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Ryan Gradosky (3:11)

Welcome to a numbers game with Ryan Gradosky. Thank you guys for being here. We are one week away from Christmas and if you are like me, you are not ready at all. This weekend is going to be a marath marathon in the life of Ryan Graduski to try to get everything ready in the last few days and make it all seem pretty effortless. And so if you're, if you're by any stretch of the imagination, see me running through a mall or store and a complete panic, just look. Just. No, I don't always look like that. Before I get to my topic, I have some pretty funny gossip that I think you guys will like. I was invited to a cool Christmas party that I wanted to tell you about. I was invited to the Mediate Christmas party. Media is kind of a lefty, center left website that covers all things media. So I got the invitation last week and I immediately thought, okay, this is either a mistake, which they followed up and said it was a mistake, or that it was gonna be a very D list event because, you know, I know I was invited, so I couldn't have possibly been like a very cool thing. But expectations weren't high going in. I went thinking, okay, it's gonna be a bunch of bloggers or whatnot. And I walk in the door and the first person, first two people I see is Joe and M from Morning Joe. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then Brian Stelter from CNN walks in right behind me. I just, all of a sudden it dinged on me, like, it's not going to be a D list party, it's going to be a liberal party and I am the token conservative that was invited. That's why I thought walking in and I was immediately scrambling like, okay, who on earth is going to talk to me for the next hour while I just have a glass of wine circle, try to find the host of the party and thank them for inviting me Because I'm never really invited to a lot of events. So I wanted to at least thank them for inviting me with the hopes that, you know, I would be invited to something else in the future. So I see Joe Amica, who I saw actually at a party in 2012. It was a Fox News MSNBC mixer in 2012 ahead of the New Hampshire Republican primary. And this is when Joe, Mika were just colleagues, even though that they very clearly in front of everybody else didn't seem to be colleagues. Anyway, so I'm circling the room and I'm trying to find somebody who will like maybe one other conservative or center right person. And I see Scott Jennings from CNN sitting down in the corner and he's talking to somebody. And I'm always under the assumption that no one knows who I am. I just feel like, you know, because I work so much by myself and I don't, you know, I'm not always like stopped or whatever. Once in a while it happens. But I walk up to Scott Jennings and I just put out my hand. I go, hi, I'm Ryan Garduski. He just goes, yeah, I know, I know you are. You're kind of very well known on CNN among CNN circles. Anyway, couldn't have been nicer, a little more subdued in real life than I thought he was. Because some of these people who are very like show businessy, even in the political media world, they're like, you know, they are very performative even in private. And he's not like that. He was very real, kind of just hung out, really real guy. And there was a guy sitting next to him and I who is this person? Like, why is this guy chatting his ear up? So when the guy got up, I go, who is that? He goes, oh, it's, you know, it's an agent. And he, you know, I was throwing his card at me or whatever and I realized that almost all of the talent, or not all of them, I would say at least half of the talent was there with their agents. And the agents were like walking them around to meet certain people. And I was like, this is like extremely. This is like watching an owner of a prize horse, like showing them different people. It was very weird. Anyway, I see Megan Kelly and she couldn't have been nice. Her. I was a complete and just asked her to come back on her show. I was like, have me back. And Vicki, people from the podcast were there too. Vicki Ward, I had her on about Epstein. She was great. She's working on a new book about Luigi Menace. Scott, mangioni, That's Luigi Mangioni, the killer. So we were talking about that for a little while, and I saw Alex Thompson from Axios. We're talking about the Bidens, and he's working on all these stories about the 2028 Democratic primary. So we're talking about Gavin Newsome, you know, sharing funny stories about what he's like. And then I. I run into girl, and she must have been, like, 25 years old, something like that. 25 to 30, that range. And she just goes to me, you know, new York's not the scene that it used to be. And I was like, who are you? Like Fran Lebowitz, who used to hang out with Andy Warhol in the 70s and now you're not. I'm like, when was the scene? And she's like, 2015. And I'm like, I. These people are just young people who think they've been through more than they have. Just exhaust me anyway. And then this is the kind of crazy thing. So I. As I'm leaving, I see someone else who a journalist who I know I'm not gonna name his name because I don't want to give him, you know, publicity. But he was. His company that he had worked for at the time was ruthless to me when the whole CNN episode happened last year. So I just say hello briefly, because I'm like, you know, I'm not gonna be rude. And he was talking to Ari Melbourne, who was just being. He's just being a. Someone very, very interested in himself. And I said to him. I said to him, oh, I've been on your. I was on your show, like, 10 years ago. And he was like, my show wasn't existed for 10 years. I'm okay, it was 2017, whatever that math is. That's when I was on your