop, and he's the bishop of the youth. And he would come every summer to give conventions. And it was life changing for me. I saw someone who loves Jesus Christ, who is filled with the love of Jesus Christ, and he was giving the gospel in a message that I could grasp and understand, and it was a message of joy. That's what drew me first most. Even though I grew up in the church. So soon after that, I started to confess. Confession was a big part of my. I wouldn't say conversion because we would say a revert. Right. Because I was born and raised in the church, but I started confession. And a father of confession plays a pivotal role in a person's life because this spiritual father, his sole, most important task is our salvation. So he guides us. And then I was confessing, and I saw myself as this unworthy person. Then all of a sudden, he asks me to start to serve Sunday school. And I was like, what? Like, you know who I am? Yeah, like, how. How would. Who am I to. To start to serve and. And to try to influence kids in the right direction. So I started to serve. And I was reading the Bible, and of course you come across Matthew 25. We were talking about that earlier. And Matthew 25, like, it changed my life all the more. And I said, wow, to be a Christian, it's synonymous with serving those who are in need. It's. There's no question about it. If you're not serving those who are in need, Not a true follower of Jesus Christ, literally, the Lord is going to separate everyone at the end from those that Loved him and served him and had faith in serving, faithfully serving him and those who didn't. Right. I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger. You took me in, I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick. And in prison, you visited me. And what you do to the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Those are the ones who are going to inherit eternal life. And those who didn't do that are going where what was created for the devil and his angels. So it's a combination of really seeing the love of Christ in someone, somebody taking me under his wing and discipling me service and having a personal relationship with Christ. And then the most important, I would say the Eucharist started partaking of the communion, the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on a regular basis. And that's where really I felt God's presence most. Wow.
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Bryce Crawford
So I love the language that you used, like discipleship. A scripture that has been really shaking me to the core recently is when it says, even the demons believe.
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Father Lazarus
Yes.
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Bryce Crawford
And that challenges me as someone who claims to have been following Jesus for five years. What makes me different than the demons? What makes me different than those who are slaves to Satan? And that has challenged me, especially now, being a husband, where it's like, no, I've experienced this beautiful covenant I'll never forget on my wedding day. Just this new, beautiful, profound revelation of Christ being the bridegroom and the church being the bride and just being like, wow, I am saying to my bride, I'm willing to die for you. This new thing, like, what makes me different than the demons? What makes me different in this and laying this life down, what the importance of discipleship. I would love to. I'd love to talk a little bit about that. And that's something that I think is extremely important to the believer, something that I deeply love and respect about Orthodoxy, Catholicism, these people that hold deep tradition is this weight of. Of discipleship.
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Podcast Advertising Representative
Why.
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Bryce Crawford
Why is it so important that people are discipled?
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Father Lazarus
Well, we're depositing the faith. You know, for us, faith is a matter of life and death, as we have the icon of the 21 martyrs behind us, Right? So we're depositing the faith and we're passing this torch and making sure those who receive it know the weight of what they're receiving. We're children of the King, and there might be a time where there's going to be a knife to your throat and a gun to your head. Even children like in Egypt, a conversation parents have with their children. If somebody threatens to kill you, even with a gun, right to your head and tells you, don't believe in Jesus Christ, deny Jesus Christ, you say, no, I will always be a believer in Jesus Christ. Children are infused with this. So this deposit of faith we are carrying the most important task. This is, you know, I'm to deliver. And we see it as, I'm a piece of heaven. The Lord said, the kingdom of heaven is within you. I'm a piece of heaven, and my job is to tell others and deliver others to heaven. When everyone, and especially in Egypt, when everyone surrounding us, it's a hostile place, right? It's. You know, they say about 20%, maybe more, of Egypt is only Christian. The rest are mostly Muslim, and majority are moderate. But there are many that are extremists. And so kidnappings of women that are not veiled and are forced to become basically sex slaves. Martyrdom. My cousin was martyred in the year 2009. His name is George Fathi. He was a faithful servant in Egypt, and through him, people were asking about Christianity and the Christian faith. And many people came to Christ through him. And so two brothers of one of the girls that became Christian found out he was the reason. So they followed him home, tortured him, sliced up his body, and lit his apartment on fire. And that's an honor for us. So. And that's the beauty of this, is that when we face persecution, it solidifies our faith all the more. I'll tell you another story. Several years ago, there was a church bombings, and it happened on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is one of the most packed days of the year in the Coptic Orthodox Church. It's the kickoff for Holy Week. Holy week. We spend 60 to 70 hours in the church praying and chanting and preparing for the resurrection, the crucifixion, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's intense, right? So Palm Sunday, that's like the kickoff, right? That's the precursor to everything. Three churches were bombed, okay? Everyone thought these extremists did this to throw off our Holy Week services, to make people feel scared that night because we go back to church that night. So we spend like, six hours in the morning, and then we come back at night for four hours that night. Usually as Holy Week builds up, the seats are half empty. And then little by little, as we. As we head towards the cross and the Resurrection, the church gets more and more packed throughout the week, right? Usually Sunday night, it's not that many people because we had a long Day that night, every single Coptic church was filled. And the priest, it was one priest who was near one of the churches that was bombed. He gave a sermon, he said, I want to thank you, thank you, you bombers, because we call people and we beg people, come to church. You know, come on, let go of your life. Come on, let's start Holy Week from the very beginning. And you filled it for us with one bomb or a couple of bombs. You filled the churches. You made everyone want to give their life to Christ fully. You made everybody ready to die. You, what you're doing and thinking that this is going to work to the opposite. It's working to the glory of God. This is the faith that we're giving to our children. This is the faith that I'm entrusted with to give. You know, in the west, here we have it so easy. It's so nice. You were talking earlier, right? Martyrdom to us.
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Bryce Crawford
You were saying what, it's like a hate comment.