show. Very, very, you know, smart guy. Anyway, the reporter who has been not very kind to me throughout the last year or his company has not been very kind to me, he ends the conversation by saying, if you have any scoops, please pass them my way. And I was like, I would never give you a scoop. Your outlet is left wing trash, and you've done nothing besides trash me. Why would I give you scoops? Which is just. It is so commonplace for journalists who are so under the belief that, yeah, I could trash you, but we're all friends. We're all kind of in the business together or whatever, whatever they believe. I was like, this is the worst kinds of people. So that was the really cool scoop of the entire story. And you know the media and. And just the people who still work there. I thought it was really funny. My audience would enjoy it, but I wanted to. So I want to tell you guys about that, and I wanted to take a second to talk to you about what is upcoming, which is Christma. And, you know, it's not just about Christmas parties and shopping and wrapping gifts and trying to take the season in as much as possible. So I want to talk about. About the faith and about faith in particular. I know it's not a religious podcast, but it is, I think, appropriate given the season. I am Catholic. I put it in my bio in part because I got so tired of people calling me a fat Jew on Twitter, and I thought that, oh, maybe they'll mix it up and call me a fat Italian. But it hasn't really worked out. Anyway, I am Catholic. I was born and raised in the faith. I briefly kind of walked away from it during college and the end of high school, I guess, as a lot of people do, and came back to one of my own accord. And as I've continued to age and as I break down data a lot, I noticed how important matters of faith and religion are and how much they are like. Religion is like a muscle, right? So if you only go to the gym two or three times a year and you quit every few months, this is someone. Someone like me. If you. If you're not super diligent, you're not going to see gains. You may be able to put off some weight, but you're not going to see gains. Like you. And if you're somebody who only tepidly or randomly attends church and only prays, really, with an airplane is about to take off and the doors close, you're probably not educating yourself that much on faith. You're probably not developing a deep relationship. You're probably not. And I say this as a Catholic who both has done a lot of work on faith and still has a lot to do. So no judgment on it, but you're probably not getting to a place where you. You feel very strongly about it, and you can't get to a place of deep devotion, let alone exploring the really interesting things like mysticism or miracles or other stuff if you don't put the work in. And I know religion gets a very bad rap. People make a lot of false claims about religion that they're all the same or that they're responsible for all the history of all the wars in the world and that, you know, they've only been negative. It's only been A negative institution that has worked to divide, divide people and break down people and use for powerful men to just kind of, you know, control everything. And I, I remember this a long time ago and I've never told this story before. A long, long time ago I was campaigning for a candidate running for office. And as most of my life story has been. And there was a woman there and she had run in the Democratic primary and for I think city council or something like that lost. And she was it with like. And this is a long time ago. So like one of the first purple haired, you know, they thems I've ever seen before. And they were the, they them, the super liberal was going after them about religion. And this woman, this Democrat who had run for office like owned in a very, like, in a very substantial way owned this like very progressive person who clearly hated religion. And she said she was just giving a brief history on the Catholic Church in New York City in the last 30 years. Things that I did not know, things that people kind of bypass. She was specifically talking, and this was a gay person, she was talking about the AIDS epidemic. And she's like, the only places that would take AIDS patients was the Catholic Church, Catholic hospitals. She's like, it was the nuns who were doing the work that the government refused to do. And I don't remember every detail she laid because she laid it on one after the other failure. And this was, you know, over 10 years ago. But I was, was, I was very taken aback about how this woman, who is probably, you know, center left, she was clearly a Democrat, was able to stand up for her faith and not interfere with her politics and was able to sit there and stand up for in the face of somebody where it would have been so convenient to join them and say, no, this is a force for good. And I wanted to present my audience with some numbers that she wanted thinking about that. So here are some, some numbers on why religion in your life, in your society, is a force for good. Students who attend church as a high school senior more often are the most likely students to have A's. This has been true since 1976. 42% of millennials who attend church weekly are reported to be very happy, compared to just 22% who never attend church. The most likely to person to attend church, by the way, is a college degree holder, according to the Manhattan Institute. They found that church attendance by Republicans is linked to lower levels of feeling of racism, anti Semitism and conspiracy theories. In other words, to attend church is to have a greater level of social trust than those who do not attend. Christians who attend Mass frequently are more likely to say it's good to be alive. That they are a person of worth of the future doesn't seem like it's hopeless compared to zealot atheists. These are not people who just fall away from religion. These are people who actively hate religion. Those people have significantly more likely to say that life is hopeless and that they aren't very useful. You even see this in conversations with like zoomers and millennials about children, those who want to have children and those who, you know, maybe they can't find a partner, maybe they put it off, but they want to have children and they think that having children is important and good versus those who say the world's so bad or that, you know, it's, it's a plague on the world and the environment and the earth or whatnot. It's. You could. That's a very clear dividing line. And while religion is often correlated with poverty, it's. And that's true on a global scale, for sure. But In America in 2025, those who earn a hundred thousand dollars a year are more likely to attend Mass than those who make less than 50,000 years and $50,000 a year. And people who attend church frequently are more likely to give at least 2% of their income to charity. They're more, also more likely to live longer. And until the last decade, across the board, they were more likely to have social trust. It's a little wonky in some data on social trust recently, but, but certainly before then, they were more likely to trust people who look different than them and look the same as them. So if religion has all these benefits, these benefits to society, these benefits to yourself, why don't people participate more and why are people doing it less and less? I think because it's difficult. You know, it's one. It's easier to be lazy, which is why sloth is a sin. It's easier to, you know, sleep in on a Sunday or go to the park or hang out with friends or watch the football game. It's, it's difficult, it's time consuming. It's time to take out of your yourself and put somewhere like, and put in into someone else where you're not the center of attention, where you're not taking selfies, where you're not scrolling or doom scrolling or commenting snidely on Twitter like myself. You're placing your entire being in, you know, in a different, in a different realm when you're really focused and you're really there and you're, and you're, you're in that. I can't describe it anywhere else in that place. It's a special place where you are completely in tune with the mass, with the music, with lighting the candles, and with deep, deep prayer. And, you know, I get why it's hard and I get why people who have doubts say it's not for me or I'll figure it out once I get older, once I have children. A lot of people do, but some people don't. But if you're interested and if you're curious, it is like going to the gym. You have to really put the work in. I've always believed that faith is a journey. It's not a guilt trip. Nothing that I'm gonna say is gonna make you want to do it if you don't. But society, we as a people and us individually are better even if you have doubts, even if you're sitting there and saying, I don't know if everything that my church says is true. It's important to go because we as a community are better when we go together. And those countries that don't have high levels of social trust, like, especially the non homogenous countries, not like Denmark or Norway, which is no religious attendance, but everyone is basically of the same cultural background that they're able to sit there and, and continue. Levels of high social capital that's decreasing, like incredibly, at an incredibly fast rate because of immigration. But those who sit there and those people who have high levels of social trust is often, oftentimes correlated with religion. So I just would say this to my listeners. If you're looking back at last year and saying, you know, I had a great year, but I could have done some things differently. I could more. This is my biggest gripe is I didn't read enough this year. Or you're saying to yourself, I didn't go to the gym enough. I gained too much weight. And look for a second at your spirituality. Look for a second at where you've put faith this year. Look for a second how you've practiced and how you've shown yourself. Even if you say you're a Christian or you say you're, you know, proudly Jewish or whatnot. How did you display that to the world? How did you show that you are a leader of some sort of in your everyday life? How did you push and promote that to other people? That may be being preachy, but I know in the last couple years I've had a lot of guys, young men who've said to me like, I'm, I'm really thinking about being Catholic. And I've always said, like, I'm here, I want to talk to you. If you want to talk to me, I'll tell you the ups, the downs, things that I'm talking to one, one young guy right now who's 24 and he's evangelical and he said to me, you know, I, I'm thinking about becoming Catholic and I say, let me, let's talk about it. Let me show you by example and let me talk to you about the bigger things and help point you way if that's your place to be. So think about that and try to prioritize it for 20, 26. I think that is, I think that maybe if we're trying to move to a healthier place, both as individuals and as a society, I think religion plays a big part in that. So not to sound preachy, not to sound like I got it all figured out, because Lord knows I don't. I I think it's worth passing that message on as we're getting to the Christmas holiday and the Christmas season. So with that, I am having on as my very special guest, or the first time I think he's ever done a podcast, is My Priest. It's going to be great. It'll be very interesting. That's coming up next.