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Father Lazarus
Somebody didn't like my, my post, right? Yeah, yeah. No, for, for us, you know, good friend of mine, Ish of Arabia, I'm going to tell a personal story of his. He shared it with me. When he was a kid, he was taught to hate Christians. And he saw a Christian monk, Coptic Orthodox monk, walk in the streets one day and he said, hey, hey, hey. And he spits in his face and he was crying when he was sharing this. And I was telling him, you know, actually that was a blessing for them, you know, some Copts, Coptic Orthodox, pray, lord, let me be worthy to be spat upon, because if I can have the grace of having what you faced for me, this is the least I could do for you. Another story of another priest. His name is Father Bishoi Kemel. He was lately canonized as a saint. Every morning as he would walk to the church, he would have to take the same route. There was a, you know, extremist shop owner. Every time he would see Father Bechoi, he would spit at him. Every day because he had to walk the same route to get to the church. Every day he spat, spat on him, spat him. One day that man wasn't there, the shop owner wasn't there. So Father Bishoy at Knox, usually the shop owners would live upstairs, like it would be the shop downstairs and the apartment would be upstairs. So Father Bechoi goes up and knocks. And the wife, she's a veiled lady, a Muslim lady. She looks at the father. She knew what her husband was doing. She thought he was going to do something to harm Them. She said, nothing. We don't want anything from you. He said, no, no, no. He said, I'm looking for my friend. She said, what are you talking about? He said, my friend that greets me every morning, I'm looking for him. He said, are you talking about my husband? He said, yes. He said. She said, he's sick. He doesn't want. He said, can I come and greet him, Tell him I missed him this morning, and he changed. I don't know if he became Christian, but this is what's been deposited. This is what we're entrusted. Yeah.
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Bryce Crawford
That's so beautiful. I think that's something that I love. The beauty of discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book on the cost. There's an exchange. There's something. Preferences, comfort, whatever it may be. And the way that you describe the beauty of being hated for the sake of Jesus, whatever that looks like, whether being spat upon or martyred with your life being taken, it's something that in Western America, we have the comfort of being able to walk in the street and being like, I'm a Christian, or I followed this religion, and people are like, okay. And I think the most dangerous thing that I feel like we're under attack is stay true to your truths. You do you. I feel like that is extremely dangerous, because what you're saying to me, the thing that unites me and stokes my fire as a believer is when I. When I hear a story like that or I hear of another believer or the. The 21 Martyrs in Libya and hearing how their life, they were willing to lay it down for the sake of. I'm not even gonna utter the words, I don't believe in Jesus. They don't utter those words that cost their beauty, the evidence of Jesus in their life. Now, you said something very interesting earlier when you were sharing the testimony of when you began to follow Jesus. You said, I love Jesus, but I wasn't living with him.
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Father Lazarus
Yes.
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Bryce Crawford
Explain to me what living with Jesus is.
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Father Lazarus
So there's a dangerous notion of faith alone saves. Right. But the only time in the Scriptures the words faith alone are presented in the book of James, it says, we are not saved by faith alone. We are not saved by faith alone. You said. You asked that question earlier. What makes me different than the demons? Right. The demons believe. So it's faith working through love. The three have to come together as a trinity. Faith working through love. And that's what St. Paul says in Galatians. All that matters is faith working through love. It can't be just Faith. And it can't be just works. And it can't be just faith and works. Because if I have faith to move mountains and have not love, profits me nothing. And if I give all my goods to the poor and even my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing, right? And then St. Paul gives the most beautiful passage. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not. And even when our Lord Jesus Christ was asked, what are the greatest commandments, the Lord said, what? Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. He didn't say faith alone. So love is the key. If I truly have love for God, I will have faith and I'll be working to serve Him. And we are not saved by works, right? We are saved by grace. We say this, we have a prayer that the priest prays every night. It's called the absolution of the priests. In this prayer, we utter these words, we are saved by your grace. So nothing that I do will ever earn salvation. But I have to live with Jesus Christ when the five foolish virgins. You know the story of Matthew 25 also, you know, we could say they were all believers. They all knew what they were supposed to be doing, right? Some had the oil, some did not have the oil, right? The Lord will tell them, depart from me. I never knew you. I never knew you. And there will be time where people will say, lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in youn name and done many wonders in youn name? Depart from you, you workers of lawlessness? So there has to be faith, there has to be works, there has to be love. And there's a participation. And this is why we make a big emphasis on the sacraments, the Eucharist. We do believe that the Eucharist, the Body and blood of Jesus Christ, we believe it's the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. In a mystery that I can't explain. This is important to our salvation because the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ waited till the night that he would be right before he was crucified, that he would institute this. This wasn't just a. Hey, you know, let me just show you something. Like, this was the peak of his ministry. This is like, right? He's about to head to the cross. That's it. He wanted to leave us with this beautiful, what we call, instituted, this great mystery. It's a great mystery. And it's a mystery just like when two people. You just got married, two People, when they get married, they become what one. Explain that to me. Because the Lord said they are no longer two. Don't even consider them two anymore. They are one. Right? That's a mystery. Or a true believer has the Holy Spirit inside of them. How. How is God inside of me? If you cut me open, you're not going to see Him. This is a mystery. Or that we two or three are gathered in my name. He's there with us. So we consider the Eucharist truly one of those mysteries that we can't explain, but truly becomes his body and blood, and it's necessary for our salvation.