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Ryan Gradosky (22:02)

With me on today's episode is my priest Father Nick. Father Nick, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it.

Father Nick (22:08)

You're very welcome. Thank you for the invitation.

Ryan Gradosky (22:10)

So, Father Nick, you're the first priest I've ever had who's actually younger than me. When did you become a priest? When did you get decide that this was your life's journey?

Father Nick (22:20)

Well, I think I had, I sensed a vocation to the priesthood very, very young. So I went to parochial school and I, you know, began to serve Mass when right after I received communion, so about seven years old. And I always felt very close to the church and very interested in what the church was doing, especially at Mass. And so after I graduated high school, I wanted to see if the seminary was something that was for me. And so I joined, and it kind of went from there. So I was ordained 10 years ago in 2015.

Ryan Gradosky (22:57)

And you studied for a long time in Rome.

Father Nick (23:01)

Correct. So after I finished my philosophy studies at St. John's I went to the Pontifical North American College in Rome, which is the. The US Bishop Seminary next to the Vatican, and I studied at the Gregorian University. I did another Bachelor in Theology. And then after that, I studied for four more years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, received a graduate degree from there. And then after that, I studied at Catholic University and I got another master's degree in Biblical Languages. So Semitic languages.

Ryan Gradosky (23:33)

Yeah. When I met Father Nick, he said that he spoke, I guess, eight languages, but then he said, but seven of them are dead or something like that.

Father Nick (23:40)

Yes, yes, exactly. Yes, most of them are dead.

Ryan Gradosky (23:42)

So that's extremely useful.

Father Nick (23:44)

No, no, in my biblical stuff.

Ryan Gradosky (23:46)

Yeah, yeah, of course. And you know what? It's great because when Father Nick does his homilies, a lot of times he will discuss the language used in the writings and how the English translation doesn't always manifest as accurately as it pro. Possibly should have, or could have in the dead language.

Father Nick (24:03)

Sure. Right. So obviously, the. The Bible was originally written in various languages. So we know that the Old Testament returns written in Hebrew and Aramaic. And then the original language of the New Testament was what we would say, Koine Greek, which was a dialect of Ancient Greek. And so studying and being familiar with the ancient languages, I think helps us to really approximate the meaning better of the Scriptures than from just a translation. Because there's an Italian saying that every translator is also a traitor, because when you translate something, you're sort of somewhat removed from the original text. And so learning the original languages kind of allows you to sort of get the original flavor of what the author wanted to convey to the audience. And so that's why it's helpful to know a little bit about the original languages of the Scripture.

Ryan Gradosky (24:59)

And this not to be a Catholic supremacist for any Protestant fans of mine, but this is why a priest is so much more important than private study groups with just a circle of friends who are all reading the English dialect.

Father Nick (25:12)

Sure. So, again, you know, it's good. I mean, faith sharing. I mean, the Scripture is the word of God, so it does have something to say to each and every one of us by virtue of our faith. But it's Bible study, and really delving into the different meanings of Scripture through knowledge of the original text brings you to a fuller knowledge. And so, you know, there are only a very few people that are capable of doing that. And so I do feel somewhat privileged to be able to read the scriptures in the original. But, you know, that's the knowledge that I'm very happy to share with others.

Ryan Gradosky (25:50)

So my whole monologue was about the benefits of physical church. Right. Why attending an actual Mass, not just saying, I'm a Christian or I'm a Catholic who never shows up or maybe just shows up once a year. The benefits to someone's personal life, the benefits to society. And I have family members even who have sat there and said to me, why is it so important just to go to a church? Why can I not be just a more fulfilled, I guess, or a practicing Catholic who doesn't attend Mass? I could just read the Bible at home. Why is it important?