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Bryce Crawford
That has been. I think I am so logically hardwired. I love to have answers to everything. And. And that has been one of the hardest things for me to accept with all the sacraments is the beautiful mystery of them. Which is why I wanted to talk to you particularly about the Eucharist today. Because it has been something that I have been wrestling with, wanting to take more serious. Have started to take more serious. I would love to share with you where I'm at right now. And I just want to ask a lot of questions. I was raised being taught that it is merely a symbol. And when I started sincerely following Jesus, I realized that that couldn't have been further from the truth. While I do believe it has symbolic nature, in a sense it represents something. I don't think it's just a symbol. And I think if you read the Scriptures and you experience communion, it's not just a symbol. And I think because I had that initial mentality being taught that growing up, it was hard for me when I started actually partaking in communion as a believer, it was just, oh, this is something I do. This is a symbol. And I had to repent because I was like, man, I don't think it's just a symbol anymore. And I feel like I've been unknowingly sinning against God. The thing I have a really hard time wrapping my mind around. I haven't been fully convinced of transubstantiation. Sure. I believe in the real presence. I had a moment with communion a couple months ago that could make me cry. I was in a church with a very lovely pastor friend of mine who leads a Protestant church who has a deep, reverent respect. He'll go to Mass at Catholic church. And he was like, we need to institute the Eucharist here. It's so important. We've been doing it. We've been doing it wrong. We've been doing it wrong. And I'm sitting in this church, and as I'm taking communion, I'm sitting here going, God, I'm so sorry that I've thought this was merely a symbol. And the presence of God impacting my heart was so unreal in that moment, and I've never had. And to think that that is the case every time.
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Father Lazarus
Does it surprise us that our Lord will humble us to this point? It doesn't surprise me. The one who would leave being worshiped by the angels to come confine himself to the womb of the virgin, to be a little child born in the worst of circumstances, the worst circumstances ever in history. And then for him to flee to another country because his life is sought after, wanted to be destroyed by Herod, to be raised for the first few years of his life in a foreign country in Egypt, to come back, live a very poor life every day to hear nails, hammer wood, nails, hammer wood reminding him of what's going to be before him. Because his earthly father was a carpenter. Right. I'm sure there'd be times he would be crying and his mother didn't know why. He knew what was ahead of him. Right. Does it really shock us that this one who would do all this and suffer and die in the worst, most excruciating way, literally the word crucifixion. The word excruciating comes from the word crucifixion, literally. To be stripped naked, to be spat upon, the one who was whipped, the one who would be nailed, the one with thorns. Does it that he would humble himself that that much? Of course he would humble himself to be some crumbs. Crumbs. God became crumbs. And this is going to be blasphemous to many and people. You're going to get some hate speech and people are going to say, what are you doing? Get away. This is not here. No, this is my God. In a mystery I can't explain. Transubstantiation tries to put it into words. What we can't explain, and this is a Catholic doctrine, we orthodox, we don't go there. I don't have to go there. Because when Jesus was asked why or how, how can this man give us his flesh to. Because it's the first time in history. First time ever in history someone said, you have to eat my flesh to be safe. What is this question? What is this crazy talk? Yeah. They said in John 6:52, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? What the Lord says is so important? He says, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living Father sent me. And I live because of the Father, So he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live for it. They asked how. He never explained how. We don't need to know how. We will never know how. But Martin Luther, he actually gave a good answer. Because the first to really teach this was a guy named Zwingli. Okay, Zwingli and Martin Luther had a conversation back and forth. They both believed scriptures alone. They had the same scriptures, but they were arguing on the meaning of the Scriptures, the interpretation of the Scriptures. So that's why we also believe that scriptures alone is scary. It's dangerous, because what happens when we have different meanings? So Zwingli said how it looks like bread, it tastes like wine. Martin Luther said something very interesting. He said, well, people, when they saw Jesus, they saw what a man. But we know he's God in the flesh. So how does that bread and wine become his body and blood? I can't tell you how. No one should ever be able to say how. But he said, it is. And when does regular bread and regular wine get people sick and die? That's what happened in 1 Corinthians 11. People became sick and died. Why? St. Paul says it, because they were guilty of. Of the body and blood of Christ. He equated the bread and wine to the body and blood. He equated it. And he said, because they weren't discerning the Lord's body. What more words do we need? What the Bible literally says. So there's two camps of people, let's say two sets of Christians. There are Christians who are not discerning the Lord's body, and there are Christians who are discerning the Lord's body. That this is truly the Lord's. Okay, so I have to make a choice. And some of his disciples walked with him no more in John 6:6666. From that time, his disciples decided to walk with him no more. Because they said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand this? Still trying to figure the how. And the Lord Jesus who Searches for the lost sheep. Every lost sheep, he will search for him. He let them go. You don't want to accept this, go. So this divided Christians from the beginning. We can say that it's still dividing us till today.
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Bryce Crawford
Yeah, yeah. I guess like a practical thing that comes in my brain is you mentioned, like, it's necessary, it's necessary to partake in this.
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Father Lazarus
I didn't say that. Jesus said it.
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Bryce Crawford
So if that's the case. Right. If that's the case, Jesus says it, you agree? How often then, you know, that's the brain is like, how often? When's wrong. You know what? And I love that you brought that up in First Corinthians 11, because when I, when I had that moment in that church, I. I had this like, God, thank you. That those moments, I unintentionally wasn't taking this serious. That, that I wasn't punished. Yeah, that the same thing that happened to them in First Corinthians 11 didn't.