Father Nick (26:25)

Well, I think, you know, that really gets. Yeah, no, I think that gets at the nature of what scripture is and what the church. Church is because when Jesus ascended into heaven, he didn't leave us a Bible, he left us a church. He left us, for better or for worse, a juridical and hierarchical structure that we recognize even in extra biblical text and from tradition. So as Catholics, you know, Protestants have. Martin Luther was very famous for saying sola scritura, which means only scripture. So his point of contention was, you know, there is a lot of corruption in the church. And the church, since perhaps the Middle Ages, has lost its way. It's not as pristine as the church as Jesus left it. And so what they did was they sort of abandoned the church structure as it was and went directly and only to sacred Scripture. But the problem with that, of course, is that, like I said, Jesus did not leave us us sacred Scripture. He left us the church, for better or for worse. And of course, the church is, you know, both human and divine. And so there are going to be problems. But the way we do that is not dispensing with church. It's trying to renew it with our own life. And so, you know, the scripture is something that the church itself has produced and has declared authentic and inspired. And so you can't have a Bible without a church, and you can't really have a church without a Bible. And so for Catholics, it's about not only scripture, it's about scripture and tradition. Tradition meaning what the Lord left us in terms of liturgy and sacraments and teachings. I mean, even at the end of the Gospel of John, he says, but there are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself would not contain the books that would have been written. And so again, there's much more to our faith than Scripture. I mean, obviously, Scripture is as talented, revelation, very, very important. But Christ calls us to a communion, to a community of faith. And the community of faith is fully expressed in our common worship and in our common gathering on Sunday. It's a commandment. And so for people that say, you know, I just want to read scripture or pray by myself, well, that's not obeying the commandment to keep holy, the Sabbath. Because from the earliest times, Christians prayed together. That was the whole point. And if you see, even in the Acts of the Apostles, the way in which the first Christians lived was in community. And they shared everything and they prayed together. And that's just a reflection of what we believe about who God is in himself, in the Holy Trinity. It's not just sort of a being that is turned in on himself. It is a communion, a community of persons that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so the communion or the community of believers expresses the fullness of our faith when we come together on Sunday and when we read Scripture and when we practice tradition as a community. And so that, you know, there's an important ecclesiology, fundamentally that somebody that would say, okay, well, I'm just going to practice this by myself. That kind of go. Goes against that ecclesiology.

Ryan Gradosky (29:54)

So, I mean, we're coming on to the Christmas, for coming up to Christmas faster than I am prepared for it. What? And a lot of people will be going to mass one of the two or three times a year they ever attend. Attend?

Father Nick (30:06)

Yeah.

Ryan Gradosky (30:06)

What? And some will just not attend at all. Why. Why is in this important season, second most important, I guess, to Easter in. In. In the faith? Why is it. Why is regular attendance in a Mass I equated to working out? Right. If you go to the gym three times a year, you're not going to get, you know, as someone from experience who goes a little more than three times a year, but not much.

Father Nick (30:36)

Yeah.

Ryan Gradosky (30:39)

The more you kind of can go and spend time in your faith in some capacity, you're going to be able to really kind of. And as a man who studied a lot, kind of delve into the more the. The most interesting parts of the religion. If you're just getting the very basics of the life of Jesus and why it's important to do better, you can really go and actually be a fully part of it and understand it on a deeper level. That sometimes is above my head, but I know, but I can appreciate and I try to Learn as much as humanly possible. What. What is it? What would you say to somebody who just sits there and says, now take people who are just lazy and they can't wake up on Sunday, but take people who sit there and say, it's just not my thing. And I don't think that the church wants to accept people like me.

Father Nick (31:30)

Me?

Ryan Gradosky (31:31)

There are people like that? Sure.

Father Nick (31:33)

Yeah. Well, you know, again, the church is a mother that wants to embrace all of her children no matter what. And so people that might feel somewhat excluded or disenfranchised or a little shy about church for whatever reason. You know, church is there for people, for everyone, you know, who feels that there's some sort of lack of. Or disorder or trouble in their interior life. I mean, the church was made for sinners. It's made for people that feel lost. It's made for people precisely about whom you're describing. And I think that, you know, this season reminds us that just as God came down into this world in a very. In kind of in the midst of chaos, in the midst of darkness, that's what the Lord does even today. He. He enters into our life, or he wants to, at least. And he doesn't mind that our soul is a bit messy or chaotic or noisy or disordered, right? But because that's how he entered the world to begin with, right? He was not born in a palace. He was not born in a hotel, or, you know, there was even no room for him in the end. And so he was born in the midst of, you know, a manger with noise and smells and all kind of chaos, right? And so I think, you know, kind of maybe something to think about is the way in which St. Luke presents the birth of Christ. Because this is how the birth of Christ came about. And he describes the circumstances, I think, as a spiritual exercise. Maybe that's something that we can think about. You know, how does the birth of Christ come about in my life? Where do I feel the need to be loved or to be embraced? Or what's the brokenness in my life that needs to be healed? Or what's the chaos that needs Christ's peace? And so the Christmas season is a way or an invitation or a moment to really ponder that question. Because the Lord wants to enter into our lives. And again, he does that through the sacraments of the Church. Because the sacraments aren't just a ritual. They're not just something that we do over and over again because it's a tradition. They actually impart something that's called Sanctifying great, which means that it's God's life that wants to dwell within us and that changes us. And so that's why a regular practice of the faith is beneficial and I would say salubrious. It's healthy because it enables the natural virtues that we have to grow exponentially. Because, you know, as human beings, we have so many limits. We're finite beings. But if we allow Christ to enter into our life, not just through our personal prayer, but through the sacraments and through the grace. Grace that God gives us through those sacraments, then we sort of are able to achieve the goal for which we are created, which is to live in peace with.