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Father Lazarus
But he meets us where we are. This is his mercy. Okay. Like, I do believe, like people that are innocently just practicing and maybe are not part of a tradition that don't believe in the real presence of Christ. God meets them where they are. Okay. This is. I mean, we leave the judgment up to God. But now that this is something we can all study now, this is something we can all look into now. We could see what the early church taught. I mean, we have writings of disciples, of the disciples and what they taught about communion. It's very clear. Like Saint Ignatius of Antioch, he called it the medicine of immortality. Ignatius of Antioch, he was a disciple of St. John the Beloved, who wrote the Gospel of John. He calls it the medicine of immortality. He says, I have no hunger for any other bread except the bread which is the body of my Lord Jesus Christ and his blood of the Son of David, which he shed for me. This is all I hunger and thirst for. He says this. So how often you ask that question? It's very simple. You just look through the book of Acts. They steadfastly kept in the apostles doctrine in the breaking of bread, in prayers and in fellowship. Steadfastly. And it said from day to day they would come share the breaking of bread. At least every Sunday, we as believing Christians. Acts 20:7. On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. They came to break bread. Every time we see the words breaking bread, it's referring to the Eucharist, right? It says, how I know Jesus Christ, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they didn't recognize the stranger walking with them, telling about Jesus, why are you so sad? Until what it was the Lord and he broke bread and said he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, he said, you guys are coming for the wrong reason. Some of you are hungry, some of you are drunk, some of you are full. You are not coming to partake of the Lord's Supper. Had church been focused on other, something else more important, he would have said, you had not come to hear the word of the Lord. You had not come to hear to worship. You had not come here to hear the sermon. He didn't say that you are not coming to partake of the Lord's Supper. Some will say, well, he's talking about their sins because they were hungry and drunk and this. And they were looking at as a feast. No, he was diagnosing that illness. That was their illness. For us, we have other illnesses. Some of us are living double lives. Some of us are, you know, are addicted to porn. Some of us have people you know are money hungry. This and that, it's still. Are you discerning the Lord's body? Are you partaking of the Lord's body and blood in an unworthy manner or not? I should be repenting. I should be confessing. And then this is another thing. I think a lot of churches are coming to the understanding of real presence. And you have a big platform. You're going to be tasked with this. This is part of something. If this is your. You, you feel that God is shedding light to you, you're going to be responsible to share to everyone. And there's going to be some people that are going to hate you and not follow you anymore. But our job is we're going to have to answer to God. If when the neck is not, my knife is on my neck, whatever. I can't deny the truth, whatever it is. I'll share with you one other thing about the Eucharist. Two weeks ago I had this dream. I saw the dead body of the Lord Jesus laying on the ground. It was a bloody mess, bloody mess. And I was shocked. He didn't even look like a human being. And immediately my mind went to the Eucharist. Like you Lord went through that. Give me your body and blood. But it's not just a carcass that we're partaking. We're partaking of the resurrected body. We can't separate his crucifixion from the Resurrection. So look at his love. That God would become crumbs.
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Bryce Crawford
Why is it that Jesus, at the Last Supper, he mentions that the next time he will partake in this meal.
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Father Lazarus
Excellent.
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Bryce Crawford
The marriage Supper.
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Father Lazarus
Very good, Very good.
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Bryce Crawford
What is the importance of that?
- [35:10]
Father Lazarus
So we have to think of this. We have to kind of take the whole. Let's take the Last Supper as a whole. Some people will ask, well, how could Jesus give us his body when he said it's broken, when he hadn't even been crucified yet? Right. Well, he's also called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So in a mystical way, God is not bound by time. Our Lord is not bound by time. He could give that. Okay, that's one thing. Second thing is he says, do this in remembrance of me. A lot of people just say, well, it's just a remembrance. That's a wrong understanding. When do we do a memorial or remembrance for someone? When someone is what, dead and gone?
- [35:51]
Bryce Crawford
Yeah.
- [35:52]
Father Lazarus
Is Jesus dead? Is he gone?
- [35:54]
Bryce Crawford
He's very much alive.
- [35:55]
Father Lazarus
Very much alive. So the word remembrance, it's taken from the word anamnesis. Anamnesis, a better translation, is present again. Present again of what I gave to you. Okay. It's where we get the word animation. Animation is you're seeing real time, like something that's, you know, presenting again. Right. So. And it's more of a recognition than a remembrance, because a remembrance is for somebody dead. Recognition is somebody alive and present. Jesus is with us when he says, I will not drink of the cup again till I drink it new with you. In my Father's kingdom. When we are receiving communion here, when did he ascend? He ascended after the 40 days when we partake of communion. He's partaking of communion with us. That's what he's saying. When I go to my Father King, as you're partaking, I'm with you. I'm receiving because in communion, I'm offering myself to him as he's offering Himself to me. That's why he said, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. There's an intimacy. I come and I bring my whole world, my universe, all my problems, all my ailments, all the people I'm praying for. I come and I offer this to Jesus and I receive him. There's an interaction, there's an offering of oneself to the other, like an intimacy, like a husband and wife. So this is. You felt something so precious, so beautiful, so intimate with our Lord, it's an exchange. Okay, so this is what he's telling us. I'm receiving you as you are receiving. And we take him and we bring him out to the world. This is the. The most beautiful thing. I receive him. And now it's my duty to show the whole world who he is, the love that he invites me to. His arms that are stretched, waiting for me.
- [37:51]
Bryce Crawford
Now, if. If a believer is. Says, like, if I came to you, and I said, hey, Father, this past week, I feel like. I feel cloudy in my thoughts. I feel like I'm having a hard time hearing the Lord, maybe reading the Scriptures, understanding the Scriptures, digesting them. Name. Name a few issues I feel like I'm having.
- [38:12]
Father Lazarus
Sure.
- [38:13]
Bryce Crawford
Would you think. Do you think that the Scriptures would say, hey, maybe the reason is. Are you partaking in the Eucharist? And I would say, I haven't been partaking in the Eucharist.
- [38:23]
Father Lazarus
It's a combination of things. We, even when we're partaking of the Eucharist, like I. I partake of the Eucharist every day by God's grace. And it's not a boast. It's really because I. It's a. My medicine.
- [38:33]
Bryce Crawford
Yeah.