Ryan Gradosky (34:50)

Something that I grapple with. And so I think about is how to insert faith in not. I mean, not in every single area of my life, but in most areas where I can. So I'm a boss. I have a bunch of employees. Being a leader and showing leadership in that faith and in that tradition is very, very important to me. Making sure that I represent someone who is honorable and leader and full leadership and promoting things that I think that are important to sit there and, you know, I. I will have regular conversations with people I don't know super well, kind of intrusive conversations about why, if they're looking at this, why they should explore Catholicism. And I've met probably like four or five young men, all young men who have converted to the faith in the last couple years. And I'm basically begging them at this point to be their sponsor. And no one's taking me up on the offer. But though what are. What are we called to, aside from loving people, which I know is a big task and something that is, I guess, the whole entire picture. What are we called for in our daily life as practicing Catholics especially, but as Catholics, to sit there and to do most. Where can we fill this void, this. Not fill the void, but show our faith in our daily life in some. Some avenue. You understand what I'm saying? I know it's a little sloppy.

Father Nick (36:11)

Yeah, sure. So, I mean, there is a book that was meant for this. It's called the. It's called the Imitation of Christ. And it was written in the Middle Ages, but if you read it, it sounds like something that was maybe written a week ago because it addresses these very issues. How do I practice the faith day to day? And, you know, I think one of the things is that we read the New Testament and we look at what Christ does and how he does it. How does he encounter, for example, a mother whose Son has died. How does he relate to his disciples? Kind of maybe in his employees. Right. How does he interact with them? What words does he use? What's his tenor in speaking? Right. And so we look upon the person of Christ. We dwell with those images, we pray with them, and then we try to put them into practice ourselves. So I think to summarize the entire Christian life, we can say it's an imitation of Christ.

Jacob Goldstein (37:16)

Christ.

Father Nick (37:17)

How does Christ act in this situation or that? How does he speak to this person or that? And so the attitudes of Christ in some ways have to become our own. And we apply that in the different circumstances that come before us.

Ryan Gradosky (37:33)

What about when you feel like you've fallen short, which I know everyone does in every capacity of life, whether they are a parent or a spouse or a priest, or they feel like, this is not my body. How do you. How do you sit there and say, it's not, you know, kick, like, just kick it away and say, you know what? How do you. How do you, as a person to sit there and say, I will try better tomorrow? And this is not the end, all be all?

Father Nick (37:57)

Yeah, well, I mean, that's. That's the entire story of the Old Testament, right? It's the fact that Israel, you know, makes a deal with God and says, you know, we'll. We'll obey your commandments and we'll love you and this and that. And of course, time and again, they. They disobey. And there are some places where you see God gets a little angry, but, you know, it's kind of an understatement, I suppose, in some cases. But God does not abandon them. He's always there. And I think one of the most beautiful things about Christianity itself is that, yeah, God maybe gets angry and pissed off, but he's still there for you. He's not. There's nothing, as St. Paul says, that can separate us from the love of Christ. Even when we commit a sin, there's always the possibility of going back. I mean, look at the story of the prodigal son who distanced himself so far from his father, but goes back. And the Father is not just sitting there, but he's actively waiting for the Son to come back. And again, what a beautiful image that is of Jesus who just. Just is waiting for us to come back. And so it's not like God forgets about us. It's not like God, you know, okay, well, you know, this happens all the time. So I'm just going to shut the door. The door is always open and The Christian life is really about falling and getting back up again. And that actually is, you know, one of the. What we call a Marian antiphon, which is a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary for Advent and Christmas, is called the Loving Mother of the Redeemer. And one of the lines says, loving Mother of the Redeemer, assist your people who have fallen, yet strive to rise again and again. That's the Christian life. You know, if we are attentive to what's going on inside, to our interior life, then we will recognize our faults, we'll ask God for strength and forgiveness, and by his grace, we rise again. And that just happens over and over and over again until we try to get a little better at it each and every time.