- [38:33]
Father Lazarus
Because I need it. So I still get those cloudy thoughts. I still get tempted. My mind wanders here and there, and I need to fight and make sure my. I'm bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I still have to battle pride all the time. I'm a sinner. So not just because we're not taking communion, but we are still in the flesh. And this is why we need to partake of it regularly. Because he said, given for the remission of sins. Whenever do we hear the word remission, something is in remission. It's usually about cancer, right? Somebody who had cancer, they got the treatment and their cancer is in remission, right? Well, he used that word very clearly to tell us. It's like sin. Sin is always trying to wreak in our lives, wreak its havoc in our lives. It's like a sickness and it's a remedy to fix what we did from the very beginning. Wrong. Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God. They ate, sinned, separated and died. This is the remedy. Obey. Take. Eat of it, all of you. For this is my body, given for the remission of sins. So obey. Eat, drink. Given for the remission of sins. It's called communion. To bring us back into union with God. Right? And then he said, he who eats this bread will live forever. Give us eternal life. So this is part of my relationship with Christ. It's not just communion that's going to give me salvation. It's not just believing in God that's going to give me salvation. It's not just confessing with my mouth and believing, believing in my heart. We don't want to cheapen my relationship with God to a sentence that's so cheap. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he was raised from the dead, you'll be saved. Okay, That's a big part of it. Yes. But then if you read the next verse, it says, for one believes unto righteousness, I have to be living what I believe. And we know we have to follow every command. The Lord said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word. Every word. So if Jesus commands us to partake, it's every word. If the scriptures tell us, confess your sins to one another, that's part of every word. If Jesus said, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, that's every word. Okay. Every word.
- [41:02]
Bryce Crawford
Yeah. I love that you said that because even when you hinted back, I was thinking of this as you were bringing up Matthew 7. Depart from me. Immediately after that, Jesus says, build your foundation on the rock. Build it on the rock. Exactly what you're saying. Like, hey, if you want to avoid that. Yes, almost. If you want to avoid that, build your foundation on the rock, which is me.
- [41:25]
Father Lazarus
Hear all these sayings and does them. Yeah, that's built the building, the foundation. The rock is Christ. And on top of that, the apostles we were built and the churches on top of. So it's building on Christ. He is the foundation. But he said, what is building? He who hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his foundation.
- [41:47]
Bryce Crawford
That's why I love even too, that you were bringing up not only the saints, but like, the disciples of the disciples. Like, I grew up learning about sola scriptura, but as I've gone along, I'm like, well, I don't want to just know what the scripture says. I want to see what the guys that walked with the guys that walked Jesus, I want to know what they think about this issue. I want to know what they're thinking. If it comes to baptism, confession, the eucharistic, whatever it may be, these guys probably know something that I don't. Especially with the time period we're in, the technology we have, the things that we have at our fingertips, the progression of society, it's like, I don't. And I think that's why I'm so beginning to be convicted. I love just the freedom we have in America to be bold for Jesus, to be able to go, I'm a Christian in the streets. And people go, you know, I love you.
- [42:40]
Father Lazarus
You do you? Yeah, yeah.
- [42:41]
Bryce Crawford
It's like, to a sense, I'm like, thanks, you know, but then again, it's like, I want you to know the same thing I have. But also, I'm like, the beauty of tradition and the beauty of sacraments is becoming more and more important to me. And in particular, you just brought up a moment ago, confession.
- [42:58]
Father Lazarus
Yes.
- [42:59]
Bryce Crawford
And I would love for you to talk about that. I know we were talking a little bit about it earlier, but.
- [43:03]
Father Lazarus
Well, confession, part of it is discipleship. Part of it is receiving absolution. The Lord breathed into the face of the disciples and he said to them, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. So why would he give this to them? God is the one who forgives. Well, we see this played out even in the early church, in the Book of Acts, in the story of Ananias and Sapphira, right. They did a sin against God. They lied to the holy spirit. But St. Peter was trying to get them to confess. He asked the wife, did you sell it for this much? This is between her and God. No, he was trying to get her to confess. Had she confessed, she wouldn't have died instantly.
- [43:46]
Podcast Sponsor/Ad Reader
Right?
- [43:48]
Father Lazarus
So we see confession, it says that people came to be baptized by John the Baptist, confessing their sins. In John, chapter four, it says in James, you confess your sins to one another and pray for another, that you may be healed. Right. So confession is a beautiful thing we were talking about. You know, I'm not trying to bring up some. I'm not going to put names out there, but like some of these giants in, like, the evangelical world, that at the end of the life we saw a fall from grace or some people that are really well known, a fall from grace. Had they been confessing regularly, could have that been alleviated, maybe. I agree. I think when we have confession, we're humbling ourselves. We are talking about the thoughts that we have. So it's not just when I sin, it's my intentions. We have this prayer, we say, purify our thoughts, purify our intentions, heal our sicknesses, forgive us our sins. Like we say, forgive us our sins that we commit willingly and unwillingly, knowingly and unknowingly. The hidden and manifest. Like, we are scrutinizing every facet of our heart to make sure that my heart, my mind. Because the Lord said what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. That means what? I have to be scrutinizing every detail of my heart, soul, mind. And if there is a little step this way, and if I'm not confessing, if I'm not confiding in someone that's guiding me and praying for me, and his sole goal for me is my salvation. So what am I missing out on? And I think a lot of churches now are coming with the small groups and accountability partners. And I think this is a way to kind of move back. But, like, that's the thing, you know, you came to this beautiful realization. You came to this church and this pastor that's like, we need to go back and we're doing this wrong. This is the beauty of being part of an apostolic church. I don't have to go back. We are living in the back. We're living in the ancient times. Like people, when they step into our church, they feel like they stepped into the third and fourth century. We literally have churches still standing from the third century and fourth century in Egypt, right? So there's this line of martyrdom. There's a trail of blood from the very beginning all the way till today. We were even killed by other Christians when we split off from the Byzantine and the Roman Catholic Church at the time, we were slaughtered by them. So we have this trail of blood. That's till today. We've kept this faith. We don't have to figure it out. I don't have to. And we have the writings of these early church fathers. So as we said from the very beginning, like when Sola scriptura was touted and taught two early reformers, they disagreed. That shows how sola scriptura fails because it's about the interpretation. So instead of me trying to figure it out, let's look what the ancient church said and what the Holy Spirit has guided the church to always teach. That's the promise of the Lord. The gates of Hades will never prevail against it. And the Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that are said. Holy Spirit will always guide the church. So there has to be a trail all the way back. That's where you find security, and that's where you feel really you're being discipled in the right way.
- [47:19]
Bryce Crawford
So let's say I'm thinking Practically here, someone falls to sin and they go, okay, well, now I need to go and confess and I need to partake in that sacrament. And then a couple hours later, they have a heart attack before they're able to confess. What is the perspective, the idea behind that?
- [47:44]
Father Lazarus
Yeah, look, God knows the intention of the heart. If my heart is heading in the right direction, let's say, forgive me, to kind of use an extreme example. Let's say somebody's watching what we're doing presenting today, and they weren't presented before that. The Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ. But some of the things they heard today, they're like, hey, wait a second, I may have missed the boat on this. I think I want to look into this more. And let's say that's the moment they pass for sure. I know God, knowing the God that's merciful and loving, he loves people more than we will ever imagine, right? I mean, look what he did to die for us. No greater love does one have, right? So, of course, God, in his mercy, he meets people where they are. But my job is always to be heading in the right direction. This is why St. Anthony the Great. St. Anthony is the first Christian monk. He was an Egyptian. He came to the church after his parents passed away at 19 years old. And he didn't know what to do. Depressed, you know, sorrowful. His parents died, he. And he was pretty well off. But he comes to the church and he's like, okay, I'm going to hear the gospel of the day. Because every liturgy, we have a gospel reading and Pauline, Epistle, Catholic Epistle, Acts, and several other readings. Here's the gospel that he says. When the Lord told the rich young ruler, if you want to be perfect, go sell all that you have, give to the poor and come and follow me. He said, this is it. This is my message. He sells everything he has at 19 and he goes and he lives a life of devotion. And he starts the monastic movement. Beautiful, rich history. Some of the great, beautiful stories of the Desert fathers all started because of this man. God's work in this man. So St. Anthony said, if you wake up every day telling yourself, this may be the last day I live on this earth. And if you go to sleep every night telling yourself, this may be the last night I ever sleep, and if you live like this, you will be prepared for the Lord. So we keep. And this is why we pray unceasingly. The Bible tells us, you know, to pray unceasingly. We have this beautiful prayer it's called an arrow prayer. It's a little prayer that we shoot up as little arrows, daggers up to heaven. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. I said, lord Jesus Christ. This is something that people can. Throughout the day, as they're driving, as they're in a. In a, you know, tough situation in the workplace. Something I love to do is I make a little cross with my finger like this as I'm sitting. I just. I do this and I remind myself, my Lord Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price because he loves me and I'm holding his hand. Somebody taught me this years and years ago. It's as if I'm holding his hand. I was reminding myself he's always with me. If I'm going through a situation where somebody's talking to me and I feel tense, I just do this, and I feel like I'm holding Christ's hand.
- [50:51]
Bryce Crawford
No, with confession in particular, the psalmist David writes, someone there, nice. Search my heart, God. Almost, like, reveal to me the areas of my life where I may be blind.
- [51:05]
Father Lazarus
Yes.
- [51:08]
Bryce Crawford
What if someone, when it comes to partaking in confession, you know, they're thinking of it from a practical standpoint of like, oh, well, I didn't look at this person lustfully, and I didn't do this thing, and I didn't do that thing. They're not thinking about it like that. How can someone practice confession in a way, like King David? It's like, hey, God, you know, I'm trying to diagnose my heart right now. Can you just reveal to me areas I may be.
- [51:35]
Father Lazarus
And this. I'm glad you brought up King David, because when did he realize his error? When Nathan the prophet came and told him, like, even King David, the man after God's own heart, after he, you know, impregnated Bathsheba, killed her off her husband, you know, ended up marrying her. He was. He was fine. He was still King David. Yeah. Maybe even wrote some psalms in that time. Right. But he didn't recognize his error until Nathan told him, oh, there's travesty in your kingdom. What happened? It was two men, two neighbors, one very rich man who had many sheep. And he saw his neighbor who had one lamb, and it was like his own daughter, and he had a guest coming in, visiting him, and instead of taking one of his sheep to slaughter, he took the lamb of his neighbor. And who is this man? He must. You are that. So this is what the father confessed. It's not just what I'm not doing, all right? I didn't do This, I didn't do this. And what I am doing, it's not just that. Like, I've, you know, I've been tempted to watch some things that I don't like and this and that. Like, it's. How can I become Christ? This is. This is salvation in the orthodox perspective. It's not being just being saved. Now I. One day I'll go to heaven. That's not salvation. Salvation is to be crucified with Christ, to die with Christ, to be united with Christ, to be one with Christ. No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This is salvation to us as you grow, Father. Confession, it takes us step by step, discipling us little by little. He gives us the milk first, little by little, solid food, then the meat, and we're growing. My Father of confession, I'll tell you a funny story. My Father of confession, he said the. The last thing I ever imagined. This is a very holy, spiritual man. He said, you know what? I want you to download a game and play. Start playing some puzzle games on your. Your phone. I'm like, what? Like, I, you know, I look to him for prayer and he's tell. Giving me like a prayer rule and like, when you know how to do service and this and that and keep a mindset and all these things they want you to. That's even like, look at the beauty and the care. Like, honestly, that made me love this man so much more because he. He knows, like, he feels. He felt like, I need a break a little bit here and there and try to take some time just to kind of place. I was, I was like, so happy. I'm like, really? I had to hear it again. I say that again. Abuna. Abuna means father in Arabic. Do that again. He said, yeah, I want you to play some puzzle, puzzle, Puzzle games. You know, just get like, oh, my gosh, this is so cool.
- [54:16]
Bryce Crawford
What kind of puzzle games do you play?