Ryan Gradosky (40:11)

So you're 35. I'm 38. There's a lot of millennial men and Gen Z men who didn't grow up with overly religious parents. I didn't. My mother would have, like, you know, she was a Shiite Catholic. There was. But there are a lot of people who don't. And if you're. If this is something you're. And I always say, faith's a journey. It's not a guilt trip. I can't. Guilt. You have a belief system, of course. But if you're interested in your. Exploring what are resources outside of just attending a mass that people could go to who are intellectually and intellectually available, they're not. It's not, you know, you're not reading something. You're like, well, this is way above my head. I can't. I can't deal with it. But what are. Something that somebody could go to and say, this is worth just looking at. This is of, you know, not St. Thomas Aquinas. But, you know, someone on that level said this is accessible to you in an intellectual way where you can feel like you're. You're reaching into something that's innate in your heart because you want to look for it.

Father Nick (41:10)

Yeah. So two things come to mind immediately. The first is Introduction to Christianity by. By Joseph Ratzinger, who deeply. Benedict xvi. And I would say that any of his books, which are all printed by Ignatius Press, are like, they're. They're easily accessible. So they're written a language that is, I think, palatable, but also engages the intellect. And so somebody, I think, just picking that up, would be very delighted to read anything. But, you know, one thing that comes to mind is his introduction, Catholicism, which, you know, that's just something that I read in high school because that's when he became pope, and there was an interest in that. The other thing I would kind of point to is Bishop Barron's Catholicism. It's a brief sort of introduction to what the Catholic faith is. And his approach is also using the entire Catholic tradition. So he introduces the person not just to the dogmas and the doctrines of the faith, but the architecture, the art, the music that the faith has produced over 2000 years. The literature, because there's a whole section of American and European literature that is inspired by the Catholic faith. And so Catholicism is very, very rich in its symbols and its traditions. And I think this book by Bishop Barron, simply called Catholicism, is something that people might be interested in. And again, as I mentioned before, the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kenthus is a medieval work, but it's the second most read book, aside from the Bible, really, in the history of literature. And it was the favorite book of several saints, one of them being Ignatius of Loyola, always had it on his desk, and it served as an inspiration for generations of Catholics, saints included. And so that might be a place to start as well, but that's a little more on the spiritual side of things, not so much on the academic side.

Ryan Gradosky (43:25)

So my last question then, to you, and this is just a personal question, because I was talking to one of my friends who's a Protestant about this, about the saints and ideology idea tree, and, you know, our conversation about that, and I couldn't convince her, but it was okay. It was fine. Who are saints that you asked to pray for you or you look to?

Father Nick (43:46)

Oh, sure. So my favorite saint is Ignatius of Loyola. I have devotion to him because I went to a Jesuit high school, and he was certainly somebody that I read about and admired. His conversion story, he went from like a soldier and a sinner to a saint because of an injury that he sustained in a battle. So I thought that was pretty cool. And more recently, as a parish priest, St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of parish priests, who kind of dedicated his life to the ordinary and simple work of caring for souls in his parish. And I also have a particular devotion to Edmund Campion, who was one of the English martyrs during the Elizabethan era. So the Catholic clergy were expelled from England in the 17th century, I want to say, or 16th century. They did their seminary and studies in Europe, in continental Europe, and then they went back to England secretly to minister to Catholics in hiding. And I find his story very, very fascinating. And as a matter of fact, Evelyn Waugh, the English, very famous English author of the last century, wrote a biography on Edmund Pantium, which is another book that people might be interested in who are looking at Catholicism. And it just tells his story and how he went from an Anglican deacon to a Catholic priest who was eventually martyred for his faith in a very difficult time in history. So his, you know, I always, I have a picture of him in my room. I just find his story very heroic. And, you know, he was a Jesuit as well. And so he was, you know, a man that was deeply spiritual but also committed to the intellectual pursuit of his form.