- [54:17]
Father Lazarus
I play this block puzzle. Block Master.
- [54:20]
Bryce Crawford
Block Blaster.
- [54:21]
Father Lazarus
Block Blaster. That's what I.
- [54:24]
Bryce Crawford
That one's great. Yeah. Block Blaster is awesome. They got that on the plane too. You know, you can play it on the screen. Yeah, that one's good. That's awesome. That's so cool. Something that you have at your church consistently, I've seen not only outside, but inside are these statues of Jesus representing mat. And I know we mentioned it at the beginning, but that was also another thing I really wanted to talk to you about, because I think we skip over in the book of James when he talks about Partiality a lot. I think we do. And that is such a prime, beautiful example that you guys are reaching here, teaching here, the interaction even. It was so funny this morning when we were walking in as you were showing me the statue, that lady that you guys had given Emile standing right there. And I'm just, glory to God, man. This, These. It just breaks my heart that I personally feel like in America, you grow up and you say, hey, don't talk to the homeless guy, because all they want is to use your money for bad stuff. And like I shared with you earlier, it breaks my heart. Now, being a believer and reading that scripture, that was one of the first scriptures that shook me to the core. It shakes me to the core still this day, reading it over and over again. It's not just the fact that God's going to separate the sheep and the goats. It's the fact that Jesus, when the goats, they asked, they're like, when do we ever see you in that position? Like, what are you talking about? What do you mean? Like, you were naked and you needed clothes. What do you mean you were in prison and we didn't visit you? Like, when did we ever see you there? And when Jesus says how you would treat them, you would treat me. That shook me to the core again, like, going like, dang, I don't want these. The weight of that is beautiful. Particularly the prison thing, too. My local church back from where I grew up in Georgia, they have a location inside of the state prison, and I got the opportunity to go visit those guys. And the hope that they carry convicted me as a comfortable American that gets to go home, gets to drive my car, gets to eat at the restaurant. The hope that they have. The hope that some of these homeless people carry is unmatchable in comparison to sometimes. The hope that I have for, you know, myself, because I know me and you know you. You know, the beauty of it, I think, is so important. Why is it so important that we serve the least of these? According to Matthew 25, It's Jesus, he said, that's me.
- [57:18]
Father Lazarus
That's me. And what you do to them, you're doing it to. It's not as if you're doing it to me or a symbol of doing it to me. You are literally doing it to me so we can meet Christ in. That's actually our ministry. We called ourselves initially, before we became Christ, the Good Shepherd Church. We started off as a homeless ministry and we called it Meet Christ ministry. I meet Christ and I'm to portray Christ so they are to meet Christ in me and I meet Christ in me. And we honor them, cherish them, and we love them and we're not to judge them. Even if I see somebody doing something wrong. Even. I mean the fact that. Think of this one like when the Lord said I was naked in your clothed. Who are usually the people that we see naked in the streets. It's somebody so gone, so far gone mentally, like we feel sorry for them. Like they must have just done a tremendous amount of drugs or just severely mentally ill. They're naked. They're just standing there naked. Jesus says, that's me or the prisoner. Like not everybody in prison is in prison for a lofty reason or like, you know, a noble reason. I would say probably 99.999% of the people there are not there for the right reasons. And he said, that's me. So he really wants us to look at everyone through his eyes. Yeah. And he's searching for every lost sheep. We're not to judge, we are to love. Yes. We do it with wisdom. Not saying haphazardly just give out tons of cash to everybody. Not saying that. But if you want to love and serve them, you will find a way. You'll find a way.
- [58:59]
Bryce Crawford
I agree. Yeah. And you know, I love the ministry that you guys have for the homeless and I love getting to have conversations with them as well because they're people, you know, and I think it's important.
- [59:09]
Father Lazarus
Like they're not just people. It's Christ. It is, it's Christ.
- [59:13]
Bryce Crawford
And the price, the price God puts on my life, your life, anyone's life is his own. The price is the same. It's consistent. But when I got to go visit that prison that I shared his state, those brothers there that are, that are following Jesus, it was shocking to me how much hope that they had in particular this prison. Many of the men in this prison are there, life without parole, like they're there forever. And the warden at Haystate is just an incredible God fearing man who has helped allow my local church back at home to go in there. And I got the opportunity to go into the cell blocks where they stay and we went into this one cell block and they're all just high fiving. Oh man, so good to see you. What a great morning. Like worshiping the Lord. They're on their knees crying out with the little that they have. And I'm just like, man, I am so comfortable. I'm so comfortable and so convicted. And I think that's the biggest thing for me too. Is this, like, this constant state of conviction? I feel like every time I interact with people that fit the description of who Jesus says are the least of these, I am blessed more absolutely than me thinking, oh, I'm about to be the blessing of this person. I feel like I am blessed more.
- [60:47]
Father Lazarus
I agree with you.
- [60:49]
Bryce Crawford
The conversations, the gentleness, the kindness, it's so holy. And I don't want to lose that. How do we not lose that?
- [60:59]
Father Lazarus
I think we have to maintain the relationship with Christ. See how he dealt with everyone. Look how he dealt with a sin or woman caught in adultery or the Samaritan woman. Right. Look how he was so delicate with these people. The man born blind, the least of these. And we see how he elevated. I mean, Gospel of John is probably the most important gospel and maybe even the peak of all of scriptures. The fact there will be, like, a whole chapter dedicated to a Samaritan woman. A whole, like, almost a whole chapter dedicated to a man born blind. You know, a significant amount of a chapter dedicated to the paralyzed man. Like, I mean, this is the Gospel of John. This is like, what's supposed to change the whole world. And look how important an individual, one single person, how the Lord spent this beautiful time, this interaction, so delicate. So we can't write anybody off.
- [61:54]
Bryce Crawford
Yeah.