Ryan Gradosky (45:46)

And that's why I always praise Catherine of Sienna, because she's my birthday saint. But also she was a bit of a rebel who got in a lot of trouble and I relate to that quite a bit. So. Right.

Father Nick (45:57)

Yeah, there you go.

Ryan Gradosky (45:59)

So anyway, Father, thank you so much for coming on this podcast. I really, really appreciate it.

Father Nick (46:04)

You're very welcome. It was a delight. Thank you. Ryan.

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Ryan Gradosky (48:47)

Now it's time for the Ask me anything segment of this podcast. If you want a part of the ask Me anything segment, email me ryanumbersgame podcast.com that's ryanumbersgame pluralpodcast.com I love these questions. It makes the show so much interesting. I love getting to know my listeners. This question comes from Greg. Greg says, as a former member of the New Jersey libertarian party for 15 years, I can say that the DSA and the Libertarian Party are very quite similar, except economically. Do you think that the rise of Bobby Kennedy and Mandani, if they were from their own party to take the duopoly which always promised to destroy. Do you think the rise of Bobby, Kenny and Mandani if they were the rise front. I think he's my front runners of their own party to take the duopoly which they promised to destroy. I don't know about that. The Libertarian party I just think is useless. I mean I. I don't think libertarians as a whole are useless. I think they've been very important and prominent libertarians in this country. Like someone like Gary Johnson who was a libertarian. He was the governor of Mexico. He could have ran for U. S. Senate, won the Senate seat as a Republican and promoted libertarianism in in the Senate and been an important player in the country the way that like Rand Paul's an important player in national discussions. But instead he decided to run as a libertarian. Twice was a spoiler, was almost a spoiler for Trump in a couple of states. And then he ended up running for U. S. Senate as a libertarian in New Mexico. Lost there too. And now he's nowhere. I mean, he's a rich guy. I wish him well personally, but what a waste of time and effort. The DSA is at least smarter that they work within the democratic party to try to promote and, and promote their causes and promote their issues. And they've been enormously successful. They've really kind of figured out to work, to get work successfully on immigrant groups, on populations of a lot of white yuppies, where they can win and where they can make, you know, strength in, in numbers. And that's why they've grown across the entire country. The DSA is I think, much more organized than the libertarian party is. I don't think the libertarian organization really go hand in hand. I will say when I was a young kid, I, I think I maybe mentioned the story before, but if I haven't, if I have, then forgive me, but if I haven't, it's interesting. When I was like 18 years old, I was, I was a Democrat for a year because I was against the Iraq war. And I just thought if you're, if you're against Iraq war, you must be a democrat. So I got to work as like a on the street fundraiser for a single day for the, I think it was, it wasn't code pink, it was some, one of those anti Bush organizations, I can't remember. Change.Change.comChange.org Something like that. I don't know, whatever it was, or maybe that was Obama, but doesn't matter what it was. It was moveon.org that's it. Moveon.org I worked as a person. You walk on the street, ask for money from random people from move on.org for one day I was like 18 years old. Like I'm, I'm doing change and beforehand we went to like meet and all like the, the activists met and I was just against the Iraq war. I didn't have like a ton of other issues I really even thought about or believed in. But I, I go to the meeting and everyone is like sitting on a beanbag chair and everything smells like cannabis and coffee and feet and it was just disgusting. And they all started talking about their number one issues and it was like we should erase all borders. We should tax everyone at a hundred percent or whatever. I was like, these people are nuts. Like this is not where I belong at all. But the organizational ability was kind of impressive to look at from the, from like inside. I was only there for literally one day. I never went back to show up for work again. But that was very, very impressive. It's very interesting how organized they are on the right. We have some groups that are effective and like that. Like, you know, Charlie Kirk was amazing at organization and there's a few other ones that are that are affected. But I agree with you that the DSA is destructive. I don't know about Bobby Kennedy and Mandani. I don't, I don't know about that answer. And the Libertarian Party, I don't agree is is like the DSA because I don't think that they are nearly as organized or as Anyway, that's my podcast. I hope you like it. I will see you guys on Monday. Please stay tuned and please like and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast wherever you get this podcast, including our YouTube video. I appreciate you all. Thank you and have a great weekend.

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