- [61:55]
Father Lazarus
And who knows? Like, maybe that's. That's my. I. I really believe that Christ appears in the homeless, like, sometimes He Himself, like, because we know we. We can entertain angels. In the book of Hebrews, it says that. But I do believe that there are times that even Christ himself appears.
- [62:13]
Bryce Crawford
I agree. Even that. Even that John, chapter four, with the woman at the well. It's like, why are we going this route? I've got to stop somewhere. It's so intentional on how he focuses on people. And that makes me the same way I feel about my salvation. God met me on a night that I thought was my end. All, be all. And, you know, I think, like, the, you know, just blanket statement of God is, oh, he's got a lot on his plate. He's not thinking about me. But the intentionality of the Father is so precise, and it cuts perfectly.
- [62:55]
Father Lazarus
Yes.
- [62:55]
Bryce Crawford
And I'm grateful for that. Don't want to lose that. And I agree with you. I think he does. I believe he does as well. Up here, I want. I wanted to. To kind of close with. I wanted to know if there's, like, a particular passage or a scripture that really rests on your heart. I know Matthew 25 is one of those, but is there.
- [63:19]
Father Lazarus
There's two sorry.
- [63:22]
Bryce Crawford
Yeah. Do you.
- [63:25]
Father Lazarus
You are the one he loves. John, chapter 11. When the message to our Lord was, he whom you love is sick. The one you love. It didn't tell him. Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha from the town of Bethany, the one you visited on this day, you know he's sick. Please come and heal him. He whom you love is so. You are the one. He loves us, every one of us individually. And when our Lord was on the cross, he was thinking of me. When he was taking the bread and breaking and said, this is my body. He said, this is broken for you and for many. He was thinking of me. Each one of us individually. He never has too much on his plate. You are the only thing before him. You're the only one before him. The longest conversation for the Samaritan woman. The longest conversation our Lord had with anyone recorded with this Samaritan woman. A sinner, a Samaritan and a woman, Right? So every person, every lost sheep, everything that we're going through is so important. So you are the one he loves. Another one. There's two more.
- [64:39]
Bryce Crawford
Sorry.
- [64:40]
Father Lazarus
Do it. Do it. Our Holy Mother, St. Mary. I feel like sometimes in the evangelical world, the pendulum swung so far too, because maybe there are some things in some language that was used, maybe in the Catholic tradition, like calling her co Redeemer and things like this evangelical world took such a harsh stance and went the opposite. She's so beautiful. She's a mother to us. She's so lovely. And her whole life is to point to Christ. If we can summarize her whole life, it's in one sentence. Whatever he says to you, do it. We see her in this light. She's just a tool. She's our mother. She's the mother of God. And even this is biblical because even it says, behold, the virgin will give birth to a child. The Virgin St. Mary give birth to a child. And his name will be called Immanuel. Which means what? God with us. God with us. The virgin is the mother of Emmanuel. The virgin is the mother of God with us. It's biblical. It's not wrong to call her the mother of God. Jesus is God with us. So her whole life, she is like the moon. She's reflecting the light of the sun unto us, pointing to her son. Whatever he says to you, do. And she intercedes. We saw that there in the wedding. She interceded. Those who are in heaven, it says in Hebrews, chapter 11. These, you know, talks about all the heroes of the faith. At the end of chapter 11 it says, and they will not be made. They will not be perfected apart from us. They will not be perfected apart from us. It means we are together, we united. We are one body in Christ, the saints and us. And then it says, we are in 1st of 12. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, therefore, so the chapters came later. But this is all one big passage. These heroes, Abraham and Moses and all these heroes, they will not be perfected apart from us. That means united with us. And they're surrounding us. Hebrews 12. We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witness. So this is the role of the saints and our Holy Mother too. They are not dead. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Okay, so he is the God of the living. They're praying for us. There's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Want us to repent. The other passage that I want to share, Luke, chapter 12 says, what the Lord will do for us, why our Lord created us. He said, do not fear, little flock. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you. God created us to give us the kingdom, including himself. And what will he do in the kingdom? It says later on, blessed are those servants whom the Master will come. When he finds them watching, he will come, bring them, have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. Our Lord wants to serve his children for eternity. This is heaven to God. This is heaven to God.
- [68:11]
Bryce Crawford
Would you pray for not just us, but everyone watching and listening?
- [68:16]
Father Lazarus
Sure. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. We love you and we praise you and we glorify you. We thank you, Lord, for your great glory, your great love. Thank you, Lord, for my brother Bryce and his brothers that he brought with him here, Lord, to serve. Thank you, Lord, for all the work that he's doing. Continue to allow him to glorify your name and to fill his heart with your love and joy. And all those who are watching, and myself included, that we love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. And to love our neighbor as ourselves. And to see you in each and every individual, even those who seem so far. Even those, Lord, who think that they hate you. We know, Lord, that they are doing this in ignorance. They do not know what they're doing. As you prayed on the cross, help us, Lord, to have the devotion and the love that these 21 martyrs had for your to be willing to lay down our life because you said there is no greater love than to lay down one's life. As you showed us this, Lord, let us lay down our life for you and others, Lord. We pray, Lord, for people to open their hearts to really understanding what the Eucharist is all about, to receive you in a mystery that we can't explain, but that you are offering to us yourself in bread and wine, in words that fall short, Lord. But we know, Lord, and we recognize you are with us and you have never left us. And this is not just a memorial because you are gone, but you are truly present with us. Let us devote our hearts to you, Lord, and change this world. We see, Lord, so much destruction, so much division, so much hatred, Lord, Reveal, Lord, your beauty, your light to the world. Use us, Lord, as tools to be a little piece of heaven, walking and showing others, Lord, what heaven is. As you are living in us and that your name is glorified and that you increase and we decrease. We pray this through your holy and precious name. And as all the angels and the saints are praying with us, hear us, oh Lord, as we pray in the way that you taught us, saying Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, Christ Jesus, our Lord. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
- [70:47]
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